--Original published at Emily's Blog

The event I attended was called Best Practices in Bully Prevention. It occurred in Gibble Auditorium at Elizabethtown College on February 28, 2018. The event was put on by the Psychology Department specifically by the Psi Chi Honor Society to raise awareness for bullying.

The woman who was the speaker at the event was from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has worked there for six years writing bills and fighting for Pennsylvania to implement more anti-bullying acts. She began her speech by sharing about her credentials and experiences working with bullying. The woman started as a school counselor and this helped her realize her passion for helping kids.

The speaker went on to talked about the definition of bullying. She quoted Dan Olweus and described bullying as, “a person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative action on the part of one or more other persons and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself.” She shared a list of words and phrases she thinks of when talking about bullying including, aggressive, antisocial, repeated over time, and one sided.

The next part of the presentation included a bullying simulation. I volunteered and went up to the front of the room. There were many roles to play such as, the bully, the person being bullied, and the bystanders. I was known as the follower of the bully. My role was to go along with what the bully said but not to initiate any of the bullying myself. The card explaining my character said I enjoyed the bullying and would take an active part. It was a powerful simulation as there were numerous roles I have seen myself take part in in the past. I did not realize there were so many people involved in bullying and how little people often chose to help.

The speaker went on to share history involving bullying and how we as part of the school system can help this problem going forward. I learned more about how serious bullying is and how many people are a part of it. I also saw how this could be applied to my life and my major as I go forward. This meaning making sure other students in my classes feel accepted and included. As an Occupational Therapist, I can inform the correct people if a client is struggling, provide emotional support, and encourage my colleagues to look out for bullies and people being bullied.

The target audience of this presentation was college age students. The speaker mentioned numerous times she was so excited to talk to all of us about this and how we are the most important audience she has ever spoken to. She believes this is because of all the recent experiences we have had of bullying and violence in the media.

This relates to psychology in the reasoning behind the bullying. A person may bully others because of the home situation they have grown up in, or they themselves have been bullied. Psychology gets to the root of the issues facing the people to understand why they do what they do and why it has affected them. We have not talked specifically about bullying in class, but we have addressed different parenting styles and how this will later affect the kids. We also talked about modeling as an example of how children learn. This is part of the reason why many children can follow in their parent’s footsteps if they are abusive bullies.

If I oversaw the event I would continue to raise awareness of bullying but gear it specifically towards college aged people. This presentation was great, but it was focused more about grade school aged children. I believe especially with such an emphasis on social media today, we should investigate cyberbullying as it is more common than “traditional”, face to face bullying today. Bullying can be applied to many areas of life even in the workplace as an adult and I believe our college and many others should be more informed about it. Conducting additional research could include taking surveys of those who have been bullied and see how it has affected their lives as adults. Also, following adolescents who are being bullied and see how they later adapt to different environments. The coordinators of this event did a good job, but I believe this could be added into more topics of discussion including orientation when the school talks about inclusion and diversity.

--Original published at Caleb C's College Blog

“Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.”

Psychodynamic Perspective-  When looking at Miguel’s situation from this point of view, you have to analyze both his unconscious and conscious drives and how they work with his underlying feelings and emotions. With this, it looks like Miguel has been stressing out tremendously and finds it difficult to focus on his studies because he isn’t getting enough sleep due to his unconscious need to be a perfectionist which is then impacting his social life and consequently causing him to pick fights. What Miguel needs to do in order to start getting better is primarily get enough sleep, which will then change his attitude throughout the day, and also get some therapy for his major perfectionist tendencies which then negatively impact his health throw stress and forcing low self esteem.

Behavioral Perspective- From this perspective, you can analyze Miguel’s problems through his psychological patterns and observable behavior, and how this behavior may be causing mental conditioning. From his observable behavior, he isn’t sleeping much, is irritable and is picking fights. This all seems to then stem from his behavioral tendencies to be a perfectionist. And because he continues to be hard on himself for not being perfect, he gets frustrated and doubts himself.

Humanistic Approach- From this perspective we need to look at Miguel’s behavior from the eyes of the observer and look at Miguel as a whole. Looking at the hierarchy of needs, Miguel is not satisfying his basic psychological need of sleep which is one of the major foundational components of a healthy person. This causes him to stress and plays into all components of his life, impacting his feeling of safety and self esteem, thus not being able to reach self actualization.

Cognitive Approach- Looking at Miguel’s mental processes, we can see that he processes information through a very narrow approach, and he only accepts perfection. Because he cannot actually obtain this, it little by little impacts his mental health to the point where he breaks and cannot operate functionally seen through his anger and poor grades.

Neuroscience- From an evolutionary perspective we see that Miguel is driven solely through competition. This is in everyone for the need to survive is essential, and competition is seen throughout all species rooted in the desire to be better and survive easier. Though, Miguel has centered this feeling of competition into his everyday life and applied it to becoming a perfectionist. 

Cultural- From this perspective, we can evaluate Miguel’s health based on how his behavioral tendencies are rooted in his culture. In a society and age where kids are constantly told they need to be the best to succeed and are constantly pressured to be the greatest in order to have self worth and contribute to society, this seems to have become rooted into Miguel and he has taken ahold of the idea to be the best and applied his whole life to it. Because he keeps letting himself down, he then thinks he cannot be the best and questions his role as a person. 

--Original published at Hope's PSY105 Blog

“Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.”

From a psychodynamic perspective, Miguel seems to be struggling with an internal conflict.  If you were to ask Freud to do a psychoanalysis, he would say there was some unconscious desire that Miguel was unaware of in his conscious mind.  Freud might also suggest for Miguel to use therapy to help alleviate these wants and desires.

A behaviorist would look at Miguel’s habits outside of his studies.  They would observe things like where Miguel tries to study and how he does.  They would also observe when he studies to see if that has anything to do with him being tired.

The humanistic approach would look at Miguel’s freedom to choose.  They would focus on current environmental factors rather than previous factors.

When looking at it from a cognitive perspective, they would look at how Miguel processes the information he receives.  They would observe his self doubt as well.

Neuroscience would look at Miguel’s behavioral genetics and why he gets so upset when he makes small mistakes.  It would also look at why he is so irritable throughout the day.

Cultural psychology would look at his background and where he comes from.  There could be an underlying stress coming from his cultural background that is weighing on him.  This could contribute to the lack of sleep, the irritability during the day, the fights with his roommates, and the self doubt.

--Original published at The Core Techs

Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately. He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies. Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates. He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes. It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.

What’s wrong with Miguel? Well, according to psychology and its different theories for explaining behavior and mental processes, we may be able to help diagnosis him, and form a solution from there.

There are many different theoretical perspectives in psychology, but we are going to use these six to diagnose Miguel: the psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, neuroscience, and cultural perspectives.

Life through the theoretical lenses of psychodynamic perspectives explain that human behavior is the result of underlying wants and conflicts. A lot of underlying desires, according to Freud, often relate to sex. In Miguel’s case, it is very possible that he cannot concentrate on his studies or sleep at night although he is tired, because his brain is engaged in unconscious sexual activity. It is also possible that he is irritable and picking arguments with people because perhaps those that he is angered by are friends with the one he is thinking of. Although this is a possibility, there could also be the chance that besides sexual activity, Miguel could be struggling with jealousy. He could be angry that he is not more similar to the people that he unconsciously wishes to be like. If he does not do things exactly as those other people do, this could frustrate him even more. There could be many other potential underlying or unconscious drives that are causing Miguel to act in such ways.

If we are seeing life through the lens of behavioral perspectives, everything tends to be influenced by genetics and who we are as human beings. For example, if Miguel’s parents were easily irritable or had problems falling asleep, there is the chance that the disorder could be passed down to their offspring. There is also the possibility that OCD or other perfectionist-like genes have been passed down through Miguel’s ancestors.

If you look through the lens of the humanistic theory, you might as well just be looking at yourself through the mirror. This theory is largely focused on how people perceive themselves. Miguel could have been struggling with his coursework because he did not have faith in himself to do it. He also may not have been getting sleep at night although he was tired because he was up, thinking about what he did in a previous situation, and what he wishes he could have done. Because he does not have faith in himself, he could dislike his own image, and see his reflection as someone nasty. Perhaps this is why he acts rudely towards others. He may also want to view himself as perfect, but simply discovers flaws in his work and nearly everything else he does, causing him to lose hope in almost every aspect of life.

The cognitive theory is all about how we process and analyze things mentally. If Miguel sees someone’s face and views it as a threat (such as the typical snarl or glare), he could begin to pick fights with them or automatically dislike them every time they pass. Cognitive theories also have a lot to do with reasoning. It is possible that Miguel has previous facts or rumors about these people that lead him to believe they are bullies. Maybe he remembers something negative they did to him in the past…

Looking at the neuroscience perspective, everything has to do with enabling emotions, memories, and other sensory experiences. In Miguel’s case, he may have been doing so poorly with his coursework because of having a negative outlook on life. His thoughts could have been something along the lines of “I hate school,” or “This is the worst subject in the world!” Because of having such a pessimistic attitude, it makes him quick to jump to short-tempered responses. He could be very emotional and sensitive to certain stimuli. It’s possible that these stimuli bring up bad memories or give him bad feelings. The neuroscience theory really has to do with how a person feels specifically about life.

Last, but not least, the cultural perspective could be heavily influencing Miguel. Many teens and other students (especially here in America) tend to have very negative thoughts about school. If you like school, you’re seen as a nerd. Culturally, this term is not necessarily a positive one either. Because of this, Miguel has been influenced to dislike education automatically due to stereotypes in his culture. Sometimes, putting other people down and being mean is a way to make yourself seem bigger and better than others. Perhaps this is why Miguel would always be frustrated and short-tempered. Going to bed early also makes teens seem like “losers.” Staying up until the early hours of the morning can determine whether a student is “cool” or not. Culture influences are huge, especially with Miguel being a current student.

After diagnosing Miguel from many different theories and perspectives, it is now easier to combine information and come up with a recovery or assistance plan. Each of these perspectives combined give more possibilities, and therefore, more widespread ideas for nourishing one back to health. Because of having more options, it allows Miguel to be more flexible, and have more chances to recover. Without one of these theories, certain ideas may not have been developed. Clearly, each theory of psychology, no matter which lens one is looking through, must come together to form the best outcomes.

Which theory do you think is the most accurate and heavily used in today’s world, Core Techs?

-B

studiousguy.com

--Original published at Rachel's Blog

“Miguel has been struggling with his coursework lately.  He has felt very tired in recent weeks and has found it difficult to focus on his studies.  Even though he is always tired, he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommates.  He is a bit of a perfectionist and gets mad at himself when he makes even tiny mistakes.  It’s gotten to the point where he doubts his ability to do anything right.”

From a psychodynamic perspective, Freud would describe his behaviors as being based on his unconscious desires, which are drives that cause him to have his needs met.  This could be explained because he is a perfectionist, so he wants to get everything correct.  With this being said, it relates to him being tired because he is probably making sure each home work assignment is completed to the best it can be.

From the behavioral perspective, it is believed that the focus should be only on observable behavior.  This is because behavior can be monitored and thoughts/feelings can not be measured directly.  From this, a behavioral psychologist could focus on how he has trouble falling asleep at night, is irritable during the day, and picks fights with his roommate.  All of these behaviors could be observed and possibly corrected because people can see that this is how he acts daily, and maybe they could help him find the cause of his problems.

The humanistic perspective is focused around personal growth and what each individual perceives.  In Miguel’s situation, he is feeling tired and is finding it difficult to focus on school.  Since he is a perfectionist, he should be willing to set goals for himself in order to succeed.

From the cognitive perspective, this area is focused on how people solve problems, think, and process information.  Miguel is starting to doubt his ability to do anything correctly.  He should be focused on his conscious thoughts and tell himself that he can do anything he sets his mind to .

The neuroscience perspective focuses on behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology.  Since this talks about the genetic impacts on mental illness, maybe he is depressed about a certain situation.  This can be explained because he is always irritable during the day and he doubts his abilities.

The cultural perspective could be explained by how metal processes and behaviors vary across cultures.  Maybe Miguel is from a culture where he thinks he has to do everything perfectly, but in a different culture it is acceptable if you do not get something correct.