Chapter 12 impresson

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

In the video the experiment which was used was students came in to look engage in different tasks which are supposed to be a lot of fun when it was really very boring. The students in the experiment were then asked if they would be the spokes person for the next student(s) who was going to take the test. Half of the students were given $20 as a retainer and half were given $1. No matter what the price which was being paid they sold the experiment as a lot of fun even though it was boring. The man who was paid 20 dollars knows the experiment was dull but had enough of an incentive to lie about it. The person who has 1 dollar doesn’t have enough money which creates dissonance. From this it changed his cognitive dissonance. Whenever there is insignificant dissonance, they convince themselves they like it.

Although it wasn’t defined in the video, one can conclude that cognitive dissonance is having inconsistent beliefs when regarding emotional influences and attitude changes.

Personally I would enjoy a task where I got $20 especially if it was boring and or an overall bad experience. I would be fine with getting $1 if it was a really rewarding task which cannot be measured with money.

A time in my life where I experienced a change in beliefs due to cognitive dissonance has happened middle often but a small example at work. A normal work day for most staff is from 8:45-4:15 but I insisted working from 7:30-6 every day because it gave a little more money. In comparison to my work week hourly pay, I was gaining money since I was staying later but not by much. I wasn’t getting insufficient pay and my family knew this and we would argue about working so much. I convinced myself that I needed it and I liked it. I looked at the positives and in this case I got to know more kids, I made a little extra money, I liked waking up early to get my day started, it was easy on some day, and more. I created reasons as to why I needed it and wanted it even though it was consistently understaffed, the pay wasn’t enough, and ADHD medication a child was on for the day had worn off. It was always chaotic and from it being understaffed and screaming names ever few seconds/ minutes it caused a lot of stress. I still did it for around 10 weeks because I convinced myself the reward was worth it. Would I still do it? Yes. They pay wasn’t good, it was poorly run, and I hated it more than I liked it but I had cognitive dissonance and convinced myself that I did need the extra money and I could manage to where it wasn’t horrible. I made it so anytime I didn’t do it, I felt like I wasted my time and was a horrible person for missing an opportunity to make extra money.

I think in this case it is a good way to use cognitive dissonance because although I wasn’t paid well, I did make more money which was a consistent source of payment where babysitting or other ways wasn’t consistent. This provided a set outcome and unless I had another job I would and will still do it. In other cases I can see it as bad when a worker is being paid under minimum wage and cannot support themselves. With cognitive dissonance in both of these exampled no one actually likes what they are doing but have a reason to say they are. If that reason is a way or strategy of coping though a bad situation, I think that it is a good tool to use. From this, I think we should promote it as a good coping tool but also be aware of the faults it can bring. Overall a good tool in both of these situations presented.

Chapter 12: First Impression Post

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression post, I chose to take two of the Implicit Association Tests. I thought it was very interesting that these tests could see some of the biases that I am not fully aware of. It made me more curious to see the ways I may be interacting with other people.

The first test I took was the Age test. This test asked a few questions before getting into the actual test. Some of these questions were “how old do you feel you are”, “how old do others think you are”, and asking at what ages do I think you hit certain milestones. After these questions, you had to put your fingers on the keys “E” and “I” to distinguish between the pictures of young and old people as well as “good” or “bad” words. At times, this part was challenging because I wanted to continue to click with the same key I did previously. This challenge, however, did not affect my results for this test. Before I took this quiz, I thought that I saw no difference in people’s age because I enjoyed being with my grandmother and her friends as well as helping teach technology use to people who are older. When the results came in, I saw that they were the same as I thought before. I think this test could help me with my future careers since I want to be a nurse, and depending on what field I pursue, I will not know what the age of the patient could be until they come into the hospital. I cannot discriminate anyone for their age or give them different treatment because they are older or younger.

The second test I took was the Gender-Career test. This test started with the categorizing part using the keys “E” and “I”. The categories were family, career, male, and female. This test then asked what my home life was like and who was my main care giver, did they have a job, and who was your other caregiver, and did they have a job. Before taking the test, I thought I was more neutral about who could have a career and who could tend to the family. I felt that I performed the same as I had with the other tests on the key clicking, so I was confused when the results told me I had a slight automatic association for male with career and female with family. I was more confused because I know when I want to start a family, I still want to keep my career. I thought that maybe the test was biased since it asked how my home life was when I was growing up. If the test used my personal background, then they would have given me these results since my mom did stay home with my brother and me while my dad worked. I think this test is important for college students because it can show them that either gender could perform both roles well.

Overall, I think these tests could be a little skeptical, but both could help college students learn something about themselves. All the tests on the website can help with careers so that you do not discriminate against a certain gender, race, age, or weight.

Chapter 12 First Impression

--Original published at CatherinesCollegeBlog

I chose the first option for this post, which prompted me to take two implicit association tests. The purpose of the first test I took was to determine my preference between old and young people. This test had me categorize good and bad words alongside pictures of old and young people. My results suggested that I have a slight automatic preference for young people over old people, which surprised me. Personally, I feel like I enjoy spending time with older people much more than with younger people for a few reasons. I am not an overly enthusiastic or energetic person most of the time, which is how younger people are typically characterized. Spending time with younger people is usually more draining for me, and I would rather just hang out with older people. I always had the best time just talking with my grandpa, and I think it also has to do with a different admiration. Older people have lived more of their lives, so they have more wisdom and advice to offer, not to mention a much better perspective of how everything eventually works itself out. Although my results differed from what I believe to be true about myself, they can be useful for college students. This test lets us know who we would possibly work best with in a future career setting. If you have a preference for older people, you may want to look into organizations that focus more on tradition and loyalty with older high level employees. If you have a preference for younger people, you would likely be better off joining a new organization like a startup with a young entrepreneur who is full of energy all the time.

The purpose of the second test was to determine the association I make between males and females with career and family aspects. The test had me categorize male and female names and words that were related to career and family terms. I think my results were slightly affected by the order of the questions. Since I was first required to remember an association between female names and family terms, when this was revered to relate male names and family terms, it was more difficult to reprogram my initial reaction. My results suggested that I have a strong automatic association for male with career and female with family, which was also slightly surprising based on my own family. Both of my parents have created successful careers for themselves the entire time they raised me. Perhaps the association I have created has to do with the involvement from each parent. Since my dad is in the military, he is frequently anywhere but our home. His deployments lasted over a year at a time, so my brother and I would not see him for extremely long periods of time, seeming even longer when you compare it to how long our own lives have been so far. He is out there doing amazing work, but definitely has missed out on many family occasions which is maybe why I associate my mom more with the family terms. She also has a career as a middle school teacher so she has balanced both aspects of life. This test can be useful for college students because it helps identify where their values sit regarding the importance of family and career goals. This is especially important in a relationship, as your partner should know your beliefs on the role you think you should fulfill, whether it is one with more of a career focus or more of a family focus.

Chap. 12 – Impression

--Original published at Kealey's PSY105 Blog

I found the experience of taking the Implicit Association Test (IAT) interesting to say the least. I took two tests. The first test I took was the Eating IAT. This test of asked a few demographic questions, history of mental health, opinion of foods, and finally a sorting element. The sorting element consisted of classifying words into one of two categories as fast as possible, making few mistakes as possible. For example, the word would be something like “pizza” and you would have to distinguish if it should go in the “low-fat” or “high-fat” category. I had a lot of mistakes when trying to sort these words. Going into this test, I thought that I would have a shameful association with high-fat foods. This is because I will often indulge in unhealthy foods, but I almost always feel guilty for eating high-fat foods. My results aligned with my prediction. The IAT revealed that I had a moderately associate “acceptable” more with low-fat foods than high-fat foods.

The second IAT I took related to gender and careers and family. My personal beliefs are that there should not be a preference between career achievement and caretaking depending on gender. The test’s results showed that I had a moderate implicit bias of associating men with careers and women with the family. I can understand why the results came back this way, but I do not think that these results indicate my values accurately. Historically, in our society women have been unable to leave the home because they had to take care of the family while the man worked. This kind of social structure was put in place because of hundreds of years of stereotyping and a lack of opportunities afforded to women. We have made huge bounds in dispelling this idea, but it is not dead yet. My grandparents’ generation lived this way as the norm. Personally, I see a brighter future even closer to gender equality between ideals of family and career, though I still see the subtle realities of gender roles in our society today.

Spotlight Blog #3

--Original published at Pisacane Perspectives

Peer Pressure

Athletes: https://www.positiveperformancetraining.com/blog/female-athletes-and-peer-pressure

Adults: http://mentalhealthcenter.org/how-to-deal-with-peer-pressure-as-an-adult/

Teens: http://www.yourlifecounts.org/blog/20-ways-avoid-peer-pressure

The first website that I chose provided ways to resist peer pressure for athletes. This website had effective ways of resisting peer pressure as they worked on building confidence, which I think is the key. Step three, four, and five did this especially as they encouraged the reader to find support for the people around them and building inner confidence which will discourage self-doubt and in turn conformity. Step two had the right idea of stepping back and asking questions, but I think instead of “What will I be most proud of in ten years?” the person should be asking themselves things like “What’s the worst that will happen if I don’t do the same thing as this group of people?” or “Will I regret not trusting my gut?” Overall, this site had some good ideas about how to effectively resist peer pressure.

The second website that I chose’s audience was adults, which had a mix of both effective and ineffective ways of resisting peer pressure. The first two tips work on confidence, which as I mentioned before, is very important. Staying true to yourself and not listening to other people with decrease conformity. The third tip may also be helpful because having a wide range of friends will break up the majority so that you can see a range or opinions and actions. The only way that this might not work is if it’s in the context of the last tip. Finding a group that are similar to you isn’t avoiding peer pressure, but instead is instead seeking a majority that you’re comfortable conforming to. This may also make it hard to go against them on something if you already agree on most things. Another tip that may not be affective is learning from your mistakes. Peer pressure can be seen in a number of different ways both big and small, which can make it hard to learn from past experience if that pressure comes about in a different part of your life or in a different form. This site had mostly good tips, but not all of them would be helpful.

The last website that I chose provided tips for teens. This site had a several ways of resisting, which overall were pretty good. They encouraged the reader to question the majority and the people pressuring them which discourages conformity, understanding the effect the situation or environment can have on decision making, and it also gave tips that required confidence in oneself, which are great ways of not giving in to peer pressure. The eight tip would be especially effective because as we know from the Soloman and Ash experiment having a partner helps with resistance. Some of this advice is better that others, but as a whole, the tips would be effective.

Spotlight Blog #3

--Original published at Sarah's Blog

Peer pressure is a big part of today’s society. Everyone goes through peer pressure at one time or another, even if they do not realize it. It is very easy to fall into the pattern of “everyone else is doing it”. It is challenging to be able to resist peer pressure, but there are ways to be able to conquer it.

For parents, hearing that their children have fallen to peer pressure is very challenging. An article on Love and Logic.com talks about some ways for parents to help their children resist peer pressure. The tips the author gives to parents are to teach children what the consequences are when bad decisions are made and to let the child use the parent as an excuse when confronted with something they do not want to do. I know from personal experience that these tips are helpful with children. As they get older and enter teenage years the child does not want to listen to the parents so it may not be as effective then. In the article, they also say that the parent should be more positive when discussing the child’s friends. Being positive is better because being negative can make the child feel separated from the family and can drive them away.

For college students, peer pressure is a big part of your four years at college or university. An article written by the University of California Santa Cruz Counseling and Psychological Services discusses tips for college students to handle peer pressure. Some of the tips that they give are to spend time with people who do not force you to do anything you do not want to, using an excuse or try to delay giving yourself time to think about your decision. As a college student myself, I feel that these tips are useful. The tip about spending time with people who respect your decisions is very important because the student will then not feel pressured to share their opinion. It also will not cause pressure in the friend group, allowing you to focus on your studies and spending time with your friends doing healthy activities.

Humans deal with peer pressure all the time, even as adults. Peer pressure in adulthood is more indirect, but it is still present. An article from MentalHealthCenter.com talks about peer pressure in adulthood and ways to persevere through it. In this article, it talks less about direct ways of saying no but rather talks about being true to yourself and being more thoughtful about how you want to live your life. This is important as an adult because having good self-esteem and morals will help you have a successful life with fewer failures and mistakes. This article also states that a person should find friends that support them and do not force them to do anything they are against. They also suggest having a diverse friend group, which may or may not be successful depending on the personality of the people. If all the friends in the friend group are okay with everyone believing something different then it would be okay. There can be tension in a diverse friend group that has some members that believe they are superior.

Peer pressure is in all of our daily lives. Dealing with peer pressure appropriately as a child, a college student, and even as an adult can increase your happiness in life and your health as a whole.

Sources:

https://www.loveandlogic.com/articles-advice/helping-kids-resist-peer-pressure

https://caps.ucsc.edu/counseling/aod/peer-pressure.html

http://mentalhealthcenter.org/how-to-deal-with-peer-pressure-as-an-adult/

Spotlight Blog 3

--Original published at Hope's PSY105 Blog

Option 1 – Use the tag “Social”

People are often told to resist peer pressure and think for themselves, but as we’ve learned, this is more easily said than done. Too often, especially for teens, this advice is not followed with concrete recommendation about ways to resist pressure from others. I want you to identify three websites that provide methods for resisting peer pressure and discuss how likely you think the strategies they provide are to be successful. Make sure to explain your rationale using what we’ve learned in class and your textbook. Each of the three websites need to be targeted at a different audience but you may select the audiences you want to use (e.g., college students, athletes, parents, artists). Make sure to include links to the websites as part of your post.

Peer pressure is defined as “influence from members of one’s peer group.” This is not always a school setting, but more likely than not that is the setting someone would think of when addressing peer pressure. Peer pressure can occur in any setting and in any situation. Some other places include work, sports teams, and friend groups outside of school.

In college, there always seems to be this constant pressure to go out and party on the weekends, but not everyone wants to do so, and that is okay. College peer pressure is different than when you’re in high school because you do not have the reassurance of your parents that you’re making the right decisions all the time. Part of becoming an adult is being able to handle the peer pressure a little bit better on your own and showing that you are able to stand up for yourself and what you believe in.

https://www.bestcollegereviews.org/dealing-peer-pressure-college/

Teens already seem to targeted when it comes to peer pressure, but by adding in another element of being on a sports team that could increase or decrease tremendously. This website encourages teen athletes to have a balanced life (not just involved in that sport but also involved in music or art), using relaxation techniques, and there are also tips for parents to stay calm and not help make it worse for the student. I think these tips are helpful, because as a student-athlete in middle school and high school, I found it much easier to stay away from peer pressure by having multiple outlets of expressing myself.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-help-a-teen-athlete-deal-with-sports-pressure-4057989

This next website points out that peer pressure in the workplace should help you improve your knowledge, not push you to do something you do not want to do. Things like making comments about a co-worker who is chronically late or replying to a chain email sent by a co-worker simply because everyone else is can be problems that people want to involve you in, but you may not want to. With being an adult, you should just have to say, “I’d rather not get involved” and leave it at that, but sometimes people will try to egg you on. Speaking to a colleague or supervisor could help alleviate the situation, or just simply ignoring it.

https://mjcoppola.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/how-do-i-deal-with-peer-pressure-from-co-workers-by-matthew-coppola/

Spotlight Blog #3

--Original published at Brittany's Thoughts

Every person deals with peer pressure at some point in their life. There will always be those friends that try to get you to participate in activities that you may not want to do. Whether the person is a teenager, child or an adult, they can expect to deal with some form of peer pressure. Conformity is what plays a large role in peer pressure since it is the desire that causes people to give into peer pressure. Some types of peer pressure can be motivating for the person and others can lead to very dangerous activities. There are many different ways to avoid peer pressure, and the methods vary across age groups. Teenagers, children, and college students can all combat this peer pressure.

Peer Pressure with Teens

https://www.teenzeen.org/teens-and-peer-pressure.html

In an article by TeenZeen, it describes peer pressure for teens, especially in relation to drugs and alcohol. It discusses peer pressure and the consequences that it can have. For example, giving into peer pressure could lead to drug and alcohol addiction in the future. They explained reasons that teens might give into peer pressure, such as not wanting to hurt a friend, fearing rejection and not wanting to be teased. They gave several ways to avoid the peer pressure. They included saying no assertively and firmly, staying away from those dangerous situations, speak clearly, walk away, stand up for other friends, and finding new friends. I feel that some of these methods will definitely work such as finding new friends and staying away from those situations. Some might have to be used together if those pressuring the others do not listen, such as saying no firmly and then walking away if the friends ignore your assertive answer. It depends on how determined the friends are to pressure you into doing the activity. I feel that these methods would work overall.

Peer Pressure with Kids

http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html

In an article by Kids Health, it described ways that kids can deal with peer pressure. For kids, the types of peer pressure can be a bit different. For example, the pressuring could be to skip class, lie to your parents and try cigarettes. The reasons for falling for peer pressure can be the same, such as wanting to fit in, or being curious about the activities that they are pressured to do. The article tells kids to say no, but to also find friends with similar interests to stand up against those are trying to pressure you. It also talks about walking away and finding new friends, like the other article did. The article also inspires to use peer pressure positively to do things such as ending bullying. It points out that peer pressure is not always bad, so they know that they can use it for good rather than only bad. I think these methods will work better with children because they are less resistant to standing their ground about the negative activity.

Peer Pressure with College Students

http://www.mycollegepal.com/blog/how-avoid-peer-pressure-college

A college blog by a Stanford professor talks about five ways to deal with peer pressure in college. The first way was to choose your friends wisely, meaning that you should choose friends that will support and raise you up and give you confidence, along with having similar interests in mind. The second way is not depending on one friend group, and that having one could increase your pressure to fit in with those people. The third way is to seek advice from others when you are peer pressured, preferably an older adult, your parent, or a counselor. The fourth way is to engage in activities that will give you more self confidence, such as trying out for a new sport or starting a new hobby. The fifth and final way is to accept that you may be lonely sometimes, and that occasional loneliness is better than getting in trouble or developing bad habits. I think this is good advice for students to follow without giving the usual “just say no” sort of response to peer pressure. It addresses that the conformity does exist and that it is not necessarily a bad thing to have, but that it needs to be controlled, and that you need to stay and independent person still.

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator