Tag Archives: Social

Spotlight Blog 3

--Original published at Site Title

Peer pressure is something we’re warned about early in life, but it doesn’t translate exactly the way we’re prepared for. Oftentimes, kids are told by adults that peer pressure will manifest itself in the form of a friend telling you directly to misbehave. In the D.A.R.E. program, you’re trained to recall the proper responses to these encounters, such as “let’s play a game instead.” You quickly realize, perhaps through trial and error, that this kind of training is completely ineffective.

Since my own introduction to dealing with peer pressure was somewhat traditional, I was interested in what tips and information are available about it today. I first looked at KidsHealth.org, which has been available for many years to give information to kids, teens, and parents. Their article “Dealing with Peer Pressure,” which is completely geared towards a child audience, starts off with a pretty innocent example of peer pressure: you’re being tempted by your coolest classmate to skip math class and get lunch instead. This scenario isn’t quite as extreme today, but perhaps at the time this article was written it was. Regardless, this opening set the tone for the rest of the article. The strategies offered by KidsHealth.org lead to the same ineffective, unrealistic idea–only associate with kids who don’t act out, and if your friends begin to misbehave, cut them off immediately. The one good tip in the article is to find a friend to join you in resisting peer pressure and it will be easier to do. This relates back to the experiment we observed in class, in which a participant answering multiple choice questions about line length felt more confident about deviating from the crowd when he was given a partner.

Another article I looked at was directed at teen readers. WebMD published an article about how teens in particular should deal with peer pressure, as that’s a major time for young people to explore new things. The article gives several scenarios about trying alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and having sex with a girlfriend or boyfriend, all of which sound way more severe to the writer than to most American teenagers, so it’s difficult to level with. There is one good tip in the article, which is to always assess the risks of whatever activity the opportunity includes. For instance, if you’re likely going to be arrested or at the very least damage a long-term relationship with someone like a parent, it may be best to avoid that behavior.

The last article I looked at was for parents, and it was exceptional. One of the most important tips in this article was to avoid calling your kids any kind of judgemental name in response to an activity they’ve done that you’re displeased with. The result of this is your child feeling emotionally damaged since their parent has just negatively labeled their character according to their actions; this is a very condemning format of communication with teenagers. Instead, the article recommends taking cell phones, as that is a better method of punishment than name-calling. Whereas verbal agression is only damaging, negative punishment like taking away privileges from teens will be more effective in preventing the behavior you want your child to stop.

The reality of being young today is that most kids bond over drug use, drinking, and partying; if you develop close relationships with people who already do this, you’re likely to get dragged this kind of activity so as to preserve your connection to the person, or you may lose that friendship altogether. What parents and teachers need to understand about peer pressure is that it’s not easy to recognize right away, and refusing to succumb to peer pressure can end up causing damage to a young person’s social life due to the connections they will lose. When your environment is full of illicit activity, avoiding it and trying to go your own way will ultimately lead to social isolation. I believe that the biggest part of successfully growing up and accepting this kind of environment is to not judge people based on their actions, but by the way you know them as a person. People go through different habits throughout life stages, and those habits shouldn’t change your mind about that person’s character, especially if it’s your child. That being said, it’s important to make your own choices and always assess risk, as any one of your decisions can change your life drastically.

 

Sources:

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

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/peer-pressure#1

https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/parenting-teens-parental-authority-vs-peer-pressure/


Spotlight Blog 3

--Original published at Site Title

I focused on three situations in which peer pressure is involved in this blog.  I zoned in on adult peer pressure, teen peer pressure, and peer pressure around drugs and alcohol. As we have learned from our studies in class it isn’t so easy to go against the norm of society, especially when everyone around you seems to be participating in a particular event. Although many may behave a particular way when alone, an audience changes the performance or acts of an individual. The presence of others tends to generally increase the most likely outcome, so how do we say “no” to peer pressure?

An article from Sylvia Brafman Mental Health Center website offers ways in which adults can handle peer pressure in their daily lives. The main point they emphasized is that resisting pressure is essential for improving your own self esteem and coming to terms with the life you are living. The key idea is to be true to yourself and to reconfirm your core values. Being assertive and making a wide range of friends is important.  I agree with this wide range of friends idea, that way if one group is doing something you don’t agree with you can find allies to side with you in saying its wrong. Surrounding yourself with those who seek the same values as yourself and learning from mistakes you were previously pressured into can help you handle peer pressure in the future. This article didn’t account for if an adult lives in a individualist or collectivist culture.  If a job calls for group harmony or your lifestyle, you may conform easier. Individuals in an environment where being uniform is important may experience informational influence, in which they assume their answer  is wrong and that of the group is right. Being under a boss that is telling you to do something because they have power over you and are assertive, can make you feel uncomfortable telling them you don’t agree, and therefore you conform.

Teens conforming to peer pressure has always been an underlying issue in society. Especially at an age that is sensitive to how others view them because they are still trying to figure out themselves. Social facilitation enables a teen to act differently around a certain group I believe best explained by Zajonc as the Drive theory.  This theory is that being around others increases arousal in an individual making them want to impress or show off to their friends. The article addressing this topic suggests to come up with a better idea when presented with a task you don’t feel comfortable partaking in. It also suggests walking away, saying no, and coming up with excuses.  This article did not seem very helpful to me.  It’s one thing to teach right from wrong but harder to not do the “wrong” thing.  When a task is easy to do, it’s much easier for a teen to get their friend to complete it even if previously the friend never thought of doing such.  If the majority of your friends are doing something and your the only one not, your most likely going to change your behavior and mind. No one likes to be singled out or feel like the odd ball in the group.

The National Institute for Health article presents ways to resist the peer pressure around drugs and alcohol. The first tip given was to offer to be a designated driver which avoids you from taking drugs and keeps you on your friends good side, by getting them home safely. The article suggests that you tell your friends you have to keep your body healthy for maximum performance. It continues by mainly suggesting to create excuses for yourself to not do a particular activity your friends are doing. They say to blame not drinking or doing drugs to having strict parents that will check when you get home.  Finally, the writing suggests that when all else fails leave, because if they were truly your friends they wouldn’t consistently pressure you. I think the accuracy of these strategies would largely depend on the size of the group participating in these illegal activities and pressuring you to do them.  An individual can still experience normative influence in which he/she doesn’t want to go against the group, not because he/she believes it is right but because they don’t want to stick out.  When surrounded by friends especially those that we want to please it is hard to say no.  Coming up with excuses not to do something doesn’t work every time and eventually your friends will catch on.

https://www.nymetroparents.com/article/resist-teen-peer-pressure-

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

https://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/6-tactful-tips-resisting-peer-pressure-to-use-drugs-and-alcohol


Spotlight Blog 3 Prompts

Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to use the tag “Spotlight” on your post. Also include the tag listed for the option you choose below. The spotlight post is due at 2pm on Sunday, 12/10.

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.

Option 2 – Use the tag “Mental Illness”

Television shows like My Strange Addiction, Intervention, True Life, and others have turned some mental illnesses into entertainment. In particular, the shows Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried Alive showcase people with hoarding disorder trying to get their lives, homes, and relationships back in order. What do you think about this type of show? Is it ethical to do? Does it exploit people with mental illnesses? Here is a sample clip from Hoarding: Buried Alive in case you’re not familiar with how these shows work. Find at least two sources that argue these shows are helpful for the people on the show and/or the general public and at least two sources that argue these shows are harmful. Discuss the evidence each source provides, assess the credibility of the sources, and explain your own perspective on shows like this. Make sure to include links and/or citations for your sources.

Option 3 – Use the tag “Mental Health Treatment”

One of the biggest questions when deciding to seek treatment for a mental health condition is to pick between seeking psychotherapy (e.g., counseling, therapy) and medication. Major depressive disorder is the most common mental illness in the US, and can be treated effectively using either method. Find at least two sources that argue psychotherapy is a better treatment option and at least two sources that argue medication is a better treatment option. Discuss the evidence each source provides, assess the credibility of the sources, and explain your own perspective. Make sure to include links and/or citations for your sources.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Thomas Hawk

Week 12 First Impression

--Original published at Site Title

I’ve always been a very outspoken an opinionated person and I enjoyed taking these tests about things that are controversial. I tried to pick topics that I felt strongly about just to see what my stance actually was according to someone else. I chose to take one on sexuality and one on race. I wasn’t a fan of the sections where you had to use the ‘i’ and ‘e’ keys and match them to the corresponding letters and pictures that would flash on the screen. On top of that, they told you to do it as fast as you could and I thought it was more of a “remember the keys and just click through as fast as you can” test rather than one about my opinion. I am an anxious and jumpy person so when I tried to go fast like they said, I would accidentally click the wrong one. I don’t think they could base my opinion on what keys I clicked and I don’t really see how that contributed to my overall opinion. But I did like the other questions that they asked since they were very straight forward. The results that I got were in the general ball park of my opinion but they weren’t entirely accurate. I think that these tests are both good and bad. A person can take these and get exposed to the content and the different controversial issues but I don’t think that these are very reliable and that people should use these to base all of their beliefs off of.


First Impression: Social Psychology

--Original published at Site Title

Leon Festinger developed theories on Cognitive dissonance. This is when there are conflicting attitudes or beliefs, which causes discomfort, there is alteration of an attitude or belief to reduce the discomfort. Festinger discovered this theory from doing a research that involves students doing a boring task. Then students were then asked to tell the next person that the tasks/study was not boring at all. For lying, the students were given either one dollar or twenty dollars. The student who was paid twenty dollars to lie didn’t make the study seem as fun as the person who was only paid a dollar. Why is that you ask? The person who was paid twenty dollars knows the task was dull but also knows that he had sufficient justification for lying, hence there is no cognitive dissonance. The person who was paid a dollar, on the other hand, knows that he did not have sufficient justification to lie. This makes the person who was only paid a dollar uncomfortable. To reduce discomfort, the person alters his or her opinion of the task so that they are not lying to anyone. Festinger believes anytime there is an insufficient reward, there will be dissonance.

I don’t think cognitive dissonance is a bad thing that we should avoid, but I think everyone should know about. In elementary school, my parents used to reward me for every five points I made in a basketball, I would receive money for it. It actually put more pressure on me to make more points and it didn’t work in my favor. I would become really nervous and it would affect my shot selection and my performance. When they didn’t give me a reward for how many points I made, I enjoyed playing more, I had fun and I wasn’t stressing. I think it is good to know about cognitive dissonance just to see if you can try and catch yourself altering your opinion of something when you are put in an uncomfortable situation.

 

 


First Impression Week 12 Prompt 2

--Original published at Kevin Psych Blog

If I am understanding exactly what cognitive dissonance is properly, I would have to say the most notable change that occurred in me was when I was twelve years old. At the time I was incredibly religious, my whole life revolved around my religion. At the same time however, I held a lot of socially left wing views (my support for legalizing gay marriage was the most important in this case). I had a few atheist friends at the time who would frequently talk to me about the topic of religion, and eventually one of them brought up the contradictions between my personal beliefs and what my religion would have me think. I had somehow never read the bible up to this point and was unaware of most of the specific things it said until I started debating with these new atheist friends. He showed me verses that went against everything I believed politically and I had to choose whether I would stick to my morals or my religion and I chose my morals.

I can easily say that changing your beliefs due to cognitive dissonance is a very good thing to do. It would be ridiculous to just cherry pick your beliefs and choose to ignore certain aspects of contradicting ideas so that you can live in your secure bubble. It’s important for your growth as a human to closely examine and scrutinize the things you believe and say, and make sure they match up properly, doing so might be uncomfortable at times and may force you to rethink the world but I believe that’s just an important part of life.


Option 1

--Original published at Site Title

I took the sexuality and age IAT tests. I do not think the tests provide accurate results. Half of the questions in both tests were exactly the same. The other half of the tests consisted of choosing between categories. Most of them were unrelated. The generalization of the results was vague and seemingly random. The tests were tedious to complete. They were poorly constructed and unimaginative. The results were too vague to be surprising. I do not have any further opinions of my results. I do not believe that these test will be useful for college students.


Implicit Association Test

--Original published at Site Title

The first test I took was overall my preference of young people rather than old people. It was an awkward test because the pictures moved very fast and did not give my brain time to register whether or not the person was young or old. The pictures that associated themselves with good and bad words to see what I usually associate old and young people which made the test a bit confusing too. Going into the test, the two topics were already very controversial; setting someone up to be preconditioned as nervous for the test. My results were also controversial being that the test said I preferred to be around younger people rather than older people; whereas in reality I prefer to be around older people due to the level of maturity they bring to the table. The test was interesting in the way it could tell what someone preferred just based on what the unconscious mind chooses. The choice had to be quick though, so I do not believe it was very accurate in what I truly prefer. The next test I took compared if I preferred straight people over gay people. The results came back to say I preferred straight over gay; but I do not find this to be true either. I find that I look at both gay and straight people as equals, so again it was hard to tell my true opinions based on my quickest reaction through this test. I feel that not allowing people to put thoughts into their actions and opinions gives a biased look on how people really feel towards controversial topics. Overall, the tests were given very quickly and only based on a person’s first reaction, not giving people enough time to react accordingly with their true opinions that could only come out if time was given to react the way a person truly feels fits.

Both of the tests surprised be mainly based on the results since I feel that I interact with both young and old people very nicely, as well as accept both gay and straight people into my life without hesitation. I feel that learning about the way I interact with people is indeed important, but I do not feel the tests did a good job at determining whether or not I interacted well or not. Both results came out to be the opposite of how I am, and I blame that on the speed one must do the test at and how shallow of a level the test challenges you on. It is only pictures and words that must spark thoughts in order to be tested; and I feel as if they are not enough information to conclude how someone truly feels about these topics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


First Impression Post 12

--Original published at Casey's Blog Site

Option 1

Out of curiosity for both tests I decided to take the self-esteem test and the alcohol test, and one or two others just to see what the results would be. At first when I saw the titles of the 7 different tests I was somewhat confused in thinking that these tests were going to be more generalized and not so specific. For example I had never really sat down and  thought about whether or not mental illnesses were dangerous or if I favored medication over talk therapy. I suppose this is because I never had to deal with either in my life. So at first selecting a test to complete put the thought in my head of completing option 2 since none of the titles really applied to me. But I completed the alcohol test “Do you implicitly think alcohol is irresistible.” Frankly I don’t remember exactly the result word for word but I do know it basically said I believe it can be resistible. In going through the test though I thought the way that it was done was strange. All it had me do was press ‘i’ key or ‘e’ key depending if I remembered if the word that flashed on the screen was in the group of words that they had shown before the test started. To me it felt more like a memory test than a test to see if I thought alcohol was irresistible. After the flashing words it asked several other questions of what I thought of alcohol which is when I got the feeling that the test had actually started, but then there were at most only 5 questions that it had asked me so it didn’t seem like a very reliable result that was given. This made me skeptical to take another test, inevitably though I took the self-esteem one and to my surprise the result I had gotten was not what I was expecting. And although it was a different topic as well the test had the same process as the alcohol test, gave you a group of words to memorize then flashed words and asked if it was in the group, afterwards asked 5 questions and gave my result. So all in all I feel as though the tests are somewhat misleading or don’t give an accurate result on what is outside my conscious awareness and therefore not real useful for college students.


First Impression – Social Psychology

--Original published at Caitlin's corner

This is a very interesting experiment to me because most people would definitely think the people receiving $20 would do a better job, but in actuality, the people who received only $1, did a much better job of talking to the next person and actually started to believe it wasn’t boring,, In reality, it was very tedious and boring work. There have definitely been times where I’ve experienced this. Sometimes when my neighbors whom I babysitter for regularly ask me to do them a favor or something small for no compensation I end up doing a much better job of completing the task than if they said they’d pay me. I find that when I know I’m getting paid, I will start off really well and strong, but eventually I will get sloppy or lazy and just not care as much because I know I’m going to get paid no matter what. But if I’m not being compensated I see if more of an act of kindness I guess, so I really want to impress them and do them a favor. For me, money can make me really greedy and I know it, so I’d much rather do someone a favor and just be happy because of that. I’m not really sure why I’m like this, but my life is very volunteer and community service oriented since I’m involved in girl scouts, rainbow girls and other masonic groups, relay for life, etc. I really do try to focus my efforts on doing things out of the kindness of my heart rather than for compensation. Although, I will say that can get tricky because eventually, people can start to use you for your kindness and willingness to help. That has also happened to me in the past, but I ended up saying something and they knew it, so they fixed it. Sometimes people just want to see how far they can get I guess and how many buttons they can press before they have to face reality or until you stand up for yourself. I also see this phenomenon when I go back home and my parents tell me to do chores, so I hate doing them, but if they let me do it on my own time and because I want to clean and make the house look nice, then I’m more than happy to do it. Maybe that’s just me, or maybe it isn’t, but either way this is a very interesting topic.