Blog Post #13 - Social Psychology

I thought the Stanford Prison experiment was very cruel. All the prison guards took on this new role and forgot who they were. They forgot about how indecent they were being and never thought about what they were actually doing because it was part of an experiment. In Asch's Conformity experiment I think many people can relate to this experiment and have a better understanding of it. When five people all say the wrong answer and you think the answer is something else but don't want to stand, you are more than likely to conform to the group answer so you do not stand out. I think this experiment can relate to people in school and society in general. This shows how human nature can lack confidence in themselves and sometimes are afraid to stand out and go with how they actually feel. I thought that Milgram's experiment really showed how well some people take to obedience and how far they will actually go. This experiment showed how well some people take to obedience. If I had to take part in this experiment, there is no way I would be able to keep going hearing people "scream" and "have heart attacks." If I knew the indicated pain, there is no way I would be able to continue on.

Social influence has to deal with when the population or a group of people that act a certain way because everyone else is doing it and they would rather not feel like an outcast. Many people conform, or adjust their behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. The first example is in school when a teacher asks a question and takes a vote, if the majority of the students raise their hand and one student questions what to say. That student is more than likely going to go with the group decision. The second example is clothing trends. Many people buy clothes from the same stores and wear the same types of clothes. Clothing is a social influence and even if people say they are branching out with their own style, usually it is relatively the same as everyone else.

The most interesting thing I learned was the different cultures and how they affect people and how they look at other people. Many people have different culture influences that vary depending on where you live and how many different cultures are around. A culture is the behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next. Many cultures differ in languages, money, sports, food, transportation, and mannerisms. Each cultures has their norms, which is an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. For example, in Arab societies a kiss is often a greeting from one person to another. In other cultures, this is not acceptable and crosses many people's personal space. When exploring a different culture, a person must know the accepted behaviors of another culture. Human nature manifests human diversity.

Blog Post #12 - Psychological Disorders

According to the book, on page 594, a psychological disorder is an ongoing pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional behavior patterns. For many people, it can be very had to decide whether or not someone has a psychological disorder. Many people may think someone does because of the way they act or look at things. People are raised different and have different mannerisms and beliefs, therefore they may look at someone who is different from them and think they have a disorder. At various moments, everyone of us feel, think, or act differently. People may get excited, depressed, suspcious, or withdrawn. However, this does not mean we have a psychological disorder.

I have never been around anyone with a psychological disorder or been close to someone with one. The disorder I found really intriguing was bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activites. Alternating between the euphoric, hyperactive, wildly optimistic state of mania to living in slow motion and being depressed signals bipolar disorder. Many bipolar people have extreme mood swings often, sleep problems, and may have thoughts of suicide. I would hate to be bipolar because one day you could be the happiest person in the world and then the next have the worse feelings of worthlessness. I would hate the mood swings and having to hurt others around me that had to deal with it and who were affected by it.

The most interesting thing I learned was schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganzied and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. There are different subtypes of schizophrenia like paranoid, disorganization, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual. There are early warning signs such as a mother whose schizophrenia was severe and long, separation from parents, disruptive and withdrawn behavior, and emotional unpredicitability. I never knew what schizophrenia actually was and how severe it can actually get. This is one disorder I would never want to have because of the symptoms that it can cause.