Monthly Archives: April 2017

Social Psychology

Do you have any idea what cognitive dissonance is? Cognitive dissonance is the state of uneasiness that comes from holding two contradictory beliefs. When there is a difference between beliefs and behaviors, something must change in order to eradicate or reduce this conflict.  I remember back when I was younger my grandfather, my Papa, would take me fishing; however, I did not enjoy fishing back then but now I do. There is where cognitive dissonance occurred for me, I wanted to make my Papa happy by going fishing with him and enjoying, but I myself did not like it or killing the fish that we were able to catch. After some thinking on what was more important to me, my stubbornness and love for animals or my love for my Papa and his happiness. In the end, I decided that I wanted to make my Papa happy so I tried acting that I enjoyed fishing, and a few years later I noticed that I actually began enjoying this hobby and I still do. I still feel bad about killing and eating the fish that I catch; however, now I realize that it is a part of life and that I shouldn’t feel so guilty about trying to enjoy life and surviving in it.

Honestly, I feel a bit biased on the opinion on whether cognitive dissonance is a good thing and should be utilized or a bad thing people should try to avoid. In my situation I see using cognitive dissonance as a good thing and should be promoted; however, using cognitive dissonance could have some negative results at the same time, depending on the factors and situation. One example of a scenario is a girl deciding between the beliefs she grew up with and everybody around her has vs. the personal beliefs and thoughts that she herself has. So while I do think cognitive dissonance can have good results the decision made may not always the right one or the best one to be chosen.


IAT

For my choice I elected to take a few IAT tests.  Going into these I expected to know my answer before I took the test.  I had to either push a certain key associated with a specific topic or click a separate box for different topics.  I was highly surprised by my results to show a my have a slight preference for the opposite direction as what I thought.  I believe this test can be highly useful for college students because if they are trying to break a habit these tests may show automatic tendencies that one may need to keep an eye out for.  Also these can help explain automatic preferences so you know which biases to avoid whenever there is any type of an experiment.


Week 13: Social Psychology

This week in class we have been talking about social psychology. The task this week was to take two different IAT tests and discover our results. I decided to take the sexuality IAT and the race IAT. I have never taken one of these tests before so it was a very new and interesting experience. For the sexuality test I had to select between pictures and words related to homosexuals and heterosexuals , and for other sections I had to pick between words that represented something good and between words that represented something bad. The hardest task was when both the pictures and the words were placed together and I had to view one group as bad and the other as the good group. I found it very difficult to select words that represented something bad and connect it to a certain group. My results were very shocking to me because I am a very open minded individual and I am very accepting about different ideas. For the sexuality IAT my results showed that I preferred heterosexuals , and for the race IAT my results showed that I preferred European Americans. I personally feel that I treat everyone with the same respect no matter what their sexual preferences are and what their color of their skin is. I was very skeptical of both of my results and it hurt to see that my results in a way demonstrated me to appear as an unfair individual that places a greater value on a certain group. I know these tests don’t have the capacity of pin-point someone to be either homophobic or racist , but it is still tough to see how our instinct to pin-point one group as good and the other as bad is due to that split second decision that is made due to the affect that different social experiences have caused within us. These test could be helpful to us in different college settings to teach students about different people around them. It would be interesting to give these tests during freshman orientation and allow the students to share their results and to see how everyone reacts to their results and to the results of the people around them. I think it would be eye-opening to some and it could teach everyone that there are different people we come into contact each day, and in a way there’s no way of escaping that. I think that by seeing how different we all are it could help students become more accepting of the idea and allow them to create a closer bond with one another.


FIP- Social Psychology

I personally found the IAT to be interesting to take. The way the test is done shows how quickly you associate different groups with positive or negative words and therefore stereotypes.  The results of my tests were not particularly surprising in my opinion and I was mostly aware of the results I received. I think this test is useful to college students because it gives us a chance to notice and possibly change our biases if we want. For a lot of college students, college is the beginning of forming your own true opinion without being weighed down by your hometown or by the beliefs of your parents. So it can be beneficial for lots of college students to take this test because it can help them to fully acknowledge their biases and grow from them.


Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance refers to the internal tension which arises when we opt to engage in a behavior which conflicts with our prior beliefs and values. In order to reduce this tension, most people resort to either justifying the behavior by altering their prior values, creating a belief which allows them to justify the behavior, or stopping the behavior altogether. This tension is not uncommon to have. For example, I studied very much during my first semester of organic chemistry. Out of all of the classes I was in, I spent the most time working on Ochem. I used a variety of techniques to try and master the material to a point where I felt comfortable with it. The second exam of the semester did not go so well for me even though I put in so much effort and hard work. Before and even during the exam, I truly believed I was going to do well. When I got the exam back and saw the grade, I did get upset and had much cognitive dissonance, so much so, I came up with multiple beliefs as to why this could be. The first was that it had been the professor’s fault for not teaching the material well, giving such a hard test, and then being super picky when grading it. This was easy for me to believe because most people did not do very well either. Another justification I made was that it really does not matter in the long run because I am only taking the class to get credit to go to medical school; I will not need to apply what I learned (or apparently did not learn) in the future. Although this second realization is kind of true, it really influenced the rest of my semester because it caused me to not study as much for the class. Why study about elimination reactions when really I should be learning more practical things, like how to do taxes? Safe to say, I ended up doing well in the class. Another common example is when I sometimes go out and do community service. While I value the importance of donation drives, I do not enjoy spending 2-3 hours working in the heat. In this case, I tend to convince myself that working in the heat is not so bad.

I have mixed emotions about cognitive dissonance. On one hand, it promotes lies which we tell ourselves. In the video for example, the $1 participants lied to themselves and to others about how enjoyable the task was. I think this is something to be avoided. In addition, altering a past belief is not a healthy thing to do, unless it really is for the better. In my case, I solidly believed I had studied and worked hard enough to prepare for the exam. I am not going to completely rethink this because of a single test score. I also think cognitive dissonance allows us to justify unhealthy behaviors. For example, smokers who justify their behavior by saying it is okay as long as they do not drink or as long as they stick to a certain limit. On the other hand, when it does not result in the justification of unhealthy behaviors, it allows us to regain our emotional equilibrium by promoting a sense of behavioral control and understanding.


Week 13 First Impression Prompts – Social Psychology

Hand writing on a notebook

Here are the two prompts for this week. Regardless of which prompt you choose, use the tag “Social Psychology.”

Option 1

The Implicit Association Test (which can be accessed through this link) is a tool to identify biases which may be outside your conscious awareness. The results of this test cannot determine whether or not you are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., but they are useful to help you understand yourself and how you interact with others. For this post, you must take two separate IAT tests from the link above. You do not need to share your results if you don’t want to, but you need to talk about the experience of taking the test and getting the results, comment on whether or not the results were surprising, and discuss how this test can be useful for college students or your future career.

Option 2

Would you enjoy a task more if I gave you $1 to do it or $20 to do it? Many of you will probably say you’d rather have the $20, but research suggests you will probably enjoy it more if I only give you a single dollar. Watch this footage to see:

Describe a time in your life when you think you experienced a change in beliefs due to cognitive dissonance, and argue whether you think this is a good thing we should promote and utilize or a bad thing we should try to avoid.

I look forward to seeing what you write!

Header image: CC by Flickr user Caitlinator

Week 12 First Impression

This week in psychology, we will be discussing the topics of stress and emotion. The prompt that I chose to respond to was Option 1 which dealt with Dan Gilbert’s TED talk on “The Surprising Science of Happiness.”

This is not actually the first time I’ve heard of Dan Gilbert, nor is it the first that I’ve been given an explanation, however rudimentary, of his work. Last semester, I took a fascinating course on ancient and medieval philosophy that focused primarily on Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Augustine. Our primary goal in this course was not only to examine the history and ideologies of these thinkers, but, more specifically, to gain an understanding of what happiness is and how it might be achieved. While talking to my professor about this topic he referenced Gilbert’s book, “Stumbling on Happiness,” and some of his ideas about affective forecasting. This talk wasn’t really about affective forecasting, our ability to predict how we’ll feel about things in the future, but I was already familiar with some of the data and evidence used by Gilbert.

I wasn’t as surprised as I might have been by the idea of synthetic happiness because, as I previously mentioned, I already have had experience with Gilbert’s work, but I found this talk fascinating nonetheless. The idea of happiness is so crucial to our perception of reality, but so incredibly vague that I enjoy most any attempt to clarify it. I agree that most people in our society have a strong preference for what we consider natural happiness that comes from getting what we desire when we want it and I’m curious if this same idea of natural happiness is different in more communal societies. I found Dr. Gilbert to a reliable source primarily because most of his message was based on facts and research rather than just unsubstantiated claims. I appreciated that he not only gave examples of previous data but also demonstrated to the audience the deficiency in our ability to effectively predict our happiness in certain scenarios. The message of this talk is interesting and certainly reasonable as nothing Dr. Gilbert said was outrageous or unrealistic. The key to creating this synthetic happiness seems to be accepting reality for what it is and being willing to let go of certain paths and possibilities. In order to create this happiness, it seems to prudent to make concrete commitments that you can grow to be happy with. I don’t mean to suggest that anyone should rush into commitments, rather that they shouldn’t hesitate to do so because of alternate possibilities.


FIP- Stress

In her TEDTALK, Kelly McGonigal discusses how believe that stress if bad for their health leads to even worse health than stress itself. She proposes that if we changes how our minds interpret health, we can change how our bodies react to stress. If we are taught to rethink our stress responses as things that help us to perform tasks can make us more motivated, confident and we can perform better. If we think of our stress as helpful, the stress on our hearts can be less and prevent stress related heart attacks and other complications. McGonigal also talks about how stress makes us social. Oxytocin is a hormone that is released when we are stressed and stress makes us want to be around people who care about us when we are stressed. Oxytocin is released and oxytocin can help heal damage on the heart that is related to stress. So oxytocin can help us reduce harmful effects of stress on our health.  In my life, I can use McGonigal’s ideas on how to view stress to help me calm down and be more effective when I am stressed. I can view stress as a positive thing that keeps me motivated to succeed.


FIP- Motivation

I chose to come to Austin College because I heard many great things about the academics here and how each person can receive an education that is personalized to them and their academic needs as well as their lifetime goals. Austin College is also away from my home but also not so far away that I can’t visit when I need/want to. For me, instincts are what keep me motivated during times of low academic motivation here at Austin College. The want to succeed and do well is intrinsically planted within me and my home life and academic life have helped me to realize that I should keep up with college in order to succeed in life.


FIP – Stress

This week in Psychology, we were given a Ted Talks video to watch, in which health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, discusses the important role that stress plays in our lives.

 

Whenever someone mentions the word “stress”, people tend to think about the negative ways in which it impacts our lives.  Kelly McGonigal, however, offers a different perspective on stress and proposes the idea of it being a good thing to have.  She talks about the psychical symptoms that stress can often cause a person to experience, such as an increased heart rate and sweating.  These uncomfortable symptoms couldn’t possibly be benefiting our overall health and well-being, could they?  Dr. McGonigal goes to explain how, yes, these psychical reactions to stressful situations are actually working to help the body during these times.  It is only society’s skewed perception of stress that makes it potentially unhealthy for us int he long run.  Multiple studies discussed in the Ted Talk showed that regardless of the amount of stress someone was under, how they viewed their stress is what ultimately affected their health.  In one study, participants were asked how much stress they had gone through that year and also how much time they had spent helping people either in their family, friend groups or in their community.  For the next five years, records were kept of deaths that occurred of the participants.  At the end of the study, results showed that for every significant, stressful life event that occurred, increased the risk of dying by 30%.  This fact would seem to favor the idea that stress is bad for your health.  The study also found, however, that those who helped others around them, experienced no increased risk of death.  This further proves the theory that thinking about your stress in a positive light can change the way it affects you and your body.  Once the psychical symptoms of stress are viewed as your body’s way of helping you, it truly does change the way, in which, stress impacts your health.  Applying this concept to my own life can definitely work to benefit not just my health, but my mental state.  Thinking about my schoolwork and other things in life can become overwhelming at times.  But focusing on my stress as something there to help me through these times will most likely assure me that what I’m feeling is normal and will ultimately lead me to live a longer and healthier life.