This week in psychology, I chose to answer option #1 for the first impression blog prompt regarding social psychology. This prompt essentially asked me to take two Implicit Association Tests and react to my results. Implicit Association Tests can identify unconscious biases that you aren’t aware that you have. I chose to take the ‘Arab Muslim-Other People’ IAT and the ‘Gay-Straight’ IAT because I felt that they were very relevant in the current sociopolitical context and I was curious as to whether I would demonstrate any strong bias. I felt fairly confident going into the tests that I would do fairly well at answering correctly but when the labels were switched in the tests I found myself reacting quickly and incorrectly. I was pleased to see that I don’t have any particular preference between Arab Muslims and other people according to the test but I was surprised to see that the test said I had a slight preference for straight people over gay people. At first, I was pretty confused by this result because I have a lot of friends who are gay and I don’t feel any kind of aversion towards them or preference for my straight friends. As I began to think things through, however, I realized that when I was growing up all I heard about gay people was negative and even though I don’t have any conscious bias against gay people, it’s very possible that I formed some unconscious connections between homosexuality and negative feelings such as shame and humiliation.

I think this test can be very useful for college students and professionals because in both settings, you are required to work with people who are different from you in a variety of ways. These tests can allow you to identify some of the possible biases that you may or may not be aware of so that you can make a conscious effort to overcome those biases when you interact with your classmates and colleagues.

For this weeks first impression we were asked to complete an Implicit Association test (IAT). This test consisted of images that were to be paired with words and speed with which those images were paired. I was not very surprised with the first result which indicated that I have an automatic preference to associate positive words like “good looking” to myself than negative words like “ugly”. I was not surprised with this because I do not consider myself an ugly person. I never actively consider myself good looking, but I do actively consider myself not ugly so this result makes sense. The second result was initially surprising to me, but after reflection I was not surprised at all. This result said that I have a preference of black people over white people, and as I am white I was initially a little surprised. After thinking about it, however, I realized that in movies like dances with wolves and twelve years a slave I find myself absolutely hating the collective “white people” in those movies because of the awful things they do. Anyway this is straying off topic and into a much more difficult and personal discussion than I think necessary, so I will address other aspects of this test leaving my previous comments as contextual support. I think that these tests can be helpful in getting to know yourself when dealing with people in everyday life, especially in your job. I say this because with such a large population of people and the growing size of cities, it is likely that lots of people will deal with others whom they have never met before and first impressions are a big deal (especially in this psych course). If you have an innate tendency to associate a group of people with something or prefer a group of people over another, it is useful to know about this so you can try to manage it. With that being said, this test seemed like it was not necessarily very reliable because it relied heavily on concentration ability and on days (like today for me) when you have gotten little sleep and are not focusing very well, the results may differ than times when you are fresh.

I chose to take two Implicit Association Tests: One of them being the sexuality (Gay Straight) IAT test. I understood that these test results did not indicate whether I was definitively racist or homophobic, and that its purpose was to shed some insight in my own thoughts and how this self understanding helps me interact with others.

The results of my sexuality test revealed that I apparently have no automatic preference for gay or straight people. This was something that I have believed in pretty strongly since high school as a result of my schooling and being around people with different preferences and interacting with both gay in straight people in quite positive ways.

For the second test, I was expecting myself to get the same answer, where I did not have a preference, but as the test went on, I could see myself leaning another way. I was surprised at the end at myself and felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as a result.

From these results, I think that these tests can give us insight in how we tend to associate perceive others. Revealing these parts of our thoughts can help us take actions to change. Now that we have a heightened awareness, perhaps the next time we feel ourselves being biased in some sort of way, we can think about this test and prepare what we ought to say.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.