Blog Post #13

I think all three of the studies were very unique ways to show some basic ideas about social psychology. Some used simple experiments and others used some extreme experiments. I thought it was interesting how in the Asch’s conformity experiment the correct answer is so obvious but people don’t want to be different than the group. In Milgram’s Obedience experiment I found it hard to believe how many people were willing to hurt someone else just because they were told to do so. I never would have thought that the people in the Stanford Prison Experiment would have adapted to their roles the way they did. It’s actually somewhat sickening to me what people can become when put in certain situations. The studies show us that groups of people and the ideas they follow really have a big impact on a single person. If these people didn’t have the others around them or the set “norms or roles” around them they would be and act very different. This shows that Human nature doesn’t want us to be different than those around us.

Social influence refers to how people act when in the presence of other people. Most people are affected by the people around them in how they think and act. In many cases a person acted differently when in a group than if they would have been by themselves. There has been times where a group of my friends was talking badly about someone and I didn’t agree with what they were saying but I still went along with it and acting like I agreed with everything, sometimes even saying things myself so that I didn’t feel left out. There was also a time when I was in Spanish class. The teacher asked us all a question which, I thought the rest of the class was answering wrong but since they all said the same thing I didn’t want to be different and say the wrong thing so I just agreed with them. It turned out it was the wrong answer but I didn’t want to be the only person saying something different.

The most interesting thing I learned in this class was most of the things covered in chapter 9-Thinking and language. I think its amazing how our mind actually works to solve different types of problems, the confirmation bias, and other things like that. Its also interesting how much goes into actually speaking and how thinking and language work together.

Blog Post #12

Someone has a psychological disorder when their thoughts, feelings, and actions, are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional. Although almost all people feel these ways at one time or another in their life, actually having the disorder is a little different. The spells last much longer and go to a more extreme than in everyday scenarios. Just acting abnormally doesn’t mean you have a psychological disorder. In most cases the term abnormally may just depend on where you are, the time, and the culture you are in. The only way “abnormally” becomes a psychological disorder is when it becomes dangerous or harmful.
My aunt’s ex-husband suffered from bipolar disorder, which is when a person goes from one extreme emotion to the next, mania to depression. Mania is when you are hyperactive and wildly optimistic and depression is the complete opposite, you’re sad and unhappy. The fact that my uncle actually had bipolar disorder had a huge impact on why they got a divorce. He didn’t have it when they got married so my aunt had no idea that she would ever have to deal with it. My aunt couldn’t handle the situation at hand mainly because he didn’t want to take his medicine so he was getting worse. After she had left him he tried killing himself twice, once by overdoes and the second time by cutting his wrists. He went to mental hospital for a while but as soon as he got out it was the same thing, he ended up marrying this woman he hardly even knew and we were all constantly hearing about the crazy things that him and his new wife were doing. It was actually really sad. I feel so bad for my aunt having to go through that. I would never wish that upon anyone.
The most interesting thing I learned from this section was the actual number of people who suffer from psychological disorders. I can’t believe how many there are. It’s so common and I had no idea. But I suppose many people could be treating their disorders so I might not have any clue that something was wrong with the person right next to me.