It goes back to saying that it is in our human nature to want to fit in with certain cultural groups. We want to like, act, and look like the people we hang out with to give us that extra confidence boost to to know that we are accepted to a group. In some way, we tend to do this without even noticing, and it can get pretty intense.

We all know that the United States is somewhat a weird place to grow up. In the U.S., silence has not always been considered "good news." I personally hate silence because i feel like i have to keep rambling on until someone stops me. In Systems of Psychotherapy with Dr. Cleveland, we have learned that using silence is a very important technique and skill to use on clients. Using silence gives clients to really think about what they want to say, and it helps them keep their events they want to talk to in a certain order.

It's true that most of our emotions are biologically programmed into us. There may be certain emotions that we have to learn growing up, but not very many. Emotions both consciously and unconsciously shape people's emotional lives. We have learned this through research proving that depressive people are still depressed under an unconscious state.

Culture can be a very hard word to define. People of all races, ethnicities, and religions may view "culture" in a different way. I think to fully be able to respect someone, you should at least know how they view things. I personally would love to travel, but I am afraid that some people would make fun of me because I don't communicate really well. Knowing me and some of my habits, I would accidentally offend someone without any intention of doing so. As we have learned in Spanish, there are totally different ways of greeting people in different countries.

What interested me in this reading was where it was talking about the IAT; Implicit Association Test. I learned about this topic in Psych 330 with Dr. Bassett. For this class we had to write a huge paper that compared peoples' racial bias and prejudice against other social groups. We learned that each individual group are all prejudice against one another, and more bias towards their own group.

It really is true of how different people treat males and females before they are even born. Whenever people ask someone the sex of their child, you can feel them judging how that baby will act based on if they say it is a boy or girl. Everyone does it, even if we don't mean to, it is subconsciously unavoidable. For example, when I ask someone the sex of their child, I am thinking more of what color baby blanket to make depending on if that person is having a boy, a girl, or wants something neutral to go with either gender. Typically blue or green for males, pink or purple for females, and white or yellow for gender neutral.

Aggression is defined by any behavior intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed. As humans, we tend to think more of things being violent than aggressive. But we all know that violent behaviors are aggressive and not all aggressive behaviors are violent. One example of aggressive behavior includes the degrading behavior of cancer. Over the weekend, I lost my grandpa to lung cancer. In the beginning of his diagnosis, we were told that he was clear, but still had to continue doctor appointments. A few months later we were told he had maybe a month. One day later he was told he had two weeks. The next day he passed, leaving the whole family in total shock.

This is also what we know as the bystander effect. We learned in PSYC 330 with Dr. Bassett that the number of bystanders affects how many people would actually help someone in a crisis. For example, when there is a lot of people around the less chance there is for anyone to help. When so many people rely on others to help someone, they tend to ignore the situation and completely reject the idea of helping in any way.

I didn't realize there was an actual psychological name for this situation even with all the "who did it" shows I watch. There are tons of shows that prove this dilemma is an actual thing. It is sad to say that someone would rat out someone they are close to just so they are the one that doesn't get blamed. I just watched a clip on Facebook that showed two dogs being in trouble for stealing a cookie off the counter. The owner asked the dog siblings who was it that actually did it, and couldn't help but laugh when the brother ratted out his sister by placing his paw on her head. The owner asked three times, and each time the brother ratted out his sister, causing the sister to sit in shameless silence.

In Childhood Development we learned about secure and insecure attachment. As children grow, they recognize that the people they see on a daily basis are not "the bad guys." On the other hand, children with ASD seem to get along with everyone, which leads to most of these children getting caught up with the wrong crowd or easily being kidnapped and taken away. It is extremely important for children with ASD to learn how to better communicate or interact with strangers so this doesnt happen.

I can relate to this in what may be really weird...As a girl, I am told to go out and look for a significant other that knows how to treat a woman, continuously grows through Christ, and can provide for me and my family. As soon as I find someone with these qualities, they are able to meet my parents and see about getting approved by the family. After my parents meet the mysterious person that I think is right for me, there is a family-wide discussion debating if my parents will continue to allow me to see that person. If my parents approve, that person will be welcomed to the family as one of their own. On the other hand, if that person doesn't receive approval, all hell breaks loose and I am obligated to break up with that person, and they are never to be mentioned in my household again. Group polarization is related to this in the way that I think someone may be right for me, but my family can potentially help me make the better decision for myself when looking at all rationales.

Here we can all look more at how in some countries arranged marriages are more likely to occur.

This concept I happened to learn in Death and Dying with Dr. Bassett. - As children get older, they tend to make their peers and future spouses their number one relationship instead of their parents. As we get older, we follow our friends around and want to be more like them, and neglect our parents; in which being able to accomplish the skills of sharing, pretend play, etc. helps us achieve this concept.