f you haveever been part of a conversation that went something like this
I have had this conversation so many times in so many different contexts, like if I go to a new restaurant and they have a different process of how you pay your bill. I am always worried that I'll look dumb if I take the bill to the wrong place to pay it. So me and whoever I am with will sit and watch what other people do and if we see enough people do the same thing we end up doing whatever they do.
Although we usually are not aware of it, we often mimic the gestures,body posture, language, talking speed, and many other behaviors of the people we interactwith. Researchers find that this mimicking increases the connection between people andallows our interactions to flow more smoothly
I have definitely noticed this kind of thing happening. Whenever I spend a lot of time with someone I always think it is really interesting when I notice little words or phrases that pop up in my conversations that the other person uses a lot and vice versa. Its not like we are intentionally copying each other, its just something that happens as a result of sharing that connection with someone.
The optimalpace, they argue, requires flexibility and sensitivity to matching individual preferences to therequirements of the situation
There are so many time that I have seen or heard of people that are trying to do too much at once and keep up with too many things. They never take a break and they are almost always miserable. They move from one thing to another with no down time in between. They don't take the time to slow down and live life as it happens which has a great negative impact on their overall well being.
In the United States and much ofEurope, by contrast, the right way to measure timeis assumed to be by the clock.
I feel like this could vary from activity to activity. Like most other aspects of culture, it is possible to have tendencies from other cultures. Most of the social events that I have been to, either with family or friends, have moved along with the flow of how ever people where feeling. There is rarely ever a specific end time or a specific time for when certain things should happen. But obviously in more formal and work based events, things are more structured around specific times.
Similarly, otherresearchers have recently found that people in North American contexts are more likely tofeel negative when they have poor mental and physical health, while people in Japanesecontexts don’t have this association (Curhan et al., 2013).
In one of my classes we watched a documentary about happiness in different culture and how the definitions could vary. There was a part that talked about how in Japan, people would work so much for so long that they would eventually work themselves to death. They would eventually collapse randomly. They talked about how their excessive work never really had an impact on how they viewed their quality of life, that is just how they expected things to go.
At thelevel of physiological arousal (e.g., heartrate), there were no differences in how theparticipants responded. However, theirfacial expressive behavior told a differentstory
I think it makes a lot of sense that people would display emotions differently externally across cultures. With different values and expectations, people carry themselves differently and express themselves in ways that are seen as appropriate. I would imagine that in some cultures it could be seen as bragging or gloating to show external cues of happiness and pride when they are expected to act as part of a team rather than an individual.
an independent sense of self are more likely to describe themselves in terms of traits suchas “I am honest,” “I am intelligent,” or “I am talkative.”
What I find interesting about this is that, while it is common in the US to hear individualistic statements like this, it is also somewhat common to hear collectivist statements. Like in when someone is first getting to know someone, a lot of the time people start out with statements like where they are from, who they are related to, what they do for a living and other communities that they associate with. I feel like I hear a lot more about who people identify with and the communities they associate with before I hear about personal traits and individual characteristics.
Rather than dismissing foreign behaviors as weird,inferior, or immoral, people high in cultural intelligence can appreciate differences even ifthey do not necessarily share another culture’s views or adopt its ways of doing things.
In one of my classes, we read about what it is like to travel extensively. One of the big topics that we covered was culture and how different it is everywhere. We discussed how important it is to fully immerse yourself into the culture instead of quietly watching things from the sidelines. Getting fully involved in a different country's culture allows you to get a better understanding of their way of life and it is less likely for you to dismiss things as "wrong" and "weird".
These subtlebiases are unexamined and sometimesunconscious but real in their consequences.They are automatic, ambiguous, andambivalent, but nonetheless biased,unfair, and disrespectful to the belief inequality.
I think examples of this could be seen in situations like applying for jobs or housing. On an application, two people could have the same qualifications and experiences. However, there are often times that when one applicant has a more western European or traditionally "white" sounding name, they are more likely to get the job than someone with name that is associated with people of color.
Blatant biases are conscious beliefs, feelings, and behavior that people are perfectly willingto admit, which mostly express hostility toward other groups (outgroups) while unduly favoringone’s own group (in-group). For example, organizations that preach contempt for other races(and praise for their own) is an example of a blatant bias.
An obvious example of this in the modern day would be the hostility that is shown towards Muslim people. In the wake of the recent attack in New Zealand, there are many white supremacists that openly support the actions of the terrorist. They do not hide the fact that they share the same belief that they are above anyone other than white christian people.
judgments are made about the child: Boys willbe rough and like blue, while girls will be delicate and like pink.
This just reminds me of how the toys in fast food kids meals are sometimes gendered. I remember as a kid that they would always ask if the meal was for a boy or a girl and that would determine what kind of toy would go in the meal. They are assuming what the child wants based on generalized ideas of preferences. I remember being kinda disappointed sometimes because my brother would get a cool transformer or something and i would get like a beanie baby.
Stereotypescan refer to play (e.g., boys play with trucks, and girls play with dolls), traits (e.g., boys arestrong, and girls like to cry)
I noticed this kind of mindset a lot with the kids that I used to babysit. They were 5 and 7 years old. I often heard from the 5 year old that her brother would never play with her because she had girl toys. When ever I would try to get them to play together, there was always hesitance because neither of them wanted to play with toys that they were used to. The 7 year old would also always make fun of his sister for crying and being emotional.
Alcohol disruptscognitive executive functions that help us organize, plan, achieve goals, and inhibitinappropriate behaviors (Giancola, 2000)
I think that this the reason why domestic violence often occurs after someone is intoxicated. In some cases that I have heard about, a man in a relationship could have the tendency to be verbally and emotionally abusive but not physically violent. However, once they get drunk, they become more aggressive with their words and then escalate to violence. While emotional and verbal abuse is still not appropriate by any means, becoming violent crosses another line.
Because we are frequently exposed to scenes of violence in the mass media, acts of violenceare readily accessible in memory and come to mind easily, so we assume violence is morecommon than it actually is
I have definitely noticed this mentality in some of the older people in my family. They spend a good amount of their time watching the news and are exposed to all kinds of terrible acts of violence like shootings, bombings, and any other murderous event. They always talk about how the people these days aren't as good as they used to be and how there is hardly any good left in the world. They hardly ever acknowledge any of the good examples of growth and kindness that are in their communities, even if they see it on the news.
At the conceptual level, a positive relationship between agreeableness and helpingmay be expected, and research by Graziano et al. (2007) has found that those higher on theagreeableness dimension are, in fact, more likely than those low on agreeableness to helpsiblings, friends, strangers, or members of some other group.
There was this weird story that I did a project on in one of my English classes called "Pastoralia". In the story, the main character worked in this museum/theme park. Throughout the story, his partner at work would do a lot of things on the job that would get her fired if he told their bosses about it. But because he knew how important it was that she keep her job so she could pay for medical bills, he never said anything about it. I think that his willingness to keep the rule breaking quiet to help his partner is a good example of prosocial behavior.
If the needed help is of relatively low cost in terms of time, money,resources, or risk, then help is more likely to be given. Lending a classmate a pencil is easy;confronting the knife-wielding assailant who attacked Kitty Genovese is an entirely differentmatter. As the unfortunate case of Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax demonstrates, intervening may costthe life of the helper
This is related to the discussion we had at the end of class last week. When the stakes are really high, maybe involving injury or jail, people are a lot less likely to assist others. I feel like this is especially true in a westernized culture like ours seeing as we are generally much more individualistic. If something won't benefit us in some way, chances are we won't have anything to do with it.
Open communication between people is one of the best ways to promote cooperation (Dawes,McTavish, & Shaklee, 1977; Dawes, 1988). This is because communication provides anopportunity to size up the trustworthiness of others. It also affords us a chance to prove ourown trustworthiness, by verbally committing to cooperate with others.
I have experienced this in some classes with group work. There have been situations before in which no one in the group knows each other and are expected to share their thoughts and opinions on a certain topic in order to complete an assignment. There is apprehension at first because it is uncomfortable to share personal ideas and thoughts. But if other people start to go along with it, I will be more willing to open up and share too. But if others are unwilling to share and participate, the situation gets uncomfortable and no one cooperates so the assignment doesn't get done.
When empathizing with a person indistress, the natural desire to help is oftenexpressed as a desire to cooperate.
When I was babysitting over the winter break, the kids were talking about being upset because they couldn't play with the toys that their parents bought. When I explained to them that the toys were going to other kids that didn't have any toys, eventually their jealousy changed to sadness. They wanted other kids to have toys like they did they started picking out toys of their own to share. They even started being nicer to each other when sharing toys for the rest of the day.
Given the observed plasticity of the social brain, remediation of these difficulties maybe possible with appropriate and timely intervention.
In the show Atypical, the main character was diagnosed with ASD early in his life. Because of the early intervention, he was able to be successful in high school and also discover his strengths in art and his passion marine biology. He worked hard and was able to graduate and go on to attend college. He learned how to communicate effectively and overall was functioning in a productive way. This might not have been possible without the early recognition of his symptoms and intervention.
ASD is defined by the presence of profound difficulties in social interactionsand communication combined with the presence of repetitive or restricted interests,cognitions and behaviors.
There is a show on Netflix called Atypical that is about a teenager who is on the autism spectrum. He is super passionate about penguins and will find any way possible to relate things that are happening around him to penguins. People that don't know him are often off put by the excessive mention of them. He often uses the penguins to understand the context of the things happening to him and around him.
social facilitation:the enhancement of an individual’s performance when that person works in the presence ofother people.
I feel like this could be seen in the context of school work, assessments, and other things that take place in the classroom. Being in a room with other people who are getting the same information and being assessed in the same way can very quickly turn into a competition. If you see someone that excels in the class turning in a test or quiz first, you may be inclined to finish your test or assignment faster to prove that you doing well in the class too,
For example, collegestudents often feel homesick and lonely when they first start college, but not if they belongto a cohesive, socially satisfying group (Buote et al., 2007).
Ever since high school, the idea of being involved in a club or organization has been pushed a lot in school settings. They always talked about how people that are more involved tend to have higher grades and feel more positively about their school experience in general. I think that I could attest to that statement. I had a rocky start y freshmen year here until i started joining clubs, found a job, and found other people that were similar to me.
Conscience development grows througha good fit between the child’s temperamental qualities and how parents communicate andreinforce behavioral expectations.
This is another topic that was discussed in Dr.Snyder's class. Most of the time, children have to be taught morals. when their parents tell them things like "you should be ashamed of yourself" for doing whatever the bad thing was, they are reinforcing the type of thing that people usually think when they do something wrong. With enough repetition, the child will eventually internalize the reactions and recognize the action as wrong.
Peer relationships are also important.Social interaction with another child who issimilar in age, skills, and knowledgeprovokes the development of many socialskills that are valuable for the rest of life(Bukowski, Buhrmester, & Underwood,2011).
While peer relationships are crucial to a child's development, the ability to form those peer relationships can stem from the type of attachment the child had to their caregivers. I remember in Dr.Snyder's class he talked about the importance of a secure attachment. If the child does not successfully form a secure attachment to a caregiver, they are more likely to be skeptical of the world around them. This could cause them to have difficulties forming relationships with others later in life. With the lack of connection to peers, the child would be missing opportunities to develop social skills.