text:
User:Breona duncan

Week 1 and 2 reflections
Hmm one of the first things that I find interesting when investigating social psychology is that everyone can relate and have an opinion on the subject. There are numerous theories that are relevant to social psychology but often research where these theories are based come from observations from individuals who have developed them further and gathered data on them. Although the definition of social psych can be debatable the broad definition includes how groups and individuals behave in a social setting. It incorporates ideas and concepts from various disciplines including anthropology, sociology and subgroups of psychology including evolutionary psychology. The definition that is within the text book states that social psychology is a branch of psychology that seeks a broad understanding of how humans, think, act, and feel.

The first topic that this unit is covering is the self and therefore people have unique opinions and experiences which not only guide the development of the internal self but also how an individual presents themselves to others. Often the individual is influenced by what they feel are important aspects, for example they may believe that being skinny is more important and more successful in gaining and maintaining friends than being smart. Other people may believe that there needs to be a combination of different aspects with various weighting given to each aspect, for example an individual may think that being smart, funny, friendly and fit are all necessary to feel fulfilled and to socialise with other people. Often if people want to change the way they are behaving or the way they look there are various ways, for losing weight there are gyms and specialist organisations, there are hair dresses and make up to hide ‘imperfections’ and there are courses and professionals who focus on such areas as anxiety or improving confidence.

However, if an individual feels that one area is not important to them then they will not try and change it. The individual forms opinions through such agents as family, peers and the media. The popularity of such shows as the Biggest Loser and America’s Next Top Model as well as the analysis of content in popular women’s magazines reveals the high importance on body image. Therefore if individuals are made aware of how their self image is created they can then consider the biases and if they want to change they are able to. Awareness of how the self is created allows/gives a greater understanding of other individuals as well and hopefully can give greater tolerance.

Social Psych Assignment
Further comments and thoughts about social psychology I have just been doing some observations in regards to the assignment which I am looking at caffeine culture. Will try and make this one not too long so that people might read it and make some comments. The preliminary observations were made at bars where people were mixing alcohol and caffeine and at cafes where the most common drink ordered was coffee of various sorts. In addition the way that the media portrays caffeine as an innocent drug through such domains as not having negative advertisements for caffeine as they do for alcohol and tobacco and the way caffeine is portrayed in films and television. I think one of the reasons that caffeine is used so often and is the drug of choice for so many people is due to the accessibility of it and the fact that individuals often grow up with chocolate and chocolate flavouring. I feel that individuals do not have a clear view on the dangers of caffeine, similar in a way to adolescents who begin their experimentation with alcohol through alco-pop drinks as the alcohol is disguised by the sweetness of the drink. Therefore I was wondering if people:
 * A	 had opinions about why there is such a reliance on caffeine
 * B	what the consequences of this reliance is
 * C	any interesting research/studies or media influences/thoughts on this matter

Thankyou

Responses to readings for social psych (Ch 13)

From the beginning of this unit I found it interesting that social psych has a strong focus on how people act in a variety of situations including social context. Previous units of psychology have commented on the person situation debate and may have looked at literature and research on certain aspects of a person’s behaviour in the presence of others but none as thorough as this. Chapter 13 in respect to an individual’s conformity within a group environment and experiment such as Asch I found could be related to numerous examples within people’s lives.

These examples included within the work environment and social gatherings where a person’s want to fit in and conforming to group norms may lead to a person laughing at a joke which they don’t find funny and may even find offensive due to the other members of the group responding in such manner. Group body language also can influence an individual, if other members are all sitting down or having their arms crossed it is probable that the individual will follow and complete the same action. One final example is that from the tv show The Chaser’s War on Everything. This particular example (at 1 minute 41 seconds) involves numerous people obeying one minutes silence because the people around them were doing it. They did not want to be considered outcasts even though the minute of silence was just a stunt performed in a public domain.

Group conformity is sometimes not just an innocent matter of an individual conforming to those around them. Group conformity has in the past lead to negative repercussions as shown in the brown eye/blue eye experiments and the stereotypes and racism that individual’s receive. Although the conformity to group norms has played a vital part in the evolution of human’s in this day and age I believe it is necessary for individual’s to sometimes stand up for themselves and be true to their beliefs, especially if the behaviour would be contrary to their beliefs. However, also being a realist I understand that this is not always possible for various reasons (including loss of life in extreme examples). In conclusion group conformity is a complex issue and is applicable to most people’s lives often on an everyday basis.

Week 3 (Ch 5 & 7) Social Cognition and Attitudes, Beliefs & Consistency 7th August 2008
Social Cognition is defined as a change in social psychology commencing in 1970s after the rise of behaviourism that concentrated on thoughts about social relationships and individuals. It has been proposed that there are three key forms of goals guiding how people think; they want to find the right answer to some problem or question, the want to reach a particular preferred conclusion or the want to reach a pretty good answer or decision quickly. An experiment that has proved the power of the unconscious mind and the want for a quick answer even if it is not the correct is the Stroop Test. The results of such tests have been called the Stroop Effect and refer to the participant’s preference for saying the automatic response of the name of the colour rather than the colour itself.

Schemas are knowledge structures that represent substantial information about a concept, its attributes and its relationships to other concepts. This differs from scripts that are specific knowledge structures that contain information about how people behave under varying circumstances. Therefore they define situations and guide behaviour with such examples as the normal order when you go to the movies, you decide what movie you want to go to, you go buy the ticket, if you want food or drinks they are purchased, then you give your ticket to the usher, you find the cinema, the trailers and ads start and finally the lights dim and the feature presentation is shown. This would be odd if events did not progress in this order and you buy your tickets after the movie has finished etc.

Heuristics are another topic covered in chapter five and are useful as they provide quick estimates for decisions about uncertain events. The four most common heuristics are representativeness, availability, simulation and anchoring and adjustment. Representativeness refers to the tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event due to the resemblance to the typical case. Availability refers to differences due to the ease with which relevant instances come to mind, simulation relates to the ability to imagine an event and finally the use of a starting point and then making adjustments is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. An example of anchoring and adjustment heuristic may be that due to past experience that short people are louder than the rest of the general population, however after meeting a short person who is quiet in nature due to a variety of reasons the person may adjust their thinking to some short people are louder but not all short people.

Finally chapter 5 deals with numerous cognitive errors that occur within individuals including confirmation bias, illusory correlations, false consensus effect, illusion of control and magical thinking. It is important to understand such concepts as they affect many areas of society including individuals’ belief systems, thoughts and actions. For example magical thinking refers to assumptions that diverge from rational thought of the greater population while illusion of control often occurs with superstitions and relates to an individual’s belief that they have ultimate control over a situation depending on their actions. For example a student may wear a certain perfume, jewellery or pair of socks for an exam due to the belief that this will ensure that they receive a good grade.

Questions Do you believe that heuristics can be useful? In what other psychology topics do you think they occur?

Chapter 7 9th August 2008
Often the words attitudes and beliefs are used interchangeably however beliefs are opinions or facts about something while attitudes are global evaluations towards an object or topic. Therefore beliefs are for explaining while attitudes are for choosing. Attitudes are necessary and adaptive for humans and are formed in a variety of ways including through mere exposure, classical and operant conditioning and social learning. Cognitive dissonance is central to numerous disciplines including counselling, human resources, personality and individual differences and social psychology. The theory focuses on change of behaviours or rationalisation of attitudes occurring due inconsistencies produce psychological unease. For example if an individual is shy in nature but believes that people should be outgoing there might be a need to change their behaviour in order to meet this assumption. Another example is if a person believes that people should care for the environment but they use their car all the time and they leave lights on all the time there may be a need to change the belief that the environment is important or change behaviour to help this cause.

In regards to the thought behind the greater population there are three assumptions that contribute to the happiness, healthiness and safety of individuals. These are the world is benevolent, life is safe, good happens most of the time and people are nice in nature. The next is that the world is just and fair and finally that the individual is a good person and therefore they deserve good things to happen to them.

Question What do you think is the primary influence for the formation of attitudes and beliefs?

Chapter 9 Week 4 Aggression and Anti-Social Behaviour 14th August 2008
Although the term aggression is used in a variety of contexts the definition of aggression focuses on any behaviour that is intended to harm an individual who is motivated to avoid the harm. This disputes the notion that aggression is an emotion or a thought but that it is a behaviour. The different forms of aggression include hostile, instrumental, passive and active. Central to hostile aggression is impulsivity and angry behaviour which differs from instrumental where it is considered to be cold, and pre-mediated and motivated by a different goal. Passive aggression focuses on the harm being caused by withholding a behaviour while active aggression is produced by performing a behaviour. Different theories referring to aggression include instinct theories and learning theories including social learning theory where modelling is the key. This has been studied largely in conjunction with the introduction of violent television, movies and video games and what impact this has on children. The most famous of these were Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment where children copied and then acted out violent behaviours that they had witnessed the actors doing. What is also interesting about modelling is that this re-enactment does not always occur immediately with this knowledge stored in the children’s memory for further use.

Linked to aggression is frustration with varying hypothesis proposing that frustration will always lead to some form of aggression. Frustration can occur for many reasons including not having the opportunity to vent while others suggest that the mental state of being in a bad mood and whether the participants could change their mood or whether it was believed to have a particular amount of time associated with it. Gender, temperature, age and chemical imbalances including testosterone and, alcohol and MAO are all contributing factors towards the frequency and intensity of aggressive outbursts. Evolution including the flight or fight response is an aspect when discussing aggression and this is subsequently influenced by age and gender with males just passed puberty being most likely to have aggressive behaviour. Aggression may occur as an impulsive attack on an innocent target rather than the cause of the anger. This is known as displaced aggression or kicking the dog effect.

Two other forms of antisocial behaviour addressed in week four were cheating, stealing and littering with different causes for such actions including peer group pressure, de-individualisation and lack of understanding of societal norms. It is often stereotyped that there is a higher proportion of individuals from lower SES that engage in such deviant behaviours while the other two main causes are due to stress and to impress others.

Questions
 * How do you think aggression can be controlled?
 * What do you believe are the main forms of deviance?

Chapter 12 Week 5 Prejudice 21st August 2008
Prejudice refers to a negative feeling towards an individual due to their membership to a particular group. A specific form of prejudice is racism that is targeted towards an individual’s race. In this day and age of globalisation it would appear from an outsider’s point of view that there is little to no racism occurring these days but unfortunately this is not the case. Racism can be subtle as is the case with aversive racists who feel uncomfortable towards minorities and therefore avoid them and many individuals believe that they do not hold racist views or beliefs but when in the situation due to negatively change their behaviour. Stereotypes may have their foundations in truth but they are generalisations that often are exaggerated and blown out of proportion. Not all stereotypes are considered bad and it is an effective way for individuals to group similar types of information. For example you may only have experienced red apples and therefore you may stereotype all apples as red or you may believe that all French people are arrogant and eat croissants and frogs-legs all the time as that is what is portrayed in the media and passed on through friends and family. However, it is what is done with these beliefs and how strongly they are held especially in regards to such minorities as race, religion and gender preference that can lead to a gamut of negative consequences. One of the most common of these is discrimination which relates to unequal treatment based on different groups that the individuals belong to. Such cases that have received attention include where gay people or females receive lower employment positions although they are more qualified at the job.

Experiments that reveal the true nature of discrimination due to racism and the feelings that are felt by people in the minority were explored by Jane Elliot and her famous blue eye/brown eye experiment as shown in the tutes this week. It shows how easily individuals conform to the character given to them and the impact of being stereotyped and discriminated against. This experiment has received widespread attention due to the initial participants being grade three children and the ethical issues and negative affect it had on these individuals. Since then this experiment has been conducted all over the world with different minority and majority populations.

In such a global society it is hard to understand why prejudice still exists with one of the theories stating that it is due to limited resources and therefore competition arises. This has been associated with various wars that have occurred with resources including food, water and oil and current wars have at least been partly over such domains with this theory being named realistic conflict theory. This theory has been criticised for being a form of the frustration/aggression theory that is applied to group conflict. However there are numerous societies especially in the oceanic regions that co-operate instead of fighting when resources are low and then there are tribes that are sustainable that move around in different seasons and when food is low to ensure that there will be beasts available for hunting next time they are in the area.

Another theory focuses on the lack of contact between different groups enhances prejudice with stereotypes not being able to be disproved. However, the flaws in this theory include children often stick to their own racial groups rather than mingling and that when interaction is made it is often negative and increases prejudice. Prejudice can also increase self-esteem with the majority as if the minority appears inferior then it is only natural that the majority and their norms and values are superior. This also relates to scapegoat theory that proposes that by blaming problems on the out-groups negative attitudes towards others are increased. One example of prejudice and aggression combining with atrocious consequences was that of the Rwandan Genocide as shown in the video Ghosts of Rwanda. This was also an example of group think and with the uprising of the minority the influence a handful of people with the media can have. One of the reasons that this tragedy went on for so long was due to outsiders not paying any interest or helping. This was a chilling reality of what happens in war and how it is often the innocent bystanders that are attacked and killed with nothing against them except being from the wrong group. Finally prejudice can be overcome by making a conscious effort to be fair and equal.

Questions
 * What do you think are the necessary steps to try and combat prejudice?
 * Do you think that positive discrimination can go too far to benefit the minority?

Chapter 10 Week 10 Attraction and Exclusion 9th September 2008
Attractiveness is something that is often pushed by the media and celebrities while in reality it is an individual’s preference while also recognising the reality of their situation and environment. Attraction has a loose definition of anything that draws two or more people together and perhaps leading to a long-term relationship. Both attraction and exclusion have foundations in evolution with one of the primary needs of early humans being to procreate and exclusion increases the ability to find food, shelter and water. Social exclusion is also referred to as rejection and is the opposite of attraction resulting in prevention from keeping or forming social bonding. Maslow describes belongingness as one of the essential needs with individuals want to have regular social contact and stability of an ongoing relationship with a focus on a mutual concern for both individuals. It has been proposed that belongingness also has a positive impact on the health of an individual and when it is not present there is a high risk of death and more mental and physical issues.

There have been numerous debates to whether there is a higher level of attractiveness between individuals who are similar and those who are opposite to each other. There are numerous theories that support both sides of the argument including similarity breeds boredom while opposites are two extremes placed together. However research supports that the majority of individuals are attracted to similar people. In regards to females there is a phenomenon called the bad boy where males who are deviant appear attractive and this is often explored in the media. Matching hypothesis states that there is a tendency for individuals to date people of similar attractiveness. This hypothesis not only refers to romantic relationships but also friendships. An interesting finding is that annoying habits that partners have increase in the level of annoyingness over time. On the other side of attraction and belongingness is unfortunately rejection and ostracism which refers to being rejected, ignored and excluded by others. Rejection has a multitude of effects including negatively interfering with the cognitive process, damaging self regulation and becoming hypersensitive to rejection when it occurs. Children are rejected for three key reasons with aggressive children being rejected, due to initial withdrawal from others and due to deviant behaviour.

Questions
 * How important do you believe it is to belong in a group?
 * Do you think there is such a thing as love at first sight?

Chapter 11 Close Relationships 25th September 2008

Although passionate love can have different meanings on an individual basis a general description is strong feelings of desire, excitement and longing toward a particular individual. Different cultures have different norms and values on love, marriage and sex although it appears that the majority of relationships need passion, intimacy and commitment in order for the relationship to work. If there is too higher level of one of these areas and a disagreement between the individuals for their needs then there may be a falling out between these individuals. However, there are also differences depending on length of relationship with the longer the relationship the higher focus on commitment. There is a tendency for individuals to attribute good things to internal factors and bad things to external, for example if you failed a test you might blame having a late night beforehand whereas if you were in the same situation and did well you might say it is because you studied lots. This is similar to the relationship-enhancing theory that for an individual to ascribe good acts to internal factors and bad acts to external factors. This is reversed if the couple is unhappy and is called the distress-maintaining style of attribution.

Different theories are proposed in regards to sexuality with social constructivist’s theories founding on socialisation while evolutionary theory believes that sex drive is through natural selection. Social exchange theory is focused on a cost versus benefits approach in regards to interaction with others. This is more likened to the economics or stock exchange approach with market demand between males and females. When in a relationship concerns include extradyadic sex and the effects of jealousy. There have also been debates about the reasons that individuals prefer partners of the same sex including genetic arguments, evolution, social influences and boredom.

Question
 * Do you believe that sexuality is influenced by nurture or nature or do you think that it is an *equal balance of the two? Why/Why not.

Chapter 14 Week 11 Groups 5th October 2008
A group is a collection of at least two people who are being something or doing something together. Groups play a vital role in society and can have a variety of effects on both the individual and society. Power can often come from groups and deindividuation which relates to lower level of self-awareness and individual liability in a group. This has happened in numerous circumstances with terrible repercussions including wars and genocides. Optimal distinctiveness theory addresses the issue of seeking to be different when in a group and then seeking to be similar. When working in groups for example for a university assignment there may be one person who does not work but expects everybody else to do it for them. This has been named the free rider or social loafing problem with reduced effort compared to when working alone. Groupthink is a concept that was developed by Janis (1982) and has had plenty of research focused on it. It is known as the trend of members of groups to think alike. If the group is similar and cohesive with a strong leader, isolated from others and if the group has high self-esteem has a higher chance of groupthink. Pressure towards conformity, appearance of unanimous agreement, illusion of invulnerability, moral superiority and underestimate opponents are all key signs of group think. Leadership is a key area when discussing groups with it considered that a good leader is decisive and sticks to their decisions. In addition to this integrity, honesty and moral character appear to be good qualities for a leader. Power however can have an effect on leaders and their groups with power being a control over another, corrupting people that would otherwise be considered decent. This is due to many reasons including emotion, rewards, chance in think patterns and reliance on automatic processing. Power of the leaders in a group can affect the members with leaders becoming more like role models and the followers trying to be more like them. Finally when groups work towards a positive goal they can achieve more than individuals on their own while when working towards negative consequences these are more easily achieved as well.

Questions
 * Have you had a situation where you felt pressured due to being in a group dynamic?
 * What are the benefits of being in a group?

Chapter 8 Week 12 Pro-social Behaviour 10th October 2008
Pro-social behaviour although it may appear rare is the act of doing something good for other people or society as a whole. Rule of law is relevant to pro-social behaviour as it relates to the effectiveness and appropriateness of the laws of a society. This influences the behaviour of the society with a higher proportion of individuals behaving when they believe the rules are fair. There is controversy over whether people feel the need to reciprocate when good things are done to them and if there is a norm within society or due to social learning. When in a situation where sharing of resources is necessary people are often divided between sharing, over usage and hoarding. Age is related to hoarding with the likelihood of this act decreasing as age increases.

Forgiveness is related to seeking retribution and leads to better relationships and benefits for the forgivers. It is linked to avoiding cognitive biases and religious people are more likely to forgive while narcissistic people are at the lower end of forgiveness frequency. Finally there are key concepts with helping strangers and factors that influence this including helpful personality, similarity, gender and beauty. Emotion and mood with individuals in a good mood have a higher probability of helping others. The bystander effect occurs when there is a group of people and in such an environment they are less likely to help a person in trouble. This is partly caused by the thought that someone else will help and that the individual is not responsible also known as pluralistic ignorance. This happens in such situations as assaults and fires where people may not realise the full situation where ambiguity occurs and therefore are less likely to intervene. Therefore co-operation may be necessary in addition to being able to read the environment and understanding the messages from the alleged victims.

Questions Do you believe that there are certain times that there is an increase in people acting altruistic? Please explain your answer. What circumstances do you believe would increase your assistance in an emergency?

Environmental Readings Week 13 18th October 2008
Environmental issues are receiving even more attention as the global resources are becoming more and more limited. These are intensified due to such concerns as crowding and density while global warming is becoming more of a reality as society is not willing to make the effort and making small changes to contribute to the environmental causes. These are hyped up or dulled down depending on the mood that the media and politicians wish to create. By thinking outside the square individuals have and can make a difference. This can also be related to cognitive dissonance with a belief that the environment is a cause that needs help while on an individual basis recycling and walking instead of driving may not be performed. By increasing awareness and information there may be an increase in participants who care for the environment.

In relation to environmental designs there are such issues as lighting, sound, colour and temperature. There is also a need to service the community with such buildings as schools, police stations and hospitals. Arousal, privacy and stress change with the buildings components such as lightening, sound and walls to create a private setting. Work can also be influenced by such concepts and therefore these need to be considered when choosing buildings for workplaces and for creating new buildings. Therefore multiple theories contribute to the current understanding of environmental psychology in regards to buildings and the effects they have on individuals.

Questions
 * What colours do you think promote calmness and what do you think promote thinking?
 * What issues do you believe are involved when creating a building?

title: User:Breona duncan


text:
User talk:Breona duncan

Well done
Good job on setting up your account,. Let me know if I can do anything as you go along. 'Official' Wikiversity welcome below. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 23:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

 Hello Social psychology (psychology)/Participants/Welcome, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random random project.
 * Browse everything on Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! Jtneill - Talk - c 23:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

 Woof! My name is Jack(Russell). I am a dog and a Wikiversity mascot. I am pretty new around Wikiversity. Perhaps we can learn together! Tail wag...

Caffeine culture
Hi Breona, I've created this 'blank page' which can be used if you like to add links, discuss questions, draft ideas, etc. about your essay. You might copy or move your questions (on your user page) to this page, which hopefully might attract some responses. I will keep an eye out for relevant material and contribute to whatever you add there. Hope that helps. There is no problem at all with using the your e-portfolio in this way, but this is obviously going to be something which you want to grow and develop, so its probably good to "branch" and grow two trees :). -- Jtneill - Talk - c 06:26, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

My thoughts on coffee
Hi Breona

I am a huge coffee drinker from way back and so thought I’d share my opinions on your topic. I’m ordinarily a big coffee fan (a day wouldn’t go by where I would have at least two!) but am pregnant at the moment so had to give it up. And not drinking it for the past few months has made me realise how addicted I was!! I started drinking coffee when I was in high school and honestly think this is the longest I have gone without it.

I think that the majority of people definitely feel the stimulant effect and use it for this purpose (I know I’d use it for late night study sessions), but I also think it is to do with the whole culture surrounding coffee drinking. I remember in high school feeling so grown up because my Mum would let me drink coffee whereas a number of my friends still weren’t allowed. I guess I saw drinking coffee as mature and rather sophisticated, which is perhaps why so many younger kids are drawn to these caffeinated drinks??

Even now when I catch up with friends it’s not quite the same having a hot chocolate, probably because afterwards I feel like taking a nap!!

Good luck with the essay, Bel. http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Bel (ps. still figuring out wikiversity so I hope this is what this discussion page is for and I haven’t just violated your page!?)
 * >A had opinions about why there is such a reliance on caffeine
 * For me also because of the fast stimulant effect. I also remember that my mother + her friends use it for coming together, chit chating and reading horoscopes from the coffee (after drinking the coffee they would turn the cup, wait a few mins and then from the different flows of the coffee read something of the future - don't ask me how they did that now :-)). They used these kind of objects, more info: Turkish coffee

 * >B what the consequences of this reliance is
 * Perhaps that other stimulators are not used anymore ? E.g. just doing 5 mins sports (Jumping jack, ...) to awake yourself. Also when I drink coffee I get thirsty a lot and have to drink "normal water". And the coffee/water industry gets more money :-)

 * >C any interesting research/studies or media influences/thoughts on this matter
 * Sorry, don't know any atm. Would have to search also, but well - my coffee just finished, so must drink it :-) Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 09:18, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Loves My Coffee
Hi, I have just come across your page and was interested in the questions you pose on the coffee craze. I began to think of it myself as I pretty much can not live without coffee (no exaggeration either). I don't know that its a reliance on the coffee itself, or at least not for everyone. I strated drinking coffee t 15, I'm not going to lie...to be cool. I had just started working in an office environment and it seemed the thing to do at the time. Then going through college it was a way to take time out and relax with friends. I came off it once just to see if I had an addiction but after not noticing any symptoms of withdrawal went on in my merry coffee drinking ways. I find even now, that a huge part of the uni culture is to have a coffee with friends. I find that knowing the effects of too much caffeine doesn't stop me drinking coffee it makes me a better self rationaliser about the whole thing, I also rationalise it by pointing out albeit to myself that coffee has milk which=calcium and water which=good for us. I think many of us don't necessarily rely on coffee for the caffeine but for the social aspects that come along with it.MandaG

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Breona duncan


text:
User talk:Khayne

Well done
Good job on setting up your account,. Let me know if I can do anything as you go along. 'Official' Wikiversity welcome below. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 23:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

 Hello Social psychology (psychology)/Participants/Welcome, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random random project.
 * Browse everything on Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! Jtneill - Talk - c 23:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

 Woof! My name is Jack(Russell). I am a dog and a Wikiversity mascot. I am pretty new around Wikiversity. Perhaps we can learn together! Tail wag...

"I thought Social Psychology was about how groups interact and live together"
What you're thinking of here is actually Sociology or Anthropology. Psychology is almost always about how a single individual works. The Jade Knight 08:45, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I would say, "yes and no" - social psychology is a bridge between individual psychology and sociology/anthropology. At the end of the day, though, social psychology is still ultimately interested in understanding individuals and how they influence and are influenced by their social contexts. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:23, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Image help
Hi Khayne, you asked about using images. The easiest way to start (I think) is to search Wiki commons. Find an image you like. Copy its exact name. Then on a Wikiversity page, the basic syntax is e.g.,  which will give e.g.,. Then you can try some fancier stuff e.g, here's how to resize, caption, and right align:. Have a go and leave any questions here or on click on "talk" in my signature, or leave questions on your user page and I'll keep an eye out. Hope this helps. Oh, you can also see Help:Images. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:29, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
 * As a follow-up to this message, if you have images you created yourself, then you can upload these to Wiki commons and then you (and others) can use these images as above. Note that if you are doing this, you should own the copyright and be prepared to apply an open license, or you need the copyright holder's permission to upload under an open license. The Wiki commons upload page has some helpful instructions/guidelines. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 02:18, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Regarding upload of powerpoint slides, boxes, colour, etc., there are several ways this might be tackled, although none of them are "direct" or "straight-forward". Options I'd consider are:
 * Create an account on http://slidehare.net and upload your slides, then link to them from your e-portfolio - e.g., this is what I do with lecture slides - see http://slideshare.net/jtneill.
 * Save each of your slides and/or boxes, etc. as images, then upload those images to Wiki Commons, and show on your e-portfolio as described above.
 * Recreate the look/feel of your document on your e-porfolio page(s) - I can help with the technical part of doing this. For example, see Filmmaking as an example of a page with more colourful layout. There are plenty of templates for helping to do this, but it takes a little bit to learn. So, I would just start with one relatively simple request, we'll work on it, and then you can apply that to the next bit.
 * Each of these options is viable, but you may also want to consider prioritising efforts, e.g.,:
 * Keep a close eye on the marking criteria (see Social psychology (psychology)/Assessment/E-portfolio for the exercise - the most important aspects are regularity and depth of reflections and comments (and not fancy layout, etc.)
 * Getting your plain text up will allow for comments from myself and others, and discussion, leading to greater depth/regularity.
 * You can sketch out what you want, then we can help to fill in the gaps.
 * I hope these ideas help. Keep asking questions. Sincerely, James. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 02:27, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Image uploads
Well done on uploading this image ! Note that it needs a copyright license attached (otherwise it will get deleted). See the link above for some links to pages explaining possible copyright tags, e.g. you could put it into the public domain by editing the image page link above and adding this code: PD-self. If you want others who use the image to attribute it back to you, then probably use GFDL. Let me know if you want a hand - getting one's head around various copyright options is probably the trickiest part of uploading images to these wiki projects. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 10:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

 * Well done, Kate on "finding a way" - its quite a forest to jump into it, but you persisted and did it! Congratulations. You also found out that its easier to add the license when first uploading than to go back and do it later. There are now duplicate images, so I've added a message for the original to be deleted over at Commons: commons:Image talk:What is social psych.jpg. After doing this, now you know what's involved, I'm wondering how many slides you have and whether it seems to be worthwhile to approach putting them here via image uploads to commons? I don't have an answer, I'm just curious what you're thinking. Maybe you can try each kind of way, if you're inclined. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 01:55, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Positive psychology
I noted your interest in positive psychology and just wanted to let me know that we can build related resources at this link. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 01:55, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Flowcharts/Figures
Hi Khayne, Can you tell me how you created and uploaded those really great flowcharts/figures on your page? Are they made in PowerPoint and then uploaded as described by James above? Jenny O 07:27, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Some initial feedback
This e-portfolio is really coming along! You're learning/adapting fast to the Wikiversity format, but more importantly, your reflections indicate a deep engagement with the unit (i.e., participating in the topics/activities, venturing your own experiences and views, trying this out in the real world (e.g., doing the stroop test with your family!), and looking for further related material beyond that which has been provided (e.g., youtube videos). And its clear that this has been a regular engagement - oh, and there is also productive sharing/conversation with others. SO, in brief, congratulations on your efforts, your e-portfolio is providing an excellent example of how I had hoped the e-portfolio might be used. Keep it up! -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:42, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Image captions
Image captions are optional; see this edit I did to help show you where/how to add captions if you would like to use them. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 00:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your feedback James - Good to know I am on the right track! Would have been a lot of work if I wasn't. I am finding this e-portfolio one of the most rewarding things I have ever done at Uni! I can't believe how much I am learning - by going off on a tangent to related things. I am spending every spare moment absorbed in reading / watching / investigating / listening. A completely worthwhile piece of assessment.! --Khayne 01:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree Kate - this IS one of the best things I've done during this degree! Jenny O 04:16, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Image uploads
Yes definitely want to update with captions - just haven't got there yet! That's my next project!--Khayne 10:11, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice work Kate on the uploads, e.g., Image:Bella, Jesse Alex 0908.jpg; although it wasn't a requirement, you've learnt how to create various kinds of images and contribute them into a readily available central resource. What do you think about using image captions? -- Jtneill - Talk - c 03:53, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

ABC post
Hey Khayne, I agree whole heartedly with your post regarding your attitutde change after participating in this e-portfolio. I thought this e-portfolio was a terrible idea in the beginning but now I find myself spending more and more time on it...and i have to say I'm not hating it all the time! Its definitely made this unit more enjoyable.Bryony 00:30, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Honesty
Hi Khayne, the honesty and openness to trying, learning/developing and applying to real life of topics explored in the unit which is evident in your e-portfolio is very encouraging and is an an excellent demonstration of "depth" of engagement. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 03:09, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Kahlil Gibran
As for the piece at the end of my eportfolio - No I am not a religions nutbar! Kahlil Gibran was a poet, philosopher and artist born in 1883 near Mt Lebanon. ......get your hands on a copy of the Prophet - well worth a read! --Khayne 10:40, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Khayne


text:
User:Eaglesgirl

Week 1
I guess I am in the same boat as everyone else, trying to come up with something to write about for the first week. So I decided I would just put down what Social Psychology means to me and what I am expecting from this unit.

When I think of the words social psychology, I go all the way back to when I was in year 11 and I took Sociology as a subject I lasted about 6 weeks in that class. I don't know if it was the subject matter or if it was my teacher who made the subject matter oh so painful to listen to. So when I found that I would be doing social psychology at some stage at UC I was not looking forward to it to say the least. However, since the unit has started and I have begun reading the material and attending lectures and tutorials I have found that this unit is going to be completely different to what I had initially expected. I had expected to be fronted with a very dry subject matter that did not make me think about things in different way or challenge the way I already feel about certain things. But to my surprise my thoughts were challenged and I was asked to think about things from another angle, and I have to say I really enjoy units that challenge my thoughts and leave me thinking about or wondering about the what ifs of life.

Another thing that surprised me about this unit is that we have been given the opportunity to write about anything we want in our essay. I was looking forward to this but also a little taken back as I am used to being told ok this is what your going to write about or here are your choices pick one. So I am very much looking forward to writing this essay as strange as that may sound.

So after initially starting out a little apprehensive about this unit, I have now changed my view and am very much looking forward to discovering more about social psychology and how others feel about it.

Week 2
Ok so this was my first official tutorial for this unit, even though it was late in the evening I still found it very thought provoking and interesting. It began with the usual ice breakers and games. One of the first games we played I found interesting and rather an interesting game to play on the first day. What we were asked to do was get into groups according to the personal questions, I was expecting questions like how old are you, eye colour (Which we got) and silly questions like if you're wearing thongs or something like that. But that was not to be, we were given quite serious questions such as who you voted for, where you live, religion, where you were born. Although personal it was very interesting to see the different groups especially with religion and who people voted for. I always find it fascinating to see how other members of the community I am apart of feel or think about issues of society such as religion.

So I suppose I should maybe put down somewhere what Social Psychology means to me. I have given this some thought as I realize there are so many different definitions, because it really can be based on what the individual thinks. To me social psychology is the study of an individual thoughts, beliefs, behaviours in the social setting, it is something that has been studied for years by many people, whether it be for their own personal discovery or to better understand the way others think and behave in society. I also feel that it is the study of social norms and expectations. Having just finished a unit on ethics last semester (a unit which I loved) social norm and expectations can vary from culture to culture.

Ethics and moral are a subject that really has no answer other than "to each his own", a question that was put forth in that unit was "Do your ethics come from your morals or vice versa?". By the end of that unit I discovered that your morals are something that you gain along the way, they are learnt through parents and from those around you and your ethics come from your morals. If you have high morals then you would think that your ethics are of a high standard also. But again it comes back to the statement "to each his own" we are all different in our own little ways and our values are different. Yes society has expectations of how we should behave in the social environment, but they are guidelines they are not set in stone rules. Although they are expected norms there are many out there who do not follow these guidelines and simply follow their own set of rules, and more often than not these types of behaviours are frowned upon by society.

What fascinates me the most is where did these so called guidelines for social behaviours come from, who decided that certain behaviours would be expected in the public arena and how did they decide or is it something that is simply in our DNA. Even though we are told from when we are young how to behave and how to act in society I would really love to know whose idea it was. I find it so interesting that we just except that certain behaviours are expected of us when we are out in public, why is it that we expect it?

I guess this is just one of those subjects that you could debate and contemplate for ever and a day and never really come to any conclusion or a definitive answer. I guess it is just one of those unanswerable questions that we have been discussing for hundreds of years and will continue to discuss for many more to come. It is something that will always interest me and I will continue to think about and hopefully through social psychology I might gain a bit more of an understanding for this subject matter or even perhaps find some sort of answer.

Week 3
So far there has only been a lecture for week three my second tute for this class will not be till next Tuesday evening. So I figured I would put down some thoughts on things discussed in the lecture and then perhaps add some more later on next week when I have been to the tute, you never know something may grab me or fascinate me that I will won't to write about.

Firstly just something random that I am little unsure about. I am not really sure how I am supposed to write this e-portfolio should I be writing it using the correct lingo and terms or is it ok to just put it down as though it is my diary and I am merely having a conversation about what I have learned or discovered or found interesting for the week. For now I have decided I will write it as a diary entry like I am having a conversation and until I am told otherwise I will continue this way.

Anyway on to the lecture topics. There were a topics I found interesting and there were also a few things that I learnt.

The first point that grabbed me was how as human beings we have a tendency to make judgements about others based on their appearance, skin colour, the way they carry themselves before we have even gotten to know them. I find it interesting that we need to put people in categories to enable us to cope with all the differences between ourselves and other people. If someone has a disability we need to give it a name so we understand why that person might behave a little differently to what is considered to be normal. I will never forget that someone once said to me that is unfair that their child gets treated differently and is labeled as an autistic child, simply because society needs to understand why she is different without that label she could not be accepted. They then said to me "you know if she was on a desert island, she wouldn't have autism anymore because there would be no one there to put labels on her". That statement has always stuck with, and I have often wondered why it is we need to categorize people. We claim we try not to discriminate and that we are all equal as human beings, but we still need to label people as straight, gay, married, black, white. I guess this is just part of human nature and is something that can never be changed.

Also on the subject of why we as humans make judgements before we get to know people that I also find interesting and it was something that was discussed in another unit of mine. In this tutorial we were asked to put in order from 1-3 three statements which represented what we think is important in a partner.

These are the three statements that we had to put in order of importance:
 * 1) Ambition and Drive
 * 2) Looks
 * 3) Money

To no surprise most people put them in the order of what is socially acceptable as an answer. So as you can imagine most people put ambition and drive first and some put money. But not me NO I was brutally honest and I was the only one in the class that put looks first. When I shared this with the class a lot of people said well I thought that but didn't want to seem shallow. My answer to them was " Yes it is shallow, but that's human nature, when you see someone you find attractive your first thought is I would like to get to know that person better". Once I had said this most people went "Yeah, thats true". But I then also pointed out to them that sometimes there are people that you don't initially find attractive but as you get to know them they become attractive to you. So sometime looks are not always the way to go, you can get very good looking people who have no ambition or drive and no money so they are really no good to you anyway. So again this is one of those interesting subjects that you could debate forever. I do feel that a large percentage of people would go for looks first, but because it is socially unacceptable they would probably never say it out loud.

One final thing that caught my attention during the lecture was how some things just seem to seep into our subconscious and they just grow on you after you have had repeated exposure to it. I have to say I often find this with music. I am a huge music lover and more often than not if it doesn't grab me in the first few bars then I sort of lose interest, but then there are those few songs that grab me but the more I hear the more I like it. I do not know how many other people find this, but often when it has grown on me after repeated exposure to it, it's often too late and the new flavour of the week has appeared and that song is yesterdays news. I just found this to be an interesting idea how sometimes it just sinks in and you didn't even know it. Here is a strange example of how this might work. Take for instance a Seinfeld episode I have recently watched. George Costanza is a short stocky bald man who has trouble with women so he has devised a plan to ensure he gets another date from the woman. If he feels the date is not going well, he does a leave behind whether its keys or jacket or something. So he is guaranteed a second date because he will have to go and retrieve what ever he has left behind. His theory is by this stage he has grown on them a little and is assured that he will get a third date and by that stage they will be singing "Coostanza!!!" and not know why. I don't know if this is the perfect example using Seinfeld but when I heard James say that I immediately thought of George.

Well I may or may not add more to this depends on the tutorial next week. But I have to say the further into this unit we go the more exciting and interesting it is. I love that it is thought provoking.

Week 4
This weeks lecture covered a little bit about aggression. I found this subject interesting one particular reason. as strange as it may seem for many years I have had an interest in serial killers and read a lot of true crime books. Now I know you might be wondering why I have an interest in such a thing cause it is really not a normal thing. The reason I have such a fascination with this subject as I just can not comprehend at what point in someone's mind does it become ok and justifiable to take another persons life. I am interested in how their minds work and what leads them to do the horrible things that they do. I can honestly say that this fascination is ultimately the reason I chose to study psychology to begin with.

The more true crime books I read, the more I realize that the human mind is such a strange and wonderful thing. The things that it is capable of making us feel is just astounding it really is like a complicated computer program. In terms of serial killers behaviour and aggression, their aggression is only released in the moment of the crime and not before. Many of them say that once they have picked out their victim, thats it that person is the one that is going to die there is no way of changing their minds and there is nothing that will distract them from they feel needs to be done. This is a long standing argument whether it is nature or nurture that contributes to a person becoming a serial killer. I truly feel that it is a combination of both, that they each influence each other in one way or another.

So if it is nature or nurture or both working together what makes one serial killer worse than the next, what is it about their aggressive nature that causes them to be more deviant than the last. I have read some books were the individual has suffered injuries to the head on one or more causing develop epilepsy. Can it be said that these injuries to the brain may have caused something to go wrong inside the brain leading the individual to a life of serial killing.

This a subject I could discuss for ever but I don't want to go into it to much as this is my essay topic and would like to keep some of these ideas to use for that. I did not come to the lecture as I was unwell but have seen that movie in a different unit about two years back now. I found it to be a very powerful and moving movie which made me a little angry when I first watched it. Only one other movie has made me feel angry at the end of it and that was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and it was for the simple fact that I couldn't understand why they were aloud to treat other human beings in such a horrendous manner. The ending was the worst of all, I thought it was unbelievable that they were allowed without consent from either the patient or family to remove a part of a persons brain to fix a mental disorder. I was astounded that this was allowed at any stage during human existence, I realize that during the 60's and 70's that this is how they dealt with the mentally ill, perhaps I was just shocked as I am privileged to live in todays society where there are any number of different treatments. Anyway that was a little off topic but none the less a great movie and should be watched by psych students.

So I guess thats it for this week.

Week 5
Ok so I know we haven't had the lecture as yet as I am writing this but I have just had a look at the lecture notes and it just got me thinking so I thought what better place to put down my thoughts than my wiki page. So here goes.

Well for those of you who have seen the lecture notes or even after you have been to the lecture you will know that this week is about prejudice. Prejudice is such a broad subject as there can be prejudice on many different levels. There is prejudice against different cultures, people with mental disorders, those with disabilities and so on and so forth. This is a subject that interest me as my family is from India. We are kind of an interesting mix, although from India we are not proper Indians we are what's known as Anglo Indians, this minority group came from the British Raj days when the Indians married the Europeans this why many of us look more European than Indian. So no only have they faced prejudice in their own country but they have faced it also when they have moved away to more western countries such as Australia, Canada or England.

Prejudice is something that has always bothered me a lot, as it is really one of those useless parts of life and can often be a very ugly thing. For me I have experienced prejudice on a couple of different levels. For me Even though I have lived in Australia most of my life and even sound Australian, there are still some occasions when I feel as though I don't quite belong. This is for the simple fact of although I may sound Aussie and have lived here from the time I was 5 I still look different I don't look Aussie whatever that is suppose to look like. Yet whenever I go back to India I don't quite fit in there either they can tell that I have become westernized. So it's almost as though no matter which country I am in I am always made to feel a little different from the rest. Although I can say that I have never had any racial comments made to me ever in my whole life, so I feel as though I have been quite fortunate. The one person who called me a black bitch was Aboriginal so I really didn't take that to heart to much it just kind of amused me.

Anyway as I said at the beginning of this entry prejudice can be experience on many different levels and by many different people. Whether we what there to be or not there are always going to be minority groups that we put labels on, it is simply a fact of society. I think I may have said this in one of my other entries that society needs labels so they can understand and comprehend why the other person or persons are different to themselves. I hate that we have labels but I do understand why society uses labels such as mentally ill or in cultural terms, Asians or Aboriginals. Yes it is a sad fact but I guess that is the nature of the beast, its how we cope as humans. I guess you can flip the coin and say well if we were all the same and we didn't have these labels and minority groups we would be a very sad and boring world indeed. So I guess it is one of those things that you hate but you can't help but conform to the rest of society as you to need to understand why each person is different from the next.

Although there are many different forms of prejudice I have only covered a small part of it I could have discussed how people treat those with disabilities different. I must admit sometimes it is hard, because you never know if you should help them or not. I have once held a door open for lady in a wheelchair thinking I was being kind and doing the right thing and she turned around and said to me "I don't need your help I am not completely useless". I must say I was taken aback by her comment and ever since then I have been very careful and always ask if they are ok before I help now. It is difficult to know what is right and wrong when it come to situation such as that.

Anyhow as I said this such a broad subject and you could go on and on about it forever but unfortunately not everyone wants to read about what I have to say so I will leave it here and I look forward to next weeks topic.

28th August 2008

Ok so I lied I am not going to leave it there until the next topic. Having been to the tute this week and watched the Brown Eyed Blue Eyed video I wanted to add some more.

I realise that many people would have found this film hard to watch as it really is quite confronting and was quite harsh in some places. But I have to say I loved it, I thought it was so interesting and she was pretty funny. Anyway more on topic, this experiment I would imagine was scrutinized by ethics committees very carefully before allowing it to go ahead. This type of stuff could seriously mess with your head and do some damage to your self esteem and things like that. It was shown or stated anywhere in the movie but you would hope that there was some form of debrief after the session occurred especially for the poor blue eyed people. Although I found it very fascinating there was one incident right at the beginning when the blue eyes were coming into the room and an old man wanted to get a chair for himself to sit on and she told him to put it back and sit on the floor because as a blue eyed person he was to do as he was told or he could leave. Needless to say the poor guy left. I felt bad for him because he wanted a chair as he is probably to old to get down on the floor and cross his legs. However, on the other hand if she let him get away with it then the whole purpose of the experiment would have been lost right there, so she sort of had no choice but to go ahead and do that to him. She also points out once he has gone that perhaps there was a bit of sexism involved in him not wanting to be told what to do by a woman. Which is perhaps true because one remark he made when being interviewed after he had left kind of suggests this. He said "It is not in my nature to be treated that way, I am grown man and I don't do what people tell me to". Fare enough Hey when you have lived that long and have seen a lot who the hell is someone half our age to tell you what to do, I would probably feel the same way he did.

There were also a number of things that upset me. I don't mean upset me because of the way she went about it or the way someone was being treated, but upset me in the sense of some of the stories that were told by the aboriginal members of the group. Some of the stories they told were just horrendous to me and I just could not get my head around why someone would do that to another person. Here is an example, one young lady late 30's said that she went into hospital when she was young and as soon as they found out she was aboriginal, they tied her tubes to prevent her having children, this was seen as a process of killing out a culture in Australia at the time. Now this to me is possibly the worst thing I have ever heard, that story is just one of things that makes your heart sink and you feel sick to your stomach to think that we could possibly treat others in this way. I honestly do not even know where to begin at how disgusting I think that act was, I don't even know how to express my anger, so I think I might just move on.

Another example was an aboriginal guy who said he went into sports store and he was the only one in there and over the loud speaking he heard it announced thief in aisle whatever it was. That must be the most awful feeling in the whole world to be ear marked as a thief just because of how you look. However as James pointed out to us, if that store had many instances where they had things stolen from them and it was more often than not an aboriginal person, you could imagine that they would become suspicious of most of them when they come into the store. Although it seems wrong and racist it is what happens.

Moving away from the video and just discussing something else that we spoke about in our tute the other day. James spoke to us a little about when we are exposed to certain cultures consistently we get used to it and we don't see them as different. Quite a number of people said "Yeah you know I am friends with someone from Africa and I forget that they black, and there are some places they won't come with me because they are different'. I found it very interesting and it made me think a little about my own family. My mum is from India and my dad is British, so he is white as, and my brother and I have dark skin however my brother is quite a bit darker than myself he is similar in colour to my grandfather. It was always interesting when I was little, if my dad was out with my brother and I we would often get weird looks, as much to say "are they his children or has he taken them from somewhere". We still get weird looks now, because I don't look much like my dad sometime people look and you can see them thinking "Isn't she a bit young for him" and things like that. If it is just my mum and dad it is fine nobody things twice, but as a whole family it looks odd because we are all so dark and my dad is fare. The best is when the whole family is together because my dad and my mum's younger brothers wife is Australia so when we are all together it is spot the white guy.

Ok I think I have contributed enough now to this week. I better save some room for next weeks topic.

Week 10
So it has been a while since I have written in my e-portfolio as we have all been on holidays for a few weeks and there was no lecture before the holidays or the first week back. This was the first one we have had this term.So it may take me a while to get my groove back, that is if I am even doing this properly.

Anyway I guess I should discuss the lecture topic a little. I found this weeks lecture quite interesting I have to say for a number of reasons. Firstly, because I feel that it is a subject that many of us in the unit are either experiencing or have experienced. Secondly, because it is an interesting subject which has been apart of society for many years. I suppose I should point out what I am talking about as some of you may not have been to the lecture or the tute as yet. I am talking about relationships and the different kinds of relationships we have during our lives. I found it interesting to find out why we seek out the type of friends we have or for that matter the type of partners we seek.

Although much of this is done subconsciously there must be something in our minds that says yes I would like to get to know that person better. Of course it is only logical that we should seek out friends or partners with similar interests or desires as ourselves. If we did not do this what would we talk about or who would you be friends with.

When reading about sexual relationships I began to think of a story told by my favourite comedian Billy Connolly.He said as did James that Women need to feel loved to have sex while men need sex to feel love and as Billy says this essential requires a lie from one of you for the act of sex to occur. I find that so funny because it is true to some degree. I do not think all women need to feel loved to have sex otherwise there would be no prostitutes, you could almost guarantee that many of these women do not feel loved by these men nor do they want to be loved by any of them. I once red a book about a women who was a prostitute and become a nun called "God's Call Girl". I thought this was so fascinating to go from one extreme the the other. Anyway she states in her book that when they are having sex with these men they feel as though it is happening to someone else and not them, thus detaching themselves from the situation.

One part that did make me laugh during the lecture was the pictures of owners with their dogs and how similar they look to one another. I had never given it a thought that we choose our pets based on how similar they look to us. I mean if you buy them as a puppy you don't know what they will look like when they are older. However, I suppose we do choose them based on how cute they are I mean they are all cute but often one of them will just stand out and you will know they are yours.

I guess some of this can be related back to Freud, as much as I dislike that idea he did have some good points. He said that women tend to marry or choose men who look similar to their father's or men who certainly share similar characteristics with their father such as humour, or their manners. He also stated that men tend to choose partner similar to their mothers, perhaps not necessarily those who like their mothers but rather women who would care for them in the same way their mothers used to. Although this sounds creepy I think he might have been onto something there just looking through my own family and the type of people each one has married and comparing them to their mothers or fathers, there truly are some similarities among. Take for instance my cousin her husband is short balding and a butter ball just like her father my uncle. He also has a huge heart the same way my uncle does. When I think about my own self and the things I find attractive in a man there are some similarities to my father. My father has a very dry quick sense of humour as does my brother, and I find men who can make me laugh attractive. Sometimes I look at the appearance of some of the men I have been out with or have had a bit of a thing for and they have similarities to my father. I like men who are taller than me, which by the way is not hard and my father is tall. I tend to go for men who have a sort of long rounded face with a strong chin my father and brother both have that. This all sounds a little creepy but I really do feel that even though we may not seek to do that we do choose partners with similarities to our parent of the opposite sex.

Anyway I think that is enough for this week I have grossed myself out a little bit with all this Freudian stuff. So I look forward to next week.

Week 12
I found this weeks lecture to be one of those that leaves you thinking and questioning things about yourself. I do not know if anyone else has ever had these moments throughout their time studying at UC, but every now and then I find myself in classes were I am left thinking about things long after the class is over and wanting to discuss it with someone else to see if they feel the same or even if it to just share my new found knowledge with them. Well this weeks lecture was one of those lecture and I have to say I did discover a few things about myself and human nature that I found particularly interesting.

When James began discussing pro-social and altruistic behaviour and why we participate in these forms of behaviours. I found myself thinking about situations and circumstances in my life when I had been apart of these behaviours. I found one comment particularly interesting and that was "if people who participate in altruistic behaviours are they merely being selfish as they are only doing it to make themselves feel good". This comment just floored me, as you would never think that someone who is only thinking of the well being of others would be a selfish person. But as I said this got me thinking about times in my life when I had considered only the well being of others and one particular situation stood out among all of them.

This situation occurred about two or three years ago now but I was driving home from the gym and as I drove down the main road I noticed that and old lady had fallen over on the pavement and there was nobody around with her at all. I drove a little further down the road and all these thoughts went through my head like, "what if someone has hurt her and knocked her down", "What if she passed out and is in a daze and doesn't know where she is and walks out into the traffic". or "what if she has hurt herself and nobody stops". Well all these thoughts prompted me to turn around because I thought to myself I cannot go home and sit there and not have done anything and wonder what happened to this poor lady. So I turned around and went back to help her. To cut to the chase she was a little in shock and had hurt herself quite a bit grazes on her knees and hand and she was bleeding.Anyway I helped her up and sat with her and asked if she lived far away and could I give her a lift home but she said her husband would be buy to pick her up shortly so I stayed with her until he got there. She was very grateful for my help as was her husband. Now the reason I have told this story is because at the time I felt really good about myself that I a young person had even bothered to stop and see if she was ok or needed help because it is a very busy road that I live on and nobody else stopped or went back. However, upon thinking about Jame's comment my altruistic behaviour was a little selfish for one reason. When I saw her lying there I thought if that was one of my grandparents I like to think that there would be someone like me who would turn back to help them because I might not be there to help them if it was them. However, this was not my immediate thought, my first thought was to help her and later on I thought about if it was my grandparents. So yes my behaviour was some what selfish because I did it thinking if it was my grandparents someone else might do the same in return. I suppose you could relate it to Karma what goes around comes around or if you do something good someone will do something good for you in return. There are a million sayings for these kinds of situations but I won't get into that.

Having said all that I still feel my actions were altruistic because as I said my first thought was to help and later on I thought what if it were someone in my family. So the intentions were good and altruistic from the start and later on the selfish connotations came along. I guess it is like James said it depends on the situation had it been a homeless looking drunk lying on the pavement I would have been more likely to just come straight home and not give it anymore thought after that. I guess that is a problem we have as society we have a tendency to put labels on people and make assumptions based on appearance without knowing actual circumstances. I have said it before I think that society needs these labels to be able to explain why some are different from us, without we would not be able to cope. I dare say there would not be to many people who would help a homeless person who had collapsed as easily as they would a little old lady. Simply because the risks involved with the homeless such as disease and things like that would prompt you to be a little more wary.

Anyway I think I have ranted enough as this is one of those subjects you could discuss endlessly and I love it for that. At the end of the day though we are all a little selfish as a main goal in life is to look out for number one.

End of Year Rap Up
Well I will keep this short and sweet as I think there is enough to read already.

I have to say I have enjoyed this unit for the simple fact that it always left me questioning and wondering about everything I feel and how society works. It also got me discussing things with other people to see if they feel the same way and I love when something make you think in that way and occasionally challenge and make you question what you believe in.

Overall it has been an interesting semester and a great unit to have participated in. For a unit I thought I wouldn't like I would say it has been m favourite this year.

Anyway I just thought I should put a little summary in and not have it end so abruptly. So thank you James for challenging my little mind for six months it has been great.

title: User:Eaglesgirl


text:
User talk:Eaglesgirl

Well done
Good job on setting up your account,. Let me know if I can do anything as you go along. 'Official' Wikiversity welcome below. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 23:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

 Hello Social psychology (psychology)/Participants/Welcome, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may

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And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! Jtneill - Talk - c 23:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

 Woof! My name is Jack(Russell). I am a dog and a Wikiversity mascot. I am pretty new around Wikiversity. Perhaps we can learn together! Tail wag...

Re:Week 3
>how I am supposed to write this e-portfolio: my view: so, that others get the urge to reply :-) And I like that you say that you are going to update it. It is a wiki - a wiki consists of changes. And this probably also gives one less pressure when writing here.

>order of importance: well that depends on ones senses: "looks and money" you see already from far and that already then starts influencing oneself (positive or negative). How was that with: the first 5 seconds decide if you like someone ? The same ordering should also be made by other people in other contexts (e.g. homeless, 80 year old, 8 year old, ...). Why don't you take this as opportunity to ask other people ? You can then present the results of the experiment here ?

>I guess this is just part of human nature and is something that can never be changed.: if one wanna change this, it needs "earthquakes", which makes one feel, that the categorizing was not good. So you rethink the categories always again. Probably one needs to think more about the specific people - making sure that one realizes what one thinks. Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 17:38, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up these are all very good points which I have taken on bored and will now consider more when I am writing my e-portfolio. I appreciate the time you have taken to express your ideas and points to me. Thanks again. Eaglesgirl

 * Well done on using your talk page, Eaglesgirl to interact with "the world" :). Great to see. One little tip. When you write a message on your talk page, you can "sign" it by leaving four tildes like this ~ or use the little [[Image:Signature.png]] button. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 10:21, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Cool thanks Jtneill its quite exciting I am learning something new about this everyday here is a practice sign off --203.129.56.198 14:30, 7 August 2008 (UTC)Eaglesgirl
 * You are the first to reply back from all the students :-) Well done. Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 18:24, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

No worries I didn't want you to think I was being rude and ignoring you --203.129.56.198 01:12, 8 August 2008 (UTC)Eaglesgirl
 * No worries. I know that for many people wikis are new terrain. With time everything will get settled. Happy writing then, Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat (try) 06:13, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Eaglesgirl