Social Psychology 2019

Relationships and attraction are two pretty complex topics. In trying to think of ways to explore these areas a little further, I decided to conduct a little social psychology research and get some information from a local population to answer two main questions: how do people in our local environment view relationships, and what makes them view them the way that they do? I was curious about whether our local environment here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, specifically Houghton, even more specifically the MTU community, is unique in how relationships are viewed and experienced, or if we fit the mold discussed in our textbook and other literature. To get my answers, I created a simple 14-question survey and sent it out to a variety of family, friends, coworkers, and classmates, all in the local area. I received a total of 23 responses, none of which are in our social psychology class. After looking at the data I collected, I was able to make some links and connections to possible r

In our post industrial capitalistic society, we exchange our labor for money in order to purchase what we need and what we want. However, this dynamic is not restricted to our economics and has also found its way into our interpersonal relationships. We've learned in our class about equity theory, where people are the most satisfied with a relationship when, for each partner, the ratio between what they put in and what they get out of the relationship is nearly the same. Even if one member makes a greater contribution, the relationship will still be considered equitable as long as they benefit more from it. In just the definition of equity theory, this expectation of equivalent exchange echos what is also found in capitalism, but there are more similarities to be found in three of the four propositions of equity theory. Parallels in Propositions “Proposition I: Individuals will try to maximize their outcomes (where outcomes equal reward minus punishments)” (Traupmann, 1981, p46

Speedrunning is very simple in nature: you take a video game and try to beat it as quickly as you can. Some may attempt to speedrun their favorite game casually, just to see how fast they can go without any kind of preparation, while others may funnel countless hours into practicing a game until they get world record times. No matter the goals or reasons behind why one might speedrun, speedrunning doesn’t seem like it should be a group oriented activity at face value; the majority of the most popular games to speedrun are single player, and at its core, you’re always trying to lower your best time, so the biggest competition you have at any point is yourself. And yet, there is a thriving and expanding culture behind speedrunning that goes beyond a mere collective of individuals gaming without any interactions with each other. For example, many speedrunners will livestream their attempts at getting personal best times on Twitch. Since Twitch has a live chat feature, the streamer and vie

     On July 3rd, 1988, nine-year-old Therese Johannesen disappeared from her home in Fjell, Norway without a trace.  Johannesen's disappearance had been Norway's most infamous criminal case to date, and thus sparked the biggest police operation in its history.  At the height of the investigation there were over 100 police officers working full time on the case; in the first year alone, they questioned over 1,700 people, received upwards of 4,600 tip offs, and collectively logged over 13,000 hours of car movement in the area.  Sture Bergwall, aged 46 (left) and Therese Johannesen (right)      Years later, in late April of 1996, a man named Sture Bergwall, accompanied by police and attendants from S äter psychiatric hospital, was taken on a tour of Fjell.  As they went through the town, Bergwall described the locations where he first saw Therese, knocked her unconscious by hitting her with a rock, and subsequently put her in the boot of his car.         His claim of mu

We have all heard the expression “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?” Maybe you would. It could depend on who wants you to jump. There are lots of factors that go into “jumping off that cliff” or not. The people you surround yourself with have a big impact on what you decide to do, and can influence you to do things that maybe the “old you” would have never thought of doing. People (specifically groups of people) can hold a great amount of power and impact others in a good or bad way. I’m going to specifically talk about how groups of people that are in exclusive clubs and cliques can transform the ways in which members behave and think. Many people will join clubs and groups such as sororities and fraternities in order to expand their friend groups, which is something many people want to do when they get to college. The interesting thing about joining Greek life is the number of norms and rules that each org has. I have never been a part of Greek life so I ca

It is finally time for one of the most exciting months in all of sports: March Madness! With surprising upsets, multiple buzzer beaters, and endless excitement, 68 basketball teams battle it out to win the ultimate goal of a National Championship. Not only does talent matter, but arguably more importantly so does the team's cohesiveness.  Group cohesiveness is the extent to which forces push group members closer together, such as through feelings of intimacy, unity, and commitment to group goals (Kassin 2016). Every coach, player, and team wonders how to achieve this in order to have a championship team.    http://team.fastmodelsports.com/2018/04/03/the-wright-way-villanova-2018-national-championship/ In order to strive for cohesiveness and eventually a National Championship, there are many ingredients that need to be obtained. They might sound easy, but are very hard to actually get the right way. The following recipe describes the ingredients that are essential to have i

Each of us has been on a team at some point in our lives. Teams can take many forms, be it sports teams, group projects in school, or coworkers on the job. However, not all teams seem to work well together. What is it that makes some teams "click" and others not? Why are some groups able to function as a cohesive unit, while others seem to fall apart? These are the questions I hope to help answer by pointing to examples from the movie "Miracle", that I believe, captures the essence of teamwork perfectly. Helpful Terms and Movie plot Before diving into this post, I think it would be useful to have a brief overview of what I will be talking about. Firstly, this whole post revolves around a concept called Group Cohesiveness.  Group cohesiveness is defined as "The extent to which forces push group members closer together, such as feelings of intimacy, unity, and commitment to group goals."  (Kassin).  Secondly, it might be helpful to know the general m