Social Psychology 2019

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 ...

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...

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...

"Others in my Group don't do anything", "I do all of the work every time and it is starting to get old", "I do not trust any of you so I am going to do this all by myself", "They are not doing it so why should I?." Ever heard of any of these statements? Everyone has experienced a bad group project or some bad group related event at some point in time during their college career. There is always that one person who either does not do their part or goes way above and beyond to boss their peers around. Do you ever wonder why that is or what factors contribute to it? Group projects and events are a hot topic in today's society and culture. Although it may seem that people like to work in groups and be productive on assignments, they actually can easily be less productive (Carnegie Mellon University 2016) .    (From Star 12 Community) I really believe that there are pros and cons to group work. My goal for this post is to provide exa...