Proper blog 2, environmental attitues (references)

Is there a gap between environmental attitudes and behaviours? If so why and what can be done about it?

Attitudes are global evaluations toward some object or issue and they are formed through the ideologies and beliefs of family members, peers and media exposure while behaviours are influenced by the actual, perceived, imagined or implied presence of others (Baumeister & Bushman 2008). Allport’s concept of the individual’s behaviours is seen as the interaction between the feelings, behaviours and thoughts of the individual in conjunction with this trilogy being a joint function of personal and situational influences. This assertion is central to the debate of whether a person’s behaviour is influenced by attitudes or situations or if it is a consequence of them both and with what portions. One of the areas where there has been a substantial amount of interest recently is that of the environment particularly of climate change and global warming.

Environmental behaviours encompass a wide spectrum of activities and focal points which can leave an individual in a situation where the focus is too narrow and their own activities can be forgotten and therefore conflict occurring between the attitudes and behaviours. An example of this would be if a person volunteers their time and money to an organisation that targets areas of forests that are considered for plantation yet they do not recycle materials at home, they drive a car that uses large quantities of petrol or within their house they have numerous products made from endangered trees.

So to put it frankly although there is probably a small minority of people who do have parallels between their attitudes and behaviours the majority of people do not have consistency between their attitudes and behaviours.

There may also be an issue due to attitude accessibility referring to how easily the attitude come to mind, therefore highly accessible attitudes are more influential. General attitudes can help cause behaviour but only if they are prominent in the person’s conscious mind. The A-B problem identifies the problem of inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviours (Baumeister & Bushman 2008).

There are a plethora of reasons why the behaviours of an individual may differ from their attitudes with the most prominent being opportunities available, time restraints and the influence of the group and its dynamics.

So is the environment that big a deal and particular all this hype with global warming and climate change. Global warming is the observed average temperature increase in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans and this is sufficient enough to cause climate change. It is a significant issue with a rise of the average global temperature from 13.5°C in 1860 to 14.4°C in 2000 (http://www.designcanchange.org/#issue). This increase in temperature will result in the rising sea levels, increase in frequency of extreme weather, escalating diseases and in the changing of the ecosystem subsequently resulting in the extinction of many species (http://www.teachgreenpsych.com/tg_methods.html) . So although there have reports about this is not a real concern this is not the case with such films as the Great Global Warming Swindle this is not the case (www.abc.net.au/catalyst).

Group dynamics can also have either a positive or negative influence, with either feeling pressure to conform or in a wider situation feeling that the issue is out of their control with everyone else responding and therefore that individual does not need to, such as the emergency situations experiments where they look to others to determine the situation such as the fire alarm experiment or that someone else will help, for example the women who was stabbed and everyone saw but presumed that someone else would take care of the situation (Baumeister & Bushman 2008).

Group pressure can help in a positive way by the need to conform to actual or perceived ideals of the group, so that if you drop a piece of paper and you get a negative reinforcement from the group you are more likely to pick up the paper or at least next time change your behaviour. However, if this is just the groups beliefs and not your own then this will not be a strong belief and therefore it is less likely to remain behaviour for the environment when the group is not around.

This is partly true to with the media’s influence in some cases with at the moment it appears that there is a great proportion of people concerned with the environment due to the celebrities worry and that it is just a fad. This making of the environmental issues trendy is an interesting one for two reasons, firstly is the line between where the environmental issue is becoming materialistic and secondly often the celebrities have major discrepancies between about what they preach and their actual behaviour.

Once a belief is formed then it is hard to change due in part to the fact that information that doesn’t support the belief will be questioned more and justified in terms of the current belief rather than analysing what is actual happening. For example the media portrays “hippies” and environmental “ferals” in a certain way, often unclean with dreadlocks and although mostly calm when something really upsets them, like with APEC or logging in Tasmania then they will protest and kick up a fuss. Therefore if you met an older good looking person, who you knows has a good reliable job and they tell you that they are a strong supporter for the environment you may find this hard to believe due to the pre-exposed conditions and your previous experiences.

Time is a huge factor when discussing people’s environmental attitudes and in addition to this the resources that are available and the accessibility of these resources is crucial when examining the cognitive dissonance between a person’s belief and their behaviour. For example a person may want to help with the environment but there may be no recycling areas for ages or they may need to use transport that is not the most ecologically sound. The government is making this easier to obtain with the change of housing regulation to meet standards and regulations and such projects as able to buy green energy and hybrid cars however politics continues to play a huge impact on an individual's attiudes and behaviours.

The way in which the environmental message is presented is important and effects our response rate, with human’s being more responsive to people they like, are handsome, who have their information from a credible source and appear in a non-threatening manner but offer just a little shock value. In addition to this people who are reinforced positively with actions that help the environment and negatively to those that disadvantage it are more likely keep responding in a positive manner, even if it just through smaller reinforcements such as praise (Baumeister & Bushman 2008).

Knowledge is a powerful tool so it is crucial that all of our generation but particularly the younger children are being taught about the environment so in years to come they can help maintains it for a world that can exist.

Therefore there is high cognitive dissonance when concerned with environmental behaviour and these are mainly due to time, resources available and relatively poor ideas and beliefs. The individual is subsequently put into a position where they must change their beliefs or their behaviours. Increasing resources available should help people cut down there time and therefore make them more likely to conform to environmental benefiting behaviour while having the message spoken from a credible source and through people we like would also help improve environmental efforts. It is important that we are not negatively swayed by the media and that we recognise group effects, and that they can be both positive and negative and finally that we do have more of an open mind, try and ban stereotypes and try to improve behaviour for everyone.

References
Baumeister & Bushman. (2008). Social Psychology and Human Nature Thomson Wadsworth Belmont CA USA.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst retrieved on the 23 October
http://www.designcanchange.org/#issue retrieved on the 25th October
http://www.teachgreenpsych.com/tg_methods.html

technical difficulties

hi james, am having difficulties getting on to wilderdom, so will try and properly submit the blog soon, hope that is ok

blog 2

Is there a gap between environmental attitudes and behaviours? If so why and what can be done about it?

Attitudes are global evaluations toward some object or issue and they are formed through the ideologies and beliefs of family members, peers and media exposure while behaviours are influenced by the actual, perceived, imagined or implied presence of others. Allport’s concept of the individual’s behaviours is seen as the interaction between the feelings, behaviours and thoughts of the individual in conjunction with this trilogy being a joint function of personal and situational influences. This assertion is central to the debate of whether a person’s behaviour is influenced by attitudes or situations or if it is a consequence of them both and with what portions. One of the areas where there has been a substantial amount of interest recently is that of the environment particularly of climate change and global warming. Environmental behaviours encompass a wide spectrum of activities and focal points which can leave an individual in a situation where the focus is too narrow and their own activities can be forgotten and therefore conflict occurring between the attitudes and behaviours. An example of this would be if a person volunteers their time and money to an organisation that targets areas of forests that are considered for plantation yet they do not recycle materials at home, they drive a car that uses large quantities of petrol or within their house they have numerous products made from endangered trees.

So to put it frankly although there is probably a small minority of people who do have parallels between their attitudes and behaviours the majority of people do not have consistency between their attitudes and behaviours.

There may also be an issue due to attitude accessibility referring to how easily the attitude come to mind, therefore highly accessible attitudes are more influential. General attitudes can help cause behaviour but only if they are prominent in the person’s conscious mind. The A-B problem identifies the problem of inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviours.
There are a plethora of reasons why the behaviours of an individual may differ from their attitudes with the most prominent being opportunities available, time restraints and the influence of the group and its dynamics.

So is the environment that big a deal and particular all this hype with global warming and climate change. Global warming is the observed average temperature increase in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans and this is sufficient enough to cause climate change. It is a significant issue with a rise of the average global temperature from 13.5°C in 1860 to 14.4°C in 2000. This increase in temperature will result in the rising se levels, increase in frequency of extreme weather, escalating diseases and in the changing of the ecosystem subsequently resulting in the extinction of many species. So although there have reports about this is not a real concern this is not the case with such films as the Great Global Warming Swindle this is not the case.

Group dynamics can also have either a positive or negative influence, with either feeling pressure to conform or in a wider situation feeling that the issue is out of their control with everyone else responding and therefore that individual does not need to, such as the emergency situations experiments where they look to others to determine the situation such as the fire alarm experiment or that someone else will help, for example the women who was stabbed and everyone saw but presumed that someone else would take care of the situation.
Group pressure can help in a positive way by the need to conform to actual or perceived ideals of the group, so that if you drop a piece of paper and you get a negative reinforcement from the group you are more likely to pick up the paper or at least next time change your behaviour. However, if this is just the groups beliefs and not your own then this will not be a strong belief and therefore it is less likely to remain behaviour for the environment when the group is not around.

This is partly true to with the media’s influence in some cases with at the moment it appears that there is a great proportion of people concerned with the environment due to the celebrities worry and that it is just a fad. This making of the environmental issues trendy is an interesting one for two reasons, firstly is the line between where the environmental issue is becoming materialistic and secondly often the celebrities have major discrepancies between about what they preach and their actual behaviour.

Once a belief is formed then it is hard to change due in part to the fact that information that doesn’t support the belief will be questioned more and justified in terms of the current belief rather than analysing what is actual happening. For example the media portrays “hippies” and environmental “ferals” in a certain way, often unclean with dreadlocks and although mostly calm when something really upsets them, like with APEC or logging in Tasmania then they will protest and kick up a fuss. Therefore if you met a older good looking person, who you knows has a good reliable job and they tell you that they are a strong supporter for the environment you may find this hard to believe due to the pre-exposed conditions and your previous experiences.

Time is a huge factor when discussing people’s environmental attitudes and in addition to this the resources that are available and the accessibility of these resources is crucial when examining the cognitive dissonance between a person’s belief and their behaviour. For example a person may want to help with the environment but there may be no recycling areas for ages or they may need to use transport that is not the most ecologically sound. The government is making this easier to obtain with the change of housing regulation to meet standards and regulations and such projects as able to buy green energy and buy hybrid cars.

The way in which the environmental message is presented is important and effects our response rate, with human’s being more responsive to people they like, are handsome, who have their information from a credible source and appear in a non-threatening manner but offer just a little shock value. In addition to this people who are reinforced positively with actions that help the environment and negatively to those that disadvantage it are more likely keep responding in a positive manner, even if it just through smaller reinforcements such as praise.
Knowledge is a powerful tool so it is crucial that all of our generation but particularly the younger children are being taught about the environment so in years to come they can help maintains it for a world that can exist.

Therefore there is high cognitive dissonance when concerned with environmental behaviour and these are mainly due to time, resources available and relatively poor ideas and beliefs. Therefore increasing resources available should help people cut down there time and therefore make them more likely to conform to environmental benefiting behaviour while having the message spoken from a credible source and through people we like would also help improve environmental efforts. It is important that we are not negatively swayed by the media and that we recognise group effects, and that they can be both positive and negative and finally that we do have more of an open mind, try and ban stereotypes and try to improve behaviour for everyone.

ENERGY FROM WITHIN?

as im drinking my new favourite drink, superman, wondering what the long term effects will be of peoples increased need of energy drinks. Not only are there long term health risks such as heart problems and increase risk of such illnesses as diabetes and general health problems including tooth decay due to over consumption but also short term risks. These are dramaticaly increased also by the mixing with alcohol, to the point where in certain places such drinks as vodka red-bull and jagerbombs were banned. However lollywater drinks where vodka is mixed with sugar and a caffine/taurine/guarana concotion are still particularly popular. Often people went out clubbing they were being dehydrated due to dancing vigorously throughtout the night and sculling their energy drinks as if they do only contain sugar, leading to a high number of emergency casualties. In europe, particularly in France it is very hard to find the much loved red-bull drink.

Originally used to cure jetlag this drink has now become such a label and phonomenon that they now sponser huge sporting and adrenalin events particularly snowboarding, skateboarding and air racing.

This has influenced our culture, particularly amongst young people and their university work, with a significant amount of students exceeding the recomended intake by a big amount. It is just now thought of as the way to do the work or in some cases taking such stimulants as no doze with their caffinated drinks.

So what are the effects on our behaviour with it having such slogans as give you wings and energy of a hero for the new superman drink? although partiuclarly drinks that advertise the guarana aspect such as V for increased concentration over consumption can increase hyperactivity and have a negative impact on concentration. It can also lull you into a false sense of security with the quality of work being produced, not only academically but within the greater community network with these drinks being relied on in conjunction with the good old coffee to keep people who work night or long hours awake.

So where are they heading, they keep pushing the boundaries not only with product placement but through the quanties of the ingredients that are allowed in the drinks, and the current climate and trends suggst that people are going to at least for the next little while keep grabbing the cans of goodstuff! what is perhaps more worrying is that young kids are gettin addicted, although the drink doesnt recommend consumption for under 16s there is a high majority of children as young as 8 drinking this stuff regularly, could be a contributor or have negative effect on ADHD sufferers and those medicated for it.

So really what im asking is what are your thoughts on these drinks, as a student, as part of the Canberra and Australia at large community and is the government fairly regulating them. Do you think that there are real risks or is it just a lot of hype, any personal experiences you wish to share would be fantastic :)

multi-tasking

hey just wondering what your thoughts are on multi-tasking and its effectiveness and when it is and isnt appropriate. What are the benefits and what are the disadvantages? can it actually have a big difference in our lives or is it just something that we should do or not do automatically as the case may be. What about the men versus women in terms of their ability to do it? Do you think that males are more capable of doing it more than they are given credit for? Has the introduction of technology, the increase in time limits and the need it now attitude changed the need for multi-tasking and therefore is it being used more these days? Do you think that significant errors are that are being made frequently and is there really that much time being saved in the long run.

Your thoughts would as always would be greatly appreciated :)

Stress

with exam upon us was having a bit of a brainstorm about stress. now i know that stress is often talked about but realistically why is it that we get so stressed in the modern days and what methods do people use to deal with it. So from past psych classes we all should pretty much know that a little bit of stress can be useful if we are doing tasks that we have done before or that we are good at that dont require a great deal of cognitive thought, it also depends on whether we have an audience and whether we enjoy the task. Stress can also be good to actually get us studying before exams so we stop procrastinating, although if we have too much pressure it impacts the quality of what we are encoding in addition to leading us to "burn out."

So how do we procrastinate and why do we do it! sometimes we justify it by lowering the predicted work imput that is needed, sometimes often we know that we are only kidding ourselves but we still prioritise other things. Often it is the most boring or stupidst things we do such as doing a MASSIVE clean of everywhere possible or pairing together all our socks, or else we do things that will calm us down, primarily drinking or watching television.

So why is it that some of us can only work under pressure, i know that i can only do good work when there is not a great deal of time left as long as i have all the resources at my disposal. Others let there stress take over and this is not good particularly in the long run. Stress decreases quality of life in numerous aspects including health, particularly heart, decreases general enjoyment of activities and people that are normallywell liked and increases bad moods and anger in different environments such as when driving.

We also like to blame others for our unsuccesful approaches to tasks so that we dont feel as responsible for our actions. Anyway, will keep this one kind of short (and maybe sweet!) and hope that people are not stressing for their exams and goodluck, not that you need it, remember study can be FUN!!! :)

Anymore thoughts about stress, if you want to procrastinate am interested in what you guys think!

SO HOT!!!

hey seeing it is so hot today it started to get me thinking about how different people deal with the heat and other uncomfortable situations in general. So just a bit of brainstorming about the different things that may effect what people perceive as hot. so where they are from can sometimes effect it but not always, i know people who have all their life lived in the cold and felt comfortable but when they came into the hot they loved it! perhaps maybe a bigger influence could be how people are conditioned by those they grew up with to deal with the heat, often people whose parents love the heat will love the heat too and vica versa.



The expectation of whether it is going to be hot plays into people's strategies, if you know it is hot then you may be able to make precautions, on the other hand if you know it is going to be hot and you dont like the heat then maybe knowing it is going to be really hot will make you on the lookout for heat in a negative way, so already in a bad mood and complaining about it.



Such physical conditions as age and health could help determine a persons resistance. So what other things, if you are tired the heat will often make you feel more irritable or sleepy when if you have slept sufficently the night before there is an increase in the ability to deal with the situation. Also how long the heat lasts is important because we may love the heat at the start but if it is after over a week of high 20s/low 30s then it may just wear away at the person until they crack.

So what are the main things that happen when people get too hot, often their current mood is exacerbated, for example if they are feeling a little bit hyper they will probably act even more hyperactive than normal, or if they are cranky they will be even more cranky than usual.

So when people do think of hot they think of such things as sunning themselves by the beach, and when they think of cold they think of snow up a mountain. However this sunning can lead to such negative consequences as skin cancer, while if enjoying yourself at the beach you also have to be careful when swimming. You think of lazy days with a cocktail or having a barbie rather than rugging up with hot chocolate in front of the fire, often people have alot more social activities in the warmth.

Anyway enough banter, just wondering what your thoughts are on people's and animals reactions to weather :)

thoughts about blogging!

hi guys just wondering what your thoughts are about blogging, both as a form of assessment and just in general. Do you think that it is connecting people or is it making people lose face to face contact and withdrawing from the society in which they live. Do you think that people are actually interested in the blogs that people post, or is it only a small minority and the rest of the people only read it as a time waste. What about security and privacy in relation to blogs? When is the line crossed between sharing and over sharing, what should be put up and what is a definate no no.

Also related to this is the freedom of speech, so should you be able to discuss such topics as racism or comments that to some would cross the line, such as Pauline Hanson style.

Similar topic but not entirely the same is that of video postings, such as on the well known youtube or metacafe. It has come to the stage where there are political messages on these sites, there are images that are definately dubious in content due to nudtiy, alcohol induced behaviour, jackass type stunts and racism. Yet it is also a good way to remind ourselves of our childhood by looking up such programs as superted and bananaman or looking up current news events.

So i know this is a bit of a short blog but just wondering what were your thoughts about this blog and the video posting sights :)

blog 2 thoughts, ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES

hello out there, have just had some thougths about my second blog which is about the attitudes and behaviours of people in regards to the environment so some initial thoughts.

In my opinion cognitive dissonance is an importat concept in regards to environmental attiudes and behaviours, due to if we want to save the environrment but we are using our cars and plastic bags excessively then we would need to change either our attiude, well maybe the enivronment is not such an important issue, or we will cut down our negative use of the environment, maye walking to uni and using green bags.

Another issue is where these attitudes firstly come from, for example the media, family or who we lie with. Something that links in with this is that at the moment it appears that for certain people being enviro friendly is a fad and cool, this can be alright except if there are no strong feelings or ideals when this fad does end there is less likely to continue on or be consistent with the behaviour. In addition to this there is no reason to say that the fad will then switch sides and become anti-environmental.

Ok so what else...i know the fact that some people may continue to do their "bad" behaviours towards the environment due to the fact that the problem seems to big for them to be able to make any help with the issue. Therefore they might see no reason for trying to help a "lost" cause.

In addition to this people might feel that everyone else will help and therefore they dont need to, so similar to when someone is in an emergency or if a analarm goes off people will wait for other people to take the initiative and until that time wont do anything on their own.

Other issues that may be involved include time contrainsts, political imput and what options are available for them such as recycling centres.

On a similar note councils and builders need to take into consideration when planning new suburbs and buildings the regulations, with new legislation setting out the rules. Transport, electicity and water are also involved with being of environmental concern with the ACT providing people with the opportunity to buy green electricity.

There is also the factor of wanting to live for the moment and not for the future, similar to wanting the rewards now and not waiting for a bigger reward. There is also the option for hybrid cars and such incitives as having three people in certain public car parks then you get it for free, encouraging car pooling.

So the question needs to be asked is this new slant on the environment as being a fad making the environment and environmental friendly products materilastic.

The severe drought that has been effecting Australia has been speculated to be due to climate change and the el nino effect and being a national issue you would have to think that people would be concernd about it. The use of nuclear energy, such as France does and the concern for logging, particularly in Tasmania are also national points of interest.

The actual question is, is there a gap between environmental attitudes and behaviours? If so why and what can be done about it? I am definatly intersted in your views on this particular question on the environment or broader thoughts on the issue :)

mobile phones, dreaded or loved?!

hi guys after the tute I had yesterday I started having a few thougts about mobile phones and their use and impact within the society. This was partly due to the talk we listened to and also in part due to on the three things we wanted to change within our society one of the topics was the reliance on mobile phones. So what sort of issues are associated with the use of mobile phones?

Well for one mobile phones do have some positives, for instance in emergencies or if someone breaks down in the middle of nowhere. So it has definatly been of help for these instances, particularly in the country, but how did we used to cope before them. For one thing if we broke down we would have to walk to help.

Secondly mobiles have helped people keep in contact, on the long term, so just by sending a quick text or by helping to organise people into meeting up, sending a group text saying when and where meeting up. They are good to use when we are overseas however due to the style of text messaging it is easy to lie about where we are or the environment we are in.

So in order for us all not to think that its all la-dee-da because there have been some negative consequences with the increase use of mobiles. Firstly in regards to etiquette how annoying is it when people text or answer the phone when your are trying to serve them or you are asking them a question or telling them a story. When is it appropriate to answer and how inconsiderate it is when people's phones go off either during movies or when people are giving a speech or presentation.

The issue of privacy is raised by people talking loudly on the phone about personal topics in a public arena and not only is it a concern for the person speaking but also for the person who is being spoken about and doesnt know the physical context of the conversation. On the wider spectrum when using the phones in a public domain there could be a suggestion that there is an alienation to the surrounding people without even acknowleding the people they walk by. So does this mean that the "new" generation is only concerned with who is in their address book rather than face to face conversation?

Next there is concerned about the grammar used in text messages and the acronyms and abbreviations used. This concern comes mainly due to the fact that this language is being used in the wider doman such as in university assignments. Is it really necessary to use such phrases as MIA, TTFN and LOL when talking to our grandparents or teachers?

The cost on the person of upholding the mobile phone can be enormous with not only spending an enormous amount of money on texting or ringing but also due to having to keep up with the latest ring tones and games on your phone. People often feel obligated to do this in order to be cool with their friends.

Some of the uses of the phone can be ridiculous such as when lost in the supermarket or answering a person's message with an ok. The phenomenon of alcohol and mobiles can be disastarous and lead to relationships and friendship breakdowns.

In the past there have been claims that increased mobile phone use leads to radiation and can even lead to cancers but as far as i know these have not been supported by evidence.

Finally there is the concern with drivers and mobile phones, although it is illegal to use phones while driving if you observe drivers there is a large proportion who still talk and text while supposdly concentrating on the road. Although handsfree and speaker phone are probably better options they still involve the impinging on a persons concentration that can lead to accidents that have the severe consequence of death of another person. So how can this message get across?

Anyway while there are some good points, eg for security and friendships and I am one of those people that feel naked without my phone but there are also some not so good aspects involved with mobils such as isolating those around them and what is our language and social culture being evolved into.

So i would love to hear any other thoughts or ideas related to mobile phones! thanks :)

music and emotion

hey guys just listening to some music to increase my "happy" thoughts, particulary by listneing to some summer grooves and that made me wonder about any recent information and research that may have occured between the link between music and emotion.

Ok one of the first interesting things i found was the fact that Australia is one of the countries at the forefront of this topic. Research at University of New South Wales has been focused on the inernal locus versus the external locus and the Gap across emotion loci (GAEL) and the importance of familiarity. The study suggests that the way music makes the listener feel is more important in determining enjoyment than noticing the emotion the music is trying to convey.

Other studies reveal that the primary auditory zone may provide an early affective quality, left cognitive areas may contribute to pleasant feelings when melodic sequences follow expected rules while unpleasant emotions (Prodromidès vs. Bach and Mahler) involved the activation of the right frontopolar and paralimbic areas in addition to suggesting that the internal structure of the music played a primary role in the induction of the emotions in comparison to extramusical factors. Mode, harmonic complexity, and rhythmic articulation best differentiated between negative and positive valence, whereas tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation best discriminated high arousal from low arousal. Tempo, accentuation, and rhythmic articulation were the features that most strongly correlated with physiological measures. Music that induced faster breathing and higher minute ventilation, skin conductance, and heart rate was fast, accentuated, and staccato.

The topic of emotion and music is also relevant for such areas within the community as road rage and anger managment in general.

While on the topic of music it is interesting to note the influence of music particularly the negative influence including violence, promiscuity, swearing and drugs. Not only is it the lyrics but more often than not it is also the film clip promoting these deviant acts. Certain genres of music, including metal and rap have been particualrly targeted for promoting the behaviour within the general public. However there is a trend these days for pop music targeted for young to teenage girls to involve swear words and very sexual dancing.

Although censorship goes so far and there have been some debates to the actual influence of idols and music lyrics and videos there still seems to be a common theme that needs some looking at, especially in regards to what may be happening in the future.

therefore i would be interested for people's comments on the future of society with regard to the influence of music, the influence at the moment and the emotional aspects of music and why you feel you connect more to one piece than another or that a piece brings back so many memories, all input much appreciated :)

in the news

just a few comments about what is in the news lately, in regards to social psych. Firstly the calling of the election, what do people think about it, not so far as the whole political side of the election but more the different techniques the politicians use to get people interested and hopefully get them voting for them. Secondly, why do we listen to the politicians and in regards to focusing on particular issues and the fact that an idea that doesnt fit within our preconceived ideas will take longer to be disregarded than facts that comply with our views.

Ok in a similar kind of vain the issue of the pulp mill in Tasmania, interested to hear your guys thoughts, particularly in relation to the environment versus jobs debate, and what you think the actual impact will be on the enviro or is there a particular view that is being shown by the politicians and therefore at the moment is it a one sided debate in which all facts are not entirely shown to the general public.

Also in todays top news snippets, the controversial add implying young men who speed do so because they have small penises has become one of the state's most successful anti-speeding campaigns. Why is this add so succesfull do you think? do you think that people honestly look at young men who speed and think about the size of their genitals? The Advertising Standards Bureau had received a number of complaints that the ad demeaned men with small penises. However if the ad saves lives then that is the main thing. How do you think that this kind of advertising could be used for drugs, alcohol and tobacco decreasing?

so anyway i would be very interested to hear your comments and hope that this makes you think alittle bit more bout whats happening at the mo

Facebook, a few more thoughts

Just being on facebook also gave me a couple more thoughts that I think are related to social psych. In case you guys don't know what I am talking about here is a link to the facebook page, while i am not advocating anyone joins www.facebook.com so what is facebook, well its kind of a little like myspace and is designed for people to be able to get back in contact with "lost" friends from uni or high school, was originally aimed for people in their mid to early fourties to "find" friends from their education.
However it has been dominated by people from the younger generation, and has been shown to be more than just a phase with it being used as not only a networking tool for old friends but also for the friends that you see everyday or even live with, particularly in the case of ressies. It can provide a place for groups to be formed such as the psych society for UC, in a non-confusing and friendly environment. It allows for people to essential blog, and comment on other people's walls, to upload photos or videos and to be 'nice' to people by buying them drinks or doing actions to them.
However in recent times there have been certain people complaining due to the vast amount of commands, showing that too much choice is a definate disadvantage but still facebook has outrun other similar sites with the number of people joined. It has also been praised for having a higher security and privacy level than other such sites but it still begs the question what level of security is needed on such sites
so to a few stats and interesting facts more than 43 million active users as of Setember 2007. The fastest growing demographic is people 25 and under – 85% of students attending 4-year
universities in the US are members of Facebook and was founded in 2004. The three main reasons for the popularity of facebook were the layout (look and feel + the amout of advertising)
the Applications (games) and the Exclusivism (you add only who you wish to). Facebook will remain to be cool as long as it keeps its sense of exclusivism and doesn’t sell out to advertising.
So i think why exploring facebook is important to social psychology are for the main reasons of privacy, of actual networking and why we need such technology as mobile phones as facebook, how they contribute or decrease our happiness and to what extent are the friends on facebook actually friends. How much mental and physical time should we be putting into such technology instead of face to face communication
Anyway enough of the ramble, interested in any thoughts you have on facebook, on the coolness, the privacy and the communication aspect, or anything else that may help the greater understanding of facebook and the way of the future :)

Facebook

hi all, just wondering on a few things that i thought could be related to social psych, and also to the phenomenon of facebook. Firstly, with addictiveness, living on ressies in particular has shown me how addictive the games on facebook are and how competitive people have become. It made me wonder about how students justify that one quick game of tetris or pacman in order to try and better a friends score and how this one quick game over the course of the day turns into often ten games. Sometimes these fights are used as a self-imposed reward, for example after doing 30 mins work, other times as a relaxation or that once the game is done then inspiration and therefore they will be more productive.
This competitive nature has more recently spilt over into such applications as fighters club where imaginary fights take place with the winner with the most support and the most 'street cred', all this is pretty minor but what is interesting is the impact of these everyday fights on a person's mood and behaviour, with the outcome often taken personally and making people think that they are a lesser person.
So will this competitive nature continue into other activities in people's lives, such as uni work, sporting events or driving. Is this competitive nature always a bad thing or is it necessary for continued evolution within society. How do we know when it has crossed over from just friendly competiveness to actual harm to ourselves or to others.
Anyway just wondering what your thoughts were on competion in general and in facebook in relation to competition :)

concept map

Stereotype, homosexuals

Numerous fields of psychology lack clear definitions and stereotyping is no exception with the primary definition encompassing the concept as corresponding to an abstract summary of conventional characteristics of group members. Nevertheless the mixed model approach explains both the central role of categorisation in stereotyping in addition to sub-typing and contextual flexibility which is typically explained by the exemplar approach (Jackson, Lewandowski, Ingram & Hodge 1997). People often rely on stereotypes as mental shortcuts or heuristics particularly in regards to negative views against individuals who are different from the majority while the majority of stereotypes do stem from a truth often they are exaggerated or at least generalised well out of proportion. Homosexual behaviour has often been labelled as deviant and the stereotyping of an individual as homosexual has primarily negative consequences that extend primarily but not exclusively to religious, employment, social and legal ramifications. This stereotype has strong connections to religion and although has been prevalent throughout history within varying civilisations particularly as a form of population control it was often considered a taboo and the extent to which homosexuals were stigmatised within society is exemplified through the definition of homosexuality as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 1973 (Gowen & Britt 2006). These inferences are made predominantly due to the individual violating gender-roles and norms through contradiction in such areas as physical characteristics including dialect and clothes, non-verbal gestures, area of employment and activities of social enjoyment. Although tolerance to this minority group may be argued the stereotyping particularly of males who display feminine characteristics is sustained through the element of socialisation and in particular the agents of family, peers and the media. Although being homosexual is still strongly discouraged it is important to note the recent movement over a time span of roughly the past five years of the popularity of sensitive new age guys (S.N.A.G.S) and metro-sexual who defy the construct of a typical macho male by being concerned with their image and being a considerate listener to the extreme of promoting of wearing of pink shirts. However, machoism has returned as favourable resulting in a backlash towards homosexuals. Ways in which his stereotype can be altered include increase contact with homosexuals in addition to changing the roles within the media.
Different theories about what determines a person’s sexual orientation include investigating evolution, genes and parenting techniques particularly by the mother. Diamond proposes that evolution has shaped the sex drive to focus on the opposite gender in order for procreation and continuation of the species to occur in contrast to attachment which is gender neutral. The social constructionist theory focuses on cultural and social aspects on modifying the meanings people assign to their lives focusing on the social, political and media influences. Bem however proposes that during childhood homosexuals play mainly with the opposite gender and resulting in the same gender as exotic and that the significant increase in bisexual females to males is due to the a more level of sharing of time between the genders. In regards to the gene debate research has revealed that the rate of both identical twins being homosexual is only fifty percent significantly lower than expected if genes were considered the main predictor of sexual orientation.
Realistic conflict theory focuses on rivalry over limited resources results in intergroup hostility and conflict. This is in contrast with social dominance model where stereotypes legitimise myths and are used as a justification for negative attitudes, essentially an intergroup phenomenon focusing on dominance over out-groups independent of in-group authority figures (Whitley 1999).
The majority of research examining homosexuals focuses on males; this is due to men who are stereotypically defined as possessing female traits being more likely labelled as homosexual, with a greater gender role ridgity resulting in a higher rate of males who do not conform to these rules (LaMar & Kite 1998). Overlap between attitudes and actual behaviour has a higher correlation for males with 85% of males favouring homosexuality activity also engaging in it within the year (Baumeister & Bushman 2008). In addition to this research has focused on which individuals are most likely to engage in stereotyping with findings revealing people possessing higher tendencies of authoritarianism to structure their worldviews into in and out groups. These people are severely threatened by people who do not conform to the traditional values and perceive themselves as more moral than people in the out groups and therefore allows them to point out the errors of people engaged in immoral behaviour, as with the people labelled as homosexuals (Whitely 1999).
One of the cues that support a person’s stereotyping of a male as being homosexual is his dialect with recent research studying if students could correctly identify the sexual orientation of a speaker depending whether or not he spoke with ‘gay speech’ in which there was an accentuate dynamic intonation and the frequency of the /s/ sound. The significance of stereotyping was investigated within this experiment through observing if giving a label resulted in a difference of college admission and scholarship (Gowen & Britt 2006).
In addition to this a person’s occupation can significantly contribute to stereotyping particularly with employment in the hairdressing, airline and nursing industries. It has been proposed that it is not necessary for an individual to belong to a socially devalued group to experience stigmatisation and misclassification, however, when role violators have an opportunity to inform observers that they are within the majority unpleasant reactions can be significantly decreased (Bosson, Prewitt-Freilino & Taylor 2005). When in working within an industry that is associated with masculinity, for example the armed forces, if suspected of having gay tendencies not only will physical, mental and verbal abuse follow but retrenchment is often used to weed out what is considered deviant behaviour (Bowling, Firestone & Harris 2005).
The negative consequences of stereotyping has lead to the extreme of bashing of people due to their sexual orientation and in the case of Matthew Shepard this aggression lead to the taking away of his life (Baumeister & Bushman 2008).
Religious affiliations have openly turned away homosexuals from their group and abused homosexuals through the use of words. Often the bible is quoted in conjunction with interpretations including all gays go to hell and God says no to man loving man. Another ethical issue to consider often stereotyped to all homosexuals is that of AIDS, including who should be treated and to the extreme myths that going near a homosexual person will result in AIDS instantly being transmitted. Although many people in this day and age would consider the myths about AIDS to be fully debunked research into the current views of Australian’s reveal that there is still a considerably large proportion of falsities being strongly held.
The media’s representation of homosexuals within Australia has included such programs on television as queer as folk and queer eye for the straight guy while gay guys within series and films such as Priscilla Queen of the Desert reinforce stereotypes. In addition to this news coverage and biases of certain events including the Mardi Gras alongside radio presenter’s opinions influence people’s perception and openness for people within the minority groups.
One of the motives behind the negative stereotyping is due to the fear of the minority gaining power. This not only has lead to discrimination but also concerns the legal rights of those in a homosexual relationship. The non-legalisation of marriage between same sex relationships results in the discrimination in areas including IVF treatment, adoption, welfare benefits and legal battles following death while the current government’s reasoning for not allowing equal legal benefits is predominantly due to religious beliefs and the cost to a nation both monetary and socially.
However there have been slow steps forward within the discrimination process including legalisation of marriage in other countries in addition to positive discrimination in the case of a nightclub in Melbourne where only people declaring their same sex orientation are allowed in. If this was reversed for heterosexuals there would be an outrage however due to it being a minority it is considered to be a positive step within the balancing process.
Although stereotyping can be beneficial in certain circumstances in regards to homosexuality it predominantly results in prejudice and negative attitudes and behaviours and exists only in such force due to the influential agents of socialisation. In order to break this cycle it is necessary for contact to be made between the observer and the person being stereotyped. Increasing in the number of times between the predicted behaviour and the observed behaviour not correlating the weaker the stereotype will become and tolerance and acceptance can become a serious possibility. Without this acceptance the minority cannot rise to an equal standing and altered behaviour will continue to ensue after stereotyping resulting in disrespect due to lack of understanding and the negative stigma never to be broken.



References
Baumeister, R, F. & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social Psychology & Human Nature. Thomson Wadsworth Belmont, CA, USA.
Bosson, J. K., Prewitt-Freilino, J. L. & Taylor, J. N. (2005). Role ridgity: A problem of identity misclassification? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, (4) 525-565.
Bowling, K. L., Firestone, J. M. & Harris, R. J. (2005) Analyzing questions that cannot be asked of respondents who cannot respond. Armed Forces & Society, 31, (3) 411-437.

Gowen, C. W. & Britt, C. W (2006). The interactive effects of homosexual speech and sexual orientation on the stigmatization of men: Evidence for expectancy violation theory. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 25, (437).
Jackson, L. A., Lewandoswki, D. A., Ingram, J. M & Hodge, C. N. (1997). Group stereotypes: Content, gender specificity, and affect associated with typical group members. Journal of Social Behaviour & Personality, 12, (2) 381-396.
LaMar, L. & Kite, M. (1998) Sex Differences in attitudes toward gay men and lesbians: A multidimensional perspective, The Journal of Sex Research, 35 (2), 186-199.
Whitley, B. E. (1999) Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, (1), 126-134.

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