Blog Post #13

I found all of the studies quite interesting for the most part. It was really fascinating to see how people reacted in different situations. I know from experience that the situation changes a lot on how we act and behave. I thought that these experiments showed the full spectrum and harshest of situations to deal with. In Asch's Conformity they tested how people’s choices were affected by a group if the group all answered wrong. I would probably answer they way the group did. Not only would I not want to be embarrassed, but I would probably second guess myself, maybe even try to see a way that the wrong answer could possible be right. In the Milgram’s Obedience tests, I found it interesting how far some people went on obeying what a leader had told them. Giving people shocks even though they didn’t want to anymore they still did because they were told that’s what they had to do. I think it just shows how easily persuaded we can be into doing something unconventional. In the Stanford Prison Experiment it was interesting that in only six days perfectly nice people could turn so easily into angry and vicious guards. It shows that depending on the situation we are put in we are in a constant state of self protection. Most of the things they did were done in order to protect themselves and to demonstrate what they think they should do. It shows that it’s our human nature that we can be so easily persuaded into believing, thinking, and acting differently. I think we created this way of going about life in order to protect ourselves from the dangers of the world. We use this ability of changing in order to fit into groups, learn, and grow as a society. Human nature makes us want to be the best that we can be at whatever we want even if it’s being the prisoner or the prison guard.

Social influence it the influence of the outside world and other people on us as a person. Social influences affect how we act in a group or how we behave when following a leader. Different types of social situations change how we act or talk. I think social influences can be bad and good, I would considered peer pressure to be social influence because your peers are pressuring you into doing something and being usually social people we don’t like to stand out so we do what the group does. It’s a census among the people. I know on many occasions that I have acted differently according to the different social situations. I know for one thing that I act different in different groups of people. When I am in a different social setting of one group of friends sometimes I will act obnoxious or be even hateful towards other people. Sometimes it’s how I feel, but other times I go along because I don’t want to be the odd man out. When I am in another group of friends I act a little laid back, I am still outgoing and like to joke, but I’m generally not as hateful or use words or slang different when in different groups. One thing I do is when in a store when by myself I’m usually quieter and less likely to be noticed. When I’m with friends, family, or just a group of people, I’m more outgoing, loud, and crazy. These types of social situations change how I act. Sometimes I act like I wouldn’t normally just because of the group I’m with.

The most interesting thing I have learned in this class is how very complex our minds are. It really amazed me about how many different reasons our minds do the things they do. How our daily life is increasingly affected by our environment, the people we hang with, what we see, hear, taste, smell, and what we remember. It was all so intriguing to find out how much of our daily life is done using the things mentioned in psychology, things like defense mechanisms and how we remember or learn things. I found it all so complex that it’s all linked to one great thing. It’s funny imaging that we have pretty much one giant muscle in our skulls that control so much of what we do, who we are, and how we act or react. It changes us. I have learned a lot about myself, others, and how my mind works. It’s really neat to find out how great and complex our minds are. I just think of how great God is to make our minds so complex, so malleable, yet completely different from everyone else. It’s all so remarkable!