Doing Good for Others

Altruism.

Bernard McFarland is a single dad chosen for the chance of a lifetime—to receive a brand-new house. ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has selected McFarland to be a recipient of this grand makeover due in part to his dedication and devotion to the community of Martindale-Brightwood, Indiana. Serving as a mentor to the children in the neighborhood while playing an integral part in improving the community, McFarland has devoted his time and efforts into giving back.

McFarland displays an altruistic motive for helping when he seeks to increased another’s welfare and expects nothing in return. After serving the military, McFarland returned back to his hometown to raise his family. He displays pure altruism as he performs his role in the community for the sake of helping others. This is shown by the condition of his household. With leaky pipes, crumbling drywall, and bad wiring, fixing up McFarland’s home is definitely not his top priority.

According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna, & Todd, 1991), empathy motivates people to reduce other people’s distress such as by helping or comforting them. Altruistic helping is motivated by the emotional response of empathy in which one reacts to another’s emotional state by experiencing that same state. Thus, when McFarland sees a fellow community member’s distress, he feels the same. This sharing of feelings causes people to want to help the sufferer feel better.

For McFarland, his altruistic motives did earn him something in the end. Though unexpected, his active role in the community has lead ABC to grant him something that is desperately needed to increase his family’s welfare—a new house.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090329/LOCAL18/903290405

Looking for Progress

Racism. Stererotype Threat.

Mark and Terri Riding are loving parents to two beautiful children, but last November, they added another member to their family. The couple became de facto parents to 8 year-old Katie, who was adopted by Terri’s mother. This joyous decision, however, has turned a lot of heads in the family's community due to the fact that Katie, unlike the African-American couple, was white. Since welcoming Katie into the family, people have stopped Katie numerous times at places such as the mall, asking if she was okay. Terri or Mark would always be standing right next to her.

In Obama’s post-racial America, it still seems as if people are holding on to their stereotypes about Black people. Additionally for Mark, he admits that he can’t help but feel as if he is more self-consciously black when he holds Katie’s hand in public. This negative attention has caused Mark and Terri to be weary with being affected by the stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is the fear that one might confirm the stereotype that others hold. The threatening nature of negative expectations can be a powerful source of arousal and can affect the performance of the targets of the stereotype. Mark and Terri do not want to be affected in trying to be the best parents they can be.

African-Americans suffer from the stereotype of being considered violent and as parents to three children, the couple certainly plan on avoiding this misattribution. As seen by the Riding family, racism still persists in America despite the movement towards progress and change in recent decades. For some reason, seeing a white child around a black parent still sets off alarm signals. 

When will that change?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/194886

Controlling Harmful Behavior

Health Behavior and Risk. Self-Image. 

Ever want to get rid of your winter pastiness? Can’t stand the sight of your pale skin when the cold is here? Well, if you love to tan, don’t move to Texas. 

Teens in Texas face a tanning regulation that would ban anyone younger than 18 years old from using a tanning facility unless they have a doctor’s consent. This recent change is being done as a preventative measure for teens to reduce exposure to tanning beds. The use of tanning beds at this age causes an increased risk in developing skin cancer including melanoma later in life.

So why do teens tan in the first place? The role of self-presentation plays a big factor. People often engage in risky behaviors for the sake of impression management. For teens, this is especially true. They will be more willing to engage in risky behaviors such as exposure to tanning beds in order to get a tan, despite running the risk of skin cancer in the future.

In deciding to change behaviors, the Prototype-Willingness Model is used. People’s decisions to engage in risky behavior are driven by willingness rather than intention. These willingness decisions are effected by perceived social norms. In deciding whether tanning is worth the risky behavior, teens associate a tanned body to be more attractive and desirable than a pale skin-colored body. Thus, they are more willing to engage in tanning because they perceive a positive perception of a “typical” person who takes this risk.

Looks like only a doctor's note can let them do that now.

http://cbs11tv.com/local/HB.1310.tanning.2.945922.html

A Tragic Ending

Rejection. Homophobia.

11-year old Joseph Walker-Hoover, a sixth grader at the New Leadership Charter School, was found hanging by an extension cord after enduring relentless bullying from his classmates. The football player and boy scout had been ruthlessly teased despite pleas from his administration. Being called “gay”, the boy was hardly old enough to understand or identify his sexuality. There was no reason to indicate why he was to be considered gay. It was simply the fact that he was the target of his tormentors. Eventually their incessant bullying pushed Joseph to the limit as he ended his own life.

Most of us are left wondering, shocked and saddened by this news. Age 11? Shouldn’t children be enjoying a stress-free lifestyle, running around and looking forward to playing with their friends after school? What drives a young boy to the point of suicide?

Being in the most impressionable years of his life, Joseph was treated as an outcast, ostracized and targeted by his peers for no particular reason. He was excluded, rejected, and ignored by others. The psychological effects of rejection on people who are repeatedly ostracized by people over a long period of time results in a variety of problems including pain, illness, depression, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, helplessness, and promiscuity. Their self-esteem then begins to suffer, making them feel worthless. Some even begin to see life as meaningless (Williams, 2001; Williams & Zadro, 2005). In suffering this constant rejection, people begin to develop a trait called rejection sensitivity, which is a tendency towards expecting rejection from others and to becoming hypersensitive to possible rejection. This eventually leads to strained relationships and feelings of isolation and loneliness as they push others away in fear that they will be hurt. The damaged relationships only lead to more rejection and increasing sensitivity, resulting in a vicious cycle of despair and feelings of entrapment.

Rejection causes people to be less effective at processing complex information such as reasoning (Baumeister et al., 2002). Self-regulation is undermined where people become more impulsive and more inclined to do something that they might regret in the future but it appealing at the moment. For Joseph, this impulse was committing suicide. The rejection from his peers caused him to seek a form of relief and escape from all the pain. He settled on ending his young life.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/Story?id=7328091&page=1

The Long Struggle

The Need to Belong. Rusbult's Model of Commitment.

Seriously? Rihanna and Chris Brown cannot seem to stay from each other. It seems that despite the alleged abuse and pictures of Rihanna’s bruised face all over the internet, the lovebirds of more than a year have decided to give their relationship another shot, moving in together in their “re-established relationship.” Brown’s court appearances and public backlash for the two rising young stars have not deterred the two from the need to belong with each other.

So why has Rihanna decided to stay in this relationship? Why does this beautiful young woman desire to be involved with someone who has allegedly physically harmed her? From a social psychological standpoint, it is explained by the “need to belong”. As humans, we long to affiliate, commit, and remain together. We seek to form and maintain close, lasting relationships with others.

This need can sometimes cause people to be reluctant to break off bad relationships. Like Rihanna, people still choose to remain involved with violent or abusive partners. The tendencies of human nature are to form these relationships, so putting an end to a close relationship with another goes against that deeply rooted impulse.

Additionally, the decision made by the music duo can be explained by Caryl Rusbult’s (1983) Investment Model. The investment model theory uses three factors—satisfaction, alternatives, and investments—to explain why people stay with their long-term relationship partners.

·      1. Satisfaction: Are you happy spending time with your partner? Do you like him/her? Are you satisfied and pleased in this relationship? For Rihanna, the answers seem to be yes.

·      2. Available Alternatives: So your relationship may not be satisfying? But what about the quality of your other alternatives? If you don’t see anybody else on the horizon for you, chances are that you will remain in that unsatisfying relationship. On the other hand, if someone else better comes along as an alternative, you may be tempted to leave despite a satisfying relationship.

·      3. Investment: How much have you invested into the relationship? Rusbult notes that investments are “sunk costs”. When one invests time, effort, and emotion into relationships, one cannot get them back out. A couple that has been together a significant amount of time (like Rihanna and Chris Brown) may be resistant to change the status of their relationship because they have both individually invested so much into it and do not want to lose it.

Many abuse victims do not believe they have alternatives and also invest a large amount of time in making the relationship work. Victims may be reluctant to throw away all that has been achieved in the relationship to take a chance on a new partner that may not be any better.

Although this theory may not explain all of the reasons why Rihanna chooses to stay with Chris Brown (only Rihanna truly knows why), it does shed light as to why this couple can’t seem to stay broken up. It would be better for the rest of us to stay out of their relationship anyways. There are more important news to be reported on. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30441120/ 

Finding Friendship in Healing

The Need To Belong. Similarity.

As a parent, the hardest thing to deal with is the loss of a child. One expects to leave their children in passing, not the other way around. For the members in Fathers Forever, they all suffered from this such tragedy. Together, they formed this men’s club that has provided them with comfort, guidance, and an outlet for discussing their tragedies which has lead to healing in doing so. This group of men satisfy their need to belong through the organization of Fathers Forever. Their relationships with one another can also be explained by similarity (in this case, the loss of a child), which is a factor of attraction.

The Two Ingredients to Belongingness are when:

·      1. People want to have some kind of regular social contact

·      2. People want a stable framework of an ongoing relationship in which mutual concern is shared for one another

Having either one of these generates partial satisfaction. For the men in Fathers Forever, they satisfy their need to belong with their involvement in the organization. The friendships formed there keep them from isolation and loneliness because they feel connected to the group.

Additionally, the appeal of similarity in the personal tragedies of Fathers Forever helps establish and promote liking among the men. The fathers are brought together by their loss, producing an attraction to one another in forming the group. Groups composed of similar others find friendship and help to make each other live better. For these fathers, they are a part of a group where they can all cope and heal together. The social psychological theory of the need to belong and similarity helps explain why groups or organizations are often formed under similar interests. These environments help to foster the human relations that we so desire and hope to achieve in life. 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/29/bereaved_fathers_find_healing_in_friendship/

What Self-Presentation Can Say About Health

Self-Presentation. Self-Awareness. Self - Consciousness.

Stephanie Naumoska is a beauty contestant vying for the top spot to be crowned in Australia’s Miss Universe Pageant. Like the other 31 contestants, her beauty cannot be denied, but at 5 feet, 11 inches, and 108 pounds, there has been much criticism over her petite and “too skinny” frame. While Naumoska is insistent on leading a healthy and active lifestyle, images of the 19-year-old’s protruding rib cage and hip bones have drawn much scrutiny. With a body mass index of 15.1, which is well under 18.5--the benchmark for being underweight, critics still suspect that an eating disorder is to blame.

According to her BMI, it is without a doubt that Naumoska is significantly underweight. This can result from the importance of self-awareness in her life. Because Naumoska is in the media’s eye, her public self-consciousness is increased, which is defined as how others perceive you. Although it cannot be inferred for sure whether Naumoska is naturally built to be this skinny or whether she actually is suffering from an eating disorder, it does bring to light the social psychological ideas of self-awareness and public self-consciousness.

For Naumoska, her slender frame strikes up debate over the possibility of her own eating disorder. In trying to meet the standards of a pageant contestant, she may feel less positive about herself and become more likely to develop a disorder. When people fall short of their standards, the negative feelings lead them to react by changing or escaping (Becker et al., 2002; Harrison, 2000, 2001, 2003; Lavine et al., 1999; Tiggermann & Pickering, 1996).

Oftentimes, high self-awareness can lead to destructive behavior when people are aware of themselves in a bad or upsetting aspect. For many women, binge eating is a way to escape self-awareness. These women tend to hold high standards and expectations for the self and are troubled when they fail to meet them or experience a setback in doing so. As they try to lose weight, binge eaters will occasionally engage in fits of consuming massive amounts of food at once. Eating provides a distraction from thoughts about the self, which make them miserable. Eating helps them turn off these negative emotions for the time being. During eating, awareness is lost so they often are unable to keep track of the food consumed.

Naumoska may be the healthy woman she defends herself to be, but in her highly pressurized lifestyle, she could also be suffering from an eating disorder. Social psychological effects in self-awareness and public self-consciousness are capable of explaining why this eating disorder can occur. It sheds light as to why so many women in the public eye have suffered from excessive weight loss or weight gain in order to meet the standards of beauty. 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7442092&page=1

A Divisive Answer

Prejudice. Discrimination. Motivational Perspective.

Miss North Carolina, Kristen Dalton is the Miss USA 2009 Crown. So why are we still talking about the pageant? Recent controversy has been stirred up by the bold remarks of runner-up Miss California, Carrie Prejean. When asked her opinion on legalizing gay marriage by openly gay celebrity blogger Perez Hilton during the pageant, Prejean expressed her beliefs in that marriage is only meant to be between a man and a woman.

Now that the competition is over, the fire over Prejean’s controversial answer has yet to die down. She claims that her reply to Hilton cost her the Miss USA crown but is proud nonetheless of offering her honest opinion. Hilton, however, claims that what cost her the crown was the divisive manner in which she separated herself from others based on her politics and her religion. Though Prejean stands by what she replied in the televised event, her display of the motivational perspective in viewing intergroup relations ultimately was not what the judges saw fit as Miss USA.

The motivational perspective is when intergroup develops because of the mere fact that another group exists. Ingroups are preferred by the mere inclusion of the self. We engage in prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination in order to feel good about ourselves and by extension, our group. The key distinction between ingroups and outgroups is self-involvement.

One aspect of the motivational perspective is to view the nature of reality through the eyes of one’s own culture. Thus, one might say "Our values are seen as the correct values. Our manner of dress is the appropriate manner, and our cosmology is the correct cosmology."

When Prejean gave her reply, she displayed this motivational perspective. Unfortunately for her, it was not received in a positive manner by the judges. In answering the question posed by Perez Hilton, she only sought to create a division between her views and other more liberal ones. She was not chosen for the crown because the judges failed to see her fit as representative of all Americans. Her prejudices and discrimination were not viewed favorably. 

Let’s move on, America.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30322005/

Run Away Fear

Action Identification.

Spc. Cliff Cornell spent four years in Canada, after having deserted the army in order to avoid being deployed for Iraq. The 28-year-old soldier tearfully apologized as he was sent to one year in prison for desertion.

His reason for hiding out? He fled in 2005 because he feared for his own life and could not stomach the thought of killing another. For many people in the military, in order to cope with the ultimate task of killing human beings, the brain shifts to focusing on lower levels of action identification.

Almost any action can be described at various levels of meaning. Low level goals are concrete with here-and-now concerns that motivate current behavior. High level goals are more abstract and have long-term implications. These higher levels of action identification are more emotional and so the shift to lower levels helps to avoid negative emotions. Lower levels of action identification help solve problems. At lower levels, we are capable of shielding ourselves from the threatening nature of our behavior.

For soldiers in war, they often focus on these lower levels of action identification to complete their given tasks in order to avoid the negative implications produced at higher levels. In the military, soldiers will train to operate on a lower level of action identification, focusing on step by step instructions such as releasing the safety valves, putting a finger on a trigger, or focusing their sight on a target to keep them from thinking about the ultimate objective—to kill another human being.

For Spc. Cliff Cornell, he was unable to think on this lower level of action identification as he was overwhelmingly focused on the higher level implications of behavior. While his attorney claims that Cornell does not have the same emotional or social skills of other people (which is why he had this initial fear of war), it looks like he will not have much opportunity to develop them during his year in jail. 

Performing tasks at lower levels of action identification make the possibility of performing otherwise conscientiously challenging tasks acceptable and more doable.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_re_us/us_war_resister;_ylt=AqGdnDEXRfcbphMdwvooNmBvzwcF

Swine Flu! Worth the Risk?

Risk Aversion.

The major health scare surrounding the world currently is the outbreak of the swine flu, which has claimed numerous lives thus far. Outbreaks have been recorded in several countries, including here in the United States. The fear of the swine flu is spreading quickly amidst our economy and is especially effecting our travel sector. Travel has decreased as travelers have cancelled flights and flights have been banned to certain areas. This is certainly not what we would like in our already struggling and weak economy.

In choosing whether to make the decision to travel, people are going through the pattern of risk aversion. In risk aversion, people place more weight given to possible losses than possible gains in decision making. People respond to the power of potentially bad events by making their decisions so as to reduce risks. For many travelers, the risk to travel to a nation that has endured an outbreak does not outweigh the safety and gains of staying healthy where they are. The risk of contracting swine flu is considered to be worse off. The travel industry currently has to rearrange flights and keep track of the swine flu outbreak. The industry can only sit and wait for the outbreak to die down. While they hope people do not overreact, they do want to be prepared.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2009-04-27-swine-flu-travel-industry-hurt_N.htm