Psych. Blog #13

The studies done by Asch and Milgram seemed unrational. Of course we wouldn't be able to get the results if animals were used in the study. One thing that the video we had to watch pointed out that was how dictators worked and had people follow them. Those that followed Hitler fell into a character just like the prision guards did in Milgram's prision experiment. Normal people that you would never believed could cause harm to someone else would upon given instruction. This just proves that it is human nature to fall into groups or follow someone else. It happens everyday that we go with the flow even though we would disagree with what we did or are doing when not being in that group.

Social influence is when one's actions are affected by people around them. On many occassions I've talked to people and went along with what they were saying. Afterwards I ask myself what was I thinking, I should not have said or agreed with that. The worst thing is most of the time you don't realize that you're doing it, so you can't do anything about it with in that exact moment when you said it. Another situation is when reviewing for a test in some classes. When reviewing the teachers set up games or 'educational activities' to help us with taking the test. I know the anwser but someone else says a different answer and other people agree with them so I begin to think my answer is wrong and go with the other person's answer. Sometimes their right and I was wrong so there is no problem. Sometimes I'm right and it costs us the game, 'educational activity'. So I am affected by social influence around me.

The most interesting thing I learned in this class is how much things around us determine who we are. When we learned about nature versus nurture we learned it was a mix of both genetics and environment. Now in chapter 16 we learn that our behavior is also influenced by those around us. I knew people change us but I didn't know to what extent. Now I have a clue to how and why people influence us.

Psych. Blog #12

In the text ,on page 594, mental health workers view psychological disorders as ongoing patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/ or dysfunctional. If someone is acting abnormally they may not have a psychological disorder. If this abnormal behavior starts to interfer with a persons life and they cannot go through their day without avoiding such actions, then they have a psychological disorder. Another thing to add is that an abnormal action might be a normal action in the eyes of someone else. So, it all depends on the person and their way of being normal rather than someone eles's normal.

My mother went through a phase of major depressive disorder. Major depressive disorder is a type of mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities. The feeling of depression is like being in a nightmare that never ends. You are always sad, tired, and feel helpless to the world around you.

One thing I learned was that most cerial killers have  antisocial personality disorder. When you first think of antisocial you think that the person does not like people and/ or is a hermit. Antiosocial personality disorder is really a personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist. A major thing I learned is this type of person can be charming and you wouldn't know they had a disorder. This explains why cerial killers can get away with killing so many people. You don't realize that they are not normal. Normal being discribed as not wanting to kill people.