After reading this article, I was really surprised at how much people let this terrible thing happen. It kept happening over and over again in the same pattern and no one noticed it really until it was too late for the victims, therefore people need to open their eyes and be more aware of what is happening around them. It has been proven that people when threatened tend to obey and follow any orders that the person is giving them no matter what it may be. It was hard for the victims in this situation because they thought the people on the telephone were actual cops telling them what to do, but I mean come on people, if no one is holding a gun to you head than you don’t have to do what they say if it makes you feel uncomfortable. People who were committing these acts also weren’t getting enough punishment therefore it continued on and progressively got worse to the point where there was no choice but to deal with it. This is really a traumatic event especially for the victims experiencing it, so it should be dealt with properly so it wont happen again, or as much as it has- its ridiculous how people would even think of doing this to other people; it is very cruel and to do it at the person’s own work puts them in a position that makes them feel like they have to listen to the higher authority figure. Some of this is the victims fault for going as far as they did, but you also cant blame them because they were ordered by a higher authority figure to do what they wanted them to. These situations in the chain restaurants relates to the experiment where people were ordered by authority to shock a victim when they got an answer wrong. The shocks wold get increasingly worse and more painful, and when the person being tested didn’t want to continue because of all the screaming they heard, the authoritative figure told them to keep on going no matter what even if they wanted to stop “hurting” the other person .
In the movie Disturbia, there is an example of conformity that helped illustrate the concept to me a little further. It was an easy, common example, and when I first heard it I had an idea of what conformity was, and then after studying it more in this class it became more clear to me. So the situation in the movie is that the main character (Shia Lebouf) is on house arrest for punching his Spanish teacher in the face leaving him to stay at home looking for things to do inside his house and his yard only. He keeps himself occupied by looking out his windows and observing his neighbors and what they do all day. So one day he notices new neighbors, a girl named Ashley whom he becomes friends with.
There is the scene where Shia claims that Ashley is trying to conform because she has just moved to this new place and she has to feel like she fits in and is accepted. She throws a party at her house right next door to Shia’s house where he watches her have all the fun when they both know under the circumstances he cannot leave his house. Being in a position of a new person in the neighborhood almost forces you to conform because you are in an unfamiliar place where you want to make it as comfortable as possible for yourself. In Ashley’s case, this was her way of “fitting in” with this new community so she would feel a sense of belonging to start her off getting new friends. She is trying to conform to the ways of this new place even if it is not like her because she wants to adapt so that she will more or less blend in with the others so she is not an outcast and so she can relieve that overt peer pressure. Being a new neighbor like this is a classic example of compliance conformity where one feels they have to comply with the group to feel more comfortably accepted.
Last week in health class we started watching the movie, A Beautiful Mind and we finished it just today to wrap up the quarter class. This year in health class, one of our topics to study was about mental illnesses and the psychological thinking of the mind. In only a quarter, we didn’t get too much in depth about what causes them, facts, etc, but we were able to discuss some of the disorders such as bipolar disorder, OCD, and schizophrenia which is the disorder that the movie was based upon.
It was about a man named John Nash who was somewhat of a genius who could crack codes and solve problems with his mind that no other person could. He was very brilliant as he went to Princeton university and grew up to teach at Harvard University. After graduate school he supposedly unknowingly developed schizophrenia in which he sees things that aren’t there. He goes on being a professor until he marries a smart woman who he later has a son with. Meanwhile, in his head he remembers his best friend who was his roommate in college and he pretends to talk to him whenever he sees him around. Another man too, who Nash is supposed to be doing government work for, talks to him too even though he isn’t there. Nash has experiences that seem so real to him that he always thought was real until one day when the two personalities conflict and make him lose it. The doctors tell him his disorder, and although he doesn’t want to believe it, he has to overcome it by ignoring the things that aren’t there and focusing on the things that are like his family. This conflict came from within, and since he was so smart he felt that he always had to be working rather than being with his family. At one part near the climax of the movie, the imaginary people almost overcome and take over his life, as Nash tries to push them away when really he pushed his wife and son. Here is the turning point where he must figure things out before its too late and he loses everything he loves in his life; it is a struggle within himself that starts in his own mind so it is hard to think through to a problem when his problem is his mind.
So anyways, he was fighting his mind the whole time when no one or no medication could help him because no one can see the things he sees/imagines; he had to find out how to ignore the unreal people/influences in order for him to seem normal. He eventually learned how to deal with them and his disorder, but all the while he thought that he would be able to crack the code and that his mind was just a problem that needed to be solved. The thing was that there wasn’t a solution to his problem that he came to discover; its not math or anything like that that he excelled in, but something greater that he must use other things than his mind to figure out. He uses his heart with the inspiring love of his wife to become the person they’ve always wanted him to. The schizophrenia disorder began to control his life, and if it weren’t for the people who cared for him to help him overcome that part of his mind, he would have gone down hill really fast into a swirling vortex only until his ultimate downfall that could lead to death, all because of a mental illness.
The act of reinforcement is a part of operant behavior which is when behaviors act on the environment in order to gain a reward. Therefore, behaviors can be conditioned by reinforcement which is any event that increases or decreases the probability that the behaviors take place. When positive reinforcement is used, it tends to increase the desired behaviors promoting a positive attitude and making the experience better for both persons, or dogs in my case….I have this stubborn little puppy (of the four that I own) named Shiloh who is the most resistant to improving her behavior even though when I use positive reinforcement on her. My other dogs seem to understand when they have been bad or behaving undesirably. My other dog, Lucy who is the BEST dog in the world, behaves unimaginably well as she listens to everything I say and she actually knows when she has done something wrong, because hey no one is perfect. She is such a human to me and she is my best friend because she sleeps on my bed every night, waits for me to get home from school, and much much more. Anyways, when she has done something bad I give her a look that lets her know, as I walk over to her…as I approach, she begins to roll over showing her vulnerable stomach with her feet in the air with a sad look on her face as if saying “sorry”. It is the cutest thing that of course makes me forgive her in an instant. That is using negative reinforcement because I scolded her when she did something bad because I didn’t approve of the behavior she expressed. She will not do that same bad act again as she tries to avoid me yelling and being mad at her, but she may do something else bad and discover it is bad when/if I scold her. When she is a good girl and comes to me when I call, I praise her in a cheerful, high-pitched voice to let her know I am happy with her behavior. That is an example of positive reinforcement that will help me shape her to behave into the perfect little doggy 
. On the other hand my devil-dog Shiloh whom we have not even had for a year still has a lot of learning to do, as she is one to repeat the same mistakes over and over again even when scolded. She doesn’t seem to get the concept that when she is behaving undesirably and gets yelled at (a lot) as a result, that she shouldn’t do it again. My whole family and I get extremely frustrated when it comes to her because she doesn’t listen to anything we say, therefore it is very difficult to shape her behavior. When she is good (which is NOT often), I give her praise/rewards, but when she is misbehaving and bad even after repeatedly yelling/scolding her, she does not seem to get it. Either I am doing something wrong, or she is missing part of her brain– either way using both types of reinforcement on her DOSE NOT work.
Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development are followed in order of how the person develops as they age. The fifth stage of development is identity vs. identity confusion, and this stage occurs during adolescence when one is trying to find themselves and who they are. Everyone in high school is going through this stage now where there is still some confusion as to who they are and where they belong and what role they play in society. This is a very interesting stage to me, because from experience, I have noticed that it can be difficult to find answers to these questions in a short amount of time. I still don’t know exactly where I play a role, but I feel that I am closer to my answer now that I am a senior in high school. In this position, more responsibilities are taken on by you as more are expected of you, unlike when you were eight. When you are young you would have much different concerns than you would compared to these high school years. You would be worrying about what time you are going over your friends house for example, but now ten years older, your concerns and priorities are much greater, such as what college is the most efficient for me to go to next year?…to name one of many.
Like me, throughout the four years, finding out who you are as a person and trying to define yourself can be unsure and unpredictable as it changes all the time. You may think you have found yourself, but that can change as people change, your own views change, etc. This struggle can be frustrating at times because it can be a weight on your shoulders blocking you from moving forward in your life at a steady, hasty pace. Although this time is like trudging yourself through thick mud, it can be rewarding and definitely relieving when in the end you finally discover who you are; and although I can’t say I am there yet, I am getting closer as each day goes by with each experience I have that shapes me into the person I will become to function to the best of my ability in society.
Erik Erikson: post 2 
Some things that were interesting to me about Erikson’s theories on the developmental/ behavioral stages of the human were that he followed the footsteps of Sigmund Freud to a certain point, but then he made more advanced assumptions about human behavior to form those eight stages throughout the human lifespan. One’s destiny all depends on whether you succeed or fail in each of the stages, and whether you advance to the last one in your lifetime. It was interesting to me because each of the stages in fact was sensible for that particular age group. He was also influenced by other anthropologists such as Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson and of course Freud, to be able to formulate his own view of the development of people. He accepted such concepts as the ego and the Oedipus complex, but he elaborates on the theory concentrating on the human cycle of life while recognizes the impact of society, history, and culture on personality on them. The outcomes and the way you react to these stages forms your characteristics that makeup a unique individual. Erikson also observed basic virtues of each stage which were the strengths that emerge after success in passing through each crisis. They are attained by a helpful, positive balance between the two extremes of each stage. As an aside, there are significant parallels between the growth outcomes of the Erikson psychosocial model as well, and the growth aspects Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It’s not a precise fit obviously because the Erikson and Maslow perspectives are different, but the correlations are clear and fascinating.
Click on the link below for a diagram of the eight stages and more in depth information.
Erik Erikson: Born in Germany, he later moved to the United States where he became the first child analyst to obtain a position at the Harvard Medical School. Although he is compared as being similar to Freud and his beliefs, he is a different person with slightly different thoughts and theories. Erikson made a contribution to the theory of developmental stages in which a person grows. There are eight stages through the entire lifespan of the person. From the University website, Erikson recognized the basic notions of Freudian theory, but believed that Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human development. Erikson said that humans develop throughout their life span, while Freud said that our personality is shaped by the age of five.
The first of the eight stages is known as trust vs. mistrust which occurs from when you are born to one year. If the child doesn’t learn to discriminate against honesty, the child will lack self-confidence and become frustrated. The next stage, he said, is autonomy vs. shame and doubt which occurs between the ages two and three when the child will learn rules and boundaries. The third stage is initiative vs. guilt which occurs between the ages of four and five when the child gains a sense of responsibility and learns what kind of person they will grow to be. The fourth stage is industry vs. inferiority which occurs between the ages of six until puberty when the child then enters the real world of schooling and work where if they succeed, they get a sense of industry or when they fail they get a sense of inferiority. The fifth stage is identity vs. identity confusion which occurs during adolescence when the child is figuring out who they really are. The sixth stage is intimacy vs. isolation which occurs during young adulthood when the person forms their identity from stage five, they are able to become intimate with other people. The seventh stage is generativity vs. stagnation when they try to help the younger generation to live useful lives. The final stage is integrity vs. despair occurs during late adulthood when the person looks back and evaluates the fullness of their life. Erikson believed that in order to go to the next stage, one must fulfill the requirements of the previous stage. These eight stages became known as the epigenetic principle in which our progress through each stage is in part determined by our success, or lack of success, in all the previous stages.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/erikson.htm
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.html
So I have noticed this week in particular that I have been taking out my feelings on other people around me. Even if they are not the people that are making me feel a certain way, I displaced my emotions on them anyways because they are the only ones there for me to take it out on. I do this every week especially to my family and friends who are around me most of the time, but this week since I have suddenly gotten overloaded with the most homework I’ve had in my life, it makes me more stressed than usual. I have had to work just about everyday this week while simultaneously writing papers nonstop, studying for tests/quizzes, and completing time-consuming projects. My mood this week is very stressed out with nothing to look forward to except more work. I am feeling anxious, irritable, and agitated to the point where any slight thing can rustle my feathers the wrong way. My little brother, who is like my best friend (usually), felt this all this week. Whenever he would come into my room, I was doing work and that’s all that I cared about… not what he had to say, therefore I yelled at him to “go do something useful”, and he got mad and slammed my door shut in a rage without another word. I didn’t entirely mean what I said in a bad way, it was just the first thing that came out of my mouth while in an agonizing mood like this. I knew I had to get all of my work done in a short amount of time, therefore I was short and snappy when I talked to anyone, even if they weren’t the cause of my problems.
The movie Identity is one of my favorite thrilling horror movies because of the prominent psychological frame it is based around, and because it is one of the only movies where I get totally involved by being on the edge of my seat the entire time with my jaw dropped. The name of the movie in itself describes the overall theme as you become suspended from the moment the movie starts, literally right up until the last second. It makes you think of so many options to how the mystery can be solved the whole time, while ironically in the end what you would have never guessed, does in fact happen. It is hard finding time to even imagine the ending, as the movie is so busy and action packed.
In the movie, ten strangers get stranded out in the middle of nowhere because of a torrential downpour of rain that causes floods across the escaping roads. It is late at night during this harsh thunderstorm when they all have no other choice but to stay together in a rundown motel off the side of the accessible piece of road. One woman is hurt and needs help, while the other’s cars, phones, and radios don’t work, conveniently. As each guest arrives to the motel within about 20 minutes, they are checked into a room (rooms 10-1) one by one. Once they are all settled in, they try to figure out what to do, and through making small talk, they discover that they are not in fact strangers to one another at all, but they all have something in common. For one, they all have the same birthday. What seems to be an extraordinary coincidence isn’t, as they all share this connection. The accidents that happened to get them all to where they are now at the motel had a purpose and brought them all there for a reason.
The first person to die is an actress who was the first one to arrive at the hotel; she is found dead with a key next to her- the key to room # 10. The other people staying at the hotel are alarmed by this as everyone slightly panics, and more people are killed slowly counting down by room numbers. The four people toward the end of the movie realize this and discover that each room key counts down with each person killed. They are aware that their times to die will come soon as well; it is impossible (for the characters and for us) to find out who the killer is all throughout the movie, and that’s why in the end it is what no one suspects. People at the hotel either die by accident or intentionally by another person at the hotel; regardless, they are killed for a reason that becomes apparent at the end.
At the same time that this terror is going on, the movie flashes to scenes where there is a man sitting at a table who has hours left until he will die, unless the doctor of psychology (psychiatrist) with him can prove that he didn’t kill anyone. This may seem unrelated, however this man is the one imagining the madness at the motel in his head. He has a mental disorder that they describe as multiple personality syndrome (like schizophrenia), where all the people at the motel represent one of his personalities in his mind. He suffered from an unknown traumatic experience when he was a child to make him this way, and one of his malicious personalities committed murder to several innocent people. If the psychiatrist can prove that this man has done away with his bad, corrupt personality that killed those people, he won’t be sentenced to death. He creates disassociated identities in his mind that make him do things he normally wouldn’t, but one of the personalities he imagined that took him over for a short time, would. They hesitate to put him to death because he can’t be killed if he is unaware of the reason, which he is. This man has been going through medical treatments that caused/forced all his personalities/identities to clash for the first time- that’s why people in his imagination were killed- by one of those personalities at the motel. The treatment caused the identities to be reduced to get back his one original identity; the treatment is meant to eliminate the killer identity inside his head. The whole movie is based on this mentally ill man’s mind and its actions.
Finally at the end of the movie, it is down to the man who represents the killer identity and the man who represents the good identity, from what we can see. The good identity is shot by the bad one, but then the good one shoots the bad one back with more bullets, killing him first. Since the good identity is shot, he slowly dies as only one woman is left. The rain stops and the night turns to morning as the remaining woman (one of his good identities) gets in a truck and drives to where she was headed- her new home, an orange grove in Florida. Meanwhile, the mentally ill man (named Malcom Rivers) was not sentenced to death as the doctors saw he overcame his criminal identity. As he is being driven to a mental institution, in his mind the remaining woman is seen at her home in Florida digging in the garden, when all of a sudden she digs up in the dirt the key to room # 1. She looks up and she sees the little boy who was at the motel, who was thought to be seen killed in a car explosion- when in fact he walked away from it. He killed all the people there at the motel, as he was the mentally ill man’s (Malcom’s) evil identity that prevailed. He was a very insignificant character throughout the movie, and that is why no one even suspected him to be the killer, never mind accuse. He is also a little boy who is portrayed as innocent when he is seen in the movie, the few times he is, crying about what is happening. Since he was seen the least, he had the most opportunities to kill the others somehow, while at the same time fooling the different “identities” around him. He was deceptive up until the very end, and Malcom who is in the car being driven, kills the doctor sitting in the seat in front of him while simultaneously in his mind he kills the woman in the orange grove. The car comes to a standstill, and the boy in Malcom’s mind recites a poem that he has said before that reiterates up the movie- “When I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn’t there, he wasn’t there again today, I wish, I wish he’d go away.” That is representing the conflict between his real personality and the other ones in his mind.
The psychological basis of this movie is what makes it unique from many others because of how deeply in depth it goes, to a point where you have to watch it multiple times to comprehend it. It is very riveting, and it gets you thinking about people with mental disorders like that- how can they have multiple personalities in their mind and not realize it? How are they unable to control certain actions with each personality if they are the same person? It comes down to that it was all mental/psychological- all in his head, and since he had a disability, when things went wrong/malfunctioned, he underwent it in a whole different way than people around him.
From completing the exercise in class before vacation, I found it both interesting and surprising when compared to the results of the whole class. This psychological method of free association revealed to us how our mind thinks unconsciously, how our results are specific to only us, and how our results reveal something about our life; whether it be the fate of our future, or a reflection of something that has influenced us in the past to make us think what we did.
For the first question, which was “what does the road look like that you are traveling on?”, I said that my road was a dirt path that curved through the woods with some hills. I was all alone on this overcast day and was walking on this path in silence pretty much, except for the sounds of nature. It was unclear where my road was going or where it would eventually end up. This metaphor of what first came to my mind of what type of road I was traveling on represents my journey ahead, and possibly what challenges I will face and when. It shows my outlook on life and it starts to reveal my characterization somewhat, by what I will face and how I react/respond/deal with it. My road was different from other students because they had houses on their roads perhaps, or cars, or it was in a completely different setting.
For the next question, which was “when you find something to drink, what is it and what do you do?”, I said that since I am in the woods, the only type of drink I would find would be trickling water from a stream. The stream was under a bridge, and I stopped at the stream’s banks to take a sip before crossing over. Other students in the class found containers with drinks, whether it be water, soda, a monster, etc. Many students including myself decided to sieze the opportunity and take the drink, for whatever it may have been. This drink on the path represents an opportunity that you come across along your path and how you face/approach it.
In response to the next question, which was “when you come across a bear on the path, what do you do/how do you or the bear react, etc.?”, I said that the bear I met was a brown fuzzy, friendly big bear. I stopped on the path to talk to the bear, as he was trying to get honey from a beehive in a tree. We became friends, and he came along the path with me, kept me company on my journey, and when I would get tired he would let me ride atop his back. Other student’s bears ranged from cubs to big black grizzlies. The bear on the path is supposed to represent authority, so apparently I generally like to be nice and civil to others and just treat others equally, regardless of their authoritative status.
This second to last question, which was ” when you come across an obstacle on your road, what do you do/what is it, etc.?”, I said that since my path is in the woods, a full, enormous pine tree fell down straight across my path. I couldn’t go through it, so the only choice I had was to go around it through the thick wooded area off the path. This created a problem for me and my bear friend as it was a challenge to get through, as the terrain (rocks, bushes, tress, etc) off of the path in the woods/brush was not exactly smooth. Once put through this detour, we found the path once again and kept trucking.
The last question, which was “When you come upon some water (what type?) at the end of your path, what do you do?”, I said that I came across a beautiful waterfall, where the bear and I walked along its banks to the bottom where the bear went into the water to catch fresh water salmon to eat for dinner. This scenario cracks me up when I think of why this came into my mind but anyways, this water is supposed to represent the pleasures in life that you take advantage of, and I guess I mostly like to enjoy them with good company by my side. Other students said that they had beaches at the end of their road, a lake to swim in, or a puddle with very little water.
All in all, I liked this exercise very much because it revealed things about me and traits that I wasn’t aware of before. The results helped me see what I would do in certain situations and how I would react to challenges along my journey. It was very interesting to me how each person’s results were different and specific to them only because we are all individually diverse due to our lives, experiences, or whatever. I also thought that my results were very accurate, and that they pinpointed my reactions to the metaphors they represent.
