Social
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Psychology of Mass Hysteria
When the Coronavirus pandemic hit, an interesting behavior took place. Within a few days of the warnings about the spread of COVID-19, people flocked to the stores to buy supplies. Although that isn’t a behavior out of the ordinary, one of the items people hoarded in great supply was – toilet paper. There will likely be many ongoing theories as…
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Using Poison to Assassinate
Throughout history, world leaders have been assassinated by opposition groups. While many have been shot, such as John F Kennedy in 1963 and Anwar Sadat in 1981, many leaders and prominent figures were eliminated by the use of deadly poisons. In 2020, the Coronavirus lead some conspiracy theorists to believe the virus was being used as a coverup to take down…
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Your Body Language Can Shape Who You Are
Amy Cuddy explores body language and how it might impact your success. One of the most interesting points discusses how you can impact the view others have of you by “power posing”.
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Monkey Cooperation and Fairness
What would happen when you pay too monkeys unequally? Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally: Excerpt from Frans de Waal’s TED Talk Frans de Waal explored this in an experiment demonstrating that the concept of fairness exists within monkeys. The video below is a funny look at what can happen when you reward a couple of workers differently. Check out the…
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Definition of Culture
In this video William Kornblum of the City University of New York defines culture in three major parts: ideas, norms, and material culture. Kornblum defines each aspect and how they interplay to create our idea of culture. How does Kornblum define each of these aspects? How might our definitions of these aspects differ from those living in other societies?
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Facebook and GPAs
This video clip discusses an Ohio State University study that shows that Facebook users have a lower GPA than those that did not use Facebook. Do you think Don Tapscotts commentary is valid? How does self-regulation affect Facebook use? What are the pros and cons of a social networking site like Facebook?
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Hikikomori in Japan
In this clip Norwegian host Bridget, subtitled in English, describes the occurrence of hikikomori. People with this condition seclude themselves in their room for years at a time. In Japan alone, hikikomori occurs in 1 million young people with ages ranging between 25“ 35 years. Bridget speaks with Matsumoto from New Start, a program seeking to pull these recluses from…
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Self Regulation
This group project from students at Baruch College explains self regulation, including the control theory. The clip shows students comparing their test grades; one of the students gets an on his test and immediately goes home to study while his classmates go out partying because they got. What does TOTE stand for? How did self-regulation help the failing student improve…
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Looking Glass Self
This clip from a student project shows Vern who explains Charles Horton Colleys term looking-glass self. Vern dances through the hall and imagines how he appears to others, then imagines how others will judge him, and lastly develops an emotional response as a result of how others have judged him. In relation to the looking-glass self, what is George Herbert…
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Girls Self-Esteem
This video clip, sponsored by Dove, shows girls of various ages and backgrounds and how interactions with peers affected their self-esteem. Some of the girls explain that they changed the way they looked because of their peers words and appearance. One of the girls featured explains that she stopped eating and received positive feedback from her peers. How was her…
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The Mirror in My Mind: Body Image and Self-Esteem
Everywhere we look in magazines, on billboards, no TV, and in the movies there are surgically perfected women who are unrealistically thin and men whose muscles ripple and bulge. How can the rest of us measure up to these standards? And why should we? This video explores and explains the damages these cultural forces can do to a young persons…
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Spencer Pratt Im a Celebrity
Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star who is most famous for being on the MTV reality TV show, The Hills, explains that he sees the other participants of the show Im a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here as servants and speaks to the other people about his black belt and how he isnt afraid of anyone else. He and…
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Sullys Personal Side
Katie Couric interviews Captain Chelsey Sully Sullenberger who successfully crash landed an airbus carrying 159 passengers in the Hudson River. Although he is recognized as a national hero, he and his wife do not consider him a hero. What did Sully take away from this experience? How has Sullys life been affected by the choices he made?
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Intervention Ben & Josh
Ben, a 25-year-old genius addicted to DXM (dextromethorphan), and Josh, an overweight 22-year-old addicted to food, tell A&Es show Intervention about their lives and how they became addicted. Most of this clip focuses on Ben, who is a potential genius and has caused himself many injuries. Although aware that his actions are risky, he continues to take DXM and live…
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Jim Mora Playoffs
After a loss, head coach Jim Mora was asked to comment during the customary post-game press conference. Coach Mora attributed the Colts loss to turnovers, interceptions and giving up field position. Were Coach Moras remarks internal attributions or external attributions? What type of attribution would he have made if he blamed the referees for the Colts losing effort?
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Fundamental Attribution Error
This video explains the concept of the fundamental attribution error. What example does the instructor offer to explain fundamental attribution error? How likely are people in more individualistic cultures or societies to commit such an error, versus people in more collectivist cultures?
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Women, Math, and Stereotype Threat
This video explores the idea that once a group of people expect a certain outcome, that outcome will occur. In this case, women were told that they do not perform as well as men on math tests, and then were given a test to take, and did poorly. What reasons do the researchers give for these results?
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Priming, Money, and the Effect on Us
In this clip, the BBCs Bang Goes the Theory Team conducts an experiment to see how priming works. They conduct an experiment with Dr. Peter Naish; two groups were asked to count. One group counts slips of paper and the other counts bank notes. Then, each group is given a bowl of candy. The group that counted slips of paper…
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Heuristic Childcare
In this animation project, a mother leaves her son at home under the care of a robot who keeps heuristics in mind while he watches him. The robot deems certain activities and objects too dangerous for the child according to those heuristics. Define heuristics. What uncertain events did the robot keep the child from falling victim to? What event was…
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Availability Heuristic
In this clip about estimating risk (the availability heuristic) ABC News describes how road rage is running rampant. Bob Lichter explains that the media over-dramatizes reckless driving. According to an AAA study, road rage is up 51%; however, these reports were based on media reports. The AAA representative explains that we are more likely to pay attention to salacious reports.…
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Responsibility of Strangers
In this ABC news clip editors from What Would You Do? conduct a social experiment about the attribution theory. In the first part of the experiment Havala, an actor, sits on the beach, sets up an iPod radio, and then leaves. While she is away, a man (part of the experiment) comes by and steals her iPod radio. Neighboring people…
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A Happiness Gene
In this clip, a geneticist, Gene Hama, explains that people are born with a long or short gene that acts like a natural version of Prozac and affects their happiness. Hama found that people with a long form of the gene were happier overall whereas people with the short gene were more neurotic. What does Hama explain about genes at…
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Putting Your Best Face Forward
UBC Assistant Professor Dr. Elizabeth Dunn explains her theory putting your best face forward. Dr. Dunn explains that in initial interactions we do our best to be impressive whereas were not as likely to put in the necessary effort with intimate partners/friends. Dr. Dunn focused her research on romantic couples and asked them to each put their best face forward…
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Discovering Psychology: Communication of Emotion
This student project explores emotion and how it is communicated. They humorously cover the various ways we communicate, including voice quality, facial expression, body language, personal space and explicit acts. Take the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion into account; how do the bodys and minds reactions occur and in what order?
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Non-Verbal Communication Tools: Facial Feedback
This video from Expert Village explains facial feedback as a non-verbal communication tool. Tracy Goodwin explains how facial feedback evokes your response to what someone else is saying. Tracy explains that you want to encourage or discourage the speaker with your facial expressions. What is the facial feedback hypothesis? How does it relate to the James-Lange theory of emotion?
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