Social psychology is such a piece of garbage

I'm here studying for my exam, and I've reached the social psychology section of the book and I'm feeling frustrated. Part of my frustration is that its 4:30am and part of my frustration is due to the my cognitive understanding that social psychology is full of words deranged to create theories that when unraveled, are nothing more than common sense or nothing more than latin derivatives of everyday normal understandings. In other words if social psychologists are using latin to describe their theories, and english is being used to describe their latin words to describe every day emotions and behaviours, then social psychologist are just like pigeons eating puke off of the sidewalk.

one such theory that triggered this post is this theory:
cognitive dissonance theory states that it is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is, in fact, not true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

so basically its a feeling. Its a feeling. This psychologist got a Ph.d to place a theory on an emotion.

watch how hard it is to do this. I'm making up a theory right now - its called the cognitive euphoria theory and it states that it is a psychological state that describes the feeling of happiness one feels when a person believes something pleasurable happened and it reinforces a cycle of happy feelings.

so basically you feel good because you feel good. Like OMG! I'M SO l33t!

if any social psychology ph.d.ers out there are reading this...ha! if it were'nt for all those wonderful experiments with wonderful fundamental attribution errors, you'd have nothing!

and here's another social psychology term that should be renamed, its the called the chameleon effect. Its described as our behaviour to mimic, but guess what this already had name in my social circle and it didn't take someone with a ph.d. to come up with it either. It's called the "monkey see monkey do" effect and not the "chameleon effect".

what passes as education is truly laughable

Signs of Body language: EYES

What do eyes convey about you?? Hidden secrets? Embarassement?? Desire? Jealousy??

Most of our interaction is done using eye contact. We spend much of our face to face time looking at the other person's face, so eye signals are a vital part of being able to read someone's thoughts and attitudes. It's common knowledge when people meet for the first time they make a series of quick judgements about each other, based solely on perception. IE. comments like, "She has inviting eyes," "She has eyes to kill," "He gave me the evil eye," "He has big baby eyes" ... furthermore, we will speculate saying a person has Spanish eyes, bedroom eyes, hard or angry eyes, sad or piercing eyes, sparkling shiny eyes etc. Using these phrases we are actually referring to the size of the person's pupils and gazing behaviour. They are the most revealing and accurate of all human communication signals because of their independent conscious control.

MOOD and LIGHT will dilate or contract as will attitude and mood. IE. when someone is excited their pupils will dilate up to 4 times the size. Conversely, angry or negative moods contract the pupils -- beady eyes or snake eyes. Light eyes are more attractive because you can see the dilation. Studies indicate heterosexual men and women dilate their pupils when viewing pinups of the opposite sex and constrict when viewing same sex. Similar results were found when looking at food, political figures, children and music.

Research done indicated pupil size are positively correlated with mental activity and problem solving. In the business world, people rated models in photographs as more attractive if the photo was altered to show bigger pupils, hence increasing the sale of their product.

In COURTSHIP
Eyes are key signals in courtship. Women use eye makeup to emphasize their display. If a lady is attracted to a man she will dilate her pupils at him and he unconsciouly will respond and decode the sigal. Hence why romantic encounters are in dimly lit places for the simple reason pupils dilate automatically. (( giving the impression that couples are interested.

A lover's gaze is deep and searching for the dilation signal. Mens pupils dilate the most when lookin at erotic or pornographic images. Women's dilate when looking at babies and children. Thats what the bestselling childrens toys have oversized pupils.
I always say look at someones eyes when you converse with them, in essence i an referring to their pupils, because only there will you see the true emotions.

Humans are the only primates that have white around their eyes(sclera). Sclera evolved because it aided us in communication (where we are looking when conversing). Have you ever walked into a room and did an eyebrow flash at someone, gesturing a "hello?". The eyebrow flash is universal and used by monkeys, and apes in greeting. In saying so, culture plays a part because in Japan to greet someone with an eyebrow flash has definite sexual connotations. Moreover, we only eyebrow flash people we know. Test the theory out. Sit in a lobby and eyebrow flash everyone that walks past, note how many flash back and smile or come up to you and converse.

Widening Eyes
Lowering eyebrows is how we humans show dominance or aggression. Ladies widen their eyes by raising their eyebrows and eyelids giving the appearance of a "baby face". This has a powerful effect on men, releasing hormones which stimulate desire. Women pluck and redraw their eyebrows to appear more submissive because of the subconscious effects it has on men. Men alternatively trim their eyebrows from the top down, to make their eyes appear narrower and more authoritative. Lowering the head and looking up is another submissive gesture targeted to appear to men.

SEDUCTION:
Time and time again women lower their eyes while stimultaneously raise their eyebrows, look u and part their lips. This is the classic look of seduction and lust. It gives the meaning of sexual submission. Just look at pictures of Marilym Monroe and Sharon Stone. Physically this gesture maximizes the distance between the eyelid and eye brows but gives the person a mysterious secretive look something i personally call being "cheeky" ;). In 90% of cases this is the look women have on their faces immediaetly before having an orgasm. *ironic eh?*

GAZING Men:
When a woman wants to get a man's attention across a room she will meet his gaze, hold it for 2 seconds the look away and down. She then repeats this step 2 to 3 times before the man picks up the signal. When he finally meets her gaze, she will do a small eyebrow flash, subtle eye widening that indicates yes "IM INTERESTED". Women also use the sideways glance combined with raised eye brows or a smile, it communicaes interest. BUT a word of caution clustered down turned eyebrows, furrowed brows all indicate a suspicious, hostile or critical e

Different Gazes:
Most liars look you in the eyes and lie but stimultaneously will blink much more than the average (which is 6-8 blinks per minute.)

Monkeys, Apes and humans dart their eyes side to side to look for escapes. ie revealing insecurity, boredem.

#1 SOCIAL GAZE
- the eyes look in the triangular area on the other person's face btw the eyes and mouth for 90 percent of the time and you are perceived as nonaggressive.

#2 INTIMATE GAZE
- the eyes look between the person's face and lower body and then a second time to determine the interest. The gaze is across the eyes and below the chin to lower parts and back up. For lack of better description is between the eyes and chest. Men have tunel vision while females have wider peripheral vision. Thus men get caught more so in the act than females -- hence why we always accuse men of staring at our chests.

#3 POWER GAZE
- When you gaze beween the eyes *where they would have a 3rd eye* This is a very powerful gaze, and if you dont drop the gaze the seriousness and pressure intensify. NEVER use this on friends or intimates.

#4 POWER STARE
- gives you more authority. narrow your eyelids and focus closely on the person. Very still and steady. Picture a tiger attacking a bore.

NOw practice the different stares and you will notice the effects it has on the target!

Stay tuned for more detailed body language tips and techniques...!

shameless self promotion

This is how I save my money! :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3_i0eKkrsw

its supposed to be a funny look at how i save my money...comments appreciated
thanks!

Introduction to Psychology

What psychology has in common with sciences?

1. Observe a phenomenon

2. Construct a hypothesis

3. Use the hypothesis 2 make predictions

4. Test the predictions with further observations

5. Modify your hypothesis to account 2 new facts

6. Repeat 3-5 till no discrepancies remain

· Psychology deals with people n behaviour. Psychology retests methods used 2 understand another.

· Data driven enterprise

· Predicting behaviour in general

· Psychology is not about finding what people r thinking but what the mind enables us 2 think

v Clinical psychologist treat depression, anxiety, schizophrenia

v Counselling psychologists treat marital and family dysfunctions

v School psychologists

v Industrial/organisational psychologists

v Forensic psychologists

v Human factors psychologists

v Research psychologists-conduct experiments and collect observations/on which therapy application r based

v Developmental psychologists

v Personality psychologists

v Social psychologists

v Health psychologists

v Peace psychologists

Free lectures online

Learning is a life long goal, and if you don't care anymore about marks you're on the right track. So outside of wikipedia.org leave it up to MIT to put all their lectures online and provide a great source to education.

Teachers: Please follow the link and learn how to give interesting lectures. Its never to late for you either.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

My personal favorite is of coarse psychology. (The prof is actually entertaining too)
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-00Fall-2004/LectureNotes/index.htm

Can anyone else provide any free sources of education?

What Does Your Relationship Really Mean to You?- meaning to the questions

The questions asked had a purpose:

Is your relationship worth saving?


~How long have you known him/her?

In order to truly understand someone, before diving into a relationship with them, it is necessary to have known them for a certain period of time. The longer your initial friendship lasted, the better the chances of understanding your partner when considering any form of commitment.

~After how long did you realize you wanted to be in a relationship with him/her?

Some say that love can be found at first sight. However, as we all know, it is simply an initial attraction, an unintentional but nevertheless response of the body and the mind to an interesting new person. However, it could not be said to be love, as love needs time to grow. For some, it takes years to develop such feelings, for other only months. However, the longer you know a person, the deeper that love will become, providing a good basis to keep a relationship.

~How long can you see yourself with your partner in the future?

Considering the future is quite important. Many think only of the present, but in order to maintain a happy and healthy relationship, you must be able to see yourself with your partner for years to come.

~What is the depth of your feelings? Can you honestly say it is love?

No one but you can be the judge of your own feelings.Are you struggling o keep hold of old emotions? if so, discard them.. you must keep the relationship alive, not the emotions you once possessed. The feelings should never have left if they were deep enough. If love truly existed, you need not worry. the relationship will survive. However, if there is no love, but simply lust between you two, beware, for the loss of such a relationship is inevitable.

~Are you more comfortable around your partner or your friends? what about your best friend(s)?

If you are more comfortable with friends, that is not a good sign. For a relationship to be healthy and survive the hardships in this world, your partner must have the closest connection with you, and thus be the one you are most comfortable around. Even your best friend would equal your partner, if not come second. Be careful in such relationships. Do not put your heart on the line when you cannot be yourself freely around the one you are with.

~Do you find your mind wandering when you're with your partner?

a wandering concentration is a bad sign in any relationship, signifying a loss of interest in the person you are or the person your partner is. when your concentration wanes, know that your relationship as dangerously close to an end, the initial spark and bond between the two of you having been lost.

~Does your partner find your body more stimulating than your character?

If it is your body which interests your partner, as opposed to your character and personality, it would be wise to leave before having your heart broken. On the other hand, if both are of interest to your partner, you can rest assured that your relationship has a good chance of surviving.

~Can you hold up a decent conversation without any sexual thought or action?

If sex is the only thought you have, if a decent conversation eludes you, and, in order to make up for a lack of conversation, you resort to physical actions, your relationship is teetering on the brink. BEWARE!

~Have your feelings mellowed to a point where you have to resort to "tricks" in order to keep your partner's attention on you?

If you have reached a point in your relationship, where the ``occasional trick to entice`` is no longer occasional, but has become a daily routine, interest has wavered and holding on could mean more heartache than is necessary.

~Do you think of what would be like together far ahead in the future?

If you can see marriage and children, that`s wonderful. But if you have restricted your thoughts to simply the next days, weeks, or months only, either you are afraid of commitment, or you simply cannot see your current partner in your life until death do you part. What could not be permanent is not worth much to hold onto.

~If you see a life, are you happy?

Your happiness is most important. If being with your partner resembles a cage or shackles, avoid it, leave it, and never look back. NOTHING is worth your continual sadness.

~At present, are you happy as you are with your partner without wanting any change?

If you constantly look at your partner and seriously consider changing him in this way or that, you have found Mr. Wrong and it`s no fun for either of you. Trust me, there is a Mr. Right out there for you. Don`t spend your time with the wrong person, it`s not worth it.

~What is your mood daily on average? How does it compare with that of previous relationships?

If your happy on a daily basis, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! make sure this is the case, that over 90% of your days you are happy, and you have found the right person.

~To what extent are you willing to go in order to save the relationship?

If your ready to spend an eternity fighting for your partner, you have my blessings :)

What Does Your Relationship Really Mean to You?

Have you ever wondered just how meaningful your current relationship is?

Strange as it seems, many people do not realize that the relationship they throw so much effort in to keep alive only drains their strength, leaving them too bitter in the end.

However, there are some telltale signs signifying that to keep the relationship alive would mean more emotional damage as well as an end to whatever friendship that could have been salvaged.

First answer all these questions before checking the meaning of each in a separate post.

~How long have you known him/her?
~After how long did you realize you wanted to be in a relationship with him/her?
~How long can you see yourself with your partner in the future?
~What is the depth of your feelings? Can you honestly say it is love?
~Are you more comfortable around your partner or your friends? what about your best friend(s)?
~Do you find your mind wandering when you're with your partner?
~Does your partner find your body more stimulating than your character?
~Can you hold up a decent conversation without any sexual thought or action?
~Have your feelings mellowed to a point where you have to resort to "tricks" in order to keep your partner's attention on you?
~Do you think of what would be like together far ahead in the future?
~If you see a life, are you happy?
~At present, are you happy as you are with your partner without wanting any change?
~What is your mood daily on average? How does it compare with that of previous relationships?
~To what extent are you willing to go in order to save the relationship?

How to you improve your life (Part 3 of 3)

Part 3 is a summary of part 1 and 2

Classical Conditioning	Operant Conditioning
Automatic Behaviour	Effortful Behaviour
Ivan Pavlov	B.F Skinner
Experiment: Bell and Dog	Experiment: Skinner's Box/Operant Chamber
NS, US, UR, CS, CR	Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment
Association between stimuli and responses	CRF, FR, VR, FI, VI
Spontaneous recovery	Shaping/Successive Approximation Imitation or Modelling
Generalization and Discrimination Acquisition, Asymptote, Extinction

• law of effect: Responses to stimuli that produce a satisfying or pleasant state of affairs in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in the situation.

• Learning is any relatively permanent change in behaviour produced by an experience
  

• Classical and Operant conditioning are two of several theories on learning which take the behaviourist approach.

• Classical conditioning is an association of one event with another that results in a pattern of behaviour
  

• Operant conditioning however, is “learning that takes place as a consequence of behaviour.

IT pop culture - Caught On Video!

From the 70's to present day this is what has made this industry into what it is today. Here it is in a heart beat:

70's
In the 70's the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, featuring HAL, captured on film what people were imagining the future to be like. All because a new invention was here that promised to greatly change how man viewed itself. The ending of the movie by the way sucked, but it was fitting. Soon after, everyone became suspicious and interested on what the new frontier awaits...Engage

80's
Now finding ourselves in the 80's...It was the nerds from "Revenge of the Nerds" that captured everyone's heart, and fittingly the industry was all about Comp.Sci. developing raw unadulterated processing power! After all, who could not love the advent of the 007 style wrist watch calculator! The whiz kid had also been born in such movies as WarGames and the crap that was Tron. After watching the trailer to WarGames I'm reminded that somethings never change, like how even today kids are still trying to find sneaky ways to change their grades with a computer. Oh, and who can forget the downfall of IBM and...the rise of Apple? I guess Microsoft crashed the party and spiked the punch with its cheap beer called DOS...Engage(again, but with the next generation)

early-90's
In the 90's the mystery began to fade, and the average family home begun to make their first purchase of a computer and a dot matrix printer. The early 90's was all about the transition to the next faze of computing. The graphical user interface. The Mac had started it all with the mouse and Mac OS, but its tight grip on its development process did not stand a chance at the market the PC was opening itself up to. The PC with MS DOS and Windows 3.1 in hand, was where the masses gathered. The masses liked its relatively low price at the time, and the commoditization that was occurring. I think the video that most represents what was happening in this era is a video called "Don't Copy That Floopy". Sneaker-net was alive and well. In the next part of the decade we'll see how we can thank the success of DOOM for it's influence.

mid-90's
In the mid-90's the 3D engine in graphic cards was beginning to change things. Up until now, I would like to remind the reader, the transition to a GUI had been natural. Everyone wanted it, and it just made sense. Even the best keyboard jockey's knew that a GUI would be nice every once in a while. Another transition that unfolded, started out in the form of Bulletin Board Services (BBS). BBS's popped up across the globe and allowed the local guy to create a central hub for all the people in their local area code to meet and chat over the computer using phone lines. Oh and let's not also forget the launch of the multi-million dollar ad campaign of Windows 95, and the rumoured multy million dollar licensing of the Rolling stones "Start Me Up" song. The Internet had also begun with companies like CompuServe and AOL offering access to email, or to things like Gopher and Archie and a lot of other crap that died or were transformed into the next generation of what they are today. HTTP.

late-90's
In the late 90's everyone and his grand-daddy was getting into computers, or selling them. You didn't need to know a thing about it, or even have the heart or the willingness to learn it. That's because everyone was, quite appropriately, a N00b! It was like somebody just yelled out FREE BEER! FREE SEX! FREE ENTRANCE! from the VIP room at a club on a saturday night...Except it was UNLIMITED ACCESS! FREE PORN! FREE 3-MONTH MEMBERSHIP TO AOL! that could be heard from basements everywhere. Everyone was starting to get into it and the mysterious and localized BBS's transitioned into a series of tubes called the Information SuperHighway (later to be known plainly as the Internet). The iMac had resurrected Apple from the dead, and changed the boring beige boxes into colourful little guys, and then the colourful little guys all decided to dress up in black boxes from then on. The PC also moved from the basement to the living room. You also can't forget how the uber nerds from the 70's reappeared and were involved in the linux operating entrance into the commercial space. What I'm trying to point out is that everyone and I do mean everyone was getting drunk off of VC money.

early-00's
CRASH!!!! The hang over. The party had ended by 2001, and who ever was left standing and sober ended up cleaning house. What we were left with was the Dude from Dell and the tag line that has stuck with the company since - "Dude your getting a DELL!" . With the Y2K bug squashed the Web caught on, and the masses agreed that the next little while would be shaped by the free flowing of music that Napster started providing, not to mention the wave of lawsuits. On top of that lets not forget to mention the lawsuits that came as a result of the gold rush for domain names.

mid-2000's
It's now mid-2000 where we find ourselves. Computers today are being shaped more by lawyers involved with upholding frivolous intellectual property, than by computer scientists interested in the robust development of machines to aid humanity like in the past. Google however is an exception, and so is Linux. Google is a major innovator, but only Linux and its many flavours are the platform that is providing major innovation, because it is truly being shaped by what has been the driving force for the past 40 years: The user.

How to you improve your life (Part 2 of 3)

The second in a three part is about how we change our behaviour voluntarily. In psychology one method is called "Classical Conditioning" and the second is called "Operant Conditioning". The person to coin the phrase was B.F. Skinner. His experiments to prove operant conditioning occurs was done using what is called today the "skinner's box" or "Operant conditioning chamber".

It's operation is fairly simple. When the rat pulls the response lever, it is rewarded with a food reinforcement.

In this case the rat is getting positive reinforcement, which is to say. The response following the presentation of the stimuli is strengthened. We can also use negative reinforcement, which would be the reduction of an aversive stimulus to increase the behaviour; Like removing unwanted sound from a room to strengthen the subject's ability to focus on a subject. The opposite of reinforcement is punishment. Punishment decreases the behaviour after punishment is applied. Much like having your mark deducted on an assignment for being late.

Positive reinforcement, Negative reinfocment and punishment are all properties of Operant Conditioning.

The other important aspect of operant conditioning is the reward cycle. It can be either continuous or partial.

Continuous reinforcement schedule (CRF) would reward the desired response every time it occurs. Using the skinners box example, the rat would be rewarded with every pull of the level.

On the flip side of continuous reinforcement there is partial/intermittent reinforcement. There are four types of partial reinforcement. they are:

• Fixed ratio (FR) - For every x amount of occurrences, reinforce the behaviour with a reward - Ex: FR5 = rat reinforced with food after each 5 bar-presses in a Skinner box.
• Variable ratio (VR) - an unpredictable schedule for reward. The reward is delivered after a variable amount of responses - Ex: VR5 schedules deliver reinforcement after a random number of responses (based upon a predetermined average)
• Fixed interval (FI) - FI15 = rat is reinforced for the first bar press after 15 seconds passes since the last reinforcement
• Variable interval (VI) - VI5 - reinforcement is provided for the first response after an average of 5 seconds since the last reinforcement.

There is also a term to define a gradual shaping of a behaviour, that term is successive approximation. Its kind of like what "training" is for, if that training is supposed to mentally prepare you for something.

So the next time your learning something, ask yourself. Is it classical or operant conditioning? lol