Bandura

1. Define and/or explain the following terms and concepts from the reading:

Modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Memes: transmitted cultural elements of imitation.

“Bobo Doll” experiment: A child observes an adult beat a Bobo Doll toy and then is neglected of good toys. The child is then put into a room with a Bobo Doll and imitates the adult.

Antisocial and prosocial effects of observational learning: antisocial behavior comes from being around abusive behavior that is not unlearned as an adult. Prosocial behavior comes from helpful, nonviolent behavior.

2. In a few sentences, list any and all specific media or cultural items that your parents or grandparents think are bad influences on you, and explain the impact that these items have had on you if any (i.e. specific types of music, video games, TV, movies, celebrities, specific sites on the internet, etc.)
-my parents always warned me about watching wrestling and adult shows.

3. Reflect on the people you have imitated over the course of your life: family members, friends, or people in the media. Who have your “models” been? Identify and describe specific ideas, attitudes, fashions, habits, ways of thinking, behaving, and speaking that you have picked up through observational learning. BE SPECIFIC! Write a paragraph with plenty of examples from your own life.
-my models have been my father in showing people respect, some of my friends that graduated last year have paved the road on the positive attitude I should have on life, and my friends from work showing me that work can still be fun if you get used to it.

At the beginning of class tomorrow, you will be instructed to cut-and-paste your responses to #2 and #3 into your personal blog.

The Net

Using the internet everyday without a doubt affects how my mind works. Ten years ago I would have been forced to find information through a book or newspaper article source. However, today I would not have the patience to look through those sources because I am very much acclimated with having the information sent to me immediately on the internet. I have now been programmed to search for the quick answer and zip from page to page in a repetitive fashion looking for the answers to my questions. Carr was definitely correct in saying that the internet has positive reinforcements in the sense that humans are now physically and mentally constructed to search for things on the internet.

Survey Test Results

The results of the surveys convey to me that I learn better with movement, both watching demonstrations and learning by doing it myself and I like to learn socially with working in groups and speaking out loud to people, but also like to work by myself sometimes. Gathering this information it seems to me that I am a pretty well-balanced learner and can learn in almost any way. It seems as though these results are very accurate because I have learned in almost every way and each way works almost equally. However, I have found from doing many sports and working in several jobs that I do indeed learn best with movement. I am thankful for this learning capability because I have a great deal of interest in fields with movement such as sports and traveling occupations.

Born Rich

My motives are actually very similar to some of the motives of the people in the film. I am motivated to make a name for myself and create my own path to success just like Hornblower, Newhouse, Weill, and Johnson. Some of the kids in these families are actually afraid that they will lose their family fortune and are prepared to start their own lives nevertheless. However, there were a few kids that simply basked in the glory that is wealth. People like Carlo Von Zeitschel, Cody Franchetti, Juliet Bloomberg, Stephanie Erklentz, and especially Christina Floyd. All of their interests and behavior are much different than mine because being born rich to them is just how things were played out and they take advantage of the opportunity and what has been handed to them. Floyd constantly sports her new car and goes to specific country clubs that only admit significantly wealthy people; Erklentz cannot control her shopping spree habbits; Franchetti thinks he can be a model just because he is able to afford all of the nicest designer clothing, Bloomberg takes advantage of the fact that she has a horse stable, and Von Zeitzel simply loves the life of a rich royalty heir.

If I had won the Megabucks lottery last week and had won myself $319 million, many of my troubles would not exist anymore. I would feel that I would have insurance in case my chosen profession did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I would have more of a choice as to where to go to college, rather than limit my choices to what I can afford. I would also be able to afford buying a car, enabling me to transport myself around without asking my parents for help. I would be able to buy a sufficiently useful laptop and a new phone that works as well as a phone really should. I could also embark on a trip to see the world, a goal that I have had for a very long time. I have always wanted to explore the other countries and would be able to cross a few materials off my bucket list (even though I do not plan on dying soon). However, by far the most important thing I would put the money towards is my future. I would open up an account for children that I may have in the future and put money into that account for their college when the time rolls around. I would also make sure I choose a profession that I really love, rather than a job that I only partake in because I need the money.

Altered States of Consciousness

Altered states of consciousness do not personally have a big effect on my life. I have friends who have experimented with drugs and it has pained me to see them do it, but I can only offer them my advice and they have to make their own decisions. I have learned that hypnosis can be an effective method of finding out psychological problems I may have and could allow me to quell any addictions I may come into contact with later on in my life. I also now know more about drugs, like salvia, which could help me later on in life if I need to explain the consequences of it to a friend who may be addicted. To experience more flow experiences, I could maybe take more steps to keep focused on certain topics. I could turn off my television and eliminate all distractions that block me from being completely focused on my school work and sports.

The Lost Hour

Studies found that about twice a month some teens suffered emotional meltdowns. Possible causes of this lack of sleep are over scheduling of activities, burdensome homework, lax bedtimes, and televisions and cell phones in the bedroom. Parents did not find it too alarming because they believed that kids get tired sometimes and will outgrow it. A big problem about this is there is a direct relation between sleeping and grades, something I found very interesting. It was found that kids' sleep is qualitatively different than grownups' sleep because children spend more than 40% of their asleep time in the slow-wave stage, which is a deep slumber without dreams. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. It was also found that the circadian system - the biological clock - does a "phase shift" that keep adolescents up later, and adolescent brains don't release melatonin for another 90 minutes. There have also been many studies of childhood obesity increasing rapidly with loss of sleep and a big suspect is television. It has been shown that the less sleep kids get, the less active they are during the day. My overall lack of sleep has not specifically cut my exercise level because I cannot help but keep active nevertheless. However, I have noticed that my grades have dropped a little bit from middle school to high school and there is a large gap of sleep deprivation between those times.

Sleep

I feel like teens like myself do not get enough sleep because of a couple of reasons. Firstly, we are very busy doing college applications, deciding which college to choose, studying, homework, and extra curricular activities. Another reason is that teens like staying up late because staying up late means that you are the only one awake in the house. I know I personally love having that sense of privacy since I rarely have any at all. Other teens might be struggling with getting to sleep or staying asleep because of the stress in the development of their life, pertaining academically and non-academically. Another reason that I find much too commonly is teens stay up late doing their work because they have a hard time getting it done earlier in the day. During the day there is so much going on that it is hard to focus in on the work and it takes everybody else resting for teens to focus on the work they have not done. Almost all teens have problems with sleep deprivation and almost all teens procrastinate. I feel like as one gets older, they have more responsibilities that need to be done at certain times, so nothing gets procrastinated and you go to sleep earlier.

Defense Mechanisms

I would have to say that my most obvious defense mechanisms are denial and repression. However, it seems I am so talented at hiding my problems that these mechanisms are not so obvious. Repression applies to me because there are a couple facts in my life that I choose not to think about or bring to my attention. At times I feel like this will catch up to me in the end, but while I cannot do anything to help this cause, I feel it is better not to acknowledge it. One of the problems I am talking about is my money situation. Even though I am applying to eight colleges and plan on going to one of these colleges next year, I have chosen to ignore the fact that I do not have very much money to spend and my choices for school are more limited than I think. My dream school to get into would be Boston College, but most of the time I ignore the fact that even if I get accepted, I would never be able to financially hold myself and stay in the school more than a year. My other defense mechanism would be denial because I have chosen to deny most of my issues as a way of thinking of the more positive things in life. I feel that denial goes almost hand-in-hand with repression, but I would say I am more in denial about my family issues than my financial situation. In short, I have had numerous family situations that I feel might seriously affect me psychologically later on in life. I have denied these problems because I feel there is not much that can be done to help this problem and I would rather pretend it did not exist.