Week 14 discussion

Hey everybody,

I found a couple of things interesting this week. The first was the question raised 'are any helping acts purely altruistic?' My opinion is probably not. I think theres always some degree of self-gain motive in any behavior. But really, if the helper gets something out of helping then isn't that a better scenario? Everyone benefits!! Who needs pure altruism!

The second thing I found interesting was that people are more likely to help attractive others. The reason I found this interesting is because in an earlier lecture it was said that attractive people are more likely to be percieved as superior to others on many traits but not honesty!! I thought this would result in people being less likely to help 'attractive people'.

Any opinions welcome,

Cheers mike!

Another high school shooting

On Wednesday there was yet another U.S high school shooting in Cleveland. This made me think about the psyhchological impact of bullying on kids. Not to say going on a shooting spree is the answer but seeing the way some kids are continously victimized it doesn't suprise me that it happens.


What are your thoughts on the psychological impact of bullying??

Armenian genocide aknowledgement

hey everyone,

I know the we've already done the topic of genocide but I heard an interesting report on the news las night I thought was worth bringing up. Basically it was about the U.S officially aknowledging that the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the turks between 1915 - 1917 was genocide. The Bush administration was opposed as it would harm their relationship with Turkey and thus their interests in the middle east by cutting off Turkish supply lines to Iraq.

Here is an interesting related article on the topic.

Any opinions welcome!

Professionalism destroying sport - the overjustification effect

Hey everyone,

I am a big sports fan and cant imagine what life would be like without it but you have to question why we now give such huge rewards and publicity to elite sports people. I don't think its good for society (i.e kids looking up to guys like andrew (e) johns, ben cousins etc) or for entertainment value (i.e. the style of game the islander nations play compared to the top tier nations at the rugby world cup).

I wonder what aliens would think if they came to earth and found humans giving all this attention and money to people who hit, kick and throw balls around an oval?? They would probably think we were crazy!!

Whatever happened to the good old days when first-grade footballers worked their 9-5 then play their guts out on the weekend?

Do you believe that the professionalism and huge extrinsic incentives in sport today are destroying the core of what sport is supposed to be about?

here are some opinions about money in soccer

Any opinions welcome,

Cheers, Mike

Deindividuation and facebook.

Hey everyone,

Ive decided to do my second blog on deindividuation. I decided to do this topic because of my own experiences. I have had quite a lot of trouble with anonymous mobile phone harrasment.

I figure sites like myspace and facebook would be the perfect environment for deindividuated harrasment. I've heard there have been problems in highschools with kids pretending to be teachers, putting up degrading pics and cyberbullying other students. I've found a couple of journal articles on the consequences of deindividuation in internet chat rooms but havent come across anything about facebook yet - I guess it's still pretty new!!. Has anyone experineced or know anyone who's experienced any problems on facebook, myspace etc?? Or other forms of computer mediated communication?

Final Exam Stategy??

What strategy is everyone going to take in preparing for the final exam?? This open book format has got me a bit concerned. I went through the first couple of chapters putting stickies on what I thought were the important points and ended up having too many to be of any use. I figure I'm just going to try and get through as many questions as quickly as possible from memory marking questions I'm unsure of then use the index for those questions.

Has anyone had any experience with open book tests?? Any tips welcome!!!!


cheers, mike!

Week 12 discussion

Hey everybody,

One thing I found interesting about this weeks lecture was the point James made about overemphasizing the importance of leaders. I think this is evident in sport, I think that coaches get too much of the blame when teams are doing poorly and too much credit when teams ared doing well.

Another concept I think is worth discussing is social loafing. I think whether or not I social loaf depends greatly on my motivation level. For example if I have a group university assignment I generally put in more effort than usual so I dont let my group down. I would feel worse if I failed in a group task than if I failed on an individual task because not only do you have to deal with your own dissapointment but also your team mates. On the other hand, when I used to work at woolworths I always hoped there would be a few other staff on because that made it easier to bludge and get away with doing as little work as possible - I had very little motivation for stacking fruit.

What does everybody think about overemphasizing the importance of leaders? Is anyone guilty of social loafing? If so, in what situations do you social loaf?

Any opinions welcome!

Cheers, Mike