Social Psychology Magazine

“P” is for psych

the social psych

issue

page 2

about the authors

page 4

psycopathy

page 14

ask jodie

page 16-19

HSM reviews

page 24

quirky quiz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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DEDICATION

To Ms. Barca and the rest of period 3 AP Psychology: Thank you for creat-ing such a fun and relaxed environment in which to learn psychology. We

will dearly miss Todd Talk Tuesdays and Snack or Snack Fridays andall of the wonderful moments we shared together.

Table of Contents..............................................................................................................2About the Authors............................................................................................................3How to Spot a Psychopath...............................................................................................4The Neuroscience of Social Psych...................................................................................6Discrimination..................................................................................................................8Ain’t Nobody Messin’ with my Clique..........................................................................12Ask Jodie...........................................................................................................................14High School Musical Review...........................................................................................16High School Musical 2 Review........................................................................................17High School Musical 3 Review........................................................................................19The Breakfast Club Review..............................................................................................20Games&Comics...............................................................................................................22Which Social Psychologist Is your Soulmate?.............................................................24Matching Game...............................................................................................................25Are You a Conformer?....................................................................................................26Works Cited.....................................................................................................................27

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

SHANA OSHINSKIE LIA PEREZ-CURRAN

CAMRYN KOZACHEK jaMIIE aTschinow

Shana Oshinskie is a junior at Highland Park High School. When she is not composing fascinating articles or hilarious ads for this magazine, you will likely find her napping, thinking about The Highland Fling, or eating ice cream. Besides these three pastimes (which are among her favorites), she enjoys watching television shows such as Scrubs and Devious Maids, dancing around her room to her most favorite songs, and hanging with her gurlz.

Lia Perez-Curran is a junior at Highland Park High School. Along with writing for P is For Psych, you can find her spending the day with her family or friends and always listening to music. Other school activities she is involved with are Accapellics Anonymous and the choir. She loves writing for this magazine so she hopes you’ve enjoyed it as well! :)

Jamie Atschinow is a junior at Highland Park High School. Aside from writing for this prestigious psychology magazine, she enjoys a wide array of activities! She participates in various school music groups, including choir and a cappella. She plays a few instru-ments as well, including the piano and the ukulele. Some HPHS extracurriculars she participates in include Model UN/Congress, DECA, and the girls tennis team. Jamie spends her free time lis-tening to music and indulging her addictions to television and social media.

Camryn Kozachek is a junior at Highland Park High School. Af-ter creating amazing content for this esteemed publication, she attempts to wind down by eating, reading, and keeping her cats out of her room. Camryn also enjoys watching various TV shows while painting. In school, you’ll probably find her in her classes, but during lunch and after school, Camryn participates in Global Awareness Group, Model UN/Congress, runs cross country (blue division champs 2014!) and writes for The Highland Fling.

“With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.” - His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

This quote incites a sense of motivation to make change, and can inspire you to believe in yourself and your abilities to do great things.

“I stand before you the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”- Lou Gehrig

When people who have very little to be thankful for find ways to do so, it never fails to be inspiring.

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“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”-Eleanor Roosevelt

Knowing that only you can make yourself feel bad or good is very reassuring. Having self-confidence will block out any hatred from

others.

“Are you crazy?”“Nope, just a pirate.”

-ScrubsThis quote is inspirational because it perfectly summarizes

Camryn’s personality and the way she sees life.

How to spot a psychopathCamryn Kozachek

What’s one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?” (Ted Bundy Biography). This unsettling Ted Bundy quote rep-

resents an extreme instance of psychopathy; howev-er, Ted Bundy is not the archetype of a psychopath. People throw around the word “psychopath” like it’s just another adjective, like tall or angry; it has been integrated into our vernacular, used to describe any-one who does something we perceive to be out of the ordinary. However, true psychopaths make up less than 1% of the population. Although often confused, psychop-athy and sociopathy are two distinct offshoots of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). (Hen-drikson) The distinction lies in behavioral differ-ences, and an individu-al’s capacity for empathy. Psychologists believe that psychopathy results from genetics, while sociopathy is caused by environmental factors. Sociopaths act rashly, and are less dissociated from their emotions than psychopaths (Hendrikson).

Though we often associate psychopaths with serial killers, most function as working parts of society. CEOs have the highest occurrence of psychopathic traits of any profession, shortly followed by lawyers. Psychopathy is also a more common trait in sur-geons, military personnel, and salespeople (Barker).

Needless to say, identifying psychopaths can be dif-ficult. There is no definitive formula, no foolproof method for weaseling out psychopaths from the general population. However, one of the foremost experts on psychopathy, Professor Robert Hare, de-veloped a criteria for diagnosing psychopathy, the PCL-R (Psychopathy checklist revised). The check-

list is still in use today. With the aid of this list and additional information, we can take a peek into how professionals identify psychopaths (Hare Psychopa-thy Checklist).

If you come into contact with someone who you suspect could be a psychopath, or if you’re curious about your friend’s sketchy new boyfriend,here are some tips for coming to a conclusion.

Right off the bat, the chance of the person you are evaluating being a psychopath increases significantly if they are a man. Additionally, an-tisocial personality dis-order usually manifests itself by age 15, although a diagnosis cannot be given until the subject is

18. You are more likely to identify an adult as a psy-chopath than a child. Speech patterns can also be a tell of psychopaths. Research has shown that psy-chopaths use more dysfluencies like “um” or “uh” while they talk. (Identifying a Psychopath)

Besides said signs, there are several traits common to psychopaths from the Hare checklist that can be used in everyday life to identify them.

One often telling sign of psychopathy is a lack of emotions, such as remorse, guilt, or empathy. Psy-chopaths are unable to feel emotion on the same level as those without the condition, and their emo-tions will often be shallow and short lived. If you meet someone who doesn;t seem to display emo-tion, displays emotion for only a short time, or ex-presses emotions that seem fake or manufactured to you, keep your eye out for some other signs; they just might be a psychopath (Hare Psychopathy).

TED BUNDY

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Psychopaths will also often focus more on physical needs than spiritual or emotional needs. In a study done on psychopaths in prisons, researchers found that psychopaths will talk more about their biologi-cal needs like food, water, and sleep, while prisoners without psychopathic tendencies will show remorse for their actions, and talk about their families, their emotions, and their religion. Although this may not seem applicable to everyday situations, you can use what a person chooses to speak about as a gauge. (Identifying a Psychopath)

If you can find out about their background, it can be a key step in identifying a psychopath. Many psycho-paths display telling signs in childhood, and have a history of childhood crime or behavioral issues. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer, a cannibalistic serial killer, began to display a taste for necrophilia and murder beginning at the tender age of 14. Cases of psycho-paths torturing animals as children, or living lives of petty crime, have also been reported. A person who has been in a series of short term marriages also may be a psychopath. Despite being unable to feel strongly emotions like love, psychopaths often engage in rela-tionships. (Hare Psychopathy Checklist).

Psychopaths are also pathological liars, so be care-ful, as they are often extremely manipulative. “Glib and superficial charm” is the first item on the Hare PCL-R, and psychopaths ooze it. They project a sense of confidence and superiority. Because a person won’t come out and tell you that they feel superior to you, and it’s not always easy to identify, look for tells in mannerisms and facial expression. For example, they may roll their eyes when they think you’re not look-ing. (Hare Psychopathy Checklist).

A higher stimulation threshold also characterizes psychopaths. A constant need for stimulation may be what drives some psychopaths to commit violent crimes and torture. In context of identifying psychop-athy in acquaintances, look for someone who pursues high thrill activities. (Hare Psychopathy Checklist).

Armed with this knowledge, you have a decent shot at spotting a psychopath. However, remember that even experts can be deceived. It is also important to note that everyone is unique, and not all psychopaths will tick every box. (Hare Psychopathy Checklist).

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Shana Oshinskie

The Neuroscience of SOCIAL PSYCHShana Oshinskie

While scientists plumb the depths of the deepest oceans and the altitudes of the furthest stars in order to pioneer new sci-

entific discoveries, there is one universal structure readily accessible yet still largely a mystery.

The brain sits inside your head, quietly allowing not only basic functions like heartbeat, breathing, and even conscious movement, but more complex responses like hindsight bias, racial prejudice, and the creation of gender roles.

Now, many psychologists have been slowly moving away from growing the base of existing con-cepts while moving towards un-derstanding the biological bases that allow these responses. At the epicenter of this research is the brain, which despite its over-whelming mysteriousness, has slowly revealed a couple of the links between biolog-ical processes and social phenomena.

One such breakthrough occurred while studying ra-cial stereotypes. After extensive research of the amyg-dala, scientists discovered its tendency to light up vividly the first few times it recognizes a new object or face and then its diminishing response after famil-iarity sets in (Azar).

Upon learning these results, many scientists have cre-ated experiments geared towards seeing how these patterns can be translated to race relations and racial stereotyping. Though these experiments have been carried out in many ways and with differing results, the general pattern is as follows (Azar).

Both Caucasians and African-Americans are placed in an fMRI (not all at once, of course 😃) and are thenflashed images of people on all ends of the skin col-or spectrum. The level of their amygdalic stimula-

tion is then recorded and analyzed for patterns. Two prominent studies are frequently cited on this topic, which is interesting because they disagree. The first found that both racial groups (Caucasians and Af-rican-Americans) experienced heightened stimula-tion when looking at individuals of the opposite race while the other found that both races reacted more to the photos of African-Americans (Azar).

Obviously, there is no conclusive result yet as to the general pattern of amydalic stimulation, but even when one is discovered, scientists don’t believe it is the only factor in determining stereotyping. This is yet another pattern in the emerg-ing field of biosocial psychology: though many discoveries have been made, it is unlikely that they fully explain the underlying phe-nomenon or rule out other poten-tial factors (Azar).

Stereotypes, however, are not the only biological-so-cial connection that has been examined. Self-control, too, has experienced considerable attention from a group of psychologists led by Todd Heartheron, a psychologist from Dartmouth University (Azar).

In order to get to the root of the issue, Heartheron’s team had to discover a few more pieces of informa-tion, namely, they wanted to see which area of the brain is stimulated when one tries to clear their mind. They soon discovered it was a region called “insula.” Located near the limbic system, the “prune-sized” insula has profound effects on addiction that can be studied once damage has been done (Azar).

Heatherton’s studies have indicated that the sudden sprinkle of panic one receives when remembering something you forgot to do, or getting caught in an illicit action (he refers to it as a “sinking feeling”) is found more often in people with damaged insulas;

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this has allowed him to conclude that the insula helps express certain types of emotional stimulation (Azar).

Yet other studies have found even more exciting results about other types of damage to the insula. It seems to play a very important role in addiction--some with damaged insulas have found that they have been able to literally break cigarette addictions overnight. The insula is stimulated when one is “jones-ing” for an-other hit, and in a Pavlovian twist, it seems to become stimulated when one is confronted with sensory ex-periences usually paired with inebriation. (If some-one usually does cocaine in a certain corner of his or her basement, for example, returning to that corner will prompt insular activation.) (Blakeslee).

Further research into this mysterious region has prompted many to believe that it is part of what makes us “feel” human--fully developed insulas are rarely to never found in even “upper level” animals, excepting (to some degree) the chimpanzee (Blakeslee).

Perhaps this is due in part to the wide range of inter-esting and often oddly specific functions of the insu-la. Controlling everything from addiction to feelings

like lust to one’s taste in chocolate, the insula has the potential to change a lot the entire landscape of bio-social psychology research (Blakeslee).

Many scientists look outwards and upwards and deep-deep-downwards to find undiscovered and mysterious frontiers. Inside the heads of all lies a structure so complex and so crucial to our well-being that the discovery of a certain region, the insula, can potentially help solve addiction. The connections be-tween others can help us get to the bottom of racial injustice. Everything psychological is biological. The connections between the brain and social psychology prove this beyond a doubt.

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Shana Oshinskie

DISCRIMINATIONJamie Atschinow

Diversity; I think it is fair to say that when we think of our world and its seemingly infinite history, this word automatically comes to

mind. This earth is teeming with diversity, not only in terms of its human inhabitants, but also its animals, plants, bacteria, terrains, elements, and endless other ingredients. The various cultures of man, which col-lectively can effectively represent human diversity, are utterly incredible. They have been developing over the course of thousands and thousands of years, respec-tively shaping them-selves according to their geography, and formulating their own beliefs, values, and customs.

However, the sub-sequent uniqueness of each culture is what drives their di-vergence from each other, and when they are brought to-gether in a setting like the US, every discrepancy is highlight-ed. This in turn gives way to racial discrimination and promotes ethnocentrism, so from the beautiful con-cept of diversity develops the creation of an often ugly ingroup-outgroup contrast.

While the most extreme and outright forms of racism are deliberate, this is not always the case. Even those who attempt to overcome racial biases are biological-ly conditioned during development to prefer their in-group.

Recent research shows evidence of particular brain pathways that activate when a person encounters someone of another race, despite conscious attempts to view everyone as equals (Costandi). From this, we can see that racism is a practice that is not easily erad-icated.

American history is filled with records of racial dis-crimination, a lot of which are taught about in school. Many of the first settlers came to America for reli-gious freedom, and right from the beginning the var-ious European immigrant groups endured high ten-sion. From slavery to Native American relocation, our nation’s roots seem heavily intertwined with racism.

Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, the KKK, and countless other actors all make up the history of racism in the

US. In the 1880s the federal government enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in the ‘40s, people of Japanese descent were put into in-ternment camps.

Perhaps the most identifiable event is segregation; schools, restaurants, and all sorts of public plac-es used to legally

separate and discriminate against black people. Most prominently during the ‘50s and ‘60s, it prompted the Civil Rights Movement, which resulted in monumental changes such as the Civil Rights Act and the popularization of peaceful protest. Groups like the Black Panther and key players like Martin Lu-ther King Jr. emerged, as well.

Despite some major wins in the fight towards equali-ty, looking around today we can still see strong traces of racism, for although we can name many of these instrumental turning points and probably even make a list, the amount of “losses” far outweighs the wins.

Within just the last 15 years, a standout example of

BABIES > RACISM

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discrimination in the US sprung from the tragedy of 9/11. The horrid NYC terrorist attack influenced the minds of Americans, spreading the generalization that all followers of Islam are terrorists.

For a long time and even still, many Muslims were falsely associated with terrorism, an attitude carried over not only into social settings, but also into the workplace where Muslim employees have report-ed being restricted from wearing headscarves and praying (Greenhouse). And this issue ties direct-ly into the emergence of racial profiling, in which authorities - say, airport security or even the police - can pull aside someone solely based on his or her appearance (Siggins).

Just last year, an Indian-American woman claimed the title of Miss America for the first time, sparking racist com-mentary on Twitter. People were upset that Nina Davuluri is “a foreigner” (Broderick), but failed to realize that she was born in New York, raised in Syracuse, and went to college at the Uni-versity of Michigan (“2014”). Some ignorantly called her an Arab, and even went so far as to call her “Miss Terrorist”. Not only that, but her runner-up, Crystal Lee, is an Asian-American wom-an, leading to tweets such as “Miss America is brought to you by their sponsors PF Changs and 7-11” (Broderick).

A similar issue arose after the 2014 National Spell-ing Bee, whose joint finalists, Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe, were both Indian-Americans. The past eight winners at that point had all been Indi-an-American, as well. In light of the contest, Twitter again acted as a platform for racist backlash, with tweets like “One year I wish an American kid could

win the spelling bee” and “Why are the people in the spelling bee foreign?” (Jerreat).

Even more recently, a hot topic swirling around the news is police brutality. Numerous accounts of white cops killing black civilians are making headlines, from Michael Brown to Walter Scott, who appeared

in a viral video getting shot 8 times in the back.

People have responded strongly to these incidences with protests, marches, so-cial media campaigns, and unfortunately, violence. At the end of this past April, riots in Baltimore led to a city-wide curfew.

In my opinion, however, the condition of racism in the US has definitely im-

proved from its start. Heck, it’s even improved within the past half-century.

My parents often tell me about how when they were kids, being Asian-Americans who both grew up in cities, they encountered a lot of racial prejudice, particular-ly in the form of racial slurs. Although I have seen versions of racism first-hand, experienced by others and on occasion my-self, my parents can vouch for the fact that the its prevalence to-day is much less than it was years ago.

And now, what used to be con-sidered racially isolated fields are looking to expand their diversity. Primetime television, just within

the past 3 years, has been observ-ably more diverse, running TV shows like The Min-dy Project, Blackish, Fresh Off the Boat, Cristela, and Jane the Virgin. This pattern can also be seen through the aforementioned Miss America pageant.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) (STEM) fields are attempting to broaden

RACISM IN THE THIRTIES

NSB FINALIST

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the inclusion of women and underrepresented mi-norities in STEM fields was introduced in Washing-ton (“Rep. Davis”).

But this is not to say that we have now destined our-selves for a path towards an indiscriminatory society.

While there is less deliberate racism, underlying racism is still a huge, underrecognized problem. In a video about the topic, an African-American col-lege student named Chloe Valdary said: “Discrimi-nation still exists. Let’s deal with it openly and honestly. Unfortunately, that’s very hard to do. One reason, I’ve discovered, is that many people feel that they have to treat blacks with kid gloves. They think this is noble… enlightened… progressive. It’s not. It’s demeaning and condescending. In fact, it’s racist.” It’s great that peo-ple want to strive for racial equality, but as Valdary said, going about it by giving mi-norities special treatment can be considered a form of prejudice (PragerUniversi-ty).

But going back to the bio-logical functioning behind racism and the fact that there exist specific brain pathways involved in it (Costandi), I’d like to reit-erate that this kind of often undetected discrimination is not easily gotten rid of.

I think that this is because even though we may try our best to remain impartial, just making that con-scious effort requires us to think about the discrep-ancies between ourselves and those around us; upon seeing someone of a different race, we may recog-nize that fact first in order to try and treat them with equality.

Interestingly enough, a new study has surfaced with-in the last week entailing the possibility of actually removing such conditioned biases. As established, racism can be an unintentional, unconscious prac-tice merely developed by memories and available associations. Researchers at Northwestern Universi-ty found that showing people unlikely associations during the day and reinforcing them in their sleep resulted in less racial and sexual bias, with effects that could last for up to a week (Gallagher).

So while society has made great strides towards an equality-filled future, countless racist attitudes, whether intentional or not, still linger.

People do not realize that their racist practices can do real bodily and emotional harm to their victims (Sil-verstein). People do not realize that their loose and “harmless” implementa-tions of racist jokes in their everyday lives are what per-petuate stereotypes. People do not realize that their arguments for using these jokes are unsubstantiated; “it’s just a joke” does not suffice.

The use of racist jokes on TV or in movies makes au-diences think it’s okay to use them in their daily lives. The script of Pitch Perfect 2, for example, consists of nu-

merous racist jokes that, while intended for comedy, are simply offensive and uncomfortable. There exists a lack of initiative to eradicate racism from popular culture, and that needs to change.

CHLOE VALDARY

Ten

Eleven

Camryn Kozachek

Ain’t Nobody Fresher Than My Clique!Lia Perez-Curran

Are you in the “in-group” or the “out-group”? It’s a common experience among adolescents to create tight friendships with others who

share the same interests as them. Sometimes these close friendships are characterized as cliques in which each member in a social group is either directly or in-directly connected with one another.

You may have heard the word clique before and you may recognize it as a negative thing, but in re-ality, they’re not always bad. You do not want to confuse the word clique with a crowd. Crowds are based more on rep-utation and the people involved in a crowd are not always friends. The crowds that an adoles-cent is part of strongly influences who that per-son will meet and spend time with. Usually members in a crowd do not venture to other groups of people.

Take a look at the following points to determine if your clique membership is a good or bad thing.

Pros of cliques:

- Provides a forum for shared interests- Reduces isolation, which seems to prevent behavior-al problems- Develops good social skills- Provide support systems for someone dealing with a crisis- Shown to have a positive impact on young people

People believe that the word clique describes a group of young people who come together and exclude oth-ers on the basis of superficial differences, but this is not fully the case. Joining or being in a clique is a part

of normative development. There can be a bad side to being in a clique, though.

Cons of cliques:

- May cost members some of their individuality- May become aggressive toward group members- May be exclusive and alienate others

- May be critical of oth-ers and act superior- May cause members to feel a need to conform In middle and high school, kids feel a pres-sure to fit in, which can be difficult for some and easy for others. Being in a clique can really have an impact on one’s self worth. There have been studies showing that a way a teen acts and be-

haves can be better predicted by the way the clique in which they’re a member of behaves than of the behav-ior of individual friends.

Many cliques are in fact very complicated and show a number of negative and positive qualities. Kids in elementary and middle school are usually starting to find who they are, and being a member of a clique helps them find an identity, whether it be the right one or not. Kids who dress and act similarly tend to gravitate towards each other, creating small intimate and exclusive groups.

Actually, cliques are not considered to be either com-pletely good or completely bad. Being a clique mem-ber could work both ways, so you should reflect upon your own group of friends and your relationship dy-namics from time to time in order to determine if you’re in a healthy friendship circle.

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It is important for parents to encourage their children to be in healthy friendships and relationships. There are several ways to do this. Encourage your kids to stick to what they like. Many kids want to be popular and some will even pretend to like some things that they don’t like to fit in with the cool kids. Encourage them to keep their social groups diverse and open. Tell your kids to enjoy the company of people who are from different backgrounds, ages, and settings.

It is also important to remind your children of the big-ger-picture. Although their cliques may seem like the most important and devastating thing at the moment, things change very quickly, and real friends stay. If they wait long enough, real friends will come around.

Camryn Kozachek

THIRTEEN

ASK JODIEDear Jodie,

The other day when I was at dinner with my three clos-est friends, we were talking about the latest season of Modern Family. I’m not usually one to speak out in a group or share my opinion, but I love that show so I decided I’d share. As I was talking, I started to realize that no one was listening to me! I tried to stop talking and start again when there was a silence, but every time I tried, some one would just talk over me. Soon, it just came to the point where what I had to say wasn’t even relevant anymore. What should I do? How can I get my friends to listen to me when I’m speaking?

-Lonely Boy

Dear Lonely Boy,

I’m so sorry to hear about this problem you’re facing, but don’t worry, I can help! Don’t worry too much be-cause this is something that happens to everyone at some point. You said that you’re not really one to speak out, and I think this may be the root of your problem. Your friends know you as the quiet one who likes to listen but is not too big on sharing. This is not a bad thing at all! Everyone loves a listening friend. To make sure they’ll start listening to you, you need to start of small. Start sharing small anecdotes in conversation to start the process, as you notice that people are listening more, start to speak more and more. Before you know it, you’ll be the center of the conversation! Don’t worry about your friends not listening, it happens to the best of us!

-Jodie

Dear Jodie,

I recently played the part of Ms. Hannigan in my high school’s production of Annie. I was original-ly super excited, because it was my first lead role, but now that it’s over, I regret it. People think I was cast for my personality rather than my sing-ing and acting abilities! Freshmen are scared of me, teachers make jokes about how mean I am, and even my friends treat me differently. How can I get them to see that I’m more than the character I played?

Sincerely,

More Than Ms. Hannigan

Dear More Than Ms. Hannigan,

First of all, congratulations! Getting a role that big is something to be proud of. You may have fallen victim to something called the actor-ob-server bias. This essentially means that people are more likely to attribute their actions to ex-ternal factors, while they view the actions of oth-ers as something they brought upon themselves. Changing their perception is as easy as showing everyone in your school a more positive side of yourself. Make it known that you’re a nice person by performing small acts of kindness, like hold-ing a door open, so people form positive associa-tions with you. And if all else fails, wait until the next musical, and choose a part without negative connotations attached.

Best of luck!

-Jodie

Lia Perez-Curran Camryn Kozachek

FOUTEEN

Dear Jodie,

How do I make a social loaf rise to the occasion?I’ve been working on a group project for my Ad-vanced Bread Making Class. At the end of the week we need to turn in a full 12-piece bread basket. My partner, Reynolds, has been spending all of our class time washing his hands and showing me his dance moves and drumming on all the pots and pans. I end up doing double the work because he refuses to do any real stuff. How do I get him to contribute?

Sincerely yours,

Kneading Advice

Dear Kneading Advice,

Well, it sounds like you have a social loafer on your hands. The psychological term social loafing was identified in 1981 by a man named Bibb Latane and literally means, “the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their ef-forts towards attaining a common goal then when individually accountable.” In your case, Reynolds thinks that you will pick up all the slack if he doesn’t work, so he doesn’t feel motivated to do anything. Here’s what you should do to make sure that you don’t have to keep “kneading” my help. Sit down with Reynolds after class one day and ask him why you keep doing most of the work. Ask him why he has been acting this way, and then gently explain to him that it’s not fair that you are taking the lead on this. If class time comes again and he still hasn’t been doing anything, cease work until he does. When he realizes he can’t fall back on your hard work he may start to work harder. If all else fails, let your teacher know that you did most of the work after handing in your work. There’s no shame in being honest.

-Jodie

Dear Jodie,

I just don’t know what to do. I’ve been playing the didgeridoo for a solid 5 years now, and I think I’m pretty good at it… Well, at least that’s what my teacher tells me. And now he’s asked me to perform at the annual Spring recital he holds for his best students... Trust me when I say that I am not ex-cited for it; I am anything but. Just imagining all of those eyes staring at me - the eyes of parents, peers, and seasoned didgeridoo players - makes me want to vomit. But I want to showcase my work, I really do! The didgeridoo has become a true passion of mine, and I want to be able to play it in front of so many people… I’m just not sure I’ll be able to without messing up big time.

Didgeridude

Dear Didgeridude,

From what I understand, your performance wors-ens in the presence of others, due to the mere antic-ipation of messing up. Sounds to me like you’ve got a bad case of social impairment. What you need to do is look at the situation in a different light. In-stead of imagining the worst, picture the best! See yourself rocking that didgeridoo, and impressing everyone in the audience. You can turn your social impairment into social facilitation; all you have to do is change your mindset. Let the crowd encour-age you to do well. Knowing they’re watching, aim to impress them. Don’t let them hinder your won-derful abilities with hypothetical reactions, and you will give the performance of a lifetime. Good luck, and thanks for writing!

Best of Luck!

-Jodie

Shana Oshinskie Jamie Atschinow

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High School Musical is a smoothie, a perfect blend of vibrant charac-

ters, dance-worthy numbers, and a heavy dose of social psycholo-gy. From the very beginning until the very end, themes of social psychology are preva-lent.

The movie opens with a scene of the female protag-onist, Gabriella, exhibiting classic traits of an intro-vert. Instead of attending a party with her peers, she prefers holing up in her room with a book. Luckily, however, her mother convinces her to push the limits and of her comfort zone. This is where the magic that is High School Musical truly begins.

At the party, Gabriella and her male counterpart, Troy, are selected to sing karaoke. At this point, two major psychological concepts come into play. Gabri-ella at first feels intimidated by the number of people watching and she experiences social inhibition--even though she is a talented singer, she can barely bring her voice above a whisper. Later, however, the crowd begins to cheer for her and she sheds her shyness. She and Troy complete the first of many stunning duets.

While there are many psychological concepts briefly touched upon in the movie--like the honey added to a smoothie for additional sweetness--at the heart of the plot line lies the ideas of social conformity and peer pressure, the “yogurt” of the movie, if you will.

In order to understand the presence of these con-cepts, you must first have a general understanding of the plot of the movie. In a twist on the classic Romeo and Juliet, Troy and Gabriella are star-crossed lovers; Troy, the captain of the basketball team, has little on his mind except the state championship, while Ga-briella, a “nerd” and a member of the scholastic de-cathlon team has a heart that beats only for imaginary numbers and derivatives and all things math-related. After their fated interaction at the karaoke party,

which, coincidentally, is not un-like how Romeo and Juliet meet, the two become very smitten. They run into each other at musi-cal auditions, both internally debating whether or not to try

out. They accidentally do, and are selected for call backs, which sends a ripple of shock through the school. This is where the “yogurt” gets added to the mix.

In perhaps the best dance number of the scene, the friends of Troy and Gabriella tell them to, “Stick to the Status Quo (Oh whoa whoa whoa…).” They tell them that they ought not stray from the social system set up; if they belong to a group of “nerds” or “jocks” then their places are in the lab and on the field, not on a stage. Their badgering ends up having profound effects not only on the character but on the formation of the idea of peer pressure in the movie.

Though more psychological concepts are sprinkled throughout the movie, they are hard to discuss with-out ruining the ending of the movie.

In this analogy of the movie being a “smoothie,” the psychological concepts have been compared to the yogurt and honey of a smoothie, but let us be real here--a smoothie with no fruit is just yogurt and hon-ey mixed together.

The vibrant characters, the clever jokes, and the scintillating dance scenes make up the fruit of this smoothie. Though the acting is sometimes lacking, the characters seem genuine, and minus their ten-dencies to suddenly burst into painstakingly choreo-graphed numbers, they seem very similar to real high school students.

While the quality of this movie is far eclipsed by the quality of the third, it still possess many interest-ing and fun aspects that blend together for a perfect “smoothie.”

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MOVIE REVIEW: hIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 1

Shana Oshinskie

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As I sat down to watch High School Musical 2, I was expecting another

amazing High School Musical movie with an entrancing plot, well developed characters, and an accurate portrayal of how teens act in high school. Unfortunately, I was not given what I had hoped for. Instead, I spent 105 minutes of my day watching a boring movie with an unoriginal plot and undevel-oped characters. Despite all the bad, there was some good. This is the perfect movie to demonstrate social psychology because the whole movie is based in a so-cial setting and based on social interactions.

The movie opens with all the students in theater class, counting down the seconds until summer. We hear the clock ticking as the students are chanting, “Sum-mer!”. When the bell finally rings, they break into song, singing “What Time Is It?”. After this scene, they transition into summer, and into a scene when Troy, the main character, and some of his buddies from the basketball team are in his house after playing some basketball. Troy receives a call from Mr. Fulton, the manager at a local country club, Lava Springs, offer-ing Troy a job for the summer. Troy is hesitant because he wants to spend the summer having fun with his friends, so he proposes that they be employed there as well, and Mr. Fulton agrees. So, the whole gang heads over to Lava Springs for the summer.

The reason Troy was offered this job is because Shar-pay Evans’ family owns the club. Sharpay is the most popular girl at East High, the school that the students attend. She also has a massive crush on Troy, and wanted to spend the whole summer with him, thus, giving him a job at her country club. Sharpay is very extrinsically motivated. She only works for rewards. She does not usually do something just for the sake of doing it and enjoying it. She’s always in it for the reward. Sharpay knows that Troy has a girlfriend, Ga-briella, but she does not care, she will stop at nothing

until Troy is hers. When Sharpay finds out that al-most all of the East High student body will be working at her coun-try club this summer, she be-comes extremely angry. She only

wanted Troy to be working at her club, not Gabriella and the Wildcats (the school mascot) too! Sharpay knows that Mr. Fulton cannot fire the kids, so she tells him that he must make them want to quit. So, Mr. Fulton goes into the Kitchen where all the students are working and acts very rudely to them. Everyone gets mad at Troy for “getting them into this mess” even though it was not Troy’s fault at all! After anoth-er musical number, the gang makes up and everyone is happy again. But Mr. Fulton still has not decided to stop making them want to quit, so he is continuing to be rude and overly demanding.

Because Sharpay is in love with Troy, she gives him extra special attention and he is the only one that the club treats well. Because Sharpay’s family is rich and famous, her parents have special connections. Shar-pay knows that Troy loves basketball, so she got her dad to fly in some famous basketball players for Troy to meet and play with. When Troy’s friends realize that Troy is spending more time with the basketball players than with his friends, they becoming extreme-ly mad and disappointed at Troy. They were hoping for a summer that they could spend together, but they were upset because they weren’t getting that.

Unfortunately, I believe that Troy’s friends were in the wrong. This is because Troy was trying to get better at basketball, which is a career he wanted to pursue, and his friends were making him feel bad for trying to chase his dreams, which, if you ask me, is a bit of a bad friend move.

Unfortunately, this is where the movie gets boring and goes downhill. The gang decides that they don’t want to hang out with Troy anymore because they think


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MOVIE REVIEW: hIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2(continued)

is an unfortunate assumption because Troy would never think that! You would like to think his friends would know him better than to think that. It is at this point that Gabriella breaks things off with Troy. She makes it clear that she wants to have a break because she thinks that Troy has changed too much over the summer.

Throughout the whole movie, Sharpay is getting ready for the talent show that the club holds every year. The East High gang hears about it and decides that they want to showcase a talent as well. Sharpay wants to sing a song with Troy, but as you can imagine, Troy is not interested, because he is more preoccupied in thinking about what his friends are thinking about him right now. When Troy finds out that the other

kids are not allowed to perform in the talent show, he immediately decides that he does not want to if they can’t. The Wildcats forgive Troy for his absence in their summer and they tell him that he should per-form in the talent show, but he refuses to unless they can sing with him. Sharpay’s brother Ryan tricked Sharpay into thinking that Troy would sing with her, but really he switched the songs so that the Wildcats could sing with Troy instead of Sharpay.

The movie resolved nicely and everything turned out to be peachy keen. Despite the lack of any spark in this movie, it was not a bad portrayal of social psy-chology in high school. This is definitely not the best movie in the series, but the series as a whole is a clas-sic and should be praised by the whole world!

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Jamie Atschinow


High School Musical 3 marks the third install-ment of the Disney High

School Musical movie series. In the first movie, we see an exagger-ated, yet playful representation of high school, accompanied by fun, bright songs. The second movie, though consisting of equally cheer-ful songs, lacks something in the plot and altogether falls short of the expectations it was given post-High School Musical 1. However, given the opportunity of High School Musical 3, an opportunity for redemp-tion presented itself; and I think it was fulfilled. HSM3 is a feel-good film that was fully enjoyable to watch. In my opinion, it stood in blatant contrast to the cheesy, immature scenes and musical numbers of HSM2.

High School Musical 3, meant to represent the cliché senior year high school experience, attempts to en-compass all the social elements of that last year. In just the first few scenes, it covers the “sports event” aspect of the typical high school career, documenting an ex-tremely hyped basketball championship. During it, the team’s star player (and one of the main characters in the movie), Troy, begins to have doubts. Mentally slowing down time, he sings, “Right now I can hardly breathe,” to which Gabriella (another main character and Troy’s girlfriend) responds from the bleachers, “You can do it just know that I believe.” He picks him-self up, and ultimately leads the team to victory; here, social facilitation is exhibited in the spectator’s ability to better the player’s game with words of encourage-ment.

The movie also heavily touches on the social inter-actions among students. There are many interesting conflicts that arise during the movie, one of the most intriguing being that between mean girl Sharpay, and

her assistant, Tiara. They fall into a social trap, in which they find conflict in pursuing simultane-ous, negative plans. Sharpay aims to get the lead role that Gabriella has in the musical, while Tiara

wants to take that of Sharpay’s. Tiara helps Sharpay achieve hers so that she can then replace her, but in the end they appear on stage at the same time try-ing to act the same role, mutually bringing each other down.

High School Musical 3 seems to particularly stress, however, the goodbyes the seniors would have to ex-change with their fellow graduates. With songs like “Right Here, Right Now” and “A Night to Remember,” they express notions of companionate love. The musi-cal they decide to partake in is actually all about their senior year, including numbers about their extracur-ricular activities and prom. However, being a part of this musical was not exactly supported by everyone at first. Most were reluctant, arguing that they were busy and did not have time to worry about such a time commitment. But once Gabriela spoke up and re-minded everyone that this could be their last chance to do something fun all together, they began to soften to the idea, and ultimately agreed to it, in light of the presented superordinate goal of sharing a last hurrah.

Overall, I would give HSM3 4 stars on a 4-star scale, because of its abundant inclusion of high school so-cial interactions, as well as its general enjoyment. As a high school student myself, about to enter into my senior year, I can certainly understand and relate to the sentiments that the students expressed with each other. This is easily the best of the three HSM movies across the board in terms of music, believability, relat-ability, and enjoyment.


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Jamie Atschinow

Movie review; THe Breakfast cLUB

Recently, I had the dis-tinct pleasure of viewing a never before seen High

School Musical movie, High School Musical 4. The story is set in a Saturday detention in an 80s high school, and tells the story of 5 high school-ers from different cliques who end up bonding. Or is that the plot of The Breakfast Club?

The Breakfast Club has been known for decades as the quintessential high school movie. An instant classic, The Breakfast Club was directed by John Hughes in 1985. Al-though it’s known for portraying the psychology of cliques, instances of social psychology are evident through-out the movie. At its heart, the movie is about the friend-ship formed by the students, self described as a “princess, an athlete, a criminal, a brain, and a basket case”.

This unlikely friendship is the result of their confine-ment, and the introduction of a common enemy, the assistant principal, who gives them a common goal. Sherif ’s robbers cave experiment, wherein 11 year old boys were placed in a summer camp, and divided into two groups, can be used to explain this phenomenon. When separated, the two groups formed their own “culture”, and reacted negatively to the other group. However, when they were given problems they could only solve by working together, the two groups be-

came one.

The assistant principal embodies the movie’s necessary “bad guy” character. I would argue that the assistant principal is at the integ-

rity vs. despair stage in Erik Erikson’s stages of devel-opment. In a scene where he talks with the school’s

custodian, he says he’s been looking back at his life and 20 something years of teaching, and he’s not content with the life he’s lived. This would fall under the “despair” catego-ry.

Another example of social psychol-ogy can be seen when the gang smokes marijua-na together. This demonstrates the conformity tak-ing place within

the group; under different circumstances, most of the teens wouldn’t smoke. This deindividuation also helps the students form a cohesive group.

Although the language and some of the content ex-plain its “R” rating and might make parents hesitate before showing the movie to younger children, the Breakfast Club should be mandatory viewing for teenagers. Gaining insight into each of the characters and their motivations as the movie progresses will keep viewers entranced.


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Social Psych Playlist

That’s So Raven Theme Song -Uncredited Artists

Ignition -R. Kelly

Skyscraper -Demi Lovato

Even Steven Theme Song -Uncredited artists

Music by Chance the Rapper and the Social Experiment

Sunday Candy -Donnie Trumpet

Mississippi Goddam -Nina Simone

Kim Possible Theme -Uncredited Artists

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threeWhich sociAL PSYCHOLOGIST IS YOUR SOULMATE?

What is your astrological sign?a. Pisces, Aries, or Taurus (February 19th-May 20th)b. Virgo, Libra, or Scorpio (August 23rd-November 24th)c. Leo, Cancer, or Gemini (May 21st-August 22nd)d. Sagittarius, Capricorn, or Aquarius (November 22nd-February 18th) Where would you most want to attend college?a. Yale Collegeb. Columbia Universityc. Harvard Colleged. Stanford UniversityWhich general topic in social psychology topic most interests you?a. Power dynamicsb. Conformityc. Obedience to authorityd. The way we learn social cuesWhich specific question in social psychology most interests you?a. Why do good people do bad things?b. How do you encourage people to sacrifice material and immaterial things?c. Am I connected to every person on this earth through common acquaintances?d. Do I have the potential to do something if I be-lieve that I have the potential to do it?

Which flaw would you be most tolerant of in your significant other?a. A disregard of laws and ethics codes, to the point where it may put others at risk.b. Such an immense obsession with people’s initial impressions of others that they repeatedly pretend to have just met you every single time you talk.c. Endless questioning about all your friends and their friendships to better understand the intercon-nectedness of social relationships nationwide.d. He/she is so famous they are considered one of (if not the most) influential figures in their field. They are continually recognized by others whenever they leave the house.Which book/journal article sounds most interest-ing to you?a. The Lucifer Effectb. “The Doctrinal Tyranny of Associationism”c. Liberating Effects of Group Pressured. Adolescent AggressionWhich is one problem you can picture occurring in the near future?a. A dramatic increase in the amount of bystanders in our culture.b. Those with the intelligence to change the world will generally look for ways to further the advance-ments c. of their field instead of the world as a whole.c. An increase in obedience to authority to the point where many stop exercising reason and logic.d. As our society leans more towards aggression, a vicious cycle will begin as children observe the ag-

You’ve learned about all the social psychologists. You understand all their experiments, the theories they created, what key concepts they are associated with. But do you know which one you is your soulmate? Take our quiz to find out.

Mostly “A”s- I have a feeling you weren’t saying ZimbardNO when we watched the documentary about the Stanford Prison Experiment because you should end up with none other than Philip Zimbardo! Though he has hit some ethical snares, his experiments on power dynamics have been some of the most influential and he will be a great match for you!

Mostly “B”s- Asch me who your soulmate is and I will tell you that it is Solomon Asch! Unfortunately, this influential psychologist who studied impression formation died almost twenty years ago, but you can still sigh and consider what could have been.

Mostly “C”s- It’s shocking, isn’t it, that your soulmate is Stanley Milgram? This man, whose studies have been refer-enced for years when discussing why good people do bad things, is one of the most decorated social psychologists of all time and one of the most famous.

Mostly “D”s- You know that you have the potential to Make Albert Bandura your soulmate. Bandura knows that this phenomenon, one’s own belief in their ability to complete a task, is known as self-efficacy, because he pioneered its discovery and integration into society. As one of the top five most influential psychologist, this ultra-famous individual and you will be a terrific match. Shana Oshinskie

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sevenworks citedBarker, Eric. “Which Professions Have the Most Psychopaths? The Fewest?” Time Magazine. Time, 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://time.com/32647/which-professions-have-the-most-psychopaths-the-fewest/>.

Broderick, Ryan. “A Lot of People Are Very Upset That An Indian-American Woman Won The Miss America Pageant.” BuzzFeed. BuzFeed, Inc., 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-lot-of-people-are-very-upset-that-an-indian-american-woman#.leZK5Ya13>.

Blakeslee, Sandra. “A Small Part of the Brain, and its Profound Effects.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2007. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/health/psychology/ 06brain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&>.

Azar, Beth. “At the Frontier of Science.” Monitor on Psychology 33.1 (2002): 40. American Psychological Association. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan02/frontier.aspx>.

Costandi, Mo. “How the Brain Views Race.” Scientific American. Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc., 26 June 2012. Web. 31 May 2015. <http:// www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-brain-views-race/>.

Gallagher, James. “Sleep Training ‘may Reduce Racism and Sexism’” BBC News. BBC, 29 May 2015. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/health-32914228>.

Goodman, Kevin. “How to Identify a White Collar Psychopath.” Pursuit Magazine. Storyboard EMP, 23 June 2014. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://pursuitmag.com/how-to-identify-psychopath/>.

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“Identifying a Psychopath: 20 Subtle and Hidden Signs.” Psychopaths and Love. N.p., 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://psychopathsand-love.com/identifying-a-psychopath-19-subtle-signs/>.Jerreat, Jessica. “Racists Target the National Spelling Bee: Hate-filled Comments Flood Twitter after Two Indian-American Boys Emerge as Joint-winners.” DailyMail.com. DailyMail.com, 30 May 2014. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2644503/Why-no-Americans-spelling-bee-Twitter-flooded-racist-tweets-two-boys-Indian-descent-crowned-joint-champions-thrilling-final-contest.html>.

PragerUniversity. “Don’t Judge Blacks Differently.” YouTube. YouTube, 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 31 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl7Q36V9pg4>.

“Rep. Davis Introduces Amendment to Save STEM Program.” Congressman Danny K. Davis. U.S. House of Representatives, 14 June 2011. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.davis.house.gov/press-releases/rep-davis-introduces-amendment-to-save-stem-program/>. Siggins, Peter. “Racial Profiling in an Age of Terrorism.” Santa Clara University. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 12 Mar. 2002. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/profiling.html>.

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