Observational Learning

According the class discussion, observational learning is a learning behaviors by seeing someone else do them. This idea has been around since the Bobo Doll experiment. Observational learning is going on with individuals even when they don’t realize it. The most common time one will notice observational learning is with a parent and their child. Children, at a young age, watch their primary care taker and eventually start to copy that behavior whether it is good or bad. For example, my dad was always fixing up the house. If he wasn’t mowing the lawn then he would be fixing something that was broken. I would watch him work around the house and since I’m a daddy’s girl I tried to be just like him. One day, I tried to cut the grass and got gasoline everywhere! I wanted to do everything he could do. Learning behavior however isn’t always a good thing. Children can pick up bad habits like screaming, punching things, using verbal or physical abuse to handle problems. The primary care taker must be cautious of what a child see and hears.

Defense Mechanism

Freud came up with the idea of defense mechanisms. This is how a person handles situations. There are seven possible mechanisms that are talked about in the book such as denial, repression, reaction formation, rationalization, intellectualization, sublimation, and displacement. In day to day life, I see many people using these mechanisms. For example, my youngest brother is ten years old. I can tell he likes a girl at school because he will pick on her just so he can get her attention. Anytime I tell him that he likes her, his face turns red and then he says “Nuh uh she’s a smarty pants.” Many people would say that the way my brother is acting is how any elementary school boy would act when he has a crush. Although they are right, Freud would say that my brother is displaying the defense mechanism reaction formation. It doesn’t matter what age someone is, Freud’s defense mechanisms are used by every person nearly every day. 

Legally Insane

When it comes to the court room, pleading insanity is one of the most used defenses today. Those how have committed first degree murder will attempt to plea insanity as a way to “get off the hook.” According to the text book, legally insane is the inability to understand that certain actions are wrong, in a legal sense, at the time of a crime. In order for the court to determine if someone is legally insane, the defendant must go through a series of stages such as taking the McNaughton test, talking to a therapist, etc. In my opinion, those who are insane and commit a criminal act should be sent to a mental hospital, however those who are faking should get automatic life in jail. Unfortunately, if someone gets sent to a mental hospital and it comes out that the entire thing was fake, the defendant cannot get retried due to the double jeopardy law. There are some cases the court sends an innocent person to death row. Well sometimes, then can send a sane person to a mental institution. I can’t help but wonder what the criminal justice system can do to help make the insanity plea something that is used only when needed and not as a copout plea for those who are guilty. 

Paranoid

My mother has always shown signs of having either a mental or personality disorder. Just with the few disorders we talked about in class, I was able to notice a lot of characteristics that matched paranoid personality disorder. According to the lecture, there are three main traits an individual with this disorder can have. Those traits include being reluctant to trust, watching everyone closely to see signs of betrayal, and holding a grudge for a long time. My mother is exactly like this. When I was a kid, she would always be reluctant to trust others. She wouldn’t let me or my brothers spend the night at someone’s house because she thought that they would kidnap us or something crazy like that. If we wanted sleepovers, they would have to be at our house because in her mind “You can’t trust anyone.” If someone at work or even in our family would do something that was betrayal in her eyes, she would never talk to them again and cut them from our lives. It is crazy to see how closely things tie together when it comes to those in your life and the things you can learn in a classroom. 

Narcissistic

According to the lecture given in class this week, narcissism is someone who loves themselves. They have the following characteristics: believe they are superior and expect recognition, expects special treatment, lacks empathy, belittles others, and finally brags about themselves. I know a person who has this personality disorder. She is a teammate and good friend of mine. Unfortunately, this disorder can get in the way of that. At practices, she will not warm up with us because “She doesn’t need to.” There will be times she will not finish workouts because me or another person is beating her. When we do run together, I pace the group and try to encourage everyone to finish. Many times the workouts are hard so you need someone to help push you through it. Unfortunately, she does not do that. She will not run at the pace given to us so she appears better and when she crosses the finish line she will walk away without acknowledging anyone. After track meets, if she does very well, my roommate and I will hear about it for hours on end every single day. She will ignore the fact that her closest friends on the team did very well too because she is too focused on her own performance. Track and field is an individual sport however, you need your team to get you through. Due to the fact that she is in love with herself and her abilities, she is unable to gain respect from others on the team and is slowly losing friends because they do not want to be around someone who only talks about themselves and puts others on the team down. After learning about this personality disorder it became clear to my roommate and I that she has the disorder and it explains why she has a hard time keeping friends. 

Superstitions

A superstition is when someone has to do or wear something before competing, taking a test, going to a game etc. If they do not do or wear what they feel is lucky, then they will believe that bad luck will come their way. For example, if someone does not wear blue socks on the day of a football game and their team loses, then they will think it was because they did not wear blue socks.

In class, we took a tally of who has superstitions and every person raised their hand. For me, I always thought I was strange for having specific things I had to do before a game. Now that I know there are more people who do the same thing makes me feel a lot better.

Superstitions can also be viewed as a learned behavior. For example, I did not get into the habit of having a superstition until my freshman year of high school. It was my first high school basketball game and all of the upperclassmen gathered us together to do a very strange ritual in the locker room. They said we had to do it or we would lose. At the time, I thought superstitions were fake, until one game we didn’t have time to do the ritual and we lost. I now have a ritual before every race at my track meets. If it wasn’t for my basketball team getting me into superstitions I probably wouldn’t have one today. 

Freudian Slips

In class, we talked about Freudian slips. This was the idea that an individual has something they really want to say, and then eventually the let it slip during a different conversation. Freud believed that people would do that on purpose in order to finally be able to say what has been on their mind, when it was really an accident. Another example would be a husband breaking his wife’s favorite vase. He secretly hates his wife’s vase, and then one day accidentally knocked it over. Freud would not view this things as accidents. This idea is not supported today thankfully. I slipped at work one night and told a coworker that I secretly hate something she does. It was a quick response that was said before thinking. I never meant to say it out loud, but luckily I was able to cover it up as a joke. If Freud’s theory would be something that is believed today, my coworker would have thought I said that intentionally.