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. 

BuzzFeed

Today, a buzzfeed quiz popped up in my news feed on Facebook. I decided to take the can we guess your personality based on how you cook mac and cheese. After taking the quiz, it told me that I am a perfectionist. So, I decided to take the quiz two more times. Each time I gave a different answer. The result I got for the second test was that I am currently a student in college. The third time I took the quiz, I got that I am a perfectionist. The results of this quiz was created to match anyone’s personality type regardless what answer they put for the questions. When I scrolled through Facebook, I saw comments like “Wow how did they know? and Yes, I am a perfectionist.” The Barum effect once again comes up in my day to day life. Those who spend their free time on buzzfeed taking quiz believe the results that are given to them because it is a vague response designed to match everyone’s personality type. 
We talked about what makes a good personality test in class a few months ago. Some things that make a good test is validity, reliability, agreement, and prediction. A test that can supposedly guess one's personality type based off of how they cook mac and cheese is an example of non reliable personality test.

Barum Effect

In class, we talked about the Barum effect. The Barum effect is a person’s tendency to accept a vague, general description of their personality as strikingly accurate. We did an activity where we wrote a sentence and had a paragraph given to us the next day that had analyzed our personality based off of our hand writing. Little did the class know, everyone got the same exact analysis. The majority of the class said that they agreed with the analysis that was given. In a class of twenty people, it is impossible for every single student to have the same exact personality.

The Barum effect showed the class that individuals are more likely to believe something “official” about their personality even if they know deep down that it is not true. My group and I thought that the analysis on our hand writing was spot on to our personality. It was interesting to see how easy someone’s mind can change based off of one thing. Once we were told that the analysis was fake, my group proceeded to start talking about all the qualities that were listed that didn’t quite describe them. I think seeing that change in opinion was the most interesting thing about the activity. 

Fish-and-water effect

My roommate is very messy! She will wait weeks at a time until doing the dishes, the trash only gets taken out if I do it, and the room is always a mess. She is aware of my personality and how I like to work and live in a clean environment, or else I cannot focus. Since she is the exact opposite, she does not view cleaning as a priority. I have tried leaving subtle hints such as “I want to sweep the floor today or Wow this week the room got very messy!” After my hints went unnoticed, I would ask her to help me clean. I would be told that she would do it, but one month has passed and it is still not done. Just the other day, she said to a friend of ours, “What do you mean? I am the cleanest roommate out of all of us!”

She is showing us the example of Fish-and-water effect. This effect falls under S Data which is used to measure someone’s personality. Fish are always in water, therefore they do not realize that they are always wet. The same goes for people. For example, my roommate is very messy all the time, but does not acknowledge or attempt to realize it.