Assignments

The goals of this project are for you to learn that changing behavior is often difficult, even under the best circumstances; to better understand the complex situational and personal factors that influence behavior; and to feel empowered when you see that careful analysis and effort can lead to positive behavior change.

For this assignment, you will choose a behavior you want to change in your personal life. During a one-week (7 day) period, alter the circumstances that prompt that particular behavior and change the reinforcements that follow that behavior. For instance, you could try to live in a way that produces ZERO garbage (compost, recycling, and reuse are allowed), you could give up meat (i.e., adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet), you could give up a specific vice (e.g., drinking alcohol, consuming caffeine, eating sweets), or you could try to change another behavior you don't like (e.g., cursing, poor posture, biting your nails, exercising more). Then you will report on your self-change efforts.

In the 1970s, some clinical psychologists (mostly from the humanist movement) speculated that self-esteem was responsible for many of the ills affecting society, such as poverty, crime, obesity, teen pregnancy, and mental illness. There was not much empirical research supporting their claims other than correlational research (remember that correlation does NOT imply causation). That did not stop these clinical psychologists, however, from claiming that in order to solve these societal problems, we just needed to increase everyon'e self-esteem, especially children's self-esteem.

The self-esteem movement in the U.S. really took hold in the mid to late 1980s. Although younger individuals from Generation X (born 1965-1979) began experiencing the self-esteem movement, the self-esteem movement has much more greatly impacted Generation Y (the Millennials, born 1980-1994) and Generation Z (born 1995-2015).

What are the current implications of the self-esteem movement that, although largely taking place in the 1980s and 1990s, is still active today in some respects?

What have the long-term impacts been?

Happiness is an emotional state characterized by feelings of joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment. Happiness is not the result of bouncing from one joy to the next, however; researchers find that achieving happiness typically involves times of considerable discomfort.

Dr. Dan Gilbert, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, has spent his career trying to understand factors that help people acheive happiness in times of discomfort. His book Stumbling on Happiness (2006) was a New York Times bestseller.

Learn more about Dr. Gilbert's research on happiness as well as about other factors that may improve happiness.

Aired in November 2004, the FRONTLINE documentary The Persuaders "takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar 'persuasion industries' of advertising and public relations and how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives. Through sophisticated market research methods to better understand consumers and by turning to the little-understood techniques of public relations to make sure their messages come from sources we trust, marketers are crafting messages that resonate with an increasingly cynical public."

Learn more about the marketing world and what truly goes into persuasion.

Prejudice is a natural human behavior. It stems from classification of people and groups of people as "us" versus "them," which, for our ancestors, had important survival benefits. This tendency to label others as "us" versus "them" persists in our natural cognitive development and can lead to prejucide, which is defined as negative feelings toward a person or toward a group of people due to their group membership. We most commonly engage in prejudice toward people based on traits or characteristics we can see, such as a person's skin color, their age, or their weight. We also commonly develop prejudice toward others based on characteristics that may not be visible, such as due to a person's religious or political beliefs. For decades, social psychologists have studied prejudice to understand what factors lead to or increase prejudice and how to reduce prejudice within our society.

One of the more interesting "experiments" conducted on prejudice, though, was not conducted by a psychological researcher, but by a 3rd grade teacher in rural Iowa in teh 1960s by the name of Jane Elliot. She wanted to teach her children about prejudice by having them experience it firsthand and carried out her famous blue eyes / brown eyes experiment for the first time being in 1968.

Learn more about how we measure prejudice, about Jane Elliot's demonstrations, and about how prejudice can be reduced.