Nov 16

It’s always nice to have manners


Does it ever bother you when people don’t say please and thank you? Manners are an important thing to learn and use throughout your life. Having good manners means acting in a manner that is socially acceptable and respectful to others. Developing these skills can help you to have better relationships with people you know, and the new people that you meet.

Learning and maintaining your good manners like table etiquette, greetings or cleaning up after themselves early will hold you to a high set of standards. If you want others to have nice manners, you must have them yourself.  Setting rules for good etiquette in your home and then following them gives you a sense of responsibility.


Some steps to take in an effort to develop good manners would be to know the basic manners. Being polite to others is a good place to start and you can begin by holding doors open for others, saying please, and thank you when needed and just being courteous and kind.

Isn’t it nice when people hold the door open for you? Sometimes you may see a stranger that you hold the door open for and doesn’t respond with a “thank you” or even any acknowledgment. They don’t even look at you and they just walk right by you.It’s annoying when that happens, but it was just something courteous that you were doing to be kind. Don’t take it personally. Some people just are not aware.

door-opening-picHaving good manners is the guide that keeps us in line to be polite and kind to other people. It is important to be honest, trustworthy, and kind. Using good habits on a consistent basis, like manners show that you have all the qualities of a good person. Basically, if you try and conduct yourself in your daily life with the best manners that you can, you will receive that respect from others.







Nov 16

Participating Pays Off

When it comes to social change, there are no shortages of areas in society that could use some modifications.  How best to research and address these social issues is an interesting part of the social change process.  One technique that is used in the participatory research approach which involves the researcher becoming personally immersed in the area being researched in order to gain the insider perspective (Pain & Francis, 2002). An example of such research could be the a researcher conducting an ethnographic study to address the increased rates of depression among military spouses.

As part of this study, I would conduct observational studies on a military installation as well as establish informants who are military spouses as well.  As a military spouse myself, I would have access to areas where military spouses frequent and would have a large amount of people to approach when it comes to insider accounts of dealing with depression during periods of separation from their spouses.  It could be a combination of an ethnographic study with social change research concepts.

Becoming part of the community is a great way to access those who are struggling with the problem you are trying to address. When you are participating in your target group, you are experiencing the social issues with them.  They share their experiences with you, show aspects of the problem you may not have been completely aware of or even thought of to begin with.  Participating in the target group gives a specific type of access to aspects of the social issue that might not have been available otherwise.


Pain, F., & Francis, P. (2003). Reflections on participatory research. Area, 35(1), 46-54. doi:10.1111/1475-4762.00109

Nov 16

Birds of a Feather

The question regarding lasting relationships and how to choose the best person to be with is a topic that many spend years trying to decipher.  Should birds of a feather flock together or should opposites attract?  Which will lead to the happily ever after? When it comes to marriage and friendships it seems that having more in common leads to more stability.  It is important to understand how to maintain a healthy relationship and to establish a way to replicate this pattern over a long-term period.

In a marriage, obviously the two people are not going to agree on everything and are not going to have identical interests.  Despite this though, research shows that being similar to your spouse is related to higher levels of marital success than those who opted for a spouse opposite of themselves and that we gravitate towards potential mates who are similar to ourselves as well (Simonsohn, 2011).  Marriage requires two people to spend their lives together and over the course of that time, major decisions must be made regarding that life they have built.  This could include the number of children they want, where they want to live, how they will raise their children, financial decisions, etc.  It makes sense that making these choices and living them out would be a lot simpler if deciding with someone who has comparable views, values, and wants.

The same holds true when choosing friends and continuing the friendship throughout the years.  Generally, we choose friends because of things we share such as workplace or hobbies.  The commonality provides a starting point where the two people can bond over the things they have in common.  When two people are similar, there is a longer predicted duration for the relationship (Hafen, 2011).  If years go by and one friend’s view change or they move away, now the two friends no longer share a location or no longer share a common interest.  These are the cases where we see examples of friends who knew each other their whole lives but ended up drifting apart.

When it comes to establishing a relationship with some that you can maintain every day without getting too sick of the other person, the key lies in the common factors.  The less that the two people differ on the less they have to argue about or disagree on.  As described, marriages based on common values makes it easier to make the majors decisions together whereas opposite personalities may end up fighting nonstop over these topics.  Similarly, we choose our friends based on something that they have that is like us. Common factors provide bonding opportunities while opposing views such as with politics for example, can result in an explosive end to a relationship.


Hafen, C. A. (2011). Homophily in stable and unstable adolescent friendships: Similarity breeds constancy. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(5), 607-612.

Simonsohn, U. (2011). Spurious? name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(1), 1-24. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/851480715?accountid=13158

Nov 16

Butt out of here!

A social change that needs to come about is the cutback on the amount of littering that people do. The number one thing that people need to work on is reducing the amount of cigarette butts that are littered in the world. This is not just a problem in the United States, but a worldwide issue that people need to become aware of right away. As of right now it is the most commonly littered piece of trash (Register 2000).

It is estimated that there is close to about 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette butts being littered each year (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). One of the main reasons for this is that people are not educated about the impact of cigarette butts. Many people think that cigarette butts are actually biodegradable, which is entirely untrue. Also, when surveyed many people reported that they did not consider dropping cigarette butts to be considered littering (“The Problems & Facts”). Even with the amount of smokers going down the littering has not gone down (“Cigarette Butt Waste”).

These butts are very dangerous and toxic to our environment. The filters of cigarette butts are made up of cellulose acetate (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes 2009). Even though when one looks at a filter it looks like it would be made out of cotton, but cellulose acetate is actually a kind of plastic that takes a very long time to break down (Register 2000). The sun can break them down, but they will only breakup into small pieces and never fully decompose (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes 2009). The filters then end up making their way into the ocean and being digested by marine life. Just one filter when left in a liter of water leaks enough toxic chemicals to kill all the fish living in the water (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). That was just one filter can you imagine what all the filters are doing to our oceans?

Also, they are not only toxic for the environment, but also toxic for people. As many of us know, children love to put anything and everything in their mouths. So, what happens when you or someone you know takes their child to playground that has cigarette butts lying around? Of course one is bound to end up in a child’s mouth. In 1997 in Rhode Island, there were over 146 cases reported to the Department of Health of butts being ingested by children under the age of six causing signs of nicotine toxicity in about a third of them (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes 2009). They are enough to cause the children to experience vomiting, nausea, lethargy, gagging, and flushing (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). Even though we do not know how many is needed to be ingested to cause adverse health issues do we really want to find out (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, Barnes 2009).

There are a couple of things that we can do to bring about this social change. For off we need to provide more ash receptacles, which has been shown that every addition of one reduces littering of cigarette butts by nine percent (“The Problem & Facts”). So, by putting up more places for people to dispose of their butts we can start reduces the litter. Also, making beach smoke free is said to reduce the number of butts found on the beach by forty-five percent (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). Lastly, informing the property owners about the impact that any kind of litter can have on their property values should push them to want to keep their communities clean (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). It is said that any presence of litter can reduce the property value for an around by a little over seven percent (“The Problems & Facts”). Just doing these three things we should see a difference in the amount of buts being littered.

Everyone talks about wanting a clean and healthy environment for their families, but they do not even realize that they might be taking away from it. Littering is a huge problem throughout the world. If we could get people to just start picking up their cigarette butts we could see a real improvement. Nobody realizes the impact of smoking has on people once the cigarette is smoke. Not only does it hurt people around the smoker when they are smoke, but it also hurts the environment once it flicked out of the car, onto the grass, or anywhere else that is not a trashcan. So, please if you know people who carelessly flick their cigarette butts wherever tell them the impact that they are causing for the rest of us.


Cigarette Butt Waste. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://no-smoke.org/learnmore.php?id=731
Novotny, T. E., Lum, K., Smith, E., Wang, V., & Barnes, R. (2009). Cigarettes Butts and the Case for an Environmental Policy on Hazardous Cigarette Waste. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 6(5), 1691-1705. doi:10.3390/ijerph6051691
Register, K. M. (2000, August). Cigarette Butts as Litter—Toxic as Well as Ugly. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/ciglitterarticle.htm
The Problem & Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from https://www.kab.org/cigarette-litter-prevention/problem-and-facts

Nov 16

(4th Blog Entry, Yoon) Violence is a learned behavior.

Violence is a learned behavior

There is a strong connection between the use of violence and exposure to violence by young adolescents and children. Violence is a learned behavior according to a new study published by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in 2000. According to Robert H. Durant, vice chair of paediatrics at Wake Forest University School of medicine, he stated that adolescents are not likely to engage in violence if social learning from exposure to violence does not occur.

Children and adolescents are very much exposed to violence and carrying weapons. There are several ways that children learn violent behaviors. For instance, family, peer groups, community, and their neighborhoods can be ways where children can get exposed. Moreover, what children and adolescents see on television, music video, video games and movies can reinforce negative behaviors of children.

The researchers asked 722 Georgia middle school students, 11 and 12 years olds living in or around public housing, how many times they had been exposed to or a victim of violence in their communities. In this experiment, DuRant defined that violence can be categorized in five different types; participating in a physical fight which resulted in seeking medical attention, attacking someone with a weapon, using a weapon to force or get money or things from someone, carrying a concealed firearm, and carrying another weapon such as a razor or knife. It is not surprising that they behave aggressively or violent to others when they are physically or sexually abused.

Every child that sees violence at home, in school, or watches violent movies too much or plays too much video games. Violence can come from many different sources. Violence is all around us. If we are not careful out adolescents and children, they will be probably and potentially violent criminals. It is our responsibility as parents to provide the best future for our kids.


Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. (2000, November 9). Violence Is A Learned Behavior, Say Researchers At Wake Forest University. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 27, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001106061128.htm

Nov 16

(3rd Blog Entry, Yoon) Does Jury Size Matter?

Does Jury Size Matter?

In most cases, juries are either 12 or 6 people. In most criminal cases the number of jurors is 12. While I was learning this lesson, I couldn’t stop questioning to myself about how the number of people serving on a jury can “affect” the result of a trial.

In Asch (1951)’s experiment, participants in his study judged the length of a line. A group of confederates in the experiment made an incorrect answer about the line on purpose. For me, the results were quite surprising. The experimental participants tend to conform with the incorrect judgment. They knew they doubted about giving their wrong answers. Yes, an individual’s judgement can be greatly influenced by others.

I think small juries may differ from larger juries in both the quality and deliberations. According to Nicole L. Waters in the National Centre for State Courts, 6-person juries perform worse when recalling the evidence compared to 12-person juries. For example, the likelihood that at least one juror will retain evidence increases in a larger group. Memory recalling is improved in jurors of 12-person juries in long trials. This research got to the outcome that 12 members of juries have a better chance.

I think reducing the size of juries can save more money, but it might be less representative of the community. It is a lot worthier even if courts cover the cost. Here are some reasons why I think jury size does matter. First, small juries have less effective group deliberation, so they might be more exposed to more error-prone. Second, small juries can produce less accurate decision and greater variability. These are highly related to the risk of convicting an innocent person.Therefore, jury size does matter.


Pennsylvania State University: World Campus. 2016. Lesson 8: The Legal System/Criminal Justice. DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCH 424.

Waters, L. Nicole (2004). Does Jury Size Matter?. Retrieved from http://www.ncsc-jurystudies.org/~/media/Microsites/Files/CJS/What%20We%20Do/DOES%20JURY%20SIZE%20MATTER.ashx

Nov 16

(2nd Blog Entry, Yoon) Cultural Identity

Personal identity reflects a person’s sense of his or her own personal qualities and characteristics such as one is funny, outgoing, and smart (Schneider, Grumman, & Coutts, 2012, p. 340). On the other hand, social identity reflects a sense of identity based on the social groups “to which individuals belong or with which they identify” such as being a woman, Asian, and a student (Schneider, Grumman, & Coutts, 2012, p. 340). Culture plays an important key factor. This helps to set an individual’s identity and it does greatly influences how people communicate with each other.

I want to talk about cultural identity because this is a source of influence on our identity, self-concept, and patterns of life-style. What we learn through culture sets beliefs and views how we see and view the world. Culture has mostly everything that compose of our way of life including behaviors, values, attitudes, knowledge, and communication. People build cultures around both the social groups to which we choose to belong.

Our self-concept, identities, and cultural values all affect on how we communicate with other people. We tend to see the world from the perspective of our cultures, and each culture has different and unique values and attitudes about behaviors. For example, I communicate with my friends and family in my home country, South Korea, I tend to be more formal, polite forms of talk with members of Asian communities than friends here in America. American tends to value personal independence and direct talk, while in many Asian countries, personal identity is based on relationships with families and communicates, and the way people talk is guided by the expectations of others.

I see myself as I have two cultural identities, in America and in my home country,  It is exciting to learn new cultural beliefs, behaviors, values, and attitudes. I’ve grown in Asia for 17 years so I was used to think, behave, act, and express in Asian cultural ways. However, learning new culture has changed me a lot. Now I have a different cultural identity in America. How about you? What kinds of cultural identity do you have?


Penn State University, World Campus (Fall, 2016). Psych 424: Lesson 6. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802487/discussion_topics/11378499?module_item_id=21233957

Schneider, F.W., Grumman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012) Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Nov 16

Be Kind.

Social change in my opinion is the oil change for life, which keeps society as a whole functioning. If we aren’t able to address the problems that inhibit society from going forward we can’t progress. As the dimension of time is on a continuum; we as people must move along with it. Therefore, in order to sustain and preserve ourselves we must maintain ourselves. If we don’t address our problems they are much like Cancer; they will grow and eventually wipe us out. Luckily, we have social change research which helps to identify and fix these problems. Some of the several issues which social change research has covered include violence, tobacco use, sexually transmitter diseases, and

Today, I want to share with you a social change campaign a friend of mine started a few years back called the kind campaign. The campaign was started by two young woman Molly Thompson and another named Lauren Parsekian. I grew up with Lauren in the same neighborhood. She always stood out as she was well brought up, drop dead gorgeous, and just about the kindest person you would ever meet. The problem was in middle school and high school girls weren’t nice to Lauren because she was so beautiful. They made up rumors about her, would exclude her from social events, throw things at her and just flat out bully her without remorse.

In college Lauren decided she wanted to take action by creating a documentary regarding girl-to-girl bullying. After gradation her and Molly set out across county with a few other friends to film this documentary. Later on down the road, it turned into a full blown organization in which Lauren and Molly now travel internationally to various schools to give assemblies to young women about the effects of bullying. Their video won several awards and is still played in venues ad school throughout the nation.


So what does this organization do? Well their mission statement is as follows:




In other words, they have acknowledged a social problem within society, which is the viciousness of girl-to-girl bullying, and they have decided they want to diminish the negativity that comes from this issue. Both girls had experienced the consequences of bullying and therefore understood the negative effects it poses. In order to fix bullying situations that damage so many young girls’ self esteem as well as cripples them from living out their full potential Lauren and Molly have tried to reduce bullying through the promotion of the contrary action. Their goal is to dissuade young girls from being mean to each other by positively reaffirming how important it is to be nice. They also encourage girls to pledge not to be victims, meaning that they will pledge to not let what others have to say about them define them. On their website there is tab in which girls can state this pledge as well as apologize and declare forgiveness for situations where bullying has been involved.

Overall, this campaign is one of many that works to make the world a better place and smooth out some of society’s kinks. Anyone can do it. All it takes is someone using a personal experience of the damages that can result from an unresolved social issue such as bullying to make a change in other young girls lives all around the world. When it comes to promoting kindness, it think it’s something we could all have a little more of.



“Join the Movement.” Kind Campaign. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. <https://www.kindcampaign.com/>.

Nov 16

Creating more interests for students

I went to a pretty small high school that was condensed down from four schools. There were about 300 kids in each grade and about 25-30 kids pre classroom. Other than the basic classes, not much else was offered to us. There were limited computer classes, a few engineering classes, one or two art classes, no business classes, and certainly no psychology classes. Then around age 17 we were told to pick a college we want to go to and pick a degree that interested us. Most of us made decisions without experiencing what the rest of the world had to offer.

About 75% of students change their major at least one time before graduating (Freedman, 2013). We are asked to make such a big commitment and decision at such a young age. College students not only commit to four to five years of their life, but also thousands of dollars of debt. Though there is nothing wrong with changing your major, but what if you could narrow down your interests before making such a big commitment?

The ideal plan would be to reform schools, so they can have more to offer to their students. This type of adjustment would require more money for education, which I believe is a great idea, but seems impossible at the moment. Instead, we could create something of a job fair. Several weekend out of the year, teachers could come volunteer their time to teach students about not-so-common topics such as marine biology, psychology, or graphic design.  At the event, students would walk from booth to booth to learn more about a subject, then sign up for the most interesting subject they found. The afternoon would consist of a few hours of class being taught by a volunteer teacher. This would create the chance for students to be exposed to new things early on in life before committing their time and energy to college.


Freedman, L. (2013). The Developmental Disconnect in Choosing a Major. Butler University. Retrieved from https://dus.psu.edu/mentor/2013/06/disconnect-choosing-major/

Nov 16

No-Kill Shelters

I bet almost all of you have shared a house with an animal even for a short amount of time. Pets are amazing; they become like family, and they are remembered for years, even after they pass away. Every pet owner is aware that their pets have a very short life span when compared to humans, and fear that they will never come. I am one of those people, I believe that all animals should have the opportunity to live as long as they are alive.

A no-kill shelter is described as “an animal shelter that does not kill healthy or treatable animals even when the shelter is full, reserving euthanasia for terminally ill animals or those considered dangerous to public safety (No Kill Advocacy Center, 2014).” When the shelters are full, they expand their resources with the help from donators and volunteers, and they work really hard to lower the number of animals in the system by adopting. It is important to spay and neuter these animals in the shelters to prevent further birthing.

I believe an animal still should have the right to live, even if they are a hazard to public safety. There could be special shelters where only these types of animals would live. On the other hand, when an animal is terminally ill and suffering, I believe euthanasia is the correct decision. A dog can’t enjoy life if he’s not going to be able to run and play, and instead be lying down in pain in a room by himself all day.

Who are we to decide on who dies and who lives? How different is this from racism, if we kill a specific kind of animal just to keep the population under control? No dog or cat should die because we want to! Say yes to no-kill shelters!

“No Kill 101: A Primer on No Kill Animal Control Sheltering For Public Officials” 4 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine., No Kill Advocacy Center, accessed 2 September 2014.

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