Extra Credit Blog- I'm Bringing Sexy Back

I feel like I’m filling out a social psychology cosmo quiz, lol…

My 5 favorite and sexiest social psychological theories are:
1. Affective forecasting because I think it is amazing that we underestimate our ability to deal with tragic situations, especially in light of the recent happenings of tonight. This theory is sexy to me because it blows the lid off of so many beliefs people have about the prevalence of both positive and negative emotions in their lives.
2. The availability heuristics because I never realized the types of short cuts that we used when we are cognitively loaded or disinterested. This theory of the use of these heuristics really proves that were are motivated tacticians in that sometimes we are really motivated and will not take short cuts and will analyze every detail, but that other times we will be cognitive misers and use heuristics when we do not care to or are unable to focus our whole attention on processing information.
3. Triangular theory of love is super sexy because it really simplifies our ideas about love into a model. As “unsexy” as this seems for the love portion of my life (and I hate dwindling down love and analyzing it) I think it is super cool and inventive from a social psychological standpoint. It’s basically giving you the recipe for an awesome relationship, who the hell doesn’t want that?
4. Social facilitation is a sexy theory to me because it explains a lot of my epic performance failures in band and in school. The idea that people excel in the presence of others on easy tasks and have a tendency to be less than perfect on hard tasks explains a lot of my frustration with my instrument playing in high school band… and now I understand why, ah the great feeling of relief and understanding.
5. Social loafing also probably does not seem like a very sexy social psychological theory, but to me it explains a lot about human behavior. As humans, we will put forth the effort when we know we can be recognized and rewarded for that effort but will slack off when we know that our effort can not be identified and therefore we take a little vacation. This explains all the horrible group projects I’ve ever been in, thank you so much Mr. Bibb Latané and colleagues.

My 5 sexiest social psychologists are:
1. Dan Gilbert of course! Not only did he come up with the ideas of affective forecasting but he is also Dr. G’s advisor. BUT, the best part is that he is such a hottie, those pictures that were shown in class make me feel initially attracted to him ;) haha. Also, he seems to be interesting and funny and I want to read his book Stumbling on Happiness.
2. Gottman has got to be on my top 5 hottest social psychologists because of his research in the love lab. His 4 horseman of the apocalypse in terms of relationships is provocative, interesting, and relevant to most people’s lives.
3. Kurt Lewin has got to be one of the coolest social psychologists ever for the mere fact that he convinced people to buy and eat organ meat! Props to Mr. Lewin! Also, he was the man who found that behavior was a function of person and environment and that is one of the basic founding principles of social psychology.
4. Timothy Wilson who I’m not sure was mentioned in great depth in our book is a pretty cool social dude, he wrote my book for the book project and I thought that what he had to say was really interesting and ground breaking. His ideas and studies are pertinent to everyone and should be read by everyone.
5. Last, but certainly not least is Asch. I think that his research made an interesting point in a way that did not cause any permanent psychological damage to anyone! He study demonstrated that even on basic tasks with strangers, people do not want to cause conflict and will therefore conform to the group most of the time.