In this blog I will be writing about a topic that we have just recently discussed in class. The “Attractions and Relationships” section is one that interests me greatly as during this time of my life, since I have been at college, much has changed in my personal life. Especially with regard to the people I see every day and the people with whom I have either gotten close with at school, or stayed close with from back home. Being a member of the football team satisfies my evolutionary need to belong. However, I believe that my relationships outside of football are very important, as they define me off of the field. I have stayed close with two friends from my hometown in particular since I have been at school, and some psychological factors may be at play. I believe that there is truth to both sayings: “birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract.” One of these friends is very similar to me, to the point where many people have asked if we are brothers. My friendship with him may add evidence to the birds of a feather argument. We played on the same sports teams since middle school, and always shared mutual social interests as well. In this case, likeness begot liking as our friendship became strong enough for us to stay best friends while we live in different states. My other friend may add evidence to support the opposites attract argument. This friend and I did not play any sports together in high school, and even grew to hang out in different friend groups at times. He is a very laid back person who always has a positive and relaxed attitude no matter the situation. This differs from me as many things lead me to be anxious. Our senior year of high school we became closer as we spent more time together. Our “opposite” personalities may have played a role in us becoming better friends. Both of these friends live in separate states, however, we stay in close contact and hang out over our breaks. All in all, I believe that my two closest relationships add evidence to both arguments respectively, that similarity or differences are what attracts people to each other.

I am writing this blog in response to the film, I am not your Negro. The film directly addresses the history of racism and prejudice against African Americans in the United States. Throughout the history of the country, social categories have been socially constructed, with blacks always falling into an inferior category. It is hard for me to know where to begin as there was so much material in this film of the reality of race relations in this country. One main idea that was conveyed throughout the film was the ignorance of whites to the terrible racism in the country. It is portrayed as a blissful and intentional ignorance when the narrator says, “American blindness which allows us to pretend that life presents no reasons for being bitter.” The narrator directly addresses this idea near the end of the film when he states, “not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed without being faced.” It is important for everyone to be aware of the injustices and discrimination that burdens the black man and has burdened him (and her) for centuries. To be changed, it must first be understood and accepted. The race issues in America have been ongoing in this country since its birth, and are still felt today as shown in the film. Race impacts the daily lives of every black person. They must live as a minority under a history of oppression and discrimination. Some psychological burdens faced by stereotyped groups are that they must face the fear of confirming the stereotypes that others have about their group. They must also deal with attributional ambiguity to understand situations in which their minority status may or may not have played a role in a particular event or scenario. Racism and prejudice has affected many friends in my life and continues to affect them today. It it is challenging to sit and talk about how one can fix it. However, it must be the responsibility of individuals to hold themselves accountable to avoid stereotyping and avoid prejudiced thought and behavior. It is one’s responsibility to not stay ignorant to the reality of the African Americans in the country, the same African Americans who helped build and shape the country we live in today; the narrator points out that “The story of the Negro in America, is the story of America.” In conclusion, to prevent or eliminate prejudice, one must take it as a personal responsibility to act according to a high moral standard and resist and denounce racism and discrimination, as mentioned in the film, “you don’t need numbers, you need passion.” It will take personal responsibility and passion to end racism and prejudice.

In this blog post I will be discussing social facilitation, specifically the distraction conflict theory. Recently I had two of my friends from my hometown visit campus and attend one of my football games. I was very excited to see them and to have them see me play, as they have both only seen me play on one other occasion. We were playing Ohio Wesleyan on this day, a team who I have had great success against in the past, and a team whose defense I know how to exploit very well. Unfortunately on this day I had one of the worst games of my career and turned the ball over multiple times. I believe that I was focused on and distracted by the presence of my friends, which led me to perform poorly. After the game I led myself into counter-factual thinking: “what if my friends hadn’t been there? Would I have played better? What if I had prepared differently and not been so focused on their presence?” This may be a recurring theme in my play on the football field. When the same two friends came to watch me play last season, I played in a way that was not typical of myself. It was not outstanding enough for me to attribute my play to their presence, but that occasion too led me to similar counter-factual thinking. I am not completely convinced that I am always a victim of the distraction conflict theory, however. When my uncle came to watch me play college football for the first time last season, I broke three single game records on my way to a near personal best performance. As a whole, there have been times where I have proven the distraction conflict theory, and other times when I have proven social facilitation idea by performing better in the presence of a specific audience.

I am a huge fan of the UFC, the largest international company that sanctions mixed martial arts (MMA) fights. This weekend saw arguably the biggest fight in the history of the UFC. The famed star, Conor McGregor, took on the seemingly invincible Russian, Khabib Numagomedov. McGregor is very rash in his trash talk and is known for his ability to promote fights and attract attention to the company. Meanwhile, Khabib has flown under the radar throughout his career and came into the fight with a 26-0 record. Many people had just heard of Khabib for the first time this weekend because he was fighting the big time star, McGregor. Khabib easily handled McGregor and beat him up for four rounds, forcing him to submit due to a choke. After his victory, Khabib stood up and yelled in McGregor’s face, and proceeded to jump out of the cage and attack the men in McGregor’s corner. This led to chaos and many reactions from announcers and viewers. Because of Khabib’s emotional reaction after his win, many people have judged him as a disrespectful man who is out of control and should never deserve a fight in the UFC again. This, however, is a misattribution of Khabib. Many viewers attributed Khabib’s post fight behavior to his overall demeanor and respectability as a person. In reality, Khabib is a very honorable fighter who has never acted out in his career, and has been respectful of every opponent he has faced thus far. For example, a few fights back after yet another victory, Khabib stood in the middle of the octagon after beating his opponent and held his opponent’s hand up as the symbolic victor, out of respect for him. This fight was different for Khabib, as McGregor and his team provoked him in the months leading up to the fight through media interviews and direct altercations of trash talk and personal degradation. Therefore, Khabib’s emotional reactions after the fight this weekend were due to these factors. Viewers either did not take these external factors into account or underestimated them when they judged his behavior, and applied an internal explanatory style on Khabib for these actions.

Despite telling myself that I would not blog or write about football during this course, I am diving head first into it, in regards to my superstitious behavior. This past weekend, the Lords traveled to Springfield, Ohio to take on the #11 ranked team in the country, Wittenberg. In reflection of this fall, Saturday night, I am now conscious of some psychological concepts that directly affect me in the sport that I have played and loved for years. The grand topic of this blog is…my socks. Each summer I buy a pair or two of sleek, expensive athletic socks to sport during games for the upcoming season. These socks get swapped out depending on how well I play on a game-to-game basis, and whether I stay injury-free or not. So, I wore my NBA-Jordan socks for our game against Oberlin this season. During this game I broke 2 separate Kenyon records en route to a near personal best performance. Of course, the next game I wore the same socks expecting them to produce the same result. Then comes the Wittenberg game, where I completed fewer passes than any game in my career, suffered a mild concussion, and possibly damaged cartilage in an already weathered left knee. This is a classic, and admittedly basic illusion of control that I displayed. I define illusion of control as believing that chance events are subject to my own control. The chance that the socks I wear during games affects the likelihood that I do not get injured is 0%, or close to it. This plays directly into the parallel concept of illusory correlation; my perception of a relationship between the socks that I wear during games and how well I play/how healthy I stay. Despite a clear example of my personal superstition not working to my advantage, and the reality of psychological research holding true, I will continue my sock-switching habits, and the NBA-Jordan socks will not be on my feet as we take on Ohio Wesleyan next weekend. This is despite the fact that I know that extreme statistics, on either end of the spectrum, tend to return to the average statistic. With this is mind, despite having a poor game last weekend with my ‘lucky’ socks on, according to the idea of regressing toward the mean (my season average in this case), I can still expect to have a 3,000 yard season regardless of my footwear habits (God-willing).

I am writing today about a personal experience that happened to me in the semi-recent past. I had a girlfriend of about 6-7 months when she decided that it was time to break up. Naturally, I was curious as to why as things had been going very smoothly for us up to almost the very last minute; and, naturally, her response was that it was not me but that it was her. Of course it seemed to typical of a response, but I did my best to refrain from assuming other reasons, and took her word for it. Since then, we have reconciled our relationship and gotten back together. She has explained that she did not know what she wanted at the time, and that she was very confused and overwhelmed with life and her lack of control over it. I believe that her freshmen year of college really challenged her self-concept, the way that she really thought about herself. He working self concept throughout that year was ever changing, with a lot of ups and downs therein. I believe that the college experience was overwhelming to her and sent her into a mental state that she had never been in before, one of lack of control and a need to always be on top of important things in life. Being in a relationship added to her confusion and doubt about her self concept, and I believe that is what led to our split. I believe her lack of accuracy about her self concept was due to being overwhelmed with life in general (not knowing a major, pressure from family and friends, having someone to answer to all the time). Her life experiences were as such that her support system from her friends has always been spotty, and not the best influence on her. Her values get torn between what she knows is right and what the people around her are doing, which I relate to the self-discrepancy theory. This is my blog for the week, and something that had just been on my mind recently, that I hope I was able to successfully relate to the recent lectures and discussions.

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Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton