I will be sharing a significant experience that had a major impact on me and changed my life. The event I will be focusing on is the first few months of my fitness journey. I will apply four social psychological concepts and theories to the event. These concepts and theories will be used to interpret, and gain a fuller understanding of the event and how I was influenced by others. I honestly did not know what I was getting myself into when I first decided to enter the fitness world. Although I had seen many people getting into shape and was told what the journey was like from others, I did not know what to expect the first few months. I had never been overweight, but I was never confident or happy in my own skin. The fitness world was extremely …show more content…
D., & Akert, R. M., 2013). Normative social influence typically occurs in public compliance with the group’s behavior and beliefs in which people would follow along with what others were doing. This concept can be linked to my experience of why I decided to enter the fitness world. This concept can be used to interpret and make sense of my experience and feelings because the fitness world was the new thing among people my age so, I went along with the group’s norm to avoid rejection and …show more content…
D., & Akert, R. M., 2013). In the presence of others, we tend to do better on tasks that are simple and well learned, and we tend to do worse on tasks that are complex and require us to learn something new. We tend to be in a greater state of arousal in the presence of others which can either be beneficial or damaging to our performance on certain tasks. This concept can be linked to my experience of spending much of my time with the group of girls at the gym. This concept can be used to interpret and make sense of my experience and feelings because my performance on simple fitness tasks enhanced in the presence of others. The presence of others gave me this instant state of arousal that pushed me to perform extremely well on fitness tasks I was really good
Claim: When making a decision, people are often influenced by the pressure society places on them in order to follow the social norm, or what is socially accepted.
In the article “Fitness Culture: A Growing Trend in America by Sheila McClain, it speaks in detail why American have increased their interest in health and fitness. Sheila conducts a comprehensive research of the subject and provides strong statics and information from others. Since, we are an age of technology and everyone is more involved in learning we have learned that fitness matters and is a key link to good health.
... day. The hardest part of the experiment was going against social psychology; it was very uncomfortable going against the social norms. We also found that it was difficult to match all of our schedules to be able to do the experiment all together when the gym was full. Overall the experiment taught us that social norms have molded society to believe that they should restrain their original thoughts and actions when in a public place. Lastly, individuals should not disturb other social norms that occur within the range of accepted actions, especially in the area of clothing.
A norm is a group-held belief about how followers should perform in a given environment.[1] Sociologists describe norms as informal identifications that administer society’s performances, while psychologists have adopted a more general classification, recognizing smaller group divisions, like a team or an office, may also endorse norms detached or in addition to cultural or societal expectations. [2] Norms running counter to the activities of the primary society or culture may be conducted and retained within small subgroups of society. [3] For example, Crandall (1988) noted that certain groups like cheerleading squads, dance troupes, sports teams, and sororities have a rate of bulimia, a publicly recognized life-threatening disease that is much higher than society as a whole. Social norms have a way of maintaining order and organizing groups. [4]
The culture of the gym is slowly coming together just after two days of observations. The gym is primarily a male dominant place to do but in our college the only area that is completely dominant is the weight lifting area and that’s only during prime hours. Also on the note of personal space there is noticeably a tendency for both male and female to have a certain amount of space around them like a personal bubble.
While trying to break the movie theater norm, it was difficult for me to pick movies with a different variety of people and movies that were a little older so less people would be attending them. I also had a little trouble when it came to answering the phone and waiting for the other person to talk first. The problem with this one was that I had to wait for people to actually call me, which doesn't happen that often in this day and age anymore. To conclude, these social norms forced people to be in uncomfortable situations and make a decision as to how they would react to it.
There are many different things that influence our behavior, from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are explicit rules that govern how we behave in our society. Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize, but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us to feel uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.
Trisha, a member of an elite fitness club, spoke about the moment she realized her weight loss goal needed to be reevaluated. Trisha weighed almost 300 pounds and was only 5 foot, 4 inches. Her work out partner, Rebecca, was the complete opposite when it came to looks. Rebecca was almost 5 foot, 11 inches and around 120 pounds. Trisha envied Rebecca’s body type and would give anything to trade bodies. Based on their heights and weights most people would look at them and automatically assume the thinner person would win if they raced against each other. After 6 months of working out together Trisha started to realize how much more she could do of everything! She could lift more weight, do more repetitions and stay at a harder pace on every cardio machine they used. One day while on the Stairmaster, Rebecca once again had to completely stop the machine and take a breather while Trisha was at a fast pace nearly jogging up the st...
You’re where you belong and you’re right on time. Whether you've been training for 20 years or wondering about getting back in shape for 20 minutes, you now have at your fingertips the most complete blend of training information and motivation for every level of participation. In a world full of confusion and hype we need straight talk and encouragement more than ever before. We don’t have the time, space or tolerance for anything else.
Elliot Aronson (2012) provides a definition of conformity, two social psychological processes that underlie a conformity and cited examples of reasons why people conform in the book, The Social Animal. Aronson (2012) defines a conformity as “a change in a person’s behavior or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people” (p.19). In accordance with Aronson’s (2012) definition of conformity, people do conform owing to the social influence, which are two main social psychological processes: belonging and getting information.
This text shaped my understanding of sociology because I was able to see how much power society, specifically the majority, can have over an individual because it seems to be the easiest course of action. This concept is known as social conformity. The article Opinions and Social Pressure took the time to convey how the minds of the majority and the minority work, and provides insight on how social conformity shapes our everyday experiences.
Cialdini, Robert B, & Trost, Melanie R. (1998). Social Influence: Social Norms, Conformity, & Compliance. Interpersonal Phenomena. Retrieved from: angel.elmira.edu/section/default.asp?id=w114_PSY3010_01.
To become part of this community I had to figure out the need to be part of it and learn everything I could before I came to be lifting any weights. I did extensive research on how I should place myself as part of the group and how I perceive fitness. The group perception of fitness and how the certain level of fitness is healthy for a person like me. I learnt what the actual meaning of “active lifestyle” was and how it affected “the overall energy” level of the body. I also tapped into different exercises just to see how different exercises affected the “body
In everyday life people are going through different phases in their decision making that will impact how they behave. This goes from thinking about doing something to actually going through with the change. This process that everyone goes through for different lifestyle choices is referred to as the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour (TTM). This theory model can be transferrable to many different situations and not specific to one such as a persons exercise habits or dietary habits. However, from here on this paper will discuss the TTM in terms of a non-exerciser client of a personal trainer. Understanding the TTM is important for personal trainer to understand as they need to know how to encourage and push their clients through the 5 phases of the TTM.
...ancer. I always believed that working out was not as important as everyone made it seem to be, but now I am mindful about it. I can share all the information with my family members and my peers, to enlighten them about the disease, the symptoms, the risks, and the preventions.