Unit 06

Unit 6:
Socializing on the Internet
 Unit 6: Assignment #1 (due before 11:59 pm Central on THU JUL 2):

  1. First, read the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary definition of Online Dating.
  2. Then, read all of the following articles:
    1. Smith’s (2016a) Pew Research Summary, “5 Facts about Online Dating,” which presents five findings about online dating.
    2. Smith’s (2016b) Pew Research Summary, “15% of American Adults Have Used Online Dating Sites or Mobile Dating Apps,” which presents three findings about online dating.
    3. Matthews’ (2017) article, “Online Dating Statistics: Dating Stats from 2017,” which is sponsored by Zoosk and presents six findings about online dating.
    4. Thottam’s (no date) article, “Online Dating Statistics You Should Know,” which is sponsored by eHarmony and presents seven findings about online dating.
  3. Go to the Unit 6: Assignment #1 and #3 Discussion Board and make a new post, of at least 200 words, in which you identify and describe
    1. the two findings (of the 21 you just read) that surprised you the most – and why they surprised you the most; and
    2. the two findings (of the 21 you just read) that surprised you the least – and why they surprised you the least.
    3. When identifying and describing these findings, be sure to quote the finding and refer to the article’s author.

Unit 6: Assignment #2 (due before 11:59 pm Central on THU JUL 2):

  1. Read the Wikipedia entry on Interpersonal Attraction (that includes an explanation of Propinquity; Mere Exposure; Similarity Attraction; and Complementarity).
  2. Read through some definitions of the term “niche.”
  3. Read Abad-Santo’s (2014) article, “Why 1.5 Million People Are on a Dating Site called Farmers Only.”
  4. Find out about a niche dating site (or app) that was not mentioned in Abad-Santo’s article and has not been mentioned by another student in your section.
  5. Go to the Unit 6: Assignment #2 Discussion Board and make a new post, of at least 200 words, in which you
    1. identify (by name) and describe the niche dating site (or app) you found; and
    2. discuss, using the social psychological principles of Interpersonal Attraction, why daters might enjoy this niche dating site (or app).

Unit 6: Assignment #3 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI JUL 3):

  1. Go to the Unit 6: Assignment #1 and #3 Discussion Board and make a response (a reply) to all the other students who are in your Chat Group. [Note that this is your two- or three-student Chat Group, not your nine- or ten-student Section.]
  2. In each of your response posts, each of which should be at least 200 words, discuss whether you found the same (or similar) findings to be the most surprising and the least surprising.
  3. If all the other students in your Chat Group have not yet posted to the Unit 6: Assignment #1 Discussion Board, you will need to wait until they do OR until the due date for Unit 6: Assignment #1 has passed (you will not be held responsible for responding to other Chat Group members’ posts if the Unit 6: Assignment #1 due date has passed, and all your Chat Group members have  not yet posted on the Unit 6: Assignment #1 Discussion Board).

Unit 6: Assignment #4 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI JUL 3):

  1. First, read all of the following:
    1. A summary of the chapter on Interpersonal Aggression from Smith and Mackie’s (2007) Social Psychology textbook.
    2. Gross’s (2014) article, “Online Trolls Are ‘Everyday Sadists’.”
    3. University of California, San Diego Psychology Professor Hal Pashler’s tweet in response to Gross’s article. (Be sure you know the definition of ‘avow.’)
    4. The abstract of Lopes and Yu’s (2017) article, “Who Do You Troll and Why.”
    5. The abstract of Buckels et al.’s (2018) article, “Internet Trolling and Everyday Sadism: Parallel Effects on Pain Perception and Moral Judgment.”
    6. Newman’s (2014) article, “Einstein and Curie Dealt With Trolls All the Time.”
    7. Popova’s (2014) article, “Why Haters Hate: Kierkegaard Explains the Psychology of Cyber-Bullying and Online Trolling in 1847.”
  2. Then, choose one of the following.
    1. Listen to the first 25 minutes of the NPR’s (January 23, 2015 episode), “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS,” during which Lindy West confronts her cyberbully on air. (A transcript of the radio show is available here.)  OR
    2. Read Francie Diep’s (2014) article, “Confronting My Cyberbully, 13 Years Later.”
      • For one person’s explanation for why Francie Diep’s cyberbully might not remember cyberbullying Francie 13 years ago, see BarkAtKit’s (2019) tweet about why Lady Gaga’s cyberbullies from 15 years ago might not remember cyberbullying her.
  3. Go to the Unit 6: Assignment #4 Discussion Board and create a post, of at least 200 words, in which you analyze either Lindy West’s cyberbully or Francie Diep’s cyberbully.
    1. What social psychological principles underlie the cyberbully’s aggression (from the summary of Smith and Mackie’s Social Psychology textbook you read)?
    2. What personality traits might underlie the cyberbully’s aggression (from Gross’s article, Pashler’s tweet, Buckels et al.’s abstract, and Lopes and Yu’s abstract)?
    3. Was the aggression hostile or instrumental (according to the definitions you read in Smith and Mackie’s Social Psychology textbook)?
    4. Is the type of bullying and trolling we see on the Internet a new phenomenon, or has it been around since the days of Kierkegaard and Einstein (from Newman’s article and Popova’s article)?
    5. As always, be sure to refer to all the materials you read (or the radio program you listened to) and state all the authors’ names.

Unit 6: Assignment #5 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN JUL 5):

  1. Meet online with your small Chat Group for a one-hour text-based Group Chat at a time/date that your Chat Group previously arranged.
  2. Prior to your one-hour Group Chat, all members of your Chat Group must read the following:
    1. All of Bazelon’s (2013) article, “How to Stop the Bullies.”
    2. The abstract of Munger’s (2017) article, “Tweetment Effects on the Tweeted: Experimentally Reducing Racist Harassment.”
    3. The brief CBS (2017) article, “Kal Penn raises $500,000 for Syrian Refugees in Response to Troll.”
    4. All of Reynolds’ (2017) article, “Cyberbullying: Comparatively Rarer than Traditional Bullying,” which summarizes a large-scale study (of 110,000 teenagers) and has a recommendation for reducing cyberbullying on its last page. (But be sure to read the entire four-page article.)
    5. The summary of Pew Research Center’s (2017) survey, “Four Major Themes about the Future of the Online Social Climate.”
    6. The abstract of Cunningham et al.’s (2015) article, “Modeling the Anti‐Cyberbullying Preferences of University Students.”
  3. During your one-hour Group Chat:
    1. Discuss the methods you learned about in the Bazelon, Munger, and Kal Penn articles, that have been tried to stop cyberbullying.
    2. Discuss the suggestion made in Reynolds’ article to stop cyberbullying.
    3. Discuss the suggestions made in the Pew Research Center’s survey.
    4. Discuss the methods you learned in Cunningham’s abstract that other university students believe will be effective in stopping cyberbullying.
    5. Feel free to also share with your Chat Group any other methods you know about that have been tried for stopping cyberbullying.
    6. Discuss which of these methods your Chat Group thinks would be most and least effective in stopping cyberbullying.
    7. Then, as a group, design an effective system to deter, if not eliminate, cyberbullying.
  4. At the end of your one-hour Group Chat:
    1. Nominate one member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Chat) to make a post on the Unit 6: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that summarizes your Group Chat in at least 200 words.
    2. Nominate a second member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Group Chat using the browser Chrome on their laptop, rather than on their mobile device) to save the Chat transcript, as described in the Course How To (under the topic, “How To Save and Attach a Chat Transcript”), and attach the Chat transcript, in PDF, to a post on the Unit 6: Assignment #5 Discussion Board.
    3. Nominate a third member of your Chat Group (who also participated in the Chat) to make another post on the Unit 6: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that states the name of your Chat Group, the names of the Chat Group members who participated the Chat, the date of your Chat, and the start and stop time of your Group Chat.
    4. If only two persons participated in the Chat, then one of those two persons needs to do two of the above three tasks.
    5. Before ending the Chat, your Chat Group should try to arrange the time for the Group Chat you will need to hold during the next Unit (Unit 7: Assignment #5).

Unit 6: Assignment #6 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN JUL 5):

  1. Complete the Unit 6 Review Sheet (which is a fillable PDF; refer to previous Units’ instructions for how to download, save, rename, and fill in a fillable PDF).
    1. Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit06_CourseReview.pdf; then fill it in.
    2. Remember that each Review Sheet in this course will be cumulative, so be sure to fill in ALL pages.
  2. Continue to work on your Term Project.
    1. Begin mastering your presentation medium.
    2. If you’ve chosen the Whole Course option, you should be caught up, with your journaling or overviewing, to the current Unit.
    3. If you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, continue your research.
    4. Compose at least 200 words describing which project you’ve chosen, which presentation media you’ve chosen, and the work you did on your Term Project during the current Unit. Remember that you should be allocating about two hours per Unit to your Term Project.
    5. Save your 200 words as a PDF that is named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit06_TermProject.pdf.
  3. Go to Unit 6: Assignment #6 (which is an Assignment link, not a Discussion Board) and
    1. use the “File Upload” tool to attach/upload your completed Unit 6 Review Sheet (click “Choose File” to attach/upload your filled-in PDF);
    2. click on “+ Add Another File” to attach/upload your 200-word composition about your Term Project (saved in PDF); and
    3. immediately after submitting your assignment, check to make sure that your filled-in PDF is really filled-in (isn’t empty) and that your PDF about your Term Project is also attached and complete.

Congratulations, you have finished Unit 6! Onward to Unit 7!