Human behaviour can be influenced by an observer

Human behaviour can be influenced by an observer.

A real life situation is if an observer were to come into a classroom full of students and they were aware of the observer, it would cause demand characteristics, where a person changes their behaviour in order to perform what they think is expected. They wouldn’t act as they usually would, for example, if the principle were to watch them, the students may talk less with each other and act more focused than they may usually be. Demand characteristics can happen in many psychological experiments, for example, Brown and Kulik’s experiment in 1977 on flashbulb memories. Brown & Kulik gave 80 participants questionnaires which had a series of nine events, like the assassination of President Kennedy, and they were asked to recall the circumstances when they first heard about the event. Where the participants said they remembered the event, they were asked to write a detailed account about what happened that day and rate it on a scale of personal importance. The way the question is framed can induce demand characteristics, as the question makes the participant assume that they should know about the event. Moreover, this means that they might lie about remembering the event and the researchers cannot verify if the stories are true, making the experiment less reliable. When people are aware they are being observed, the task or observer creates an implicit demand for the people to perform as expected. 

How does poetry (song lyrics) affect my life

Poetry does not play a big role in my life simply because I don’t really invest my time into reading poetry, however listening to music does have an impact on me as I listen to music everyday. When a song resonates with me, I usually listen to it a lot as I either like the tune of the song, the message and or lyrics of the song. I have different playlists that I listen to when I have different emotions and sometimes it helps me relate to someone as I may be going through the same thing, or it distracts me from what is happening by telling a story about something random. The lyrics of songs can be important as the audience can see why the artist chose a word or said something instead of something else and gives us something to relate to or something we can understand. However, with music I think that it’s important to have a good tune and rhythm because it can play a role on whether a person likes the song or not. I really first listen to the lyrics after I listen to the tune of the song.

How Can We Help One Another During the Coronavirus Outbreak?

I think the biggest thing that we can all do is to stay safe and not put others at risk, by staying at home or social distancing when going out for essentials. We can all try to motivate each other however it is important to stay safe and not put a risk on spreading the virus since it is getting worse and people are losing so much because of it. We are social animals and we need human interaction once in a while for us to feel happy. The lack of human interaction can be made up by calling each other online but it’s not the same as real life interaction and they are limited. I think we could also feel left out from experiences as we can’t do anything and feel lonely since we stay in the same place every day. So anything that is positive or something that makes us smile for even a second it will make us feel better.

What songs matter to you

My favourite band since G10 has been Tame Impala mainly as the vibe is different to other artists and I found it interesting, so I started listening to more of their songs. On spotify the most listened song was Borderline by Tame Impala, Kevin Parker deals with themes of a relationship on its last legs while questioning the nature of love. Although I have no experience with love but the way the song flows makes it easier for me to listen to it. The song can be described as “‘borderline’ as a personal metaphor for the rocky in-between spaces of a turbulent relationship. “Borderline” further carries, as an adjective, connotations of uncertainty and risk”. There is a line in the song which refers to his old album; “Shout out to what is done, R.I.P, here comes the sun”, it may also be a reference to “Here Comes the Sun,” one of the most famous Beatles songs of all time. The Beatles are one of the largest influences on Parker. Recently I have also been listening to Beatles songs, my favourite songs right now being “Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite!”, the song is based off of a poster that John Lennon bought in an antique shop in January of 1967. The song distracts me from what is going on as it doesn’t have a very significant meaning behind it as it’s about a poster that John Lennon has. Another favourite song of mine is “Run for your life”,  Its lyrics deal with an abusive relationship, where the narrator implies that he is threatening to kill his girlfriend if she cheats on him. I’m not sure why I listen to songs about relationships, perhaps because sometimes these songs could reflect the reality of some relationships, and this song is interesting as the lyrics don’t match the tune of the song. I find those songs really interesting and it brings me to another alternate universe where I don’t have to think about the stress I have especially in a time like this.