Unit 06

Unit 6:
Socializing on the Internet
 Unit 6: Assignment #1 (due before 11:59 pm Central on MON FEB 24):

  1. First, read the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary definition of Online Dating.
  2. Then, read both of the following articles:
    1. Vogel and McClain’s (2023) Pew Research Summary, “Key Findings about Online Dating in the U.S.,” which presents 12 findings about online dating in the U.S. (Each finding is numbered and highlighted in gold.)
    2. Thottam’s (no date) article, “Online Dating Statistics You Should Know,” which is sponsored by eHarmony and presents seven findings about online dating. (Each finding is numbered and separated by a dashed line.)
  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 19 you read) that surprised you the most – and why they surprised you the most; and
    2. the two findings (of the 19 you read) that surprised you the least – and why they surprised you the least.
    3. When identifying and describing each finding, be sure to quote the finding and refer to the article’s author.

Unit 6: Assignment #2 (due before 11:59 pm Central on TUE FEB 25):

  1. Read the Wikipedia entry on Interpersonal Attraction (which includes an explanation of four psychological principles: (1) Propinquity; (2) Mere Exposure; (3) Similarity Attraction; and (4) 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 at least two of the four 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 WED FEB 26):

  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 members 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 FEB 28):

  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. University of Pennsylvania’s Psychology Professor Adam Grant’s (2022) tweet about a large-scale (2022) research study.
    5. The abstract of Lopes and Yu’s (2017) article, “Who Do You Troll and Why.”
    6. The abstract of Buckels et al.’s (2018) article, “Internet Trolling and Everyday Sadism: Parallel Effects on Pain Perception and Moral Judgment.”
    7. Newman’s (2014) article, “Einstein and Curie Dealt With Trolls All the Time.”
    8. 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. Why did you choose to analyze Lindy West’s cyberbully or Francie Diep’s cyberbully?
    2. What social psychological principles underlie the cyberbully’s aggression (from the summary of Smith and Mackie’s Social Psychology textbook you read)?
    3. What personality traits might underlie the cyberbully’s aggression (from Gross’s article, Pashler’s tweet, Grant’s tweet, Buckels et al.’s abstract, and Lopes and Yu’s abstract)?
    4. Was the aggression hostile or instrumental (according to the definitions you read in Smith and Mackie’s Social Psychology textbook)?
    5. 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 (according to Newman’s article and Popova’s article)?
    6. Be sure to refer to all the materials you were required to read and state all the authors’ names.

Unit 6: Assignment #5 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN MAR 2):

  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. Begin your one-hour Group Chat by doing the following: Each Chat Group member needs to indicate ONE of the nine “How Are You Feeling at the START of Today’s Group Chat?” images. More than one Chat Group member can indicate the same image if that’s how they are feeling, and please refer to each image by its number.
  4. 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.
  5. At the end of your one-hour Group Chat:
    1. First: 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. Second: 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. Third: 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 full name of the assignment (Unit 6: Assignment #5), the full name of your Chat Group, the first and last name of each Chat Group member who participated in the Group Chat, the day and date of your Group Chat (e.g., Sunday, September 3), 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, do the following:
      • Each Chat Group member needs to indicate ONE of the nine “How Are You Feeling at the END of Today’s Group Chat?” images. More than one Chat Group member can indicate the same image if that’s how they are feeling, and please refer to each image by its number.
      • NOTE: The “How Are You Feeling at the END of Today’s Group Chat” grid of images differs from the “How Are You Feeling at the START of Today’s Group Chat” grid of images.
      • As a group, the Chat Group needs to arrange the day, date, and time that your Chat Group will meet to hold the Group Chat for the next Unit (Unit 7: Assignment #5).

Unit 6: Assignment #6 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN MAR 2):

  1. Complete the Unit 6 Course Review Sheet (which is a fillable PDF; refer to previous Units’ instructions for how to download onto your own device, save on your own device, rename on your own device, and then fill in on your own device — by typing, not copying — a fillable PDF).
    1. Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit06_CourseReview.pdf; then fill it in by typing, not copying.
    2. Remember that each Course Review Sheet in this course will be cumulative, so be sure to fill in by typing ALL pages.
  2. Make progress on your Term Project.
    1. Begin mastering your presentation medium.

    2. If you’ve chosen the Whole Course option, you should be caught up to the current Unit with your overviewing/journaling.

      • Take a partial screenshot of your overviews/journals of Units 4, 5, and 6. Make sure your partial screenshot shows the Unit numbers of the Units you have overviewed/journaled.

    3. If you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, continue your search for outside sources (meaning sources not provided by our course) by finding at least three additional possible sources for your Deep Dive and writing a brief description of each source.

      • Take a partial screenshot of your list of at-least-six possible sources (at least three that you found last unit and at least three that you found this unit), along with a brief description of each source. Your partial screenshot should contain the at-least-six possible sources AND their brief descriptions.

    4. Compose at least 200 words describing

      • which project you’ve chosen (if you’ve chosen the Whole Course option of assembling a detailed overview of the course for an audience other than college students, be sure to identify your intended audience; if you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, be sure to tell us which topic/question you’ve chosen),
      • which presentation medium you’ve chosen,
      • and what work you completed on your Term Project during this unit. Remember that you should be allocating about two hours per Unit to your Term Project.
    5. Save your at-least-200 words as a PDF that includes your partial screenshot (embedded within your PDF) and name your PDF, YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit06_TermProject.pdf. The text in your partial screenshot does not count toward the at-least-200 words you are required to write.
  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 Course 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; remember to include your screenshot within your 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!