Thursday, November 1, 2007

I'm back, I hope you had a Happy Halloween
Hi, I was technically banned from the piano, but I woke up early every day for a week and did manage to play it mistake free for my sister last Sunday. I think the reason I was banned is that I would get obsessed over it and play for hours...cant be good for my hands...but so much fun. Think, hopefully, will start to settle down over here. My history report is down, I am passing math, finished my english test, and just gave my psychology report today. I will be revising my english essay on my dogs and studying math- and that is it for this weekend :) I did not get to enjoy Halloween yesterday though- i procrastinated on my psychology project so was working on it from 4 PM until midnight... Tell me about ya'll halloween, i like hearing about the little kids :)

For those of you study psychology (I dont think any of you are...) or those that are bored can read my psychology report, it is on Impatient people and the bus systm: (names and places were removed becuase of the stalkers (not you guys of course) on the internet, If you do read it-enjoy


"Impatience and the Bus System"
Problem:
People in America are very impatient. They want everything done as quickly as possible. They want everything to adapt to their own schedule. For example, in David Elkind’s book, The Hurried Child, he demonstrates how parents want their kids to learn to read faster, go to school, faster, and get a job faster so that they can achieve what they wanted to before having kids. Parents, as he explains, want this because their own lives are so stressful and fast paced. It is all because our society is so wound up on doing everything in a rapid manner. Other examples of impatience include people rushing disabled people, not because they want to help but because they feel the person is wasting his or her time (Eustice). This impatient often leads to the displaying of “irritated behavior.” According to experts, including Dr. Scott Elizabeth, this behavior may lead to health problems, such as hypertension that are associated with Type A Personality. Therefore, the researcher will be studying impatience in relation to the bus system.

Theory:
Adults tend to display irritated behavior when having to wait for a service.

Hypothesis:
Adults waiting for the bus that normally leaves at 3:05 will display irritated behavior when it arrives after 3:05. Irritated behavior in this experiment is defined as frowning or standing up. Frowning is any facial expression that shows a down turned mouth, is not smiling or that goes from smiling to a blank expression that is neither smiling nor frowning. Standing is any behavior that involves a person’s feet or foot touching the ground without the same person’s bottom touching the ground. For this experiment, swaying and pacing are also considered as standing up.

Methodology:
The researcher studied the people at the bus stop from 3:05 to 3:15, on random days of the week throughout the month of October. Random days were chosen so the researcher would not be studying the same people each time. The researcher, with a wristwatch and a clipboard, sat calmly near the people to record observations. The researcher pretended to be a normal person about to ride the bus and display neutral behavior so as to not impact the results. Times at which the people displayed “irritated behavior” were recorded along with the amount of people displaying it and how.

Results:
This study found that 22 out of 37 people were standing up when the bus arrived late and that 16 of those people were frowning. That number may be lower due to not all of the facial expressions were recorded. All in all, when the bus arrived after 3:05, people clearly displayed irritated behavior, totaling 59 percent.

Discussion:
The fact that twenty-two out of thirty-seven people displayed irritated behavior when the bus was late proves that they do not like their services to be later. This study was consistent in keeping a naturalistic observational state in which it was neutral to the people studied, keeping quiet about the experiment, and remaining calm around the test specimens so that they had no idea that they were being studied. This could be because the people have things to do, such as work, or that being later sets their plans back. This could possibly be because America is turned into a “time-centered” society. Must be to work on time, must be to school on time, must pick up children on time, and watch get home to watch to television on time. It is considered a lack of responsibility to show up late or to take one’s time; therefore, it results in a social aspect of one person is annoyed, the other people have to be annoyed to avoid annoying the already annoyed person. To find out more about this behavior, the people that displayed the irritated behavior need to be interviewed as to why the were displaying that behavior. “Did they need to go somewhere?” “Were they expecting the bus to arrive early?” or “Did they not even notice that they were displaying an irritated behavior?” People could be sitting because they are tired or have a medical condition that prevents them from standing for long periods of time.


Problem B:
People like their services to be quick but are unhappy if the service is not offered when they get there. Therefore, buses should try to arrive early but not leave until their designated time. People display positive behavior when the bus arrives early, therefore complimenting the fact that they display irritated behavior when it is early. Positive behaviors are demonstrated when a person is smiling. Melvin Konner, finding that people by smiling can ease the mind of people around them and calm those who may be slightly frustrated, conducted research on social smiling. People should show positive emotions because it is good for one’s health (Seligman).

Theory:
Adults tend to display positive behavior when his or her service is provided early.

Hypothesis:
Adults waiting for the bus, which normally arrives at 3:05, display positive behavior if it arrives before 3:05. Positive behavior is defined as smiling or sitting down. Smiling is have the mouth turned in an upright direction, or displaying a neutral or blank expression after previously frowning. Sitting is having one’s bottom on the bench or ground.

Methodology:
Like the first study, the researcher conducted the study on random days during the month of October, carrying a clipboard and a watch. The influence on this observation was the time along with the early arrival of the bus. In this study, the focus was on positive behavior, such as smiling and sitting down. Sitting was considered a positive behavior in this experiment because the researcher viewed it as a sign of calmness as compared to being anxious to leave.

Results:
This study found that, when the bus arrived early, 18 people were sitting as compared to 21 standing. This number was not what the researcher was looking for but it is still a closer number than for when the bus arrived late. The number of people smiling was a much clearer determination that people are happy when they get to leave early with only three out of the eighteen studied frowning.

Discussion:
Eighteen out of Thirty-nine people displayed positive behavior when the bus arrived early. This could be due to a number of reasons but proves that people are happy to get on with their lives in the quickest manner possible. Although it is good to see that people display positive behavior when the bus is early but also indicates that they do get annoyed when it is late. However, the displaying of positive behavior could be a social aspect. People smiling because the person next to them is smiling. The smile could have nothing to do with the bus coming early. This is why it needs to be investigated further as to why the people are displaying positive behavior. Maybe
they just had a good day and getting to leave early made them happier. Also, the number of.
people standing could be due to the fact that they don’t feel like sitting or the benches were full
-Copyright myOtaku user, Swords411, Fall 2007

If you did stay to read that whole long thing, thank you very much ^__^ I hope you enjoyed it! Have a Great weekend!
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