Good, Bad, and Loving
Every human has some social needs and requirements to explore new adventures in life. Social psychology refers to dealing, interacting, and building relationship with people, which should be ethical, respectful, fondling, and cooperative (Mcleod, 2022). Otherwise, it could lead to emotional disaster and encourage the personalities to become anti-social or adopt anti-social behaviors. Social psychologists provide us with various reasons and understandings to differentiate between both behaviors, as social interaction is necessary to live life (Mcleod, 2022).
PSYC FPX 3520 Assessment 4 Good, Bad, and Loving
People with different personalities get different social acceptance; however, it is necessary to understand which social interaction is effective for our psychological health and how it should be catered to successfully. Sometimes in life, many incidents lead other people to misunderstand your action, so it is required to resolve it through effective and ethical confrontation without disrespecting others’ emotions and feelings (Mcleod, 2022).
In this assessment, we will continue to analyze the Susan case study and her ups and downs especially related to social acceptance. For this purpose, the scholarly sources will be applied with effective theories to help develop understanding.
Summarize the Case Study
Susan continues her studies in college and gives herself a calm environment to climb each stair gradually. One day, she gets invited by Mark to the party thrown by him and his friend Joe, whom she often sees in that coffee shop as she has yet to take any break from her studies, so she accepts the invitation. She gets excited to get social interaction and have a good time, and when she goes to the party, Mark introduces her to Joe and his date, and everyone gets attracted by her strong personality. She soon adjusted to the party but sensed that Mark was taking her affection wrongly.
Mark and Joe are speaking of her, which makes her learn that Mark is taking her friendly nature much more than that as she allows him to hold her hand and talks sweetly. However, to resolve the misunderstanding, at the end of the party, she calls herself a cab and appreciates Mark’s kindness as she had a great fun night, and for the kind gesture, she accepts his friend request on Facebook. By doing so, she thought it would not give him the wrong idea, and she would let him know that she was not into him but admired her as a friend because they had just officially met for the first time.
However, after some days, Susan got notifications on her Facebook account where Mark posted love stories about her regarding confirming her relationship status with her, which made her confront Mark for misinterpreting her friendly nature. She thought she must clarify the misunderstanding between them. However, it will be painful for Mark, but she must be honest with others, especially regarding feelings. Mark posts his love publicly, which makes her craft a sensitive message where she can affectionately turn down the relationship status publicly. She was sure about her doings as they met only once, although she had a fun night and enjoyed the party; that impression misunderstood Mark, so she respectfully set clear boundaries in that reply and unfriended him by showing her determination. Hence, social psychology theories will be used, and unrequited love best fits this scenario.
Credible and Scholarly Sources Relevant To a Particular Theory
- Clark et al. (2019) discussed unrequited love, which means this is a one-sided love where the other person does not involve their feelings or accept the other person’s emotions. Most of the time, people do it secretly and hesitate to display their love to that person because of fear of rejection (M. Clark et al., 2019). According to this research, the motivation to remain friends with the rejecter can help maintain the relationship. However, rejection cause distress among people as it lowers their morale and makes them feel vulnerable in front of that person because they feel their failure as a pursuer (M. Clark et al., 2019). However, this research indicates that the motivation to be the friend of the rejecter is to keep the person less distressed and keep their mental health stable as they get the chance to repair their friendship with the rejecter (M. Clark et al., 2019).
On the other side, Dwyer (2020) scrutinized the scientific cure for unrequited love and heartbreak because one-sided affection can severely impact the mental and physical health of the person, so its cure should be done ethically and carefully (Dwyer, 2020). Unrequited love mostly impacts negatively on the people who are loved first, and if any of them confess their love to that person and get rejected, then it might break their heart. A broken heart can cause many impacts, such as chest tightness and shortness of breath (Dwyer, 2020).
However, the important part is determining the severity level of unrequited love as it varies from the timeline. The longer the liking can cause major heartbreak, but if it was the attraction and developing feelings for that particular person for a short period of time, then it might not have major or severe symptoms like chest pain (Dwyer, 2020). However, there could be distress, anger, and behavior issues like the ego of getting rejected, which also negatively impact mental and physical health (Dwyer, 2020).
PSYC FPX 3520 Assessment 4 Good, Bad, and Loving
Social Psychological Research Studies Relate to Particular Social Psychological Theory
Psychological behaviors significantly impact human lives, and for this purpose, psychologists provide research and theories to interpret the behavior effectively (Baumeister & Bushman, 2020). The psychologists included the theories in the research studies to make the process more straightforward and convenient, as theories and models provide frameworks to tackle specified situations properly (Baumeister & Bushman, 2020). Social psychological researches enable psychologists and other fellow humans to learn about behaviors, attitudes, and social interaction skills with other people because, as a human, we require engagement and relationships to maintain our social lifestyle. For this purpose, psychologists and researchers aligned the research with theories where each perception and idea is based on a specified attitude and behavior (Baumeister & Bushman, 2020).
With the help of theories, the researchers can predict and analyze the results and variable relationships. All the incidents are most likely linked with thinking and ideas; however, they could be good, bad, or loving (Baumeister & Bushman, 2020). Similarly, Susan also faced the emotional transition of Mark, which made her confront her feelings by replying to his Facebook post respectfully and clearly to dismiss his misinterpretation.
Apply a Social Psychological Theory to Chosen Case Study
According to this case study, unrequited love applied to Mark because Susan did not develop the feelings and emotions like Mark. Susan accepted the invitation because of her hectic routine, and she wanted to have a fun night with people, but Mark misunderstood her friendliness for love, and he thought she was into him, so she did not refuse his invitation. Susan enjoyed the party and allowed Mark to get free with her, which gave him the wrong signs; however, as soon as she realized this, she thanked him for the amazing night’s fun and booked a cab herself. She thought doing so would make Mark understand that she only accepted the invitation to meet new people and have a fun night, but after a few days, she noticed that Mark publicly approached her and publicized his relationship status with her. This move of Mark makes Susan straightforward in a lenient way, not to disrespect Mark’s feelings but reject his love as they met only once officially. She drafted the text to publicly turn down his love on that post which refers to the theory of unrequited love for Mark.
For example, unrequited love defines having a crush on another person because of small interaction or their attractive personality and getting rejected by them due to not having the same feeling for the person who loves (Lawrenz & I. Lebow, 2022). Susan does not feel the same as Mark after only one meeting, while Mark develops romantic feelings for her because of her friendly nature.
Apply an Ethical Reasoning Concept to a Chosen Case Study
In Susan’s scenario, we can implement the Moral Awareness ethical concept. Susan was completely aware of her feelings for Mark, while Mark got the wrong signs because of Susan’s attractive personality and friendly nature. When Susan encountered Mark’s feelings through Facebook posts, she decided to turn him down ethically so that his feelings and emotions do not get disturbed and cause him distress which was a good ethical response by Susan. However, she had to put that reply publicly because Mark announced his love for her publicly, which made her a little hesitant and confused. The way Mark announced his love and affection was completely wrong as he did not take her consent before publicizing their relationship. Susan has a friendly nature, and as he invited her (the party’s host), she allowed him to get friendly, which gave him the wrong signals. However, the behavioral ethical concept that could best fit this situation is Moral awareness, where Susan knows her moral limits and how to carry them during social interaction (Gheaus, 2021).
Behavioral ethics refers to the decision people make that could be ethical or non-ethical (Gheaus, 2021), and in this scenario, Mark’s decision was non-ethical while Susan tackled the situation nicely. Her moral awareness made her more careful and calmed while responding to Mark’s confession publicly, as she did not want to harm his feelings even though he crossed the limit of behavioral ethics.
Apply a Critical Thinking Concept to a Chosen Case Study
Social psychology encourages critical thinking because it motivates researchers, readers, analyzers, and psychologists to analyze the situation and present their thoughts critically. Different personalities can have different views on particular criteria representing their nature and thinking (The British Psychological Society, 2022). Critical thinking can be two types: Confidence in Reason (which strongly believes in own ability) and Fairmindedness (which treats every person view credible). Both have different statements as confidence in reason defines having confidence in your perspective that your interest is superior among all the concepts and habitual tendency to make a decision based on your ability, while fair-mindedness refers to having awareness and respect for every person’s views and treat all perspectives accurate without interfering your interests (Brown, 2018).
Similarly, the Susan case study also referred to some conclusions and findings, and Susan took Mark possession friendly and decided to correct him without interfering with moral and ethical concepts. However, if we look through Mark’s side, he was slightly kind to her due to her strong personality and pleasant characteristics, plus she accepted his invitation firsthand, making him think she also felt the same. Furthermore, at the party, Susan does not avoid or prevent him from being friendly with her, which gives him wrong ideas, and his love develops. However, she showed ethics at the end of the party and booked herself a cab which made him sad and caused him to attempt unethical procedures. However, if we analyze the whole situation, Joe’s friend of Mark also greatly contributed to making up Mark’s mindset regarding Susan, which leads him in the wrong direction. However, we used the fair-mindedness approach by considering both sides and perspectives because encouraging Mark’s views by Joe made him fall in love with her while Susan behaved like a good friend and nothing else (Brown, 2018).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Susan, who wants to have a hangout and social interaction due to her hectic study routine, accepts the invitation to Mark for his house party. At the party, Susan enjoys herself a lot and behaves like a good friend to Mark, which gives him the wrong interpretation and makes him fall in love with her. However, as this was their first interaction, Susan did not get attached and left him at the end of the party, which made Mark heartbroken here; we applied the unrequited love theory of social psychology. However, Susan stayed calm and fully understood the situation of Mark, which created a soft corner for him, and she decided to reject him publicly while staying ethical. Due to her moral awareness, she successfully sets boundaries and does not insult Mark’s love for her. Both sides have different perspectives, which changed the stories for each of them, so fair-mindedness is the best approach to apply here.
PSYC FPX 3520 Assessment 4 Good, Bad, and Loving
References
Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2020). Social Psychology and Human Nature. In Google Books. Cengage Learning. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=IwfFDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Social+Psychological+Research+Relatedness+with+Social+Psychological+Theory&ots=azcuAaRwFk&sig=M4Y3GR1i88x4UzdQuzxZcswIZTs
Brown, E. J. (2018, March 18). Fair-Minded critical thinking in development education: Reflections on Pedagogies for Transformation. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 6(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.18546/ijdegl.06.1.02
Dwyer, B. (2020). The Need for a Scientific Cure for Feelings of Heartbreak and Unrequited Love. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://www.academia.edu/42105233/The_Need_for_a_Scientific_Cure_for_Feelings_of_Heartbreak_and_Unrequited_Love
Gheaus, A. (2021, April 21). Unrequited love, self-victimization and the target of appropriate resentment. The Journal of Ethics, 24, 487–499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-021-09368-0
Lawrenz, L., & I. Lebow, H. (2022, June 20). Unrequited love: Meaning, signs, and tips to overcome it. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/health/unrequited-love-meaning
- Clark, E., L. B. Votaw, K., L. B. Votaw, A. x, Hasan, M., & Fernandez, P. (2019, July 30). Unrequited love: The role of prior commitment, motivation to remain friends, and friendship maintenance. The Journal of Social Psychology, 120(3), 293–309. Taylor & Francis Online. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2019.1648234
Mcleod, S. (2022). Social Psychology: Definition, Theories, Principles, & Examples. Simply Psychology – Study Guides for Psychology Students.Retrieved March 14, 2023, from https://simplypsychology.org/social-psychology.html
The British Psychological Society. (2022, September 16). Why is critical thinking important for Psychology students? – The British Psychological Society. Www.bps.org.uk. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/why-critical-thinking-important-psychology-students
