The Halo and the Horns Effect: The after affects

The Halo Effect is defined in our book as the tendency to let our perceptions of one positive trait to influence perceptions of other positive traits. In contrast the Horns Effect is defined by the tendency to allow perceptions of one negative trait to influence perceptions of other negative traits.  In both cases these perceptions that are formed have the very real possibility to be terribly incorrect.

The after affects of the Halo Effect:
    Everybody knows that one pretty girl from high school that was also perfect at everything and everyone loved. This girl would typically be the cheer captain, or the star soccer player, or the Class president. She had flawless skin and perfect hair and makeup that looked effortless. This girl seems to have no physical flaws to be seen, so that must mean that she's perfect right?
   Except she's not. She doesn't understand her math homework, so copies off her neighbor. Her mother works three jobs, so she has to stay up late to take care of the her little brother and clean the house, making her only get 5 hours of sleep every night. She's not perfect, but all around her, she's surrounded by people who think she is. Her physical beauty blinds those around her, and convinces them that she has no bad qualities. This leads to an impossible model for others to be able to try and meet due to it being impossible to be completely perfect, leading to an unhealthy obsession with being perfect.

The after affects of the Horns Effect:
  While everybody is able to recall that perfect girl from high school, not everybody is able to recall a girl that has been affected by the Horns Effect. This girl would be the one typically sitting alone in the cafeteria with her head buried in a book, or maybe she was the nerdy geek in advanced placement classes. Her parents couldn't afford to buy her pretty designer clothes so she had to wear her older siblings hammy downs. She was the exact opposite of Miss Perfect in terms of looks so it was assumed that there must have been something seriously wrong with her because no one was friends with her.
   But that wasn't really the case. Sure she had her faults, just as everyone else did, but that didn't make her any worse than anybody else. The Horns Effect caused those around her to assume that because her physical appeareance was not what is typically considered beautiful, she was not a good person,  just as the Halo Effect caused everybody to assume Miss Perfect was at a level unattainable by anybody else. Neither of these Effects truly show what a person is like and should therefore be cautioned against listening to.
 

Perceptions of Body Movement

  The way that we as humans perceive even the simplest thing such as a shift in body posture is fascinating. Our bodies non-verbal movements have the capability of completely changing not only the way that our verbal messages are received, but also our movements can change the way that our personalities are perceived.

  I recently started a new part-time job. At the end of each day, the MOD(Manager-On-Duty) rounds up the employees and discusses the way that the day went. As I looked around the room at the other employees I noticed how I had subconsciously placed each person into categories in my head just by looking at them. There was two chairs in the room, one of which was obviously reserved for the MOD. As I stood and watched the other employees file in I made a mental note of which ones looked at remainding chair, debated whether to sit in it, but in the end stood off to the side. Then one girl came in and strode directly to the chair. She plopped down on the chair and slid down into an extremely relaxed position. She remained in this position for the remainder of the meeting, keeping a neutral expression on her face throughout it. Due to this, I found myself automatically assuming that the girl obviously had more seniority over the other employees and was therefor able to stake claim to one of the chairs. Later on, I found out that this was not actually the case, the girl had in fact only been working at the store for less than a month. Through her relaxed body position, this girl was able to change the way that I had perceived her. If instead the girl had walked in  and stood around the MOD like the others had, I imagine I probably wouldn't have given her a second thought and placed her in the same category that I had placed the others in.

   The manager's body position also affected the way that she was perceived. As the employees filed into the room, the MOD was facing the opposite direction of the door writing something on a paper. After all the employees settled, the MOD continued to finish what she was writing for a couple more seconds. Then she turned her chair around to face the workers and straightened up in her chair. These non verbal cues gave off an impression of authority and power over her subordinates. Feeling slightly intimidated I shifted in my spot, throwing off my own subconscious non-verbal cue of unease(which hopefully nobody else caught). The MOD then smiled and launched into a joke regarding how the day went. I laughed and relaxed my position. The MOD non-verbal communication was strategically able to relax her workers after a long day of work and yet, her body position was still able to communicate a sense of power. I admire that skill in not only a manager but any body seeking a role of influence.

Dealing With Conflict

Humans generally like to stick with what they know. Whether it is because they are scared of the unknown or like the way things are at the time, humans are generally resist to messing up the flow. This results in people trying to resist the natural progression of conflict. They don’t want to embrace conflict because they don’t like when things become unpredictable, as they often do when conflict arises.

People also avoid conflict because they want to be liked by the people surrounding them and don’t want to appear to have too many bad qualities. But as Margaret Heffernan debated in the Ted Talk, conflict is not a bad thing. Inviting conflict encourages group/team members to express what they think and opens the door to debate.This debate has the possibility to point out any flaws in the plan and smooth these flaws out.

While groups should always encourage conflict, they must also be prepared to handle the conflict once it is started. Each of the 5 conflict-handling styles discussed in class have benefits and disadvantages in my opinion. The avoiding style is by far the easiest way to handle conflict. Many times I have chosen to ignore conflict in a group simply because I didn’t care enough to confront it. While easy, the avoiding style can lead to the conflict progressively growing, until it gets to the point of not being able to be ignore. At that point it is a lot more difficult to handle the situation.

The dominating style is good because the person is able to get what they want out of the situation, but it could be at the cost of someone else in the group. This may lead to conflict in itself.

In comparison, the obliging handling style, or complying with others wishes but not one’s own, will mostly successfully avoid conflict. Although while it may avoid conflict, ignoring one’s own wishes comes with price, often times leading to feelings of resentment towards the group.

Integrating is said to be the best handling style. While there is no denying that it is theoretically the best style to use, it by no means is an easy style to achieve. In the real world, finding a solution that makes everybody happy is next to impossible. Everybody has different opinions and values and trying to find a solution that accounts for everyone’s view is almost not worth the effort.

Personally I find the compromising handling style to be the most effective way to handle conflict. It allows for both sides to keep what is most important to them, and while they may need to give up something else,  in the long run it turns out to be for the best.

The 5 Stages of The Barden Bellas Group Development

********WARNING Spoiler Alert**********************

1st Stage- Forming: 
     Barden University holds their annual a capella auditions after the beginning of the school year. Becca, Fat Amy, and the others audition for their spot on the Barden Bellas. After deciding on their new group members, Chloe and Aubrey hold initiation for the new Bellas. This is where the forming stage of their group begins. Each member of the group is introduced and get their first look at the life of a Barden Bella group member. Group rules are explained to each member, but obvious confusion and displeasure about the rules are evident.

2nd Stage- Storming:
     The Barden Bellas hold their first meeting as a group. This is where they begin to really start to prepare to complete their task goal, winning the a capella national championship. The Bellas face their first internal conflict with one of their members breaking a group norm by sleeping with a Treblemaker. The conflict is dealt with awkwardly and with many of the group members unhappy with the outcome. Regardless, the Bella's begin to start practicing for the southeastern regional competition. They perform awkwardly as each member is still individually performing and not as a group but are still able to advance to the semi-finals.

3rd Stage- Norming:
    The Bellas prepare for the semi-finals. Their performance has improved dramatically and the group has grown closer. Although tension still is evident between Becca and Aubrey, with Becca disagreeing with the song choice that Aubrey decided on. This leads to Becca doing an impromptu song change during the performance, leaving the group a little unsettled. Becca has now broken one of the expected group norms and is punished by being essentially kicked off the team. After Barden's Spring Break the Bellas get a call explaining that they will be performing in the Finals. The Bella's call for another practice and each member shows up, including Becca. Quarrels between the members break out, but in the end they end up making up and sitting down to finally discuss things and subsequently grow closer as a group.

4th Stage- Performing:
    The Bellas sing a remix of the song "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. They are able to finally harmonize together and have found their groove as a group. The Bellas focus on completing their task and perform perfectly at the finals.

5th Stage- Adjourning:
   The Bella's win the finals and have successfully completed their goal, ending their time as a group. The movie ends showing the remaining Bellas the next year starting off the a capella auditions, getting ready to start the process all over again.

College: A Not-So-Scary Reality

"College will be the worst 4 years of your life."

  4 years of high school and this is the biggest lesson that my teachers have tried to drill in my head. As a brand new freshman straight out of high school, I must say that this whole college thing is frankly, disappointing. After being told story after story about how horrible college is compared to high school, I was not expecting to be sitting in classrooms of about 30 students, openly communicating my thoughts and ideas with both my professor and my fellow classmates. The image that was formed in my head by my well-meaning public school teachers does not correlate accurately to the actual reality of college.

  Then why is it that public schools, and society in general, have such a negative perception on college? Is it just Weber State University that doesn't have the stereotypical professors who stand at the front of a lecture hall and drone on and on about a topic without pausing to check with their students? Am I missing out on a crushing amounts of homework? Or has high school really just over-prepared me that much for college? Before hearing what some of my fellow classmates had to say about what they expected college to be like I was more inclined to think that Weber State was just an easier school than most. Now I'm starting to think maybe it isn’t the college but my high school that has skewed my perception of college .

  Hearing the views of a couple of my fellow classmates who had graduated over 10 years ago has made me realize that I had, unconsciously, only been selectively paying attention to how others view college. It turns out that not everyone has been conditioned for as long as they remember that college was just some horrible thing that you had to force yourself to get through in order to graduate and not work at McDonald's your whole life. It turns out that they had the impression that college was going to be easier then it is and that they could get by with only doing about 5 hours of homework a week like they did in high school. I may or may not have accidently let a little laugh slip out when I heard this confession. Only 5 hours of homework a week? Ha! I was lucky if I got by with less than 5 hours of homework a night, let alone a week. Has high school really gotten this much harder in the past 10 years or did I just put more effort in my homework then they did? Most likely I’ll never discover the answers to my questions and I guess I’ll have to be okay with that. College is college, whether you think it’s hard or not, it still stands that in today’s society, college is a requirement to be able to function in modern day society.