Undergrad Social Science Infodumps @undergrad-infodumps - Tumblr Blog

Intro Post

(refer to OP here as Spirit or Void— or, if you want to/are feeling silly, Dr. Starship)

This breaks down my background, potential biases, & identities, followed by a list of encouraged interactions, then a list of interactions that will get you deleted &/or blocked. I also have a section for suggested reads, which I will add to as needed (requests or personal interest). It currently has one book.

Readmore line so you can decide whether to proceed.

~~~~

The only thing I’ll have up here is tags:

# from-my-notes are quotes or comments I wrote down while taking notes on readings, or (rarely) during lecture.

# Dr. R # Dr. W (& others) means this is a quote from a professor, with their last-name initial. I won’t share full names.

“# adolescent-development” & similar indicates which class this was from

# from-our-readings involves a quote or term or concept that was in a reading (likely a research paper) that we wanna talk about/expand on

# future-research-ideas is for things I want to research in the future

(I’ll add more if needed)

“[…]while Mary’s concepts stressing the importance of balance are not professional psychology diagnostic talk, they do convey how many people actually describe their problems—as difficulties or challenges to be worked on, not as diagnoses to be burdened with.” (281)

(Katz, R., Health Is More Than Not Being Sick)

#social science major #university #undergrad student #social science #quote #indigenous wisdom #mental wellness #diagnosis #mental health

“Meaning, for example, can be created in a life still carrying the symptoms of an illness.”

(Katz, R., Health Is More Than Not Being Sick)

#social science major #university #undergrad student #social science #mental wellness #indigenous wisdom

“While curing focuses more on fixing what is wrong with people (e.g., some diagnosed illness), typically through the removal of identifiable symptoms, healing is a broader, more dynamic, more open-ended, and respectful process. Healing can be seen as a movement toward meaning, balance, connectedness, and wholeness.”

(Katz, R., Health Is More Than Not Being Sick)

#social science major #university #undergrad student #social science #indigenous wisdom #curing #healing #mental wellness

(in Psych class)

Sigmund Freud be like: ‘everyone wants a Penis, the most important thing to children 3-6 years old (and to adults). boys fear their penis being taken away. girls believe their mother already took their penis away. adult women suppress their desire to have their penis back by channeling their desire into childbirth and contempt for men.’

(this has been a brief, abridged summary of the Phallic Stage & its adult impacts)

#sigmund freud #social science #undergrad student #university #social science major #lighthearted

Theory of Mind (shorthand - ToM)

(This will be a long one.)

This has been slow-roasting since it was introduced in fall term, built on in spring term, & continued to simmer across summer.

ToM begins to develop around 3 to 5 years old in “typical” development (not delayed). The foundations, the building blocks, start to be solid enough around 5. (This was done with research tests through play - using games and comics to assess comprehension.) This is when it is assumed “developed” (though based on related research on development, it’s really not done until at least 25).

ToM expands drastically across adolescence (12 to 25 years old), as abstract thought* begins to come online and socializing becomes the center of your world**.

ToM involves a set of complex skills, which are usually assumed “done” developing once a person can do them in rapid succession (similar to “routines” - ‘you’ve developed a schema for bedtime when you initiate and complete the steps yourself’).

In class, when talking about dementia, we were asked to break “brush your teeth” into small enough steps we could explain it to someone who remembers zero of those steps. Our class was able to break that into 30 steps, if you break the “little” steps apart for someone who doesn’t know - e.g. “put paste on the toothbrush” includes picking up the tube, opening the cap, putting paste on the bristles, closing the cap, and setting the tube down somewhere (preferably its established location so you can find it later). That turns a “small” step into 5 substeps. And that’s not including steps like “go to the bathroom, turn the light on, find your toothbrush”, or “turn the light off” as you leave the room.

^ This is an example of a routine/habit that people may take for granted as they get older. It’s “a simple task”, something that many people do on “auto-pilot” almost because the steps are now muscle memory. The point of that exercise was to address the questions “what happens if you lose that muscle memory?” and “how complex is this ‘simple’ task for someone who has never done it before or doesn’t remember how to do it?”

In the same vein, people will talk about “put yourself in their shoes” and “what if he said that to you? how would you feel?” as if this is an innate thing we are born with. These are both examples of ToM.

So, what are the pieces of ToM? What are we developing and doing “out of habit”?

(description in alt ID)

I can break all of these out into their own posts because there’s so much to cover, but the point here is to show just how many sub-parts are involved in ToM.

I have a specific study on social cognition, dysregulation, & social behaviour among neurodivergent youth that I’d love to share about, but this is where we need to begin (& that will be a long one).

#human development #social science #undergrad student #university #theory of mind #scientific theory #social cognition #social science major #reading minds #facial expressions #false belief

“You don’t notice who’s missing unless you are among the erased.”

(This was written casually in my notes when reading yet another paper that erased intersex & gender diverse people. I can’t resist sharing.)

#from-my-notes #university #undergrad student #social science #human development #lgbt #intersex #lgbtq community #marginalized

I wanna start with something close to home and that I regularly see interactions on Tumblr about. I’ll share the context that inspired this (& in this case, where I first saw the term) at the end under a readmore.

Homonormativity vs Heteronormativity, & Falling In-Between

Most of us have seen the term “heteronormativity”, where people assume that heterosexuality (“straight”) is the default (often paired with “and anything else is gross/abnormal/bad”).

Homonormativity is similar in its strict lines, though it allows for two to three LGBT+ identities: gay, lesbian, or homosexual. You are one of these, or you’re “straight”, and there’s nothing in-between.

This is the transition that some allies (some well-meaning, some not) have made, and some queer/LGBT+ people fall into the trap of. “Bisexuality isn’t real, you’re gay or straight.” “Do you like boys, or girls?” “What do you mean you’re ‘hetero-flexible’? You’re just straight.” “You’re just trying to invade the gay/lesbian community. You’re not one of us.”

We went from “you’re straight, or you’re bad/confused”, “you’re straight, you just need (conversion) therapy” to a similar binary, “you’re gay or straight”, or you’re wrong about your own orientation/what attracts you. The point is to only accept lesbians who are butch, or extremely fem straight women, & gay men who are very fem or straight men who are very “macho” and “manly”.

Humans (& other animals) are not strictly black-and-white binary, no matter the labels & packaging. The whole point of an LGBTQ+ community is that we are united in our differences. We aren’t a community because we’re all the same. We’re a community because we were excluded from “straight” spaces.

We’re a community that collected everyone in the margins of society, from asexual to queer to gay or lesbian to “it’s complicated”. We became powerful in that unity.

But now that we’re more visible, now that people can see some of the people who aren’t willing (or able) to “make it easy” for everyone else to keep a strict, never-changing label, division erupts.

LGBT+ identities and orientations weren’t meant to be set in stone. What gave you wings at one point in your life might be the same metal that forms prison bars later on.

You’re never done becoming yourself. And policing/“correcting” the identities/orientations that free others won’t help you be yourself, let alone combat the powers that want to keep our heterogeneous (somewhat punny) community shoved out of public life.

(* heterogeneous/heterogeneity = a group whose parts are disparate/different yet linked/related)

The point of all of this is, don’t run from the strict comfort of heteronormativity into the strict comfort of homonormativity. Neither binary will actually free you, and both will oppress & marginalize people who may not be like you but are still part of our community.

#homonormativity #heteronormativity #undergrad student #university #from-our-readings #identity development #social science #lgbt #lgbtq #queer #trans #enby #nonbinary #research

Spring & fall term have been processing across the summer, and I ended up taking my first-ever summer class (biology - nutritional science), so I’m just now able to verbalize/synthesize what we learned across this past academic year.

I don’t want to flood this blog with a million posts at once and let something really good get buried, so I’m going to use the scheduling queue (a first; most of my Tumblr blogs don’t use it) to spread them out.

Right now I’m starting with one per day (currently 3 scheduled), but I might bump that up depending on traffic flow (how fast posts spread) & my mental capacity.

I am, of course, beginning this while manic, so there may be days where nothing shows up because depression was too much. I will try to build enough of a queue to not have to worry about that, but it may still happen 🤷‍♂️.

#human development #social science #undergrad student #university #social science major

(this is to say that I will post here properly soon. I have so much to share. I’m excited. But I also am nearing end of semester with a big group project + presentation and I need to catch up in one class, so have to focus on Doing Things and Getting Passing Grades. I have lots of notes & quotes.

for now, have an ouchy quote that I will give more context for later. it was in Dr. W’s class (she’s amazing (/gen))...that unit (on punishment) was painful but reassuring, especially this quote. the brief version is “wild child” labeled kids & being punished/traumatized for it.)

“I don’t think you were ever so bad that you deserved to be hurt.”

#quote #Dr W (Caregiver-Child Relationships class)#wild child #uni #university #full-time student #social science #social science major #bachelor’s #undergrad #undergrad student #human development #punishment #discipline

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