Name : Shinta Adzani Putri

NIM : 15410113

Class : E

Pressure to be cool,
look good is detrimental to many children
The pressure to be cool, look good and own the 'right stuff' is detrimental to
many children and teenagers, according to new research by University of Sussex
psychologists.
The study shows that, while many young people buy into consumer culture
believing it will make them feel better about themselves and help them to make
friends, often the reverse happens.
The result is a negative downward spiral, say the researchers, whereby those
with low well-being turn to consumerist values, which impacts further still upon their
state of mind.
In a UK study of 1,000 children aged 8-14 over three years, being disruptive,
having 'cool stuff' and looking good was often seen as the best way to become more
popular among peers. The results, however, show that valuing these behaviours
actually has the opposite effect, with peer relations worsening over time for those kids
turning to consumer-culture values.
There are also some interesting differences between boys and girls: depressive
symptoms in boys tends to predict increases in their materialism, whereas depressive
symptoms in girls tends to predict the internalisation of appearance concerns.
The research will be presented at the British Psychological Society's
Developmental and Social Psychology Section annual conference.
Dr Matthew Easterbrook, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex, will
present some of the findings at the conference. He says: "Our results suggest that
children who have low levels of well-being are particularly likely to become orientated
towards consumer culture, and thus enter into a negative downward spiral.
"Consumer culture may be perceived as a coping mechanism by vulnerable
children, but it is one that is detrimental to their well-being."
 Professor Robin Banerjee, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the
University of Sussex, will also present at the conference, focusing on the impact of
consumer culture on popularity. He says: "Our study shows how consumer-culture
values are tied up with images of social success in childhood.
"Although friendly and helpful children were ultimately more popular over time,
young people mistakenly predicted that the route to being liked was in having a
reputation for disruptive behaviour, having 'cool' stuff and looking good.
"What we found was another example of a downward spiral -- those rejected by
peers then turned to consumer culture, which actually worsened, rather than
improved, those relationships."
Dr Mark Wright, now a lecturer in psychology at the University of Brighton, will
also present the findings of a related study, which found that, while damaging for both
groups, fashion models were more resilient than other young women to the emotional
impacts of the pursuit of the perfect appearance. The impact on their well-being was
mediated to some degree by their greater sense of belonging, the study found.
The latest research is part of a wider project at the University, led by Sussex
psychologist Dr Helga Dittmar, that is systematically examining the impact of
consumer-culture ideals on children's personal and social well-being.

Insecure childhood can make dealing

with stress harder
Imagine two candidates at a high stakes job interview. One of them handles the
pressure with ease and sails through the interview. The other candidate, however,
feels very nervous and under-performs.
Why do some people perform better than others under emotionally stressful
conditions? The clue might lie in early childhood experiences, a recent study published
in the open access online journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found.
Emotional bonds with our primary caregiver or parent in early childhood are
thought to be the basis of our ability to regulate our emotions as adults.
 "We know from other studies that our history of attachment directly influences
how we act in social situations;" explained Dr. Christine Heinisch, one of the authors of
the study; "but what about reaction to a neutral stimulus under emotional
conditions?"
A good example of this in daily life, says Dr. Heinisch, is when a car approaches a
traffic light. Under neutral conditions, it is easy for the driver to follow the signal. But
what happens under emotional conditions?
"Usually, people tend to make more errors, like stopping too late or even driving
through when the traffic light is red. Sometimes they stop although the light is still
green," she explains.
But not everyone's actions are impacted by emotions to the same extent. Some
of us had emotionally responsive caregivers or parents in childhood, while others
didn't.
It is these early experiences, according to the "attachment" theory in psychology,
which influences the ability to regulate emotions as adults. "We expected those having
problems with emotional regulation to make more errors in performing a task -- and
one significant variable influencing this is our attachment experience;" said Dr.
Heinisch.
To test this theory, their group conducted a study on adult subjects with
different childhood caregiver experiences. Subjects in the study performed a task of
identifying a target letter from among a series of flashing letters. This task was
administered under conditions that evoked a positive, neutral, or negative emotional
state. The researchers then assessed task performance and analyzed EEG recordings of
brain function in their subjects.
The results were revealing. Subjects who did not have emotionally responsive
caregivers in childhood (insecure-attached) had more trouble performing under
emotionally negative conditions than the others (secure-attached). They also had
lower brain activity in response to the target letter under negative conditions than
secure-attached subjects.
 The lower task performance correlated with inefficient strategies for emotional
regulation seen in insecure-attached adults. This could mean that a greater share of
cognitive resources was allocated for regulating emotions, and consequently, less was
available for performing the task.
One potential limitation of this study is that the target letters were unrelated to
the emotional context cues provided, and therefore had little real-life relevance. In
future studies, the authors plan to use a person or an object with emotional
significance as target, and socially relevant situations as the context of the task.
One thing seems clear though -- childhood emotional experiences have long
lasting consequences for your ability to perform a given task.

Both articles were taken from :

www.sciencedaily.com