AMU Psychology Career and Relationships Reflection and Discussion

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AMU Psychology Career and Relationships Reflection and Discussion

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Part I: What were the two most interesting things, one about your selected topic and one about the process of completing the assignment, that you learned while constructing your Annotated Bibliography and why?

Part II: What were the three most interesting aspects of this course? Why did you find these particularly interesting? What will you take away from the course that you didn’t know before and believe will prove helpful to know in the future and how do you see yourself applying your course take away?

Classmate #1:

Good afternoon Class and Professor,

I hope you are all having a wonderful week! We have made it to the end!!! I cannot tell you all how excited I am to be finishing up my bachelor’s degree just one month shy of my first baby’s due date! Now for some much-needed time off to prepare! This feels like such a weight off my chest making it to the end of my bachelor’s degree, I hope you all are experiencing similar excitement and peace!

Part 1: My topic for my annotated bibliography was on how media and screen time affect childhood development. One article in particular that I examined was on the pediatricians’ responsibility to educate families and children of the dangers of excessive screen time. I found this interesting because I particularly believe this should fall way more on the parents and their need to understand how electronic use can be a negative thing for their children. I see how a pediatrician can help obviously, but when it comes down to it it’s the parent’s responsibility.

Part 2: I have learned so much throughout the past 7 weeks in this course. My absolute favorite part was completing the professional interview. We are at that point that we either know what field of psychology to pursue a master’s degree in or very close to choosing. It was very enlightening being able to speak to someone in my field of interest and to get their honest opinions on their job and the challenges they have faced.  That was just a very beneficial experience and I learned far more than I have by just researching jobs online. I also enjoyed the professional associations assignment and the assignment on all the different psychology fields. I even learned about some psychology jobs I did not realize existed and I learned what benefits come from being a member of a professional association.

Good luck to everyone in all your future endeavors!

-Brandi Wittmer

Classmate #2:

Hello Class,

I can’t believe we are in the final week of our last class before graduation!  This class has been extremely helpful in defining and researching the different specialties of psychology!  I really liked the career opportunities paper because it prompted me to dig deep into the specialties and get a good idea of what I want to do in the future!

Part 1:

One of the most important things about my topic, Social Media and it’s Link to Marital and Relationship Satisfaction, was how much compulsion for social media activity creates a rift in infidelity.  Essentially, when people are so focused on social media and the lives of others, they begin to envy them and “act out” because of it.  It is an interesting phenomenon that has been studied since the launch of Facebook and Myspace years ago!  The second most important thing about my topic was just how quickly social networking can become flirty which turning into emotional affairs vary quickly.  Emotional affairs are as serious as physical ones and during my research, I found that those who had higher social networking site usage engaged in higher infidelity behaviors.  While completing the assignment, I learned that social networking over usage, or addiction, can lead to psychological, social, and interpersonal problems which ultimately lead to the reduction of commitment in a relationship.  I learned that the process of constructing the annotated bibliography can take quite a bit of time because you have to search for relevant articles that hit all angles of the topic and not tiny, barely relevant ones.

Part 2:

The three most interesting aspects of this course were the career opportunities assignment, the organizations assignment, and the interview assignment.  The career opportunities assignment gave incredibly valuable information on the different specialties as I mentioned above, and the organizations assignment was interesting because I didn’t know there were so many organizations for different areas of specialty in psychology!  That will be helpful in the future to find an organization to belong to that has like interests and can help me in the specialty I choose to select.  The interview assignment was helpful because it helped me branch out and reach out to professionals in psychology and counseling careers.  While I used Ms. Oliveri, a licensed clinical social worker, I also interviewed Dr. Lunasco, a clinical psychologist, who had amazing information about different areas of psychology and how he was able to spend time in each setting as a “ride along student” to find his true calling.  The interviews will be extremely helpful in the future because the assignment gave a good base line of the questions to ask later on when seeking further education and jobs!

Classmate #3:

Part 1

This part is a little hard for me to answer, because I picked a topic I am very passionate about, which is substance use and how that affects mental health. Substance use is my area of study, and what I plan to focus on in graduate school, so many of the things I read and researched in my annotated bibliography I was already very familiar with. That being said though, I picked that topic not only from my passion, but because many people do not understand substance use, and the lasting mental health effects. So, I think this would be a great time to share two very important components in that. Substance abuse, often, does not stem from what society likes to see as a “selfish” behavior. It is not an individual wanting to partake in a substance so bad they neglect the rest of their responsibilities and life. Usually, an individual is either self-medicating because they have untreated mental issues, or, they are predisposed to addiction genes, with no knowledge, and trying a substance triggers that effect in their biological chemistry. And thus, and addiction is formed. Another thing, many tend to neglect, is the actual chemistry effects those substances have on the brain and its neurons. Substances are designed to in one way or another alter brain chemistry. When that happens, it often times can leave the user feeling depleted from their natural chemistry, because the substances have crossed the wires. When someone with a severe addiction is coming off substances, because of the lack of proper chemistry firing to their neurons, more mental health work is needed, to help them regain some of that natural chemistry, or find healthy ways to supplement it. It is remarkable to me, the amount of people that think a user can just stop using, and their brain chemistry returns to its previous state before the substances. So, many studies that I researched, focused around this main two components.

Part 2

I really enjoyed the interview. At first I did not think I would enjoy it that much as I have never interviewed anyone before, but actually sitting down and doing it proved to be a very enjoyable experience. I do think since I know the person I interviewed that helped with anxiety. But man, the information and encouragement I gained from them about the field, and going deeper into the field, really just lit the fire and passion I already have more. Talking with someone that has over a decade of experience really gives you a good perspective.

I also really found all the associations and information with them beneficial. Previously, I was not aware of many of them, or really what any of them offered. Exploring and researching them more showed me there are so many tools at our disposal, to not only improve our education journeys, but also our careers once we emerge into the field. So that definitely sticks out to me as one of the most beneficial things from this course.

And lastly, and as always with all my courses, I love our discussions. This course really branched a bit differently because we were all focused on different topics and areas of psychology we are passionate about. Seeing why all of you were passionate and for the reasons that passion stems, was a really cool experience. I loved reading everyones feed back and perspectives, and how we all are striving for the same goals, just in different ways.

Since this is my last class for my degree, I think I can really take with me a lot of the tools I have gained just from learning about some new things in this course. Preparing me more so for the career field, as well as the options I have to have support in this career, is something I was not really aware of before this course. So for me, overall, this may be one of the most beneficial and impactful courses I have taken.

-Racheal

 

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1 Annotated Bibliography: How Social Media Impacts Young Adults’ Mental Well-Being Name American Military University PSYC498: Senior Seminar in Psychology Professor October 1, 2023 2 Abstract The topic of social media usage and its impact on the mental well-being of young adults has been vastly conducted since the sharp increase in usage of social media in society. The increased use of social media also marked an increase in the population of young adults who use social media. As a result, many researchers believe that social media increases the risks of mental illnesses. However, with numerous research, the topic has become more complicated than it previously did. The factors that determine whether a person is affected negatively by usage of social media vary drastically depending on many factors like type of social media platform, amount of hours used, the mental well-being of a person, and purpose. The annotated bibliography examines research studies that have been to understand the relationship between social media usage and the mental well-being of young adults. 3 Annotated Bibliography Berryman, C., Ferguson, C. J., & Negy, C. (2018). Social media use and mental health among young adults. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89, 307-314. Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy (2018) conducted a correlational study involving 467 young adults to examine whether the time they spend on social media impacts their mental health. According to the researchers, a previous study indicated that young adults’ extreme use of social media increases the risk of developing mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, loneliness, and stress. The researchers examined the relationship between the tendencies to engage in vague booking and mental health symptoms like suicidal ideation, loneliness, social anxiety, and decreased empathy. The authors found out that social media use does not increase mental health illness but can indicate that a person is at a risk level of committing suicide. The research indicates that the other assumptions about the link between social media usage, mental illnesses, and young adults are false. The study provides an interesting point I will mainly focus on my research. Numerous studies provide contradicting conclusions on social media’s impact on young adults’ mental wellbeing. Some studies say that social media can help young adults overcome mental illness, while others say it can increase the risk of developing mental illness. Therefore, the research helps provide a comprehensive understanding of one perspective of mental illness in relation to young adults’ use of social media. It is a credible source as it is a peer-reviewed journal article and has been published by authors with sufficient knowledge of psychology. However, the research only includes a few variables and does not consider many factors related to social media usage and 4 mental illness among young adults, indicating that more research is needed to back up the conclusions. Di Cara, N. H., Winstone, L., Sloan, L., Davis, O. S., & Haworth, C. M. (2022). The mental health and well-being profile of young adults using social media. npj Mental Health Research, 1(1), 11. Di Cara et al. (2020) support the remarks of Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy (2018) that the issue of social media usage and mental illness among young adults has received significant attention from scholars and policymakers. The authors noted the big gap there is in understanding the relationship between social media usage and mental health. Di Cara et al. (2020) conducted a longitudinal study of 4083 parents and children who utilized different social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. The research found that social media’s impact on young adults’ mental well-being varies based on the social media platforms and the specific well-being construct measured. That is, YouTube users were more likely to develop mental health issues, while users of Instagram are likely to portray high mental well-being. Moreover, social media usage frequency depends on many factors based on individual demographics. Di Cara et al. (2020) highlight the same limitation as the study of Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy (2018) on having few variables despite many factors surrounding the issue of mental illness and the use of social media by young adults. However, they provide insights on how future research can expand on the issue by examining how gender and wellbeing constructs impact the mental well-being of young adults using different social media platforms. 5 The research highlights the complexity of examining the relationship between mental illness and social media usage by young adults, explaining why most of the research conducted over the previous years is inconclusive. The variables linked to social media usage and mental illness among young adults are many and interconnected, such that leaving out some variables impacts the accuracy of the study results. However, the study is important in my research because it provides a different perspective on examining the relationship between mental illness and social media usage among young adults. It is also a reliable source as it is published in a reputable psychology research source. The information it provides is up to date because it was recently published. The source will help discuss the most significant variables related to mental illness among young adults who use social media. Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2020). A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. International journal of adolescence and youth, 25(1), 79-93. The systematic review study based on a search of PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and SSCI databases examined the impact of social media usage on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. The main objective of the research was to understand whether the recent rise in social media usage is linked to increased mental health illnesses among adolescents. The researchers state that a report by WHO indicated that 10-20% of children and adolescents worldwide experience mental health problems. At the same time, the rate of social media usage has also increased among adolescents. To determine whether there is a link between social media and mental illness among adolescents, 13 eligible studies were utilized, of which 12 were crosssectional. The studies were divided into sectors linked to social media usage and mental health, 6 time spent, activity, investment, and addiction. Keles, McCrae, & Grealish (2020) reported that all four domains positively correlated to depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. However, the study had several limitations based on cross-sectional studies, and thus, more qualitative and longitudinal cohort studies were recommended to understand the problem further. The study will be vital in explaining why social media usage among young adults is linked to mental illnesses. It provides useful background on mental health prevalence among children and adolescents and the different trends in the usage of different social media platforms. Moreover, it examines specific mental illnesses linked to social media usage among young adults and domains for factors that trigger a mental illness. The four domains mark the majority of variables that other research utilized to examine the case of social media usage and mental health. Too much time among young adults on social media platforms has been vastly researched, indicating that it has a high risk of causing adverse effects. Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Sheppes, G., Costello, C. K., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2021). Social media and well-being: Pitfalls, progress, and next steps.Trends in cognitive sciences, 25(1), 55-66. The article focuses on the previously conducted research and literature on social media usage and mental illness among young adults. Kross et al. (2021) aim was to identify the progress of the research in the sector, the pitfalls that have been experienced, and future directions to improve the findings of the sector. The study focused on the research that has been conducted in the previous 15 years and found out that the majority are inconclusive, while very few find a relationship between the negative impacts of social media usage and mental illness. The authors note that accumulating evidence indicates that social media usage’s negative or 7 positive mental impact depends on many factors. The study concludes by indicating that more complex research methods need to be applied to understand the complex components of social media usages and mental illness in young adults. The study is the primary reference for understanding the relationship between mental illness and social media usage among young adults. It does not take a position but remains neutral in understanding whether social media usage causes negative or positive mental wellbeing in individuals. Kross et al. (2021) support the findings of Keles, McCrae, & Grealish (2020) and Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy (2018) that conclude that social media usage has a negative and positive outcome on mental well-being, respectively. The study also expands the understanding of Di Cara et al. (2020) report that social media usage can have positive mental impacts depending on which one. The study highlights the same problem reported by the three articles on the lack of conclusions of the studies and the need for more sophisticated research to cover most of the variables related to social media usage among young adults. It is a peer-reviewed journal established recently, meaning that it is relevant to this topic and for use as a secondary reference source. Sabik, N. J., Falat, J., & Magagnos, J. (2020). When self-worth depends on social media feedback: Associations with psychological well-being. Sex Roles, 82, 411-421. Sabik, Falat, & Magagnos (2020) focus on one aspect of human demographics linked to social media usage and mental illness. The research study examines how feedback from social media platforms impacts the self-worth of young women and eventually leads to psychological problems. According to the researchers, women who depended more on social media feedback 8 had a big risk of developing mental illnesses. 164 U.S. undergraduate women filled out an online questionnaire to examine one domain of social media usage: the impact of social media feedback on self-worth against mental illness symptoms like stress, depressive symptoms, resilience, and self-kindness. The study found that women who were more dependent on social media feedback for self-worth recorded low resilience and self-kindness levels and high levels of stress and depression. It means they are at a high psychological well-being risk. The study provides an in-depth understanding of the research conducted by Keles, McCrae, & Grealish (2020) that social media usage is linked to mental illnesses. Sabik, Falat, & Magagnos (2020) specifically show how social media usage leads to mental illnesses. Since girls are highly sensitive about their appearance and how others portray them, they are more likely to seek approval from social media platforms. It means that when they receive negative feedback, it is likely to affect them significantly. People perceive them negatively because they are likely to have reduced self-esteem and worth. Moreover, depending on the social media platform, they will likely have negative perceptions of their self-worth if they do not get the followers, love, or likes they expect. The problem with the study is that it only focuses on women and doesn’t consider other variables like age, culture, and time spent on social media. Moreover, the method of research is hard to get valid information because of subjectivity problems from participants and the researchers. The study does not indicate which social media platforms are involved because there are some that are linked to positive mental well-being. Regardless, it is an example of how different variables of social media usage among young adults are interconnected and hard to include all in a single research. 9 Thorisdottir, I. E., Sigurvinsdottir, R., Asgeirsdottir, B. B., Allegrante, J. P., & Sigfusdottir, I. D. (2019). Active and passive social media use and symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood among Icelandic adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22(8), 535-542. A survey involving 10,563 Icelandic adolescents was conducted to determine the prevalence of social media use and examine the relationship between active and passive social media use and self-reported symptoms of mental illnesses. Thorisdottir et al. (2019) report that the usage of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among adolescents has increased significantly in recent years and has even become part of their lives. However, the problem is that it might negatively impact their mental well-being. The study found that passive and active social media usage is linked to mental illnesses like anxiety and depression and different conditions. Moreover, social media usage for a long time increases the risks of mental illnesses, especially among girls. The study will be important in my research because it provides interesting perspectives on mental illness among young adults who use social media. It covers the issue of social media usage based on gender, time, and purpose. The findings of Thorisdottir et al. (2019) support the findings of Sabik, Falat, & Magagnos (2020) that social media usage by girls increases anxiety and emotional distress. Girls are likelier to have higher mental health issues than boys because they are more likely to seek self-worth on social media platforms. Moreover, statistics show that girls spend more time on social media platforms than boys. The study is also important as it involves a different geographical setting, and the results can be compared to another study conducted in the United States or European countries to make it more concrete. 10 References Berryman, C., Ferguson, C. J., & Negy, C. (2018). Social media use and mental health among young adults. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89, 307-314. Di Cara, N. H., Winstone, L., Sloan, L., Davis, O. S., & Haworth, C. M. (2022). The mental health and well-being profile of young adults using social media. npj Mental Health Research, 1(1), 11. Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2020). A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. International journal of adolescence and youth, 25(1), 79-93. Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Sheppes, G., Costello, C. K., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2021). Social media and well-being: Pitfalls, progress, and next steps. Trends in cognitive sciences, 25(1), 55-66. Sabik, N. J., Falat, J., & Magagnos, J. (2020). When self-worth depends on social media feedback: Associations with psychological well-being. Sex Roles, 82, 411-421. Thorisdottir, I. E., Sigurvinsdottir, R., Asgeirsdottir, B. B., Allegrante, J. P., & Sigfusdottir, I. D. (2019). Active and passive social media use and symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood among Icelandic adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22(8), 535-542.
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