By Crystal Hecht Women spend a great amount of time on social media and compare themselves to other women. This is causing many of those women to change their posts to provide an image that doesn't necessarily portray who they really are. Women are much more body image-conscious than men. We use social media to share our lives, relationships, ideas, and thoughts to stay connected to one another, but we also let social media define how we look and think about ourselves. Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram are examples of big social media programs that are very popular today. Social media can hurt ..read more

By MacKenzie Berg How many times a week do you wake up feeling rested? You’re going to your first class of the day and while sitting in class you notice your eyes become very heavy. You find it incredibly hard to keep your eyes open and stay awake. Now you are missing notes and other important information from your professor. So, after class, you decide to grab caffeine before your next class and this cycle repeats itself. This is a very common routine college students have. According to "Why You Should Make a Good Night’s Sleep a Priority," (2021) on average college students should be getting ..read more

By Brianna Rodewald Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are very common in Veterans and a topic that should be discussed more. Getting the help that they deserve for the amount of violence they experience when overseas is crucial for their mental health. “Many older Veterans find they have PTSD symptoms even 50 or more years after their wartime experience,” (Cook, 2001). My uncle was 55 years old, and he was affected by PTSD. He did not believe in therapy which played a role in him not getting the right help. Many veterans are afraid to get help because it makes them look “we ..read more

By Jocheb Quarshie Depression is an issue with wide interest not only for the extreme consequences of untreated depression, which may include suicide but for the more common emotional distress individuals may suffer. The treatment of certain mental health conditions for a long period of time has at times been in the domain of religion and religious leaders. This caused some individuals to suffer the distress of being in that state from the leaders and people of the religion and not only from the illness or condition. As a result, one would say religious affiliation tends to influence the ..read more

By Jersie Schreder In today’s world, technology is rapidly advancing. These advancements have begun to include mental health treatments. Online therapy has been the biggest development, and while this may be a result of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, it is becoming increasingly popular post-pandemic. The stigma around mental health care is changing for the better and therapy is becoming more accessible. In this blog, we will discuss what talk therapy is, why people utilize it, and the differences and effectiveness between in-person therapy and online therapy.  What is Talk Therapy?  I ..read more

By Teagan Kelly When I was younger, I was afraid of older adults. Ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you that that is definitely not the case anymore. In church, we would make tie blankets for residents of nursing homes and then deliver them on the holidays. The nursing home was dimly-lit, had a stale smell, and the residents all had an air of sadness around them. All of my early memories of nursing homes are similar to this, and it was hard for me to grasp the concept of moving your loved one into somewhere like that, and I’m not alone. In a poll conducted by the John A. Hartford F ..read more

By Zeph Yang For most, autism is a disorder that puts kids or adults at a disadvantage against their peers and society as a whole. It is not often that people with autism can operate on an average level of daily living, in comparison to neuro-typical humans. According to a case done in Poland by Nicolaus Copernicus University, “Autism brings many difficulties which influence the level of social roles in consequences leading to a social isolation” (Natalia Gumińska et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 174 (2015, 576 – 583). Not many people realize how much social pressure and ..read more

By Alison Hunstad As a twenty-one-year-old graduate student, I find that I am often torn between keeping my social media accounts to stay updated with others and deleting my accounts to focus on school and honestly, open up a lot more time within my day. As most of us know, social media has positive and negative aspects depending on how it is used and how much of it is used. For me, I find that social media is more of a hindrance than a benefit. Graham (2014) provides many reasons how social media is making us, as a society, unsocial. What individuals present on social media is typically just ..read more

By Jamie Nelson Part 3 of a three-part blog series created for Psy 460W, Psychology of Women, in Spring 2023. Serena Williams has 16.5 million followers on Instagram. Lili Reinhart has 27.6 million followers. Lizzo has 13.4 million followers. These female celebrities preach body positivity. Although their followings do not compare to Kylie Jenner’s 387 million followers, to say their outreach is impressive would be an understatement. They could relay a positive or negative message to millions of people with the simple click of a button. Celebrities may feed into the compare and despair mental ..read more

By Jamie Nelson Part 2 of a three-part blog series created for Psy 460W, Psychology of Women, in Spring 2023. Social media is a huge part of our society. It is difficult to prevent comparison when you are constantly exposed to hundreds of highlight reel social media posts by friends, family, and celebrities. Young women are especially subject to the compare and despair mentality that negatively affects mental health, body image, and self-esteem. Engaging in this mentality can lead to self-photo editing which can initiate a downward spiral into an eating disorder. Cross-sectional study results ..read more