Alright, so I’ve been keeping an eye on this psychology course I’m involved with. You see all sorts, you know? This time, it’s Stan and Jenny who sort of caught my attention. Nothing dramatic, just… interesting to watch.
What I Saw Happening
So, Stan and Jenny, they ended up paired for a few assignments. Standard stuff. First, I noticed they worked completely differently. Jenny, she’s all organised, got her notes highlighted, asks questions in class. You know the type. Stan? He seemed more laid-back, maybe a bit lost sometimes, looking around, doodling. Classic pairing, right?
I watched them during a group discussion task. Jenny jumped right in, leading the conversation. Stan mostly nodded along, threw in a comment here and there. Looked like Jenny was doing most of the heavy lifting. But then, during the presentation part, Stan suddenly came out with this really insightful point, something totally off the wall that actually made sense. Took everyone, including Jenny, by surprise.
Then there was this other project, a research proposal thing. I saw them arguing – well, not shouting, but you could see the tension. Jenny had her structure all planned out, very by-the-book. Stan wanted to explore some weird tangent related to dreaming, I think. They went back and forth for ages. I didn’t interfere, just observed. Part of the learning process, right? Seeing how they resolved it.
Trying to Make Sense of It
It got me thinking about all that stuff we cover – group dynamics, personality types, maybe even some cognitive biases in how they saw the tasks.
- Was it just different working styles?
- Was Stan actually processing things differently, not just slacking?
- Did Jenny feel pressured to lead?
I tried applying some of the observation techniques we talked about, trying not to jump to conclusions. Just noting behaviours. It’s harder than it sounds, not letting your own assumptions creep in. You see a quiet student, you think ‘disengaged’. You see a talkative one, you think ‘leader’. But it’s usually more complex.
Reminded Me Of Something…
Honestly, watching them reminded me of this awful group project I had back in my undergrad days. We had this one guy, total Stan character. Never seemed prepared, always late. Drove the rest of us crazy. We basically carried him through the whole thing, or so we thought. Then, on the final presentation, the professor grilled us, and this guy just calmly answered the toughest questions, citing sources we hadn’t even considered. Blew us away. Turns out he’d been reading all this obscure stuff on his own. We felt like idiots for misjudging him.
Maybe I was doing the same thing with Stan? Assuming Jenny was the ‘good’ student and Stan was the ‘slacker’. It’s easy to fall into those traps. You see patterns, you make assumptions. That’s human nature, I guess. But this psychology stuff, it’s supposed to make you question those automatic thoughts.
So yeah, just been watching Stan and Jenny. It’s a real-life case study happening right there. No big conclusions yet, just observing. Keeps things interesting, anyway. You see these concepts play out for real, not just in a textbook. Makes you realize how much is going on under the surface. Just another day observing the human condition, I suppose.
