Adam Granicz
Application Assignment #7
General Psychology (H) - Dr. Babbitt 04/23/97

2. What does your experience suggest about how people react toward those who behave "differently" that the norm?

3. What do you think your life would be like if you were unable (not unwilling) to behave like "everyone else"?

1.     Ok, this has a story. I was going to sell my car last week, so I though I could just spend all the pennies I collected throughout the year before they get stuck on me. Since I was really hungry, I decided on going to McDonald's. It was Saturday afternoon, the perfect time to eat a double cheeseburgers meal with a chicken fajita, all supersized. When I got there, I realized that it might not be a good idea to make them crazy with my pennies, but I thought well if I am there already, I am gonna do it. Naturally, there were about five other people in line, and it seemed forever to wait in the line quite until I got to order. $4.86. Hm. Where are my pennies? I had a five dollar bill, but I wanted to spend my "stupid" little pennies, because that was my goal for the day. So I said, "You don't mind if I pay with pennies, do you?" The lady says naturally no, so I started to count off the pennies to pay her. Of course, I was not smart enough to prepare the right amount, I only knew that my pennies were worth least 7-8 dollars. It goes kind of slow when you have to count off 500 pennies, and it turned out that the people in the line behind me did also figure this out. First, I heard the guy behind me saying different things to his girlfriend, like "This guy is f..ked up, what the hell is he thinking?" The girl started to laugh so hard that I had to turn around to see her happy face. This was not very smart, because now the other people started to act impatient heavily supporting this one teenager guy with his girlfriend, and they also began to laugh. Anyway, I got laughed at real bad, but at least I got my burgers, and my favourite fajita. I sat down at the very back of the restaurant, and started to eat. Of course, the guy with his girlfriend happened to want to sit in that end of the restaurant too, probably because there were quite a few other people on the opposite end. Nah, you can image the critizism I got from the guy, like "Do you live in the dorms?" or "do your parents send you money?" Obviously, he was showing up because of his girlfriend, and acted kind of silly I should say. Anyway, it can easily be seen that people reacted angrily first, later joined by this "making fun of somebody" type of behavior.

2.      In my situation, everbody assumed that the norm is paying with a five dollar bill, or any other note, instead of using pennies. My try to use pennies caused them to react angrily, and making fun of me assuming that I did not have the money, "real money" in their terms, to pay for my order. It is noticable that my deviation from the norm was not critically notable, I should say, it was hardly abnormal, but it caused a strongly belligerent action from others. We can therefore conclude that people around me that day and in that situation had little tolerance level toward my behavior. An interesting comparison: People are like turkeys, they kill (pinch it to death) their fellow if it has a different color...

3.      I think if I were unable to behave "like everyone else," my life would be horrible. I would be rejected all the time, perhaps hurt, not tolerated, and this would greatly hurt my feelings. This sort of "answer" from others would force me to become a silent, closed, lonely person, avoiding any interaction with others. If I tried to do something against it, or simply ignore it, people would handle me as "an idiot", or "crazy", even "stupid." Since interaction with other people is very important to me, this reaction would probably "kill" me. On the other hand, I bet that there would be some people who would enjoy the extra attention, even if it is negative, and use it to their own purposes.