GenMe Mon/Wed 9 A.M. Class

My first reaction to Generation Me was how un-scientific her research really was. I feel that as someone who has a PhD in psychology should be aware that surveys are one of the most unreliable ways to collect research. Has Twenge ever heard of the term response bias? Which basically means the people taking the survey will answer the questions in a way that are more socially acceptable. So for example if you are asking a teenage girl in the 1950’s if she thinks that premarital sex is ok, her response is probably going to sway more towards the socially acceptable answer of, NO. Whereas of in today’s society Twenge has not only surveys to base her research on, she also has just plain observation of today’s young people. It is easier to observe that young people today and see that they are way more open about most things than people in most previous generations were. I think that despite the fact that Twenge research methods are not the best she does make some valid points. For example she brings up a good point that generation’s idea of learning is very skewed. And that most people today do have unrealistic dreams and expectations, but I feel they are only unrealistic because out generation is not willing to put in the work to get what we want. Overall I feel that Twenge’s main goal was to try and help older generations understand and connect with our generation more effectively. Because of the way we have been raised we do not appreciate and have a hard time accepting criticism especially negative criticism. I think that our generation is misunderstood and once we can find some common ground with older generations things will probably start to work more smoothly for everyone involved. Overall Generation Me has a lot of information that is mostly supported by opinions, not facts.

I think that I would like to write about a couple of things. One I want to talk about how I think she could improve her research but actually conducting research besides surveys which would make her findings more scholarly and more believable for me. I also would like to take some of the things Twenge says about our generation being miserable and really depressed. I feel that is a very large generalization and that I can give her multiple examples where she is wrong. I am definitely going to explore more options though.

A question I would like to answer would probably be what generation is Twenge apart of and how what really defines make you apart of the generation. I feel like there should be strict standards. With Twenge the term GenMe is very loosely thrown around. I definitely am going to have to think about this more also.