Dr. Gabe, I never really thought anything about this when it first came out. We do not know these people or what even really went on. Eventhough it is not right or make it better we do not know what made him do this and if it had anything to do with the way he grew up. When my radio station stoped playing his music I thought it was unfair because many men do this, it is just not made a big deal.

Dr. Gabe,

I think this is an excellent example of the halo effect. It shows that even though these two are famous, they still make mistakes. This video really shows the world that even celebrities have problems and aren’t above making mistakes.

What I found most interesting was that no when asked if what happened between Chris Brown and Rihanna mattered to them, no one raised their hand. They all had feeling and opinions about it.
It is surprising to me that Chris Brown grew up having seen abuse and did this to Rihanna. However, I have seen people change after having an abusive past. I hope he can learn that new behavior that will help him.

-Nikol Franklin (PS301)

Hey Dr. Gabe, I’m lovin’ your latest! Dude you just totally Rock. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the latest shenanigans of Chris Brown. What an idiot.

cool

Dr. Gabe -
I am in your PS315 Theories of Personality class. Being in your online class, I really appreciated being able to see you “in person” and “in action.” You have a gift talking with teens. This was a great subject to bring up with them. I liked what the one young man said about the situations making Chris Brown and Rhianna more real. I also like you how you add in the element of respecting your parents when they are trying to protect you. Great job!

Dr. Gabe,
I was not very surprised to see that the class really wasn’t concerned with what the celebrities did. I think there are some people who have celebrity role models and might be affected by their behavior, but others are like me; I like hearing that they have a ‘normal life’ with ‘everyday problems’ like everyone else, but their actions do not affect me. I must say that I am a firm believer that the way people are raised is reflected on the way they behave and treat others. The environment children grow up will be what they consider the norm, and that s how they will treat others, unless they are mentally strong to realize that it is wrong and change it. I am in a situation in which the upbringing of my spouse is effecting how he treats me and the children. The sad part is that he is aware of it, but doesn’t change it. I was raised in a very abusive home and did not want the same for my children. Every day I have to put a conscious effort to watch what I do, how I react, and what I say so I can provide them a better childhood. The past lingers on in a lot of cases.

Dr. Gabe, the incident even though it is common, becasue these two are celebrities, it is opening dialogue between young people.

With the Chris Brown and Rihanna incident it got our society to talk about phsical abuse. An abusive relatonship starts with verbal or pyschological abuse. It leads to physcial because the verbal and pschological abuse is no longer working. We must remember that an abusive relationship is about taking someone’s power and control away from them. Ronald made some very good points in his comment, violence is overall a learned behavior (you have some people who suffer from damage to the brain or severe PTSD) whether it is learned from our family members, friends, media, society norms, it is learned. Domestic Violence is a social epidemic and the only way that it can stop is from you and I. Chris treated Rianna like that because he can. Like we are studying in our class their is costs and rewards to every relationship. People don’t stay in a relationship unless it rewards them in some manner, whether that be finacially, emotionally, physically, there is a definite reward that Rihanna is getting by staying in this relationship.

Dr. Gabe,

I just wanted to say that you did an excellent job relating this incident to these students. You have showed them just because it happened to you that you can fix it so you will not do it to others. You just have to identify the bad and get help to turn it into good.

They do have things to work out, the incident itself made them realize that they’re just everyday people , but with the whole world watching their life process. Kevin Adams

There are behaviors that we learn not only from our parents, not only from our friends, but from all of these places and from T.V.. What makes a man a man? If we grow up in a community where there is no positive role models then we become ” bad products ” in our own community. This is how it is for not only guys, But for women too. In the case of Chris Brown and Rihanna there are no winners. We will never truly know what happened in the car,but we can all agree that something went wrong. This sends the wrong messages to our children and since our children try to mimic what they see and hear on T.V. it effects us as parents too. We need to teach our children that love should never be painful and that if it is then they should seek help from whomever they trust(hopefully the parents). we need to teach our children that all pain isn’t physical that we can hurt and be hurt mentally.

Dr. Gabe,
I think it’s absolutely awesome that you did this. :) The kids had some really good views and points about the situation. Overall I think the situation is really sad, I feel that Rhianna is probably stuck between what her heart is telling her to do and what she know’s she should do. Being hit by someone you love is never good in any situation. Being that my late grandfather use to be abusive to my Mom and my grandmother, I really feel she should leave him. It usually dosen’t get any better it only gets worse, but it’s going to take time for her to see for herself. My Mom use to always say that a woman will often put up with a lot often times in a relationship, because we feel that attachment and don’t want to be alone. But one thing is for sure when a woman is fedup, we are “DONE.” So she isn’t ready to let go yet. So maybe it’s going to take her awhile to see for herself, hopefully she will leave before it gets too bad. I know there has been alot of gossip about how alot of people don’t see either of them as role models anymore, and people look down on Rihanna for taking him back. But people need to realize these are real people too that go through real situations like normal human beings. It’s sad that society is sterotyped like that.

I think we look up to stars too much and expect them not to make mistakes, now although Chris Brown was very wrong about what he did, I don’t understand why people are shocked like this stuff doesn’t happen every day, only difference is that this incident was publicized. Who knows, he may have been hitting her for a while now and it just got worse, we never know that. If I were Rihanna I would not have gone back to him because obviously he has some issues he needs to deal with especially since he came from an abusive family himself.

Dr.Gabe, I think it’s awesome that you took the time to talk to our younger generation about an incident that surrounds two people that they might see as role models.

The class really responded well to your questions and expressed their feelings about the incident in a mature manner.

Talking about the incident in a learning environment was a great way to get them to open up about how they felt regarding the domestic abuse between two young popular stars.

Dr.Gabe,I really thought your discussion with the high school was good to see. The response from the students was great to hear b/c many of the younger girls in my area seem to think the incident was all Rihannas fault which I find so wrong in many ways. By no means should a person have any rights to put a hand on another person. This whole situation shows how much these “role model” are human and shouldn’t be put on such high standards as well. It’s sad to say that this should show families not to let the entertainment world raise our kids as well.

The reason behind Chris Brown’s actions I believe came from his surrounds or his up bringing. I am not to sure if it was on a Oprah or Tyra show, but I remember him making an appearance and one of the topics was domestic violence. He stated that he witness it with his mother and father and stated that by him seeing that up close that he refused to follow in that path. Agressive behavior is also know to show later in life due to a child surroundings which probably lead to how Chris reacted to the whole situation. I think that maybe proximity played a part in the initial attraction of Rihianna to Chris. To be honest I still think that the media is showing more of one side to really answer the question of what went wrong or better yet mixed information to the viewers.

Dr. Gabe,

I like the conversation with the students. I think it’s interesting that they have such tought opinions about the whole situation.
I have an opinion about what might have gone so wrong with Chris and Rihanna. I was a Mental Health Technician in an Air Force Family Advocacy Clinic dealing with Family Violence and Intimate Partner Violence or IPV. The MSWs in my office had some pretty interesting insight into IPV. Karen Doss used to say “Take a young couple, isolate them, put them in a stressful situation, (like the military or in Chris and Rihanna’s case, celebrity and hectic careers) and you’ve got the recipe for IPV.” I can totally see how their relationship could have taken a violent turn. It just unfortunate that it had to happen in front of the whole world.

Dr. Gabe,
It’s so amazing to see you on TV getting involved with these students, its equal interesting to see that these students feel let down by Chris Brown and Rihanna. Like some of the others I am also in your PS315 Theories of Personality class. This goes with what we were learning about with last week’s lecture about malignant narcississicm ect. It was nice to see things from high school perspective, thank you.
stacey

dr gabewould I choose to stay in a relationship that I really don’t want to be in?

dr. gabe why would I choose to stay in a relationship that I really don’t want to be in?

Dr. Crenshaw,

I’m a criminal justice major, and I learned that people who lack a sense of self-control generally have low a self-efficacy.

Also you talked about the Social Learning Theory- agressive skills are thought to be more a learned behavior rather than genetic or biological.

Do you think that Chris Brown given his fame and being entitled to recognition, he thought he was exempt from the law or that he did produce agressive skills early on and has a low sense of self-efficacy?