By Jaquelyn Peynado
Mr. Hatcher’s 5th period class: Carson Pifer, McKenzie Derifield, Kaytlin Evans Gloria Garcia, Sarah Smith, Sarah Tanner, Audrey Pratt, Amber Gonzalez, Diana Peynado, Morgan Oberly, Cameron Ray, Anya Hettich, Logan Crum, Curtis Smith, Jack Barron, Chandy Schuler, Guadalupe Rosas, Josh Anders
“Don’t think about the Elephant!” All the AP Psychology students wore shirts with a pink elephant along with this phrase to school. And believe it or not, the shirt has a lot to do with psychology.
Each year, Mr. Hatcher’s psychology class gets t-shirts that have a deeper meaning. Mr. Hatcher explains what purpose the design of the shirt holds and hears student opinions on the perky shirt.
Mr. Hatcher created a variety of t-shirt designs, 25 to be more specific. He then ran a poll and let his students vote for the t-shirt they liked most. Of course, the design with the most votes won. The winning design was a navy shirt with a pink elephant on the front along the phrase “Don’t think about the elephant.”
Senior Gloria Garcia is a psychology student and was enthusiastic with the outcome of the shirts. She said, “I love them, I think they’re very creative!”
The design proved to be very popular among students. Senior Diana Peynado also said, “I loved the shirt, they are very different from the shirts in the past years and the idea of the shirt was very interesting.”
In recent years, Mr. Hatcher’s designs have had a catch. There is not a cartoon elephant and witty line on the shirt for no reason. Now, back to the pending question among students. How does the idea of the shirt relate to psychology?
Mr. Hatcher said, “The design was inspired by an adaptation of an experiment on thought suppression conducted by Wegner, Schneider, Carter, and White (1987). Research shows that when you tell someone to not think about something, the person will spend more time thinking about it than he or she otherwise would. So, in the adaptation of this experiment, people told to “not think about the pink elephant” spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about a pink elephant.”
So most likely, as students read not to think about the pink elephant, they thought about it even more. Besides being visually appealing, a memoir for their AP class, and relating to the study of psychology, students agree that the shirt serves a greater purpose.
Garcia said, “Not everyone takes this class, [because] it is an AP and is challenging. So, I think it’s a form of motivation to make our class feel special for the hard work we do.”
However, senior Roger Karr believes it adds a cool touch to the class. He said, “I think it shows people how much fun we have, how cool it can be, and the shirts are normally pretty funny and get people thinking.”
Mr Hatcher’s 6th period class: Logan Cavroll, Abby Hertel, Tailer Smerekanich, Gabrielle Garver, Ellie Switzer, Sophia Keller, Eric Burch, Kaylie Barden, Grace Cupka, Haley Mills, Lucero Carmona, Kayla Rodriguez, Jesus Baca, Alexis Gutierrez, Colin Calvert, Allison Lyon, Catara Murphy, Miranda Southwell, Wendy Guernsey, America Arroyo, Shannon Stephenson, Katelyn Berg, Miranda Dunn, Hayle Lewandowski
The shirts prove to be an exciting part of Mr. Hatcher’s psychology class every year. Students have looked and are looking forward to the custom shirts the class comes up with.
