The Media Equation
Politeness is discussed in this chapter of the book. The author is saying that politeness is inherent in our society and it is remarkable how early we are introduced to it as children. Even teachers use politeness as a bench mark of how educated a child was. From the mayor example where he asks "how am I doing?" he is more likely to receive polite responses. On the contrary, if you asked some random citizen, they will have an honest opinion. Humans are even polite to computers and in fact, are probably more truthful towards them.
How can we design computers and media to be polite as humans? We use Grace's Maxims.Conversations should be guided by four basic principles. Quality- Speakers should speak about things that are true. Quantity- each speaker should interact only in the way that the conversation demands. Relevance- speakers should only speak about topics related to the conversation at hand. Clarity- the ideas should come off as unhindered and clear. There are other rules of etiquette that the author speaks about such as it is impolite to reject, its polite to say hello and goodbye, its polite to look at people while they are speaking, and it is polite to respond to people in the method that they contacted you. These are some of the things that we can design media and computers with in the future. We have to keep these in mind if we want to design more friendly interactions on computers.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Extra Credit: Why We Make Mistakes
Why We Make Mistakes
The chapter I read was about multitasking and people becoming so engrossed in the current task that they lose the oversight of other tasks. The author relates it to CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) in that plane pilots focus so hard on one task, they forget to fly the plane and they crash into some terrain. The myth of multitasking comes from computers and their ability to "multitask" between programs. They cannot however multitask, they just switch between processes extremely fast. The human brain works the same way and often when we switch between tasks, we forget what we were going to do when we come back to the original tasks. Our brain has a to-do list sort of like RAM or cache in the computer, except in our case, we can pop an activity from the stack and forget to complete it altogether.
One of the examples the book gives for this was a bus driver who slammed into a bridge. He was talking to his sister on the phone and was not paying attention to his surrounding. He slammed his twelve-foot bus into a ten-foot bridge and it ripped off the top. This is called inattentional blindness. Car manufacturers and the government are at odd with car distractions. The car makers keep wanting to add new features in order to charge the consumer more and make more of a profit. The government wants to reduce deaths by completely blocking some of these features altogether. Multitasking becomes more and more of a problem in today's world and accidents will continue to occur unless new measures are taken to prevent people from interacting concurrently with multiple processes at a time.
The chapter I read was about multitasking and people becoming so engrossed in the current task that they lose the oversight of other tasks. The author relates it to CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) in that plane pilots focus so hard on one task, they forget to fly the plane and they crash into some terrain. The myth of multitasking comes from computers and their ability to "multitask" between programs. They cannot however multitask, they just switch between processes extremely fast. The human brain works the same way and often when we switch between tasks, we forget what we were going to do when we come back to the original tasks. Our brain has a to-do list sort of like RAM or cache in the computer, except in our case, we can pop an activity from the stack and forget to complete it altogether.
One of the examples the book gives for this was a bus driver who slammed into a bridge. He was talking to his sister on the phone and was not paying attention to his surrounding. He slammed his twelve-foot bus into a ten-foot bridge and it ripped off the top. This is called inattentional blindness. Car manufacturers and the government are at odd with car distractions. The car makers keep wanting to add new features in order to charge the consumer more and make more of a profit. The government wants to reduce deaths by completely blocking some of these features altogether. Multitasking becomes more and more of a problem in today's world and accidents will continue to occur unless new measures are taken to prevent people from interacting concurrently with multiple processes at a time.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Assignment 10: Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 1
Lauren
Slater opens with an introduction about herself and how she raised a raccoon.
She actually learned as much from the raccoon as it did her. Now in my opinion,
this was the first red flag on this author’s writing style. Its very intimate…too
intimate. Some will love it and others won’t so much. But in the first chapter,
she mentions B.F. Skinner and his behavioral Psychology. Skinner was somewhat
notorious for doing some experiments with his babies in an air crib and trying
to positively reinforce certain behaviors. Despite these criticisms, he made
some great strides in psychology that are still even used to this day.
I
wanted to touch on the author’s meeting with his daughter, Julie Skinner. I
believe that Skinner made some advancements, but his daughter just seemed
brainwashed. She preserved the room he studied in town to the chocolate he was
eating before he died. (which in fact, the author bit into before she left.) Julie
seemed to love her father a little too much which my point to his experiments
as being a success? Anyways, I still appreciate the positive reinforcement
experiment that has made the lives of many types of people more fulfilling and
easy. I think I remember the book mentioning that it improved individuals with
autism by helping them achieve tasks.
Chapter 2
On
chapter 2, Slater opens with providing a back story on Stanley Milgram’s
Obedience to Authority Experiments. She places the reader in the shoes of a
participant of the experiment, and walks them through what they might be
feeling. I felt this dragged on a little too long and was not necessary to
understanding empathy for people in the experiment. It eventually got to fan
fiction levels and I did not really enjoy it. The interviews were a different
story… well one of them for me.
When
she eventually details Milgram’s life after the experiment is when I really
started to enjoy the chapter. I knew this experiment shook the psychological
world and indeed, Milgram’s world but not to this extent. It effectively ruined
his career and he could not become a fellow at Harvard and he lost his tenure.
Despite the inhumane nature of this experiment, I believe it was extremely
interesting and perhaps even necessary. I was perplexed by Slater’s interview
of Joshua, the military man who took part in the experiment. He was disobedient
despite his obedient background in the military. Even though he was disobedient
and stopped at 150 volts in the experiment, he stormed into Milgram’s office
and demanded an explanation and even thought about ratting him out. He ended up
not doing that for reasons unexplained. I look forward to the rest of the book
not really for her fan fiction writing style, but for the material background
of the experimenters like Milgram and Skinner.
Chapter 3
On chapter 3, David Rosenhan wanted to disprove psychology and faked his way into a mental institution. His point was that this should not be considered a science really. David was a stanford professor. He published "On being sane in Insane Places" and it was published in Science magazine. The author Lauren Slater imitated this experiment in her own life and she claims to have gotten into a mental institution. My first thought was that I think she was actually crazy.
Chapter 4
On chapter 4, Darley and Latane's wrote a training manual about their experiments. Their manual dealt with the Genovese murder and why no one came to help her for thirty minutes even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs. This has to deal with diffusion of responsibility and everyone thinking everyone else will handle the problem. The training manual consisted of 5 steps. The potential helper must notice an event is occuring, the potential helper must interpret the event as one in which help is needed, the potential helper must assume personal responsibility, the potential helper must take action.
Chapter 5
On chapter 5, Lauren Slater talks about Leon Festinger and his theory on cognitive dissonance. This theory clashes with Skinner's behavioralism theory through a prime example I remembered: Fraternity members who are hazed harder are more likely to have more devotion to the frat. The author then reads about a case of some Sanada belief where the world where a god was supposedly going to come and pick up all of its followers. It never happened and then the believers tried to rationalize it through cognitive dissonance. The author closes by following around Linda Santo and her brain-dead daughter. Linda also justifies her parental shortcomings through saying her daughter, Audrey, is a blessing from God.
Chapter 6
On chapter 6, the author follows Henry Harlow and his experiments with macaques. She details that his experiments were trying to prove that close contact rather than physical needs was the main bond. He set up a wired monkey with a plastic nipple and a cloth monkey that felt soft to the touch. The monkey would drink when he was thirsty from the wired monkey and then immediately go back to the cloth monkey for close contact comfort. Henry was accused of being abusive towards animals... probably for good reasons. Most of the monkeys he tested on eventually were psychotic or bit off their own limbs. The author ends with saying perhaps some of the contact needs that Harlow was testing for somehow mirrored his own lonely life from adolescence till after his wife died.
Chapter 7
On chapter 7, Dr. Alexander is an assistant of the famous Henry Harlow and his macaque experiments. Dr. Alexander went to learn about love and instead learned more about addiction due to the nature of the experiments he was assigned to in the lab. Dr. Alexander then starts his own experiments on rats and addiction. His most famous experiment (well a cult classic) is one where he designs a rat park and a rat cage and then offers them the option of normal water or heroin water with sugar in it. The rats in the rage cage opted to get high all day while the rats in the rat park needed some semblance or society or so it seemed, and chose the regular water. Even when trained to be addicted, the rats in the rat park chose to go back to water even despite withdrawal symptoms. This experiment never really took off in the psychological world as well as Alexander might have liked, but the results were important.
Chapter 8
On chapter 8, Elizabeth Loftus tests implanting memories. Her first real inspiration to pursue this project was the George Franklin trial in which he denied raping his daughters but after interrogation, he described it in vivid detail. Loftus thought this was fishy and decided to devote her time to being at trials and defending these people. People hated Loftus in the psychological community but she was very staunch in her beliefs and wanted to get them out there. I was actually lost in a mall when I was very little (or so I believe) and it makes me question if this was an implanted idea at a very early age or if it actually happened and these are just mind games. This chapter made me rethink the idea of implanted memories and made me think of Inception.
Chapter 9
On chapter 9, the author talks about removing memories. The author follows Eric Kandel and how he disproves that memory is dispersed throughout the brain but rather is located in particular parts. They talk about when he removes a piece of his patient's brain, he loses all sense of short term memory save for long term about his mom and family members. He went in for epilepsy treatment initially. A huge discovery was that of CREB or a cAMP retaining element binding protein which is the cause of long-term memory. Long-term memory uses these proteins to join neurons in the brain. The author elaborates more on memory in the final chapter of the book.
Chapter 10
On the final chapter of the book, Slater talks about Antonio Moniz and lobotomy. While widely considered a taboo subject at the time, Moniz pushed ahead and offered it to his patients. He had many failures due to some excrutiating causes such as broken pieces of scalpel in the brain, etc. He eventually won the nobel prize and inspired a generation of scientists who perfected what he started. The perfected version of lobotomy is much more precise and has a higher rate of success than its ancestor. I think it was fitting to end on this chapter since memory regards with how we perceive the past, present, and how we will perceive the future.
The author's writing definitely grew on me during the end of the book when she stopped doing insane experiments herself and turned it more into an inside look of each scientist. I have to keep in mind that she is writing this book in order to move units and make it interesting for the masses, so in that regard, it was a success.
Chapter 3
On chapter 3, David Rosenhan wanted to disprove psychology and faked his way into a mental institution. His point was that this should not be considered a science really. David was a stanford professor. He published "On being sane in Insane Places" and it was published in Science magazine. The author Lauren Slater imitated this experiment in her own life and she claims to have gotten into a mental institution. My first thought was that I think she was actually crazy.
Chapter 4
On chapter 4, Darley and Latane's wrote a training manual about their experiments. Their manual dealt with the Genovese murder and why no one came to help her for thirty minutes even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs. This has to deal with diffusion of responsibility and everyone thinking everyone else will handle the problem. The training manual consisted of 5 steps. The potential helper must notice an event is occuring, the potential helper must interpret the event as one in which help is needed, the potential helper must assume personal responsibility, the potential helper must take action.
Chapter 5
On chapter 5, Lauren Slater talks about Leon Festinger and his theory on cognitive dissonance. This theory clashes with Skinner's behavioralism theory through a prime example I remembered: Fraternity members who are hazed harder are more likely to have more devotion to the frat. The author then reads about a case of some Sanada belief where the world where a god was supposedly going to come and pick up all of its followers. It never happened and then the believers tried to rationalize it through cognitive dissonance. The author closes by following around Linda Santo and her brain-dead daughter. Linda also justifies her parental shortcomings through saying her daughter, Audrey, is a blessing from God.
Chapter 6
On chapter 6, the author follows Henry Harlow and his experiments with macaques. She details that his experiments were trying to prove that close contact rather than physical needs was the main bond. He set up a wired monkey with a plastic nipple and a cloth monkey that felt soft to the touch. The monkey would drink when he was thirsty from the wired monkey and then immediately go back to the cloth monkey for close contact comfort. Henry was accused of being abusive towards animals... probably for good reasons. Most of the monkeys he tested on eventually were psychotic or bit off their own limbs. The author ends with saying perhaps some of the contact needs that Harlow was testing for somehow mirrored his own lonely life from adolescence till after his wife died.
Chapter 7
On chapter 7, Dr. Alexander is an assistant of the famous Henry Harlow and his macaque experiments. Dr. Alexander went to learn about love and instead learned more about addiction due to the nature of the experiments he was assigned to in the lab. Dr. Alexander then starts his own experiments on rats and addiction. His most famous experiment (well a cult classic) is one where he designs a rat park and a rat cage and then offers them the option of normal water or heroin water with sugar in it. The rats in the rage cage opted to get high all day while the rats in the rat park needed some semblance or society or so it seemed, and chose the regular water. Even when trained to be addicted, the rats in the rat park chose to go back to water even despite withdrawal symptoms. This experiment never really took off in the psychological world as well as Alexander might have liked, but the results were important.
Chapter 8
On chapter 8, Elizabeth Loftus tests implanting memories. Her first real inspiration to pursue this project was the George Franklin trial in which he denied raping his daughters but after interrogation, he described it in vivid detail. Loftus thought this was fishy and decided to devote her time to being at trials and defending these people. People hated Loftus in the psychological community but she was very staunch in her beliefs and wanted to get them out there. I was actually lost in a mall when I was very little (or so I believe) and it makes me question if this was an implanted idea at a very early age or if it actually happened and these are just mind games. This chapter made me rethink the idea of implanted memories and made me think of Inception.
Chapter 9
On chapter 9, the author talks about removing memories. The author follows Eric Kandel and how he disproves that memory is dispersed throughout the brain but rather is located in particular parts. They talk about when he removes a piece of his patient's brain, he loses all sense of short term memory save for long term about his mom and family members. He went in for epilepsy treatment initially. A huge discovery was that of CREB or a cAMP retaining element binding protein which is the cause of long-term memory. Long-term memory uses these proteins to join neurons in the brain. The author elaborates more on memory in the final chapter of the book.
Chapter 10
On the final chapter of the book, Slater talks about Antonio Moniz and lobotomy. While widely considered a taboo subject at the time, Moniz pushed ahead and offered it to his patients. He had many failures due to some excrutiating causes such as broken pieces of scalpel in the brain, etc. He eventually won the nobel prize and inspired a generation of scientists who perfected what he started. The perfected version of lobotomy is much more precise and has a higher rate of success than its ancestor. I think it was fitting to end on this chapter since memory regards with how we perceive the past, present, and how we will perceive the future.
The author's writing definitely grew on me during the end of the book when she stopped doing insane experiments herself and turned it more into an inside look of each scientist. I have to keep in mind that she is writing this book in order to move units and make it interesting for the masses, so in that regard, it was a success.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Assignment 9: Obedience to Authority
'Obedience to Authority' - Stanley Milgram
Chapter 1- Milgram introduces his experiment in the first chapter. He mentions that he is trying to figure out if people have changed since WWII. He wants to find out if the human race has learned anything or is still capable of committing the same atrocities the Nazis did. Milgram also discusses what it means to be obedient.
Chapter 2- This chapter was on Method of Inquiry. Milgram explains how he recruited each of the participants for the experiment. None of the participants were students from Yale because he wanted to go outside of the bubble and get 'normal' responses from everyday people. He then told the reader how he went about recruiting these people through ads and the like.
Chapter 3- This chapter was on the Expected Behavior of the learners. Stanley Milgram took a survey on his projected experiment and polled how many people they thought would go through with the full experiment or where they would stop. Milgram did not tell the people that the experiment had a fixed learner though.
Chapter 4- This chapter was on Closeness of the Victim. Milgram explains how the proximity of the learner to the participant affected their obedience. If the learner was in a different room where the participant could only hear them, they would not be as inclined to disobey a scientist who was giving orders. If the learner was in the room and they could physically see them, they would be more likely to disobey.
Chapter 5- This chapter was on Confronting Authority. Milgram relates to the reader several different subjects and their testimonials. One of the participants was an electrical engineer who refused to administer that kind of voltage to a human because he knew what would cause them pain. He was also very interested in their work. Depending on the psyche of the individual, they would be more likely to go on with the experiment.
Chapter 6- This chapter was on adding different kinds of spins to the experiment. For instance, the learner or actor would let the participant know that they have a heart condition to try and get inside their head. If the scientist was a female or if the personality of the scientist was mean or passive also was introduced.
Chapter 7- Milgram recaps again the different experiments he has performed. He explains a few individual cases and how they reacted. Some of the people stopped abruptly in the middle of the experiment others went through all the way.
Chapter 8- Milgram teased different roles in this chapter. He had the scientists take orders from the participant instead of vice versa. This lead to more disobedience because the participants would not trust the authority if they were not giving the orders.
Chapter 9- This chapter details the effects of groups. We see the conformity of groups when there are multiple participants. If the majority of participants agree on a decision, the last participant will not want to be the last one out, so he will be more likely to conform.
Chapter 10- Milgram goes more into theory in this chapter. Milgram discusses in minute detail why he believes people obey orders. He also talks about how the setting influences their decision and the proximity of the authority.
Chapter 11- Milgram discusses how the participants past would determine their obedience. He mentions family, background, education, income etc. He lists some binding factors which also keep the participants in check.
Chapter 12- Milgram lists some examples of strains and disobedience in this chapter. He defines different types of strains and how they cause participants to crack under pressure aka disobey or obey. If they disobey that means they broke the binding factor.
Chapter 13- Milgram lists aggression in this chapter and how it affects disobedience. If the experimenter wanted to hurt the learner, he explains how aggression might increase the chances of them shocking the learner. Milgram lets the reader know that its not the aggression, but still the relationship between the experimenter and the participant.
Chapter 14- Milgram just responds to some other arguments in this chapter. Others had other theories that he refuted and stood by his original experiment. These arguments were varying and attacked different points of the experiment.
Chapter 15- Milgram just recaps the experiment in this chapter. He mentions that obedience to authority can be extremely dangerous. Given the right conditions and circumstances, anyone can be put on the spot and obey some extraordinary, horrendous, requests.
Summary:
Chapter 11- Milgram discusses how the participants past would determine their obedience. He mentions family, background, education, income etc. He lists some binding factors which also keep the participants in check.
Chapter 12- Milgram lists some examples of strains and disobedience in this chapter. He defines different types of strains and how they cause participants to crack under pressure aka disobey or obey. If they disobey that means they broke the binding factor.
Chapter 13- Milgram lists aggression in this chapter and how it affects disobedience. If the experimenter wanted to hurt the learner, he explains how aggression might increase the chances of them shocking the learner. Milgram lets the reader know that its not the aggression, but still the relationship between the experimenter and the participant.
Chapter 14- Milgram just responds to some other arguments in this chapter. Others had other theories that he refuted and stood by his original experiment. These arguments were varying and attacked different points of the experiment.
Chapter 15- Milgram just recaps the experiment in this chapter. He mentions that obedience to authority can be extremely dangerous. Given the right conditions and circumstances, anyone can be put on the spot and obey some extraordinary, horrendous, requests.
Summary:
I
enjoyed the majority of this book. The testimonials from the participants
proved to be the most interesting for me as I wanted to delve into their
backgrounds and see what would make them obey or not disobey. The spots where
Milgram starts to drag (at least for me) was the theory behind the experiment.
He really started to lose me with the in depth analysis, but I can see why he
thought it was necessary.
In
terms of preparing for the experiment, I was interested to see how Milgram
chose his test pool. He excised the possibility of university associates or
students to be in this experiment and only tested adults. It made it that much
more fascinating to see the predictions versus the actual results. I think the
predictions were something like 1/4 of the people thought the test subjects
would go through with the extreme voltage but in reality, 26/40 went all the
way in the voltage.
The
next fact that I want to touch on is the different types of experiments setup.
The proximity of the experimenter to the learner to the participant played a
huge factor in the overall obedience. If the participant was in close proximity
to the learner, he would be more likely to disobey. Likewise, if the
experimenter was not in the room, the participant's disobedience factor would
rise exponentially. Aggression did not really factor into this experiment
according to Milgram. It was more of the relationship between the participant
and the experimenter. If the participant believed that the experimenter was in
the one who held all the power, he or she would be more likely to obey.
The
morality of this experiment is a whole different ball-game. Back in the 70's
when he performed this experiment, there existed little regulation on this
area. He sure changed that didn't he? But personally, I don't think it was
super ethical because people might not want to know that they are capable of
shocking another human being to death or will obey authority under extreme
circumstances. I know I would not want to go through with it.
In
conclusion, this book was a pretty easy read. I enjoyed seeing the different
outcomes with the different scenarios. The different focus groups that he
established predicted differently how each experiment would end, but none of
them were quite correct in their assessment. While nothing like this will ever
be experimented with again due to the new restrictions that this experiment
brought on, I still believe it was very interesting and maybe even necessary
for the advancement of the field.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Book Reading: Gang Leader for a Day
Chapter 1- Sudhir is introduced to J.T. through his sociology assignment. Quickly Sudhir realizes that conventional ethnographic techniques are not going to work in this environment after he asks them "what is it like to be poor and black?" It intrigued me to see someone from a middle class suburbian environment submerged in such a culture shock. Although he was a bit naive at times, (or likes to write as if he was naive) I like to think what I would have done in his shoes.
Chapter 2- This chapter made me realize that even the educated can get involved in drug trafficking. Sudhir learns that J.T. is college educated and this probably attributes to why others look up to him as a leader. I was also surprised that he chose this line of work himself- its not as if he was forced into it from being poor. He gives the excuse that other white men were being promoted over him, but I still believe he wanted to lead part of this gang regardless.
Chapter 3- This chapter really highlights Sudhir's ignorance for me. He was hanging out with a gang but is supposedly surprised when he witnesses J.T. beating up C-Note. I just think anyone in their right mind would associate at least some violence with an organized game. Sudhir also learns the in and outs of the community. Since the police do not help them, they rely on gangs and do-it-yourself style justice. This also highlights the violence of this community.
Chapter 4- Sudhir tells J.T. that his job cannot be that hard and takes up being gang leader for a day. He quickly learns that its harder than it looks when trying to mediate disputes within the community such as the stolen money problem between Otis and Billy. I thought parts of this were pretty hilarious such as when Sudhir tries to mimic J.T.'s speech and calls a gang member a n*****. Sudhir is obviously in way over his head and learns that there is a ton of business that goes on behind the scenes. I found it interesting that Sudhir expected to not dish out any punishment to gang members like J.T. does, but that's how gang leaders earn respect.
Chapter 5- Sudhir trails Ms. Bailey to see the inner-workings of the apartment complex. I believe that despite Ms. Bailey's neutral stance, she obviously depends on the gang and even makes some money off of them policing the department. I found it strange that J.T. wouldn't just give information to Sudhir about Ms. Bailey, but rather he had to tail her himself. This shows that even J.T., one of the main leaders of the Black Kings, is afraid of Ms. Bailey to some only.
Chapter 6- Sudhir falls out of graces with the Robert Taylor community in this chapter. He gives away some financial information to Ms. Bailey and tries to rectify that by opening a writing workshop. This then backfires because the tenants think he is having sex with the all-women class. In my opinion, I believe Sudhir was in a rut. This chapter highlighted his broad range of study with a wide variety of people and this eventually turns sour. He has a good heart, well relative to what hes trying to achieve, but he still is stuck in semi-bad graces.
Chapter 7- J.T. throws a party in this chapter in which a drive by happens and two people end up being shot. J.T. was then promoted from his handling of the events. Sudhir also meets with the cops and realizes they are just as corrupt as the gang. I believe this chapter highlights how similar the group of cops that deal with Robert Taylor are to the actually gangs who inhabit it. This proves at least the gang statements about how they are corrupt and cannot be trusted.
Chapter 8- The book ends with Sudhir being invited to a party by J.T. It turns out the Robert Taylor building is being torn down so the gang is disbanding. Meanwhile, J.T. is trying to keep it all together by recruiting new members but it does not work out. Sudhir further widens the gap by saying his research is basically done. I felt bad for Sudhir that he basically had to leave the community but at the same time, he was getting too entrenched in the conflict. This highlights that everything rises and falls and even the "tight-knit" community wasn't safe from this.
Chapter 2- This chapter made me realize that even the educated can get involved in drug trafficking. Sudhir learns that J.T. is college educated and this probably attributes to why others look up to him as a leader. I was also surprised that he chose this line of work himself- its not as if he was forced into it from being poor. He gives the excuse that other white men were being promoted over him, but I still believe he wanted to lead part of this gang regardless.
Chapter 3- This chapter really highlights Sudhir's ignorance for me. He was hanging out with a gang but is supposedly surprised when he witnesses J.T. beating up C-Note. I just think anyone in their right mind would associate at least some violence with an organized game. Sudhir also learns the in and outs of the community. Since the police do not help them, they rely on gangs and do-it-yourself style justice. This also highlights the violence of this community.
Chapter 4- Sudhir tells J.T. that his job cannot be that hard and takes up being gang leader for a day. He quickly learns that its harder than it looks when trying to mediate disputes within the community such as the stolen money problem between Otis and Billy. I thought parts of this were pretty hilarious such as when Sudhir tries to mimic J.T.'s speech and calls a gang member a n*****. Sudhir is obviously in way over his head and learns that there is a ton of business that goes on behind the scenes. I found it interesting that Sudhir expected to not dish out any punishment to gang members like J.T. does, but that's how gang leaders earn respect.
Chapter 5- Sudhir trails Ms. Bailey to see the inner-workings of the apartment complex. I believe that despite Ms. Bailey's neutral stance, she obviously depends on the gang and even makes some money off of them policing the department. I found it strange that J.T. wouldn't just give information to Sudhir about Ms. Bailey, but rather he had to tail her himself. This shows that even J.T., one of the main leaders of the Black Kings, is afraid of Ms. Bailey to some only.
Chapter 6- Sudhir falls out of graces with the Robert Taylor community in this chapter. He gives away some financial information to Ms. Bailey and tries to rectify that by opening a writing workshop. This then backfires because the tenants think he is having sex with the all-women class. In my opinion, I believe Sudhir was in a rut. This chapter highlighted his broad range of study with a wide variety of people and this eventually turns sour. He has a good heart, well relative to what hes trying to achieve, but he still is stuck in semi-bad graces.
Chapter 7- J.T. throws a party in this chapter in which a drive by happens and two people end up being shot. J.T. was then promoted from his handling of the events. Sudhir also meets with the cops and realizes they are just as corrupt as the gang. I believe this chapter highlights how similar the group of cops that deal with Robert Taylor are to the actually gangs who inhabit it. This proves at least the gang statements about how they are corrupt and cannot be trusted.
Chapter 8- The book ends with Sudhir being invited to a party by J.T. It turns out the Robert Taylor building is being torn down so the gang is disbanding. Meanwhile, J.T. is trying to keep it all together by recruiting new members but it does not work out. Sudhir further widens the gap by saying his research is basically done. I felt bad for Sudhir that he basically had to leave the community but at the same time, he was getting too entrenched in the conflict. This highlights that everything rises and falls and even the "tight-knit" community wasn't safe from this.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Ethnography Ideas
On the concept of Ethnography ideas, I have a few that I am interested in. The first and foremost is the BAMF club for bronies. A brony is a fan of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic who is typically an adult male way outside of the intended demographic. I am very interested to see how they conduct their discussions on this form of entertainment and what subjects they converse about. The second ethnographic topic that I can see myself studying would be Aggie-sama or a sorority in Greek life. Aggie-sama would be interesting in the same way that BAMF would: I would want to see how and what they talked about. For a sorority, I would want to see what kind of community service they do outside of social events and how they initiate new members. I will pick one of these in the days to come, but I need to discuss it with my group first.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Assignment 7: Blog About Nonobvious Observation
The videos we created involved observing the behavior of normal patrons while going to check out a movie from the 4th floor at Evans. We agreed upon the end objective, but how we got there and the end result was strictly unique to our walkthroughs. I can't speak for my teammates, but I received mixed glances and or questions when I went to go check out the movie. The first thing I noticed (well a non-obvious observation) about the people at the front desk when I walked in, was they all stared directly at my forehead. I figured they were wondering why this strange man walked into the annex wearing this piece of headgear, but none of them asked me about it... or did not get the opportunity too. In addition to facial expression and tone in conversation, there were a few passive non-obvious behaviors I noticed in simply walking by some people.
Some non-obvious things I can account for to determine more about their expression is their tone of voice. This tone can have a large impact on what we perceive through conversation. For instance, the tone could be that of disinterest where they sound monotonous and uncaring. Another example would be loud, signifying anger perhaps. Along with tone, a little more obvious point would be the facial expression. Accompanying the disinterested tone could be wandering eyes or even a moving head. This can point out that the person is not truly focused on the conversation at hand. Correlating to the other example of anger, the person could have wide eyes with a blaring expression.
Besides expression and tone, we can look at the non-obvious body language. When I walked past someone with my camera on my head, they would sometimes look down or look straight at me. I would bet there is some fundamental personality trait being displayed in their behavior when they look down or look at me. It could maybe should that they are more or less outgoing. This could either happen when I walk past them or when I am in the elevator and eye contact is met. Along with this behavior, I also noticed headphones and how people sometimes use them as a crutch to shield themselves from the outside world. Usually when we have our headphones in, it is a sign to the general public around us that we do not wish to be bothered. These examples are some addition non-obvious observations that in my experience, a wide array of people display.
In conclusion, I look forward to incorporating more non-obvious observations in my ethnographic studies. Having blogged about my video experiences combined with non-obvious observations really pinpointed the grey areas that I need to be focusing on. When I highlight these grey areas in my ethnographic studies, I can conclude why people act that certain way or why a vast majority do and this will help in areas other than philosophical study.
Some non-obvious things I can account for to determine more about their expression is their tone of voice. This tone can have a large impact on what we perceive through conversation. For instance, the tone could be that of disinterest where they sound monotonous and uncaring. Another example would be loud, signifying anger perhaps. Along with tone, a little more obvious point would be the facial expression. Accompanying the disinterested tone could be wandering eyes or even a moving head. This can point out that the person is not truly focused on the conversation at hand. Correlating to the other example of anger, the person could have wide eyes with a blaring expression.
Besides expression and tone, we can look at the non-obvious body language. When I walked past someone with my camera on my head, they would sometimes look down or look straight at me. I would bet there is some fundamental personality trait being displayed in their behavior when they look down or look at me. It could maybe should that they are more or less outgoing. This could either happen when I walk past them or when I am in the elevator and eye contact is met. Along with this behavior, I also noticed headphones and how people sometimes use them as a crutch to shield themselves from the outside world. Usually when we have our headphones in, it is a sign to the general public around us that we do not wish to be bothered. These examples are some addition non-obvious observations that in my experience, a wide array of people display.
In conclusion, I look forward to incorporating more non-obvious observations in my ethnographic studies. Having blogged about my video experiences combined with non-obvious observations really pinpointed the grey areas that I need to be focusing on. When I highlight these grey areas in my ethnographic studies, I can conclude why people act that certain way or why a vast majority do and this will help in areas other than philosophical study.
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