Description
Assignment 1
Please view the documentary “American Denial.”https://www.kanopy.com/en/normandale/video/175060 After you have viewed the program, please reflect on some of the questions that appear below. You do not need to discuss all of them, or even most of them. Choose only those that interest you.
1. What most struck you in the documentary? Please explain.
2. Do you believe that unconscious associations may be affecting how you perceive or interact with others from different groups than you’re a part of, particularly from other races? How does your learning about Social Psychology affect your thoughts about this?
3. What about American civilization do you think has generated poverty, segregation, and the color line? What changes do you think are needed to eliminate the continuation of these conditions?
4. Do you agree that American people are “in denial” about discrimination, racism, and inequality? What difference do you think it makes if an individual is conscious or not about his or her biased racial attitudes?
5. What do you believe would most help to decrease prejudice and discrimination in America today? What could you do in your personal or work life to make a difference?
6. Implicit bias research points to how the media plays a significant role in shaping implicit or unconscious attitudes. Think about the types of media you consume. How do you think they might have affect or shape your own perceptions and associations about race?
7. How many friends or people do you spend time with who are of a different ethnicity or race? Are there ways you can increase contact – or friendship – across races? What role can you play in promoting greater integration in your communities?
8. What questions do you have after watching this documentary? What are you curious about?
Assignment 2
After you have thought about this material, you are to identify and expand on at least one question you have about what most interests you about the material for that topic.The subject line for these posts should summarize the nature of your question.
ASSIGNMENT 3
write some agreed comments for the following 2 articles.
Article 1 After reading through the chapter, social contagion is what I am choosing to do my post about. I think that this is something just about everyone has experienced or had happened to them at one point in their lives. An example in the book that they mentioned has certainly happened to me. I was talking to a new employee at my job and just going over everything they needed to know, and they would look at me wide-eyed, staring at me doing this big yawn, and I couldn’t help myself but yawn as well. Now, this went on for about 10 min. At the time I didn’t realize that what was happening had a name to go along with it, called social cognition or the chameleon effect. I have also watched situations like this happen in classrooms as well, where maybe two people right next to each other are leaning in their desks, and one sits up so the other follows and sits up as well. I think that it is really interesting that these things happen not only with things such as our body movements but with our tone of voice and how we talk when we are around certain people as well. As stated in the book, mimicking people can help us to feel what they are feeling as well. One question I have is if one person feels sad why would our mind or body want to mimic that and feel sad as well? Wouldn’t we want to keep our current mood and feel happy instead? Has anyone else ever had the chameleon effect happen them?
Article 2 This week I found Philip Zimbardo’s TED Talk, The Psychology of Evil, disturbing, and informative. When he began talking about American soldiers I was not expecting as gruesome photos as he had displayed. It really brought to light how cruel war and people can be. In his TED talk he mentioned, “Good people could be seduced across that line, and under good and some rare circumstances, bad kids could recover with help, with reform, with rehabilitation.,” (Zimbardo 1:00). I put the time stamp in case anyone wanted to go back and watch that bit. What really shocked me the most was the experiment he himself was involved in. As he mentioned many people said they wouldn’t have continued and then did. Since I have never done an experiment like this I still feel as though I wouldn’t continue. I believe there was a similar situation portrayed in the Myers textbook except they were faking their pain and there was no shock. My question for you is if you were put in this experiment as the teacher, and throughout you felt guilty, how would you react when you found out it wasn’t true? Knowing what we know from this TED Talk and reading this book how best would you describe your reaction. Do you feel like I did that you wouldn’t have pressed the more they screamed?
