In “The Power of Situations,” by Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbett, they claim that many factors come into consideration when making a decision. For their experiment, Ross and Nisbett grabbed laypeople and gave them a scenario. The scenario told to the students was if John saw a man slumped in a doorway on his way to a meeting, would John continue walking or would he stop and help the man? The majority of the people in the experiment only asked about john, questioning, what kind of man was he? Ross and Nisbett state that only asking questions about John has little to no value in finding out if he would help the slumped man in the doorway. Instead of asking questions about John, the students should have asked questions about the man in the doorway, Ross and Nisbett proclaimed. They argued that the way the man looks makes a huge difference in John’s decision of whether to help or continue walking. Most of the students thought that knowing about John’s …show more content…
By focusing on John’s character, they implemented the idea to the reader that only his personality would make a difference on whether or not he would help the man slumped in the doorway. Ross and Nisbett talk about how research shows that we are still unable to predict human behavior yet she doesnt provide a source for her claim thus, questioning the credibility of the statement. When Darley and Batson performed their experiment, they focused on people with a religious background, therefore, altering the experiment. Just because of their religious views, people expect them to do good whenever they can but just like a person without a strong affiliation with religion, it depends on the situation. Not only does this experiment make religious people look bad but it also influences the reader to believe that religion is the reason why they didn't stop and
The book Trouble,by Gary D. Schmidt, is based on the Smith family who lives in Blythbury-by-the-Sea, which is a small, quiet town by the Atlantic Shore. The family believes that if you build your house far enough from trouble, trouble will not be able to find you. Then, abruptly, their life takes a turn for the worse and trouble finds them. Henry, the youngest of the Smith family, and Franklin, the oldest of the Smith boys, planned a trip to climb the mountain of Katahdin, but now, because of the trouble, Henry sets out to climb it with his best friend Sanborn. On this journey, he meets the person who started the trouble in his family, Chay Chouan, who goes with him. The two characters Henry and Chay have characteristics and traits that are the same, but they also have very different personalities and backgrounds and family styles.
Leon F. Litwack is the author of Trouble in Mind. Litwack is an American historian and professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He was born in 1929 in Santa Barbara, California. In 1951, Litwack received is Bachelor Degree and then continued to further his education. In 1958, he received his Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager wrote the book that sparked Litwack's curiosity in history. The book was The Growth of the American Republic. Litwack was in the eleventh grade when he first discovered his interest in history. In 1964, Litwack began teaching at the University of California, where he taught an excess of 30,000 students. Litwack has written other books besides Trouble in Mind. One of the books he wrote was Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery in 1979. In 1980, Litwack was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history of this book and in 1981 he was the winner of the National Book Award. He also wrote North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, and The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Litwack has also won many including, the Francis Parkman Prize, the American Book Award, and he was elected to the presidency of the Organization of American Historians. In addition to this, Litwack has been an outstanding teacher and received two notable teaching awards. Litwack's first teaching position was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he taught from 1958 to 1964. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. As one can see, not only has Litwack been an exceptionally outstanding author, he has also been a very popular and influential teacher.
out of what situations are presented to them. These are all the aspects of the
Getting one good grade in school is easy, the difficult part is to keep getting good grades. This concept applies to other things also. For example when a group is given a certain privilege they have to maintain it. In the essay “The Unexamined” by Ross Chambers, the author discusses that different races are perceived differently depending on where they are. He says that white people are the superior ones, and they bare the privilege of not being marked by others. While other races are discriminated, the whites are excluded from discrimination. Together with the color category there are other ones which also are the privileged ones, like for example: men and straight people. In the other essay “Man Royals And Sodomites” by Makeda Silvera,
Empathy has been the subject of scrutiny for many philosophers and writers throughout the years. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of these speculators and ended up writing an entire story to portray her understanding of what empathy is. She writes in Uncle Tom’s Cabin that if we were all to simply do what makes us feel right and feel strong about it, then we will naturally become more empathetic and thereby a benefactor of the human race. This notion, however, has been contested by many and Leslie Jamison is no exception. In The Empathy Exams, Jamison argues that to be empathetic requires more than a general feeling of rightness; it requires wisdom and energy.
...res; it is how we are raised to obey authority such as parents or teachers. Some have argued that individuals today are more aware of the dangers of following authority than they were in the early 1960s. This experiment is biased because the participants are all male and all were volunteers. Milgram points out that the majority of the subjects knew what they were doing was not right or moral. Opting out of the experiment would be wrong on the victim’s part because they agreed to go through even after they knew they were going to be the victim. Overall, disobedience was hard to do in an experiment such as this once. Participants felt as though they had a duty to fulfill this study and that they had to go through with it. Participants put their morals aside for this experiment which is why the outcome of victims that made it to the final series of shocks was so high.
He enlisted forty participants and told them that they would be taking part in a study on the effects of punishment on learning. When they showed up to the testing site, they met with an experimenter and a confederate, Mr. Wallace, who they were led to believe was another participant in the study, just like them. As part of the experiment, it was determined that the participants would act as the “teacher” and Mr. Wallace would take on the role of the “learner”. The procedure the participants had to follow was straightforward; they were to read Mr. Wallace a list of paired words, and then through a series of multiple choice questions, test his memory. If he answered the question correctly, the participants moved on; however, if he got it incorrect, they were to administer him a shock, by pressing the indicated switches on the shock generator, with the shocks increasing by fifteen volts with each incorrect answer. As the shocks increase, Mr. Wallace begins to exhibit more and more signs of distress, asking for the study to end, and even making complaints of a heart condition. Despite his hesitance, the participants continued with the experiment because of the urging of the experimenter; if the participant remarked that they wanted to stop or check on the learner, the experimenter urged them by remarking “it is absolutely essential that you continue” or “you have no other choice; you must go on” (Kassin,
Power is earned, not given. There are many different types of power that people can earn. Power becomes a problem when it is not questioned or tested. Therefore, the one with the power would have total control over anything or anyone they wanted, or they would feel that way. People with power feel invincible when it is not questioned. Throughout history it has been proven that this creates a problem. For example, Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal is similar to the scandal with Father Flynn in Doubt. Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, exemplifies an underlying message that unquestioned faith leads to abuse of power. Specifically, shown in Father Flynn’s reputation, cover up, and resignation, which all correlate to Richard Nixon’s Watergate Scandal.
In chapter 9 “The Debate over Free Will” in the book “Problems from Philosophy”, by James Rachels and Stuart Rachels, they question whether or not people have free will. Throughout the chapter both of the authors gave some examples of some arguments (Determinist, Libertarian, Compatibilist, Ethics) that prove or dismiss the idea of free will. They both conclude that having free will is important but don’t determine just exactly how much free will people really have.
That example that was given to us was in a mall setting a local comedian Jay Peter was dressed in a suit and tie along with a camera man shooting footage to make the skit look more realistic. He and the camera man walked around approaching random people at the mall giving them nonrealistic facts, they seemed to believe what he was saying just by the way he was dressed. Another study showed that 70% of the time we can pick a candidate based on their looks, facial structure has a big contribution to our
...though the researchers weren’t looking for it, he results represent ideas that can help the bystander effect in a situation. Smaller numbers increase the percentage of realization when it comes down to an emergency. The victim, if cohesive, actually plays a big role in causing the bystander effect as well. When a victim is unable to verbally communicate with bystanders, it lessens the chance of help. If a victim is capable of communicating, the help given could be more efficient. This is because it can help break the diffusion of responsibility. A victim looking a bystander directly in the eyes can even spark a quicker reaction in them. These are all ideas that psychologists still study today, and many even consider learning about this phenomenon a requirement.
This gives a whole new view to being a subject. It isn’t being an observed person in a little Psychology experiment as much as it is never knowing who is watching you or what fate the “upper hand” may have in store for them. Being a subject, or “subjectivity” if you will, is more than just being watched. It puts you in a position that you are no longer an individual, but rather an object that is placed under specific conditions for the sole purpose of the experience. To many people, this theory could lead their lives and what they do in it for fear that the upper power.
The second example of when this case study involves the rational choice perspective is when Danny lied to Laura about having the job at GM. Danny used his rational thinking that if he told Laura he had a good job, that she would stay with Danny. Danny was desperate at this point and attempted to make Laura and the children stay. In his mind, he had to lie in order to gain his reward. He believed that the benefit of him saying he had a job would make his marriage
Some characteristics in this study are worthy of featuring its strength. One of the strengths is providing a new insight in bystander effect. The study argued that researchers have previously neglected the potential benefit of bystanders and thus, the study provided a new horizon by proving reversed bystander effect through experiment. This allows us to be aware of the fact that someone may be providing help merely due to impression management. This arouses a doubt on whether the one who provides help is genuinely concerning a...
Yet the use of questionnaire is slightly more reliable are they are able to be replicated due to the hard copies; however over all the methods used cause the research to be low in reliability. The practical issues are that the research methods were time consuming such as the interviews and questionnaires also, they also take a long time to analyse the data produced from these types of methods, and also the printing of the questionnaires may be very expensive. Furthermore Barkers research had high validity, due to the period of time she used her research methods throughout the study, each of methods provided evidence for the other. If only one method was used it would be harder to prove the findings, compared to all of the methods having the same findings. Yet Barkers research cannot be generalised to all religion groups as only one group was studied, so the finding are not representative and the findings cannot be generalised to the wider population. Due to Barker’s involvement with all the members for up to six years her research is theoretical because it was conducted within their own