Class Evaluations

As I was completing my online class evaluations, I considered their purpose and significance.  Although I understand the importance of feedback, I do not believe that the method through which our university administers evaluations is effective.  First of all, I feel that if I voiced a concern about a class, nothing would be done about it.  University policy dictates our time here.  Curriculums have been made to suit the learning styles of the “typical student”.  Hundreds of students listen to the same material lectured on by one professor.  Why would that one teacher change their class just because a few students voice a concern?  Also, the timing of the evaluations is not chosen wisely.  At the end of a semester students are just finalizing their last projects, tests, and papers.  Grades for the most part have already been determined.  Why would a student care about shedding light on a professor’s inadequacies when nothing they say will better the experience they will take from the class. The class is over; any complaints will just be a waste of time and energy.  Evaluations should be a dynamic process that is available to students throughout the suration of the class.  Feedback should be always provided to the instructor if a class if to be effective. 

Crime Maps: “What’s Going on in your Neighborhood?”

We have all listened to the news, heard reports of abducted children, raped college students, and robberies, and wondered will I be next?  How safe is the university’s campus?  There are obvious signs that the university has the goal of protecting each one of its students and faculty from potential risks.  For instance, blue lights line the walkways, police are present, escorts are available, and gaurd houses monitor the entrance.  But are these precautions effective? From the google map my group created that visually showed areas of high crime, types of crimes commited, and times of the crimes, we found that despite the high calibar of our campus programs relating to safety, incidences continue to occur.  Unfortunately, a lot of the safety issues are a result of poor decision making on behalf of the students living on campus.  A hot spot for crime on campus is the Stanford circle.  Here the Shuttle runs during Thursday “college night”, Friday, and Saturday evening until the early morning.  This form of transportation is favored by many students and often attracts a large crowd.  The group of students that take advantage of the Shuttle’s services,  however, are usually under the influence.  Therefore, many incidences occur that threaten the level of safety on campus.  This has been noted by the authority figures on campus and threats have been made of getting rid of the Shuttle.  Another significant finding from our data revealed that there was no correlation between time of day and the number of crimes.  This is very surprising.  I would think that night time hours would result in a notable raise in the amount of crimes.  However, one solution to this dilemma may be that the type of crimes that occur at night at different then those during the day.  To analyze this we should have constructed different number of crimes versus time of day for each type of crime. 

          

 

Beyond Fear

     

              The relationship between learning and memory is very important in psychological research pertaining to human cognition processes.  Retention of memories from events has largely been contributed to the amygdala.  Evolutionary, this temporal lobe structure, aids in interpreting the signals that precede harmful or rewarding outcomes.  The amygdale functions by raising the adrenergic and cortisol stress-hormone systems after being exposed to an emotionally heightened incidence.  This knowledge has been collected through studies that have observed patients that suffer from amygdale damage.  Those that do not have properly functioning amygdalas are in capable of learning from previous emotional experiences.  For example, patients that have this type of mental deficiency were control subjects in a research project in which both arousing and neutral words were read off.  Ideally, the arousing words should be retained longer.  However, these subjects remembered both classes of words identically. 

               

               Brains have the capacity to store a limited amount of information.  In order to process and filter out the important events, the amygdale often only records the general gist of the event.  Most peripheral, or background, information is eliminated.  This focusing is essential for learning. Research of memory making includes a lot of neuro-imaging.  Without the ability to see exactly what is going on inside the brain, it is impossible to learn how memory is stored.  I find it very interesting to analyze how neuro-hormonal systems are involved in remembering emotional experiences.  Are the same feelings recaptured that were initially felt during the incident and to what degree?  How long can these feeling be retrieved?  Do they diminish over time?        

The World Without Us

To imagine a world that is empty of humans is beyond comprehension.  The bustle of busy streets, the noise of people talking on their cell phones, the constant sounds of trains passing, planes flying overhead, and cars honking fills our Earth.  Without the sounds associated with humans, the Earth would become an eerie place.  Despite this, I feel that the most frightening thing to try to grasp is seeing manmade objects sticking out from nature’s scenery.  “The World without Us” describes a scene in which even centuries later, fire hydrants, stainless steel pots and pans, and other objects not destroyed by the forces of nature will remain.   To think of world that has the creations of humans, even though humans have long since died off is unimaginable.  Essentially, whether or not humans are able to beat all the odds and survive, their actions have impacted the earth in such a way that it cannot ever fully recover from.  This raises a question:  Are the works of human all for the good? I believe that nature’s cycles are for the best. The Earth has a way of replenishing itself and restoring its wholeness.  Human hands have only interfered with this process. 

The World Without Us

To imagine a world that is empty of humans is beyond comprehension.  The bustle of busy streets, the noise of people talking on their cell phones, the constant sounds of trains passing, planes flying overhead, and cars honking fills our Earth.  Without the sounds associated with humans, the Earth would become an eerie place.  Despite this, I feel that the most frightening thing to try to grasp is seeing manmade objects sticking out from nature’s scenery.  “The World without Us” describes a scene in which even centuries later, fire hydrants, stainless steel pots and pans, and other objects not destroyed by the forces of nature will remain.   To think of world that has the creations of humans, even though humans have long since died off is unimaginable.  Essentially, whether or not humans are able to beat all the odds and survive, their actions have impacted the earth in such a way that it cannot ever fully recover from.  This raises a question:  Are the works of human all for the good? I believe that nature’s cycles are for the best. The Earth has a way of replenishing itself and restoring its wholeness.  Human hands have only interfered with this process. 

Riding on the Roof of the World: Jane Qui

It is a shame that something that brings so many new oppotunities to underdeveloped areas has to be a point of controversy.  A renowned railway system, passing over mountain ranges and rivers, should not bring fear of strengthened government control but rather hope.  The achievement of overcoming the obstacles of harsh weather and natural disasters is something to be commemorated. The creativity and intelligence needed to ensure safe travels on a high-altitude railway system is essential and has been witnessed all throughout this project.  The engineers have account for all possible hazards.  In addition to accounting for structural issues, the developers also made sure affect the wildlife of the surrounding area in the least detrimental way.  Though it seems as if plateau wildlife have successfully adapted to the new railway, it will take time to get a fuller picture about how the construction will affect their behaviors.  Though it may not seem like a complicated project to build a railway system, it is important to understand that new transportation effects commerce, new cities are developed resulting in pollution problems, and many other aspects are involved. It brings to mind the idea of “looking before you leap” or in this case “before you build”.

Pride

Pride shapes social behavior and is derived from feelings of self-consciousness.  Universally, humans have a desire to live up to cultural and individual expectations.  This tendency to care about what others think fuels the need to prove oneself. Humans feel the necessity to achieve “the perfect life” thus placing demands and stresses in one’s life.  However, when one is able to fulfill and even exceed these expectations pride is expressed through non-verbal signs.  Tracey and Robins, psychological researchers, have identified that pride is revealed in low-intensity smile and an expanded posture.  The purpose of pride lies in the evolutionary need to be successful in social situations.  Humans that are filled with pride send off a message that makes claims about their social status and achievements.  Also, it identifies that person as self-confident.  
           

Pride is derived from two diverse contexts, authentic and hubristic.  Authentic pride is associated with effort and good work ethic.  People expressing genuine self-esteem, agreeableness, and conscientiousness usually show authentic pride.  On the other hand, hubristic is the dark side of pride.  It is associated with negative traits such as hostility, aggression, and interpersonal problems.  Hubristic pride is self-serving and often deceitful.  Interestingly, the two forms of pride are not distinguished by the kind of pride experiences, but instead by an individual’s personality.

Pride is an important part of one’s life.  It is essential for people to accomplish their goals and gain a sense of self-worth from the achievement.  Without pride, the world would lack motivation.  Though much research has been done to look at how pride is expressed and where it stems from, there is not much information on how long pride last after a success.  Can one event satisfy one’s pride for a lifetime or does it need to be replenished? 

Understanding emotional facial signals

Lip movements.  Cheek changes.  Eyebrow raises.  Teeth showing.  All of these actions are subtle ways that both humans and primates subtly communicate with each other.  Simple muscle movements in the face result in the ability of conveying a message.  One question that researchers have been studying is whether human and primate emotional signaling have the same form and function.  This information is key in understanding the evolutionary specializations for each species.  Though this data is proves very beneficial, it is very hard to measure objectively.  Not very many tools have been developed to handle such research procedures.  However, recently scientists, Parr, Waller, and Vick, have reconfigured a tool used on humans for many years and have now applied it to chimpanzees.  This research tool is based on anatomical facial movements due to muscles.  Through using this tool researchers have found that humans and primates share many homologous facial movements, implying similar perceptual and emotional communication techniques.  These conclusions are based on testing done on chimpanzees that evaluate if they are capable of separating an emotional facial image from a neutral one.  In this study seven main model faces were used: pan hoot, barred teeth, pout, alert face, stretch-pout whimper, scream, and relaxed open mouth face.  The only one that proved difficult to indentify was the relaxed-open mouth due to its lack to an emotional tie.  It is clear that evolutionary pressure have forced species to begin to rely on nonverbal communication.  The question is what were the selective pressures that encourage such a mechanism? 

Revision

 The World Without Trust                          Trust is a complex aspect of individual human behavior that is reliant upon one’s life experiences.  Due to its multi-variable dependency, it is very difficult to study.  A complete comprehension of trust draws from many disciplines including, but not limited to, sociology and psychology.  Though both of these fields provide research-based insight into building a creditable reputation, trust is nearly impossible to control.  The necessary components required to generate willing vulnerability is unique to the circumstances surrounding the relationship and the nature of the relationship. More specifically, trust is dependent upon the duration of the relationship and the level of strain placed on those involved.

                There are five key elements, proposed by Pearson, Mont, and Crane, in their publication, “Analysis of Trust Properties”, that provide a structure from which trust emerges and the considerations that should be accounted for when asking for someone’s trust. They concluded that trust is a learning process, trust is fragile, trust is unpredictable, trust is an interaction of causes and effects, and trust reduces the complexity of the world.  This proposition is based on qualitative observations of personal human-human relationships and consumer-company interactions.  The data that Pearson, Mont, and Crane accumulated reveals trends in human behavior.  Indentifying and understanding these principles from which trust operates will prove advantageous; not only can they aid in developing positive interpersonal relationships between individuals, they can also build a strong consumer population for a company.  Thus, trust has both an emotional wellbeing component along with a marketable element.                  Simpson provides an explanation of trust in his publication, “Psychological Foundations of Trust”.   Simpson is a researcher that approaches trust from a psychological standpoint. He presents trust as including “people’s loftiest hopes and aspirations with their deepest worries and fears.”  Without trust, Simpson claims that healthy, well-functioning relationships cannot be maintained.  Trust entails faith in others; assurance that they will act in such a manner that will be beneficial to one’s long-term self-interests.  In order to believe that others will follow through, it is necessary to become vulnerable.  As a result, people entering into relationships, based on trust, form expectations about other’s future actions.  They assume that the people they confide in will make decisions reflecting the wellbeing of both individuals.  Pearson, Mont, and Crane further expand upon this definition by incorporating another aspect of trust.  They make the assertion that trust is product of human nature that purposely aims towards achieving security and control in one’s life.                          Trust is a complex when analyzing it from different perspectives. Simpson targets an emotional health viewpoint, narrowing in on successful interpersonal relationships and Pearson, Mont, and Crane, study trust from an economical standpoint, putting emphasis on how companies can gain the trust of their consumers. In human-human relationships people are more susceptible to investing personal emotions and feelings than in consumer-company interactions.  Humans are not as devoted to consumer-company relationships because governments and laws are structured to ensure that businesses do not exploit customers.  Also, often expensive products come with warranty policies.  Thus, whatever someone spends on a good is guaranteed to be reflected in the quality of the item.  In contrast, friendships are not as stable.  Humans can be characterized as unpredictable.  The amount of love invested is not guaranteed to be returned. This is seen in mother-daughter relationships.  If I am a mother who puts time, energy, and money into my daughter, my daughter can still act disrespectfully and unthankful for all that has been given to her. Therefore, entering into a human-human relationship involves a high-risk component that slightly changes the model of trust.               Both set of researchers support the five key elements of trust mentioned earlier.  The first principle, trust is a learning process, illustrates that trust is not static, but dynamic.  Strong relationships form only over time.  This concept is based upon the assumption that previous occurrences give insight about future events.  Logically, a person who acts out of love will continue in the same manner.  Likewise, a company who produces quality items will maintain the same caliber with other goods.  The second aspect, trust is fragile, is the most important.  Once someone grants their trust it is essential to proceed cautiously.  Trust takes a long time to develop, but can be taken away in a heartbeat.  The third element, trust is unpredictable, also serves as a reminder that there is no set equation that defines trust.  Rather, it is an individual human attribute that cannot be controlled.  The next component, trust is an interaction of causes and effects, relates the importance of trust.  A healthy relationship between two or more individuals is a powerful thing.  It can only be caused, or brought to life, after a lengthy process, however, when instituted it can have profound effects.  The saying “two brains are better than one” brings to the forefront the necessity of trust during times of advancement.  The final principle, trust reduces the complexity of the world, magnifies our weaknesses.  We are just humans incapable of solving all of the world’s problems. It is crucial to trust that others will have everyone’s best interest in mind.  Without faith in others, the world becomes a very scary place.   

                 Though trust is very difficult to grasp, its applications are endless both from a psychological and sociological perspective.  Businesses have to rely on manipulating trust in order to sell products. People work very hard to become financially stable.  Sound confidence that a company’s products are of high quality is essential.  Also, this research is needed for creating strong interpersonal relationships.  If people are aware of the principles guiding trust they can make sure to apply them and form lasting friendships.  Researchers have just begun to touch upon this human behavior.  Future studies may open new realms of utilizing trust.     

Electric Car

I thought that the documentary was convincing as result of the topic, not from the persausive strategies that were used.  The group advocating for the electric cars were small in size. Though celebrities were utilized to help strengthen the movement, they were not effective.  There are countless groups that invest their time and energy into fighting for a cause.  How is this one any different? However, finding ways to solve pollution  is necessary and society has been searching for new methods to combate this issue.  I think if electric cars were afforable and practical they would receive a lot of support.