A hero lies in you!

Journal 3-3


A hero lies in you!


I. At the end of last week there was some lingering curiosity about the Wesley Autrey subway rescue story. After researching the story, here's what I found:
-Media dubbed Autry as the "Subway Samaritan" and "Subway Superman" and "The Hero of Harlem"
-Autrey was a New York construction worker and a Navy veteran
-The man he saved was named Cameron Hollopeter
-Hollopeter was a 20 year old film student
-Autrey is on the 2007 Time 100 most influential people in the world list by Time Magazine, and had text written about him by Donald Trump
-Autrey held Hollopeter's jaw open with a pen
-All but two of the subway cars passed over the men
-Autrey is a member of the LIUNA union, Local 79
-Hollopeter's father Larry said "Mr. Autrey's instinctive and unselfish act saved our son's life. There are no words to properly express our gratitude and feelings for his actions... May God’s blessings be with Mr. Autrey and his family."
-Autry recieved $5000 in cash and $5000 in scholarships after the act, from the president of the school that Holopeter attended; he also recieved $10,000 from Donald Trump
-Autrey recieved the Bronze Medallion from the New York City Mayor for exceptional citizenship
-Autrey and his family were guests of President George W. Bush at the State of the Union Address
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Autry




II. This week in class we focused mostly on the Heroic Imagination Project. Philip Zimbardo breaks it down into the following categories: Fundamental Attribution Error, which is the tendency for people to explain a person's behavior because of his or her personal character; Conforming to Group Norms, which is a change in behavior in the direction of peer pressure-whether conscious or unconscious; and The Bystander Effect, which refers to the phenomenon in which the greater number of people witnessing an emergency, the less likely it becomes that any of them will help a person in distress. Zimbardo believes that people are "heroes-in-waiting", meaning that they are waiting for the right situation to come along to be heroic. He encourages us to be ordinary people performing extraordinary moral deeds. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, so be on the side of wise angels to size up situations before acting foolishly, yet figuring out how you can act reasonably and effectively". Toward the end of the week, we were asked to research the parts of the world that are in the most distress and find out what the biggest global issues currently are. Then, we were to brinastorm ideas about what we can do to fix them. We paired up with the freshman class to start planning out those ideas and putting them into action.

Endorsements. (n.d.). Extensions Curriculum. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://www.extensionsllc.com/Endorsements.php

I thought this was a very inspirational and motivational week. I'm a little nervous about this whole Heroic Imagination Project though. It's exciting to think of ways to change the world, but when we're asked to actually put them into action, that's a big step up. From what I found, the biggest issues are in child mortality, planned families, HIV and AIDS, distributing wealth, and CO2 emissions. Personally, I think the issue i'd most like to address is child mortality rates. I want my group to plan a project based around lowering the child mortality rates and increasing health. To lower mortality rates, I think the first step would be lowering family size. This means educating people about protected sex and the benefits of controlled family size. We could establish some kind of clinic that helps to educate people. We could provide birth control and other sources of sex protection. We could show people how lowering family size will raise the lifespan of each child, in most cases. I'm excited to to start the planning for this project this week.

Land Called Paradise: Changing the World. (n.d.). Land Called Paradise. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://landcalledparadise.blogspot.com/2010/09/changing-world.html

One thing i'm wondering is how exactly this whole thing is going to happen. I know the purpose of the project is to prove to us that anybody can be a hero, and anybody can change the world. However, we don't have funds, nor do we have all the time in the world for fund raising or carrying out this kind of project. I like the idea of turning it into a Capstone Project, but other than that i'm apprehensive about the process of carrying it out. I guess i'll just have to wait and see how this will all work. By all means i'd love to take part in changing the world, and this project has certainly inspired that. However, it's going to take a lot of work to get it all together and put it into action.

Barbara Marx Hubbard's Blog. (n.d.). Barbara Marx Hubbard | Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://www.barbaramarxhubbard.com/site/blog/?paged=2

III. For next week's journal, i'm assuming that we will have chosen a project by then, and I will start researching information for our particular project choice. What kind of support can we get? Which place in the world is most deserving of our attention with this project? Are there existing organizations that deal with our issue of choice?

I love psychological experiments!

Journal 3-2

I love psychological experiments!

I. In last week's journal I said that I wanted to know some more statistics from the Milgram and Solomon Asch experiments. I couldn't really find any good statistical results, but here's what I found:

RESULTS

-During the Stanley Milgram Experiment, many subjects showed signs of tension. 3 subjects had “full-blown, uncontrollable seizures”.

-Although most subjects were uncomfortable doing it, all 40 subjects obeyed up to 300 volts.

-25 of the 40 subjects continued to complete to give shocks until the maximum level of 375 volts was reached.

Experiment-Resources.com. (n.d.). Stanley Milgram Experiment - Will People Do Anything If Ordered?. The Scientific Method, Science, Research and Experiments. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.experiment-resources.com/stanley-milgram-experiment.html

-Before conducting the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers (the range was from zero to 3 out of 100, with an average of 1.2) would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage. Milgram also informally polled his colleagues and found that they, too, believed very few subjects would progress beyond a very strong shock.^[1]
-In Milgram's first set of experiments, 65 percent (26 of 40)^[1] of experiment participants administered the experiment's final massive 450-volt shock, though many were very uncomfortable doing so; at some point, every participant paused and questioned the experiment, some said they would refund the money they were paid for participating in the experiment.

Milgram experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment#Results

-Variations of the basic paradigm tested how many confederates were necessary to induce conformity, examining the influence of just 1 confederate and as many as 15 confederates. Results indicate that 1 confederate has virtually no influence and 2 confederates have only a small influence. When 3 or more confederates are present, the tendency to conform is relatively stable.
-The unanimity of the confederates has also been varied. When the confederates are not unanimous in their judgment, even if only 1 confederate voices a different opinion, participants are much more likely to resist the urge to conform than when the confederates all agree. This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have. Interestingly, this finding holds whether or not the dissenting confederate gives the correct answer. As long as the dissenting confederate gives an answer that is different from the majority, participants are more likely to give the correct answer.

Asch conformity experiments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments#Results


II. This week in class we continued to look into more psychological experiments. We finished up our studies of the Milgram and Solomon Asch experiments. We also got introduced to some new studies like the Standord Prison Experiment. We also watched a TED Talk featuring Philip Zimbardo, the man who conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment. He talked about the definition of evil, how psychologists understand the transformation toward evil, seven social processes that grease the slippery slope of evil, heorism, heroes-in-waiting, and the power that situations have. We watched a brief clip on Wesley Autry, a man who saved a random stranger from being run over by a subway. We also studied the man who put an end to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal after he recieved the photographs showing what was happening (I can't remember his name). We concluded the week talking about Zimbardo's ideas regarding heroism, and answered questions to the Heroic Imagination Project.

[ wu :: psychology(compliance) ]. (n.d.). Open Computing Facility at University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/psychology/compliance.shtml

Personally I think this week was extremely interesting because psychology is what I want to major in when I go to college. I think the study of human behavior is fascinating. Each one of these experiments and philosophies that psychologists have regarding the way people behave are so cool. All kinds of new ideas are being brought to the table as we watch videos and read what doctors have to say. I'm really intirgued and I start to place myself in these situations and think about what kind of reaction I would have. I like to think i'd be different, that I wouldn't achieve the results that most people do. I can't ever seen myself purposefully inflicting pain on another human being, no matter who told me to. I also can't see myself allowing a child to get kidnapped right before my eyes without trying to help.

Wesley Autrey. (n.d.). World News. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://wn.com/Wesley_Autrey

The idea that I want to bring to the table with this week's discussion is this: Why is it that people feel like they can't all be heroes? We mentioned in class that society sees "heroes" as being these people with supernatural qualities that they don't possess. In the video where the Bystander Effect was investigated, only one of the passersby was actually interviewed. I want to know why the rest of the people felt that they didn't need to help with the situation. Really? Is that what society has come to? I used to be fearless when it came to walking around anywhere by myself. Now I'm seriously reconsidering how relaxed I am about being by myself in public as a child. That's extremely dangerous! Who would have thought that you can't count on the people around you to watch your back. That's rather pathetic.


III. For next week's blog I want to know more about the Wesley Autry subway story. We didn't investigate it too much in class but i'm extremely curious about the whole situation. I want to research and report back with new information about that.

This week confuses me...

Journal 3-1

This week confuses me...

I. In last week's blog I was curious about the Charter for Compassion. I wanted to know more and see what other people have to say about it. After visiting the Charter for Compassion website, I found some very interesting facts. Here they are:
-Charter for Compassion is partnered with approximately 121 other organizations
-Contributions to the Charter come from three groups (Abrahamic faiths, Other faiths, Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist)
-Karen Armstrong is the life behind the Charter
-Over 150,000 people from over 180 countries contributed to the charter over the course of six weeks
-The Council of Conscience met in Vevey, Switzerland to craft the Charter for compassion
-The Charter for Compassion was unveiled November 12, 2009
-Pakistan launched the Charter for Compassion on February 1, 2011
-Seattle affirmed the charter on April 26, 2010

source: News of the Charter ∞ Learn ∞ Charter for Compassion. (n.d.). Charter for Compassion. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://charterforcompassion.org/learn/news

Actively Aware: Focus on Compassion ... Get Involved In Charter for Compassion. (n.d.). Actively Aware. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://activelyaware.blogspot.com/2010/11/focus-on-compassion-get-involved-in.html

II. This week in class we did a multitude of things, all dealing with ethics in one way or another. We're finally digging deep into ethical principles and looking at how they apply to real life. We looked at some more examples of the "Personal Gain vs. The Greater Good" scenario. This concept applies to real life situations like a water ban, Stalin's speech, an online novel, the Tragedy of the Commons, a stag hunt, and a button push. For one class period, the freshman class joined us to talk a little bit about Egypt. One day we looked into the Milgram Experiment and the Soloman Asch Experiment. Each of these is a psychological experiment that tests a hypothesis dealing with human behavior. The Milgram Experiment focuses on obedience to authority. The Soloman Asch Experiment deals with conformity and perception being affected by pressure from others. One of our homework assignments was called Ethics of Philanthropy. For this assignment, we had to research five different charities. We had to summarize their purpose and analyze their efficiency. We then had to write a persuasive essay about one of the charities.

Egypt Map Gallery. (n.d.). Welcome to African Travel, Inc.. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://www.africantravelinc.com/AboutATI/egypt.html

I thought this week was extremely interesting, although confusing at points. It's just complex, I guess. There's a lot of information to take in. I had never been exposed to the whole "Personal Gain vs. The Greater Good" concept before now. The scenarios that we discussed really intrigued me because I had never thought about them before. There are everyday situations in which we're faced with a choice between helping ourselves or helping someone or something else. I also thoroughly enjoyed the discussion about the two psychological experiments. I was remotely familiar with the Milgram Experiment but I had never heard of the Soloman Asch one. It's interesting to see how humans behave in response to the people around them. It's honestly kind of pathetic that these experiments produce the results that they do. What happened to individuality? It's sad that people are "obedient to monsters" and fall into peer pressure like they do. As for the Ethics of Philanthropy assignment, I actually enjoyed doing the research and what I found was of interest to me. It was pretty easy to choose the most deserving charity and write an essay persuading someone to support it.

I feel like there is a strong connection between the psychological experiments and high school kids. The age range wasn't ever directly stated in the information about the experiments, but I can totally connect their results to our high school environment. There's this uncontrollable desire in kids to "fit in with the crowd". It doesn't matter what "the crowd" is like...because it's what everyone wants to be. For some reason, teenage kids will go to great lengths to conform themselves. Individuality has become something of virtually no value. One of my favorite quotes is: be yourself, everyone else is taken. It's rather upsetting that people will lower their self value just to be like someone else. It seems like no one can stand up for themselves anymore. They would rather have the security of "being part of the group" than have security in who they are as individuals. The Soloman Asch Experiment shows that pressure from others affects perception and conformity. The Milgram Experiment shows that we, as humans, will obey almost anyone who claims to have higher authority. You name it, we'll do it...as long as someone better than us told us to. It's absolutely pitiful.

demotivational poster CONFORMITY . (n.d.). Over 77,000 Demotivational Posters! Welcome to Motifake.com. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://www.motifake.com/59789

III. For next week's blog i'd like to get some actual statistics for the Milgram and Soloman Ashe Experiments. I'm curious as to whether age, race, sexuality, etc. play an active role in the way people behave. I want to see how actual numbers that prove what percentage of people achieve the results that these experiments set out to prove.