Final Post #2

My favorite thing about the class was the papers. They were my favorite because we were given a lot of direction on what was needed to fulfill the criteria of the assignment. We had a lot of time to work on assignments and I thought it was really interesting to do research about topics. Although this was an online class, it was really fun to work with other people and get to know them. I’m glad that there wasn't a writing assignment every week unlike other classes and yet I still learned a lot. My least favorite thing about the class was posting 12 hours in between. As you can see, I've had a lot of problems due to not having internet or other circumstances making me post closer together. Also, I do not like how we have to comment on other people’s posts because it doesn't make the response natural since it is mandatory. 

Final Post #1

I have learned a lot about critical decision making as well as about myself during the course of this class. I was not aware of all of the factors that go into making a critical decision. I had no idea that there was a difference between argument and rhetoric. The group papers were a little difficult because we had to figure out how exactly to work together. However, the book about group communication helped. I learned the different roles of group members and how to run smoothly so that everyone's ideas can be heard. I learned how to construct a proper argument. There are a variety of marketing strategies that make consumers convinced that there product is the best. Language has many ways to control people’s thoughts and feelings. 

Chapter 12, Question 3

An interesting topic that I chose to write about was evaluating the scientific hypothesis. The relevance to the problem under study means to see how the phenomenon relates to real world issues or how it relates to what it is trying to explain. Also, all of the relevant observations and facts need to be weeded out versus having unrelated facts and observations that do not support the validity of the phenomenon. There needs to be consistency with well-established theories. That means that if there is a theory already in place, your observations and conclusions, should be used to help support the ideas of the other theory. The next things are that the hypothesis should be simple, testable, and falsifiable. Finally, a good hypothesis can be used to predict similar events. 

Chapter 23, Question 2

I am not sure of a time when I drew an incorrect conclusion based observations. However, people commonly do this when they play the “guessing game”. You know, those games where you have to guess how many gumballs are in a bowl for a prize, or other games similar to that. A lot of people guess incorrectly because they just randomly guess rather than thinking in scientific terms to come up with an answer. This can be determined by determining the volume of the jar and seeing how many can fit. Or you can weigh the jar’s weight and the candy and then divide the jar’s weight by the candy weight. While this takes time, if you always want to win prizes at the fair this would be a reliable way.  Of course, there are more practical things that people can draw incorrect conclusions if relying solely on observations. That is why if you have an observation that leads you to a conclusion, be sure to test it out and see if it works. 

Chapter 23, Question 1

Many people rely on horoscopes to foresee how their day will go. However, I sometimes use horoscopes to check for accuracy. I read them to see if it matches up with how my day was the night before. My horoscope from Horoscopes.com yesterday read “This will be a great day for you, Cancer. Everything you touch will seem to turn to gold. The day's events will fall right into place. You will take pleasure in being calm and efficient. But what you may not realize is that this could happen every day. Take the time to see what's going right today in order to make it happen again tomorrow!” I sounds nice of course, however, I did not do much with my day except lay in bed and relax. In my opinion, the reading is partly accurate and partly false. I feel that I can find an example within my day to make my horoscope true. I also feel that if I would have read it earlier than I would have did things to make my horoscope come true. However, if it is a bad horoscope reading, people are more likely to ignore that one and embrace the good ones. As a precaution, they are not very reliable because you should not rely on a stranger to tell your destiny, which would be the same prediction for all people the same sign as you. 

Chapter 11, Question 1

Media experiences influence my existing worldviews and values in a variety of ways. Although children are the most influenced by the media, teenagers and college students (as well as adults) are too. Veteran’s day is coming up and a lot of stores are having sales and promoting it on the television. Macy’s is having a sale and there are promotions on every channel. This makes me want to shop early during the sale for Christmas presents for my family. Media gives me the worldview that America is a consumer based nation, and it is not anything about having moral values or being a hardworking nation. Rather, it is about spending money and making money. For example, after Hurricane Sandy, I got together care packages for the victims, however when we took them to Red Cross they stated that they were only accepting cash donations. This doesn’t reinforce my worldviews, because I feel that the values I believe in are not embodied in the United States as a whole. 

Chapter 10, Question 3

A concept that I found interesting in this week’s reading was the role of television advertising and its effect on children. As a child, I used to watch a lot of television and based off of the advertisements during commercials from my favorite tv show I would select my Christmas presents. I would make my wish lists to Santa based off of the latest toys for girls. Children ages 8-12 are especially vulnerable to ads that play on their need for peer acceptance. What the reading meant by this was that if you see your friends with something or the kids in the ads on TV look super excited for the new toy, it is going to make you want it. The average child watches around 4 hours of television a day, according to the book. However, I feel that now children watch way more television than they did back in 2010 due to the fact that children are eating more sugary foods and becoming obese due to the lack of physical activity. 

Chapter 10, Question 2

The nation is currently having issues with advertising properly and deciding what to advertise. As the upcoming election rolls around, prop 37 is a popular topic that has to do with advertising. It is about labeling genetically modified foods. We have been eating foods containing genetically modified ingredients for years, however, they were unlabeled. The prop is trying to make consumers aware of the fact that they are eating genetically modified foods. Opposers believe that this will scare people away from the foods. Wootan’s stance was that the government should closely monitor how foods are being advertised in order to decrease the obesity rate and there should be strict regulations on what’s healthy and what is not. On the other hand, Liodice is responding to the issue arguing that having strict guidelines will violate freedom of speech of companies and the companies should not be held responsible for failure of parents to provide essential nutrients to children. I believe that Wootan’s argument was stronger because of the fact that it was very particular and advertising does play a much more important role than Liodice failed to emphasize. As for prop 37, lets just wait and see the results. 

Chapter 10, Question 1

As a consumer, I have encountered many marketing strategies over the past week. I went to Safeway and took note of the product placement. Product placement is a strategy now commonly used in your favorite TV show, music videos, but more classically in the grocery store. Companies pay celebrities to endorse their brands whether It be Coca-cola or Levis. When you have finished getting all of your groceries, the store usually has candies or something by the checkout registers. This is all because product placement, you end up looking at these products before you leave, enticing you to buy one of them. Also, the items on the lower shelves of the isles are usually targeted for young children. They are there to make children see them and ask their parents to buy it for them. I work at Starbucks and I also learned about their product placement in the pastry case. The pastry case is full of bakery items that range from $1.90-$3.75. The ones closer to the register are the ones that more expensive so that when someone is waiting to complete their order they choose to purchase the more expensive items. 

Chapter 4, Question 3

An interesting topic that I found in chapter 4 was the social errors and biases section. To be more exact, the section about diffusion of responsibility. Diffusion of responsibility is a social phenomenon that occurs in group of people. It occurs when people are not socially aware or responsibility isn’t assignment to them therefore they act as bystanders rather than actively taking a stance. When in groups we seem to have a natural bad habit of staying out of situations for what we may think is for the better. However, the book illustrates a few examples of where interference from people could have saved someone’s life. I found this very interesting because of the popular tv show, “What Would You Do?” The show presents real life situations where interference from a bystander could make all the difference. One of my favorite episodes was when there were two actors cyberbullying someone in a public café. Not that many people interfered but one man participated in the actual cyberbullying. However, in some cases, people stepping into a situation of cyberbullying would have saved the girl that just killed herself a few weeks ago from cyberbullying. 

Chapter 4, Question 2

Edward Condon’s argument was that UFO’s do not offer a fruitful field of study for major scientific discoveries. He stated that the government should not endorse UFO sightings by the general public and that kids in schools should just learn about UFO’s and aliens as if they were scientifically true. He even offers a solution to that, by stating that schools should tell kids about meteorology and astrology and stay away from aliens and UFO topics. Hynek states the complete opposition of Condon, meaning that Hynek believes that UFOs are worth “systematic, rigorous, study”. He states that there are thousands of UFO reports and that there has to be truth within some of it. Also, he suggests that they should compare large groups of sighting to a particular category with a much larger population of the same category. Payner had the strongest argument yet.  I feel that Condon was trying to hard to get his point across without evaluating the other side and Hynek’s argument was too confusing. Payner gave suggestions for scientists interested in UFO’s by stating that they should change the way that they go about studying UFO’s because of the fact that alien’s are much more intelligent than to leave evidence of their presence on Earth. Especially large amounts of evidence. He stated that UFO’s are all about whether or not you believe it exists, similar to an angel, because depending on what you believe the evidence you find will be different. 

Chapter 4, Question 1

There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom, in that knowledge is basically gaining new information and purely learning. Whereas, those people who have wisdom are able to apply and understand concepts and apply them to their life. Knowledge and wisdom are both gained through education and personal experience but wisdom does not require formal education. In schools, you gain knowledge as well as wisdom. But you can gain insight about life, the world, and much more without schooling and that is where wisdom comes in. Older people are considered wiser although they might not have attended Ivy League schools or anything close to it, they have lived longer and experienced more. As youth, we have a hard time grasping the fact that our parents know more than us, and that’s only because of the fact that we confuse knowledge for wisdom. The experiences that we go through and learn from allow us to gain wisdom whereas the information that we gain allows us to gain more knowledge.  Having more information has made us more knowledgeable but not any wiser at all.  

Chapter 3, Question 3

A concept that I have enjoyed reading about was good communication and communication styles. There are four different types of communication styles. The first one is assertive communicators that strive for their own solutions and do not need the input from others. Aggressive communicators are similar to assertive communicators in that they are avid about their own needs but aggressive communicators try to control and manipulate others. Passive communicators avoid confrontation and conflict while letting others force their opinions on them. Passive-aggressive communicators are the actual master manipulators because they use their own means to get the results that they want. I feel that I am a passive-aggressive communicator but not as the book defines it. I am passive-aggressive in that I know when to let others speak their minds but if a pressing issue is on my mind, I am able to express myself clearly. I think I am an effective communicator.

Chapter 3, Question 2

I use rhetorical devices more often than I imagined. A rhetorical device uses manipulation rather than reason to persuade others. I believe that I am a highly influential person to my friends and others, and I know how to manipulate situations to my advantage.  But, its more than that, I know how to make others take a negative situation and look at the positive. Rhetorical devices were most recently used in the debate between Mitt Romney and Barak Obama. I commonly use hyperboles and find myself to be a tab bit overdramatic than others. When presented with a negative situation, I find myself making it seem as if I’m going to die or as if I can’t live without something. Over exaggerating the facts of things may cause me to forget about the facts. Another rhetorical device that I’ve used this week was lying, which is the deliberate attempt to mislead without prior consent. I was going to be late to work because I missed the bus, but instead of just calling in to say I was going to be late, I decided to call and say that I had stomach flu and I couldn’t make it because I’ve been so stressed out with school. Although lying is intentional, either way I was going to get in trouble for it so I figured try to have my boss feel sympathy for me rather than anger.   

Chapter 3, Question 1

The first characteristic of a good thinker is having good analytical skills, meaning that the one is able to think logically and support one’s beliefs with facts. Sally Ride has this characteristic because of the fact that she was able to double major in school so she had to utilize her analytical thinking in order to learn about physics and gain more knowledge. Sally Ride definitely is an effective communicator. She was the capcom for the first and second shuttle flights. Understanding and resolving issues requires a lot of skills which Sally Ride has. The other characteristics of a good thinker are: flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity, open-minded skepticism, creative problem solving, attention, mindfulness, curiosity, and collaborative learning. It is not possible to determine whether or not she has all of these skills from this small excerpt. But, obviously she has collaborative learning and a curiosity for the natural world. She was able to apply her training and skills from her experience working with NASA and convert that concept into children’s books. 

Chapter 2, Question 3

A concept that I enjoyed reading was about dreams and problem solving. I don’t know how many of you have had a problem or a pressing issue and just decided to “sleep on it” hoping a solution would come to you. I have had this problem lately trying to make time for school, homework, work, boyfrine, and my friends. I never actually paid attention to the fact that lately I have been using my sleep to help me reason. I can actually visualize how my day should play out when I wake up. I found it very interesting to learn that it is not uncommon for people to make groundbreaking discoveries during dreams but it only works after a person has tried to solve the problem while awake.  A good strategy to utilize your creative thinking in your dreams is to write down a problem and then record what you dreamed about in the morning. I’m going to try to do this exercise tonight!

Chapter 2, Question 2

I believe that in some aspects the theory of evolution and a belief in God are compatible. The theory of evolution basically states that all things change, or evolve, over time in order to survive in their conditions. An example of evolution would be a giraffe’s neck which has evolved over time to reach leaves in tall trees. The reason I believe that evolution and a belief in God are compatible is because of the fact that one of Aquinas proofs discusses natural design in organisms, which is a big part in the theory of natural selection in evolution. However, the theory of evolution was Charles Darwin’s response to the common belief in a God. He wanted to disprove the theory of God by showing that there is another way things are the way that they are. Dawkins rebuttal to his argument disrespects those people that do believe in God by just the name of his article, “The God Delusion”. I felt that his argument could have been a lot stronger and his rebuttal was almost as confusing as Aquinas’ proofs. 

Chapter 2, Question 1

I have a lot of strengths that have lead me to choosing the career path that I have chose for myself. It is important to have identify your strengths and weakness in order to ensure success within your life. For example, math is not my strong suit so I would never think about becoming an accountant, because it would not be related to anything I’m interested in plus I would have to work very hard to try to prevail in my career. I am strongest in deductive reasoning, which is basically proving something before declaring it is true. This would help me in my career of choice because of the fact that I want to work with forensics. When crime scene investigators first arrive on the scene of a crime, they do not assume that a person died a certain way, there are a lot of unanswered questions. They look at all the evidence around and try to come to conclusion about why and how this happened. 

Chapter 7, Question 3

A concept that I found most interesting was in the group communication text about the importance of communication networks. This is a highly important concept because “the more connected an individual is to participants in an organizational network, the more centralized he or she is”. Meaning, that the group is stable. Networking also means that communication is key when trying to “have people remember who you are and what services you offer.” There are a variety of skills that are important for successful networking so that negotiation is easier. Building networks is the key to success. Without successful networking, whatever you are essentially “endorsing”, whether its you, a product, or a service you are offering, will be forgot in an instance. Leaving a lasting impression on others is highly important. I am not that great of a networker, but I am trying to improve my skills. Thus, by reading this text, I have learned a little bit more about such an important concept. 

Chapter 7, Question 2

Antonia Novello noticed a dramatic change in the number of and children and teens that were smoking in 1988 when the Joe Camel ads were first introduced. Her inductive reasoning was that the advertisements were probably the cause of more children and teens smoking cigarettes. She noticed a correlation between the two. The more ads that teens and children saw, the number of youth smoking increased. Since Novello noticed this, she began working in schools with youth to teach them about issues such as smoking, drugs, alcohol, and AIDS prevention. She also tried to get a ban on the Joe Camel commercials that she believed targeted youth. Let’s break it down a little bit more:

Premise 1 (cause): Joe Camel ads were released in 1988 and                                            

Premise 2 ( cause): the ads became very popular amongst youth.

Conclusion (effect): The number of youth and children that smoked dramatically increased.

Thank you.

Chapter 7, Question 1

An inductive argument that I used in the last week was when I had caught a cold. I have a good friend that went to the store to buy me some Nyquil (premise 1). The week before that, he brought me some laundry detergent (premise 2). A week before that he drove me to Wal-Mart (premise 3). Therefore, I can most likely count on him to get me anything I ask for (conclusion). The only reason I continue to ask him to do things for me is because I know that he will based on prior experiences. In an inductive argument, the conclusion goes beyond the premises and claims that the conclusion probably follows the premises. In my example, I had three premises that stated the things that he has done for me. My conclusion can be falsified if the next time I ask him to do something he doesn’t do it for me. I made a general conclusion about what will probably happen next therefore it is an inductive argument. 

chapter 8, Question 3

A concept that I enjoyed reading about was in “The Essential Guide to Group Communication.” Chapter 3 discussed leadership and decision making in groups and teams. There are four different types of leadership when working in groups or teams: authoritarian, consultative, participative, and laissez-faire. I thought that this would be a good concept to read about because of the fact that there are different types of leadership, others try to take complete control of the situation, but sometimes people need to be able to step down in order to allow room for others to step up to the plate. An authoritarian leader makes decisions for the group without asking for the group consent first. Consultative leadership means that the group directly communicates with the group and makes a final decision. Participative leadership is when there really isn’t a clear leader in the group since all team members work together as partners in order to achieve a common goal. A laisezz-faire leader is when a leader basically leaves everything up to the group and doesn’t really have direct contact with the group. I think the most effective type of leadership for this upcoming paper would be to have shared leadership amongst the members of the group. 

Chapter 8, Question 2

I come from a Christian/Catholic background and I completely agree with Sister Helen Prejean that the death penalty disagrees with the teaching of Jesus and violates human dignity. Using deductive reasoning and modus ponens, if the teachings of Jesus are not to do unto others as they have done to you, then the death penalty is wrong. The teachings of Jesus are “to return hate for hate and evil for evil”. Therefore, Christians should believe that the death penalty is wrong. This is a valid and sound argument. However, there are a large number of Christians that support the death penalty. It seems as if Christians may disagree with Sister Prejean because they believe that if someone has done a horrific and unforgivable crime, then they should be punished by death for that. However, people could spend years on death row and in rare cases someone else might have committed the crime. Also, all of the tax dollars that go into paying for someone on death row is more expensive than a normal inmate. Therefore, Christians should agree with Sister Prejean not only for moral reasons but for economical reasons as well.  

Chapter 8, Question 1

In the story “Silver Blaze”, Sherlock Holmes gave Watson a big piece of advice. He told Watson that “when it comes to the art of reasoning, many people rely on opinion and unsupported assumptions. The difficulty, he maintains, is to detach the framework of undeniable fact from the embellishments of hearsay and reports.” This means that many people rely on unsupported assumptions to find answers without detaching the facts from rumors. Although Holmes interviewed many people to figure out exactly what had happened to the missing racehorse. He did not rely solely on the testimonials from those people and used argument by elimination to rule out the different possibilities until only one had remained. Valid proof of something is critical when making a decision because if everyone might have a different interpretation of what they thought happened and the rumor may become out of control when the truth was very simple. It is important to rely on facts and rely less on what people say.

When I was in high school, it was a little bit like the movie Mean Girls. Meaning that, there were cliques and rumors about almost everyone in the school.  I used to hear about this person and that person doing nasty things, drugs, and basically anything. I judged those people without trying to get to know them based off of what I had heard versus my personal experience of being around them. My friends started to hang out with this girl that I had heard so much stuff about and I used to just ignore her or be mean to her. There would be times when it would just be me and her sitting at the lunch table. I felt like I was forced to get to know her and try to be her friend. After a few months, she became my friend, then my best friend, then like a sister to me. I was able to learn that half of the stuff I had heard about her was all fiction and I never would have become her best friend if I would have based my decisions on unsupported assumptions. 

Chapter 6, Question 3

One concept that I found interesting in this week’s reading was in Chapter 2 of the Group Communication book was about what makes a good group. Cohesion in groups is a very important concept that is essential when working in a group. As stated in the text, “a cohesive group is a tight unit that is able to hang together in the face of opposition.” The concept is about essentially becoming as one with your group. You must respect other people’s opinions and ideas in order for the group to work efficiently. Interdependence is another thing that is highly important so that everyone in the group is doing their tasks in order to fulfill the goals of the group. Meaning, each person needs to do their part and the members work collectively. Something that I found interesting was the fact that conflict is a healthy form of group communication because in some cases members are able to find a good intermediate between their two groups. Hopefully, during the group writing assignment, my group will be able to come together and use some of the tools that I have learned in order to receive a good grade. 

Chapter 6, Question 2

Beginning in June of 2008, lasting until June 2012, I worked as a Careers in Science Intern at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It was an exciting adventure as I learned more about science, myself, group communication and facilitation, and leadership. After my second year, I along with some of my cohorts, received a promotion as shift supervisors for the younger interns. I soon learned some of us did not deserve the promotion.  Once, after a long couple hours supervising, I went to the break room to take my lunch, when I found two interns in the break room as well. I noted on my paper that everyone had already took their breaks and lunches. One of those two interns was a shift supervisor as well. She told me that they just had decided to take a few extra minutes for their break. This was only the first incident. The next incident, the same shift supervisor was caught again with a different intern doing the same thing. The rest of the shift supervisors decided to come together and discuss the issue at hand. We all expressed our opinions and ideas about how to deal with the issue and came to the conclusion that we needed to meet with her and speak with her about the issues. After we did that, the problem still was not resolved I went to my supervisor and he dealt with the issue. It was risky of us to deal with a situation that involves our friend. 

Chapter 6, Question 1

President Barak Obama may have opposed legalizing same-sex marriage on a federal level due to the fact that there would be plenty of opposition to it. Although there is plenty of opposition currently, if he would have supported legalizing gay marriage on a federal level it would be a drastic change for the United States. It would redefine the concept of marriage as stated in the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. Although church and state are naturally set to be separate, sometimes there are times when it seems to overlap and Obama opposing same-sex marriage on a federal level is one of those times. He claims to believe in equal rights for all people, however these rights are denied for same-sex couples in regards to marriage. It is strange to think that someone is able to be married in New York yet not married in Delaware. Barak Obama would respond to Nava and Dawidoff’s argument by stating that Americans, even those who agree with same-sex marriage, may be too stuck in the traditional marriages to think that such a drastic change in society is even possible without a large uproar across the nation. I believe that Obama would also state that there are states which do grant the basic right of gays and although same-sex couples do not have the same legal rights they are still granted the same “moral, social, and spiritual benefits”  as other couples although the marriage is not valid by the federal government (Nava & Dawidoff, 1994).

-SigmaLove 

Me, Myself, & I

Hello fellow comm 41 students!

I have taken comm 20 class and I really enjoyed it.  I hope to learn about the pros and cons of online classes and I'm looking forward to working in groups to write papers. It is very different from the types of writing that I am used to.My goal for this class is to get an A for the semester. I am currently a sophomore at San Jose State University and currently my major is Behavioral Science and I am planning on changing it to be Forensic Science with an emphasis in biology. I plan on working as a criminalist for the FBI. I have also had a passion for communicating with others as well as science so I began an internship at the California Academy of Sciences as a Careers in Science Intern. That internship allowed me to begin my career exploration and gain valuable scientific while interacting with the public on the museum floor. I had that internship from the time I was 14 until this past June. I enjoy learning and I figured that having an online class would allow for me to work and learn in my own time and my own pace. I am a member of Sigma Theta Psi multicultural sorority which was founded right here at San Jose State. Last year, I owned a female kingsnake named Frisky but I gave it to a reptile rescue once I was asked to remove it by the RA. I currently live on the 5th floor of CVB. My favorite artist is Rihanna and I hope to meet her one day. I am looking forward to learning more about my peers and about critical decision making. 

Hope you got to know a little bit more about me!