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.