This is an image of Lebron James as a junior in high school on the cover of Sports Illustrated entitled, “The Chosen One.” This image demonstrates the hype that surrounded Lebron James, from a highly talented high school player until his arrival in the NBA. Although many high school athletes have been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, very few were on it prior to their junior season in their respective sport. And even fewer have been from the sport of basketball. Lebron is one of six high school basketball players even to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a feat not even the consensus best basketball player ever, Michael Jordan, accomplished. Along with being on the cover, Lebron’s junior and senior year games versus highly ranked opponents were televised on the ESPN networks. This kind of exposure to the media at such a young age must bring extreme pressure toward a player. Pressure and attention that many of the best players in the history of the NBA have felt themselves. With this attention though came the comparisons to Michael Jordan, which garnered hype that overshadows anyone else’s, according to Bill Simmons in his article, “Beware the ‘sure thing.’” As if the comparisons to Jordan, ESPN attention, and worldwide recognition weren’t enough, Lebron also felt the pressure of providing for his single mother, who raised him without the presence of his father. He was set for life financially, after signing $100 million worth of endorsements before his debut, but having to play in his hometown with his mother, his friends, and his so-called “friends” surrounding him only looking for money wouldn’t help alleviate the pressure either. If he were to fail his hometown team as well? What pressure could weigh more on a player than letting down his own neighbors when they depended on him to restore the team to glory? The hype surrounding Lebron James is unmatched to anyone’s ever, but how does this hype compare to the looming racism Bill Russell faced in the 50s and 60s?

     http://www.cddep.org/resistancemap/use/all#.UxQcVvldWrq

            I understand that it may be hard to read the small text in these pictures so the link above is where the pictures are located. These pictures, while vastly different from the pictures everyone else has used so far in the class, are just as, if not more, important than theirs. This is a part of a larger distribution plot that showed what the use rate of antibiotics for every 1000 people for each state, including the national average, indicated in bold.

This distribution plot is screaming one thing in particular at the reader. It tells the reader that the different regions of the country prescribe use completely different amounts of medicine. For example the South Eastern States such as Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee are among the highest users of antibiotics in the country. This chart, if converted to a map, will mimic in a surprisingly close way, a map of educational scores in math, English, and science, for the 50 states. This data suggests that more education results in prescriptions of medications per 1000 people. And while there is no concrete evidence in the form of studies that can show there is a difference in education on the topic of antibiotics and medicine, it can be assumed that lower math, English and science scores suggest a lower level of education in all areas of science, including medicine.

Resistance to medicine is caused by three things: over-use, using for an incorrect amount of time, and a natural build-up of resistance over time. While there is no way to slow down time and thus slow down pathogen’s build-up of resistance to medicine, we can prevent the other two ways. One way is by only prescribing antibiotics to those who truly need them. Educating the people in these areas of the country could greatly lower the national average of prescriptions and at the same time slow down the speed at which pathogens are building up a resistance to our most powerful medications. This is one area that the CDC isn’t addressing at all. They are currently trying to educate doctors about the current predicament; however the doctors can only do so much. Many times the huge pressure people put on their doctors will cause them to prescribe antibiotics when they don’t truly want to. It’s the kids that should be educated. While the current efforts to increase the levels of education nationwide aren’t designed to address this particular problem, programs such as the new nation-wide PARCC tests will inevitably educate the young about the dangers of over-using antibiotics. 

Celebrities have a large impact on today’s society. Seen on magazine covers, television, and the Internet, celebrities are prized all over the world. But why is our culture so invested in the lives of these stars? Why does our society care about what shoes Beyoncé wore while shopping rather than focusing solely on her music? Why do people love seeing candid pictures of celebrities, such as this image portraying actress Jennifer Garner and her children? Society cannot seem to get enough of pictures of unsuspecting celebrities taken by paparazzi.

The interest many people have in the personal lives of celebrities may be due to evolution, according to social anthropologist Jamie Tehrani. Tehrani argues that humans differentiate social status in terms of prestige, which evolved as part of a package of psychological adaptations for cultural learning. This cultural learning allowed our human ancestors to recognize individuals with superior skills and knowledge, and reward them and learn from them. With this system of prestige, new techniques were discovered, such as optimizing the design of hunting weapons to spread across the whole population and improve the knowledge of their predecessors. By attaching prestige to these people, the group’s chances of survival were boosted.

In modern culture, prestige is usually associated with recognition. That is, those who are given the most media attention are the most prestigious. And since athletes, musicians, and actors tend to receive the most recognition, it makes sense in terms of Tehrani’s argument that the general public would try to emulate these celebrities’ lives. Even though many celebrities are famous for sports, music, or acting, “which most of us have little hope of emulating…we still imitate what we can because our brains are programmed to associate prestige with adaptive behavior.” So even though Jennifer Garner may be famous for being an actress and not a mother, people love seeing her, along with many other celebrities, performing everyday tasks in order to emulate her behavior and learn from her mistakes.

Works Cited 

AKM Images. Jennifer Garner’s Sweet Samuel. 2013. Photograph. Unknown, n.p.

Tehrani, Jamie. "Viewpoint: Did Our Brains Evolve to Foolishly Follow Celebrities?"BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation, 25 June 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

Almost everyone can most likely say that at some point in their lives they have turned to music as an aid. There is something about music that draws people to it in hopes of some sort of escape or relaxation.  When it comes to a topic like “music therapy”, people may instantly assume this is a specific technique in curing mental diseases. And while this is true, the amazing thing about music is that it is accessible to everyone at any time without a specific "music therapy session". This means that outside of an actual therapy session, people can still receive the numerous benefits (ones I’ll be mentioning in my paper) music has to offer. Since the main focus of my research paper is on the effects of music on people, I find this picture to be very appropriate to include with the paper. This picture mentions some of the exact effects that music can have on people whether they are dealing with something as simple as a stressful day and turning on their favorite station to relax, to as extreme as helping patients with Autism develop social, speech and motor skills because of music. 

What is quite refreshing about this picture and slightly humorous is that it is similar to a medicine ad one might see in a magazine or on TV. This relates to my thesis because I intend on proving the point that music therapy should be considered before medication because of its amazing results. Although it’s obvious that in severe cases doctors will resort to and choose medication before therapy, or the two simultaneously, the newest research and findings show the incredible effects that music alone has. Although this is opinion, I do believe I share it with others: that choosing a treatment that is a natural as possible (and not including medicine) is an ideal choice. The common side effects given at the bottom of the picture, including “uncontrolled toe-tapping, swaying side-to-side, smiling, off-key singing, etc.” show the simple effects that music is able to do. When it comes to some of the conditions I mention in my paper such as depression, anxiety, autism and disabilities, music has a range of effects. For depression and anxiety music can relieve some stress and provide a safe escape. For autism and other disabilities, the use of music can actual improve skills in real life such as remembering tasks in a certain order by creating a song to sing along while doing certain tasks. These effects are incredible, and make it clear that music has a much bigger purpose than merely entertainment. This picture supports my thesis, stating that music therapy has potential in treatment just as other therapies and medications do.

          Video games can cause many effects on people. Many researchers focus on violent video games and their effects. Violent behavior and aggression are some negative effects that can be received from video games. Video games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield portray a person in real life war combat. The person playing the game gets to see through the eyes of a soldier in a virtual world that could very much resemble a place in reality. The player's objective for the majority of the game is to shoot and kill his enemies. The player gets to feel a sense of accomplishment once a mission is completed. On the other hand, a feeling of disappointment is had when a mission is failed. The mission is replayed over and over again until the player succeeds by killing the enemies in his way, by any means possible.

          These games can produce an increase in aggressive behavior by making the player more infuriated with the game when the player does not complete a mission successfully. On some accounts, players punch a wall in their room, throw their controller to the ground or yell in an aggressive tone. In the case of figure 1, the two boys have stated that they have been subject to much violence in their lives. They did not like what the newspaper header said and decided to take their anger out on the newsstand. The boys leave the newly demolished newsstand enraged. Figure 1 shows that when violence is experienced or shown to people, behavior that resembles said violence can increase. Many people cannot hold their rage in due to violent video games and they must release it through a violent action. Others can contain themselves when playing violent video games. Different people have different brains which in turn lead to different reactions and different effects.

          Aggressive behavior is one of many effects of video games. Violence in video games has been studied and researched for many years and evidence has proven an increase in aggressive behavior and aggressive cognition when compared to people who have not been exposed to violent video games.

Works Cited

Seltzer. "Unknown". Digital image. Parentstv.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.

In a recent episode of Disney Channel’s hit show, Good Luck Charlie, Amy and Bob Duncan set up a playdate for their daughter Charlie. When Charlie’s friend Taylor arrives for the playdate, the Duncans discover that she has two mothers. Bonnie Faller quotes the introduction of these two characters in an article from Hollywood Life, “‘Taylor has two moms!’ proclaimed Bob (Eric Allan Kramer), upon meeting the two women, to which sassy wife Amy (Leigh Allyn Baker) responded, ‘Wow! Nothing gets past you, Bob.’”

Disney makes history with the introduction of the first openly gay couple on a kid friendly network. Disney describes how they developed the storyline with help from child development experts and community advisers in hopes of reflecting themes of diversity and inclusiveness. The channel’s statement included that, “"Like all Disney Channel programming, it was developed to be relevant to kids and families around the world’”. Disney’s efforts reflect the diversity that resides within their audience.

Some conservative watch groups have expressed opposition to this introduction of a lesbian couple on the network. However, most fans are thrilled with the Disney’s bold move. Days after the episode aired, fans are still tweeting about it. Faller from Hollywood Life provides her readers with fan’s Twitter reactions to Disney’s breakthrough. Katelyn Nicole tweets, “I love how in the Good Luck, Charlie episode, it's not out of the norm at all for Taylor to have 2 moms. ♥” Ellie Laufer shared similar excitement, “wow! Disney introduced their first openly gay couple on Good Luck Charlie! That’s so awesome!” Fans applaud how this decision brought more diversity to the Disney Channel. The media's willingness to provide it’s audience with a better representation of todays world, and the resulting positive fan reactions depict the social progress of media today.

Mobile News. "Disney Channel Introduces First Gay Characters in Family Sitcom Good Luck Charlie."

NewsComAu. N.p., 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

Tierneyhl, and Bonnie Faller. "Hollywood Life by Bonnie Fuller." Hollywood Life. N.p., 27 Jan. 2014.

Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

 

The United States Prison System has a funny way of thinking. They believe that the ultimate goal of prison is to prepare a person to reenter the world as a law abiding citizen. However, locking someone up in a 6 by 8 cell with minimal communication from the outside world seems a bit counterproductive. Entitled, Art Against Incarceration by Billy Dee depicts why rehabilitation has failed so many times before.

The painting shows an inmate in a dark, dreary cell cut off from the rest of the world. Incarceration brings forth the ultimate sense of loneliness and isolation.  When prisoners aren't alone, they are surrounded by other criminals which only fosters the idea of crime. This makes it almost impossible for criminals to move away from their past. Craig Haney from the American Psychologist says, "At a more philosophical level, imprisonment was now said to further something called, "just desserts"- locking people up for no other reason than they deserve it and for no other purpose than to punish." With a mind set like this, rehabilitation will always fail.

The artist does allude to some hope in his painting when he writes, "You are a part of this world." Prison often dehumanizes people by making them dress in the same orange jumpsuit and keeping them locked up within concrete walls that show no sign of hope. The artist believes that prison is doing everything but rehabilitating people as they continue to use it as a way of inflicting pain.

Rehabilitation is a controversial idea in society because some people believe criminals should be taken out of society for good.  Then, there are others such as this artist who believe that although they are criminals, they are also humans who deserve another chance. The painting however clearly shows which side of the argument is winning. With a system that is solely based on punishment, paintings like these will be the reality of prison for a long time to come.

                Despite investing in advanced security software and protecting themselves against the latest threats, companies are still are extremely vulnerable to malicious attacks that exploit their human element of security. Social engineering is the clever psychological manipulation of people to perform actions or give up information. Social engineering, coined "the art of human hacking," is now considered the greatest to security, according to analyst firm Gartner.

              
               This image, taken from home.mcafee.com, depicts 2 men manipulated by the strings of a puppeteer. Unlike computer software, humans can be carefully manipulated into divulging confidential information or performing actions. Like a puppeteer, social engineers manipulate the human elements of security into performing actions, or revealing confidential information. Social engineers play upon human nature, and have an acute understanding of the human mind. They know just the right strings to pull to get humans to act the way they want.

                All social engineering techniques prey upon human tendencies. Pretexting, a common method used by social engineers to manipulate unsuspecting victims, targets the human tendency to trust. By pretexting, or pretending to be someone or something they aren’t, criminals can manipulate these victims into giving personal information that could lead to identity theft and large amounts of money.

                 It is important to note that social engineering is not all bad. In fact, it is applied every day by everyday people. Every time you try to get someone to do something that is in your interest, you are using social engineering. Everyone from children, to salesmen to politicians engage in social engineering. If used maliciously however, social engineering attacks could have catastrophic effects, potentially costing companies and businesses millions of dollars. And with the rising number of social engineering attacks daily, it is imperative that more businesses and companies are made aware of social engineering threats and implement defenses to protect themselves.

Works Cited

"Greatest Security Risk: Social Engineering, Says Gartner." - ZDNet.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

 

The fashion industry is always evolving. Trends come and go every season but some garments never go out of style. The 1960’s was a new era for fashion; young adults did not want to wear anything remotely like their parent’s clothing. As a result each American woman had her own style. 1960’s fashion sparked the “Do Your Own Thing” slogan to highlight the different styles of hippies, preppies, mods, etc. (Delis Hill, 105).

            The women in the photo capture the ideal style of the American Women in the 1960’s; except these women are not all wearing the same style. The Ideal American Women of the time could not be classified in just one category since every lady experimented with the unique styles they liked.

            The more legs showing the better was the mentality of women; they all wearing mini dresses or miniskirts. All of their outfits have the same shape but have very different styles. The woman on the far right is sporting a “Mod” look straight off the streets of London. Her hair is cut short, giving her an edgy look along with her black and white striped top. The woman next to her is wearing a Jackie Kennedy inspired black and white striped pill box hat. Her dress has a futuristic design on the front, a perfect example of the “space age” look with primary colors and pop art inspiration. The next three women all have a preppie look. The “preppies” were confused by the drastic changes of the decade, resorting to traditional clothing (Delis Hill, 104). They are all wearing neutral shift dresses with shoulder length straight hair, a popular hair style at the time. The next woman dons a black and white almost prairie-like outfit, further proving that the 1960’s had unexplainable and strange clothing. Finally the woman on the far left is wearing a simple shift dress with a belt; the simple yet elegant shift has a hint of Jackie Kennedy’s style.

            The many different styles of the 1960’s each highlight different trends of the time. The numerous trends of the era make the American woman difficult to pinpoint but led to many innovative designs that are still present in today’s fashion industry.

Work Cited: Hill, Daniel Delis. As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising. Lubbock: Texas Tech UP, 2004. Print.

This image depicts human evolution. The “it” that the human is referring to is life. The man asks himself, “What is life all about?” The image is ironic because the answer to the man’s question is the same as the animals behind him: eating, surviving, and reproducing.

This image comes from a book called Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life written by social psychologist Douglas Kendrick. In his book he exposes the animalistic underside of human nature.

Evolution can explain why humans exhibit violent aggression such as murder. Killing has presented such powerful advantages in the cruel game of reproductive competition. Murder is an effective solution to a range of adaptive problems in the evolutionary games of survival and reproductive competition: preventing injury, rape, or death; protecting one’s children; acquiring a rival’s resources and many others. Strategies that lead to greater reproductive success are selected for, over eons of evolution, and come to characterize our species. Murder has become a part of human nature because it is a highly successful method of absolute elimination of competition in order to eat, survive, and reproduce. This image is meant to highlight the similarities between animals and humans, more specifically, the animalistic instincts that humans have.

Many scientists have proposed the Homicide Adaptation Theory, or HAT. HAT proposes that natural selection has shaped a number of specific psychological mechanisms for homicide that have “solved” specific adaptive problems. Historically, killing has conferred significant fitness benefits. Homicide could not have evolved as a strategy unless it was ancestrally associated with greater reproductive success then competing strategies. The function of a given adaptation can be affected by recurrent adaptive problems in three principal ways: first, by their presence or absence; second, the amount of a feature of the environment to the developmental course of an adaptation; third, adaptations come prepared with different adaptive possibilities in different environments. Each of these examples describes an innate adaptation.

Works Cited

Bussell, Andrea. "Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life." Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life. 

            Scientific American Book Club, 9 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

Buss, David M. "Murder Is in Our Blood." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2005. 

            Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

Whipps, Heather. "The Evolution of Human Aggression." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 25 Feb. 

             2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.

http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/conferences/2008-homicide/durrant.pdf

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Group/BussLAB/pdffiles/Homicide%20Adaptations%20-%20Final%20Published%20Version.pdf

The diagram, known as the “Circles of Control” outlines the process of maintaining oppression, which is included and expanded upon in Sean Ruth’s article “Understanding Oppression and Liberation.” The image includes the four steps: physical, economic, psychological, and internalized. Each of these phases contributes to forcing the oppressed group, out of the dominating group, the oppressors. This was apparent in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as the patients were forced to go through these stages in the oppressive ward, run by Nurse Ratched.

Physical oppression in the ward is usually only used in extreme cases, but the threat of it always lingers. This helps to ensure cooperation, among the oppressed.  The patients are afraid of the many horrible treatments they could receive if they act out, which gets them sent to receive shock treatments, accompanied by solitary confinement. According to one of the patients, they are “said to do the work of the sleeping pill, the electric chair, and the torture rack” (Kesey 67). The threat of such “treatments” renders the patients powerless. It further oppresses and even isolates them when they are sent to such an unpleasant fate. The character of Chief Bromden exemplifies this. He is actually believed to be deaf and mute because of his lack of interaction, and that is partly due to the treatments he received when he first arrived when such punishments were more commonplace.

The psychological phase is the part that Nurse Ratched does best. As the patient explains to McMurphy, “she eventually gets inside everyone” (Kesey 70). The nurse specializes in mind tactics to maintain control. She brings up just the right issues that will belittle the patients to feel inferior and powerless. After all, what are they going to do: “vote that the nurse may not ask any questions in Group Meetings? Vote that she shall not look at us in a certain way?” (Kesey 66). This works along with the final stage, which is internalized oppression. In this step, the patients start to believe that they are inferior and powerless. This belief causes them to feel ashamed and the members of the oppressed group begin mistreating one another just as their oppressors mistreat them. Now they are trying to force each other out of society, as well, and not only are they cut off from society, but also, they are cut off from each other.

          Ruth, Sean. “Understanding Oppression and Liberation.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review    77.308 (1988) : 434-44. JSTOR. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.