I’ll bet you’ll yawn when you read this April 22, 2008
Posted by fs2004 in Uncategorized.Tags: psychology, The Bell Jar, Wikipedia, yawn
2 comments
When I was reading The Bell Jar this evening, I came across the sentence “She yawned then, and her pale orange mouth opened on a large darkness,” found on page 100. Shortly after reading that sentence, I yawned. Are people psychologically conditioned to yawn when they see others yawning or read about yawning? Wikipedia indirectly argues that yes, people do indeed yawn because of “empathy” caused by others yawning. Though I did not take the SATs in the May session last year and the College Board makes all test-takers sign an agreement that they will not discuss the test with others, I remember talking with my friends last year just after the May SATs, when there was a reading comprehension passage about yawning. My friends complained of the agony of yawning through the entire passage, and beeing interrupted by everyone elses’ yawn in the room. A psychologist might argue that yawning is caused by conditioning.
A hoax most cruel April 2, 2008
Posted by fs2004 in Uncategorized.Tags: Stanley Milgram, conformity
1 comment so far
I remember seeing a 20/20 special on this McDonalds incident after it was first deeply investigated a few years ago. After refreshing my memory on the case, I realized that the girls must have followed the instructions given because they had a false sense that the person claiming to be “Officer Scott” actually had power over them. From the minute we are able to speak and comprehend a language, we are told to respect our elders and follow the instructions given from those with authority. This early conformity becomes all too natural, to the point where we like to be told what to do. The article even states that McDonalds employees are told to be “appendages of the machine.” (Which further justifies my theory that within the next 15 years we will see the first fully automated McDonalds, but that’s besides the point.) What really matters here is that as much as we are free, individual thinkers with our own ideas and likes and dislikes, we also are trained to take orders from others and obey authority figures.
Colorado teacher accused of in-class abuse April 1, 2008
Posted by fs2004 in Uncategorized.Tags: hitting, school, Stanley Milgram, teacher
add a comment
Today in the news I read about a teacher who had instructed his students to hit a classmate when he came late to class. This reminded me of the Milgram experiment-to what extent will people cause harm to others when instructed to do so, even when they know it is bad? In my opinion, the case described in this article seems like just another situation blown out of proportion by crazy parents, but that certainly doesn’t justify the teacher’s actions. This story just goes to show that people will conform when instructed to do so by someone with real or percieved authority.
(This post is to be the first one graded in quarter 4)
