ASSIGMENT VIII -FALLACIES
Statement
from Donald J. Trump:
I don’t see how there is any room for misunderstanding or
misinterpretation of the statement I made on June 16th during my Presidential
announcement speech. Here is what I said, and yet this statement is
deliberately distorted by the media:
“When
Mexico (meaning the Mexican Government) sends its people, they’re not sending
their best. They’re not sending you (pointing to the audience). They’re not
sending you (pointing again). They’re sending people that have lots of
problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing
drugs.They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good
people! But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And
it only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people. It’s
coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin
America, and it’s coming probably from the Middle East. But we don’t know.
Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s
happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast.”
The recent comments of Donald Trump on
Immigration, National policies and Foreign policies are creating anger,
disbeliefs and debates. Many people who
read Mr Trump’s speech were outraged. Some were satisfied to see a candidate stating what some americans ( or many
depending on your source of information) feels towards latinos. The mainstream
media focuses solely on the words
“rapists, “crime” and “drugs”.
Mr Trump through the years has said many derogatory comments on Mexicans
and the entire South American population. He also has been a firm believer that
the mexican-american border must have a “wall” preventing illegal aliens to
enter the country. Nowadays, everyone
summarize Donald Trump as the businessman who declares all Mexicans as
illegals, rapists, drug dealers and murderers.
There are no tangible evidence the
Mexican government is sending convicted criminals to the United States. The
reality is there are Mexicans who arrive through legal channels and some others
who enter illegally. Not all illegal immigrants are criminals. An american
born, a naturalized foreign born, a legal immigrant or a tourist could
unfortunately be a rapist, a drug dealer or a murderer. There are no statistics
proving that most rapists are mexicans.
“El Paso, with
its 81 percent Hispanic population, including 26 percent who are foreign-born,
has ranked as the safest large city in the US for several years. This fact is
all the more amazing given that Juarez, a mere dozen miles across the border,
is one of the most violent places in the hemisphere” ( Linda Chavez, New York
Post)
Mr Trump is using fallacious reasoning,
particularly Fallacy of composition.
This type of fallacy is present when someone assumes that something true of
part of a whole is also true of the whole.
In other words, generalizing an entire event without differentiating. Mr
Trump is placing all Latinos and people from the Middle East in the same
baskets and is labelling him.
Argumentum
Ad Hominem or Attacking the person is “the
fallacy of attacking the character or circumstances of an individual who is
advancing a statement or an argument instead of trying to disprove the truth of
the statement or the soundness of the argument. Often the argument is
characterized simply as a personal attack.”
Some statements can successfully distract the opponent or
the audience in a debate from the
pressing issues.
GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump
said of Governor Jeb Bush: “ He’s stumbling. I don’t know. I don’t understand
this man. He is not even a smart person” ( ABC News).
President Truman once said of General
Eisenhower: “ The general doesn’t know any more about politics than a pig knows
about sunday”. Truman also called then Vice President Nixon ( who was seeking
the presidency): “a no good lying bastard”.
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ASSIGNMENT
VII: MEMORY
Memory is
the collection of received information that is encoded, stored and
retrieved. The human memory can be
considered as a “neural super-computer”.
Some information is given at home (by parents), school and universities,
media outlets and events (pleasant and unfortunate ones). Memory stores a vast amount of information
from all experiences. Experiences can
shape our thinking process, how we react to situations and how we make conclusion.
Memory can give us a bitter perception of certain things or
a sweet unforgettable moment or era.
It’s all based on our experiences. This characteristic shows that we
have memory biases. Memory bias is a
cognitive bias that can either enhance or impair the recall of a memory. It can
also completely alter the content of a reported memory. Examples of memory biases are: persistence,
Cross-race effect and Humor effect.
Persistence is
the unwanted recurrence of memories of a traumatic effect. When I was about
three years old, a hot clothes iron fell on my left hand when I was
sleeping. I remember few things. First
my mom was emotionally upset. Second her cousin was yelling at her and
reprimanding her (she was ironing on the bed next to me). Lastly, I was carried
away to my great aunt house located on the same street. This traumatic event
has haunted me and still is until this day. I remember the event but not the
physical pain. I am always extra cautious while using an iron.
Cross- race effect is the
tendency for people of one race to have difficulty identifying members of
another race. Example: Pakistani and
Indians. I have no common memory
regarding their lifestyle, their language, their accent and their life
experiences. I have no childhood
experience growing and developing with a family unit.
Humor effect
caused an emotional arousal. We are more
receptive with humorous items. Several
years ago, President Obama was pitching a speech in which he was talking about
universal healthcare. In the speech he was talking about Florida. He mentioned
Disney World as the only place where you can find someone with bigger ears than
him. We all know that he was referring to Mickey Mouse. This humorous point
made easy to remember many parts of its speech. Also, President Obama included mnemonic
devices which are another memory tool.
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DEVELOPMENT: Nature vs Nurture
The Nature vs Nurture debate questions the origin of
certain aspect of the human behavior. Do we behave according to our genetic inheritance or according to external factors present after
birth and throughout our life ?
Nature refers to the genes that are inherited from
both parents. Genetic traits are shown in the form of physical and mental attributes and personality characteristics. Physical
attributes such as eye color, hair color, ear size, heights, freckles,hairline
shape. Mental attributes such as genetic disorders ( Huntington disease, Sickle
cell anemia,Cystic anemia ect) mental illnesses(Bipolar disorder,
Schizophrenia) and temperament.
Nurture refers to all stimuli , experiences that we
received from birth and throughout our life. It encompasses the upbringing
(childhood) the relationship between parents and children, the relationship
among siblings, relatives; social relationships (neighbors, classmates,
teachers, co-workers), environment and culture.
Each human being is influenced by both nature and nurture. The product
of both can be a catastrophe for the society or a model to follow. The case of the Catt family is an example on how early childhood affect
an adult's behavior and choices and how the stress and unexpected of life can
alternate lives.
The Catt family was composed of both parents and two
children,Hayden and Abby. Scott, the
head of the household was gainfully employed as an engineer. Sadly, Scott's
wife, Bett, dies of cancer. The children
are respectively 5 years old and two years old.
Scott devotes himself to properly raise his children but also turns to
alcohol and drugs. The children excel academically. Scott loses his job and his house is foreclosed on. Both children drop out of high school and each member of the
family ( Scott, Hayden and Abby) move separately to different state. Scott
moves to Texas, Hayden moves to Hawaii
and Ally with grandmother. Soon after,
father and children reunite again. Scott
secretly robs the bank where his father
used to work at. As financial hardships
deepen Scott continues to rob
banks. Finally he included his children
in the robbery. At the end, after years
of robberies they get arrested. Scott receives a 24 -year prison sentence, Abby
a five year and Hayden a 10-year
sentence. This sad story of the demises
of the Catt family shows that external factors( environment, social status) and
early childhood can influence your actions and behavior. As a widowed, Scott
probably felt overwhelmed with the responsibility and the absence of his wife
who died of cancer. He was left alone with two very young children to
raised. The grief caused him to find
consolation in drugs and alcohol. As he
lost his job( stability) and his house (
symbol of family, unity and comfort) he fell deeper into addiction. The environment inputs manifested in the form
of unemployment and foreclosure influenced Scott Catt to rob banks. The children although adults, now, had
suffered the lost of their mother at an early age. As per Erikson's Stages of
Psychosocial development, between the
third and fifth year, "children learn to initiate activities and enjoy accomplishments,
acquiring direction and purpose-" Also, as per Erikson, a child learn to exercise
will, make choices and control themselves. We know that the Catt children were raised by
a single parent who was a drug addict and
an alcoholic. We are left to wonder if he was present emotionally and
mentally for his young children. What type of parenting style did Scott Catt
adopt? Nature comes into consideration as we know that Hayden and Abby Catt
were honor students. Evidently the external factor of having a parent suffering
of addiction did not affect the cognitive development of the children. In the adolescence stage, the central
psychological issue is identity versus role confusion. In the case of the Catt
children, both teens dropped out of high school. At that time, there father was unemployed and
they had lost their family home. The
external factors were the lost of their home, symbol of family and unity, and
their father's job lost. As young
adults, Hayden and Abby chose to rob banks with their father. Scott might have been a permissive
parent. The children in fact had a deep
attachment to their father. This attachment clouded their judgement and the
sense of right and wrong. The attachment theory reasoned that children form a close attachment to their
earliest caregiver and this attachment pattern can affect aspects of the
children's adult life.
Both nurture and nature influence the human behavior. Even if left on a deserted island, a human being will act according
to his environment. He or she will learn survival techniques. His physique and
genetic makeup might also determine his or her
life expectancy.
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LEARNING
“Operant
conditioning is a type of learning in which a behavior is strengthened when is
it followed by an enforcement or weakened when it is followed by punishment”.
Last week I was driving the car and without
realizing, I hit a pothole. Nothing appeared to happen. I park the car as I
usually do and went home. Several days
later, I went shopping and noticed something was wrong with the car. Although I was unable to determine what was
wrong, thru my conditioning I knew something was not right. A dash light came
on and from past experiences the car was not driving and responding as
usual. The steering wheel was out of
adjustment. My husband decided to
contact the dealer shop since the car was relatively new. We were told that the
vehicle had to stay several days for repairs.
Unfortunately we were told that the cost of repair would amount to
$1,500. The car would be released back
to us upon payment. I was stressed and
overly anxious as I realized that my actions were being punished
financially. The vehicle is back home.
Now, I find myself being overly cautious when driving.
I do not want to incur another financial punishment.
CONSCIOUSNESS: DREAM
ANALYSIS
Assignment IV
Assignment IV
Dreaming is “the
production during sleep of story-like sequences of images, sensations, and
perceptions that last from several seconds to many minutes; it occurs mainly
during REM sleep.
There are two types of sleeps: NREM and REM.
NREM is the Non-rapid eye movement, Stage N3 also known as
slow-wave sleep.
REM is the rapid eye movement sleep.
Fortunately, I sleep an average 7 to 8 hours a days. I
rarely take naps. Depending on my day, my activities, the local news and
current Affairs of the World, my dreams could seem as an opportunity for me to
evade and /or to live the imaginary. Dreaming could also navigate me in a world
of fear, despair and battle. Recently I had a strange dream where there were
familiar faces and those of complete strangers.
I The Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic
perspective
The
manifest content (REM)
I am in classroom. The class is full. My teacher is a
friend’s mother. She is explaining how she wants a report to be done. Suddenly
she pulls up a television from behind her desk. On the television, I see the
face of a male student, Jason, with whom I have class with at NYCI. In a
glimpse of an eye, I am in a garden and Jason is running towards me with a sad
face. He has bad news. Hally has died. Hally was feeling ill the day before and
had opted to stay home to rest. What a
terrible news this was! Hally was so young. In shock, I unconsciously switched
to lucid dreaming as I was wondering how Jason could possibly know Hally. I
began to realize that Hally was Felicity, the character of a movie that I had
watched earlier in the day. Immediately my brain decides to take me again to
another scene, I see my cousin. Where is he? I don’t recall. Frankly the settings and location were
unknown. Why am I seeing my young cousin? He is not talking. It looks like a
picture but a life picture. Starting to be aware that I was dreaming, I
awakened from REM stage, confused and anxiously trying to get answers.
The
latent content
In dream analysis, Sigmund Freud believed that there are
two contents. First content, the manifest
content, presenting what actually happened in a dream, literally. Second,
the latent content which searches and
explores the true meaning of that dream.
My dream was bizarre and emotional. I was grieving a young
girl. Although Hally was a fictional character in my dreams she was still
somewhat real. She represented the young orphan girl Felicity who had died of Influenza in the poignant movie Christmas Oranges. I had watched this
movie that same day (late in the afternoon). Clearly the moving story of the
orphans had saddened me deeply. My brain recorded the emotions (sadness and
joy) and the events of my day then, played it back in my dreams. Joy came from
the news that I had gotten from my friend’s mother Mrs. S (in real life a
doctor in medicine) but teacher in my dream. That same afternoon, I was working
on my Oral and Communication essay and was also reading Mrs. S.’s post on
Facebook. Her young daughter was graduating with Honors from Middle School.
Lastly my young cousin appearing in my dream means that he is on my mind
constantly. We don’t have the most candid relationship and he is currently
looking for an apartment. As a last resort, I know that he might come live with
us.
II The Cognitive perspective
From a cognitive perspective, psychologists believe that
dreams provide important information about us. Dreams reveal what need to be
changed in our life. Dreams send us signals to suggest solutions to our real-life
problems. To some extent, I believe this perspective is true. We might discover our vulnerability to some
subjects. The apprehension we might feel when interacting with some people
might be confirmed in a dream. In my case, I am really worried about my cousin.
He is young, naive and does not welcome different point of views or advices.
Some people tell me that I should not be worried because I am only his cousin
and not his mother. Nevertheless, it is for me a real problem as his mother lives
in Haiti and I am his closest family member.
In conclusion, I do believe that dreams give us some
insight as to who we really are, what we want, what we don’t want, what and who
we welcome in our life. Dreams reveal the internal and external conflicts of
the human being. Lastly, a late great grandmother or someone resembling an
Angel appears in your dream to warn you or give you an advice… How can we
explain this phenomenon? Sometimes an angel does send you a warning and proved
to be correct. All this contribute to our self-understanding.
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Sensing and Perceiving the World around Us
Sensing and Perceiving the World around Us
Part I
Perception is a word that comes from Latin
Percipio. We look and observe an object
and/ or situation differently. The values
that are instilled in us at an early age from our upbringing, from our grandparents,
from our parents, from our surroundings and from our culture all have an effect
on the way we look at things (or events) and how we visualize them. From an early age our surroundings instill what
is right and wrong, the good and the bad, what will help u and finally what
will do harm to us.
A well-known picture of President Obama during
a speech shows him holding a bowl that resembles the sun. Most people know that it is impossible since
the sun is 90 million miles away. Yet, a clever photograph captures the picture
at the right moment and the President is holding the sun. The picture is an
optic illusion. Many people voted for President Obama, the symbol of
"Change" and felt that he was (or still is dependent of different
perception) a savior. This affects the
way we look at the picture based on feelings, external views and learned
objectives regarding President Obama.
Part II
When I was a student in high school, friends,
family, history books, and Hollywood movies would talk about immigrating to
America. It was the impression they presented,
America the land of opportunity where the streets were paved with riches. If
you had financial resources, anything you wanted to buy was available. Your
imagination was the limit. Ten years
later I immigrated to NY. Boy was I in for a surprise. The transition of
leaving one area and moving to another was completely different from what I
imagined and anticipated. The move was not an easy one. Many of the things that
I thought about years ago were difficult and laborious.
Far too often, we take for granted what people
say, how people perceive things. What
they express is being easy and glamorous. At times their opinions and
perception of life can be completely opposite of how they perceive and observe things
and events.
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Experiment Proposal
Free Will and Determinism often coexist in situations that are beyond people's control.
A good example of this happened during the WWII when Adolf Hitler exercised his deranged mind and even sicker beliefs to destroy and eliminate the Jewish population from the society. Determinism and Free Will were simply overpowered and extinguished by the strong force that the Nazi presented. Determinism and Free Will became a basic instinct for people who were trying to survive the horrendous situation they were forced to endure. Animalistic instincts presented themselves as a basic need for survival no matter at what price. Determinism reared its ugly face in the Jewish concentration camps. People betrayed one another, family members were abandoned by their own family. People compromised their values and made sacrifices at the expenses of others for survival.
The next topic is Free Will but is it really "free"?
When
something is free it is accepted without values, judgment and with no personal
gain. A person arbitrary makes a choice but the choice has consequences or
benefits based on prejudices we have grown up with. We have external
forces that are constantly influencing our decisions.
At an early age, we learned "good guys" were and "bad
guys" were black. (Example: choices of clothing color for the
protagonists in Western movies). If we pick "" is it
because it is accepted? Is "black" the rejection?
My
answer to the question is: Is Free Will really “Free"?
Read more HERE.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Read more HERE.
Experiment Proposal
Questions of interest: What are the benefits of being a pet’s parent, if any? If there are benefits to being a pet’s parent, is health improvement one of them? Can a pet contribute to a person’s well being?
Hypothesis: Being a pet’s parent helps lower stress from daily routine ( work, conflicts with co workers, long commute etc. ). Having a pet has a therapeutic effect.
Operational definition: Pet refers to domesticated animal such as dog, cat and bird. For this study, I will refer to a cat.
Well being refers to good emotional and mental health, a sense of harmony, serenity and wholesome
Archival Research: helpguide.org; WebMD
A survey will be conducted. A quiz for first time pet parents will be given as well. Take the quiz HERE.
Experimenter’s thoughts: I am a recent first time pet parent and I have notice that I am less stressed, that I tend to be more gentle in my rapport with everyone in my household. "Petting" my cat is very comforting. I find myself looking for ways to make her feel at ease at all times. Many of my neighbors have cats and /or dogs and they say their pets are part of their family. They bring an additional sunshine into their lives. I can relate.
Few
more important lines:
Pets are natural mood
enhancers:
Your body goes through physical changes that make a difference in your mood.
The level of cortisol (hormone associated with stress) is lowered.
The level of serotonin also increases.
A pet helps control the blood pressure: “In one study
of 240 married couples, pet owners had lower blood pressure and lower heart
rates during rest than people who do not own a pet"
Pet animal fight depression: Petting a cat or dog has a
calming effect. Your pet keeps you busy. In a way it takes you out of
yourself as you walk your pet, groom it and play with it.
N.
B. Researchers found that people with Alzheimer's have fewer anxious
outbursts.
