Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Front Stage and Back Stage

In the movie, Mean Girls, the girls in the so-called "Plastics" group exhibit front stage and backstage as they backstab each other. In this video clip, Gretchen lies to Karen, pretending to be her true friend by saying that Regina called her a dirty name so that she can get back at Regina by turning Karen against her.

Mean Girls Backstabbing Conversation Video

Postconventional level of Kohlberg's moral theory

I think that Catholic priest exhibit the postconventional level of moral reasoning as they live completely celebrate lives. They don't give in to their pleasures, and they try not to follow norms for their decision-making. The priest I am thinking about personally is my priest back home in Oklahoma. Although he is no longer the pastor at my church, I can think of times where I have seen him exhibit post conventional moral reasoning. When he does many masses for several occasions like weddings, baptisms, and daily mass all in one week, I can see him looking tired. Yet he still chooses to go bless the sick whenever they call, no matter how tired he is, no matter what time of day they call.

Stimulus-Value-Role Theory of Mate Selection


Today, I noticed that two of my friends have finally made it to the Role stage of the Stimulus-Value-Role Theory of Mate Selection. After weeks of seeing them them taking tons of pictures together, constantly hanging out with each other,  studying together, and wearing matching shirts, it was a relief to finally see them as a Facebook official couple. Now they can openly date and act the role of a dating couple like kissing and hugging.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Monotheism

I am currently in a Freshman Seminar religion class that discusses the influence of the Bible on varying religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All these religions are monotheistic where they all believe in just one God. Although these religions have different names and different practices, it seems that they all share the same one God.

Rumors

Recently, there have been rumors of Selena Gomez and Justin Beiber on the Baylor campus. Rumor has it that the two were on a campus tour sometime earlier this week. They also went to one of the Baylor basketball games together. These claims lack confirmation or certainty since no official person has had proof of them being at Baylor. Therefore, these allegations are still considered rumors.

Totalitarianism

I remember last year for AP Literature and Composition, my assigned summer reading was 1984. This book depicted a dystopian society that was completely controlled by an authoritarian government otherwise known as a totalitarianism. This government controlled its people's lives by constantly monitoring them and altering their language.

Exogamy

Within my extended Asian family, there are a few exogamies. Two of my Vietnamese aunts on my mom's side of the family married caucasian men, and one of my Chinese aunts on my dad's side married a caucasian man. Because these 3 women married someone outside their social group, (basically outside their race,) they practice exogamy.

Material Culture

At Baylor there are many articles of clothing that are worn around campus displaying our material culture. Clothing such as rider boots, large sorority t-shirts, toms, and nike shorts are prevalent on campus. Walk around, and you are sure to find more than one of each of these items.

Sandwiched Generation

My aunt, Aunt May, lives in the Sandwiched Generation. She has to take care of my eighty-year-old grandmother while taking care of her own children. She does all this and work as a customs broker.

Assimilation

As immigrants enter the United States, many tend to give up their old ways and integrate themselves into mainstream society. For example, many of my Korean friends here at Baylor were born in a different country. They moved to the US when they were kids, but now they look like any other Asian American. They have learned to speak English, dress like Americans (with t-shirts and jeans), and eat American food.

Life Expectancy

Life Expectancy
When we look at trends of life expectancy from the history of the United States, we can see how it has continually increased each year. This increasing trend may be attributed to the advancement of medical technologies as years go by. According to World Bank, World Development Indicators, in 1960 the life expectancy in the US was 69.8 years. Today, this number has risen to 78.1 years.

Gender

Traditionally, women are nurses in the medical field, while men tend to be the doctors. More recently, I encountered a new friend who told me that he aspired to be a nurse and is currently in the nursing program at Baylor. This shift in career made me think about the change in gender roles especially now when men and women are becoming doctors or nurses more equally.

Imitation Stage (Mead's Theory)

According to Mead's Theory, between the ages of birth and 2, babies are in the Imitation Stage. This is the first stage to self development where babies imitate what they see around them, especially people.

Baby Imitating Mom and Dad on the Phone Video

Nature vs Nurture

Nature, as the belief that genetic and biological heredity are the primary causes of human behaviors, can help explain why some people are genetically predisposed to being obese. Nurture can also explain why one is obese in a different light.  Nurture is defined as the belief that the way in which we think, feel, and behave are the results of our environment, so someone could become obese by placing themselves in an environment with lots of food, no proper exercise, and a low self-esteem.

Master Status

Famous singers such as Celine Dion have been highly profitable being in the "singer" status. However, as they begin to have a family, they tend to gravitate towards a different status, a master status. For Celine Dion, she became a parent. This status was more important to her than her job as a singer.

In-Group Bias

Because we are fans of the Baylor football team, we tend to think that we're the best, especially lately when we defeated the University of Oklahoma football team. Our bias that we are the best is because we are part of the Baylor in-group. Our in-group bias may prevent us from accurately discerning which team is better when we compare Baylor with other schools in the Big 12 because although we beat OU, it doesn't necessarily mean we'll beat the University of Texas, a team OU beat.

In-Group vs Out-Group

Sometimes, here at Baylor, there tends to be a disconnection between the Baylor students and the Waco community. Although we have efforts to try to converge these two communities through service organizations like Mission Waco, there are still negative held opinions from both communities about the other. The college students think Waco is a ghetto community whereas the Waco community think Baylor students are wealthy students. These assumptions are not necessarily true for ALL Waco or Baylor people, but the contrast between the two communities who consider themselves the "In-Group" and the other the "Out-Group" showing the viewpoints of each community.

Bounded Relationship



When I was an elementary and middle school student, I went to a very small, private school. My 8th grade graduating class had only 6 students. Then, when I transferred to high school with a class size of 215 and eventually college with about 7,000 classmates, I realized that those 5 other classmates in my younger years  most likely would not have been my chosen friends in a much larger school. At the time, we seemed like best friends. But after going to high school and meeting so many people with more similarities to myself, I realized that in middle school we were forced to be in the same class together under a bounded relationship causing this sense of friendship. Now, my 5 seemingly close childhood classmates and I hardly communicate with each other. But as the transition from high school to college occurred, there was further fraction between my old friends and my newfound friends.