Sophie Scott:

Why we laugh

            Sophie Scott has an amazing approach to discussing laughter. She starts her presentation with hilarious laughs from people throughout the world. Brilliant, because before you even begin to realize what she is talking about you’ve laughed for a solid 2 minutes.

            She talks about why we laugh, explaining the biological response to laughter. People are 30 times more likely to laugh if they are with someone else.

             Laughter is behaviorally contagious; there are two different types of laughter; involuntary laughter, and voluntary laughter. Involuntary laughter is high-pitched. Posed laughter is lower, and ambiguous. Laughter is always meaningful, and people are always trying to interpret the meaning.

            Sophie Scott explains that Robert Livingston is working on a longitudinal study on laughter. It is a phenomenal useful for individuals as they are indexing events. For example when things go wrong, people tend to laugh. The individual, who has the unfortunate experience that might cause pain, will often laugh as well. It is useful in helping people to get through painful or embarrassing moments.

            Marwell & Schmitt's Taxonomy Influence Tactics Positive Expertise:
Speaking as an authority on the subject, I can tell you that rewards will occur if you do X, because of the nature of reality. "If you start working out at our gym regularly, you'll find that people are more attracted to you physically."

            This is the very nature of Sophie Scotts appeal; she wants us to use laughter, and promises positive experiences if we follow her advice.

            Sophie uses the Process Premise of both Needs and Emotions for reasons to use, and seek laughter in our everyday lives. She promotes the social, and emotional benefits of laughter through these process premises’.

            Hilarious!

           

Out of class Presentation: Addiction, the Impact on Loved Ones

Out of class Presentation: Addiction, the Impact on Loved Ones

            I do group training every workday at Walmart Distribution called “start-up meetings”. Honestly my initial reaction to this assignment was to hand out an evaluation at the beginning of one of these trainings. I knew better than that.

            My “out of class” speech was actually done in our classroom (Boeing) on a weekend after school hours. A group of students met together for the purpose of completing the out of class presentation.

            I had slides and an oral presentation prepared on the impact of drug addiction on the family. I shared a personal story about one of my loved ones who is struggling with addiction. The feedback I received from the evaluation was mostly about my presentation; slides were not up long enough, sometimes I stood in the way of them. My claims were supported within the slides, but the font was too small to read who/ what was represented.

            There was one surprise. The topic of addiction hits close to home, so I had to stop once or twice to gain composure. I didn’t expect that. Since all of my slides were timed, I had to ‘catch up’ to where the slides were; in an effort not to ‘self-check’ I got ahead of some slides. The lesson I learned was; if I am going to use an emotional persuade that is close to the heart, I need to keep my slides set to advance on ‘click’. J

Kailash Satyarthi

How to make peace? Get angry!

            Kailash Satyarthi teaches us how he used Anger to create Peace.

When he was 11 years old his friends started dropping out of school because their parents couldn’t afford textbooks. This made Kailash angry. He witnessed, or experienced several events in his life that infuriated him. When Kailash was 15 years old he saw a slave father who’s daughter was taken from him and about to be sold to a brothel. He was angry and took action to save the girl and return her to her father. These events made Kailash angry. Gave him ideas. Drove him to action.

            Kailash explained that he gained some of his greatest ideas during his angriest moments.

            In India the people born in the lower segments of Cast are considered “Untouchables”. Kailash set an example by allowing Low Cast people to cook food for him. He invited political leaders to join. Each one of them agreed to join but none of them showed up. He was angry that no one showed up, and ate the food himself. When he got home the priests were waiting, they wanted to outcast Kailash and his whole family. He instead out casted his entire cast by changing his family name. Satyarthi means “seeker of truth”.

Kailash created a book bank at the age of 11 to get books to children who couldn’t afford it. At age 27 Kailash gave up his career as an Electrical Engineer and took up a more noble cause. He began to educate consumers to encourage them to not accept child labor products. Since then child labor has dropped by 85%.  He co-founded the worlds largest global education movement.

Kailash’s developed a method of using mans inherent compassion to care enough to become angry at injustice. Using that momentum and passion to develop an idea for change, then put that momentum and idea into action. Anger. Idea. Action

Kailash's selfless action to roll up his sleeve's, give up everything that was "socially important" and do the right thing to help those in need follows closely to the framework of Reich’s cultural parable of The Benevolent Community. 

He started a “raid and rescue” to liberate child slaves. He and his colleagues have personally rescued over 83,000 child slaves from slave labor and given them back to their mothers. They have organized an international convention to protect children against child labor. As a result the global number of child labor has been reduced by one third in the last fifteen years.

Kailash used the Process Premise of Emotion (Anger) effectively to persuade the audience to want to make a change.  He gives a model of how anger can be destructive, and explains how to avoid that through compassion and selflessness. Kailash drive the emotive that “Anger can be transformed into something great.”

5 ways to kill your dream: Bel Pesce:

1.  Believe in overnight success.
2. Believe someone else has the answers for you.
3. Decide to settle when results are guaranteed.
4. Believe that the fault is someone else’s.
5. Believe that the only things that matter are the dreams themselves.

5 Ways to Kill Your Dream by Bel Pesce supports Larsen’s Cultural Images and Myths on many facets.

            1- Believe in overnight success.

Bel describes success as a process over time; she promises that if you put your hope in overnight success, you will inevitably fail. This claim supports Larsen’s myth of the Possibility of Success. This myth is the entitlement to success that some my feel, because they put in the work. Bel illustrates (literally) the need for constant effort toward your goal or dream.

            From a Process Premise perspective; Packard would agree that Ego-Gratification is a Compelling Need that would be satisfied as success resulted from diligent efforts.

            2- Believe someone else has the answers for you.

The second way to kill your dream is to believe that someone else has the answers for your. Bel Pesce talks about how people have an idea, or dream and others will tell them how that should look, or how they should accomplish it. This is similar to Larsen’s Wisdom of the Rustic, where wisdom is gleaned learning from ones challenges. Bel says to overcome the struggles and let them make you better.

            Here the fourth process premise of Cognitive Dissonance Theory plays a role in believing someone else has the answers for you. One source of dissonance is Uncertainty of Prediction. One might look for answers in another person, when they are uncertain of their own judgments.

            3- Believe that it is a good idea to settle when results are guaranteed.

Larsen’s Value of Challenge shows us how to achieve knowledge and growth through suffering and challenge. Bel argues that one of the most challenging points in a successful career is when you’ve achieved the success you desire. Don’t settle there, ask yourself; How do I reach the next peak?

            4- Believe that the fault is someone else’s.

Ownership and responsibility are difficult. Many people will go far out of their way to prove the fault is not their own. Larsen calls this Presence of Conspiracy Myth. Bel Pesce on the other hand calls this dream killer number four; belief that the fault is someone else’s.  She asserts one must take ownership of failures to achieve success.

            Process Premise Three: Attitudes, Beliefs and Opinions would support Bel in her declaration.  Taking responsibility is an attitude that we are not perfect, accepts that we will make mistakes and prepares the groundwork to move forward.

      5- Believe that the only things that matter are the dreams themselves.

Enjoy the journey, learn along the way, life is not about the goal themselves, its about the journey.

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"
             “A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.”  (Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook).  Eli Pariser in his 2011 presentation: Beware online "filter bubbles" grasped my attention with this alarming comment. 

            Pariser's reference to Zuckerberg's concept paradigms a shift in interest among Internet users. This I could agree with. Eli Pariser capitulates that along with that shift of user interest is an even more disquieting shift. That is, the transference of Internet behavior towards the user.

Motivators

            Motivators apply to everyone; according to BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model there are 3 core motivators, with two sides two each. The core motivators, and their two sides identified by Fogg are: Anticipation (hope/fear), Sensation (pleasure/pain), and Belonging (acceptance/rejection).

            Eli Pariser definitely motivated me through this speech through the sensation of fear. The fear of the Internet having an algorithmic, robotic ‘gate keeper’ of information that filters information from my basic searches, even my Facebook posts worried me. I anticipated a solution on both levels; that of fear of consequence and hope for a solution that I could take part in.

           

Abilities

            One of the main elements to Fogg’s Behavior Model is Ability. According to Fogg a person must have the ability to perform the target behavior a persuader desires in order for the behavior to take place. Ability is the vehicle for change. Upon viewing this Ted Talks Video, I was initially disappointed in Pariser’s speech because he motivated me to change, but didn’t provide the ability to do so. Ultimately however, I discovered that his speech was directed to the engineer’s and developers of search engine protocol, such as Google. It is in-fact an effective speech.

Triggers

            The third element of Fogg’s Behavioral Model is Triggers. Triggers serve the same purpose in behavioral change as they do in firearms. They set the course in ‘action’, so to speak. The behavioral ‘trigger’ is compartmentalized into three types by BJ Fogg; Facilitator, Signal, and Spark. Facilitator is a trigger that exists in an environment where motivation is high, but ability is low. Signal, is a trigger that happens when both ability and motivation are high. Spark, is the trigger which works best when ability is high and motivation is low.

            Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" was closest to a Facilitator trigger for me. I was highly motivated to participate in change; still, I had no ability to make this change. This presentation of his used media and rhetoric adequately enough to produce a Spark trigger for his target audience. Overall, this was a well put together presentation.