Annotated Bibliography Report
Ψ
409A
by
Sherry Teruya
Spring
2003—Generation 18
Dr. Leon James,
Instructor
Instructions for this report can be accessed here
Research Topic 1: Is sexist humor bad humor?
We will all hear a sexist joke at some point
in our lives. These are the jokes that are so hilarious that we can’t help but
to laugh, but there are also the cruel sexist jokes that make us cringe and
leaves us wondering who in their sane mind came up with something so appalling
and derogatory. Should we just have to remember that when we do hear a sexist
joke, it is just a joke and to try to not take it personally? Or could there be
some underlying meaning to these jokes?
Stages of research
In
order to answer the questions as to why many men find sexist jokes amusing, and
if they benefit from this type of humor, I had to use different queries on the
Yahoo search engine. The first phrase I used was “sexist jokes and men”. There
were many homepages about sexist jokes, so I knew I had to rephrase the query.
Using “sexist jokes against women”, I was able to find an article that could be
used to answer these questions. When I added the words “against women” in the
query, it made a major difference in the types of articles that were found.
The findings
An article I found called “Challenging men
to end violence against women and children” written by The Good Apples Project
states; “learn to recognize that signs of sexual harassment in your workplace”
and sexual harassment can take on less obvious forms, such as sexist jokes or
sexist language. It also states that this type of sexual harassment is not about
sex per se, but about power. This article can be found at http://www.goodapples.ca/whatcanido.html
Another article was called “The enjoyment of sexist humor, rape
attitudes, and relationship aggression in college students” written by Ryan
KM, Kanjorski J., from a journal article found on the ISI Web of Knowledge
website. Although this was an abstract of the article, the study found for men
“the enjoyment of sexist humor was positively correlated with rape-related
attitudes and beliefs, the self-reported likelihood of forcing sex, and
psychological, physical, and sexual aggression in men.”
This abstract also states that “for women,
the enjoyment of sexist humor was only positively correlated with Adversarial
Sexual Beliefs and Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence.” And “women also found
the jokes to be less enjoyable, less acceptable, and more offensive than the
men, but they were not significantly less likely to tell the jokes.” This
article can be found at http://isi8.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi/wos
(NOTE:
click on easy search then type in ‘sexist jokes and men’ to find article within
this website)
The conclusion
The first article by The Good Apples Project
infers that sexist jokes or sexist humor toward women correlates with violence
to women and/or children. This article also assumes that signs of violence and
sexual harassment are usually by those who do use sexist language or sexist
jokes. But not all men or women are the same. Some find this type of sexist
humor enlightening and just for laughs, while others use this type of humor to
degrade the other sex, perhaps to feel better about themselves.
Sexist
language and jokes are also used by women. Does this mean that because women
who do use this type of humor, that this should also be positively correlated
towards violence against men and/or children? This article does not take into
account that there are men and women who use sexist humor for just a few laughs
and does not necessarily mean that they are violent towards people.
The second article by Ryan KM and Kanjorski
J. was a study of 399 of predominately white college students all of whom rated
10 sexist jokes on their “perceived funniness.” Their findings implied that
male students who did enjoy sexist humor were more likely to have “rape-related
attitudes and beliefs”, they were more likely to have “sexual aggression” and
they had reported the “likelihood of forcing sex.” This finding is similar to
the Good Apples Project article of sexist humor and violence towards women
and/or children.
In
general, men (or women) would not benefit from using sexist humor because the
results from this study would put them into this “negative” or abusive category.
Actually, nobody would be viewed positively for having a sexist sense of humor.
Next Step
The next step I would take to understanding
this issue would be to find more articles related to why men find this type of
humor amusing and if so, do they actually benefit from it, and if they do, how
so? Personally, I’m a female and do enjoy this type of humor, especially when
I’m angry at the opposite sex. And some sexist jokes about women are down right
hilarious. But this doesn’t mean that I am the abusive or violent type towards
men or children. I’m sure many would agree that this type of humor does not
equal violent behaviors, and it is just a mere way of relating to others
(especially with close friends) by using sarcastic sexist jokes.
Advice to future generations
My advice for this topic is to use many
phrases on a well known search engine. You may have trouble finding decent
articles that pertain to your topic, but don’t give up because there are a lot
of sources on the web via journals, articles, archives, etc… And be sure to
read the questions you have to answer over and over again to try to figure out
what the professor is really asking.
Research Topic 2: Is it considered altruism?
Some
people believe that there is no such a thing as a selfless act. I have even
heard that Mother Teresa could be considered a selfish person. While it would
be ludicrous to call someone so highly looked upon as a selfish person, it may
not be far from the truth. Compassionate and caring deeds are in fact selfish
acts because of the gratifying feelings we get when helping others.
Stages of research
This time I decided to use Google.com as the
search engine. I used the phrase “helping ourselves by helping others” and
although there were many sites on volunteer work, I had no problem finding an
article that could answer the questions on this topic. For the second article,
I also used Google, but used the phrase “not altruism” and found an article
that does not support the notion of real altruism.
The findings
The first article called “Helping Ourselves
by Helping Others” written by Deborah Spaide defines the power of helping
ourselves through helping others. It explains a theory by Viktor Frankl called
“Logo therapy” which “is based on helping people survive hardship by
discovering the meaning in their life.” This article also emphasizes ways of
helping ourselves by helping others when dealing with stress in our own lives
and getting children to learn altruism. The article can be found at http://www.soulrise.com/common/helping.htm
The second article I found is called “Taking Advantage:
Give Until It Hurts: Altruism and Advertising” written by Richard F. Taflinger.
In summary, this article states that there is no such thing as true altruism,
but there is “reciprocal altruism.” Reciprocal altruism manifests in the form
of “material return, a sense of self-esteem, or a sense of security.” This article
can be found at http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/altruism.html
The conclusion
The article by Deborah Spaide is inspiring
and gives light to the meaning of altruism. There is truth to the saying that
by helping others, one is also helping his or her self. Can you remember a time
you helped someone in need and the “high” you received from that deed?
According to this article, this type of uplifting feeling is called the
“helpers high” and has many physical and emotional benefits. Everyone could
benefit from helping others, even if it may be the slightest help in your eyes,
it could mean a lot to the other person and all the while better for your
physical and mental well being.
The
article by Richard F. Taflinger makes a point that there is no such thing as
true altruism because of what is reciprocated in return. But I could beg to
differ and say that in my opinion, what if someone does help another person but
receives no gratifying feeling, no greater self esteem, no material return or
no sense of security whatsoever from doing so? Could this then be considered true
altruism? Or is this just a selfless person with nothing better to do? What
would then be a selfless act?
Next Step
The next step I would take concerning this
issue would be searching for more articles on the beneficial effects that one
receives just by helping another person in need. I would search for scientific
articles and would read if there had been major studies on these effects and if
so, what are these effects?
Advice to future generations
My advice I would have for future
generations is to choose the topics that have meaning in your life. I feel that
by doing so, the task of searching and researching for articles would not feel
tedious and will always pique your interest because you are actually really
searching for the answers that you have been curious to know.
Research 3: Sexism in children’s programs?
Is it true that children’s programs can be
considered sexist because of the proportion of male characters on these shows?
Not being a mother myself, I was unaware if this was even a possibility. But
having been a child myself, I recall when I was younger and the types of shows
that I watched. Shows like the Smurfs, the Muppets, Mr. Rogers and Sesame
Street were popular in my day. But as a young child, I never thought about how
many males were on the show compared to how many females. I only thought it
cool it was for Smurfette on the Smurfs because she could be surrounded by all
boys and that Miss Piggy had it made. Never did I question the quantity of male
characters versus female characters.
Stages of research
This
time I used MSN as the search engine. I had no problems and was able to find an
article by using the phrase “television characters and sexist children
programs.” The second article was also found using the MSN as the search
engine. The phrase “sexism and culture” was used as the search query.
The findings
An
article called “The influence of television on children’s gender role
socialization” written by Susan Witt states that since the 1950’s, “About
two-thirds of characters in television programs are male.” Also stated within
this article is that sexism “can be found even among the Muppets, most of whom
all have male names or male voices.” This article can be found at http://www2.lewisu.edu/~gazianjo/influence_of_television_on_child.htm
The
second article called “Sexism and Culture in Television” written by Jim Winn
states that “television affects culture and culture affects television.” This
reasoning that television and culture are intertwined makes sense because according
to Jim Winn, “It appears that most viewers would like to have sexist shows that
are dominated by male characters” to make the show more believable and because
it reflects our culture. This article can be found at http://www.bluedojo.com/papers/sexism/
The conclusion
The article by Susan Witt makes a strong
point that television is the most influential form of media. She also states
that perhaps the reason as to why boys instead of girls are given preference on
children’s television programs is because it is the boys that represent more
than 50 percent of the viewing audience. This could be the indication of why
the proportion of male characters exceeds female characters especially in
children’s programs. So does this necessarily mean that the shows are sexist?
Perhaps shows such as the Muppets or Sesame Street would not survive since the
percentage of viewers are in favor for boy viewers.
Similar to Susan Witt’s article, Jim Winn
makes a point by stating that it is culture that affects television and vice
versa and that sexism exists on television because our culture demands this by
making male characters foremost on these programs. Why is this so? He explains
that it is because male characters are physically strong, have more endurance
and are more likely to make the show more realistic.
Next Step
The next step I would take in searching and
understanding this issue is to find more scientific data that would explain why
there are more male characters on children’s programming shows. I would search
the statistics on male versus females within our country. It is perhaps this
reason alone that makes the proportion of male characters higher than female
characters on shows.
Advice to future generations
While this may seem such a controversial
issue, it may not be so. There are other factors to consider as to why male
characters dominate children’s programs. My advice for future generations is to
find out the reasons to why this is so and to search for scientific facts that
pertain to sexism on television within our culture.
Research 4: Terror on the road
According to our professor and author of
“Road Rage and Aggressive Driving Steering Clear of Highway Warfare”, road rage
can occur via many different factors. One factor that contributes to road rage
could be considered to be congestion and time pressure and another factor
assumed is the lack of compassion that drivers have towards others on the road.
If you were to think of the two factors mentioned, which would you consider to
be the cause of aggressive driving or road rage?
Stages of research
To find the explanation as to why aggressive
driving occurs, whether due to congestion or lack of compassion, I used the MSN
search engine and typed the phrase “aggressive driving.” Fortunately, there
were many results pertaining to this topic.
The findings
The first article I read is called
“Aggressive Driving: Three Studies” from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
written by Louis Mizell, Matthew Joint and Dominic Connell. According to this
article, “road rage” is “any display of aggression by a driver.” And that this
can be contributed to “increasing congestion.” Furthermore, this article states
that “humans are territorial. As individuals we have a personal space, or
territory which evolved essentially as a defense mechanism.” Additionally, they
implicate that “the car is an extension of this territory.” This article can be found here.
The second article is called “Aggressive
driving and road rage: they aren’t the same” written by Sgt. Robert L. Hohn
from the Arizona Dept. of Public Safety. Mr. Hohn states that “aggressive
driving and road rage are often used interchangeably, but they are not the
same.” He implicates that what triggers “the aggressive driver is usually
traffic congestion coupled with a schedule that is almost impossible to meet.”
He states that “Road rage, on the other hand, is a criminal offense” and occurs
“when a traffic incident escalates into a far more serious condition.” This
article can be found at http://www.drivers.com/cgi-bin/go.cgi?type=ART&id=000000462&static=1
The conclusion
The first article by AAA Foundation makes a
good point that aggressive driving and road rage occurs from congested roads.
What also is true is that one of the main factors that influence driving
behaviors is the type of mood the driver is in at the time. I think aggressive
driving does occur from people who have volatile moods and emotions. The
slightest incident could set them off. These are the scariest drivers on the
road.
The second article by Sgt. Hohn gives a
clear cut definition of the differences between aggressive driving and road
rage. And similar to the first article, road rage accidents are resulted from
people who overreact in some way. Sgt. Hohn states that it is a simple act of
common courtesy that will be appreciated. In other words, if people were to
have more compassion toward others on the roads, many incidents could be
avoided.
Next Step
The next step I would do concerning this
topic would be to search on the reasons why aggressive drivers allow themselves
to drive while in a highly volatile mood state. I would research why they would
risk not only their own lives, but the lives of innocent people as well. I
would want to know the correlation between these types of drivers with the
mentality of terrorists and the mentality of suicidal maniacs. I think that
these could be associated with road rage.
Advice to future generations
My advice is to search for articles that are
applicable to your topic. Once again, use a trusted web search engine and have
patience. If you don’t find something right away, don’t lose faith, just sit
back for a few seconds and rethink your key phrases. And if that doesn’t work,
try and try again.
Research 5: Optimism gets things done
Have
you ever felt so drained from listening to a pessimistic person talk about how
wrong everything in their life has been? One bad thing after another, makes you
wish you were deaf at times? And compare this to listening to someone
optimistic about everything that has been going on in their life. Just by
listening to an optimistic person, you feel alive and more energetic, I know I
do. Could this pessimistic person be causing his own misfortunes in life? Does
pessimism have to do with this person’s ability to improve his or her perceived
outcomes?
Stages of research
Using MSN as the search engine and typing
the phrases “optimism and pessimism” and “optimism and self efficacy”, I had no
trouble finding a few articles.
The findings
The
first article called “Living with Pessimism and Optimism” written by Kevin
Sharpe and Rebecca Bryant states that “exorbitant optimism can obscure hazards”
and that “depressed people (mostly pessimists), on the other hand, view reality
correctly, and more accurately assess their control.” And that “non-depressed
people (mostly optimists) distort reality for their own ends and excessively
rate their control, especially when powerless.” This article can be found at http://www.ksharpe.com/Word/CO28.htm
The
second article called “Peak Performance, Self Esteem, and Self Efficacy” states
that “self esteem and self efficacy are central to the sustained success of any
individual.” Together, they “formulate a powerful vaccine against distress,
depression, helplessness, dependency, and irrational cognition” and “they are
the key to optimism, positive behavior change and the achievement of goals.”
This article can be found at http://www.imt.net/~randolfi/esteem.html
The conclusion
According to the first article, pessimism is
the key factor for putting people in perspective when it comes to a reality
check. This reality check could be the motivation behind accomplishing goals.
But pessimism and depression are usually interrelated. How does a pessimistic
person whom is also depressed, achieve self efficacy? It is possible that due
to the pessimistic outlook on life, achieving one’s goals would be unattainable
because of the fact that their views would be perceived in a negative fashion.
Everything could seem hopeless for a depressed person.
The second article implies that it is self
esteem and self efficacy that are the driving force behind optimism and the
power for one to achieve their goals. This makes sense because it has been said
that people with higher self esteem tend to achieve more for themselves versus
those with lower self esteem. They further state that how does a person achieve
“their potential if they do not believe in themselves and their ability to
accomplish what they take on.” We need an optimistic view on life in order to
make any type of accomplishments.
Next Step
The next step I would take for this topic
would be to search for more articles on how an optimistic and pessimistic
personality develops. And if pessimism were due to past negative consequences
or experiences, can this person change his or her personality for the better.
Advice to future generations
Once again, use a trusted web search engine
and have patience. If you don’t find something right away, don’t lose faith,
just sit back for a few seconds and rethink your key phrases. And if that
doesn’t work, try and try again. Try to remain “optimistic” and you will be
bound to find something useful.
Research 6: Fact or Fiction?
Is there truth about combining coca cola and
aspirin will cause a high? I have never thought about it and have taken aspirin
with some form of caffeinated soft drink. But did this cause a high or did it
just wake me up and get rid of the headache I was suffering?
Stages of research
I used MSN as the search engine for one
article and typed the phrase “combining coca cola and aspirin”. I also used
Google.com as another search engine and used the phrase “coca cola, aspirin and
high” and had no trouble finding an article for this topic.
The findings
The first article called “Painkiller
Combination” written by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson states that combining
coca cola and aspirin will not get a person high. But “when served up together,
the combination packs a much greater pain-killing effect than either of the
products would on their own because the caffeine in the soda appears to work to
boost the effect of the aspirin.” This article can be found at http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/aspirin.asp
The second article called “Aspirin” by Emily
McPherson states that “some people take aspirin to get "high".
Ten years ago ads on television claimed that mixing aspirin with Coca-Cola was
guaranteed to give you a "buzz".” But, “this faulty reasoning has led
to serious and fatal overdoses by many thrill seekers. In 1985 aspirin was the
drug of choice during suicide attempts.” This article can be found at http://www.jiskha.com/health/substance_abuse/aspirin.html
The conclusion
According to both articles, combining coca
cola with aspirin does not give a person a “high”. This misconception is
popular among the teenagers, those of who like to experience different things
to get a cheap high. This is similar to the notion that inhaling glue will get
you high, although in this case, it will more than likely give you a headache.
Next Step
The next step I would further take for this
topic is to find out what other forms teenagers are using to try to get a
“high”, why they are trying to get high in the first place and what contributes
to these dangerous behaviors.
Advice to future generations
My last advice to future generations is to
have fun while researching for articles because it can be quite time consuming
and frustrating at times. But try to remain hopeful and don’t give up just
because you were unable to find articles that pertained to the topic you were
researching. And one last thing, don’t procrastinate until the last minute to
research the topics according to both sides of the issue. Find what you need,
copy it on your hard drive or print out the article (for easier referencing)
and be sure to jot down the web site address you are getting your information
from. This will save a lot of time in the long run.
References
http://www.goodapples.ca/whatcanido.html
http://isi8.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi/wos
http://www.soulrise.com/common/helping.htm
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/altruism.html
http://www2.lewisu.edu/~gazianjo/influence_of_television_on_child.htm
http://www.bluedojo.com/papers/sexism/
http://www.drivers.com/cgi-bin/go.cgi?type=ART&id=000000462&static=1
http://www.ksharpe.com/Word/CO28.htm
http://www.imt.net/~randolfi/esteem.html
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/aspirin.asp
http://www.jiskha.com/health/substance_abuse/aspirin.html
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