Reference no: EM133326928
Assignment:
Please submit your responses to the following questions using the drop box below.
Comment on 2 of the 5 possible topics/issues listed below. Please give thorough responses that explain your thoughts and beliefs about the topics. Please remember to select only 2 out of the 5 possible questions to respond to.
1. French Immersion. Despite the evidence to the contrary, many Canadian parents believe that children placed in French immersion programs will suffer in academic subjects taught in English. What might account for the perseverance of such false beliefs? What might be done to dispel these beliefs?
2. Are Beautiful People Healthier? Kalick et al. (1998) investigated whether people tend to associate facial attractiveness with good physical health. A longitudinal study was done examining health data on males and females in adolescence, middle adulthood, and later adulthood. Each subject was photographed and rated on physical attractiveness by independent raters. The researchers found that adolescent facial attractiveness was unrelated to adolescent health for both males and females, nor was it predictive of health at the later times. In a follow-up study, however, subjects asked to guess the health of each of the participants from their photos mistakenly reported the more attractive individuals as healthier.
Why might this be the case? Perhaps the false assumption is based on the "halo effect" of attractiveness, a tendency to perceive attractive individuals as more sociable, intelligent, and healthier. How do these findings contradict evolutionary theory and trait selection?
Source: Kalick, S. M., et al. (1998). Does human facial attractiveness honestly advertise health? Longitudinal data on an evolutionary question. Psychological Science, 9 (1), 8-13.
3. Negative Explanatory Style May Be Hazardous to Your Health.
Peterson et al.(1998) found that people (especially males) who tend to catastrophize about bad events (i.e. expecting them to occur across many situations) are more prone to violent or accidental deaths. Based on data tracking more than 1,500 participants over the course of their lives, the research found that people who cognitively project bad events (e.g. failures, losses, disappointments) across many realms of their lives, rather than seeing them as isolated problems, face a greater risk of death before age 65.
Determine your explanatory style for dealing with bad events. Because the catastrophizing explanatory style is a readily modifiable psychological characteristic, discuss what interventions could be done to change this style of thinking and possibly enhance the length and quality of one's life.
Peterson, C., Seligman, M. E. P., Yurko, K. H., Martin, L. R., & Friedman, H. S. (1998). Catastrophizing and untimely death. Psychological Science, 9, 127-130.
4. Attitudes Toward Lawyers. "Why could shipwrecked lawyers safely swim past sharks, while others were eaten alive?" Answer: "Professional courtesy." " How can you tell the differen ce between road-killed lawyers and equally unfortunate animals?"i Answer: "Tire skid-marks in front of the animals." "How many lawyers could you cram into a typical underground nuclear test site?" Answer: " Not nearly enough."
These are just a few examples of popular "lawyer" jokes. Despite this apparent malice toward legal counsellors, TV is full of "lawyer shows" promoting positive images of the law profession, and they are well watched. Why this ambivalence?
5. Gun control. What do you think of the issue of gun control? Perhaps some of you have lived in countries like the United States or in other countries where gun laws are less restrictive than in Canada. What was your experience of living in an area where guns were more freely available? If you had a gun in your home, did you feel safer from crime? What role do the media play in the public's perception of homicide rates?