Creative and Critical Thinking 2
Creative and Critical Thinking II
1. Have you ever changed a strongly held attitude? What caused the change for you?
I have only experienced a shift in my personal beliefs once: at one point in time I believed I was relegated to working in a factory, now I do not have the same belief. I believe that the shift in my attitude was due to an internal growth; I became more self-aware after my father passed away. I looked at my father, and all he had done, and began to believe that I was capable of the same amazing personal success.
2. Do you believe that you are free of prejudice? After reading this chapter, which of the many factors that cause prejudice do you think is most important?
No one in this world is truly free of prejudice; ergo, I am not free of prejudice. Society labels and categorizes people, and from those labels stereotypes are born. In all honesty, I am sure that implicit bias is what causes me to be prejudice. In all honesty, I believe that implicit bias is the most important cause of prejudice in most people; the book describes implicit bias under the category of a mental shortcut. If implicit bias is the sum of generations of stereotypes, and learned behavior, than it must be the most important factor.
3. How do Milgram’s results—particularly the finding that the remoteness of the victim affected the obedience—relate to some aspects of modern warfare?
The closer a victim is, the less likely a person is to do physical damage. Bombs, missiles, and sniper-rifles are all ways to keep the victim at a “safe” distance from the soldier. In this day and age, a soldier does not even have to step on to the field of battle to kill his enemy. I am sure that this method of long-range weapons also gives the soldier, who is only being obedient, a clean conscience when he goes home.
4. What are some of the similarities between Zimbardo’s prison study and the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq?
Zimbardo’s prison experiment was extreme. The
1. Have you ever changed a strongly held attitude? What caused the change for you?
I have only experienced a shift in my personal beliefs once: at one point in time I believed I was relegated to working in a factory, now I do not have the same belief. I believe that the shift in my attitude was due to an internal growth; I became more self-aware after my father passed away. I looked at my father, and all he had done, and began to believe that I was capable of the same amazing personal success.
2. Do you believe that you are free of prejudice? After reading this chapter, which of the many factors that cause prejudice do you think is most important?
No one in this world is truly free of prejudice; ergo, I am not free of prejudice. Society labels and categorizes people, and from those labels stereotypes are born. In all honesty, I am sure that implicit bias is what causes me to be prejudice. In all honesty, I believe that implicit bias is the most important cause of prejudice in most people; the book describes implicit bias under the category of a mental shortcut. If implicit bias is the sum of generations of stereotypes, and learned behavior, than it must be the most important factor.
3. How do Milgram’s results—particularly the finding that the remoteness of the victim affected the obedience—relate to some aspects of modern warfare?
The closer a victim is, the less likely a person is to do physical damage. Bombs, missiles, and sniper-rifles are all ways to keep the victim at a “safe” distance from the soldier. In this day and age, a soldier does not even have to step on to the field of battle to kill his enemy. I am sure that this method of long-range weapons also gives the soldier, who is only being obedient, a clean conscience when he goes home.
4. What are some of the similarities between Zimbardo’s prison study and the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq?
Zimbardo’s prison experiment was extreme. The