Lab 8: Understanding Bias

• When I met my girlfriend and we started hanging out more and she wanted to drive my truck that I would spend hours working on, cleaning, and polishing, I would be very hesitant because of how I thought women drive a truck. I felt that she wouldn't be careful and would eventually bump or scrape something. That made me say no until I realized that she is a very good and careful driver.
• This came from the way my mother would drive my father's truck and how she didn't realize the size of the truck and would come very close to bumping someone else's vehicle. This made me think that all women are the same.
• I try and not to create unnecessary biases towards anyone or anything because I want to be able to meet and learn something about that person or thing. I try to overcome biases that are presented by other people's opinions.
• I have learned more about it and eventually learned to deal with it and be able to overcome that bias.

This video to me was about the biases that all people hold against black men. People need to look more in depth of that person. We need to stop the biases and learn about the person. When my girlfriend asked to drive, I said no. After I rode with her in her dad's truck, I learned that she is very good at driving a truck. I now let her drive my newer truck when she wants to.

This course has helped me know more how to deal with people of all races, cultures, and groups. I was not very social in class, but I was always thinking of what I would say if I were to answer. I learned how to deal with people in my future career and what challenges I could face in that career field. I will be able to be more understanding toward people and take into consideration of their opinions. I learned how to be a better leader and person. I learned how to accept difference and work with them to be able to come with the best possible outcome. Thank you Dr. Thorpe for giving me these attributes to make me a better person.

Lab 4: Political Influences

I attended a local city council meeting in Saint Anthony, Idaho. The biggest decision was whether or not to cut down on plowing snow off the roads. This was ultimately decided with not cutting down on the finances.

• If they were to cut down on the plowing, the roads would be dangerous to drive on when the time would come. It would put families in danger on the same streets that people had been driving everyday for the last year.
• It keeps the families safe in winter when the roads do get crappy.
• It actually helped the families reduce tension when they know that the roads are going to be safer while driving.
• There is not much that will impact me in my future career except the driving conditions that I will be faced with.
• This reassures me that while I am in Pocatello, my mom and sister will be safer driving during the winter. With a future family, I will be able to travel safely with my family.
• Every point was covered in this meeting to make this decision.

This gives the parents the reassurance that their children will be able to travel to and from school and other activities on safer roads. The city employees that plow the roads are going t make sure that the roads will be plowed. There were some officials that wanted to cut down the spending on plowing, but their minds were changed quick because people made them think of their family and how it would put them into more danger. I strongly agreed with the decision that council members made.  

Lab 7: Exploring Mass Media

-Week of December 7-13

Television

Date, Day, Time Spent	Name and Type* of Show	Description of the Action (What were the conflicts? What types of cooperation were displayed?)	Description of Cultural, Gender, Occupational, Racial, Orientational, etc. Roles and Biases	Number and Kinds of Advertisements
12-8-15 60 Min. 12-10-15 45 Min.	Criminal Minds Drama TV Series	The cast is the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI.	They have to look at the behavior that is presented by the criminal.	Zero Ads. It was on Netflix
12-13-15 1hr 59min	The Ridiculous 6 Comedy Movie	6 brothers with different mothers and one dad were given a task to save their father from western criminals.	-Caucasian adopted by Apache Indians. -African American Piano Player -Caucasian Moonshiner -Hispanic -Caucasian that protected Abe Lincoln -Caucasian Mentally Challenged Boy	No Advertisements. It was on Netflix as well.
12-10-15 2.5 Hours	NFL Football Sports	Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings	The Cardinals won 23-20	Dozens. Alcohol, upcoming sports games, sports news, local businesses.

* Comedy, sports, news, drama, cartoon, musical, mystery, satire, and so on.

Social Media

Date, Day, Time Spent	Name of Social Media	Description of Action	Description of Roles and Biases Portrayed	Number and Kinds of Advertisements
December 7,9,11,12 3 Hours Total	Facebook	Looking at the News Feeds and Videos.	A lot of the Presidential stories about the Middle East and Donald Trump. Police Brutality. A lot of crude language and degrading posts towards stereotypes.	Zero
December 7-13 About 2 Hours	SnapChat	Sending and Receiving Pictures.	I don’t see a lot of biases because the only people I talk to are family and friends.	Zero
December 7-13 7 Hours	Xbox Live	You play online against a lot of different people.	There is a lot crude language and putting people down.	Zero

Please note the total viewing time (in minutes) for the week.

8 Hours and 15 Minutes

After this lab, I realized that I probably spend too much time on social media and television. I realized that people are meaner when there is no possible way of meeting the person that they are being negative to. This bias makes me want to not put people down and be as positive as I can, but also be able to express my opinion when it is necessary. The things that I faced while watching Criminal Minds made me think about why people do what they do even with just talking to a friend or new person. On Facebook, I noticed so many biases and negative news. The Presidential Debate between the candidates is making a lot of news these days.

Lab 3: School Community Walk

I picked a small elementary school that I have drove by many, many times. It is call Willow Elementary School in Grantsville, Utah.

• The children that attend this school, live in the main part of town of Grantsville. The social classes are from every level. There are mainly middle class families that live in that town.
• The main elementary school burned down in 2009, and since the rebuild of Willow, there has been a huge increase of suburban neighborhoods and tightly packed housing. They are mostly higher class homes that are priced for middle class families.
• There are parks all around town that children play at after school, but the most popular is the small park that is across the street at the city fire house.
• The conditions of the parks are anywhere from brand new to very old. Most of them are rebuilt and updated every 5 to 10 years. The school playground is very updated and brand new. The playground sets are brand new.
• I didn't go inside the school, but I suggest that the children eat in the school cafeteria.
• Local school buses are the only public transportation in Grantsville.
• The school is located on the end of town, but there are a few gas stations and one local grocery store.
• The culture in Grantsville was mainly Caucasian with a small number of Hispanic families.
• English is the main language with Spanish in second.
• There are several local restaurants and cafes that line Main Street.  
• The closest main road near the school is Utah State Route 112 that connects Grantsville to Tooele.
• This school teaches children from Kindergarten to 5th Grade.
• The resources from this school is the lunch and a school nurse.
• The children are gaining a very strong knowledge from the updated technology.
• They are learning very helpful things that help them advance in life very fast.

This school build bonds that small town should create. The children grow up in school with the same kids from grade school all the way up to high school. Being from a small town myself, this was very helpful to gain the ability of building very strong relationships.

Lab 6: Volunteerism

During the spring semester of 2015, I volunteered at the Pocatello Food Bank for a project in a class. I only helped out at the food bank for a few days, but while I was there, I witnessed a lot of good things. For the most of the time, I was bagging peanuts or packaging boxes to be given out to the less fortunate people. When I watched people come and pick up these boxes, I saw joy and a big weight lift off of their shoulders. They could not stop thanking us. It made me feel like no matter who you are, you can make a difference in someone else's life. Volunteering helps both sides. The people who do the volunteering are happy because they are helping others. The people who receive the help are so thankful for what they have been helped with. In my future career, all I will be doing is volunteer work. I cannot wait to help people every day. Communities are like a chain. It is only as strong as the weakest link. People help others to build relationships. Which ultimately build the community relationship.

Lab 5: Understanding Different Cultures

I interviewed a friend that I have grown up with in my hometown. He was an adopted African-American. He was adopted into a small town white family. He said adapting to a family who had a different skin color than you was very tough to accept. As he grew up, he learned more about his adoption and how he had adapted to accept anyone no matter what their skin color, race, or life was like. He told me that he was blessed to be part of a family that loved him for who he was.

Growing up in a small town, I was taught to enjoy the little things and be grateful for what you have. I learned that people take their culture and adapt to the new culture that they are presented with. No matter what your culture is, you can keep that culture strong while also adapting to another one. Being in the medical field, you never know what culture you are presented with. I could very well face many different kinds of cultures.

Lab 2: Considering Language

The first time I watched this newscast, I had no idea about what was being said or what was going on. I did realize that there was a story about an ex-president, and there was a story about homosexuality. In the story about the homosexuality, the picture of the man they showed while introducing the story was the man that was part of an interview. The fourth story was about the United States president, Obama. I had no idea what is was about. There was a story about the winter weather in New York. I do not feel that I could tell someone about what was going on in this newscast. Biases could be created by the people who are affected by the stories and the language that is spoken.

The second story is about a ex-national football player in Germany, named Hitzlsperger, who made his homosexuality public during an interview. He encourages players to be open about their homosexuality because they are still a good football player no matter what their sexuality is. Hitzlsperger made sure that people knew that it is important to talk about their homosexuality openly. There was a story about Chancellor Merkel traveled to Washington D.C. to visit with President Obama to discuss the relationship of Germany and the US and the spy actions of the NSA. They covered a story about the cold polar air that affected the mid-west in the US. They talked about the cold temperatures in New York. The ships and boats had to break through ice. The news anchor said that having a daily routine is not possible until the weather subsides. The only way I knew who these people were was the close captioning that translated each word. Now I know enough that I could tell people what was going on in the newscast. In the Obama story, I noticed that the anchor made sure that people knew that the NSA spied on the Chancellors cell phone. It made me think that they were making sure that people knew the NSA is bad. the differences that I realized was that I could actually know what was going on in the newscast. I actually enjoyed some of the stories. Language is a very fascinating thing. I never had the patience to learn a new language, but some people could use closed captioning to help learn certain words.

In my future occupation, I could use the ability of knowing a second language to help as many people as I can. Being a MRI technician, I can be presented with many different races and languages. I want to become a better person by helping people become healthier. This lab made it difficult to capture the details of a newscast that was in a different language that I was not familiar with. The close captioning made it easier to know that was being said in the newscast. It helped me know what the anchor was even talking about. Some of the sentence structure in the closed captioning was not good, but that is how other languages work sometimes.

Lab 1: Understanding Parental Socialization

Lab 1: Understanding Parental Socialization

This person that I interviewed is the woman that has raised me from birth. My mom is an amazing person that has been through so many things that has shaped how she has raised my sister, and I. My father passed away in April, and she has stayed strong during this whole thing. She is the Program Manager at the state juvenile facility in Saint Anthony, Idaho.

Just as I assumed, my mom showed how much she truly loves me and my sisters. She talked about how much she would give to make sure that we would get everything that we need as a family and what she wants is for us to be a strong family.

Being a parent is a huge responsibility. It takes a lot of sacrifices to be a good example to your kids and things work out while others don't. Without proper instruction, kids and lose the chance to develop leadership, respect, good work ethics, responsibility, good morals.

Parents raise their children to be successful and strong. My parents raised me to be a leader and achieve everything I want. Parents let their kids do what they want, but it is for good reasons. They let their children grow and be apart of social groups and expand on everything.

Parents are definitely the biggest influence on their children. You raise them every day and show them how to be the best person that they can. They are the best to make sure the kid is raised down the right path. Children are the next generation's leaders and politicians. Some children will change the world and the way they are influenced are from the parents.

Children come from so many different  races and cultures, but they have the choice how they want to be raised. Some parents have made bad decisions and some of those decisions have been passed on to the kids. The kids have made some of those same choices and some haven't. The responsibility of that is all on the children to make the right or wrong choices.