Opening Skinner's Box, Ch 1 & 2.

So this book we're reading appears to be an overview of numerous popular psychological experiments of the 20th century.  I did not realize this fact until after I had complete chapter one.  I had been expecting a long analysis of B.F. Skinner's experiments, and figured that chapter one would be just the beginning.  I was quite surprised when the topic was suddenly switched from Lauren Slater sitting in Skinner's daughter's house, considering eating a 10 year old chunk of chocolate to Stanley Milgram's experiments on authority.  But that was my own fault for not understanding fully what the content of the book would be.

However, I had no reason to expect this book to be written in such a poetic fashion.  It was so poetic, in fact, that it appeared contrived.  There were two lines that stood out to me, and while I do not have the book handy in front of me as I write this in a coffee shop a block from my house, I will provide the gist of her statements.  The first example occurred early in chapter one, where Slater apparently visualized Skinner and his girlfriend parking in front of whatever lake happened to be located nearby, taking off their clothes and then skinny dipping.  Who even thinks of such a thing, especially for someone who has got to be 50 years older than you.  The other example was just a needless use of descriptive dependent clauses; Slater talks about her daughter who is yelling out "obscura", which happens to be the title of the chapter.  The last sentence of that chapter is something along the lines of "I pick her up with my hands, my <adjective> and <adjective> hands.  I say <adjective> because I don't remember the exact adjective used, and anything I would thing of would just embarrass me and the author.  My knowledge of grammar is informal, but I believe you can drop the dependent clause from a statement, and the statement should still be grammatically correct.  "my <adjective> and <adjective> hands" is the dependent clause, so Slater says that she picked up her daughter with her hands, a statement which seems blatantly obvious to me.

As far as complements go, I like the premise of the book; it is good to hear the first hand accounts of the subjects from various experiments-very interesting, in fact, but the fact that people have complained that Slater misquoted them is upsetting...

My Reaction to "Obedience to Authority", by Stanley Milgram

Why do terrible things happen because of good people?

Chapter 1

The first chapter basically told me everything that I already knew about the obedience to authority experiments before reading the book.  It starts with an added philosophical preamble, and also serves to introduce me to the writing style of Stanley Milgram.  This will be a rough read...

Chapter 2

Chapter two goes into the specifics of how the experiment was carried out, complete with pictures of the recruitment ad and the victim.  I did appreciate knowing what the victim looked like, as it helped me visualize who the subject had to torture.

Chapter 3

Chapter three serves as the hypothesis of the experiment, where Milgram thinks that people are generally good and independent, and will do what you figure you would do in that situation.  Oh, he was wrong...

Chapter 4

This chapter contains the results of the original experiment, where we find that people will inflict pain as long as they are told, almost regardless of their own moral inhibitions.  Like a good scientist, Milgram tries all kinds of variations on how the experiment is carried out.  In this chapter he finds that the closer to the subject that the suffering occurs, the quicker they come to rebel against the experimenter.

Chapter 5

Another chapter that I appreciated, Milgram gives us the verbal reactions of some of his test subjects.  You can sense a palpable unease on the part of the subject, while the experimenter remains a calm neutral voice.

Chapter 6

Now, Milgram et. all decide to try additional variations of the experiment.  This is one of the more interesting chapters, due to the fact that this part of the experiment was new information to me, and the fact that it is the most action-packed part of the book.  Action packed in the sense that it is full of situations and results.

Chapter 7

This is basically another chapter five, except that the subjects are commenting on the experiments from chapter six, not four.

Chapter 8

Really, this is just the chapter where they just throw out whatever situation they could think of.  I think this is the only part of the book where I found any of the situations funny, such as the victim demanding that he be shocked "for science".  Considering the previous chapters, this one had a hint of situational irony. 

Chapter 9

Chapter nine has a more sociological feel in my opinion.  These experiments all involve peers and confederates, and we see that the effects of conformity are in fact stronger than the effects of obedience.

Chapter 10

And now, the fun is over.  There are no more experiments, but instead, Milgram begins his analysis of why the results were the way they were.  His evolutionary explanations make sense to me.

Chapter 11

This chapter is the one that actually convinced me that it is not entirely preposterous that so many people went to the end of the board.  When he brought up the agentic state, I started to think about situations in which I tried to impress authority figures with my ability to perform some task.

Chapter 12

At this point, Milgram explains the discomfort that people feel when they have a conflict between their orders and their values.  I think it is interesting that people undergo such an ordeal when they have a conflict like this.  

Chapter 13

In chapter 13, Milgram entertains the possibility of a Freudian explanation, where everyone is inherently evil, and obedience just serves as a scapegoat to let people be as awful as they want to be.  But I think this is silly, and the experiment where the subjects were allowed to choose their voltage proves that this idea is unfounded.

Chapter 14

Scientific method necessitates a section of the book that acknowledges any flaws with the method of the experiment.  The only major problem that was brought up was that people may not have legitimately believed that they were administering an actual shock to a victim.  It's hard to gauge people's honesty on this, but I think the guy who made it sound silly to believe the experiment proved it's validity, when people admitted to believing the experiment at the risk of seeming foolish.

Chapter 15

Just as in the first chapter, chapter 15 contains a little philosophical discussion on the effects of obedience, featuring an appaling example from the Vietnam war, where an American platoon massacred a village.

Book as a whole

I didn't realize it until I started looking at my chapter descriptions, but this book is structured just like a lab report based on the scientific method.  It contains an introduction, methodology, hypothesis, results, analysis and discussion, possible errors, and a conclusion.  After realizing that, I forgave Milgram for his dense writing style.

The difference between this book and any of the previous books that we've read is that I don't have much to say about this one that I couldn't fit in the chapter descriptions.  This book was completely unlike Gang Leader for a Day, in that the chapters in this book were very small and abundant.  So my book summary may be shorter than gang leader for a day, but there are twice as many chapter descriptions here as the other book, so I feel that my writing quota has been met.

To be honest, this is the kind of book I read because I have to.  Yes, I am actually interested in the results of the study, along with Milgram's explanation for it, but the book as a whole is not what I would call a delightful read.  It is very densely worded, and occasionally I will find that I've made it to the bottom of the page without knowing what I just read.  This may sound bad, but I would have much rather read a summary of the results, probably from Wikipedia if I had been interested in finding out about this on my own.

A Chapter by Chapter Reaction to the Book: "Gang Leader for a Day"

A book where naivety is a research tool

Chapter One:

After reading this chapter, I am just astounded by this guy.  He shows up to one of the most notorious ghettos in America, wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt, and asks how it feels "to be black and poor".  That should be the end of the book right there.  I don't know how he survived in that neighborhood, but judging by the number of pages left in the book, I guess he sticks around for quite a while.

Chapter Two:

We begin to learn a good deal about the environment in which Sudhir studies the gang, the Black Kings.  Luckily, he managed to gain traction with the local gang leader, J.T. By luckily, I mean that if J.T. had decided not to talk to him, this whole story wouldn't have happened, at least not in the Robert Taylor projects.  We also begin to see that this is still a gang, with strong ties to violence, indicated by the battery of some squatter who wouldn't move his cars for the gang.

Chapter  Three:

A few sentences isn't enough space to write our reactions to each chapter, simply because of the fact that each chapter is a large series of events, seemingly separated by events in which he hits a rough patch with J.T.  I think that J.T. is a little possessive over Sudhir, trying to prevent him from going to the boys and girls club.  He claims it's for protection reasons, but I feel that J.T. just doesn't like his "biographer" talking to outside sources.

Chapter Four:

I always get excited when I reach the title chapter of the book, because it seems like the action must be in full swing at this point.  Sudhir got a little too into his honorary gang leader role to a comical degree,  and we realize the full breadth of J.T.'s responsibility.  It's funny, I almost respect J.T. more for limiting the amount of violence in his area, compared to other gangs.  But then I remember that the level of violence that was allowed would be unconscionable in our society.

Chapter  Five:

In this chapter, we meet Ms. Bailey, basically the landlord of the tenement.  From Sudhir's first conversation with her, I decide that I didn't like her; she reminded me of my unfriendly landlord when I had an internship in Florida.  But as the chapter progressed, I could see that she actually did things for her tenants, she just had to work with what she had, though maybe she didn't work as hard as she could have.

Chapter Six:

I've never thought of a sociologist as a hustler, but, all things considered, it makes sense.  Either that, or he's an idiot.  He manages to get basically everyone in the Robert Taylor economy to open up about their business practices, and then he shares this information with the two people who could and would screw it up for everyone else.  It is also at this point that I decide I hate Ms. Bailey again, for the horrible things her tenants let her do, just so that she would do her job.

Chapter  Seven:

I was wondering if we would see any actual gang violence in this book.  It was interesting how they wouldn't get the cops involved, but then I realize that the cops are the worst gang of all, because they had city backing and actual contempt for the other gangs.  Finally, it becomes clear that Sudhir's research was coming to a close, and we start to see Sudhir having the upper hand, emotionally speaking.  He was moving on with his life, and J.T. was having a hard time letting go.  It made me sad.

Chapter Eight:

This chapter had a melancholy tone, in my opinion.  We get to see the highest leadership of the Black Kings, only to find out that the parties only get more tame as you move up.  J.T.'s life has peaked, and things seem to go downhill as his territory literally starts to crumble.  I hate Ms. Bailey even more for being corrupt, and actively fighting against her tenants getting any help for free.  And T-Bone dies in prison?  He may have been in a gang, but I never actually read about him doing anything illegal.  It then occurs to me that all these things are happening because the national crime rate is decreasing, and I feel better about things.

The Whole Book:

This is probably the best non-fiction book I have ever read, which automatically makes it better than any book we've read in this class so far.  Well, the dialog isn't 100% accurate i'm sure, but its basically non-fiction.  It still seems insane to me that this Indian kid from suburban California would actually seek out the worst ghetto in Chicago, having no clue what lay ahead.  Actually, this ignorance is probably what allowed him to proceed, because anyone who knew what could happen would say "nope" and go bark up some other research tree.  But somehow, the best case scenario plays out for Sudhir, and he meets the leader of the local gang AND maintains his interest so that he could build a rapport with him.  I always think about "what coulda been", and Sudhir is truly lucky, because he "coulda been" with a shank in his gut for the stupid questions he asked that first day.

I basically proceeded through four cumulative phases of interest when reading this book.  The first was basically no interest; I was reading this book because I had to.  After chapter two, I read the book for entertainment value as well, it was a better way to pass the time than Reddit, for instance.  Eventually, I realized the sociological value of this book; I was learning about the economy of inner-city ghettos and gangs, something that I was quite unfamiliar with, and found it fascinating.  Midway through chapter seven, I gained some degree of emotional attachment to the story, and started to feel sadness that the study was ending soon, but also that these people were going to be displaced soon.  Only at the fourth state will I read a prologue and epilogue of a book.  I'm never going to read a foreword written by someone else because frankly, I don't care about that person's opinion, and it doesn't expand the story.

As far as specific chapters go, I've pretty much said everything I wanted to say.  I don't mind reiterating that I hate Ms. Bailey, and the cops seem like bastards as well, but I can sort of understand why they feel like they do, though I don't see why they became cops if they were going to act like thugs.  My only complaint with the book would be that the chapters are entirely too long.  Chapters are supposed to separate unrelated events, but this book is divided into times where he pisses people off.  This leaves us with too many unrelated events happening in one chapter, and it gets hard to process everything that had just happened, especially when writing chapter summaries (I had to condense my thoughts like no other to keep them less than a paragraph).

As entertaining as this book was, should this be something that we read?  Sudhir broke a lot of rules in ethnography, and risked losing his rapport in each group and being ostracized as a result (a death sentence for ethnographers).  But it still makes for a fantastic read, well worth my time.

Ethnography Choice Announcement

I'm not 100% sure what I want to do yet.  It will either be a study of the atheist or catholic groups on campus.  Probably atheist because I have less experience with them.  HOWEVER, Matt brought up the idea of bonfire groups, and as I understand it, that is a very unique culture.  So we'll see.

Assignment 7: Non Obvious Observation 

Not a euphemism for how to be a creeper

So when I read the assignment for this paper, my video game-addled mind thought about Assassin's Creed, how your character could sit on a bench and eavesdrop on two people in the distance to gain information.  Not the case here.  Our readings were supposed to help us to realize that there are very subtle hints about people that can actually reveal a lot about them, without them realizing it.  In the paper's we read the non-obvious cue was the word choice of people when writing and speaking.  Specifically, pronouns.  After reading these passages, i'm sure that there are other hidden cues that could be used to identify them.
I'm not actually going to write about the readings (though one was horrible and one was good), but rather how I can take this knowledge, and apply it to the ethnographies we performed in our videos.

In our "run", we went to the Dixie Chicken, which is a bar on Northgate, and played a round of 42, a game involving dominoes.  While wearing the camera on our heads, we would walk into the bar, ask the bartender for some kind of drink, and then sit down at a table of 3 volunteers outside of our group.  We would then play the game, maybe talk for a while afterwards, and that was it.  Each run probably took about 5 minutes each.

There are many obvious things we could look for, such as the person's apparent height, or their hands if they appeared in the video.  But the non obvious cues could be more telling, or at the very least, they would be more fun to use as clues.  For instance, we could look at the choice of drink that the person ordered.  There are certain social stigmas on men getting colorful, girly drinks, for example.  But people can still break such rules.
Another thing to consider is the relationships of the three volunteers that we played 42 with with each of our group members.  two of them were good friends with one of our group, the rest didn't know them at all.  The third volunteer was in a relationship with one of our group members, and the rest of the group knew this person in ranges from not at all, to pretty well.  As a result, the behavior and levels of eye contact of each volunteer around our group members might vary a lot.

Also, the bar was full of mirrors, so any one of us could have our own friggin' reflection on tape.

Assignment 5: Ethnography Readings

In this assignment, we were given links to a page on the americanethnography.com website, and two wikipedia articles.  The first link basically contained definitions for ethnography.  The second is an encyclopedic article about ethnographies.  It better explained the concept of the ethnography, and really gave more information than I probably needed on the subject.  The final article is an example of a very famous ethnographic article written by Margaret Mead, and the fallout caused by it.

Upon clicking the link for the first page, I thought "wow, this is just a few sentences, this assignment will be no problem at all.  So I blasted through that one and started the page on ethnographies.  That was the one with all the substance in it.  Frankly, this article was particularly hard for me to focus on, because I have taken an anthropology class where I had to conduct several ethnographies.  As a result, I felt like everything here was review, so I didn't focus too terribly hard on it.  I realized while taking the quiz in class that anything that is ever presented in an enumerated format must be memorized because we WILL be quizzed on it.  The third article contained new material to me, and it wasn't as dry as the previous one, so I was actually able to pay attention to the events it described.  This is the only article that I found any bit entertaining, possibly because of how scandalous it was considered during the 20s' and beyond.

My favorite character was Derek Freeman, just because he spent the majority of his career being a giant conservative asshole in the anthropological community.  I can't believe he spent all that time bashing Mead, especially AFTER she died, and couldn't refute any of his claims.  He waited until then to publish his own study of the Samoan people, 60 years later.  This Samoa and its people were under completely different circumstances from the 20s when he came to them.  I don't know why he didn't just publish his book, noting how Samoa had change since being converted to Christianity instead of insisting that that was how Samoa had been the entire 20th century.  In the end, the American Anthropological Association met without inviting Freeman, and denounced everything he said.

Way to make the other Freemans look bad.

Pictured above: more likable Freemans

Assignment #4:  Ch. 1 of Emotional Design, by Donald Norman

A comparison between two of Norman's books.  One of which tells you how to hack your brain into working like you want it to.

Well, this reading was educational.  Contained within the chapter was the knowledge I need to control how I solve problems in the future, and explanations for why certain things look nice, or why my boss over the summer was so chill about figuring out how to solve various problems.  And all we have to do is trick our brains into feeling a certain way.  Man I wish I knew this stuff sooner.  But that's not what this post is supposed to be about...

"The Design of Everyday Things", also by Donald Norman, has a very similar style.  He writes in a fairly relaxed tone, which makes both books feel more casual, like I am, in fact, reading the book for leisure.  When more convenient, he uses first person descriptors, another trait that gives the book a more conversational tone.  Also just like before, there is an abundance of examples and anecdotes that help illustrate his point.  In fact, in the first chapter alone, I think I saw two examples that were present in both "Emotional Design" and "The Design of Everyday Things".  And I liked the first chapters of both books, more so than the following chapters of TDOET.

Considering the fact that we only read the first chapter of the book, it is a little difficult to accurately gauge the difference between the two books.  That is what I thought at first, but after re-scanning the first chapter of TDOET, I realized that I can make some decent generalizations.  First, I felt like in TDOET, I was already learning terminology, such as mapping, affordances, and conceptual model.  In ED, once you learned what the three layers of processing were, you could just sit back and enjoy the following expansion on the three subjects.  

In addition, TDOET has a more technical feel to it; the examples are quite specific, and reference particular objects and actual scenarios to prove whatever point is being made.  ED is more general, and while it still has concrete examples, many of them are just hypothetical situations and lists that Norman speculated on, and then wrote down.

Also, TDOET had more pictures.