Questions

• How long did it take for film to reach the major cities of Asia, Latin America and North Africa after the first film showings in Paris, London and New York?
• Why is the history of film production and film exhibition in the West almost the same as in the Third World?
• With which conference of nations, held in which year, is the term “Third World” usually traced back to?
• What problems of categorization do we encounter when we use the term “Third World” to identify films produced in places such as Mali, Brazil, India or Ouagadougou?
• State 5 factors that have defined Third World film making over the years.
• By which year did European nations reach the height of their power?
• What percentage of the world did European powers dominate at the height of their power?
• Under what historical circumstances did “Third World” as a notion come into being?
• In which decade did the notion of “Third World” gain momentum and currency?
• According to Pierre Jalee, what do the countries and economies of Africa have in comparison with those of the countries and economies of the First World?
• According to Roy Armes in Third World Film Making and the West, how is the legitimacy of the colonizer ensured in the colony that the colonizer has taken over?
• State 4 factors on which the identity of the colonized depends.
• After undermining the languages of the colonized through the education system, what language does the colonizer impose on the colonized?
• Besides commerce and law, name another area on which the language of the colonizer is imposed?
• According to Albert Memmi as quoted on page 11 in Roy Armes’ book Third World Film Making and the West that we are reading in this class, why is the language of the colonized people important to them?
• According to Renato Constantino as quoted by Roy Armes on page 12 of Third World Film Making and the West, what does education administered by colonial powers do to the colonized school children perception of their national history?
• According to Renato Constantino as quoted by Roy Armes on page 12 of Third World Film Making and the West, how did colonial education affect Filipinos in terms of how they perceived themselves in relation to the colonizers?
• According to Renato Constantino as quoted by Roy Armes on page 12 of Third World Film Making and the West, what is the term that describes the feelings that overwhelm colonized people who feel that they are less compared to the colonizer?
• State two factors which, according to Roy Armes in Third World Film Making and the West, are responsible for the persistence of problems of language, culture and identity manufactured by colonialism.
• What processes did taxation under colonialism trigger in the colonized countries?
• According to Roy Armes, “the persistence in post-independence societies of the problems of language, culture and identity produced by colonialism derives from factors relating to both economic relations and the nature of the colonial state.” State 2 aspects of the colonial state apparatus established during colonial rule that distinguish it from all other forms of social organization and make it central in the perpetuation of colonial of colonialist ideals.
• List the 3 ways in which tribal chiefs in the Third World were cut off from the mass of the population and made to be dependent on the colonial state in the Third World.
• What did the colonial French policy of Assimilation involve or entail in French colonies?
• What did Leopold Senghor and the leaders of other nationalist movements in West Africa do when they were asked to choose between total independence and continued association with France?

• Independent self – associated with members of individualistic cultures, holds that the self is autonomous, self-contained, and behaves in accord with a unique configuration of internal attributes (such as traits, abilities, motives, and values).
• Interdependent self – characteristic of members of collectivist cultures, is a view of self in relation to others, and thus, behavior is dependent upon the social situation.

We are supposed to answer the three following questions,

1. What were these researchers attempting to assess in relation to the Interdependent Self?

2. Why do you think higher levels of an Interdependent Construal in a person would correlate significantly with higher stress in social situations?

3. This study was conducted with a Chinese sample. Do you think the results would have been different in a Western sample and why or why not?

This activity focuses on a key distinction between two self-definitions and their implications. Some cultures promote a definition of the self in terms of independence. Other cultures foster a definition of the self in terms of interdependence. First, read the article excerpts explaining the research design and results.

[3-4 sentences minimum for answers 2 & 3].

Intro – Psychological stress occurs when an individual perceives a situation

as exceeding his or her adaptive capacity. It is known to trigger a number of psychological and biological reactions. Situational characteristics that have been identified to contribute to the perception of a situation as stressful are unpredictability and uncontrollability

of a situation. Social-evaluative threat occurs when the individual is exposed to or anticipates exposure to negative social evaluation by his or her peers, while uncontrollability occurs in the situations which a behavioral response cannot affect an outcome. Besides the situational characteristics, researchers also emphasized the major role of personality characteristics in provoking a cortisol stress response.

One personality characteristic that is likely linked to the variables of both uncontrollability and social evaluative threat is the interdependent self-construal (interdependent self) concept.

Study Design – The Self-Construal Scale (SCS) (Singelis, 1994) was used to measure participants’ independent self-construal and interdependent self. The scale consists of 24 items divided into two dimensions, with each dimension including 12 items, such as “It is important for me to maintain harmony within my group” for the interdependent item and “I enjoy being unique and different from others in many respects” for the independent item. For each item, participants respond on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 “Strongly disagree” to 7 “Strongly agree”. The Self-construal Scale was translated into Chinese by Li and colleagues and has been shown to have good validity and reliability in Chinese populations.

The Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) (Brantley et al., 1987) was used to assess the stress level that participants perceived in daily life. The DSI is made up of 58 items, such as “can’t finish the assigned work” or “was misunderstood by others”. Participants were asked to indicate whether they have experienced these events in the past 24 h, and then to rate the stressfulness of these events on a Likert-type scale from 1 (occurred but was not stressful) to 7 (caused me to panic). Three scores were finally computed as: (1) the number of events that have occurred: FREQ; (2) the sum of total rating scores of these events: SUM; (3) and the average rating scores of these events: AIR=SUM/FREQ. DSI has been identified to have decent reliability and validity.

Results – Results showed that participant’ self-report stress was positively correlated with their Interdependent Self measurements.

Module 4:Utilitarianism Part 1

7.1Read this section to give you historical background to utilitarianism

8.1The Classical Version of the Theory

Utilitarianism:We should always act in such a way to promote the greatest balance of pleasure minus pain for all sentient beings affected by our actions.

A point about sentience: A sentient being is one capable of experiencing pain or pleasure.It is very common to portray utilitarianism as telling us to promote the greatest happiness/pleasure for the greatest number of people, as Rachels sometimes does.But that would misrepresent both Bentham and Mill.Consider, then, the following question:

According to Utilitarianism, we should always act in such a way to promote the greatest balance of pleasure minus pain for all and only people.a. True b. False

The answer is b. False.This should become clearer in Module 6 when we consider whether we have obligations to non-human animals.

Rachel summarizes utilitarianism in three propositions.The remainder of the chapter examines, explains, criticizes, and defends them.

By the end of the module, you should be able to state the definition of utilitarianism, explain Rachels three propositions of utilitarianism, and know the main problems with them and the utilitarian responses to them.

8.2Is Pleasure All That Matters?

The view that pleasure is the only thing valuable in itself (pleasure alone is intrinsically valuable) is called “hedonism”

You should read this section and then read the Nozick piece in The Right Thing.

Does Rachels’ discussion in 8.2 and Nozick’s discussion convince you that hedonism cannot be true?

8.3Are Consequences All That Matter?

The three criticisms discussed in this section (justice, rights, and backward-looking reasons) are thought to be the most serious objections to utilitarianism.You should be able to explain how the utilitarian standard is supposed to conflict with important beliefs we have about justice and rights and to explain why it cannot recognize the importance of backward-looking reasons.Later in the chapter we’ll see utilitarian responses to these charges.

Justice

Rights

Backward-looking reasons

8.4Should We Be Equally Concerned For Everyone?

This objection is raised against proposition c:each person’s happiness counts the same. . .Rachels quotes Mill as saying that this requires we must be “strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator”

Is such strict impartiality a good thing or a bad thing morally?

8.5The Defense of Utilitarianism

We are now going to add another level of complexity to the discussion.Don’t lose track of where we are.We are considering the utilitarian standard of morality that says we should always act in such a way to promote the greatest balance of pleasure minus pain for all sentient beings affected by our actions.In 8.2-8.4 we considered objections to the utilitarian standard.In 8.5, Rachels presents important utilitarian responses to three important objections followed by three responses.The defenses are defensive strategies designed to show that the objections to utilitarianism fail.The three responses are offensive strategies designed to present positive considerations in favor of utilitarianism.

First Defense:Denying That the Consequences Would Be Good

Second Defense:The Principle of Utility Is a Guide for Choosing Rules, Not Acts

This point will come up again in Module 5, so you should make sure you understand it.

Third Defense:Common Sense Is Wrong

First Response:All Values Have A Utilitarian Basis

Second Response:Our Gut Reactions Can’t Be Trusted

The Third Response:We Should Focus On All the Consequences

8.6Concluding Thoughts

Utilitarianism has some serious problems, but some have found the defenses satisfactory and the responses compelling.Do you?Choose one and explain your reasons.

Prompt for Parts 1 and 2

The Ad Council is a non-profit organization that creates media to raise awareness about public issues. Specifically, they produce Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to educate the public or change negative behavior.Your task is to write a proposal for a Public Service Announcement that you would like to see produced. While the Ad Council distributes media to both visual and print medium, your proposal will be for a print advertisement to be run in a national magazine.

Goals for Parts 1 and 2

This assignment will ask you to finesse your skills in writing arguments tailored to specific audiences (the American public and the Ad Council).In terms of writing in different disciplines, this assignment will help you explore skills used in marketing, communications, and non-profit management.

(Per the semester’s Student Learning Outcomes):

• Students will apply the principles of research-based academic writing: distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information, drawing conclusions supported by facts, reasoning to valid conclusions, distinguishing implications and consequences.
• Students will apply conventions appropriate for different audiences, purposes, and genres.
• Students will use credible evidence in supporting a position.
• Students will apply the basics of academic writing: clear expression, coherent ideas, discipline-appropriate thesis development, logical organization, and the conventions of standard written English.

1. Students will use discipline-specific documentation styles, including in-text citations and properly formatted Works Cited or reference pages.

Specific Requirements for Part I- Research

Finding a Topic for the Research:

According to the Ad Council’s website:

• Issues must be of great public importance to the public and worthy of a print ad for a nation-wide market.
• Ad pitches should address issues that are not overdone. The Ad Council will not want to recreate an ad that they already have in production. Thus, try to be creative in your topic selection.
• How long has this issue been going on?
• How severe is this issue?
• Who is affected by this issue?
• What other solutions have been proposed so far?

Outlining the Problem:

Part I is your chance to inform the Ad Council about the issue you wish to address. Consider telling them things like:

Evidence

• Must cite 5 sources (4 of these sources need to come from the Wake Tech databases).
• Sources need to be cited in MLA format.
• You should have both parenthetical citations and a Works Cited list.

Logistics

• You may use “I” in this essay to pitch your campaign. However, this is a formal proposal so students should stay away from “you” and contractions.
• Write Part 1 as a formal research essay. Thus, you will need all the components of a formal essay: intro, thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• The thesis for Part 1 should state the nature of the issue and your reasons for why this issue merits an ad campaign. If the overall goal of this unit is to create an ad for the Ad Council, your thesis will want to address this objective specifically.
• Don’t forget to include “big picture” information in your conclusion about why this issue matters to your audience (the “so what” question).
• Essay should be a minimum of 750 words and not more than 850.
• Essay must be formatted in appropriate MLA format (one inch margins, 12 pt. font, heading, etc.)
• Do not recycle material from old classes.

For More Information

Ad Council Website [opens in a new window]

Link: http://www.adcouncil.org/

How to Create the Perfect PSA [opens in a new window]

Link: https://www.govtech.com/education/news/How-to-Create-the-Perfect-Public-Service-Announcement.html