Ayn's Multiple World

Somehow this all merged into ... seeya later we're going to visit Jacob

Good morning … this is me. It is about 4:30 am and I have been up about 45 minutes. Just doing the regular things. Plus, we were over at school already not much happened there yesterday. I think Saturday’s are slow because people mostly got in their regular work and are looking at doing their special projects … there is that annotated Bibliography thing going on. This is an example of what one student looked like …

I. What is SFP?
A. Origins
1. R. Merton (1948, as cited in Tauber, 1998)-In 1948, Robert Merton developed the idea of SFP in the context of economics. Specifically, he applied the idea to a bank: even if the bank was actually doing well and in a secure position, if people thought that there was a problem and it was faltering, then the bank would hten have a problem and close.
2. Rosenthal (2002) applied SFP to the classroom in research performed in 1968, calling it the Pygmalion effect. Rosenthal claimed that expectations of teachers have a powerful influence on students, to the degree that even intelligence can be affected.
B. How SFP works
1. Rosenthal’s (2002) Four Factor Theory-To explain the impact of SFP, Rosenthal theorized that there were four factors that contributed to the impact of a teacher on a student:
a. climate-teachers create a warmer climate for students who they expect to do well
b. input-teach more information to these students
c. output-allow these students more opportunities to respond and be involved in class
d. feedback-give more differentiated responses to these students

1. Brehm, S., Kassin, S., & Fein, S. (2005). Social psychology-With CD (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin

Textbook discusses many different aspects and mechanisms of social psychology. In this paper, the book is primarily used as a source of research done on SFP in areas besides education.

2. Cotton, K. (1989). Expectations and Student Outcomes. School Improvement Research Series. Retrieved August 2, 2006 from http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/4/cu7.html

Research article which discusses the controversy of findings on SFP. The author states that high expectations are a critical factor in effective schooling. Article also discusses the mechanisms of SFP as well as where its effects are most likely to be found and why.

Like ok … mine probably won’t look like that. Sheesh! I gotta figure it out because I thought we were supposed to do just an annotated bibliography and that would be like 1. Brehm, et al. and 2. Cotton, but the example here that she sent us includes both outline and bibliography. The copy is 20 resources and 8 pages long. That’s a lot of summarizing. No reason to believe though that the information came from much past the intro of each article or its discussion. It looks like the learner of this example is a teacher who was in the class back in August … Most his resources found those first couple days … and he had a variety of resource data bases including ERIC Clearinghouse – used more frequently by teachers and he used the keyword search self-fulfilling prophecy in the title and then later pygmalion.

Nothing that we couldn’t do then, it’s just that we don’t have so much time. I think his outline was relatively simple … It stated Intro, what is self-fulfilling prophesy (SFP) – origins, how it works, where it applies, research – does it exist, influence on intelligence, accuracy of perception, relevant factors, then dealing with it in education, the phenomenon, awareness, practices, and last application in a personal setting. His major authors were Rosenthal and Maddon, he never went more than three authors deep and his biggest concern was in application and research factors. A good majority seem to be in explanation of something, an issue, or an argument one way or another. He also tended to use authors more often within sections than in outgroup section and in is bibliography he stated almost always “this article is referenced for.” He wasn’t perfect in that there were a few typos and frequently in his last part he’d drop periods – left out. So, this makes him human!

Ok, ok … now I know what good is just gotta duplicate. Isn’t life just so cool this way … everything takes time, but if you’re in the right place at the right time, nothing is overly impossible? I don’t think we’ll ask about the outline too, because it seems like a really good idea to have one. We had one, but it was very simple and not sketched in like this. Maybe we’ll do the annotated bibliography first and then come back to this? Not sure. This teacher seems to take good notes. I could see a cross-over image of this form as to being in elementary school and making notes on the back of index cards and they are no longer than about 50 words each. His references are fairly timely, but his project is based in older concepts. SFP has been around for a while.

Ok, we’re not going to freak out here … we pulled up our last notes from when we worked on this project. This is where we left it.

In combining social comparison and self-insight: We consider as an individual, "I might feel myself as positively higher than another; though "they" as others might perceive me negatively lower than its collective selves." In a sense nobody meets the mark, though we can privately think we have. It seems if you claim to be a big fish, larger fish can and will come by to eat you. If you can lay low as if you were a little fish, bigger fish may leave you alone - perhaps even, because there are bigger fish to fry. It seems there is almost more independence being a small fish from a large pond. Small ponds can be tough on the big fishes. Case in point … we considered Tom Cruise's audaciousness of jumping on Oprah's couch. Both Oprah and Cruz are bigger fish in a small super-star pond. Oprah obviously though was the bigger fish, and the couch represents the smaller pond where all the bigger fishes meet.

The question would be, What is the relevance of social comparison (up or down), especially in relationships and in learning?

1. Social Comparison and self-insight
2. Relevance/irrelevance of comparing self up/down
3. Within groups and between groups
4. Receiving feedback from others
5. In a discrimination-distressed relationship
a. Being stigmatized
b. Being threatened
i. Affiliation with others
ii. The role of cognitive clarity
iii. Being big fish in a little pond, little fish in a big pond
iv. Lowering comparisons by devaluating self
v. Poor performance
6. New theory of self-perception
7. The effect of social comparison on learning and goals

Although we state it is critical to stand independently as individuals and mavericks, people from the US also stand for democracy, which is rule of the majority. The majority will follow a leader, but it's not a good idea for any big fish to think of self as overly-sized. For example, maintaining the story-line of Oprah, she has now placed herself into service of developing a school for young girls in Johannesburg, South Africa. This fulfills a promise she made to Nelson Mandela. Mandela is a bigger fish than even Oprah. And, so it goes on. The question then would be what is the relevance of comparing oneself, up or down? What is the insight? How does it apply to relationships and learning?

Ok, let’s not get spooked here right? We’ve been looking over the materials. It’s like I know we went through this stuff before, but it is new to me. It seems interesting though. Certainly more interesting to me than self-fulfilling prophecy though if I had studied that it would be most interesting. I don’t know in the least how we came up with this topic other than we’d been reading our resources taken some kind of loose one or two sentence note, we must have come up with a preliminary outline and then we cut that outline in half. I still have evidence of these last three things, but I’m willing to bet the articles haven’t made it past the mail box. Hmm? You think? Hmm, just found a document that seems to indicate that we need to do an annotated outline too. At least from back in the class that I had started to take in July of 06, which is the class from which this student had written his paper. Also, it looks like there is going to be a draft of the final paper done in 3 weeks and the final paper in week 10. That would help evasive students like me get the work done. And, in all it would seem like this paper is 60% of the grade. 5% was what we did last time in handing in the above, 10% with the project due now, 20% with that draft and 25% with the final. So that means like each of these papers we are working so hard on now is only about 2 points apiece or one and one with the comments as a whole. Interesting then to know how much an A is worth in the big picture. If I got 100% straight through, I would have 40 points, but if I commented and only received 80% (low B) I’d only get 32 points … Maybe that would then turn out to be significant. Those points could be hard to come by if the paper didn’t turn out so well. Ok, better not belabor that point. Hehehe joke there! Ok, well, no it wasn’t really funny, but we’re going to move on, k?

Ahh. Just put on something warmer and got another cup of coffee. Appears to be about 6 am. Up to page 4 hmm? Maybe a slow last couple of hours. Not sure where we are … I know, I know something something paper. Well then I suppose the thing to do would be to start working on something. This means something toward the next little paper, or on something toward the big paper. Right now our mind is on the big paper, can we continue there, or do we need a break? Big paper naturally, being the more fun heheh and of course more difficult, but when you break it down … how hard is anything really?

Ok, ok … checking in here. It’s now 7:30 am … and we’re just back from taking medicine.

We’ve been (by check of the browser contents) been snooping around IQ stuff. According to that I have an IQ high enough for masters and maybe a non-technical PhD degree, but I will still be on the low side. I would feel better if I were like 5 points higher. As it is … in a crowd of 100 people there are still going to be about 7 or 8 smarter than us. That’s a bothersome thought. But, IQ only measures some kind of intelligence … and there is where we can go up or down. If we don’t apply ourselves, we are not going to get anywhere! And, the thing is … even though I might not be a college professor, I certainly can do other things. We were reading too about other things to do with intelligence. Like I kinda knew, but hadn’t seen it written that German people are considered to be the smartest. US averages out to be like 98%, Britain and france about 100.2, Japan about 105, and Germany 108. That’s going to take some more time to sort through. It has a lot of nationalistic overtones that can get to be kinda scary. Yup yup better that we just use the little we got to be getting something done.

Next?

Oh one more thing. One study took about 40 kids whose mother had an IQ of 80-85. Half were for the control group and half they worked extensively with five days a week and up to 7 hours a day until they reached kindergarten. They also worked with the mothers (2nd group). By the time these kids went to school, the control group had IQs averaging 85 and the experiment group had average IQ of 120. However, they didn’t do anything with these “more developed kids” and they sunk back by the age of 6 to an average IQ of 105. See this has been a sore point with us for a long time.

Dr. Cooper one of our first psychologists had stated that if I had been raised in any other family, I would have been a lawyer. Today we were looking at lawyer IQs at being about 130, where we are about 10 points lower than that. And, its just that Dr. Cooper and this study with the kids both indicate that without the abuse and some positive attention, we might have been a whole lot smarter. I know when I get to feeling down, I look at the statement made of multiples in that most multiples are intelligent and creative. So, I think … there, we must at least have that. BUT, I would have wanted better options to be successful … not because of the money, but the feeling of being able to contribute something of worth. I looked at MENSA today too. That society is for the top 2% of the worlds intelligent. That would have meant being at least 132 or higher. I certainly don’t come close to that cut. I’m down in the 8-9% range. It’s not a bad thing, but being smarter, we think is better. 

Oh man … I’m doing terrible. It’s now 10:42 am and I haven’t gotten anywhere. We fell off-task in that we’d gotten a link to a new site that we hadn’t seen where about 155 people had written evaluations of the 2006 Scion xB’s. Probably shouldn’t have read through all of them but, we’re in that early stage of young car jitters. It was good information. I’m happy about most of what was learned. We’re a little bit worried over the number of people who complained about getting hit by rocks and that putting nicks in their windows. This has to do with the almost 90 degree design of the box windows and similarly the front end catches a lot of bugs. People didn’t like the lack of crawling up to speed power on the x-pressway, but others pointed out that some owners had unrealistic expectations. There were a few that complained about not having cruz or armrests, but are car comes with those. There’s a lot of comment on the shape of the car, especially because it gets a lot of looks from passerbys, but if you can handle this and get some of those 6 foot brutes to sit inside … the story-line will be changed. Exceptional room inside. This is especially nice as the salesman had told us in getting in and out of the vehicle.

It is the right height so you don’t have to climb up it or drop into it. To solve the above problem with power, people have used a K & N Filter, whatever that is, but it is said to drop gas mileage … I guess power and mileage are a trade-off.

Ok, more time loss I’m failing, right now and my head is spacey. It’s now 1:41 pm.

I just talked to two of my sons. The oldest was at the car show. We told him about the car. He asked good questions, but we didn’t know all the answers. We looked though … officially our car came to with all the extras like tax, licence, 72,000 mile warranty, and gap insurance to $21,200. That means after trade-in of our car and $2000 they want, then we financed $18,200. BUT, the rate is up to 15.99% or something close to that … That’s right we’re going through insurance for a different rate … that be a good idea. Right? I checked our bank account and it says $38, but I know I have a $20 in my wallet, so I’ll deal Jacob to do the first 20 and he can cover the balance. He always goes somewhere reasonable with us. He offered to come here, but we wanted to drive there … see how it drives some more. Plus our house is way messy, but we didn’t think of that til after he got off. He was just on his way into someone’s house for sales business. Good son … even working on Sundays!

We only talked for a few moments I did tell him we had a new car when we said we’d drive that way. He said, Oh, you want to show it off. And, I said hmmm, well something like that. He went on for a couple of minutes about how great the GPS was and that it made all the difference in the world. That made me feel better. I did scout around today for a new GPS, but I was seeing a lot of $3-400 gizmo’s that didn’t look much different than what I have, or my son has hehehe. I liked the screen on mine a WHOLE lot better than those other models. I’m sooooo happy our son is making good use of it. I think he’s like me and the whole thing is amazing. It sure is. I’ll have to remember hard how to get to his Dad’s place again. I have a sense of it, but I don’t know all the roads, but I think I will when I get to them.

We’ll have to see. I think my son is going to have a great time … in that I will let him drive the new car so he can check it out. He’s such a love bunny! My oldest son … I think heard the concern in our voice, because he said he won’t yell at me though he was sure I probably didn’t have that kind of money. I think we live on a wing and a prayer.

Ok, close out the thinking cuz we neeeeeeed to do some school thoughts, K??? What were we doing anyway? Hmm, looks like we were still in the stuff about our car.

Scuse me we have a wagon a bread wagon … or now we read people call it a toaster. There sure are a lot of names for our thing. We went to one site that I think was a scion something because it was pretty big money production … not phenomenal, but impressive. And they had all these links to movies and videos and stuff and we were watching and being amazed. It was more geared for the younger crowd, but maybe because we are trying so hard to figure out what we did, we watched it in acceptance of the culture we’re now fitting into. I’m not so sure of my older son … he wasn’t sure what kind of vehicle we got, and the youngest son didn’t even ask, but I think the older one will say … it’s a midget-box. And my younger one will say … it’s square. Cool. LOLOL They are so silly. He said in like a couple of hours. Hmm, I’m wondering then if we shouldn’t take a shower now … cuz I think he will call us back when he is through. He sure is showing confidence in that gizmo … just realized he had actually volunteered to come out here! I wonder if he’s had sales yet or has gotten his first pay check. He must be doing something to get gas in his vehicle. We’ll have to talk to him again if he’s making money about getting his car checked out. Hmm, that reminds me … might not be such a bad idea to have MY car checked out when there is some money. Wonder what my mechanic Dan is going to say about it. I sure hope he knows how to fix them. Woohoo I finally found something for the option package … let me meet you at the bottom

All Standard and Optional Equipment

Key:
• Standard
• Optional
Invoice
MSRP
Powertrain
–
–
• Engine: 1.5L I-4 DOHC MPI
–
–
• Transmission: 5 Speed Manual w/OD
$760
$800
• Transmission: Electronic 4-Speed Automatic w/OD
Wheels & Tires
–
–
• Tires: P185/60R15 AS
–
–
• Tires: 18" Pirelli Pzero Nero M&S
–
–
• Wheels: 15" Steel
$459
$665
• Wheels: EM-7 15" x 6" Spoke Alloy (PPO)
$1,661
$1,999
• Wheels: 18" 5-Spoke Alloy Upgrade TRD (PPO)
–
–
• 8-Spoke Wheel Cover (PPO)
–
–
• 10-Spoke Wheel Cover (PPO)
–
–
• 6-Spoke Wheel Cover (PPO)
$39
$65
• Wheel Locks EM-7 Wheel (PPO)
Seats & Seat Trim
–
–
• Front Sport Bucket Seats
–
–
• Cloth Seat Trim
Other Options
–
–
• Monotone Paint Application
–
–
• Radio: Pioneer AM/FM Stereo w/CD Player
–
–
• Radio: Alpine Audio System
$183
$260
• Radio: Pioneer Premium AM/FM/CD Player (PPO)
Post Production Options
$309
$429
• Bazooka Mobile Audio Subwoofer
$359
$449
• SIRIUS Satellite Radio
$359
$449
• XM Satellite Radio (PPO)
$79
$125
• xB Armrest
$39
$55
• Flexible Cargo Cover
$62
$93
• Cargo Liner
$34
$49
• Cargo Net
$25
$40
• Cargo Tote By Nifty Products
$83
$120
• Carpet Floor/Cargo Mats (5-Piece Set)
$89
$139
• Door Sill Enhancements (PPO)
$185
$275
• Amber Interior Light Kit w/Cupholder Illumination
$185
$275
• Blue Interior Light Kit w/Cupholder Illumination
$185
$275
• Green Interior Light Kit w/Cupholder Illumination
$185
$275
• Red Interior Light Kit w/Cupholder Illumination
$339
$469
• Scion Security
$179
$259
• Simulated Carbon Fiber Molded Dash Applique
$49
$79
• Blue Sport Pedals By OBX Racing
$49
$79
• Red Sport Pedals By OBX Racing
$49
$79
• Silver Sport Pedals By OBX Racing
$129
$189
• B-Pillar Applique By Superior Dash
$23
$35
• Carbon Fiber Fuel Door Applique By Superior Dash
$38
$64
• Exhaust Tip By Valor Manufacturing
$245
$350
• Fog Lights
$38
$58
• Rear Bumper Applique
$285
$385
• Rear Spoiler
$195
$275
• Rear Tail Lights By TYC
$86
$125
• Tail Light Garnish By Superior Dash
$151
$250
• TRD Rear Sway Bar
$169
$245
• TRD Strut Tie Bar
Regionals
–
–
• Southeast Region Admin Fee
$95
$95
• Destination Surcharge: Southeast
$95
$95
• Destination Surcharge: Gulf States
$19
–
• 6-Gallons of Gas
$409
$619
• Toyoguard Protection Group
$481
$699
• Toyoguard Plus Protection Group
–
–
• Radio: AM/FM/CD/MP3 Player
$183
$260
• Radio: AM/FM/CD/MP3/iPod Capability
$309
$429
• Bazooka Subwoofer
$279
$379
• Door Speaker Upgrade & 100 Watt Amp
$588
$798
• Speaker Upgrade/100 Watt Amp w/Bazooka Subwoofer
$359
$449
• Radio: XM Satellite AM/FM/MP3/CD Player
$542
$709
• Radio: Satellite AM/FM/CD/MP3/iPod Capability
$39
$59
• Rear Bumper Applique (Regional)
–
–
• Wheel Covers
$129
$189
• B-Piller Carbon Fiber Applique
$23
$35
• Gas Door Carbon Fiber Applique
$152
$224
• Carbon Fiber Applique-B Piller
$399
$499
• Stainless Steel Axle Back Exhaust
–
–
• First Aid Kit
$248
$350
• Fog Lights (Regional)
$729
$1,199
• Black Leather Faced Seats
$729
$1,199
• 2-Tone Leather Faced Seats
$277
$379
• Billet Grille
$158
$199
• Chrome Door Handles
$179
$229
• Chrome Window Sill Trim
$239
$299
• Chrome Rocker Panel Cover
$549
$699
• Full Chrome Package
$1,294
$1,699
• DVD Entertainment System
$1,495
$1,995
• Dual Headrest DVD System
$200
$280
• Red Interior Lights
$171
$251
• Amber Interior Lights
$200
$280
• Green Interior Lights
$1,565
$1,999
• Cherry Bomb Hot Hues Package
$1,565
$1,999
• Plum Passion Hot Hues Package
$31
$49
• Red Shift Knob
$31
$49
• Blue Shift Knob
$34
$49
• Cargo Net (Regional)
$39
$55
• Cargo Cover (Regional)
$122
$173
• Cargo Convenience Plus Package
$499
$649
• Pacific Gold Hot Hues Paint
$499
$649
• Cherry Bomb Hot Hues Paint
$499
$649
• Plum Passion Hot Hues Paint
$499
$649
• Blue by You Hot Hues Paint
$1,875
$2,495
• Audio Visual Navigation System
$754
$934
• Spoiler w/Polar White Painted Roof
$754
$934
• Spoiler w/Black Sand Painted Roof
$754
$934
• Spoiler w/Thunder Cloud Painted Roof
$49
$79
• Red Sport Pedals
$49
$79
• Blue Sport Pedals
$49
$79
• Silver Sport Pedals
$89
$139
• Door Sill Enhancements
$339
$469
• Keyless/Security Upgrade
$250
$350
• Cruise Control
$79
$125
• Armrest (Regional)
$89
$149
• Window Tint
$196
$276
• Euro Styled Taillights
$767
$898
• Scion Package
$45
$66
• Carpet Mats
$83
$120
• Carpet Mats & Cargo Mat
$469
$675
• Wheels: 15" 7-Spoke Alloy (4)
$405
$605
• Wheels: 15" Enkei Alloy (4)
$1,184
$1,685
• Wheels: 17" Enkei 9-Spoke Alloy (4)
$1,440
$1,940
• Wheels: 18" Enkei 9-Spoke Alloy (4)
$285
$385
• Rear Lip Spoiler
$159
$225
• Front Strut Tower Tie Bar
$399
$549
• Under The Hood Package
$35
–
• Southeast Toyota Distributor
$40
–
• Southeast Toyota Distributor Plus
Emissions
–
–
• 50 State Emissions
Interior Trim
$31
$49
• Chrome Shift Knob By OBX Racing
$31
$49
• Titanium Shift Knob By OBX Racing
$179
$259
• Molded Dash Applique (Regional)
$31
$49
• Chrome Shift Knob by Fat Boy
$31
$49
• Titanium Shift Knob by Fat Boy
Shoot … that’s a lot!

posted by Ann Marie @ 2/11/2007 08:42:00 PM Comments: 0