Entry
3: Identifying Bias
Item
1:
University Admissions
During his tenure as president of Harvard College (more than a century before the Civil Rights era), Edward Everett was faced with a controversy over the proposedadmission of a black student to the venerable institution.
During his tenure as president of Harvard College (more than a century before the Civil Rights era), Edward Everett was faced with a controversy over the proposedadmission of a black student to the venerable institution.
"If this boy passes the examination he will be
admitted," Everett declared, "and if the white
students choose to withdraw, all the income of the college will be
devoted to his education."
v Discrimination
v Analysis:
Everett said "If this boy passes the examination he will be admitted”. It
means all students (not discriminate race) have right to study in this
university. However, after that he said more "and if the white students
choose to withdraw, all the income of the college will be devoted to his
education.” He only referred to white students, so it is distinguish between
white students and black students. White student get preferential treatment.
Item
2: What is the differences between
Heaven and Hell ?
In Heaven, the British are the police, the Italian
are the chefs, the German are the mechanics, the French are the lovers and the
Swiss are the managers
In Hell, the German are the police, the British are
the chefs, the French are the mechanics, the Swiss are the lovers and the Italians
are the managers
v Stereotype
v Analysis:
Each nation is fixed for some characteristics without regard to individual
differences. For example,
+,
The British: they cook very badly , but the police in England are well-known
for their politeness, responsibilily,friendliness and enthusiasm
+,
The Italian: they are good at cooking ,but bad at organising
+,
The German: the mechanics in German are famous for their profession and
accuracy ,but the police are very irresponsible and unfriendly
+,
The French: they are well-known for their romance ,but they are bad at
repairing machine
+,
The Swiss: they are good at organising ,but bad at expressing their love
èThese features are not totally true to population
in these countries
Item 3:
Optimism and productivity- related or not?
|
“New salesmen at Met Life who scored
high on a test of "learned optimism" sold 37 percent more life
insurance in their first two years than pessimists" (Seligman, 1990).
|
|
“A study of 130 executives found
that how well people handled their own emotions determined how much people
around them preferred to deal with them" (Walter V. Clarke Associates, 1997).
A writer uses two statistics to
draw the conclusion
|
“Optimism is another emotional competence that leads to
increased productivity”.
v Assumption
v Analysis:
+,
In the first result, Seligman didn’t refer to the exact number of participants
+,
In the second result, Walter
V. Clarke Associates only did research on executives , who are intelligent and
successful
+, the objectives of two researches
are bussinesses or people who work for commercial industry àthey can’t represent for people
working in other industries
+, two researches don’t relate to
each other closely
èThe conclusion based on limited
knowledge of the facts, so it is unreliable.
References

hi Hang!
Trả lờiXóai think you've done a good job. I like the second item best. very interesting! I just want to share my opinion about the item 3.
- For this item, i think we cannot say that the conclusion is an assumption. Actually, "productivity" the writer refers to is the greater sales in Life Insurance, so the second study of executives is acceptable. Also, the writer uses the word "another". That means there are many other factors, but the writer only focus on the case of optimism. Thus, i think two researches he gives are reasonable.
I like your item 2, too. item 3 is OK. However, I think the bias type in the item 1 is not discrimination, it only is stereotype. In this situation, Edward Everett just appreciated white students so highly that he made sure that they all would never withdraw.
Trả lờiXóa