Blog Assignment #1- Julianne Varcie

Group Members- Julianne Varcie and Michel'le Jones

The five concepts that I chose to cover in this blog assignment are stereotyping, prejudice, proxemics, paralanguage, and silence.

Stereotyping (Jandt, 86)

According to Jandt, stereotyping is "used to refer to negative or positive judgments made about individuals based on any observable or believed group membership."

One thing that often is confused by those who use the term stereotype is that sometimes, these judgments can be positive. An example of this is when someone might say that "all Asians are smart and get good grades." While still a stereotype, it is a positive thing. However, on the other side, are negative stereotypes. If someone were to say that all blondes were dumb, that would be an example of a negative stereotype.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ipEflG4lxc

In this clip, Michael Scott is stereotyping Kelly's race. This shows Michael's view of Indian people. He stereotypes them all as owning convenience stores and trying to pressure customers into purchases.

Prejudice (Jandt, 91)

In Jandt's book, prejudice is defined as the "irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group group, race, religion, or sexual orientation."

The first clip shows that people often have a specific type of criminal that they imagine. While criminals comes from all sorts of backgrounds, races, religions, etc. people tend to think of a specific group or gender when they imagine a criminal.

Not only does this apply to prejudice of criminals, but in more recent times there is a heavy prejudice against those from Middle Eastern countries. People seem to suspect anyone who dresses like a Muslim of being a terrorist. Not only is this irrational suspicion, but it causes discomfort on the part of those who are being shown prejudice.

Proxemics (Jandt, 113)

Proxemics is the study of one's personal space. Different cultures regard proxemics differently. While some cultures regard touch

This song perfectly illustrates proxemics.

The scene is a teacher singing this song to a student of his who seems to have taken an interest in him. This shows that in US culture, closer distance is seen as intimate and is not something that is condoned in just any kind of situation. Usually, intimate distance (touching to 18 inches) is only seen as acceptable for those who have close relationships or in intimate settings.

Paralanguage (Jandt, 118)

Paralanguage is the "nonverbal elements of the voice." These can include laughter, tone, pitch of voice, and vocal segregates ("umm" "err", etc. )

The following clip illustrates how one's tone can change the impact of a statement:

By use of a certain tone (and sarcasm), the teacher in this scene fools a student into believing that she is in the wrong classroom.

Silence (Jandt, 119)

Silence is the absence of words; it is one of the elements of the nonverbal spectrum.

Silence can mea many different things, depending on who you ask and what the situation is.

While silence in US culture can be awkward or a means of avoiding conversation, in China silence is respectful.

In this cartoon, silence communicates two different things to the two people involved. While one person may see silence as a comfortable thing, another may feel very awkward or even bored.