Archive for month: November, 2014

I really understood everyone’s logic at the beginning of this episode. Reed really wanted to get Jon out because he felt that Jon thought of himself as the “Alpha Male” and thought too highly of himself. Nataly felt like she could not trust anyone because of what they did to Jeremy last episode. For the first immunity challenge, the prize was the winners could help donate baseball gear to kids in need and have a chance to enjoy baseball food while watching the game. The Yellow Tribe won and Missy was on the losing team, once again, so Reed thought to swap with Missy so she would have a chance to experience one of the prizes from the immunity challenges (and hopefully build an alliance with Missy and Baylor). When the winners were gone, Reed talked to Keith and Wes and convinced them that Jon was useless, they agreed. When that happened, Nataly and Baylor went to search for the idol and Nataly found it. Then when Nataly said she wanted Reed voted off, things started to get confusing. For the individual Immunity challenge, Jon was the first person to give up and Reed won. Reed thought that since Jon stepped down first, it really made him look ‘cocky’ and a little too confident that he wont be voted off. That is when everyone else started to agree with Reed about Jon. At the end of the episode, when the voting was going on, Nataly whispered to Jon to play his idol, so he wouldn’t get voted off. Turns out almost everyone wrote down Jon’s name, so if he had not played his idol he would have been off. Instead of Jon voted off, Wes was voted off with just one vote.

In Chapter 6, the 5th edition, it discusses group motivation. To me, the only group motivation I see throughout this tribe/ team is when the members motivate/ convince others on whom they should vote off. Also, Jon feels motivated because everyone runs to him or Jaclyn as if they are the head of the whole tribe, which really boosts his self-esteem and makes him actually feel like the Alpha Dog. I also think JOn really falls under Shutz’s Theory of interpersonal needs. He wants to feel included and wants to be in control of the tribe and also wants and needs Jaclyn to be there with him the whole time.

Beginning of the episode recaps with Josh’s elimination. The minority feels weakened and threatened, and darkness seems to be at the end of the tunnel. Keith, who has an idol starts thinking strategy, but emotion may be an underlying reason for the brash plan he’s erected. Get them to vote him off, then play the idol, and come out on top. It’s clever enough to potentially work, but typically, when people try to get clever on this show, it generally follows with them being voted off. The group is reeling however, especially with the loss of their leader so this might be the wisest choice on their plate. We have the food challenge; one team wins it and the other loses. Quite uninteresting at this point. The climax occurred when natalie and jeremy gave up their reward to the traitors. If that doesn’t cement their loyalty, I don’t know what will, because on the pyramid of need, food, water, and comfort are the highest priority for motivation, and that’s the level of living that they embody. A full stomach and a good buzz is a huge gift to reciprocate their votes. So the loser team wallows, other than natalie, and wes mentions that if he’s on the chopping block, he’d appreciate a heads up, which is subtle and smart because he’s a good kid. That potentially creates room for strategy. On the other hand, Natalie doesn’t even hide it, she is candid in expressing that her actions granted leverage over the beautiful couple. Unbelievable amount of ego on this women, or thoughtlessness. We’ll see if it works because a short term favor may seem sweet, but compared to the prize, it pales. Reed, without his paramour by his side, has lost the will to play conservatively. He realizes that he’s now on borrowed time due to the inferior group dynamic and he decides to make waves. Not sure how he intends on doing that, but I’m excited to see how effectively he can utilize his rage and resentment to create rifts in the other groups unyielding ties to each other. Ultimately, the ones that need to worry are the bigger group because you don’t want to mess with an animal you’ve backed into a corner, they’re typically the ones that aim for the jugular. The weaker team loses immunity and it seems that they’ve all but lost, unaware to the potential shimmering ray of hope that could descend on them. The handsome guy realizes that Jeremy will be unable to find the idol and assume that he has it, which will lead to Jeremy thinking that he’s a liar and deceiving them. This might prove fatal for someone unexpected because although, they could just play it safe and get the weak team  to dwindle away, long term, that will be a bad strategy, because they will be the black sheep, the betrayer. They need to think critically about the implications and the ramifications of their situation. After all, in survivor, it doesn’t take much for someone to be the target of the mob. Like a deity showing up in the time of need, their miracle arrives and saves the day. Apparently, the fear the handsome guy concocted over his own well being instilled a paranoia of Jeremy’s wrath, and he must have somehow convinced the mom and daughter to abridge their alliance. They didn’t show exactly how their decisions got swayed because that would’ve lessened the drama of the blindside, if I had to speculate, I’d imagine that either they took the numbers into consideration, including people and idols, and decided that Jeremy didn’t have their best interests or opportunity at heart. Who knows is all that Jeremy will be thinking over the course of his jury assignment and it’ll be interesting to see the conclusion.

Have a Thanksgiving everyone! Make sure to click on the link to review my video.

The entire focus of Survivor is to have individuals live without life’s comforts and compete for the chance to win a grand prize. The biggest motivator here is to win the million-dollar prize by being the last one standing. As in our textbook, the participants are motivated by the idea of receiving a reward – whether it is extrinsic or intrinsic.

Extrinsic rewards are given from the environment around a person. The long-term extrinsic reward – and the biggest motivator – is the winning of a million dollars. Every participant on the show hopes to get his or her shot at this. On the other hand, the short term extrinsic rewards would be winning the weekly challenges that result in being given comfort items, such as beddings/shelter equipment or food.

In this episode, the entire tribe is split into two groups where they balance on a beam and try and knock each other off. The host explains that the reward for the winning group is riding on a yacht with food and drinks. In detail, he lists the type of food that will be available to them which elicits a very expressive group reaction. It is clear that every person wants to win in order to eat a good meal, especially because food is so scarce to come by. Another example of an extrinsic reward would be the immunity necklace that is won by a particular individual. In this episode, Baylor surprisingly wins this reward, saving her from elimination.

In order to stay in this game and avoid being eliminated, it’s important to make alliances and form groups to work together. From Schutz’s Theory of Interpersonal Needs, I believe that the need for control and inclusion are why the players work in groups. Strong-headed people such as Jeremy and Jon look to the group for support and firmly believe that by being the ‘top dog’ in the group, they will be able to sway the group decisions. In particular, Jon does this by communicating with Missy – whom I feel has a need for inclusion – to eliminate and blindside Jeremy. I believe that Missy and Baylor have a need for inclusion in their alliances. They seem to want to be accepted by others, enjoying trust and encouragement from their team members – especially from Jon.

Overall, Jon is taking huge steps to become a major player in this game. I was completely shocked when he and Jaclyn voted Jeremy off, especially when Jeremy had just given up the food reward for them. Although I did like Jon and Jaclyn in the beginning of the game, seeing them turn their backs on an alliance and someone who seemed to be a great friend was extremely frustrating.

We all attended the tunnel of oppression as it was assigned to us for a reflection essay. We briefly discussed how we felt during the tunnel of oppression and it was interesting to know that we all felt very similar especially the way the debriefing ended. I honestly think we all expected more because during our class session with Dr. Jaime we all have an opportunity to really discuss our points of views. Dr. Jaime knows how to engage everyone to participate and feel comfortable as we are all stating our opinions. During this class period we also split into groups of four and discussed females in stem fields unfortunately no one in our class has studying a stem field so we all simply assumed why females feel the way they do.  As we are soon coming to an end of this semester Julian handed test to everyone the same test we all had in the beginning of the semester. I personally think it would be easier to take test as soon as class started to get it over with because most of us hate taking test especially if they don’t affect our grade. I feel that I don’t put much interest and attention on test like the one we had and I simply rush them but if I had them at the beginning of class I would do my best to answer the questions.

This week’s readings talked about ways to deal with the liberation of oppression. I honestly didn’t know such cycle existed to help one liberate all those new feelings we create when we are exposed to issues and topics of oppression. The cycle of liberation showed ways we can seek new paths for creating social change and release. There’s eight stages in the cycle of liberation one can enter the cycle at any point, through the slow process of development and there is no specific beginning or end point because one is never done and the cycles repeat themselves over and over. I want to say that I find myself in the waking up stage as I’m sure many of us in class do because we have been exposed to so much knowledge in just few months. Hopefully one day I can enter in to the creating change stage to help other join the cause. The second article on how to interpret oppression behavior discusses how we must eliminate intolerance to such behaviors caused by others who are not educated on oppression. The statement I most liked was “No matter what form it takes or who does it, we must all take action to stop intolerance when it happens.” This for me is very powerful because know that I’m aware of the consequences of not stopping someone for certain actions of behavior towards others it empowers me to continue with the battle and fight against it to improve oppression. I find that know I’m more open toward understanding other racial groups that before I found disturbing.