Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Service Learning in a Media Literacy Course

Students use the approaches to media literacy they have learned in class with a group of younger students at an after-school program (The Boys and Girls Club) in the area. Students learn concepts like the importance of real world information, persuasive intent, perspective taking, and other critical viewing skills. Then, they meet with younger children to discuss current television programs.

With the college students, children in the after-school program view two short television shows aimed at their age group. Then, pairs of students break the children into smaller groups. Each pair of students in the class takes one small group to lead them in a discussion on the media. The students use the approaches to media literacy to help the younger children see and understand some aspects of the earlier media presentation. They ask the younger children questions their group has prepared and engage them in a discussion to understand what they have just seen from a new perspective.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: High school and college students viewed a 43-minute edited episode of a heroic action film and were then tested for their understanding of program themes as well as for their selection of role models. College students understood the abstract program messages about the duality of human existence (i.e., we have both good and evil qualities) better than high school students. Compassion and conscience were associated with the selection of a superhero as a role model. High school students and males were more likely to choose revenge as a viable response to intentional aggression. The results suggest that with maturity comes an understanding of the duality of human nature, and that the qualities of heroes that make them worthy of emulation involve prosocial, not antisocial, characteristics.

Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Older siblings influence their younger siblings’ development (Brody, 2004), but there is no clear consensus on the nature of that influence. They can do so in positive ways, such as when conversations between older siblings and mothers enhance younger siblings' language (Woollett, 1986; Oshima-Takane, et al, 1996) or when older siblings serve as models for new play behaviors (Barr, 2001; Barr & Hayne, 2003). The presence of older siblings can also have a negative influence on younger siblings’ development. For example, older siblings receive more linguistic attention from parents than younger ones do, younger siblings experience less child-centered conversation with their mothers, and they take on more passive roles than older siblings do (Wellen, 1985; Woollett, 1986). Despite a rich literature on the effect of siblings on development, minimal research exists about the influence of siblings on motor development. This study sought to redress this problem by examining whether the timing of younger siblings’ motor milestone achievements was related to their own older siblings’ motor milestone onsets.

Currently 34 parents have completed a telephone survey about their older and younger children’s motor milestone development. Parents reported when their children first crawled (10 feet on hands and knees) and walked (10 feet without falling). Children’s mean ages at the time of parents’ report were 27.52 months for older siblings and 16.58 months for younger siblings.

Younger siblings walked significantly earlier (M = 11.94 months) than their older siblings (M = 12.61 months), t(33) = 2.66, p < .02 (see Table 1). No difference was found for crawling onset (M = 8.00 months for younger and M = 8.26 months for older). Differences in siblings’gender, birth weight and age did not predict differences in walking onset.

These preliminary results suggest that younger siblings’ observations of their older siblings walking provide opportunities for modeling. Moreover, in conjunction with having models for walking, walking onsets tend to occur around the same time that infants begin to understand and benefit from access to the social world. In contrast, whereas adults and older children do not often crawl, there may be fewer opportunities for younger siblings to model crawling as a mode of locomotion. In keeping with previous research demonstrating the importance of the social relationship between siblings on other domains of development, this study finds that sibling imitation can also influence infant motor development.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Philosophers have rarely been on good terms with the city and its rulers. Among the means by which philosophers have defended their discipline, few have proven more reliable than the persuasive technique Leo Strauss refers to as “philosophic politics.” For Strauss, one of the most striking, and sometimes strident, twentieth-century scholars to consider the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric, the art of philosophic politics consists in “satisfying the city that the philosophers are not atheists, that they do not desecrate everything sacred to the city, that they reverence what the city reverences, that they are not subversives, in short, that they are not irresponsible adventurers but good citizens and even the best of citizens.”1 In an effort to better understand this persuasive technique, this paper focuses on a defining moment in the history of its development: Roman Stoicism, specifically the defense of philosophy offered by Seneca the Younger. In centering on the political rhetoric of this Stoic philosopher, I hope to contribute historical and theoretical insight to the Straussian conception of philosophic politics, and in so doing to enrich our understanding of the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Prior research has examined the impact that television exposure has on political attitudes and participation, which has resulted in theories of media mobilization and media malaise. Interestingly enough, we do not know if and how media effects vary between older and younger adults. I argue that the differences in experiences that younger and older adults have encountered in the political world alters the way that each respond to mediated information. Older adults have had greater opportunities to be exposed to mudslinging campaigns, political corruption, scandals, and been effected by government policies (taxes, health care). In contrast, younger adults have yet to be exposed to many of these situations simply due to their age. Given these differences, it is likely that the political information gleaned from tv may provide a greater level of political knowledge and interest of young adults, but at the same time they may experience a greater level of cynicism that also comes with such exposure. In contrast, older adults are already jaded towards politics due to their experiences in the political world, so exposure may continue to impact these attitudes, but to a lesser extent especially for cynicism.