Winthrop University



Table of Contents: PSYC 311 Reading Questions (Spring 2018)

1. Wachtel (1983) Poverty of Affluence, Growth & Decline of Community. 2

2. Emerson 2

3. Wes Jackson (1994) Becoming Native to This Place, selections. 2

4. Steinberg, United States of Fertilizer: A Case Study of Corp. & Env. Harm 3

5. Behind the Scenes: Chicken 3

( Wilson (2002) The Future of Life: Nature’s Last Stand 4

6. Jackson (2008): The Challenge of Sustainable Lifestyles 4

7a. Bridgeman- Psychology & Evolution – Ch. 1 4

7b. Bridgeman – Courtship & Reproductive Adapt. #1 4

7c. Bridgeman – Courtship & Reproductive Adapt. #2 5

8a. Sinn, Values & Ideology (Beginning through RWA) 5

8b. Sinn, Values & Ideology (SDO to end) 6

(Duany (2000) Suburban Nation 6

9. Shepherd (2000) Down on this Farm 7

10. Berry (1986) Does Community Have a Value? 7

11. Suburban Reader #1 7

12. Suburban Reader #2 8

( FFN1. Schlosser #1 (2001) Fast Food Nation 9

( FFN#2 (No Questions) 9

13. Adler (2008) Are Cows Worse than Cars? 9

Old Material (Not used Fall 2017) 10

zz5a. Crompton & Kasser (2009) – Meeting Env. Challenges: The Role of Human Identity. 10

zz5b. Crompton & Kasser (2009) 10

zz5c. Crompton & Kasser (2009 (Chapters 6, 7.4, and 8) 11

zz. 1-2. Selections from World Watch 11

1. Wachtel (1983) Poverty of Affluence, Growth & Decline of Community.

Wachtel is discussing how modernity changed human life. Roughly speaking, we can divide human history in Western Europe into antiquity (think Plato and Roman Empire), the Middle Ages (think Feudalism and Castles), and modernity. Some key events driving modernity are the Protestant Reformation (1517), the Scientific Revolution (1500-1700), Political Revolutions (US in 1776, France in 1789), and the Industrial Revolution (1764). The Industrial Revolution in particular moved people around a lot by moving people from rural communities to urban jobs.

1 How has our sense of connectedness and individuality changed in the last few hundred years? Address religious changes, geography, and other changes (give five examples or specific details) to make your case.

2 How do friends differ from neighbors? Relate this to “making an impression”? How do changes in social mobility change the options available to us for finding security?

3 The author is examining the new direction we have taken. For what two reasons is he focusing on “its problems and its ironies”? (Wachtel’s pages 64-65)

4 Wachtel is saying we seek security in a new ways in the modern era. What are the two things in which we seek security and what are the two things we’re trying to replace? Be able to explain why we feel insecure and the sorts of things we do (in the modern age) to feel more secure.

5 What areas of life get disrupted by technical and intellectual changes? What was the impact of the industrial revolution on common people? How did religious teachings change? (66-67)

6 People began to place faith in what new modern activity? (67) What eventually began to improve in the lives of common people (especially in the US)? (68) But what vicious circle did this create? Explain how the vicious circle works. We became dependent upon what? (68)

7 Explain the argument of Fred Hirsch. (Hint: With more __ we have less need for ___).

8 What social arrangements followed from our pursuit of efficiency and productivity? (69) As we got more security from ___ we had less security from ____. What does it mean to see home, school, and community as a mere launching pad?

9 Ultimately, according to your author, how does modernity leave us feeling in relationship to the forces shaping our lives? What’s ironic about this? (70)

10 Big Picture!: You should also be ready to write a solid paragraph about the major point Wachtel is making. Be sure you can identify some of the basic tradeoffs he’s talking about AND be able to give some specific examples that make his point.

2. Emerson

1 What is greatness for Emerson?

2 How does he think of children/boys? Why good models?

3 Value of tradition? No law sacred except what?

4 Relation to poor? Every time man requires what to accomplish his design?

5 An institution is merely ____________.

6 All history is merely ______________.

7 History is an ___________

3. Wes Jackson (1994) Becoming Native to This Place, selections.

1 [Note – using Jackson’s page numbers (not the ones imposed by the Reader publisher), stop on page 25, “Notice that I say…”. Start again on Jackson’s page 37.]

Jackson works as an agricultural/ecological researcher at the Land Institute in Kansas attempting to use a native prairie grass ecosystem as a model for a more sustainable agriculture. He’s seeking an alternative to monoculture agriculture – an entire field of just one crop, like corn. Here he argues that the modern worldview inspired by Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes is flawed in its attempt to control nature. He would replace this approach with a more humble dialectical, conversational, mimicry approach to a natural world too complex to ever know fully.

2 Jackson faults the two famous modernist prophets Bacon and Descartes for encouraging science to focus on __ rather ___. Explain why Bacon’s metaphor for understanding nature is a little dark or scary.

3 When discussing the Chicago Board of Trade genes, Jackson is saying that our ___ influence and shape the molecules of nature and that these are examples of ______.

4 What does the dialogical or ecological approach to knowing the world (versus the Cartesian view) assume about humans relationship to the creation? In other words, what does it mean to study the world?

5 Jackson is even more concerned about Descartes’ assumptions about human knowing. How does our experience with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) reflect the danger in Descartes thinking and the ideal of controlling the world? What alternative assumption does Jackson recommend we make about our knowledge? Contrast this with the ideal of Smart Resource Management? (Jackson’s 23-25)

6 What are the first three assumptions of modernity described by Douglas Sloan? They lead us to treat the world as us to treat the universe as if it were _____. This leads to the fourth assumption, that we can do what?

7 Why would Jackson want to reject a “great sense of selfhood”?

8 In contrast to Descartes and Bacon, Wendell Berry suggests what metaphor for understanding our interaction with nature? What sort of imagine of nature does this imply?

9 To better understand chickens, pigs, water, and lumber, Jackson would have us understand them not as resources but as creatures with a(n) ______ history (40). What perspective honors jungle fowl, forest animals, and savanna grazers? It emphasizes what relationship? (42)

10 Describe five+ advantages Jackson sees in prairie grasslands over monoculture cropland.

11 Ultimately, Jackson hopes to relate to nature how? Is this similar or different from Wendell Berry’s suggestion? How does this differ from the modern, Cartesian approach based on control?

4. Steinberg, United States of Fertilizer: A Case Study of Corp. & Env. Harm

Corporations represent a relatively recent invention. We can see them as an expressions of modernity in that they create a vehicle for transforming and changing the world according to specific utilitarian goals (e.g., like maximizing shareholder value). The literal meaning of “corporation” suggests some type of body. Your author questions the exact type of body that is created by the legal structures enacting corporations and whether these bodies have the same moral capacity as flesh and blood bodies. We can see corporations as modern forms of organizing that inject a new mode of being into the world that has a tremendous potential to shape the lives of both human beings and ecology we inhabit. It is a mode of being that tends toward a reductive and instrumental form of reasoning about what is true and/or valuable.

1 Relative to the amount recommended by state agricultural agencies, how much fertilizer do people use? How does this use reflect linear, non-systemic thinking?

2 How did changes in type of grass and zip code change the recommended “feeding” levels recommend by Scotts’ website?

3 What does the Scotts company’s annual report suggest that it is really trying to grow?

4 Explain what’s causing the 20,000 square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico?

5 How did “Turf Builder” differ from past fertilizers?

6 How did the concept of “lawn” play upon the pursuit of “positional status” and Expressive Individualism?

7 What aesthetic ideal did Scots promote? Scotts engineered grass to enhance what characteristic in response to fertilizer? [Relate this to Wes Jackson’s “Chicago board of trade” genes.]

8 Explain how the “best interests of the corporation” principle affected Scott’s lawn care advice?

9 Why is growing the ideal lawn in North America an uphill battle?

10 How is clover beneficial? What caused its demise?

11 What’s the danger of “Weed and Feed” products?

12 How did Scotts co-opt environmental, “green” consciousness? How did the book “Scotts Lawns” play loose with the facts regarding the environmental benefits of perfect lawns?

13 Explain what the author means by “cramped moral landscape unique to the corporate form”? Relate this to reductive thinking. [Important point!]

14 How much confidence does the author appear to have in the ability of corporations to be “good citizens”?

5. Behind the Scenes: Chicken

1 How many chickens live in one barn?

2 Why do industrialized laying hens produce more eggs than a century ago?

3 Why are broilers at grocery stores contaminated by antibiotic resistant pathogens

4 Why do broilers die of heart attacks?

5 How is chicken production different in “developing” countries? What are some positive side-effects of this production method?

6 What’s a “soil improvement” crew?

( Wilson (2002) The Future of Life: Nature’s Last Stand

1 What limitation of the sacred texts does Wilson observe?

2 What has happened to the constellation of species populating Hawaii? How did this change come about? What phenomenon in general now most threatens Hawaiian fauna and flora?

3 Why are some alien species so deadly from an ecological point of view? Explain how and why the two arch-destroyers of Hawaii cause problems.

4 Explain the HIPPO acronym. Be sure to note what exact phenomenon it is explaining.

5 Why is the Vancouver Island marmot threatened? What does this suggest about the ability of current species to exist to rapid change in their environment?

6 What does the explanation of the rosy wolfsnail suggest about our ability to manage nature? What was Turgie’s story?

7 What’s the significance of the golden toad of Costa Rica? Why are frogs an early warning system?

8 Why is habitat destruction so deadly? What type is the worst? What % of forest cover has been lost due to agriculture? Where is the headquarters of global biodiversity? What is the annual loss rate for this resource in terms of the size of a US state? What can you find in 10sq km?

9 Describe the sequence by which tropical rainforests are torn down. Why are small isolated patches fragile?

10 What percent of the Amazon rainforest has been disturbed?

11 Explain the rainfall feedback loop, and how tree removal causes a vicious cycle.

12 How much has mean Earth surface temperature varied in the last 10,000 years? What increases were predicted for this century (in 2001 modeling)?

13 What locales are in particular danger as temperatures rise? (Hint: Nowhere to run to.)

14 What motivated a NYC resident to release 100 European birds in America?

15 What’s up with Chestnut fungus and Kudzu?

16 Identify the key messages of “our last testament” (final paragraph).

6. Jackson (2008): The Challenge of Sustainable Lifestyles

1 Describe the ecological significance of the lifestyles of George Varkey and Vidya Shedge.

2 Why are gains in technological efficiency insufficient to solve the ecological crisis?

3 Explain the role of identity, symbolism, status, and the pursuit of meaning in consumption.

4 Describe the relationship between income and life satisfaction, and between materialistic attitudes and subjective well-being.

5 What has happened over the last several decades with depression, marital satisfaction, and civic engagement?

6 How can an evolutionary perspective explain certain types of consumption?

7 Explain what Avner Offer means by The Challenge of Affluence. (What gets eroded and why?)

8 Why is government best suited to influence the wider structures driving consumption? What four areas should government influence, according to the author?

9 Which group in particular should government protect from advertising?

7a. Bridgeman- Psychology & Evolution – Ch. 1

1 Explain the three conditions of evolution.

2 Contrast evolutionary psychology with the SSSM. [Definitions of each, tabula rasa, differing assumptions, trellis metaphor. ]

3 We tend to imagine genes (nature) determining physical characteristics and learning (nurture) dictating behavioral characteristics. Explain how Bridgeman uses lizards and retrievers to correct this assumption.

4 What makes evolutionary psychology controversial regarding male-female differences? How does the author respond?

7b. Bridgeman – Courtship & Reproductive Adapt. #1

1 What are the advantages of sex as a reproductive strategy? [gene shuffle, eggs in one basket, resisting HIV virus, parasite dodge – “you can kill me, but you’ll never get my species!”]

2 What evidence suggests that, relative to other primates, humans are “wired” to be largely monogamous? [function of sex, obviousness of estrus.]

3 How does a man “know” that a female is fertile? Is any of this conscious? How does make-up relate to the physiology of attraction? [red flush, coloration, cultural bias, hips, research setting, skirt length, desire]

4 Does human physiology suggest our male ancestors competed with each or lived peaceably? Can you think of any implications this has in today’s world? [sexual dimorphism, birth weight.]

5 How might have jealousy helped our ancestors have more reproductive success? What sorts of behaviors does it predict for men and women? Do people act the way they say they will?

6 What’s the evidence that we haven’t always had arranged marriages?

7 How do men show interest in the opposite sex? How do women? (Be able to give two typical behaviors.)

8 What can we learn from stinky t-shirts worn by men?

2 Give the readings so far, toy with the following questions:

1 Why might people choose big SUVs even if they are proven to be less safe than minivans? Why do people live in houses far larger than what they need? Is there biological “wiring” that prevents us from living simply?

2 Think about the sorts of make-up women wear. Can you explain any of it based on the information we’ve read.

3 Imagine a man getting upset with his wife for “flirting” with another man. The wife says she wasn’t, but the husband says it was obvious. What might be going on?

7c. Bridgeman – Courtship & Reproductive Adapt. #2

1 Compare the relative age preferences for mates among males and females.

2 Explain how different facets of beauty (e.g., clear skin) provide markers of fertility?

3 The development pattern of girls switches from the very selective “Plan A” to the more promiscuous “Plan B” under particular conditions. Explain what causes the switch, what Plan B changes about development, and why having “Plan B” as a hard-wired option increases their reproductive fitness.

4 What evidence suggests women have the hard-wiring to be unfaithful on occasion? Explain how specific strategies would increase their reproductive fitness? [Why would women have a tendency to say the child has “her father’s” eyes?]

5 What evidence suggests men have the hard-wiring to be unfaithful on occasion? Explain how specific strategies would increase their reproductive fitness?

6 Explain the theory of homosexuality that relates to the immune system. Using this theory, explain how homosexuality is like having bad knees.

2 In-class Discussion Questions (just think about beforehand):

1 Does evolutionary theory explain what YOU think beauty is, or to whom you’re attracted?

2 Does evolutionary theory dictate the standards of physical beauty, or is there another standard that human culture has determined independent of our biology? Could you find anyone attractive enough to marry?

3 Why do we consider marital unfaithfulness a bad thing? Is it? Can evolutionary theory explain how this moral principle came about?

4 Why do some high-fashion outfits or make-up styles seem to defy the standards of beauty suggested by evolutionary theory (e.g., models that are too thin to have a .7 hip to waist ratio)? [Warning, I don’t have a good answer for this one!]

5 Is homosexuality wrong? Is it natural? How should society treat homosexuals? Is homosexuality a sexual preference, sexual orientation, or set of behaviors?

8a. Sinn, Values & Ideology (Beginning through RWA)

1 According to the author, what sort of issues should the problem of “climate change” include? (In other words, what do we need to acknowledge and address?)

2 How does the Coalitional-Evolutionary framework understand altruism? Whom do we help? Why would a flexible kinship identification system be more adaptive?

3 Identify at least two ways by which religion might have made coalitions more successful? What latent trait underlying authoritarianism, conservatism, and religiosity?

4 What evidence suggests men may associate war with access to females? How is testosterone linked to inter-coalitional competition?

5 How does modernity decrease traditional/tribal loyalties? How does it make them less necessary?

6 What elements of Schwart’z value theory predict right-wing voting? What are the two basic components of the DPM (Dual Process Model)? How do they relate to SVT?

7 SDO and RWA can be described as different types of ethnocentricism (i.e., a tendency to value one’s own ethnic group over others)? How does the focus of each differ?

8 Why might RWA motivate or cause climate change denial? Identify five reasons related to challenging traditional beliefs, radical change, morality of the ingroup, challenging God’s authority, and triggering a coalitional framework.

9 What framing of climate change might work well for getting someone high in RWA to take action?

8b. Sinn, Values & Ideology (SDO to end)

1 What does the high SDO individual believe? Relate to empathy, status, nationalism, and prejudice. SDO individuals are more inclined to support environmental exploitation if the benefits are distributed how? What specific attitude does SDO encourage towards animals?

2 From an SDO perspective, what might underlie a professed belief in “economic freedom?”

3 In real organizations making anti-environmental decisions, how might SDO and RWA interact? (Hint: think how SDO and RWA types might need each other.)

4 What tactics can SDO individuals use to convince RWA individuals that working with environmentalists is immoral. (Hint: think about what RWA individuals want to showcase about their beliefs and behaviors.)

5 What sort of factors (related to evolutionary psychology) shape men’s attitudes toward income redistribution? [Hint: Dominance Hierarchies]

6 How might SDO explain demands for fiscal austerity? [Advocates for fiscal austerity suggest that the government is spending too much money and that by cutting back government spending you will strengthen the economy.]

7 How might the Koch Brothers’ behaviors reflect SDO?

8 As a way for motivating action on climate change, explain the strategy of seeking “overlapping consensus” vs. challenging the traditional beliefs associated with RWA (e.g., trying to convince people to replace religious beliefs with a purely scientific worldview). Why might localizing the issue help (versus talking about global impacts and impacts on other countries)?

9 Your author suggests small scale, easily observable solar and wind installations might be helpful – why? How might partnerships with churches help?

10 How might you frame renewable energy to get buy-in from SDO individuals? What kind of things do you want to link it to? What will it enable you to do or what will it show the world?

11 Your author suggests the need to think critically and challenge ideological forces especially when “ideologies are fused with powerful interests and resources.” What sorts of things or power might your author be referring to?

(Duany (2000) Suburban Nation

1 [INTRO] Why do we fear new growth? What kinds of suburban features and experiences does Duany criticize?

2 [CH1] What moral sources does Le Corbusier’s quote reflect?

3 Explain how suburban sprawl is artificial and traditional neighborhood organic.

4 Explain the five components of sprawl.

5 What forces led to sprawl? Who killed streetcars? How did zoning cause problems? Was it free-market or government forces that produced sprawl?

6 What problems does Duany find with the Virginia Beach Blvd?

7 What are the six features of traditional neighborhood design?

8 What problems befall pod-based planning (see bubble diagram)?

9 [CH2} Why is traffic congested in suburbia? What role is played by the spare hierarchy and collector road?

10 Compare Hilton Head and Charleston in traffic.

11 What’s the relationship between shopping and residence in suburbia vs. traditional design?

12 Explain the quality of life difference for workers at Palmer’s Square vs. office parks.

13 Contrast open space in the two designs.

14 Describe the idea of a terminated vista in relation to honored spaces.

15 How can “rational planning” misunderstand traffic safety? What’s traffic calming?

16 [CH 3] Explain Duany’s private vs. public rant.

17 How does income segregation in suburbia limit ability to remain within a community. How do people in gated communities vote?D

18 Describe the affect of city design in Georgetown on social dynamics and convenience.

19 Describe the synergy created in above-the-store residences.

20 Describe the two forgotten rules of affordable housing. Relate city design, car ownership, and affordable housing.

21 [CH4] Summarize Duany’s thinking on civic life.

22 What happened to the design of streets and why? How does the curb radius on street corners affect street life?

23 How does parking affect pedestrian safety?

24 What does Duany suggest for crime deterrence? What’s the vicious cycle?

25 What makes streets feel like outdoor living rooms? How does this conflict with the 20 min home design? Explain the 6:1 ratio.

26 Compare the placement of trees to the “rules” of swing dancing.

27 What are the advantages of alleys?

28 [CH5] How should highways intersect with towns?

29 Why does building more roads not decrease traffic? What’s induced traffic?

30 What should gas cost? How is maintaining the current price the moral equivalent of robbing the poor and elderly? What percent of GNP do highways and parking consume? What’s the use of fuel ratio for trucks vs. trains? What’s the ratio of people moved for lines of track to lanes of road?

9. Shepherd (2000) Down on this Farm

1 Note: The following questions require integration and synthesis across the reading.

1 Compare the three tenants of Polyface farm with Duany’s principals of neo-traditional city design. (Interpret the name “polyface.”)

2 Salatin has several mixed-use, synergistic mechanisms of animal husbandry. Explain the basic dynamics involving (a) pigaerators, (b) the Raken house, and (c) egg mobiles. Note specific benefits, ways pathology are avoided, and the ways in which Salatin follows Wes Jackson’s advice to “mimic nature.”

3 Explain how these mechanisms of animal husbandry are similar and yet distinct from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).

4 Salatin compares his work to that of a creative artist “painting a landscape.” At the same time, he claims “nature always bats last.” Compare his approach to the discussion of swing dancing. What’s the structure? What’s the freedom/creativity enabled?

5 What’s the pollution problem faced by the Chesapeake Bay? Explain how CAFOs contribute to this and how the Polyface method doesn’t.

6 What are some of the limitations of the Polyface model in terms of expense, expertise, buyers, seasonal production, and scale? How can state laws cause problems?

10. Berry (1986) Does Community Have a Value?

1 What forces the questions regarding the value of community?

2 Describe the positive features of the 1938 subsistence economy experienced by Loyce & Owen Flood in Port Royal Kentucky?

3 What forces caused the demise of this community?

4 How does present day Port Royal differ? What are the consequences of being a colony of the national economy? Why does Berry put industrial “development” in scare quotes?

5 How is a colonial economy exploitive? How does it differ from the older subsistence economies?

6 What were some of the “off the books” benefits of the old subsistence economies? (p. 187)

7 Describe the features of David Kline’s farm. How does he frame his understanding of community for the conference participants? Why can the Amish economy not prey on the community?

8 Describe how the Amish system is more productive in terms of people, businesses, community, and profit.

9 How does the standard economic, industrial model discount the benefits of community? (p. 191)

11. Suburban Reader #1

Emerson – A romantic vision of Nature, 1836

1 What are some specific words Emerson uses to articulate the values nature delivers? What specific words about city living?

Loudon – British Horticulturalist lays foundation for suburban ideal, 1838

1 What level of diversity does Loudon recommend in suburban living? What two other individual attributes does he associate with income? With whom are we supposed to enjoy “social intercourse” and be “neighborly” with?

2 Of the “objects” desired, which might have unfortunate social implications?

Downing – Virtues & Design of country living, 1850

1 By what means does a good house bring forth greater civilization?

2 How does the individual home improve society?

3 How does a country home compare to oral teachings as a means of teaching morals?

4 What do vines suggest about the inhabitants of a cottage?

5 Who occupies a villa? Describe in detail. What should a villa manifest? (20)

6 What’s odd about the author’s supposition of the “humblest laborers” looking forward to possessing such a home? (21)

Kenneth Jackson, Selections from Crabgrass Frontier, 1987 [Note: Begins top of page 30]

1 What major change took place between 1840 and 1890? Distinguish between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft?

2 How did the role of family and household change in the 18th century?

3 What changed between 1820 and 1850 in home life? What did the family/home come to represent in the eyes of ministers and others? The right home could even help you get where?

4 Advertisements in the mid-1800s promised that open spaces would bring greater what? (31) What was the role of the lawn? (31-32)

5 What forces/perceptions pushed people into the suburbs in the late 1800s?

[Skip Essay 1-2 on page 33]

12. Suburban Reader #2

Mumford, Failures of Modern Suburbia, 1961

1 Mumford compares the creation of suburbia with what institution?

2 How did suburbia’s popularity doom it?

3 How does Mumford see the suburban life as limited? Note as least three ways.

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963)

4 Describe the problem that has no name?

5 The idealized housewife is concerned with what kind of world/societal problems (if any)?

6 Describe the type of community involvement of the “suburban wife”? Why doesn’t she take on certain responsibilities?

Tools of Exclusion

7 What five local-level mechanisms were used to exclude certain groups from exclusive suburbs?

8 How was zoning used to exclude people?

9 Who drafted federal housing policies?

The Political Culture of Suburbia

10 When did the suburban bloc become the majority? What things did it emphasize?

11 Why did liberal growth policies undermine the liberal/welfare state?

12 Explain homeowner/taxpayer entitlement as a phenomenon? What was expected from government?

13 The Republican Party opposed what policies to attract the suburban vote? How can suburbia be blamed for the “death of liberalism”?

Lassiter, Suburban Strategies

14 How did federal policies on mortgage and interstates enable segregation?

15 What did the Silent Majority publically endorse? What was the private motivation?

16 Was the pattern of segregation in Charlotte accidental or government sponsored? Explain.

17 How does the reasoning of the “affluent” suburban father misconstrue the cause of segregation?

18 How did Nixon’s policy on school segregation misconstrue the causes of segregation?

19 Why did Bill Clinton launch in 1992 his populist 3rd way campaign focused on the middle class?

( FFN1. Schlosser #1 (2001) Fast Food Nation

1 Chapter 1: The Founding Fathers (13-21)

1 [Ch1: 13-21] What role did the automobile play in the LA area? Why did people underestimate its costs?

2 What specific types of businesses and services arose to cater to automobiles?

3 Describe the features of the Speedee Service model. What changes initially befuddled customers? What elements of Modernity are reflected here?

4 What role did federal government spending play in creating the Southern California economy and infrastructure? What’s ironic about this area being an engine of the anti-tax movement? [This last part is not in the reading.]

2 Chapter 2: Your Trusted Friends (42-57)

1 Describe the advertizing research conducted by McNeal about kids. What’s the Character Appeal Quadrant Analysis?

2 What happened to the FTC’s efforts to restrict TV advertising to children?

3 Why have parents become more dependent upon Fast Food playgrounds?

4 How do McDonald’s want to use Ronald McDonald in relating to kids?

5 McDonald’s executives wanted their brand to suggest what? What happened with baby bottles?

6 Why have schools become more dependent upon ad revenue? Why do food companies want access to schools? What are some of the dangerous inherent in this relationship? What was the school administrator John Bushey pushing?

3 Chapter 3: Behind the Counter (71-77)

1 What kitchen redesign did fast food executives seek? What’s ironic about this based on their participation in government subsidy programs?

2 What behaviors/attitudes do fast food companies show regarding worker pay? How would a $1 increase in minimum wage affect hamburger cost? What illegal labor practices did Taco Bell engage in?

3 How does McDonald’s respond to unionizing efforts? What are their specific strategies?

4 Chapter 5: Why the Fries Taste Good (111-131)

1 How did Simplot benefit from government spending or public resources in building his “free market” empire? (list them)

2 List the string of technologies that enabled the modern French fry. (There’s a lot!)

3 Why did Simplot’s frozen fries appeal to Ray Kroc? How did it work out?

4 [The mistake of standing alone.] The current potato market is a ______. How do small potato farmers fare? How many potato farmers have disappeared in the last several decades? What shifted in the ownership of potato processors?

5 Describe the fallacy of composition?

6 How does William Heffernan describe America’s agricultural economy?

7 [Food product design.] In what oil did McDonald’s cook French fries?

8 Why did the processing of food lead to the flavor industry?

9 The IFF plant sits next to what other factories? What other type of product does IFF make?

10 Why do childhood memories of Happy Meals lead to “heavy user” adults?

11 What does GRAS mean? What does it enable companies to hide?

12 What’s deceptive about the label “natural flavor”?

13 How did Schlosser sample different IFF flavors?

14 What’s the state of the art machine for cutting French fries?

( FFN#2 (No Questions)

1 Chapter 6 (133-147)

2 Chapter 7 (149-166)

3 Epilogue (255-270)

13. Adler (2008) Are Cows Worse than Cars?

1 How does meat consumption compare to transportation as a cause of global warming (address discrepancies and complexities of estimation)?

2 Explain the ways meat (especially beef) contribution to global warming.

3 Explain the factors preventing environmental organizations from addressing meat consumption.

4 How do government subsidies for corn contribute to global warming?

5 Explain the political barriers for addressing corn subsidies.

6 Why is meat consumption easier to address at the individual level than transportation choices?

Old Material (Not used Spring 2018)

zz5a. Crompton & Kasser (2009) – Meeting Env. Challenges: The Role of Human Identity.

1 (Intro) The environmental movement has engaged in what two sorts of strategies? Explain the essence of the additional approach recommend by the C&K.

2 Why is this third approach important in democracies for enacting better environmental policies? That is, what special sort of demand can it encourage?

3 What’s the drawback of only recommending business-friendly policies (engaging organizations)? What gets “chilled”?

4 What’s the drawback to “engaging behavior”? How can a focus on simple and painless behavior changes backfire?

5 How is identity campaigning different? What’s the goal? Why can co-opting certain problematic “proclivities” cause problems?

6 (Chapter 1) What higher order motivations organize more specific behaviors?

7 What’s the focus of self-enhancing, extrinsic, or materialistic goals? What’s the relationship between these values and care for non-human nature? What specific behaviors are less likely?

8 Explain the outcome of the resource management game for groups of highly materialistic individuals.

9 (Chapter 2) In-group members treat outgroup members in a way that achieves what?

10 Characterize people with an “environmental identity.” Relate this to in-group identification. In contrast, those defining humans alone as the in-group reflect what bias (hint: a____)? For those having this second orientation, what type of group do animals represent?

11 What sorts of emotions do people deny to members of an out-group? This suggests they are treating outgroup members like what? This then suggests that animals are perceived like what?

12 What would you say to someone, based on Vining (2003), who said animal-rights and environmental issues were unrelated?

13 (Chapter 3) Describe the four diversion strategies for suppressing anxiety and the three strategies for reinterpreting threat.

14 What sorts of values might people endorse when reminded of their own mortality?

15 Reminders of death might cause people to become negative toward what special sort of out-group? What caused people to rate an author as less likable and less intelligent (Goldenberg et al., 2006)? Reminders of death caused people to view what sort of nature as less beautiful? Reminders of death did what to people’s timber management behavior?

zz5b. Crompton & Kasser (2009)

1 What are iatrogenic effects? What sorts of iatrogenic effects do C&K want to eliminate from environmental efforts? What are the two other objectives of the environmental campaigns they envision?

2 (Chapter 4) Describe the emphasis of intrinsic vs. extrinsic goals. What sort of values do they hope to encourage?

3 Describe how environmental organizations can reinforce selfish desires regarding assumptions they make about people and the sorts of appeals made. How can the encouragement of green consumption cause problems?

4 What sorts of government policies or laws might change to decrease the social modeling of materialistic values? What sort of actions can environmental organizations take regarding advertising?

5 Give examples of alternative metrics (indicators) we can use to assess national performance.

6 Describe how simplicity circles might enhance self-transcendent values.

7 Write an implementation intention regarding a desire to go shopping.

8 (Chapter 5) Instead of just praising diversity, C&K suggest addressing what other agenda (that may be less popular)? They hope for an alliance with this other group to reduce what basic prejudice? What production practice could be jointly opposed?

9 Rather than objectify biodiversity, C&K recommend building more what between what two groups?

10 What legitimating myth can environmentalists challenge regarding food? To whom should these educational messages be directed?

11 What two values are consistently associated with lower levels of prejudice? How does one of these relate to materialism?

12 What method confronts people with inconsistency between their espoused values and actual behavior? Describe the other method that involves taking either an objective or detached perspective.

13 What sort of contact has been shown to have therapeutic value? What’s the point of the “Council of All Beings” exercise?

zz5c. Crompton & Kasser (2009 (Chapters 6, 7.4, and 8)

1 (Chapter 6) C&K suggest environmental messages will work better if based on a three step model of therapy. What are the three basic steps in their understanding of therapy? (Hints: awareness, acknowledging, finding better.)

2 C&K suggest environmental organizations follow this basic three step model of therapy when confronting defensive coping mechanisms (e.g., denial of global warming). What’s the 1st step? What emotion or understanding should environmental organizations convey?

3 In the 2nd step environmental organizations would allow people to do what? Though people may become angry or sad in the short-run, what sustained effort might help in the long run? Env. organizations should try to establish what sort of connection/relationship with key stakeholders?

4 In the 3rd step environmental organizations should promote what sort of values and what sort of empathizing? What are the two main adaptive coping strategies? What’s the limitation of first type of coping? What specific orientation/focus (think Buddhist) do they suggest for the second type of coping? How does this type of coping affect the type of values someone espouses? What sorts of behaviors become more common?

5 (6.2.2) Environmental campaigns should avoid in-your-face messaging that activates what response in the message recipient? What is the problem with individuals adopting simple and painless lifestyle changes? What’s likely to happen to specific behaviors (e.g., driving SUVs) that are ridiculed or made fun of?

6 (7.4) Social institutions exert powerful influence in determining how people frame given issues. Lakoff and others call the design of this what sort of policy? C&K suggest environmentalists should consider which two specific framing impacts of their campaigns? Ultimately, they hope campaigns will reinforce the _______ necessary for systemic engagement.

7 (Chapter 8) If people are prejudice against non-human nature they are likely prejudice against numerous other what? This common root problem suggests that advocates should build what sorts of connections across what sorts of organizations? As an example of this, they suggest third sector organizations could organize a campaign against which specific (damaging) practice?

zz. 1-2. Selections from World Watch

1 Vital Signs

1 Meat consumption: factory farms, land use, greenhouse gases, Fig. 1.

2 Fossil Fuel Use: Leading users, new coal plants in US by 2030, weekly occurrence in China, global energy use by 2030 and CO2 increases, Fig. 1.

3 Carbon Emissions: Compare to pre-industrial times, 2010 China emissions, 2040 Arctic summers, 8 of last 10 years among what.

4 Agribusiness: market power concentrating in, genetic resources as intellectual property, eggs of white leghorn, contracts as risk shifts, top 4 beef packing control, farmers share of retail food dollar from 1973-2000, concentration and price, hog/pork prices in 1998.

5 Climate change and biodiversity: Appearance of 26 butterfly species, frogs calling __ days earlier, penguin, dragonfly, and Spanish butterfly movement, species interactions less synchronous.

6 Threats to species – number of known threatened species, amphibians, coniferous trees, birds and mammals at risk, percent of Mediterranean fish threatened, freshwater hippopotamus.

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