Standing on the Shoulders
of Giants
These are summaries and responses to
five sources to help grow
my idea worth spreading.
five sources to help grow
my idea worth spreading.
Summary:
In the paper “reinventing the world and reinventing the self in Huck Finn”, Kravitz studies the role of friendship in Mark Twain’s “The Tales of Huckleberry Finn.” He studies how Huck arrived at Jackson’s Island, and how Huck was looking for freedom, but connected with Jim. Kravitz talks about their journey, but then focuses in on their friendship, and despite Jim’s ethnicity, Huck is “willing to go to hell” for him, because of their connection. Especially back then, this was unusual, so Huck doing this was special. Like Kravitz says, “[Huck] is unable to accept the equality of difference, but he is willing to ignore Jim's origins and establish equality based on his friendship with and love for Jim.” Kravitz ends his paper by discussing how Jim and Huck chose freedom not in a sense of freedom to live, but freedom of who to make friends with. Response: In the paper “reinventing the world and reinventing the self in Huck Finn”, Kravitz studies the role of friendship in Mark Twain’s “The Tales of Huckleberry Finn.” I found it very interesting how he focuses on Huck and Jim’s friendship in the book, and how different their friendship was for their time. Kravitz said, “Huck is ‘willing to go to hell’ for a friend because he believes that Jim is ‘white inside,’” which I found noteworthy. While they are friends, race still plays a role to Huck, while in the present time, race isn’t as big a role to us as it was back then. Yes, we’re still working through race issues, some bigger than others, but ethnicity doesn’t usually affect friendships as much anymore. Humans have grown since back then, which I am grateful for especially. Questions:
MLA citation: Kravitz, Bennett. "Reinventing the World and Reinventing the Self in Huck Finn." Papers on Language & Literature, vol. 40, no. 1, Winter2004, pp. 3-27. EBSCOhost, frccwc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=12519986&site=ehost-live.
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Summary:
In the research article “psychosocial benefits of cross-ethnic friendships in urban middle schools” Graham, Munniksma and Juvonen discuss the idea that cross-ethnic friendships have multiple psychosocial and psychological benefits. They tested 932 sixth grade students with different friendships, and observed five different categories, and how same-ethnic friendships and cross-ethnic friendships affected each category differently. The five categories were feeling of safety, peer victimization, loneliness, friendship quality, and ethnic identity. Graham, Munniksma and Juvonen discovered that same-ethnic friendships helped grow ethnic identity, while cross-ethnic friendships “were related to feelings of safety and fewer experiences with victimization.” Along with that, cross-ethnic friendships decreased the feelings of loneliness in class. The three noted that this research was important with the growing population of youth in North America, and says it will be useful going forward in the future. Response: In the research article “psychosocial benefits of cross-ethnic friendships in urban middle schools” Graham, Munniksma and Juvonen talk about how having cross-ethnic friendships impact middle school children. What surprised me about this paper is the result that same-ethnic friendships helped grow a stronger feeling of ethnic identity, while cross-ethnic friendships didn’t have that effect. The three said, “The ability to see oneself as part of a larger group from which one can draw comfort is an important coping strategy and,…a likely contributor to reduced feelings of vulnerability.” I didn’t realize that friendships within the same ethnicity had this effect while growing up, though looking back, I can see that it did. Most of my friends in middle school were the same ethnicity, and it helped me feel more comfortable as a group, I think. And now after reading this research paper, I wonder if having those kind of friends helped me or changed me in any other ways. Looking further into this, like Graham, Munniksma and Juvonen mention in the paper, would be interesting to see. Questions:
MLA Citation: Graham, Sandra, et al. "Psychosocial Benefits of Cross-Ethnic Friendships in Urban Middle Schools." Child Development, vol. 85, no. 2, Mar/Apr2014, pp. 469-483. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/cdev.12159. Summary:
The research article “Friendship concept and community network structure among elementary school and university student” by Hernández- Hernández, et al, studies how friendships differ between elementary students and university students. The six discovered that elementary students focused on making friends in their own class, but they also made friends with friends of their siblings. Once the siblings were removed from the equation, the friendships moved back to focusing on who was in their own class. The six watched then studied university students were more selective when choosing friends, “and therefore…when they have friends in the same classroom, those communities are quite different to the classroom composition.” The six concluded that when looking at the classrooms sizes and number of students, they could understand how friendships would be formed for elementary students, but that it was not the same case for university students. They said, “this discovery implies that friendship is a dynamic concept that produces several changes in the friendship network structure” and the way people make friends through life; all of them agreeing that this could lead to more studies to learn more. Response: “Friendship concept and community network structure among elementary school and university students” made me change my thinking about how I use to make friends as a kid, and how I make friends now. I am a bit “pickier” and “choosier” about my friends, than I use to be, and I never realized that. Hernández- Hernández, et al said, “friendship is a dynamic concept that produces several changes in the friendship network and the way people make groups of friends;” and they are right, the idea of friendship is an ever-changing notion, and something we, as humans, will always be working to fully understand. But as adults, we do work harder to pick friends that we think we will get along with more, that we will grow closer to, that we think will trust more. As those friendships grow, and we do trust each other more, that’s what makes strong friendships, and that’s the difference between the friends I have now and the friends I had as a child. Questions:
MLA Citation: Hernández-Hernández, Ana María, et al. "Friendship Concept and Community Network Structure among Elementary School and University Students." Plos ONE, vol. 11, no. 10, 19 Oct. 2016, pp. 1-17. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0164886. Summary:
In the article “The protective role of friendship on the effects of childhood abuse and depression,” Abigail Powers, Jerry Ressler, and Rebekah Bradley researched how friendship effects depression and childhood abuse trauma. They used three different assessments during their research. First was the Beck Depression Inventory, which measures depression symptoms. Second was the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, which assess childhood abuse and neglect. Third and last was the Social Support Behaviors Scale, which looks at the five parts of social support separately for family and friends, those being emotional, socializing, practical assistance, financial assistance, and advice. After evaluating all 378 individuals from the 3 clinics they chose, 93% of which were African American and 54% of which were female, Powers, Ressler, and Bradley put together the information to see how friends and family helped people with past trauma. According to their findings, “perceived friend support predicts lower levels of symptoms of depression in the presence of reports of emotional abuse and neglect.” The three also noted that when split when by gender, they saw that friend and family support helped females even more than males. Response: The article “In the article “The protective role of friendship on the effects of childhood abuse and depression” written by Doctors Abigail Powers, Jerry Ressler, and Rebekah Bradley helped me widen my thinking about how much friendship can really impact our lives. I myself struggle with depression, and turn to my friends when I feel down and feel my own symptoms growing. I realized this was probably the same way for other women, since Powers, Ressler and Bradley observed, “For females, adult depression, emotional abuse, and neglect were also significantly related to perceived friend support.” I have no doubt that in my own life, my friends do lessen my feelings of sadness and depression. But while friends and family help, I know they don’t fully heal those past wounds. Help is out there, and close to us, but we have to heal ourselves, which is something we all need to realize. Questions:
MLA citation: Powers, Abigail, et al. "The Protective Role of Friendship on the Effects of Childhood Abuse and Depression." Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269), vol. 26, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 46-53. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/da.20534. Summary:
In the TED talk “The secret to living longer may be your social life”, Susan Pinker discusses the idea that being surrounded by more people may lengthen human life. She states that there is an Italian island where men and women live the same amount of time, and live to be over 100. Pinker traveled there and discusses how close all the “centenarians” were to their family, friends, and neighbors. To support this theory, she found research from Brigham Young University that said the same thing Pinker discovered in the Italian island. She ends her speech by saying, “building in-person interaction into…our agendas bolster the immune system…and helps us live longer." Pinker then summarizes her speech, telling the audience that more human connections help humans live longer. Response: Susan Pinker’s TED talk “The secret to living longer may be your social life” made me think about how social humans need to be. Even with this age of technology growing, we still can’t avoid human contact. Pinker references a study by Brigham Young University and says, how many people do you talk to?...Those interactions are one of the strongest predictors of how long you’ll live.” But Pinker points out that with the internet, cellphones, and laptops, we don’t get as much actual face-to-face contact as we use to. While that is true, I can’t help but feel like because we have less human interaction, it makes the friendships we keep stronger. Don’t fewer but stronger friendships mean more than multiple weaker friendships? That’s the biggest idea that Pinker made me think of. Quantity shouldn’t matter more than quality, especially in friendships. I've had lots of friends, and lost some because they were focused more on having more friends than focusing on their friend themselves. Over time, I myself have chosen to focus on deepening friendships. Some of them even starting online. So even if we have less face-to-face contact, lots of people still have very meaningful friendships. That’s what should count. Questions:
MLA Citation: Pinker, Susan. "The secret to living longer may be your social life." TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, April 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_longer_may_be_your_social_life |
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