Day 50

Today I mainly focused on a Duke Focus application.

I am applying to an Islamic and Middle East study group. That means I have to do a TON of research on problems I honestly have no idea about. I learned about the Syrian Refugee crisis and the civil war and ISIS today. This is also going to help me for when I vote in the primary on Tuesday.

I also listened to a podcast on Survivor and the steps a person needs to tae to not get voted off.

Rule 1:  Scheme and Plot

Rule 2:  Don’t Scheme and Plot Too Much / Keep Your Scheming Secret

Rule 3:  Be Flexible

Rule 4:  Don’t Let Your Emotions Control You

Rule 5:  Pretend to be Nice / Play the Social Game

Rule 6:  Don’t Be Too Much of a Threat

Rule 7:  Vote out the weak, Then the Strong, Then Weak, Then Strong

Day 49

Today I listened to a podcast about alliances in Survivor.

Why is it that an alliance could so called "self-destruct?"

In one example, on Survivor 32 episode 2, a 4 person alliance decided to vote out one of their own instead of voting out the 5th person who was on the bottom. Regardless or not of if this was the right decision you can look at the inner social part of that.

Jennifer, a member of the 4 person alliance, went to Alecia, who was not apart of the alliance, and proposed an all girls alliance. When the remaining members of the alliance heard of it they decided to vote out Jennifer instead. Though Jennifer decided to pass it off as "just talk" there is a reason it stuck with them. How long should an alliance wait before they act on "just talk?" Should they wait until the plotting and scheming becomes actual flipping?

Doubt can be a more powerful emotion than assurance. If one of my friends says something to hurt me, I might be more inclined to take offense to it than if someone I know hates me insults me. And that is because of expectations.

The alliance did not expect Jennifer to perform an action that went against the rest of the group so when she did it came as more of a shock than someone who they knew was already against them (Alecia).

That is why a person can be more inclined to act on impulse when one of their own alliance members does something to disrupt the flow.

Ie this is a real life example of "better the devil I know than the devil I don't."

Day 48

Today I read my book (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey) and worked on my paper.

Day 47

I continued to look into the ideas behind dramturgy and this is what I came up with:

There are seven important elements Goffman identifies with respect to the "performance" an individual gives in presenting themselves:
in the part one is playing is important, even if it cannot be judged by others.

1. Belief The front or 'the mask' is a  technique for the performer to control the manner in which the audience perceives him or her.
2. Dramatic realization is a portrayal of aspects of the performer that s/he wants the audience to know.
3. idealization. Audiences often have an 'idea' of what a given situation (performance) should look like and performers will try to carry out the performance according to that idea^.
4. Maintenance of expressive control refers to the need to stay 'in character'. The performance has to make sure that s/he sends out the correct signals and quiets the occasional compulsion to convey misleading ones that might detract from the performance.
5. Misrepresentation refers to the danger of conveying a wrong message. The audience tends to think of a performance as genuine or false, and performers generally wish to avoid having an audience disbelieve them (whether they are being truly genuine or not).
6. Deception. refers to the concealment of certain information from the audience^.
   

This all goes back to what I have referred to as the single most important part in a survivor game. Perception. It is known that people will be scheming, but if you can control how others view YOUR scheming, then you will be infinitely ahead.

That is why I like to say how in SURVIVOR, perception is 9/10 of the law.

Day 46

Based on the judges that have responded to me, I think I am officially having to really focus my report on the sociological and psychological aspects of survivor as opposed to the game theory I have studied.


I still want to include the game theory a little bit because I have put in the time and research and find it interesting, but the judges that have responded to me all have a background in psychology and so I need that to be my main focus.



I also continued reading my AP Psychology textbook today on the topic of "presentation of self" as discussed last blog post. 

Day 45

The first few days of Survivor have always been the most important in my opinion. That is when relationships form, and ultimately Survivor is a game of relationships.

A lot of these relationships can either begin or fail to begin with the initial impressions people get of one another.

In discovering what sociologists have said in terms of first impressions, I came across one of the most prominent sociologists of all time, and the man who was labeled as the most "influential sociologists of the 20th century."  Erving Goffman wrote a book called "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life."

This book pushed forward the concept of dramaturgy. Basically, Goffman pushed "theatre" as the metaphor for how we conduct our daily lives. In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that human interactions are dependent upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, who we are or become is a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate scene being presented.

 If say, a girl with crazy hair and hippie clothes introduces herself to me, I might take elements of the impression I have gathered from her and morph my follow up comments so that they are "cool" or "agreeable" with how I have interpreted her to be.

Goffman claims that human beings choose how to present themselves to another based on cultural values, norms, and beliefs or the perceived ones.. The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through carefully conducted performance. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed. 

In the case of everyday life, the "audience" is the person we are interacting with.

Day 43

Today I worked on my report.

Having a difficult time with the direction.

Day 42

Today I listened to a podcast specifically entitled "An Intro into the Sociology of Survivor with David Lay."

David Lay is a Criminology and Sociology professor at Mississippi State University. In the podcast, he really broke down how big a role perception plays in any given season of Survivor by drawing parallels of how perception plays a role in real life.

David Lay referenced a great philosopher who one of the best Survivor players talked about when he played the game. This philosopher was Charles Horton Cooley. Charles Horton Cooley famously stated "I am who I think you think I am."

I decided to look up Charles Horton Cooley and have found some really interesting things.

Cooley proposed "the looking glass self" concept. This basically states how our identity, our personal self, only evolves out of other people's perception of us and how we interpret those perceptions.There are 3 components to the looking-glass self. These are:

1. We imagine how we must appear to others.
2. We imagine and react to what we feel their judgment of that appearance must be.
3. We develop our self through the judgments of others.

So, for example:

I wake up, get dressed, and brush my hair. Because I have done everything I need to do in order to be "acceptable" I believe in my mind that I should look fine. However, when I approach a mirror and see that I missed a button on my shirt, I in turn button that shirt. My buttoning of the shirt was my response to the mirror's perception of my appearance.

This concept to me has actually changed my stance on the game a tiny bit, but not very much (more so, it has modified).

I have always taken the stance that "perception is reality." Because even if I play the most cutthroat game in the history of Survivor, if other people don't think that I have played the most cutthroat game ever then they won't award me the million dollars.

I have changed that perception. I now believe there are two realities. There's a personal reality and other people's realities.

-Your reality is your perception of other people's perception (which in turn influences your game and how you adjust/make moves accordingly)

-Other people's realities are the perception they have of your moves and attitude.


Both of these realities feed off each other and are what shapes either a winning or losing game.

Day 41

My second judge responded to me! YAY! Mrs. Langat, the TAG counselor, is a Big Brother superman. She said she would be interested in judging my thesis. This is great for me because she is a counselor and her everyday job consists of listening to people and learning how to work with them. She also is aware of the elements of strategy and social adaptability that go into Survivor because many of those same elements manifest in Big Brother.

I am still waiting to hear back from my third judge, Betina Fehr, but I am planning on going ahead and setting my date for my presentation.