Whistling Vivaldi Summary

Knowledge of negative stereotypes can influence people’s performance. Stereotype threat creates extra performance pressure through apprehensiveness about conforming to negative stereotypes (Woolfolk &

Stereotypes are socially constructed, over-generalized views regarding a particular group of persons with certain characteristics that are widely accepted, and usually expected, in a society. The dominant group of a certain society, which in this case is probably Caucasians and men, usually creates these social constructions. Claude M. Steele, a researcher from Stanford University, performed multiple research studies on the idea and psychological effects of stereotypes on its victims. In his studies, he coins the term “stereotype threat” as the “social-psychological predicament that can arise from widely-known negative stereotypes about one's group,” which implies that “the existence of such a stereotype means that anything one does or any of one's features that conform to it make the stereotype more plausible as a self-characterization in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in one's own eyes” (Steele 797).

Cultural influence affects not only the formation of a stereotype, but also its acceptance. According to the tripartite model of attitudes, a stereotype is the cognitive component of prejudiced attitudes. Many contemporary theorists suggest prejudice is an inevitable consequence of the stereotyping process (Devine, 1989). This makes learning attitudes and stereotypes of social groups inevitable. There is strong evidence that stereotypes are established in children’s memories before they have the ability to use cognitive processing to accept or reject the stereotypes. In this developmental process, the stereotype is easier to access for the child than personal beliefs; therefore, the culture an individual lives in makes it impossible not to apply stereotypes in daily life (Devine, 1989).

In life, there is a common ground on which most every person can relate. At one time or another, we have all been promoters of or victims of the unremitting nature of stereotypes. According to the Webster’s dictionary, a stereotype is defined as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” Most stereotypes take on a negative form and are based on characteristics such as age, gender, race, status, and personal beliefs. Generally speaking, the greatest problem that arises with stereotypes is that they judge group of people by the characteristics and actions of their ancestors, rather than on an individual basis. More often than not, these assumptions will

Many studies, such as one called thean Implicit Association Test, have been done to research attitudes about different stereotyped traits such as race, gender, and age. For example, one such test conducted in 2006 had subjects categorize words and images by pressing a button on the left or right side of a computer when presented with either a picture of an African American or a European American and either a positive or negative word. The reaction times were measured because as the researchers stated “Participants will press keys faster when the categories produce cognitive consonance rather than dissonance...Thus, someone with an implicit preference for whites will respond faster when [European American] faces are paired with pleasant words than when [African American] faces are paired with pleasant words”. And if I completely lost you there, that pretty much boils down to this- when the subjects favor one race they are faster to click the button when a good word and “good” face are together because to them it makes more sense. And this, is a much more difficult habit to

Many people have an oversimplified and erroneous view of a certain group of people. Stereotypes are typically associated with having negative connotations of a particular group of people. In many occasions, positive qualities of the group are overlooked and they are instead categorized by social norms created by stereotypes. Stereotyping affects everyone, whether it is through the discrimination of age, race, gender

Results from numerous studies suggest that African Americans are likely to experience stereotype threat related to performance in Caucasian dominated tasks. Steele & Aronson (1995) conducted a study that examined the effects of stereotype threat of African Americans on standardized tests. The participants included African American and Caucasian Stanford University students who completed a modified version of the verbal GRE examination (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Participants were randomized into two testing groups, the diagnostic condition, which tested intellectual ability and exposure to stereotype threat, and the non-diagnostic condition, which involved laboratory problem solving tasks unrelated to stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995).

Welcome to the story of Antonio Vivaldi. He was a composer in the Baroque period. The Baroque period was mostly Italian composer and so German. Opera was also introduced. The Baroque music was mostly loud, loud, and vocal. The instruments played during this period were organs, harpsichord, flute, oboe, bassoon, natural trumpets and horns, timpani, and the violin family. During the time my composer was born J.S Bach was born. The salem of the witchcraft was also introduced during the life of Antonio Vivaldi.

The first experiment conducted by Devine and colleagues conducted a well thought out experiment in terms of their technique. In all three studies the authors’ randomly assigned the participants to the experiments increasing the ability to generalize this sample to a larger population. In addition, the participants were asked to freely respond to the question, providing a more accurate knowledge of stereotypes because no cues were provided to influence the subjects’ knowledge. The anonymity of the participants also allows subjects to freely provide information without being judged resulting in an easier access to their private thoughts. Alternatively, in all three studies the authors recruited a number of white participants. This may produce bias in their results as stereotypes and prejudice towards blacks have historical roots in their culture. In the first study, the list of traits do not completely capture

In order to convey the message of a piece of music, the tonality or the mode of the song must be set. Specifically, in the Baroque era, the music was full of movement and excitement. For example, Antonio Vivaldi in his piece, The Four Seasons "Winter,” 1st movement, shows the listener the winter scene and sets the mode of excitement. Typical of the Baroque era, Vivaldi composed this piece in ritornello form, with the mixture of a string orchestra and one violin soloist (polyphonic texture). The temper of the violin is sharp which helps in conveying the trembling feeling of snow and the coldness of the winter. Also, the chattering sound made by bouncing the bow very rapidly on the string of the violin with a very high pitch suggests the feeling

As I reviewed the list of concert options, I chose option 4 from the concert list including Bach and Vivaldi both composer of the baroque era. In the first YouTube option: Bach- B Minor Mass the performing ensemble consisted of Johann Sebastian Bach, Joelle Harvey a soprano, Carolyn Sampson a soprano, Iestyn Davies a counter-tenor, Ed Lyon a tenor as well, Matthew Rose serving as a bass, and lastly the conductor which was Harry Bicket. The English Concert was the name of this performance, performed by Choir of the English Concert. The location in which the performance took place was the Royal Albert Hall on the second day of August in the year of two thousand twelve. During the late baroque era in the years of 1710-1750 is when this musical

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.

Franz Schubert creates an emotional soundscape through a plethora of musical elements. For example, when the father and son rush through the forest, Schubert helps create the sound of a galloping horse by using triplet rhythm in addition to the deep timbre of the bass. The beat is also fast-paced establishing a sense of urgency. Furthermore, when the son is frightened the harmony becomes dissonant and increases in volume, while the father soothes him with a more consonant and deeper pitched voice also making the piece more dramatic. This also shows the gravity of the situation at hand. In addition, since Erlkonig is a solo piece, all the characters are played by one vocalist, who sings each one in a different key and range. For instance, the

It has been said that Franz Joseph Haydn is the “father of the symphony” and as so he is known for his creative takes on traditional classic music which influenced composers for centuries to follow. Haydn was not only a composer of symphonies, but wrote many pieces of sacred and secular vocal music, chamber music, keyboard music, and operas. One of his most famous symphonies was the Symphony No. 45, which was created during his operatic hiatus in Eszterháza and serves as a petition or request of sorts towards the prince Nikolaus Esterházy. The piece, now commonly referred to as “Farewell”, relayed the message that the court orchestra in Eszterháza wished to return to their families and was ultimately successful. “Farewell” is not obviously

The first effect of stereotyping is a phenomenon known as “stereotype threat” that occurs in a situation where a person is in fear of unintentionally confirming a negative stereotype. Several studies have been conducted to discover the effects of stereotype threats. For example, I discovered that Toni Schmader, an assistant professor of the UA psychology department, and Michael Johns, a UA graduate (ethos), conducted studies that showed, “college women score lower on tests of mathematical ability, and Hispanic students might score lower on tests of intelligence, not because they have less ability, but because reminders of negative stereotypes temporarily decrease their ‘working memory capacity’ (UA News Services, “Exploring the Negative Consequences of Stereotyping”, UANews.Arizona.edu).” This demonstrates that the students did not do worse on the test due to their lack of skills, but rather due to negative stereotypes. In a similar study by professors Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson, African American and White college students took the same intelligence test under two conditions. In the stereotype threat condition the students were told the test would evaluate their intelligence, and in the