The Beautiful Corpse: Violence against Women in Fashion Photography

My senior thesis deals with contemporary depictions of sexualized violence against women in fashion photography. Images of bloodied, bruised, and dead-looking models have proliferated in fashion magazine editorials and advertisements since the 1970s and I want to explore why sexualized violence is seen as sexy and compelling advertising, in light of the fact that domestic violence is the greatest cause of injury to women in America. I produced my own fashion photographs in locations of actual female homicides in Los Angeles County, particularly those nearest to Claremont, with the use of The Los Angeles Times online homicide database, which pinpoints every homicide reported in L.A. County since 2007. We live in a world plagued by violence and by creating my own violent, fashion photographs in actual homicide locations, I hoped to jar the viewer out of neutrality and expose violent advertisements and editorials for what they are: objectifying, exploitative, and perverse expressions of hostility against women. The images abuse and demean commercial speech privileges and glamorize and trivialize horrific, actual experiences of violence suffered by countless women

Perceptions Of Children\u27s Moral Reasoning

Moral judgment has been a popular area of interest over the past few decades as researchers have begun to consider adults\u27 perceptions of the moral reasoning abilities of others. The present thesis provided an extension to this previous research and considered adults\u27 awareness of young children\u27s moral judgment skills.;The first study examined adults\u27 predictions of moral reasoning for different-aged children. Adults\u27 prescriptions for advice they would offer to teach moral reasoning were also assessed at three age levels. Comparisons revealed that the adults were able to predict the moral performance of the children. Their prescriptions, however, did not reflect an awareness of developmental differences in moral reasoning. Recommendations for advice were consistent with adult levels of functioning.;A second study examined the actual reasoning level of 4th grade children. Comparisons with the predictions in Study 1 indicated that the adults were accurate relative to the moral reasoning of 4th graders. The majority of their prescriptions, however, were significantly higher than the children\u27s reasoning levels, and thus, would not be considered good moral advice according to suggested moral education strategies.;Predictions and prescriptions of elementary teachers were assessed in a third study to determine if direct experience with children improved moral advice-giving ability. Teachers, however, prescribed advice at their own level of moral understanding. Their predictions reflected an awareness of developmental differences in reasoning, yet their prescriptions were above the level of comprehension for 4th graders.;The teachers\u27 poor advice-giving abilities were discussed in terms of a lack of knowledge concerning moral theory and moral education strategies. This hypothesis was examined in a final study. Adults received either no training or training in moral theory or moral theory plus moral education. Their predictions and prescriptions for 4th graders were assessed one week following the training sessions. Results indicated that only those individuals who participated in the combined training procedure evidenced appropriate moral advice for 4th grade children. Subjects in the remaining conditions prescribed advice at a level above that of 4th graders. Educational applications of this finding and suggestions for future research are discussed

Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Reconstructing Beauty from Portent of Innocence to Potential Threat in Aurora Floyd and Lady Audley\u27s Secret

This explores the “sensation novels”, Lady Audley’s Secret and Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon during the Victorian Era. These “sensation novels” ushered in characters that were not who they seemed to be which evoked mystery in the story. Braddon also centered on the idea of not relying on a woman’s appearance but rather seeing the woman as she truly is

Exploring student difficulties with observation location

Throughout introductory physics, students create and interpret free body diagrams in which multiple forces act on an object, typically at a single location (the object's center of mass). The situation increases in difficulty when multiple objects are involved, and further when electric and magnetic fields are present. In the latter, sources of the fields are often identified as a set of electric charges or current-carrying wires, and students are asked to determine the electric or magnetic field at a separate location defined as the observation location. Previous research suggests students struggle with accounting for how a measurement or calculation depends on the observation location. We present preliminary results from a studio-style, algebra-based, introductory electricity and magnetism course showing the prevalence of correct and incorrect responses to questions about observation location by analyzing student written work involving vector addition of fields

High fidelity full sized human patient simulation manikins: Effects on decision making skills of nursing students

Background: The continued use of high fidelity full sized human patient simulation manikins (HF-HPSMs) for developing decision making skills of nursing students has led to growing research focusing its value on student learning and decision making skills. Methods: In October 2012, a cross-sectional survey using the 24-item Nurse Decision-Making Instrument was used to explore the decision making process of 232 pre-registration nursing students (age 22.0 + 5.4; 83.2% female) in Singapore. Results: The independent samples t-tests demonstrated three significant predictive indicators. These indicators include: prior experience in high fidelity simulation based on pre-enrolled nursing course (t = 70.6, p = .001), actual hands-on practice (t = 69.66, p < .005) and active participation in debrief (t = 70.11, p < .005). A complete experience based on role-playing followed by active discussion in debrief was a significant contributor to the decision making process (t = 73.6667, p < .005). However, the regression model indicated active participation in debrief as a significant variable which explained its development (t = 12.633, p < .005). Conclusions: This study demonstrated the usefulness of active participation in simulation learning for an analytic- intuitive approach to decision making, however active participation in debrief was a more important influencing element than role-playing. In situations where resources are limited for students to experience hands-on role-playing, peer reviewing and feedback on others’ experiences could benefit students, just as much. However, further study is warranted to determine the development of HF-HPSMs as a pedagogic tool for enhancing the decision making process of nursing students