Woman: Hey Kyle, did you know that students have to consult with an advisor to create their schedules now?
Man: Yeah, I heard, and I totally agree. Plenty of other schools do the same thing. It makes picking courses so much easier.
Woman: Really? But don’t you think most of us want to choose our own schedule?
Man: You see, that’s the problem. Students choose what they want instead of what they need. It’s been a total mess. For example, last semester there were about five students in my World History II class that never took World History I. Needless to say, they struggled the whole semester.
Woman: Are you saying that someone can choose History II without completing History I?
Man: Yes, and that’s insane! In my History II class, these students kept asking questions about things we had already gone over in the introductory course. They were a complete distraction.
Woman: I guess I see your point.
Man: I mean, besides that, now students get a chance to speak with an adviser so they can figure out how the classes they take may benefit them in their future career. Last semester, I wanted to take a class called History of rock-n-roll because it sounded cool, but my advisor pointed out that it wasn’t a requirement and wouldn’t help me much in the future if I wanted to get involved in public policy.
Woman: Alright, alright, you sold me. So when should we make our appointments to see the advisor?
As the reading suggests, many companies have embraced the idea of compassionate consumerism over the past few years. Studies show that customers are generally supportive of such efforts, especially very young shoppers. Not only that, but companies make a lot of additional profits from this kind of compassionate marketing. Some companies even thrive off of it.
Take ABC Shoes for example. They’re kind of like the pioneer of this type of consumerism. You know the shoes, right? Those flat, simple, slip-on shoes, which are based on a type of traditional Argentinian footwear called an alpargata. Anyway, ABC Shoes achieved a huge market share about seven years ago with their ‘one-for-one’ business model. Basically, if you buy a pair of ABC shoes, they donate another pair of shoes to an impoverished individual. While this program has cost ABC Shoes a lot of money to administer, they’ve also made so much profit that they’ve expanded to include not only shoes but also eyewear and coffee.
Speaking of coffee, another famous company that has adopted the compassionate consumerism model is Bob’s Coffee. Now, the one-for-one model doesn’t make much sense for a cup of coffee, but a portion of the cost of certain items is sometimes donated to various non-profit organizations. Since Bob’s deals closely with coffee bean farmers in South America, they have recently launched a campaign where 10% of all purchases are donated to preserving the South American rainforest. And, would you believe it, on the day they announced the campaign, there was a line out the door at the Bob’s Coffee right here on campus.
Today we are going to talk about human aggression. You probably see aggression every day when people are angry in cars or pushy on the subway. Well, to be a bit more formal, aggression is considered any negative or harmful behavior that causes psychological or physical harm to another person or ourselves. While you may understand what aggression is, there is the question of why it even exists. In the field of psychology, there are two main theories as to why aggression exists.
Many researchers believe that aggression is a product of evolution. Most agree that men are more likely than women to act aggressive, and this is most likely due to the need for males to display dominance over others. In the past, and still a bit today, men felt the need to act aggressive in order to both protect their mate and perpetuate their genes. Females tended to gravitate toward males they felt could keep them and their eventual offspring safe. The world was much more dangerous back then and safety was of paramount concern, which is why more aggressive males were more likely to pass on their genes to future generations.
There are psychoanalysts who disagree with this, however. Another popular account of why aggression exists is known as social learning theory, which takes the stance that aggression is something human beings learn to do, not something innate or instinctual. For example, research has proven that aggressive reactions are more common in certain social environments. Children who observe violence at home are more likely to exhibit violent behavior. Further still, children from homes that are relatively calm, but who are exposed to violence through movies or video games, also demonstrate aggressive behavior more often.