SEVEN POUNDS

Seven pounds is about the determination of a man, Tim Thomas, to give back to people who need help. Tim had caused a fatal car accident that killed his fiance because he was texting on his phone. Not only did he kill his wife, but six others died in the van he hit. After the crash, Tim's life takes a turn. He seeks out the most good-hearted people he can find and who are in need of medical help. In return for him taking seven lives, he essentially saves seven lives.

 

Tim's behavior in giving back to other people is focused around motivation. Tim's motivation lies with the fact that he took seven lives and feels he needs to help save seven lives. After the fatal crash, he dedicates his life to seeking these people out, and the shame and guilt he lives with drives him to give these people what they need. Tim could also be motivated by incentives. To him, the reward would be giving his life for the sake of others to keep theirs.

CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: "Hilton, Miss California take sides on `Today'"

Miss California says she stands by her anti-gay-marriage comments, even if they may have cost her the Miss USA crown.

Carrie Prejean defended her views Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, telling host Matt Lauer that she spoke from the heart during Sunday's pageant when she said that "marriage should be between a man and a woman."

The beauty queen's response to a question from openly gay pageant judge and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has received more attention than the winner, Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton. During the pageant, Hilton asked Prejean if every state should follow Vermont in legalizing same sex marriage.

"I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other," Prejean responded. "But in my country, and in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

Hilton, who also appeared on the "Today" show Tuesday, said his question was relevant and that Prejean should have "left her politics and her religion out because Miss USA represents all Americans."

Prejean, who was named first runner-up at the pageant, told Lauer that she knew "at that moment after I'd answered the question, I knew that I was not going to win because of my answer." Still, she stands by her statements.

"I don't take back what I said," she told Lauer, adding that she "had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God."

"It's not about being politically correct," she said. "For me, it's about being biblically correct."

During the Miss USA pageant, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was asked her opinion on gay marriages. Instead of saying what everyone expected and wanted to hear, she was honest about being against gay marriage. Although she knew it would hurt her chances of becoming Miss USA, Prejean stuck with her honest opinion.

This article simply relates to sexual orientation: heterosexuality versus homosexuality. The topic was focused on homosexuality which is the attraction between members of the same sex. Homosexuality is still not seen as a norm in today's society, and as Prejean claimed, that was not how she was raised. Furthermore, Prejean's answer also ties back to personality. In her defense, she was taught to think this way through her developmental experiences and cultural influences. According to the social- cognitive theory, people learn and develop their behaviors and habits through experience in the social world. Prejean developed her opinion on homosexuality through learning experiences and being conditioned to think that way.

CHARLOTTE OBSERVER COMIC

This comic doesn't need much explanation! It is relating to Pavlov's classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a stimulus that triggers an automatic response. After awhile, the neutral stimulus by itself triggers the same automatic response. For example, Pavlov's dogs were conditioned to salivate at the sound of a tone. In this comic, the men hear a sound of a top opening and automatically get hungry and run towards the food. The mens' behavior and automatic response is just like Pavlov's dogs.

DONNIE DARKO

      Donnie Darko is a movie based on the life of a trouble teenager named Donnie. 

Donnie is a very sensitive, bitter teenager whom in the beginning of the movie, quits taking a special medication. He is quite the outcast in his school.  Suddenly one day, Donnie experiences a traumatic accident when an airplane engine falls through his roof and nearly kills him. After that, Donnie experiences hallucinations of an evil bunny and random voices telling him to bad things to and around the neighborhood. The bunny and the voices eventually convince Donnie to even kill a man. The whole time Donnie is having these problems, he is seeing a therapist to seek help. The therapist hypnotizes him on every visit to tap into his unconsciousness and she gets a look into his disturbed thinking.

Donnie is suffering from schizophrenia. Donnie falls into the paranoid schizophrenia type and also the disorganized schizophrenia type. In the movie, Donnie is extremely argumentative to everyone around him and feels like everyone is out to get him in some way. After his accident, he becomes distant from his friends and family and starts having these disturbed thoughts and feelings. Eventually Donnie starts hallucinating about an evil bunny. This evil bunny supposedly tells him to bad things to his school and to some of the people around him. Donnie's schizophrenia could have easily been caused coming off his medication, his near death experience, or the stress of being an outcasted teen. According to our book, experiences and stressors could make people more vulnerable to schizophrenia, and Donnie falls under both of those circumstances.

DEXTER

The television show Dexter is centered around a charming, intelligent man named Dexter Morgan who works for the Miami Metro Police Department in the forensics department. Dexter lives in a lavished condo, he has a steady girlfriend who loves him, and maintains a close relationship with his sister who is also his co-worker. Dexter lives a normal, happy life; or so it seems. Dexter also happens to be a serial-killer whom his own police department is on the hunt for. Dexter has a second life come night fall and abides by his own set of moral codes. He only kills those who are murderers of the innocent. Ever since Dexter was young, he has always had the desire to kill, and his adopted father taught him that moral code to follow and channel his addiction to murderers. Even though the Miami PD has a killer right under their nose, Dexter does whatever it takes to blend in and hide his secret life.

Dexter suffers from the antisocial personality disorder. As it describes in our book, most people with this disorder are categorized as impulsive, intelligent, and having no remorse. Dexter is all of these things and more. Dexter is extremely intelligent and charming. He comes off as just an ordinary, everyday guy. During the show, Dexter talks about struggling with feeling emotions towards people especially after he makes a kill. Since he has his own moral code, he feel no remorse for his actions and can go on living normally the next day.