Article: What Your Car Says About You.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Week 8 - Mass Media
Article: What Your Car Says About You.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Week 7 - Culture
Article: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1011782/1/.html
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Week 6 - Individual vs Group Needs
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Week 5 - 500 Days of Summer
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Week 4 - Non Verbal Communications
Friday, September 18, 2009
Week 3 - The Ugly Truth
Synopsis:
Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) is a morning show TV producer in California. Coming home from a disastrous date one night, she happens to see a segment of a local television show, "The Ugly Truth", run by Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), whose cynicism about relationships prompts Abby to call into the show to argue with him on-air. The next day, she discovers that the station is threatening to cancel her show because of its poor ratings, and the station owner has hired Mike to do a segment on her show to bring them back up.
At first, the two have a rocky relationship; Abby thinks Mike is crass and disgusting while Mike finds Abby to be a control freak. Nevertheless, when she meets the man of her dreams, a doctor named Colin (Eric Winter) living next to her, Mike persuades her to follow his lead. She agrees to his helpful advice and if he can get her the man she wants, proving his theories on relationships, she will work happily with him, but if Mike fails, he agrees to quit.
Our perception of others is usually influenced by a plethora of psychological and social factors. As seen in 'The Ugly Truth', Mike is deemed by Abby as uncouth and obnoxious, while he feels that she is a naive and uptight idealist. Their view of each other is built mostly upon first impression. Such tendencies are common in our perception of many things or people around us and are hard to be corrected or altered. Many of us are guilty of such behaviour as we only select and process information that we want to see, whether consciously or otherwise.
Based on cognitive schemata, Abby labels Mike as a 'Man whore', and such perception is based solely on his successful television programme, which involves Mike being constantly surrounded by scantily dressed woman and spewing ugly truths about men and women's relationships. However, judging one's character solely based on one's job is usually fairly inaccurate. Such stereotypes on social roles or professions are something we should avoid, as they often fail to give us truthful insight of one's character.
Colin, the man of Abby's dreams, is an excellent example of a prototype of the 'perfect guy', as deemed by our society. Tall, handsome, has a fantastic job and great personality, he is depicted as one with all the qualities most women seek in a man these days. In most romantic comedy, or at least those that manage to achieve box-office success, the presence of such a character is essential, as it allows the viewers and fans to indulge in their own little fantasy of being the character in the film. But who can blame them for that? Sometimes, a little indulgent does gives us all a little more optimism and hope in our own romantic department and lives.