Modern Philosophy Essay

Herman Ebbinghaus has pointed out that psychology and philosophy are intertwined one way or the other. In order for Psychologists to study human behavior, as well as metal process, they must go step back and consider being philosophical. One must be rational and logical when studying this process and behavior, thus going back to psychology’s roots. Towards the end of the Renaissance period, Rene Descartes emerged and was tagged as the father of Modern Philosophy. As mentioned, Philosophy and Psychology work hand in hand in analyzing human behavior. Descartes’ ideas were formed when he said that he found formal education with the Jesuits was not enough to feed his thirst for knowledge and distraught on the lack of knowledge that was fed to him during his college or scholastic days. Because of this he opted to explore and find things out on his own. Descartes strong desire to get answers and fill his doubts with facts and certainties; he spent his time finding ways to unite all knowledge. Though a philosopher, he â€Å"for example, he combined his interests in optics and physiology by extracting the eye of an ox and examining the properties of the lens, thereby discovering the fact that retinal images are inverted (as cited, Vrooman, 1970). † Descartes had four rules: First, he would accept nothing as true unless â€Å"it presented itself so clearly and distinctly to my mind that there was no reason to doubt it† (Descartes, 1637/1960, p. 15). Second, he would take problems and analyze them, reducing them to their fundamental elements. Third, he would systematically work from the simplest of these elements to the more complex, and fourth, he would carefully review his conclusions to be certain of omitting nothing. As a rationalist, he has said that reasoning is innate in humans. The capacity to think and put logic and into, perhaps a situation or event in a person’s life is something that is natural and that people do not rely on just experience. People are given the gift to think and make decisions, and these are made and achieved because of man’s ability to rationalize and think logically. Because he was a scientist and a mathematician, he believed that one must doubt on things that has no basis and can not be explained. Cognitive Psychology deals with mental process or the mental state of a person. For instance, studying or analyzing the mental state of a child. According to Jean Piaget, a person’s mental growth had education as a key role in a child’s mental development. It is said that, it is our teachers or mentors that one develops his perception and thinking, among others. In relation to Ebbinghaus’ study of Memory and Forgetting, experiments have been made in order to analyze a person’s capability to memorize and forget. With the help of research and methodology, and Ebbinghaus’ invention of some tests for memory retention, we begin to understand how memory works and improved. What stuck me most on Watson’s manifesto is his strong point and statement that man’s behavior or contribution has been applied to different facets of life and education. Upon reading this, I realized I believed and agree to his principles and view. Psychology is about behavior and a person’s behavior is linked to how he thinks. There is an array of reasons why a person acts or behaves in a certain way. This may be contributed by life experiences, family background, culture or influences of peers. A person may act differently because of their beliefs as well and their way of living. Behavior is also an expression of one’s feelings and emotions. An art fanatic or an artist may act differently or a little bit off the edge, but to them, their behavior and ways are but normal and they are merely expressing themselves, with the way they talk, dress or even walk. Another example is a person’s cultural beliefs and practices. Because people emerged and come from different races and cultures, they act and behave differently. Cultural beliefs are formed in our minds at very young age. These were passed on to us by our parent or ancestors. And from that very young age, till the time that we grow old, those teachings will remain if not in our hearts but in our subconscious. Even though we move away from our birthplace, one way or the other, in spite the influence of the today’s generation and the ever so changing world, we still go back to our own roots and ways. References (N. A. ). DESCARTES: THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE (N. A.). Chapter 10: JOHN B. WATSONAND THE FOUNDING OF BEHAVIORISM

History from 1815 to 1848: a Review of What Hath God Wrought

History from 1815 to 1848: A Review of What Hath God Wrought Native Americans had been all throughout the United States in early history, keeping to themselves living their lives. Americans believed the Indians to be savage and not worth the life they lived and some thought they should be exterminated, however, there were those who had compassion that believed that the Indians should be converted to Christianity and then everything would be fine (23). Native Americans showed as much willingness as white people to participate in the market economy (48).The Indians figured out different ways to communicate with the whites so that they would be able to trade and barter with them effectively (27). It was rare for there to be unmarried farmers because it took both a man and woman to operate the farm effectively. Typically American farms were economically individualistic only being operated by the single nuclear family, not an extended kinship or communal enterprise (34). Almost all the fa rm families living activities were done within the household setting.They included production, consumption, birthing, child rearing, transmitting the fundamentals of reading, and caring for the sick and the old (36). The United States in 1815 resembled the economically developing countries of today in many ways because of their high birth rate and rapid population growth (43). After the battle of New Orleans it took four full weeks for the news to reach Washington. The news of Jackson’s victory came as a big relief to Madison. Under Madison’s presidency, his secretary of war John Armstrong dismissed the possibility of any invasion coming from Britain, so no preparations for defense were made (63).The British found their way to the public buildings of central Washington easily. They burned the capitol and the departments of state, war, navy, and treasury. It started to rain which helped put out the fires but not before the damage had been done (65). James Monroe had los t against Madison in the election for a seat in the House of Representatives and then again during the election for president. In March of 1811 Madison and Monroe reconciled their differences and became friends once again. After which Monroe became Madison’s â€Å"right-hand man†, and was appointed as secretary of war after the resignation of Armstrong.Monroe emerged from the war a convert to nationalism and was the people’s choice to become president after Madison (91). His inaugural address emphasized continuity with his Jeffersonian predecessors and the new republican nationalism (92). Monroe expected and wanted the one-party system to evolve into true nonpartisanship. However because almost all ambitious politicians joined the republican party, the other party ceased to have coherence (95). Relations between the United States and Spain turned out to be much more problematic than those with Britain.After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 eastern and western Flor ida still belonged to the Spanish empire cutting off the United States access to the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the limiting of economic development in the southwest (97). After the defeat of the Red Stick Creeks at Horseshoe Bend, Creek refugees fled into Florida. On November 12, 1817 troops under the command the command of General Edmond Gaines burned the Creek village of Fowltown on the Georgia side of the border and killed several villagers.On November 30 those who had been made homeless hit back hard, the warriors from Fowltown allied with escaped slaves and attacked a boat carrying forty soldiers and eleven of their dependents. These two events are what caused the first Seminole War to begin (98). The administration decided to turn things over to Jackson after the war had started. There was a letter from the president stating that Jackson needed to be informed that there were to be no attacks on Spanish occupied forts.However the letter never made it to Jackson, there is no specific reason for why it wasn’t delivered but it has been speculated that maybe the president changed his mind or that it should have been understood that the same rules applied to Jackson that had applied to the general in charge before him (99). Jackson took a thousand volunteer militiamen with him to Fort Scott, at the fort Jackson was able to obtain reinforcements but little provisions. After gaining provisions and having up to three-thousand soldiers, Jackson moved his army toward the east attacking and destroying village after village on his way (100).On April 6th Jackson’s army arrived at the Spanish fort of St Marks, here he demanded the commandant to surrender so he could prevent the fort from falling into the hands of the Indians and the blacks (101). In May Jackson heard rumors that Seminoles were gathering together at Pensacola, however the rumors were false but Jackson didn’t know that. Jackson welcomed the opportunity to move against the capitol of Spanish Florida, on his way he warned that if the city offered any resistance that any man found in arms would be put to death.The governor of Florida surrendered on May 28, 1818; Jackson proclaimed that Florida would be under American occupation until Spain provided sufficient troops there to control the border (102). The election of 1824 was the end of the nonparty politics and created the foundation for a new party system. An alliance between Adams and Clay formed the basis of the party called the National Republican which later became the Whig party. Followers of Jackson and Crawford’s would become known as the Democratic Republican and later as the Democratic Party (210).Adams ended up winning the election and became president with Calhoun as his vice president. The invention of the steamboat enhanced the advantages of water transportation, John Fitch had actually built the first American steamer but he couldn’t get any one to financially back the project and d ied in obscurity. Robert Fulton’s Clermont was the first commercially successful steamboat; it plied the Hudson River starting in 1807. Steamboats seemed to be the most valuable form of water transportation when traveling upstream on a river with a strong current.The invention of the steamboat reduced the amount of time it took to make a trip. Even after the invention of the steamboat many merchants continued to prefer sailing ships for ocean voyages because they didn’t have to have as much space for fuel for the longer trips (215). On July 4, 1826 the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson died in his home hours before old adversary and friend John Adams. As Adams was dying he said â€Å"Thomas Jefferson still survives†, but he was mistaken in his remark because in all actuality Jefferson had died first.With the deaths of these two men that meant that only one of the original signers of the declaration was still alive, Charles Carroll an eighty-nine year old man from Maryland was all that was left of those who had signed the declaration (243). In September of 1814 during the most serious invasion of the War of 1812, commander of the British nave General George Prevost suddenly ordered the army to withdraw after the battle at Plattsburg. Captain William Miller only had one theory for the withdraw assuming that it was a form of divine intervention.After the war Miller went back to his farm and would study the Bible every chance he got. Due to his lack of knowledge in Hebrew and Greek he used a mixture of ingenuity and common sense to help interpret it (289). While interpreting the scripture in Daniel he believed he was given the key to predicting the future. The verse read â€Å"Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed†, Miller read days to mean years and the cleansing of the sanctuary to mean the second coming of Christ to judge the world.Miller felt as though he had experienced a calling from God and in 1831 he began to preach about his finding. He had done the calculations and estimated that the event would occur sometime between March 1843 and April of 1844 (290). When the target year expired on April 18th Miller publicly apologized for his mistake, but his followers were not ready to give up on the theory. One follower Samuel Snow recalculated and decided that the correct date of Christ’s return would be the next Jewish Day of Atonement, October 22, 1844.The followers were convinced that it had to be right this time so they paid their debts, quit their jobs, and left their crops needing to be harvested in their fields. All waited on that day for the world to actually end only to find that it was all a hoax the day became known as the â€Å"Great Disappointment† (291). On March 4, 1829; Andrew Jackson was dressed in black at his presidential inauguration because his wife Rachel had suffered had suffered a heart attack on December, 17 and had died five days after.Jackson had blamed her death on his political enemies because during his presidential campaign his and Rachel’s relationship had been made an issue. The depressed and bitter president-elect managed to avoid having to attend the celebration that had been planned to welcome him to Washington. He refused to pay the customary courtesy call on the outgoing president, who reciprocated by not attending Jacksons inaugural (329). It was estimated that Jackson removed nine-hundred and nineteen federal officials during his first year in office.By the time Congress assembled in December of 1829; Jackson had already removed thirteen district-attorneys, nine marshals, twenty-three registers and receivers, and twenty-five customs collectors replacing them all with recess appointments. At first the removals were routinely justified with accusations of malfeasance, Jackson leader’s dresses up their patronage policy as a reform of the corruption the alleged had prevailed under Monroe and Adams (333). Indian removal was a major issue during the first year of Jackson’s administration.Although Jackson avoided committing himself on the tariff of internal improvements, his favoring of rapid removal was well know and accounted for his popularity in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. The issue involved Indian tribes all over the country, but the ones with the most to lose were the civilized tribes which included the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and the Seminoles. These people practiced agriculture and animal husbandry and still processed substantial domains in the Deep South states plus in Tennessee, North Carolina, and the Florida Territory (342).The Indian removal bill took high priority in the Jackson’s legislative agenda. Both getting the bill to pass and the latter enforcement of it took Jackson’s full attention. However the Indian removal bill called for another round of treaty-making, intended to secure the complete removal of the Indians to west of the Mississippi (347). The president signed Indian removal into law on May 28, 1830. Jackson wasted no time implementing his favorite measure. While the nations focus was on Georgia and the Cherokees, he sent John Coffee and Secretary of War Eaton to Mississippi to obtain the removal of the Choctaws (352).The efforts the commenced secured the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830. Some Choctaws in the forests of eastern Mississippi contrived to avoid the government’s attention until 1918, the majority were forced to move to Oklahoma. The first large party of Choctaws crossed the Mississippi River during the severe winter of 1831-32 (353). The word telegraph was used to describe long-distance optical signaling, by the 1820’s the word telegraph had become a popular name for newspapers.In May of 1844 politicins were eager to learn news from the party conventions taking place in Baltimore, help was at hand because in March of 1843 congress had finally passed an appropriation for Samuel Finley Breese Morse to demonstrate an electromagnetic telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore (691). Unlike the telephone, invented later in the nineteenth century, the telegraph was used more for commercial purposes rather than social (696). After the Texan gained their independence from Mexico they signed a treaty with the United States, which basically said that they would become their erritory once more and would eventually become a state under the union. Several years later the United States annexed Texas back into the country. Mexico took offense to this even though Texas had already had their revolution, starting the Mexican American war. The War was from 1846 to 1848 when the United States and Mexico agreed that the Rio Grande would be the territory border which resulted in the end of the war. Society had come a long way in the years between 1815 and 1848, from advancement in techno logies and the rapid changes in the federal government.Jackson changed everything during his presidency, going the complete opposite of those who had served before him. Many of his actions during his time as president would account for legislation created later on. Technological innovations like the steamboat made carrying cargo much easier and cut down the time it took to deliver. As well as the telegraph and its ability to relay messages from father away much sooner than a messenger on horse. Also during this time the United States expanded an annexed more states into the union making the country bigger.

About “One is not born a woman” by Monique Witting Essay

Monique Wittig was born in July 3, 1935 in the Haut Rhin department in Alsace. She moved to Paris in the 1950s, where she studied at the Sorbonne. Her first novel, L’Opoponax, published by Minuit in 1964, immediately drew attention to her when it was awarded the Prix Mà ©dicis by a jury that included Nathalie Sarraute, Claude Simon, and Alain Robbe-Grillet. Praised by such influential writers, the novel was quickly translated into English, where it also won critical acclaim. Wittig became very involved in the events surrounding the revolt of students and workers in May of 1968. Like many others, she realized that the radical men leading the revolt were not inclined to share leadership. Wittig was one of the first theoreticians and activists of the new feminist movement. It was in this atmosphere of radical political action that she completed what is often considered her most influential work — Les Guà ©rillà ¨res – published in 1969. Revolutionary both in form and content, this novel has been widely translated, debated, and used as a source of ideas by many major feminist and lesbian thinkers and writers around the world. In May 1970, Wittig co-published what can be described as the manifesto of the French feminist movement. Ever since, Wittig’s works have included both fiction and non-fiction essays evolving an ongoing dialogue between theory and literary practice. Throughout the early ’70s, Wittig was a central figure in the radical lesbian and feminist movements in France. She was a founding member of such groups as the Petites Marguà ©rites, the Gouines rouges, and the Fà ©ministes rà ©volutionnaires. In 1973 she published Le Corps lesbien (translated into English in 1975 as The Lesbian Body), and in 1976 Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes (translated into English in 1979 as Lesbian Peoples: Material For A Dictionary), co-authored by her partner Sande Zeig. In 1976 Wittig and Zeig moved to the United States. From that time on, Wittig turned her attention increasingly toward theoretical works, and a number of her most famous essays date from the late ’70s and early 80s. In a variety of genres ranging from the philosophical essay (â€Å"The Straight Mind†) to the parable (â€Å"Les Tchiches et les Tchouches†) she explored the intersections of lesbianism, feminism, and literary form. Most of these essays were published in two journals. She became part of the editorial collective of France’s major theoretical journal, Questions fà ©ministes, and she was advisory editor to an American journal, Feminist Issues, founded in part to make available in English the important works being published in France, notably in Questions Fà ©ministes. Her work became truly bi-lingual, as she translated her own work from English into French, and vice-versa. She also translated Djuna Barnes’s Spillway as La Passion. Earlier translations include Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man and the Portugese The Three Marias’ Nouvelles lettres portugaises. She was a professor in women’s studies and French at theUniversity of Arizona in Tucson, where she died of a heart attack on January 3, 2003. Monique Wittig called herself a â€Å"Radical lesbian.†[5] This sensibility can be found throughout her books, where she depicted only women. To avoid any confusion, she stated: â€Å"There is no such thing as women literature for me, that does not exist. In literature, I do not separate women and men. One is a writer, or one is not. This is a mental space where sex is not determining. One has to have some space for freedom. Language allows this. This is about building an idea of the neutral which could escape sexuality†. A theorist of material feminism, she stigmatised the myth of â€Å"the woman†, called heterosexuality a political regime, and outlined the basis for a social contract which lesbians refuse: â€Å"†¦and it would be incorrect to say that lesbians associate, make love, live with women, for ‘woman’ has meaning only in heterosexual systems of thought and heterosexual economic systems. Lesbians are not women.† (1978) For Wittig, the category â€Å"woman† exists only through its relation to the category â€Å"man†, and â€Å"woman† without relation to â€Å"man† would cease to exist. Wittig also developed a critical view of Marxism which obstructed the  feminist struggle, but also of feminism itself which does not question the heterosexual dogma. Through these critiques, Wittig advocated a strong universalist position, saying that the rise of the individual and the liberation of desire require the abolition of gender categories. Main Idea Simone de Beauvoir said: â€Å"One is not born, but becomes a woman†. Wittig states that there is no â€Å"natural woman† and that the idea of being feminine is created by society. She also notes that since a lesbian society does exist, this defeats the idea of â€Å"natural woman.† However, Wittig recognizes that many people still believe the oppression of women is â€Å"biological as well as historical†. Wittig explains further that this could never be a lesbian approach to women’s oppression because it is based on the idea that the beginning of society is heterosexuality. Also, biology or the capability of having children is not enough to define Woman. Wittig also discusses the idea that sex is like race in the sense that it is visible and therefore seems to belong to some kind of natural order. This leads to the lesbian perspective that this perception of Woman is very â€Å"unnatural† because it was created and based before the women’s liberation movement. Wittig states: â€Å"To refuse to be a woman, however, does not mean that one has to become a man† . Meaning, that refusing to â€Å"be a woman† is simply just refusing to accept imposed ideas of femininity. She also clarifies: â€Å"Thus a lesbian has to be something else, a not-woman, a not-man, a product of society, not a product of nature, for there is no nature is society† It is not enough to simply promote women (â€Å"woman is wonderful† concept); it is the idea of being a man or a woman â€Å"which are political categories and not natural givens† that needs to be rejected. A materialist feminist approach sees women and men as separate classes. Therefore, the goal is â€Å"to suppress men as a class, not through a genocidal, but a political struggle† . This means that if there was no longer a class called â€Å"men,† there would no longer be a class called â€Å"women.† The first step would be to dispel the myth of Woman. Wittig states that â€Å"‘woman’ is there to confuse us, to hide the reality ‘women’† . She believes that the  new focus would be on personal identity. Wittig also presents a Marxist perspective. She states that Marxism lead to two results for women: the order of men and women was assumed to be natural and the conflict between men and women was hidden behind a â€Å"natural division of labor†. Also, if women united it would threaten the strength of the people in a Marxist society. Wittig concludes by calling attention again to the rejection of the myth of Woman. She believes that the categories of sex must be destroyed and that all sciences that use these definitions should also be rejected. She again comes back to the model of lesbianism; she states that this is the only category that goes beyond woman and man currently. So, in order to reject this myth of Woman we must destroy â€Å"heterosexuality as a social system which is based on the oppression of women by men and which produces the doctrine of the difference between the sexes to justify this oppression† Literary Evidence Her discussion is based on Simone de Beauvoir’s quote: â€Å"One is not born a woman, but becomes a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society: it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch (a man who has been castrated), which is described as feminine†. â€Å"Not only is this conception still imprisoned in the categories of sex (woman and man), but it holds onto the idea that the capacity to give birth is what defines a woman† â€Å"Before the socioeconomic reality of black slavery, the concept of race did not exist, at least not in this modern meaning, since it was applied to the lineage of families† â€Å"But what we believe to be a physical and direct perception is only a sophisticated and mythic construction, an imaginary formation, which reinterprets physical features (in themselves as neutral but marked by the social system) through the network of relationships in which they are perceived. They are seen as black, therefore they are black; they are seen as women, therefore, they are women. But before being seen that way, they first had to be made that way.† †¦.said to belong to a natural order.† â€Å"To refuse to be a woman, however,  does not mean that one has to become a man [referring to lesbians]†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Thus a lesbian has to be something else, a not-woman, a not-man, a product of society, not a product of nature, for there is no nature in society.† â€Å"The refusal to become (or to remain) heterosexual always meant to refuse to become a man or a woman, consciously or not. For a lesbian, this goes further†¦. It is the refusal of the economic, ideological and political power of a man.† â€Å"†¦ Simone de Beauvoir underlined particularly the false consciousness which consists of selecting among the features of the myth (that women are different from men) those which look good and using them as a definition for women†¦.. defining women the best features (best according to whom?) which oppression has granted us, and it does not radically question the categories â€Å"man† and â€Å"woman†, which are political categories and not natural givens.† Feminist- â€Å"Someone who fights for women as a class and for the disappearance of this class†¦ Someone who fights for woman and her defense-for the myth, then, its reinforcement.† Early feminism – â€Å"†¦for them these features where natural and biological rather than social. They adopted the Darwinist theory of evolution. They did not believe like Darwin however that women were less evolved than men, but they did believe that male and female natures had diverged in the course of evolutionary development†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Our fight aims to suppress men as a class, not through a genocidal, but a political struggle. Once the class â€Å"men† disappears, â€Å"women† as a class will disappear as well, for there are no slaves without masters†. â€Å"But to become a class we do not have to suppress our individual selves, and since no individual can be reduced to her/his oppression we are also confronted with the historical necessity of constituting ourselves as the individual subjects of our history as well.† â€Å"There is no possible fight for someone deprived of an identity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Speaking of Marxism – â€Å"For women, Marxism had two results. It prevented them from being aware that they are a class and therefore from constituting themselves as a class for a very long time, by leaving the relation, â€Å"women/men† outside of the social order, by turning into a natural relation†¦ Marxist theory does not allow women any more than other classes of oppressed people to constitute themselves as historical subjects, because Marxism does not take into account the fact that a class also consists of  individuals one by one.† â€Å"The opposite is also true; without class and class consciousness there are no real subjects, only alienated individuals†¦.. The advent of individual subjects demands first destroying the categories of sex.† â€Å"We are escapees from our own class in the same way as the American runaway slaves were then escaping slavery and becoming free† â€Å"This can be accomplished only by the destruction of heterosexuality as a social system which is based on the oppression of women by men and which produces the doctrine of the difference between sexes to justify this oppression.† Reference to previous readings Women’s Time – Julia Kristeva (giving birth as a realization of womanhood) The Laugh of the Medusa – Cixous (beauty myth)

Theories of the text- academic summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Theories of the text- academic summary - Essay Example The purpose of stilwell’s chapter on the importance of sound in cinematography and film is not to suggest that audio is more important than the visuals, but to explore why sound plays such an important part in the making of the film and to argue that more attention should be paid to the study of audio. Stilwell begins the analysis of sound by illustrating that sound is very different from light in many respects, although there is a temptation to separate sound (not just in film, but through life) into components like dialogue, effect and music. Stilwell argues that this may not be wise, as these are all intersecting aspects of the same audial landscape. Additionally, the dialogue may often overshadow interpretation of the music and effects, which can be taken on by specialists or often ignored altogether. Stilwell also argues that music and effects often play a more subliminal part for the audience than dialogue, but are integral to the experience of the film and thus should n ot be ignored academically. Stilwell then elaborates into the focus of the chapter: how subjectivity and gender are both part of the interpretation of the audio landscape. ... This idea is backed up by the nature of cinema, including the ‘ego-gratifying identification with the male hero and the libidinal spectacularisation of the female body’ (stilwell, 2005). Stilwell then goes on to argue about the types of sound that can be experienced in the cinematic landscape and how these have semi-formal relationships with gender. In freudian analyses, the male voice is dominant and the female voice is submissive. In this sense, the male voice can be equated to important dialogue (as expressed before, the most noticeable part of the soundscape) and the female voice can be equated to music or effects. The link can be moved further: sound is the ignored feminine and visuals are the dominant masculine part of the film (Stillwell 2005). This aspects makes subjectivity be viewed as a complex concept. The author points out that subjectivity has overlapping meanings. Subjectivity varies according to meanings and can be understood the associated cultural codin g. While female voice in films is associated subjectivity the females are expected to be submissive in many cultures including the western cultures. The author tries to point out that sound, especially hearing, is associated with irrational and emotional aspects. Sound is magnified by its subject, which is music. Music, emotions, and irrationality are highly associated with feminine inherent in culture. The alliance of music, irrationality, and emotion is woven into the psychoanalytic theory (Stillwell 2005). The same alliance has both positive and negative implications, specifically for the female subjectivity. These implications are further extended to

Sufism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Sufism - Essay Example Sufism shows the influence of other major religions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism (Isfahan Web site). While the underlying precept of Sufism is renunciation of the worldly life and a repudiation of conflict and strife, history shows that Sufism often transcended its’ spiritual mandate to function as a political or even a military power. The emphasis of Sufism is on Unity with God: Tawhid, through an allegorical interpretation of the Qur’an. The orthodox conformity to the religious laws of the Shari’ah is but an external guide to repudiate the worldly life. The crucial step is the achievement of an inner, personal experience of the Divine, in which the self becomes one with God. This can be achieved by tariqa, or mediation, and dhikr, or remembrance of God. Sufism encourages self-denial and ascetism and centers round the love of God: mahabbah, through the subjugation of the ego, or nafs (Univ. of Calgary Web site). Sufism includes many orders or mystical brotherhoods: Tariqas, organized on a structure developed by Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), who is credited with bringing Sufism firmly within the ambit of orthodox Islam theology, making it a more popular, inclusive movement. Each order is headed by a spiritual leader, or Shaykh, and follows a distinctive path. The disciples, faqirs or mudirs, live communally. Their mystical practices include chanting of divine phrases, breath control, communal chanting and ecstatic dancing (the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey). The main Sufi brotherhoods are the Qadiriya, Chistiya, Shadhilya, Naqshbandiya, Ni’matallahiya and Meleviye, although many others, each with its’ own emphasis regarding practice and observances, are found in various parts of the world (Godlas, Sufism). In what may be viewed as a contradiction in terms, Sufism has been associated with movements of political and historical significance over the ages. The Safavid Empire in Persia, one

(Elements of Drama) - Drama imitates reality through representation Essay

(Elements of Drama) - Drama imitates reality through representation rather than imitation - Essay Example During the analysis we will look for evidences that can prove our original idea. We’ll overview the tragedies without retelling their plots and going into details. Both pieces of literature belong to the field of tragedy. Let’s briefly remind us of the main requirements to the tragedy proposed by the Aristotle in his famous â€Å"Poetics† and later by the representatives of the Enlightenment. According to Aristotle, tragedy is the imitation in dramatic form of an action which is serious and complete, with occurrences that evoke sympathy and fear /Aristotle, 1999/. Aristotle believes that the writer should use pleasant language that must fit the situation in which it is used. The main characters of a tragedy are noble and well-off people, performing noble actions. Aristotle also made a statement in his work â€Å"Poetics† that tragedy should lead to the catharsis of the audience when they experience and share emotions of the characters and sympathize to their suffering /Aristotle, 1999/. Enlightenment writers proposed that according to its structure tragedy should be composed of five acts and involve three main characters which should be noble and famous. The author should begin the tragedy in the middle of the action, make use of noble language and refrain from the scenes of horror on the stage. From the Aristotle times it was considered that the ideal piece of tragedy should consist of two main parts. They are complication and unraveling. Those incidents that are inessential to the development of the plot are mostly combined with of the action proper in order to mould the complication. So we can say that the complication is the whole amount of actions from the beginning to that part of the play where the course of events changes either for good or for bad. The unraveling then is all that remains. It begins with the end of the complication and extends to the end of the tragedy / Wikipedia/. According to the structure,

Is empowerment a valuable tool for increasing efficiency and Essay - 3

Is empowerment a valuable tool for increasing efficiency and effectiveness in todays organisations - Essay Example The researcher states that in the context of organizational and industrial psychology, employee empowerment refers to the enhancement of employee involvement of autonomy with an aim to increase their ability to make decisions. This helps the organizations to achieve its interests and agenda with ease and effectiveness. It entails giving the employees the necessary guideline and tools to help them acquire autonomy in decision making. This empowerment entails the responsibility and accountability of the employees to make decisions within the acceptable parameters. This practice is then entrenched in the organizational culture. In modern organizations, an empowered and motivated workforce is seen as essential to the profitability of an organization. Employee empowerment has been found to increase workers commitment to the organizational policies and goals. Employee empowerment can be viewed from two perspectives: the psychological perspective and the empowerment climate which is known t o focus on the employee working environment. Psychological empowerment of employees focuses on the strength of the mental capacity of employees at the level of an individual. The empowerment climate tends to place emphasis on the employee working environment. The idea of using structures, practices, and employees in an organization to support employees was introduced by Scott and his friends. He argued that it is essential to create a conducive, working environment for employees for them to feel free to participate in the decision-making process and the goals of the organization. It refers to the work atmosphere and environment directly. According to Blanchard and Randolph, there are three principal practices that are associated with the working environment and the empowerment climate of employees. They include the team accountability, autonomy through boundaries and sharing of information. Organizational climate practices deal with individual behaviors and attitudes.

ABC CPA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ABC CPA - Essay Example The limitations of internal control system include the aspect that due to the cost effective nature of the control system certain non-effective but useful controls are emitted. The other limitations include the aspect that designing as well as establishing efficient internal controls can be quite a difficult task due to lack of knowledge of staff to operate such systems. Internal control system might not always reflect altered operating conditions (Gupta 100-200). Internal control system has certain procedures which are illustrated by the help of two examples. Firstly, the internal control system should be served with proper Information Technologies (IT). IT helps the auditors to control the account related entries correctly and reduces the risk of wrong or emitted entry. This is because IT assists to store the data correctly and the stored data can be simultaneously cross-checked, consequently allowing to rectify the faults and can recognize the missing entry. This internal control process can be implemented by ABC Company to its auditing department by providing IT related requirements such as computers and through proper mode of communication. Computers will help to store the transactions related to accounts and communication process will assist the auditors to collect all information and documents related to accounts within its premises (Sai, â€Å"Internal Control and Auditing In IT Environment†). The other example of internal control procedures is that handed over duties and liabilities should be familiar and communicated to employee properly by the company’s higher level officials. This procedure helps the management and the subordinates to plan and to work out the strategies sufficiently by which the objective of the specified task can be achieved efficiently. This procedure of internal control can be implemented by ABC Company through

Change and Development in the English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Change and Development in the English - Essay Example When the West Saxon kingdom was overthrown England was left without a standard language where several dialects began to take important role. Started in 1066 AD by the troops of William the Conqueror, the Norman conquest of England was a pivotal event in English history as it basically removed the native ruling class and transformed the English language and the culture of England. "What the language would have been like if William the Conqueror had not succeeded in making good his claim to the English throne can only be a matter of conjecture. It would probably have pursued much the same course as the other Teutonic languages, retaining perhaps more of its inflections and preserving a preponderatingly Teutonic vocabulary, adding to its word-stock by the characteristic methods of word-formation already explained, and incorporating much less freely words from other languages... The Norman Conquest changed the whole course of the English language." (Baugh, 127) The Norman Conquest also h elped the English language acquire the greater part of that enormous number of French words and connected England more closely with continental Europe. By the introduction of Anglo-Norman as the language of the ruling classes in England, the Norman Conquest caused one of the most obvious changes in English history. In a critical assessment of the effects of the Norman Conquest of Britain on the English language, it becomes lucid that the most outstanding result is that the Norman Conquest reduced the Scandinavian influence and controlled the spread and growth of several creoles in English language. One of the most obvious results of the Norman Conquest was that it helped the progress of the English language along with its politics and law. In an analysis of the history of English language and its development, it becomes evident that the Old English which existed in England before the coming of the Normans in 1066 began to change due to the influence of the Anglo-Norman. "Although the majority of the population continued to speak English, French was now the language of the new ruling class and therefore the language of the new ruling class and therefore the language of government. This change in status for the English language allowed its grammar to change drastically." (Thackeray and Findling, 14) Such changes were reflected in the other aspects of the language such as spelling, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Therefore, the salient linguistic effects of the Norman Conquest resulted in the growth of the language. Significantly, the linguistic effects of the Norman Conquest started in 1150 which influenced the remained relatively unchanged until then and the language slowly shifted from the Old English to Middle English. One of the features of the Old English speakers was that they hesitated from using foreign words, and normally made up their own correspondent of words rather than borrowing in a straight line. "One of the most significant differences between Old English and Middle English is the amount of borrowing from other languages, which expanded mainly with the Norman Conquest... The French, however, kept words and sounds similar to their foreign roots. One example of foreign sounds directly affecting English phonemics is the difference between [v] and [f]." (The Norman Conquest: The Impact)

Human service Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human service - Essay Example The primary issues facing grandparents who parent are as follows: (1) residence: are they living in a separate house from those of their grandchildren? Do they own a house of their own? Grandparents with homes of their own would be more confident to do parenting tasks in a familiar and convenient environment. (2) Income: do they have a regular source of income or pension? They might want to order for food or give their grandchildren some treats. (3) Interests and endeavors: are they currently engaged in regular extra-curricular activities such as being involved in social or civic organizations? into some form of sports? still actively involved in work as a proprietor or owner? They might be busy and could not fully attend to the needs of their grandchildren if their minds are focused in other activities. (4) What is their educational background? Do they share the same interests with their grandchildren? Are they capable of addressing the inquiries and curiosity of their grandchildren ? (5) Health status and condition: are they healthy enough to parent their grandchildren? Are they afflicted with some form of illness? (6) Are they parenting children for their own biological child or the children of their child’s spouse? This concern could actually matter if the grandparents have some conflicts with sons or daughters-in-law. (7) Are they parenting for children with disabilities? Are they therefore competent and qualified to address their grandchildren’s needs? (8) Are they genuinely interested to care take their grandchildren or they just do not have any choice? (9) Are they being paid or remunerated in some form or the other for taking care of their grandchildren? All these concerns would affect the quality and competence in parenting grandchildren. If grand parenting skills are needed on a more permanent basis (due, for example, to parents’ impairment or disabilities),

Globalisation and Its Effects on Organisations Essay

Globalisation and Its Effects on Organisations - Essay Example The researcher states that globalisation has created the best opportunities for all companies worldwide by increasing the level of employment and profitability of companies drastically over few years. Companies are able to utilise labour, capital and resources to the best of their ability. They also effectively changed their ways of operation than that in the past. Organisations not only introduced office automation but at the same time, incorporated various improvements in techniques of management. They started to stress more on the division of work and labour. As a result, greater emphasis was put on centralization, decentralisation, control, coordination, culture and communication. With the essence of globalisation, there was development in the structure of organizations. Centralisation became the choice for most companies as this helped them to coordinate and control easily, reduce all sorts of duplication, perform consistently, incorporate necessary changes in the system effortl essly and accordingly fulfil goals and targets. There were various other opportunities that globalisation has brought along in the form of labour available at the cheapest possible price. The developed countries extensively took advantage of cheap labour available in the developing countries for manufacturing their products at lowest possible prices and then sell them at high margins.   Countries like U.S.A. also began with the revolution of outsourcing. Outsourcing enabled them to reduce the level of unemployment in various countries as well as receive the services at least possible cost.

The key features of situation ethics Essay Example for Free

The key features of situation ethics Essay Examine the key features of situation ethics. Then outline the main weaknesses of situation ethics. How far do these lead to a rejection of the theory? Despite the view of Kant, and many Christian people, that it is not ethical to only act after assessing the implications of a moral action, since the 1960s a view that situation ethics is an effective way to judge an action and its consequences has emerged in the secular community. However, it is also necessary to acknowledge the Christian ethos in order to fully make a decision on the ethical viability of something in such an ephemeral world. Situation ethics is a theory most commonly associated with the work of Joseph Fletcher, an American professor and one of the key pioneers in bioethics, and J.A.T. Robinson, a New Testament scholar, author and a former Anglican bishop of Woolwich. Fletcher wrote a book called Situation Ethics, which was published in 1966, a time when the ephemeral nature of the country was highly accentuated by political matters; Women were more commonly going to work, following the suffrage movement before the war and their valued contribution to the war effort during it, President John F. Kennedy of the United States had been assassinated and there was a large amount of shock and horror surrounding the brutal Vietnam war. Furthermore, Martin Luther King had left his legacy at this time, even though it would be many years before the divisive pre-civil rights attitudes and laws were truly shaken off, and the sexual revolution that occurred in the 1960s, where the invention of the pill came about, and sexual promiscuity was finally accepted. Also, the emergence of the teenager, a concept that had not been acknowledge before as a type of person with his or her own music, fashion and politics, the consequential growing power of the student movement and the rebellious spirit of the rock and roll culture that went hand in hand with the aforementioned new young adults power, when combined with the other reasons mentioned above, all meant that the scene was set for a radical shift in the social power base. The church, in particular, did not see this impending shift in power as an appealing prospect. The British Council of Churches in 1964 appointed a Working Party that set out to Prepare a Statement of the Christian case for abstinence from sexual intercourse before marriage and faithfulness within marriageand to suggest means whereby the Christian position may be effectively presented to the various sections of the community. They wanted to convey a sane and responsible attitude towards love and marriage in the face of the misleading suggestions conveyed by much popular literature, entertainment and advertising. They also observed that a widespread feeling, especially among Christian people, that recent years have witnessed a general lowering of moral standards, and that this is particularly evident in the realm of sexual behaviour. The Church put much emphasis on a report called The Sexual Behaviour of Young People by Michael Schofield, saying that they wanted to reassess where Christian moral truth lay. The report was conducted in 1965, and concluded that in the 1960s young people were exposed to these factors; greater independence; more money in their pockets and purses; the weakening of family bonds and religious influences; the development of earlier maturity physically, emotionally and mentally; the impact of modern books, television, periodicals. 1963 saw the publication of an extremely controversial book that threw the Church into disarray and disagreement. J.A.T. Robinsons Honest to God is a theological text in which the author challenges the traditional view that God is watching over the world as a supreme power in a three-storied universe, instead suggesting, in conjunction with Paul Tillich, a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher, that God should be understood as the ground of our being as opposed to a deux ex machine, a phenomenon that cannot be explained, which influences and interferes with the world while remaining detached from it. This book was also in support of the new morality outlined in Joseph Fletchers article The New Look at Christian Ethics published in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin before the more famous Situation Ethics book. Fletcher had written in this that Christian ethics is not a scheme of codified conduct. It is a purposive effort to relate love to a world of relativities through a casuistry obedient to love. In other words, the new Christian morality for man come of age, a phrase coined from Dietrich Bonheoffer, was not based on law, or rather, perhaps, on one law only: the law of love. To illustrate their beliefs on new morality over old, both Fletcher and Robinson cited the examples of Jesus and the Pharisees, which were meant to exemplify new morality and old morality respectively. Whilst the Pharisees elaborated the Torah to accommodate every possible situation, the example of Jesus say You who are not guilty of sin may cast the first stone in John 8:2-11, after a woman who had been caught in adultery was sentenced to stoning. This is an example of Jesus demonstrating love, passion and integrity and showing the weakness of using absolute laws as a meaning of judging individual moral cases. Fletcher further observed that Bultmann [A German theologian] was correct is saying that Jesus had no ethics if we accept, as I do not, that his definition of ethics was a system of values and rules intelligible for all men. This gives the implication that a system of moral codes is unnecessary. Both Fletcher and Robinson acknowledged that the shift from a supranaturalist view of ethics to a situationalist or existentialist view of ethics would not be universally popular. This was shown as early as 1956 when the Pope Pius XII anticipated this, and consequentially banned the view from all seminaries. Protestants, however, were equally suspicious, as they realised it meant that nothing can be labelled as universally good or bad. However, Robinson argued the only way to deal with situations was situationally, not prescriptively. He said Whatever the pointers of the law to the demands of love, there can for the Christian be no packaged moral judgements for persons are more important even than standards. Robinson argued that a situationalist view should be applied to divorce law. Questioning the conservative view that marriage created a supernatural, unbreakable bond between two people, he argues that the metaphysical bond that binds two people in marriage can be broken through divorce depending on the situation surrounding it. In the book Honest To God, Robinson wrote It is not a question of Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder: no man could if he tried. For marriage is not merely indissoluble: it is indelible. He believed that it was potentially damaging and out-dating to believe that divorce was an impossibility. He thought it was time for humans to seek liberty from such supernaturalism thinking, and be ready to leave behind the restrictions of the old moral law if love was best served by so doing. Fletcher and Robinson identified agape love, a term used to distinguish the different types of love known as agape, philia, storge and eros, as the only intrinsically good thing, and it was defined by William Barclay as unconquerable good will; it is the determination to seek the other mans highest good, no matter what he does to you. Insult, injury, indifference it does not matter; nothing but good will. It has been defined as purpose, not passion. It is an attitude to the other person. This kind of love is highly demanding or, as Barclay suggested, a highly intelligent thing. It is not random, fatalistic, romantic love that cannot be demanded. Rather, agape love is required of one human being to another, and demands that the whole personality be involved in a deliberate directing the will, heart and mind. To employ agape, it is conceivable that laws must be put aside, although this may leave many legalists and supernaturalisms without a reliable foundation on which to maintain their position of moral superiority. Fletcher wrote If the emotional and spiritual welfare of both parents and children in a particular family can be served best by a divorce, wrong and cheapjack as divorce commonly is, then love requires it. Joseph Fletcher identified three approaches to morality: Legalism, a conservative, rule-based morality like that of the Pharisees, or as Fletcher said, a morality in which Solutions are preset, and you can look them up in a book a Bible or a confessors manual; Antinomianism, the polar opposite of legalism which means that no rules or maxims can be applied to a moral situation; and situationism, a midway decision between the other two positions, or, as stated in Situation Ethics, The situationist enters into every decision-masking situation fully armed with the ethical maxims of his community and its heritage, and he treats them with respect Just the same he is prepared in any situation to compromise them or set them aside in the situation if love seems better served by doing so. Fletcher developed his theory by drawing on a wide range of cases that could not be resolved by applying fixed rules and principles; for instance, the famous case of Mrs Bergmeier who deliberately asked a Russian prison camp guard to make her pregnant so she could be released to return to her family in Germany. Furthermore, Fletcher even developed four presuppositions of situation ethics: Pragmatism, which demands that a proposed course of action should work, and that its success or failure should be judged according to the principle; Relativism, which rejects such absolutes as never, always, perfect, and complete; Positivism, a concept which recognizes that love is the most important criterion of all; and finally personalism, a concept which demands that people should be put first. He then went on, developing his opinion on how agape love should be understood conceptually, and how it should be applied as a theory in situation ethics. He said that not only is love always good, but that it was the only norm, appealing to Jesuss teaching in Mark 12:33 that the most important commandment is to love God and love your neighbour. Hr also said that love and justice are the same, and love is justice distributed, that love is not liking and always wills the neighbours good and that situation ethics is a teleological theory that identifies the ends or the outcome of the actions as the means of assessing its moral worth. Finally, he said that because there is no way of knowing in advance whether something is right or wrong because every situation is different, the situationist must be prepared to make every moral decision afresh. Some believers believe that morality consists of obeying the commands of God as directly revealed by him through scripture and the Church. They believe that what is morally good and what is morally bad is pre-determined by what God has said through scripture and other means, and that to contradict the views of God is to be immoral and bad. This view was backed up by Kant in his deontological approach to ethics, as he said that moral rules are good in themselves and should be obeyed irrespective of the consequences. Professor Gordon Dunstan also agreed with this, saying It is possible, though not easy, to forgive Professor [Joseph] Fletcher for writing this book, for he is a generous and loveable man. It is harder to forgive the SCM Press for publishing it. In contrast to Fletcher, William Barclay adopted a conservative view on Christian ethics, challenging the so named new morality of Fletcher on several grounds. He argued that it is highly improbable for someone to be presented with the extreme circumstances presented by Fletcher, so it is not reasonable to base the principle of situation ethics on these such matters. He wrote in Ethics in a Permissive Society, It is much easier to agree that extraordinary situations need extraordinary measures than to think that there are no laws for ordinary everyday life. He also suggests that Fletcher overestimates the value of being free from rules and the constant decision-making processes that this forces humans into. If it were the case that agape could always be fairly and accurately dealt out, then laws would be redundant. As it is, there are no such guarantees, and so a degree of law is necessary for human survival. Barclay believes that law is essential for a variety of reasons: because it clarifies experience; because it is the means by which society determines what a reasonable life is; because it defines crime; because it has a deterrent value, and because it protects society. He also says that Fletcher was unrealistic in his observation on how truly free humans are to make decisions and judge the moral worth of something when not shackled by any laws. Barclay particularly emphasises that law ensures that humans do not make an artificial distinction between public and private morality, and was quoted as saying A man can live his own life, but when he begins deliberately to alter the lives of others, then a real problem arises, on which we cannot simply turn out backs, and in which there is a place for law as the encourager of morality. In summary, Barclay criticised Fletcher for his miscalculated optimism about the ability of humans to be morally good while remaining free of personal prefere nce and consequential bias. How can we arbitrate a case in which two people reach different conclusions about an action, yet both claim to be acting in the interests of love? In the same year that the scandalous Honest to God by J. A. T. Robinson came into publication, Susan Howatch composed a novel named Scandalous Risks in which a number of characters face moral dilemmas, and attempt to examine each of these while conceptually following situation ethics. In one scene we see a character called Venetia seeking the help of another called Father Darrow in an attempt to understand the way in which her romantic friend rationalises and conducts their relationship along the lines of situation ethics. The, so to speak, moral, of this story is that situation ethics is idealistic and cannot work, despite its obvious theoretical benefits. Rarely do our real-life situations conform to the neat solutions that would apparently be available to us if we applied the principles of ethical theory. An overall conclusion must be drawn from both parts a) and b) of this essay collectively. It seems that the argument is relatively balanced debating the validity of Robinsons and Fletchers approach to moral-decision making. It is commonplace to strive for the freedom to make choices situationally, whether or not it be within the framework of agape, although this is constrained by not only the law, but also by the moral judgment of others. In this age, when we might suppose that secularism and liberalism would have a stronger hold on religions than previously, organizations such as Silver Ring Thing and True Love Waits are encouraging young people to take a vow of celibacy, which infers a return to traditional sexual ethics. Perhaps, instead of offering a realistic answer to morally-challenging situations, situation ethics offers a tantalising alternative to structured and relatively inflexible law-based morality.

Basic philosophy of the skilled helper model

Basic philosophy of the skilled helper model In the first edition of The Skilled Helper,published in 1975, Egan expounded a model of the helping process with the goal to establish a training technology that applies to helper training and to the helping process itself. The subtitle of The Skilled Helper is A Problem Management and Opportunity Development Approach to Helping, and this reflects Egans focus on problem solving and goal setting rather than dwelling on the past causes of problems. It provides a structured approach to the helping process rather than providing a theory of personality. The Skilled Helper is now in its ninth edition, and with each edition Egan has developed and refined the model, with differing emphasis upon its various stages. Egan does not claim the model asThe Egan Model but regards it as his own version of the basic dynamics of the problem management process (Interview 1995). It is influenced by the Person Centred approach of Carl Rogers and the Cognitive Behavioural theories of Albert Ellis, amongst others. The Rogers Core Conditions help provide the basis of the client-helper relationship whilst the Cognitive Behavioural approach of Albert Ellis can assist with the problem management stages of the model. The model is extremely flexible, and its integrative style allows for the introduction of various psychotherapeutic techniques into the helping process. Its fluidity allows the process to readily flow to any stage of the continuum to suit the clients current needs, whilst providing the helper with orientation on what stage the process is at. It has proved an enduring and successful approach to counselling and problem solving, and has readily crossed into other cultures. Egan partly describes its success as due to its logic being embedded in human beings. The problem solving process is recognised by humans around the world almost as a universal principle and therefore the stages of the model are readily identified with. The use of CBT techniques can introduce problems for under skilled helpers who may provide inappropriate guidance through the problem solving stages. The inexperienced helper may also view the model as a process of rigid stages and this may lead the helper away from the person centred relationship resulting in a poorer outcome for the client. From my own experience in the skills workshops there can be a tendency to rush through each stage of the process rather than develop the relationship at the clients own pace. 2. The key concepts and principles of the model The model breaks the helping process down into three sections, each describing a stage of the helping and problem-solving process. Each stage is further sub-divided into three tasks that help define the stage and the processes involved. Whilst in theory the implementation of the stages is sequential, in practice they overlap, and the helping process may move backwards and forwards freely between stages. Stage 1: The Current Picture This stage sets the scene and is the clients opportunity to say what is happening in their life and to tell their story. Task 1a: The Story The client is encouraged to talk and say why they have come to counselling and what is happening in their lives. The counsellor must draw upon Rogers Core Conditions and their active listening skills to build a relationship that expresses their understanding and acceptance of the client. Such skills would include open questions, reflection, paraphrasing and summarising The narrative should progress at the clients own pace. Task 1b: Blind Spots and New Perspectives The purpose of this task is to help the client recognise the blind spots in their story that they may have overlooked or not recognised, and to help them take a new perspective on them. The counsellor can draw upon their skills of advanced empathy and immediacy to raise questions that challenge the clients perception or understanding. Self-disclosure may be used with caution by the counsellor if it is felt appropriate, whilst the counsellors use of immediacy may challenge the client to consider what is going on here and now. Task 1c: Leverage As part of stages 1a and 1b the client may have raised many issues that could be discussed. However, stage 1a helps the client, through appropriate questioning, to focus and identify one issue that would bring the greater benefit and make a difference in their life. Often managing such a problem or opportunity may minimise or eliminate the other issues raised. Alternatively the large problems in a clients life may seem so unresolvable that they need reducing to smaller issues that will help the client cope with the present, and allow them to address further issues one step at a time. The issue chosen should be of sufficient gravity to continue working with, often clients will choose problems that they can manage happily themselves. It is also important that the client is able to take ownership of the problem and show commitment to resolving it before moving to stage 2 of the model. Stage 2: The Preferred Picture At stage 2 the client is helped to envisage what their ideal outcome would be, what they want their world to look like. From the future possibilities the counsellor can help the client focus on a range of objectives to work towards. Task 2a: Possibilities The client is helped to consider the possibilities for a better future and to explore what that future may be. This task often involves a level of brainstorming and creative thinking. Clients should be encouraged to use their imagination and suspend judgement. A typical question the counsellor may ask would be If you had a magic wand what would you want? Task 2b: Change Agenda From the range of possibilities identified in task 2a, workable goals can be identified which constitute the clients change agenda. The goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based) and it is important that they are the clients goals. Task 2c: Commitment When a client leaves a counselling session and has to face the distractions of daily life, goals set at 2b are easily forgotten. The counsellor can help by ensuring that the goals chosen are appealing to the client and the clients own. The client should be helped to embrace and take ownership of the goals Stage 3 The Way Forward Without a strategy, the client may feel that the goals chosen at 2b remain unrealisable. This stage helps formulate strategies for achieving the clients goals. From these strategies a plan can be drawn to help the client move forward. Task 3a: Possible Strategies The client is encouraged to think about the possible paths that can be taken to achieve their goals. Like at stage 2a, the client should be encouraged to brainstorm and be imaginative. The counsellor may use their skills in probing and prompting to help the client focus on different avenues. Task 3b: Best-fit Strategies There may be a number of possible strategies identified at stage 3a, however not all may be suitable to the clients circumstances. At this stage the counsellor can help the client to choose the most appropriate. Ideally, the preferred strategies will be those that are most likely to succeed and that the client has enthusiasm for. 3. The Introduction of Material From Two Other Therapeutic Schools Transactional Analysis (TA) TA is a theory of personality developed by Eric Berne (1910-1970), a Canadian psychologist that looks at the analysis of social interactions. Berne stressed the importance of early life experiences on our personality and was influenced emerging humanist ideas that people are born OK. The philosophy of TA is based upon 3 assumptions: People are born OK We can all make our own decisions Nobody can make us do, think or say anything without our consent. TA comprises three key areas: A theory of personality comprising 3 ego states. Child, Adult, Parent that reflect our thoughts and behaviours A model of communication or transactions. In particular Berne was interested in what ego state people were transacting from and to. A developmental model referring to life scripts. We all develop a life script from an early age and live our life by it. Both the Egan Model and Transactional Analysis challenge clients to have a new perspective upon problems and both are influenced by Rogers Person Centred approach and the core conditions. However whilst TA is a theory of personality based upon ego states, the Egan model does not address personality or social theory and provides framework for helping into which elements of other theories can be introduced. TA therapy is generally over a much longer period than counselling under the Egan model which defines the specific goals of the counselling sessions much more clearly. Psychodynamic Therapy Psychodynamic Therapy is based upon the personality theories of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and psychoanalytical psychotherapy. Freud recognised a difference between the conscious and the unconscious, or repressed, mind. A mid way between the two is our pre-conscious where our subconscious filters into our dreams or fantasies. Psychodynamic counselling aims to bring the unconscious to the conscious, enabling the client to construct a more effective personality through their increased awareness. Freud developed three components of personality: Id. Our basic, unconscious instincts. Our animal drives Ego. the ego represents what may be called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id which contains the passions (Freud 1923) Superego. An internal moral, parental voice. Freud believed that our childhood influenced our later personality and that we later re-enacted the patterns established at an early age. Psychodynamic counselling focuses on early development and experiences to help the client understand the present. Psychodynamic Counselling is insight orientated and tries to gain understanding by delving into our past. The Egan approach is goal orientated, looking to a better future created by the clients own actions. Egan is built upon the Person Centred ideas of Rogers and is therefore client centred. The best person to solve the clients problem, is the client. In contrast Psychodynamic counselling is expert based. The counsellor interprets the evidence provided by the client. Egan looks to change current situations whilst Psychodynamic Counselling looks for understanding. However,the flexibility of the Egan framework allows psychodynamic, or other, theories to be introduced if the counsellor believes this would be of benefit. 5. Recognition of Using Methods and Techniques Without Adequate Training

Impact Of New Media On Internal Communications Media Essay

Impact Of New Media On Internal Communications Media Essay Cornelissen (2008) defines internal communications as communication with employees internally within the organization (pg195) He also went further to state that the emergence of new inventions in technologies like internet blogs and emails has evolved into messages not just been restricted to the confine of the office, but have faded the boundaries between internal and external communications. This translates to the fact that employees can now distribute information about an organization or even a co-employee electronically to outside stakeholders and they can share their views and publish their grievances as well as organise and demand action from the organization. With access to email, blogs and social networking sites for sharing corporate information, many employees become corporate communications professionals themselves. Before the advent of World Wide Web, media communication as means of mass communication was to a large extent one-sided. Newspapers were written by a few people and read by thousands; television programmes (including news and documentaries) were made by a few people and watched by thousands; books were typically written by one person and read by thousands. Internal communications was no different. Employee newsletters were typically developed by a handful of employees and disseminated to the entire workforce. The advent of Web 2.0, which brought with it a clutch of new technologies such as social networking websites, blogs, etc., changed this nature of few-to-many communication. These new technologies allowed everyone to participate in the discussion. Suddenly, communication was not communication at all; it became discussion i.e from one way to two way method of communication. This is a fundamental shift in perspective. In the workplace, the roles and explicit power of the players however have not changed. The employers are still the employers with the power to hire and fire employees; the employees are still employees who are bound by their employment contracts to their employers and are most times to be seen and not heard. Hence it is interesting to examine if there has been a change in the nature of internal communication within the workplace as a result of the advent of the new media. This paper attempts to examine the ways in which each new major technology has changed the nature of internal communications, and concludes with a view towards the future. 2.0 New Media inside the Workplace Holtz (2006) points out that any technology that becomes a commonly used tool on the Internet will find its ways onto Intranets. There is always a lag between the widespread adoptions of the new technology and the adoption of the technology by corporations. Holtz is also of the opinion that this is because business leaders tend to dismiss new technologies with contempt, viewing them as nothing more than diversions for youngsters and computer nerds. (pg22). These business leaders will eventually see a different side to this as the roles between the old and new media is obviously changing, or should I say have changed? Companies used to rely on the intranet and emails to communicate with their employees, so also face to face, but with the emergence and infiltration of new media into peoples lives, communication has taken a totally different form, and it is bound to improve in years to come. According to Henneman 2010, Gartner Inc, a research and advisory firm have predicted that social networking will replace email as the primary form of communication for 20% of business users by 2014. 2.1 Instant Messaging A prime example of this is the use of instant messaging. Initially no corporate use of instant messaging was found to be acceptable. However, as the technology began to be used more and more widely, it began to be adopted by corporations. Today instant messaging is used by a large number of companies to provide customer support, and to facilitate internal communications. Within the corporate network, especially within large corporations, instant messaging represents a non-intrusive method by which two employees can communicate. If two employees speak over the phone, the conversation may not be private because it is conducted in an office cubicle where conversations are easily overhead. Instant messaging on the other hand allows two employees to communicate without making any noise whatsoever, and therefore the conversation can remain private. Instant messaging also allows these two employees to communicate without moving from their cubicle. Isaacs et al (2002) find that social use of instant messaging (IM) has a rather different nature compared to the use of instant messaging in the workplace. They find that whilst social use of IM is short, quick and the users multitask when chatting using IM. Media switching is also very common. However, the use of IM in the workplace is slightly longer, and therefore comparable to other impromptu conversations such as face to face conversations, phone calls, etc. Media switching was also not common. Two main styles of use could be identified, namely working together and coordinating. Working together involved the use of IM For a number of collaborative activities, such as multipurpose discussions. The conversations are rather intense, with threading of the messages. Pairs of employees who work together tend to use IM more frequently, and for working together. The use of IM for coordinating on the other hand is often with the objective of scheduling interactions in other mediums. The conversations here are slow paced, with fewer and longer turns and little threading and multitasking. Cameron and Webster (2004) find that the success of the use of IM depends on whether a critical mass of users has been established. They also find that employees use IM as a replacement for other communication media and also as an additional method for reaching others. Both Cameron and Webster (ibid) and Herbsleb et al (2002) find that IM is used in internal communication where informal communication generally takes place. 2.2 Social Networking Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Skeels and Grudin (2009) report that the use of social networks websites are increasing in the workplace. They opine that the nature of use of social media in the workplace, the impact of this use on productivity, and the nature of any evolution in enterprise-friendly use are all open questions. Their study finds that the use of social networks often creates tensions which span social groups and the organisations firewall, That is to say, the impact of the use of social networking websites can have an influence not only on the internal communications but also on the image and business of the organisation externally. Furthermore, they find that the use of social networking websites have only weak ties to productivity. 2.3 Blogging and Micro-blogging Ehrlich and Shami (2010) examine the use of micro-blogging in the workplace and find that confidentiality issues separate micro-blogging inside the workplace and outside the workplace. Micro-blogging was however relatively widely used, for the following main purposes: Conversation and help from colleagues internal micro-blogging allowed the employees to have conversations with their colleagues in an environment that was perceived to be familial. As the discussions were kept within the corporate boundaries, they believed that constructive criticism could be voiced, and to seek for help. The sense of belonging to the organisation also gave some employees an obligation to help others and actively search for colleagues who needed help. Real time information sharing and awareness One of the main benefits of internal micro-blogging was that it allowed employees to gain information in real time. It allowed for the free sharing of information as well as ideas. Reputation management The authors of posts in the micro-blogging also attempted to use this activity as a method of reputation management. They published information that was of use to a wide variety of people not only with the desire to help their audience but also with a desire to enhance their reputation as having access to the latest information. Feeling connected micro-blogging helped create a sense of interconnectedness and familiarity, especially amongst mobile workers. This was partly because micro-blogging did not focus solely on work-related topics but also included personal topics. 2.4 Wikis Hilska (n.d.) examines the effects of the implementation of a wiki-based intranet. He finds that wikis have multifarious uses in such a work environment such as writing the minutes of meetings, publication of news and announcements, task management, project management, documentation, for use as home pages for individuals, departments and work groups, etc. Wikis therefore can be said to be used for both internal communication as well as collaborative work. He also finds that there is a lot to be gained from the use of wikis, such as enabling people to participate in internal communication, participate in collaborative projects, share information, seek for information from colleagues, and manage work. Wikis also facilitate easy authorship by all the employees in an organisation. The main disadvantage of using wikis that was identified is that it was difficult to find relevant and up to date information. 3.0 Discussion Fidler (1997) points out that the rise of the new media is but one wave of change amongst many others that have occurred in the past. He points to the changes in communication that can be traced back from the time of recorded history, such as the invention of the telegram message, the invention of the telephone, the printing press, etc. In all of these changes that have been introduced into communication, it can be said that the principle of survival and delayed adoption has held true. The different forms of media, as well as media enterprises will adapt and evolve in response to the changing environment, otherwise they will become extinct. The forms of communication will evolve, such that the older forms of communication will no longer be used. The telegram for example, became quite irrelevant when telephones were invented and widely adopted. As VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology matures and becomes more usable, the migration of users to the Internet may well render the telephone obsolete. The Apple iPhone for example facilitates videoconferencing between users directly using the Internet. This technology is therefore already sufficiently mature and established. What remains is for the adoption of the technology and crossnetwork adoption of common protocols. The main question that arises from the discussion above is, as the nature of communication has changed from a few-to-many style of communication to a discussion in which a large segment of the traditional audience participate in the communication, how has the nature of communication in the workplace changed? Lengel and Daft (1989) make the important point that the selection of medium of communication has an impact on the meaning of the message. This collaborates with other findings discussed above that IM is generally preferred for informal communication. Holtz (2006) also explains that the employee is not just an employee 24/7; he is also a customer, shareholder, etc. Hence internal corporate communication cannot always be distinguished from external corporate communication. Indeed the use of the new media for whistleblowing and activism is very high (Walter, 2009). The author agrees with van Dijk (2006, pg. 240) who states that new media has the effect of organising the entities engaged in the communication or discussion. As the media facilitates both public and private discussions, the choice of medium of communication reflects the desire of the initiator of the communication to have the contents of the conversation be public, or kept private. Furthermore, new media always provides an electronic record of the communication. This facilitates the verification of the message and authorship of the message. This helps to provide structure to the collection of individuals who collectively use the media. Within corporate environments, it can be seen that organisations that have a relatively flat structure generally employ new media to a greater extent than those that have a rigid and bureaucratic structure. The flat structure allows for open communication, and the consequent formation of societal structures with the use of new media. It encourages pa rticipation and interaction by opening a door of opportunity for employees to speak their minds. Rooksby et al (2009) provide an excellent overview of the use of new media in the workplace. They explain that internally new media technologies are often used to locate the person who would know the answer to a question, rather than to find the answer to the question itself. One of the reasons for this could be that as the economy becomes more and more knowledge based, the answers that are sought could be implicit knowledge and not codified. This use of new media for expertise finding represents an opportunity for the people in the organisations to share their expertise. This in turn facilitates organisational learning, knowing and judging peoples competencies, the creation of ad hoc teams to solve time-critical problems, and generally developing social capital. They further explain that information itself is not a scare resource any longer, but time and attention are. Social networking technologies help people deal with information overload by finding the right person, source of help. These technologies help people become connected, and to share and consume information. This in turn leads them to form social connections, satisfying the human need to connect to people in their vicinity. Rooksby et al (2009) state that social capital is difficult to quantify; it is also difficult to identify its exact influence on the productivity of an organisation. However, the formation of social relationships that is facilitated by the social networking technologies helps to build trust, reciprocity, and understanding between the workers in an organisation. This is clearly very important for the success of the organisation. Cornelissen (2008, pg. 194) explains that organisations require employees to cooperate in order to achieve the companys goals. Todays organisations are often large corporations with a large number of employees. These employees are frequently required to perform highly specialised tasks, resulting in efficiency payoffs. These tasks however need to be coordinated, such that together they create value for the organisation. The organisation has to balance its own needs as well as the needs of its employees in order to ensure that they remain motivated and happy. Internal communication therefore serves a number of purposes, such as to fulfil the needs of the employees. Raeth et al (2010) narrate that the cycle of adoption of new media can be described as having three distinct phases, namely the idea phase, the project phase and the use and impact phase. The idea phase is when the idea for the development and deployment of new technology is put forward inside the organisation. This idea phase moves forward when there is support from management, proper justification for the project, funding, etc. When development is initiated, then the adoption of the new technology is said to move to the project phase. Here the actual system is developed and deployed. When it is adopted by the rank and file employees, then the adoption is considered to have moved to the use and impact phase. In this phase, the new systems are used, and the benefits are facilitated by training, communication and advocation. There is also analysis as to whether the systems are successful in achieving the desired goals. Rooksby et al (2009) also highlight that one of the major problems associated with the use of social media is time wasting. The time spent by employees in social networking websites is not always productive, and this could lead to significant wasted time. Furthermore, there are also concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of information that is published on new media technologies, such as blogs and social networking websites. In workplace uses, there is a similar concern about the maintenance of confidentiality of information. Cornelissen (2008, pg. 194) explains that new media technologies have served to blur the boundaries between internal and external communications. This means that the communications that would otherwise have remained within the organisation are sometimes disseminated outside the organisation. 4.0 Conclusion The author contends that new media has indeed changed society, and consequently the nature of internal communications, as described by Popp (2009). As the world has become more and more globalised, this is reflected in the changes in society where people have friends and family all over the world. New media facilitates interaction between these people in far flung geographical areas. Herman and McChesney (2001) rightly state that communication is becoming more important in todays globalised economy. Society is also changing, as it is becoming more open, democratic and activist in nature. New media has certainly been a facilitating factor to this change, but it is important to note that society itself could be said to have been ready for change. Without this, new media alone would not have been able to effect any change. The author opines that in line with these changes in the wider society, a similar change in internal communications (in the delayed adoption fashion) is also already occurring. New organisations tend to have a flat structure, which is more democratic. The use of social media for internal communications allows for the effective communication of employees in far flung geographical locations. A prime example of this is the organisation which supports one of the most well known open source databases in the world, MySQL. The employees in this organisat ion are scattered all over the world, and have to rely on new media for communication. The rise of democracy can be thought to coincide with the rise in organisations with a flat structure. For these reasons, it can be said that the changes inside the workplace mirror the changes in wider society to a large extent, with a delay. The new media does indeed bring a number of benefits to the corporate entity, just as they do to the wider society, such as creating relationships, enabling collaboration and communication, etc. Klopper (2010) also states that internal communications tools create the opportunity for employees to not only ask questions but to answer them, increasing their visibility as an influencer in their niches. He refers to a study done by IBM which looked at over 5000 posts by their employees who use an internal IBM micro-blog called blue twit which though similar to twitter but can only be used internally, it was revealed that employees benefitted as they saw their interaction on bluetwit as family conversation because users could constructively criticise company products. As a result, people were able to use this tool to engage in a two way communication. Hence in conclusion, it has been noted that the new media of the past is the old media of today. Change is inevitable, and it has been seen that internal communications within the workplace often tends to be a reflection of the general nature of communications in the wider society, and has helped companies recognise the fact that they need to keep changing in order to meet up or surpass their competitors and in so doing not lose manpower and company reputation due to absence of employee engagement. Hayes (2010) notes that some organizations probably fail to recognise the need for change until they have little choice but to react to an unforeseen situation. Naslund (2010) believes that social media and communities are as distinctive as the businesses in which they exist.. Undoubtedly building internal communities and introducing social media initiatives can be an effective method in building the brand, exchange opinions, discuss freely and encourage employee engagement and interaction, it is also a new and refined method of identifying with the lively society that have been created within the company, so also an influential means of re-instating the facts that employees make up the framework of the company.

Rising of the Earths crust is responsible for Producing Earthquakes :: Geology Earthquake

Rising of the earth’s crust is responsible for producing earthquakes, Submission of report for publishing. Earthquake is caused due to the movement of the land is a myth. The most important thing that is missing in this view is that there is no explanation for why earthquake occurs in the center of the land instead of the peripheral area. Actually the land is rising in different places. This is the reason why earthquakes occur only in the central parts of the land. To be specific, after an earthquake occurred on September 30th of 1993, in the village named Killari, it was found that the land had risen about three feet in height. This shows that the rise of the land is the cause of the earthquake. Earthquake is the effect of the rise of the land On September 30th 1993, the earthquake that hit the village, killari, situated in central part of India resulted in the death of more than eight thousand people and raised the land surface about three feet high. This elevation was seen in an area of around two kilometers. Why did the earthquake occur? The quake occurred only in killari, situated in central India and left two kilometers of land area raised. This proves that the earthquake occurred only due to the rise of the land. Apart from this, the pictures taken by the satellite before the quake showed that the temperature of killari had also risen and the pictures taken after the quake showed it to be normal. After the earthquake occurred, on the borders of Andhra and Karnataka white colored smoke emitted from the ground. Why did the land rise? Why was the temperature more? Why did the land emit white colored smoke? We know that the molten rock material called magma is found inside the earth as we have seen it coming out through volcanoes.

Character of Nick Carroway in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Character of Nick Carroway in The Great Gatsby In his novel, The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the character of Nick Carroway as a decent person. Nick stands out when being compared to the other characters in the story. It is Nick's honesty with himself and toward others, his morality, and his unbiased, slow to judge qualities that make him the novel's best character. The chain of events that occur in the story begin with Nick meeting Jordan Baker at Gatsby's party. It was this meeting that causes Nick to mention the topic of honesty. Nick learns about Jordan's cheating in a golf tournament, and he realizes how dishonest Jordan really is. "She was incredibly dishonest," (Page 58) Nick said, adding, "Dishonesty in a woman is a thing that you can never blame deeply." (Page 59) Jordan seemed to contrast her own dishonesty with Nick's honesty. On the night of the party, Jordan leads Nick to say, "Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people I have ever known." (Page 60) He supports his words with his actions as a narrator, as well as his role as a character in the story. As the narrator, he was honest with himself, one example being Nick admitting to himself that Jordan was not only dishonest, but selfish and cynical as well, but he loved her regardlessly. As the novel's main character, he was the only one that did not feel the need to mislead other people. All of the other characters would use an impressive, unreal facade in order to attract people and make a good first impression. For example, Daisy acted completely different around company from when she was with Tom. However, this happened while Nick would always let his honest, true character show through the entire time. Nick also seemed to be The Great Gatsby's only uncorrupted, unmaterialistic character. Every other character, including Gatsby himself, seemed to think that money could buy happiness. Gatsby's though process is a prime example of that: he thought that he could win over Daisy by impressing her with his extravagant parties. The fact is, Daisy, being materialistic herself, probably would have been won over, had she not been already married to a rich man. That materialism is what leads to the character's corruption.