Does multiculturalism undermine civic unity

How Maps Can Distort Space and Deceive Us

How Maps Can Distort Space and Deceive Us Maps have become increasingly present in our everyday lives, and with new technology, maps are more and more accessible to view and to produce. By considering the variety of map elements (scale, projection, symbolization), one can start to recognize the innumerable choices that mapmakers have in creating a map. Why Maps Are Distorted One map can represent a geographical area in many different ways; this reflects the various ways in which mapmakers can convey a real 3-D world on a 2-D surface. When we look at a map, we often take for granted that it inherently distorts what it is representing. In order to be readable and understandable, maps must distort reality. Mark Monmonier (1991) puts forth exactly this message: To avoid hiding critical information in a fog of detail, the map must offer a selective, incomplete view of reality. Theres no escape from the cartographic paradox: to present a useful and truthful picture, an accurate map must tell white lies (p. 1). When Monmonier asserts that all maps lie, he refers to a maps need to simplify, falsify, or conceal the realities of a 3-D world in a 2-D map. However, the lies that maps tell can range from these forgivable and necessary white lies to more serious lies, which often go undetected, and belie the agenda of the mapmakers. Below are a few samples of these lies that maps tell, and how we can look at maps with a critical eye. Projection and Scale One of the most fundamental questions in mapmaking is: how does one flatten a globe onto a 2-D surface? Map projections, which accomplish this task, inevitably distort some spatial properties, and must be chosen based on the property that the mapmaker wishes to preserve, which reflects the maps ultimate function. The Mercator Projection, for example, is the most useful for navigators because it depicts accurate distance between two points on a map, but it does not preserve area, which leads to distorted country sizes. There are also many ways in which geographic features (areas, lines, and points) are distorted. These distortions reflect a maps function and also its scale. Maps covering small areas can include more realistic details, but maps that cover larger geographic areas include less detail by necessity. Small-scale maps are still subject to a mapmakers preferences; a mapmaker may embellish a river or a stream, for example, with many more curves and bends in order to give it a more dramatic appearance. Conversely, if a map is covering a large area, mapmakers may smooth out curves along a road to allow for clarity and legibility. They may also omit roads or other details if they clutter the map, or are not relevant to its purpose. Some cities are not included in many maps, often due to their size, but sometimes based on other characteristics. Baltimore, Maryland, USA, for example, is often omitted from maps of the United States not because of its size but because of space constraints and clut tering. Transit Maps: Subways (and other transit lines) often use maps that distort geographic attributes such as distance or shape, in order to accomplish the task of telling someone how to get from Point A to Point B as clearly as possible. Subway lines, for instance, are often not as straight or angular as they appear on a map, but this design aids the readability of the map. Additionally, many other geographic features (natural sites, place markers, etc.) are omitted so that the transit lines are the primary focus. This map, therefore, may be spatially misleading, but manipulates and omits details in order to be useful to a viewer; in this way, function dictates form. Other Manipulations The above examples show that all maps by necessity change, simplify, or omit some material. But how and why are some editorial decisions made? There is a fine line between emphasizing certain details, and purposefully exaggerating others. Sometimes, a mapmakers decisions can lead to a map with misleading information that reveals a particular agenda. This is apparent in the case of maps used for advertisement purposes. A maps elements can be strategically used, and certain details can be omitted in order to depict a product or service in a positive light. Maps have also frequently been used as political tools. As Robert Edsall (2007) states, some maps†¦do not serve the traditional purposes of maps but, rather, exist as symbols themselves, much like corporate logos, communicating meaning and evoking emotional responses (p. 335). Maps, in this sense, are embedded with cultural significance, often evoking feelings of national unity and power. One of the ways that this is accomplished is by the use of strong graphical representations: bold lines and text, and evocative symbols. Another key method of imbuing a map with meaning is through the strategic use of color. Color is an important aspect of map design, but can also be used to evoke strong feelings in a viewer, even subconsciously. In chloropleth maps, for example, a strategic color gradient can imply varying intensities of a phenomenon, as opposed to simply representing data. Place Advertising: Cities, states, and countries often use maps to draw visitors to a particular place by depicting it in the best light. A coastal state, for instance, may use bright colors and attractive symbols to highlight beach areas. By accentuating the coasts attractive qualities, it attempts to entice viewers. However, other information such as roads or city-size that indicate relevant factors such accommodations or beach accessibility may be omitted, and can leave visitors misguided. Smart Map Viewing Smart readers tend to take written facts with a grain of salt; we expect newspapers to fact check their articles, and are often wary of verbal lies. Why, then, dont we apply that critical eye to maps? If particular details are left out or exaggerated on a map, or if its color pattern is particularly emotional, we must ask ourselves: what purpose does this map serve? Monmonier warns of cartophobia, or an unhealthy skepticism of maps, but encourages smart map viewers; those that are conscious of white lies and wary of bigger ones. Sources Edsall, R. M. (2007). Iconic Maps in American Political Discourse. Cartographica, 42(4), 335-347. Monmonier, Mark. (1991). How to Lie with Maps. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Consequences of Talent management processes in relation to SABIC Term Paper

Consequences of Talent management processes in relation to SABIC Company - Term Paper Example Vice President Fahad Al-Sheaibi said at an International Conference of Arab Society for Human Resources Management (ASHRM) that the company employees now require global leadership skills. This is due to the complexity and multiplicity of the modern business environment, as well as employee diversities (Baporikar, 2013). He further said that getting the best of their employees and leveraging their cultural experience as they embrace their diversity is a major source of the Company’s competitive advantage. On SABIC, Al-Sheaibi said that the company has adopted a precise and sophisticated talent management strategy that seeks first to identify the easy steps the organization can take to focus on those challenges (Baqutayan, 2014). SABIC, therefore, must gradually implement a global approach to performance appraisal via the Talent Review Process. SABIC has identified four priorities necessary for achieving this as enshrined in its vision 2025. These include focusing on the organizational culture and leadership as the key to driving the much-needed changes within internal and external business environment (McDonnell, Hickey & Gunnigle, 2011). The second priority is to ensure that every staff member have the relevant skills and knowledge needed to perform the task to the best of their abilities. Third is to realize that the company’s recruitment is not only aimed at the present market but for future market needs. Lastly is to ensure that the Huma Resource team if fully equipped with the relevant requirements to meet its objectives (Alrasheedi, 2012). He further emphasized that attracting the right people with technical excellence and ability to join the organization is very critical for the realization of their vision. These qualities are what get a candidate through an interview door since SABIC recognizes the fact tha t most people work to make a difference not only for paychecks. SABIC also offers Career Development Programmes as an important part of the employee

Panopticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Panopticism - Essay Example Panopticon made discipline more economical and efficient compared to other forms of discipline and further represented power and control due to minimal human operations associated with it. No prisoner would realize that they were being watched from the tower (Foucault 195-200). The panopticon could be operated by anybody and would be used in very many places apart from prison cells. Key words; power, discipline, panopticon, disciplinary It is undeniable that the world would be a better claim when power and discipline is applied in effective gaining of control; this is because panopticon is used to represent discipline and power and further transformation of disciplinary techniques. Concept of panopticism is very evident in the current society where there is devolvement of power and administration services. For instance, a strict spatial partitioning and dividing the town into distinct quarters and every quarter governed by an intendant was the order of the day. Every street was put u nder control of a syndic who would keep it under strict surveillance in such a way that if he left the city he would be convicted to death. Everyone was ordered to stay within and the syndic would lock all the doors from outside before handing over keys to the intendant because no one was allowed to leave on death pain. Just like the panopticim, there are several divisions of administration put in place to reach the citizens at the grassroots level. A federal government for example, has some of its powers transferred to the states and even further in smaller divisions. There is one central power with several branches that everyone looks up to. Idea of plague has been used as a base of creating discipline just like other criminal acts such as terrorism in the current society. Disciplinary mechanism was introduced by the fear of the plague and this act as the origin of all the modern punishment. Visibility from the Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon tower is used as a trap. It was pos sible to see every individual including a schoolboy or prisoner being incarcerated but the victims could not communicate with each other. Terrorism is considered as one of the major crimes in the current society and the government has therefore created some divisions such as Afghanistan as some of the hot spots. Sentences related to terrorism are very severe thus causing fear amongst the public. Communication sector is being manipulated just to ensure minimal terror by scrutinizing any form of communication or money transfers. Just like in panopticism, the crowd was put away from this and the tower brought a sense of visibility that represented a functioning authority. Power is believed to be visible though unverifiable as a prisoner would always see the tower but remains ignorant about where is watched or observed. Panopticism concept can be compared with the current Intelligence and correctional facilities used in testing behaviors and capturing criminals. Panopticon is grounded o n the royal zoo at Versailles as it allows to do the work of naturalist and also acts as a laboratory of power. It is laboratory of power because it provides a base in which prisoners and staffs are tested. It is also apparent that the plague afflicted town and the tower depicts change of disciplinary program. FBI has the responsibility of putting suspects on the radar and testing their behaviors or monitoring their behaviors before capturing them. this is a common activity carried out particularly while pursuing terrorists. Panopticism symbolizes the wider police force employed at various stations across the country to maintain law and order in the modern world.The tower

Love in a Time of Cholera Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Love in a Time of Cholera - Essay Example ts epidemics of cholera, and to the final riverboat scene where a flag warns that there are cholera victims on board when in fact two pensioners are enjoying their delayed honeymoon. The novel opens with a suicide. Jeremiah de Saint Amour could not bear the idea of ageing; he suffered from â€Å"gerontophobia† and had sworn â€Å"I will never grow old†. This hypnotic novel explores the dilemmas of ageing through a plot of unrequited love; a man, Florentino Ariza, waiting fifty-one years, nine months and four days for his rival to die in order to reaffirm his love for his sweetheart, Fermina Daza. The novelty of this theme is striking, almost implausible. Florentino Arizas head is filled with the illusions read of in sentimental poems. His patience is rewarded at the end when he finally beds his aged beloved in a riverboat. Due to the suggestive prose, the reader tends to read the novel as a romance, a tale of timeless love that transcends age and time, a love that emerges victorious in the end. â€Å"However, disguised beneath the surface of the melodramatic plot lies a critical, sometimes satiric examination of many of the elements that appear to contribute to the novels charm, but actually undercut much of its romanticism and sentimentality.† (Jeffrey M. Lilburn.  Love in the Time of Cholera: Deep Themes of the Popular Conceptions of Love.) Despite counterpointing of characters and themes, Garcia Marquez, a friend of Fidel Castro, refuses to judge his characters or condemn them. He is far more subtle, and generous. The way he situates his protagonist is exemplified when the patient Florentino Ariza finally climbs into a riverboat bed with his beloved and receives a telegram saying that his god-daughter has killed herself. He seduced America Vicufia as a child, and they became lovers. He then broke off the relationship without ever realizing how much in love with him, despite his age, the school-girl was. She had found his secret love letters to Fermina Daza, and

People Suffering Mental Disorder Auditory Hallucinations

People Suffering Mental Disorder Auditory Hallucinations Auditory hallucinations for some people suffering mental disorder are frequently experienced as alien and under the influence of some external force. These are often experienced as voices that are distressing to the individual and can cause social withdrawal and isolation. Although auditory hallucinations are associated with major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, they also occur in the general population (Coffey and Hewitt 2008). The annual incidence is estimated between 4-5 percent (Tien 1991), with those experiencing voices at least once, estimated between 10-25 percent (Slade Bentall 1988).The standard professional response to voice hearing has been to label it as symptomatic of illness and to prescribe anti-psychotic medication (Leudar Thomas 2000). An alternative is suggested by Romme and Escher (1993), who view the hearing of voices as not simply an individuals psychological experience, but as an interaction, reflecting the nature of the individuals relationship with h is or her own social environment. In this way, voices are interpreted as being linked to past or present experiences and the emphasis is on accepting the existence of the voices. Romme and Escher (1993) see hallucinatory voices as responsive to enhanced coping and found that those who coped well with voices had more supportive social environments than those who found it difficult to cope. This dissertation will aim to discuss the experience and management of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia looking into therapeutic relationship, helping approaches, and working towards the ending of a therapeutic relationship discussing discharge. First chapter will aim to explain what schizophrenia is, the cause of schizophrenia, its symptoms and types with particular focus on auditory hallucinations. The chapter will then discuss what auditory hallucinations are in the diagnosis. Therapeutic relationship between service user and the nurse is paramount in mental health nursing and is seen to prove long term outcome such as social functioning (Svensson and Hansson 1999). Chapter two will aim to discuss the building of therapeutic relationship in the management of auditory hallucinations using Peplaus interpersonal relations model (1952). The importance of holistic assessment using a variety of tools, scales and questionnaires that will identify symptoms, risks, management of risk and address the service users needs will be discuss in chapter three. Chapter four of this dissertation will discuss helping approaches. Gray et al (2003) states that pharmacological and psychosocial interventions have been heavily researched to find the most up to date literature and recommendations for the management of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia with medication and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).. The final chapter will aim to discuss the ending of the therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the service user looking into discharge planning process and conclusion. Chapter one What is Schizophrenia and Auditory Hallucinations? Introduction to chosen topic Schizophrenia is one of the terms used to describe a major psychiatric disorder (or cluster of disorders) that alters an individuals perception, thoughts, affect and behaviour. Individuals who develop schizophrenia will each have their own unique combination of symptoms and experiences, the precise pattern of which will be influenced by their particular circumstances (NICE 2010). Allen et al (2010) define schizophrenia as a chronic and seriously disabling brain disorder that produces significant residual cognitive, functional and social deficits. Schizophrenia is considered the most disabling of all mental disorders (Mueser and McGurk, 2004), it occurs in about 1% of the world population, or more than 20 million people worldwide (Silverstein et al., 2006). The DSM -IV TR (APA 2000) defines schizophrenia as a persistent, often chronic and usually serious mental disorder affecting a variety of aspects of behaviour, thinking, and emotion. Patients with delusions or hallucinations may be described as psychotic. However, Tucker (1998) argues that the system of classification developed by the DSM-IV does not actually fit many patients as a whole; the syndromes outlined in DSM-IV are free standing descriptions of symptoms. He said unlike diagnoses of diseases in the rest of medicine, psychiatric diagnoses still have no proven link to causes and cures; Tucker argues that there is no identified etiological agents for psychiatric disorders. Schizophrenia is characterized by clusters of positive symptoms (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, and/or catatonia), negative symptoms (e.g. apathy, flat feet, social withdrawal, loss of feelings, lack of motivation and/or poverty of speech), and disorganized symptoms (e.g. formal thought disorder and/or bizarre behaviours). In addition, individuals with schizophrenia often experience substantial cognitive deficits including loss of executive function, as well as social dysfunction (Allen et al., 2010). It is estimated that nearly 75% of people with schizophrenia suffer with auditory hallucinations (Ford et al., 2009). Positive and negative symptoms are mentioned briefly because the dissertation is primarily focused on auditory hallucinations. Auditory hallucinations in diagnosis Auditory hallucinations are often considered symptomatic of people diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia (Millham and Easton, 1998). APA (1994, p.767) defines hallucinations as a sensory perception that has the compelling sense of reality of a true perception but that occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. Auditory hallucinations range from muffled sounds to complete conversations and can be experienced as coming either from within or from outside ones self (Nayani David, 1996). However, Stanghellini and Cutting (2003) argue that APA definition of hallucinations is false, they believe an auditory hallucination is not a false perception of sound but is a disorder of self consciousness that becomes conscious. Hearing voices is not only linked to a persons inner experience but can reflect a persons relationship with their own past and present experiences (Romme and Escher, 1996). Beyerstein (1996) suggests that voices are anything that prompts a move fro m word based thinking to imagistic or pictorial thinking predisposes a person to hallucinating. Auditory hallucinations, or hearing sounds or voices are the most common and occur in nearly 75 percent of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (Ford et al., 2009). Auditory hallucinations are often derogatory or persecutory in nature, and can be heard in the third person, as a running commentary, or as audible thoughts. Some individuals with schizophrenia also experience useful or positive voices that give advice, encourage, remind, and help make decisions, or assist the person in their daily activities (Jenner et al., 2008). Voice hearer can work with their voices and either choose what to listen to or can completely ignore them (Romme et al., 1992). Sorrell et al (2009) states that some individuals experience positive voices which do not affect the way they function or go about their daily living, these hearers also find that their voices may offer advice and guidance. The hearers voice can be reported as a little distressful or some go on to report no distress at all (Honig et al., 1998). However Nayani and David (1996) argues that individuals who experience a constant negative voice found them less difficult to control, they found the voice more powerful and attempt to ignore the voice. Chadwick et al (2005) said that those who resist voices or feel the need to argue or shout back are termed malevolent, those who think voices are good and engage with them are benevolent, they see voices are helping them so they tend to listen and follow advice. Swanson et al (2008) suggests that people who hear voices are more likely to be victims of violence than be violent themselves. However Soppitt and Birchwood (1997) argue that voices are more commonly linked to depression, voice hearers can also have a history of suicidal thoughts, paranoia and abuse. Not all auditory hallucinations are associated with mental illness, and studies show that 10 to 40 percent of people without a psychiatric illness report hallucinatory experiences in the auditory modality (Ohayon, 2000). A range of organic brain disorders is also associated with hallucinations, including temporal lobe epilepsy; delirium; dementia; focal brain lesions; neuro- infections, such as viral encephalitis; and cerebral tumours intoxication or withdrawal from substances such alcohol, cocaine, and amphetamines is also associated with auditory hallucinations (Fricchione et al., 1995) The phenomenological characteristics of auditory hallucinations differ on the basis of their etiology, and this can have diagnostic implications. People without mental illness tend to report a greater proportion of positive voices, a higher level of control over the voices, less frequent hallucinatory experiences, and less interference with activities than people who have a psychiatric illness (Lowe, 1973). There is also evidence that delusion formation may distinguish psychotic disorders from non clinical hallucinatory experiences. In other words, the development of delusions in people with auditory hallucinations significantly increases the risk of psychosis when compared with individuals who have hallucinations but not delusions. Auditory hallucinations may be experienced as coming through the ears, in the mind, on the surface of the body, or anywhere in external space. The frequency can range from low (once a month or less) to continuously all day long. Loudness also varies, from whispers to shouts. The intensity and frequency of symptoms fluctuate during the illness, but the factor that determines whether auditory hallucinations are a central feature of the clinical picture is the degree of interference with activities and mental functions (Waters, 2010) The most common type of auditory hallucinations in psychiatric illness consists of voices. Voices may be male or female, and with intonations and accents that typically differ from those of the patient. Persons who have auditory hallucinations usually hear more than one voice, and these are sometimes recognized as belonging to someone who is familiar (such as a neighbour, family member or TV personality) or to an imaginary character (God, the devil, an angel). Verbal hallucinations may comprise full sentences, but single words are more often reported. Voices that comment on or discuss the individuals behaviour and that refer to the patient in the third person were thought to be first-rank symptoms and of diagnostic significance for schizophrenia (Schneider, 1959). Studies show that approximately half of patients with schizophrenia experience these symptoms (Waters, 2010). Waters (2010) says a significant proportion of patients also experience non verbal hallucinations, such as music, tapping, or animal sounds, although these experiences are frequently overlooked in auditory hallucinations research. Another type of hallucination includes the experience of functional hallucinations, in which the person experiences auditory hallucinations simultaneously through another real noise (e.g., a person may perceive auditory hallucinations only when he hears a car engine). The content of voices varies between individuals. Often the voices have a negative and malicious content. They might speak to the patient in a derogatory or insulting manner or give commands to perform an unacceptable behaviour. The experience of negative voices causes considerable distress. However, a significant proportion of voices are pleasant and positive, and some individuals report feelings of loss when the treatment causes the voices to disappear (Copolov et al., 2004). The exact processes that underlie auditory hallucinations remain largely unknown. There are two principal avenues of research: one focuses on neuro anatomical networks using techniques such as positron emission tomography and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The other focuses on cognitive and psychological processes and the exploration of mental events involved in auditory hallucinations. A common formulation suggests that auditory verbal hallucinations represent an impairment in language processing and, particularly, inner speech processes, whereby the internal and silent dialogue that healthy people engage in is no longer interpreted as coming from the self but instead as having an external alien origin. There is support for this language hypothesis of auditory hallucinations from neuro imaging studies. These show that the experience of auditory hallucinations engages brain regions, such as the primary auditory cortex and broca area, which are associated with language c omprehension and production. This suggests that hallucinatory experiences are associated with listening to external speech in the absence of external sounds (Waters, 2010) An explanation of why these experiences are not perceived as self-generated posits that auditory hallucinations arise because persons who have the hallucinations fail to distinguish between internal and external events. This arises because of deficits in internal self-monitoring mechanisms that compare the expected with the actual sensations that arise from the patients intentions. This abnormality also applies to inner speech processes and leads to the misclassification of internal events as external and misattribution to an external agent (Frith, 2005).However, Bentall and Slade (1985) suggest that individuals with hallucinations use a different set of judgment criteria from healthy people when deciding whether an event is real, and they are more willing to accept that a perceptual experience is true. This bias essentially involves a greater willingness to believe that an event is real on the basis of less evidence. According to the context memory hypothesis of auditory hallucinations, the failure to identify events as self-generated arises because of specific deficits in episodic memory for remembering the details associated with particular past memory events. These specific deficits in memory cause confusion about the origins of the experience (Nayani and David, 1996). Patients with auditory hallucinations tend to misidentify the origins and source of stimuli during ongoing events and during memory events (Waters et al., 2006). The lack of voluntary control over the experience is a key feature of auditory hallucinations, which might explain why self-generated inner speech is classified as external in origin (Copolov et al., 2003). Hallucinations are experienced when verbal thoughts are unintended and unwanted. Because deficits in cognitive processes, such as inhibitory control, are thought to render people more susceptible to intrusive and recurrent unwanted thoughts, studies have linked audit ory hallucinations with deficits in cognitive inhibition (Waters et al., 2006). Recent advances in the neurosciences provide clues to why patients report an auditory experience in the absence of any perceptual input. Spontaneous activity in the early sensory cortices may in fact form the basis for the original signal. Early neuronal computation systems are known to interpret this activity and engage in decision-making processes to determine whether a percept has been detected. A brain system that is abnormally tuned in to internal acoustic experiences may therefore report an auditory perception in the absence of any external sound (Deco and Romo, 2008). Ford et al., (2009) suggested that patients with auditory hallucinations may have excessive attentional focus toward internally generated events: the brains of persons who have auditory hallucinations may therefore be over interpreting spontaneous sensory activity that is largely ignored in healthy brains. Cognitive impairments are not the only factors responsible for auditory hallucinations. Psychological factors such as meta-cognitive biases, beliefs, and attributions concerning the origins and intent of voices also play a critical modulatory role in shaping the experience of hallucinations. The role of environmental cues and reinforcement factors through avoidance strategies must also be incorporated in any explanations of auditory hallucinations. These factors do not explain how hallucinations occur in the first place, but they have strong explanatory power when accounting for individual differences in how the voices are experienced (Baker and Morrison, 1998). Patients suffering from auditory hallucinations sometimes can not distinguish between what is real and what is not real, it is very important to build a trusting therapeutic relationship with the sufferer. This dissertation will go on to explore the importance of building a therapeutic relationship with a patient; To explore the extent of auditory hallucinations a patient may be experiencing it is important that an appropriate assessment and risk management are carried out, exploring the need for assessment and risk management in auditory hallucinations, It will also look into helping approaches discussing pharmacological and psychosocial approaches in the management of auditory hallucinations and how to end the therapeutic relationship between a service user and the nurse, looking into discharge planning. CHAPTER TWO DEVELOPMENT OF THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP Development of the Therapeutic Relationship Peplaus theories laid the ground for ascendancy of the relationship as the key context for all subsequent interventions with patients (Ryan Brooks, 2000). Although the idea of the relationship endures as the paradigm for psychiatric nursing (Barker, Jackson, Stevenson, 1999a; 1999b; Krauss, 2000; Raingruber, 2003), it does not appear there is any universal consensus on exactly how to frame this relationship. The nurse-patient relationship can be defined as an ongoing, meaningful communication that fosters honesty, humility, and mutual respect and is based on a negotiated partnership between the patient and the practitioner (Krauss, 2000, p. 49). Peplau describes nursing as a therapeutic interpersonal process that aims to identify problems and how to relate to them (Peterson and Bredow 2009). Forster (2001) defines therapeutic relationship as a trusting relationship developed by two or more individuals. However, Jukes and Aldridge (2006) says at first sight therapeutic nursing and the therapeutic relationship may seem relatively easy to define, but once we scrape the surface we find a complex range of ideas and concepts that stem from philosophies, ideologies and individual therapies. Sometimes there are difficulties in applying these definitions to our own work. Not least of these difficulties is the relevance of the concept of therapy as healing to nursing. This begs the question of whether a therapeutic relationship always entails the use of a therapy, or whether there is something more universal and fundamental in therapeutic relationships. It seems important therefore to attempt a workable definition of the therapeutic r elationship that has currency within nursing as a whole. Additionally, it seems that therapeutic nursing has two facets. The first of these, and probably the most apparent, is the emotional and interpersonal aspect, which we might call therapeutic nursing as an art. The second is the more logical and objective aspect, which we might call The therapeutic nursing as a science. Arguably, there is a synergy between the two that leads to a gestalt, and therefore a need to address both aspects if our nursing is to be truly therapeutic in a holistic sense. Peplaus theory focuses on the nurse, the patient and the relationship between them and is aimed at using interpersonal skills to develop trust and security within the nurse-patient relationship. Therapeutic relationships are the corner stone of nursing practice with people who are experiencing threats to their health, including but not restricted to those people with mental illness (Reynolds 2003). The relationship of one to one of nurse patient has potential to influence positive outcome for patients. Hildegard Peplau interpersonal relations overlap over four phases namely: Orientation, Identification, Exploitation and Resolution. Peplau also identify that during the four overlapping phases nurses adopts many roles such as- Resource person: giving specific needed information that aids the patient to understand his/her problem and their new situation. A nurse may function in a counselling relationship, listening to the patient as he/she reviews events that led up to hospitalization and feeling connected with them. The patient may cast the nurse into roles such as surrogate for mother, father, sibling, in which the nurse aids the patient by permitting him/her to re-enact and examine generically older feelings generated in prior relationships. The nurse also functions as a technical expert who understands various professional devices and can manipulate them with skill and discrimination in the interest of the patient (Clay 1988). The orientation phase is the initial phase of the relationship where the nurse and the patient get to know each other. The patient begins to trust the nurse. This phase is sometimes called the stranger phase because the nurse and the patient are strangers to each other (Reynolds 2003). Peplaus (1952) suggest that during this phase early levels of trust are developed and roles and expectation begin to be understood. It is important that during this time that the nurse builds a relationship with the patient by gaining their trust, establishing a therapeutic environment, developing rapport and a level of communication expectable to both the patient and the nurse. During the orientation phase trust and security is supposed to be developed between the nurse and the patient. Co-ordination of care and treatment of patient while using an effective communication between the MDT is a nurse role. The nurse also acts as an advocate/surrogate for a patient and promotes recovery and self belief. Essential communication skills are deemed to be listening and attending, empathy, information giving and support in the context of a therapeutic relationship (Bach and Grant 2009). Building a therapeutic relationship needs to focus on patient -centred rather than nurse-task focus. Bach and Grant (2009) say interpersonal relationship describes the connection between two or more people or groups and their involvement with one another, especially as regards the way they behave towards and feels about one another. Communication is to exchange information between people by means of speaking, writing or using a common system of signs or behaviour. Faulkner (1998) suggested that Rogers (1961) client centred approach conditions can be seen as important factors that contributes to a therapeutic relationship. Rogers (1961) three core conditions are: congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regards. Congruence means that the nurse should be open and genuine about feelings towards their patient. Having the ability to empathise with the patient would show that the nurse has the ability to understand the patients thoughts and feelings about their current problem. Unconditional positive regards is viewing them as a person and focusing on positive attributes and behaviour (Forster 2001). The orientation phase also gives the nurse the chance to asses the patients current health and once the assessment has been carried out the can then move the relationship forward to the identification phase. The identification phase is where the patients needs are identified through various assessment tools. Assessment will be discussed in detail in the next chapter. Butterworth (1994; DH 1994a; DH 2006a) says that during the identification phase the nurse and the patient will both work together discussing the patients identified needs, needs that can be met and those that cannot be met. They will al so identify risks and how to manage the risks and aim to formulate a care plan. Butterworth said the care plan should focused on the patients individual needs, long and short term goals and their wishes, whilst being empowered at all times to make informed decisions and choices that matter in their care. Collaborative working between multi-agencies ensures the needs of the patient are being met through appropriate assessment and treatment under the Care and Treatment Plan (CTP). The Care and Treatment Plan is one of a number of new rights delivered by the Mental Health (Wales) Measure (2010). The Measure also gives people who have been discharged from secondary mental health services the right to make a self referral back for assessment and it extends the right to an Independent Mental Health Advocate to all in-patients. A care co-ordinator must ensure that a care and treatment plan which records all of the outcomes which the provision of mental health services are designed to achieve for a relevant patient is completed in writing in the form set out (Hafal, 2012). The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (Rose 2001) found that patients are often not involved in the care planning process and many service users were not even aware of having a care plan. The exploitation phase is where interventions are implemented from the needs and goals set out in the identification phase which enables the service user to move forward, these interventions will assist in managing auditory hallucinations, whilst educating the patient and family members about the illness. Helping approaches will be discussed in detail in the next chapter looking at various up to date interventions available for the management of auditory hallucinations. A trusting relationship can help with recovery and during these interlocking phases is what the nurse and the patient are aiming for (Hewitt and Coffey, 2005). Building of a trusting therapeutic relationship is essential for nursing interventions to work (Lynch and Trenoweth, 2008). Nurses need to be sensitive, show compassion at all times and understanding to a patients needs. Nursing interventions needs to address physical, psychological and social needs; this involves having holistic approach (Coleman and Jenkins, 1998). Nurses need to work with the best evidence based therapeutic treatment available, this then being a positive approach to care (NMC 2008). The Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) review of the Mental Health Nursing (2006) noted that to improve quality of life, service users risks need to be managed properly, whilst promoting health, physical care and well being. However, Hall et al., (2008) argues that the CNO review does not take into consideration the great pressure nurs es are under and also the complex needs of the service user. Therapeutic interventions are an important aspect of recovery (Gourney 2005). Recovery can be described as a set of values about the service users right to build a meaning life for themselves without the continuous presence of mental health symptoms (Shepherd et al., 2008). The purpose of recovery is to work towards self determination and self confidence (Rethink 2005). National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE, 2005) described recovery as a state of wellness after period of illness. Nurse need to provide a holistic view of mental illness with a person centred approach that can work towards the identification of goals and offer the patient appropriate support through interventions like CBT, family therapy and coping skills, this will enable the patient to be at the centre of their own care, thus taking responsibility for their own illness and improve quality of life. Service user who have a full understanding and accept their illness can engage more with therapies and in terventions with the necessary support from professionals, this then leads to self determination and better quality of life (Cunningham et al., 2005). However, Took (2002) says it is important to remember that with a service user experiencing auditory hallucinations, their mood and engagement can fluctuate and also the side effect of prescribed medication can affect this which may slow down the recovery process. Early intervention is also recognised to improve long term outcomes of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia (McGorry et al., 2005: NICE 2009). However, not all service users will seek advice when first experiencing symptoms, due to stigma attached to mental illness and fear of admission to hospital (French and Morrison 2004). Some service users have also complained that the hospital has a non therapeutic environment and that they also feel unsafe and in an orison like setting (SCMH 1998, 2005; DoH 2004b). Drury (2006) says that service users felt that some professionals lacked compassion. Mental health nurses are encouraged to adopt a client centre approach, some research suggests nurses lack empathy and have general uncaring attitude (Herdman 2004). The final phase of Peplaus theory is the resolution phase. This is where the nurse and the service user will end their professional relationship. The relationship can end either through discharge or death. For the purpose of this dissertation the ending of the relationship that will be discussed at a later chapter will be discharge. Therapeutic relationship is seen as paramount during these interlocking phases of peplaus interpersonal relations theory, nurses needs to promote the service users independence whilst treating them with respect, privacy and dignity. By identifying treatment goals, implementing and evaluating treatment plans the service user can move on to interventions that will help them manage and cope with auditory hallucinations. Chapter 3 Assessment of a patient with Auditory Hallucinations Assessment of Auditory Hallucinations Assessment is the decision making process, based upon the collection of relevant information, using a formal set of ethical criteria, that contributes to an overall estimation of a person and his circumstances (Barker 2004). Hall et al (2008) described assessment as one of the first steps to the nursing process; it is also part of care planning and a positive foundation for building a relationship and forming therapeutic alliance. It is an ongoing process that enables professional to gather information that allows them to understand a persons experience. Most assessments have similar aims. However, how assessments are conducted can vary enormously. Such differences are very important and can influence greatly the value of the information produced (Barker 2004). In Wales CTP was introduced under the Mental Health (Wales) Measures 2010. CTP means a plan prepared for the purpose of achieving the outcomes which the provision of mental health services for a relevant patient is design to achieve and ensures service users have a care plan, risk assessment and a care co-ordinator to monitor and review their care (see appendix one). NICE (2010) suggest that assessment should contain the service users psychiatric, psychological and physical health needs and also include current living arrangements, ethnicity, quality of life, social links, relevant risk and other significant factors that may affect the service users quality of life. Assessment of a patient relies upon the collection of information through interviewing: the patient, member of their family, direct observation of the nurse, questionnaire, rating scales, and previous history (Previous records). However, Barker (2004) argues that despite the importance of the history, if relied upon as the sole method of assessment, not only may the final picture of the patient be of a doubtful accuracy but it may also lack the fine detail necessary for the planning o

Cons Of Cloning :: essays research papers

Many people say that everyone in the world has a twin. Today, science and technology has the ability to make this myth reality through the process of cloning. I am strongly against cloning for many reasons. People should not utilize cloning because it would destroy individuality and uniqueness, cause overpopulation, animal cruelty, it is against morals and ethics, and it violates many religious beliefs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to strongly argue against cloning, there must be an understanding of its process and what exactly it is. Simply stated, a clone is a duplicate just like a photocopy. A good example of such â€Å"copies† that occur are identical twins, which are duplicates of each other. â€Å"The first step of DNA cloning is to isolate a complete gene and is to chromosomal sequences and then to gradually begin flaking the chromosomal sequences of a single DAN molecule. Then the DNA clone can be electronically labeled and used as a probe to isolate the chromosomal sequences from a collection of different types of genes, which should contain cloned sequences that would represent the whole gene. This action will produce new sets of cloned cells identical to the mother cell. The new set of cells are isolated and likewise the simplified process is repeated all over again until the cells form a complete organ. In order to produce a complete organism the DNA must be alte red in a variety of way to come out with the finished product to be the complete organism.† In simple terms, a cell is taken from a donor woman. Then an unfertilized egg is taken from a second woman. The DNA from the cell is removed and transferred to the egg. The egg is then implanted into a surrogate mother. The resulting baby is genetically identical to the original donor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Human cloning destroys individuality and uniqueness. â€Å"What makes people unique is the fact that we have different genes and cloning would lose these important parts of our bodies makeup.† There would be less of a variety of people and everyone would be the same. This would not only be the good qualities, but also the bad that would pass on. Since clones and the original donor will look alike and have the same DNA, it would be nearly impossible to tell the difference. Overtime, they would lose their individuality and uniqueness. For example, say a crime was committed.

First Year Psychology Students’ Memory for The News as a Function of Media of Presentation

7O psychology students were presented with a selection of four news stories in three different media; print form, audio form and audio visual form. Participants were tested immediately after exposure to the news to measure retention of story details, via a questionnaire. Subsequent results showed significant differences in information recall between the medium of presentation. Recall of detail was greatest from print, and worst from audio mode. It was made clear that when in print form, information is better absorbed, processed and retained than when in audio-visual mode and audio form. INTRODUCTION As the world's technology grows, and the public's demand for information is ever increasing, the news is presented in increasingly varied media. The news is a key factor in modern day society, with the vast majority of the U.K population being exposed to it at least once every day. Despite the various forms in which news can be accessed, for example radio, print and even music, it can be gathered from public opinion surveys that the vast majority of individuals endorse television as their most important source of news information. Subjective views of audiences indicate that television is an important news source, from which they learn a lot. Yet, research in the past has shown that on the whole, individuals frequently fail to remember very much from television broadcasts. One survey of people living in the San Francisco area, where respondents were telephoned shortly after the evening's main broadcast and asked, â€Å"What do you recall from tonight's broadcast?†, showed 51% could not recall any stories. On average subjects remembered just 6% of bulletin's stories.(Stern 1971) These losses of information recalled can be due to various factors concerning the viewer's motivation, attention, interest in the story and relationship with the story (Gantz 1979, Neuman 1976). For example, British research indicated that gender differences in the recall of TV news is linked to content factors. Interestingly, males recalled information from news narratives about violent incidents accompanied by violent images better than females did. Yet when these same stories were presented in sound only and print form, these gender differences disappeared(Gunter,Furnham and Gietson 1984). Also, research has questioned a variety of news presentation factors as having significant effects on learning(Berry, Gunter and Clifford 1981). It must therefore be questioned whether television is in fact the most memorable form of presentation of information, when compared with audio-only or print form. Printed media convey greater quantities of information, and also allow readers to process the news at their own pace, whereas in both visual and audio-visual modes, the pace of information presentation is set by the producer. It is also argued that people are able to process information more deeply when reading or listening to the source. This is due to the fact that when watching the news item, the viewer is given all the information at once; visual and audio. This can not only be somewhat confusing(especially if the visual information does not correlate to the audio or narrative, often due to quick cutting of visual scenes), but also means the individual does not need to pay attention as much, as no extra thinking must be done. When reading and to some extent listening to an article, the individual must think of the visual ingredient themselves, as this is not given. This additional processing of the material can result in better retention. This has been supported by various researchers(Greenfield 1982, Meringoff 1980). It should be noted that this theory is argued in research, it has been found that recollection of the same story in print and audio-visual modes is better from print(Beighley 1952; Browne 1978). On the other hand, a study using television, radio and print to present information, it was reported that retention of abstract information is far superior when from television, in turn with better memory performance from radio than print(Williams,Paul and Ogilvie 1957). Yet more recent research by Wilson (1974), which involved all three media, found that retention was better from print than audio and audio visual. It is possible that these differences in findings is because Williams tested recognition, whereas Wilson tested free re-call(Gunter,Furnham and Gietson 1984). This therefore could help argue that printed presentation of information produces better free recall performance as reading requires more cognitive effort and requires deeper information processing than television. Millions of pounds are spent on advertising and sponsorship on television, as it is presumed that information that people see on TV will be remembered and hence may lead to buying a certain product. This, therefore is an important and interesting area of research, not only due to the controversy of previous results, but due to the present day necessity for effective advertising and could also lead to future improvements in education and teaching methods. In this experiment, it is Hypothesised that- scores regarding information retention would be higher from groups who receive written material than audio, which would be higher than audio-visual material. In order to carry out this study, a similar study's framework was used as a template for the design. In this case, the study- â€Å"Memory for the news as a function of the channel of communication† (Gunter, Furnham and Gietson 1984) was replicated. METHOD Design and Materials- Random assignation of participants (a control) produced three groups (see participants subsection later) with no limitation on sex ratio in each group. These three groups were the independent variable. The groups were presented with varying media all of which gave the same narrative script (a constant throughout each item), in different forms. Group A(n=25) were presented with news in audio form. Group B(n=22) received the information in print form and Group C(n=23) received the news in audio-visual form. The news items were originally recorded from TV news bulletins transmitted by an experimental TV service, and had not been aired on mainstream networks throughout the U.K. The bulletins were originally broadcast separately over 18 years ago, therefore further reducing the likelihood of a participant having previously seen said items. Participants in were confronted with four separate news stories, which were presented in the same order for each media. In its audio/audio-visual state, each of the four stories lasted approximately one minute, with a total time of 4 minutes, 33seconds from beginning of story 1 to the end of story 4. Two items were scenes of street fighting between protesters/demonstrators and police in El Salvador and South Korea. The two other news items depicted non-violent events – Japan lifting trade restrictions and A Greek Prime Minister's visit to Yugoslavia. Each story had a common narrative voiced over by an unseen narrator, and it was this common narrative which was transcribed in the print form given to Group B. Footage presented to Group C depicted the following scenes- the El Salvador footage showed gun-fighting between individuals in the streets, with commentary from the narrator. Footage from South Korea showed rioters throwing stones at police and rioters reprimanded being clubbed and beaten by officers. The story told gave reasons for these disturbances, which were varying social groups' dissatisfaction with each Government. Japan's reduction on tariffs on certain goods due to disapproval from the U.S.A and the E.E.C was accompanied by footage of delegates at a summit meeting in Versailles concerning various matters including those mentioned previously. The last story concerning the Greek Prime Minister's visit to Yugoslavia depicted images of the visit and documented reasons for the visit. Group C were presented the stories via a colour screen with sound capability. Group A were presented with only the sound stream from the audio-visual medium. Group B were given transcripts of the narrative from the broadcasts. A questionnaire was then given to the groups, which contained twenty questions, five from each story, which questioned the groups about certain facts from the news items, hence testing the content retention of each group. The questions tested remembrance of where and why certain events occurred. The participants then were awarded two points for each correct answer, one point for a partially correct answer and zero for an incorrect answer, giving a maximum score of forty points. Participants- A total of 70 subjects were used in the experiment, all of whom were University of Bath first year psychology students, with ages ranging from 18 to 40. Group A,B and C each had three males in them, and subsequently contained 22, 19 and 20 females respectively. Procedure- Once seated, participants were given a letter which referred to their group- A,B or C. Group B were then removed from the room, and given scripts which they had four minutes to read. They remained in the building's foyer until time was up. Groups A and C were presented with a video with sound on a projected colour screen in the main room. Group A (audio only) were then instructed to cover their eyes as to only listen to the audio from the video, whilst Group C were allowed to watch the video and listen. The exposure times for each group were equated across each media. Once all groups were re-assembled, they were handed with a questionnaire which they had twenty minutes to complete. Subjects then were told the correct answers and marked their own tests. They then handed in the scripts with their group letter and total score on, from which the results were calculated. RESULTS Table 1 (shown below) shows the processed data gained from the experiment. The table presents the means from each group's results on the questionnaire, and the standard deviation of each group. Table 1 Group Number of subjects Mean Score Standard Deviation A- audio 25 7.9 4.6 B- print 22 12.0 5.1 C- audio-visual 23 8.9 4.9 The mean scores of each group are a point of interest in this study as they illustrate the extent to which each medium was recollected, as an average for each group. Group B gained the highest mean score on the questionnaire with an average of 12. Group C gained the next highest average, with a mean score of 8.9, and Group A had the lowest score with 7.9. This indicates that those who received information via print recalled the greatest level of detail, as they scored highest (on average) in the questionnaire. The comparison of mean scores also indicates the superiority of audio-visual medium over audio in terms of detail recollection. It was also necessary to include standard deviation in the data as this shows the dispersion of individual results around the mean for each group. As can be seen from Table 1, the standard deviation for each group was relatively similar; 4.6, 5.1 and 4.9 respectively for groups A, B and C. The standard deviation scores were also relatively low in each group, with group B having the most dispersed results around the mean with the highest standard deviation (5.1). Group A had the lowest standard deviation with 4.6, with group C in between with 4.9. The standard deviation indicates that scores were more agglomerated in group A than groups C and B. As the dispersal around the mean for each group were rather similar, it is indicated that the memory performance of participants in all three groups varied to a certain extent, even though averages were different. DISCUSSION The extent to which the news was recalled by participants was highly dependant upon the mode of presentation. As hypothesised, the results show that the level of detail recalled was greatest following pint presentation of the news. This was the expected outcome, and has been confirmed in previous research, for example Beighley(1952) and Browne(1976), who both found that print in the most memorable medium of presentation. There are a number of theories as to why print is the superior format for news recollection, firstly it is argued that in print form, there is a greater quantity of information offered to the reader. Although the print format was purely a transcript of the narrative of the audio/audio-visual media, the amount of information that can be absorbed and processed by the reader is greater. This can be due to the fact that when in print format, information can be processed at a self-paced speed( Gunter, Furnham and Gietson 1984), whereas in audio and audio visual formats, i nformation is presented at the set pace decided upon by the producer. This leads to a greater absorption of information from print format and hence a greater level of detail recall (as shown in the results of this report; the mean score for subjects given the print format was 12, compared to 7.9 and 8.9 for audio and audio-visual formats respectively),indeed imagery is known to act as a strong mnemonic device(Paivio and Csapo, 1973; Kosslyn and Pomerantz 1977). Printed news also necessitates the reader to conjure up his/her own images whilst reading the script, in order to get a mental picture of the scenes documented. It is this process which also may lead to greater remembrance of detail, as the reader must process the information further than participants who received the audio-visual format( Greenfield 1982 and Meringoff 1980). To some extent, this is prevalent with audio only subjects, as images are not given, so must be imagined. The experiment showed that, contrary to the hypothesis, Group C(audio-visual) scored a higher average than Group A(audio),as can be seen from the results; Group C's average on the questionnaire was 8.9 whilst Group A's average was 7.9. This determination was also made by Williams, Paul and Ogilvie (1957) in a similar study. The findings in their study showed that audio-visual media led to greater information retention than audio only. This result was unexpected, yet there are a number of reasons as to why news presented in audio-visual format was better recalled than in audio. Firstly, the structure of the audio feed was not purposefully made for audio presentation – subjects in Group A(audio) simply covered their eyes and listened to the video's audio stream. Therefore it could be argued that if the audio format was structured for audio presentation, then absorption of information would be greater, as the audio-visual format would rely somewhat on its visual imagery to present its information, therefore Group A(audio) would miss out on this extra source. Another bias in performance could be due to Group A simply having to cover their eyes so as to prevent them from watching the video. This could prove to be distracting, as the subject would to some degree focus on not watching the video footage and therefore lose slight interest in listening to the information. It could also be argued that the act of shielding the information source from oneself has subconscious implications, in that the listener subconsciously feels removed and distanced from news source due to covering his/her eyes. This would limit the amount of information processed and therefore retained. Listeners may also get bored of the blank visual stimuli, therefore making it harder to focus and retain information. There is also the possibility that those who watched the news scored more highly on average than those who listened to the news due to the violent images displayed. It is said that many individuals(especially male) recall images in the video which aid them in retaining information(Gunter, Furnham and Gietson). This is especially prevalent when concerning images of a violent nature- for example scenes from El Salvador of gun fighting. Emotionally charged images, such as war and fighting are proven to be better recalled than neutral images(i.e those with no emotional connotations)(Cohen, Wigand and Harrison, 1976). Therefore video footage may in fact aid the retention of detail. A theory put forward by A. Paivio is that of Dual Coding Theory(Paivio and Csapio 1973), which helps to explain why the hypothesis in this report was partially disproved(in that audio-visual ave rage was higher than audio). Dual Coding theory suggest two cognitive sub-systems, one which deals imagery and the other specializes in language. In this case, Dual Coding theory would assume that due to two sources of information(audio and visual) a were presented to group C, the group members had more information to gather, and furthermore, each source re-enforces the other. This means that the visual imagery would be re-enforced by the audio source, but would itself re-enforce the audio, therefore creating a circumstance in which information is easily absorbed and processed and consequently retained. The investigation could have been hindered and distorted by certain factors encountered. Firstly, Group B were kept in a seating area in a building's foyer whilst reading the transcript. This could have proved to be distracting due to events outside of the building visible through the windows and the coming and going of unrelated individuals through the foyer. Perhaps a closed room would have been more suitable to use for the reading group. The audio feed was not perfect either, as subjects had to sit with other group members and cover their eyes whilst listening to the video, this could result in distancing from the source and loss of focus hence distorting the results. The questionnaires were also marked by the subjects themselves, once told the correct answers. Therefore there was the possibility for cheating, and so the results themselves may be incorrect. This could be improved by using external markers to score the questionnaires, as they have no bias towards the result. Future research could focus on whether Dual Coding theory is a valid argument, and the extent to which it operates.

History of the American Labor Movement

History of the American Labor Movement The American labor force has changed profoundly during the nations evolution from an agrarian society into a modern industrial state. The United States remained a largely agricultural nation until late in the 19th century. Unskilled workers fared poorly in the early U.S. economy, receiving as little as half the pay of skilled craftsmen, artisans, and mechanics. About 40 percent of workers in cities were low-wage laborers and seamstresses in clothing factories, often living in dismal circumstances. With the rise of factories, children, women, and poor immigrants were commonly employed to run machines. Rise and Fall of Labor Unions The late 19th century and the 20th century brought substantial industrial growth. Many Americans left farms and small towns to work in factories, which were organized for mass production and characterized by steep hierarchy, a reliance on relatively unskilled labor, and low wages. In this environment, labor unions gradually developed clout. One such union was the Industrial Workers of the World, founded in 1905. Eventually, they won substantial improvements in working conditions. They also changed American politics; often aligned with the Democratic Party, unions represented a key constituency for much of the social legislation enacted from the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal in the 1930s through the Kennedy and Johnson administrations of the 1960s. Organized labor continues to be an important political and economic force today, but its influence has waned markedly. Manufacturing has declined in relative importance, and the service sector has grown. More and more workers hold white-collar office jobs rather than unskilled, blue-collar factory jobs. Newer industries, meanwhile, have sought highly skilled workers who can adapt to continuous changes produced by computers and other new technologies. A growing emphasis on customization and a need to change products frequently in response to market demands has prompted some employers to reduce hierarchy and to rely instead on self-directed, interdisciplinary teams of workers. Organized labor, rooted in industries such as steel and heavy machinery, has had trouble responding to these changes. Unions prospered in the years immediately following World War II, but in later years, as the number of workers employed in the traditional manufacturing industries has declined, union membership has dropped. Employers, facing mounting challenges from low-wage, foreign competitors, have begun seeking greater flexibility in their employment policies, making more use of temporary and part-time employees and putting less emphasis on pay and benefit plans designed to cultivate long-term relationships with employees. They also have fought union organizing campaigns and strikes more aggressively. Politicians, once reluctant to buck union power, have passed legislation that cut further into the unions base. Meanwhile, many younger, skilled workers have come to see unions as anachronisms that restrict their independence. Only in sectors that essentially function as monopolies- such as government and public schools- have unions continued to make gains. Despite the diminished power of unions, skilled workers in successful industries have benefited from many of the recent changes in the workplace. But unskilled workers in more traditional industries often have encountered difficulties. The 1980s and 1990s saw a growing gap in the wages paid to skilled and unskilled workers. While American workers at the end of the 1990s thus could look back on a decade of growing prosperity born of strong economic growth and low unemployment, many felt uncertain about what the future would bring.

Common Features of a Shakespeare Comedy Essay Example

Common Features of a Shakespeare Comedy Essay Example Common Features of a Shakespeare Comedy Paper Common Features of a Shakespeare Comedy Paper Essay Topic: Cymbeline The Taming Of the Shrew Common Features of a Shakespeare Comedy What makes a Shakespeare comedy identifiable if the genre is not distinct from the Shakespeare tragedies and histories? This is an ongoing area of debate, but many believe that the comedies share certain characteristics, as described below: * Comedy through language: Shakespeare communicated his comedy through language and his comedy plays are peppered with clever word play, metaphors and insults. 1. Love: The theme of love is prevalent in every Shakespeare comedy. Often, we are presented with sets of lovers who, through the course of the play, overcome the obstacles in their relationship and unite. Love in Shakespearean comedy is stronger than the inertia of custom, the power of evil, or the fortunes of chance and time. In all of these plays but one (Troilus and Cressida), the obstacles presented to love are triumphantly overcome, as conflicts are resolved and errors forgiven in a general aura of reconciliation and marital bliss at the plays close. Such intransigent characters as Shylock, Malvolio, and Don John, who choose not to act out of love, cannot be accommodated in this scheme, and they are carefully isolated from the action before the climax. * * Complex plots: The plotline of a Shakespeare comedy contains more twists and turns than his tragedies and histories. Although the plots are complex, they do follow similar patterns. For example, the climax of the play always occurs in the third act and the final scene has a celebratory feel when the lovers finally declare their love for each other. Moreover, the context of marriage- at least alluded to, is the cap-stone of the comedic solution, for these plays not only delight and entertain, they affirm, guaranteeing the future. Marriage, with its promise of offspring, reinvigorates society and transcends the purely personal element in sexual attraction and romantic love. * Mistaken identities: The plot is often driven by mistaken identity. Sometimes this is an intentional part of a villain’s plot, as in Much Ado About Nothing when Don John tricks Claudio into believing that his fiance has been unfaithful through mistaken identity. Characters also play scenes in disguise and it is not uncommon for female characters to disguise themselves as male characters, seen in Portia in the Merchant of venice. Shakespeare’s 17 comedies are the most difficult to classify because they overlap in style with other genres. Critics often describe some plays as tragi-comedies because they mix equal measures of tragedy and comedy. For example, Much Ado About Nothing starts as a Shakespeare comedy, but takes on the characteristics of a tragedy when Hero is disgraced and fakes her own death. At this point, the play has more in common with Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s key tragedies. The 18 plays generally classified as comedy are as follows: 1 Alls Well That Ends Well 2 As You Like It 3 The Comedy of Errors 4 Cymbeline 5 Loves Labour’s Lost 6 Measure for Measure 7 The Merry Wives of Windsor 8 The Merchant of Venice 9 A Midsummer Nights Dream 10 Much Ado About Nothing 11 Pericles, Prince of Tyre 12 The Taming of the Shrew 13 The Tempest 14 Troilus and Cressida 15 Twelfth Night 16 Two Gentlemen of Verona 7 The Two Noble Kinsmen 18 The Winters Tale 2. 3. Comedy is a drama that provokes laughter at human behavior, usually involves romantic love, and usually has a happy ending. In Shakespeares day the conventional comedy enacted the struggle of young lovers to surmount some difficulty, usually presented by their elders, and the play ended happily in marriage or the prospect of marriage. Sometimes the struggle was to bring separated lovers or family memb ers together, and their reunion was the happy culmination (this often involved marriage also). Shakespeare generally observed these conventions, though his inventiveness within them yielded many variations. 4. Eighteen plays are generally included among Shakespeares comedies. In approximate order of composition, they are. These works are often divided into distinct subclasses reflecting the playwrights development. The first seven, all written before about 1598, are loosely classed as the early comedies, though they vary considerably in both quality and character. The last four of these- Loves Labours Lost, the Dream, the Merchant, and the Merry Wives- are sometimes separated as a transitional group, or linked with the next three in a large middle comedies classification. The Merry Wives is somewhat anomalous in any case; it represents a type of comedy- the city play, a speciality of suchwriters as Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker- that Shakespeare did not otherwise write. The next three plays. Much Ado, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night, are often thought to constitute Shakespeares greatest achievement in comedy; all written around 1599-1600, they are called the romantic, or mature, comedies. The next group of three plays, called the Problem Plays, which include Alls Well that Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida, and Measure for Measure that were written in the first years of the 17th century, as Shakespeare was simultaneously creating his greatest tragedies. The final cluster, all written between about 1607 and 1613, make up the bulk of the playwrights final period. They are known as the Romances which include Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, The Tempest, and often The Two Noble Kinsman. (The problem plays and romances were intended to merge Tragedy and comedy in Tragicomedies. Many minor variations in this classification scheme are possible; indeed, the boundaries of the whole genre are not fixed, for Timon of Athens is often included among the comedies, and Troilus and Cressida is sometimes considered a tragedy. 5. Shakespeares earliest comedies are similar to existing plays, reflecting his inexperience. The Comedy of Errors- thought by many scholars to be his first drama, though the dating of Shakespeares early works is extremely difficult- is built on a play by the ancient Roman dramatist Plautus. Characteristically, Shakespeare enriched his source, but with material from another play by Plautus. The Subplot of The Taming of the Shrew was taken from a popular play of a generation earlier, and the main plot was well known in folklore, though the combination was ingeniously devised. The Two Gentlemen of Verona likewise deals with familiar literary material, treating it in the manner of John Lyly, the most successful comedy writer when Shakespeare began his career. 6. However, the young playwright soon found the confidence to experiment, and in Loves Labours Lost, the Dream, and the Merchant, he created a group of unusual works that surely startled Elizabethan playgoers, though pleasurably, we may presume. In the first he created his own main plot and used a distinctively English variation on the Italian Commedia Dell’Arte traditions for a sub-plot. He thus produced a splendid array of comic situations. The plays abundant topical humor was certainly appreciated by the original audiences, although today we dont always know what it is about. In any case, the major characters are charming young lovers, the minor ones are droll eccentrics, and the closing coup de theatre, with which a darkening mood brings the work to a close, is a stunning innovation. Already, the eventual turn towards tragicomedy is foreshadowed. A Midsummer Nights Dream mingles motifs from many sources, but the story is again the playwrights own; moreover, the plays extraordinary combination of oddity and beauty was entirely unprecedented and has rarely been approximated since. The Merchant of Venice mixes a social theme, usury, into a conventional comedy plot to deepen the resonance of the final outcome as well as to vary the formula. Here, the threat that is finally averted is so dire as to generate an almost tragic mood, again anticipating developments later in the playwrights career. . The mastery that Shakespeare had achieved by the late 1590s is reflected in the insouciance of the titles he gave his mature comedies (Twelfth Nights subtitle- What You Will- matches the others). That mastery is accompanied by a serious intent that is lacking in the earliest comedies. Shakespeare could not ignore the inherent poignancy in the contrast between life as it is lived and the escape from life represented by comedy. In Much Ado, as in The Merchant of Venice, a serious threat to life and happiness counters the froth of a romantic farce. Even in As You Like It, one of the most purely entertaining of Shakespeares plays, the melancholy Jaques interposes his conviction that life is irredeemably corrupt. Feste’s song at the close of Twelfth Night gives touching expression to such sentiments, as he sends us from the theatre with the melancholy refrain, the rain it raineth every day (5. 1. 391). We are not expected to take him too seriously, but we cannot avoid the realization that even the life of a jester may be a sad one. The mature comedies thus further a blending of comedy and tragedy. 8. In the end, however, all of Shakespeares comedies, including the later problem plays and romances, are driven by love. Love in Shakespearean comedy is stronger than the inertia of custom, the power of evil, or the fortunes of chance and time. In all of these plays but one (Troilus and Cressida), the obstacles presented to love are triumphantly overcome, as conflicts are resolved and errors forgiven in a general aura of reconciliation and marital bliss at the plays close. Such intransigent characters as Shylock, Malvolio, and Don John, who choose not to act out of love, cannot be accommodated in this scheme, and they are carefully isolated from the action before the climax. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 9. In their resolutions Shakespeares comedies resemble the medieval Morality Play, which centeres on a sinful human who receives Gods mercy. In these secular works, a human authority figure- Don Pedro or Duke Senior, for instance- is symbolically divine, the opponents of love are the representatives of sin, and all of the participants in the closing vignette partake of the plays love and forgiveness. Moreover, the context of marriage- at least alluded to at the close of all but Troilus and Cressida- is the cap-stone of the comedic solution, for these plays not only delight and entertain, they affirm, guaranteeing the future. Marriage, with its promise of offspring, reinvigorates society and transcends the purely personal element in sexual attraction and romantic love. Tragedys focus on the individual makes death the central fact of life, but comedy, with its insistence on the ongoing process of love and sex and birth, confirms our awareness that life transcends the individual. 10.

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 85

Journal - Essay Example I had a difficult time getting clothes for her because she was a size 15 and we did not carry that size in our stocks. She also wanted to wear new looking clothes which made my job more difficult. Even with help from another person at the agency, this client still refused the clothes we presented. We were getting fed up with her lack of confidence in wearing clothes as she kept coming up with excuses like she looked funny wearing it, and similar statements. After 3 hours and 3 personal shoppers, my supervisor finally came to my aid. With her help, we found some clothes that the client finally liked and felt confident enough to wear. She finally left with a smile on her face and confidence to wear the clothes. Needless to say, I was unable to work with my other client, which made me feel even more like a failure. I knew that I did my best to help her but without her self-confidence, nothing I did would have made the meeting a success. I had a heavy heart as she left because I knew that I was not able to truly help her as it was my supervisor who finally got through to her. I went home exhausted and feeling low, but still looking forward to my next client, whom I could do a better job of helping if given a

Response Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response - Assignment Example This paper finds three of the statements of Brad interesting to look into further for an analysis. The highlight about the information and communication revolution brought about by the technology of Facebook, its ability to cut across social boundaries, and the growing concern about the ownership and usability of the content on Facebook are ideas that are worth scrutiny and analysis for their validity. It is, no doubt, true that Facebook has altered the way people communicate by providing a platform that surpasses the constraints of space and time. The article says â€Å"Facebook promises to change how we communicate even more fundamentally, in part by digitally mapping and linking peripatetic people across space and time, allowing them to publicly share myriad and often very personal elements of their lives† and it â€Å"reconnects regular folks with old friends and strengthens their bonds with new pals †¦help rebuild families† (Stone). This is very much true as the impact Facebook has had on the world internet users. Facebook claims on its website to have â€Å"more than 300 million active users† and it says â€Å"50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day† (Facebook). The extent of its influence is evident in its membership and usage. As the article says, the social networking is so powerful that it has been effectively used for activism as well. It is interesting to note that the article does not add any colour to the previous idea and the author keeps the voice low and account brief as seen in the second shortest paragraph. Secondly, the article says that Facebook has helped users build connections across socio-economic boundaries. To illustrate this, it cites the words of Mr. Zuckerberg who talks about a certain Claus Drachmann, a school teacher, who was successful in inviting Denmark’s Prime Minister for a talk in his school. This was made possible through Facebook, which otherwise would have