Subjectivity and Aspects of Contemporary Identity

According to Tracy Marafiote, the phrase individual is associated with three terms- self identity, subjectivity and agency- which are expressed as salient aspects of human being (2004, p.2). The degree to which different scholars stress or ignore subjectivity reveals perceptions of the person as an individual and vice versa.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Subjectivity and Aspects of Contemporary Identity specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Self or subjectivity focuses on the level of presence of a consistence, coherent and recognizable quintessence of an individual in all circumstances. The construct of subjectivity on the other hand represents a person’s social and historical status. It is a position that defines the basis of his knowledge and experience. It also usually deduces a positioning of an individual by outer social forces (Marafiote 2004, p.2). A major aspect of contemporary identity and modern vi ews of the individual is the idea of inwardness, the concept of our selves as beings with inner depths, and the connected notion that we are selves (Marafiote 2004, p.3). Linguistic constructionists generally oppose the notion that an individual has a subjective character. According to this school of thought, subjectivity is perceived as an attainment of relationship. Thus, subjectivity is perceived as an action that emanates from the social and historical situations and relations in which an individual (as subject) encounters. In this context, subjectivity is not an expression of some aspects of the person, but is generated via an individual’s social relations that provide signs as to the type of behaviours and actions deemed suitable or anticipated in a given social environment (Salgado and Hermans, 2005, p.5). In nutshell, the notion and apparent existence of the rationality of subjectivity constitutes a social construct (Marafiote 2004, p.4). Subjectivity on the other han d implies describing individuals as mainly influenced by social relations and other discursive actions. With respect to the notion of inter-subjective interdependency, Gergen (1994) attempts to alleviate a prospective situating of individuals as resolute subjects who are scarcely more than the passive aggregation of their interactions (p.215). The concept of subjectivity is borrowed from theories postulated by other scholars such as Mead and Goffman (Gergen 1994, p. 216). Shotter (1993) presents a slightly different idea. His form of alienating from a resolute subjectivity mirrors Gergen’s ideas.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Shotter defines what emerges as a concession: an individual’s social identity is determined by the position of the subject, for example, a citizen of Chicago, Mary’s son or the local Member of Parliament. These positions generate a se nse of self or an identity and as a result turn in to the foundation of a person’s social individuality- where an individual is recognized in terms of their relations with others (Shotter 1993, p.175). Agency is defined by McNamee and Gergen (1999) as â€Å"the figure of a lone individual whose intentions, plans, understanding and control over actions apparently take place in a world without others† (p.71). McNamee and Gergen thus describe human agency in terms of relational responsibility; one that takes place within relational dialogue and action. It entails behaviours that sustain and promote types of interchange from which beneficial action itself is realized (McNamee and Gergen, 1999, p.18). Thus, what is emphasized here is a definition of agency that gives credence to an individual whose actions and intentions occur in a world where other people are present (Marafiote 2004, p.5). In Balanda: My Year in Arnhem Land, Mary Ellen presents her subjective, personal acc ount of her experience in Arnhem Land. Balanda is a good example of the recent developments in non-fiction work where an outsider, usually journalists, plunges themselves in a situation of which they posses negligible prior knowledge. Other similar works include Helen Garner’s examination of the legal system in Joe Cinque’s Consolation and the First Stone. However, Balanda emerges as the most outstanding non-fictional work. As Ellen stresses in the book’s title, the author’s note and other parts of the book, Balanda is merely a subjective, personal account of her experience living in Aboriginal communities (Review of Balanda 2007, p.1). Balanda is a phrase used by Aboriginals to describe non-Aboriginal people living among them.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Subjectivity and Aspects of Contemporary Identity specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The phrase clearly describes non-natives as outsiders, and Ellen’s decision to use it as the title of her book reflects the general notion of how she and other non-natives she interacted with during her stay in the Aboriginal communities, remained outsiders to that community (Reed n.d., p.3). During her 14 months stay in Arnhem Land, Ellen experienced a strong feeling of otherness in the community. This is mirrored in the way she employs the phrase Balanda as the title of her book. Her sense of alienation is extended to the non-indigenous members of the community. She discovers that several white people in Arnhem Land practise their own sub-cultures. According to her, they belong to diverse tribes and scarcely drift out of them. Due to her relative alienation, Ellen states that she became cautious with everyone, including white people, attempting not to sound too green, too urban and too green. She also did not try to assume too much space of the land of Aboriginal people. Ellen was surprised by the prevalence of middl e-aged white people in the community as guardians of Whitlam self-determination policy. Initially, Ellen anticipated working with social-justice oriented individuals of her own age. She envisaged that the community would have plenty of upright young adults, who like her, were drawn to this place by social ethics. Ellen’s experience with these white guardians offers one of Balanda’s most elementary insights: this trivial establishment had promoted a dependency attitude that sustained their ranks among Aboriginal communities. In particular, she noted that the white members in these communities used training as a tool to validate their existence on the grounds that they would be rendered irrelevant once their jobs were filled by Aboriginal people. As a result, Ellen explains that they protected indigenous people from employment and bureaucratic obligations (Review of Balanda 2007, p.2). As she reflected on her linguistic project, Ellen noted that the involvement of white linguists rendered Aborigine’s self-determination process irrelevant. As a result, a harmful communal dependency grew between Aboriginal people and Balandas. Ellen explains that in spite of these intentions, both cultures experienced negligible crossovers.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It appeared improbable that indigenous people would ever live like Balandas: become educated; get a 40 hour per week job; and supervise resources the Aboriginal way. Ellen’s subjectivity is depicted when she states that Aboriginals could not behave like Balandas because they were half humans, with no laws, religion, culture or basic understanding of what is important in life (Review of Balanda 2007, p.3). Ellen depicts the manner in which this dependency attitude is eked in the minds of Aboriginal people. She states that the natives made white settlers indispensable and had no plans to replace them from their administrative responsibilities. As she mounts her case, Ellen directs her attention on social issues such as alcohol abuse, over reliance on CDEP and domestic violence. The storyline trajectory she uses to describe these social issues stems from her life experience in Arnhem Land and the transformation in her attitude (subjectivity) on Aboriginal issues that takes place as a result. The strong and weak points of this book are illustrated by Ellen’s narrative strategy. At one point, she employs a subjective approach to drag readers along her down the rabbit hole encounters in Arnhem Land, although one can easily get bored as Ellen gives a detailed chronology of her daily activities in Arts Centre. To some degree, Ellen’s narrative approach enables her-as a relative stranger- to give a personal account on a number of social issues she comes across. There are also cases where she reveals her naivety regarding the same issues. For instance, when she visits Alice Springs on a field research trip, she is astonished to discover that some indigenous people are hired in influential positions in local organizations. This act reveals her lack of knowledge about the topography of Aboriginal affairs (Review of Balanda 2007, p.4). One of the painful points of Ellen’s experience in Arnhem Land occurs when she is scorned at for her outlooks a s a young woman, a southerner, and a foreigner. Ellen complains that her opinions are ignored although she had spent nearly one year in the community. She sarcastically describes the political system used in Aboriginal community, particularly on a person’s right to express his views. One other major observation about Ellen’s experience in Arnhem Land is the relational dimension that entails working with indigenous people. Normally, it requires dedication and time to create a relationship with Aboriginal people to be able to address social issues in the community. Ellen claims that she decided to leave Arnhem Land due to a sense of dejection regarding social issues such as domestic violence and alcohol abuse, in addition to the inability of the white community to take appropriate actions to improve Aboriginal lives. She connects her decision to leave the community to her criticism of the ability of the Balandas to maintain itself. Her subjectivity is manifested when she feels dejected by being unable to solve problems facing Aboriginals. She fails to realize that it is impossible for anyone, even her, to improve the wellbeing of the natives in less than one year (Review of Balanda 2007, p.6). Ultimately, Ellen employs caution while she explores the current status quo in Arnhem Land. She aspires to make both political and moral issues in rural Aboriginal communities more reachable to readers from a similar environment to herself. She is extremely cautious in foregrounding her subjective processes to avoid disparaging or romanticising the Aboriginal people she comes across. The main weakness in Balanda is Ellen’s lack of affinity with majority of indigenous and non-indigenous people in the community (Review of Balanda 2007, p.8). The major impression derived from this book is Ellen’s attempt to try to understand the community into which she encroaches and depicts herself as a well-meaning and socially dedicated Balanda from the south. However, only flickers of understanding materialize: to some levels, Ellen seems to acknowledge that she cannot make any lasting contribution. Her readers are also Balandas by implication because very little evidence exists to suggest that Ellen’s book is written for readers different from herself. Therefore, while Ellen recognizes her own opportunity and those enjoyed by other Balandas she interacts with in the community; this knowledge stays partials and does not include the question about her esteemed speaking position vis-à  -vis that of Balanda and the natives. She also fails to rise above the long-established Eurocentric perception that we need to help native people (Reed n.d., p.5). Ellen’s book is also quite suggestive at times; the title of her book Balanda is used to literally refer to the non-natives people in the community. The title is also used to describe Ellen and her encounters in the community as out of place, on a territory that she describes as Abo riginal. It also describes Ellen as a non-native because she is out of place, far away from Melbourne where she usually engages her friends in discourses about Aboriginal issues. Ellen’s position as a Balanda among the natives enables her to investigate the personal and philosophical issues that append to this position, as she discovers what it implies to be a Balanda. Ellen protracts the custom of positioning natives as being up north. This is shameful since her investigation of the exact connotation of being Balanda in Aboriginal community brought about some fascinating issues for discussions on cross cultural engagements (Reed n.d., p.6). Ellen is able to provide critical insights on self determination and her role (and white workers) which she describes as present day missionaries. However, she appears to have an affinity to extrapolate from her personal experiences, to a complete investigation of self-determination as unfeasible. This is a sweeping statement that differs from the experiences of scores of other Balandas living among native communities. Ellen fails to account the role of native people in successful implementation of self-determination programs among the indigenous communities. Therefore, self-determination is depicted as the dilemma, a dangerous sweeping statement in this ever rising conservative epoch. Ellen connects it to present discourses on welfare dependency and appears to regard the linkage as adequate in itself, devoid of any cross-examination of the utility of the Aboriginal dilemma (Reed n.d., p.7). Ellen describes social problems that are present in Aboriginal communities. These include domestic violence towards women, substance abuse by teenagers, illicit brews (grog) and institutionalized male aggression toward women. Readers are unable to understand how Aboriginal women in Australia struggle to define and present their personal responses to these issues. Ellen appears ignorant of the level to which the issue of speaking positions and domestic aggression towards Aboriginal women has been cross-examined. Also, the manner in which Balandas drink their illegal but secretly endorsed wines and spirits, which are delivered by the Darwin barge, reveals duplicity that encloses their being permitted. The consumption of grog by Balandas is exhibited as benign. This emphasize Ellen’s focus on drinking problem by Aborigines, which is utterly generalized, considering her fleeting denial of the typecast of the drunken no-hoper Aborigine as presented in the pages of her book (Reed n.d., p.8). Ellen feels literary out of place in indigenous communities. She later encounters a sexually threatening episode from Rodney, an Aboriginal man who demands sexual favours from her. Reader learn about this encounter when Ellen talks to Alice, one of her Balanda friends, about two Aboriginal men jailed, one for murdering his wife and the other for raping her own daughter. Ellen employs a subjective approach as she recou nts her encounter with Rodney. On one hand, she reveals her fear of every Aboriginal man she came across (because they all resembled Rodney). On the other hand, she feels embarrassed by her racist feeling. The book does not dwell further on Ellen’s fear of all Aboriginal male and what the encounter with Rodney reveals about her racist views. We learn later that Ellen experienced violence from her father which made her live in utter fear. However, she portrays her father’s violence as an isolated case while the Rodney’s case is perceived as a widespread problem connected to community-based hostility (Reed n.d., p.8). Ellen and her Balanda friends were invited to see an Aboriginal dancing ceremony. She saw some Aboriginal children taking drinks from bottles of Coke as they chatted in their language. Later on, she perceived this scene as a demonstration of all the problems experienced by the natives, the coke now seen as an emblem of the high prevalence of heart ai lments and diabetes, and drug abuse, resulting in premature deaths. The diverse analysis of this generalized scene mirrors the numerous ways in which Ellen’s views portrayed in Balanda stay quite dual, maybe as a result of the prevailing customs in Aboriginal communities where there is a clear line segregating Balandas and natives. Ellen states that segregation was brought about by foreignness because of the numerous dissimilarities between the natives and Balanda. This is aptly captured by Stuart Hall (1996) who notes that â€Å"identities are never unified and, in modern times, are increasingly fragmented and fractured† (p.4). As the book comes to an end, Ellen states that her one-year stay in Arnhem Land had altered her perception about the native. She explains further that she eventually viewed Aboriginals as human beings contrary to her earlier stereotypes of the spirituals perception. As she was departing, Ellen claims paradoxically that the Arnhem Land had made her feel at home because she turned into a better person living there. Ellen’s claims are nonetheless subjective because she was unable to find an apt way to summarize her stay in the community. Most of Ellen’s recounts are subjective and emerge from her personal point of view (Reed n.d., p.9). Reference Gergen, K. J. (1994) Realities and relationships: Soundings in social construction. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Hall, S. (1996) Who needs ‘identity’? Questions of cultural identity. London, Sage Publishers. Marafiote, T. (2004) Selves, Subjects, and Agents: (Re) Positioning Agency with Self Identity and Subjectivity. Rocky Mountain Communication Review, 2, 1-17. McNamee, S., and Gergen, K. J. (1999) Relational responsibility: Resources for sustainable dialogue. London, Sage. Reed, L. (n.d.) Out of Place.  Retrieved from web Review of Balanda. (2007) Mary Ellen Jordan: My Year in Arnhem Land, Allen and Sydney, 2005. Available at:  https://elsew here.typepad.com/ . Salgado, J., and Hermans, J.M. (2005) The Return of Subjectivity: From a Multiplicity of Selves to the Dialogical Self. E-Journal of Applied Psychology, 1-13. Shotter, J. (1993) Cultural politics of everyday life: Social constructionism, rhetoric and knowing of the third kind. Toronto, University of Toronto Press. This essay on Subjectivity and Aspects of Contemporary Identity was written and submitted by user Bella M. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Writing Techniques To Improve Reading Comprehension

Writing Techniques To Improve Reading Comprehension Periodically, I watch episodes of the TV show â€Å"Numb3rs† on Netflix just to pretend that I’m a math genius. My friend and I have made an inside joke about one particular writing technique the show has used to help dull audience members like myself understand the math technique they are about to use. We mouth â€Å"It’s like†¦.† to each other whenever a character mentions some obscure math approach, and then we wait for the characters to launch into the illustration. Moving past the hilarity of that particular video on so many other levels, you can see how the writers of that show made the math geniuses spout off the math technique they were going to use and then follow immediately with a more understandable example the lay person could grasp. I appreciate these more understandable illustrations. How To Discover Awesome Writing Techniques That Will Improve Reading ComprehensionBranching Your Ideas The â€Å"what if† and â€Å"it’s like† writing techniques  are a kind of â€Å"branching† approach to both idea generation and reader understanding. Following an idea down a singular path is a way to get things done, but it’s not a way to generate future ideas or think creatively. For example, when I set out to write about content marketing game theory  for this blog (and was hopelessly out of my element, believe me), I decided to branch out in a couple of directions so that I could better understand the topic as a writer and, perhaps, better explain the topic to the reader. By branching my idea and asking â€Å"what if†, I managed to come up with two examples (â€Å"it’s like†) for readers. Only by branching and traveling down various paths to see where they might take me was I able to do this. Writers' block? Branch your ideas with 'what if' and 'it's like' #writing techniques.Some content marketers prefer to have one idea and shoot straight for the finish line; that’s perfectly acceptable. But others, like myself, enjoy the happy accidents that occur when you allow your ideas to branch. Don’t be afraid to branch out; you won’t be left out on a limb. (rimshot) Recommended Posts  To Improve Reading Comprehension: 5 Teaching Theories That Will Improve Your Educational Content Marketing How To Use The Best Content Types To Boost Reader Learning How To Communicate Effectively With Your Blog Readers To Keep Them Reading Using â€Å"What If† To Generate Ideas The â€Å"what if† writing technique is usually something used by fiction writers to help them develop characters and plot, but it can still be helpful in a slightly different version for content marketers. Let’s use that game theory post of mine as an example. As I researched the topic more and more, the idea of a tree came to mind. What if I approached this as if it were a tree?  I wondered. I was struggling to understand the topic in a way that allowed me to explain it, but the tree idea seemed to have promise. Then I set about to talk about matrices and competitors. What if I used â€Å"The Fugitive† as an example?  It was a popular movie and seemed to fit perfectly. There were a few other â€Å"what if† approaches that led to dead ends, but by the time I finished with these two, I understood much better what I wanted to say in the rest of the post. Here are a few â€Å"what if† approaches you could use when writing blog posts. You can see they are much more than just about finding ideas, but also about the order and structure of the actual post, too. What if (I): Put the conclusion at the beginning? Used a recent hit movie as the foundation for this post? Played the devil’s advocate until the final conclusion? Said the exact opposite of what is expected/I believe? What was true was not true? Used a different search engine/resource? Learned how it was done five years ago? My blog could speak for itself?What if you played the devil's advocate until the final conclusion of your post?Sometimes silly questions lead to fresh ways of thinking about a common thing, even if the answer to the question itself is irrelevant to the branch you ultimately end up on. The â€Å"what if† writing technique is definitely part of your brainstorming toolbox  when it comes to finding ideas. It helps you write beyond the typical boundary and find research you otherwise wouldn’t have considered looking for. Using â€Å"It’s Like† To Explain Ideas Using the â€Å"it’s like† writing technique will help you do three crucial things with your content: Understanding:  Obviously, the â€Å"it’s like† approach helps your reader understand an idea in a different way. It’s a classic method teachers use. Hook:  The â€Å"it’s like† technique can also grab your reader’s attention if you approach this method with a certain level of non-conformity and use comparisons the reader doesn’t expect. Convince:  When you’re selling a new idea or product that is unfamiliar to your audience, there’s a barrier you need to overcome. Using â€Å"it’s like† and explaining it as something familiar helps reduce that barrier  and make it easier for a reader to buy into what you have to say. But first: If there’s one thing you don’t want to do on social media, it’s misuse the words â€Å"metaphor† and â€Å"simile†; the grammar police will correct you. Metaphors simply make a comparison, while similes use the words â€Å"like† or â€Å"as† to compare things. For example: I tend to think of metaphors as all about making a strong statement with language (it’s not  like  something, it is  something), while similes are all about helping readers understand a bit more gently. Using â€Å"it’s like† is the simile approach to explanation, though you are taking it a bit further than a simple simile comparison most of the time. If you’re following the lead of the writers in the show â€Å"Numb3rs†, you are looking for an in-depth explanation that matches ounce for ounce the concept you want your reader to comprehend  in their own terms. You are looking for an analogy. Similes can spice up your copy and create a playful collection of words that pique a reader’s interest, but analogy is the true workhorse of the â€Å"it’s like† writing technique, a kind of extended version of a simile. When creating analogies, remember: Your audience matters.  Analogies work best when you use an example that your audience understands. I could use a variety of farming analogies that I know from growing up on a farm, but most of the readers of this blog aren’t farmers. That kind of analogy won’t help at all. Knowing what experiences your audience will identify with is crucial when choosing a simile or analogy. To make things better.  Not all complicated topics need an analogy; some just need to be clearly discussed. Analogies work best when a topic is so far out of the range of your audience, either through lack of knowledge or because they’ve never experienced it, that the only way to make the concept resonate is to repackage it with the familiar. Sometimes I write analogies and then eventually edit them out and the reader never sees them. Yet by writing that analogy, I helped myself understand the topic better and was able to explain it better without the addition of an analogy. To shed light on the larger concept.  Some topics are better served simply by breaking them down into bite-sized chunks than through analogy. You would better understand the process of changing the oil in a car if I explained the actual process step-by-step rather than me saying, â€Å"It’s like cleaning files off your hard drive.† Analogy is less useful in teaching step-by-step instruction (i.e. how to specifically change the oil in your car) and more useful in teaching the larger idea that those step-by-step instructions make sense in (i.e. you need to change the oil because your engine will be ruined if you don’t). That less is more.  Use one or two analogies, but don’t use too many more. Lots of analogies make things more confusing and actually dampen the power they might have if you used them more sparingly. Consider what you absolutely want your reader to take from your content, which topic is difficult or unfamiliar, and use your analogies for that. You don’t leave your audience with the analogy.  Once you’ve explained a concept through an analogy and your audience understands the underlying fundamentals, you should go back and reiterate what you wanted them to understand in the first place, drawing direct comparisons between the analogy again if needed, so they understand the actual topic and  the analogy. Recommended Posts  To Improve Reading Comprehension: Are You Making These 5 Assumptions About Your Audience? 4 Lessons From Psychology That Will Help You Grow Your Blog Analogies are all about helping your audience experience a moment of Gestalt, where they finally â€Å"get† the bigger picture of something that was confusing before. So, how do you find the perfect analogy? Figure out what the main point is.  Ask yourself what the most important thing is that you want your reader to understand about your topic. There is a lot they could understand, but what is the most important concept that you need them to take away in order to understand the rest of what you have to say? You could probably compare just about anything to everything, but you need to find something that gets a specific point across. Life is like a box of chocolate, is like a beach, is like an oyster, is like anything at all- but what is it you’re trying to say about life? Keep it mostly (but not too) familiar. As I mentioned above, your audience has to be familiar with the analogy you are about to use or they won’t understand it, either. However, by choosing or using a scenario that is slightly surprising, you’ll keep them interested in reading. We’re all pretty used to the â€Å"life is like a box of chocolates† saying by now, but when it first came out with the movie â€Å"Forrest Gump†, it was very novel and new. People wondered â€Å"how in the world could life be like candy?† and it made them read on. In the book Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, author Douglas Hofstadter referred to boring analogies as â€Å"banalogies.† Generally, the first analogy you come up with is not the one. Go nuts and think of two or three or ten or twenty, and then choose from your list. Turn the distasteful into something good.  A great analogy not only explains a concept to help your reader understand, but it can also help them understand something differently. An idea that isn’t appealing from one angle can, with the help of an analogy, look a lot better from a different angle. For example, I’ve gone on record  stating that I’m not much of a salesperson. A few years back, though, I was reading a book on selling art which used an analogy to help me see sales differently. Instead of it being an exchange of money for goods or services (which it is, technically, and which seems tawdry at times), the author illustrated how sales is also problem solving (for the customer), an exercise in creativity (finding a market that fits the product), and so on. Through analogy, I was able to see things from a different viewpoint. Maintain your desired focus.  Analogies can get out of control. If you use sailing as an analogy, for an example, remember what your main point is and keep to it. Avoid veering off into using every aspect of sailing- ropes! knots! wind! boom! tacking!- and stick to just the parts of the analogy that will sell your main point the best. An analogy isn’t an anecdote; it’s a highly persuasive tool that can make the unfamiliar into something familiar. Maintain focus if you want the tool to work. Don’t forget the visual.  Depending on the content you are creating (e.g. written vs. spoken), you may find a visual helpful as your analogy, or alongside your analogy. In the â€Å"Numb3rs† clip, the imagery of the boats helps illustrate what the actress is saying. We visual learners appreciate it! For Fun:Which of the following similes would you love to see expanded into analogy? Why do some stand out for you and not others? Which ones make you curious enough to keep reading? Which could be used to clarify a particular aspect of content marketing? Run with them in the comments if you’d like to take a crack at it.Content marketing is†¦ Like a box of old pencils. A  camera without film. Like a movie without credits. Like a buoy in the Pacific Ocean. What happens when polar bears meet penguins. Superman with an extra cape. Superman without a cape.

Basic Water Conservation in California and discover a way conserving Essay

Basic Water Conservation in California and discover a way conserving water can save energy - Essay Example Its primary aim is to educate the people about various ways of saving this natural resource; only with little alterations in lifestyle, this goal can easily be achieved. (CALIFORNIA'S WATER: A CRISIS WE CAN'T IGNORE, September 2007) Water supply in California has been severely reduced in recent years thus affecting the common people and business farms in Central, Northern and Southern California. In August 2007, water supplies from two large water delivery systems were cut in order to protect endangered fish species. Delta, the natural estuary, which waters about 2.5 million acres of farmland and 25 million Californians, is experiencing ecological crisis, thereby threatening the environment as well as the people of the state. Already, the growing water uncertainties and reduced water supplies are forcing the farmers to stop cultivation in some prime agricultural lands in the state; in turn, it is affecting the important industries of the state. Moreover, there is a possibility that the aging of Delta levees might also cripple the water deliveries in California for a long period. Rapid growth of California's population is a threat, as there has been no significant improvement in the delivery system as well as th e water storage system of the state. The water reserves of the state are relatively low and might not be able to meet up to the public demand, if there is disruption in the water delivery system of the state. Climatic changes in this zone are also an important factor for the growing concern of water conservation. The state has experienced severe drought conditions over the years and the year 2007 has been a record dry year in some of the regions in California. The changes in the climatic condition are also reducing mountain snow pack, which is an important source of natural water storage. Due to this condition, Californians might experience severe floods and long droughts in future. (CALIFORNIA'S WATER: A CRISIS WE CAN'T IGNORE, September 2007) Water Conservation Techniques (Tommy Foley, n.d.) Irrigated Agriculture of California Owing to the Mediterranean climate and unique geographical features, California has become a productive agricultural region in whole world. Sierra Nevada mountain range situated at the eastern border of California captures and stores the winter rainfall that can be used for irrigation during summer months. This water storage along with Mediterranean climate is favorable for the growth of a large variety of crops. Growing awareness of the environmental requirements of water along with population growth has compelled California agriculture to use water efficiently so that more amount of water is available for environmental and urban uses. Several management strategies and

The Statement of Principles terminated on 30 June 2013. The UK Essay

The Statement of Principles terminated on 30 June 2013. The UK Government has proposed a new programme, including a new mechanis - Essay Example The fishing industry offers employment to around 250,000 people in Indonesia and thus, with this tsunami there were a number of people that lost their jobs3. Tsunami not only has resulted in the death of local people in Indonesia, but there were a number of tourists from different parts of the world especially from Europe that came under the fire as well. Around 9,000 foreign tourists were dead in this flood, and most of these tourists were from European countries4. However, there is little that the government can do in such a catastrophic situation. Although there are certain techniques and strategies that the government can take in order to reduce the impact of these floods such as Stormguard Flood-plan can be implemented in order to be better prepared for such situations as well as to reduce the impact of such disasters5. Similarly, there have been floods in United Kingdom as well. Although the disasters were not as high as Indian Ocean tsunami but still a large number of people l ost their lives. North Sea flood is the worst flood that has occurred in United Kingdom6. North Sea flood occurred on 31st January, 1953 and a number of areas were affected including Belgium, Scotland, Netherlands and England7. The causalities because of the North Sea flood were equaled to 2,142 including 354 people that lost their lives in United Kingdom alone8. ... Thus, it badly affected the economic situation of the country. The damage estimated was around  ?5,000 which if compared in today’s monetary terms would be equal to ?740,00010. The London School Of Economics has announced and warned about flood risk in Britain. According to the research conducted by the school Britain is a highly risky area because of the changes in climate along with the continuous development in floodplains for both residential as well as commercial properties. Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment have conducted research and published the paper. They have also been consulted by the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)11. Therefore, this paper has raised concerns and risks for people that are buying and investing properties. In order to overcome this issue and concerns of the public, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) along with the natio nal government has come up with the Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) which is known as Flood Re. This Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the government, and the carriers and on the basis of this MoU, a non-profit or a not-for-profit flood fund has been developed12. Association Of British Insurers (ABI) is an important company in the insurance industry as it has more than 90% of the market share in the United Kingdom insurance market13. The basic idea of this Flood Re is to offer a cap flood insurance premium for the property owners. This insurance premium will be according to the value of the properties. Moreover, this fund will offer insurance to people that are at a higher risk for flood

Critical Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Critical - Literature review Example Shareholders in a certain corporation take keen interest in the manner which the corporation carries out it business activities. In most cases, the shareholders focus on what the corporation has done, either positive or negative relative to its impact on the society (Subhabrata, 2007). Additionally, the shareholders show interest on how the corporation develops and takes care of its work force. Thus corporate social responsibility can be simply defined as the capacity of a company to build protractible livelihoods. The company upholds the cultural differences of the locals and finds opportunities in developing skills of employs, the public and the government thus gives back to the society. In fact, this model is much more convincing mainly because: a) Social responsibility forms an integral part of the society’s wealth creation process, which enhances competitiveness of a business hence maximization of wealth creation in society. b) In tough economic times, there are incentive s to implement corporate social responsibility and better as compared to other corporate social responsibility models. However, corporate social responsibility has had a philanthropic definition in the United States. In the philanthropic model, companies earn profits, unhindered with an exception of fulfilling their taxation responsibility. Then the companies give a certain amount of funds, which is a percentage of their profits as a donation to support charitable activities. Nevertheless, corporate social responsibility has been defined in different model referred to as the European model that is more oriented in how business is executed in a socially answerable way, harmonized by the investment in the local communities for justifiable business reasons. It is noteworthy that different corporations implement corporate social responsibility differently due to their varied nature of business. Depending on a business priorities and core values, a corporate social responsibility is mani fested in form of incentives and the business processes. Existing literature on corporate social responsibility has associated this practice to ethical ad moral conduct of business. Thus corporate social responsibility is perceived as an obligation not only to the law but also long term aims for the good of the community, which the business serves. In this sense, corporate social responsibility involves carrying out business in an ethically acceptable way in the interest of the society at large (Thomas, 2007). Thus a corporation is expected to: Respond in appositive in regards t o emerging societal priorities and prospects Willing take measures ahead of regulatory conflict Balance the interest of the shareholders against the interests of the society The main facets of corporate social responsibility: Economic responsibility to generate profit for the corporate owners Legal responsibility to strictly comply with all regulatory requirements Ethical responsibility not only to generate profit, but also act in just and a fair in business processes Voluntary and philanthropic responsibility to uphold human welfare and helpfulness In this paper, my chief focus on how the new policy published the European commission for the 2011-2014 action agenda has impacted business reorganization by the corporations so as to implement corporate social responsibility. The new policy was introduced to enhance a better alignment of European enterprises to better corporate social

Is a Metatheoretical Psychologist a ‘Cowboy Builder’?

Is a Metatheoretical Psychologist a ‘Cowboy Builder’? Abstract Personally, I feel that Metatheoretical psychologist are not a â€Å"cowboy builder†, as I uses the progression of behaviourism as an example and further elaborated how the approach leads to the discoveries and progression of the theories, using explanation of russian physiologist known as Ivan Pavlov, followed by American Psychologist called John B. Watson and Edward Thorndike, and lastly, another fellow American Psychologist, B.F. Skinner. Ivan Pavlov, who started the earliest toward the study of behaviourism, he discovered classical conditioning which demostrated how behaviours can be learned via through classical associations. John B. Watson, who further defined behaviourism through â€Å"little albert† experiment and lastly, B.F. Skinner, who further explains behaviourism using his concept of operant conditioning, illustrating behaviour through punishment and reinforcement. These three examples have rejected the idea that of a ‘cowboy builder’ as these experimentalist using each and individual experiment to reinforce and further build up understanding of behaviourism and its importance and definition. Is a Metatheoretical Psychologist just a ‘Cowboy Builder’? Psychology is not simply definable, and be even characterised easily. Even till today if one were to define or characterised, it will end up render the effort indequately the very next day. Psychology is what the philsopher and the scientists of various persuasion have come out with to try fulfilling the needs towards understanding of humans’ mind and behaviour from the most primitive to complex level (Reber, Allen, Reber, 2009). From a philosophical point of view, The term ‘psychology’ took its to another level of problems concerning the mind, will and knowledge, where it has been defined as the ‘science of mind’ ,’the science of mental life’, these definitions reflected the prejudices of the definer more than the actual nature of field (Reber et al., 2009). Metatheory, in this case defined by Reber et al. (2009), a term which used to cover the theoretical discussions about the construction of scientific theories, hence, the role of a metatheoretical psychologist is to perform metatheoretical research, which includes sorting of theories, analysing of literatures, they played an important role in search of a set of interlocking principles in which are acceptable or not for the theories (Rozeboom, 2005; Wallis, 2010). An experimentalist stated that metatheoretical are like ‘cowboy builders’ where they are able to identify and breakdown mistakes and problems of works done by others, but they are not able to give opinions to help strength that particular approach in psychology. However, I disagree what the experimentalist mentioned, as I believe that metatheoretical psychologist, no doubt , they are the ones who are capable of developing and combining of theories, and looking at aspects of applying and analysing of the theorems to unveil the underlying assumptions about theory and the process of theorizing with reinforcement of empirical evidences (Wallis, 2010). Hence, the aim of this essay is to furthe r elaborate my points of in which that metatheoretical psychologists is not a ‘cowboy builder’, using a psychological approach in which leads to a numbers of theories which is able to support my views towards this statement. To strongly prove my point on metatheoretical psychologists not being a ‘cowboy builders’, I would like to start off with first example right before the birth of behaviourism. It is understandable that in 1913, John B. Watson pioneered new psychology approach known as ‘Behaviourism’ (Watson J. B., 1994). where Behaviourism is defined as a natural science that takes the whole field of human adjustments as its own. It is the business of behavioristics psychology to predict and control human activity.Behavioristics psychology has as its goal to be able, given the stimulus, to predict the response or, seeing the reaction. (Watson Kimble, 1997). However, this discovery and understanding of behaviourism would not have happen without work of an American psychologist, Edward Thorndike. Thorndike shows how behaviours could be modified by its consequences by doing an experimental work on hungry domestic animals, as they were placed individually in the puzzle boxes, a nd if the animal exhibit any escaping behaviours to the door of the puzzle box, it would then be opened allowed the animal to gain freedom. This experiment allow Thorndike to conclude that while the animal exploring the box, the animal exhibited the first instance of an appropriate behaviour unit by chance and that, across trials, escape latencies would decrease systematically as it is able to learned that pressing the latch will allow it to escape. (Gewirtz, 2001). Therefore through this experiment, he looks at the connection of stimulus and response in the experiment, which eventually created a concept of the law of effect, which he explained that greater the satisfaction, the greater the strengthening, and the greater the dissatisfaction, the greater the weakening, of the bond (Gewirtz, 2001).This work of Thorndike allowed a Russian Physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, to continue his work on physiology of digestion (Gewirtz, 2001; Clark, 2004). Pavlov, who have won the Nobel Prize in 1904 , credited Thorndike for being the first researcher to show accurate approach to the immense task of objective research on animal learning (Gewirtz, 2001). He did an experiment in his chamber which the dog is presented with the food, at the same time, saliva is collected through a tube implanted into the salivary gland of the dog, enabling him to study the saliva’s role in digestive process, which his prediction is that the dog salivate when food is placed in the mouth which is a discovery he deemed that its importance in the study of digestion, known as salivary reflex (Windholz, 1997). Overtime, this lead to him realising that the even right before the food comes, the dog will salivate in the presence of the food attendant and the sound of the door (Windholz, 1997). He carried on with the experiment by pairing the bell and the food, and after several tries, he successfully uses the bell alone to create a salivary response from the dog. This discovery can be explained in whi ch the bell, a neutral stimulus which trigger no natural response in the dog (salivation) is paired with food which is the unconditional response. This pairing causes the response to the unconditioned stimulus (food), the unconditioned response (salivation), to transfer to the neutral stimulus (bell). Hence, in order for response to occur again, only the bell is need, food may no longer have its importance. Pavlov realised that the response is a learned but unnatural, hence it is a conditioned response and neutral stimulus will transformed into conditioned stimulus. The bell tone in Pavlovs experiment is the neutral stimulus which is paired the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to the newly conditioned stimulus of the tone (Beecroft, 1966; Windholz, 1997; Bitterman, 2006). This phenomone is known as classical conditioning. As we can see this is one of few classic examples which demolish the experimentalist view on psychologists, this research has just show us not only it is a psychological endeavour but it also influence a lot of students known as the pavlovians-graduate students to continue this study of salivary reflex conditioning. (Windholz, 1997). Ivan Pavlov is able to conduct and build up an experiment, and bringing it up to the next level, not only looking at the digestion process which is a physiological, but at the same time, discovered a psychological aspect which is the salivary reflex and subsequently build up to theory of classical conditioning. The progression of Ivan Pavlov’s experiment was done by an American psychologist known as John B Watson where he further elaborated and adopted Ivan Pavlov’s work and claims that classical conditioning in animals is important as it is able to explain all human aspect of psychology (Watson J. B., 1994; Rilling, 2000). Watson uses the measurement and analytical techniques of Pavlov’s experiment and applied them to the humans in terms of adaptive forms of behaviour, so he and his assistant (Moore, 2011), an experiment known as â€Å"little Albert†, he simply transfer the same concept of Pavlov’s work, while Pavlov conduct his experiment using food and animal, Watson uses a baby known as little albert, and inflict of fear to it in order to demonstrate classical conditioning in humans (Watson Rayner , Conditioned emotional reactions, 1920). Using white rat as Neutral Stimulus, before the start of the experimental trials, the rat is shown to little Alber t, but little Albert does not show concern about the rats. Watson’s aim for this experiment is inflict an anxiety response to little albert using the rat. So the Unconditioned Stimulus in the experiment is the used of an iron bar and a hammer to create a loud noise just behind little Albert, which he find annoyed about (Watson Rayner , Conditioned emotional reactions, 1920). During the experiment, the noise is created as the rat is presented to Albert. After subsequent experiments, without the noise when the rat was presented, Albert would started crying. This produced a conditioned reflex similar to Pavlov’s dog able to associate a neutral stimulus with Unconditioned Stimulus (Rilling, 2000). Further experiments on Albert, has shown that rats are not only the one that give Albert the similar response, it also start to generalised to other while furry objects which look similar to the white rats (Watson Rayner , Conditioned emotional reactions, 1920). This example of the â€Å"little Albert† experiment, shows that how behaviourist like Watson, able to work on and progress through using Pavlov’s physiological theory of salivary reflex and extract the psychological elements, which is the theory of classical conditioning in an animal, and show that even humans can learn through conditioning, and initiated the study of behaviourism (Moore, 2011). Therefore, as what we can see above that Watson improvised Pavlov’s experiment, which he applied to the humans and which he end up discover a higher order of condition, where generalization took place in the little Albert experiment, this second example shows that how the rise of the behaviourism were strengthen by theory like classical conditioning, which build up to another level, where the use of different test subject will lead to a different and new outcome of understand of behaviourism, which I feel that Watson in his experiment has shown us simply that they isn’t a cowboy builder who simply just agreed upon thing without doing their research. However, Rilling (2000) stated that Watson rejected Thorndike’s law of effect in the midst of working on classical conditioning theory, he felt sceptical about Thorndike’s assumption and explanation of the trial and error learning where Thorndike stated that successful act is pleasant and unsuccessful act is unpleasant (Watson ,1914; Rilling, 2000) and so the Thorndike’s experiment inspired Watson, he conducted an empirical test for the study of learning in animal, simply to test Thorndike’s law of effect. The purpose is to prove that if Thorndike is correct about his theory then pleasure from immediate reward would be greater than dissatisfaction from delayed reward. The experiment was conducted with rats and sawdust boxes, and Watson (1916a) compared the learning curves for one group of rats getting the immediate reward and the other with delayed rewards. The result is puzzling as two group of learning curves were nearly similar (Rilling, 2000) which thi s data cause classic behaviourist to be sceptical about Thorndike’s law of effect. The attack on Thorndike by Watson seems to be rhetoric. Never the less, it does not mean that one rejected all have to reject it, as Moore (2011) stated that Watson’s behaviourism proved inadequate and many of the researchers took another approach which analysed by B.F. Skinner (Moore, 2011). Skinner proved his own definition by studying on Thorndike’s law of effect which provided him the basis of operant learning theory (Schwartz Lacey, 1982). He conducted an experiment which resemble Thorndike’s puzzle box and an input of a lever, which he want to find out how the rats learned to press the lever. The difference between the two experiment done, is based on the determiner on frequency of the experiment, which Thorndike is based on the experimenter and Skinner is based on the rats themselves (Iversen, 1992). Each time, the rats press the lever, the food will immediately be released. This resulted in the learning of the rat to press the lever to receive rewards. However, when Skinner replaced the food with shocks, the frequency of the lever being depressed leads to an immediate stop of the action due to punishing consequences (Iversen, 1992). He concluded from the result that the behaviour influenced by the law of effect is known as operant conditioning due to the behavioural change or operated of the organism on the environment. In the experiment, there is no environmental stimuli that create a response from an organism as compared to organism in classical conditioning experiment done by Pavlov. Mischel (1993) stated that skinner also concluded that Operant conditioning consists of two important key components, the operant and the consequence. If the consequence is a positive reinforcement, then the likelihood of another similar response is more as compare to if the consequence is punishment. Similar results were produced by accidental when the pellet dispenser had jammed, it stops the positive reinforcement of food altogether in a process called extinction, this situation was noticed when the r at continue pressing the lever even though no food were received, at the start the behaviour becomes rapid than usual, then slowly the frequency worn off but the operant conditioned response decreased at a much slower rate than when punishment was used (Iversen, 1992). Similarly, operant conditioning like this also appear in child, when either rewarding or punishing with disciplinary actions. This kind of operant conditioning occurs in the rewarding or punishing discipline action taken towards a child (Schwartz Lacey, 1982). As we can see from all of these example above, how behaviourism can lead to two theories of learning, as Watson hypothesized that â€Å"behavioristics psychology has as its goal to be able, given the stimulus, to predict the response or, seeing the reaction take place to state what the stimulus is that has called out the reaction† (Iversen, 1992), However this stimulus–response psychology was soon to be overthrown by Skinners work (Iversen, 1992). Even though he called his lever pressing action as an investigatory reflex and referred it to eliciting stimuli which is measured due to the influences of the work of Pavlov’s and Watson’s (Iversen, 1992). In the later part of his research, Skinner later moved away from the Stimuli and response tradition as he discovered operant conditioning with the aid of Edward Thorndike, and commented that the result that happen immediately after the response is more important than incident happen right before, and the extinction that he accidentally found out indicated that there is no role in eliciting stimuli for that behaviour to happen. Lastly, the final form of the conditioned response is deem as the most important as it did not even exist prior to the conditioning, therefore no elicitation is involved. This successful method of shaping help in generating behaviours that have not been seen previously in range of behaviours in the experimental subject. Which Iversen (1992) sta ted that skinner’s work in the early stage completely contradict Watsons â€Å"no stimulus, no response† rule. So all in all. We can see that the build-up progression of behaviourism and the two learning theories, are not of a style of a cowboy builder. Instead the build ups of the theories, not only involves criticism of theories, to improve another, for example, Watson rejected Thorndike’s law of effect, place more work in Pavlov theory, to improve the theory of classical conditioning through empirical evidence, and also involves influences of theories, just like how skinner inspired by Thorndike’s law of effect, created similar experiment, and initially followed Pavlov and Watson’s work, and realised issues and rejected it to form its own learning theory, operate learning theory. These examples resulted that and prove to these experimentalist that once again, Metatheoretical psychologist are not a â€Å"cowboy builder†. References Bitterman, M. E. (2006). Classical Conditioning Since Pavlov. Review of General Psychology, Issue: Volume 10(4), p 365–376. Clark, R. E. (2004). The classical origins of Pavlovs conditioning. The Official Journal Of The Pavlovian Society, 39(4), 279-294. Gang, J. (2011). Behaviorism and the Beginnings of Close Reading. The Johns Hopkins University Press, ELH 78(1), 1-25. Gewirtz, J. L. (2001). J. B. Watsons Approach to Learning: Why Pavlov? Why Not Thorndike? Behavioral Development Bulletin, Issue: Volume 10(1), p 23–25. Henriques, G. R. (2004). Psychology Defined. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 60(12), 1207–1221. Iversen, I. H. (1992). Skinners Early Research: From Reflexology to Operant Conditioning. American Psychologist, Issue: Volume 47(11), p 1318–1328. Moore, J. (2011). BEHAVIORISM. The Psychological Record, 449-463. Reber, A. S., Allen, R., Reber, E. S. (2009). The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology: Fourth Edition. New York: Penguin. Rilling, M. (2000). How the Challenge of Explaining Learning Influenced the Origins and Development of John B. Watsons Behaviorism. The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 113, No. 2, pp. 275-301. Rozeboom, W. W. (2005). Meehl on metatheory. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Volume 61, Issue 10, pages 1317–1354. Schwartz, B., Lacey, H. (1982). Behaviorism, science, and human nature. New York: Norton. Wallis, S. E. (2010). Toward a Science of Metatheory. INTEGRAL REVIEW, Vol. 6, No. 3. Watson, J. B. (1914). Behavior: An introduction to comparative psychology. New York: Holt. Watson, J. B. (1916a). The place of the conditoned reflex in psychology. Psychological Review, 23, 89-108. Watson, J. B. (1994). Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. American Psychological Association, Issue: Volume 101(2), p 248–253. Watson, J. B., Kimble, G. A. (1997). John B. Watsons Behaviorism: A Retrospective Review. American Psychological Association, Volume 42(1), p 23–28. Watson, J. B., Rayner , R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1–14. Windholz, G. (1997). Ivan P. Pavlov: An Overview of His Life and Psychological Work. American Psychological Association, Issue: Volume 52(9), p 941–946.

Gullivers Travels †Comparing the Yahoos to Humans :: comparison compare contrast essays

Gulliver's Travels – Comparison of Yahoos to Humans The comparison of Yahoos to humans in Book Four of Jonathon Swift's Gulliver's Travels is entirely inappropriate. The Yahoos are shown as base creatures of barbaric nature and with little or no aptitude for learning. Swift's use of these lowly creatures to symbolize man is harsh, however, it does serve to enhance his satire to a certain degree. Nonetheless, his comparison is inaccurate and degrading to Mankind. In his novel, Jonathon Swift uses the Yahoo, a creature with a great likeness to humans except in the amount of hair and the colors of their skin, to represent the nature of Man. He implies that we are all "...strong and hardy, but of a cowardly Spirit, and by consequence, insolent, abject, and cruel."(p. ). Perhaps he is right about some people, but this is not true of all Mankind. Most people are not insolent or cruel, and many have truly courageous Spirits. Any man or woman who joins the army in the time of the "War on Terrorism" can not be a coward. In the World Wars, millions of people died for the love of their country, can you call that cowardice? As well, millions of institutions of higher learning have been established across the world. The Yahoos are shown to be ignorant and without any ability to learn. Human beings are constantly in the pursuit of knowledge, going to extreme lengths to satiate their boundless curiosity for the way things work within their world, and even without. Without a doubt, many human beings possess similar qualities to those of the Yahoos. We are capable of great cruelty, but also of great compassion. We can be insolent and rude, or we can be respectful and polite. We can be cowardly, but we are also capable of great feats of bravery. Mankind is not limited to the aspects of his nature that are unpleasant; he is constantly striving to surpass those negative characteristics. Swift's comparison may be inaccurate, but it is also quite effective. In one's mind's eye, one can almost see the lowly creatures. Picking out only those negative aspects of our natures and magnifying them allows us to see them clearly, without making excuses for ourselves.

Benjamin D. Powell

Benjamin D. Powell makes an argument in his paper â€Å"Exploring Mirror Neurons: Rethinking Performance and Communicative Processes† that will make every self-avowed video game dork ecstatic. The concept that by observing an action repeatedly our mirror neurons learn to perform the action will appeal to thousands or even millions who spend their days in front of a television or video screen rather than out experiencing life. Powell adds the caveat that without practicing the action, the body will not be able to perform it with the skill of a trained athlete, but argues that the presence of mirror neurons explains why he was not more injured when hit by a car. The paper claims that the presence of mirror neurons may indicate that more study is needed regarding how our bodies develop skills and what effect activities like playing video games have on our neurological development. At worst, Powell’s theory is an interesting pipe dream. At best, it is hope for the people who spend too much time playing â€Å"World of Warcraft†. Unfortunately, the reality is it seems to be something of a pipe dream. It is much more likely that he simply got lucky when the car hit him and instinctively tucked and rolled. And, the car, which he described as barreling toward him, probably was not moving with the speed he believed it to be.   Writing for the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Kathleen Wilkes seems to echo parts of Powell’s basic thesis. (Wilkes 111). She argues that the possibility exists that people are capable of learning simply through observation, but there is no hard science to defend either her statement or Powell’s. The reality is that this is some odd combination of philosophy and science, with people speculating on something that science has yet to be able to measure or prove. In the end, while the philosophy of a mind-body link so deep that the mind can control the body’s actions after merely observing an action seems plausible there is no science to back it up. Powell’s evidence is merely a corollary, coincidental and not direct proof of a tie. To actually prove Powell’s theory would be difficult and complicated. One would have to prove that there was simply no other way, short of mirror neurons that the test subject could have learned to complete a specific action. And, the researcher would have to be able to determine how much of the action and the response to it is based on intellectual knowledge versus muscle knowledge. In short, the researcher would have to prove that simply watching someone swing a bat repeatedly would equate to the ability to do it and that the ability is more than the intellectual knowledge of where to place one’s hands on the bat. He would have to prove that Powell’s escape from injury was more related to his ability to tuck and roll than his knowledge that tuck and roll was the right way to minimize the force of impact of an oncoming car. Ultimately, Powell’s problem becomes in determining what actions are effective because of the mental processes telling us how to do them and which ones are effective because of the muscle knowledge of when to flex or release. Even making the differentiation there could take years. WORKS CITED Powell, Benjamin D. â€Å"Exploring Mirror Neurons: Rethinking Performance and Communicative Processes.† Wilkes, Kathleen V. â€Å"Brain States†Ã‚   The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 31, No.2. June, 1980. pp. 111-129.   

Organization of Police Departments

Organization of Police Departments Free Online Research Papers There are many reasons as to why the effectiveness of the organization of the police departments are important. In my opinion, if there was no organization of the police departments then there would not be much done with in the field. The most important things that are involved in the organization of police departments are the area, time and purpose. The organizing by area is a very interesting topic. The police departments must be organized not only with regard to personnel but also with the regard to the geographic area they serve and protect. Every single officer with in a police department must always be responsible for a specific area in which the officer is assigned to patrol and protect. There are a few different ways the areas are split up. There are the beats or posts which is defined as the smallest geographic area that a single patrol unit, one or two people in a car or on foot, can patrol effectively. There are the sectors or zones which is the number of individual beats that are grouped together. Precincts which is defined as the entire collection of beats and sectors in a given geographic area. Research also states that in a smaller police department, only one precinct serves as the administrative headquarters for the entire police department. According to the assigned text for Axia College, The Long Island Police D epartment in Nassau County, New York, patrols a city of 35,000 people with only 70 actual police officers has just one precinct. Also, the New York City police department which serves over eight million people with near 40,000 police officers, has a total of seven precincts places thorough out the entire county. When it comes down to the larger precincts or station houses, the main focus is the desk. In addition to the police departments being organized by area, a police department must also be organized by its use of time. The three tour system is very important when being organized by time. According to the text, common sense states that police officers as well as other workers, can only work are specific number of hours in a day before fatigue starts to completely set in and the police officers lose their effectiveness. The shifts of the police officers are usually always separated by each day or 24 hour period of time into three shifts. A midnight or night shift which usually falls between the hours of 12 midnight and 8 a.m. A day shift usually falls between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and the evening shift which falls between the hours of 4 p.m. and 12 midnight. Usually the police officers that are working the day shift can tell if they are working or if they are off for any day in the year. It has been stated in the text that police officers have been allocated evenly du ring the three tours or shifts. The school text also states that the academic studies of the police beginning in the 1960’s discovered that crime and other police problems do not fit neatly into the three tour system. Steady fixed tours can be defined as where a police officer can work the same shifts. Meaning that one week they are working the over night shift and the next week they are working the day shift. Organizing by function or purpose with in a police department is also an important factor. The text explains that the best way to organize a police department in this way is to place similar functions performed by the police officers into similar units. In other words, all members of a police department that are doing normal patrol duties are places into a patrol division whereas all the other police officers that are assigned to perform detective duties are to be placed into a detective division. Line and staff functions are considered to be a big part in organization in a police department. Police departments must be organized by a function or purpose. The most simple grouping of units or division of a police department is between the line functions and the staff functions. Line functions are defined as the tasks that are directly facilitated by the accomplishment of organizational goals, whereas staff functions are those tasks that supplement the line units in their task performan ce. Police department units are described as 30 tasks or duties that the police officers must perform to have an effective police department. There are a few different units within the police departments. There is the operational unit which is where the operations are activities that are performed in direct assistance to the public. The operational units consist of the patrol, traffic, criminal investigation, vice, organized crime, juvenile services, community services, crime prevention and community relations. Also within a police department there is the administrative units. Administration in a police department can be defined as those activities performed not in the direct assistance to the public but for the benefit of the organization as a whole. The administrative unit is usually open between the hours 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The administrative unit consists personnel, training, planning and analysis, budget and finance, legal assistance, public information, clerical, inspections, i nternal affairs and intelligence. As stated above are the facts behind the organization of any given police department. It is explained the area the time and the purpose for having a police department running in an organized and proper manner. Research Papers on Organization of Police DepartmentsUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresThe Fifth Horseman19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseResearch Process Part OnePETSTEL analysis of IndiaBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThe Project Managment Office SystemStandardized TestingNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This Nice

Drug Laws of The Netherlands Essays

Drug Laws of The Netherlands Essays Drug Laws of The Netherlands Paper Drug Laws of The Netherlands Paper Introduction The Netherlands is one of the most highly developed countries in the world. It is an international, well-integrated country with policies that are among the world’s most liberal. In fact, The Netherlands has perhaps the most liberal view on drug use than any other country and has even gone to the extreme of extraordinarily relaxing its laws regarding ‘soft’ drugs. However, a common misconception about drugs in the Netherlands is that people believe they have been legalized there. Rather, cannabis and its by-products, marijuana and hashish, have merely been decriminalized. This means that the sale and use in moderate amounts of marijuana and hashish is not prosecuted. This begs the question: Is a permissive legal system more effective than a restrictive system in the case of soft drugs? This paper examines the attitude of law enforcement in The Netherlands regarding soft drug use and assesses whether or not The Netherlands’s permissive system is a successful one. Soft Drug Decriminalization in The Netherlands Contrary to popular belief, when the Dutch parliament revised the countrys drug laws in 1976, it did not actually legalize any narcotic substances. Rather, it separated illegal drugs into two distinct categories: drugs with unacceptable health risks (such as heroin and cocaine), which were classified as hard drugs,† and drugs with a lesser medical risk (such as cannabis), which were classified as soft drugs (Bransten, para. 3). The Dutch Parliament then decided to decriminalize soft drugs. Because of this determination, throughout The Netherlands so-called coffee shops† have opened. In these coffee shops, people are able to purchase limited amounts of cannabis and smoke a marijuana joint without fear of prosecution (Bransten, para. 4). These activities are not legal per se, but the local police do not monitor or prosecute them. The rationale behind the Dutch parliament’s decision was that the use of marijuana among the Dutch population was increasing, and rather than bog down the legal system, Dutch politicians decided to decriminalize marijuana (Bransten, para. 4). The other benefit of the policy, as the Dutch politicians and general public see it, is that â€Å"it isolates the hard drug market from the recreational user because cannabis consumers no longer regularly come into contact with street dealers and more harmful drugs† (Bransten, para. 5). Dutch drug policy is guided by the principle of what is best described as harm reduction (Bransten, para. 8). This means that drugs are perceived as a public health issue and the goal should be to minimize the harm those drugs do to individuals and to society –- not to criminally punish soft drug users. With respect to users of hard drugs, they are monitored and encouraged to turn to the public health system for treatment, but unless they commit other crimes, they are not prosecuted in The Netherlands (Bransten, para. 7). Consequently, the Dutch spend their time and money on prevention and education instead of criminal prosecution (Bransten, para. 8). This has allowed the Dutch authorities to concentrate their efforts policing activities elsewhere. In fact, since the policy was implemented, the Dutch police have concentrated on pursuing drug traffickers, drug laboratories, and all other crime related activities. Therefore, would it be fair to say that the decriminalization of soft drugs been a success in The Netherlands? Several decades have passed since soft drugs were decriminalized and it is still somewhat difficult to make a final determination of its ‘success’. The results (positive or negative) of decriminalizing drugs and instituting a permissive legal system with respect to drugs, are disputed and somewhat unclear. The next section of this paper attempts to sort out the conflicting data that has emerged assessing results of The Netherlands’s permissive soft drug policy. Results of Decriminalization in The Netherlands The Dutch claim that their permissive drug policy has worked. Some statistics that have been generated have indicated that marijuana and hashish use among Dutch teenagers and young adults has not grown. In fact, according to some sources, it is lower than in many other Western countries (Bransten, para. 9). Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a criminologist and drug-policy expert at the University of Amsterdam has stated: Eighty-five percent of the Dutch population have never, in their life, tried cannabis. So its 15 percent (of people) who have what you call lifetime experience prevalence. Its lower than in the UK, or the U. S. , lower than Ireland, about the same level as Germany, Belgium, France. France is a bit higher, Spain is a bit higher its kind of in the average, you could say (Bransten, para. 10). These statistics have led many to ask why hasn’t the use of marijuana increased in The Netherlands after it was decriminalized? One factor to consider is the concept of the â€Å"forbidden fruit†. That is, decriminalizing soft drugs has made them less attractive to people. According to some statistics, this has been the experience of The Netherlands. For example, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), after the Dutch government decriminalized marijuana in 1976, usage steadily declined particularly among teenagers and young adults (ACLU, para. 25). Prior to decriminalization, 10 percent of Dutch 17- and 18-yesr-olds used marijuana, yet by 1985, that figure had dropped to 6. 5 percent (ACLU, para. 25). These statistics tend to support the opinion that a permissive legal system regarding drug use is more successful than a restrictive one, such as in the United States. However, some people have argued that The Netherlands has suffered an increase in marijuana use since the softening of their marijuana policy. Various select statistic show that, since the liberalization of the marijuana enforcement policies, The Netherlands has seen marijuana use among 11-18 year olds increase 142% from 1990-1995 (Voth, para. 14). According to these same statistics, crime has risen steadily to the point that aggravated theft and breaking and entering occurs 3-4 times more than in the United States (Voth, para. 14). This would tend to support the assertion that decriminalization of soft drugs has not been successful in The Netherlands. Yet, Dutch citizens state that such claims are false and that those who perpetuate them are merely threatened by the success of The Netherlands’s liberal drug policy. For example, they say that some countries, and the U. S. in particular, are threatened by Dutch drug policy because it cuts directly against the moral ideology underlying their own restrictive drug policy (Reinarman, 2000). This is demonstrated in the United States’ history of unmitigated concern regarding intoxicating substances. A prime example of this is that for over a hundred years, Americans believed that alcohol was the direct cause of poverty, crime, and would cause civilization to crumble. This fundamentalist crusade resulted in national alcohol prohibition in 1919. Alcohol has since been legalized in the United States, but the U. S. has now applied this theory to drugs. The unofficial United States drug policy is that decriminalization (of even soft drugs) would lead to disaster. However, a ‘disaster’ has not occurred in The Netherlands as a result of decriminalization of drugs. In fact, the majority of research and statistics show that the Dutch have no more drug problems than most neighboring countries which do not have liberal drug policies. Conclusion While some people continue to claim that the permissive Dutch drug policy has led to an increased amount of drug use in that country, the majority of statistics tend to refute this. Overall, it appears that a permissive soft drug policy is certainly as effective, if not more so, than a restrictive system. Bibliography American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU Paper #19 Against Drug Prohibition. 1996. Available at: http://archive. aclu. org/library/pbp19. html. Retrieved June 6, 2003. Bransten, Jeremy. Europe: Drugs Dutch Practice Liberal Policies (Part 2). Radio Free Europe. 28 November 2000. Available at: rferl. org/nca/features/2000/11/28112000132419. asp. Retrieved June 5, 2003. Reinarman, Craig. â€Å"The Dutch example shows that liberal drug laws can be beneficial. † In: Scott Barbour (Ed. ), Drug Legalization: Current Controversies. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000, pp. 102-108. Voth, Eric A. , and Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky. Contemporary Drug Policy. 1/21/2000. Available at: estreet. com/orgs/dsi/Legalizit/DrugPolicyLegalizationHar. html. Retrieved June 5, 2003.

Power Curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Power Curve - Essay Example It can be modeled in a similar manner to that of the pressure that develops from molecular viscosity. That means that there is eddy viscosity that acts as super viscosity and can provide turbulent stress when multiplied by the mean gradients. Eddy viscosity is valuable since it provides us with a way to estimate the new terms developed by inserting the Reynolds decomposition through closure of the turbulent flow equations. 4- Solar insolation leads to large eddies especially during the day. The convective turbulence also leads to the development of a mixed boundary layer. The energy shuts down, and the turbulence keeps spinning aloft as the sun goes down. However, the energy is also suppressed down towards the ground due to the stably stratified turbulence. Suppression of the vertical motions by the stable flow forces the stable boundary layer to be thinner. 5- The twist in typical wind turbine blades occurs due to the differences in relative velocity wind vector (May 212). There are larger components of wind that are associated with the relative motion that occurs between the blade and the air at large. 6- One of the issues discussed in class was the current bottleneck with transmission lines. The second was the dual challenges that occur when competing with local companies that are invested and maintained by the state. 7- Turbulent energy develops from the large scale motions and gradients in the governing equations. For instance, flow instabilities get transferred to the medium scale motions, which transfer to the smaller scale motions. The smaller scale gradients become large enough and force the viscosity to dissipate turbulent kinetic energy. At the inertial subrange, turbulent kinetic energy passes through this range of scales without much dissipation. 11 – The variability of wind the resource is equal to the variability of wind power. On the other hand, the variability of fuel costs is

How do stereotypes affect the perception of male masculinity in the Research Paper

How do stereotypes affect the perception of male masculinity in the workplace - Research Paper Example This kind of profiling ranges from the unequal pay package to the court system. The paper will examine the impact of the male masculinity in the workplace mostly from the effects it has on both genders and accordingly where possible look at the ways that the stereotyping can be rectified in order to bring out the equality in every other workplace. Furthermore as the paper is examining the stereotype from mainly the female angle it should be put into consideration that even the male employees in a workplace also suffer from the kind of discrimination from their other male counterparts in relation to career and association. HOW STEREOTYPES AFFECT PERCEPTION OF MALE MASCULINITY IN A WORKPLACE Stereotyping When it comes to the workplace, gender stereotype can be an awfully traumatizing experience that any person should not undergo. By stereotyping a particular group of people or even having a perception of a particular group of people implies that the persons is being mistreated on the b asis of a predetermined philosophy that in most cases will not be true (Wood, 2012). By stereotyping a particular society it means that we are making a discernment based on objective scrutiny about that particular group of people. Stereotyping can be made on a persons presumption based on their age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. In the workplace the stereotyping exists although measures have been put in place to dissuade the discrimination especially based on the gender of individuals. In the societies, the equitable and fairness work place policies indicate that people are moving away from the notions of gender discrimination into a better and fair society (Paludi, 2012). Furthermore in the past years, laws have been put into place to discourage and prohibit gender discrimination. Male Masculinity Masculinity varies from each and everyone and when various people or societies get into contact with each other their own notion of masculinity has the potential of crea ting conflicts among themselves. By possessing characteristics and qualities typical of any male person it will be qualified to say that that is a perception of having the masculinity. The expression masculinity might be used to portray any human being, animal or even an object that has capability and eminence to be masculine and therefore is not limited to man alone. However Chrisler & McCreary (2010) claim that the usage of the term is mostly to associated with the male qualities in the society. The perception of masculinity was first used in the early 19th century just when the industrial revolution had just began. Swift transformation and advancement of technology has ensured that the standards of living have improved and become well and with this, the description of the term masculinity has also changed. Currently in the present workplace masculinity is definitely an aspect that has to be taken into consideration by directors and also by staff. This is mainly because it plays a critical and unique position in the way people interrelate with one another and outline the system (Hinsdale, Johnson, & Validated Instruction Associates Inc Albion 2010).   In the earliest impression of male masculinity, the concept of maleness and masculinity was that men did not work for the reason that they enjoyed it but somewhat; they did the work for the sole purpose of being called men. After that era men began believing that the worst that possibly