Erikson’s Theory of Life Stages Development: Analysis

Erikson’s Theory of Life Stages Development: Analysis Aminat Lawal TAQ 1: 2.1 Draw a table similar to the one below and identify the life stages from adolescence onwards in an individual’s life, showing the evidence for each of the stages (Balls, 2013) (Psyche100, 2012) (Stages, 2015) 2.2 Examine the evidence provided to support and dispute Erikson’s theory of life stage development. One of the strengths of the theory is that it gives an expansive framework from which to view development of a whole lifespan. Additionally, it permits us to underline the social nature of individuals and the vital impact that these social natures have on development. This was created mostly from Erikson’s broad field research with Native Americans, and afterwards from his clinical treatment works which was attached to driving mental health centres and universities. Over the years, psychologists have collected several information that backs the relationship between each stage and the corresponding age groups to affirm that, identifying and resolving the crisis serves to advance respect towards one’s self-esteem (Stages, 2015). A study that comprised of school children, their parents and teachers concentrated on the phase of industry versus mediocrity. The results of this study backed the idea of industry being legitimate for age group which demonstrates that an industry score positively connected with test scores and accomplishment in school (Stages, 2015). Many people claim that Erikson’s ideas are equivocal and regularly conflicting. Some people believe that the theory is more applicable to males than females and that, more consideration is paid to early stages in life and youth than the grown-up life (Cortland, 2015). There is also a discussion concerning whether individuals search for identity or character amid the youthful years or if one stage needs to happen before other stages can be completed. As a response, Erikson expressed that each of these courses of action happens all though a lifetime and also, emphasised on â€Å"stages† as it is at these times that the clashes get to be generally conspicuous. The lack of common sense fixing genuine issues stays a standout amongst the most criticisms of Erikson’s work to date, which is why there are just so few supporters of his work among current psychologists (Stages, 2015). Word: 842 TAQ 2: Essay: ‘Adolescence is a time of storm and stress’ Adolescence otherwise known as immaturity, portrays the early years somewhere around 13 and 19 of a youngster, and this is viewed as the transitional stage from youth to adulthood. Adolescence is regarded as a period of both bewilderment and discovery which is why it is said to raise certain issues and intense decisions with respect to school tasks, sexuality, social life including drugs and alcohol. (Today, 2015). One major reasons that youngsters find adolescence being a time of storm and stress is on the grounds that it is a period of quick physical improvement and profound passionate changes. They can be seen as exciting advancements but at the same time, uncomfortable for a child to his/her parent. Adolescence or the period of transition can be broken down into three stages; Early adolescence which usually comes around between 11 to 14 Middle adolescence which usually comes around between ages 15 to 17 Late adolescence which usually comes around between ages 18 to 21 (Children, 2014). Quick changes can occur both physically and emotionally at this stage of life. These changes are in combination with attending an educational institution, social time with friends which might bring about the use of drugs and consumption of alcohol (Psychiatrists, 2015). There are psychological and social tasks that take place between the ages of 11 to 21. Physical development: Otherwise known as puberty and Includes hormones and physical changes. The process of physical changes in the puberty stage of life begins continuously from around the age of 13 for males and 11 for females. Hormonal changes produce periods of tiredness and fretfulness. Changes in males include the growth of body, deeper voices, facial hair, wet dreams and erections and in females includes, growth of pubic hair in part of the body and menstrual periods. (Psychiatrists, 2015) Intellectual and emotional development: Majority of male and female youngsters enter puberty as yet observing their surroundings properly where, things are either right, wrong, magnificent or terrible. Youngsters seldom set their sights and minds past the present which clarifies more on the incapability to consider the effect of their actions. At the time most youngsters approach late adolescence, they acknowledge nuances of circumstances and thoughts an also properly work their way into the future. The ability for them to handle complex issues and to sense what other people are thinking would have honed significantly. However because they are still moderately unpractised in life, older adolescents use these new aptitudes inconsistently and consequently, may act without consideration. Emotional development demands that youngsters gradually eject themselves from their parents. There is more time spent with friends socially, less affection and love towards folks and pushing the limits. Youngsters as often as possible feel clashed about leaving the safety net of their homes. They might be need for a slight love and affection from their parent but, just as this happens, they turn away once more (Children, 2014). Additionally, when they test the consumption of alcohol and use of drugs socially alone, they are find themselves in a much more serious peril however, when warnings are issued from older adolescents, they are considered more important than when they come from parents (Psychiatrists, 2015). A teenager could be hit with a cluster of challenges at adolescence. Some of these challenges include emotional, sexual and behavioural problems. Signs of a teenager experiencing emotional storm or stress could include over-consumption of food, inordinate tiredness, and tenacious concern with ones appearance at all times. Tension may also create fears and frenzy assaults and due to this, studies carried out by psychologists recommends that enthusiastic issues are frequently not perceived even by the close relatives and friends of the suffering adolescent. Amid adolescence, most teenagers think so little of themselves in a way that proves life not worth living. The physical changes in adolescent ages brings could bring about sexual stress and issues to a few who are modest and those who don’t seek for information. On the other hand, some other teenagers express this issue with exorbitant gloating about their sexual experience and capacity. There is also the risk of pregnancy an d sexually transmitted diseases (HIV/AIDS) within the age of 16 as most teenagers are eager to have the experience (Psychiatrists, 2015). The understanding of adolescence is based on two approaches of comprehending human behaviour by Erik Erikson and Anna Freud. Erikson believed and concentrated on the dichotomy that is between personality formation and accomplishment of roles while Freud believed that psychological unsettling does influences that are connected with adolescence were biologically based and socially all inclusive. Regardless of their different views they accepted that adolescence was naturally a period of unsettling influence and psychological disarray. Freud believed that the psychological procedure of sexual development which begins with the functionality of sexual glands, does impact the psychological domain. As a result of this, there is an awakening of libidinal strengths which, thus, can lead to psychological disequilibrium. She believes that the following factors are involved in the conflict in adolescence; the strengths of the id drive which is controlled by psychological courses of action amid a dolescence, the self-ability to adapt or to respect instinctual strengths and the adequacy and nature of the safeguard techniques at the disposal of ego (King, 2004). Erikson portrays adolescence by the quickness of body development, genital development and sexual awareness. Also, he describes adolescence as the time amid when an individual must establish a character which is usually established in different ways according to different cultures and evade the dangers of part dissemination and identity disarray. During the time of development of vocational identity, certain role confusion comes around. The constructive result of personality crisis is reliant on a youngster’s readiness to acknowledge his past and build progression with their past encounters (King, 2004). Also as indicated, identity dissemination can prompt suicidal attempts however, once a personality is made, an adolescent cab proceed onward to discover closeness or detachment in interpersonal connections (King , 2004). According to Stanley Hall youngsters in late adolescence restate the condition of the initiation of modern civilization. His psychology did not see a human as the final product of a formative methodology, it only gave the room for further development (King, 2004). Word 997 TAQ 3: Explore one life event such as marriage, parenthood, divorce or bereavement that you, or someone you know, has experienced. Describe the event, keeping the information in the third person to keep the individual’s anonymity. At the age of 6 – 7, the life stage of Industry vs Inferiority, his parents fought a lot in his presence which usually began with a scream, noise and rage which resulted to tears from his mother. Fights went on for a while which resulted in their settlement for a divorce. He stayed with his mother while his father began to see someone else who had a wild social lifestyle of drugs, alcohol consumption and carelessness. After the case of custody, it was settled that he should spend a certain amount of days with his mother and rest with his father. His mother on the other hand had an authoritative style of parenting i.e., she was very strict and did not allow any sort of misbehaviour. This style of shared living went on until the age of 13 15, which is when the adolescent period comes along. The authoritative parenting style of his mother was not his favourite so, he enjoyed spending more time at his father’s and his new partner. The wild lifestyle of his father’s new partner began to reflect on his adolescent age as a result of the much time he spent there and the thought of freedom away from his mother’s strict parenting. According to Erikson’s theory, his life stage falls under identity vs role confusion which is where he is to learn the roles he will be indulged in as a grown up. It is also amid this stage of life that his personality will define who he is (McLeod, 2013). He had exposed himself to the possibility of freedom and formed an identity based on the lifestyle of his father’s new partner. He suffered from role confusion as he was unsure of where he fitted in the society because of the shared moments between a strict mother, and a carefree father. Word 306 References Balls, B., 2013. eriksons psychosocial development theory. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessballs.com/erik_erikson_psychosocial_theory.htm [Accessed 02 Febuary 2015]. Children, H., 2014. Ages and Stages. [Online] Available at: http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/Pages/Stages-of-Adolescence.aspx [Accessed 03 Febuary 2015]. Cortland, 2015. Erik Eriksons 8 Stages of PsychosocialDevelopment. [Online] Available at: http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/ERIK/crit.HTML [Accessed 02 February 2015]. King, R. M., 2004. Kings Psychology Network. [Online] Available at: http://www.psyking.net/id183.htm [Accessed 04 February 2015]. McLeod, S., 2013. Simply Psychology. [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html [Accessed 05 February 2015]. Psyche100, 2012. Eriksons 8 Stages Of Life Span Development.. [Online] Available at: http://www.cram.com/flashcards/eriksons-8-stages-of-life-span-development-2143446 [Accessed 02 Febuary 2015]. Psychiatrists, R. C. o., 2015. MENTAL HEALTH AND GROWING UP FACTSHEET. [Online] Available at: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/parentsandyouthinfo/parentscarers/adolescence.aspx [Accessed 03 February 2015]. Stages, E. P., 2015. Erik Eriksons Psychosocial Theory. [Online] Available at: http://eriksonspsychosocialstages.wikispaces.com/Erik+Eriksons+Psychosocial+Theory [Accessed 2015 February 2015]. Today, P., 2015. Adolescence. [Online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/adolescence [Accessed 03 February 2015]. Project Design of ABC Corporation: Security Assessment Project Design of ABC Corporation: Security Assessment ABC Corporation Computer Network Organization ABC Corporation is a big brokering company which is founded in China and has a workforce of about 9,000 situated over different office branches distributed all over. The corporation is setup in Los Angeles. The people that sets up the corporations branch in Los Angeles that helps with the current system which they want it to be dependable, quick, secure and will satisfy any future prerequisites of the organization. The implementation of this system is to offer the following platforms: cloud computing, distributed computing and centralized computing in the network which supposed to be a secure computer network system. Purpose: The purpose if this security assessment report is to provide a documentation outlining security gaps and vulnerabilities the project design of ABC Corporation may have experience and may be a threat to corporate security policies of ABC Corporation. The management will be required to allocate the necessary resources to correct any problems and gaps in its project design security. The management may also decide to accept the risk, since its already an informed risk or a reward analysis. This will make sure that the necessary security controls will work best for ABC company and are integrated into the IT design of ABC company. Scope: The scope is to cover all aspects of the Computer Network Design project since it is aimed at creating a risk free Network System. It will cover both vulnerabilities, risks and security gaps that can be a threat due to insider dealings (people working in the company who might have any malicious intentions) and threats that may come from the outside (people who are part of the workforce) to people who might use these vulnerabilities and security gaps if they come to learn their existence. People that works for the organization is a threat to the organizations computer network design project as those from the outside the fact that they are more accustomed to the working of the system they pose as a much greater threat. Data The ABC Corporation has built a LAN and a WAN system program that can help the association to develop a more extensive network system that can boost the financial frameworks which has more benefits and will deal in the forthcoming years. The ABC Corporation LAN have a topology of frameworks trading contraptions which is to work as switches in the center. They are appropriated and can get to the layers that can indicate the structure jointly with a set up plan. They put all the gadgets together. This technique will redesign the system presentation and dispose not so important interconnections at the same time providing flexibility. At the end of the network, the ABC Corporation has different edge switches. They are to be utilized for Web Access Provider (ISP) Openness, Intrusion Prevention Systems and Firewalls that are deliberate to changes and other square intruders which can offer the use and end gadget framework. This system is designed to assist the partnership specialists with employing any new applications that are urgent and the most efficient operation of new preparation plans for the organization deals and constraints. Methodology Although there are different methodologies of conducting a Security Assessment Report, the best methodologies for ABC Company are the ones that was used to access the vulnerability of ABC Computer Network Design and the risks that company may face. The following methodologies were used to access the security state of ABC Computer Network Design: Requirement study and situation analysis: The situation of the ABC Computer Network Design was analyzed using the wireshark program. Document review: Documents recorded by IT personnel were also reviewed for any information that may be suspicious regarding manipulation of the Computer Network Design of ABC Company. Risk identification: Risk identification was mainly done by using the wireshark program, which analyzed the activities that was going on in the network of a given computer design. Data analysis: Data that stored in the computer network due to previous activities that were conducted within the computer network that has analyzed for any suspicious data that may be due to security gaps in the computer network design of ABC Company. Vulnerability scan: A scan that is conducted in the Computer Network Design to cite any vulnerable in the computer network of ABC company that may pose as a threat. Findings The risk levels of ABC Computer Network were high and the vulnerability described as a critical. This is mainly based on the following findings after the scan of the ABC Computer Network: There were many ports which were open and these ports could be used by hackers to get access into the Computer Network. Most of these hackers are malicious individuals that may send viruses and malwares into the Computer Network or use these privileges acquired to exploit the system. The remote host of the Computer Network was seen to be running on a computer with an OS of Windows version. This computer had a fault in its RPC interface, 98 netbios-ssn and 10 microsoft-ds. The flaw can give a hacker an access to execute some arbitrary codes making them to acquire privileges of the computer system. This weakness can also be utilized by a worm and give an ability to control the host. Some suspicious activities in the Computer Network were also noticed. An example of this was an activity from an unknown user who was using an unidentified OS with a mac address 00:ff:eb:48:41:88 (unknown). All unknown users are supposed to be flagged immediately until their identities is known. In addition to these risks and vulnerabilities identified, insider intimidation also poses a risk to ABC Corporation. Individuals working from within the corporation are a potent a threat to the computer network as risks from the outside. The corporation should choose to care if any of its employees might be using commerce information malevolently for their own benefits. Results After assessment of the security situation of the ABC Company Computer Network Design, there were found to be some security gaps which need to be addressed by the management. These gaps are known by a malicious party that would pose as vulnerable to the computer design of ABC Company Computer Network Design. Since the system administrators have full access of the entire system, they should do a follow up on risks and vulnerabilities. The network administrators would be the best to do the follow up on security gaps identified. Labs    The computer that I scanned was WINATK01 with IP address 172.21.23.73. The transmission control protocol is a service that links and works between an application program sending information and the internet protocol. It also provides host-to-host connectivity at the internet models transport layer. The transmission control protocol can detect any problem at the lower levels of the transport layers such as poor network connectivity and network congestion.   There are several vulnerabilities as far as transmission control protocol (TCP) is concerned. The two most used attacks are denial of service whereby the attackers use spoofed IP address and connection hijacking whereas the hacker can eavesdrop on an on-going transmission and takes over one of the receiving ends and goes on with the communication as if is the original recipient. Findings The scan was done using Wireshark vulnerability assessment tool. The following are the transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) discovered; TCP and HTTP. The scan further revealed that there was a security communication provided by the security data transport methods especially contained in MySQL. The components of MySQL are; Connectors (Connector/C, Connector/J, and so forth) MySQL Proxy Communication between master and slave replication servers MySQL proxy is a very vital component which encrypts and compresses information end-to-end for proper security optimization to prevent and avoid possible attacks. MySQL protocal also aids in data transmission just as the TCP. Conclusion In conclusion, the network system that analyzed above was found to be effective in information transmission between the different sources and destinations. The security status was also found to be superb with an end to end encryption provided by the proxy in MySQL. Thus, the vulnerability status can be concluded to be at minimum and attackers cannot easily manipulate their ways to attack the network systems. Recommended safeguards The management should there are no ends left unguarded with firewalls and any other programs which would make the network inaccessible from any unauthorized parties from the outside. The dealings of internal workers too should be closely supervised to make sure employees do not use the system malevolently for their own benefits. The network administrators should also look closely to the network system frequently to make sure that there are no ports left open or no suspicious activities take place either due to internal dealing or from outside of the network.

Importance Of Preservation Of Biodiversity Philosophy Essay

Importance Of Preservation Of Biodiversity Philosophy Essay There are three main arguments in the book. Friedman explains the problems by breaking them down into the simple categories that the world is getting hot, flat, and crowded. He related that the world is hot by explaining global warming and what problems it causes. Globalization is a main contributor to global warming. People consume more so they demand more to be produced which promotes globalization and global warming. The more we produce the more gas toxins are released into the atmosphere causing our air quality to diminish. Friedman takes an optimistic view of global warming by saying that it will help our economy downsize and force us into developing innovative technologies and eventually free us from depending on oil producing countries. Friedman also explains that the world is now flat, meaning that the rise of high-consuming middle classes all over the world is all linked together. As the economy increases the standard of living increases and the middle-class are the ones benefiting the most and causing the most problems. We want too much and waste so much. We buy and buy and buy and then just throw things away after a few uses instead of recycling and conserving. More countries like China and Russia are adopting the American way of living and the planet just doesnt have enough resources. Eventually, all the natural resources of the world will be depleted and we wont know what to do. The last argument is that the world is crowded. The worlds population increases by about a billion every thirteen years. People live longer and there is just not enough space for everyone. We are destroying our forests and jungles to build houses and factories. Pretty soon there will be no natural land preserved for farming and natural habitat. Friedman wraps up his arguments with one main thesis stating that America can recover from the major problems and by developing new technologies and policy solutions that pertain to energy and environmental stresses on the planet. He predicts that because America is the major contributor to these problems and that we have been facing these problems for some time now, we will be the first to invent these innovative technologies. Once we have these inventions we will be able to sell them to the rest of the world and gain some of the power we have lost. Part 2- Analysis (15 points) (1.5 pages max for each answer) Answer any THREE (5 points each) Why is the preservation of biodiversity important in a hot, flat and crowded world? How can we preserve biodiversity? The preservation of biodiversity is important because it is what keeps life going on our planet. It keeps species from becoming extinct, it provides crucial services to poor and under-developed areas, and its the little things that help us adapt to the ever-changing world around us. We cant live in a world where species die out regularly. There would be no cycle or continuity. We cant live in a world of cement and stainless-steel. There needs to be life on our planet in order to produce natural resources to survive. Rapid climate change and human development are destroying the biodiversity on our planet. It affects the quality of our lives. If we allow the planet to keep running on this destructive path we will kill off the small unnoticed organisms and species that keep everything running. My old basketball coach used to say take care of the little things and the big things will fall into place. Friedman is basically saying the same thing. If we keep the little things running like insects and plants, we bigger and more developed organisms will benefit. Friedman talks about two main problems with biodiversity. He explains how the poor communities look to natural resources to attain whatever they can to survive. The problem is that too many people are doing this. There are too many poor people depleting our ecosystems. The second problem is globalization. Globalization solves the problem of decreasing the amount of poverty, but it causes so many more. Globalization demands increases in production and consumption which results in competition to get as much, as quick as possible. This causes extinction of all aspects of life on our planet to come much quicker than ever before. To prevent this, the idea of government regulations and ethics of conservation have to be set forth. Governments can put restraints on where companies can develop and preserve ecosystems. Also there has to be new limits on consumption. Consumption of food, land, fuel and pretty much everything has to be cut in order for our planet to survive. Friedman basically explains that our ecosystems have to work in harmony in order to preserve biodiversity. Human beings are the cause of this dissonance. At one point our planet thrived and provided humans with all the natural resources it needed. We have over-consumed and destroyed too much of the planet for it to provide as much as it used too. The more we destroy the more we need to develop artificial ways to provide those natural resources. If we just cut back on consumption and work on making the planet work as it used too we will preserve biodiversity. What is energy poverty and what are its causes? Do you agree that ending energy poverty can help make a hot, crowded and flat world better? How? If you dont agree, explain why. Energy poverty is the fact that one out of every four people do not have access to energy. We take for granted the fact that when we walk into a room we flip a switch and a light turns on. In many countries like Africa that isnt the case. Friedman quotes Freling saying that, energy poverty means you cant pump clean water regularly, theres no communications, no way to have adult literacy classes, and certainly no way to run computers at school or have access to connectivity. Energy poverty means you do not have access to electricity, its more difficult to adapt to climate changes, there is no means to use computers or cell phones which mean you are limited in global commerce, education, collaboration, and innovation. Basically energy poverty limits your ability to do work and therefore limits your ability to thrive in todays world. It also hinders the ability to acquire basic needs the people who arent energy poor take for granted. The causes of energy poverty according to Friedman are economic growth, increased population, overconsumption, high oil and natural gas prices, rationing, and droughts. There is also the problem that some countries dont have the facilities to provide electricity and dont have the funds to build them. Some of these poorer countries are not governed by anyone or thing and are engaged in constant war. I agree that solving the energy poverty problem would make the world better, but I dont think it is a cure-all. Providing energy to these poor countries would definitely give them a way to educate themselves and connect with each other, but how do we make that happen? Friedman goes into saying that the problem with education is there is a teacher shortage and an energy shortage. Providing energy does not necessarily solve the teacher shortage. Who is going to teach the teachers? There is a healthcare issue in these poor countries, but providing energy doesnt mean doctors will want to go to these places, or that there are medicines to cure and help all of these people. Providing energy to places like Africa would be a huge leap for them, but my biggest problem is how do we do that, and where does the money come from? Providing ways of education and facilities to run electricity and allowing communication to be easier wont solve the turmoil going on in these sections of Africa, and will not cure all the diseases and problems they have. It would be a very timely and costly mission that seems like a fairytale. What is the reasoning behind Friedmans argument that Mother Nature and the Market hit the wall at the same time? The Great Recession is when Freidman says Mother Nature and the Market hit the wall. According to Friedman our planet and our markets have been growing at a pace too quick and too destructive to keep up with. Friedman focuses on three main reasons of why the Market and Mother Nature have come to a stop: unethical business and ecological values, under pricing the true costs of risks we partake in, and privatizing gains and socializing losses. Major economies like the US and China have come out with great technologies, but at a very high price. We didnt have the means to develop these products so we borrowed them. This is where the unethical business values and under pricing illuminates. If we spend too much money and too many resources there is nothing left, but these new technologies that last for a short period and then are disregarded. Now that these technologies are thriving we cannot return the resources and demand more. We are living beyond our means. Friedman says that instead of recovering from this recession we should use it as a time to change things. We need to stop living beyond our means and conserve. We cannot keep up this standard of living and pass it on to our children. Something has to be given up. The economy as it is now is unsustainable. Part 3- Critique (1 page maximum) (5 points) My impression of the book is that Friedman touches on many interesting and eye-opening topics. It really made me think about how much I really consume. America is a really wasteful country. I especially liked when Friedman touched on the fact that Americans buy ridiculous gadgets, use them twice, and then buy something else. If America focused on essentials we wouldnt consume so much. I dont usually look too far into things like global warming, but Friedman had good facts backing him up and I was really surprised at how real global warming is. I am big on things like recycling and a greener America. It is good that there are people out there trying to inform the world that changes need to happen and that they need to happen now. Friedman puts a sense of urgency on the fact that changes must be made. He describes and intertwines these problems in a very strategic and understandable way. What I dont like is that he doesnt have direct solutions to these problems. He looks heavily to the government which gives the government more control, and in my opinion, isnt always a good thing. Also, Friedmans ideas seem very costly and he doesnt provide explanations on where this money will come from. We are already in an economic crisis, there isnt any money to work with now let alone put into motion a whole new system of how the world works. My last argument with Friedmans ideas is that he is planning everything around the fact that America will develop these life changing methods of energy and fuel. This is a great optimistic attitude, but what happens if we dont? I hate to be a pessimist, but in todays world nothing is a definite. You cant structure a plan around something that hasnt been developed yet. Overall I enjoyed the book and have a different perspective on what I consume, and what needs to change.

The Fab Four :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

The Fab Four In high school I had four teachers that were very important to my success. High school was a good time for me with all my sports, music activities, and Student Council, but it was also very tough. I didn't have many friends. Also, I worried so much about school and "getting the grade", that I often felt very stressed. I also went through a period of a couple years when I was pretty depressed. These four teachers helped me through my difficult times mostly by just being there to listen. I also loved their classes, but I think that more than anything they influenced me because I liked them as people and knew they believed in me. I truly believe that if a student likes a teacher, feels a connection with them, and can develop a relationship, they will be much more interested in the material and will care more and do better. The first two of these teachers, Mr. Oftedahl and Mr. Vepraskas (Mr. O and Mr. V), were my band and choir directors. What amazing people! I love music and often times use music as a form of escape or healing in the rough times. Mr. O and Mr. V were always there to listen to me and offer what comfort they could. I could talk to them as real people, on an adult level. They didn't treat me as a kid with just kid problems. They were very sincere when talking to me and were also very talented musicians. Even though they were my teachers, I know I can talk to them and that they are more than my teachers - they are my friends. Their friendship and open door was what I needed most at that time in my life. The other two high school teachers who were influential were helpful in the same ways as Mr. O and Mr. V, always willing to listen, but they were more. Because of these two teachers, I not only knew that I wanted to teach, but they helped me realize what I wanted to teach. Señorita Brown was my Spanish teacher my freshman and sophomore years. I fell in love with Spanish when I started taking it in 7th grade with the dream of someday traveling to Spain. Señorita Brown helped me to realize that not only did I love Spanish, but that I was gifted in the language and could help others.

paper on mills -- essays research papers

I decided to write my paper on Mill for two main reasons. The first deals with happiness and virtue and his take on these things. I would first off like to state my disagreements with his ideas and then I will speak of my agreements. Mill contends that a less intelligent individual can not be as happy as one with a greater intellectual capacity. He also states that you would not be happy as swine even if everything you desired was given. I disagree. I feel that if you do not know of what you do not have then you cannot miss it. If we were less intelligent then we would be more content with the more primal needs that our ancestors had. If their needs were met then they were happy. Can we say the same for ourselves? Even if I had everything I ever wanted I could not be as happy as a caveman who had a mate, good hunting grounds and a full stomach. They had no one to worry about except protecting their clan. Yet we as a more civilized culture have much more to concern ourselves with. We must not only worry about ourselves and our families but also our neighbors and communities. If a caveman was considered virtuous it was because he was a good protector and provider and could be relied upon by his clan, yet for a man to now be considered virtuous it takes almost the same but this goal is much harder to achieve. I do feel like Mill that to live virtuously is a goal that we should all strive to attain and like him I believe that these acts will not bring about happiness as an end but by acting in such a manner will contribute to your overall happiness exponentially. I also like the fact that that if something should bring about your happiness then it is ok to try and achieve it such as money. He does not say it is wrong to try and get as much money as you can and he says it is ok if it is a means to an end for bringing you happiness. Money will buy many of our desires and wishes and for many it is there main goal in life and yet for others obtaining the money itself is there goal. That alone will bring them happiness as it is there driving force and having enough will satisfy them. This in many occasions will make the person noxious to others but not always. We should look at this then that to try and achieve a lot of money but not become noxious and still trying to live virtuously would be a cceptable. That is not necessarily everyone’s goal who hopes to acquire... ... say I do not care if my child is sick and needs to go to the doctor I want a new pair of shoes and do not have enough money to do both? No it is unthought-of (At least for those with any morals or virtues). These are simple to deduct but what about when we face times of war? Who decides who is sacrificed then? Is it right of them to make such decisions? I say yes. If we have placed these people in a position of authority then they have that right because we have placed our trust in them to act in a manner that will be for the good of our community. It then becomes our right to make this sacrifice. If we do not then someone else must take our place. Then we have not only acted wrongly but we have shirked our duty to our community and placed someone else’s life at risk for our own cowardice or selfishness. Therefore the good of the community should be sacrificed for, and those in charge should be able to make those decisions based on the trust we placed in them when they re ceived those positions. I will sum this up by stating that living virtuously, morally and by willing to sacrifice for the greater good sum up most of Mill’s philosophy all of which I agree with wholeheartedly.

What are the different forms of aid given by more economically :: Economics

What are the different forms of aid given by more economically developed countries (MEDCs) to less economically developed countries (LEDCs)? Explain how useful the aid is and evaluate why some aid is more successful than other aid. What are the different forms of aid given by more economically developed countries (MEDCs) to less economically developed countries (LEDCs)? Explain how useful the aid is and evaluate why some aid is more successful than other aid. Hafiza Bhabha 11 JT =================== Aid many less developed countries (LEDCs) rely on aid. In the Oxford dictionary aid is defined as, --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Something that helps, money, food, etc. ---------------------------------------- Sent to another country to help it" ------------------------------------ Aid is not only given by countries (governments) but is also given by organisations which help a certain place or fund a certain project, such as Oxfam who helps those children in Africa. The real purpose of giving aid is to help those countries that need to develop their economy so that they can improve their standard of living and quality of living. At times giving and receiving aid is complex, as it may not benefit the country, as it could be unsuccessful. Many developing countries need aid because they may have large and increasing trade debts, unfortunately they need to borrow money from MEDCs, however, sometimes by doing this, they fall into bigger, more dangerous debts. Other issues such as earthquakes, volcanoes, etc, also lead countries to borrow more money. This aid is usually only needed for a short period of time. Short-term aid is aid, which is given immediately and is only needed for a small amount of time. This is used with natural disasters and wars etc. Long-term aid is also a different type of giving. This is more useful to a developing country as there is always money, technology and other aid coming in. The aim of this coursework is to investigate what the different types of aids are and also whether they are successful or unsuccessful. In this coursework I have used secondary information. This is basically information that has already been collected. I have researched a lot from the town library, school library, magazines, Internet and many school textbooks. There are three main categories of aid, which is given by MEDCs to LEDCs and they are: Bilateral Aid This aid is between two different countries. "Help is 'given' directly by a rich 'donor' country to the 'recipient' country" (The New Wider World- School Textbook) the reason why the word given is in quotation marks s simply because there are usually conditions attached to the aid, such as the country may not allow the other country to trade with anyone else.

Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776-1820 Essay

James Fenimore Cooper (Photo courtesy Library of Congress) The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the first modern war of liberation against a colonial power. The triumph of American independence seemed to many at the time a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Military victory fanned nationalistic hopes for a great new literature. Yet with the exception of outstanding political writing, few works of note appeared during or soon after the Revolution. American books were harshly reviewed in England. Americans were painfully aware of their excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a national obsession. As one American magazine editor wrote, around 1816, â€Å"Dependence is a state of degradation fraught with disgrace, and to be dependent on a foreign mind for what we can ourselves produce is to add to the crime of indolence the weakness of stupidity. † Cultural revolutions, unlike military revolutions, cannot be successfully imposed but must grow from the soil of shared experience. Revolutions are expressions of the heart of the people; they grow gradually out of new sensibilities and wealth of experience. It would take 50 years of accumulated history for America to earn its cultural independence and to produce the first great generation of American writers: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. America’s literary independence was slowed by a lingering identification with England, an excessive imitation of English or classical literary models, and difficult economic and political conditions that hampered publishing. Revolutionary writers, despite their genuine patriotism, were of necessity self-conscious, and they could never find roots in their American sensibilities. Colonial writers of the revolutionary generation had been born English, had grown to maturity as English citizens, and had cultivated English modes of thought and English fashions in dress and behavior. Their parents and grandparents were English (or European), as were all their friends. Added to this, American awareness of literary fashion still lagged behind the English, and this time lag intensified American imitation. Fifty years after their fame in England, English neoclassic writers such as Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Oliver Goldsmith, and Samuel Johnson were still eagerly imitated in America. Moreover, the heady challenges of building a new nation attracted talented and educated people to politics, law, and diplomacy. These pursuits brought honor, glory, and financial security. Writing, on the other hand, did not pay. Early American writers, now separated from England, effectively had no modern publishers, no audience, and no adequate legal protection. Editorial assistance, distribution, and publicity were rudimentary. Until 1825, most American authors paid printers to publish their work. Obviously only the leisured and independently wealthy, like Washington Irving and the New York Knickerbocker group, or the group of Connecticut poets known as the Hartford Wits, could afford to indulge their interest in writing. The exception, Benjamin Franklin, though from a poor family, was a printer by trade and could publish his own work. Charles Brockden Brown was more typical. The author of several interesting Gothic romances, Brown was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. But his short life ended in poverty. The lack of an audience was another problem. The small cultivated audience in America wanted well-known European authors, partly out of the exaggerated respect with which former colonies regarded their previous rulers. This preference for English works was not entirely unreasonable, considering the inferiority of American output, but it worsened the situation by depriving American authors of an audience. Only journalism offered financial remuneration, but the mass audience wanted light, undemanding verse and short topical essays — not long or experimental work. The absence of adequate copyright laws was perhaps the clearest cause of literary stagnation. American printers pirating English best-sellers understandably were unwilling to pay an American author for unknown material. The unauthorized reprinting of foreign books was originally seen as a service to the colonies as well as a source of profit for printers like Franklin, who reprinted works of the classics and great European books to educate the American public. Printers everywhere in America followed his lead. There are notorious examples of pirating. Matthew Carey, an important American publisher, paid a London agent — a sort of literary spy — to send copies of unbound pages, or even proofs, to him in fast ships that could sail to America in a month. Carey’s men would sail out to meet the incoming ships in the harbor and speed the pirated books  into print using typesetters who divided the book into sections and worked in shifts around the clock. Such a pirated English book could be reprinted in a day and placed on the shelves for sale in American bookstores almost as fast as in England. Because imported authorized editions were more expensive and could not compete with pirated ones, the copyright situation damaged foreign authors such as Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens, along with American authors. But at least the foreign authors had already been paid by their original publishers and were already well known. Americans such as James Fenimore Cooper not only failed to receive adequate payment, but they had to suffer seeing their works pirated under their noses. Cooper’s first successful book, The Spy (1821), was pirated by four different printers within a month of its appearance. Ironically, the copyright law of 1790, which allowed pirating, was nationalistic in intent. Drafted by Noah Webster, the great lexicographer who later compiled an American dictionary, the law protected only the work of American authors; it was felt that English writers should look out for themselves. Bad as the law was, none of the early publishers were willing to have it changed because it proved profitable for them. Piracy starved the first generation of revolutionary American writers; not surprisingly, the generation after them produced even less work of merit. The high point of piracy, in 1815, corresponds with the low point of American writing. Nevertheless, the cheap and plentiful supply of pirated foreign books and classics in the first 50 years of the new country did educate Americans, including the first great writers, who began to make their appearance around 1825. THE AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy. Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Benjamin Franklin, whom the Scottish philosopher David Hume called America’s â€Å"first great man of letters,† embodied the Enlightenment ideal of humane rationality. Practical yet idealistic, hard-working and enormously successful, Franklin recorded his early life in his famous Autobiography. Writer, printer, publisher, scientist, philanthropist, and diplomat, he was the most famous and respected private figure of his time. He was the first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an aristocratic age that his fine example helped to liberalize. Franklin was a second-generation immigrant. His Puritan father, a chandler (candle-maker), came to Boston, Massachusetts, from England in 1683. In many ways Franklin’s life illustrates the impact of the Enlightenment on a gifted individual. Self-educated but well-read in John Locke, Lord Shaftesbury, Joseph Addison, and other Enlightenment writers, Franklin learned from them to apply reason to his own life and to break with tradition — in particular the old-fashioned Puritan tradition — when it threatened to smother his ideals. While a youth, Franklin taught himself languages, read widely, and practiced writing for the public. When he moved from Boston to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Franklin already had the kind of education associated with the upper classes. He also had the Puritan capacity for hard, careful work, constant self-scrutiny, and the desire to better himself. These qualities steadily propelled him to wealth, respectability, and honor. Never selfish, Franklin tried to help other ordinary people become successful by sharing his insights and initiating a characteristically American genre — the self-help book. Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, begun in 1732 and published for many years, made Franklin prosperous and well-known throughout the colonies. In this annual book of useful encouragement, advice, and factual information, amusing characters such as old Father Abraham and Poor Richard exhort the reader in pithy, memorable sayings. In â€Å"The Way to Wealth,† which originally appeared in the Almanack, Father Abraham, â€Å"a plain clean old Man, with white Locks,† quotes Poor Richard at length. â€Å"A Word to the Wise is enough,† he says. â€Å"God helps them that help themselves. † â€Å"Early to Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy, and wise. † Poor Richard is a psychologist (â€Å"Industry pays Debts, while Despair encreaseth them†), and he always counsels hard work (â€Å"Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck†). Do not be lazy, he advises, for â€Å"One To-day is worth two tomorrow. â€Å"Sometimes he creates anecdotes to illustrate his points: â€Å"A little Neglect may breed great Mischief†¦. For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail. † Franklin was a genius at compressing a moral point: â€Å"What maintains one Vice, would bring up two Children. † â€Å"A small leak will sink a great Ship. † â€Å"Fools make Feasts, and wise Men eat them. † Franklin’s Autobiography is, in part, another self-help book. Written to advise his son, it covers only the early years. The most famous section describes his scientific scheme of self- improvement. Franklin lists 13 virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He elaborates on each with a maxim; for example, the temperance maxim is â€Å"Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation. † A pragmatic scientist, Franklin put the idea of perfectibility to the test, using himself as the experimental subject. To establish good habits, Franklin invented a reusable calendrical record book in which he worked on one virtue each week, recording each lapse with a black spot. His theory prefigures psychological behaviorism, while his systematic method of notation anticipates modern behavior modification. The project of self-improvement blends the Enlightenment belief in perfectibility with the Puritan habit of moral self-scrutiny. Franklin saw early that writing could best advance his ideas, and he therefore deliberately perfected his supple prose style, not as an end in itself but as a tool. â€Å"Write with the learned. Pronounce with the vulgar,† he advised. A scientist, he followed the Royal (scientific) Society’s 1667 advice to use â€Å"a close, naked, natural way of speaking; positive expressions, clear senses, a native easiness, bringing all things as near the mathematical plainness as they can. † Despite his prosperity and fame, Franklin never lost his democratic sensibility, and he was an important figure at the 1787 convention at which the U. S. Constitution was drafted. In his later years, he was president of an antislavery association. One of his last efforts was to promote universal public education. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) Another Enlightenment figure is Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, whose Letters from an American Farmer (1782) gave Europeans a glowing idea of opportunities for peace, wealth, and pride in America. Neither an American nor a farmer, but a French aristocrat who owned a plantation outside New York City before the Revolution, Crevecoeur enthusiastically praised the colonies for their industry, tolerance, and growing prosperity in 12 letters that depict America as an agrarian paradise — a vision that would inspire Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many other writers up to the present. Crevecoeur was the earliest European to develop a considered view of America and the new American character. The first to exploit the â€Å"melting pot† image of America, in a famous passage he asks: What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European, or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations†¦. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause changes in the world. THE POLITICAL PAMPHLET: Thomas Paine (1737-1809) The passion of Revolutionary literature is found in pamphlets, the most popular form of political literature of the day. Over 2,000 pamphlets were published during the Revolution. The pamphlets thrilled patriots and threatened loyalists; they filled the role of drama, as they were often read aloud in public to excite audiences. American soldiers read them aloud in their camps; British Loyalists threw them into public bonfires. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense sold over 100,000 copies in the first three months of its publication. It is still rousing today. â€Å"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind,† Paine wrote, voicing the idea of American exceptionalism still strong in the United States — that in some fundamental sense, since America is a democratic experiment and a country theoretically open to all immigrants, the fate of America foreshadows the fate of humanity at large. Political writings in a democracy had to be clear to appeal to the voters. And to have informed voters, universal education was promoted by many of the founding fathers. One indication of the vigorous, if simple, literary life was the proliferation of newspapers. More newspapers were read in America during the Revolution than anywhere else in the world. Immigration also mandated a simple style. Clarity was vital to a newcomer, for whom English might be a second language. Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence is clear and logical, but his committee’s modifications made it even simpler. The Federalist Papers, written in support of the Constitution, are also lucid, logical arguments, suitable for debate in a democratic nation. NEOCLASSISM: EPIC, MOCK EPIC, AND SATIRE Unfortunately, â€Å"literary† writing was not as simple and direct as political writing. When trying to write poetry, most educated authors stumbled into the pitfall of elegant neoclassicism. The epic, in particular, exercised a fatal attraction. American literary patriots felt sure that the great American Revolution naturally would find expression in the epic — a long, dramatic narrative poem in elevated language, celebrating the feats of a legendary hero. Many writers tried but none succeeded. Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), one of the group of writers known as the Hartford Wits, is an example. Dwight, who eventually became the president of Yale University, based his epic, The Conquest of Canaan (1785), on the Biblical story of Joshua’s struggle to enter the Promised Land. Dwight cast General Washington, commander of the American army and later the first president of the United States, as Joshua in his allegory and borrowed the couplet form that Alexander Pope used to translate Homer. Dwight’s epic was as boring as it was ambitious. English critics demolished it; even Dwight’s friends, such as John Trumbull (1750-1831), remained unenthusiastic. So much thunder and lightning raged in the melodramatic battle scenes that Trumbull proposed that the epic be provided with lightning rods. Not surprisingly, satirical poetry fared much better than serious verse. The mock epic genre encouraged American poets to use their natural voices and did not lure them into a bog of pretentious and predictable patriotic sentiments and faceless conventional poetic epithets out of the Greek poet Homer and the Roman poet Virgil by way of the English poets. In mock epics like John Trumbull’s good-humored M’Fingal (1776-82), stylized emotions and conventional turns of phrase are ammunition for good satire, and the bombastic oratory of the revolution is itself ridiculed. Modeled on the British poet Samuel Butler’s Hudibras, the mock epic derides a Tory, M’Fingal. It is often pithy, as when noting of condemned criminals facing hanging: No man e’er felt the halter draw With good opinion of the law. M’Fingal went into over 30 editions, was reprinted for a half-century, and was appreciated in England as well as America. Satire appealed to Revolutionary audiences partly because it contained social comment and criticism, and political topics and social problems were the main subjects of the day. The first American comedy to be performed, The Contrast (produced 1787) by Royall Tyler (1757-1826), humorously contrasts Colonel Manly, an American officer, with Dimple, who imitates English fashions. Naturally, Dimple is made to look ridiculous. The play introduces the first Yankee character, Jonathan. Another satirical work, the novel Modern Chivalry, published by Hugh Henry Brackenridge in installments from 1792 to 1815, memorably lampoons the excesses of the age. Brackenridge (1748- 1816), a Scottish immigrant raised on the American frontier, based his huge, picaresque novel on Don Quixote; it describes the misadventures of Captain Farrago and his stupid, brutal, yet appealingly human, servant Teague O’Regan. POET OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: Philip Freneau (1752-1832). One poet, Philip Freneau, incorporated the new stirrings of European Romanticism and escaped the imitativeness and vague universality of the Hartford Wits. The key to both his success and his failure was his passionately democratic spirit combined with an inflexible temper. The Hartford Wits, all of them undoubted patriots, reflected the general cultural conservatism of the educated classes. Freneau set himself against this holdover of old Tory attitudes, complaining of â€Å"the writings of an aristocratic, speculating faction at Hartford, in favor of monarchy and titular distinctions. â€Å"Although Freneau received a fine education and was as well acquainted with the classics as any Hartford Wit, he embraced liberal and democratic causes. From a Huguenot (radical French Protestant) background, Freneau fought as a militiaman during the Revolutionary War. In 1780, he was captured and imprisoned in two British ships, where he almost died before his family managed to get him released. His poem â€Å"The British Prison Ship† is a bitter condemnation of the cruelties of the British, who wished â€Å"to stain the world with gore. † This piece and other revolutionary works, including â€Å"Eutaw Springs,† â€Å"American Liberty,† â€Å"A Political Litany,† â€Å"A Midnight Consultation,† and â€Å"George the Third’s Soliloquy,† brought him fame as the â€Å"Poet of the American Revolution. † Freneau edited a number of journals during his life, always mindful of the great cause of democracy. When Thomas Jefferson helped him establish the militant, anti-Federalist National Gazette in 1791, Freneau became the first powerful, crusading newspaper editor in America, and the literary predecessor of William Cullen Bryant, William Lloyd Garrison, and H.L. Mencken. As a poet and editor, Freneau adhered to his democratic ideals. His popular poems, published in newspapers for the average reader, regularly celebrated American subjects. â€Å"The Virtue of Tobacco† concerns the indigenous plant, a mainstay of the southern economy, while â€Å"The Jug of Rum† celebrates the alcoholic drink of the West Indies, a crucial commodity of early American trade and a major New World export. Common American characters lived in â€Å"The Pilot of Hatteras,† as well as in poems about quack doctors and bombastic evangelists. Freneau commanded a natural and colloquial style appropriate to a genuine democracy, but he could also rise to refined neoclassic lyricism in often-anthologized works such as â€Å"The Wild Honeysuckle† (1786), which evokes a sweet-smelling native shrub. Not until the â€Å"American Renaissance† that began in the 1820s would American poetry surpass the heights that Freneau had scaled 40 years earlier. Additional groundwork for later literary achievement was laid during the early years. Nationalism inspired publications in many fields, leading to a new appreciation of things American. Noah Webster (1758-1843) devised an American Dictionary, as well as an important reader and speller for the schools. His Spelling Book sold more than 100 million copies over the years. Updated Webster’s dictionaries are still standard today. The American Geography, by Jedidiah Morse, another landmark reference work, promoted knowledge of the vast and expanding American land itself. Some of the most interesting if nonliterary writings of the period are the journals of frontiersmen and explorers such as Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and  Zebulon Pike (1779-1813), who wrote accounts of expeditions across the Louisiana Territory, the vast portion of the North American continent that Thomas Jefferson purchased from Napoleon in 1803. WRITERS OF FICTION. The first important fiction writers widely recognized today, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, and James Fenimore Cooper, used American subjects, historical perspectives, themes of change, and nostalgic tones. They wrote in many prose genres, initiated new forms, and found new ways to make a living through literature. With them, American literature began to be read and appreciated in the United States and abroad. Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) Already mentioned as the first professional American writer, Charles Brockden Brown was inspired by the English writers Mrs. Radcliffe and English William Godwin. (Radcliffe was known for her terrifying Gothic novels; a novelist and social reformer, Godwin was the father of Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein and married English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. ) Driven by poverty, Brown hastily penned four haunting novels in two years: Wieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799), Ormond (1799), and Edgar Huntley (1799). In them, he developed the genre of American Gothic. The Gothic novel was a popular genre of the day featuring exotic and wild settings, disturbing psychological depth, and much suspense. Trappings included ruined castles or abbeys, ghosts, mysterious secrets, threatening figures, and solitary maidens who survive by their wits and spiritual strength. At their best, such novels offer tremendous suspense and hints of magic, along with profound explorations of the human soul in extremity. Critics suggest that Brown’s Gothic sensibility expresses deep anxieties about the inadequate social institutions of the new nation. Brown used distinctively American settings. A man of ideas, he dramatized scientific theories, developed a personal theory of fiction, and championed high literary standards despite personal poverty. Though flawed, his works are darkly powerful. Increasingly, he is seen as the precursor of romantic writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He expresses subconscious fears that the outwardly optimistic Enlightenment period drove underground. Washington Irving (1789-1859). The youngest of 11 children born to a well-to-do New York merchant family, Washington Irving became a cultural and diplomatic ambassador to Europe, like Benjamin Franklin and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Despite his talent, he probably would not have become a full-time professional writer, given the lack of financial rewards, if a series of fortuitous incidents had not thrust writing as a profession upon him. Through friends, he was able to publish his Sketch Book (1819-1820) simultaneously in England and America, obtaining copyrights and payment in both countries. The Sketch Book of Geoffrye Crayon (Irving’s pseudonym) contains his two best remembered stories, â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† and â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. † â€Å"Sketch† aptly describes Irving’s delicate, elegant, yet seemingly casual style, and â€Å"crayon† suggests his ability as a colorist or creator of rich, nuanced tones and emotional effects. In the Sketch Book, Irving transforms the Catskill Mountains along the Hudson River north of New York City into a fabulous, magical region. American readers gratefully accepted Irving’s imagined â€Å"history† of the Catskills, despite the fact (unknown to them) that he had adapted his stories from a German source. Irving gave America something it badly needed in the brash, materialistic early years: an imaginative way of relating to the new land. No writer was as successful as Irving at humanizing the land, endowing it with a name and a face and a set of legends. The story of â€Å"Rip Van Winkle,† who slept for 20 years, waking to find the colonies had become independent, eventually became folklore. It was adapted for the stage, went into the oral tradition, and was gradually accepted as authentic American legend by generations of Americans. Irving discovered and helped satisfy the raw new nation’s sense of history. His numerous works may be seen as his devoted attempts to build the new nation’s soul by recreating history and giving it living, breathing, imaginative life. For subjects, he chose the most dramatic aspects of American history: the discovery of the New World, the first president and national hero, and the westward exploration. His earliest work was a sparkling, satirical History of New York (1809) under the Dutch, ostensibly written by Diedrich Knickerbocker (hence the name of Irving’s friends and New York writers of the day, the â€Å"Knickerbocker School†). James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) James Fenimore Cooper, like Irving, evoked a sense of the past and gave it a local habitation and a name. In Cooper, though, one finds the powerful myth of a golden age and the poignance of its loss. While Irving and other American writers before and after him scoured Europe in search of its legends, castles, and great themes, Cooper grasped the essential myth of America: that it was timeless, like the wilderness. American history was a trespass on the eternal; European history in America was a reenactment of the fall in the Garden of Eden. The cyclical realm of nature was glimpsed only in the act of destroying it: The wilderness disappeared in front of American eyes, vanishing before the oncoming pioneers like a mirage. This is Cooper’s basic tragic vision of the ironic destruction of the wilderness, the new Eden that had attracted the colonists in the first place. Personal experience enabled Cooper to write vividly of the transformation of the wilderness and of other subjects such as the sea and the clash of peoples from different cultures. The son of a Quaker family, he grew up on his father’s remote estate at Otsego Lake (now Cooperstown) in central New York State. Although this area was relatively peaceful during Cooper’s boyhood, it had once been the scene of an Indian massacre. Young Fenimore Cooper grew up in an almost feudal environment. His father, Judge Cooper, was a landowner and leader. Cooper saw frontiersmen and Indians at Otsego Lake as a boy; in later life, bold white settlers intruded on his land. Natty Bumppo, Cooper’s renowned literary character, embodies his vision of the frontiersman as a gentleman, a Jeffersonian â€Å"natural aristocrat. † Early in 1823, in The Pioneers, Cooper had begun to discover Bumppo. Natty is the first famous frontiersman in American literature and the literary forerunner of countless cowboy and backwoods heroes. He is the idealized, upright individualist who is better than the society he protects. Poor and isolated, yet pure, he is a touchstone for ethical values and prefigures Herman Melville’s Billy Budd and Mark Twain’s Huck Finn. Based in part on the real life of American pioneer Daniel Boone — who was a Quaker like Cooper — Natty Bumppo, an outstanding woodsman like Boone, was a peaceful man adopted by an Indian tribe. Both Boone and the fictional Bumppo loved nature and freedom. They constantly kept moving west to escape the oncoming settlers they had guided into the wilderness, and they became legends in their own lifetimes. Natty is also chaste, high-minded, and deeply spiritual: He is the Christian knight of medieval romances transposed to the virgin forest and rocky soil of America. The unifying thread of the five novels collectively known as the Leather-Stocking Tales is the life of Natty Bumppo. Cooper’s finest achievement, they constitute a vast prose epic with the North American continent as setting, Indian tribes as characters, and great wars and westward migration as social background. The novels bring to life frontier America from 1740 to 1804. Cooper’s novels portray the successive waves of the frontier settlement: the original wilderness inhabited by Indians; the arrival of the first whites as scouts, soldiers, traders, and frontiersmen; the coming of the poor, rough settler families; and the final arrival of the middle class, bringing the first professionals — the judge, the physician, and the banker. Each incoming wave displaced the earlier: Whites displaced the Indians, who retreated westward; the â€Å"civilized† middle classes who erected schools, churches, and jails displaced the lower-class individualistic frontier folk, who moved further west, in turn displacing the Indians who had preceded them. Cooper evokes the endless, inevitable wave of settlers, seeing not only the gains but the losses. Cooper’s novels reveal a deep tension between the lone individual and society, nature and culture, spirituality and organized religion. In Cooper, the natural world and the Indian are fundamentally good — as is the highly civilized realm associated with his most cultured characters. Intermediate characters are often suspect, especially greedy, poor white settlers who are too uneducated or unrefined to appreciate nature or culture. Like Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, Herman Melville, and other sensitive observers of widely varied cultures interacting with each other, Cooper was a cultural relativist. He understood that no culture had a monopoly on virtue or refinement. Cooper accepted the American condition while Irving did not. Irving addressed the American setting as a European might have — by importing and adapting European legends, culture, and history. Cooper took the process a step farther. He created American settings and new, distinctively American characters and themes. He was the first to sound the recurring tragic note in American fiction. WOMEN AND MINORITIES Although the colonial period produced several women writers of note, the revolutionary era did not further the work of women and minorities, despite the many schools, magazines, newspapers, and literary clubs that were springing up. Colonial women such as Anne Bradstreet, Anne Hutchinson, Ann Cotton, and Sarah Kemble Knight exerted considerable social and literary influence in spite of primitive conditions and dangers; of the 18 women who came to America on the ship Mayflower in 1620, only four survived the first year. When every able-bodied person counted and conditions were fluid, innate talent could find expression. But as cultural institutions became formalized in the new republic, women and minorities gradually were excluded from them. Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) Given the hardships of life in early America, it is ironic that some of the best poetry of the period was written by an exceptional slave woman. The first African-American author of importance in the United States, Phillis Wheatley was born in Africa and brought to Boston, Massachusetts, when she was about seven, where she was purchased by the pious and wealthy tailor John Wheatley to be a companion for his wife. The Wheatleys recognized Phillis’s remarkable inte.

Sigmund Freud and Phobias

Are phobias caused by sexual needs, or Is there something else that causes people to have phobias? Sigmund Freud was born May 6, 1 856, in Beriberi, Moravia (now the Czech Republic). Freud grew up a very confused child. His father married a woman 20 years younger than himself. His father had sons that were as old as his new bride. Freud thought his half-brothers were more compatible as a mate with his mother. Freud himself questioned If his new little sister was produced from his father or half- brother.HIS childhood confusion led him to Investigate his own thoughts and the Houghton of other people. (Gay, P.. 1988) Freud used psychoanalysis in patients, which allowed them to openly speak about their memories in a relaxed environment. Fraud's psychoanalyst approach is still used today. Summers (2006) states, â€Å"Freud found that as the patient grew closer to the traumatic material, repression increased, and the analyst's intervention was required. As each resistance was overcome, a new zone was reached In which the patient could associate freely. UT as that process approached painful material, the resistance intensified, and the analyst was needed to break through the new airier. † (p. 328) But Freud was not satisfied with just analyzing people's thoughts. He wanted to know what motivated the repression of feelings. Freud thought the three psychic structures: the [d, the ego, and the superego, could be used to describe the conflicting forces of personality. The old begins at birth and continues until the child Is 1 year old. The old Is entirely unconscious, and has no regard for rules of society.The ego Is the second stage of psychic structures. The child is beginning to see that needs cannot be met immediately. The third stage of psychic structure development is the superego. This stage takes over in early childhood as the child begins to learn the rules of society. The child also begins to be more like his or her parent. (Rather, 2008) Freud was very controversial In his time. He believed children's basic feelings were related to sexual feelings. He defined five stages of psychosocial development as oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.The stages of psychosocial development translate into adulthood as well. If needs are not met, or overestimated during any of the stages, the child will have issues as an adult. Rather, 2008) The first stage of psychosocial development is the oral stage. This begins at birth. Freud argued that breastfeeding satisfied sexual need in an infant as well as nourished the child. By weaning the child early, he or she may have an oral fixation infant is able to begin to control bowel movements. Freud believed anal fixations translated into adulthood by being overly self-controlling or careless.The third stage is the phallic stage, which begins around the third year of life. During this stage children may have strong sexual attachments too parent. The latency stage begins after a child has had sexual attachment too parent for several years. During this stage the sexual feelings remain unconscious. The fifth and final stage is the genital stage, which takes over at puberty. It is at this time that young adults begin to find mates that resemble their father or mother. (Rather, 2008) Freud also thought that phobias originated from sexual urges.Freud used the case of â€Å"Little Hans,† a boy who was afraid of horses to explain how phobias are related to sexual urges. Little Hans was five years old, his father wrote to Freud to help explain why Hans was afraid of horses. Freud theorized that Hans had an Oedipus complex and was in love with his mother, and was a sexual rival of his father. Freud believed phobias do no occur when sexual development is normal. Fraud's explanation does not take into account that the young boy had witnessed a terrible accident between a bus and a horse weeks earlier.Freud suggested to Hans' parents to allow Hans to openly speak his feelings, which they did. When Hans' parents talked to him, they found out he was Jealous of his new baby sister getting more attention than he. Years later when Freud spoke with Hans, Hans could not member his phobia of horses. Although most mental health experts have now discarded Fraud's theory of phobias originating from sexual development, Freud did advance the study of mental illness by having patients openly discuss their phobias. Margarita, 2009) People unable to cope well with stress may develop an anxiety disorder. Margarita (2009) defines anxiety disorder as â€Å"an extreme and chronic reaction to an irrational fear, affecting a person's mood, thoughts, behavior, and activities. † (p. 19) The six types of anxiety disorder include social phobias, specific phobias, panic crosier, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Panic disorder symptoms include a sudden attack of terror including pounding heart, sweating, weakness, fai ntness, or dizziness.Obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms consist of becoming obsessed with a certain fear, and creating strange rituals to overcome the fear. Post-traumatic stress disorder affects people who have suffered through a traumatic event. Many veterans suffer from this disorder. General anxiety disorder is marked by a constant worry for no reason. (Margarita, 2009) According to Margarita (2009) â€Å"Phobias are irrational and persistent fears that can be triggered by all manner of sources, including objects, situations, people, or activities. † (p. 8) The two general types of phobias are social and specific phobias.Social phobias are triggered by everyday social situations. Specific phobias include fears about heights, spiders, water, snakes, or elevators. About 15 million Americans experience social phobias, and 19 million suffer from specific phobias. Phobias may come from a frightening experience in childhood, chemical imbalances of the brain, r fears learned from ancestors. (Margarita, 2009) Many people may experience nervousness from different social situations, such as People with social phobias are crippled by their fear of social situations to the point that it interferes with their daily lives. Margarita, 2009) There are two types of social phobias: circumscribed social phobia and generalized social phobia. Margarita (2009) defines circumscribed social phobia as, â€Å"the fear of a specific situation. † (p. 22) Examples of circumscribed social phobia includes being uncomfortable eating in a restaurant or being unable to use public staterooms. People suffering from circumscribed social phobia are usually able to lead relatively normal lives. They simply avoid the situation that makes them uneasy. Individuals that have generalized social phobia are much more likely to have difficulty with life.Margarita (2009) states, â€Å"Generalized social phobia involves fear of all social situations, such as parties, school dances, or similar events. † (p. 23) Specific phobias are an intense, irrational fear of something specific, such as flying, elevators, or insects. Specific phobias usually do not dominate a person's life. There are four types of specific phobias, including: fear of insects and animals, fear of natural environments, fear of blood or injury and fear of dangerous situations. A 2001 poll revealed 51 percent of people with phobias are afraid of snakes.Other top ranking phobias include public speaking, heights, being in a small space, and spiders and insects. (Margarita, 2009) Of all the specific phobia suffers, 9 out of 10 are women. Parents may partially be to blame because they are more protective of daughters rather than sons. Boys are taught to be independent, whereas daughters are cautioned to stay close to home. Phobias often start in childhood and are carried into adult life. Another theory is that women are the more vulnerable sex, and are more likely to be the victim of sexual assau lt. Margarita, 2009) The physical reactions to phobias are numerous: Breathing increases to take in more oxygen; the heart beats faster; blood pressure rises; stomach vessels constrict to force blood elsewhere; arms and legs receive extra blood for energy; and perspiration increases to regulate body temperature. This reaction of the body prepares it to fight the stress or run away from it. This is known as the â€Å"flight or fight† action. (Margarita, 2009) What causes phobias? Phobias can be a result of trauma in early life. Scientists are also studying brain function in regards to phobias.The amygdaloidal are located in the center of the brain. Amygdaloidal control emotions. Scientists continue to research the amygdaloidal to see if they malfunction, causing the body to overreact to fears. Neurotransmitters enable messages to circulate through the brain, and scientists wonder if an imbalance of neurotransmitters could cause phobias. (Margarita, 2009) Phobias affect people in more ways than Just the anxiety felt. People suffering from phobias spend an average of $700 more per year on healthcare than other patients. People with phobias take 60 percent more sick days than other employees.People with phobias are not as likely to advance in their careers because the affect the phobia has on their Job performance. People with phobias earn on average 10 percent less, and have a 10 percent chance of not graduating college. Not only is employment and schooling disturbed, family life is as well. Sixteen percent of social phobia patients abuse alcohol, three times as many as the regular population. Recent of phobia suffers have attempted suicide at one point in their lives. This is the same rate as people suffering with depression. Margarita, 2009) Treatment options for phobias include psychiatric therapy or Joining a support group. Some people overcome phobias by learning how to relax. The first step to overcoming fears is to realize they are irrational. It ma y also help to think about things that are not fearful. Some psychologists recommend yoga or exercise to reduce anxiety. They also urge patients not to isolate themselves but rather keep in close contact with family and friends and discuss their fears with them. Others who suffer from phobias turn to cognitive-behavioral therapy.Cognitive-behavioral therapy gradually exposes the person to their fear. Cognitive-behavioral therapy was first used by New York psychotherapist Albert Ellis in 1953. Cognitive-behavioral therapy May take eight to twenty treatments, with homework assignments assigned between visits. During treatment patients are gradually exposed to their phobias and they work through the anxiety that is felt. The anxiety is greatly reduced and patients learn skills to work through any anxiety. Other suffering from phobias may cake antidepressants.These drugs help regulate the flow of neurotransmitters. Antidepressants have high success rates, but medication alone won't cure phobias. People affected by phobias may be treated by a professional for months or years before getting over their fears. (Margarita, 2009) Do most experts today feel the same as Freud that phobias originate from sexual dysfunction? Most experts agree that trauma or change in life environments are the causes of most phobias. Although some phobias are quite debilitating, treatment options do exist for people willing to work through their phobia.