Native Americans During European Colonization - 1371 Words

Introduction Native Americans, the people who were not supposed to survive the settlement of Europeans, have lived long and strong, but it is not to say it was has been without struggle (â€Å"A Brief History† 2006). â€Å"No other group, however, faced problems more severe than the Native Americans† (â€Å"Digital† 2014). Struggling to keep control of their sacred land, provide an education for their children, and practice their language, beliefs, and traditions in silence was the typical life of the Native American people. Suffering from unemployment, educational, and religious discrimination, the Native Americans have risen above the rest by starting a whole movement in their name, in order to improve their living conditions/treatment and provide for a better future for the next generation of their people. History Behind the Movement Beginning at the times of European colonization, Native Americans have suffered an immense amount of discrimination (â€Å"A Brief History† 2006). These same discriminations are the same as the economic and social problems that minorities have suffered with for years. For the Native Americans, though, the problems are a little different. On top of employment and educational discrimination Native Americans have been unable to hold their old land, traditions, beliefs, and language. Native Americans just wanted to bring back what they once had, and like America’s Forefathers, America continued to take away and prevent them from getting just thatShow MoreRelatedNative American Gangs During European Colonization1960 Words   |  8 Pages Bernadette Stafford Rough Draft April 29, 2015 Native American Gangs Prior to European colonization, North America was home to up to ten million indigenous people with distinct cultures and hundreds of languages. Within 500 years the population was halved through disease and genocide. Today, Native American’s make up 5.2 million or 2% of the US population. This population has suffered the trauma of genocide, dislocation, poverty and oppression mostly through policies and confrontations with theRead MoreNative American Gangs During European Colonization2674 Words   |  11 Pages Bernadette Stafford Final Draft May 20, 2015 Native American Gangs Prior to European colonization, North America was home to up to ten million indigenous people with distinct cultures and hundreds of languages. Within 500 years the population was halved through disease and genocide. Today, Native American’s make up 5.2 million or 2% of the US population (US Census 2013). This population has suffered the trauma of genocide, dislocation, poverty and oppression mostly through policies and confrontationsRead MoreColonization Of The United States1074 Words   |  5 PagesColonization in America has demonstrated all of the US history themes of exploration, encounter and exchange in the Americas. From the beginning of colonization, in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, to the establishment of the first American colony, Jamestown in 1607, and to the creation of the thirteen colonies, there have been countless examples of exploration, encounter and exchange. The exploration of vast waters and unchartered territory led to new and undiscovered land and Amer ica being colonizedRead MoreThe Colonization Of Native Americans1377 Words   |  6 Pagesis not until 1492 that the â€Å"first people† make their way as well. The Europeans walked in and saw the Natives as the wildlife of the region and considered themselves the founders, and the Native Americans were heavily influenced and conflicted with the tidal wave of European colonization. Following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, colonization of Native American territory began. Afterwards, life for Native Americans became rather harsh, and genocide is an accurate term to describe thisRead MoreThe Emergence Of Cultures Throughout Our World1132 Words   |  5 Pagesgreat part due to the historical events that have occurred. While colonization is only one of the many events, it is the leading factor that drives cultural development and establishment. During colonization, members of kinship and descent societies become occupied, colonized, and eventually an attempt is mad e to civilize the members into becoming more like the â€Å"colonizers†. Such is what happened to the Native Americans when Europeans immigrated to what is now called the United States of America. AtRead MoreHow Did Contact Between The European Arrivals And The Native Peoples Of The Americas Affect Both Groups?1545 Words   |  7 Pagesbetween the European arrivals and the native peoples of the Americas affect both groups? Europeans brought to the Americas catastrophic diseases that killed millions and decimated native populations, who possessed no immunity to the illnesses. The Europeans also had deliberate policies of subjugation and extermination, by which they brutally tortured or murdered natives due to the Europeans history of brutality in war and their consideration of the natives as no more than savages. The Europeans alsoRead MoreThe Discovery Of The Americas By Christopher Columbus962 Words   |  4 PagesThe discovery of the Americas by the European explorer Christopher Columbus was a pivotal event during the 1450s that posed challenges to the way Europeans viewed the world. Columbus was born in Genoa Italy, and is hailed as one the greatest navigators during his time, inspiring an official American Holiday. However, Columbus’s voyage isn’t all that great of a thing, especially to the native peoples and environment of the Americas. Columbus’s deeds are soured by false motives, violence against theRead MoreConsequences Of European Colonization1112 Words   |  5 PagesDuring the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to make their way to the new world, they discovered a society that was strikingly different to their own. In the late 1800’s, the rare Native Americans that were left in the United States were practically extinguished. Many diverse things contributed to their near-extinction, some were considered intentional and some unintentional. Some tribes made the decision to go willingly, and some decided to fight to their death but in the end,Read MoreThe Conflict Between The Old World And The New World1299 Words   |  6 Pagesbetween the Old World and the New World, when the Western European nations began to colonize the newly discovered Americas. However, the development of colonialism has become less noticeable over time, as the method of colonization continues to change and humans become more and more intelligent. Th roughout the history of the New World, the development of colonialism becomes increasingly subtle because of the changing methodologies for colonization and the continuous expansion of human intelligence, whichRead MoreThe Culture Of Aboriginal Australians1561 Words   |  7 Pagesof Aboriginal Australians In Australia before the late eighteenth century, the native Aboriginal people’s unique culture flourished, fostering a great sense of pride within its inhabitants. The Aborigines were able to familiarize themselves with their geographical surroundings, which in turn helped them to obtain food, while simultaneously upholding their many traditional spiritual and ancestral beliefs. Many native songs, dances, and collections of art were referenced by the Aborigines in their

Vacant Chapter 4 Questions Free Essays

We sit in silence for quite some time, and I can tell she’s nervous about telling me what’s going on. I don’t want to force her. When she’s ready, she’ll let me know. We will write a custom essay sample on Vacant Chapter 4 Questions or any similar topic only for you Order Now As I wait, I realize it’s the first quiet night I’ve had since she moved in. I really don’t want to make assumptions because things aren’t always what they appear. However, as I sit playing protector to this girl, scenarios run rampant through my mind. She has very few clothes. Irregular bathing does not bother her. She is careful, but trusting – not at all shy. She’s young and alone; she has no furniture and no utilities. All evidence points to her being parentless and homeless. I can relate. Don’t get involved. Keep things simple. Take care of yourself! _ Don’t get involved. Keep things simple. Take care of yourself! _ Don’t get involved. Keep things simple. Take care of yourself! _ No matter how many times I recite the mantra in my head, it’s useless. This life isn’t suited to girls who are alone, no matter how equipped they are to deal with the shit life flings at them. Women are taken advantage of in the blink of an eye when the opportunity is given. I make a mental note to be sure Emily doesn’t suffer the same fate, particularly by my hand. I’m sitting on Emily’s mattress, my head against our shared wall. She’s leaning into my side, quiet, in what I hope is peaceful sleep. After thinking this situation over for a while I shake my head, realizing I’ve already talked myself into this, into helping Emily; I find it nearly impossible not to now. Eventually, I drift off with determination and the realization I’ve opened a big-assed can of worms†¦ for both of us. Hours later, my inner alarm clock wakes me. There is a little drool on my shoulder and it’s kind of gross. I lay Homeless Girl down on her bare mattress and make note to bring over an extra set of sheets. Who knows where she even got the mattress? I’m sure it’s infested with who-knows-what. I may be poor, but I like clean. There are some things that shouldn’t be bought in used condition. Shoes, underwear, and mattresses quickly spring to mind. During my run, I think about the upheaval I’m getting myself into, and the reality of the situation is weighing heavily upon me. As a kid, I was lucky enough to be moved to a safe place where all my basic needs were met. I never had to fend for myself in the physical sense; emotionally, though? That was another story. I run an extra two miles trying to process everything. I decide this is my chance to pay it forward. I ignore my mantra as it only serves to confuse me further at this point. The fact remains I’ve already gotten involved, and I try to rationalize how much trouble one small girl can really be. Part of me feels like it’s none of my business what her personal situations is, but if I’m going to help her, then I want some basic information. She doesn’t have to tell me her life story, but I need to know her circumstances. After I get home from work and knock on the bedroom wall, I chuckle to myself thinking it may as well be a shower curtain for all the privacy the thin, flimsy wall provides. I yell, telling homeless neighbor girl I’ve ordered pizza and she should come join me for dinner. â€Å"You’re the best! I can’t believe you got us pizza!† She won’t stop gushing about how nice I am or how â€Å"awesome† the pizza is. When she came over, she looked a bit skeptical, like she wondered what I wanted from her in return, but I didn’t even want to think about what that might mean. Food, clothes, shelter. That’s all†¦ As we eat, I try to think of the best way to bring up her state of affairs. I find that being direct is the best solution. I watch as she inhales her third slice of pizza, I rationalize I need to start referring to Emily by name. Calling her Homeless Girl and Neighbor Girl isn’t helpful for either of us. I need to see her as a meaningful person, not a ‘problem from next door’. Emily needs to hear her name, if for nothing else, so she knows she exists. â€Å"So, I have a couple questions. I’ve been thinking about this since last night,† I pause making sure she is receptive to my inquiry. She nods indicating her permission. â€Å"Question number one: Where are your parents?† She eyes me quickly, and then takes a bite of pizza, chewing slowly. She’s stalling. â€Å"I don’t know my dad, and my mom passed away recently,† she says quietly. I take her answer at face value because I know how difficult the loss of a parent is. â€Å"Where were you living before?† This time she’s a little quicker to answer. â€Å"We lived in shelters for a while. Then my mom got sick.† She takes another bite of her dinner then continues. â€Å"I know how things work. Since I’m almost eighteen, there isn’t too much the state will do for me. I would live in a home for a few months then get tossed out on the street. I figured I might as well get a jump on living, you know?† I wonder how she’s able to be so light-hearted about this. Emily’s smiling which she tends to do on a regular basis. This girl – almost woman – has had some terrible circumstances, yet almost every time I see her, her smile brightens the room. I find her positive outlook on life is rubbing off on me. â€Å"My next question was your age, but you’ve already answered that. When do you turn eighteen?† â€Å"In a month,† she replies. I take several minutes to think about the information she’s just told me while finishing my own slice of pizza. Living in a shelter would explain her lack of inhibition. There is no such thing as privacy when you live with fifty other people. She’s used to being watched. â€Å"Hey, I went to the grocery store you work at today and filled out an application. I looked for you, but you must have been on break or something.† I just nod; I don’t need this complication spilling over to my work. As soon as I think it, though, I regret the thought. I can’t think of Emily as a complication. â€Å"They said they weren’t hiring right now, but will let me know if something comes up. On my way home I stopped at the convenience store on Jamison. I found out they are hiring, so if the grocery doesn’t work out, I could do that instead,† she finishes, and then takes a fourth slice of pizza. I know my face pales, and she doesn’t have a clue why. I have no idea how to tell this girl I don’t even really know, occasionally uses my shower, and who I just referred to as a complication, that I don’t want her to work in a convenience store because Dad was shot in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven. How to cite Vacant Chapter 4 Questions, Essay examples

Warriors Dont Cry free essay sample

This paper analyzes the book Warriors Dont Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals. This paper looks at the book Warriors Dont Cry which is the story of a young African American child who was one of the first who forced racial integration into the Little Rock school system. The writer analyzes how the book, which is written through the eyes of a child, helps people realize the stupidity of their bigotry. From the paper: We are not these bodies, we are spirits, Gods ideas,` Grandma India explained to Melba Pattillo Beals one afternoon as they tended Grandmas garden of four-oclocks. `You dont want to be white, what you really want is to be free, and freedom is a state of mind (6). It was perhaps those words of wisdom spoken to a child only six years of age that helped create the courage that would one day be needed by Melba to fulfill her destiny. We will write a custom essay sample on Warriors Dont Cry or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Melba Pattillo would, ten years later, be among the first Black children to attend and help integrate Little Rocks previously all-White Central High School.

One flew over the cukoos nest Essay Example

One flew over the cukoos nest Paper McCarthy represents freedom in a society controlled by fear and repression. Discuss Ken Keys allegorical novel One flew over the kickoffs nest depicts society as a repressive combine, molding citizens to assimilate them into society. The institution can be seen as a microcosm of the outside world; the Nurse depicted as a fascist leader and the patients as the members who are controlled by her tyrannical rule. The effects of her manipulative therapy sessions and fearsome tactics cause the patients to live sexually repressed and emasculated. McCarthy who is loud, jubilant and expressive is a great contrast to the other patients who are in a constant anxiety. Whilst McCarthy represents Freedom, he also represents society attitudes to freewill and Independence. Keyes conveys his views on the repressive nature of society through the ward and characters. Throughout the novel, the narrator, Chief Broaden, references society as the Combine, juxtaposing both the ward the outside world as a big machine- mass producing the ideal American citizen that will fit society mould. The ward, a microcosm of society, is a place for the faulty parts and misfits of the combine to be treated, Its for fixing up mistakes made In the neighborhoods. Keyes questions the sanity of the patients and the collects label of Insanity. The majority of the patients are self-admitted and do not seem to be extremely Insane, It Is rather that they have not found a place In society and that their community has been unable to accept their minor differences, conveying the rigidity and lack of acceptance and freedom amongst people. We will write a custom essay sample on One flew over the cukoos nest specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on One flew over the cukoos nest specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on One flew over the cukoos nest specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The says and asss were mimes of change. With the civil rights movement and other social movements people were broadening the idea of who could be accepted into mainstream society. Alongside this the red scare of the Cold war caused people to look upon each other with suspicion, behavior out of the norm was almost intimidating. Chief describes the combine as a huge organization that aims to adjust the Outside as well as she has the Inside The Issue Is not the patients mental health but the conformity in society and the ostracism towards those that did not conform. Hence the patients eve been admitted Into the ward In the hope that they may be adjusted so they can return to the Big world outside that you will be one day taking your place In again. Keyes views the patients treatment as corruptive and as a disease that will overpower freedom and individuality. The strong imagery of Maxwell Table, one of the Nurses success depicts him as a machine, installed lend nimble skills to his fingers, that slowly adjusts them[society] as he was adjusted. Society is conveyed as controlling and manipulative towards its citizens. Keyes explores sanity arbitrary nature and its effects. Those that do not conform to mainstream society are labeled and treated in order to suit the Combines agenda. Nurse Ratchet represents the Combines tyrannical authority over the world. Her domineering and manipulative behavior cause the patients to be sexually repressed and inhibited. Nurse Ratchets Is Introduced as smooth calculated and precision made, as a product of the combine who has been programmed to convert the patients Into the Ideal citizen. From the first Impression of the nurse she has been portrayed In a negative light. Constantly described as the Big Nurse this alludes to Chiefs strong. The strong imagery associated with the metaphor of the Nurse as a tractor paints a violent picture, Shes swelling up, swells till her backs splitting She blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside. It is evident that Nurse Ratchet is not the orthodox women of her time. Unlike most women of her time she works and holds a position high in responsibility and power. Whilst the women worked during the second world war to sustain the economy while he men were away, their return meant that there were no longer any Jobs for women and that they had to return to their household duties. Regardless of this Nurse Ratchet works and even with the presence of other male leaders such as Doctor Spices, the Nurse holds the utmost authority although she uses it to oppress . The Chief recounts the number of ideal staff that have been on the ward and how the Nurse is able to emasculate them all, since I started on the ward with that woman I feel like my veins are running ammonia. Y kids wont sit on my lap, my wife wont leap with me. When McCarthy realizes her power over the mens ego and masculinity he describes her as a ball cutter, her domineering qualities cause her to castrate the men and repress them sexually. The key force of repression and within the ward is Nurse Ratchets tyrannical hold over the ward. Unlike the other patients in the ward McCarthy is ope nly sexual and does not conform to the wards rules, however his actions soon lead him to strife. McCarthy is confident, loud and open. He is blatantly different to the other patients. From his arrival into the ward he behaves differently to the other patients. He laughs loudly, unlike the other patients who snicker behind their fists out of fear. The entire ward seems to be taken aback by this, all is stunned dumb by his laughing. Through this initial gesture it is clear that McCarthy will be resistant toward the wards authority. As McCarthy realizes the Nurses position in the ward there is a power struggle between the two. The nurse aims to adjust McCarthy whereas he is determined to resist the rule and changes. Naively McCarthy bets to annoy the Nurse, without releasing the power she has over him. McCarthy first sign of protest is when he cant watch the world series on the television, regardless the turns on the TV and watches the blank screen. Through a series of acts out of rebellion McCarthy continues to enrage the nurse. When McCarthy has electroshock therapy he continues to resist the authorities and will not admit that he is at fault. As a consequence his electroshock therapy continues. After the party at the ward, the Nurse finally overcomes McCarthy. His continual rebellion and revolt against the Nurse leads to his Lobotomy. Whilst McCarthy represents freedom, his resistance to conform to the ward leads to severe consequences. Keyes explores the repressive and exploitive nature of society through the microcosm of the ward. Nurse Ratchets fascist hold on the ward suppresses the men on the ward. Her therapeutic techniques emasculate and castrate the men. Whilst McCarthy represents freedom in this oppressed environment his excessive resistance to conformity leads to his plight.

Salt And Sand Lab Report Essays

Salt And Sand Lab Report Essays Salt And Sand Lab Report Paper Salt And Sand Lab Report Paper Evaporation is a process where two liquids or solid mixed into a liquid can be separated. To separate two liquids mixed together, the liquid is boiled over a Bunsen burner until one liquid is completely evaporated. To separate a solid within a liquid, the liquid is completely evaporated and a solid will remain, which is called a residue. Procedure/Data: 1. Preheat a clean evaporating dish for 5 minutes; then cool and mass the dish. Mass of empty dish: 28. Egg 2. Set scale to zero after placing an 80 or 100 ml beaker on it; then add the mixture given to you into the beaker and record the mass of the mixture. Mass of mixture: 2. Egg 3. Add 15. Ml of water to the beaker; stir well and filter the contents through filter paper into the pre-massed evaporating dish. 4. Add 5 ml of water to the beaker, stir well and filter the evaporating dish. 5. Set up an evaporation set up and heat the contents in the evaporating dish, over a wavy flame to avoid splashing, until all water is evaporated. 6. Allow dish and residue to cool; identify the residue. 7. Mass the evaporating dish with the residue and find the mass of the residue. A mixture is a combination of two or more pure substances in which each pure substance retains its individual chemical properties. The sand and salt is a mixture because it can be separated by evaporation and filtration, into its monuments without changing their identities. Some processes that can be used to separate mixtures would be filtration, fractional distillation, crystallization, and sublimation. 2. Elements in a compounds can only be separated by chemical processes, while components of a mixture can be separated by physical processes. 3. The five common methods that can be used to separate various types of mixtures are filtration, fractional distillation, evaporation, sublimation, and chromatography. Evaporation is the changing of a liquid into a gas often under the influence of heat. A mixture of a solid and liquid can be separated y evaporation. Filtration is a technique that Uses a porous barrier to separate a solid from a liquid. A liquid and solid (heterogeneous mixture) is the type of mixture that can be separated by filtration. Sublimation is the process during which a solid changes vapor without melting (without going through liquid phase). Two solids are the type of mixture that can be separated by sublimation. Fractional distillation is a physical separation technique that use based on differences in the boiling points of the substances involved. Two liquids are the type of mixture that can be separated by distillation. Chromatography is technique that separates a compound of a mixture dissolved in either a gas or a liquid. A mixture of a gas or liquid state can be separated by the use of chromatography. 4. Chromatography is a method that could be used to separate the components of the ink in a marker. This separation can be achieved when the pigment is dipped in a liquid and the different colors will behave differently, causing them to travel at different speeds. The ink separates because each pigment has a different attraction to the liquid. 5. To separate the heterogeneous mixture comprised of sand, iron fillings, salt, and poppy seeds the first thing that an be done is to use a magnet to attract the iron fillings from the mixture. Next, water should be added to not only dissolve the salt into the water but to cause the poppy seeds to float, making it easy to take them out. Then mix the sand, salt and water together to make a mixture of salt and water. Now with sand and salt water left, filtrate the mixture to allow the salt water to pass through the filter paper and the sand will stay behind as residue. Finally, evaporation should be used to evaporate all the water from the mixture leaving salt behind as residue. 6. Filtrate is what passes through the filter paper when using filtration. The salt water was the filtrate in this lab. Residue is what is left behind, or is stayed back.

Analysis Of ‘Memoirs Of A Geisha’

Analysis Of Memoirs Of A Geisha But only Chiyo ends up in a geisha house, an okiya, her sister becomes a prostitute. Chiyo stays in the Nitta-okiya. Here lives the most successful geisha of Gion: Hatsumomo. She is a real bitch and she tries to make Chiyo’s life as miserable as possible. Chiyo’s only friend in the okiya is Pumpkin. Pumpkin has the same age as Chiyo and together they go to a geisha school. Chiyo tries to escape from the Nitta-okiya but she failed. Now she has to quit her school and work as a maid in the okiya. Mameha is another successful geisha and she’s the biggest enemy of Hatsumomo. She becomes Chiyo’s big sister and teach her to be a geisha. c. Hope, destiny. d. Sayuri is the I person in the book. She’s the narrator. You see the things through her eyes. e. Hatsumomo: She’s the mean geisha from the Nitta-okiya. She’s very handsome but also very mean. Chiyo is a big rival for Hatsumomo and she will do anything to make her look bad. Pumpkin: Sheâ₠¬â„¢s Chiyo’s only friend in the okiya. She’s not very handsome but she’s not ugly at all. Chiyo named her Pumpkin because when she’s working on something, her tongue is hanging out of her mouth. Now everybody calls her Pumpkin. The Chairman: Chiyo meets the chairman when she’s only a child who is crying on a bidge because she misses her sister. The chairman says that the day is too beautiful to cry and he buys her an ice cream. He gives the change and his wiper to her. Chiyo keeps his wiper forever. Right at this moment Chiyo decides that she really want to be a geisha and that she wants to see him again someday. Nobu: Nobu is a weird person. He doesn’t want to know anything about geisha’s. He is the chairman’s business partner. When he sees Sayuri (Chiyo’s geisha name), he’s sold and want to see her more often. He is even thinking about become her Danna. A Danna is a protector of a geisha, the Danna pays everyth ing for the geisha en she’s keeping him company instead. f. The story takes most of the time place in Japan. Most of this is in Kyoto and the area around Kyoto. At the beginning the story is in the little village Yoroido. The story also takes you to the south of Tokyo and islands in the south of Japan. In the end you end up in New York. g. The story starts in the year 1929 and ends in the 1970’s. I know that because of some dates that were in the book and because of the age of the main character. The end date is a guess, I don’t know for sure. The story is told chronologically but in fact the whole book is a huge flashback because it is told after it happened. Sayuri/Chiyo looks back on her days as a Geisha.

Help Desk Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Help Desk Paper - Essay Example Actually, help desks have already become a routine reality for the majority of large and small businesses all over the world. The question remains in whether it is worth outsourcing Help Desk Agents and what criteria efficient Help Desk Agents should meet. To begin with, a Help Desk is a place where a customer or an information technology user can obtain important information, call for support or obtain technical support and assistance (TechTarget, 2010). Many companies hold help desks to provide customers with the quality customer service and support. A help desk can be a person or a group of persons with a phone number and the skills necessary to resolve the majority of the emerging technical and organizational problems (TechTarget, 2010). Help desks may consist of a group of technical experts that will use software to track the status of the emerging problems and to solve them promptly; a help desk may also work in the form of a call center, which accepts user complaints and suggestions and helps them to track their orders, shipments, and concerns in real time (TechTarget, 2010). That businesses enjoy the benefits of call centers and help desks is difficult to deny. The question is in what Help Desk Agents can be considered as efficient and what it takes for businesses to hire efficient Help Desk Agents. An efficient Help Desk Agent must meet the specific set of criteria, to match the Help Desk Agent job requirements and to successfully cope with his (her) responsibilities. According to Hiles and Gunn (2009), these criteria include â€Å"skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback† (Hiles and Gunn, 2009). An efficient Help Desk Agent will possess a variety of skills necessary to resolve numerous technical and customer service dilemmas; in other words, an efficient Help Desk Agent will not only be

From the novel The Good Earth Analyze Wang Lung Include his values, Essay

From the novel The Good Earth Analyze Wang Lung Include his values, what he loves, a chronology of the changes in his character - Essay Example The essay aims to analyse the moral character of Wang Lung in the novel. The essay examines the changes within his character throughout the novel and the chronology of changes in his thoughts and beliefs throughout the novel. The novel depicts Wang Lung as a poor, simple and hardworking farmer. He was born and raised in a small Chinese village. He was around twenty years of age at the beginning of the novel. He possesses great value for the Chinese traditions and gives considerable importance to duties to the family and filial piety. Wang held the belief that land brings happiness and wealth to the people and is great source of prosperity and richness. He was forced to marry a slave after which his life turned and he became owner of a land that made him wealthy patriarch. However, his success could be regarded as a mixed blessing because while achieving the piece of land, wealth and influence he lost his simplicity and values as found him unable to practice the norms calling for love for land and family. The novel shows the character of Wang marked with two important and contrary features. On one hand, he had great love for the land, traditions and family that allow him possessing good sense, work ethics, frugality and family love however, on the other hand, he had great desire for wealth and status in his heart and he want to get over his poverty and lo w social status. The novel depicts the change occurred within his moral and social status that brought several important changes in his life. As he got wealth and status, he lost his connection to the world and also found him unable to participate in the old traditions. These traditions were of great importance in his life and thus losing these values and norms was great setback for him and he experienced major transformation is his moral character. He used to give great value to the land and his live for earth keep his character on right track. Most of the part of the story shows him a person with true heart h aving great love for the earth however, his character was spoiled by his desire for land and status after which his moral character became a dark feature of his personality. In the end, he regret and decide to rebuilt his connection with the land but his desire for status was not over rather it was transferred to his sons and he saw in his old age that his sons were also making the same mistakes that he made in his life by breaking the connections with the land that actually has the tendency of providing wealth, happiness and status to the people. Wang was living a simple life as a countryman however when his father arrange bride for him he had to go to the town to bring her. He was afraid of facing the people in the town because he was a simple man living a simple life. He goes to the House of Hwang to collect his wife but he was not able to adequately behave with the wealthy people. He suffered from inferiority complex through he does not resent his low status but facing wealthy p eople made him highly conscious about his social status. This consciousness also compelled him committing certain acts against his nature and character. He was an honest person but he got involved in the stealing of wealth when he got chance to change his conditions. When it became difficult for him to manage livelihood for his family he moved towards south and tries to earn money carrying a rickshaw. During an incident he found that a rich house has been broken by mob where there was large amount of silver

Environmental Impact Upon Health Essay Example for Free

Environmental Impact Upon Health Essay We humans have captured the environment to make our lives beautiful but through our activities and materialistic pursuits, we have made environment the biggest enemy of our health. We have ourself created an environment which has given us all leisures of life but on the other hand we have dug the walls of unhealthy livings also in it. In 1997, Department of Health Canada passed a report which stated: â€Å"The built environment is part of the overall ecosystem of our earth. It encompasses all of the buildings, spaces and products that are created, or at least significantly modified, by people. It includes our homes, schools and workplaces, parks, business areas and roads. It extends overhead in the form of electric transmission lines, underground in the form of waste disposal sites and subway trains and across the country in the form of highways. † (Hancock, 2000) In the contemporary society of today, built environment is the most crucial aspect of our lives. All over the world, more than 85 per cent of people are living in urban dewllings and 80 per cent of Europe and North America have urban population. These urban settlements are creating an adverse impact on the natural environment. They are using maximum amount of the world’s resources and in return are producing maximum waste from them. Even leRiche and Milner (1971) explained in â€Å"Epidemiology as Medical Ecology,† â€Å"One of the most striking changes in the ecology of man has been the growth of cities. † (Hancock, 2000) The WHO Expert Committee on Environmental Health in Urban Development (WHO, 1991) pointed that: In some respects, urbanization can itself be considered to be a key variable in the health equation: when the pollution produced by a densely packed population outstrips the natural absorptive capacity of the citys ecosystem, adverse health effects can be increased where controls are lacking or unreliable. † (Hancock, 2000) Urban civilization cannot be termed as a natural ecosystem as it is completely built by humans encompassing almost whole globe in its vicinity and destroying the very concept of being â€Å"Natural†. It is a complex human ecosystem which constitutes both physical environment created by humans and the social, economic, cultural and political environments in which the humans survive. In North America itself, human beings spend around 90 percent of their time inside the four confines of their doors, another 5 per cent in their cars and remaining just 5 per cent outside. And outside too, they are spending maximum time in the vicinity of the built urban environment. It is a general trend of humans to consider the poor diet or just lack of exercise as an excuse for their bad health but they hardly consider the ill effect of the built environment with the housing characteristics, patterns in land use, transportation etc. It is evidently proved without doubt that when these different modes of our living standards are not created keeping the ecological balance into consideration, the ecosystem collapses (Jackson Kochtitzky, Online Edition) which deteriorates our health causing stress, chronic diseases etc. The haphazard urban development leads to the climate and atmospheric changes, pollution and ecotoxicity, resource depletion and reduced habitat and bio- diversity. (Hancock and Davies, 1997) The subject that encompasses the link between these human endeavors and the public health is known as human ecology. This human ecology can provide integrative, holistic and radical perspective on health issues. (Hancock, 2000) Catalano in 1979 propounded that there is an utmost need that the health issues must take into consideration economic and social processes which shapes community, so as to prevent any spread of diseases. Hancock, 2000) The metapopulation theory gives an enduring account of urban ecosystems and the human aspect of the study of the urban systems can be done by the â€Å"human ecosystem model,† which deals with the social components which are the part of the human system and its connections to ecology. (Niemela, 1999) The Mandala of Health is a model, which establishes the relationship between the natural sciences and the social sciences and gives suggestion at every level of human activity corresponding to its environment. Hancock Perkins, 1985) Another model, which has incorporated the most important characteristic of ecosystem, is a Butterfly Model of Health. In this model, health is related to societal, economical goals and patterns and biological resources for self-renewal. This model states that number of biophysical and socioeconomic holarchic environments represented by wings, which exert an influence on the health of any individual or whole population. There are number of biological and behavioral filters that engulf the human beings. The nature, people and these factors affect each other. People are considered as healthy when the two wings of the butterfly are in equitable balance within their own dimenisons. In other words, when the biological and other factors maintain equilibrium in nature, it will lead to the healthy individuals. (VanLeeuwen, Toews, Abernathy Smit, 1999) Overall we can say that the health of the human beings is dependent on the health of the natural ecosystems and the planet. Therefore it is utmost necessary to keep the urban ecosystems healthy keeping in mind both its physical and social dimensions such as health of the population with regard to the mental well being, the social well being of the urban community with regard to their social and cultural aspects, the quality of different components that make the built environment, the quality of the environment in the vicinity of the urban sphere like clean air, clean water, soil, prevention of noise pollution and the urban ecosystem on the overall ecosystem of planet. Indicators of Population Health at the Community Level formulated a model known as the Healthy Community model. (Hancock, 2000) This model reflects on the environmental, social, economic, cultural and political factors that lead to the health of urban populations. There are three main parts, which make up the healthy community model. These are community, environment and economy, which in turn possess three qualities like livability, viability and sustainability. These qualities are related to our living styles and we humans have to make the best use of the available resources to maintain these qualities for our healthy lives. For e. g. Traffic causes respiratory problems because it causes air pollution and noise pollution. This healthy community model provides answer to the best way possible to control traffic. The theories and models show how we can maintain and improve human and ecosystem health, which will require changes in the way the urban settlements are planned, designed and worked upon. Canadian Public Health Association Taskforce on Human and Ecosystem Health in 1992 said in a report: â€Å"Human development and the achievement of human potential requires a form of economic activity that is environmentally and socially sustainable in this and future generations. † (Hancock, 2000) We cannot change the urban settlements but we can sort out ways by which we can reduce the pollution, and make our environment the most beautiful and healthy place to live in.

Essay --

Educational theory that is relevant to change management would be the social learning theory. In this theory the leader or educator has a responsibility to act as a role model. Social learning theory has been applied to education in nursing to maximise the use of support groups and to address psycho social problems. As an example from research it has shown that nurse managers who understand their responsibilities and roles in promoting a positive work environment leads to enhances competence, learning and satisfaction (Kane-Urrabazo, C. 2006) Bandura states that people do not need to experience things directly to learn and that substantial learning happens by observing other people’s behaviour and what happens to them. Learning can be seen as a social process and other individuals provide compelling examples for how to act feel and think. The principle of Role Modelling is to enable the student to observe a well-trained nurse work and therefore allows the student to foster the professional role. This does not only involve the learning of clinical skills but learning about professional attitudes and interactions with patients and other members of healthcare staff (Quinn 1991). For this theory Role Modelling is a central concept and as an example a nurse with little experience would usually be mentored by a nurse with more experience who shows desirable behaviours and professional attitudes. In relation to nurse education the advantage of social learning theory is its focus on the social aspect of learning which occurs in a social environment, recognising the complexity of the person and the environment. Callery 1990 states that the same complexity makes interaction challenging and intervention complicated. The environment woul... .... Set of principles of adult education centred on the political fact that there are fundamental differences in the legal rights of adults & children. Educational philosophy defined in terms of self-directed learning, student centred teaching & lifelong learning. Self-directedness & individual development is consistent with humanism. Advocates autonomy by giving the learner responsibility for learning. Andragogy encourages individual learning diversity Andragogical consistency mirrors the nurse patient- relationship Andragogy can be understood as a means that adult education must focus more on the method compared than to the lessons. Self-evaluation, simulations, role playing and case studies are the most useful of these types of education, Instructors take on the function of a resource person or facilitator instead of assuming the usual role of a grader or lecturer.

Part of Speech Recognizer

Improving Identi?er Informativeness using Part of Speech Information Dave Binkley Matthew Hearn Dawn Lawrie Loyola University Maryland Baltimore MD 21210-2699, USA {binkley, lawrie}@cs. loyola. edu, [email  protected] edu Keywords: source code analysis tools, natural language processing, program comprehension, identi?er analysis Abstract Recent software development tools have exploited the mining of natural language information found within software and its supporting documentation. To make the most of this information, researchers have drawn upon the work of the natural language processing community for tools and techniques.One such tool provides part-of-speech information, which ?nds application in improving the searching of software repositories and extracting domain information found in identi?ers. Unfortunately, the natural language found is software differs from that found in standard prose. This difference potentially limits the effectiveness of off-the-shelf tools. The pres ented empirical investigation ?nds that this limitation can be partially overcome, resulting in a tagger that is up to 88% accurate when applied to source code identi?ers.The investigation then uses the improved part-of-speech information to tag a large corpus of over 145,000 ?eld names. From patterns in the tags several rules emerge that seek to improve structure-?eld naming. Source Part of Extract Split Apply Source ? Code ? Field ? Field ? ? Speech Template Code Mark-up Tagging Names Names Figure 1. Process for POS tagging of ?eld names. The text available in source-code artifacts, in particular a program’s identi?ers, has a very different structure. For example the words of an identi?er rarely form a grammatically correct sentence.This raises an interesting question: can an existing POS tagger be made to work well on the natural language found in source code? Better POS information would aid existing techniques that have used limited POS information to successfully improv e retrieval results from software repositories [1, 11] and have also investigated the comprehensibility of source code identi?ers [4, 6]. Fortunately, machine learning techniques are robust and, as reported in Section 2, good results are obtained using several sentence forming templates.This initial investigation also suggest rules speci?c for software that would improve tagging. For example the type of a declared variable can be factored into its tags. As an example application of POS tagging for source code, the tagger is then used to tag over 145,000 structure?eld names. Equivalence classes of tags are then examined to produce rules for the automatic identi?cation of poor names (as described in Section 3) and suggest improved names, which is left to future work. 1 IntroductionSoftware engineering can bene?t from leveraging tools and techniques of other disciplines. Traditionally, natural language processing (NLP) tools solve problems by processing the natural language found in do cuments such as news articles and web pages. One such NLP tool is a partof-speech (POS) tagger. Tagging is, for example, crucial to the Named-Entity Recognition [3], which enables information about a person to be tracked within and across documents. Many POS taggers are built using machine learning based on newswire training data.Conventional wisdom is that these taggers work well on the newswire and similar artifacts; however, their effectiveness degrades as the input moves further away from the highly structured sentences found in traditional newswire articles. 1 2 Part-of-Speech Tagging Before a POS tagger’s output can be used as input to down stream SE tools, the POS tagger itself needs to be vetted. This section describes an experiment performed to test the accuracy of POS tagging on ?eld names mined from source code. The process used for mining and tagging the ?elds is ?rst described, followed by the empirical results from the experiment.Figure 1 shows the pipeline used for the POS tagging of ?eld names. On the left, the input to the pipeline is mode=â€Å"space†/> (683 came from C++ ?les and 817 from Java ?les). A human accessor (and university student majoring in English) tagged the 1500 ?eld names with POS information producing the oracle set. This oracle set is used to evaluate the accuracy of automatic tagging techniques when applied to the test set. Preliminary study of the Stanford tagger indicates that it needed guidance when tagging ?eld names.Following the work of Abebe and Tonella [1], four templates were used to provide this guidance. Each template includes a slot into which the split ?eld name is inserted. Their accuracy is then evaluated using the oracle set. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Sentence Template: List Item Template: Verb Template: Noun Template: . – Please, . is a thing . Figure 2. XML queries for extracting C++ and Java ?elds from srcML. source code. This is then marked up using XML tags by srcML [5] to id entify various syntactic categories. Third, ?eld names are extracted from the marked-up source using XPath queries.Figure 2 shows the queries for C++ and Java. The fourth stage splits ?eld names by replacing underscores with spaces and inserting a space where the case changes from lowercase to uppercase. For example, the names spongeBob and sponge bob become sponge bob. After splitting, all characters are shifted to lowercase. This stage also ?lters names so that only those that consist entirely of dictionary words are retained. Filtering uses Debian’s American (6-2) dictionary package, which consists of the 98,569 words from Kevin Atkinson’s SCOWL word lists that have size 10 through 50 [2].This dictionary includes some common abbreviations, which are thus included in the ?nal data set. Future work will obviate the need for ?ltering through vocabulary normalization in which non-words are split into their abbreviations and then expanded to their natural language equiva lents [9]. The ?fth stage applies a set of templates (described below) to each separated ?eld name. Each template effectively wraps the words of the ?eld name in an attempt to improve the performance of the POS tagger. Finally, POS tagging is performed by Version 1. 6 of the Stanford Log-linear POS Tagger [12].The default options are used including the pretrained bidirectional model [10]. The remainder of this section considers empirical results concerning the effectiveness of the tagging pipeline. A total of 145,163 ?eld names were mined from 10,985 C++ ?les and 9,614 Java ?les found in 171 programs. From this full data set, 1500 names were randomly chosen as a test set 2 The Sentence Template, the simplest of the four, considers the identi?er itself to be a â€Å"sentence† by appending a period to the split ?eld. The List Item Template exploits the tagger having learned about POS information found in the sentence fragments used in lists.The Verb Template tries to encourage the tagger to treat the ?eld name as a verb or a verb phrase by pre?xing it with â€Å"Please,† since usually a command follows. Finally, the Noun Template tries to encourage the tagger to treat the ?eld as a noun by post?xing it with â€Å"is a thing† as was done by Abebe and Tonella [1]. Table 1 shows the accuracy of using each template applied to the test set with the output compared to the oracle. The major diagonal represents each technique in isolation while the remaining entries require two techniques to agree and thus lowering the percentage.The similarity of the percentages in a column gives an indication of how similar the set of correctly tagged names is for two techniques. For example, considering Sentence Template, Verb Template has the lowest overlap of the remaining three as indicated by it’s joint percentage of 71. 7%. Overall, the List Item Template performs the best, and the Sentence Template and Noun Template produce essentially identical resu lts getting the correct tagging on nearly all the same ?elds. Perhaps unsurprising, the Verb Template performs the worst.Nonetheless, it is interesting that this template does produce the correct output on 3. 2% of the ?elds where no other template succeeds. As shown in Table 2 overall at least one template correctly tagged 88% of the test set. This suggests that it may be possible to combine these results, perhaps using machine learning, to produce higher accuracy than achieved using the individual templates. Although 88% is lower than the 97% achieved by natural language taggers on the newswire data, the performance is still quite high considering the lack of context provided by the words of a single structure ?eld.Sentence List Item Verb Noun Sentence 79. 1% 76. 5& 71. 7% 77. 0% List Item 76. 5% 81. 7% 71. 0% 76. 0% Verb 71. 7% 71. 0% 76. 0% 70. 8% Noun 77. 0% 76. 0% 70. 8% 78. 7% this context is used to represent a current state, and is therefore not confusing. Rule 1 Non-boolea n ?eld names should never contain a present tense verb * * ? * * Table 1. Each percentage is the percent of correctly tagged ?eld names using both the row and column technique; thus the major diagonal represent each technique independently. Correct in all templates Correct in at least one template 68. 9% 88. 0% Table 2.Correctly tagged identi?ers As illustrated in the next section, the identi?cation is suf?ciently accurate for use by downstream consumer applications. 3 Rules for Improving Field Names As an example application of POS tagging for source code, the 145,163 ?eld names of the full data set were tagged using the List Item Template, which showed the best performance in Table 1. The resulting tags were then used to form equivalence classes of ?eld names. Analysis of these classes led to four rules for improving the names of structure ?elds. Rule violations can be automatically identi?ed using POS tagging.Further, as illustrated in the examples, by mining the source code it i s possible to suggest potential replacements. The assumption behind each rule is that high quality ?eld names will provide better conceptual information, which aids an engineer in the task of forming a mental understanding of the code. Correct part-of-speech information can help inform the naming of identi?ers, a process that is essential in communicating intent to future programmers. Each rule is ?rst informally introduced and then formalized. After each rule, the percentage of ?elds that violate the rule is given.Finally, some rules are followed by a discussion of rule exceptions or related notions. The ?rst rule observes that ?eld names represent objects not actions; thus they should avoid present-tense verbs. For example, the ?eld name create mp4, clearly implies an action, which is unlikely the intent (unless perhaps the ?eld represent a function pointer). Inspection of the source code reveals that this ?eld holds the desired mp4 video stream container type. Based on the contex t of its use, a better, less ambiguous name for this identi?er is created mp4 container type, which includes the past-tense verb created.A notable exception to this is ?elds of type boolean, like, for example, is logged in where the present tense of the verb â€Å"to be† is used. A present tense verb in 3 Violations detected: 27,743 (19. 1% of ?eld names) Looking at the violations of Rule 1 one pattern that emerges suggests an improvement to the POS tagger that would better specialize it to source code. A pattern that frequently occurs in GUI programming ?nds verbs used as adjectives when describing GUI elements such as buttons. Recognizing such ?elds based on their type should improve tagger accuracy. Consider the ?elds delete button and to a lesser extent continue box.In isolation these appears to represent actions. However they actually represent GUI elements. Thus, a special context-sensitive case in the POS tagger would tag such verbs as adjectives. The second rule consi ders ?eld names that contain only a verb. For example the ?eld name recycle. This name communicates little to a programmer unfamiliar with the code. Examination of the source code reveals that this variable is an integer and, based on the comments, it counts the â€Å"number of things recycled. †While this meaning can be inferred from the declaration and the comments surrounding it, ?eld name uses often occur far from their eclaration, reducing the value of the declared type and supporting comments. A potential ?x in this case is to change the name to recycled count or things recycled. Both alternatives improve the clarity of the name. Rule 2 Field names should never be only a verb ? ? or ? ? Violations detected: 4,661 (3. 2% ?eld names identi?ers) The third rule considers ?eld names that contain only an adjective. While adjectives are useful when used with a noun, an adjective alone relies too much on the type of the variable to fully explain its use.For example, consider th e identi?er interesting. In this case, the declared type of â€Å"list† provides the insight that this ?eld holds a list of â€Å"interesting† items. Replacing this ?eld with interesting list or interesting items should improve code understanding. Rule 3 Field names should never be only an adjective ? Violations detected: 5,487 (3. 8% ?eld names identi?ers) An interesting exception to this rule occurs with data structures where the ?eld name has an established conventional meaning. For example, when naming the next node in a linked list, next is commonly accepted.Other similar common names include â€Å"previous† and â€Å"current. † The ?nal rule deals with ?eld names for booleans. Boolean variables represent a state that is or is not and this notion needs to be obvious in the name. The identi?er deleted offers a good example. By itself there is no way to know for sure what is being represented. Is this a pointer to a deleted thing? Is it a count of dele ted things? Source code inspection reveals that such boolean variables tend to represent whether or not something is deleted. Thus a potential improved names include is deleted or was deleted.Rule 4 Boolean ?eld names should contain third person forms of the verb â€Å"to be† or the auxiliary verb â€Å"should† * ? is | was | should * 5 Summary This paper presents the results on an experiment into the accuracy of the Stanford Log-linear POS Tagger applied to ?eld names. The best template, List Item, has an accuracy of 81. 7%. If an optimal combination of the four templates were used the accuracy rises to 88%. These POS tags were then used to develop ?eld name formation rules that 28. 9% of the identi?ers violated. Thus the tagging can be used to support improved naming.Looking forward, two avenues of future work include automating this improvement and enhancing POS tagging for source code. For the ?rst, the source code would be mined for related terms to be used in sug gested improved names. The second would explore training a POS tagger using, for example, the machine learning technique domain adaptation [8], which emphasize the text in the training that is most similar to identi?ers to produce a POS tagger for identi?ers. 6 Acknowledgments Special thanks to Mike Collard for his help with srcML and the XPath queries and Phil Hearn for his help with creating the oracle set.Support for this work was provided by NSF grant CCF 0916081. Violations detected: 5,487 (3. 8% ?eld names identi?ers) Simply adding â€Å"is† or â€Å"was† to booleans does not guarantee a ?x to the problem. For example, take a boolean variable that indicates whether something should be allocated in a program. In this case, the boolean captures whether some event should take place in the future. In this example an appropriate temporal sense is missing from the name. A name like allocated does not provide enough information and naming it is allocated does not make l ogical sense in the context of the program.A solution to this naming problem is to change the identi?er to should be allocated, which includes the necessary temporal sense communicating that this boolean is a ?ag for something expected to happen in the future. References [1] S. L. Abebe and P. Tonella. Natural language parsing of program element names for concept extraction. In 18th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension. IEEE, 2010. [2] K. Atkinson. Spell checking oriented word lists (scowl). [3] E. Boschee, R. Weischedel, and A. Zamanian. Automatic information extraction.In Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligence Analysis, 2005. [4] B. Caprile and P. Tonella. Restructuring program identi?er names. In ICSM, 2000. [5] ML Collard, HH Kagdi, and JI Maletic. An XML-based lightweight C++ fact extractor. Program Comprehension, 2003. 11th IEEE International Workshop on, pages 134–143, 2003. [6] E. Hà ¸st and B. Østvold. The programmer’ s lexicon, volume i: The verbs. In International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation, Beijing, China, September 2008. [7] E. W. Hà ¸st and B. M. Østvold. Debugging method names.In ECOOP 09. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2009. [8] J. Jiang and C. Zhai. Instance weighting for domain adaptation in nlp. In ACL 2007, 2007. [9] D. Lawrie, D. Binkley, and C. Morrell. Normalizing source code vocabulary. In Proceedings of the 17th Working Conference on Reverse Engineering, 2010. [10] L. Shen, G. Satta, and A. K. Joshi. Guided learning for bidirectional sequence classi?cation. In ACL 07. ACL, June 2007. [11] D. Shepherd, Z. P. Fry, E. Hill, L. Pollock, and K. Vijay-Shanker. Using natural language program analysis to locate and understand action-oriented conerns.In AOSD 07. ACM, March 2007. [12] K. Toutanova, D. Klein, C. Manning, and Y. Singer. Feature-rich part-of-speech tagging with a cyclic dependency network. In HLTNAACL 2003, 2003. 4 Related Work This section brie?y reviews three projects that use POS information. Each uses an off-the-shelf POS tagger or lookup table. First, Host et al. study naming of Java methods using a lookup table to assign POS tags [7]. Their aim is to ?nd what they call â€Å"naming bugs† by checking to see if the method’s implementation is properly indicated with the name of the method.Second, Abebe and Tonella study class, method, and attribute names using a POS tagger based on a modi?cation of minipar to formulate domain concepts [1]. Nouns in the identi?ers are examined to form ontological relations between concepts. Based on a case study, their approach improved concept searching. Finally, Shepherd et al. considered ?nding concepts in code using natural language information [11]. The resulting Find-Concept tool locates action-oriented concerns more effectively than the other tools and with less user effort. This is made possible by POS information applied to source code. 4

Psychology Learning Essay

Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The following account should probably come under the heading â€Å"Strange but True.† It describes a psychologist’s use of self-administered punishment to change a socially unacceptable behavior.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A person once knew a psychologist who, for reasons which will be discovered shortly, shall remain anonymous. For the sake of the study, this person is named Richard. Richard had a bad habit. He chewed his nails. Well, that’s not actually correct; he chewed his nails off and then spit them out, usually while he was lecturing. Once in a great while, this practice was called to his attention, and it always embarrassed him. He said that he wasn’t aware that he was doing it. It had become such an ingrained habit that he could chew off all ten nails, spit in all directions, and still be totally unconscious of what he was doing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Richard was a respected learning theorist, and he decided that if anyone could devise a behavior-modification technique to eliminate his habit, he would. The next day he arrived, all smiles, and said he had a request: If any of those around see him biting his nails, this should be brought to his attention. It wasn’t long that before someone said, â€Å"Uh, Richard, you’re doing it.† He stopped and looked at his nails and said, â€Å"So I am.† Then as everyone was watched, pulled up his shirtsleeve, grabbed hold of a heavy-duty rubber band that had wrapped around his wrist, stretched it out a distance of about ten inches, and let is go. There was a vicious snap. He yelled, cursed, and shook his hand. Everyone looked on amazement. Surely learning theorist were all a little insane. â€Å"Punishment,† he said. â€Å"Punishment is the answer!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What happened to the people around Richard was interesting. Some took relish in pointing out that he was biting his snails, just to see him snap the huge rubber band around his wrist; others preferred to ignore his habit, because they couldn’t stand to see him in that much pain. Happily, after two days, Richard’s habit had been broken.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One person asked him how he thought his program worked. He said, â€Å"Well, if I unconsciously unlearn it. Whenever I was chewing my nails, I administered this punishment. Pretty soon my brain learned that nail chewing resulted in something very unpleasant.† He said that the last time he reached his hand up to his mouth (quite unconsciously), he got a terrible sinking feeling that something awful was about to happen. â€Å"It made me aware.† he said. â€Å"I looked at my hand and saw it was approaching my mouth. Somewhere deep in my brain the little gray cells were screaming, â€Å"Don’t do it!†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was reported that some days later Richard was wearing rubber bands around his ankles, but nobody wanted want to ask why (Dworetzky, 1994). Discussion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Learning pervades people’s lives. It is involved not only in mastering a new skill or academic subject but also in emotional development, social interaction, and even personality development. People learn what they fear, what to love, how to be polite, hoe to be intimate, and so on. Given the pervasiveness of learning in lives of people, it is not surprising that there have been instances of it – how, for example, children to perceive the world around them, to identify with their own sex, and to control their behavior according to adult standards (Atkinson, 1993). However, there is a more systematic analysis of learning.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from practice; behavior change that are due to maturation (rather than practice)or temporary conditions of the organism (such as fatigue or drug-induced states) are not included. All cases of learning are not the same though.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychology is the study of behavior. Psychologists study learning because among most animals, especially humans, the vast majority of behavior is learned. Learning may also be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience (Dworetzky, 1988).   Experts, however, tell that when somebody says â€Å"relatively permanent change,† this excludes the effects of such factors as fatigue. Fatigue, which occurs because of experience, may change behavior, but only temporary, whereas learning implies a more lasting change.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Learning is defined by Craig et al., as a process through which one’s capacity or disposition is changed as a result of experience. Whitaker (1972) defines it also as the process by which behavior originates or is altered through experience, while Wittig (in Bernstein et al., 1991) and Hilgard (1975) view it as behavior that occurs as a result of experience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Apparently while learning can be defined as a process and as a product, more definitions stress learning more as a process. This idea suggests that it is not the product but the process that is important since the products of learning both what one is capable of and what one is predisposed to. Changes resulting from development and experience are emphasized; changes resulting from maturation such as growing older, innate tendencies like reflexes and conditions caused by fatigue, drugs, and diseases are strictly not considered as learned behavior. Adaptive value of Learning (Classical Conditioning) ~Overeating: Taste-Aversion Learning   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Taste-aversion learning involves associating particular sensory cues (smells, tastes, sounds or sights), with an unpleasant response, such as nausea or vomiting. Taste-aversion learning can also occur from overindulgence. For example, children report taste aversions to food after overeating and becoming sick. Similarly, the majority of college students’ report taste versions after drinking too much alcohol and getting sick. In these examples, taste aversions to food or drink developed after a single trial and lasted an average of four to five years (Logue et al., 1981). ~Conditioned Emotional Response: Why a certain Christmas song elicits pleasant childhood memories.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the conditioned emotional response, one feels some positive or negative emotion, such as happiness, fear, or anxiety, when experiencing a stimulus that initially accompanied a painful or pleasant event.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For example, many couples have a special song that becomes emotionally associated with their relationship. When one in the absence of the other hears this song, it can elicit strong emotional and romantic feelings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In other cases, conditioned emotional responses may develop into irrational fears that are called phobias.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by an intense and irrational fear that is out of all proportion to the danger elicited by the object or situation. In comparison, a fear is a realistic response to a threatening situation (Bernstein, 1991).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   About 73 percent of people with phobias were able to trace the start of their phobias to fearful, painful, or traumatic situations that involved classical conditioning (Atkinson et al., 1993 in Kleinknecht, 1994 and Kuch et al., 1994). For example, about 5 victims involved in moving car accidents had developed fears of sitting or riding in cars, and another third developed the corresponding phobias (Kuch et al., 1994). Just as classical conditioning can result in fears and phobias, however, it can also be used to reduce them. ~Prejudice   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the mid-1940s, psychologist Kenneth Clark held a black doll and a white doll in his hands and asked the following questions of young white children living in the South:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Which doll looks like you?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Now tell me which doll is the good doll?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Which doll is the bad doll?† These children knew that the white doll looked like them. most children also indicated that the white doll was the â€Å"good doll† and the black doll was â€Å"dirty† or â€Å"ugly† ( Clark and Clark, 1947). How had these southern white children learned to make such association? During the decades of racial prejudices that had come before, darer skins had become associated with poverty and with being â€Å"inferior,† not just in the South, but generally throughout the United States. The white children had learned to attribute these characteristics to black people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The racist attitude is what the white children had been taught; it is also what the black children had been taught. The black had been raised in the same general environment, the same country. They, too, had seen that the whites had better and they had worse. And, as the Clarks discovered in further research, a majority of black children also chose the white doll as the good one and the black doll as the bad one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A conditioning experiment conducted by researcher Staats (1958 in Atkinson et al., 1993) helped to show how association process could be responsible for the prejudice, Dr. Clark observed. In their experiment, college students were asked to look at one word while pronouncing another. Without being aware of the purpose of the experiment, the students were manoeuvred into pairing pleasant words or unpleasant words with a particular name (Tom or Bill) or a certain nationality (Swedish or Dutch). In short, subjects revealed obvious differences in attitudes towards these names and nationalities, simply because those words had been paired with positive or negative words. Advertisers, politicians, movie makers, and just about everyone else try to use this kind of conditioning to affect people’s emotions. Then a politician associates himself with a positive symbol such as the flag, or when a movie maker uses dramatic music, or when someone dresses well for a job interview, each is invoking the same process: Each is attempting to render something – the politician, the movie maker, or the job seeker – more appealing through association with positive stimuli.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What appears to be occurring in the instances of association, like those just described, is a kind of higher order conditioning (Dworetzky, 1998). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In classical conditioning, the conditioned response often resembles the normal response to the unconditioned stimulus: salivation, for example,   is a dog’s normal response to food. But when you want to teach an organism something novel – such as teaching a dog new trick – you cannot use classical conditioning. What unconditioned stimulus would make a dog sit up or roll over? To train the dog, you must first persuade it to do the trick (Bernstein et al., 1991).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Much of the real-life behavior is like this: responses are learned because they operate on, or effect the environment. Referred to as an operant conditioning, this kind of learning occurs in human individuals, as well as in animals. Alone in a crib, a baby may kick and twist and coo spontaneously. When left by itself, a dog may pad back and forth, sniff, or perhaps pick up a ball, drop it, and play with it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Neither organism is responding to the onset or offset of a specific external stimulus. Rather, they are operating on their environment. Once the organism performs a certain behavior, however, the likelihood that the action will be repeated depends on its consequences. The baby will coo more often if each such occurrence is followed by parental attention, and the dog will pick up the ball more often if petting or a food reward follows this action. If we think of the baby as having a gaol of parental attention, and the dog as having the goal of food, then operant conditioning amounts to learning that a particular behavior leads to attaining a particular goal (Rescorla, 1987). Reference: Atkinson, R.L., R.C. Atkinson, E.E. Smith, D.J. Bem, and S.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Nolen-Hoeksema, 1993. Introduction to Psychology, 13th ed.    New York: Harcourt College Publishers. Bernstein, D.A., E.J. Roy, T.K. Srull, and C.D. Wickens, 1991.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychology. New Jersey: Houghton Mifflin Company. Bootzin, R.R. 1991. Psychology.   New York: Gilford Press. Clark, L., A.D. Watson, and S. Reynolds, 1995. Diagnosis and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   classification of psychopathology: Challenges to the current system and future directions. Annual review of   Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychology 46: 121-53. Dworetzky, J.P. 1988. Psychology.3rd Ed. Mew York: West   Ã‚  Ã‚   Publishing Company. Logue, A.W., I.Ophir, and K.E. Strauss. 1981. The Acquisition    of taste aversions in humans. Behavior Research and Therapy,19:3:19-35. Morgan, Clifford T. 1977. A Brief Introduction to Psychology.    2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Rescorla, R.A. 1987. A Pavlovian analysis of goal-directed   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   behavior. American Psychologist 42:119-129, 265.   

Living On Campus vs. Off Campus

Living On Campus vs. Off Campus Is your college kid contemplating a move off-campus? The dorm versus apartment, on-campus versus off-campus question,is a common topic for sophomores and juniors. Some colleges offer on-campus apartments as well as dormitory options, but most students start at least thinking about moving off-campus halfway through their college tenure. Here are some things to think about before making this big decision. Cost Dorms tend to be significantly pricier than living in a modest, shared apartment, especially when you take square footage into account. But that $14,000 per year dorm fee generally includes a substantial dining hall allowance. Make sure you remove the food tab from the equation so youre comparing apples and apples, not apples and oranges. And dont forget those other costs of apartment living: utilities, internet, and garbage service. A final caveat: your college kid likely wont qualify for an apartment on his own, so youll need to cosign the lease. Convenience Theres no doubt that living on campus is convenient. Classes are right there. Food is served by the buffet-load. Medical help for even minor issues is moments away. Move off-campus and there will be transportation costs and/or on-campus parking issues. Your kid will need to have at least rudimentary cooking skills. And there wont be an R.A. just down the hall, ready to help. Social Life Dorms are ready-made hubs of sociability. Everyones the same age and going through the same things, and everyone is eager to make friends. Depending on the apartment complex and your college kids level of gregariousness, he or she may find it difficult to meet people and make new friends. That can be a huge issue for freshmen, but not so much for upperclassmen who have already made plenty of friends. Its much easier to meet new people in apartment complexes with attractive common areas - such as a pool, basketball courts, or lounge - and in complexes where college kids make up the majority of the residents. Noise and Privacy In general, apartments are much quieter than dorms, where the steady sounds of partying or merely boisterous neighbors waft through the walls. Apartments tend to be calmer. Theres more room to spread out. Also, your kid wont be sharing a bathroom with ten or 20 other people. Space Bedrooms in an apartment might be even smaller than that tiny dorm room. But unless your child is considering a studio, conversion, or junior one-bedroom, apartments have room to spread out because they will also have a living room and a kitchen. And the bathroom is an actual room in an apartment, not a cubicle. Food Dining hall cuisine may have its detractors, but at least someone is providing three feasts a day. In an apartment, the grocery shopping and cooking is up to your child. That means developing some cooking skills and a recipe repertoire, not to mention budgeting skills. Groceries cost substantially more than dorm dwellers usually realize. Amenities Dorm laundry rooms are open 24/7. Apartments may have limited hours or no on-site laundry at all. Parking is either included in the apartment rent or available for a reasonable cost. And if the apartment complex has a pool, its right there and ready for splashing - not across campus and monopolized by the colleges swim team.

ExpertSystems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

ExpertSystems - Research Paper Example based on the web consists of a case management system - a case management system is essentially a large table of actions, which come from a range of sources. The origins might include: It also has a point management system. Here, the Jonas Point of Sale system allows for the creation of an unlimited amount of menus and nested menus, grants easy access to member preferences, and even enables pre-event chit setup for quick and easy processing at a later time. All of these features and many more are made available through complete integration with the rest of your Jonas Management System. The other one is the menu management system. Here, the point management system contains four subsystems. There are employees, employer, menu suppliers, and the case management agents. Using tips issued by the employer, employees pick the menu objects given out by the menu suppliers, and utilize points in addition to money for it. Some menu suppliers get sorted by agents. The system is for assisting the human resource department in a number of ways which include: The human resource department can use the system to view and record various requests from the employees’ preferences in order to process them. The system can also provide a questionnaire such as a graphical user interface where the employees can enter data systematically, as prompted by the system. The system specification document is about the definition and development of the Benefits Cafeteria System project. The document includes the necessities for Suite Spot employees to manage personal data, authentication control and mechanism for authorization as well as managing the employees’ benefits. After the creation of the new system, the employees will be required to register with the system and create a new profile. In particular, the Benefits Cafeteria System will take control and manage the employee’s database. The use of the system will be based on the different roles of the employees, age, seniority,

The malden court Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The malden court - Essay Example There is also no restriction to the use of legal materials in the court house, thus an individual can trace the laws applicable in different cases from the legal materials, and then observe how they are being interpreted by the judges and how they are applied in determining different types of cases presented to the court. The advantage associated with this aspect is that; a learner is able to participate in the court process fully, since they can easily trace the laws the laws that the judges, the defense and the prosecutors are applying in the cases before the court, and thus help the learner from being disoriented. It is through tracing the laws applicable in a case and seeing how such laws are interpreted and applied, that a learner is able to fully understand them. Thus, this is one of the major strength associated with The Malden District court, since it serves to indicate the transparency of the judicial system applicable here. The act of the court to allow the attendance of th e court proceedings by any interested party is a major step towards enhancing judicial transparency, since it indicates that the court is being honest in its dealings and it invites any interested party to evaluate its performance regarding its processes. While allowing the public or any interested parties an opportunity to learn the law through the court process, it also allows for the opportunity for scrutiny and evaluation of performance by the interested parties, raising the bar of The Malden court regarding the concept of transparency. However, the major weakness associated with The Malden District court, or at least with one of the case that I attended during my visit to the court is that; the judge did not give explanations regarding the case she was handling. The judge just read out the ruling of the court, gave out the verdict and the type of punishment that the defendant was to face, without clearly giving the judicial reasoning and the laws applicable in determining the c ase. Despite the fact that the other case that I heard attended, which was presided by a different judge, was characterized by the explanation of the judicial ruling, citing the laws applicable and the reason for which the defendant was to be sentenced accordingly, this particular case was handled differently. The judge just gave some files to the defense team, then read out the ruling and the punishment, and then adjourned the court, with a brief explanation that the reasons for the verdict given in the case were already supplied to the defense team. With that, the judge was through with the case. That did not work very well for the individuals who attended the court with a desire to learn something. This is because; they could not understand what laws were applied in the case, how they were interpreted and how they suited into the circumstances and context of the case, to warrant the judgment that the judge gave. The other aspect of the weaknesses that was noticeable in this case is that; the judge was too fast while announcing out the crimes and the punishment, while also using a light tone that was too low, which made it difficult for the individuals attending the court to understand everything that judge was saying. Thus, the weakness of The Malden District court, as displayed in this particular c

Comparison of Shakespearean Adaptations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Comparison of Shakespearean Adaptations - Essay Example The 1996 film entitled â€Å"Twelfth Night† and the more recent adaptation of the Shakespearean story, entitled â€Å"She’s the Man†, are two great movies showing how the story is told in the modern era. The two films use different techniques which are obviously made not only for entertainment but for different audiences as well. In this paper, the films will be compared and contrasted according to audience, plot, telling of the story, revelation of character, conflict, opposing forces and camera angles. â€Å"Twelfth Night† did not change much of the Shakespearean story when it comes to the setting and the use of the old English language. This makes the film look and sound very Elizabethan. It has been created for audiences who appreciate the great works of the genius and would rather watch adaptations set in a theatrical manner. The film presents the performers having long and boring conversations that viewers really have to listen intently for them to b e able to follow and understand the story. On the contrary, â€Å"She’s the Man† has been created for the modern viewer who appreciates not only the story but also the use of technological advancements. The conversations are short and scenes change more often than the former movie. There is a lot of editing made which makes the film more interesting and there is also a modification of the story to match modern settings for it to be more believable, considering the modern culture in America. â€Å"Twelfth Night† tells the story of a woman, Viola and her identical twin brother, Sebastian, who thought they have lost each other in a shipwreck. To get to the man she loves, Viola acts as a man and names herself Cesario. She then becomes the trusted friend of Count Orsino, the love of her life. However, the count was hopelessly in love with the beautiful Olivia and he asks his new friend to persuade the woman for him. Contrary to what was expected, Olivia fell in love with the disguised Viola. Meanwhile, Sebastian has come to town with a friend who rescued him during the shipwreck and when Viola/ Cesario was fighting with another admirer of Olivia, Sebastian’s friend came along, saving the pitiful young woman. When the admirer went after Cesario, he found Sebastian instead who courageously fought Olivia’s admirer. When Olivia came out, the other men dispersed and Sebastian and Olivia were left behind. Overwhelmed and naturally attracted by Olivia’s beauty, the man followed the woman to the priest without question and they got married. However, just after a few moments, Count Orsino and Cesario came and all the characters met at the front of Olivia’s house and the twins came to realize that they both survived the shipwreck after all. Count Orsino learns that his trusted friend loves him and proposes that she become his mistress and the comedy ends with the conflicts being settled. â€Å"She’s the Man† pres ents a different story without getting rid of all the important elements of the story. Viola is a part of a women’s soccer team at Cornwall which gets cut. Due to her love for the sports, the young lady cannot accept what happened and proposes that they join the men’s team. However, that is not allowed. Meanwhile, trying to escape his mother, Viola’s identical twin brother tells her his plans and asks her to do something for him in order to cover for his absences in school. Viola then comes with the bright idea of taking the place of his brother while he is away in order for her to get to the soccer team and she does so quite successfully. However, she fell in love with his roommate, Duke who was so deeply in love with the school’s hottest girl, Olivia. The woman on the other hand falls in love with the sensitive Viola/Sebastian but since s/he showed no interest in the woman, Duke asks

Ethic case 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethic case 2 - Essay Example Socrates’ statement that â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living,† summarizes his idea of good life. The examined life reveals that human lives and ways of living are unequal. Life appears on a hierarchical order. However, Socrates fail to clarify the precise ranking of life and does not provide where any given kind of life belong in the hierarchy. From his interaction with different people, Socrates gets first-hand information, which makes him to conclude that â€Å"unexamined life is not worth living.† He believes that Athens does not persevere to obtain what is good. About good life, Socrates exemplifies the enlightenment stance. His notion is that ethical virtue defines a good life, which entails the practice of specific proficiency or wisdom concerning ethical issues. According to Socrates, pragmatic wisdom about ethical issues entails knowing the meaning of virtues, which involves the riddance of irregularity in belief concerning the meaning of virtues. In his pursuit of true knowledge, he comments, "Certainly I would pride and preen myself if I had this knowledge, but I do not have it, gentlemen." As it appears, Socrates believes in true wisdom founded on

Theories on Dualism in Philosophy

Theories on Dualism in Philosophy Dualism in Philosophy is a theory which, at its basis, holds two radically distinct principles or concepts. One of the most commonly held interpretations of dualism is the concept of the existence of two distinct human entities, that of body and that of soul. It is this interpretation of dualism that the following explication will predominantly address. Dualists believe that the mind determines our personality and the body is a container, or vessel for this self (REFERENCE). Widely considered as the two vanguards of modern dualism are substance dualism and property dualism. Substance dualism holds that the mind or soul is a separate, non-physical entity from the human form, whilst property dualism maintains that there is no soul distinct from the body but only one entity (the person) which has two irreducibly different types of properties, mental and physical (REFERENCE). Substance dualism leaves some room open for the stance that the soul could possibly exist separately from the body, either before birth or after death. Property dualism does not allow for this notion although does permit that both the mental and physical relationship of cause and effect to work in harmony together. The cause of one event may be described as a physical event in the brain and under another event, as a desire, emotion or thought. Substance dualism however, has become increasingly omitted from the majority of contemporary discussions. It could now be considered that few phi losophers currently find the idea of the soul coherent or productive. Although the first use of the term dualism was cited in the 14th century to describe the Islamic faith (REFERENCE), the Western philosopher who spoke most about dualism was Renà © Descartes. Descartes believed that everything non-physical; all feelings and sensations that can be described but cannot be located physically become part of your mind or soul. Descartes dualism, (known as Cartesian Dualism) rested on very certain and definite ideas. He stated that the mind and body were two very different things and that all substances have a property of a special nature. To offer an example, the property of the mind is consciousness, an entity whose entire essence is to think (and therefore takes up no space), whereas the properties of bodily or material substances are length, breath or depth (and therefore their essence is to take up space). The mind has been widely considered as an intangible entity and non-physical in contrast to the body, which is extended and can take many material forms which can be described by their size, shape, position or movement (REFERENCE). Descartes considered that that the mind is the place in which a persons feelings, sensations and thoughts are known only to themselves, whilst all of the functions that the body performs are observable to all. His theory also asserted the idea that both the body and mind interact with each other, the mind having an effect on the body and the body having an effect on the mind, although the body and mind remain separate. He maintained that our identity comes from the ability to think and reason and it is therefore conceivable that we could survive without our bodies (as the soul/mind is separate from the body) and still remain the same person. Descartes was convinced that that we didnt need our bodies to live an intellectually aware and active life and consequently the mind could escape death. He felt that even if we drastically changed or altered our appearance, then it would not affect our personali ties and upon observation it would still be possible to recognise someone by reference to his or her character (REFERENCE). As Descartes asserted: Our soul is of a nature entirely independent of the body, and consequently it is not bound to die with it. And since we cannot see any other cause which destroys the soul, we are naturally led to conclude that it is immortal Renà © Descartes, Discourse on the Method, 1637 (REFERENCE) Dualism has received a lot of attention in the past and Descartes has not been the only philosopher who has written on the concept. Great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas have all put forward their ideas on the subject each one differing slightly. Plato believed that the soul belonged to a level of reality that was higher than that of the body. He stated that the soul was immortal and this derived from his theory of ideas, which he called forms. Plato asserted that for every existence there is a perfect form of said existence. For example for every chair there is an ideal, perfect form of that chair, as with every dog there is a perfect dog (REFERENCE). Platos form theory maintained that the physical world is where the body exists for the subject in order to receive sense impressions, whilst the soul is immaterial and is capable of knowing eternal truths beyond the material world. All knowledge that we have acquired is from the acquaintance we have had with the forms bef ore our immortal souls became imprisoned in our body. Thus, the ultimate aim of the soul is to break free of the chains of the body and flee to the realm of ideas. There it will be able to spend eternity in contemplation of the true, beautiful and the good (REFERENCE). Aristotle was another philosopher who tried to explain the idea of the body and mind. Even though Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, his thoughts on dualism were very different form that of Plato although he still believed that the soul was the part of the body that gives it life and that the soul turned all physical form into a living organism of its particular type (REFERENCE). Whilst Aristotle believed that the body and soul were inseparable he asserted that the soul still develops peoples skills, character and temper, but it cant survive death. Once the body dies then the soul inevitably dies with it, and this provides an example of early monistic theory. Monism is the theory that the mind and body are inseparable, and monists do not accept that an individuals characteristics are anything more than physical ones (any ideas of consciousness are nothing more than electrical brain activity). This is where Aristotles principles differ from monism. He believed that a human is not just a living, physical body and nothing more. He thought that the body and soul were different, and because humans have a soul they are capable of having an intellectual life (REFERENCE). Aquinas (REFERENCE) agreed with Aristotle in the sense that he thought that the soul animated the body and gave it life and he called the soul the anima. Aquinas believed that that the soul operated independently of the body and that things that are divisible into parts, are destined to decay. As the soul isnt divisible it is able to survive death. However because of the link with a particular human body, each soul becomes individual so even when the body does die, the soul once departed still retains the individual identity of the body it once occupied (REFERENCE). The separation of the mind, or soul, and the physical body seems to be a concept which holds little weight under scrutiny. As Ryle (REFERENCE) asserted, to think of the body and soul as two separate entities is to make a category mistake and refers to what he considers the erroneous notion that the soul is something identifiably extra within a person, or to quote directly; a ghost in a machine. Ryle famously illustrated his hypothesis with the example of the university: A foreigner, having visited the colleges, libraries, sports facilities etc. asks to see the university: Ryles intention was to emphasize the requirement of the various constituent parts to form a whole. However, in order to facilitate a conclusive analysis, a clear definition of the concepts discussed is essential. Thus, a soul may be defined as that which thinks, feels and desires; a non-spatiotemporal essence that encapsulates the personal identity of an individual. The body may be identified as the frame in which t he soul is contained. Ryle, in advocating the unity of body and soul, assumes a Materialist stance and would thus contend that those features generally attributed to the soul are all explainable in terms of neurophysiological reactions. In Confessions of a Philosopher, Brian Magee supported this view, claiming: The human body is a single entity, one subject of behaviour and experience with a single history. We are not two entities mysteriously laced together. Yet, there has been an enduring allegiance to the inverse; that we are composite beings of both corporeal matter and incorporeal soul, thus subscribing to Dualism. Plato, a principal proponent, asserted in his Republic that at death the immortal soul, temporarily imprisoned within the contingent, perishable body, rejoins the realm of eternal truths. In his 2nd Meditation, Descartes reinterpreted Platos arguments, concluding that as our identity ensues from non-physical processes, such as the ability to reason, it is conceivable that we could survive a posthumous existence: Our soul is of a nature entirely independent of the body and consequentlyit is not bound to die with it. And since we cannot see any other causes which destroy the soul, we are naturally led to conclude that it is immortal. The Materialist contention that the soul cannot exist without the body would ostensibly appear the more rational position. Some elucidation is, therefore, required to account for the otherwise unprecedented attention Dualism has received over the centuries and, accordingly, Ryles alleged category mistake. As may be inferred, the concept of a non-contingent soul affords the possibility of survival beyond physical death. In allowing for the fulfilment of a moral equilibrium; the realization of human potential; a validation of existence; the remuneration of the pious; and a basis for rejecting the alternative, the abrupt termination of individual consciousness, life after death may be considered a desirable objective. However, not one supposition of a seemingly inexhaustible list renders the proposition necessarily true. Is it even coherent to postulate the existence of a non-empirical, unverifiable entity? There are four kinds of argument that may be raised in defence of the notion. First, we each have a unique consciousness, impenetrable to the outside world. Our thoughts, beliefs etc. may be inferred by others, but never directly experienced. Nevertheless, our body and its processes remain outwardly perceptible. The existence of a soul resolves the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between the public and the private. Second, the fact that we are held morally accountable for our deeds presupposes that we have complete freedom of choice. However, the premise appears unsubstantiated when countered by the fact that our every thought may be described in terms of the physiological processes occurring in the brain and central nervous system. These processes are accounted for by causal conditions extending beyond a person, prior even to their existence. If we are bound by such conditions that remain beyond our control, how may we be considered free, and, thus, held morally accountable? The postulation of some essence, independent of the deterministic causal chain, and with the capacity to influence moral choices provides a potential solution. Third, the quandary of multiple personality disorder must be remedied. If a body can house several personalities, each with its own distinct self-concept and set of behavioural patterns, the body is clearly not central to personal identity. How may this be accounted for? It is evident that we each possess a number of different, yet un-fragmented perspectives. In a pathological condition, however, what holds these perspectives together is lost. Does this suggest the existence of some ethereal glue, cementing the various facets of a self as one? Finally, there exist a number of people claiming to be in possession of paranormal powers such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis etc. In assuming these accounts to be accurate, the Materialist notion that the mind remains entirely dependant on intermediate physical agencies is negated. In sum, if undisputed, the implication of the evidence given is that humans may comprise partly of some imperceptible essence, independent of physical processes. Furthermore, if death remains no exception to the rule, it is plausible that, in a limited capacity, the soul may be preserved, and with it our self identity. However, are there sufficient grounds for refuting the evidence? In truth, convincing though the Dualist arguments may appear, not one case made remains entirely exempt from Materialist criticism. Recently, there has been increasing support for an anthropological view. In attempting an analysis of the brain, in The Minds I, Douglas Hofstadter offered the analogy of an ant colony: A colony has different levels: the colony itself, groups of ants such as workers, teams of ants, and individual ants themselves. We assign meaning to the higher levels (for example that a group of worker ants is removing the carcass of a fly) and hold that these higher levels encode informatio n for the colony. But these higher-level patterns of behaviour are ultimately mere products of the random motions of individual, unintelligent ants. Thus, according to Hofstadter, our every thought, belief or idea is merely a product of random neural firings. It consequently follows that we need not appeal ultimately to meaning to account for reality; we do so purely for the sake of convenience. How well, therefore, do the four lines of argument raised stand up in light of this? The first may be immediately dismissed: The fact that one individual organism may not experience the neural firings of another is unexceptional. In the case of the second: If, on every occasion, what we formerly considered to be higher ideals and beliefs in truth function as labels, then moral law exists as little more that a highly complex system of control. The requirement to apportion a soul is, thus, mooted. Further more, the condition of multiple personalities may be explained by some form of repression, whilst numerous reports of paranormal incidents have proved fairly dubious. To this the following must be added: First, functions such as conceptualisation and memory recall are generally considered to be requisites of self-identity. The implication is that these processes are independent of the mind and could, thus, be sustained by our immaterial souls. The dilemma arises when faced with apparently irrefutable evidence of the inverse. It is widely accepted that, not only are certain mental abilities inherited, but that diseases affecting the mind, such as Downs syndrome, are genetically based. It may be, therefore, surmised that mental ability and function is significantly dependent on the hereditary process. Second, damage to the brain directly affects cognitive functions. For example, were a persons brain spheres to be severed, when presented with an object on the left, the right hemisphere of the brain would recognise it. However, the left hemisphere, the main area for speech and communication, would receive no information via the corpus callosum. Thus whilst the person could point at the object, he could not recount what he sees. Third, certain psychological processes, such as memory, may be discerned as patterns of energy events within the brain. Although, as yet, direct correlation with individual energy transfers has not been possible, the localisation is sufficient to facilitate neurological research. Furthermore, various types of intelligence are associated with specific cerebral hemispheres, for example, the right hemisphere controls artistic and intuitive mental processes. On evaluation, evidence would appear to suggest that those features generally identified within a soul, could equally be explainable in terms of physiological processes. That is not to say the Dualist has not attempted to evade the predicament. In fact, two schemas have been devised. Those subscribing to the first have postulated the immediate replacement of the body at death. For Buddhists the body is physical, for Christians; spiritual. Although, with the reincarnate generally lacking any awareness of a previous existence and ethereal bodies widely acknowledged to exist on a different spatiotemporal plane, verification remains difficult. Advocates of the second schema have suggested that the soul could exist disembodied, in a very limited capacity. For Catholics this may be temporally (Purgatory) until united with a body (Beatific Vision), or permanently (Hell). But what of Ryle and his ghost? The situation must be readdressed. It is clear that in attempting to rationalize the theory of the soul, one invariably returns to the starting point; that, whilst the notion cannot be dismissed entirely, it does appear physiologically unlikely. Ryles statement, however, was more than just a hypothesis; it was a definitive claim. Thus, though empirical evidence seems to lean in favour of the Materialist, whilst Dualism continues as a legitimate possibility, Ryles contention will remain unsubstantiated. Ultimately, the concept of a soul depends on the equally unverifiable existence of some divine entity to effectuate this recondite posthumous transition. Here lies the significance; although those Dualists subscribing to theism tend to recognise that the confirmation of their faith will be fulfilled by eschatological verification, the concept of some spiritual self within plays a fundamental role in their lives, not only in the provision of an intangible channel through which they might commune with God, but also in apportioning a sense of order, clarity and purpose to their existence.