Tuesday, November 26, 2019

A summary of Othello by William Shakespeare.

A summary of Othello by William Shakespeare. Act1The setting of this play takes place in Venice. In beginning of the play Iago, a soldier under Othello's command, is arguing with Roderigo, a wealthy Venetian. Roderigo paid Iago a large sum of money to spy on Othello for him. Roderigo wants to take Othello's girlfriend/wife, Desdemona, as his own. Roderigo thinks that Iago has not been telling him enough about Desdemona and that Iago's loyalty is to Othello not him. Iago explains to Roderigo that he hates Othello because Othello promoted Cassio as his officer or lieutenant and not himself as he had expected. Iago and Roderigo decide to cause problems for Othello by informing Brabantio, Desdemona's father, about her relationship with Othello, who is a Moor (an African). This enrages Brabantio, and he sends parties out that night to apprehend Othello. He believes that Othello must have used magic or tricked his daughter into marriage because she would not have gone on her own free will.Othello and Desdemona in Venice, 1850, oil on wood...When Brabantio and his men find Othello, Othello has been summoned by the Duke of Venice to discuss the problems with Cyprus. Brabantio wants justice for what he believes Othello has done to his innocent daughter and agrees to bring this matter in front of the Duke. The Duke is meeting with several senators discussing the problem with their enemy, the Turks. Brabantio complains to the Duke that Othello has bewitched his daughter and has had intimate relations with her. The Duke allows Othello time to explain his relationship with Desdemona. Othello tells everyone how he wooed Desdemona with his stories of his life. Brabantio does not believe the story, so the Duke sends for Desdemona to tell everything. She confirms everything that Othello had said. The Duke advises Brabantio to accept the marriage and then...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Yttrium Facts - Chemical Physical Properties

Yttrium Facts - Chemical Physical Properties Yttrium oxides are a component of the phosphors used to produce the red color in television picture tubes. The oxides have potential use in ceramics and glass. Yttrium oxides have high melting points and impart shock resistance and low expansion to glass. Yttrium iron garnets are used to filter microwaves and as transmitters and transducers of acoustic energy. Yttrium aluminum garnets, with a hardness of 8.5, are used to simulate diamond gemstones. Small quantities of yttrium may be added to reduce the grain size in chromium, molybdenum, zirconium, and titanium, and to increase the strength of aluminum and magnesium alloys. Yttrium is used as a deoxidizer for vanadium and other nonferrous metals. It is used as a catalyst in the polymerization of ethylene. Basic Facts About Yttrium Atomic Number: 39 Symbol: Y Atomic Weight: 88.90585 Discovery: Johann Gadolin 1794 (Finland) Electron Configuration: [Kr] 5s1 4d1 Word Origin: Named for Ytterby, a village in Sweden near Vauxholm. Ytterby is the site of a quarry which yielded many minerals containing rare earths and other elements (erbium, terbium, and ytterbium). Isotopes: Natural yttrium is composed of yttrium-89 only. 19 unstable isotopes are also known. Properties: Yttrium has a metallic silver luster. It is relatively stable in the air except when finely divided. Yttrium turnings will ignite in air if their temperature exceeds 400Â °C. Yttrium Physical Data Element Classification: Transition Metal Density (g/cc): 4.47 Melting Point (K): 1795 Boiling Point (K): 3611 Appearance: silvery, ductile, moderately reactive metal Atomic Radius (pm): 178 Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 19.8 Covalent Radius (pm): 162 Ionic Radius: 89.3 (3e) Specific Heat (20Â °C J/g mol): 0.284 Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): 11.5 Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 367 Pauling Negativity Number: 1.22 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 615.4 Oxidation States: 3 Lattice Structure: hexagonal Lattice Constant (Ã…): 3.650 Lattice C/A Ratio: 1.571 References: Los Alamos National Laboratory (2001), Crescent Chemical Company (2001), Langes Handbook of Chemistry (1952), CRC Handbook of Chemistry Physics (18th Ed.)

Thursday, November 21, 2019

An Argument in Support of Illegal Downloading Essay

An Argument in Support of Illegal Downloading - Essay Example The music industry claims to be the most adversely affected by the trend in illegal downloading with lost profits amounting to billions of dollars according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Between the years of 2004 and 2009, an estimated 30 billion songs were file shared illegally even though legitimate download avenues such as Itunes and Rhapsody exist for song downloading at a minimal cost to the buyer (Adkins, Amy â€Å"How Does Illegally Downloading Music Impact the Music Industry?†). Leaders of the industry claim that this translates to around 12.5 billion in losses since Napster, the first free file sharing site first launched in 1999. Their only recourse in this situation is to try to track down the individuals who have illegally downloaded the music and then suing them for thousands of dollars in estimated lost revenue. Just thinking about the way that the music industry is trying to curb illegal downloading makes my head spin. There are not enough la w enforcers in the country to monitor the online activities of all the Americans, not to mention that such an act on their part is a violation of the privacy of that particular individual. Those who are unlucky enough to get caught are sued for what? An amount that the RIAA knows the individual cannot afford to pay? What lesson is taught then? Does it scare others into stopping the illegal activity? There are other and more effective ways to get to these people. The industry also claims that these activities result in layoffs and loss of capital for new music investments. That is because the music industry has only limited financial resources with which they can cater to existing talent while developing new ones. There is believed to have... There is believed to have been a 20 percent decline in album sales in 2002 as per data gathered by Peinz and Waelbroeck (qtd. in Shannon). This decrease in sales is being blamed on the illegal downloading of music. The music industry would have us believe that illegal downloading negatively affects them because the music that is downloaded for free through file sharing services does not give them a return on investment. They do not get any royalties for their company that produced the record, or the artist who made the record. Basically, this type of theft should be considered equal to economic sabotage in their dictionary. I will discuss how uneducated this assumption by the music industry is in a later portion of this essay. If one were to solely base his opinion of illegal file sharing on the doomsday scenario created by the movie, television, and recording industry, we would think that they are truly being hurt by the activity and, as caring and responsible individuals. Therefore , it would be in everyone's best interest to stop with the illegal activity since those who illegally download are directly participating in the economic demise of the entertainment industry. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Other sources of information have shown that the entertainment industry, whether they admit it or not also directly benefit, and benefit greatly from the illegal downloading of their materials. In fact, if there is anything that illegal downloading should be considered guilty of.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Essay Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Essay - Article Example r states that the total amount of bribes was more than $24million and even the top level executives of the organization were aware about this ethical violation. These practices by the Wal-Mart are against the legal laws of its base nation. Wal-Mart had violated the legal rules that are stated within the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Under this act a local organization is not allowed to bribe officials in foreign markets. Due to this malpractice, the organization started an internal investigation and identified that during the period of 2005 the vice chairman of the organization involved in increasing the expense account of the organization and was making wrong entries in the gift cards account of the organization. Furthermore the article states that the internal investigations were not even clean and were rather conducted to clear the top officials instead of dealing with those who were involved in the unethical practice of bribing. The article even states that those individual who were held responsible for the practice were themselves investigating the case and due to this a clean investigation never took place. Barstow, D. (2012). At Wal-Mart in Mexico, a Bribe Inquiry Silenced. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 23 December 2014, from

Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Insanity Defense Essay Example for Free

The Insanity Defense Essay The Insanity Defense is perhaps one of the most controversial issues in the legal world. It has become a favorite topic of critics for so long since issues regarding insanity defenses hold to be very sensitive. This paper will specifically discuss how the insanity defense works, what its effects are and how and why it has become controversial to many people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Before we delve deeper into the topic, let us first clearly define what an insanity defense is. Insanity defense typically â€Å"refers to a plea that defendants are not guilty because they lacked the mental capacity to realize that they committed a wrong or appreciate why it was wrong† (Martin, 1998). Today, most states define insanity as a â€Å"mental impairment that impedes a person’s ability to understand the wrongfulness of his or her act (the cognitive prong). A number of states also permit a defense when the disability impairs the person’s ability to control the act (the volitional prong)† (Slobagin, 1998).   However one defines the insanity defense, it has always remained controversial because it allows those who committed a heinous crime get away from criminal punishments.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The defense of insanity is â€Å"based on the premise that those who are unable to control their actions or appreciate the criminality of their actions due to mental defect or illness should not be punished under criminal law† (Dreisbach, 2006). The insanity defense is a legal test of criminal responsibility and it does not follow that it conforms to the medical definition of mental illness. Though controversies have been thrown regarding the insanity defense, it is rarely used and rarely successful as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since the insanity defense is not intended to be a medical definition of a mental incapacity, loads of controversies and criticisms have arisen over the legal criteria that courts should apply in determining whether a person should be acquitted on the basis of insanity. In terms of legalities, it is believed that courts have a lot to work on to assure the credibility of an insanity defense.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But how did the insanity defense started? The guidelines for evaluating the criminal responsibility for defendants claiming to be insane were codified in the British courts in the case of Daniel M’Naughten in 1843. A 1995 Frontline Article goes back to how the M’Naughten rule started: â€Å"M’Naughten was a Scottish woodcutter who murdered the secretary to the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, in a botched attempt to assassinate the prime minister himself. M’Naughten apparently believed that the prime minister was the architect of the myriad of personal and financial misfortunes that had befallen him. During his trial, nine witnesses testified to the fact that he was insane, and the jury acquitted him, finding him ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The queen was never pleased with the outcome, thus she asked the House of Lords to review the verdict with a panel of judges. The judges eventually reversed the verdict of the jury, and the formulation that emerged from their review states that: â€Å"a defendant should not be held responsible for his actions if he could not tell that his actions were wrong at the time he committed them†. This became the basis of the law governing legal responsibility in cases of insanity in England. The American courts and legislatures embraced this rule for more than a hundred years with almost no modification, until the 20th century when much criticism was already thrown at the courts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During the 1950’s, a growing dissatisfaction of the M’Naughten test emerged. It was not just criticized in the legal circle but in the psychiatric circle as well. According to one 1995 Frontline article issue, one of the major criticisms of the M’Naughten rule is that â€Å"in its focus on the cognitive ability to know right from wrong, it fails to take into consideration the issue of control†. Psychiatrists agreed that it is indeed possible to understand that one’s behavior is wrong, but still be unable to stop oneself. To address this, the M’Naughter test was modified by some states with an ‘irresistible impulse’ provision, which â€Å"absolves a defendant who can distinguish right and wrong but is nonetheless unable to stop himself from committing an act he knows to be wrong†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Supreme Court has taken extra precautions in the proceedings in this area, with its few relevant decisions only indirectly addressing the proper formulation of the test for insanity. â€Å"Further evidence that the Court may not find the insanity defense to be an essential aspect of criminal liability comes from its treatment of the burden of proof relating to the defense† (Slobogin, 1998). The state may require the defendant to prove insanity beyond a reasonable doubt. According to Slobogin, â€Å"the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt every fact necessary to constitute proof of the crime with which the defendant is charged.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In as far as law is concerned, does insanity defense really have a legitimate role? Hooper and McLearen (2002) state that: â€Å"Outside of assisting in sentencing, there are two places for mental disease in the legal system. The first is a defendant’s ability to understand the trial process. People who do not understand the nature of the charges or the functioning of the legal system are considered unfit for trial. More germane to this article, if mental illness had a direct effect on a given criminal act, an individual can be found legally insane.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The concept of insanity has change over time but the basic notion of this is that there are individuals by virtue of mental conditions have no understanding or control with their unlawful behaviors. However, the presence of a mental illness will not necessarily predict a successful insanity finding.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Later on, the American Law Institute (ALI) promulgated a Model Penal Code that included a two-pronged provision for insanity. The ALI states that â€Å"an individual is not responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time of such conduct as a result of a mental disease of defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality (wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law† (Hooper and McLearen, 2002).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The American Law Institute was a significant softening of the M’Naughten standard. Frontline explains that â€Å"instead of requiring a defendant to have no understanding whatsoever of the nature of his acts or the difference between right and wrong, the ALI standard requires merely the person lacks a ‘substantial capacity’ to understand the right from wrong†. The ALI generally expands the M’Naughten rule to include an ‘irresistible impulse’ component. The ALI standard also excludes defendants whose mental illness, defect or incapacity only manifest itself in criminal or antisocial conduct, thus addressing the conundrum of the serial killer whose only symptom of a mental illness is the killing of his victims.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A popular example of a case in insanity defense is when John Hinckley Jr. shot the then US President Ronald Reagan and other Presidential officers in 1981. Hinckley claimed that he was trying to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he felt he was infatuated. He later described the incident in a letter to The New York Times as â€Å"the greatest love offering in the history of the world†¦ At one time Miss Foster was a star and I was the insignificant fan. Now everything is changed. I am Napoleon and she is Josephine. I am Romeo and she is Juliet.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A jury acquitted Hinckley of 13 assault, murder and weapon counts, finding him not guilty by reason of insanity. This triggered a public outcry against what many perceived to be a loophole in the justice system that allowed an obviously guilty man to escape punishment. Because of the acquittal, widespread calls for the abolishment, or at least the substantial revision of the insanity-plea laws ensued.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Due to the incessant public outrage, the members of the Congress then responded to this by introducing 26 separate pieces of legislation designed to abolish or modify the insanity defense. All the new proposals were aimed at creating a stricter federal standard that would avoid acquittals like that of Hinckley. The Hinckley verdict introduced ways to make it more difficult to sustain an insanity plea.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The insanity defense has always been a complex topic and a lot of academic and scholarly works have been devoted entirely to explain its nuances. Learnmore lays down some major points of interest: Despite popular perceptions to the contrary, defendants rarely enter pleas of â€Å"not guilty by reason of insanity†. On the few occasions that the defendant does raise it, judges and jurors rarely support it. Neither the legal system nor psychiatrists can agree on a single meaning of insanity in the criminal law context. Various definitions have been employed, making the insanity defense more controversial to people. Defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are not automatically set free. They are usually confined to a mental institution, and not released until their sanity is established. These defendants can spend more time in a mental institution than they would have spent in prison had they been convicted. An insanity defense normally rests on the testimony of a psychiatrist, who testifies for the defendant after examining him and his past history, and the facts of the case. Courts appoint psychiatrists at government expense to assist poor defendants who cannot afford to hire their own psychiatrists. There is no wonder that the insanity defense has held a lot of controversies. With its very perplex nature, there are always rooms for loopholes. For instance, how can one actually measure the authenticity of the â€Å"guilty by reason of insanity† plea? If one pleads that he is insane at the time of trial, how can one be sure that his testimonies are plausible enough to free him from guilt or give a lighter verdict? Could an insanity defense be the perfect step to take to get away from a serious crime that has been committed? Why cannot we have a unified definition of insanity? Why do requirements vary in a number of states? These and a lot more questions with regard to insanity defense are still left unanswered. Currently, the requirements for insanity vary by state. The typical standards require that â€Å"a person be unable to differentiate between right and wrong at the time of the crime. The inability to appreciate the wrongfulness of conduct must be the direct result of a mental disease or defect† (Hooper and McLearen, 2002). This requirement actually leaves me to ponder on a certain things. If the person is legally insane at the time of the crime, how can the legal system be assured of a legally insane person’s testimonies if the person has a mental disease or defect? Can the legal system assure the people that the insanity defense was not widely misused? Due to the controversies being linked to insanity defense, there have been wide attempts to eliminate the loopholes of the system and thereby force mentally ill individuals into prison. â€Å"Some state decisions have noted that criminal intent is an absolute necessary part of any crime† (Hooper and McLearen, 2002). So it is just right that the laws should be more focused on the guilty mind. Under these laws, a person must, as a result of a mental illness, lack the ability to willingly or knowingly commit and act. This looks more at criminal intent rather than psychiatric diagnoses, therefore claiming an end to criminals getting off free. There have been states who have omitted the insanity defense entirely, instead allowing mental state to be raised only as a mitigating factor. But insanity defenses are not always successful. Only a handful of insanity defense cases have won acquittal. Though the percentage of winning an insanity defense is low, it is still likely to hold controversies. Critics have argued that â€Å"some defendants misuse it, effectively faking insanity to acquittals or less severe convictions† (Martin, 1998). Oftentimes, trials involving insanity defense get the most attention because the crimes involved in such cases are extremely bizarre. The standard for insanity defense gets periodic reviews especially after a verdict that the public finds shocking. Laws have been passed to have stricter standards for insanity defenses. â€Å"Instead of requiring prosecutors to prove a defendant’s sanity, defense attorneys now carry the burden of persuading a judge or a jury of the client’s insanity† (Martin, 1998). Martin further explains that some states have also adopted a tougher and stricter release system. Such changes in Connecticut doubled the average term acquitted defendants spend committed in institutions. This system unsurprisingly caused the number of insanity pleas to drop. With stricter standards and stricter release systems, insanity pleas have seriously dropped. Can this be considered a coincidence or a mere manifestation that previous insanity pleas were actually just faked? If because of stricter standards and tougher release systems a number of insanity pleas dropped, cannot all states impose similar standards and systems? If this will answer the endless controversies that are being associated with insanity defenses, then probably it is already high time that states take a look at their insanity defenses standards and make abrupt revisions. A person who has made criminal acts should not just easily escape by means of an insanity defense. The person just leaves room for the people to doubt the system and make outrageous cries to give enough justice to the victim of the so-called â€Å"insane† person. The insanity defense for me is just an available excuse for an accused person to be absolved from his or her criminal responsibility for his or her conduct. The rules for insanity defense had been made flexible depending on the weight of the situation and the reaction f the public. For an insanity defense to be made an excuse in having been committed a serious crime is a total ridicule for me. For if one lacks the capacity to know what is right from wrong, then how can a person actually know if he is actually insane? How can he be so sure that he was insane at the time that the crime was committed? Had there been any development in insanity defense law? The introduction of the â€Å"guilty but mentally ill† verdict in many states is considered the biggest development in the insanity defense law. Frontline explains that a defendant who receives a â€Å"guilty but mentally ill† verdict is still considered legally guilty of the crime in question, but since the defendant is mentally ill, the defendant is entitled to receive mental health treatment while institutionalized. If symptoms remit, however, the defendant is required to serve out the remainder of his sentence in a regular correctional facility, unlike a defendant who was acquitted by reason of insanity, who must be released if it is determined he is no longer dangerous to himself or others. In cases of an insanity defense, it is just right and proper that both the rights of the victim and the defendant who pleads to be insane must be protected. However one puts it, a crime has still been done regardless of one’s mental state. If indeed proven that the defendant is mentally defective or ill at the time of the crime, then proper steps must be taken into account. The verdict may be less severe that what a sane person might get, but proper medications for the defendant must be seriously followed before he gets more destructive to others and to himself. At this point, I am asking myself, why are there insanity pleas? Perhaps, it is the real situation. Perhaps the defendant is really not in a normal mental state at the time the crime happened. But how could the defendant actually defend himself given his mental incapacity to know what is right or wrong? And perhaps, just maybe, if there are no other good defenses to get a person out of a seriously committed crime, then insanity pleads might just be the solution. Perhaps it is making some sense. Insanity pleads have lowered down in number after stricter standards and systems. With both parties that should be considered for this law, emotions and judgmental instincts of people should not really get in the way. This is one serious problem that needs to be addressed and a procedural and logical system must take place to protect the rights of all parties involved. Progresses have been done and I certainly hope that there will come a time that the insanity defense would no longer hold controversies because justice has been served – both for the victim and the defendant. REFERENCES Dreisbach, Daniel L. Criminal Law. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Microsoft Corporation, 2005. Insanity as a criminal defense. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.theblanchlawfirm.com/NewsDetails-36/Insanity+as+a+Criminal+   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Defense.html?newsid=38 A crime of insanity. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/history.html#mn Slobogin, C. (1998). Insanity defense. Thomson Gale. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.answers.com./topic/insanity-defense?cat=biz-fin Hooper, J., and McLearen, A. (2002, April). Does the insanity defense have a legitimate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   role? [electronic version]. The Psychiatric times, 19 (4). Retrieved December 9, 2007,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://www.psychiatrictimes.cm/p020452.html Martin, J. (1998, February 2007). The insanity defense: a closer look [electronic version].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Washingto Post. Retrieved December 9, 2007 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   wp-srv/local/longerm/aron/qa227.htm

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own :: Virginia Woolf A Room of One’s Own

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own Though published seventy years ago, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own holds no less appeal today than it did then. Modern women writers look to Woolf as a prophet of inspiration. In November of 1929, Woolf wrote to her friend G. Lowes Dickinson that she penned the book because she "wanted to encourage the young women–they seem to get frightfully depressed" (xiv). The irony here, of course, is that Woolf herself eventually grew so depressed and discouraged that she killed herself. The suicide seems symptomatic of Woolf's own feelings of oppression within a patriarchal world where only the words of men, it seemed, were taken seriously. Nevertheless, women writers still look to Woolf as a liberating force and, in particular, at A Room of One's Own as an inspiring and empowering work. Woolf biographer Quentin Bell notes that the text argues: the disabilities of women are social and economic; the woman writer can only survive despite great difficulties, and despite the prejudice and the economic selfishness of men; and the key to emancipation is to be found in the door of a room which a woman may call her own and which she can inhabit with the same freedom and independence as her brothers. (144) Woolf empowers women writers by first exploring the nature of women and fiction, and then by incorporating notions of androgyny and individuality as it exists in a woman's experience as writer. Woolf's first assertion is that women are spatially hindered in creative life. "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction," Woolf writes, "and that as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of women. . .and fiction unresolved" (4). What Woolf seems to say is that being female stifles creativity. Woolf does not assume, however, that a biological reason for this stifling exists. Instead, she implies that a woman's "life conflicts with something that is not life" (71). In other words, mothering, being a wife, and the general daily, culturally defined expectations of women infringe upon creativity, in particular the writing of fiction. The smothering reality of a woman's life - - housekeeping and child-rearing duties, for example - - distract a woman from writing. Sadly, Woolf notes, even if a woman in such circumstances manages to write anyway, "she will write in a rage where she should write calmly.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Negative Consumer Behavior Essay

To fully understand what negative consumer behavior is and what makes a bad customer, we first have to understand what â€Å"consumer behavior† is. In their book, â€Å"Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Strategies,† Berkman and Gilson (1981) say that the American Cultural System, which is made of values and artifacts, strongly influences consumer activity in the United States. â€Å"In the twentieth century, American Culture reflected a distinct consumption ethic based upon affluence and gratification of desires through material acquisition† (Berkman and Gilson, 1981). Consumer Behavior is defined as â€Å"the activities of people engaged in actual or potential use of market items-whether products, services, retail environments, or ideas† (Berkman and Gilson, 1981). Thus, there are unlimited types of behaviors that the consumers can exhibit making it difficult to distinguish between good and bad consumer behavior. Sometimes, a consumer behavior that maybe considered negative in one market place can be considered positive in another. Shoplifting for example. â€Å"Some 800,000 times a day, this tableau of temptation, fear and exhilaration plays out in the humdrum aisles of department stores and supermarkets† (Adler, 2002). Shoplifting without a doubt is a type of negative consumer behavior since this behavior costs department stores and supermarket thousands of dollars every day. Yet in the February 25, 2002 â€Å"Newsweek† article written by Jerry Adler, Brandy Samson, the manager of a jewelry and accessories store in the Sherman Oaks California Fashion Square, sees shoplifting in a positive way by using it to understand what it is that the consumers want. She continued to say â€Å"We know what’s hot among teens by seeing what they steal† (Adler, 2002). Though shoplifting has negative effects for one type of market it is a positive consumer behavior in another like the security and protection market. The rise in shoplifting incidents will lead storeowners to increase their spending on security devices like cameras and sensor tags for clothing. Kelly Barron, the author of the article â€Å"Your money or your life? Crime rates are down. Are Americans overspending for security?† says that  even though crime rates have been decreasing over the past years, revenues in the security business are on the rise. â€Å"Americans keep buying more and more protection. Revenues for the security industry have risen 46% over the past five years, to an estimated $57 billion† (Barron, 1997). The vast increase of credit card use has given birth to yet another type of this complex consumer behavior that can be categorized as the compulsive buyers. In their study, James A. Roberts and Eli Jones, say that â€Å"the consumer culture is defined as a culture in which the majority of consumers avidly desire, pursue, consume, and display goods and services that are valued for non-utilitarian reasons, such as status (power), envy provocation, and pleasure seeking† (2001). Such behavior has both positive and negative outcomes. In one hand, the rise of consumer spending increases revenues for certain goods and services. In the other hand, the same behavior increases debt. â€Å"For the first three month of 1999, consumer spending increased at an annualized rate of 6.7 percent. Purchases of durable goods, non-durable goods, and services all registered healthy gains. During the same period, savings reached an all-time low of -0.5 percent† (Roberts and Jones, 2001). Roberts and Jones noted in their study that past research shows that credit cards facilitate spending and that college students were found to spend more at a given store if the store accepted credit cards as a mode of payment. It was also noted that such compulsive buying activities was a significant reason for the large number of credit card debt and personal bankruptcy filings. Roberts and Jones acknowledge that earlier studies have found that students with high debt earn lower grades, and have higher probabilities of dropping out of school. You would think that educational organizations would limit the access of credit card vendors into a college campus. However, what is happening is exactly the opposite. â€Å"Four of five universities allow on-campus solicitations for credit cards and charge credit card vendors between $175 to $400 per day to rent tables during freshman orientation. Schools also receive a percentage of all student charges when they authorize the issuance of an affinity card† (Roberts and Jones, 2001). So is compulsive buying behavior negative or positive? There are however some consumer behaviors that are easy to distinguish from being negative or positive. The abusive customer for example, is a type of consumer that is never satisfied that induces high amounts of stress on the employees. Those who have worked in retail and customer service have probably dealt with such consumers. Working in a clothing store has given me the opportunity to experience the stress created by dealing with the so-called â€Å"abusive customers.† This negative behavior creates a conflict between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. â€Å"The consumer satisfaction category has the main position in marketing theory and is based on the premise that the profit is made through the process of satisfaction of consumers’ demands†¦researchers continually confirm a significant correlation between satisfaction and repeated buying, greater brand loyalty, and spreading a positive opinion of the product† (Dubrovski, 2001). Customer is indeed important to the success of a business, but so is employee satisfaction. See the problem when it comes to dealing with abusive customers? The face-to-face interactions with abusive customers cause employees to increase their â€Å"emotional labor† which is also known as emotional dissonance. â€Å"Emotional dissonance occurs when expressed emotions conform with organizational norms but clash with true feelings† (Rafaeli and Sutton, 1987). In her study on emotional dissonance, Rebecca Abraham establishes that emotional dissonance provokes unhappiness at a job, which motivates the intentions to quit. At my former job, a clothing store, I was able to observe high employee turnover rates due to job dissatisfaction. Not a day passed by without a single interaction with an abusive customer. I wouldn’t doubt that the high volume of such interactions lead to the high employee turnover. This particular store did nothing to decrease the high employee turnover, probably costing them hundreds of dollars. When does employee satisfaction become more important than customer satisfaction? Abusive customers, no matter what they spend and no matter how high their lifetime value is, are expressing negative consumer behavior. This particular clothing store that I used as an example should evaluate or re-examine their values because in the  end nobody will want to work for them. Exhibiting negative consumer behavior in one type of market may result in a positive outcome in another market. Some types of consumer behaviors are so complex that it is extremely difficult to distinguish it from being a positive or negative behavior. It depends on what side of the market the specific business is. In this paper I illustrated for the most part a few of these complex consumer behaviors. However, there are some consumer behaviors that a business owner might be better off with. In the retail business there are some customers that take a great deal of time in deciding what it is that they want to purchase. If you are a storeowner, you might want to have your employees spend less time pleasing these types of customers. After all time is money. The welfare and satisfaction of employees should also be a great concern for the employers. I believe that the more satisfied an employee is with their job, the better they will perform at it. Thus, it is important to protect employees from abusive customers. I can recall a time when a customer became extremely angry when we did not have a specific item in the size he was looking for. There was nothing that I could do but to deal with the costumer’s mistreatment. The types of negative consumer behavior are immense that some are hard to even conceptualize. Such behaviors range from lack of spending, usually expressed by the elderly, to theft and overspending. Future research should examine these activities. Bibliography Abraham, Rebecca. The impact of emotional dissonance on organizational commitment and intention to turnover. Journal of Psychology v133, n4 (July, 1999): 441. Adler, Jerry. The â€Å"Thrill† of Theft: it’s not just the movie stars. Why, each year, ordinary people shoplift $13 billion of lipsticks, batteries and bikinis from stores. Newsweek (Feb. 25, 2002): 52. Barron, Kelly. Your money or your life? Crime rates are down. Are Americans overspending for security? Forbes v160 (November 17, 1997): 66. Berkman, Harold W; Gilson, Christopher. Consumer Behavior: concepts and strategies. Kent Publishing Company. Boston 1981. Dubrovki, Drago. The role of customer satisfaction in achieving business excellence. Total Quality Management. (December 2001): 920 Rafaeli, A.; Sutton, R. Expression of emotion as part of the work role. Academy of Management Review. (1987): 12, 23-37. Roberts, James A; Jones, Eli. Money attitudes, credit card use, and compulsive buying among American college students. Journal of Consumer Affairs, Winter 2001, 35(2): 213-240.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Conselling in Schools Essay

A critical examination of Person Centred Counselling and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy applied to a secondary school context. This piece of work will aim to also consider how aspects of these two approaches of counselling could be applied to support students during their journey through adolescence as well as secondary education. The role of the teacher is one that is very complicated. Often the person who stands before a class of students must wear many different hats if they are to be regarded as a good teacher. OfSTED have tried numerous times over the last two decades to describe what an outstanding teacher is. These judgements have often been based on an impromptu visit to a school once every three to five years where they visit a teacher for up to 20 minutes. Although the inspection criteria have changed somewhat since its initial implementation, it still remains, in my view as a teacher, very staged. In a review of Counselling in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, William Baginsky comments in retrospect that the Education Reform Act 1988, has resulted in teachers and pupils being valued in terms of performance indicators and a move away from a concern with pupils’ personal and social development. Robson et al. (1999), Teachers are acutely aware of the emphasis on the academic side of the curriculum-their (students) whole life seems to be pressure, course work, test, homework. McLaughlin (1999) The role of the teacher often extends beyond lesson observation criteria where they can be labelled one of four levels. What OfSTED are unable to measure in a quantifiable manner is the complex relationship between the member of staff and the students. Often in my practice I wondered how come some teachers were just better at controlling a class or they seemed more â€Å"liked† by the students. I would listen in amazement in the staffroom how some teachers had a wonderful working and purposeful relation with some students yet I had very little success with them. Having reflected on these stories I found a similar pattern. These teachers were displaying counselling skills that allowed them to build up a trust and understanding with the students. What I was not sure of was whether they were using these skills naturally or if they had developed them. I have a belief that with time teachers do develop sound counselling skills in order to support the students they work with. In the paper by McLaughlin (2007) her literature review discusses evidence to suggest that that all teachers should have first-level counselling skills, i. e. should be able to listen to pupils and to react to and respond in the emotional domain (Lang, 1993; Hamblin, 1978). Others would suggest that teachers sometimes use the word counselling to encompass activities that professional counsellors would surely not consider to be counselling at all. These include careers interviews, ad hoc advice, and crisis conversations in the corridor (Mosley, 1993) The purpose of this paper is to consider two types of counselling approaches and consider how elements of these approaches could be developed in my role as a secondary school teacher. To Carl Rogers counselling is about a special relationship that is established between the counsellor and the client- where two people sitting in the same room, the client ‘struggling to be himself’. Rogers C (1942) Rogers then goes on to suggest that counselling is about ‘the intricate, delicate web of growth which is taking place with the emergence of a self, person’. This idea of growth and actualisation was based on the humanistic approach of Maslow who is famous for his hierarchy of needs. The Actualising Tendency complements Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by attempting to explain the motivation behind a person’s desire to better their self. Rogers stated that the person-centred approach is built on a basic trust in the person (It) depends on the actualizing tendency present in every living organisms’ tendency to grow, to develop, to realize its full potential. (Rogers, 1986) Rogers’ strong belief in the actualising tendency is evident in client-centred therapy, where the client is free to choose any directions, but actually selects positive and constructive pathways. This can only be explained in terms of a directional tendency inherent in the human organism-a tendency to grow, to develop, to realize its full potential. (Rogers, 1986) The aim of the Person Centred Therapy approach it can be argued is to create the right conditions for someone to feel actualised during therapy. There is a parallel between the work of the therapist in such a condition and the classrooms within which teachers operate. Education aims to develop the skills of the students in order for them to be able to fulfil their ambitions, or to strengthen this actualising tendency which lives within every child. As many of my colleagues will agree, the desire to self-actualise is stronger in some children than others. As a result of certain episodes in their personal lives some students become more engaged with education while others seem to become less engaged the older they get. This phenomenon can be in part explained by the Rogers’ explanation of Conditions of Worth. This is when a person alters their true self in order to receive positive regard from others. According to Rogers in order to become a fully functioning person we need to experience unconditional positive regard: feeling loved and worthy no matter what. â€Å"Conditions of worth† are the â€Å"requirements’ set forth by parents or significant others for â€Å"earning† their positive regard (love). A person that has received unconditional positive regard is confident in his/her value and can live a healthy existence. Throughout school and students are always victims of what teachers create as conditions of worth. As a teacher I am guilty of creating such an environment. Education seems to only be concerned with the high achievers. This is clearly seen in the standardised measure of success for schools which is the A*-C headline figure. For those students who do not fall in this bracket their self-esteem takes an irreparable dent. The worry is that these students have spent the whole of the secondary schooling in a state of anxiety. Unable to seek help or reassurances that the imposed condition of worth by the education system is not a true reflection of their inner self and they have become disengaged with education. The benefits of schooling can be surprisingly long lasting. It is crucial to appreciate that these long-term benefits rely on both effects on cognitive performance and effects of self-esteem and self-efficacy. School experiences of both academic and non-academic kinds can have a protective effect for children under stress and living otherwise unrewarding lives. Schools are about social experiences as well as scholastic learning. Rutter (1991) As a teacher I faced an inner conflict when dealing with students who I knew were disengaged. I wanted to reflect an Unconditional Positive Regard for the student allowing myself to positively regard the individual (though not necessarily the individual’s behaviours) unconditionally, but I was governed by the culture of the school and the education system. I was forced to sanction one student for the wrong behaviour and reward another for the correct behaviour thus doing a disservice to both students. For one student I was reinforcing a condition of worth which alters the true self in order to receive positive regard from the teacher, while for the other student I was further disengaging them by sanctioning their behaviour rather than having the time to fully discuss and support them to better themselves and as a by-product their behaviour also. Often as a teacher when dealing with students I would often offer the opportunity for them to make their own choices. This was particularly evident during option evenings where students would be accompanied by their parents. It is a common theme amongst these events that majority of the time the parents and the student’s do not always agree on what subjects to choose, or the student chooses a subject which they have been unknowingly pressured into by wanting to please their parents to satisfy a condition of worth. As Rogers would suggest the external pressure on the person is overbearing on their inner trust to do what they want. This phenomenon Rogers explained through the Locus of Evaluation. Some students with a strong internal locus of evaluation would be confident in choosing the subject that they truly wanted to choose. Often t I observed that students would prefer creative subjects such as Art, Music or Drama. The parents would suggest otherwise opting for what they felt was more appropriate disregarding what the student truly wanted to do. For those students with a strong external locus of evaluation they would succumb to the pressures by those they wanted to please the most, their parents. As an adolescent undertaking the transition from childhood towards adulthood, it can be one of discovery. These discoveries are not always pleasant or hard to come to terms with. The fully functioning person is one who has achieved openness to feelings and experiences and has learned to trust inner urges and intuitions Rogers (1961). Learning to trust these inner feelings is difficult at such a young age. Indeed I would argue adults would struggle with such a concept. According to Rogers, experiences that match the self-image are symbolised (admitted to consciousness) and contribute to gradual changes in the self. Information or feelings inconsistent with the self-image are said to be incongruent. For example it would be incongruent for a student to think of themselves as good at Art when all of their class colleagues keep telling them how poor their work is. Such experiences which are seriously incongruent with the self-image can be threatening. By denying these experiences it prevents the young adult from changing and creates a gap between their inner self image and reality. As a result the incongruent person becomes confused, vulnerable and dissatisfied. The complex social interaction between students during the school day can have a lasting effect on life and academic success. Some students would greatly benefit from support with dealing with the anxieties and pressures of the school day. Counselling into schools is not a new phenomenon. In the review by William Baginsky (2007) he suggested that in 1963 the Newsom Report, looking at education for children in the lower streams of secondary schools, recommended the appointment of school counsellors. In the same year, the National Association for Mental Health held a seminar at which the relationship between schools and counselling was discussed (King, 1999). There followed, from 1965, the establishment of courses at the Universities of Keele and Reading to train people with a minimum of five years’ teaching experience to be school counsellors (Bor et al. , 2002). Such initiatives are very commendable but the person centred counselling approach requires the client to want to change. The client has to want to come for counselling in order to face their anxieties and therein enter the Core Conditions as Rogers explains. Students cannot be forced into counselling in mainstream education. But for some it seems that they would value someone who is prepared to engage with them under the Core Conditions. The following quote is taken directly from a study in a secondary school which demonstrates the need for Person Centred Approach and how suitable it is in this context. ‘Students did want to talk about problems at home but they had no real expectations of staff being able to solve them. On the whole they just needed to air them. (McLaughlin et al. , 1995). In afore mentioned review by William Baginsky his review suggests that Rogers’ Person Centred Model easily lends itself perfectly to the school context because of its understanding of conflict between the ‘real self’ and the ‘self-concept’ and the positive experiences provided for clients through ‘empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard’. This was also the approach adopted by school counsellors of the 1960s and 1970s (McLaughlin, 1999) If teachers were to truly embrace the fundamentals of PCT they would have to face a crisis of their own. A helper who engages with a client under the core conditions of PCT are expected to remain completely impartial. By this I mean that they must not guide the client towards what they feel is the right route. For example when dealing with poor behaviour there should be respect and no judgment, however bad the behaviour, thus separating the person from the bad behaviour Gatongi (2007). Potentially this could lead to a situation where bad behaviour is not sanctioned and consequently send out wrong signals to other students. Not to mention parents and local authorities. It is also interesting to mention Rogers’ view on education. Rogers applied some of the experiences he learned from his work with adults to form a view on the way education should be practised. His humanistic views on education claimed that a person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another’s learning (Rogers, 1951). This is a result of Rogers’ work on Personality Theory. This states that we as human beings exist in a constantly changing world of experience where we are at the centre. Rogers believed that what the student does is more important than what the teacher does, meaning that the individual experiences of the learner is essential to what is learned. The instructor should be open to learning from the students and also working to connect the students to the subject matter. Frequent interaction with the students will help achieve this goal. The instructor’s acceptance of being a mentor who guides rather than the expert who tells is instrumental to student-centred, nonthreatening, and unforced learning. (Rogers 1951). Reflecting on these paragraphs remind me that these are the reason why I initially entered into this profession. I value above all else the relationship between myself as the teacher and the student. In a very similar way in which the relationship between the client and person centred therapist is so crucial to the wellbeing of the client and valued above all else by the therapist. In a dialogue by Haugh and Paul it is discussed that it is accepted beyond doubt that the therapeutic conditions developed by Rogers are important factors in the success of all approaches. Furthermore it is suggested that client motivation is a much more significant predictor of outcome than therapist attitude or use of methods, Cooper (2008). For some clients they feel that the work by Rogers does not offer them the ability to measure progress in terms of their wellbeing or ability to change their behaviour. Cognitive-behavioural therapies for works in schools because its theoretical underpinning and therapeutic process are consistent with what pupils are already familiar with in school in approaches to the handling of ideas and study, Platts and Williamson (2000) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is derived from Aaron Beck’s cognitive model in 1976. This work has been developed to cater for many different situations and conditions. It is the most widely used method of counselling therapy in the National Health Service. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) CBT can help how an individual thinks (cognitive) and what they do (behaviour). Unlike Psychodynamic counselling therapy which focusses on causes of distress in the past, it searches for ways to improve the clients’ state of mind in the present moment. CBT circles around what is described by the RCP as a vicious circle of four elements. The first of these elements is the situation. For some people a simple encounter in a street can trigger off Automatic Negative Thoughts. This leads to the person feeling low, sad and rejected. These feelings can then be manifested through physical pain such as stomach cramps. The final element is the action which is the person becoming more withdrawn and avoiding situations similar to the trigger incident. For some this simplified sequence can lead to depression. Aaron Beck recognised this pattern of events in his studies concerned with depression. Beck’s work claims that emotions are not produced by events but rather by interpretation of events. Through the interpretation of these events our minds begin to build up beliefs about ourselves. Beck found that depressed patients tended to avoid the situations that involved rejection or disapproval Squires (2001). For students this could mean truanting or the avoidance of school altogether. The beliefs that an individual then builds up about themselves can direct behaviour. It can cause an individual to enter an unconditional state of mind where they think of themselves as worthless. This can lead to medical implications which are manifested both physically and mentally. For many school children they are conditioned by culture and the education system that â€Å"I must do well in everything I do, otherwise I will be a failure†. This perception is one that I have witnessed first-hand on the numerous results day with which I have been involved. The tears and anxiety that was evident across the faces of these young adults was in essence my doing as a teacher. I had unwillingly conditioned them to value results above all else and for those who did not achieve I also set them up for a situation where they have to face their academic shortcomings. This situation can be described as a critical incident and is said to activate a dysfunctional belief which then produces negative automatic thoughts. The young adults are then left feeling â€Å"I am a failure, there’s no point doing anything! † This attitude occurs in every lesson. Student’s often lack the resolve to improve their own learning is not down to them not wanting to learn but more the fear of failure and the situation where their own dysfunctional beliefs produces negative thoughts. The frustration of these students is then exhibited through poor behaviour. Research indicates that CBT can be applied to students for whom behaviour is regarded an issue. One of the main strength of CBT is that it is very much lead by the therapist. There is a strict time limit where there are outcomes to be achieved and targets to be met before the next session. This is different to the therapy offered by the work of Carl Rogers which has also been identified as successful in a school context Baginsky (2004). Goals are clearly specified, decisions are made on how to best meet those goals and how to measure progress towards the goals to provide feedback Squires (2001). This approach is beneficial to school as it allows them to measure progress of the students. The progress can be measured through the amount of behaviour referrals one student may face throughout the school day. Bush (1996) suggests that CBT works because it sticks to the point, it is structured and it is focused. The main advantage of CBT is its adaptability to a number of situations. In schools its use is not only concerned with dealing or supporting poor behaviour of students. As the education system is resistant to migrate from the rigid examination process, I believe that CBT would be very useful in helping students to deal with the anxieties and pressures of exams. In such an instance it could be argued that the aim of CBT is to help the child to identify possible cognitive deficits and distortions, to reality-test them, and then to teach new skills or challenge irrational thoughts and beliefs, and replace them with more rational thinking (Kendall 1990). The CBT model is particularly useful as it involves the young adult to: (a) Recognise anxious feelings and bodily reactions to anxiety, (b) it helps to clarify thoughts or the mental process in anxiety provoking situations, (c) it allows the young adult to develop coping skills such as modifying self-anxious talk into coping self-talk (d) it allows to evaluate outcomes. The training methods involve realistic role plays where the client and counsellor are able to model actual life situations. The behavioural treatment is based upon the belief that fear and anxiety are learnt responses, that have been conditioned, and therefore these can be unlearned. CBT has been particularly helpful in helping students to deal with their own behaviour. Teachers would argue that there may be the link (although a weak one) between poor student behaviour and teacher wellbeing Hastings and Bham (2003). As a result school resources are often implemented to correct poor behaviour. There is also numerous research to justify that poor behaviour effects overall academic achievement. Poor academic performance is related to the onset, frequency, persistence, and seriousness of delinquent offending in both boys and girls. Higher academic performance, conversely, is associated with refraining or desisting from offending (Maguin & Loeber, 1996). In one study by squires he states that CBT can be used to support students with behavioural problems. In this research he concluded that with a six hour period of CBT counselling there had been improvements in the student behaviour. The students selected portrayed the necessary anxieties that would benefit from a period of CBT. Although this study is not conclusive it does support the belief that CBT can be used to improve self-control for students with behavioural difficulties. One particular quote from the study I believe demonstrates the benefit of CBT counselling: â€Å"I am able to talk about my feelings†. This for the student was a sign of real progress, which is one of the main advantages of CBT. Despite such quotes out of the 23 students that embarked on the counselling six did not complete the full sessions. This demonstrates that for some CBT is not their preferred type of counselling so it’s not a case of one method suits all. It is worth noting that these students were selected by their teachers rather than volunteering. Overall it can be argued that the research was successful in demonstrating that counselling can have a positive impact on student behaviour. I am certain that if more of the students that I worked with had the access to counselling or the opportunity to chat to members of staff then they may have had more rewarding experience of school. I am not suggesting that staff did not offer their support when students came knocking on the classroom door, but rather that they were not encouraged to do so. Teacher training I believe is in part to blame for this culture. As teachers we have been trained to teach in a very prescriptive manner focusing on the final products which in all cases are exam results. In order to achieve these exam results and avoid any external pressures and inquisitions we develop a routine of lessons which are planned to endure the students is prepared to achieve a target grade in that particular subject. Students are supported in school in order to achieve this singular objective. As a form tutor I valued the pastoral support that I was able to offer to my students. I indeed loved this role enormously as it was a rare opportunity to talk to students about what they wanted and not about what I had to cover in my syllabus. In a very cynic viewpoint, I believe that pastoral support was provided in order to support students to pass their exams and secondly to help with the day to day school life. It has been suggested that the psychological climate of many schools is now more akin to frightened organisations. These organisations live in fear of public punishment which stifles risk-taking despite hard work and the introduction of new initiatives. Watkins (1999) I am aware that for some students Person Centred Therapy may not work while for others they may be more responsive to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. I am confident that counselling has a very important role to play in education. There have been many models of counselling implemented in schools over the last half century. Twelve different models of counselling service provision are mentioned in a review commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Group when reviewing counselling into schools. Of the twelve mentioned I am familiar with three of the models mentioned. The school where I was employed had access to the services provided by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Their support was mainly accessed primarily through referrals from the school although the procedures were not always clear. Form tutors would not always be informed of tutees who would be working with the CAMHS group. Multi agency teams similar to the Behaviour and Education Support Teams also operated in conjunction with the local authority but it was again unclear how a child was referred to these sorts of support schemes. Although the school nurses made themselves known to the students counselling was not always a service that they readily advertised. This lack of awareness of counselling opportunities in my previous school does not seem to be an isolated incident. Indeed this is a recurring pattern, possibly explained by the findings of Welsh Assembly Group’ Review. During their research it became apparent that some school offered very little in terms of counselling. In quite a number of cases the counselling was covered by teaching staff or an external agency. Of the recommendations offered by the review the following statement is one that I can draw comparisons with from my previous experience. The lack of awareness on behalf of the teaching staff and also students made counselling almost a forgotten form of support. â€Å"Information about services must be readily available and informative, and referral systems must be developed that ensure the service is easily accessible to potential clients and their referrers. A school ethos in which counselling is understood as a professional activity and which regards counselling as an important part of its student support services is essential† As a teacher I value above all else the support that I am able to offer the student. Having embarked on this particular module I discovered that my profession required for me to display counselling skills. These were taken for granted that if I was to work with children that I should somehow possess these skills. These personal feelings were echoed before I embarked on my PGCE by researcher where it was claimed that in recent years there has been more concern in schools about cognitive, rather than psychosocial, development Lloyd (1999), I am a firm believer that skills can be taught and I begin to question why I was never offered the opportunity to develop counselling skills during my PGCE or further in my career in CPD sessions. The Welsh Assembly Group allude to budgets and lack of finance as a possible reason as to why these opportunities were never offered in schools. Budget allocations are the responsibility of the headmasters and above all else what they are most concerned with are grades. In the meantime all I can offer a student is guidance and an opportunity to listen to them and to not hijack the conversation or steer it away from their chosen topic. So therefore it would be foolish of me to expect sudden changes once I return to secondary teaching. Indeed I do not expect to see school counsellors in whichever school I will teach in. As with many education innovations it seems that there are pioneers full of good intention but lacking the support and strategies to get them to the Promised Land Robinson (1995) References Baginsky, M. (2004). Peer support: expectations and realities. Pastoral Care in Education, 22 1: 3-9. Baginsky, W. (2004): School Counselling in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: A Review: NSPCC Information Briefings Beck, A. T. (1976) Cognitive Therapy and Emotional Disorders. New York: New American Library Bor R. , Ebner-Landy J. , Gill S and Brace C (2002) Counselling in schools. London: Sage Publications. Bush, J. W. (1996). CBT—The Therapy Most Likely to Reward Your Hopes for a Better Life http://www. cognitivetherapy. com/ last accessed 21. 02. 2012 Cooper M, (2008) Essential research findings in counselling and psychotherapy: The facts are friendly. London: Sage. 2008: 307-390 Gatongi. F(2007) : Person-centred approach in schools: Is it the answer to disruptive behaviour in our classrooms? Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 20:2,pp 205-211 Hamblin D (1974) The teacher and counselling. Oxford: Blackwell. Hastings, R. , P. & Bham M, (2003) The Relationship between Student Behaviour Patterns and Teacher Burnout School Psychology International 2003 24:1pp 115-126 Kendall P, C. , (1996) Long-term follow -up of a cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety-disordered youth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology; 64:7 pp24–30 King G (1999) Counselling skills for teachers: talking matters. Buckingham: Open University Press. Lang P (1999) Counselling, counselling skills and encouraging pupils to talk: clarifying and addressing confusion. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 27:1 pp 23-33. Lloyd G (1999) Ethical and supervision issues in the use of counselling and other helping skills with children and young people in school. Pastoral Care September 1999 Maguin, E. , & Loeber, R. (1996). Academic performance and delinquency. In M. Tonry (Ed. ), Crime and justice: A review of research (Vol. 20, pp. 145-264). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Marsick, J. , V. ,Watkins, E. , K. , (1999) â€Å"Looking again at learning in the learning organization: a tool that can turn into a weapon! â€Å", The Learning Organisation, 6: 5, pp. 207 – 211 McLaughlin, C (1999) Counselling in schools: looking back and looking forward. British Journal of Counselling and Guidance 27:1 pp 13-22. Mosley, J (1993) Is there a place for counselling in schools? Counselling May 1993 pp 104-105. Platts J and Williamson Y (2000) The use of cognitive-behavioural therapy for counselling in schools. In N Barwick Clinical counselling in schools. London: Routledge. Robinson B D (1996) School counsellors in England and Wales, 1965-1995; a flawed innovation? Pastoral Care in Education 14:3 pp 12-19. Robson M, Cohen N and McGuiness J (1999) Counselling, careers education and pastoral care: beyond the National Curriculum. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 27:1 pp 5-11. Rogers, C. (1942). Counseling and psychotherapy. Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Rogers, C. (1951). Client Centred Therapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Rogers, C (1961) On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Squires G (2001) Using cognitive behavioural psychology with groups of pupils to improve self-control of behaviour. Educational Psychology in Practice 17:4 pp 317-327. Trower, P. Casey, A. Dryden, W. (1999) Cognitive-Behavioural Counselling in Action. London: Sage.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Modern Tragedy

Modern Tragedy Tragedy is a type of drama or literature that shows the downfall or destruction of a noble or outstanding person (Miller 222). Such a character is one who possesses a character weakness known as a tragic flaw (Thompson and Bowler 934). The authors present Macbeth, for example, a brave and noble figure whose downfall is attributable to ambition. After a prediction is made that he will one day become king, Macbeth plots to murder Duncan with the consent of his wife.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Modern Tragedy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More He kills the guards who discover Duncan’s body and becomes king. Unfortunately, the ghost of Banquo eats at Lady Macbeth’s conscience until she commits suicide. Finally, Macduff who had discovered Duncan’s body kills Macbeth and becomes king. Thompson and Bowler point out that the tragic hero, through â€Å"choice or circumstance, is caught up in a series o f events that result in an inevitable disaster† (936). In such a disaster, Aristotle observed that the audience experiences emotional cleansing after identifying with what the protagonist like Macbeth goes through. In Oedipus Rex, ill-fated Oedipus kills his father and engages his mother in an incestuous relationship (Thompson and Bowler 944). Tragedy has undergone development just like other literary genres. An analysis of trends in tragedy from the time of Sophocles and Euripides to modern times is therefore important. Aristotle conceived tragedy as the imitation of imperfect men, written dramatically and aimed at arousing pity and fear in the audience so as to purge their emotions (Miller 235). His definition must have been made with the plays of Euripides and Sophocles in mind, since those plays featured men of noble but imperfect character. As far as form was concerned, Greek tragedy had what he called â€Å"language made beautiful in different ways† (Miller 238), specifically by rendering it poetically and dramatically. Tragedy underwent a remarkable transformation through the ages. As seen above, tragedy originally revolved around the case of man who fell from happiness to misery, usually to death due to an error. Through time, the determining factor and consequences of such errors evolved remarkably (Montague and Henshlaw 230). Montague and Henshlaw demonstrate this change by noting that modern tragedy for instance, moved away from errors to evil acts as determinants of protagonist’s predicaments (389). Modern tragedy, the authors note, depicts middle and lower class protagonists unlike the nobility of ancient times; protagonists are victims of modern society and do not have errors in judgement and most importantly the tragedy is based on issues of â€Å"domestic and private nature† (Montague and Henshlaw 399).Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Shakespeare’s plays for instance, feature ghosts and graveyards while later ones like Henrick Ibsen’s Doll’s House depicts an ordinary housewife whose husband makes her disillusioned since he looks down upon her (Montague and Henshlaw 402). Further development took place on the side of delivery. Ancient tragedies were enacted in front of audiences, replete with masked men and choruses who narrated all actions. Modern tragedy on the other hand found its way in prose and poetry (Miller 436). Verse has therefore given place to prose. It can be argued that modern tragedy does not spring from beliefs that are universally held but usually arises from social or personal conditions which vary from society to society. It need not end in death like the ancient Greek, Roman and English ones, but any downfall resulting from the struggle between the individual and some unalterable conditions of life. Montague and Henshlaw point that tragedy, in its purest Aristotelian sense has suffered from the advent of Christianity and growth of scientific knowledge. This could explain the absence of features such as oracles and ghosts in modern tragedy (241). Thus, it is not to be misconstrued to mean that writers, since Aristotle, have not been writing tragedy; it is what they have been writing that deviates from traditional versions. That is why the form of ancient tragedy could not be retained; it keeps evolving. Miller, Jordan. The Heath Introduction to Drama. Toronto: D.C. Heath Company, 1992. Print. Montague, Gene and Henshlaw Marjorie. The Experiences of Literature. Engelwood Cliff, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1990. Print. Thompson, Eileen and Ellen Bowler. Eds. Prentice Hall Literature. London: International Learning systems Corporation ltd. Print.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Modern Tragedy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Make The Enter Key Work Like Tab in Delphi Applications

Make The Enter Key Work Like Tab in Delphi Applications We know that, generally, pressing the Tab key moves the input focus to next control and Shift-Tab to previous in the tab order of the form. When working with Windows applications, some users intuitively expect the Enter key to behave like a Tab key. There is a lot of third-party code for implementing better data entry processing in Delphi. Here are a few of the best methods out there (with some modifications). Examples below are written with the assumption that there is no default button on the form. When your form contains a button whose Default property is set to True, pressing Enter at runtime executes any code contained in the buttons OnClick event handler. Enter as Tab The next code causes Enter to behave like Tab, and ShiftEnter like ShiftTab: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~procedure TForm1.Edit1KeyPress (Sender: TObject; var Key: Char) ;begin  Ã‚   If Key #13 Then Begin  Ã‚  Ã‚   If HiWord(GetKeyState(VK_SHIFT)) 0 then  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SelectNext(Sender as TWinControl,False,True)  Ã‚  Ã‚   else  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SelectNext(Sender as TWinControl,True,True) ;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Key : #0  Ã‚   end;end;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ in DBGrid If you want to have similar Enter (ShiftEnter) processing in DBGrid: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~procedure TForm1.DBGrid1KeyPress (Sender: TObject; var Key: Char) ;begin  Ã‚   If Key #13 Then Begin  Ã‚  Ã‚   If HiWord(GetKeyState(VK_SHIFT)) 0 then begin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   with (Sender as TDBGrid) do  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   if selectedindex 0 then  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   selectedindex : selectedindex - 1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   else begin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   DataSource.DataSet.Prior;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   selectedindex : fieldcount - 1;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   end;  Ã‚  Ã‚   end else begin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   with (Sender as TDBGrid) do  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   if selectedindex (fieldcount - 1) then  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   selectedindex : selectedindex 1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   else begin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   DataSource.DataSet.Next;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   selectedindex : 0;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   end;  Ã‚   end;  Ã‚   Key : #0  Ã‚   end;end;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More Info on Delphi Applications Keyboard Symphony  Get familiar with the OnKeyDown, OnKeyUp, and onKeyPress event procedures to respond to various key actions or handle and process ASCII characters along with other special purpose keys. What Does #13#10 Stand for, in Delphi Code?  If you are wondering what those characters stand for, heres the answer.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

CONTEMPORARY CASES IN PUBLIC POLICY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

CONTEMPORARY CASES IN PUBLIC POLICY - Essay Example In its literal sense, civic engagement is the basic right given to the citizens to utilize public resources, participate in determination of the policies which will help them in seeking for the betterment of the society and helps in reforming or replacing institutions which are unable to perform effectively and efficiently. Civic engagement is integrated with having an essential relationship with the concept of public policy due to its focus on elaboration of state and governmental policies (Reuben, 2003). It interlinks all the values, skills, ideas, beliefs, concepts and attitudes which a population holds within a state and helps in the potential formation of broad cultural, social, and economic identities within a state. It is a fact that within a democratic society, citizens form the core representation of a democratic society. Application of civic engagement and community can only be found within programs which can help in implementation of various essential areas of a state†™s consistent development. Social and community collaboration involves democratic roles where individuals of various interests and ambitions can act together for discussing their concern about various issues and can help them in giving them a chance for making changes to things which they deem to be crucial. Such moves can prove to be a source of inspirations and thought provoking ideas which include neighborhood associations, school, colleges and universities where citizens can find relevant information for their community and also create a place where they can feel their voices are being heard and they can be given an opportunity for providing their own input regarding crucial governmental decisions which are of utmost interest of the public. Engagement in public discussions that is able to clarify necessities as well as certain changes which need to be made on a regular basis. Political involvement is another vey key issue which may need to be