Do Non

Non-human creatures do not have rights. A right gets defined as a valid claim that must come from a moral agent, under laws that direct both the claimant and defendants (Cohen 91). Animals cannot be said to have rights since the idea of rights is inherently human, and its foundations relate to the concept of a moral world.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Do Non-Human Animals Have Rights? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Humans must deal with animals in a fair way, similar to how a chair cannot be said to have a dream. Besides, saying that animals have rights confuses groupings as this places them in a moral group that is only relevant to human beings. Again, animals do not have rights as God made them subordinate to human beings. This notion gets support from the Bible. In the time of creation, man became created last while other animals became created earlier. God then gave men control over all other creatures ( Regan par. 34). We can interpret this to mean that human beings have rights over animals. We can also argue that animals do not have rights, similar to human beings, because their moral stance is totally different. Contrary to the way animals feed on each other human beings behave differently. A lion may kill a zebra and no one will say that the lion does not have the right to kill the zebra, because this is how it obtains its food. This demonstrates that rights represent the greatest moral result. Besides, animals such as lions and zebras are amoral, which means that morality does not apply to them, and their acts can never be termed as wrong. Thus, no rights exist in the world of animals. While it is vital for researchers to practice humanity when handling animals, we cannot say that human beings violate their rights, since the idea of rights is not relevant to their situations. For instance, Nazi doctors used the Jews as subjects to advance their research in medicine some years a go. It is clear that this was not a moral approach as the Jews had rights that required respect. Several people think that animals have rights similar to those of the Jews, which involve protection against participation in medical research. While these people consider animals to have rights, they fail to remember that human beings also have rights that surpass those of animals.Advertising Looking for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For instance, the United States reported over 50,000 polio related cases and almost 3, 000 polio related deaths in 1952 (Cohen 92). People became frightened due to this ailment, and the government called for polio vaccination among all citizens two years later. Presently, cases of polio are rare. What we need to remember here is that the polio vaccine could only be established through experimentation with animals. Malaria is also a killer disease that most researchers think that sho uld have a vaccine. While several vaccines have undergone investigation, none of them has emerged successful after trial with animals. This raises the ethical question on whether we need to protect children or animals. Medical experiments may have adverse effects when carried out using human beings, considering that they are only trials. Using children to test vaccine is awkward and results in death. Thus, we use rats and monkeys as this is the only available option. Vaccines must undergo tests, and such tests could be extremely dangerous when carried out using human beings as subjects. Thus, we do not have any other way of testing these vaccines apart from using animals. Defenders of human rights insist that animals have rights just like human children. These defenders term the act of medical scientists as morally wrong. However, they fail to recognize that unless animals get killed, medical scientists cannot advance most significant areas in medicine (Frey 97). Also, defenders of animal rights fail to recognize that animals do not have moral duties, similar to human beings. While we may consider some acts of human beings as crimes, this does not apply to animals. This is because criminal acts become determined by the moral state of mind of the offender. Similar to how an insane person cannot be said to have committed a crime, cows and rats cannot be said to commit crimes. This is because all these do not recognize moral duties that guide behaviors or consequences that follow certain actions.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Do Non-Human Animals Have Rights? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In other words, animals cannot be incriminated as they do not have a moral state of mind that could be violated by other humans. Besides, animals do not have free will, which all moral agents must have. This becomes explained by the fact that they do not have control over their pathological impulses, wh ich makes them lack control over their actions. Hence, animals are not moral agents, and human beings do not have direct duties towards animals because they can only have such duties towards moral agents. This supports the thesis of this study that non-human creatures do not have rights. Works Cited Cohen, Carl. â€Å"Do Animals Have Rights?† Ethics and Behaviour. 7.2 (1997): 91-102. Web. Frey, Reagan. â€Å"Interests and Rights: The Case against Animals.† Journal of Medical Ethics. 7.2 (1981): 95–102. Web. Regan, Tom. Christianity and Animal Rights: The Challenge and Promise. n.d. Web. http://www.religion-online.org/article/christianity-and-animal-rights-the-challenge-and-promise/. This essay on Do Non-Human Animals Have Rights? was written and submitted by user Harrison I. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Understanding the Flynn Effect and Why It Happens

Understanding the Flynn Effect and Why It Happens You’ve probably heard someone lament the state of â€Å"kids today†: that current generations aren’t as smart as the ones that came before them. However, psychologists who study intelligence have found that there isn’t much support for this idea; instead, the opposite may actually be true. Researchers studying the Flynn effect have found that scores on IQ tests have actually improved over time. Below, we’ll review what the Flynn effect is, some possible explanations for it, and what it tells us about human intelligence. What Is the Flynn effect? The Flynn effect, first described  in the 1980s by researcher James Flynn, refers to the finding that scores on IQ tests have increased in the past century.  Researchers studying this effect have found wide support for this phenomenon. One research paper, published by psychologist Lisa Trahan and her colleagues, combined the results of other published studies (which included a total of over 14,000 participants) and found that IQ scores have indeed increased since the 1950s. Although researchers have documented some exceptions, IQ scores have generally increased over time. Trahan and her colleagues observed, â€Å"The existence of the Flynn effect is rarely disputed.† Why Does the Flynn Effect Happen? Researchers have put forward several theories to explain the Flynn effect. One explanation has to do with improvements in health and nutrition. For example, the past century has seen a decrease in  smoking and alcohol use in pregnancy, discontinuation of the use of harmful lead paint, improvements in the prevention and treatment of  infectious diseases, and improvements in nutrition. As Scott Barry Kaufman writes for Psychology Today, â€Å"The Flynn effect serves as a reminder that when we give people more opportunities to prosper, more people do prosper.† In other words, the Flynn effect could be partially due to the fact that, over the twentieth century, we’ve started addressing many of the public health issues that prevented people in earlier generations from reaching their full potential. Another explanation for the Flynn effect has to do with societal changes that have occurred in the past century as a result of the Industrial Revolution. In a TED talk, Flynn explains that the world today is â€Å"a world where weve had to develop new mental habits, new habits of mind.† Flynn has found that IQ scores have increased the most rapidly on questions that ask us to find similarities between different things, and more abstract types of problem solving - both of which are things that we need to do more of in the modern world. Several ideas have been put forward to explain why modern society might lead to higher scores on IQ tests. For example, today, many more of us have demanding, intellectually rigorous jobs. Schools have also changed: whereas a test at school in the early 1900s might have been more focused on memorization, a recent test might be more likely to focus on explaining the reasons for something. Additionally, more people today are likely to finish high school and go on to college. Family sizes tend to be smaller, and it has been suggested that this may allow children to pick up on new vocabulary words while interacting with their parents. It’s even been suggested that the entertainment we consume is more complex today. Trying to understand and anticipate plot points in a favorite book or TV drama may actually be making us smarter. What Can We Learn From Studying the Flynn Effect? The Flynn effect tells us that the human mind is much more adaptable and malleable than we might have thought. It seems that some of our thinking patterns aren’t necessarily innate, but rather things that we learn from our environment.  When exposed to modern industrial society, we think about the world in different ways than our ancestors did. When discussing the Flynn effect in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell writes, â€Å"If whatever the thing is that I.Q. tests measure can jump so much in a generation, it can’t be all that immutable and it doesn’t look all that innate.† In other words, the Flynn effect tells us that IQ may not actually be what we think it is: instead of being a measure of natural, unlearned  intelligence, it’s something that can be shaped by the education we receive and the society we live in. References: Flynn, J. (2013, March). Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/james_flynn_why_our_iq_levels_are_higher_than_our_grandparentsGambino, M. (2012, December 3). Are you smarter than your grandfather? Probably not. Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/are-you-smarter-than-your-grandfather-probably-not-150402883/Gladwell, M. (2007, December 17). None of the above. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/17/none-of-the-aboveKaufman, S.B. (2010, August 23). The Flynn effect and IQ disparities among races, ethnicities, and nations: Are there common links? Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beautiful-minds/201008/the-flynn-effect-and-iq-disparities-among-races-ethnicities-and-nationsLehrer, J. (2011, August 2). Are smart people getting smarter? Wired. https://www.wired.com/2011/08/are-smart-people-getting-smarter/Trahan, L. H., Stuebing, K. K., Fletcher, J. M., Hiscock, M. (2014). The Flynn effect: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(5), 1332-1360. doi:10.1037/a0037173. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4152423/ Winerman, L. (2013, March). Smarter than ever? Monitor on Psychology, 44(3), 30. apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx

Creatine essays

Creatine essays In the last few years there has been an increase in the popularity of mono-hydrate supplements that are used by athletes. Some of the most popular of these supplements are creatine and androstenedione. They are used by some very famous athletes in professional sports. There are many problems that go along with using these supplements that are serious health-wise issues. Athletes today are not thinking of what kind effects will happen to them in the long run, when using creatine substances. They are looking for easier ways of training and enhancing their performance. They are under a lot of pressure to succeed and win all the time that it must be easier to find a short cut for gaining quick strength and a little bit of speed increase. In this paper I will tell you some of the risks that these supplements bring on you. Also I will give an overview of what both creatine and androstenedione. are. For as long as I can remember I have been involved in athletics. Being involved in hig h school basketball made me go through some tough training and conditioning. I have never had the help of any type of artificial supplement or performance-enhancing drug helping me condition or build muscles faster. However, I found out that there was couple people who were taking these supplements such as creatine and androstenedione. and getting pretty strong very fast. Creatine seemed to work good, so seeing this made me curious about what exactly creatine did to you, what the effects they had on athletes, and if they were illegal. I found out that some really famous athletes had used them. I wondered if they were safe to use and if they had any side effects. In searching on this topic of mono-hydrate supplements and performance-enhancing drugs, I had couple views about about their use by athletes. After my research was completed I have a opinion that these supplements should be banned from athletics all together. I had a couple of questions during my ...

How to Write a Marketing Resume That Will Help Land Your Dream Job

How to Write a Marketing Resume That Will Help Land Your Dream Job Writing a marketing resume isn’t easy. If you consider yourself a writer by trade, that sentiment might feel ironic. But, it’s true. Summarizing your history and skills in one page is tough, especially when your future career prospects hang in the balance. No pressure or anything, though. Fortunately, it’s a skill you can develop. This post is geared toward the following folks: College students and recent graduates looking for internships and entry-level jobs. Experienced marketers applying for their next opportunity. Marketing managers and HR professionals researching what to look for when hiring various marketing roles. Get ready to learn more about resuming writing than you might have thought you need to know. How to Write a Marketing Resume That Will Help Land Your Dream Job by @Ben_via Table of Contents: A Story Free Marketing Resume Template Are Resumes Still Important? What Makes Getting Yours Noticed So Difficult? What Does An Effective Resume Look Like? Planning Your Resume Formatting Your Resume Writing Your Resume Writing a Content Strategy Resume Writing a Social Media Marketing Resume Writing a Marketing Manager Resume Writing a Copywriting Resume Writing a Product Marketing Resume Writing a Public Relations Specialist Resume Writing an SEO Specialist Resume Writing a Marketing Project Manager Resume Writing a Paid Search/Social Resume Consider Creative Resume FormatsBut First, A Story †¦ When I was in college, I was worried I wouldn’t find an internship, nor a full-time job following that. The economy was down and prospects were slim, so getting a foot in the door didn’t look particularly easy. I had also never written a resume before, and given the circumstances, I knew mine needed to be good. Fortunately, I did have some relevant experience built up from working at the student newspaper, tutoring, and various freelance gigs. After doing extensive research online, I did my best to put one together would convince a hiring manager I deserved an opportunity. In order to make sure my efforts were up to par, I made an appointment at the university career center for a resume review. I thought they’d tear it apart, tell me everything that needed fixing, and send me on my way, ready to spend more time polishing it up. Instead, something else happened. After reading through my cover letter and resume, the student advisor looked up and said, â€Å"This looks really good. In fact, we’re going to use this as an example for other students to follow. Nice work!† That wasn’t the response I expected, but I was glad to take it. This is a 100% true story, and I’m not sharing it to boast, either. Instead, Im sharing this experience to show that  getting the job you want in this industry is an attainable goal. And it all starts with your resume. Steal My Marketing Resume Template Since then, I’ve used roughly the same template for every job I’ve applied for. It’s gotten me several internships, and all three of my full-time jobs in the industry (in ecommerce, at a mid-sized agency, and now at ). There’s nothing fancy about it, but it’s clean, clear, and it works. I’ve also adjusted it slightly to better fit different needs and experience levels. Here’s everything the bundle includes (each one is included in both Microsoft Word and iWork Pages formats): Marketing Internship Resume Template Entry-Level Marketing Resume Template (Less Than 2 Years Experience) General Marketing Resume Template (2+ Years Experience) Marketing Manager Resume Template (8+ Years Experience) Download the whole bundle now. Itll help you save time on formatting, so all you need to do is fill it in. Job hunting for your next marketing opportunity? Snag these free #marketing resume templates: Are Resumes Still Important? In a word, yes. While LinkedIn is a vital tool for demonstrating your skills and expertise, hiring managers still typically want to see a resume. It’s a big part of making a good first impression, so it’s important to get yours right. What Makes Getting Your Resume Noticed So Difficult? Hiring managers often have too many to look at. Most of the time, it really is that simple. According to Time, that’s why the average resume only gets looked at for six seconds. In order to stand out, you have to make yours look exceptional. Avoiding Resume Mistakes There is nothing worse than sinking hours into the perfect job application, only to have your efforts undone by unforced errors, like typos (this is especially important for marketers and writing-based roles). From not catching spelling errors to failing to tailor your resume to the role you’re applying for, Thomas Frank  does an excellent job of summarizing what not to do in this video: What Does an Effective Resume Look Like? It’s easier to replicate success when you have an example to follow. This template is closely based on one I created myself in college, and have used for the past decade. It’s clean and simple, but it has worked well in my experience: Here's how to write and format an effective #marketing resumeLater, toward the end of this post, you’ll also see examples from around the web, tailored toward specific marketing disciplines. Depending on the type of role you’re applying for, the format might need to change slightly, or highlight different types of skills. Planning Your Resume Before you start writing, it’s a good idea to prepare all the information you’ll need. You’ll need to round up previous work-related experience, contact references, summarize your strengths, and more. Know Who Will Be Reading Your Resume Every resume you send should be tailored toward the job you’re applying for. Generally, it’s a good idea to create one generic resume that you can adjust depending on the company or role you’re targeting. This doesn’t have to be rocket science. Start with these tips: Read the company’s website. This will give you an idea what they’re like. Research the company. What can you find out about them from news articles, blogs, or other third-party sources? Give their front desk a call or send an email. When it comes time to write a cover letter, it helps to address it to the right person. Find out who that is by making a quick inquiry (if that information isn’t easily available on a job listing). Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create Content That Connects Assess Your Strengths Know what sets you apart as a candidate. Everyone is unique and possesses individual talents. Understanding them can help guide your career by emphasizing what you’re best at. If you haven’t before, it’s worth taking the StrengthsFinder self-assessment test. It’s a book that comes with a code you can use to login to a web-based survey that will help you better understand your strong points. This short video summarizes how it works: The marketing teams at recently took this test. Here’s what I learned: Having strengths in things like learning, ideation, and strategy are extremely useful for creating educational marketing content. Makes sense, right? I just wish I would have taken it sooner. Recommended Reading: How to Structure Modern Marketing Departments for Success Round Up References and Employment History If you’re new in your career, this may be a challenge if you don’t have much experience to lean on. When you submit a resume, include references on a separate sheet. Include the following information for each person: Name Company Job Title Phone Number Email Address Make sure you have permission to list each person on your application, so they aren’t surprised to get a phone call about you. Using people as references without permission is a major faux pas. Location. Location. Location. This step matters most if you’re applying for a job in another state or city, and will need to relocate. There are varying schools of thought on this, but this post will argue it’s best to be honest. Consider the following: If the job is within a commutable distance, use your own address. If you’d need to travel a longer distance for an interview, state that in your cover letter. If you can, consider using a friend or relative’s address in the city. Formatting Your Resume So, what should this thing look like? It’s an important question, and there are a handful of minor tweaks you can implement to improve formatting. Step 1. Pay Attention to Font Choices There are two types of fonts to pay attention to here: serif  and sans-serif. The graphic below illustrates the differences between the two: Source: Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-serif-and-sans-serif-typefaces There are key differences between serif and sans-serif fonts, and how they affect readability: According to Harshita Arora, sans-serif fonts offer a slight boost in readability. That’s why I used a sans-serif font on mine. Too many fonts is considered a negative for readability. Again, mine only uses one font (just in different formatting and sizing here and there). Using serif fonts isn’t going to ruin your resume if you’d really like to use them. You’ll probably still get hired. But, for ease of reading and skimming, limit yourself to two fonts, and lean toward sans-serif. Recommended Reading: How to Work With Designers With Authentic Advice From 's Designer Step 2: Consider Narrower Margins for Wider Sentence Length Resumes need to include a lot of information in very little space (ideally, within one page). One way to squeeze in more detail about yourself while retaining a clean look is to use narrow margins. This helps you fit more text per line. If you’re using Microsoft Word, you can easily set wider margins by clicking on the Layout tab: Next, click Margins. Then, select Narrow: This is how the template included in this post sets its margins. Step 4: Use Bold Text Selectively Bolded text can help important elements of your resume stand out. Consider bolding items such as: Your college and major/minor. Previous companies and job titles. That’s about it. Too much bolding can easily look obnoxious. Writing Your Resume You’re finally ready to start doing some actual writing. Here’s how to make sure you nail it. Step 1: Put Your Contact Information at the Top A hiring manager will need to know the best way to contact you, and where to find more information about yourself and qualifications. Make their job easier by including each of these items: Name: Include your full name. Street Address: See the previous tip on location. Email Address: Use something that sounds professional. yourname@gmail.com  looks better than party_guy_2000@yahoo.com  or something else embarrassing. Twitter Bio: This is considered essential for a good number of marketing jobs. Only share it here if you tweet about topics relevant to marketing, or the company’s industry where you’re applying. Portfolio: If you have an online portfolio, add a link here. You can also replace this with a blog or personal website URL, if it’s relevant to marketing. Some of this information is obvious. Other things like Twitter bios and portfolios, though, can be small enhancements that help you stick out as a candidate (as long as your social media presence is relevant and your portfolio is up to par). #Marketing #resume tip: include your contact information (along with your Twitter handle and...Step 2: Next, Include Your Education History In most cases, this will mean your college or university. Only list your high school if you didn’t attend college (no judgment hereI know people who have done well in digital marketing without attending or going into post-secondary education). Include the following: The type of degree you received: This means a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS), Master of Arts (MA) or Master of Science (MS, or an Associates (AA). Your major and minor: This may be formatted differently depending on the details of your degree programs. For example, my degree was in Mass Communications, with an Emphasis in Print Journalism and Public Relations. Next, list your college:  Also include the month and year you graduated (or plan to graduate). A word about grade-point averages: in my experience, most marketing hiring managers don’t prioritize them. While high academic achievement reflects well on your work ethic, it’s your skills that are going to get you hired. So, should you bother listing your GPA? If your GPA is particularly strong, or you earned academic honors, then include them. Plus, if you’re in college and applying for a highly competitive internship, an employer may set a GPA threshold for applicants. If your grades weren’t great, you’re not doomed, as long as your portfolio demonstrates talent. Recommended Reading: How to Create an Awesome Online Course By Repurposing Old Content Step 3: List Professional Awards If you’re active in your community, or have a little bit of work-related experience, you may have been recognized for your efforts. Some examples might include: Academic honors for high-performing marketing students. Awards from professional or student organizations. Business and civic associations. Even if its not directly related to marketing, any sort of educational, business, or professional development awards you’ve earned are great ways to help you stand out. Step 4: Include Previous Speaking Engagements If you get the opportunity to speak at an industry event, take advantage of it. It’s a great way to share your knowledge, and you often learn more about your topic by trying to explain it to others. They also show a willingness to volunteer your time to help others, and indicate a high level of competency in the field. Don’t have anything to put here? No worries. Just consider this tip something to think about. Have you spoken at an industry event? Include details on your resume.Step 5: Lay Out Your Most Relevant Technical Skills Once the general â€Å"about yourself† content is completed, it’s time to get down to your capabilities. If you’ve gone through college, have some work experience, or have a relevant side hustle, then you have some skills. However, it’s important to prioritize the ones that are most relevant to the job you’re applying for, and the ones where you’re most proficient. Here are some examples of skills you might need: Writing. Research. Proficiency with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. SEO. Data analysis. Branding. Campaign strategy. HTML/CSS. Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) This is a general list, but you get the idea. The specific skills you might need to develop or highlight will depend on the specific type of role you’re applying for as well, which this post will cover later on. Now, what if you’re making a career change and don’t have what you think is relevant experience? In that case, it’s time to get creative, and determine how your existing skill set might transfer. Here are some examples: Are you a skilled researcher? Has your past work experience required a heavy amount of writing or design? Do you know how to analyze data and extract meaningful insights from it? Is project management and organized teams an area of strength for you? Recommended Reading: The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful in 2018 Step 6: List Your Professional Experience Here, start with your most recent relevant job position. Then, work your way backward chronologically. If you have too many to list, or if you’re applying for a senior role where you have lots of experience (say, maybe 10 years or more), then consider adding a second page to your resume. Otherwise, choose other areas to trim down, or include just your top three or four jobs. Be sure to include: Company. Job Title. Employment Dates. Once you have the basic information out of the way, add your responsibilities and accomplishments. While a hiring manager will want to know what you had on your plate at a past job, they’ll be more impressed with what you actually achieved. So, make your experience stand out by doing this: Make it clear how your work positively impacted the business. Use statistics. â€Å"Increased traffic by 75% and conversions by 8%† sounds better than â€Å"Increased traffic and conversions.† Illustrate times where you’ve shown initiative. Maybe there was a problem you solved, or a major win you scored for the company without being asked.

Women status in islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Women status in islam - Essay Example But this status is not enough for the modern world. Before the advent of Islam, women were treated in a derogatory manner. They were considered mainly as possessions that could be transferred from father to son as inheritance. There was also a prevalent custom where women were burned alive as infants since every family wanted a man rather than a woman. With the emergence of Islam, women got an improved status within the society and thus practices were severely looked down upon. Women were no longer considered as possessions but rather as partners in a marriage. Islam ensured the women were treated with due respect and kindness. In this regard, Prophet (PBUH) is reported to have said: The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on various occasions highlighted on the status of women. He preached that Muslim men should treat their women with respect and kindness. His attitude towards his wife is a testimony of his preaching. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) married various time for different reasons and in every case, he treated his wives very kindly. None of his wives ever used a negative comment regarding the Prophet (PBUH) and always referred to him the most praiseworthy manner. Before embarking on the argument of equality between men and women, it should be understood that equality does not mean that these genders should be considered same. They lie of different ends of the spectrum and thus both these genders have their own status. Islam has not made men superior over women; it just provides a clear distinction of the role of the men and women. While men are the breadwinners of the household, women are required to look after the household. The equality between men and women can be judged from a quote that Holy Prophet (PBUH) is reported to have said: ‘All people are equal, as the teeth of a comb. There is no claim of merit of an Arab and non-Arab, or a white over a black person or a male over a

DB Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DB Assignment - Essay Example The medical staff must be vigilant in providing both medical and nursing services being careful not compromising the patients dignity through deliberately ignoring the patients information and by extension causing harm to the patient Medical malpractice entails failure to provide care as stipulated by the codes of professional ethics in both nursing and medicine. For example, Rob Burton who was a basketball coach developed severe abdominal pain after his training session. He sought medical care at Norton Brownsboro Hospital; a nurse who did not carefully to obtain relevant subjective information regarding his pain attended to him. She did not get detailed information on the nature of illness leading to a misdiagnosis. Evoking a complete patient history through questioning and active listening in most cases saves time alongside offering critical clues to the diagnosis. Rob was given some oral antibiotics as treatment to his pain that proved ineffective; he was later admitted in the same hospital with acute diverticulitis that was approaching its fatal stage. He underwent an emergency surgery to prevent further complications of the condition. He was found with a perforated bowel and it was compulsory that a colost omy bag was to be fixed to aid egestion. Rob took this act of misdiagnosis as a form of negligence and sued the hospital for not according him the required care. It was considered a case of medical malpractice since the nurse did not take his case seriously and she did communicate as a team. Burton believes had his complain of abdominal pain been treated with seriousness he would not have undergone the surgery that left him uncomfortable with the colostomy bag. The fault lies with the nurse not communicating the patients complain as well as not considering patients complain as crucial in providing care. In treating dizzy patients, 90% of the cases are treated

Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department Dissertation

Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department - Dissertation Example The paper "Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department" talks about the lateral violence as an act of violence against ones’ peers and focuses on lateral violence in the Emergency Departments in the US healthcare system. The lateral violence has increased the prevalence of mental health conditions such as depression and schizophrenia among clinical nurses (Kathryn, 2011). When nurses are not happy their motivation and job satisfaction decrease. Eventually, these lead to higher employee turnover rates which increase the healthcare institution’s expenses and a shortage of staff. Most importantly, lateral violence among nurses has compromised the quality of healthcare service by reducing the levels of optimal patient care. Lateral violence has especially been identified as more prevalent among nurses working in Emergency Departments. There are cases where a nurse has noted an error in medication administered by a fellow nurse but because of lateral violence within that se tting that nurse fails to report this error, may be due to fear or revenge, this later leads to aggravated conditions for the patients. Many patients have experienced a relapse in their conditions because one nurse refused to help another nurse claiming to be too busy when their help was needed or sought. Most of the decisions and medications nurses in ED make determine whether a patient lives or dies. It is, therefore, crucial that the incidences of lateral violence between nurses working in the ED be kept at their minimum.

Unemployment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Unemployment - Research Paper Example In a country where the economy is continuously growing, the standards of living keep on improving, infrastructural development is experienced and the level of crime is low.In this report, the researcher will attempt to analyze and explain the reasons and effects of unemployment and inflation, advantages and disadvantages of the current fiscal and monetary policy, effectiveness of various economic reforms and effects of the balance of payments on exchange rates with respect to the Nigerian economy. Rural urban migration- This happens when people in the rural areas move to urban areas in search of employment.Henryexplains the rural-urban migration in terms of push - pull factors (34). The push factors include the pressure resulting from a rising man-land ratio in the rural areas and the existence of underemployment from seasonal cycle of the lack of infrastructure activities that make the rural life unattractive. He links rural-urban migration to the unattractiveness of rural life because of lack of basic amenities. When youths move to the urban areas in search of lucrative employment, there is concentration of social amenities that leads to neglecting of rural areas in the allocation of social and economic opportunities. Rapid population growth- The 2006 census in Nigeria put the populationat 140,431,791 people making it the most populous country in Africa. According to the CIA Worldfact book, the population growth rate of Nigeria was 2.54% in 2013. If the current growth rate continues, the population could reach 170million by year 2020. Rapid population growth leads to rapid growth of labor, increase in supply of jobs which the economy is not able to absorb.Bernice supports that excessive supply of laboris associated with the rate of growth of the population in that size and growth rate of labor force depends on the size and

Ideology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Ideology - Essay Example Ideology is a collective of this ingredient. The difference between an idea and ideology is that; an does not have believers. Meanwhile Ideology has believers.   A religion begins with an idea, when that idea captures attentions, then it becomes ideology. When an ideology has believers and followers, who are willing to act upon the idea then it changes to religions. Much like political movement or changes in anthropology, it always begins with someone thought. A thought with a consideration and then it is converted into a belief.  Ã‚   In the current society the terms ‘idea’ and reasons are common in different places such as among: Friends, family, school, work places. However no one really thinks of it and how it was made or what ideas and ideology is composed of it. In countries characterized by political activities, campaigns are usually distributed and commercialized in the media, they usually use the word â€Å"We needed this change† and they tell us all about why or how the targeted populace will gain from it. These changes are believed to be beneficial towards the believers; however, the reality is that, they benefit their composers who do not mention this during campaigns and in the advertisements. Changes cannot happen without being implemented by human efforts, they must inventors, motivators, or else they can be as well considered visionary ideals. A ‘change’ is a community product the sense that it facilitates the success of the targeted group, group of people, or a nat ion. Taking example of people such as; Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong il, Mao Zedong, Alexander the Great, or Genghis Khan, they all had their own vision of what a ‘good world’ is. They had great ideas that made senses in regard to logic as well as the view-points. They rose to power and directed their efforts towards convincing people to follow their ideas to the latter. For better or worse, these people made changes, which started from their ideas.  Owing to the fact that

Microbiology Paper Essay Example for Free

Microbiology Paper Essay Definition: Protists are organisms in the kingdom Protista. These organisms are eukaryotes, meaning they are made up of single or multiple cells which all contain a nucleus enclosed by a membrane. The protists are a diverse group of eukaryotes that cannot be classified as animals, plants, or fungi. Organisms in the Protista kingdom include amoebae, red algae, dinoflagellates, diatoms, euglena and slime molds. Also Known As: Protista Examples: One type of protist in the marine environment is Irish moss, which is a species of red algae. Diversity of Protists Introduction Protists are Eukaryotes that are not fungi, plants, or animals. This polyphyletic group includes a wide variety of organisms. Most groups of protists are unicellular but some are multicellular. Molecular evidence suggests that protists include several different lineages and therefore is not a kingdom. Some lineages are more closely related to either Fungi, plants, or animals than they are to other protist groups. Plants,fungi,and animals evolved from protist ancestors. Protists are a very diverse group and include organisms that range in size from single cells to complex structures more than 100 meters long. They show a variety of reproductive and nutritional strategies. Some protists are photoautotrophs, others ingest food (heterotrophs) or they release digestive enzymes into the environment and absorb organic molecules (saprotrophs). Some protists are both autotrophs and heterotrophs (mixotrophs). Most protists are aquatic but they are also found in moist terrestrial environments. They are important components of plankton in many aquatic food chains. Some groups of photoautotrophic protists are referred to as algae (green algae, red algae, brown algae, golden algae). The word algae is not used as a taxonomic category. Plasmodial (Acellular) Slime Molds Acellular slime molds are diploid, multinucleate masses that creep along the substrate and phagocytize dead organic material and microorganisms. The mass is one large cell referred to as a plasmodium. Note- Do not confuse the use of the word plasmodium here with the genus Plasmodium discussed under Apicomplexans above. Slime molds play an ecological role similar to that of fungi. They are decomposers, feeding on dead organic material. They differ from fungi in that slime molds ingest their food. Below: Physarum polycephalum. Click to view an enlargement. When environmental conditions are unfavorable such as when sufficient food or moisture are unavailable, sporangia form, and spores are produced by meiosis. Spores are resistant to environmental extremes and germinate when environmental conditions become favorable. They germinate to produce haploid cells that are either biflagellate (two flagella) or amoeboid. These cells can act as gametes, fusing to produce a diploid zygote that matures into the plasmodium. Cellular Slime Molds Cellular slime molds exist as individual amoeboid cells that phagocytize bacteria and yeast. When food becomes scarce, the cells aggregate to produce a mass that resembles the plasmodium of a plasmodial slime mold. This mass of cells may continue to move about but eventually will settle down and cells within the mass will produce fruiting bodies (reproductive structures). The cells at the tips of the fruiting bodies become spores. The spores germinate when conditions become favorable. The amoeboid cells are haploid. In the sexual phase of the life cycle, two amoeboid cells fuse to form a zygote. New amoeboid cells are produced by meiosis. Gymnamoebas Gymnamoebas move by cytoplasmic extensions called pseudopodia. They feed by phagocytizing (engulfing) their prey. Click on the image below to view movement in Amoeba. Amoeba.mpg Gymnamoebas are found in soil, marine, and freshwater environments. Amoeba proteus (below) is found in freshwater. Nutrition in some different types of protists is variable. In flagellates, for example, filter feeding may sometimes occur where the flagella find the prey. Other protists can engulf bacteria and digest them internally, by extending their cell membrane around the food material to form a food vacuole. This is then taken into the cell via endocytosis (usually phagocytosis; sometimes pinocytosis). Some protists reproduce sexually (gametes), while others reproduce asexually (binary fission). Some species, for example Plasmodium falciparum, have extremely complex life cycles that involve multiple forms of the organism, some of which reproduce sexually and others asexually.[13] However, it is unclear how frequently sexual reproduction causes genetic exchange between different strains of Plasmodium in nature and most populations of parasitic protists may be clonal lines that rarely exchange genes with other members of their species.[14] Role as pathogens Some protists are significant pathogens of both animals and plants; for example Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria in humans, and Phytophthora infestans, which causes late blight in potatoes.[15] A more thorough understanding of protist biology may allow these diseases to be treated more efficiently. Researchers from the Agricultural Research Service are taking advantage of protists as pathogens in an effort to control red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) populations in Argentina. With the help of spore-producing protists such as Kneallhazia solenopsae the red fire ant populations can be reduced by 53-100%.[16] Researchers have also found a way to infect phorid flies with the protist without harming the flies. This is important because the flies act as a vector to infect the red fire ant population with the pathogenic protist.

Impacts on Quality of Life and Performance

Impacts on Quality of Life and Performance Steps Towards Success Abhay Shrivastava Abstract— Success in general means achieving an aim or attaining one’s goal. To some people success is living a comfortable and respectful life, some believe that success is a journey of hard work through endless efforts to achieve the desired goal, while others think having hefty amount of money is a real success. But for me â€Å"success is living your dreams and fulfilling your desire.† In the process of getting success one either achieves it or fails in his efforts. It is said by a great poet that â€Å"the real taste of success can only be understood by a man who have tasted the defeat†. Sometimes success also depends on the fate but that’s not true in every case. Even if the fate is not favoring us we can lead towards success by putting extra efforts and doing hard work. But fate without efforts leads us nowhere. One needs to put himself/herself into his/her goal whole heartedly. Success is also affected by the priorities of life, someone wants to grow professionally while the other satisfies themselves by holding the responsibility of family i.e. their personal life or some people wants to get the higher rank in society. For all such people success mean differently. Index Terms— Success, Hard work, Efforts, Goal, Aim I. Introduction This paper is about what makes a difference in the quality of life of people, what makes a difference in their performance, so that they get the result they want. Everybody wants to be successful but to be successful one first has to understand what success means. Success in general means achieving an aim or attaining one’s goal. To some people success is living a comfortable and respectful life, some believe that success is a journey of hard work through endless efforts to achieve the desired goal, while others think having hefty amount of money is a real success According to the great motivator Tony Robbins â€Å"success is being able to do whatever you want, with whom ever you want, where ever you want as much as you want†. According to Jack Canfield â€Å"success is fulfilling your soul’s purpose† Every scholar has given a different definition about success but according to me â€Å"success is living your dreams with both open and closed eyes and knowing the art of fulfilment.† In the process of getting success one has to face many hindrances, many setbacks a lot of pain. But if a person faces them with courage, he/she can be successful. But most people don’t do that after trying once or twice they say to themselves that it can’t be done, it is not possible. We all know that Mr. Edison invented the bulb after more than 10,000 attempts. What if he had stopped trying after 10-20 attempts. We would not have bulbs. Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. Nothing is impossible if you are ready to take the chance. If you don’t know how to do the task what you are trying to do then take the guidance from the person who has already done that. Technical education can be achieved easily but attitude of â€Å"not quitting† has to be developed. A study shows that most of the people quit their task when they are about to succeed, they quit when they are at the doors of success. In ‘ YOU CAN WIN’ Mr Shiv Khera writes that every success story is a story of great failure, he shares the life history of a man who failed in business at the age of 21, was defeated in a legislative race at the age of 22, failed again in business at the age of 24, his sweetheart died when he was of age 26, had a nervous breakdown at age 27, lost a congressional race at age 34, lost a senatorial race at age 45, failed in an effort to become vice-president at the age of 47, lost senatorial race at the age of 49, and was elected as the president of United States at the age of 52. This man was Abraham Lincoln.[1] So it is important to make continuous efforts in making your dream come true. II. SOME HINDRANCES IN SUCCESS Fear of failure/success. Lack of self-confidence. No plan. Procrastinating. Family responsibility. Financial security issue. Insincerity about goal. Stress. Underestimation. Comparison with others. Worthiness. Negative Attitude Doing too much alone. Lack of priority. Lack of training. Lack of resources. Most of the hindrances described above are not real, they are imaginary. They can be resolved by keeping certain points in mind. We all know what is holding us back. Usually most people wait for ideal conditions never get that. And successful people make the condition favourable for them. III. Following steps will help you in reaching on acme of your life You: Everything starts from and with you. If you are ready, you can do anything. If you take the responsibility of your life, state and condition, if you stop blaming and complaining, then you will start believing in yourself, you will begin to discover your strength capability. What happens when we blame others for our mistakes, we neglect our weaknesses rather than focusing and overcoming them. If we complain about something we are being pessimistic, we focus on the lack of resources, we focus on what went wrong rather focusing on what can be done now. So we should stop blaming and complaining and should start accepting and taking the responsibility of our life. Nightingale said that â€Å"all of us are self-made but only the successful will accept it† so start believing in yourself. Goal Setting: Goal setting is the most important factor in getting success. It’s like knowing the destination where you want to reach. Most people are running without any goal, without knowing where they want to go. So set a goal first. It is important to set a goal in order to make an action plan. While setting a goal we should remember one thing, we should not just set a goal, we should set a goal with time limit. Because if we time bound ourselves, our brain starts working faster. It wants to produce the result before the deadline. For example if you want to lose weight rather saying â€Å"I want to lose weight† say â€Å"I want to lose 5 pound before 10 May 2014†. Vague goals lead to vague results. Try to be more specific with time, when we have particular time duration to perform a task our brain functions more efficiently, with more concentrations. We all know the functionality of GPS system when we put the exact destination it shows us the way. What if we just put the name of the lane or city where we want to go, it will take us to the starting of that lane or city not at our destination. So we have to be more specific about our goals. â€Å"What and By When†. Because the things that we schedule are the things that we get done. Dream Big Visualize: Gen. Wesley Clark (Former Head of NATO) said â€Å"It doesn’t take any more effort to dream a big dream than it does to dream a small dream†. You have the ability to do things that you can’t even imagine. Most people don’t realise that majority of people fail not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit and many don’t aim at all. It is important to dream big because if we dream big we visualize big, if we visualize big we put more efforts to make it real. It increases our efficiency, our dedication and concentration increases to turn the dream into reality. Dream big, don’t think how you are going to do it, that’s going to come in due time. You are going to develop a plan of action; you will become the person who will attract the people and resources according to your need. Here is an example of turning a dream into reality. Everyone knows ‘Chicken soup for the soul’ fame Jack Canfield and Mark. One day they decided to sell 1 million copies of their book. They didn’t know how they were going to do that, they just visualized it every day and night, one day after a seminar Jack took a bus to his home, the lady sitting next to him recognize him and asked â€Å"you are chicken soup guy? What you and Mark are next up to?† he replied â€Å"we are trying to sell 1 million copies in one day† she replied â€Å"I can help you in doing that† he asked how? She said â€Å"we are buyer for the WB bookstore all over the world† and rest is history. They sold 1 million copies in one day. Our visualization has power. Our mind can’t rationalize between reality and visualization. An experiment was done on a bunch of people; they were asked to close their eyes and imagine themselves standing on the roof of the world tal lest building without any railing. Some of them started shivering and some stepped back, their brain didn’t rationalize between reality and visualization. If we visualize our dream daily we force it to become reality. A study from Duke University Para Psychology center shows that our thoughts have ultimate power. Whatever we visualize we send this energy upto 250,000 miles. It’s like sending email up to 250,000 miles asking for response, and the important thing is someone always responds sooner or later. Like in the case of Jack and Mark, they just visualized their goal and got the reply few weeks later. Dr Masaru Emoto a Japanese author and entrepreneur described the power of thought in his book â€Å"The hidden message in water†. He said water has the capability to store energy. He did an experiment on water. He took a sample of water and told some people to send negative energy (like useless, dirty, poisonous etc.) to the water and then took another sample and ask some people to send positive energy(like beautiful, calm, necessary, tasty etc.) then froze both the samples at 20 degree below 0. Once it was frozen they put both under the microscope. As the water started melting, it formed crystal and it was seen that different kind of energy formed different kind of crystals. The water which received positive energy made beautiful crystal and the water which received negative energy formed distorted crystal. They did this experiment on LAKE BIWA (The largest freshwater lake in Japan), and on Saint Crolx River that divides the state Wisconsin and Minnesota, on Mississippi river . Why it is important because 85% of our body is made up of water by generating positive energy, by constantly thinking positive we create positive energy inside us and vice versa.[2] Figure 1. Photo of negative energy water and positive energy water. Stay Optimistic: Being optimistic, having a positive attitude contributes a lot in one’s success. Shiv Khera says â€Å"positive thinking does not guaranteed success; positive thinking increases the probability of success† [1]. Having a positive attitude makes a pleasing personality, it energizes you, it increases your enjoyment of life, inspires other people around you, help people in becoming a contributing member of society an asset to their country. For an organization to stay optimistic is very necessary as it helps in reducing stress, increases profit, breeds loyalty, makes for a congenial atmosphere, increases productivity, fosters teamwork, solves problems, improves quality and creates a healthy environment in organization. Whenever we are positive we see good things happening around us, we become productive and if we are negative we see bad things and become destructive. You have to take the garbage out otherwise it will start stinking. As we all know Mr Thomas Edison at the age of 67 lost his factory to fire. After watching all his lifetime effort going up in smoke he said â€Å"all our mistakes are burnt up. Thank god we can start anew†. In spite of this whole tragedy he invented the phonograph. What an attitude, what if we all take this attitude and keep looking for sunny side in every situation. It doesn’t mean to overlook the mistakes. It means to learn from the mistakes and move ahead. Don’t get stuck in your past experiences of failure, focus on the future plan. Whenever you feel negative go to a smiling baby. It is found that whenever a baby smiles it omits positive energy. Their aura is positive. One day a kid was playing a game ‘connect 4’ with his father. Father won 10 round consecutively then he stands up and says â€Å"Son, I am bored. I don’t want to play anymore. I am going to bed†. Son replied â€Å"no, it’s not over until I win.† They played several other rounds. After 11 rounds kid won and then he stood up and said â€Å"I am ready to go to sleep now†. This should be the attitude of every person who is chasing his dreams. After facing any failure everyone should say â€Å"it’s not over until I win†. Environment: Environment plays a major role in one’s success. It is seen that majority of the people who are successful spend most of their hours working with the people of their interest. It has been seen that if you spend most of the time with optimistic people your attitude also becomes optimistic and vice versa. You have to choose your environment according to your need. You have to throw negative people out of your life who are draining your energy, who keep telling that you can’t do it, who weaken you. You have to change your environment from negative to positive by being around people who nourish you, who give you energy, appreciate your efforts, encourage you and inspire you. There is a saying that â€Å"birds of a feather flock together†. If you run around with looser you will end up a looser. If you want to become a singer spend your time with singers better than you, if you want to be a dancer spend your time with dancers better than you, if you earn Rs 10,000 a month and want to earn Rs 20,000 start spending your time with the people who are earning RS 20,000. By constantly spending your time with the people of your kind of interest you learn the skill to get the desired result. Take Action: Will to win is worthless until you have the will to prepare. Just by dreaming big, visualizing and spending your time with the right is not fruitful until you take action in order to achieve your goal. It is said that â€Å"Standing on earth thinking of sky, how would you ever get to fly†. You can’t achieve your aim just by visualizing it the whole day; you also have to make a constant effort in order to improvise yourself to get the mastery on the particular subject. It is like sitting in a car and thinking to reach the destination without starting the car. First you have to put the key in then start driving after some time you will reach the destination. So take the step towards your dream. To get the result that only 5% of the population has, you have to have the guts to do what only 5% of the population is willing to do. Jim Rohn says â€Å"you can’t hire other people to do your pushups for you†. To make yourself fit you can’t hire other people to do exercise on your behalf similarly to become successful you can’t rely on anyone else; you have to take action on your own because nobody cares about your dream more than you do. So take action in order to make your dream come true. IV. Conclusion Every single person can achieve his/her aim, everyone can make their dream come true just by deciding â€Å"WHAT, HOW and WHEN†. What do you want? How you are going to get it? And by when you want it? You can achieve you goal. Getting success is like knowing the combination to a lock, if you know the lock it doesn’t matter who you are boy or girl, black or white the lock has to open. By following the steps discussed above everyone can make their dream come true. . We spend years in school learning about the lives of other successful people, but we devote hardly any time at all to studying ourselves. I believe that all of us are unique, have different potential and different qualities but all want to attain their aim. I once heard that everyone is born unique but most of us die copies. The major factor of failure is, not believing in ourselves and doubting our potential. I believe that we all have the capability to produce gold. The paper guides us in finding and nurturing our goodness to unlock the keys to achievement. It motivates us to do what we must do to get on and go on with our lives. Keeping in mind, Shiv Khera’s view that the best idea will not work until we work upon that idea. . My Paper offers practical tips and strategies for pulling yourself out of discouraging situations. Life does not always present us with an ideal situation in which we pursue our dreams. Paper explains how to dream, how to set goals, and how to equip yourself with succeed. References Shiv khera, â€Å"You can win†(references) Dr Masaru Emoto, â€Å"The hidden message in water†(reference) Les Brown, â€Å"Live your dreams†. (references) Dr. David Schwartz â€Å"The Magic of Thinking Big†. (references)

Who or what is Edward Hyde? Essay -- English Literature

Who or what is Edward Hyde? Due to the Victorian background of this book we are led to believe Edward Hyde is a completely different character to Henry Jekyll but we soon start to find out that they are actually one person, but with just a slight physical and mental change. Some readers in Victorian times would have interpreted the story as a struggle between good and evil, with Jekyll being the 'hardworking, normal guy' and Hyde being the 'twisted, evil person'. This was emphasised by the Christian belief of humans having a divided soul. If your soul had been good, on judgement day you would be saved into heaven where as if it was bad you would be damned to hell. During 1859 Darwin was showing his ideas of humans descending from apes or simpler forms of life this confused and scared many Victorians, they were know longer unique they were part of one species among many. Stevenson's own experiences may also help us to tell who or what Edward Hyde is. Stevenson grew up in Edinburgh, which in itself had two faces. There was the up and coming 'new town' which was the re-generated modern part of town and the 'old city', which was covered with disease and poverty. Stevenson also lived a double life by day he would be studying in the 'new town', but by night he would go out to the 'old town' until late at night. This could be interpreted as the character Jekyll in the story actually being like Stevenson. Jekyll would work in his lab by day but at night he would go out to the towns of Soho. There are many connections between Jekyll and Hyde. On first appearance we learn that Hyde is a short, ugly and not like any other ordinary man, he also seems strong and unstoppable. People reacted to Hyde with a stro... ...feel any slight bit of emotion. Also 'audibly shattered' implies the shear force of Mr Hyde and even though he is able to hear the shattering of the bones inside the body it still doesn't make him stop, he continues with the beating just so he is able to get his 'kick' out of seeing someone in pain. Having understood the need for scientific experimentation, do we assume all experiments are necessary? In the case of Jekyll I think he needed to find out the unknown, so he could be satisfied by his evil side, which he had locked up for years. If the experiments had been more closely controlled in the beginning this could have been a better ending. I think that taking potions (drugs) to dabble with mans dual nature is never a recommended path. The best method of release is always the natural way, let the inner good and evil show itself when it is necessary.

Essay --

Kayla McCarthy Period 2 History Mrs.Dowd 1/6/14 Disagreements Between the North and South Secession between the North and the South was very different. The secession led to the Confederate States of the United States. The Confederate States Constitution closely resembled the Constitution of the United States and it states that it, â€Å"protected and recognized slavery.† The southerners feared that if they did not succeed that an end to their entire way of life was at hand because they felt that they needed to preserve slavery. Succeeding seemed to be the only way of saving slavery. Many other southern states began to succeed when they learned that slavery was going to be removed in the South. For example,Compromise of 1850, Compromise of 1820, the Dred Scott Decision, Raid at Harpers Ferry, â…â€" Compromise, Kansas Nebraska Act, and Missouri Compromise were some of the compromises and decisions made at the time to deal with disagreements many of these people had over slavery(Batten). Slavery was relied on very much in the south because the slaves were their way of making money. The sl...

Explain the Importance of Resilience in Children and Young People Essay

Resilience is a mixture of nature and nurture. Attributes that some children are born with, such as good intellectual ability and a placid, cheerful temperament, are associated with resilience. Children who are born prematurely and/or with disabilities, who cry and cannot be comforted, who cannot sleep or who will not accept being held are more vulnerable to adversity and may be less likely to be resilient. There are, however, many other qualities associated with resilience which develop through children’s life experiences — the main ones can be summarised as follows: Good self esteem derives from being accepted by people whose relationship one values and from accomplishment in tasks one values. Praise, on its own, will not improve self-esteem; the child him or herself has also to ascribe value to the achievement. A belief in one’s own self-efficacy means having the qualities of optimism; ‘stickability’ and believing that one’s own efforts can make a difference. For children and young people who have had very damaging childhoods the creation of ‘survivor’s pride’, i. e. the ability to value how far they have overcome huge adversity in their lives, is helpful. Young people’s sense of self-efficacy is enhanced by taking responsibility and making decisions. Initiative is the ability and willingness to take action, including action to stop abuse occurring. Children and young people facing adversity are in a stronger position to deal with it if they are able to take the initiative in finding ‘creative’ responses. This sometimes combines with a strong sense of responsibility towards others such as siblings. Faith and morality can be described as ‘a belief in a broader value system which can help the child to persist in problem solving or in surviving a set of challenging life circumstances. A sense of coherence in their experiences gives the child a feeling of rootedness; the conviction that life has meaning and an optimistic focus’ (Daniel, Wassell and Gilligan 1999. Trust is believing in or relying on another person or thing. In order to trust others, you do not need to love them but you do need to experience them as reliable, feel respect for them, value them and not expect them to betray your confidences. Attachment is ‘an affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through space and time and serves to join them emotionally’ (Klaus & Kennell 1976, quoted in Fahlberg 1994). A secure attachment relationship creates a secure base from which a child feels safe to explore the world. Many looked fter children whose primary attachment figures have been unsupportive or unpredictable are able, fortunately, to find other attachment figures. In fact, one sign of resilience in children is the ability to ‘recruit’ caring adults who take a particular interest in them. This could be a neighbour, friend’s parent(s), teacher, child minder, relative, mentor or befriender, foster carer or, of course, residential worker. The concept of a secure base originally related to the security provided by a dependable attachment relationship. However, in the context of looked after children it has developed a wider meaning i. . the provision of a consistent and stable place to live and continuity of wider relationships which then allow the maintenance or development of attachment relationships. Where placement moves are absolutely unavoidable, strenuous efforts should be made to maintain continuity in other aspects of children’s lives. Meaningful roles: Such roles include proficiency at academic and non-academic activities at school, sporting prowess, part time work, volunteering, caring for siblings, and domestic responsibilities, provided they are not excessive. Such roles are likely to have a positive effect in several ways — they can be beneficial in providing a sense of positive identity and a source of self-esteem, they may act as a source of pleasure and hope or distract young people from the adversity they are experiencing in other areas of their lives. Autonomy means the ability to make decisions. Young people who are autonomous know that it is OK to make mistakes and that you can learn from mistakes. They take reasonably well calculated risks. Autonomous children and young people are good at self-regulation — they gain increasing control over their own emotions and behaviour. Identity: Young people in care have a deep need to know and understand who they are, where they belong and to whom they are important. They may need help to find these answers. Children and young people’s ethnicity, religion, culture and language form part of their identity. Preservation of their background and culture helps to create continuity and a secure base; it is also a legal right. Young people, who have good insight into their own difficulties, including a realistic assessment of their own contribution and the contribution of others to those difficulties, are more likely to be resilient. Young people who are able to recognise benefits, as well as negative effects, from severe adversity are likely to be resilient. Insight helps people to take appropriate actions and make appropriate choices. It is therefore linked to self-efficacy and to initiative. Humour is the final building block of resilience. It can help young people to distance themselves from, and therefore reduce, emotional pain and it can also help them make and sustain relationships — humorous people are usually popular people.

Albert Einstein as Father of Modern Physics and Isaac Newton as Father of Classical Physics Essay

Newton was known as a natural philosopher during his life but his theories of motion, gravity, light, etc formed the cornerstone of what would become known as physics. He probably contributed more to the science than any single person before or after him. Newton’s 1687 publication of the Principia is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Albert Einstein (Father of Modern Physics) Albert Einstein was one of a group of physicists in the early part of the 20th century who started to form new and more complex theories that extended the work of Newton to new situations. Einstein’s most famous work on relativity extended the work of Newton to include very high velocities (approaching the speed of light) and the effect of mass on space. Einstein was not alone in extending the boundaries of physics at this time, a good claim could probably be made for a number of contributors to quantum mechanics who lived at the same time to share the title of â€Å"Father of modern Physics† but Einstein has for a number of reasons, not least the quality and complexity of his work gained the title â€Å"Father of Modern Physics† at least in the popular media. Albert Einstein’s many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of light by gravity and gravitational lensing, the first fluctuation dissipation theorem which explained the Brownian movement of molecules, the photon theory and wave-particle duality, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, the semi-classical version of the Schrodinger equation, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation.

Women’s Studies

Major Essay Women across the world face challenges and experiences such as gender class inequality, oppression, struggle with identity, sexual awakening, women's objectification, personal resistance, reliving women's history, female empowerment and etc. These are some of the themes that will be addressed In this essay. These themes will be supported by feminist short stories from books such as â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian and â€Å"The Bloody Chamber and other stories† by Angela Carter.Through the use of aesthetic texts, women's challenges and experiences will be interpreted using the themes in these stories. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on women living In the 19th century where men have a high standing In the social hierarchy that oppressed women, Gender plays a big role In social hierarchy. Even a rich woman cannot exercise the same rights and privileges as men would . Women were not given the same equality as men. Gillian focuses on the themes such as personal resistance and women's history.As the narrator in this story battles with err own psychological mind and the outside world, she slowly falls into deep madness as her obsession grows with the yellow wallpaper. To relief herself from going Insane, she keeps a Journal that exercises her creative mind as her husband prohibits It. This act of writing In her Journal Is also similar to the movie, The Hours where the character Virginia Wolf wrote everyday to keep herself sane in her confinement. The wallpaper represented her sanity and freedom.As a show of resistance from her husband she tore the wallpaper, which made her feel free and powerful. â€Å"l wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did? (Gillian 34) shows her longing of freedom and resistance. Women during this time period did not have much value as they were expected to be only wives and mothers and cannot carry on other r esponsibilities. â€Å"It Is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work† (Gillian 24) as her husband instructed her to stay in confinement and away from writing.She has spent her days confined in a room where there is only a window to look at which eventually made her insane. As a woman living In the 19th century, the narrator had no control over her own life and had let her husband dominate her. Women did not have the same opportunities as men did. The author's use of these themes gave the story a powerful message of women longing for freedom and equality in their society. In the story, â€Å"If I Were A Man† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on a woman who fought social boundaries and â€Å"take risk to improve themselves and their material condition† (Hoofers 36).As in this story, women were not ready for business but Gillian challenged that. Gillian focuses on the themes such as gender Identity and empowerment, During this tim e period, women's roles were to stay confined In their preference in gender role was examined in this story, â€Å"Gerald had already about that bill, over which she- as Mollie- was still crying at home† (Gillian 39) shows how different the roles of men and women were. Women were the only subdue to be emotional who stayed at home while the men were the ones who held themselves together with pride and dignity.Mollie Matheson finds herself to be happy when she becomes her husband Gerald â€Å"walking down the path so erect and square- shouldered† (Gillian 35) as manly as she can ever be. The thought of being a man gave Mollie a sense of pride and dignity compared to when she was a woman. In Mollies sense to have equality amongst men, she â€Å"felt such freedom and comfort† (Gillian 36) in becoming Gerald as she has all these privileges a woman would not have. Empowerment became a big symbol once Mollie started to earn money and privileges only men would have had. She never had dreamed of how it felt to have pockets† (Perkins 36) shows how she realizes that she is powerful having money and being able to support herself without the need of having a man to rely on. The themes used in this story became an awakening for women to reach higher and climb the social hierarchy to have equal opportunities as men do. In the story, â€Å"The Cottage† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses closely on how traditional male and female roles are slowly evolving. In this story, despite of the old believe in women serving as wives and housekeepers was challenged.Gillian focuses on themes such as gender identity and status. Malta is expected to be nothing but a wife and housekeeper as â€Å"what they care for most, after all, is domesticity†¦ What they want to marry is a homemaker† (Gillian 55) according to her friend. This shows how inequality and lack of freedom plays along in traditional roles f women. Also, Mammal's lack of independe nce and longing for Ford's approval shows how she follows the traditional role of a woman. â€Å"l could cook. I could cook excellently†¦ But if it was a question of pleasing Ford Mathews- † (Gillian 56) as her goal was to please Ford and nothing but Ford.Women were expected to act polite and demure, as they do not want their status to be devalued. â€Å"†¦ She thought it would look better if we had an older person with us†¦ † (Gillian 57) shows how women are confined to act a certain way and are not able to show who they truly are. Women are also seen as trophies or objects a man can have whenever he wishes, â€Å"And woman? He will hold her, he will have her when he pleases† (Gillian 100). Women were treated nothing equally as men but in this story, this concept was challenged.The themes in this story reminds us that women do have traditional roles but can always do something more than being a wife or housekeeper. In the story, â€Å"The Bloody Chambers† by Angela Carter focuses on sexual awakening and women's objectification through fairytale storytelling. This challenges the typical fairytale story in which is structured as pleasant and happy into gory and violent. The heroine was blossoming into adulthood as she experiences her sexual awakening upon to losing her virginity. â€Å"†¦ Away from Paris, away from girlhood, away from the white, enclosed quietude of my mother's apartment†¦ (Carter 7) shows her freedom from childhood and practice her sexual curiosity. She also compares the act of â€Å"†¦ A tender, delicious ecstasy of excitement†¦ † (Carter 7) leading up to intercourse as meet her husband. She longs and waits the moment when her husband deflowers women â€Å"have been major targets of sexual stereotypical and detrimental orphaned† (Adams and Fuller 7) and seen as sexual objects. Marquis viewed the heroine as a sexual object that he can torture and violate. The heroine felt violated as Marquis in a way forced her to undress and deflower her like â€Å"disrobing of the bride, a ritual from the brothel† (Carter 15).The heroine is comparing the lost of her virginity as a ritual from a brothel depicts how disrespected and disgusted she felt while doing this act. Marquis was a power hungry who showed no respect to her brides. The heroine did not feel that losing her virginity was a special act but rather a aromatizing experiences as â€Å"watched a dozen husbands approach me in a dozen mirrors†¦ â€Å"(Carter 15). Although the story ended with a happy tone, the story still degrades women as the heroin was relieved that she was able to cover her red mark as the blind piano tuner â€Å"cannot see it†¦ T spares me shame† (Carter 41). The themes portrayed in this story shows that fairytale stories objectify women and given women a lesser value then they should have. In the story, â€Å"Puss in Boots† by Angela Carter exami nes the role of violence in sex and woman' objectification. The young woman was predicted as a poor girl who was arced to marry a rich man. In this case, gender and class play a role in social status in this story. As Signor Pantone symbolizes violence and sex for the young woman, as she wishes for sexual gratification she must submit to violence. L gave her the customary tribute of a few firms thrusts of my striped loins† (Carter 70). As Signor Pantone was murdered and passed away, the young woman and Puss' master proceeded with the act of intercourse despite having a dead corpse next to them. â€Å". They're at it, hammer and tongs, down on the carpet since the bed is occupy† (Carter 04) shows the young woman's absurd attraction of violence towards sex. It seems like the young woman is aroused by the acts of violence around her. Women were called unpleasant names and were treated as property by their masters or husbands.One of Signor Pantheon's servants was being call ed a â€Å"hag† and described as someone who is very ugly and useless. Also, Signor Pantaloon sees the young woman as property and a sense of please giver. She is also a prisoner of her own where she can only â€Å"sit in a window for one hour and one hour only' (Carter 101) shows how she doesn't have freedom and is being held captive by her own husband. The themes of violence in sex and women's objectification helped shaped the story poor outlook on women's value. In the story, â€Å"The Tiger's Bride† by Angela Carter focuses on women's objectification and sexual awakening.The heroine is a beauty whose father had a gambling addiction in which he had lost to the Beast. The heroine then was used as a wager for her father' gambling addiction. â€Å"My father lost me to The Beast at cards. † (Carter 60) shows how devalued the heroine is. There is also patriarchy played in this story. As the father and the beast holds the heroine in captivity and she has o voice i n her own life. â€Å"My father said he loved me yet he staked his daughter on a hand of cards. † (Carter 62) shows how helpless and out of control the heroine's life is.She is being used as an object and nothing more but a value of money and not life itself. The heroine's sexual awakening is measured when she transforms into a beast. This also signifies sex and birth as a way of her transformation. Losing her virginity lick the skin off me! † (Carter 69) she describes herself being reborn into a tigress. This act of rebirth signifies a man's reclaim in sex, as a man controls a woman during intercourse. This also ties in with violence in sex as she sheds blood during intercourse and sheds her own skin to become awaken.The themes delivered a powerful message of the pain and relief in finding one's awakening. Through the use of feminist themes and ideas, writers Charlotte Perkins Gillian and Angela Carter sent powerful messages in their short stories. Charlotte Perkins Gi llian mostly used the feminist themes such as personal resistance and gender identity to explain the underlying meanings in her stories. Characters in Sailing's writings were rebellious and did not conform to social norms. As they, freely expressed themselves in their own way with a positive ending.Contrary in Angel Carter's writings, focused on themes such as women's objectification and sexual awakening. The male characters usually portrayed having some essence of evil controlling the female character. The stories in Carter's books are very dark and sexual. Some descriptions in her writing almost have a sense of pornographic image. Both writers gave us a grasp on how themes powerfully send messages throughout the stories. Adams, Terrier M. , and Douglas B. Fuller. â€Å"The Words Have Changed But the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music. Women’s Studies Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination From Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), pp. 221–238 Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging power as agents of knowledge. By portraying African-American women as self-defined, self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people.One distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the changed consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political and economic institutions constitute essential ingredients for social change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions of change. Knowledge is a vitally important part of the social relations of domination and resistance. By objectifying African-American women and recasting our experiences to serve the interests of elite white men, much of the Eurocentric masculinist worldview fosters Black women's subordination.But placing Black women's experiences at the center of analysis offers fresh insights on the prevailing concepts, paradigms, and epistemologies of this worldview and on its feminist and Afrocentric critiques. Viewing the world through a both/and conceptual lens of the simultaneity of race, class, and gender oppression and of the need for a humanist vision of community creates new possibilities for an empowering Afrocentric feminist knowledge. Many Black feminist intellectuals have long thought about the world in this way because this is the way we experience the world.Afrocentric feminist thought offers two significant contributions toward furthering our understanding of the important connections among knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. First, Black feminist thought foste rs a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how we think about oppression. By embracing a paradigm of race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression, Black feminist thought reconceptualizes the social relations of domination and resistance.Second, Black feminist thought addresses ongoing epistemological debates in feminist theory and in the sociology of knowledge concerning ways of assessing â€Å"truth. † Offering subordinate groups new knowledge about their own experiences can be empowering. But revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate groups to define their own reality has far greater implications. Reconceptualizing Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems of Oppression â€Å"What I really feel is radical is trying to make coalitions with people who are different from you,† maintains Barbara Smith. I feel it is radical to be dealing with race and sex and class and sexual identity all at one time. I think that is really radical because it has never been done before. † Black feminist thought fosters a fundamental paradigmatic shift that rejects additive approaches to oppression. Instead of starting with gender and then adding in other variables such as age, sexual orientation, race, social class, and religion, Black feminist thought sees these distinctive systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination.Viewing relations of domination for Black women for any given sociohistorical context as being structured via a system of interlocking race, class, and gender oppression expands the focus of analysis from merely describing the similarities and differences distinguishing these systems of oppression and focuses greater attention on how they interconnect. Assuming that each system needs the others in order to function creates a distinct theoretical stance that stimulates the rethinking of basic social science concepts.Afrocentric feminist notions of family reflect this reconceptualizat ion process. Black women's experiences as blood mothers, other mothers, and community other mothers reveal that the mythical norm of a heterosexual, married couple, nuclear family with a nonworking spouse and a husband earning a â€Å"family wage† is far from being natural, universal and preferred but instead is deeply embedded in specific race and class formations.Placing African-American women in the center of analysis not only reveals much-needed information about Black women's experiences but also questions Eurocentric masculinist perspectives on family Black women's experiences and the Afrocentric feminist thought rearticulating them also challenge prevailing definitions of community. Black women's actions in the struggle or group survival suggest a vision of community that stands in opposition to that extant in the dominant culture.The definition of community implicit in the market model sees community as arbitrary and fragile, structured fundamentally by competition an d domination. In contrast, Afrocentric models of community stress connections, caring, and personal accountability. As cultural workers African-American women have rejected the generalized ideology of domination advanced by the dominant group in order to conserve Afrocentric conceptualizations of community.Denied access to the podium, Black women have been unable to spend time theorizing about alternative conceptualizations of community. Instead, through daily actions African-American women have created alternative communities that empower. This vision of community sustained by African-American women in conjunction with African-American men addresses the larger issue of reconceptualizing power. The type of Black women's power discussed here does resemble feminist theories of power which emphasize energy and community.However, in contrast to this body of literature whose celebration of women's power is often accompanied by a lack of attention to the importance of power as domination, Black women's experiences as mothers, community other mothers, educators, church leaders, labor union center-women, and community leaders seem to suggest that power as energy can be fostered by creative acts of resistance. The spheres of influence created and sustained by African-American women are not meant solely to provide a respite from oppressive situations or a retreat from their effects.Rather, these Black female spheres of influence constitute potential sanctuaries where individual Black women and men are nurtured in order to confront oppressive social institutions. Power from this perspective is a creative power used for the good of the community, whether that community is conceptualized as one's family, church community, or the next generation of the community's children. By making the community stronger, African-American women become empowered, and that same community can serve as a source of support when Black women encounter race, gender, and class oppression. . . Appr oaches that assume that race, gender, and class are interconnected have immediate practical applications. For example, African-American women continue to be inadequately protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The primary purpose of the statute is to eradicate all aspects of discrimination. But judicial treatment of Black women's employment discrimination claims has encouraged Black women to identify race or sex as the so-called primary discrimination. To resolve the inequities that confront Black women,† counsels Scarborough, the courts must first correctly conceptualize them as ‘Black women,' a distinct class protected by Title VII. † Such a shift, from protected categories to protected classes of people whose Title VII claims might be based on more than two discriminations, would work to alter the entire basis of current antidiscrimination efforts. Reconceptualizing phenomena such as the rapid growth of female-headed households in African-America n communities would also benefit from a race-, class-, and gender-inclusive analysis.Case studies of Black women heading households must be attentive to racially segmented local labor markets and community patterns, to changes in local political economies specific to a given city or region, and to established racial and gender ideology for a given location. This approach would go far to deconstruct Eurocentric, masculinist analyses that implicitly rely on controlling images of the matriarch or the welfare mother as guiding conceptual premises. . . Black feminist thought that rearticulates experiences such as these fosters an enhanced theoretical understanding of how race, gender, and class oppression are part of a single, historically created system. The Matrix of Domination Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/or dichotomous thinking of Eurocentric, masculinist thought. One must be either Black or white in such thought systems–persons of ambiguous ra cial and ethnic identity constantly battle with questions such as â€Å"what are your, anyway? This emphasis on quantification and categorization occurs in conjunction with the belief that either/or categories must be ranked. The search for certainty of this sort requires that one side of a dichotomy be privileged while its other is denigrated. Privilege becomes defined in relation to its other. Replacing additive models of oppression with interlocking ones creates possibilities for new paradigms.The significance of seeing race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression is that such an approach fosters a paradigmatic shift of thinking inclusively about other oppressions, such as age, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity. Race, class, and gender represent the three systems of oppression that most heavily affect African-American women. But these systems and the economic, political, and ideological conditions that support them may not be the most fundamental oppre ssions, and they certainly affect many more groups than Black women.Other people of color, Jews, the poor white women, and gays and lesbians have all had similar ideological justifications offered for their subordination. All categories of humans labeled Others have been equated to one another, to animals, and to nature. Placing African-American women and other excluded groups in the center of analysis opens up possibilities for a both/and conceptual stance, one in which all groups possess varying amounts of penalty and privilege in one historically created system. In this system, for example, white women are penalized by their gender but privileged by their race.Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed. Adhering to a both/and conceptual stance does not mean that race, class, and gender oppression are interchangeable. For example, whereas race, class, and gender oppression operate on the so cial structural level of institutions, gender oppression seems better able to annex the basic power of the erotic and intrude in personal relationships via family dynamics and within individual consciousness.This may be because racial oppression has fostered historically concrete communities among African-Americans and other racial/ethnic groups. These communities have stimulated cultures of resistance. While these communities segregate Blacks from whites, they simultaneously provide counter-institutional buffers that subordinate groups such as African-Americans use to resist the ideas and institutions of dominant groups. Social class may be similarly structured.Traditionally conceptualized as a relationship of individual employees to their employers, social class might be better viewed as a relationship of communities to capitalist political economies. Moreover, significant overlap exists between racial and social class oppression when viewing them through the collective lens of fa mily and community. Existing community structures provide a primary line of resistance against racial and class oppression. But because gender cross-cuts these structures, it finds fewer comparable institutional bases to foster resistance.Embracing a both/and conceptual stance moves us from additive, separate systems approaches to oppression and toward what I now see as the more fundamental issue of the social relations of domination. Race, class, and gender constitute axes of oppression that characterize Black women's experiences within a more generalized matrix of domination. Other groups may encounter different dimensions of the matrix, such as sexual orientation, religion, and age, but the overarching relationship is one of domination and the types of activism it generates.Bell Hooks labels this matrix a â€Å"politic of domination† and describes how it operates along interlocking axes of race, class, and gender oppression. This politic of domination refers to the ideolog ical ground that they share, which is a belief in domination, and a belief in the notions of superior and inferior, which are components of all of those systems. For me it's like a house, they share the foundation, but the foundation is the ideological beliefs around which notions of domination are constructed.Johnella Butler claims that new methodologies growing from this new paradigm would be â€Å"non-hierarchical† and would â€Å"refuse primacy to either race, class, gender, or ethnicity, demanding instead a recognition of their matrix-like interaction. † Race, class, and gender may not be the most fundamental or important systems of oppression, but they have most profoundly affected African-American women. One significant dimension of Black feminist thought is its potential to reveal insights about the social relations of domination organized along other axes such as religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age.Investigating Black women's particular experience s thus promises to reveal much about the more universal process of domination. Multiple Levels of Domination In addition to being structured along axes such as race, gender, and social class, the matrix of domination is structured on several levels. People experience and resist oppression on three levels: the level of personal biography; the group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender; and the systemic level of social institutions.Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination and as potential sites of resistance. Each individual has a unique personal biography made up of concrete experiences, values, motivations, and emotions. No two individuals occupy the same social space; thus no two biographies are identical. Human ties can be freeing and empowering, as is the case with Black women's heterosexual love relationships or in the power of motherhood in African-American families and communities. Human ties can also be confining and oppressive.Situations of domestic violence and abuse or cases in which controlling images foster Black women's internalized oppression represent domination on the personal level. The same situation can look quite different depending on the consciousness one brings to interpret it. This level of individual consciousness is a fundamental area where new knowledge can generate change. Traditional accounts assume that power as domination operates from the top down by forcing and controlling unwilling victims to bend to the will of more powerful superiors.But these accounts fail to account for questions concerning why, for example, women stay with abusive men even with ample opportunity to leave or why slaves did not kill their owners more often. The willingness of the victim to collude in her or his own victimization becomes lost. They also fail to account for sustained resistance by victims, even when chances for victory appear remote. By emphasizing the power of self-def inition and the necessity of a free mind, Black feminist thought speaks to the importance African-American women thinkers place on consciousness as a sphere of freedom.Black women intellectuals realize that domination operates not only by structuring power from the top down but by simultaneously annexing the power as energy of those on the bottom for its own ends. In their efforts to rearticulate the standpoint of African-American women as a group, Black feminist thinkers offer individual African-American women the conceptual tools to resist oppression. The cultural context formed by those experiences and ideas that are shared with other members of a group or community which give meaning to individual biographies constitutes a second level at which domination is experienced and resisted.Each individual biography is rooted in several overlapping cultural contexts–for example, groups defined by race, social class, age, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The cultural comp onent contributes, among other things, the concepts used in thinking and acting, group validation of an individual's interpretation of concepts, the â€Å"thought models† used in the acquisition of knowledge, and standards used to evaluate individual thought and behavior. The most cohesive cultural contexts are those with identifiable histories, geographic locations, and social institutions.For Black women African-American communities have provided the location for an Afrocentric group perspective to endure. Subjugated knowledges, such as a Black women's culture of resistance, develop in cultural contexts controlled by oppressed groups. Dominant groups aim to replace subjugated knowledge with their own specialized thought because they realize that gaining control over this dimension of subordinate groups' lives simplifies control. While efforts to nfluence this dimension of an oppressed group's experiences can be partially successful, this level is more difficult to control t han dominant groups would have us believe. For example, adhering to externally derived standards of beauty leads many African-American women to dislike their skin color or hair texture. Similarly, internalizing Eurocentric gender ideology leads some Black men to abuse Black women. These are cases of the successful infusion of the dominant group's specialized thought into the everyday cultural context of African-Americans.But the long-standing existence of a Black women's culture of resistance as expressed through Black women's relationships with one another, the Black women's blues tradition, and the voices of contemporary African-American women writers all attest to the difficulty of eliminating the cultural context as a fundamental site of resistance. Domination is also experienced and resisted on the third level of social institutions controlled by the dominant group: namely, schools, churches, the media, and other formal organizations.These institutions expose individuals to the specialized thought representing the dominant group's standpoint and interests. While such institutions offer the promise of both literacy and other skills that can be used for individual empowerment and social transformation, they simultaneously require docility and passivity. Such institutions would have us believe that the theorizing of elites constitutes the whole of theory.The existence of African-American women thinkers such as Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, and Fannie Lou Hamer who, though excluded from and/or marginalized within such institutions, continued to produce theory effectively opposes this hegemonic view. Moreover, the more recent resurgence of Black feminist thought within these institutions, the case of the outpouring of contemporary Black feminist thought in history and literature, directly challenges the Eurocentric masculinist thought pervading these institutions.Resisting the Matrix of Domination Domination operates by seducing, pressuri ng, or forcing African-American women and members of subordinated groups to replace individual and cultural ways of knowing with the dominant group's specialized thought. As a result, suggests Audre Lorde, â€Å"the true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us. † Or as Toni Cade Bambara succinctly states, â€Å"revolution begins with the self, in the self. Lorde and Bambara's suppositions raise an important issue for Black feminist intellectuals and for all scholars and activists working for social change. Although most individuals have little difficulty identifying their own victimization within some major system of oppression–whether it be by race, social class, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age or gender–they typically fail to see how their thoughts and actions uphold someone else's subordination. Thus white feminists routinely point with confidence to their oppression as women but resist seeing how much their white skin privileges them.African-Americans who possess eloquent analyses of racism often persist in viewing poor white women as symbols of white power. The radical left fares little better. â€Å"If only people of color and women could see their true class interests,† they argue, â€Å"class solidarity would eliminate racism and sexism. † In essence, each group identifies the oppression with which it feels most comfortable as being fundamental and classifies all others as being of lesser importance. Oppression is filled with such contradictions because these approaches fail to recognize that a matrix of domination contains few pure victims or oppressors.Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone's lives. A broader focus stresses the interlocking nature of oppressions that are s tructured on multiple levels, from the individual to the social structural, and which are part of a larger matrix of domination. Adhering to this inclusive model provides the conceptual space needed for each individual to see that she or he is both a member of multiple dominant groups and a member of multiple subordinate groups.Shifting the analysis to investigating how the matrix of domination is structured along certain axes–race, gender, and class being the axes of investigation for AfricanAmerican women–reveals that different systems of oppression may rely in varying degrees on systemic versus interpersonal mechanisms of domination. Empowerment involves rejecting the dimensions of knowledge, whether personal, cultural, or institutional, that perpetuate objectification and dehumanization.African-American women and other individuals in subordinate groups become empowered when we understand and use those dimensions of our individual, group, and disciplinary ways of kn owing that foster our humanity as fully human subjects. This is the case when Black women value our self-definitions, participate in a Black women's activist tradition, invoke an Afrocentric feminist epistemology as central to our worldview, and view the skills gained in schools as part of a focused education for Black community development. C.Wright Mills identifies this holistic epistemology as the â€Å"sociological imagination† and identifies its task and its promise as a way of knowing that enables individuals to grasp the relations between history and biography within society. Using one's standpoint to engage the sociological imagination can empower the individual. â€Å"My fullest concentration of energy is available to me,† Audre Lorde maintains, â€Å"only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restriction of externally i mposed definition. Black Women as Agents of Knowledge Living life as an African-American woman is a necessary prerequisite for producing Black feminist thought because within Black women's communities thought is validated and produced with reference to a particular set of historical, material, and epistemological conditions. African-American women who adhere to the idea that claims about Black women must be substantiated by Black women's sense of our own experiences and who anchor our knowledge claims in an Afrocentric feminist epistemology have produced a rich tradition of Black feminist thought.Traditionally such women were blues singers, poets, autobiographers, storytellers, and orators validated by everyday Black women as experts on a Black women's standpoint. Only a few unusual African-American feminist scholars have been able to defy Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies and explicitly embrace an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Consider Alice Walker's description of Zora N eal Hurston: In my mind, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith form a sort of unholy trinity.Zora belongs in the tradition of black women singers, rather than among â€Å"the literati. † . . . Like Billie and Jessie she followed her own road, believed in her own gods pursued her own dreams, and refused to separate herself from â€Å"common† people. Zora Neal Hurston is an exception for prior to 1950, few African-American women earned advanced degrees and most of those who did complied with Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies.Although these women worked on behalf of Black women, they did so within the confines of pervasive race and gender oppression. Black women scholars were in a position to see the exclusion of African-American women from scholarly discourse, and the thematic content of their work often reflected their interest in examining a Black women's standpoint. However, their tenuous status in academic institutions led them to adhere to Euroce ntric masculinist epistemologies so that their work would be accepted as scholarly.As a result, while they produced Black feminist thought, those African-American women most likely to gain academic credentials were often least likely to produce Black feminist thought that used an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. An ongoing tension exists for Black women as agents of knowledge, a tension rooted in the sometimes conflicting demands of Afrocentricity and feminism. Those Black women who are feminists are critical of how Black culture and many of its traditions oppress women.For example, the strong pronatal beliefs in African-American communities that foster early motherhood among adolescent girls, the lack of self-actualization that can accompany the double-day of paid employment and work in the home, and the emotional and physical abuse that many Black women experience from their fathers, lovers, and husbands all reflect practices opposed by African-American women who are feminists. But these same women may have a parallel desire as members of an oppressed racial group to affirm the value of that same culture and traditions.Thus strong Black mothers appear in Black women's literature, Black women's economic contributions to families is lauded, and a curious silence exists concerning domestic abuse. As more African-American women earn advanced degrees, the range of Black feminist scholarship is expanding. Increasing numbers of African-American women scholars are explicitly choosing to ground their work in Black women's experiences, and, by doing so, they implicitly adhere to an Afrocentric feminist epistemology.Rather than being restrained by their both/and status of marginality, these women make creative use of their outsider-within status and produce innovative Afrocentric feminist thought. The difficulties these women face lie less in demonstrating that they have mastered white male epistemologies than in resisting the hegemonic nature of these patterns of th ought in order to see, value, and use existing alternative Afrocentric feminist ways of knowing. In establishing the legitimacy of their knowledge claims, Black women scholars who want to develop Afrocentric feminist thought may encounter the often conflicting standards of three key groups.First, Black feminist thought must be validated by ordinary Atrican-American women who, in the words of Hannah Nelson, grow to womanhood â€Å"in a world where the saner you are, the madder you are made to appear. † To be credible in the eyes of this group, scholars must be personal advocates for their material, be accountable for the consequences of their work, have lived or experienced their material in some fashion, and be willing to engage in dialogues about their findings with ordinary, everyday people. Second, Black feminist thought also must be accepted by the community of Black women scholars.These scholars place varying amounts of importance on rearticulating a Black women's standp oint using an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Third, Afrocentric feminist thought within academia must be prepared to confront Eurocentric masculinist political and epistemological requirements. The dilemma facing Black women scholars engaged in creating Black feminist thought is that a knowledge claim that meets the criteria of adequacy for one group and thus is judged to be an acceptable knowledge claim may not be translatable into the terms of a different group.Using the example of Black English, June Jordan illustrates the difficulty of moving among epistemologies: You cannot â€Å"translate† instances of Standard English preoccupied with abstraction or with nothing/nobody evidently alive into Black English. That would warp the language into uses antithetical to the guiding perspective of its community of users. Rather you must first change those Standard English sentences, themselves, into ideas consistent with the person-centered assumptions of Black English.Although both worldviews share a common vocabulary, the ideas themselves defy direct translation. For Black women who are agents of knowledge, the marginality that accompanies outsider-within status can be the source of both frustration and creativity. In an attempt to minimize the differences between the cultural context of African-American communities and the expectations of social institutions, some women dichotomize their behavior and become two different people. Over time, the strain of doing this can be enormous.Others reject their cultural context and work against their own best interests by enforcing the dominant group's specialized thought. Still others manage to inhabit both contexts but do so critically, using their outsider-within perspectives as a source of insights and ideas. But while outsiders within can make substantial personal cost. â€Å"Eventually it comes to you,† observes Lorraine Hansberry, â€Å"the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is ine vitably that which must also make you lonely. Once Black feminist scholars face the notion that, on certain dimensions of a Black women's standpoint, it may be fruitless to try and translate ideas from an Afrocentric feminist epistemology into a Eurocentric masculinist framework, then other choices emerge. Rather than trying to uncover universal knowledge claims that can withstand the translation from one epistemology to another (initially, at least), Black women intellectuals might find efforts to rearticulate a Black women's standpoint especially fruitful.Rearticulating a Black women's standpoint refashions the concrete and reveals the more universal human dimensions of Black women's everyday lives. â€Å"I date all my work,† notes Nikki Giovanni, â€Å"because I think poetry, or any writing, is but a reflection of the moment. The universal comes from the particular. † Bell Hooks maintains, â€Å"my goal as a feminist thinker and theorist is to take that abstraction and articulate it in a language that renders it accessible–not less complex or rigorous–but simply more accessible. † The complexity exists; interpreting it remains the unfulfilled challenge for Black women intellectuals.Situated Knowledge, Subjugated Knowledge, and Partial Perspectives â€Å"My life seems to be an increasing revelation of the intimate trace of universal struggle,† claims June Jordan: You begin with your family and the kids on the block, and next you open your eyes to what you call your people and that leads you into land reform into Black English into Angola leads you back to your own bed where you lie by yourself; wondering if you deserve to be peaceful, or trusted or desired or left to the freedom of your own unfaltering heart. And the scale shrinks to the use of a skull: your own interior cage.Lorraine Hansberry expresses a similar idea: â€Å"I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create t he universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific. Universality, I think, emerges from the truthful identity of what is. † Jordan and Hansberry's insights that universal struggle and truth may wear a particularistic, intimate face suggest a new epistemological stance concerning how we negotiate competing knowledge claims and identify â€Å"truth. † The context in which African-American women's ideas are nurtured or suppressed matters.Understanding the content and epistemology of Black women's ideas as specialized knowledge requires attending to the context from which those ideas emerge. While produced by individuals, Black feminist thought as situated knowledge is embedded in the communities in which African-American women find ourselves. A Black women's standpoint and those of other oppressed groups is not only embedded in a context but exists in a situation characterized by domination. Because Black women's ideas have been suppressed, this suppression ha s stimulated African-American women to create knowledge that empowers people to resist domination.Thus Afrocentric feminist thought represents a subjugated knowledge. A Black women's standpoint may provide a preferred stance from which to view the matrix of domination because, in principle, Black feminist thought as specialized thought is less likely than the specialized knowledge produced by dominant groups to deny the connection between ideas and the vested interests of their creators. However, Black feminist thought as subjugated knowledge is not exempt from critical analysis, because subjugation is not grounds for an epistemology.Despite African-American women's potential power to reveal new insights about the matrix of domination, a Black women's standpoint is only one angle of vision. Thus Black feminist thought represents a partial perspective. The overarching matrix of domination houses multiple groups, each with varying experiences with penalty and privilege that produce co rresponding partial perspectives, situated knowledges, and, for clearly identifiable subordinate groups, subjugated knowledges. No one group has a clear angle of vision.No one group possesses the theory or methodology that allows it to discover the absolute â€Å"truth† or, worse yet, proclaim its theories and methodologies as the universal norm evaluating other groups' experiences. Given that groups are unequal in power in making themselves heard, dominant groups have a vested interest in suppressing the knowledge produced by subordinate groups. Given the existence of multiple and competing knowledge claims to â€Å"truth† produced by groups with partial perspectives, what epistemological approach offers the most promise? Dialogue and EmpathyWestern social and political thought contains two alternative approaches to ascertaining â€Å"truth. † The first, reflected in positivist science, has long claimed that absolute truths exist and that the task of scholarshi p is to develop objective, unbiased tools of science to measure these truths. . . . Relativism, the second approach, has been forwarded as the antithesis of and inevitable outcome of rejecting a positivist science. From a relativist perspective all groups produce specialized thought and each group's thought is equally valid. No group can claim to have a better interpretation of the â€Å"truth† than another.In a sense, relativism represents the opposite of scientific ideologies of objectivity. As epistemological stances, both positivist science and relativism minimize the importance of specific location in influencing a group's knowledge claims, the power inequities among groups that produce subjugated knowledges, and the strengths and limitations of partial perspective. The existence of Black feminist thought suggests another alternative to the ostensibly objective norms of science and to relativism's claims that groups with competing knowledge claims are equal. . . This app roach to Afrocentric feminist thought allows African-American women to bring a Black women's standpoint to larger epistemological dialogues concerning the nature of the matrix of domination. Eventually such dialogues may get us to a point at which, claims Elsa Barkley Brown, â€Å"all people can learn to center in another experience, validate it, and judge it by its own standards without need of comparison or need to adopt that framework as their own. In such dialogues, â€Å"one has no need to ‘decenter' anyone in order to center someone else; one has only to constantly, appropriately, ‘pivot the center. ‘ † Those ideas that are validated as true by African-American women, African-American men, Latina lesbians, Asian-American women, Puerto Rican men, and other groups with distinctive standpoints, with each group using the epistemological approaches growing from its unique standpoint, thus become the most â€Å"objective† truths. Each group speaks fr om its own standpoint and shares its own partial, situated knowledge.But because each group perceives its own truth as partial, its knowledge is unfinished. Each group becomes better able to consider other groups' standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own standpoint or suppressing other groups' partial perspectives. â€Å"What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life,† maintains Alice Walker, â€Å"is the larger perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's glance at the varied world the common thread, the unifying theme through immense diversity. Partiality and not universality is the condition of being heard; individuals and groups forwarding knowledge claims without owning their position are deemed less credible than those who do. Dialogue is critical to the success of this epistemological approach, the type of dialogue long extant in the Afrocentric call-and-response trad ition whereby power dynamics are fluid, everyone has a voice, but everyone must listen and respond to other voices in order to be allowed to remain in the community.Sharing a common cause fosters dialogue and encourages groups to transcend their differences. . . . African-American women have been victimized by race, gender, and class oppression. But portraying Black women solely as passive, unfortunate recipients of racial and sexual abuse stifles notions that Black women can actively work to change our circumstances and bring about changes in our lives.Similarly, presenting African-American women solely as heroic figures who easily engage in resisting oppression on all fronts minimizes the very real costs of oppression and can foster the perception that Black women need no help because we can â€Å"take it. † Black feminist thought's emphasis on the ongoing interplay between Black women's oppression and Black women's activism presents the matrix of domination as responsive t o human agency.Such thought views the world as a dynamic place where the goal is not merely to survive or to fit in or to cope; rather, it becomes a place where we feel ownership and accountability. The existence of Afrocentric feminist thought suggests that there is always choice, and power to act, no matter how bleak the situation may appear to be. Viewing the world as one in the making raises the issue of individual responsibility for bringing about change. It also shows that while individual empowerment is key, only collective action can effectively generate lasting social transformation of political and economic institutions.