Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Psychology Within Inside Out - 1018 Words

Psychology Within Inside Out The film Inside Out tells the story of a young girl named Riley and her changing emotions after she is forced to move from her home town in Minnesota to San Fransico for her father’s job. The story is told from the perspective of her five emotions. Riley’s emotions are led by Joy, who attempts to guide her through the stressful event. Although Joy puts forth great effort, Sadness takes over. When trying to protect Riley’s core memories from Sadness, Joy is swept from headquarters through the dump tube and Sadness follows. With Joy and Sadness gone, Anger, Fear, and Disgust are the only emotions left in headquarters; therefore, Riley cannot be happy or sad. Because Joy and Sadness are absent, Riley’s personality islands diminish one by one. Riley fights with her family, pushes away from her friends back home, and loses interest in hockey. As Joy and Sadness navigate through Riley’s brain in search of a way back to headquarters, they encounter many ob sticles. Back in headquarters, Anger, Fear, and Disgust place the idea of running away into Riley’s head. Joy witnesses the transformation of a sad memory into a happy memory, and finally realizes the importance of all emotions, including Sadness. With the help of Bing Bong, Riley’s imaginary friend, Joy and Sadness find their way back to headquarters and are able to stop Riley from running away. An update in headquarters takes place, and more personality islands develop. Joy learns to accept theShow MoreRelatedThe Downfall Of Positive Psychology1654 Words   |  7 Pages The Downfall of Positive Psychology In Schrank’s â€Å"Positive psychology: An Approach to Supporting Recovery in Mental Illness† he discusses the definition, history, research, and psychotherapy that is involved with positive psychology. 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Sunday, December 15, 2019

White Privilege Free Essays

White privilege is one issue that must be confronted as a precondition to releasing the energy required to successfully challenge institutional racism. It is the collection of benefits based on belonging to a group perceived to be white, when the same or similar benefits are denied to members of other groups. It is the benefit of access to resources and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society that white people receive, unconsciously or consciously, by virtue of their skin color The existence of white privilege in the Canadian society is not a useful tool to the growth of the society because, it encourages racism amongst individuals, makes the aboriginals feel less important and as such promotes hatred amongst others, and it promotes inequality in the society. We will write a custom essay sample on White Privilege or any similar topic only for you Order Now Therefore Canadian authorities should look out for the equality of its citizens as this is a very good way of making the society a better place. However, in other for one to fully understand the creation of whiteness in Canada, one needs to look at its historical formation. The study of whiteness is derived from the study of colonization. Edward Said described the relationship that British colonizers had with the people of the Middle East during early colonization. At that time, this area was referred to as the Orient and Said described this relationship as Orientalism. The Oriental or other image or stereotype created by the British. The other was basically everything that the West was not dark, savage, bestial, and lowbrow.  (Roediger, 1991) In some ways, British culture was able to define their self by positioning their self as opposite to the other. For example, British culture was civilized because its citizens did not live in grass huts. British culture was technologically advanced as compared to the spears of their kind. From these other, colonizing countries like Britain, France, Germany, and Nigeria were able to see themselves as civilized, advanced and dynamic when compared to the stable and primitive others. The fact that no single Oriental identity even existed was not taken into consideration (i.e. India and Egypt are very different cultures but categorized as Orientals in early colonialism). This ordering process also provided justification for colonizing as the colonizer could claim that they were civilizing a primitive culture. This process of ordering was carried to North America and was used in the colonization of Native Americans and in the enslavement of African Americans. â€Å"Indians† were seen as a homogeneous group of savages despite the fact that individual groups varied extensively and had well developed social systems. . Larocque posited that â€Å"Niggers† were also portrayed as savage, uncivilized and with low intelligence. By creating this identity, expansion into North America was justified. Stereotypes have an important function in the maintenance of racism. Between 1500 and 1800 A. D. , the stereotype of Indians as savages served to justify the dispossession of Indian lands. The dispossession and its legacy have created a powerful-powerless relationship between white and Native peoples. In order to maintain this power structure, new stereotypes of Native peoples have been created, as the need has arisen (Larocque, 1989, p.74). Besides providing a justification for dispossessing lands of colonized people, the creation of a stable other has helped to maintain this relationship of inequity. In Canada, the stereotype of a traditional Indian conjures up images of moccasins, beads, canoes, etc. It is as if these groups of people have been untouched by western civilization during the last two hundred years. The ordering process involved in traditional anthropology has perpetuated this stable identity since its inception. In the construction of these static stereotypes is the assumption that whiteness is goodness. Other races need to conform to the norm of whiteness. There is no room in Canadian society for the other unless they are in their purist form (i. e. unless the Indian remains primitive and stays on the reserve where they belongs). Otherwise, they should be assimilated into Canadian culture. By creating and maintaining static stereotypes, public attention to cries of structural inequity by marginalized groups can be deflected. More so, people of Native descent are no longer real Indians – if they were, they would not be having these problems because they would be living their traditional lives. There seems to be a need to deny that racism exists. An area of growing concern is the very common practice of blaming Native peoples for their socioeconomic conditions. Leaving behind the understanding that racism has also been institutionalized in government policies of assimilation, paternalism, and the historical and continuing confiscation of Native lands and resources. These policies have had a devastating impact on Native peoples but the fallout has been explained away as stemming from cultural differences. In turn â€Å"cultural differences† are reduced to stereotypes such as â€Å"Indians cannot or will not adjust to city life. In other words, Indian â€Å"culture†, rather than colonization or racism, is blamed for whatever has happened to Native people. (Laroque, 1989, p. 74 With the rise of Quebec nationalism in the 1960’s, the federal government’s response was to â€Å"increase and centralize its power. This entailed supplanting supposedly British institutions within Canada with indigenous Canadian equivalents† (Legare, 1995, p. 348). Concurrent to this were the demands by other groups to have their contributions to the development of Canada recognized. (Other) sections of the country began to imitate Quebec nationalists and articulate their own claims based on ethnic background and regional interests. They contended that, as immigrants from other (i. e. , non-British and also non-French) nations, they too had contributed to the developing nation. They argued that their contributions were being ignored in the two founding nations debate, and they demanded equal recognition with French and English Canadians. (Legare, 1995, p. 349). Following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the government of Canada officially recognized the multicultural nature of Canada within a bilingual framework. This strategy was an attempt to reconcile the division in Canada between French, Aboriginal, and immigrant assertions of rights; and, to define a Canadian identity in the face of an invasion of US culture. With this, there is no coincidence that ethnicity and multiculturalism were officially discovered at a time when Canada faced internal and external threats to its nationhood. From the start, it was ‘intended to ground Canadian nationhood in an identity that could be differentiated from threatening others both within and without. ’ Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau believed that multiculturalism could serve as ‘the glue of nationalism’, glue that could bind a uniquely defined nation, governed by a strong federal government. As a solution to internal divisions, official recognition of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework could counterbalance the contesting regional loyalties that endangered the unity of the nation. At the same time, by accepting all ethnically defined claims as equally valid, it could effectively neutralize nationalist claims to special status or rights, re-establishing and strengthening national unity. Multiculturalism views Canadians as having British values, customs, and beliefs. While still allowing for immigrants to celebrate they’re past cultures in a formalized way. These celebrations take place on special occasions and showcase historic traits such as food, clothing, music, material objects and language. However, this display is very much like the cultures found in museums or on a bookcase. They are taken out on special occasions but afterwards they are put back and everyone returns to normal or British customs. The overall effect of MC is to neutralize nationalist claims of special groups by making everyone the same or equal in present-day, British Canada or French Quebec. Those groups that do not accept this have to make a claim of distinctiveness or special status. However, this is impossible because under MC everyone is distinct and equal. Although multiculturalism sounds very egalitarian and defines Canadian culture by its tolerance for the other cultures that make it up, it is still racist. Multicultural reaffirms Aboriginal and immigrant groups as the other of traditional colonial discourses. By refusing to accept legends of their cultures and demanding to express their own cultural identities, these groups are excluded from citizenship in the eyes of many Canadians. They are â€Å"redefined as â€Å"special† (the problematic Canadian) or even unfair to those citizens who â€Å"chose† to give up their old ethnic selves and embrace loyalty to the Canadian nation†. Whiteness is the norm to which they are expected to conform as expressed by a quote from the Winnipeg Free Press: â€Å"By what right do Aboriginal people (and immigrants) receive services and demand rights when they are unwilling to contribute to the nation. Multiculturalism only recognizes diversity superficially. The underlying assumption to most European-Canadians is that Canada is still white. Stereotypes play an important role in perpetuating this view. The construction of the other through stereotypes has helped to maintain whiteness, white privilege and its invisibility. The construction of static, primitive and dark images is used to elevate the status of whites and define them as not the other. The goodness and dynamic nature of whiteness is inferred but not overtly stated; and, the privilege that accompanies whiteness is assumed the normal consequence of not being the other. How to cite White Privilege, Papers White Privilege Free Essays White privilege is one issue that must be confronted as a precondition to releasing the energy required to successfully challenge institutional racism. It is the collection of benefits based on belonging to a group perceived to be white, when the same or similar benefits are denied to members of other groups. It is the benefit of access to resources and social rewards and the power to shape the norms and values of society that white people receive, unconsciously or consciously, by virtue of their skin color The existence of white privilege in the Canadian society is not a useful tool to the growth of the society because, it encourages racism amongst individuals, makes the aboriginals feel less important and as such promotes hatred amongst others, and it promotes inequality in the society. We will write a custom essay sample on White Privilege or any similar topic only for you Order Now Therefore Canadian authorities should look out for the equality of its citizens as this is a very good way of making the society a better place. However, in other for one to fully understand the creation of whiteness in Canada, one needs to look at its historical formation. The study of whiteness is derived from the study of colonization. Edward Said described the relationship that British colonizers had with the people of the Middle East during early colonization. At that time, this area was referred to as the Orient and Said described this relationship as Orientalism. The Oriental or other image or stereotype created by the British. The other was basically everything that the West was not dark, savage, bestial, and lowbrow. (Roediger, 1991) In some ways, British culture was able to define their self by positioning their self as opposite to the other. For example, British culture was civilized because its citizens did not live in grass huts. British culture was technologically advanced as compared to the spears of their kind. From these other, colonizing countries like Britain, France, Germany, and Nigeria were able to see themselves as civilized, advanced and dynamic when compared to the stable and primitive others. The fact that no single Oriental identity even existed was not taken into consideration (i.e. India and Egypt are very different cultures but categorized as Orientals in early colonialism). This ordering process also provided justification for colonizing as the colonizer could claim that they were civilizing a primitive culture. This process of ordering was carried to North America and was used in the colonization of Native Americans and in the enslavement of African Americans. â€Å"Indians† were seen as a homogeneous group of savages despite the fact that individual groups varied extensively and had well developed social systems.. Larocque posited that â€Å"Niggers† were also portrayed as savage, uncivilized and with low intelligence. By creating this identity, expansion into North America was justified. Stereotypes have an important function in the maintenance of racism. Between 1500 and 1800 A. D. , the stereotype of Indians as savages served to justify the dispossession of Indian lands. The dispossession and its legacy have created a powerful-powerless relationship between white and Native peoples. In order to maintain this power structure, new stereotypes of Native peoples have been created, as the need has arisen (Larocque, 1989, p.74). Besides providing a justification for dispossessing lands of colonized people, the creation of a stable other has helped to maintain this relationship of inequity. In Canada, the stereotype of a traditional Indian conjures up images of moccasins, beads, canoes, etc. It is as if these groups of people have been untouched by western civilization during the last two hundred years. The ordering process involved in traditional anthropology has perpetuated this stable identity since its inception. Ð ¨n the construction of these static stereotypes is the assumption that whiteness is goodness. Other races need to conform to the norm of whiteness. There is no room in Canadian society for the other unless they are in their purist form (i. e. unless the Indian remains primitive and stays on the reserve where they belongs). Otherwise, they should be assimilated into Canadian culture. By creating and maintaining static stereotypes, public attention to cries of structural inequity by marginalized groups can be deflected. More so, people of Native descent are no longer real Indians – if they were, they would not be having these problems because they would be living their traditional lives. There seems to be a need to deny that racism exists. An area of growing concern is the very common practice of blaming Native peoples for their socioeconomic conditions. Leaving behind the understanding that racism has also been institutionalized in government policies of assimilation, paternalism, and the historical and continuing confiscation of Native lands and resources. These policies have had a devastating impact on Native peoples but the fallout has been explained away as stemming from cultural differences. In turn â€Å"cultural differences† are reduced to stereotypes such as â€Å"Indians cannot or will not adjust to city life. In other words, Indian â€Å"culture†, rather than colonization or racism, is blamed for whatever has happened to Native people. (Laroque, 1989, p. 74 With the rise of Quebec nationalism in the 1960’s, the federal government’s response was to â€Å"increase and centralize its power. This entailed supplanting supposedly British institutions within Canada with indigenous Canadian equivalents† (Legare, 1995, p. 348). Concurrent to this were the demands by other groups to have their contributions to the development of Canada recognized. (Other) sections of the country began to imitate Quebec nationalists and articulate their own claims based on ethnic background and regional interests. They contended that, as immigrants from other (i. e. , non-British and also non-French) nations, they too had contributed to the developing nation. They argued that their contributions were being ignored in the two founding nations debate, and they demanded equal recognition with French and English Canadians. (Legare, 1995, p. 349). Following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the government of Canada officially recognized the multicultural nature of Canada within a bilingual framework. This strategy was an attempt to reconcile the division in Canada between French, Aboriginal, and immigrant assertions of rights; and, to define a Canadian identity in the face of an invasion of US culture. With this, there is no coincidence that ethnicity and multiculturalism were officially discovered at a time when Canada faced internal and external threats to its nationhood. From the start, it was ‘intended to ground Canadian nationhood in an identity that could be differentiated from threatening others both within and without. ’ Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau believed that multiculturalism could serve as ‘the glue of nationalism’, glue that could bind a uniquely defined nation, governed by a strong federal government. As a solution to internal divisions, official recognition of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework could counterbalance the contesting regional loyalties that endangered the unity of the nation. At the same time, by accepting all ethnically defined claims as equally valid, it could effectively neutralize nationalist claims to special status or rights, re-establishing and strengthening national unity. Multiculturalism views Canadians as having British values, customs, and beliefs. While still allowing for immigrants to celebrate they’re past cultures in a formalized way. These celebrations take place on special occasions and showcase historic traits such as food, clothing, music, material objects and language. However, this display is very much like the cultures found in museums or on a bookcase. They are taken out on special occasions but afterwards they are put back and everyone returns to normal or British customs. The overall effect of MC is to neutralize nationalist claims of special groups by making everyone the same or equal in present-day, British Canada or French Quebec. Those groups that do not accept this have to make a claim of distinctiveness or special status. However, this is impossible because under MC everyone is distinct and equal. Although multiculturalism sounds very egalitarian and defines Canadian culture by its tolerance for the other cultures that make it up, it is still racist. Multicultural reaffirms Aboriginal and immigrant groups as the other of traditional colonial discourses. By refusing to accept legends of their cultures and demanding to express their own cultural identities, these groups are excluded from citizenship in the eyes of many Canadians. They are â€Å"redefined as â€Å"special† (the problematic Canadian) or even unfair to those citizens who â€Å"chose† to give up their old ethnic selves and embrace loyalty to the Canadian nation†. Whiteness is the norm to which they are expected to conform as expressed by a quote from the Winnipeg Free Press: â€Å"By what right do Aboriginal people (and immigrants) receive services and demand rights when they are unwilling to contribute to the nation. Multiculturalism only recognizes diversity superficially. The underlying assumption to most European-Canadians is that Canada is still white. Stereotypes play an important role in perpetuating this view. The construction of the other through stereotypes has helped to maintain whiteness, white privilege and its invisibility. The construction of static, primitive and dark images is used to elevate the status of whites and define them as not the other. The goodness and dynamic nature of whiteness is inferred but not overtly stated; and, the privilege that accompanies whiteness is assumed the normal consequence of not being the other. How to cite White Privilege, Papers White Privilege Free Essays string(230) " to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can \? nd ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices\." White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh â€Å"I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group† DAILY EFFECTS OF WHITE PRIVILEGE I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions. We will write a custom essay sample on White Privilege or any similar topic only for you Order Now 1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time. 2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me. 3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. . I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me. 5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. 6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented. 7. When I am told about our national heritage or about â€Å"civilization,† I am shown that people of my color made it what it is. 8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race. 9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of ? nding a publisher for this piece on white privilege. 10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race. 11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person’s voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race. 12. I can go into a music shop and count on ? nding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and ? nd the staple foods which ? t with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and ? nd someone who can cut my hair. 3. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of ? nancial reliability. 14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them. 15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection. 16. I can be pretty sure that my children’s teachers and employe rs will tolerate them if they ? t school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others’ attitudes toward their race. 17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color. 18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race. 19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial. 20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. 21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. Peggy McIntosh is associate director of the Wellesley Collage Center for Research on Women. This essay is excerpted from Working Paper 189. â€Å"White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies† (1988), by Peggy McIntosh; available for $4. 00 from the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley MA 02181. The working paper contains a longer list of privileges. This excerpted essay is reprinted from the Winter 1990 issue of Independent School. 22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion. 3. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. 24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the â€Å"person in charge†, I will be facing a person of my race. 25. If a traf? c cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race. 26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race. 27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared. 28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine. 29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me. 0. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn’t a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have. 31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can ? nd ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices. You read "White Privilege" in category "Papers" 32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races. 33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a re? ection on my race. 34. I can worry about racism without being seen as selfinterested or self-seeking. 35. I can take a job with an af? rmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race. 36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones. 37. I can be pretty sure of ? nding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally. 38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do. 39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness re? ect on my race. 40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen. 41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. 42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race. 3. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem. 44. I can easily ? nd academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race. 45. I can expect ? gurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race. 46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in â€Å"? esh† color and have them more or less mat ch my skin. 47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us. 48. I have no dif? culty ? nding neighborhoods where people approve of our household. 9. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership. 50. I will feel welcomed and â€Å"normal† in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social. Peggy McIntosh is associate director of the Wellesley Collage Center for Research on Women. This essay is excerpted from Working Paper 189. â€Å"White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies† (1988), by Peggy McIntosh; available for $4. 0 from the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley MA 02181. The working paper contains a longer list of privileges. This excerpted essay is reprinted from the Winter 1990 iss ue of Independent School. I CAN FIX IT! Volume 1. Racism: Part 1. White People 1. ADMIT IT. â€Å"The ? rst step is admitting you have a race† Be white. †¢ Acknowledge that white is a color and a race. Learn how to say â€Å"white people. † †¢ Don’t play dumb. Don’t say â€Å"I don’t know what to say, do, think† or â€Å"I don’t really have a race. † Resist feelings of hopelessness and self pity. Do not invent white suffering. Lose the drama. Admit that racism exists. †¢ Understand that it’s not all about slavery, that there have been many institutionalized racist practices in the history and present of the United States. Understand that all white people reap tremendous bene? ts from the legacy of slavery, segregation and the continuing effects of the racism it helped create. All white people bene? t even if they were not alive during the time of US slavery or if their ancestors immigrated to this country after the Civil War. Acknowledge that a very real present-day racism arose from social and institutionalized racist practices/laws of the past. Notice where those practices continue, and where you participate in them. Take notice. †¢ Observe how others are treated. When you walk into a room, bar, club, whatever notice the racial breakdown of the crowd. Getting in the habit of noticing who is around you (and who isn’t around you) is easy and promotes g eneral awareness. †¢ See white people. If you are going to identify a person by their race, make sure you identify all people by their race. That means saying â€Å"I saw this white man. Don’t let white be the default race. Spend a week identifying white people by their race, see how it affects you. †¢ Stop thinking of your opinions as objective or the â€Å"right way. † Instead acknowledge your perspective as coming from a white experience. Realize that people of color may see things differently than you for good reasons. †¢ Understand that reverse racism is an impossibility. †¢ Re? ect on the prejudices you grew up with, and then get over them. 2. LISTEN. â€Å"I’ve found that really listening to people of color and believing their experience is eye-opening. † Shut up, already. Listen to a person of color. No really, just listen. When a person of color is sharing their experiences, resist any urge to jump in and minimize or excuse t heir feelings. Don’t make it about you or what you are feeling in reaction to them. Don’t talk too much or say predictable stupid nervous things, just listen. Don’t try to ? x that person or change their mind. †¢ Understand that when a person of color talks to you about racism, they are trusting you. Treat that trust with the utmost respect. Honor Experience. †¢ Remember that people of color are sharing their true experiences not merely voicing an opinion. Understand that experience trumps opinion. Remember that people of color have experience with racism than you will never have, but don’t use this as an excuse for asking â€Å"stupid questions† or not educating yourself. †¢ When a person of color tells you or another white person that something he or she has said is offensive don’t get defensive . If you ? nd yourself getting defensive, listen to what that person is saying and try to change your way of thinking. †¢ Consider racism to be a form of violence or abuse. Honor Outrage. â€Å"If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. †¢ When white people mislabel outrage as anger it scares other white people away from doing the work and gives ammunition to racists. †¢ Remember that talking about things or speaking out and being heard is a good way for people to heal from trauma. Don’t punish, dismiss, or demean any emotion that people of color express in response to r acism. Don’t tell people of color that their outrage will scare white people or make people stop listening. †¢ Don’t tell people of color that they should educate white people or be gentle. †¢ Do not silence or sti? the voices of people of color. Excerpted from the full version of â€Å"I Can Fix It† which includes Part 2. People of Color, by damali ayo. Available at www. damaliayo. com Don’t impose. †¢ Think about what you say to people before you say it. †¢ Don’t impose your views on people of color. †¢ Don’t blame people of color for racism. †¢ Let people of color choose what they want to talk about. Don’t make every conversation with a person of color all about what you want to share or what you want to learn about. Don’t bring up racism just because you are talking to a person of color. If you do have a racial consciousness, don’t be selfrighteous about it. Don’t brag. Seek to al ways deepen your understanding instead of striving to get to a â€Å"? nished† place. heavy lifting† with regards to ? ghting (eliminating) racism. Find scholars who work on this subject instead of turning your friends of color or strangers of color into your personal educational system. If you have questions after you’ve done some reading, read more. A new method. †¢ Stop allowing yourself to be brainwashed into believing stereotypes. Acknowledge and examine our society’s stereotypes about people of color. Assume you’ve been in? uenced by them. What are they? Make a list. Know what you are working to change. †¢ Don’t assume that everyone is either a person of color or a white person. †¢ Change your thinking. Turn things around. Instead of asking why all the kids of color are sitting together in the lunchroom, ask why all of the white kids are sitting together. Instead of asking why something is all black, ask why something is all white. Instead of wondering why no people of color attend an event or join a group, ask why the group only attracts white people. Stop asking people of color about their hair. Realize this is a larger metaphor for treating people with respect and learning on your own. Don’t use your learning process as an excuse for rude behavior. †¢ Deepen your understanding by using the pyramid of culture. At the top, is surface stuff like dance, food, dress, etc. At the bottom are all the deeper issues such as cultural history. Many perso ns not of that culture only get involved at the top. †¢ Teach your children, and allow them to teach you. Be willing to be uncomfortable. Allow your brain to hurt. Understand that race and racism presents complexities and contradictions. Do not try to reduce or simplify. Suggested reading †¢ Teaching Learning Anti-Racism by Louise Derman Sparks and Carol Phillips †¢ What if All the Children are White by Sonia Nieto, Antonia Darder, Vivian Paley †¢ White Awareness by Judy Katz †¢ Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Tatum †¢ Uprooting Racism by Paul Kivel †¢ White Lies by Maurice Berger †¢ White Like Me by Tim Wise †¢ How to Rent a Negro by damali ayo 3. EDUCATE YOURSELF. â€Å"Seriously. Read a book or get on the net. † Plan it out. Make a list of questions you have about other races/ cultural groups. Find the answers to your questions without asking any people of color to help you. †¢ Realize that for the most part white people don’t have to care about or think about what it’s like to be a person of color. Take 5 minutes to consider what itâ⠂¬â„¢s like to be non-white, for 5 minutes choose to care about it. Read 5 novels by people of color. Go to 5 ? lms which are made by people of color. Buy a magazine oriented toward people who are not white. What’s it like to look through a magazine where 80% or more of the people are of color? How does the content differ—if at all? Genuinely explore a piece of artwork by a person of color. Do it right. †¢ Fight the urge to immediately tell a person of color that you have done the above, that’s just weird. †¢ Learn about people of color because they are part of your country and society, not because they are â€Å"exotic. † Do not view people of color as â€Å"different† as if white people are the â€Å"norm. † Actively work against institutionalizing whiteness as the norm. Do not refer to people of color as â€Å"diverse peoples,† this is racist and grammatically incorrect. Study the differences between racism, prejudice and discrimination. †¢ Educate yourself about the history of race and racism in the United States. Learn about the economic basis and effects of racism, and the institutional powers that perpetuate racism. Actively seek out the perspectives and insights of those who are doing â€Å"the Excerpted from the full version of â€Å"I Can Fix It† which includes Part 2. People of Color, by damali ayo. Available at www. damaliayo. com 4. BROADEN YOUR EXPERIENCE. â€Å"Caution: Please don’t do this until you’ve successfully completed steps 1–3. † The obvious and the simple. Learn about other cultures, not by asking questions but by spending time with people (without interrogating them). †¢ Hold a door for, or do some other small un-returnable kindness for a person of color. Smile at someone who is not white. Stop expecting things in return. Get out there. †¢ Put yourself into environments predominantly attended by people of color, where you are likely to get to know more people of color. Whether it’s a professional organization, local political/cultural event, a community group or church, a friend’s birthday party, an art event, whatever. Go alone. Don’t bring your comforting posse, or some friend to share or analyze your exotic experience with. Do not treat this as an exotic experience. See it as living in the real world instead of the limited world you now live in. Observe without photos mental or actual. Don’t act like a tourist. Don’t stay till it is cleanup time. Don’t take more than you give. †¢ Donate and volunteer with racial justice groups that will put you in situations where you are the racial minority. Don’t then brag about this experience and say you know what it’s like to be â€Å"a minority† or a person of color. Never use the phrase â€Å"reverse racism† since there is no such thing. †¢ Make a commitment to participate in and develop an in-depth appreciation of an activity that helps you to shift your awareness into cultures of color from a mind-body perspective (music, food, dance, language, philosophy). Engage in something that helps you to develop a new vocabulary with which to relate to people. Make new friends. †¢ Diversify your circle of friends. Reach out further than you have before. It’s much easier to make friends with people when you approach them from an already educated point of view. Remember that people of color have a shared historical experience and that we are also each individuals. Make it a point to cultivate friends from a range of backgrounds. Stereotypes become popular when we don’t get to know people as individuals. Don’t get lazy or give up. It takes time to get to know people. †¢ Befriend a person of color. No really, but not in that token, â€Å"Lets have lunch† way, but in that, â€Å"I know your birthday and know what you actually want for your birthday† way. Eat together, laugh together, cry together, dance together, love each other. Build the kind of friendship in that, â€Å"5 years from now, when you (or I) screw up a relationship, you (or I) can crash on the couch for a month† way. Expect nothing in return, not because they are a person of color, but because they are human, and it might just not work out. Raise smart kids. †¢ Stop passing down racist prejudices to your children. Expose them to differences early on. Actively encourage your children and all children to develop relationships with people of color, both adults and children. Create opportunities for them to play and socialize in racially integrated environments. Break down segregation by going the extra step of providing rides for play/study dates to and from their friends’ homes. Excerpted from the full version of â€Å"I Can Fix It† which includes Part 2. People of Color, by damali ayo. Available at www. damaliayo. com 5. TAKE ACTION. â€Å"Now where do I put my foot after I’ve taken it out of my mouth? † Don’t just talk about it. Be about it. Make an action plan. Include the following: Consider racism your problem to solve. †¢ Always confront racism, ignorance and inappropriate behavior/language when you see, hear, read, or experience it. If someone says something racist don’t laugh awkwardly or ignore it. Use the power of your voice. Interrupt/address racism no matter how uncomfortable it makes you, no matter who you are required to confront. Do not make exceptions for your family, your friends, or in the workplace because you fear the consequences. †¢ When speaking out against racism, be gentle but ? rm. Practice civility but also directness. Set that person straight. White people are more likely to listen to you than to the person that they are offending. Leave the over-niceness at home. Being overly-nice only makes a safe atmosphere for racism and an unsafe atmosphere for others (particularly people of color) to confront it head on. †¢ Challenge white people to talk about racism. Learning â€Å"what not to say† is not the point. Understanding how racism works and how it can be dismantled is the point. Help fellow white people to learn not just react. Be a visible person in the ? ght against racism. In the media: †¢ When a racist incident occurs in the public eye, write a letter to the editor of your local paper condemning the behavior. Identify yourself as a white person in our letter. At work: †¢ Whatever your place of profession, eliminate institutionalized practices that are discriminatory towards people of color or rewarding white privilege. Hire, retain, and promote people of color. Maintain a wide range of employees. In the community: †¢ Become involved in an organization that is involved with communities of color, like a church, a s chool, a non- pro? t, a business or a reading group. Make your involvement more than ? nancial. Involve your time, energy, participation and emotional connection. Stay committed to this organization for at least three years. With your kids: †¢ Since people often live in mostly segregated parts of any city/town, send your kids to public schools if you live in a city, and demand that students of color are recruited into the advanced/honors/AP classes. Integrate the books and toys in your children’s school, and at home. Demand teachers of color for the sake of your kids not just for the kids of color. Promote that a racially integrated educational environment is the best for white kids as well as for kids of color. Fight for equal education for kids of all races. Expose movements that subtly privilege white children over children of color. ABOUT DAMALI AYO Artist and author damali ayo ? rst reached wide-ranging audiences with her satirical Web site â€Å"rent-a-negro. com. † The Web site expertly entices viewers into a service that allows them to rent a pleasing and friendly African American for social and business occasions. The project is a cunning exploration of race relations and the commodi? cation of racial difference. ayo’s book, How to Rent a Negro expands this much needed dialogue on race. The book is acclaimed as â€Å"one of the most trenchant and amusing commentaries on contemporary race relations. damali’s work has been featured in Harpers Magazine, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Independent UK, Radio Populare Italy, The Tavis Smiley Radio Show, Public Radio International, The O’Reilly Factor, ABCNews. com, MSNBC. com Nerve. com, and Salon. com. damali ayo won a national federation of community broadcasters 2005 silver reel aw ard for arts features and reporting. To bring damali ayo to speak to your school, company or organization email info@damaliayo. com or call Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau at 617-266-3450. Excerpted from the full version of â€Å"I Can Fix It† which includes Part 2. People of Color, by damali ayo. Available at www. damaliayo. com The Fears of White People by Robert Jensen It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it’s critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system. The ? st, and perhaps most crucial, fear is that of facing the fact that some of what we white people have is unearned. It’s a truism that we don’t really make it on our own; we all have plenty of help to achieve whatever we achieve. That means that some of what we have is the product of the work of others, distributed unevenly across society, over which we may have little or no control individually. No matter how har d we work or how smart we are, we all know—when we are honest with ourselves—that we did not get where we are by merit alone. And many white people are afraid of that fact. A second fear is crasser: White people’s fear of losing what we have—literally the fear of losing things we own if at some point the economic, political, and social systems in which we live become more just and equitable. That fear is not completely irrational; if white privilege—along with the other kinds of privilege many of us have living in the middle class and above in an imperialist country that dominates much of the rest of the world—were to evaporate, the distribution of resources in the United States and in the world would change, and that would be a good thing. We would have less. That redistribution of wealth would be fairer and more just. But in a world in which people have become used to af? uence and material comfort, that possibility can be scary. A third fear involves a slightly different scenario—a world in which non-white people might someday gain the kind of power over whites that whites have long monopolized. One hears this constantly in the conversation about immigration, the lingering fear that somehow â€Å"they† (meaning not just Mexican-Americans and Latinos more generally, but any non-white immigrants) are going to keep moving to this ountry and at some point become the majority demographically. Even though whites likely can maintain a disproportionate share of wealth, those numbers will eventually translate into political, economic, and cultural power. And then what? Many whites fear that the result won’t be a system that is more just, but a system in which white people become the minority and could be treated as whites have long treated non-whites. This is perhaps the deepest fear that lives in the heart of whiteness. It is not really a fear of non-white people. It’s a fear of the depravity that lives in our own hearts: Are non-white people capable of doing to us the barbaric things we have done to them? A ? nal fear has probably always haunted white people but has become more powerful since the society has formally rejected overt racism: The fear of being seen, and seen-through, by non-white people. Virtually every white person I know, including white people ? ghting for racial justice and including myself, carries some level of racism in our minds and hearts and bodies. In our heads, we can pretend to eliminate it, but most of us know it is there. And because we are all supposed to be appropriately anti-racist, we carry that lingering racism with a new kind of fear: What if non-white people look at us and can see it? What if they can see through us? What if they can look past our anti-racist vocabulary and sense that we still don’t really know how to treat them as equals? What if they know about us what we don’t dare know about ourselves? What if they can see what we can’t even voice? I work in a large university with a stated commitment to racial justice. All of my faculty colleagues, even the most reactionary, have a stated commitment to racial justice. And yet the fear is palpable. It is a fear I have struggled with, and I remember the ? rst time I ever articulated that fear in public. I was on a panel with several other professors at the University of Texas discussing race and politics in the O. J. Simpson case. Next to me was an African American professor. I was talking about media; he was talking about the culture’s treatment of the sexuality of black men. As we talked, I paid attention to what was happening in me as I sat next to him. I felt uneasy. I had no reason to be uncomfortable around him, but I wasn’t completely comfortable. During the questionand-answer period—I don’t remember what question sparked my comment—I turned to him and said something like, â€Å"It’s important to talk about what really goes on between black and white people in this country. For instance, why am I feeling afraid of you? I know I have no reason to be afraid, but I am. Why is that? † My reaction wasn’t a crude physical fear, not some remnant of being taught that black men are dangerous (though I have had such reactions to black men on the street in certain circumstances). Instead, I think it was that fear of being seen through by non-white people, especially when we are talking about race. In that particular moment, for a white academic on an O. J. panel, my fear was of being exposed as a fraud or some kind of closet racist. Even if I thought I knew what I was talking about and was being appropriately anti-racist in my analysis, I was afraid that some lingering trace of racism would show through, and that my black colleague would identify it for all in the room to see. After I publicly recognized the fear, I think I started to let go of some of it. Like anything, it’s a struggle. I can see ways in which I have made progress. I can see that in many situations I speak more freely and honestly as I let go of the fear. I make mistakes, but as I become less terri? ed of making mistakes I ? nd that I can trust my instincts more and be more open to critique when my instincts are wrong. This essay is excerpted from The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, September 2005). More information at: http://www. citylights. com/CLpub4th. html#4499 How to cite White Privilege, Papers White Privilege Free Essays Data Analysis Investigation Introduction Research Question: Do individuals in the Midwest experience the affects of white privilege? During this investigation I seek to explore the differences in privilege that males and females, of different race and ethnic backgrounds, experiences in their daily lives. My fellow Sociology of Race and Ethics classmates and I will conduct Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege survey, in hopes to find any differences in privilege felt by individuals of varying age, gender, race or class membership. My hypothesis is: According to Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege survey, she suggests that white people are privileged with what she describes as â€Å"an invisible package of unearned assets, which I (Peggy McIntosh) can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. We will write a custom essay sample on White Privilege or any similar topic only for you Order Now White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks† (McIntosh, 1988). I suggest that with the changing of times, and ever growing equality that this distinct idea of white privilege is no longer prevalent. I believe that, McIntosh’s view of white privilege is no longer applicable in today’s Midwestern society and culture. I hypothesize that age will have more of an effect on responses to the survey than that of gender or race. I predict that younger people (below 20) are at a greater risk of feeling â€Å"underprivileged†. For my second hypothesis, I suggest that overall people in the Midwest feel privileged versus not. I believe this because I feel that the social stratification in the US, especially in the Midwest, has declined creating a more equal environment for all. Data Collection I will receive my data though the use of Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege survey. First I will take the survey, while recording my answers, and then give the survey to ten other individuals, recording their answers in the same format. My fellow classmates will do the same, then all of the information will be then collected and charted accordingly into cross-tabulation tables. Each survey participant will be asked to rate their responses on a 1-4 scale: 1 = Strongly Agree, 2 = Agree, 3 = Disagree and 4= Strongly Disagree. The date responses can than be interpreted as answers of Strongly Agree, and Agree indicating a greater response of â€Å"privilege† – which McIntosh believes suggests members in a majority group. The data will then be organized into cross-tabulation tables. Each table will contain only two variables – one independent variable (gender, age, race, member of the class or not) and one dependent variable (each statement from the survey). After collecting the data a few changes were made: age was recoded into groups of ages, while also recoding all responses of ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly Disagree’ into one value for each variable, both to make analysis easier. Race was also recoded into ‘White’ and ‘All Other Races’ to expedite analysis. Also the ethnicity variable responses were found to be unreliable, so that variable was removed before running the data. When reading a cross-tabulation table it is important to remember that in order to interpret the data response, you must look for the differences in the percentages of responses not in the difference in the number of responses. Also, the needed information is, if the independent variable (gender, age, race or class membership) seems to make a difference in how a person responds to the dependent variable (the questions). After all the data has been gathered and charted, I will then compare the findings to my hypothesis. In order to discover whether my hypothesis is true or false I will evaluate the cross tables of age, gender, race and class completed from the collected data. Exploring the Data – Younger ages (less than 20) have a larger affect than old age in feeling â€Å"underprivileged†. After analyzing the data, I believe my hypothesis that the ages 18-19 feel underprivileged as compared to the older ages, was correct. This is represented in the findings, that of the en questions surveyed, exactly one half the questions (five of ten) the age group 18-19 had the highest disagreement percentage compared to the other age groups. No other age group had close to the equivalent outcomes, the closest age group being groups 24-34 and 45-50 both with two. The findings show that in one half of all situations this age group is presented with, they feel as though they are underprivileged as co mpared to other age groups, but by examining just the 18-19 age group or age as a whole, the majority feel as though the ‘Agree’ they are privileged. This finding is universal through all independent variables. While comparing all independent variables, of the 10 survey scenarios no matter what the independent variable is 70% of the time the participants feel they ‘Agree’ to being privileged. Exploring Data – Midwesterners overall feel â€Å"privileged† versus â€Å"underprivileged† no matter the independent factor. After analyzing the cross-tabulations, I feel as though my hypothesis about the Midwestern society is spot on. The data show’s that across any independent factor (age, gender, race and lass membership) a large majority of the participants surveyed feel as though they ‘Agree’ to being privileged. This is an overwhelming statistic that is constant throughout all independent variables; of the ten surveyed scenarios people agree 70% of the time to feeling privileged. In only, one scenario do people as a whole feel as though they are underprivileged. Overall Analysis and Personal Findings I found the collective results very interesting, especially in the age category. I thought it was interesting that older adults feel less privileged more than or equal to that of middle aged adults. I had assumed, that in our society much like that of the Native American societies that respect and privilege comes with age. I found the data surprising that the age group that tended to feel most privileged was ages 20-21. In four of the ten scenarios, the 20-21 year olds surveyed felt the most privileged or ‘Strongly Agreed’ to the situation as compared to all other age groups. I did not expect this, as the previous age group had felt the most nderprivileged in half of the scenarios, and in only an addition 1-2 years, the surveyed participant went from feeling the most underprivileged to the most privileged. I had guessed that the feeling of privilege would gradually increase with age groups, leaving the oldest age group (50 and older) with the highest feeling of privilege. I thought this, not only because society often deems wisdom with age, but also because the older participants surveyed may have grown up in a more dominant white privilege society, and those same feelings and thought processes would still be relevant to the way they feel they fit in society. All in all, I found very interesting facts from the data collected in every category. Things that I had thought would hold true, often did not. Such as, when considering the independent variable of gender, I assumed that women would primarily feel as though they were underprivileged as compared to men, but the data shows other wise. From this survey, men felt more underprivileged as compared to their female counterparts 100% of the time. Another fact that I found shocking was that when considering race as the independent variable. My hypothesis that white privilege was no long prevalent in the Midwest was incorrect. Participants of the ‘Other’ race felt underprivileged in half of the scenarios, and the other half they only ‘Agreed’ to feeling privileged. As compared to their ‘White’ counterparts, feeling privileged 100% of the time. I do believe that in the Midwest, things are moving close to equality as this is seen in at least half or more of the situations both the ‘White’ and ‘Other’ race group feel as though they ‘Agree’ to being privileged. No one group stands out as ‘Strongly Agreeing’ to be privileged for the majority. This tells us, that although there are still instances of white privilege, the Midwestern society is moving away from that and more towards social equality. Works Cited: McIntosh, Peggy. â€Å"Daily effects of white privilege. † White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, 1988. Tues. 19 Feb 2013. . How to cite White Privilege, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Inspirational Person Essay - Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green free essay sample

Augustus Waters, with a cigarette dangling from his pale lips, smirks slightly while sitting in Cancer Support Group. Augustus is a 17 year old boy, cancer survivor, and madly in love with a girl whose lungs are filled with fluid. He first met Hazel, who is the main character of the story, at a Cancer Support Group located in their small town in Indiana. They end up reading the same books, visiting Amsterdam to visit their favorite author and falling in love along the way. Once a basketball player, he had his leg amputated due to Osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bones. Osteosarcoma is a tumor that tends to start in the bones of legs, which can lead into the tumor spreading and death. He now has a prosthetic leg, in absence of his amputated leg, to walk on but he doesn’t let the cancer get to him. With dark hair, green eyes, and an always smirking smile, he captures your attention as soon as you meet him. We will write a custom essay sample on Inspirational Person Essay Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Augustus Waters in â€Å"The Fault in Our Stars† by John Green is inspirational because he found humor in death, was very wise, and fought until the very end. One of my favorite things about Gus is that he found humor in death. I know, that sounds wrong, but he believed in a metaphor; â€Å"It’s a metaphor see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t let it do it’s killing. † What he meant by that is he always had a pack of cigarettes, and one, unlit, between his lips. He found that in a way taunting death made him feel stronger. He always believed that everything should have a metaphor, for he was never seen without one plain as day. Augustus was also very wise. He would always ask questions, but they were never stupid. They were actually very intelligent questions. He spoke wisely, for he believed that human nature should not be wasted on stupidity. Once when discussing their fears, Hazel, the main character, told him that she was afraid of human oblivion. He replied: â€Å"There will come a time when all of us will be dead. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. If the inevitability of human oblivion scares you, then I highly suggest you ignore it. † The fear of oblivion, or death, is called Thanatophobia. He and Hazel also would have many conversations about books and the meaning of life. Finally, Gus was a fighter until the very end. When he was 15 ? he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a cancer which spreads through the bones. This cancer spread throughout his left leg, causing it to have to be amputated and his acceptance of a prosthetic leg. Osteosarcoma is diagnosed in about 800 people per year, 400 of them being teens and children. It also claims the lives of about 300 people per year. When admitted to the hospital after cancer cells had been found once again, 8 days before he died, they took away his metaphorical cigarettes. He was so angered by this that he drove himself, while in critical condition, to a gas station to buy some more. When coming back to the hospital they asked him to rate his pain on a scale from 1 10, 1 being the least amount of pain and 10 being the most. He told them it was a 9. A day afterwards, a nurse approached him saying, â€Å"You know how I know you’re a fighter? You called a 10 a 9. † Even up to the end, Gus was upbeat and smiling. What inspiration, or being an inspiring person, means to me is when someone can be themselves and accept that. Someone who has gone against odds, the â€Å"status quo,† to be themselves. Augustus has always been a fighter and kind to others, as well as to himself. What made me believe he was inspirational was the fact that he fought and fought against his cancer, and he was always so positive in doing so. Something he taught me is that in life when things start looking towards the worst, you cannot give up. For in life, you must always have hope.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Why Some Sociologists Choose to Use Structured Interviews When Conducting Research free essay sample

Examine the reasons why some sociologists choose to use structured interviews when conducting research. There are three types of interviews; structured, unstructured and semi-structured interviews. The most commonly used types of interviews by sociologists are structured interviews and unstructured interviews. Structured interviews have various advantages, therefore, some sociologists, mainly Positivist sociologists, choose to use structured interviews when conducting research. Positivists are mainly interested in research methods that achieve their main goals of reliability, generalisability and representativeness, for this reason, they favour structured interviews as they achieve these goals. This is because structured interviews often have questions and answers that are standardised; they are reliable because they can be therefore replicated. Positivist sociologists also prefer to use structured interviews when conducting research because the pre-coded responses mean that quantitative data can be produced and so cause-and-effect relationships can be established. Also, structured interviews are representative and can therefore be generalised, because of the fact that they are often large-scale. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Some Sociologists Choose to Use Structured Interviews When Conducting Research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are also practical advantages to using structured interviews. For an example, training interviewers is relatively easy and inexpensive as no specialist skills have to be taught as the questions tend to be very straightforward as they often close-ended, and do not require too much thought. Also, because skills taught are minimal, the process of training interviewers will not cost too much. Another practical advantage, is that structured interviews are relatively cheap and easy to administer, so large quantities of interviews can be carried out, meaning that are large-scale , so sociologists, especially Positivists’, can generalise data as the data found will be representative. Also, another practical advantage is that they are relatively straightforward to carry out, and factual information can be found out quickly and cheaply, such as a person’s age. A final practical advantage, adding to why sociologists may choose structured interviews, is that because the questions are close-ended, the results can be easily quantified and so structured interviews are very suitable for hypothesis testing. An ethical advantage is that informed consent can be found, if the interview is carried out on the children, informed consent can be provided by the parents. Another ethical advantage, dding to why sociologists choose structured interviews, is that interviewees may feel more relaxed about answering questions, because they should be told that they have the right not to answer any question they do not want to. Another advantage, is that although the numbers that can be studied using structured interviews are relatively lower than that of postal questionnaires, structured interviews generally have a higher response rate. For an example, in the case of Young and Willmott’s study, only 54 out of 987 people that they asked to interview, refused to be interviewed, possibly because it is easier to simply not complete and post back a questionnaire than to turn down an interview, because with interviews, the request for one is often face-to-face, and many people will prefer interviews because of the chance to talk to someone about particular issues that they feel strongly about and have opinions about. Response rates may also be fairly high with structured interviews, making the interviews more representative, because the interviewer may make several call backs to people who initially fail to respond to questions, and therefore, a better basis for generalisation, which is required for Positivists’ research, can be provided.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Different from, Different to, Different than

Different from, Different to, Different than Different from, Different to, Different than Different from, Different to, Different than By Maeve Maddox We all have our pet grammar peeves, usages that, when we hear them, affect us like the sound of a fingernail against a chalkboard. Ill bet Im not the only one who shudders to hear sentences like these: A boxer is different than a Doberman. This car is different to that one. Yet, are these usages really incorrect? According to the entry for different from, different to, different than at Bartleby.com, These three have been usage items for many years. All are Standard and have long been so (different to is limited to British English, however), but only different from seems never to meet objections. Elements of Style weighs in against different than: Here logic supports established usage: one thing differs from another, hence, different from. Or, other than, unlike. From H.W. Fowler comes this pronouncement: That different can only be followed by from and not by to is a superstition. He points out that writers of all ages have used different to. He does not mention the use of different than. It would seem, then, that any of the three is acceptable. Nevertheless, the concluding advice at Bartleby.com agrees with my own: for Formal and Oratorical levels: stick with different from. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Creative Writing 10150 Synonyms for â€Å"Idea†25 Idioms About Bread and Dessert

Friday, November 22, 2019

Brachytherapy in Treating Cervical Cancer-Free-Samples for Students

Brachytherapy is a form of cancer treatment where radioactive pounds sealed in a wire, pellet or capsule is introduced into the body with the help of a catheter in order to damage the DNA of the cancer cells. It has a wide spread of application in the treatment of prostate cancer and cervical cancer. The benefits of brachytherapy are that it allows an augmented dose of radiation in a limited area unlike the other types of the radiation treatments. It actually helps to lessen the damage to the surrounding tissues due to radiation. The last two papers are about improving the image guided brachytherapy techniques in the treatment of cervical cancers. Two of my chosen papers are related to the same, as IGBT helps in a more accurate treatment and lesions that are too large for applying the other treatment techniques.   Significant improvements have occurred in the last three decades due to the use of the 3-D image guided procedures. Incorporation of the transrectal US in the image guide d brachytherapy have been found to be effective in centers that have do not access to MRI. The monly used method in the treatment of the cervical cancer is the Manchester Point A system. But the 2-D X ray image shows no contract of the soft tissues. Image guided brachytherapy helps to target the desired tissue.   There had been increasing evidence of the benefits of the image guided brachytherapy in cervical cancer, which is the main rationale behind the chosen papers. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the gynecologic brachytherapy, with a focus on the recent advancements and their implications on the cervical cancer in women. The paper describes about the evaluation and the staging of the patient, According to this paper the initial stages of evaluation includes the cervical biopsy of the hystopathological diagnosis. According to the FIGO r mendations, patients with who would be receiving the radiation treatment should have a planning of the CT stimulation before the initiation of the EBRT. The paper also brings about a parison between the high dose rate brachytherapy and low dose rate brachytherapy. Previously LDR was used exclusively for treating the cancer by using a cesium -137 isotope. Since 2000s, the utilization of the HDR has increased considerably. The HDR employs a remote after loading technology allowing a small iridium source connected to the end of a cable that is robotically driven via the multiple channels ceasing at the dwell positions for different span of time.   The article also refers to a third type of treatment that is monly not used in the US known as the pulse dose rate (PDR) brachtherapy. The paper also gives an account of the choices, by which cervical brachytherapy can be performed, namely the intracavitary, interstitial, or a binatory approach. A cohort study was done in order to measure the clinical ou es of the image guided brachytherapy. The study pared the 2D versus the 3D IGBT . In the patients treated with both the EBRT plus chemother apy followed by a brachytherapy could show a local relapse free survival 74 % of the selected patients. Similar improvement was found in another study containing patients from Vienna. It can be understood from the paper that brachytherapy can improve the local control, reduce the toxicity and improve the overall survival rate of cervical cancer in women. The study of the paper also enables one to understand that the disadvantage of brachytherapy is that, it is invasive. The randomized control study involving 2D planning and 3D planning in selected patients showed better results in patients being treated with image guided brachtherapy. The paper also gave an account of the appropriate treatment target volume, the appropriate dose and the fractionation scheme. Although the progression from the 2D- 3D based imaging and the treatment planning for the cervical cancer has increased the overall survival of the women. Further data from the 3-D based treatment is required associated with the decrease in the toxicity of the technique. The previous paper focused on the effectiveness of overall brachytherapy in cervical cancer, but this article will aim to focus on the advantages of using imaging brachytherapy over conventional methods of brachytherapy.   The paper involves a retrospective analysis of the ou es in patient suffering from stage IB-IVA cervical cancer treated with primary radiation therapy. The ou e measures were the relapse free survival of the patient, distant metastasis, pelvic control and other adverse events related to the treatment. 126 patients have been analyzed out of which 43 patients have been treated with CBT between the years 2000-2007, and 83 patients have been treated with IGBT between the years 2007- 2012. The conventional bracgytherapy involved the application of the low dose brachytherapy and high dose rate brachytherapy was used after 2005. The standard brachytherapy applicators used were intracavatary ovoids and tandem.   From 2011, interstitial needles can be introduced in to t he ovoids for optimizing the dose distribution around the neoplasia. All the records of the adverse events were recorded if prompted by the signs and the symptoms.   The results concluded that cervical cancer survival rates have increased with the introduction of IGBT. The application of the MRI based adaptive IGBT technique was found to be useful for the patients with stage IB-IVA cervical cancer. The overall survival rate was found to improve from 51% to 83% with the shift from conventional brachytherapy to imaging brachytherapy. The study confirmed that there had been a significant decrease in the distant metastasis in the group treated with IGBT. The pelvic control rates were also found to be improved in the IGBT group. Data obtained from the patient’s record found that the IGBT patients were more likely to plete the chemotherapy faster than the patients’ receiving the conventional brachytherapy. The use of IGBT in the primary chemo radiation of the cervical cancer is superior to the CBT and should be considered as the new standard of care. It can be known from the paper that there is a requirement of improvement of the nodal and the PAN tumor control, using the PET-CT and the lessening of the adverse events in both the standard and the adaptive IMRT. A 3D MRI based image guided brachytherapy have been found to reduce the toxicity as discussed in the previous paper. The objectives of the paper were realistic. One of the limitations of the paper is that the sample population of the cohort was not large. Although there are several studies that have actually provided the evidences of imaging brachytherapy. Brachytherapy is an essential ponent for the treatment of the cervical cancers that have progressed locally. It allows the dose of the tumor to be amplified sparing the nearby tissues. Image guided brachytherapy have found to lessen the local recurrence. The article focuses on how the 3D conformal brachytherapy can be used in a hospital setting and how the brachytherapy services can be improved. The radiological studies operative parameters and patient workflow and intensive therapy planning can pose challenge to the clinical resources. The paper also discuses about the translational research opportunities in the field of brachytherapy. One of the concerns is that some proportion of the tumor will display biological resistance to the radiations and even to brachytherapy. The objective of the paper was to find new advancement in the field of imaging-brachytherapy. Hence the paper had been appropriate in stating the recent advancements in the radiotherapy techniques like the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and the stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). This research paper also enables one to understand the demerits of the therapy, such as IMRT had been unsuccessful in achieving the target volume doses unlike that of the image guided brachytherapy. The paper informs that IGBT is more time consuming and requires individual planning and contouring. Additional resources such as MRI/CT scans and the patible applicators are required. The cost of setting up an IGBT is about 10-15 % more than that of the conventional procedures of brachytherapy. In a clinical setting with IGBT facilities there should be provisions for an intrauterine brachytherapy applicator as most of the patients will be having an intact uterus, which will require the placement of an intrauterine tube. It can be understood from all the three papers that image guided brachytherapy makes 3D models by using the cross sectional image. It should be mentioned that the points of similarities between the three papers were much more than the differences as all the three papers focused on the advancements in the field of brachytherapy in treating cervical cancers and the advantage of using image dependant brachytherapy over the conventional treatment of the brachytherapy. The difference between the three papers is that the last two papers focused more on the improvements in the image guided brachytherapy. The last papers exclusively mentioned the advancements rather than just paring with the conventional standards. Various retrospective studies and the cohort studies described in the three papers have showed better survival rates in patients with cervical cancer. Among the three papers my choice of paper was the first one as it had elaborately stated the difference between the new techniques and the old ones such as the difference between the HDR brachytherapy and the LDR brachytherapy, the selection of the applicator. It further gives information about the intracavity brachytherapy, interstitial brachytherapy. An appropriate treatment planning was mentioned. This assignment has not only aided us to know about the different image guided brachytherapy techniques but have also informed us with the procedures undertaken in brachytherapy Banerjee, R., & Kamrava, M. (2014). Brachytherapy in the treatment of cervical cancer: a review. International journal of women's health, 6, 555.   Otter, S., Franklin, A., Ajaz, M., & Stewart, A. (2016). Improving the efficiency of image guided brachytherapy in cervical cancer. Journal of Contemporary Brachytherapy, 8(6), 557–565. https://doi.org/10.5114/jcb.2016.64452 Rijkmans, E. C., Nout, R. A., Rutten, I. H. H. M., Ketelaars, M., Neelis, K. J., Laman, M. S., ... & Creutzberg, C. L. (2014). Improved survival of patients with cervical cancer treated with image-guided brachytherapy pared with conventional brachytherapy. Gynecologic oncology, 135(2), 231-238

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention Research Paper - 1

Genocide and Humanitarian Intervention - Research Paper Example Despite optimistic dreams, harmony was shattered in the early 1990s with the explosion of ethnic conflict and humanitarian tragedies on the grandest scale.   While ethnic conflict and humanitarian crises have existed since the dawn of time, for the first time ever images of extreme bloodshed, violence, and even genocide were broadcast into the millions of people around the world, from New York to New Delhi and from London to Lagos. Images of children being slaughtered, women being raped and people brutalized were beamed into the living rooms of concerned citizens all over the world, for all to see. For the first time, the public was confronted, on a near daily basis, with images of mass carnage, violence, and humanitarian crisis. People pressed their congressmen, parliamentarians and state representatives to act and, in varying degrees, a groundswell calling for a decisive role for governments in ending these humanitarian crises and conflicts emerged. Although some wanted direct military action, often French, British or American, in ending a particular conflict, most governments have traditionally favored other instruments of diplomacy: p olitical pressure, economic sanctions and imposed a settlement through international bodies such as the United Nations. As Carleton, & Stohl have emphatically demonstrated, a foreign policy rhetoric may be politically salient but not always political possible.  The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of the human rights issue of genocide and humanitarian intervention.   With the aim of providing a thorough and concise overview of an incredibly timely issue, the following will explore arguments by two major scholars in the field regarding this important human rights issue.  

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Toyota Motor Corporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Toyota Motor Corporation - Essay Example The satisfaction with the existing quality offered has made these organizations try and improve the product quality by way of incorporating various quality management techniques in the production process (James, Rowland-Jones and O’Brien, 2009). As a result, researchers over the years have introduced a wide range of competing perspectives, each different from the other in terms of analytical frameworks and various terminologies. However, the foundation of each theory is the same; establishing a relationship between product quality and pricing strategy of the organization. The five important approaches towards quality management are as follows: Transcendent Approach: According to this view, quality of a product is associated with its innate excellence. It is universally acceptable and an absolute concept that deals with uncompromising standards and high levels of achievement. Nonetheless, proponents of the transcendent view are of the opinion that quality is an un-measurable concept and is better defined as the recognition of the product through experience or repeat usage of the consumers (Slack, Chambers and Johnson, 2004; Arnheiter and Harren, 2006). Product based Approach: The product based definition regards quality as a measurable and precise concept. The differences in quality of a product can be attributed to that in quantity of the ingredients used in its production, thereby resulting in faulty attributes of the output. For example, a high-quality rug or mattress would have a larger number of knots per square inch. Hence, this approach gives a hierarchical or vertical dimension to quality by providing ranks to goods based on their number of favorable attributes. This approach has been incorporated in the theoretical models of economics (Namkung and Jang, 2007). The two corollaries of this approach are; firstly, the higher cost is incurred while attaining higher quality as quality reflects the number of favorable ingredients used in the process of production.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

June Yip proposes post colonialism to evaluate Taiwanese films Essay Example for Free

June Yip proposes post colonialism to evaluate Taiwanese films Essay June Yip analyzes Taiwan in the book Envisioning Taiwan as a new breed of country in the postcolonial era which has least interest in the idea of nation-state, maintaining it’s very local faces as well as open to international influences with much surprise. Yip takes a look at Taiwan’s post-national territory status through its fiction and cinema movement concentrating her attention to filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. (Winterton) Taiwan has a long history of colonialism and suppression, but the multinational capitalism, mass migration, the arrival of new electronic media; all these encouraged a postmodern culture and have questioned the traditional limit as well as made the notion of nation irrelevant. June Yip emphasizes the hybrid nature of identity as fallout of postmodernism, is vastly reflected in the present form of Taiwanese films. The earlier versions were more conventional and guarded the theme of nationhood. She points in her book Hou’s films present a picture â€Å"the island as an increasingly complex and hybrid social space, an ever-changing formation†. (Yip, 230) Yip focuses that Taiwanese New Cinema, emerged in the 1980’s and its patrons are fascinated with displaying the socio-historical qualities of modern Taiwan’s experience and also to form a sense of Taiwanese cultural identity with centralizing on the search for nationhood in their works. They represent the tough transition period of Taiwan’s history through which the island came to the global order and try to depict the same in their films with â€Å"a quest for an understanding of a modern Taiwanese experience† and rising questions from present and future. (Yip, 10) Yip also presents the grim picture of Taiwan’s history where under various regimes; either Japanese or Chinese, the linguistic medium of films was strictly regulated by the ruling authorities. Most of these languages were foreign to the locals while the local medium was eclipsed. So, in modern Taiwanese cinema, a global touch could be felt where characters easily switch from Taiwanese to Mandarin to Japanese to English, showcasing a multicultural effect. (Yip, 6) Yip clarifies that Taiwan’s cultural awareness took time to surface itself on cinema due to its colonial Hanover. As there is a strong link between cinema and the idea of nationhood but in the later half of the 20th century the cinema carried a huge responsibility of nation building as being a visual medium. Government was always involved in making of Taiwanese films but in 1990’s it felt the need to loose the belts as to get back commercial as well as critical acclaim. Most of the film personalities have grown the age of rigidity, so when they started working they tries their best to free themselves from the knuckles and criticized the government under its banner itself as well as displayed the new experiences with global changes. The films Three Times and Puppetmaster have shown the changes of post colonialism. Three Times is a film consisting of three episodes based in three periods of Taiwanese history showcasing the problems of the turbulent times in the history, urge for freedom and also the confusion prevailing in a contemporary city. The Puppet master recollects the life of a puppeteer spanning during the period of Japanese occupation of the island and portraying the sorry state of the Taiwanese people and their hardships and also depicts the loss of tradition under suppression and western influence. Both the films in their respective themes lament sufferings of the history and urge to come out of the rigid circumstances supporting Yip’s thesis. (Schumann) While The Wedding Banquet is a drama with humorous touch where personal relationships, based on generation and cultural conflicts within individuals of slender theme rather matching the concept of analysis of Yip of Taiwanese cinema.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

The Moors Last Sigh: Wickedly Comic Essay example -- Moors Last Sigh

Hopping in a careful, calculated manner across four generations of a rich and demented Indian family, Salman Rushdie's cynical novel The Moor's Last Sigh laughs mischievously at the world and shivers from its evils. Weaving a tale of murder and suicide, of atheism and asceticism, of affection and adultery, Rushdie's exquisitely crafted storytelling explains the "fall from grace of a high-born crossbreed," namely our narrator Moraes Zogoiby, also known as "Moor." At the centerpiece of this odd and captivating tale stand the embers of Moor's family: a complex web including a ridiculed political activist, a shrew, a homosexual husband, an artist, and a Jewish underworld gangster, among others. Moor's sisters lead lives as abnormal and doomed as their family history would predispose them towards: Ina, a washed-up model, dies in the throes of insanity; Minnie takes holy orders, predicting a great plague washing over Bombay and envisioning talking rats; Mynah, a lesbian, hopelessly infatuated with Moor's lover, dies in an industrial "accident" that m y~be~her~ father's doing. Such is ...

Monday, November 11, 2019

A 3000 word reflective account of Solution Focused Brief Therapy within a practice placement setting

This assignment is a personal reflective account on the use of solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) carried out during a practice placement within a Crisis and Home Treatment Team (CRHT). This assignment aims to discuss the importance of the 10 Essential Shared Capabilities, introduce clear definitions of SFBT, evaluate current research of SFBT, and provide an evaluation of the key principles of SFBT. I will make a brief comparison of SFBT and traditional psychotherapy.I will utilise aspects of Gibb’s Model of Reflection (1988) when discussing my own thoughts and feelings in order to critically analyse and evaluate two key features of SFBT interventions used in practice. This will allow me to identify positive aspects of my practice as well as highlighting aspects which need further development. Finally, I will evaluate the theoretical framework underpinning its relevance in current and future practice. De Shazer & Dolan (2007) defined SFBT as â€Å"a future focused, goal or ientated approach to brief therapy†. Iveson (2002) proposes that SFBT focuses on â€Å"solution building rather than problem solving†.As such, SFBT does not require a detailed history of the past or problem due to its solution focused nature. The client is believed to have the necessary resources to implement changes. Furthermore, Macdonald (2007, p. 7) stipulates that the client has the capacity to use these resources to set their own goals for therapy. In a general sense, psychotherapy aims to aid clients to reach their full potential or to develop better coping mechanisms to deal with their problems. During psychotherapy a client will develop skills to become self aware, change their unhelpful cognitive schemas, and develop insight and empathy (O’Connell, 2005).Additionally, psychotherapy assumes that, with guidance, each client has the capacity to overcome their discomfort or distress. There is considerable agreement in literature regarding the main character istics of SFBT (De Shazer & Dolan, 2007; O’Connell, 2005; Lethem, 2002; George, Iveson & Ratner, 1990; Sharry, Darmody & Madden, 2002). It is believed that therapy must convert from focusing on the presenting problem and move towards looking for solutions (O’Connell, 2005). Therefore, the therapist must consider the client’s subjective, individual interpretations of the given problem.O’Connell (2005) reports that this phenomenon is a result of social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that client’s theories are created as a result of social interaction and negotiations with peers. As result these theories are fluid, constantly changing with knowledge, and therefore move away from any certainty (McNamee, 2010). For example, Walter & Peller (1994, p. 14) reported that if a therapist was to lead from behind, by allowing a client to talk about their experiences, this would encourage the client to become increasingly aware of aspects of th e perceived problem that had previously been disregarded.Rosenbaum, Hoyt & Talmon (1990) theorised that improvements can be achieved by the change of the smallest aspect in the client’s life, and that it is this smallest, positive, initial step that will inevitably lead to greater improvements for the client. Furthermore, Sharry et al (2002) highlight that it is not possible for a client to experience one emotion all of the time, and that there must be times when the problematic emotion is more or less intense. They stipulate that it is the therapists’ role to determine when the emotion is less severe and encourage the client to do more of these behaviours.In addition to this, Sharry et al (2002) advise that the therapist should not focus failed solutions or advise the client to continue with behaviours that are problematic. Clients are advocated to actualize their preferred future by implementing small changes that have proved to be positive solutions. The idea of a p referred future is dominant with the SFBT approach. This is seen throughout a SFBT session, from the initial clarification of the client’s goals for therapy to the client being encouraged to describe in detail what their future without their problem would look like by use of the  miracle question (De Shazer & Dolan, 2007).De Shazer & Molnar (1984) advise that is important to be mindful that clients may think they have to do something which they feel is expected of them by the therapist, even though this may not necessarily be right for them. As such, I feel that asking about the client’s preferred future can be a high risk strategy for vulnerable clients as it may initiate a negative response and prolong feelings of hopelessness. There are many similarities of the underlying assumptions of SFBT and other psychotherapies.For example, the goals for therapy are chosen by the client (O’Connell, 2005). In addition to this, all psychotherapy assumes that the client has the resources they need to implement change (Macdonald, 2007, p. 7). However, the main differences between SFBT and other psychotherapies are that a detailed history is not needed, the perceived problem is not analysed, the treatment process begins within the first session of therapy and that SFBT does not believe a person’s perception is maladjusted or in need of change (O’Connell, 2005).It is evident that SFBT draws upon numerous therapeutic approaches. I believe SFBT shared a number of theoretical principals with person-centred therapy. Rogers (1951) hypothesised that human’s have an intrinsic ability to self-actualise, which can be seen explicitly in SFBT in identifying the clients strengths and resources (Saunders 1998). In terms of person-centred counselling, the way SFBT highlights these factors is directly facilitating the self- actualization of the client. Furthermore, both theories take an eclectic approach to the client’s situation.For exam ple, the importance of the whole person in person-centred counselling is associated with the interest in the whole context of a person’s life in SFBT (Iveson, 2002). Hales (1999) describes how person-centred therapy believes that the client is in control of the counselling process and makes judgements about their decisions and experiences; this is seen much more overtly in SFBT as the clients are asked directly their goals for therapy and how they would know that therapy had been worthwhile.Both approaches provide client-orientated counselling which aims to promote self esteem and coping strategies for the client (Hales, 1999). By employing the underlying principals of SFBT into future training, my practice will remain aligned with the Ten Essential Shared Capabilities (Department of Health, 2004). In particular, SFBT focuses on ‘working in partnership’, ‘identifying people’s needs and strengths’, providing service user care’ and promot ing safety and positive risk taking’ (Department of Health, 2004, p.4).In a literature review, Ferraz & Wellman (2008) emphasise that it is possible to incorporate these essential capabilities into SFBT techniques in current practice. They suggest that SFBT is particularly appropriate when staff have relatively brief contact with clients. SFBT is congruent with these essential capabilities, enabling nurses to develop improved therapeutic relationships with clients, improved communication skills, and a goal orientated approach to recovery (De Shazer & Dolan, 2007).Whilst there is limited research surrounding SFBT in comparison to other psychotherapies, the evidence base has developed in recent years (Gingerich & Eisengart, 2000). However, much of the initial research was conducted by the pioneers of SFBT, e. g. De Shazer & Molnar (1984) and Kiser (1988), and is therefore likely to be in favour of SFBT. In terms of success rate, Kiser (1988) and Kiser & Nunnally (1990) conducte d six month follow up studies which showed an 80% success rate of clients who had received SFBT.However, these studies can be criticised as only 14.7% clients reported considerable improvements beyond meeting their treatment goals. Much research into the effectiveness of SFBT concludes a success rate which is calculated by a combination of clients who achieved their goals and clients who made significant improvements. Further to this, Macdonald (1994; 1997) argued success rates of 64% at a three year follow up. Moreover, DeJong & Berg (1998) report that SFBT achieves 70% or more success rates for multitude of social and mental health issues, including depression, suicidal ideation, relationship difficulties, domestic violence, and self-esteem.As such, the underlying principals of SFBT can be applied to the Seven Stage Crisis Intervention Model (R-SSCIM; Roberts, 1991). For example, stage 3 of Roberts’ model (1991) help clients to identify their strengths, resources and past c oping skills. This can be achieved through the use of exception and coping questions (O’Connell, 2005). De Shazer & Dolan (2007) expand on this by advising that identifying strengths and resources can help build rapport and trust with the client as the focus is shifted away from short-comings and towards complimenting the client.During Stages 4 & 5, feelings and emotions are explored, and alternatives are generated and explored (Roberts, 1991). SFBT utilises these stages by acknowledge client’s current experiences and aiding them to create an action plan. The client I chose to utilise SFBT techniques with had an extensive mental health history. He has been known to community services for the past 5 years, and has a diagnosis of major depression. He had been referred to CRHT following deterioration in mood and was expressing suicidal ideation. The client had consented to me using SFBT techniques during a home treatment visit.I utilised several assessment tools of SFBT i ncluding pre-session changes, goal setting, exception seeking and coping questions, miracle question, scaling question, and task setting. I have chosen to reflect on the use of scaling questions and exception seeking questions. O’Connell (2005, p. 35) stipulates that scaling is a technique whereby the therapist asks the client to rate on a scale of zero to ten, where zero is the worst they have felt recently and ten is the best they have felt recently, for a particular issue.O’Connell (2005, p. 35) goes on to state that scaling can be used to set treatment goals, measure progress, establish priorities, rate the clients motivation, and discover the client’s confidence in resolving their issues. I have chosen to reflect on scaling techniques as I felt confident and noticed my personal strengths but also identified some areas for development. I first introduced scaling with my client when asking about pre-session changes.I explained the scale to him and asked where he would place himself  today and if this was any different from when he had contacted CRHT. I reassured the client by complimenting him for contacting CRHT regarding his mental health. The second time I used scaling questions was following the miracle question. This was to assess whether the client had shown any sessional changes from the score he reported earlier. Finally, I used scaling when amplifying homework tasks. This was to assess whether the client was motivated and confident in achieving these tasks, and whether these tasks would improve the client’s depressive symptoms.Throughout the home visit, I felt extremely nervous, tense and pressurised because I was also being assessed by my mentor as part of the Direct Observation of a Nursing Activity. I was also aware that the client was at crisis point and was somewhat volatile in mental state. This made me feel inexperienced and very aware that I had limited training in SFBT. Initially, I felt apprehensive at making a mistake or asking the wrong question, and this was clear to the client when I had perplexed the explanation of the scale.Upon reflection, my emotions affected my performance throughout the intervention; for example, as I became more relaxed I gave a more apparent explanation of the scale for confidence in completing homework tasks. My strengths were that I was able to obtain a baseline of the client’s rating of their mood, affirm sessional changes to mood, and attain a rating of the client’s motivation and confidence in achieving set tasks. I felt the client responded well to the scaling questions as it did not involve him explaining in depth his feelings, but rather focused on how to resolve his current crisis state (De Shazer & Dolan, 2007).However, I feel my weaknesses lie in the timing of the scaling questions. For example, I introduced the scale near to the start of the home visit and then a further two times during the visit. As a result I felt I had to explai n the scale each time I used it. I feel this made the intervention slightly disordered and therefore illogical to the client.The use of scaling questions following the miracle question was partially inappropriate as the client stated that he had just answered questions regarding his preferred future (i. e.  where the client would like to be on the scale) when amplifying the miracle question. In hindsight, I feel that these questions were somewhat unnecessary. In contrast to this, De Shazer & Dolan (2007) stipulate in their G. E. M. S approach that scaling questions should follow the miracle question due to its effectiveness in obtaining measures of where clients would rate themselves today, and their preferred future. Furthermore, O’Connell (2005, p. 52) describes the importance of scaling questions with regard to communication with a client.He advises that it gives the opportunity for the client to express how they are feeling and eliminates the therapist making assumption s. He argues that scaling provides a comprehensive interpretation of the client’s feelings on a particular issue, with limited scope for individual interpretation. However, there is much research (Chant, Jenkinson, Randle & Russell, 2002; Sumner, 2001) to suggest that communication and interpretation of a client’s feelings is eclectically gained through the practitioner’s emotions, personal development, perception of others, and the circumstances of the interaction.I feel this is particularly relevant to my performance since my communication was adversely affected initially due to my anxieties and the circumstances of being assessed. This therapeutic intervention provided me with first hand experience of these barriers to communication (Sumner, 2001) and as such I am aware of how my communication is affected by anxiety which in turn impacted on the scaling technique I was using. This issue could be resolved through the use of further reflections and SFBT with ot her clients.I feel that utilising SFBT techniques in my future practice will improve my confidence and my ability to concisely deliver explanations of scaling questions as I will no longer feel like a novice. I have also chosen to reflect on the use of exception questions with the client as I feel that I need to expand my current knowledge base of how to carry out these questions effectively in order to develop my skills in SFBT. Macdonald (2007, p. 15) advises that exception seeking questions are particularly useful when clients are feeling hopeless.I feel this was very relevant to my client as he was somewhat resistant to change initially. However, through the use of these questions my client identified small exceptions where he was able to control improve his low mood, which in turn improved his motivation and confidence in setting small tasks. In this instance, I used exception questions with the intention of demonstrating to the client that his low mood was not occurring all of the time. However, my client was vague and negative in his response. I intended to demonstrate previous enjoyment to the client by focusing on spending time with his family.I felt very inexperienced and incompetent when using this technique as I struggled initially to achieve my intentions. As a result, I felt very aware that I was being assessed by my mentor, which added to my anxieties. I felt frustrated that my client was unable to identify any positive aspects in his life, but began to relax when he described the pleasure he gains from spending time with his children. I felt positive and confident when my client became facially bright and was laughing when telling personal anecdotes.De Shazer & Dolan (2007) highlight the difference between previous solutions and exceptions, with exceptions being times when the problem could have occurred but did not. In hindsight, I feel I was searching for previous solutions rather than exceptions. Furthermore, they go to theorise that the rol e of the therapist to recognise opportunity for exceptions during the session rather than actively seek out opportunities to utilise this technique. Therefore, as a skilled therapist I should be seeking opportunities to amplify exceptions rather than explicitly questioning the client in this way.Due to my limited training in SFBT I felt like a novice and did not utilise the true nature of exception seeking questions. Following this reflection I am now more aware of the difference between previous solutions and exceptions that De Shazer & Dolan (2007) hypothesised, and how they can both influence the therapeutic intervention. As I gain experience and further develop my knowledge base of SFBT, I feel that I will be able to use exception questions when required rather than expectantly.In my future practice as a registered mental health nurse, I plan to utilise SFBT techniques with service users, particularly those experiencing relapse, as the use of these tools can provide immediate im provements and allows for a future focused approach rather than problem orientated. I must remain mindful of the barriers that exist in communication (Kiser, Piercy & Lipchink, 1993) and apply this when delivering SFBT techniques. However, De Shazer & Dolan (2007) theorise that scaling is a very effective tool for the client to verbalise their emotions.Therefore, this could be used in my future practice, particularly when building a therapeutic relationship with clients. In terms of current practice, I have effectively demonstrated the scaling technique within cognitive behavioural therapy; however, I am aware that these two therapies use the scale in different ways. To conclude, this assignment has allowed me to develop my knowledge of the key principals of SFBT, the practical applications, and the limitations of my inexperience when utilising SFBT assessment tools.I believe SFBT shares many fundamental assumptions with person centred therapy. The underpinning principals are apt fo r contemporary nursing, particularly as it fits wells with the Ten Essential Shared Capabilities (DoH, 2004). There are some limitations to this approach, such as lack of extensive research (Gingerich & Eisengart, 2000). However, I feel that this approach is appropriate to use with clients who are experiencing mental health difficulties.