Development Study

Development study is a branch in social sciences that explores issues relating developing countries. Historically it has focused on social and economic development therefore may extend its significance to other regions and communities apart from concentration on the developing world. There are various approaches that conceptualize development studies. Among them are the modernization and dependency theories. This paper focuses to explore their similarities and difference in their significance to development studies.Dependency theory is a social science approach that argues that the developed nation draws resources from underdeveloped nations making them richer at the expense of their counterparts. The proponent of this theory is Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Milvin Defleur (1976). Dependency theory initially was in the communication discipline but merged out integrating several prospects. It merges prospects from psychology from social category theory, from causal approaches, media effects and traditions as well as contextual philosophy.â€Å"in its urge to appropriate productive forces for the purpose of exploitation, capital ransacks the entire world, provides itself with the means of production from all corners of the earth, obtaining these from all levels of civilization and from all forms of society† (Perry 1996. p. 35) It sometimes referred to as underdevelopment theory based upon Marxist theory in other words, it assumes that wealth western nation uses their superior status to exploit peripheral weaker nations reflecting earlier colonial bonds. These under developed nations expose their economical and political structure maintaining their reliance on developed nations.They become developmentally enslaved mastered by the west. Some argument exist that tourism has evolved somehow reflecting economic dependency and colonialism. However, potential underdevelopment resulting from dependency is the main focus. (Bramswell 2004. p. 323) Modernization on the oth er hand argues that low economically empowered societies can develop if only they seize from their traditional methods and adapt to modern technologies, cultural values and economic institutions that puts an emphasis on productive investment and savings.The social institutions and traditional values of low income nations hinder their effectiveness in economy. Most of people in undeveloped society have low work ethics, they usually consume without thinking of investing in the future. Most of these societies have large families therefore saving money for investing is almost impossible. They therefore rag behind in their economic ability (Griffiths & Giddens 2006 p . 405) Modernization tends to criticize Marxist theory. It emphasizes the process of change and the reason to that change.Marquis de Condorcet is among the proponents of this theory. His argument was that, people's cultural values and morals in the society can be changed by economical and technological advancement. He encour aged technological advancement arguing that it helps society have control to the environment and adapt to it. He argued that technological advancement encourage social progress. (Soylent communications 2008) Modernization theory contrasts the dependency theory in a number of ways.In many parts of the world where it have ever been applied, it has failed to take into account historical and social factors influencing development. Such factors are like the traditional social structures, colonialism, and religious factors. Natural past outcomes have also not put into account and which may have affected a society; famine, floods, volcanic activities and other natural environmental conflicts. Many nations like the Middle East historical process influenced its development.It emphasis on modern values in development cannot be fully relied as the back born to development. The historical processes in politics, economic, cultural, educational of a society influence its development. Development theory argument that richer nations exploits less developed nations natural resources contrast the free market that advances poor states to full economic growth. The international market gives every nation an opportunity to realize it full economic growth.It is through this freedom that a society can take advantage to purchase modern values that can help it develop. A poorer state can purchase new technological advancement improving production in its industries which in return will improve it economy. However, dependency theory contrasts this situation arguing that it is exploitation. Dependency theory argument that colonialism of undeveloped nations still exist is a contrast to modernization. In the previous century, many undeveloped countries evoked from colonialism after realizing their independence.This independence was not granted to just political matters but also to the economy and social structures. Most of these nations have their natural resources still fully unexploited. Not because their former colonial master have not exploited these but because they lack modern facilities which would help them. This therefore is a contrast to modernization. The continued reliance on colonial masters should not be argued as a modern colonialism. It is evident that the colonialist had an influence politically, economically and socially to their colonies.Therefore, these nations will tend to consult their colonial masters as well as trade with them even in the modern world. Contrast between dependency theory and modernization exist in their views on international dimensions that influence economic development of a nation. These dimensions include tourism, trade, global investment and many others. Dependency argues that tourism, free trade and global investment are a reflection of the dependency that exists between the developed and undeveloped world. Most of the global investors are from the developed world.This is also in tourism. Dependency theory proponents argue s that this is a clean indication of how developed nations exploits the less developed for their growth. Modernization on the other hand views this kind of relation to enhance purchase and adoption of modern technologies. Trade exposes undeveloped countries acquire modern technology. In enhancing tourism, the undeveloped countries adopt new technology to maximize turn outs. Though global investors’ targets at making profits, they as well enhance modernity in less developed nations.Dependency theory puts into accounts exogenous and indigenous political processes which have a role in national continuity and formation. It puts into account changing circumstances like religious background of nation. However, modernization contrasts this as its main emphasis is on new technology influence on development. Its notion of class difference which challenges it universality contrast dependency theory. In addition, modernization ignores rural poverty, unemployment, inflation, economic and political dependency and the growing gap between the poor and the rich.This contrasts dependency theory. (Paidar 2005) Though these two theories contrast, their arguments are both very effective in development studies. Development in a society is a complex issue which primarily may depend on modernization and dependency theory as well as other concepts in the society. Whichever perspective one would take, development is about the nature of a society economic, political and social ability. However if modernization and dependency theories are merged, they would have a more efficient development studies description on a particular society.

Return to paradise Ethics and morality Essay

In the movie Return to paradise directed by Michael Asimow, Asimow raises profound questions about the gulf between law and justice and about personal moral responsibility. Some of the main ethical questions raised in the movie are, Are we being ethnocentric about how the Malaysian chief treat the case, should Sheriff go to prison for Lewis? And did Beth unethically trick sheriff into going by getting into an affair and not telling the full truth. Sheriff seems to be a nice relaxed guy and seems to be your average guy who knows his place in the world, but when Beth confronts him about Lewis’s situation, his whole life changes and he begins off as a shallow coward and over time begins to emerge. For eight days he goes through a spiritual transformation, sheriff decides to accept his fate. He comes to the conclusion that he will stay for Lewis due to the guilt. Lewis is still executed, but we are left with the impression that sheriff has found peace within his heart. Tony is a married man and works as an architect. When Beth confronts him, like sheriff, he is deeply disturbed by the decision he will have to make, and does not know what to do. He agrees to return to Malaysia, but only if Sheriff returns too. Sheriff remains resistant to the idea, and so Tony decides to accept the full six years. After much soul-searching sheriff eventually accepts his share of responsibility. After Beth is revealed as the sister of Lewis, Tony freaks out and flees the country, leaving sheriff and Lewis to suffer. The fact that he left Lewis to die because he found out Beth was his sister shows that he may never wanted to go back, and was waiting for and excuse to escape. Beth is the sister and lawyer of Lewis. Through love of her brother and her skill as a lawyer Beth tries her hardest to keep her brother off death row. She wins Tony over at first, and tries to get sheriff to join as well- using guilt, logic, money, and even sex to shift his mind. Over time she convinces both of them to return for lewis and after all her desperate attempts to save lewis due to the ruthless and heatless newspaper journalist lewis is still hung. When sheriff was faced with the possibility of prison in a third world country, he sought council from his distant father, who told him to go to prison and suffer the consequences of his actions. Tony talked to his wife about the idea, and Beth relied on her own instincts to do what she thought was right. Initially, and for a majority film, sherif’s answer was no. This was mostly because of fear and the unknown of prison. After discussing it with his wife  Tony agrees to the three-year sentence, and then after sheriff declines, decides on his own to take the full six years in order to save him. Beth decides to continually pursues both men, despite the fact that Tony has already agreed. She does this to decrease the scentence for both men. Sheriffs decision was influenced by no one but himself. His, father, Beth, Tony and Tony’s wife all insisted that he accept the sentence, but out of selfishness he thought of only his safety and declined. Tony’s decision came initially out of discussion with his wife, but was eventually persuaded through guilt to accept the full sentence. Beth came to her decision through love of her brother, but also respect and compassion for Tony and sheriff who would have to suffer for lewis’s life. Although this film certainly holds no happy ending, the bond between sheriff and beth is now strong and she has agreed to wait for his freedom.

Explain the differences between a group and a team Essay

Explain the differences between a group and a team - Essay Example To describe it briefly, it will be suffice to say that all teams are form of work group but not all groups are teams. There are several fundamental principles that distinguish the two. First is accountability. In groups, members are individually accountable within the group; they have to be alert from people within the group. In teams, however, individual accountability does exist but on a minimum level; teams are accountable mutually. Instead of reporting to one another or someone from amongst group, teams report to a higher authority. This means that teams are more united and open with each other. This also highlights the fact that usually groups work on lower levels while teams work at higher, more independent level in the hierarchy (Thornton, 2010). Secondly, members working in the group meet regularly to circulate information and discuss perspectives whereas team members just meet occasionally to make decision, plan, and solve any problems that arise in a meanwhile. This implies that team member share more trust than group members do, making them more self-reliant and confident of their own actions. Thirdly, group members work on individual goals while team members work on mutual goals. This shows more unity and togetherness that is shared by people working in the team. For instance, people in groups may work hard for promotion/to please their supervisors/ in order to get a pay upgrade but team members will worry less about such petty matters and try to get bigger tasks done. Fourthly, groups focus more on individual products while teams emphasize more on team products. Instead of getting their names high like in groups, team members focus more on efficiency and excellence, making merit the parameter for judgment. Next, groups have defined roles and responsibilities whereas team members are more liberal with these lines and feel free to share each other’s work. Lastly, in groups, manager, with little say from members, shapes the goals and tasks desi gned to achieve them. On the contrary, team leader brings the whole team together to shape the goals and delegate tasks on each member with their complete will. This gives a sense of ownership to the goal and creates a free environment where learning and creativity thrives (Levi, 2010). As the world is coming together to form a global village, it is important to embrace, appreciate and celebrate the diversity, which flourishes as people from across the world come together to accomplish goals of mutual interest. However, diversity is tough to handle since it requires a lot of compromise and patience to settle down with. Nonetheless, importance of diversity cannot be over-emphasized. With people from different backgrounds, religious views, ethnicities, social status, and education coming together on a common platform, the ideas generated, and discussions held are more multi-lateral and creative. In addition, the solutions found with diverse bodied thing tank are applicable to more tha n a single thinkers and work in more than a few conditions since its planners have put together their own personal experience in planning and critiquing it, refining into more applicable and garnishes the concept. On the other hand,

Jane Addams' Vision of Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jane Addams' Vision of Democracy - Essay Example She spent seven years after her graduation trying to identify a worthwhile career. (US Political thought). In search of clarity, she made two trips to Europe. The first was in 1883-85. The second was in 1887-88. During her second trip she visited Toynbee Hall and was greatly influenced by what she saw. She decided to establish a similar settlement house in Chicago. Joining hands with her friend Ellen Gates Starr, she opened the Hull House in September 1889. The life history of Jane Addams is marked by ups and downs. The ebbs and tides of social recognition she received were severe and strong. Her defense of the anarchists following the assassination of the President William McKinlev (September 1901) showed her in poor light. But it was her stand against the involvement of America in the First World War that brought her name and fame to a record low level. The negative feedbacks never slowed her down. Jean Bethke Elshtain points out, "Elizabeth Dilling described Jane Addams as a dangerous radical masquerading as a saintly champion of the poor." (Elshtain 19) Jane Addams seemed to accept bouquets and brickbats gracefully. She was continuing on her chosen path. In 1931 she was awarded the honorary doctorate by the University of Chicago. In the same year, she got Nobel Award jointly with Nicholas Murray Butler. The beautiful life sketch drawn by Jean Bethke Elshtain brings out vividly how Jane Addams who fought to improve the living standards of the residents of Hull House, was drawn into the realms of dangerous and seedy realms of Chicago politics; how her insistence upon peace and justice at international level, made lose her popularity at national level; and how, in due course her relentless fight for peace gradually removed the national scorn; and again, she gained recognition at national and international levels. Though Jane Addams' fame did slide down sometimes, her sincere work has carved a niche for her in the minds of the people. A proof for this is that her book 'Twenty Years at Hull-House' in which she has given a description of her early years has never gone out of print since its first publication in 1910. Jane Addams was admired as a respectable social worker, fighter for the rights of women and downtrodden, an intellectual, effective writer and a political activist. She highlighted by her own example that the core of true citizenship was the concern for others' difficulties and concerted efforts to be of help to all. In her vision of democracy, by personal example, she laid rules for true citizens. By defining true citizens, by emphasizing direct participation in social life, she defined democracy. Jean Bethke Elshtain, who was determined "to draw back the curtain of historic mist and dust that has obscured Addams and blurred her reputation", has provided the most appropriate source to understand Jane Addams' vision of American Democracy. Addams did believe in Democracy. Her father had given her a concept of democracy. learnt from Abraham Lincoln, his one time political acquaintance. We all know that the most simple, direct and evocative definition of Democracy, "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people." has come down to us from Abraham Lincoln. Addams had been initiated into this personally by her father in her formative years. So her vision of dem

PHIL 102 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PHIL 102 - Essay Example In light of this, ethics requires moderation to the extent that they do not constitute nuisance and hinders individual’s wishes. Ethical consideration thus denies one the opportunity to double up the art of being good and exercising freedom simultaneously, one has to opt for one of the two if ethics remains your benchmark. In most cases, with the rational as stated in the ethical code of conduct be it conventional or statutory, one must forgo either of the two provisions. This is to the extent that if you opt to be ethical, you have to forgo the freedom segment, the same applies when you disregard ethics and acquire the freedom, and one will have to forgo doing well. I believe that this position is not outright in all the cases, since it only remains significant if a consideration to be made is held ethically. Prominent philosophers did explain the relationship between ethics, personal freedom and the art of doing good. Aristotle brought forth the theory of virtue, in this theory; he started unequivocally that for one to be considered a good man, he must live a life that demonstrates his intentions to achieve what he considered as goals tailored to every man. Apparently, Aristotle was attempting to answer a question from Socrates that sought to know how man should live. According to the Socrates version, it was impossible to lead a life devoid of any form of conflicts; as he selectively resolves that egoism is one of the factors that make individuals lead a life of contradiction. The contradiction in this case is the inability to harbor freedom and remains good in pursuit of ethics. In this case, being ethical shows that contradiction or rather the two provisions remain to be interchangeable depending on the individual’s preference. Since the principal role of instituting ethics is for the moderation of the human conduct and helping reach the most moral and objective judgment, it needs to be rationalize for the sake of making it impossible in comparing

Caterpillar Value Chain Strategies Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Caterpillar Value Chain Strategies - Assignment Example Through transforming itself to be more focused, responsive, variable and a resilient enterprise, that can connect their businesses end-to-end with suppliers at the one end, and customers at the other, by fusing the best business practices and technology, Caterpillar Inc have successfully introduced accelerated value creation. Caterpillar Inc is the worlds leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. The company is a technology leader in construction, transportation, mining, forestry, energy, logistics, electronics, financing and electric power generation. In 2005, Caterpillar posted sales and revenues of $36 billion and a profit of $2.8 billion, maintaining its position as an International supplier and leading U.S. exporter. Currently Caterpillar has more than 85000 employees in its different businesses and divisions world wide. The current success achieved by Caterpillar was no mere coincidence, but due to the strong influence and direction set by its current and former CEO's in periods were Caterpillar lost ground against competitors and registered huge losses. Many different factors influenced the productions, sales and operations during these periods. Factors such as and overvalued dolor, collapse of major markets, union strikes and an inefficient supply chain. To be able to better understand the factors that forced Caterpillar to introduce major changes we need to review each of these trouble periods individually. 1980's Caterpillar has already established an international network of manufacturers, suppliers and dealers after being in the business for more than 75 years. But by 1982 Caterpillar was in trouble with over $1 billion dolor from 1982 through to 1984, with an annual sales figure of approximately $5 billion annually. Factors that contributed to the losses were an overvalued dolor, the concurrent collapse of world markets, a crunching labor strike and the emergence of a fast growing and highly productive competitor, Komatsu. External factors can be seen as an end to a decade long growth in the demand for construction machinery and declining oil prices, led to a decline in investment in the oil exploration and mining operations. The strong dollar versus other currencies resulted in a cost disparity for Caterpillar in relation with their competition and Komatsu an relatively unknown Japanese firm won the market share at the expense of Caterpillar. Komatsu could under price Caterpillar by up t o 30% due to a much higher productivity level. During this time Caterpillar reacted to the downturn in the market by reducing labor cost through freezing employee's wages. This resulted in a national U.S. strike, led by labor unions, which caused huge losses. 1990's In the early 1990's Caterpillar yet again found itself in trouble due to the rise in the value of the dollar and slowing down of demand in construction equipment. At the same time Caterpillar was doing very badly at the stock exchange, limiting the access to capital to support its operations. The CEO of the time took drastic actions to reorganize the company and to yet again cut

Forensic Computing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Forensic Computing - Case Study Example This involves data recoveries, retrievals, analysis, and tracing and decrypting of all the data that has been used in any deceitful activity. The word forensic is used in the context of legal argumentation. Forensic computing is also termed as digital forensics and cyber forensics. It is a branch of forensics related to computer and other digital media. It involves collection, preservation and analysis of the data available on the computer. The definition presented by Computer Forensic world: the field primarily involves â€Å"use of analytical and investigative techniques to identify, collect, examine, and preserve evidence /information which is magnetically stored or encoded† (1). In other words, forensic computing deals with retrieval of data, and events reconstruction that was performed over the digital media. The scope of forensic investigation involves audio examinations, signal interpretation, repairing the damaged media. Photogrammetry is another aspect of digital fore nsic tracking that includes measuring and monitoring the physical measures of an image by making use of geometric formulae and then making a comparison based on on-site observations. Several factors come as constraints along with computer forensics and the first being the costs since all the equipment used in these processes is high tech and state of the art, large investments are inducted into it. The second hurdle that could be faced by the forensic body is the approval and acceptance of all the proofs by the court. They must prove it to the court that no information is altered and all the legal responsibilities have been fulfilled while conducting the operations. The staff inducted in digital forensic must be knowledgeable and should be able to think about many possibilities and should have knowledge beyond the books. Potential clues and areas that the forensic team would target DNA samples Voice samples Any image used in the process The network used for performing the task ( usu ally in case of credit card and bank accounts forgery) Fingerprints on the electronic equipments Answering machines recordings Miscellaneous electronic equipment Introduction: The aim of forensic computing is to make online activities secure, stop illegal activities that are going on, identify and apprehend the guilty, avoid financial and personal damages to individuals and organizations that might be incurred by the online use. Standard procedures must be followed and all the evidence brought in front of the court must be in a formal pattern that can stand as evidence. In case of actions, warrants are obtained from the authorities for the areas and houses that are suspected of any wrongdoings. A giant step in the direction of forensic computing was taken in 1984 when the F.B.I Magnetic Media Program was created which was later converted into Computer Analysis and Response Team (C.A.R.T). F.B.I report for the year 2003 reported a total of $900,000 netted through computer crime (2). By 2003 F.B.I (C.A.R.T) were looking into 783 terabytes of data as a case of forensic evidence and cases handling. In 1997 G8 ordered training of individuals for looking into matters related to online counterfeit activities .C.A.R.T provides assistance to F.B.I in tracking e-evidence and accessing the accounts and provides other technical support needed by F.B.I in conducting forensic activities. Part of C.A.R.T job is to monitor live activities that are going online. Their task is to provide monitoring in business environment including the banks and government-owned organizations, insurance companies, personal accounts that contain the people’s private life and their safety concerned, corporate level that includes the annual reports, facts and data and institutes of any region whose data can be misused by any fraudulent activities performed online.     Ã‚  

Management and marketing within business Organization Essay - 1

Management and marketing within business Organization - Essay Example On the other hand, marketing is a process of informing the customers about the value or utility of a product or service, and to encourage the customers to purchase it. â€Å"It is defined as the process of determining the needs and wants of consumers and being able to deliver products that satisfy those needs and wants. Marketing includes all of the activities necessary to move a product from the producer to the consumer† (What Is Marketing?, n.d, p.13)2 Management is a process which helps to achieve; group goals, Optimum Utilization of Resources, reduction of costs. It is a process which establishes sound organization and equilibrium. Moreover, it helps the society to achieve prosperity (Importance of management.2012)3. Man, material, machine, and money are the four most important resources of an organization. Management is the process, which helps the coordination of all these organizational resources. For example, finance department is responsible for the management of money in an organization. Same way, human resource department look after the manpower resources whereas engineering or production department look after the machineries and materials. Even though different departments are controlling the organizational resources, it is the process of management, which helps them to utilize these resources judiciously so that the organization benefits from these resources. Many people have the illusion that management is a function restricted only to the executives of an organization. In fact, Management is a function usually undertaken by people of all calibre. For example, a housekeeper is responsible for managing the resources of a house properly whereas a construction worker is responsible for managing the works assigned to him. A housewife manages the education of her children while her husband manages other family matters. In short,

Eczema Nursing Presentation PowerPoint Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Eczema Nursing - PowerPoint Presentation Example With relation to the differential diagnosis, a range of conditions need to be differentiated including psoriasis, fungal infections, scabies, scarlet fever, pityriasis rosea, measles, tinea corporis and squamous cell carcinoma. Introduction/Definition Eczema or dermatitis is a disorder in which the skin is inflamed (especially epidermis) along with the development of vesiculation sometimes in acute phases. It has been derived from the Greek word meaning to ‘boil out’, and hence medical practitioners consider it to look like the skin is boiling out. The condition is usually acute in nature, but can be a chronic inflammatory disorder of the skin causing pruritius, redness, vesiculation, which finally become encrusted, hemorrhagic, thickened and scales off (Vorvick, 2009). Some of the common types include:- Allergic contact eczema – Following contact with a foreign substance such as a poison, lotion, etc, there is a local allergic reaction Atopic dermatitis – It is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder and often accompanied with other disorders such as asthma and hay fever. It is commonly seen on the arms and at the back of the knees, and flare up periodically Contact eczema – the reaction is localised when a allergen is contact causing itching, redness and swelling Seborrheic eczema- Commonly called as dandruff and is a mild skin inflammatory disorder arising due to unknown reasons and causing scaling, redness and itching of the scalp and face Neurodermatitis – This is characterised by scratching or picking of the skin resulting in development of rashes Stasis dermatitis – Develops from congestion of the veins of the legs resulting in irritation of the overlying skin Dyshidrotic eczema – Commonly occurs on the palms and soles and is seen as deep-seated skin lesions Perioral eczema – Bumpy rash and ulcers that develop around the mouth Nummular eczema – This is a coin-shaped lesion that develops in an irritated portion of the skin causing scaling, itching and encrusting (MedicineNet, 2011). Pathophysiology The exact cause of eczema and dermatitis is still not clearly known, but it may be a result of interplay of host, genetic and environmental factors. Further, stress and various emotional disorders can worsen or exacerbate the condition especially atopic dermatitis (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Most of the eczema occurs due to a hypersensitivity reaction of the skin, causing chronic skin inflammation (Lehrer, 2009). Some of the eczemas are autoimmune conditions and some of them are genetically transmitted, running in families. Atopic dermatitis is known to be transmitted through a genetic route and is often associated with asthma and hay fever. However, this association is often being questioned, as not all individuals with atopic dermatitis have asthma and hay ever, and not all individuals with asthma and hay fever have atopic dermatitis. However, both these conditions tend to run i n families, and this may be due to common genetic trait being carried on (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Such disorder appears on trivial inflammation of the skin. Allergic eczemas are usually common and the individual may also have other allergic conditions such as asthma, hay fever, etc (DIS, 2011). There are several exacerbating factors for

The Difficuly Finding the Meaning of Life Essay Example for Free

The Difficuly Finding the Meaning of Life Essay A sense of meaning is needed in humans or else we become discouraged and lost and can even end up looking for meaning in harmful ways. People who cannot find in meaning in their life are susceptible to cults and manipulation from others as well as depression. In J. D. Salinger’s novel the catcher in the Rye, The main character (Holden) is having difficulty finding the meaning of life. Everyone is bound to spend some time in their life searching for meaning. Holden does not make an effort to do well in school nor does he make an effort to fit in with others. He looks at others as phonies merely trying to imitate each other and questions all social norms that are pressured upon him. Today is no different from Holden’s time when it comes to finding the meaning of life; the media often suggests that the meaning of life is seeking pleasures such as sex, drugs and money, Parents drive the children to focus on their education and their worth in society. Holden does not pursue sexual conquests as a youth and resents most girls around him because of their large need to conform. This is uncommon for someone Holden’s age and causes him to stand out from those around him. He does not appear to be content with his life and does not have a strong peer group to support him. Holden disappoints his parents, teachers, and many other mentor figures throughout his youth. I also have questioned the value of education and whether or not spending a third of my life preparing for work, a third of my life working and a third of my life retired is really the most fulfilling plan in life. One reason I believe Holden is having a hard time finding meaning in life is that he starts off without any role models. He does not idolize his brother and resents his parents. I also have found choosing role models in life to be a difficult decision. Because Holden focuses so strongly on people’s negative qualities he misses the more beautiful and sought after qualities of their personalities and therefore has a hard time relating to them. This causes Holden to become more or less isolated from those around him. I have often questioned the meaning of life and realized that my idea of a meaningful life is quite different from some of my peers. This moral difference between me and many often stops a more personal relationship from forming. This effect is present throughout Holden’s journey as he feels isolated in the same way from many of his â€Å"Phony† acquaintances.

Understanding Human Behaviour through Reductionist Approach

Understanding Human Behaviour through Reductionist Approach â€Å"The only way to understand Human Behaviour is to take a Reductionist approach.† Critically discuss with reference to relevant seminal and contemporary literature in psychology. Reductionism can be defined as being the idea that a complex system, such as human behaviour, is nothing more than the sum of its parts and that a description of the system can be reduced to descriptions of the individual components. Many of the main approaches in psychology tend to take a reductionist approach when trying to explain their understanding of human behaviour, including the cognitive approach which uses machine mechanism (using the analogy of machines and their most simple components) to explain human behaviour, such as Berkowitz (1993). The behaviourist approach also tends to be reductionist in how it tries to explain human behaviour, usually reducing behaviour down to simply environmental factors such as reinforcement and punishment. Perhaps the most reductionist approach in psychology however is the biological approach. The biological approach takes a more scientific approach to explaining human behaviour and puts it mainly down to our biology, for example, Lacourse, Boivin, Brendgen et al. (2014) explained that the results from their research suggested that a toddler’s aggression is strongly associated with genetic factors. Many psychologists would agree that â€Å"The only way to understand Human Behaviour is to take a Reductionist approach† for example, Hull (2002) who stated that â€Å"Reductionism at its most extreme asserts that the only level worth investigating is the lowest technologically feasible level. All else is a waste of time.† Given the fact that scientists who use more reductionist approaches to understanding human behaviour tend to get the most grant money for their research, publish the most papers and also tend to make the most scientific advances within psychology, this may be true. However, other psychologists believe that the lower states involved in reductionism do not capture the necessary coherence of the rationalisation relation at the higher level and are known as being anti-reductionist. Biological psychologists explain human behaviour by trying to relate it to the functioning of the brain and the nervous system, relating it to the role of genetic influences and also by putting it down to chemical processes in the brain. These are all reductionist ways to explaining human behaviour due to the fact that, apart from physics, they are the lowest level of explaining behaviour. A prime example of a reductionist explanation to understanding human behaviour such as aggression is through genetics. This type of biological reductionism reduces aggressive behaviour in an individual down to the role of genetic influence, for example Dilalla (2002) concluded from her review on the role of genetics on aggression that there is a â€Å"growing body of evidence on the genetic effects on aggression† with â€Å"the majority of twin and adoption studies on antisocial behaviour in children suggest that genetic effects are important influences† suggesting that aggressive beh aviour is mainly due to the genetic make-up of an individual. This explanation of aggressive human behaviour is solely reductionist and fails to take into account any environmental and cultural factors. The social approach to psychology however, would explain this behaviour through â€Å"The Social Learning Theory† by Bandura (1978), putting aggressive behaviour of a child down to factors such as imitation. Bushman Huesmann (2006) explored aggression in both children and adults, and found that exposure to violence led to participants becoming more aggressive, suggesting that human behaviour such as aggression can be adopted through imitation, leading one to believe that reductionist approaches to human behaviour, such as the biological approach isn’t taking every factor into account that could contribute towards an individual’s behaviour. Reducing human behaviour down to lower levels of psychology that can be studied is useful in trying to understand how things work. Poldrack Wagner (2008) used Atinkson Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model of memory in order to assess long-term and short-term memory. This cognitive approach to understanding human behaviour, suggested that remembering information over either the long-term or short-term was due to how we process this information internally. Reducing this behaviour down to a simple component of the individual means that, for example if an individual has long-term memory loss, it is easier to target one specific part of the brain responsible for this, thus easier to treat. However, even though this is a useful aspect of reductionist explanations of human behaviour, some psychologists, such as Hull, would argue that these explanations offer only a simple solution to a much more complicated problem. Depression, for example, according to the biological approach shoul d be treated with anti-depressants as biological psychologists such as Carlson (2005) believe that depression is due to neurotransmitters in the brain. However, social psychologists such as Beattie (2005), who examined the social causes of depression, would say that this is overlooking the real problem which could be issues such as problems within the family. This is a fundamental problem with the reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour; it tends to ignore social and environmental factors that may also contribute towards behaviour and hence when it comes to applying reductionist approaches to everyday life and having implications for human behaviour, the treatments may not be as reliable as they could be. Although there are arguments for â€Å"The only way to understand Human Behaviour is to take a Reductionist approach† there are a lot more anti-reductionist arguments. Anti-reductionist psychologists such as Hull Regenmortel (2002) refer to reductionism in explaining human behaviour as â€Å"as successful as Reductionism has been, it is seriously inadequate and must be supplemented with a more holistic science.† Emotion, for example, is ignored by reductionist explanations due to the fact that it is seen as impossible that an individual’s emotions can be explained through lower levels of psychology, such as neurotransmitters. Thus, factors such as emotion can only be truly explained by less reductionist approaches such as an individual is happy due to the environment that surrounds them, not due to biological factors. A further approach to understanding human behaviour is taking into account the role of the environment. Reductionist biological approaches do not consider the environment when explaining human behaviour, however there is a lot of research suggesting that although an individual is born with certain biological traits, such as genes, environmental factors, for example an individual’s upbringing and people they are exposed to predominately shapes an individual’s behaviour further. However, taking an environmental approach to understanding human behaviour is also reductionist, but psychologists specialising in this area such as Brent are starting to integrate the small parts into the whole. In 1995, Brent assessed risk factors for adolescent suicide and suicidal behaviour and stressed the importance of environmental factors such as family, as well as biological factors on these risk factors. Taking a more holistic approach like Brent (2005) instead of a reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour tends to take many factors into account instead of just reducing an explanation down to its simplest form, thus can lead people to believe that a more holistic approach to understanding human behaviour is a lot more valid and reliable as, for example, when treating an individual of an illness such as depression, not only will the biological aspect of the illness be treated with anti-depressants, but the social aspect of the illness can also be treated with a form of counselling. Using a reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour can be seen to be not so useful when trying to explain individual factors due to the fact that reductionist explanations, although they are reduced to the lowest levels of psychology and thus are in the simplest form, generalise behaviour to a target population. Maguire, Gadian, Johnsrude et al. (2000) found that the amount of time spent as a London taxi driver positively correlated with the volume in the posterior hippocampus and from this, suggested that â€Å"the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate.† Here, Maguire et al (2000) have generalised their study of male, London taxi drivers to the population as a whole. Every individual is unique and so it would not be right to generalise these findings to everyone as the same behaviour in people may be due to different explanations, such as our biology and the environment. In conclusion reductionist approaches to understanding human behaviour can be seen to have led to further scientific advances within psychology due to the fact that reductionist approaches make it easier to find the cause of human behaviour, meaning that it is then easier to treat, by reducing the explanation down to its simplest form. However, as discussed, there are many problems and critiques of the reductionist approach to understanding human behaviour, with the main problem being that the reductionist approaches leave out vital factors such as the environment and social factors when explaining behaviour, thus by using a reductionist explanation it does not give a full explanation for a complex subject such as human behaviour, whereas taking a more holistic approach such as a humanist approach, takes many different factors into account. Therefore, reductionist explanations, is limited when it comes to understanding and explaining human behaviour. Samantha Carlisle

Faith in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essays -- Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegorical story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is set in Salem, Massachusetts during the late sixteen hundreds in a time of religious hysteria and only a few generations after the infamous witch trials. Although "Young Goodman Brown" is a fictional tale, it is based on the cynical environment of Salem during this time period. The short story is filled with many literary elements, leading you to question what did exactly happen to the main character at the conclusion. When analyzing a story like "Young Goodman Brown", one must recognize that the story is at whole symbolic. In the text, symbols are used to uncover the truth of the characters. The role of Faith as both a character and a spiritual element are crucial to both the story and the character of Young Goodman Brown. The names of the characters Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are both symbolic. â€Å"Young" infers the title character is naive and new at life. Brown’s youth suggests that he is an uncorrupted and innocent young man. Moreover, "Goodman" suggests his self-righteousness thinking he is a good man. Furthermore, "Brown" indicates he is a commoner. Thus, the full name implies he is the average naive and self-righteous Puritan. Faith’s name in the story represents his need to cling to faith. She symbolizes everything that is good and Christian to Goodman Brown. Brown’s marriage to Faith is symbolic of how he clings to faith in good in the world. The story begins with Young Goodman Brown departing from his wife. His pretty young wife Faith is immediately identified by the pink ribbons in her hair. â€Å"And Faith, as his wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street letting the wind play with the pink ribbons on her cap.† (Hawthorne 197)... ...ssed though the use of setting, foreshadowing, and symbolism. William Graham Sumner once said â€Å"Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves.† (brainyquote.com). This statement holds many truths to the thoughts and actions of the young Goodman Brown in Hawthorne’s allegorical story. Brown was quick to go on his foreboding quest, knowing what his meeting with the devil may lead to, and only when threatened and scared attempted to turn back to hold on to both Faith physically and psychologically. Whether his journey into the forest was an illusion or not, Brown’s perception of faith in society have been dramatically altered, as he may have lost all faith in humanity. brainyquote.com http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamgra401700.html

Voting Essay :: essays research papers

Voting Essay Can you imagine walking into the scheduled spot chosen in your riding for voting, to find a group of young teenagers just hanging around talking and laughing amongst themselves? Wouldn't you be thinking, what do those kids know about voting? Look at them just mingling about with each other! This election could determine my lifestyle in the future! For this reason and others, I believe the voting age should be left at 18, if not raised a year or two.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Is it not true that the Young Offenders Act was created because youths under the age of 18 cannot think rationally for themselves and need special guidance? Well one could argue that for the same reason, youths shouldn't be given the right to vote. Politics, Federal Bills, and the government can all be classified as jobs for the elders. Perhaps it is best for the elders to decide upon who they are. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down young people, obviously not, look at myself, its just that it is safe to say that citizens older then me, even one year older have more knowledge then me and would have better understandings of who to vote for. People may argue that some teens do have more knowledge then some adults, but we're talking majority wise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Voting is also not an easy task. It takes a lot of effort and research to distinguish which Member of Parliament would be the best to vote for. Some representatives may even come door to door to persuade you to vote or them and since they would be aware that young teens now have a say in elections, they would use their sneaky minds and somehow promise something attractive to youths, possibly a four day school week or three months summer of summer break as opposed to two. Surveys have shown that teens are much more gullible then adults and this could also cause a problem within a group of friends. e.g.(Hey man! Who are you voting for? Umm… The Reforms. All right sounds good to me, I'll choose them too.

The Egyptian Process of Mummification Essay -- Ancient Egypt Egyptian

The Egyptian Process of Mummification In ancient Egyptian society, preserving a body after death was an important process necessary for entrance into an immortal existence. According to Egyptian belief the soul did not die. The soul would take the form of a bird usually a falcon and fly around in the world of the living returning later its dead body. The importance of preserving the body revolved around the idea that the roaming soul would be able to recognize the right body and return to it. As a result of this theology, Egyptians developed an effective system of embalming. The Egyptian embalming process was a significant and complicated process performed by priests. Employing a crooked piece of iron the brain would be removed through the nostrils. A sharp stone was used to cut open the body and extract the intestines. Palm wine and spices were used to purify the intestines. The chest and stomach areas would be filled with myrrh, cinnamon, and other herbs. The body would be sewn up and immersed in natron for seventy days. After the seventy days the body would be washed and wrapped in linen from head to foot bound by a gum like substance. Upon completion of this procedure the body would now be ready for burial. Egyptians used other methods of embalment. One method attributed to the lower class was to bury the body in the desert sand for a lengthy period of time. The result of this method dried the skin of the body into a leathery shell. Arab historian Abdel el Latif discovered on one of his expeditions a rather unorthodox method of embalment. Latif and his team came across a jar filled with honey. During a lunch break Latif and his party indulged in the jar of honey until hair... ...ns were stuffed into the ears of the mummies and along the bandages although the significance of this is still unknown. The modern examination of mummies has enabled us to ascertain various facts about everyday Egyptian life. The mummy of Maat-ka-re a virgin priestess had for thousands of years been thought to have been mummified with a child. Using X- ray technology the child turned out to be a mummified baboon, one of her favourite pets. Examination of mummies revealed that Egyptians were quite short. A considerable amount of infant diseases are evident in children mummies. The life expectancy according to the mummies was around forty. Average Egyptians encountered several dental and health obstacles. Spinal arthritis was common as were typhoid and brucellosis. Mummies serve as a tribute to ancient Egyptian society and their technology.

Abdul kalam azad Essay

Abdul Kalam, is an Indian scientist and manager who worked as the 1 lth President of India that is from 2002 to 2007. Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram and Tamil Nadu. He studied physics at the St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli, and he continued his aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai. Dr. kalam is by no means a miracle man . His advice to the teenager of the nation is to â€Å"dream’ dream and convert these into thoughts and later into action â€Å"Dream, dream and dream. Then translate your dreams into thoughts and then into action†¦ † is President Kalam’s favorite mantra. His life itself is an example of this philosophy – rising from a fisherman’s village to ending up in the presidential palace and along the way launching a bunch of missiles and winning a few ‘Padma’ (and Bharat Ratna) awards. His simplicity is remarkable, considering the presidential office in India still has Raj vestiges. (They even had a person Just to tie the president’s shoelaces. President Kalam got rid of this humiliating practice. There are all kinds of stories of his mingling with children and giving them pep talks, and how he drove up to Mrs. M. S. Subbalakshmi’s residence to personally present her the Bharat Ratna award. He is everything we dream in the highest ranking Indian – high- tech sa’. n. y, passionate, secular, inspiring, hard working and approachable. If you don’t already know, this bachelor and vegetarian writes poems and diddles with his veena in his spare time. Dr. Abdul Kalam, is additionally an acclaimed scientist. He is tremendously unobtrusive, delicate spoken, great mannered, unassuming and is true illustration of ‘simple living and high thinking. He is an eleventh President of India and his rise to his present, desired post demonstrates the auspicious working of our extraordinary democracy system. Dr. Kalam is a man of vision and has elevated dreams for Mother India. Before long in the wake of taking pledge of office as President, he said to his comrades, proclaiming his purpose to make India an improved nation.

Nature Nurture

The psychological debate of nature vs. nurture is one that has been deliberated and refuted for many years. This debate is so controversial because although it is fact that genetic makeup does play a major role in developing a person, the nurture and environment in which a person is brought up in is also an important factor. The nature vs. nurture issue dates back to Ancient Greeks, through the times of Aristotle and John Locke, with each philosopher projecting their own individual thoughts on the matter.Although nature depicts the development of a person in terms of their appearance and certain personality traits, nature and the setting and situations in which a person grows up is more important in explaining the development of a person because ultimately a person is an overall reflection of the environment of which they were brought up in. Psychologists are quick to support the nature debate because it deals with the genetic make-up of a person and biological psychology, which is f act. First of all, a person’s physical traits, such as eye color and blood type are genetically determined, even though there are certain ways to alter your look.Personality is proven to be heritable to an extent. Studies have proven that biological siblings are more similar in personality that adoptive siblings. In addition, a person’s genes can determine whether a person is predisposed to a disease or illness, such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s (Davies). A person who is affected with those types of diseases shows how nature can directly effect the development of an individual. A new technique called developmental genetic analysis is a procedure that examines the effects of genes throughout a person’s life.The technique concluded that a person’s intelligence is due about 50% to the genes they are born with (Huang). Furthermore, the nature debate is credible because of the genetic factors that support how people’s personalities and appearance develops, yet the nurture of a person ultimately overshadows the nature debate because environmental factors better influence the development of a person Each person comes from different backgrounds, religions, and environments, which are all external factors that play a large role in the development of an individual.Diet, stress, prenatal nutrition, peer pressure, and television are just some of the more specific environmental factors that can affect a person. Clearly, there are many more aspects of the nurture debate that contribute to the argument that a person’s upbringing is what will influence their development. For example, NBC reported that in a study where teenagers played violent video games and non violent video games, the violent video games were proven to enhance emotion in the amygdale, or the center for fear and aggression (Kalning).In this case the emotional effect from the video games supports the nurture debate because normal teenagers with non violent behav iors and tendencies were affected by an outside force that has the potential of affecting the teenager’s personalities. Nurture is more important in developing a person because despite a person’s genetic coding, the parents and the adults that a child is subjected to will play a greater role in the child’s development. Research shows that parents who talk to their children and spend time helping them interact ultimately raise more socially developed and intellectually stimulated children (Dewar).Even if a child born had genius parents, the environment and the early stages of development are crucial for the later stages of life. People are also highly influenced by their peers, and in the case of preschoolers who typically dislike a certain food will eat that particular food if children around them are eating it, showing that because it is the way of the human to want to fit and be liked, nurture has the greater impact and influence over a person (Harris).Further more, nurture is more important in shaping a human being because there are multiple factors that can influence a person differently, even if they have the same genetic background. Even though the nature vs. nurture debate is likely to always be challenged and discussed, it is possible that there may never be a right answer. The reason for this is that many situations and conditions factor in both the nature and nurture debate and there is reasoning in both cases to support either one as a reliable source.Overall, the biological traits and genes of a person enable individuals to learn and adapt to their surroundings, thus showing the debate is so closely related that it is difficult to determine which one more effectively contributes to the development of a person. However, the nurture issue states that a person is affected of the environment that they are brought up in, which is a more reliable source of the development of a person because there are more factors that influence envir onment than the biological aspects of the nature debate.Nature versus nurture. This has been a topic of debate for centuries. Years have passe still not been found regarding this issue. This is an argumentation of the utmost significance, not only because of its anthropological meaning, that will help us understand where we come from and how our personality is formed, but also because of the moral, political, ethical, educational, social, and statistical issues that it discusses. The nature side of the polemic says that humans behave as they do according to heredity, or even animal instincts.The nurture side believes that people think and behave certain ways because they are taught to do so. Neither of the above is the correct answer to the question, â€Å"Why do we behave like that? â€Å" The accurate answer is that heredity, meaning nature, is a true fact, but it has a role of â€Å"basis†, in the building of our mind and personality. The biggest impact in our developmen t is the environment in which we live and grow up: the nurture side. Therefore, nature is mostly influenced by nurture. Many scientists and authors have been arguing for the correct side, between nature and nurture.For example, William Golding, the English writer who wrote the book, Lord Of The Flies, states generally that every man has a capacity to be â€Å"evil† from the beginning of his life. This statement shows that from the point of view of Golding, every person has an inherited characteristic, which would basically mean he is on the nature side of the debate. Another notable person that agreed with the nature side of the polemic was the scientist, Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist.Galton was the man who first started the debate between hereditarians, a group of people who believe that heredity determinates our human nature, and environmentalists, people who believe that our environment has the biggest impact on our development. In 1865, h e began to study heredity, basically the idea of nature. This was partly influenced by reading Darwin's publication, Origin of Species. This â€Å"thirst† for knowledge led him to do very significant and important studies, the twin studies, hoping to find the different contributions of nature and nurture.His huge contribution to the debate, especially to the nature side, proves that he agreed with the theory of heredity. As mentioned earlier, Galton had a cousin named Charles Darwin. He was a British naturalist and big defender of the nature side of the debate. According to the Indian University Archives, without Darwin there would be no nature vs. nurture debate. Darwin wrote various pages on his autobiography about his family’s contributions to his intelligence. However, he attributed his intellectual success on nature, not nurture. Proof is provided by, this sentence that he wrote about his brother: †¦I do not think that I owe much to him intellectually-nor to my four sisters†¦I am inclined to agree with Francis Galton in believing that education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind of any one, and that most of our qualities are innate â€Å"(Darwin, 43). Darwin believed that intelligent behavior came from the instincts of our previous, nonhuman ancestors. This proves that Charles Darwin, one of the brightest minds of the 19th century believed in the nature part of the argumentation. The point clearly stated through these three examples is that, the genetic predisposition (heredity) is real.Genetic predisposition may be a fact, but it isn’t the reason why we behave the way we do. Heredity is only the basis. The formation of ourselves is due to the environment in which we grow up. An example of this theory is shown, Lord of the Flies. In the book, a group of kids find themselves all alone on an island. In this group we find different characters with diverse personalities and manners. Also, as previously ment ioned, Golding, the author of the book, believed that everybody has the capacity of being evil. The kids in the story start developing that initial evil due to the new environment in which they live.A hostile, unknown, scary and dangerous environment; leads to the development of an aggressive and violent comportment. In the book, we see that in the first chapters, Jack is a born leader with self-control. Generally he appears as a normal kid. But, as the story progresses, and the kids find new problems on the island, he starts developing â€Å"his evil†. At the end, he becomes a belligerent and confrontational leader of a violent mob. The new environment in which he lives causes this enormous change in his personality. Another example situated in the book is the case of Ralph.He is also a born leader, a boy who listens to reason and logic, and someone who always finds solutions to his problems. But, in this new environment, as the kids around him start being â€Å"evil† , he starts losing his self-control, and develops a new character, where he is not the boy that he was before. This change occurs when Ralph joins Jack’s mob and starts dancing with them: â€Å"Piggy and Ralph under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secured society â€Å"(Golding, 152) . The last example is the case of Piggy. He is a tormented kid, a victim of bullying, but deep down he is a smart boy.In the book he finds himself being insulted by Jack all the time. For instance when Jack says: â€Å"Better call you Piggy than Fatty â€Å" (Golding, 26 ) . The results of this bullying are that he can’t say his opinion or ideas when he is around of Jack, opinions that could be very helpful sometimes. But later in the story, when Jack leaves the group, and the environment of their small society becomes more friendly and calm, he feels more free and happy and he finally express his opinion and shows his intellige nt ideas to everybody, so basically the change of environment change him too.The point I want to make with my examples, is that, we may all have, a â€Å"groundwork† , our initial nature that we inherited from our parents, but the biggest impact in the development of our personality is the environment in which we grow up, which can completely change us, like the characters in Lord Of The Flies†¦ Supporting my theory, Judith Rich Harris, the author of the book : The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do . She generally says in her book that she challenges the idea that the personality of adults is determined chiefly by the way they were raised by their parents.She also says that the role of genetics in personality has long been accepted in psychological research, however, even identical twins, which share the same genes, are not exactly alike, so inheritance is not all. Another example that proves the theory that nurture has the most impact in our pers onality is the case of Genie. Genie was a girl who spent nearly all her childhood inside a bedroom. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation in American history (ABCnews). The police discovered her in 1970 after spending all her life tide to a chair.The result of this loneliness, was that she was unable to speak, walk, socialize, and generally being normal after being rescued. We can see, that due to the fact that she was in an isolated and lonely environment her attitude and personality weren’t usual, so this proves that the environment in which somebody lives has a direct connection with his/hers development, even if she inherited a bright and regular attitude from her family. To finish ill say that heredity is a well known, scientifically proved, theory. A fact.But without the help of nurture, it isn’t accurate. We become who we are, and we act the way we do because we are taught to do so. That’s how we learned . It doesn’t matter how our genes are, and what we inherited from our parents. The environment in which we live in will define us. â€Å"Genetic predisposition is not destiny â€Å" David Kranzler WHEN THE BRITISH EDUCATOR Richard Mulcaster wrote in 1582 that †Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward,† he gave the world a euphonious name for an opposition that has been debated ever since.People's beliefs about the roles of heredity and environment affect their opinions on an astonishing range of topics. Do adolescents engage in violence and substance abuse because of the way their parents treated them as toddlers? Are people inherently selfish and aggressive, which would justify a market economy and a strong police, or could they become peaceable and cooperative, allowing the state to wither and a spontaneous socialism to blossom? Is there a universal aesthetic that allows great art to transcend time and place, or are people's tastes determined by their era and culture ?With so much at stake, it is no surprise that debates over nature and nurture evoke such strong feelings. Much of the heat comes from framing the issues as all-or-none dichotomies, and some of it can be transformed into light with a little nuance. Humans, of course, are not exclusively selfish or generous (or nasty or noble); they are driven by competing motives elicited in different circumstances. Although no aspect of the mind is unaffected by learning, the brain has to come equipped with complex neural circuitry to make that learning possible.And if genes affect behavior, it is not by pulling the strings of the muscles directly, but via their intricate effects on a growing brain. By now most thinking people have come to distrust any radical who would seem to say that the mind is a blank slate that is filled entirely by its environment, or that genes control our behavior like a player piano. Many scientists, particularly those who don't study humans, have gone further and express ed the hope that the nature-nurture debate will simply go away.Surely, they say, all behavior emerges from an inextricable interaction between heredity and environment during development. Trying to distinguish them can only stifle productive research and lead to sterile polemics. But moderation, like all things, can be taken to extremes. The belief that it's simplistic to distinguish nature and nurture is itself simplistic. The contributions of this opposition to our understanding of mind and society are far from obvious, and many supposedly reasonable compromises turn out, under closer scrutiny, to be anything but.Let's consider some of the †reasonable† beliefs of the radical moderates. ‘Reasonable† Belief No. 1: No one believes in the extreme †nurture† position that the mind is a blank slate. Certainly few people today endorse the blank slate in so many words, and I suspect that even fewer believe it in their heart of hearts. But many people sti ll tacitly assume that nurture is everything when they write opinion pieces, conduct research, and translate the research into policy. Most parenting advice, for example, is inspired by studies that find a correlation between parents and children.Loving parents have confident children, authoritative parents (neither too permissive nor too punitive) have well-behaved children, parents who talk to their children have children with better language skills, and so on. Everyone concludes that to rear the best children, parents must be loving, authoritative, and talkative, and if children don't turn out well, it must be the parents' fault. But there is a basic problem with this reasoning, and it comes from the tacit assumption that children are blank slates. Parents, remember, provide their children with genes, not just a home environment.The correlations between parents and children may be telling us only that the same genes that make adults loving, authoritative, and talkative make their children self-confident, well behaved, and articulate. Until the studies are redone with adopted children (who get only their environment, not their genes, from their parents), the data are compatible with the possibility that genes make all the difference, the possibility that parenting makes all the difference, or anything in between. Yet in almost every instance, the most extreme position – that parents are everything – is the only one researchers entertain.Another example: To a biologist the first question to ask in understanding conflict between organisms of the same species is †How are they related? † In all social species, relatives are more likely to help each other, and nonrelatives are more likely to hurt each other. (That is because relatives share genes, so any gene that biases an organism to help a close relative will also, some of the time, be helping a copy of itself, and will thereby increase its own chances of prevailing over evolutionary time. But when the psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson checked the literature on child abuse to see whether stepparents were more likely to abuse their children than biological parents, they discovered not only that no one had ever tested the possibility, but that most statistics on child abuse did not even record the information – stepparents and biological parents were lumped together, as if the difference couldn't possibly matter. When Daly and Wilson did track down the relevant statistics, their hunch was confirmed: Having a stepparent is the largest risk factor for child abuse ever examined.The finding was by no means banal: Many parenting experts insist that the hostile stepparent is a myth originating in Cinderella stories, and that parenting is a †role† that anyone can take on. For agencies that monitor and seek to prevent child abuse the finding of a greater risk with stepparents could be critical information. But because of the refusal to entertai n the idea that human emotions are products of evolution, no one had ever thought to check. †Reasonable† Belief No. 2: For every question about nature and nurture, the correct answer is †Some of each. † Not so.Take the question, †Why do people in England speak English, and people in Japan Japanese? † The †reasonable compromise† would be that the Japanese have genes that make it easier for them to learn Japanese (and vice versa for the English), but both groups must be exposed to the language to acquire it fully. This compromise, of course, is not reasonable at all; it's false. Immigrant children acquire the language of their adopted home perfectly, showing that people are not predisposed to learn the language of their ancestors (though they may be predisposed to learn language in general).The explanation for why people in different countries speak different languages is 100 percent environmental. And sometimes the answer goes the other way. Autism, for example, used to be blamed on †refrigerator mothers† who did not emotionally engage with their children. Schizophrenia was thought to be caused by mothers who put their children in †double binds† (such as the Jewish mother who gave her son two shirts for his birthday, and when he turned up wearing one of them, said, †The other one you didn't like? †).Today we know that autism and schizophrenia are highly heritable, and though they are not completely determined by genes, the other likely contributors (toxins, pathogens, chance events in brain development) have nothing to do with parenting. Mothers don't deserve †some† of the blame if their children have these disorders, as a nature-nurture compromise would imply; they deserve none of it. †Reasonable† Belief No. 3: Disentangling nature and nurture is a hopeless task, so we shouldn't even try. On the contrary, perhaps the most unexpected and provocative disco very in 0th-century psychology came from an effort to distinguish nature and nurture in human development. For a long time, psychologists have studied individual differences in intellect and personality. They have assessed cognitive abilities using IQ tests, statistics on performance in school and on the job, and measurements of brain activity. They have assessed people's personalities using questionnaires, ratings by other people who know them well, and tallies of actual behavior such as divorces and brushes with the law. The measures suggest that our personalities differ in five major ways.We are to varying degrees introverted or extroverted, neurotic or stable, incurious or open to experience, agreeable or antagonistic, and conscientious or undirected. Where do these differences come from? Recall those flawed studies that test for the effects of parenting but forget to control for genetic relatedness. Behavioral geneticists have done studies that remedy those flaws and have disco vered that intelligence, personality, overall happiness, and many other traits are partly (though never completely) heritable.That is, some of the variation in the traits among people in a given culture can be attributed to differences in their genes. The conclusion comes from three different kinds of research, each teasing apart genes and environment in a different way. First, identical twins reared apart (who share their genes but not their family environment) are far more similar to each other than randomly selected pairs of people. Second, identical twins reared together (who share their environment and all their genes) are more similar than fraternal twins reared together (who share their environment but only half their genes).Third, biological siblings reared together (who share their environment and half their genes) are more similar than adoptive siblings (who share their environment but none of their genes). In each comparison, the more genes a pair of people share (holding environment more or less constant), the more similar they are. These studies have been replicated in large samples from many countries, and have ruled out the alternative explanations that have been proposed. Of course, concrete traits that patently depend on content provided by the home or culture are not heritable at all, such as the language you speak, the eligion you worship in, and the political party you belong to. But the underlying talents and temperaments are heritable: how proficient with language you are, how receptive to religion, how hidebound or open to change. So genes play a role in making us different from our neighbors, and our environments play an equally important role. At this point most people leap to the following conclusion: We are shaped both by our genes and by our family upbringing: how our parents treated us and what kind of home we grew up in.Not so fast. †The environment† and †our parents and home† are not the same thing. Behavi oral genetics allows us to distinguish two very different ways in which our environments might affect us. The shared environment is what impinges on us and our siblings alike: our parents, our home life, and our neighborhood (as compared with other parents and neighborhoods). The unique environment is everything else: anything that happens to us over the course of our lives that does not necessarily happen to our siblings.Remarkably, study after study has failed to turn up appreciable effects of the shared environment – often to the shock and dismay of the researchers themselves, who started out convinced that the nongenetic variation in personality had to come from the family. First, they've found, adult siblings are equally similar whether they grew up together or apart. Second, adoptive siblings are no more similar than two people plucked off the street at random. And third, identical twins who grew up in the same home are no more similar than one would expect from the eff ects of their shared genes.Whatever experiences siblings share by growing up in the same home in a given culture makes little or no difference in the kind of people they turn out to be. The implications, drawn out most clearly by Judith Rich Harris in her 1998 book †The Nurture Assumption,† are mind-boggling. According to a popular saying, †as the twig is bent, so grows the branch. † Patients in traditional forms of psychotherapy while away their 50 minutes reliving childhood conflicts and learning to blame their unhappiness on how their parents treated them.Many biographies scavenge through the subject's childhood for the roots of the grown-up's tragedies and triumphs. †Parenting experts† make women feel like ogres if they slip out of the house to work or skip a reading of †Goodnight Moon. † All these deeply held beliefs will have to be rethought. It's not that parents don't matter at all. Extreme cases of abuse and neglect can leave permanent scars. Skills like reading and playing a musical instrument can be imparted by parents.And parents affect their children's happiness in the home, their memories of how they were treated, and the quality of the lifelong relationship between parent and child. But parents don't seem to mold their children's intellects, personalities, or overall happiness for the rest of their lives. The implications for science are profound as well. Here is a puzzle: Identical twins growing up together have the same genes, family environments, and peer groups, but the correlations in their traits are only around 50 percent.Ergo, neither genes nor families nor peer groups, nor the interactions among these factors, can explain what makes them different. Researchers have hunted for other possible causes, such as sibling rivalry or differential treatment by parents, but none has panned out. As with Bob Dylan's Mister Jones, something is happening here but we don't know what it is. My own hunch is that the differences come largely from chance events in development. One twin lies one way in the womb and stakes out her share of the placenta, the other has to squeeze around her.A cosmic ray mutates a stretch of DNA, a neurotransmitter zigs instead of zags, the growth cone of an axon goes left instead of right, and one person's brain might gel into a slightly different configuration from another's, regardless of their genes. If chance in development is to explain the less-than-perfect similarity of identical twins, it says something interesting about development in general. One can imagine a developmental process in which millions of small chance events cancel one another out, leaving no difference in the end product.One can imagine a different process in which a chance event could derail development entirely, or send it on a chaotic path resulting in a freak or a monster. Neither of these results occurs with a pair of identical twins. They are distinct enough that our instrumen ts can pick up the differences, yet both are healthy instances of that staggeringly improbable, exquisitely engineered system we call a human being. The development of organisms must use complex feedback loops rather than prespecified blueprints.Random events can divert the trajectory of growth, but the trajectories are confined within an envelope of functioning designs for the species. These profound questions are not about nature vs. nurture. They are about nurture vs. nurture: about what, exactly, are the nongenetic causes of personality and intelligence. But the questions would never have come to light if researchers had not first taken measures to factor out the influence of nature, by showing that correlations between parents and children cannot glibly be attributed to parenting but might be attributable to shared genes.That was the first step that led them to measure the possible effects of parenting empirically, rather than simply assuming that those effects had to be all-po werful. The human brain has been called the most complex object in the known universe. No doubt many hypotheses that pit nature against nurture as a dichotomy, or that fail to distinguish the ways in which they might interact, will turn out to be simplistic or wrong.But that complexity does not mean we should fuzz up the issues by saying that it's all just too complicated to think about, or that some hypotheses should be treated a priori as necessarily true, necessarily false, or too dangerous to mention. As with other complex phenomena like inflation, cancer, and global warming, when it comes to the development of a human being we have no choice but to try to disentangle the causes. Steven Pinker is Peter de Florez Professor of Psychology at MIT and author of †The Language Instinct,† and †How the Mind Works. † This essay is adapted in part from his latest book, †The Blank Slate

Is America Shallow When it Comes to Advertising? Essay

Introduction. When a subject reads and add in a magazine, what is it that drives that person to go out and purchase the product the add depicts? What even makes a subject willing to spend more time looking at the add? It is at this point where the art of persuasion does it’s best work. Definitions. The Elaboration Likelihood Model claims that there are two paths to persuasion: the central path and the peripheral path. (lecture 2/20/03) The central path is most widely used when the receiver is motivated to think about the. If the person cares about the issue and has access to the message with minimum distractions, then that person will elaborate on the message. (lecture, 2/20/03). If the message is ambiguous but attitudinally neutral (with respect to the receiver) or if the receiver is unable or not motivated to listen to the message then the receiver will look for an easier way to interpret it. This leads to the peripheral route. Peripheral cues include such strategies as trying to associate the advocated position with things the receiver already thinks positively towards (e.g., beauty, money, sex).(lecture, 2/20/03) If the peripheral cue association is accepted here, then there may be a temporary attitude change and possibly future elaboration. Peripheral Route. The first advertisement that was chosen, from Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine, depicts a very attractive man standing in front of a bottle of cologne. The advertisement is for Polo, a brand notoriously associated with affluence, and prestige. This add illustrates the advertisers wish to catch the eye of the consumer as they are flipping the pages of the magazine using a method other then their product.. The argument in this case is weak. Polo is trying to depict that if a subject uses their new cologne, it is possible for them have a lifestyle like the model pictured. Most cologne adds, have a tab that you can open up on the same page and smell the cologne, that would cause one to elaborate on the add. This one does not, therefore, Polo was trying to get the consumer attention to a fragrance, using a beautiful person. This is clearly an example of persuasion using peripheral cues. The average age of a subject that would likely be persuaded by this add, would b e middle to late twenties, the age in which people are attempting to attain affluence. Central Route. The second advertisement that was chosen, from Sports Illustrated, is an add put out by Mercedes Benz to promote their new line of SUV’s, the M-Class.. It is very clear that Mercedes in this case was trying to promote the security aspect of their SUV’s. When a consumer sees this add, it is apparent that the central route will be used, because there is no greater motivation for thinking, then the safety of family. The ad would definatly cause the consumer to elaborate, and think about how safe the car that one is currently driving in, is. Thus, the add has done it’s job in attracting a consumer. One specific characteristic of the add that makes it persuasive, are the g-d’s in the clouds attempting to disrupt the path of the truck, as it seems to effortlessly keep on going. This clever use of history depicts that nothing can hurt those once inside this vehicle, not even g-d’s. The type of person that would most likely be persuaded by th is add would be a young father (28yrs.-40yrs.)who is in the market for a new car. This add is affective cause it gets a subject thinking, thus using the central route Conclusion. The way that consumers read and respond to advertisements as shown in this paper, is crucial to promoting a product. Whether a company uses the central or peripheral routes, to attract consumer interest, can make a huge different in sales of that product. The advertising industry is a multi-billion dollars business,(GQ, December 2002) in which creative minds develop new ideas in the art of persuasion for the next generations.

Characteristics of the Classic Monster Movie

Monster movies took hold in the early 1930’s as a new spin on the horror-psychological thrillers beginning to debut.   The monster movie genre as a whole has taken much criticism as to its merits, but it holds its weight in the box office with nearly 15% of all movie sales (Fischoff).   And, while many things can be said about the monster movie as a genre, the monster movie can be taken apart and illuminated to pick out the three core, salient characteristics found in all movies of the genre: the type of monster, the psychological aspect of the monster, and the plot of the movie, or, more succinctly, the monster’s motive. Fundamentally, certain genres lend to certain types of story arcs.   While the romantic comedy often follows a more character driven plot, where the characters find the meaning of true love, the monster movie follows a definable plot driven format.   And basically, in the plot driven movie, the overall story illustrates the efficiency of a town’s characters and how well they are able to stand up to the monster, before, either they are killed or the monster is finally neutralized or vanquished in a final, climax of a scene. To be honest, the end result of the town and its people doesn’t really matter, and any ending is entirely plausible.   But, the intrigue that makes a good monster movie is to be competently presented with the monster, the origin of the monster, and for the audience to discover what that monster wants out of the society they are terrorizing.   While the monster makes the lives of the characters in the story miserable, the audience is torn between wanting the characters to win, or actually feeling sympathy for the monster because of the conditions presented surrounding that monster’s origin. Moreover, monster movie plots have been known to fit into the plot categories and monster types to such a degree that a generator was actually created by David Neilsen.   Among the other completely hilarious and surprisingly useful generators to be had, the Monster Movie Pitch allows a user to create their own monster movie pitch by filling in the required fields.   Once filled in, the monster movie pitch is instantly created and a visitor can do what they want with the results. Because this generator actually serves to illuminate the points within this paper, a short detour will be taken.   With that said, the generator dictates that a male lead, female lead, and male sidekick are required, as well as a title.   Then the setting must be chosen: either a dark and forbidding forest, a sleepy little town, a mental institution, at sea, or ancient ruins.   Then the monster type must be selected: either the undead, extra-terrestrial, scientific abomination, creature of folklore/myth/legend, or nature gone bad.   And finally, the monster motive must be defined: revenge, to feed, to protect its young, its slumber has been disturbed, or it seeks to destroy humanity. Now, let’s see what fun can be had.   The selections have been made for the practice monster movie entitled, The Big Bad.   The rundown: heroic Zack and best buddy Trent, live in a sleepy little town and will come across an extra-terrestrial, leading lady Emily, and who seeks to destroy humanity.   Simple and sounds like a blockbuster.   Plugged into the generator, here’s the actual movie pitch: Critically acclaimed Egyptian filmmaker Aslad Assop brings his nightmare back to the screen with The Big Bad. This long awaited sequel to his international hit, Gong of Deviled Oxen, reunites aggressive shepherd Huche Ramman (Zack) with his holy guide Hammotep (Trent) in their biggest adventure yet. This time, Huche discovers messages in the entrails of his sheep and the trail leads to an extra-terrestrial temptress (Emily) who wishes to use sin to destroy all of humanity. Now the temptress is invading Huche’s Sleepy Little Town of Grozer, Egypt and only Huche’s faith can save the world! Sounds better than some of the monster movies out there.   Now, the purpose of the generator was not merely for amusement, though it was a bit of fun; however, it also serves to prove and illustrate the core, salient characteristics of the monster movie which are the type of monster, the psychological appeal of the monster, and the plot, or, motive of the monster. Because Neilsen states the monster types right out, it’s easy to realize, once they are presented in such a manner, that every monster movie (probably ever made) fits well into the categories, without even needing wriggle room.   To be precise, Neilsen states that there are five basic types of monster. The first type is the undead monster.   Now, the undead monster movie began in the 1930’s with Dracula and continued well into the freaky zombie thrillers of today like 28 Days Later and Resident Evil.   The undead category is not only chilling, but is perhaps the most used of all the monster types.   Even pop culture revolves around vampires, zombies, and the undead with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural.   This type of monster has the greatest impact on an audience because of the psychological aspect and appeal behind that monster. Moreover, the second monster type is the extra-terrestrial and is evident in movies like Alien, War of the Worlds and Predator.   ET actually fits this category as well, though that alien is more cute and cuddly than frightening.   Now, this monster type usually has the same motive, that to destroy all of mankind, and is the least escapable of all the monster types because they take more to vanquish than simple guns and grenades.   Characters in these movies die rapidly and often, and do little but to illustrate the irk of the monster. The third monster type is known as the scientific abomination.   This is an interesting monster category because it actually encompasses many different sorts of monsters, from Frankenstein, to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to the Invisible Man.   In all cases, this type of monster is created, even purposefully manufactured, and the outcome is accidental and tragic.   The creator of the monster is often murdered, or lost to his darker evil side, and the characters again, serve only to be killed off as the mad scientist almost realizes his folly. The fourth type of monster is the creature from folklore/myth/legend.   This category encompasses monsters from The Mummy, to monsters in The Relic, Cerberus, and After Dark.   These monsters all have the same motive, and all, actually, seem to have become a plague to the characters because of that motive: being disturbed from their slumber, which serves to kill off most of the characters in the most violent and brutal method possible. Finally, the fifth monster type is nature gone bad.   This fits the Armageddon sort of flick, where birds, bats, plague, or impending asteroids kill off a good portion of the characters.   Movies like Stephen King’s The Birds, Armageddon, 10.5, and The Day After Tomorrow fit this category well.   The problem with this last monster type is that it differs the most dramatically from the genre because a great deal more time is spent on character growth than on the priorities of the monster, being nature, but in the end, nature usually wins out, despite how great the characterization is. Furthermore, Stuart Fischoff’s study commented on many things monster but one conclusion was striking, that â€Å"film monsters have proven to be such unforgettable characters that in many instances they have become part of our culture.†Ã‚   In fact, they are unforgettable to the degree that â€Å"most Americans would recognize a picture of Frankenstein, Dracula, King Kong, Godzilla or the Mummy before recognizing a Supreme Court Justice† (Fischoff). This conclusion is not only remarkable, it is entirely true.   John Rutledge is one of the most recently discussed Supreme Court Justices, but his name means nothing unless that person has been thoroughly engrossed in the newspaper for the past two years.   On the other hand, a person doesn’t even have to watch Godzilla to know that Godzilla is a dinosaur-like creature that wreaks havoc on Tokyo or that Dracula is a vampire with unconventional vampire powers. Additionally, the second core characteristic of monster movies is the psychological aspect and appeal of the monster.   This aspect can roughly be defined as not only the type of monster, but the character of that monster and what affect that monster has on an audience.   Fischoff’s study was also to survey a group of people and conclusively determine who the â€Å"King of Monsters† was. Turns out Dracula wins, though not because he is the most violent, nor is he the best killer among the monsters to choose from.   Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lector obviously had the mass-slaying thing down, but they could never have the staying power that Dracula has because their nature is for violence and they lack the extreme psychological aspect that makes Dracula not only frightening, but also seductive. Monster movies are great to watch when the monster is a monster.   But, when man becomes a monster, as in the case of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, for reasons pertaining to his youth and not some botched experiment, the movie experience becomes nearly transcendently frightful with the very real aspect that Hannibal could be a real person in a very real neighborhood.   Same with Freddy Krueger, though he at least has that whole dream-killing thing happening which makes him, in reality, a bit less plausible, though his deeds are no less terrifying. Fischoff offers some insight into this phenomena, stating that â€Å"it is believed to be the thrill of fright, the awe of the horrific, the experience of the dark and forbidden side of human behavior that lures people into the dark mouth of the theater to be spooked† (Fischoff).   Even though the man-monster takes off on a different path from the genre, hitting horror and the psychological aspect harder than ever before, people still flock to these movies in droves due to the need for fright, to experience the thrill without living the thrill (how scary would it be if Hannibal lived down the street?).   And, the best monster movies are able to produce at least that much. Moreover, according to Fischoff’s survey, the top ten monsters of all time, in order, are: Dracula, Freddy Krueger, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Chucky, Michael Myers (Halloween), King Kong, Hannibal Lector, Jason Voorhees (Friday 13th), and Alien.   It is interesting to notice when looking at this list that the monster to man-monster ratio is an exact split between the ten.   Five genuine monsters and five men-turned-monsters.   When it comes to monster movies, the best monster is obviously a cross between the most horrific and the most frightening. Furthermore, the third characteristic of monster movies is the use of plot as a device to form the movie around the monster.   Like Neilsen’s generator was helpful to suggest, there are five different plots that make up the monster movie genre, almost, in its entirety.   And, these plots all revolve around or are centered on, the motive of the monster. Basically, the monster can be out for revenge, need to feed, need to protect its young, their slumber has been disturbed, or they want to destroy humanity.   All movies created in the early black and white era actually follow this format, the most famous of them setting up the very archetype known as monster movies today. To begin with, Frankenstein (1931) demonstrates the classic revenge plot.   Dr. Henry Frankenstein wanted to make a man out of stolen body parts and actually managed to do so.   In fact, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster would have been a medical marvel if not for the criminal brain secured for his construction.   Because of that tiny little fatal flaw, the monster rises with a vendetta for Dr. Frankenstein.   And because Dr. Frankenstein screwed up, he becomes the obsession of his own creation. In Dracula (1931), Count Dracula, something of a real estate tycoon and upwardly rich aristocrat, preys on the people he comes across in Transylvania.   Dracula is different than the average monster because of his strikingly literal human nature.   He also has the enhanced ability to seduce his victims beyond their control, which makes him exceptionally difficult to properly vanquish.   The story also ends heroically as Van Helsing is proven right and is able to destroy Dracula.   Dracula’s main motive, besides amusement, is simply, to feed. King Kong (1933) differs from many monster movies because the character relationships are vitally important for the movie to progress.   There are two main relationships developed throughout, that of Ann and Jack and that of Ann and King Kong.   King Kong’s motive, once he falls for his new companion Ann, is to protect her from the evils in his jungle environment, and later, the evils he sees New York City.  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the final lines in the movies, â€Å"it wasn’t the airplanes, it was beauty that killed the beast† strikes a cord in any heart and makes King Kong perhaps the most lovable of all movie monsters because of his human desire to protect Ann. In The Mummy (1932) a priest is resurrected accidentally by an unwitting team of archeologists and sets about seeking his lost love.   Bad things happen along the way, one of the archeologists is taken as a replacement for the mummy’s lost bride, but the mummy is vanquished in the end when the archeologists destroy the scroll that brought him back to life.   The mummy, Im-ho-tep, basically sends his wrath out on the world and spends the movie causing mass destruction because his slumber was disturbed.   Simple as that. Finally, in Godzilla (1954), Godzilla is a monster god (more like un-extinct dinosaur) that preys on the countryside of Tokyo and fits the classic monster out to destroy humanity plot.   The natives sacrifice virgins in an attempt to appease the monster, but Godzilla seems to enjoy wreaking as much destruction as possible.   The monster attacks every few scenes, with the people in a panic as to how to destroy him before they are all killed.   And, even though they manage to kill Godzilla in the end, the result is not joyful as the people still fear another Godzilla is just moments from rising from the sea. Overall, all movies follow a specific formula which can be calculated and defined based upon the genre they fall in to.   The monster movie is a cross between the horror film and the psychological thriller and has certain core, salient characteristics that define the monster movie as a genre.   Neilsen helps to illuminate the various forms of monster and monster motives with his monster movie pitch generator, and it can be said that, categorically, monster type, psychological aspect of the monster, and motive of the monster as demonstrated in the plot combine to form the core characteristics of the monster movie. Works Consulted. Fischoff, Stuart, et al.   â€Å"The Psychological Appeal of Your Favorite Movie Monsters.† International Scientific Communications, 2003. —-.   â€Å"The Psychological Appeal of Movie Monsters.†Ã‚   Journal of Media Psychology, 2005. LaBarbera, Michael.   â€Å"The Biology of B-Movie Monsters.†Ã‚   University of Chicago, 2003. Neilsen, David.   â€Å"Monster Pitch Generator.†Ã‚   Brunching Shuttlecocks, 2001. Waters, Cullen.   â€Å"The Plot Archetypes of Giant Monster Movies.†Ã‚   WordPress.com, 2005.   Zoombaba.   â€Å"Creature Feature: Monster Movie Roleplaying.†Ã‚   Accessed March 22, 2007.