Lessings Conception of a Universal Religion - 1115 Words

Lessing’s Nathan the Wise implies a conception of a universal religion of reason which is typical of the enlightenment period. Even though, Lessing does not dismiss existing religions in his work, I will argue that his humanistic religion conflicts with the idea of identity that is necessary to define one’s humanity. Thus, Lessing’s understanding of religion is not feasible since it overlooks the basis of religion. First, I will state that the play refocuses our intention on manhood and humanity. Next, I will explain how Lessing tries to reconcile religious beliefs with his humanistic religion through reason and tolerance. Finally, I will demonstrate how such a reconciliation is not practicable and how Lessing’s conception of a universal†¦show more content†¦Therefore, Lessing does not reject particular religions, but integrates them into a humanistic context. In his attempt to reconcile his conception of a universal religion of reason and particu lar religious beliefs, Lessing seems to discount the very nature of religion. On the one hand, he concedes that religion is rational since it plays a role in justifying human existence. On the other hand, he claims that personal beliefs must be put aside for a greater purpose which is humanity. Lessing’s commitment to a humanistic religion conflicts with the idea of a religious community. These two conceptions of religion lead to an alienation of humanity, since both claim to define what constitutes a human being. For Lessing, it is the reasonable investigation for truth that implies tolerance whereas for a particular religion it is the practice of certain rituals and the belonging to a given religious community that constitutes humanity. This conflict is observable in the current struggle between the Islamic world and the West. While one endorses the precepts of Islam as the main characteristics for one’s humanity, the other fends for secularism and tolerance. Not on ly does Lessing’s humanistic religion call for a redefinition of humanity which conflicts with those endorsed by religious communities, but it also fails to consider evil and history. In his optimistic vision, Lessing believes that God’s truth will one day be

Childhood Obesity Annotated Bib Free Essays

English 100/009 Annotated bibliography- Child Obesity in America Taras, H. , Potts-Datema, W. (2005) Obesity and student performance at school. We will write a custom essay sample on Childhood Obesity Annotated Bib or any similar topic only for you Order Now Journal of School Health, 75, 291-295. Retrieved October 4, 2005 from EBSCO (8) This Journal talks about obesity among school-aged children and academic outcomes. The authors reviewed published studies investigating obesity, school performance, and rates of student absenteeism. The book is recent (2005) so I feel that the information provided will still be the similar to today. I feel this is relevant to my research as it proves that obesity can cause problems in other important aspects of life. It also provides very satisfying facts that will back my research very well. Okie, Susan. Fed Up! : Winning the War against Childhood Obesity. Washington, D. C: Joseph Henry Press, 2005. Print. This book examines some of the factors contributing to childhood obesity, such as poor diet, lack of exercise, suburban sprawl, and TV, and provides advice on how parents can make positive changes. It primarily focuses on these issues within America. It covers a wide variety of topics with the main topic of obesity, which I think I will find beneficial to my research as all these factors contribute. Dalton, Sharron. Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do to Control the Fatness Epidemic. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Print. This book looks at what’s behind the statistics and diagnoses, and considers what can be done about the major health crisis threatening American children. Dalton begins with the basics: what obesity is, what causes it, and why it matters. Integrating information from scientific and popular sources, she reviews current diet and exercise recommendations for healthy living, comparing these recommendations with everyday realities experienced by American families. I feel this book will be good for all general understanding as it starts basic and then gets more in depth. I believe this will contribute well to my research as it covers a wide basis and focus on main points that could be causing this epidemic i. e parents. Smith, J C. Understanding Childhood Obesity. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Internet resource. Dr. J Clinton Smith tries to cover nearly every field of obesity research. The book deals with methods of control, the body’s physical and chemical makeup, prevention strategies, new treatments and behavior modifications and future research. Again, this will be very beneficial to my research but even more so as it focuses a lot on the psychological side of obesity, where as the others and focusing more on the food itself and the contributing factors. Hills, Andrew P, Neil A. King, and Nuala M. Byrne. Children, Obesity and Exercise: Prevention, Treatment, and Management of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity. London: Routledge, 2007. Print. This book covers 3 major topics of obesity: the prevention, treatment and the management . Even though this not specifically for American children, I feel that it will still be beneficial as obesity is a global epidemic. I believe this will be a good aspect for my research as it covers how obesity in children can be prevented and I feel this is what America needs to know. How to cite Childhood Obesity Annotated Bib, Papers

Necessary Convergence Communication free essay sample

A Theory of Dyadic Social Interaction and Meanings Michelle Miller-Day In this paper, the author proposed and describes a theory of the social construction of meaning in dyadic communicative interaction. The author argues that necessary convergence communication is a theoretical framework useful for explaining how power may influence the process of meaning construction in interpersonal communication. This essay describes the features of this theoretical framework and provides theoretical suppositions for future empirical testing. Child:Mom, look at the blue package! Mother: Its not blue, its teal. Child:It looks like blue to me. Mother: Its not though. Its got green in it too, so its teal. Later that day Friend: Oh, thats a pretty package. The blue matches your shirt. Child:Its not blue, its teal. To many of us this scene is not unusual. Children often learn from elders what any given symbol means and once children learn these meanings they incorporate them into their cognitive schemata. According to Piagets (1972, 1954) theory of cognitive development, from approximately ages 4-7 children are in an intuitive phase where they can grasp logical concepts, but reality is not yet firm and is often dictated by authority figures. The role of authority figures to shape constructions of reality certainly does not end in childhood. Social constructionists such as Berger and Luckmann (1966) argue that individuals together produce a human environment, with the totality of its socio-cultural and psychological formations and understandings; social meanings are a human product (p. 52). It is not unusual, say, for an abusive romantic partner to convince his or her partner that the abuse is deserved or symbolic of care or even love. The dyadic construction of acts of abuse as signifying love or care may not e clearly understood by others outside the relational dyad, yet perceptions of abusive behavior as acts of love are common in abusive interpersonal relationships, along with sacrificing ones own interpretation of events so as not to lose the affection of the partner (Woods, 1999). In fact, in a recent episode of the popular television show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (Denoon Platt, 2004) a teenager was placed in foster care due to a mothers complete and utter dominance over the child, with the episode focu sing on the control the mother had over how her offspring interpreted the world around him. The psychologist in the episode did not have a name for this process of maternal domination, but compared the teenager to a puppet, merely appropriating his mothers interpretations of the world out of fear; the fear of losing her love, protection and their relational structure. Although this essay does not focus on children or abusive relationships specifically, it outlines a theory addressing the social construction of meanings in dyadic communicative interaction wherein there is disequilibrium between members in that process. Berger (2005), in his review of the interpersonal communication up until the 21st century, pointed out that very few interpersonal communication scholars have developed theories addressing this central tenet of communication meaning. His review argued that for the field to move forward interpersonal communication researchers should look more at interaction routines and the process of meaning-making between interactants. Around the same time as this review was being written, Koerner and Fitzpatrick (2002) published an article in Communication Theory arguing for a similar need for research examining intersubjectivity, meaning, and interactivity in the area of family communication. They argued the following: a complete explication of family communication needs to consider both intersubjectivity and interactivity (Fitzpatrick Ritchie, 1993). Intersubjectivity refers to the sharing of cognitions among participants in a communication event, whereas interactivity refers to the degree to which the symbol creation and interpretation are linked. ,Interactivity refers to the way that a family maintains its own structure through patterns of family members responses to each others communicative acts (p. 73, Koerner Fitzpatrick, 2002). Correspondingly, Miller-Day (2004) also presented a Necessary Convergence Communication (NCC) theory which focused on both intersubjectivity and interactivity in family member i nteractions, while addressing issues of power and dominance involved in the process of meaning-making between communicators. At this junction, in response to these calls for theoretical development in the area of meaning construction and dyadic social interaction in the fields of interpersonal and family communication, and building on the ideas introduced by Koerner and Fitzpatrick (2002), this essay will briefly review the original ideas of Miller-Days (2004) Necessary Convergence Communication (NCC) theory, elaborate on them, and then discuss how this framework might be a workable mid-range theory to assist communication scholars understand how the construct of power or dominance may influence the meaning construction process in interpersonal communication. A theory is a lens through which to examine human interaction and theories have four functionsdescription, explanation, prediction, and change (Griffin, 2000; Littlejohn Foss, 2005). The foundation of a theory is description and as Wood (2004) points out, before we can figure out how something works, we must describe it (p. 32). Therefore, the first task of building new theory is to describe its features. This essay provides a description of necessary convergence communication and identifies specific features that may be empirically tested. An Introduction to Necessary Convergence Communication Miller-Day (2004) argued that necessary convergence is a form of intersubjectivity that occurs during a pattern of interactivity when one communicator is dominant and the other submissive. When convergence of meaning occurs, meaning coordination tends to be coercive rather than cooperative with the dominant partners interpretive frame privileged over the submissive partners, leading to unequal contributions to the process of meaning coordination. Author Ayn Rand (1993) referred to this type of process in her novel The Fountainhead. Rand argued that some individuals tend to be â€Å"second-handers†Ã¢â‚¬â€people who don’t judge for themselves, who just repeat what others close to them say, embrace it, and make it their own. Miller-Days (2004) argument suggests that when the relational schema for the submissive partner is based on conditional regard—that is, she or he believes that acceptance in the relationship (e. g. , receipt of emotional resources) is contingent on meaning convergence; the submissive partner will converge with the dominant partners meanings for relational maintenance purposes. As discovered in Miller-Days family communication research (2004) and Miller (1995) and illustrated in the Law and Order episode mentioned earlier in this essay, not to converge with a dominant partners interpretation of symbols or events in any transaction would risk already precarious acceptance and approval in the relationship. An interpretive frame is defined here as cognitive structure that contains mental representations of meanings; the process of constructing meaning activates interpretive frames. Necessary infers that convergence is perceived as essential to achieving a certain result, and convergence indicates a tendency toward one point (Miller-Day, 2004). Thus, to obtain relational approval and avoid rejection, the submissive partner will accommodate the dominant partner by assimilating his or her interpretive frame. Within this model, convergence is relationally adaptive. This introduction to NCC as a theoretical framework offers an overview. But, to fully understand how this theory may be applied more generally to interpersonal relationships, I will elaborate on this theoretical framework, present the assumptions linked to it, describe its characteristics, and provide some theoretical statements for empirical testing. A-Priori Theoretical Assumptions Communication Is an Emergent, Creative Activity through Which Meanings are Coordinated Via Interpretive Schemata People approach the world through processes of interpretation. As human social animals we are in a constant state of interpreting and managing meanings, and interpreting meanings is an interdependent process. The assumption is that meanings are not inherent in objects, but instead arises out of social interaction. During social interaction, meanings are coordinated through interpretive schemata—mental structures consisting of organized knowledge about relationships. Interpretive schemata represent accumulated knowledge—the sum of past experiences—which help an individual interpret, understand, and predict the outcomes of interactions with others (Burleson, Metts, Kirch, 2000; Cragan Shields, 1998; Koerner Fitzpatrick, 2002). Moreover, interpretive schemata include expectations about what should happen in a given situation and serve to guide behavior. Interpretive schemata specific to relationships—relationship schemata—influence the â€Å"encoding and decoding of information, the inferences and evaluations people make †¦ and ultimately their interpersonal behavior† in relationships (Koerner Fitzpatrick, 2002, p. 80). This assumption presumes that the process of â€Å"making meaning† activates interpretive frames. Communicators then coordinate their meaning systems as filtered through these frames and then negotiate agreement. Understanding between the members builds intersubjectivity and hopefully leads to consensus (Crotty, 1998; Solomon, Dillard, Anderson, 2002). Implicit in this assumption are claims of coordination and negotiation. Coordination implies a state of equal rank, equal power, and harmonious order, whereas negotiation suggests that communicators confer with one another in order to reach an agreement. Coordination involves collaboration of all communicating partners. Communication Enacts Relationships The state of being in a â€Å"relationship† is inherently a communication process and must be understood as a series of transactions in which messages are exchanged. Relationships are formed across repeated transactions, with each new transact adding new information to the one that came before, building a cumulative database of information about the relationship (Burleson et al. 2000; Duck, 1992; Guerrero, Anderson, Afifi, 2001). Transactions are units of interaction affecting both interactants and carrying commentary on the interactant’s relationship. As Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson (1967) pointed out, each message (both verbal and nonverbal) carries information at two levels—the content level and the relationship level. The relationship level enacts the current state of the relationship and provides information about how the communicators see each other, th emselves, and their relationship. Communicative Transactions in Close Personal Relationships Have Implications for Personal and Relational Identities Relational members encode and decode information about themselves as well as for their partner, extrapolating this information to the relational unit (Aron Aron, 1986). Within this framework, the self is conceptualized as inseparable from dynamic interaction, with each transaction contributing to both self- and relational knowledge. Early work by Mead (1934) identified the centrality of essage exchange in personal identity management. More recent work in relational communication points out that both personal and relational identities are cocreated communicatively within the context of relationship (Wilmot, 1995). Personal identity development is really the unfolding of the self while retaining relational ties; identities are constituted and managed through relationships, not to their exclusion (Adams Marshall, 1996). Relational Culture Shapes Interpretive/Relational S chemata Relational cultures consist of shared meaning systems, routinized patterns of interaction, and norms that structure members’ roles and behaviors (Wood, 2000). These cultural norms shape relational schemata (Koerner Fitzpatrick, 2002), and these schemata are socialized across the developmental trajectory of the relationship. Socialization involves the â€Å"social and communicative processes through which cultural knowledge, resources and practices are made available and internalized† by cultural members (Burleson et al. , 2000, p. 35). As Entman (1993) demonstrated, culture is the stock of commonly evoked interpretive schemata and culture might be defined as the â€Å"empirically demonstrable set of common interpretive frames exhibited in the discourse and thinking of most people in a relationship† (p. 53). Relational schemata are the mental structures that are socialized within a relational culture, organize knowledge about relationships, and are used to process information relevant to these relationships. Therefore, relational cultures will share common schemata and should be reflected in the communication practices of relational members. Interpersonal Scripts Emerge From Relational Schemata Scripts are one form of communication practice enacted within relationships that emerge from relational schemata (Koerner Fitzpatrick, 2002). Relational scripts direct interaction, exemplify relational work, and dictate normative ways of issuing directives and responses. Scripted interactions are often routine, habituated, and overlearned through repetitive practice in the family culture (Sillars, 1995); however, these scripts are useful in directing the â€Å"typical† ways in which an interaction should be handled given the particular relational schema. When relational members become practiced in these roles and memorize their lines, these enactments become scripted. That is, partners may not think about their day-to-day ways of interacting with each other on a conscious level, but they may still tend to communicate in patterned ways with well-defined scripts that enact â€Å"appropriate† relational behavior. These a-priori assumptions are implicit in the theoretical framework of NCC. In summary, they presuppose that relational culture shapes partners knowledge of relationships; each partners accumulated knowledge of relationships helps her or him to coordinate meanings; patterned or scripted communication behavior emerges from relationship schemata; and this communication behavior is consequential for interpersonal relationships. Characteristics of Necessary Convergence Communication Necessary convergence communication can be captured by describing its three separate characteristics, equilibrium, weighted proportion of meaningfulness, and motivation, and two process dimensions, degree and chronicity (Miller-Day, 2004). These characteristics are illustrated in Fig. 1 and can be assessed in terms of their valence and intensity in any given interpersonal relationship. [Insert Figure 1 about here] Equilibrium When necessary convergence occurs, there tends to be disequilibrium in the relational coordination of meanings. Equilibrium refers to an equality of distribution; however when disequilibrium occurs, there is unequal power to determine meanings in interpersonal interaction. Power is a person’s ability to control valuable resources and is often tied to status. Any type of power such as expert power, legitimate power, or coercive power is relevant to equilibrium as long as the person is in control of resources considered valuable. Control of resources provide the potential for the exercise of power in most relationships, with resources being all knowledge, skills, emotions, words, actions, and materials that are at the disposal of the person. Given the distribution of resources within any specific interpersonal relationship, power might be evaluated by its outcome, which is dominance. Dominance refers to the degree to which a person can influence and impose their will on the other; its counterterm, submission, refers to the degree to which a person gives up influence or yields to the wishes of the other. I think it is important to keep in mind that dominance itself is determined by the submissive response of others. Moreover, as Burgoon, Johnson, and Koch (1998) pointed out, â€Å"While power enables the display of dominance, and dominant behavior may solidify power—though correlated—dominance and power are not interchangeable concepts† (p. 10). According to Miller-Day (2004), when NCC occurs the relational member who has higher status or more power in the relationship (e. g. , parent, teacher, boss, or romantic partner) would be dominant in imposing, rather than cooperatively negotiating, meaning in the relationship. Moreover, as one person’s power to determine meanings increases, the other person’s decreases, this then leads to an unstable situation in which the importance of one partner’s interpretive frame outweighs the partner’s. Weighted Proportion of Meaningfulness The second characteristic of necessary convergence occurs when one partner submits to the unequal distribution in the power to construct meanings in interaction. Dominance requires submission. Consequently, when a lower-status partner submits, she or he affords the dominant partner’s meanings more weight—more significance—in the transaction. Developmentally, as most individuals begin to acquire personal authority they naturally become differentiated from parents and others in their life, even as they remain emotionally connected (Nadien Denmark, 1999). However, as adults form unique relational cultures, they will develop new connections with others. Some times these relationships are purely social and require accommodation of meanings for social management purposes; for example, in the classroom where a professor does not encourage critical thinking but mandates rote memorization and resists any challenge of information. In this case, students are required to accommodate the professors meanings into his or her own understanding (and repeat that on the exam! ). Anyone who has ever been in a classroom with one of these instructors may empathize with students placed in a setting where there is a low tolerance for differentiation in thinking among members. But the case of relational partners where one partner is dominant in most realms of the relationships and the other submissive, there is both a social and emotional connection between partners. In this case, the dominant partner will typically closely monitor any behaviors that signify the submissive partners movement toward differentiation (uniqueness outside the relationship), regardless if emotional ties remain undisturbed. If the less powerful partner resists the imposition of meaning and challenges her partners construction of meaning in the dyadic interaction, then necessary convergence communication has not occurred. It is the absence of resistance the convergencethat is a key feature of this kind of communication. According to NCC, the less powerful partner will be motivated to converge because he or she feels it is necessary. Motivation Motivation is a reason for action, an incentive. This theory argues that when there is a compelling reason for convergence, such as is to avoid undermining the relationship or to secure relational acceptance, there is increased motivation to converge with the higher-status partner. When acceptance in the relationship is perceived to be conditional on that convergence, then convergence is perceived as relationally adaptive and the lower-status partner is more likely to perceive convergence as necessary. Necessary convergence, then, might be viewed as a form of secondary control. According to Rosenberg (1990), â€Å"Secondary control is an attempt to accommodate to objective conditions in order to affect a more satisfying fit with those conditions† (p. 147). Although convergence tends not to be explicitly demanded, lower-status partners will perceive it as a condition for relational acceptance. Manipulation of resources in a relationship, such as support, regard, or inclusion, emerged as a significant contributor to asserting dominance in the family relationships observed by Miller-Day (2004). As a form of psychological control, higher-status family members offered and withheld these resources contingent on the convergence of the lower-status member. The manipulation of emotional resources, therefore, was used to assert psychological dominance with the provision or withdrawal of resources providing a compelling motivation for lower-status partner’s convergence. According to NCC, once convergence is perceived to be necessary, and one accommodates the dominant partners interpretive frame at the expense of ones own, two additional characteristics become important when assessing necessary convergence: degree and chronicity. Process Dimensions Degree. The relative intensity or amount of convergence in any given dyadic interaction is important to the process of NCC. The following illustration captures different degrees of convergence. Example: An adult woman and a friend are talking. The friend comments that she likes the womans new hairstyle, pulled up on her head with a hair clip. The woman comments that she likes the style too. Soon the adult womans mother walks into the room, looks at her adult daughter, and with a tone of disapproval says, What have you done to your hair? It looks awful† Under conditions of high convergence, the lower-status woman would change her hairstyle extensively as a result of her mother’s comment, converging with her mother’s interpretation that the style was indeed horrible and altering her original interpretation to â€Å"fit† more closely with her mother’s. If asked by another, she would explain that the hairstyle looked awful so she altered it. Under conditions of moderately high convergence, the lower-status woman would significantly change her hairstyle as a result of her mother’s comment, but just to please her mother or to reduce conflict. The lower-status woman would not alter her own interpretation to fit with her mother’s interpretation; she would merely accommodate the alternative interpretation. Under conditions of moderately low convergence, the lower-status woman might make minor alterations in the hairstyle to integrate both perceptions of what was attractive into one style. Finally, under conditions of low convergence, the lower-status woman might listen to her mother’s comment but keep the style anyway because she likes it. As Miller-Day (2004) comments, there are times when we all perceive that it is just easier, necessary, or politically astute to adjust our interpretations to others’ view of the world. However, when there is extensive accommodation and convergence, obliterating personal interpretative frames constitutive of self, this might negatively influence personal identity. Chronicity. Convergence may be chronic or the pattern of convergence may occur across time and contexts. When lower-status individuals experience repeated failures in negotiating meanings in transactions with a partner across time (e. . , across the life course) and contexts (e. g. , attitudes, values, behaviors), this may instill a generalized expectancy of learned helplessness and â€Å"giving in. † Miller-Days (2004) data revealed that women who chronically engaged in necessary convergence had an undefined sense of self and lower self-esteem than women who did not engage in convergence. When boundaries betwe en individuals blur in personal relationships, identities may become undefined and convergence communication becomes the modus operandi. Piagets (1972) theory of cognitive development points out that in normal development, both assimilation and accommodation processes are used simultaneously and alternately throughout life. Assimilation being the process of using or transforming the environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive structures and accommodation being the process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment. Necessary convergence communication offers an explanation for those interactions where accommodation becomes the primary means of making sense of the world. Theoretical Suppositions of Necessary Convergence Whereas theoretical assumptions are claims already supported in the research literature, suppositions are considered true or existing but not yet proved. Miller-Day (2004) provided the groundwork for this theory development and I seek to build on that by offering the following suppositions about NCC. I believe these suppositions may provide the necessary building blocks for theory development and offer future directions for empirical testing. Supposition #1 Interactants with more power (e. g. expert, legitimate, reward) in a dyadic social interaction will exert more influence in the construction of meaning than interactants with less power. Coordination of meaning involves power and control and according to this theory meanings can be hijacked. When both partners share moderate levels of power in the relationship, it would be predicted that they would enjoy the equilibrium and co-construction of meaningshared cognitions with a relativ ely high degree of match between symbol creation and interpretation. But most theories assume co-construction and equilibrium in sharing cognitions. According to NCC, we need to factor in power status of the interactants in the dyadic construction of meaning. Although studies exist that explore social stratification and power in terms of race, gender, and larger cultural hierarchies (see, e. g. , Altheide, 1995; Lyman, 1994), rarely do scholars explore interpersonal dominance and perceptions of status in their attempts to understand meaning construction. Supposition #2 Under conditions where there is disequilibrium—unequal power—in determining meanings in dyadic social interaction, both partners will afford the dominant partner’s meanings more significance. If one participant in the communication event is dominant in the dyad then it is predicted that connections between symbol and interpretations can be coerced, and the interpretations of the dominant partner are privileged in that communication event. Supposition #3 Converging with a higher-status partner’s assigned meanings will function to maintain the relational identity. The act of convergence is relationally adaptive. The act of convergence in any given interaction will serve to protect the entangled identity of the participants and function to maintain the relational status quo. Partners in dominant-submissive relationships will maintains their relational culture through this patterns of responding to each others communicative actsby one requiring convergence and the other converging. Supposition #4 Among submissive partners, necessary convergence communication will be positively related to an undifferentiated self. Relationships demonstrate varying degrees of tolerance for intimacy and autonomy through interactions. In differentiated relationships partners are provided with autonomy, while maintaining respect and intimacy. In undifferentiated relationships boundaries are regulated, with high demands for connectedness, and ultimately impeding individual identity (Skowron Schmitt, 2003; Skowron, 2005). Supposition #5 The manipulation of emotional resources by the dominant partner in relationship with an undifferentiated partner will positively predict necessary convergence communication. It is posited that a communication partner who encourages emotional and psychological dependence through the manipulation of emotional resources (e. g. , love, acceptance) will also coerce a high degree of convergence in the communicative interaction. Respectively, a communication partner who is undifferentiated and submits to the dominant partner will perceive that convergenceor a shared interpretationis necessary to maintain the relationship. Supposition #6 The more chronic and the greater the degree of convergence, the more likely the submissive partner will have a generalized expectancy of learned helplessness predicting increased risk for depression. The theory of learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) offers a model to explain human depression in which apathy and submitting to more dominant others prevails, causing the person to fully rely on others. This can result when life experiences cause the individual to understand that their own cognitions are irrelevant. Summary This essay introduced necessary convergence communication as a theoretical framework to help explain how meanings can be hijacked by others in interpersonal relationships. Under certain conditions it is predicted that dominant members in interpersonal relationships may be able to control the coordination of meaning in the relationship, subverting the interpretations of the submissive communication partner. Outlining characteristics of NCC (equilibrium, weighted proportion of meaningfulness, and motivation), two process dimensions (degree and chronicity), and posing 6 testable suppositions about NCC, this essay argues that this mid-range theory may be useful in understanding intersubjectivity and interactivity in dyadic social interaction where one partner is dominant and the other submissive. Whether that partnership is interpersonal or relational, there are implications for this kind of communication in understanding interpersonal influence and possibly even mental health outcomes such as depression. Future Directions There are criteria by which theories are judged to be effective. According to Shaw and Costanzo (1970) and Wright (1998), the following criteria may be used for evaluating theories and future research should examine this theoretical framework to assess if it meets these criteria. First, there is explanatory power—do the suppositions of the NCC theoretical framework enable scholars to explain as much of the communication phenomenon as possible? Next, is the theoretical model parsimonious—does it contain as few suppositions as possible, is it as simple as it can be? Is NCC internally consistent, that is, do the suppositions contradict each other? Does NCC have heuristic potential; does it suggest hypotheses to be tested through additional research? Finally, does NCC promote new understanding and have societal value? This essay outlines the features of NCC and proposes suppositions for empirical testing. Future research should test these suppositions with the potential to falsify and/or delimit this theoretical framework.

Topic Paper 3 Essays (293 words) - Rape, Crimes Against Women

Skylar Rose Goodman October 25, 2018 Topic Paper #3 Death Penalty Reflection (Outline) Morality Defined as a doctrine or system of moral conduct. (Merriam-Webster.) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morality Constitutionality Retribution Irrevocable Mistakes Cost of Death vs. Life in Prison Race Closure for Victims' Families Attorney Quality Physicians at Execution Prior to reading the required novel "Dead Man Walking," my views of the death penalty were for the pracitce. In that, I had a very firm belief that should a life be taken, and the guilty party be convicted without any doubt whatsoever, that death would be an appropriate punishment. The only crimes that the death penalty should be allowed would be rape in the first degree and murder in the first degree. While reading "Dead Man Walking," I did find myself questioning my viewpoints in terms of the convicted felon's family and friends. Previously, the idea of those who knew the criminal and their feelings on the matter did not occur to me, and if they did, I often thought to the victim and their family. The reasoning behind this viewpoint was simply that if a life is taken that in turn whoever took that life should also die. In terms of rape and sexual assault, I believe and know that many victims, most, if not all, would feel a sense of security knowing that the person who attacked them can no longer be able to physically do so.

Adoption Rights for Gays and Lesbians essays

Adoption Rights for Gays and Lesbians essays Adoption Rights for Gays and Lesbians Just a few years ago, most children grew up in a traditional or nuclear family, which refers to the conjugal household consisting of a husband, a wife, and their dependent children, whose relationships are traditionally recognized by the American family law. Yet, in todays society, fewer and fewer American households are daresay traditional families. The constant societal changes have brought about the rise of alternative or nontraditional families, many of which include group living, unmarried cohabitation and single-parent families-all of which are mutually interdependent households, but not recognized as so by the American family law. As part of these alternative or nontraditional families, in the past decade we have begun to see a sharp rise in the number of lesbian and gay men forming their own families through adoption, foster care, artificial insemination and other means. So why are lesbians and gays still being repressed? Why are they being denied the right to adopt? Wh y is it that there are still countless states across the United States who however hold very stringent laws regarding lesbians, gays and adoption? Living in a society like the one we live in today, very healthily promotes diversity and acceptance, yet, unjustly contradicts itself and sanctions the same advocacy material-but, contrary to popular belief and assumptions, gays and lesbians can be equally as good at parenting as heterosexuals. Through the chaos of myths and stereotypes, gays have come a long way at battling a society that can at times be cruel, insensitive and intolerant. Amongst the myths and stereotypes is the present notion that lesbians and gay men are unfit to be parents. Yet, in looking at and evaluating all of the research to date, the same unequivocal conclusion about gay parenting has been reached, th...

An Examination Of The Financial Challenges Faced By Students At The Ivy League School

An Examination Of The Financial Challenges Faced By Students At The Ivy League School Over thirty thousand people applied to Brown university this year, and only about twenty-six hundred made it in. Thats about an eight percent acceptance rate for all the poor saps who applied to that ivy league school. But they why do they need that schools name on their diploma so badly? These people are just out of school and shooting for the stars with their big dreams, but maybe a local university or even a technical college is more the speed some of these people need. Ivy League schools are ranked better, but are not better than other schools because: they are not financially accommodating, they are very stressful, and under the rug embarrassing. Financially, Ivy League schools may not be the best for someone who doesn’t come from money. Two thirds of the people accepted into ivy league schools this year of 2015 applied for financial aid. that does not mean they all acquired it, or even a reasonable amount that they may need, but they took the extra effort because they dont believe they can take on the financial burden. all of the applications for scholarships and grants that they applied for cannot cover their costs of living. Next year, tuition will rise an average of 3.76 percent at the Ivies—pushing the cost of attendance as high as $63,000 (Akane Otani). Students need about as much money for living than they do for basic tutions at a tech school. Spending money they dont have on: food, clothes, personal items (hair products, toiletries, cell phones, etc.). Thats not including if anything were to get stolen, such as textbooks or computers or anything from their dorm rooms. Theres too much to pay for financia lly with these schools for most of these kids to be attending it. seventeen percent of students who attend ivy league schools are the first of their families to attend school (Ivy Coach). that number triples for those who attend a technical college, so imagine the new burden that they have on their shoulders. not only are they the first to go to school, they are going to a big, brand name one. Stress on an ivy league college student can get so great that it leads to life changing decisions. â€Å"The stresses that comes with academia including pressure to get good grades, financial worries, failed relationships and conflicts with roommates are enough to force some students to leave college or worse. In fact, depression is the number one reason students drop out of school or die by suicide.† ( Pakistan Observer) .It can cause a person to feel a lack of self worth when trying to keep up with other students because they dont believe that they are doing as good as the others, or that they dont get the information as well as everyone else may be comprehending it. what they dont realize is that, most of the time, they all feel this way about each other. this type of emotional stress can lead to them ‘giving up and giving in’ to the pressures around them such as skipping class, slacking off, and dropping out. Embarrassing, not a work commonly used for Ivy League schools, but it’s still one to represent it. They underestimate themselves and develop a feeling of ‘checking your privilege’ (Rega Jha) which people who attend these schools shouldnt do because they are paying so much to attend these schools so they should have gloating rights. this feeling causes them to not want to stand out in the crowd and when everyone is busy trying to convince them how great it is and how well theyre doing, the person who didnt want any attention in the first place, now seems to everyone like thats all they wanted. Then these people who feel inferior to be in an ivy’s presence, expects these students to be geniuses on everything. They are bombarded with ridiculous questions that they never have or will cover in their classes because people expect so much and then are seen as dumb because they dont know the answer and are paying out the butt to have a better education, when in rea lity they could have gotten the same degree and education for a university in their state. It’s embarrassing to be just as smart as they guy at a university when theyre going to an ivy league school to get the exact same degree as the guy next to them. Yes, these schools are viewed as big names for a reason. they are prestige and only have the best of the best. Why is it then that these degrees mean so much more than one someone obtained from a university? because of the name. With so many years to build up the buildings and time to really make it better, how could anything compete? these schools are may even only be seen so greatly because they reject so many. With these schools not even having some of the programs people would need to become what they want most, why wouldnt they work to â€Å"Find the university program that loves you for you, the school that matches your values and specializes in the fields that you are passionate about† (Montesano, Mandell). as a student who goes to a technical college i can never give personal insight to someone who does actually go to an ivy league school. im a realist, so im not one to ever really fantasize or shoot for the stars when my rocket is made of cardboard. Though i admire the ones who shoot for those stars, i think they are crazy and dumb. i hope this paper has shown why my light shines on that idea of ivy league students through the financial struggles, the stress it comes with, and the silent embarrassment.

REFLECTION ON PLACEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

REFLECTION ON PLACEMENT - Essay Example The quest for learning of the nursing professionals so that they can develop themselves and work better in partnership with different concerned parties can be described with the Gibbs Model of Reflection. The Gibbs Model of Reflection has six different factors namely description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. The initial stage of description is about understanding what exactly has happened. In the second stage, the understanding and getting grip of the situation would help the nursing professional to know the feeling about the latest experience. The third stage is about evaluating the latest development i.e. if the experience has been good or not. In the next step, the professional analyse the situation. The subsequent step of conclusion verifies if there was any other alternative that could been opted by the nursing professional. The last step is about learning of the situation and to decide the course of action if similar situation arise again (University of Brighton. n.d). There is almost no doubt that the Gibbs model of reflection would help the nursing professionals to evaluate and learn from the latest of his experience and try and achieve the desired professional and personal growth. It would prepare him for the future. The model of Gibbs also enables the professional to work better in partnership with the doctors, the families i.e. the clients and also with the colleagues for the betterment of the patients. It assists the professional to improve the quality of the much needed care to the patients as also it narrows down the gap between theory and