Human Being, Development and Change
l. What does being human mean: internally, relationally and in a wider social contest?
There are many different viewpoints on what it means to be human, but most boil down to the struggle between right and wrong and the role of personal responsibility. Internally, human beings struggle daily with "good" versus "bad" impulses; responsible human adults have learned to delay gratification and make use of the control they exercise over their own lives, in order to make a worthwhile contribution to society. elationally, human beings struggle with genuine intimacy -- the ability to share oneself openly and honestly in meaningful communication with another. This is where the adage "you're only as sick as your secrets" comes into play; if someone is engaging in thoughts or behaviors he is ashamed to share with friends, family, or romantic partners, he cannot share himself fully and genuinely. And without…...
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Resources
Arieti, S 1974, American Handbook of Psychiatry: The Foundations of Psychiatry, Basic Books, New York.
Bellack, A & Hersen, M 1998, Comprehensive Clinical Psychology: Volume 1, Pergamon, New York.
Covey, S 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Free Press, New York.
Lerner, R 1997, Concepts and Theories of Human Development, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Much of the nature of the widespread use of alcohol at this time is cited by the author, who also notes the high rate of alcoholism among slaves, the way women drank in private so their family would not know, the relationship of alcohol use to social position, and so on. Drinking was only one factor marking social divisions, and it as one of the few that could be controlled. Rorabaugh emphasizes the nature of the problem, or at least one possibility for its nature, with his sub-title "An American Tradition," suggesting that being drunk is somehow an American tradition and that the subject needs to be approached form that standpoint.
Rorabugh writes well, as does Johnson, and both books are readable and make coherent arguments that are fully referenced and well reasoned. Both books deal with a segment of the larger American social order, and both books contain controversial arguments…...
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Works Cited
Johnson, Paul E. The Kingdom of Matthias. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 199
Rorabaugh, W.J. The Alcoholic Republic, New York: Oxford, 1979.
Trahair, Richard C.S. Utopias and Utopians: An Historical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Richard C.S. Trahair, Utopias and Utopians: An Historical Dictionary (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999), 219.
human being has a set of biological features that distinguishes him from others and this feature is known as the person's race (Babbitt and Campbell 202). acism can be described as the philosophy or practice of perceiving dominance of one group over others. acism can either be based on race, color, ethnicity or cultural heritage. It is not only limited to a particular area or group of people but it is a global practice which is noticeable at all levels whether individual, group or institutional. It is spread and preserved by introducing planned activities and policies in every area of life i.e. economy, society, politics, education, religion and culture. One can easily pick out and observe the prejudiced, opinionated and biased people who shape up their mind-set, principles, traditions, beliefs and practices on racial ideology. This particular set of thought is not only possessed by the ordinary people but…...
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References
"Army Regulation 600-20." FAS. Federation of American Scientists, n.d. Web. 31 Oct 2011. .
Babbitt, Susan E., and Sue Campbell. Racism and Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999. Web. .
Crocker, John. "THE EFFECTS OF RACISM-RELATED STRESS ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF NON-WHITES." RIVIER ACADEMIC JOURNAL. 3.1 (2007): n. page. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. .
"Racism." NASW National Association of Social Workers. National Association of Social Workers, n.d. Web. 31 Oct 2011. .
Human Beings Make Sense of Things
In the early-1900s, Edmund Husserl sought to provide psychology with a truly scientific basis, not by copying the physical sciences but through the description of conscious experiences. This would be a truly humanistic psychology, grounded in human life and experience rather than materialistic and mechanistic theories like functionalism and behaviorism. Karl Jaspers called for a psychology that would describe phenomena such as "hallucinations, delusions, dreams, expressions, motor activity, and gestures" for the "person as a whole" (Churchill and Wertz, 2001, p. 247). This holistic or Gestalt psychology is dedicated to the search for the authentic self, and to heal the "hollow' men and women of our time who have lost touch with themselves" (Churchill and Wertz, p. 248). Intentionality is one of the key assumptions of phenomenological psychology in which "experience must be grasped holistically and a relationship in which the subject relates to…...
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REFERENCE LIST
Churchill, S. And Wertz, F. (2001) "An Introduction to Phenomenological Research in psychology: Historical, Conceptual, and Methodological Foundations," in K.J. Schneider, J .F .T. Bugental, & J.F. Pierson (Eds.) The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology: Leading Edges in Theory, Research, and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 247-62.
May, R. (1958). "The Origins and Significance of the Existential Movement in Psychology" and "Contributions of Existential Psychotherapy" in R. May, E. Angel and H. Ellenberger (Eds.), Existence. New York: Basic Books, pp. 3-36; 37-91.
Heidegger, M. (1971)." Building, Dwelling, Thinking," and "The Thing" in Poetry, Language, Thought. (A. Hofstadter, Trans.). New York: Harper and Row, pp. 145-61; 165-86.
Heidegger, M. (1955, 2003)."Memorial Address," in Stassen, M. (Ed). Martin Heidegger: Philosophical and Political Writings. Continuum International Publishing Group, pp. 87-96.
" (2004) the individuals "worldview and moral span are limited and fundamentally relates to how the individual feels, what the individual wants..." (Kerrigan, 2004)
As the individual develops, they move to the sociocentric level "becoming more oriented to the social group (family, peer group, tribe, subculture, professional group, city, nation, co-religionists, etc.) as the reference point..." (Kerrigan, 2004) and the self is viewed as part of the social group. At this point of development the individuals "worldview and moral span expand and fundamentally relate to the value, goals, and norms of the group." (Kerrigan, 2004)
Further development moves the individual into the worldcentric level in which the individual gain orientation into the community of the world as the individual's main point of reference "with the self and all social groups being seen as a part of a vast web of being." (Kerrigan, 2004) at this stage of development the worldview and moral…...
Derne, Steve (2006) Rethinking Well Being: Lessons from a Sociocentric Society. Paper presented the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. Montreal Convention Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 10 August 2006. Online available at http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p102940_index.html
Motivation, as vital component of the learning process, is supported by three major theories, namely that of self-efficacy, of self-worth, and of self-determination (Module 17: Self Theories), which are altogether based on competence in shaping the self. Self-efficacy can be defined as an individual's expectation that he is capable of successfully performing an activity. According to the self-worth theory, individuals need a constant positive appraisal of their own value as persons, and the way to protect their self-worth is by entertaining the belief that they are competent. Finally, the self-determination theory asserts that human beings possess universal, inherent needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
What transpires from the three theories of motivation is the fact that human beings need to envision their selves as competent, which would entirely justify an inherent desire to explore and attempt mastery of certain skills. At the very root of self-efficacy is the personal belief that…...
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References
Burkitt, I. (2008). Social Selves: Theories of Self and Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.
Digital Knowledge and the Human Art of Thinking
Digital Knowledge, New Horizons for the Human Art of Thinking, and Creating Knowledge
Digital technology has introduced people to new paradigms of thinking and creativity necessary to make use of this elaborate technology. In the past, the limited technology environment reinforced a linear approach to education and thinking dictated by the use of books and expected to work in digital settings in much the same way they read in books. The current digital era offer people with a high level of autonomy in navigating across knowledge domains to construct knowledge from separate shreds of data. Such multidimensional thinking skills have enabled individuals to construct meaningful understandings of complex phenomena. This hyper-digital technology has revolutionized the digital thinking skills into digital skills. These skills serve students the ability to remain oriented and avoid getting lost in the hyper-digital space as they navigate across complex information…...
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References
Kurzweil, R. (2006). The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Princeton, N.J: Duckworth
Goertzel, B. & Wang, P. (2007). Advances in Artificial General Intelligence: Concepts, Architectures and Algorithms: Proceedings of the AGI Workshop 2006. Volume 157 of Frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications, ISSN 0922-6389. Washington, DC: IOS Press.
Honavar, V. (2004). Artificial intelligence and neural networks: steps toward principled integration. Neural networks, foundations to applications. University of Michigan: Academic Press.
Minsky, M. (2007). The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind. White River Junction, Vt: Simon and Schuster
Human beings constantly seek a sense of belonging, even identity from the society within which they live. Unfortunately, humans as a breed possess superficial differences while intrinsically being the same. Such superficial differences often leads to segregation and the drawing of lines between different 'types.' Discrimination has always existed historically and continues in one form or the other (race, color, religion, wealth or sexual preferences) even today in spite of the exponential advances in social and behavioral sciences that have established the physiological and psychological sameness of pattern in humans everywhere. Studs Terkel's Roberto Acuna, Migrant Farm orker and Claudio's Becoming Myself in Souls Looking Back are texts that highlight the emotional trauma, which is caused by different types of discrimination. Taken at face value, both texts appear to be a strong comment and protest against unthinking and cruel discriminating behavior. The more powerful message contained in both texts,…...
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Works Cited
Claudio. "Becoming Myself." In Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing Up Black.
Terkel, Studs. " Roberto Acuna, Migrant Farm Worker." In Working: People
Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. 1974
Entrepreneurial Decision Making
Every human being makes decisions constantly, almost every waking minute of his or her day. The difference between decision making for one's own business enterprise, and the typical human decisions to be made, in general, is in the purpose and the process of decision-making in the former scope, especially in regards to meeting the goals that a said business entrepreneur has set out for himself or herself.
A perfect example of decision-making in a well-known company is that of Steve Jobs in creating the first iPod, a drastic new direction for the under-represented Apple Corporation. After losing a significant share of the market in the PC arena in the 1990s, Apple CEO Steve Jobs radically reshaped the future image of the Apple brand. His platform was not to compete in a technical battle, which was already flooded with competitors from all over the world, but rather decided to differentiate…...
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Works Cited:
No Author. (2012). All about Steve Jobs. Retrieved from, .
In stark contrast to Hemmingway's Old Man and the Sea is Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron which is not only set in the future, but a bleak, tyrannical, almost farcical future. 2081 is not a year in which any sane person would hope to see if Vonnegut's future comes true; it is a dystopian future where everyone if forced to be equal, no matter how ridiculous the attempt to do so. The Bergeron's, George, Hazel, and their son Harrison live in a world where intelligent people have buzzers in their heads to keep them from being too smart, while beautiful people must wear masks to cover their faces so other, less attractive people don't feel bad. As Vonnegut himself stated "Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else." (Vonnegut) Every natural advantage is handicapped by the government to make everyone exactly equal. And everyone seems content…...
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Works Cited
Hemmingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. Germany: Max Hueber. 1960. Print.
Johnson, Samuel. "Preface to Shakespeare." Rutgers University.
In the Far East, by contrast, we see a different version of mankind. Mengzi maintained that all human morality was held together by a single concept: ren, or natural humanistic love. Simply put, ren is a love and respect for all things human (McGreal 6). To Mengzi, a person can only achieve ren if they undergo an attainment of knowledge to the point where they reach a workable grasp of the place for each form of love. The rituals and education that bring about knowledge is li; the ultimate form of li is yi -- the highest principle governing the adoption of li. So, although Mengzi believes that all people possess a certain amount of these qualities naturally, in order to fully attain ren and yi a person must cultivate their inner courage individually.
In this respect, the way in which man's spirit is cultivated is similar to the interpretation put…...
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Works Cited
Beck, Sanderson. "Katha Upanishad." Wisdom of China and India, 2007. Available:
He is unaware that it is his free will that is longing to escape. hile he is wise not to ignore his inner yearnings, he is oblivious on how to obtain his freedom. All he knows is that he is lost and he must find a way to himself. This is a personality trait that every human being is born with and when it becomes endangered the human instinct is to resist.
Resistance is not always easy as Orwell demonstrates in his novel. inston and others in the novel are met at all sides to conform but it is not so easy, as inston illustrates. The yearning of human nature is compounded with images of Thought Police, another intrusive presence that makes life unbearable. inston tells us, "At home and in bed in the darkness you were safe from the telescreen so long as you kept silent" (96-7). Again, we…...
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Works Cited
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Harcourt Brace. 1977.
This bill was sent to the U.S. Senate and set for vote mirroring a bill previously passed by the House during the Summer of 2003 which failed to pass the Senate because of vehement disagreement that was even "within the parties over the prohibition of therapeutic cloning.(National Legislation Concerning Human and Reproductive Cloning, 2004; paraphrased) As of the date of the report on legislation eight U.S. states had passed laws that explicitly prohibited reproductive cloning using human embryos and another five U.S. states have placed a prohibition on cloning for any purpose whatsoever with 22 other U.S. states introducing bills outlawing the reproductive cloning of humans. (Ibid; paraphrased) Patenting laws for genetics allow inventors to patent genetics but only specific genetic factors may be patented and inventors are required to:
1) Identify novel genetic sequences;
2) Specify the sequence's product, 3) Specify how the product functions in nature --i.e. its use;…...
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Bibliography
O'Connor, Sean M. (nd) Intellectual Property Rights and Stem Cell Research: Who Owns the Medical Breakthroughs?
Human Trafficking:
Comparative Analysis of Human Trafficking in the United States with the orld
Stephanie I.
Specialized Field Project
Human Trafficking is a very serious issue that affects every country around the world. Human Trafficking is also known as "Sex Trafficking," or "Modern Day Slavery," which reflects the primary reasons people are bought and sold today -- sex trade and involuntary labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines sex trafficking as
"the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for a commercial sex act, is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age."
Moreover, labor trafficking is defined as
"the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, using force, fraud, or coercion for subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery." (CNHTR, n.d.)
Victims of trafficking include men, women and children.…...
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Wayne, O. & Genelle, B. (2011). Major Principles of Media Law, 2012 Edition, Chapter 10, Cengage Learning.
Wheaton, E. M., Schauer, E. J., & Galli, T. V. (2010). Economics of Human Trafficking. International Migration, 48(4), 114-141. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2009.00592.x
Wyler, L.S. (2013). Trafficking in Persons: International Dimensions and Foreign Policy Issues for Congress. Congress Research Service
Human development refers to the psychological and biological growth of a human being throughout life. It starts from infancy all the way to adulthood. The scientific study of the development of a human being, psychologically, is referred to as Developmental psychology. According to Erik Erikson, there are eight critical stages in the development of a human being in order to become socially and psychologically well adjusted. This renowned psychologist is also credited with the expression identity crisis used to refer, not to the possibility of a catastrophic occurrence but to a critical turning point. Erikson points out that a person is confronted with challenges and experiences at each stage. One has to master all the dynamics at every stage in order to grow to the next one and each stage is successive and based on the completion of the earlier one (Sokol, 2009). This paper focuses on the adolescence and…...
One of the cornerstones of the idea of liberty and freedom, especially when viewed from a religious perspective like Thomas Merton’s, is the idea of free will. Whether human beings truly have free will is a surprisingly divisive philosophical question that, by design, must consider questions like natural versus nurture, motivation, the influence of society on people, and even the nature of good and evil (O’Connor). However, the idea of free will is central to Christianity and also to Merton’s explorations of liberty and freedom in a Christian context.
Person centered care focuses on the patient as an entire human being, not just as a person experiencing an illness, injury, or other health emergency. The approach is gaining traction in healthcare and mental healthcare. There are five essential elements in person-centered care. They include understanding what motivates people to act how they do; controlling how you respond to behavior you find challenging; honoring the patient’s preferences when you can do so without compromising patient care; changing to a strength-based mindset instead of focusing on deficits; and changing the culture of staff and....
Essay Topics Presenting Opposing Viewpoints in Literature
1. The Role of the Author's Intent in Literary Interpretation
Pro: Authors have a definitive purpose and meaning for their works, and this intent should guide interpretation. Con: Authors' intentions are often unclear or irrelevant, and readers should focus on the text itself.
2. The Nature of Literary Realism
Pro: Literature should accurately depict reality and reflect the social and psychological experiences of human beings. Con: Realism can be limiting and fail to capture the complexity and imagination of human life.
3. The Importance of Form in Literature
Pro: Structure, style, and language play a crucial....
Title: Contrasting the Philosophical Perspectives of Plato and Aristotle: A Comparative Analysis
Plato and Aristotle, two towering figures of ancient Greek philosophy, have left an indelible mark on Western thought and continue to shape intellectual discourse to this day. Their profound insights into the nature of reality, knowledge, ethics, and politics have influenced generations of scholars and continue to inspire contemporary philosophical inquiry. This essay delves into the philosophical perspectives of Plato and Aristotle, highlighting their similarities and differences in their approaches to understanding the world.
Similarities in Philosophical Outlook
Plato and Aristotle shared certain fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality. Both....
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