Thursday, October 31, 2019

Globalisation - Poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Globalisation - Poverty - Essay Example In this number 400 million people were in absolute poverty and about 173 million people in the People’s Republic of China. On a percentage basis on regional wise, the sub-Saharan Africa region takes 47 percent that is the world highest incidence rate of absolute poverty. This is a global challenge since even in developed countries there are there are cases of people living in abject poverty. According to report that was given by UNICEF estimatethat half of the worlds children about 1.1 billion live in poverty (Kerbo, 2006, pp 34-79). Before the industrial revolution, poverty was accepted as an inevitable where economies produced little wealth scarce, Poverty reduction is the responsibility of every person living on earths surface using the best formulate methods where food as the most basic necessity should be increased, advanced agricultural technologies such as the use of nitrogen fertilizers, new irrigation techniques, fast growing new seeds and formulation of new pesticides have helped to reduce food shortage in modern times we are living in hence boosting yields. However, even with these new products the people who are categorized as the poor need to access them, improved transport infrastructure and roads to the interior will open up most of these places. Giving example of African countries, it cost more to move fertilizer from an African port that is located only about sixty miles inland, as compared to ship it from United States to Africa mainly because of low quality roads which are sparse, leading to t he cost of the same fertilizer costing twice the world average cost. Countrys no not need to gain wealth to gain wealth, since every country, however, small has its strengths they need to strategize in maximization of those strengths to make more opportunities to convert them in the source of wealth that will benefit its citizens (Kerbo, 2006, pp 34-79). Connectively, of basic

Marketing- CRM (customer relationship management) Case Study

Marketing- CRM (customer relationship management) - Case Study Example A feasible generalized definition of CRM is that it is information enabled relationship marketing. This definition, however, doesn't de-link CRM with technology because information management in the modern business world is completely technology enabled. The expected output of CRM is development of positive relationship with key customers or customer segments that improves shareholder value of an organization. In the modern context, CRM is an effective methodology of IT enabled execution of relationship marketing strategies to develop long term & profitable relationships with customers. As per Kaplan and Norton (2000), no strategy is complete without a strategy map. Looking into CRM, the strategic framework of CRM need to be very clearly defined before the implementation begins. The strategic framework of CRM is not established as a standalone framework rather finds its roots deep into the organizational strategic framework starting from the board room. ... The strategic framework of CRM is not established as a standalone framework rather finds its roots deep into the organizational strategic framework starting from the board room. The business strategies of an organization form the foundation of customer strategies, whereby the former is formed at the CEO & board level comprising of business objectives comprising of strategies & directions pertaining to organization wide competencies and the latter is formed at the marketing department level that use the business strategies to target market segments & customers. The root of strategies can be established using the Balanced Scorecard mechanism developed by Kaplan & Norton as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Balanced Scorecard strategic framework (Kaplan and Norton. 1996) First of all, the organization needs to have clearly defined Vision & Mission statements pertaining to CRM. The next step is to define the strategic business goals of the organization that is in line with these statements. These goals should be focussed towards achieving unique positioning of the company in the markets & in the perspective of the customers. For example, some companies may like to establish an image that they offer low cost products & services whereas others may like to achieve an image of offering premium & high profile products & services at premium costs. Similarly, some companies may like to establish large market segments comprising of multi-domain areas whereas some may focus on thin market segments comprising of niche areas. Whatever be the positioning defined for the organization, the leadership team may like to establish corresponding CRM goals and then expand them into key CRM

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Program Improvement Status and Standardized Math Scores Essay

Program Improvement Status and Standardized Math Scores - Essay Example This chapter serves to the give the reader an overview of the comments received in regards to each of the seven interview questions asked during this study. An overview of each question will be given, followed by a thorough analysis of the responses as given by each of the members assembled to take part in the exploratory part of this study. Each of the participants serving on the research panel was either an administrator, teacher, or support personnel currently employed in an elementary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Each of the schools represented was also currently on program improvement status. No names were included in the published findings, however, so as to further ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of each participant. Individuals also had a minimum of five years of experience in their current field. The total time needed to conduct all interviews was four weeks and no participants opted to drop of the study. This resulted in a 100% interview respo nse rate. In total, 20 individuals were selected to be a part of the research panel for this project, based on their answers to the initial survey designed to determine each individuals qualification to provide substantive and meaningful insight about elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District that are currently on Program Improvement Status. All of the interviews took place via telephone. As such, each interview was digitally recorded, with the permission of each participant, for later transcription by the researcher.

WHY WE ABUSE OUR CHILDREN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

WHY WE ABUSE OUR CHILDREN - Essay Example In many instances, public outrage draws attention to the social system's lack of power to prevent and protect children, and the knock on effect that carries into adulthood. There are numberless domestic and international, institutional and social organizations that work toward the prevention of child abuse. Child abuse occurs as a result of broken homes, irresponsible parenting and stress due to financial circumstances. (thesis) Broken home is a social phenomenon which directly can lead to child abuse. This usually occurs, because the couple separates and the signle parent has to take all the responsibility for upbrining the kids. When parents split, this results in decreasing of the income and the single parent is forced to work longer hours, has two jobs and do not spend enough time with his offspring. The lack of parent's presence, control, love and care makes the children to feel unwanted. Thus, they seek reassurance from external sources - such as gangs or street fights. When the single parent faces the fact that she /he can not handle the behavior of his kid in his emotional distress he uses aggression. In most of the cases the aggression has a physical form, transformed into child abuse. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2004) reported that parents dependent on or abusing alcohol a

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Instincts in humans

Instincts in humans Instinct is behavioral triggering mechanism which occurs in all living organism. They are merely responses towards some stimuli. These stimuli can occur through environmental interaction or through learning. Humans instincts are mostly witnessed in human behaviors which include sexual activation and human emotions. Instincts occur as a result of stimuli which trigger certain behaviors. These behaviors are predetermined by natural and environment setups. Instincts are innate/ unlearned. The patterns of the actions are as result of instincts which are fixed, inherited but unlearned. This introduces a new concept of innate behavior. This shows that contrary to actions triggered by learning experience, instincts are shown as having no learning format. These behaviors are determined by human maturity. The biological outcomes can be termed as innate behaviors that can be adapted easily. Examples of these include; reproduction, courtship, fighting amongst others. Despite this, there is no specific argument of human behavior being instinct controlled. Some sociologists argue that instinctive behavior should acquire such characters such as being; irresistible and be vulnerable to changes. They also believe that it should apply to all organisms as well as being unlearned (John, 1993, 21). Instincts are mainly controlled by the brain and require some manipulation of the neurological system through learning. Learning may take various forms such as habituation and association. Habituation involves neglecting of non stimulating stimuli. On the other hand association involves linking up experience to obtain stimuli. In this type of learning, meaningful decisions are arrived at. It involves discriminating some things to gain others. Instincts are involuntary in that they are inbuilt responses to a natural event. It is a natural inward impulse that result to some outstanding behavior traits such involuntarily, unreasoning and unconscious state leading to certain actions without considering the outcome. Thus instinct is an involuntary force in a certain direction of events. Instinct takes into consideration, the spiritual life and it triggers the thinking capacity in a human whom in failure to thing may be forced to do so. Whenever the degree of being conscious decreases as a result of contributing factors such as; fatigue and depression, then an instinctive behavior originates (Donald, Martin, 1997, 11). In this view, instinct can be discussed in various aspects which include sexuality, creativity, and activity amongst others. Experience is a contributing factor to certain behavior to ones offsprings by affecting gene appearance. Protein contents in the body are determined by the location and quantity of genes in the body and are controlled by the environment and learning. Genes are mainly affected by environmental changes which as a result bring changes in the lineage inheritance of genes. Key stimulus is an occurrence which affects behavior as a result of the instinct created. These stimuli contribute to innate simulations which as a result leads to fixed action patterns. Instincts are complex fixed action patterns. Instincts are character traits that are inherited and unchanged in an organism. They are responses to environment and they occur unconditionally. They can be viewed as a prose of behaviors which are unchanged. These fixed action patterns occur as a result of a response to a signal or stimuli. These signals are referred to as releasers when they work as communicating bonds between organisms of the same species. Fixed action patterns in validity creates a rigid and inefficient survival mechanism since this will restrict an organism in behaving in a certain manner, for instance, the behavior of birds rolling white objects into their nests referring them to eggs. The type of the fixed action patterns are mainly determined by certain body cells which are referred to as sensory receptors (Andrew, 1994, 53). For example the auditory sensory receptor can receive a terrifying sound which may result to a flight response. The magnitude of the key sti mulus is determined by the integration of various signals in the sensory cells which also determine the magnitude of the response. Hormones are cores of these responses and are produced in the endocrine system in a body. Behavioral genetics is the study of human behavior which occurs as a result of a response to a certain stimuli triggered through learning or environment. Instincts can also be considered to be the contributors to survival activities such as cultural and political. These are prospered through learning which non instinct is. There are times when there double existences of contradicting instincts may lead to a displaced situation. Instincts are activated by releaser. It is true that all human beings can be motivated or have motive. This implies that the behavior is in a certain manner so as to achieve a perceived stand. Emotions are believed to be day in day out scenario in every person across the divide whether promising or not. Mainly emotions and motives are mainly controlled by the nervous system (Andrew, 1994, 71). These bring some biological influences which trigger humans to behave in certain ways in response to the effects. These are instincts. Instinct is present in every species. Instinct is viewed as the inbuilt trait of an organism directed to behavior pattern, in response to certain stimuli such as environmental. In nature, all living organisms are perceived to posses some behavioral traits as a response to some external stimuli and they respond to them without learning; for instance bees respond to nectar flowers without being instructed. Thus instincts are taken to apply to every species since most of the behavioral traits are as a result of instincts. They determine to great extent, the survival mechanism. For instance, imprinting is an instinct in certain birds. In this type of instinct, birds are swayed in following any moving object referring it to be the mother (Donald, Martin, 1997, 33). This instinct also contributes to selection of sex as birds tend to follow the traits of the parents of the opposite sex. In considering the behaviors of species, learning may be involved, though, it is not a factor in instinctive behavior. The inputs in any occurrence may affect both the releasing stimuli and the results. Sociobiology and ethnology deals are the study of human behavior and animal behavior. On the other hand, Psychoanalysts view instinct in terms of motivational drives. Instincts can be viewed as reflexes. These determine developmental stages in living organism. There is also existing argument that humans may not be having instincts thus making them to acquire complex behavior patterns (John, 1993, 50). In conclusion, instincts can be viewed as inborn perception of a living organism as a response to some stimuli which are influenced by learning or environment. It can also be deduced that instincts occur in every species since it is a character trait in response to a certain stimuli which might be disastrous. Instincts can also be seen as reflexes in human body. There are some outstanding human characters which have been attributed to instincts. These include; human moods, fight and fight responses. Work Cited Andrew L. Cherry. The Socializing Instincts: Individual, Family, and Social bonds, Mahwah, NJ, Praeger Publisher, 1994 Donald H. Ford, Martin E. Ford. Humans as Self-Constructing Living systems, New York, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997 John Birtchnell. How Humans Relate: A New Interpersonal Theory, Mahwah, NJ, Praeger Publishers, 1993

Analysis of Critical Psychology Theories

Analysis of Critical Psychology Theories Introduction One of the most important bodies of knowledge is psychology. It is through psychology that so many disorders have been dealt with. The disorders referred to here are disorders to do with the state of the mind as well as the environment affecting the well being of the mind of the individual. An example of a disorder that psychologists treat is referred to as sexual compulsive behavior. Many people would still be in problems were it not for psychology. Through psychology, other bodies of knowledge have benefited. As any body of knowledge, psychology has grown to have branches within it and one of them which are relevant in this research paper is critical psychology. This research paper is going to deal with the question; Is critical Psychology essential to clients rights in Mainstream Psychology? This research is going to argue that Critical Psychology is essential to clients rights in Mainstream Psychology. The research paper is going to look at psychology and give an overview of psychology Then move on to critical psychology where it will give a detailed explanation of what critical psychology is all about by looking at how it came to existence and what it is all about then finally relate it to mainstream psychology so as to show how relevant it is in psychology. Critical psychology is a branch of psychology that was developed with the aim of criticizing the mainstream psychology. It also has a goal or a purpose which is to try and put into practice the knowledge that psychology has accumulated into practice and at the same time learning something new without being rigidly constrained within the borders of psychology. Psychology knowledge is used in ways that are progressive under critical psychology. The main focus of critical psychology is the use of social change in its bid to criticize mainstream psychology but also as a tool to treat as well as prevent psychopathology. Many criticism bullets have been shot at mainstream psychology. The most common highlights the manner in which mainstream psychology does not put into consideration or ignores deliberately the way in which the differences in power between the classes as well as the groups of society can greatly have an impact on the well-being of the person in terms of the mind and the physical bodies of either individuals or groups of people. This is very relevant material. A body of knowledge that is not constantly criticized is a body of knowledge that tends not to grow over time. It is just like a life that is never criticized and never examined. Before criticizing, there is examination. When something is examined then that means there loopholes within the existence of something are looked into and the relevance of the thing in todays world. A human being will want to be current with the fast growing world and he or she is always constantly looking at ways in which he or she can improve him or he rself. A human being is always updating him or herself to be current with the world and the changing times. This may explain the reason people do not dress in the olden day fashion styles but embrace what the fashion brings. An employee will take a course in something so as t upgrade him or herself in the field of work a person is. The human beings who listen to criticisms and work on them well always improve themselves and become better people in society but those who done never grow much. It is clear that criticism is a very aspect of growth in todays world. Businesses pay a lot of money in order to be criticized! They do this by asking their customers how their company has served them. They probe consumers with a wide range of questions in a bid to get the worst out of people about the companys product or products. This can be done with the online focus groups that are being used as marketing tools at the end of the day because the product that will emerge will be based on the improvements that the customers said they will want to see. This is the same thing with mainstream psychology. Given the nature of mainstream psychology then it would make sense for there to be a body that looks into psychology as a body of knowledge to identify the things that can be done better and the factors that have to be considered when treating psychopathology. Mainstream psychology has not mentioned the impact that the various social groups and differences we have in society can have o n an individual. Say for example that in a neighborhood, there are those that are doing really well and those that are not doing so well in terms of the financial stability. Most of the times rather than not, the people who are doing very well will come together and form some kind of social group and within this social group, they will have their own way of thinking then in the other group where people are not doing so well, there will be a way of thinking. With time these two groups will always compare themselves. This may explain why some rich people with no happiness and no people to love in their lives envy the genuineness of the love of people in the poor settings and the genuineness of their love for each other. This has an impact on the mental well being as well as the physical well being of a person. One may start to limit him or herself and decide that some things are a certain group of people and some are for a different group of people. There are many people who are a liv ing proof of such influences and have either become very poor as a result or very rich as a result. It is therefore very clear and important on the role critical psychology plays in the application of mainstream psychology. It acts as an update of mainstream psychology as well as a tool to keep mainstream psychology on its toes. It also brings psychology to life as it ensures that it is practical in its approach during the treatment of psychopathology. This is a very important aspect of critical psychology. This is the main reason as to why this research paper is going to look at the relevance of critical psychology in the role of mainstream psychology. Mainstream psychology has to be very grateful to critical psychology as critical psychology gives mainstream psychology life. Overview of Psychology The study of psychology started when the world started to civilize. During this time, human beings got to try and explain the reasons behind almost everything they found into existence. Te civilizations of Egypt, Persia, China, India as well as Greece were the first to try and study the humans as well as try to explain why some humans behaved in a certain way and others behaved in another. The ancient Muslim physicians and psychologists introduced the experimental and clinical approach that psychology has today. They even went ahead to build hospitals to cater for people with psychological problems. More steps were made when the French physiologist who went by the name Pierre Cabanis added the biological aspect of psychology in the year 1802. He had done expensive biology studies and based on the knowledge he had acquired in biology, he explained the human mind from the same perspective. He asserted that the souls as well as sensibility characterize the nervous system. (Levin Troiden, 1988) Psychology had not become a field of study until the German physician whose name was Wilhelm Wundt built the first ever laboratory for the sole purpose of the study of psychology at an institution of higher learning referred to as the Leipzig University. Wundt became known as the father of psychology because of this brave move. It is no wonder that on the very same year that the laboratory was built which was the year 1879, the year was labeled the date psychology was born. An American who was a psychologist as well as a philosopher wrote a book in 1890 which laid the solid foundation son which psychology is built for many scholars of psychology. Hermann Ebbinghaus is also a very crucial contributor to the psychology bode of knowledge that did a lot of research and experimental studies on the memory compartment of the mind. A Russian who was a guru in psychology also contributed to the knowledge of psychology as we know it today. His name is Ivan Pavlov. He cam e up with a process human beings use to learn according to him and is referred to as the classical conditioning. In the mid 20th century, most of the work done by the psychology pioneers mentioned is referred to as experimental psychology as most of this work was concerned with the information that was collected from various sectors and subjects along with the processing of the same information. The information gathered during this time is a subset of cognitive science. This period is seen as a period that brought a revolution because the development made by the various pioneers of psychology answered as well as reacted to the different kinds of ways of thinking that were in existence and at that time, there were two major schools of thought; behaviorism and psychodynamics (Lopez, Schmidt Blanco, 2007). (Syed, 2002) Psychoanalysis is a psychotherapy that was developed by Sigmund Freud who was an Australian physician. His psychology was based on the methods of interpreting of the mind, the observations of patients with mental problems or problems that were related to mental problems and introspection. He concentrated on resolving of the unconscious conflict, psychopathology as well as the mental distress of the human being. The theories that were coined by Freud were popular because they addressed issues of sexuality, the unconscious mind and also repression. The society saw the discussion of the problems Freud tried to tackle as a taboo. He managed to engage society in such discussions and proved to them that such issues could be discussed openly. It helps to deal with issues when conversations about the issues are held then the way forward formulated. Psychoanalysis was criticized and seen not to be efficient enough as it wasnt empirical and had not proven to withstand experimental tests. John B. Watson founded behaviorism. This was inclined towards determinism as well as positivism. Behaviorism was based on the premise that the use of animals to experiment could give a more in-depth understanding of psychosocial behavior such as analysis that is psychonamic in nature. The behaviorists believed the scientific research methods would result in pursuing of the necessary weapons needed to control the problems life presents rather than searching for truths which are seen to be timeless. Behaviorists maintained that much of the components of the human mind are not open to the scrutiny of science and that scientific psychology should rely on the behavior observed. This led to behaviorist analyzing the behavior of humans and relating the behavior with the environment in which the human being exists or interacts with. The behaviorism model of psychology has been challenged and its fall in part paved the way for more models to come into existence (Syed, 2002). (Khaleefa, 1999)In reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanism and existentialism emerged in the mid 20th century. Here the whole person was analyzed and not just some parts of the person. Humanism focused on practical human issues such as aloneness, meaning, self-identity, freedom as well as death. Emphasis was not on pathology but on determinism rejection, the positive growth concern as well as subjective meaning. Abraham Maslow an American psychologist played a major role in the development of humanism. There was the formulation of the hierarchy of human needs, client-centered therapy and Gesalt therapy. Existentialism focuses on the human nature as being neutral. It also focused on anxiety and positively assessed it. Existentialism argued that the human themes such as freewill, death and meaning are shaped by existing myths as well as narrative patterns. The human themes are allowed as authentic by the human freewill. (Levin Troiden, 1988) The cognitive revolution gave birth to cognitivism as a strain of thought. Naomi Chomsky is responsible for this. Cognitivism does not support the idea that research and analysis ignoring the innate child contribution to human behavior. Cognitivism had proven to have a practical approach as it assisted in the understanding of weapons operations during the World War II. By the end of the 20th century, cognitivism had taken the psychology world and other related subjects by storm. New concepts to replace the ones that were being used in behaviorism and psychoanalytic strains of thinking were formulated such a subliminal processing and implicit memory. Cognitive psychology did not throw all the work that was done by behaviorists and psychoanalysts but it took the better of the two worlds, made it make sense and incorporated it into cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology comprised of various subfield that deal with psychology such as neuroscience, philosophy of the mind as well as computer science. One cannot strictly follow one school of thought and claim to completely understand the human mind. All schools of thought are very crucial in the understanding of the human mind. Modern psychology has come up with a school of thought that integrates all the other existent schools of thought; the biopsychosocial approach. This is so as to make it clear that any human mental process or behavior is governed by many interrelated biological, psychological as well as other social factors (Syed, 2002). Psychology is a very wide field and so much is yet to be learnt in the psychology field. There exists several subfield of psychology. In other words, we can easily come up with a long list of the psychology topics as well as the disciplines that psychology encompasses. Abnormal psychology as the name suggests involves the study of behavior that deviates from normal behavior. Biological psychology is the study that involves a combination of the biological processes in relation to the state of the mind. Biological psychology is related to cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology as well as physiology. Clinical psychology is a subfield of psychology that deals with the application of psychology knowledge with the aim of solving problems to do with distress, personal development as well as the general well being of humans. Other subfields of psychology include; counseling psychology, cognitive psychology, critical psychology, comparative psychology, forensic psychology, educational psychology, development psychology, evolutionary psychology, legal psychology, global psychology, industrial psychology, health psychology, quantitative psychology, occupational health psychology, personality psychology, school psychology as well as social psychology (Miller, 1983) When professions in the psychology field research, they draw knowledge from other bodies of knowledge so as to understand the psychology phenomena. They can do this by abduction, deduction or induction. In any psychological research project, there is no reliance on only one type of inference but all of them help when used together. There are psychologists that do nothing but research on psychology. They play a very important role in adding to the existing knowledge that psychology has so far accumulated. These researchers make use of controlled experiments, animal studies, quantitative and qualitative research, qualitative and descriptive research methods, survey questionnaires, observations in natural settings, computational modeling, longitudinal studies, animal studies and lastly, neuropsychological methods (Steffens, 2006). Psychology has been criticized to be a fuzzy science. The main reason is because there is no pre-paradigm being that we can base psychology on. Some of the interests in psychology such as well being, thinking, personality, emotion and many more cannot be measured and inferential statistics applied to it. The empirical aspect is not complete as some things cannot be assigned a number value. The testing of hypothesis is normally not up to standard as most psychologists are not adequately train to be able to analyze data. The criticism sometimes comes from one psychologist to another especially when one is research oriented and the other is clinical oriented. One side may argue that the clinical practices are not backed by empirical evidence and the other side may argue that experiments are done in controlled environments which are not the same as the real world situations. There is also concern that the scientific theories of psychology are miles apart from the actual application of ps ychology. It is more like going to school to study something then not applying the same thing in the profession one studied for. Critical Psychology By the fact that the word critical psychology has the word psychology at the very end than this means that it is a branch of psychology. Just the same way you would have people that bear the last name in a family setting, this would tell you that the two children belong to the same father. The word critical is used as it in itself is critical as it tries to bring out the aspects that mainstream psychology has continually ignored or not considered. Its main aim is to criticize mainstream psychology and this was the premise on which this branch called critical psychology came into existence. It points out other factors that may also explain the reason as to why some people think the way they think as well as make us understand the reason as to why some people are not mentally well and why some people are not physically well. Even before getting into the details of critical psychology, it is already clear that the role of critical psychology in mainstream psychology is very important. T he fact that critical psychology provides some kind of checks and balances in the psychology body of knowledge is a very big reason for one to argue that for sure critical psychology plays a major role in mainstream psychology because it acts as a push to mainstream psychology for it to grow and for it to incorporate some of the things that have been hidden from it or may have not been in existence when the body of knowledge was established meaning critical psychology gives life to mainstream psychology. Freie Universitat Berlin is the institution in which critical psychology was started in the 1970s. It is largely based on the existing knowledge that psychology as a whole had accumulated by then but it also at the same time came up with its own theories and explanations as it sees the world at one particular moment. By the beginning of May 2007, there were very few words that had been translated into English. The main root of German Critical Psychology is the post-war babyboomers student revolt which happened during the late sixties. The main spark of the student revolt was the criticism of the political economy by Marx. Berlin was the best spot for the student revolt as it was a free city which was circumference by East Germany. East Germany was socialist. This led to the sociological foundations upon which critical psychology is built to be Marxist. They have not gotten a listening ear from the many figures found in Critical Psychology. Klaus Holzkamp is a very important author in this field as he wrote the book Grundlegung der Psychologie. If the title of the book was to be translated in English then it would read Foundations of Psychology. This book is very sophisticated in the Critical Psychology field. Klaus Holzkamp might just be the man to be stamped the founder of Critical Psychology as far as the theories are concerned. Klaus had already two books which talked majorly about the theory of science as well as the sensory perception. He felt that the book on the foundations of psychology gave psychologists a reason to research as the book explains the solid paradigm upon which psychological research can be done. The book views psychology as a scientific discipline that is pre-paradigmatic. Aleksey Leontyev provides a unique approach to historical psychology as well as activity theory. According to him, the actions of human beings are as a result of the evolution of culture as well as the biological evolution. Leontyev drew from Marxs work where culture and its concepts have been materialized. He emphasized that the cognition of an individual is a subset of social action and social action is mediated by tools which are man-made such as cultural artifacts, social action is also mediated by language as well as systems and symbols that are made by man. Leontyev viewed this as something that provides a clear distinction between human cognition and human culture. Holzcamp in his attempt to give a comprehensive as well as integrated set of categories that were researched by Aleksey Leontyev, he did come up with this sophisticated book. The book was based on the research that Aleksey Leontyev had done as explained. One other theory we see Holzcamp using in his book in the fiel d of Critical Psychology is one that was developed by Lucien Steve; theory of personality. The concept here is of social activity matrices. The matrices are seen as the structure of mediation between individual reproduction as well as social reproduction. With the various theories Klaus Holzkamp is seen to use, he does not forget the works that were done at the institution in which Critical Psychology was born; Free University of Berlin. The works that were done at Free University of Berlin was done by critical psychologists and their works was greatly influenced by Mark, Steve and Leontyev. The materials he used included books that were written on sensory perception, animal behavior or ethology, cognition and motivation. Ideas from Freuds psychoanalysis which is a form of play therapy used to treat disorders and he also incorporated ideas from Merleau-Pontys phenomenology as he explained his approach. Holzcamp did a lot of comparative as well as historical analysis of perception, the human reproductive action as well as cognition. The core finding that he identified the symbolic meaning whether constructed culturally or historically to be structures that are conceptual and specifically useful to be structures that the human being will create in relationships that are close so as to make culture material. They also create the structures in close relationship in a culture that is material within the context of social reproduction that have been formed specifically in history. With this in mind, Klaus Holzkamp had a problem with behaviorism which he referred to as stimulus-response psychology or in short, S-R psychology. He looked at the analysis of the linguistics and he also showed how behaviorism created the illusion that is had scientific objectivity but at the same time behaviorism was not relevant in its understanding of human actions that are culturally situated and intentiona l at the same time. Klaus Holzkamp came up with his own approach that he drew a lot of ideas from a man that goes by the name Kurt Lewin and this he does in Chapter nine of his book titled Foundations of Psychology. This approach was to objectivity as well as generalization. Before Klaus Holzkamp died in the year 1995, he wrote on learning. His work was out in 1993 and he looked at learning from the object side and not the learner. Holzkamp was out to reinterpret the theories that were developed by psychology that was conventional. This means that he looked at the theories from the view of a critical psychologist and the paradigms of critical psychology. The useful insights that were found in conventional psychology were integrated into critical psychology but at the same time picking out and criticizing their implications that were limiting. In S-R psychology, the intentional action and the subject were eliminated. In cognitive psychology, the intentional action as well as the subj ect was taken into account. In the first part of the book, Holzkamp looks into the theories that were there in conventional psychology. The theories he focuses on most are those of learning. He then reinterprets the theories from a critical psychologist point of view. Jean Lave and Edwin Hutchins who contributed to the concept of classroom learning were very useful in the explanation of Holzkamps approach. In the second part of the book, Holzkamp looks at the modern world and the concept of classroom learning as something that is cultural and historical yet has an influence in socialization as well as learning. In the second part of the book, he looks at Michel Foucaults work of Discipline and Punish. According to Holzcamp, the historical way we know classroom learning is limiting to the student in that the ability of a student to learn is constrained to some finite teaching strategies. In his approaches, he strived to look for a way of learning that would make full use of the poten tial of the learner. Holzkamp explains expansive learning in the last part of the book which aims at overcoming the limitations that classroom learning presents. His ultimate plan was to write a book on life leadership but his demise came before he could go past the early stages of developing the book but some of this work was published in form of journals in Forum Kritische Psychologie and Argument. The period 1960s through to 1970s, critical psychology was known as radical psychology but the main reason it went by this term is to discourage the focus on the individual as the main object of analysis. It was also to discourage psychologists not to use the individual only as the only source of psychopathology. The close inspection of the role inspection plays was considered in radical psychology. The role of the society was looked at in the light that it causes and treats problems. Radical psychology looked at the change in society as an alternative therapy skill to treat illnesses of the mind as well as deal with the prevention of psychopathology. Anti-psychiatry was a term that was so common within psychiatry and so the British preferred the use of the term Critical Psychiatry. Up to today, the term Critical Psychology is still used to refer to the branch of psychology that seeks alternative methods of therapy to the conventional methods or forms of therapy that exist in the dis cipline of psychology. It is also against the idea of focusing so much on the individual that the influence the society has in the individual is not considered. In the 1990s, there were more authors writing about Critical Psychology. The one that caused a biggest shake and was most famous for its writings was an edited book and its title was Critical Psychology. This was a book written by Dennis Fox and Isaac Prilleltensky. Many different introductory texts that were written in the United Kingdom and were focused on critical psychology have a particular interest in the discourse. This was argued by different people in critical psychology as being as dangerous as mainstream psychology as it heavily relies on something; language. Heavily relying on one thing in a dynamic world is dangerous when you are supposed to explain something that interacts with so many things and in different ways. In the year 1999, Ian Parker came up with a manifesto that was very influential. The manifesto was on the Annual Review of Critical Psychology as well as the online journal Radical Psychology. In the manifesto, Ian says that Critical Psychology should have th e following components; Close examination in a systematic way of the manner in which various kinds of psychological action as well as experience have more weight over that of others, the manner in which the accounts of psychology which are dominant operate in ideologies as well as the service of the power. The manner in which the different varieties of psychology are constructed in the cultural and historical sense in their study and the manner in which the different kinds of psychology may assert or may refuse the assumptions of ideology of the mainstream psychological models The body of knowledge of the different kinds of the examination and the regulation by the individual himself or herself in day to day life and the manner in which psychological culture works when outside of the boundaries of academic practice as well as professional practice. The detail look at the manner in which mainstream psychology structures the professional work as well as the academic work in psychology and the manner in which day by day activities may provide a foundation for the act of resisting the happenings of the different disciplinary practices that are happening today. There are quite a number of journals that are international and are solely dedicated to Critical Psychology. Some of them include the Annual Review of Critical Psychology as well as the International Journal of Critical Psychology which is no longer being published. The journals lean more to the academic world. The Annual Review of Critical Psychology is an open access journal that runs online. In Britain, the Critical Psychologists and the Critical Psychiatrists have some commonality which they express via the Asylum Collective. Main Criticisms of Conventional psychology Different groups such as psychiatrists and patients as well as the public in general and the industrial lobbyists, or the very rich groups of society and the less rich groups of society, or even psychologists and their clients all have difference in power within the different groups. The psychiatrist is on a different power level as compared to the patient. They have met to discuss the same thing but it is clear that they will not discuss it from the same point of view. With such kind of treatments, the patient will mostly try to resist what the psychiatrist is saying. The psychiatrist and the patient may not agree especially when the patient has some knowledge on the same. Psychologists also have the same problem when dealing with their clients. They normally never have the same ground on which they base their actions. A patient will always want to stay in the comfort zone and what he or she went to do at the clinic is for him or her to be told that he or she is on the right course. The psychiatrist wants to gain millage as he or she interacts with the client but most of the time rather than not this millage are never easy to gain. The people who are very rich in society will definitely be at a very different level of power from the people who are less well-off in terms of finances. There are ideologies that the rich has formed about themselves and there are ideologies that the poor has formed about themselves. There also exist the theories the rich have come up about the poor and those that have come up about the rich. They are so different and I few were to put the two groups in a room there would be so much emotion that would feel the room. This already says a lot about their theories, they are based in the way they feel and not on how things are. Some poor people may have been raised by a mother who highly trained them to be beggars. They grow up not working for what they want in life. In life, you can work for whatever possibility possible that was create d by the creator of heaven and earth. The powers have been given to the human being but instead he or she will sit back and watch as things get out of hand for him o r her then start to blame some past experience or blame some one . As much as it is true that the way we relate with people I our childhood, the things that are said to us during our childhood and the things that are done to us during our childhood are very important in determining how we grow up, there exists so much media from which to learn from and so many people around us to learn from. There is no limitation as to what a human being can do that we are aware of in terms of improving their well being and taking it from one level to another. A human being can always improve himself. A human being can always fight for what he or she wants and still is in a position to wake up, shake the dust off and continue with life stronger than ever. The industrial lobbyists will have an angle from which they argue their points but the general public will always blame them for anything they can possibly utter when it comes Analysis of Critical Psychology Theories Analysis of Critical Psychology Theories Introduction One of the most important bodies of knowledge is psychology. It is through psychology that so many disorders have been dealt with. The disorders referred to here are disorders to do with the state of the mind as well as the environment affecting the well being of the mind of the individual. An example of a disorder that psychologists treat is referred to as sexual compulsive behavior. Many people would still be in problems were it not for psychology. Through psychology, other bodies of knowledge have benefited. As any body of knowledge, psychology has grown to have branches within it and one of them which are relevant in this research paper is critical psychology. This research paper is going to deal with the question; Is critical Psychology essential to clients rights in Mainstream Psychology? This research is going to argue that Critical Psychology is essential to clients rights in Mainstream Psychology. The research paper is going to look at psychology and give an overview of psychology Then move on to critical psychology where it will give a detailed explanation of what critical psychology is all about by looking at how it came to existence and what it is all about then finally relate it to mainstream psychology so as to show how relevant it is in psychology. Critical psychology is a branch of psychology that was developed with the aim of criticizing the mainstream psychology. It also has a goal or a purpose which is to try and put into practice the knowledge that psychology has accumulated into practice and at the same time learning something new without being rigidly constrained within the borders of psychology. Psychology knowledge is used in ways that are progressive under critical psychology. The main focus of critical psychology is the use of social change in its bid to criticize mainstream psychology but also as a tool to treat as well as prevent psychopathology. Many criticism bullets have been shot at mainstream psychology. The most common highlights the manner in which mainstream psychology does not put into consideration or ignores deliberately the way in which the differences in power between the classes as well as the groups of society can greatly have an impact on the well-being of the person in terms of the mind and the physical bodies of either individuals or groups of people. This is very relevant material. A body of knowledge that is not constantly criticized is a body of knowledge that tends not to grow over time. It is just like a life that is never criticized and never examined. Before criticizing, there is examination. When something is examined then that means there loopholes within the existence of something are looked into and the relevance of the thing in todays world. A human being will want to be current with the fast growing world and he or she is always constantly looking at ways in which he or she can improve him or he rself. A human being is always updating him or herself to be current with the world and the changing times. This may explain the reason people do not dress in the olden day fashion styles but embrace what the fashion brings. An employee will take a course in something so as t upgrade him or herself in the field of work a person is. The human beings who listen to criticisms and work on them well always improve themselves and become better people in society but those who done never grow much. It is clear that criticism is a very aspect of growth in todays world. Businesses pay a lot of money in order to be criticized! They do this by asking their customers how their company has served them. They probe consumers with a wide range of questions in a bid to get the worst out of people about the companys product or products. This can be done with the online focus groups that are being used as marketing tools at the end of the day because the product that will emerge will be based on the improvements that the customers said they will want to see. This is the same thing with mainstream psychology. Given the nature of mainstream psychology then it would make sense for there to be a body that looks into psychology as a body of knowledge to identify the things that can be done better and the factors that have to be considered when treating psychopathology. Mainstream psychology has not mentioned the impact that the various social groups and differences we have in society can have o n an individual. Say for example that in a neighborhood, there are those that are doing really well and those that are not doing so well in terms of the financial stability. Most of the times rather than not, the people who are doing very well will come together and form some kind of social group and within this social group, they will have their own way of thinking then in the other group where people are not doing so well, there will be a way of thinking. With time these two groups will always compare themselves. This may explain why some rich people with no happiness and no people to love in their lives envy the genuineness of the love of people in the poor settings and the genuineness of their love for each other. This has an impact on the mental well being as well as the physical well being of a person. One may start to limit him or herself and decide that some things are a certain group of people and some are for a different group of people. There are many people who are a liv ing proof of such influences and have either become very poor as a result or very rich as a result. It is therefore very clear and important on the role critical psychology plays in the application of mainstream psychology. It acts as an update of mainstream psychology as well as a tool to keep mainstream psychology on its toes. It also brings psychology to life as it ensures that it is practical in its approach during the treatment of psychopathology. This is a very important aspect of critical psychology. This is the main reason as to why this research paper is going to look at the relevance of critical psychology in the role of mainstream psychology. Mainstream psychology has to be very grateful to critical psychology as critical psychology gives mainstream psychology life. Overview of Psychology The study of psychology started when the world started to civilize. During this time, human beings got to try and explain the reasons behind almost everything they found into existence. Te civilizations of Egypt, Persia, China, India as well as Greece were the first to try and study the humans as well as try to explain why some humans behaved in a certain way and others behaved in another. The ancient Muslim physicians and psychologists introduced the experimental and clinical approach that psychology has today. They even went ahead to build hospitals to cater for people with psychological problems. More steps were made when the French physiologist who went by the name Pierre Cabanis added the biological aspect of psychology in the year 1802. He had done expensive biology studies and based on the knowledge he had acquired in biology, he explained the human mind from the same perspective. He asserted that the souls as well as sensibility characterize the nervous system. (Levin Troiden, 1988) Psychology had not become a field of study until the German physician whose name was Wilhelm Wundt built the first ever laboratory for the sole purpose of the study of psychology at an institution of higher learning referred to as the Leipzig University. Wundt became known as the father of psychology because of this brave move. It is no wonder that on the very same year that the laboratory was built which was the year 1879, the year was labeled the date psychology was born. An American who was a psychologist as well as a philosopher wrote a book in 1890 which laid the solid foundation son which psychology is built for many scholars of psychology. Hermann Ebbinghaus is also a very crucial contributor to the psychology bode of knowledge that did a lot of research and experimental studies on the memory compartment of the mind. A Russian who was a guru in psychology also contributed to the knowledge of psychology as we know it today. His name is Ivan Pavlov. He cam e up with a process human beings use to learn according to him and is referred to as the classical conditioning. In the mid 20th century, most of the work done by the psychology pioneers mentioned is referred to as experimental psychology as most of this work was concerned with the information that was collected from various sectors and subjects along with the processing of the same information. The information gathered during this time is a subset of cognitive science. This period is seen as a period that brought a revolution because the development made by the various pioneers of psychology answered as well as reacted to the different kinds of ways of thinking that were in existence and at that time, there were two major schools of thought; behaviorism and psychodynamics (Lopez, Schmidt Blanco, 2007). (Syed, 2002) Psychoanalysis is a psychotherapy that was developed by Sigmund Freud who was an Australian physician. His psychology was based on the methods of interpreting of the mind, the observations of patients with mental problems or problems that were related to mental problems and introspection. He concentrated on resolving of the unconscious conflict, psychopathology as well as the mental distress of the human being. The theories that were coined by Freud were popular because they addressed issues of sexuality, the unconscious mind and also repression. The society saw the discussion of the problems Freud tried to tackle as a taboo. He managed to engage society in such discussions and proved to them that such issues could be discussed openly. It helps to deal with issues when conversations about the issues are held then the way forward formulated. Psychoanalysis was criticized and seen not to be efficient enough as it wasnt empirical and had not proven to withstand experimental tests. John B. Watson founded behaviorism. This was inclined towards determinism as well as positivism. Behaviorism was based on the premise that the use of animals to experiment could give a more in-depth understanding of psychosocial behavior such as analysis that is psychonamic in nature. The behaviorists believed the scientific research methods would result in pursuing of the necessary weapons needed to control the problems life presents rather than searching for truths which are seen to be timeless. Behaviorists maintained that much of the components of the human mind are not open to the scrutiny of science and that scientific psychology should rely on the behavior observed. This led to behaviorist analyzing the behavior of humans and relating the behavior with the environment in which the human being exists or interacts with. The behaviorism model of psychology has been challenged and its fall in part paved the way for more models to come into existence (Syed, 2002). (Khaleefa, 1999)In reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanism and existentialism emerged in the mid 20th century. Here the whole person was analyzed and not just some parts of the person. Humanism focused on practical human issues such as aloneness, meaning, self-identity, freedom as well as death. Emphasis was not on pathology but on determinism rejection, the positive growth concern as well as subjective meaning. Abraham Maslow an American psychologist played a major role in the development of humanism. There was the formulation of the hierarchy of human needs, client-centered therapy and Gesalt therapy. Existentialism focuses on the human nature as being neutral. It also focused on anxiety and positively assessed it. Existentialism argued that the human themes such as freewill, death and meaning are shaped by existing myths as well as narrative patterns. The human themes are allowed as authentic by the human freewill. (Levin Troiden, 1988) The cognitive revolution gave birth to cognitivism as a strain of thought. Naomi Chomsky is responsible for this. Cognitivism does not support the idea that research and analysis ignoring the innate child contribution to human behavior. Cognitivism had proven to have a practical approach as it assisted in the understanding of weapons operations during the World War II. By the end of the 20th century, cognitivism had taken the psychology world and other related subjects by storm. New concepts to replace the ones that were being used in behaviorism and psychoanalytic strains of thinking were formulated such a subliminal processing and implicit memory. Cognitive psychology did not throw all the work that was done by behaviorists and psychoanalysts but it took the better of the two worlds, made it make sense and incorporated it into cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology comprised of various subfield that deal with psychology such as neuroscience, philosophy of the mind as well as computer science. One cannot strictly follow one school of thought and claim to completely understand the human mind. All schools of thought are very crucial in the understanding of the human mind. Modern psychology has come up with a school of thought that integrates all the other existent schools of thought; the biopsychosocial approach. This is so as to make it clear that any human mental process or behavior is governed by many interrelated biological, psychological as well as other social factors (Syed, 2002). Psychology is a very wide field and so much is yet to be learnt in the psychology field. There exists several subfield of psychology. In other words, we can easily come up with a long list of the psychology topics as well as the disciplines that psychology encompasses. Abnormal psychology as the name suggests involves the study of behavior that deviates from normal behavior. Biological psychology is the study that involves a combination of the biological processes in relation to the state of the mind. Biological psychology is related to cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology as well as physiology. Clinical psychology is a subfield of psychology that deals with the application of psychology knowledge with the aim of solving problems to do with distress, personal development as well as the general well being of humans. Other subfields of psychology include; counseling psychology, cognitive psychology, critical psychology, comparative psychology, forensic psychology, educational psychology, development psychology, evolutionary psychology, legal psychology, global psychology, industrial psychology, health psychology, quantitative psychology, occupational health psychology, personality psychology, school psychology as well as social psychology (Miller, 1983) When professions in the psychology field research, they draw knowledge from other bodies of knowledge so as to understand the psychology phenomena. They can do this by abduction, deduction or induction. In any psychological research project, there is no reliance on only one type of inference but all of them help when used together. There are psychologists that do nothing but research on psychology. They play a very important role in adding to the existing knowledge that psychology has so far accumulated. These researchers make use of controlled experiments, animal studies, quantitative and qualitative research, qualitative and descriptive research methods, survey questionnaires, observations in natural settings, computational modeling, longitudinal studies, animal studies and lastly, neuropsychological methods (Steffens, 2006). Psychology has been criticized to be a fuzzy science. The main reason is because there is no pre-paradigm being that we can base psychology on. Some of the interests in psychology such as well being, thinking, personality, emotion and many more cannot be measured and inferential statistics applied to it. The empirical aspect is not complete as some things cannot be assigned a number value. The testing of hypothesis is normally not up to standard as most psychologists are not adequately train to be able to analyze data. The criticism sometimes comes from one psychologist to another especially when one is research oriented and the other is clinical oriented. One side may argue that the clinical practices are not backed by empirical evidence and the other side may argue that experiments are done in controlled environments which are not the same as the real world situations. There is also concern that the scientific theories of psychology are miles apart from the actual application of ps ychology. It is more like going to school to study something then not applying the same thing in the profession one studied for. Critical Psychology By the fact that the word critical psychology has the word psychology at the very end than this means that it is a branch of psychology. Just the same way you would have people that bear the last name in a family setting, this would tell you that the two children belong to the same father. The word critical is used as it in itself is critical as it tries to bring out the aspects that mainstream psychology has continually ignored or not considered. Its main aim is to criticize mainstream psychology and this was the premise on which this branch called critical psychology came into existence. It points out other factors that may also explain the reason as to why some people think the way they think as well as make us understand the reason as to why some people are not mentally well and why some people are not physically well. Even before getting into the details of critical psychology, it is already clear that the role of critical psychology in mainstream psychology is very important. T he fact that critical psychology provides some kind of checks and balances in the psychology body of knowledge is a very big reason for one to argue that for sure critical psychology plays a major role in mainstream psychology because it acts as a push to mainstream psychology for it to grow and for it to incorporate some of the things that have been hidden from it or may have not been in existence when the body of knowledge was established meaning critical psychology gives life to mainstream psychology. Freie Universitat Berlin is the institution in which critical psychology was started in the 1970s. It is largely based on the existing knowledge that psychology as a whole had accumulated by then but it also at the same time came up with its own theories and explanations as it sees the world at one particular moment. By the beginning of May 2007, there were very few words that had been translated into English. The main root of German Critical Psychology is the post-war babyboomers student revolt which happened during the late sixties. The main spark of the student revolt was the criticism of the political economy by Marx. Berlin was the best spot for the student revolt as it was a free city which was circumference by East Germany. East Germany was socialist. This led to the sociological foundations upon which critical psychology is built to be Marxist. They have not gotten a listening ear from the many figures found in Critical Psychology. Klaus Holzkamp is a very important author in this field as he wrote the book Grundlegung der Psychologie. If the title of the book was to be translated in English then it would read Foundations of Psychology. This book is very sophisticated in the Critical Psychology field. Klaus Holzkamp might just be the man to be stamped the founder of Critical Psychology as far as the theories are concerned. Klaus had already two books which talked majorly about the theory of science as well as the sensory perception. He felt that the book on the foundations of psychology gave psychologists a reason to research as the book explains the solid paradigm upon which psychological research can be done. The book views psychology as a scientific discipline that is pre-paradigmatic. Aleksey Leontyev provides a unique approach to historical psychology as well as activity theory. According to him, the actions of human beings are as a result of the evolution of culture as well as the biological evolution. Leontyev drew from Marxs work where culture and its concepts have been materialized. He emphasized that the cognition of an individual is a subset of social action and social action is mediated by tools which are man-made such as cultural artifacts, social action is also mediated by language as well as systems and symbols that are made by man. Leontyev viewed this as something that provides a clear distinction between human cognition and human culture. Holzcamp in his attempt to give a comprehensive as well as integrated set of categories that were researched by Aleksey Leontyev, he did come up with this sophisticated book. The book was based on the research that Aleksey Leontyev had done as explained. One other theory we see Holzcamp using in his book in the fiel d of Critical Psychology is one that was developed by Lucien Steve; theory of personality. The concept here is of social activity matrices. The matrices are seen as the structure of mediation between individual reproduction as well as social reproduction. With the various theories Klaus Holzkamp is seen to use, he does not forget the works that were done at the institution in which Critical Psychology was born; Free University of Berlin. The works that were done at Free University of Berlin was done by critical psychologists and their works was greatly influenced by Mark, Steve and Leontyev. The materials he used included books that were written on sensory perception, animal behavior or ethology, cognition and motivation. Ideas from Freuds psychoanalysis which is a form of play therapy used to treat disorders and he also incorporated ideas from Merleau-Pontys phenomenology as he explained his approach. Holzcamp did a lot of comparative as well as historical analysis of perception, the human reproductive action as well as cognition. The core finding that he identified the symbolic meaning whether constructed culturally or historically to be structures that are conceptual and specifically useful to be structures that the human being will create in relationships that are close so as to make culture material. They also create the structures in close relationship in a culture that is material within the context of social reproduction that have been formed specifically in history. With this in mind, Klaus Holzkamp had a problem with behaviorism which he referred to as stimulus-response psychology or in short, S-R psychology. He looked at the analysis of the linguistics and he also showed how behaviorism created the illusion that is had scientific objectivity but at the same time behaviorism was not relevant in its understanding of human actions that are culturally situated and intentiona l at the same time. Klaus Holzkamp came up with his own approach that he drew a lot of ideas from a man that goes by the name Kurt Lewin and this he does in Chapter nine of his book titled Foundations of Psychology. This approach was to objectivity as well as generalization. Before Klaus Holzkamp died in the year 1995, he wrote on learning. His work was out in 1993 and he looked at learning from the object side and not the learner. Holzkamp was out to reinterpret the theories that were developed by psychology that was conventional. This means that he looked at the theories from the view of a critical psychologist and the paradigms of critical psychology. The useful insights that were found in conventional psychology were integrated into critical psychology but at the same time picking out and criticizing their implications that were limiting. In S-R psychology, the intentional action and the subject were eliminated. In cognitive psychology, the intentional action as well as the subj ect was taken into account. In the first part of the book, Holzkamp looks into the theories that were there in conventional psychology. The theories he focuses on most are those of learning. He then reinterprets the theories from a critical psychologist point of view. Jean Lave and Edwin Hutchins who contributed to the concept of classroom learning were very useful in the explanation of Holzkamps approach. In the second part of the book, Holzkamp looks at the modern world and the concept of classroom learning as something that is cultural and historical yet has an influence in socialization as well as learning. In the second part of the book, he looks at Michel Foucaults work of Discipline and Punish. According to Holzcamp, the historical way we know classroom learning is limiting to the student in that the ability of a student to learn is constrained to some finite teaching strategies. In his approaches, he strived to look for a way of learning that would make full use of the poten tial of the learner. Holzkamp explains expansive learning in the last part of the book which aims at overcoming the limitations that classroom learning presents. His ultimate plan was to write a book on life leadership but his demise came before he could go past the early stages of developing the book but some of this work was published in form of journals in Forum Kritische Psychologie and Argument. The period 1960s through to 1970s, critical psychology was known as radical psychology but the main reason it went by this term is to discourage the focus on the individual as the main object of analysis. It was also to discourage psychologists not to use the individual only as the only source of psychopathology. The close inspection of the role inspection plays was considered in radical psychology. The role of the society was looked at in the light that it causes and treats problems. Radical psychology looked at the change in society as an alternative therapy skill to treat illnesses of the mind as well as deal with the prevention of psychopathology. Anti-psychiatry was a term that was so common within psychiatry and so the British preferred the use of the term Critical Psychiatry. Up to today, the term Critical Psychology is still used to refer to the branch of psychology that seeks alternative methods of therapy to the conventional methods or forms of therapy that exist in the dis cipline of psychology. It is also against the idea of focusing so much on the individual that the influence the society has in the individual is not considered. In the 1990s, there were more authors writing about Critical Psychology. The one that caused a biggest shake and was most famous for its writings was an edited book and its title was Critical Psychology. This was a book written by Dennis Fox and Isaac Prilleltensky. Many different introductory texts that were written in the United Kingdom and were focused on critical psychology have a particular interest in the discourse. This was argued by different people in critical psychology as being as dangerous as mainstream psychology as it heavily relies on something; language. Heavily relying on one thing in a dynamic world is dangerous when you are supposed to explain something that interacts with so many things and in different ways. In the year 1999, Ian Parker came up with a manifesto that was very influential. The manifesto was on the Annual Review of Critical Psychology as well as the online journal Radical Psychology. In the manifesto, Ian says that Critical Psychology should have th e following components; Close examination in a systematic way of the manner in which various kinds of psychological action as well as experience have more weight over that of others, the manner in which the accounts of psychology which are dominant operate in ideologies as well as the service of the power. The manner in which the different varieties of psychology are constructed in the cultural and historical sense in their study and the manner in which the different kinds of psychology may assert or may refuse the assumptions of ideology of the mainstream psychological models The body of knowledge of the different kinds of the examination and the regulation by the individual himself or herself in day to day life and the manner in which psychological culture works when outside of the boundaries of academic practice as well as professional practice. The detail look at the manner in which mainstream psychology structures the professional work as well as the academic work in psychology and the manner in which day by day activities may provide a foundation for the act of resisting the happenings of the different disciplinary practices that are happening today. There are quite a number of journals that are international and are solely dedicated to Critical Psychology. Some of them include the Annual Review of Critical Psychology as well as the International Journal of Critical Psychology which is no longer being published. The journals lean more to the academic world. The Annual Review of Critical Psychology is an open access journal that runs online. In Britain, the Critical Psychologists and the Critical Psychiatrists have some commonality which they express via the Asylum Collective. Main Criticisms of Conventional psychology Different groups such as psychiatrists and patients as well as the public in general and the industrial lobbyists, or the very rich groups of society and the less rich groups of society, or even psychologists and their clients all have difference in power within the different groups. The psychiatrist is on a different power level as compared to the patient. They have met to discuss the same thing but it is clear that they will not discuss it from the same point of view. With such kind of treatments, the patient will mostly try to resist what the psychiatrist is saying. The psychiatrist and the patient may not agree especially when the patient has some knowledge on the same. Psychologists also have the same problem when dealing with their clients. They normally never have the same ground on which they base their actions. A patient will always want to stay in the comfort zone and what he or she went to do at the clinic is for him or her to be told that he or she is on the right course. The psychiatrist wants to gain millage as he or she interacts with the client but most of the time rather than not this millage are never easy to gain. The people who are very rich in society will definitely be at a very different level of power from the people who are less well-off in terms of finances. There are ideologies that the rich has formed about themselves and there are ideologies that the poor has formed about themselves. There also exist the theories the rich have come up about the poor and those that have come up about the rich. They are so different and I few were to put the two groups in a room there would be so much emotion that would feel the room. This already says a lot about their theories, they are based in the way they feel and not on how things are. Some poor people may have been raised by a mother who highly trained them to be beggars. They grow up not working for what they want in life. In life, you can work for whatever possibility possible that was create d by the creator of heaven and earth. The powers have been given to the human being but instead he or she will sit back and watch as things get out of hand for him o r her then start to blame some past experience or blame some one . As much as it is true that the way we relate with people I our childhood, the things that are said to us during our childhood and the things that are done to us during our childhood are very important in determining how we grow up, there exists so much media from which to learn from and so many people around us to learn from. There is no limitation as to what a human being can do that we are aware of in terms of improving their well being and taking it from one level to another. A human being can always improve himself. A human being can always fight for what he or she wants and still is in a position to wake up, shake the dust off and continue with life stronger than ever. The industrial lobbyists will have an angle from which they argue their points but the general public will always blame them for anything they can possibly utter when it comes

Friday, October 25, 2019

Essay --

In the past, losing a limb and surviving often meant the start of a life with disability. Fortunately, through human ingenuity and research, biological engineering has helped change this. Mechanical hands that grasp and legs that walk can bring back the lost sense of a normal life and the outlook becomes brighter every year with each technological advancement. It is inherently within our nature to continue innovating and improving upon what already exists. This begs the question- how far will we go? This is an ethical question in the realm of that is just beginning to manifest itself. At the rate at which technology progresses and becomes more widely available, it is hard to not imagine a future in which one day replacement parts could just as, if not more efficient in some respects than fleshy body parts. Will doing so leave behind and disregard the fleshy vessels that make us human in the first place, or is this merely an extension of ourselves? Without being kept in check, there i s potential for significant ethical and social ramifications. In order to understand how and why this is worth concern, we must first examine the part of human psychology that acts as the source. This oddity lies in the caveat to the use of human-like robotics and prosthetics in terms of how the piece of technology is perceived by a third party. When something is clearly machine, it is viewed as such. However it has been consistently observed that as something becomes closer and closer to resembling a human or mimicking human-like traits, the aesthetic appeal plummets. This is known as the â€Å"uncanny valley†. For example, if a robotic face is colored to resemble the natural tone of skin, yet exhibits stiff and unnatural motions it is consistently viewed ... ...t a man born missing part of his legs is able to compete in sprinting Olympic events. However, it is unfair to other competitors when the extent of his handicap is unknown. If it were deemed that even with his state of the art prosthetics he was at a disadvantage, then he should be given the opportunity (given the adequate qualifying times held at the same standard as other runners) to race in the events he desires to. While there are currently very few other examples to which this situation can be compared to, the occurrences of similar scenarios have nowhere to go but up as innovation in biological engineering does. Ideally, precautions will be taken in order to avoid or minimize dividing people with something that would typically bring them together. To do so, researchers and society must make a conscious effort in order to bridge the gap of the uncanny valley.

An Analysis of the Epic Poem, Beowulf - Beowulf :: Epic Beowulf essays

Beowulf The classic hero is a well-known character of high social position whose qualities represent those valuable to his society. The hero is pitted against monsters and is, therefore, strong and courageous often to the point of seeming superman. Beowulf often displays cunning and craftiness in dealing with others. At the same time, since he represents all humans, he struggles to overcome human weaknesses. He is challenged and he triumphs. In Beowulf: A new telling by Robert Nye, Beowulf is a classic hero. He struggles against monsters, endures challenges, suffers, and eventually is victorious over evil. His words and actions, which help him decide the fate of a group of people, demonstrates that Beowulf is a brave, wise, and benevolent leader. Beowulf seems to always show signs of bravery thoughout the story. He is pitted against monsters and is, therefore, strong and courageous often to the point of seeming superhero. For instance, when Beowulf is going to go find and kill Grendle with his men, he stops to talk with the coast guard, Beowulf says " ... Then you are either the bravest man in the world..." Many poeple throught the story think the Beowulf is very brave! Once Beowulf and his men leave the coast guard the author makes a remark; "When Beowulf had heard of all the stories about the dreadful demon Grendle, he was determined to go and help Herothgar kill the monster..." This demonstrates intrepidity, because he is willing to go risk his life for another country. Another source of courage is when Breca and Beowulf fights off the nine sea monsters. First of all even doing the daring contest in the sea is a sign of dauntlessness, but a true sign of bravery is this, " And I swung my sword to fight them off. .." Can you now see that the author meant for Beowulf to be the hero, and the bravest one of them all ? Robert Nye wouldn't cut the hero of the story short with only bravery; Beowulf was also wise. All through the book Beowulf was wise. There are many of examples of his cleverness. Beowulf uses his sagaciousness when he is getting ready to do something and in his every day problems.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Dear Diary

A few days ago, I ran into these strange-looking witches that had brought forth a prophecy that I hadn't believed. The prophecy stated that I shall replace Duncan, my King, from his title. This news was indeed compelling but Just the thought of ever replacing the King was something I could never do. I had to share this news with someone, so I went to the one person I trust more than anyone in this world, my wife. She was delighted to hear that I could be named King, but seemed devastated that I was hesitant on taking a type of action that could gain me the throne.I had been persuaded by my wife into assassinating the king and taking his crown. Ever since then my life has changed enormously. These past few days have been like a nightmare for me, a nightmare that I have to live in until my last breath. In order to remain king and keep the title in my family, I must take action towards the people who have the ability to that away from me. Therefore, my best friend, Banquet, and his sons must be eliminated because the prophecy from the witches had stated that his sons will be the true heir of the throne rather than my sons when they are born, which I can't let, happen.I can't kill again; the circumstances this time around are different than before. I am the king now, and after everything I had gone through Just to get this title I can't Jeopardize that. Due to the choices I had made, I need to be the most patient and kind king the world has ever seen, I need to remain calm at all times, and under no circumstance may I ever tell a soul of the actions I had taken to be where I am today. This Is what my future lays for me. This Is what my life shall look like from here on.

Hamlet cigar Essay

The well known brand for cigars Hamlet is produced by Japanese Company. It was initially launched in the year 1964 in United Kingdoms. Their tagline spread a little happiness is well described in their art work. Art Work for Hamlet Cigar Art work for Hamlet Miniature Cigar’s urinal advertisement is very interesting. It has the background of a men’s washroom. A tall man’s back is placed on the extreme left who is urinating, while in the 80% of the remaining art work three vertically challenged people are standing. Being short heighten they can’t reach up to pee in the urinal. One standing in the right has his knees bent and the one standing in left has his knees crossed. They both have flinching expressions on their faces and they holding their stomach. Where as the third vertically challenged person standing in the middle looks content and is smoking and offering Hamlet Cigar from the packet to the person standing left to him. Though his legs are a little bent too which mean he also wants to take a leak but his expression are very cool and calm. The moral of the advertisement is Hamlet Miniatures Cigar can satisfy you even in the dire of situations. Top right of the green tiled bathroom wall has cigar’s cover pasted. Their tagline ‘Spread a little happiness’ is placed right next to hamlet miniature cigar cover. The fonts are big and in white making it prominent on green background due to the color contrast. This advertisement received 19 complaints. It was considered offensive and vulgar. It was more of a mockery to short people. The company in its defense claimed that it was portray of problems these people face in their daily lives (BBC, 2002). Never the less, the art work conveys the message very clearly to its target audiences.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Public Document Analysis

English 1010 Public Document Analysis Frosh Camp 2012 advertisement This document, titled Frosh Camp @ Camp NaCoMe, has multiple different features and lots of information. The title itself is formatted in a certain way for a reason. The words â€Å"Frosh Camp† are very bold and in Memphis blue; whereas the words â€Å"@ Camp NaCoMe† are in grey and much less bold. The author of this document made it this way because Frosh Camp is the main subject and is meant to be more noticed than the location of the camp. Because the background of the main part of the advertisement is white, the blue stands out even more.Besides the title, the first thing you notice is the two large pictures in the foreground at the top of the page. These pictures show Frosh Camp campers in 1994 and 2012. They are inside a green circle to represent a fun atmosphere verses placing the pictures in the standard square. In the background there are a few, big light blue polka dots the author placed just to add a little more fun and color to the page. The 2012 picture shows people of all different types and ethnicities. With an audience of University of Memphis 2012 freshman, this is a very good thing to show because people won’t worry about fitting in.Next, your eyes guide to the text underneath. With the words â€Å"You†, â€Å"hundred years†, and â€Å"never forget† being bolded in the sentence, that alone makes you curious about the camp. After viewing the top of the document, one may notice the vertical, royal blue, rectangular box on the right side of the page. The foreground of this box contains all information about when the three sessions are and a few pictures and quotes of and from previous campers. The background has a few large light blue and green polka dots also to add a more gratifying feel to the advertisement.The pictures, also placed in green bordered circles, show previous campers enjoying camp and having fun. The first picture, top le ft, is of a girl participating in the cardboard box boat race. The author chose this picture because this is one of the activities Frosh Camp is famous for. Each cabin puts together a boat with only cardboard, duct tape, and spray paint. In order to win they must go across the river and back with two people in the boat, and finish first! The picture diagonally to the right of it is of a boy and a girl dressed up for one of the theme nights.This picture not only shows a fun activity but the feel of developed friendship. Many incoming freshman are concerned about making friends in college and this picture is a good example of friendship. Also, authors post very diverse pictures in these types of situations so that they appeal to a wider range of people. The last picture is of multiple campers yelling a chant. Many freshmen that think about signing up are nervous to experience the atmosphere. This was a great picture to represent the care free and fun atmosphere that frosh camp has.Eve ryone participates and no one judges you for it. The quotes, almost considered as in the background, are all positive statements said by former campers. They express all things, from their great experience to the helpful thing they learned while they were there. Quotes from others are always a good source to use when it comes to persuasion. Lastly, at the top of the box, is the session information. This just tells the dates of the different camp sessions. The author chose to use a bold and white text for this information to contrast with the royal blue background in the box.One can always find important information by how the text is written. The rest of the titles, on the main part of the document, are also very noticeable because of how they are formatted. They, on a blank background, are bolded green titles that state frequently asked questions using the what, when, where, and why scheme. The answers, placed underneath the questions, are noticeably answered by a prior camper. Jus t by reading them you can tell how they feel about the camp; which you can’t do without attending it. The frosh camp experience is definitely something that every freshman should experience.The page answers all basic questions one would have about the camp very adequately. The author also successfully presents the purpose. All the titles make it very easy to point it out and understand. On the far left side of the page is a menu bar that has a list of tabs you can click on to find out any information not already shown on the main document. It has things like registration, what to bring, directions, pictures, and videos. The more types of ways to show the camp, the more people will sign up. Some people don’t notice but everyone has different types of things that appeal or interest them.In order to get convinced, some people may just want to read about it and learn the facts; whereas others may feel that just watching a video is enough for them. Underneath the menu bar i s the same standard links that are on every page on the Universities website. Lastly, on the bottom of the page it has all the standard required information for the site and some social networking links to the University of Memphis’ page within them. This is good because people that normally wouldn’t come across the advertisement, have a better chance of seeing it.I personally came across this document during new student orientation. After reading it, I was ready to sign up and be a part of the hundreds of other freshman that already had. It really explains frosh camp without going too far into detail. When information gets too long, especially with upcoming college freshman as the audience, most of it goes unread. Furthermore, it is organized so that information needed to be found by someone is easy to find and access. Looking at this advertisement now that I have attended the camp, I can really appreciate the authors work. http://www. memphis. edu/froshcamp/froshcamp . php

Manifest Destiny Essay

Manifest Destiny was a term created in 1845 by John L. O’Sullivan in a magazine article. It states that America was destined by God to move west and spread the Country from coast to coast. However, Manifest Destiny affected Native Americans lives in many ways; it moved their home, changed their way of life, and hurt their culture. Native Americans were forced onto Reservations on the West-Side of the Mississippi River. â€Å"A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers here on its bank. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry. †(Santana, Chief of the Kiowas, 1867) This was a drastic change to the Native Americans because they were used to living in the environment prior to having other people move in. On the reservation, they were not able to hunt buffalo or able to roam around as they did before. Now that they lived on the reservation they also lost their spiritual ties to the land. Look more:  manifest consequences essay And when they were moved on to the Reservations, their whole life changed. The way the Native Americans used to live also changed when they were moved, they had to completely start life over and try to rebuild their nation. â€Å"In 1889, only 1,091 buffalos were left in North America. The rapid decrease in buffalo started in the 1870’s, and it was because of white hunters who moved west, railroads being built, and the introduction of European livestock diseases. Buffalo population graph from National Geographic, November 1994) This was a big change for Plains Indians, who used buffalos for many products and food, because there wasn’t enough Buffalo for them to hunt. Also with the decrease of buffalo the Indians had to change what they used to survive. And when their lives changed, it hurt their culture. Their culture also was hurt drastically because they had to be able to modernize and forget their old way of life to adapt to their new home and environment. The Indians here I find are not very unlike white people. †(Document B) The Indians were willing to work for what they have, and also learned trades to help them to do business with the whites. They tended to be able to learn trades easily, which caused a rapid advancement in mechanism. This in return began to modernize them, which started to corrode their culture and their language. Also their new environment affected their culture because they had to change things they did when performing rituals. The Native Americans homes were moved, their life was changed, and their culture was hurt by Manifest Destiny; which swept through America in the 1800s. All of these were just a few key points where Manifest Destiny affected Native Americans negatively. Today, Indians are still like this; they are still on the Reservations they were given back in the 1800s, which means their land that was once theirs was never returned to them; their living in poverty because they grew up with the bare minimum; and their culture is fading, since they speak english to fit in with the rest of the United States.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Plays of Agatha Christie

The Plays of Agatha Christie Agatha Christie wrote more best-selling crime novels than any other writer. As if that weren’t enough, in the 1930s she began a â€Å"second career† as a record-breaking playwright. Here is a glimpse of the best mystery plays by the master plot-twister herself. Murder at the Vicarage Based on Agatha Christie’s novel, the play was adapted by Moie Charles and Barabra Toy. However, according to biographers, Christie assisted with the writing and attended many of the rehearsals. This mystery features the elderly heroine Miss Marple, a rather gossipy old woman with a knack for solving crimes. Many of the characters underestimate Miss Marple, believing her to be too confused for detective work. But it’s all a ruse – the ol’ gal is as sharp as a tack! Murder on the Nile This is my favorite of the Hercule Peroit mysteries. Peroit is a brilliant and often snooty Belgian detective who appeared in 33 Agatha Christie novels. The play takes place on board a palace steamer traveling down the exotic Nile River. The passenger roster contains vengeful ex-lovers, devious husbands, jewel thieves, and several soon-to-be corpses. Witness for the Prosecution One of the best courtroom dramas ever written, Agatha Christie’s play provides mystery, surprise, and a fascinating look at the British justice system. I remember watching the 1957 film version of Witness for the Prosecution starring Charles Laughton as the cunning barrister. I must have gasped three different times at each astounding twist in the plot! (And no, I don’t gasp easily.) And Then There Were None (or, Ten Little Indians) If you think the title â€Å"Ten Little Indians† is politically incorrect, then you’ll be aghast to discover the original title of this famous Agatha Christie play. Controversial titles aside, the plot of this mystery is marvelously sinister. Ten people with deep, dark pasts arrive at a wealthy estate hidden away on a remote island. One by one, the guests are picked off by an unknown murderer. For those of you who like their theater bloody, And Then There Were None has the highest body count of the Agatha Christie plays. The Mousetrap This Agatha Christie play has earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. It is the longest running play in the history of theater. Since its initial run, The Mousetrap has been performed over 24,000 times. It premiered in 1952, transferred to several theaters without ending its run, and then found a seemingly permanent home at the St. Martin Theater. Two of the actors, David Raven and Mysie Monte, played the roles of Mrs. Boyle and Major Metcalf for over 11 years. At the end of each performance, the audience is asked to keep The Mousetrap a secret. Therefore, in honor of Agatha Christie’s mystery plays, I will remain silent about the plot. All I will say is that if you are ever in London and you want to watch a delightful, old-fashioned mystery, then you should definitely watch The Mousetrap.