Platonic Philosophy in Contemporary Culture Essay

Platonic Philosophy in Contemporary Culture - Essay Example As a philosopher, Socrates was afraid that subjectivity and skeptic beliefs that were prevalent in the society would undermine the ethical construct of young people (Plato 161). As a response, Socrates differed with the ruling class, and independently portrayed his vision of ethics. In Plato’s dialogue, detailed elaboration of Socrates’ philosophical education is portrayed through contextual analogies, specifically in the analogy of warrior guardians. Observably, Socrates separates motivation and desires into three distinct groups; appetitive desires like sex and money, spiritual desires like honor, and rational desires like objective knowledge and truth. In practical contexts, independent pursuit for these three desires often overlaps with each other (Lindsey and Wyse 70). In the context of philosophical education, Socrates mentioned that an overlap occurs when the pursuit for objective knowledge overlap with that of appetitive desires and lusts like sex. In his warrior guardians’ analogy, Socrates discredits that erotic attraction and relationship between a boy and a man. According to Socrates, â€Å"A mutual attraction and love between a boy and a man is necessary for objective education to materialize† (Plato 206). Apparently, heightened senses of love motivate a young learner to pursue knowledge with the help of his older teacher. However, sexual desires occasionally infiltrates into the boy-man relationship in philosophical education. Plato mentioned that when pure love is transformed into an erotic love, the intended purpose of an educational relationship fails. This is more so when erotic love is homosexual in nature. In this context, it emerged that erotic homosexual desires are not only selfish but also unethical. According to Socrates, erotic heterosexual desires are ethical and natural because they lead to procreation. However, Socrates mentioned that homosexual acts are purely useless

How Learned Helplessness Can Impact Patient Satisfaction Nursing Essay

How Learned Helplessness Can Impact Patient Satisfaction Nursing Essay Ever since To Err is Human did patients really start to care about the quality of care they received from their physicians, hospitals, and healthcare organizations. However, healthcare organizations had already recognized the importance of patient satisfaction several years earlier. Many organizations started measuring patient satisfaction as a way to judge the perceptions of how their patients viewed their experiences while under their care. There are many facets to measuring patient satisfaction but to date the concept of learned helplessness has not been incorporated into the mix. Learned helplessness is a phenomenon occurring in many places in our society. It affects how we work, interact with others, conduct our business, and employ our thoughts and views on healthcare. When experience with uncontrollable events leads to the expectation that future events will also be uncontrollable, disruption in motivation, emotion, and learning may occur. That phenomenon has been called learn ed helplessness (Cemalcilar 2003). Armed with a better understanding with how learned helplessness plays a role in patient satisfaction healthcare settings will be better able to alleviate this discomforting phenomenon and thus should raise patient satisfaction scores. This paper serves as a vehicle to investigate the concept of learned helplessness combined with a review of patient satisfaction and provide guidance for research to further our understanding of the relationship between the two. Literature review: Learned helplessness came about by accident in 1965 by Martin Seligman and his team while studying the relationship between fear and learning. Seligman observed an unexpected behavior while investigating Pavlovs theory on stimulus and response. Seligman didnt pair the bell with food but rewarded the dog with a small shock while restraining the dog to keep it from running away. The researcher thought that the dog would experience fear after hearing the bell and would try to run away or display some other type of behavior. After this the dog was placed into a box with two compartments divided by a low enough fence that the dog could see the other side and escape if the dog so desired. To their amazement, after the bell was sounded the dog didnt try to run away but instead just laid or sat on the one side of the box. The researchers repeated the test but instead of sounding the bell they gave the dog a small shock. As was the case with the bell the dog decided to stay on its initial sid e of the box. The test was repeated with a dog that had never been subject to any of the previous experiments and when given the shock the dog took flight and jumped over the small fence to escape. What was decided was that the first dog, while being restrained, learned that trying to get away from the shock was pointless and the dog had no control over its destiny and was therefore helpless. Some researchers have contended that the dog just thought he was being punished for some act of wrongdoing or that the end of the pain from the shock was indeed the reward. However, this behavior has been used in a variety of situations which will be explained here in an effort to learn more about this phenomenon. Learned helplessness has detrimental effects on children. They develop a lack of self-confidence in challenging tasks which result in deterioration of performances (Dweck, Davidson, Nelson, Enna, 1978). These children do not develop good problem solving strategies and can suffer from lack of attention and think that all of their efforts are fruitless. Children like this are often held back a grade in an effort to bolster their social and academic skills. In the end, they get a message that they are worthless and hopeless (Berger, 1983). These children may be inadequately prepared to take on new learnings and perform out of the ordinary tasks. Failure become synonymous in these childrens vocabulary and repeated efforts may do little to change their outlook. In Eriksons view, he suggests that children with few successes will become inferior which leads them to have a low self-esteem (Berger, 1983). Most learned helpless students give up trying to gain respect through their academic pe rformance so they turn to other means for recognition. They may become the class clown, bully or tease. When they begin adolescent years they try to gain respect through antisocial behaviors (Berger, 1983). With learned helpless children, competence is almost entirely destroyed. They lose confidence within themselves because they experience failures, leading them to believe they are failures. They might feel competent about something at first but if they fail in that activity they wont bother to try it again for fear of failure. Autonomy is also faint in a learned helpless students life. They feel as though they have no control over their environment because no matter how hard they tried in the past, they never succeeded. As for relatedness, learned helpless students feel as though they dont belong because they believe that they dont relate to the environment. This is why they become the class clown, bully or tease in order to get their recognition. These results may include becomin g an antisocial individual during their adolescent years or earlier. These three factors are all detrimental to an individuals growth and development in our social world today. There have been a few scales conducted and measured trying to use this construct in a variety of situations. The majority of these studies utilized learned helplessness as a secondary construct in explaining either complaint behavior (Lee and Soberon-Ferrer 1999) and measuring the relationship between empowerment and learned helplessness (Campbell and Martinko 1998). The study showed that there were many differences between empowerment and learned helplessness. Another study was conducted in a hospital setting with a reported reliability of 0.85. It had a positive relationship with Becks hopelessness scale (r=.252) and a negative correlation with Rosenbergs Self-Esteem scale (r=-.622) (Quinless 1988). Another way it can affect people is through different emotions such as pessimism, futility, risk aversion, depression, and self-esteem. It has been defined in people as a state of which the consumer cannot control their destiny or outcomes and therefore relinquish control over a certain situation. What research to date has been conducted to study patient behavior with learned helplessness? Raps et. al (1982) found that the longer a patients length of stay was the worse the patient performed on cognitive tasks that index learned helplessness. First, they determined this because of a perceived loss of control by the patient. Second, increased hospitalization resulted not only in increased deficits but also in increased vulnerability to identical deficits produced by minimal amounts of uncontrollable noise, suggesting that the process underlying the deficits in the no-noise conditions is learned helplessness produced by hospitalization. Third, increased hospitalization disrupted performance at the problem-solving tasks, but not at the verbal intelligence test-replicating the previous results from laboratory studies of learned helplessness and suggesting that the deficits of our subjects were not a general deterioration but instead a more specific difficulty with new learning (Rap s et al. 1982). Fourth, increased hospitalization produced increased depressive symptoms that covaried with poor performance both across and within conditions. This pattern suggests again that perceptions of helplessness caused the observed deficits, since depression involves a diminished sense of efficacy (Raps et al. 1982). Faulkner (2001) set out to investigate the relevance of learned helplessness and learned mastery theories in the respective development of dependence and independence in older hospitalized people. Faulkners experiment shows how an exposure to uncontrollable or disempowering circumstances potentially places patients at risk of developing learned helplessness. This condition has the potential to retard self-care performance in the absence of supervision, direction, or active personal assistance thus rendering patients dependent (Faulkner 2001). Moreover, this dependence may not remain specific to the task within which LH was induced, but may generalize to affect patient performance in other activities. To date the accepted scale to use when measuring learned helplessness is the LHS scale developed by Quinless and McDermott-Nelson. A conceptual definition is necessary in order to further explore this phenomenon. Learned helpless can be defined by a state in which a person thinks that they cannot control their own destiny and the life experiences which happen to them. This definition incorporates the key elements found throughout the research: loss of control, depression, low self-esteem, pessimism, and defeat. Learned helplessness can have the potential for explaining some variation in patient satisfaction scores. In order to further explore how the two are interrelated, an investigation into patient satisfaction must be employed. Patient satisfaction: With the effectiveness of medical care being increasingly measured according to economic as well as clinical criteria, the inclusion of patients opinions in assessments of services has gained greater prominence over the past 25 years (Sitzia Wood 1997). As health care budgets come under scrutiny, so consumers in the West have become more critical of the health care provided, organizing and claiming rights as active participants in the planning and evaluation of health services (Sitzia Wood 1997). An increase in interpersonal relationship interest sparked the development for a need to understand the patient-physician relationship which gave rise to patient satisfaction measurement. Consumer advocate groups such as the National Consumer Council produced Patients rights, which influenced the rise of consumerism in healthcare. The term patients rights became the rallying cry for Patients to have more control and say about the care that was extended to them. What then determines what pa tient satisfaction is? Linder-Pelz (1982) approached a definition of patient satisfaction through five social-psychological variables proposed as probable determinants of patient satisfaction with health care. These are outlined as: Occurrences-the event which actually takes place, and perhaps more importantly, the individuals perception of what occurred; valueevaluation, in terms of good or bad, of an attribute or an aspect of a health care encounter; expectationsbeliefs about the probability of certain attributes being associated with an event or object, and the perceived probable outcome of that association; interpersonal comparisonsan individuals rating of the health care encounter by comparing it with all such encounters known to or experienced by him or her; and entitlementan individuals belief that s/he has proper, accepted grounds for seeking or claiming a particular outcome. Ware et al. (1983) gives a more definitive taxonomy with eight dimensions: interpersonal mannerfeatu res of the way in which providers interact personally with patients (e.g. respect, concern, friendliness, courtesy); technical quality of carecompetence of providers and adherence to high standards of diagnosis and treatment (e.g. thoroughness, accuracy, unnecessary risks, making mistakes); accessibility/conveniencefactors involved in arranging to receive medical care (e.g. waiting times, ease of reaching provider); financesfactors involved in paying for medical services; efficacy/outcomes of carethe results of services provided (e.g. improvements in or maintenance of health); continuity of careconstancy in provider or location of care; physical environmentfeatures of setting in which care is delivered (e.g. clarity of signs and directions, orderly facilities and equipment, pleasantness of atmosphere); and availabilitypresence of medical care resources (e.g. enough medical facilities and providers). CMS has mandated the HCAHPS measures of patient perception of quality of care as a c ondition of Medicare participation (Griffith White 2007). CMS (Medicare) states the supplier shall conduct beneficiary satisfaction surveys and make the results available upon request and/or listed on their Internet website (if applicable). The supplier shall document and review on a quarterly basis a percentage of beneficiaries satisfied with services. These surveys include questions that are divided into five groups: Your care from nurses, Your care from Doctors, The hospital environment, Your experiences in the Hospital, When you left the Hospital, Overall rating of the Hospital, and Demographic questions. These questions must be incorporated into commercial patient satisfaction surveys and publicly reported. In some cases referring physicians may act as agents for their patients and are concerned with clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction and cost. This is important because if they are not satisfied with their patients responses, they may divert their patients elsewhere. However there are some concerns for those that dont buy into patient satisfaction scores. These fall into the category of social-psychological artifacts. LeVois et al. (1981) states that Social desirability response bias argues that patients may report greater satisfaction than they actually feel because they believe positive comments are more acceptable to survey administrators. Similarly, ingratiating response bias occurs when patients use the satisfaction survey to ingratiate themselves with researchers or medical staff, especially if there are any reservations over the anonymity of respondents (Sitzia Wood 1997). Why then study patient satisfaction? Typically patient satisfaction surveys are after the services have been rendered and the patient has left the hospital or physicians office. Most of the surveys use a 5 point Likert scale with 5 indicating excellent or highly satisfied and 1 being poor or highly dissatisfied. Most managers think that getting an average of 4s is very good or good enough and trying to achieve a 5 rating is too costly or time consuming. This is not the case. Many managers also think that they should focus on unsatisfied customers but research has shown that no matter how much time, effort, and money they invest, there will always be a small percentage of patients that are dissatisfied. Managers should then focus on moving those four ratings to fives. When it comes to customer loyalty, excellent has a different meaning from the other rating categories (Otani et al. 2009). Highly satisfied customers are the ones that are loyal and return for their next encounter or recommend others to the same physician o r facility. This usually comprises of about 75% of the physicians business so it is imperative that they keep this group happy and highly satisfied. In an emerging competitive market such as healthcare, managers should focus on achieving excellent ratings to distinguish their organization from others (Otani et al. 2009). Patients that are merely satisfied will seek care elsewhere and look for other providers. Even though the cost of switching hospitals is quite high, patients have more choices now than they did in previous eras. What are some other reasons to highly satisfy these patients? Satisfied patients tend to comply with prescribed medical treatments (Ford, Bach Fottler 1997). Due to an increase in chronic conditions, it is more imperative that patients follow the treatment process prescribed. This can reduce length of stays and lower readmission rates thus reducing costs. Also, it decreases switching. When a patient changes physicians, he or she may be required to retake te sts, which increases the patients costs and may hurt the patient (Otani et al 2009). Another factor is patient satisfaction is now considered a key part of the healthcare quality improvement initiative (Shortell and Kaluzny 2000). Many managed care organizations use patient satisfaction data to determine reimbursement rates to healthcare providers, and many leading companies will not contract with health plans that do not require a patient satisfaction survey. Providers with positive patient satisfaction survey results may receive more financial incentives than providers with poor patient satisfaction survey results (Kongstvedt 2001). In addition a 1 standard deviation point increase in the quality of pt/physician interaction equals a 35% lower chance of a patient complaint for the primary care physician, and a 50% lower chance of a patient complaint for a specialist (Saxton et al. 2008). Saxton (2008) also reports that a one standard deviation decrease in patient satisfaction equal s a five percent increase in the physicians risk management. Compared to physicians in top satisfaction scores: Physicians in middle 1/3 of scores had malpractice lawsuit rates 26% higher while Physicians in bottom 1/3 of scores had malpractice lawsuit rates of 110% higher. According to Saxton (2008) the top five patient priorities are: Response to concerns/complaints during stay, Degree to which hospital staff addressed patients emotional needs, Staff effort to include patient in decisions about their treatment, How well the nurses kept the patient informed, and Promptness in responding to the call button by the patient. One issue not investigated thoroughly is the billing activities of the hospital or caregiver. Richard Clarke, HFMA CEO and President has stated the best care, and great customer service provided during the patients hospital encounter can be destroyed quickly by confusing, complicated, or incorrect billing afterwards (Swayne et al. 2008). According to Swayne (2008, the top five hospital bill features that irritate customers the most are: confusion about what the patients insurance company has paid, confusion about the balance the patient owes the hospital once the insurance company pays its share, use of medical terminology that the patient does not understand, sending a bill to the patient before the insurance company has processed the patients claims, and inability to determine exactly what services the hospital has provided and what the patient is being charged for the service. Follow-on activities are also another area that the physician or caregiver can alter patient satisfaction scores. Many providers think that once the patient is out the door the experience ends there. After a patient has been seen by a physician or is leaving the hospital after surgery, there is a likely need for further services: a child with an ear infection has to return in 10 days for another check-up to make sure the infection is no longer present; after hip surg ery a patient may need to be relocated to a rehabilitation facility to learn to walk again (Swayne 2008). All of these additional services are value adding service activities. All of these factors play a role in learned helplessness as the patient may become frustrated by not having an excellent experience throughout the visit or after the visit. Proposed study: This paper shall utilize the current learned helplessness scale (LHS) and apply it to see how it moderates patient satisfaction scores. Method of study: The proposed model for this study is: Patient Satisfaction Scores Internal State of patient Patient Experience Learned helplessness Learned helplessness This research was consistent with the often used S-O-R paradigm. This paradigm assumes that environments contain stimuli (Ss) that cause changes to peoples internal or organismic states (Os), which in turn cause approach or avoidance responses (Rs) (Mehrabian and Russell 1974). It is anticipated that higher levels of learned helplessness will negatively impact patient satisfaction scores. The area most anticipated are those consistent with loss of control in fulfilling the needs of the patient, like care from the nurses, care from the physician especially in information sharing, and billing issues from either the hospital or the insurance company. The construct will be viewed as a moderator. In general terms, a moderator is a qualitative (e.g., sex, race, class) or quantitative (e.g., level of reward) variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between an independent or predictor variable and a dependent or criterion variable. Specifically within a correlation al analysis framework, a moderator is a third variable that affects the zero-order correlation between two other variables. In the more familiar analysis of variance (ANOVA) terms, a basic moderator effect can be represented as an interaction between a focal independent variable and a factor that specifies the appropriate conditions for its operation. (Baron Kenny 1986). Data collection: Data collection shall be the most challenging facet of this study. It is important to gather rich data that will either support or disprove the theory that learned helplessness lowers patient satisfaction scores. A large enough sample is to be gathered in order to fully demonstrate this phenomenons capability. The LHS will be distributed along with the chosen hospitals patient satisfaction survey and patients will be asked to complete them. It may be necessary to delay the distribution of the survey so the patient has ample time to be contacted or experience learned helplessness form billing issues that may arise. After a sufficient number of surveys have been returned to the author, statistical regression methods will be employed to assess statistical significance as it relates to learned helplessness and patient satisfaction scores. Different factors can be cross-tabulated to see if there are any generalized effects on the scores like age, race, financial, and educational positions . Model fit could be assessed using SEM or other methods to ensure proper allocation and model assessment. Limitations As stated before data collection shall be difficult in performing this study. Hospitals may be reluctant to allow a researcher, independent of the organization, access to their patients and their satisfaction data. This reluctance could be over a variety of factors including patient privacy, fear of inappropriate scores released to the public, and a general distrust for academic research. It may be necessary to conduct this study as a joint venture so the hospital may learn from this study as well as the researcher. Another limitation is patient recall. This is always a factor since consumer recall plays a role in remembering perceptions, actions, and behaviors that occurred in the hospital or caregivers office. Since billing is an issue with learned helplessness, the delay in presenting the surveys may affect memory recall. The last limitation may be that of the construct being studied itself. Since there is little research on learned helplessness as it relates to patient satisfacti on or patient experience it may be difficult to determine how strong a score on the LHS scale must be to fully realize an effect on patient satisfaction. Conclusion: This paper has outlined the construct of learned helplessness and how it potentially could interact with patient satisfaction scores. Patient satisfaction scores are of the upmost importance to hospitals and caregivers as it affects their quality ratings, their allocation from CMS, and their reputation in general. While this project is a major undertaking, the author feels that it is worthy of such time and effort as patients and caregivers seek to further understand the patient experience in healthcare settings. This paper has outlined a course of action and while this project needs to be further investigated, it lays the necessary framework for a study worthy of journal submission. Future research could fully implicate different ways that learned helplessness is formed in different healthcare settings allowing for richer analysis into how patients react to different perceived outcomes. Hospitals and caregivers should be able to use information from this study to redesign their pati ent satisfaction surveys to allow them to gather richer data and use this to improve satisfaction scores which ultimately affect the bottom line. In this new age of healthcare reform, it is imperative that healthcare organization strive in every effort to raise the bar of patient outcomes, not only physical outcomes but mental outcomes as well.

Owens Corning Case :: essays research papers

Owens Corning Case 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Data Provisioning OCF conceptualizes the principal IS production activities that produce value for the company as transaction processing, data provisioning, and information delivery. Data provisioning manages the inventory of data and information, using relational database management systems and a data dictionary and data catalog. Transaction processing stores only the current data necessary to provide the status of current operations. Data provisioning receives, stores, and manages all validated transaction data from transaction processing. It also provides data back to transaction processing and information-to-information delivery when requested. Data dictionary and data catalog keep way of what data exists, where it is stored, what it means, and who has authority to access it. That helps data provisioning to protect the data and to provide access to data and information to those who need it. Data provisioning stores the organizational structure regulations in tables in its database, so these regulations can be changed without any difficulties when management decides to modify the organization. OCF created two relational databases to support data provisioning —one to support transaction processing and another to support information delivery. They used for transaction processing technology IBM’s DB2 running on the mainframe, designed to process high transaction volumes fast. For the information delivery technology they used a TERADATA database machine - a combination of hardware and software that is optimized for answering information questions. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Data warehouse The data warehouse is part of the data provisioning function. It could be described as a big depository. Data warehouse must provide interfaces that accept transaction data from different types of transaction processing systems and move them into the warehouse environment. During this process that data are tested and validated to assure that only high quality data are accepted. On the output side of the data warehouse, there must be interfaces that allow a user to ask for data from the devices (PCs or terminals) that he typically use. The information in the warehouse must be structured, so that users can easily obtain answers to their questions. OCF built data warehouse in 1987. They had selected a combination of IBM’s DB2 relational DBMS, SQL query language, and TERADATA database machine to support the data warehouse. Few months later they built a data warehouse for the Residential and Commercial Insulation Products division that contained product data, sales data, and customer data. After some time they purchased a larger TERADATA machine and related software, which enabled them to expand this data warehouse to serve the other OCF divisions.

Existentialism vs. Phenomenology Essay

Existentialism vs. Phenomenology and the response to Hegelian Idealism Absolute idealism was a huge part of Western culture but through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the greatest political movement took place. Marxism was this great political movement. The movement had an affect on theology and art. Jean-Paul Sartre, a continental philosopher who lived in the nineteenth century was an existentialist. Some of the main themes of extentialism are: †¢ Traditional and academic philosophy is sterile and remote from the concerns of real life. †¢ Philosophy must focus on the individual in her or his confrontation with the world. †¢ The world is irrational (or, in any event, beyond total comprehending or accurate conceptualizing through philosophy). †¢ The world is absurd, in the sense that no ultimate explanation can be given for why it is the way it is. †¢ Senselessness, emptiness, triviality, separation, and inability to communicate pervade human existence, giving birth to anxiety, dread, self-doubt, and despair. †¢ The individual confronts, as the most important fact of human existence, the necessity to choose how he or she is to live within this absurd and irrational world. (Moore-Bruder, 2005) The extentialist believed that there was no answer to the existential predicament. They say life can only deteriorate and without struggling through life a person can find no meaning or value to the life they lead. Some of these themes had already been introduce before Jean-Paul Sartre came up the additions. The philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche were the contributors to these themes. All three had a strong distaste for the optimistic idealism of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and for metaphysical systems in general. Such philosophy, they thought, ignored the human predicament. For all three the universe, including its human inhabitants, is seldom rational, and philosophical systems that seek to make everything seem rational are just futile attempts to overcome pessimism and despair. Soren Keirkegaard’s fundamental question in life was is there anything in this world or outside it to which the individual can cling to keep from being swept away by the dark tides of despair? He was as almost entirely concerned with how and what the individual actually chooses in the face of doubt and uncertainty. He thought the only way to be grated relief from despair was to have a total commitment to God. Friedrich Nietzsche was convinced that the world was run by a cosmic force and that it is driven by will to power or will power. This way of thinking was quite different from Keirkegarrd. Nietsche believed you had to control your own destiny and seize what was yours. He led a more exciting life, a more passionate one. Keirkegaard was very depressed and spent most of his life battling despair but found comfort in God. Nietzsche used to say â€Å"Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s? † While both of these men had different views from each other they agreed to disagree with extentialism. Existentialism as a philosophical movement was something of a direct reaction to perceived social ills and was embraced by artists and writers as much as by philosophers So it is not surprising that two of the greatest existentialist philosophers, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote drama, novels, and political tracts as well as philosophical works. Phenomenology interests itself in the essential structures found within the stream of conscious experience—the stream of phenomena—as these structures manifest themselves independently of the assumptions and presuppositions of science. (Moore-Bruder, 2005) Phenomenology, much more than existentialism, has been a product of philosophers rather than of artists and writers. But like existentialism, phenomenology has had enormous impact outside philosophical circles. It has been especially influential in theology, the social and political sciences, and psychology and psychoanalysis. Phenomena is the distinction between the way something is immediately experienced and the way it â€Å"is. † Both Hegel and Kant were philosophers of Phenomenology. Also, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger were phenomenologists. Husserl introduced transcendental phenomenology, whose purpose it was to investigate phenomena To investigate phenomena in this way is to â€Å"bracket† or â€Å"exclude† one’s presupposition about the existence or nature of an â€Å"external† or â€Å"physical† or â€Å"objective† world. Husserl called this process phenomenological reduction without making any assumptions about the world. Heidegger, too, was convinced that it was necessary to look at things with fresh eyes, unshrouded by the presuppositions of the present and past. According to Heidegger, we are basically ignorant about the thing that matters most: the true nature of Being. It is usually with reference to his earlier work that Heidegger is sometimes called an existentialist. Heidegger himself resisted this appellation. Yet he was very much influenced by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and the concern expressed in his early works with such existentialist themes as fear, dread, meaninglessness, and death is quite evident. Sartre studied in Germany for a brief time in the 1930s and was influenced by Heidegger. Sartre attributed the concept of abandonment to Heidegger, and Sartre and Heidegger both were concerned with the concepts of bad faith, authenticity, a life’s project, and others. In philosophy it is true that each view even if they are opposing influence one another. In the last third of the twentieth century, diverse Continental voices were raised against what they saw as suspicious assumptions about the meaning of right and wrong, the nature of language, and the very possibility of human self-understanding. Some Continental philosophers have been suspicious about Western metaphysical systems that they claim lead to the manipulation of nature or that set up a certain ethnic or cultural perspective as absolute truth. As the years go by new philosophers try to prove the others wrong and so is the development of philosophy always on going. Reference Moore-Bruder. 2005. Metaphysics and Epistemology: Existence and Knowledge: The Continental Tradition. The Power of Ideas, Sixth Edition. Mc-Graw Hill.

Causes of Tension Between Cuba and the United States Essay

On January 9, 1959, following their successful overthrow of the oppressive Batista regime, a band of freedom fighters, anchored by Fidel Castro, marched through the Cuban capital city of Havana. Upon his arrival, Castro immediately seized control of the Cuban government and declared himself the highest executive of the island nation, Premier of Cuba. In April of 1959, Castro visited the United States in order to gain support for his policies in leading Cuba. The majority of Americans warmly embraced Castro, â€Å"assuming that this charismatic leader would guide Cuba to democracy† (Cuba). Some Americans remained cautious in accepting Castro, however, primarily disturbed by his previously demonstrated socialist sympathies. In the following month, Americans were given reasons to become anti-Castro as the Premier took hold American owned sugar plantations, Cuba’s multi-national companies, and the nation’s petroleum holdings (Cuba). By the end of 1959, the nation beg an to show signs of Communist involvement. Communist affiliated groups took control of the nation’s military, bureaucracy, and labor movement, and Soviet interest in the island increased. In February of 1960, â€Å"Anastas Mikoyan, vice-prime minister of the Soviet Union, came to Cuba. . . . A major topic [of the meeting] was the Soviet Union’s purchase of Cuban sugar and [the Cuban] purchase of Russian oil† (Franqui 66). Following the meeting, the Soviet Union entered into a trade agreement with the USSR, causing the United States to drastically limit the import of Cuban sugar into the nation. In response, Cuba nationalized all remaining American properties and negotiated an expanded trade agreement and loans with the Soviets, causing the United States to break all diplomatic relations with the country (Cuba). Before the end of 1960, the USSR had begun sending military aid to the Cubans. (Cuba) â€Å"The U. S. government was by now convinced that Cuba had become a Communist state† (Dolan 92-93). The falling of Cuba into a Communist regime proved extremely important to the U. S., primarily due to Cuba’s proximity to the United States, only 90 miles. In addition, â€Å"there were reports that the Soviet Union intended to make a staging base out of Cuba for the  communization of the other Latin-American countries and rumors that construction projects inside Cuba appeared to be designed for launching missiles† (Rivero 170). To stop the spread of Communism in the Western Hemisphere, Americans felt that â€Å"the island’s government had to be toppled† (Dolan 93). Upon hearing from Cuban exiles that a great deal of unrest had been present on the island, Washington saw the time as ripe for an invasion attempt (Rivero 183). The U.S. government put the Central Intelligence Agency in charge of plotting the attempt, along with officers from the Pentagon. The goal of the CIA-planned attempt would be to mask American involvement in the coup, so that the United States could not encounter accusations of â€Å"illegally endangering the sovereignty of an established foreign government† (Dolan 93). The plan entailed using Cuban exiles to carry out an uprising, seemingly attempting to liberate their country. Following the planning of the invasion, the CIA utilized their Guatemalan bases in training 1,300 exiles (Dolan 93). News of the supposedly secret plan leaked to Castro, who â€Å"accused Washington of planning the worst sort of intervention in the island’s affairs† and damned the United States for â€Å"dropping the attitude of neutrality it had long professed in regard to Cuba† (93). The Premier put the island’s defense forces on alert and ordered them to prepare and be ready for an attack. On March 29, 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave the CIA permission to proceed with the launch the Cuban invasion. Changes were made to the plan however, the most important being the ban of U.S. air support of the campaign, excluding air attacks on three Cuban air bases (Rivero 184). Along with the ban came the necessity of â€Å"a simultaneous mass uprising by the Cuban people† (184); without mass popular support, the invasion was doomed to failure. Two days prior to the invasion, B-26 bombers attacked three crucial Cuban air bases, San Antonio, Cuba’s main base, Camp Liberty in Havana, Castro’s main headquarters, and the military airport at Santiago de Cuba (Rivero 184). A second wave of B-26 strikes was planned as well, but was called off by President Kennedy, who was suspected to have â€Å"felt that strong U.S. participation would threaten a war with Russia† (Dolan 95). The cancellation of the second group of air strikes left Castro with one-third of his air  force and the goal of destroying the entire air force unfulfilled. Two days after the air strikes took place, approximately 1,500 CIA-supported Cuban exiles landed near the Bay of Pigs. The men were accompanied by â€Å"old, unmarked American B-26 bombers that dropped leaflets urging the Cuban people to rise against Castro and join the attack force† (Dolan 93). The invaders assumed that the leaflets would draw the widespread support of Cubans unhappy with their government. In the three days in which the people would supposedly aid in holding off Castro’s forces, the invaders were to set up a provisional government and appeal for American help. From there, the United States would recognize the provisional government and intervene in overthrowing the Castro regime (93). The CIA plan assumed excessively, mostly due to the optimism derived from the agency’s previous successes in staging coups in Guatemala and Iran, and all of the invasion plans resulted in complete failure: â€Å"The expected assistance did not come from the island’s dissidents. On being hit by Castro’s air force, the attackers asked that U.S. Navy jets be sent to help them.† The planes, however, never appeared, due to the Kennedy-issued ban on U.S. air involvement (Dolan 95). After two days, Castro’s forces had thoroughly suppressed the attack, killing 150 of the men, and capturing approximately 1,200 of the attackers (95). According to the authors of Cuba and the United States: Troubled Neighbors, â€Å"Kennedy had never liked the idea† (Dolan 95) of an American-sponsored invasion of Cuba, mostly due to his belief that it would undoubtedly fail. The plan had been created under the Eisenhower administration, and Kennedy had little input in its creation. Nevertheless, the President allowed the â€Å"invasion† to occur, and â€Å"despite his opposition to the whole affair, he accepter full responsibility for its failure because he was in office at the time it was staged† (95). While Kennedy had been assured that the plan he approved would be both secret and successful, â€Å"he discovered too late that it was too large to remain secret and too small to succeed† (Wyden 310). Kennedy was greatly upset by the failure of the invasion, and he held himself personally responsible, for both the lives of the men who died as well as for the 1,200 men whom â€Å"his government had helped send to their imprisonment† (qtd. in 310). Kennedy viewed the failure as â€Å"the ultimate  failure of his career† (310), and from the defeat, â€Å"his prestige suffered a severe blow† (Dolan 96). About a year and a half later, however, â€Å"he was to regain that lost prestige† (96), in his impressive handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Works Consulted Cuba Exhibit – History. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. 2001 . Dolan, Edward E., and Margaret M. Scariano. Cuba and the United States: Troubled Neighbors. New York: Franklin Watts, 1987. Franqui, Carlos. Family Portrait with Fidel. New York: Random House, 1984. Rivero, Nicholas. Castro’s Cuba: An American Dilemma. New York: Van Rees P, 1962. Sierra, J.A.. Timetable History of Cuba: After the Revolution. 27 Aug. 2001 < www.historyofcuba.com/history/timetbl4.htm> Wyden, Peter. Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story. New York: Simon, 1979.

Effects of Plastic Surgery Essay Example

Effects of Plastic Surgery Essay Example Effects of Plastic Surgery Essay Effects of Plastic Surgery Essay Effects of Plastic Surgery Just in case you were unsure of the effects of plastic surgery, this can be a pretty good guide to some of the things that you might not expect after having had surgery†¦and some things that you probably already knew but haven’t thought all that much about. Basically having plastic surgery will affect you in three major ways. The first and possible least important is the effect it will have on your pocketbook. Plastic surgery, whether it is a face lift, breast enhancement or liposuction will take a hefty chunk out of your wallet. Now of course how this will effect you depends on how much disposable income you have. For instance, you may have to take out a loan in order to afford your new look, this will be a little bit of a strain on your finances, but it will also be a reminder of what you had done and you might even not take your new look for granted for quite as long. There is also the physical effect that having plastic surgery will have on you. Having plastic surgery is a lot like getting beaten up. Most doctors will be up front about this†¦and if they aren’t you probably should start looking for another doctor anyway. When you leave the hospital the chances are you will look like somebody took a two-by-four to your face. But of course the end result will be something quite wonderful. But, don’t be surprised if there are some alternative side effects that you had not counted on. For instance, if you have young children this could be a fairly traumatic experience for them. When you do get back from the hospital they will be worried that something very terrible has happen to their mother. If this is the case you need someone, maybe not yourself, to explain to them what happened and that everything will be all right. There is also the factor that your children might not fully recognize you if you have radical surgery like a major rhinoplasty or a facelift. If this is the case, you need to explain to them, with great caution, exactly what plastic surgery is and what you hope to accomplish by having a procedure done. Lastly, you might also want to consider the emotional and social backlash that some people experience when they undergo plastic surgery. This is not a big deal for some, but you and rest assured that people will be talking behind your back when they start to get suspicious that you have had some work done. Your best bet is to tackle this head on. If you are nervous about people’s reactions, spearhead this by telling people in advance what you are having done, and try to be confident and self effacing about it. If you do not tell people in advance you might want to be honest with people if they start to ask questions. Plastic surgery is no longer taboo and you have nothing to be ashamed of. url: ringsurf. com/online/2511-effects_of_plastic_surgery. html Risks of Plastic Surgery Although complications from plastic surgery are quite rare nowadays each person who is considering having this type of surgery done should make themselves aware of the possible risks of plastic surgery. Plastic surgery complications can range from scarring to fatalities and the effects of surgery can sometimes be traumatizing to patients both physically and psychologically. Even though complications are uncommon it is important to keep plastic surgery dangers in mind. The risks of plastic surgery will differ depending on the individual and the procedure they opt for. Scarring is one of the most common risks that people considering plastic surgery should be aware of. Most surgeons will try to hide incision lines in places where they arent noticeable, like under the crease of the breast in breast augmentation plastic surgery and in the hairline in facial plastic surgery, but most surgeries will still result in permanent scarring. Bleeding, infection and hematomas are possible after surgery, but if these complications are caught early on they can usually be treated. Nerve damage is a serious complication that people considering plastic surgery must be aware of. Some people who undergo plastic surgery will lose feeling in the area that was operated on while others may experience problems moving muscles in the area where the surgery was performed. Obviously the type of procedure will determine the risks that are involved. Breast augmentation risks include sensory damage around the operation site, discoloration of the skin, tissue necrosis, asymmetry, infection, formation of scar tissue, and allergic reactions to sedation. Facial plastic surgery, on the other hand, can lead to noticeable tissue damage, unnatural looking features and premature aging. Not only will the procedure determine the risks involved but so will the individual. Smokers, people with diabetes, heart conditions and certain allergies are more likely to experience complications that other people can avoid. Before you undergo plastic surgery it is important to have blood tests and a physical done to ensure that you are a good candidate for surgery. In addition you should make sure to look into the procedure you are considering and learn about the risks involved so that you can be as prepared inside and out for your transformation. url: plastic-surgery. net/risks-plastic-surgery. html

Domestic violence in mature women in the United Kingdom A review of the literature The WritePass Journal

Domestic violence in mature women in the United Kingdom A review of the literature Abstract Domestic violence in mature women in the United Kingdom A review of the literature , 1.2 million women suffered from DV (Home Office, 2013). However, fewer than 1 in 4 individuals who suffer from DV will report this (Home Office, 2013) and therefore the estimation of DV in the UK is likely to be grossly underestimated. Thirty-one percent of the funding to DV charities from local authorities was cut between 2010/11 to 2011/12, a reduction from  £7.8 million to  £5.4 million (data obtained using Freedom of Information Act requests by the False Economy project, and analysed by the research team). The National Violence against Women Survey (NVAWS) states that about 1.5 million women are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner yearly (Tjaden Thoennes, 2000). The Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, which measured only physical assaults, concluded that there were 691,710 nonfatal violent victimizations committed by current or former spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends against victims during 2001(Rennison, and Planty, 2003). Of these cases, 85% were against women (Rennison and Planty, 2003). The NVAWS also found that 22.1% of women surveyed, compared to 7.4 percent of men, and reported being physically assaulted by a current or former partner in their lifetime (Rennison and Planty, 2003). In the United Kingdom, national policy has started to identify DV as a concern for mature women. Subsequently, the Government has put policies in place so that healthcare and social professionals are able to identify cases of DV. For example, funding of nearly  £40 million has been allocated to specialist support services and help-lines until 2015 and the piloting of a domestic violence disclosure scheme that gives individuals the right to ask about any violent criminal offences carried out by a new partner (Home Office, 2013).   An estimated 27,900 women have had to be turned away by the first refuge service that they approached in the last year because there was no space, according to new figures from Women’s Aid (2012). These figures demonstrate that services are under some strain to deal with the large amount of DV cases in the UK. Prolonged episodes of DV can result in the development of mental health problems such as depression, panic attacks and mental breakdown (Roberts et al., 1998; Astbury et al., 2000). . Women often find it difficult and challenging to communicate about the psychological abuse they suffer during DV and often prefer to suffer in silence than complain about it (Home Office, 2013). This may have resulted in creating a barrier to finding data on mature victims of domestic violence. Abused women are three and a half times more likely to be suicidal than non-abused women (Golding, 1999). Furthermore, the World Health Organization (WHO, 2005) indicates that domestic violence puts women at risk from a range of negative health outcomes such as physical injury, mental health problems, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, emotional distress, fatigue, sleeping and eating disorders and general fear. There are a wide range of social factors thought to contribute the high occurrence of DV against women in the UK. These factors include some religious and political practices that undermine women (Walker, 1999). Factors such as financial hardship. a lack of resources, educational shortcomings, extreme alcohol consumption, high levels of jealousy, belonging to a large family and substance abuse have also all been linked with the rising risk of domestic violence (Martin et al., 1999). Furthermore, in comparison to their younger female counterparts, mature women may have a limited understanding of the term abuse as a result of their older generation (Zink et al., 2003). For example, DV may have not been considered as a criminal offence when they were growing up and feminist movements were generally unheard of. Despite figures showing that DV against mature women is rising considerably the UK, the government is considering serious funding cuts for crime prevention programs as well as staff cutting plans including over 50, 000 job cuts in the ‘National Health Service’ (NHS) over the next 10 year period (Scripps, 2013). In light of these cuts, this research aims to study the relationship between DV and the prevention programs that have been designed to tackle this crime. In particular, a counsellors’ perspective will be adopted and the challenged that counsellors face in the light of budget constraints will also be explored. Using an extensive review of the literature, the following sections provide a brief overview of the various aspects pertaining to DV and its psychological influence. The review will conclude with a discussion of government interventions and policy recommendations. This review will evaluate and critique the available literature pertaining to DV including an assessment of the historical evolution of DV as a general concern for mature women, theoretical explanations of DV and consideration of the significance of gender. This underpinning process will be used as a basis for examining the impact of DV against mature women (39 years old and above). It will also look at the value and effectiveness of current resources, initiatives, and support networks used to tackle DV and assist victims. This review will illustrate that DV in mature women is a complex and multifaceted subject. Definition of Terms For the purpose of this review, the following terms shall be defined as follows: Domestic violence: The term domestic violence is defined as a physical type of abuse carried out by an individual directly towards their significant other previously or currently, through the use of violence. The intent of the abuse is to somewhat establish and maintain a sense of dominion and control over another person, and is depicted in a context of uneven authority or entitlement. This therefore increases the likelihood of inflicting harm to both the physical and emotional welfare of that individual. Well-being: According to Ryan and Deci (2001), the term ‘well-being’ refers to the full spectrum of people’s emotional experiences and to their quality of life. Mature women: Mature women would be defined as those persons aged 39 years and above. Health: This is a state of physical and mental well-being, and thus not necessarily means the absence of symptoms, illness and morbidity (WHO, 2004b). Quality of life: This is an ‘individuals’ understanding of his or her status in life, in relation to the culture and value system of society, viewed against their personal goals, standard, and expectations in life (The WHOQOL Group, 1995). Qualitative Study: Qualitative studies are exploratory and are particularly well suited to social research. Cresswell (1998) defines a qualitative study as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants conducted in a natural setting.† Typical data gathering tools employed in a qualitative research design include observation, interviews, video documentaries, and focus groups. Quantitative Study:   Quantitative studies measure information in numbers using a set of pre-defined variables as the focus of the study. Using the definition given by Cresswell (1998), it â€Å"is an inquiry into a social or human problem, based on testing a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical procedures, in order to determine whether the predictive generalizations of the theory holds true. Data collection methods typically include questionnaires, standardized tests and codified forms. Scope and Objectives The main objective of this research was to increase awareness of DV against mature women and to improve the standard and efficacy of the care that is provided to the victims. The researcher’s experience in looking after this group of victims has been challenging and may have been much improved if their experiences and needs were better understood. This piece of research aimed to: Carry out a literature review of DV in mature women. Identify how the government and society in general support victims of domestic violence in recovery. Identify the counsellor’s role while caring for victims of DV. To provide an opportunity for mature women to speak of their experiences in order to highlight their experiences and to develop resources to support and inform mature women (Mears, 2002). To explore the prevalence of physical and verbal abuse among the study population (Mouton at el, 2004). This research will use a positivist approach, focusing on the dilemma a mature victim of DV often faces and the importance of the therapeutic relationship they hold with their counsellor. This approach focuses on gaining â€Å"positive† evidence from observable experience, rather than depending on intuition or assumptions on behalf of researchers. In particular, this approach believes that there are general patterns of cause-and-effect and that these can be used to predict natural phenomena such as DV. Research Methodology This dissertation will use review the literature and contain analysis of secondary data and the summarising of the literature’s findings on the topic of DV in mature women. Procedure This piece of research used a literature review to gather data on the topic of DV amongst mature women in the UK and beyond. The following key terms and words were used in various academic search engines including Web of Knowledge (http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/), Science Direct (www.sciencedirect.com) and PubMed (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed): Domestic violence AND mature women. Domestic abuse AND mature women. Domestic violence AND women. Due to a limit in the number of articles generated using these search terms, no exclusionary criteria were applied. Literature review This is a secondary review research project involving an extensive literature review on the topic of DV and its impact and effects on mature women. The material for this review was obtained from peer reviewed psychological and counselling journals, which were accessed through online journal databases such as PUBMED and CINAHL. Governmental reports such as those published by the Department of Health (2000), BACP (2000), World Health Organisation (WHO, 2004) and technical reports from scientific research groups and working papers from social welfare committees were also used within the research. This review adopted the â€Å"best evidence synthesis† method proposed by Franche et al. (2005). This method involves summarizing the literature and drawing up conclusions, based on the balance of evidence. Epidemiology and Economic Impact Domestic violence among mature women is a pressing national problem. As a recent report from the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2004) indicates, domestic violence   against mature women has increased   five-fold resulting in increased   depression, physical ill health, psychological effects and other mental health disorders (Scripps, 2013). In addition to the huge impact DV has on women, there is also a large economic cost. The Centre for Mental Health (2010) has reported an annual loss to the tune of  £30.3 billion due to mental health problems suffered by abused women, with over two thirds of this amount accounting for lost productivity within the workplace. Mental ill health which   may be the result of DV   has been identified as   the primary reason for ‘incapacity benefit payment’ and over   43% of the 2.6 million individuals presently on long-term ‘health-related benefits’ present with psychosocial behavioural disorder as their primary condition (Department of Work and Pensions, 2010). DV can also have a direct negative impact on witnesses. Hewitt (2002) claims that almost 90% of DV occurrences are witnessed either directly or indirectly by children. Furthermore, the British government have stated that women can be distressed by witnessing DV carried out against other women (He witt, 2002). The literature also reveals differences in the prevalence of DV between younger and older women. For example, mature women are two to three times more likely to report minor physical attacks such as been pushed grabbed roughly and shoving than men (Tjaden Thoennes, 1998). It has also been found that women are 7 to 14 times more likely than men to report serious physical attacks of DV that include having been strangled, threatened with weapons or use of weapons (Tjaden Thoennes, 1998). Barriers to Accessing Care The literature search highlighted a number of key differences between the experiences of younger and mature women when it comes to DV. For example, unlike younger women, older women may be even less aware of the services available to those experiencing DV. For example, Scott et al. (2004) reported that there is a widespread myth among service providers and women themselves that Women’s Aid and other DV services prioritise younger women and younger women with children. Friedman et al. (1992) have postulated that abused mature women volunteer to share their uncertainties and concern to their health practitioners the majority of the time. Those women that do not share their concerns   may not do so because of pride or shame. The other reason that mature women do not disclose DV is a fear of being judged by society and this has been challenged during the research as well as shortage of theoretical clarity concerning this matter since the majority of affected women were embarrassed to put across what they are facing and this has made data collection challenging. Zink et al. (2003) investigated the reasons for staying in an abusive relationship in women aged over 55 years. It was found that reasons could be divided into three categories: cohort effects, which included reasons such as lacking education or job skills, period effects such as rejection from help services or difficulty accessing services, and aging effects, which related to the physical limitations that their age can cause. These results suggest that although mature women experience similar barriers to leaving abusive relationships such as a lack of faith in their ability to find employment and support themselves, there are also barriers unique to mature women such as worries regarding their physical strength. Therefore, health workers and counsellors must be privy to these differences in order to improve the level of care and support that mature victims of DV receive. Theoretical Concepts There are a number of different theories that make be used to explain how DV comes about and what motivates its perpetrators.. For example, the social exchange theory (Emerson, 1976) offers a foundation for law enforcement and the prosecution of offenders. Furthermore, this assists in helping to explain how children who observe abuse mostly grow up to be abusers themselves. In contrast, a feminist approach may provide support for interventions targeted at supporting perpetrators to improve their behaviour   and helping to empower victims. However, looking at these theories they do not appear to provide an inclusive foundation and a comprehensive approach for dealing with the various underlying outcomes or scope of DV. The more integrated ecological framework theory (see for example, Heise, 1998) is the one that appears to provide the required basis for an inclusive approach. The ecological framework theory has been used to conceptualise DV as a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon that has its foundations in a multitude of different factors including those of a situational and socio-cultural foundation (Heise, 1998). Unlike other theories, this theory is not reductionist and acknowledges that DV can be the result of many different factors. Discussion This researcher sought to increase knowledge and understanding regarding DV against older women by allowing older women themselves to speak out about how they define domestic violence; their views about causes, reporting, interventions, and consequences for perpetrators; factors that deter or prevent help-seeking from the justice system and community agencies; and elements of outreach and intervention strategies they see as acceptable and/or desirable. Results and Conclusions: Two important constructs that emerged were Domestic Abuse (DA), which encompasses emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and Barriers to Help-Seeking (BHS), which appears to be closely related to the experience of victimization. In addition, eleven sub-concepts emerged from the data. Seven of these, Isolation, Jealousy, Intimidation, Protecting Family, Self-Blame, Powerlessness, and Spirituality, appeared to be related to both the experience of DA and BHS. An additional four factors defined as Secrecy, Hopeless ness, Concern for Abuser, and Justice were identified. This review has highlighted that violence amongst mature women has reached endemic proportions in most parts of the world. It also finds that no ethnic, racial, or socio-economic group is resistant from DV. Nonetheless, the review emphasized considerable heterogeneity in methodologies, sampling periods, sample sizes and the population studied. In some studies, ethnicity, age, and socio-economic status were not reliably recorded, resulting in difficulties in comparisons and evaluations. However, it must be emphasised that the WHO multi-country study   was a significant effort to amass globally similar statistics by the use of identical study approaches. There were a number of key methodological issues identified in the studies included in this literature review. A key weakness of surveys is that they   may not measure the real figures of abused women, especially as some abused women will be unwilling to reveal and report DV against them.   In view of problems associated with self-reports, it is likely that results are biased by both over-reporting and under-reporting (Koss, 1993). According to Krauss (2006) DV differs from nation to nation, and occasionally within the same culture. Therefore, there are cultural factors to take into account when comparing research. For example, in Asian cultures women are brought up with the belief that family needs are superior to individual members’ needs (Rydstrom, 2003). Though women from poor countries are possibly most pre-disposed to believe that men have a right to beat their wives, it has been found that women in developing and developed countries can also be inclined to beliefs which vindicate violence against them (Fagan and Browne 1994). Furthermore, there are cultural differences in the societal view of DV. For example, the review has shown that not every woman who suffers abuse identifies themselves as ‘battered’ women (Mahoney 1991). For example, Islamic nations do not view domestic violence a major issue, despite its increasing incidence and serious consequences. Extracts from religious tract s have been improperly used to validate violence against women, although abuse may also be the result because of culture as well as religion (Douki et al. 2003). Nonetheless, power issues and gender (Caetano et al. 2000), rather than race and ethnicity (Anderson 1997), are likely to be more significant in building and preserving male supremacy and the inequality of power between wives and husbands (Harris et al. 2005). Furthermore, various ethnic groupings are frequently distorted into one single class, for example Asians (Mobell et al. 1997). Due to this, statistics collected on violence amongst minority populations are regularly inadequate, thereby preventing meaningful generalizations. Waltermaurer (2005) argues that the choice of measuring and the practice used to establish the occurrence of domestic violence have important bearings on the occurrence rates being reported. The majority of television and film images, as well as the images in magazines, often display images of abused younger women who have children and this may give a false impression that domestic violence is not something that may occur later on in life. This literature review has found that in comparison to younger women, older women throughout their lives have been less aware of all services and treatments readily available for those going through DV. The previous Government legislated in the Crime and Security Act 2010 for the introduction of Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPN) and Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs). On the 30th of June 2012 the domestic violence protection notices and orders (DVPO) were introduced in West Mercia, Wiltshire and Greater Manchester through three p olice forces. The operations will continue for another year while the Home Office works hand in hand to assess the pilot and decide whether or not a permanent change in the law system is required.. The scheme gives victims who might or may have fled their homes the kind of support they may need. There was a gap in protection in DV before the scheme was founded in 2012. Previously, police were unable to charge perpetrators because of lack of evidence and also because the process of granting injunctions to the perpetrators took time. The (DVPO) scheme closes the gap between then and now and gives the police and the magistrate the power to protect a victim after the attack as soon as they possibly can and try to stop the perpetrator form getting in contact with the victim or returning home for up 28 days. Disclosure of being abused itself is insufficient to reduce the risk of adverse mental health outcomes for mature women who have been victims of DV unless the listener’s respon se to the disclosure was repeatedly supportive (Coker et al. 2002). Mature women report key characteristics of helpful encounters with health-care providers as non-judgemental, sympathetic and caring response (Gerbert et al. 1999). Public and private organizations have kept on enhancing their contributions in fighting DV. In the United Kingdom, The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004)  furnishes superior power to police and the courts in dealing with cases of DV and in providing security to victims. Furthermore the British government has recently issued a national domestic violence action plan which sets fourth ambitious goals: Reduction in the occurrence of domestic violence Increase in the rate that domestic violence is reported increase the rate of domestic violence offences that are brought to justice Ensure victims of domestic violence are satisfactorily protected and supported nationwide Reduce the number of domestic violence related homicides. The review has shown that despite all Government initiatives towards domestic violence, healthcare agencies are still under-represented (Hague et al., 1996). It was not until the year 2000 that the Department of Health (DoH) started to take steps to implement   front-line interventions from health professionals by publishing two documents known as Domestic Violence: A Resource Manual for Health Care Professionals’ and ‘Principles of Conduct for Health Professionals’ (Department of Health, 2000a, 2000b). The aim of these documents was to integrate best practices recommended by the various governing bodies of differing health professionals. This documentation aims to provide guidance for healthcare professionals in their practice and daily interactions with women experiencing DV. After the publication of these documents, DV was seen for the first time as a health care issue as opposed to a mainly social care problem. The police and the criminal justice system cannot address the issue of domestic violence alone. The cost of protection for those women who experience domestic violence is of such a scale that it should be considered a major public health issue (Department of Health, 2000a: 2).   Validity and Reliability As most of the literature referred to in this research was phenomenological, there are some key methodological limitations. For example, phenenological research is often open to interpretation. In particular, the same words may have different meanings for different people (Beck, 1994). This may be of particular importance for the topic of DV as some women who are included as participants may report that they are abused but may not attach the same negative connotations that the researchers do. The most reliable estimates of the extent of domestic violence in England and Wales come from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW; formerly known as the British Crime Survey). The CSEW asks people about their experience as victims. Being a household survey, it picks up more crime than the official police figures, as not all crimes are reported to the police, let alone recorded by them. Two sets of figures are available from the CSEW: the first, collected from the survey’s inceptio n in 1981, come from the results of face-to-face interviews; the second, available from 2004/05, come from confidential self-completion modules, which respondents complete in private by responding to questions on a computer. The unwillingness of respondents to reveal experience of domestic violence to an interviewer means that the first measure significantly underestimates the extent of domestic violence. Conclusion The high occurrence of  Ã‚   DV experienced by mature women suggests that doctors and other healthcare professionals working in all areas of medicine must identify and explore the potential significance of DV when considering reasons why mature women present with ill health. The issue of DV against mature women should be integrated into medical training, therapist training and also into governmental policy. Heterogeneity within the methodology of the different studies discussed in this review has highlighted the significance of developing stronger definitions to improve coherence across findings during a literature search.   Future research work must try to recognize cultural differences when working with families and women of ethnic minorities. Contrary to   previous assumptions that mature women may consider DV as acceptable, results of a study found that mature women were able to identify abuse and actions seen as abusive, which demonstrates suggesting that care workers may be misinterpreting victims’ feelings. The study also demonstrates how the attitude of mature women has been altered over time, from something acceptable to something that must be dealt with. Society must stop viewing domestic violence against mature women as a problem which only affects women, as the issue is overall a public health issue. All forms of violence against mature women are abhorrent and support for those who have been abused in any form should be readily available. We need a clear and decisive answer for calls for help from the health sector, in collaboration with women’s organizations and other related public powers. As observed by Hamberger et al. (1992), future research is essential in order to help determine the reason behind some re-occurring factors that are prevalent in contributing toward cases of DV against mature women. A collective societal intervention is necessary to address the social determinants of DV. Counsellors, as frontline care providers, have an essential role to play in controlling the negative impacts of DV amongst mature women. Counsellors can be proactive in their approach and target vulnerable individuals and groups based on initial assessment or treatment programs. Counsellors and healthcare providers should effectively liaise with various governmental and non governmental agencies that participate in delivering individual treatment plans for mature victims of DV.  Ã‚   By improving the coordination between these participating agencies and the women that need intervention, healthcare providers can promote greater access to and utilization of these services. Future Work The researcher discovered that there is not much data available on the topic of DV in mature women from previous researchers. In future the researcher will conduct research herself when qualified enough to conduct research using questionnaires and interviews to collect qualitative data. REFERENCES Anderson, K. L. (1997). Gender, status, and domestic violence: an integration of feminist and family violence approaches. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50(3), 655–669. Astbury, J., Atkinson, J., Duke, J.E., Easteal, P.L., Kurrle, S.E., Tait, P.R. and Turner, J. (2000) The impact of domestic violence on individuals. The Medical Journal of Australia, 173(8), pp. 427-431. Beck, C.T. (1994) Reliability and validity issues in phenomenological research. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 16(3), pp. 254-267. Centre for Mental Health (2010) Annual Review. Centre for Mental Health: London. Caetano, R., Cunradi, C., Clark, C., Schafer, J. (2000). Intimate partner violence and drinking patterns among white, black, and Hispanic couples in the U.S. Journal of Substance Abuse, 11(2), 123–138. Coker, A. L., Smith, P. H., Thompson, M. P., McKeown, R. E., Bethea, L.. and Davis, K. E. (2002) Social sup-port protects against the negative effects of partner violence on mental health. Journal of Women’s Health and Gender Based Medicine, 11(5), pp. 465-476. Department of Health (2000) Domestic Violence: A Resource Manual for Health Care Professionals. Department of Health: London. Department of Health (2002). Women’s Mental Health: Into the Mainstream. [Online] Available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Closedconsultations/DH_4075478 [Accessed 19 August 2013]. Douki, S., Nacef, F., Belhadje, A., Bouasker, A., Ghachem, R. (2003). Violence against women in Arab and Islamic countries. Archives of Women Mental Health, 6, 165–171. Diaz-Olavarrieta, C., Paz, F., De la Cadena, C. G., Campbell, J. (2001). Prevalence of intimate partner abuse among nurses and nurses’ aides in Mexico. Archives of Medical Research, 32, 79_87. Emerson, R.M. (1976) Social exchange theory. Annual Review of Sociology, 2, pp. 335-362. Fagan, J. and Browne, A. (1994). Violence between spouses and intimates: Physical aggression between men and women in intimate relationships. In A. Reiss J. Roth (Eds.), Understanding and preventing violence: Social influences, Vol. 3 (pp. 115–292). Washington, DC: National Academy. Friedman, L.S., Samet, J.H., Roberts, M.S., Hudlin, M. and Hans, P. (1992) Inquiry about victimisation experiences: a survey of patient preferenccecs and physician practices. Archives of Internal Medicine, 152(6), pp. 1186. Gerbert, B., Abercrombie, P., Caspers, N., Love, C. and Bronstone, A. (1999) How Health Care Providers Help Battered Women: The Survivors’ Perspective. Women and Health, 29, 115-135. Golding, J. M. (1999) Intimate Partner Violence as a Risk Factor for Mental Disorders: A Meta Analysis. Journal of Family Violence, 14, 99-132. Heise, L.L. (1998) Violence against women: An integrated, ecological framework. Violence Against Women, 4, pp. 262-290. Hewitt, Kim (2002), Silent victims of violence in home.  The News Letter  (Belfast, Northern Ireland), September 14, 2002 Home Office (2013) Ending violence against women and girls in the UK. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-in-the-uk [Accessed 19 August 2013]. Harris, R. J., Firestone, J. M., Vega, W. A. (2005). The interaction of country of origin, acculturation, and gender role ideology on wife abuse. Social Science Quarterly, 86(2), 463–483. Koss, M. P. (1993). Detecting the scope of rape: a review of prevalence research methods. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8(2), pp. 198-222. Krauss, H. (2006). Perspectives on violence. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 108, 4–21. Mahoney, M. (1991). Legal images of battered women: redefining the issues of separation. Michigan Law Review, 90, 165–194. Martin, S.L., Tsui, A.O., Maitra, K. and Marinshaw, R. (1999) Domestic violence in northern India. American Journal of Epidemiology, 150(4), pp. 417-426. Rennison, C. and Planty, M. (2003) Non-lethal intimate partner violence: Examining race, gender, and income patterns. Violence and Victims, 18(4), pp. 433-443. 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Constructing a Questionnaire

Constructing a Questionnaire The general format of the questionnaire is easy to overlook, yet it is something that is just as important as the wording of the questions asked. A questionnaire that is poorly formatted can lead respondents to miss questions, confuse respondents, or even cause them to throw the questionnaire away. First, the questionnaire should be spread out and uncluttered. Oftentimes researchers fear that their questionnaire looks too long and therefore they try to fit too much onto each page. Instead, each question should be given it’s own line. Researchers should not try to fit more than one question on a line because that could cause the respondent to miss the second question or get confused. Second, words should never be abbreviated in an attempt to save space or make a questionnaire shorter. Abbreviating words can be confusing to the respondent and not all abbreviations will be interpreted correctly. This could cause the respondent to answer the question a different way or skip it entirely. Lastly, ample space should be left between questions on each page. Questions should not be too close together on the page or the respondent might be confused as to when one question ends and another begins. Leaving a double space between each question is ideal. Formatting Individual Questions In many questionnaires, respondents are expected to check one response from a series of responses. There may be a square or circle next to each response for the respondent to check or fill in, or the respondent might be instructed to circle their response. Whatever method is used, instructions should be made clear and displayed prominently next to the question. If a respondent indicates their response in a way that is not intended, this could hold up data entry or cause data to be miss-entered. Response choices also need to be equally spaced. For example, if you’re response categories are yes, no, and maybe, all three words should be equally spaced from each other on the page. You do not want yes and no to be right next to each other while â€Å"maybe† is three inches away. This could mislead respondents and cause them to choose a different answer than intended. It could also be confusing to the respondent. Question-Wording The wording of questions and response options in a questionnaire is very important. Asking a question with the slightest difference in wording could result in a different answer or could cause the respondent to misinterpret the question. Oftentimes researchers make the mistake of making questions unclear and ambiguous. Making each question clear and unambiguous seems like an obvious guideline for constructing a questionnaire, however, it is commonly overlooked. Often researchers are so deeply involved in the topic being studied and have been studying it for so long that opinions and perspectives seem clear to them when they might not be to an outsider. Conversely, it might be a new topic and one that the researcher has only a superficial understanding of, so the question might not be specific enough. Questionnaire items (both the question and the response categories) should be so precise that the respondent knows exactly what the researcher is asking. Researchers should be cautious about asking respondents for a single answer to a question that actually has multiple parts. This is called a double-barreled question. For example, let’s say you ask respondents whether they agree or disagree with this statement: The United States should abandon its space program and spend the money on health care reform. While many people might agree or disagree with this statement, many would not be able to provide an answer. Some might think the U.S. should abandon its space program, but spend the money elsewhere (not on health care reform). Others might want the U.S. to continue the space program, but also put more money into the health care reform. Therefore, if either of these respondents answered the question, they would be misleading the researcher. As a general rule, whenever the word and appears in a question or response category, the researcher is likely asking a double-barreled question and measures should be taken to correct it and ask multiple questions instead. Ordering Items In A Questionnaire The order in which questions are asked can affect responses. First, the appearance of one question can affect the answers given to later questions. For instance, if there are several questions at the beginning of a survey that asks about the respondents’ views on terrorism in the United States and then following those questions is an open-ended question asking the respondent what they believe to be dangers to the United States, terrorism is likely to be cited more than it otherwise would be. It would be better to ask the open-ended question first before the topic of terrorism is put into the respondents’ head. Efforts should be made to order the questions in the questionnaire so they do not affect subsequent questions. This can be hard and nearly impossible to do with each question, however, the researcher can try to estimate what the various effects of different question orders would be and choose the ordering with the smallest effect. Questionnaire Instructions Every questionnaire, no matter how it is administered, should contain very clear instructions as well as introductory comments when appropriate. Short instructions help the respondent make sense of the questionnaire and make the questionnaire seem less chaotic. They also help put the respondent in the proper frame of mind for answering the questions. At the very beginning of the survey, basic instructions for completing it should be provided. The respondent should be told exactly what is wanted: that they are to indicate their answers to each question by placing a checkmark or X in the box beside the appropriate answer or by writing their answer in the space provided when asked to do so. If there is one section on the questionnaire with closed-ended questions and another section with open-ended questions, for example, instructions should be included at the beginning of each section. That is, leave instructions for the closed-ended questions just above those questions and leave the instructions for the open-ended questions just above those questions rather than writing them all at the beginning of the questionnaire. References Babbie, E. (2001). The Practice of Social Research: 9th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Grammatical Features of Definiteness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Grammatical Features of Definiteness - Essay Example Secondly, numbers which occur in plural and singular. Lastly, the gender Category, They usually take values such as the masculine, feminine and the neuter (Smith, Teschner and Evans, 1994). Frequently grammatical categories are usually misunderstood with lexical categories. This Are nearly the same as parts of speech like the nouns, verbs and the adjectives. Categories may be brought about and referred to according to meanings they portray. For example the category of tense(s) usually show time in which activities took place for example, did a certain action occur in the present (now), past (a time before) or future (a time to come).They may be structured in words by use of inflection (a change in the number of words a word that reflects a change in grammatical function, Oxford Dictionary.) In the English grammar, the number noun is always leaving the noun without inflicting it, this is if it’s singular. For words which are in plural, the suffix-s is added. This not the case w ith all plurals, because some nouns have irregular plurals. On the other hand, a category may not be marked on the item to which it pertains. They are shown only through other features in grammar of a sentence. Always they are shown through agreements in grammar. A good example to illustrate the above point would be: The number of nouns may not be marked on the noun itself if the noun does not inflect as in the regular pattern. Instead they are shown in the agreement between the noun and the verb. Singular nouns usually use ‘is’ while plural nouns take are. For example: In this case the noun sheep does not inflect according to regular patterns. In other cases the number can be reflected both in the noun and also by the agreement of the verb (Smith, Teschner and Evans, 1994). For example; However, where a number of nouns or verbs are not manifested anywhere in the surface form of a sentence.

A French Joint Venture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

A French Joint Venture - Essay Example well, French construction materials company restructured the loss-making state-owned Huaibei Mining Company (HMC) by entering into the joint venture in 1994 and turned the company as profit making company in 1999 by implementing various structural reforms in labor, production, technology, and marketing.(Goodall 103). Entering into joint venture will help to acquire innovative know-how and skills. When China opened its market in 1978, it has become most attractive land for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the whole globe. It is to be observed that three-fourths of FDI attracted by China took the shape of Joint ventures (JV’s). JV offers distinct advantages like reduction in costs. A foreign JV partner may offer capital by way of cash, technology, machinery, know-how whereas the Chinese partner may offer factory land, building, skilled workers, and machinery. Collaborating a joint venture with the state-owned enterprises (SOE’s) in China frequently has raised issues for foreign companies as SOE’s are the distinct form of business entity with a diverse cultural setting. There is less freedom for foreign investors in JV’s as foreign partners have to operate in co-operation with the local SOE’s. By opening the doors for foreign investors, China is transforming to market economy from the centrally planned economy or government controlled economy. Earlier in the joint venture, the HMC Management had failed to keep its promise of granting financial rewards for good performance by employees. As the result, employees lost their faith in the management. HMC HR function was found to be disassociated from business goals and acted only as policemen or administrative function. (Goodall 105). As such, in JV, Lafarge encountered higher extent of complexity due to socio-economic, cultural, political and institutional divergence involved.

Business Organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Organisations - Essay Example The classical school of organisation and management thought was mainly focussed on the overall development of organisations. It comprises of three theories of management, i.e. the ‘Scientific Management Theory’, the ‘Bureaucracy Theory’ and the ‘Administrative Management Theory’. The ‘Scientific Management Theory’ is based on well developed, specifically defined and definite principles of management. Such theories are often observed to assist the effectiveness of management in the organizations in its current status and in future as well (Agarwal, 1983). In the scientific management theory, managers are responsible for enhancing the productivity of the organisation. This theory was introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor, who is regarded as the â€Å"Father of Scientific Management†. This theory was mainly concerned with its implication in the American Economy when it faced limited competitive productivity along with GNP growt h. Subsequently, four principles of â€Å"Scientific Management† were developed by Taylor. ... l strengthen the employer-employee relationship All of these four principles significantly support the managers to resolve problems related to the productivity of the organisation. With its virtues, these principles became extremely popular in the organisations of America which later influenced the business sector of Europe as well (Hartman, n.d). The â€Å"Bureaucratic Theory† was put forward by Max Weber which largely influenced the management philosophy of organisations in the 20th century with its emphasis on the organisational structure (Agarwal, 1983). According to the assumptions of the theory, the higher level authority would control and supervise the lower level in the hierarchy; the employees in the organisation must have requisite skill to be expertise in a definite task as per the ‘division of labour’. Moreover, the ‘rules and regulations’ in the organisation must be in a standard manner in order to facilitate coordination. There must also be ‘impersonal relationship to be existed in between managers and employees’ so as to develop logical decision making process in the organisation. The competency level needs to be high as this would facilitate to remove biasness while hiring in addition to promoting the employees. It is essentials for an organisation to maintain the complete records of the entire activities in the organisation (Hartman, n.d). The â€Å"Administrative Theory† was proposed by Henri Fayol. This theory was later recognised as Management Process School as it entails that management is a continuous process that can be evaluated by its functions. Because of the fact that the theory considers almost every aspect of management, it was able to gain relevance in all levels of management and in different types of organisations (Agarwal,

Most ideas representative of general administrative theories are Essay

Most ideas representative of general administrative theories are relevant to modern global organizations - Essay Example Administration is only one of these functions. Hence it is more realistic to talk of management theories instead of the administrative theories as the former encompasses the latter. Broadly speaking, management theory attempts to emphasize management functions with a view to generate broad administrative principles that would serve as guideline for the realization of organizational activities. There has been numerous attempts made by scholars of various disciplines to construct a 'general management theory'. However, neither of these attempts seems to favor one another and it has almost become impossible to find out two scholars sharing a common view. Suojanen (1963).The earliest writings on the subject came from such eminent scholars like Henri Fayol, Mooney and Reiley, and Gulick and Urwick (1937). The greatest development that has occurred in the management literature in recent years is the classification of various views of management in a coherent and logical way. This scientific classification of diverse approaches to the subject has been done by Koontz (1961), widely known as the 'management theory jungle'. Koontz (1961) classified the major schools of management theory into six broad categories. 1. ... His main contributions included among others to define a body of principles that would empower a manager to formulate a formal structure of the organization for its effective administration. Being a staunch advocate of the universality of management concepts and principles, Fayol introduced management as a separate discipline is his original contribution to management thought. Fayol opined that the five functions of managers were to plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. His fourteen principles of management included division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interests to general interests, remuneration of personnel, centralization, scalar chain, order, equity, stability of tenure of personnel, initiative, and esprit de corps (union is strength).Though he been often associated with his Frederick W. Taylor, the two had opposite viewpoints. Whereas Fayol advocated productivity improvements fro m the "top down", the Scientific Approach of Taylor advocated "bottom up". 2. The Empirical School: The empirical school seems to be based on the premises of 'learning by doing/following'. In other words, it advocates learning from the experiences of successful managers or mistakes made in the management policies in the past for successful implementation of management policies in the future. More specifically it views management as a study of experience. However, it must be argued that though past experiences are priceless but it may not always be the case that what seemed right in the past would also be applicable in the future. Hence it is advisable to not only learn from the past but consider the present and if possible the future while formulating a management decision. 3. The Human