Category: Uncategorized

Clinical Depression

Name:

Course:

Instructor:

Date:

Clinical Depression

Introduction to Clinical Depression

Mental health is an integral part of a person’s wellbeing. Like other health components, such as physical health, our minds give us clues when all is not well. Different mental health disorders present various symptoms used in diagnosis. Clinical depression is a mental health disorder that can happen to anyone regardless of age, gender, or any other characteristic. The main aspect of clinical depression is a profound feeling of deep sadness and low mood that goes on for at least two weeks. The impact on one’s mood and emotional state affects different areas of life.

Clinical depression has several symptoms used in diagnosis according to the DSM-V. One of these symptoms is the persistent feelings of sadness almost all the time. A depressed individual also shows diminished interest or a total lack of interest in everyday activities that they enjoyed before. Another sign of depression is persistent feelings of guilt and worthlessness without explanation. Fourth, an individual is diagnosed with depression when they experience thoughts of suicide recurrently, which may result in an attempt or plan to commit suicide. Other symptoms include excessive fatigue, loss of concentration, indecisiveness, and changes in weight and appetite. Clinical depression negatively affects the patient and the people around them, such as their family, friends, and colleagues. If untreated, clinical depression could lead to dangerous behavior like substance abuse, ruined relationships, sleeping problems, physical illness, and suicide.

Research on Therapeutic Modalities Effectively Treating Clinical Depression in Group Settings

Thimm & Antonsen explored the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy for patients with clinical depression. One hundred forty-three patients took part in the study, with 88 of these analyzed during the outcome. It was found that 30% of patients recovered from depression, and 44% showed remarkable improvement (Thimm & Antonsen 2014). The researchers used the Beck Depression Inventory to measure the outcome of the program. CBT has long been recognized as a valuable and effective treatment option for clinical depression; therefore, group CBT was expected to work as well. The study found CBT to be effective due to the significant number of patients who recovered. One of the benefits of group CBT is that it is a cost-effective measure as several patients are treated simultaneously. Patients also feel that their illness is normal and learn from each other’s experience with depression.

Aguilera and colleagues conducted another study to determine the efficiency of GCBT in treating clinical depression among a group of Latinos. The study was conducted in a primary care facility where 96 patients participated in multiple sessions of group CBT. One of the main challenges experienced in the program was a high dropout rate and failure to adhere to the program. The program offered 16 sessions of GCBT, but half of all patients failed to attend 50% of the sessions. It was concluded that the more the sessions attended, the lower the depressive symptoms the patients showed over time (Aguilera et al., 2018). Group CBT was found to be an effective intervention in this case.

Clinical depression tends to be a common issue for women during and after pregnancy. Since pregnancy and childbirth can be challenging experiences, it is imperative that women get the support they need to preserve their mental health through this journey. Group therapy would be helpful for expecting women and new mothers to share experiences and know that they can recover from depression as others have. Oral and Tuncay published their findings on group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-G) in the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. Twenty-two Turkish women diagnosed with clinical depression took part in the study with Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale and Beck Depression Inventory as measures (Oral & Tuncay, 2021). The interventions went on for twelve weeks, and at the end of the study, it was found that group interpersonal therapy decreased depression levels and improved social adaptation of the women in the study. 

Similarly, Monk conducted a study on the effectiveness of group interpersonal therapy to treat women with prenatal depression in a study titled “Effectiveness of Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy in Treating Women with Prenatal Depression.” The findings were published on the US National Library of Medicine website. The article explains that roughly 10-15% of women experience prenatal depression, causing suffering for the women as well as developmental problems for the infants after birth (Monk 2015). Group Interpersonal therapy is one of the most effective treatment options for prenatal depression, as shown in the study. One hundred sixteen pregnant women took part in the twelve-week program. The participants were split into three groups. One was treated with IPT-G, the second received treatment as usual, while the third group received no treatment (Monk 2015). The group that received group therapy with five to eight other women was found to have the highest recovery rate than the other two groups. 

Depression among adolescents is a serious issue as it could lead to lifelong problems if left untreated. Some people think of depression as only affecting adults, but adolescents also suffer from mental health disorders such as clinical depression. Parents, guardians, and teachers need to look out for symptoms of depression among teenagers exhibiting behavioral problems. Keles and Idsoe examined the effects of group cognitive-behavioral therapy on adolescents. They published the results in an article titled “A meta-analysis of group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions for adolescents with depression.” The researchers reviewed the literature on the topic and found 23 studies that involved both post-intervention and follow-up comparisons of results (Keles & Idsoe, 2018). The studies involved a control group and treatment group CBT was found to be more effective than control conditions in both comparisons. 

Moore et al. examined whether cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as it is made out to be in the treatment of clinical depression. The study focused on research articles published on various sites such as PubMed, Cochrane, PsycInfo, and EMBASE. The common factor in the reports analyzed is that they all used the Beck Depression Inventory as a measure of outcomes. The studies compared two groups, control groups and those receiving CBT. The study found that CBT is a viable intervention for treating clinical depression in adults, given the significant effect of the therapy on depressive symptoms among patients (Moore et al., 2017). Similarly, group CBT was shown to be effective among a group of patients with autism. Patients showing signs of depression were split into two groups, one receiving group CBT and the other individual treatment. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales was used to measure the outcomes of treatment (McGillivray & Evert, 2014). The patients who received CBT showed lower scores on the scale compared to those who did not.

Barth et al. compared the efficiency of various treatment therapies for patients with clinical depression. These treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy in group settings. The researchers, in this case, examined previous studies done on seven psychotherapeutic interventions. These interventions include short-term psychodynamic therapy, behavioral activation, and problem-solving therapy, in addition to CBT and interpersonal therapy. The study’s main aim was to find out the efficiency of the different treatments in individual and group settings (Barth et al., 2016). It was concluded that interpersonal therapy was most effective in treating clinical depression compared to the other interventions.

Challenges of the Therapeutic Modalities

One of the main challenges that the researchers experienced in their studies is the significant dropout rate among participants. The length of the intervention varied, with most of them lasting twelve weeks. For many people, twelve weeks is a long time to attend treatment, especially when one is already feeling better. Many of the studies cited patients dropping out as one of the challenges in measuring the intervention program’s efficacy. When patients who complete the study show high recovery rates, it indicates that the treatment would have been even more effective had all the patients remained with the treatment schedule. A perfect example of this is the study conducted by Thimm & Antonsen, in which 17.5% of participants dropped out (Thimm & Antonsen, 2014).

Another challenge in the studies is homogeneity. Most of the studies involve participants with different characteristics. These include pregnant women, individuals with autism, adolescents, and adults. All of these groups respond differently to therapy, meaning that efficiency will vary from one group to another. The procedure of treatment also tends to be different. For example, group therapy involves a different number of individuals, meaning it is challenging to find the best number of people for group therapy. The number may affect the efficacy of the intervention.

Implications to Social Work Practice in Group Settings.

One of the significant implications of the study is the use of control measures. Some of the control measures in the studies include the use of waitlist controls and control groups (Barth et al., 2016). Such measures should be considered unethical as they could adversely affect patients who need treatment for clinical depression. Proving the efficiency of group therapy should take a backseat to the patient’s wellbeing. Future practitioners should find a different way of measuring the efficiency of group treatment without putting patients at risk. 

The dropout rate for patients with clinical depression is another concern during the study. One way to address this is to assess patients’ suitability to group therapy to reduce patient dropout rates. Some of the characteristics that should be analyzed include attachment style, chronicity of problems, personality disorders, among others (Thimm & Antonsen, 2014). All these should be considered indicators of how suited a patient will be to group therapy instead of other forms of treatment. 

Conclusion

In summary, clinical depression is a serious mental disorder that should be treated as soon as possible. The DSM-V elaborates on the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with clinical depression. If left untreated clinical depression will have severe adverse effects on individuals and those around them. Various studies have been carried out to examine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy in treating clinical depression in group settings. Group therapy offers advantages such as the feeling of support and cohesion among patients, giving them hope of recovery. These studies show that the two interventions are effective in treating clinical depression among different groups of people. Mental health is a crucial part of a person’s wellbeing, so people should treat the best treatment in case of mental illness. 

References

Aguilera, A., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Liu, N., & Bravin, J. (2018). Implementing group CBT for depression among Latinos in a primary care clinic. Cognitive and behavioral practice, 25(1), 135-144.

Barth, J., Munder, T., Gerger, H., Nüesch, E., Trelle, S., Znoj, H., … & Cuijpers, P. (2016). Comparative efficacy of seven psychotherapeutic interventions for patients with depression: a network meta-analysis. Focus, 14(2), 229-243.

Keles, S., & Idsoe, T. (2018). A meta-analysis of group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions for adolescents with depression. Journal of adolescence, 67, 129-139.

McGillivray, J. A., & Evert, H. T. (2014). Group cognitive behavioural therapy program shows potential in reducing symptoms of depression and stress among young people with ASD. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 44(8), 2041-2051.

Monk, C. (2015) “Effectiveness of Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy in Treating Women With Prenatal Depression.” ClinicalTrials.gov.

Moore, L. M., Carr, A., & Hartnett, D. (2017). Does group CBT for depression do what it says on the tin? A systemic review and meta-analysis of group CBT for depressed adults (2000–2016). Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 47(3), 141-152.

Oral, M., & Tuncay, T. (2021). Effectiveness of group interpersonal psychotherapy among women with major depression in Turkey. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 71(1), 180-202.

Thimm, J. C., & Antonsen, L. (2014). Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral group therapy for depression in routine practice. BMC psychiatry, 14(1), 1-9.

Mythology.Mythology refers to the study of the myths. A myth is a sacred story that explains how something came to be or is. The main features in myths are gods, supernatural beings or heroes. To a certain community to which the story belongs to, it is considered as a true account of what happened.

In this text will consider Egyptian and Babylonian mythologies that explain some of their gods. Isis was a goddess wife to Osiris and mother to Horus. She is a Queen of Goddesses and had a sun disc on her head and horns. She was considered a great magician and healer, got her powers from Ra (king of Gods represented by a falcon). She was worshipped as a great mother and wife. She was the friend of slaves, sinners and at the same time listened to the prayers of the wealthy and maidens. Osiris (husband to Isis father to Horus). He was god of the dead dressed in white with crook and flail and white crown. He was considered a judge in the afterlife but also the underworld agency of life responsible for sprouting and growth of vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile. He was often related to the nature of events such as flooding of the Nile and vegetation. Horus was the believed to be the son of Osiris and Isis, hawk, or a man with a hawk’s head crowned with the crown of all Egypt (Pinch, 2004). He was believed to be the god of the sun, war and protection. He was said to be the sky that included the sun and the moon. As a god of war and protection too he was considered a symbol of majesty and power as well as the model of the pharaohs. The Pharaohs were said to be Horus in human form. This belief in gods shows Egyptians believed that every aspect had one who was in charge of it. Their stories show the people based most of their things on the gods and depended on them for existence and leadership. The Babylonian Enuma Elish is a myth that explains the cycle of seasons. It describes the war between various gods who represented various seasons. It describes a series of vengeance cases that lead to the development of winter, summer and the other seasons. The Babylonians believed the different seasons were brought about by the chaos between gods. The Babylonians lived on the lower parts of Asia while Egyptians lived in the northern parts of Africa.

The myths stated above show revenge in the society in the case of Babylonians, while the Egyptians had both respect and each aspect were accounted for. They took deep pride in their gods and respected them.

Myth of Esfandyar is the short story about a prince Esfandyar son of the king Goshtasp, who was divine and won many battles for his nation. His father, the king, sent him on many missions all with the promise of giving his son the throne. The story shows betrayal and jealousy since the king wanted the death of his son in order not to take up the throne. Esfandyar is patient since he obeys and still does what his father says despite the constant breaking of his promise. Goshtasp on the other hand is jealous since he wants the persecution of his son in order to maintain his place as ruler. Rostam is an arrogant and ruthless ruler who refuses to listen to what he is told and has the desire to kill and does not care what the consequences will be. The myth gives an overview of the tension between fathers and sons(Fazekas,2005).

Pinch, G. (2004). Egyptian mythology: a guide to the gods, goddesses, and traditions of ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fazekas, I. (2005). The alkalizing diet: your life is in the balance. Virginia Beach, Va.: A.R.E. Press.

Clinical mental health internship

Internships are part and parcel of the learning program, and one can fully understand what is meant by being in the field for what they are studying for. I am taking Clinical mental health, and an internship comes along as an essential aspect of my career. Therefore, the internship focusing on what will be learned and its benefits will add to my job. Thus with this in mind St. Luke’s Behavioural Health center would be an appropriate place to have my internship. Intermountain Centers Flagstaff, AZ, would also be very reasonable for my internship.

The two centers focus on making sure that the mental health of their patients is well looked after. The two centers are also well known for their excellent quality care and the ability for interns to learn from them perfectly. The two centers are also strict in following all the states’ requirements about practicum and internship (Behavioral Consultation Services, n.d.). With the experience obtained from these two institutions, I hope to work with one of them in the future. However, even if not so, I will be one of the best in the field due to the experience I will get from the internship.

References

St. Luke’s Behavioral Health | Steward Family Hospital | Phoenix, AZ. (n.d.). Www.stlukesbehavioralhealth.org. https://www.stlukesbehavioralhealth.org/Intermountain Centers Flagstaff, AZ | Behavioral Consultation Services. (n.d.). Intermountain Centers. Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://intermountaincenters.org/arizona/flagstaff/

‌

‌

Climate Change and Political Instability

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Number and Name

Instructor Name`

Due date

Climate Change and Political Instability

Climate change has so many effects, and one of these is political instability. Even though this is not entirely evident, it is very accurate, and it causes a lot of problems among people and governments as climate changes. According to research known as the landmark 2013 paper in the journal science published, in temperature of one standard deviation led to 2.3% interpersonal conflict and a 13.2% group conflict. These figures suggest something when it comes to politics and governments since they are made up of individuals.

The most important thing is that climate change leads to straining of government and social resources, and there comes a time when certain people have to look for ways to survive. When this happens, it becomes very difficult for governments to be stable since, due to climate change, there can be a lack of resources. Even the citizens may blame the government, leading to its downfall or ill relations with other governments. A good example is the Khmer Empire in Cambodia from the 9th to 15th centuries, which after around 600 years of existence, were brought down by climate change coupled with other factors. A prolonged drought hit the empire, which strained the kingdom, and in the search for solutions, problems arose, and it was difficult for the domain to continue.

Even though that can have been in the past, the present is not above climate change and its effects on governments and social institutions. Hundreds of thousands were displaced in California and Oregon after a storm in Lowa damaged more than 10 acres. This is just an example to explain how resources can be strained and lead to political instability. Therefore it is essential to be on the outlook and conserve the environment to prevent social unrest and political instability due to climate change.

Reference

How Climate Change May Be Contributing to Our Political Instability. (2020). Time. https://time.com/5888866/climate-change-wildfires-political-instability/

‌

Student’s name

Instructor

Course

Date

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE BURNING ISSUE OF THE AUSTRALIA BUSHFIRES

The authorities in charge have previously easily brought this matter under control. Except that the recent bushfire has caused extensive destruction and has cost many people and animals their lives. This is why the main objective of the Australian case study by Bushfire is to understand its causes and effects. A thorough look at and measures to combat existing bushfire in Australia and explains the future consequences of the fires that took over the Australian bushfires have been incomparable in the 2019-2020 season.

About 3,000 homes, thousands of enterprises, and other buildings have been destroyed, including outbuildings. These losses may not be covered by insurance, but reconstruction by the community especially farmers is important. The extensive destruction of the habitat and inconceivable loss of animals is the result of wildlife rehabilitation and animal recovery effort over several years. Given the huge number of voluntary firemen, including government funding, sponsored and help to stabilize the social setting.

Bushfires are a natural occurrence, historically triggered by lightning ignition and high friction between leaves and bushes due to the massive winds. Although winds trigger the ignition process only the other major requirement is that the process is made simpler by sufficient fuel conditions. In Australia, more bush-fires than lightning or other natural sources are initiated by deliberate lighting. There are also several less apparent

in such situations where intentionally, fires do not harm property and cause injury. In many cases where a fire crew is needed to respond, the costs affect the organization or agencies involved, and often people volunteer for members.

During periods of risk in the bushfire that lead to these incidents, services can decrease their capacity to react to other fires. There is also a growing risk that firefighting crews can sustain injuries or accidents, whether on the roads or at the fire. Any fire can affect the environment by impacting floral or faunal populations, producing smoke, or reducing recreation facilities. Unforeseen fires will interfere with land management programADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“DOI”:”10.4018/978-1-5225-8362-2.ch019″,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Harrison”,”given”:”Sara E.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Johnson”,”given”:”Peter A.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”Crowdsourcing”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2019″,”4″,”3″]]},”page”:”349-373″,”publisher”:”IGI Global”,”title”:”Crowdsourcing the Disaster Management Cycle”,”type”:”chapter”},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=67436dd9-bc26-3738-8cd0-e3b7b1ea2a3c”]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Harrison and Johnson)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Harrison and Johnson)”,”previouslyFormattedCitation”:”(Harrison and Johnson)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}s (Harrison and Johnson). According to 2000-2015, 85% of the area burnt globally is in tropical savannas each year, representing 19% of the total land area. Although forestry accounts for just 10% of the total area burnt, its higher carbon storage capacity results in one-quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions associated with fire. Forest fires in all bio-months account for almost a quarter of all fire emissions. Tropical forests are less fire resilient and their contribution to the storage of carbon makes prevention a priorityADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Webster”,”given”:”Regine”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”Center for Disaster Philanthropy”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2019″]]},”title”:”2019-2020 Australian Bushfires – Center for Disaster Philanthropy”,”type”:”article”},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=99e56cbf-ddc2-3beb-b16c-61089e7ae301″]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Webster)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Webster)”,”previouslyFormattedCitation”:”(Webster)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}(Webster).

An increasing proportion of wildfires is due, intentionally or otherwise to human activities. It is estimated that 75% of all wildfires in recent years are responsible. Climate change also increases the unpredictability of fire seasons. With a host of underlying causes, changes are often not realized until they reach a critical point depending on specific human actions. Real estate boom and urbanization have brought people to settle in areas that regularly experience fires in North America and Australia. Thus even small fires, which caused a fuel accumulation over many years, have been completely suppressed, leading to extremely large, severe, and destructive conflagrations. The data collected points out, abnormally long fire seasons, have become more and more frequent, which complexities forest management and further increases the likelihood of uncontrolled wildfiresADDIN CSL_CITATION {“citationItems”:[{“id”:”ITEM-1″,”itemData”:{“DOI”:”10.1177/1326365×13517191″,”ISSN”:”1326-365X”,”abstract”:”Bushfires are a major part of the Australian natural disaster landscape; causing severe property damage and loss of life. Since 2009 there have been four major bushfire events in Australia warranting government inquiry. The recommendations from such inquiries are intended to drive future policy and decision making, reflecting a commitment on behalf of authorities to learn from past events. For authorities, ensuring the successful communication of bushfire safety is the key to securing legitimacy, yet communication within the public sector is characterized by politics, legal constraints, media attention and public scrutiny. The perception of risk and the desire to promote an image of competence can inhibit innovation, particularly in relation to public sector internet communications. We should not assume that governments want greater community participation when there is both economic and political risk involved in doing so. Nevertheless, greater community participation in bushfire communications appears to be a key recommendation of the recent bushfire inquiries and which the public sector generally and fire and emergency services organizations specifically, are under some pressure to accommodate. Internet-based communications have a key role to play in filling the gap, but must balance community desire Asia Pacific Media Educator 23(2) 351-365″,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Brady”,”given”:”Danielle”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Webb”,”given”:”Naomi”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”Asia Pacific Media Educator”,”id”:”ITEM-1″,”issue”:”2″,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2013″,”12″,”24″]]},”page”:”351-365″,”publisher”:”SAGE Publications”,”title”:”Communicating Bushfire Safety in Australia: The Challenge for Government of Increasing Community Participation”,”type”:”article-journal”,”volume”:”23″},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=4307a998-4405-3b24-8c74-304076a5586d”]}],”mendeley”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Brady and Webb)”,”plainTextFormattedCitation”:”(Brady and Webb)”,”previouslyFormattedCitation”:”(Brady and Webb)”},”properties”:{“noteIndex”:0},”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”}(Brady and Webb).

Bushfires are a critical aspect of Australia’s natural disaster landscape; causing serious damage to property and life loss. Many species are also at risk of complete extinction. It is believed that over one-third of the koala population has been killed, while habitat loss will significantly influence the recovery of the species. An Australian government study revealed that fire affected 471 of the plants and 191 invertebrates, with at least 30 percent of their habitat loss among the most severely affected species. Moreover, ranchers have lost a great deal of livestock. These investigations aim to encourage future policy and decision-making, reflecting the authorities’ commitment to learning from past events.

The successful communication of bushfire safety for the authorities is the key for the securing of legitimacy, while communication is characterized by policy, legal restrictions, attention to the media, and public scrutiny. Risk perception and the desire to promote the image of competence can inhibit innovation, especially in relation to the Internet communications sector of the public. It is not assumed that governments want more participation in the community when economic and political risks are involved in it. Nevertheless, greater participation of the community in communication with bushfire seems to be a key recommendation of the recent bushfire surveys, and that is subject to some pressure from the public sector, fire and emergency services. Internet Communications help in bridging the gap, but community willingness to take active participation in government needs and reduce the risk can be effective

Work Cited

ADDIN Mendeley Bibliography CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Brady, Danielle, and Naomi Webb. “Communicating Bushfire Safety in Australia: The Challenge for Government of Increasing Community Participation.” Asia Pacific Media Educator, vol. 23, no. 2, SAGE Publications, Dec. 2013, pp. 351–65, doi:10.1177/1326365×13517191.

Harrison, Sara E., and Peter A. Johnson. “Crowdsourcing the Disaster Management Cycle.” Crowdsourcing, IGI Global, 2019, pp. 349–73, doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-8362-2.ch019.

Webster, Regine. “2019-2020 Australian Bushfires – Center for Disaster Philanthropy.” Center for Disaster Philanthropy, 2019, https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disaster/2019-australian-wildfires/.

‘Myths and realities of ‘Strategic planning’ for Co.’s sustained growth’ by John Spence

Introduction

These articles review all the myths and misconceptions that a company faces when making sound decisions for their strategic plans. Planning is one of the critical areas of management. Planning involves forecasting about the future market trends and opportunities. Strategic planning leads to successful outcomes of the desired goals and objectives. Lack of sound planning leads to a company’s failure.

The author argues out the problem that most managers face when coming up with sound decisions for the better progress of the organization; He uses the following myths; analysis is not a strategy, coming up with real strategy involves making risky decisions on resource allocations e.g. committing a significant amount of money into construction of new facilities and lastly, implementation of new goals. The author argues that; most business organizations lack the ability of differentiating between analysis of the company’s goal and coming up with new strategies that can bolster positive growth of a company’s profit. This problem is associated with the implementing agency. The author debates that; implementation of new strategies and goals of the organization is a key determinant of value addition to a company’s future trend in the market. A team that is tasked with implementation of these goals ought to devolve specific and unique channels that work to realize positive trends of profits in the business.

Establishing of an independent implementing team is significant to the company’s decision making team. An exterior team needs to be outsourced to guide in the implementation process of a company’s key strategies. This only boosts the company’s trust on the planning process and its longevity. Planning is a key success tool for an organization that is futuristic.

References;

Spence, J. (2009). Myths and Realities of ‘Strategic Planning’ for Co.’s Sustained Growth. The Economic Times, 17(4): 12-14.

Myths Of Ancient Times Greek myths are entertaining and meaningful, fictional and truthful. They tell stories of Gods, Goddess’s, children and animals. But most of all they teach a lesson. What was the point of Greek myths? What were some of the stories? Were they taken seriously? Why were they important? This paper will explain what Greek myths are all about. It will say why Greek myths were created, and what they mean. It will also give an example of a popular myth.

“A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.” (James Feibleman) Although Greek myths are interesting and entertaining stories, they played a more important roll in the every day life of ancient civilization. “Greek Gods were simply the products of colorful imaginations.” (www.angelfire.com/mt/ahsb/intro.html) They were the imaginations of a civilization that told these stories as a way of explaining the unexplainable events that happened in their lives. These “unexplainable” things consisted of uncontrollable events, natural phenomenons and mind-boggling occurrences. The realization of these stories lead one to believe that they were “perfect humans”, but can benefit from being immortal as well. The Greeks gave them all the abilities, qualities and values that they themselves wanted. Once they did this, the Greeks idolized the existence of the Gods and they way they behaved.

The Greeks felt that these Gods and Goddesses had complete control and influence over their lives. “The poets were not alone in sanctioning myths, for long before the poets the states and the lawmakers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient. They needed to control the people by superstitious fears, and these cannot be aroused without myths and marvels.” (Mikhail Strabo) The Greeks were the first people to write myths. These myths were like parables; there was usually a “moral to the story”. There were heroes and Gods in these stories and as they were passed down from one generation to the next, they became accepted as logical explanations to situations and uncertainties that they didn’t understand. Greeks also relied heavily on these myths to inspire them, as well. They were inspired during their every day lives, but especially during battle. When dealing with human relationships and conflicts, a Greek would derive very evident morals on which to base their life and confront issues. These were taken very seriously. These myths were not only taught to other generations of Greeks, but to other cultures and civilizations as well.

The Greeks had many Gods and Goddesses, including twelve principal ones who lived on Mount Olympus. Zeus was the king and leader of the twelve. His symbol was thunder and when you see him as a statue, he appears to be holding one. Poseidon was the God of the sea and earthquakes. It was said that when he became angry, he used his trident to create massive waves and floods. Ares was the God of war. It was said that he was fiery tempered, bloodthirsty, brutal and violent. Hera was not a principal Goddess; her job was a subservient one. She was Zeus’ cupbearer. Athena was the Goddess of wisdom and the patron of Athens. Unlike Ares, she derived no pleasure from fighting, but preferred settling disputes peacefully using her wisdom. However, if need be, she went valiantly into battle. Hephaestus was worshiped for his matchless skills as a craftsman. When Zeus decided to punish men he asked Hephaestus to make a woman. So Hephaestus made Pandora from clay and water and, as everyone knows, she had a box from which sprang all the evils afflicting humankind. Apollo was the God of the sun and Artemis was the Goddess of the moon. They were the twins of Leto and Zeus. Apollo was also worshiped as the God of music and song which the ancient Greeks believed were only heard where there was light and security. Artemis was worshipped as the Goddess of childbirth and protector of children, yet strangely enough, she asked Zeus if he would grant her eternal virginity. Hermes was the God of the animals. His job was to protect the animal kingdom. Demeter was the Goddess of vegetation. Demeter was worshipped as the Goddess of earth and fertility. Aphrodite was the Goddess of love, who rose naked out of the sea. She had a magic girdle, which made everyone fall in love with its wearer. The girdle meant both Gods and Goddesses constantly pursued her because they wanted to borrow the girdle. Zeus became so fed up with her promiscuity that he married her off to Hephaestus, the u!

gliest of the Gods. Dionysos was the son of Hera and Zeus. He was so ugly at birth that he was horned and crowned with serpents. His parents boiled him in a cauldron, but he was rescued by Rhea and banished to Mount Nysa in Libya where he invented wine. He eventually returned to Greece where he organized drunken revelries and married Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos.

One very popular myth to the Greeks is “The Creation of Man by Prometheus.” Prometheus and Epimetheus were given the task of creating man, because they had not fought alongside their fellow Titans during the war with the Olympians. Prometheus used mud to shape man, and then Athena breathed life into the figure. Prometheus gave Epimetheus the task of creating the qualities of man, such as swiftness, cunning, strength, fur, and wings. But by the time Epimetheus got to man, he had already given out all of the good qualities he was able to. Therefore he decided to make them stand straight up, as the gods did, and he gave them fire.

Prometheus loved man much more than the Olympians had, who banished his family, or most of it anyway, to Tartarus. Zeus decided that man had to present a portion of all the animals they sacrificed to the gods. Prometheus didn’t like this idea, and so he tricked Zeus. He created two piles, one had bones wrapped in fat, and the other with the good meat hidden in the hide. He then told Zeus to choose. He picked the pile of bones, and since Zeus gave his word, he was forced to accept this future sacrifices. Because of the anger he had for being tricked, he stole fire away from man. But the Prometheus lit a torch from the sun, and brought it back to man. This enraged Zeus, so he inflicted a terrible punishment on both man and Prometheus.

To punish man, Zeus told Hephaestus make a mortal of stunning beauty. The gods gave this mortal many gifts of wealth. Then Hermes gave it a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. This creation was then named Pandora, the first woman. The last gift was a jar that Pandora was told never to open. After completed, Zeus sent Pandora to Epimetheus who was staying amongst the men. Prometheus warned Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus, yet Pandora’s beauty was too great and he allowed her to stay. Eventually, Pandora’s curiosity about the jar became too much. She opened the jar and all manors of evils, sorrows, plagues and misfortunes flew out. However, in the bottom of the jar there was one good thing- hope.

Zeus was angry with Prometheus for three reasons; being tricked on sacrifices, stealing fire for man and refusing to tell Zeus which of his children would dethrone him. Zeus forced his servants to seize Prometheus. They took him to the Caucasus Mountains and chained him to a rock with unbreakable chains. He was tormented day and night by a giant eagle tearing at his liver. He was given two ways out of this torment. He could either tell Zeus the name of the mother of the child that would dethrone him or meet two conditions: an immortal must volunteer to die for Prometheus and a mortal must kill the eagle and unchain him. Eventually, Chiron the Centaur, agreed to die for him and Heracles killed the eagle and unbound him.

My feelings about Greek Myth’s are that they are stories for amusement purposes only. They are not true, and they no longer serve as much a purpose as today. Most Greeks do not still believe in many of the stories, but some continue to live by them. Yet they are still read in countries around the world for enjoyment purposes.

Bibliography:

 HSA.brown.edu/~maicar/briefhistory.html

 www.angelfire.com/mt/ahsb/intro.html

 www.math.utk.edu/~vasili/gr_link/greek.myth/creationman.html

 www.vacation.net.gr/p/mithos.html

Name

Institution

1st Amendment Law of American constitution

Most Americans know the 1st amendment as the amendments in the bill of rights with clauses such freedom of speech, religion, and the press. The 1st amendments encourage one to believe and practice religious principles s/he wishes to do and his right to convey what s/he like. It protects lawyers’ right to publish any information he/she wishes, provide his/her service to anyone s/he wants and questions the government doings especially those that s/he do not like. Most clauses in the 1st amendment law are controversial, however, in many cases the uncertainty deals with how the amendment requires the Americans to go in a given direction.

The first is the establishment clause which forbids the government from creating state religion and from compelling citizens in what they should believe. However, the clause has some controversies. Some citizens consider that whenever there is state involvement, totally, all religious expression must be prohibited in order to fulfill the establishment clause (LII). For instance, a public school basketball team should be banned from praying at a basketball game because the institution is a government funded school. Others argue that the government should allow religious expression in public occasions and premises given the religious nature of Americans. Truly, in some people’s mind, prohibiting expressions of religious belief in this manner is an infringement of the free exercise clause that is part of the first amendment as it requests to control religious expression of Americans (Revolutionary War and Beyond).

The second clause is the free exercise that restricts the congress to regulate somebody’s religious observations. That is the congress cannot direct citizens on how they should practice their religious faith. However, controversy may arise whereby minority religious groups seek to exercise something that is not legal or that the government has a tough interest in regulating. For instance, such behaviors like ritual sacrifice, drug usage and polygamy are outlawed due to a public compelling interest. This signifies that this clause does not provide a free license to anyone to practice any behavior s/he claims is religious (LII).

The next is freedom of speech clause, which restricts the congress from reducing the freedom of speech. This allows Americans to express their concerns about state policies they do not like. It allows them to convey their religious faith. This clause is distorted especially where some citizens insult others they disagree with and using hateful languages. Freedom of speech goes beyond word people speak to expressions that are deployed in communicating ideas. Expressions such as wearing symbols, picketing and flag burning, are protected speech forms (Revolutionary War and Beyond).

Another significant principle is the freedom of the press clause and this clause is believed to have played a crucial role during the revolutionary war. It helped Americans strengthen their views against England and spread concept that justified a break with England. Historically, English had no press freedom at all. All publications were to be reviewed first by the state before publication. Government criticism were subjected to trials and charged with treason. Therefore, every American aspired to have the right to criticize their authority fearlessly as well a to debate other subjects whenever they wish (Revolutionary War and Beyond).

Lastly, is the freedom of assembly clause which goes “congress shall make no law… abridging … the right of the people peaceably to assemble…” this clause guards the rights of Americans to associate peacefully. This right has proved to be significant, for instance, women minorities assembled and petitioned their argument to why women received no fair treatment as compared to their male counterpart (LII).

In conclusion, for Americans effectively enjoy their lives, then all the aforementioned clauses need to exist practically. However, the clauses are controversial forcing the government to protect some rights. This call for law specialists to assist interprets some contradicting clauses.

Legal Information Institute (LII). “First Amendment: An Overview.” 2010. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. <http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment>

Revolutionary War and Beyond. “The 1st Amendment”. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012 <http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/1st-amendment.html>

Cleanliness Reduces the Severity of Moral Judgments: Study Critic

Name

Institution Affiliation

Cleanliness Reduces the Severity of Moral Judgments: Study Critic

Replication of studies has created questions over certain conclusions and generated considerable conflict between psychologists. Replication, which, as the name suggests, is the repeating of previously conducted studies has been a key concept of science for a long time and useful in detecting the occasional cases of swindle. Because the science of psychology does give room for findings to go unquestioned, replication guides against the recognition of findings that were essentially accidental false positives with criticism. By doing so, it allows researchers to refine the techniques applied in various studies and uphold the presence of new facts that scientific theories must expound. Several articles have not produced the same findings after replication raising conflict across the psychology field.

One issue that has raised controversy in the field of psychology is the idea of cleanliness influencing moral judgments. Schnall et al. (2008), in their article With a clean conscience: cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments, Recounted that triggering the idea of bodily purity resulted in less severe decent judgment. Johnson et al., 2014 replicated the study using the same sample sizes but did not achieve the same outcome. In their article, Schnall et al. (2008) used two experiments to quantify the impact of people’s thoughts or perceptions of hygiene on the severity of their moral judgments. The first experiment included 40 undergraduate students who were given the directive to decipher sentences with 20 of them allotted words that were affiliated to cleanliness (such as pristine or pure), and the other half was given neutral words (Schnall et al., 2008a). The second experiment used 43 undergraduates who were asked to watch the truly horrendous restroom section from the Danny Boyle movie, Trainspotting (Schnall et al., 2008b). After viewing the scene, half of this number was requested to clean their hands while the others were not. All the participants from both tests were given six hypothetical scenarios and asked to rate the ethical wrongness of each.

Those that washed hands and those that scrambled the sentences with words linked to hygiene considered the situations less immoral than the rest of the group. The investigators established that priming participants to have a thought about cleanliness “significantly” impacted on their moral judgment. The implication was that people that had a sense of purity about themselves are unconsciously less concerned by the impurities of others. David Johnson, Felix Cheung, and Brent Donnellan reported that they were incapable of replicating the study findings. At least five years later, Jonson et al. (2014) did a fairly direct replication with a considerably larger number of subjects.

The notion of cleanliness having an effect on morality is an interesting topic since it has a connection to the personification literature and the study on the instinctive and nonrational backers to a moral conclusion. There is a huge possibility that these findings may have moral judgments. Johnson et al. (2014) after replicating the study with 731 subjects, they found that those who washed hands after an experience did not show any difference in their moral judgments from those that did not wash their hands. The study did not find any support for the assumption that cleansing behaviors impacted on moral judgments. Johnson et al. (2014) also reported that their findings did not just contrast with those generated by Schnall et al. (2014) but also with possibly contradictory expectations that being clean physically should result in more austere moral judgments. There was also a hint that individual body awareness curbed the effect of the cleanliness manipulation.

Many psychologists and Schnall et al., (2008) themselves, criticized this replication. They termed this replication an attack with some calling Johnson et al., (2014) “replication bullies,” “data detectives,” and “false positive law enforcement.” They suggested that the replication was not aimed to find the truth but was vendetta by people that were not able to make their own novel contribution to science (Meyer & Chabris, 2014). To illustrate just how heated this debate went, those that supported the replication were threatened with legal action by suggesting researchers like Schnall, whose work failed a replication applied questionable research practices in order to create desirable and publishable findings.

But here is a critic, academic analysis of the two studies and evaluation of the ground for the findings presented by Johnson et al. One difference between the studies was the setting where the sink was outside where the subjects finished the moral piece. The possibility of this change of setting upsetting the effects to a certain extent cannot be ignored. However, the primary focus of the study is the act of cleansing and not the location of the washing bay. In the initial study, all participants were in one conference hall where the sink was located, meaning those that did not wash their hands were also exposed to the sink. But still, the original study recorded a difference between those who washed hands and the control group. If the location of the sink were enough to affect prime cleanliness, then Schnall would have recorded a reduced margin in the difference between those who washed their hands and the control group. If the presence of the sink had an effect on the behavior of the subjects, then the absence of the sink from the conference room would debatably reinforce the replication manipulate. Moreover, if the effects of the original experiment depended on the perceptibility of the sink, then the notion that a decently embodied process propels the cleansing effects would be significantly undermined.

The results generated by the replication point to the effect size estimates from studies of the same manner are considerably smaller than those generated by the original studies. One point that may expound on this phenomenon is the presence of unknown moderators that explain these clear discrepancies. The subjects used in the replication were undergraduates from the United States, and the original study was from the United Kingdom. There is a possibility that the differences in culture may mean the difference in moral judgment or the significance of cleanliness, which may, in turn, explain the discrepancies. However, the authors of the original SBH studies contended that the association between disgust and bodily consciousness is an evolved alteration, and they did not suggest there being a possibility of discrepancies in results across samples selected from different cultures.

Also, the US and the UK have an extensive similarity in terms of language and culture, with several studies in the past indicating a similarity between disgust and moral judgment in subjects from the UK and the US. This creates clear uncertainty as to whether the difference in samples is a feasible explanation for the difference in results.

Another article revisits this debate. Huang (2014), in his article, studies the likelihood that only non-conscious triggering of the purity idea, as realized in subjects with low reaction determination on priming tools, can generate the projected consequence. Huang (2014) did an online duplication with a population of 214 and found out that, when the study subjects applied low (yet accepted) intensities of reaction effort to the investigational material, cleanliness priming resulted in more tolerant moral judgments in comparison to neutral priming. The article also did a second experiment, as did Schnall et al., using a population of 440 influencing participant’s effort on the priming undertaking sustained the hypothesized device. Precisely, participants in the low response effort category were required to finish the task with speed while avoiding concentrating or paying too much thoughtfulness and the consequences of the cleanliness priming were less severe ethical verdicts than the neutral moral judgments as it was anticipated.

Contrary to the above, the high effort category were required to perform as quickly as they could on the priming task, but there was no significant discrepancy in the decent ratings between cleanliness and the control conditions. Hang (2014) sought to sort out the controversy surrounding the cleanliness hypothesis in addition to this, the article sought to draw attention to the role played by the response effort in effecting and replicating priming studies.

Although replication is key to the science of psychology, the field does not provide much incentive to encourage duplication studies. The success or failure of a replication study does not change the fact that such kind of studies improves the accuracy of effect size approximations for the field of psychology. Replication emphasizes the need for additional work and provides additional information for a pertinent idea. The studies replicating Schnall et al., (2008) advocate that the effect sizes surrounding the consequence of cleanliness on ethical verdict may be lesser than the approximations delivered by the original studies.

References

Huang, J. L. (2014). Does cleanliness influence moral judgments? Response effort moderates the effect of cleanliness priming on moral judgments. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1276.

Johnson, D. J., Cheung, F., & Donnellan, M. B. (2014). Does cleanliness influence moral judgments?. Social Psychology.

Meyer, M., & Chabris, C. (2014). Psychologists? Food Fight Over Replication of ‘Important Findings? Retrieved from https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/replication-controversy-in-psychology-bullying-file-drawer-effect-blog-posts-repligate.htmlSchnall S., Benton J., Harvey S. (2008a). With a clean conscience cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. Psychol. Sci. 19 1219–1222 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02227.x

Schnall S., Haidt J., Clore G. L., Jordan A. H. (2008b). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 34 1096–1109 10.1177/0146167208317771

Mystic River

1

The first victim was Jimmy whose daughter Katie had been killed. When he arrives at the scene we see the agony and he is hell bent on going to the scene to see if the body was really his daughter. This portrays denial, he does not want to believe that her daughter has been a victim of an attack. If only he gets to see the body, then he can really believe it. He is also quite sad and wails loudly without care. This may depict the length of pain that he was in. During the interrogation with Sean who was the state trooper, his sadness can be felt in his voice. He talks in a low tone and shaky voice. Jimmy is also left with anger and is determined to ensure the person who killed his daughter pays for it. It is because of this anger he acts irrational towards Dave and demands that he admits to killing her daughter. Eventually Jimmy kills Dave. Most homicide survivors especially loved ones will often bear hatred and anger towards the perpetrator and may be driven to kill them as an act of seeking revenge which may be satisfactory to them

Another homicide victim is Celste, Dave’s wife. On learning about Kate’s she sobs loudly and she is filled with sadness. She is actually afraid of the fact that Dave might have committed the crime because the same day Dave came home with blood was the same day that Katie was killed. We can see her nervousness which seems like a natural personality. Celste had a relationship with Katie because Jimmy was married to her cousin and she had known Jimmy and his family for years. Celste emotions are caught up between two parties, trying to protect Dave but also wanting ensure that Katie’s victim gets justice.

2.

When a child is sexually abused, the scars can last for a life time. In Mystic River, Dave is abducted and locked in a basement for four days where he is abused and raped although he eventually escapes. This however marks a turning point of his life because he distances himself from his friends. Most people who have been sexually assaulted are likely to alienate themselves from people because they may feel that no one really understands them. He believes that his adult life has been shaped by his experience as a child. In a conversation with his wife, he states “Dave’s dead. I don’t know who came out of that cellar, but it sure as s**t wasn’t Dave! The thing is…once it’s in you, it stays”. The cellar he was talking about was the basement where he was being held for the four days. Dave believes that who he was before he was kidnapped is no longer who he currently is. To most people who are sexually assaulted they become different people often their change of behavior to mostly keeping to themselves.

Child trauma as the one Dave experienced can be viewed as a post-traumatic stress disorder and a characteristic is recalling of the event. When Dave and his son passes where they used to hand out with his two friends, he gets remembers when he was asked to get into the car. As his son asks him to retrieve a baseball, he refuses because it’s triggering him and he hurriedly leaves the location. In light with what happened to him, Dave developed a passion to ensure that he protected other kids. On the night that Katie is killed he also kills a man he claims he was molesting a child in his car and he beat him to death. However, because of his character as he had become a soft-spoken man, he became a prime suspect especially because he was the last to be seen with Katie. Because of him keeping too much to himself because of the trauma, results in his death as he is killed by Jimmy.

3.

I would perceive treatment by investigating officer insensitive. When investigating Jimmy who is Katie’s father they are not considerate that he has lost his daughter and are grilling him as if he is a suspect. The even bring up about his time in prison which Jimmy does not feel as if is necessary. The treatment by the police officers would make me feel as if I’m being more victimized by the system. Instead of one being left to mourn their daughter, they are already being grilled as potential victims. Families of the bereaved often needs support after losing a loved one especially to the fact that they may take law in their own hand. The police system in Mystic River does not seem to reassure Jimmy that they were going to do enough to catch the victim. This leads into Jimmy taking laws into his own hands.