Monday, December 23, 2019

The Rights Of Indigenous Australians - 1197 Words

Bringing Them Home Human rights are inalienable, no matter what ethnicity or culture one belongs to. Every human is entitled to their Human Rights. For a large period of time in Australian history Indigenous Australians were discriminated against, abused and denied their Human Rights. The Bringing Them Home Report significantly advanced the rights of Indigenous Australians as it began the reconciliation process which recognised the injustices which had been done to Indigenous Australians involved in the Stolen Generations, and set out a list of recommendations to create equality in Australia. Whilst an apology was given to the Indigenous Australians the concept of reparations still remains a major topic in the Bringing Them Home Report†¦show more content†¦Lavelle’s story is an example of how the law enforcements had intended assimilation to be. However the majority of children removed from their families were placed in institutions where they were physically, emotionally and sexually abused.This was not the aim of the policy but it was a devastating outcome. The Bringing Them Home Report was a result of the National Inquiry an investigation into the separation of Indigenous Australians from their families. The aims of the National Inquiry were to acknowledge the hardships the Indigenous Australians have faced and encourage reconciliation between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. The National Inquiry was co-chaired by commissioner Sir Ronald Wilson and Social Justice Commissioner Mick Dodson. The 777 submissions of evidence contributed to the National Enquiry came from numerous sources including: Indigenous, government and religious organisations as well as testimony’s from those involved in the Stolen Generation. The Bringing Them Home Report was tabled in parliament on May 26th 1977 and contained 54 recommendations for the government and Australians to consider. The main recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report include: reparation, acknowledgement and apology, commemoration, education, Indigenous identification, health and land holdings. The systematic removal of Indigenous children

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Introduction to Myth Free Essays

Introduction to Myth: Mythos – Greek word for story (not necessarily true or false) Mythology – the study of myths Primitive people needed to make stories/myths in an effort to understand what was going on in their world. Humans are the only beings with a need to understand things; a dog doesn’t think â€Å"why me †. Primitive people, when scared, hurt, depressed, created myths to explain their pain or discomfort. We will write a custom essay sample on Introduction to Myth or any similar topic only for you Order Now All cultures make myths in their early development. Around 1200 B. C. , ancient Greeks began to take written history and to make rational and logical stories. Myth-making came to an end once this began. Myths â€Å"illustrate† the truth, much as Jesus did in his parables. He did not give an exact point, but told a story that showed what he meant. Myths may not tell the literal truth, but they illustrate human nature and human experience. Theories: Max Muller – concluded that all ancient myths are about nature and natural phenomenon. Carl Jung – noted that same kinds of myths turn up in all different cultures, such as each culture having their own version of the Great Flood. He developed his theory of the Collective Unconscious – that all humans are born with these same ideas in their brains, lying deep and unconscious. He said that myths explore these deep ideas of the collective unconscious. Claude Levi-Strauss – research on human brain, that different sides were responsible for different functions. Noted that the body is binary (2 arms, 2 ears, 2 legs†¦) and says that we think in pairs with ideas (on off, right wrong, good evil, yes no). They are pairs of opposites in conflict with each other. Levi-Strauss says that man’s entire experience is based on conflict, and that myths present the conflicts, then resolve them within the story. The 20th century was in ways spent examining and interpreting the ideas of the 19th century. Despite technological strides, it has been said that no ideas came from the 20th century. For example, 20th century scholars spent their lives working on the 19th century ideas of Darwin, Marx and Freud. Sigmund Freud – all human nature is driven by sex. Freud started psychotherapy. He turned his focus to myths and concluded that all myths are about sex and are a way of revealing sexual fears and desires without having to confront them every day. Characters: Zeus, Semele, Hera Zeus – lord and king of the gods. Constantly making love to females of all kinds. In this story, Zeus is making love to Semele. But Zeus is married to his sister, Hera, who always finds out about his infidelities. Hera disguises herself as an old human woman and visits Semele, who confesses that not only is she making time with Zeus, but that he love her more than his own wife! Hera says that no, he doesn’t, because with his own wife, he appears to her as he really is – as an almighty god. Usually, Zeus appears as a human – tall, strong, distinguished, a little bit of gray. So the next time Zeus comes around, Semele asks him to appear as he really is. Zeus denies her, saying that she doesn’t want to see that. So she bitches and moans until he gives in, makes love to her, and appears to her as the god that he is – at which point she is immediately destroyed by a bolt of lightning. That story can be analyzed by the four theories listed above. Is any single theory correct? Are none of them correct? 1. Muller’s Nature Theory – because primitive people are in constant contact and conflict with nature. Zeus is the ultimate god, even over the god of thunder, and they find thunder frightening. Lightning is Zeus’ weapon, and experiencing a lightning bolt is the closest that they could get to Zeus. So to them, a lightning bolt IS Zeus. Getting struck by lightning is getting hit by Zeus. That’s where nature comes in. Zeus is frequently depicted with a lightning bolt. 2. Jung’s Collective Unconscious – two of his ideas – Anima and Animus. Anima is the male idea of the ideal woman, the universal woman, who makes men crazy and keeps them off balance by nagging and manipulating. Animus is the idea that all women have of men – violent, destructive, aggressive, rapists. So myths provide an expression for these ideas, which lie deep in the unconscious. Both appear in this Zeus story – she nags him like crazy and he destroys her. 3. Levi-Strauss – humans are obsessed with conflict and resolution. Each of the three characters in this story are in conflict with every other conflict. But as soon as you get rid of Semele, all conflicts are resolved. 4. Freud – it’s all about sex; Castration Anxiety – a boy has one, a girl doesn’t. The boy thinks she must have cut hers off and worries that she’ll cut his off. Penis Envy – the girl looks, he has something she doesn’t, she knows she’s never had one, and she wants one. In this myth, Semele insists to see Zeus â€Å"as he really is†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦or naked. She’s obsessed about it (penis envy). But when he stands there naked, he has to kill her (castration anxiety). Creation Know that myths conflict and contradict each other, and the Greeks did not have them in a logical order. One does, through, give a story of creation, which we compare to Genesis from the Bible. Genesis – God is already in existence at the beginning of Genesis, then he creates the universe; the creation order matches the evolutionary order. The climax of the story is when god creates the first man. But then, man complains that he needs a companion, so woman is created. Greek – starts with chaos, which in Greek means â€Å"emptiness† or â€Å"nothing†. So you start with nothing. Then five beings come into existence: * Ge – (pro. ‘gay’) – the earth (feminine; any word that ends in ‘e’ in Greek is feminine) * Tartarus – dark terrible prison located beneath the earth * Eros – passionate love * Erebus – darkness * Night – night Of the five, three are frightening and dark. It’s scary because 90% of human animal information comes from sight, and human animal has poor night vision. So night was scary for primitive humans, because their predators had either excellent night vision or great sense of smell. Night is a time when we’re defenseless. Only one of the five was imagined by Greeks to be in human form. Eros was an adolescent boy. They knew a 16-year-old boy could impregnate more women at that age than at any other time in his life. When Romans took over Eros, they turned him into the five-year-old boy we know as Cupid. Next, Ge gives birth, with no help from a man, to Mountains, Seas and Heavens: Ge does this without the help of any male. It was assumed for a long time that women made babies all on their own, with no help from men. This gave them a position of importance and prominence in society, while the men were unimportant. After all, sex was just for fun, and there was no immediate effect. No one put it together until man learned how to count – that was a bad day for women. They figured out the solar year, then the months, then that 9 months after sex, the baby came along. So it was the man involved after all. And eggs were inside and invisible, while the male secretion was obvious. So it was the man that actually parented the child, the woman was just a carrier. So now men were the most important. So later, Ge needed a husband, since men were necessary after all. She married her son Heaven, or Uranus (Ouranos). Since Uranus was the man and Ge was the woman, Uranus got all the credit. After a long dry spell when the rains came and the land became green again, it was Uranus up in the heavens that fertilized his wife Ge and gave them crops. Also, heaven must be male because he’s on top and above Mother Earth. Primitive people, like children, saw the world in terms of themselves – they thought rain from the sky was male sperm impregnating the earth. Anthropomorphism – the process by which we give human form to things that are not really human. His current example was Barney, but the Greek gods had the same range of emotions (hatred, jealousy) that Greek humans had. This is man making god in man’s image, since it was the only form they knew well. (i. e. marriage of heaven and earth – putting a human occurrence to the supernatural) (True of Greek gods) So we’ve got Ge and Uranus. But Uranus hated his children – he thought they were ugly. So he stuffed each one of them back into the body of Ge (earth). Ge was in pain so she asked the kids inside of her for help, but only Cronus (youngest child) would help her. She got some iron from inside herself and formed a sickle (common instrument with curved blade to cut grain), and gave it to Cronus. Cronus hid in the evening until Uranus came back to sleep with his wife, then Cronus jumped out, grabbed Uranus’ genitals, chopped them off, and threw them into the sea, where they floated. A foam formed around the genitals, and out of that foam came Aphrodite, the goddess of passionate love. (Remember: god of love is Eros) How does Cronus get out? Does he stand on his mother Ge, since she is the earth? Is Uranus the heavens or is he a man with genitals? The Greeks weren’t concerned with realistic details (didn’t think that way) – the more bizarre, irrational and violent the story, the older and more primitive it is. Now, the male is the only real parent, since he provides the visible sperm and the woman is just a carrier. So the male is the head of the family, and a male king rules over all families. So since baby-making was the important part, a castrated male could not be in charge. So Uranus was no longer chief – Cronus, his defeater, became the chief god Once, he became the chief god, Cronus let all of his siblings out of Ge. And he needed to marry so he could make babies. So he married his sister Rhea. They had kids, but Cronus knew from his own experience that kids could endanger his power. So he swallowed each child whole. Rhea was distressed, him swallowing the kids and all, and went to Ge and Uranus for advice. They said to give him a rock wrapped in baby clothes next time, that he’d never know the difference. So she hid the next child, Zeus, and Cronus swallowed a rock instead. Rhea took Zeus to Crete and hid him in a cave to grow up safely away from Cronus. Once grown, Zeus tricked Cronus into spitting up all of his brothers and sisters, and there was a war between Cronus and Rhea’s generation and Zeus’ generation. Cronus’ generation (his brothers and sisters) were called the Titans. Zeus’ people chose Mt. Olympus as their war base, and after winning, he and his siblings lived on Mt. Olympus (a mountaintop, where primitive Greeks would expect their gods to live). Zeus and crew were called the Olympians. Zeus used lightning bolts as his weapon to lead the Olympians to victory over the Titans, and Zeus took over as god of the universe until the end of mythology. Zeus hurled most of the Titans (his aunts and uncles) down to Tartarus (the deep prison) so that they could never challenge his power. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that to Cronus, his father. Cronus was sent west into exile (traveled west because it was the direction of death), never to return to Greece. Cronus went to Italy and hid there, where he used the Latin name Saturn, which â€Å"Saturday† was named after. (Hiding place of Cronus: Lateo, Latium, Latini). Cronus was still a god and presided over a golden age in Italy. Then we went further west , but the Italians recalled the golden age with a mid-winter festival called Saturnalia, in which the high point was December 25th. On that day, no one worked or went to school, and families exchanged gifts with each other. When the Catholic church took over Rome, the took over existing festival days (smoother transition), and Saturnalia was changed to celebrate the Mass of Christ (Christmas). Generations: Ge Uranus Cronus Rhea Zeus Hera Creating People: The creation of the first man (male) was very unimportant. Myth is not even clear as to who did it. Some versions say Zeus created man out of dirt. Others say Zeus’ cousin Prometheus (son of one of the Titians) created man and had sympathy for humans. But male human life was pathetic and weak and helpless and inferior to animals – humans can only walk better. So Prometheus went to heaven and stole fire and gave it to man. Now, every human had fire for warmth, light and protection. When Zeus found out, he was so angry that he wanted to offset the gift of fire, so he gave man something very terrible – woman. The creation of woman was a big deal. Hephaestus, the craftsman, constructed the first woman and handed her over to Aphrodite, the goddess of passionate love and the most beautiful. Aphrodite gave woman irresistible beauty and charm, then handed her over to Athena, goddess of wisdom. Athena taught woman important and useful skills, then handed her over to the god Hermes, who among other things is god of the practical joke. Hermes gave woman the character of a thief and the mind of a bitch. Then all of these gods – Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hermes – brought woman before Zeus, who named her â€Å"all gifts†, or Pandora. Zeus had a gift for Pandora – a big jar (not a box!! , ceramic, 4 or 5 feet tall. She asked what was in it, but Zeus refused to answer – just take it with you, he said. Zeus took her and her jar down to earth and the society of men. Prometheus had an earthly brother, Epimetheus. Prometheus means â€Å"forethought†, and thinking before speaking or acting. Hi s brother Epimetheus†¦well, not so much. Afterthought. Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gifts from gods, but he took one look at Pandora, she of irresistible beauty and charm, and took her and her jar in. Life was good for a while, but Pandora was so curious about the jar. She’d go and listen to it, shake it, smell it. Finally, one day she opened the seal, and out came all of the ills that we face – sickness, death, disease, pain, famine, drought – only hope was left in the jar, and it remained there when she finally got the lid back on. So, hope was left in the jar – what was â€Å"hope† doing in a jar full of evils? The Greeks were deeply pessimistic and felt that life was hard and cruel, with no â€Å"happy ending†. Note that most myths end unhappily and violent. So to them, hope was the greatest evil of all – hope makes you think none of the evils would happen to you. But the certain future is that we’re all going to die, so the Greek pessimism is based in reality. But hope makes us think that none of that will happen to us. Second Creation – The Great Flood: In the Old Testament, God wipes out horrible man and saves only Noah’s family. God tells him to build an ark, and despite sure ridicule, Noah does. He puts a male and female of each animal on the ark with his family, and survive when the rains come and flood the land. He sends out doves until one returns with an olive branch – a sign of dry land. The ark sets down on Mt. Ararat and Noah and his family reproductively recreate the human race. Every culture has a flood story. Were the Biblical stories made up as the myths were to make sense of the world around them? But there are flood stories all over the world – proof of a great flood? The earth goes through warming and cooling periods – did a warmth come through and melt the glaciers, flooding all inhabitable land? Many ancient cities were built in river valleys – at some point or another, every river will challenge its banks and flood, which would create a version of the same story all over the world. So some myths may well be based in reality. The Greek Flood version: Zeus went down to earth disguised as a human to check out human society and found it disgusting, corrupt, evil and treacherous. So Zeus returned to Mt. Olympus and told the other gods that he was going to flood the earth to get rid of the evil human race. The other gods provided an answer to the question â€Å"why does man exist? † If Zeus destroyed all humans, there would be no one left to worship the gods. That are how humans were perceived in greek myth; they were only there to worship the gods. So Zeus goes back and finds a husband/wife worth saving, Deucalion and Pyrrha. They were pious and just – they had the right relationship with the gods and they had right in their dealings with other humans. (This parallels Jesus’ two great commandments – love only one god and love thy neighbor). Usually, Greek myth is not concerned with human morality, but here it mattered to Zeus. So Zeus puts Deucalion and Pyrrha in a boat and flooded the land. After the waters subsided, Deucalion and Pyrrha saw that they were the only people left, and they were terrified. Being pious, they prayed to the gods for advice. They were told â€Å"Take the bones of your mother and throw them over your shoulder. You often see strange answers when people talk to gods. This was even weirder because the Greeks prioritized proper burial, so digging up bones didn’t sound appropriate. So Deucalion and Pyrrha tried to figure it out, and came up with ‘mother’ was Ge, Mother Earth. So they threw rocks and stones over their shoulders, and where they landed, the new human race formed. But why did they have to throw it over their shoulder? That parallels Lot and his wife leaving Sodom and Gomorrah. She looks back over her shoulder after being warned not to, and is turned to a pillar of salt. She wasn’t supposed to see the supernatural. So that’s why they threw ‘bones’ over their shoulders – so they couldn’t see the supernatural event. You can’t watch – you’ll destroy yourself (Zeus destroying Semele) or you cancel out the event. Greek religion was not a monotheism (one god), or a polytheism (many gods), but a form of polytheism, henotheism – belief in one god most powerful, but other gods exist. Zeus is the powerful one here, over other gods and humans. Now, Zeus was sleeping with any woman he could get his hands on – human, goddess, nymph – because his power came from baby-making. Unsentimentally, â€Å"father† is like a dog that sires, just a baby-maker. Morality didn’t matter, Zeus was the great father god up in heaven, a carouser (but that’s due to anthropomorphism as well). So Zeus marries his sister Hera and appoints two of his brothers to control parts of the universe, under his command and authority. Poseidon, god of the sea, and Hades, god of the world of the dead. Zeus has control over heavens and the earth Hera is the goddess of marriage – she understands marriage, she’s not nice or sweet, but cunning and cruel, with sexual jealousy being the worst. Her Latin name is Juno, so June weddings are traditional and girls wanted to marry in her month to gain her blessing. Poseidon – god of the sea – Latin name Neptune, often shown as jolly, but he’s not. Poseidon was associated with horror, sea monsters, tidal waves and earthquakes. He also constantly was having affairs, one with a human girl named Scylla. Poseidon’s wife (no name given) finds out about the affair, waits for Scylla to get in the bathtub, then poisons the water. When Scylla stood up, she had a ring of wolves heads growing out of her waist. Poseidon came back to make love to her – no way, wolfie. She begged him to hide her, so he put her in a cave near the edge of the Mediterranean sea, where she waited for sailors to come too close, where she’d capture them and feed them to the wolf heads. Poseidon is an example of gods being more than just gods. Poseidon is god of the sea, but Poseidon also is the sea. The Mediterranean is violent, like Poseidon. Gods always have the character of what they’re god of. Hades is god of the dead. There were no temples built to Hades to honor him with statues and sacrifices. Every human makes his individual sacrifice to Hades by their own death. The earth had three layers – the top layer which Greeks walked on, the land of the dead (underworld), and Tartarus, the deep prison in which the Titans were kept. Dead people go to the underworld. The Greeks believed in immortality of the soul, and that the souls of all people go to these dark, unhappy caverns for eternity. Odyssey – Homer – told the stories of the travels of Odysseus, who goes to the entrance of the world of the dead and looks in (the west’s oldest account of death). He saw that the ghosts of the dead were transparent, recognizable, and too weak to talk or to touch, and they shrieked like bats. Odysseus kills an animal and drains its blood, which they drink to give them the strength to talk to him. This makes sense – the body rots away when you die, leaving only bones and eventually dust. The Greeks knew to love live, because the afterlife had none of the pleasurable experiences of life in the body. To the Greeks, the afterlife had no place of reward nor punishment – all souls went to the same gloomy place, longing for physical life and the pleasures of the body. Alternatively, Christianity teaches that the pleasures of the soul are better than of the body – that the body is somehow dirty. Gymnasium literally means to take off close in the gym. The Greeks, though, praised nudity. They figured that God made the body, so every part of it, down to the armpits, should be considered beautiful. So the Greeks imagined gods in beautiful human forms, thinking there was no form any higher or more beautiful. Cronus Rhea Hestia —– Hades —– Poseidon —– Demeter —– Hera —– Zeus Hestia is one of the oldest children, the goddess of hearth (fireplace). She is elusive in Greek myth. She just stayed home and kept the fire going – never married, just stayed home. The Temples to Hestia always had fire going for people who needed it. Her Roman name was Vesta, as in Vestal Virgins. No real stories about Hestia. Demeter – Zeus’s sister, goddess of Agriculture; recall that the father is the only real parent, but if the mom/female doesn’t feed and nourish the child, it dies. Therefore, the earth, which provides food to people, is female. So Demeter is also the goddess of Motherhood. Anthropomorphic form of mother Ge. Demeter’s daughter is Persephone, whose father is unclear, maybe Zeus. The father is irreverent between the mother and child relationship. Demeter completely loved her child (an anthropomorphic transference of emotion). Hades was Persephone’s uncle, but he fell in love with her. Being god of the dead, he knew he could not persuade her to love him, so he opened up the earth, rose up in his chariot, swept her up, and took her back with him to the underworld as the earth closed. So Demeter comes back and can’t find her daughter. She goes nuts. Searched and searched. Finally, the sun, who sees all, tells her that Hades had abducted her. Now, gods cannot interfere with other gods – only Zeus has that power, so she knew there was nothing that she could do, and couldn’t get Persephone back. Demeter disguised herself as an old human woman and went to work for a family with a newborn baby. She transferred the love she had to someone else’s child. She loved the child, and wanted to give the human child a divine gift. So every night, she’d hold him in the fire to make him immortal. One night, the real mother walks in and sees her holding her baby in the fire. She screamed madly and rushed toward Demeter. Demeter became very angry and threw the child on the floor – angry because the fantasy she had built up to battle her own grief had been shattered. Now she had to face the fact that her child Persephone was gone. The family of the baby found out she was a goddess and were very frightened, and built her a temple on that very spot. Demeter walked into the temple and started to grieve. The Earth went barren and would give no fruit, responding to Demeter’s grief. Recall that the goddess of earth IS earth. Without food, people started dying in droves. Eventually, the other gods went to Zeus to get him to do something – if all the people died, there’d be no one to worship them. Zeus sent a messenger to Hades to give it up. Hades stood before Persephone and handed her a pomegranate. She took one bite and handed it back to him. He then took her in his chariot and brought her back up to earth and set her down next to Demeter’s temple. Demeter saw her and was overjoyed, and the earth bloomed and grew. But because she ate part of the pomegranate, she must go back to Hades for part of each year, and during that time, Demeter grieves for her and the earth does not give food. This fits into Muller and nature – it explains the seasons and why food does not grow during certain parts of the year. Putting the story in such human terms made it easy for the Greeks to understand that season. In some societies, a man and woman sharing a meal (the pomegranate), especially in his home, means that they’re married. This is still continued with the bride and groom sharing cake, the oldest part of the modern ceremony. New story: Orpheus was the best musician in the Greek world. â€Å"Orpheum† theatres are still named after him. He was so good that wild animals would come to listen to him, such as the lion in the statue. He played a lyre, a stringed harp-like instrument. Trees would also uproot themselves and move closer to him when he played, and rocks would roll over toward him. This shows the power of music – it has no physical benefit, yet it has a tremendous effect on us. On Orpheus’ wedding day to Eurydice, his bride stepped on a poisonous snake, was bitten, and died. So Orpheus went to Hades and pleaded for him to send his dead wife’s soul back to earth. He brought his lyre, and got ready to play to persuade Hades. Orpheus appeared before the court of Hades and began to sing about how much he missed Eurydice. It was so moving and powerful that even Hades, god of the dead, wept. So Hades allowed the soul of Eurydice to return to earth, but Orpheus was told he must walk back up to earth the way he had come and Eurydice would be sent after him. But – Orpheus could not turn around and look behind him to see if she was indeed following him. Remember, you can’t look at the supernatural, such as the dead coming back to life. So Orpheus starts walking back up the dark, gloomy corridors, excited about getting his Eurydice back. He tries to listen for her behind him – he tries to look peripherally at the walls to detect her shadow moving. He sees nothing, and begins to doubt. After all, the gods had never allowed the dead to come back to life before – maybe Hades had just told him that to get rid of him. He became convinced he would never get his Eurydice back, and grief overtook him. It seemed so simple when Hades agreed, but now he simply could not believe it was true. So he turned around – and there was Eurydice, right behind him, beautiful as ever. But as soon as Orpheus looked, she was snatched back to the land of the dead – he had cancelled the miracle and had lost her again, but this time it was entirely his own fault! He ran back down to Hades to beg him to let her return, but Hades said he would not grant it a second time. So Orpheus had to return to earth alone. He became a hater of women – not because they had wronged him, but because Orpheus was afraid of getting hurt again. So now he became famous for two reasons – his music and his hatred of women. He was singing in the woods one day, alone he thought, when a group of women came upon him and killed him, tearing him apart. He then joined Eurydice in the underworld. The Greeks made this myth to show that, theoretically, it was possible to survive permanent death in some joy, if you did exactly what the gods or priests said. The Great Greek Gods of Olympia: Aphrodite – name means â€Å"born from the foam†, that being the foam of her father Uranus’ genitals when they were cast into the sea. Her Roman name is â€Å"Venus†, and she is the Greek goddess of love, being the most beautiful of all gods and goddess. But it’s not hand-holding warm and fuzzy love – it’s uncontrollable sexual desire that makes you crazy and not concerned with the risks or consequences of such passion. Now the Greeks through the powers of the weather came from heaven, that the sea’s power was from the gods, and even the earth can feed or starve – they personify the powers of nature in gods. So why sex? They thought that inside you there are also powerful forces, and Greeks needed to understand why sexual wantonness was so powerful, so there’s a goddess for it. Now since gods are what they represent, Aphrodite is sex – a real slut. Humans are not instinctively monogamous – promiscuity was instinctive, and Aphrodite is the goddess of the promiscuity. She did sleep around a lot, with human and with god. But Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god of craftsmen who crafted Pandora. Hephaestus is the only physically imperfect god, having crippled legs. So the only imperfect god is married to the most perfect goddess. The Greeks that only a disabled person would stay inside all day (outside good to Greeks! ) and make things with his hands. Manliness was defined by fighting and hunting, but Hephaestus cannot fight. Now Hephaestus had a brother, Ares (Roman – Mars), the god of war, and because war was hated, Ares was the most hated god, even among the other gods. But he was a perfect physical specimen. As soon as Hephaestus would leave for his shop, Ares would sneak in the back door for a little lovin’ from Aphrodite. Eventually, the sun, who sees all, told Hephaestus about the affair. So Hephaestus made a giant, strong net and concealed it above the bed. The next day after he left for work and Ares came in, the net came down and held them in place, so tightly that they could not even move out of their lovemaking position. So Hephaestus comes in, but gods cannot harm one another – so he went out and invited all the other gods and goddesses to come in and take a long look. The goddesses were too modest, but the gods came in. They laughed, pointed, measured, discussed what they would do if they were in Ares position, which many of them probably had been. So there was no physical violence, but lots of laughing and humiliation. Hephaestus freed them, and Ares never entertained Aphrodite again. So sexuality was beyond the Greeks control – that’s why they had to have a god for it. Pygmalion – a rare Greek happily-ever-after myth. Pygmalion (a guy) was a sculptor, but he was very lonely. So he carved a statue of a beautiful woman and eventually fell in love with the statue. So he went to the temple of Aphrodite, made sacrifices, and prayed for the statue to be a real woman. So he gets home, and the statue comes alive. They lived happily ever after. So how does this parallel Greek life? The man who finds the perfect woman is the man who creates her himself. This reflects the frustration that the Greek people had in finding someone to love. This myth was a fantasy – not of coping with reality, but of escaping from it. Cybele – not a Greek myth, but a Near-Eastern legend on which a Greek myth was based, but changed and adjusted, as we’ll see. Most Greek culture was adapted from ancient near east. The story is violent and bizarre. Cybele was the great mother goddess, who was both male and female. She decided that she’d be much better off just being female, so she cut off her male genitalia and threw it away. Where it landed, the first almond tree grew. Along came Nana, a nymph (Greek for â€Å"bride†) – nymphs are half-human and half-divine, they live forever and are always young and beautiful, but they have no god-like power and cannot leave the area where they’re assigned. Nana took a white blossom off that first almond tree and put it between her breasts. It disappeared there and she turned up pregnant. She named her son Attis, and he was a perfect example of a young man. So much so that Cybele, mother goddess, fell in love with him. But Attis loved someone else, so Cybele’s love drove him insane until finally he castrated himself and died from the wound. Cybele was so distraught that she asked the other gods to bring him back to life. They agreed, but with the condition that he’d have to be castrated and die every year. The Greek version: Myrrha – Myrrha was a human girl whose only real parent was her father, since her mother died when she was very young. She loved her father dearly and deeply – too much, because she realized that she wanted to sleep with him, even though she knew it was wrong. She eventually became physically lovesick and depressed over it. When the nanny who raised her noticed that Myrrha was sick, she asked why. Myrrha tried to hide it, but eventually blurted out the truth. Well, the old woman nanny was only concerned with Myrrha’s happiness, so she went to the father and told him that a young girl in town wanted to sleep with him – but the girl was shy and wanted her identity to be concealed, so there must be no lights. He agreed. So the old woman told Myrrha that she had arranged it, and Myrrha was horrified! She had wanted it, yes, but now that it was possible†¦. Eventually, she decided to go ahead with it. So she started to visit her father repeatedly in his dark room. She got pregnant. In the meantime, the father was getting curious about who his lover was, tried to recognize her around town and couldn’t, so one night he hid a lantern in the cupboard and closed the door. While his lover was in his dark room, he took out the lantern, saw his own daughter, and realized what he had done. He was furious that he had been tricked and tried to kill Myrrha, who prayed to Aphrodite. Aphrodite transformed her into a myrrh tree (which is where the name came from). Myrrh trees give off an aromatic sap that was used in embalming – the symbolism of Jesus getting a gift of myrrh signified that he would die. This myth helps explain why myrrh sap is used in embalming – death is associated with sadness, and the sap is the sad tears of Myrrha. But Aphrodite saved Myrrha’s baby – a boy child named Adonis. Adonis was a perfect young man, and Aphrodite herself fell in love with him. It was a dangerous world, and Aphrodite was concerned about Adonis, but he didn’t care, and he went boar hunting. Boar hunting was very challenging and dangerous because the boars are smart and would hunt their hunters. So boar hunting was done in groups – they’d use dogs to track and corner a boar into a cave. The hunters formed a semicircle around the cave and the dogs would drive the boar out. The plan was that when the boar came out and saw all the hunters, it would freeze for just a second – long enough for the hunters to kill it. But some boars didn’t freeze – they just charged out and killed a hunter or two in the process. Charge – bye Adonis. Aphrodite grieved and asked the gods to bring Adonis back. They agreed, but once a year Adonis would have to be killed by a boar and come back again. Both Attis and Adonis are called ‘resurrection gods’. With a woman loving both of their dead bodies, we saw a statue of how that resembles Mary holding the body of crucified Jesus. A whole religion grew out of Adonis. Now, for a god to fall in love with a human was considered disgusting to the gods, much like a human falling in love with a chicken. But Aphrodite delighted in making gods fall in love with humans for her amusement. So Zeus decreed that Aphrodite would fall in love with the next human she saw. That human was a shepherd named Anchises. It was summer, and in the summer shepherds worked naked. So she transformed herself into a beautiful human girl and approached him – told him that she was under a spell and the only way to break the spell was for him to sleep with her. Anchises became uneasy†¦he could tell she was a god because 1) gods were tall, where Greeks were short, 2) gods were blonde, where Greeks were dark, and 3) gods smell good, not like meat-eating Greeks who stank. Anchises thought it was too good to be true, but still he agreed. Afterward, he rolled over and went to sleep. Aphrodite didn’t care about him any more – she had conquered and the novelty was gone, so she decided to tell him her real identity. She woke him up and told him and Anchises was filled with terror – thinking she had used him up and that he’d be impotent. She laughed at him and assured him it would still work. So she went back to Olympus, and he, like any other guy, went to the nearby city of Troy and bragged that he had made love to the goddess Aphrodite. Bad move, he should’ve kept quiet. Zeus was angry with him and struck him with a lightning bolt which crippled him. Aphrodite, on the other hand with it being revealed that she had slept with a human, was mocked, ridiculed and humiliated. Test 1 info: Need a sheet of paper 25 short answer questions (fill in the blank) 1 extra credit question (from book) Zeus’ generation was named from ___? Name one of â€Å"Heaven† daughters? Greek name for â€Å"heaven† was Uranus Rhea Who said that myth resolved conflict? Levi struass How to cite Introduction to Myth, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Irrational free essay sample

I have been afraid of murders all my life. I have no idea why. Not a clue. It is completely and utterly beyond me why every night when I turn out the light and while I make my usual panic stricken lunge through the unfathomable darkness for my bed there is some tiny voice all the way in the way back of my head that’s saying, â€Å"You know, you could be killed. Right now†¦ Or now. Im not saying anyone is trying to kill you. Just that, if they were, they’d probably do it right now. † So far, the only way I’ve ever found to appease this voice and soothe it into somnolence is to dive into the sea of comforters on top of my bed and to seize the sheets as though my life depends on it, which in my paranoid mesonoxian mind, it does, and roll back and forth until I’ve formed a chrysalis-like cocoon where, deep underneath layers of cotton and down, I can convince myself an axe murderer could simply never penetrate. We will write a custom essay sample on Irrational or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This fear has become a bit of an obsession for me. I’ve read about Ted Bundy and John Wayne Garcy. I’ve watched midnight History channel documentaries about Elizabeth Bathory and then later found myself staring at the ceiling at 3 in the morning, regretting it. It’s like a bad habit that I can’t get rid of, like biting your nails. I know it’s bad for me and I really shouldn’t indulge it but somehow, unconsciously, I always come back to it. I’ll space out during class and realize that instead of learning about the last hundred years of American foreign policy Ive been subconsciously planning a trap for potential murders which includes several concave cosmetic mirrors with convenient suction cups on the back, a laser pointer, duct tape, flashlights, a remote control car and the second to top step on the upstairs staircase, which sags and whines when anyone over eighty pounds forgets to step over it, and lots and lots of string. Logica lly, I blame my fear on Darwinism. See, thousands and thousands of years ago, when food was getting scarce, and my wonderfully anxious ancestors saw the other cave people eyeing their food and noticed them getting that crazy look in the their eyes and so they rightfully got the hell out of there. And so they survived to have similarly paranoid children, who also survived to have children and so on and so forth. Which bring us to me, a twenty first century girl through and through. I have my iPod and my laptop. I shower safely in my bathroom with broiling hot water and chemical ridden shampoo. I buy my highly processed food at a 24-hour Stop ‘n Shop and the closest I’ve ever been to being prey is playing dodgeball in gym class. I currently have very little use for my survival instincts. And yet, here I am, at three in the morning, writing this essay. Because I can’t sleep. Because of the murderers. Fear is a very interesting emotion. There is hardly anything mor e deeply rooted in our physiology and so, as an innate and integral part of us, it is extremely hard to overcome. I know my fear of murderers is irrational, and since looking up the statistical probability of my actually being murdered I am really truly acutely aware of just how irrational it is. Even so, that doesn’t make it go away. The fear of my impending doom is so deeply entwined with my will to live that any attempt to cut off one threatens to damage the other, leaving me paralyzed. So I accept my fear. And I live on knowing that I can’t suppress this. It is not a problem I make go away simply with persistence and an unyielding attitude, as so many have before it. So I walk along side my fear. I bring it with me. And though Im sure I have many sleepless nights to look forward to, I will still be up in the morning, with a strong cup of coffee in hand, looking forward to the rest of the day.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Napoleon Bonaparte and Its Revolutions

Introduction Napoleon is among the most renowned leaders in the world due to his conquest and abilities. During his lifetime, napoleon was able to achieve great success in his leadership, some of which the other emperors could only dream of.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Napoleon Bonaparte and Its Revolutions specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Napoleon was both a military and a political commander; he is considered to be among the greatest military commanders due to his conquest of various regions, sometimes using an army that was by far weaker compared to other armies. The political and military achievements of Napoleon have been studied by many scholars and have been documented in many books. Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 august 1769 in Ajaccio, in a Mediterranean island that was known as Corsica. He was the second son of Carlo and Letizia, a lawyer who did not have connections with the rulers and noblemen of the country. This therefore made Napoleon not to have the advantage of being born in a wealthy family that would have facilitated his rise to power. However, this did not hinder Napoleon from becoming wealthy. In fact, by the time of his death, napoleon had acquired vast wealth due to his own ability and by the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time (Dugdale-Pointon, Para. 2). Napoleon’s life in the military Napoleon had his first opportunity in the military when he was the captain of artillery, which was under General Jacques Dugommier at the siege of Toulon (Dugdale-Pointon Para. 2). He managed to capture Fort Mulgrave and the promontory of L’Eguillette; these were very crucial ports that enabled the French military to have the commanding position using their artilleries. This forced the allied forces that had captured Toulon to withdraw from the island (Dugdale-Pointon Para. 2). Moreover, this acted as Napoleon’s path to the rise in power . His expertise to drive out the revolutionary forces from Toulon, earned him a promotion to the rank of Brigadier-General shortly afterwards in December 1793. The military excellence of Napoleon Bonaparte enabled him to rise through the ranks of the French military at a very fast rate. When napoleon was 26 years old, he was made the second in command of the Army of the interior. With this position, Napoleon was able to fight many other battles with their enemies, and in most cases, he was the victor.Advertising Looking for essay on biography? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Napoleon had arrived in Paris from a battle in Egypt, where his troops had severely lost, hence making him to sneak back to France and leave his troops in Egypt, when he found a power vacuum which had been created due to the internal unrests in the country. He staged a coup, appointed himself as the ruler of France, and had the title of First Consul (Dugda le-Pointon Para. 11). Since a large portion of the other army had perished in Egypt, Napoleon formed another army and soon after, started his conquest of other lands starting with Austria. Napoleon was to later lead other revolutions, which would ultimately lead to the expansion of his empire. Napoleonic revolutions Napoleonic revolutions were generally different from the aims of his predecessors. In undertaking the revolutions, Napoleon was of the view that a strong centralized state was of utmost importance in the strengthening of the advances, which had been made by the revolution (Holmberg Para. 4). Napoleon tried to spearhead revolutions, which would bring about stability to the French and strengthen the powers of the centralized government. In fact, when Napoleon was a Brigadier-General, he helped the government to restore order, as some rebels were openly planning a coup against the leadership (Dugdale-Pointon Para. 4). Napoleon’s revolutions were generally different f rom those of his predecessors in that, upon conquest of a nation, Napoleon facilitated the creation of government based upon the consent of France as a whole. Napoleon regarded himself – and it was generally true – not as a military leader, but a person whom the members of the country saw had the right civilian qualities that enabled them to accept him as their leader (Holmberg Para. 4). This created stability in the revolutions, which Napoleon made as he generally accepted by the people. Napoleon was also different from the other revolutionaries in that, he not only staged the revolutions, but also took measures to ensure that the advances made by the revolution were consolidated. By so doing, Napoleon ended the revolutions taking place in France at the time (Holmberg Para. 5). Most of the revolutions, which took place before napoleon, had come to power mainly led to disunity between the ordinary people and noble men in the society. However, Napoleonic revolutions wer e different in that, Napoleon’s revolutions tried to bring about social change in the country.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Napoleon Bonaparte and Its Revolutions specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Napoleon ensured that careers were given to people who had the abilities to do the jobs regardless of the social status of the person at birth. In addition, Napoleon reformed the French institutions, bringing order and stability to the country. Under Napoleon, the French were able to forge a unity among them (Holmberg Para. 6). To enhance the equality of the society further, Napoleon led to the development of the Napoleonic Code and the Legion of Honor. The Napoleonic code ensured that all the members of the society were subjected to a common justice system. The Legion of Honor on the hand ensured was a reward given to the members of the military, civil, and judicial service. The Legion of Honor provided unity to the above sectors and in effect, leading to the forging of the unity ties between the above groups who compromised a large percentage of the population (Holmberg Para. 8). Conclusion Napoleonic revolutions led to the stability of France through the creation of measures that brought social change to the country. The Napoleonic revolutions can therefore be said to have led to the end of the revolutions, as they brought about the much needed equality, stability, and unity between the French. Works Cited Dugdale-Pointon, T. â€Å"Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).† Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). 2006. 01 February 2011. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_napoleon.html Holmberg, Tom. â€Å"Napoleon and the French revolution.† Napoleon Bonaparte internet guide. 2008. Web. This essay on Napoleon Bonaparte and Its Revolutions was written and submitted by user Felicity Cook to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Choosing the Most Effective Learning Environment

Choosing the Most Effective Learning Environment There are several alternatives available when it comes to the type of education that a child can receive. Parents today have more choices than ever. The primary factor that parents have to weigh is the overall setting that they want their child to be educated in. It is also important for parents to examine the individual needs and make up of the child and the financial state they are in when deciding which learning environment is the right fit. There are five essential options when it comes to education a child. Those include public schools, private schools, charter schools, homeschooling, virtual/online schools. Each of these options provides a unique setting and learning environment. There are pros and cons of each these choices. However it is important that parents understand that no matter which option they provide for their child, they are the most important people when it comes to the quality of education their child receives. Success is not defined by the type of schooling you received as a young person. Each of the five options has developed a lot of people who were successful. The key factors in determining the quality of education a child receives is the value that their parents place on education and the time they spend working with them at home. You can put almost any child in any learning environment and if they have those two things, they are typically going to be successful. Likewise, children who do not have parents that value education or work with them at home have odds that are stacked against them. This is not to say that a child cannot overcome these odds. Intrinsic motivation plays a major factor too and a child that is motivated to learn will learn no matter how much their parents do or do not value education. The overall learning environment does play a role in the quality of education a child receives. It is important to note that the best learning environment for one child may not be the best learning environment for another. It is also important to remember that the importance of the learning environment decreases as parental involvement in education increases. Each potential learning environment can be effective. It is important to look at all the options and make the best decision for you and your child. Public Schools More parents choose public schools as their child’s option to education than all of the other options. There are two primary reasons for this. First public schooling is free and many people cannot afford to pay for their child’s education. The other reason is that it is convenient. Every community has a public school that is easily accessible and within reasonable driving distance. So what makes a public school effective? The truth is that it isn’t effective for everyone. More students will end up dropping out of public schools than they will any of the other options. This doesn’t mean that they don’t offer an effective learning environment. Most public schools provide students who want it with terrific learning opportunities and provide them with a quality education. The sad reality is that public schools receive more students than any other option who don’t value education and who do not want to be there. This can take away from the overall effectiveness of public education because those students typically become distractions who interfere with learning. The overall effectiveness of the learning environment in public schools is also affected by the individual state funding allotted to education. Class size is particularly affected by state funding. As class size increases, the overall effectiveness does decrease. Good teachers can overcome this challenge and there are many excellent teachers in public education. The educational standards and assessments developed by each individual state also impact a public school’s effectiveness. As it stands right now, public education amongst the states are not created equally. However the development and implementation of the Common Core State Standards will remedy this situation. Public schools provide students who want it with a quality education. The main problem with public education is that the ratio of students who want to learn and those who are only there because they are required are much closer than those in the other options. The United States is the only education system in the world that accepts every student. This will always be a limiting factor for public schools. Private Schools The biggest limiting factor concerning private schools is that they are expensive. Some provide scholarship opportunities, but the truth is that most Americans simply cannot afford to send their child to a private school. Private schools typically have a religious affiliation. This makes them ideal for parents who want their children to receive a balanced education between traditional academics and core religious values. Private schools also have the ability to control their enrollment. This not only limits class size which maximizes effectiveness, it also minimizes students who will be distractions because they don’t want to be there. Most parents who can afford to send their children to private schools value education which translates to their children valuing education. Private schools are not governed by the state laws or standards that public schools are. They can create their own standards and accountability standards which are usually tied to their overall goals and agenda. This can strengthen or weaken a school’s overall effectiveness depending on how rigorous those standards are. Charter Schools Charter schools are public schools that receive public funding, but are not governed by many of the state laws concerning education that other public schools are. Charter schools typically focus on specific subject area such as mathematics or science and provide rigorous content that exceed state expectations in those areas. Even though they are public schools they are not accessible to everyone. Most charter schools have limited enrollment which students must apply for and be accepted to attend. Many charter schools have a waiting list of students who want to attend. Charter schools are not for everyone. Students who have struggled academically in other settings will likely fall even further behind in a charter school as the content can be difficult and rigorous. Students who value education and want to earn scholarships and further their education would benefit from charter schools and the challenge that they present. Homeschooling Homeschooling is an option for those children who have a parent that does not work outside the home. This option allows a parent to be in total control of their child’s education. Parents can incorporate religious values into their child’s daily education and are usually better attuned to their child’s individual educational needs. The sad truth about homeschooling is that there are many parents who try to home school their child that are simply not qualified. In this case, it deeply impacts a child negatively and they fall behind their peers. This is not a good situation to put a child in as they will have to work extremely hard to ever catch up. While the intentions are likely good, the parent should realistically have an understanding of what their child needs to learn and how to teach them. For those parents who are qualified, homeschooling can be a positive experience. It can create an endearing bond between the child and the parent. Socialization can be a negative, but parents who want to can find plenty of opportunities through activities such as sports, church, dance, martial arts, etc. for their child to socialize with other children their age. Virtual/Online Schools The newest and hottest educational trend is virtual/online schools. This type of schooling allows students to receive public education and instruction from the comfort of home through the Internet. The availability of virtual/online schools has exploded over the past few years. This can be a terrific option for children who struggle in a traditional learning environment, need more one on one instruction, or have other issues such as pregnancy, medical issues, etc. Two major limiting factors can include the lack of socialization and then need for self motivation. Much like homeschooling, students need some socialization with peers and parents can easily provide these opportunities for children. Students also have to be motivated to stay on schedule with virtual/online schooling. This can be difficult if a parent is not there to keep you on task and to ensure that you complete your lessons on time.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Best Practices for Social Science Writing Essay Example for Free

Best Practices for Social Science Writing Essay Practices (24) , social science (10) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints When social scientists write their research papers, they usually discuss the methods that they employed in gathering and analyzing their data and the results that they were able to generate using these methods. They however seldom concentrate on the writing process itself (Cuba, 1997). Writing in the field of social science requires the use of insight and research to better understand and make concrete observations and findings about the various behavioral elements. There are many methods of conducting social science studies namely through observations, interviews, surveys and case studies. However, when one starts writing the research paper that would embody these pertinent findings, the writer usually faces the challenges that many social science writers encounter. These problems include the complexities of achieving clarity, the potential for committing biases, writing in the first-person perspective, the use of quotations and in-text citations to support the analysis, and formatting styles particular to the field of social sciences. When writing one’s own research paper, it is important for a scholar in the field of social science to have a grasp of the basic writing techniques peculiar to social science in order to produce an academic paper that is relevant, informative and worth reading. The prevalence of search engines and the use of the World Wide Web have made it easier for scholars nowadays to conduct their studies and research with ease and in an expeditious manner. The libraries and other academic centers which make available to the public the latest references has also contributed to a great extent to achieving academic quality of various writings. Complexities in Achieving Clarity Like any other field of study, effective writing requires constant practice. This entails continuous process of writing, editing and rewriting ideas and use of words to convey these thoughts clearly to the intended audience (Cuba, 1997). Oftentimes, students of social science put off writing their research paper until they have completed doing all their research and compiled their bibliography. This practice however sometimes leads to insufficient time in writing the paper itself. In order to achieve clarity when writing a social science research paper, Hult (1996) enumerated the two components that must be considered: rhetorical question and organization. The components of a rhetorical situation include 1) the writer’s purpose; 2) the writer’s persona; 3) the potential readers or audience; 4) the subject matter and; 5) the appropriate language or tone (Hult, 1996). In starting the research write-up, the writer must determine the purpose of his paper and he must be able to define it clearly throughout the entire paper. The purpose need not be complex. A simple purpose will do so long as the readers can have a grasp of what the research is all about. Writers in the field of social science must also avoid writing in the first-person persona as this will affect the objectivity of their research. Identifying the intended audience will also help the writer in deciding what specific issues to discuss and what areas to avoid. For example, a person writing in the field of political science will have to consider political analysts as his potential readers. The subject matter is the most important aspect of the rhetorical situation (Hult, 1996). A writer must carefully select his thesis statement and decide from the materials gathered what facts must be included as well as those which need not be discussed. Furthermore, the research writer might also consider providing a glossary of terms when writing on a technical subject in order to make it easier for the readers to understand the language and tone of the research paper. Omitting Biases and Avoiding First Person Writing Style It is not uncommon practice in the field of social science to write using the first person persona. Writing from the first person perspective however indicates subjectivity in arriving at one’s own research findings and this in turn diminishes the objectivity of the research. In order to be more persuasive, the writer must couch his paper from a third person perspective so as to avoid the impression that he is impelled more by his own biases rather than reporting the facts gathered from relevant data. Omitting biases should be the foremost consideration of every social science writer because this field requires objectiveness and keen understanding of the facts and data. Unlike writers in the field of literature who have unbridled discretion to unleash their feelings and emotions in their papers, social science writers are bound by their duty to report the facts as they appear and not as they think it should be. The field of social science is primarily detail-oriented and must be supported by relevant, empirical, and reliable facts. In order to avoid biases, the writer must always dwell on the facts gathered and must use relevant sources to support his findings. Primary and secondary sources play an important role in the persuasiveness of one’s research work because the extent of the credibility of a research paper is to a great extent determined by the depth of research done by the researcher to support his study. The writer must also avoid labeling his chosen population or individual participants to avoid offending the readers. When dealing with a particular ethnic group or race, it is advisable to call them as they would like to be called. In order to avoid language biases, use the terminology applicable in the research itself. For example, when reporting on a study conducted on two types of participants, it is advisable to describe them according to how they were classified in the given study provided the labels are in themselves not offensive per se. Minimizing the Use of Quotations A writer’s source material must be in the form of paraphrases and summaries. However, paraphrased materials must still be properly documented either through in-text citations or footnotes or endnotes. Hult (1996) added that putting source material in your own words will improve the flow of your paper since the paraphrased style will blend with your own writing style and will thus contribute to its consistency. Minimize the use of direct quotations. The use of too many direct quotations distracts the reader and it also minimizes coherence of the writing style. It also leaves the impression that the writer knows little about his topic and is in fact relying heavily on what others have come up with (Hult, 1996). What the writer can do is paraphrase or summarize the portion of the materials used and document it properly. If using direct quotes cannot be avoided, the following principles are helpful in incorporating them smoothly in the research paper. First, when using quotations with four lines or less in length, enclose them with quotation marks and incorporate them in the text. Second, quotes should be introduced using the verb tense which is consistent with the tense of the quoted material. Third, change the capital letter to lower case and vice versa, within the quote if necessary. Fourth, enclosed in brackets the letter or words inserted inside the quoted material to separate them from the quoted material itself. Fifth, use ellipsis to signal that a material has been omitted from the quote. Sixth, punctuate the direct quote as it appears from the original. Seventh, a period or a comma which is part of the quote should be placed inside the quotation marks. Eighth, use a colon to introduce a quote which is more than one sentence or if the introductory material prior to the quoted portion is too long. Ninth, use a comma for short quotes (Hult, 1996). Using In-text Citations to Support Analysis A researcher who intends to make use on in-text citation in his write-up should keep in mind the American Psychological Association (APA) style which requires the use of past tense or present perfect tense when referring to earlier research materials. For example, it is incorrect to say â€Å"Smith (2008) states that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  when referring to Smith’s research findings. Instead, the researcher must employ the past or present perfect tense; hence, the in-text citation should appear like this: â€Å"Smith (2008) stated/has stated that†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In-text citations must follow the author-date format under the APA citation style, e. g. , (Smith, 2008) and a complete documentation of the source must appear in the reference list. Electronic sources are cited in the same manner as citing a printed document, e. g. , (Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 2008). For sources with no date available, place â€Å"n. d. † (meaning â€Å"no date†) after the author’s last name, e. g. , (Smith, n. d. ). Formatting Expectations A writer must see to it that his paper is professional in appearance. This is not to say however that attention to format should be every social science writer’s foremost consideration. It is also equally important to confer with your instructor as to what should be the appropriate format style for the particular paper. When preparing the paper, it is best to be conservative when it comes to formatting style rather than be ostentatious and vulgar, thus making the paper look less serious and informal. Hence, margin must not be justified on both side of the page but only on the left side only. The American Psychological Association (APA) is the most commonly used citation style format in the field of social sciences. The guidelines provided under the APA provides a useful tool in writing research papers, using in-text citations and reference page and using footnotes or endnotes. Under the APA formatting style, page headers are required to be placed in the upper right-hand of every page. This page header must contain the first two to three words of the title followed by the page number. The title page should already show include the page header. A running head must also appear on the first line of the title page flush-left. On the upper half of the page, centered, the full title of the paper, the name of the writer and university or affiliation must be indicated (Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 2008). Research papers are normally comprised of the title page, the abstract (if appropriate), the main body, the references, and the appendixes (if appropriate). The abstract need not be written for short research papers but for published research reports, an abstract is always required regardless of the length of the paper (Hult, 1996). Appendix may be used to include raw data and other information that need not appear in the main body but is likewise important in the research paper. It is located after the reference page and is labeled sequentially in letters. The reference page must include all the sources used in the research paper. The sources must be in alphabetical order by author’s last name and need not be numbered. Conclusion Writing is a necessary aspect of social research (Cuba, 1997). A good research means that the writer gave great effort in collecting and organizing his data as well as in organizing his findings in a coherent and scholarly manner suitable to the academic community he intends to present his study to. In preparing the research paper, every writer in the field of social science must consider the pertinent style guides applicable. The writing process is an analytic strategy that can only be improved through practice. This necessarily means that every social science researcher preparing his paper must open to revisions. The first draft must not be the final paper. Every writer must be also be willing to take constructive criticism from his colleagues because all too often, a writer cannot see the errors of his own work unless others point them out. Letting others read your research paper will help you in assessing some of the loopholes in your own arguments. Writing in the field of social sciences is an important aspect of the research itself because the manner in which a given study is presented contributes to the persuasiveness of the one’s findings and output. As such, it is important to be familiar with the writing techniques, styles, and formats applicable in your field of research so as to avoid mistakes and errors in presenting your research. The APA citation format style is a helpful tool in the social sciences and every scholar in this field must familiarize himself this formatting to avoid the inconvenience of revising and rewriting the research paper. The social science paper must be formal as to its structure and form and the writer must avoid using first person persona that is usually employed in the literary field. The sentences must be well-crafted and concise and must clearly reflect in a coherent and thorough manner the findings of the researcher without the need of extravagant words or details. Social science research writing is a challenging task for every writer. It requires practice and hard work just like collecting the data itself. It is an inevitable part of every researcher’s academic life and it cannot be avoided. Hence, every researcher must be familiar with the format and style peculiar to this field in order to increase the success of one’s research paper. References Cuba, Lee (1997). Short Guide to Writing About Social Science (4th Ed. ). Addison-United States: Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. Gerring, John, Yesnowitz, Joshua & Bird, Stephen (2004). General Advice on Social Science Writing. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://people. bu. edu/jgerring/documents/Adviceonessaywriting. pdf Hult, Christine (1996). Researching and Writing in the Social Sciences. Boston, Allyn and Bacon. Hess, Diana (2007). From Banished to Brother Outsider, Miss Navajo to An Inconvenient Truth: Documentary Films as Perspective-Laden Narratives. Social Education 71 (4), 194-199. McDonald, Susan, MD. Social Science Writing Guide. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://www. emayzine. com/lectures/writing. htm Mullen, Carol (2006). Best Writing Practices for Graduate Students: Reducing the Discomfort of the Blank Screen. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://cnx. org/content/m14054/latest/ Przeworski, Adam and Salomon, Frank (1995). The Art of Writing Proposals: Some Candid Suggestions to Social Science Research Council Competitions. Social Science Research Council. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://fellowships. ssrc. org/art_of_writing_proposals/ Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (19 June 2008). APA Formatting and Style Guide. Retrieved August 2, 2008 from http://owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/560/01/http://Web address for OWL resource. Watts, Michael. The Holy Grail: In Pursuit of the Dissertation Proposal. Institute of International Studies. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from http://globetrotter. berkeley. edu/DissPropWorkshop/process/InPursuitofPhD. pdf Best Practices for Social Science Writing. (2016, Aug 01). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Platos Form of Good and Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Platos Form of Good and Justice - Essay Example He was dissatisfied with the conditions that were prominent in Athens.The democracy here was failing and it was heading to ruins. He characterized his own concept of justice by bashing the notions that were held by the likes of Glaucon's and Adeimantus. This paper will look into the concept of the good of justice in and of itself as challenged. It will also focus on the Good of the Soul, its three form nature and immortality.Glaucon on justice presupposes that human good is made of a combination of power, wealth and pleasure and because these are limited, there have to be a competition among men for them. He says that it is natural for one to pursue what he sees as good.Socrates refutes the social contract and the bases of Glaucon’s argument by saying that the ultimate source of value is not found in nature and not in the human notion of social contract but it is a notion grasped by the intellect that is enlightened, which is the Form of Good. From his arguments he comes with the prospect of the good of the soul where he says that the soul is tripartite in nature and also that it is immortal and when one dies, their soul lives on. He used the three elements of the soul to explain how the society should be and the concept of Justice and Good is elaborated.This reasoning according to me it is very valid. It gives a reasoned version of what Good is and the concept of Justice coupled with Good. It gives the basis of what Plato was later to conceive as the Form of Good/Justice.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

To what extent do you agree with free market economies being more Essay - 2

To what extent do you agree with free market economies being more effective than a mixed economy - Essay Example they are free to decide on what to produce and purchase in the market respectively. In the free market economy, also known as the laissez-faire economy, the producers decide on what to produce as per the market demand and prices. In the latter, the government plays a very limited role in terms of deciding what is to be produced. In this case, the government has little or no command to direct on what goods and/or services are to be produced. However, in a command economy, the government has high command and control over dictating what types of goods and services are to be produced for the market, and the amounts to be produced. On the other hand, the mixed economy is likely to be characterised by conflict since the economy is controlled by both the market forces and the government in terms of determining the types of goods and services to be produced. The mixed market economy is based on decision making by individuals and businesses for the private sector, and government decisions and regulation for the public sector (Anderton, 2012). Free market economies are likely to be more effective due to the dynamics in the market decision making, i.e. the consumers dictate what is to be produced in terms of consumption demand in goods and services. The producers will choose the best cost-effective method of production for higher profit, and firms produce goods and services in terms of consumer demands and tastes, i.e. they produce goods and services which consumers are willing and able to purchase. The free market is effective due to the existence of healthy competition that allows for opportunities for profit making for firms and businesses, and at the same time ensures consumer satisfaction. The free market responds quickly to consumer demands, where goods and services are produced and delivered with due regard to demand. The mixed economy is likely to be characterised by conflict due to override of authority, by either the government or individuals and businesses, in the determination of the allocation of goods and services. In the mixed economy, the government influences the market through taxation rates and setting laws to regulate the market economy. Additionally, the government provides basic services for communities, such as healthcare, education and policing, and hence hinders the investment in these sectors by individuals in the private sector. However, the government plays a critical role in regulating business and market standards for the facilitation of healthy competition in the private sector and consumer satisfaction. The government is also effective in controlling the consumption of harmful goods through illegality declaration or high taxing (Gillespie, 2012). In the mixed economy, the government easily influences the aggregate market demand in its attempts to manipulate its budget deficits or surplus, known as the fiscal policy, for the realisation of economic goals (Rodrik, 2011). The free market economy is more effective, for it creates opportunities for innovation and welfare improvement in both the individual and public interests, where individuals are allowed to make independent decisions that affect their own wellbeing (Rodrik, 2011). Individual consumers have the capability to make institutional arrangements for the enhancement of suitable interaction

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Acts of Rebellion Essay Example for Free

Acts of Rebellion Essay In 1984, Orwell presents the act of rebellion through love. Listen. The more men youve had, the most I love you. Do you understand that? this whole quote suggest that they are both rebelling, meaning that Julia has already rebelled in the past by having sex with other men. Also Winston is declaring that the more she rebels the more he would love her, which is also an act of rebellion in itself because love is unauthorized, by Big Brother. The most could suggest that Winston is encouraging everyone to rebel against Big Brother, which could mean that as Julia loves Winston, he is taking advantage of her by telling her that whatever Julia is doing is right that he is totally supporting her. Additionally this could mean that he wanted more people to be corrupt, and everyone to go to the wrong path and disobey Big Brother. Orwell presents the act of rebellion through love because in the Dystopian society there are strict rule that need to be followed, such as no having sex for pleasure, and this is clearly an act of rebellion as Julia had sex with lots of party member. Similarly in Romeo and Juliet where Shakespeare is presenting their love by rebelling, they are both willing to disobey the orders of the wise ones just to be with each other. Therefore stay yet; thou needst not to be gone proposes that Juliet is stubborn, as the Daughter of Capulet; she is used to get what she wants. Additionally Romeo declares to her Let me taen, let me be put to death This could emphasise that he is willing to die for Juliet and stay with her than live his life without her, this clearly shows that he is rebelling against all the rules put upon them, just to stay with Juliet. Not to be gone could suggest that Juliet is being bossy as she is ordering him to stay with her. But alternatively this could highlight that as men in the Elizabethan had power over women, and they were patriarchal meaning that Juliet was a bad influence on Romeo, and that she was almost a threat to his manhood. As he accepts defeat Romeo says let me put to death which could declare that Juli et is Romeos weakness and that if someone breaks Juliet, Romeo will also shatter.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown †Conflict, Climax, Resolution :: Free Essay Writer

â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† – Conflict, Climax, Resolution  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in â€Å"Stories Derived from New England Living† state that   â€Å"’Young Goodman Brown’ uses the background of witchcraft to explore uncertainties of belief that trouble a man’s heart and mind† (31). Are these critics’ statement correct?   This essay will examine Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† to determine the conflict, climax and resolution.    The conflict between pride and humility is the direction that Clarice Swisher in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography† tends: Hawthorne himself was preoccupied with the problems of evil, the nature of sin, the conflict between pride and humility† (13). There is little doubt about the pride of the protagonist as he scolds his wife for not fully trusting him: "’My love and my Faith,’ replied young Goodman Brown, ‘of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married!’" And looking at the end of the tale, perhaps it his Goodman’s pride which causes him to live the rest of his days in gloom; the opposite virtue of humility might ease his adjustment into a world of sinners.    Gloria C. Erlich in â€Å"The Divided Artist and His Uncles† says that â€Å"he let his more extravagant characters test the unlimited for him and sadly concluded that it was unlivable† (38). Stanley T. Williams in â€Å"Hawthorne’s Puritan Mind† states: â€Å"What he wrote of . . . . unforgettable case histories of men and women afflicted by guilt, or, as he called it, by â€Å"a stain upon the soul† (43). Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty and E. Hudson Long in â€Å"The Social Criticism of a Public Man† state: â€Å"He was absorbed by the enigmas of evil and of moral responsibility† (47). Using an assortment of literary critical opinion, this reader considers that the central conflict in the tale is an internal one - the conflict in the mind and soul of Goodman Brown between joining the ranks of the devil, and remaining a morally good person, and the extension of this conflict to the world at large represented by the villagers of Salem.    It is a difficult personal journey for Young Goodman Brown, a young Puritan resident of Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1600’s to say goodbye to Faith on that fateful night and to keep a prior commitment made with an evil character (the devil) in the woods.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Adolescent Development in Juvenile Recidivism

Punishment is a word that has many different meanings. It differs from person to person, state to state and even country to country. When looking at the criminal justice system the purpose of punishment is deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, and incapacitation (Bontrager, Smith, & Winokur, 2008). Punishment involving adults is hard but when dealing with adolescents it is even more difficult. Adolescence is often thought to be a time of irrational and emotion influenced behavior. There are many who think that adolescence is just a phase that is an entity in and of its self.While many people can see the correlation between the actions and behaviors that happen in adolescence to the habits and life style in adulthood few people see the correlation between a person’s early childhood and the affect that has on his or her adolescence. There is no developmental phase that stands totally alone. Each phase has a lasting consequence ramifications on the next. This progressive devel opmental phase has lasting ramifications on the adolescent’s behavior, self-concept and maturity. Because of this there is a need to view juvenile crime and punishment differently than adult crime and punishment.The reason for this is because some research has shown that recidivism rates among juvenile parolees are very high. It can range anywhere from fifty five percent to seventy five percent (Krisberg, Austin, and Steele, 1991). There is evidence that a vast majority of juvenile offenders who have been confined do not stop committing crimes when they are released. In fact, many juvenile offenders continue their criminal involvement into adulthood (Hamparian et al. , 1984). There is a need to halt juvenile crime before it begins and there needs to be a way to halt the progression of juvenile crime being indicative of adult crime.The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how childhood development affects adolescent’s development and how this development is directly related to a troubled adolescent’s recidivism rate in relation to family, community and social support. When sentencing juvenile offenders there needs to be an emphasis not only on punishment but rehabilitation. Crime prevention, whether on the juvenile level or adult level, falls into the three categories, of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention focuses on the conditions that may foster criminal activity. Primary prevention works to sway juveniles who are immersed in ommunities and cultures that promote violence and crime to seek healthier ways to live ((Bendit, Nieborg, & Erier, 2000). For example,i. e. a juvenile living in a depressed area will see that drugs and theft are the primary means of survival. Taking that juvenile to a farm, or a camp, exposes them hard, honest work is more satisfying, and less stressful than devious means of support. The idea behind primary prevention is the desire to create a more positive perspective, specifically for juveniles, which will effect positive change which will, hopefully, keep the adolescent from criminal behavior.Primary prevention speaks to pretty much all aspects of life. It takes into account poverty, unemployment and a wide variety of other social and psychological burdens. It enfolds all of the aforementioned items with support for families, schools, urban development, healthcare, stabilizing and strengthening individual personalities, social education and combating prejudice (Bendit, Nieborg, & Erier, 2000). Primary prevention is an attempt at a catchall. The concept behind secondary prevention is not to look at the general environment, as in primary prevention, but to focus on a small, clearly defined group.This group encompasses children and young people whose individual development, or circumstances, or both, cause them to be a more likely candidate for becoming a potential offender. Secondary prevention focuses on helping people who fall into this group specifically. The help may involve either working with adolescents, who live in socially depressed areas. It can also mean street work, getting involved on the youth’s direct level, for young people who are difficult to reach in other ways (Bendit, Nieborg, & Erier, 2000). When looking at crime prevention Ttertiary prevention is the most clearly defined of the three categories.It is very specific in relation to its aims and target groups. Tertiary prevention endeavors to stop repeated offences and encourages the social integration of young offenders. In fact, the younger the age of an offender, the greater the significance of getting the offender’s support system involved (Bendit, Nieborg, & Erier, 2000). This leads us into the path of criminal behavior in adolescents. Vygotsky’s Theory of cognitive learning is a socio-cultural theory of cognitive development that is based on the idea that learning happens primarily through a child’s interaction with the world.This theory shows the learning progression from infancy to early childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Adults are the key to this theory and to the concept of child to adolescent development. Adults shape and foster a child’s learning and development, intentionally, in a methodical manner depending on which culture and society the child hails from (Ormrod, 2008). Culture is often viewed as a local though it is not limited to a specific location. A person’s culture is not just where a person was born, lived and died. Culture includes the how of one’s birth, life and death.There needs to be awareness that intentionality can be done on purpose, with a goal and purpose set forth, but it can also be done with the mindset of failure. When a parent, teacher, or a significant person in a child’s life does not actively participate in the child’s development that loss of interaction may set the child up for failure. It is intentionality focused on failure. Making a cho ice to do nothing is actually making a choice to do something. It’s a choice of promoting apathy, indifference and a lack of concern.It is a choice that may cause irrevocable damage and harm that has lasting implications. An example would be not making a decision concerning salvation through Jesus Christ. When a person does not choose Christ he or she is choosing Satan. While many people may think that concept is harsh it is true. When parents, loved ones, teachers, pastors or anyone who plays a significant role in a child’s life chooses not to be actively involved it will cause reverberations that the child will feel forever. Thus, when a juvenile commits a crime and no one intervenes it creates chaos and confusion.It is generally acknowledged that dysfunctional parenting practices and family conflict are common hazards related to a wide variety of behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents. Improving parenting skills and enhancing the confidence ad olescents hold in their parents has the greatest potential in improving the children’s health, status, well being, and in reducing the risk of developing serious mental health problems or behavioral problems. There is extensive data to support the importance of good parenting in the maintenance, treatment and revention of childhood difficulties. This evidence comes from a wide variety of sources including different disciplines, behavioral genetics, developmental studies, and intervention research. There is substantial evidence that behavioral family interventions, based on social learning principles, are effective in the prevention and treatment of a range of childhood behavioral and emotional problems (Sanders, 2003). This data will have a huge impact on whether an adolescent commits a crime and also the recidivism rate when the child is released from whatever punishment given.The major premise of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a primary ro le in the development of cognition (Kearsley, 2010). Vygotsky taught that children learn how their culture interprets and responds to the world through formal and informal methods (Ormrod, 2008). This knowledge draws a parallel between understanding what others consider acceptable, in and for society, and turning that knowledge inward and deciding what is acceptable for ones’ self.This knowledge happens as a child moves from early childhood to middle childhood . As the child enters adolescence it begins to show up in social and emotional competences. Although middle childhood is an important developmental period for the assimilation of various skills to meet the complexity of coming social situations, the foundation for them has its origin in infancy. In infancy and early childhood, a child’s parental support allows him or her to learn to regulate behavior with consistent responsiveness from the parent to guide this developmental course.Increasingly, the child begins t o assume more control and can by early elementary school become more self-directed in carrying out the intricate set of skills required for problem solving in social situations. Accordingly, to obtain a child’s competency in social problem solving, measurement systems need to place demands on the child’s self regulatory, executive processing, and social engagement. Other basic skills that are also involved in social problem solving are competent language, regulation of attention, and memory (Landry, Smith, ; Swank, 2006).When a child does not learn these skills there is a fundamental lack in his or her foundation. The foundation may continue to be built upon but at some point it is likely to falter. Social and emotional competences have a wide range of developmental indicators that adolescents need for successful social adaptation. These indicators embrace positive interactions between adolescents and parents, teachers, care-givers and peers, emotional knowledge, emoti on regulatory abilities and relationship skills.When the adolescent is made aware that there is a problem in his or development scheme successful competency indicates a willingness to participate in special education programs for behavior problems. When a child moves into adolescence and these developmental indicators are not present, or are skewed, it is going to cause more developmental issues to arise. The process of maturation becomes much more difficult as the foundation needs to be reset in order to rebuild upon. The developmental indicators begin to show what the adolescent has retained in teaching form childhood to adolescent.A key component to seeing the correlation between a well adjusted adolescent and a maladjusted adolescent is to watch the behavior. Such behaviors would be acting-out, assertive social skills, emotional or behavioral disorder, frustration tolerance, peer social skills, shyness, anxiety and task orientation. Watching, and repairing deficiencies, earlier in childhood affects social and emotional development in early adolescence (Niles, Reynolds ; Roe-Sepowitx, 2008). To more fully understand social competencies in daily situations there needs to be an observance of the integration of skills.There needs to be a link between competencies during middle childhood to the more complex social challenges in adolescence. As children enter middle school they are expected to interact in social situations without a huge amount of structure and support from outside sources (Landry, Smith ; Swank, 2009). The reason for this is because this skill set should have been taught to the adolescent during the period of lower mental function (Ormrod, 2008). The social interactions become more complex because the adolescents are expected to consider each others’ points of view.They are then also expected to assimilate other people’s views with their own and give feedback based on the knowledge they possess. Based on what was said earlier, ado lescents can show success with these demands if they are demonstrating the ability to perceive and respond to the goals of others as well as others’ perceptions and beliefs. They can also show failure by being close minded or self-absorbed. Failure here may lead to an adolescent being ostracized, ignored or made fun of (Steinberg, 2005).Proficiency in shared interactions with others necessitates an assortment of cognitive, social, and verbal skills. From the social realm, adolescents need to understand the behavior of others. This is not limited to just understanding other people’s behaviors but also understanding that they, themselves, may have different perspectives, intentions, and knowledge. In order for this to occur successfully, they need to identify social cues and modify their strategies on the basis of the feedback received from a social peer.Cognitively, a child is required to keep focused and attentive and use information to plan and reason how to organize behaviors to achieve problem solving with others (Landry, Smith ; Swank, 2009). This is executive functioning which enters the realm of higher mental function (Ormrod, 2008). When a person goes from child to adolescent there needs to be an understanding of other people’s behavior. It is critical in being able to function in society. When this area is not developed fully it may cause issues in the area of self-concept, maturity and behavior (Steinberg, 2005).Integration of the many skills needed to function in more complex social situations is social problem solving. The ability to plan, sequence behaviors, and alter problem-solving strategies on the basis of feedback is often referred to as involving executive processing. Many theorists believe this is a critical set of behaviors for social competence because they help the child organize the information from the environment and process it to effectively comprehend social experiences.There is also an emphasis on the fact that social problem-solving requires specific behaviors. Examples would be goal directedness and planning. These behaviors fall under the heading of self-regulation. For adolescents to function competently they require the ability to create new strategies for use in unique situations and they must be able to self-examine in order to restrain behaviors that are not appropriate for the social situation. Integration of these skills is occurring across childhood (Astington ; Pelletier, 2005). In sSaying hat though, there is a prolonged progressive course where these abilities multiply in complexity as the child enters into adolescence. These behaviors are multidimensional, and can fluctuate fluidly depending on the social context (Steinberg, Dahl, Keating, Kupfer, Masten, ; Pine 2006). Social context is very important when looking at juvenile crime and recidivism rates. A common response that spans history, in the public’s concern with juvenile delinquency and violence has been to pas s legislation promising stiffer penalties as well as harsher sentences for juvenile offenders.What needs to be seen, though is the fact that crime damages people, communities, and relationships. There needs to be a balance created that includes the needs of the victim, offender, and communities. For there to be a healthy restoration process each party needs to be involved. While an offender needs to be punished unless there are support systems in place for the offender, when released, the recidivism rates for that particular offender will continue to rise (Stenhjem, 2003).