Abstract This paper examines how Mitch Albom, author of the book, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", effectively illustrates the stages in life that people go through as they reach past the prime of their lives. It looks at how, using the real-life character of Eddie, Albom details his life and the events surrounding the last 50 minutes he would spend on earth. By applying theories and concepts concerning human development, the paper brings into lucidity the importance of "Five People" in studying adulthood and aging and, more specifically, debates whether or not Eddie achieved self-actualization towards the end of his life.
From the Paper "Upon his retirement, Eddie goes back to memories of his life on earth: how, in each event and endeavor he considers as trivial or part of the mundane, lies the truth that he has done something important for other people. His work as maintenance head, Eddie realizes, is not just a mere job of checking the machinery, nut, bolts, cables, in order to ensure that the park's rides are functioning and safe for the passengers to ride on. Most importantly, as Albom tells his readers, Eddie has become significant for all the people in the park ?? because of the simple, mundane things Eddie had done in his life, the accidents he had prevented, the rides he had kept safe, the unnoticed turns he had affected every day?? This reflection on Eddie's part is already part of his life review, an appreciation of the things he have done while living on earth, and how, through deep reflection of his life, he was able to achieve integrity to replace the despair that he feels in life."
This paper uses Wilsonian Concept Analysis to gain a better understanding of addiction as a concept. It examines the structural foundation, identification, and relationship to substances.
Abstract This paper explains that the concept of addiction is most often used in the structural context of mental health because the mental health profession is concerned with how to care for the individual who is substance dependent. The author relates that addiction is the sum of the characteristics of unpredictable behavior changes, the inability to maintain impulses and self-control, and the compulsiveness to be gratified through an increase in dependency on the substances abused for pleasure. The paper concludes that the practical results of this conceptual analysis reveal that nurses can better understand and assess the need to care for the addicted client, worker, or family member when they have an increased consciousness about the structural forms that contribute to the solidification of addiction.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Isolating Questions of the Concept
Right Answers
Model Case
Contrary Case
Borderline Case
Invented Case
Social Context
Underlying Anxieties
Practical Results
Results in Language
Conclusion
From the Paper "The following case story serves as a pure example of all of the elements that comprise concept of addiction. Jim is a 35-year-old Caucasian male who began to "shoot heroin" with coworkers after work. His heroin addiction started out as a half a gram of heroin injected intravenously after work and over two years, grew to two grams of heroin per day. John has begun to let his personal appearance deteriorate. His job performance declined and he was fired. A usual day for him now involves sitting in front of the television in a state of euphoria. His wife and daughter, who live with him, urge him to seek help for his illness. His wife states, ?He has become moody and easily agitated."
Tags: mental, dependent, unpredictable, self-control, care
Abstract The debate over the issue of nature vs. nurture is an intense issue that carries strong points on either side of the argument. The nature school of thought emphasizes the role of instinct, patterns, and the influence of evolution on behavior. The nurture school of thought argues that behavior is learned, modifiable due to experience, and not, at least by humans, constrained by evolutionary history. This paper touches on the points of each aspect of this debate, examines new developments in research, and mentions how nature and nurture can interact.
From the Paper "Even the most diehard geneticists acknowledge that the environment plays a major role in shaping our behavior, temperament, and intelligence. With so much attention on explaining behavior in terms either of nature or nurture, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco recently described a fascinating example of how heredity and environment can interact. Perfect pitch is the ability to recognize the absolute pitch of a musical tone without any reference note. People with perfect pitch often have relatives with the same gift, and recent studies show that perfect pitch is a highly inherited trait, quite possibly the result of a single gene. But the studies also demonstrate a requirement for early musical training (before age six) in order to manifest perfect pitch. Time will tell whether there is a "perfect pitch" gene, but it seems reasonable to think that many personality and behavioral traits will not be exclusively the province of nature or nurture, but rather an inextricable combination of both."
Abstract This paper explains that Gacy began his murders of young men in 1972; in December, 1978, police found 33 victims. In March 1980, Gacy was found guilty of all of the murders, and on May 10, 1994, Gacy was executed by lethal injection. The author points out that, throughout Gacy's life, he had been evaluated by psychiatrists and doctors who came up with the same conclusion: Gacy had antisocial personality disorder, was obsessive compulsive, had abused both alcohol and drugs, and had a sexual identity crisis possibly stemming from his abusive childhood, and possibly from a childhood injury to his brain. The paper states concern about the "very sloppy" police work related to this case, which began with a charge against Gacy of attempted rape of a young man in 1971.
From the Paper "Gacy would eventually marry and settle down in Waterloo, Iowa in 1966. Two years later in May of 1968, he was being held on charges of coercing a young employee into homosexual acts, which spanned a period of months. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, however he proved himself a model prisoner and was released after only 18 months. While in prison his wife divorced him. After being paroled he moved back to Chicago. He eventually would remarry in May of 1971 and moved into a house. He quickly started up his own construction business. It appeared as though Gacy only hired young boys to work for him. He started bringing boys to his home, and would sometimes spend hours with them in the garage. Gacy told his second wife in 1972 that he was bisexual; however she was convinced that he was homosexual, and subsequently divorced him."
Abstract In his book "Discipline and Punish", Michel Foucault analyses the rise of a new type of disciplinary power, one linked to knowledge, techniques of surveillance, and the production of 'truth'. This paper looks at Foucault's analysis of the 'technological take-off in the productivity of power' and how he saw power as utilising the 'techniques' of the production of truth, knowledge, and surveillance. It also covers the idea of power acting through the subjectification of individuals. Finally, it attempts to analyse Foucault's framework for understanding culture, and the extent to which it is useful for this purpose.
From the Paper "To understand how Foucault uses the idea of knowledge as power, it is perhaps most useful for us to first look at how truth is produced, i.e. how 'regimes of truth' came about, and how these are used to legitimise knowledge in order for knowledge to have status and thus be used in power relations. For the production of truth both makes claim to power and sustains and justifies it. Foucault questions the absolute truth of knowledge and sees truth as being something constructed to impose ideas of what is right and true (Fillingham 1993:5-7). "
Tags: abnormal, deviant, knowledge, objectification, panopticism, panopticon, subjectification, surveillance, truth
Abstract This paper examines how structural therapy attempts to help families by dealing with problems that affect current interactions of family members. It looks at how the focus is on how families operate as a system and their structure within the system. Structural family therapists make hypotheses about the structure of the family and the nature of their problem. It also looks at how structural family therapists use several techniques to achieve their goals, such as diagnosing, joining, reframing, unbalancing, enactment, shaping, competence and others.
From the Paper "Structural Family Therapy was developed by Salvador Minuchin and colleagues during the 1960s, and emerged in the 1970s as one of the most widely used methods in family therapy. Its history is predicated on family systems theory, and as a result it has many of the inherent strengths and weaknesses associated with applying general systems theory to social behavior. Like most systems theorists, the structuralists are interested in how the components of a system interact, how balance or homeostasis in achieved, how family feedback mechanisms operate, and how dysfunctional communication patterns develop."
Abstract This paper examines organizational behavior (OB), and its goal to improve performance through understanding the motivations of employees. It looks at ways in which OB can improve quality and productivity of an organization.
From the Paper OB is the systematic study of human behavior in the workplace. OB is a multidisciplinary area of study that draws on theories developed in fields of study including psychology sociology management sciences ..."
Abstract This paper studies the contributions of Austrian psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. The paper examines Klein's divergence from Freudian psychoanalysis. The paper also studies her theories and perspective of human beings, especially children. The paper concludes with a discussion of the clinical implications of her concepts and work.
From the Paper "Melanie Klein, an Austrian psychoanalyst, was renowned for her radical divergence from the Freudian psychoanalysis and her formulation of therapeutic approaches for young children. What fundamentally distinguishes Klein from the Freudian..."
Abstract This paper explores how human and embryonic cloning has and will affect our understanding of the nature vs. nurture debate. The paper points out that cloning does not produce individuals identical in personality to the original.
From the Paper "The longstanding controversy over nature vs. nurture is being brought into focus by the introduction of human cloning. In the original debate one faction claimed that a person's nature-heredity and personality-was more important..."
Tags: nature, nurture, cloning, genetic determinism, social determinism
Abstract This paper discusses the ways in which "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, reflects issues in family and individual life cycle development. More specifically the paper looks at how the Book expresses life-span development and transition and contributes to an understanding of the content and structure of end-of-life issues.
From the Paper "The purpose of this research is to examine the book "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom with respect to ways in which it expresses life-span development and transition and contributes to an understanding of the content and structure of end-of-life issues. The plan of the research will be to set forth the pattern of ideas and events in the text and then to discuss the means by which an elaboration of an individual life reaches meaning in regard to more general experience and serves as an example of the..."
Tags: Morrie Schwartz, Mitch Albom, Memoir, life span
Abstract The paper firstly explains the origins of the Oedipus complex and then shows how William Shakespeare portrays this in his play "Hamlet". Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, is his Oedipus complex. This fits in with the idea of the Oedipus complex, where often the mother is the object of the Oedipus complex and is in the position of being the greatest importance in a child's life. Hamlet subconsciously feels that he should be the center of Gertrude's affection and this affects his relationships with women and also fuels his motivation for revenge for those that get in the way of this desire. The paper shows how Shakespeare fits in the idea of Oedipus complex in his play: Hamlet greatly disapproves of his mother's remarriage, his mother shows her undying love for him, Hamlet has extremely strong feelings towards his mother and how he repels other women, especially one who reminds him of his mother. The paper concludes that the Oedipus complex that exists during Shakespeare's time continues to exist today.
From the Paper "The Oedipus Complex originated from Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus Rex. In the tragedy, an oracle prophesizes that the son born to Liaus, the King of Thebes, and his queen Jocasta, will kill his father and marry his mother. Liaus, after the birth of his son Oedipus, abandons him and leaves him to die. Oedipus, however, lives and the prophecy comes true. Oedipus grows up and unknowingly murders his father. He then marries Jocasta, not knowing that she is his mother, and together, they have four children. When Oedipus discovers the horrifying truth about his mother and his father, he gauges his eyes out and lives the rest of his life in great depression. Freud defines the Oedipus Complex as "the unconscious desire for the death of the parent of the same sex and for physical union with the parent of the opposite sex" (Wertheimer 133). A man suffering from the Oedipus Complex has sexual desires for his mother and aggressive feelings towards his father. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet shows the Oedipus Complex throughout the play and his mother, Gertrude, is the object of this complex. Hamlet demonstrates the Oedipus Complex through his actions and desires towards his mother, which, as a result, affects his relationship with women and Ophelia and becomes the main motivation for revenge."
Abstract This paper discusses the issue of conflict when several people share a small living space. According to the paper, the longer the period that people live in such a situation, the more likely it is that conflict will occur, as personalities, cultures, genders, and communication difficulties come into play. All of these factors played a part in an experiment conducted by the Moscow Institute for Biomedical Problems (IMBP). The paper further discusses how in this experiment, three international researchers and four Russian cosmonauts were isolated in two chambers that simulated living conditions on the space station Mir. Of the seven participants, only one was a woman.
Abstract This paper presents a biopsychosocial assessment of a 24 year old, African-American male, living on a United States Naval Base who was referred to the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation, after pleading guilty to assault on a superior, non commissioned officer. It is an assessment of Antwone Fisher, the main character in the 2002 American drama, "Antwone Fisher," directed by Denzel Washington.
Table of Contents:
Identifying Information
Reason for Referral/Presenting Problem
Client's Description and Functioning
Physical and Economic Environment/Occupational Situation
Current Social Functioning
Family Situation
Sexual/Emotional Relationship
Personal and Family History Relevant to Current Focus
Assessment
Psychological/Social and Emotional Functioning
Worker's Understanding of Client's Presenting Situation
From the Paper "Using cognitive therapy, supported by the theories of object relations and attachment, Dr. Davenport has assisted client in recognizing maladaptive behaviors and modeling appropriate social interaction. Information processing looks at the development of the mind in terms of how one processes information (Schore, 2003). Schore (2003) defines feelings as how one appraises a situation and decides what action to take. The working model explains how experiences are processed and stored in memory, stating that early experiences are carried forward in life. When information is excluded, it is harder to update that information when new information is presented. This creates contradictory working models in the individual. Cognitive disconnection occurs when a person disconnects or redirects what they think or feel. Previous reports by Dr. Davenport describe client, "He's honest, even in his anger." Dr. Davenport assess client as, "upset with his family because they didn't come to his rescue." Client is able to acknowledge that he brought his problems with him to the Navy, and that the fights he has gotten in to, have nothing to do with the Navy. The client shows accommodation, adjusting his existing schema when new information is presented, through the knowledge gained from reading various books given to the client by Dr. Davenport. The client's progress in overcoming his anxiety associated with building relationships is evident in the growth of his relationship with his girlfriend, his ability to form a secure attachment to Dr. Davenport. "
Abstract Cult Formation
Defining the Paradigm of Unfalsifiability
Authority: Exclusivity, Overbearing or Essential
Revelation of the Leadership
Hierarchy of Leadership
Solidarity
Social Structure
Community
Social Stratification
Identity
Punishment and Discipline
Cult Growth and the Convert
The Target: weakness and vulnerability
Conversion: unfreeze, change and refreeze
False Memories: unfreezing through psychotherapy
Environments
Enlightenment Engines
Cult Case Studies
The Branch Divisions, David Koresh
Heaven's Gate, Do
"The Recipe"
Troubleshooting
A look at how coercive persuasion and thought reform share many similarities, mainly the goal of altering behavior and attitude through coercive influences often based in groups.
1,856 words (approx. 7.4 pages), 8 sources, 1999, $ 59.95
From the Paper "Coercive persuasion and thought reform share many similarities, mainly the goal of altering behavior and attitude through coercive influences often based in groups. Schein, Lifton, and Professor Ofshe's through his Sociology 156 class all give different emphasis regarding the subject. Schien the apparent "father" of the study, analyses coercive persuasion in a three-stage model, Lifton focused on eight key elements that contributed to the totalistic qualities of the methodology, while Ofshe elaborated on the role of coercive persuasion in police interrogations. All theorists seem to agree with Schein's three-stage process, with the additions of their further findings. The result is a elaborate theory of coercive persuasion that gives insight into the results on the individual formed through confined/assertive and nonconfined/nonassertive programs, belief internalization, and the effects of the methods, graded on adherence to the leader and doctrine. "
