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Annotated Bibliography Global Finances

Annotated Bibliography: Global Finances

Emerson, J. (2003). The blended value Preposition: Integrating Social and Financial Returns. California Management: 45. 4, pp 35-51.

Summary:

Capitalism 3.0 as a lot of people refer to it outlines a prospect to break the present structures and develop a framework of accountability which tackles the realities of the world that we stay in. it offers an opportunity to come out of the limits that people have developed by themselves and obtain a common avenue to comprehend the nature of value and strategize it to optimize the value. The article suggests that if we intend to optimize the economic value by developing monetary returns for the investors, people should not anymore be in a position to do it with no consideration of how the business execution plan is affected by the environmental and social factors. And when one intends to attain greater environmental and social justice in the world, they won’t be able unless they comprehend the economics of contemporary investment.

Critique:

Capital markets in general may support any dynamics of non-profit business, however when it gets to social value investment, people have only loans and grants- with limited options for establishing real capital investment to grow ventures which are not precisely creating either economic or social value. The inadequacy of instruments hinders the attempts of the managers considering blended value, either in for-profit social investments which are emerging or within the mainstream corporations to scale their investments.

There are minimal studies regarding how appropriate to approach the establishment of a common single endorsed package of metrics through which to examine the nonfinancial performance aspects of the funds and the organizations.

Implication

The fundamental issues that came across when exploring the world of performance and measurement metrics comprise the absence of consistently effective models and general tools for reporting and measuring economic value and the minimal confidence in the element being measured.

Chang, H-J (2002) Kicking away the ladder: Development strategy in historical

perspective, London: Anthem Press: Global financial Journal, 2, 73-81

Summary:

Currently there is immense pressure on the developing nations to adopt a package of “good institutions” and “good policies” to promote their economic growth. As you would expect, there have been growing concerns on whether these proposed institutions and policies are desirable for the developing nations. Nonetheless, inquisitively, even a number of people who are cynical on the implementation of these institutions and policies to the developing nations appear to take for granted that these were the institutions and policies which were applied by the developed nations at the time that they were developing.

Critique:

The article, on the basis of a careful and detailed analysis of historical evidence, suggest that the matter may not be far from the facts, -developed nations did not reach where they are today through the institutions and policies which they propose to the developing nations. A lot of them aggressively applied “bad industrial policies and trade, for instance export subsidies and infant protection of industry; these practices are actively banned if not frowned upon by the World Trade Organization (WTO) presently. Very captivatingly, the USA and the UK, which a number of us perceive as models of free market and free trade policies, “were the most ardent users of such policies” during the initial phases of their development. In view of institutional establishment, up to the time that they were quite established, the developed nations had a handful of the institutions considered important for the developing nations currently; a central bank, professional bureaucracy and political democratic institutions. In fact, the developed nations had a very low-standard institutions than the current developing nations at comparable development levels

If this is what is on the ground, then aren’t the developed nations, within the disguise of proposing “good” institutions and policies. Which render it hard for the developing nations to apply institutions and policies which had allowed them to economically develop in the earlier eras? List Friedrich, an economist from German who perfected the hypothesis of “infant industry protection”, too argued so. He censured the British advocating for the values of free trade to nations for instance, the USA and Germany as effort to “kick away the ladder” which the UK used to reach to the top.

Highlighting that the claimed “good” institutions and policies proposed by Bretton Woods institutions and the governments of the developed nations has failed to establish the anticipated growth in the developing nations within the last two decades, or more, the articles proposes drastic re-thinking of financial growth strategies.

Implication

The article suggest that, the above indicated historical materials regarding the financial developmental experience of the countries which are developed need to be broadly publicized so that country which are developing can draw informed choices regarding institutions and policies. The other thing is that policy-linked conditions connected to financial aid from the World Bank and IMF need to be radically changed, in view of the fact that a lot of financial policies which are currently considered as “bad” are as a matter of fact not, and that perhaps there could be no “best”.

Martin Wolf, Fixing Global Finance (2008). Politics and Global financial growth’, Development Policy Review, 27(1):5-31.

Summary:

Wolf, the lead economics commentator of the Financial Times, is broadly recognized to be the finest newspaper contributor focusing on global finance presently. Wolf’s expertise, insight and knowledge are highly valuable that one may possibly stay adequately informed concerning the global economy developments by merely reading his Financial Times column on a regular manner. In deed one would seriously recommend an evening reading his column starting from the year 2007 all through to 2010, in series, as an admirable fashion to catch up to speed with the policy and developments debates pertaining to the global financial crisis. From the fall of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns to the dealings of Basel III and the most recent the IMF lending and voting reforms.

Critique:

Wolf’s 2008 publication is fairly worth reading. He concentrates on how the policies of macroeconomics of fundamental nations (especially the United States and China) have generated “global imbalances” which rest on the heart of the present tensions regarding “currency wars” and exchange rates within the global economy. According to his view point, these imbalances of microeconomics are both prerequisite for the financial weep and the ongoing hindrance to the Great Recession. From the perspective of a political economy, this argument is critical since it shifts out attention far from the fiscal microeconomics (for instance, the swaps of default credits, and mortgage-backed equities and securities) toward serious problems (persistent payment imbalances, exchange rate regimes) that have to be looked into carefully to re-establish the global economy.

Not unexpectedly, this renders Wolf to concentrate much on politics, in his article, Wolf put in practice a well-trained vision for realizing how international relations and domestic politics structure policies of economy and have governments’ constrained willingness and ability to work together at global spheres in tacking the consequences and causes of the financial problems.

Implication

His article on “Fixing the global finance”, too has a tremendously significance introductory section on the “Blessings and Perils of Global Finance” which explores the fundamental tradeoffs confronting nations in a space of financial globalization. This memento of the rationale of fiscal markets, the benefits and costs of global financial flows, and the diverse government policy alternatives accessible to tackle the key issues of financial markets (asymmetric/incomplete information, and ethical hazard) remain vital point of start for structuring arguments regarding policies and politics of global finance.

Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, (2009). This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press. Review of International Economics 6:163-182

Summary

Probably the most broadly extolled article to emerge from the contemporary global financial crisis, this work is, in a number of approaches, the quantitative accompany to Kindleberger’s stylish anecdote history of financial problems. As a matter of fact I would suggest that Rogoff and Reinhart’s genuine contribution is not this article (which to me is rather difficult to read), yet robust, massive database which they structured and made accessible to the researchers.

Critique

With remarkable care and comprehensive detail, Rogoff and Reinhart have gathered and analyzed the economic characteristics of nations and problems back to medieval Europe and 20th Centaury China. Hence, “This Time is Different” highlights the outstanding similarities of the financial problems over a period of time, cutting across various cases, highly conspicuous is the existence of “excessive debt accumulation” by banks, governments, consumers and corporations. In different sections, the authors also examine multiple kinds of problems (comprising banking crisis, exchange rates issues and sovereign defaults) in an attempt to precisely make clear why and how “This Time” is seldom (if ever) accurately “different”.

Implication

As Singer David puts it in his piece of article, this treasure data trove is simply a point to start for the political scientist; publishing similarities across crisis (even within the robustly detailed manner that Rogoff and Reinhart have done) illustrates neither discrepancy in the frequency, timing, and severity of neither issues nor the grounds why policymakers across the nations and over period of time continually adopt the kinds of policies which result into financial problems. However, “This Time is Different” remains a magisterial involvement to the area which is comprehension for political economists who are interested in the consequences, determinants and responses to monetary problems.

Raghuram Rajan, Fault Lines: (2010). How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy: Princeton University Press, Developmental International Financial Review, 27 (1):5-31

Summary:

Although very much within the “crisis handbook” genre, Raghuram article stands out because of two reasons. One, Raghuram is among the few economists who would genuinely allege to have predicted to global financial crisis, since the evidence delivered by his famous contrarian publication which was presented in 2005 at the Hole Jackson conference.

Critique

Subsequently, Raghuram’s paper is more credible article than very many papers, and as a result more laudable of detailed focus. The second one and perhaps more importantly, Raghuram rapidly moves beyond the “most proximate suspects” (the villains and heroes of the “present history” and “

to focus much more on the fundamental macroeconomic trends. – the missing links of the article’s title- which caused the problem. These comprise: a) growing inequality of income and stagnation of wages in the United States, which propelled the policymakers’ motivation to offer cheaper credit cards (that was issued in the form of lax fiscal policy and subsidized mortgages) so as to sustain the living standards of the middle class. b) the imbalances of macroeconomics between the deficit and surplus nations in the global economy (concerning this see Wolf Martin) and c) strains between the various financial structure models across the nations (specifically between UK/US on one side and Japan/China on the other side.

Implication

Therefore, Raghuram eschews the decent, “magic bullet” descriptions developed by a number of other researchers, alluding instead that there is ample blame move around, with regulators, bankers, economists, households and governments all have certain obligations for creating the present financial crisis. Though this is less fulfilling on one end “blame all is to blame none” it highly in line with the perspective of political economy, whereby the causal effects, variables interacts are conditional and the results in the global economy are rottenly the outcome of a complex policies, array of interests and trends of a period of many years.

References:

Emerson, J. (2003). The blended value Preposition: Integrating Social and Financial Returns. California Management Journal: 45. 4, pp 35-51.

Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, (2009). This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton University Press. Review of International Economics 6:163-182.

Raghuram Rajan, (2010). Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy: Princeton University Press, Developmental International Financial Review, 27(1):5-31.

Martin Wolf, (2008). Fixing Global Finance. Politics and Global financial growth’, Development Policy Review, 27(1):5-31.

Chang, H-J (2002) Kicking away the ladder: Development strategy in historical

perspective, London: Anthem Press. Global financial Journal, 2, 73-81.

Analysis of the book, A God Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery OConnor.

Analysis of the book, A God Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor.

Introduction

We live in a world that is characterized by good and evil, and as most individuals struggle with being good and performing good acts, others are comfortable exercising evil and performing bad acts. The idea of good and evil is depicted in most artistic pieces ranging from paintings, films, music, and literature. Interestingly, everyone has individual perceptions regarding good and evil, while some draw their ideas from philosophical thought, others base their ideas on religious teachings and practices. One such literary piece is the book, A Good Man is hard to Find, written by the famous American novelist Flannery O’Connor. Influenced by her religious background and her home region, the O’Connor narrates the story of a family who are murdered while taking a vacation trip.

O’Connor is well famed for her emphasis of grotesque stories and characterization, which is considered as being realist, as opposed to, idealist (Connie 74-78). Her literary works were, greatly, influenced by the South, and she uses this setting to bring out her ideas in every literary piece she produces. Accordingly, the author uses her religious background when judging moral and ethical behavior, and for that reason, her literary pieces of work have good versus evil as their central themes. Using morally flawed characters, as well as, presumably morally upright characters, the author presents intriguing stories that capture the interests of her audience at all times (Connie 74-78). More specifically, the novel, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the story is set in Georgia, with the year and time having no explicit definition or designation. The story takes place in two main places: the first place is Georgia, whereas the second setting is on a roadside, more specifically in a ditch. Using these two settings, the author tells the story of how a family was murdered during their trip for a vacation in Florida.

This paper presents a literary analysis of the book, A God Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor. The paper provides an analysis of characterization, and point of views as brought out in the novel. The paper also examines how the author uses symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, and similes to elucidate and enhance the theme of good versus evil.

Characterization

In literature, the characters refer to the people in the text, whose story the author is keen on narrating to readers and audience. In view of that, characterization refers to the author’s development and presentation of characters in the novel (Peterson 1). Just like all other writers, O’Connor has employed two main methods of presenting her audience with her characters in the novel, A Good man is Hard to Find. These methods include direct characterization and indirect characterization. With direct characterization, the narrator directly informs readers about the characters in the novel (Peterson 1). This information can range from providing a description of the characters, as well as, the use of names and overt commentary. Direct characterization in the novel, A Good Man is hard to Find, is presented in two ways including an analysis of the characters by the author, as well as, naming. The author gives Misfit his name as an illustration of his personality and life experiences. Indirect characterization has also been utilized for the novel’s story development, and the author allows each of her characters to reveal themselves and their personalities as the story continues. O’Connor manages to bring this out through the provision of details such as, appearance, mannerisms, as well as, speech (Peterson 1). Evidently, two main characters are revealed in the novel including the grandmother and the misfit. Whereas the grandmother is brought out as the protagonist, the misfit is obviously the antagonist in the story. As a character, the grandmother is the focal point of the story, and she because she considers herself as morally upright, she constantly passes judgment to other characters and criticizes their activities. She does not judge her own ways, something that she later comes to regret immediately before her death. The misfit, on the other hand, is the character that seems to lack moral conscience and is constantly in conviction. Observably, the misfit is brought out as the strongest character in the book in relation to disposition, as he possesses characteristics that all other characters do not.

Point of View

The novel, A Good man is Hard to Find, is written from the third person or omniscient point of view. Accordingly, it is the grandmother’s thoughts and point of view that the readers have access to, thus revealing the use of the third person point of view in the novel. In the novel, O’Connor reports the grandmother’s thoughts, as well as, her actions and conversations thus introducing a new point of view namely, the limited omniscient point of view. An example of this is revealed where the author writes “she knew that Bailey would not be willing to lose anytime looking at an old house” (O’Connor 35). This statement reveals to the readers the grandmothers thoughts about her son Bailey. Misfit is the only other character whose actions, and thoughts that the readers are introduced to, thus building on the third person point of view. However, readers get to learn about Misfit’s ideas in the last part of the novel after he has murdered the family. In one of his thoughts regarding the grandmother, Misfit states, “She would have been a good woman,.. if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor 89). This statement reveals Misfit’s thoughts about the grandmother, as well as, good versus evil.

Symbolism

Symbolism is one of the literary elements that O’Connor has employed in telling the story. In essence, symbolism refers to the process of giving a person, object. or event a meaning that is outside its literal meaning (Peterson 6). Put simply, it is a literary element, which involves the use of representation or imagery. A closer examination of the novel reveals the use of various symbols including grandmother’s hat, Misfit’s car, Toombsboro, the dark forest and the sunless cloudless sky. More specifically, Toombsboro, the town which grandmother and her family pass before their death is used symbolically in the novel. Ideally, Toombsboro is the old plantation where grandmother has memories about (O’Connor, 85). However, the name of the plantation, as well as, the events that take place immediately after passing the plantation reveal something deeper than an old plantation. The name of the plantation suggests doom and misfortune, thus the death of the grandmother and her family.

Irony

O’Connor also employs the use of Irony as a literary element in her novel, A Good man is hard to Find. In literature, irony occurs when one of the characters fails to perceive the obvious (Peterson 5). More specifically, the character fails to understand what the reader and the audience automatically understands when reading the novel. Irony in the novel is demonstrated in the way the grandmother considers herself as a proper and morally upright lady, something that the readers would not consider as true. To the readers, the grandmother actions and thoughts bring her out as a different person from who she think of herself. She is manipulative, she lies and has racist tendencies, and the character sees herself as the opposite of this. However, towards the end of the novel, the character soon realizes that she is not who she considers herself to be but she dies before she can make any changes.

Foreshadowing

In literary writing, foreshadowing is a literary technique where the author uses his characters to foretell the activities that are likely to occur in the novel. Evidently, foreshadowing is O’Connor’s main choice in relation to literary techniques and the author uses the character of the grandmother to foreshadow the tragic developments that occur later on in the novel. An example of the use of foreshadowing is illustrated when the grandmother wears her best clothes and hat for the trip with the excuse that something tragic might happen to the family during the trip. The grandmother states, “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that I was a lady” (O’Connor 6).  This statement foretells the death of the entire family in the hands of the Misfit, which occurs in the last section of the book.

Simile

In the novel, O’Connor also utilizes a number of literary devices to tell her story. Evidently, the author makes her words contribute to the effect of the story through the use of similes. The author’s use of similes in the novel both demonstrates her literary skills, as well as, the events taking place in the novel. An example of a simile used in the novel is in the description of the children’s mother. “She was a young woman in slacks, whose face was as broad and as innocent as a cabbage”(O’Connor 24). This simile, illustrate the gullibility and incompetence of the mother, which makes it easy for others to manipulate her.

Conclusion

In her novel, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor employs the use of various literary elements, techniques and devices to narrate her story. These literary elements and devices include irony, foreshadowing, symbolism, and similes among other things. Because the central theme of the novel is good versus evil, the author uses these literary elements, techniques, and devices to tell her story. Observably, the author effectively utilized these elements, techniques, and devices to communicate the theme of good versus evil in the story.

Work Cited

Connie, Ann Kork. Critical Companion to Flannery O’Connor. New York: Infobase Publishing,

2008. Print. pp. 74–78.

O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. New York: Rutgers University Press, 1953.

Print.

Peterson, D. K. Literary Elements. 15 January 1999. Web. 13 November 2011. <<

http://www.smccd.net/accounts/erpelol/Courses/spring06/lit265aa/worksheets/literary_elements.pdf>>

Analysis of the book, Discipleship Counseling, by Neil Anderson

Book Analysis: Discipleship Counseling

Abstract

In his book, Discipleship Counseling, Anderson examines the significance of discipleship counseling to both the counselor and the counselee. As he presents his ideas in the book, three main themes are brought out including the relationship between psychology and theology, Christ as the ultimate counselor, and the concept of freedom in Christ as a tool for discipleship. These three themes have been the highlight of the book, and the author uses them to pass his message regarding discipleship counseling across. The themes have been used, not only to advise counselors on the approaches towards discipleship counseling, but also as a way of creating understanding on the importance of discipleship counseling.

Key Words: Discipleship Counseling, Psychology, Theology, Freedom in Christ

Introduction

Discipleship and the path towards religious fulfillment have been identified as one of the most complicated processes for individuals today. This is especially so in modern day because of the religious dilution that characterizes society, thus making it hard for people to practice their religions accordingly (Putman & Duek, 2011). Having established this, religious leaders have identified the need for discipleship counseling, which involves providing guidance to individuals regarding discipleship and religion. This form of counseling is much different from secular counseling, as it involves encouraging individuals to live spiritual lives, in accordance with the expectations of their respective religions. Neil Anderson, an author and a religious leader, expounds on this concept in his book, Discipleship Counseling. In this book, Anderson explains the significance of discipleship counseling, as well as, the various approaches towards discipleship counseling.

This paper provides an analysis of the book, Discipleship Counseling, by Neil Anderson. Specifically, the paper examines three themes brought out in the book, as well as, their relationship with the entire context of the book.

Themes

Upon a closer examination of Anderson’s book, it is evident that the author wishes to expound on the concept of discipleship counseling. This includes providing information regarding some of the basic approaches towards the practice. Throughout the book, the author explains some of the concepts and methodologies applied in discipleship counseling, all of which bring are used to build on some themes in this practice. Accordingly, three main themes are brought out in the book including a relationship between psychology and theology, Christ as the ultimate counselor, as well as, freedom in Christ as a contrivance of discipleship.

Relationship between Psychology and Theology

The relationship between psychology and theology is the central theme of the book. This is mainly because the book is centered on discipleship counseling, which is the process of guiding individuals into attaining their full spiritual potential and following the path of Christ (Anderson, 2003). As the author explains, theology and psychology have a close relation, unlike popular belief. Anderson explains that psychology is the study of the human soul, and it is in these souls that faith and religion are ingrained in individuals. Theology, on the other hand, is the study of God and religion, thus explaining the relationship between the two concepts. Accordingly, psychology also embraces human thought and imagination, which is also the root of one’s religious beliefs and practices (Anderson, 2003). Psychology entails an examination of the concept of spirituality, and the significance of this to individuals, something that is part and parcel of theology. As evident from the readings, the entire book examines how psychology can be used to encourage, and in some cases manipulate one’s thoughts regarding their spirituality and religious beliefs (Wade et al., 2007).

As the author explains, cognitive therapy, which is a technique used in discipleship counseling, plays a influential role in shaping one’s beliefs. Human beings lack the ability to control their emotions, but their thought and beliefs can be controlled or manipulated (Anderson, 2003). The author explains that most religious leaders have utilized this strategy to gain discipleship. This, in turn, illustrates the relationship between theology and psychology, and how this is brought out as a theme in the book. Further still, the book examines the role of counseling in human spirituality and religion. As the author explains, most people, especially those that are spiritually oppressed require guidance when it comes to religion. This guidance can be provided either through counselors, or through Christ, which further draws on the relationship between psychology and theology. Being spiritually or mentally oppressed means that individuals are out of touch with their spiritual side, thus requiring the help of another to regain this (Anderson, 2003). Through the help of psychology, individuals have the ability to stabilize their religious wisdom, which further illustrates the relationship between theology and psychology.

Christ as the Ultimate Counselor

Admittedly, this book concerns the provision of counseling for discipleship and throughout the book the readers are introduced to the various approaches in counseling for discipleship. Accordingly, a counselor is defined as a guide: a person who directs another in their path towards spirituality. The author explains that, in most cases, the counselor is usually a human being who seeks to help another in becoming a religious disciple. Though the author describes the counselor as taking the form of a person or a human being, it is clear that Jesus Christ is the ultimate counselor. This can be examined from two main perspectives, Christ as the counselor to the ‘human’ counselor, as well as, Christ as the counselor to the counselee (Anderson, 2003). First and foremost, it is important to understand that for one to be a counselor, he, or she must have achieved the spiritual echelon that they intend their counselee to attain. This means that the ‘human’ counselor ought to have attained this spiritual height, he or she needed to have received counseling from another.

In essence, Christ is identified as the supreme counselor in relation to discipleship (Anderson, 2003). This is because Christ provides the necessary spiritual guidance for these ‘human’ counselors to guide others, as well as, themselves in the path towards Christianity. It is through the help of Christ that these counselors can guide their counselees into achieving the life that they seek in Christ. The author explains that because Christ is not physically present to provide counseling for his believers, the Bible, which is the holy book, explains what Christ expects from his followers. By reading the Bible, individuals are, therefore, guided into the ideal, Christian way of life (Anderson, 2003). Counselors, as well as, counselees get to understand what is expected of Christians, and for that reason, allow them to practice this accordingly.

Freedom in Christ as a Contrivance of Discipleship

The third and last theme brought out in the book is the theme of freedom in Christ, especially in relation to discipleship. Chapters nine through to fifteen elucidate on the concept of freedom in Christ, as well as, the different types of freedoms that individuals can attain. Accordingly, these chapters also reveal an underlying theme regarding discipleship, which is freedom in Christ as a contrivance of discipleship. As the author explains, the journey towards achieving discipleship comes with plenty of demands and sacrifices (Garzon et al., 2009). To attain spirituality and discipleship as required, individuals need to exercise freedom in Christ, which is defined as an encounter with God that is free from unnecessary ties and attachments. In essence, freedom in Christ involves the affirmation of individuals’ identities in Christ, renouncing all lies and deceptions, opting for the truth as presented in the Bible, as well as, the resolution of any personal or spiritual conflict that made interfere with the relationship with Christ (Anderson, 2003).

By adhering to these demands of freedom in Christ, individuals are, therefore, granted the ability to walk as disciples of God. As the author explains, it is only through the freedom in Christ that individuals will have the ability to acknowledge their discipleship to Christ and God. In support of this, the author provides a list of things that individuals need to free themselves including deception, bitterness, rebellion, pride, as well as, habitual and ancestral sins (Anderson, 2003).

Conclusion

Discipleship counseling is a crucial aspect in theology and religious studies. Anderson has successfully managed to explain this concept to interested readers in his book, thus encouraging awareness and comprehension on the practice. Accordingly, the readings in Andersons book reveal three underlying themes, all of which build on the concept of discipleship counseling. Understanding the relationship between psychology and theology, Christ as the supreme counselor, as well as, freedom in Christ as a tool for discipleship enables individuals to engage in discipleship counseling accordingly.

References

Anderson, N. T. (2003). Discipleship Counseling. USA: Gospel Light.

Garzon, F. L. et al. (2009). Lay Christian Counseling and Client Expectations for Integration in

Therapy. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 28(2): 113-120.

Putman, K. & Duek, A. (2011). Community Psychology, The Church, and Theological

Perspectives: Introduction to the Special Issue. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 39(1): 183-185.

Wade, N. G. et al. (2007). Effectiveness of religiously tailored interventions in Christian therapy.

Psychotherapy Research, 17(1): 91-105.

Analysis of the play, Trifles, by Susan Glaspell

Introduction

While the character John Wright, a farmer by profession lies down on his bed to get some sleep, someone sneaks in to his room in the middle of the night and murders him by strangling him to death with a rope (Glaspell 1-24). Minnie Wright, the farmer’s wife is the number one suspect for the murder and the play centers on figuring this out. Composed in the year 1916, the play, Trifles, by Susan Glaspell is a one-act play with John and Minnie Wright as the two main characters. The story is based on actual events that took place in Susan’s earlier years. The play consists of three sequential parts, all of which try to elucidate the events that led to the murder of John Wright.

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the play, Trifles, by Susan Glaspell. Specifically, the paper examines the themes of patriarchal domination and female identity as brought out in the play by Susan Glaspell.

Trifles By Susan Glaspell

As previously mentioned, the play, Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, is a play centered on discovering the murderer of John Wright. Together with the authorities and a group of friends, his wife Minnie, who is also the main suspect in the case, engage in a search of the house to identify the possible clues regarding his murder. Arguably, the play, Trifles is concerned about the relationship between men and women in society today (Keller 3). The author intends to use this play to communicate the different gender perceptions that individuals have in society and how this has affected their treatment in society. The relationship between men and women is brought out in different ways, and the characters in the play are used to accentuate how the two genders communicate, and perceive each other. The way the search is conducted in the house also shines a light on the relationship between the two genders, as the men dismiss searching female places and women are persisted in searching throughout the house for the discovery of what happened. Accordingly, two main concepts or themes are brought out in the play with regards to the relationship between men and women. These concepts include, patriarchal domination and female identity, and they are used to illustrate how the two genders related to each other in the play.

Patriarchal Domination

The male characters in the play, Trifles, even the deceased John Wright, portray a sense of self-importance, which they use to impose their ideas on the female characters. At the outset, patriarchal domination is brought out in the way the male characters give the female characters their identities by virtue of the relationship between men and women (Keller 11-13). The men do not believe that women can obtain their identity through their own unique personalities and for that reason have to rely on the men to achieve this. Patriarchal domination is also brought out in the naming of each of the characters, especially the female characters. While men maintain their own names after marriage, women are forced to take up their spouse’s names, which illustrates how these men have managed to dominate over women in the play (Keller 11-13). Additionally, the men are looked out to as sources of law and authority, thus building on the concept of patriarchal dominance in the play. The author depicts men as the serious-minded, and law minded individuals, granting them permission to conduct all the investigations regarding the murder of John (Keller 11-13). Additionally, male superiority in the play is so insidious that the men find comfort in disparaging the women’s curiosity regarding the murder. During the play, one of the male characters is quick to state that women are considerably inconsistent and intolerant to involve themselves in important issues (Glaspell 13). Patriarchal domination in the play is also brought out in the way the investigations are conducted throughout the play. Men accord themselves with so much superiority and self-confidence that they believe the only proper investigations that are to be carried out need to be done by the men. For that reason, the conclusion they reach regarding the murder of Wright appears as biased and inconclusive.

Female Identity

Closely related to patriarchal domination, another concept that has been brought out in the play, Trifles, revolves around female identity. Evidently, the female characters have lost their identities to their male counterparts (Keller 11-13). This comes as a result of the pompous male attitude regarding women and their roles in society. Because of this attitude, women have lost their ability to assert themselves, losing their unique identities, and being shut out of making important decisions. For example, in the play, the male characters state that, Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife is married to the law because of the sheriff’s occupation (Glaspell 20). This illustrates how the female characters have lost their identities. However, the female identity is also, in a way, brought out as being superior to that of the men. This is clearly illustrated in the way the women carry out their investigations, as they are keen on finding out everything that may have led to the murder without any disregard like the men.

Conclusion

Glaspell’s play, Trifles, can be argued as being a feminist play. This is because the play is centered on showing the relationship between men and women, with this relationship being brought out as heinous. Men exercise dominance over their women, and for that reason, the women lose their identities in the process (Keller 11-13). In a way, the play encourages women to assert themselves much more for the betterment of their lives.

Work Cited

Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. United Kingdom: Walter H. Baker, 2010. Print.

Keller, Mathias. Symbolic Realism in Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’. Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2007.

Print.

PART ONE

PART ONE

According to the United States Department of Justice Office on Violence against Women, the definition of domestic violence is an example of harmful conduct in any relationship that is utilized by one accomplice to deal with another close accomplice. Many sorts of misuse are remembered for the meaning of domestic violence, they include:

Actual maltreatment that can incorporate hitting, gnawing, slapping, battering, pushing, punching, pulling hair, consuming, trimming, squeezing, and so forth (any kind of brutal conduct caused for the person in question). Actual maltreatment likewise incorporates denying somebody clinical treatment and constraining medication/liquor use on somebody.

Sexual maltreatment happens when the victimizer pressures or endeavours to force the casualty into having sexual contact or sexual conduct without the casualty’s assent. This regularly appears as conjugal assault, assaulting sexual body parts, actual brutality that is trailed by driving sex, physically belittling the person in question, or in any event, making sexual wisecracks at the casualty’s cost.

Psychological mistreatment includes refuting or emptying the casualty’s self-appreciation worth as well as confidence. Psychological mistreatment regularly appears as steady analysis, ridiculing, harming the casualty’s relationship with his/her kids, or meddling with the casualty’s capacities.

Monetary maltreatment happens when the victimizer makes or attempts to make the casualty monetarily dependent. Monetary victimizers regularly try to keep up with absolute command over monetary assets, keep the casualties admittance to reserves, or deny the casualty from going to the everyday schedule.

Mental maltreatment includes the victimizer conjuring dread through terrorizing; taking steps to truly hurt himself/herself, the person in question, youngsters, the casualty’s family or companions, or the pets; annihilation of property; harming the pets; separating the casualty from friends and family; and disallowing the casualty from going to the everyday schedule. Dangers to hit, harm, or utilize a weapon are a type of mental maltreatment.

Following can incorporate after the person in question, spying, watching, annoying, appearing at the casualty’s home or work, sending gifts, gathering data, settling on telephone decisions, leaving composed messages, or showing up at an individual’s home or work environment. These demonstrations independently are commonly lawful, however any of these practices done ceaselessly brings about a following wrongdoing (Yaqub, 2014).

Cyberstalking alludes to online activity or continued messaging that causes significant passionate trouble in the beneficiary.

Violence against women, including intimate partner violence (IPV), is a significant obstruction to the satisfaction of women’s human rights and to the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), (Musa, 2019). This is specific the situation in low-pay and centre pay nations, where the commonness will in general be higher. IPV mulls over any conduct inside an intimate relationship that causes physical, mental or sexual mischief to those in the relationship. According to WHO gauges, almost 23% of women aged between 25 and 30 years and more established all over the planet have encountered physical or sexual violence because of an intimate partner in the course of their lives, with significantly higher extents found in Africa and South East Asia.

IPV openness altogether impacts the wellbeing and prosperity of women by expanding the danger of unfavourable results and hazard practices like burdensome manifestations, self-destructive contemplations and endeavours, liquor and medication use, undesirable pregnancies, foetus removals and sexual communicated infections. Women presented to IPV are more averse to get satisfactory antenatal and gifted conveyance care than women who have not experienced abuse. There is likewise developing proof that IPV and kid abuse can co-happen inside families and produce intergenerational effects. Children of moms encountering IPV are under a higher danger of under-five mortality, helpless development and improvement, just as to an expanded danger of executing or encountering IPV against women later in life, (Bacchus, 2018).

Given its inescapable, significant and durable ramifications for survivors and families, I have progressively perceived the pressing need to further develop worldwide approach activity to handle violence against women in the age bracket 25-30. In this unique circumstance, I consider a particular objective on disposing of all types of violence against women and young ladies inside the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—under the objective of accomplishing sexual orientation equity and enabling all women and young ladies—which I vital believe to be expanding responsibility by states. Notwithstanding the developing global consideration, in any case, there is as yet restricted interest in IPV examination and coordination in estimating progress towards the 2030 SDGs in most low-income and middle-income countries (Loxton,, 2017).

Routine detailing and disaggregated investigations at country level are fundamental to recognize population subgroups that are especially defenceless against IPV openness, helping the execution of designated proof based anticipation and reaction programming. For the current investigation, I assessed ongoing IPV levels across LMICs and imbalances as per family riches, women’s age, women’s strengthening level, polygyny status of the partnership and space of home.

I will gather my data by utilized information from Demographic and Health Surveys, (as my secondary data) led in LMICs somewhere in the range of 2010 and 2017 that incorporated the ‘abusive behaviour at home module’ and evaluated IPV utilizing an organized poll, observing the WHO rules for the direct of IPV research. These rules underline individual educated assent and the significance regarding guaranteeing classification and security to work on the nature of the information and assurance the wellbeing of the respondent. In this manner, women will possibly answer the inquiries on the violence module in the event that the ideal conditions are met. My target group (women aged 25-30 years) who were common inhabitants of the chose family or who dozed in the families the night prior to the overview will be qualified for individual meetings with the full lady’s survey. Given the affectability of the inquiries, I will choose a subsample of women for the violence module (one qualified lady for each family I tend to interview). For the current investigation, my IPV gauges will aim to produce at the nation level by reanalysing the first study information, (Fry, 2017). Test loads will be utilized to adapt to inside family determination and non-reaction, guaranteeing that the abusive behaviour at home subsample will be broadly delegated. The moral obligation regarding the Demographic and Health Surveys lies with the establishments that directed the reviews in every nation; my team and I, hence, won’t need morals endorsement for this review.

The current pervasiveness of my IPV will be characterized by the extent of ever-partnered women aged 25-30 years who will announce to have encountered somewhere around one demonstration of IPV by a current or previous intimate partner in the beyond a year, autonomously of the recurrence. Questions asked to the women will: ‘Did your (last) spouse at any point do any of the accompanying things to you?’ and ‘How frequently did this occur during the most recent a year: regularly, just once in a while, or not in any way?’. The demonstrations introduced to members to evaluate the event of each kind of IPV are summed up in box 1. Gauges will be determined independently for mental, physical and sexual IPV. A consolidated mark of having encountered physical or sexual IPV, or both, will likewise determine the similarity with past distributions on the theme.

Situation for women to assess Event to be assessed Extent of event. Give a rating of between 1 and 5. Where one is the least and 5 the highest.

1 2 3 4 5

Physical violence Twist your arm or pull your hair. Punch you with fist or hit with something that could hurt you Push you, shake you or throw something at you. Slap you. Try to choke you or burn you on purpose. Threaten or attack you with a gun, knife or other weapon Kick you, drag you, or beat you up. Sexual violence Physically force you to have sexual intercourse with him when you did not want to.

Force you with threats or in any other way to perform sexual acts you did not want to. Physically forced you to perform any other sexual act when you did not want.

Psychological violence Insult you or make to feel bad about herself.

Say or do something to humiliate you in front of others. Threaten to hurt or harm you or someone you cared about. Part 2

Program Design Draft

Hypothesis: If we provide other options to victims to access their resources and worker, such as case managers, counselors, etc., during pandemics, then fewer domestic violence cases and more safe victims.

Mission Statement: For victims, the mission is to guide them with all available resources that are available during pandemics, to teach them how safe is the available alternative options, to work with them on the type of electronics that need for this access, to empower the victims with knowledge of how to be safe during state crisis.

Goal: To develop and prepare the alternative ways of accessing services during pandemics and state crises so that Domestic Violence victims could receive their supports, resources, and needs to be addressed.

Objectives-

By the year, increase 25% of alternative ways to communicate to counselors, case managers, and other workers.

By the year, at least 25% of workshops to be available for victims and cases to be worked on during pandemics.

By the year to decrease 50% of domestic violence calls and cases.

By six months, 50% of 100 workshops to have participants and know how to access these programs by Telehealth communications.

Program Plan

Faculty and Staff- (can be either part time/ full time and either in person or virtually)

Program Director/ Assistant Program Director- (Full Time, Virtual and in Person)

Coordinate and supervise the program tasks. To administer, motivate, hire, and train to staff. Create and nurture affective communication within the organization. Initiate and set goals for programs base on the organization strategic objectives. Develop and approve operations and budgets.

Bilingual Preferred

One Program Director, Two Assistant Program Director

Three days virtual, two days in person

Requirements

Master’s degree in social work, human services

Two years or more of managements supervision

Five years or more of managerial experience

Solid knowledge of the overall department function

Education Coordinator- (Part Time, either Remotely or in Person)

The Education Coordinator provides support and assistance, development of educational programs. Duties may include use of electronics communications and technology, preparation of reports and program documentation, develop workshop for domestic violence victims.

Five Education Coordinators

Bilingual preferred

Should choose wether in person or remotely, aware of the change of shift if need to revise more hours

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in social work, human service or related field

One year of work experience in educational setting

Five year of work experience in domestic violence

Work independently on highly complex or strategic assignment

Victim Advocate- (Full Time, Remotely and in Person, Shift Change)

Providing crisis intervention, safety planning, counseling and advocacy. Providing clients with information and referrals to outside services. Assess the urgency of victims needs and seek immediate assistance for those issues affecting victim safety.

Five victim advocate

Bilingual preferred

Requirements

Master’s degree in social work, human service, criminal justice or related field

Five years of work experience in domestic violence

Must have experience providing mental health services.

Social Worker- (Full time & Part time, in person or remotely)

Responsible for managing multiple clients and their individual needs. Developing treatment for clients with mental illness or clients recovering from traumatic events. Address patient concerns and goals while maintaining constant communications with the patients. Develop care plans for patients.

Six social workers

Bilingual preferred

Three full time in person, 3 part time remotely (shift change)

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master degree in social worker

Valid and current LCSW or LMSW license

Five years of clinical social work experience

Two years or more in working with domestic violence

Ability to make psychosocial assessment and develop and implement care plans

Domestic Violence Counselors- (Full time and Part time, remote or in person)

Promote safety, independence and healing for victims of domestic violence. Provide hotline, counseling, support group, advocacy services. Must be active providing services either by phone, online or in person.

Five Domestic violence counselors

Bilingual preferred

Rotates shift either remote or in person

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree

Two years of experience in working with victims of domestic violence or Telehealth counseling’s

Ability to work in a fast paced environment, assess priorities, handle multiple assignments

Intern/ Volunteer- (Fully Remote)

Will have the unique role of answering questions, debrief difficult calls, chats, coordinating and planning support groups, engagement activities.

Three intern students per semester (150 hours)

Two volunteer worker (6 months, 24 hours per week)

Requirements

Intern must be in any degree program within human service related

Volunteer worker must provide resume, cover letter, letter recommendation

Computer skills knowledge of zoom or Telehealth communications

Must show good time management skills and be responsible

Activities

Faculty and Staff-

Before hiring all faculty and staff would be trained properly to use and have knowledge of using Telehealth communications. How to create zooms meeting, phone calls meetings and chat meeting safely for the victims. All be preparation for pandemics and state crisis.

After hiring all faculty and staff are required to participate in meeting and workshops.

Meetings would be giving three times a month (all meetings would be remotely). Meeting would be an opportunity for workers to ask questions, provide new ideas for the program.

Workshops- as the program is growing, workshops would be held every two months or if new activities or service is added, the worker would be informed. Workshops would be either remotely or in person.

All worker would also be prepared to work remotely during state crisis and pandemics. If any pandemics occur worker would be prepared with phone and computer to be worked from home.

Clients/Victims-

In the program there would be workshops provided to the clients. The workshops would teach clients how to access to all alternatives ways, to reach to their worker or counselors. Also, clients would be provided with technology equipment if necessary. They would have the opportunity to learn how to use each electronics devices.

The workshop would be help at the beginning of each month and the end of each month (If the 1st fall in a weekend the workshop would be held the first Monday of the month and the last Monday of the month). There would be two sections for each workshop. For the beginning of the month the first section would be 9am- 11am in English second section at 1pm-3pm in Spanish in person. For the end of the month would be the same time but through zoom meeting (link would be provided through email or flyers to the client)

-To obtain electronic devices would be giving once a month with referrals from their workers.

For electronic devices workshop would be held in person. The time for these workshops would be from 9am to 12pm on Wednesday’s of the second week of the month. While receiving the devices, the client would have an opportunity to learn how to access the program online, how to set up appointment with their worker either in person or online. Also, they would learn if having emergency how to access to the emergency portal.

Completion-

After each workshops clients would be giving survey giving the program feedback to either know how to maintain or the improvements of the programs. After each client completion goal, they would be asked to speak in either workshop to provide information and how the program was a help to complete their goal and how they survive or write a letter to be giving to other clients.

PART 3

My team and I will present proof on the degree of flow mental, physical and sexual IPV and related imbalances utilizing public review information from LMICs that utilized comparable exploration plan and strategies to evaluate IPV, (Coll,). The discoveries will clarify that IPV against women is inescapable and that disparities in pervasiveness, both between and inside nations, can be tremendous. We will proof the public commonness of mental IPV fluctuation from 6.4% in Comoros (Easter and Southern Africa) to 34.4% in Afghanistan (South Asia), while physical and additionally sexual IPV changed from 3.5% in Armenia (Europe and Central Asia) to 46% in Afghanistan. The disaggregated investigations will aim to uncovered commonness holes more prominent than 20 rate focuses between a portions of the populace subgroups. We will show how less fortunate, more youthful and less enabled women are especially defenseless against experience IPV in many LMICs just as women in polygynous families and those living in country regions.

In any case, that there will be general examples seen from the disaggregated investigations, we will obviously focuses to the applicable crossing points between IPV event with destitution and other sexual orientation disparity indications. Albeit the crossing point among neediness and IPV might be self-evident and has been widely announced in the literature, it is astonishing how outrageous the designing by abundance is for a portion of the nations contemplated. In India, for instance, commonness holes is believed to be between the most extravagant and helpless gatherings of women surpassed 20 rate focuses for physical as well as sexual IPV (12.6% in the most extravagant abundance quintile versus 35.3% in the least fortunate abundance quintile). Our discoveries likewise will aim to show that undeniable degrees of strengthening are reliably connected to bring down IPV openness. However the reasons for IPV are perplexing, the job of sex disparity in cultivating IPV is all around acknowledged and archived in the literature, especially with regards to LMICs where women might encounter seriously confined social and monetary freedoms comparative with men. More engaged women by and large have more command over their own lives and conditions and, subsequently, a lower likelihood of experiencing late IPV as the people who endured misuse might be bound to look for help. Simultaneously, women encountering misuse may likewise have a more prominent probability of underwriting misuse. This could originate from the way that rehashed misuse might decrease a lady’s confidence and subsequently increment her penchant to fault herself for reasons unknown is setting off IPV (eg, consuming the food), (Garcia-Moreno, 2006). Low strengthening may likewise reflect solid local area sexual orientation standards that help spouse beating. From one or the other side, I believe our outcomes support will be the possible adequacy of mediations that will advance women’s strengthening by tending to standards that legitimize wife beating for IPV reduction.

The solid connection among polygyny and violence against women found in the current review will additionally be accounted for in the literature. We will search on explanations as to why there is expansion of IPV in polygynous families.

We will aim at finding if the disaggregated examinations can demonstrate which subgroups of the populace are at higher danger and in this manner most needing mediations, our expected outcomes should be deciphered in consideration to the environmental idea of the investigations played out that are not appropriate to stablish causal connections between IPV openness and the stratifies picked to explore imbalances. Given the cross-sectional nature of the DHS, these overviews are more valuable for reconnaissance purposes than etiological investigations. It is likewise critical to perceive that albeit the variables picked for information disaggregation give a significant evaluation of the weakest gatherings of women with regards to LMICs, there are absolutely other pertinent danger factors that decide women’s weakness to IPV openness that will not be investigated in our review (eg, women living with handicap and transsexual women). Likewise, while a portion of the nations remembered for these information have legitimate acknowledgment of same-sexual orientation marriage, lawful sex progress as well as a legitimately perceived third sex, DHS information are by and large gathered with a supposition that respondents are cis-women partnered with cis-men and in this manner these discoveries don’t represent different connections and may misclassify a few respondents. To the extent we know, the DHS additionally don’t offer variations in information assortment strategies for women with handicaps and, along these lines, this gathering might be under-addressed in our information. This would bring about an underrate of IPV levels since inability has been connected to a higher danger of encountering IPV among women.

We ought to have an alert when practicing while the distinctions in the general degrees of IPV since there will ways be a few women who won’t uncover data on IPV. Subsequently, despite the fact that e will use commonness gauges ordered here, we should permit examinations across settings, which is undeniably significant, they should all presumably be viewed as low-end estimates. Moreover, the degree of under-revealing is probably going to shift with respondent’s qualities just as social and normal practices that underlie the acknowledgment of violence in each setting.

Regardless of the inborn constraints of oneself revealed information and the execution of a violence module in an expansive wellbeing survey, the DHS has been fusing the best ways to deal with investigating violence against women in a morally dependable manner with act-put together normalized questions based with respect to develops that have been approved. Moreover, the IPV pointers assesse will give a moderate relationship the Gender Inequality Index, which will estimates sex disparities in three important parts of human improvement at the nation level—regenerative wellbeing, strengthening and work market cooperation.

The acknowledgment that all endeavors towards accomplishing the SDGs will be restricted without handling violence against women as a focal component of sex disparity sets out an exceptional freedom to fortify the interest in and ability to carry out proof based systems. With the fast expansion in the assortment of populace information on women’s openness to IPV and different types of violence, the foundation of appropriate baselines utilizing dependable information on pervasiveness is fundamental for future observing on abandoning nobody. The current review propels the current information by giving a worldwide display of the commonness of various types of IPV across LMICs, helping the distinguishing proof of the weakest gatherings of women for which mediations ought to be focused on in every country. The observing of progress towards the disposal of violence against women and young ladies will require endeavors for routine information assortment utilizing normalized and precise systems. These will be fundamental to evaluate the genuine effect of avoidance and reaction techniques that have been carried out with regards to LMICs after some time. The SDG 5 on sex equity and strengthening, all things considered, and young ladies incorporates the end of IPV as an objective, however almost certainly, to handle IPV we really want to engage women first with the goal that they feel like they are qualified for a daily existence liberated from violence.

References

Garcia-Moreno, C., Jansen, H. A., Ellsberg, M., Heise, L., & Watts, C. (2006). WHO Multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence. Prevalence of intimate partner violence: findings from the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence. Lancet, 368, 1260-9.

Coll, C. V., Ewerling, F., García-Moreno, C., Hellwig, F., & Barros, A. J. (2020). Intimate partner violence in 46 low-income and middle-income countries: an appraisal of the most vulnerable groups of women using national health surveys. BMJ global health, 5(1), e002208.

World Health Organization. (2013). Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. World Health Organization.

Bacchus, L. J., Ranganathan, M., Watts, C., & Devries, K. (2018). Recent intimate partner violence against women and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. BMJ open, 8(7), e019995.

Yaqub, O., Castle-Clarke, S., Sevdalis, N., & Chataway, J. (2014). Attitudes to vaccination: a critical review. Social science & medicine, 112, 1-11.

Musa, A., Chojenta, C., Geleto, A., & Loxton, D. (2019). The associations between intimate partner violence and maternal health care service utilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC women’s health, 19(1), 1-14.

Fry, D. A., & Elliott, S. P. (2017). Understanding the linkages between violence against women and violence against children. The Lancet Global Health, 5(5), e472-e473.

Loxton, D., Dolja-Gore, X., Anderson, A. E., & Townsend, N. (2017). Intimate partner violence adversely impacts health over 16 years and across generations: A longitudinal cohort study. PLoS One, 12(6), e0178138.

Management of Employee Welfare

Management of Employee Welfare

Wage and work hour protection laws vary from state to state. However, there are a number of protection laws that are the same in all of the United States. One of them is the protection law on unemployment benefits. In the event the employer is the one responsible for the termination, there are specific laws that should be adhered to (Vosco et al., 1). Individuals must have been jobless due to events beyond their power, such as layoffs or dismissals, and must also satisfy state-specific standards in order to be eligible for benefits. Employees generally have access to benefits for up to 6 months, though reimbursements may occasionally be prolonged during difficult economic circumstances.

Another wage and work hour protection law is the family leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted into law in 1993 (Vosco et al., 1). As an outcome, qualified workers are entitled to up to 3 months of leave without pay each year if they choose to stay at home after child birth or adopting a baby or in the event of a significant sickness for themselves or a member of their family. One must have been employed by the firm for at minimum a year and 1,250 hours in order to be eligible for FMLA payments. The law of employment based discrimination has also become very effective (Vosco et al., 1). The laws forbid employers from discriminating on employees based on gender, age, disability, race, religion and national origin. It states that all employees should be paid and treated the same based on their knowledge, skills and work experience.

Statutory Laws affecting Employee Rights over the Past 50 years

In the last 50 years, there have been a number of changes in the workforce. Employees have been given more rights to give them an easy time at work. Women who previously stayed at home and took care of their families now balance between families and work. The number of people in the workforce over the age of 35 has also increased as from the 1970s (Hofmann et al., 2). There are laws that protect employees against discrimination of age, gender, disability, race and religion. Other significant changes in employee rights laws include the least salary nationally which has been set by the Fair Labor Standards Act at $7.25 per hour, while specific states choose a higher rate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for enforcing occupational safety legislation (Hofmann et al, 2). A company and worker payroll tax pays for Social Security benefits.

OSHA Violation in Texas

In February 2022, OSHA cited W.D. Townley and Son Lumber Company Incorporation after investigating since July 2021. This was after receiving a report that an employee had fallen from a stack of pallets (3). OSHA reported that the company lacked energy control procedures, dangerous equipment protection techniques and head protection gear. The company did not also alert OSHA of the accident 8 hours after it occurred. This was violation of OSHA laws which stated that each employer is required to create and maintain working environments that are generally safe, healthy, and free from observable risks that are causing or are likely to cause employee fatalities or significant physical harm (3).

Workers Compensation in Texas

According to Texas workers’ compensation legislation, an illness or injury acquired while promoting or carrying out the boss’s operations is covered, regardless of who is responsible. This includes illnesses sustained during work-related travel (Heyman & Timm, 4). A third party’s criminal act if directed at the worker for a limited purpose unconnected to the job, acts of religion, the worker’s pranks, willful heinous crimes or self-injury, drunkenness from alcohol or drugs informed consent in an off-duty leisure activity, inebriation, or other circumstances not obscured by the insurance. Injury reports must be submitted within 30 days of the incident, the initial impairment rating must be challenged within 3 months of its issuing, and the official documentation for a workers’ compensation claim must be submitted within 12 months of the incident (Heyman & Timm, 4). Those timeframes begin to run from the day the worker should have realized the illness or injury was related to their place of employment if the connection between the two was not immediately evident.

Lotz, Wolfgang, and Deborah Howard. Architecture in Italy, 1500-1600. New Haven Yale University Press, 1995. Print

Lotz, Wolfgang, and Deborah Howard. Architecture in Italy, 1500-1600. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. Print.

November 1

Introduction

Early renaissance architecture in Italy

Chapter 20

November 2

The classic revival

Gothic architecture abandonment in Italy and in its place classic models were occasioned was not obviously a local revolution. Evidently, the revolution was because of a reflective and universal intellectual faction, with roots traced to the middle ages. All these were manifested in Italy, as the conditions were extremely propitious. The spread was rapid in Europe with similar conditions witnesses in other countries, which seems to be prepared to embrace the concept.

November 4

ARTS RENAISSANCE

Conversely, classic Roman architecture has never lost Italian taste influence. Gothic art, which is already experiencing a decline in the West, was never embraced in Italy rather than a borrowed garb with clothing architectural conceptions preferred to Gothic. The antique monuments abounded on each hand seemed present in artist models and Florentines associated with the early fifteenth century. The civilization represented a human culture, which was ideal. The situation resulted to churches losing their hold on culture with the increased penetration of the new culture in private luxury as well as public display. 

November 6

EARLY BEGINNINGS

The 13th century saw the pulpits of Niccolo Pisano in Sienna together with Pisa reveal the fact the master’s direct recourse associated with antique monuments for motivation. There was frequent appearance of classic forms in the fourteenth centaury as evident in the followers of frescoes of Giotto and Gothic buildings architectural details. This was evident in Florence that was considered Italy artistic capital. There had never been a community permeated with love for beauty and endowed with the ability to recognize it since Pericles days.

November 8

PERIODS

 There are four classic styles that emanated from Renaissance, the first one being the early renaissance (1420–90).It was characterized by freedom of attractive detail, recommended by Roman prototypes. The composition entailed great variety and authenticity. The second one was high renaissance (1490–1550). The period saw classic details being copied with rising fidelity evident in orders appearing in approximately all compositions. At the same time, the decoration seemed to lack grace and autonomy. The third style was Baroco (1550–1600), which was a classic formality period, exemplified by the usage of colossal orders, scanty direction and engaged columns. The last one was Later Baroque and was marked by invention of poverty as portrayed in their composition .The predominate factor was vulgar sham and decoration display. Broken pediments characterized the style with vast scrolls, florid stucco-work in addition to complete ignorance of architectural propriety considered universal.

November 10

CONSTRUCTION AND DETAIL

 The Renaissance architect occupied themselves mostly with form rather than construction, and hardly ever experienced constructive challenges. Even though, the new architecture started with the gigantic cathedral dome in Florence with culmination of an astonishing St. Peter church in Rome. It mainly was a palaces and villas architecture decorative display façades. Constructive challenges were reduced to lowest terms with constructive framework concealed and not highlighted by the decorative design apparel. The early Renaissance masterpieces were buildings of small dimensions like gates, fountains chapels, and tombs.

November 12

Florence early renaissance

 The year 1417 saw a public competition conducted for the completion Florence Cathedral by a dome over the huge octagon, which was 143 feet in relation to diameter. A sculptor called Filippo Brunelleschi and an architect (1377–1446) together with Donatello began their journey to Rome with an aim of studying of ancient art masterworks. Their demonstrations of weaknesses in all the proposed solutions buy the competitors permitted them undertake the huge task. The plan had an octagonal dome found in two shells liked by other eight major in addition to sixteen minor ribs crowned at the top by a lantern. The original conception, went beyond the Moslem art was made an external feature terminating light forms and with the upward lantern movement carried out between 1420 and 1464. Even with no wise Roman forms imitation, it remained classic in spirit, vastness and line simplicity. All these were made possible by Brunelleschi Roman design study as well as construction.

November 14

Other Churches

 Brunelleschi’s designs also were constructed in  Pazzi Chapel found in Sta. A charming Greek design called Croce cross covered a dome at an intersection, and paved way for vestibule with an opulently decorated vault as evident with the two grand churches such as S. Lorenzo and S. Spirito. The two of them were reproduced to measure the Pisa Cathedral plan and had a three aisled transepts in addition to nave with a dome crossing over. On the other hand, the side aisles had domical vaults coverings with the centre aisles having plaster ceilings and flat wooden. The column details, arches, as well as moldings were imitations of Roman models with the result being something new. Deliberately, Brunelleschi revived Byzantine, which is different from Roman conceptions in relation to planning or structural design associated with domical church. At the same time, the attire, which he dressed them, seemed Roman in detail. Another dominant design of grand beauty associated with Old Sacristy was S. Lorenzo.

November 16

Courtyards; arcades

The palaces were constructed around interior courts, with the walls resting on columnar arcades evident in P. Riccardi. The arcades origin might be found in arcaded cloisters linked to churches, which were medieval monastic and suggest classic models. An example of such a scenario was of St. Paul and St. John Lateran in Rome. It is evident that Brunelleschi not only come up with columnar arcades to a number of cloisters in addition to palace courts, but used them efficiently as exterior elements in Loggia S. Paolo and Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence. The main drawback in the light arcades remained their incapability to endure vaulting thrust over the space, which was behind them, and the subsequent recourse of iron tie-rods while using vaults. Conversely, the Italians, nevertheless, cared less about the disfigurement.

November 17

Minor Works

 The new style details developed quite rapidly in solely decorative works evident in monumental buildings. Altars, pulpits, mural monuments, ciboria and tabernacles, afforded a range genius distinguished artists. Among the celebrated artists were Lucca della Robbia, Mino da Fiesole and Benedetto da Majano. The possession of a wonderful invention fertility multiplied their works in unexpected number s as well as variety not only in northern Italy but in Rome as well as Naples. The most celebrated examples of were a pulpit located in Sta. There was a terra-cotta fountain in the sacristy by Croce, Novella done by Della Robbias, Marsupini tomb found in Sta .The works of these characters were instrumental in making Renaissance first appearance in a new setting as the case in Naples, Lucca, Senna and Pisa.

November I HOUR EXAM

November JOURNAL DUE Chapter 20

November Final exam

Life Coaching and Transition

Life Coaching and Transition

Abstract

Life coaching can provide leaders with the ability to learn how to create development and have a system to focus on growing in emotionally and through different transitions in life. By addressing certain situations during life’s challenges or low points, it can change the way a leader teaches or even make the client aware of how to handle a challenge with better coping performance. Building up to assisting clients to develop from life coaching, there must be an understanding about the relationship and knowledge that is learned that will help them confront challenges ahead of them. Coaching leadership can be powerful to the client while building relationships and reflecting on the challenges that the client will face. In life, there are various stages that we may face. It can be marital problems, depression from job layoffs, or improving in time management. In life coaching we want to support our clients and hold them responsible for their actions. During our lives we go through changes learned from experience, and rather than run away from difficult situations, a life coach can teach a client to be responsible with taking action on setting goals and accomplishing them. Life coaching can be positive while leaving an impact with faith and the motivation to be applied for attaining short and long term and to find solutions through conflict or problems. Our clients face trials and tribulations in the world, but as humans that make errors it is also acceptable to learn from our errors while adapting and conquering battles, difficulties, and setbacks of our lives.

First Section

Life coaching is a form of therapeutic counseling that motivates, teaches, and supports clients and allows them to make their own choices that are necessary for them and not what we think is best for them. The life coach should be consistent in placing responsibility on the client and for them to take action with their own accountability to the life to which God has lead them to be encouraged to move forward in their agenda or vision. Wanting a coach can be for many benefits such as personal growth, heartbreak, abuse, or the lack of mental drive to not be stagnated, but to grow from a bad experience or state of brokenness and need motivation or inspiration in life. Coaching is a partnership between a coach and a client that is focused on the client taking action toward the realization of their visions, goals, and desires (McCluskey, 2008).We will face many transitions which is normal and a part of life that must happen and it is universal that all of us will have to go through something painful to grow or become weaker. These things that happen to us individually allow us to gain a stronger mentality and resilience for experiences. Life has never been predictable so to try to figure out when bad or painful emotions or not having self -esteem can be changed, but it also must come from within the client’s mind and soul to make that decisions to improve for a better future. God has each of our lives already predestined and it is up to us to make due for what He has put before us. Transitional times happen at which clients will question whether they made a good choice and perhaps even consider going back to what they left behind (Collins, 2002). Coaches work with clients to facilitate experiential learning in a professional relationship and improve functioning and performance, often in the context of working toward specific goals (Collins, 2002). (((There are many different types of coaching, but leadership coaching was a topic that deals with life and also how to adapt to life and being a leader during a life transition can make the difference in life. The purpose of leadership coaching represents going through transitions , and it stood out to me, because the purpose of leadership coaching represents strong leadership, components of leadership, which according to ( Robertson, 2009) ,“ requires a willingness to listen, to change and adapt, and to connect and engage others in the learning journey at which leadership is relational” ( p.2). Being a leader means that you will have to be uncomfortable at times where you are, but to accept challenges and develop a sense of positive belief in what the goal or pursuit is at the time.

In career transition coaching people need help sometimes moving from one career to another. There are different reasons as to why clients come to coaches for direction is according to ( Genova, 2010) is that they feel that they don’t have an edge in career change and fear. The client can also make better business decisions when they are aware after being taught on how to get the edge in a time of crisis of change and fear. As explained by ( Genova, 2010) is that fear is manageable and that it doesn’t have to determine our behavior. We tend to worry about the what ifs so much that we eventually can miss the opportunity to get the promotion or move up in our career in fear of making that mature step or face the transition to change. As we grow older, obtain some experience in the working world, the step to a career transition is better than as we were younger when achieving the developmental milestone ( Genova, 2012). Work has a central place in our lives, as it defines who we are, shapes our self- concepts, and determines our standards of living (Collins, 2009). Having a positive spiritual life in the workplace is also important. As spirituality is explained by (Bourgeois, 2006), “Spirituality in the workplace translates into leaders who are authentic, socially responsible, doing what’s right no matter what, and respecting each other” (p.3).

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Motivation is needed from the person that is looking for the better job and at times the client or person looks to the coach for that motivation. For example, in one of the points of what motivation could be, (Gelona, 2011) explains that a typical way of describing motivation is that, “a force which arises from within the individual, that activates and enables the individual to pursue a particular task, event, job, or goal (p.1). It is the drive within you that makes you exist and serve purpose to what defines who you want to be and do in life. We are supposed to be naturally motivated to set our own course and achieve them. There are various ways at which we can motivate ourselves to go where we want to go, how the pursuit of happiness will evolve, and how it forms our well- being. Motivation can influence us to go as far as we want to go, do things that we would have not known was possible, and allow that to influence through the rest of our lives in spite of certain times when there may be difficulties in setting goals.

Motivational coaching is “ a collaborative process for enabling clients to better understand how to generate and maintain higher self- motivation for pursuing goals and desired outcomes” (Gelona, 2010, p.2). A lot of clients that are looking to better themselves, trying to attain a better education whether it be a GED to a doctorate, some people are looking for someone that can empower and provide them the energy that can catapult them into a realm of success. Some people have lost a sense of establishing goals and no matter how hard they try they lose the passion of pursuit to succeed or the desire to win. The times in which we live call for a new understanding of what it means to be a professional and to participate in a profession. Coaches can learn a lot from their colleagues in medicine and psychology who have been wrestling with the potential and pitfalls of evidence- based practices for the past 17 years (Drake, 2008). The relationship between workplace coaching, the length of time an employee has worked with their employer, and how they handle life transitions are some of the reasons that transitional life coaching is on the demand. With coaching in the workplace there are certain problems that can evolve that may have to be addressed such as the relationship between the supervisor and the employee. According to ( Harris, Winskowski, & Engdahl, 2007), positive relationships with supervisors have been reported to strongly predict job tenure, positive organizational social climates, and the presence of friends or family at a particular work site have also been reported to predict employee retention (p.6).

Many clients may be in some need of motivational coaching to enable them to generate and maintain higher self motivation for pursuing goals and attaining desired outcomes. With effective motivational coaching can facilitate motivation enhancing processes that may help clients to address their need (Gelona, 2011). Trust is a valuable element in establishing the role of the coach and the client and is an essential element in learning from their coaches to apply these new ideas. Through motivation comes a good leader. Robertson (2009) found that leaders do not necessarily seek the type of situations that require movement out of comfort zones and into the emotional space to allow challenges to values and belief systems (p.4). During the course of life and when we go through the difficulties of real life tests and tribulation, having a coach can affect what we choose to decide, learn, and partake in wisdom. With life coaching as a new way of gaining knowledge through the partnership, the coach challenges each client to redirect their own way of what they have learned, establish more core values, and beliefs. Learning to be a leader during transition can change the way individuals would choose to work, within their leadership team, within their community, with other school, and with their families (Robertson, 2009). In the modern workforce, we must not only be great leaders, but we also must be great teachers.

Finding balance in life can be challenging and as coaches we can assist our clients to begin their way to a path of focus. Collins (2009) explained that “coaching for balance begins with helping people figure out what they value most in life and then ordering their lives around in it” (p.246). One thing about balance is that you have to reevaluate certain times in your life and that seasons do change. As Collins (2009) stated,“ what is balanced at one season of our lives may be entirely out of balance at another” (p.246). We get caught up with keeping our sights that we have seen continuously and forget that some of the values that were at the top of the list aren’t that important and can be dealt with later.

Second Section

There are many challenges with coaching in this profession and where coaching fits in that special place. With the way things are changing there has to be a better understanding of being professional and participating in a profession such as coaching. To me coaching can gain more credibility if they make more connections in transparency and more results. Coaches include those with coach-specific training and experience as well as those with other backgrounds who simply call themselves coaches (Brennan, 2008, p.189). In my research paper and reflecting on my findings, I learned that coaching can also requires some applied science and drawing on some psychology at times. I reflected on how important worship, work, and play are three defined areas of importance and that if you don’t have these three key areas in your life, then your life is out of balance. I also learned upon reflection that I was doing something that was getting out of hand and affecting my personal life. I was doing so much every day and only a few people told me that I was doing too much, but what they didn’t say directly was that I was worshipping my work. I enjoyed training for my track championships which was my play time, but my normal time slot for training got overshadowed. Coaching my youth track club, studying for graduate school, and working full time with a new position took me away from my most deeply held values that were really important to me. As coaches we will have the opportunity to present more evidence based knowledge and practice what we have learned with our clients. As I read on the application of addressing core questions in this profession with different examples of strategy that was provided on how explained by Drake( 2008) that coaches need evidence that informs their awareness, shapes their assessment, and guides their actions (p.23). In this meaning we as the coach need to understand what is going on with our client and being aware of what is affecting them, but as we assess their lives we can provide leadership in guiding them the way that they will go in taking upon their own actions. Drake (2008) found that many coaches struggle most with taking and reflecting on action which would serve better by having more evidence. I learned that I need to apply more evidence toward my client to effectively get results out of my practice. One of the key elements of my reflection on this paper is having the best quality possible that can be given to my clients and to ensure that they get the best quality coaching offered in this professional standard.

Coaching clients in transitional change will have an impact, because everyone is going through something in their life at some particular time, phase, or journey. There is a need in quality assurance and it is something that I would concentrate on in this coaching ministry. Looking at how motivation can be utilized in coaching in not just one area, but several areas allows me to realize that there are people out there that want to gain insight in goal setting and maintain the leverage that they have gained from being self- motivated from the coach and not allowing the coach to do all of the motivation. It is generally accepted that people in many areas of life, have to deal with fast changing complex and stressful environments ( Gelona, 2011). Upon reflection of how motivational coaching can be used those that have lost the drive at a certain point in their life can actually regain focus on tasks, going back to school, or rebuilding the marriage that once had lost the fire in the relationship. Most importantly with motivational coaching, we the coaches bring order and organization to boost the level in them reaching their goals. As Gelona (2011) explained, motivation is essential to their ability to persist their goals and aspirations, especially when faced with difficulties and setbacks.

Some of the things that I would practice is problem identification which was developed from the PRACTICE model of coaching by (Palmer, 2011). As the problem is identified, the coach and the client can work on the problem and use the R which is realistic and relevant goals which will need to be set. I would ask the client what topic would they want to discuss and go into detail as to what the topic evolves, what resolve would follow and what would they like to change different about the topic and etc. I like exploring different options and allow them to use all of their resources as their own solutions. I like the PRACTICE method, because as Palmer (2011) explains it has been used for performance, business, career, executive, stress, health, life, and many more areas in addition to being used within counseling, psychotherapy, and stress management.

In life coaching I realize that the profession is broad and that there are different areas that could be reached and that going through different transitions in life such as having a family, raising kids, and job performance can be difficult to balance. It can get overwhelming at the pace that the world is going and we need someone to talk to that can get us that boost for our challenge at that critical time. This coaching focus makes me look at coaching from a Christian perspective and how can I help someone draw nearer to God without pushing them into salvation, but to let them know that Christ is using me to help them grow and myself as well as God continues to use me during those coaching sessions. Life coaching especially during transitions in my life could impact me personally, because I’ve seen countless times where I needed to talk to someone and couldn’t. The only one I could talk to was God at the time which is the best coach and counselor I could ask for, but at those times when I need a coach to help me get a grasp on life would help. During times of reflection and feeling like I have no purpose in life when I have so much going on can be a time of identity crisis, but I wouldn’t know without a coach. This is where I see that coaching can be effective and help others reach the goals that they have been trying to accomplish, but without a sense of organization or reevaluation it can be a stagnant period in my or anyone else’s life. Life coaching with the focus on employment transition can impact how I make the transition to being promoted and how my schedule has changed, but how to reduce the things I normally used to do when I had a different schedule. It impacts me because as I did my research I looked at myself and could see some of the problems that I encounter and how would I change these difficult things that I have encountered this year.

In conclusion, the profession of coaching is something related to psychotherapy that I hadn’t looked at in depth, but once introduced to what types of coaching can evolve as well as the life coach can choose as many topics or specialty areas he wants as long as he is competent in those specific areas to coach in. In researching how life balance and coaching can help people figure out what they value in life made me take a full evaluation of what I’m doing wrong and what I need to do right. This focus on life balance affected me and I don’t even have a life coach, because I too got caught up in using a lot of energy in other areas that I should have been using in the most important areas of focus. I have learned that this season has required huge amounts of energy and my life at home is suffering and my home is the most important aspect during this season. The revelation that I received during this paper will make me change my plans for these next few months in order to follow the path that God wants me to go in. The plan that I once had needs to be changed, due to the season that I am now in. As Collins (2009) states at which I caught the revelation of, “ I can’t change the wind, but I can adjust the sails” (p.247). I realized that my worship life was lacking, that I didn’t have much play life at all, and all I was doing for the past six months was work, which is taking me away from people that I love and care for. It has been a year of growth and maturity, but also a year of being overwhelmed, involuntary transitions, and preparing to start a new chapter in my life.

Reference

Biswas-Diener, R. (2009). Personal coaching as a positive intervention. Journal Of Clinical Psychology, 65(5), 544-553.

Bourgeois, T. (2006). The challenge of changing values, beliefs, and expectations. Leader To Leader, 2006(42), 7-10. Brennan, D. (2008).

Coaching in the US: trends and challenges. Coaching: An International Journal Of Theory, Research & Practice, 1(2), 186-191.

Collins, G.R. (2009). Christian coaching: Helping others turn potential into reality. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Drake, D. B. (2008). Finding our way home: coaching’s search for identity in a new era. Coaching: An International Journal Of Theory, Research & Practice, 1(1), 16-27.

Gelona, J. (2011). Does thinking about motivation boost motivation levels?. Coaching Psychologist, 7(1), 42-48.

Genova, J. (2010). Our Stories: Leveraging Them for Career Transition. Vital Speeches Of the Day, 76(5), 234-237.

Harris, J., Winskowski, A., & Engdahl, B. E. (2007). Types of Workplace Social Support in the Prediction of Job Satisfaction. Career Development Quarterly, 56(2), 150-156.

Hawkins, P. (2008). The coaching profession: some of the key challenges. Coaching: An International Journal Of Theory, Research & Practice, 1(1), 28-38.

McCluskey, C. (2008). A Christian-therapist-turned-coach discusses his journey and the field of life coaching. (Clinicians’ Columns). Journal Of Psychology And Christianity Fall 2008.

Palmer, S. (2011). Revisiting the ‘P’ in the PRACTICE coaching model. Coaching Psychologist, 7(2), 156-158.

Robertson, J. (2009). Coaching leadership learning through partnership. School Leadership & Management, 29(1), 39-49.

Let’s Talk About FAT A Communications Documentary to Spread Awareness of how Obesity is affecting Americans across the United

Let’s Talk About FAT: A Communications Documentary to Spread Awareness of how Obesity is affecting Americans across the United States.

Project Overview

My senior project is a documentary/short film on obesity in America. I will showcase how demographics, commercials, and culture can influence this health issue. I will also provide outlets and expertise that can decrease this common health crisis.

Research

Obesity in America is a common disease that affects some humans on a daily basis. It is such an important and ongoing topic that documentaries, films, and even television shows such as one of TLC’s hit reality series, My 600-lb life, has made it on our home screens. With that being said, “Let’s Talk About Fat.”

For decades obesity has lived amongst us in society; this disease has been “encouraged” throughout our lives. So, what do I mean by obesity being encouraged in our community? According to the CDC, processed packaged food, larger portions, and drive-thru meals are the “face” of the ideal American food. The reason being that its quick to get, cheap, and delicious. Because of this you will most likely find majority fast-food chains like McDonalds and Taco Bell in low-income neighborhoods. This study was conducted to determine was there in an increase in African American communities of being exposed to fast food restaurants.

Another contribution is inactivity. These last couple of decades it has been a decrease in daily activities that involve some type of exercise. Americans burn 120 to 140 less calories than they did 50 years ago. It was more common to do more labor that required more movement back in the 1950s-60s than we do currently. Unfortunately, it has become more common now due to the pandemic and quarantine; we are mandated to stay home and realistically people are not as motivated to do home workouts like they would in a physical gym. Because people are not as motivated to physically exercise it increases the rate of people being more overweight and obese than maintaining a healthy BMI.

Obesity is a very serious disease that is affecting more middle-aged adults. It is rare that young adults between the age of 18-24 years will experience obesity, however if we do not handle this epidemic carefully these percentages and statistics can change.

References

Adult obesity prevalence maps. (2020, September 21). Retrieved February 05, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html

Home. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05, 2021, from https://www.paperdue.com/topic/obesity-essays

Hungry for change [watch now]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05, 2021, from https://www.hungryforchange.tv/

Writers, S. (2021, February 02). Why are Americans Obese? Retrieved February 05, 2021, from https://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/obesity/

LEHMAN COLLEGE, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK – MSW PROGRAM

LEHMAN COLLEGE, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK – MSW PROGRAM

Directions:

This exam is open book and open notes.  You may not consult with anyone in completing this exam, other than contacting Prof. Adames-Torres if you have a question about one of the questions on the exam. The Lehman College Statement on Academic Integrity applies to this test.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS. (50 points)

Answer each of the following questions in narrative form (full sentences).  Please type your responses and use 12 point Times New Roman font.

1.  From the work you have done on your final assignment and what we have discussed in this class, discuss what you have learned thus far about the problem formulation process in research.  What has been challenging/interesting/surprising to you about this process?

Based on the class readings and assignments, I have learned various things about the problem formulation process in research. Formulating the research problem is like making the foundation of a building to be constructed, which means that the researcher has to know the problem. Based on this, the problem identification and formulation is very crucial for the researcher before conducting any research. Another thing that I learned is that the problem is stated in the opening passages of the research, and helps in providing the reader with a rationale for why the study is important and why it is necessary to read. The problem formulation process is not an easy task, and therefore, it is not something that a person can just choose and write about. There are about six steps that are involved in problem formulation and which include; identifying a general area of interest, learning more about the problem, reviewing the context of the information, determining relationships between variables, selecting and including important variable and lastly receiving feedback and revising accordingly. One of the most challenging issues in problem formulation is coming up with a right topic and finding the right variables that will help make the research topic valid. An interesting thing is that a researcher have to read a lot of literature content to find a gap in literature and which they can use in coming up with the problem along with the variables to be investigated.

2.  Provide a review of the scientific method. What is a strength and a limitation of using this approach?

The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge and involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, considering that cognitive assumptions can distort how a person interprets the observation. In scientific method, induction is used when formulating the hypotheses, and this is based on the observations. Afterwards, experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses are conducted, and the results are used to refine the hypotheses based on the experimental findings. The scientific method is associated with various strengths in that it is based on empirical evidence, it is a proof and verification, it is reliable in finding the truth, cautious with the theories that are backed up, found by reasoning and verification and finally, scientists are impartial. The limitations of the scientific method is that it is subject to human error. Mistakes can occur in recording observations or inaccurate use of measuring instruments. Another limitation is that is subject to bias as prior confidence in the hypothesis being true/false can affect the accuracy of observation and interpretation of the results. Finally, the scientific method is subject to deliberate falsification of the results leading to scientific fraud.

3. Describe your understanding of the terms, objectivity and subjectivity.  Explain why both of these are important in acquiring knowledge for evidence-based practice in your fieldwork agency/current or former place of employment.  If you do not have a fieldwork agency/current or former place of employment, choose a field of practice from social work.

Subjective writing is based on personal opinions, interpretations, points of view, and may involve emotions and personal judgement. However, objective writing is based on analyzing the facts, and thus is fact-based, measurable and observable. The two are important in acquiring knowledge for evidence-based practice in my fieldwork in that according to science, a person must conduct research objectively to avoid bias and arrive at the truth and this will help me in getting the facts of a problem. However, the subjective part of the research will also be important in that humans are inherently subjective creatures, and thus, it is not possible to study them in the same way sciences are studied; social science involves studying the behavior of humans and thus subject to emotions and personal judgement. An understanding of both subjectivity and objectivity will help me come out with better research.

4.  Below is a definition of positionality:

“Positionality is the notion that personal values, views, and location in time and space influence how one understands the world. In this context, gender, race, class, and other aspects of identities are indicators of social and spatial positions and are not fixed, given qualities. Positions act on the knowledge a person has about things, both material and abstract. Consequently, knowledge is the product of a specific position that reflects particular places and spaces.” -Luis Sánchez, Positionality (entry in Encyclopedia of Geography) (obtained from the Anti-Racist Teaching Collective, https://www.arteachingcollective.com/positionality.html)

Using the above definition and an example, explain why it is important to consider positionality when examining research studies for evidence-based social work practice.

Positionality is an important consideration in action research because it directly influences how the research is carried out and also determines the prevailing outcomes and results whose voices are to be represented in the final reports. In this perspective, it is essential for new researchers to note that their positionality not only shapes their work, but also tends to influence their interpretation, understanding, and ultimately, their belief in truthfulness and validity of other’s research that they are exposed to. For example, identifying as a Black researcher in a Black community provides a researcher with a better view of the community compared to a white researcher in a white community in regard to police brutality, and this can be attributed to positionality.

5.  Choose a social problem of concern/interest to you.

5a. Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of using quantitative research to study this social problem.

Racism is one of the major issues in the contemporary society. Using quantitative research to study racism may present advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that it provides an opportunity to use experiments on how racism affect the society. Quantitative research allows the researcher to conduct experiments with different participants to see the impact of racism. A common disadvantage is that it denies the researcher an opportunity to get a detailed picture. Quantitative research is based on numerical responses and, as a result, they get slightly less insights into thoughts.

5b. Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of using qualitative research to study this social problem.

Using qualitative research in investigating racism provides the researcher to obtain first-hand information through interviews which can be an open-ended process. A common disadvantage is that it creates subjective data in which the interviewees may provide information that is biased. Racism is an emotive topic to many as they have been subjected to various incidences, and thus, it is impossible to obtain data from both the racist person and the victim without being biased.

6.  Provide three examples of the differences among Positivism and Interpretivism

There are various differences between positivism and interpretivism in regard to behavior, aim, and methods. In regard to behavior, positivism believes that human behavior is based on social norms as society shapes individuals. Interpretivism on the other hand, believes that individuals are complex and that each have different experiences and view the same reality in different ways.

In regard to aim, positivism focus on discovering the laws that govern human behavior. On the other hand, interpretivism aims at gaining an insight into individuals; understanding why people behave in certain ways.

Finally, in regard to methods, positivism emphasize quantitative methods such as statistics, surveys, and questionnaires. On the other hand, interpretivism emphasize qualitative methods such as participant observations and unstructured interviews.

7.  You are a school social worker in an elementary school and you are interested in whether being active in sports can help children who exhibit behavioral problems in the classroom improve their ability to stay focused.   Write a well-formulated hypothesis for this situation that you could test through a research study.

Being active in sports help children exhibiting behavioral problems improve their ability to stay focused in the classroom

8. Provide an example of a

8a. Quantitative research question and justify your response

How can being active in sports help children exhibiting behavioral problems improve their ability to stay focused in the classroom?

8b. Qualitative research question and justify your response

Can being active in sports help children exhibiting behavioral problems improve their ability to stay focused in the classroom?

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS. (50 points)

1.   Which of the following statements is correct about evidence-based practice? Choose all that apply.

A.  It combines practitioner expertise with client characteristics and best research evidence.

B.  It is a list of interventions that will be effective with every client.

C.  It refers to decisions about intervention effectiveness, only.

D.  Client needs, values and goals are less important than research evidence when selecting the best intervention.

E.   It is a process of lifelong learning.

2.  Which of the following statements best typifies a mixed methods study?

A.  Uses more than one type of quantitative method.

B.  Uses more than one type of qualitative method.

C. Combines a quantitative method with a qualitative method.

D.  Combines both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches.

3.  Which of the following statements is true about the need to critique the quality of a research study?

A.  Practitioners can rely on researchers to produce good studies and therefore only have to know the results of those studies.

B.  If a research study gets published, practitioners can be assured that it is of high quality.

C. Social work practitioners need to understand research methods so they can discriminate strong from weak studies.

D.  There is no need to critique the quality of research.

4. Which of the following statements is true about selecting a social work research question?

A.  The selection should be based exclusively on the researcher’s personal curiosity.

B. The question should have relevance to guiding social welfare policy, social work practice, and/or social work education.

C.  Reading the research literature on the topic should be put off until after the research question is finalized.

D.  The selection should be based on a question that has never been studied before.

5. Which of the following characterizes qualitative research studies? Choose all that apply.A. The data collected are mostly numerical.B. Participants are asked mostly closed ended questions.

C. They are guided by the scientific method.D. They frequently have an explanatory purpose.E. They are frequently used to understand more deeply findings from quantitative studies.

F. Values are an integral part of the research process.

6.   Which of the following characterizes quantitative research studies? Choose all that apply.

A.    There is an emphasis on being able to generalize research findings.

B.     Rich descriptions that provide contextual details are sought when collecting data.

C.     Large sample sizes tend to be needed.

D.    Participants are asked mostly open-ended questions.

E.     Facts stand independent of the knower and can be known in an undistorted way.

F.      The data collected are primarily non-numerical.

7.  True or False: Concepts and variables are the same. ___True_________

8.      The Belmont Report was written by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. It created measures to protect human subjects. These include:

A.    Service, Social Justice, and integrity

B.     Respect for persons, competence, and justice

C.     Beneficence, justice, and respect for persons

D.    Importance of human relationships, Beneficence, and justice

E.     None of the above

9.  Which of the following statements is (are) true about the scientific method?

A. Some things are not open to question.

B. High quality studies need not be replicated.

C. All knowledge is considered tentative.

D. A, B, and C are true.

E. None of these are true.

10.  Read the abstract below:

Abstract Historical trauma theory is a relatively new concept in public health. The premise of this theory is that populations historically subjected to long-term, mass trauma—colonialism, slavery, war, genocide— exhibit a higher prevalence of disease even several generations after the original trauma occurred. Understanding how historical trauma might influence the current health status of racial/ethnic populations in the U.S. may provide new directions and insights for eliminating health disparities. This article offers an analysis of the theoretical framework of historical trauma theory and provides a general review of the literature. A conceptual model is introduced illustrating how historical trauma might play a role in disease prevalence and health disparities. Finally, implications for public health practice and research are discussed.

Sotero, M. (2006). A Conceptual Model of Historical Trauma: Implications for Public Health Practice and Research.

The abstract is an example of a:

A.    Empirical article

B.     Theoretical article

Extra credit (10 points):

A social worker counseling LGBTQ high school students attended a one-day workshop on solution focused therapy (SFT) and is curious about whether SFT can be an effective approach for helping her clients develop greater skill in dealing with interpersonal difficulties at school.  After reviewing a number of studies on SFT, few of which relate to school settings, she receives funding to implement a study where she compares the effectiveness of SFT interventions with the psycho-educational approach currently being used at her high school.  She wants to know if SFT interventions can lead to greater skill in dealing with interpersonal difficulties at school.

What would be the primary purpose of this study – exploratory, descriptive, evaluative, or explanatory?  Explain how you know.

The primary purpose of the study would be to investigate whether SFT interventions can lead to greater skill in dealing with interpersonal difficulties at school. The study is evaluative in nature. Evaluative research is a form of disciplined and systematic inquiry that is carried out to arrive at an assessment or appraisal of an object, program, practice, activity or system with the purpose of providing information that will be used in decision-making. I know that it is an evaluative research study because the social worker seeks to assess the solution focused therapy (SFT) and compare its results with the psycho-educational approach that is currently being used in at her high school in order to ascertain which is better in providing greater skills in dealing with interpersonal difficulties at school among the LGBTQ students.

What is the independent variable in this study? Explain how you know.

The solution focused therapy (SFT) – This is the variable that is being investigated to show whether it can be more effective compared to the current psycho-education approach currently being used at her school.

What is the dependent variable in this study? Explain how you know

Skills in dealing with interpersonal difficulties in school – The interpersonal skills are dependent on the SFT. If the SFT is effective, the students will acquire greater skills, but is it is less effective, the students will gain less skills, thus unable to cope with interpersonal difficulties. Based on this, developing greater skills is dependent on the SFT.