Farmingville

The migration of thousands of Latino day workers to the Farmingville community has created great culture shock and debate. Education about each culture is one step towards helping the Latino workers assimilate, decrease segregation and help both sides with culture shock. Many members of the community have differing opinions and beliefs. Gaining a better understanding of these beliefs is the first step to finding a solution.
Louise says in the film that she wants to know who is around her and who lives in her neighborhood. The migrant workers have made her lose this feeling of comfort in her community. Margaret Bianculli-Dyber simply wants the migrant workers to disappear. She feels that U.S. laws have been disrespected and does not trust or appreciate that changes in Farmingville. In her quest, she does not understand nor ask, in a way that prompts answers, why these workers are in her community and how tensions can be decreased so that the community is not constantly at war. Margret does not consider herself to be racist, but is trying to make the clock turn back to a time where she did not have to worry about who is standing on her street corner. Paul Tonna, the county legislator understands that something needs to be done in Farmingville to decrease tension and supports the use of tax payer dollars to build a hiring site. If the community could find a way to educate each other about the cultures that are now in this town maybe tensions over cultural differences would decrease.
Both the day workers and the Farmingville residents are experiencing culture shock in this situation. They do not know how to interact in the other group’s culture and therefore they do not understand and are sometimes intolerant of the differences in their cultures. With education, both cultural groups would learn about where the other was from and how to communicate in a way that promotes a community feeling instead of dividing the community.
All three of the interviewees in Farmingville agree that there is a problem that started with the migrant workers moving into the town. The differences in the three are how they view the rift in the community and how they approach healing that rift. Margaret believes that the immediate deportation of all the migrant workers will instantly solve the community’s problems. Louise wants the community to be a community again, no matter who is in it. Paul Tonna wants to find a way that the migrant workers can work side by side with the legal residents of Farmingville. He does not propose allowing the situation to stay as it is but instead proposes that steps are taken to try and reach a common ground between the two cultures.
We feel that the key to better understanding this situation and finding a solution is in education and responsibility. First, all sides need to come together with an open mind and have rational conversations without loosing their tempers. If the legal Farmingville residents got to know the day laborers, why they choose to come to their community, what their intentions are, and general knowledge about their culture, that would be a start to better understanding. I think this aspect of the solution would help to put Louise at ease. A meeting like this would also help the day laborers to gain more information about the previous Farmingville culture and help them integrate it with their Latino culture.
Another aspect of the solution is to assign responsibility and hold people accountable. We feel that the Farmingville citizens, day laborers, and employers all have some responsibility in allowing this situation to escalate the way it has. The citizens have to understand that there is a need for the day laborers. They would not have come to a place where there was not a demand for manual labor. These citizens have no interest in mowing lawns or doing dishes, so to condemn the men who are willing to work hard is a serious mistake. The day migrant workers also have to realize that their presence has seriously changed the dynamic of the community. They must be held responsible for the same laws that all other community members are. Harassment, destruction of property, and other crimes are not to be tolerated from anyone. The employers need to find a balance with the work they are doing. They cannot skate around tax laws just to make a buck. These employers are changing the value and payment of manual labor. Middle ground is needed from what was done in the past to what is going on now.

Intercultural Film Review

The Visitor, written and directed by Tom McCarthy, was a surprisingly good film. It is a deeply moving movie about Walter, played by Richard Jenkins, who was a widowed college professor living a depressed and aimless life, until he unexpectedly found a couple living in his New York apartment when on a business trip. The couple, Tarek and Zainab, were illegal immigrants victimized in a reality scam where they payed rent to someone who didn’t own the apartment. Walter allowed the couple to stay in his apartment with him because they seemed to have no where else to go. This situation forces Walter to deal with issues related to immigration, identity, and cross-cultural communication. While they were living with him he ended up bonding with them and found some compassion and positive changes in his life.
Walter’s deceased wife was an excellent piano player, and Walter attempted with much frustration to learn the piano. During his time in New York Walter finally decides to give up playing the piano and he takes up a new instrument which he is much more talented and compassionate about, the drums. Tarek gives Walter drumming lessons and Walter loves his new instrument. Walter and Tarek seem to from a connection and friendship through the music. The drumming acts as a medium of communication across the two cultures. During the short time that Walter lived with Tarek and Zainab he changes substantially. He seemed to finally start getting over the death of his deceased wife and he starts to be more kind and enjoy life more.
Zainab used a great amount of body language to express how she felt. At first her body language was negative and slightly hesitant towards Walter. After she got to know him better her body language seemed to become more positive towards him.
Tarek is a very kind and generous musician from Syria, making a living by playing his African drums. Zainab, who is from Senegal, sells handmade jewelry at a little booth in the street to make a living. A person buying some of her jewelry at their stand was asking her where she was from. When Zainab told her that she was from Senegal, the lady said “ohh, that’s so neat! I have been to Cape Town before, what a beautiful area!” Cape Town and Senegal are thousands of mile away from each other and are very different. This seem shows the true ignorance of a typical United States citizen.
The film made me more aware of some of the hardships that foreigners face here in the United States. It also made me more aware of how many of United States citizens are very ignorant about how immigration and deportation goes about here and about what it would be like to be a foreigner.
One evening rushing through the subway, Tarek gets stuck in the entrance and climbs over the bar. Even though he can show his paid ticket stub he is arrested.
The police found out that he was an illegal immigrant and he was put into detention. Walter, who before meeting Tarek and Zainab was not know for his senticitivitfy towards others, but in the case of Tarek getting arrested he does everything he can to try to help him. Unlike the sadness Walter faced from because his wife, the grief that he experiences from this situation opens him up to others, to the difficulties of people he has never noticed, and opens his moral horizons. He continues to visit Tarek in jail and even hires an immigration lawyer to help Tarek. Zaneb has moved to her cousins house. When arrested, Tarek seems to be more concerned with Zainab and his mothers welfare, and even Walter's drumming lessons, than he is with his own dire situation. Tarek’s mother and Zaneb can't visit him because they are both here illegally.  
Tarek’s beautiful mother shows up a few days after the arrest because Tarek has not been returning her phone calls. Walter invites her to stay in his apartment and she accepts and stays in Tarek’s old room. Walter and her start dating and comfort each other during their unsuccessful attempts to prevent Tarek from being deported.
It is devastating when Tarek is deported to Walter, Zainab, and Tarek’s mother. Tarek’s mother decides to go back to Syria to make sure that he is okay, knowing that she will never be able to return. People are deported by the judges from the United States relentlessly, with what seems to be very little compassion or concern for the people being deported.
This movie, The Visitor, helps break the stereotypes that are associated with Arabs. It challenges the judgment that Arabs are terrorists, by letting us get to know some Arabs that are very kind and loving people.
Both The Visitor and the movie Farmingville that we have been watching in class have brought up the issue of illegal immigrants and deportation. There are very good reasons on both sides of the arguments around deportation. In The Visitor, the lawyer made it seem like it would be almost impossible for Tarek to get to stay in the United States, and that there wasn’t much time, energy, or compassion put into his case from the governments side in considering if he should be allowed to stay or not. There are several reasons why the people in the movie Farmingville wanted the illegal mexican immigrants in their town to be deported: One of the Farmingville residents shared that she thought it was necessary that all the people in the town should be in a government record so that if they do something bad they can be prosecuted, which is a valid point. Many of the Farmingville residents feel that the illegal immigrants are dangerous and should be deported, which may be a valid point, or may be stereotypes and racism. They also had a valid point that many of them lived thirty to a house, which seemed to create some problems in the neighborhood. But there are arguments from the other side as well that seem just as valid, if not more so. It typically cost just as much, if not more, to deport illegal immigrants as it cost for them to stay. It is also very difficult to keep them from just coming back. Also, there is usually a good reason for them to be in the states anyways, and that should be put into consideration.
The film The Visitor only takes an inside view on the topic of deportation and illegal immigrants. From the perspectives of all the main characters in the film, Tarek was deported unjustly. The Visitor does not share the views of any outsiders, like Farmingville does. The film makes the viewer love Tarek before the deportation process, which gives the viewer a perspective on what it would be like to have someone that their are close to go through. I think that if the people in the film Farmingville could empathize with the people that they are trying to get deported then they would feel that they deserve to stay and would try to help the live better lives instead of harassing and avoiding them.
All in all, The Visitor was a great movie. It was mind opening in many different aspects, including; immigration policies, illegal immigrants, the ignorance of United States civilians, communication styles in different people, and in breaking the stereotypes of Arabs as well as illegal immigrants. I found this to be a entertaining and somewhat educational film. I recommend it to everyone to watch.

Last week I went to the Race Monologues. This was a very interesting, entertaining program that opened my eyes about how race is still very much an issue in modern day society. There were about ten college students of all different races on the main stage. They all took turns telling us stories of different people who had to deal with injustice because of their race. I am very glad that I attended this event during Racial Identity Week.
To my surprise one of my friends was upon the ten collage students on the stage. I was never aware of how big of a deal not being white affected her life. She is a music major, and is hoping to sing for a living after she graduates. Physical appearance is very important in the profession that she plans on entering. She has mentioned that she always has to be really careful about her weight because of the profession that she is going into, but never mentioned the fact that it isn’t as likely for her to have a successful career because the fact that she is from Filipino decent. It makes me sad to think that that is the case. She is a wonderful person with a wonderful voice who deserves to be among the famous but it very unlikely that she will make it that far simply because she is not white. She briefly explained this injustice to the audience.
There is still way too much racial injustice in this world, and that really needs to change. It was so interesting listening to the stories that were told during the Race Monologues. I have always avoided such events because I have expected them to be very boring and a waste of time. I also avoided them because I thought that I knew everything I need to know about race, and that the events couldn’t teach me anything important. The race Monologues made me much more aware of all the racial injustice that happens, and also opened my mind to the fact that I actually have been creating some of the racial injustice myself. I have many colored friends and even a couple family members that are African American, and am by no means a raciest, but I still have been unconsciously stereotyping people of different races.
It is important to occasionally attend events on racial injustice and listen to the stories, because when we don’t we tend to forget that it really is still a great problem and that it might actually be partly our fault, as part of society, that is making it that way. I enjoyed attending Race Monologues very much and I plan on attending other events that are similar in the future.

Intercultural Language Log

There are many aspects of human language, many of which vary from culture to culture. While observing how people communicate the past few days, I have realized that my university town has a very large array of cultural expression. People express themselves and communicate with others in a variety of ways both verbally and physically. When a group of people spends a lot of time together, they tend start similar words, ways of talking, dress similarly, and use similar hand and facial gestures. People pick up these ways of communicating mostly from their family and friends. Therefore, people of different cultures and social groups express themselves differently. I have also found that people use different language when their environment changes.
Last weekend I went to a house party that ended up having a very diverse group of people present. I noticed many different cultural groups interacting, all in their own ways, although everyone used language that seems typical for young college students. I noticed that females often use more nonverbal codes to express themselves than males. Most of the male athletes, particularly the wrestlers, had a confident tone in their voice, and seemed to use a lot of facial expression and an average amount of body expression for males. There were a few “hippies” present, who seemed to be very mellow and friendly. The female hippies used an average amount of facial and body expression, but loved to talk! The male hippie also talked a lot and used quite a bit of arm movements to express himself. They dressed in clothing that gave them a laid back and environmentally friendly look. There was a lot of chatting, laughing, and dancing going on in the house, which made it easy to observe the communication trends between my peers.
I have had the chance to observe some of the same people who were at the party several times in a very different environment; church. When these college students are in the environment of church, they often have many of the same communication characteristics, but they also alter some of them. Even though my church has a casual dressing code, all of them were dressed very differently than they were at the party and their attire communicated a different message. Most of the females wore clothing that is less promiscuous and more sophisticated, and wore more subtle makeup. Most of the males wore nicer shirts that didn’t have writing on them. When in the church I noticed that there was much less slang and very little to no swearing used. For the most part, everyone in the church used the same body and facial expressions as they do in other environments. On the other hand, the people that are strict Christians (people who follow the bible strictly and attend church on a regular basis) have different communication habits than the others. The females don’t wear promiscuous clothing when in any public place. I have noticed that the strict Christians of the church I have been attending usually don’t use bad words, but still use plenty of slang.
I observed my aunt, uncle, and their friends and found that many of them feel more socially confident than people on my generation. They seem to use more facial expression when talking and give better eye contact. The physical appearance of the successful middle-age people I observed often seemed to communicate confidence, although I am unsure if that was just the particular group of people I was observing. Middle age people tend to care about comfort very much in their clothing, but also want to look nice. I have rarely seen middle-aged women dressed promiscuously. They often wear prominent jewelry, which may communicate a sense of economical status or an outgoing personality. They also use different words than people of my generation do. Middle-aged people typically don’t use as much slang, and often use a more extensive vocabulary. They seem to know what they want more than the younger generations and use filler words, such as “um…” and “so…”, much less. The group seemed to use lower-context language (Martin & Nakayama p.220) than younger groups, as they didn’t say as many abbreviated words or sayings and tended to make what they felt very clear.
The children I observed have the most unique communication characteristics of any of the groups that I have observed. I mostly observed the children that I babysit, and also a few that attend my church. The boys and girls seem to communicate very similarly to each other. When trying to explain something or tell a story, they tended to talk very quickly and use many arm gestures. They often included unimportant details that most adults would not mention, and used excessive arm gestures and physical expressions. On the other hand, I observed many children being very shy and hesitant to speak when they are in an unfamiliar environment or around new people. They tend to have much more high-context communication (Martin & Nakayama p.220) than older people. Once the children get to their teenage years they typically slow down how fast they talk and use a number of arm gestures and facial expression closer to the amount that collage students use.
The different ways people communicate is very interesting to study. It is amazing how people change their communication styles so drastically from childhood to late teens and early twenties, and then change them more by the time they hit middle age. It is also interesting how different social groups, such as the wrestlers and hippies, have different very different communication styles. The people that I observed used a vast array of communication styles to let others know what they think and feel about a large number of topics. The way that people communicate is very complex here in Ashland Oregon, and I can imagine that if I had an opportunity to observe communication in places with even more diverse cultures I would find much more complexity.
Bibliography
Intercultural Communication in Context. 2007. Martin & Nakayama. McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Digital Culture

My culture is not something that can easily be defined, because, like most people, I belong to many cultural groups. Some people call me a self-indulgent and materialistic American, where as some call me a caring and environmentally friendly hippie. Some people view me as a lazy, indecisive college student, where as some view me as a fun, laid-back, open minded person. I have difficulty identifying myself with a certain culture, because I have so many different views of myself, the world, and the definition of the word culture. One of the many cultures I belong to, is digital culture, which I would like to share about.
Growing up in the era of computers, cell phones, and other digital gadgets has shaped me into a technologically inclined person. Most people within about 20 years of my age who have grown up with availability to these digital gadgets, are also part of this culture. My definition of digital culture is: the people who use digital gadgets on a daily basis, and whose lives would be radically different if they did not have access to these gadgets. This year, about twenty five percent of the world population uses the internet, this is approximately a 362 percent increase from the year 2000 (2009. Miniwatts Marketing Group). The digital culture has expanded extremely fast, and is now one of the largest cultures in the world. These days it’s not just the people we know as ‘computer nerds’ that are of this culture. Now most normal middle class and upper class people from many different countries and backgrounds are apart of this culture.
Every single one of my friends has a computer and a phone at home and the large majority of people here in Oregon access to computers and phones. Having digital gadgets so accessible has made a huge impact on peoples lifestyles. People of the digital culture have near instant access to information that previously would be difficult to obtain. People of Digital culture also can entertain them selfs with digital games and music, and can easily communicate with people that are very far away.
In the United States, Universities, high schools, and even middle schools, expect their students to be capable of typing and using computers proficiently. The digital culture contains people in a wide variety races, professions, and life styles, all who are dependent upon their digital gadgets. Many people not only rely their gadgets for school or work, but also for recreation. Television and computer games are very commonly used, many researchers believe that they are used too much. There are even some cults associated with certain digital games and television series, such as the game World of War Craft, and the television series Lost. People who do not go along with digital culture trends, such as joining the online social networking group Facebook, often feel ostracized from their social groups.
The average American adult spends 8.5 hours in front of a screen and spend over an hour watching television advertisements and promotions every day (2009. Settler). It is astounding how much technology we have accessible to us! I personally can’t imagine life without it, because I have not gone a day without using some form of technology sense I can remember. It is almost impossible to escape technology in any town or city, or even in the wilderness of an industrialized nation. People can do so many great things with modern day technology, but technology has it’s down sides as well. Millions of people in my culture have experienced health problems because of excessive use of digital gadgets.
It has been proven by a large number of scientific studies that staring at a screen for too long can cause health problems. Watching a screens for long amounts of time has been proven to cause increased blood pressure in children and in adults, worsened eye sight, depression, and many other issues. Too much technology is without a doubt is bad for human health. (2009. Science Daily., 2009. Kioskea)
There are many good things and bad things about being apart of the digital culture, but most people seem to think that the good outweigh the bad, because more and more people are becoming apart of it. Through out the years, it has become expected a huge number of people to become apart of digital culture. Digital culture is changing environments all over the globe and in not too long will make an impact on almost every life on our planet.
Miniwatts Marketing Group. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

2009. Setlter, B. The Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/business/media/27adco.html

2009. Kioskea. http://en.kioskea.net/actualites/tv-and-video-games-increase-teen-depression-risk-study-11942-actualite.php3

2009. Science Daily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090803173127.htm

Tropical Rainforests Need to be Protected!

There are many different types of ecosystems in the world, some of which are more diverse than others. Rainforests are extremely diverse ecosystems that are very important to the well-being of the earth. Unfortunately, because of humans, plant and animal species in rainforests have been dying off at a very fast rate. Humans need to take the steps necessary to protect rain forests from further destruction.
In total, tropical rainforests cover seven percent of the earth’s surface, yet they contain over 50% of the world’s plant and animal species. In any ecosystem, all native plant and animal species play an important role in ecological function. The Amazonian basin may be the most diverse ecosystem on earth. It’s diversity is due to the low latitudes near the equator which allows daylight to be constant year round with more variation in daylight the further from the equator. There are millions of species that live in the Amazonian rainforest, all of which are very important in helping create healthy species interactions. When any species becomes extinct, it has a negative affect many other species (Vandermeer & Perfecto, 1995).
There are many different layers of vegetation in the Amazonian rainforest, all of which are almost individual ecosystems. There is the forest floor, then a layer of smaller trees which make up the majority of the understory, and then the larger species of trees that extend up into the canopy and over-story. The larger tree species can grow to over 150 feet tall (Vandermeer & Perfecto, 1995). These are the trees that loggers have been cutting down for many years (Chew, 2001). Even though most of the Amazonian region receives at least 12 hours of light every day year round, not much light reaches the forest floor due to the layers of broad leafed trees (Vandermeer & Perfecto, 1995). The mass amount of vegetation in the rain forest creates a huge percentage of the worlds oxygen, which is one of the many reasons this rainforest is so important to us (Vandermeer & Perfecto, 1995; Zeng, 1995).
Some of the animals that inhabit this diverse ecosystem include jaguars, giant anteaters, the giant armadillo, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, sloths, and Tapirs. There are many species of beetles present in the Amazonian rainforest, which make up about 25% of the worlds described animal species. Ants make up approximately 30% of the animal biomass in the Amazon basin. One tree alone in Peru was noted for having over 43 different ant species living on it. In the Manu National Park in Peru there are 1300 species of butterflies present. Insects make up approximately 90% of the animal species in the Amazon rainforest (Vandermeer & Perfecto, 1995). It is hard to comprehend the magnitude in scale of such a diverse ecosystem; unfortunately, it is quickly going into a downward spiral.
The Amazonian rain forests have low nutrient availability, and when a disturbance takes place, if the small amount of nutrients available are destroyed or moved, then the speed of succession will greatly decrease until the nutrients become available again. The rainforests’ ecosystem is very vulnerable to disturbances, because secondary succession depends greatly on nutrient availability and seedling regeneration. Some of these disturbances are fires, flooding, land-use practices, and global warming. These disturbances are important determinants that directly influence the landscape in different ways. Some of them are good for the ecosystem, and some are not. Lately there has been much more negative disturbances than good ones. (Chew, 2001)
It is because of human intervention that the Amazonian rain forest is quickly becoming smaller and is loosing it’s biodiversity. In the last 40 years, close to 20% of the Amazonian forest has been cut down. Small-scale agricultural farmers, ranchers, and the global warming are the main destructive factors, but there are also many other causes of the deforestation of the Amazon (Chew, 2001). There are a large number of roads, some of which are legal but most are illegal, that go through the Amazon forest. These roads have been made primarily for logging and the transportation of soybeans and other produce. These roads give illegal loggers and settlers access to the inner forest, increasing the deforestation rate (Wallace, 2007). Brazil’s land ownership policies are a big cause of deforestation of the Amazon rain forest. The ownership polices encourage poor farmers to settle on unclaimed public land, because if they use the land for five years, they can the claim ownership (Wallace, 2007; Chew, 2001). Cattle farms are the largest cause of deforestation in the Amazon. Beef is raised and processed in the Amazon area, then is exported to all over the world. (Chew, 2001) The reasons for decreasing biodiversity in the Amazon rain forest are extensive, but could be put to an end.
The Amazon forest is a place that needs to be protected. There is a solution to the deforestation and diminishing of biodiversity problems. What the countries surrounding rainforest can do to help prevent deforestation is give harsher and better enforced punishment for illegal logging. Brazil should change its land ownership laws. South American countries should try to prevent more roads from being made that go through the forest. The biggest thing North Americans and Europeans can do to prevent deforestation is to buy locally grown/raised food. Cattle are strong animals, which can live almost anywhere that humans can. If everyone bought locally raised beef, it would not only substantially cut down on deforestation, and it would also cut down on the pollution caused by shipping the food. This process can also be applied to soybeans. The products that can’t be grown in one’s local environment, such as bananas and coffee, should be used in moderation. Buying foods grown locally is good for the environment and good for your body because they do not need to have preservatives. These are mostly simple, doable changes that can greatly help prevent further destruction of our earth.
The Amazon rainforest is an extremely diverse ecosystem that helps sustain the life of every creature on earth. Rainforests are important to humans because they absorb much of the excessive carbon dioxide emissions we put out, they are beautiful, and many other reasons (Vandermeer & Perfecto, 1995)! Unfortunately, we are failing at sustaining these precious ecosystems. If we don’t protect the rainforest from further destruction, we will be losing so much. Please help take care of our earth; we aren’t going to get another one! Bibliography
Vandermeer, J., & Perfecto I. (1995). Breakfast of Biodiversity: The Truth About Rain Forest Destruction. The Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Chew, S. World Ecological Degradation: Accumulation, Urbanization, and Deforestation 3000 BC - AD 2000. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, INC.
Zeng, N., Dickinson, R., Zeng, X. (1995) Climatic Impact of Amazon Deforestation- A Mechanistic Model Study. Tucson, AZ: Institute of Atomspheric Physics, University of Arizona.
Wallace, S. (2007). Last of the Amazon. National Geographic.

Reflection on Death Article

It has taken me so long to reply to this critical reading assignment, because it is a very difficult topic for me. I started reading the article 5 times, each time finding an excuse to not finish it. I believe that death is a topic that needs to be discussed much more in our culture! It is something that many people do not understand well enough, and adds large amount of stress to almost every life.
On most cases, I believe that suicide should not be done, or even contemplated. Life is so short as it is, people need to realize that and try to enjoy themselves and help other do the same, every day. On the other hand, some people are incapable of enjoying life. I believe that people living in chronic pain/suffering should be allowed to end their lives.
I work at a retirement home, which is a place where death and suffering are very common. A couple weeks ago one of my residents attempted suicide. I do not know what this resident was thinking and why she decided to attempt suicide, but I believe that it was simply a cry for help and attention. She has told my co-workers some stories of when she was younger, and she had quite the difficult life. I have always seen her as a very kind person, and I had no idea that she was contemplating death.
Death is a very difficult topic that no one really wants to think about, but should be talked about more and at younger ages. No one can fully understand death until they experience it themselves, but it is important that they have some understanding of it because it is a part of life. We are constantly getting older. Someday, if death is coming slowly and suffering is being experienced, perhaps suicide wouldn’t be such a bad option.

Group Essay: ADHD

It is becoming more common to see children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. These disorders have been used to explain why kids are increasingly hyperactive and inattentive. Children are then prescribed medication; the most common used medications are Ritalin and Adderall. But, because there is no actual test for ADD/ADHD, doctors are forced to guess based on an overall evaluation. With new medical advances and more and more medication to treat this “defect,” more children are being diagnosed and prescribed medication. Medication, though helpful, is not the only way a child can be treated for ADD/ADHD; therefore doctors should not just rely on medication to treat ADD/ADHD in children.
scientists started believing that ADD was largely genetic. ADD researchers assumed that our population was going through large scale genetic mutations. By 1990 experts on Attention Deficit Disorder began to see ADD not as a disorder, but as a natural condition. They believe that it left ADD people with disadvantages in certain modern settings, but advantages when it came to things like creativity. Today the diagnosis is so broad that millions of children are getting labeled as being ADD. (Gallagher, 1999) Now is that good or bad?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is a common condition that is affecting close to 7 percent of children in grade school age. ADHD is more common for boys, but in girls it may be under diagnosed. There are three different types of ADHD disorders. The first is ADHD mainly inattentive, this is commonly known as ADD. The second is ADHD mainly hyperactive-impulsive. And the third is ADHD which is the first two combined, which is considered to be the worst state of ADHD to have. The basic definition of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is an impairment of either activity or attention control or it could be both. There are many symptoms specialist use to diagnose ADHD, which include a child always on the go, does not settle to anything, has poor concentration, poor ability to organize activities, unable to engage in tedious activities or tasks requiring sustained mental effort, and a child who cannot stay still or wait for others. Both ADD and ADHD are very similar in certain ways such as children being unable to focus, sit for long periods of time, and have poor abilities when it comes to organization. But the difference is that ADHD is an advanced form of ADD (Gillberg, 2003).
The exact cause of ADD/ADHD has not been determined (Low, 2009). However, parents are thought to be potential predictors of ADHD in children since behaviors seem to run in families. Some of the symptoms can be linked to smoking, alcohol consumption and or the poor health of the mother during pregnancy plus poor infant health, and delayed motor and language development (Stein, 1999). In a study at McGill University, researchers separated newborn rats from their mothers for either 15 minutes or six hours a day. One of the researchers, biologist Michael Meaney, reported that he had found receptors for certain brain chemicals and the gene for the receptors are both altered as a result of stress of separation in the six-hour group (Begley, 1996). Therefore one could say that the stress of both mom and dad working produces ADHD like symptoms in children raised in a modern household so it does not necessarily have a genetic link at all.
When it comes to diagnosing these particular disorders it becomes very complicated. The reason it becomes difficult is because every doctor and specialist in the field of ADD/ADHD has different opinions and different ways of going about diagnosing their patients. Ideally a doctor when diagnosing a child would go through every aspect and angle possible before assuming that the child has ADD or ADHD, but that does not always happen. Some doctors recommend a large battery of test that often cause thousands of dollars worth of bills towards the family. While others are considered to be hurried physicians which only give a brief rating and then diagnose and prescribe treatments. And with these two extremes neither of these are for the best interests of the patients (BMJ, 2008 & Gallagher, 1999).
When children are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, they are given a variety of pills in order to “help” them focus better. But do these drugs actually do what they are supposed to? Ritalin and Adderall are the most commonly used psycho-stimulants to treat ADD/ADHD, but Concerta, Metadate, Dexodrine, Dextrostrat, Desoxyn, Gradumet, and Cylert are also used. Ritalin contains a major “WARNING” section on the label. The first two warnings are of extreme importance and should be shown full attention by anyone who is possibly going to take this drug. The warnings are as followed:
• “Ritalin should not be used in children under six years of age, since safety and efficacy for this age group have not been established.” (even though there are many cases where children under this age are taking Ritalin because they have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD).
• “Sufficient data on safety and efficacy of long-term use of Ritalin in children are not yet available.” Considering what this drug can do to an adolescent brain and body within a reasonably short period of time, why would a parent have their child to be in a study using these kinds of stimulants? (Breggin)
The drugs doctors are prescribing to our kids are quite similar to the drugs we are trying to rid from our society, such as speed. These drugs are more readily given out to children because it is easier instead of trying to meet that child’s genuine needs. These drugs can cause addiction and dependency problems and a range of stimulant-abuse problems. For example, a child can become a lifelong dependent of drugs and tobacco if over-prescribed. When a habit develops early on, there is a greater tendency for it to become a lifelong pattern. Children who smoke tobacco or who are given stimulants, such as Ritalin, develop the habit of using these things as a crutch to deal with emotions or outrageous behavior. Nicotine and stimulants can change the child’s development of the brain, which can make it dependent on these substances. This can induce further use later on in life. (Breggin, 2001)
Younger children and adolescents taking these drugs can experience severe side effects. These medications can cause shrinking in the brain, decreased appetite which can lead to anorexia, and an increase in insomnia. These are just a select few of the more known side effects that can occur within 20 days of taking these drugs. The symptoms do not include what happens to the child in a long period of time because there is not enough research done in those areas for ADD/ADHD stimulants. Even more harmful side effects have been known to occur in the following stimulants; Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, Concerta, and Metadate. The side effects can include depression, aggression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, convulsions, headaches, abnormal heart beats, cardiac arrest, and also heart disease (Breggin, 2001& US, 2002).
Since stimulants can be harmful to young children and young adults there are many alternatives that also help with the needs of a supposed ADD/ADHD child. Those alternatives include the most common ATTEND and Strattera. ATTEND is a natural based drug that is used to treat symptoms of ADD/ADHD. Even though it is made up of natural ingredients it still shows 70% improvement for a child in areas of focusing on certain tasks, self control, response time, and consistency. ATTEND is a good alternative because Ritalin and Adderall only show up to 10% more improvement over ATTEND in these areas. On the other hand Strattera only shows about 60% of improvement in these areas, but since it is not a stimulant it is still a better choice when comparing to actual stimulants used for ADD/ADHD. This is because Strattera does not cause as severe medical conditions as the stimulants do (Gillberg, 2003).
Educators do not consider Ritalin as the first treatment for children diagnosed with ADHD. Therefore, teachers in the classroom have gone to great strides to help these kids get through the day. These methods could be put in place of medication to help the child cope with ADHD and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. Teachers have found that by putting a sort of points system into the classroom, it can motivate these children to want to do things like homework and classroom chores, making it fun rather than time consuming. This type of “medication” is also known as Behavioral Therapy (Peter, 2001). Early elementary students have a much harder time concentrating, so aides or even the counselors may come into the classroom to sit with that child. Giving these kids as much one on one attention as possible helps them to better understand the lesson. (Everett, 1999)
Other methods include Psychotherapy, and Parent Skills Training. Psychotherapy consists of a series of visits to a trained counselor so the child may be able to talk out their issue and deal with them in a healthy manner. Parent Skills Training is where the parents go through workshops to learn how to deal with and help an ADHD child. These parents learn about how to make chores fun and how to use a point system in the house to give the child something to look forward to. This instills a sense of pride into a child who may not be feeling very proud of themselves.
The parent of an ADHD child will find it more effective to give clear instructions, rearrange work so it’s more interesting and motivating, redirect the child’s behavior toward future goals verses immediate gratification, and provide immediate awards for a completed task or adherence to rules (Barkely, 1995).
There are several general principles that might help a parent with an ADHD child. When children are finding their activity boring or unrewarding a parent can arrange for positive, frequent feedback and consequences to help keep them on task. Positive feedback can be putting what the child had done in a positive light. Using physical affection extra privileges or rewards. Consequences should encourage parents to use incentives before punishment when an ADHD child misbehaves. A simple rule is positives before negatives because ADHD children receive enough reprimands and everyone responds well to praise (Barkely, 1995).
Difficult-to-manage children may cause parents to become angered, embarrassed, or frustrated. Parents should always remember they are the adult, and should behave reasonably, fairly and rationally. Don’t let behavior problems become a contest, stay calm, and maintain a sense of humor. And know you’re not a bad parent when things don’t go exactly as you planned.
In summary, it has been concluded that in most cases children are being over diagnosed and medicated. We believe is that Physicians, Teachers, and Psychiatrists need to be more careful when dealing with these two disorders. They need to not assume that just because a child is showing certain behaviors or distinct differences that it should automatically be concluded as ADD/ADHD. They need to not make excuses for children that are simply just not interested in certain topics, they need to be 100% sure that a child has Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. These disorders are serious conditions when accurately diagnosed to a child, so until there is an accurate test for ADD/ADHD then it should not be taken lightly.

Diagnostic Essay: Do we Need to get Serious about Exploring Biological Diversity?

The author of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation essay believes that we should learn about as many different species of animals as possible, because there is no way to protect them from extinction if we don’t know that they exist. I don’t know enough about this topic to decide weather or not it is necessary to learn about all the different species. What I do know is that species are becoming extinct at very quick rates, biodiversity is important, and that documentation and research of rare species would be a very costly and time consuming for many people. Ecosystems all around the world are loosing biodiversity at a very fast rate. It may be necessary to document the extinctions in order to inform people of what is happening so that they can attempt to change it. On the other hand, in some ecosystems there is so many different species that it would just be a expensive, never-ending process. It could be basically pointless because we would never be able to know about enough of them to come to conclusions of how to save them.
One of the authors main points was that we can not know how to prevent a species from going extinct when we do not even know that they exist. Some people believe that there is no reason to save the species from going extinct, because if they are dying off it must be because they are not able to survive in the current living conditions. Other species that are capable of evolving so that they can live in the current environmental conditions, are allowed to flourish when another species dies off. The earth is a constantly changing place, and all creature must adapt or die. We are not capable to fully understand most of the worlds ecosystems, and we never will despite how much research is put into learning about them.

The DNA Dance, Meiosis Dance & Mitosis Dance!

The Southern Oregon Arts & Research (SOAR) project was an enjoyable, hands-on experience that embed important basic biology information. Thanks to our project, I will never forget how DNA replication, meiosis and mitosis work. I was very fortunate that I knew all this important information so well, because it was on my Anatomy and Physiology test. If it wasn’t for our Southern Oregon Arts & Research project, I would have missed many more questions on that test. Practicing the dances for Southern Oregon Arts & Research was very fun, and through it I learned some of the information that is taught in upper division biology classes. Because I do not plan on taking a general biology class, the information that I learned from the project is very valuable to me.
A great thing that about figuring out how we wanted to perform the DNA, Meiosis and Mitosis dances, is that it made us use creativity, which is something that needs to be used more often in our society. The most satisfying part of the experience is that we taught other students valuable information, in a fun and creative way. Teaching other the University Seminar students what we had spent three terms learning, was a great way to end the school year. I enjoyed the University Seminar series very much and spending so much time on the Southern Oregon Arts & Research project is a large part of why spring term was so enjoyable to me. You are an awesome professor and I look forward to taking Nursing Genetics with you next year! Have a great summer!

Book Report: Children and The Environment

The book Children and The Environment, co-authored by the United Nations Environment Program and The United Nations Children’s Fund, is a factual report on how overpopulation, toxins, changes in the environment and other factors are affecting children. It was written 19 years ago, the same year that I was born, which made it quite interesting to me. The premise of the book is that there has never been and never will be as many children on the earth than there were in the 1990s, and that the parents of that generation owe their children and grandchildren a planet able to sustain them. For this report, I will analyze the problems and statistics that are presented in Children and The Environment to see if they are inline with today’s environment, and also explore how psychosocial theories relate to the book.
Articles written by government programs are not typically questioned, and are simply taken as fact. Because Children and The Environment was written so long ago, I was given the opportunity to discover how accurate it is. I took the graphic projections in the book to check how close they came to the real statics. In the first chapter they talked a lot about what the population will be like in 2025 and how many children will there be. The United Nations projected that in 2025, there would be 100 million children in developed regions and 1900 million in developing regions. Statistics show that in developed regions there are 300 million children, and in developing regions there are already 1900 million in the year 2009, proving that the projections were way off! Another projection in this book says that the world population should be approximately 7.4 billion people in 2009, but the population is 6.8 billion. The projection is 12.5 percent over the actual population. It is astounding how far off their numbers are, and it makes me quite wary of all the information presented in the book. Although most information given by governments is highly trusted, the United Nations has not been known for it’s accuracy.
The main claim of Children and The Environment is that there will be more children born in the 1990’s than any decade before or after, and that problems caused by overpopulation will be devastating to the earth and human race. World population has increased at a very fast rate during the past twenty years, but surprisingly living standards have dramatically improved. The amount of people living in extreme poverty has decreased from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005 and is now the lowest in history.
Despite the large percent of error in the book’s statical projections, Children and The Environment does a good job educating readers about how their actions may change the environment in a negative or positive way, and affect people everywhere. It explains how and why a variety of environmental issues effect the well-being of infants, children, and adults. The book makes many important points, such as: How will the world be able to sustain enough food to feed an increased population when the agricultural systems are failing to supply enough to meet the current demand? How could over pollution be prevented? How would diseases, such as AIDs, affect the increasing population in developing countries? Will humans take care of the earth well enough to sustain future generations? All of these are important questions that have been addressed, but not well enough.
In recent years, an increased amount of people have been able to avoid malnutrition. This is because humans have been genetically modifying, mass producing, and pumping food with chemicals, none of which is good for health of humans or earth. AIDs and many other easily preventable diseases remain huge issues in developing countries. Humans have been polluting the air and water and cutting the vegetation of our earth so much that it is drastically changing the environment. Perhaps the world would be better if more people had followed the advice of Children and The Environment.
Extreme poverty is currently defined by the World Bank as living on less than 1.25 US dollars per day. Over one billion people, or roughly one in six, live in such a state. Extreme poverty is most rampant in parts of Africa, Asia, and Central America. Moderate poverty is defined as living off of less than two US dollars per day. Cumulatively, there is about three billion people, nearly half of the world, living in poverty.
If a child is living in poverty, it will effect both their physical and mental development. At each stage of psychosocial development, if a child’s basic needs aren't being met, having a favorable outcome in each stage and moving on to the next one is very unlikely. As I was reading through this book on Children and their Environment, it was difficult not to contemplate the effects of poverty on Erickson's Psychosocial Stages of Development.
As the textbook Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach and the book Children and The Environment explain, people who are living in extreme poverty do not have food, water, shelter, sanitation, or health care and cannot develop normally. Persistent poverty has harsh effects on IQ and social functioning. Increased exposure to lead and other toxins, and having less home-based cognitive stimulation, account for some of the diminished functioning in poor children. Malaria and tuberculosis are still epidemic diseases in many countries. Children growing up in extreme poverty are at high risk for poor development.
It is essential that mothers have plenty of nutrients and energy available, and avoids toxins during the critical periods of pregnancy for development of each structure to occur correctly. When a pregnant mother is exposed to toxins or malnutrition, it will affect the fetus/embryo in different ways depending on what is developing at the time of exposure. The most crucial human organs, the heart and central nervous system, develop at weeks 7-8 and 20-38, so those are important times periods for mother to be living as healthy possible.
The chart above is similar to the one in Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach, which shows what parts of embryos and fetuses develop at during each time period of pregnancy. When a pregnant woman does not get enough calories or protein in her diet it often causes the baby to have a low birth weight, have stunted growth, and organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain, to be smaller. The book Children and The Environment is full of interesting facts and explains many other issues that affect the development of children.
Anyone who finds interest in the book Children and The Environment, would most likely enjoy Al Gore’s book and movie on global warming, President Obama’s plan for providing healthcare to all children, or perhaps Greg Mortenson’s book: Three Cups of Tea about educating women in Afghanistan to help make change in our world. If you want a great in-depth look on our generation's chance to change the world, read Dr. Sach’s book The End Of Poverty. Dr. Sach is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He has written this book and joined forces with the singer Bono, to raise money and implement a plan to end extreme poverty by 2025. Dr. Sach and Bono have been eliminating poverty mostly by helping the women in these poor regions with "micro" loans. Giving a woman enough money to buy goats example of how the “micro” loans work. With these goats she can provide milk and cheese for her family. She can breed the goats and sell them. She can grow a business and hire helpers, etc. These kind of loans have a "play it forward" effect and can help the entire region with time. I am planing to continue researching poverty, so that I will be more capable of improving the lives people in need.
In summary, reading and researching the information in the book Children and The Environment has taught me to question information, no matter what source it comes from. It has also taught me that environment has gotten better in some ways, and worse in other ways. The amount of extreme poverty has drastically decreased since this book was published, which is a tremendous victory for humans. Global living standards have increased drastically over the past 25 years because people like Dr. Sach, Bono, Barack Obama, Greg Mortenson and the thousands of other people who have made sacrifices to help the needy. There are so many thing that can be done to improve the environment and the lives of people globally. Every person can help improve our world, including you! If you want to help out, don’t wait, get out there and do something about it! Bibliography
The World Bank. (2009). Understanding Poverty.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:373757~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNCF). (1990). Children And The Environment.

Newman, B., Newman, P. (2006) Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach; ninth edition. Thomas Learning Inc.

critical periods in prenatal development. http://www.cerebralpalsychildren.com/CP1.jpg

Erickson's Psychosocial Stages of Development. http://www.myuccedu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ericksone28099s-psychosocial-stages.jpg

McLoyd, C., (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist.

Agarwal K.N., (1980). Nutrition deprivation: Effects on feto-placental unit and fetal brain. Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation, co-published by Springer India.

It is difficult to understand what is going on inside the head of a suicidal adolescent. What can be done to make them happy again? Well, when I think of happiness, I think of warmth and laughter. If there is one thing that adolescents are good at, it is being silly. Anyone can help a person become happy, including friends. The article does not go in depth at all about the study that was done, so I am skeptical of it’s accuracy.. I believe that getting a suicidal adolescent to become happy again would take more than help from the parents and a lover, it would also require support from peers. Quality support from parents would help most suicidal adolescents, but alone could not fix the problems. A group effort is needed. Parents can give the adolescent support and someone to talk to, where the peers can provide fun and a sense of acceptance. All social interactions are important in providing a good environment.

Calculating Your Carbon Footprint

The article Improving your Carbon Footprint by Andy Fusco & Passaic N.J, claims that the online carbon dioxide calculator is an important step in educating and raising awareness to the public about how big their carbon footprint is and what they can do to make it smaller. I disagree with this claim. Yes, it can help raise a little awareness about the issue, but there are much more powerful ways to do so.
Although some people might search the internet to figure out how big their carbon footprint is, not many take this route. Many of the people that do search the internet for a carbon footprint calculator end up using one of the many popular, inaccurate ones, and end up with a false sense of how big their carbon footprint is.
Anyone who goes to school, or watches TV, or listens to the radio, or reads the newspaper, or has conversations with someone that does, knows what is good and bad for the environment. The information is everywhere! People that drive big SUVs or trucks know that they are polluting the environment. Most people know that fluorescent light bulbs are better for the environment than regular ones. Most people know that plants are good for the environment. Just because they know what they are doing is bad, doesn’t mean that they are going to change their habits.
Of people that use an accurate CO2 footprint calculator, many may find the size of their carbon footprint to be enlightening, and it may change their lifestyle. Most people don’t take the time to find and use an accurate CO2 footprint calculator, because they already have some idea of how big their carbon footprint is or could care less about what the carbon footprint calculator says. In conclusion, the online carbon calculator can be an important step in educating and raising awareness for some people, but to most people it is not.

Marine Migration

The peer-reviewed article The Coming Invasion, by Geerat J. VermIj and Peither D. Roopnarine, claims that as the climate becomes warmer due to global warming, mollusks and other marine species will migrate to the Atlantic Ocean through the Bering Strait. There are many mollusks that thrive in the Pacific Ocean. I am sure that if they did migrate to the Atlantic, it would have a very large effect on the ecosystem. Mollusks have potential to cause other species in the Atlantic to go extinct. Because all native species play important roles in specie interactions and well-being, this migration could potentially be devastating to the current ecosystem.
I do not know enough about ecosystems to predict exactly what would happen if these marine species did migrate, but I do know that they would cause a large amount of change in the Atlantic Ocean, and probably other ecosystems also. These changes are likely to be bad ones. The ocean covers most of the earth and affects everything. If there is a substantial change in a ocean, it could lead to devastating changes in ecosystems everywhere. Why take the risk? I think that the ocean is functioning quite nicely right now, and I don’t want it to change. Everyone needs to take the steps necessary to prevent further global warming.

I think that this article makes good point, which I agree with. I think that spanking is a useful form of punishment, which should be occasionally used in combination with other forms of punishment. My little cousin is punished for his wrong doings in a way that I believe is very effective, much like how the article says it should be done. When he is bad, my aunt or uncle tell him that it was not okay. Instead of spanking they usually give him a time out and often take away his TV and computer time. If he does something really bad they usually spank him and then send him to his room. Because of the effective punishment he is growing up to be a very good boy. If I have children I will try to use similar techniques.

Reflection on Group Work

All of the members of the group that I choose seemed to be fun people, and I wanted to get to know them better. Each one of us pulled our own weight and did a good job at getting the assignments done. Like most groups, we had some difficulties working together, but we worked through our difficulties and did what we had to do.
The USEM project was a great way to get better at working with a group. We worked very hard on all aspects of the assignment. I don’t think that we were the best team at working together, but we all worked hard and did a good job. If I could choose a different group, I think that I would have picked a group where that did not have all female members, to cut down on the drama that girls often seem to start. There was quite a lot poor communication between group members and some backstabbing. I dealt with the backstabbing and drama the way I normally deal with it; I ignored it and tried to keep my involvement with it small as possible.
The ADD essay and speech are the biggest group projects that I have ever done; it was allot of work for each of us. It was difficult to find time that all five us could meet to work on our project, but we did. We ended up spending several hours in the library together. We split up the work for the things that only one person could be working on at a time. Rachel did most of the PowerPoint, which turned great. Sammie did most of the group essay organization, which took much hard work. We were all motivated to do well on this project because it accounts for a large portion of our grades.
Most of the time, I didn’t enjoy working with my group on this project. My group was very good at getting all parts of the project done well and on time, which I liked, but I would have rather done it alone or with a different group (please don’t tell them about any of this). I was okay with all of the work that I did alone and I worked very diligently on it.
Sometimes I enjoy working with groups, but I didn’t have a very good experience this time. Although I didn’t enjoy my group as much as I hoped to, I learned from it. In life, there are often people that you will have to work with, and you don’t always like these people. The ADD group project helped me improve on working with people whom I didn’t always want to work with.

Verbal Skills

I am not a horrible speaker, but I am definitely not a great one either. I often get nervous when I have to stand up in front of a class to speak or give a presentation. I tend to not get as nervous when I am not the only person in front of the class, but I still get nervous. I have never had very good verbal skills, but have slightly them improved over the years.
Last term I was doing a demonstration for my T’ai Chi class. For some reason I was extremely nervous for this presentation. I got to choose to either face the class or face the front of the room, when giving my presentation. I choose to be brave and face the class. After a couple of moves, I stopped and said that I actually don’t want to face the class. After turning around, I went though the T’ai Chi steps. I did many of the moves that I knew well incorrectly, and I added an extra one. After I was done with my presentation, the class was to tell me what I did well and what I should improve on. The professor could tell how nervous I was and half was through the people telling me what I did well, and what I should work on, he told me that I could sit down. This is a good example of just how nervous I can get when standing in front of a group of people.
I have given many good speeches through out my school days, as well as a few number of speeches where I was so nervous that I did a very poor job, even on well-reversed presentations. I have no idea why I sometimes get extremely nervous, and sometimes I hardly get nervous at all. I often get nervous when talking to a cute guy or a person that I am trying to make a good impression on. I have never had very good verbal skills, but I think that I am improving every day. I think that if I give speeches more often, I will become more comfortable with them. I hope that USEM 103 will help me become more comfortable with standing in front of classes to give speeches and presentations.

Writing

I have always struggled with all of the language arts. When I was in fifth grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and I had to take my reading and writing classes with Special Ed. I was made fun of for going to Special Ed and it soon lowered my self-confidence. I wanted to prove to myself and my peers that I was just as good as them, so put allot of effort in improving in the language arts. Once I got into middle school I just had a study hall in Special Ed, but didn’t take any classes there. I tried so hard in my English class and eventually was doing well enough that I didn’t have to go to any special classes anymore. I have always had to try harder than other students to do well in the language arts, but I never stop trying.
I went into the ADD project thinking that it would be a lot of work, and I was right. I’ve never had to write an essay near the required length of the USEM research essay. The most difficult part of the writing process was finding creditable information to write about. I knew allot about ADD before researching because of my personal experiences, which made writing a little easier. After I was finished researching, I had to figure out how to word my findings and what order to put them in. Because writing has always been difficult for me, the writing process took me a long time. After I was done writing, I had much editing to do. I am still quite bad with spelling, but luckily my computer could help me with that! I read my essay several times to myself and had a couple friends help edit it for me. Although it was a difficult project, I found my topic to be very interesting and enjoyed learning more about it.
I am satisfied with how my essay turned out. I learned much information from the project and feel like my writing skills may have improved a little from it. I now can confidently and accurately explain most anything about ADD or the drugs used to treat it. I feel that I can help people that I know with this knowledge, so they won’t have to go through bad experiences similar to the ones I have had concerning my ADD.
I usually don’t enjoy writing, but I often fell accomplished after. I have found that once I get into my “writing mood” I can write quickly and well, but it often takes me a while to get there. I need to improve my writing in many aspects, especially spelling. I hope that USEM 103 will improve my writing skills.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Article Analysis: Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors

Cancer is something that humans still do not fully understand, which is why it can be fascinating, terrifying, and often deadly. Because it is so powerful and frightening to us, scientists are constantly trying to learn more about it. The peer-reviewed Journal article “Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” does a good job at discussing the changes in people after surviving cancer.
The journal article is about a study that’s based on behavioral changes and coping perspectives of cancer survivors. I believe that the independent variable is surviving cancer, and the dependent variable is lifestyle change. For their study, researchers mailed out 600 questioners to cancer survivors, and 250 were completed and returned. The participants were about two-thirds women, and one-third men. The mean age was of the participants was 45 years. The journal article has many interesting facts and is very informative.
The article “Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” says that after surviving cancer, many people feel vulnerable. Feelings of vulnerability in cancer survivors often result in a new respect for their body and good health, which lead to positive health changes. The most common health change that cancer survivors make is an improved diet. Other healthy changes that were often observed were increased amounts of exercise and sometimes more sleep. Although the majority of the cancer survivors experience healthy changes, many used negative coping mechanisms and therefore experienced negative health changes. The article says, “In a study done on young adult survivors, higher levels of life stress were related to higher levels of risky behaviors”. Another common negative health change in cancer survivors is lack of sleep. These changes are due to positive and negative coping mechanisms, which are discussed in chapter 12 of the textbook (Weiten. Psyshology themes & variations, 7th edition, briefer version).
The study focused on the “reports of actual change rather than intentions to make change”, which is something that no one has done before. They found that more survivors reported positive changes than negative changes. The researchers hypothesized that “approach coping would be related to adaptive health behavior, while avoidant coping would be related more to negative health behavior changes”, which has recently been supported by studies described in the article.
There are so many people that are suffering from cancer these days. Several people in my life have suffered from cancer, and I have noticed positive lifestyle changes in all of them after diagnosis. I choose this to read and write this report on “Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” because I wanted to learn more about what people with cancer go through and why they make the lifestyle changes that they do. Now that I have read this article I feel that I can understand cancer survivors much better, which may allow me to help them better if I am ever put in that position as caregiver.
“Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors” is a very interesting and enlighten article on a topic that anyone can learn more about. It is very different from the Popular Press article, “In Health: Strength in Numbers” by Margret Farley Steele, because it is written in a scientific way, it’s not as biases, and is very factual. Because it is peer reviewed, has great references, and from the Journal of Health and Psychology, I believe that it is a very creditable article. It makes some great points and I recommend it for others to read.
Crystal L. Park, Donald Edmondson, Juliane R. Fenster, & Thomas O. Blank. (2008). Positive and Negative Health Behavior Changes in Cancer Survivors. Journal of Health Psychology. Retrieved February third, 2009 from hpq.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/13/8/1198.pdf

Popular Press Article Analysis: Strength in Numbers

It is not always easy to find the motivation to workout, or eat a healthy diet. I know from experience that it is even more difficult to get in shape when recovering from an illness or injury. I have found for myself that it is much easier and more enjoyable to workout with friends than it is alone, and the cancer survivors in the magazine article, “In Health: Strength in Numbers” by Margret Farley Steele, agree with me.
The main point of the article is to share how several women, who have survived cancer, found their strength to exercise and improve their health with the help of a cancer survivor’s exercise group. I learned that in our modern society there are many more cancer survivors, and there are an increasing number of workout programs being formed specifically for them. The study concluded that women in cancer surviving exercise groups are more likely to stick to their workout routine.
I have found that magazine articles like this are much easier and enjoyable to read than the peer-reviewed articles, but not as factual. This article is biases, because keeping a regular exercise routine is difficult for everyone with our busy modern lifestyles, not just people that are in recovery. Another flaw of this article is that is based more on option that actual fact, which is the opposite of the Peer-reviewed article on cancer survivors. The study described in the article doesn’t seem to very accurate, but that is okay because magazine articles aren’t expected to be nearly as accurate as peer-reviewed articles.
The magazine article, “In Health: Strength in Numbers” by Margret Farley Steele, I found to be an enjoyable and inspiring article. The theme of the magazine article is very similar to the theme of the peer-reviewed article that I picked: cancer survivor making their lifestyles healthier. If women that just went through cemotherapy can jump on a treadmills and exercise on a regular basis, young healthy people like me certainly should be able to find some motivation to do that too!

Steele, M.F. (2006, October). In Health: Strength in Numbers. Connect Magazine [online]. Available: http://www.connecticutmag.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2329&dept_id=571885&newsid=17521342 [2009, March 24].

Hindsight Bias

Humans have a natural tendency to mix the facts so that they can make themselves look and feel like they know more than they really do. The Critical thinking application “Hindsight in everyday analysis of Personality” is a very informative piece of writing that describes and analyzes hindsight bias. Hindsight bias very can be bad; they can cause big problems, especially in some professional fields. It is important to know how to recognize hindsight bias to prevent problems from occurring.
Hindsight bias are accretions made after a event has occurred; The psychology textbook (Wayne Weiten. Psychology, themes & variations, briefer version) describes it as “the tendency to mold one’s interpretation of the past events to fit how the events actually turned out”. Most people do this on a regular basis. It’s easy to come up with possible explanations why something happened, or why someone we know well has a certain personality trait. Hindsight bias make everyone seem like an expert on personality or a situation.
Hindsight bias can be harmful in a variety of professional fields. In the medical field, when patients go to another doctor to obtain a second opinion, if the doctor knows the original diagnosis they are much more likely to have the same diagnosis. Hindsight bias can also be a issue in politics, games, evolutionary theories, and many other things.
Hindsight bias are a much too common thing these days. If we were to be more careful about our everyday assumptions, it would prevent a large number of problems. People need to be critical thinkers that, as the book says, “understand that knowing the outcomes of events biases our recall and interpretation of the events”.

Article Analysis: When children with bipolar disorder grow up

Out of all the psychological disorders, childhood bipolar disorder is one of the most controversial. The article, “When children with bipolar disorder grow up”, is very informative about bipolar disorder, which is something that I knew little about before this assignment. The main points of this article is to inform its readers about bipolar disorder and the findings of a resent NIMH study done on children with bipolar disorder type 1.
This article is contains many interesting facts about bipolar disorder. Childhood bipolar disorder, known as type 1, has many similarities, and some differences to adult bipolar disorder. Both of the disorders share the symptoms of “severely elevated or depressed moods”. The main difference is that adults tend to suffer from abnormal moods for weeks or months, and children change moods much more often, as much as several times a day. Because of these manic episodes of childhood bipolar disorder, the child can suddenly become depressed or suicidal. The study described in the article found that; children with type 1 bipolar disorder experience manic episodes after they reach 18 years old much more often than previously thought to. One more difference between childhood and adult bipolar disorder is that about twice the amount of bipolar children also experience ADHD than bipolar adults. The NIMH study from the article provided additional support that ‘classic” bipolar disorder can begin in childhood.
The article “When children with bipolar disorder grow up” is interesting and its information seems creditable because it comes from a reliable source and has good references. It is for the general public, which means that it is easy to read and understand, unlike some journal articles. I learned much from this article and would recommend it for others to read.

Fatherlessness

I’ve never been able to imagine what it would be like to be raised by a single parent or homosexual parents, even though I have grown up with many friends that have done so. None of my friends ever complained, but I had often felt bad for them, thinking that it must be difficult living with their parental situation. I grew up with a wonderful mother and father and I didn’t think that any parental situation without a mother or father could be as good. Throughout the years, after hearing many different perspectives on the issue, my views have changed. Although it would be very different living without a father or without a mother, I think that it could be okay.
The Critical Thinking Application: Are Fathers Essential to Children’s Well-being? from the textbook Psychology themes & Variations is a interesting article that gives many facts and perspectives and made me think about the issue in a new way. David Blankenhorn (1995) gives a very different view on this topic in the Critical Thinking Application article, than I have; “fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation. It is the leading cause of declining child well-being in our society”. The idea that fatherlessness is the worst trend in our generation’s society is a far-fetched theory.
Apart from growing up with friends that have only one parent and friends with homosexual parents, I have also grown up with a couple friends that had far worse parental situations. It is much more important to NOT have a father that: gets drunk all the time and that beats his family, or is a workaholic and never shows signs of affection and never spends time with his children, than it is to have a father at all. It doesn’t matter how many, or what sex the parents are, as long as there are good people around to love, take care of and provide quality male and female role models for the children.
A father can be very good to have around because he provides the children with a male role model. My father has taught me many things such as: how to fish, shot a gun, cut and stack firewood, do math problems, and many other thing that females often aren’t as skilled at as males are. Also, fathers often bring in an income or do chores around the house, which helps reduce stress in the family. Homosexual parents can be capable of doing all of these things, but many of them don’t. Studies have been done, which are discussed in the Critical Thinking Application, that show children without fathers have more developmental problems and get into bad situations during adolescence more than children with fathers. I believe that this happens because the children become stressed when they have a stressed single parent, they don’t have a good male role model, or they have to experience their parents going though the rough process of divorce.
Children just need to have a non-stressful environment and people around to provide quality role models, love and take care of them; it doesn’t matter if their parents are male or female. My friend that grew up with lesbian parents and my friends that grew up single parents, have all have grown up to be great people. I believe that having a traditional family with a father may be the best way to raise children, but it is certainly not the only way that can work well.

Scientists have been studying genes for a long time. There have been many discoveries since they began studying them, and we now have a much better idea of their structure and functions. The article Scientists and Philosophers Find That ‘Gene’ Has a Multitude of Meanings, by Natalie Angier, illustrates that the word gene, and other genetic vocabulary, is often misleading. Angler makes some good points in this article, but her article is misleading, and I don’t know understand all of it because the writing was wordy and complicated.
As scientists have learned about genes and started looking into the details more, gene research has become more complicated. In Angler’s article it says that “genes” only account for a very small part of the human genome. That possibility befuddles me because I have always thought that the definition of genome is simply the entire set of the organism’s genes. I believe that what Angler wrote in her article is true because she is a well known educated science journalist, but I think that it could have been explained much better.

Laziness

There may be genetic reasons that cause people to be lazy and not exercise.

Although we all know there’s overwhelming health benefits physical activity, many people still choose to not exercise.
-Staying fit helps prevent numerous major diseases and health problems.
-In the study, some of the sedentary mice devised ingenious ways to avoid activity.

Some people have “activity-prone” genes, while others don’t.
-Lightfoot identified 20 different genomic locations that work in tandom to influence activity levels.
-If mice have a gene, humans probably also have it.
-In the study, mice who’s parents were active, were much more likely to also be active.

The “active” genes could either affect how the muscles work or the amounts of neurotransmitters in the brain, but it’s probably the neurotransmitters being affected.
-A study suggests that there is no difference in the function of the muscle of the active and not active mice.
-The study hasn’t been published yet so it can’t rule out the hypothesis that the active genes directly affect the muscles efficiency.
-The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin play important roles in several human drives and behaviors, so it would be a reasonable hypothesis that they are what the activity gene directly affect.