What is Humaneering' Should this be the aim of Psychology Essay

What is Humaneering' Should this be the aim of Psychology - Essay Example d physiology should lead to as striking advances in â€Å"humaneering† during the twentieth century.† (The Psychology of Normal People (1940) p.24. ) Today, humaneering is managerial technology that integrates human- science-based knowledge concerning work into a new applied science. It is defined as â€Å"the application of biological, psychological and social science principles to the design, development, and operation of economical and efficient organizations, processes, and human work systems.† In comparison, engineering differs by its application of physical science principles to structures, equipment and machine-like processes.(www.pepitone.com/content/know-technology.asp )- duty to ‘change the world’. However, they are often highly critical of institutionalized social psychology. Many of them go further, by using their study of the discipline as a form of political activism to challenge oppression. You will generally find that the topics studied by critical social psychologists are ones concerned in some way with the abuse of power. Sometimes they specifically address issues of domination, exploitation and abuse. Examples include Wetherell and Potter’s (1992) study of racism, and According to psychologist Gordon Allport, social psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods "to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings" (1985). Social psychology looks at a wide range of social topics, including group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression, and prejudice. It is important to note that social psychology is not just about looking at social influences. Social perception and social interaction are also vital to understanding social behavior. While Plato referred to the idea of the "crowd mind" and concepts such as social loafing and social facilitation were introduced in

Honor and Duty- Rudyard Kipling Essay Essay Example for Free

Honor and Duty- Rudyard Kipling Essay Essay Three of Kipling’s poems, Young British Soldier, Tommy and Gunga Din were all components to a volume of poems entitled the Barack-Room Ballads. They were written in a Cockney dialect to gain support for the British military during the World Wars from the larger population of lower class people. They were used to convince the public that if they did not financially support the war efforts, they would be dishonorable. The duty of the people was to show support for the fighting. It was the only way they could show their loyalty to the cause and their country, and contribute to it. Kipling’s poems, in a way, were propaganda and the intent of the messages to the people were received. It convinced many to be eager to do their honor and duty to help the war effort by donating money and young men to join the army. Cash flow increased and soon the British ranks were filled with fresh soldiers from all classes. In addition to the effects on the citizens, the poems were also used to increase the feeling of honor and duty among the soldiers serving in the military. They became classic military fighting slogans that inspired courage and persistence through some of their harsh conditions. In Tommy, it was spoken about the poor treatment received when they entered local pubs or walked along the streets. The soldier of Kipling’s time defended the British Empire but was also picked at because of his low birth in the class system. A large portion of the soldiers who entered the military were just commoners. Gunga Din focuses more around race. The main character is an Indian water boy who carried water for British soldiers. He is treated as a lowly servant, yet is also seen as courageous when he is needed by a soldier on the battle-field. The poem is written through a soldier’s eyes and describes Gunga Din’s abuse from the others due to his dark skin tone. Kipling’s The Young British Soldier depicts a fighting soldier’s experience in the Afghan Wars. Twelve thousand British soldiers were killed and it was named Auckland’s Folly because it had been such a disaster to Britain. It explains how the young british soldier is expected to fight with duty and honor and contrarily describes the horrific experiences that soldiers would go through on the battlefield. Kipling’s poems impacted the British public greatly; it helped pull in money for the vast expenses of war while at the same time drawing in needed recruits for their military. For the soldiers who faced brutal deaths on the battlefields, the poems were chanted with pride and they helped lessen the painful reality.

The Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane Analysis

The Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane Analysis The Imitation of Life is one of the most powerful cinematic displays of racial passing in movie history. Passing, a commonly used term especially in the African American community, occurs when a member of one racial category assumes the ethnicity of another (Alkon, 2012). The movie was originally made in 1934 with a remake in 1959. The main character, Sarah Jane, wanted not just to pass within the dominant social group (white), but to truly belong to that group and forget her African American identity that comes loaded with much prejudice and hardship. Despite having the racial fluidity to pass, her mother and the people who were close to her knew her true ethnicity. Although this is a movie, passing is part of our socio-historical background. In this paper I will examine how Sarah Jane does facework in order to successfully pass as a white woman. There are various examples of facework that allow her to be in character. In Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane was the daughter of a black housekeeper, who wanted to pass as a white female. When attempting to cross ethnic barriers, there are gains for the person who decides to attempt to pass. The ultimate gain is acceptance into a dominant class in society and the ultimate cost is eventually losing touch with blood relatives. For example, there is a scene in the movie when Sarah Jane begged her mother to leave her and to never tell anyone they were related. In this scene, you could see Sarah Jane softening a little bit as her mother embraced her and promised her daughter that she would leave her alone because she was getting tired of being turned away from her daughter. This exchange was the last time they spoke to each other. In the process of passing as a means of survival, the dilemmas facing those who pass, is the degree to which they internalize the dominant values of the oppressor (Yee, 1998). Both of her parents were African American, yet her outward appearance fit all the physical attributes of a Caucasian person being of lighter skin. As a young child, Sarah was upset because she was given a black doll. She did not like this because she had internalized and embraced that she looked just like the other white children around her. According to Mead, all children in this society learn at an early age that, generally speaking, whiteness is privileged and darkness is not and thus their choices in this regard are usually not surprising (ISL, 2010). During this scene, she was in wrong face; she pouted and voiced her unhappiness about the doll and their living situation, and her mother quickly came in to help Sarah Jane regain face by apologizing, a popular corrective process. In the reading, My Grandmothers Passing, XXX we were introduced to the writers grandmother, Mary Douglass, who was also upset because her granddaughter saw herself as an Anglo American woman, became upset and distanced herself from her granddaughter after she called her Mexican (Lopez McAllister, 2011). In both stories the females involved were of da rker skin and experienced self-loathing because of social comparisons and internalized racism. Sarah Janes mother, Annie, was able to find employment as a live-in maid with a struggling actress; the relationship of the two women clearly defined the social structure in their relationship. Annie was a hard working woman but her master status was black. She used emotional labor on a daily basis and rarely had a backstage to run to when her day was over. In her job as a maid, she had to do a lot of surface acting because it was hard for her to find employment and keep her daughter with her. She used corrective processes to avoid aggressive interchanges with her employer and with her daughter. The strain of this emotional labor made her ill and this is what we are led to believe is the reason she dies. Throughout the movie, Karl Marxs conflict theory of the haves and the have nots is clear. The tension between the needing to be a mother and being able to build self-esteem and pride in her daughter was in contrast to her own need of employment as the maid and taking care of their fa mily was quite evident. She did not realize that her compliance in her situation made a social dilemma for her daughter. A social dilemma is an individually reasonable behavior that leads to a situation in which everyone is worse off (Newman, 2011). Sarah Jane grew up living in the shadow of a rich-white lifestyle longing to be a real white girl, something she was able to accomplish once she had part ways from her mother. According to Romero (1995), Sarah Jane had to learn when she must act like the employers child and when she must assume the appropriate behavior as the maids e daughter. She has to recognize all the social cues and interpret social settings correctlywhen to expect the same rights and privileged as the employers children and when to fulfill the expectations and obligations as the maids daughter (p. 89). The ways in which parents, family, community and society transmit various interpretations of race eventually determine how one identifies oneself. During the film, Sarah Jane was challenged because she lived in fear of being found out. Sarah Janes emotion work involved a lot of deep acting to maintain the role and achieve the master status of a Caucasian person that she was not ascribed. In society, race is usual ly visually confirmed. As Sarah Jane grew older she constantly denied her ethnicity which led to another challenge. For African Americans, understanding the past is essential in analyzing present day issues of the community. The topics of colorism and the relationship between light and dark skinned Blacks are especially important because history indicates that the subject is imbued with cryptic discomfort (Cunningham, 1997). Light skin is valued in some minorities especially African American. When Sarah Jane started to date she thought that if she married a white man, her children would come out white and no one would know the wiser. Contrary to her wishes, her boyfriend, who was white, found out that her mother was black. He asked her on a date and savagely beat her and threw her in the gutter. He felt that she tricked him because he would never date outside of his race. Having one drop of black blood was considered contaminating, and its presence made one totally and absolutely black. The one drop rule b ecame law during re-construction. In addition, many Whites feared an infiltration of black blood, and anti-miscegenation laws were born partly out of the fear that a White person might accidentally marry a black person (Cunningham, 1997). After this beating she felt more resentment towards her mother because she felt all the obstacles she was facing were her mothers fault. There are also breaks in facework in which emotions are not managed properly. Sarah Janes status is constantly changing in response to the wide range of social settings she encounters (Romero, 1995, p. 89). To avoid embarrassment because of the many awkward situations she faced because of her race she decided to run away in order to maintain face. She joined a chorus line in a low class night club and became comfortable living as a white woman. She successfully passed in her new identity. This allowed her sense of self to grow; she was able to distance herself from the social norms that were in place for African Americans. Facework allowed Sarah Jane to avoid stigmatized identity: After she ran away, in her new environment, there was no one to stigmatize her as a black woman. She made friends and found a job. Being a light skinned African American was often a barrier to find jobs because in the eyes of some whites, they were a picture of the outcome of a mixed relationship which was taboo at that time. The mere idea of people who were black being able to pass and live among whites caused an ongoing threat of racial obscurity for white so naturally passing as a white woman affected her looking glass self, by seeing herself as she thought others saw her (Alkon, 2012). Sarah Janes mother was getting older and she was getting very sick. She eventually cooperated with Sarah Jane in the process of facework by promising her that she would never acknowledge that she was her mother so that Sarah Jane could maintain her face and keep the persona of being a white woman. While Annie was dying she told her employer to tell her daughter that she was sorry and that she was being selfish as her mother but she loved her because she was the only thing she had. As I mentioned above, Annie used facework and corrective processes until she died. Unfortunately at the end of the movie Annie died. During the funeral, Sarah Jane ran down the crowded street and threw herself on the coffin, this time she was screaming and telling her mother that she was sorry. She was using a corrective process by apologizing and asking her mother for forgiveness. Unfortunately it was too late because her mother died of a broken heart. In conclusion, Sarah Jane used facework to successfully pass as a white woman, and allowed Sarah Jane to avoid a stigmatized identity. She was able to do this because visually you would not know she was African American. Passing as a white woman affected her identity because she used deep acting to internalize the white race that she infiltrated. Sarah Janes passing deeply affected her mother because her mother wanted her to live as a black woman and marry black man. Passing is a small piece of African-Americans socio-historical background and usually remains hidden like a long buried bone, ironically society is more tolerant and would not see it as a stigmatized behavior. Society has come a long way from the 30s and 50s and there is more opportunity out there to be successful regardless the color of your skin.

William Faulkners Absalom, Absalom! Essay example -- Faulkner Absalom

William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!" William Faulkner’s novel entitled Absalom, Absalom! is a book which systematically utilizes the concept of discovering the past in the present. Faulkner’s use of the past in the present is pertinent in both the construction of the plot of Absalom, Absalom! as well as the extension of its interpreted meanings. Furthermore, Faulkner’s writing of Absalom, Absalom! appears to have been motivated by the great ills and conflicts of the American South, which was most poignant during the American Civil War, while the title, as well as its implications, was simultaneously conceived in Faulkner’s mind. The fact that the story of Absalom in the Old Testament and the plot of Absalom, Absalom! are so strikingly similar suggests that, in Faulkner’s mind, there is no separation between the past and the present. For Faulkner, time is a continuum in which there is no past, so the only time in which people and things exist is either in the present or in the pro jected future. In fact, Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! demonstrates how the tribulations of the past are often the ills of the present, and, when people, including readers, are able to understand and depart from the failures of human nature, the future holds the possibility of truth and insight. Considering that, for Faulkner, the past is never just the past, there are recognizable parallels betwixt the caricatures of Faulkner in Absalom, Absalom! and the story of Absalom in the Old Testament. For instance, Faulkner’s character Thomas Sutpen absorbs certain traits of both Absalom and his father King David from the Old Testament. Because Thomas Sutpen has the characteristics of both, he is powerful and rules a dynasty like King... ...alid insight into the affairs of the prejudicial and slave stained South. In fact, as Wallace Steven’s suggests in his poem â€Å"Thirteen Ways to of Looking at a Blackbird,† it is the fourteenth view which is the truthful and insightful interpretation, causing a cathartic experience in the individual who perceives it (class notes). However, for those related to and descended from Sutpen, they have similar views of the world, which is embittered by the South’s intolerance for blacks, and they, including Henry, Judith, and Clytemnestra, have grown to abhor the South’s past and, therefore, themselves. As Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! proves, the inhibitions of the past are often inherited into the present. Works Cited Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom! New York: Vintage, 1986. Spoto, Dr. Mary T. Class Notes. ENG 433. 28 March 2006.

The Pianist Essay

‘The Pianist’ is a cinematic masterpiece by the Polish director Roman Polanski. One of the key ideas that appear throughout much of the film is that of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’. This idea is portrayed through Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish pianist, as he struggles for survival in Warsaw as everybody that he once knew and everything that he once had is lost. The idea of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’ is worth learning about as it allows the audience to realise the importance of hope in todays society – and to understand how Polanski uses music to symbolise ‘hope’ for Szpilman in the film.Polanski effectively utilises an array of visual and oral text features such as music, dialogue, and lighting to build further emphasis on this theme. ‘The Pianist’ is an honest depiction of the events that occurred during the Holocaust, through the eyes of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish concert pianist liv ing in Warsaw, Poland. As the movie starts we see him in a radio studio beautifully playing the piano. But then the tanks start shooting, the bombs start falling, and the studio is damaged. He can no longer avoid the rapidly escalating situation. Germany is invading his homeland.His time as a concert pianist and radio performer has come to a sudden end. The first half of the movie focuses on the impact of the war on him and his family’s lives and the suffering of others, whilst the second half purely revolves around Szpilman’s struggle for survival and the hope in which he draws from music. Polanski heavily emphasises this idea, getting across the message that Szpilman would not be alive if were not for the hope in which he holds to – even if at times if at times it is by a tiny thread. The most obvious feature used to enhance the idea of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’ is that of music.After being forced to desert his family and having to live in isolation with his survival being questioned almost every day, it is perhaps only the thoughts of music that keep Szpilman going. This is idea becomes more apparent when Szpilman discovers a piano in one of the flats he is hiding in. He is unable to play because he will give himself away so we instead watch his fingers move across the air above the piano’s keys as whilst the sound plays in his head and too the viewer. Throughout the film we also see Szpilman pretending to play the piano as he taps his finger across his legs.It is moments such as these that help to maintain Szpilman’s willingness to survive by keeping silent, but also how piano gives fills him with the hope that is instrumental in his survival. In other scenes such as when a German officer asks Szpilman to play piano for him, and allows him to live because of his immense talent we begin to realise that Szpilman’s hope – music, does not only help him to survive mentally, but also p hysically as he can share the gift that he has to others. It is also important to note that Polanski only music by the Polish composer, Chopin is used throughout ‘The Pianist’.His sad and evocative music brings upon a sad mood, yet one with a hint of hope and with this, the director can more vividly express his ideas a way that dialogue or action cannot. Another oral feature used throughout the film to express the director’s idea of ‘hope being instrumental to our survival’ is dialogue. Whilst Szpilman’s actions are usually used to express the director’s ideas, there are multiple instances where dialogue is used effectively to express them. In one scene around a third of the way into the film, Mr. Lipa, a businessman comes round to the Szpilman’s family’s house to make an offer on their piano.The majority of the family think the amount of money he is offering for such a beautiful piano is absurd, but when he says, â€Å"2 ,000 and my advice is to take it. What will you do when you’re hungry? Eat the piano? † Szpilman comes to the realisation that whilst music is what he needs to survive mentally, it is in fact food that he needs to survive physically and accept this offer. From this point in the film onwards, Polanski distinguishes physical survival from mental survival for Szpilman and begins to enforce the idea of ‘hope is instrumental to our survival’.We learn that Szpilman will go to all efforts to survive, shown with dialogue, â€Å"[taking off his watch] Here, sell this. Food is more important than time† but it is his hope that he will one day be able to play piano again and be happy that is instrumental to his survival. This is shown later in the film when a German Officer asks him what he’s going to do when the war is over and he replies, â€Å"Play piano again†. It is the simple, but effective use of dialogue such as this that mimic realistic si tuations in comparison to the Hollywood theatrics used in other films that establish an exaggerated, bleak atmosphere.Lighting is another visual feature that is used to good effect to emphasise the idea of hope being instrumental in (Szpilman’s) survival. Throughout the second half of the film, where Szpilman is trapped within solitude – with the hope in which he holds on to hanging by the thread; Polanski uses dark and obsolete colours with a bluish tint that combined create a very strange and desolate atmosphere. While the dark obsolete lighting clearly portrays Szpilman’s pessimism, it is the bluish tint evident that is like the ‘silver lining’ and shows the viewer the hope that Szpilman is still holding on to.In one particular scene, where Szpilman plays piano for the first time in months to a Nazi Officer, moonlight with the distinct blue tint is cast over the piano and his hands as he plays. Polanski creates this effect to make the link for th e audience that music is the hope that has been instrumental to his (Szpilman’s) survival and is the tiny thread that he has been hanging onto when everybody he knows and everything that he once had has been taken from him.In the film ‘The Pianist’, Polanski effectively employed the use of the visual and oral features: music, dialogue and lighting to better communicate his idea of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’. These three features come together to allow the audience to truly realise the importance of hope being the sole factor that keeps Szpilman alive, and that his hope is symbolised through music. Polanski so skilfully uses these features to show rather than tell the importance of this idea and through this it is little wonder that the movie is considered a modern classic.

AIDS in Africa essays

AIDS in Africa essays Seventy-four percent of the AIDS population is found in Africa. One in ten adults living in Africa is now infected with HIV, and in certain places in southern Africa, at least one in four adults are infected. Not only does AIDS affect the immediate victims, but in Africa, it frequently is passed on to the children. An estimated 1,700 new infections occur each day. The infection rates among newborns are high. Furthermore, AIDS orphans many children. Rape victims have a high risk of testing positive for HIV, which is especially sad for a country where such a crime is widespread. Even in mutual relationships, the females often would like to use a sort of protection; well males do not wish to do so. When a female condom was available in a few parts of Africa, they disappeared in frenzy. Many problems contribute to poor conditions, and subsequently, AIDS is a problem for every one of Africas citizens. (MSNBC) For a while, part of the problem was lack of education, but programs such as the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (a charity dedicated to raising money for AIDS vaccine research, patenting the rights and distributing the vaccine at low cost) are currently working on improving that. IAVI is dedicated to trying to implement programs that will be able to distribute the AIDS vaccine as soon as one is found. The worry that access to treatment may not be available quickly where it is most needed is founded in past experiences. For instance, the Hepatitis B vaccine, which was first patented in the early 1980s, is still not available in many poor countries. Therefore, many believe that an AIDS vaccine will sooner protect people in rich countries than those where the epidemic is becoming totally out of control. With current vaccine research employing expensive new technologies, initial prices of new vaccines against AIDS may be significantly higher than those for Hepatitis B. If those lower cost drugs are not...