Personal Responsibility Paper Essay Example for Free

Personal Responsibility Paper Essay Personal responsibility is taking action so that one cant blame anyone but themselves, an education will help support their future because they are taking responsibility for their own actions and if one is responsible in their personal life they will be responsible in their college life. Education Supporting Ones Future Having a college education will definitely help when a person is shopping around in the job market. With the economy being in the state that it currently is in, a person without a college degree can easily be looked over when being compared to the person that does have the college degree. † Over their careers, full-time, full-year workers whose highest degree is a bachelors make 74 percent more, on average, than those whose highest attainment is a high-school diploma, the authors found. When those with more than a bachelors degree are included, the premium for higher education rises to 84 percent† (Supiano, 2011). If one is a college student that is going back after many years of working full time and taking care of a family an area that one may need to focus on for improvement might be time management. One will have to set up and follow an entirely new schedule so they can fit in their new duties as a college student. Setting clear starting and stopping times is a good planning strategy. â€Å"A variation of this technique is called time boxing. Time boxing is one way to overcome resistance to a task, focus your attention, and make a meaningful dent in large projects† (Ellis, 2011). Responsibility: Personal and College Life If one is responsible in their personal life one will be responsible in their college life. â€Å"When applied to education, personal responsibility means that students accept the responsibility to study hard and to learn as much as they can in courses that press against the limits of their capacity† (Haskins 2009). Being responsible is something one has to do in their everyday life whether it is going to work every day or taking care of their family. So if one can manage to be responsible in other aspects of their life one should be able to be a responsible student. Why Education Is Important To Ones Future The most important reason an education will help support ones future is because they are taking responsibility for their own actions. If one wants to better their life, whether it is successfully or just emotionally they are the one taking responsibility and are ultimately in control of how they handle it. Having a learning strategy will help to make your education a success. Everyone learns differently but one strategy that would be helpful to a person working through their education is metacognition: Metacognition usually deals with self-awareness of a student about his/her own capability in a particular learning area. The student evaluates his/her performance and tries to come up with better ways of learning. Self-critique, taking responsibility, personal reflection, individual monitoring, and changing study habits are some examples of metacognitive strategies. (Simsek, Balaban, 2010) The way a student could incorporate this strategy into their upcoming months would be taking responsibility and making sure friends and family know how important getting a college education is to them so they are understanding when times come up that they are not able to be around because they have responsibilities from class that may be more important. Personal reflection is another method a student could incorporate buy looking back and seeing what study methods worked best for them and their schedule. Conclusion By taking that next step to continue with education and work towards getting that college degree one is already helping to support their future. If one has been responsible in their life prior to starting their college education then one should be able to transition into their college duties with little disruption. Incorporating different learning strategies into their life will also assist with this transition to college student. References Ali Simek, Jale Balaban, Contemporary Educational Technology – Learning Strategies of Successful and Unsuccessful University Students; 2010, 1(1), p37 Ellis, D. (2011). Becoming a master student (13th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p75 Haskins, R. (2009, July). The Sequence of Personal Responsibility [Article], Retrieved from the Brookings Institute website: http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2009/07/09-responsibility-haskins Supiano, B. (2011). Whats a Degree Worth? Report Has Answers, by Major. Chronicle Of Higher Education, 57(38), A20.

Treatments of Parkinsons Disease

Treatments of Parkinsons Disease Parkinsons disease is a neurological condition that affects the sufferers mobility and speech. It affects the central nervous system, leading to a persons inability to control muscles throughout the body. It is a disease whose treatment does not intend to cure it but instead, aims at controlling its manifestation. There are various ways in which this can be done. It may involve the use of drugs or the performance of surgery. Doctors strongly recommend exercise to try to keep muscles strong. It progresses gradually or severely from the early stages with mild symptoms to later stages with severe symptoms. The disease is a result of lowered formation and action of dopamine which is produced by the dopaminergic neurons found in the brain. This knowledge led to the formation of drugs that will either increase the formation or mimic the actions taken by dopamine in the brain. This was important because an increase in the levels of dopamine would lead to a reduction of the effects of the disease. All the drugs used to control the disease include dopamine as their main active agent regardless of how it works. Depending on which class of drugs it belongs to, it may either mimic or produce dopamine. Among the earliest forms of treatments are the anticholinergics. These were used even before the introduction of Levodopa, which is now the most widely used drug. The anticholinergics had very little benefits when compared to the harmful side effects caused by usage. The side effects include having a dry mouth, urine retention (which especially occurs among men), and very severe constipation and nausea. There are some other side effects that occur that are more serious and are among the major reasons why the use of these drugs has become minimal. These include confusion, memory loss, and hallucination (http://www.mayoclinic.com). The realization that the benefits seen were much less than the side effects it causes has led to the reduction of its prescription. Since some anti-depressants and antihistamines tend to have almost the same effect as the anticholinergics, doctors will prescribe them to older people who are suffering from this terrible disease. Once an individual experiences any of the serious severe symptoms, it is advised that the use of the drug be stopped immediately. Levodopa is a drug that was introduced in 1967 and is currently the most commonly used drug. It is most commonly referred to as Sinemet and is used to help restore ones control over ones muscles. Levodopa is referred to as the gold standard of Parkinsons treatment because it is usually used as the first line of defense. The reason a sufferer of Parkinsons cant just take Dopamine itself is because Dopamine cannot breakthrough the blood-brain barrier. Levodopa can get through this barrier and is converted to Dopamine once it reaches the brain. It therefore increases the level of Dopamine and counters the effects of the disease. The conversion to Dopamine is what leads to the positive effects that a patient experiences when using the drug (Henkel). Levodopa however has very serious side effects which include nausea and dyskinesias (involuntary movement). This occurs because only a small percentage of the drug actually reaches the brain to be transformed into Dopamine. The rest of it is transformed into dopamine in the body. It therefore becomes necessary to use Carbidopa, which delays the metabolism of Levodopa until it reaches the dopaminergic neurons in the brain. The combination helps reduce the side effects caused by the drug. Carbidopa delays the metabolism of Levodopa, keeping it from metabolizing in the body. This helps to greatly reduce the side effects felt by the user. The other problem posed by the use of this drug is that its dosage needs to be increased over time. It has also been observed to work on and off without any explanation or reason. This makes it unreliable because its effects are not constant, and at times the patient gets violent attacks while still under medication. The various side effects and unreliability of levodopa leads to the necessity to combine it with various other drugs to make it more effective. Some of these drugs can be used on their own while others actually require to be used with the Levodopa-Carbidopa combination. A cluster of drugs called Dopamine agonists are usually used in a combination with the Levodopa-Carbidopa drugs. They can however also be used on their own if the disease has not greatly progressed. Also, it is recommended that these drugs only be used alone in young adults. This class of drugs does not produce or help in the production of dopamine but instead imitates the effects that Dopamine has in the body. They tend to act on behalf of Dopamine (http://www.mayoclinic.com). This class of drugs include; Apokyn, Requip, Parlodel and Mirapex. Parlodel has been used very little of late. This is because it had very serious side effects that endangered the patient more than it benefited him/her. It would cause inflammation in the lungs and/or heart valves of the user and would lead to further deterioration of the patients health. In general this class of drugs has side effects that are almost similar to those of carbidopa-levodopa but with slight differences. The effects of having involuntary movement are reduced while those of hallucinations and/or sleepiness are increased. The drug Mirapex takes up the role of dopamine in the body as it is one of the dopamine agonists. When it is used in the absence of Levodopa-Carbidopa, it causes a 30% improvement in the health of the patient. When used in combination, it is able to reduce the intake of the Levodopa dosage by about 25%. Requip is also a dopamine agonist that can also be used either alone or with Levodopa. When used together with Levodopa, it can reduce the intake of Levodopa by around 31%. The reduction of Levodopa dosage decreases side-effects to the patient (Henkel). Catechol-o-methyltransferace inhibitors, which are usually abbreviated as COMT inhibitors, are used to block the enzymes that break down the Levodopa into Dopamine before it reaches the brain. They can be used in combination with the Carbidopa-Levodopa therapy. The two main COMT inhibitors are Tasmar and Entacapone. Tasmar is rarely used because of its severe impact on the health of the user. It causes severe liver damage and hence is only used as a last resort if the patient has failed to respond to any other therapy (http://www.mayoclinic.com). Entacapone does not have side-effects as severe as those of Tasmar and is therefore recommended over Tasmar. Its major side-effect is the involuntary movements experienced by the user. It works in conjunction with the Carbidopa-Levodopa therapy by increasing their availability. This is done by blocking the enzymes that break down the substance into Dopamine until the drug is already in the brain. This then means that the effects of Levodopa-Carbidopa are prolonged because they occur only in the brain. Stalevo, another drug, is the result of a combination of Carbidopa, Levodopa and Entacapone. Selegiline, also referred to as Eldepryl, is another drug that can either be used with or without the presence of Carbidopa-Levodopa therapy. It works by preventing the metabolism of Dopamine. It does this by slowing down the activity of one of the enzymes that metabolize Dopamine. This is the monoamine oxidase B which is abbreviated as MAO-B. The use of Selegiline has other positive effects like delaying the need of Carbidopa-Levodopa. When combined with Carbidopa-Levodopa it improves the effectiveness of the drug. It can however have some adverse toxic reactions when combined with Demerol which is a narcotic drug. Apart from ingesting drugs, they can be administered through the skin through the use of a silicon-based patch. Rotigotine is a dopamine agonist drug that can be administered through the skin, but can only be used in the early stages of the disease. This is called Neupro-rotigotine transdermal system. The patch has to be changed every 24 hours. It works by stimulating the Dopamine receptors in the body. Its side-effects include skin reaction where the patch is, hallucinations, insomnia, drowsiness, sleep-attacks, nausea, vomiting and the most severe is the reduction in blood pressure once the person stands up (http://www.fda.gov). Amantadine is another drug that is used in treatment of Parkinsons disease but its use was discovered by accident. Initially it was created to be an antiviral used in the treatment of influenza and was approved as such in 1976 by the Food and Drug Administration. It was however discovered to provide short term relief when used alone in the early stages of the Parkinsons disease. When it is combined with Carbidopa-Levodopa it can be used by those in the later stages. It has side effects that mostly involve swelling of the ankles and turning skin color purple (http://www.mayoclinic.com). In every human beings body, there is the presence of coenzyme Q10 which is produced by the mitochondria. This enzyme is used in the transport of electrons so that they can gain energy from the oxygen inhaled. This is done in the process called cellular respiration. The levels of this enzyme are very low in those suffering from Parkinsons disease. These people can therefore benefit greatly by having more of this enzyme. This can only be achieved by taking supplements which can be bought from a pharmacy. This aids in helping to slow down the onset of the disease. Apart from the use of drugs, there are various surgeries that can be used to control the effects of the disease. One of the surgeries is pallidotomy which involves the destruction of a small bit of the globus pallidus. Doctors believe all people who are suffering from Parkinsons have an overactive globus pallidus. The procedure is done by drilling a small hole in the skull and using an electric probe to kill part of the pallidus. It can only be done when the patient is sedated but awake so the doctor can judge the patients reactions to stimuli. There is a globus pallidus on each side of the brain, but the operation can only be done on one side at a time. Its side effects mostly involve impaired speech (http://www.fda.gov). Thalamotomy is another surgical procedure used in the control of Parkinsons disease. It is only performed on those patients who are experiencing tremors in either the hands or the arms that become too severe to handle. Usually the tremors are so bad they disable the person. It involves the destruction of a specific group of cells that are located in the thalamus in the brain. The surgery reduces or completely eliminates the tremors in around 90% of those who undergo the procedure (http://www.fda.gov). There is also the presence of a gadget that can be compared to the pacemaker used for cardio problems. It is known as the brain pacemaker (http://www.fda.gov). This form of therapy is referred to as Active Tremor Control Therapy. It involves the surgical implantation of an insulated wire to the brain. It is placed in the thalamus region of the brain, the subthalamic nucleus, and also the globus pallidus area of the brain. The whole system includes three components which are the: lead, extension and the neurostimulator. This system is referred to as Deep Brain Stimulation because it occurs directly inside the brain. A small hole is made in the skull and through it the lead is inserted into the brain. The lead is a very thin insulated wire. The tip of the lead is in contact with the area that has been targeted. Once it has been implanted, it is connected to the neurostimulator by the extension which is also an insulated wire (http://minds.nih.gov). The extension passes under the skin and moves from the head, to the neck, the shoulder and finally to where the neurostimulator is located. The neurotransmitter is located either under the collarbone, in the abdomen or the lower chest area just directly under the skin. The neurotransmitter involves a battery pack that sends electrical impulses to the brain. This is done through the extension and the lead. When the person is undergoing tremors, he or she is supposed to pass a handheld magnet over the location of the neurostimulator. The electrical impulses that are sent by the neurostimulator work by blocking the electrical signals that are the cause of the Parkinsons disease symptoms. They are dysfunctional brain signals and they are the cause of the tremors. This procedure is preferred because it does not destroy the nerve cells and when one wants to stop its use it is as easy as having the system surgically removed. Works Cited Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinsons Disease Information. NINDS. 22 Nov. 2007 . Henkel, John. Parkinsons Disease: New Treatments Slow Onslaught of Symptoms. FDA. 22 Nov. 2007 . Neupro Patch for Parkinsons Approved. FDA. 22 Nov. 2007 . Parkinsons Disease: Treatment. MayoClinic. 22 Nov. 2007

Groups And Team Effectiveness

Groups And Team Effectiveness Organisational behaviour is a methodical learning of the behaviour and reactions of persons, groups and sub systems that actions to understand, explain, predict and change human behaviour that occurs in the organizational context. Organizational behavior can be defined as the study and application of knowledge about human behavior related to other elements of an organization such as structure, technology and social systems (LM Prasad). Stephen P Robins defines Organizational behavior as a systematic study of the actions and attitudes that people exhibit within organizations Groups and Teams Groups and teams in the association play a very significant in the performance of the association. For every achievement and breakdown in the organization teams and groups play a major role. Some groups and teams within the association function effectively while other disfunction. The employ of groups and teams inside an organization have enlarged on a worldwide scale in current years . Group: A group is nothing but two or additional persons who are interacting and mutually dependent, contain come together to attain a common objective. A work group is one which first and foremost interacts to share information and make decisions and to assist their collection members of their area. They dont enclose the chance to connect in collective work which wants joint attempt. Here production is just the adding up of individuals split work. Hence there is no much superior performance of work group. A figure of people who act together with one other are mentally aware of one another perceives themselves to be a compilation. Uniqueness of groups: Group consciousness A sense of shared purpose and identity Shared communication and net work Shared goals Interdependence Interaction Groups play a very important role on organizations. Groups are an essential feature of the work patterns of organizations. Types of groups: There are two types of groups: Formal groups In-formal groups Formal groups: Formal groups are created to achieve specific managerial objectives as well as be worried through the management of work activities Formal group include command groups, task groups, affinity groups Command groups are usually included in the organizational chart Task groups is created to perform specific task Affinity groups is created for new product development Formal groups tend to be relatively permanent, although there may be a change in the membership of the team Informal groups: In-formal groups serve to please the emotional and communal want of group members not connected essentially to the farm duties to be undertaken In-formal groups includes friendship groups and interest groups Friendship groups arises out of the cordial relationships among members and the enjoyment They get from being together. Interest groups are organized around a common activity or interest. They may be based on individual relations and association is able to hack across the official arrangement of the organization. Team: A team is a collection of people planned to work to gather interdependently and helpfully to gather the requirements of their clients by accomplishing a principle and goals. Teams are created for both long period and short period communication. Work teams have optimistic synergy which comes by their mutual effort. Hence the presentation level is better than sum of human being inputs and consequently work teams have superior capability and better production than employment group. Hence an association must own employment teams with following characteristics which are collective presentation, optimistic synergy, personality and mutual responsibility and balancing skills. . Team work can increase competitiveness by Improving productivity Improving quality and encouraging innovation Improving employee motivation and commitment Types of teams: There are different types of teams exist in organizations today. Some evolved naturally in the organizations others have been formally created at the suggestion of enlightened management. The most common type of teams is quality circles, problem solving, virtual teams, and management teams. Quality circles: Minute groups of workers as of the similar job region who frequently meets to talk about and advise solutions to occupation lay problems. Quality circles are Problem solving: Problem solving teams are temporary teams establish to attack specific problems in the work place Virtual teams: Teams where the major interaction amongst members is by various electronic information and message procedure Management teams: Consists of managers on or after a range of areas; they manage work teams. Motivation: Motivation refers to the psychological forces that determine the direction of peoples behavior, their level of effort and level of persistence. Motivation is an internal state that directs individuals toward certain goals and objectives. Source of motivation: How does employee motivation impact organizational performance? Employee motivation plays a great fraction in an organizations presentation and output consequences. Motivation encourages populace to try and attain their chosen job and goals. For many, motivation provides a sense of accomplishment and the good emotion of belonging to an association in control of their destination. Being part of something structured can frequently offer much motivation for employees. Lack of motivation among the work strength can result in low encouragement to achieve, promote negative feeling about the association and the organizations concerns about its workers. Organizations who promote optimistic motivation express consciousness and acknowledgement about their staff further attractive creativity and efficiency results Extrinsic motivation: Related to tangible rewards, e.g. salary, security, conditions of work promotion, Intrinsic motivation: Related to psychological rewards, e.g. a sense of challenge and achievement, receiving appreciation Management and leadership plays a major role in the behaviour of the organization, now we will see the relation they have towards there groups and teams. How Google motivate their employees? Google wrote a programme related to their employees they use their engineers what they did by the end of the week .Google use to send them email on every Monday, and focus the emails to collect in a file that everybody can examine. The mail will be transfer to every person and shames who did not respond by putting them top of the list. It has been fallowed every week from the time when we started, so each week of our companys history will have a evidence of what each person did. it`s good for presentation reviews, and if you are joining a development team, in a small number of minutes you can examine what your team members did the most recent weeks or months. How Google motivates employees Management: Management is about changing behaviour and making things happen, it is an everyday activity involving interactions between people. Management is defined as the process of achieving organizational effectiveness with in altering surroundings by matching competence, efficiency and fairness, obtaining the majority from incomplete resources, and functioning with and through other people. Elements of management: Planning Organizing Command Co-ordination Control Leadership: Leader ship is a matter of making difference and is a combination of persuasion and compulsion that results in making people do things they might not otherwise have done. Good management leadership helps to develop team work and the mixing of person and assembly goals, it aids essential motivation by emphasize the significance of the work people do and importance on interpersonal behaviour in a broader situation. A balance between management and leadership: In the organization the team leader seems to be halo affixed, whereas the phase manager is seen to have incredible of sigma. Leader establish direction for group and gain the group members commitment and motivate them to achieve goals to move in that direction, whereas manager brings to brain less-charismatic persons annoying to construct people in to more competent device in the business engine. Considering the definition of management we can see that leadership is actually a sub-category of management. Applying these concepts for manager and leader within the location of a team, we discover attractive results: If there be a team leader that is obvious to be uninterrupted by income of the team member necessities, or have a personality plan more important than the teams goals, then the leader is obvious to be more of a manager and become alienated from the team members. On the other hand, the team leaders most conventional and loyally followed are persons who reveal worry for the team members as folks with actual necessities, and are persons who put The reason of the group above there. Googles Organizational Behavior Main factors and procedures that organisational behaviour contributed to the success of Google: Google is one of the majority flourishing internet based industry. The achievement of the Google is fixed on its exceptional organizational practices and core competencies. Google formulae of accomplishment are not only its knowledgeable expertise but also its insistent ability to come up with both inventive and profit oriented projects. The inventive ability of Google combined with incorporated process in the supportive culture creates sustainable competitive benefit. For instance ,Google describes as investigate engine leader to facilitate create latest fangled opinion by physically powerful speed or what they call the 70-20-10rule where the staff predominantly engineers are buoyant to use 70%of their functioning time on top of central trade functions,20% on related business functions ,and 10% on areas completely of their own choice. The Googles are aggravated to put in their suggestions, thoughts, or no matter which that pertains to possible income gaining actions all the way through a range of means like meetings, intranet, and additional forms of message. Team work is another main factor for Google achievement. it is confirmed that engineers effort in teams in doing projects. The teams have whole independence relating to their projects and the habits in which they will attempt on it. Organizational communication is also a core means of Google. Communication serves four most important functions within a group or organization as well as control, motivation, emotional expression, and information. This serves as the lane through which ideas , suggestions, and in sights that would potentially produce alter and innovative features within the organization or discussed. On the feature of HRM, Google has a distinct employment method that is surrounded on the improved significance on appreciated intelligence and mind power more than experience. Major factors that make a payment to the extraordinary achievement of google are the capability on the way to innovate, exceptional teamwork in the middle of Googles, flourishing message process, and distintinctive service events. These are given critical factors and core competencies that make up the successful organizational. http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/08/googles-organisational-culture.html Negative aspects of Google culture: When there is positive aspect there are chances for negative aspects in the same way there are some negative aspects for Google. Google is having a very good reputation in the internet industry though they have a very good status in the internet business here are a small number of criticisms in the organizational background of the company. The negative features of Google culture are nonappearance of clear organization structure, work principles, poor worker relations and its casual work culture. The unclear definition of management structure leads to organizational divergence. Divergence is a hazard because staff has conflicting values and practice different situations. Management theorys used as a corpse of awareness that will direct the engineers and project managers in constructing excellent decisions for the advantage of the whole organization. Google is also criticized for its unique recruitment process. Critics describes the process of Google recruitment is narrow. Google is also called up on its problematic employee relations and in efficient organizational behavior Google on no account kept their schedule or activitys on time and forever turns up late for clients presentation. Positive and negative aspects of organisation will have influence of groups and teams .in the organisation some teams and groups function effectively while some other groups and teams in organisation dysfunction. This will directly reflect on the positive and negative aspects of the organisation, now we will critically evaluate why some teams and groups in the organisation function effectively while some others dysfunctional? The exercise of groups and teams within organisations has enlarged on an international scale in current years. This detail on your own suggests with the intention of a group demographic confers several concrete benefits to an organisation. Group is a set of people brought jointly through the set of plan that their personality skills resolve to higher productivity when combined. The employees may comprise similar skills in a particular field of the companys movement. For ex. The group research and development employees brought to gather for the focus groups involved in the development of Google chrome. Google chrome: Google chrome is a browser designed by the Google to work exclusively with web applications. Designed goals and directions of Google chrome are as follows: User interface Architecture Remote application access Hard ware support Integrated media player Printing Like handling Security. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS Groups may also have complementary skills that allow them assist in the direction of a common goal. The staffs with in the corporation have enormous impact upon how the corporation functions and on its output, so it is significant for business to inspect and re-examine their organisational behaviour. Factors and process which influence group effectiveness: Task orientation- an efficient groups is the majority possible to stay alert on its aims and targets that some one personality on your own and will be a great deal more focused than a dysfunctional group. This possibly will be achieved of through an organization goals and targets for the group as they progress through a task. Motivation through hierarchical flattening- The introduction of equality by the adding up of management within the group structure. The crash of barriers stuck between support staff and organization can lead to extra stress-free working environment. Also organization with in group can uphold the focus and direction of the group. A successful group will be skilled to introduce a new member to the culture of the organization rapidly so the new member may not waste time in settling in. Group norms can serve to facilitate goal achievement- if each group member knows how he is to behave and what is expected of them, and then greater productivity is sure to ensue. If suitable rewards are deliberately offered to the maximum performing group then opposition will increase In a successful group the aims and targets are complete clear to all members, no one is puzzled or left exclusive of a task, nor are farm duties duplicated. Based up on social identify theory and the ordinary desire to uphold optimistic self perception; people like to identify with high status groups and subsequently will work hard to stay associated with them. The stereotyping of out-group factors can facilitate in -group unity High expectations placed upon a group can lead its members to function more effectively. Some possible benefits of high expectations are: Increased responsibility Independence and trust Praise Room for creativity Seek comments Over look minor setback A group working successfully will make easy cultural differences, for example, Americans and French tend to prefer not to work in a group where as the Japanese do. The construction of a successful group may be due to its members living and socializing jointly, for example; the Google employees live together in apartment style accommodation; this creates a sense of group harmony and also defines each members role in the strict hierarchy within the organization. Factors and process which influence groups to dysfunction: Group norms can delay goal achievement, particularly if an associate of the group is intractable. In a group where norms are unidentified or deviated as of certain employees; as an alternative of tolerant and adhering to the norms, it takes longer for upcoming members to connect in and be accepted. One of the major flaws in a dysfunctional group is similar to to be communal loafing; the responsibility of each person is diminished, they everyone feel they can get away with a minor amount of work than if they are functioning alone. This might be due to the idleness on the part of staff or inaccurate organizational behavior on the division of the employer, for example having groups consisting of too numerous members or not allocating the accurate quantity of work to a group. Unclear instructions or briefs provided by higher authority could lead to a team performing poorly. If a new member of the group joins, it will take time for them to learn the group norms, dysfunctional groups may be the result of regular membership reshuffling A dysfunctional group may be the result of combining contrasting cultures; an example of this is the fusion of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz-the cultures clashed and the groups of the two sets of employees did not get along. Motivational incentives can cause disharmony among group members, if members of the group pitted against one another in competition this can often backfire and be counterproductive with the faster slowing down to keep pace with their slower working friends. Competition for leadership can lead to loss of focus and productivity A social phenomenon called groupthink can result from certain conditions, usually when the group is successfully and has excited for a while. The symptoms of group think are: Pressure to conform applied by other members of the group- this can stifle individual input. Self censorship-a group member may hold their tongue if they feel they are in the minority Feeling of unanimity and invulnerability-individuals in a group, especially a successful one, may develop an arrogance that could lead the group in rash and risky directions A group may become dysfunctional if it is under threat; this is called the crises factor and can panic group members in to rash choices and sub-par work. A group can deteriorate in performance if it is rife with negative stereotyping-the perception-the perception of a whole individual based up on specific attributes has implications for selection, promotion and performance evaluation. If individuals do not feel pride in a group then they will attempt to change the status of the group and try to detach themselves from it A group may become dysfunctional if low expectations are placed upon them. Some negative impacts of low expectations include: Decreased responsibility Directive instructions Emphasis of mistakes Less attention paid to comments/suggestions To predict how groups behave; certain psychological models can be applied; specifically tuck mans model of group development and Gersicks punctuated equilibrium model. The following is a representation of tuck man and gersicks model superimposed: A group working effectively will progress through the stages quickly to the performing stage after resolving any leadership disputes and establishing norms early on. Effective groups will contain members that have complementary skills and personalities, a group may work well if they have been formed for a long time or if they have worked to gather before as this greatly diminishes the effects of stages1-3 of tuckman`s model. A dysfunctional group will spend longer on the earlier stages not performing this could be due to number of factors either attributable to the individuals within the group or the management that assembled the group. The management may have chosen individuals that are not suited to the task they may not posess the necessary skills, or have little cooperation or leadership qualitys. It could simply be due to the fact the group members do not get along socially, this can lead to lower productivity so it may be wise to form a group of individuals of prior acquaintanc e. This could however have a negative impact if the colleagues have a social relationship they may not focus up on the task in hand. General Electric Case Study Managing Groups and Teams within Organizations Recognize and understand group dynamics and development Understand the difference between groups and teams Compare and contrast different types of teams Understand how to design effective teams Explore teams and ethics Understand cross-cultural influences on teams In Durham, North Carolina, Robert Henderson was opening a factory for General Electric (GE). The goal of the factory was to manufacture the largest commercial jet engine in the world. Hendersons opportunity was great and so were his challenges. GE hadnt designed a jet engine from the ground up for over two decades. Developing the jet engine project had already cost GE $1.5 billion. That was a huge sum of money to invest-and an unacceptable sum to lose should things go wrong in the manufacturing stage. How could one person fulfill such a vital corporate mission? The answer, Henderson decided, was that one person couldnt fulfill the mission. Even Jack Welch, GEs CEO at the time said, We now know where productivity comes from. It comes from challenged, empowered, excited, rewarded teams of peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Empowering factory workers to contribute to GEs success sounded great in theory. But how to accomplish these goals in real life was a more challenging question. Factory floors, traditionally, are unempowered workplaces where workers are more like cogs in a vast machine than self-determining team members. In the name of teamwork and profitability, Henderson traveled to other factories looking for places where worker autonomy was high. He implemented his favorite ideas at the factory at Durham. Instead of hiring generic mechanics, for example, Henderson hired staffers with FAA mechanics licenses. This superior training created a team capable of making vital decisions with minimal oversight, a fact that upped the factorys output and his workers feelings of worth. Hendersons self-managing factory functioned beautifully. And it looked different, too. Plant manager Jack Fish described Hendersons radical factory, saying Henderson didnt want to see supervisors, he didnt want to see forklifts running all over the place, he didnt even want it to look traditional. Theres clutter in most plants, racks of parts and so on. He didnt want that. Henderson also contracted out non-job-related chores, like bathroom cleaning, that might have been assigned to workers in traditional factories. His insistence that his workers should contribute their highest talents to the team showed how much he valued them. And his team valued their jobs in turn. Six years later, a Fast Company reporter visiting the plant noted, GE/Durham team members take such pride in the engines they make that they routinely take brooms in hand to sweep out the beds of the 18-wheelers that transport those engines-just to make sure that no damage occurs in transit. For his part, Henderson, who remained at GE beyond the project, noted I was just constantly amazed by what was accomplished there.  © 2010 Jupiterimages Corpor ation Teamwork can make something as complex as an airplane engine possible. GEs bottom line showed the benefits of teamwork, too. From the early 1980s, when Welch became CEO, until 2000, when he retired, GE generated more wealth than any organization in the history of the world. Sources: Fishman, C. (September 1999). How teamwork took flight. Fast Company Issue 28, http://www.fastcompany.com/node/38322/print; Lear, R. (Jul/Aug 1998). Jack Welch speaks: Wisdom from the worlds greatest business leader, Chief Executive; Guttman, H. (Jan-Feb 2008). Leading high-performance teams: horizontal, high-performance teams with real decision-making clout and accountability for results can transform a company, Chief Executive, 231, 33. Conclusion: Many factors and process that influences group effectiveness or dysfunction has been highlighted. Organization should consider carefully when assembling and structuring any group or team because both the market and the organization should work under the organization .

William Shakespeares Hamlet and Sophocles Oedipus the King Essay

William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Sophocles' Oedipus the King   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though Shakespeares’ Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King were written in two different eras, echoes of the latter can be found in the former. The common theme of Hamlet and Oedipus the King is regicide. Also, like in Oedipus the King, there is a direct relationship between the state of the state and the state of their kings. Furthermore, there is also a relationship between Oedipus’ armed entrance into the bedroom in which Jocasta hanged herself, and Hamlet’s confrontation of Gertrude in her bedroom. Both plays share the emphasis on a tragic irony in the chain of events that lead up to ritual of catharsis, but the plot of Hamlet makes a much more complicated character than that of the classic Greek tragedy of Oedipus the King.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sophocles’ Oedipus King and Shakespeare's Hamlet both contain the basic elements of tragedy, although the Shakespearean tragedy expanded its setting far beyond that of the ancient Greek tragedy. The tragic hero of Hamlet finds himself burdened with the task of avenging his father's death from the start of the play, and is not himself the source of the pollution of regicide, while Oedipus is of course the unwitting fashioner of his own doom, which is unveiled to him through recognition and repentance. Sophocles has Oedipus foretelling his own tragedy when speaking to the people of Thebes. The city suffers as a result of Oedipus’pride, and irony is shown when Oedipus suggest that by avenging Laius he will protect himself, or that by getting children upon Jocasta, the dead king's wife, he will be taking the place of the son of Laius, which, unknowingly, is himself. â€Å"I will bring it all to light... I shall rid us of this pollution, not for the sake of a distant relative, but for my own sake (Knox, 10).† The irony reaches its peak when Oedipus calls on the prophet Tiresias to help uncover the murder of Laius and seek an cure to the plague; the metaphor of vision is ironic in that the blind Tiresias can see what the seemingly brilliant Oedipus has overlooked, namely the king's crimes of incest and murder. â€Å"You are the murderer, you are the unholy defilement of this land(Knox, 23).† Tiresias goes on to say â€Å"I say that without knowing it you are living in shameful intimacy with your nearest and dearest. You do not see th e evil in which you live (K... ....† It was Gertrude’s subsequent reaction that led to the pivotal moment when Hamlet kills Polonius. The murder of Polonius was completely impetuous. Hamlet went from pondering murder to actually committing murder. When he does so it is not the actual act that is insane, but his lack of emotion which is. Scarcely acknowledging what he has just done, he continues preaching to Gertrude, and accuses her of plotting to murder his father. â€Å"With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act (Act 3, Scene 4).† After an elongated interrogation which sounded more like an S&M chat, we begin to realize Gertrude’s’s guilt for marrying Claudius, as well as her innocence in the actual plot to murder the King. It is only after the reappearance of the apparition that Hamlet begins to ease up on his mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hamlet and Oedipus the King though quite different, have a lot in common. They are the similar from an oedipal perspective, as well as having in common the element of madness. Though many would have a problem putting Shakespeare in the same category as Sophocles, it is not difficult to place their works, Hamlet Oedipus the King respectively, in the same category.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Gun Control in America Essay -- Second Amendment The Right To Bear Arms

One of the biggest issues facing our nation today seems to be gun control. The government is constantly proposing legislation for more and more gun laws. There are people that feel strongly on both sides of this issue. Neither side wants more gun violence; the question is how to control gun violence. The Second Amendment to the United States constitution states â€Å"a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed†(U.S. Constitution). The founding fathers included this in our bill of rights because they feared the federal government might oppress the population if the people did not have the means to defend themselves as a nation and as individuals. Law-abiding citizens should have the right to protect themselves against danger. One way citizens can protect themselves is through concealed carry permits. A concealed carry permit allows the permit holder to carry a gun (concealed) in most public places. If an applicant meets a set of requirements, a concealed carry permit is issued. These requirements may consist of a licensing fee, safety training course, fingerprinting, a clean record and no history of mental illness. This is also known as â€Å"shall-issue† laws. Thirty-two states have enacted "shall-issue" concealed carry laws (New Mexico being the most recent in April 2001), and one state, Vermont, does not require any permit of its residents....

Frida Kahlo’s work A Few Small Nips

The following essay will deal with Frida Kahlo’s work A Few Small Nips.   The analysis of the piece of artwork will be the main focus of the essay including a brief biography of Kahlo’s which will be used in interpreting the purpose of the paining.   Other art critics will be used in this analysis so that a broad spectrum of opinion is introduced and debated in the paper in order to come to a conclusion about this piece.Kahlo’s work has been interpreted as bordering and often times delving into the grotesque; but typically there is a reason of politics or personal pain behind the works created by Kahlo.   In Mencer’s article The Trouble with Friday Kahlo this point is well elaborated,Among all the Kahlo tchotchkes now on sale at the NMWA gift shop, only her self-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   portraits adorn the fridge magnets, not â€Å"My Birth,† or â€Å"A Few Small Nips,† a disturbing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   image of a bleeding woman lying o n a bed with a man standing over her wielding a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   stiletto. Kahlo's visage has become a symbol in its own right–a trend evident in the number of artists now creating tributes to her.Chicano artists in California have been   Ã‚  Ã‚   incorporating her image into their murals since the 1970s in celebrations of their heritage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But the practice has become so common that the Japanese performance artist and drag   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   queen Yasumasa Morimura recently did a show called â€Å"An Inner Dialogue with Frida   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kahlo,† in which he painted himself as Kahlo self-portraits.This iconographic status of Kahlo was only more dully emphasized with the grotesque paintings she did after her miscarriage.   It was this point in her personal life which gave rise to much of what is recognizable Kahlo’s own style of art as is seen in A Few Small Nips in which a brutal scene is emphasized with d iagonal viewpoints.The truth behind Kahlo’s painting A Few Small Nips resides with the act of a man brutally stabbing his girlfriend and killing her.   In court the man professed he only gave her a few small nips.   Thus, above the painting itself is a banner, and in Kahlo’s own sentiment she often feels that she is murdered by life.   At this point in Kahlo’s life she was separated from Diego Rivera, and so those emotional feelings of abandonment, jealousy, guilt, and love all coincide to create not just a real life portrait of an event but the echoed feelings of Kahlo while being separated from Rivera (Smit).This real life portrayal used by means of expression for personal pain is typical of Kahlo’s work, as Muna writes,  In A Few Small Nips (1935), Kahlo paints a dead woman on a bed, naked but for one    shoe and stocking, her body slashed and bleeding, while a man, fully dressed, stands   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   calmly at her side. The painting was inspired by a real-life murder story – the defendant   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   told the judge that it was only a few small nips – but it also stands as wider commentary   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   on the gender inequalities within Mexican society, as well as echoing the hurt she herself   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   endured at the hands of her husband, Diego Rivera.The fact that Muna wrote the gender inequality in Kahlo’s work is important.   This crucial piece of evidence is what gives rise to the portrayal of Kahlo’s self portraits done in a dichotomized fashion, as well as the focus of the treatment of women.Frida’s own heritage and gender have a lot to do with her style of painting as has been seen in A Few Small Nips.   Kahlo’s father was a Hungarian Jew born in Germany and her mother was Spanish and Native American.   Thus, her nature of birth could also lead her dualistic approach to painting and her strong sense of preservation for women.   In A Few Small Nips Kahlo presents the viewer with a woman who has just been stabbed to death and yet the killer is standing feet away from her, and thus, even in death she is denied company.   This type of disturbance in the ritual of a passion crime tells the viewer that Kahlo is interpreting her own loneliness into the painting.Kahlo’s imagery and her ‘eclectic blend of ancient Aztec to modern Mexican, religious metaphor and fantasy, and penetratingly observed reality (Muna) is what draws the viewer into this painting.   The fact that the painting was based on a real event, and the feelings of the man and what he said in court as his defense, ‘just a few small nips’ allows Friday creative interpretation of that event to rival her own misplaced identity and hatred so much so that the viewer becomes a part of the story in that they are witnesses to the event.   Bearing witness seems to be the role placed on the a udience in order to keep the honesty of this woman’s death alive.   In fact the purpose of much of Kahlo’s art is for the viewer to bear witness to a travesty, inner demons, or brutal and graphic deaths.This concept of memory or of bearing witness is designed in Kahlo’s work A Few Small Nips as collective memory for a town or witnesses or even participants together but also as individual memory.   These different definitions of memory are the purpose of Kahlo’s painting.   While it uses a force to ensure that Kahlo’s own identity and separation from Rivera is expressed the event of the drunk man killing his girlfriend is still intact.   The joint purpose of these two sentiments is to ensure that the memory of the event does not relapse and thus prevent progression or the politics of the painting express Kahlo’s wish that the town, country and gender which this occurred does not forget such a transgression.Memory however can quickly b e wiped clean and thus it becomes important to mark tragedy with artwork as A Few Small Nips has done, so that there is a physical reconstruction of an event that is witnessed in the public eye that allows the elusive memory to remain sharp, â€Å"Inevitably every act of memory carries with it a dimension of betrayal† (Huyssen â€Å"Present Past Palimsets†; 4).   In the act of constructing war memorials and citizen monuments the procession of remembering is occurring.   In the act of construction is insurance that the past is not repeated.Historical memory is important because it allows the people who have survived a devastating travesty to recall the event in loving memory of the family members of people they lost, as Huyssen states â€Å"Historical memory today is not what it used to be. It used to mark the relation of a community or a nation to its past, but the boundary between past and present used to be stronger and more stable than it appears to be todayâ⠂¬  (Huyssen â€Å"Present Past Palimsets†; 1).   This however does not mar the memory of the event that initiated Kahlo’s work.   Although Huyssen writes that historical memory is fading into the past and events are not being recognized or remembered but instead are falling into demise over time and being forgotten this is what Kahlo’s work strongly against.The repetition of trauma is precisely why this painting is such an important piece of work in Kahlo’s collection.   She painted it intended that such an event would not transpire again,The focus on trauma is legitimate where nations or groups of people are trying to come to terms with a history of violence suffered or violence perpetrated.   But the transnational discourse of human rights may give us a better handle on such matters than the transfer of psychoanalysis into the world of politics and history.   For it is precisely the function of public memory discourses to allow individuals t o break out of traumatic repetitions.   Human rights activism, truth commissions, and juridical proceedings are better methods for dealing with historical trauma.   Another is the creation of objects, artworks, memorials, public spaces of commemoration†¦Huyssen â€Å"Present Past Palimsets†; 9  Urban space that is the Tate museum which houses Kahlo’s work should be utilized in commemoration for a traumatic event so that healing may begin in a national capacity.Both of these days serve as an embodiment of an event.   This in itself allows the past to be tangible. In both the memory of the event and in the survivors the day becomes a cultural history; it becomes real, fact as is done in A Few Small Nips.   The past has a tendency to become mythical, and memory has ways of faltering, but to make memory real these days add the cementing of the past events (Huyssen â€Å"Present Past Palimsets†; 15).   There can be no collective amnesia involved beca use the painting allows people on an international scale to become part of the remembrance.The horror in Kahlo’s painting is not only the brutality of the event, as blood is smattered in every direction of the space, but also in the facial expressions of the two bodies.   While the woman is lying on the bed, killed, naked, and in flaccid immobility, the man is fully dressed, with a small smirk on his face.   That smirk is the true horror of the piece.   The fact that the woman is completely nude while the man is fully dressed is also a point of interest.   This signifies that the woman trusted the man to get fully undressed while the man kept his secrets, his disguise as a killer, on.   That is the point of the contrast between the two figures; the man keeps his secret identity.This secret identity of duality as mentioned prior is a key focal point in Kahlo’s work but in A Few Small Nips she is attributing this dualism to the mal figure instead of the female (albeit, this is not a self portrait, at least not in the typical Kahlo fashion).   The point here is that Kahlo was enduring separation anxiety with Diego and so painted him as the killer giving him aplomb of secrets, and a smirk over the dead woman’s body.   If this painting is taken as a self-portrait then emotionally, Kahlo is telling her audience that she is dead, murdered in fact by this smirking man, her lover, Diego.Although such an interpretation may be considered to be extreme, it still does not become drastic following the line of paintings which Kahlo further immersed herself into later in life.   Although the painting is a brutal scene the fact that the banner with the works murdered by life written on them is carried by a dove says a little more about metaphor in the work.   The dove is typically the bird associated with peace and hope, a scene in this painting obviously says there is none in this room, if the interpretation is taken to represent the rea l event of the day.   However, if the painting is on an allegorical level a representation of Kahlo’s emotional state between her Diego’s separation, then the painting with a dove means that a resurrection is not completely unexpected.In this interpretation the notation of the blackbird on the opposite side of the banner from the dove also states another level of allegory.   If the dove is representational of Kahlo’s hope, and indeed it resides on the part of the painting harboring the woman’s dead body, then the blackbird which holds the banner on the man’s side of the painting could be representational of doom, or lack of hope and rebirth.   Also, the lighting which Kahlo placed in the painting is brighter around the woman’s dead body, and the shadows envelope the man which further suggests that if any hope is to be born from this brutal scene then its transgression is from the man and its livelihood rests with the woman’s fla ccid body.Thus, Kahlo accomplishes the dual side of human nature and her own feelings with these two birds: hope and travesty.   Although the intention of the painting was to represent the events of a brutal murder by a drunk boyfriend, in other allusions of the painting the viewer may find Kahlo’s own harboring of love and death with her relationship with Diego as well as the identity of a woman whom she felt a kindred spirit and in painting this work Frida perhaps wanted to make the nation, and finally the world aware of the brutality which was occurring in her home town.Thus, Kahlo’s painting may be considered a piece of feminist work which allows for the viewer to bear witness to a travesty.   The painting also serves as a national identity for the state of Mexico in showing the reality of the everyday in such a deplorable scene, but all too real.   The purpose however, for Kahlo in creating this work was not only for her own identity but for the identity of the murdered woman and to give her justice in allowing for the world to see how she did and by whom.Work CitedHuyssen, Andreas.   Present Pasts:   Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory.   Stanford  University Press, 2003.Lindauer, M.   Devouring Frida: The Art History and Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo. Woman’s Art Journal.   Vol.   22, NO. 1.   (Spring-Summer, 2001).   pp.   53-54.Mancer, S.   The Trouble with Frida Kahlo.   The Washington Monthly.   2002.Muna, S.   Frida at the Tate Modern.   Socialism Today.   Issue 93.   Jul-Aug 2005.

Adolescent Development Essay

There are mutual influences between an individual and their social environment. There are also at-risk factors involved in the life of a developing adolescent that interconnects with a series of reciprocal systems. I can recall as a developing adolescent quickly maturing into adulthood, the many social, economic, external and internal influences that contributed to certain at-risk behaviors. These type of influences impacted me directly and indirectly. I was influenced by the several environments I was in, and I also contributed to influencing the environment around me. Attempting to exert control over uncontrollable circumstances only lead to desperate situations and weighty consequences. However, learning to accept my present circumstances, and how to appropriately respond to the hardship and temptations in life developed positive life changes. Individual human development occurs within interconnected and embedded ecological systems (McWhirter et al, 2013). The ecological systems include the individual, the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and macrosystem (McWhirter et al, 2013). The individual consists of genetic and biological factors, and personality characteristics (McWhirter et al, 2013). The microsystem consists of the people that the individual comes into direct contact with and who the individual interacts with (McWhirter et al, 2013). The mesosystem is the embedded interconnections between different microsystems and the impact of the interactions that take place (McWhirter et al, 2013). The exosystem consists of the interconnections between one or more settings that indirectly involve the individual (McWhirter et al, 2013). The macrosystem represents the social blueprint of cultural values, societal structure, gender-role socializations, race relations, belief systems, and national and international resources (McWhirter et al, 2013). The chronosystem is the interconnection and interaction of the individual within different environments, and is the transitions that occur during the course of the individual’s lifetime (McWhirter et al, 2013). These interconnecting systems are referred to as the ecological model, and assumes that the individual is continually interacting with his or her environment hat produces constant change due to mutual influences (McWhirter et al, 2013). Part A – The Ecological Model The core of who I really am involves the combinations of my genetic predispositions, evolutionary and biological components, personality characteristics, and the ongoing process of behavioral, cognitive, and affective experiences (McWhirter et al, 2013). Who I am has a lot to do with my expe riences in life, my responses to life events, and the social and environmental influences and interactions involved. The ecological model provides a greater understanding of how I influence my environment and my environment influences me. This is important because it is through the interactions of the ecological systems that help me better understand myself and others. The Individual. I entered the world with an umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, struggling to live due to insufficient oxygen intake. As a child I was very susceptible to illness. As an adult I discovered that I was living with an autoimmune disorder. I have very vivid fragmented memories as a child of several doctor office visits. At the personal level, I was a very fearful, anxious, angry, socially withdrawn child who experienced an unstable, insecure, neglectful, abusive, and dysfunctional home environment. The structure of personality develops in childhood and continues to develop in adulthood (Caspi, Roberts & Shiner, 2005). I developed a combination of extraversion and introversion traits. These traits show themselves depending on how safe I determine the environment around me to be. As a child I experienced positive and negative emotionality. I at times struggle with viewing the world as a safe place and occasionally viewed it as threatening. I experienced anxious distress with a tendency toward anxiety, sadness, insecurity, and guilt. As a teenager I experienced darker emotions such as anger, frustration, and irritation. I developed agreeable personality characteristics as a child. In adulthood I sometimes struggle with the fear of rejection, self-acceptance, people pleasing tendencies, self-awareness, and feeling comfortable in my surrounding environment and own skin. I also developed a strong motivation to achieve academically, and have a strong sense of independence. As a child and through my teenage years I was not allowed to have an opinion or express individuality, which resulted in the inability or challenge to think on my own, questioning who I am through life stages, fearful of making decisions on my own and especially decisions I need to make on behalf of others, and codependency issues. The Microsystem. I grew up in a traditional family household for a time being that consisted of my mother, father, and sister. Although, it was considered a traditional two parent household, my father was rarely home, and when he was home he was unavailable. My mother was emotionally unavailable and suffered from manic depression. My mother stayed at home and my father was either out working or pursuing one of his addictions. My family was homeless until I was the age of 5. We had lived and slept in my father’s suburban, randomly stayed with strangers, and at times lived in a recreational vehicle. I assumed responsibility and care of my younger sibling, my mother, myself, and household chores. I entered the stages of maturity alone and without parental support. The lack of positive parenting during my adolescent years made me vulnerable to at-risk risk behaviors such as premarital sex, tobacco use, substance abuse, gang involvement and mental and social disorders (Clinton & Clark, 2010). At the age of ten I was removed from my parent’s custody and placed in foster care where my sibling and I were separated and placed in different homes. In the foster system I was only allowed to socialize at school, and attended church depending on whether or not my foster parents at the time deemed it necessary. My sister and I went through several foster home placements which resulted in the loss of security, the loss of our personal possessions, and sense of belonging. Being bounced from home to home, it was difficult maintaining a close friendships with others. I developed an internal mechanism of being friendly with everyone, but not allowing myself to develop a close friendship with others. As I gained independence and freedom in my later teen years and early adulthood, I became more involved in church. The Mesosystem. I grew up in a rural community with a lack of parental involvement. There were no real established mesosystem relationships. The environment was inconsistently positive and very negative at times. Since school was my outlet, I strived for academic excellence and successfully achieved it. School seemed to be the only sense of stability. The Exosystem. Outside agencies that developed policies and created public resources were an indirect benefit to me as an adolescent and young adult. During childhood, I was able to eat lunch at school, and enjoy extracurricular activities such as Campfire Girls, cheerleading, and Key Club. I was given accessibility to the basic needs that my parents could not afford such as cloths, food, and shelter. As an adult, several community resources helped my daughter and escape and terminate a domestically violent relationship. The Macrosystem. During adolescence I was exposed to abuse, neglect, and violence first hand and via the television. My father grew up in the south and was very racist toward certain nationalities and races of people. The cultural context consisted of low socioeconomic status (SES), poverty, and experiencing our Native American ethnic background and being exposed to several conflicting belief systems. I grew up on a culture where corporate punishment was an acceptable practice. The culture valued individuality, independence, and self-reliance. I grew up in poverty with a prevailing crime rate not as noticeable as it is today. Social norms included the overuse of antibiotics (McDonnell Norms Group, 2008), and the use of drugs and alcohol were socially acceptable. Chronosystem. A pattern of environmental events, transitions, and sociohistorical circumstances contributed to my development over my lifespan. Both of my parents lived disloyal and adulterous life styles. Overtime, there unhealthy and dysfunctional patterns of relating to each other resulted in a separation. My father died when I was 17 years old. My parent’s marriage legally dissolved at the time of my father’s death. My mother remarried multiple times. My sister and I were exposed to their dysfunctional lifestyle, which tremendously impacted our lives. I personally, transitioned through many of life events by experiencing two divorces, being a single-mother of four children for quit sometime, remarrying and adjusting to a blended family, the loss of my oldest daughter, and facing the social political arena at work. Part B – At-Risk Tree Metaphor The At-risk tree is an analogy that allows people to understand the range of issues involving at-risk adolescence (McWhirter et al, 2013). The soil of the tree represents the individual’s societal environment (McWhirter et al, 2013). The roots refer to family, school, and peer groups that connect the tree to the soil (McWhirter et al, 2013). The trunk represents the developing attitudes and behaviors of each child (McWhirter et al, 2013). The branches of the tree represent the attitudes and behaviors that lead to specific risk categories (McWhirter et al, 2013). The soil of my family growing up consisted of poverty, low socioeconomic status (SES), judgmental and racist attitudes, abusive and neglectful home environment, and conflicting belief systems. The three primary roots are family, school, and peer groups (McWhirter et al, 2013). My parent’s inability to raise my sister and me in a loving, secure, stable, and nurturing environment, and expose us to family conflict, abuse, neglect, lack of parenting, being emotionally unavailable, and an unstructured home environment contributed to my dysfunction and the at-risk behaviors in my life. The school system was unaware of our life circumstances and did not any support. My sister ended up dropping out and getting involved with drugs. I became sexually involved with my boyfriend at the age of 15 and became pregnant at the age of 16. My daughter gave me the drive to continue my education and succeed academically in order to provide her with a better life. I was withdrawn during my adolescence and teenage years. Although, I made intent to get along with everyone, I did not associate with everyone. The peer group I involved myself in strived for academic excellence and engaged in positive extracurricular activities. The trunk of the at-risk tree representing my life consisted of low self-esteem, and depression. The branches of at-risk categories in my life were high-school dropout, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and suicide. I was at risk for teen pregnancy and became pregnant at the age of sixteen. I succumbed to sexual activity with one partner in high school that resulted in teen pregnancy. I was very fortunate that at risk behaviors did not escalate. My tree was broken and bruised and produced damaged fruit. Instead of running to quick gratification I learned to run to God. I found my value and security in Christ. My branches although bruised eventually healed and produced good, healthy fruit. It took a lot of effort, drive, motivation, will, and trusting God in the midst of temptation and hardship. I was fortunate to have a variety of Gardeners in my life from Christian counselors, law enforcement, human service workers, youth group leaders, Sunday school teachers, and church mentors who helped me redirect my lifestyle. I learned how to be academically successful, a loving, supportive, caring mother to my children, a hard worker of integrity, and to do the right thing when the wrong thing seems easier at the time being.