Comparing Frankenstein, Origin of the Species and Decent of Man Essay

Comparing Frankenstein, Origin of the Species and Decent of Man  Ã‚   I will demonstrate in this paper how Mary Shelley's Frankenstein confirms, and at the same time contradicts Darwin's ideas presented in "The Origin of the Species" and "The Decent of Man." Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is at once, confirming, and contradictory of Charles Darwin's scientific discoveries and views on science, nature and the relation of the individual to society. Mary Shelley confirms Darwin's ideas through Frankenstein, when Dr. Frankenstein and Darwin both reject God as the creator of human life. Although this is a major theme in both works, it is the only similar idea shared between both Darwin and Frankenstein. Darwin's understanding of nature is comparable to that of Mary Shelley; although how the individual relates to society is gravely different between the two works. One of Darwin's admiring disciples, Andrew Carnegie, the author of "The Gospel of Wealth," shows us how contradictory these ideas are in relation to each other. His ideas of inheritance and the conduct of man are in disagreement with the actions of Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein. Throughout Darwin's works the idea of the rejection of God as creator of man prevails. He alludes to prehistoric marine Ascidian larvae, as the predecessors to the later evolved human beings we are today. This would give credit for the creation of man to the process of evolution, not to the handiwork of a Supreme Being. "Species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species"(Appleman, 36). Darwin is showing here what conclusions he came upon about the "Origin of the Species", in which he used science to prove his theories. He is replacing God with ideas... ...heir works, giving the power of creation to evolution and mankind. They also both present similar views on nature, seeing it as a tool for scientific exploration and not as a wonder of beauty as it is often seen today. Using the work of Andrew Carnegie to show Darwinian ideas about the individual in society, we can see that these ideas strongly contradict those which Shelley presents in Frankenstein. Overall I believe that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein exemplifies many ideas expressed in the works of Darwin, enough that they can be considered enriching of each other in terms of comparison. Works Cited: Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. New York: Gramercy Books, 1979. Darwin, Charles. The Descent Of Man. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 1999.

Attitude Persuasion

Introduction: The word attitude  is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event. Prominent psychologist  Gordon Allport  (1935) once described attitude â€Å"the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary  psychology†. The words  attitude  and  persuasion  are often found together, as in the phrase  persuasion and attitude change. Persuasion is an attempt to change people's attitudes. For example, advertisers try to persuade potential customers to buy a product. To do this, they try to create a positive attitude toward the product.Social psychologists have emphasized that an attitude is  preparation for behavior. Otherwise, nobody would care about attitudes. An advertiser would not try to make you feel more â€Å"positive† or â€Å"liking† toward a product unless this was assumed to affect your likelihood of buying the product. Attitude as an inward feeling expressed by outward behavior. People al ways project on the outside what they feel on the inside. But some people try to mask their attitude. You have developed attitudes about such issues, and these attitudes influence your beliefs as well as your behavior.Attitudes are an important topic of study within the field of  social psychology. What exactly is an attitude? How does it develop? Studies show that how psychologists define this concept, how attitudes influence our behavior and things we can do to change attitudes. Definitions i. A settled way of thinking or feeling typically reflected in a person's behavior. A position of the body proper to or implying an action or mental state: â€Å"the boy was standing in an attitude of despair†. ii.Attitude is â€Å"a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols† (Hogg & Vaughan 2005, p. 150) iii. â€Å"A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a pa rticular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor† (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1) Explanation An attitude is a cognition (form of thought) that is formed through experience and influences our behavior. The fact that attitudes are  formed through experience  means that we can, potentially, change them. When a ersuader gives a message to an audience member, that message becomes part of the listener’s experience, and it can affect his or her attitudes. The fact that attitudes  influence our behavior  means that we can use persuasion as a means to achieve our goals — when the behavior, or actions, or others can help attain those goals. Attitudes have two basic components: beliefs and values. Beliefs are, roughly, statements of facts. Beliefs are potentially verifiable. We say a belief is true or correct when it seems to reflect the world and false or incorrect when it seems contradicted by the world.Values are judgments of worth, like good or bad, useful o r useless, expensive or cheap, efficient or inefficient. Together, these cognitions (thoughts), beliefs and values, form attitudes. (M. Clubertson, 1968)Attitudes are learned from experience and also influence our behavior. A person’s attitude is a composite of all the relevant belief/value pairs, with the more important ones influencing the attitude more. You can change a person’s attitude by changing either the belief or the value (but not both), or by creating new belief/value pairs (or by changing the relative importance of belief/value pairs).Persuasion is, quite simply, the use of messages to influence an audience. The messages that make up persuasive discourse are  instrumental, or means to ends or goals of the persuader. Companies use persuasion in the form of advertising to convince consumers to buy their products or services. Students use persuasion to convince their parents to increase their allowance, or let them go to see a particular movie, or to let th em use the car. Parents can use persuasion to get their children to study or to clean up their rooms.People use persuasion to get their friends to go to see a certain movie, or a band, or to hang out at the mall. Persuasion can convince another person to go out on a date. It can convince a teacher to accept a paper after the due date. Of course, people can also use  threats  to get what they want, but that is not persuasion. In persuasion, we try to convince the audience that they should want to do what we want them to do–not that they should do it â€Å"or else. † One of the most powerful influences on attitude change is the motivation of people.Cognitive dissonance Cognitive dissonance  is a phenomenon in which a person experiences psychological distress due to conflicting thoughts or beliefs. In order to reduce this tension, people may change their attitudes to reflect their other beliefs or actual behaviors. What all the definitions of attitude have in common is  evaluation. An attitude is not just a neutral stance; it is a value judgment, favorable or unfavorable, or likely to affect persuasion: characteristics of the  communicator, the  communication, and the  situation.People can be inoculated against attempts at persuasion and propaganda by exposing them to weak attacks and teaching them how to respond. (D. Crano, 2005) Cognitive dissonance theory emerged in the 1950s and had a large impact on social psychology. It is based on the assumption that people seek consistency between their behavior and their attitudes. If forced to do something that contradicts their value judgments or opinions, people feel  dissonance  and are motivated to change either attitudes or behavior, to bring them into consonance (agreement) with one another.That makes the theory especially interesting and useful. A central question for Dissonance researcher has been the motivational bases for dissonance and the causes of the aversive state of disson ance arousal. In Aronson’s(1992) self concept analysis, dissonance arises from the inconsistent cognitions that threaten consistency, stability, predictability, competence and moral goodness of self concept. In Steele’s(1988) self affirmation Theory, dissonance arises from general self integrity.Stone and cooper(Peety and Wegener 1998) Proposed that dissonance arise when people fail to behave in a manner consistent with some valued self-standard. the specific motivation behind the dissonance supposedly depend on the type of self standard involved. Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) Festinger’s version of balance theory, called cognitive dissonance theory, suggests that when people have in mind two or more inconsistent thoughts or beliefs, they experience a state of  dissonance.This ‘negative drive state’ is unpleasant, so they are motivated to try to reduce it by altering one or more of the cognitions in order to re-establish a state of   consonance. Cognitive dissonance  is a term used in modern  psychology  to describe the feeling of discomfort when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting  cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel â€Å"disequilibrium†: frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc. Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.The theory of cognitive dissonance in  social psychology  proposes that people have a  motivational drive  to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements. It is the distressing mental state that people feel when they â€Å"find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions the y hold. †Ã‚  A key assumption is that people want their expectations to meet reality, creating a sense of equilibrium.Likewise, another assumption is that a person will avoid situations or information sources that give rise to feelings of uneasiness, or dissonance. Bogardus Social Distance scale For Bogardus â€Å"an attitude is a tendency to act toward or against something in the environment which becomes thereby a positive or negative value. â€Å"Conducted a monumental study on â€Å"social distance â€Å"still used the world over to examine cultural and ethnic attitudes. The Bogardus Social Distance scale measures attitudes about how close or distant people feel towards other people.Early in twentieth century E. S bogardus invented bogardus social distance scale is a technique for scaling attitude to measure social-psychology distance between various ethnic and racial groups Social Distance Scale  (Bogardus, 1925) is where attitudes are inferred from the actions of t he participant. The participant indicates the degree of intimacy which would be acceptable towards an individual or group, e. g. , ‘Would you live next door to one? ’ Each question has a value assigned it, and the sum of these will indicate the strength of attitudeConclusion Hence we conclude that an attitude can be a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment, but there is debate about precise definitions. Persuasion is a powerful force in daily life and has a major influence on society as a whole. For example Politics, legal decisions, mass media, news and advertising are all influenced by the power of persuasion, and influence us in turn. What all the definitions of attitude have in common is  evaluation.An attitude is not just a neutral stance; it is a value judgment, favorable or unfavorable, for or ikely to affect persuasion: characteristics of the  communicator, the  communication , and the  situation. People can be inoculated against attempts at persuasion and propaganda by exposing them to weak attacks and teaching them how to respond. REFERENCES Crano, W. (2005). Attitude and Persuasion. California: Claremont Graduate University. Clubertson, H. (1968). Attitudes. Journal of Cooperative Extension, 79. Murchinson,C. (1985). Handbook of Social Psychology. Clark University Press .

Unemployment and Welfare

This essay will let you know the different opinions of federal policy issues involving welfare causing conflicting debates between national, state, and local government and how these conflicting issues relate to federalism. Federalism is â€Å"A government system where power and authority are shared by national and states governments, with the ultimate authority derived from the people.With that been said this essay will also describe the history of TANF and discuss debates about the pros and cons of TANF Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and the problems they are intended to solve or improve and the effectiveness of them both. (Levin-Waldman, 2012). When people think about welfare they normally think of Medicaid, WIA Work Investment Act, WIC Women, Infants, and Children and of course AFDC Aid to Families with Dependent Children now TANF, and HUD Housing and Urban Development.They tend to view it as the federal government giving away the countries money and the taxpayer’ s hard-earned dollars to people who cannot support themselves. Majority of people do not like the idea regardless of what and some are sympathetic to the poor and think you should help if you can and are financially stable. They may wonder why they cannot support themselves, why do not they work or go to school, why they are having children they cannot take care of. These reasons are among other things are how people see and view welfare in today’s society no matter what.The reasons could vary from a person that lost a spouse, or they could have been laid off or fired from their jobs, or maybe their hours were decreased as there could be many other reasons, but there are programs to help people get back on their feet for example, training seminars, workshops, help with schooling and finding jobs as well as day care assistance, nutritional programs, finding housing and other needs. The welfare reform debate has remained very emotional, because it touches on the most sensitive of societal issues: work, family, sex, abortion, personal responsibility, and community integrity.Welfare reform has become a very important topic in today’s world from fundamental questions about quality of life and how to allocate personal and public responsibilities. We are not sure as a society whether economic security for children is more important than providing clear consequences to parents who fail to play by the rules. We argue whether individual that are not responsible or societal barriers are at the root of welfare dependency.Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the nation's cash assistance program for poor families with children, has not played much of a countercyclical role during the current recession. As unemployment has risen, TANF caseloads nationally have grown much more slowly and state TANF caseloads have not tracked state unemployment growth. Program rules and financing structures limit the responsiveness of TANF in a downturn. As TANF reauth orization is considered, this brief details some relatively small changes that could improve the program's effectiveness in future recessions (Welfare Reform Act of 2011).Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the signature program of welfare in the United States and the focal point of discussions about reform, was terminated in 1996 with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. This legislation effectively replaced AFDC, Emergency Assistance, and the JOBS program–and the open-ended federal appropriations that supported them–with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. In effect, the federal government began turning responsibility for welfare back to the states.Pros- Welfare has the benefit of providing much-needed food, medical care and money to citizens who qualify to receive it. Since taxes fund welfare, it redistributes wealth across the population. Welfare also prevents even further social proble ms by allowing some recipients to maintain their standard of living. For example, unemployed workers who receive an unemployment benefit may be able to keep their homes despite the loss of income, preventing a foreclosure and possible homelessness.Cons- The biggest disadvantage of welfare is its cost to the local governments that administer it. Even with federal funding, states feel the burden of welfare in each annual budget. Welfare may encourage some recipients not to seek work, since a rise in income would disqualify them from receiving free benefits. It is also an opportunity for fraud, which occurs whenever someone supplies false information to receive welfare benefits without truly qualifying

The Mean Girls Effect

The Mean Girls EffectDavid Jin Mean Girls is a 2004 film about the life of a popular high school girl. The teen comedy is considered by many high schoolers to be a legendary movie that depicts a dream high school that is ideal for many of today’s youth. The film centers around 4 junior girls called the plastics. They are pretty and preppy, popular and legendary in the school. They are worshipped like goddess by the students of the school because of their fame, riches, and popularity.However, the group of mean girls live up to their name. They are nasty, trashy and downright evil at times. Revenge is their middle name, and they will not hesitate to throw some of their best friends under the bus at a seconds notice, literally throw them under a bus. They gossip, spread terrible rumors and exclude their friends from cliques on purpose. However, this movie has had a big effect on the public, especially the youth and the younger generation.The ideal life of the plastics in high sch ool has created a lust for popularity among teenagers and also has showed teenage girls that being ‘mean’ will get you friends, popularity and fame in the complicated world that is high school. To begin with, Mean Girls has caused teenagers in high school to embark on a quest for popularity, in some cases, an unhealthy quest. Studies show that the depictions of popularity by movies like Mean Girls, where an epitome of perfection is established, cause teenagers to strive for that image.Mean Girls and other similar movies are causing an unhealthy strive for popularity in teenagers. A study shows that after watching mean girls, females 14-16 are more likely to have thoughts of insecurity about their weight, attractiveness and popularity. High schools have also reported increased numbers of cases of eating disorders since the movie has come out, a direct result of the image and message that the movie conveys to the teenagers and high school students watching.In addition, Me an Girls and other movies have glorified being ‘mean’ and nasty which has created a negative image for the teenagers of our time. A society fed by these kinds of movies is teaching teenagers that being aggressive and nasty can boost their social status and also, as depicted by these movies, is the cool and popular thing to do. The movie also commends popular cliques and ‘fakeness’ and sends a message that popularity is everything, and that girls must strive for it always. In regards to Mean Girls and its effect on the younger generation, it has caused a glorification of being trashy and nasty, as made teenage girls insecure about themselves and has also conveyed the message of ‘popularity at all costs’, even if you have no real friends. Mean Girls and other similar movies have become legendary in high schools and have promoted negative images to teenagers everywhere. â€Å"I knew how this could be solved in the real world, but this was girl wo rld. All the fighting had to be sneaky and nasty. † As shown, the movie (although a really good movie) passes on a bad image to teenagers everywhere and has caused many problems in our society.

A Ideal Partner

To be able to completely trust your life on a simple word from your partner is a soul quality of admiration. A man that I know is going to be there for me through all the complexities that life puts forward, pleasant and not so pleasant no matter what the consequences. Women have consistently been recognized for their desire and style of communication, for the means of expressing emotions, frustrations, and information exchange. The quality of sincerity is one that can be the foundation of a life long relationship. Commitment is a quality that forsaking all other, you are faithful to your partner in life and life-eternal. The quality of integrity is one that I hold very high on my standards for a man. Each of these proceeding characteristics contributes to a man of desire. The reasoning that I firmly believe this is because I†tmve found my ideal partner in my husband. The definition of sincere is to be free from pretence in behavior or feelings, to be genuine and honest. A man can be compassionate towards his friends or family. Having a man whom you can count on wholeheartedly by his word is irreplaceable. For my partner to risk his life or surrender himself on my behalf would be of complete aspiration. The perfect companion that would be for myself would be a man of sincerity, integrity, compassion, and commitment. The qualities that intrigue me are not of material or superficial possessions, but internal contentment and confidence.

The Seventeen-Article Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Seventeen-Article Constitution - Essay Example The Seventeen Article Constitution was written in a period of Chinese expansionism. Previously insulated from Chinese cultural and political influence because of geographical separation by the sea, the Japanese rulers noticed the Chinese with more concern as they made forays into the Korean peninsula. With a desire to consolidate their own government in a more structured and unified form, Shotoku sent his missions into China to study the centralized structure of the Tang kingdom. The results of these missions had a great influence on the constitution Shotoku was going to write. Even though there is no evidence that the constitution was promulgated practically as a law, it remained a guideline for how the rulers expected the standards of statehood to be and set the direction for future reforms, such as the Taika reforms (Lu 23). Two of the key precepts of the constitution were the rights of the sovereign and the establishment of a bureaucracy. These were both designed to change the then current structure from being clan-based to that governed by a central monarchy. In espousing the powers and rights of the monarchy, the constitution made undiluted references to the monarch being â€Å"likened Heaven† and if not obeyed â€Å"ruin will be automatically result† (Lu 24). The reference to the monarch being like heaven itself was borrowed from the Confucian descriptions of imperial government in China which emphasized the monarch’s status as being the link that creates â€Å"harmony† between â€Å"what is above† and â€Å"what is below† resulting in prosperity if obeyed (Kasulis 86). Supplementing the monarch based central government was the idea of a bureaucracy which was selected on merit rather than heredity. It may be pointed out that the entire Confucian theory was n ot used in the constitution and in the adaptation some elements were skipped. For example, in Confucianism, if the monarch did not rule as he was

Write about childhood and adolescence and your classmate sharing their Essay

Write about childhood and adolescence and your classmate sharing their story - Essay Example All those years that I have passed gave me some bitterness because with the passage of time, I lost many people who were close to me. I have heard people saying that the transformation from childhood to teenage or adolescence appears very charming and attractive because as adolescents, people get a chance to enjoy more liberty, empowerment and independence, however, this was not the case with me. My mother was there to take care of me as a single parent, so she appeared more domineering and controlling giving very less liberty to me considering me wrong most of the times. Therefore, turning a teenager was a sad experience for me. I was dislocated, having less confidence and enjoying very little liberty. My mother has good income so she allows getting anything with money, but she is not accommodative as a friend due to which, I really feel that I have nobody close to me to whom I can share everything that I feel. This has dragged me to seclusion and lonesomeness. As a teenager, when I started realizing everything around me, I turned to my raw self for assistance, as there was no loving experienced guidance for me, just strict controlling cautions from my mother. I wanted to have friends with whom I could hang out and have fun, but I was never allowed. I was just allowed to study and that was all. Therefore, I consider my childhood better than my adolescence. One of my classmates shared her experience of turning to adulthood with me. She informed me that as a child, she enjoyed the care of her father and mother who cared for all her siblings along with her. However, when she grew young and got married, she had to undergo extreme pressure from her family. She was supposed to take care of her parents, her siblings and also her children. As a young person, she was under immense pressure and she was very upset. She was not ready to let go of her parents as she regarded them not as her parents, but her children for whom, she