5 Best Free Software to Speed Up Your Academic Writing Process

Are you a good writer? Well, it doesnt matter what you answer because you will have to write that paper anyway. The professors are not interested whether you like the process or not if you know how to complete the assignment at all or how many nights it will take you to find the necessary info. But thats not their fault they work according to the curriculum saying that you have to be aware of all that stuff. All you can do is accept the reality and do your best to stay afloat. And were going to help you with that. This is the 21st century, so you have to act like a student living during one. It means that when you have troubles writing or proofreading your academic papers, you need to rely on modern technologies and software. And we have some cool freebies from that part that you will enjoy and use to optimize/speed up the creative process. Hemingway App This is an online instrument that helps to make the text much more readable and engaging. It also has a desktop version, but it costs $20 and has the same set of functions, so we advise you to go with the free one. It has two modes: Write with a clean screen and grey background as well as Edit which is a pearl of this software. The latter shows: Readability grade. The more complex your writing is, the higher the regular US grade is needed to understand the content. The authors of this app do mark that Hemingway himself has a 5th-grade readability level, so mind your determination when you aim for high. Word count. Adverb count. This is the section that indicates how many adverbs can be replaced or omitted to make your writing flow. Passive voice. Even given the fact that academic writing is formal, it doesnt welcome the overuse of passive structures. So, this field will help you to control their number. Hard- and very-hard-to-read sentences. Edit the parts where it is confusing to understand where the main clause is and where the subordinate one is. These two sections will give you a hint on where to look. All the indicators have particular colors that are used to highlight the adverbs, words or sentences that require some changes. This app is extremely useful not only for academic writing but also for your correspondence or even social media posts. Incorporate a habit of using it and your skills will get the necessary boost. Readable This tool evaluates exclusively the readability level of your paper, but it does it taking into account a lot of criteria. Firstly, it uses five different readability formulas and tests to count an average grade of the person who will be able to cover your text. Then, it applies some of those formulas as well as new ones to estimate the points your paper scores according to them. After that, you will be able to see the text quality which includes the number of sentences, words, adverbs and so on, and what percentage of the text they take. All of the above-mentioned stats you can see on your right. But if you scroll down, you will also see how the tone of your text can be characterized, the volume of sentiment and gender analysis. What is more, there are different statistics that will be able to tell you much more about your writing than even your professor! WriteMonkey This is a downloadable desktop application whose most famous quality is a simple and distraction-free background, inspiring productivity. It has many features like Scrivener, but unlike the advertised app, it doesnt cost a dime to use it. You have such functions at your disposal: Outliner; Markdown; Automatic highlighting of syntax; File organization; Etc. We advise you to use this tool whenever you have problems with concentration, or your usual writing environment doesnt work for you anymore. The change of the scenery may help out with the writers block, so definitely download it to your computer. Just in case. Libre Office Compiling an essay in a TXT file is no good, and Microsoft Office costs a lot of money for a broke student like you. Thats why were offering you to consider Libre Office that has somewhat limited features (comparing to MS) but will do for writing academic papers. Clich Finder If you want to stand out from the crown and get remembered by your professor, you need to use this free online instrument to refine your writing and make it more unconventional. After pasting your paper in the field, the Clich Finder will highlight all the stereotyped expressions that you should replace with original phrases. These cool free apps will assist in turning your writing into an efficient process. Use them as much as you want because they wont hurt your budget! But if academic writing is too overwhelming for you, use additional academic help from the experts. Even if you have urgent task and tough deadline, they can deliver useful samples for you. Reach them in order to know more.

Sri Lanka Facts and History

Sri Lanka Facts and History With the recent end of the Tamil Tiger insurgency, the island nation of Sri Lanka seems poised to take its place as a new economic powerhouse in South Asia. After all, Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) has been a key trading hub of the Indian Ocean world for more than a thousand years. Capital and Major Cities Administrative Capital: Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, metro population 2,234,289 Commercial Capital: Colombo, metro population 5,648,000 Major Cities: Kandy population 125,400Galle population 99,000Jaffna population 88,000 Government The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has a republican form of government, with a president who is both head of government and head of state. Universal suffrage starts at age 18. The current president is Maithripala Sirisena; presidents serve six-year terms. Sri Lanka has a unicameral legislature. There are 225 seats in Parliament, and members are elected by popular vote to six-year terms.  The Prime Minister is Ranil Wickremesinghe. The president appoints judges to both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. There are also subordinate courts in each of the countrys nine provinces. People Sri Lankas total population is approximately 20.2 million as of the 2012 census. Nearly three-quarters, 74.9%, are ethnic Sinhalese. Sri Lankan Tamils, whose ancestors came to the island from southern India centuries ago, make up about 11% of the population, while more recent Indian Tamil immigrants, brought in as agricultural labor by the British colonial government, represent 5%. Another 9% of Sri Lankans are the Malays and Moors, descendants of Arab and Southeast Asian traders who plied the Indian Ocean monsoon winds for more than a thousand years. There are also tiny numbers of Dutch and British settlers, and aboriginal Veddahs, whose ancestors arrived at least 18,000 years ago. Languages The official language of Sri Lanka is Sinhala. Both Sinhala and Tamil are considered national languages; only about 18% of the population speaks Tamil as a mother tongue, however. Other minority languages are spoken by about 8% of Sri Lankans. In addition, English is a common language of trade, and approximately 10% of the population are conversant in English as a foreign language. Religion Sri Lanka has a complex religious landscape. Almost 70% of the population are Theravada Buddhists (mainly the ethnic Sinhalese), while most Tamils are Hindu, representing 15% of Sri Lankans. Another 7.6% are Muslims, particularly the Malay and Moor communities, belonging primarily to the Shafii school within Sunni Islam. Finally, about 6.2% of Sri Lankans are Christians; of those, 88% are Catholic and 12% are Protestant. Geography Sri Lanka is a teardrop-shaped island in the Indian Ocean, southeast of India. It has an area of 65,610 square kilometers (25,332 square miles), and is mostly flat or rolling plains. However, the highest point in Sri Lanka is Pidurutalagala, at an impressive 2,524 meters (8,281 feet) in altitude. The lowest point is sea level. Sri Lanka sits at the middle of a tectonic plate, so it does not experience volcanic activity or earthquakes. However, it was heavily impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, which killed more than 31,000 people in this mostly low-lying island nation. Climate Sri Lanka has a maritime tropical climate, meaning that it is warm and humid throughout the year. Average temperatures ranges from 16 °C (60.8 °F) in the central highlands to 32 °C (89.6 °F) along the northeast coast. High temperatures in Trincomalee, in the northeast, can top 38 °C (100 °F). The entire island generally has humidity levels between 60 and 90% year-round, with the higher levels during the two long monsoonal rainy seasons (May to October and December to March). Economy Sri Lanka has one of the strongest economies in South Asia, with a GDP of $234 billion US (2015 estimate), a per capita GDP of $11,069, and a 7.4% annual growth rate. It receives substantial remittances from Sri Lankan overseas workers, mostly in the Middle East; in 2012, Sri Lankans abroad sent home about $6 billion US. Major industries in Sri Lanka include tourism; rubber, tea, coconut and tobacco plantations; telecommunications, banking and other services; and textile manufacturing. The unemployment rate and percentage of the population living in poverty are both an enviable 4.3%. The islands currency is called the Sri Lankan rupee. As of May, 2016, the exchange rate was $1 US 145.79 LKR. History The island of Sri Lanka appears to have been inhabited since at least 34,000 years before the present. Archaeological evidence suggests that agriculture began as early as 15,000 BCE, perhaps reaching the island along with the ancestors of the aboriginal Veddah people. Sinhalese immigrants from northern India likely reached Sri Lanka around the 6th century BCE. They may have established one of the earliest great trade emporiums on earth; Sri Lankan cinnamon appears in Egyptian tombs from 1,500 BCE. By about 250 BCE, Buddhism had reached Sri Lanka, brought by Mahinda, the son of Ashoka the Great of the Mauryan Empire. The Sinhalese remained Buddhist even after most mainland Indians had converted to Hinduism. Classical Sinhalese civilization relied on complicated irrigation systems for intensive agriculture; it grew and prospered from 200 BCE to about 1200 CE. Trade flourished between China, Southeast Asia, and Arabia by the first few centuries of the common era. Sri Lanka was a key stopping point on the southern, or sea-bound, branch of the Silk Road. Ships stopped there not only to restock on food, water and fuel, but also to buy cinnamon and other spices. The ancient Romans called Sri Lanka Taprobane, while Arab sailors knew it as Serendip. In 1212, ethnic Tamil invaders from the Chola Kingdom in southern India drove the Sinhalese south. The Tamils brought Hinduism with them. In 1505, a new kind of invader appeared on Sri Lankas shores. Portuguese traders wanted to control the sea-lanes between the spice islands of southern Asia; they also brought missionaries, who converted a small number of Sri Lankans to Catholicism. The Dutch, who expelled the Portuguese in 1658, left an even stronger mark on the island. The legal system of the Netherlands forms the basis for much of modern Sri Lankan law. In 1815, a final European power appeared to take control of Sri Lanka. The British, already holding the mainland of India under their colonial sway, created the Crown Colony of Ceylon. UK troops defeated the last native Sri Lankan ruler, the King of Kandy, and began to govern Ceylon as an agricultural colony that grew rubber, tea, and coconuts. After more than a century of colonial rule, in 1931, the British granted Ceylon limited autonomy. During World War II, however, Britain used Sri Lanka as a forward post against the Japanese in Asia, much to the irritation of Sri Lankan nationalists. The island nation became fully independent on February 4, 1948, several months after the Partition of India and the creation of independent India and Pakistan in 1947. In 1971, tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka bubbled over into armed conflict. Despite attempts at a political solution, the country erupted into the Sri Lankan Civil War in July of 1983; the war would continue until 2009, when government troops defeated the last of the Tamil Tiger insurgents.

How does depreciation accounting help the firm manage equipment Essay

How does depreciation accounting help the firm manage equipment investment costs and taxes - Essay Example † More so, the question which contains a series of sub-questions will be answered in the order in which these sub-questions have been asked. Current Liabilities usually form a sub-section of the Balance sheet. Typical Current Liabilities of known amounts may include accounts payable, short-term loans, outstanding salaries or other operating expenses that are still outstanding. Accounts payable refer to the amounts that ought to be paid to suppliers for merchandise bought from them in credit terms. Short-term loans are those types of loans that are usually repayable in a time period of less than a year. Outstanding expenses are those expenses that have already been incurred in the business in their day-to-day operations and which are yet to be met but have are already due. For an illustration of how Current Liabilities of known amounts are treated in the accounts, Accounts payable will be used. Whenever accounts payable increase in the business, the accounts payable ledger accou nt is usually credited with the increase while the goods or stock account is debited with a similar amount. The journal entry is usually as illustrated; Dr Cr Amount Stock a/c xx Accounts payable xx Then, this Accounts payable amount has to be put under Current Liabilities sub-section in the Balance Sheet. The other Current Liabilities are also credited with an increase and debited with a decrease. (principlesofaccounting.com, 2011) Estimated Liabilities are those liabilities for which payee is known as well as payment date, but they remain uncertain as concerns their payment amounts. These payment amounts can be estimated with reasonability, though. Uncertainty in the amounts may come about due to the fact that the amounts to be paid are based upon a given event the will occur in future or an amount which determination is not yet. Estimated Current Liabilities maybe with the inclusion of; vacation, bonus, warranty liabilities and health benefits. Any estimated liability is usually recorded for expected commodities in future to be provided in that future period. Whenever payments are met that estimated liability is usually reduced and to reflect the same in the Balance Sheet the equivalent account of estimated Current Liability in question is debited and the double entry is also reflected in the equivalent account. When a payment of an estimated current liability is made the journal entry is as follows (using health benefits as an example): Dr Cr Amount Health Benefit xx Cash/ Check xx (harpercollege.edu, 2008) Contingent Liabilities are liabilities that are connected with uncertain events. To this, the explanation given in any typical business is that some events are likely to eventually lead to a liability; however, the timing of such an event as well as the amount is not possible at present. Such liabilities are thus, referred to as Contingent Liabilities. Examples of Current Liabilities befitting this description are Legal disputes which are ongoing and wh ich may cause a contingent liability to the business, environmental pollution that may call for the business to cover the cost in future, or other liabilities like commodity warranties. However, it should be noted

Unit III Assessment Training and Development Essay

Unit III Assessment Training and Development - Essay Example does not require interaction would be done in a specialized room like a computer room with software support or even at home with a personal computer. The site has to be fit the size of the training group and allow the trainer to create closeness with the trainees. The training rooms themselves would be free of noise, suitably lit with dimmers if required. The acoustics, electrical fittings anti-glare and color of the walls would be considered (Noe, (2010)). The training site would have only the required furniture any items or furniture not required would be cleared. The training site would be clean neat and tidy with minimum distractions. A suitable seating arrangement suitable for the kind of training would be considered. Trainers to be considered would be professionals from within or without the company. The trainers will have mastery of the content. When internal trainers are to be considered they would need to be certified as effective trainers. The trainers must have a good understanding of the business operations and will employ applicable work relatedexamples in training as opposed to abstracts or theory. External trainers are usually expensive this will be a considered too when choosing trainers. Question 2: Explain how practice helps learning. Give examples of how this has helped you. Practice reinforces training it is a method of learning and getting experience, it is the active part of training that allows trainees to explore, experiment and experience the training content. Practice allows the trainee to try out and be comfortable using newly acquiredskills this aids learning by increasing the retention period of the learnt skill or knowledge. Practice affords the trainee an opportunity to make errors and learn from them during training. A well known fact is that humans learn best from their mistakes practice also enhances job performance as errors can be foreseen and avoided. During practice trainees may discover and learn new training content

Reflection on the History & Systems of Psychology Essay Example for Free

Reflection on the History Systems of Psychology Essay Pre-modern, modern and postmodern frames of reference have all helped shape important, contemporary psychological theories and issues. In this paper I will attempt, in a reflective manner, to walk through and revisit the areas we covered in course, the end aim being to gain a measure of insight into where the field of psychology stands today, particularly with regard to oppressive forms of ethnocentric monoculturalism. In terms of pre-modern perspectives, in the course we first discussed historical issues concerning the mind-body problem. I stated the nature of the relationship between body and mind and whether they are one and the same or two distinct substances, which is the center of the debate between monists and dualist. Descartes, the most well known dualist, argued for a separation of mind from soul and body. Also an interactionist, Descartes held the mind influenced the body as much as the body impacted the mind (Goodwin, 2009). Plato, his predecessor from antiquity, was also a dualist and an interactionist arguably, and believed the body and soul/mind were temporarily at one during life; each came from a completely different place, the body from the material world and the soul from the world of ideas. At the moment of death, the body withered away in time and space, the soul or mind returning to the world of forms and there realizing universal truths (Wozniak, 1992). Delving deeper into pre-modern views of the mind-body problem I touched upon Spinoza. Spinoza, a contemporary of Descartes, dismissed Descartes two-substance view in favor of what is called double-aspect theory (Wozniak, 1992). Double-aspect theories hold the view that the mental and the physical realms are varying aspects of the same substance. For Spinoza, that single substance is God, perceived as the universal essence or nature of everything in existence. In Spinoza’s view, there is no partition of mind and body, therefore. Instead they are of a single substance, in a pre-established coordination, reflecting the divine essence. In reflection, I continue to side with Spinoza and double-aspect theory in terms of pre-modern perspectives. I do believe that there is a pre-established coordination between mind and body that is reflective of the divine creation. I am therefore I think is my continued response to Descartes. In terms of modern perspectives in the course we examined the origins of psychology as a subject discipline. During the course I stated that psychology first appeared as a subject discipline in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt started a psychology lab in Germany at the University of Leipzig. The laboratory devoted itself to the analysis of conscious thought in its basic elements and structures, which was uncovered through a process of introspection (Gross, 1996). What differentiated this ‘new psychology’ at the time from philosophy was its use of measurement and control as well as its emphasis on the scientific method to study mental processes relevant to human consciousness. Due to his influence on Edward B. Titchener, Wundt’s frame of reference arguably helped give birth to structuralism. Indeed Wundt’s disciple, Titchener, is credited with developing and labeling structuralism in an 1898 paper called â€Å"The Postulates of a Structural Psychology (Goodwin, 2009). In the paper he compared and contrasted structuralism with functionalism, which he claimed infested most US universities, save Cornell where he was cultivating what would come to be  called the â€Å"the Cornell school of psychology.† Notwithstanding, Goodwin (2009) has stated that Titchener and the Cornell view of psychology was extremely narrow largely because of its insistence on introspection and due to Titchener’s attitude that his way was the only way, a position that often does not bode well in academia. In this vein and perhaps arrogantly so, Titchener, likened structuralism to anatomy, its purpose being analysis he surmised whereas functionalism he likened to physiology, stating that functionalists examine how the mind is able to adapt one to his or her said environment, wh ich to Titchener was a waste of time without a deep understanding of structure. As one needs to know the ins and outs of human anatomy before being able to fully delve into physiology, so thus was the  functionalist at a loss, in his view, without the ability to outline the structures of human consciousness via a highly difficult process of systematic, experimental introspection as stipulated by him in almost cult like exclusivity, which spawned criticism. Accordingly, his movement never gained the momentum it needed to win American hearts and minds, falling into the dustbin of history in favor of functionalism. Nevertheless, in spite of Titchener’s unpopularity in the US, his enduring contribution is that he helped create a place for the lab and experimental psychology in all colleges and universities with programs in psychology. While functionalists were also interested in looking at mental processes such as consciousness in so far as assessing human behavior in terms of how it aided people in adapting to ever-changing environments, they did not, unlike followers of Titchener, emphasize introspection (Goodwin, 2009). Psychologist James R. Angell, a follower of John Dewey, the founder of functionalism in America, became its most outspoken spokesperson, criticizing Titchener and drawing a sharp contrast to him in a 1907 popular paper called â€Å"The Province of Functional Psychology.† It was a damning response to Titchener’s 1898 paper. For Angell, the structuralist was  interested in the â€Å"what?† of conscious thought, whereas the functionalist psychologist wished to know the â€Å"how?† and â€Å"why?† of it, asking what is consciousness for? (Goodwin, 2009). This way of viewing psychology in terms of its practical applications, became an important influence in modern times, because it led to the study of topics such as developmental and abnormal psychology, in addition to examining the individual differences of mind, (which Titchener and the Cornell school remarkably had no interest in). When asking how psychology can be used to solve everyday problems in a practical way, we are taking from the functionalists and their movement. Perhaps the most prominent movement in the field of modern 20th century psychology was behaviorism. Behaviorism began essentially due to the work of Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov who did not consider himself a psychologist, but, rather a physiologist interested in the process of digestion in dogs, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904 (the year B. F. Skinner was born) in Physiology and Medicine. In the course of his research, Pavlov observed that the dogs would often start salivating before any food being given to them, when they would see the food or the food’s container, or when they heard the footsteps of the lab assistant who was on his way to feed them. His observations led to the study to what we now call classical conditioning (Gross, 1996). The first attempt to apply Pavlov’s findings on conditioning to humans was made by John B. Watson in a dubious and arguably unethical experiment on a small boy named Albert, showing that the fear of rats can be deliberately induced (Watson and Rayer, 1920). The experiment served to popularize a new behavioral approach to psychology that would within a decade become the dominant force in America, Watson its founder, propagator and publicist (Goodwin, 2008). To the modernist Watson (1913), psychology is an objective natural science,  its theoretical goal the prediction and control of behavior. Wundt and Titchener’s view on introspection has no place in its methods, nor is consciousness addressed or studied. There is no marked borderline between people and animals. Due to Watson’s input and influence cats, dogs, rats, and pigeons became the major source of psychological data. As ‘psychological’ now meant ‘behavior’ rather than ‘consciousness,’ animals that were easier to study and whose environments could be more readily controlled could replace people as experimental subjects (Gross, 1966). B. F. Skinner, also a behaviorist and modernist, went steps further than Pavlov and Watson, casting behavior in a more interactive light. He made a distinction between respondent and operant behavior and argued that most animal and human behavior is not brought about in the way Pavlov and Watson indicated and surmised. Skinner, like Edward Thorndike before him, was interested in how animals operate on their environment and how this operant behavior brings about particular consequences that can determine the likelihood of that behavior being repeated. In experiments he used a variation of Thordike’s puzzle-box, a Skinner box, which was made for a rat or a pigeon to do things in, rather than escape from. Fundamentally, Skinner saw the learner as much more actively involved than did Pavlov or Watson, for whom behavior was due to stimuli, unconditioned stimuli before learning and conditioned stimuli after learning. In addition to behaviorism, modern views of psychology took twists and turns. As a reaction to both Titchener’s structuralism and Watson’s behaviorism, the Gestalt psychologists of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany and Austria were primarily concerned with perception and held that perceptions could not be deconstructed in the way that Wundt and Titchener wanted to do with thought, and that behaviorists had sought for with behavior. Their belief could be  succinctly stated as follows: ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ (Gross, 1996, p.3). The whole is essentially destroyed when you break down perception and behavior into parts, the Gestalt psychologists held. There are organizing principles of perceptual organization which were voiced by Gestalt’s founder Max Wertheimer. These principles are frequently highlighted in units on perception in general psychology textbooks and are as follows: the principle of proximity, the principle of similarity, the principle of continuation. All of the organizing principles have in common what is called the law of simplicity or what Gestaltists term Prà ¤gnanz. This refers to the tendency for perceptions to mirror reality as closely as possible (Goodwin, 2009). In the course I gave an example of gestalt thinking, which in reflection I would like to return to as it clearly remains in mind. I used the example of a bus stopping at a bus stop in one’s neighborhood. On a given day the bus stops at the same corner the person is accustomed to, and is recognized to be that bus. The person gets on, but has made a mistake. She did not realize that there was a route change that morning and the bus she took was numbered differently. What gives? Is it only a matter of not paying attention? In Gestalt inspired, top-down conceptually driven processing, we begin with one’s prior knowledge, motivations, expectations and beliefs. In the bus example, the inability to see and decipher or register a different number on the bus and get on it, means it was recognized it to be the customary bus due to top-down processing (Danner, 2009). If one were to notice the different bus number, however, that would entail bottom-up processing, because such processing is data driven. The different number is perceived in terms of information in the sensory input, in conjunction with top-down processing, revealing to the person that it is not the customary bus. Perhaps after realizing her mistake, the person in  the example will be more careful next time, thereby exercising more bottom-up processing. If Austria was home to some of Gestalt’s most prominent members and adherents, it was also home to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freudian psychoanalytic theory was the first to state the significance of innate drives and define abnormal and normal behavior in relationship to the role of the unconscious mind. Its importance is that the theory of personality popularized contextualizing human behavior in terms of the id, ego, and superego, notating development in five psychosexual stages. Each stage was marked by shifts in what Freud believed were the underlying modes of gratification: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital (Glassman, 2000). In reflection, I continue to find merit in Freuds concept of stages for sure. I would still prefer to call them development stages, however, and not necessarily put a sexual meaning on them, as Freud and his supporters have done and continue to do. There is no need to detail the well-known limitations and criticisms of Freudian theory, which according to Glassman (2000) are its falsifiability, the great deal of emphasis put on case studies, and its cultural bias towards women. Regardless of such naysaying, his supporters would passionately argue for and be adamant about such a sexual narrative of the human person, which if not fodder, certainly has entertainment value. In fact, Freudian theory is fascinating to me largely due to the dramatic (almost cinematic) conflicts and challenges that mark each psychosexual stage. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the Oedipal conflict (which occurs in the so-called phallic stage). It was interesting to read that some analysts called the fe male variant, the Electra conflict, but Freud himself did not use the term (see Freud 1924). Perhaps the most attractive modern theory of personality, in my view, would belong to Carl Rogers. In Carl Roger’s theory, a person is the source of his  or her basic needs such as food and water. He or she is also the source of a growth motive which he called an actualizing tendency, which is an innate drive that is reflective of the desire to grow, to develop and to develop one’s capabilities (Glassman, 2000). It is the actualizing tendency that stimulates creativity, causing a person to seek out new challenges and skills that motivate healthy growth in one’s lifetime (Gross, 1996). According to Rogers (1961, but originally proposed in 1947): Whether one calls it a growth tendency, a drive towards self-actualization, or a forward moving direction tendency, it is the mainspring in life†¦ It is the urge which is evident in all organic and human life – to expand, extend, become autonomous, mature and develop. In reflection, I continue to feel that Roger’s influence and continuing popularity in the psychotherapeutic community give his theories merit. APA members have been asked which psychotherapist they believe to me the most influential figure in the field (Smith, 1982). In 2006, this survey repeated in the Psychotherapy Networker. In both surveys, Carl Rogers was the â€Å"landslide† choice. While this does not prove Rogers to be correct, certainly it gives his theory of motivation more credence than not, increasing its believability. Certainly, I feel influenced by Rogers as I move forward in my career. While Rogers theory of an actualizing tendency and the overall nature of the client-centered approach may be controversial due to its allowance to let the client call the shots and as stated by Goodwin (2009) for its overemphasis on the the self at the expense of the importance of the community, in addition to being clearer what it was against than what it was for, it is nevertheless, a credible postulation in terms of its application in therapy and remains my preference over Freud. Accordingly, I continue to feel that all clients  innately wish to be successful in life and to be praised as contributors to their own selfactualization. They wish to expand their knowledge and achieve  higher levels of success beneath all the guises that seem otherwise. When clients are not performing to their fullest potential, praise and support can help ignite the actualizing tendency in a manner that would otherwise have remained dormant. When exploring postmodern views of psychology we have to inherently speak about cultural narratives and meta-narratives. What is psychology today and who defines it? What is psychology’s story, who told that story historically, and who gets to tell it today? When we look at psychology as a practice, historically and today, is important to bring to the fore the ethnocentric monocultural aspects that were oppressive to women and continue to be to minority groups in reinforcing white male Euro-American culture as the normative and desirable culture. Indeed, therapists and helping professionals should try to help deconstruct and unveil monoculturalism whenever it rears its despicable head. When oppressive forms such as heterosexism, ageism, gender and sexism come to the fore in therapy, for example, therapists should not reinforce them but try to encourage reflection on such prejudices with the aim being for the client to indentify for what it is – and to grow accordingly. The field of psychology itself is not immune but remains at risk to the debacle of monoculturalism. According to Yutrzenka, Todd-Bazemore and Caraway (1999) even though the data forecast that by 2050, ethnic minorities will make up over 50% of the US population, this quickly changing demographic has minimal effect on the number of ethnic minority psychologists. This is particularly true for Native Americans, who are far more underrepresented than any other ethnic body. Though the APA as stated by Goodwin (2009), is vigorously addressing this entire issue at present, with such efforts to be praised, still the legacy of ethnocentric monoculturalism is a stain on the profession, and will remain so until  significant numbers of minority psychologists abound. In spite of the barriers confronting them, women and minorities have made many notable, valuable and vital contributions to the field of psychology. During the course I discussed Eleanor Gibson who received the National Medal of Science in 1992 for a lifetime of research on topics dealing with the development of depth perception to the fundamentals involved in reading, faced discrimination while at Yale from psychologist Robert Yerkes who wanted no females in his lab (Goodwin, 2009). While she was able to get her PhD there under the guidance of the neobehaviorist Clark Hull, she unfortunately went on to experience difficulties at Cornell (where her husband had gained a position) forced into an unpaid research associate position in spite of winning competitive and prestigious research grants. As a result of these grants, however, she was able to carry out pioneering studies on depth perception with Richard Walk. When Cornell, home to Titchener’s legacy, removed its nepotism rules in 1966, only then did she become a full professor. Furthermore, as discussed in the course, African-Americans have also made outstanding contributions to psychology. Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark again come to mind in terms of their best known research titled Racial identification and preference in Negro children (Goodwin, 2009). In this research it was shown that black children showed a preference for white dolls over black ones when asked which they would like to play with and looked more like. The Clarks concluded, according to Goodwin (2009) that one insidious effect of racial segregation was its negative influence on African-American self-esteem. As a result of this research, in part, the Supreme Court was compelled to do the right thing and reverse the racist separate but equal doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education. The Clarks’ contribution to psychology and the contributions of other AfricanAmericans preceding them were not without struggle. Their mentor at Howard University, Francis Sumner faced huge obstacles when attempting to get a graduate degree and gain employment in academia. African-Americans have often had their basic intellectual abilities questioned (Goodwin, 2009). The legacy of white racism and of the field of psychology’s complicity by not taking a firmer stand until only recently is without question a significant reason why African-Americans remain heavily underrepresented in the profession, in spite of the gains made for women. 60 percent of doctorates in psychology are awarded to women today, while Native Americans as we discussed and African-Americans continue to be awarded a paltry percentage in turn. Such dismal figures have nothing to do with intelligence. We know that early intelligence tests were normed on just Caucasian, middle-class populations and only recently has such bias been addressed and perhaps abated. This also was the case for the MMPI personality tests as well. In the case of the MMPI, many of the original items became dated and according to Kassin (2008), to bring the test up to the 21st century and more postmodern views, new items were written in, and a more diverse cross-section of the US was sampled. The result of that updating is the newer 567-item version called the MMPI-2. In reflection, my guess is that similar advances have been made or are being considered in IQ testing as well; otherwise we would have to call into question whether biased IQ tests are valid for minority groups. Accordingly, great care should be taken when formulating test questions as well as interpreting the results of test-takers from different cultural groups and urban tribes. Fundamentally, it is crucial that test makers be made aware of cultural differences when putting together IQ test questions, as recommended for the MMPI (Church 2001). Exercising caution does not mean  minority groups are treated with kid gloves, but rather that a lens of understanding is in place and that can come about as a result of the test makers and assessors informing themselves. Otherwise an IQ tests validity for minority groups is at issue. Pre-modern, modern and postmodern frames of reference have all helped shape important, contemporary psychological theories and issues. Accordingly, I have attempted in a reflective manner to revisit the areas of psychology’s history we covered in course. If psychology as a profession is to continue to grow and develop, it will occur through a similar process of reflection, followed by action. It is important for psychology to know its origins, its history and respective story. However, in realization of the depth of ethnocentric monoculturalism, its leadership, particularly in the APA, must act on the call to bring about the inclusion of more minorities. Otherwise, the oppressive stain of monoculturalism shall abound and continue to blemish the profession we hold dear. References Angell, J.R. (1904). Psychology. New York: Holt. Church, A.T. (2001). Personality measurement in cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Personality, 69, 979-1006. Danner, N. (2011). Psychology: ORG5001 survey of psychology I. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions. Freud, S. (1924) A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. New York: Washington Square Press (reprinted 1952). Glassman, W (Ed.). (2000) Approaches to psychology. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Goodwin, C.J. (2009) A history of modern psychology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Gross, R. (Ed.). (1996) Psychology, the study of mind and behavior. London: Hodder Stoughton. Kassin, S., (2008). Psychology in Modules: ORG 5002 Survey of psychology II. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing. Rogers, C.R. (1961) On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Smith, D. (1982) Trends in counseling and psychology. American Psychologist, 37, 802–809. Watson, J.B. (1913) Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 15877. Watson, J.B. Rayneer, R. (1920) Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14. Wozniak,R. (1992) Mind and body: Renà © Descartes to William James. Retrieved from http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%206%20MindBody/DUALISM.htm. Yutrzenka, B.A., Todd-Bazemore, E., Caraway, S.J. (1999). Four winds: The evolution of culturally inclusive clinical psychology training for Native Americans. International Review of Psychiatry, 11, 129- 135. ProQuest: 43479524.

America Must Reduce the Size of Government :: Political Science

â€Å"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.† —Frederic Bastiat Introduction: States exist at the expense of their citizens, who are not aware of the price they pay. Although people tend to view states as indispensable institutions to promote equality, provide security, and protect public goods; they often overlook their sacrifice of liberty and economic well-being due to government interference. Forms of states vary—liberal democratic states, welfare states, communist states etc.—throughout the world; but their artificial nature is the same: states only emerged through the consent of all the citizens. Nevertheless, states do not function by a social contract; instead, the few who are in power usually make decisions for all. In fact, people are frequently misled to justify taxation—believing that states redistribute wealth, thus creating equality through this process. However, redistribution does not necessarily mean transferring wealth from the rich to the poor. Moreover, government interference in the free market usually only hurts the e conomy—despite some economists promoting state actions during economic downturns. Only through advocating grassroots associations, paying attention to future interests, and improving literacy and access to popular literature can people realize their economic and political sacrifices to the state. 1. The Formation of States The concept of â€Å"state† is closely related to social contract thought. The social contract school of thought originated from the classic seventeenth-and-eighteenth-century political theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, who tried to explain the origins of civic community and political authority. Although social contract theorists differ in their conceptions of the state of nature and the political structure under the contract, they all agree on one point: the social obligation must be willingly accepted by individuals. According to the social contract school of thought, the state—the civic community and political authority—is the result of individuals’ voluntary move from their state of nature, in which each man is sovereign and self-sufficient, to a social order, where they submit themselves to a political authority in return for protection and equality. To answer the question of why individuals tend to accept the agreement and obey the state, Thomas Hobbes, the first modern philosopher to articulate a detailed contract theory, believes that states can provide equality by equally treating their citizens.[1]  Interestingly enough, Hobbes’ model of state as an authority overruling all the subjects still applies to our modern society today. What Hobbes overlooked though, as John Locke pointed out, was the reduced liberty of individuals.

Labor Unions in US

Labor Unions must be understood in the context of the economic structures that occurred within the United States and included the agrarian, industrial, and post industrial period (Cohen 27). In the year 1700, there were approximately 220,000 people living in the United States and approximately 95% were farmers (94 Almanac 53). The farmers comprised small communities and at that time there was no need for Unions as we know them today. Some of the earliest Unions were created in the 1700's when the shoemakers in Philadelphia formed a Trade Union for the purpose of regulating the wages that they would pay an apprentice and establish the length of time that apprenticeship would be necessary (Leap 29). In the mid-1700's small cities began to grow along the east coast of the United States. Although the cities began to grow, the society was still agrarian in nature (Cohen 28). As the country entered he industrial revolution, the population began to migrate to the cities (Cohen 28). The industrial revolution experienced a need for coal, oil, and food production, especially the meat packing industry (Cohen 29). The needs centered around the railroads which expanded greatly during the 1850's (Rogers 7). During this period the railroads became dependent upon massive amounts of information and organization to effectively run their operations. It is during this time period that the railroads developed management practices that included formalized accounting procedures and management techniques for supervisors dealing with the many people employed by the railroad (Rogers 7). In addition, the railroads began to establish their own codes, rules and regulations for operating the railroads (Yates 153). In 1910, the population of the United States had grown to 92. 2 million people (Census Bureau 26). Industry was expanding at a rapid rate and the companies that controlled them pushed for greater profits and efficiency. Industries also published their own magazine, such as â€Å"Factory Magazine† that was aimed at reaching a higher level of production (Yates 105). Also include for the first time were magazine articles written to improve the morale of the factory worker in an attempt to humanize the workforce through articles and illustrations (Yates 74). However, these article were also an attempt to educate the work force in the policies and procedures of the company. Many of these companies also had constructed â€Å"company towns† where the factory workers were employed, resided in company owned buildings in which they paid rent, bought food and clothing in company owned stores and also company provided recreation (Leap 32). Many of the factory workers, almost one-third, were uneducated immigrants that could not speak the American language and were frequently taken advantage of economically (Leap 30). The early 1900's also brought mass manufacturing and the interchangeable parts for equipment and machinery to the industries, based on the efforts of Henry Ford (Cohen 28). The United States had become the industrial leader of the world. The industrial giants in the United States gained so much control over their employees that the workers conformed to the organizational culture of that company (Gibson 29). Management theories and social theories during the early 1900's concentrated on managements side and the more effective production methods. In 1911, Frederick Taylor wrote â€Å"The Principles of Scientific Management† that emphasized time and motion studies, breaking large jobs into smaller ones and analyzing repetitive tasks in an attempt to find a more efficient way of doing the job. An employees pay quickly became dependent upon how many pieces could be produced in an hour or a day (French 69). Working conditions in factories were deplorable, with long hours, child labor and numerous industrial accidents that claimed many lives The issues that surrounded the early labor movement were centered around the redistribution of wealth of the companies that employees worked for. The labor movement in the United States began very slowly due to the oppressive actions taken by the large companies against the labor activists, which included firing employees, beatings, and killings. During the late 1860's to the 1930's, government actions supported big business believing that Unions would only interfere with private ownership (Cohen 113). Between 1876 and 1896, there were more injuries and deaths due to strikes in the United States than in any other nation in the world (Cohen 114). Companies hired private guards and security specialists to break up any strikers and protect company property (Cohen 114). Violence often was the result of result of early attempts at organizing labor movements. A riot in Baltimore lasted three days and claimed 13 lives. In Pittsburgh 20 people died as federal troops fired upon rioting workers and fires destroyed millions of dollars of railroad equipment (Leap 32). Violence also was occurring at the coal-mining companies when and secret societies such as the Molly Maguires that would threaten, beat or kill strike breaker at coal mines. Additionally the Molly Maguires, who often concealed their identity by dressing as as women, beat, killed and set fires to the homes of the supervisors and coal-mine superintendents who were not in agreement with the union cause. The Molly Maquires were broken up when the Pinkereton Detective Agency infiltrated the organization and exposed them which resulted in 14 Molly Maguires being tried and hanged (Leap 34). The public viewed much of this violence with an anti-union response, making it more difficult for the employees to unionize (Leap 33). With the population at over 92 million people in 1914, many who were now working in factories, the government began to recognize labor and created the Department of Labor in 1914 (Cohen 115). However, it was not until 1934 and the passage of the Wagner Act did labor really begin to unionize (Cohen 115). In addition, the government created the National Labor Relations Board to oversee union elections (Cohen 115). The Wagner Act allowed for employees to unionize and also allowed for the â€Å"closed shop† that required all employees of that factory or company to belong to the union once the union was voted in by the employees (Cohen 116). The Wagner Act legally permitted unions to organize and provide the much needed benefits for their employees. The goals of the unions during this time were to protect the jobs of their members and fight for increased wages and benefits (Leap 37). The benefits included safer working conditions, health care, sick leave, and vacation time (Leap 37). During these years the American Federation of Labor (AFL) became the largest single federation that began to organize craft unions. In 1938 the industrial unions were dissatisfied with the AFL federation and split off to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which sought to organize more unskilled labor (Leap 46). After World War II, the United States had approximately fifteen million workers that belonged to unions. In 1946, the United States experienced more labor strikes than ever before in history and the labor unions finally had a firm hold on large industrial and manufacturing companies (Leap 47). The Wager Act had provided the unions with a great deal of leverage and some unions quickly became corrupt and had very little accountability within their organization (Leap 48). The Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 which was designed to curb some of the activities of unions and provide for unfair labor laws against the union that would be enforced by the National Labor Relations Board (Leap 48). The Taft-Hartley Act was successful in re-balancing the Wagner Act that gave the unions an unfair advantage of management (Leap 73). The Act also gave the President of the United States the authority to impose an 80-day injunction on any strike that may result in damage to the national economy or national interests (Infoplease 1). The injunctions have been used frequently in the transportation industry, where a strike against the railroads or the shipping industry could effect the distribution of food, clothing, or fuel, that could impact the economic structure of the country (Infoplease 1-2). In addition the Taft-Hartley act prohibited jurisdictional strikes involving two unions attempting to gain control over company employees for the right to represent them in collective bargaining (Infoplease 1-2). The Taft-Hartley Act prohibited the use of coercion by union officials to force employees to join the union, set the guide lines for bargaining in good faith with management, prohibited secondary boycotts that involved unions striking or boycotting products and materials of other companies that management held an interest, and prohibited excessive union dues from its membership. The unions reached their highest membership in 1954 reaching approximately 32% of all non-agricultural workers in America (Cohen 119). The following year the AFL and CIO Federations merged to make one large federation called the AFL-CIO (Cohen 119). What made the Unions so popular up to 1954 and what caused their decline? Early unions attempted to seek higher wages, less working hours, better and safer working conditions (Leap 51). Early unions also recognized the working conditions of the employees were critical to the production effort and experiments like the Hawthorne Experiment proved this to be true. In 1927 a team of Harvard researchers conducted experiments at Western Electric†s Hawthorne Electric Plant near Chicago, Illinois (Stillman 157). The tests were designed to discover the most effective way to motivate workers and these tests began the human relations era in organizational theory and development (Stillman 157). What was discovered after a five year study was that the interaction between the workers themselves and the with their supervisors, had more impact on the production levels than did wages or type of physical plant that they worked in (Stillman 158). Most of what was need by the workers was the social acceptance and feeling of worth among co-workers and bosses (Stillman 158). In every work area the individuals formed themselves into groups that have their own customs, duties, and localities to each other and management (Stillman 167). The attention given to the workers by management created a team effort that produced exceptional results on the assembly lines (Stillman 167). The Hawthorne experiment developed the human relations model of management for dealing with workers that existed from the 1930's to the 1960's, and in some variation still exists today (French 70). Training for interpersonal skills to â€Å"humanize† the workplace Unions continued to initially prosper as they also followed the developments of social researchers as Abraham Maslow, who in 1954 presented his view in human motivation (French 71). What resulted is called â€Å"Maslow†s Theory of Self-Actualization† where Maslow outlines the basic human needs for survival, then the need of safety and security, followed by the need for social acceptance and belonging, to the forth level of self-esteem, and the fifth level of self-actualization or self-fulfillment in doing one†s work (Halloran 104-108). The unions quickly adapted to the needs and desires of its membership and sought for issues such as respect in the workplace, health and safety issues, sexual harassment policies, equal pay for equal work, and generous leave time allowing for recreational activities. The Unions also became a culture within themselves, sponsoring community events for its members such as bazaars, summer picnics, Christmas parties, and scholarships programs for eligible dependent children of its members. The Unions provided community structure and support for its membership when those needs were necessary (Leap 49). The humanist approach to negotiating worked well for the unions in their negotiations with management. The more progressive companies such as IBM provided benefits that could out perform the best of unions and therefore IBM never experienced a serious threat to unionize because the work force needs were met under Maslow†s Theory (Halloran 315). Other large organizations such as the Japanese automobile maker Nissan, has also met the workers needs and therefore has built cars in the United States without the being unionized by the United Auto Workers Union, which is one of the largest and strongest unions remaining in North America (Halloran 315). The decline of labor unions began in the mid-1950's as many of the needs of the workers were being met, either through the company†s individual effort or the passage of federal and state laws that enhanced the workers position in life. Some of the laws passed were the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970 that provides for safe and healthy work environments for employees (Leap 90). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) function is to make sure that the environment is regulated concerning emissions from cars and factories, which directly effects the workers that must work in those factories (Kuennan 4). The Fair Labor Standards Act brought into existence the minimum wage rate, established a 40 hour work week for hourly wage employee wages and also provided overtime at a one-and-one-half the normal hourly rate. The Act defined the number of hours that a child could work each week and restricted the type of employment that a child could engage in (Leap 89). Additional acts such as the Equal Pay Act was aimed at women in the work force as required equal pay for equal work. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act required that an employer treat the pregnancy as a temporary disability and to provide appropriate benefits (Kuennen 5). The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) also covered other disabilities and declared that discrimination against the disabled is illegal. The ADA also required that public buildings and private buildings that are open to the public, be handicap accessible, giving them unrestricted access (Leap 88). Discrimination laws, including sex, age, and disability discrimination, were issues that the unions previously fought to get for their membership are now being provided by federal and state law (Kuennan 5). The decline of the unions can also be attributed to the post-industrial age in the United States. Since the mid-1970's manufacturing has been leaving the United States and relocating in foreign countries where labor costs are much cheaper. Manufacturing such as steel production, clothing and textiles, and ship building have relocated to foreign countries over the past two decades (Cohen 110). The unions lobbied heavily against such trade agreements as the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) that created a free trading zone with the United States, Canada, and Mexico to avoid tariffs (Cohen 119). Many of the industrial jobs that were once in the United States are now in Mexico and even oversees (Cohen 119). While the unions have lost membership in the industrial and manufacturing areas, they have had some success in unionizing government workers (Cohen 120). The unions have targeted teachers, college and university professors, police, fire and other government workers such as the postal workers (Cohen 120). The latest groups to attempt unionization are the nurses, doctors and dentists within the health fields (Guadagnino 1). The public perception of unions was favorable during the mid-60's with approximately 70% of the people showing positive attitudes toward the unions. However, the public has lost a great deal of trust in the unions as corruption and a general feeling of not needing unions has evolved. By 1988 the confidence level or approval rate that was once 70% had dropped to 13% (Cohen 121). The public also blamed the unions for the high inflation in the 1970's and early 1980's in which the public believes that the unions drove up the prices of goods and services by their demands during contract negotiations. The non-union worker however suffered from this inflation while the unions upper level executives were getting paid salaries over $100,000 (Cohen 121). Governments also began to become more conservative in their treatment of unions. An example of this was in the early 1980's when the federal Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) when out on strike and crippled the airline industry. PATCO went on strike to seek better working hours and to force the federal government to hire additional air traffic controllers to help reduce the stress levels of the current air traffic controllers. The Reagan administration took quick action and fired all the air traffic controllers and immediately used military personnel until new employees could be trained (Cohen 122). The population of the United States is over 270 million people as of March of 1999 and only 14% of the work force is unionized. This work force includes government employees of which 44% are union members (Dine 1). The culture of the population has changed dramatically and a great deal of the people are younger, better educated than the classes that were previously sought by unions (Cohen 123). The new class of American society is more professional and white collar in nature that mirrors the service industry that has evolved in the United States (Cohen 124). To add to the union decline was the fact that the corporations that once held the edge over unions, only to loose that edge in the 1940's through the 1960's, have again regained that edge decisively by attending to the public†s needs and social attitudes (Cohen 124). Company†s like McDonald†s have well developed publications departments that donate millions of dollars to charities such as the Ronald McDonald half-way house for the parents of terminally ill children in distant hospitals (Ronald 1-4). Corporations also donate and participate in attempting to keep the environment clean. The corporations realize that reaching the social conscience of the public is good business and worth the investment. In the last two decades the corporations identified with the social issues in America much more than did the unions (Cohen 124). Quality of life issues have become major considerations of this post-industrial class of Americans (Cohen 124). Even though companies have made the worker feel more important and accepted, there is still a need for unions. Companies are doing everything they can to save money. By focusing on the worker, they are making labor less dependant apon unions. They are fighting a war with the unions, and the battleground is the American worker. If the companies win then they are sure to underpay and abuse their employees. It is critical that unions recruit more agressively, or a lot the progresss they have made will be lost.