Voilence In Chicago History essays

Voilence In Chicago History essays During the 1871-1929 time period Chicago was a town in which both criminal and social workers operated. For various reasons both of these groups found a way to operate in the same city. Sometimes because they wanted to co-exist in the same place and sometimes A large amount of Chicagos famous social work dealt with the rising immigrant population. These immigrants came to Chicago from other lands looking for a better life. However, it would be naive to think all of the immigrants were willing to attain power and wealth legally. These immigrants would become both legit and corrupt politicians as well as some of Chicagos most notorious gangsters. Fred Lundin, an immigrant from Sweden, was behind the election of W.H. Thompson as mayor of Chicago. Lundin did not follow the traditional American route to success. He did not scrape and claw his way to the top; important friends pushed him up the ranks. Despite this, Lundin bought himself a seat in the House of Representatives, which led to a scandal. The end result of this scandal was that in 1911 Lundin was kicked out of the House and an Amendment to the Constitution was written calling for the direct election of senators. Crime as well as criminals simply emerged from the immigrant population. Since the immigrant population was loyal to its own kind and never really complained about corruption, social workers did not bother with hard crime such as shakedowns and racketeering. They were more concerned with the moral crime of not helping those who One cannot say because of this corrupt politician and other criminals like Al Capone that all immigrants were corrupt. However, the immigrants were loyal to their own kind. All the groups of immigrants lived in their own community separate from the other immigrants. There were not too many attempts made to bring the people from various lands together either. Jane Addams ...

10 Last-Minute PSAT Cramming Tips

10 Last-Minute PSAT Cramming Tips SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The PSAT is coming up- fast. Test day will be here whether you've been studying or not.For the SAT, I would recommend delaying for a later test date, but that's not really possible with the PSAT. If youhave less than three weeks left, you're going to have to cram. So? How are you best going to preparefor the exam? In this article, I'll guide you through how to prepare quickly, including what to focus on for each section of the test and the best test-day techniques. Cramming for the PSAT: General Guidance There are a few over-arching principles that are crucial to the crammingprocess. Commit to Putting in the Time, but Don't Overstress the Test Time is of the essence,and you'll need tospend a lot of it preparing for the test.Don't give up on your homework, though- grades are hugely important in the bigger picture of college admissions, far moresothan the PSAT. The PSAT is not going to determine your fate. Its primary role is to help you understand where you stand as you start thinking about the SAT.No matter how good or bad your scores, colleges won't see them. The one thing your PSAT score does count for is theNational Merit Scholarship. If this matters to you, you'll probably need to put in more time to reachthe score cutoff for your state. Regardless, don't blow the PSAT's importanceout of proportion - if you do poorly, just make sure you start studying for the SAT earlier! Cramming for the PSAT is hard work. It will not, however, build muscles. Listen to Your Own Needs As you're preparing for the test, make sure to take care of yourself. Rest is beyond important.Practice good sleep hygiene and enact a decently early bedtime starting a good week before the test. Your bodystarts storing sleep not just the night before an event, but the night before that.Plus, if your sleepis usually limited (or simply not great), getting enough sleep can make you experience some extra fatigue, initially- so give your body time to adjust to getting rest. Temper healthy nerves by way of a reality check. As we said above, it's not the be-all, end-all of your life, your schooling, or even your high school career. Keep your confidence, and your calm. Limit stress, fatigue, and pessimism (in other words, the effects of overwork). Monitor your mindset: this is an opportunity to shine, not just a chance to get stomped on. How to Cram for the PSAT You may not havemuch time, but you do have some. Put those last few days or weeksto good use! Cooking, like the taking the PSAT, requires lots of preparation. #1: Take a Practice Test The first thing to do is take a full-length practice test. It's best to take it under test-day conditions if you can, but, if that's not possible, just make sure you get through the thing. If nothing else, this will serve as an opportunity to get thoroughly acquainted with the instructions and what they mean in practice. This will boost your confidence and decrease the time you waste on test day trying to figure out what you're expected to do. This is also a chance to acclimate to the types of questions on the test. Take note of the style and wording of the questions. Especially note that not all questions are technically questions- some include a command term and end in a period. (This is the difference between, "What is the solution?" and "Identify the solution.") See if you can find any patterns. Certain types of questions and formats of possible answers show up disproportionately. Perhaps most importantly, a practice test will show you whichareas need some extra attention. Ideally you should reviewevery section of the test as you prepare, but give documented weaknesses additional care. #2: Drill Official Questions This tip applies to all sections: drill real PSAT questions. There's nothing like practicing with official questions to show you where your potential difficulties lie. Both quality and quantity matter. You want to work as many problems as you can, but you also want to dissect what's going wrong when you make mistakes and work through the same (tricky) problems multiple times to get the hang of those routines. The more you go through the process, the more comfortable that process will become. #3:Read a Lot You don't have a lot of time, but spend your spare minutes immersed in literature. You're going to be doing a lot of reading on both the Reading Test and the Writing and Language Test, so getting comfortable understanding different types of texts is extermely important to excelling on the PSAT. However, not all reading is created equal. Reading for pleasure and entertainment is amazing. Right now, though, our focus is this test. Reading what's uncomfortable and unfamiliar builds new connections in your brain- not to mention that there's just more meat to dissect, anddissecting text is exactly what the test wants from you. The PSAT is going to present some pretty dense text, and you need to be at least somewhat used to looking at non-contemporary, formal, and/or academic literature.Read attentively and read critically, and get in as much as you can. Granted, this would work better if you were starting the process sooner, but even just acclimating to reading unfamiliar texts quickly will be helpful. If you dive right in now, it'll seem less stressfulby test day. This cactus didn't prepare before test day, and now see how overwhelmed he is? #4: Review Basic Grammar For the Writing and Language section, you absolutelymustknow the basic grammar rulescovered on the tests.You can't just follow your ear- there are many common errors that sound completely correct, and thesewill be on the test. Happily, there are relatively few concepts tested on this section, so you can cover the main ones very quickly. Even a few hours of review can make a big difference in your score. #5: Get Comfortable With Your Tools for Math Review the formulas that will be given to you on the test, as well as those you'll need to have memorized. As for the ones in your test booklet, they're no good to you if you barely recognize them; get familiar with them. As for the rest, you'll be on your own on test day when you find you need them. Practice rearranging equations; there's alot of algebra on this test, and mathematical manipulation is one of the primary skills that the test-makerslook at. Finally,ake sure you're comfortable with your calculator. Even if you've been using it in math class, try it out on some of the math problems that you're drilling (you are dirlling, right?). There are a few odd functions that'll come in handy, and you may or may not be familiar with them now. Also make sure your calculator is approved. Don't bring an abacus to the PSAT. PSAT Test-DayTips No matter how much studying you've done (or haven't done), there are a few solid principles that can make test day run much more smoothly. Warm Up the Morning Of Wake up, stretch, do your thing- and then do a bit of a warm-up. Review tricky practice problems that you've persevered in mastering, and try a fresh, new problem or two. Don't go beyond a simple warm-up, though: don't try to cram new material into your head. At best, it won't stick; at worst, it will muddle you up and stress you out. Feeling Panicky? Work It Out Self-talk is huge. How are you treating yourself? Kindly? Gently? Compassionately? Avoid being harsh or judgmental. Instead, affirm your assets: you've prepared, and you're ready. Put your game face on. Visualize the specifics of what's going to happen- and how you're going to handle it all like a champ. Let's try not to end up like this guy- he's not eveninside the test center yet. Answer Every Question There's no guessing penalty, so you can'tlose anything by bubbling in a choice. Do what you know how to do first. Next, eliminate answers where you can. Then, guess away! Guess on everything that's left. Leave nothing blank. To use this technique to your especial advantage, take a moment to read about how to guess strategically. Conclusion It's always best to start any study program with plenty of time before an exam. When that doesn't happen, though, or when it's just not possible, some types of cramming are smarter than other types of cramming. When it comes to the PSAT, taking a practice test and drilling extra practice questions can give enormous benefits. Beyond that, a lot of it is reading and reviewing basic rules. Also, remember: you're going to be working hard, so it's especially important to take intentional care of yourself. What's Next? Learn about the score range associated with the PSAT, so you know what general kinds of numbers you might expect to see when scores come out. Wondering exactly when scoreswill come out? It's a great idea to check out the dates to look for. If you're not sure what agood score might look like, though, take a moment to read about why that's a more complicated question than it seems. Get a sense of what an appropriate goal would be for you, while you're at it. Don't repeat the procrastinate-and-cram cycle for the SAT or ACT; start preparing earlier next time around. Take practice tests, and consider a prep program: PrepScholar has a great, customized program developed by experts, complete with a score-improvement guarantee. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Naming rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Naming rights - Essay Example Different Business enterprises like those concerned with the manufacturing of sports goods, sports wear, watches and soft drinks might be potential sponsors. Sports brands offer a lucrative market as according to sources: ‘Marketing professionals around the world recognize the power of sports brands and content as a consumer draw. As Associate General Manager I would select companies like Nike, Reebok and a firm like Uni Lever as sponsors. These are firms which are promoting products that are environmental friendly and promote health.I would then explain the respective co operates firm the advantages of investing in our project-To build a new stadium. In addition to the core benefits, media exposure, signage, and customer respect there are other benefits as well. In Greene’s opinion naming rights play two important roles: ’First, in supporting larger finance packages with other revenue streams and second, as a single source of finance’. Our Mission statemen t is to boost sport oriented activities. Sports not only encourage healthy bodies but healthy minds as well. The creation of sports man spirit encourages healthy competition. Negative feelings like jealousy and sorrow would be eliminated from society.In order to ensure that the stakeholder brand maintains our image, we shall audit the brand owner’s strategies ...

A literature review of Genetically Modified crops Dissertation

A literature review of Genetically Modified crops - Dissertation Example In 2008, GM crops were planted on almost 9% of the available farming land in different parts of the world (James 2008). According to The World Health Organization or WHO, genetically modi?ed organisms are â€Å"derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism. Currently available GM foods stem mostly from plants, but in the future foods derived from GM microorganisms or GM animals are likely to be introduced on the market. Most existing genetically modified crops have been developed to improve yield, through the introduction of resistance to plant diseases or of increased tolerance of herbicides† (WHO 2013). The technology used for creating GM organisms allows selective genes to be relocated from one organism into another of the same species, and between species that are non-related. Such processes are used for creating genetically modi?ed plants, whic h in turn produce GM food crops. The crop characteristics marked as desired for GM crops and aimed by genetic engineering are from those that are targeted by processes followed during conventional breeding. However, genetic engineering gives scope for direct transfer of genetic codes across different species owing to which characters that were earlier difficult to breed through natural processes, is now created easily under controlled conditions. Currently there are three types of traits clearly distinguished in GM crops. These comprise of the first-generation GM crops displaying vast improvements in agronomic characters, as for example, better resistance to diseases and parasites. Second-generation GM crops tend to show improved quality characteristics, as for example, increased levels of nutrient contents in the resulting food products. Third-generation crops tend to show characters with special productivity aimed at industrial or medicinal purposes (von Braun 2007). The potential benefits of GM crops are diverse. In the current context, that shows decreasing natural resources, it is important to maintain an increase in productivity values within worldwide agriculture for ensuring enough food availability and raw materials for a persistently increasing population (von Braun 2007). Various environmental benefits are also associated with GM crops. Besides these, technologies associated with the new seed technology have played significant role for increasing rural income and alleviating poverty levels in developing countries (Fan et al. 2005). Furthermore, GM crops that have greater nutritional values would help in the improvement of overall consumer health (Unnevehr et al. 2007). Despite these potential benefits, the creation and use of GM crops have raised strong opposition, especially in parts of Europe, while also spreading over to other countries through media messages, trade regulations, and activism by the various antibiotech groups (Paarlberg 2008). The primary issues concern potential health and environmental hazards, while reservations are also expressed on the possible negative social ramifications (Altieri 2001). As for example, many of the activists feel that rampant use of GM technology in the developing nations could result in undermining the traditional agricultural practice that is based on knowledge setups. With rising privatization in the arena of researches related to crop improvement and

Chaotic Curiosity or Curios Chaos

Chaotic Curiosity or Curios Chaos Abhishek Tiwari The word science comes from â€Å"scientia†, Latin word for knowledge. Webster’s dictionary defines science as â€Å"the knowledge covering the general truths of the operations of general laws, especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method and concerned with the physical world†. In a layman’s interpretation science is a systematic way to obtain the knowledge about the mystifying secrets of Mother Nature by few known facts, observations, and few approximate estimations. New theories and laws in science are proposed by using two points- 1) repetition or reproducibility of the data, and 2) computational simulation. But what happens if these fundamental rules are not followed in a system? As they say, exceptions to rules form new rules, these infringing systems fall into the category of â€Å"Chaotic systems†. Chaotic systems are those in which the distant results are practically unknowable. The Theory of Chaos rules this domain of sci ence. Today chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics with several applications in the fields of biology, cosmology, economics, engineering, meteorology, and physics. It talks about deterministic dynamic systems which are not just highly but infinitely sensitive to the initial conditions. Under such circumstances even with a fraction of difference in the initial stages would yield into complete different outcomes every time the process is started hence defying the first basic rule in experimentation. Every technology is built with its own error, limitations and approximation, and therefore computer simulation of such a dynamic system to know about its fate at certain point in space-time would either require a huge amount of initially defined components or a long time calculations which would still differ with the actual outcome. In other words the deterministic nature of such dynamic systems may not help in determining their future. Meteorologist Edward Lorenz was the first pe rson to talk about chaotic systems. He summarized this theory as, â€Å"when the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determines the future†. In 1972 Edward Lorenz wrote a paper titled as â€Å"Predictability: Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?† on the theory of Chaos. Edward Lorenz accidentally came across this topic while doing his work on weather forecast. Using a simple computer of his time, he was running a weather simulation. However due to time constraints he started his work mid way and to his astonishment he got a completely diverted results from the previous output. He concluded that the difference was generated due to the rounding-off of the numbers in the input. The consensus of the difference should practically have no effect on the immediate prediction but in a long run produced a significant difference. The word chaos is generally taken as complete disarray is a misnomer for this theory. The chaotic systems are not cluttered but are disciplined to an extent. Like we know for sure that the moon would not collide with earth in few weeks but the prediction remains uncertain for a longer time period. Similarly weather forecasts are known most accurately about a week before. Therefore chaotic systems are predictable for a while but later on with time it becomes random. The effectiveness of our prediction can be determined by following factors:- The extent of randomness acceptable The accuracy in defining the present state of the system The relative time scale (called Lyapunov time). In the hunt for defining the accurate state of the system the information increases tremendously and the uncertainty in the forecast increases exponentially over the time, thereby rendering distant forecasts meaningless. The state of the system is defined by a set number of points which tends to be accurate in describing it, but each one of it having a different fate over long duration. Thus, for a reason, chaotic systems are practically not possible in Euclidian Geometry. In 1982, Benoit Mandelbrot Published â€Å"The Fractal Geometry of Nature † in which he argues that a twine ball when observed from a far distance looks like a point, from fair distance like a ball and from close like a curved strand. He argued that the appearance of an object is dependent upon the observer and they can be fractional. The book became one of the classics for the â€Å"chaologists† as some of them called themselves. A double rod pendulum is the easiest example of a chaotic system. It f ollows the general rule and also oscillates almost in the same pattern as the pendulum but with time there arises difference of fractals which causes a large deviation. The slight initial conditions causes complete different trajectory. The Theory of chaos very soon became a law governing many interdisciplinary subjects. The field of biology has great implications as the understanding of the nervous system, and the circulatory system, are proved to fit a fractal model. Biological evolution, eye tracking disorder in schizophrenics can also be explained in mathematical form using the chaos model. The natural phenomena like earthquakes, its intensities and its distribution became easier to explain with the model of fractals. More researches can be done on such knowledge to explore the darkest realms of reality. Another such phenomena which is not completely explored by the present knowledge of science due to some limits is the Theory of Black Hole. Elbert Einstein proposed the existence of such phenomena years before astronomers actually spotted one. According to Einstein one of the fate of a giant size star is that when its nuclear fuel exhausts the force of gravity starts pulling in the mass around it. The star becomes as tiny as possible and the star becomes highly dense. When the size of the star reduces the gravitational pull increases square times and when the size decreases to such an extent that to escape from the field of gravitational influence one would need to attain the speed of light; a black hole is born. The radius at such stage is called as the event horizon. The point when black hole is formed, scientist believes that at the centre the space-time phenomenon is destroyed. It is also called the ideal black body, as it reflects no light. The idea of such a massive body from which no matter can escape was put forth by John Michell in 1783. Earlier in times, such massive objects were not seen of any importance or rather a fancy sci-fi stuffs because scientists failed to understand how gravity would affect a mass-less wave such as light. All the black holes have mass, some have angular momentum and also electric charge. Black holes are classified on the basis of their masses and independent of the other two properties. They are, namely, supermassive black holes (~400A.U), intermediate mass black hole (~1000km), stellar black hole (~30km), and micro black hole (~0.1mm). The size of the black hole is determined by the radius of the event horizon. A particle can move randomly in space when it is away from the black hole. As the particle nears the black hole more paths lead it towards event horizon and less paths away from it. Once inside event horizon the particle has only one path and that is towards the centre where the mass is concentrated. It is then no longer possible for that particle to escape. Event horizon gets its name because any event occurring inside that boundary cannot reach outside observer by any means thus making one impaired to notice if such event took place. Another phenomena that takes place to an object nearing the black hole is that the time slows down. To an observer falling into the black hole the clock ticks normally but to a distant observer the time difference is significant. This phenomena is called Gravitational time dilation and was first proposed by Elbert Einstein in his theory of Relativity. Consequently experiments were carried out and it was found that atomic clocks placed at different altitudes that caused them to experience different gravitational pull differed in nanoseconds. The difference in the time between a clock on the surface of the earth and the satellite revolving around it is significantly different making it compulsion to correct the global positioni ng system’s clock after equal intervals. The Gravitational Time dilation was wonderfully showed in the 2014 Hollywood blockbuster Interstellar. With the clock slowing down from a free falling object into the black hole the light emitted or reflected by this object changes to red. This is known as the gravitational red shift or Einstein’s shift. This primarily happens because the frequency of the light wave is slowed down by the gravitational pull of the black hole changing the color to red. Red shift is denoted by dimensionless variable (z). , Where, ÃŽ »o stands for wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation recorded by the observer, ÃŽ »e stands for the wavelength of the radiation at the source of emission. Thus red shift can be defined as the fractional change in the wavelength of the emitted radiation. There is a corresponding phenomenon to red shift known as blue shift and it occurs when some object is pulled towards a stronger gravitational pull from an area of weak gravity. However the observer free falling into the black hole does not realize these changes. Basically this means that the observer does not realize when he entered the event horizon. As per one theory when the person reaches the point of singularity i.e. the centre of the black hole where the space-time graph extends to infinity, they are crushed to infinite density and its mass is added to the mass of the black hole. Just before reaching the point of singularity the object is torn apart by the tidal forces which is often called as â€Å"spaghettification†. However this can be avoided in a charged black hole or reissner-nordstrom black hole. It is hypothetically said that the black hole takes the object to another space-time by acting as a wormhole. Since no information can be transmitted out of the event ho rizon, knowing exactly of what takes place inside is impossible and hence the mystery is still unsolved The gas falling into a gravitational well will form a disc like structure due to the conservation of angular momentum. Friction caused within this formation should heat up the gases and they would start radiating x-rays. This is known to happen around neutron stars and white dwarfs. It is called accretion of mass. It is the most efficient way of producing large amounts of energy still known about 40% as compared to nuclear fusion generating 0.7% of mass as energy. It is now accepted that the centre of every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole. The evidence of this can be the motion of stars around the centre of any galaxy. Astronomers are studying a region call Sagittarius A from the year 1995. They found that there is about 4.3 million solar mass contained in a radius of less than 0.002 light years. This mass-distance ratio is 3000 times more than the mass-distance ratio of event horizon. It is therefore conclusive that the centre homes a supermassive black hole and nothing el se like a star cluster. Stephen Hawking, in 1974, proposed that the black holes might release some radiation. These radiations are hypothetical and are called Hawking radiations. It is suggested that if black holes emit radiations they may shrink. To this, Hawking suggested that the microwave radiation entering the black hole has far more energy in comparison to the energy emitted. In 1970’s he proposed that the total area of a black hole can never decrease even if two of them collide and merge. This became the second law of black hole mechanics and has striking similarity to second law of thermodynamics which states that the entropy of universe continues to increase. As per the old thinking it was considered that the black holes having absolute zero temperature had zero entropy. If this was the case then the second law of thermodynamics would be violated and the entropy of the universe would decrease. Therefore, Bekenstein along with Hawking formulated the entropy of a black hole as follows:- Where, Entropy = S; speed of light = c; Area of black hole = A ; Newton’s constant = G; Boltzmann constant = k; and reduced Plank constant = H. One striking thing to be noticed in the equation is that the entropy is related to the area of the black hole and not its volume which is rather the case in normal entropy calculation. With many such theories put forth by the great minds the human knowledge has greatly increased. Not just that the knowledge but also the interpretation of the universe around us has greatly changed. From discovering the way to measure time to discussing about its deviation with gravity and from the time when we placed earth in the centre of universe till proving the big bang theory not just the technology has evolved but also the way of living life on the planet and knowing how greatly we affect the surroundings has been brought to daily prospects. Can this evolution or the progress of human mind be infinite? Will someday religion be taken over by pure and fundamental science? Will human evolve as the creator and destroyer of the universe? What will happen then? Among these few questions are unknown and few are unknowable which will be revealed in the course of time. But one thing is assured that the curiosity in the human brain will keep driving it to discover the perplexity of the world around him. This will eventually help science to progress in every possible dimension. The counter side to the above promises is far bigger, which justifies the fact that humans have to face limitations, some created by their own laws and some by the nature. Everything that humans make has its own errors, and it is well known that nature does not work on approximations. The point where humans cannot visualize and the power to understand gives up is the region where religion rules. May be one day science will enable mankind to have super powers or may be one day humans will succumb to the super powers of the Mother Nature.

Psychological Inquiry Essay

Discuss the role of the researcher in psychological inquiry, referring to at least two of Heuristic and hermeneutics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The role of the researcher in psychological inquiry has traditionally focused on the manner and means of developing valid and reliable general knowledge about the human realm.   The researcher is concerned with working out a step-by-step method that, if he will follow properly, would assure the correctness of his findings.   The researcher should include using a statistical analysis method that infers the general characteristics of a population by examining only a limited number of its members.   Then, implicit in this kind of psychological inquiry is that the researcher should apply its generalized knowledge in particular situations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In addition, the researcher should produce valid and reliable general knowledge.   The logic of practice inquiry assumed in this move is that the psychological inquiry consists of determining which set of therapeutic techniques work with the kind of client being treated.   As well be developed, the researcher should based not on a general to specific logic, but on a contextualized dialogic between a particular researcher and a particular client.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the main, psychology has held that psychological inquiry should consist of applying the knowledge that is generated by research inquiries. Psychological research, following models of research developed for the physical and biological sciences, aims at discovering the consistent and regular relations that hold across human behaviors, thoughts and feelings. It produces generalized knowledge claims in a logical form: ‘If a person is a member of a category (e.g. phobic), then he/she will likely respond in a specific manner to an environmental event (e.g. cognitive restructuring).’ This understanding of the researchers` role simply involves determining the category of which the client is an instance (diagnosis) and then utilizing those research-established techniques that have been found to produce the desired outcome for this kind of client.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This traditional role of researcher – the application of research-developed general knowledge to specific situations- misdescribes the way researchers actually work with the research. Researchers work in particular situations with a particular study.   Practice inquiry role of the researcher, is for the most part, carried out without conscious deliberation about what should be done. The researcher should have the role of an ongoing conversation.   When researchers` non-deliberative   activities appear not to advance the study toward their goals, researchers engage in practical problem-solving.   Researchers` performances are informed by their practical knowledge rather than by research-generated generalized knowledge.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Researchers consistently report (e.g. Marten & Heimberg, 1995; Stiles, 1992) that they rarely look to generalized research findings in determining what they do with the inquiry.   Instead, their actions draw on their own experiences, their discussions with other researchers, and clinically based literature.   The gap between the traditional model of application and psychological practice has been problematic, if not embarrassing, for the discipline.   The discipline’s call that researchers limit their therapeutic actions to empirically validated sets of techniques (Nathan & Goran, 1998) continues the traditional model of application.   An alternate direction for psychology is inquiry that actually researchers` activity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Two basic philosophical responses, the heuristics and hermeneutics, were proposed to the notion that there can be no certain knowledge. French postmodernists such as Deleuze and Gutari (1987) and Foucault (1979) are heuristics.   They counseled that people resist the constriction of possibilities that inheres in the belief in certain knowledge.   The awareness that knowledge is uncertain provides a release form the restraining power of culturally imposed norms clothed as necessary, natural or universal knowledge (Bernstein, 1992).   The end of epistemology makes it possible for people to destabilize and subvert culturally dominant forces and thereby gain power over their own self-formation.   The concern of the heuristics was a prescription of how to live in a world without certainties (McGowan, 1991). The hermeneutics involved a shift from instruction about how to live without certainty. That is, how     people practically deal with the world and others to accomplish everyday tasks and achieve their goals, even though their knowledge is not certain.   Because of the postmodern rejection of the notion that true knowledge can be methodologically generated, the study of researcher inquiry becomes essential.   If the research inquiry does not produce trustworthy knowledge, the notion that practice should consist of application of this knowledge to a particular situations is undercut.   The philosophical study of how people inquire about what to do focuses on the everyday activities in which people are engaged and not specifically on inquiry in psychological practice.   The two most important philosophers to study people’s everyday inquiry are Heidegger and Gadamer. Heidegger’s Being and Time (1962) was pivotal in bringing Continental philosophy’s attention to everyday inquiry.   Gadamer, who was a student of Heidegger, extended Heidegger’s position to include the study of how everyday understanding takes place.   I am particularly interested in what Gadamer`s hermeneutics to understanding how psychological researchers determine what to say and do. Gadamer mistrusted experimental science, as he understood it.   Weinsheimer (1985) points out that Gadamer`s view of science is of the pre-1960s variety, and that ‘some of his characterizations of the methods of natural science are now no longer tenable’ (p. 20).   Gadamer`s heritage was the continental hermeneutic tradition that reached back to Schleiermacher.     Ã‚  Gadamer advanced from a hermeneutic of text interpretation to a philosophical hermeneutics, that is, a general theory of how people understand and how this understanding informs action. Demonstrate your knowledge of Freud, Jung, Hillman and the philosophical commitments of depth psychology. The term depth psychology is the container for a number of psychologies that concern themselves with the unconscious. Though its existence was known and utilized by mesmerists and hypnotists (Meissner, 2000), the unconscious gained its first scientific foothold in modern times with Freud. However, the psyche recovered its greater depths in Jungian psychology and Hillman’s (1975) archetypal psychology, In all, the rational, intentional human mind, waking consciousness, or gift of reason, is only one player in a much larger field of consciousness. These depth psychologists believe that the ego consciousness, our daytime â€Å"I,† is not the master of the psychological house. They feel this was proven early on by the word association tests (Jung, 1910, 1970), where the individual, after an initial ease with associating words with given prompts, would begin to take extra long for some responses, draw blanks, give answers that rhymed. The unexpected or what went wrong, when taken together would often exhibit a thematic quality, be connected to returning emotions, memories, repressed instincts, which came to be known as the complexes. The word association tests demonstrated that in spite of our intentions, something other, not known to the daytime â€Å"I,† could interfere and participate in our behavior. Over the years, the metaphoric characters and the inner dramas of the complexes led psychologists to call their approach to the psyche a â€Å"poetic basis of mind† (Hillman, 1975, p. xi). Since the appearance of Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams in 1900, the existence of the unconscious has held as a psychological fact. The exact nature of what is in the unconscious is what distinguishes the different depths of the depth psychologies. For Freud, the unconscious contained various forms of instinct and memory in the form of complexes, a personal unconscious that had emotional and somatic/physical attributes. For Jung (1959), that personal unconscious rested upon an even deeper layer, the collective unconscious or the objective psyche, which was far more ancient than an individual lifetime and contained the primordial images, the archetypes. The archetypes featured not only emotional and somatic attributes, but also spiritual and worldly attributes that appeared in vision, dream and synchronicity. Synchronicity is Jung’s word for the meaningful coincidences that are part and parcel of deep psychological experience. For Jung, the objective psyche also contained a guiding, organizing center, the Self, very much like the Hindu Parusha, the God Within. Hillman (1975) wished to keep psychology free from the dogmatism of Jung’s Self. He said that our psychological depths do contain archetypes, but they are best served by an understanding that respects their full autonomy. In other words, for Hillman, the depths are polycentric and if there is a Self, we honor it best by not dictating how it should behave. Hillman pushes archetypal theory to its fullest stature. For him, an archetype and a God, in the classic (e.g., Grecian or polytheistic) sense of the word, are the same. Additionally, he prefers the word soul to the words personal or collective unconscious. Hillman amplified the term â€Å"soul† by using these related words: â€Å"mind, spirit, heart, life, warmth, humanness, personality, individuality, intentionality, essence, innermost purpose, emotion, quality, virtue, morality, sin, wisdom, death, God† (Hillman, 1964, p. 44). Jungian idea of the collective unconscious as the â€Å"most serviceable in the creation of an ecopsychology† (p. 302). Today we call this theory Gala. Earth itself is a living being and through our becoming conscious, she becomes conscious: â€Å"the collective unconscious, at its deepest level, shelters the compacted ecological intelligence of our species, the source from which culture finally unfolds as the self-conscious reflection of nature’s own steadily emergent mindlikeness† (p. 301). Evaluate heuristic and hermeneutics. The heuristic psychology was based on a quite simple idea. The theory was designed to explain the prevalence of cognitive biases in reasoning tasks and the puzzling fact that logical competence demonstrated on one task often failed to be exhibited on another (Evans, 1989). The heuristicanalytic theory proposed that two kinds of cognitive process were involved: heuristic processes, which generated selective representations of problem content, and analytic processes, which derived inferences or judgments from these representations. Biases were accounted for by the proposal that logically relevant information might be omitted or logically irrelevant information included at the heuristic stage. Since analytic reasoning could be applied only to these heuristically formed representations, biases could result. In the revised theory, the heuristic-analytic terminology is retained, with an attempt to define more precisely the nature of the interaction between the two processes and to assist in the generation of experimental predictions about particular reasoning tasks. At the same time, assumptions about dual systems are kept to a minimum. The present account draws heavily on the theory of hypothetical thinking put forward by Evans, Over, and Handley (2003) in an attempt to gain greater understanding of how the analytic (or explicit) system works and how it interacts with the heuristic (or implicit) system. Evans, Over, and Handley (2003) were attempting to advance in more specific terms the idea proposed by Evans and Over (1996) that the analytic system is involved whenever hypothetical thought is required. Hypothetical thinking involves the imagination of possibilities that go beyond the representation of factual knowledge about the world. Examples include hypothesis testing, forecasting, consequential decision making, and (on certain assumptions) deductive reasoning. The relevance principle concerns the generation of mental models and hypotheses by the heuristic system. It refers to the powerful tendency to contextualize all problems with reference to prior knowledge elicited by contextual cues and the current goals that are being pursued. This has been described as the fundamental computational bias by Stanovich (1999), although the term bias should certainly not be taken here in a pejorative sense. Given the notorious frame problem of artificial intelligence, we might describe the fundamental computational bias in computers as the failure to contextualize problems. What Stanovich (1999) is getting at is the fact that we need, in a modern technological society, to be capable also of abstract, decontextualized reasoning, which he believes the analytic system can achieve. Note that the relevance principle contrasts with the principle of truth in the mental model theory (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 2002), in which it is proposed that people represent only true possibilities. By default, I assume that people represent what is believable or plausible (true is too strong a term) but also that this default can be altered according to context. Our attention can easily be focused on hypotheses that are improbable (buying health insurance to cover emergencies on a particular vacation) or most improbable (thinking about the consequences of life being discovered on Mars). The heuristic-analytic theory does not offer an original or profound solution to the problem of how relevant knowledge is delivered by the heuristic system. However, in our proposals about mental representations, we have drawn on the notion that implicatures may be added to our mental models (Evans & Over, 2004). The discipline called hermeneutics has been thriving for more than 300 years. Hermeneutics has played an increasingly influential role in what PoIkinghorne (1983) calls the â€Å"long debate† in modern times over the proper mode of inquiry in the human sciences. Should they emulate the methods of the natural sciences or develop their own distinctive approach? Are human beings different in kind from objects in the natural world: Are they requiring such a different approach? Hermeneutics as a self-conscious procedure arose in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, concerned mainly with the interpretation of the bible and classic texts. Even though these works were consulted for important insights or truths concerning human life, reflective interpretation was often felt to be required because, as the modern world dawned, they seemed to be products of quite different and somewhat alien cultures of the past. Also, the Reformation had, in many quarters, undermined the Church’s exclusive authority to interohmpret the Bible. Friedrich Schliermacher (1768-1834) broadened the scope of hermeneutics and clarified the role of the famous â€Å"hermeneutic circle,† according to which our understanding of any part of a text, work of art, or individual life is shaped by our initial or assumed understanding of the whole of it, at the same time that our understanding of that whole is continually revised by our encounter with and modified understanding of its parts. Some hermeneutic philosophers (Heidegger, 1962; Gadamer, 1989; Guignon, 1983; Taylor, 1989), sometimes termed ontological hermeneutics, might contribute to a more plausible picture of the world and the place of humans in it that would be open to religious claims and meanings. Also, I will suggest a few key ways in which such an ontology calls for a revised understanding of the aims and methods of the social sciences, including psychology. Finally, I suggest that a hermeneutic perspective gives us insights into what might be the most fruitful kind of interaction between psychology and religion. Some view them as essentially in conflict, of course, while others avoid such conflict by sealing them off from another in separate spheres. Neither approach is very helpful, obviously, to religiously inclined psychologists who want to draw in their work on possibly valid ideas from each realm. At this point, the alternative of seeking an intellectually and spiritually sound â€Å"integration† of religion and psychology beckons. From a hermeneutic standpoint, much of the spirit of this approach seems right on target, but still the idea or theory of integrating these fields seems flawed in important ways that call for rethinking the nature of their interchange. Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) expanded Schliermacher’s ideas into a general theory of interpretation for the human sciences. A strictly naturalistic view of inquiry in the human sciences began to harden with the publication of John Stuart Mill’s influential System of Logic in 1843, which presented a philosophical and logical foundation for empiricism and advocated the use of natural science methods in the study of human phenomenon as the only cure for what Mill thought of as the â€Å"backward state of the moral sciences.† However, Dilthey argued forcefully that we simply do not understand our objects in the â€Å"human studies† or â€Å"human sciences† (Geisteswissenschaften) by subsuming them under general laws. â€Å"We explain nature; man we must understand† (Dilthey, 195.8, p. 144). Rather, in these disciplines we need â€Å"to forge new models for the interpretation of human phenomena †¦ derived from the character of lived experience itself †¦ to be based on categories of ‘meaning’ instead of ‘power,’ history instead of mathematics† (Palmer, 1969, p. 103).1 In these fields, according to Dilthey, we immediately grasp the meaning or import of a work of art or historical event in terms of categories of significance, purpose, or value, through a combined exercise of all our powers of cognitive reflection, empathy, and moral imagination. At the start of the twentieth century, a major transformation in hermeneutic thought took place, reflecting the growing awareness that devising rules for interpreting humans is impossible and that the whole fascination with method is a byproduct of the very scientism being called in question. The result was a shift from seeing hermeneutics as primarily epistemological or methodological, where the aim is developing an art or technique of interpretation, to today’s ontological hermeneutics, which aims to clarify the being of the entities that interpret and understand, namely, ourselves (Richardson, Powers, & Guignon, 1999). An essential part of this transformation involves becoming clear that the aspiration to pristine, a historical standards for understanding, or truly an Archimedean point for discriminating knowledge from illusion and error, is not only unattainable but reflects, in part, questionable and, in a moral or spiritual sense, somewhat inauthentic motives or goals for humans. I hope to suggest some possible reasons for this claim and provide glimpses of an ontological hermeneutic alternative to scientism, dogmatism, and relativism in the remainder of this article, in line with the effort by some leading thinkers and theologians today to â€Å"steer a course between Enlightenment foundationalism and postmodern relativism† (Browning, 2004). References Aziz, R. ( 1990). C. G. Jung’s psvchalogv of religion and syn-chronicity. Albany: SUNY. Coppin, J.(2005)The art of inquiry a depth psychological perspective. Evans. J. ST. B. T., & OVER, D. E. (1996). Rationality and reasoning. Hove, U.K.: Psychology Press. Evans, J. ST. B. T., & OVER, D. E. (1989). Explicit representations in hypothetical thinking. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 22, 763-764. Evans, J. ST. B. T., OVER, D. E., & HANDLEY, S. J. (2003). A theory of hypothetical thinking. In D. Hardman & L. Maachi (Eds.), Thinking: Psychological perspectives on reasoning, judgement and decision making (pp. 3-22). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley. Frankel. R. (1998). The adolescent psyche: Jungian ami Winnicottian perspectives. New York: Roulledge. Freud. S. (1900/1965). The interpretation of dreams: trans. James Strachey. New York: Avon Books. Gadamer, H. G. (1975). Truth and method. (J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans.) (Rev. ed.). New York: Continuum. (Original work published 1960) Goertzel. V., & Goertzel, M. G. (1962). Cradles of eminence. Boston: Little, Brown. Hawke, C. (2000). Jung and the postmodern: The interpretation of realities. London: Routledge. Heidegger, M. (1990). Nietzsche (Vois 3 & 4). New York: Harpe rCollins.Hillman, J. (1964). Suicide and the soul. New York: Harper & Row. Hillman, J. (1975). Re-visioning psychology. New York: Harper Colophon Books. Hillman, J. (1983). The bad mother: An archetypal approach. Spring, I, 165-181. Hillman, J. (1996). The soul’s code: In search of character and calling. New York: Random House. Hillman, J. (1999). The force of character and the lasting life. New York: Random House. Jung, C. G. (1910). The association method. American Journal of Psychology, 31, 219- 269. Jung, C. G. (1959). Symbols of transformation. Collected Works (Vol. 5). Princeton, NJ: Bollingen Foundation. Jung, C. G. (1965). Memories, dreams, reflections. New York: Vintage.Jung, C. G. (1970) Collected Works. 18 vols. Princeton, NJ: Bollingen Foundation. Moustakas, C. (1990)Heuristic research design, methodology and applications. Newberry Park,CA: Sage Publications Stanovich, K. E. ( 1999). Who is Rational? Studies of Individual Differences in Reasoning. Mahway, NJ: Erlbaum.   

What Is Kurtosis in Statistics

Distributions of data and probability distributions are not all the same shape. Some are asymmetric and skewed to the left or to the right. Other distributions are bimodal and have two peaks. Another feature to consider when talking about a distribution is the shape of the tails of the distribution on the far left and the far right. Kurtosis is the measure of the thickness or heaviness of the tails of a distribution. The kurtosis of a distribution is in one of three categories of classification: MesokurticLeptokurticPlatykurtic We will consider each of these classifications in turn. Our examination of these categories will not be as precise as we could be if we used the technical mathematical definition of kurtosis. Mesokurtic Kurtosis is typically measured with respect to the normal distribution. A distribution that has tails shaped in roughly the same way as any normal distribution, not just the standard normal distribution, is said to be mesokurtic. The kurtosis of a mesokurtic distribution is neither high nor low, rather it is considered to be a baseline for the two other classifications. Besides normal distributions, binomial distributions for which p is close to 1/2 are considered to be mesokurtic. Leptokurtic A leptokurtic distribution is one that has kurtosis greater than a mesokurtic distribution. Leptokurtic distributions are sometimes identified by peaks that are thin and tall. The tails of these distributions, to both the right and the left, are thick and heavy. Leptokurtic distributions are named by the prefix lepto meaning skinny. There are many examples of leptokurtic distributions. One of the most well known leptokurtic distributions is Students t distribution. Platykurtic The third classification for kurtosis is platykurtic. Platykurtic distributions are those that have slender tails. Many times they possess a peak lower than a mesokurtic distribution. The name of these types of distributions come from the meaning of the prefix platy meaning broad. All uniform distributions are platykurtic. In addition to this, the discrete probability distribution from a single flip of a coin is platykurtic. Calculation of Kurtosis These classifications of kurtosis are still somewhat subjective and qualitative. While we might be able to see that a distribution has thicker tails than a normal distribution, what if we don’t have the graph of a normal distribution to compare with? What if we want to say that one distribution is more leptokurtic than another? To answer these kinds of questions we need not just a qualitative description of kurtosis, but a quantitative measure. The formula used is ÃŽ ¼4/ÏÆ'4 where ÃŽ ¼4 is Pearson’s fourth moment about the mean and sigma is the standard deviation. Excess Kurtosis Now that we have a way to calculate kurtosis, we can compare the values obtained rather than shapes. The normal distribution is found to have a kurtosis of three. This now becomes our basis for mesokurtic distributions. A distribution with kurtosis greater than three is leptokurtic and a distribution with kurtosis less than three is platykurtic. Since we treat a mesokurtic distribution as a baseline for our other distributions, we can subtract three from our standard calculation for kurtosis. The formula ÃŽ ¼4/ÏÆ'4 - 3 is the formula for excess kurtosis. We could then classify a distribution from its excess kurtosis: Mesokurtic distributions have excess kurtosis of zero.Platykurtic distributions have negative excess kurtosis.Leptokurtic distributions have positive excess kurtosis. A Note on the Name The word kurtosis seems odd on the first or second reading. It actually makes sense, but we need to know Greek to recognize this. Kurtosis is derived from a transliteration of the Greek word kurtos. This Greek word has the meaning arched or bulging, making it an apt description of the concept known as kurtosis.