The Extended Mind

Clark and Chalmers argued that â€Å"beliefs can be partly constituted by features of the environment, when those features play the right role in driving cognitive processes† (Clark Chalmers, p.12). This argument is important in the world of cognitive science because for many centuries scientists were trying to understand how the mind works.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Extended Mind specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The mind is capable of a range of activities that can be described as both simple and complex. For simple processes scientists are able to provide an equally simple explanation which is linked to human adaptation. But when it comes to certain human behavior specially those generated from beliefs there are no clear answers. It is therefore important to acknowledge the contribution made by Clark and Chalmers in the attempt to know more about the cognitive process. Before going any further it is imperative to highlight the necessity of beliefs with regards to human behavior. Without beliefs as foundation of behavior nothing can be accomplished. Consider for instance the example wherein a man calls a woman and asks her to go on a date. The man said that he regrets to inform her that he cannot pick her up and instead requires her to take a taxi and bring herself to a particular five-star restaurant located in the downtown area. The first thing that the woman does is not initiate a complicated mental process but to simply access her beliefs. She could either believe that she knows where the place is or she believes that she does not know where it is and therefore requires the assistance of a phone book in order for her to inquire where the said restaurant is located. Clark and Chalmer’s argument can only be verified if there is indeed a preliminary step that occurs before complex brain functions commences.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's se e if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Thus, it is important to agree on this part that before the brain leaps to action it first access the person’s beliefs regarding a particular stimulus or challenge. In this case the problem is the need to move from point A to point B – the woman has to navigate her way from her house to the restaurant. In developing their argument Clark and Chalmers illustrated a similar problem. A girl tried to find a museum by determining first her beliefs regarding her knowledge about the exact address and location of the museum. It is only after being certain of this belief that the girl accessed her memory to figure out that the museum is located in a certain place with a certain street sign. A boy on the other hand does cannot access him memory because of a certain disease but he believes that the address of the museum was written down in a notebook that he carries with him wherever he goes. The next thin g that he did is to consult the notebook and by doing so he was able to determine the exact location of the museum. In the two illustrations mentioned above there is a link between the brain and the physical environment. But it must be clarified that the brain is not utterly dependent on the physical environment in order to perform all of its functions. Nevertheless, it was also made clear that the brain can indeed utilise certain aspects of the environment to solve a problem or to perform a certain action. This argument makes sense because the mind and the body cannot exist apart from a physical world. Furthermore, the problems and challenges that human beings have to deal with on a daily basis are part of the physical world. For instance, a woman’s desire to meet up with someone has to do with time and location. These are features of the environment. Time, distance, and direction are inputs needed by the brain to provide a specific solution. But Clark and Chalmer’s a rgument goes beyond the brain’s capability to utilise resources because it has more to do with the mind’s ability to extend itself outside of the human body. Role of the Environment The beliefs of a human being with regards to solving a problem can be partly constituted by what can be seen and sensed in the physical world. In other words the mind can be extended on certain features of the environment and utilises these objects and materials into tools that helps the person access particular information or generate a solution to a problem.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Extended Mind specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, not everything can be used and the mind cannot be extended to any object. The criteria to include nonbiological candidates for inclusion into an individual’s cognitive system are listed below (Menary, p.46): That the resource be reliably available and typically invo ked. That any information thus retrieved be more or less automatically endorsed. It should not usually be subject to critical scrutiny. It should be deemed about as trustworthy as something retrieved clearly from biological memory. That information contained in the resource should be easily accessible as and when required. The mind can be extended only on objects that can help the mind access a set of data without having to expend a great deal of resources in doing so. It must be achieved flawlessly in the same way that the brain can access biological memory. This brings to the conclusion that what makes humans so much more cognitively capable is not merely the improved structure of their brains but their amazing capacities to create and maintain a variety of special external structures (symbolic and social-institutional) by which Clark means language and culture (Logan, p.223). In the illustration provided the boy utilised a notebook but in other settings human utilise symbols bui lt into language and culture. Clark clarifies by stating that: Mind cannot usefully be extended willy-nilly into the world. The notebook is always there – it is not locked in the garage, or rarely consulted. The information it contains is easy to access and use. The information is automatically endorsed – not subject to critical scrutiny, unlike the musings of a companion on a bus. Finally, the information was originally gathered and endorsed by the current user (unlike the entries in the encyclopaedia† (Marraffa, Caro, Ferretti, p.217). It can therefore be argued that the mind selects certain features of the environment and locks into it to develop a system of retrieval of information and interpretation of meaning. This is nothing new. For many decades researchers were able to prove that language and culture are symbols that the human mind can access to determine meaning and conformity to a particular set of rules and expectations (Denton, p.17).Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Extended Mind The theory of the extended mind is plausible because of the fact that human beings live within a physical environment. Human life is impossible it is detached from a physical world. Thus, the interconnection and the overlap are very difficult to separate. It is like a fish living in the ocean. Only someone who lives outside that system can perceive that water and fish are different entities but the fish has no idea that there is a world beyond that realm. Human beings are more intelligent than fishes. Humans can easily make the distinction that there is an atmosphere and that there are different types of elements and chemicals present in this world. But humans cannot envision a world outside the physical reality. In other words humans cannot think, live, breathe or make conjecture outside that physical realm (Barden Williams, p.37). Therefore, the connection is constant and occurs even without conscious thought. The second reason why the theory is plausible is based o n the findings of other researchers in the field of cognitive science. For instance one researcher made a comment that: â€Å"It would, therefore, be no great surprise if the theory of mind and the theory of symbols were some day to converge† (Fodor, p.xi). The mind can manipulate symbols and can break codes even without prior knowledge regarding a particular set of symbols or language. Furthermore, philosophers and thinkers of the past had discovered the power of the mind to function even beyond the context of biology. For example Descartes discovered that persons who had lost a limb could be led to think that this â€Å"limb† was being moved, or pained, merely by stimulating parts of the nervous system. This sort of information led Descartes to the conclusion that there must be some kind of contact between the mental and physical worlds, and that the contact must take place in the brain (Popkin Stroll, p.125). This is the challenge faced by researchers in cognitive science. It is no longer enough to simply label the brains functions as occurring in three different levels: a) physical; b) procedural; and c) computational (Dawson, p.33). It is equally important to find out the specific action taken. This study does not attempt to explain the complex functions of the brain. It simply provides an overview of a particular action of the brain when it comes to the utilisation of the physical world in order to generate information and solve problems. Conclusion Clark and Chalmer’s argument can be understood only if it can be proven that the action of accessing beliefs comes prior to complex cognitive functioning. Complex cognitive functions can be used to describe activities like accessing memory and solving a problem. In this view, the mind looks for a correlation with regards to a particular problem and beliefs regarding that particular issue. It is only after determining a person’s beliefs regarding that problem that brain initiates h igh-level functioning. Thus, Clark and Chalmers argued convincingly that in that gap, in a moment of inaction, the brain extends itself to objects that can be found in the environment to facilitate the problem solving process. The best example is the use of language and culture. Thus, the extended mind theory is plausible because the evidence of this phenomenon does exist. In the case of language and culture the brain requires very little effort. A child talking to his or her parents does not require a prodigious amount of brain power to complete the task. A person feeling shame because of breaking a particular tradition does not have to use high-levels of brain functioning to feel uncomfortable. The mind extends itself because it can and it is efficient to do so. Works Cited Barden, Nicola Tina Williams. Words and Symbols. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Clark, Andy David Chalmers. The Extended Mind. MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998. Dawson, Michael. The Classical View of Information Processing. MA: Blackwell Publishers. Denton, Robert. Language, Symbols and the Media. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2006. Fodor, Jerry. Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind. London: MIT Press, 1987. Logan, Robert. The Extended Mind: The Emergence of Language, the Human Mind  and Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Marraffa, Massimo, Mario de Caro, Francesco Ferretti. Cartographies of the Mind. New York: Springer, 2007. Menary, Richard. The Extended Mind London: MIT Press, 2010. Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: Penguin, 1999. Popkin, Richard Avrum Stroll. Philosophy Made Simple. MA: Elsevier, 1993. This essay on The Extended Mind was written and submitted by user Nova Weber to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

25 Lessons From Guest Blogging For The Top Blogs In The World

25 Lessons From Guest Blogging For The Top Blogs In The World During the past few years, I’ve written for some of the most popular marketing blogs in the world. Blogs like Social Media Examiner, MarketingProfs, Copyblogger, Problogger, KISSMetrics, and the list goes on and on. It’s been an honor to guest blog for such amazing publications. And along the way, I’ve learned a thing or two. So, if you’re thinking about guest blogging as a way to market your company, this will help you get started. Or if you’re already guest blogging, then this will help you get even more out of it. When guest blogging, the first thing you need to do is find good blogs to write for. 1. Know what audience you want to target. So before you jump in, there are a few things to consider: Are you looking to write on a blog in your industry? Or are you looking to write on a blog that your customers read? For instance, my company focuses on marketing software for small businesses. I could either write for marketing blogs such as or I can write for small business blogs. 2. Use Google to find relevant blogs. The first and most obvious place to look for a guest blogging opportunity is Google. Once you know  the type of blog that you want to write for, you simply Google the name of your industry and â€Å"write for us†. So if you Google â€Å"small business† and â€Å"write for us†, you’ll see a list of small business blogs that accept guest posts: Pore through them to find the  blogs that are most aligned your goals. 3. Try Twitter to find relevant blogs. If you go to search.twitter.com and click on â€Å"Advanced Search†, you’re brought to the following screen: In the â€Å"All of these words† field, enter the niche that you want to write for. In the â€Å"This exact phrase† field, enter the words â€Å"write for us†. You should see a list of blogs asking for guest posts. 4. Look through the blogs you follow. Look for guest blogging opportunities on the blogs that you currently read. Do all of the authors of the blog work for the company? If they don’t, it’s a good bet that they accept guest posts. 5. Investigate the size of the blog. The truth is, writing a blog post takes a lot of time. And you want to get the most exposure possible. To see how much traffic a blog gets, I do two things: First, I check out their Alexa ranking. Even though it’s only an estimate, it gives me some indication as to how many readers the blog has. After I look at their Alexa ranking, I scroll through the most recent 10–20 posts to see how many social media shares each post gets. These are mostly vanity metrics, but they’ll give you a sense for how many people will interact with your post. 6. Make sure the blog has an engaged audience. If you’re looking to guest blog to get traffic to your site and build your email list, then writing for blogs with a high comment to share ratio is extremely important. For instance, I wrote a post on Boost Blog Traffic: It received a ton of comments relative to the number of social media shares. It’s no accident that during the time this post was written, it was my largest source of referral traffic- even though I had written for much bigger blogs. It’s not always the size of the blog that matters. It’s just as important to have active and engaged readers. When #guestblogging, blog size doesn’t always matter. Active readers do.7. Make sure your target audience reads the blog. One of the most critical factors for guest blogging success is ensuring the audience is a proper fit for you. The biggest blog in the world will do you absolutely no good if your customers don’t read it. Make sure you understand the demographics of the blog’s audience to ensure your customers read it. Ask To Write A Guest Blog Once you find a blog you want to write for, you’ll need to apply to contribute a guest post to that blog. 8. Choose a topic based on what was successful. Read the last three to six months’ worth of blog posts to get a feel for the content the blog publishes and what type of posts the audience likes to read. The posts with the most comments and shares probably get the most traffic, and in the blog editors  mind, are the most successful. Contribute an idea that is similar  to a successful post to increase your chances of it being accepted. So, as a person who is interested in writing for the small business audience, here’s how I would create a topic and headline: One of my favorite small business blogs is called Under30CEO. After doing my research, I find that a lot of the posts that do well are about  increasing your company’s visibility. Now that I know  what works, I would say something like: 5 Practical Ways to Get Your Company in Front of Your Prospects, Even if You Dont Have a Huge Budget 9. Create the guest blog outline. A brief outline will give me a better idea of how the post is going to be constructed, what it will include, and how it will benefit the blog’s readers. You only need to spend 20 minutes on the outline. Just enough time to flesh out your ideas. 10. Write the email to the blog you’ll contribute to. Here’s the email script that I use often  to pitch my guest blogs. Figure Out The Best Post Type For That Blog When you’re guest blogging, there are typically three types of posts that you can write. 11. Long list posts work. A long list post is successful because the sheer numbers blow readers away. That’s why it attracts a lot of attention. The key, though, is to blow your audience away. For instance, I wrote this post on KISSMetrics. And it did amazingly well. And it even got featured on Entrepreneur: This post would have been lost in the Internet if I had simply wrote about seven email marketing tools. The fact that I had compiled such a huge list is what made this post so successful. 12. Analyze other people. Another type of post you can write is to analyze other people. In another guest  post, I analyzed how five different companies deployed psychological triggers in their marketing to get more customers. I backed these tactics with facts that the companies published as well as scientific research. 13. Try personal stories or case studies. This is by far the most powerful post if you want to get your story out there, build your email list, and sell your products and services. When I wrote, â€Å"Why Quitting May Be the Most Profitable Thing You do This Year†, I told the story of how I was absolutely lost as an entrepreneur. I didn’t know where my next customer was going to come from. I let all my emotions go. I can’t tell you how many emails I received from people who have said they knew exactly how I felt. I was able to connect in a very real and personal way. To date, this post has been the single largest contributor to my email list. The day it went live, I had well over 400 people subscribe. Promote Yourself With Guest Blogging Guest blogging can be a brilliant marketing strategy- if you promote yourself correctly. If not, it’ll be a colossal waste of time. 14. Focus on conversions and landing pages. Neil Patel has seen conversions on landing pages increase by 10% simply by personalizing his landing page. Instead of sending people to a generic landing page, send them to a page that has a headline like â€Å"Welcome, Readers.† 15. Provide relevant and useful offers. It’s extremely tough to split test this, but when you’re guest blogging, I find that an offer related to your guest post will get more email subscribers than your general lead magnet. For instance, let’s say I’m writing a guest post titled â€Å"25 Lessons From Guest Blogging For The Top Blogs In The World.† :) I could either send all of my traffic to a generic landing page, or I could create an offer that reveals 30 popular blogs that accept guest posts. The second offer is much more relevant to my post, and should perform a lot better. 16. Grow your following with Twitter. Believe it or not, guest blogging is an effective way to grow your Twitter following. When you guest blog on a popular blog, you can be sure that it will get a lot of tweets and retweets. After your guest post goes live, copy and paste the URL from the post into search.twitter.com. And you will see everyone who has tweeted your post. Follow each person who tweeted your post, and a large majority will follow you back. Remember, they just read an article by you, so they’re clearly interested in the type of content you produce! 17. The funnel is overrated. Some of my most lucrative offers came not because someone gave me their email address on my landing page, but because they read my post and asked me if I wanted to do work for them. In another life, I ran a marketing agency focusing on content marketing. After I wrote a blog post on Copyblogger, I received this email offer to work with Shopify: And that’s not the only time guest blogging helped me land a gig. More often than not, when companies would ask for my writing portfolio, I would simply show them various posts I had written for popular blogs. It was the kind of social proof and validation that many of my competitors didn’t have. 18. Use guest blogging as social proof. If you go to my friend Henneke’s blog, you’ll see that she’s been â€Å"seen on† some large and popular blogs. She is able to put these logos on her site because she’s written guest blogs on each of them. Guest blogging offers a third-party social proof similar to a public relations campaign. When someone sees that you’ve been featured on the popular sites in your industry, they know your ideas have already been validated. This brings you one step closer to making that sale. 19. You must guest blog consistently. Unfortunately, guest blogging is sold as the magic elixir for traffic. How many times have you heard this before: #Guestblogging is a way to build a popular blog. Well, that’s only half true. You have to guest blog consistently. Consistent #guestblogging is a way to build a popular blog. These numbers show traffic from guest blogging over the course of two months: I don’t mean that to scare you because the numbers are not large by any stretch. Like most endeavors, building your blog through guest blogging takes time and commitment. 20. Build your relationships. A few years ago, I was building a blog of my own called â€Å"Sales Leads in 30 Days.† I needed to get traffic to my blog. I had already written guest posts on several popular blogs, including KISSMetrics, which is owned by Neil Patel. He’s a popular Internet marketer with a very large Twitter following. Because I had already written for his blog in the past, I had a small relationship with him. So I â€Å"leveraged† that relationship in order to get some traffic to my new blog. That one single tweet brought 154 pageviews and 142 unique pageviews to that post. Mind you, this doesn’t seem like a huge amount of traffic, but this was the first post to the new blog, and this was only one tweet. 21. Promote case studies and user stories. I’ve used guest blogging to publish case studies and user stories to help bring attention to my services. But right now, no one is doing this as effectively as Noah Kagan from Appsumo. Everywhere you look, you see him promoting his new site Sumome- even on this blog. In this post, Noah gives some really valuable content that you can apply to your blog immediately. However, he also has the innate ability to talk about Sumome and the tool’s effect on getting more traffic to every post. If you can work your product or service into your guest post without it being an outright advertisement, your guest post will be much more effective. Be Prepared For Comments And Feedback The very first time I had ever received a comment on any blog post was the first time I wrote for Copyblogger. To be honest, I never really gave it much thought. However, once you put yourself out there for the world to see, you open yourself up to criticism. 22. Most comments are good. Luckily, most people are going to love your work. That’s because you’ve undergone an editorial standard from the popular blog that prohibits bad posts from coming through. And when you read how great you are from hundreds of people, it makes you feel really freakin’ good about yourself. But there is also the other side of the coin†¦. 23. Some comments suck. I had just spent 25 hours compiling a list of email marketing tools unlike any the Internet has seen. I poured my heart and soul into that guest blog. And one of the first comments I received was a snarky complaint about how my grammar was incorrect: The world is full of critics. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and smile. Bonus Lessons For Guest Blogging Here are just a few things I picked up that really didn’t fit into any of the categories. 24. Guest blogging requires a big time commitment. I often underestimate how long a post will take. The 67 email tools post I wrote took me 25 hours. The post I wrote on Copyblogger titled â€Å"In Defense of Quitting† took even longer. And if you want to be effective with your guest blogging, then its something you’ll have to do consistently. If there was an opposite to â€Å"get rich quick†, then guest blogging is it. Sure, it can help you sell more products and services. But like all things in the land of entrepreneurship, it’s a grind. 25. Guest blogging isn’t for everyone. Guest blogging is a strategy that allows writers to leverage their strength. Just as a public speaker leverages a stage to promote his ideas, guest blogging gives writers the platform to get their ideas into the world.

Friedman's statement (published by The New York Times Magazine in Essay

Friedman's statement (published by The New York Times Magazine in 1970) suggests that economic and social objectives are separ - Essay Example CSR has however remained a debatable topic, as regards actual role played by corporation within societies, as firms have attempted to minimise their CSR roles or devised ways to use social responsibility as another method (a branding tool) for increasing their profits. Milton Friedman has been a major proponent of anti CSR movement, and has written articles, which are considered as seminal pieces of work against CSR and corporations that promote CSR. This is evident in his 1970 article, â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,† published by The New York Times Magazine in 1970, where he claimed â€Å"businessmen who talk this way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society these past decades† (Friedman, 1970: 1). He further suggested that social and economic goals are distinctly different entities for any corporation and the two cannot work hand in hand. In this context, the articl e will explore Friedman’s ideas in the light of different views about the nature of the corporation, as discussed by Klonoski’s (1991) in his article, â€Å"Foundational Considerations in the Corporate Social Responsibility Debate.† The researcher’s stand that CSR is an important part of modern business strategy will be illustrated with examples from scholarly articles and real life instances. Discussion There is a great deal of significance associated with the concept of CSR, as conducting business is a process selected by society for manufacture and dissemination of products and services. Initially, it was felt that any business firm could ful?l its social obligations by merely sustaining in the competitive market and optimizing their pro?ts. The business firms could use all social and natural resources for making profits simply by adhering to the basic governmental rules imposed for controlling malpractices. The existing market system created a framewo rk essential for monitoring and controlling the system, while pro?ts guaranteed efficiency and incentives. Under this system, self-interest and ethics (workplace and individual) formed to be main guiding principles for a corporation’s operations. Therefore, by generating pro?ts, firms helped in growth and development of a country’s economic system that in turn created a scope for increased employment and income generation for more people (Beck, 1992). Therefore, CSR was limited to improving the bottom line, and it was generally acknowledged that a business firm would fail to survive without making pro?ts; hence, the question of assuming a social role was never raised. It was only recently experts opined that besides having profit-making goals (or economic objectives), corporations must work towards addressing certain public expectations, that is, aim at social welfare. Owing to this, the very concept of social responsibility associated with pro?t optimization underwent changes, and social and economic goals both received equal attention. Buchholz (1991), while defining CSR, distinguished ?ve main elements that delineate the term. These are: Business firms have obligations that go beyond manufacturing products and providing services at a financial gain; These obligations help to resolve significant social issues, especially ones created by the firms themselves; The impact from the operational

Mini Project 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mini Project 1 - Essay Example According to water.org (2015), nearly 750 million people, globally, lack access to safe water. Population has rapidly grown, for instance, over the last two decades the population of people in the world has doubled, and it is continuing to grow drastically. The growth is due to large family sizes, adequate food supply, and effective access to health care. Therefore, it justifies that the overall consumption of water, cooking, cleaning, and sewage has magnified. Population expansion has led to the global shortage of water as explained by (WWF, 2015). Destruction of vegetation and cutting of catchment areas have led to desertification, globally. Trees act as water catchment bodies and they prevent excessive water evaporation (Forsyth et al., 2012). Therefore, destruction of forests by logging or farming causes the shortage of water. Pollution of air, water, and land contributes to the reduction of water quality. Oil effluents from industries, waste dumping into water bodies, sewage, and radioactive waste from mining activities pollute the waters. Therefore, minimizing the amount of usable water globally The growing and expansion of cities has led to global water shortage. The cities sustain several people who increase the use of sewage, cleaning, construction, and manufacturing (Majumder, 2015). Therefore, urbanization has led to the global shortage of

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath. Essay Example for Free

Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath. Essay The poem Lady Lazarus gives us an insight into the troubled life of the poet Sylvia Plath. She lost her father at an early age. Supported solely by her mother she went through a very rough childhood. In fact, Sylvia Plath escaped a near fatal accident in her childhood and went on to attempt suicide twice in the following years of her life. In the poem, Plath lets her emotions flow and sheds light on her distress. In this poem, Sylvia Plath uses Holocaust imagery extensively. The Holocaust, as is widely known, refers to the inhuman torture and exploitation of the Jews by the Nazis. The first mention of the gruesome Holocaust comes in the form of a comparison between herself and a Nazi lampshade. Unbelievable as it may seem, the Nazis used the skins of the Jews to make lampshades. Plath feels that she has been used in a similar manner. Throughout her life Plath had been in and out of hospital. So much so that she felt like an object on display; a mere, inconsequential living thing on which the doctors happily carried out various experiments. The Nazis used to take away all valuable articles from the Jews, including expensive fabrics like linen. Plath refers to her skin as Jew linen, again indicating that she was used as an object. Plath suffered a nervous breakdown in her childhood. To cure her, doctors had no choice but to use shock treatment, subjecting her to unbearable pain in the process. In the poem, Plath uses the word charge which has a pun on it, referring to the brutal pain inflicted on her by the doctors. In this instance, a parallel can be drawn to the inhuman torture experienced by the Jews. In the poem, Plath refers to herself as a valuable and a pure gold baby, which is again an example of Holocaust imagery. It is widely believed that the Nazis were so cruel that they not only used the Jews to do physical work but also used their bodies to make objects like soap. Their golden teeth were plucked out and melted to make valuables such as wedding rings. Their corpses were then burnt to erase all trace of their existence. The mention of all this in the poem makes us believe that Sylvia Plath considered herself to be stifled, oppressed and exploited, just like the Jews. Finally, a striking similarity is noticed in the manner in which Plath chose to end her life and the methods used to exterminate the Jews. The Jews were killed in gas chambers where poisonous gases devoured their internal organs. Plath committed suicide by putting her head inside an oven, and died as a result of gas poisoning. In my opinion this was perhaps because she felt herself so alike the Jews that she preferred to end her life in the very same manner. Thus, we can safely conclude that Holocaust imagery forms a significant part of Sylvia Plaths poem Lady Lazarus. b) After critically analyzing the poem, the Holocaust imagery which has been used widely, seems fairly effective in conveying the poets message. It is clear from the poem that Sylvia Plath felt she has been driven to suicide by society as a whole. Evidently, she believed that life had been too unfair to her. This feeling stems from her childhood, when she lost her father. This horrific incident left a gaping void in her life. A major part of her moral support had been cruelly snatched from her. To add to this, Plath had a pitiable medical record. She made frequent visits to the hospital throughout her life. The excruciating shock treatment she received shook her completely. Once Plath got married, her personal life suffered even more. Her husband had been unfaithful to her, further aggravating her pitiable condition. Overall, Plaths life was depressing to say the least. Plath was consumed by self-pity throughout her life. In this regard, the Holocaust imagery used by Plath is very effective and appropriate. It reminds us of historys most vicious tale of cruelty. This justifies its use to depict Plaths life. However, in other respects, the Holocaust imagery cannot effectively portray Plaths life. An important reason being that the Jews always had the will to survive. They were members of an affluent community who were stripped off all their possessions by the Nazis. Plath on the other hand had attempted suicide twice. This is a glaring difference between Plaths life and the Holocaust, making it quite ineffective in conveying her message. Another important difference is that the Holocaust was a planned genocide which involved the death of approximately six million people. Plaths comparison seems quite irrelevant in this aspect, as she talks about the death of a single person (herself). Finally, one of the most important differences is that Plath considered death to be a performance. At the end of the poem, Plath says that she was about to rise like a phoenix, referring to her own death. To her, attaining death was like being resurrected, as she would be freed from her troubled life. Plath believed death to be a means of attaining victory over life. She clearly mentions that when she survived her second suicide attempt, it was a theatrical comeback. In comparison, the Holocaust was only about forcing people into giving up their lives. Thus, in my opinion, taking these factors and many more subtle differences onto consideration, the Holocaust imagery is fairly effective in conveying Plaths message.

Essay Comparing Change in The Stranger and Nausea :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing Change in The Stranger and Nausea  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Existentialists mean that we can't rationalize, since we can't explain human fear, anguish, and pain. To rationalize is absurd, because in the final analysis, we will find nothing. Life is absurd. This leads to the term Nothingness. Thus, since we can't find a meaning of life more than what we attempt to create by ourselves, we anguish. Living in the same era, Camus and Sartre individually helped to form the school of existentialism. Of course there were others: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, etc. But I have chosen Camus and Sartre because of the closeness in the publication of their first novels. Camus published his first novel, The Stranger, in 1942, while Sartre published his first novel, Nausea, in 1938. I am interested in the way they look at change in The Stranger and Nausea. In The Stranger, the main character is Mersault. His mother dies and he travels to her home for the burial. The day after the funeral, Mersault gets together with a woman, Marie. He becomes friends with Raymond, a neighbor. Raymond is having an argument with some Arabs. Mersault is then pulled into the dispute between Raymond and the Arabs. Finally, on a sunny afternoon at the beach, Mersault kills one of the Arabs, even though he really has nothing against him. Mersault is put on trial and sentenced to death. Nausea is the journal of Antoine Roquentin; Nausea is the resulting disorientation Roquentin feels from having his existence revealed. Through a self analysis, Roquentin discovers that his existence is meaningless. He has been living for the past three years in the French town of Bouville and is working on a history book. Mersault is characterized by an indifference to change. At one time, Mersault gets an invitation to move to Paris by his boss, but he declines. Mersault says that "people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with mine at all." (Camus, p. 41) Mersault is content with what he got. He has his work, his home and his girl: it's all he needs. He lives, like Roquentin, in solitude, reflecting upon the actions of others. But he never gets involved since it doesn't matter to him. He neither feels happy nor sad. It is as if all emotions were drained from his body.

Adult Attachment Styles and Romantic Relationships Essay

In 1987, the Attachment Theory extended to include the bonds between adults and their romantic partners; the extension includes the concept of the secure, the anxious-preoccupied, the dismissive-avoidant, and the fearful-avoidant attachment styles. Current research, in the form of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, predicts adults exhibit attachment styles during the forming, maintenance, and separation process. The research utilized the experiences in close relationships inventory and the relationship maintenance questionnaire to find their conclusion. The findings concluded the association among the adult attachment features like closeness, safe haven, and secure base develop over time during the forming, maintenance, and separation process. In addition, the conclusion display the effectiveness of both clinical and non clinical exposure treatments in the growth and preservation of the secure attachment style behaviors utilized in romantic relationships. Keywords: attachment styles, romantic relationships, partners, adults, secure, insecure Adult Attachment Styles and Romantic Relationships More than half of the world’s adults are involved in a romantic relationship. The most common romantic relationship includes the sexual dating relationship, the domestic partnership, or the marriage. The adults or partners involved in these relationships inevitably reach a point of conflict. How the relationship partners react to the conflict displays whether the partners are acting as a securely attached person or an insecurely attached person. The securely attached adult portrays a happy person when dealing with relationship issues. Whereas, an insecurely attached adult is an unhappy person when dealing with relationship issues. Adults should strive for the secure attachment style for the best satisfaction level, commitment level, and ability to adapt to change in their romantic relationship. Background In 1952, John Bowlby originally designed the Attachment Theory to explain the bond between a child and people serving in the caregiver capacity (Feldman, 2011). Many theorists began noticing attachment influences the entire human experience. In 1987, Cindy Hazan and Philip Shaver officially applied  Bowlby’s views on attachment to include the bonds between adults and their romantic partners (Nudson-martin, 2012). Hazan and Shaver viewed attachment in adult romantic relationships as a powerful part of an adult’s emotional life, and many of the most secure and insecure behaviors arise during the maintenance of the romantic relationship. Hazan and Shaver noticed the behavioral patterns between a child and its caregiver was similar to the behavioral pattern between an adult and its romantic partner. Similarities like a desire to be close to the attachment figure and using the relationship as a safe haven to explore the world; consequently, Hazan and Shaver used Bowlbyâ₠¬â„¢s concept of attachment styles to categorize the behavioral patterns adults display in different stages of their romantic relationships (Pittman, 2012). Hazan and Shaver developed four adult attachment styles, secure and three insecure types. The adult attachment styles they developed are the secure, the anxious-preoccupied, the dismissive-avoidant, and the fearful-avoidant. The first attachment style is the secure type which corresponds with the secure attachment style in children. The secure adult is warm a responsive in their interactions with their romantic relationship partner. Secure attached adults tend to have positive views of themselves, their partner, and their relationship. The securely attached adult fells comfortable with intimacy and independence. Their relationships are characterized by greater longevity, satisfaction, trust, commitment, and interdependence (Mikulincer *& Shaver, 2012) Secure adults have a tendency to be more satisfied in their relationships than insecure adults. The first insecure attachment style is the anxious-preoccupied, which corresponds to the anxious-ambivalent attachment style in children. The anxious-preoccupied adult seeks high levels of intimacy, approval, and responsiveness from their romantic relationship partner. The anxious-preoccupied adult values intimacy so much they become overly dependent on their relationship partners. They do not value themselves, and blame themselves for their partner’s lack of resp onsiveness. People who are anxious or preoccupied with attachment may exhibit high levels of emotional expressiveness, worry, and impulsiveness in their relationships (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2012). The anxious-preoccupied person is clingy and has low self esteem. Low self esteem and impulsiveness is likely to lead to depression or suicide. The second insecure attachment style is  the dismissive-avoidant, which corresponds to the avoidant attachment style in children. The dismissive-avoidant adult desires a high level of independence from themselves and their relationship partner. They view themselves as self-sufficient, invulnerable to feelings associated with being closely attached to their partner, and close relationships as relatively unimportant. The dismissive-avoidant adult tends to avoid intimacy because their partner is less important. An adult with a dismissive-avoidant attachment style tends to suppress and hide their feelings (Juhl, Sands, & Routledge, 2012). The dismissive-avoidant style is characteristic of young male adults in the dating stage (Poulsen, Holman, Busby, & Carroll, 2013); the young male experiences the lack of responsiveness and the carelessness of other’s feelings. The dismissive-avoidant adult lacks responsiveness and is an ego-maniac. Being, an ego-maniac is likely to lead to dissatisfaction with everyone else. The third insecure attachment style is the fearful-avoidant, which also corresponds to the avoidant attachment style in children. The fearful-avoidant adult usually has experienced some type of emotional or physical abuse, and in turn do not trust their romantic relationship partners. The fearful-avoidant adult experiences mixed feelings. On one hand, they desire to have emotionally close relationships. On the other hand, they tend to feel uncomfortable with emotional closeness. These mixed feelings are combined with, an unconscious view of themselves as unworthy of responsiveness and trust from their partner, and the reverse is true (Juhl et al, 2012). The fearful-avoidant attachment style is also typical of the adults in the remarriage stage (Ehrenberg, Roberts & Pringle, 2012); the divorcee experiences the mixed feelings and the lack of trust. A mix of the other two insecure attachment styles, the fearful-avoidant adult has low self esteem and lacks responsiveness. Discussion The secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant and fearful-avoidant attachment styles share both commonalities and differences. The issue of desiring a romantic relationship is common in the secure, anxious-preoccupied, and sometimes in the fearful-avoidant attachment styles, this meaning these attachment styles lend toward satisfaction in romantic relationships. While the dismissive-avoidant attached adult does  not have the same feelings. Also, the desire to be in a relationship leads to the adult wanting to commit and faces; the adults desires to be in a relationship no matter what happens in the future. The issue of having low self esteem is a common problem in the anxious –preoccupied and fearful-avoidant attachment styles. The low self esteem arises when the adult feels there are unworthy of their partner’s intimacy. Due to this fact, the adults displaying these styles are less sociable. In this case, the adults with low self esteem have low satisfaction w ith themselves, which in turn leads to low satisfaction in their romantic relationship. The low self esteem adult can not fully commit, and can not endure changes. Their own issues lead to them not trusting the commitment and changes displayed by their partner. Additionally, there are commonalities in the issue of responsiveness or responding to the partner when they feel anxiety. The responsiveness issues are a part of all the attachment styles, however responsiveness can range from zero percent to one hundred percent. The zero percent is the dismissive-avoidant attachment style, and the one hundred percent is the secure attachment style. The lack of responsiveness leads to the adult not caring about the outcome or commitment level of the romantic relationship. In addition, the adult that lacks responsiveness does not care about the changes that are likely to arise. A way for researchers to find an adult’s desire to be in a relationship, self esteem, and responsiveness is the strange situation. The strange situation is an observational technique to judge the partners attachment style (Selcuk, Zayas, & Hazan, 2010). The strange situation looks at the secure base and the safe haven. The partner and the relationship are the secure base and safe haven, respectively. The strange situation technique can also be used to change an insecure adult to a secure adult, once they are aware of their attachment style. Adults who appear secure in the strange situation, for example, tend to have a partner who is responsive to them. On the other hand, adults that display one of the insecure attachment styles in the strange situation has a partner who is insensitive to their needs, or inconsistent or rejecting in the love they provide (Edenfield, Adams, & Briihl, 2012). Essentially during the strange situation, the adult asks themselves the following fundamental question: Is the partner nearby, accessible, and attentive? If the answer is â€Å"yes,† he or she feels loved, secure, and confident. Behaviorally, the adult is likely to leave their secure base and be sociable with their partner and others. However, the answer is â€Å"no,† the adult experiences anxiety, visual searching , active following, and vocal signaling .These behaviors continue until either the adult is able to reestablish a desirable level of physical or psychological proximity to the partner , or until the adult whines down. The anxiety behavior displayed is similar to those experienced during separation or loss (Heffernan, Fraley, Vickary & Brumbaugh, 2012). Similar questioning to the strange situation is asked in the experiences in close relationships inventory (ECR), and the relationship maintenance questionnaire (RM). Questions about the desire to be in a romantic relationship, and the likely behaviors displayed in that relationship marks the inventory and questionnaire) Edenfield et al, 2012). The ECR and the RM can be used to predict whether the relationship partner is securely attached or i nsecurely attached. The research findings from the strange situation, the ECR, and the RM combined with the finding closeness, safe haven, and secure base occur over time developed effective clinical and non clinical exposure treatments. In this case, the insecurely attached adult can choose to be treated in a clinic or in the home close to the safe haven. In either case the use of adaptive skills will be utilized. Additionally, using adaptive skills will move an insecurely attached adult to and securely attached adult. Adaptive skills are skills a romantic partner uses in reaction to their partner’s behaviors. Adaptive skills promote emotionally available and appropriately responsive partners, as well as a partner capable of regulating both his and her positive and negative emotions (Feldman, 2011). The insecurely attach adult will utilize adaptive skills to counter act the other partner’s insecure behavior, in a way to exhibit secure attachment. Conclusion and future directions In conclusion, most adults are in a romantic relationship, and behave and react in the relationship. Due to this fact, the adult gains either secure or insecure attachment to their romantic partner. The securely attached adult is warm and responsive to the ideals of commitment and their ability to adapt well to changes they will face in a romantic relationship. Additionally, the securely attached person displays increased levels of satisfaction in their romantic relationship. Romantic relationships having  one or both partners exhibiting insecure attachment style, will find moving to a secure attachment beneficial to their romantic relationship. Especially, in the areas of satisfaction, commitment, and the different changes. The insecurely attached partners will find using adaptive skills in both clinical and non clinical exposure treatments helpful in developing a secure attachment. The most useful is experiencing long-tern exposure to the secure attachment style in the home. In t he future, the concept can be applied to the area of work and higher education. Adults experience long term relationships with colleagues and professors. References Edenfield, J. L., Adams, K. S., & Briihl, D. S. (2012) Relationship Maintenance Strategy Used by Romantic Attachment style. North American Journal of Psychology, 14)1), pp 149. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.co,m.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/docview/927903917 Ehrenberg, M. F., Roberts, M., & Pringle, J. (2012). Attachment Style and Marital Commitment in the Context of Remarriage. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 53(3), pp 204-219. doi: 10. 1080/10502556.2012.663270 Feldman, R. S. (2011). Development across the Lifespan. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: McGraw-Hill. Heffernan, M. E., Fraley, R. C., Vicary, A. M., & Brumbaugh, C. C. (2012). Attachment Features and Functions in Adult Relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 29(5), pp 671-693. doi: 10.1177/0265407512443435 Juhl, J., Sand, E. C., & Routledge, C. (2012). the Effects of Nostalgia and Avoidant Attachment on Relationship Satisfaction and Relationship Motives. Journal of Social and Personal Relationship s, 29(5), pp 661-670. doi: 10.1177/0265407512443433 Mikulincer, M & Shaver, P. R. (2012). Adult Attachment Orientations and Relationship Processes. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 4(4), pp 259-274. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1756-2589.2012.00142.x Nudson-Martin, C. (2012). Attachment in Adult Relationships: a Feminist Perspective. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 4(4), pp. 299-305. doi: 10. 1111/j.1756-2589.2012.00141.x Pittman, J. F. (2012). Attachment Orientations: A Boon to Family Theory and Review. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 4(4), pp 306-310. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-2589.2012.00133.x Poulsen, F. O., Holman, T. B., Busby, D. M., & Carroll, J. S. (2013). Physical Attraction, Attachment Styles, and Dating Development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30(3), pp 301-319. doi: 10.1177/0265407512456673 Selcuk, E., Zayas, V.., & Hazan, C. (2010). Marital Satisfaction: The Role of Attachment in Marital Function. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 2(4), pp 258-259. doi: 10. 1111/j.1756-2589.2010.00061.x