Lars and His Psychosocial Development in Life

I will use Erikson's Psychosocial Theory of Human Development and Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems theory to explain the key issues experienced by Lars and his psychosocial development in life. Lars is a socially awkward young man who dislikes any form of physical contact. He lives alone in his deceased parent's garage apartment. Lars' life starts to get interesting when a new employee (Margo) starts to express interest in him. One day, Lars told his brother Gus and sister-in-law, Karin that he met Bianca (a sex doll Lars ordered) and would like to invite her to their place for a meal. Lars treated Bianca like his girlfriend. Gus and Karin were overwhelmed and wanted Lars to see Dagmar, a town doctor and a psychologist. They convinced Lars that Bianca has low blood pressure and to bring her in for weekly treatments, creating an opportunity for Dagmar to see Lars. Dagmar told Gus and Karin that in order for Lars to benefit, the community got to be involved and accept Bianca. This acceptance of their relationship allowed healing to occur for Lars (Elliott, 2002). Based on Erikson's Psychosocial Theory of Human Development, Stage 1 (Trust vs Mistrust), the lack of dependable family members during Lars' childhood resulted in Lars developing a sense of mistrust and insecurity. This resulted in him putting his feelings into Bianca, a sex doll, who is inanimate and not able to hurt him. Based on stage 2 of Erikson's theory (Autonomy vs Shame ; Doubt), children start to gain more personal control and independence. Failure to do so creates a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt. Due to the pressure people around Lars finding him a girlfriend, Lars' imagination created Bianca. He is in control of the development and outcome of their relationship. The society that Lars was in was supportive and assuring. Thus, it helped Lars to gain autonomy and will in surviving the real world (with Bianca) by himself. There is also a scene where Lars brought Bianca to Cindy's birthday party and tried to connect with others through dancing, relating to Stage 3 of Erikson's Theory (Initiative and Guilt). Lars tried to explore his own character by trying to mingle on his own. Lars also became distressed when mentioned that Karin is nearing the end of her pregnancy. Dagmar reassured Lars that Karin's baby will be fine even as his experience is otherwise. This is reflective of Stage 4 of Erikson's theory (Industry vs Inferiority), where Lars felt inferior in not having a mum like other children do. In Stage 5 (Identity vs Role Confusion), one starts self-discovery, especially in their sexual identity. Lars asked Gus about the concept of masculinity. This helped Lars when he became aware of his attraction towards Bianca. His attraction to Margo has now reached the point where he feels compelled to tell her that he could never cheat on Bianca. Margo assures him that she is not asking him to cheat on Bianca. However, she states genuinely how much she wishes she could find a man with his characteristics for herself. In the final scene of the movie, Lars' healing is almost completed, when Bianca â€Å"dies†. Before Lars kills off Bianca, he presses a kiss to her lips, something he would not do before. This shows that the child's mind-set Lars once had, now psychologically matches that of his age. Lars has shown physical intimacy towards the doll. He not only overcome his fear of touch but using the doll the way it's originally intended to be. Lars further proves to be more in touch with an adult psychological being when he asks Margo to go for a walk, just the two of them, after the funeral. With the help of Bianca, Lars was able to grow and heal, and form relationships with other human beings. This is being seen in Erikson's theory sixth stage of intimacy vs isolation. In Bronfenbrenner's Bio-Ecological Theory, there are five (Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and Chronosystem) levels in an environment affecting the child. Microsystem refers to the immediate environment we are in touch with after birth (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). In Lars' case, there is a lack of interactions with immediate family members. Thus, he depended on the safety of his relationship with Bianca to slowly become at ease with people, exhibiting the creativity characteristic in clients who are innately self-healing (Bohart ; Tallman, 1999). Moving deeper into the model, Mesosystem is closely linked with the Microsystem. Lars was able to escape his delusional thoughts through interactions with his surroundings (church members, Dagmar, Margo). The indirect influence in his Exosystem (moving deeper) where his large neighborhood and family members play a part in helping him. With an entire community supporting Lars' construction of reality, the community becomes like a kingsley Hall (Barnes ; Berke, 2002) where everyone normalizes the experiences of one another. In treating Bianca as a real person, Lars is able to deal with issues that occur as the relationship develops. This is being seen through the Macrosystem in his beliefs and values influencing Lars deeply and even â€Å"cured† his illness indirectly. The last stage of chronosystem comes in play includes how his neighborhood addressed the situation and the societal norms on mental health and having them being so positive, it influences Lars in his development growth As time progresses, Lars is able to connect better with others. In summary, Lars created a perfect partner for himself that makes connections with others and himself indirectly. It requires also others who are willing to enter his world. Without this, Lars would have been labeled psychotic and given drugs. When the unreal Bianca is treated by everyone as real, Lars is able to emerge as a real person. What to ponder would be if Lars does not have a supportive community will he be cured and to what extent his denial and delusion will be left.

Mississippi Burning Essay

Burning is a movie about racial hate and bigotry. How has the director Alan Parker presented the genre through the use of Camera, Music and other techniques? Racial hate has been one of the biggest issues in society over the past 100 years. Film has traditionally been considered a very effective medium in presenting a message about this. Mississippi Burning is a heart wrenching film based on racial hate and bigotry. Alan Parker is the director of the film and has incorporated many techniques such as, camera angles and lighting, costume and language and sound. All of these techniques are to suit particular scenes in the film and or to highlight certain attributes. Alan Parker provides a theme and or message with in his film, and his techniques used without help to provide the message and or theme he wishes to portray. Camera Angles and Lighting are highly influenced in the film as they help symbolise certain objects and highlight hidden meanings. SCENE displays this as once the FBI men have had the fright of their life they spot something outside, to then see it is a burning cross. At this point the cross is burning bright and the environment around is dull, almost not there. This is highlighting the fact that at this point of time the police are winning and their ways are brighter and better then there’s. This proves that the police believe that treating black people like dogs is okay. Throughout the film there are dramatic camera angles, the best one that highlights the whole movie is the opening scene, where we are looking directly at a white mans’ drinking fountain and a black mans’ drinking fountain, the differences in the fountains show that black men have no rights and white men have too many. Alan Parker uses language and costume to highlight certain characters and their actions. Language being a strong point throughout the film, Alan highlights the fact that the police for example are pig headed by the way they speak. They have a lot of slag and a lot of attitude. Alan highlights the fact that the black people have a voice as when they do speak, they are polite and confident. The way the characters all dress reflects them too, as Alan tries to portray a message that the black people cannot afford not only nice clothes but a better life, that the white men can afford to dress nice but cannot afford a nice attitude. Sound is used to help maintain a scene, to help make it more dramatic, to make you more excited, to prove a point or make you sadder. Sound helps portray messages in such a way that words cant. Mississippi Burning without fail reaches to enhance these points as the film carries out many strong ‘sound’ points. SCENE when the three civil right men are found, the funeral is withheld and a black woman with a strong voice take the scene as she evokes the point that the two white boys were not allowed to be buried near the black boy and not only she, but the whole black culture has had enough of being treated like dirt. This scene shows a rise up, a community of black people standing together for the last time as dirt and rising up together as strong-willed people. Mississippi Burning uses a wide range of techniques to provoke messages being hidden throughout the film. Racial hate and bigotry are constantly highlighted behind mixed messages and a hidden meaning as Alan Parker allows a viewer to withhold their own opinion on not just the film, but racism itself.

Motivation to Help Essay

This paper discusses the social psychological perspective on helping. It tackles the factors that lead people to help other people and the theoretical basis on such actions. It also includes a reflection on the altruistic property in helping. Motivation to Help The murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 as one of the most disturbing cases where almost 40 people were witnesses but none of them called the police in time to rescue her. This baffled social psychologists as to how this was possible. The result of their investigation was the formation of the concept of the Genovese Syndrome. This condition is theorized to exist on certain emergency situations where people encounter a diffusion of responsibility. This was because of the notion that there will be someone who will carry out the responsibility (Alex, 2008). On a personal account, an example of this behavior was observed in the sidewalk near a well-known shopping center. A lady, approximately aged 50 years was walking on the nearly crowded pavement when two men riding a motorcycle snatched her bag. It was not easily taken from her since she tried to defend herself and her belongings. The struggle made the two men shoot the lady until she was down on the sidewalk. The initial reaction of the people there was to run away from the scene. When the two men quickly left, the people slowly went towards the lady. Nobody helped until the lady screamed in pain. There are a number of factors that have resulted to the lack of responsiveness of the people on the victim. One of which is the bystander effect. Since there are more people in the area, the responsibility of helping the victim is divided among them. Each of these people had two choices of whether they should act or wait for someone to do it. Thus, the more people there are in the area means that people feel less obligated (â€Å"The Bystander Effect†, n. d. ). Also, the scream of the lady may have somehow alarmed the people around her, which may have motivated the some people to finally help her. Basically, there are five steps to helping or prosocial behavior. First of all, in order to help, there must be a realization that something is happening. It must also be interpreted as an emergency. The person who is to help must also feel the responsibility towards the situation. He must also know how he is going to help. Finally, the costs of helping are also assessed (Stocker, n. d. ). In this particular scenario, the five steps were evident. Although the initial reaction was to run because of the gun shot, people did realize that it was an emergency situation. However, because there were a lot of people, they did not have much responsibility for the situation because of the assumption that someone will act. When the lady screamed and the two men left, it was the time when someone helped, knowing that the costs are already low and it was no longer dangerous. There are many theories which explain why people are motivated to help. However, the most widely accepted theory on the subject is the theory of Victor Vroom, known as the expectancy theory. This simply states that people are motivated to help because they are expecting something in return such as a reward, or a good performance appraisal (Shah, n. d. ). Based on this theory, the act of helping may not be truly altruistic because of the tendency to expect for something in return. If the one helping does not want anything as a reward, it may be because of other outside factors such as his social image, religion, or the dictate of the society. Nevertheless, additional helped could have been offered in the situation, knowing the there were a lot of people in the situation. If all of them felt responsible for the incident, it is most likely that the crime would have been prevented. References Alex. (2008, February 13). The Genovese Syndrome: When Nobody Helps. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from Neatorama: http://www. neatorama. com/2008/02/13/the-genovese-syndrome-when-nobody-helps/ Shah, K. , & Shah, P. (n. d. ). Theories of Motivation. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from Laynetworks: http://www. laynetworks. com/Theories-of-Motivation. html# Stocker, S. (n. d. ). Social Psychology. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://webcache. googleusercontent. com/search? q=cache:P4aNe4_DzhsJ:www. spsp. org/student/intro/ppt/myers15. ppt+five+steps+to+prosocial+behavior&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ph The Bystander Effect. (n. d. ). Retrieved July 14, 2010, from Changing Minds: http://changingminds. org/explanations/theories/bystander_effect. htm

Facebook: Social Network or Social Disaster

Facebook: Social Network or Social Disaster Your busy day is done. You head home open up your laptop or head over to your desktop and turn it on. After impatiently waiting for everything to load on your computer you open up your web browser. You go to the top of the page and type in www. face and arrow down in the drop box to http://www. facebook. com/. As the website loads you wait in anticipation. When the blue bar at the top of the page loads you immediately look to the left hand corner of that bar.You glance over the first icon which is a silhouette of two people. Any friend requests? You then skim over to the next icon, a picture of two message bubbles. They remind you of the ones you would see in a cartoon. Any messages? You then proceed to direct your eyes over to the last icon, the world icon. Any Notifications? You click on these icons and with that click you begin a social interaction with someone. For many people, what I described above is an action they do everyday. Over 500 million people worldwide live their lives on Facebook. † (Fletcher and Ford, 32) After reading this quote I asked myself one question, â€Å"Is it the communication aspect of facebook that causes everyone to be addicted to facebook or is there more to this addiction? † I know I go on Facebook almost everyday without fail but why? Do I go on to communicate and use Facebook as a social network or do I go on it mainly to get the dirt on others and what is going on in their lives?I came to the conclusion that Facebook is definitely a good place to keep in communication with people, however, in many ways, Facebook has definitely been misused and become gossip central. When you think about Facebook what is the first thing that comes to your mind? The first thing for me is friends. Right now I have 933 friends on Facebook and friends are a very important part of everyone’s lives. Facebook, like any other social network, gives you the ability to communicate with frie nds, coworkers, family members, and people from all over the world.You request to be their friend and wait for them to accept that request. There are so many people on Facebook today it would be rare to turn next to the person that sits next to you in math class and for them not to have a Facebook account. It is a very easy way to get in contact with those whom you may not have seen in a while. Old friends that over the years have become acquaintances or even friends that you can’t talk to on a regular basis because they live in a completely different country then you.For many of my high school years I went on missions trips to Mexico to help out at an orphanage down there. I met many different people and as the years went by I looked forward to seeing my long lost friends. Because of Facebook, I no longer have to call them my long lost friends because I can keep in contact with them through Facebook. I think it is great that so many of my friends are on Facebook and this is another way that I can communicate with them. However, one danger of having friends on Facebook is that some of the friends you accept may be quite superficial. Muise, Christofides, Desmarais, 442). I have almost a thousand friends on Facebook do you really think that I am as close to all of them as I am with my best friend? No, that is ridiculous. However, because Facebook is such an open social network and give us many different ways to communicate with others it has a tendency to give us a more open look at life so people tend to share more intimate aspects on life over their facebook status’. It has changed our social DNA, and made us more accustom to openness (Fletcher and Ford, 33).When we share these intimate aspects we are not necessarily thinking, â€Å"I hope everyone sees this. † We are just thinking about the friends we usually interact with on facebook, but the problem is anyone that you have accepted as a friend can see that status change. For example, I am friends with my mother on Facebook and when I asked her what her favorite thing about Facebook was she replied, â€Å"My favorite part about Facebook is that I can look on my kids profile and see what they have been up to. I got a similar response from a friend that said she likes Facebook because it keeps her in on the latest gossip. This is why we need to be careful when on facebook. Not everyone’s intent while on Facebook is to enhance communication. Some people use Facebook as their center for gossip and you never know who has this outlook while interacting over Facebook. Facebook offers many different ways to communicate with others. Status updates is just one of the many different services facebook offers. Status updates are a nice way to communicate what you are doing from a day to day asis or share short quotes that you found interesting. These status updates definitely help communication between people. Another service Facebook offers to communicate with others i s the message service. If you want to have a private conversation with one or more people you can use the message service. This message service is somewhat like an email in the sense that you can send and receive messages that no one but the intended recipient can see. This is helpful if you want to plan a surprise party for some one and only want certain people to know about it.This service is a very good way to have an intimate conversation with others, and I think that it is a very good service. However, many people don’t use the message box as much as they should. This creates problems over Facebook. Another conversation method that is used on facebook is posting on others wall. The only problem with this is that everyone can see your wall. This can create many social mishaps. â€Å"While social networks sites provide the opportunity to reunite with long lost friends, they also allow people to make their information public within their circle of friends. (Muise, Christof ides, Desmarais, 442) Anyone that is your friend can look at your wall posts and read into it wrong and start a huge rumor about you that ruins your reputation. It is that easy for a simple post on Facebook to be turned into a rumor and soon enough it will be all over your wall and all your friends will see it, making Facebook a center for gossip. That is why I believe if the wall posting service is used unwisely it can turn Facebook into a social disaster waiting to happen. Facebook makes it easy to see what is going on in everyone lives.It gives you notifications when anyone does something such as post on your wall or make a comment on your status or pictures. On your home page it gives you a play by play of what everyone of your friends are doing over Facebook. It tells you when they are online so if you wanted to have a brief conversation with them you could just click on their picture icon and a little chat box will pop up. Also on the home page all your friend’s status changes will be listed on it and you can freely comment or like them whenever you would like.I think these notifications are very helpful ways to quickly send out a conversation to someone so you can keep up a relationship with someone even when our lives are hectic and we don’t have time to sit down with them for coffee. However, Facebook is very addicting. Tynee Seno from the Philippines quotes, â€Å"On average, I spend about four hours a day on Facebook- more time then I spend outside. † (Facebook and You, 34) From personal experience, I can suspect that Tynee is not just conversing with others over facebook for the whole four hours he is on Facebook everyday.When I spend an overwhelming amount of time on Facebook I’m usually looking for an â€Å"in†. I don’t know how many times I have read something over Facebook and went immediately to my phone to text someone about what I had read over facebook. â€Å"Did you see what she posted on his wall ? † And as simple as that, another gossip chain has begun. For many, it is not intentional to start this gossip chain. As humans, we are just very curious beings and sometime I even believe that jealousy can get involved. â€Å"Facebook may expose an individual to potentially jealousy-provoking information. (Muise, Christofides, and Desmarais, 443) Like I said before, we don’t do this on purpose. It is just in our human nature to do this. However, I want to encourage you that next time you read something on Facebook that wasn’t meant for you to read, instead of going and sharing it with the world, try to look past it. Just think how you would feel if you posted something without thinking who all would see your post and it ended up getting spread around in a nasty rumor. If we can avoid this we can avoid making Facebook a place where simple socialization can turn into a disaster.So my advice is, next time you sit down at that computer and go straight to Facebook be careful because you wouldn’t want a simple post to be the start of a social disaster. I think that overall Facebook has great potential in helping people communicate with others. It helps me communicate with people from Mexico by allowing me to be friends with whomever I want, as well as helping me keep in touch with people through its different venues for communicating with people. I think that Facebook is a great social network, however, I believe that it can be made into a social disaster if it were to be misused.Works Cited â€Å"Facebook and You. (Cover story). † Time 175. 21 (2010): 34-35. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. Fletcher, Dan, and Andrea Ford. â€Å"Friends Without Borders. (Cover story). † Time 175. 21 . (2010): 32-38. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. Muise, Amy, Emily Christofides, and Serge Desmarais. â€Å"More Information than You Ever Wanted: Does Facebook Bring Out the Green-Eyed Monster of Jealousy?. † CyberPsychology & Behavior 12. 4 (2009): 441-444. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2010

Google Inc Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Google Inc Business Strategy - Essay Example From this study it is clear that  the analysis of strategic framework of an organization can be done by using the framework of the Generic model proposed by Michael Porter. The model states that a firm can pursue four strategies that include overall cost leadership, focus, differentiation and differentiation focus strategies. Depending on the business and the market environment a firm can either chose one strategy or a combination of these strategies.   Overall cost leadership strategy involves a strategic framework in which a business organization lowers its cost of operations and uses the cost benefits to sell products at lower prices than their competitors. Business organizations using a differentiation strategy provide a unique product or service offering that is unmatched by the competitors in the industry segment.   In the present study the choice of Porter’s generic strategies has been selected because of the fact that Google has a large number of business units and the framework of the generic model proposed by Porter would help in a better understanding of the business strategies of Google. Porter’s generic strategies would not only help analyse the past and present strategies but would also give an idea about the future course of strategic endeavours that would be pursued by the organization.  Google is one organization that is synonymous with internet as it is the largest search engine company.  ... l cost leadership strategy involves a strategic framework in which a business organization lowers its cost of operations and uses the cost benefits to sell products at lower prices than their competitors. Business organizations using a differentiation strategy provide a unique product or service offering that is unmatched by the competitors in the industry segment. Firms using such a strategy normally charge a premium for their uniqueness in the product or service offering and generate their core competence based on their innovations. Focus strategy involves targeting a very core and niche consumer segment and providing services that tend to cater to the very specific needs of the customers (Botten, 2007, p.263). Bowman’s strategic clock (refer annexure 2) also includes the above dimensions of Porter’s strategic model in addition to the inclusion of competitive rivalry within the industry (Drews, 2010, p.8). In the present study the choice of Porter’s generic str ategies has been selected because of the fact that Google has a large number of business units and the framework of the generic model proposed by Porter would help in a better understanding of the business strategies of Google. Porter’s generic strategies would not only help analyse the past and present strategies but would also give an idea about the future course of strategic endeavours that would be pursued by the organization. Analysis and Evaluation of Google Strategy Google is one organization that is synonymous with internet as it is the largest search engine company. In addition to search engine that constitutes the bulk of its business, the company also has many other business units that includes video streaming, online social networking etc. The main source of revenue for the company comes

Compre and contrast education of a coach and quiet strength Essay

Compre and contrast education of a coach and quiet strength - Essay Example From the book, the author also highlighted coaching skills which mainly focused on character creation and considering the influence of God as a leader and a source of direction. The novel bases its creation of coaching skills in three main points: No excuses, No explanations Coach Dungy always wanted his players to take responsibility of all the actions they take up. In his argument this would make them great men not just great players. Taking responsibility of their actions created a perception in them to be responsible in life not just as players. In this coaching tactic, he encourages them to live by the word of Lord; the truth shall set you free (Dundy & Whitaker 114). He teaches his players to stop blaming others and from this is the only way they could be free and happy with their actions (Dundy & Whitaker 114). The Lord always gives us direction if we just have enough faith Dungy recognizes the influence and importance of God throughout his life and he wanted to replicate this success by enlightening his players on the importance of believing in the grace of God (Dungy & Whitaker 40). When he was sacked as the coach of Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he viewed this as a direction God has planned for him (Dungy & Whitaker 40). ... In Quiet Strength leadership tactics are also connected to those bearing characteristics of being able to retain a good relationship with God as well as people in the community. Dungy does not view his leadership and coaching responsibility for not only being able to win trophies and league games by the views his post as one supposed to be helpful to the society(Dungy & Whitaker 8). He practices social responsibility by ensuring he addresses issue in the community and enabling community members realize their importance in life. For instance, after the death of his son he realized the community had a deficiency in empowering its young population (Dungy & Whitaker 8). He empowered young people and enabled them to face life challenges in a more responsible way. He also enables parents who face the same challenges as him in regards to loosing a son face the situation in a more positive way (Dungy & Whitaker 8). â€Å"The education of a coach† David Halberstam was also an exception al coach and leader as his influence in the NFL remain significant to date in regards of his success story and relationship with his players. The coach however, focused more on building tactics based on the game rather than focusing on creation of great personality of his players. He believed that success in the game would replicate success in every other aspect of life. Since he was a child, he had the passion to be football sportsman and help from his father made this dream a reality (Halberstam 50). He grew up analyzing the game and analyzing the tactics from each and every game he watched. In most cases he was referred to s the chalk man, this was in regard to his tactful prowess and his drawing and writing character when he explained to his players what they had to do (Halberstam 40).

Knowledge Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

Knowledge Management - Essay Example ess the issues, questionnaire survey was conducted by integrating 30 fulltime employees from both municipal and water level functions of the Ministry. According to the analysis of the data obtained from questionnaire survey, majority of the respondents expressed their concerns towards the failure of training department to link its training programs with the functional path of the Ministry. Moreover, a lower amount of investment portfolio was observed to radically minimize the efficiency of the training programs and hinder the productivity skills of the employees. In order to deal with the issues, the study provided an effective set of recommendations that can enable the training centers of the Ministry to define appropriate training path facilitating the employees to meet the functional objective of the organization. Ministry of Regional Municipalities & Water Resources (MRMWR) is responsible for controlling and managing water resources across the different areas of Oman. The Ministry has been involved in wide range of functional activities in terms of emphasizing effective use of water resources and improving the quality of life for the citizens of Oman. The department has long been witnessed to effectively deal with wide range of issues associated with managing water resources and provide adequate support to each community across the nation (Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, 2011). However, the MRMWR has also been facing a significant issue associated with its knowledge management initiatives in its training centers that further resulted MRMWR to face major obstacles in terms of aligning its operational goals with the primary objectives of the organization. Moreover, the organization is often identified to face problems relating to financing the training centers in terms of hiring training experts and enabling employees to efficiently meet the organizational goals and objectives (Pinto-Coelho, 2010). The concept of knowledge management