American Sign Language Essay Example for Free

American Sign Language Essay For years psychologists have debated and tried to find out how our individual behaviour is gained- are we born with it or do we gain it through experience? Many psychologists have tried to find ways in which they can measure if our behaviour is learnt or inherited but these psychologists have encountered problems while doing so.  One problem that psychologists have when investigating whether behaviour is learned or inherited is actually finding a task that can be given to all of the different participants. Psychologists carrying out an experiment to find out about behaviour usually have participants which are different in some way, for example different sexes, different cultures, different levels of intelligence. Deregowski conducted a cross cultural experiment to see if people from different cultures perceive pictures the same. He found that the African children spent a lot of time looking at the pen and paper as they had never before seen or used them in their life. The same task has to be given to all of the participants as the same dependant variable is being measured and this is a big problem as it decreases the reliability of the results. Another problem is that it is very difficult to separate genetics and our experience as we begin learning from the moment we are born. This makes it hard to find a task that can measure just the intelligence we are born with because as long as we are on this planet, we are constantly learning new things that make us more intelligent. Gould carried out an experiment to measure peoples native intellectual ability (the intelligence we are a born with which is unaffected by culture and educational opportunities). The experiment clearly didnt measure native intellectual ability, as you needed to know about American culture to answer the questions. Even thought the experiment was biased and favoured Americans, it is still a good example of how difficult it is to measure our native intellectual ability because Goulds aim for the experiment was to measure this but this obviously proved to be very difficult. Other psychologists have tried to measure the intellectual ability we are born with but many have began to question whether we can ever make a task that measures our native intellectual ability. The only way we come very close to separating our learned and inherited ability is if we separate two identical twins at birth and put them into different environments. We could put one into an environment where a very minimal amount of behaviour is learnt from experience. For example we could put the twin into an empty room with no contact with the outside world and hardly any human contact (somewhat like a prison). The other twin can lead a normal life by going to school, interacting with other people etc. We can then observe the two twins in later life and if their behaviour is very similar or the same, it proves that behaviour is inherited. If the twin who lived in the outside world is more developed that the twin who was shut away from the world, it would prove that our behaviour is gained through experience. This is the only ideal way to investigate whether behaviour is learned or inherited but is this method ethical? Gardner Gardner wanted to see whether a chimpanzee could communicate in American Sign Language and the only way they could investigate their aim was to treat a chimpanzee like a human and take it out of its natural habitat. They proved that a chimpanzee could communicate in ASL but the experiment was criticised by many people who thought it was unethical.

Racial Profiling: Driving While Black is a Real Offense in America Essa

â€Å"In recent years, scores of African Americans and Latinos, including prominent athletes, members of Congress, actors, lawyers, business leaders and even police officers, have experienced the humiliation of being stopped on the nation’s highways upon suspicion of a crime. Few white motorists can tell the same story.† (Bouie 2014). Most colored motorists have had this feeling at least once while driving. The article, "It's Been Proven: "Driving While Black" is a Real Thing" takes a look at incidents around the United States where the multitude of racial stops have been questioned. They explore three sides of the â€Å"driving while black† issue: whites who feel they have never experienced this or were let off for not being colored, blacks who feel they have been discriminated against, and cops defending the force and believing this does not happen. Many State Troopers were being investigated for a variety of discriminatory stops. An attorney, William Merton, has been a part of the investigation of the troopers and found some very interesting information. A man named John Mean was pulled over by the troopers, where he was driving the same speed as the cars around him and he was pulled over. He then was threatened, with the probability of a search warrant, to give up his privacy rights and be searched. His car was then searched and he was release with a warning, twenty-five minutes later. This incident, like many others, was not reported, which shows a suspicion in the data collected from the department (Bouie 2014). Through a debate with Christopher A. Darden, an Associate Professor of Law at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles and Byron Warnken, a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, they ex... ...tute. Web. 28 May 2015. http://www.policemisconduct.net/ Bouie, Jamelle. "It's Been Proven: "Driving While Black" is a Real Thing" The Daily Beast. Jan. 10 2014. Web. 1 June 2015. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/10/watch-out-driving-while-black-is-still-a-problem.html Martin, Rich. (2010). "Police Corruption" FBI Web. 23 May 2015. http://leb.fbi.gov/2011/may/police-corruption-an-analytical-look-into-police-ethics Harris, David A. ACLU. (1999). "DRIVING WHILE BLACK: RACIAL PROFILING ON OUR NATION'S HIGHWAYS" American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 18 May 2015. https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways Harris, D. (n.d.). Cost of Getting Stopped. THE STORIES, THE STATISTICS, AND THE LAW: WHY "DRIVING WHILE BLACK" MATTERS. Web. 30 May 2015. http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/dwb02.htm

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Name: Soumya Prem Roll no: 20120119150 Uncertainty reduction theory – Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese This theory explains how communication is used to reduce the uncertainty among people when they meet each other for the first time. It is assumed that when strangers meet, their primary objective is to reduce uncertainty about the other person involved in the interaction. We always want to reduce the uncertainties about our surroundings and the people in it since being uncertain about anything is not a pleasant feeling to have.Berger proposed that there are 3 factors that influence whether people will want to work towards reducing uncertainties about a certain situation.1. Anticipation of future interaction – You will try to reduce uncertainties if you know there is a possibility of meeting this person again. Therefore, you are more likely to use uncertainty reduction behaviour when you meet someone at a party that you might be interested in.2. Incentive value – If this person is capable to doing something for you or against you even, then there are higher chances of yo u trying to reduce uncertainties.3. Deviance – If the person behaves oddly and shows some bizarre characteristics, you are likely to use uncertainty reduction. For example if you meet a new prospective client whom you have to meet in the future and could give your company a new project and has a strange fascination for the colour purple, you would be interested in communicating more to fit the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together to get to know who she really is. There are 3 ways to seek information from the other person-1. Passive Strategy – Observing someone without being observed2. Active Strategy – Asking a third party for more information3.Interactive Strategy – Obtaining information directly by asking questions and offering personal information about yourselfA demonstration of this can be seen in this scene from a very famous Hollywood movie ‘Hitch’ where Will Smith’s character tries to seek more information about Sara Melas at a bar where in he uses all the strategies mentioned above for interaction. Berger proposes a series of 8 axioms to explain the connection between uncertainty and eight key variables of relationship development which areVerbal communication -As the amount of verbal communication increases, the level of uncertainty decreases. As uncertainty decreases, the amount of verbal communication increases.Non verbal warmth – As nonverbal warmth increases, uncertainty levels decreases in a situation. In turn a decrease in uncertainty level will cause an increase in nonverbal warmth.Information seeking –When uncertainty is more, the tendency to seek information increases. As uncertainty decreases, information seeking behaviour decreases.Self disclosure – When uncertainty levels are high, the levels of intimacy in communication is less. As uncertainty reduces the level of intimacy increases.Reciprocity – Higher the uncertainty, higher the reciprocity. Lower the uncertain ty, lower the reciprocity.Similarity – Similarities between people decreases uncertainty, while dissimilarities increases uncertainty.Liking – Increase in uncertainty decreases liking and decrease in uncertainty increases liking.Shared networks – If there are shared networks among the two people like common friends then uncertainty is less and vice versa.Uncertainty reduction theory in movies – Meet the parentsMeeting someone for the first time can be a nerve racking experience for many. In this movie Greg is meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Jack, Pam’s father is overly protective of his daughter. He constantly mocks Greg’s choice of occupation as a nurse and makes him uncomfortable in a lot of situations with an intention to keep him away from his daughter. Greg tries to impress Jack from time to time but nothing seems to work in his favour because Jack does not show any liking towards him. Jack’s verbal ou tput, nonverbal cues and constant information seeking causes Greg to fear him.Consequently, there is never a stable interaction between Jack and Greg as there is a lot of uncertainty between them. Applications of Uncertainty Reduction theory In an article titled ‘Interactive Uncertainty Reduction Strategies and Verbal Affection in Computer-Mediated Communication’ published by Marjolijn L. Antheunis, Alexander P. Schouten, Patti M. Valkenburg and Jochen Peter, they investigated the language-based strategies that computer-mediated communication (CMC) users employ to reduce uncertainty in the absence of nonverbal cues.CMC condition had i. Higher levels of intimacy than face to face condition ii. More affection statements than face to face condition iii. There was no observed differences between text-only CMC and visual CMC condition In another article titled ‘The Acquaintanceship Process: An Examination of Uncertainty, Information Seeking, and Social Attraction durin g Initial Conversation’ published by William Douglas, the relationship between uncertainty reduction, information seeking, and liking during unstructured initial interaction was studied.Analyses showed that Significant linear and quadratic trends in the uncertainty scores. Global uncertainty-related to uncertainty about the specific person after interaction and the amount of uncertainty reduction that they achieved. Uncertainty and liking were inversely correlated both before and after interaction. Global uncertainty -predictive of amount of information seeking Specific uncertainty -unrelated to the frequency of both asking questions and disclosing. Critique point of viewIt can be argued that reducing uncertainty about the self and another in an initial encounter might not be an individual's primary concern. A more primary goal would be to maximize relational outcomes. It is not always necessary to reduce uncertainties for obtaining your incentive from the other person. Also a want for information rather than lack of information is what promotes information-seeking in initial encounters with other people. Also one of the axioms states that as the level of uncertainty reduces, liking increases.This may not be necessarily true since there can be a situation where in after communicating you come to realise that the other person possesses qualities that you are not fond of or comfortable about. In this case, there will not be an increase in liking rather there is a possibility of the opposite, i. e. a decrease in liking.Scholarly article sources: http://crx. sagepub. com/content/21/2/154. abstracthttp://crx. sagepub. com/content/early/2011/06/01/0093650211410420. abstractOther sources: http://www. wikipedia. org/http://wikis. lib. ncsu. edu/index. php/Uncertainty_Reduction_Theoryhttp://www. youtube. com/

How Alcohol Is An Important Aspect Necessary For Human...

Alcohol presents an important aspect necessary for human survival owing to its wide-ranging benefits in the clinical context. Ideally, alcohol acts as an effective germ killer owing to its great potential of coagulating a germ’s protein. Indeed, the use of alcohol is not new to the clinical setting as way back in the 1800’s, alcohol alongside specific herbs were in surgical operations used for the major purpose of reducing pain. As studies reveal, lately there has been an increasing trend of using alcohol in surgical operations in theatre to prevent the possible occurrence of infections. As Lobley (72) states, â€Å"this relates to the aseptic technique that comprises of practices that aim at ensuring patients do not acquire any infections when undergoing surgical operations.† Notably, clinical professionals use alcohol in various ways such as the sterilization of theatre linen and equipment, patient preparation, and theatre preparation alongside surgical team pr eparation. As Josephson (18) suggest, â€Å"dedicated surgery nurses should make the use of alcohol in line with the aseptic technique not only an everyday practice but rather a normal way of life implying that the process ought to become second nature.† The use of alcohol in theatre operations is sterilization, without alcohol, the essential need of sterilization would not result good safety measures. â€Å"Not all types of alcohol are suitable for use in theatre operations† (Josephson 22) so it is good to have a goodShow MoreRelatedWhy Do We Need Sleep?1713 Words   |  7 Pagesenergetic, happier, more alert, and better able to function after a good night’s sleep. However the fact that sleep makes us feel better and that going without sleep can make us feel worse is just the beginning to understanding why sleep might be necessary. One way to think of sleeping is to compare it to another one of our life-sustaining activities: eating. 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