Community and Culture Play a Role in Determining the Risk for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Essay

Substance abuse and addiction are major problems in society today. Every segment of society, regardless of race, gender, or age is affected. Some of the substances that are used grow naturally, whereas others are manufactured illicitly or even legitimately in laboratories. They may be smoked, inhaled, ingested, or injected and used for social, religious, or self-medicating purposes. The substances that are abused include caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, steroids, stimulants, depressants, heroin, cocaine and the list goes on. Substance abuse ranks high among serious health problems. Since 1979 illicit drug use and alcohol consumption has declined, but the widespread use of and dependence on these substances continues. Nicotine, now classified by the Food and Drug Administration as an addictive substance, is linked to more deaths annually than AIDS, cancer, and other substances combined. Alcohol is also a major social problem today. Use and abuse of alcohol are a factor in contributing to injuries and death. The cost of substance abuse is increasing in our society. Lives are lost, and loss of work productivity costs millions of dollars each year. Alcohol is a factor in 40% of all motor vehicle accidents, and alcohol and other drugs are often implicated in boating or athletic accidents. Costs’ include not only lives lost but also medical care, long-term services to the disabled, and increased insurance rates. Health care cost for clients that use alcohol, drugs, and nicotine are estimated to be greater than $160 billion annually. It has been confirmed that there is link between violence and alcohol and other drugs. Alcohol and drugs are a factor in vandalism on college campuses, date rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Under the influence of alcohol and drugs, young adults are more likely to engage in unsafe sexual practices, and parents are more likely to abuse their children. Certain factors place some individuals at greater risk than others for the development of abuse and dependence. Biological, psychological, or environmental conditions may predispose a person to the development of a drug or alcohol problem. Risk factors may include some of the following; heavy use of alcohol and other drugs or the presence of abuse or dependency by family members, presence of psychological conflicts, which a person may attempt to resolve through drug use. Other factors that predict that there may be a risk for alcohol and drug abuse include some of the following: †¢Failure in school †¢Rebelliousness and alienation †¢Need for immediate gratification †¢Lack of empathy †¢Frequent lying †¢Insensitivity to punishment The family which is the most powerful unit of socialization transmits cultural beliefs, myths, and values about alcohol and drug use. Also peers, and media personalities deliver messages about drug use, drug-using lifestyles, and the use of wines and spirits are subject of cultural traditions of families. Some groups have used wine strictly for celebratory purposes, others for religious rituals, and some for sustenance. Many cultural groups do not consider alcohol a drug. The result is that among many groups a double standard exists for alcohol and other drugs. Illicit drugs are considered dangerous and unhealthy, but alcohol is accepted and not considered threatening to the individual family, or society. However alcohol and drugs can be threatening to the individual, family, and our society. Substance abuse is known to affect ones behavior and personality. Abusers are known to be manipulative and often are in denial. One of the greatest consequences of alcohol abuse is the physiological damage that can be done. Alcohol is absorbed directly from the stomach and exerts system depression and physiological effects throughout the body almost immediately. In low doses, alcohol produces relaxation, loss of inhibition, loss of concentration, drowsiness, slurred speech, and sleep apnea. When alcohol or any drug of abuse is terminated abruptly by a person who is physiologically dependent they may begin to experience withdrawals. Onset of symptoms of withdrawals begins within 6-12 hours following the cessation or reduction of the drug or alcohol. Withdrawal must be treated, if not withdrawal may progress to withdrawal delirium untreated delirium may result in death. Treatment can be approached on several different bases. Inpatient hospitalization is usually a 2 to 4 week hospitalization in a unit of a general hospital, residential treatment center or psychiatric hospital; therapy provides corrective emotional experiences. This atmosphere provides safety, restricts access to the drug, and monitors self-destructive behavior. Detoxification Is a supervised medical regimen to withdraw the client from drugs that have induced psychological and physiological dependence. Rehabilitation is usually at a long-term hospital that addresses all phases of treatment. In many areas halfway houses serve as a rehabilitation facility that provides a sheltered and emotionally and financially supportive environment with peers. Counseling is a useful and effective means it can be administered on an individual basis or in family counseling. Support groups would be another effective means to support a person with substance-related disorders and their families. There are many groups modeled on the Twelve-Step approach of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Other groups include Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Al-Anon (ANA), Adult Children of Alcoholic’s (ACOA), Sex and love addicts Anonymous (SLAA) and Ala-Teen (ALAT). These are a few of the self-help groups that can be contacted in our communities to help those who are abusing or have friends or family members who are abusers. Most of these groups are free of charge and are conducted by people who have abused and are now recovering.

Introduction to Civil Law Essay

Since Roman law there has existed an understanding regarding the structure of the body of legal norms, in that legal relations between actors (so†called legal subjects) can mainly be of two kinds. One involves equality between the players: legal subjects are free to enter into the legal relations of their choice, and they have the power to mutually influence the contents of their relation: their rights and obligations. Eventually this happens when persons enter into legal relations with each other as private parties, within their private capacities. Example I.1 When Janis and Inga decide, that Janis will buy Inga’s watch, they both have the option to decide whether or not Janis will buy and Inga will sell the watch – that is to say, whether to make the contract for the sale of Inga’s watch. The same is true of the question of what the major conditions of the deal should be – price, time and place of performance, supplementing services such as whether or not Inga will provide Janis with extra batteries, etc. All these issues are decided by the parties mutually and either of the two parties can at any time say â€Å"no† to what the other party proposes. The same is true of other kinds of private relations, e.g. whether or not they will want to start dating each other and later on be married to each other. Another, quite different set of cases is one in which this equality between the parties does not exist. In those cases one of the parties is subordinated to the other. One of the parties can compel the othe r to enter into a legal relationship with it and dictate the terms. See more: introduction paragraph example For example, when Janis has to pay taxes to the tax authority of his country, he can not say â€Å"no, I do not want to pay taxes, i.e. I do not want to enter into a tax paying relationship with you†. He cannot alter the terms of the relationship with the tax authorities either: he can not say â€Å"oh, I am willing to pay taxes, but less – or at a later time – than required†. Or, if Janis suddenly were to kill someone and the police were to arrest him, then the prosecution to charge and finally the court to sentence him, he can not tell the police, the prosecutor or the court â€Å"leave me alone, I do not want to enter into a legal relationship with you†. In both examples, the nature of the legal relationships – tax law, criminal law and criminal procedural law – is such that the legal subjects are not free to decide whether or not to enter into a legal relationship (pay taxes, be investigated, charged and sentenced) and to influence its content. It is easy to discover that in these examples the representatives of â€Å"the other side† – the tax authority officer, the policeman, the prosecutor, the judge – did not act in their private capacities like Inga when selling her watch to Janis. They acted in a capacity to represent the interests of the public rather than of the private individual. To the tax authority officer as a private person it is likely not to matter whether Janis pays taxes or not; however, to the public interest of the community (the state) whom he represents, it is important that legal subjects pay their due taxes. The policeman may personally not care if Janis killed someone â€⠀œ perhaps for so long as it was nobody the policeman personally knew – but to the wider society it is of primary importance that killers be caught, brought to justice and punished. Thereby, in all these situations it is a public interest that overwrites the equality and freedom of the other party enjoyed in private relations. It is not difficult to recognize that the public interest that prevails over the autonomy of the private individual is represented by the state. In legal relations where the parties act freely, they act in their own private interests as private individuals or in another word as civilians. Thereby, this area of law is named private law or civil law. In cases where one of the parties lacks this freedom whereas the other has a compelling power to bind the other party, it is usually for the interests of the public. Thereby, this area of law is named public law. Private or civil law covers such cases as company law, where relations are between private individuals who want to associate for a common business purpose and set up a company of their own to pursue a profit†making activity; contract law where equals are making deals between thems elves; family law, where private individuals get together for the purposes of establishing a family through marriage, having children and taking care of and raising their children; copyright law, where one individual creates a piece in the literary, artistic or scientific domain for the use and enjoyment of all others in society, etc. Public law covers such areas as public international law, constitutional law, the law of public administration, criminal law, all procedural laws such as criminal procedure and civil procedure, financial law and tax law, etc. The course Comparative administrative and constitutional law, which students have had by the time they encounter their first private law courses, was a good example of public law fields. Note that the dichotomy of private and public law does not cover the entire legal system, albeit it fairly well covers the overwhelming majority of legal relations. For example the branch of private international law (conflict of laws) deals with situations in which the subjects of the legal relationship are not the state and subordinated legal subjects such as taxpayers, criminal offenders, etc., as in public law, or private persons acting in theoretically equal positions such as in private law, but legal systems between which a choice has to be made because the case is factual ly connected to more than one legal system.

Behaviour Therapy for Child Sleep Disorder

Behaviour Therapy for Child Sleep Disorder Aims: Outlines the nature of behavioural aspects of children’s sleep and how these might be addressed by behaviour therapy. Clinical considerations concerned with the use of behavioural therapy are also highlighted. Consider behavioural aspects (ie, learned behaviours) and their relevance for our understanding of children’s sleep patterns and management of their sleep disorders. Increase awareness of how behavioural factors may play a role in the development and treatment of wide-ranging paediatric sleep disorders and to discuss clinical considerations relevant to management planning and decisions about whether to refer a child for specialist behavioural therapy. Classification: International Classification of Sleep Disorders of ‘‘behavioural insomnia of childhood’’:Â  (present with difficulty settling to sleep, nightwaking and/or early waking difficulties) Overall prevalence rates of 30% ‘‘inappropriate sleep onset asso ciations’’ (ie, where the child has not learnt to fall asleep without a set of problematic or demanding conditions such as parents’ being present), ‘ ‘limit-setting sleep disorder’’ (ie where the care giver demonstrates insufficient or inappropriate limit-setting to establish appropriate sleep behaviour in the child) ‘‘combined’’subtype where these two problems co-exist. 25–50% of 6–12-month olds have difficulty settling to sleep or waking in the night do not decrease with age: by age 3 years, 25–30% have sleeplessness problems With similar percentages reported for the 3–5-year age group, 43% of 8–10-year olds 23% of 10– 17-year olds. These problems are not transient; an epidemiological study of a cohort of 5-year olds suggested that sleeping problems at age 5 years were significantly associated with sleeping difficulties at age 6 months (or before) and that children with sleep problems at age 5 years were more likely to have sleeping problems at 10 years. Over 80 sleep disorders listed in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, which are divided into six main categories: insomnia, sleep-related breathing disorders, hypersomnia of central origin, circadian rhythm disorders (ex. Delayed sleep phase syndrome) parasomnias (ex. Sleep terrors, nightmares) Helped by beh therapy. sleep-related movement disorder (ex. nocturnal headbanging) (in preliminary reports) Behavioural Interventions: Classical conditioning is a form of associative learning whereby a neutral stimulus is paired with a naturally occurring stimulus, which evokes the desired behavioural response until, after multiple pairings, the neutral stimulus alone is sufficient to elicit the desired behaviour; thus behaviours are conditioned to be elicited by antecedent conditions. Operant conditioning involves the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behaviour. The particular intervention strategy used will vary depending on family and child factors and the nature of the sleep disturbance one hopes to address. General Principles: (The more consistently these principles are applied, the easier it will be for the child to learn) Behaviour can be encouraged by linking it with an antecedent stimulus, which serves to trigger the desired behaviour. Reinforcement- Behaviour is likely to recur if the consequences of the behaviour were reinforcing for the child. (Can be pos or neg) Extinction, or removing reinforcement (eg, drinks, parental presence, attention) maintaining the undesired behaviour (eg, crying, refusal to settle to sleep without the above) can be achieved gradually or abruptly. Shaping- A new behaviour can be encouraged by rewarding a series of responses that more and more closely resemble the desired behaviour. Punishment- Behaviour is less likely to occur if followed by a punishing consequence. (Can be pos or neg) Rewards Success

User Manual for Marymount Online Functions Assignment

User Manual for Marymount Online Functions - Assignment Example It is intended for students who have not explored the various functions, features, and terminology and course registration process of the online application software. This manual focuses on the function of how to obtain Marynet, Grades for 14/SP. Several requirements are needed to be able to use this manual. You will need either a PC, Laptop, Tablet or a smartphone with an installed adobe program that will allow you to read this manual. No additional programs and software is needed. Most importantly, you will need to have internet connection to be able to access the online application. The sections and topics in this manual are interelated, therefore, you should read and understand preceding topics and sections consecutively. It is also recommended that you read the manual keenly understanding all the procedures accurately. For better understanding, most procedures have been illustrated using screenshots and pictures alongside their descriptions. Should you have any additional questions and clarifications, the FAQ section answers soe of the common questions . New and custom terms unique to this manual have also been defined and explained in the glosary. Before you can be able to perform any functions in the online application, you must log in to the system. To do so use the following address to open the login web page: https://bb.marymount.edu . Simply click on the link to be able to log in. The following webpage will appear. Type your user name and password on this screen then click login to log in to the system. In case you experience any problems while logging, such as forgetting your password, simply click the â€Å"Reset My Marymount Password† link. Once you login you will be able to access the Main Menu from where you can select the actions you wish to perform. The following screen appears that will allow you to select the appropriate function to perform. After selecting

The Truman Doctrine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Truman Doctrine - Essay Example Truman argued that if the countries received no support at that time of the urgent need brought about by war, grave consequences would emerge. Many authors have written vastly about the Truman Doctrine as discussed in this essay. According to Lykogiannis (104), Truman believed that the war was a threat not only to international peace but also to the national security of the United States. President Truman asked the United States Congress to provide economic and military support to democratic nations facing war, hence the Truman doctrine. The Truman doctrine changed the United States foreign policy effectively. Historians considered the doctrine as the genesis of the cold war (Freeland 77). The Greek Communist war got support from the Soviet Union who posed as a threat to the Greek policy makers. The United States, through the request of President Truman, provided close to half a billion dollars financial aid to both Greek and Turkey. The Truman Doctrine developed to the United States policy of supporting free people who get subjected to armed minor groups of people or by external pressures. According to President Truman, the doctrine was for the best interest of the United States at large. The doctrine had a strategic goal despite supporting the majority rights (Spalding 55). Economically, Greece lacks sufficient natural resources, thus making it a poor country compared to other developed countries. The country has suffered four years of cruel invasion making economic and social development difficult. Politically, the country had suffered immense destruction from German liberation, and inflation rates remained high. These tragic conditions forced the emergence of a militant minority giving rise to political chaos. This has made Greece’s economic recovery slow and difficult as the country struggles to reconstruct. The financial aid given by United States helped boost the country economic status but was not enough to

Optical Fiber and WLAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Optical Fiber and WLAN - Essay Example However, working on an efficient frequency use, one point must be addressed i.e. GSM mobile and wireless network users will use the same medium i.e. air and that may result in in an interference or obstruction of frequencies, if design is not adequate (Al-Hunaity 2011). Wireless LAN utilizes radio frequencies or electromagnetic waves for carrying signals to the source or destination similar to Amplitude Modulation AM, frequency modulation FM or Frequency Division Multiple Access FDMA. FDMA allocates the available frequency range in to small ranges that are also called sub-frequencies. After dividing the sub frequencies, each sub frequency is utilized as a stand-alone frequency and is called as a channel. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has defined Wireless LAN standards by IEEE 802.11. The IEEE 802.11 standard is defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Incorporated. Likewise, overviews of wireless LAN standards are demonstrated below (Al-Hunaity 2 011): IEEE 802.11 (legacy mode) standard was defined in 1997, as it talks about two bandwidth rates i.e. 1 Megabits per second (Mbps) and 2 Megabits per second (Mbps) operational in a 2.4 GHz frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) and in the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). IEEE 802.11a is operational on a 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum and utilize frequency band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) that offers a maximum data transfer rates of 54 Mbps. Moreover, it also offers 12 channels that are non-interference along with 4 outdoor channels and 8 indoor channels. IEEE 802.11b standard is operational on a 2.4 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum that offers... Moreover, bandwidth access for end users may reach 1 GB per day by 2015 and 10 GB per day by the end of 2020 (Parker, Walker et al. 2010). Likewise, research and studies associated with NGA incorporates convergence with different technologies and the wireless convergence is addressed by Radio over Fiber (Parker, Walker et al. 2010). A fiber radio network consists of two different domains, one is optical and the other one is wireless. The wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), in the optical domain is used to combine a number of wavelengths together in order to send them through a network known as fiber-optic network. Hence the growing use of available fiber bandwidth and maximizing total data throughput, a single CO supply each remote radio BS and has access to divide optical wavelength, therefore to accomplish the requirements of future bandwidth wireless. From CO to BS a separate optical wavelength is allocated in the downlink. However, it can be used in the uplink route as BS to CO. On the contrary, a channel offset method can be used or downlink and uplink channels can be interleaved because, by using the identical wavelength in both the directions is not necessary. The main aspect that determines the type of that optical network and the tools used in CO and BS is that whether the data designed for the BS i s sent at the baseband or at intermediate-or radio-frequency(IF and RF).

Interview Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interview Questions - Essay Example The interview questions will be divided into five groups targeting different data set and they will include: 4. Do you think that religious scholars and liberal oriented society members can get together for a common cause? What do you think would be the common ground that could bring these two different oriented societies together? How will this collaboration be helpful in the development of the society and what would be the possible outcome? Will this outcome be beneficial? 12. Do you think your organization is among the organizations that could serve as a mediation point between society and government? If so, in what manner and on what issues can it mediate and the instances that it has already mediated. 10. Do you think that the leap in technology and media are helping the Saudi women in sharing her interests and thoughts to other women in society? What other ways do you think exist that may allow Saudi women to be more actively effective in

Assessment for Taxation Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assessment for Taxation Law - Assignment Example A lump sum is subjected to tax on the extent to which it is quantifiable and identifiable as representing reimbursement of income loss. In this case, we shall analyze cases related to this scenario, and try to relate the extent to which the damage that was paid to Nutra Tech Pty Ltd is assessable for tax purpose. Cases and judgments In McLaurin v FCT, the court resolved a case that involved payment of lump sum amount, paid as damages caused by a bush fire on the taxpayers grazing property. 1 This lump sum was a collection of particular items of damage, which were not clearly disclosed to the taxpayer. The court ruled that the distribution was in order after analyzing the details of the case. The decision in this case supported dissection of a payment into several heads and classify some as income and others as non-income, given that the payments is in relation to separate claims, some of which must be liquidated (Nethercott, Devos, & Richardson, 2010). In Van den Berghs Ltd v Clark,2 the judge distinguished capital from income through two tests. One test aimed at establishing whether the contract was part of a fixed framework, that the capital belonged. The other test was to establish whether the contract was purely supplementary to profit-making or a crucial part of the process itself. In this case, the taxpayer entered a contract with a Dutch company, but the contract was terminated and Van den Berghs paid ?450,000 as damages for cancellation of the agreement. The judges held that this amount was capital in nature, since Van den Berghs gave up its right under the agreement. In addition, it was argued that the agreement which was canceled was not commercial in nature, but only affected the manner in which profit-making activities were run. Furthermore, examination of the company’s circumstances exposed that the contract stood for the permanent framework that Van den Berghs run its trade (Nethercott, Devos, & Richardson, 2010). The case of Californian Oi l Products (In Lia) v FC is also related to capital and revenue income. The case was concerned with a taxpayer, who entered into an agreement with a foreign company, which accorded it rights to dispense its oil products in Australia. 3As a result, the oil company terminated the contract and compensated California Oil for the termination. The court ruled that the amount paid as damages for termination of the contract involved ditching a fundamental sole business; hence, the compensation was of a capital nature. In FC of T v CSR, it was decided that capital gain tax provisions, were applicable if the taxpayer obtained a lump sum in exchange of damages for breach of contract. In regard to Income Tax Assessment Act, 118-20, which is related to CGT taxing powers relationships to the rest of the provisions, the capital gain would be reduced if the amount was assessable income, as stipulated in sections 20-25(4) (CCH Australia Limited, 2009). Application of the cases To establish whether t he damage received by Nutra Tech Pty Ltd is of capital or income nature, it is important to consider whether the terminated agreement, which was related to consultancy services, was associated to its profit-making activities. If Nutra Tech Pty Ltd could be able to obtain another contract to replace the terminated one, then it can be held that the agreement did not obstruct Nutra Tech Pty Ltd’s profit-making act

Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Terrorism - Essay Example sider the motive of the Government for introducing such extreme measures and try to reach a conclusion as to whether the reaction of the Government is proportionate to the threat or whether the Government are using legislation as a tool to target minority sectors. The study will necessarily involve an analysis behind the circumstances of the arrests of suspects and offer an opinion as to whether the way in which the suspect was detained was necessary or whether the measures used were too extreme. This will involve an analysis of newspaper reports in relation to the manner of the arrest and will look at the outcome following the arrest. This will be particularly important in relation to those that are subsequently released without charge. This study will consider whether the Government has adopted the correct approach to the threat of terrorism or whether their actions could be regarded as too extreme. Chapter one will look at the definition of terrorism and will attempt to define acts that ought to be considered as acts of terrorism. Within this framework the study will consider the arrests of terrorist suspects and the circumstances behind these arrests. It is anticipated that this might reveal that in many cases the Government reaction to the threat of terrorism is too extreme. Chapter 2 will look at the reason for legislation in this area. This will involve an analysis of the 9/11 attack in the United States of America and the 7/7 attack in the United Kingdom. The research will then expand to examine the powers that have been given to the police through this legislation and will examine the legality of arrests that have occurred since the changes that have been introduced through legislation. In chapter 3 the study will examine the human rights aspect of the legislation and will pose the question as to whether the present legislation offends against the principles of the Human Rights Act. This will necessarily involve considering whether the fear of a

Lars Peter Hanser Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lars Peter Hanser - Research Paper Example The most noticeable element of his work is that he shed light on how various policy proposals may affect the economy (Tom, 12). Hansen also made changes to the process of carrying out empirical research through his work, â€Å"Large Sample Properties of Generalized-Methods of Moment Estimators.† His work had great impacts to macroeconomics and finance since these are the areas in which the concept of prices has big effects. Hansen shares the prized with Eugene F. Fama who is also a professor at the same university. With their imperial analysis and provisions on asset prices, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences greatly honored them. Their research and development is important in the fact that evaluators use the analysis to give basis to why and how band and stock prices fluctuates with time (Tom, 16). Hansen came up with an important statistical concept that may be used to determine short-term changes in the price of assets. In his research, Hansen came up with a statistical method that could be used to test for the rational theories of asset pricing. The two professors were also very important from the university’s perspective since they demonstrated its mission towards solving rampant economic problems in the society today. Their work has had great impacts in the shaping of the nature of today’s financial markets and economics in general. ... He tactfully used various economic models to explain asset prices. Hansen has always looked for chances through which financial and economic data may be linked up with economic models. Hansen saw the development data analysis methods and processes such as testing analyzing and formulating dynamic models in areas of high uncertainty (Tom, 28). With the help of these models, Hansen has been able to the determinants of important variables such as security market prices, savings and consumption. During the early days of 1980’s, Hansen was mentioned to be the leading contributor when it came to the development and use of testing methods and rigorous estimation for financial data. To this date, Hansen is still a prolific researcher. His most recent works consist of models that seek to incorporate the beliefs of investors and consumers as well as existing ambiguity in the relationship. More precisely, Hansen sought to explain how models may be used in the analysis of financial and ec onomic data to help determine the consequences accruing to various policy options (Tom, 29). Hansen is the one who invested on a research project to bring together a group of elite economists to come up with new economic models to help in creating linkages to the financial sector. The developed models will be of great importance as they will provide more powerful policy tools to be used in the measuring, monitoring of an economy’s systematic risks arising from financial markets. International studies Hansen has been working with the University of Chicago ever since 1981, where he happens to have been a former, chairman and director of graduate circles. Hansen has also received an award of 2006 Erwin Plein Nemmers prize

Double Standards Every Woman Should Know Essay Example for Free

Double Standards Every Woman Should Know Essay For this book analysis I chose to read a book from this list of books that hasn’t been mentioned much in class. We have been talking about God and topics that are more controversial in society. I read the book He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti. This book was easy to read with Valentis short essays and thoughts on modern feminism, stereotypes, and heightening ones awareness to pervasive myths about women. Double standards are nothing new. Women deal with them every day. Take the common truism that women who sleep around are sluts while men are studs. None of the information was really unexpected or suprising to me because it’s all true. Every women is stereotyped by the way she talks, the way she dresses, her personality, etc, while a man isn’t really stereotyped because people think it’s ok for men to do the things they do, that it makes him look like a stud not a player. The examples Valenti uses are familiar and widespread: he’s tough, she’s a tomboy; he’s a bachelor, she’s a spinster; he’s angry, she’s PMSing; he’s successful, she’s a showoff. Perhaps the most widely cited is the â€Å"he’s the boss, she’s a bitch† scenario, which has been the subject of countless editorials in the past decade. Some of the questions I was seeking to answer when reading this book were am I a feminist? What can feminism do for me? This book made me realize I am a feminist. I believe men and women should all have equal rights and opportunities. Some people may not want to admit they are feminist because they think that feminists are mean, angry, man hating, hairy, lesbians, but they really aren’t. In all of reality feminism refers to movements aimed at establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Some questions that have arisen are why is it that men grow distinguished and sexily gray as they age while women just get saggy and haggard? Isn’t it unfair that working moms are labeled bad for focusing on their careers while we shake our heads in disbelief when we hear about the occasional stay at home dad? 3a. â€Å"When I was in high school, I had a reputation—a bad one,† she writes. â€Å"It felt, at the time, like the reputation†¦had materialized out of nowhere. And I was confused.† That experience helped to shape her fascination with how the prevailing culture puts men and women into different categories, even when they act in the exact same way. She was categorized because of her sex which wasn’t fair to her, and it isn’t fair to many other women that are being categorized because of their sex. Men aren’t any better then women. 3b. When Valenti said â€Å"He’s dating a young woman, she’s a cougar?† Really? I thought men were cradle robbers. Men aren’t studs anymore, they’re usually players or, simply, douche bags. I probably agree that some double standards do exist but I tend to think that this whole patriarchal society thing, while it is somewhat valid, is honestly most often perpetuated by women j udging each other.

The Neuropsychological Double Dissociation Psychology Essay

The Neuropsychological Double Dissociation Psychology Essay Uncomfortable bedfellows; according to Bishop this constitutes the relationship between cognitive neuropsychology and developmental disorders. Boyle et al. (2011) showed that one out of six children suffer from a developmental disorder. The ICD-10 (WHO, 1992) defines developmental disorders (DD) as fulfilling three categories: an early onset, a delay in developmental functions relating to the CNS or biological maturation and a lack of remission. The DSM-IV (APA, 2000) takes a different direction by categorising Pervasive Developmental Disorders as characterized by impaired development of reciprocal social interaction and communication skills and the presence of stereotyped behaviour, interests, and activities. Whilst the first definition describes DD like developmental Prosopagnosia (face blindness, DP) which affects around 2.47% of the population (Kennerknecht, Grueter T., Welling, Wentzek, Horst, Edwards, Grueter M., 2006), the latter definition matches the triad of impairments of autism (ASD) which has a prevalence of 1% (Boyle et al., 2011). Comorbidity of DD such as ASD and prosopagnosia can result (Bate, 2012). At the same time, around 20% of individuals over 18 years suffer from acquired brain disorders and diseases (Family Caregiver Alliance, 2012). Deficits in acquired and developmental individuals are commonly mapped out using functional models and explored via double-dissociations. These are usually derived from acquired disorder (AD) patients rather than DD patients. How these factors influence the debate of cognitive neuropsychology and DD making uncomfortable bedfellows shall be explored in the following. Several points will be discussed as having an influential role in the debate of cognitive neuropsychology (CN) accounting for developmental disorders (DD). These are: modularity, plasticity and compensation, competence and performance, differences between exploring AD and DD and the role of double-dissociations in relation to developmental versus acquired disorders as displayed in CN. The association between structural and cognitive development is gaining recognition. Developmental changes in task-specific processing such as that of faces have been argued to play an important role in the amalgamation of various brain networks and experience-based growth of neural architecture (Westermann, Sirois, Shultz, Mareschal, 2006). Also, a bidirectional interaction between behavioural and neuronal development has been established as learning supposedly influences brain structuring and vice versa. Similarly, the rate of neurogenesis arguably depends on learning and environmental circumstances (Westermann et al., 2006). (Bishop, 1997, p.902) Following on from that, cognition is executed by the growing neurofunctional network. This distributed parallel processing arguably is organised into interacting modules (Table 1), which comprise of different levels of complexity depending on the cognitive task or function carried out (Jackson, 1958). This can be illustrated by Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, 1995) in ASD: ToM proposes developmental impairment of the ability to appreciate own and others mental states (beliefs, desires or intentions etc). Adams (2010), Brothers (1990) theory of the Social Brain and Leslies (1991) ToM Mechanism argue that key features of ToM can be explained in terms of modularity. Marchery (forthcoming) supports this as modularity poses a crucial characteristic of biological development. Arguably, deficits are not due to minor developmental brain problems in lower-level input and consequential cascading abnormal interaction between input and higher-level systems that affect all cognitive capacities (Karmiloff-Smith, 1998; 1992; Machery, forthcoming). Nonetheless, this is what Gerrans P.,T. and Stone (2008) argue. Additionally, low-level deficits such as gaze and face processing prevent ASD individuals from having the same experience as typically developing individuals, caused by a deficit in domain-general capacity. This has the aforementioned cascading interaction effect during development rather than leading to a dysfunctional mindreading module. However, Gerrans et al. do not see development as single causality. Reconciling, Baron-Cohen (1995) postulates that ToM is either seen as innate module or explained by deficits in general learning mechanisms and unifies both in the intermediate model of Social Perception of Minimalist Innate Modularity. (Amaral, Schumann, Nordahl, 2008, p.2) Figure 1 displays brain structures associated with dysfunctions in ASD. Amaral et al. (2008) join the debate of modularity suggesting that despite functional identification of modules no clear pathology has emerged yet but rather, that e.g. Schumann and Amaral, (2004) have demonstrated that the developmental trajectory itself rather than the final product exhibits most disruption and by this posing a further point against applying CN to the explanation of DD. Functions of modularity imply, on the other hand, that one zone can belong to several overlapping neuronal networks (Damasceno, 2010).Disordered brain development can lead to structural disruption and thereby to several dysfunctions which may not appear as a specific deficit but as a syndrome (a collection of symptoms) as demonstrated in the triad of impairments in ASD (Wing Gould, 1979). Similarly, lesions to a localised brain area do not always cause isolated but sometimes collective symptoms (Kolb, Brown, Witt-Lajeunesse, Gibb, 2001). These are caused, i.a. by disturbances in interconnected regions which might appear intact on functional brain imaging scans. However, changes in neurotransmission, excitatory or inhibitory processes or blood flow might cause secondary symptoms not predicted by the data. One interesting example was proposed by Sandel, Weiss and Ivker (1990): their patient was described as amnesic after traumatic brain injury. Her impaired cognition was considered a secondary deficit as her EEG and other clinical tests proved negative. No other disruptions were present until she was eventually diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Therefore several unexpected and seemingly unconnected functional disruptions might result from a single localised lesion. These points argue against the notion of using CN in explaining DD due to the assumptions held. Advancing to the next argument, functional (mal)development following lesions or disrupted neurogenesis might also demonstrate individual differences in brain structure, due to varying input, demands and circumstances. Thomas and Karmiloff-Smith (2003) added that specialisation/modularity is not directing development but contrarily, is the outcome of this. On the other hand, the brain activity of healthy individuals supports a normalisation process to facilitate models being created for generalisation purposes. As Tager-Flusberg (1999) counter-argues, functional variation in dysfunctional individuals is similar to that of typical population. Allegedly, localisation is universally alike thereby plasticity, compensation or adaptation to damage are neglected. Examples of compensatory processes and resulting behaviour (or v.v.?) are stimming in ASD for sensory overload (Grandin, 2009) or remembering haircuts in prosopagnosics for identification (Bate, 2012). Adaptation can express itself by change in neurochemistry, psychomotor stimulants and compensatory behaviour while it is argued that the behaviour triggers alteration in neurochemistry (Kolb et al., 2001). This in turn, points to the aforementioned bidirectionality of structure and learning which has implications for acquired as well as developmental patients and goes against explaining DD in a CN framework. At this point, double-dissociations are commonly applied to provide clues to brain-behaviour relationships. In 1955, Teuber introduced the term double-dissociation referring to mirror-deficit patients. Buchaine, Parker, and Nakayama (2003) proposed the example of NM, a prosopagnosic whose abilities support previous findings (Young, Newcombe, De Haan, Small, Hay, 1993) of a double-dissociation of identity and emotion recognition. Van Peelen, Lucas, Mayer, and Vuilleumier (2009) added that emotional guidance of attention to facial expression can be unimpaired and thus functionally differ from face identification. Interestingly, Teuber did not establish double-dissociations to discover networks within cognitive architecture (Van Orden, Pennington, Stone, 2001) as localising a lesion does not imply a responsibility for dysfunctions. Further, modularity of functional networks has not been unanimously established. Nonetheless, modularity is one key feature of CN serving the notion of double-dissociations. CN informs theories of normal cognitive function by analysing the break down of cognitive systems in atypical patients (Bullinaria Chater, 1997). However, inferring theory from damage patients is full of obstacles and depends on models of normal functioning. As Caramazza (1984) argued, double-dissociations are valid forms of inference but only if the cognitive model is well developed; only single-case studies can provide information relevant to our understanding of cognitive architecture. Contradicting, Shallice (1988) argued that a double-dissociation between two tasks does not necessarily imply a double-dissociation between cognitive processes. Since the argument concerning emergence of CN models and the role of AD and DD has not been resolved yet, a need of inclusion of further aspects becomes apparent. One aspect is Residual Normality which claims that atypical development impairs only specific domains while the rest functions typically (Thomas Karmiloff-Smith, 2002). Similar behavioural impairments demonstrated by adult brain damage and infant-onset disorders are assumed to support modularity of typical neuronal system structure. Opposing the assumption of RN, compensation due to damage causes alterations in various other modules (Thomas, 2003). Shallice (1988) introduced deriving knowledge about the neuronal system from behavioural impairments in AD and DD, such as malfunctioning ToM in autism (Leslie, 1991). As argued by Bishop and Karmiloff-Smith (1997; 1998) such an inferential process within the static model of CN leads to invalid explanations of dysfunctional development. Functional Models on the other hand do not possess a developmental component, and display what is expected to happen under various conditions in terms of functionality and processes (DMello Franklin, 2011). Thus impairments can be analysed under the assumption of RN as it has been done, for example in the study of autism and prosopagnosia (Thomas et al., 2002). Examples of models are given in Figure two and three. Despite this, it has been suggested to use connectionist models where in AD the damage is applied at the end of training and for DD prior to it as this is argued to reflect actuality in a truer light. Connectionist models indeed are suitable for the investigation of DD as behavioural deficits such as in autism (Thomas et al., 2002) can be captured well following simulated atypical development. It is highlighted that AD and DD are studied using separate models, thereby arguing against functional models within CN. Figure 2: Functional model of face-processing (Wright, Wardlaw, Young, Zeman, 2006) Figure 3: Models of Autism (Anderson and Herbert, 2008) The aforementioned factors influencing whether cognitive neuropsychology is suitable for explaining DD have given a mixed picture. Jackson and Coltheart (2001) defended the use of CN in DD stating that development itself (thus distal causes like genes or background) are irrelevant for the identification of un/healthy functions, given modularity. Whether acquired or developmental proximal (what is wrong right now) and distal causes can be deduced independently from each other. Indeed, Jackson et al. argue that common architectural issues in AD and DD can be established using CN. Bishop on the other hand postulates against this as deficits are focused on while intact processes are neglected. Further, top-down and bottom-up interactions are dismissed. Karmiloff-Smith (1998) deems these highly relevant for understanding DD. Thirdly a uniform modularity is assumed without accounting for alterations in development. Bishop proposed that AD should be researched using single-case double-dissociations while for DD, as they are likely to demonstrate associated deficits, group studies are recommended. Problematically, the debate on what constitutes a module has not been clarified yet (e.g. Fodor (2000): encapsulation, Coltheart (1999): domain specificity). Until this is established functional models and CN will not carry valid explanations nor reveal (mal)development well (Thomas et al., 2002). This underpins the view against exploring DD within a CN framework. Additionally, modularity/plasticitys scope of variation in DD and AD remains unestablished (Tager-Flusberg, 2000; Thomas et al., 2003). Humphreys, Ewing, and Karmiloff-Smith (2002) proposed the example of Williams syndrome patients possessing intact face recognition which is, however, achieved by applying processes diverging from typicality. Initially, face recognition was seen as intact despite visuospatial deficits, reduced sensitivity to inverted faces and lack of progressive development of localisation (Grice, Spratling, Karmiloff-Smith, Halit, Csibra, De Haan, Johnson, 2001). Hypothetically, assuming RN, this could be seen as double-dissociation between developmental prosopagnosia and WS. Basing modelling of DD on highly debated assumptions poses a problem for validity of the framework. Additionally, CN is accused of focusing on representational (competence) rather than processing (performance) deficits (Bishop, 1997). This, however, appears to be crucial in terms of applying research to DD. Weigelt, Koldewyn, and Kanwisher (2012) demonstrated a lack of qualitative difference (how facial identity is discriminated or remembered, competence) but rather a quantitative (how well, performance) difference in that ASD patients are impaired in memory and perception despite indication of intact face identity recognition. According to Bishop, this is another argument against applying CN to exploring DD. Concluding then, the much debated assumption of modularity held in cognitive neuropsychology overshadows exploration of disruptions during the trajectory of neuronal development. Applying double-dissociations to DD arguably yields invalid results and is more suited to acquired disorders. This is due to the assumptions within CN of Residual Normality, directionality of impact within disorders and its dependence on localisation of disruption, universality of localisation, neglect of plasticity and the focus on (in)competence. All in all, it has been proposed, while certain aspects could be overlooked, connectionist models rather than functional models would yield better results. Also, cognitive neuropsychology focuses on adult processes thus damage after complete development which is hard to match onto disorders of development. In order for CN to account validly for disorders, different models have to be applied for acquired and developmental cases.

Importance of Narrative in CGI Films

Importance of Narrative in CGI Films This essay will look at the importance of narrative in two CG animated films which are Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Hironobu Sakaguchi, 2001) and The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004). The essay focuses specifically on the narrative and the spectacle of the films and how through the cinematic medium, they help each other to deliver a visual story across to the audience. The essay will discuss if a solid storyline is needed for a successful feature length animated film or are the animated films just a platform for spectacular imagery. This essay will discuss topics such as the different narrative theories and how the majority of contemporary films have a similar narrative structure, how films have become more sophisticated in terms of raw video footage being just one element necessary to complete a single shot in a film. It will also discuss modern film techniques and how it can help the story being told. The essay will first focus on the various theories of narrative and a brief history of the spectacle of cinema before moving on to the analysis of my chosen case studies. People have been communicating since the day they have been born. From gossiping, bed time stories to little white lies people have been subconsciously or consciously telling stories in some form of a narrative structure. By this I do not mean that all human discourse takes the form of a true story itself but the elements of the basic narrative structure such as having, a beginning, middle and an end are present. Vast majority of mainstream films have the classic three stage act structure of the 19th century stage melodrama, set-up, conflict and resolution as the basic linear structure.â€Å"†¦time is experienced as linear (past-present-future).† From starting to read this essay to the end time has passed. Narratives that have manifested itself into other forms of medium more or less have a tendency to follow this fact. Dreams, flashbacks, characters or a narrator reciting earlier events or future events which are due to happen are eccentric elements of breaking up the linear time format. Hence the arrangement of the plot being the story or as described by the Russian formalist, Viktor Shklovsky, fibula (story) and syuzhet (plot). A prominent example of this is in such films as The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995) or Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) where the plot and story are quite different, the story not being presented chronologically. Narration, the plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects. Narration is the moment by moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot. Re-arranging the plot of narratives can be a powerful technique as it can easily create suspense, curiosity, fear, satisfaction, motivation to know more of the situation. Film as a narrative medium, more or less does have closure of story or events, as in the end order is established, stability has been restored. In other words restoring the balance, a theory concluded by Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian structuralist. Todorov reported that the majority of narratives have the same structure, i.e: in a linear storyline, initially all the forces are in balance (equilibrium) and by some event or another the forces are disturbed and majority of the storyline involving around further complications of the initial situation at hand and eventually the balance being restored in the end, even though this balance is not the same as it was at the start of the narrative. When speaking of events happening or that have already happened to disturb the equilibrium, I am referring to character driven and event driven plots or moments. Major film blockbusters tend to follow this pattern with a high tendency of closure with the notion of appealing to the mass audience. This concept of commercial aesthetics may or may not be frowned upon by directors, producers or the script writers but I can comfortably agree with the fact that major film studios highly consider what will or wont appeal to the audience, how much funding they are willing to provide, generating revenues, running time, sequels and prequels and this greatly effects the quality of the storytelling and spectacle of the films, thus the director’s or producer’s true vision of the film not being fulfilled. There are many theorists in different fields of study who have studied to devise logical ways of thinking about narratives. The main theorists I have looked at are Carl G. Jung, a Swiss physiatrist who studied Archetypes and their influences in western storytelling, Claude Là ©vi-Strauss, a French anthropologist studied that narratives were made up of binary oppositions and that key terms in narratives had differences. Joseph Campbell, an American professor studied mythology and religion. His works have been published in a book, ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces.’ He described the term monomyth, an idea which he outlined some archetypal patterns that he realised. He focuses on the role of the hero and the various events that the hero can go through. Gustav Freytag, a German critic suggested a method for representing and analysing plots through a simple diagram of a triangle. The triangle highlighted the setup, conflict and resolution of conventional narrative structures. Starting from the left side (setup), going up the triangle would suggest the apex of the crisis (conflict) and falling back down to the end of the story or the equilibrium being restored (resolution). Meanwhile going across the bottom of the triangle would be the time passing by in relation to the events in the story. This triangle is an adaptation of Aristotle’s work on narrative structures. Aristotle’s work has been collected together into a book called The Poetics which is a series of lectures and workings, which essentially sums up that â€Å"there are causes and effects that occur over time.† Tzvetan Todorov and Viktor Shklovsky I have mentioned before as theorists in narrative and finally Vladimir Propp. They all came to the conclusion of their own theories of narrative however, it will be most useful to concentrate on two particular theorists whose works compliments each others quite well. †¦all conventional films are characterized by the same narrative structure by the work of Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp. The majority of mainstream films have a similar narrative structure and the works of Todorov and Propp are evidently clear within these narratives. Vladimir Propp, a Russian critic and folklorist analysed many folk tales to see if they shared any common attributes and structures. He concluded that there are eight main characters such as ‘the dispatcher’ or ‘the donor’ and that there are 31 narrative functions such as ‘villain is punished’ or ‘the hero is pursued.’ His analysis also mentioned that not all these are evident in all narratives. Todorov and Propps theories have been influential in modern narratives and work fluently with my chosen case studies and I will apply their theories in more detail later. One last person worth mentioning is Christopher Booker, an English journalist who published the book, ‘The Seven Basic Plots.’ This book outlines that all narratives fall into one of the seven various forms of storytelling. These plots are overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth. These plots all had alternative darker versions, except for tragedy which already is the dark version. Furthermore two new plots were added outside this list, rebellion against the one and mystery. Both my case studies fall under the plot, overcoming the monster which I will briefly look at later when analysing my case studies. â€Å"The pleasure of looking – scopophilia has been central to cinema since the beginning† Film is a visual storytelling medium. More people are keen on using their eyes to visualise the story as the audience willingly lose suspension of disbelief, sitting in a film theatre staring at a flat wall for two hours as the story unfolds before their eyes. Before I discuss some of the contemporary film techniques of storytelling I will briefly focus on the ‘cinema of attractions’ an expression used to describe the early cinema by film historian Tom Gunning. As technology began to evolve over the 20th century, the moving image was born. People were overwhelmed by this form of medium and what technology could do thereafter. It was all about the ‘wow’ factor, the look of the film. Since most films during this time were unedited sequences of footage, the narrative was not an important issue. Film makers were more fascinated with the possibilities of this particular medium and capturing the ‘real’ and what they could do with it. There were people like the Lumiere Brothers (Auguste Marie (1862-1954) and Louis Jean (1864-1948)) who successfully captured the ‘real-life’ imitation of film. One famous example is the short film called LArrivà ©e dun train en gare de la Ciotat (1895). When this film was shown people were so shocked and in fear that the train was going to run them down they fled the theatre. This was a turning point in film history as the Lumiere Brothers inspired so many other film makers. One particular other magician turned film maker was Georges Melies (1861-1938). He was another French film pioneer who made over a thousand films, the most memorable ones being Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). His views on film making was not to mimic ‘real-life’ but to explore other possibilities, using the camera to subvert what the camera sees into abstractness or creating illusions. He discovered the dissolve effect by chance when his equipment jammed. He explored the ‘magical’ possibilities of the camera and other techniques such as split screen techniques and stop motion photography. He was a pioneer in cinematic special effects and also a film maker who inspired the likes of Jan Svankmajer, Terry Gilliam, etc. Films made during this period were only a couple of minutes long and over the years up until the present films have got longer, in the nineties being an hour and a half but now the average running time is at least two hours, which I definitely support the idea of, since we at least as the audience will be getting our moneys worth. This is not to say that quantity is more essential than quality but I would like to argue the fact that film producers and directors are adding extra running time to enhance the narrative, by adding sub plots or developing characters to improve the story or explain situations or events clearly and not to extend the running time so the spectacle can be the main attraction, even though Hollywood has a tendency to refer to its films as motion pictures rather than film. This can be a signal that Hollywood is faithful to the spectacle of the moving image. A new cinema of attractions has risen, particularly within action genres, where plot and story are of less importance than the spectacle. This can be true since the action genre relies on the spectacle to deliver the film. The action genre is an area where the narrative is simply a platform for spectacle where the audience can sit back, relax and enjoy the film visually, instead of participating in the story and working out clues and problem solving the story. It is more or less the dominant element, meaning in days to come we will remember the ‘spectacle’ but might fail to remember what actually happened. Furthermore I think films in theory have to have at least a sequence where the narrative is disrupted and spectacle takes over, such as a car chase or a well choreographed fight scene. In theory the ‘cinema of attractions’ still exist to this day with the huge cinema screens with surround sounds and films still offering the spectacle as the attraction. In Russia during the Soviet Union (1920’s) spectacle was still the attraction but besides that, editing of films was also used to draw the audiences attention. Editing created powerful effects on the spectators. One particular example I would like to mention is the famous Odessa steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s, Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925). This well known sequence is where the army restores order among the sailors and civilians of Odessa. He used a ‘montage’ type of editing to create a pulsating attraction after attraction to intensify the feeling and effect. The point I am trying to make here is that spectacle can be a potent technique in storytelling without the strong element of narrative. Editing has evolved over the years and has become an art form in itself. It can be used to clarify events, establish a location and to build up tension and emotions. Editing itself is a unique process of shots being composed together to maximise the dramatic effect of the story. It combines the mise en scene of the shot along with all the rest to make sense of the film. It is how information can be held back to the director’s content, what to reveal and what not to the audience. Filmmakers are editing in specific ways or cutting more shots out of the final film recently since the audience’s sophistication grows. This can also be referred to as restricted and unrestricted narrative. Restricted narrative is when we have limited information as to what is going on, we only know what the characters know, being it false information or not. We are told information from a first person perspective, as if we are in the films ourselves within that space. Unrestricted narrative is where we are told everything, we know things that the protagonists don’t as in a third person perspective. Editing shots in a way that one shot transitions into another giving the sense of a smooth, flowing edit is called continuity editing. This is a technique where a seamless edit takes place, this can be helpful as it can interpolate the audience into the physical space where the action is taking place. But some narratives shots require the edits to be visible to achieve a particular effect such as the Odessa steps sequence as mentioned before. In continuity editing there is rule known as the 180degrees rule. This rule takes place seamlessly also within the film. When two characters are talking, the action is shot on one specific side of the characters, being the one side or the other and the camera being placed anywhere on that side. This is just to clarify which direction the characters are facing and to establish the space in which they are in. This rule can be used for close-ups for intimate conversations and happenings or far out as we look on as spectators. Another important aspect of storytelling is mise en scene. This is a term given to describe everything involved within that particular shot. It is everything that makes up the frame, i.e: actors, dialogue, the music, diegetic material, cinematography, cg elements or as Richard Maltby describes, â€Å" arrangement of screen space as a meaningful organisation of elements† Lev Manovich a professor in visual arts, wrote an article among many, but one that I found particularly interesting was on Digital Cinema and he quotes, â€Å"Cinema is the art of the index; it is an attempt to make art out of a footprint.† He states the fact that contemporary cinema has become a platform where film-makers can edit and simulate real world actions through different forms and techniques such as CGI. Cinema has evolved from movies being mostly live footage to contemporary digital cinema where the live footage in film has become little or used as a basis for experimentation, 3d manipulation, etc. The fact that he used the expression ‘an attempt to make art out of a footprint’ in reference to raw video is an indication as how it is used as a ground element for the CG to build upon and to manipulate it until all the elements are finalised to complete the shot. How did cinema arrive at using animation in its projects? I am going to try to explain this as short and briefly as possible. Cinema was born when the moving image was created, a sequence of images, footage or hand drawn, which theoretically is animation, since a series of images give the illusion of movement, hence animation. Film makers took this new format and made films in the tendency of the ‘Lumiere style’ or the ‘Melies style’ as mentioned before, adding animation as a supplement. As technology developed, the future made digital cinema possible incorporating animation and special effects as the main essence of films while live recording was used as the basis or even reference, â€Å"hence, the production becomes just the 1st stage of post-production.† Manual construction and animation of images gave birth to cinema and slipped into the marginsonly to re-appear as the foundation of digital cinema. The history of the moving image thus makes a full circle. Born from animation, cinema pushed animation to its boundary, only to become one particular case of animation in the end. These contemporary film techniques and processes which I have just discussed are clearly evident in the two films of my choice. The first film I want to examine is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The film is the first photorealistic computer generated film ever to be made as all the cast are life like computer generated characters. The film is set in the future and it focuses on Dr. Aki Ross and her finding of the eighth spirit, in doing so will erase the alien phantom spirits from earth who have more or less taken over the world and left a barren like wasteland. The film follows a linear narrative structure and even though the film shares the same title as the computer games it bears no reference or relation to any of the stories in the computer games. Todorov suggests that conventional narratives are structured in five stages and this film’s narrative structure seamlessly integrates within those five stages. The first stage is clearly the equilibrium, however the film starts off with an already unbalanced state, which is the world has been laid waste to an alien race. The second and third stages, is the equilibrium being disturbed by some event and the recognition of this disturbance, which also has already happened before the story has begun, in being that the aliens have crashed on planet earth, and the human population reacting to this by evacuating to gigantic like plane hangers cities around the world which are protected by some sort of special field against the threat. The majority of the film is in reference to stage four which is trying to repair the unbalance, meaning Dr. Aki Ross with the help of a special task force unit trying to find the remaining spirits. The story finishes off in the fifth and final stage where the balance is restored in the end and the alien race eradicated from earth. Final fantasy also bears a resemblance to Christopher Bookers work and his theories of the seven plots, specifically ‘overcoming the monster’. The phantoms are the great and mysterious evil which the world has fallen to. The source of threat is the phantoms. The hero is Dr Aki Ross who is armed with the seven spirits and with the help of the scientist Dr Sid, they set out to travel to the source of the evil and with some amount of struggling, finding the last spirit and finally by discovering the eighth spirit the monstrous entity is destroyed. The threat has been lifted and the world has been saved with the loss of her companions. Looking at the film, the sense of photorealistic spectacle can help intensify and value the story better particularly the scenes of the phantoms. To clarify this notion in the scene where Dr Aki Ross is having her dreams of the phantoms charging towards her, I would find it quite difficult and would feel emotionless if the CGI was ‘unrealistic’ to say the least, you wouldn’t feel threatened because they didn’t look real or menacing enough. As a serious science fiction film the visual look can help communicate the narrative across at some points in the story by making the scenes more authentic and grittier. To be honest that is the only positive aspect I can mention about the look of the film. But on the other hand a point worth mentioning is the fact that the digital actors were quite emotionless. This lead to the notion that they were artificial. In traditional animation, the facial features and body movements are extremely vivid. The motions are slightly exaggerated to give the illusion of life and personality so the movement can blend from one frame to another and that is why films that are made by pixar are so rich in character because their animators have strong backgrounds in traditional animation. Nonetheless Final Fantasy strived for life like replicas of real human people. The films photorealistic look with the serious live action feel can also be considered as its weakness. While they did look amazingly real their emotions and actions were lifeless which lead to the fact that they were artificial characters. The characters had no chemistry with each other on screen, an example is the love/romantic scene with Dr Aki Ross and Captain Gray Edwards, I did not feel like they genuinely liked each other, it was not shown successfully with their reactions or on their faces. This brings me to my next point. My initial reaction to the life like characters was mostly surprised and mesmerised. But striving for the human believability of the characters solely on the look was not enough. Maybe if the characters were created for a still image in a magazine for example it would have been suffice. But for a motion picture, the digital characters felt strange and eerie. This might be down to the fact that, the photorealism in an animated feature film was a first but I would like to believe it was down to a theory hypothesised by a Japanese roboticist, by the name of Dr. Masahiro Mori. His theory was that the more human like a robot becomes or looks like, people are fascinated by it, but when the robot borderlines human likeness the natural response by people is negative. People focus on that negativity. The human like robot is considered odd and bizarre and leads to the feeling of strangeness within the viewer. This theory was named ‘The Uncanny Valley.â₠¬â„¢ Imagine a perfectly human-looking face that suddenly grimaces or smiles in a non-human way†¦ Its profoundly disturbing when something blurs the line between human and non-human. I myself, think the story was not strong enough for the film, it does not hold up to the magnificent CGI. I personally thought it failed to articulate the plot well. It is why I think the film was a let down. Some questions were left unanswered. Why were the alien phantoms a threat to the human race? Why were the alien phantoms fighting each other on their home planet in Dr Aki Ross’s dreams? Why did their home planet explode? Some of these questions, answered would have given us as the audience a better understanding of the plot. The narrative was simply a platform for spectacular imagery. When I watched the film for the first time I suspended disbelief on the visual realism, I was attracted to how believable the characters and environments were. I was conscious to the excellent CGI being shown the whole time. In the future looking back at this film, people will remember this film and automatically think of how brilliantly photorealistic the animation was, how life like the characters were and how new and ever evolving technology made this possible. My next case study is another feature length animation made by the incredibly talented people at pixar studios. Pixar have been making animated feature length films and short films for over 10 years now and each one has been more successful than the previous one. The Incredibles is a computer generated film that is not photo realistic. It does have that classic pixar look, heavily stylized with human attributes. It is arguably, one of my favourite animated films mainly because it is not just the typical comedy from pixar. It does have its comedic moments but what sets this apart from any other animated film especially from the studio of pixar is that it is darker and has some form of violence. It feels like a live action film. It has moved away from the cute, lovely characters from previous pixar films. I liked this notion because it mainly appeals to a much wider audience. The narrative structure does follow Todorov’s linear theory of equilibrium but I would like to apply Propp’s theory of character types with Gustav Freytag’s Triangle. The story film begins with an equilibrium, superheroes exist, living amongst normal people saving the world and keeping peace and order in society. Problems begin to evolve as the main ‘Hero’ Mr Incredible is being sued for injuring the same civilian he just saved moments before. One thing leads to another and all superheroes have been forced to live normal lives under a superhero witness protection program. Thus the balances have been disturbed and according to Freytag’s Triangle the density of the problems are growing as time goes on and as the story makes its way up the triangle. The hero by temptation has been called into action by the ‘villain’ into using his powers. The hero without knowing what he is doing has willingly helped the villain in his master plans and when Mr Incredible realises what he has done he is inevitably captured. His family are now on their way to release him. This is the peak of the crisis or triangle as all the problems are laid bare and the tension has built up, we know what Syndromes (villain) intensions are. The climax or the solving of the problems are to follow next as we climb down the triangle, as the family of superheroes solve the problems one by one. The family now together try to find a way to stop Syndromes plans and save the world, restoring the balance in the end and the story coming to an appropriate closure of the current events. I say appropriate closure because the films ending is more or less an open possibility for a sequel or maybe more. I loved the narrative as it has a bond’esque feel about it, saving the world from a mad man. I was easily and simply able to establish who the heroes and villains were and the fact that the story had a suitable closure as all the loose ends of the story were tied up. Examining the narrative overall I can safely say that the relatively straightforward narrative fits Freytag’s triangle perfectly in view of the fact that all the problems that grew were resolved in the end. I would like to mention the beginning of the film was a parody to the 1950/1960’s U.S superhero comics and films. The likeness is significant in the terms that the film begins in the past and works its way to the present day and when the superhero’s lived alongside average citizens and the fact that the look of the film mimicked the same style of news reporting when the superheroes over the world were being sued. In addition the stylised characters with the large upper torso, broad shoulders, square jaw and smaller than average legs evidently represented by Mr Incredible were mimics of the 1950/1960’s U.S superheroes. This parody worked well as it gave the film authenticity and it felt that time had moved on within the film to the present day. Even though the characters were not photorealistic, the animation sold the concept that they were real. The exaggerated motions like I mentioned before convinced me that these artificial characters had feelings and they genuinely exist. This was quite an achievement for pixar, as cg characters before The Incredibles, whether in television adverts, cartoons or short animated films have not been quite rigid but lacked that sense of energy and dynamic in them. This can raise the question, is animation only successful with non-human or non-realistic characters? This question in itself is worth another essay, to be studied accurately, but in short I would like to think not, since there have been films that have major success such as The Incredibles clearly, Toy Story 12 also made by people at pixar studios, Shrek 12 by Dreamworks Animations and feature length films which include ‘CG doubles’ of their live counterparts. Again the theory of ‘The Uncanny Valley’ comes into play as successful films of non-realistic characters maybe down to the fact that people find it strange when CG characters end up looking ‘too real’ on screen. The appearance of the film was simplistic, almost approaching a ‘minimalist’ look and stylised but not over done as to steal the limelight of the narrative. The narrative is the dominant element within this film as I believe that the spectacle supported but did not dominate the narrative. On watching this film I was drawn into the story, what was going to happen next, it was engaging and I wanted to know more. I felt that an actual story was told to me, that I was watching the events unfold from a third person view within the film, that I was successfully entertained. On first time round watching the film I was not thinking how that was made. The film will be remembered for its entertaining, excellent storytelling factor, a film the whole family can watch. All feature animated films that have been produced by the pixar studios have had massive success. I think of pixar as any other major film studio emphasising on telling an entertaining narrative but telling it through a specific medium of film. Films such as the Toy Story series, Finding Nemo, Shrek series, Ice Age series and Madagascar all have had major success due to the strong narrative element running through the film. All films are non photo-realistic as the spectacle supports and is just the platform for story. It is kind of ironic that a photorealistic character felt unconvincing in Final Fantasy but felt realistic in The Incredibles even though the creators of Final Fantasy were aiming for realism. It proves my point of the fact that intending to achieve realism will only go so far without the narrative, vigour or the personality behind it. Narrative is compulsory in giving spectacle depth and more over ‘life’ so it will become believable and to work and blend as one as a feature length animated film. So is story and plot less significant in feature length animation then spectacle? I think not. I strongly disagree with the fact that spectacle is more vital than narrative primarily because of the apparent reason that the whole idea of feature films is to tell a story. The public go to cinemas to be entertained for two hours. They set out to be enthralled by a story, that is what a ‘film’ is, a narrative in by which the spectacle helps to communicate the information across. As CG effects get more complicated the audiences want more than spectacle, they yearn to be motivated by other means rather than to watch a sequence of frames. To lose the sense of reality and be mesmerised into a fictional world of wonderful computer generated characters and environments. I believe that full feature animation is just another medium of spectacle that stories can be told through, that narrative is essential for a successful CGI animation, as only recently due to new software and powerful hardware more and more CGI feature films are being made and it is technically quite a new process as filming the real has been done for a while. There is of course the excuse of the cinema to show off how the latest technology can create spectacular imagery and special effects, and show off new film and CG techniques. I also agree that spectacle can sometimes enhance the narrative being told, by exotic scenery and sets that would be impossible to manually build on location, or unrealistic physical attributes such as walking on water or punching holes in walls. The visual storytelling medium has changed, evolved for better or worse due to commercial

The Evaluation And Labeling Of Children With Disabilities Essay

The information given me by various professionals who have repeatedly evaluated my daughter is the biggest issue that I face in my life. In order for me to resolve my issue I need to explore whether my issue lies with the professionals and the process of evaluation, or with me not wanting to accept that my child is disabled.My six and a half year old daughter, Malia, began to show signs of delayed development at age eighteen months. Her speech started to regress and there were also behavioral signs that were significant enough for me to ask our doctor for advice. When was not concerned to the point that I was I contacted Multnomah County Developmental Disability department and requested that they evaluate Malia. They agreed that that were delays, and made a referral to Portland Public Schools Early Intervention Program for special services suchas speech therapy, occupational therapy, and other early learning resources for children with disabilities. I also switched Malia to a pediat rician who immediately referred her for a full-scale evaluation at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) where they have an evaluation clinic for children with disabilities. At this point Malia was two and a half years old and this is where I began to take issue with the evaluation process.The process was a one day period where up to twelve doctors, psychologists, speech pathologists, audiologists, and occupational therapists each spent thirty minutes with Malia, evaluating her based on standard tests. After six hours with Malia, the professionals gathered together and discussed their conclusions. After their discussion, they called Malia and me in. They told me that their diagnosis for her was "a mild conductive bilateral hearing loss, language disorder and borderline intelligence."That was all the information they gave me, other than to tell me that Malia's pediatrician would receive a report and follow-up accordingly. No special suggestions or support were offered to me or to Malia. I did not know the exact meaning of "borderline intelligence" at the time, so I assumed it meant her intelligence was not above average but not below. I found out at her second evaluation two years later that it means low intelligence, bordering on mental retardation. I followed up on the hearing loss with an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor and Malia had her tonsils and ... ...lp the examiners have a more complete understanding of the child. Another idea that I listed was to have the professional spend more time exploring the child's strengths andpossibilities in order to aid in designing a special program in which the child would thrive. I have spent the past four years being angry with the clinic at OHSU. I can truly say that all of this channeling and exercising (PMI and APC) has helped me to have a better understanding of why the testing is as it is, how it affects us, and most importantly, that a closed mouth does not get fed. If I want changes, I now understand that I have to speak up and talk to someone who can do something about it. Now that I am more clear about the process, I can offer something positive to help other families avoid the pain and anger thatI have endured. Knowing this, and feeling good about the road ahead, is a very good place for me to start. The most important realization for me is that Malia is still Malia, regardless of any label they placed upon her. In conclusion, whether or not I make a difference in modifying the evaluation process, I know that Malia is and always will be the same wonderful child she has always been.

Philosophy on education :: essays research papers

The philosophy that I feel the strongest connection to is Progressivism. In my educational journey the teachers that have made the most significant impact have been progressive. From K-12, I had two teachers who used the progressivism method and the lessons that I learned from them are still with me today. The progressive teachers express more individuality and creativity than others. Progressive educators relate material to real-life experiences that the learner can relate to. They generally conduct group activities rather than individual assignments. Progressivism opposes many of the concepts and practices associated with essentialism. My personal philosophy adopts ideas from both. Essentialists believe that children learn from traditional basic subjects such as reading, writing, history, math, and science. Progressives believe that learning is stimulated by tuning into problem solving skills. I believe that students learn most effectively when both concepts are utilized together. Many teachers that I have encountered were essentialist because this is what they were taught. The essentialism philosophy had been the dominant approach to education in America from the beginning of our history. However early in the twentieth century essentialism was criticized as being too rigid to prepare students adequately for adult life. Dewey was a major figure in the Pragmatic movement that later became known as progressivism. Every educator has their own thoughts and ideas about education, educational processes, and what they feel is the best way to educate students of today and tomorrow. These philosophies are built on the individual’s personal experiences and beliefs. My philosophy is like that of many new teachers, eclectic. There are ideas of many philosophies that I agree with and just as many that I disagree with. Teachers are as diverse as the students they teach. I believe that it takes a combination of several philosophies to reach each student in a classroom. Harris-Stowe State College’s Conceptual Framework advocates for effective teachers for a diverse society. Their roles include the user of technology, counselor, skilled instructor, communicator with parents, and diagnostic prescriber to name few of the criteria that would make for an effective teacher according to Harris Stowe’s framework. Successful teachers also have to utilize strictness, motivation, compassion, patience, honesty, and flexibility to educate the students that are a part of our diverse educational arena today. Teachers are not just responsible for their student’s educational growth. They have to be responsible for the growth of the whole child.

Philosophy of Education Essay -- Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Philosophy of Education Ever since I was a little girl I had this dream of being a teacher. Whether it was making up â€Å"pretend† tests or having my younger brother sit through my instruction, I knew that I was a born teacher. And now that I have grown and matured into a responsible young woman, I feel that my place in this world is in the classroom. I feel that the children are our future and we should teach them everything we know to the best of our abilities. Every summer since the age of 13, I have been babysitting for local families in my small hometown of Pineville. In fact, 2 years ago I had been babysitting for a Optometrist and his wife and they were expecting their second child. As an honor, they asked if they could name their second daughter after me. Kara Nicole was born in June of 2001. As a matter of fact, I have found that my feelings on education often reflect the song The Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston. She states in her song that she feels that the c hildren are our future and I must say that I agree completely with her sentiments on the education of our youth. When I came of age to enter college, there was no question in my mind as to what field I wanted to enter. Elementary education was the only option for me. One of my favorite quotes, although I do not know the author, says that â€Å"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world† and I must say that this reflects my philosophy on education. To me, this quote reveals every compassionate thought I have on education alone. Teachers in some small way or another can be the sunshine in a child’s life. In my opinion, teachers, play many roles; mentors, confidants, sources of inspiration, and disciplin... ...Concord College. I wish to enter a masters program at some other institution of higher education. However, at this time, I am unsure where that institution may be. I know for sure, that I do plan on doing something with the Special Education department. Along with these added classes, I will always be open for Summer classes or workshops that teachers often attend to keep themselves updated on current trends. In my role as an educator, I feel that I should welcome each and every form of change that occurs during my time. Whether I agree with it or not, the point is that one must give it a chance. I feel that our state and local governments, as well as national governments, will continue to do the best for our educational system as possible. Reform, to me, is just a transition from old to new. You should welcome the change no matter how difficult it may be.

Essay on Film Genre

A true film genre relies on shared iconography, formalistic themes and similar narrative structures and content. ‘What genre does is recognize that the audience any one film within a context of other films, both those they have personally seen and those they have heard about or seen represented in other media outlets. †¦In general, the function of genre is to make films comprehensible and more or less familiar. (turner 97)’.Action/adventure, the Western, Gangster/Crime, Detective/Film Noir, Comedy, Science fiction/Fantasy, Horror/Monster, Suspense Thriller/Spy/Heist and many others groups are usually used for marketing in stores where films are being sold. The majority of viewers, film critics, and film producers talk about films in relation to the categories. These categories are generally called genres. ‘The word â€Å"genre† is originally French, and it simply means â€Å"kind† or â€Å"type†. It’s related to another word,  "genus†, which is used in the biological sciences to classify groups of plant and animals. A true film genre is a product of interaction between audience and the text. Therefore, all producers and audiences must have a quite good understanding and what is more important shared knowledge of genre’s characteristics. ’ For instance,’ westerns, at least the traditional ones, tend to share the same basic conflict and usually the same type of setting. All detective films share the same basic story: the uncovering of causes. Musicals share nothing more than frequent prominent interludes of music and perhaps dancing during a story. This shared knowledge, however, is not set in stone. Different people will have divergent understandings of genre. ’ According to this statement, audiences expand general ideas about any kind of genre based on going to the cinema, media coverage or advertisements and marketing. As a result of consequence, viewers have their own a nticipations about a particular genre and define films according to their expectations. ‘Genres are based on a tacit agreement among filmmakers, reviewers and audiences. What gives the films some common identity are shared genre conventions. Shared conventions are shared thematic, stylistic and narrative structures. Although not every single film demonstrate all of the conventions, at least some of them are shown in a film. This helps the film critics to define whether this film fall into a particular group of films – genre. Moreover, critical analysis of any film can take place only if conventions are considered. These conventions are also called â€Å"repertoire of elements†. In this document shared genre conventions in terms of horror will be discussed.The horror genre has become much more popular nowadays than ever before. ‘If its beginnings were rooted in literature – Mary Shelley’s â€Å"Frankenstein† (1818) and Bram Stokerâ€℠¢s â€Å"Dracula† (1897) are the titles that seem to spring to everyone’s mind – we also know that stories have always been told about ghosts, monsters, witches and the dark. ’ There are a lot of reasons why this genre is so popular today. However, it is still really difficult to clarify why it is so engaging for a great number of people regardless of its unreality. The genre of ‘Horror’ has been around since the late 1800’s giving it decades to develop and change. ’ ‘From the 1930s to the 1970s, most horror films were considered very much the poor brethren of the film world. ’ The reason was that horror films were made on a low budget. Furthermore, the target audience was young people who went to the cinemas late nights to have fun and scream their way. The great example was ‘the film â€Å"Matinee† (directed by Joe Dante, 1993)’ which demonstrates that horror films were watched mostly by young people at that time.However, there were such films like â€Å"Psycho† (1960) and â€Å"The Birds† (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock which managed to change perspective of horror films in a better way. Since audiences appreciate thrill and excitement they experience during watching horror movies they expect new stories and plots. Consequently, film producers had to come up with new ideas and more challenging plots to meet the audience’s expectations and wishes. One of the genre conventions is iconography, which ‘derives from art history, where it only referred to visual signs. The context in which an object or sound is used is crucial in defining its meaning.For example, a crucifix is readily associated with the church as a symbol of Christ`s resurrection, and is not simply an example of horror iconography. ’ In terms of a horror film a symbol of Christ would represent not only the Christ but the weapon against the evil. Another example could be a knife whi ch is used to kill somebody rather than in comedy it is used for cutting things. In order to identify that the genre of a film is horror, such visual signs like red and black colors, blue filters in films are used. The use of blue filter is called digital color correction.It was hard and expensive to achieve this correction previously. However, since computer technologies have developed a lot, much more powerful and exciting effects can be achieved by simply editing a film sequence in different computer software nowadays. Moreover, the mise- enscene of horror films also show that this film is horror film with the help of using such things like knives, guns, axes and many others. Another use of iconography is the setting. In horror films the setting is usually abandoned, isolated from people, the houses generally hide scaring past.The majority of scenes are filmed in night time but the plot can be developed during daytime as well. There are some sub-genres of horror films. Therefore, the iconography can slightly vary. For instance, paranormal horror includes such symbols like unusual things happening or really dark scenes. â€Å"Slasher† horror shows masks, screaming victims. Another thing to consider is camera work in horror films. Generally, different and weird angles of camera are used. In order to frighten and express fear for the viewers extreme close ups and point of view shots take place during film.There are many other types of iconography like the use of tense sounds and music which are generally linked with a horror genre. Therefore, aural signs should be also discussed when talking about iconography of films. ‘â€Å"One should not tell stories as straight-line narratives. There are so many other possibilities, and film would only enrich them. † Peter Greenaway’. While researching horror films, another very important genre convention is narrative structure. ‘Narrative piece events together in a linear fashion that clea rly shows the audience the reasons for, and the consequences of character behavior.The logic of cause and effect ties together character traits, goals, obstacles, and actions. ’ . The main intention of narrative structure is to tell the story. Sometimes it is conceptual, sometimes real. For instance, the purpose of film can involve saving the world or finding a love. ‘Russian narrative theorist Tzvetlan Todorov argued that all narratives involve the disruption of a stable situation, which makes restoration of equilibrium an important goal. ’ First of all, with the help of disruption people can identify the genre of a film easily. For instance, f there is a drugs baron killing someone and trying to escape, perhaps the genre is gangster or thriller; some kind of dilemma in a family can be set in a film which genre is likely to be melodrama. Basically, the equilibrium Todorov was talking about is that generally characters come to this point of equilibrium only in th e end of film after some kind of disruption: be it reconsidering goals or dealing with challenges. The great examples of films showing equilibrium are â€Å"slasher† films. Another part of narrative structure focuses on character types. There are different types of them which are strongly associated with the genre.For example, the most expected character of horror films is monster. This character is extremely important in horror genre as to realize fear and revulsion. Since there are different types of horror films, monsters also vary. Sometimes, they represent ghosts which lead and frighten other characters. In some films, monsters are creatures that are half human half animal being. However, monster does not necessarily have to appear as a monster because it simply means phenomena or â€Å"bad thing† which is scaring. Almost every horror film has a Madonna as well. She is generally an attractive woman who is suffering because of a monster.Madonna represents an ideal woman while a whore is completely opposite character that represents the worst things of women. ‘A standard narrative convention of horror film is that the exposition portrays a character or small group of characters venturing into a strange and ultimately threatening setting. Jonathan Harker (Alexander Granach) goes into the Carpathian Mountains to make a business deal with the mysterios Count Orlock in â€Å"Nosferatu†. ’ Genres are usually associated with particular themes. For instance,’ the wilderness versus civilization opposition in Westerns, and the human: non- human opposition in SF’.In the beginning horror films were based on literature. â€Å"Dracula† was one of them. Since horror genre was developing during the time, new ideas such as aliens started to appear. During the 80’s the most popular idea in horror genre was â€Å"slashers† which was mentioned before in this document. The 80’s became some kind of new era for the horror genre as they started working closely on special effects to provide audience with more fear. †The thing† (1982) and â€Å"The thing† (2011) is an example that shows how special effects have changed since 1982. The first version is full of makeup effects and costumes.There is a big difference compared to the latest version in terms of using computer generated imagery for gaining special effects and digital animation. With this progression which influenced the viewers in terms of watching horror films the popularity of horror films increased a lot. ’ During the early 20th  century psychological thrillers were introduced into the horror genre and changed the genre completely, sparking new ideas, which have grown and developed into the main theme and idea we have today. ’ Therefore, horror films expand themes about religion or unnatural things nowadays.One of the examples of today’s horror films based on these themes is  "Paranormal activity†. ‘It seems likely that a genre never dies. It may pass out of fashion for a time, only to return in updated garb. A genre may change by mixing its conventions with those of another genre. ’ Therefore, sometimes it is difficult to identify what is the genre of a particular film. Film producers are forced to take such actions like mixing some genres in order to create a new so called â€Å"hybrid† genre. The reason for this is to renew a genre by adding some conventions from another genre so that to surprise the audience and to keep them interested. The horror story [†¦] is part of a long process by which people have tried to come to terms with and find adequate descriptions and symbols for deeply rooted, primitive and powerful forces, energies and fears which are related to death, afterlife, punishment, darkness, evil, violence and destruction. † – J. A. Cuddon. According to Cuddon words, the horror film is only a part of a process. However, I do not think so because if something is a process then it has to end at some point and horror genre will never die. I think that is because the majority of people are curious about the things that are scaring or forbidden.Curiosity has to be sated somehow and horror films help to sort it out. While watching horror films or reading horror books our mind experience feeling of being scared. Stephen King told once â€Å"We have to keep the ‘gators fed†. He meant that people would find another more dangerous way to sate their curiosity if horror genre would not exist. Consequently, this kind of genre will not die. Taking into account all above mentioned, I can come to the conclusion that every genre shares its own iconography, similar narrative structures and themes.The main reason for that is to make every genre identifying and understandable. Audience chooses films to watch normally for entertainment so genre could be vital factor in this as it he lps in choosing and understanding films. Bibliography Pramaggiore, Maria, and Wallis, Tom. Film: A Critical Introduction. Laurence King Publishing, 2005. Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin, Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. Lacey, Nick, Introduction to Film. London: Palgrave, 2005. Dougherty, Rachel. â€Å"Genre & Narrative in Horror Film†¦Ã¢â‚¬  27 September 2012. 3 March 2013. http://racheldoughertyfilm. blogspot. co. uk/2012/09/genre-narrative-in-horror-film. html. Nelmes, Jill, An Introduction to Film Studies. Routledge, 2003. Rayner, Philip, Wall, Peter, and Kruger, Stephen. â€Å"AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction†. Routledge, 2001. ——————————————– [ 2 ]. Wallis, T. , Pramaggiore, M. , (2005), Film: A Critical Introduction, p. 310 [ 3 ]. Bordwell, D. , Thompson, K. (2010), Film Art An Introduction, p. 328 [ 4 ]. Wallis, T. , Pramaggiore, M. , (2005), Film: A Critical Introduction, p. 310 [ 5 ].Lacey, N. (2005), Introduction To Film, p. 46 [ 6 ]. Bordwell, D. , Thompson, K. (2010), Film Art An Introduction, p. 330 [ 7 ]. Rayner, P, Wall, P. , Kruger, S. (2001), AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, p. 292 [ 8 ]. http://racheldoughertyfilm. blogspot. co. uk/2012/09/genre-narrative-in-horror-f ilm. html [ 9 ]. Rayner, P, Wall, P. , Kruger, S. (2001), AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, p. 296 [ 10 ]. Rayner, P, Wall, P. , Kruger, S. (2001), AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction, p. 296 [ 11 ]. Lacey, N. (2005), Introduction To Film, p. 8 [ 12 ]. Wallis, T. , Pramaggiore, M. , (2005), Film: A Critical Introduction, p. 32 [ 13 ]. Wallis, T. , Pramaggiore, M. , (2005), Film: A Critical Introduction, p. 33 [ 14 ]. Wallis, T. , Pramaggiore, M. , (2005), Film: A Critical Introduction, p. 33 [ 15 ]. Wallis, T. , Pramaggiore, M. , (2005), Film: A Critical Introduction, p. 357 [ 16 ]. Lacey , N. (2005), Introduction To Film,, page 53 [ 17 ]. http://racheldoughertyfilm. blogspot. co. uk/2012/09/genre-narrative-in-horror-film. html [ 18 ]. Bordwell, D. , Thompson, K. (2010), Film Art An Introduction, page 335