The Worst Economic Crisis in the U.S.

According to research, an economic recession happens at the time when growth declines. In most cases, this happens when there is a reduction in the demand by consumers (Cashell, 2010). This is because as total demand in the economy declines, companies stop escalating, as a result they stop hiring.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Worst Economic Crisis in the U.S. specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More With time the situation gets worse and the companies start firing their employees. The level of unemployment rises, purchasing power drops and consumer purchases drop even further and house prices begin to decline. The economic crisis of 2008 had its origin in the U.S. Most economists held responsible the mortgage market for the decline. It is clear that no one knew the worst economic crisis could occur in2008. The results were severe as the economy was forced to freeze. The freezing of the economy is attributable to t he shrinking of profits as well as collapse of several companies that had managed to employ thousands of employees. The market could be answerable although again there should be the main cause that made the problem to spread in the whole mortgage market of the United States, as well as the entire world. Remarkably, the Lehman’s Brothers had much of its investment in the mortgage market. Though Lehman’s Brothers knew that the sub-prime mortgage market was quite risky for its investment, it is amazing to see Lehman’s Brothers’ bold measure towards investing heavily in the sub-prime mortgage market. The main target of investing in the sub-prime mortgage market was to capture large profits considering that this market attracted high interest rates. However, the market proved to be risky due to high levels of bondholders defaulting to pay the interest rates and the subsequent principals. The attractive real estate market led to high demands and as a result, ho use prices went up. Many people called it the housing bubbles. In this incidence, the rising inflation prices of assets tend to exceed that for incomes making it quite difficult to purchase assets from ones’ income. Specifically, the mortgage market became volatile and predicting the interest was not easy since interest rates could deviate with large margin. For instance, in a single day, Dow Jones recorded an intra-day range of 1000 basis points the worst intra-day range ever since its inception. Such huge margins were attributed to lack of confidence in the mortgage market forcing many investors to withdraw their stocks in companies that had invested much in the mortgage market especially the sub-prime mortgage market.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More People thought that mortgage associated companies were looking forward to make a lot of profits only to be shocked by the instabilities that were later realized in this market. The consequence of the collapse of Lehman’s Brothers was selling some of its units at a lower price. The company tried as much to compensate bondholders though with a lot of difficulties. Lehman’s Brothers caused mayhem in the economy considering that large financial institutions had corporate stocks with Lehman’s Brothers. The U.S. Federal Reserve was directed by the government to give out a bailout package of 700 billion U.S. dollars to secure other companies that were on the verge of collapsing but very critical to sustaining the economy of the U.S. It is clear that most shareholders lost their shares worth millions of U.S. dollars. Recalling that Lehman’s Brothers was a multinational financial institution, one could notice that its effects were spread rampantly to other parts of the world. France had a number of Lehman’s units. Asia as well had a number of Lehman’s Brothers busi ness units that were later acquired by various companies abroad. Nevertheless, the large question could be what made Lehman’s Brother to fall leading 1000s loss of jobs and 1,000,000s shares. This was the heaviest blow to the U.S. for the last 18 years after the fall of one considerably large company, perhaps answers for the fall could be important to assist in avoiding such incidence in the future. The obvious reason was the large investment made by the company in the risky sub-prime mortgage market (Cooper, 2008). Due to much reliance on this profitable but risky market, the company had no option of finding alternatives to defend its position in the market. However, the company went to another extent of practicing gimmick accounting game in their accounts. Some malpractices that were practiced in their accounting attempted to hide the true financial position and as a result, investors could not make informed and wise investments. All stakeholders including employees, potent ial and existing shareholders, customers and government had developed much confidence with Lehman’s Brothers financial position. Little did they know that Lehman’s Brothers was heading towards filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The failure of Lehman’s Brothers to pay its debt holders was enough to justify its declaring as bankrupt. At this point, it became fundamental to shut down its operations to pay its creditors with assets at hand, as shareholders shared the remaining part. Nevertheless, the company was not adequately enabled to pay its shareholders plunging them into worth U.S. dollars millions losses. Other financial institutions that had invested in the mortgage market as well as in Lehman’s Brothers assets as well suffered huge losses while others ceased their operations. The consequence was loss of jobs as well as shares worth U.S. billions of dollars. The total income for the U.S. economy remarkably fell to lower levels. As levels of income of c onsumers went down, their purchasing power weakened. There was less income to encourage saving as well as investment in the economy.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Worst Economic Crisis in the U.S. specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The manufacturing sector had to reduce the number of employees since the decreased levels of revenue could not sustain all employees. The layoffs in the manufacturing sector further led to much more pressure on the economy. Capital goods were majorly affected as consumers resorted to the purchase of basic goods and services. The ripples were felt in other parts of the world including developing countries such as those of Africa. To secure the economy from the difficult financial moments, a number of governments chose diverse measures to secure firms in the economy. The U.S. government in particular resorted to giving out bail out packages to financial institutions that were on the verge of collapsing. Other measures included the use of fiscal stimulus, loosening the monetary policy as well as allowing cooperation between international banks. Effects of Monetary Policies implemented in Reaction to the Crisis As a result of lack of illustrations in which the central banks applied the composition of their balance sheet in order to involve the cumulative expenditure of the community by impacting credit flows, there is little chronological foundation for assessing the efficiency of credit policy. Nevertheless, the policies that were implemented by the government concerning the credit policy followed two directions. For instance, in case Fed had established the asset side of its balance sheet to buy debt in the markets it considered dysfunctional, and left unsterilized, the allied increase in the monetary support would have mystified the credit and money establishment influences. In addition, due to the financial crisis of 2008 that led to the implementation of mo netary policies, there were costs linked with the sustaining of money supply, despite the fact that the government gets overall income. For instance, it was claimed that about ninety percent of the money supply was established by the private banking systems and carried interest as a condition of its existence. The new policy required that all commercial banks to keep only 50% of all deposits they had and therefore the remaining 50% be to be kept with the Federal Reserve. To make the matter worse, Mr. Marriner decided to raise the Federal Reserve requirement to 75%. Following the increased reserve requirement, majority of commercial banks resorted to tightening their lending capacity in order to avoid situations of liquidity in the bank. Most commercial banks restricted their levels of lending by raising the level of interest rates. This meant that the level of borrowing decreased sharply and as a result, the level of investment as well went down. The policy by the Federal Reserve le d to low level of money supply in the economy.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The effects were two and this included reduced level of purchasing power as well as decreased levels of investment. Consequently, many parts of the economy failed to perform well leading to layoffs in various manufacturing industries, which dominated during these periods such as the mining industry. Others claim that the decision by the Great Britain to return Gold Standard at parities was as well the major cause of the crisis Fiscal Policies Fiscal policies are financial, economic or monetary plans or strategies put in place to realize certain goals in a given economic set up. Concerning the financial crisis of the year two thousand and eight, there are a number of fiscal policies that had been put in place; the monetary and liquidity policy. This policy caused banks to have a certain fear in that they were not willing to lend money to other banks and central banks of many countries cut their interest rates which forced them to provide unlimited liquidity to banks as a result (Bern anke, 2009). All the incidences happened because of the rapid fall of the capital markets as a result of the monetary and liquidity instrument fiscal policy implemented earlier on. The fiscal stimulus policies that had been implanted earlier on also had the biggest effects that brought the world into the two thousand and eight financial crises. Perhaps the implementers had put a lot of efforts and expectations in the policies such that their failure left the implementers with no option in terms of an alternative way out. Thus, the world was left at sake and consequently falling into the financial crisis. The Effects of the Fiscal Policies implemented in Reaction to the Crisis The fiscal policies had a lot of negative effects on both people and the general economy. To begin with, the fiscal policies caused negative economic growth as many banks globally feared to lend money even to their fellow bank operators as a result of the policies that had been implemented earlier. Banks feared to lose their money as interest rates fluctuated rapidly. The offering of more liquidity by many central banks did not solve the problem, but it rather worsened it as more fear crept in. Secondly, the collapse of many banks due to the failure of the implemented fiscal policies caused a lot of uncertainties. Consequently, many banks across the globe restrained from giving out loans. Many countries in the world including the United Kingdom and the United States, experienced high unemployment rates as a result of the failure of the fiscal and monetary policies that did not give out promising results but instead brought negative outcomes. References Bernanke, B. (2009). Essays on the great depression. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Cashell, B. W. (2010). The federal government debt: Its size and economic significance. Congressional research service. Retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31590.pdf Cooper, G. (2008). The origins of financial crisis: Central banks, credit bubbles, and the efficient market fallacy. New York, NY: Vintage Publishing. This essay on The Worst Economic Crisis in the U.S. was written and submitted by user Guillermo Y. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Essay Topics For College Admission - Be Prepared For Your Top 3 Essay Questions

Essay Topics For College Admission - Be Prepared For Your Top 3 Essay QuestionsIf you are an undergraduate at a top-notch school, you will probably be thinking about taking the SAT or ACT as part of your admission process. There are many essay topics for college admission, that may not be in your top three for the admissions process. Your key to choosing topics that are likely to be in good shape is to be aware of what SAT and ACT essays need to do in order to make your mark in the admissions process. Here is some advice to get you started:Practice: Practicing the topics you plan to cover is the best way to really learn how to write effectively on essay. Practice writing on different topics, including all ten, but don't feel pressured to do ten an hour. Just write five to ten minutes at a time and see how the words come out.Determine what the SAT and ACT essays need to cover: Knowing what the exam is asking of you is the first step to choosing essay topics for college admission. That 's not to say that you must put everything you know to use in your essay writing. You do have plenty of time to hone the details of your answers. So, take the SAT and ACT as a challenge by breaking them down into sections that are specific to the tests you will be giving to potential admissions officers.For instance, you may want to choose an essay topic that includes 'Help Wanted,' 'Justified Concerns,' 'The Gap' or any other specific topic. It's all about finding things that you love and that you are very familiar with and then using them in your essay writing. Just remember that it doesn't have to be something that is specific to the test, but it does have to be something that you think could benefit you and your admissions counselor.Now, for the big test day, sit back and relax. The focus should be on thinking about all of the questions that will come up during the test and knowing the format you will be tested in. Remember that getting all of these parts together and working th rough them with a high-quality essay is a big deal, so don't get too relaxed at this point. Keep your concentration on the test until you see those questions come up.Take all of the questions you see, though, and ask yourself if you answered the question to the best of your ability. This is the time when you start to really write! Writing a perfect essay can seem like a daunting task, but once you get the hang of it, it'll become a breeze. Taking a test is much easier than writing a paper. So, really, all you are doing is applying yourself to writing a great essay.Once you get through your test day, stop yourself from using the information as your own exercise. Turn the information over to a high-quality essay service and see if they can help you take your next essay and hit the ground running. Your essay will most likely turn out better than anything you thought you could do, so don't let that thought to stay in your head! Take the time to research the best of the best, but when it comes to essay topics for college admission, you are guaranteed to impress admissions officers by giving them an amazing paper that will benefit you.

How Amino Acid Chirality Works

How Amino Acid Chirality Works Amino acids (except for  glycine) have a  chiral  carbon atom adjacent to the carboxyl group (CO2-). This chiral center allows for stereoisomerism. The amino acids form two stereoisomers that are mirror images of each other. The structures are not superimposable on each other, much like your left and right hands. These mirror images are termed  enantiomers. D/L and R/S Naming Conventions for Amino Acid Chirality There are two important nomenclature systems for enantiomers. The D/L system is based on optical activity and refers to the Latin words dexter for right and laevus for left, reflecting left- and right-handedness of the chemical structures. An amino acid with the dexter configuration  (dextrorotary) would be named with a () or D prefix, such as ()-serine or D-serine. An amino acid having the laevus configuration  (levorotary) would be prefaced with a (-) or L, such as (-)-serine or L-serine. Here are the steps to determine whether an amino acid is the D or L enantiomer: Draw the molecule as a Fischer projection with the carboxylic acid group on top and side chain on the bottom. (The amine group will not be at the top or bottom.)If the amine group is located on the right side of the carbon chain, the compound is D. If the amine group is on the left side, the molecule is L.If you wish to draw the enantiomer of a given amino acid, simply draw its mirror image. The R/S notation is similar, where R stands for Latin rectus (right, proper, or straight) and S stands for Latin sinister (left). R/S naming follows the  Cahn-Ingold-Prelog rules: Locate the chiral or stereogenic center.Assign priority to each group based on the atomic number of the atom attached to the center, where 1 high and 4 low.Determine the direction of priority for the other three groups, in order of high to low priority (1 to 3).If the order is clockwise, then the center is R. If the order is counterclockwise, then the center is S. Although most of chemistry has switched over to the (S) and (R) designators for absolute stereochemistry of enantiomers, the amino acids are most commonly named using the (L) and (D) system. Isomerism of Natural Amino Acids All amino acids found in proteins occur in the L-configuration about the chiral carbon atom. The exception is glycine because it has two hydrogen atoms at the alpha carbon, which cannot be distinguished from each other except via radioisotope labeling. D-amino acids are not naturally found in proteins and are not involved in the metabolic pathways of eukaryotic organisms, although they are important in the structure and metabolism of bacteria. For example, D-glutamic acid  and D-alanine  are structural components of certain bacterial cell walls. Its believed D-serine may be able to act as a brain neurotransmitter. D-amino acids, where they exist in nature, are produced via post-translational modifications of the protein. Regarding the (S) and (R) nomenclature, nearly all amino acids in proteins are (S) at the alpha carbon. Cysteine is (R) and glycine is not chiral. The reason cysteine is different is that it has a sulfur atom at the second position of the side chain, which has a larger atomic number than that of the groups at the first carbon. Following the naming convention, this makes the molecule (R) rather than (S).

The role of surgery and methotrexate in treating ectopic pregnancy Research Paper

The role of surgery and methotrexate in treating ectopic pregnancy - Research Paper Example ide from being the leading causes of maternal deaths, roughly 30% of women who had an ectopic pregnancy could experience difficulty getting pregnant (Sember 2007) whereas 40% of women who had ectopic pregnancy will lose their capacity to conceive again (Chow et al. 1987). To give the readers a better idea about the research topic, this report will first provide information regarding the epidemiology of ectopic pregnancy, definition of medical terms, types of ectopic pregnancy, and aims and objective of the study. Women who happened to experience going through the process of ectopic pregnancy are not only concerned about the high cost of treatments and their future fertility. For this reason, this report will focus on discussing the cost effectiveness and the impact of two surgical procedures (laparoscopy and laparotomy) and Methotrexate on women’s future fertility. Because of higher incidence of risk factors and lower incidence of protective factors, Chow et al. (1987) revealed that there is an increasing trend of ectopic pregnancy has been noted in different parts of the world including the United States over the last two decades. Specifically in Australia, the incidence wherein a woman can experience ectopic pregnancy is around 16.2 per 1,000 births (Boufous et al. 2001). Since ectopic pregnancies could lead to mortality, immediate medical interventions such as surgical procedures like laparoscopy and laparotomy including pharmacological intervention using Methotrexate is necessary to save the lives of expecting mothers. In line with this, laparoscopy, ultrasound procedures, and assay for human chorionic gonadotropin can be use in detecting early stages of ectopic pregnancy (Kurjak and Arenas, 2005, pp. 273 – 280; Chow et al. 1987). Although laparoscopy can be used in detecting ectopic pregnancy at an early stage, the use of this type of surgical method is not a requirement since ectopic pregnancy can be diagnosed with transvaginal scan combined with

Joe Salatino research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Joe Salatino - Research Paper Example Every organization’s behavior is impacted by the customer’s perception. Perception refers to how an individual comprehends the world they live in and what is comprised in that environment. Personal perception is the kind that is pertinent to a salesperson when they approach a customer. The attribution theory proposes approaches to create vindications to assess people because people have different reactions in situations. Joe’s salespeople have to understand this theory so as to know, when approach an individual, if the cause of their behavior is internal or external. Internal behaviors are the ones that the individual can control while external behaviors are beyond a person’s capability to control. People have perceptions whose source can be positive or negative past experiences. A salesperson has to be patient and avoid making fast judgment and conclusions about a perspective customer. This will be denying the customers a fair chance in their decision mak ing. There are various ways that people form perceptions. The examples are the halo effect, stereotyping, the contrast effect and selective perception. Selective perception is when a trait or characteristic makes a product or situation stand out. The halo effect happens when conclusions are based on one characteristic. The contrast effect is based on past experiences. In order to acquire a customer, the salesperson has to identify potential customers. Telemarketing has been mentioned as a method of identifying the customers. Establishing a solid rapport is crucial for the salesperson for it helps them to know the needs and requirements of the prospect and know if the products offerings can match with these needs. It also helps know if there are other unmet needs and can therefore, be a source of information on possible changes or innovations to be made by the organization. Joe’s employees have seemingly done a superb job in maintaining customers. The challenge remains in unde rstanding how they form perceptions and attributions. A successful sales representative is an excellent listener to a prospect and gets to listen to their feelings and opinions on the products being offered. Customer perception is undoubtedly mandatory in customer retention. How customers form a perception on the business, will be determined about their past experiences. How the products they used turned out to be, how they were treated previously by the salespeople, the services and prices of the organization. To understand how they form their perception, it is essential to hear out their voice regarding the business. This can be done by conducting interviews, administering questionnaires and carrying out surveys to find out what they think about the company. In understanding how they form perceptions, the employees will be able to build relationships and trust effectively with customers. Joe Salatino as the president of the company has the responsibility of directing his employees so that they can work towards achieving the overall objectives of the firm. By the employees understanding how people make perceptions and attributions, they are able to know how people create a sense of the immediate world they live. Understanding them will help in providing products and services exactly how they want it, and these will guarantee profits which is one of the company’s most fundamental goals. By doing these, they are enabled to attain cognitive

Eriksonian Perspective Essay Example for Free

Eriksonian Perspective Essay Greene (1991) described Eriksonian perspective on human development from the idea of epigenesis, in which each developmental stage depends upon the resolution and completion of the previous one. This idea proposed that anything that growth has a concrete map, from which it is understood that each stage has its time of passing. The Greene’s description advocates that human development is biopsychosocial and it is present throughout the human life. It is driven by a biologically set plan with the social identity being conditioned by a social factor. Erikson argued that the human ego strives to improvement that is toward mastery of its environment. Thus personal effectiveness being promoted by the social organization becomes the driven mechanism behind the progression of each stage. Erikson derived eight developmental stages with each the pitcome of the resolution serving as the first step toward the next progressively superior stage (Greene, 1991). Although each and different culture resolves the unique requirements for the development differently, such progression is said to be universal in all cultures and human organizations. Thus we can observe a common denominator that according to Erikson (Greene, 1991) is a biological program toward improvement. Baltes, Lindenberger Staudinge (1999) supported Greene’s view but attempted to view the stages of development from the practical perspective. They saw the personality’s progression through the life stages as adaptive mechanism formed and guided with the needs and pressures of the environment. In other words, they inclined more to the point of view in which the environment rather than biology was the major player in the human development. Based on this assumption, the authors suggested to view at lifespan psychology from the individual’s standpoint suggesting that two different people would develop differently even under exactly the same environmental stimuli. Ontogenesis or the study of individual development (Baltes et al. , 1999) appears to be more practical and functional. It considers the individual’s concern of â€Å"acquisition, maintenance, transformation, and attrition† (Baltes et al. , 1999) adaptive processes throughout the lifespan. However, such â€Å"Westernized notion† is not eagerly shared by some researchers (Coughlan Welsh-Breetzke, 2002). They, in particular, suggested that Eriksonian perspective is male-dominated and was presented in the Westernized context thus making individualized and masculianized human development as the blanket for the theory. According to them, such propagation of â€Å"individuality, competition, self-interest, comparative judgment, and value imperialism† devalues other life systems and steps away from the diversified views of human development. As Erikson argued (Greene, 1991) the child’s personality is first affected by the mother and then transformed through the developmental stages within and by small groups, large groups, organizations, governments, religions, and the mankind at large. The child in infancy was thought to obey inner laws of development; the inner drives that lead the child toward realization of the full potential through interaction with the environment. Such interaction with the environment causes inner restructuring of personality traits, which, through integration and synthesis, leads toward the full and complete realization of that particular stage. From Greene’s work (1991) we learn that stage 1 which is called â€Å"Basic Trust Versus basic Mistrust† lasts through two years of age and involves the establishment of trust by the infant toward the members of the family. The most illustrative of such can be little Michelle, the character from the Full House. Her interactions constantly bring the development of new personality that can be characterized by newly developed psychosocial strength (i. e. higher degree of confidence in her communications). The second stage, â€Å"Autonomy Versus Shame† is characterized with developing of self-control and not loosing the â€Å"face† in the process. Such emphasis on self-esteem is important because the children of this age easily become shamed and can develop psychosocial issues of holding on and letting go (Christiansen Palkovitz,1998). The successful resolution of this stage manifests in the child’s ability to become more independent, with some gender differences. For example (Christiansen Palkovitz, 1998) argued that male infants on his stage of development are more individualistic than their female counterparts. Coming back to Full House characters, we indeed, see that the little Michelle (once she became a little older) tends to gravitate toward her sisters and continuously seeking their approval. The child on the stage three, Initiative Versus Guilt, develops the sense of purpose, especially noticeable during the playtime. The sense of purpose drives the child toward the active exploration of the environment and according to Erikson (Greene, 1991) brings her to the discovery of the lack of a penis. Contrary to the Freud, Erikson believed that such and inevitable (in some societies) discovery of â€Å"inequity† is driven more so socially than biologically (Greene, 1991). The successful resolution of this stage is uninhibited involvement in play with other playmates. The children on the stage four, Industry Versus Inferiority, start school. This is a major transition in their lives and involved changing of perspective from the small family-based group to the larger social groups. According to Eriksonian perspective, the main drive for children on this stage is to become industrial which involves developing skills and competence through meaningful performances. The crisis on this stage may occur when the child’s self-efficacy is undermined. Learning collaborative skills and experiences can be critical at this stage of development. Stacy in Full House was often intimidated by collaborative involvement trying to achieve the performance of tasks independently. Her father and uncles often taught her that learning how to collaborate and contribute would make things easier and more effective. Almost each episode suggested how Stacy (and her sisters) put a lot of effort toward performing any task. The child experiencing successes at creating and producing some value together with his or her peers (or parents) is critical toward the stage resolution (Greene, 1991). From the age of 12 through 22, the adolescent experiences Identity Versus Identity Confusion. This is the stage when adolescent develops into the young adult and is seeking personal and unique identity. The stability of self-representation is crucial and is manifested in the desire to develop autonomy from parents, individuality of opinions, acceptance of his or her sexual preferences, and commitment to the career choices. The struggling with the issue of selfness often causes to name such stage as the most difficult. During the stage, the influence of peer groups become most consuming and focuses of interaction. The ability to sustain loyalties is the desired outcome of the resolution for this stage. Either polarity we can see in characters of the movies like Girl Interrupted, Mean Girls, Even Stevens, and others. It is an uninterrupted parade of searched identities and strive for the independence in opinions and attitudes. When the young adult enters stage six (22 through 34) he or she enters Intimacy versus isolation. The focus of his or her life becomes developing of the meaningful relationships and seeking the intimacy experiences. This is the stage when most adults develop meaningful relationships to start a family. Becoming a loner and shutting down others is a crisis to compare to a resolution of this stage. Many film features exhibit important characteristics of selfless love, on one side, and ruined families on another as picturesque illustration of this stage’s characteristics. One of the features that come to mind is Click, in which the main character is taught a lesson that commitment to family is more important than personal comfort. Even the legendary Casanova in the feature with the same name shows that final offering of commitment to start a family was an only choice. When a person advances in years and through the stages of development on to the stage 7, Generativity Versus Stagnation, he or se is concerned with teaching and guiding the next generation. The proficiency of this stage is usually takes in an ability of taking care of others (Christiansen Palkovitz,1998). The crisis may result when the person feels stagnated without being able to share personal expertise to others, especially the younger generation. This is tremendously visible in Full House as the father of the girls is trying his best to teach and guide his children. He is visibly content and happy when his instructions and guidance are accepted. The final stage, starting at about 60 deals with Integrity Versus Despair. This is when the person is concerned of personal usefulness to others during his or her lifetime. As Greene wrote in his book, â€Å"Integrity is achieved by individuals who have few regrets, who have lived productive lives, and who cope as well with their failures as they do with their successes. † There is an appreciation of the life as the whole and a content of the life well lived. People with full resolution of this stage are not afraid of death, thus develop what we call wisdom. The feature Bicentennial Man shows that quite vividly. The android becoming a human develops wisdom through the personal choice of growing old and dying in the course of the old age, although as android he could live forever. In conclusion, it is worth noticing that despite the fact that the study examines the idea of epigenesis, one can find that the transition from one developmental stage to another is not always exactly predetermined by age. For example, fro Erikson’s argument, each stage has a certain age limit. However, we are aware that not everyone fits exactly in to such age limitation and depending upon the unique characteristics of personality, micro-culture (i. e. family), group culture (i. e. school), and macro-culture (i. e. government) the age boundaries for each stage might be different. The idea that everything that growth has a concrete map from which it is understood that each stage has a certain time of passing has been observed empirically on many living species. However, we cannot claim that each species has exactly the same time passing for each stage of growth. There will be some differentiation. In such, experimental results that examine the life cycle of one species will weaken the above-discussed theory due to the fact that it is very difficult if not impossible to determine the exact age boundaries between the developmental stages from one representative of the species to another. My personal opinion lies in parallel with this conclusion. Observing my own developing in contrast with Eriksonian perspective, I find that stage four, for example, and in my case, extended before age six and way after age 12. My stage five began at age 14 rather than according to Erikson’s perspective, age 12. Many a time, the stage six begin after the age of 24 (not 22) and continues through early 40s (at least with my acquaintances). Thus, the exact map of stage development is not so exact, after all, and depends upon numerous factors I already have mentioned. Penuel (1995) in his article put the focus on identity formation. According to him, although this research primarily was based on Eriksonian perspective, there is a clear notion that each and single individual develops his or her identity not necessarily in agreement with concrete time schedule of Erikson’s stages of development. Penuel made a point that despite the fact that Vygotsky offered theoretical foundation of identity formation, the specific guidelines behind sociocultural influence on identity were not set. Penuel urged not to replace Vigotsky’s view on the identity development by Erikson’s theory but to integrate both. Thus, the main study point in Penvue’s article would be strong but not mechanistic influence of sociocultural processes on the identity formation. The discussion presented in this work strengthen my ideas that the development of an identity is more affected by external factors, like micro-culture, group-culture, and macro-culture and is not always follows the strict age-set boundaries. Observing my own and my friends’ identity formation support this notion. Stevenson-Hinde (1994) looked at human development from the different perspective. It is more systemic as in the behaviors are interconnected within the specific system, and in thus if one component is affected others are affected as well. Such perspective deviates even more from he straightforward Erikson’s theory. It is not anymore the stage development but the systemic organization of behaviors, according to Stevenson-Hinde. This study weakens the theory and my idea about the identity formation. Although and without argument some behaviors are interrelated, this fact is not necessarily the cause of identity formulation. The effect comes from the external environment thus the sociocultural characteristics affect the identity development more than the resulting set of behaviors. This conclusion s supported by self-observation. Examining my own interrelated behaviors I clearly see that those are the effect not the cause of the environmental influences. Thus environmental influences affect my behaviors that in turn help in identity formation. Horst (1995) argued with the general notion that the Erikson’s perspective did not consider accurate depiction of development through the lenses of gender. According to her claim, contrary would be more accurate. Careful study of Erikson’s stages of development does consider the gender identity in which gender is relational to components of identity formation. The point of her article is thus, to consider that the gender has an influence on identity formation. This study strengthens my views on the theory in its notion of the gender influence. Certainly, male and female would not develop equally and would not manifest the same identity formation. The differential depends upon their own perspective of self as either male or female. Even more so, how their external environment views them on the gender scale: from less feminine to more feminine and from less muscular to more muscular. Thus, their identity is formed not only from the point of view of being a human but also being a male and female and its specific location on the gender scale. My personal observations support this viewpoint. External attitudes, first from my immediate family and then from my friends) confirmed and helped me develop my identity IQ and specifically my gender identity IQ.

The American Dream in Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, Two Kinds, and

The American Dream in Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Two Kinds writer by Amy Tan, and in â€Å"Sophistication† by Sherwood Anderson. Working hard is the key to success. This struggle for success is most commonly called the â€Å"American Dream.† The aspect of the American Dream has been around forever and is often the underlying theme in many pieces of American literature. The theme of the American is especially presented in Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Two Kinds writer by Amy Tan, and in â€Å"Sophistication† by Sherwood Anderson.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The theme of the American Dream is presented in Of Mice and Men. The theme is particularly expressed through and around the characters of George and Lennie. Both of these characters have a belief, a dream of owning their own little place to call their own, or as George would say â€Å"We’re gonna have a little place and a couple of acres an’ some cows and some pigs...†(Steinbeck,14) This dream is mostly expressed through Lennie but George is the one who supports Lennie. Lennie is the most dedicated to the dream. This dedication is shown when he said â€Å"An’ live off the fatta the lan.†(Steinbeck,14) This proven b critics like Kevin Attell who said †This is the kind of life that George and Lennie dream of living.†(Attell)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Also, the theme of the American Dream is presented in Of Mice and Men through the character of Candy. Candy is an old farm hand who is becoming of not much use around the farm anymore. Candy knows that desperate times call for desperate measures so he goes in on George and Lennie’s plan to buy a little farm. This is shown when candy says â€Å"It’ll be our own place.†(Steinbeck,60) Candy shows great spirit throughout the book and really shows off the good aspects of the American Dream. It is only until the end of the book until the plan to go away starts to be questioned. He starts saying questions like †You an’ me can get that little place cant we, George?†(Steinbeck,94) This denial was once again recognized my Kevin Attell, who said â€Å"George and Lennie’s dream is specifically necessitated by and responds to the limitations played on their lives.†(Attell) By using Candy as a character striving for the Amer ican Dream, the fact that the dream is attainable to all is presente... ...xploring novels, Gale Group   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Databases. Father Ryan High School Library, Nashville 6May 2004   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  www.infotracgalegroup.com Eble, Kenneth. â€Å"F. Scott Fitzgerald. Chap 5, Sec 3. The Great Gatsby† in Twayne’s   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  United States Authors Series Online. New York: GK Hall, 1999. Literature   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Resource Center. Gale Group Database. Father Ryan High School Library,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nashville TN. 6 May 2004 Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Chatham: Wordsworth, 1993 Piedmont-Marton, Elizabeth. Liz. Critical essay on â€Å"Two Kinds.† Short Stories for   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 293-296 Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin Books, 1993 Tan, Amy. â€Å"Two Kinds†. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Putnam, 1989. 132-144 Walcutt, Charles Child. :†Sherwood Anderson: Impressionism and the buried life†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Sewanee Review. 60.1 (1952). 28-47. Excerpted and reprinted in Short   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 293-296