What are personality interviewing strategies for assessment?

Introduction

The assessment of personality is an activity that occurs frequently and can be very important. On an informal level, people make decisions about someone’s personality based on their experiences with that person. If they have had positive experiences, they might say the person has a “nice personality.” Although these informal assessments have significant implications for friendships among people, more formal personality assessments may have a far-reaching impact on a person’s life. Formal personality assessments are commonly used in making employment decisions and decisions about the status of people’s mental health. Interview strategies used to assess personality usually are seen as either structured or unstructured. Interview questions are influenced by the theoretical orientation of the interviewer.

Fred Kerlinger’s discussion of the use of interviews in Foundations of Behavioral Research (1986) goes beyond using interviews to assess personality. In personality research, the interview is used to obtain information about the person’s thoughts, beliefs, behavior, and feelings to determine how they combine into what is called personality, as well as how they are influenced by or influence other life events. From the research perspective, the personality interview is an in-depth study of all facets of a person’s psychological and behavioral makeup.

Structured and Unstructured Interviews

Personality interviews may be placed on a continuum from highly structured at one extreme to highly unstructured at the other. In actuality, few interviews occupy extreme positions. Most interviews are designed to elicit as much useful information as possible from the person being interviewed. Therefore, there is a propensity to prefer one style over the other, although there is no rigid adherence to this tendency. Both structured and unstructured (or standardized and unstandardized) interviews are used in psychology to assess a number of things, including personality. As an approach to assessment, personality interview strategies must conform to expectations of reliability (the quality of delivering the same basic results after each of several interview sessions), validity (the quality of assessing the content that the interviewer intends to assess), and objectivity (the quality of being free of bias or prejudice).

Structured interviews are designed to obtain specific information about the person being interviewed. In the most highly structured type of interview, a list of questions is presented in its entirety to every person completing the interview. The questions are always presented in the same way and in the same order. The interviewer is not allowed the flexibility to pursue topics of interest; however, the structured interview is actually conducted with somewhat more flexibility in most applied settings. The interviewer is given a list of topics about which information is desired. In gathering the information, the interviewer is free to vary the order of the topics and is able to request elaboration of specific points as needed. This flexibility increases the likelihood that the desired information will be obtained, because the interviewer can vary the order of the interview to put the interviewee at ease while still covering all topics. Structured interviews are sometimes called "standardized interviews" because the interview topics and procedures are established in advance. Another name for the structured interview is the "directive interview" because the interviewee is directed into areas that interest the interviewer.

Unlike structured interviews, unstructured interviews, also called "nondirective" or "unstandardized" interviews, place control of the interview with the interviewee. Instead of asking “How many people are in your family?,” for example, interviewers using unstructured approaches use open-ended questions such as “Tell me about your family.” By using the open-ended question, the interviewer has the opportunity to learn more about the person’s family than with the structured interview. The unstructured interview may produce considerable information yet does not ensure that all topics are covered, as in the structured interview.

Regardless of the type of interview used, the interviewer is charged with observing and interpreting interviewee behavior. Changes in body posture, eye contact, and length of time between question and response are all suggestive of different emotional reactions to the interview. It is up to the interviewer to determine the accuracy of what is being reported by looking for patterns of consistency and inconsistency in the person’s behavior. Some determination must be made about whether the person is trying to minimize certain facets of his or her personality to save face or, conversely, is exaggerating facets for their inherent shock value. It is important for the interviewer to test various hypotheses about why the interviewee answers in a certain way if an accurate assessment of personality is to take place.

Obstacles

A number of common obstacles must be overcome in an interview. One of these is resistance, or the interviewee’s reluctance to talk about certain topics, perhaps because the topics are too painful or embarrassing. Resistance may be overcome by allowing the interviewee time to become more comfortable with the interviewer and time to broach the difficult topics in his or her own way. Other complications of the interview are interruptions from other people, distracting settings, and the interviewer’s emotional reactions to the person being interviewed.

Another approach to personality interviewing is the use of a computer-administered interview. When a computer is used to administer the interview, a branching program is used. Answering “yes” or “no” to a question may lead to additional questions on that topic or to entirely new topics. Some people have found that computerized interviewing leads to more complete answers. This may be especially true when the subject matter is intimate and potentially embarrassing.

Use in Clinical Settings

Typically, personality interviews are used in clinical settings or to make employment decisions; they are usually used in conjunction with formal psychological testing. Occasionally, they are used for research purposes; however, the training necessary to develop a skilled interviewer and the expense involved in the interview process usually limit the settings in which they are used to those where they are particularly significant.

In clinical settings, interviews are used for two reasons. First, they are used to gather information about the client or patient’s life and about the reason the person is seeking services. Second, the interview is the vehicle for intervention in most forms of psychotherapy. Gary Groth-Marnat discusses the role of the interview within the larger context of psychological assessment in his Handbook of Psychological Assessment (2003). In clinical settings, the interview is used to gather intake information (the intake interview) and to establish the person’s current emotional and cognitive state (the mental status examination). The intake interview is sometimes known as the initial interview, and it is the first significant contact with the interviewee. The purpose of the intake interview is to determine why the person has sought psychological services. This involves determining the person’s symptoms or chief complaint.

Once this information is obtained, the interviewer tries to learn more about the person’s life. In addition to asking about specific areas of one’s life—for example, educational experience and relationship history—the interviewer begins to assess the personality of the interviewee. The personality assessment requires careful observation and integration of both verbal and nonverbal behavior. The interviewer must be aware of how the person reacts to different questions or topics. Some people will always try to please the interviewer, while others may appear nervous, sad, or angry at different times during the interview. Integrating all this information helps the interviewer understand the personality and circumstances of the person being interviewed.

Mental Status Examination

The mental status examination is an extension and elaboration of information
necessary to understand the personality of the interviewee. Although some of the
information included in the mental status examination is acquired through direct
questioning, much of it is learned through careful listening and observation of the
person during the intake interview. Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook
of Psychiatry (2009) provides a detailed description of the mental status
examination. Typically, this examination includes information in the following areas:
physical appearance and how the person is dressed; attitude toward the interviewer and
others; any unusual motor behavior or movements; oddities of speech and language,
including accents, speech impediments, and unusual words; disturbances in thought
content and process such as delusional beliefs or difficulties expressing thoughts;
perceptual problems in the form of hallucinations or illusions; changes in cognition,
which may include memory impairments and other intellectual changes; disturbances in
orientation and sensorium, which refers to the person’s knowledge of who and where he or
she is, as well as to a determination of the level of alertness; the current affective
or emotional state; and the degree of insight into the person’s current
circumstances.

Each aspect of the mental status examination contributes information that helps in the understanding of a person’s personality. Information obtained through this part of the interview is also valuable in the diagnosis of psychological disorders. Certain deviations from the norm that may be revealed by the mental status examination are associated with disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. Thus, the intake interview and the mental status examination used together provide the foundation for understanding a person’s personality and psychological disorders.

Use in Employment Settings

Personality interviewing is also an integral part of employment interviews. One important area in which personality interviews are used to help make employment decisions is in the selection of law-enforcement officers. The goals of the interview are twofold. First, it is used to identify those candidates who, because of their personality, are likely to make good or effective police officers. These are people with good coping skills, well-developed intellectual abilities, and good observational abilities. Second, the personality interview is used to identify candidates who are likely to make poor law-enforcement officers. In the area of law enforcement, it is crucial to consider liability issues and the protection of the public in making hiring decisions. Personality interviews provide information that can help to improve the quality of the hiring decisions and ultimately the quality of law-enforcement agencies.

Personality interviewing is also used in other employment settings. The interview is a significant part of the application process; used either informally or formally, it yields important information about the applicant’s motivation and suitability for the position. Information from the interview helps an employer decide whether the applicant’s personality will mesh or clash with coworkers, will convey the appropriate image for the position, or will satisfy other considerations salient to the job. As in clinical settings, the use of the personality interview in employment decisions is frequently combined with formal psychological testing. In both employment and clinical uses, it is important to note areas of similarity and difference between the interview and the testing.

Role in Therapeutic Process

The use of interviewing, in various guises, has been central to psychological investigations of personality as well as to psychotherapeutic approaches to helping patients or clients. Sigmund Freud called one of the central aspects of psychoanalytic interviewing “free association”—a highly unstructured effort to obtain information that is as uncensored as possible. The interviewee is told to talk about whatever comes to mind without concern for its relevance or appropriateness. Following this uncensored revelation by the interviewee, the interviewer eventually makes interpretations about personality and unconscious conflicts. Although personality interviewing and free association remain hallmarks of psychoanalysis, the interview has also been important to others in psychology and psychotherapy.

Carl R. Rogers, the founder of
person-centered therapy (or nondirective therapy), considered the interview critical to the therapeutic process. He and his followers believed that, without controlling the direction of the interview, they could learn more about the person that would be useful in resolving the person’s problems. Rogerian psychologists are firm believers in the nondirective approach because it allows the client to discover, independent of someone else’s opinion, the solution to the problem.

Behavioral psychologists, as exemplified by Kenneth P. Morganstern, place their emphasis on a person’s observable behavior. Personality is not defined as something a person has but rather as the perceptions of other people based on the person’s behavior. Thus, personality interviewing from a behavioral perspective focuses heavily on observations of the person’s behavior in different situations. Many behavioral psychologists believe that a person’s personality is modifiable if his or her prior learning experiences can be identified and if it is possible to ensure that specifiable consequences can follow behaviors that the client is trying to change.

Many psychologists, including Groth-Marnat, believe that computers are likely to be used more frequently to administer interviews. Assessment interviews will be more important in determining accountability for treatment decisions and therefore are likely to become more structured. As interviews become increasingly structured, it is also likely that they will represent an integration of different theoretical positions rather than the parallel interview styles that have been developing among psychologists adhering to different theories.

Bibliography

Cormer, Sherry, Paula S. Nurius, and Cynthia J. Osborn. Interviewing and Change Strategies for Helpers. 7th ed. Belmont: Brooks/Cole, 2013. Print.

Groth-Marnat, Gary. Handbook of Psychological Assessment. 5th ed. New York: Wiley, 2009. Print.

Kerlinger, Fred N., and Howard B. Lee. Foundations of Behavioral Research. 4th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2000. Print.

Kirschenbaum, Howard. The Life and Work of Carl Rogers. Alexandria: Amer. Counseling Assn., 2009. Print.

Morrison, James. The First Interview. 4th ed. New York: Guilford, 2014. Print.

Pheister, Maria. "Psychiatric Interviewing: What to Do, What Not to Do." International Handbook of Psychiatry: A Concise Guide for Medical Students, Residents, and Medical Practitioners. Ed. Laura Weiss Roberts, Joseph B. Layde, and Richard Balon. Hackensack: World Scientific, 2013. 78–101. Print.

Sadock, Benjamin J., Virginia Sadock, and Pedro Ruiz, eds. Kaplan and Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2009. Print.

How did industrialization lead to imperialism?

Industrialization led to imperialism for several reasons. When industries began to develop in various countries, there were several things that were necessary. One of those things was the need for resources. Industrialized countries found they were able to obtain cheaper resources from their colonies than from other countries. Thus, countries wanted to gain colonies so they could obtain the resources needed in their industries.

Another factor showing how industrialization contributed to imperialism is that the industrialized countries needed places where they could sell their products. The colonies were a great place for these countries to sell their finished products. The industrialized countries knew they could rely on their colonies to buy the finished products made in their industries. This helped promote imperialism.

Having colonies allowed a country to protect its world trade. Alfred Mahan, in his book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783, argued countries that are world powers must be able to protect their trade. Having colonies allowed these countries to have bases around the world where their ships, both military and commercial, could stop, refuel, and resupply. If a war were to occur, the countries could also use their colonies as a base from where they could conduct military operations.

The growth of industries enhanced the need for countries to become imperialistic. Establishing colonies and the growth of industries were related.

When does an individual's learning transition from pedagogy to andragogy?

Pedagogy refers to the learning style of children, while andragogy refers to the learning style of adults. In order to assess how the learner transitions from pedagogy to andragogy, it’s important to understand the distinction between the two. The main differences are concerned with the role of the learner in the educational process.

Pedagogy

In a pedagogical approach, the learner is completely dependent on the educator for direction and evaluation. It is the experience of the educator, not the learner, that is more important, and the learner must be told what is expected of him or her to advance. Learners are motivated by external pressure and view education as a sequential process of acquiring segments of knowledge.

Andragogy

In an andragogical approach, the learner is far more independent in direction and evaluation. He or she brings personal experience to the process and is able to identify gaps in knowledge. Education becomes relevant to personal or professional goals, and the learner sees it as something that can be used to solve real problems.

The change from pedagogy to androgogy is gradual, with the learner slowly taking on more responsibility for the direction of his or her education. In many countries, the shift formally takes place when students enter university, which requires much more independence on the part of the learner. Ultimately, however, the transition happens whenever the learner is finally able to take responsibility and initiative in seeking out educational opportunities and directing the course of knowledge acquisition to accomplish personal goals.

What is a summary of the poem "The Mother Bird" by Walter de la Mare?

Here's a quick summary: In "The Mother Bird" by Walter de la Mare, the speaker of the poem peeks into a hedge and sees a mother bird in her nest. The bird sees the speaker and seems to react bravely, uttering one single, sharp tweet. When she makes this one sound, it's not a "chirp" or a "trill" (which are sweet little sounds) but rather a "passionate note of victory," as if the bird is sure her sound will scare away this giant human invader. At this, the speaker slips away, smiling, to leave the bird alone.

Here's a little more information about what's going on in the poem. "The Mother Bird" is full of contradictions. Throughout the poem, the speaker characterizes the mother bird as having a mixture of meekness and valiance: the bird is "brave" as she looks at the speaker, yet has "beseeching" eyes that look at him "meekly." More contradictions attributed to the bird include "valiant tears" and "hopeless joy," as if the animal has the human-like ability to experience complex and contradictory emotions: fearlessness and fearfulness, hope and hopelessness. As the poem comes to a close, the speaker labels the bird a "mother" but points out her "lonely" state in the nest--we assume the baby birds haven't hatched yet, so she's not really a mother, then. The speaker's reaction to the bird's sudden cry is a final contradiction in the poem; that is, while he's making his exit because the bird so effectively and victoriously drove him out of the hedge with her "sharp solitary note," he's also slipping away with a foolish smile on his face, as if he were the victor in this situation.

Finally, let's look at how you might break the poem into sections in case you needed to create a more detailed summary. The entire poem is one long sentence in eighteen lines, punctuated with commas, colons, and semicolons. The two colons in the poem both introduce new independent clauses, so they could be interpreted as periods if you needed to break the lines of the poem into smaller units of meaning. In that case, the first three lines are like a sentence unto themselves that establishes the exposition of the poem's story:

Through the green twilight of a hedge
I peered, with cheek on the cool leaves pressed,
And spied a bird upon a nest:

The next eleven lines make up the middle "sentence" of the poem and contain the rising action and climax of the poem:

Two eyes she had beseeching me
Meekly and brave, and her brown breast
Throbb'd hot and quick above her heart;
And then she oped her dagger bill, - 
'Twas not a chirp, as sparrows pipe
At break of day; 'twas not a trill,
As falters through the quiet even;
But one sharp solitary note,
One desperate, fierce, and vivid cry
Of valiant tears, and hopeless joy,
One passionate note of victory:

The final four lines present the falling action and resolution, showing how the speaker retreats from the hedge and offers one final description of the mother bird:

Off, like a fool afraid, I sneaked,
Smiling the smile the fool smiles best,
At the mother bird in the secret hedge
Patient upon her lonely nest. 

What are Leptospira?

Definition

Leptospira is a genus of gram-negative, motile, obligate aerobic spirochetes that use only long-chain fatty acids as an energy source. Both free-living and parasitic forms of Leptospira exist.

Natural Habitat and Features

The name Leptospira was derived from the Greek words leptos and spira, meaning “thin coil.” Leptospires are 10 to 20 micrometers (µm) long and 0.1 µm thick and are tightly coiled in a right-handed manner around a central cylinder. They are highly motile, due to two periplasmic flagella that, as in other spirochetes, are attached to opposite ends of the protoplasmic cylinder, unattached at the other end, and extend about two-thirds of the way along the cylinder. The membrane cell wall of the cylinder is rigid, while the complex outer sheath is flexible. When the flagella rotate in the space between the sheath and the cylinder, the entire organism rotates in the opposite direction, allowing for motility.

Because Leptospira are so thin, they are difficult to visualize under a normal light microscope; most can be seen using dark-field or phase-contrast microscopy. All strains grow best at a pH level of 7.2 to 7.6. Pathogenic strains do best at a temperature between 82.4 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (28–30 degrees Celsius), but some can grow at temperatures as low as 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius).

Visible growth on agar often takes four to seven days. Nonpathogenic strains, which are saprobic, do best at slightly lower temperatures, and many have minimal growth temperatures in the 41–50 degrees Fahrenheit (5–10 degrees Celsius) range. Visible growth on agar is usually apparent after two to three days. All species require long-chain fatty acids, which they break down through beta-oxidation, as their energy source. These fatty acids are usually supplied in vitro by the Ellinghausen-McCullough-Johnson-Harris medium.

No leptospires are able to use sugars as energy sources, but they can build needed sugars through Krebs cycle intermediates. Most pathogenic strains also require vitamins B1 and B12, and all strains require iron. The genome size is usually about four million base pairs, forming more than four thousand genes. The genome of L. interrogans consists of a larger 4.3-megabase chromosome and a smaller 359-kilobase chromosome. The Leptospira genome is larger than those of most other pathogenic spirochetes.

Taxonomic separation for many years has been by serotype, and more than 240 serotypes of Leptospira have been discovered. Genotypic DNA analysis has shown that strains that share the same serotype may be genetically distant, while closely related strains may show different serotypes. Modern Leptospira taxonomy uses genotyping and has placed most pathogenic serotypes in L. interrogans and most saprobic serotypes in L. biflexa. However, fifteen to twenty other less common, genetically distinct species have been postulated by genotyping.

Nonpathogenic strains can be found in many aquatic and damp habitats throughout the world, excluding polar regions. Pathogenic strains are parasitic or commensal in many animal species, including humans, but rodents, especially mice and rats, seem to serve as primary reservoirs for many pathogenic strains. In commensal or parasitized animals, the bacteria usually reside in the kidneys and are introduced into the environment through urine. The leptospires can remain alive for several weeks outside their host as long as they remain damp and warm. Infections occur year round in the tropics, but mainly in the summer, when the weather is warmer. In more temperate regions, infections occur mainly in winter, when rodents are more likely to enter homes for shelter. It has been postulated that human infections in temperate regions may increase with global warming.

Pathogenicity and Clinical Significance

Leptospirosis, caused by infection with Leptospira, is considered a zoonotic disease that affects a variety of animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects. Humans are only occasionally infected, mostly in the tropics and mostly by contact with dogs or small rodents. The most severe form of human leptospirosis is also known as Weil’s disease, named for Adolph Weil, who first described it in the late nineteenth century. The bacteria usually enter a host when contaminated water comes in contact with abraded skin or with mucous membranes.

Early symptoms of leptospirosis in humans include fever, chills, and headache, which are often mistaken for flu. During this time, bacteria can be isolated from the blood. After a brief asymptomatic phase, bacteria become ensconced in the endothelium of internal organs, such as the liver, the nervous system, the lungs, the heart, and especially the kidneys. This can lead to liver damage, which leads to jaundice, meningitis, pulmonary hemorrhage, renal failure, and, occasionally, cardiovascular problems and delirium. Mortality is common, especially in untreated persons, and is usually caused by pulmonary problems or renal failure.

Drug Susceptibility

Early in the infection, oral doxycycline is the drug of choice. In acute infections, hospitalization and intravenous penicillin G are the preferred treatments. For persons allergic to penicillins, erythromycin is an effective alternative. Third-generation cephalosporins, such as cefotaxime and ceftriaxone, have also been shown to be effective treatments, but dosage must be monitored carefully if the infected person is in renal failure, because these drugs can build up to toxic levels if not cleared properly by the kidneys.

Immunizations for humans are not routine in the United States because the immunizations are serotype specific, and there are many different serotypes. Outside the United States, however, some at-risk workers are immunized against locally endemic serotypes. Immunization of pets, especially dogs, against the more common serotypes can reduce the chance that dogs will become infected and then pass the bacteria to humans.

Bibliography

Madigan, Michael T., et al. Brock Biology of Microorganisms. 14th ed. San Francisco: Benjamin, 2015. Print.

World Health Organization and International Leptospirosis Society. Human Leptospirosis: Guidance for Diagnosis, Surveillance and Control. Geneva: WHO, 2003. World Health Organization. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.

Zuerner, Richard L. “Genus I. Leptospira.” Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. Ed. Noel R. Krieg et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Springer, 2010. 546–56. Print.

What are the negative aspects of Greece's geography?

The negative aspects of Greece's geography are the mountains, the river valleys, and the thinness of the soil.  Speaking of the mountains, for example, take a simple handkerchief and lay it open on a table.  Then pick it up, and make sure you crumple it in your fist.  Next, straighten it out as much you can on the same table.  That will give you an idea of what the mountains are like in Greece.  There is no orderly march of ranges as in other parts of the world, but a wild jumble of giant dragon's teeth, so to speak. More important, however, is the very small amount of arable land.  The mountains don't provide it and neither do the river valleys with thin, rocky soil and shallow, narrow rivers.

The advantages Greece has enjoyed flow from easy access to the sea, and of course, the imagination, ingenuity, and courage of its people.

What is the significance of this quote from Cicero? "The first law of historiography is daring not to say anything false, and the second is not...

It should, first of all, be noted that the correct quote is actually:

"... the second is not refraining from saying anything true ..."

This changes the intent from something sarcastic or witty to a rather straightforward meaning.

Cicero was a Roman orator from the 1st century BCE, famous for being a massively influential politician, philosopher, and speaker.

The rest of the quote, when put in context, is about the difficulties of writing about historical content. He contrasts these first two rules—that one should say nothing false and leave out nothing true—with the expectations of the readers, who desire opinion, analysis, and explanation.

These last two are, for the historian, particularly difficult, since they must rely, on some level, on speculation. As such, including them is in direct violation of the first two rules, which demand nothing but facts be reported. Further, including opinions on events, as is often asked, conflicts with the last clause about being free from bias for or against.

This quote, then, is simply about the contradiction between the strict rules for the historiographer and what is actually demanded of them. It is impossible to fulfill both.  

Why does Melba's mother insist that she and Melba keep their encounter with the mob outside Central High School a secret even though it means...

Melba's mother insists Melba keep their encounter with the mob secret because she doesn't want their attackers to discover the true identity of their victims. Melba's mother asserts that, if the men ever discovered who they were attacking, they would likely hunt her and Melba down to "finish the job" of killing them.

In Chapter Four, Melba's mother takes Melba to Central High for her first day at school. They are met by a noisy crowd of white demonstrators and neighbors when they get there. The Arkansas National Guard is there as well, but they do nothing to protect Melba and her other black peers. As the crowd becomes more rowdy, Melba and her mother try to get away.

In the process of fleeing, Melba and her mother are pursued by a group of white men. One of the men has a rope, and another manages to catch up to Melba's mother. He tries to grab her arm, but she eludes him. Another man assaults Melba with a large tree branch, but he misses as well. Eventually, they are both able to reach their car and manage to get away, although one man throws a brick at their windshield.

Melba and her mother drive around for a while until they are sure the men are not following them. Due to this terrifying incident, Melba's mother forbids her from discussing the morning's events with anyone. She tells Melba that, even if she has to lie, she must never admit to being in the vicinity of Central High that morning. Their lives are at stake, and they must do everything they can to protect themselves. 

The moon has much less gravity than Earth and has an extremely thin atmosphere. How would these factors affect the trajectory of a golf ball on the...

The trajectory and distance a golf ball travels after being hit depends on a few different factors. These include the force of the swing, the air resistance felt by the ball, and the gravitational force on the ball. The force of the swing won't change by a large amount on the Moon or Earth, so we will focus on the other two factors. 

1. As things travel through our atmosphere they are constantly running into air molecules. These molecules slow down the object and we refer to this friction as "air resistance". On Earth this would cause a negative acceleration in whatever direction the ball is travelling in. It wouldn't necessarily fall faster due to this resistance alone, but it would not travel nearly as far. On the Moon, where the atmosphere is non-existent, there would be no such slow down. The golf ball would see no lateral deceleration due to air resistance and would keep flying along at the same speed as it did when it was struck. 


2. The gravity on Earth pulls on all things and causes them to accelerate downward at around 9.8 m/s^2. The gravity on the Moon is about half of ours, thus the gravity on the Moon would only accelerate things at about half the rate of what things would fall on the Earth. On Earth, this means that as the ball is flying it would begin to curve its trajectory downward towards the ground. The Moon will only be pulling half the rate, so the golf ball would begin to peak its upward motion and fall after a much longer flight.

These two factors combined would create very different trajectories. On Earth, we would see a normal flight of the golf ball with horizontal speed being lowered by air resistance and the ball falling to the ground at the normal gravitational rate. A Moon based golf swing would instead result in a flight path much farther than the Earth based swing, due to there being no air to slow the ball down and only half the gravity pulling on the ball.

This has been tested by US astronaut Alan Shepard who, while on the famous 1969 Lunar Landing mission, took a golf ball with him to try his swing. A physicist later did the calculations on his swing and found the ball would have traveled around 2.5 miles! Compared to the longest drive of all time (515 yards) it appears to be by far easier to hit a golf ball on the Moon than Earth as it will fly much much farther. 

What are biofeedback and relaxation?

Introduction

From the day that people are born, and even before, they are subjected to a variety of stressors from the environment around them. Each one of these exacts a certain toll on their bodies. Some stressors seem to affect individuals differently, while others seem to have a universal effect; in any case, both the mind and the body must mobilize to deal effectively with these factors. The individual is usually able to handle these problems by using various coping strategies to help alleviate the stress. The problem arises when too many stressors are present at one time or when these stressors last too long. Individuals must adapt or change their coping strategies to return to a normal equilibrium. A coping strategy is a process that takes effort and is learned; the individual must acquire this coping skill as one acquires any skill. It must be practiced.

If the stressors are not dealt with adequately, fatigue and illness may result. In the most serious circumstances, the organism can die. Hans Selye reported on what he termed the "general adaptation syndrome (GAS)." As stressors affect an organism, a series of neurological and biological responses occur to protect the body. If these responses are prolonged and go unchecked, however, the body will begin to break itself down. In the first phase, the alarm phase, the body mobilizes itself. The adrenal glands enlarge and release epinephrine (adrenaline) and steroids to cope. After a while, the body adapts and seems to be normal; this is the resistance stage. In fact, the body is not normal. It is very vulnerable to further stress, and, if subjected to additional stressors, it will enter the third stage, exhaustion. The organism can then become extremely sick or die.

Development of Coping Strategies

It becomes essential for the individual to adopt a successful coping strategy to avert this progression of events. Two such techniques will be discussed here. Biofeedback is a procedure whereby the individual is given information about how a variety of body responses react in various circumstances. The individual is generally unaware of these reactions, but biofeedback technology allows the individual to monitor them and eventually bring them under control. Autonomic, visceral responses to stress have traditionally been thought to be involuntary and automatic. Biofeedback is a technique aimed at gaining control over these reactions. Voluntary responses can affect these visceral responses, and this fact complicates the ultimate effectiveness of biofeedback.

Neal E. Miller was one of the early pioneers in the field. His work has been applied to the control of a wide variety of stress-related problems through the use of biofeedback. The control of what have been termed “psychosomatic problems” has been accomplished using Miller’s assumptions. Individuals have learned to control blood pressure, heart rate, muscle spasms, headaches, and myriad other ailments through biofeedback techniques.

Miller believed that these responses to stress can be changed through the use of operant, or instrumental, conditioning and reinforcement. "Operant conditioning" refers to learning that occurs from reinforcing a response and is traditionally thought to be successful with voluntary responses mediated by the skeletal nervous system. When a machine makes this information available to a person, the responses can be reinforced (or they can reinforce themselves) when a therapeutic change occurs. The same principle is at work when an experimental rat learns to press a bar for food.

Another coping strategy that can be used to deal with stressors is the adoption of one of a variety of relaxation procedures. As odd as it may sound to some, people must learn to relax in many situations, and this takes practice. Relaxation techniques are often used in conjunction with biofeedback, which sometimes makes it difficult to determine which of the two procedures is responsible for the changes that occur and to what degree they are acting in relationship to each other.

There are several relaxation techniques, and different techniques are successful for different individuals. One of the most widely used techniques is progressive muscle relaxation, proposed by Edmund Jacobson. The individual is instructed to tense a particular muscle group and hold it for several seconds, paying attention to the feelings associated with this state. Then the individual is told to relax the muscle group and is asked to concentrate on the different feelings while the muscle is relaxed. The major muscle groups of the body are put through this procedure. Ultimately, the individual is able to reproduce the relaxed sensations when feeling tense.

Rhythmic breathing techniques are also used for relaxation to combat stress. The person learns to inhale through the nose to a specified count and exhale through the mouth to another specified count. The breathing should be with the diaphragm as much as possible, as opposed to the chest. Meditation, another relaxation technique that often incorporates rhythmic breathing, may require that the person either visualize an object or repeat a word or phrase with each breath. This action prevents the person’s mind from wandering to the anxiety-provoking stimuli.

Biofeedback Experiments

One of the experiments that pioneered the use of biofeedback in a clinical setting was conducted by Miller using white rats. Miller wanted to demonstrate that the animal was able to learn to increase the blood flow to one ear by dilating the capillaries in the ear. He needed to ensure that the animal was not using a skeletal response (“cheating”) to influence this response. For example, a human can accomplish this task by covering the ear with the palm of the hand for a period of time. Miller asked whether this could be done without a skeletal response. He administered the drug curare to the rat to incapacitate the skeletal nervous system and kept the animal alive by using an artificial respirator. He attached a sensitive thermometer, which was able to detect slight changes in temperature caused by differential blood flow, to the animal’s ear. When a slight increase in temperature was detected, the message was sent to a computer, which delivered an electrical reinforcement to the brain of the subject. This represents the same mechanism that establishes the bar-pressing response in a white rat: operant conditioning. The experiment was successful.

One of the first applications of this experiment to humans came when a woman who had suffered paralysis in an automobile accident was unable even to remain in a sitting position without her blood pressure dropping to dangerous levels. Miller and his staff assembled a biofeedback device that allowed the woman to determine the nature of her blood pressure from moment to moment. No external reinforcement (such as food) was necessary in this case; knowing that the response was therapeutic was reinforcement enough. The woman was able to learn how to raise and lower her blood pressure at will through the use of the biofeedback device. By learning to control her blood pressure (and eventually wean herself off the biofeedback machine), she was able to become more productive and do some tasks on her own.

Biofeedback Applications

The concept of biofeedback, then, can be generalized to learning to control any of the visceral responses to accomplish a healthier state. As society’s stressors increase, many of the visceral responses can cause clinical problems. Among the most common are headache symptoms, muscular (tension) and vascular (migraine). By using electromyography (EMG) biofeedback, a person can monitor the muscle tension in the forehead and learn to decrease the tension by obtaining constant auditory feedback. By the same token, thermal biofeedback machines can monitor blood flow to the cranial arteries and can teach a person how to reduce the volume of blood to this area and redirect it to the periphery of the body. This change may help other problems associated with migraines, such as Raynaud disease, in which the extremities are cold because of lack of blood flow.

The galvanic skin response
is one of the most common responses used to measure the degree of anxiety and stress. In fact, it is one of the measures in a lie detector, which assumes that when one lies, anxiety increases automatically. The galvanic skin response can be brought under control using biofeedback methods. For example, if a pregnant woman is anxious about the upcoming birth, she can receive constant feedback from a galvanic skin response biofeedback apparatus and learn to lower the galvanic skin response by attending to the machine. As she learns to accomplish this, she can apply these skills on her own and eventually use them during the birth process.

Yet another application of biofeedback in coping with stress has been the use of the technique in controlling brain waves through electroencephalography (EEG) biofeedback. EEG measures the electrical output of the brain, which may be brought under voluntary control by biofeedback and relaxation. It is thought that the brain’s alpha wave (eight to thirteen cycles per second) represents the resting brain. By having a machine monitor the amount of alpha activity from moment to moment through electrodes on the scalp, a person can learn to increase alpha production and thereby reduce stress.

Another common biofeedback technique is heart rate variability biofeedback, which helps the person to reduce high blood pressure and improve lung function. Evidence suggests that biofeedback may also be beneficial in managing gastrointestinal conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and chronic pain.

Use of Relaxation Techniques

Prior to and during biofeedback training, various relaxation techniques are employed to help with the procedure. This arrangement actually leads to an academic problem: which technique is working and to what degree? The use of Jacobson’s progressive muscle relaxation with asthmatic children and adults helped to reduce the frequency and severity of the incidents. One of the common problems that arises from increased stress is insomnia; the use of Jacobson’s technique has proved useful in combating this problem in several documented cases. Autogenic phrases—phrases used by the therapist to help the client while relaxing and performing biofeedback (for example, “Your hands feel heavy and warm”)—are often employed with biofeedback as well. For muscular disorders, phrases such as “My leg is heavy” can be used. For cardiac problems, a common phrase is “My heartbeat is calm and regular.”

Meditation has been shown to produce an increase in alpha-wave activity, as has biofeedback. Practitioners of yoga focus on a phrase or word (mantra) and exclude everything else. The nervous system shows evidence of reduced stress and arousal. A variety of businesses have used meditation programs for their employees and have realized improved health and raised productivity.

Implications for the Field of Psychology

The ability to achieve voluntary control over autonomic nervous system responses to help cope with stressors is a valuable skill. The area of biofeedback has important implications for both the theoretical and clinical sides of the field of psychology. First, it is traditionally thought that classical conditioning deals with the “involuntary” nervous system responses, while instrumental conditioning mediates the “voluntary” skeletal responses. "Classical conditioning" refers to learning that occurs by contiguously pairing two stimuli, whereby the second stimulus comes to yield a response similar to the first; it is traditionally thought to be successful with involuntary responses mediated by the autonomic nervous system. Because biofeedback deals with visceral autonomic nervous system reactions and is basically a form of instrumental conditioning, this traditional dichotomy must be brought into question. Biofeedback, a phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century, remains a relatively new field. Biofeedback techniques ultimately aim toward bringing unconscious, previously uncontrolled body responses into conscious awareness to control them therapeutically. It is a wonderful example of the interaction of the mind and body and the complicated dilemma of how and when they interact.

Biofeedback therapy invariably uses other therapies, such as relaxation and meditation, in the clinical setting. This situation naturally raises the questions of whether and to what degree biofeedback, relaxation, meditation, and their interactions are responsible for changes in the condition of the client. Many experiments are being conducted to determine the answers to these questions, and the results have been equivocal. It is also important to know what type of feedback, what type of feedback schedule, and what additional therapies are indicated for various problems.

The control of stress-related disorders without drugs or surgery is obviously a desirable goal, and biofeedback, relaxation, and meditation seem to hold some promise in this field for certain types of cases. The applications seem extensive. Hypertension, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, cardiac arrhythmias, asthma, and gastrointestinal disorders are but a few of the problems that have been addressed so far, with varying degrees of success. The degree of success of biofeedback and relaxation as coping strategies for dealing with stress is not yet clear. The results so far, however, are promising and are spawning much research.

Bibliography

"Biofeedback." Health Library. EBSCO Information Services, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

"Biofeedback: Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

Fehmi, Les, and Jim Robbins. The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body. Boston: Trumpeter, 2007. Print.

Lazarus, Judith. Stress Relief and Relaxation Techniques. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Print.

"Relaxation Techniques for Health: An Introduction." National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. National Institutes of Health, US Dept. of Health & Human Services, Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

Robbins, Jim. A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback. Rev. ed. New York: Grove, 2008. Print.

Schwartz, Mark, and Frank Andrasik. Biofeedback: A Practitioner’s Guide. 3rd ed. New York: Guilford, 2005. Print.

Is reactivity with oxygen a chemical or physical property?

Properties can be classified as physical or chemical, depending on whether the change causes any modifications in the composition of the substance or not. If no modification is there, such as in melting, the property or change is termed physical. In comparison, chemical properties or changes involve changes in the composition of the substance.

The ability to react with oxygen is a chemical property. This is because in order to observe this property, the composition of the substance changes. For example, hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen to form water:

`2H_2 + O_2 ---> 2H_2O`

Similarly, sodium reacts with oxygen to form a mixture of sodium oxide and sodium peroxide.

`4Na + O_2 -> 2Na_2O`

`2Na + O_2 -> Na_2O_2`

In each of these reactions, the reactant undergoes a change in its chemical composition and new substances are formed. Thus, reactivity with oxygen is a chemical property.

Hope this helps. 

Why is Mr. Fridley important in Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw?

In Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw, when Leigh is in the sixth grade, he writes a series of letters to the author Mr. Henshaw responding to a list of questions Mr. Henshaw wrote Leigh in his last letter to Leigh. In the letter dated November 27th, Leigh answers the question about who his favorite teacher is by saying he doesn't have a favorite teacher but really likes the school custodian Mr. Fridley because Leigh sees Mr. Fridley as a kind and caring person.

One example Leigh gives of Mr. Fridley being a kind and caring person is that Mr. Fridley does not "even look cross" anytime he has to clean up after a kid who has gotten sick. Another example concerns Mr. Fridley's treatment of Leigh before school starts.

In a letter dated December 1st, Leigh explains there is a school rule that no one is allowed on campus until 10 minutes before the first bell. Leigh hates the rule because his mother must leave for a class she's taking well before Leigh's school starts, leaving Leigh all on his own in their cottage that "seems dark and damp" in the mornings because of the fog. Because Leigh is lonely, Leigh leaves for school soon after his mother does but must walk very slowly in order to try to get there no sooner than ten minutes before the bell. He usually gets to school much too early and feels he must hide behind the bushes so he is not seen by Mr. Fridley. One day, Mr. Fridley does "something nice" for Leigh by getting him out from behind the bushes. Leigh explains in his letter dated December 12th that he had been watching from behind the bushes as Mr. Leigh raised the U.S. and California state flags up the school flagpole. Leigh noticed that Mr. Fridley had raised the California state flag upside down, hanging the bear upside down. When Leigh comes out from behind the bushes to point out the error, Mr. Fridley invites Leigh to fix the flag himself and raise it "right side up." Mr. Fridley then suggests Leigh "come to school a few minutes early every morning to help him with the flags." The wise reader will recognize that Mr. Fridley raised the flag upside down on purpose, out of the kindness of his heart, to get Leigh to stop hiding behind the bushes and to make him feel comfortable with his need to come to school early. By inviting Leigh to help with the flags, Mr. Fridley gives Leigh some much-needed attention, as Leigh notes when he says to Mr. Henshaw, "It was nive to have somebody notice me."

How does being part of a stepfamily influence a child's development?

Introduction

Social scientists have coined a number of terms for the family structure that is created when adults with children marry, remarry, or cohabit and form a new family: stepfamilies, blended families, binuclear families, remarried families, subsequent families, and reconstituted families. Historically, there has been some social stigma attached to these terms, and some scholars believe that any structure other than the nuclear family is deficient. Other scholars note the increasing number of stepfamilies and the challenges faced by stepfamilies as they suggest constructive and therapeutic means to assist them.

Explanatory Models

According to a review of the literature conducted by Marilyn Coleman, Lawrence H. Ganong, and Mark A. Fine of the University of Missouri, the primary models for understanding stepfamily issues and effects on children include family stress perspectives and stepparent/parent involvement or style rationales. Other scholars note the importance of the developmental stages of the stepfamily and the entire family system perspective.

Family stress models focus on the changes and transitions faced by stepfamilies, such as moving into a different home, learning new rules and routines, and adapting to new family members. These challenges may increase levels of distress, reduce parenting competencies, or result in more conflict in stepfamilies than in nuclear families. The age of children in stepfamilies may affect the amount of conflict, because studies show that adolescent stepchildren report more conflict with stepparents than adolescents in nuclear families.

Stepparent/parent involvement or style models suggest that biological parents and stepparents may have less time and energy to devote to interactions with stepfamily children because they need to devote those resources to building the new marital relationship or to their children from prior relationships. This is illustrated in the fact that the parents in stepfamilies spend less time with their children on schoolwork and school activities than parents in nuclear families, sometimes resulting in lower academic achievement and behavior problems. Research consistently finds that stepparents interact with their stepchildren less than the biological parents do, and that stepparents are more disengaged and show less affection to stepchildren. The role of genetic relationship to children is understood to affect parenting style, but it is also a major explanation for the fact that children who reside in a household with an adult who is not their biological parent are more at risk for physical and sexual abuse than children who live in a nuclear household. However, research does not show clearly that the stepparent always commits the abuse; it may be committed by another adult, such as a step-grandparent. It is clear that the same types of authoritative parenting processes, such as warmth and control, which are positive in other types of families, are effective styles in stepfamilies.

Fine and Lawrence A. Kurdek note that stepfamilies evolve through several developmental stages: dating and courtship with the eventual spouse, cohabitation (more likely in remarriage situations, but may not occur), early remarriage (the first two years), middle remarriage (two to five years), and late remarriage (over five years). They suggest that premarital relations between the adults who will marry establish the foundation and procedures for later definition of roles and relationships in the stepfamily. The early stage often focuses on management of the transitions and stress of remarriage, while the middle stage concentrates on relationship issues and achieving family consensus about roles.

The family system perspective views the stepfamily as an interactive system in which all members mutually influence each other regarding emotions, relations, and behavior. The system is understood to include people who do not live in the stepfamily household, such as the noncustodial biological parent, the new spouse of the noncustodial parent, or siblings who live with the other parent. This perspective recognizes real-life implications of the complex factors influencing stepfamily relations.

Effects on Stepchildren

Research on children in stepfamilies has demonstrated a number of differences between them and children in first-marriage families. In academics, stepchildren on average had lower grades, lower scores on achievement tests, lower school attendance, higher drop-out rates, and greater likelihood to receive a General Education Degree (GED) rather than to graduate from high school. Regarding conduct, stepchildren were more likely to have problems with drugs and alcohol and to be arrested. In emotional adjustment, stepchildren on average evidence more emotional problems. However, it is important to recognize that the differences found in the research were relatively small. Many stepchildren do not have conduct or emotional problems, and they do well in school. More research is needed to determine what factors lead to success and positive adjustment.

Psychologist James H. Bray at Baylor College of Medicine conducted research with stepchildren at three periods after remarriage: six months, two and a half years, and five to seven years. He found that children often experience a period of calm and apparent adjustment to the divorce and remarriage prior to a new eruption of problems during adolescence. He suggests that the adolescent task of achieving autonomy and individuality may be complicated by the absence of one biological parent. Many adolescents in stepfamilies experience a renewed interest in their noncustodial parent, and about 20 percent of adolescents changed residence from their mother’s to their father’s home. These findings may indicate that it is especially difficult to create a stepfamily when one or more children are adolescents. Bray notes that young children accept stepparents more rapidly than do adolescents.

Sociologist Jean Giles-Sims researched the literature on child abuse in stepfamilies and found that a higher percentage of stepchildren than children from nuclear families are included in severe cases of abuse that have been reported and confirmed. She warns against the assumption that all stepchildren are at risk, however, and notes that further research must be conducted to determine the specific factors that contribute to the likelihood of abuse in some stepfamilies.

Parenting in Stepfamilies

Researchers report that parenting in stepfamilies is difficult and stressful. Certain conditions improve the interaction with biological children and stepchildren in the stepfamily. First, it is important to recognize the developmental stage of the stepfamily and the children. At the beginning of stepfamily formation, even positive, normally successful parenting behaviors may be rejected by stepchildren. Emily B. Visher and John S. Visher, founders of the Stepfamily Association of America, recommend that stepparents build a friendly relationship with stepchildren before focusing on discipline. After a positive, nurturing relationship is established over several months, discipline is more likely to be accepted and respected. However, Bray notes that children and stepparents may define friendly affection differently. Children in stepfamilies report that they prefer praise and compliments to hugs and embraces as signs of affection.

Biological parents may have a difficult time with child discipline by the stepparent, even when the biological parent has encouraged the stepparent to be involved. Loyalty to one’s own children may create a reaction to discipline from the new spouse. Visher and Visher suggest that the biological parent may need to be the primary disciplinarian initially, but that both adults do need to support each other’s authority in the household. However, stepparenting that is too strict or lacking in warmth is consistently connected with more behavior problems and poorer social adjustment in children, no matter how long the remarriage has been in place.

Other Issues

Several other issues are noted in the literature on stepfamilies as common occurrences. Difficulties between the former spouses (biological parents) after one or both have remarried may complicate the functioning of the stepfamily. Visitation with the noncustodial parent or lack of consistent visitation may cause tensions and loyalty problems for children. Child support payments or lack of payment of prescribed child support can cause conflict with the former spouse or marital tension in the new relationship.

Stepsibling relationships may also complicate stepfamily life. Problems may occur if there is too much conflict between stepbrothers and stepsisters, or if adolescent stepsiblings experience sexual attraction or engage in sexual behavior toward each other.

Finally, the lack of clear role definitions for stepfamily members in American society appears to complicate the formation and conduct of stepfamilies. The most common difficulty is the attempt to superimpose roles and understandings from the nuclear onto the stepfamily. Clinicians such as the Vishers suggest that open discussion and dialog about expectations are important in stepfamilies to avoid misperceptions and missed expectations.

Bibliography

Booth, Alan, and Judy Dunn, eds. Stepfamilies: Who Benefits? Who Does Not? New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Coleman, Marilyn, Lawrence H. Ganong, and Mark A. Fine. “Reinvestigating Remarriage: Another Decade of Progress.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 62 (2000): 1288–1307. Print.

Fine, Mark A., and Frank D. Fincham, eds. Handbook of Family Theories: A Content-Based Approach. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Ganong, Lawrence H., and Marilyn Coleman. Stepfamily Relationships: Development, Dynamics, and Interventions. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2004. Print.

Lofas, Jeannette. Family Rules: Helping Stepfamilies and Single Parents Build Happy Homes. New York: Kensington, 1998. Print.

Pryor, Jan, ed. The International Handbook of Stepfamilies: Policy and Practice in Legal, Research, and Clinical Environments. Hoboken: Wiley, 2008. Print.

Stewart, Susan D. Brave New Stepfamilies: Diverse Paths Toward Stepfamily Living. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2007. Print.

Widmer, Eric. Family Configurations: A Structural Approach to Family Diversity. Burlington: Ashgate, 2010. Print.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, what quotes depict Dill's weaknesses as a character?

Charles Baker "Dill" Harris is Scout and Jem's best friend throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Although Dill has many positive character traits, he also has several weaknesses that are depicted throughout the novel. Dill Harris has an active imagination and continually lies to Jem and Scout. In Chapter 5, Scout says,

"Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever heard. Among other things, he had been up in a mail plane seventeen times, he had been to Nova Scotia, he had seen an elephant, and his granddaddy was Brigadier General Joe Wheeler and left him his sword" (Lee 63).

In addition to being a habitual liar, Dill is also inconsiderate of others' feelings. He encourages Jem to bother Boo Radley and dismisses Scout without noticing. Scout says,

"He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. He staked me out, marked as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me. I beat him up twice but it did no good, he only grew closer to Jem" (Lee 55).

Dill is also an insecure individual. He runs away from his home to Maycomb. While Dill is talking with Scout, she asks him why he decided to leave. Dill says, "That wasn't it, he---they just wasn't interested in me" (Lee 190). Dill felt like his parents should have spent more time with him, and he was not satisfied with the material gifts they gave him.

In addition to Dill's insecurity, he also lacks adequate coping skills and is overly sensitive. During the trial, Scout needs to take Dill out of the courtroom because he is crying. Scout says,

"That was as much as I heard of Mr. Gilmer's cross-examination, because Jem made me take Dill out. For some reason Dill had started crying and couldn't stop; quietly at first, then the sobs were heard by several people in the balcony" (Lee 265).

A ball of mass m is tied to a cart of mass 4m by a string that passes over a pulley. The cart is on wheels, which allows us to neglect friction...

Hello!

Denote the downward speed of a ball as `V(t).` A cart and a point on an outer edge of a pulley have the same speed. I'll use a downward y-axis, starting from the initial position of a ball.

It is known that the kinetic energy of a rotating disk is `1/4 m_d V^2,` and for linearly moving ball and cart it is `1/2 m_b V^2` and `1/2 m_c V^2.` The potential energy with respect to the y-axis I use is `-m_b gh,` and the total energy of the system is conserved. This way we obtain an equation

`(1/2 m_b + 1/2 m_c + 1/4 m_d) V^2 = m_b gh.`

Recall `m_b=m,` `m_c=4m` and `m_d=2m` and obtain

`(1/2 + 2 + 1/2)m V^2=mgh,` or `3V^2(t)=gh(t).`

This is a differential equation because `V(t)=h'(t).` It is simple to solve it and the solution is `h(t)=g/12 t^2.` So the starting acceleration is `V''(0)=g/6` and the answer for A is f.

For B use Newton's Second law, `F=ma.` Net force `F` here is equal to `mg-T,` where `T` is the tension force, so `T=m(g-a)=m(g-g/6)=5/6 mg,` the answer is g.

For C is the same idea but applied to a cart, the answer is `T=m_c*a=4m*g/6=2/3 mg,` the answer is d.

D (about kinetic energy). We saw that the kinetic energies have the ratio 1/2:2:1/2, i.e. 1:4:1 or 1/6:2/3:1/6, so the answer is c.

What are learning disorders?

Introduction

Learning disorders (LD) is a general term for clinical conditions that meet four diagnostic criteria, as specified by the fifth edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published in 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association. Those criteria include an individual displays symptoms of a learning disorder for more than six months, despite efforts to provide additional or specifically targeted instruction; the person's achievement in an academic domain (such as reading) is substantially below that expected given his or her age, schooling, and level of intelligence, and this learning disturbance interferes significantly with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require specific academic skills; the symptoms manifest during the individual's school-age years or young adulthood; and intellectual disorders, sensory problems, adverse learning conditions, and other potential causes have been ruled out. Earlier editions of the DSM listed four subcategories of learning disorders: reading disorder, mathematics disorder, disorder of written expression, and learning disorder not otherwise specified (NOS). However, the DSM-5 groups all learning disorders under the category of specific learning disorder. Specific learning disorder encompasses all varieties of learning disorders, including problems in reading, writing, and mathematics.

A variety of statistical approaches are used to produce an operational definition of academic achievement that is “substantially below” expected levels. Despite some controversy about its appropriateness, the most frequently used approach defines “substantially below” as a discrepancy between achievement and intelligence quotient (IQ) of more than two standard deviations (SD). In cases where an individual’s performance on an IQ test may have been compromised by an associated disorder in linguistic or information processing, an associated mental disorder, a general medical condition, or the individual’s ethnic or cultural background, a smaller discrepancy (between one and two SDs) may be acceptable. In general, the DSM-5 has moved somewhat away from the use of IQ tests in diagnosis, instead encouraging a greater focus on assessments that take environmental and other factors into account.

Differential diagnosis involves differentiating learning disorders from normal variations in academic achievement; scholastic difficulties due to lack of opportunity, poor teaching, or cultural factors; and learning difficulties associated with a sensory deficit. In cases of autism spectrum disorder, communication disorders, or mild intellectual disability, an additional diagnosis of learning disorder is given if the individual’s academic achievement is substantially below the expected level given the individual’s schooling and intelligence.

The term learning disorders was first applied to a clinical condition meeting these three criteria in the DSM-IV, published in 1994. Earlier editions of the DSM used other labels such as learning disturbance, a subcategory within special symptom reactions in DSM-II (1968). In DSM-III (1980) and DSM-III-R (1987), the condition was labeled academic skills disorders and listed under specific developmental disorders; furthermore, the diagnosis was based only on academic achievement substantially below the norm. The LD condition is also known by names other than those used in the psychiatric nomenclature, most frequently as learning disabilities, which may manifest in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations in children whose learning problems are not primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. Specific learning disorders are also commonly referred to by other names, such as dyslexia
(reading disorder), dyscalculia
(mathematics disorder), or dysgraphia (disorder of written expression). Empirical evidence about prevalence, etiology, course of the disorder, and intervention comes mainly from subjects identified as having dyslexia or learning disabilities.

Prevalence

Prevalence rates for learning disorders vary, depending on the definitions and methods of determining the achievement-intelligence discrepancy. According to a 2014 report by the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), approximately 5 percent of public school students in the United States have been diagnosed with a learning disorder; in addition, other children who fit the DSM-5's criteria may not yet have been officially diagnosed. The prevalence rate for specific subsets of specific learning disorder is more difficult to establish because many studies simply report the total number of learning disorders without separating them according to subcategory. According to the NCLD report, specific learning disorder with impairment in reading is the most common, followed by impairment in mathematics. Disorder of written expression alone is rare; it is usually associated with the other categories of specific learning disorder.

The NCLD report further states that male students are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability than female students; as of 2014, two-thirds of diagnosed students were male. LD often coexists with another disorder, usually language disorders, communication disorders, or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Etiology

There is strong empirical support for a genetic basis of reading disorders or dyslexia from behavior genetic studies. John C. DeFries and his colleagues indicate that heredity can account for as much as 60 percent of the variance in reading disorders or dyslexia. As for the exact mode of genetic transmission, Lon R. Cardon and his collaborators, in two behavior genetic studies, identified chromosome 6 as a possible quantitative trait locus for a predisposition to develop reading disorder. The possibility that transmission occurs through a subtle brain dysfunction rather than autosomal dominance has been explored by Bruce Pennington and others.

The neurophysiological basis of reading disorders has been explored in studies of central nervous dysfunction or faulty development of cerebral dominance. The hypothesized role of central nervous dysfunction has been difficult to verify despite observations that many children with learning disorders had a history of prenatal and perinatal complications, neurological soft signs, and electroencephalograph abnormalities. In 1925, neurologist Samuel T. Orton hypothesized that reading disorder or dyslexia results from failure to establish hemispheric dominance between the two halves of the brain. Research has yielded inconsistent support for Orton’s hypothesis and its reformulation, the progressive lateralization hypothesis. However, autopsy findings of cellular abnormalities in the left hemisphere of dyslexics that were confirmed in brain-imaging studies of live human subjects have reinvigorated researchers. These new directions are pursued in studies using sophisticated brain-imaging technology.

Genetic and neurophysiological factors do not directly cause problems in learning the academic skills. Rather, they affect development of neuropsychological, information-processing, linguistic, or communication abilities, producing difficulties or deficits that lead to learning problems. The most promising finding from research on process and ability deficits concerns phonological processing—the ability to use phonological information (the phonemes or speech sounds of one’s language)—in processing oral and written language. Two types of phonological processing, phonological awareness and phonological memory (encoding or retrieval), have been studied extensively. Based on correlational and experimental data, there is an emerging consensus that a deficit in phonological processing is the basis of reading disorder in a majority of cases.

Assessment

Assessment refers to the gathering of information to attain a goal. Assessment tools vary with the goal. If the goal is to establish the diagnosis, assessment involves the individualized administration of standardized tests of academic achievement and intelligence that have norms for the child’s age and, preferably, social class and ethnicity. To verify that the learning disturbance is interfering with a child’s academic achievement or social functioning, information is collected from parents and teachers through interviews and standardized measures such as rating scales. Behavioral observations of the child may be used to supplement parent-teacher reports. If there is a visual, hearing, or other sensory impairment, it must be determined that the learning deficit is in excess of that usually associated with it. The child’s developmental, medical, and educational histories and the family history are also obtained and used in establishing the differential diagnosis and clarifying etiology.

If LD is present, then the next goal is a detailed description of the learning disorder to guide treatment. Tools will depend on the specific type of learning disorder. For example, in the case of dyslexia, E. Wilcutt and Pennington suggest that the achievement test given to establish the achievement-intelligence discrepancy be supplemented by others such as the Gray Oral Reading Test, a timed measure of reading fluency as well as of reading comprehension. Still another assessment goal is to identify the neuropsychological, linguistic, emotional, and behavioral correlates of the learning disorder and any associated disorders. A variety of measures exist for this purpose. Instrument selection should be guided by the clinician’s hypotheses, based on what has been learned about the child and the disorder. Information about correlates and associated disorders is relevant to setting targets for intervention, understanding the etiology, and estimating the child’s potential response to intervention and prognosis.

In schools, identification of LD involves a multidisciplinary evaluation team, including the classroom teacher, a psychologist, and a special education teacher or specialist in the child’s academic skill deficit (such as reading). As needed, input may be sought from the child’s pediatrician, a speech therapist, an audiologist, a language specialist, or a psychiatrist. A thorough assessment should provide a good description of the child’s strengths as well as weaknesses that will be the basis of effective and comprehensive treatment plans for both the child and the family. In school settings, these are called, respectively, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).

Treatment

Most children with LD require special education. Depending on the disorder’s severity, they may learn best in a one-to-one setting, small group, special class, or regular classroom plus resource room tutoring.

Treatment of LD should address both the disorder and associated conditions or correlates. Furthermore, it should include assisting the family and school in becoming more facilitative contexts for development of the child with LD. Using neuropsychological training, psychoeducational methods, behavioral or cognitive behavioral therapies, or cognitive instruction, singly or in combination, specific interventions have targeted the psychological process dysfunction or deficit assumed to underlie the specific learning disorder; a specific academic skill such as word attack; or an associated feature or correlate such as social skills. Process-oriented approaches that rose to prominence in the 1990s are linguistic models aimed at remediating deficits in phonological awareness and phonological memory and cognitive models that teach specific cognitive strategies that enable the child to become a more efficient learner. Overall, treatment or intervention studies during the last two decades of the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first century are more theory-driven, built on prior research, and rigorous in methodology. Many studies have shown significant gains in target behaviors. Transfer of training, however, remains elusive. Generalization of learned skills and strategies is still the major challenge for future treatment research, and LD remains a persistent or chronic disorder.

Bibliography

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2013. Print.

American Psychiatric Association. "Specific Learning Disorder." American Psychiatric Association. APA, 2013. Web. 5 June 2014.

Brown, F. R., H. L. Aylward, and B. K. Keogh, eds. Diagnosis and Management of Learning Disabilities. San Diego: Singular, 1996. Print.

Harwell, Joan M., and Rebecca Williams Jackson. The Complete Learning Disabilities Handbook . 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Print.

Lerner, Janet W., and Beverley Johns. Learning Disabilities and Related Mild Disabilities: Characteristics, Teaching Strategies, and New Directions . Boston: Houghton, 2009. Print.

Lyon, G. Reid. “Treatment of Learning Disabilities.” Treatment of Childhood Disorders. Ed. E. J. Mash and L. C. Terdal. New York: Guilford, 1998. Print.

National Center for Learning Disabilities. The State of Learning Disabilities. New York: NCLD, 2014. Print.

Sternberg, Robert J., and Louise Spear-Swerling, eds. Perspectives on Learning Disabilities. Boulder: Westview, 1999. Print.

Is there an element of subjectivity in the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett?

Subjectivity implies personal reaction and opinion rather than rational, logical conclusion based on research or other evidence from outside one’s personal experience. With this definition in mind, it can be said that Beckett’s personal, subjective opinion of the meaning or non-meaning of life is reflected in Waiting for Godot.

However, Beckett was also a scholar, a well-traveled and experienced thinker, and a keen observer of the human condition around him, so his view of the world extended far beyond his immediate biographical experiences. Once, while walking with a friend on a sunny Paris day, the friend remarked casually “A day like this makes you happy to be alive.” Beckett responded “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far.” This anecdote demonstrates how Beckett’s worldview was not merely subjective but based on his lifelong observations and the experiences of other people.

As for the play itself, the characters are far from subjective – they are broad representatives of everyman, split into mental (Didi) and physical (Gogo) manifestations. Pozzo and Lucky, as well, are broad symbolic representations of human conditions – freedom of choice and slavery.

Can you please help me write a movie script or screenplay involving the topic of slavery?

Slavery is a very complicated subject with many layers. Perhaps you can concentrate on one aspect of slavery, such as the Middle Passage, which was the journey slaves took from Africa to the New World. This journey was frightening and deadly for many people. You could also concentrate on what life was like for American slaves on plantations. A good source of information is Frederick Douglass's autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In the beginning chapters, he discusses what it was like to grow up on a plantation where he did not often see his mother and commonly witnessed the beatings of family members. A third idea is to use Frederick Douglass's descriptions (in later chapters of his autobiography) of his life in Baltimore to produce a movie or script about a slave who worked in an urban area. Douglass worked on ships and earned wages, which were given to his masters. In these later chapters, he explains he wanted to read, but his slave mistress, who initially taught him some rudimentary parts of reading, then was not allowed to continue to teach him. People thought teaching slaves to read would ruin them for slavery, as they would develop a mind of their own. This situation renewed Douglass's determination to learn to read. Using Douglass's life could help you develop a story line related to slavery. 

What is a summary of the chapter titled "February"?

Here's a very short summary: Holling accidentally messes up his dad's chances of winning the contract to design the new school. He also goes on a date with Meryl, and he reads Romeo and Juliet and hates it at first, then slowly starts appreciating it.

Here's a detailed summary:

As the chapter titled "February" opens, it's a Friday night, and Holling and his family are getting very dressed up to go to an awards banquet at the Kiwanis Club. Neither Holling nor his sister wants to wear the flowers they're supposed to, so they dare each other to flush them down the toilet.

Just then, the ceiling in their living room caves in, making a hideous mess and causing their father to yell angrily about the workmen who were in charge of fixing the ceiling.

When the family arrives at the Kiwanis event, Holling gives his carnation away, and his sister actually flushes her orchid. They sit through a boring dinner and some boring speeches, and Holling's dad gives his speech to accept his award for being a model businessman in the community. Holling finds it all a bit ironic, because as soon as they get back home, Holling's dad calls up the workmen and bullies them into coming back over first thing the next morning to redo the ceiling repairs.

Back at school, the rat problem is getting worse and the ceiling tiles are bulging downward. Holling's teacher assigns him Romeo and Juliet, which he reads in just three days, and he thinks the story is really stupid because of how the main characters kill themselves. It's not realistic, Holling argues as he talks to Mrs. Baker about it. But Meryl Lee likes how Holling is reading Romeo and Juliet, and he successfully asks her out on a date for Valentine's Day.

Holling barely has any money and wonders where he can take Meryl on their date, but his dad is just focused on the new modern design for the junior high school. His friend Danny doesn't help, either. When Holling reads some more Romeo and Juliet with Mrs. Baker, he starts to appreciate it more, and when he goes down to see Mrs. Bigio to pick up some cupcakes for the class, she gives him two tickets to see the stage play.

Problem solved! Holling takes Meryl to see the play for their date, and they have a great time. After the show, they talk about their dads' separate plans for the new junior high school, and Holling draws his dad's plan to show Meryl. She keeps the drawing.

Soon afterward, Holling goes with his dad to a business meeting. Everyone is presenting their ideas for the new junior high school, and Meryl's dad's presentation shows that he's totally copied Holling's dad's idea! Mr. Hoodhood is really mad at Holling, and Holling is angry at himself for being so stupid as to give away his dad's design to Meryl.

He argues with Meryl, but she claims that she never wanted her dad to use the design, and her eyes are red from crying.

Holling rewrites his essay about Romeo and Juliet, showing how his own experiences are changing how he interprets the play. Then he takes a rose and some Cokes over to Meryl's house to apologize, and they make up. Meryl's dad withdraws his idea for the new junior high school, and Holling's dad wins the contract for his own company.

The chapter closes when Mrs. Baker receives notice that her husband is missing in action in the war.

Where is foreshadowing used in The Great Gatsby?

One of the more subtle and eerie uses of foreshadowing in The Great Gatsby appears in chapter seven and is accomplished through imagery.  All of the principal characters have gathered at the Buchanans' home in East Egg for a luncheon, and the events of the day and evening comprise the novel's climax. Fitzgerald builds the tension that leads to the showdown between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby in many ways, beginning with the unbearably hot weather that precedes the chapter's violent conclusion and Myrtle Wilson's death.  The image that foreshadows Gatsby's death in chapter eight occurs when Tom Buchanan has left the salon described as "dark and cool."  Daisy and Jordan, "silver idols" in their white dresses, look on as  Nick, ever the observer, creates an image of the titular character: 

"Gatsby stood in the centre of the crimson carpet and gazed around with fascinated eyes."

Here Fitzgerald presents Gatsby in a pool of blood, wide-eyed and unaware of the malignant forces that will claim his life in just a few short hours. Though neither Tom nor Daisy will pull the trigger, they will be culpable in his murder: Tom lets Wilson believe that it was Gatsby who killed Myrtle and Daisy fails to reveal her role in Myrtle's death--or warn Gatsby that Wilson is coming for him. This image in chapter seven foreshadows Nick's last glimpse of Gatsby in chapter eight and echoes the crimson motif as his lifeless body floats in "a thin red circle in the water."

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.

In Oedipus The King, compare and contrast male with female characters.

In Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Rex), the male characters dominate the play in terms of numbers. The men are the heroes and the villains in the sense that the conflict on stage and in recounted stories revolves around them. 

Oedipus, Creon and Tiresias are each male (although Tiresias was once turned into a woman and can be seen as somewhat androgynous perhaps) and these three characters do most of the speaking in the play.

Some of the biggest differences in characters are not best seen by contrasting male and female characters, but instead by comparing attitudes held among both genders in regards to logic and insistence. However, in making the gender comparison, we can see that men are presented as being rash and quick to anger and fits of pride. The queen, Iocaste, is level-headed and largely keeps her own counsel (whereas Oedipus feels the need to find support for his views from others).

When Oedipus begins to doubt Creon and threatens to have Creon killed, Iocaste arrives on the scene. The chorus wonders if “this dreadful quarrel can be resolved through her,” suggesting that this female character might have powers of reason and influence enough to mediate between the male king in his brother-in-law.

She chastises both men:

“Poor foolish men, what wicked din is this?

With Thebes sick to death, is it not shameful

That you should rake some private quarrel up?”

In admonishing the men, Iocaste is also offering a direct characterization of their foolishly violent attitudes. 

Iocaste is respected by the men for her position and for her intellect. Oedipus tells her that “none of these men deserved [his] confidence as you do.” Yet, in the end, she kills herself after unsuccessfully pleading with Oedipus to give up on his inquiry into his own past and then finds out the truth about her husband.

The female character is a figure of caring, making repeated attempts to advise Oedipus in ways that will assure his comfort and peace of mind. The male characters hear Iocaste, but, as in the case of Oedipus, these male characters do not always listen.

The male characters are head-strong and stubborn, standing on points of pride. This is true for Oedipus to a greater extreme than it is for Creon and Tiresias, but we can still see both minor characters acting on stubborn pride as well.    

Assuming that the length of the resistance arm of a lever is 5.5 m, and the length of the effort arm is 2.25 m, what would the mechanical advantage...

The mechanical advantage of the lever is the ratio of length of the resistance or load arm to the length of the effort arm. In other words,

mechanical advantage = length of resistance arm / length of effort arm.

In this case, the length of the resistance arm is 5.5 m and the length of the effort arm is 2.25 m. Thus the mechanical advantage in this case is

5.5 / 2.25 = 2.44

Thus, the mechanical advantage in the case of this lever is 2.44. In simple words, the lever is capable of transferring 2.44 times the applied force. That is, if 1 N is applied on the effort end, a resultant output force of 2.44 N will be generated. 

Mechanical advantage of lever is thus advantageously used to lift or move heavy loads by application of relatively smaller forces.

Hope this helps.