Cambridge Tourism Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cambridge Tourism - Case Study Example According to the United kingdoms economic development strategy, tourism is a very critical factor in the initiative to improve economy. Currently, tourism sector in the UK provide employment to about 7% of the working population. In the year 1999, the UK government received over 25.4 million tourists from overseas and consequently earned about 123 million trips in England (Beech & Chadwick 2006). Research has indicated that in 1999, east England received over14.8 million trips of over night stay and 7% of these stayed in Cambridgeshire while 27% were overseas tourists. The number of visitors from the Cambridge city has been increasing over time as indicated that in the 1999 findings. That same year, about 4.1 million visitors were from Cambridge a number that was higher that anticipated or even compared to previous years (Davidson 1998). The increase was attributed to the changes made to the day's visits by the culture department to include the visitors from outside the local area bu t who were regular visitors coming to shop of for leisure trips. The number of people staying for over night visits has also been increasing drastically. Half of the visitors usually stay over night because they are mostly from the overseas. Local visitors are increasingly visiting Cambridge (Holloway & Taylor 2006). Out of the 4.1million visitors in 1999, 3.2 million were from the south Cambridgeshire while 10 percent of them were those staying overnight. It can be concluded that over the past years, the total number of visitors coming to Cambridge has increased by more than 200% since the 1970s through 1980s. The growth levelled in 1990s but during the beginning of the new millennium, a 10 percent drop was observed. This cannot be explained easily though the economic crunch that the world was facing could be the greatest contributor to this drop. It's estimated that in the year 2000, only less than half of the visitors came from the United Kingdom and those from overseas were largely from North America (Holloway & Taylor 2006). Most of the visitors come on holiday tours and sight seeing while few of them come on business trips. Most of the people who have visited Cambridge admitted that they felt welcome and only 2 percent did not feel welcomed. About seventy four percent of the visitors were able to recommend places they had received better services. Over the pas years, Cambridge City council strategy has had a policy of managing and not promotion of tourism activities. With the increasing number of tourist in the region, Cambridge City council cam up with a policy in 1996 to help the industry to cope up with the increased customer base and the resulting possible pollution to the environment (Page & Connell 2006). Resources There are several aspects that are being addressed by the Cambridge city council to improve the service of tourism and hospitality in the city areas so as to meet the ever changing client's demands and requirements. The city through its tourism strategy will be abele to allocate resources properly and manage customers. The provision of the resources will be based on the tourism vision of the Cambridge city while integrating and incorporating objectives and the policies of the region to be able to deliver quality tourism services (Davidson 1998). The Cambridge city plan

Understanding Effects Of Ethnicity In Afghan Culture Essay Example for Free

Understanding Effects Of Ethnicity In Afghan Culture Essay Ethnic differences prevalent in Afghanistan have had a great impact on peoples’ personal lives especially during interpersonal communication. As an Afghan citizen, belonging to the Pashtan ethnic group, born and raised in a multicultural society, I had to master the art of effective communication at an early age. Here in this paper, I will explain how my life has been impacted by ethnic differences in Afghanistan especially during interpersonal communication. I will explain how I communicate with my friends from my ethnic group, from other ethnic groups as well as foreigners living in Afghanistan. My paternal grandfather, a Push tan was a governor in Central Afghanistan while my maternal grandfather, a Tajik, was the Interior Minister and finance minister and my father was the Mayor of Herat City, in the west of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is situated in South-western Asia. It borders Iran, Pakistan and several other countries in Central Asia. The â€Å"Islamic State of Afghanistan† is Afghanistan’s official name. Kabul is the capital and the other two major cities in Afghanistan are Herat and Kandahar. More than three quarters of Afghanistan’s population inhabits rural areas. The literacy level in Afghanistan is very low and it is among the world’s countries with small economies(Hussain 34-35). My ethnic group, Pushtun, is the major ethnic group in Afghanistan accounting for almost a half the population (42%). Tajiks account for 27% Hazaras 9% Uzbel 9% Aimak 4% Turkmen 3% while the other ethnic groups account for 4% of the population. As a result of the diverse ethnic groups, Afghanistan has been adopting various language policies in a bid to foster national unity. For instance, in 1992, the communist regime fell due to constant fighting which arose as a result of issues such as language policy. Linguistic differences made various factions fight each other. Consequently, between the year 1992 and 1996, Afghanistan’s national anthem was changed from Pashto language to the Dari(Hussain 40-44) The 2003 Draft Constitution in Afghanistan saw the Pashto and Dari languages become the official languages during the Draft Constitution’s amendments of Afghanistan’s language policy. The constitution made provisions guaranteeing all languages as equal. In today’s world, most countries strive to preserve its people’s culture as well as the language. Afghanistan has adopted the Assimilation Language Policy, which is aimed at fostering national unit by having a single national language. Pashtu is the national language of Afghanistan(Hussain 35-39) In Afghanistan, bilingualism is very common. Most people, especially literates can write and speak in at least two ethnic languages. As a child, I acquired two ethnic languages. By the time I went for my primary education, I could speak a few Dari words and phrases in addition to my mother tongue, Pushtan. When I joined school, I learned the Dari language which is taught because it is the national language. When people become competent in two or more languages, they tend to use both languages in interpersonal communications. This results in switching between codes and mixing phrases from two different ethnic languages. Code switching is the use of words or phrases from two distinct languages or dialects in interpersonal communication. Code mixing entails the use of various words or phrases. When participants code-mix, they learn to relate what is altered by the speaker during a speech activity with the intended meaning as well as learning to compare what is spoken with what they know(Wood 67). In Afghanistan, people may code switch consciously or unconsciously. When a person code switches unconsciously, it is because s/he has gained competence in the two languages. Thus, one will switch between the languages and may not intent any communicative effect on the listeners, although the listeners may achieve an effect depending on how the speaker switches or mixes phrases. Conscious switching or mixing between different languages entails the speaker’s conscious effort. The speaker decides where to put a certain word or phrase with the aim of achieving a certain communication effect (Julia 30). Whenever I am with my Pushtan friends, we at times switch between the Pushtan language and the Dari language. At times, we do this unconsciously without putting into consideration the communication effect it will have to our listeners. Competence in both languages enables us to know where, when and how to mix the codes and switch between the two languages effectively. After all, we have spoken and written in these languages since childhood. In Afghanistan, people switch between languages for a number of varied reasons. For instance, whenever I am with my Pushtan friends and a band of people from say Dari whom we may detest and look down upon joins our band, we will code switch and code mix intentionally. We do this in a bid to make them feel unwanted. Occasionally, some of us will mix some Pashtun words with the Dari language. Infact, a great percentage of the words and phrases used in the speech may constitute Pashtun words. Normally, during most interpersonal communications, everyone wants to participate and this entails understanding what the other participants say so as to respond effectively. Since we withhold certain information from them by code switching, this makes the Dari speakers not participate in the speech act. Consequently, some of them may opt to leave the band while the stubborn ones may remain behind. Nothing irritates like people breaking into laughter and you are left wondering what amused them. One can even be made to think that he is the subject of mockery. Thus we may code switch so as to eliminate those we don’t want in our band (Jacobson 54) Our group may also code switch so as to make other groups of people feel appreciated. For instance, whenever we are with our friends from other ethnic groups, some of my friends who have mastered a few phrases and words from the languages will mix them with the Dari language. This makes them feel accommodated in our band. They feel that we appreciate their languages which are deemed to be inferior simply because they are not the official or national languages in Afghanistan. During interpersonal communication, everyone wants to be a part of the speech event. Consequently, our friends will feel motivated to participate because we acknowledge their presence. In addition, whenever I am with my Pushtan friends and we encounter Dari speakers who are not competent in Pushtan, we choose to use the Dari language in a bid to accommodate them. During a speech event, people tend to accommodate the other speakers. This is very crucial for effective communication. Imagine a situation where you speak to someone in, say, Dari, and he responds in Pashtun. Will you continue speaking in Dari? Of course not you would rather opt to switch to Pashtun if you are competent in it so as to avoid communication barriers. Language differences in Afghanistan can lead to communication barriers and so people have learned to accommodate others during a speech event by switching to the language used by other participants (Giles and Coupland 52). During a speech event, we may change our styles from time to time. Some of the reasons which make our band change styles during interpersonal communication include the topic being discussed, the participants in our band, and the motives/intentions of our band and so on. So we accommodate other participants by adjusting the number of times we switch between languages and strive to minimize the number of switches depending on the person we are speaking to. The accommodation is applied in our day-to-day speech events. In fact, some of my Dari friends who are not competent in Pushtan have mastered a few Pushtan words and phrases. Whenever we are conversing, they may mix a few Pashtun phrases with Dari phrases in a sentence. They do this so as to please us. They want us to think that they recognize and appreciate our language. As a matter of fact, some of them do this sarcastically; nothing irritates a Pashtan speaker than to hear a Dari speaker or any other speaker use a Pushtan word or phrase of which he or she does not even have the slightest idea of its meaning. Worse still, some of them may even use the wrong word order. I once lived in Hawaii and learned a few Hawaii words. When I visited the United States, I could hear the Americans switch to the Hawaii language. Some Americans could even mix spiritual phrases and words with English. What irritated me most was the fact that the Americans were not competent in the Hawaii language, yet they could dare mix Hawaii spiritual words and phrases of which they did not even know the meaning. I consider this as a kind of theft and a slap on the face to the Hawaii language. People should respect other peoples’ language especially spiritual words and phrases. In addition, Afghan’s may also code switch because they feel that they cannot express themselves well in a certain language. They feel that they lack certain words or expressions from a given language and that another language may have a ready word or expression for the message they want to convey. Whenever I am speaking with my Pashtun friends, who understand the Dari language, I will not bother much to think for a word in Pashtun when I have a Dari word or phrase for it. Most people will sometimes find it difficult to express themselves in their mother tongue. To some people, expressing oneself in an official language is much easier since it is the language they use most of the time, thus, they always have ready words and phrases. Most people agree that it is easy to express oneself in Dari, the national language simply because they use it more often and they may lack the appropriate words in their original language. Afghans view code switching to be beneficial during interpersonal communication although this will depend on the context or situation in which it occurs. This holds true, especially when a speaker encounters problems expressing himself in a particular language and he/she is competent in another language which his speakers are competent in. Thus, a speaker will break the communication gap by inserting phrases or words from the language his participants understand. Ethnicity also affects communication styles and strategies in Afghanistan in that, people from different ethnic groups have differences in social etiquette, customs and protocol. In Afghanistan, there are some common customs and protocols among the different ethnic groups, which affect interpersonal communication. For instance, men and women should not make eye contact. Men should not prolong their eye contact with other men and when they do, they should do so only occasionally. This custom creates a communication barrier in that communication between men and women is not effective since women are not allowed to speak directly to men. If a woman speaks directly to a man, she is being disgraceful and lowering her dignity. This greatly affects my life since women in our country are deprived of rights of expression, which implies that our mothers and sisters, who are the backbone of our nation, have no direct communicative role to play in the society. This implies that men and women in my country have to employ different styles and strategies in both verbal and non-verbal communication. In order to ensure that they preserve their cultural values, mixing between genders in my country is not freely allowed and free mixing only takes place within families. In places of work, in offices, and businesses or at institutions of learning, both higher and lower, both men and women must respect and maintain each other’s honor. They must also adhere to their culture without putting into consideration the impact it will have on interpersonal relations. Consequently, this has led to poor interpersonal relations in public places, which has led to increased war and conflicts among individuals, groups of people and ethnic societies. These have led to men dominating the country. Since they are the only ones who have a say, they have gone ahead and enacted and enforced laws and regulations which undermine their women folks and children who are regarded as inferior members of the society. Interactions and relations between individuals have also been adversely affected especially in institutions of learning. Foreign students who join universities in Afghanistan are faced with major challenges. To start with, most of these students come from ethnic backgrounds where women and men are regarded as equal. Consequently, they are forced to learn and to read the rules and ensure that they abide by them. This has led to students’ academic performance being affected since they spend a lot of time adapting to cultural changes. Besides eye contact, which is a non-verbal communication style, other types of non-verbal communication are also affected. Signals are also affected by ethnic differences. People send signals to convey messages. Sending of signals has been affected by ethnic differences in that people may send the wrong signals during the process of communication. Since women are not allowed to look at men in the eyes, this may pass the wrong signals to foreign men who have not mastered Afghanistan culture. They may think that the women are shy and may consequently tease them or misunderstand their intentions. In addition, since men and women are not allowed to shake hands, a misunderstanding may arise when an Afghanistan man or woman declines to shake hands with a foreigner who is not aware of the cultural values in Afghanistan. As a result, the communication process among different ethnic groups in Afghanistan has not been effective. The handshake is the most common form of greeting used in Afghanistan, Placing one’s hands over their hearts and nodding slightly is also another form of greeting. Foreigners can misunderstand this and a wrong signal can be sent probably signaling that someone is in love or in shock depending on how placing one’s hands over one’s heart implies in one’s culture. Symbols are also another form of non-verbal communication used. Symbols can be used to represent or express information. For the process of communication to be effective, the transmitter needs to employ both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication because they supplement each other. Ethnicity in Afghanistan has affected interpersonal communication in that cultural values have made the use of symbols ineffective by making them fail to communicate the intended information. Whenever I am socializing with the women folks in Afghanistan, I do not get their message right since they do not use symbols appropriately in a bid to uphold their cultural values. Men are supposed to dominate all interactions including interpersonal communications When a Turtumani person is speaking to a Baluchi speaker, one has to use Dari, which is the official language. The two language speakers have different cultural values and backgrounds. The problem may arise if one of the speakers say the Baluchi speaker, is illiterate and does not understand the national language. Thus, the two speakers will need the assistance of an interpreter. If the interpreter is not competent in both languages, a communication breakdown may arise. Most literate Afghans have learned Social and Humanistic languages and have leaned that each ethnic group is unique in and that no ethnic group should be considered superior than the other. Language reflects a peoples’ culture. Verbal communication entails use of well-constructed sentences with a correct word order. According to linguists, each language is unique in its own way and no language is deemed to be more superior to other. Thus, each Afghanistan ethnic language whether used as a national or official language contains complex structures. Each ethnic language has its own unique way of tense formation. Since the literacy level in Afghanistan is very low, communicating with people who are not learned in Afghanistan has posed a great challenge for me and my literate friends. I recall with nostalgia an incidence where my best Friend, Pierre picked up a fight with an illiterate Dari speaker as he tried to convince him that all languages are equal. In conclusion, ethnicity affects interpersonal communication in Afghanistan in that certain ethnic communities look down upon others. Some communities feel that they are greater/superior than others simply because they are considered to be bestowed with more natural resources than the others. Consequently, a communication gap may arise between the two. For instance, Dari ethnic groups and the Pashtans perceive themselves to be superior to other ethnic groups like Turkmen or Aimak ethnic groups. This is because they are a majority groups in the country’s population and their languages are recognized as the national and official languages. Each ethnic group in Afghanistan has a specific vocabulary, which it uses during the process of communication. For instance, the Pashtans have a specific and unique vocabulary, which they use. These cultural vocabularies hinder communication when one is speaking to members of a different ethnic group who do not have competence in the Pashtan language. As a result, Afghans should learn to embrace their diverse cultures by learning to cope with the challenges they encounter due to ethnic differences on their day-to-day activities. Afghanistan has been through many calamities and disasters, or instance, landmines and explosions. Schools have also been shattered, hospitals and roads demolished not to forget violence against women and drug addiction among the youth. These problems can be minimized by effective interpersonal communication among differing ethnic groups or parties.

Data Mining Analysis in Health Department

Data Mining Analysis in Health Department Data mining has been used intensively and appreciably in lots of fields of life. Likewise in healthcare, data mining is becoming more and more popular each day. Its extensive applications can greatly advantage all events worried inside the healthcare industry. As an instance, data mining in healthcare enterprise benefits each insurer and insured. It assist insurers to hit upon fraud and abuse, healthcare agencies make client relationship management choices, physicians become aware of powerful treatments and great practices, and insurer sufferers receive higher and greater inexpensive healthcare offerings. Conventional, time ingesting, complex and voluminous generated transactions to be processed and analyzed in a totally brief duration. Facts mining offers the technique and technology to transform those mounds of raw shaped statistics into very useful information for choice making. This article explores data mining programs in healthcare. Particularly, it discusses data mining and it s applications inner healthcare in primary regions such as the assessment of treatment effectiveness control of healthcare, client relationship manipulate, and the detection of fraud and abuse. It also gives an illustrative example of a healthcare data mining software concerning the identification of chance elements associated with the onset of diabetes. Sooner or later, the thing highlights the constraints of information mining and discusses some destiny guidelines. The net of things (IoT) and its relevant technologies can seamlessly integrate classical networks with networked units and devices. IoT has been playing an critical role ever because it appeared, which covers from conventional system to preferred household objects and has been attracting the attention of researchers from academia, enterprise, and government in recent years. there may be a remarkable imaginative and prescient that each one things can be easily managed and monitored, may be recognized routinely by using different things, can speak with every different via internet, and can even make decisions via themselves . with a purpose to make IoT smarter, plenty of analysis technology are delivered into IoT; one of the maximum precious technology is data mining. Data mining involves coming across novel, exciting, and probably useful patterns from large statistics sets and making use of algorithms to the extraction of hidden information. Many other terms are used for data mining, for example, knowledge discovery (mining) in databases (KDD), knowledge extraction, data/sample analysis, information archeology, statistics dredging, and data harvesting. The goal of any data mining system is to construct an efficient predictive or descriptive version of a big amount of information that not handiest fine fits or explains it, however is also capable of generalize to new facts. Primarily based on a large view of data mining functionality, data mining is the technique of discovering interesting knowledge from huge quantities of records stored in both databases, data warehouses, and other records repositories. On the idea of the definition of data mining and the definition of data mining capabilities, an average data mining process consists of the subsequent steps. Statistics guidance put together the records for mining. It includes three sub steps integrate records in numerous facts assets and easy the noise from statistics, extract some parts of data into records mining device; preprocess the statistics to facilitate the records mining. Data mining observe algorithms to the information to discover the patterns and compare patterns of discovered expertise. The health department is one of the biggest department who need to be more focused to work on data mining development. We see that there are many diseases present all over the world and especially in third world countries where hunger, thirst of clean water and fatal diseases prevails especially African countries. This is why in many countries people are not able to lead a better life because of inflation. They dont have enough amount of income to bear their health expenses. And we also observe that in such countries their govt. doesnt have enough sources to develop a better healthcare system. In recent research only 2 percent of total budget is spend on health in such countries. In such place the private laboratories have free hands to charge for lab tests due to their monopoly. A person who is not able to perform that type of test fined wrong medicine instead of right prescription. So in a result of that either he will die or may be near to die. So if we study and focus more on res earch then we will be able to find the exact disease rather than with the help of physical appearance of the patient. So we need to be more focused on this domain of data mining. And there are many data miners who are working in the field of this domain of life. But this is not enough for the whole world. We need to be more dedicated and work harder on this domain to have a better world. An expansion of researches specializing in expertise view, approach view, and application view can be found in the literature. But, no previous attempt has been made to check the unique perspectives of Data mining in a systematic way, in particular in nowadays massive statistics mobile net and net of factors develop unexpectedly and some facts mining researchers shift their attention from records mining to big facts. There are plenty of facts that can be mined, for instance, database facts (relational database, NoSQL database), data warehouse, records circulation, spatiotemporal, time series, series, text and web, multimedia graphs, the sector extensive web, internet of factors statistics and legacy gadget log. Influenced by means of this, in this paper, we try to make a complete survey of the vital current tendencies of information mining studies. This survey specializes in information view, applied techniques view, and application view of records mining in the department of health. Lack of data mining leads to patients death in many cases in past we have experienced many such cases. Doctor could not diagnose the actual disease due to lack of proper reports as the result of that patients suffers and died in the end. While now data miners collect the record for more than 1 million people who have different diseases so they analysis the record and check that many disease have same symptoms and segregate different symptoms accordingly. So data miner says that if a patient has same symptoms and he should go to doctor for thorough checkup then doctor recommends the patient for concerning lab tests whom he sees in the patient then he concludes the proper disease and write proper prescription for that particular disease. Various information mining applications have been sent in the health department. In any case, most applications can be categorized as one of the accompanying three classes: showcasing, misrepresentation identification, and system blame detachment and forecast. Healthcare covers detailed approaches of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of ailment, damage and other bodily and intellectual impairments in human beings. The healthcare industry in maximum international locations is evolving at a speedy tempo. The healthcare enterprise may be seemed as location with rich records as they generate massive amounts of statistics consisting of digital clinical facts, administrative reports and other benchmarking finding. These healthcare facts are but being below-utilized. As discussed in facts mining is able to look for new and valuable records from these huge volumes of records. Facts mining in healthcare are being used especially for predicting numerous illnesses in addition to in supporting for analysis for the docs in making their scientific selection. The dialogue on the various methods used within the healthcare enterprise are discussed as follows. Anomaly detection is used in discovering the maximum extensive changes within the statistics set used 3 one-of-a-kind anomaly detection technique, preferred assist vector information description, density- brought on support vector data description and Gaussian mixture to assess the accuracy of the anomaly detection on uncertain dataset of liver disease dataset which is received from UCI. The technique is evaluated the use of the AUC accuracy. The results acquired for a balanced dataset through common become 93.59%. Whilst the common preferred deviation received from the identical dataset is two.63. The uncertain dataset are prone to be to be had in all datasets, the ambiguity detection would be an amazing way to resolved this count, however because there may be simplest one paper discussing this technique, we cannot remark a good deal on the effectiveness of the technique. Greediness is intense issue for health insurance Company, bringing about billions of dollars of lost income every year. Greediness can be partitioned into classes: misleading and false information. Misleading happens when a client want to get unauthorized benefits for another party from the insurance company This offense can be perpetrate by the insured individual or the provider of health services. A person subscriber can commit health insurance fraud by: Allowing a person else to use his or her identity and insurance data to obtain health care services the usage of benefits to pay for prescriptions that had been no longer prescribed via his or her medical doctor health care companies can dedicate fraudulent acts by using: Billing for offerings processes and/or materials that had been never rendered Charging for extra expensive offerings than the ones truly supplied. Acting unnecessary offerings for the reason of financial benefit Misrepresenting non-protected treatments as a clinical necessity. Falsifying an affected persons analysis to justify assessments surgeries or other processes. Billing every step of a single technique as if it were a separate manner. Charging a patient greater than the co-pay agreed to below the insurers terms. Paying kickbacks for referral of motor car coincidence victims for treatment. The technology and methods of DM were designed in most cases for communication permitting the short and smooth transmission of statistics from the patients to the healthcare vendors who can treat them. A facet effect of that is that, over time, its going to generate big databases of measurements, clinical imagery, symptom descriptions, diagnostics, etc. The purpose for this is that in most cases the facts arent always meant to be handled in real time however saved to be examined later. While it is not their number one reason, the constitution of these databases creates formidable opportunities for researchers to discover fitness statistics from hundreds or thousands of patients. those numbers, a lot extra that what can be accomplished in maximum regular studies that recruit volunteers, allow scientists to enhance patient remedy via searching out patterns on a massive scale and draw new conclusions, for example about the link among the improvement of a clinical condition and environmental factors. as an instance, the Center stone studies Institute has advanced tools for studying the treatment of all their sufferers and discerning the methods that supply the quality end result to be able to practice them to future patients. The information mining has played in a pivotal role in healthcare industry, mainly diagnosing various kinds of sicknesses. The analysis is broadly being used in predicting sicknesses; theyre considerably utilized in clinical diagnosing. In end, there may be no one statistics mining method to resolve the troubles within the healthcare information sets. with a purpose to gain the very best accuracy amongst classifiers that is essential in scientific diagnosing with the characteristics of data being taken care, we want to layout a hybrid version that may solve the noted problems. Our destiny guidelines are to enhance the predictions the usage of hybrid fashions. References

Cost of Drug Abuse on Society Essay -- Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse

Drug abuse is a rampant problem in the United States. Drugs can be abused in a variety of different ways by people from every walk of life. Most of us have been affected by drug abuse either directly or indirectly. Drug abusers harm themselves, as well as their families and communities. Drug abuse takes an enormous toll on our society at many levels. The cost of drug abuse on our society is astronomical, not only financially but also personally, emotionally, socially and professionally. Drug abuse is the misuse or overdose of any medication or drug, including alcohol. Many people abuse drugs to deal with everyday life. â€Å"Although it is true that for most people the initial decision to take drugs is voluntary, over time the changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can effect a person’s control and ability to make sound decisions, and at the same time send intense impulses to take drugs (Shannon 246)†. Many people, who abuse drugs, will develop a chronic condition called addiction. Once addicted, it is challenging for the drug abuser to stop abusing drugs. The cost of drug and alcohol recovery services can be expensive, not only to the recovering addict and their families, but also to society paying for services through government agencies. Drug addicts relapsing from their disease or those who are not interested in recovery cost society by involvement in crime, neglect, abuse and even death. Drugs being abused are classified under nine different categories: cocaine, hallucinogens, herion, inhalants, marijuana, pain relievers, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers. These drugs range from illegal, over-the-counter to prescription medications. â€Å"In 2007, an estimated 19.9 million Americans aged 12 or o... ...ddiction treatment, medical cost from overdoses, drug-related injuries and complications, time lost from work and social welfare programs (Grohsman). The cost of drug abuse on society applies to all Americans. Whether you are a drug abuser, family member, friend, co-worker or drug manufacturer to drug enforcement officer, we all have been affected by drug abuse. Works Cited Abbot, Ann. â€Å"Health Care Challenges Created by Substance Abuse: The Whole is Definitely Bigger than the Sum of Its Parts† Health & Social Work 27.3 (2002): 162, 4. MasterFile Premier. Web. 19 Nov 2011. Brennfleck Shannon, Joyce, ed. Drug Abuse SOURCEBOOK. Omnigraphics, Inc.,2010. Print. Grohsman, B. â€Å"Drug Addiction and Society.† Treatment Centers.net 23 May 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. â€Å"Magnitude: Drug Abuse is Costly.† National Institute on Drug Abuse.n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2011

Erik Erikson Stages of Human Development Essay

Erik Erikson stages of human development with a particular approach of the Identity crisis of adolescence and implications for youth policy and practice. Erik Erikson`s developmental stages: The Adolescence Identity Crisis approach. â€Å"They say is human to experience a long childhood, but is also civilised to have an even longer childhood as it leads the person to achieve more technical and mental abilities known as virtuoso; at the same time it can also leave a long residue of immaturity and emotional confusion† (Erikson, 1994- Erik Hamburger Erikson, 1902-1994). In the collected works there was a researcher who spent a lot of time studying about human development and his name was Erik Erikson; most of Erikson`s work is based on real life situations such as the war and human depression which could influence the behaviour of one person, the author believed that the culture one individual lives in is also influencing their behaviour as an example of such arguments is Erikson`s study Sioux Indians investigated in a reservation. Erikson argued that the human behaviour is influenced by the body interactions, by the human mind and the overall cultural influences (Marcia, 1966). Erikson developed a theory which states that there are eight major stages in the human development dividing the adulthood developmental stages into young adults, middle age adults and older adults experience. The first stage Erikson described is the Infancy starting from birth up to 18 months also called the Oral Sensory stage and the main concept of the stage is emphasising the importance of love and care given to an infant by their mother as well as the visual contact and touch as the forms of communication and emotional exchange; this stage is also known as â€Å"Trust versus Mistrust† which stands for the infant`s basic needs accomplishment as when the infant`s needs are fulfilled by the mother as the role model the child will form trust and confidence where as if the basic needs such as visual contact are not offered by the mother it can lead the infant to develop mistrust in the closest person due to the lack of positive communication (Oswalt, 1995-2012). The second stage starts at 2 and continues up to 4 years old is also known as the â€Å"Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt† which stands for the fact that the child is actually asking if their person is ok and accepted by the others due to the fact that he starts to explore the close environment and gains motor abilities; at this stage the children are developing their first interests and the parents still play a fundamental role in encouraging and supporting the child`s autonomy and independency skills (Erikson, 1970). The third stage is also known as the Preschool stage â€Å"Initiative versus Guilt† starting at 4 until the child reaches 5 years old and although is a short stage the child development is significant as they start to master the nearest environment by achieving basic learning skills of life for instance the child learns that the things are falling down and not up. At this stage the child develops a certain level of independency and courage but at the same time they can develop some negative behaviour such as frustration, rudeness or aggressive intentions (Erikson, 1993). Between 5 and 12 years old is the stage of â€Å"Industry versus Inferiority† when the child is asking if they have a place in the world and becomes more aware of the fact that they are individuals, become more responsible, start to share more and to cooperate better in certain situations as they understand the meaning and sense of life to a deeper extend, at the same time the child discovers new talents and interests (Erikson, 1980). The fifth stage is the Adolescence starting at 13 up to 19 years old also known as â€Å"Identity versus Role Confusion† which stands for the crisis the teenager might experience when identifying their own personality; it is the most critical period as it could influence the person` s life as it is characterised by confusion in most cases, it will be critically appreciated in the last part of the essay. The sixth stage is the young adulthood starting at 20 up to 40 years old also called â€Å"Intimacy versus Isolation†, period governed by the conflict of love. Although, at this stage the identity crisis is coming to an end, the young adult can isolate because of the intimacy need and the fear of being rejected by the groups, overall the stage refers to the person`s need of finding the right partner for life (Erikson, 1990). The middle adulthood starts at 40 up to 64 years and is also known as â€Å"Generativity versus Stagnation† and is characterised by the adult intention and concern of helping and guiding the younger generation so the main focus of the adult is to contribute towards society development by offering support to the new generation (Erikson, 1980). The last stage described by Erikson is called the late adulthood starting at 65 till death also known as the â€Å"Ego Integrity versus Despair† when the adult is meditating upon their life events and what they have achieved throughout the life, if they realise that their life has been successfully will form integrity if not it can lead to despair and the feeling of failure (Erikson, 1980). One of the Erikson`s most talked stages of human development is the Adolescence which main focus is the teenager`s concern about how they look, how they are interpreted and accepted by their peers, friends and groups (Marcia, 1976). Erikson claims that in the late stage of adolescence the teenager develops a sexual identity which will define them as a person for their future life; the teenager makes a transition from the child to adult life which will actually mark their future roles in the society. The first stage of the transition is marked by the confusion of who the teenager wants to become, who they are at the moment and how will they be accepted by the society as an example of such uncertainty is the teenager`s preoccupation to fit into small jobs, they will try different roles such as babysitting or catering assistants until they will decide what they want to become in the future. Erikson claimed that eventually the teenager achieves a sense of identity but before that there is a crisis and a confusion stage which influences the teenager`s future decisions and interests; the period is critic as it can lead the teenager into bad groups, drugs, violence and other dangers since they are really confused and easy influenced so the parents must support and guide them towards the right path (Marcia, 1980). Erikson believes the transition is marked by the identity crisis which makes the stage unique as it becomes a synthesis of earlier stages and a kind of anticipation for the adulthood life as the youth stage is a bridge between child and adult experience (Fletcher and Branen, 2009). The stage is a radical change in terms of puberty, ability to search and find own life directions, awareness development of the society meanings and roles; the teenager is challenged to establish boundaries for themselves and this is when their identity crisis becomes hard to deal with, but Erikson believes the society will help and guide the adolescent to find their own way by offering different experiences which will impact the teenager`s interests and will define who they want to become as adults(Erikson, 1980). The theorist claims the identity crisis might be prolonged for some individuals due to the society and because it takes time to achieve certain life skills, personal interests and form a clear overview of the adult life, so there is no exact deadline for the teenager to create a life strategy, but Erikson thinks that by the age of 18 to 20 the adolescent must know their own interests and head to a certain direction in life gaining a psychological and social stability (Fletcher and Branen, 2009). Finally, Erikson thinks that the major impact and influence on a teenager identity crisis is the sociological environment the person lives in and the youth culture existing in that specific society, although the youth culture might be particular from a country to another or from a race to another, overall the youth policy needs to be SMART which stands for systematic, measurable, achievable, reliable and time related so that it will help the teenager to establish their own direction more clearly and investigate the opportunities they might have within the adult world (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2004).The way a teenager experiences the transition period impacts the future psychological, sociological and youth developmental skills, so Erikson believes it is fundamental what kind of â€Å"tools† the society and mostly the youth environment offers to the adolescent so they can choose from and establish their future path in terms of career opportunities, personality definition and overall place in the society (Oswalt, 1995-2012). As the essay showed, Erikson made a comprehensive induction in the human developmental stages emphasising the meaning and role of each stage; the infancy is governed by the love and care offered by the mother to the child, as the child grows up they become more independent and, have bigger autonomy but yet they are uncertain about their place in the world as the second stage described, at the age of preschool the child learns the basic skills and define their ego in order to become more responsible with own interests and talents towards the fourth stage. The fifth stage is governed by confusion as is the adolescence identity crisis when the teenager decides their future path, as a young adult the person will be interested in making a family and ensure they are loved; the middle age adult will be concerned in offering guidance, support and advice to the new generation of children but towards the late adult stage we saw that the retired person is concerned about their life events and motivated to meditate upon their life cycle. References: Elkind, D. (2004). Erik Erikson`s Eight Ages of Men. Module III Teaching Supplemental Handouts. Erikson, E. (1970). Reflections on the dissent of contemporary youth. International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 51 (11-12). Erikson, E. (1980). Identity and Life Cycle. New York: WW Norton and Company. Erikson, E. (1993). Childhood and Society. New York: WW Norton and Company, 242. Erikson, E. (1994). Biography: Lecture Notes and Ego Psychologists. PSY (345). Kail, R. and Cavanaugh, J. C. (2004). Human Development: a life span view (3rd Edition). Belmont CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 16. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity statuses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 3 (551-558). Marcia, J. E. (1976). Identity six years after: a follow-up study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 5 (145-160). Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in Adolescence. Handbook of Adolescent Psychology. New York: Wiley. Oswalt, A. (1995-2012). Erik Erikson and self identity. Edited by Zupa nick Psychology Department MSW.

Film essays

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Big Brother essays

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