Monday, January 27, 2020

Percentage Profit Margins Of A Project Construction Essay

Percentage Profit Margins Of A Project Construction Essay The net price of measured work is the final price taking into consideration all the elements. In other words the net price is the overall and final price, including labour, plant and materials without any profit or overhead allowances which are priced elsewhere in the preliminaries. Overheads need to be taken into consideration when preparing estimates. Overheads are costs you control such as electricity or office rent, usually you will have to recover them because they include admin. Most medium sized construction organisations recover the cost of these each year spread over the turnover of the project, this can be assed as a percentage addition but may fluctuate according to you turnover. Risks are unforeseen set backs in the project, weather disasters are a great example of a risk that might have to be taken into consideration. Preliminaries The preliminary part of a project is the initial section giving a description of the project. Plant, vehicles and tools are all included in the preliminary costs. This includes the costs of buying or maintaining the machinery and tools and also the costs of erecting and maintaining scaffolding on a project. The cost for this is worked out using the surface area of the structure, what material is used in the structure and the length of time the scaffolding is up. Sometimes this can include costs of toilet installation, water and electricity and also the costs of managers, engineers and safety officers Profit Profit is essentially how much money you make. There are different types of profit; net profit, gross profit and operating profit. Gross profit is usually found calculating all sales minus any cost relating to the sales, in other words how much money you make on the sales. Net profit is seen as gross profit minus all overheads and interest. And operating profit which is the profit for the business core business operations excluding profit made from investments and the effects of tax or interest. Estimating methods Estimations are used all the time in everyday life; estimation can give you a rough idea or figure to a sum without finding an exact answer. They come in very handy in many aspects of day to day life without exception to the construction industry. Estimations can help you get a rough Idea of how much salary you have to pay out, how many bricks or how much concrete you want for a project and many other things. There are different types of estimating methods that can be used to do different things. Cost estimation is used regularly to decipher the net costs of many materials you need on site. The estimator will need to estimate the amount of materials needed and the type of materials needed on the project. The two main benefits of cost estimation are firstly that changes can be made in early stages to reduce the overall effect this has on the project time schedule and cost and secondly the more cost information you gather the more you improve the quality of cost data The estimator will also have to include labour costs, so they have to estimate the different types of workers that will be needed to complete the project and also how many of these workers will be needed to ensure the project is completed on time. When calculating labour rates you have to take into consideration numerous different factors such as nation insurance, hourly rates, holiday and sick pay (if it is a lengthy project) and many more. A method for estimating labour costs that has been widely accepted is COEP, the code of estimating practise. As well as this an estimator will usually supply contingency sums. A contingency sum will usually be an amount of money to cover any unforeseen expenses that may arise in the duration of the project, in other words any overheads. Here is a table of the different estimating methods used in the 1930s compared to those used in the modern day. Single rate estimation This is commonly used by health and education services at the inception stage of a project. This is useful when a simple and quick cost range is needed in initial stages of a project. An example of this is knowing it will cost you  £10,000 to build a singular room in an hotel complex and you have a budget of  £100,000, you then have a rough estimate that you can build ten of these rooms. Depending on location and ground conditions it can be difficult to adjust certain project costs. Building volume method This is not widely used anymore but basically consist of working out the volume of the building and using it as a cost yardstick (quote taken form martin brooks estimating and tendering). However some countries are still familiar with building costs expressed as cubic meter prices. Floor area method This is a very popular method as it is quite simple. To create a floor area estimation you have to measure the building at each floor level, not making any deduction for internals, and then using previous construction costs and dividing them by the internal floor area to give you a cost per metre squared. When doing this it is obvious that some additional adjustments will have to be made and a separate assessment has to be carried out for external works. P3 There are many things that can affect the percentage profit margins of a project. First of all overheads and unforeseen disasters can play a massive part in this as money spent on these comes straight out of profit. Although an estimator will usually put a certain amount of money to the side in case of this happening it may sometimes not be enough. Some companies compare aspect of their project with old similar projects to see if they can isolate unforeseens and abnormal costs, by doing this they hope to be able to isolate the problems and find an efficient way around it in an attempt to maximise profit margins. When a cost plan has been made it has to be translated into design criteria so that not only can the design team understand it but also so the client or manager can take charge and ensure that the project is within its cost restraints;. Some companies who pride themselves on being green can reduce their profit margins by following procedures to keep green, paying extra money for correct and efficient recycling and ensuring the materials they buy are sources locally and appropriate for recycle can boost material pricing quite considerably. The output of labour can be affected by numerous different things, first and foremost is once again unforeseen issues. Sickness and injury can severely affect the output of labour as it ultimately leads to workers having time off. Not only this, it can also cost the company as they are still entitled to pay. I personally think the structure and organisation of a project can ultimately lead to the designated output you want from your labourers. For example you dont want an excavator and its driver sat static for half a day because your organisation charts have not made the best use of it as this will technically be wasting money. M On-costs are overheads, they are managed and include wages, electricity, gas or office rent, usually you will have to recover them because they include admin. Most medium sized construction organisations recover the cost of these each year spread over the turnover of the project, this can be assed as a percentage addition but may vary according to your turnover. Overheads are costs that have to be met in order for the head office to run smoothly, company cars, insurance and departmental costs are all included in overhead costing. These costs need to be recovered; therefore a percentage is usually recovered from the additional costs added in the estimate. To get a figure for this percentage you must know the overall value of the companys overheads per year, and also the companys turnover. You divide the overhead costs by the company turnover and times the answer by a hundred to be left with the percentage. This percentage can then be used in future estimates. You are also able to reconcile overheads by recovering them against tendered works. This can be done in a number of different ways. Firstly you can use an increased profit margin to cover the over head costs and not include them, you can also establish the overhead costs/total turnover and add the percentage to the tenders and lastly you can move the head office onto site and recover the costs through the preliminaries. A companys turnover will fluctuate year to year. There are many factors that can affect this, such as risks, work efficiency and contract pricing. Risks can occur all the time, sometimes you can loose money due to these risks and sometimes you can gain money, with risks also comes unforeseens, set backs that can loose you money. Being efficient with you work can save you money, if one year a company was extremely efficient they would make more money than if they were not efficient and wasteful. Lastly pricing can have an affect on turnover too, when it is very competitive times you may have to significantly lower your prices to sign as deal. When a companies turnover drops, they will loose not only profit but also money on the overheads as the turnover will drop in accordance with the percentage. In addition to this if a company turnover rises there will be more than enough money there to cover the overheads and therefore the profit will rise too. In the preliminaries we get fixed and time-related charges we have to consider, the SMM7 guide tells us to identify them separately in the bills of quantities. A fixed charge is for the work of the cost of which is to be considered as independent on duration and a time-related charge is for work the cost of which is to be considered as dependent on duration. There are a number of different items that it is hard to designate to a certain charge, such as a crane on site for two weeks. Most plant charges get divided by the duration to produce monthly repayments. For example; employer accommodation requirements. SMM7 states that if an employer has to use onsite accommodation he must include heating, lighting and maintenance. Here are a few other requirements; Accommodation Dependant on specific requirements, offices, toilets, meeting rooms, laboratories and car parking may be needed. Furniture If none stated, client must be providing his own Transport Inspection of components, transport for staff or consultants plus fuel and maintenance Example; management and staff Choice of management varies, dependant on size, complexity and duration of project. Site manager Required on most sites, amount of staff depends on size and complexity. General foreman Co-ordination and management of labour, plant and labour-only subcontractors. Engineer Services engineer to co-ordinate specialist jobs, analyze methods, and quality control.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Big Black Good Man

Big Black good Man and Battle Royal I believe Richard Wright's story â€Å"Big Black Good Man† was written in a time when racial prejudice was a major factor in society. In Today’s society we still have racial prejudice, but it is not as strong as back then. The point in which Richard Wright wanted to get by writing this story is that people should â€Å"never judge others by their race†. In the story, Olaf mentioned Jim was not the first black man he serviced, but he started to make drama of Jim’s behaviors in his head. I think Olaf was the type of person who is ignoring that he is a racist but he actually is one.This was the most important point that Richard Wright was trying to make. This story is focusing more on characters. There were two characters, which responded very differently to the black man. Olaf, whom was working in a hotel for guest services, has an average life, average job and also average thinking. Based on the story Olaf is a type of ma n that is happy with his life and lifestyle and respects others the way they are. Although, as soon as it comes to big black man who enters the hotel every thing about him suddenly changes, some unexpected fear surrounds him.However, every day of Jims stays in the hotel Olaf would gain more fears of a big black man. In his mind, Jim is a big, black, loud and violent man that wants to kill him. On the other hand, Lena responded very differently to the black man. Based on the story, Lena was poor and wiling to do anything such as prostituting to earn money, in order to take care of her four children. Even at the arguments she had with Olaf, she mentioned that he is just another man with manly needs â€Å"He’s just a man†¦I handle ‘im. † She was seeing his as an ordinary man who had good money and wants her; of course it was no fear of him to her conflicting than Olaf.She was called to Jim’s room every night and she was willing to continue. I believe she wouldn’t care if he is black or if he is big, all that matters was the reality of Jim as a man who has money to lead her for taking care of her children. They also ended up liking each other, and started dating and at the end of the story Jim was thankful to Olaf as well. Lena stopped prostituting and making love with Jim; she must have seen him as a good man so she was willing to drop her income. On the other hand, when the story ends Olaf realized Jim was not a violent and harsh man he actually is a big black good man.In addition, when it comes to comparing we can compare â€Å"Big Black good Man† by Richard and â€Å"Battle Royal† by Ralph Ellison. The point in which both narrators wanted to make was the fact of differences in race and struggling of being different. â€Å"Battle Royal† is about young African American who is ? struggling to have a place in their society. It was kind of hard for people back then to deal with this situation and it was al so hard for black people to get into white society. It was all about equality and identity, which they did not have, back then.However, this story was written in 1947, black society in the U. S. was struggling to find an identity for itself separate from the unfair force accrued by a white culture. Ellison uses the theme of blindness throughout the story as he describes the relations between the narrator and the characters in the story. The paper describes the story, beginning with a strange type of the death of the narrator's grandfather and the advice he gave him about life and how to behave as a black man. Grandfather’s advice leads the whole story making narrator to fallow his advice and using it trough his life.In the story, young black boy struggle to get ahead in a predominately white society, he wanted to reach this goal in using his grandfathers advice. His grandfather told him to â€Å"live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open†. I believe his grandfather was trying to tell him to conform to the white people. The whole story shows his struggle and hardships his taking to reach his goal by fallowing grandpa’s advice.At the end of the story he also gives out a successful speech of this advice at his graduation. In conclusion, throughout time racism has been the cause of millions of deaths. In early centires racial prejudice was a major factor in society, now we see less racial prejudice. So many people still struggling because of racist people and some people are hiding their racisom. In both stories authors are trying to tell audiences stop judging people by their look, color and culture, there is absolutely no different between white and black it’s just a color. Human is a human and life goes on with all differences in people. Big Black Good Man â€Å"Big Black Good Man† Racism has existed for as long as humans have walked the earth. â€Å"Big Black Good Man,† by author Richard Wright takes place in 1957 in Copenhagen, Denmark at a cheap hotel on the docks. Olaf Jensen is a 60 year old white night porter who sees all kinds of people come there for a room. When Jim, a 6 1/2 foot tall black sailor who works for American Continental Line, arrives, the dilemma begins. Olaf is frozen by the sight of Jim and wonders whether he should give him a room. But we must read more deeply into the text to know what Olaf is actually feeling.Despite appearances, Olaf is not a racist because he has a multi-cultural background, he is afraid of Jim's size and power, not his skin color, and he feels insecure in Jim's presence. First, Olaf is not a racist because he has a multi-cultural background. In his youth Olaf was a in the services he was a sailor. While in the services over the world traveled all over the world. During his wor ld travels, Olaf has been exposed to a diversity of people from different background, races and cultures.While in navy, Olaf lived side by side with people of color â€Å"In his days, he’d worked and eaten and slept and fought with all kinds of men. † Olaf had been exposed to so much with so many culture. Olaf even lived in the melting pot on the world. â€Å"He lived in New York city for ten years. † For him to live so long in a city with such diversity suggests a open-mindedness to tolerance for different. During his travels, he even had learned 8 languages: â€Å"English, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish. He took the time to learn these languages so he could better understand the people he was associating with. This makes it hard to believe that he was a racist. 1950’s segregation was still going on at this time, but it didn’t make any difference to Olaf. He actually states â€Å"It was not the hotel did not admit men of color†¦. He took all comers, blacks, yellows, whites, and browns. † Olaf did not discriminate on the basis of skin color. â€Å"to Olaf men were men. † Second, Olaf is not a racist because he is afraid of Jim's size and power, not his skin color.Jim’s sheer size at â€Å" 61/2 feet into the air, almost touching the ceiling. † Would cause any men to be afraid. Olaf constantly emphasize Jim’s enormous physique and power, describe as â€Å"His chest bulged like barrel† and â€Å"his rocklike shoulders hinted mountain ridgesâ€Å" and â€Å"the stomach ballooned like a threatening stone. † Olaf description of Jim gives a great image of Jim as a massive size and intimating features. It is easy to understand Olaf fear of Jim. He afraid so Jim that â€Å"With just one look at Jim’s hands he would have shivers†. Olaf was completely terrified of Jim.Later in the story, Jim walked in to the office and demand Olaf to s tand. Standing inch apart Jim lifted his mammoth hand his around Olaf throat. † Olaf lost control of the reflex of his body and felt a hot stickiness flooding his underwear. Olaf fear made him loss control over his own bodily function. I only could imagine this situation and reacting any different then Olaf. Third, Olaf is not a racist because he feels insecure in Jim's presence. Olaf is a small 5†7† 60 years old Caucasian man. Although he wasn’t poor he wasn’t rich, either a lifetime of working, he was still only a night potter.In comparison, Jim who has money, youth and power. He envied Jim â€Å" the easy manner in which it moved with such a creeping powerful motion† He felt that Jim presence command attention and respect. Having this enormous men in his presence frightened and insulted Olaf. â€Å"He believed that this man had come here expressly to remind him how puny, how tiny, and how weak he was. † Olaf offers to take Jim‘s bag, but Jim replies â€Å"That‘s too heavy for you, big boy: I‘ll take it† Olaf feel that this man makes him inferior and less of a man. As a result, Olaf â€Å"Seethed against himself for his involuntary weakness†.He was angry for allowing this men to make him feel weak. Unable to stand up to Jim, he feels â€Å"Him self beaten†, stating â€Å"He thinks am nothing. † Olaf felt so belittle by this man specially after what happen with Jim in his office when due to true fear he wet him self he was so embarrassed that he couldn’t even tell his wife â€Å" he wept†¦. He went home and lied to his wife, he had an upset stomach. † Olaf was so embrace about what had happen he lied. Olaf was so insecure of him self after meeting Jim. This essay has made it clear that Olaf is not a racist but just a very afraid men.A men that aloud his fear cloud his judgments. Even thou he was afraid he never aloud him self to act upon his fears. T his story is a great example of how important close reading is. If you just focus on the vocabulary without putting any thought to what you read you could believe he is a racist. But once you look into the text and take into count the complete picture. An after only after you have read and reread is that the truth come to light. This story show us a great example of not judging a book by it cover. Even thou Jim was huge and scary he was one of the nice people.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Psychodynamic Perspective Essay

There are various different approaches in contemporary approaches. An approach is a perspective that involves assumptions about human behaviour, the way they function, which aspects of them are worthy of study and what research methods are appropriate for undertaking this study. There may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions. You may be wonder why there are so many different psychology perspectives and whether one approach is correct and others wrong. Most psychologists would agree that no one perspective is correct, although in the past, in the early days of psychology, the behaviourist would have said their perspective was the only truly scientific one. Each perspective has its strengths and weakness and brings something different to our understanding of human behaviour. For this reason, it is important that psychology does have different perspectives to the understanding and study of human and animal behaviour. There are few clear explanations of common misbehaviour among secondary school students aged 16-19 years of age in terms of psychological theories. These explanations from the earlier psychologists able to make us understand more about gang violence that is increasing in amount nowadays. 3.0 PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE 3.1 DEFINITION Psychodynamic referred to as an approach to psychology that emphasises systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human behaviour, feelings and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation. It is also used by some to refer specifically to the psychoanalytical approach developed by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and his followers, although such use becomes confusing, because some of those followers, in particular, John Bowlby opposed the founding principles of Freud’s theory, forming opposing factions. Bowlby’s attachment theory, still described as ‘psychodynamic’ in approach, is widely considered to be the basis of most current research and to have put the field formerly known as psychoanalysis on a more scientifically based,  experimentally testable, footing. The words psychodynamic and psychoanalytic are often confused. Remember that Freud’s theories were psychoanalytic, whereas the term ‘psychodynamic’ refers to both his theories and those of his followers. Freud’s psychoanalysis is both a theory and a therapy. Sigmund Freud developed a collection of theories which have formed the basis of the psychodynamic approach to psychology. His theories are clinically derived for example based on what his patients told him during therapy. The psychodynamic therapist would usually be treating the patient for depression or anxiety related disorders. Psychodynamic psychology ignores the trappings of science and instead focuses on trying to get ‘inside the head’ of individuals in order to make sense of their relationships, experiences and how they see the world. The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in psychology that see human functioning based upon the interaction of drives and forces within the person, particularly unconscious and between the different structures of the personality. Freud’s psychoanalysis was the original psychodynamic theory, but the psychodynamic approach as a whole includes all theories that were based on his ideas, e.g. Jung (1964), Adler (1927) and Erikson (1950). 3.2 PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE ASSUMPTIONS Behaviour and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives. Behaviour and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are rooted in our childhood experiences. All behaviour has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips of the tongue. Therefore all behaviour is determined. Parts of the unconscious mind (the id and superego) are in constant conflict with the conscious part of the mind (the ego). Personality is shaped as the drives are modified by different conflicts at different times in childhood (during psychosexual development). The unconscious is one of the most powerful effects on behaviour and emotion No behaviour is without cause and is therefore determined. Childhood experiences greatly affect emotions and behaviour as adults. The  id, ego and super-ego make up personality  The drives behind behaviour are a) The lift instinct and sex drive b) Death instinct and aggressive drive. Various conflicts throughout childhood development shape overall personality. The psychodynamic perspective asserts that in childhood certain incidents may occur that produce behaviours in adulthood. As children, defence mechanisms are utilized, then as adults behaviours manifest as a result. Examples of defence mechanisms that may be used include: Repression Denial Reaction formation Sublimation Projection Displacement Regression Fantasy Some examples of behaviours and their explanations using psychodynamic perspective include: Obsessive hand washing could be linked to a trauma in childhood that now causes this behaviour Nail-biting may be caused by an anxiety inducing childhood event A childhood event that caused fear in an open space may trigger agoraphobia in an adult Hoarding behaviours could be a result of childhood trauma Number aversion can be an obsessive behaviour perhaps initiated by an incident in childhood development Rituals of nervousness such as completing a task a certain number of times (such as opening and closing a cabinet) could be linked to a childhood situation Skin picking is a compulsion that would be linked to a developmental trauma Another compulsive behaviour is hair plucking Compulsively counting footsteps could be linked to an incident in childhood.  Any irrational behaviours can be blamed on childhood instances of trauma or development Neurotic behaviours can be linked to childhood development issues or interruptions Sexual compulsions or related sexual behavioural issues are linked at the sexual development stage using the psychodynamic perspective. 3.3 HISTORY OF THE PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE Anna O a patient of Dr. Joseph Breuer, who is Freud’s mentor and friend, from 1800 to 1882 suffered from hysteria. In 1895 Breuer and his assistant, Sigmund Freud, wrote a book, Studies on Hysteria. In it they explained their theory that says every hysteria is the result of a traumatic experience, one that cannot be integrated into the person’s understanding of the world. The publication establishes Freud as â€Å"the father of psychoanalysis.† By 1896, Freud had found the key to his own system, naming it psychoanalysis. In it he had replaced hypnosis with â€Å"free association.† In 1900, Freud published his first major work, The Interpretation of Dreams, which established the importance of psychoanalytical movement. In 1902, Freud founded the Psychological Wednesday Society, later transformed into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. As the organization grew, Freud established an inner circle of devoted followers, the so-called â€Å"Committee†. Freud and his colleagues came to Massachusetts in 1909 to lecture on their new methods of understanding mental illness. Those in attendance included some of the country’s most important intellectual figures, such as William James, Franz Boas, and Adolf Meyer. In the years following the visit to the United States, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded. Freud designated Carl Jung as his successor to lead the Association, and chapters were created in major cities in Europe and elsewhere. Regular meetings or congresses were held to discuss the theory, therapy, and cultural applications of the new discipline. Jung’s study on schizophrenia, The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, led him into collaboration with Sigmund Freud. Jung’s close collaboration with Freud lasted until 1913. Jung had become increasingly critical of Freud’s exclusively sexual definition of libido and incest. The publication of Jung’s Wandlungen und Symbole der  Libido, known in English as The Psychology of the Unconscious, ted to a final break. Following his emergence from this period of crisis, Jung developed his own theories systematically under the name of Analytical Psychology. Jung’s concepts of the collective unconscious led him to explore religion in the East and West, myths, alchemy and later flying saucers. Anna Freud, Freud’s daughter, became a major force in British psychology, specializing in the application of psychoanalysis to children. Among her best known work is The Ego and the Mechanism of Defence (1936). 3.4 PSYCHODYNAMIC STRENGTH AND LIMITATIONS STRENGTHS LIMITATIONS Made the case study method popular in psychology Defence mechanisms Free association Projective Tests (TAT, Rorschach) Highlighted the importance of childhood Case studies are subjective and cannot generalize results Unscientific (lacks empirical support) Too deterministic (little free-will) Biased sample Ignores meditational processes (e.g. thinking, memory) Rejects free will Difficult to prove wrong 3.5 PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE CRITICISMS The greatest criticism of the psychodynamic approach is that it is unscientific in its analysis of human behaviour. Many of the concepts central to Freud’s theories are subjective and as much impossible to scientifically test. For example, how is it possible to scientifically study concepts like the unconscious mind or the tripartite personality? In this respect, the psychodynamic perspective is difficult to prove wrong as the theories cannot be empirically investigated. Furthermore, most of the evidence for psychodynamic theories is taken from Freud’s case studies, e.g. Little Hans, Anna O. The main problem here is that the case studies are based on studying one person in detail and with reference to Freud the individuals in question are most often middle aged women from Vienna for instance his patients. This makes generalizations to the wider population difficult. The humanistic approach makes the criticism that the psychodynamic perspective is too deterministic that it is leaving little room for the idea of personal agency. 3.6 PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY OF GANG VIOLENCE The psychodynamic theory places its emphasis on the notion that one of the main causes of gang violence is children’s abnormal personalities that were created and developed in earlier life. Since then these â€Å"unconscious mental processes† have been controlling the adolescents’ criminal behaviour. The Id is the drive for immediate gratification and can explain gang violence acts. The ego is the realization of real life and helps control the Id. Superego develops through interactions with parents and other responsible adults and develops the conscience of moral rules. This psychodynamic approach states that traumatic experiences during early childhood can prevent the ego and superego from developing properly, therefore leaving the Id with greater power (Champion, 2004). According to psychodynamic theory, whose basis is the pioneering work of the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, law violations are a product of an abnormal personality structure formed early in life and which thereafter controls human behaviour choices. Unconscious motivations for behaviour come from the Id’s action in response to two primal needs-sex and aggression. Human behaviour is often marked by symbolic actions that reflect hidden feelings about these needs. For example, stealing a car may reflect a person’s unconscious need for shelter and mobility to escape from hostile enemies or perhaps an urge to enter a closed, dark, womblike structure that reflects the earliest memories (sex). All three segments of the personality operate simultaneously. The Id dictates needs and desires, the superego counteracts the Id by fostering the feelings of morality and righteousness and the ego evaluates the reality of a position between these two extremes. If these two components are properly balanced, the individual can lead a normal life. If one aspect of the personality becomes dominant at the expense of the others, the individual exhibits abnormal personality traits. A number of psychologists and psychiatrists expanded upon Freud’s original model to explain the onset of gang violence among adolescents. Erik Erikson speculated that many adolescents experience a life crisis in which they feel emotional, impulsive and uncertain of their role and purpose. He coined the phrase identity crisis to denote this period of inner turmoil and confusion. Erikson’s approach might characterize the behaviour of youthful drug abusers as an expansion of confusion over their place in society, their inability to direct behaviour towards useful outlets and perhaps their dependency on others to offer them solutions to their problems. Psychoanalyst, August Aichorn, found in his classic work that social stress alone could not produce such an emotional state. He identify latent delinquencies which means youths whose troubled family leads them to seek immediate gratification without consideration of right and wrong or the feelings of others. In its most extreme form, gang violence may be viewed as a form of psychosis that prevents delinquent youths from appreciating the feelings of their victims or controlling their own impulsive needs for gratification. Psychodynamic theory holds that youth involvement in gang violence is a result of unresolved mental anguish and internal conflict. Some children, especially those who have been abused or mistreated, might experience unconscious feelings associated with resentment, fear and hatred. If this conflict cannot be settled, the children may regress to a state in which they become Id dominated. This regression may be considered responsible for a great number of mental diseases, from neuroses to psychoses, and in many cases it may be related to criminal behaviour. Adolescents in gangs are Id-dominated people who suffer from the inability to control impulsive drives. Just because they suffered unhappy experiences in childhood or had families who could not  provide proper love and care, causing them to suffer from weak or damaged egos that make them unable to cope with conventional society. Adolescent antisocial behaviour is a consequence of feeling unable to cope with feelings of oppression. Involvement in gang violence actually allows youths to strive by producing positive psychic results, helping them to feel free and independent, giving them possibility of excitement and the chance to use their skills and imagination; providing the promise of positive gain, allowing them to blame others for their predicament (for example, the police) and giving them a chance to rationalize their own sense of failure. The psychodynamic approach places a heavy emphasis on the family’s role. Gangs frequently come from families in which parents unable to provide the controls that allow children to develop the personal tools they need to cope with the world. If neglectful parents fail to develop a child’s superego adequately, the child’s Id may become the predominant personality force, the absence of a strong superego results in an inability to distinguish clearly between right and wrong. In fact, some psychodynamic view gangs as motivated by an unconscious urge to be punished. These children feel unloved, assume the reason must be their own inadequacy, hence they deserve punishment. Later, the youth may demand immediate gratification, lack of compassion and sensitivity for the needs of others, disassociate feelings, act aggressively and impulsively and demonstrate other psychotic symptoms. According to the psychodynamic approach, gang violence is a function of unconscious mental instability and turmoil. People who have lost control and are dominated by their Id are known as psychotics, thus causing their behaviour be marked by hallucinations and inappropriate responses. Megargee’s ‘overcontrolled’ violent offender Megargee (1966) documented a series of cases of gang violence carried out by people who were regarded as passive and harmless. For instance, an 11 year-old boy who stabbed his brother 34 times with a steak knife was described as polite and softly spoken with no history of aggression. Megargee argued that such cases represent a distinct sub-group of violent offender criminological psychology. Psychodynamic theories of offending Aidan Sammons whose shared characteristic is an apparent inability to express their anger in normal ways and who eventually ‘explode’ and release all their anger and aggression at once, often in response to a seemingly trivial provocation. Freudian formulations like Megargee’s are unfashionable nowadays and more research attention is given to the majority of violent offenders, whose problem is generally a lack of inhibition of their anger, rather than too much inhibition. Nonetheless, there is evidence that a subset of violent offenders follow the pattern described by Megargee. For example, Blackburn (1971) found that people convicted of extremely violent assaults tended to have fewer previous convictions and scored lower on measures of hostility than those convicted of moderately violent assaults. However, the existence of such a group does not in itself show that Megargee was correct about the underlying mechanisms responsible.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Gender Identity Being A Man And Woman - 2725 Words

Introduction Debates about identity as environmentally or biologically constructed have been on going in several studies. The belief that identity is innate is a form of common sense understanding that is challenged by the constructionist perspective of identity. The sex/gender identity is when a person who is determined as male or female based on biological criteria is required to act according to assigned gender roles of masculinity or femininity (Carrera et al. 2012). That being said, the sex/gender identity creates limitations on the categories a persons identity can fall under. Although we have these fixed categories, gender identity is socially constructed because there are groups outside of being a man and woman. Also, there are different types of gender identities across the world and identity is created over time. Current Debate Gender identity is environmentally constructed because there are groups outside of being distinctly a man or woman. Groups such as transgendered people, whose sense of self differs from the gender assigned to them at birth, have constructed their identities based on what they believe they are (Carrera et al, 2012). Therefore, transgendered people do not fit under the sex/gender category that is considered natural in our society. Transgendered people challenge these specific sexed bodies that we have created (Carrera et al, 2012) because if we were to see a transgendered person, the first thing we would ask ourselves is if they are a man orShow MoreRelatedCultural Landmarks : Pivotal Views And Information1541 Words   |  7 Pagessocial behavior, this article will be focusing on one I personally find exceedingly upsetting: gender identity. Since birth, we have been taught a certain kind of segregation - man and woman, mother and father, boys and girls - taught it as if it were fact, as if it were as concrete as a law of physics; more so, even. We are taught that gender and sex are synonyms, interchangeable, taught even less of gender divergence than we are of sexual orientation. However, recently in the media more and more prominentRead MoreGender Identity Has Changed Its Definition Over Time1578 Words   |  7 PagesEnclish 1C ​Gender identity has changed its definition over time. The psychological definition as stated from the social learning theory is that gender identity is the sense of being male or female. Seems simple but we now know in todays world the definition has broadened. Gender identity is now defined as one s personal experience of one s own gender. Gender identity can correlate with assigned sex at birth, or can differ from it completely. All societies have a set of gender categories thatRead MoreSex and Gender in Sally Potters Orlando1073 Words   |  5 PagesCritically assess Judith Butler’s notion that gender is not a primary category, but an attribute, a set of secondary narrative effects. Your answer should make reference to Sally Potter’s film Orlando. Though Judith Butler asserts that gender is not of any importance, her writings on this notion, understandably, must put a lot of emphasis on the subject of sex. How else could she prove her theory, if not through a discussion of the unimportance of gender? In any case, her hypothesis is one that practicallyRead MoreCatalina de Erauso: On Playing Gender Roles Essay1460 Words   |  6 Pageslate sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, gender roles were distinct and the opportunity gap was enormous. Catalina de Erauso compares the two roles through her memoir, â€Å"Lieutenant Nun,† where she recounts her life as a transvestite in both the new and old world. Through having experienced the structured life of a woman as well as the freedom involved in being a man, de Erauso formed an identity for herself that crossed the boundaries of both genders. Catalina de Erauso’s life demonstrates theRead MoreToni Morrison s Beloved : Dehumanization Of Slavery And Its Effects On A frican Americans And Their Basic Forms Of1268 Words   |  6 Pagesmotherhood and gender for black women. Rather than victimize Sethe’s as an enslaved woman, Morrision decides to celebrate her triumphs and suffering in Beloved. Therefore, Sethe’s identity as an enslaved black mother deconstructs the expectations of Eurocentric gender roles with her exertion of independence and control for the benefit of her children. To understand Sethe’s identity in the novel Beloved, one must acknowledge the intersectionality of her identity of being both black and a woman. KimberleRead MoreA Brief Look at Judith Butler831 Words   |  3 Pagestheory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex. Nobody is born with a set gender, the way we walk, talk, and dress gives off the impression of being a man or woman and thereforeRead MoreGender Faced By Judith Butler1620 Words   |  7 PagesWhat is gender marking according to Judith Butler, (From Undoing Gender) and how can this theory be applied to constructions to racial identity in the Western world? According to Judith Butler’s 1990 book Gender Trouble, presented a new concept for looking a t sex and gender. As contrary to the fixed masculine and feminine gender binary, Butler insisted that gender need be perceived as fluid, variable; the aspect of people’s behavior at various times instead of who individuals are. Butler proposedRead MoreAnalysis Of M. Butterfly By David Henry Hwang Essay1677 Words   |  7 Pagesdiscriminations not only affect Oriental women but women of the West as well. The plot of the story surrounds this man, Rene Gallimard, who is a French diplomat being sent to China. Although a married man, he begins to fall in love with Song Liling, an opera singer. Gallimard and Liling begin a secret relationship but at the end it is uncovered that Song Liling was actually a Chinese spy and not other than a man. The theme of the play begins to unravel here when it comes to the reader’s notice that the focus ofRead MoreGender Is The Definition Of G ender1345 Words   |  6 PagesOctober 29, 2015 What is Gender? The definition of gender depends on the time period. The basic and historically accepted version of the definition of gender is the state of being either male or female, masculine or feminine, or simply a man or woman. Historically we have lived in a world that only had binary gender, meaning that a person was solely either a man or a woman. While that is the general definition that has been accepted as a baseline representation of what gender is, in today’s societyRead MoreLiterary Analysis : For A White Woman Essay900 Words   |  4 PagesIn Passing, Clare Kendry ‘passes’ for a white woman to marry a white man and, in masking her identity, loses touch with her African-American roots. Irene describes Clare as â€Å"selfish, and cold, and hard. And yet she had, too, a strange capacity of transforming warmth and passion, verging sometimes almost on theatrical heroics† (Larsen 10). Clare is charming, attractive and there’s something uncanny about her stare. She is no angel, but she does carry herself differently than the other women of her