COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY - Essay Example Of course, it is always possible that what is known can greatly influence the way something is perceived to such an extent that it becomes a misperception. Visual and auditory misperceptions have been studied widely in the literature, as they illustrate not only how something can be misperceived due to top-down factors but can shed some light on how perception relies on these factors also. A variety of empirical evidence will be used to evaluate the role that these top-down factors have in perception, focusing mainly on visual and auditory misperceptions. One of the most widely studied examples of the way that top-down factors have a role in misperceptions are illusions. Optical illusions are often used as fun examples of how the mind can trick us, but they also have a huge role in cognitive psychology. Illusions are good because they show how the mind follows certain rules and places certain constraints on perception, and how top-down factors cause the brain to have a bias towards p erceiving certain things (Eysenck & Keane, 2005). In everyday life, these are usually correct and can help us to identify objects that have never been perceived before accurately and simply. Without these rules, there would be no perception in the sense we understand today. However, when these rules are applied in a different sense to that which they would usually be employed misperception or illusion results. Misperceptions can be found within all sensory systems, although visual and auditory are the most researched and understood. Sometimes, a healthy individual can briefly mistake one object that is known for another. The research by Summerfield, Egner, Mangels & Hirsch (2006) investigates the reaction of the brain during these occasions using functional magnetic resonance imaging to understand the neuroscience behind this. The interesting part of this research is that Summerfield et al (2006) manipulated images of houses and faces to such an extent that they could be realistical ly mistaken for the other. This may seem ridiculous, as houses and faces are two very different structures that could not easily be mistaken for each other in reality. This is an example of a top-down factor; we think that it would be impossible to mistake a house for a face (or vice versa) because of the rules and regulations put in place in the way that objects are perceived. However, this research showed that at a certain level of degradation, this misperception can easily occur. This misperception occurs even in psychologically normal patients. Top-down factors associate some areas of the image with a house or a face and the medio-frontal and right parietal regions of the brain make assumptions based upon what is already known and help the individual perceive. Faces themselves are also victim to visual misperception. Research by Leopold, Rhodes, Muller and Jeffery (2005) has shown that top-down factors can lead to perceived identity and expression. In this case, what is known ab out individuals that are familiar is applied to individuals that are not, and thus misperceptions occur. The brain here is suggesting that someone with similar visual appearance to an individual must be that individual. Again, this is an example

Medical Costs in the United States Research Paper

Medical Costs in the United States - Research Paper Example Healthcare costs are on the rise and there seems to be no way for these costs to stop without reform measures. The Problem with Healthcare Spending One problem with healthcare spending is that it is growing faster than the economy and everyone is affected by this change. Whether people use private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, they will be affected in some way as healthcare costs continue to grow. (Myerson, Nelson, Simpson, and Topoleski (2007). This has put healthcare as a much talked about issue and it is both a social issue and an economic one. According to Healthcare Problems.org, in 2007 about 50 million Americans went without health insurance and about 25 million were considered underinsured. Between 2001 and 2005 health insurance premiums increased by 30% but people’s income only rose about three percent. Today, healthcare expenditures have increased to $2 trillion a year. Over the past four years, the number of people who are now underinsured has reached 60% which m eans that 25 million people are struggling to pay their healthcare bills (â€Å"Healthcare Statistics, â€Å" 2011). The highest rate of underinsured (31%) is in those Americans who make less than $20,000 a year. After doing an informal survey of people I know, many Americans agree that there should be some type of healthcare reform, but most people are not sure how this reform would take place and who would fund it. Employer Based Insurance When people look for a job one of the benefits they look for is health insurance. Many people feel that if the employer offers insurance they will be able to afford to have insurance. Unfortunately, employer supplied healthcare is also suffering because of the rising costs of healthcare. According to a report by Singhal, Stueland, and Ungerman (2011) the Affordable Healthcare Act has created more cost problems for employers and many have limited this benefit for their employees or stopped providing it all together. According to their report, b y 2014, employers will have to make drastic changes in the way they do healthcare. One of these drastic changes is that about 30% of employers will â€Å"probably† stop offering insurance to their employees after 2014 because of the expense. Singhal, Stueland and Ungerman (20010 surveyed employers and predict that if employers stop offering insurance, they may increase their revenues by at least 30%; this makes this option very attractive to employers who are struggling to provide healthcare. Singhal, Stueland, and Ungerman (2011) also state that because of the way that reform is stated, employers are able to limit their social obligation to their employees to offer insurance. The way in which the reform act is written, states that all employees must have some type of insurance, but they do not stipulate that employers have to provide it. The Act states that if the employer does not offer insurance, the individual can apply for â€Å"income-indexed premium and out-of-pocket cost-sharing subsidies† (Singhal, Stueland, and Ungerman, 2011, p.2). The law specifically states that employers with 50 or more employees must offer health insurance to all full time employees or face a fine of $2,000. They also must provide reasonable coverage to all their employees on a similar level. In other words,

Recommendations to the Wallace Group Essay Example for Free

Recommendations to the Wallace Group Essay Mr. Wallace, I have concluded my interviews with your team and have a list of recommendations based on priorities. The recommendations are unbiased and not intended to be personal attacks on the current management; they are based on the sound management principles and intended to maximize your company’s potential. a. Realign the corporate structure. Begin by recruiting a new board of directors using outside directors, â€Å"executives of other firms but are not employees of the board’s corporation†1, in addition to a limited number of management directors from inside the company. This combination of three companies working as independent entities is not working, they must be integrated and a different management organizational structure must be implemented. This group will be able to accomplish the next recommendation. b. Develop a mission statement and goals. The company must embark upon strategic management planning. This will include: †¢Clearer sense of strategic vision for the firm †¢Sharper focus on what is strategically important Improved understanding of a rapidly changing environment1 The Wallace group lacks vision and goals for its divisions and this leads to a lack of direction for the management team. A mission statement â€Å"defines the fundamental, unique purpose that sets a company apart from other firms of its type and identifies the scope of the company’s operations in terms of products offered and markets served†1. This business must develop a corporate wide strategic management plan to set a direction for the company and its shareholders. A part of this management planning would consist of SWOT analysis, strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. This process is often referred to as Plan – Do – Act – Check or PDAC and is a continuous process. Making a profit today is not enough; there has to be an evaluation of where the company is now, where will it be in 2, 5, 10 years and how the company will attain those goals. c. Change the organizational chart: There needs to be an in-depth evaluation of the personnel currently in place. The current chart is one of vertical structure and should be revamped to be more horizontal. This accomplishes the goals of empowerment and coordination between the divisions. A glaring problem is the VP of the chemical division, J. Luskics, as he was the former owner that guided the company into foreclosure and appears to not be running the division efficiently now. The chemical division is not even internally competitive for the plastics or electronics divisions. Mr. Luskics should either be bought out of the company or reassigned to a position that he might be successful. There also is a redundancy among positions in the company, for example there are three directors of industrial relations, these positions should either be combined or incentivized to cooperate in the best interest of the company. d. Personnel development. There is no apparent leadership development in place and the company has relied on promoting technical staff to management positions which many are not equipped to handle. There needs to be a leadership development series initiated, leadership retreats to communicate and encourage relations amongst the teams, and perhaps some Management Assessment of Proficiency (MAP) testing to asses the current management team. Management development and succession planning must be implemented to ensure long term success. Job responsibilities need to be developed and implemented for all positions but specifically for the management team; including specific goals, budgeting, forecasting (long range planning), training, and staff satisfaction. . Communication. The lack of clear strategies, long term plans, goals and objectives has led to the recent revolt at the stockholders meeting. This is a clear indication of the frustration felt from the staff level up and the new direction of the company must be clearly communicated to all staff. Enthusiasm is contagious and the presentation of a new course for the company will be very exciting for staff. Employee surveys, sugges tion boxes and an engaging of the front line staff will do much to improve morale and spark improvements. I would like to commend you sir for creating a successful company but I do believe there are concrete steps that you can take to improve the future of this company. Mr. Wallace I believe the development of a vision will produce great results, with this vision you will attract personnel that want to be a part of a great company and profits for all involved will naturally follow. Remember â€Å"Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and – quite literally – accident†2. I estimate that this plan of action will initially cost $1. 5 million but there will be cost savings realized in personnel reassignments, recruitment and retention, productivity, and a renewed sense of commitment that will be reflected in profits far surpassing the costs.

Quality Assurance Of Teaching Education Essay

Quality Assurance Of Teaching Education Essay The divisions of rules that exist in the university curriculum-making authority are distributed as follows. Curriculum design is done by a team at the program-level in which courses design is in draft form. Then, as a draft of curriculum it should be approved by the department and faculty academic senate before it finally passed by the chancellor as formal curriculum for each program. This arrangement is suitable with the hierarchy of stakeholders of the institution within the university. It defines that the Faculty is organizing stakeholders and or academic activities in specific disciplines and can consist of one program or several program of study. Department is the organization of academic resources for the development of science, education and implementation of academic, professional and or profession, in part or one branch of science, technology, art and culture. The Program is the integrated study plan as guidance and academic education or profession conducted on the basis of a curriculum and aimed so that learners can master the knowledge, skills and attitudes in accordance with curriculum objectives. Based on this definition, the program is the stakeholder which takes main responsibility of curriculum design and evaluation. As will be elaborated below, the process of curriculum development involves many parties in which the program holds main duty that is initial design and determining course structure jointly with the department. Curriculum Design The formulation process of the curriculum at the program level is carried through several steps: (i) define the graduate profile, (ii) define their competences, (iii) map and translate the learning process that needed for achieving these competences in the course design, (iv) arrange the courses in suitable order and reasonable time study, (iv) synchronization of the course design with related programs. This duty is carried by the curriculum design team at the program level in which consist of: Head of the program Group of lecturers who represent each of specialization area Academic staff of the department Historically, the curriculum design has been evoluted following the rule set by directorate of higher education, Ministry of Education. It had involved three curriculums, namely curriculum 2007, curriculum 2009 and the current/undertaking revision: competence-based curriculum. Shortly, current undergoing  changes in  the curriculum  is a shift from  the target  mastery of science  and technology  into  the  emphasis on  the education process  that refers to the  context of culture  and  human  development  in a comprehensive,  global  /  universal. The target now is to produce  graduates who are  cultured  and able to  play a role  in the international world.  This is known  as a  competency-based  curriculum. The curriculum development is started by formulation of descriptive profile of the graduate. Referring to the current rule, as stated in the Chancellor decree No.897/SK/R/UI/2009 in article 2 about the objective of the program, it is stated: To generate economic undergraduate economics courses that have the ability and skills analysis of both micro and macro economics to meet the needs of analysis and research in government institutions, research institutes, banking and capital markets. According to this definition, the graduates are those who should master ability and skill as junior economist. In order to achieve this profile of competence, the entire representative of lecturers of each are/courses was involved to design the appropriate course structure. Internal course area meeting In this meeting each courses area design three important documents: GBPP(Garis-garis Besar Program Pengajaran), SAP(Satuan Acara Perkuliahan) and the syllabus. In the new term GBPP and SAP are recognized as BRP(Buku Rancangan Pengajaran) and BPKM(Buku Pedoman Kerja Mahasiswa). During the last revision this process have been conducted for . (isi tanggal rapat koordinasi internal tiap konsentrasi dan matakuliah wajib). Within the program, the area is a group of specialization in economics area. The following is the lists of area and lecturers responsible for each area. Monetary economics: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx International economics: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx Industrial organization: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx Public economics: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx Human resource and labor economics: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx Environmental and natural resource economics: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx Regional economics: Prof. xxx, Dr. xxxx Work meeting (Rapat Kerja) In order to create a good coherence and mapping of each course with the graduate profile, jointly work meeting were carried. For the last curriculum revision this meeting conducted on (Raker Bandung). The result of these process is summarized in the following tables. Table 1 Sequence of Courses of Economic Undergraduate Program (EUP) Based on Curriculum 2009 Table 1 Sequence of Courses of Economic Undergraduate Program (EUP) based on KBK The detail of the connection between each courses and competence aimed from each course is in the Appendix. Users Involvement In the curriculum development, jointly with the department, the program  also  involves users as the  important stakeholders. One of the example is during the develpment of 2009 curriculum, a focus group discussion with stakeholders were conducted on December 10, 2008. To accommodate the various type of organization of workplace for graduates, the meeting invited participants from Ministry of Finance and National Planning Agency who represented government institution, NC Sekuritas, Mandiri Sekuritas, Bahana TCW Investment MGT, Danareksa Persero, and PT Pefindo as private instituion representatives, participant from the Bank Indonesia (Central Bank), and LPEM FEUI and LD FEUI as research institution representative. From this session, there were valuable inputs as a based to revised the competence profile in order to be suitable with the users need. For example is the focus on the mastering quantitative software, loyalty, English proficiency and writing skills. As the result, wit hin the compulsory 144 unit of courses now students are required to participate more on the quantitative laboratory session, minimum of 15 unit English-based course, and the academic writing course. Students Involvement In addition, the students  involvement in the course development also considered as important as other stakeholders. Especially, the students are the main party of the curriculum implemetation. For this reason, the program also conducted several meeting with each of students bagde, e.g. meeting December 19, 2011. In this meeting there are some feebacks including the continuous improvement of writing skills which then be accomodated in the KBK curriculum design. The Curriculum Dissemination and Implementation After the curriculum is finalized as formal document of the university, the faculty has been disseminating the curriculum for all stakeholders, mainly it targets students and lecturers. This was done by two handbook: Buku Panduan Akademik and Buku Katalog Mata Ajar. In addition, the program also uses program website to inform lecturer and students about the curriculum. Figure 1 The Website Course and curriculum evaluation The role of UPMA and BPMA Specifically, the university manage teaching and learning process by the role of quality assurance body BPMA(Badan Penjaminan Mutu Akademik) at university level and UPMA(Unit Penjamin Mutu Akademik) at faculty level. Curriculum implementation then will be monitored and audited by these units. The cycle of curriculum monitoring started by formulation of quality standard then followed by monitoring, internal evaluation and finally the development and enhancement of the curriculum. In addition to the role of internal evaluation, the implementation of the curriculum is also influenced by external evaluation such as national accreditation (BAN PT) and AUN itself. Figure 2 Cycle of Curriculum Quality Assurance In Handbook of Quality Standard published by university, within the quality standard, it is stated that the curriculum component should meet the criteria of: mention explicitly the graduates competence, list of learning materials, appropriate grouping of courses, has three main documents of BRP, BPKM and syllabus, and exhibit well connection between courses to meet the required competence as the learning objectives. In addition to this indicator it also should show indicator of the availability of course reference in the library, delivery method, time study allowed and the spread of workload and student evaluation system. The cycle is summarized in the following figure. detail of audit process Once the audit by quality assurance bodies was carried, and at the same time it is the period of curriculum evaluation, the faculty will appoint a team to review and develop new curriculum. Historically we have two consecutive revision, in 2007 and 2009. detail of the 2007 and 2009 revision KPTS/449/D/2006: Prosedur Pengembangan dan Perubahan Kurikulum KPTS/29/D/2008: Pembentukan Panitia Pengembangan Kurikulum FEUI Student evaluation The monitoring from student point of view to academic progress is carried over following processes: EDOM EDOM(Evaluasi Dosen oleh Mahasiswa) is one of the formal intrument to monitor teaching process within university. This system is implemented based on the Chancellor decree number (isi SK rektor tentang EDOM). While the name of the system suggests that the evaluation is mainly on the performance of the lecturers, the evaluation components are not limited to individual lecturers evaluation but also teaching and learning in various aspects. Evaluation aspects in EDOM includes: Course content delivery of course by the lecturer Class management Course assessment Course content: evaluating the availability of course syllabus, information of references, textbooks and other leaning resources, as well as relevance of assignments with the course objectives. Delivery of course by the lecturer: evaluating the delivery methods (including the implementation of active learning methods, discussion methods), relevance of course materials with the syllabus, consistency among lectures within teaching team, encouragement by the lecturer Class management: evaluating the punctuality of sessions, learning atmosphere, the use of supporting facilities, lecturers attitudes towards feedback and support for students with problems. Course assessment: evaluating the relevance of examination and assignment with the course contents, feedback and discussion on the results of assignments and examination. Analysis based on EDOM Pros: ? Cons: it is not completely reflect student opinion rather than obligatory fill in to see their course grade Academic Councelling (Bimbingan akademik) In addition to feedback from EDOM, the program evaluates the curriculum based on the feedback from students during the consultation with the academic supervisor. This is a non-structured feedback from student that ocasionally gives valuable input, epecially related to course assesment and course management. Evidence

Gender Inequality Women In Politics Politics Essay

Gender Inequality Women In Politics Politics Essay The world in which we live is characterized by deeply unequal sharing of the burden of adversities between women and men. Gender inequality exists in most parts of the world, from Japan to Africa, from Uzbekistan to the United States of America. However, inequality between women and men can take many different forms. It manifests itself in the unequal representations of women and men in various walks of life, differences in their salaries, persistent gender stereotypes, and sexual discrimination. One of the most troublesome issues is the extremely unequal representation of women in government and administrative office. Nevertheless, Lithuania, as well as other former communist countries was distinguished by a very high involvement of women in politics (worldpress.com). The role of women in society has been changed a lot in the last few decades. In the early days, women were seen as wives who were supposed to cook, clean, and take care of the children. They were limited from the responsibility of earning money for the family because this responsibility was left to husbands. Women were not allowed to vote and to work outside the family while men took care of having jobs and paying bills. Soon enough some thought that women should have bigger roles than what most of the people thought women should have. With the beginning of industrialization and technological development, the lifestyles of people in Lithuania started to change. The needs of human beings started to increase. This movement toward modern living started to reflect in the lifestyles of people. In this process, women started to practice some outside home activities (Aidis). Therefore, women involved in education in equal terms with men. Consequently, women gradually started to participate in all life movements. They started to think independently and participate equally in outside world along with males (Blackburn). Slowly but gradually discriminating women on the basis of gender, even though it still persists nowadays, diminished considerably. Therefore, the ongoing changes in social, political and economic activities of the country included not only the raise of womens role in society, but also the break of stereotypes of treating human beings by gender which was so well developed through decades (Aidis). Times when women used to sit at home and look after the children are gone. Today, women have bigger roles to play in the society. They are entrusted with more responsibility than men. They have to work along with men in providing a higher income for the family, but even so, most men in Lithuania still consider women to be inferior, and they do not trust them enough in order to permit a female to deal with political, economic, and social problems. As the ruling class, men completely support the patriarchal view of the Catholic Church. The resurgence in the popularity of the Catholic Church has been accompanied by the glorification of motherhood (Voices from Lithuania). Therefore, men favor motherhood over professional and political involvement because they identify political actions with masculine behavior, power struggles, private property disputes, corruption, and hypocrisy (LaFont). Initially, men objected to women starting their career outside home, but with the growing needs and insufficiency of money, they had no other way out but to accept the reality and change according to the circumstances (Aidis). According to Suzanne LaFont, Lithuanian men should be proud of their women getting involved in any social, economic, and political activity, and they should support their efforts to contribute to society rather than crush their struggle with irony, skepticism and empty words (LaFont). Even though gender issues were not a main priority for the country, Lithuania has shown improvements to gender equality by introducing laws and regulations that would protect womens rights in society (wikigender.org). Equal opportunities and equal treatment is enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania (art. 29); in 1998, the Sheimas (Parliament) adopted the law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (wikigender.org). This law forbids direct and indirect discrimination against men and women. It also requires the state and other institutions to work on the basis of equality in gender when it comes to employment, education, science and other areas of activities. In addition to a prohibition giving priority to one of the sexes in employment and education advertisements employers are obliged not to ask job seekers about their age, marital status, private life, and family plans(wikigender.org). According to the statistics prepared by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the year 2009 was marked by continued progress for women in parliament. The global average for the proportion of women in parliament reached an all-time high of 18.8%. Moreover, at the beginning of 2010, the number of women ruling in politics increased even more. They held 35 (13.0%) of the 269 top posts in parliaments around the world. This is an improvement on the 1995 total, when 24 women held this post. In addition, women make up 30% or more of the members in 44 parliamentary chambers 26 single or lower and 18 upper houses. This is a six-fold increase over the 1995 total, when just seven chambers achieved this goal(IPU). According to the Lithuanian Statistics Department Data, slowly and with no doubt, in 2008, 50% of Lithuanian women were involved not only in household but also in state-related activities. Women made 37% of all leaders in the Lithuanian ruling elite such as parliamentarians, senior state officials and executives of companies and establishments (Worldpress.com). The number of females running a business also increased but still remained lower than that of men. Thus, in 2007, women made 31% of businessmen in Lithuania which was 5% more if compared with the year 2006. The first women, who reached top posts in parliaments, were elected in Sri Lanka (1960) and India (1966). Countries of Europe which have had a female president or prime minister in the modern era (1945-2003) are: Bulgaria, Finland, France, the German Democratic Republic, Lithuania, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia (koed.hu). As mentioned before, Lithuania is also ranked among that category, with its current and first female president of the country- Dalia Grybauskaite. Next to the president, Lithuanian inhabitants are honored to have twelve women in top parliamentarian positions that also contributed, in a way or another, in bringing some changes to the country and to its population. One of them is Nijole Ambrazaityte. She was a member of the Seimas from November 25, 1996 till October 18, 2000. She also was elected to the Supreme Coucil (1990-1992). Nijole was a member of various parliamentary groups for the relations with the Republic of Georgia, Africa, China, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Russian Federation, Canada, France, Taiwan, Tibet, Germany, and other North European countries. Nevertheless, Nijole did not contribute only in politics but also in other areas of activity. Therefore, even though she was a winner of international contests of vocalists, Nijole was also granted the highest awards for her contribution to the Lithuanian culture and opera art (Nijole Ambrazaityte). Another woman worth mentioning about is Laima Andrikiene currently a member of European Parliament since year 2004. She was also a Vice Prime Minister of Lithuania between 1989 and 1990. During 1996 2003 Laima was a Chairman of the Board, Laitenis UAB and a Minister in the Ministry of European Affairs. (Laima Andrikiene). She was involved in various projects such as Training programme of Lithuanian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (2002), EU Officialdom Training Programme (2002-2004), Scientific Study Effective Integration of Lithuanian Industry into the EU in a Short Term (2003), EU Sixth Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2003-2004) (Laima Andrikiene). She also received lots honorable medals for her merits. Therefore, she got the Independence Medal of the Republic of Lithuania (July, 2000), National Order of Merit of the Grand Officer for the French Republic (October, 1997), Medal of the Baltic Assembl y (2003), etc (Laima Andrikiene). Furthermore, the woman who achieved a lot in her life and in the lives of millions others was Dalia Grybauskaite. Having received remarkable support from Lithuanian citizens, Dalia was elected President of the Republic of Lithuania in the first election round in the year 2009. Until then, she was a Programme Director in the Prime Minister Office of the Republic of Lithuania (1991), Director of the Economic Relations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993), Plenipotentiary Minister at the Lithuanian Embassy in the USA (1996), Minister of Finance (2001), and among many other posts she had, one of the most significant was the post of EU Commissioner in charge of financial programming and budget of the European Union (2004) (president.lt). According to Dalia Grybauskaite, gender equality is a topic of vital significance for every nation. In her speech at the General Debate of the 65th Session of The United Nations General Assembly in New York, she said that Gender equality issues are rarely associated with overcoming the economic crisis or stopping the climate change. However, it has been estimated that the elimination of gender discrimination in the labor market could increase the GDP by as much as 30 percent (president.lt). She also mentioned that It is of no surprise that women in Lithuania hold a number of top positions in politics and in business life. It is only natural that Lithuanian women made their own the famous saying: When the going gets tough, the tough get going! Thus, the prerequisite for gender equality represent the participation of both genders in decision making (president.lt). In all the countries of the world, women are in the minority at the decision-making level. Nevertheless, in most of countries more and more women are coming into office and are getting involved in the social life. As a good example would be Sweden. Women have achieved parity in the Cabinet of Ministers (where both men and women each constitute 50 percent), 43 percent of members in parliament and 41 percent of local government officials are women (I Know Politics). Today, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are the only European countries which have more than 30 percent female members of parliaments. Regarding governments, political scientists and political journalists often talk about a glass ceiling effect: this means that women do not get to the highest level of government or business (koed.hu). Mostly, those women who are considered to be part of the government or parliament, they are involved in less important positions. In order to be succ essful, women have to be trained for political discourses and motivated to defend their own rights or political interests. Achieving that would show that the difference between women and men is just a result of their perspective behavior (koed.hu). Nowadays, women in Lithuania do not have enough influence over the decision making but the situation is getting better. The gender identity in peoples minds is still that men are better in politics than women are. It is important to mention that Lithuania always went beyond its neighbor countries Latvia and Estonia, on this issue. It is considered to be the first country among the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe in advancing gender equality (I Know Politics). More recently, the highest level of womens representation in parliament among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe was achieved in Lithuania (18.1%); soon after, Estonia (18%) and Latvia (17%) reached similar levels (I Know Politics). It cannot though be compared to Sweden (43%), Denmark (37%) or Finland (37%). According to Kozma, women and men have different theories of perceiving gender issues in the world today. Women believe that it is not entirely right to think that only they are guilty for the current position in the political area. In a party, a woman gets to hold a position if this is desired by men (feminis.ro). Maria Grapini, the current candidate for mayor of Timisoara (Romania), noticed that it is also true, however, that women are hesitant to support each other. Moreover, she believes that they must know as well that it takes lots of time to become politicians. Mother, wife, business woman, politician! It seems hard to believe but a woman can actually manage everything and not in one regular way, but with elegance, style, and determination. Changes in society today are happening quickly and there is no doubt that there are still many unsolved problems. Men as well as women have to learn that gender identities belong to history and not to the modern life. Therefore, it is not the only option of women to stay home and take care of her children. Men, as well as women were given same rights and possibilities to grow professionally and individually. Therefore, the main goals are protection of womens rights and removal of discrimination in society by eliminating the existed stereotypes from peoples minds. Work Cited Aidis, R. (1997). MoterÃ…Â ³ verslininkiÃ…Â ³ problemos. -Moterys: tapatumo paieÃ…Â ¡kos. Lietuvos filosofijos ir sociologijos institutes. MoterÃ…Â ³ informacijos centras. Vilnius. Blackburn, R.M., Jarman J. and Siltanen S. (1993). The Analysis of Occupational Gender Segregation Over Time and Place: Considerations of Measurement and Some New Evidence, Work, Employment and Society. LaFont, Suzanne. (1988). Women in Transition: Voices from Lithuania. State University of New York Press. Albany. Women in Lithuania: more educated, earn less but their role is increasing. 5 March, 2008. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010: http://irzikevicius.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/women-in-lithuania-more-educated-but-earn-less-but-their-role-is-increasing/ (worldpress.com) Women in Politics. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010: http://www.ipu.org/news-e/wop/37/5.htm (IPU) Statistics Lithuania. Retrieved 4 November, 2010: http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/ (Statistics Lithuania) Gender Equality in Lithuania. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010: http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Lithuania (wikigender.org) Thorsten, Nilges. Gender inequality in politics. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010: http://www.koed.hu/mozaik15/thorsten.pdf (koed.hu) Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010: http://www3.lrs.lt/seimu_istorija/w3_lrs.seimo_narys-p_asm_id=5p_int_tv_id=0p_kalb_id=2p_kade_id=3.htm (Nijole Ambrazaityte) Laima Andrikiene. Retrieved on 4 November 2010: http://www2.laimaandrikiene.lt/en/ (Laima Andrikiene) President of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved on 5 November 2010. http://www.president.lt/en/ (Dalia Grybauskaite) Category: Lithuanian Women in Politics. Retrieved on 5 November, 2010: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lithuanian_women_in_politics (Wikipedia) Giedre,Purvaneckiene. Women in Lithuanian Society. 1999. Retrieved on 5 November, 2010: http://www.iknowpolitics.org/files/HDR%20Lithuania%201999%20-%20Ch.%208%20Women%20in%20Lithuanian%20Society.pdf (I Know Politics) Ana Maria, Kozma. The role of women in society. 5 May, 2008. Retrieved on 5 November, 2010: http://www.feminis.ro/feminis/cariera/rolul-femeilor-in-politica-464 (feminis.ro)

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder Essay -- Mountains Beyond M

There are people existing among us with a special trait or characteristic that makes them stand out above the masses. They are â€Å"heroes† in a sense, who perform great acts of sacrifice and promote hope when it seems that the last drop of faith has evaporated from one’s soul. These individuals remind us of saints who walked before us, healing and caring for the sick and destitute when no other man dared. Author, Tracy Kidder (2004), brings to the forefront the noble deeds of a modern day saint, Paul Farmer, through his writing in Mountains Beyond Mountains. He illustrates how a single man can lead nations toward healing, even in the midst of war, turmoil, limited resources, or â€Å"mountains† of bureaucratic red tape. Although the book tells a story about Farmer’s life, academic achievements, and global contributions toward curing infectious diseases, the main theme, as illustrated by the book title, is that no matter what a person does, there is always more to be done. Beyond the hills and valleys of Farmer’s journey, Kidder (2004) provides scenes of leadership styles along the way. Is a leader born or is leadership learned? A review of Paul Farmer’s mission, through the eyes of the author, may provide insight to support both philosophies. Kidder is an accomplished writer. Having been educated at Harvard and University of Iowa, and having served as a lieutenant in Vietnam (Twenty12fttrees, 2010), he brings research and experience together creating a soul-searching composition in Mountains Beyond Mountains. He is well versed and extremely credible having dedicated so much time immersing himself in the midst of Farmer’s journey. Not only does he take time to review and research Farmer’s published work, he travels across tim... ...ity through medicine, but Kidder (2004) allows the reader to see that Farmer may be curing humanity on many levels by creating an environment in impoverished locations where malnourishment and disease need not exist; where life doesn’t have to end early; where safety and basic needs are met, and where individuals are given a more conducive environment from which leaders can emerge. Works Cited Kidder, T. (2004). Mountains Beyond Mountains. New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group. Popple, P. R, & L. Leighninger. (2011). Social Work, Social Welfare, and American Society. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Stohr, M. K, & P. Collins. (2009). Criminal Justice Management. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. Twenty12fttrees (2010). About Tracy Kidder. Tracykidder.com. Retrieved Oct. 23, 2011, from http://www.tracykidder.com/about.php

Ellen Foster Essay -- essays papers

Ellen Foster The majority of families were once considered perfect. The father went to work everyday, while the mother stayed at home and cared for her two children, â€Å"Henry† and â€Å"Sue†. The children never fought and the parents were involved in all the community events. Our society has grown to accept that there is no such thing as a perfect family. Eleven-year-old Ellen from the book Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons, grows up in a household where her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother is too sick to complete everyday tasks. By using her positive assets, and learning from her negative assets, Ellen was able to overcome a lot of challenges throughout the book. One would think that six of the most important external assets fall under the category of support. Without support from one’s family and friends, he/she would have to be living in a state of depression. Ellen can claim to have only two of the support assets, which are to be in a caring school environment and to receive support from three or more nonparent adults. In school, her teachers worry about her, and want to know if she is OK: â€Å"The first day back at school my teacher noticed a bruise he put on my arm†¦ she asked me if I had somewhere to spend the night†¦the teacher says everything is OK and she will make the necessary arrangements†. Although Ellen found support from the school psychologist, she also found support from her best and only friend Starletta’s parents. Starletta’s parents told Ellen, â€Å"You come on back when you want to†¦ If he’s there when you get home you come on back here if you want to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Starletta’s parents are very understanding and they even take Ellen downtown whenever she needs to, buy clothing or food. Even though Ellen found sup... ...family that she grew up in was such a negative environment. It is very possible that she will grow up to be an art teacher. One might think this because she looked up to her art teacher so much and admired her; Ellen’s mind is full of creativity and ideas. When Ellen’s school found out that her dad was abusive to her they put her up at her art teacher’s house. Ellen says â€Å"I came a long way to get here but when you think about it really hard you will see that old Starletta came even farther†¦ And all this time I thought I had the hardest row to hoe† Like Ellen did, it is important for everyone to look back into their life and see what they have learned. Doing so cannot change ones past but only add to their future. Ellen will always carry the horrors of her childhood with her but by using all of her assets that she gained throughout the book her future can be enriched.