Phenomenological and Social Psychoanalytic Approaches free essay sample

That the simple word l is always in the top twenty most common words used in the English languages Is no coincidence-?we are central to our framework of the world, ND therefore our self Is of great Importance to everything we do and think. Whether self is a set of attitudes, roles or characteristics and how much of those stem from our own individuality and how much from how we fit into society, is key to understanding the impact and influence that our self-images have on our lives. If you were asked to define your self, how would you do it?Would you say, l am a mother, I am a daughter, I am a doctor, using your roles In smaller and larger societies to define yourself? Or would you choose Instead to define yourself by the individual characteristics that serve to set you apart from your group and the world en masses-?l am funny, I am kind, I am shy? As central as the question of self may be, there is surprisingly little empirical research in social psychology on how we define ourselves . We will write a custom essay sample on Phenomenological and Social Psychoanalytic Approaches or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the main, this can be attributed to the inability to agree on whether self Is a set of attitudes or if it is otherwise constructed. Kuhn and McFarland (McFarland, 1954), however, did attempt to develop an experiment that would begin to clarify some of these questions. They asked 288 undergraduate students to answer who am l? Twenty different ways, in a short amount of time. As sociologists, they looked at their results from a different perspective than social psychologists, but it is still of interest to see how the students responded in ways that held up the idea of an individual-society dichotomy.Invariably, their responses showcased either the role they filled (student, son, friend) or how they saw themselves as Individuals (smart, gentle, tall) While our binary constructs can help to clarify and simplify a question, it can also serve to make formulating a real-world answer more difficult. Just as the self cannot e defined strictly in terms of its conscious formulations while discounting its unconscious, so too is it impossible to truly understand the self when using the foundation of the Individual-society du alism.This paper will examine how two social psychological perspectives-? phenomenological and social psychoanalytical-?have worked to define the self and how well they have managed to step away from the black and white dualism of individual-society, that has been historically prevalent, and develop a more cohesive, integrated model of the self. When looking at the history of how a topic has been understood, it is always important to remember that knowledge is not a static formulation. Rather, it is a dynamic product that is always at the mercy of the historical framework in which it finds itself. (Holloway, 2007) The understanding of any subject comes down to the time period, the culture, and the social location present for that subjects. Consider, for example, how the study of the self was far less popular in psychology in the United States in the mid-twentieth century than it is now, or indeed, as it was in other fields such as philosophy or sociology. It is necessary to remember that during this time period, psychology in the U. S. As very much concerned with separating itself from the philosophical disciplines and becoming more aligned with the sciences-? the study of the self can be seen to underscore the nebulous nature of the field, which was against the goals of that time and placed. In Britain in 1694, society was in the midst of the ramifications of a society moving away from agriculture and towards industry-?creating the fear of social ties being broken and of kinship no longer being the sole consideration for what makes a person-?when John Locke began to discuss personal identity in a way that saw it as a natural, observable phenomenon 4. This was a departure from when the basic understanding of self saw it both as a reflection of the immortal soul and of familial descent. What we take for granted-?that the self is not merely a collection of outer actions, but is also made up of a self-consciousness-?was then considered to be exceedingly modern and revolutionary. The idea of defining self based on familial descent is an interesting one, as it serves to underscore the importance of situated knowledge in this topic.Whereas in the Western world academics have moved increasingly towards the individualistic of he self, it is important to remember that in many third-world cultures defining the self is still very much a matter of defining the kinship ties a person has and their relatedness to the rest of the worlds. Does this mean that the self is a different entity depending on where you live? Is a person less of a separate being in Kenya than they are in Britain?This is at the root of why any definition that relies solely on a binary definition of self-?especially of individual-society dualism-will always be lacking. While this paper is primarily concerned with the issue of individual-society dualism, peeping in mind the other binary concepts that have had an impact on the definition of self-?integrated vs.. Fragmented, conscious vs.. Unconscious, true vs.. False-?can help to reinforce the idea that attempting to follow a strict dichotomy undermines the ability to achieve a realistic, usable definition of the self.The social psychoanalytic perspective and the self Social psychoanalysis is one of the best perspectives in merging dualistic thinking into a more cohesive whole. This is the perspective that best strives to see how the unconscious impacts the conscious and vice versa and how the fragmented forms motional experiences. The best strength of social psychoanalysis is that it is able to delve into the hidden depths of meaning in a persons experiences and relationships.If the best way to combat the individual-society strict dualism is to understand the interplay between the two, then social psychoanalysis is well-placed to find that interaction. Psychoanalysis is able to look at an individuals setting and relationships and delve deeper into the emotional interplay that has such an impact on that persons definition of self. This allows the focus to be on the dynamic experience of an individual who is always a sum total of their relationships and settings, and cannot be broken down to individual parts outside of those connections.Consider, for example, a sibling relationship. Siblings and placement in ones family is fundamental in how a person defines themselves by role-?I am an older brother, I am a protector, I am an only child-?and in the dynamics of how those relationships establish their own moral a nd cultural codes for that person, which is inherent in their unconscious motivations. Here then, is a clear interplay between the hidden ND the visible in defining the self, which the social psychoanalytic perspective is best poised to understand. The phenomenological perspective and the self The strong ties between phenomenology and philosophy lend both the greatest strengths for phenomenological perspectives to explain a cohesive definition of self, but also the greatest weakness in forming a definition of self that is applicable in the practical world: Because phenomenology is considered to be fundamentally irrelevant in any scientific explanation of the mind, the person-level is regarded as scientifically invisible: it is a ghost-like housing for sub-personal computational cognition.The problem of explaining how the sub-personal and sub-phenomenological machinery of mind is related to person-level experience is as troublesome for cognitive psychology as the problem Descartes faced in explaining how the ghost (the non- corporeal mind) is related to the machine (the material body)8. On the surface, phenomenology stands out as being one of the best perspectives to take on when attempting to view the definition of self away f rom the harsh dichotomy of individual-society.As phenomenology looks at how a person experiences the world hey inhabit, without the brackets of prior assumptions and understandings, it is well-situated to examine the essence of the self as it exists, rather than within the constraints of defining where that meaning comes from. This perspective retains its close links with its philosophical roots, and is therefore less bound by the attempts of scientific methodology to reduce definitions down to measurable parts. In phenomenology, a person does not need to be separated from the parts of their in whatever shape it takes in that particular moment.This is best understood through the core concept of lifework, wherein each person is seen as being inseparable from the setting of that persons life and their experience within that setting. This emphasis on a persons experiences, shared with others found in their situated settings, helps phenomenology to go beyond the individual-society dualism concept and instead formulate an idea of self as a fully in-the-moment combination of meaning. Concluding thoughts Both phenomenological and social psychoanalytical perspectives do much to move away from the individual-society dualism, though their methods in doing so are markedly different.Both methods look to go beyond simply what the person says is heir idea of self-?social psychoanalysis by looking for the hidden emotional meaning and connection of the words and phenomenology by looking below the surface for the meaning behind the experience. Both perspectives-?perhaps most importantly-? allow for an understanding of the self that is dynamically changing and developing as the individual has experiences and formulates meaning out of those experiences. This is the greatest combination of individual and society, where a person is both their existence in society, but also how they formulate the meaning of that existence.

The Treasure of the Aztecs

The Treasure of the Aztecs In 1519, Hernan Cortes and his greedy band of some 600 conquistadors began their audacious assault on the  Mexica (Aztec) Empire. By 1521 the Mexica capital city of  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Tenochtitlan was in ashes, Emperor Montezuma was dead and the  Spanish were firmly in control of what they took to calling New Spain. Along the way, Cortes and his men collected thousands of pounds of gold, silver, jewels and priceless pieces of  Aztec art. Whatever became of this unimaginable treasure? The Concept of Wealth in the New World For the Spanish, the concept of wealth was simple: it meant gold and silver, preferably in easily negotiable bars or coins, and the more of it the better. For the Mexica and their allies, it was more complicated. They used gold and silver but primarily for ornaments, decorations, plates, and jewelry. The Aztecs prized other things far above gold: they loved brightly colored feathers, preferably from quetzals or hummingbirds. They would make elaborate cloaks and headdresses out of these feathers and it was a conspicuous display of wealth to wear one. They loved jewels, including jade and turquoise. They also prized cotton and garments like tunics made from it: as a display of power, Tlatoani Montezuma would wear as many as four cotton tunics a day and discard them after wearing them only once. The people of central Mexico were great merchants who engaged in trade, generally bartering goods with one another, but cacao beans were also used as a currency of sorts. Cortes Sends Treasure to the King In April of 1519, the Cortes expedition landed near present-day​  Veracruz: they had already visited the Maya area of Potonchan, where they picked up some gold and the invaluable interpreter Malinche. From the town they founded in Veracruz they made friendly relationships with the coastal tribes. The Spanish offered to ally themselves with these disgruntled vassals, who agreed and often gave them gifts of gold, feathers and cotton cloth. In addition, emissaries from Montezuma occasionally appeared, bringing great gifts with them. The first emissaries gave the Spanish some rich clothes, an obsidian mirror, a tray and jar of gold, some fans and a shield made from mother-of-pearl. Subsequent emissaries brought a gold-plated wheel six and a half feet across, weighing some thirty-five pounds, and a smaller silver one: these represented the sun and moon. Later emissaries brought back a Spanish helmet which had been sent to Montezuma; the generous ruler had filled the helm with gold dust as the Spanish had requested. He did this because he had been made to believe that the Spanish suffered from an illness which could only be cured by gold. In July of 1519, Cortes decided to send some of this treasure to the King of Spain, in part because the king was entitled to a fifth of any treasure found and in part because Cortes needed the kings support for his venture, which was on questionable legal ground. The Spanish put together all of the treasures they had accumulated, inventoried it and sent much of it to Spain on a ship. They estimated that the gold and silver was worth about 22,500 pesos: this estimate was based on its worth as a raw material, not as artistic treasures. A long list of the inventory survives: it details every item. One example: the other collar has four strings with 102 red stones and 172 apparently green, and around the two green stones are 26 golden bells and, in the said collar, ten large stones set in gold... (qtd. in Thomas). Detailed as this list is, it appears that Cortes and his lieutenants held much back: it is likely that the king received only one-tenth of the treasure taken thus far. The Treasures of Tenochtitlan Between July and November of 1519, Cortes and his men made their way to Tenochtitlan. Along their way, they picked up more treasure in the form of more gifts from Montezuma, loot from the Cholula Massacre and gifts from the leader of Tlaxcala, who in addition entered into an important alliance with Cortes. In early November, the conquistadors entered Tenochtitlan and Montezuma made them welcome. A week or so into their stay, the Spanish arrested Montezuma on a pretext and kept him in their heavily defended compound. Thus began the plunder of the great city. The Spaniards continually demanded gold, and their captive, Montezuma, told his people to bring it. Many great treasures of gold, silver jewels and featherwork were laid at the feet of the invaders. Furthermore, Cortes asked Montezuma where the gold came from. The captive emperor freely admitted that there were several places in the Empire where gold could be found: it was usually panned from streams and smelted for use. Cortes immediately sent his men to those places to investigate. Montezuma had allowed the Spaniards to stay at the lavish palace of Axayacatl, a former tlatoani of the empire and Montezumas father. One day, the Spanish discovered a vast treasure behind one of the walls: gold, jewels, idols, jade, feathers and more. It was added to the invaders ever-growing pile of loot. The Noche Triste In May of 1520, Cortes had to return to the coast  to defeat the conquistador army of Panfilo de Narvaez. In his absence from Tenochtitlan, his hotheaded lieutenant Pedro de Alvarado ordered the massacre of thousands of unarmed Aztec nobles attending the festival of Toxcatl. When Cortes returned in July, he found his men under siege. On June 30, they decided they could not hold the city and decided to depart. But what to do about the treasure? At that point, it is estimated that the Spanish had amassed some eight thousand pounds of gold and silver, not to mention plenty of feathers, cotton, jewels and more.   Cortes ordered the kings fifth and his own fifth loaded onto horses and Tlaxcalan porters and told the others to take what they wanted. Foolish conquistadors loaded themselves down with gold: smart ones only took a handful of jewels. That night, the Spanish were spotted as they tried to flee the city: the enraged Mexica warriors attacked, slaughtering hundreds of Spaniards on the Tacuba causeway out of the city. The Spanish later referred to this as the Noche Triste or Night of Sorrows.The kings and Cortes gold was lost, and those soldiers who carried very much loot either dropped it or were slaughtered because they were running too slowly. Most of the great treasures of Montezuma were irrevocably lost that night. Return to Tenochtitlan and Division of Spoils The Spanish regrouped and were able to re-take Tenochtitlan a few months later, this time for good. Although they found some of their lost loot (and were able to squeeze some more out of the defeated Mexica) they never found all of it, despite torturing the new emperor, Cuauhtà ©moc. After the city had been retaken and it came time to divide the spoils, Cortes proved as skilled at stealing from his own men as he had in stealing from the Mexica. After setting aside the kings fifth and his own fifth, he began making suspiciously large payments to his closest cronies for weapons, services, etc. When they finally got their share, Cortes soldiers were dismayed to learn that they had earned less than two hundred pesos each, far less than they would have gotten for honest work elsewhere. The soldiers were furious, but there was little they could do. Cortes bought them off by sending them on further expeditions which he promised would bring in more gold and expeditions were soon on their way to the lands of the Maya in the south. Other conquistadors were given encomiendas: these were grants of vast lands with native villages or town on them. The owner theoretically had to provide protection and religious instruction for the natives, and in return the natives would work for the landowner. In reality, it was officially sanctioned slavery and led to some unspeakable abuses. The conquistadors who served under Cortes always believed that he had held back thousands of pesos in gold from them, and the historical evidence seems to support them. Guests to Cortes home reported seeing many bars of gold in Cortes possession. Legacy of the Treasure of Montezuma In spite of the losses of the Night of Sorrows, Cortes and his men were able to take a staggering amount of gold out of Mexico: only Francisco Pizarros looting of the Inca Empire produced a greater amount of wealth. The audacious conquest inspired thousands of Europeans to flock to the New World, hoping to be on the next expedition to conquer a rich empire. After Pizarros conquest of the Inca, however, there were no more great empires to find, although legends of the city of El Dorado persisted for centuries. It is a great tragedy that the Spanish preferred their gold in coins and bars: countless priceless golden ornaments were melted down and the cultural and artistic loss is incalculable. According to the Spanish who saw these golden works, Aztec goldsmiths were more skilled than their European counterparts. Sources Diaz del Castillo, Bernal. . Trans., ed. J.M. Cohen. 1576. London, Penguin Books, 1963. Levy, Buddy. . New York: Bantam, 2008. Thomas, Hugh. . New York: Touchstone, 1993.

Gene technology Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gene technology - Lab Report Example The plasmid is 3.5 kb in size (Fig.5). It has two ECoRI restriction sites, hence should break any recombinant DNA into two fragments, i.e. ~3.5 kb and the inserted DNA. In our experiment – There are three fragments of DNA which shows that the inserted PCR product must have one ECoRI site. The ECoRI site in the PCR product is placed almost in the middle breaking it into two fragments, viz. 600 bp and 800 bp (Fig. 6). Interpretation - It appears that the insert has two restriction sites for NCoI (Fig 7). But position of the sites would result in a DNA fragment smaller than 1.5 kb (the total size of the insert), the size discrepancy is difficult to explain. Interpretation – This result is totally unexpected! The bands corresponding to both the restriction enzymes, i.e. at 1.0 kb, 2.5 kb, 3.0 kb are there but in addition there are three other intermediate size DNA fragments. The bands appear to be intermediates produced due to impartial digestion of the recombinant by the two restriction enzymes. Reason – Concentration of the enzymes was less, time of incubation is less than optimum or incubation conditions were inadequate. Sufficient time should be given for the restriction enzymes to act on all the sites. ii. NcoI digestion (Lane 4) – the restriction sites appear to be different than mine (Fig 4a). The NcoI sites appear to be closer in the 16S rDNA extracted by this student and give rise to a DNA fragment of 600 bp. Janda M. and Abbott S.L. (2007). 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing for Bacterial Identification in the Diagnostic Laboratory: Pluses, Perils, and Pitfalls. J. Clin Microbiol. 2007 September; 45(9): 2761–2764. Khare N., Sharma D., Somashekar U., Prakash A., Prakash S., Mendki M.J. and Anvikar A. (2008). Detection of bacterial DNA in cholesterol gall stones. The Internet Journal of Surgery 16 (2). Available from