Lifespan Development Psychology Paper Essay Example for Free

Lifespan Development Psychology Paper Essay Lifespan Development Paper When studying the Lifespan Developmental stages throughout Chapter 1 of our textbook, I began to realize that I have traveled down some of the same common paths as my personal idols. Although most were dead long before I was ever conceived, I find it rather fascinating. The textbook states that Lifespan perspective is defined as lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual, and as a process that involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss. The human life expectancy has truly surpassed all other living animals from a house mouse that has a life span of a measly 3 years, to an Indian elephant that can live to be 70 years. Jeanne Calmet, who was the oldest living person, was born in Arles, France was born February 21, 1875 and died August 4, 1997. She was 122 years and 164 days old at the time of her death. Although most would love to live as long of life as Mrs. Calmet, that is somewhat unrealistic. The average life expectancy for people living within the United States of America is 78 years of age. That is a humungous leap from the average life expectancy of a man who lived during the Pre-historic which was the early age of 18. People go through many different changes as the world is ever changing. There are three different types of influences which include: 1) normative age-graded influences, 2) normative history-graded influences, and 3) nonnormative or highly individualized life events. Examples of normative age-graded influences are things that people of the same age go through together. Let’s take my twin sister and me as an example. At the early age of 1, we both began walking with 2 weeks of one another. Although not at the same time, we both were starting our menstrual cycles both at the age of 11 years old. In life we will experience menopause around the same time, and possibly even retirement within a short time between each other. Examples of normative history-graded influences would be people who have experienced history changing events with one another. How about two mothers who may live on the opposite sides of the United States, but both lost children as a result to fighting over in Afghanistan. They will never know one another but they will have a similar bond because they went through a similar event. Another would be the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Even I will never forget where I was and what I was doing on that fateful day. Lastly, examples of nonnormative or highly individualized life events could be anything from hitting it rich with the lottery, to an unexpected, devastating event like Hurricane Katrina. It may not have happened to all of us, but it influenced us all in different ways. When I began reading the part in Chapter 1 that was titled, â€Å"Women’s Struggle for Equality: An International Journey†, I was truly astonished by the figures. It is sad when I look around my neighborhood, and think that one in every six of these homes, a person is/was abused by their partner. Last weekend, my 10 year old son and I witnessed physical abuse as a girl was being drug as she was attempting to get into the passenger side of a vehicle while at our local Burger King. Then the teenage boyfriend began slapping her. My son and I were panicking to help this young girl whom we didn’t even know. I immediately called 9-1-1 and reported it to the authorities. The police arrived before we even left the parking lot, and I pray that this girl knows her worth in life, and realizes that she deserves better than that. The story in our textbook about Doly Akter, who is only 17 years of age and has lived her life in the slums of Bangladesh, is stepping out to do her part to help make her community a better one. She has created a club that is sponsored by UNICEF and goes door to door to monitor the hygiene and health of her neighbors. With her help, along with others that are a part of this phenomenal club, they are already seeing a major improvement in people’s health and hygiene. To make this story even better, she is talking to parents of girls to explain that arranged child marriages are not always in the best interest of these young ladies and staying in school will improve the lives of these girls. Health care in America has done amazing things for their citizens but still has a long way to go. I don’t want to imagine that when I become older, I only have a 52% chance of receiving the recommended proper care to treat something as important as heart disease. Along with the government regulated Medicare, and improper care for the millions of senior citizens in the United States, I can only hope that it gets better and fast to help these people. With the (2) factors that show that today’s senior citizens need our help more know that decades earlier, it should be our duty and privilege to help them. Going to your local Senior living facility and seeing the many, who have no spouses still living, or no family to talk to, they are forced to go through their later part of life, not really communicating with others.

Language Frustration Essay -- Essays Papers

Language Frustration The article titled â€Å"Language Use in Family and in Society† written by Lee Thomas and Linh Cao, is about how language can affect a single family in a terrible way. Thomas teaches linguistics at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Cao is an English teacher at Sparks High School located in Sparks, Nevada. Cao has much background information on the topic because she herself is part of the family discussed in this essay. Their concern with a language barrier is that it leads to confusion and frustration within the family. They give examples of families becoming more distant due to miscommunication and their sense of loss. Imagine trying to speak with your mother and only understanding half of what she says. Sure you would get the idea, but what if you needed to respond with emotions and feelings that weren’t understood? This article gives you a better sense of acceptance to the many dialects in the world today. Rhetorical appeals called Pathos an d Ethos were used in order to convince the readers that communication is an important part of a family. By using a problem / solution argument, this article presents a problem and suggests a solution. Authors Lee Thomas and Linh Cao write this essay to inform people of the struggles multicultural or bilingual families face when communicating. It does so by stating specific examples from personal experiences and effects it has on families. The intended audience, to which this appeals, is mainly the people of the United States. However, a broader appeal is to people from around the world, who suffer from or understand the situation faced by the family in the story. This was not written to change a person’s mind or influence ... ...er’s dialect and societal influences. As this article informs, it is essential that people begin learning the importance of language. It gives examples of how and why private languages are not effective in society and the problems it may cause. By understanding and observing one family, this story depicts how lack of interest or inability to speak another language can result in family discomfort and individual isolation. The family described is only one of many currently facing these problems. It is difficult to manage a family without respectable communication and makes a person feel secluded not only from society, but their family as well. Through dedication and perseverance a solution for better communication will come within families and in the community. This would decrease the anger and frustration found in today’s multilingual families.

Communicable Disease Paper Essay

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). It attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease. Acute HBV is less than six months and ones immune system is able to fight and clear the infection. Chronic HBV lasts longer than six months and ones immune system is unable to fight the infection leading to liver failure, cancer or cirrhosis. Occasionally chronic HBV can go undetected for years due to a person being asymptomatic (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Mode of Transmission In highly infected areas of the world, HBV is most commonly spread from mom to baby at birth or from person to person in early childhood (World Health Organization [WHO], 2013). The HBV is also spread via parenteral contact with infected blood or blood products, sharing of or accidental needle sticks and having unprotected sex with one who’s blood, saliva, semen or vaginal secretions are infected and enter your body (Copstead and Banasik, 2010). Signs and Symptoms Signs and symptoms of HBV may never appear or appear over a two to six month period. Signs and symptoms include abdominal pain, dark urine, fever, joint pain, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, weakness and fatigue and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and or sclera) (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Complications Having chronic HBV can lead to serious life threatening complications such as, cirrhosis, liver cancer, failure, hepatitis D infection or kidney failure. Liver cirrhosis occurs when HBV has caused inflammation to liver leading to scaring and formation of fibrotic cell tissue that blocks hepatic blood flow and cell function. This in turn results in overgrowth of new cells attempting to regenerate causing decreased liver function Liver cancer and failure can occur if a patient has cirrhosis due to being a risk factor (Copstead and Banasik, 2010). Treatment Treatment of HBV is supportive. Care focuses on nutrition, hydration and comfort (WHO, 2013). For those who have been infected with acute HBV, may not even need treatment but only management of symptoms. Those infected with chronic HBV may need more invasive treatments such as, antiviral medications or need a liver transplant (Mayo Clinic, 2011). Antiviral medications are used to slow and fight the virus from destructing the liver. Liver transplants are an option if a patient has end-stage liver disease where traditional treatments have not worked and are a qualified candidate (Copstead and Banasik, 2010). Demogrphics Approximately 60,000 people die every year from HBV (WHO, 2013). There are about 200 billion people living around the world with HBV with an estimated 1. 2 million living in the United States (CDC, 2013). In 2011 the United States was estimated to have 18,800 actual new cases of the HBV (CDC, 2013). Those who are at greatest risk for developing HBV are Asian and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, gay and bisexual individuals, those who have multiple sex partners and do not practice safe sex or are intravenous drug users. Gay and bisexual men make up 20% of new HBV cases and 50% Asian and Pacific Islanders are living with HBV (CDC, 2013). Most Asian and Pacific Islanders were infected with HBV as infants or children and 1 in 12 are living with it and are not even aware. Determinants of Health Environmental factors such as living conditions, social networks and social support systems are all key drivers for one becoming infected with the HBV. For example, a homeless person who has a poor health status, is uninsured, unemployed and has a lack of education is more likely to be diagnosed with HBV. Also certain races are more likely to be infected with the HBV, as stated above, Asian and Pacific Islanders make up 50% of the population living with HBV (CDC, 2013). In addition there is a lack of resources available to protect, improve and maintain one health due to the cost and lack of good health services to individuals with low socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, focus needs to be made on improving access to care as well as treating the environmental and social factors of health. Epidemiologic Triangle The epidemiologic triangle is used to analyze the natural history of a disease. It asses the agent â€Å"what†, host â€Å"who† and environment â€Å"where† (Maurer and Smith, 2013). The biological agent for hepatitis B is a virus. The host’s demographics can range from infancy into adulthood and any race is susceptible to the virus. The body’s defenses are more likely to fight off acute than chronic HBV. A person’s behavior as well plays a large role in one becoming infected. Those who are intravenous drug users or have a history of multiple sex partners are my susceptible to developing HBV. Environmental factors based on social and economic considerations could be direct person-to-person contact of bodily fluids via kissing or sexual intercourse or receiving contaminated blood products from infected individuals. Within the workplace, an individual could accidently prick himself or herself with a contaminated needle increasing their chances of becoming infected. Role of Community Health Nurse It is important for the community health nurse to educate and promote prevention of HBV. Teaching risk reduction interventions and strategies such as not having unprotected sex and using condoms can help prevent transmission of hepatitis B. For those who have already become infected with the HBV it’s important to provide timely referrals for sexual health related services to further prevent others from becoming infected. Making the hepatitis vaccinations more accessible and available is an effective way to prevent hepatitis B. Educating health and human service providers about hepatitis B promotes quality of care and awareness as well as reduces chances of transmission. Ensuring adequate resources are available (state and local surveillance) to accurately monitor disease trends, transmission and how effective treatment is can improve and ensure correct data collection. It’s also important that the nurse refers patients to accessible care and treatment facilities so that compliance can be obtained and the rate of transmission, morbidity and mortality can be reduced. National Organization The World Hepatitis Alliance is a non-profit international umbrella non-governmental organization that represents every region of the world with viral hepatitis. They raise awareness, reduce the stigma associated with viral hepatitis, work with the WHO and provide preventive care as well as support and access to treatment. Their goal is eradication of HBV and HCV. They plan on achieving this goal by having more countries with a complete hepatitis strategy in place, regional patient organizations in all WHO regions, on going support for global hepatitis groups, acceptance at a global level of HBV and HCV, increased alliance and a more diversified funding base for the alliance. Conclusion There are two billion people worldwide that are infected with HBV and more than 350 million are infected with chronic liver infections, which increases their risk of death significantly (Maurer and Smith, 2013). Fortunately, there is a vaccine for hepatitis B but it has not become easily accessible to those in developing countries. This is a virus that can be prevented if individuals are being educating on the causes and risks as well as ways to protect themselves. It is up to us healthcare providers to spread awareness and makes our patients more knowledgeable about the types of communicable disease in our world so that they can make healthy choices.

How Velociraptor Was Discovered

Of all the dinosaurs that have been discovered over the last 200 years, Velociraptor comes closest to the romantic ideal of rugged paleontologists trekking across dangerous, windswept terrain in search of ancient fossils. Ironically, though, this dinosaur was nowhere near as smart and vicious as it has subsequently been depicted in movies, the main culprit being Jurassic Parks pack-hunting, quick-thinking, doorknob-turning Velociraptors (which were actually played by individuals of the closely related raptor genus Deinonychus, and even then not all that accurately). The Velociraptors of the Gobi Desert In the early 1920s, Mongolia (located in central Asia) was one of the most remote places on the face of the earth, inaccessible by train, plane, or pretty much anything else except a well-stocked caravan of well-oiled automobiles and sturdy horses. That is exactly what New Yorks American Museum of Natural History dispatched to outer Mongolia, by way of western China, in a series of fossil-hunting expeditions led by the famous paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Although Andrews personally discovered and named many Mongolian dinosaurs in the early 1920s—including Oviraptor and Protoceratops—the honor of unearthing Velociraptor went to one of his associates, Peter Kaisen, who stumbled upon a crushed skull and toe claw at a dig site in the Gobi Desert. Unfortunately for Kaisen, the honor of naming Velociraptor didnt go to him, or even to Andrews, but to Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of the American Museum of Natural History (who, after all, wrote all the checks). Osborn referred to this dinosaur as Ovoraptor in a popular magazine article; fortunately for generations of schoolkids (can you imagine having to distinguish between Ovoraptor and Oviraptor?) he settled on Velociraptor mongoliensis (speedy thief from Mongolia) for his scientific paper. Velociraptor Behind the Iron Curtain It was difficult enough to send an American expedition to the Gobi Desert in the early 1920s; that became a political impossibility only a few years later, as the Mongolian government was toppled by a Communist revolution and the Soviet Union exerted its hegemony over Mongolian science. (The Peoples Republic of China didnt come into existence until 1949, giving the USSR a crucial head start in a Mongolian nation that, today, is dominated by China rather than Russia.) The upshot was that, for over 50 years, the American Museum of Natural History was excluded from any further Velociraptor-hunting expeditions. After World War II, Mongolian scientists, aided by colleagues from the USSR and Poland, returned repeatedly to the Flaming Cliffs fossil site where the original Velociraptor specimens had been unearthed. The most famous discovery—of a near-complete Velociraptor caught in the act of grappling with an equally well-preserved Protoceratops—was announced in 1971. In the late 1980s, following the crumbling of the Soviet Union and its satellites, western scientists were again able to travel in Mongolia. This was when a joint Chinese and Canadian team discovered Velociraptor specimens in northern China, and a joint Mongolian and American team unearthed additional Velociraptors at the Flaming Cliffs site. (One of the specimens discovered on this latter expedition was informally named Ichabodcraniosaurus, after Nathaniel Hawthornes headless horseman because it was missing its skull.) Later, in 2007, paleontologists discovered a Velociraptor forearm bearing the unmistakable imprint of quills—the first definite proof that (as had long been suspected) Velociraptor sported feathers rather than reptilian scales. The Feathered Theropods of Central Asia As famous as it is, Velociraptor was far from the only feathered, meat-eating dinosaur of late Cretaceous central Asia. The ground was thick with dino-birds closely related to the North American Troodon, including Saurornithoides, Linhevenator, Byronosaurus, and the wonderfully named Zanabazar; feathered dinosaurs closely related to Oviraptor, including Heyuannia, Citipati, Conchoraptor, and the (also) wonderfully named Khaan; and a vast assortment of associated raptors. Most of these dinosaurs were discovered in the late 20th century, under the auspices of a talented generation of Chinese paleontologists. What was it about the windswept Mongolian plains that favored this brand of dinosaur diversity? Clearly, conditions in late Cretaceous central Asia  favored small, skittery animals that could nimbly pursue smaller prey or speedily escape from the clutches of slightly bigger dino-birds. In fact, the profusion of central Asian feathered dinosaurs points to the most likely explanation for the evolution of flight: originally evolved for the purposes of insulation and display, feathers gave dinosaurs a certain amount of lift while they were running, and were thus increasingly favored by natural selection until one lucky reptile achieved actual lift-off!