by Kerrie Ann Caison Bagg | Nov 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
Does it ever bother you when people don’t say please and thank you? Manners are an important thing to learn and use throughout your life. Having good manners means acting in a manner that is socially acceptable and respectful to others. Developing these skills can help you to have better relationships with people you know, and the new people that you meet.
Learning and maintaining your good manners like table etiquette, greetings or cleaning up after themselves early will hold you to a high set of standards. If you want others to have nice manners, you must have them yourself. Setting rules for good etiquette in your home and then following them gives you a sense of responsibility.
Some steps to take in an effort to develop good manners would be to know the basic manners. Being polite to others is a good place to start and you can begin by holding doors open for others, saying please, and thank you when needed and just being courteous and kind.
Isn’t it nice when people hold the door open for you? Sometimes you may see a stranger that you hold the door open for and doesn’t respond with a “thank you” or even any acknowledgment. They don’t even look at you and they just walk right by you.It’s annoying when that happens, but it was just something courteous that you were doing to be kind. Don’t take it personally. Some people just are not aware.
Having good manners is the guide that keeps us in line to be polite and kind to other people. It is important to be honest, trustworthy, and kind. Using good habits on a consistent basis, like manners show that you have all the qualities of a good person. Basically, if you try and conduct yourself in your daily life with the best manners that you can, you will receive that respect from others.
References:
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids
http://www.positivelygoodproductions.com
http://www.mtstcil.org
by Ashley Marie Hodge | Nov 28, 2016 | Uncategorized
When it comes to social change, there are no shortages of areas in society that could use some modifications. How best to research and address these social issues is an interesting part of the social change process. One technique that is used in the participatory research approach which involves the researcher becoming personally immersed in the area being researched in order to gain the insider perspective (Pain & Francis, 2002). An example of such research could be the a researcher conducting an ethnographic study to address the increased rates of depression among military spouses.
As part of this study, I would conduct observational studies on a military installation as well as establish informants who are military spouses as well. As a military spouse myself, I would have access to areas where military spouses frequent and would have a large amount of people to approach when it comes to insider accounts of dealing with depression during periods of separation from their spouses. It could be a combination of an ethnographic study with social change research concepts.
Becoming part of the community is a great way to access those who are struggling with the problem you are trying to address. When you are participating in your target group, you are experiencing the social issues with them. They share their experiences with you, show aspects of the problem you may not have been completely aware of or even thought of to begin with. Participating in the target group gives a specific type of access to aspects of the social issue that might not have been available otherwise.
Source:
Pain, F., & Francis, P. (2003). Reflections on participatory research. Area, 35(1), 46-54. doi:10.1111/1475-4762.00109
by Ashley Marie Hodge | Nov 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
The question regarding lasting relationships and how to choose the best person to be with is a topic that many spend years trying to decipher. Should birds of a feather flock together or should opposites attract? Which will lead to the happily ever after? When it comes to marriage and friendships it seems that having more in common leads to more stability. It is important to understand how to maintain a healthy relationship and to establish a way to replicate this pattern over a long-term period.
In a marriage, obviously the two people are not going to agree on everything and are not going to have identical interests. Despite this though, research shows that being similar to your spouse is related to higher levels of marital success than those who opted for a spouse opposite of themselves and that we gravitate towards potential mates who are similar to ourselves as well (Simonsohn, 2011). Marriage requires two people to spend their lives together and over the course of that time, major decisions must be made regarding that life they have built. This could include the number of children they want, where they want to live, how they will raise their children, financial decisions, etc. It makes sense that making these choices and living them out would be a lot simpler if deciding with someone who has comparable views, values, and wants.
The same holds true when choosing friends and continuing the friendship throughout the years. Generally, we choose friends because of things we share such as workplace or hobbies. The commonality provides a starting point where the two people can bond over the things they have in common. When two people are similar, there is a longer predicted duration for the relationship (Hafen, 2011). If years go by and one friend’s view change or they move away, now the two friends no longer share a location or no longer share a common interest. These are the cases where we see examples of friends who knew each other their whole lives but ended up drifting apart.
When it comes to establishing a relationship with some that you can maintain every day without getting too sick of the other person, the key lies in the common factors. The less that the two people differ on the less they have to argue about or disagree on. As described, marriages based on common values makes it easier to make the majors decisions together whereas opposite personalities may end up fighting nonstop over these topics. Similarly, we choose our friends based on something that they have that is like us. Common factors provide bonding opportunities while opposing views such as with politics for example, can result in an explosive end to a relationship.
Source:
Hafen, C. A. (2011). Homophily in stable and unstable adolescent friendships: Similarity breeds constancy. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(5), 607-612.
Simonsohn, U. (2011). Spurious? name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(1), 1-24. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/851480715?accountid=13158
by baa5252 | Nov 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
A social change that needs to come about is the cutback on the amount of littering that people do. The number one thing that people need to work on is reducing the amount of cigarette butts that are littered in the world. This is not just a problem in the United States, but a worldwide issue that people need to become aware of right away. As of right now it is the most commonly littered piece of trash (Register 2000).
It is estimated that there is close to about 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette butts being littered each year (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). One of the main reasons for this is that people are not educated about the impact of cigarette butts. Many people think that cigarette butts are actually biodegradable, which is entirely untrue. Also, when surveyed many people reported that they did not consider dropping cigarette butts to be considered littering (“The Problems & Facts”). Even with the amount of smokers going down the littering has not gone down (“Cigarette Butt Waste”).
These butts are very dangerous and toxic to our environment. The filters of cigarette butts are made up of cellulose acetate (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes 2009). Even though when one looks at a filter it looks like it would be made out of cotton, but cellulose acetate is actually a kind of plastic that takes a very long time to break down (Register 2000). The sun can break them down, but they will only breakup into small pieces and never fully decompose (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes 2009). The filters then end up making their way into the ocean and being digested by marine life. Just one filter when left in a liter of water leaks enough toxic chemicals to kill all the fish living in the water (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). That was just one filter can you imagine what all the filters are doing to our oceans?
Also, they are not only toxic for the environment, but also toxic for people. As many of us know, children love to put anything and everything in their mouths. So, what happens when you or someone you know takes their child to playground that has cigarette butts lying around? Of course one is bound to end up in a child’s mouth. In 1997 in Rhode Island, there were over 146 cases reported to the Department of Health of butts being ingested by children under the age of six causing signs of nicotine toxicity in about a third of them (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes 2009). They are enough to cause the children to experience vomiting, nausea, lethargy, gagging, and flushing (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). Even though we do not know how many is needed to be ingested to cause adverse health issues do we really want to find out (Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, Barnes 2009).
There are a couple of things that we can do to bring about this social change. For off we need to provide more ash receptacles, which has been shown that every addition of one reduces littering of cigarette butts by nine percent (“The Problem & Facts”). So, by putting up more places for people to dispose of their butts we can start reduces the litter. Also, making beach smoke free is said to reduce the number of butts found on the beach by forty-five percent (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). Lastly, informing the property owners about the impact that any kind of litter can have on their property values should push them to want to keep their communities clean (“Cigarette Butt Waste”). It is said that any presence of litter can reduce the property value for an around by a little over seven percent (“The Problems & Facts”). Just doing these three things we should see a difference in the amount of buts being littered.
Everyone talks about wanting a clean and healthy environment for their families, but they do not even realize that they might be taking away from it. Littering is a huge problem throughout the world. If we could get people to just start picking up their cigarette butts we could see a real improvement. Nobody realizes the impact of smoking has on people once the cigarette is smoke. Not only does it hurt people around the smoker when they are smoke, but it also hurts the environment once it flicked out of the car, onto the grass, or anywhere else that is not a trashcan. So, please if you know people who carelessly flick their cigarette butts wherever tell them the impact that they are causing for the rest of us.
Reference:
Cigarette Butt Waste. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://no-smoke.org/learnmore.php?id=731
Novotny, T. E., Lum, K., Smith, E., Wang, V., & Barnes, R. (2009). Cigarettes Butts and the Case for an Environmental Policy on Hazardous Cigarette Waste. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 6(5), 1691-1705. doi:10.3390/ijerph6051691
Register, K. M. (2000, August). Cigarette Butts as Litter—Toxic as Well as Ugly. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/ciglitterarticle.htm
The Problem & Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2016, from https://www.kab.org/cigarette-litter-prevention/problem-and-facts
by In Gyeong Yoon | Nov 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
Violence is a learned behavior
There is a strong connection between the use of violence and exposure to violence by young adolescents and children. Violence is a learned behavior according to a new study published by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in 2000. According to Robert H. Durant, vice chair of paediatrics at Wake Forest University School of medicine, he stated that adolescents are not likely to engage in violence if social learning from exposure to violence does not occur.
Children and adolescents are very much exposed to violence and carrying weapons. There are several ways that children learn violent behaviors. For instance, family, peer groups, community, and their neighborhoods can be ways where children can get exposed. Moreover, what children and adolescents see on television, music video, video games and movies can reinforce negative behaviors of children.
The researchers asked 722 Georgia middle school students, 11 and 12 years olds living in or around public housing, how many times they had been exposed to or a victim of violence in their communities. In this experiment, DuRant defined that violence can be categorized in five different types; participating in a physical fight which resulted in seeking medical attention, attacking someone with a weapon, using a weapon to force or get money or things from someone, carrying a concealed firearm, and carrying another weapon such as a razor or knife. It is not surprising that they behave aggressively or violent to others when they are physically or sexually abused.
Every child that sees violence at home, in school, or watches violent movies too much or plays too much video games. Violence can come from many different sources. Violence is all around us. If we are not careful out adolescents and children, they will be probably and potentially violent criminals. It is our responsibility as parents to provide the best future for our kids.
References
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. (2000, November 9). Violence Is A Learned Behavior, Say Researchers At Wake Forest University. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 27, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001106061128.htm
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