31. July 2010 by student.

                  This blog is about eating orders ,a growing epidemic esp. under young women. Eating disorders are: Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa, and Obesity . Eating disorders are self-destructive behaviors and can lead to serious health problems and death. People who suffer from eating disorders feel inadequate ,imperfect ,and have anxieties about how other people perceive them. According the mental health statistics, 8 million Americans suffer from eating disorders ,7 million woman and 1 million men. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. People suffering from eating disorders think they can gain approval ,or get better accepted when they are in control of their eating habits.the sociology of the body has become deeply affected by society and the way we view our self. Decades of social and cultural pressures , esp. for women, to live up to “ thin standards “, associated with physical attracteness  , and the current diet industy , all conributed to eating disorders.From early on, society teaches children that looks matter.Now, with children watching more and more T.V. , they receive a superficial sense of what they supposed to look like. Thin women and pumped up men are portrayed as the successful, popular ,sexy and powerful ones. T.V. tells us to loose weight and to be thin ,and  as a result  of those looks  to be beautiful.

         W e shape our social values, behaviors,tastes, and preferences based on what we see in the media.T herefore, we judge people on the basis of their physical appearance ,rather than on the basis of their individual qualities. The body images actors portray on T.V., are not the norm to the average individual.In magazines, super models continue to become thinner and thinner for many suffer from Anorexia. In addition, many models  had plastic surgery and are often taped- up for a photo shoot. Biological,familial,social, and cultural factors play also a part in the development of eating disorders. Family communication patterns and attitudes towards food and fat also play a large role in the development of eating disorders.Lately, a increased amount of boys also have become victims of the disorders.95% of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.

              Anorexia Nervosa also called” selfstarvation”and is an intense fear of gaining weight and getting”fat” even though the person might be under weight. People that are affected by anorexia refuse to maintain their body weight,and put severe limitations on themselves regarding their food intake. People with anorexia have a so called” distorted body image”. This means that they see them self fat even though they are emaciated. There is a disturbance in the way the body size and shape is perceived. The person deliberately refuses food , and  can  not stop this behavior even when rewarded, or being punished. In the U.S. 1 in 200 women suffer from anorexia,and 5-10% die within 10 years. Above that, 18- 20% anorexics die after 20 years. 30-40% will never fully recover, and 20% will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorders. Many (female) anorexia sufferers have irregular menstrual periods , or no periods at all. They are at risk for heart faillure ,depression,and suicide. They also may engage in repetive and perfectionist behavior. Early signs of anorexia are; sectet dieting dissatisfaction after losing weight,and setting new and lower weight goals. Young people that suffer from anorexia are usually good students , but are often withdrawn or depressed. Anorexia is in part a reaction to social pressures to be slender ,but this is not the only factor involved. It is statistical proven that 50% of girls between the ages of 11 and 13 see them selves as overweight .In addition,  80% of 13 year olds already try to loose weight.

             Bulimia Nervosa sufferers are overwhelm with shame and have low self-contempt ,low self esteem,and often show signs of depression. those that are affected ,are usually not over weight but are obsesssed with their weight and shape. Bullimia sufferers have re-ocurring episodes of “binge” eating (rapic consumption of large amounts of food in short periods of time). During the bing eating, bulimics take in food  high in calories ,and they do this usually twice a week. The big eating is followed by “purcing”(self induced vomitting),exessive use of laxatives,diuretics,srict dieting, fasting,and vigerous exercise.Statics show that 2or 3 out of 100 American women are bulimic,and that 10-15%  of people with bulimia are male.

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31. July 2010 by student.

The act of cutting down and burning trees is more commonly known to be a human activity than a natural cause.It is less likely that lightning will cause various bush/forest fires and broken trees as compared to humans.Yes natural factors such as lightning,storms cause big damage to our vegetation and wildlife but not to the extent man does it.Human activities such as mining,agriculture,settlement and building of infrastructure all have been the cause of defforestation worldwide lately.Amazon rainforests have one of the worst scenarios of defforestation in the whole world.They used to cover 14% of the earth’s land surface but now they cover 6% and it is estimated that the remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.Nearly half of the world’s species of plants,animals and micro-organisms willbe wiped out of existance due to defforestation .Worse still experts say that one and one half acres of rainforests are lost every second thereby making it 137 plants,animals and insect species every single day.We all know that defforestation is disastrous to our environment not only because it causes desertification but we should also put it into mind that the trees and vegetation we destroy have numerous purposes such as provision of medicine and herbs that can cure human diseases.If man continues to cut down trees,there won’t be adequate cures for man’s diseases.The “lungs of our planet”as the amazon is known provide a great service in recycling carbondioxide to oxygen.More than 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the amazon rainforests.The U.S . National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are aceive against cancer cells,70% of which are found in rainforests like the amazon.In otherwords,man is bound to be responsible for wildlife extinction if it is to occur in the coming years or decades like the dinosaurs were wiped out of existance. 

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31. July 2010 by student.

Unfortunately for many, home can be anything but a safe place. Men and women similarly may find their home a fierce battleground. For children it may be where they are most vulnerable to be assulted, misused, or deprived, at the very hands of those who’s duty it is to protect and nourish them. Even elderly people may have a reason to fear those who should be their caretakers. We (humans) are social beings: all of our needs are dependent in some way on relationships, especially with those who nurture us from birth. The human brain develops in a way that our stress-response systems are intimately connected to systems that interpret the moods and actions of those around us. When social cues tell us others are calm and safe to be around, our own physiological state is regulated to act accordingly and we relax. On the other hand when we sense those negative threats or emotions, we respond by going on alert.

A stressed state cannot be maintained indefinately without serious mental and physical consequences. Repeated periods of so called “hyper arousal” can cause changes in the neural system that is difficult to reverse. Therefore any human being would feel compelled to abuse and distress another, but it is difficult to understand such inhumanity when it occurs among those who share similar needs, goals, and values within the most radical group in society, the family.

Unfortunately family violence is not at all uncommen, possibly because of the fact that families spend so much time together and have so many emotional ties. But for these same reasons, and because our family impacts our potential as a human beings, family violence may be the most harmful form of violence humans can encounter.

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31. July 2010 by student.

The world has been industrialized for such a long time now that is from the 18th century .Before the industrialized era,the whole world was an agricultural economy.Some countries especially those in europe changed to an industrialized economy leaving most countries in the “old fashioned economy”.Due to this transformation,these socities experienced social change as well as economic change.It was this change that forced people to adapt to new means of survival.Instead of only depending on the yields from their agricultural products,they now depended on various means of survival as they aquired new skills from their new jobs.They nolonger used their agricultural products for food alone but manufactured other basic products such as peanut butter from groundnuts(peanuts).This change happened in transition as we saw the need for more skilled labour.People started getting educated on how to operate the new machines.All this boosted production and there was a remarkable improvement and development in the economy.However,it seems like the economy today is stagnant and we could be in a change to a more different kind of  economy.We are going to go through another transition probably for another one or two centuries.

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30. July 2010 by student.

Every culture is different, and that goes for their believe system also. Family, religion, politics, education, and medicine are all of the factors that influence beliefs in different cultures. For Jews they believe that when a boy turns thirteen, that’s when they become an adult. In some Latin American societies at the age of fifteen the girls have a quinceanera which is a party that represents the girl coming of age. The quinceanera is comparable to the sweet sixteen celebrations that we have here in the United States. The coming of age culture celebrations for other cultures is different because they either have a celebration for a boy or girl. Each culture has a different mindset on what they think the age of entering adulthood is. For every culture there are a religion, and each religion have their own gods that they believe in, and they also have rules and a way of life that they must stand by.

Rules by which we regulate our behavior are called norms. Norms, depending on how we are raised, are what we think is appropriate or acceptable in our society. They are also laws that aren’t written down on paper sort of like common sense that one’s culture must know. There are certain topics in our culture that we should not mention or bring up, they are called taboos. Ridicule, shunning, confinement, and exile are what are used to enforce norms.

Value is something that is very important to culture. At least every culture should have a value on what is good and what is bad, and sometimes even what is okay and acceptable. Also on what is beautiful and ugly to them.  Certain cultures it’s beautiful for women to be covered up all the way, and they value that. In the United States we value the total opposite. In China women consider having small feet as being beautiful. Being overweight is considered ugly in America.

Today in technology we are kept to date with everything that is going around us. Technology influences us by helping us stay in tune with the world. It makes us want to learn more about our world today. We want to use technology for a good purpose but not to abuse its powers. We influence technology by using our knowledge to help make them better for us to use.

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29. July 2010 by student.

Every television program is sponsored in part by someone. Commercials, commercials, commercials, I have moved my television out! Kind of like they did at the end of Poltergeist. Five minutes of program, with five minutes of commercials. Lets take the end of the world as a possible example, Attention! This is the End Of The World! Now a word from our sponsor.  The end of the world will still be swelling with commercails, people will actually try to capatilize on it. Be it a plague, complete economic collapse, or an eminent asteroid collision. T-shirts, bumper stickers, news reports, TV shows, bomb shelters,  and stores selling products in gross for these shelters. We have a 35 year supply of Dinty Moore beef stew family size cans for-? People will not be buying anything when the end of the world comes “Looting” is what will be going on, anarchy, and chaos are going to reign!

This is the sickness of Capatalism. They will sell false hope wrapped in a nice pretty bow, when its the end of the world, and the End of the world means just that “The End”! Value has been put on inadament 0bjects, televisions, stereos, cell phones, computers, video games, etc… I think there are people out there that are dumb enough to purchase that false hope. Actualy what do they have to lose? But if they can’t afford it, then of course the banks will still offer to help, with it’s same sleezy ways. Giving people loans with  high interest when it’s the end of the world.  Capatlism is like a the atomitron robot in old sci-fi movies, it will continue to complete it’s programming until the plug is pulled. “No Matter What”. 

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29. July 2010 by student.

When I was about 17, I was working at a CVS. I happened to be stocking some of the first aisles near the entrance, when a man came in with his young kid. Upon noticing me, the man told his son, “See, that man works here. If you touch anything in this store, he is going to kill you.” About a month ago, I was picking up my books at the Edison Bookstore for my summer classes. It was pretty quite inside. A lady had her two very young children with her and she was trying to keep them from running around too much; but kids are just kids. She had little patience when she came in so it quickly wore away and the yelling began. It wasn’t the volume of her voice raised concerns, it was the words she chose. While I was standing in the checkout line, I heard her yell, “If you two don’t come here right now, I am throwing this goddamn bottle and I don’t care which one of you hit.”

Both instances left me wondering the psychological effect this has on the children as they grow up. I started researching forms of child abuse and what I found is that this is what is referred to as psychological abuse, and it actually is a form of child abuse. I feel that society does not address this issue and that it does not get the attention that it so desperately needs. I believe that one reason for this is the lack of education regarding it. When someone hears “child abuse,” the mind goes directly to something physical. Yet, the damages of psychological abuse are, in the long-run, more severe.

The true prevalence of psychological maltreatment is unknown. When it occurs exclusively, it may have more adverse impact on the child and on later adult psychological functioning than the psychological consequences of physical abuse, especially with respect to such measures as depression and self-esteem(1), aggression, delinquency, or interpersonal problems.(2)

Psychological maltreatment of children occurs when a person conveys to a child that he or she is worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting another’s needs.(3)

Since many parents are not educated about psychological abuse, they certainly do not know what the effect and consequences are. Here is what has been determined to be forms of psychological maltreatment according to the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children:
1. Spurning (belittling, degrading, shaming, or ridiculing a child; singling out a child to criticize or punish; and humiliating a child in public).
2. Terrorizing (committing life-threatening acts; making a child feel unsafe; setting unrealistic expectations with threat of loss, harm, or danger if they are not met; and threatening or perpetrating violence against a child or child’s loved ones or objects).
3. Exploiting or corrupting that encourages a child to develop inappropriate behaviors (modeling, permitting, or encouraging antisocial or developmentally inappropriate behavior; encouraging or coercing abandonment of developmentally appropriate autonomy; restricting or interfering with cognitive development).
4. Denying emotional responsiveness (ignoring a child or failing to express affection, caring, and love for a child).
5. Rejecting (avoiding or pushing away).
6. Isolating (confining, placing unreasonable limitations on freedom of movement or social interactions).
7. Unreliable or inconsistent parenting (contradictory and ambivalent demands).
8. Neglecting mental health, medical, and educational needs (ignoring, preventing, or failing to provide treatments or services for emotional, behavioral, physical, or educational needs or problems).
9. Witnessing intimate partner violence (domestic violence).

A chronic pattern of psychological maltreatment destroys a child’s sense of self and personal safety. This leads to adverse effects on the following:(3)
1. Intrapersonal thoughts, including feelings (and related behaviors) of low self-esteem, negative emotional or life view, anxiety symptoms, depression, and suicide or suicidal thoughts.
2. Emotional health, including emotional instability, borderline personality, emotional unresponsiveness, impulse control problems, anger, physical self-abuse, eating disorders, and substance abuse.
3. Social skills, including antisocial behaviors, attachment problems, low social competency, low sympathy and empathy for others, self-isolation, noncompliance, sexual maladjustment, dependency, aggression or violence, and delinquency or criminality.
4. Learning, including low academic achievement, learning impairments, and impaired moral reasoning.
5. Physical health, including failure to thrive, somatic complaints, poor adult health, and high mortality.

Similar patterns can be seen in children who are exposed to intimate partner violence. Exposure to domestic violence by terrorizing, exploiting, and corrupting children increases childhood depression, anxiety, aggression, and disobedience in children.(4)

I have found that parents are more likely to psychologically abuse their children once they come to the realization that psychological aggression (ie, parental controlling or correcting behavior that causes the child to experience psychological pain) is more pervasive than spanking.(2)

In both cases, neither I nor any bystander said a single word. I believe it is about time that we do, even if not for any reason but to educate. It may ‘take a whole village to raise a child’ after all. or at least the parents.

Sources:
(1) Claussen AH, Crittenden PM. Physical and psychological maltreatment: relations among types of maltreatment. Child Abuse Negl.1991; 15 :5 –18

(2) Vissing YM, Straus MA, Gelles RJ, Harrop JW. Verbal aggression by parents and psychosocial problems of children. Child Abuse Negl.1991; 5 :223 –238

(3) Hart SN, Binggeli NJ, Brassard MR. Evidence for the effects of psychological maltreatment. J Emot Abuse.1998; 1 :27 –58

(4) Hughes HM, Graham-Bermann SA. Children of battered women: impact of emotional abuse on adjustment and development. J Emot Abuse.1998; 1 :23-50

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29. July 2010 by student.

Technology causes a great myriad of things in society. Technology can determine your status in society, it may cause division amongst groups, and it can even make someone lazy which may cause obesity or/and lack of intelligence. Technology today is far more advanced than it was in the past. The advancement in technology also varies in different cultures. For example, in Haiti it is less common to find students using a calculator for math as oppose to America who depends on calculators heavily throughout someone’s lifetime. Using a calculator is getting to the point where it basically does everything for you and all you have to do is just plug equations in and it solves it. With that, we as a whole become more dependent on technology rather than using natural intelligence.

In many cases, the advancement of technology is greater than others because of finances. In wealthier countries one may find the use of technology beyond great. In the less fortunate countries it is a different case. Does this cause a restriction on one’s ability to use their intelligence? I believe so. If I can solve the same problem, in less time, without putting much thought into it why wouldn’t I? This is one of the key factors to laziness.

In America, obesity is not really welcomed. If one is overweight or obese they tend to get picked on or have low self esteem. Instead of walking to go change the television channel, they use remotes. Instead of walking up the stairs, someone would take the elevator. If all these technologies were not developed would it reduce the high percentage of obesity and overweight in this world? And with that would that reduce the low self esteem rate and reduce the percentage of suicide among teenagers who are depressed due to lack of confidence with self image? I believe so. Amongst various groups of people someone can tell whose wealthier and whose not, well at least in the media’s eyes. If someone has a Metro PCS phone rather than an IPod 4 they are more likely to fall into the middle class or high class category just because of their phone! Now this causes stereotyping on all levels. Technology also causes barriers among groups of people. People would rather communicate through the “cyber world” rather than face to face.

Although technology has its bad we have also benefited from it. Technology helps us stay connected with people from all over the world. It also helps us know what is going on with other countries. Technology allows  you to meet new people and network, such as Internet social sites. If someone is ever in need they can easily contact someone with just a click of a button. It is up to the individual whether they will let technology make them or break them.

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29. July 2010 by student.

Every culture has its own values, rules, and beliefs. What may be accepted in one’s culture may not be accepted in another. Usually, you can tell a lot about someone’s culture just by how someone may carry themselves. In the African American society, you find a lot of heavy jewelry wearing, less clothing, and they may seem materialistic. But for them it can be the way of expressing themselves. When people look at other cultures they may find things others consider normal, abnormal. Some cultures believe small feet are accepted so they wear shoes smaller than what they normally wear. In other cultures, such as Haitians, they tend to be fully clothed with their heads tied. This to them shows respect for one’s self. or as they say “No one needs to see your goods”.

Although many do not agree with this rule or way of thinking, because of their respect for their culture they tolerate it and accept it. Every culture is different some cultures take their rules, values, and beliefs seriously and some overlook it. A lot of times, people tend to say it is because the parents did not instill these values or morals in their children but what many fail to realize is that it can just be the different time and places they were raised in. For example, one’s parents can be raised in Haiti and because of the difference in living style it forms a barrier between the child and the parents. The child may focus more on materialistic things but for the parents it is more of handling things on their own. Children of today rely more on technology. Back in the days, parents would walk everywhere they need to go but children today would use public transportation or they have their own cars.

Values I believe in every culture are different but weigh the same. In any culture they emphasize the importance of value because that made them who they are. In some cultures, such as Africa, they love the Afrocentric look such as the all natural look, but in America we like the straight hair because many believe that it makes them look more fortunate or more beautiful. Although values and morals today are not as heavily emphasized today, it still exists.

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28. July 2010 by Mr. Andoscia.

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