Psychology Perspectives: Columbine Massacre

Perspectives of Psychology: Understanding the Columbine Massacre In Psychology, there are perspectives and approaches that are looked into when trying to understand how the intricate human mind works. These perspectives are respectfully derived from different ideas and time periods, exemplifying different ways of thinking. These perspectives include: sociocultural, biopsychological, psychodynamic, behaviorism, cognitive, and humanism. These approaches are critically essential in solving something as serious as murder, or simply even why someone acts the way they do.There are many instances where there will be shocking news stories about people committing murders—people that are so unexpected to do such harm. However, when the six perspectives are properly enforced, we can infer and comprehend the situation and reasoning. These handy tactics and knowledge help us understand the underlying core reasons for even the most bizarre and deadliest cases such as the Columbine High Scho ol Massacre. This massacre is the world’s deadliest high school shooting that was embarked by two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.The pair initially intended to kill thousands of students, however the bomb did not go off as planned. Unfortunately, the malicious killers managed to kill twelve students, one teacher, and greatly injured 21 helpless students. Not only did they engage in such acts, but once they were satisfied with their spree, they committed suicide. This tragic event was greatly televised as it forced schools around the country to enforce strict laws of security.The unbelievable acts of Eric and Dylan left everyone with many questions as to why these seemingly normal students would take the lives of so many, and also themselves. However, we begin to understand how deceiving looks can be as we deeply examine past the superficial surface of these two killers. A modern perspective in psychology is the sociocultural perspective, which accordingly comb ines two fields of study: social psychology, which is the study of social roles, actions, relationships; and cultural psychology, which is the study of cultural norms, values, and expectations.These are closely tied due to the fact that they are both about the effect that people have on one another, either individually or in a larger group as a broad culture (Peplau&Taylor, 1997). In short, First of all, sociocultural is a modern approach where culture, race, genders, and backgrounds are studied closely to better understand behavior. This sociocultural perspective is evident in this case, because according to psychologists, Kimmel and Mahler, the two shooters were white males who did not project the male gender roles other students possessed.According to USA Today, the shooters, Harris and Klebold, were seen as outcasts due to their unusual behavior and inability to conform to society. Harris and Klebold allegedly created a website on how to commit crimes varying from theft to somet hing as dangerous as bomb explosions. Both Kleboid and Harris were victims of bullying. I am driven to believe their unacceptance to society and perhaps their culture, enticed them to go on a killing spree. Also, I believe the violent messages sent by heavy metal music, violent televised movies and shows, and other subcultures also served as a factor for the massacre.More often than not, psychologists ponder on whether chemical imbalances can really affect the way a person acts and thinks, and how it can affect their lifestyle. This perspective is known as the biopsychological perspective. This perspective is also fairly modern, as it focuses on influences of hormones, brain sructures and chemicals, and diesaease. This being said, this approach is strictly thought that human and animal behavior is seen as a result from events going on inside the body (Ciccarelli, 2012). According to journalist, Dave Cullen of the New York Times, Dylan Kleboid was diagnosed with depression.The biolog ical approach can be well implied in this situation because as stated earlier, his chemical imbalances acted as a hindrance in his life, creating more reason and desire to kill others, and also kill himself. The next theory is categorized as a less-modern perspective as it goes all the way back to the Victorian Era. This approach is based on Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychodynamic, which focuses on the role of the unconscious mind and its influence on conscious behavior, early childhood experiences, development of sense of self, and other motivations. Ciccarelli, 2012). In other words, this theory states that humans have an unconscious mind in which we repress all of our threatening urges and desires into. In effect of repressing urges, it creates nervous disorders. This approach greatly stresses the importance of early childhood experiences. I firmly believe that both boys, especially Klebold, repressed their urges and thoughts which created a dramatic lash-out. According to New York Times, Klebold had come from a very well educated family that had very high expectations for him.His childhood had been constricted to studying and since he was exposed to such lifestyle at such a young age, he grew accustomed to better his education. Kleboid showed no obvious signs of danger to his family, as he valued how he appeared to his parents. However though, he had a great drinking problem which caused major aggression. Harris, Klebold’s good friend, was greatly interested in creating bombs. His childhood was not like Klebold’s—his family was not as forceful of his studies, or close. Harris was diagnosed with depression—leading him to have suicidal thoughts.According to At the time of his death, he had unbelievable Luvox levels in his system. According to psychiatrist, Peter Breggin, these medications very likely have contributed to Harris's actions. Harris had been meticulously planning bombings but did not have the means of creating o ne. That is where his good friend and brains of the pair, Klebold, comes into play. The two boys’ lives are well exemplified and reinforced by the psychodynamic approach, as their childhood seemed to shape their lives as they grew older. The next approach is the behavioral perspective.This perspective is based on the early work of Watson and Skinner. Behaviorism concludes that the science of behavior must be directly seen and observed to be validated. This being said, we must ignore â€Å"consciousness† and focus on observable behavior. This approach is shown by the pair because both boys had been convicted of breaking into a van and stealing computers. According to Wikipedia. org, after breaking into the van, Harris blogged: â€Å"Why shouldn't we, the gods, have the right to break into a van that some mother***** left in the middle of nowhere?! This clearly shows the behavior of the boys that can be observed, not inferred. This behavior is very violent, and it is cl ear that the boys show no remorse or guilt for their wrong-doings. Another less modern approach would be the cognitive approach. This approach focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, thought processes, problem solving, language, and learning (Cicarelli, 2012). This perspective can be applied to Harris and Kleboid’s sitatuation by looking into their background and how that affects their thought processes and learning skills.As mentioned earlier, Kleboid was clearly bright. He was capable of creating bombs (although the bombings were unsuccessful) and devising a master plan. He carefully planned out the steps of what was happening. How can we be so sure? According to Time Magazine, Kleboid and Harris had been writing their step by step ways of creating a bomb. Not only so, but they clearly showed intent of killing thousands of students. I believe that this shows the boys had planned out a meticulous plan, also acknowledging the consequences, therefore decided to kill thems elves at the very end.At last, we have the Humanistic approach. This approach focuses on human potential, free will, and responsibility. This approach is sought to highlight human values and self-actualization. Humanism proposes that the deeds we do in life are not driven by childhood experiences, influences, cultural background, genetics, or chemical imbalances; but rather, it is driven by our will to be defined as a good or bad person. This perspective focuses on our underlying core values solely as individuals. This perspective can best be shown through the level of intellect the boys have.According to The Guardian, the boys have shown academic proficiency for a good part of their high school career. They were gifted in computer work, and were in charge of technical duties for school plays. With this being said, I believe the boys understood that their behavior is solely determined by their own will to be the type of person they aspire to be. Needless to say, I believe the boys w ere greatly influenced by their cultural background and society, but however, I also strongly believe Kleboid and Harris were intelligent enough to make their own decisions—engaging in good or bad behavior, reflecting their human values.Psychology is a very broad subject filled with endless questions and theories. These perspectives, however, are greatly established and used on a day-by-day basis by not only psychologists, but investigators and sociologists as well. These perspectives help to understand and widen our knowledge of humans and animals. The six perspectives are all derived from different time periods—varying from modern to not-so-modern theories and ideas. The perspectives help address problems and help widen critical thinking abilities, as well as understanding everyday behavior.

Fundamental Factors Affecting Quality Essay

The nine fundamental factors (9 M’s), which are affecting the quality of products and services, are: markets, money, management, men, motivation, materials, machines and mechanization. Modern information methods and mounting product requirements. 1. Market: Because of technology advancement, we could see many new products to satisfy customer wants. At the same time, the customer wants are also changing dynamically. So, it is the role of companies to identify needs and then meet it with existing technologies or by developing new technologies. 2. Money: The increased global competition necessitates huge outlays for new equipments and process. This should be rewarded by improved productivity. This is possible by minimizing quality costs associated with the maintenance and improvements of quality level. 3. Management: Because of the increased complex structure of business organization, the quality related responsibilities lie with persons at different levels in the organization. 4. Men: The rapid growth in technical knowledge leads to development of human resource with different specialization. This necessitates some groups like, system engineering group to integrate the idea of full specialization. 5. Motivation: If we fix the responsibility of achieving quality with each individual in the organization with proper motivation techniques, there will not be any problem in producing the designed quality products. 6. Materials: Selection of proper materials to meet the desired tolerance limit is also an important consideration. Quality attributes like, surface finish, strength, diameter etc., can be obtained by proper selection of material. 7. Machines and mechanization: In order to have quality products which will lead to higher productivity of any organization, we need to use advanced machines and mechanize various operations. 8. Modern information methods: The modern information methods help in storing and retrieving needed data for manufacturing, marketing and servicing. 9. Mounting product requirements: Product diversification to meet customers taste leads to intricacy in design, manufacturing and quality standards. Hence, companies should plan adequate system to tackle all these requirements.

Law of trusts Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Law of trusts - Case Study Example The children being the minors are not entitled to be solidly or liquidly be given any cash it should only be kept for them or invested for their behalf. Therefore Teresa is not entitled to pay them any income except invest or save it for their benefit after meeting their necessary requirements. Teresa is entitled to invest the money for the beneficiaries for as much as she can but not give them hard cash because of their age. In the law of Equity and Trust, any trustee is entitled to make decision on investment of the beneficiaries. Therefore Teresa should not give them cash as it will spoil them. Further dislike of the children by Teresa does not entitle her not to give or provide for them what should be provided. Her personal hatred towards the children should not be driven towards the fund. However if Teresa finds that her dislike to the children is affecting the trust, then she can apply to the court for requiting her post as a trustee and the court shall appoint a trustee to run the fund. Therefore, the two boys claim is justified as long as they do not solicit for the income realized from these investments to be paid to them directly. Teresa as a trustee should not also invest the money for the boys where she has interest. b) Austin's dropping out of school where he was studying Tourism studies at the University of Scunthorpe does not entitle him to be given the money to start his own business by being 200,000 as down payment of 10% on the purchase of the hotel. This is against the law of equity since all the investments done must be for the benefit of the two children. Therefore, Teresa should not give out the money to Austin simply because, he (Austin) is a minor and in any case the money is held in trust for their benefits and not his own benefit. Any investment done or any purchase of the two children him (Austin) and Morris. In reality the age of maturity i.e. 25 years. Then he can be given the said money to start his business as he requires but before that, Teresa should not be swayed or pressed to give any money to Austin as this is against the rule of equality, where all the investment on property or otherwise must be for the benefit of both children and not Austin himself. Therefore Austin mu st not be given the said money as he is a minor and the Trust is not for his own benefit, it is held on the behalf of the two children and strictly for the provision of necessaries like food, accommodation, education and thereafter any amount extra can be invested in other investments for the benefit of them (Austin and mum's). Austin mighty argues that since he has dropped out of University, his part of fees can form part of 200,000 for the purchase of the Hotel, this should not be entertained since no one had forced him out of school. He dropped out of University in his own will. He is free to go back and continue with his studies and his fees will be paid. However, if Austin has entered into agreement with the management of the Hotel to purchase the hotel, Teresa as a trustee can write a letter to the hotel and explain to them why she cannot give Austin the money to pay as part of payment in the purchase of the Hotel. This is because all the money is held

Pretend you are the Education Secretary Arne Duncan. How would you go Essay

Pretend you are the Education Secretary Arne Duncan. How would you go about tweaking the NCLB What innovations would you implem - Essay Example The No Child Left Behind Act (also referred to as NCLB for short) mandated that by 2014, 90% of all schools will be meeting or exceeding state standards. One problem that NCLB does not take into account is that learning is cumulative. Therefore, if any benchmarks are missed in the beginning, it will be harder and harder for children to keep up to the standards when they are already lagging behind in test scores. The ISAT test measures elementary school childrens’ progress, while the PSAE (the Prairie State Achievement Exam) is given to 11th graders. The PSAE is helpful because it is the test that determines what a school’s Adequate Yearly Progress is. If a school fails to make AYP for a certain number of years, the school has to improve or face restructuring—which involves firing all of the staff and starting with a completely new faculty. Also, a culture open to learning is instilled in the new staff members. Schools may not make AYP for several reasons. One rea son might be that transfer students can bring down the general scores of a school. In fact, â€Å"The recent proposal of Senator Joe Lieberman on revamping NCLB school choice provisions suggested providing a safe harbor for one year from AYP calculations for the new out-of-district student transfers.†1 Schools that do not make AYP are generally schools that have a high number of at-risk students—who, for whatever reason—come from underserved and socioeconomically underprivileged populations. In sum, No Child Left Behind needs to be drastically overhauled so that schools that are not making AYP are not penalized, but rather are being given an extension past 2014 in order to improve further. Putting a timetable on when everyone should be at an ideal level of success is setting everyone up for failure—both students and teachers. Even the best teachers in the world cannot rush success. Improving schools go hand in hand with improving student performance at th ese schools that don’t make AYP on a yearly basis. â€Å"According to one survey, sixteen to nineteen year olds in the high-risk category were almost four times as likely to be high school dropouts as those not in the high-risk category.†2 Improving schools in the United States is going to be a time-consuming and rigorous task. In order to improve schools, one of the main foci will be to attempt to raise student test scores by having them take more practice tests, encouraging them to do more independent study outside the class, and encouraging them to complete their assignments in a neat and timely manner. In schools where there are a dense population of at-risk students, it’s important to stress values and social skills as part of the hidden curriculum. That notwithstanding, another integral part of any school is its teaching staff. That having been said, the next issue to be discussed is the quality of the faculty at schools across the country. There are sever al factors which influence a student. â€Å"At the classroom level there are three main variables which accounted for the learning of the pupil: time, opportunity, and the quality of instruction. Time and opportunity†¦influence†¦the pupil’s learning [directly] whereas the quality of instruction [has an impact on] time and opportunity.†3 Obviously, what would help tremendously is if a teacher knows how to properly budget his or her time, and spend a majority of class time implementing a lesson and then having the students work. This is the main idea of what education consists of at the high school and

Evolution of Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Evolution of Revolution - Essay Example Marlon Brancho is an American screen and stage actor of the film the wild ones. He brought realism to the film industry thus becoming influential. The film Wild One starred by Marlon Brando features on real life event that occurred in 1947 during a weekend in California whereby a gang of motorcyclists converged and dominated in a small Town for two days causing trouble without confrontation (Harris 5). In addition, Easy Rider is an American road movie acted in 1969 by Peter Fonda. On the context, it depicts two bikers traveling through American southwest and south to New Orleans to attend a Mardi Gras. They have an objective of achieving freedom. In their trip, Wyatt and Billy meet and took a meal together. They leave for Mexico where they bought drugs intending to sell it at the American border. They sold the cocaine to a man riding in Rolls Royce (Canby 3). In the rebel without a cause film, conflict is ensued with remarkable symbol of social unrest such as drug abuse, violence, sexual promiscuity anxiousness over the future and emotional isolation. The film depicted extends of turmoil associated with the adolescent. The film directed by Ray gave both social commentary and unlike previous films it depicted delinquents in slums at urban environment. In my opinion, the movie acted in Hollywood had common themes used that showed such families as perfect avoided. In a further aspect, the rebel without cause considered American family as not perfect. In all cases, all have their missteps. I do not concur with the existence of as completely joyful families as rebels show the tortures among parents and mostly in youths (Ebert 7). We can see a rebellious teenager, who upon enrolling in his new high school after meeting a girl, disobeys his parents and goes against the schools bullies thus portraying the king of moral decay among American youths, critique parental style. From the film, it is seen that after James dies, the rebel was released.

Effective Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Effective Advertising - Essay Example ng on the other hand refers to an advertisement that reaches the target audience specifically and succeeds in influencing them to take particular actions (Homburg, Sabine & Harley, 2009). The particular actions and the expected results of any advertising process are to influence the consumer behavior regarding increasing the sale of products or services. Political advertising as a contemporary type of advertising seeks to achieve the same results by influencing voters to appreciate either a particular candidate or an ideology. Effective advertising requires effective objectives and timelines. Some of the common objectives in advertising include positioning a new brand or product. Such a product requires dedicated advertisement that addresses particular interests of the target audience. Additionally, such an advert must explain the vital features of the product in order to explain the features elaborately including the products’ competitive advantages (Benkler, 2006). Increasing sales, creation of a brand and competitive relations are yet other primary objectives in different advertisements. The advertisers must develop appropriate messages and win particular appeals of the audience. Additionally, the objectives must influence the timing and channels of communication in order to reach a large group of the target audience. This way, the advertiser increases the chances of the messages influencing the consumer behaviors thereby achieving some of the objectives. Irrespective of the objectives of an advert, an effective advert must pursue three fundamental goals that include the presentation of information to both potential consumers and the rest of the public most of who may not be consumers, increasing the demand for the products and differentiating the product. The three are objectives that every advertiser must address when formulating an advert for a particular product. When developing an advert, an advertiser must consider the features of the product that will

Enviro Golf Tees Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Enviro Golf Tees Company - Case Study Example Golf tees are a necessity in playing golf, we all know that.   We can not just play out there without this gadget.   They are like golf balls; if there’s great demand for golf balls, so do with golf tees.   And they are also expendable.   This is the reason why the company’s objective of producing bio-degradable tees is a priority.   The product alone is beneficial to the environment.  Prices for the product should be consistent with the Enviro Golf Tees’ goals and mission.   Pricing decision should be set in accordance with organization’s objectives, costs for the manufacturing, other marketing mix variables, channel member expectations, buyers’ perceptions, competition, and the legal and regulatory issues. (Dibb et al, 1997, p. 567-568) Perceived or â€Å"real† differences in competitors’ products: Some competitive products are identical product.Price is therefore the only consideration. Marketing Mix VariablesAccording to Dibb et al (1997, p. 576), â€Å"Price is the value placed on what is exchanged. The buyer exchanges buying power – which depends on the buyer’s income, credit and wealth – for satisfaction or utility. Price is a key element in the marketing mix because it relates directly to the generation of total revenue.†Ã‚  While we depend on the price of golf tees for the generation of revenues, pricing has to consider many factors so that the company can proceed smoothly.... 5) Activities of Enviro Golf Tees in the immediate future will revolve around this concept: creation, distribution, promotion and pricing of a state-of-the art environment-friendly golf tees. Marketing a product with an objective of helping preserve the environment is the primary goal. However, the company will go through the process of regular marketing, surveying the psychology and culture of consumers and people, and making moves that will lead the company to a determined future. "Marketers must constantly assess their customers' requirements and be prepared to modify their marketing activity accordingly. An assessment of marketing opportunities is an ever evolving process requiring regular revision and up-dating." (Zairi, 1996, p. 5) Objectives and goals of Enviro Golf Tees are currently based on this. Core ingredients of our priorites Focus and thrust of the company's business will bear the "core ingredients of the various definitions that collectively indicate the basic priorities of marketing: satisfying customers Marketing of the product will be primarily based on a wholesale basis, not piece-by-piece. For as long as customers, in this case golf courses, tournament organizers, etc. - buy golf balls, golf tees will be simultaneously sold along with it. identifying/maximizing marketing opportunities This may be an easy way because marketing opportunities will always be there in the field of the countless golf courses in the country. targeting the right customers As has been said, the customers are not one or a few players of golf, but the thousands of golf courses and owners in the United States. facilitating exchange relationships Customer relationship marketing