Impact of Work Related Stress in Nurses

Impact of Work Related Stress in Nurses WORK RELATED STRESS AMONG NURSES AND ITS EFFECTS ON QUALITY CARE DELIVERY IN TAMALE TEACHING HOSPITAL BACKGROUND Stress is a concept describing the interrelationship between a person and the environment. It is the response by a person to stressors in the environment. Selyes General Adaptation Theory (Selye, 1976) described stress response as biophysiologic in nature. When the person is subjected to a stressor, a characteristic syndrome of physical reactions will occur. The stress concept can also be seen as active in a holistic view of the person. The stress response can be physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual in nature and is usually a combination of these dimensions. Stress, similarly, can arise from one or more dimensions and can be either internal or external. Stress and the negative outcomes of stress have been recognized as financially costly to any health care organization. Negative outcomes of job stress among nurses include illness, decline in overall quality of care, job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and staff turnover (Schwab, 1996). Job stress describes the stress associated with the professional or work environment. Tension is created when the demands of the job or the job environment exceed the capacity of the person to respond effectively. Job stress varies with each work environment. Job satisfaction has been shown to be closely affected by job stress. In a metaanalysis of variables related to nurses job satisfaction, Blegen (1993) identified the variables of age, autonomy, commitment, communication with peers and supervisors, education, fairness, locus of control, professionalism, recognition, stress and years of experience. Blegens analysis found stress and commitment to have the strongest relationship with job satisfaction. Irvine and Evans (1995) also found a strong negative correlation between stress and job satisfaction although not as strong as that found by Blegen. Job satisfaction has also been negatively linked to intention to leave and actual turnover (Hinshaw Atwood, 1983; Irvine Evans, 1995; Price Mueller, 1981). Although job satisfaction is a complex construct, the strong negative correlation to stress and behavioral intent to leave employment warrants the attention of nursing administrators. Attention to job satisfiers may not be sufficient to o ffset the job stress experienced by nurses thus leading to thoughts of leaving employment. ÂÂ  Freudenberger coined the term burnout in 1974 to describe workers reactions to the chronic stress common in occupations involving numerous direct interactions with people. Burnout is typically conceptualized as a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. PROBLEM STATEMENT Nurses occupy a particularly interesting position in the provision of health care. Often they are the sole intermediary between the doctor and the patient and in the front line of health services. Nursing requires a great deal of collaboration with other clinical professionals with different cultures, social backgrounds, as well as the ability to take on various roles during a single workday. These might include participation in teams, attendance during rounds and meetings, field trips, palliative work, providing counseling to patients and their families, and social services. These stressful situations obviously caused problems for nurses in their daily work. Job stress among healthcare staff is becoming a common occurrence in most public health services (Winstanley and Whittington, 2002:303). In the high demand for effectiveness and efficiency of public health service delivery, nursing staff is placed on a high responsibility to ensure the demand of public citizen is satisfied (Ritter et al., 1995:164). Nursing focuses on activities that relate to diagnosis and treatment of human responses to health and illness phenomena. However, inherent in this caring occupations are numerous sources of built-in stress that become occupational hazards for nurses (Huber, 1996:560). There are many components to this experience of stress such as staff shortages, high level of responsibility, dealing with the death and the dying, dealing with patients relatives, coping with the unpredictable, making critical judgment about interventions and treatment, and balancing between work and family commitments. These are forces that realistically generate stress am ong nurses (Gordon, 1999:285; Aurelio, 1993:1-10). The issue of insufficient nursing staff and its effects has caused many nurses experiencing job stress in carrying out their responsibility and maintaining the standards of patient care in public health services (Mackay, 1989:60-61). Furthermore, staff shortages with increasing workload raise concerns to the nurses ability to cope and deliver adequate service to the client, which in turn create a stressful environment within nursing profession (Mackay,1989:60; Huber, 1996:561). PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to determine the level of work related stress among nurses of tamale teaching hospital, its effects on their health and effects of the stress in their delivery of quality care to the patients. OBJECTIVES To determine the level of work related stress among nurses and its effect on quality care delivery in Tamale Teaching Hospital. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES To investigate the most prominent sources of job stress among nurses in Tamale Teaching hospital To investigate the most prominent effects of job stress among nurses in Tamale Teaching hospital To explore the most preferred coping mechanism to reduce job stress among nurses in Tamale Teaching hospital RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the most prominent sources of job stress among nurses in the hospital What are the most prominent effects of job stress among nurses in the hospital What is the most preferred coping mechanism to reduce job stress among nurses in hospital SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This research is to identify the sources of job stress, effects of job stress on the nurse and coping mechanism adopted among nurses. It is hoped that the findings will provide great understanding of the major causes of job stress and its effects towards nurses in Tamale Teaching Hospital. The findings will also address some implication concerning the coping mechanism adopted by nurses in Tamale Teaching Hospital when dealing with job related stress. OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS Stress is a concept describing the interrelationship between a person and the environment. Burnout is typically conceptualized as a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. LITERATURE REVIEW Stress has been used to describe the bodys mobilization on dealing with a challenge or threat (Griffin, 1990). Drafke and Kossen, (2002) defined stress as the bodys non-specific response to any demand. Selye classified stress into two categories, each with two variations: distress (harmful or disease-producing stress) and eustress (beneficial stress) (Drafke and Kossen, 2002). Selye introduced General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) model in his study of stress, which consisted of 3 stages; alarm, resistance and exhaustion. The distinction between short and long term effects of stress on the body is brought out by this model (Marshall and Cooper, 1979). Besides the physiologically oriented approach to stress represented by the classic GAS model, attention is also being given to the psychological and the behavioral dimension of stress (Luthans, 1998). All three dimensions are important to the understanding of job stress and coping mechanism in modern organizations. Stress is an unavoidable feature of modern living.ÂÂ   The impact of dynamic and uncertain environment characterized by restructuring, reengineering, layoff and downsizing threatenes ones personal security of employment (Huber, 1996). Generally, stress is always thought of in negative terms. That is, stress is perceived as something bad, annoying, threatening and not wanted (Mckenna, 1994). For example, words or phrases such as depression, feeling out of control, overworked, migraine or headache, time pressure, anxiety, cannot sleep, are commonly used to express what stress means to us personally (Sutherland and Cooper, 2000). Stress is one of those words that everybody knows the meaning of but none can define it (Woodham, 1995). As a result, it is vital to give attention to what stress is not about in todays organization. As pointed out by Luthans (1998) three major misconceptions about stress are as follows: Stress is not simply anxiety. Anxiety operates solely in the emotional and psychological sphere, whereas stress operates both and also in the physiological sphere. Thus, stress may be accompanied by anxiety, but the two should not be equated. Stress is not simply nervous tension. Like anxiety, nervous tension may result from stress, but the two are not the same. Unconscious people have exhibited stress and some people may keep it bottle up and not reveal it through nervous tension. Stress is not necessarily something damaging, bad or to be avoided. Stress is inevitable. Stress is not damaging or bad and is something people should seek out rather than avoid. The key is how the person handles stress. A certain amount of stress is essential to sustain life and moderate amounts serve as stimuli to perform but overpowering stress can cause a person to respond in a maladaptive physiological or psychological manner (Sullivan and Decker, 2001). From the organizations viewpoint, stress in the workplace usually is perceived as something undesirable and is a normal pressure most people experienced at work (Krumm, 2001). Stress is generally viewed in terms of the fit between peoples needs, abilities, and expectations with environmental demands, changes, and opportunities (Cummings and Worley, 1997). The General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS is an early model of stress which viewed stress response as a natural human adaptation to a stressor (to change or leave the stressors) in the individuals physical or psychological environment (Champoux, 2003). Selye described the process of GAS into three stages (Cooper and Marshall, 1978): Alarm reaction in which an initial shock phase of lowered resistance is followed by countershock during which the individuals defense mechanisms become active. Resistance the stage of maximum adaptation and hopefully successful return to equilibrium for the individual. If, however, the stressor continues or defense does not work, the individual will move on to; Collapse or Exhaustion when adaptive mechanisms collapse. Fully understanding stress and its many effects must involve great attention to the three related stages (Selye, 1956). Arousal rises quickly to high levels and many physiological changes that prepare our bodies for strenuous activity (either flight or fight) to take place. The body prepares to fight or adjust to the stressor by increasing respiration, heart rate, muscle tension and blood sugar. The initial reaction is soon replaced by the second stage known as resistance. At this point, if a stressor is too intense the individual may feel restless to cope with it. However, after a short period of alarm the individual will gather all strength and start resisting the negative effects of the stressor. The body tries to return to a normal state by adapting to the stressor. If stress persists, the bodys resources may become depleted and the final stage known as exhaustion occurs. During the exhaustion stage the body begins to wear down from exposure to the stressor. At this point, the ab ility to cope decreases sharply and severe biological damage may result if stress persists. If a person experiences the stressor long enough and does not effectively manage the source of stress then stress-related illnesses can appear. The damaging effects of stress occur in this stage for both the individual and organization (Baron and Greenberg, 1990; Champoux, 2003; Payne and Walker, 1996; Greenberg, 2002; Griffin, 1990). While stress is reflected by the sum of the nonspecific changes which occur in the body at any one time the GAS encompasses all nonspecific changes as they develop throughout time during continued exposure to a stressor (Selye, 1956). The GAS is a useful model for explaining physiological processes which may lead to stress-related illness (Payne and Walker, 1996). The GAS theory says (Selye, 1956; Rice, 2000; Lyon, 2000). All life events cause some stress. Stress is not bad per se, but excessive or unnecessary stress should be avoided whenever possible. The stressor is the stimulus eliciting a need for adaptation; stress is the response. The nonspecific aspects of the bodys reaction to an agent may not be as obvious as the specific effects. Sometimes, only disease or dysfunction will make an individual realize that he or she is under stress. Stress should be monitored. Removal of the stressor eliminates stress. Stress is a natural and essential part of living and growing (Burns, 1992). Moderate levels of stress and stimulation such as challenging but achievable goals can energize and motivate employees. The middle area of the graph shows the stress levels that result in the greatest performance. When a level of arousal exceeds our ability to meet the demand placed upon us we will experience feelings of burnout, exhaustion and ultimately will impair employees performance (Wright and Noe, 1996). Extremely high and extremely low level of stress tends to have negative effects on performance. A certain amount of stress among employees is generally considered to be advantageous for the organization because it tends to increase work performance. However, when an employee experiences too much or too little stress, it is generally disadvantageous for the organization because it tends to decrease work performance (Certo, 2000). In conclusion, stress is an environmental action that places special physical and/or psychological demands that produce an adaptive response that is influenced by individual differences (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2004). SOURCES OF STRESS A variety of studies have shown that quantitative work overloads are potent sources of stress in the workplace in which individuals are asked to do more work than they can complete in a specific period of time (Cassar and Tattersall, 1998; Mullins, 1999; Fox et al., 1993; Ganster and Murphy, 2000). Another major source of job stress is associated with a persons role at work (Marshall and Cooper, 1979). Role ambiguity refers to an employee who is uncertain about how to perform on the job, what is expected in the job and unclear relationship between job performance and expected consequences (Rue and Byars, 1997). Role conflict arises from inconsistent expectations of the organization or from job-related expectations conflicting with a persons other roles (Wright amd Noe, 1996). Cooke and Rousseau (1984), in their study on Michigan teachers to investigate the effects of family roles and work-role expectations on strain. Role theory predicts that multiple roles can lead to stressors (wor k overload and inter-role conflict) and, in turn, to symptoms of strain. The results of this study were generally consistent with the role theorys prediction for work-role expectations that were found to be related to work overload and inter-role conflict and these stressors were found to be related to strain. The finding also indicated that family roles found to be related to strain in three ways: interaction with work-role expectation, those who are married, and those who have children (Cooke and Rousseau, 1984). In addition, there is a consistent relationship between the behavioral characteristics of different jobs and the levels of various stresses experienced by a group of employees. The findings indicated that five of the divisional job dimensions correlate with at least half of the 18 stress variables. Two studies, were conducted on occupational stress and its relation with antecedent variables and job performance among nurses in four hospitals. The finding of the first study indicated that work overload, uncooperative patients, criticism, negligent co-workers, lack of support from supervisors, and difficulties with physician caused stress to hospital nurses. As a result, nurses performed their jobs less effectively. The finding of the second study indicated that there was no significant relationship in years of nursing experience, age, tenure in their nursing unit, tenure in their hospital, or whether they worked full time or part time with job-related stress and job performance among n urses (Motowidlo, 1986). The lack of supportive relationship or poor relationship with peers, colleagues and the superiors are also potential sources of stress, leading to low trust and low interest in problem solving (Khan and Byosiere, 1995; Baron and Greenberg, 1990; Schultz and Schultz, 1994). Relationship at workplace can be classified into relationship with superiors, colleagues, subordinates, those who use your goods/services, those who supply you with goods/services and those whose decisions affect your status and resources (Ward, 1987). It is not possible to obtain a complete stress profile by looking only at sources of stress in the workplace. Thus, it is vital to consider the interfaces that exist between work, home and social life of an individual that contribute to stress. These include marriage, pregnancy, illness, divorce (Baron and Greenberg, 1990), hassles of daily life-household hassles, time pressure hassles, inner concern hassles, environmental hassles, financial responsibilities (Baron and Greenberg, 1990), worries about children, health, misplacing things, worry about crime and rising prices (Schultz and Schultz, 1994). EFFECTS OF STRESS It is vital to know the effects of job stress on physical health, psychological and behavioral on an individual after understanding the nature of stress and major sources of job stress. There is overwhelming evidence to indicate that continuous exposure to stressful situations, or an accumulation of stressors over a period of time, is directly associated with the onset of illness, emotional stress and engaging negative activities (Burns, 1992; Jones, 1988). The fact that stress can make people ill and is implicated in the incidence and development of coronary heart disease, mental illness, certain types of cancer, smoking, dietary problems, excessive alcohol consumption and substance abuse, life dissatisfaction, accident and unsafe behavior at work, migraine, stomach ulcers, hay fever, asthma and skin rashes, marital and family problems (Dalton, 1998; Cooke and Rousseau, 1983). Moreover, it was identified that an individual who has poor problem-solving and coping skills, inability to understand and cope with own emotions, and lack of social and self- assertion skills is more vulnerable to stress and subsequent alcohol and drug misuse (Vetter, 1981). Generally, the effects of work stress occur in three major areas. The effects of stress on physiological include increased of blood pressure, increased of heart rate, sweating, hot and cold spells, breathing difficulty, muscular tension and increased of gastrointestinal disorders. Effects of stress on psychological consist of anger, anxiety, depression, lowered self-esteem, poorer intellectual functioning, inability to concentrate and make decisions, nervousness, irritability, resentment of supervision and job dissatisfaction (Chen and Spector, 1991). Decreased performance, absenteeism, higher accident rates, higher turnover rates, higher alcohol and other drug abuse, impulsive behavior and difficulties in communication are few effects of stress on behavioral (Hellrigel, 1986; Bhagat, 1985). COPING MECHANISMS Based on the above reviews, job stress can be a detrimental to the health and well-being of an individual. Therefore it is important to discuss effectively ways of responding to stress on the individual level. Generally, coping has been focused on internal and external resources for coping with stress which deal with work and general life stresses (Cartwright and Cooper, 1996). Coping can be defined as constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Coping is also viewed as a dynamic process and response to situation characterized by uncertainty and important consequences (Latack, 1986). Furthermore, coping is illustrated as a process oriented, non-automated adaptive behavior, effort, and managing life stressors (Backer et al., 2000). With these general definitions, coping can be best illustrated as managing taxing circumstances, expending efforts to solve lifes problems and seeking to master or reduce stress (Burke and Weir, 1980). From the literature, successful coping does not mean eliminating all stress. It is important to understand the nature of stress at workplace and its effect before we can reduce or moderate stress. A healthy person will face stress confidently, deals with it and gets beyond it. It is important for an individual to develop coping mechanisms to reduce job stress and apply these coping mechanisms into use in his/her everyday life (Krohne, 1996). The involvement of workers or workers group of all phases is equally necessary to ensure successful implementation of stress intervention to combat job stress in the workplace (Murphy, 1995). A coping mechanism can be effective if resources are targeted to specific problems and aimed at the elimination of the sources of stress. The success to reduce job stress in the workplace embraces both individual coping mechanism and effective organizational intervention on stress management. METHODOLOGY This chapter describes the study design, the study area, the study population and the sampling procedure as well as the recruitment of respondents and the data collection procedure. The data entry and analysis is also outlined in this chapter. RESEARCH DESIGN This study is a cross-sectional study method designed to determine the level of work related stress among nurses of tamale teaching hospital, its effects on their health and effects of the stress in their delivery of quality care to the patients. RESEARCH SETTING The study will be conducted at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH). It is a primary tertiary referral centre providing patient care to residents of Tamale and neighbouring towns and cities. The hospital has about 30 wards from which the respondents would be solicited. TARGET POPULATION This study will target the registered nursing staff with at least three years experience at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. SAMPLE, SAMPLE SIZE, AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE The sample size is 240 respondents this was arrived at by the using Cochran formula. Sample Size = [z2 * p(1-p)] / e2 / 1 + [z2 * p(1-p)] / e2 * N] N = population size z = z-score e = margin of error p = standard of deviation N= 655 Z= 1.96 (using 95% confidence interval) E=0.05 P= 0.5 Sample size = [(1.96)2*0.5(1-0.5)]/0.052 / 1 + [1.962*0.5(1-0.5)]/0.052* 655 Sample size = 384.16/1.6375 Sample size= 235 An extra 5 was added to make it 240 respondents. INCLUSION CRITERIA Respondents must be registered nurses with at least 3 years working experience in the Tamale Teaching Hospital. EXCLUSION CRITERIA Nursing students and nurses who have not worked up to three years will be excluded from the study. DATA COLLECTION TOOL A well-structured questionnaire will be used to collect socio-demographic data, knowledge on work related stress from the respondents. PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION Probability sampling technique will be used. This will be done to give an equal opportunity to all the targeted population. The data collectionÂÂ   will employ the use of structured questionnaire which respondents willÂÂ   checked and also gave short answers to some questions to solicit data from respondents. All the wards will be successfully visited on a daily basis to get eligible participants for the study. Purposive sampling will be used to select clinicians from the hospital who will be available during the data collection from Tamale Teaching Hospital. The study collected data on the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, general knowledge about hand washing, assess the differences across age groups, gender and their experiences regarding handwashing through the use of a structured questionnaire administered by the research assistants with minimal clarification from the research assistants. Primary data will be collected and used in the analysis. DATA ANALYSIS The data will be coded into excel and then entered into SPSS V.16 for analysis. Responses were assigned codes in the form of numbers, which made it easy for keying in the responses into a computer format. Univariate analysis was done for socio-demographic characteristics of respondents and also for areas that require only descriptive statistics. Bivariate analysis will be performed to find associations or relationships between socio-demographic characteristics and level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of clinicians on handwashing ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS Approval will be obtained from the Ethics and Research Committee of the hospital. Formal consent will be obtained from the respondents prior to administration of questionnaire. Participants will be informed the study is purely for academic purposes and names will not be needed and assuring them of their privacy. Respondents were also told that they had the right not to participate in the study. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The main limitations will be resources, time. Also, bias in the sampling procedure could occur. REFERENCES Drafke, M.W. and Kossen, S. (2002). The human side of organizations, 8th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Dubrin, A.J. (1985). Effective business psychology, 2nd ed. Virginia: Reston Publishing Company. Freudenberger H.J.( 1974) Staff burn-out. J Social Issues;30(1):159-85. Griffin, R.W. (1990). Management, 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Haw MA.( 1982) Women, work and stress: A review and agenda for the future. J Health Soc Behav;23: 132-44. Huber, D. (1996). Leadership and nursing care management. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company. Luthans, F. (1998). Organizational behavior, 8th ed. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill Marshall, J. and Cooper, C.L. (1979). Executive under pressure: A psychological study. New York: Praeger. Maslach C, Jackson S. (1982) Burnout in health professions: A social psychological analysis. In: Sanders G, Suls J, eds. Social psychology of health and illness. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum;. p. 79-103. McGrath, J.E. (1976). Stress and behavior in organizations. In Dunnette, M.D. (ed), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally. Mckenna, E. (1994). Business psychology and organizational behavior: A students handbook. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Near JP, Rice RW, Hunt RG.( 1980) The relationship between work and nonwork domains: a review of empirical research. Acad Manage Rev;5:415- Pearlin LI. (1983) Role strains and personal stress. In: HB Kaplan, ed. Psychological stress. Trends in theory and research. New York: Academic Press; Rice, V.H. (2000). Theories of stress and relationship to health. In Rice, V.H. (ed), Handbook of stress, coping, and health: Implication for nursing. Research, theory, and practice. London: Sage Publications Rue, L.W. and Byars, L.L. (1997). Management: Skills and application, 8th ed. Chicago: Irwin. Sutherland, V.J. and Cooper, C.L. (2000). Strategic stress management: An organizational approach. London: Macmillan Business.

Christian Morals versus Barbaric Customs in Hamlet Essay -- Shakespear

Christian Morals versus Barbaric Customs in Hamlet   Ã‚   Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic play set in Denmark during the early seventeenth century. It was written at the same time the Bible was being translated by King James. Like the Bible, Hamlet is full of problems that all humans experience. These problems are best seen through the internal struggle of Prince Hamlet. The source of Hamlet's internal struggle, which is the direct contrast of his Christian education versus Denmark's barbaric customs, is developed throughout the play through the use of imagery, characterization, and theme.    Imagery is used to show how Hamlet's Christian morals differ from Denmark's customs.    Ay, marry, is't; But to my mind,-though I am native here, And to the manner born,-it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the observance. This heavy-headed revel east and west Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations: They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes From our achievements, though perform'd at height, The pith and marrow of our attribute. (I,iv,13-22)    Hamlet is referring to Denmark's custom of drinking alcohol just to get drunk. Claudius is whimsically toasting to Denmark while Hamlet tells Horatio that Denmark is known as a country of drunkards. For this reason Hamlet is not proud of his origins. "'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown." (I,v,35) King Hamlet is telling his son that his murderer is wearing the King's crown. Shakespear... ...6.    Boklund, Gunnar. "Hamlet." Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.    Epstein, Norrie. "One of Destiny's Casualties." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of The Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless to the Best of the Bard. New York: Viking Penguin, 1993. p. 332-34.    Gooch, Bryan N. S. "Review of The Shapes of Revenge: Victimization, Vengeance, and Vindictiveness in Shakespeare." Early Modern Literary Studies 4.1 (May, 1998): 5.1-6   http://purl.oclc.org/emls/04-1/rev_goo6.html.    Jorgensen, Paul A. "Hamlet." William Shakespeare: the Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publ., 1985. N. pag. http://www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/jorg-hamlet.html    Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. T. J. B. Spencer. New York: Penguin, 1996.   

Essay --

Sangbum Park POLI 120A Prof. Victor Magagna Feb, 14, 2014 Causes of changing demand in Europe There are many causes of changing demand in Europe focusing on the incremental change demanded and how rulers responded. The early modern Western Europe has been developed by institutional variations in state. Basically in the book â€Å"Birth of the Leviathan† by Thomas Ertman, he does not believe on the traditional view of the state. He views states in two dimensions which are the regime types and the state apparatus. The two political regimes are the absolute monarchy and the constitutional monarchy. The two state apparatus was either patrimonial or bureaucratic. Briefly before the absolutism was established and built, the feudalism was the political system in the Europe. It was basically the few rulers ruled everything and only those few rulers had power to control anything. The feudal system started to decline when the power of the monarchs in France started to rise. Also the people from burgess class, which was the majority of the people in the feudalism, emerged along the rise of towns. One other reason was the increase of communication between the burgess classes. The decline and destroy of feudalism led the patrimonial absolutism to rise in the Europe during the early middle ages in Europe. During the early middle ages in Latin Europe, the centralized states of those countries were declining. This declination of the centralized states brought the new dynamism to the economies and the religions especially the Church which led the growing of economy. The absolute monarchy started to rise back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In Western and Eastern Europe, many monarchs such as kings or emperors tried to increase their ... ...ich basically combined England, Scotland, and Ireland into the Great Britain. The glorious revolution was the final incident which stopped the struggles and conflicts of power between the monarchs and the parliament. William and Mary agreed to sign the Bill of Rights offered by the parliament. This Bill of Rights was basically the monarchs, William and Mary will not be able to make their own decision without the permission of the parliament. This is basically how the absolutism is changed to a constitutionalism in England after this incident. The Glorious Revolution brought the power balance between the monarchs and the parliament favors more to parliament as time passed. As the parliament had more powers later, the government became more like democracy because it was the elected people who were making the decisions not the one ruler who were deciding everything.

It was 9 o’clock in the morning when I heard the news that Aliens were going to invade our planet

It was 9 o'clock in the morning when I heard the news that Aliens were going to invade our planet. As unlikely, as this sounded, I knew it to be true the moment I heard it. I had already seen the evidence. Please excuse me; I guess I am rushing ahead a bit. It would probably be better if I started from the beginning. It started 10 months ago when I was working at the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. I was a scientific researcher at the base; and a specialist in radar research. Some of my colleagues had been getting weird results from their observations and I had been asked to double check the validity of their findings. These weren't the only weird happenings either. Scientist from different parts of the planet researching both climate and animal behaviors were also reporting a wide variety of anomalous data. The climate was changing, there were resent reports that a tornado struck the south-east of England. That wasn't the only weird occurrence in weather that had happened; a few weeks later there was another report that a snowstorm had hit West Africa. Alongside all of this there had been rumors of country leaders having meetings discussing the strange events that had been happening. Occurrences after occurrence still leaders around the world were making up lies and excuses, over 100 nuclear power plant had been struck by lightning and earthquakes spontaneously. Haunted by all of these occurrences and happenings, I found it hard to sleep. Even when I could sleep, I was disturbed by weird recurring nightmares. Still, my research work was proving to be equally unsettling. No matter what test I performed, I could find no data that would allow me to dismiss the results drived by my Colleagues. As these findings indicated many anomalous objects were present in near-near Earth orbit. I found myself called in to the office of observation director himself, and as I looked through the images that the Hubble telescope was giving me I noticed weird looking objects that were hovering Earth orbit, by the time I could show the images to my head director we were quickly stopped and ordered to leave the premises. While I tried to go back to get the images as prove I was immediately stop and guided outside of the building. After that incident I was sent home, I had a conversation with my head director telling me that the workplace was being closed for illegal experimenting. The government closed Jodrell bank Telescope and announced that we had secret bases. I worked there for 13 years and had never encountered any secret bases were experiments were performed. Why did the government really close my workplace? Day after day I started to realize that my colleagues were rapidly but slowly losing contact. Until one morning when I was mysteriously called by one of my colleagues to watch a broadcast acknowledging the existence of other life forms and their invasion of our planet. While listening to the event, I suddenly thought †why has the news turned black? †I thought that they were having technical difficulties so I changed to the next channel and when I did it turned out the same as the channel before. The whole screen just plain black while. At the same time, I was confused, a bright light made me cover my eyes, and a shape appeared with the way it spoke. I knew it to be a face but it wasn't a recognizable face and one that I have never encountered. The shape and figure of the life form was unforgettable. It breathed softly and spoke gently. I understood: â€Å"People of earth, we are concerned that your world leaders have been dishonest and created your worst nightmares, bringing destruction and violence upon you. I will give you your last choice of renewing and establishing the disturbance you have caused. I couldn't believe what I was hearing; we were so loud that we caused concern upon our cosmic neighbors. They had taken us as threat to the galaxy. This is one big step for human beings.

Discuss three of your achievements or accomplishments

Being employed while I was still in college was my first achievement. Although I still had a year to complete my college education, a company offered me a position as Information Technology technician after passing three stages of job interview. Initially, I tried to send my Curriculum Vitae to the company because I wanted to test my ability. Since I was still studying in the university, the company decided to give me a part job as Desktop Supporter. The job gave me a lot of hands-on experience and I was able to put all my knowledge into practice.Completing a program with a high grade and performing well in my job was my second achievement. After working for three years, I decided to upgrade my knowledge by attending the American Cooperation program. This program was conducted in the English language and it was a challenge for me since English is not my native language. However, while I was going through the program, I learned to use my time and effort wisely so I could complete all the required assignments of the program while maintaining a full time job as Business Analyst. In the end, I completed the Cooperation program with a 3. GPA and maintained a high job performance rating in the company. Getting my dream job was my third achievement.After five years of working in the software industry, I was given the System Analyst position at CSC Vietnam. Since I was a student, I wanted to become a System Analyst because this position will enable me to utilize all the knowledge that I have gained from my studies and work experience in the IT and business industry. CSC Vietnam is one of the biggest software companies in Vietnam and working in this company will provide a brighter future for my career path.

Intelligence Testing Article Analysis Essay

No other topic in psychology has ever generated as much interest as the study of human intelligence. Numerous tests and strategies have been designed to explore the quality of human intelligence in depth and to analyze the basic factors and processes which take place within the structure of human cognitive functioning. From the viewpoint of psychology, intelligence testing may provide professionals with a wide range of effective instruments of research and analysis. Simultaneously, not all professionals and scholars in the field of psychology agree that intelligence testing is an effective and a relevant tool of psychological analysis. In this context, a number of theories have been designed to explain the essence of intelligence testing as such and the factors which may impede or enhance one’s successes in the process of testing intelligence. Intelligence Testing Article Analysis Introduction No other topic in psychology has ever generated as much interest as the study of human intelligence. Numerous tests and strategies have been designed to explore the quality of human intelligence in depth and to analyze the basic factors and processes which take place within the structure of human cognitive functioning. From the viewpoint of psychology, intelligence testing may provide professionals with a wide range of effective instruments of research and analysis. Simultaneously, not all professionals and scholars in the field of psychology agree that intelligence testing is an effective and a relevant tool of psychological analysis. In this context, a number of theories have been designed to explain the essence of intelligence testing as such and the factors which may impede or enhance one’s successes in the process of testing intelligence. It is difficult not to agree to Gottfredson (2006): â€Å"the debate over intelligence and intelligence testing focuses on the question of whether it is useful or meaningful to evaluate people according to a single major dimension of cognitive competence†. Nevertheless, researchers keep to believe that intelligence testing may be of extreme value, when measuring specific aspects of human cognitive activity and seeking to expand the boundaries of human cognitive functioning. Gottfredson (2006) develops a whole set of theoretical assumptions, trying to remain objective in her evaluation of intelligence testing relevance as a tool of psychological analysis. In Gottfredson’s view, intelligence testing is usually designed to measure one specific aspect of one’s cognitive ability (e. g. , mathematical skills), but where psychologists seek to evaluate one specific cognitive function, they tend to forget that intelligence tests cannot be fully released and clarified of other mental skills. These are usually referred to as â€Å"mental impurities†; they do not have any significant effects on cognitive testing results, but should be taken into account to guarantee the objectivity of testing procedures. Interestingly, Gottfredson (2006) links the effectiveness of intelligence testing to biological factors. In her view, the effectiveness of one’s cognitive functioning depends on age; moreover, researchers tend to believe into existence of a human gene responsible for IQ. Finally, it is at least incorrect to assume that social and psychological environments produce marked effects on one’s IQ. As a result, it is unclear whether measuring one’s intelligence may produce any significant changes on the quality of one’s wellbeing (Gottfredson, 2006); nevertheless, professional psychologists are still committed to the idea of using intelligence testing to define one’s learning disabilities. O’Brien (2001) develops a set of theoretical assumptions which place intelligence testing as the outstanding means to define one’s learning disabilities and the means of resolving them, and while intelligence testing has been widely used to analyze and determine one’s learning disabilities, it would be fair to say that to some extent intelligence testing had been devised for this purpose. In his theory, O’Brien (2001) refers to the cut-off scores which may prevent professionals from investigating the cognitive implications of low-IQ groups, but which cannot also serve a serious obstacle on professionals’ way to developing more effective intelligence testing forms. It appears that on the basis of IQ alone it is possible to predict the pathways children will follow in their cognitive development, and develop a set of social adjustments low-scored children will need to improve the quality of their well-being. In this context, intelligence testing is expected to produce long-term impacts on one’s life and one’s prospects for individual and professional self-realization. Given that intelligence testing involves information processing mechanisms and relevant nerve centers which require activation, the speed of this activation and the quality of information processing shapes the cognitive image of a person and turns intelligence testing into a relevant tool of psychological analysis (Schweizer, 2000). However, how is effective intelligence testing? And what factors professionals need to consider in order to promote objectivity of testing results? Despite the wide application of intelligence testing in psychological practice, its effectiveness remains the topic of hot debate. On the one hand, there is no single definition of what intelligence is. On the other hand, it is not clear, how appropriate it is to measure the social usefulness of a person based on a single cognitive criterion (Gottfredson, 2006). It appears that the effectiveness of intelligence testing also depends on one’s mood, fatigue, or motivation. From the cultural viewpoint, the majority of intelligence tests are designed to fit to Westernized cultural criteria, and are thus of limited use in mixed populations (O’Brien, 2001). Finally, Schweizer (2000) suggests that due to the limited access of human consciousness to information, the processes of information processing involved into intelligence testing may not always reveal the true state of cognitive functioning in children and adults. Certainly, intelligence testing remains one of the most reliable and widely used methods of investigating cognitive mechanisms in humans; but the problem is that we have not yet gone beyond the boundaries of traditional cognitive knowledge. For psychology professionals, intelligence testing remains the only available tool of research, the reliability of which is usually taken for granted. As a result, whether professionals are able to look deeper into the essence of human cognition and to develop sound analytical strategies depends on their preparedness to cross the boundaries of traditional research, and to investigate the effectiveness of traditional intelligence testing procedures. Conclusion Intelligence testing remains one of the central instruments psychology professionals use to test human cognitive abilities. Despite the stable popularity of intelligence testing, its effectiveness remains the topic of hot debate. Numerous factors have to be reconsidered and reevaluated to guarantee objectivity of testing procedures. To a large extent, the reliability of intelligence testing is taken for granted, and whether this type of analytical research works to promote individuals’ social wellbeing depends on the psychology professionals’ ability to look deeper into the essence of intelligence testing and cognitive mechanisms, which are involved into the process of testing one’s cognitive features. References Gottfredson, L. S. (2006). The general intelligence factor. Scientific American. Retrieved April 28, 2009 from http://www. psych. utoronto. ca/users/reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/1198gottfred. html O’Brien, G. (2001). Defining learning disability: What place does intelligence testing have now? Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 43 (8): 570-573. Schweizer, K. (2000). Cognitive mechanisms at the core of success and failure in intelligence testing. Psychologische Beitrage, 42 (2): 190-200.

Why Burning Money Is Illegal in the United States

Why Burning Money Is Illegal in the United States If you have money to burn, congratulations- but youd better not actually set fire to a pile of cash. Burning money is illegal in the United States and is  punishable by up to 10 years in prison, not to mention fines. (More fun facts: Its also illegal to tear a dollar bill and even flatten a penny  under the weight of a locomotive on the railroad tracks.) The laws making defacing and debasing currency a crime have their roots in the federal governments use of precious metals to mint coins. Criminals were known to file down or cut off portions of those coins and keep the slivers for themselves while spending the altered currency. The odds of being prosecuted under the federal laws that making burning money or defacing coins, however, are fairly slim. First, coins now contain very little precious metals. Second, defacing printed currency in an act of protest is often compared to burning the American flag. That is to say, burning money may be considered protected speech under the U.S. Constitutions First Amendment. What the Law Says About Burning Money The section of federal law that makes tearing up or burning money a crime is  Title 18, Section 333, which was passed in 1948 and reads: Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. What the Law Says About Mutilating Coins The section of federal law that makes mutilating coins a crime is Title 18, Section 331, which reads: Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. A separate section of Title 18 makes it illegal to debase coins minted by the U.S. government, meaning to shave some of the metal off and make the money less valuable. That crime is punishable by fines and up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutions Are Rare for Mutilating Currency Its pretty rare for someone to be arrested and charged with defiling or debased U.S. currency. Even those penny press machines found at arcades and some seashore attractions are in compliance with the law because theyre used to create souvenirs and not to debase or shave metal off the coin for profit or fraud. Perhaps the highest profile case of currency mutilation dates to 1963. An 18-year-old U.S. Marine named Ronald Lee Foster was convicted of whittling away the edges of pennies and spending the 1 cent coins as dimes in vending machines. Foster had been sentenced to a year of probation and $20, but more seriously the conviction prevented him from being able to get a gun license. Foster made national news in 2010 when President Barack Obama pardoned him.