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Family Oral Paper
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Family Oral Paper
Introduction
Family is one of the most significant human social organizations, if not the most one. Human beings all come from a family. By looking closely along the family tree, a person can trace their roots. This paper discusses some of the most dominant themes that are important in describing people, particularly the aged people, to the core. This text delves into various themes surrounding the family members, person’s life, family, big moments, small moments, achievements, disappointments, joy, and pain of a 72-year-old family member that I interviewed to complete this assignment.
Biographical Sketch
To complete this assignment, I interviewed my 72-year old grandfather. He is my father’s mother. My grandfather’s name is Samuel. He was born on 27th October 1951. He has lived in many states in the United States as well as in cities abroad in Europe and Asia. Currently, he lives in Ohio with my grandmother and my aunt, who helps to take care of them both. My grandfather has lived in Berlin, Bangkok (Thailand), Cambodia, and Singapore in his lifetime. He says that Africa is the only continent he has not had the pleasure of visiting and that it is his dream to see before he dies. Although my grandfather is not as religious, all his children, including my father, uncles and aunties have been baptized according to Christian doctrines. My grandfather is a Christian believer despite him not practising his faith now. He goes to church from time to time. My grandfather is a member of the middle class. He had a job stable enough to provide his family with everything they needed. As regards race and ethnicity, my grandfather is a native white American. He was born to white parents with descents from the United States. Samuel has three sisters and two brothers, one of whom is deceased. Auntie Rose died from pancreatic cancer when I was in high school. She was my favourite of all my aunts and uncles. He is still married to his wife. They have been together for over 30 years. My grandfather is a family-oriented man that has never been through divorce. For Samuel, family is the strongest unit that deserves to be maintained at all costs. My aunties and uncles are all within the same age group seeing that they have a two-year difference. My eldest uncle is 42 years, the next uncle is 40. My aunties are 38 and 36 years respectively. My grandfather is well educated. After attending and graduating from Georgetown University, he attained his diploma in international law. While he started a career in human law, his life took a different trajectory year later when he got recruited into the military. He was recruited at 23 years, and he served in various positions until his retirement at 64 years in 2014.
Family, Family Members and General Life
As mentioned, my grandfather is a family-oriented man. This can be seen from the fact that he has never gone through a single divorce case in his life. Additionally, Samuel has been with one woman( my grandmother) his entire life. This speaks to his strong family ties and love for his family. My grandfather mentioned that he is the kind of man that likes to be involved in the matters of his children and grandchildren. He has three grandchildren that he absolutely adores. He enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren at every opportunity he gets. During summer, he hosts a family retreat at his Ohio home, where he gets a chance to gather everybody in one place. For him, it is an opportunity to bond with his children, get to know his grandchildren better, and an opportunity to resolve family problems and discuss future prospects. My grandfather mentioned that the hardest time of his life was six years ago when he lost one of his daughters, Auntie Rose to pancreatic cancer. He admits that her death was a huge blow to him and the rest of the family. Her death brought him and his family together. Today, he says that he shares the best relationship with his two remaining sons and daughters. He says he is most proud of them and the live that they have given to themselves. For Samuel, his family is his pride.
Achievements and Small Moments
During the interview with my grandfather, I learned a lot regarding his highest and lowest moments. His most significant achievement was making it to Georgetown University, where he completed a diploma in Human rights. Another defining moment was when he met my grandmother and engaged her within six months of knowing her before marrying her. He insisted that his life took a turn for the better after he tied the knot with his wife. Another defining moment in my grandfather’s life was when he made a transition in his career. For him transitioning from human law practice into the military was the best decision of his life. He mentioned that he lived his most fulfilled life when serving in the military. He found happiness and fulfilment in serving his country. Over the years he served in the US Army, he rose through the ranks and retired while serving as a Major General, a position he had held for close to eight years. My grandfather had rose through the ranks to become a general within no time. Evidently, he loved his work to the core, which explains his fast-tracked career in the military. His smallest moment was the time when he lost his daughter to pancreatic cancer and leaving the army.
Joy, Pain and Disappointments
My grandfather reported that one of his happiest moments was when his eldest son (my uncle) graduated from the school of medicine at Harvard University. My uncle is a cardiothoracic surgeon. My grandfather is most proud of the achievements of all his children, but without a doubt, this one takes the lead. He is also proud of his other children, including my father, as they are all doing great in life. His most painful moments were when he had to stay away from his family when he was serving his country. He mentions that, at times, he would wait up to six months to get reunited with his wife and children. It was hard for him, seeing that family is important to him and staying away for that long was not easy. His most disappointing moments were when my auntie, a lawyer, got declined from Harvard Law School. It had always been her dream to attend law school, but unfortunately, he did not make the cut. She ended up attending Stanford University, which is an equally esteemed law school.
Conclusion
In closing, this exercise has taught me valuable lessons to take away. I have learned the importance of family and the need to value and love them hard. My grandfather is a staunch family man. He loves his family and will do anything to keep them happy. This is an important lesson that I take away from him. Moving forward, I will be more intentional with my relations with my parents, siblings, and friends. Essentially, I learned to love hard and live a fulfilled life as my grandfather did.
Failure to observe and control young people might lead to too much negative influence, which can culminate in changed lifesty
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Outline
Introduction
Thesis statement: Failure to observe and control young people might lead to too much negative influence, which can culminate in changed lifestyle, behavior, physical issues, and mental disorders.
Video game addiction
Reasons for addiction
Minimum hours that qualify as addiction
Impacts
Aggression
Desensitization
Attention deficit
Diseases
Problematic computer gaming
Addiction
Mental health problems
Example of Video Games
Conclusion
Video Games
The history of video games takes us back to 1949 when Ralph Baer, a young engineer, was working on an assignment of building a television set. This assignment was not just about building any television set, but the best television set. This did not stand as a big challenge to Baer, but he wanted to do more than that by including a game in his television set. His plan never worked out as he did not have a clear plan and his employers nixed the notion. It took another eighteen years for this idea to become real. However, the glory went to other people such as Willy Higinbotham, who developed a tennis game that involved the use of an oscilloscope, and Russell Steve, who designed a simple space game for a mainframe computer. Nolan Bushnell also made some important contributions through his space game and his ideas concerning midways filled with computer games (Rabin, 5).
Today, the world is full of video games developed for both computers and television sets. Over the years, video game applications and devices such as PS2, Dreamcast, and Xbox have advanced from their infancy into great sophistication. Games identify with recent versions of video game players such as Xbox 360 and PS3. Still, there exist thousands of PC games and speculations for the introduction of many more. Companies such as Sony, Phillips, and Microsoft that have stakes in video games have made billions and still have bright prospects. Video games have indeed become a ubiquitous part of modern day world, and they are preferred as a mode of leisure, especially for young people. A trend whereby producers and designers convert movies to games to reach a wider audience is also on the rise (Herman et al., 1). Underlying concerns of the impact video games have on young people accompany these trends. Parents ought to observe their young ones, as they get involved in video games. Failure to observe and control young people might lead to too much negative influence, which can culminate in changed lifestyle, behavior, physical issues, and mental disorders.
Video Game Addiction
Gaming has become a popular activity and many young people become addicted to video games. Addiction is said to have set in when video games consume gamers’ time to the extent that they replace other important activities such as socializing, sports, work, and education. Research shows that gamers are increasingly becoming engulfed in activities that consume their time replacing important real life activities. Some video game players escalate their activities to the level of problematic application. In such cases, gaming disrupts work, schooling, and other real-life activities largely. Video game addiction has drawn considerable attention of researchers, parents, policy makers, and other key people in the lives of young people (Hauge and Gentile, 2).
There are several reasons that cause or lead to addiction to video games. With ubiquitous internet connectivity, online gamers have become common all over the world. Research shows that this group of gamers becomes easily addicted to video games. Although video game players become addicted to the games, the development of online components in the more recent generation of video games has increased the scope of the addiction problem. This new component has led to the introduction of public and private treatment initiatives targeting addicted gamers. Consequently, research assessing video game addictions focus on online gamers so much. Western and Korean researchers concur on the fact that Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have the worst addiction when it comes to video games. In this video game, players develop avatars (characters) over time in unreal or virtual worlds. This game leads to high levels of engagement that need players to spend so much time and cooperation to achieve goals. In general, video games require players to exhibit a certain level of commitment causing them to be addicted (Van Rooij et al., 205).
It is hard to say how many hours of playing video games qualify to be termed as addiction. However, researchers assess the least number of hours that can cause initiation of negative signs and behaviors and classify the period as addiction time. A study on a sample of video game players engaged in World of Warcraft video game showed that spending around 63 hours every week playing the game caused negative symptoms (Van Rooij et al., 205). Another research on video game addiction posits that game addiction begins when one spends more than one hour a day and more than thirty hours a week engaged in a video game. In both studies, gamers develop craving for video games, internet addiction, general craving, visual problems, and at times depression (Han, Hwang, and Renshaw, 297).
Impacts
Video games are associated with several effects on games. By far, aggression is the most common impact attributed to excessive playing of video games. Correlational, experimental, and longitudinal researches confirm that exposure to violence in video games can cause a significance rise in aggressive emotions, thoughts, and behavior over short-term as well as long-term. Albeit there exist differing results concerning the quality of data, recent meta-analytical studies confirm that video games lead to six major outcomes: aggressive cognition, aggressive behavior, aggressive affect, empathy, psychological arousal, and prosocial behavior. Because myriad children spend huge amounts of time playing video games, the effects build up and substantially affect the society. Violent games significantly increase players’ aggression by changing their emotions and thoughts, even when they seem to have control over physiological arousal. Hostility exhibits itself among players in the short term, but the changes may become permanent aggressive personality (Woog, 1).
Another line of study also suggests that video games cause game players to become desensitized to bad things thus decreasing their ability to health and have empathy. Desensitization involves a reduction in emotional and physiological reactivity to bad things such as violence. Exposure to video games in the short-term leads to the production of physiological desensitization that lasts around twenty minutes. On the other hand, long-term exposure causes chronic desensitization among gamers. Video players have their empathy significantly reduced by games, and this causes them to have increased aggressive and violent behavior. Video games also cause a certain numbing that reduces helping behavior. Research shows that students who are just from playing a video game are less likely to regard a fight they witness as dangerous or to assist the victim (Woog, 1).
Although gaming experiences have several positive effects, the negative effects, especially those of attention, are increasingly becoming evident to researchers. Researchers have found a positive correlation between video games and attention problems in young people. These scholars suggest that an extensive exposure to video game leads to attention problems after a period of thirteen months. More than three thousand children playing video games proved this finding true. Interestingly, excessive exposure to video games does not reduce attention to video game content. It appears that video games cause specific impacts on various cognitive processing types: the games can decrease proactive cognitive management but increase visuospatial processing abilities (Prot, McDonald, and Anderson, 590).
Diseases Related to Video Games
Excessive gaming can result to several diseases that stand as recognized diseases. One such disease is problematic computer gaming. Young people affected by this disease portray several symptoms. They do not think that they have a problem at all, but instead regard their parents as affected. They lie regarding computer or video game use. For instance, they may say that they only spend twenty to thirty hours when they spend forty hours. Other symptoms include staying up late, sneaking games to the room at night, trouble waking up, and constant isolation. Continued exposure leads to an exacerbation of these symptoms and children may become quarrelsome. Young players of video games may also have physical injuries as a result of excessive use (Prot, McDonald, and Anderson, 590).
Video gaming causes addiction, and this has led scientists to try and classify that addiction as a mental disorder. The phenomenon known as video game addiction has become a popular one, and several studies exist on the same. The longitudinal impairment and modest impairment has led to possible classification of this disorder in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V-TR). Once the American Psychiatric Association has finalized discussing the inclusion of the addiction due to gaming in the DSM-V-TR, it will fall under behavioral disorders that result from addictions. Video game addiction will fall in the same category with gambling, a new entrant in the mental disorders classification handbook (Van Rooij et al., 1).
Besides a possible independent classification as an independent mental health disorder, video games are also responsible for myriad symptoms related to mental illness. Scientists hypothesize that excessive exposure to video games causes a situation known as flight-from-reality that includes a depressive mood, loneliness, poor self-esteem, and social anxiety. Although excessive exposure to gaming leads to these mental issues, the relationship between video games and psychological health is much more complicated as some gamers report positive responses. Moreover, the negative effects vary from one gamer to another. Some heavy video game players suffer because of their unbalanced lifestyle while other gamers benefit from the interaction they have with the gaming environment (Rooij, 1).
Example of Video Games
Multi-Player Online Role-Playing (MMORPG) is one of the most popular multi-user domain video games causing massive addiction on young people. MMORPGs involve networked players who interact with one another as they play video games. The games require that the players achieve certain goals, high scores, and accomplishments. This makes the players to play for several hours and days in order to achieve their targets. The games combine fighting, killing, and role-playing elements in a channel that also allows social chat. Some of the ‘best’ MMORPGs include World of Warcraft, Asheron Call, and Final Fantasy (Hartman and Moverley 1).
Conclusion
Video games go back a long way into history. They have gone through tremendous evolution from the first game played on mainframe computers into what they are today. Young people all over the world can enjoy the ubiquitous technology that seems to freeze real life and activate gaming environments. However, parents are not to be restful or happy, as these games are addictive and call for immediate intervention. Young people who do not exercise temperance and spend more than 30 hours a week on video games risk developing serious problems. Gamers may have issues such as problematic computer gaming, addiction, and numerous mental health problems. Mental health problems may range from poor self-esteem to depression. Evidently, parents and the whole society need to keep watch of this rising menace that may leave young people too affected to be useful.
Works cited
Han, Doug Hyun, Jun Won Hwang, and Perry F Renshaw. “Bupropion Sustained Release Treatment Decreases Craving for Video Games and Cue-Induced Brain Activity in Patients with Internet Video Game Addiction.” Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology 18 (2010): 297–304.
Hartman, Michael, and Daniel Moverley. “A Study of the Effects on Gamers Who Play MMORPGs – Socialization, Making Friends, Being Social.” Altered Gamer. N. p., 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Hauge, Marny R, and Douglas A Gentile. “Video Game Addiction Among Adolescents : Associations with Academic Performance and Aggression.” 306 (2003): 1–3. Print.
Herman, By Leonard et al. “The History of Video Games.” 2002: 1–39. Print.
Prot, Sara, Katelyn McDonald, and Craig Anderson. Children, Adolescent, and the Media. Ed. Victor Strasburger. Iowa: Elsevier, 2012.
Rabin, Steve. Introduction to Game Development: Second Edition. Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Rooij, Antonius J Van. “Online Video Game Addiction.” N. p., 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Woog, Kenneth M, Computer Gaming, and Addiction Treatment. “Computer Gaming Addiction in Adolescents and Young Adults, Solutions for Moderating and Motivating for Success.” N. p., 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Drug Addiction and criminal behavior
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Title: Drug Addiction and criminal behavior
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Drug Addiction and criminal behavior
Drug addiction since the past has been associated with moral decay and people who commit social evils are associated with drug abuse. A person may not be hooked to drugs, they may be casual users but yet they commit crime. A general assumption is made by the society that criminals are drug addicts and drug addicts are criminals. However you may be surprised to realize that such assumptions could not be any further from the truth. This paper will bring a new dimension in criminality and drug abuse, not based on the general societal assumption but based on the reality. In health sciences, we learn that the environment that a person is in affects their behavior. This paper links behavior with environment.
Most people get surprised when they find out that a close friend or relative is a drug addict but they had never suspected him or her. A general mentality has been created that a drug addict has to behave in a certain way and dress in a particular way. Most of us think that drug addicts are dirty and hate taking showers these are just stereotypes. People act and behave according to their environment, when surrounded by clean people; a drug addict will be clean and take regular showers. Some people are so good at hiding in such a way that you could never notice if something was bothering them or if they were up to something. Most drug addicts have developed such skills and they tend to camouflage and hide in the general population.
Criminals are not necessary drug addicts and I would not stress this any further. They are people who just chose to gain from what they did not sow and benefiting from bad deals. It may surprise many that some criminals have no experience using drugs. These are behavioral effects of the environment, if one is raised in the midst of criminals; they tend to live a life of crime. While growing a child is more likely to emulate the traits of those he grows up around, growing up around criminal minds then you can predict the outcome. The neighborhood is a point of interest; if a person is brought up in a neighborhood where they use drugs and engage in crime then he will most likely develop such a character.
Note here drug abuse and addiction is not considered as a criminal activity. Criminal activities in this text include being in gangs, rape and conducting robberies. When a person is raised or lives in an environment where there are no criminal activities but there is access to drugs. Such a person may become addicted to drugs but never engage in any single criminal activities. Drug addiction will come as an effect of easy access to drugs in the environment and it develops to a hobby. Such an environment is likely to have well educated people and people with a high income.
Other factors that may lead to drug addiction then crime include low income. Once a person is addicted to drugs they need to make money to sustain the habit. What does such a person do if he is unemployed or has low income? The best way to sustain the addiction and to have a regular supply of drugs is through crime. When a person engages in crime they will make easy money and will be able to buy more drugs.
Education level is also a factor that is closely associated with criminal activities after drug addiction. An educated person who is addicted to drugs may have a good job and is able to manage by hiding his addiction and not being affected in their work. A well educated person minds more about their reputation and will avoid engaging in criminal activities by all means. Such a person knows the danger of living a life of crime; it would ruin all that they worked for in school. They are also more likely surrounded by other educated friends who act as pillars and they watch each other. Their friends will tell them and warn them when the notice that something is not right.
In Conclusion
A person’s environment has effect on their behavior and lifestyle. However there are other factors that affect the behavior of a person and the lifestyle they live. Income levels and education level are factors that affect a person’s choice of lifestyle. People around us and the life they live also affect us and our living, we emulate those who we live with and try to adapt to the environment we find ourselves in. general assumptions that criminals are drug addicts and drug addicts are criminals in not true.
All criminals are not drug addicts while all drug addicts are not criminals. There exists a knowledge gap in understanding the real causes of criminality.
This research should bridge the knowledge gap that exists and should be a source of knowledge to all stake holders in society and law makers.
References
Hammersley, R. (1988). Drug Addiction and Crime. Addiction, 83(4), 445-446.
Hawthorne, J. W. (1932). A Group Test For The Measurement Of Cruelty-Compassion: A Proposed Means Of Recognizing Potential Criminalty. The Journal of Social Psychology, 3(2), 189-211.
Inciardi, J. A. (2008). The war on drugs IV: the continuing saga of the mysteries and miseries of intoxication, addiction, crime, and public policy (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Mieczkowski, T. M. (1996). The Prevalence Of Drug Use In The United States. Crime and Justice, 20, 349.
Fergusson, D. M., Boden, J. M., & Horwood, L. J. (2006). Cannabis Use And Other Illicit Drug Use: Testing The Cannabis Gateway Hypothesis. Addiction, 101(4), 556-569.
Benell, F. B. (1973). Drug Abuse And Venereal Disease Misconceptions Of A Selected Group Of College Students. Journal of School Health, 43(9), 584-587.