Topics In Cultural Studies Essay Example for Free

Topics In Cultural Studies Essay Trade relationship between Latin America and United States of America was believed to have improved in 1980’s. However, the progress that should have been reaped after the post cold war has not been applied. Though there are possibilities that the two countries will have a more productive engagement in trade, there was still a tension between the trade relationship between Latin America and United States (Shifter, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the past and up to these days, the United States of America had had been supporting the assets of economic reform. Trade liberalization and privatization are the most prioritized project in the economic reform of the United States. Economic reform was considered the basis for prosperity of the country. In the past, Latin American government had also been able to adapt to the economic reforms of the United States because they believe that this is the pattern of hemispheric policy when it comes to the engagement of trade towards United States (Shifter, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Latin America was considered to be a region wherein it is the fastest growing market for the United State’s export products. From the history of trade in the past, Latin America is expected to become the world’s primary market for the products and services that came from United States (Shifter, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The total exports of the United States to the Latin American region amounted to about 13 billion dollars in 1996, which had surpassed the export figures on 1990. US products were also exported in China but it only amounted to $10 B dollars in 1990 having Latin American region to have a larger amount of export form the United States (Shifter, 2007). Latin America is now engaging trade between China and United States need not to worry because they will not be displaced immediately by Chinese market. The trade relationship between China and Latin America had not been that significant not unlike the significance of the trade relationship between Latin America and United States (Frechette, 2006). Literature Cited: Frechette, M. (2006). Rethinking Latin America;A New Approach in US Foreign Policy. Academy and Policy, Vol. 28 (2). Harvard International Review. Shifter, M. (2007). United States-Latin American Relations: Shunted to the Slow Track. Retrieved September 18 2007 from http://www.currenthistory.com/archivefeb98/shifter.html

Utilitarianism and Retributivism Views of Capital Punishment Essay

The court handles all cases with extreme seriousness; however, different cases are handled differently. For instance, murder cases have different pre-trial procedures to be followed as compared to a case like violation of traffic rules. This paper outlines philosophers’ view of punishment and how the County District Court Division handles capital punishment. To begin with, punishment is an act that involves intentional infliction of agony or misery to a person for wrong doing, with the aim of correction. Capital punishment involves penalty by death or life imprisonment killing of the person who has been found guilty. In Philosophers endeavors to justify punishment, they have come up with theories, which explain the core objective of punishment. The theories are Utilitarianism and Retributivism (Fieser, 2001). Utilitarianism is a theory that seeks to identify the consequence of administering punishment. It explains that punishment should serve to dissuade a potential offender from committing a crime. This could be done by setting clear laws, which outlines the punishment for specific crime committed. The theory also proposes punishment as a way of rehabilitating the offender. For instance sentencing an offender to do community work should be done with the aim of improving the character of the offender (Fieser, 2001).On the other hand, Retributivism is a theory that advocates proportionate punishment to any wrongdoer. The theory invokes the retaliation principle, which stipulates that a person, who kills another, should also be killed. The proponent of this theory, Immanuel Kant, seems to be in agreement with the existence of capital punishment in some states. However, to rule out chances of an innocent person being pu... ...ions. However, sometimes judges overrule the jury’s recommendations and impose death penalty rather than life imprisonment (Death Penalty, n.d). In conclusion, statistics indicates that many inmates were executed in the year 2009 compared to 2008. In 2008, 37 inmates from nine states were executed either by lethal injection or electrocution. The following year recorded the execution of 52 inmates (Capital Punishment Statistics, 2008). Works Cited Capital Punishment Statistics, (2008). U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved from http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1757.html Death Penalty, (n.d.). Death Penalty Information Centre. Retrieved from http://www.spectacle.org/linkpgs/deathpenalty.html Fieser, J. (2001). Capital Punishment. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retried from http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/punishme.htm#H5. html

Describe and Evaluate Biological Explanations of Depression

Describe and evaluate biological explanations of depression There are many different explanations for depression, including biological. Links have been found between biochemical, genetics and hormonal imbalances with depressed people. In the biochemical explanation, a link has been found between neurotransmitter imbalances and depression. Serotonin is associated with pleasure and mood. Mann et al found impaired transmission of serotonin in people with depression. However Julian disagrees with this statement and says depression may be due to neuron damage rather than a neurotransmitter reduction.The problem with this approach is that it implies correlation and not causation, there may be a link but something else could be causing both depression and low serotonin. There is the chicken and egg problem – does low serotonin cause depression or does depression cause low serotonin? In other areas of psychology low serotonin has been linked with increased aggression and eating disord ers, as well as anxiety. Someone that has low serotonin does not necessarily become depressed. There is also the problem where people are depressed but have normal serotonin levels.This shows that depression is not fully down to biochemical imbalances but other things as well. It is a very simplistic and reductionist model and should only be included as a vulnerability and not the whole answer to depression. Another explanation is a genetic problem. Through many family studies Gershon states there is a clear inheritable component to depression, especially in bipolar disorder. Weisseman et al supports this by saying that for if a child has a parent with depression, the risk of the child having depression is increased by three times compared to the general population.This is a strong finding but as the children share the same environment as their parents, there is a possibility that the child has learnt the behaviour through the social learning theory of imitating and observing and no t through genetics. Kendler et al studied over 15000 twins in Sweden and found that if one twin has depression, there is a 38% chance that the other twin will have it too. This has strong methodology and is supported by many twin studies who have found similar results. On the other hand the twins share the same environment and so environmental influences may still be possible.The results were nowhere near 100% showing that depression is not fully down to genes, the people may have a genetic vulnerability but it takes something to trigger, perhaps. It is also unclear as to how exactly genes play a role in depression, without knowing the exact genes involved. Another way to access the significance of genes is through adoption studies. Wender found that a child is seven times more likely to have depression if the biological parents were depressed and the adoption parents were not.They found little evidence of depression being learnt. However Wender got his information about biological relatives just from hospital records and so there could be error of misdiagnosis or short-term depression only. The knowledge of whether a person has a genetic vulnerability to depression can be useful as the person is able to take preventative measures (change in lifestyle, diet to bring positivity to avoid depression), but it could be fatalistic as they understand they are more likely to become depressed – leading to depression.Diathesis-stress model says that depression can be better understood as an interaction between genes and environmental factors. Carroll found that high levels of the hormone cortisol are found in those suffering from depression and techniques known to suppress cortisol secretion have been found to be successful in depressive patients. However cortisol is released when stressed and so the high levels could be due to the high levels of stress the person has when they are depressed.As depression is twice as common in women as men, it could be due to the differences in sex hormones. Post-natal depression could be due to the high levels of oestrogen and progesterone that are released during pregnancy and then rapidly decrease once the baby is born which may account for an imbalance of hormones. Cooper disagrees with this statement as there was very little difference in the number of women suffering from depression after childhood and a control group of non-pregnant women at the same age.If imbalance of hormones was the cause then most mothers should get this type of illness but it is only a small number that get it. Menopausal depression is where oestrogen levels drop and hormone replacement therapy appears to be affective in treating many (but not all) women who suffer from this type of depression. However this could be due to the negative thoughts of getting older rather than the hormonal imbalance. Through the biological approach there are many possibilities. I think it is a mixture of biological vulnerabilities and stressful env ironments. Describe and Evaluate Biological Explanations of Depression Describe and evaluate biological explanations of depression There are many different explanations for depression, including biological. Links have been found between biochemical, genetics and hormonal imbalances with depressed people. In the biochemical explanation, a link has been found between neurotransmitter imbalances and depression. Serotonin is associated with pleasure and mood. Mann et al found impaired transmission of serotonin in people with depression. However Julian disagrees with this statement and says depression may be due to neuron damage rather than a neurotransmitter reduction.The problem with this approach is that it implies correlation and not causation, there may be a link but something else could be causing both depression and low serotonin. There is the chicken and egg problem – does low serotonin cause depression or does depression cause low serotonin? In other areas of psychology low serotonin has been linked with increased aggression and eating disord ers, as well as anxiety. Someone that has low serotonin does not necessarily become depressed. There is also the problem where people are depressed but have normal serotonin levels.This shows that depression is not fully down to biochemical imbalances but other things as well. It is a very simplistic and reductionist model and should only be included as a vulnerability and not the whole answer to depression. Another explanation is a genetic problem. Through many family studies Gershon states there is a clear inheritable component to depression, especially in bipolar disorder. Weisseman et al supports this by saying that for if a child has a parent with depression, the risk of the child having depression is increased by three times compared to the general population.This is a strong finding but as the children share the same environment as their parents, there is a possibility that the child has learnt the behaviour through the social learning theory of imitating and observing and no t through genetics. Kendler et al studied over 15000 twins in Sweden and found that if one twin has depression, there is a 38% chance that the other twin will have it too. This has strong methodology and is supported by many twin studies who have found similar results. On the other hand the twins share the same environment and so environmental influences may still be possible.The results were nowhere near 100% showing that depression is not fully down to genes, the people may have a genetic vulnerability but it takes something to trigger, perhaps. It is also unclear as to how exactly genes play a role in depression, without knowing the exact genes involved. Another way to access the significance of genes is through adoption studies. Wender found that a child is seven times more likely to have depression if the biological parents were depressed and the adoption parents were not.They found little evidence of depression being learnt. However Wender got his information about biological relatives just from hospital records and so there could be error of misdiagnosis or short-term depression only. The knowledge of whether a person has a genetic vulnerability to depression can be useful as the person is able to take preventative measures (change in lifestyle, diet to bring positivity to avoid depression), but it could be fatalistic as they understand they are more likely to become depressed – leading to depression.Diathesis-stress model says that depression can be better understood as an interaction between genes and environmental factors. Carroll found that high levels of the hormone cortisol are found in those suffering from depression and techniques known to suppress cortisol secretion have been found to be successful in depressive patients. However cortisol is released when stressed and so the high levels could be due to the high levels of stress the person has when they are depressed.As depression is twice as common in women as men, it could be due to the differences in sex hormones. Post-natal depression could be due to the high levels of oestrogen and progesterone that are released during pregnancy and then rapidly decrease once the baby is born which may account for an imbalance of hormones. Cooper disagrees with this statement as there was very little difference in the number of women suffering from depression after childhood and a control group of non-pregnant women at the same age.If imbalance of hormones was the cause then most mothers should get this type of illness but it is only a small number that get it. Menopausal depression is where oestrogen levels drop and hormone replacement therapy appears to be affective in treating many (but not all) women who suffer from this type of depression. However this could be due to the negative thoughts of getting older rather than the hormonal imbalance. Through the biological approach there are many possibilities. I think it is a mixture of biological vulnerabilities and stressful env ironments.

Religion’s Place in Modern World

Religion’s Place in Modern World Some people consider religion to be a kind of obsolete term, when applied to the modern world with all these scientific achievements, fantastic discoveries and rational explanations for all the things that were considered to be mysterious in the past. However, these people fail to take into account the fact that the idea of religion being the opposite of science only exists in the minds of the most primitive and narrow-minded variety of atheists. Major scientists and important people in the most significant faiths agree that they deal each with a sphere of reality that does not cover all the aspects of the Universe’s existence. There are no definitive scientific facts that prove the wrongness of the major point of any religion – the idea of the existence of God or gods. And that idea does not in any way contradict with any of the discoveries modern science has made or makes every single day. It is still wrong to assume that it is ridiculous to believe in some supernatural power, when everything is so neatly explained without taking it into consideration. It is not. Every question scientists manage to answer creates dozens of new ones, and the search for the new knowledge doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. Every discovery we make only makes it clearer how ignorant we are in what concerns the world we live in, let alone explanation of how and why it appeared. Two hundred years ago people thought that science will solve all their problems really, really soon; now we see that the number of unsolved problems not only grew less, but increased. Religion isn’t undermined by science in any way – on the contrary, the fact that a number of the greatest scientists that have ever existed believed in God makes it obvious that these two notions don’t contradict each other in any way.