Child Developmental Dimensions Small Discussion

Kagan points out it is “the child’s knowledge, moral evaluations, and inferences about the causes of his or her current mood” that form his or her interpretations to each “emotionally significant experience”, such as family violence (1984, pp. 275- 276). Therefore, the results of this process turn out to be various. The worst situation would be the diffusion of negative interpretations. The author of the article Orchids and Dandelions reports that “careful epidemiologic work by one of my doctoral students and a former postdoctoral fellow has found that in nearly 34,000 children from Manitoba, Canada, five-minute Apgar scores were predictive of teacher-reported developmental vulnerability at age 5 for a variety of developmental dimensions”. In general, these experiences impede the ability to learning skill, as it also does to the mental and physical health throughout our lifetime (Boyce, 2019, par 3, 10). Although Boyce mentions “a variety of developmental dimensions”, his paper mainly focuses on the “emotionally significant experience”. As we acknowledge from Boyce’s article and interpretations from all the work above, a child with a lack of emotional support has difficulties leading life and overcoming challenges.

Fortunately, not every child ends up the same. There are possibilities that children who are “about one in five”, also written in the article, have remarkably susceptibility to “highly sensitive to adverse events”. With this biological privilege, they can achieve success in nurturant (Boyce, 2019, par 5, 6). This resilience seems to be a perfect stimulus for the development of the reasoning system in these “orchid children”.  In general, during the unfortunate event, with a strong emotional basis, other positive forces have opportunities to win the child’s mind. To those whose genes do not cover resilience, we can train them to be persevering. The reason is the process of being resilient includes the perseverance. Perseverance is known as a trait of facing and overcoming difficulties.

According to the article The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children, from May 2012 to January 2013, the result from the experiment studying the relation between role play and perseverance in children supported the view that the perseverance is “a skill that is accessible to even very young children”. In this experiment, the children were asked to participate in a hard-working and helpful but “was modified to be long and boring”. When the children wondered if they "were being a good helper", the authors assume, “this reflection was most successful when it involved impersonating a character” (White, Prager, Schaefer, Kross, Duckworth, Carlson, 2017). To conclude, a child's favourable characters affect his or her attitude. Since then, they mirror and learn the trait intrinsically. By linking the model to the child’s cognitive process, it becomes reasonable to learn. Then it goes from all the work of the reasoning system to the child’s behaviors.

References:

Boyce, W. T. (2019, January 2). Orchids and Dandelions. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201901/orchids-and-dandelions.

Kagan, J. (1984). The nature of the child. New York, NY, US: Basic Books.

White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., Carlson, S. M. (2017, September/October). The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children. Child Development, 00093920, 88(5). Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.greenriver.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=dabcfa35-c22e-4929-ac42-9a252b24d38d%40sessionmgr4009&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=124970333&db=tfh.

Eurus Thach.

Small Discussions About Ambition And Greed

Another story I know is about the accuracy of the self-report strategy. There are many personality tests online which help us to find the strength and the weakness of ourselves. One of the trustful websites is 16  Personalities where people answer questions about their habits and thinkings. I have done it several times on this website and to check if the result can go differently. Compare to other tests, I believe in its precision. However, after representing this test to my friends, I had feedbacks such as "the second result was so different from the first one", or after I told them my result and it happened to be their wishing result, "let me take it back again. I must misunderstand some questions". I also know a person who took the test twice and from a self-centred type of person, she "became" a caring one who always thought about others' feelings. There is another person who took the test several times in a row and finally went to the section which had all the character types and tried to find one that matched her personality.  In general, self-report only works when we admit the truth about ourselves. The wishing results might come after attempts but only us who know what happens behind them.
FROM THE STORY:
FIRST DISCUSSION:
What do we always want to be somebody else? The answer is simple. "Enough" is not a word that likely appears in our cognition. Positively saying, it's our ambition. Exemplifying for this definition is when we want to get into an Ivy League school or become a founder of a top company. Vice versa, it is called "greed". Hence, including something a bit too much such as ruining the world. When we think of greed, we think of immoral thoughts and determination. Take a closer look at this, we never perceive a person who hasn't achieved one of their goals a greedy one. A baby repeatedly crying for more sweet treats is an example of this definition. In other words, we assert greed when a subject who has achieved one of their aims dramatically expand their wanting inappropriately.
SECOND DISCUSSION:
The ambition and greed give us different feelings when there are changes. Hence, if an ambitious goal is replaced, it’s neutral. It can be the case that the person realizes their actual potentials or have another path. On the other hand, when a greedy wish is changed, people are released. Because their intense feelings are faded when acknowledging the greed of someone. From our anxiety and worry, we seem to believe the negative consequences have higher chances to occur.     

Eurus Thach

Reasoning System and Child's Development

If we put an individual in an environment that does not fit him or her well, how will his or her development be influenced? In the book Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development, Rothbart states, “the effectiveness of a coping strategy, however, will depend on the amount of control the child can reasonably have their own behavior and the events he or she experiences” (p. 161). Hence, it is a very familiar phenomenon that children replicate the actions of the people around them. Many of us believe that the replicate will build up their habits and characters. It is hard to deny. However, it is only a part of the truth. In fact, according to Rothbart, the reasoning system decides them all. In other words, we do things that make sense to us.

To build up such a system, it allows the input of information. For example, a child sees a man crossing the street illegally in order to catch up on the bus. It is reasonable for the man to do so because of the rush. So the problem is how we can get the child to understand that laws matter more or an accident might occur. There needs to be a proper explanation. So whose responsibility is it? The parents, the caregivers, friends, and close acquaintance or even a stranger can play a part in this process. Therefore, the worse they play this role, the darker the child’s future is: “The child lives in a network of relationships with siblings, peers, and adults and is continually evaluating his or her qualities in relation to these people, while identifying selectively with some of them” (Kagan, p. 275). It is assertable that the nature-nurture fit is essential in child development. However, the reasoning system is the main focus. With the right basis of reasoning, the right outcome, behaviours and thinkings, will come after.     

REFERENCES:

Kagan, J. (1984). The nature of the child. New York, NY, US: Basic Books.

Rothbart, M. K. (2011). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.     

Eurus Thach.

"'Bros Before Hos': The Guy Code” written by Michael Kimmel

After reading "'Bros Before Hos': The Guy Code” written by Michael Kimmel in the book Reading America from page 540 to 549, I get to know more about how young men have to sacrifice their joy for the Guy Code. According to Kimmel, the Guy Code consists of the suppression of compassion, nurturance, vulnerability and dependency. The Guy Code is used to push their masculinity by the fathers, coaches, brothers, etc. Hence, since the early ages, boys have to resist their emotions and pain. Consequently, a report in Kimmel's article reveals, the higher the pressure gets, the higher psychological problems rate get in boys. Specifically, it is the judgment from the other men base on the Negative Playbook of Guyland. It’s a list contain the stereotypes of a lack-of-masculinity model. Kimmel implies that avoiding the list means boys can be safe from being put down through names like "loser" or "faggot". That is the reason why Homophobia remarkably raises among American guys. Homophobia occurs when people misperceive our gender. To get rid of the fear, taking risks is a popular choice between young men. In general, "'Bros Before Hos': The Guy Code” claims that masculinity is required to be not only a standard made by society but also the dignity of a man, which is the thing that needs reconsidering.

The report in the near end of the article is surprising. As we usually acknowledge, girls always show more difficulties controlling their emotions than boys. However, Michael Kimmel reveals, the rate of psychological and suicidal problems in boys is higher than in girls. Specifically, in this gender, according to the article, the dropout and emotional disturbance are four times higher than in others. Since the Guy Code training, the young men have had to practice to conceal their feelings. The disconnection to the feelings brings boys such a tolerance that is getting more intense. In conclusion, from the article, we understand that there is a border that needs setting up. 
Eurus Thach

My "Media Diet"

In this 21st century, it is hard for us not to involve in any form of media. Hence, media plays an essential role in our lives. It appears in many categories like information, news, education, entertainment, etc. Since the remarkable growth of technology, mass media become more favourable and appreciated. It brings both pros and cons to many people including me.

My journey with media began by its classic form- books. It was until the age of thirteen that I sincerely enjoyed books. Although the first book I picked was the romantic one, later on, my type was switched to literature and detective novels. The Old Man And The Sea of Ernest Hemingway will be the first title coming to my mind if somebody asks me to recommend he or she a book. This work revealed me a bigger picture of our beings’ extraordinary beauty of persistence. The next in the list will be The Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal written by Thomas Harris. Entering the work of Harris, I feel like walking in the world of many categories of knowledge such as entomology, history, poetry, etc. However, the main focus is all on psychology. Books are the motivation in the process of shaping my thinking and personality. In other words, books complete me. Behind every story is a valuable lesson for life. The specific characteristics of this media form I favour are slow, deep and sophisticated. I always spend time reading. However, since I entered the world of the Internet, a part of my reading time has been shared with social media.

Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Netflix are all the transportations that bring me the news, education and entertainment. There are also videos of talk show people, cute and funny pets or the business advisor base on your hobbies. They are high functioning. However, on the other hand, they tend to distract us from the information we look for or the beginning purpose we go online. Facebook caused me more time-consuming than I thought. Going over the newsfeed used to be the only thing I did before and after school, meals and sleep. Then one day, I figured it out that was not the way I want to spend every single day of my life. That was how the beginning of my “media diet” ran. Every time I pick up my phone and go to the newsfeed, I ask myself questions like “what am I doing?” or “do I know I’ll get nothing after doing this time-consuming process?”. Then I stop. Instead of the Internet, I spend more time with the ones I love and care. I tell myself that I should love them like it is the last day of my life. Since then, I will never regret not spending enough time with them. So whenever they are around, except for checking message or a piece of information, Facebook and Instagram do not stand a chance in my routine.

In conclusion, the media is only helpful when we know the limits and aims. It is hard for us to resist such a beautiful diversity of information and functions the social media has. To this “beneficial side” of the Internet, self-awareness is the thing we need to hold on tight. 

Unfamiliar Innovations Are Sensitively Noticeable

     

          Surrounding us are the myriad of impressive scientific achievements. It's undeniable that the growth of science has given us such essential movements, especially in the health category. Genetic engineering is also one of them. Since the 1970s, there have been wonders in genetic engineering. Specifically, it has helped the agricultural industry creating pesticide-resistant crops. Although the idea seems to bring us benefits, its practice is hard. Perhaps because artificial supplies are still are still new things to our people.

          It might seem that the pesticide-resistant crops are not something ultimately strange. The genetically modifying organisms might be no more than the combination between the traditional agriculture and factors of science. However, because it is an unfamiliar innovation to us, we seem to focus on its cautions than the characteristic of it.

          Hence, it appears to be a thing that hasn't approached our daily life before; therefore, its negative sides are sensitively noticeable even if there are disastrous consequences can be myths. Take LGBT as an example. Decades ago, it officially appeared in our society as an inappropriate thing to exist. However, recently, LGBT community is widely accepted and respected. Since then, it is understandable why thoughts like "strengthening organisms artificially can affect the natural balance of ecosystems" without clear proofs are common.

          However, as people focus on the disastrous consequences and the natural balance of ecosystems, they tend to ignore the benefits the pesticide-resistant crops could bring. Some perspectives predict these crops will help us deal with global food shortages. So, is being so cautious a liability to the solutions for our world's crisis?

          In conclusion, this genetic engineering achievement, pesticide-resistant crops, have difficulties approaching society because people haven't got enough information about them. In that way, we have accidentally ignored some innovations that might work great for the common good. However, fear and hesitation are the habitats that have helped humans to survive since the stone age, so perhaps we should thank them.    

Eurus Thach

The Harmony Between Humans And Machines

          We are living in a modern world full of supplies provided by intelligent machines. Thank the advances in technology, we are able to have more qualified goods and significant science explorations. Hence, intelligent machines help human beings develop and vice versa. However, they also produce problems.

  First, let's get to the idea of how we grow into better through the development of intelligent machines. As the growth of technology, we need to reevaluate our abilities. To have innovations in technology, we need to improve our knowledge. By then, education goes more various. As more scientific achievements we have, as more knowledge for us to purchase. For example, lost of new technological majors appear such as MIS or IT. In other words, the world's knowledge has elaborated to a higher level.

  On the other hand, because intelligent machines are repetitive, high-speed and extremely precise, the low-skill jobs are slowly taken over in our community. Since then, the potentials of the decrease in the unemployment rate is an essential concern. However, I believe there are always ways to work things out. The resilient evidence is the hard time when the economic collapse takes place, we find out solutions and innovations to solve things out. After the rain of the Depressions in history, the country rose up stronger. Take this concern as a Depression, we can push our limits higher than we've ever known. One suggestion is the open schools for the unemployed. Providing them with mechanical and technological knowledge is a way to help them get a new job.

          In contrast, there are perspectives in the society that bring us a limited view of the intelligent machines. By blaming the community's dissonance on them, we tend to forget the fact the conflicts of religions and cultures have more potentials to cause a war than a machine.

          In conclusion, advances in technology have given us chances to overcome or develop the long-standing ideas of what people can be. By that way, we also help the technology grow. It has been proved to be a harmony between humans and machines by the remarkable ways that education developed and myriad scientific achievements.

Eurus Thach

When Seeking For Others’ Lack Become Such A Fascinating Hobby Of The Human Race

From early ages, we have learned that there are always consequences comes after what we do. The stories like The Three Little Pigs play an important role in the recognition of the unwanting results of misbehaving in our childhood. We don’t want to be the misbehaving characters,  we don’t want to face the punishment, so we work on our incomplete traits. We learn to have voices inside our heads what we do bad things. Our mind then connects to the scenes of consequences and quickly awakes the consciences in us. In other words, we may deduce that bad models are imperative for the development of our characteristics and morality. 

Since we start analyzing the characters in the stories we know, we start judging. Being an essential part of our thinking system, judgment allows us to look at the mistakes, analyze and rate the quality of other individuals. We acknowledge most of the murderers are cold or most of the philanthropists are angles of God. Since then, we believe good models have more the living way to learn.

As the judging sense gets stronger, there are times that we got carried away. It’s when there is no more accommodation for the schemas and perceptions in our thinking systems. In plenty of cases, we might lock our mind in the box of the archetypes we build up for others. For example, some still believe Asians are good at Mathematics and LGBT is either a kind of sickness or an error of creation. Humorously, there are some ironical cases when a person, who lacks a quality, judges a person who also lacks that quality. I’ve seen a big-headed person judges another big-headed one. One said, “you don’t know that until it happens to you”. Hence, the joy of judgment is that how much we realize we’re better than others and that we have something to be proud of ourselves. Plus, Sigmund Freud also said humiliation was a way to release our anger. Therefore, he concluded human beings as “homo homini lupus” (a man is a wolf to a man). A person judges a bad girl by comparing the nights she spends with her boyfriend with the nights she stays at the apartment with her housemates. Since then, he can see himself as a good model and a wise man. However, when he gets a girlfriend for whom he can’t stop falling, he is later sympathetic to the girl. But still, he tries to find many reasons for not blaming himself. Or another case is even worse: a guy makes fun of the victims of sexual abuse. Since when seeking for others’ lack become such a fascinating hobby of the human race? 

We can’t stop ourselves from judging, can we? However, we can choose where is the yellow line to stop and not to turn ourselves into the slaves of judging.

Eurus Thach

Fight When The Battle Is Still Dangerous

We only fight when the battle is still dangerous. We only head in the gamble which still hazards. Only the warriors who fight in the first place have the right to criticize the battle at the very last moments. Who never be a critic in others’ glorious time, when failure comes to them, shall stay ignorant. Hence, one of Victor Hugo’s greatest work - The Les Miserable has given us a valuable lesson of being a smart critic.  

I happened to know the case of B and C, which inspired me to write this post. B and C have been best friends for years. They also work at the same company. Everyone includes B believes C is a great leader. B is a homie to C and B knows C really well. However, there is no “vice versa". B keeps a secret - a big debt from gambling. When the rush of the renter come, B, who is an account, starts stealing the monthly income of the company. To the point that the company seriously lacks investment money, B is caught. It is C who found out and asks B to leave the company. C keeps things silent except with the chairman. Punishment is set, B is leaving the company in a week with a new debt. The glorious time of judgment and blaming is when there is no explanation. C got rumours behind his back. “He cheated us,” one says. “I saw him once doing some suspicious things” another adds. B is now terrified. What can a person do when he is afraid? He’ll do anything to gain back his confidence. When being asked about C, B starts criticizing C and analysing every mistake he makes. At that moment, in the employees’ thinking, C no longer deserves the support and the compliments he has received. They refuse all the good sides C got and successfully gains his confidence back. The attraction of criticism is so powerful that B gets carried away. Get moving as a reason, the day B walks out of the company, he still keeps his head up. In the end, C has to do what he has to do. He keeps staying silent and bringing the company back in line. 

The reason the employees criticized B is they were disappointed by C. In other words, C was out of their expectation. Their knowledge, at that moment, was accessed. The new data challenges one’s belief, which directly approaches their emotions. In this story, the majority chose frustration. They started to fight against the bleeding king. Hence, the end of admiration happened in a blink. On the other hand, the king, whose pride was then damaged, was not brave enough to call for help. Your achievements and the end of them always attract the curiosity of the society. 

A battle against a powerful individual is always a greater story than a battle against a losing one.

Eurus Thach 

Life Is Beautiful Though Sometimes Its Beauty Is A Little Bit Hard To Savour

Human beings have been chasing after the self-satisfaction and good feelings for thousands of decades. It is a natural instinct and it is an undeniable right in the state of nature. Because of this, it turns out difficult for us to face the consequences when things go wrong. Imagine when you got cheated. Imagine when you grow up in a home full of violence. Imagine when the ones you love the most suddenly pass away. There are some of us who are disappointed, some might be depressed, the others might think about suicide and many people might choose to do so.

When things go down to the hole, we might wonder why that the negativities, the pains, the tragedies hit us all at once. Is that our faults or it is meant to be? We are not born to expect the sorrow to come. We are not taught what to do when we’re broken. We choose joy and I strongly believe everyone deserves it.

We, humans, have a remarkable ability to build up hope. Let’s take an example when we are looking at the ones we love lying on the bed of the hospital and hear that they are untreatable, what we will do? After hours and hours drowning ourselves in tears and regret, we build up our hope. Victor Hugo once said, “hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man”. In the darkest night, we’ll hold on to anything even a spot of light. However, when the ones we love can’t make it, it’s impossible for us to accept the truth. Are we avoiding to believe what is happening around us?

Please open your hands. Please do the hand gesture like you are reaching something. We’ll see our fingers open, keep space from each other, won’t we? Our hands will be in the direction of the object, won’t they? The highest possibility here is our middle fingers will touch the object first. Well, we are all so familiar to the middle finger’ s meaning. Hence, whenever we touch or reach something, the disadvantages, the unexpected negativities are already there, in front of us. However, we choose to ignore them all.

How many people think of the possibilities of the negativities? How many people prepare for them? How many people are ready to face them?

Some people may feel pessimistic thinking about them but I’d rather say how thoughtful and brave of them to do so.

Thinking about the lost, we will appreciate the time we got with the ones we love. Thinking about the pain, we will pick up lessons.

Even life is full of obstacles, it is still full of light.

We can choose to spend our best effort to forget about something or we can choose to remember it, learn from it to turn the pain into something precious.

Hence, life is beautiful though sometimes its beauty is a little bit hard to savour.

Eurus Thach.

When You Knock Your Ex-crush' s Door Twice

(A picture of Brennan Ehrhardt
https://unsplash.com/search/photos/red-door?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

I have knocked my ex-crush’ s door twice. Hence, twice, but not in a then-run-away way. I and my ex-crush had known each other before. We had chatted for a week before he told me that he missed me and started sending me heart emojis. Then things suddenly became silent that I was so shocked and I questioned myself where I had done wrong. It was in the winter that the first time occurred, the snow was falling when my sister was driving me to the destination. “I need to go”, I told her so. I was more than excited and a bit thrilled. I had seen him at school in an extremely stressful mood and I told myself “you must do something, he is not ok at all”. I had tried to reach him several times before all the effort went down to the hole. “I can try saying some positive things or at least I can tell him that I like him”. Sitting on the car, the strong feelings about him kept making my heart heavier. It’s the longest 10-minute distance I had ever known. I knocked, the door opened. Tiny snowflakes were dancing around me when the one appeared at the door froze me a bit. It was his mom. “Life is not as beautiful as a fairy tale”, I assumed, “well, it can’t end this way”. With a huge surprising expression that still remained on her face after our greeting, I softly asked if she could tell him that I came. I went back to the car with a huge happy-ending hope. However, there was nothing in response. “What a poor guy”, then I comforted myself, “his phone must be stolen”.

If there is a “first time”, the “second time” will always go after. In another snowing day, after I helped my brother with his heavy delivery job, I went exhausted. I then still decide to challenge my fate again. Again, I met his mother and the response never came.

My sister told me that I lost the self-respect of a girl and that she never wanted to be like me.

Awww, how can I say? Her bowling ball had perfectly stricken all the pin laying in my heart.

People who knew my story told me that I was so out of my mind and that girls never did do such things. I had being drown in their words for weeks until I realized something. Hence, “no one does such things. Especially a girl”. However, I did, which meant that bravery was greater than others. Imagine if I was in an interview in which the interviewer gently asked me “how risky can you be?”, I would confidently tell them “I’m willing to take the consequence or at least I can have a positive look at everything I do”. 

I then met a guy whom I am dating now. It’s more than a blessing to me that we can be together. “There will always be a better one”, he told me, “even when you suppose that the previous person is the best”. Hence, I so appreciate that he is mine and vice versa.

I met my ex-crush again on a day that Sakura was celebrating the air of the spring and asked him how he was doing.

Perhaps there are always people in our lives who are meant to be the passengers.

Eurus Thach.