Strategies for improving women's political participation Term Paper

Strategies for improving women's political participation - Term Paper Example This paper tries to enlist some strategies for improving political participation of women. Strategies: In order to develop a sustainable democracy in the country, it is very important to have equal role and participation of women in politics and in government. Women occupy fifty percent of the world population but still they are under-represented as voters, political leaders or elected officials. There cannot be democracy in the country if half of the population remains unrecognized in the field of politics. Every nation should take adequate steps to help women so that they can acquire their due respect and importance and should have the tools necessary to participate successfully in all aspects of the political process. (Han, pp. 15-20; Paxton and Hughes, p.23-35) For women to participate in politics in a full fledged way, there should be wide ranging programs which must be creative and strongly focused in both type of challenging environments where democracy is just beginning to fl ourish and in more established democracies where women are engaged in legislatures, political parties and civil society as leaders, activists and informed citizens. These programs create an environment where women has built in confidence and can advocate on matters of policy, run for political office, can get elected, govern effectively, and participate meaningfully in every facet of civic and political life. Various innovative programs have helped to strengthen the political skills of women, emphasize on how women are impacted by public policy, and improve the perception of women in political life. The government should also commit in delivering democracy in all kinds of challenging environments. (Paxton, p.1) A government should focus on its high-level political relationships in order to encourage leaders to understand and actively promote the benefits of gender-balanced politics. It is necessary for any government of a country to have a prospect on training women and focus on the inclusion of a gender perspective in every NDI program. This dual approach can strengthen its ability to build women’s skills and organize women across ethnic and political lines, as well as create the opportunity for women from diverse backgrounds to converge around shared goals to solve problems in ways that contribute to the development and well-being of their societies. (Burrell pp. 12-15) A country should use a broad spectrum of inventive and inclusive strategies and techniques, in order to reach the widest range of women leaders and activists, which are uniquely adapted to best fit the local cultural and political contexts of the communities in which we work. Quotas can also be introduced in order to ensure that women acquire a minimum share of seats in the legislature. The rules that establish quotas in political parties and government institutions aim to assist women to overcome the barrier of under-representation in these areas of decision-making. (Burrell pp. 12-15 ) In order to be compelling and competent, affirmative action programs should be adopted and the establishment of quotas has to be accompanied by definite timetables with clear targets. India was an example cited by several participants who observed that the target of reaching 33% of seats to be reserved for women at the district level, which is also called as the Panchayati Raj, has been

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 7

Assignment Example The trends observed in 2010 was comparable to those observed in 1980s (Martin et al 1). These changes in fertility rates are caused by fertility rates among women of different ages, population groups and geographical regions. Trends of the fertility rates are affected by the changes of fertility rates within individual groups of the American population. Also, the rates change within some age groups and consequently affect the total fertility rate. For instance, there was an increase of the fertility rates among women in their twenties. A great decrease in the rate of birth among teenager women is notable, this decrease was negligible compared to the increase of fertility rates among older women. The trends of fertility rates are influenced by the lifestyles among women (Martin et al 17). Good medical care and diet lead to increased medical care while increased alcohol consumption and smoking of tobacco decrease fertility rate. This was ascertained in the trends of the trends recorded in 1999 and 2000. The increase in fertility rates was due to decreased alcohol consumption and smoking of tobacco among pregnant women. A fertility rate of about 2,100 births per 1,000 women is considered sufficient for a generation to replace itself. In 2006 and 2007, fertility rates were above this rate but it has been below this figure. Most of groups within the American population do not meet this rate while some of them meet. The AIAN, non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black fertility rates are mostly below replacement but those for Mexican and other Hispanic are mostly higher (Martin et al 38). The ratio of total live births to the population in totality in a specified community or an area over a specified time is referred to as birth rate. This ratio is mostly an expression of the number of given live births per 1,000 of the total population per year Total fertility rate

Reading for Pleasure Importance

Reading for Pleasure Importance It is important to read as it can improve childrens language use and by reading for pleasure they can adapt to the language easily. According to Reyhene (1998) children who read for pleasure could somehow improve their language skills unconsciously and automatically. Besides that, Bignold (2003) pointed out that the reading habit could enhance or improve childrens reading skills. Therefore, the main issue of reading is that it helps to expand young peoples experiences and knowledge (Green, 2002). Children not only can expand their knowledge but they can also cultivate reading habits for lifelong learning (Pandian Ibrahim, 1997). It is usually being recommended that reading behavior should start at an early age and conducive reading environment plays an important role in order to stimulate lifelong reading (Pandian, 1997; Anderson, 1982; Winebrenner, 1971; Sanacore, 1990; Krashen, 1996). The exposure to reading for pleasure could help the children in many ways and it can increase or improve their reading achievement. Reading materials appear important for the development of reading comprehension such as reading fluency, or the ability to read text quickly and accurately (Chall, 1996; LaBerge Samuels, 1974; Stanovich, 1986), and learning many vocabulary because children are more likely to encounter new words by reading rather than from their daily conversation (Hayes Ahrens, 1988). Reading could increase childrens background knowledge that could help to assist future growth in reading comprehension (Stanovich, 2000). 2.2 TEACHERS ROLE Teachers play an important role where they could be described as the one who can instill intrinsic motivation to read among the students. Cole (1999) recommended that in order to motivate students to do pleasure reading, a teacher must be motivated to discover their students literacy personalities. Cole (1999) also talks about the role of librarian teachers who could offer the students with an enormous variety of books on various topics, levels and genre to capture the interest of students in reading. Students will have the interest to read if the librarian teachers could provide books according to the four stages of reading development such as building fluency, reading for pleasure, reading to learn and mature reading (Gillet Temple, 1994; Fong, 1997). According to Abeyrathna Zainab (2004), teachers could help inculcate the reading habit by giving students the experience of reading under guidance such as helping students to select materials based on their interests. Students are usually motivated to read by adults and take the adults as their reading model. Parents would be in the first rank, teachers would be in the second rank and librarians would be the third choice in being the students reading model (Hughes-Hassell and Lutz 2006). Most of the students are motivated to read usually because of the parental and home influences. Teachers should never take for granted that reading potential of students can happen anywhere although they come from an environment where reading is not valued (Duncan, 2010). Teachers can have strong and lasting effects on students reading attitudes and practices (Pitcher et al. 2007). Teachers must adopt an enthusiastic attitude toward reading and openly discuss their personal reading lives with students. In the class, teachers can have sharing book recommendation or just mention a recent enjoyable reading experience that could help change the perceptions and beliefs of nonreaders. The main problem is that most teach ers do not do reading for pleasure. Nathanson, Pruslow, and Levitt (2008) found that most graduate education students viewed reading as important, yet many were disinterested and did not engage in regular personal reading. Teachers cant expect students to be excited about reading if they themselves are not personally engaged in reading for pleasure (Duncan, 2010). 2.3 ROLES OF LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANS This is the part where the roles of the library are being stressed and the environment of the library plays an important role. Every classroom should have a classroom library collection that can be filled from the main library collection. It is easy to access and at the same time could encourage and motivate students to read (Gniewek, 1998). The school librarians are the ones who should provide a richer collection by having latest books and knowing the students reading preferences. According to Abeyrathna Zainab (2004), students are not happy with the library collection when it comes to reading for pleasure. There were a vast differences on the books that the students need and the books that was available for them to read. It is suggested that to solve the problem, the school library should have borrowed some books from the public library for teaching and reading needs. This could help financially for the school and obtaining reading materials that students are interested in. In Thailand, a study was carried out about the roles of libraries. According to Somsong (1999), the roles of libraries, librarians and library programs play an important role in helping to stimulate and develop reading interests among students. There are lots of studies that indicated that children who are in schools that have libraries and librarians read a lot often compared to children who attended schools that have libraries but no librarians to guide them (Lance, 1994; Lance, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell, 2000). It is important to have librarians in the library as they can help provide resources for the students regarding their reading preferences. They can help children search for the books that students prefer easily by organizing the books according to its genre which will trigger the students interest (Whelan, 2004). Reading can also be integrated with electronics such as reading e-mails and journals from the internet (Pandian, 1997). Libraries should have equipped with electronics such as computers and internet connection to provide the latest issue or information (Whelan, 2004). Librarians should renew their effort in guiding and tutoring the children for the usage of the libraries to stimulate and to promote positive attitude towards using the library for leisure reading (Chai, 1996). A warmth feeling of librarians who welcome readers to read in the library could help in stimulating students to read more. In Sri Lanka, the National Library and Documentation Service Board (NLDB) carried out a survey in 2002 and found the following situations; reading habits of students was poor due to the condition of the school libraries that was not encouraging as the book collections were old and most students read light materials such as magazines, novels, comic books and newspapers (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). 2.4 PARENTS ROLE Parents play an important role in order to reinforce the childs reading habit and interest (Cole, 1999). The first teacher for reading are the parents as they are the role models for their children and this apply to the interest in reading either to gain knowledge or for pleasure. According to De Medina (1976), who studied 50 families in Brazil, reading only occurred when there is a place to read at home, if the adults bought books and also if there is someone who guides the children to read often at home. There is another study which supports that home does influence reading among children. According to Kathers (1996), the study is on the children who were active in participating in extracurricular activities or have children that perform well on their reading test and have parents who were actively involved in school activities (Goldenberg, 1992). Home environment did influence ninth grade students attitude towards reading. Home environment can be included when a child is used to being read to, having a public library use, receive books as gifts, large personal and parental book collection and have subscriptions to magazines (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). Parents who are readers can encourage reading for pleasure among their children but it will be reduced once the child grew older (Demise, 2001). College students do not need parental encouragement as they usually read for pleasure. Besides that, they also do not need their educational status to make it as a leisure reading habits (Blackwood, 1991). Parents who create a pleasant atmosphere that fosters reading by providing space, reading materials, encouragement and example will endorse their children the love for reading (Pandian, 1997; Greaney, 1996). 2.5 ATTITUDES ABOUT READING There are two motivations that could encourage students to read for pleasure. The first one would be individuals feelings about reading. Alexander and Filler (1976) stated that the feelings of the reader can be influenced by involving themselves in reading, thus attitudes about reading should relate to individuals. The theory of information pickup suggests that perception depends completely upon information in the stimulus array rather than atmosphere that are influenced by cognition. According to Gibson, perception is an express outcome of the properties of the environment and does not engage in any form of sensory processing. Information pickup theory stresses that perception requires a lively organism. The act of perception depends upon an interaction involving the organism and the environment. All perceptions are made in reference to body position and functions (proprioception). Awareness of the environment derives from how it reacts to our movements (Gibson, 1977). The second motivation is childrens interest in reading. Researchers have looked into the interest that affects comprehension. Schiefele (1996) found that college students who were interested in the text materials used in the study understood those materials more deeply than did students who were less interested in the materials, even when the students prior knowledge of the materials and general intelligence were controlled. In studies of fifth and sixth graders, Renninger (1992) found that interest in the materials enhanced comprehension, even of materials that were quite difficult for the children (although there were some gender differences in these patterns). Thus interest in reading appears to be an important motivational variable influencing different aspects of reading performance. 2.6 REASONS STUDENTS DO NOT READ FOR PLEASURE One of the main reasons students do not read for pleasure is because of the technologies. According to Gunasekara (2002), there are three major hindrances to the promotion of reading habits. It includes preference to chat using the computer, listening to the radio and preference for television viewing. There are also some students who liked to read and considered themselves readers but did not take the time to read regularly or update their knowledge. This does not mean that they are reluctant to read but they gave priority to other activities such as sports, social life and school work (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). 2.7 ACADEMIC READING PURPOSE Most reading was done mainly for examination purposes (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). Students usually read to prepare for examination. A recent Malaysian survey on the reading behavior of 22,400 individuals and 6,050 households by the Ministry of Education revealed that only 20 per cent of Malaysians read regularly (Pandian, 2001). This review (New Straits Times, 29 August, 1996) further stressed that the small figure includes students who read just to pass exams. In Malaysia, the students associate reading with academic tasks and not for knowledge or pleasure most of the time (Sunday Star, May 26, 1991). By doing this, it does not enable students who can read to use the activity in a significant way for self or social development (Pandian, 1997). The main hindrance on reading for pleasure is the excessive concern of students with reading textbook for examination purposes. Students will regard reading to pursuit knowledge in preparing for the examination as the main purpose of reading and they will never realize the importance of reading for pleasure or enjoyment (Abeyrathna Zainab, 2004). 2.8 TECHNOLOGIES AND COMMUNICATION Public awareness has been haggard to the rising crisis of non-reading among Malaysians especially among the Malaysian students. Readership behavior here refers to reading skills and enthusiasm to read for information and leisure as well as reading practices that appoint different prints and audio-visual contents, such as newspapers, magazines, non-textbooks and informative material of various multimedia (Pandian, 2001). The cultivation of reading habits is also inclined by a series of other factors like exposure to media and computers. We live in an era where technologies are the center of everything and we tend to be occupied by it. One study investigating the media exposure among young people in the Klang Valley has observed that in a week these young people spend about 14.6 hours on television, 3.4 hours on video, 4.1 hours on computer, 16.3 hours on radio, 7.11 hours on newspapers and 4.7 hours on books and comics (The Star, May 8, 1997). The above findings advocate that the visu al representation is becoming arguably more significant than the printed word (Pandian Ibrahim, 1997). This proves that Malaysians spend more time on technologies rather than having the printed materials to read. Reading reluctance happens when a generation who can read chooses not to read. This situation can lead to generating more reluctant readers. The term reluctant readers refer to the people who can read but do not read. The focus on reading is critical given the growth of communications technology and the adjustment of reality we tackle in modern societies. In order to make reading more meaningful, it is important for young people to learn not only to read but nurture reading behavior for lifelong learning. There are many new forms of reading texts such as mass and multimedia but it does not ensure if communication technology will be used to sustain students reading for pleasure and lifelong learning (Pandian, 2001). 2.9 READING MATERIALS PREFERRED BY STUDENTS Easy access to books could promote or encourage students to read more. In an article of a magazine by Duncan (2010), it is suggested that every classroom should have a library where the books are filled with high-interest reading materials that students would love to read. Books that are easily accessible are most likely to be read by students when they do not have anything to do. Lots of researches have been done on the most important role which is the home environment itself that could promote and create lifelong readers but for students who could not afford to buy any reading materials, the classroom library must provide many reading materials that could be easily accessed. It can also help to promote positive reading attitudes and help the students to improve their reading performance (Young Moss 2006). Teachers are the ones who will be in charge of picking the texts that are popular among students. Teachers should not limit the students reading by only providing books they feel students should be reading. Teachers need to widen the concept of reading materials and also supply books with a wide range of fiction and nonfiction books (Duncan, 2010). Comics, series books, magazines and other materials not traditionally read in school should be considered (Lesesne, 2003). Students who are intimidated by books, magazines and comics might be interested in reading as it offers a comfortable and risk-free reading experience (Duncan, 2010).

St. Augustin Essay -- essays research papers

From the analysis of St. Augustine Confessions and Beowulf, it is clear that the two authors, St. Augustine and the poet respectively, differ on their views of death, which helps to paint a better picture of the world that each writer lived in. In Augustine's writings, death plays a major role in life; it serves as the stepping stone to a greater existence in heaven. In Augustine's world, Christianity and God both play an important role in how death is viewed. In the poets writings we see a different perspective, one in which the time you spend on earth is of great importance; very little thought is given to life after death. Although God is mentioned and discussed throughout the writing, it is a very different perspective than the one shown by Augustine. In the writing of St. Augustine, the reader gets a small glimpse of what life was like in the Roman Empire in the forth century, and more particularly how death was viewed during this period. According to the Confessions, life, though valued, was just a time spent before God chose to bring your soul to heaven; contingent of course on the fact that you were a Christian. 'Yet in a moment, before we had reached the end of the first year of a friendship….you took him from this world (Confessions, 75).'; 'When all hope of saving him was lost, he was baptized as he lay unconscious (Confessions, 75).'; This passage about St. Augustine's friend helps to illustrate that as death drew near in Augustine's time, thoughts went to the after life in heaven. This hypothesis is furthered when Augustine writes about the death of his mother. 'And so on the ninth day of her illness, when she was fifty-six and I was thirty-three, her pious and devoted soul was set free from the body (Confessions, 2 00).'; Some might argue that the sorrow that Augustine describes at both the deaths of his friend and mother illustrates that death was not looked on as a passage to life in heaven, but as a very sorrowful and deplorable event. Though Augustine admits to feeling great sorrow at the death of those close to him, he goes on to point out that these feelings are merely of the imperfect body. When one lets go and listens to his soul he will see that all things begin and end with God. 'For the senses of the body are sluggish, because they are senses of flesh and blood…They are limited by their own nature (Confessions, ... ...n a rich shroud or embalmed with spices, nor did she wish to have a special monument or a grave in her own country…All she wanted was that we should remember her at your altar, (Confessions, 204).'; This is a very strong example of how different the worlds of St. Augustine and the poet were. From the limited view of the life presented by the authors of the Confessions and Beowulf, it is easy to see that the worlds in which they lived were very different. The world of St. Augustine seems well ordered and compact with cities and government officials. It seems to be a highly intellectual culture strongly influenced by religion and God. The world of the poet seems much different in nature than that of St. Augustine. The poet's world seems to be much less organized and vast, with various kings as opposed to government officials. It seems to be populated with many roaming bands, and the people seem to be much less intellectually and religiously motivated. It seems they lived simple lives in a constant search for glory and notoriety. With such different cultures it is not difficult to concede that their respective views on death would be as diverse as the cultures themselves.

Literature review on the cognitive processes involved with face recognition Essay

To human beings, facial recognition is not only essential for identification of persons in the social context, but also a vital social tool. There are various reasons why facial recognition process is a vital to human beings. Facial recognition serves an essential purpose of identifying members within our society; as a result, we are able to select those that we can socialize with that aid our survival in society. For instance, the males are able to select or identify the female and establish relationship that results to continuity of generation (Matsuo, Nakai, 1998, p. 110). While strong relationship and bonding exhibited in mother to child are facilitated by the facial recognition aspect.   The other vital function played by the facial recognition function is its ability to give information about individual’s emotional status through expression aspect like a smile or gloominess which serves as a mode of communication. Therefore, due to this significance importance of the facial recognition, psychologists have shown interest in studying the cognitive processes involved in facial recognition. In this line of thought, this paper shall examine and discus the cognitive processes and systems involved in facial recognition by individuals. Encoding of face by individual It is a common knowledge that in order for a person to recognize the face, the face features or cues must be encoded first in the long term memory. Thus, understanding face encoding precedes the recognition action. The first and initial stages of facial coding are referred to as structural encoding. In this stage, the visual information is encoded from the face into the information that shall provide information or be a data bank to face recognition systems in the stage of facial recognition. Encoding takes place in two separate processes, with the first one being â€Å"view centered description† that encodes the facial features like beards, color, eyes, nose, mouth and eyebrows which can be identified when viewed at an angle. From initial onsite of a person view centered description is involved in perceptual input that records the aspects of the face including its features. From the information input from the view cantered description, information is further processed to create a structural model of the face that facilitates comparison with other faces in memory. The second part of the processes is the expression independent descriptions that take its inputs from the view centered expressions. This second phase uses the already processed structural model of the face which is transferred to notional FRUs (face recognition units) (Matsuo, Nakai, 1998, p. 113) that will be now coded in semantic memory and would allow the facial recognition based on this stored information. In other words, facial recognition starts from basic perceptual manipulations on the sensory information to derive details about the person that generate cognitive ability to recall meaningful details of a person by seeing his or her face. Properly encoded face features enables the retrieval of features that relate to relevant past experiences of the individual and name that assists in recognizing the person. After structural encoding of the face features into FRUs, there are other parallel processes which occur like expression analysis processing stage receiving inputs from the view-centered process whereby an individual would analyze facial expression and imagine. But for the persons with brain damage cannot interpret expressions but can recognize faces. This is because these individuals with damaged brain, they can see facial features movements but they can not read the meaning of this facial features movement. Other parallel processes stage after encoding of the facial features into the FRUs is the facial speech analysis. This facial speech analysis stage of processing helps to separate distinct information from general information that gives more meaning to the encoded information (Shepherd, 2008, p. 320). Face recognition and identification After the information has been encoded into the semantic memory and can be used, the person visual perception shall be active and ready to retrieve features to identify the face.   According to Pretty and Benson, (2001); they states that face recognition involves stages that involve FRUs (Face Recognition Units). FRUs are nodes within individual’s long term memory that are associated with familiar face. When an individual eyes as a sensory organ sees an individual face which is referred to as a stimuli, it results to activation that is fed into FRUs. Within the FRUs there is inhibition and interactive activation, the node that reaches level of threshold activation will correspond to the face being observed, shall result to that face being recognized. While nodes that do not reach threshold activation level shall not correspond to the face being observed, therefore it will not be recognized. After recognizing the face, the FRUs and PINs (Persons Identifying Nodes) links and PINs receive input from the FRUs. This linkage enables the PINs to process and provide necessary information about the person. However, it is important to note that FRUs and PINs interact at levels of subject’s reaction time and name generation process for complete facial recognition. This is a simple process that leads to an individual recognizing and identifying the face of a friend or stranger. Possible errors associated with face recognition Most researches indicate that there are various errors that may occur in the process of facial recognition (Parkin, 2000; Retterstol, 2004). The errors are attributed to the brain disorders or neurological illness associated with such patients that are likely to make such errors. The dominant error is Prosopagnosia as a face perception disorder. Prosopagnosia is an impairment in recognizing faces that is usually caused by brain injury or neurological illness. In this case of Prosopagnosia, an individual’s ability to understand face is impaired, as a result, he or she can not recognize a face despite other perceptual skills like discriminating objects and recognizing remaining intact. The other error associated in facial recognition is misidentification. Misidentification error which is as a result of a syndrome which psychologist scholars refer to it as Delusional misidentification syndrome being a branch of the disorders which are caused by either neurological or mental illness to a patient. Misidentification error occurs as a result of a patient believing that the identity of an object or place or a person has somehow changed or has been altered. For instance, some patients with Delusional misidentification syndrome believe that close relative has been replaced is an example of the misidentification (Blakemore, 1970, p. 216) Reference Parkin, A.J. (2000) Essential Cognitive Psychology: Psychology Press,   Retterstol, N. (2004). â€Å"Delusional misidentification syndromes†: Psychopathology 27117–120. Matsuo, K. & Nakai, T (1998) â€Å"Cognitive Studies†: Journal of Cognitive Psychology vol.5, p.100–118. Blakemore, C. (1970). â€Å"The representation of three dimensional visual spaces†: Journal of Physiology, 209, 155–178. Shepherd, J. (2008) â€Å"Face recognition accuracy as a function of mode of representation.† Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 180–187

Characterization: The Breakfast Club Essay

A professor named Peter Drucker stated, ‘’the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.’’ The quote basically means the ability to read the emotions and nonverbal communication of another person increases the understanding and elevates relationships. A prominent writer and producer named John Hughes directed a movie called The Breakfast Club where five students with nothing in common are faced with spending a Saturday detention together. At the beginning of the movie they have absolutely nothing to say to each other but by 4 P.M., they had bared their souls to each other and become good friends. The five main characters are introduced as Allison the Basket Case, Brian the Nerd, Claire the Princess, Andy the Athlete, and Bender the Criminal. John Hughes uses characterization in The Breakfast Club by showing people from totally different backgrounds can communicate and even agree on issues. A scholar named Ally Harper wrote a book called The Explanation of The Breakfast Club that stated adolescence is the time of transition between childhood and adulthood where development which leads to psychological, social and economic changes, and toward ever-increasing independence (4). Adolescence involves the development of a sense of identity; it is a time of questioning of relationships to parents and to peers, and of roles in society (Harper 5). From adolescence to adulthood, people will always stereotype you from how you present yourself too even where you grew up. Throughout your years of schooling, relationships will be formed, and as teenagers begin to move away from their parents, peer groups play a vital role. Adolescence place a lot of importance on belonging, on being included, and on being part of a group; group affiliation not only supplies emotional security, but also is a source of status and reputation with motivational properties (Harper 6). The cliques formed during adolescent years can define people in their social world and follow them to adulthood. The five students in The Breakfast Club were stereotyped by their fellow students and their warden for the day:  Claire the Princess who was also known as Miss Popularity, Brian is the geek, Andrew is the athlete (Sporto), Bender is the criminal, and Allison the Basket Case. The strict confines of high school separate the characters. Under normal circumstances, none of these teenagers would even speak to one another, but Saturday detention sets aside these divided groups of people and bring them together under a common ground. Their punishments that created the members of The Breakfast Club allowed them to move past these social norms and eventually they find this common ground by interacting with each other, and learning the details of each other’s lives by looking beneath all the stereotypes. The Breakfast Club was accurate in its portrayal of each characters in ternal psychological perspective. While in detention, they are expected to write about who they are in one thousand words. John Smith wrote a book called The Breakfast Club: Throughout the day, their actions reveal their innermost struggle involving their cliques and their home lives. As the movie progresses, we find out the reason each teen is in detention that culminates in a climactic discussion about who they really are, which ironically answers the essay none of them were going to write (except Brian). In the end, Brian is manipulated into writing a group essay for everyone in which he gives each person their defining nickname. While each student represents a different clique, together they form The Breakfast Club (15). Brian the nerd, has packed a nutritional lunch, which Bender associates this with him being a perfect nerdy child who has a loving mother who still packs his lunch for him. Furthermore, it is assumed that Brian is the nerd because he ends up writing everyone’s essays and is a member of aca demic clubs. Brian was also subjected to peer pressure which is defined as social pressure by members of one’s peer group to take part in a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted (Smith 16). An example of peer pressure is when Brian chose to smoke weed with the rest of the group. Claire’s personality can be explained by reciprocal determinism which is defined as interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment (Smith 17). Claire’s parents are divorced and she is often used as a weapon by her Mother and Father to get back at the one another. The way Claire is treated at home affects her self-worth which leads her to feel the need to seek approval from others. In the movie, Brian describes her behavior as  conceited because she is a â€Å"popular† and looks down on those â€Å"under† her on the social hierarchy (Smith 16). This shows that her behavior, internal thoughts, and her environment are a ll contributing factors to her personality. In the movie, Bender falls victim to the fundamental attribution error. The fundamental attribution error is the theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition (Smith 18). At home, Bender is treated badly, which contributes to his personality as being depicted as aggressive, and disrespectful. In Bender’s case, everyone attributed his actions to his personal disposition and did not take into account his home situation (Smith 19). Allison the Basket Case is in detention for no reason at all, she explains later in the movie, she was bored and had nothing else better to do. Allison’s psychological perspective can be explained by Maslow’s hierarchy: Physiological needs come first, followed by safety needs, and then the need to belong and feel loved. Allison had met the first two needs on the hierarchy and the next step was to fulfill the need to belong and feel loved. At home, Allison was ignored by her parents and at school she had no friends. These factors explain w hy she is so socially inept and served a Saturday detention that she did not even have. Allison admits to the group that she sees a shrink because she is compulsive liar. During her sessions, her shrink uses free association. Free association is a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing (Smith 20). Andrew the athlete, shows a frustration-aggression issue when he gets into an altercation with Bender. The frustration-aggression principle is the principle that frustration creates anger which can generate aggression (Smith 21). Andrew was aggressive towards Bender when Bender disrespected Claire after she repeatedly told Bender to knock it off, but Bender continued to meddle with her which led to Andrews aggressive side to show. Throughout the movie, we learn about all the different values and morals each family holds. Brian’s parents enforce him to be a straight-A academic student, while Benders family doesn’t even seem to care if he actually attends school. Claire’s parents support her role of being the most popular girl in school, and in contrast, Allison’s parents portray the image of not caring if their own child has any friends. The parents of Andrew the Athlete portrays the image  of wanting their son to the best Athlete while not caring what anger issues this may create later in his lifetime. John Hughes doesn’t use stereotyping and physiological concepts to build the characters. The punishments that led them to the actual detention defined the characters, but like most critics, they viewed John as using stereotypes and self-concepts as the actual defined characterization. The crime committed was the actual characterization created that attempted to introduce what the teenagers were actually like. A credited author named Fabian Kraft wrote The Themes Associated with The Breakfast Club that stated if we take the moment to look passed labels and cliques a person is associated with, then we may find that we are surprised to see that person is unique-not just who they portray themselves as. In The Breakfast Club, John Hughes did not intend to differentiate the families to portray how they influenced their own teenager’s values and morals in life. The child’s own personal problems led to the way they act in public. David Popenoe, a Professor of Sociology wrote an article called We Are What We See: The Breakfast Club that stated more and more children are growing up with personal problems, little empathy, and a weakened respect for law and order and civility. Furthermore, you can grow up in what it seems a well-rounded family that overall wants your happiness and sets high values, but some teenagers like Brian for example will still act out. John Hughes introduced The Breakfast Club by showing people from totally different backgrounds can communicate and even agree on issues by defining the teenager’s connection of characterization through stereo-typing, psychological perspective, and the family’s different morals & values. No matter what, your own characterization will shape your life, but you have the choice of choosing of your own path.