Power politics and the interaction among states Essay

Power politics and the interaction among states - Essay Example E-government has become a reality in most leading economies around the world including the USA, UK and most of the members of the European Union. Realism Realism is the school of thought that favors power politics and came up in the aftermath of World War II. Foreign policy makers and scholars rely on realism to provide a platform for analyzing and understanding the political climate of the world. The role of power in world politics came to the forefront after the conquest of the world by Nazism. The Second World War was believed to have been caused by various premises of idealism including ideas of collective security. Idealism may have had a great hand in world politics, especially in formation of the UN, but it was superseded by realism. Countries of the world held the idea that the only way to attain peace was through military action and war. Realism is based on several basic assumptions. These include that states are primary and most important entities in politics of the world. The other assumption is that states are unitary rational factors in world politics. The last assumption is that states seek power as their primary means and end. The assumptions are important in settling various international relations problems in the world. Some schools of thoughts hold that politics is a non-violent struggle for power. According to them, all policies enacted by politicians seek to gain, retain or increase power. Naturally, states are at the most advantageous position to exercise power and therefore, they are the most important entities in power. Military capability of a country is one of the most important measures of power. Analysts and realists hold the principles that since states are the most important entities in international relations, their power can be exercised through interstate relations. States act through their governments which act in a rational manner pursing national interests in an environment characterized by anarchy. Governments have a set of p rinciples and goals that they strive to achieve through various policies. In the ‘70s, various scholars challenged the concept of realism. Multinational corporations are non-state actors in international relations and during this era, they emerged as strong influences on international policies of various states. International organized groups such as the UN came up during this period. The scholars found that states cannot be held as the central most important players in politics. MNC have a great influence on politics. There were important changes in the structure of international systems in the second half of the twentieth century. Changes in technology used in transport and communication had an important impact on global politics. Increased independence of states led to a greater level of interstate relations. New issues emerged in the economic, social and political arenas of most countries. The state-centric assumption of realism came under criticism in the 1971 essay by Ro bert Keohane and Joseph Nye. Their essay recognized the importance of transnational interaction. According to them, nongovernmental actors have a great role to play in interactions between states. Their conclusion invalidated the claim that the state was the single most important player in politics. They suggested further research into various actors in politics (Keohane & Nye, 1971). Richard Mansbach and John Vasquez also advanced the theory of non-state actors. Their study concentrated on

Catholic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Catholic - Essay Example imes, the intellect and will contradict each other – for example when man seeks salvation in rewards for good deeds; holds on to blind faith in an omnipresent being; or establishes belief in the afterlife. That is why religion has mass appeal because it organizes these abstract principles, which are intangible, irrational and yet expresses the feelings which he feels. Religion therefore denotes the personal subject of the soul and justifies mans actions as he feels right. Religion and inevitably the belief in god is central to mans existence, because it has the power to make him believe in things beyond his intellectual grasp - such as concepts of hell and heaven, incarnation or resurrection etc. - and that God has created man and the universe (Berkhof 1996, p. 106). In this context, the Christian worldview offers the rationale that man’s understanding of the world is inherent in the beliefs grounded by belief in God (Albl 2009). Since God has created man and everything therein, then He has also established reasoning, faith and rationale for the order of nature. He has "fixed the foundations of the earth" (Albl 2009, p.31). Based on this understanding, one can explain the concept of sin in human anthropology. As God has created everything according to His reason, then man also understands and accepts His logos (rational order) like all other beings. It is the natural order of the universe that man must follow these laws or principles established by God. These principles are reflective of the natural order of creations of the universe. Anyone who goes against this order will break the laws and inevitably creates chaos. For example a man who commits murder will create extreme resentment within his community; a liar will create misunderstand ing among people; and a greedy individual will create imbalance in the economic status of the society. Since God has created man in His own image, it is understandable also that God expect man to behave as He wants. Any

Implementation Essay Example for Free

Implementation Essay The article by Pressman and Wildavsky analyses the problems associated with the implementation of EDA plan in Oakland. The Congress established the Economic Development Administration which went to different cities with the mandate of empowering the minority groups by providing them with jobs. The administration chose Oakland as a pilot project to experiment how provision of incentives such as loans and public works could create permanent jobs for the minority groups. Years later, the project proves to gain no fruits with the construction work at stand still and the loans plan dead and thus creating no jobs for the minority population. Following the failure of the plan, the authors try to figure out the main reasons why a plan that had big expectations and the federal government invested a lot of money in did not workout. The article also aims at creating an insight in the implementation of future project based on what happened on the Economic Development Administration plan in Oakland. The authors use the situation at the Oakland Economic Development Administration to relate to other similar policies and project and make several recommendations in the implementation of public policies. The article is therefore useful to public administrators who intend to implement project in the future. Due to the high level of unemployment, the political situation and the possibility of riots in Oakland, the city was the perfect choice for the experiment. During the first stages of implementation, there was a lot of hope in the plan. It was a new project and was funded by the central government and therefore was given priority over other projects in the city. Due to this, very many people were concerned with the progress of the project. Leaders and the political elites were very interested in it and were very committed to decisions touching directly on the project. Moreover, the money available for the implementation of the project was sufficiently enough to reduce the unemployment level in Oakland significantly. However, the pressure in the implementation was so high and decisions had to be made fast (Pressman Wildavsky, 1984). Due to pressure that forced quick decisions, projects were chosen and endorsed hurriedly to create the much needed jobs. The original projects included 10. 65 million dollars being allocated for an airport hangar, 10. 5 million dollars for a marine terminal, 2. 2 million dollars for a port industrial park and 414,000 dollars for an access road. Later, other projects like hangars in small airports, air cargo terminal and airport tower were added to the list. Unfortunately, as the project was being implemented, some problems emerged. One of the major problems was the false characterization of the experiment by the Economic Development Administration. Previously, government agencies had worked in the rural settings and therefore had a mindset on how such policies were to be implemented. Therefore, it became very hard for them to change their approach in the case of Oakland which was an urban center. The excitements of the new project faded very fast while the changes in the leadership and the complicated governance in Oakland delayed the implementation of the program. The problems in contracting and delayed implementation resulted in an increase in the total cost of the project. For example the estimated cost of the airport hangar went up by over five million dollars between 1966 and 1968. The changes in the leadership changed the commitment of leadership in the project. As time went on, the leadership in Washington was less committed or concerned with the progress of the project which was basically due to the change in leadership. The Economic Development Administration was also faced with a dilemma of whether to strive to perform and promise since different companies had received loans but had not kept their promise. Many companies did not follow the agreement after receiving the loans. The program was faced with numerous problems such that the number of jobs created was much less than the anticipated at the launch of the program. After analyzing the implementation of EDA in Oakland, the article makes some recommendations based on the failures of the program. The first recommendation is that, in the implementation of a policy, the implementation and the policy cannot be separated. Policy makers should therefore ensure that implementation is part of the initial policy making process. To reduce delays, the policy makers should formulate means that can be used to accomplish the program and eliminate the possibility of quick decisions in the implementation process. If the process of making decisions is made simple by making the process simpler, the likelihood of delays and possibility of failure is greatly reduced. The creations of proper machinery in the implementation and execution of the policy is also essential in the success of the program (Hill Hupe, 2002). The article then relates the analysis of the Oakland scenario with other situations related to the Economic Development Administration such as providing foreign aids. In this situation, there are needs that must be satisfied combined with the need to spend the funds provided in a hurry. These need and the pressure therein does not provide the correct atmosphere for the implementation of the policy. The article concludes that combining different decisions in the implementation of a policy has some positive as well as negative outcomes. Therefore if a policy is good and the execution of the program is also good, then the possibility of positive outcome is high. Similarly, if a policy is bad and the execution is poor, the outcome is also positive. However, if there is a combination of good and bad, there is always a problem associated in the implementation and there will be negative outcome. Rather than the individuals involved in the policy implementation â€Å"knowing that† they should be â€Å"knowing how† if the implementation has to yield fruits. Having knowledge on the facts and methods of implementing the policy and how to make things happen is equally important (Pressman Wildavsky, 1984). The two authors, Pressman and Wildavsky make keys suggestions on how policies should be developed. Their suggestions are based on careful analysis of the Oakland Economic Development Administration experimentation. Although the details is the Oakland project are very interesting to the reader, the way the two authors apply these details to other similar projects in the country is more interesting. Although the project implementation took place over four decades ago, the analysis is still very relevant in administration of programs today. The most important lesson from the article is that policy makers should consider the implementation of the policy as important as policy itself. The article also acknowledges the role of interest groups in the success of any public policy.

American Invasion of Iraq Essay -- Morality, Reasons, Exaggeration

The American invasion of Iraq was morally and humanely wrong. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, American government went far beyond humanity when they gave spurious and idealistic reasons for invading Iraq. Over 1 million Iraqi citizens were killed and the country lived under terror for over 5 years due to the American actions. In 1991 George Bush Sr., attempted to invade Iraq, however, this mission ended before any major action was taken. George Bush Sr.’s advisers, one of them being Dick Cheny choose not to invade Iraq because of the fear that such an invasion could turn into a â€Å"quagmire†. In spite of that, when George W. Bush, the son of George Bush Sr., began his journey to possibly complete what his father wanted to accomplish 10 years ago, the invasion of Iraq. Bush benevolently argued that â€Å"democracy in the Middle East must occur,† and the best way he choose was by attacking Iraq. According to globalpolicy.org, â€Å"Before the war, Bush was repeatedly told there was no definitive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He knew Iraq was not a nuclear threat. He knew there was no Iraq connection to 9/11. Iraq posed no imminent danger to the United States. There was no case for a pre-emptive war.† â€Å"George W. Bush knew there was no solid prove that Iraq was planting weapons of mass destruction. There were no nuclear weapons in Iraq, not enough technology was developed in Iraq to target long range enemies; America was definitely not being aimed at. Nothing was being planned from the Iraqi side.† (globalpolicy.org) About the WMD excuse, George W. Bush lied that the Iraqi were a threat to its neighboring countries [Kuwait and Iran] and to the world peace due to the believe that weapon of mass destruct... ...ading Iraq have been told to the outside world yet. If powerful countries with solid military force like the United States is able to take-over a country for personal benefits then where will the world end up one day? George W. Bush was definitely in hype or hysteria when he made the decision for invading Iraq, this hype led United States into the war. History should always be used for granted; history is just like a lesson that is thought at any school, if you pay attention to it and learn from it, astray will not be your path. Works Cited http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/168/37699.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk /news/worldnews/1560915/Dick-Cheney-Iraq-quagmire-video-hits-the-web.html http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml http://www.teresi.us/html/writing/iraq_war.html http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3340723/

Working Together Story

It was a blustery Wednesday night; the sun was setting and darkness was descending on the public fields. A whistle blew and the boys playing football on the field all gathered round a small bald headed man called Kev Smith. Kev was the manager of a failing boys football team in the Greater Manchester U16'S 4th division. The team hadn't won a game for seven months and were last in the lowest league they could possibly be in. ‘Well done lads' said Kev with his harsh shrill voice, ‘ I have seen some promising things in training tonight and I'm sure if we keep training like that, we'll improve our skills and maybe not lose a game in the foreseeable future†¦ 12 ‘o' clock Sunday, next game†¦it's at home†¦. Be promt' he clapped his hands and the boy's departed, joking and messing about. Kev collected in the balls and poles and got into his car. On his way home, he put his team, (Oldham Fliers), into perspective- he realised his team was appalling. The goalkeeper only played there because he couldn't kick the ball. The defenders are rash and about as pacey as a slug, the midfield couldn't dribble or pass to save their life and the attackers had the flair and finishing of a bus. He laughed to himself, but in his heart he badly wanted his team to get a result one of these days, so they can experience triumph and taste victory. Sunday arrived- a cup game between Oldham fliers and second division leaders Rochdale boys. In the parks changing room, morale was low for Oldham. They're faded red plain shirts looked pathetic and their shorts of all colours looked shabby. ‘Now look lads, just because these lads have fancy kits and are in a higher league, doesn't mean we can't try as hard as them†¦all I want from you is 110 percent.' There was a uneasy pause and everyone looked at the floor ‘Here's today's team†¦ Twiggy, Goal, left Back, Dave Slowmann, right back, Joe Horsmann, centre backs, captain Si Horlock and Andy Fotheringham, midfield, Jason Frog, Jamie Stutterford, Lee Black and Andy Cheffsson an upfront we'll have Chris Gallagher and Paul Howmann.' The team were so unorganised they didn't even have any substitutes! ‘Come on lads lets give this all we've got and put it to them.' The unenthusiastic boys trudged out of the changing room onto the battlefield on which they were about to be conquered. The game ended 11-0 to Rochdale. Oldham played with no commitment and were frail at the best of times, things couldn't get much worse than this for the club. At half-time Kev tried his best to lift the players confidence and get them fired up for the game, but alls Kev could manage to do was warm them up by bringing them back into the changing room for the half-time break. The players ran around laboriously and panicked every time the ball came to one of them. The Oldham players strolled of the pitch and didn't look in the least surprised at the hammering. The clubs morale was also at an all time low and when a team are lacking confidence and morale it is visible by their performances. Kev said to his players while he was getting changed ‘If we want to win, we have to believe we're not beaten before we have even played the game.' Kev left and drove off, leaving the boys to change and talk alone. The silent boys than began to murmur amongst themselves until Andy Fotheringham made him self heard among the other boys, he said to them' Lets put in an extra special effort in training next week for Kev and play with some direction for a change, because we all want to, its†¦ it's†¦ just we don't believe we can, but I'm sure if we all tried and felt more confidence on the ball we could pull together and get a result. The boys started to murmur to each other more loudly and they all decided Andy was right and that they should all have some faith in themselves and try and pull off a result for Kev†¦ who gave up his time, week in, week out. Wednesday night arrived, and the team was warming up and running around the field before Kev arrived. When Kev pulled up at the pitch in his car he was astonished to see his lads doing something constructive instead of what they usually do before training which is throw mud at each other and try to trip each other over. Without saying anything to the boys Kev set up a drill and removed the equipment from the back of his car. The boys were far more accurate than usual when they did shooting practice and in the game at the end of training every single player ran around more and attempted more longer, harder passes and even some players thought up some neat moves and scored some excellent goals! Kev was surprised to say the least at his teams ‘confident' display. He thought to himself ‘what's brought this on?' Kev said ‘Home again on Sunday†¦ 1'o' clock. Lets put all our effort in training to good use in our game on Sunday†¦ all right lads?' Kev packed up the balls and cones and still couldn't believe his teams morale boost. Kev got in his car and drove off, leaving the pitch and hopefully the clubs slump behind him. ‘Same team as last week' said the sub-less once again manager. The words Kev said seemed to echo over the blank changing room walls, Today's fixture was against fellow strugglers in the league Salford all stars C team. ‘Lets show some confidence today lads and get this elusive result.' Without further ado the team left and were warming up on the pitch. It was amazing†¦ 0-0 at half time. Oldham hadn't conceded a goal and even looked dangerous! Every Salford attack was neatly broken down and despatched to a team-mate further up the pitch. Full-time came and Kev was numb from shock. It was the last minute, Lee black made a surging run and whipped in a hopeful looking cross which was rather awkwardly met by the head of Chris Gallagher, the ball skimmed of his head and looped over the advancing keeper and into an open net. The whistle blew and the boys stood still, they didn't know what to do, when it had sunk in they had scored they shouted and ran around pointlessly and even better the last touch the ball got from Chris' head was the final touch of the game and Oldham had ran out 1-0 victors! The disgraced Salford team plodded back in silence to their changing room. In the Oldham changing room the lads were making a hell of a noise chanting some English Anthems like ‘We're going to wembley' and ‘we are the champions' When Kev came in the boys fell silent. ‘For once, today we played as a team who believed in themselves and believe me lads, we played some very attractive football today, we should use this magnificent result as a building block for hopefully many more wins for the club†¦ so lets get ourselves in gear now and take this club into division 3!' said an ecstatic Kev. The boys all agreed with Kev and agreed they should all from now on work more together as a team. 5 years on Oldham Fliers are in division 3 and have attained a respectable league position, and have some talented young players†¦ and yes Kev is still there week in, week out.

Person-Centred Approaches to Counselling Unit Essay

The essay will evaluate the necessity and importance of the development of the core conditions in the counselling process and critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the person-centred approach on the counselling process. The Person-Centred Approach focuses on the clients own best authority as it is based on the client’s personal experience in his or her own life here and now. It shows the client as someone who has the ability of fulfilling his or her own potential for changes (Mearns & Thorne, 2007) I believe that Carl Rogers Person-Centred counselling is reliable. It developed the method of enhancing the relationship formed between a counsellor or therapist and client. Rogers proposes that the development of trust and understanding within this relationship encourages self-realization, and enables the client to acknowledge the problems and issues they are facing. This approach of encouragement and guidance, helps the client to feel comfortable about disclosing personal and private information to the counsellor, which in turn helps the client on their journey for there solutions (Mearns & Thorne 2007). Rogers identified certain core conditions which he believed to be necessary if clients are to make progress in counselling (Rogers, 1951). It defines the counsellor qualities and attitudes which if present, will easily change the growth within the client. The most important of these attitudes is the counsellor’s ability to understand the client’s feelings and showing respect for the client and being congruent or genuine. The Rogerian main core conditions are Empathy, Unconditional Positive Regard and Congruence or genuineness, but he also listed six conditions in additions to these three. 1. Two persons are in Psychological contact.  2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious. 3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist is congruence or integrated in the relationship. 4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client. 5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client. 6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved (The Carl Rogers Reader, 1990). â€Å"No other conditions are necessary. If the six conditions exist and continue over a period of time, this is sufficient. The process of constructive personality change will follow†. (The Carl Rogers Reader 1990 page 221) Unconditional positive regard: According to the fourth condition, the client feels that the counsellor values him consistently throughout their relationship, despite the fact that he may not value himself and even if the counsellor does not like or approve of all the client’s behavior. (An example may be! A client tells the counsellor that he is thinking of leaving his wife and kids because he has just discovered he is gay). The counsellor may not like or agree with the client’s decision morally because of his/her own beliefs, whether religious or traditional. In such cases the counsellor has to show empathy, respect the client for who they are at that moment. It is in their power to take the matter to supervision later if they wish. Carl Rogers believed that unconditional positive regard is essential for a healthy relationship to develop between a client and the counselor (The Carl Rogers Reader, 1990). Therefore it is conclusive that people need love, acceptance, respect and warmth from others, but unfortunately these attitudes and feelings are often only given conditionally. As a person develops he/she needs love and acceptance from important people in their environment such as parents and peers. The individuals often deals with the condition accepting by others gradually to incorporate their conditions into their own views about themselves like the â€Å"I am†. Example like I am the sort of person who must never be late†, or â€Å"I am the sort of person who always respects others†, or â€Å"I am the sort of person who always keeps the house clean†. Due to a fundamental need for positive regard from others, it is easier to ‘be’ this sort of person so as to receive such positive feedback. Over time, the individual looses the sense of their own identity and their own evaluations of experience, and the individual may partly or even entirely change due to the pressures felt from other people or the environment around them. At the same time, we have a need for positive self-regard – to develop a sense of trust in the accuracy and reliability of our own inner experienced, it is on this we must depend if we are to become independent from and able to make good decisions about life and how we are to be in it. We learn to view ourselves as others view us, ignoring our inner experience whatever we feel it is in conflict with the values of those significant others on whom we depend. Roger’s term for this was locus of evaluation. By this, he meant the tendency of some people to rely on the evaluations of others for their feelings of acceptance and self esteem (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Unconditional positive regard defined as being non-judgmental, accepting, and respectful toward the client (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). The background and moral differences of a client should not prevent the counsellor attaining the Rogerian conditions. The counsellor has to accept the positive and negativity of ones clients no matter their sexuality, culture or traditions and religious beliefs. The counsellor also has to show warmth towards his client. According to the fourth condition therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client. The warmth comes from the counsellor toward the client, helps to develops the trust between the counsellor and client relationship, but the counsellor has professional in showing warmth, because too little or too much will slow the development of trust in the process of the counselling sessions for some particular clients. The fifth condition can also be a part of empathy. â€Å"Empathy is a continuing process whereby the counsellor lays aside her own way of experiencing and perceiving reality, preferring to sense and respond to the experiencing and perceptions of her client. This sensing may be intense and enduring with the counsellor actually experiencing her client’s thoughts and feelings as powerfully as if they had originated in herself† (Mearns & Thorne 2007 p.67). Although there is only one physical world each individual experiences it differently. This is because we all have our own opinion and differences, and applying empathy will allow the counsellor to adapt to the client’s frame of mind. To illustrate, the counsellor should sense the client’s anger, fear, confusion or private world, as if these very things were the counsellor’s own feelings, It is of high importance that the client’s feelings or experiences do not emotionally distract the counsellor because it could pose a threat to the relationship between the counsellor and her client. Although the client may be desperate and lost in his/her world, the counsellor must remain as someone who is coherent and reliable, as well as sensitive. During the counsel sessions the therapist has to understand the feeling of the patient’s not doubt what the client means. The remarks must fit in with the therapist’s tone of voice which conveys with the client mood and content. Unless some communication of these empathic conditions has been achieved, then such attitudes do not exist in the relationship as far as the client is concerned. Therefore empathy is not just a technique of responding to the client, but it is a way of being in relation to one’s client. Empathy always makes the counsellor feels like being on the same train or bus as the client! It is the client journey (not the counsellor) which the counsellor is joining and staying with no matter how mountainous the journey is, without been carried away but still maintain the core conditions throughout t he counselling process. According to the third condition the therapist should be within the confines of this relationship, a genuine, real, or congruence person, unlike the psychodynamic therapist who generally maintains a ‘blank screen’ and reveals little of their own personality in therapy (Angles on Applied Psychology, 2003 page 47). Carl Rogers believes that it is the realness of the therapist in the relationship which is the most important element. It is when the therapist is natural and spontaneous that he seems to be most effective. (Rogers, 1973: 186). Congruence is the most important attribute in counselling, according to Rogers (Mearns & Thorne 2007). It means that within the relationship the counsellor is freely and deeply himself, with his own experiences representing his awareness of himself. The therapist has to support the client to encourage change and be positive. The therapist has to be open and professional during the counselling process. The aim is not for the therapist to express or talk out his own feelings but to be aware of his or her own boundaries so that he might not be bias to the client. It is important to be honest and at times may need to reflect on his/her feelings to the client, colleague or in supervision if it is standing in the way of the following conditions. Counsellors are sometimes faced with an exciting but frightening challenges, for some counsellor it is not difficult to be congruent whiles for others. They might find it very difficult or frightening but it could also confront us with the frightening possibility that we may not have the courage to meet that challenge, as Rogers wrote: different therapist achieve good results in quite different way ( Rogers, 1973) (example: the man who told the counsellor that he is thinking of leaving his wife because he is gay), it could be a frightening experience for the counsellor because of the counsellor’s background, but at the same time the counsellor have to be congruence and let the client know how they are feeling at the moment but the counsellor have to show the client unconditional positive regard and accept the client for who they really are. The therapist has to be transparent, by making himself or herself transparent to the client, the client can see right through what the therapist is in the relationship and that is how the client can develop trust for the counsellor. The famous Johari Window teaches us about the known to others but not to me and knows to me but not to others. There are aspects of our personality that we’re open about, and other elements that we keep to ourselves. There are things that others see in us that we’re not aware of, like the hidden area. This contains things others observe about us that we don’t know about ourselves. Again, they could be positive or negative behaviors that will affect the way others act towards us like our client. Congruence is about not having secrets, it’s about being true to oneself, and it’s also about establishing equal rights for all relationships so that the counsellor and the client can have an open but honest relationship throughout the process. Rogers’ most individual theoretical concept is that of actualization in which he is optimistic about Human Nature. Drawn from other theorists of his time, including Maslow (1962,1970), Rogers identifies that human motivation functions to assist us to reach our individual potential (Rogers 1977). In so doing we strive to achieve internal harmony between what we feel and what we experiences. By a process of our own internal experience we as individual develop by changes and adapting through the means of self regulation. This includes congruent awareness and expression of feelings evoked by experiences: we recognize, then express, what we feel about an experience. The actualization process is a motivational system from which our individual evolution and development occurs. Competing against this, however, is the conscious self. (Rogers 1959; Maslow 1962). It might help to understand Rogers better if we contrast his theories with those of freud because the two are so different. This contrast will show how Rogers can be thought of as optimistic about human nature, while freud took a far more pessimistic view. Freud thought that people were born with both life instincts and death instinct. In Freud’s system, two basic drives are associated with, or are part of the life and death instincts, the sexual drive and the aggressive drive. Freud thought that the aggressive drive was not usually directed towards the person himself or herself, but as it has energy and cannot be suppressed entirely, it is normally displaced onto objects or people in the environment. Freud was quite clear that, in his view, a tendency towards aggressive or destructive behavior is a natural condition of humankind. To Rogers, there is only one motivational force behind human behavior actualizing tendency. In contrast to Freud, Rogers thought that this basic motivation is constructive, creative and positive (Tonny Merry, 2003 p 17). But Both Freud and Rogers thought that childhood events are significant in shaping our adult personalities, but whereas Freud was not optimistic about the possibilities for change and development later on in life, Rogers certainly was. For example early childhood experiences are considered very important. The single most important factor is the degree to which we experienced love and acceptance from significant others, usually our parents. Rogers thought that children need to feel unconditionally loved and valued by people who are significant and important to them. The trouble is that love can be either conditional or unconditional. If love is offered unconditionally with no strings attached, then children are able to be naturally expressive and accepting of all their feelings. Conditional love refers to love that is given only if the child behaves in approved ways, and if the child behaves in the ways that are unacceptable, then he or she risks love being withdrawn. The result is that the child begins to think of himself or herself in terms of the evaluations of others, Rogers’ phrase for this was conditions of worth, and it refers to the ways in which our self concepts are fashioned by the judgments of those around us (Tony Merry, 2003 p 23).

The Post Office is Kitty-corner to the Court House

The Post Office is Kitty-corner to the Court House The Post Office is Kitty-corner to the Court House The Post Office is Kitty-corner to the Court House By Maeve Maddox Cassandra Marx writes: In the last few weeks, I have seen or heard numerous references to something being catty-cornered, katty-cornered, and kitty-cornered to something else. Would you please tell me what the correct usage/spelling is? Although I have included this expression in a previous post on cat words, I think it deserves a post of its own. Heres what I had to say the first time around: Catty-corner is a directional word, meaning that something is diagonally across from something else. The word started out as cater-corner. Cater is an English dialect word meaning â€Å"to set or move diagonally.† When the word cater with its meaning of to set or move diagonally dropped out of the language, folk etymology got busy and now we have all kinds of â€Å"cat† variants for this concept: catty-cornered†¨ kitty-corner†¨ kitty-cornered†¨ catty-corner†¨ cat-a-corner kitty-corner†¨ kit-a-corner This time I have my brand-new copy of Brewers Dictionary of Phrase Fable (17th edtion) to consult. This is what I find under the entry cater-cornered: Cater-cornered. Placed diagonally, as of a badly parked car in a parking space. Cater is an old word for the four dots on dice, which form diagonals, from French quatre, four. Other spellings of the term are catty-cornered and kitty-cornered, as if somehow to do with cats. Apparently the dialect word with the meaning to set or move diagonally, derived from quatre. As for the correct usage/spelling, the usage seems to be universal as to meaning. Something that is catty-cornered to something else is diagonally opposite. Until some authority decrees otherwise, I suppose that spelling and pronunciation are a matter of local usage. I grew up with kitty-corner. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Mostly Small But Expressive Interjections15 Words for Household Rooms, and Their Synonyms20 Ways to Cry