Environment Influences Essay Example for Free

Environment Influences Essay There is a belief among experts that everyone is born as a blank slate. We do not know anything about the world and those around us and we spend our childhood years learning, emulating, adjusting, and finally creating our individual personas based on these experiences. Now the main question being asked by the other experts these days is â€Å"Does the environment influence people?† The environment has an effect on a person in more ways than one can fare imagine. My argument is that the environment does influence people, children most specifically, by building character and freethinking. We can also view the influence of the environment on people in terms of scientific and sociological aspects. In more scientific terms, one can say that an environment is based on the physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural, and political conditions that a person has to deal with on a daily basis and learns to equip himself regarding how best to handle those situations. In terms of society links, the environment has a direct bearing on how lives and societies evolve. People, progress, development, and the environment are like an inter-linking chain where all of these varied aspects converge to form a new form of thinking or character in a person. In terms of childhood development, we can safely say that the environment has the heaviest influence over a child. A child’s environment is not the same as in his home environment where everything is controlled by his parents. Even though parents may raise and rear a child in the best way they know how, that is not the environment that influences him the most because he spends most of his time outside the house. The environment outside the house is where the child begins to develop his character and sense of ones self. Outside the home, a child tries to become part of and to identify himself with a peer group. A child does this by allowing himself to be influenced by the people around him and following their examples and making it suit their own individual needs. . His environment also influences the culture of a child. Culture, is something that a person must experience first hand in order to learn from it. Therefore, since you have to live in order to experience culture, one can consider culture to be a transmission from the environment of the child or adult. Just like influence, culture is passed on from person to person. Even though parents try to provide the â€Å"right† environment for their children, the simple truth is that there is no â€Å"right† anything. The environment will influence the child no matter how you try to control it because a parent can only do so much to influence the child who spends most of his time outside the home. Of course, aside from children, the environment that they interact in can also influence adults. The social environment of a person dictates the way he shall conduct himself in public. There are a large majority of studies that support the argument that the environment does greatly influence the personality of people because the way his environ ment views his physical appearance will determine how he will act out in public. It is this belief that has most experts, such as doctors and mental health professionals debating various theories regarding the mental development of people. Certain theorists are of the opinion that the environment a person grows up in has a direct effect on his mental health and mental development. So there must be a concentration on the environmental development of a person’s mind. So what do these developments and studies about how the environment influences people tell us? It tells us a number of major things. First of all, the environment is not just located in one localized place. It also cannot be in a controlled space for long. The environment of children proves to be a very delicate and intricate part of growing up. The environment of a person directly influences the mental development, and personality of the child or adult. Secondly, the social environment of an individual influences his behavior as these so called â€Å"norms† show us how to act and how to have other people treat us. It is this social influence that trains a person to conform, comply, and follow the dictated norms of the environment he exists in. Yes, the environment does have a direct influence on a person. The direct influence of the environment on people cannot be measured in terms of quantity. This topic is so vast and highly debatable that it will take more than a three page essay with which to defend my stand. Therefore, I would like to conclude my essay on the following note. Each man is placed in an environment where he will best grow as a person. Be it in youth of maturity, that person will have an equal amount of exposure to good and bad environments. The choice of which environment he will allow to influence him solely depends on greatly influenced he is by the environment and his peers. The influence of the environment ends when the person makes the conscious decision to follow a certain path for himself be it in along the path of his environment or in an opposite direction. At the end of all this, the environment gave the individual a unique personality and coping ability that is designed to best help him navigate the perils of his environment. An environment will only influence a person as far as he is willing to be influenced. Everything else pertaining to influencing the individual mentally, socially, and emotionally are all conscious decisions made by the person him or herself based upon the influences of his immediate and past environments Games and Violence Computer games have seriously caught the attention of Mass Media and nowadays every channel considers its duty to remind people how much damage these games cause to children and adults. The increasing amount of games with violent scenes sock the society and makes it very aware of them.It is already common knowledge that violent games cause violence in people. This fact is not even doubted by the majority of people. Every other person says that the reason lies in games being too close to reality. The opinion that games make violent actions normal for the player and therefore make the player pitiless can be often heard. In this case the game is the cause of violence and the act of violence by itself is a consequence. And can real-life violence exist in the reality of a game? Is the transfer of the definition of â€Å"violence† with all its peculiarities from one world to another justified only according to the external similarity of these two worlds? Games originally are entertainment. Contemporary games are very realistic and for this reason they are a source of great experience for the player and develop the imagination. Games are entertainment and even more then that. In addition, the statistics of the New York University lead by Green and Bavelier claim that the player preferring active games get an improvement of some types of brain activity, related to processing of visual information. In particular, game players cope with problems of simultaneously tracking several moving objects at the average level of 30% better then people who do not play active computer video games. The â€Å"gaming† violent experience may not be the cause of violent behavior in reality. None of the playi ng experience will become the priority in making important decisions concerning problems in real life. A game is an abstraction. A player gets abstract tasks and acts according to abstract rules.Games are also the possibility to be however a person wants to be and to rest from the outside world for some time. But what if a person gets so much excited with the game scenes that he becomes violent in reality? Then, it proves that the games cause people to become violent. Let us stop for a moment right at this point. Those who do not participate in this type of activity usually make the conclusion of presence of violence in the game-world. Nobody will ever hear this kind of statement from those who play, from those who know the rules of the game and understand that it is just a virtual world. A psychologically healthy person will never confuse or connect these two different worlds. A game is a virtual world with visual images very similar to human. These images represent by themselves nothing but simple playing obstacles. A game may potentially give the opportunity to â€Å"destroy the obstacles† that may not be destroyed according to the rules but it is more about personal choice whether to do it or not. This leads us to the conclusion that violence is not a consequence but the cause. People who are originally prone to violence may get irritated by games and perform violence in the â€Å"real world†. But in this case violence in games is a simple justification of the violent nature of the player. Is a College Degree Necessary to Become Successful The value of higher education cannot be underestimated considering the contemporary realities of the competitive marketplace. A higher education degree literally serves as the first impression of a jobseeker applying for employment. Namely a college degree is a person’s pass to the business world and so work-related opportunities are enormous. Truth is, college degrees are never the same if we take into account the reputation of higher establishment as well as the prestige of a particular field of studies. The today’s holders of college degrees have unprecedented opportunities of job search since the employment market has largely expanded throughout on-line domain offering freelance and part-time vacancies. Though, in both real and virtual employment, it is always a person’s CV (resume) that is initially considered by employer and in 95% of cases the inclusion of college degree is a must to get a well-paid job. The abovementioned proves that college degree always pays off, and therefore this essay aims to discuss the present-day realities in due respect. Overall, college education provides students with appropriate knowledge and skills to be used later in real life circumstances and working environment. At that career choices do not matter since the contemporary market is vast and enormous. In particular, college education enables students to gain preliminary information about many essential aspects required to cope with real-life challenges. At that students expand their knowledge and acquire practical skills by grasping abstract theories and concepts. A college curriculum teaches students how to clearly express personal standpoints and opinions both in conversation and writing. In most cases students acquire global thinking as well as that relevant to the solution of specific problems. Furthermore, students learn how to work in teams and solve tasks in cooperation; this enables to establish team spirit and ability to make personal contribution to overall mutual achievement. Various case studies based on real-life experiences teach students to better presume and therefore adapt to further complexities. To this end, it goes without saying that a college degree always means more employment opportunities since it is the identification of one’s academic qualification. In comparison, high school education is not enough to meet the ongoing challenges of today’s market place, and therefore the overwhelming majority of jobs require a college degree. In addition to the expanded job opportunities, a bachelor’s degree means higher earning prospects compare to a person with a high school diploma. Therefore, our earnings initially depend on the quality of diploma we receive, and to a great extent college marks (grades) may be compared to the monthly salary rate in the future In actual fact, there is a problem concerning studying at a college. College education does not depend only on student’s talent, successfulness or willingness to study. The cost of education is therefore high issue on the agenda which indicates the affordability of college education. Many students cannot afford college education due to various reasons and/or particular life conditions. Hence, most students rely on loans and/or other means of financial aid to afford their college courses. Apart from financial reasons, of course, the initial factor is high self-motivation to study at college. Whenever there is no family tradition or lack of overall interest, or nobody to recommend college education, a young person may easily opt for other (alternative) choices. In addition to this, college education a ssumes preliminary determination meaning that a person should choose a single subject area (law; medicine; architecture) to master in college and therefore build his/her career. However, the initial indecisiveness does not mean a student should know everything in advance. A college education is therefore designated to provide a student with proper and substantial knowledge and skills; nevertheless, the major direction should be chosen well in advance. One other initial problem is that young people mistakenly assume that a college education is rather difficult. To this end, it is worthy to note that studying at college involves student support and tutoring. Most western colleges are equipped with the necessary technological devices and easily accessible academic database to assist students while performing their assignments. Certainly, there are alternatives (e.g. community colleges) to four-year colleges that provide sufficient level of education, though only bachelor’s and master’s degrees are genuinely valued on the competitive marketplace, and therefore most students try to complete their education at four-year colleges (College Board, 2008) . Considering the aforementioned, the most important issue on the contemporary agenda would be not the importance of a college degree as such, but its real quality. This is actually the root answer to the problem of why some people are becoming more successful, while others not. Specifically, the quality of a college degree indicates that college graduates obtained certain amount of knowledge and managed to process and, most importantly, absorb it. A core subject, such as law or medicine whatever, requires proper understanding, a contribution of solid amount of time and additional resources to make it a future profession that would bring profits. This is to ay a college degree as such is not the panacea in a working world. A proper college diploma therefore assumes that a college graduate is able to prove it with a certain extent of academic knowledge. Regarding practical skills, they are further acquired within internship, practice and actually working environment. Many people, howeve r, fail to prove their knowledge acquired during college years with practical skills and therefore are made to change profession/occupation. Historically education has been regarded as a key to prosperity, and college system of education starting from the 17th century has proved this approach to be right. Also, throughout historical evolution, conventionally males have gained better education compared to females. However, times have changed and starting from the second half of the 20th century the situation has been equalizing. The today’s working environment is highly diverse providing vast opportunities to the qualified specialists and therefore knowledge has been regarded as a decisive factor. Religious, sex, colour, socio-cultural diversities are more and more eliminated since companies need qualified college graduates that can prove their knowledge in practical conditions. This is the way most companies win a competitive advantage for qualified employees are regarded as an invaluable asset by most corporations. Such fair treatment based on professional qualities rather than individual features is reasonable an d justified. Based on qualifications, there is hardly any difference between pay rates; nonetheless, in most industries men still earn more than women. This indicates that discriminatory issues are more and more tolerated and the quality of education approved by a college degree is a real value at the contemporary marketplace (Leonhardt, 2008). One more aspect to consider is the vast employment opportunities accessible to college graduates. The point is that the modern world has become flexible and changing as never before. Internet and cutting-edge technologies indicate the permanent progress and thus success is now associated with s permanent change. Successful people permanently adjust to changing circumstances and diverse environments to reap most benefits. Thereafter, the work-related relationships between employees and employers have also altered dramatically. There are millions of freelance job opportunities enabling people to work form the comfort of their home and rationally maintain work-life balance. To keep workforce loyal most companies need to establish flexible working practices, including part-time jobs, paternity leaves, childcare leaves, swapping shits etc. Therefore, HR departments lessen work stress and enable their employees to lead reasonable (normal) lives. In addition to this, employees are granted with numerous bonuses and incentives that often serve as sound motivators to keep loyal to the corporate policies (Walton, 1985). Due discussion might be continued and further expanded – though the core theme remains the same – only proper extent of knowledge and skills approved by a college degree enable a person to change jobs and seek better option for career-building and professional advancement. A college degree is a precious asset we use during lifetime to properly build up our professional growth and development. Therefore, whenever there is a chance, a person should use four college years to acquire this asset and ensure his/her further career prospects. As a rule, college graduates make social strata regarded as elite and many of them are becoming very successful to donate money to charities and therefore reduce poverty. Hence, knowledge brings profit and profit is used for prosperity. In the 21st century this particular formula should be applied in all walks of life to make the world a better place. 1. Argumentative Topic (Alcohol danger for under age drinking) Alcohol addiction is largely featured by general tolerance for alcohol with periodically increasing amounts to achieve the same degree of satisfaction, having a persistent desire or the inability to lower the amount of consumed dozes, and continuing consuming great amounts of alcohol despite realizing that the habit causes physical, psychological and socio-economic problems. Such dependence is much intensified during the teenage period (13-19 years) when young organism acquires negative effects that eventually destroys the rest of a person’s life. Alcohol addiction is mostly featured by psychological and physical dependence on daily basis. Hence, physiological, behavioral and cognitive perceptions are mainly centered on alcohol rather other life values. Alcohol desire is deemed a central descriptive characteristic of the dependence syndrome (Mental Health Matters, 2005). In addition, alcohol dependence is featured by irresistible desire or compulsion to frequent alcohol takings, and consequently difficulty to control alcohol-taking behavior including post-consumption consequences; disregard of outer difficulties caused by enormous alcohol consumption. As is proved by numerous under-age examples of alcohol consumption and addiction, the dependence syndrome is mostly revealed in either alcohol taking or a desire to take alcohol (Mental Health Matters, 2005). The need for alcohol is present when a person craves alcohol and cannot limit actual amounts or whenever a drinker enlarges alcohol consumption to feel high. Then, this state is called alcoholism which is particular to the majority of drinkers who practiced alcohol consumption during the underage stage. Differences between men and women at their workplace Introduction: A very important issue concerning diversity is the difference between men and women at workplace. As the matter of international experience of hiring people it is very important to point out that there have been a great number of cases connected with discrimination. We consider this to be a vital problem even nowadays, in spite of the change of the reasons for discrimination. If in the past it was a major problem for women to find a job and to prove that they can provide results equal to men, in the present time the situation has quiet changed. In addition to that women start getting benefits and are sometimes the only possible employees for a given workplace. Women establish a very strong emotional contact with the client; at the same time they are treated as being less professional than their male colleagues. Male workers according to the opinion of the employers are more rational. They complement and substitute the women’s emotional â€Å"contamination† by the rational aspect of the matter they are working with. Due to this employers sometimes prefer to eliminate either the â€Å"emotional†, or the â€Å"rational† factor and put â€Å"labels† on the employees taking their gender as an evaluating criterion. But nowadays everything has changed and men and women perform each other’s work excellently. We have observed in practice this difference, when a job, considered to be a â€Å"male job† was done perfectly by a woman but did not get the well-earned recognition in the company. One of the psychological reasons for that, as we assume, is the incapability of the authorities of the company to deal with a stereotype and change their ways according to the changing world around them. So therefore, it is the lack of flexibility. Women nevertheless are treated with a higher loyalty in any decent company. And sometimes their work results may be viewed as just needing some correction in comparison to the same work presented by men that would be considered wrong. But all these are exaggerated examples. The cultural component of this issue should be taken in count, too. For example is we take a black male and a white woman we may meet with a â€Å"special† treatment to the first one, due to the company’s respect and desire to show that they do not have any racial prejudices. We, believe, that the difference between men and women still exists and women and the quality of their work nowadays displace men. Nevertheless, we have examined another opinion that concerns women. Rose Mary Wentling suggested another point of view on the differences between men and women at workplace. The author asserts that women are still experiencing difficulties in their workplaces. The main arguments that are brought are the next: women are not given the standard of work performance when they apply for a â€Å"male† job, therefore do not get the detailed and clear picture of their involvement; women are not included in all the kinds of communication throughout a company; women lack the opportunity to †grow, develop, and contribute to company profitability†. According to this point of view women are not given the opportunity to introduce their ideas and innovations to the company’s functioning. But the main issue to work on is that the expectations of the employers concerning women are different than the ones concerning men. Conclusion: Women are ready to travel and move and relocate, and to make â€Å"the same commitment to the company as men aspiring to leadership positions† due to the reassessment of the woman’s role in the society. Analyzing this different point of view we came to a conclusion that both men and women face gender difficulties at any kind of job. So therefore we consider providing them with equal conditional vital for the benefit of the company itself in the first place. A modern company should not pay attention to the gender attribute. Both men and women need to have career advancement opportunities and counseling. Men and women are potential employees of any company, no matter what position we are talking about. From with combination of two points of view we get an understanding that both men and women have examples of being not treated properly at their workplace in spite of having the required skills for the place. And it is not possible to say that either men or women are facing greater difficulties in their professional lives. So it can be said that the difference did not disappear, but it is not a single-sided issue. Dorm life vs. Home life Almost every young person entering the period of college education faces the necessity to leave home and to live in the on-campus dormitory. The on-campus dormitories have been â€Å"survived† by many people and some of them have absolutely opposing opinions. The change from home to dorm life can be called one of the most important event in the life of any young person first of all because it is the first extreme life change and also because the consequences are still unknown. Home life and dorm life represent two different ways of living in different conditions. Nevertheless they have their similarities and differences that can be seen only after a deep analysis of the issue. The choice between home life and domestic life can lead to complete transformation of the life of a young man. On-campus life inevitably affects the life of the person and along with home life have their pros and cons. On-campus dormitories may be a pleasant experience for one person and a terrible test for another one. For some people dorm living is a necessity. There are several objective facts concerning dorm living. First of all any individual living at the dorm will have to face the necessity sometimes to live together with up to three students. Only those individuals who have an exclusive position within the university may count on having a room without roommates. The quality of the beds sometimes requires repair and the closet very often cannot fit in all the belonging of the roommates. The dorm does not provide the individuals with an actual kitchen and has small space for refrigerating food. The dorm offers public baths which are not comfortable under any condition. The next fact is about one of the most important ones – the dorm cuts individual space to its possible minimum as the person can hardly ever be alone. Another aspect of the dorm living is that the individual can make a lot of friends and find a lot of people who have the same interests. At the same time dorm living sometimes leads to early sexual intercourses and a false â€Å"feeling of complete independence†. Home living is another option sometimes chosen by young people. First of all home living proved the student with the possibility to get healthy food, freshly cooked on a normal kitchen. The fact that the meal can be actually cooked is a plus for the saving in the individual’s budget. Home living requires having personal chores and complete responsibility for the place the person lives in. As for personal hygiene at home, it is private and the individual can spend as much time on it as he desires. Home living guarantees the fact that people come to visit the person most often under the condition of a beforehand notice. The individual may do whatever he feels like doing and not get involved in activities he has no actually desire for. In other words, home living requires a lot of responsibilities but at the same time offers personal space and the opportunity to relax, study or work any time of the day. Home and dorm living have a lot of contrasts such as: food, privacy, hygiene, leisure, etc. and similarities such as certain expenses required for living. If to compare home living to dorm living a few fact are worth of mentioning. In home living the individual has at least one full room which is completely under his â€Å"jurisdiction†. Home living offers all the required personal space and the individual’s movement within the house are not limited as they are in the dormitory. The dormitory does not have a comfortable bed and also the individual cannot equip everything in the most suitable manner for him. A home living individual has all the required space for his belonging and an equipped kitchen to cook food. Nevertheless, in the dorm the food expenses can be spited among the roommates. The dorm’s public bath has obvious disadvantages as compared to a private home bath. Also home, as compared to dorm living provides more individual space as the person at home still has time to be alone and in the dorm it is practically impossible. If the person does not want to party all the time, home living is the best option. In order to conclude it is important to say that the basic differences between the dorm living and home living are the individual interests of the person and his aims in life. If dorm living is a necessity for one individual but he has a high motivated for education – dorm living will not change anything. And at the same time if a individual without motivation is a subject of home living there is no guarantee that all these personal space and freedom will lead to a better future. Therefore the main factor here is the personality of the dweller.