Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896 in Neuchatel Switzerland, son of Arthur a professor of medieval literature Piaget and Rebecca Jackson an intelligent and energetic person.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Jean Piaget specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More He married and had three children. The birth of his children prompted his interest on what happens in children’s early lives and their later development. His children were his subject for his experiments and which he came up with the cognitive development theory. His works and studies made him famous. He mainly dealt with intellectual growth of children. Piaget believed that a child’s thinking, like that of an adult, was adaptive to the dynamic characteristics, facilitated by operative intelligence, and static characteristics, facilitated by figurative intelligence, of life’s reality. As he advanced in his study, Piaget realized that assimila tion and accommodation dominated interchangeably but that one process could not exist without the other. Piaget came up with a theory that described the developmental stages in children. The theory was very significant in different fields like sociology, psychology and education providing an essential part in the foundation for constructivist learning as lasting contribution to psychology. Piaget legacy has greatly influenced many other people like him in understanding the way children develop and his work is regarded with awe by psychologists all over the world. Although his theory has received a lot of criticism, his view of the mechanism with which the children’s minds work has gone a long way in helping people to understand the thought process of children development and why they cannot perform tasks for which they are not mature enough psychologically to undertake.Advertising Looking for essay on biography? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More He continues to inspire more people working in the fields of psychology, sociology, education, law and economics through his existing works up to this date. Today his works are being used in the field of artificial knowledge to expand on the present knowledge in this field. For instance there are robots which are being created that will be used to evidently show the cognitive abilities of children’s development in a similar pattern step by step as described by Piaget. ( Woodhead, 1998 53) Learning is a process that involves a change of behavior because of the experiences faced by a person in their lifetime. The way people learn is different from person to person. There are those who learn through their own experiences or from other people’s experiences but the most complex question is how an individual cautiously is aware of what is going on around him/her particularly at very young age. Children undergo informal learning which is accounted for by what they see people around them do. As a child’s grows up then it is able to be introduced to formal learning. The process of formal learning includes going to school hence its good to note that learning process is present both at school and family context.. ( Cohen 2002 29) How an individual learns is a process that is dictated by the kind of environment one is in. One way of learning is through thought and language. These two processes are helpful in terms of developing communicative literacy. The ability to comprehensively understand both speech and symbolic language as a way of communicating ideas and to interpret their meaning is perceived as learning. Several theories have been formulated to explain the relationship between language, thinking and learning. That is why Piaget among other scholars embarked on a research that would explain and help us understand how children developed using language and cognition. Piaget discussed the following stages: Sensorimotor st age/period (ages from birth-2yrs). Piaget described this stage mainly by observing one of his daughters, Jacqueline, while playing with her plastic duck and it fell behind a fold out of Jacqueline’s sight. Piaget realized that although his daughter could see where the duck had fallen, she had no interest in reaching for it unlike when it was in her sight, she seemed to forget its existence when it was not in sight.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Jean Piaget specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Piaget describes this stage as the period when infants interact with their surrounding environment using reflexes. A period where they learn to control and coordinate their bodies. He explains that the mental development of children resulted from several social dynamic factors and it happens step by step. These children should be taught through senses like frowning or laughing as this kind of teaching works more on the child’s sensory system. Preoperational stage (from 2-7 yrs).At this age, the child is or about to talk, the child uses symbols to represent objects since he has mental representations. Drawings, written words or spoken words are used in this stage to represent physical objects. The use of language and manipulation of symbols enables the child to be able to think in absence of the physical objects. At this age, children view things that are happening around them in their own point of view and probably cannot reason with others. An example, if a child does not want to see someone what they would mostly cover their eyes with their hands thinking that the other person will not see them as well. convincing this child otherwise would make it even more confusing because the child sees the world very differently from adults. Piaget made it clear that children inability to grasp the concept of conservation is because of their capacity to focus on one phase of a problem at a time. In this case according to these children they cannot logically understand why a short wide glass and along thin glass can hold the same amount of water this is the current physical condition of the objects. Concrete operational stage (7-12 yrs of age). This period, a child can now use and manipulate the symbols logically within the framework of actual circumstances. They are now capable of arranging and putting objects in order and understand the relation between different objects. For example if you put small balls arranged on parallel sides then scatter them around and ask a child who is in Preoperational stage and Concrete operational stage what they think about the balls in terms of numbers, the child in Preoperational stage would likely state that the scattered balls are more compared to those aligned parallel because the child will focus on the scatter while the child in Concrete operational stage would know that the balls are still the same number even though they are scattered because of their ability to conserve number, weight, mass, area, length and liquid volume.Advertising Looking for essay on biography? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In addition, the child learns classification, being able to categorize things into sets, and serialization, being able to put things in order. Bradley (1991, 89) states that Children at the age 8-10 years need to repetitively do activities like learning and revising in order to maintain efficient balance to what is happening around them Formal Operational Stage (12years-adulthood). At this stage, children have the capability to think logically, abstractly and also theoretically and they have no reason to use concrete objects to make any coherent judgment. This is regarded as the final stage of cognitive development. Children in this stage hold much broader understanding about the world and all that is around them. sensorimotor stage/period. This period marks the beginning of a child’s development through congenital reflexes which all infants are born with. According to Piaget this stage marks the time when a child starts to understand the world a period where a child lacks ob ject permanence given that children at this age are only aware of the objects and people who are immediately around them at that particular moment. He further subdivides this stage it in to six sub stages. From birth to six weeks: This is the time the child develops reflexes. The child may begin working on stimulus reactions usually a repetitive action. Infants have several varieties of reflexes, there are those that are permanent like blinking and gagging. Piaget discusses about three responses that include putting objects in the mouth and sucking them, following moving or interesting objects using their eyes, and grasping items when they came into contact with the palm of their hands. A very good example is when a child blows a bubble it might look interesting and so the child keeps repeating the action or when sucking a thumb or an object it may feel good and the child continues to suck it (Egan 1997, 120). From 2- to 4 months: Here a child learns to form habits through body acti ons. At this stage the child is learning how to make what they feel is interesting last longer. When infants are quite young, they function according to the principle of â€Å"out of sight out of mind† that’s why when an object is taken away from them they tend to think that the object has disappeared forever or tend to act as if it did not exist. From 4-9 months: Babies of this age now learn how to coordinate the relationship between vision and being able to apprehend things. These children can now intentionally grab what they want always an amusing gesture to the family and friends and they can continue doing an action over and over because it is fascinating. Example is when a child squeezes a toy duck that produces some kind of sound and then the child keeps squeezing the duck to produce that interesting sound. According to Cohen (2002 53) this stage is the most crucial in a child’s growth as it marks the beginning of reasoning. From 9-12 months: A child can now be said to have acquired some kind of intelligence this is according to Piaget. This stage signifies the dawn of goal orientation. The desire to achieve a set goal (Crain 1992, 56) From 12-18 months: At this stage a child has mastred the particular skill of knowing that once an object is hidden, it continues to exist. For example is when you hide a pretty ball from this child under the cushion, he knows what he has to do to get the ball back. This is the time when the child begins to think representatively as it has already learned that it exists in a separate from the world. From 18-24months: This stage marks the entry to the preoperational stage. The children now use their minds to understand the world rather than through objects and actions. Example is a child can make sense of what people are saying and they can also talk. Cognitive development, according to Piaget was much more than just having facts and ideas being put together and being stored in form of information. Mead ows (2002, 102) argues that once an individual recognizes his/her own skills having to apply the skills consciously, deliberately and flexibly becomes a major step in cognitive development. Piaget’s theory contradicted some beliefs from other different scholars some questioned his methodology especially the clinical method. According to Empiricists, they believe that mental mechanism in children and adults are the same and the only difference is that children are exposed to less associates. While the Nativists believe that when babies are born, they automatically have the ability to meaningfully interpret and understand what is going on in the world around them. Piaget’s cognitive development is criticized based on two reasons one is that he underestimated the age at which children can achieve cognitive developmental milestone like that of object performance especially the young ones because according to other scholars, children might have understood more than what Pia get thought. Piaget tried to explain that the conceptual changes in children can be compared to the changing theories in science emergencies as a result of people action towards the world, their experiences including a number of processes that we as human beings are not able to understand. In matters to do with learning, education is trifled. We are urged to understand what teachers do is merely instilling new information to children. Teaching is an indirect way of learning. If we note that children do not only take in what is said, that these are small beings who are able to interpret what they hear, see using their own knowledge and experience then its easier to understand development theory. Knowledge is experience which we acquire through interacting with the environment surrounding us this includes people and things. Many Critics’ believe that by generalizing children’s capability it does not mean that every child will fit in the assumption because there those who overcome the limitations put across by Piaget cognitive development theory that children are egocentric they lack perpetual concentration and even are irreversible making the child lack the logic thinking capacity (Piaget 1992, 241). According to a work done by Sugarman (2001, 31), he points out that a 9 year old child can emerge an expert while playing chess noting that the game needs an individual to abstractly think about the moves in order to win the game while in the same game being played by a 20 year old may result to an individual seeking good strategies to plan and remember the moves in order to win the game. The first stage of cognitive development according to Piaget has over the time been criticized. According to Bruce (1987, 56), information obtained from sensory perception cannot provide objective information about the reality and also, a child cannot tell the difference between the sensory event and sensory feedback of his activity independently. In this article, the writer simply is trying to show that a child has no ability to note any positional change of an object neither the place change of an object. Butterworth argues that Piaget theory does not explain the reason there is inadequate data and doubts about his discovery. He instead chooses to side with nativist view that suggests that once a baby is born, there exists some kind of harmony between the baby and the environment the child is in. â€Å"the child is neither confused by his sensory effects nor by his own activities† (Piaget 1967, 154). Another issue that many critics use to criticize Piaget findings, is he over looked at the possible effects of a child’s social and cultural group. a research conducted by Angela (2007) concluded that peer interactions among children in groups is effective in terms of child development. Psychologists today are aware that culture does affect the cognitive development of children because it determines how the child learns about the wor ld (Bruner 1983, 63). Among those criticizing Piaget’s works was Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, who studied human development in order to improve his own teaching. He believed that human development could only be understood from a cultural point of view and not through Piaget’s ideas. He argued with the fact that our mental structures could be traced back to the way we socially interacted with others (Vygotsky 1978, 96). In his writings, Lev Vygotsky assumed that cultural development of a child appeared twice; one at the social level and the other at an individual level. Vygotsky believed that cultural tools like maps rulers, symbolic items and other symbolic tools were very significant items which played important roles on cognitive development of a child emphasizing that they supported their thinking capacity. The cognitive tools are also recognized as being useful in enriching our understanding about reality by Martin (2000, 96). He used the example introduci ng quantity using roman numerals it would be very difficult to change and teach calculus or doing long division using only these numerals that’s why when a number system with a zero is introduced it becomes easy to perform the mathematical queries. According to him a child can use these tools to develop themselves. â€Å"Thus, children’s knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and values develop through appropriating or â€Å"taking for themselves† the ways of acting and thinking provided by their culture and by the more capable members of their group† (Piaget 1989, 143). Piaget works have significantly helped us to understand how human beings develop cognitively. With his theory, we understand that a child has to undergo different stages to understand the world. His theory tries to explain the intellectual abilities an individual goes through during ones development. Piaget did not have the opportunity to attend formal child psychology classes but his desire to kno w about how we develop and his discovery of the cognitive theory made it possible for other activists to learn more about how children learned and how they thought. His theory explains that an individual has to change to fit in the environment one is living in. To him adaptation is important for individual development. References Angela, D. N., 2007. The new early years professional: dilemmas and debate. London: Routledge. Bradley, B. S., 1991. Vision of infancy; critical introduction of child psychology. Cambridge England: Polity Press. Bruce,T., 1987. Early childhood education. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Bruner, J., 1983. Childs talk: learning to use language. Oxford: oxford university press. Cohen, D., 2002. How the Child’s mind Develops. London: Routledge Crain, W., 1992. Theories of development – concept and applications. New York: Prentice Hall. Egan, K., 1997. The educated mind: how cognitive tools shape our understanding. Chicago: university of Chicago press . Martin, D., 2000. The Blackwell encyclopedia of social work Edition 2,. Wiley-Blackwell. Meadows, S., 2002. The Child as Thinker: The Development and Acquisition of Cognition in Childhood. London : Routledge. Piaget, J., 1989. The language and thought of the child. London: Routedge Piaget, J., 1992. Cognitive development today: Piaget and his critics. London: Sage. Piaget, J., 1967. Growing Critical: alternatives to Developmental psychology. London: Rout ledge. Sugarman, L. 2001. Life-span development: frameworks, accounts, and strategies New Essential Psychology Series, Edition2. NY: Psychology Press. Vygotsky, L. S., 1978. Mind in Society. Cambridge: Harvard University press. Woodhead, M., 1998. Cultural worlds of early childhood. London: Routledge. This essay on Jean Piaget was written and submitted by user Kayson Reed to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Women Celebrities of World War II

Women Celebrities of World War II With the 20th centurys movie industry making many women (and men) into well-known celebrities, and the star system extended into other fields such as sports as well, it was only natural that some stars would find ways to use their celebrity to support the war effort. The Axis Actress In Germany, Hitler used propaganda to support his war effort. Actress, dancer, and photographer Leni Riefenstahl made documentary films for the Nazi Party during the 1930s and Hitlers consolidation of power. She escaped punishment after the war after a court found that she was not herself a Nazi party member. Acting Allies In America, films and plays promoting participation in the war and anti-Nazi films and plays were also part of the overall war effort. Women actresses played in many of these. Women also wrote some of them: Lillian Hellmans 1941 play, The Rhine, warned of the rise of the Nazis. Entertainer Josephine Baker worked with the French Resistance and entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East. Alice Marble, a tennis star, secretly married an intelligence operative and when he died, was convinced to spy on a former lover, a Swiss banker, suspected of having records of Nazi finances. She found such information and was shot in the back, but escaped and recovered. Her story was told only after her death in 1990. Carole Lombard made her final film as a satire about the Nazis and died in a plane crash after attending a war bond rally. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared her the first woman to die in the line of duty in the war. Her new husband, Clark Gable, enlisted in the Air Force after her death. A ship was named in Lombards honor. Perhaps the most famous pin-up poster in World War II showed Betty Grable in a swimsuit from the back, looking over her shoulder. The Varga Girls, drawn by Alberto Vargas, were also popular, as were photos of Veronica Lake, Jane Russell, and Lane Turner. Fundraising In New Yorks theater world, Rachel Crothers started the Stage Womens War Relief. Others who helped to raise funds for war relief and the war effort included Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Lynn Fontaine, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, Gypsy Rose Lee, Ethel Merman, and the Andrews Sisters. Giving Back To the Troops The USO Tours or Camp Shows which entertained troops in the US and overseas drew many women entertainers, too. Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, the Andrews Sisters, Ann Miller, Martha Raye, Marlene Dietrich, and many lesser-knowns were ​a  welcome relief for the soldiers. Several all-girl bands and orchestras toured, including the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, one of the rare racially-mixed groups.

Literacy Narrative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Literacy Narrative - Essay Example Formative assessment plays an important role to both readers and communicators. First, before undertaking a journey to communicate, a communicator has a goal in mind or a message he would like to drive home. To achieve goals, it is important that a communicator understand the persons being communicated to through formative assessment. For instance as a communicator, formative assessment helped me to understand the gap between the desired goal and the current knowledge of the people I was addressing. On the other hand, learners get to gauge their extent of understanding. After assessing the gap, both learners and communicators can now allow this knowledge to guide them through actions necessary to obtain their main goal. An effective feedback will provide suggestions for closing the gap. Some of the methods communicators can use to assess learning include giving assignments, group discussions, and tests. Secondly, formative assessments motivate learners to improve on their understandi ng of the subject other than just getting the right answers. For instance, assignments and tests helped me as a learner to get specific comments, errors, and feedbacks on my level of understanding about a topic. Formative assessment encourage readers that each of them have great innate potential to perform better that they currently perform. More so, the feedback given from the tests encourage readers that they can do better. According to Ames, formative assessment helps support the expectation that all readers can give great performances and counteracts the notion that poor performances on some readers result from their lack of ability. Such readers may get discouraged and become unwilling to invest further in learning (Ames 262-270). A communicator can help improve the understanding of the students through several means. For instance, I can ask my discussion group members to summarise a topic or main points after a discussion. A communicator can also give related questions on the topic of study and mark them. In this, the communicator will test understanding of some vocabularies or concepts in the topic. Searching for meanings of vocabularies and answering questions proves quite helpful to me in learning. Thirdly, formative assessment plays an important role where readers can perform self-evaluation. Statistics reveal that readers who are governed by certain goals in their learning and opt to do self-evaluations are much better that those who do not. They have time to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and filling in the gap through further learning. Additionally, formative assessment enables students with disabilities to train on how to evaluate themselves, helping them to improve. As a communicator, I assist readers to self-evaluate themselves through group discussions. Here, learners have an opportunity to receive a challenge especially where i mix the slow learners with the fast learners. A communicator can float a question and ask readers to writ e down what they think about it and read their answers around to the rest of the readers. He can also separate the students in small groups, give them time to brainstorm and have one of them present the groups work. All these will help instil the habit of self-evaluation to the students. Fourthly, formative assessment effects on teachers quality. Statistics reveal that a communicator’s quality has the highest influence on a reader’

Ford-Harris Matrix Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ford-Harris Matrix - Coursework Example Students are required to and can create a new product from the information on heroes, holidays, etc. Students are taught and know the concepts, themes and perspectives of cultural groups Students are taught and can understand cultural concepts, themes and perspectives. Students are required to and can apply information learned about cultural concepts, themes and perspectives Students are taught and can analyze important cultural concepts, themes and perspectives. Students are taught to and can critique cultural concepts, themes and perspective. Students are asked to and can create products on cultural concepts, themes and perspectives. Students are given information on important events, themes, etc. and can understand this information from various perspectives as diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Students are taught to understand and can demonstrate an understanding of important events and themes from various perspectives as diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Students are asked to and can apply an understanding of important events and themes from various perspectives as diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Students are taught to and can examine important events and themes from various perspectives as diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Students are taught to and can evaluate or judge important events and themes from various perspectives as diverse ethnic and cultural groups.

Detailed Character Description Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Detailed Character Description - Essay Example In the attack his wife was murdered and Earl received severe injuries resulting in amnesia. Earl in a story possesses round character as he has many complex traits. As we go further reading the story it can be seen that Earl possesses emotional personality. This trait became part of his personality after the unpleasant event took place in his life. Despite of his illness and unreliable memory he tried to remain focused this shows his consistent behavior. Earl has courageous nature which helped him to escape from mental institution. This also shows his risk taking nature as he did not care about the consequences and escaped from the hospital. Not only was this he was highly determined in pursuit of killing his wife’s murderer that he developed different ways to preserve his memory. As mentioned in the story he uses letters and tattoos to keep track of various information. Since Earl is depicted as the most tragic character of the story but despite of his tragic life he remained much focused and throughout the story he did not allow his illness to overrule his mission (to kill his wife murderers). His attempt to achieve his aim shows his hardworking nature and serious nature. He is portrayed as highly motivated character of the story and due to his motivation he was able to accomplish his mission of reaching to his wife murderers. Faith is an important personality trait of Earl. He had strong faith in himself that helped him to carry on his mission throughout the story. Jonathon Nolan described Earl as a serious character of the story who had not shown signs of silliness despite of his mental illness. There were times when he faced situation of desperation but this desperation was not because of his personality but it was due to his mental illness. Because of his strong character he did not let desperation to rule him instead he administered it wisely. There were many positive characteristics possessed by Earl but it is important to mention

Legacy of the Cold War

Legacy of the Cold War Sana Karwan Benjamin Boyce The Legacy of the cold war All through history, conflicts and battles between civilizations and nations have been inevitable. Nations have built military protections, whether they were threatened or not. Many wars have happened throughout our history, some small and some huge. Two of the important wars in history are the world wars happened in the twentieth century. In â€Å"Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation: Intro to Theory and History† by Joseph Nye and David Welch, it is mentioned that the alliance system between the countries in Europe appeared to be multipolar, then it became less stable and Germany rose in power, the balance of power seemed less multipolar and became a bipolar system of alliance and increased the likelihood of war, which was the first world war. After the First World War, the League of Nation was formed; the main aim of the league was Collective Security. But the league failed to attain what it was established for. Although against the rules of the league, but Britain and France formed an alliance and guaranteed the safety of Poland. One of the reasons based on a state level of analysis was when Adolf Hitler moves his troops to Poland and World War Two starts. Adolf Hitler’s target was Russia, Germany had a Fascist government and USSR had a Communist government. After attacking the USSR by the Germans, Josef Stalin allies with the United States and the Britain against Germany, forming the big three. Stalin had conditions fighting this war against the Germans, which was taking all the territories he wants after the war is over. After the defeat of the Germans, the wartime allies, the US and the USSR, so quickly become enemies and the Cold War starts. The cold war left the world militarized, thousands of people lost their lives, many countries financial and economic states were influenced, and the last but not the least, it left a legacy of Nuclear Weapon on the world. (Nye and Welch, 2012) The United States ends the Second World War by being the international policeman, fighting against communism. With the initiatives the US started, USSR started to worry and wanted to show off his power against the US as well. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine were two initiatives by the United States, one to aid Europe rebuild its countries that were affected by the war and the later was to indirectly fight communism. The USSR as a communist country, did not take the Marshall Plan, he did not want to be indebted to the US and didn’t want to show the US they need their money. Also, with the Truman Doctrine, the Republicanism/Communism war started between the two major powers of the second half of the twentieth century. (JFK Library, 2015) The Cold War was the tense relationship between the United States and USSR and their allies. The war started after the Second World War ended up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, from 1945 to 1991. The outbreak of the war was difference in ideology of the two powers. Each one of them was trying to convince the other who is stronger. Politically, the Soviet Union was fighting for Marxism and the United States for Republicanism, and economically, the USSR was supporting communism and the US was supporting capitalism. The two countries never directly confronted each other militarily, but threatened each other by nuclear weapon and fought proxy wars- using the resources of other countries to showcase power. The war defined the foreign policy of the two powers and was a competition of who is the superpower. (Kramer, 1999) Arthur Schlesinger based on a revisionist thesis thinks that after the Second World War, US deliberately abandoned their policy of helping and collaboration of the European countries to rebuild Europe. Exhilarated by the possession of atomic bomb, the United States undertook a course of aggression of self-designed to abolish the communism influence of Russia on Eastern Europe and to establish democratic and capitalist states. Truman, the US president at that time, left the Russians no alternative but to defend their boarders. On the other hand, John Mearsheimer claims that â€Å"the absence of war in Europe since 1945 has been a consequence of three factors: the bipolar distribution of military power on the continent; the rough military equality between the two states compromising the two poles in Europe, the United States and the Soviet Union; and the fact that each superpower was armed with a large nuclear arsenal.† Mearsheimer argues that possibility for major crisis and in stability in Europe was very likely after the cold war. He also believes that Europe without the superpowers would be more likely to suffer violence than the past 45 year. In addition to that, he considers that the anarchic nature of these two super powers over Europe pretty much defined their foreign policies. (Schlesinger, 1967) (Mearsheimer, 1990) Mearsheimer explains the Cold War as the longest period of peace in European history. During the Cold War, Europe faced no major war according to him, only a couple of minor wars that didn’t bring Europe to major war. Furthermore, he illustrates that there were major crisis in Europe during the early years of the war which again didn’t not bring Europe to the brink of war. He believes that domestic factors, especially nationalism caused the wars of the pre 1945 era, while the post 1945 era, although European states were more concerned about peace, but domestic factors had lesser important in the international community, since distribution of military power between states had characterized Europe. Based on these assumptions, during the cold war, a militarized Europe was the result of the Cold War. (Mearsheimer, 1990) I interviewed my father about the military influence of the Cold War. He told me that based on what I have read about the Cold War is that after the Second World War the USSR had influenced and Controlled much of Eastern Europe, and the United States took that into consideration, that they didn’t want that communism view to spread more. They didn’t confront each other militarily, but the world was in a psychological war because of these two superpowers. The influence of the Cold War reached Africa, central Asia and the Middle East, specifically Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. The Cold War left a legacy of heavy militarization of the World that there was no national or international security. The US and the USSR developed far more advanced nuclear weapons than the Hiroshima experience. The countries under the Soviet Union were oppressed, there was no democracy in Russia, and the Soviet Union was so busy in aiding the country and other countries that were aga inst the US militarily led to the collapse of the USSR. When I asked him about the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s and the influence of the Cold War, he recalled that although the Iraq was under the circle of the Soviet Union, but the United States was helping Iraq indirectly. In 1988, the US hit one of Iran’s airplanes in Iraq and this was an alert. Also in his opinion in Central Asia, with the establishment of Taliban and Al-Qaida, the US was helping these currently so called terrorist groups against the Soviet Union. This reminded me of the â€Å"I am Malala† book by Malala Yousafzaithat I read recently. As a kid, Malala recalls how the US is helping Taliban against Russia. C. Fred Bergsten talks about three global transformations to the world economy after the Cold War. â€Å"First, the reforms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if successful, will end the Cold War and most East-West confrontation, and will allow substantial reductions in military arsenals. Second, the salience of security issues will decline sharply; economics will move much closer to the top of the global agenda. Third, the world economy will complete its evolution from the American-dominated regime of the first postwar generation to a state of US-Europe-Japan tripolarity.† what he means by these transformations is that the role of individual states will go back to the international economic positions they supposed to have. Also, he is trying to draw our attention to a united Europe with a strong economy that will create a large market for trade. The reason he is talking about these economic roles of Europe is that the United States is in relative economic decline. During the World Wars in Europe, the United States appeared to have the largest economy that was willingly helping the European countries to rebuild Europe. (Bergsten, 1990) In conclusion, the Cold War left a huge economic and military legacy on the world. It left the world with plenty of military bases of the United States around the world. May be the economic legacy of the Cold War was not as big as the military legacy, but it took time for Europe to rebuild itself. In my opinion, the legacy of the Cold War can be obviously seen in Central Asia, especially in Afghanistan, where Al-Qaida was established in. The United States helping the terrorist group in Afghanistan against USSR hit back on them in September 11, 2001. So, the Cold War that is called to be the longest period of peace in Europe had a corrupt aftermath on the world and left the world militarized that we cannot help fixing. Works Cited Bergsten, C. Fred. The Wrold Economy after the Cold War. The New American Realism. Foreign Affairs. Council on Foreign Relations. Vol. 69, No. 3 (Summer, 1990), pp. 96-112. March 20, 2015. Kramer, Mark. Ideology and the Cold War. Review of International Studies. Cambridge University Press. Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), pp. 539-576. March 19, 2015. Mearsheimer, John. Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War. International Security. The MIT Press. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Summer, 1990), pp. 5-56. March 20, 2015. Nye Jr., Joseph and Welch, David. Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation: An Introduction to Theory and History. 9th edition. February 19, 2012. March 19, 2015. Schlesinger, Arthur. Origins of the Cold War. The New American Realism. Foreign Affairs. Council on Foreign Relations. Vol. 46, No. 1 (Oct., 1967), pp. 22-52. March 20, 2015. The Cold War. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Museum. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Museum, n.d. March 19, 2015. I also interviewed my father.

Women in Physics :: physics female females

Outline In 1944 the German chemist Otto Hahn was awarded a Noble Prize for his work on nuclear fission - the process that lies at the heart of nuclear bombs and power stations. The Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, who was the official leader of Hahn's team, and who also worked out the theoretical explanation of their experimental discoveries, was not even mentioned in the Noble committee's announcement. (Wertheim) Thirteen years later the Chinese-American particle physicist Chien-Shiung Wu would likewise be left out when the Nobel committee made its announcements. Likewise English astronomer Jocelyn Bell, who discovered pulsars, would also be denied a share in the Nobel that went only to her (male) supervisor. Reports in the past showed that the highest percentages of women among students awarded a doctorate in physics are 20 to 27 percent ( India, Australia, Poland and France) and the lowest percentages are 8-9 percent (Japan, South Korea, Netherlands and Germany). An international survey of around 900 women physicists in more than 50 countries found that the factor most frequently contributing to their success was encouragement from their families (parents and husbands). Also mentioned were the support of high school teachers, advisors, and professors; their own determination, will power and hard work; and participation in important international projects. The outcome of the survey showed somecultural differences from the countries represented, with family issues such as marriage and child care important factors in some countries, and less so in others. Women in developing countries are more likely than women in developed countries to be married (four out of five in the first case, compared to two out of three in the second). (Barbosa) The problems that the women surveyed mentioned were problems with balancing family and career and defeating the commonly encountered bias that women cannot do physics. The women who responded shared a strong passion for physics, and three out of four said that they would choose physics again, despite any difficulties or barriers they had encountered. A report from Japan stated that it takes women an average of ten years more to advance to the rank of professor than their male colleagues. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found women professors consistently had less laboratory and office space and were paid less than their male colleagues. "As of 1996, Princeton physics department had still not given tenure to a physicist not sporting the penile appendage" (Wertheim). What We Did to Get Where We Are: