Contributing factors toward SWB of the Institutionalized Elderly Essay Example for Free

Contributing factors toward SWB of the Institutionalized Elderly Essay Apart from delineating the cognitive and affective indicators of SWB, this study also attempted to identify the possible factors which contribute to SWB. A host of factors were identified in the largely western literature. These are presented in the succeeding pages. Physical Health: Health is one of the most important variables in predicting whether people are happy (Campbell et al. , 1976). The World Health Organization defines health as, the optimal functioning of the human organism to meet biological, psychological, ethical and spiritual needs (Emeth Greenhut, 1991). In this study the elderly were said to have ‘optimal functioning’ when he or she had basic competence, which was necessary for maintenance of independent living (Martin, 2001). In the case of the elderly in the study it was denoted by their ability for personal care on their own. It also pertained to mental health, which was a state where the elderly were not prone to depression, or other mental illness, and did not have any major cognitive impairments. Autonomy: Autonomy could be equated to having the capacity for selfdetermination, independence, internal locus of control, and internal regulation of behavior (Ryff, 1989). Having a sense of being in control (autonomy) means that one’s thoughts and actions are one’s own and not determined by others. It is related to physical health too as it gives a sense of mastery over situations. It is important for all and particularly for the elderly to maintain that sense of control or autonomy because a sense of losing control of one’s life or one’s power is to in some ways lose one’s worth, which can have detrimental effect on one’s physical as well as psychological health. Money/Income: Income or money is importantly related to a sense of well-being in old age (Diener, 1984) and the elderly in the study may or may not enjoy financial security Money is important probably because of the sense of security that they experience when they have enough money which could implicitly affect their sense of autonomy and self-worth. Family Relationships: Family is a natural institution constant across time and space which is a very close and intimate group and one’s sense of well-being is sustained by membership in this primary group, as it provides a sense of security, connectedness, and belongingness to the aged. There are no substitutes for the close relationship in the experience of well-being in the case of the aged. In the case of the elderly in the study, family relationship is limited to this intimate group consisting of the spouse, children and grandchildren as the extended family is almost nonexistent in the given context. Friendship: Friendship or close relationship with members of the same age group often sharing personal characteristics, life styles, values and experiences is a source of enjoyment, socializing, and reminiscing the past; promote a higher satisfaction among the older adults (Sorensen Pinquart, 2000). In the given situation it could be long standing friends from the past, and or the friendship developed among the co-residents of the home. Social Support and Social Interest: To experience a sense of well-being persons should have deep feeling of sympathy, and affection for human beings (social interest/altruism). That is, their ability to go beyond the personal to interpersonal establishing deep, profound interpersonal relationships and social support, to transpersonal, which is relating to the Divine in the social context of one’s life. These play a significant role in maintaining their psychological, social, and physical integrity over time (Witmer Sweeny, 1992) and consequently the sense well-being. Attitude toward Death: Death can be understood as a natural process of transition from one stage of life to another. Depending on the meaning people attach to death, they fear death or embrace it as a natural transition with a sense of acceptance and surrender (Atchley, 1997). Accepting old age and death meaningfully makes life happier. Fear or acceptance of death is closely related to general satisfaction. According to (Moberg, 2001), when life is lived to the full, death becomes a fulfillment, a completion. Religion and Spirituality: Subjective aspects of religion and spirituality include religious identification, religious attitudes, values, beliefs, knowledge, and mystical/religious experiences. Religious experience provides a sense of meaning and purpose in daily life (Polner, 1989). Spirituality usually refers to a unique, personally meaningful experience of a transcendent dimension that is associated with wholeness and wellness (Westgate, 1996). Spiritual wellness is the dimension that permits the integration of one’s spirituality with the other dimensions of life, thus maximizing the potential for growth and self-actualization (Westgate, 1996). At this point of SWB research, there is already an idea of the variables which correlate with SWB. However, a better understanding of parameters that influences the relationships, the directions of influences between variables, and the different influences interact are still needed (Diener, 1984). Given the assumption that these features are deep cross-cultural, universally applicable, core characteristic features of well being sought by the aged, the researcher believed that the institutionalized care for the aged and their subjective sense of well-being is also context specific. An understanding of psychological well-being necessarily rely upon the moral visions that are culturally embedded and frequently culture specific (Christopher, 1999). In this context, one might ask how the institutionalized aged of Gladys Spellman experience the transition from mathru-pithru devobhava (mother and father are like gods) to institutionalized care, what their experience of the subjective well-being consisted in, and what might be the specific factors that would contribute to their sense of well being. It is possible that the western culture-specific factors of subjective well-being outlined above may not have the same relevance for the population under investigation. This study was expected to help understand the contextspecific aspects of well-being of the institutionalized aged.

Internet Safety and Young Children Essay -- essays research papers

In today’s times, it can be hard to know what you children may be doing on computer. It is sometimes upsetting and very scary to know that someone could be stalking your child without you or him ever knowing about it, until it’s to late. There are programs out there that monitor your child’s activities on the Internet. But where are they, how much do they cost and why aren’t they advertised more? There are a couple precautions that you can take at home, without spending any money, to help safe guard your child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children like the Internet. They like the convenience, fun, and activities they can do on the Internet. But how safe are they really? It all depends on you and your child. When a child enters a chat room, they expect to find someone that is their own age with their interests. They may even find someone that just seems like they truly are the â€Å"perfect† friend. But beware. Pedophiles and other undesirable people â€Å"fake† who they truly are. Your child comes to trust them, and maybe in time agrees to meet them. This can lead to really horrible and unforeseen outcomes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many programs out there that are designed to protect your child such as CyberPatrol and NetNanny. But remember that these mechanisms are not fail-safe, and may also exclude access to perfectly innocent material. There are also filtering features built into the popular web browsers that enable parents to limit access to only those sites tha...

Causes of Rural-Urban Migration

Rural-urban migration is the movement of people from rural areas to urban centers in search of employment and better living conditions among others. Rural-urban migration is most prevalent in developing countries. Rural-urban migration is facilitated by pull and push factors that forces people influx from countryside to cities. Push factors includes; drought, famine, natural disaster, poor living conditions like housing, healthcare and education, agricultural change, unemployment, war and conflict.Pull factors includes; employment, higher incomes, better healthcare and education, urban facilities and way of life and protection from war and conflict. Although rural-urban migration is an integral part of development it is significant for people to understand its causes and consequence for formulation and implementation of effective policies to encourage economic growth. Rural urban migration being flexible and dynamic phenomena cause diversification with a certain degree of commitment. People migration links people transferring them from low opportunities to high opportunities.CAUSES OF RURAL-URBAN MIGRATIONIntroductionRural-urban migration is the movement of people from rural areas to urban centers in search of employment and better living conditions among others. Rural-urban migration is prevalent in developing countries with its degree varying from country to country. Rural-urban migration influences urban growth with expansion of cities and towns covering greater land. As a result of rural-urban migration there is urbanization referring to increase in proportion of people’s living in cities and towns.Rural-urban migration is facilitated by pull and push factors that forces people influx from countryside to cities. Push factors may include drought, famine, natural disaster, poor living conditions like housing, healthcare and education, agricultural change, unemployment, war and conflict. Pull factors include employment, higher incomes, better healthcare and education, urban facilities and way of life and protection from war and conflict (Goldscheider, 19). Cause of Rural-Urban Migration Costs of rural-urban migration outweigh benefits resulting in expansion of cities and towns thus excessive urbanization.Urban planners and decision makers are more concerned with causes and consequences of rural-urban migration and their relationship with economic growth and urbanization. Although rural-urban migration is an integral part of development it is significant for people to understand its causes and consequence for formulation and implementation of effective policies to encourage economic growth. Issues faced in rural areas trigger people’s migration to urban areas. Those people living in rural areas are willingly and unwillingly part of the economic system.Movement of people from rural areas to urban center is triggered by voluntary and involuntary forces. Involuntary are the factors that force people to migrate with no choice bu t to move this are the push factors. Voluntary forces covers all people’s migration by will, this are the pull factors (McCatty, 5). Migration Forces People may involuntary move from rural to urban areas as a result of family disagreements, wars, conflicts, draught, famine and political strife. This factors forces people to seek refuge in urban areas where they can have access to security, food and far from political strife.Voluntary factors such as better employment opportunities force people to move to urban areas. The quality of employment in urban areas is better than in rural. In rural areas people have little education and their payment is low. Those who have migrated to urban areas have gained incentives through better and well paying jobs. Housing conditions in rural areas is worse compared with urban areas; people may voluntarily decide to move to urban areas to have access to better living conditions such as better healthcares, better education and housing (McCatty, 8).Rural land tenure and pattern of inheritance is another factor resulting in voluntary rural urban migration. This cause problem if land tenure is communal whereby you find that land is owned by group of people thus individual having no authority to protect or own the land. This cause conflict during land sharing forcing many people to be landless thus opting to move to urban centers. Rural social structure and cultural values may cause conflict among rural population forcing some people to move to urban areas.Different ethnic communities have different cultural values and social structures which may differ resulting to cultural conflicts thus people’s migration to urban areas where they can’t experience cultural conflicts. Rural people when offered with better options of earning living which are not demanding like rural farming and which is more financially rewarding, they are likely to accept. Depending on the country, farming gives seasonal employment with no eno ugh income to sustain rural people thus being forced to move to urban areas in search for better and well paying jobs (McCatty, 9).Issues faced in Rural Areas – Changes in educational system as a result of what is being taught in school vary from their traditional norms. In rural areas, cultural values and norms undergo changes due to influence from foreign entities and missionaries. In rural areas people experience low and high global economy due to drop of prices thus their sustainability being influenced. During economic recession they are the first people to be affected. This triggers their movement from rural to urban for search of better opportunities.People in rural areas are exposed to films, radio programs and recent television series from cities. When exposed to this urban life, their living conditions decline due to exploitation of resource in need of living like those in urban areas. Many people are not able to cope with this situation in rural areas and they opt for urban areas where they can have better life with access to all these facilities. Living condition for most rural people have changed for better with improved medical care, improved health and longevity which has contributed to increase in population in rural areas thus pressure on the limited resources.These forces some people especially young incase the land ownership in the rural was communal they move to urban centers where they can be accommodate without congestion (McCatty, 7). Influence by outside developed world on people’s culture and way of life contributes to people’s movement to urban areas. Media influence has made people recognize their state of poverty. This has made people think of change and they think the only option to move to urban center for white collar jobs and better living conditions.People’s perception of better life changes their success in rural areas; people have changed their notions about educations and holding higher positions. This has facilitated people movement from rural area to urban in search of better education which can lead to higher incomes thus increasing their future income. Increase in income increases people’s consumption. People believe that by having firsthand accounts their living conditions will be improved in urban areas (Agesa and Sunwoong, 60). Poverty Poverty is experienced globally in third world nations especially by rural population.Developmental policies in various countries are more concerned with poverty alleviation resulting to economic growth. Most people in developing nation live under poverty with urban poverty being constant with majority living in rural areas. In those countries with agricultural based economy, those residents who are poor lack access to resources thus high level of inequitable and inequality distribution of resources. Most people living in rural areas are women and children who practices subsistence farming.Poverty contributes to people‘s mo vement from rural to urban areas in search of better and well paying jobs to alleviate poverty (McCatty, 9).. Urban Informal Sector Unlike the formal counterpart of urban informal sector, there are activities of all kind which are unregulated and small scale in nature. Most people in urban areas create their own employments, start their businesses and even work as a small-scale family enterprise. These jobs includes, street vending, hustling, sharpening of knife, drug trafficking, maize roasting and even prostitution.Others find better jobs like artisans, mechanics, carpenters, barbers, personal servants and maids. Some becomes successful business people with several employees thus earning more income. Those people venturing in informal work are mostly rural migrants who have little skills and they earn enough income just to sustain them. Informal sector has a link with formal sector and offers employment opportunities to those people who can’t access jobs in formal sectors. Informal sector acts as a safety net for those rural people who fall back if things don’t work out for them.Informal sector has been categorized among those factors causing rural urban migration since it reduces individual risk of being unemployed once they migrate to cities (McCatty, 12). Government policies to some extent cause rural urban migration. Those policies supporting disproportionate increase employment opportunities and in wage rate in urban centers leads to imbalances in rural urban landscape. Rural urban migration contributes to increased rate of unemployment in urban areas.As a result of difference in wages there are urban bias encouraging people to move from rural to urban thus urban bias resulting to rural-urban migrations (Agesa and Sunwoong, 72). Modernization of Agriculture Agricultural modernization contributes a lot toward rural urban migration especially in developing countries. Agricultural modernization involves use of machines and artificial fertiliz ers for agriculture. This result to need of few workers in the farms and farmers doesn’t require farm manure but use fertilizers. This reduces employment opportunities for rural people especially youths and men.Those farmers who used to keep livestock lose market for their products like manure thus being forced to look for alternatives in urban areas (Goldscheider, 27). Natural Disasters Natural disasters like floods, earthquakes and landslide contribute toward rural urban migration. These natural disasters destroy people’s properties and crops leading to poverty and insecurity. To seek for safety and alternatives people prefer moving to urban areas where they can have guaranteed safety from such disasters (Agesa and Sunwoong, 68).Other Factors Other factors like primitive conditions in rural areas forces people seek civilized ways of living in urban areas. Bullying, death threats and disown from society as a result of certain offense may force one seek refuge in urban areas where there is no cultural or community rules to be followed. Slavery in rural areas may force people to move to urban areas mostly children and youth who finds it difficult to put up with work they are given by parents or in plantations.Poor chances of finding courtship may be a contributing factor in that; one may think that in urban areas there are many people where s/he can have chance of choosing from different people (Goldscheider, 41). Conclusion Not only rural people but people in general are attracted to urban areas because they think that urban areas have better and greater opportunities than rural. For many who move to urban they end up in poverty. Rural urban migration being flexible and dynamic phenomena cause diversification with a certain degree of commitment. Migration helps in linking people and transferring them from low opportunities to high opportunities.Rural urban migration contributes nearly to 60 percent of urban growth and it occurs at a particular se tting which is marked by limited industrial but quick commerce centered growth in cities.Works CitedAgesa, Richard & Sunwoong Kim, â€Å"Rural To Urban Migration as A Household Decision: Evidence From Kenya, â€Å"Review of Development Economics, Vol. 5, 2001, pp. 60-75 Goldscheider, Calvin, Rural Migration in Developing Nations, Boulder and London: Westview P, 2003 McCatty Machel, the Process of Rural-Urban Migration in Developing Countries, Ottawa: Ontario, Carleton University, 2004

Who Was the Roman Poet Horace

Horace was the major lyric Latin poet of the era of the Roman Emperor Augustus (Octavian). He is famed for his Odes as well as his caustic satires, and his book on writing, the Ars Poetica. His life and career were owed to Augustus, who was close to his patron, Maecenas. From this lofty, if tenuous, position, Horace became the voice of the new Roman Empire. Early Life Horace was born in Venusia, a small town in southern Italy, to a freed slave. He was fortunate to have been the recipient of intense parental direction. His father spent a comparable fortune on his education, sending him to Rome to study. He later studied in Athens amidst the Stoics and Epicurean philosophers, immersing himself in Greek poetry.   While led a life of scholarly idyll in Athens, a  revolution came to Rome. Julius Caesar was murdered, and Horace fatefully lined up behind Brutus in the conflicts that would ensue. His learning enabled him to become a commander during the Battle of Philippi, but Horace saw his forces routed by those of Octavian and Mark Antony, another stop on the former’s road to becoming Emperor Augustus. When he returned to Italy, Horace found that his family’s estate had been expropriated by Rome, and Horace was, according to his writings, left destitute. In the Imperial Entourage In 39 B.C., after Augustus granted amnesty, Horace became a secretary in the Roman treasury by buying the position of questors scribe. In 38, Horace met and became the client of the artists patron Maecenas, a close lieutenant to Augustus, who provided Horace with a villa in the Sabine Hills. From there he began to write his satires.   When Horace died at age 59, he left his estate to Augustus and was buried near the tomb of his patron Maecenas. Appreciation of Horace With the arguable exception of Virgil, there is no more celebrated Roman poet than Horace. His Odes set a fashion among English speakers that come  to bear on poets to this day. His Ars Poetica, a rumination on the art of poetry in the form of a letter, is one of the seminal works of literary criticism. Ben Jonson, Pope, Auden, and Frost are but a few of the major poets of the English language who owe a debt to the Roman. The Works of Horace Sermonum Libri II (Satura) - The Satires (2 Books) (starting 35 B.C.)Epodon Liber - The Epodes (30 B.C.)Carminum Libra IV - The Odes (4 Books) (starting 23 B.C.)Epistularum Libri II - The Epistles (2 Books) (starting 20 B.C.)De Arte Poetica Liber - The Art of Poetry (Ars Poetica) (18 B.C.)Carmen Saeculare - Poem of the Secular Games (17 B.C.)