The Dangers of Obedience to Authority: Writing and Reading Across the Cirriculum

As a child growing up, everyone was told â€Å"respect your elders† or â€Å"listen and obey†. As children grow into teenagers, they start pushing the boundaries to see who they really need to obey. Throughout adulthood, though people have fewer and fewer authority figures as the years go by, everyone must obey someone. Though we all have someone to obey, when does the respectful obedience cross the line into dangerous territory? Obedience becomes dangerous when it becomes physically or mentally harmful to one’s self or society.Physical abuse to one’s self or another person is dangerous, period. What is even more frightening is when someone hurts themselves or others due to an authority figure’s direct influence on them. In the infamous psychologist, Stanley Milgram’s, experiment, people were told to administer shock to a peer for not answering a question correctly. This experiment shows the dangers of obeying authority. Though the â€Å"pee rs† were acting, the subjects fully believed they were truly administering shock to another human being.This shows that the line between respectful obedience to an authority figure and a dangerous subservience to a fear striking leader is crossed when one person begins or attempts to injure one’s self or another because of a fearful obligation placed upon them. Some may argue that police officers cross the line when they use â€Å"excessive force† on a perpetrator because they are hurting another person due to the description of their job by the local government. While this is a valid point, if an officer is forced to cause physical harm to someone, he or she has been provoked by the offender and are simply doing their job.Mental or emotional abuse is generally not the first thing most people think of when they hear the word obedience. Though it is not often spoken of, mental abuse occurs often when an authority figure abuses their power to break down the psychol ogical barriers that one may have in order to get the person to obey. This tactic was used in the â€Å"Stanford Prison Experiment† when the â€Å"guards† began calling the â€Å"prisoners† by their numbers instead of names and granted admission to the â€Å"privileged cell† in order to maintain control over the prisoners. Because of the psychological games played by ome authority figures, the line between obedience and danger is crossed and can become harmful to a person’s incredibly fragile mental health, causing them to have thoughts of suicide or murder. Some may argue that mind games are the safest and easiest way to keep structure and order when dealing with a person of lesser authority. However, psychological warfare, such as the mind games that were used in the â€Å"Stanford Prison Experiment†, can leave some of the worst scars on a person due to post traumatic stress disorder as well as depression which can lead to suicide.Obedienc e to society is not often thought of when dealing with this particular topic. The power of a majority is usually far underestimated. Just as shown in the article â€Å"The Power of Situations† with the line test, most people will override their own eyes to believe what they are told the majority believes or thinks. Society can be a very harmful entity when trying to influence the masses. This statement especially applies when dealing with teenagers. For example, when most teenagers are in a situation where they feel everyone else is doing something they know is wrong, they will usually â€Å"go with the flow† and follow what the crowd does.In a study conducted by the â€Å"D. A. R. E. † group showed that, while people who try to pressure teens to smoke say â€Å"everyone does it†, in fact only 11% percent of teens actually smoke. Though teen smoking at all is not good, 11% is much better than everyone. Some may say that obedience to society is promoting c onformity which is good for our justice system as well as the status quo. However, the idea that everyone must be the same, think the same, and have the same emotions is not only sad, but also nips creative thinking in the bud.Without creative thinkers, how would our world see in the dark? Conformity is alright to an extent, but when it impedes progress, it becomes a danger to society and future generations. While a due respect and obedience should be given to authority figures, obedience that becomes harmful, psychologically or physically, to oneself or society in general, crosses the line into the danger zone where it could harm an actual human being or the creative thoughts inside that person.

Duty of Care Definitions Essay

1.1 Define the meaning â€Å"Duty of Care† A. The term duty of care is the responsibility of caring for another person who may well be vulnerable which includes those who are young or old, ill or unfit mentally to care for themselves and requires another person to assist. This includes looking after the person`s hygiene, cleanliness, safety, meals, transportation, medication or physical needs. Duty of care requires all staff to ensure that all the people we work with are safe and that we abide by relevant legislation and follow care plans, and inform the office of any changes to medication so everyone can keep up the constant care. Duty of care is the legal duty to take reasonable care so that others aren’t harmed and involves identifying risks and taking reasonable care in your response to these risks. Organisations should always ensure that they consult legal and legislative requirements when developing and maintaining their duty of care frameworks and consider working along guidelines. 1.2 How does duty of care affe ct your work role? A. Duty of care is the obligation you have to exercise a level of care towards an individual as in reasonable in all the circumstances to avoid injury to that individual or to his or hers property. 2.1 What dilemmas might arise between duty of care and the rights of your customers? A. Equipment – client’s may refuse to use hoist`s and stand aids at they have had bad experience in the past with using them, which could affect clients hygiene, physical needs and means that staff can`t do their job to a high standard, we would take note of what the clients have said and ring the manager to come up with another solution. All equipment must be in date and checked regularly before use. Training must be up to date and if it isn`t you should not put yourself or clients at risk of danger. All carers should not attempt to do things outside of training or job descriptions, and CRBS needs to be updated every year. Risk assessments and care plans are important and should be followed at all times and updated regularly, all concerns and changes to be reported to manager and documented. Protective clothing is to be worn at all times to reduce the risk of infections and cross contamination. 2.2 Where would you get additional support and advice about resolving the above dilemmas? A. I would get additional support and advice by attending training courses i.e. moving and handling, health and safety, also by speaking to my manager or supervisor, reading books and trying to find out as much information I need. 3.1 How would you respond to complaints? A. I would acknowledge the complaint, and then try to resolve the complaint directly with the complainant, and be aware of differing views of what happened and what was said, also reassure the complainant and have a complaint handling mechanism already in place. Every complaint is different, so the approach to resolving it will differ, depending on the nature of the complaint and the seriousness and the complexity. 3.2 What is the agreed procedure for dealing with complaints? A. The agreed procedure for dealing with complaints is that our company will always deal with any complaints in a professional and positive way and where appropriate will advise the people concerned of any actions and outcomes of any complaint out company will help you in any way they can to advise us of our reasons for dissatisfaction. If I am unwilling or unable to them my manager will have further meetings on how to achieve the best out of you, and if needed further training. CT296 1.1 Identify the standards which influence the way adult social care jobs are carried out? A. The standards that influence the way adult social care job roles are carried out are firstly Codes of practice which set out criteria which providers are assessed by. They also describe the standards of conduct and practice that workers must carry out their activities and ensure that what they do is competent and consistent with the values of their employer. Minimum standards are a set of standards which all care homes must meet and in order to operate and be registered as a care home if working in a care home. National occupational standards (NOS) define the skills, knowledge and understanding needed by individuals to carry out their job. 1.2 Why is it important to reflect on the way you work? How does this help you to develop your knowledge and skills? A. Reflecting on work activities is an important way to develop knowledge and skill because is allow you to identify anything that needs to be developed, you are also able to evaluate on the things that went wrong and what went ri ght, and able to learn lessons from that also to enable you to be a better carer. It also helps your fellow colleagues as they are able to learn from your mistakes and then the same thing will not happen to them also and vice versa. When you have evaluated you are then able to know the things which are needed in order to make your home care a much safer and nice place to stay. 1.3 How can you ensure your own attitudes and belief do not obstruct the quality of your work? A. There are many ways to ensure that personal attitudes or beliefs do not obstruct the quality of work, firstly you have training which is updated every 3 months which will clearly outline what is accepted and what is not. You may also have supervision which you will be given by a manager or supervisor to assess your performance. Also the code of practice describes the acceptable behaviour. Policies are also a great way I which providers are outlined how to and not to allow attitudes and behaviours to obstruct the quality of work and what will happen if provider allows this to happen. 2.1 Think of a recent learning activity you have completed, how did it improve your knowledge, skills and understanding? A. I recently attended an up to date learning activity for moving and handling. It improved my knowledge, skills and understanding. There are so many different ways of moving people, by using different equipment, which I was put into a hoist myself just to see and feel how an elderly person would feel, and how easily they can become distressed. It gave me a very clear understanding and knowledge of how things can be done differently and I could also share my knowledge to other team members. 2.2 How does reflecting a situation assisted you to improve your knowledge skill and understanding? A. Reflecting on situations is a stage where I can identify my learning and development needs. To reflect and think about what I have done, and how I did it, and how I could possibly do it better or differently for the future. 2.3 How has gaining feedback from others developed your knowledge, skills and understanding? A. My manager has received feedback from other colleagues who have â€Å"shadowed† me on service users visits. She has given me feedback on my performance and highlighted future training events that I may find beneficial. I have received compliments from service users on the standard of care I deliver, and my polite attitude. I have received verbal feedback from my manager on my willingness to undertake extra shifts, and how I am an effective member of the team. 3.1 What is meant by â€Å"Personal Development Plan† ? A. A personal development plan is set out by an individual for them to follow in order to better themselves whether it be to gain more qualifications or progress in their work i.e. promotion etc. 3.2 Who might be involved in the personal development plan progress? A. Anyone you feel could help you with your person development i.e. your manager, colleagues, tutors, family and friends, mainly anyone you feel you can rely on for support and guidance. 3.3 Where can you get support for your learning and development? A. There are many people and places where you can get support for learning and development, i.e. attending courses, speaking to colleagues, your manager or supervisor, reading books and using the internet, and also friends and family members. 3.4 What are the benefits of using a personal development plan to identify on going improvements in own knowledge and understanding? A. The benefits of using a personal development plan is to gain a clearer focus to my learning. Helping to keep myself motivated, also gives me a better understanding of how I learn and how to improve my performance, also more enjoyment and less stress from learning as I become consciously skilled, make more aware of how to apply your learning of new problems, also reflective thinking skills that can strengthen my performance. 1.1 What is meant by Diversity A. Is an understanding that every person is unique and treating people as individuals? Equality A. Means treating everyone equally regardless of their colour, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, etc. It is different to treating people the same different people have different needs, so individuality should be taken into account. Inclusion A. Full of active participation, feeling respected, feeling a sense of belonging, being valued for who you are. Discrimination A. Unfair or unequal treatment of an individual or group on the grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion, belief’s or sexual orientation, being treated less favourable that someone else in the same situation, being treated unfairly. 1.2 How can direct and indirect discrimination occur in the workplace? A. Direct discrimination can occur in the workplace because they may be being treated less favourable or treated differently because of their gender, age, race disability, sexuality or religion. Indirect discrimination can or may take place when a rule or policy that applies equally to everybody is more restrictive for people from a certain group, i.e. if a company give information about its policies and procedures only in English. 1.3 How can practices that support equality, diversity and inclusion reduce the risk of discrimination? A. By supporting a person`s equality you are treating them as equal and including them in all activities, you will be reducing the likelihood of discrimination. 2.1 List key legislation and codes of practice relating to diversity, equality, inclusion and discrimination in adult social care settings? A. Equality Act, Human rights Act, GSCC = The General Social Care Council. These are some to the rules that apply to all care workers. 2.2 How can you interact with someone in an inclusive way? A. You can interact with someone in an inclusive way, by respect for their beliefs, and preferences of the individual receiving the care. Promoting independence involvement of the individual, receiving care produce a written report of the activity which, is based on the plan this should be completed prior to the activity taking place. Is verified by the supervisor/manager as an authentic record of what actually took place, and demonstrates ability to manage the materials and resources to carry out the fulfilment of the aims and objectives as specified in a plan. 2.3 How might discrimination be challenged in a adult social care settings? A. This depends if the carer or service user who discriminates. If the carer then as an employee I’d raise the issue with my supervisor without waiting for a supervision meeting. They would be duty bound to take the issue on, however if you’re on good terms with the employee you could speak on friendly terms asking if they knew they were discriminating. Give them a chance to see the problem. 3.1 Identify source of information, advice and support about diversity, equality, inclusion and discrimination? A. There are a variety of different methods of getting information on diversity, equality, inclusion, you can access web sites that list all of the current legations in place to protect the right of individuals, you can also obtain leaflets to give to service user, to inform them of their rights, also your line manager, your organisations, policies and procedures, your colleagues, books, articles, and care quality commission, skills for care. 3.2 How and when would you access support on the above? A. I would access support on the above when a service user feels that they need as much information as they require it at that time, and get help with all difficulties the may come across.

Advantages for sociologists in using structured interviews Essay

The structured interview, also known as the formal or questionnaire interview, involves a face-to-face or alternatively an over-the-phone delivery of a questionnaire. Structured interviews use a pre-set list of questions designed by the researcher and asked to all interviewees in the same way, this is know as an interview schedule. Interviewees then choose from a list of set answers, allowing structured interviews to be relatively quick. Structured interviews have various advantages, therefore, some sociologists, mainly Positivist sociologists, choose to use structured interviews when conducting research. Positivists go by the assumption that there is a measurable objective social reality. They take a scientific approach using methods such as structured interviews to obtain quantitative data. Positivists are mainly interested in research methods that achieve their main goals of reliability, generalisability and representativeness, for this reason, they favour structured interviews as they achieve these goals. This is because structured interviews have close-ended questions and answers that are standardised, counted and quantified; they are reliable because they can be therefore replicated. Positivist sociologists also prefer to use structured interviews when conducting research because the pre-coded responses mean that produce quantitative data, can allow cause-and-effect relationships can be established. Thus, structured interviews are preferred by positivists. Also, structured interviews are representative and can therefore be generalised, because of the fact that they are often large-scale. There are also practical advantages to using structured interviews. For an example, training interviewers is relatively easy and inexpensive as no specialist skills have to be taught as the questions tend to be very straightforward as they often close-ended, and do not require too much thought. Due to the fact that skills taught are minimal, the process of training interviewers will not cost too much. This brings a huge practical advantage for sociologists of structured interviews being low cost. Another practical advantage is that structured interviews are relatively cheap, quick and easy to administer. This enables sociologists to use a  larger sample in the interview process, allowing more representative results to be produced. Therefore, the researcher can make generalisations. No only this, but structured interviews have a higher response rate, than mailed questionnaires for example, further improving and reinforcing the representative advantage of structured interviews. Furthermore, face to face interviews ensure a much higher response rate than mailed questionnaires for example, due to the fact that the researcher’s presence means that the research purpose and importance can be explained to potential interviewees, allowing them to understand how valuable it is that their response is correct and true, thus increasing validity- an important advantage for sociologists. Finally interviewer effect occurs when the interviewer’s presence affects the interviewee’s responses, in turn reducing validity. However, the advantage with structured interviews is that the interviewer effect with be much less than with unstructured, open-ended unstructured interviews. This is due to the fact that in structured interviews contact is restricted to asking and responding fixed list of questions and close-ended answers. All points considered there are a number of advantages for sociologists in using structured interviews in their research. However, in saying this, it can also be argued that there are a also number of disadvantages. For example, it can be said that there is a lack of validity as the researcher decides the questions in advance, a lack of reliability as interviewer effect may influence answers, a cost issue due to training and ignorance towards sensitive issues as deadpan manner may be quite off-putting and there is a lack of rapport. In my opinion, it all depends on whether you are a positivist or an interpretivist. Yes, there are some disadvantages, but I believe that these disadvantages are extremely outweighed by number of advantages that exist for sociologists in using structured interviews in their research.

Summarises the themes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summarises the themes - Essay Example The position seemed extremely painful and the body must have been subjected to excruciating pain through this activity. Considering this position, watching from above, the soul was extremely angry. The anger became stronger and stronger; however, he was powerless and could not do anything but watch. He screamed and shouted to let his body free and not subject it to such horrific activities. He would become quiet and listen to what they had to say and what they plan to do next and then start screaming again for mercy. After being subjected to this level of misery and not being able to do anything about it, he gave up. Once he gave up he found that everything changed. He now found himself in a place which was far away from this dreadful scene. He found peace and beauty from where he was now present. The environment was serene which left his speechless. He found himself floating in an area where there were beautiful rainbows and delicate beings. Everywhere he looked there were colors and sounds that were soothing to the ear. At once he forgot the pain he was being subjected and became lost in this beautiful world. The place seems timeless and he wanted it never to go away. The beauty was never ending, could be seen till far. In white robes, loving being welcomed him to his new home. He found them to be caring and helped him cross over to the next world. He left behind all pain and sorrow to be become a part of this new beautiful world. The being circled around him to show him that they were present at all times to comfort him and help him. The environment was such that all transparent clouds were blended together to bring about the beautiful scenario. The joy and happiness was unmatchable. It was serene and it was at once understood that it is only God who can create such an environment. The beings circling around him were sent by God to guide him into the right direction. His suffering was finally over and now he could become a part of this beautiful