The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2nd Research Paper

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2nd - Research Paper Example The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2nd The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2nd edition is the most widely used personality assessment instrument in the United States. Significant areas of use that have become typical include personnel assessment in military and air controller sectors and in research involving the normal population, among many others. From 1943 through the 1980s, the MMIP was the subject vehicle of over 10,000 books and articles (Butcher, 251). Over the course of its life the MMPI has evolved through several formats, reflecting the changes in social culture and approaches to sciences. The MMPI-2 was developed in the mid-1980s to apply across cultures, and the MMPI-A was developed for youth for youth populations from 14-18 years. The latest format, the MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), has not yet replaced the use of the MMPI-2. The MMPI grew from the research work of psychologist Starke Hathaway (1903-1984) during the 1930s at the University of Minnesota Hospitals. Hathaway led his colleagu es, including neuropsychiatrist J. Charnley McKinley (1891-1950) and graduate student Paul Meehl, through the task of compiling data from observations of 221 mental patients in the psychiatric unit. and comparing it to a normal nonpathological population of nearly 1,500 adults. With a goal of putting together a practical and easy-to-use assessment tool, they were able to build a 504 item true-false test from which answers could be used to formulate patterns of pathological behavior.

Qualitative Study Review: Triggers for Self Abuse

Qualitative Study Review: Triggers for Self Abuse Title: executive summaries of specified papers Triggers for self abuse; A qualitative study, Mary T Weber, Archives of psychiatric nursing, Volume 16, Issue 3, June 2002, Pages 118-124. This paper is essentially a qualitative study of a small cohort of 9 self abusing women. It was constructed using an analysis of a total of 42 semistructured interviews and attempting to draw out common themes. It has to be observed that this is a very specific cohort and probably cannot be extrapolated to reflect the trends in the general population, as this particular group were all in a locked psychiatric ward in the USA. The paper is essentially divided into three sections. The first is a resume of the background to academic studies of self injury, the second is a justification and explanation of the methodology used in the study and the third is an analysis of the data which ends with a discussion of the findings. An analytical overview would have to observe that the observational viewpoint in this paper is that of the social constructionist feminist. Although the paper sets out to be semi structured in its intervention, it appears clear that the interviewer is overtly active and sets out the parameters of the topics to be discussed and observes the fact that the â€Å"reality †¦.is jointly constructed.† (Parker and Lawton 2003) The author clearly has an agenda in this paper and, to some extent this is presented in the discussion section. She believes that women who self harm are often considered to be manipulative and do not evoke sympathy from healthcare professionals. The author puts the point that it is by the examination of the aspect of â€Å"hope† in their lives that these women can be optimally helped. This is clearly not a quantitative examination of the issues and might reasonably be considered more of an essay on the subject rather than an investigation into it. Although the outcomes presented are probably both laudable and admirable, the use of this paper as an evidence base for practice is effectively limited to consideration of this particular author’s opinion. (Henriksen et al 2003) We could contrast this paper with the excellent monograph on the subject by Isacsson G and Rich CL (2001), two professors who offer their opinions (backed up with appropriate references to academia) on the management of the self harming patient. In essence their overview sums up their views that: Patients who deliberately harm themselves should be assessed as comprehensively and thoroughly as possible, including the risk for suicide A multidisciplinary team approach to assessment and management is optimal A psychiatrist should be involved in the evaluation Management should be individualised on the basis of the assessment; mostly treatment for associated psychiatric disorders and assistance with precipitating circumstances Patients accepting offers for help should be followed up quickly. We would suggest that this latter paper provides a much better evidence base for practice in the nursing profession. Psychosocial and pharmacological treatments for deliberate self harm {Review} Hawton k, Townsend E, Arensman E, Gunnell D, Hazell P, House A, van Heeringen KThe Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews 2005 Issue 4. This paper is effectively a meta analysis of 23 studies in the area of self harm. It takes a wide database of papers published prior to 1999 from as far back as 1966. This paper is completely at the other end of the spectrum to the first one considered. It is both valid and relevant to everyday clinical practice. The construction of the analysis is rigorous and methodical. It divides the various studies considered into 11 different subsets depending on the outcome variables declared. This reduces its ability to generalise, but equally increases its ability to be statistically valid. In terms of an evidence base. The first half of the paper is little more than an explanation of the search and inclusion strategy for the analysis The overriding finding of the paper is that there is still insufficient research on the subject of self harm to allow the healthcare professional to feel confident of a secure evidence base (Mohammed, D et al 2003) and it calls for more large and well constructed trials to be done in the area. It points to the fact that a great many of the trials published did not have a sufficiently large entry cohort to allow strong statistical analysis to be made. One of the benefits of a meta analysis is the fact that it can gain statistical validity from the assimilation of many smaller trials, but in this case, because the authors subdivided their considerations into 11 different subsets, this benefit is greatly reduced. (Grimes DA et al. 2002) As for conclusions, the authors make a very self effacing statement that even their meta analysis does not provide a sufficient evidence base for effective forms of treatment of deliberate self harm. The implication of this statement is that, if this analysis cannot add to the evidence base, then the smaller, less statistically significant trials that it considered cannot do so either. This view is echoed by another meta analysis paper (Healy D 2002) which we can present in support of this particular paper Cognitive-behavioural intervention in deliberate self-harm, Anthony Joseph Raj M, V Kumaraiah, Ajit V Bhide, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Volume 104, Issue 5, Page 340, November 2001. This paper is entirely different from the preceding two. It is a randomised controlled trial with a small entry cohort of 40 patients split into a treatment and a control group of 20 patients each. Clearly this is a very small sample and the site of the trial is in India so it may not have a great relevance to the UK culture. (Veitch RM 2002) The first part of the paper gives an excellent overview of the evolution of various treatment strategies together with an indication of their relative efficacy. A noticeable strength of this trial was its robust measurement strategy with ten different measurement scales being employed to minimise observer bias. (Cochran and Cox. 1957) A major shortcoming of this trial is that it attempted to contrast a number of different intervention strategies within the already small intervention cohort. The results therefore cannot really be seen as having any great generalisable significance. It may provide useful information, but as being suitable for inclusion in a firm evidence base, it could be considered sadly lacking. If we contrast this with the paper by Soomro, (Soomro GM 2004) which considers the efficacy of various aspects of cognitive behaviour therapy in the self harm group we can see that the latter’s entry cohort of nearly 500 has a much greater statistical significance and therefore a much greater relevance. Methodological issues in nursing research, Nurses attitudes towards clients who self-harm, McAllister A, Creedy D, Moyle W, Farrugia C, Journal of advanced nursing Volume 40, Issue 5, Page 578, December 2002. In many respects, this paper is a combination of many of the elements that we have discussed in the preceding three papers. It is designed to explore the attitude that receiving nurses have in the AE dept, when they deal with patients who have self harmed. Paper 1 (Weber M 2002) made the unsupported statement that nurses are less than empathetic when dealing with the self harm patient. This paper presents the evidence base behind this assumption. There is a section which reviews previous work in the area and comments on the rather counter intuitive fact that mental health professionals (who might be expected to me more empathetic and understanding) tend to be less tolerant and supportive as they typically see this type of patient as being primarily manipulative. (Anderson M 1997) The professed aim of this study was to allow the development of a suitable tool in the form of a questionnaire. It was structured with three distinct elements. Firstly was the literature review (which we have already alluded to). Secondly they canvassed the opinions of a group of 10 post graduate nurses to set the baseline of nursing attitudes. This was used as the basis for the third element which was the construction and evaluation of a questionnaire. This was drafted in the form of the ADSHQ questionnaire. We should note that only 35% of the questionnaires were returned which is a major source of bias, since one might assume that the few respondents were those that felt strongly enough to respond and therefore their views, by definition, may not be typical. A strong point in this survey’s favour was the fact that those who did respond had an average of 17 years of nursing experience. The results of the paper were rather disappointing with no significant correlation being found between attitudes and the many variables investigated. The only statistically significant finding was that staff in larger units tended to be less empathetic than those in smaller ones. It should be noted that a negative finding, although superficially disappointing, can be just as significant as a positive one as the implication here is that there was no discernible predictive factor in a nurses’ attitude towards self harming patients. This paper can be contrasted with findings in similar studies House A (et al. 2000) supports the findings of negative attitudes of staff but is more of a discussion document than a study of enquiry. Wilhelm K et al 2000) is primarily a paper which explores the efficacy of the interventions for self harming patients but makes considerable academic comment on the relevance of the nurses’ attitude to the efficacy of the treatment. We should also note that, like the original paper, it also originates from Australia. Mckinlay A (et al 2001) takes the issue and looks deeper into the reasoning and rationale behind the negative attitude and makes a number of positive suggestions relating to the mechanisms of corrective action to remedy the situation. References Anderson M 1997,  Nurses’ attitudes to suicidal behaviour,  Journal of advanced Nursing 25, 1283-1291 Cochran and Cox. 1957,  Experimental designs. New York: Wiley, 1957. Grimes DA, Schulz KF.2002,  Cohort studies: marching towards outcomes. Lancet 2002;359: 341-5 Healy D 2002,  SSRIs and deliberate self-harm,  The British Journal of Psychiatry (2002) 180: 547-548 Henriksen and Kaplan 2003 Hindsight bias, outcome knowledge and adaptive learning Qual. Saf. Health Care, Dec 2003; 12: 46 50. House A, Owens D, Patchett L,  Deliberate Self harm,  Qual. Health care 2000. 8: 137-143 Isacsson G, Rich CL 2001,  Management of patients who deliberately harm themselves,  BMJ. 2001 January 27; 322(7280): 213–215. Mohammed, D Braunholtz, and T P Hofer 2003 The measurement of active errors: methodological issues Qual. Saf. Health Care, Dec 2003; 12: 8 12. Mckinlay A Coulston M, Cowan S 2001,  Nurses behavioural intentions towards self-poisoning patients: a theory of reasoned action, comparison of attitudes and subjective norms as predictive variables,  Journal of Advanced Nursing Volume 34 Page 107 April 2001 Parker and Lawton 2003 Psychological contribution to the understanding of adverse events in health care Qual. Saf. Health Care, Dec 2003; 12: 453 457. Soomro GM 2004,  Deliberate self harm (and attempted suicide): Manual assisted cognitive behavioural therapy,  Psychol Med 2004;33:969–976. Veitch RM 2002,  Cross-cultural perspectives in medical ethics,  Jones Bartlett 2002 ISBN: 0763713325 Wilhelm K, Schneiden V, Kotze B 2000,  Selecting your options: A pilot study of short interventions with patients who deliberately self harm, Australasian Psychiatry. Volume 8 Page 349 December 2000 ############################################################# 13.2.06 PDG Word count 1,989

America Must Create Jobs Essay -- The Decline of America

Those living in the United States of America are experiencing some economically dark times. Unemployment is becoming increasingly worse. Social programs are failing. Prices everywhere are on the rise as wages are declining drastically. Class division has never been more distinct. Of those lucky enough to have secured the multiple jobs needed in order to maintain their subsistent existences, most make only a minimum wage, established by their state’s laws, which is then harshly taxed upon. Life is hard enough in our dying superpower of a nation, but even worse for the work force of America that must survive on minimum wage. It is an offending disappointment that our fellow countrymen and women must live the way they do. This raises a crucial question whose outcome affects much of the working population. Should minimum wage be raised? And why? There are several arguments being made by economists as to why the minimum wage must be increased. One reason that really pulls on the heart strings is that raising the minimum wage will assist American families. Many of those on minimum wage are working for what is considered â€Å"living wages† as opposed to a side wage. A living wage is much more substantial. These peoples’ needs must be taken into account if they are to survive. But survival isn’t enough. People are not robotic. They all deserve the same chance at happiness as everyone else. Over 28 million of the people in this country work for minimum wage. In the words of one economist that is fighting for the preservation of the family, â€Å"With more family income, some people would choose to retire, go back to school, or have children, making it easier for others who need jobs to find them. Working families would have more time for commu... ...evin-Waldman, Oren M. The Case of the Minimum Wage: Competing Policy Models. Albany: State University of New York, 2001. Print. Levin-Waldman, Oren M. Wage Policy, Income Distribution, and Democratic Theory. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. Mutari, Ellen, and Deborah M. Figart. Women and the Economy: A Reader. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2003. Print. "The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage." The Case for Raising the Minimum Wage. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. Staff, NPR. "Raising Minimum Wage: A Help Or Harm?" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. "Top 5 Reasons Why Raising the Minimum Wage Is Good for You and Me." Alternet. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. Adams, Mark. "Raising the Minimum Wage Hurts the Poor." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. "Why We Should Not Raise the National Minimum Wage." IVNus. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.

Brazil

Brazil is perceived as a standout amongst the most multiracial district on the planet that involves a colorful, diverse and intriguing society made up of Local American, Africans, and Portuguese. The reason why I am focus on Brazil is because someday I would like to be apart of the diversity. I believe that understanding their culture better will enable me to develop sensitivity and appreciation towards Brazil culture. I would be honored to participate in many traditional celebrations such as the annual Rio Carnival, which is one of the world most exciting and inspiring cultural festival in South America. It would be a wonderful opportunity to experience cultural tradition food such as â€Å"Feijoada†, which is consist with black beans and some sort of meat you consider to add to make a stew. In the following cultural resume, I will attempt to present a comprehensive brief summary of the diverse Brazilian culture. This will include providing a broad overview of the country's profile that will includes the country geography, racial, ethnic and also, with cultural holidays, traditional foods, different languages, beautiful landmarks. Alongside, a summary of the country's history, political system, educational system and challenges that Brazil is faced with. The second section will be focus on challenging some of the biases and assumptions that I previously held about the country. This will also include an attempt to evaluate how my stereotypes and sensitivity toward Brazilian population has changed, and the major lessons that I have learnt by focusing on this country. Finally, I will scrutinize on the ways that I will make effort to communicate with people that comprise the Brazilian culture. Brazil is arranged on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. The greatest country in South America running along 5000 miles from coastline to coastline through every edge in South America foresees from Chile and Ecuador. Brazil is on the coastline of Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The Brazilian scene is enormous and complex, with sprinkled streams, wetlands, mountains, and levels connecting other real highlights and navigating the limits of states and locales. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. Brazil's physical condition and atmosphere fluctuate enormously from the tropical North to the mild South. The scene is overwhelmed by a focal good country area known as the Planalto Focal (Brazilian High countries, or Level of Brazil) and by the huge Amazon Basin which possesses over one-third of the nation. Brazil is a beautiful topical country. The restricted seaside marsh zone ranges from tropical in the north to mild in the south. The cool upland fields of the south have a calm atmosphere and an incidental snowfall. The coolest period is from May to September, and the most blazing is from December to spring. October to May is the blustery season. As of 2018 the Brazilian population is well over 200 million. Set at number 5 in populace among the 193 countries of the world. In Brazil the decent variety of the scene coordinates that of the general population possesses of it which is indigenous people, Portuguese, Africans (which came as slaves). Around 86 percent of the population is urban.

Examine sociological explanations of the difference in the educational performance of ethnic minorities in Britain Essay

The connection between ethnicity and educational accomplishment is very complicated as there is a great deal of difference between achievements between each of the ethnic groups. In previous studies, such as those carried out to compile the Swann report (1985), used very simplistic classifications of each of the ethnic groups, ‘Afro-Caribbean’, ‘Asian’ and ‘All others’ (including white). There was clear ranking between these groups with all others at the top, followed by Asians, and then Afro-Caribbean. Later on more complex classification systems were introduced and so a more detailed picture of the relationships between class and education emerged. For example, Kysel (1988) used eleven classifications to measure success at 16. This study placed Indian, African, Asian and Pakistani pupils at the top, followed by South East Asian and Greek students. Students of UK origin came in the middle of the range, followed by pupils from Turkish, Arab and Caribbean origin. At the bottom were Bangladeshi pupils. Most sociological explanations point to home back ground, educational experiences and factors to do with society. However studies don’t usually apply such sophisticated classifications, as used by Kysel, so making it difficult to explain distinctions between the categories. There are three main reasons for different ethnicities achieving differently in the cultural factors, social class and school factors. Cultural factors are thought by sociologists to have a large influence on the difference in attainment of the ethnic groups. Findings of those such as Douglas have provided support for what came to be known as ‘cultural deprivation theory’. This theory states that many of the values, attitudes and skills needed for high educational success are missing in the culture of certain ethnic groups. This was a particularly popular theory in the 1960-70’s, it was notably supported by the Swann committee (1985), however evidence can be seen as weak, even the Swann report said this argument was ‘sketchy’. Driver and Ballard adopted this explanation in their study of children with parents of South Asian origin. They found that these parents quickly developed high expectations of their children’s abilities and such attitudes may have attributed to their success. Ken Pryce rejected theory. He did a study of the Afro-Caribbean community in Bristol (1979) and although he described their way of life as ‘turbulent’ he also said that Afro-Caribbean parents have great aspirations for their children, and that they were not socially deprived because their parents are supportive, interested and provide all of the educational aid the can. Rex and Tomlinson also rejected the cultural deprivation theory in their study in Handsworth. Their rejected the theory because the data they collected points to Asians achieving highest at school and yet their parents go into school the least, indicating that they are not as interested as Afro-Caribbean parents who go into school the most. In spite of their parents frequent visits to school Afro-Caribbean are achieving the least in school. Another important theory is cultural difference theory, this about children being disadvantaged because their culture differs from the schools, the main example of this is if a child go to an English speaking school and speaks a different language at home, this means that they will not be as practiced as the children for whom English is their first language, they will be subjected to constant correction by teacher and their confidence and self esteem may suffer as a result. This theory is rejected by Driver and Ballard who found that by sixteen Asian children’s command of English is at least as good as their class mate, and in some cases, much better. The Swann report also noted that linguistic factors held back some Afro-Caribbean students but most did not have a problem. Social class is another important factor to consider. Some research suggests that much of the differential educational advantage that Afro-Caribbean’s face is due to the fact that most Afro-Caribbean’s are working class, disproportionately so. Swann said social class adds up to half of the reason behind educational achievement. Smith and Tomlinson agreed with this with their study of inner city junior schools and found a large variation due to class but a much smaller discrepancy due to ethnicity. The only problem with this is Asian pupils are primarily working class yet they achieve better that their white middle class counterparts. Many researchers have looked at the impact a range of school factors; this idea takes the stance that the difference in attainment between the ethnic groups is due to school environment. In studying school factors researches may have looked at curriculum content, teacher’s attitudes, ethnocentric resources, banding, language and many other things. Mac and Ghaill found that there was no clearly defined relationship between students who have been the victims of racism and the ones who have been predicted a fail. What he found was how well students did was influenced mainly by the schools they had come from. Pupils from suburban schools did better than pupils from inner city schools. Most studies showed that teachers were not racist to ethnic minorities. Taylor saw that many teachers were very sensitive in their handling of cultural issues and Hammersley went on to say most racist teachers did not bring this into the classroom. Wright studied primary schools and noticed how Asian pupils were largely ‘invisible’ to the teacher and was treated insensitively by both staff and peers. Coard said that institutional racism lead to ethic minority children having self-esteem problems, which developed into low achievement. This is extremely apt with Afro-Caribbean students who are seen as ‘a threat to classroom management’ and because they have been treated like this they start to conform to the labels they have been given. The DfEE found in a recent study that Afro-Caribbean pupils were four times more likely be permanently excluded from school than white children. To conclude, the area of ethnicity is a very delicate one and it is important to view it in the context of individuals and not stereotype people. More research is needed in to the experience of small, specific racial groups, not just ‘Asian’ or ‘White’. It is also important to note that it can never be seen as just one factor, it is always going to be a combination of factors and also age and gender can not be ignored, no one factor can never be measured accurately on its own.