3.6 Taking an objective, analytical stance One of the things I said an essay should be is ‘objective’. What does that mean? Being objective about something means standing back from it and looking at it coolly. It means focusing your attention on the ‘object’, on what you are discussing, and not on yourself and your own (subjective) feelings about it. Your ideas should be able to survive detailed inspection by other people who are not emotionally committed to them. An essay should argue by force of reason, not emot
3.1 A sharper focus So far, we have been analysing essays in a practical way, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of some actual examples, rather than at formal rules or abstract ideas about essay-writing. Now, though, we need to summarise. I suggest this because I think you already have a fairly good idea of what effective writing is. I don't think the point of a course like this is to tell you much that is devastatingly new. It is to bring into sharper focus what you ‘know’ already, and to help y
2.5.1 Sentences We can see that Philip knows what a sentence is because he writes some perfectly good ones. For example: In many ways going into urban life from the countryside was beneficial to woman of the upperclass. This sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. It has a subject (urban life) and a main verb (was). As any sentence is, it is a self-contained ‘unit of meaning’. It m
2.2 Looking at other people's essays One of the best ways of developing your essay-writing ability is to see how other students respond to the same essay title as you. It is not that you want to copy someone else's style. It's just that you need to broaden your understanding of what is possible when you are answering an essay question. 2.1 A lack of insight? One of the curious things about learning to write essays is that you are seldom offered much insight into what you might be setting out to produce. You know only too well what your essays look like and what your tutor says about them, but you don't know what else you might have done. For instance, you have very little idea what other people's essays are like and what comments they get back. Perhaps you are told your essay ought to be ‘more structured’ or ‘less subjective†1.3.1 Reading guide There is a lot to think about in this course, particularly if you work carefully through all the examples and activities, which are mainly in section 2. I suggest you take the course in five stages: Up to the end of section 2.1 Section 2.2 Section 2.3 Sections 2.4 and 2.5 Section 2.6 Sections 3 and 4. Alternatively, simply stop reading closely when you feel you h 1.1 Why write? Of all aspects of studying, writing is probably the most challenging. That is because when you write down an account of your ideas for other people to read you have to explain yourself particularly carefully. You can't make the mental leaps you do when you are in conversation with others or thinking about something for yourself. To make your meaning clear, using only words on a page, you have to work out exactly what you think about the subject. You come to understand it for yourself i 4.1 Understanding the relationship between data and space A map on its own is meaningless. Try showing one to a person from a culture which does not include mapmaking as we know it. A map is neither a picture nor a story – unless we know how to ‘read’ it. You have already developed ‘reading skills’ which will help in reading maps. For example, noting the title and the sources are common to all the uses of evidence in the social sciences. Critical awareness is vital in recognising how mapmaking involves selection, distortion and generalisat Exploring depression Exploring anxiety 3.4 Experiencing multiple sclerosis: a case illustration The idea of a body–world interconnection and distinction between objective and subjective body is explored further in the following extract, drawn from some phenomenological research Linda Finlay conducted on one person’s (Ann’s) lived bodily experience of having MS (Finlay, 2003). In the extract, the focus is on the process by which Finlay came to analyse what Ann’s body feels like subjectively. Her story – obtained via an in-depth interview (see Box 3 below) – emphasises the way 3.3 A body–world interconnection Our consciousness of our bodies remains fundamentally tied up with our everyday embodied activities and relationships. The body thus represents both our particular view of the world as well as our Being-in-the-world (Heidegger, 1962 [1927]). Martin Heidegger (2001) draws a distinction between corporeal things and the body, questioning whether the sense of embodied selfhood that we all possess needs to coincide with the limits of a corporeal body. The corporeal thing stops 2.3 Summary of Section 2 Mind–body dualism has been a pervasive problem since the seventeenth century. One consequence of this dualism is the way in which bodies have been treated in psychology. They have generally either been ignored or reduced to biology. However, our bodies are much more than simply biology; at the very least, they are the interface between the individual and the social world or, more radically, they are inherently social objects. There is growing recognition of the interaction between our bodie 2 Identity and the body In this section of the course you will look at the idea of a body–mind–social split in relation to the theme of identity and the body. You will then use the case study of pop singer Michael Jackson to explore the ideas of the body as an ‘identity project’. Conclusion This course has been about understanding the idea of psychological abnormality and its implications. What we have learned is that ‘normality’ is defined in a variety of ways, and it is important to ask what model of ‘normality’ is being subscribed to when looking at ‘abnormal’ populations. Are we judging someone's behaviour according to medical, statistical or social definitions of ‘normality’? The point of giving a detailed example like that of dyslexia is to show that in pra 3.6 Reflecting on dyslexia Throughout this course, dyslexia has been evaluated as an example of ‘abnormality’, a difficulty, a problem in need of an intervention. However, research has shown that some adults with dyslexia are distinctive, not just in their difficulties, but also in their increased levels of creative reasoning compared to ‘normal’ people (Everatt 1997). West (1997) reports that Nicholas Negroponte, the founding member of the Media Lab at the world renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technolog 3.5.1 Expectancy versus effect One of the biggest problems in evaluating psychological interventions is that even if a treatment appears to ‘work’ it can still be difficult to ascertain whether the results were a consequence of the treatment itself. The improvement might have occurred anyway, with or without the treatment, or the apparent benefits might have resulted from other factors, such as being able to discuss the difficulties with a professional who understands. Any treatment can lead to expectations of i 3.4.1 Pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals? Nutraceuticals refers to the use of food supplements or herbal remedies for health purposes. For example, certain ingredients of the herb St John's Wort can be as effective in managing depression as conventional anti-depressants, with fewer negative side effects (Greeson et al., 2001). However, research also shows that this supplement can interact negatively with some commonly prescribed drugs, such as the contraceptive pill. This highlights the need for: 3.1.1 Treatment or management? In the preceding paragraph you will notice that we talked generally about the treatment of conditions, but referred to ‘managing’ dyslexia. Why did we do this? It relates to the following important general issues: Is treatment (i.e. intervention) warranted ? We mentioned this issue when we were discussing sociocultural or personal distress based definitions of abnormality. Intervention is not always desi 3.1 Thinking about intervention So far we have looked at issues relating to how we define ‘abnormal’ behaviour, and how we think about explanations. Now we will consider the more practical issue of how to approach the treatment of such difficulties. As in the previous section, we will discuss behavioural, cognitive and biological perspectives on treatment and consider specific techniques from each perspective that are applicable to the management of dyslexia.
'Self-help’
This free advanced level course, Exploring depression, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on depression, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also begin to explore theoretical models, biological and psychological explanations, and look at a range of pharmacological and psychological therapies for depression.Author(s):
This free advanced level course, Exploring anxiety, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on anxiety, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also learn how to evaluate news items, and to go behind the headlines and begin to explore some of the more contemporary and controversial findings within the field.Author(s):
