Personal Reflections on the Self Essay Example for Free

Personal Reflections on the Self Essay I  certify that  the attached  paper is my original work and has not previously been submitted by me or anyone else for any class. I further declare I have cited all sources from which I used  language, ideas, and information,  whether quoted  verbatim or paraphrased, and that any assistance of any kind, which I received while producing this paper, has been acknowledged in the References section. I have obtained written permission from the copyright holder for any trademarked material, logos, or images from the Internet or other sources. I further agree that my name typed  on the line below is intended to have, and shall have, the same validity as my handwritten signature. Students  signature (name typed here is equivalent to a signature):   Marjorie Neal When we talk about self, it is generally meant to be a reflection of an individual’s identity and separate from others and the environment (Huitt, 2009). The most widely used concepts when it comes to self are the self-concept and self-esteem. Self-esteem is the sense of self worth and dictates how we feel about ourselves where self-concept is dictated by how an individual answers the question â€Å"who am I? †(Myers, 2008). Research has shown that self-concept is the basis for all motivated behavior because self-concept that provides individuals with possible selves and those possible selves create the motivation for behavior (Huitt, 2009). Self-concept is built through the process of taking action and reflecting on the action one has taken as well as what others tell him about what he has done (Huitt, 2009). We are not born with a self-concept. Self-concept is developed through interaction with the environment and one’s reflection of that interaction. Self-concept has four parts: self-image, self-esteem, ideal-self and self-efficacy My sister had all the friends that my parents approved of, she got the good grades, she was not in special education classes and at home report cards and progress reports were constantly compared. I never heard that I was doing a great job or that I had improved on this subject or that it was always how wonderful my sisters grades were compared to my C’s that I worked very hard for in the early years. By the third grade I was behind in reading and math so I had to go to special classes to get help on those subjects. I not only felt inadequate at home but the other students in school made me feel very stupid and not good enough. I was picked on at school and called all sorts of names from stupid to Margarine to Rhino. Looking back it was kids being kids and picking on me because they could see that it bothered me. I used to come home in tears and all my parents said was to ignore them and they would stop but they did not stop. I was in the â€Å"loser† group and there was no getting out of it. By third grade I believed them. When I entered Junior High School, I started off in the lowest group for my classes, the one that all the troublemakers were in and all the â€Å"stupid† kids. I got tired of being lumped with those kids and decided I could do better so I decided I was going to work hard and talk to my teachers about moving up a group. In sixth grade I went from group four to group three at the half way point in the year. This gave me a bit of a boost but I still was not happy. I wanted to be one of the smart kids like my sister was so that my parents would be proud. So in seventh grade I worked harder and talk to my teachers and I was moved from group three into group two. I was feeling better about myself and continued to push harder until I was finally in group one by the end of the eighth grade. Being in group one meant I could take the college level classes I wanted to take in High School, it also meant that I was just as good as my sister was but that did nothing for me at home because I was struggling to pull C’s and my sister was still pulling A’s. Nonetheless, I was proud of my accomplishment and myself so I tried college level classes in High School. I did fine in college English but not so good in Math. I found that high school was very difficult for me and after all those years of trying to be as good as my sister I still could not pull the same grades no matter how hard I worked at it. I gave up and stopped taking college level classes with the hope that the other classes would be easier for me and I could pull the A’s and B’s that my parents were so proud of my sister for getting. When I continued to struggle my freshman and sophomore year I gave up and decided that I was going to do what it took to get those C’s and nothing more. I became very discouraged. Then my parents separated and we moved from my hometown to the Cape with my aunt so I had to change schools half way through my sophomore year. I was happy with that, a new group of kids to meet and different expectations by the kids I already knew in that school so this was going to be easy and that was my easiest semester ever. I finally got the good grades that I was looking for and my mother stopped criticizing me for my choice in friends. She actually approved of most of my friends. My sister at that point became the problem child. Then it all fell apart. My mother decided that she was going to take a job in Boise, Idaho and my sister and I had to move with her across the country. I had finally adjusted to the idea of my parents getting a divorce and now she was going to take me away from all of my life long friends and everything I knew. My attitude, self-esteem and everything went right down the toilet. When we got to Idaho I didn’t care anymore. I was going to do what I had to do to graduate and get out of my mother’s house so I could go back to Massachusetts where I knew people and I was home. I made poor choices in friends, poor choices in behavior, and poor choices in my schoolwork all because the only thing I could see was anger. I was so angry with both of my parents, my mother for making me move to Idaho and my father for not fighting to keep us in Massachusetts. It was like my opinion did not matter and once again my sister was the queen. All the good I had done in junior high and down the Cape did not matter anymore. I graduated from high school, turned down a military career and moved back to Massachusetts where I met my first husband. It was a marriage destined to fail. My first husband was very abusive verbally and emotionally. He constantly made me feel like I was not worth the dirt I walked on. I was diagnosed bipolar two years after we got married and he never took the time to learn about it, said he didn’t believe in mental illness and did not help me find the help I needed so it was a very rocky ten-year marriage. I did get two wonderful children out of the marriage though, of that I was thankful and challenged. After my first husband and I divorced, I met my current husband. He is the exact opposite of my first husband. We have a very good relationship. It was the relationship with my first husband and all the abuse that I went through in the ten years we were married and my childhood experiences that made me who I am today.

Life as a White Man in The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man :: Biography Biographies Essays

Life as a White Man in The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man "...the effect is a tendency toward lighter complexions, especially among the more active elements in the race. Some might claim that this is a tacit admission of colored people among themselves of their own inferiority judged by the color line. I do not think so. What I have termed an inconsistency is, after all, most natural; it is, in fact, a tendency in accordance with what might be called an economic necessity. So far as racial differences go, the United States puts a greater premium on color, or better, lack of color, than upon anything else in the world." --the protagonist (page 72) James Weldon Johnson's first-person narrator in his fictional account, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, forwards a cynical, if not Darwinian, point-of-view about skin color. He claims it is "most natural" for black people to procreate with those who are lighter skinned. And he coolly excuses this supposedly common practice as pure economic necessity. The Black Nationalist must protest this fatalism. The Marxist simply chalks another one up for his side. What about the humanist? What is he or she to make of such unreasonable and callous tactics used to pursue the American Dream? The sympathetic humanist might bristle at first, but would eventually concur. For it's hard to argue with poverty. At the time the novel was published (1912), America held very few opportunities for the Negro population. Some of the more successful black men, men with money and street savvy, were often porters for the railroads. In other words the best a young black man might hope for was a position serving whites on trains. Our protagonist--while not adverse to hard work, as evidenced by his cigar rolling apprenticeship in Jacksonville--is an artist and a scholar. His ambitions are immense considering the situation. And thanks to his fair skinned complexion, he is able to realize many, if not all, of them. There is some evidence that connects our protagonist's line of thinking with his upbringing. Our protagonist's mother tells him, "The best blood of the South is in you," (page 8) when the child asks whom his father is. Clearly, his mother was proud of (and perhaps still in love with) this genteel white man who gave her a son. So his bold pronouncements make much sense in light of his own condition.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Brief: This book is one of â€Å"Four Great Classical Novels† of Chinese literature; it is the first river novel writes by chapters in China . It is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of China, starting in 169 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280. The whole book has 120 chapters, and a total of 800,000 words and 1,798 dramatic characters and nearly 40 battles. The story begins with the end of Eastern Han Dynasty. The government becomes extremely corrupt on all levels, leading to widespread deterioration of the empire. During the reign of the penultimate Han emperor, Emperor Ling, the Yellow Turban Rebellion breaks out under the leadership of Zhang Jiao; And finishes with the early Western Jin Dynasty, the three regimes return to a unified national. During those 100 years, there were many conflicts among the various warlords and nobles, then the three kingdoms were appeared on the stage of the history, we cal l them ——Cao Wei (Cao Cao), Shu Han (Liu Bei, Zhuge liang), Eastern Wu (Sun Quan). This book focuses on describing the three countries competing for the land, people, people in the process, there are many scenes of great wars, and ups and downs in the story as if it can help people back to thousands of years ago where a bloody battlefield, to give readers a thrilling sense of deep. The wits of the strategy of heroes in the book is very fascinating, whether it is good ideas, or intrigue, all of them are make readers feel the great wisdom and wonderful imagination of our ancient. There are many main characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, however the main focus is on the hero, Liu Bei(Shu Han), who is a distant relative of the reigning family. The story opens up with the decline of the Han Dynasty, the ruling dynasty of all of China for the past 400 years. As the royal throne begins to crumble and lose power, a rebellious cult arises that brings together wonderful and terrible generals to fight off the rebellious menace. This sets the stage for the heroes of the Han army to make a name for them and to gain power. As the story unfolds over many, many chapters, the throne eventually loses all power and is basically controlled by one of its ministers, a former hero of the rebellions, Cao Cao. He ends up being the villain of the story as he forms the Wei kingdom that manipulates the throne and the Emperor for personal gain. In fact,the 70% of the story is real history, and the other 30% is besides unofficial historical records, folk stories and Sanguozhi Pinghua(another historical book about Three Kingdoms), some were created by the author on his own. So I want to show you two differences between the stories of the real history. Hua Rong Dao(a name of place) Story In the book, it described that Guan Yu intercepted Cao Cao on the Hua Rong Dao after Cao Cao loss the Chi Bi War. And at that time, Guan Yu had very high chance to kill Cao Cao. If that, it won`t happen the situation that there are three countries. But Guan Yu remembered out some past and liberated Cao Cao finally. He lost the chance. But in the reality, the person who went to intercept Cao Cao is not Guan Yu. While it`s Liu Bei. And it`s too late when Liu Bei got there. So Cao Cao run away. This story is mainly in order to play down Cao Cao and set up the perfect image of Guan Yu. Zhou Yu Story In the book, Zhuge Liang angered Zhou Yu three times and Zhuge Liang died finally. In the reality, Zhou Yu is smarter than Zhuge Liang. For example, the strategy of Chi Bi is thought out from Zhou Yu, not Zhuge Liang. At that time, Zhou Yu even didn’t pay attention to Zhuge Liang. They have less chance to meet each other. From Chi Bi War to two years after Zhou Yu’s death, Zhuge Liang were doing the logistics and had no chance to see Zhou Yu. Even in the memorial meeting, the representative of Shu Country is Pang Tong, not Zhuge Liang. The course of death of Zhou Yu is overwork. The preferred country of author is Shu country. And the most preferable people of author is Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. So at here, the author played down Zhou Yu and enhances the image of Zhuge Liang. When I was a middle school student, my father asked me to read this book, but it was hardship and boring for me, I just read it without thinking. But now I like it better with age, I love Cao Cao’s cunning, Guan Yu’s loyalty, Zhuge Liang’s extremely intelligent; I love Lu Bu’s single-minded, I love Zhao Yun’s brave, Zhang Fei’s impulse. All of them are vivid and interesting. I think the biggest advantage of this book is that everybody can learn something from it. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms,there are a lot of knowledge about military science, psychology, science of resourcefulness, public relations, science of personnel and so on. The schemers of the three kingdoms use various sorts and varieties of knowledge to help their lord to win the wars and earn the lands. And by reading this book, I realized that a lot of truth in life, for example, in this book the author always stressed a sentence: ‘This world will separate after long time united. Also it will do the opposite after long time of plighting. ’ This sentence has been verified many times in Chinese history after that. And in China, we have many Chinese proverbs in use today are derived from the novel, like â€Å"Three reeking tanners (are enough to) overcome one Zhuge Liang. † The meaning is three inferior people can overpower a superior person when they combine their strength. Because Zhuge Liang was very smart, but if we can make us unity, we can overcome Zhuge Liang. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is definitely a challenging book, but is really a hidden treasure as most people who interested in Eastern culture. Mainly being a popular book in the Asian countries, it is a great book for those that enjoy historical fiction books with a twist of fantasy or for those that enjoy war/strategy novels. This is a great book and is highly recommended for anyone looking for something different to read.

Theories Of Knowledge, Justified Belief And Truth - 897 Words

The concept of knowledge, justified belief and truth has been a primary focus of philosophers for a long time and I believe will continue to be. What I consider to be the biggest issue when it comes to Epistemology is how we justify our beliefs. How can we be sure that our justifications for our beliefs are sufficient? Also, how do we ensure that our sources of knowledge have sufficient justifications for their knowledge and beliefs? Distinguishing between reliable sources of information and unreliable sources of information is an issue that will never be solved. We have a duty to question the credibility of our sources of information in order to know if we can believe the information they share with us. If we do not question our beliefs and our sources of information then can we really know anything for sure? According to traditional epistemology, knowledge requires 3 conditions in order for it to be a â€Å"justified true belief†. The first of these conditions is tru th, in order to know something it must be true. This part seemed self-explanatory to me but I believe poses a bigger issue than we may think. How can we know whether everything we hear and read is true when we are going through our daily life? We can’t just ‘Google’ everything we hear and read because it would be time consuming and we also can’t trust the credibility of most online sources. When going through school I always trusted everything the teachers taught and never really questioned themShow MoreRelatedInternalism Theory of Knowledge1183 Words   |  5 PagesInternalism is one of the epistemic theories of knowledge and is explained as the effects that cause beliefs to be justified or unjustified. They are called J- factors and they must in some way, be internal to the subject. The best way to internalize J-Factors is to limit them to beliefs. The constraint internalists place on J-Factors is more plausibly constructed in terms of intellectual convenience. What meets the requirements as a J-factor must be something that is cognitively easily reached toRead MoreWhy Is Knowledge Important?1337 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction While knowledge acquisition is important in our life, it is more important to discuss the definition of knowledge. What is knowledge? Is there only one kind of knowledge or many different types? When can somebody be set to have knowledge? Can you now know that this printed page is in front of you or are you hallucinating? These questions need to be asked before looking at the Justified True Belief (JTB) theory. II. Types of Knowledge There are three different types of knowledge: know-howRead MoreThe Gettier Problem: A Marathon Essay1081 Words   |  5 Pagesepistemology – the theory of knowledge. For years, philosophers have analyzed and questions what knowledge is, its value, sources, structure, and whether we know anything at all. Epistemology questions what knowledge is and how we as humans can acquire it – which involves much debate. Though our understanding of knowledge is ambiguous, we do know that knowledge is justified, true belief. There have been attempts to answer the queries through the Justified-True-Belief Account of Knowledge (JTB), knownRead MoreEpistemology, By Robert Nozick918 Words   |  4 PagesEpistemology is the theory behind knowledge, based of methods, validity, and scope, which is justified by beliefs and opinions. Epistemology is the greek word for knowledge that means why we should hold beliefs. Knowledge is belief that is somewhat of a fact believed without a connection but it must be believable or it will not be considered knowledge. Many people believe that knowledge is based off of only beliefs, but it’s also based off of truth too. You have to combine truth and beliefs into two toRead MoreWhy Is Knowledge Considered A Belief?982 Words   |  4 Pagesfor the study of knowledge and how it can be acquired. In order to have â€Å"knowledge† you must understand how you to achieve that knowledge through truth, belief and justification. The next couple of questions that are asked are usually â€Å"what is knowledge?† and â€Å"why is knowledge considered a belief?† The study of knowledge (logos) or better known as Epistemology focuses on the investigation to differentiate between the justified beliefs from opinion. Knowledge is considered a belief because our experiencesRead MoreJustification And Theory Of Justification1503 Words   |  7 Pagescoherence theory of justification preferable to a foundationalist theory of justification? The purpose of this essay is to justify why coherence theory of justification is preferable to a foundationalist theory of justification, I will start by explaining what Coherence the theory of justification and foundationalist theory of justification is. Coherence theory of justification also known as coherentism, is a theory of epistemic justification, this theory implies that in order for a belief to beRead MoreUse The Justified True Belief ( Jtb ) Theory909 Words   |  4 PagesEpistemologists use the Justified True Belief (JTB) theory to define knowledge. As according to JTB theory, knowledge constitutes three attributes that include: truth, justification, and belief. According to the traditional analysis of knowledge, JTB is sufficient and necessary for knowledge. In the tripartite analysis of knowledge, the first condition is; S knows that P if and only if P is true. In the second condition, S must belief in p, and the last condition is that S must be justified by believing inRead MorePlato s Justified True Belief Theory1343 Words   |  6 PagesFor thousands of years the most prominent theory of knowledge was Plato’s Justified True Belief theory. He was convinced that in order to know something the following criterion must be met: a) one must believe said thing to be true b) said thing must actually be true, and c) one must be justified in believing said thing to be true. This theory made a lot of sense to most epistemologists, and was generally accepted as true for a very long time. It wasn’t until a man named Edmund Gettier wrote aRead MorePlato s Theory Of Knowledge830 Words   |  4 Pagesconventionally defined knowledge as a belief that is both true and justified. Plato first introduces this concept of knowledge in Thaeaetetus where he presents knowledge, to be justified true belief. This definition sufficed until, Edmund Gettier, an American philosopher, pointed out that the conditions could be fulfilled inadvertently, in ways that did not amount to what Plato intuitively regarded to as knowledge. The goal of the Gettier problem is to showcase that one can have a belief which is true andRead MorePlato s Theory Of Knowledge833 Words   |  4 Pagesconventionally defined knowledge as a belief that is both true and justified. Plato first introduces this concept of knowledge in Thaeaetetus where he presents knowledge, to be justified true belief. This definition sufficed until, Edmund Gettier, an American philosopher, pointed out that the conditions could be fulfilled inadvertently, in ways that did not amount to what Plato intuitively regarded to as knowledge. The goal of the Gettier problem is to showcase that one can have a belief which is true and