Saturday, January 25, 2020

Depression and suicide attempt

Depression and suicide attempt Suicide is the most destructive behavior of human. There are many risk factors that make people commit suicide. Some are biological that genetic and neurotransmitters may play a role in risk for suicide. Some are clinical that mental disorders, particularly mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and certain personality disorders contribute to suicidal behaviors. Some are psychosocial that lack of social support and sense of isolation also increase the risk of suicide (Suicide Prevention Resource Center, n.d.). These factors are important to understand why people have suicidal behaviors. For example, the suicides in Hong Kong can be explained by clinical and psychosocial factors which range from psychiatric illness and a history of past suicide attempt to unemployment and the absence of social support (Shuiyuan et al., 2006). Among different risk factors, major depression is a significant one that it is both the strongest risk factors for attempted suicide in adults and yout hs. People suffered from depression are at a greater potential to attempt suicide. Lets define depression for the purposes of subsequent discussion. It is the most common mental disorder. Clinical depression is generally acknowledged to be more serious than just sadness or normal depressed feelings. It is characterized by a severely depressed mood that persists at least two weeks, with at least five defining features (Robert, James Susan, 1996). For example, people with depression may experience a lack of interest and pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or excessive sleeping, lack of energy, etc. The depressed mood often leads to constant negative thinking and sometimes substance abuse. Extreme depression can culminate in its sufferers attempting or recurrent thoughts of death and committing suicide. The increased risk of suicide by depression is caused by its association with suicidal ideation. This depression-suicidal ideation link has been documented in research studies conducted with Asian adolescents. In a study of Korean high school students (Rebecca Vivien, 2006), depression was found to be the strongest and most consistent predictor of suicidal behaviors. Students who had high scores on depression were 5.31 times more likely to report suicidal ideas and 3.19 times more likely to attempt suicide, as compared to those with low scores. It shows that depressed people have a higher chance to think about suicide whether or not they intend to act on these thoughts. The risky people to commit suicide, however, are not those who are severely depressed because they often do not have the energy to harm themselves. It is when their depression lifts and they gain increased energy that they may be more likely to attempt suicide. Nevertheless, the link between depression and suicide attempt is not solely a direct causal relationship, but in fact, it is a complication of depressive illness in combination with other risk factors to trigger the suicide attempt. To begin with, stressful life events combined with depression may lead to suicide. Those stressful events often precede a suicide attempt. They may include death of a relative, breakup, loss of a job, etc. They are rarely a sufficient cause of suicide, but they often act as precipitating factors in young people (PreventionLane, .n.d.). On the other hand, sociodemographic factors are often associated with depression. The combination of them brings about suicide attempt. For example, females are strongly associated with depression that they are more predisposed to depression compared to males. Females are also strongly related to suicide attempt that they are more likely to attempt suicide than males that there are three female attempts for each male attempt (Chris, 2010). Intriguingly, it shows that gender, as a sociodemographic factor, has influences on depression and suicide attempt as well. In other words, it is the antecedent that triggers the happening of depression and suicide attempt. The effect of gender on depression and suicide attempt may stem from gender stereotypes and identity roles (Christina, 2004). There are different social expectations for males and females that females are encouraged to express their feelings while males are not, hence increase the chances of depression being triggered by social factors, such as loss of friends. So females are more likely to suffer from depression, which in turn, lead to subsequent suicide attempt. Besides gender, age also has a significant relationship with depression and suicide attempt. People in two age groups are more vulnerable to depression and suicide attempt which are adolescent and elderly respectively. Their risks of suicide are very high, especially the adolescent. Suicide of adolescent has become a global issue that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries (World Health Organization, n.d.). While in Hong Kong, the trend of adolescent suicide is on the rise in recent years with an average annual growth of 10%, while the first 8 months in 2010, youth suicide figures have been comparable with the 2009 full year figures. So far this year, there were 26 young people under 25 years old committed suicide cases and 30 cases of suicide attempt were rescued (The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, 2010). For the suicide attempt of adolescents, depression is the major risk factor. There are a couple of reasons why adolescents develop depression. It can be family problem because they dont have a good relationship with the parents. It may be a reaction to a disturbing event, such as a breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend or failure at school. There is also a personality predisposition to depression. Adolescents who have low self-esteem and feel little sense of control over negative events are particularly at risk to become depressed when they experience stressful events. There are some more sociodemographic characteristics that are potential risk factors for depression and suicidal attempt, such as marital status, sexual orientation and employment status. Divorced people, homosexuals and unemployed people are both found to be strongly linked to depression and suicide. These factors, combined with gender and age are crucial to understand the problem of suicide deeply and find out the kind of people who are vulnerable to suicide attempt From another perspective, comorbid disorders in depression are also associated with suicide attempt. In one study investigating comorbid disorder in depression (James et al., 2010), specific comorbid anxiety, personality, and substance use disorders are found to be strongly associated with suicide attempt. For anxiety disorder, it is panic disorder comorbidity in depression to have a threefold increase of suicide attempt when compared to depression without panic disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder is another comorbidity that associated with suicide attempt. Moreover, personality disorder comorbidity in depression also highlights the risk of suicide attempt. Borderline avoidant, paranoid, and schizoid personality disorders comorbid with depression are all associated with higher rates of suicide attempt. Especially borderline personality disorder, it increased the odds of suicide attempt by seven times. Among the comorbid disorders in depression, substance use disorders are worthy for further discussion because it is the most common comorbidity in depression. People turn to drugs to help them feel better when they feel depressed and overwhelmed with life. It is a way of self-medicating which can lead to substance abuse. The chemical balance in the brain of the people will be affected by substance abuse, intensifying feelings of depression and sadness (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. n.d.). It will wind up as a vicious circle that substance abuse leads to increasingly severe depression. The depressed mood contributes to suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempt. Therefore, substance abuse disorder comorbidity in depression is indeed a high risk factor for suicide attempt. After depressed people resort to substance abuse, their odds of suicide attempt will increase over time because they will become more depressed. Last but not the least, a history of past suicidal ideation and previous suicide attempts are also strong risk factors for suicide attempts. They are one of the most consistently identified risk factors for future suicide attempts in depression (Sokero et al., 2005). A male attempted suicide in the past is more than thirty times more likely to complete suicide, while a female with a past attempt has about three times the risk (PreventionLane, .n.d.). The combination of depression and other risk factors contribute to suicide attempt. Some sociodemographic factors such as gender and age is significant in the development of depression, which in turn, prompt the onset of suicide attempt. Comorbid disorders in depression also increases the risk of suicide attempt. These factors will be helpful to identify the people who are at risk of suicide attempt and more importantly, provide an insight of specific measures of suicide prevention and intervention for the depressed people in the long term.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Mission Statement Essay

Mission Statement The mission statement of WRSX’s Group is to help their clients developing their strength and brand images via creative advertisement and marketing activities. Also, they focus on building their business strategy to keep the cost in line with industry averages as well as growth in market share, profitability and returns for shareholders. Their mission statement is quite interesting and attractive for global clients. The company delivery their mission by using industry sector and business unit specialisations, which mainly contributes the independence of business units that will also contributes on their services to global clients. Furthermore, in order to make their mission accomplishable, WRSX had expanded their offices to different cities are Paris, New York, London and Singapore. Therefore, keep this mission statement will be a smart choice for them in order to keep the organization maintain and increase the market share. Since the WRSX Group attracts the global clients, they can expand their range of products and services to potential locations and new industry sectors. On the other hand, they can still focusing on taking care of their existing customers. Also, this mission statement has been keeping them succeed than the others, which made their reputation is no longer an advertising agency but becomes more into marketing communications group in these sectors: automotive and transport, health and pharmaceuticals, telecoms, personal care, beauty and fragrances, public sector and charities. Structure and Key Management Personnel The strategy of WRSX is putting a heavy demand on their management abilities. Therefore, they should try matrix structure because it costs less but still using the human resources effectively, where leaders need to know how to attract, retain and develop the top performers, in order to meet production and business situation more volatile. Besides, matrix structure can help leaders control their employees easier with day-to-day report to product manager, where it contains their flow of skills and information of running or managing product development processes. The matrix structure works horizontally where each manager has different functional disciplines, yet still need to report to the head of department, who authority vertically downwards. Therefore, the company will have multiple command also control  structure. Moreover, the company should also invest on Strategic Leadership Capability since its performance is below the industry average. It will provide this department with more effective resources and abilities in leading capability as well as human resource management. The following benefits of investing on Strategic Leadership Capability are guiding the organization through complexity vision as well as lead and unite workgroups across divisions to reach the achievement of their mission statement. Also, it will be able to manage of both internal and external risks in order to retain high quality personnel. Lastly, WRSX should address the bottleneck in the Procurement and Supplier Management. The causes of this problem are the way of managing production buying and the way of building relationships with suppliers, which led WRSX in failing to use their Group buying power that is buying media for clients. Also, WRSX had failed in applying economies of scale to their group that is the most ef fective used in strategic management and financial management, which focusing on increase profit also labour productivity, the cost of using the strategic decisions and executive producer as well as competitive environment.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

How Depth of Knowledge Drives Learning and Assessment

Depth of knowledge (DOK) refers to the level of understanding required to answer a question or perform an activity. This concept is most often applied to the thinking that students do during assessment and other standards-driven evaluation. Depth of knowledge is largely believed to have been developed in the 1990s by Norman L. Webb, a researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. The depth of knowledge model has been highly popularized in the public education system. The Purpose of the DOK Framework Though originally developed for mathematics and science standards, DOK has been adapted for use in all subjects and is utilized most often in the creation of state assessment. This model ensures that the complexity of assessments align with standards being assessed. When assessment follows the DOK framework, students are given a series of increasingly difficult tasks that gradually demonstrate that they are meeting expectations and allow assessors to evaluate their comprehensive depth of knowledge. These assessment tasks are designed to capture the full scope of proficiency required to satisfy a standard, from the most basic to most complex and abstract units of knowledge and skill. That means that an assessment should include tasks from level 1 through 4—Webb identified four distinct depths of knowledge—and not too much of any one type of task. Assessment, just as the learning that precedes it, should be diversified and varied. DOK in the Classroom DOK is not reserved for state assessment—small-scale, classroom assessment uses it too. Most classroom assessment consists of primarily level 1 and level 2 tasks because level 3 and 4 tasks are difficult to develop and score.  However, teachers need to ensure that their students are exposed to a variety of tasks at differing levels of complexity to learn and grow and in order to accurately assess whether expectations are met. This means that teachers should design higher-level tasks though they require more time and effort because they offer benefits that simpler activities do not and show with more accuracy the full extent of a students abilities. Teachers and students alike are best served by balanced assessment that calls on every depth of knowledge in some way. Level 1 Level 1 is the first depth of knowledge. It includes recall of facts, concepts, information, and procedures—this is the rote memorization and basic knowledge acquisition that makes higher-level tasks possible. Level 1 knowledge is an essential component of learning that does not require students to go beyond stating information. Mastering level 1 tasks builds a strong foundation on which to build. Example of Level 1 Assessment Task Question: Who was Grover Cleveland and what did he do? Answer: Grover Cleveland was the 22nd president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889. Cleveland was also the 24th president from 1893 to 1897. He is the only president to have served two non-consecutive terms. Level 2 Level 2 depth of knowledge  includes the limited application of skills and concepts. A common assessment of this is the use of information to solve multi-step problems. To demonstrate level 2 depth of knowledge, students must be able to make decisions about how to apply facts and details provided to them as well as filling in any gaps using context clues. They must go beyond simple recall to answer questions about and make connections between pieces of information. Example of Level 2 Assessment Task Compare and contrast composite/stratovolcanoes, cinder cones, and shield volcanoes. Level 3 Level 3 DOK includes strategic thinking and reasoning that is abstract and complex. Students completing a level 3 assessment task must analyze and evaluate composite real-world problems with predictable outcomes. They need to apply logic, employ problem-solving strategies, and use skills from multiple subject areas to generate solutions. There is much multitasking expected of students at this level. Example of Level 3 Assessment Task Conduct and analyze the results of a survey about homework in your school. Decide what question you hope to answer. Represent this data in a graph and be able to present a conclusion about your findings. Level 4 Level 4 includes extended thinking to solve complex and authentic problems with unpredictable outcomes. Students must be able to strategically analyze, investigate, and reflect while working to solve a problem, changing their approach to accommodate new information. This type of assessment requires highly sophisticated and creative thinking because it is open-ended by design—there is no correct answer and a student must know how to evaluate their progress and determine whether they are on track to a feasible solution for themselves. Example of Level 4 Assessment Task Invent a new product or create a solution to a problem in order to make a fellow students life easier. Sources Hess, Karin. A Guide for Using Webbs Depth of Knowledge with Common Core State Standards. Common Core Institute, 2013. PDF file.â€Å"What EXACTLY Is Depth of Knowledge? (Hint: Its NOT a Wheel!).†Ã‚  Inservice, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 9 May 2017.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Catcher in the Rye the Quest for Love - 2431 Words

Catcher In the Rye: The Quest For Love In many novels in J.D. Salingers library of books, there is a recurring theme of the loss of innocence of children, the falling and the confusions of childhood, and many other ideas that apply to the ideas of adolescence and the life of the average teenager growing up. Many of his themes occur in a short period of time in a childs life that affects him/her in a very profound and significannot way. The idea of love is also a major theme that arises in many of his characters and that indicates the character of the individual. He uses love in the context of being a device that is used to protect and to care for people who need protecting and caring. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J. D.†¦show more content†¦That is why he seeks to find adolescents, to catch them from falling into the kind of fake maturity that they are destined for. He seeks children, free of impurities. At Phoebes school, ....I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebodyd written Fuck You on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how theyd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirt kid would tell them-all cockeyed, naturally-what it meant, and how theyd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days (Salinger 201). He realizes then, that innocence is a very hard part of ones soul to save. This eventually leads him to his final realizations. Holden has a few aspects and thoughts that help him to appease him slightly of the thirst for love. In childhood he had what he is now seeking- non- phoniness, truth, innocence. He can find it now only in Phoebe and in his dead brother Allies baseball mitt, in a red hunting cap and the tender little nuns (Heiserman and Miller 26). Phoebe is a hope that Holden holds in his heart. Her childish innocence gives him a true and pure outlook that lets him feel secure in her presence. 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However, that idealized view changes when Janie is forced to marry Logan Killicks, a wealthy and well-respected man whom Janie’s Nanny set her up with. Because Janie does not know anything about love, she believes that even if she does not love Logan yet, she will find it when they marry.