Psychology Lifespan Essay Example for Free

Psychology Lifespan Essay Ellen DeGeneres never thought that announcing she was a lesbian would have been a big deal. She knew then that what she was doing would caused questions and controversy but not in a way where she would be considered the poster child for the Gay Community. The way Ellen came out to the world was a bigger shock to her than it was to her audience. This is when Ellen realized that she changed more than her own life coming out. Her fan base got bigger and her life opened up for the greater good. She felt like coming out should not change what she would be doing for humanity. On Ellen’s 50th birthday, she decided to raise money and get notice to her hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana, some help for the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina. This storm was one of the most deadly storms in United States history. During the storm the federal flood protection system failed and the levee broke, flooding 80% of the city and surrounding cities for weeks. Since Ellen had connections with many other celebrities, she used those connections to get help for her city. Brad Pitt was one of the celebrities that had a foundation going for rebuilding homes in New Orleans. With the help of Ellen putting out the foundation through her television show, Brad was able to get 150 homes built. She showed her passion for helping out when she told the world why this fundraiser was important to her. She shows that the place she looked at as home and helped made her who she was Ellen DeGeneres has been an inspiration to people for the past twelve years. Ellen’s life had just begun. Ellen DeGeneres came into the world January 26, 1956 in Jefferson, Louisiana at the Oschner Foundation Hospital. In the book, Love, Ellen: A Mother/Daughters Journey (1999), Betty Degeneres, Ellen’s mother, said that she was a miracle. Ellen’s father didn’t want anymore chidren after her brother was born, four years earlier. He thought that one child was sufficient enough. But Betty was determined to convince him that they should try again for another child. According to Lisa Iannucci (2009) Ellen was just a normal child, she played with her sibling and played outside like any other child would do at that age. She was a tomboy that wore fancy dresses and played with Barbie dolls. She once had dreams of becoming a naturalist or zoologist. She had a love and passion for animals and wanted to later join the Peace Corps to study the apes in Africa. Growing up Ellen had a fascination for great comedians such as Jack Benny, George Gorbel, and the comedy team Bob and Ray. Watching these comics entertain crowds was a little informal training of Ellen’s career in the later years. Ellen discovered the benefits of comedy when her mother divorced her dad. Her mother had been so down and depressed that Ellen knew she could cheer her up with a laugh. Ellen used this same comedic value to get through the very tough times in her life. When Ellen was sixteen she started partying, becoming rebellious, and hanging out with the wrong crowds. In her small town of Metairie, she would drink beer with her friends and stay out all night. This was her reaction to her mother getting remarried in 1974 to a salesman. Her mother wanted to remove her from the city, so the salesman got a new job in Atlanta, Texas. The DeGeneres family packed up and moved to Atlanta. While in Texas, Ellen started to fit into her new life there. Ellen started dating her first boyfriend, Ben Heath. Her brother Vance was in a band in high school and was receiving a lot of attention. Ellen wanted some of this attention that her brother was getting and was starting to have dreams of becoming famous. Ellen craved for people to like her, she wanted to try to find a way to become famous so people would like her and want to be her friend. Ellen’s family looked like the perfect family from the outside, but something dark and eerie was going on inside. Behind close doors the salesman was crude and bossy and Ellen did not like who he was. During this time Ellen’s mother found out that she had breast cancer. She ended up having a mastectomy and had to do physical therapy and rehabilitation. Betty tried to hide her cancer from Ellen but she needed Ellen’s help to recover. This is when Ellen and her mother became close. During this time of recovery, the salesman molested Ellen. She didn’t want to get her mother upset so she didn’t mention it to her, while she was recovering. When her stepfather tried to molester again, she ran away to a friend’s house. Ellen left Atlanta, Texas and move back to Louisiana with her father after she graduated high school. Once Ellen moved to Louisiana, she enrolled into the University of New Orleans, to major in Communications. Ellen soon found out that college wasn’t for her and dropped out after one semester. Ellen started to search for a career since college didn’t go as planned. During this time of finding a career, Ellen was also finding herself. She was holding another secret about her sexuality from family and friends. She was starting to feel confused about her sexuality. This could have been a result of the nuture factor. Her homosexuality could have been triggered from her stepfather molesting her. Nurture refers to the childhood and how an individual grew up (MacKinnon, 1962). She liked boys in the beginning; she had some boyfriends in the past, but she was never really attracted to men. Once Ellen figured out what sexual orientation that she was, she started dating women but still haven’t broke the news to her family. She decided to tell her mom one day while they were walking along the beach. She started to cry, not because she was afraid, but because she was now free of this secret that she was holding. Her mom embraced her and accepted Ellen’s fate. During this time that Ellen came out about her sexuality, it was forbidden doing those times. In the 1950s consensual gay sex was a felony. The gay communities were trying to fight for rights in the 1960s but were still getting tortured and shunned. Betty started to be afraid for Ellen. Being homosexual was considered to be a mental health disorder by the psychiatric community. The National Gay Task Force Foundation was founded in 1973, in New York, and worked to change the American Psychiatric Association’s grouping of homosexuality as a mental heath problem. Ellen’s brother accepted the news well, but Ellen’s father did take it very well. He later kicked Ellen out of the house, thinking that she would influence her stepsiblings. He later helped her get an apartment and admitted that he regretted what he did to her. Ellen acquired many jobs; she sold clothes, was a bartender, washed cars, shucked oysters, and wrapped gifts. Just like she knew that college wasn’t for her, these jobs weren’t satisfying her neither, she was hungry to do something more. She now knew that she wanted to make people laugh for the rest of her life. She began performing at a few small venues in New Orleans. Her routines were different than other comedians of her time such as, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, and Richard Pryor. The difference between them and her was he bits didn’t have vulgarity and sexual references. Ellen joked about her everyday life and experiences. She did this to relate to her audiences. Ellen started to take off in her career. She started competing in comedy competition where she placed first in the â€Å"Funniest Person in America† competition. She later went to open for a few acts in Las Vegas where the producer from â€Å"The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson† was there and asked her to come on the show. Once she performed on the Tonight Show, this put her career in overdrive and she became a superstar. She became the first female comedic to seat on the big couch on the Tonight Show. She ended up coming back on six more times in two years. She later got a minor role on Open House in 1989. It was a spin-off of the fox show Duet. She then went and filmed her first HBO special Young Comedian Reunion, in 1986. Two years later she appeared in HBO’s Women of the Night. She got a small role in the movie The Coneheads, and got her own sitcom on ABC called These Friends of Mine. Ellen revealed her true sexual preference in Time magazine April 1997 issue. In this issue she talked about her life as a gay woman and hiding who she was in the comedian community. She made her character on her television show Ellen also comes out of the closet. This caused some controversy for the Christian religion organizations. She made her first appearance publicly with her sexuality at the White House Correspondents Dinner with actress Anne Heche on her arm. In 1998 Ellen honored at the 9th Annual GLAAD Media Awards with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award. Ellen now was fighting for her lesbian life on and off the television. Her mother started to become an advocate to her daughter’s lifestyle. Betty started volunteering at the Human Rights Campaign. Her mother became the first nongay national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. She was helping to encourage and assist gay people in coming out and living honestly. Her mother also became an active member of Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). In 2003 Ellen started her own daytime television talk show called The Ellen Degeneres Show. People were afraid that Ellen would just bring up gay themes through out the show and didn’t want it to go on air. Once people got over the fact that Ellen was gay, her show started to skyrocket on television ratings. It was the television show that Ellen had always wanted. She could make people laugh and every loved her. In season two the show won five daytime Emmys. In 2005 Ellen won a Grammy for having the best comedy album for the audio portion of her book. She also won some awards at the People’s Choice Awards. While her show was getting good ratings, she met her current wife, Portia de Rossi. She met Portia at a photo shoot in 2004. Ellen and Portia quickly fell in love. They both ended their current relationships and started dating in 2005. They went on to get married in 2008 after California passed the Same-Sex Marriage Act. With all of Ellen’s life decisions, it had to do with her social and emotional development. She was always able to make transitions from one activity to another. Her ability to start a new when it came to her many careers before she found the right one was an example of her social/emotional development (Roeser, Eccles, Sameroff, 2000). She showed cooperation with others when she was getting ridiculed for her coming out, but she stayed humbled and didn’t let it get to her (Webb, 1994).

Charlie Chan :: essays papers

Charlie Chan Charlie Chan/ â€Å"Rush Hour† movies similar in actors playing similar characters, different in production values and tones. In both of the movies the black actors use coon characteristics. Whereas in Charlie Chan movies Mantan Moreland has the descriptive pop eyes that are mentioned in coon characteristics (Bogle72-74). He uses this high-pitched voice when he speaks (Bogle72-74). He also is shown in the movies when he dances in certain situations. He is known for one of the movies greatest clowns, And in many cases his comic relief is very sudtle. Chris Tucker one of the best comedians in this day and age. Tucker has been known also for his pop eyes (Bogle 72-74). In both of his movies, â€Å"Rush Hour† and â€Å"Rush Hour 2† he dances to varies types of music. He also has this high voice, that seems to be somewhat annoying (Bogle 72-74). He uses his dancing skills to bring laughter to the audience. Tucker is a natural clown in all of his movies; he clowns during serious situation, and constantly brings a joke to the problems that have arisen. Chris Tucker has his way of bringing comedy to the picture. In the movies that he has been pictured in has constant comedy. His comedy is everlasting and doesn’t stop for anything. Both Charlie Chan and Jackie Chan (Lee) play a detective in their films. Charlie Chan doesn’t speak very much English in his movies. He is very patient with his partner and the way that he handles things. His demeanor is set to be very intelligent, undercover, Low profile, and patient (Charlie Chan’s Secret 2). Jackie Chan also has some of the same characteristics as Charlie Chan does. In the movies, Jackie Chan has to always try to fix some of the problems that his partner creates. Most of the time when trying to solve certain cases, he likes to be the undercover, low profile officer, same as Charlie Chan. His demeanor is to never let his guard down, but at the same time keep focused on case. In Charlie Chan movies, which were made in the thirties and forties. The picture is made in black and white. At that time the color for these types of movies was not as popular. The running time of the movie was 60 minutes.

Language Anxiety Essay

Learning and teaching a language can be considered by many as a very challenging and demanding task due to what the process itself implies. Could you imagine how each language learner feels when he/ she is asked to perform an activity or just to speak in front of the class? Some of them will feel very comfortable but what about those whose hearts often pound really hard, break out in a cold sweat and find it difficult to catch their breath. The disorders introduced previously corresponds to what a considerable quantity of foreign language learners face whenever they are asked to do something in the classroom known as: Anxiety, a term linked to an unpleasant feeling but which can also be helpful when learning a language. To begin with, anxiety in the language learning is considered as one of the most important affective factors, which has been studied since the 1970s. It is important to know what anxiety is, in general terms anxiety is a psychological construct that is described as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object (Hilgard, Atkinson, & Atkinson, 1971). It can also be defined as a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system (McIntyre & Gardner, 1994) or in simple words it is described as a feeling of nervousness or worry. But making a relationship between language and anxiety it is found that according to what McIntyre (1999) stated, language anxiety is the worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning a second language. Secondly, anxiety has been found to be a negative feeling but helpful in some ways when learning a language. According to Hortwitz (1986) facilitating or helpful anxiety motivates learners to fight the new learning task, making them to expend extra efforts to overcome their feelings of anxiety. This type of positive anxiety is necessary since students who are not anxious under any condition will feel too relax and they will not even care about their learning process which will cause them to fail at learning a language. F or example, a student who feels anxious but he uses it positively as a way to motivate him to pass the course and learn the target language successfully will obtain excellent results. However, there is a probable risk that is helpful anxiety can easily become harmful anxiety. It is claimed that one third of students learning a foreign language experience some kind of anxiety (Horwitz, et al., 1986). Students facing anxiety is a real and common phenomenon that takes place in the classroom which is normal and helpful at some point but when the level of anxiety starts increasing without any control it will be very harmful so that students should be very careful and recognize the anxiety and do something positive about it before they react to this negative anxiety in a very negative way. What is more, according to some experts as the one mentioned previously Horwitz stated that helpful anxiety occurs only in the accomplishment of simple learning tasks, but not with more complicated learning such as language learning. Lastly, the type of anxiety is an issue that should be identified in the classroom and overcome possible difficulties related to it. Teachers can identify anxiety due to the fact that most of the time when anxiety takes place there are very observable evidence such as physical symptoms, general avoidance or physical actions but what sometimes is difficult for educators is to tackle in the language learning. Some suggestions have been made for teacher to overcome anxiety such as being supportive, encouraging students to relax through music or games, using fair tests, providing meaningful activities, giving meaningful rewards, being clear about classroom goals, helping students to assess their performance, encouraging risk taking and creating a comfortable environment among others. To conclude, it must be said that learning a language implies many affective factors but anxiety is one of the most relevant and an inevitable feeling among second language learners. The matter is Do my students know how to identify anxiety symptoms and do something positive about it? What is more Do I know what to do to diminish language anxiety? When learning a language the answers to these questions can be the difference. To ignore language anxiety within a classroom is not the solution; it will just drive to failure. References Hilgard, E. R., Atkinson, R. C., & Atkinson, R. L. (1971). Introduction to psychology (5thed.). New York: Harcourt. Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. Modern Language Journal, 70(1), 125-132. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44, 283-305. Robertson, P & Adamson, J (2011). Language Learning Strategies, Beliefs, and Anxiety in Academic Speaking Task. The Philippine ESL Journal, (7), 95-100. Retrieved from http://www.philippine-esl-journal.com/Volume-7.pdf

Plato the Philosopher Essay - 672 Words

Plato was a philosopher who was born in Athens (470-390 BCE), and was also a student of Socrates. He felt that intelligence and one’s perception belonged to completely independent realms or realities. He believed that general concepts of knowledge were predestined, or placed in the soul before birth even occurred in living things. Plato believed that the cosmos was intelligible, and the the universe was mathematically understandable. He believes that mathematical objects could be seen as perfect forms. Forms, a doctoral of Plato, can be understood as an everyday object or idea, which does not, exists in the everyday realm, but merely is existent in the hypothetical realm or reality. Plato believed that the truths existed†¦show more content†¦Our sensory also give us knowledge of the material world, what we can see or smell. And sensory objects he believed that they were in constant change and were a phenomenon to the physical world. Plato used the concept of the divided line to illustrate the relationship of knowledge to opinion. Metaphysics is investigating principles or reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and Ontology were the traditional branches concerned with the explaining of the ultimate nature of being in the world. Epistemology was also used it is the attempt to answer the basic question of true and untrue knowledge. The study of nature of being, existence or reality in general and its basic categories. A Plato’s Divided Line. A+B= world of forms (Being). C+D= (Becoming) Segments A, B, C, D represent decreasing degrees of truth. Ea. Degree of truth corresponds to different kind of thinking and different level of reality. (A) Level of pure intelligence or understanding the soul directly apprehends truth at highest level. (B) Level of reasoning specifically, mathematical thinking and deductive reasoning. (C) Level of belief or common opinions about physical objects, morals, politics, and practical affairs. (D) Level of illusion, dominated by second hand opinions and uncritical impressions. Plato states that The Form Human does not change-grow-or decay. Aristotle a student of Plato’s for twenty years disagreed with Plato’s views. His basicShow MoreRelatedComparing Plato s Republic, The Philosopher And Plato965 Words   |  4 PagesIn Plato s Republic, the philosopher is sitting having a discussion with his fellow peers and friends. During this conversation each character except Plato offers their opening and reasoning on the question, what is justice. For the majority of the book Plato outlines almost every aspect of his ideal city. Within this city Plato has set up many rule s in order for the city to remain just. 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