Self Esteem

The presentation that we had to present was based on Power and Politics. Our groups were chosen by the teacher; he picked the students and settled them in different groups. This means that we had the chance to meet and work with different people who have different personality and attitudes in making decisions at work. I was put into a group of five people, Yueming Yuan, Matt Boyce, Erfanul Haque and Lisa Buys.

The preparation for the presentation went quite quick, we didn’t have a lot of time to do it, so we were quite tight with the time. However, we had a lot of time to research information about this kind of topic that we are going to do and be ready and prepared to start the project with a good knowledge about this topic.

Groups and Teams

Once we were assigned to a group and a task it was left up to us to form a bond with each other and construct a team. Although it may seem like a natural event, since we were bound by a mutual goal, a formal configuration of members and arrangement of tasks did not occur. Thus, we struggled through the first stage of Formation, as described by Bruce Tuckman 1965. The main fault in our group, which remained a recurring obstacle throughout the preparation and even during the presentation, was the absence of a team-leader. (http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htm)

According to Tuckman, the stage that followed, namely Storming, is used for ‘different ideas compete for consideration.’ Unfortunately, in our group this discussion and confrontation of the task and the independent functions was never thoroughly discussed. However, we all agreed on taking responsibility for different tasks, which also meant that much conflict was avoided- there was no debating or competing for the best idea. As much as this has a harmonious outlook, it also seemed that due to a lack of competition and debate, each of our contributions lacked the necessary scrutiny needed for the improvement of the presentation and the growth of the group.

It seems that our group passed the first two stages but did so unmindfully. Thus, at the Norming stage all members were still sharing the same goal but not a mutual strategy. Already at our first formal meeting some of our group members came more prepared than other, for instance Lisa who had done much research into her field. It appears that the only outline of a plan of action was designed my Lisa and myself who organised daily meetings and set deadlines for the while group.

Belbin proposes nine team-roles who can in corporation ‘’facilitate the progress of the team as a whole’’. Linked to the previous idea, this allocation of roles did not formally occur, but merely developed throughout the preparation as we all took on vague team player roles. When categorising the members of our group, Yueming and Erfanul fall into rather indecisive and more secondary roles such as the team-worker and monitor-evaluator, respectively. This means that their contribution was more mild and lacked drive and strength. (http://www.pgagroup.com/team-roles.html)

In comparison, Lisa falls into a more independent-minded category namely the Specialist. This is due to her dedication and knowledge as much her inability to form a community-like sharing. For instance, although she had well prepared her own topic, she decided not to turn up to meetings to discuss the bigger picture and the presentation as a whole. Myself I believe to have played the role of the shaper and Matt, due to his maturity and confidence, of the Co-ordinator, as we took responsibility to putting the pieces together, pressuring the group as well as helping other members do their work.

Clearly, the group lacked the functions of the particular roles that we chose not to pick up such as that of the completer. It is safe to say that in certain situations we did adopt other role behaviour but were mainly allocated to these performances. It is also worth examining a theory of trust that may help to explain the organisational behaviour in our group. Drawing together a typology of trust-related behaviour, using theoretical models of Sako (1992) and Zucker (1986) we can draw up three dimensions of trust that may be present and significant in a team and how its members interact. (Newell S. Robertson M. Scarbrough Swan J.: Managing knowledge work and innovation 2nd Edition 2009 Published by Palgrave Macmille)

The first is ‘companion trust’, which occurs when one member of the group relies on the performance of another as a result of their friendship and the belief of their goodwill. This type of reliance was mainly found in our group as we were acquainted with each other before we were set the common task and all trusted each other to try our hardest for the benefit of all. Another form of trust that occurred in our group was ‘competence trust’ where one relies on another due to their abilities.

This was especially the case with one of the girls in our group who we trusted to do a good job judging from past performances and grades. The last dimension, which is ‘commitment trust’ was not present as although we were all working towards the same goal and were bound by the restraints of University policy and other limitations such as plagiarism, we did not sign a contract that ensured the quality or quantity of everybody’s contributions.

(It could also be argued that we were merely exposed to what Meyerson et al (1996) called ‘swift trust’, where ‘’temporary groups working on short-lived complex tasks that require specialist skills of relative strangers, trust needs to form very quickly if the group is to make any progress at all.’’ This certainly occurred within our team and is reflected by the fact we put trust into one our group members despite hearing comments of former colleagues on how unproductive and difficult the person was to work with. (Newell S. Robertson M. Scarbrough Swan J.: Managing kownledge work and innovation 2nd Edition 2009 Published by Palgrave Macmille)

Motivation

In work performance, motivation and ability determine the outcome, thus the motivation of the individuals is an important factor for success. Although we had a common aim, our motivations varied and the degree of our motivation too. It was apparent from the first getting together that some members were more willing to do work and had already done reading around their subject than others. One person in particular was, although on time and prepared, not willing to put extra effort or spend more time than schedules. Repeated comments such as ‘it’s time to go home’ or ‘let’s do it tomorrow’ showed a clear lack of motivation, especially when other people had not completed their tasks and were not ready to go home yet.

These differences in motivation might come as a result of the various motivational factors. Most of us were driven by extrinsic motivation, which is related to psychological rewards such as the enjoyment of achievement or the need for receiving appreciation. In the bigger picture, most of us were driven by the hope for a good mark and a great university degree.

More specifically and other than the general want for a degree, in my case, I was driven by the want for achievement and the search for personal growth and development. This type of intrinsic motivation can also be found in Erfanul who is trying to do well as it is highly valued in his family. Lisa also gets motivation from the rewards resulting from a university degree such as a good job and a high salary.

Interestingly, we also had a member that seemed to be driven my higher motivational needs- the need for ‘’engagement and sharing, a feeling of community and a sense of belonging’’ as stated by de Vries. When put into context of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we find ourselves scattered amongst the top three categories of the hierarchy.

Here, it could be said that Matt and myself fit in the top two categories, as we were seeking a challenge as well as the desire to achieve something. I would judge Lisa and Efran to fit into the Self-esteem category, in search of esteem, feedback from the university as well as the respect of others, and Yueming matches Maslow’s interpretation of ‘’Love and Belonging’’ in which she seeks to build relationships with others in the hope for. Moreover, I believe we are all at the same time in the stage of ‘safety’ as we are motivated by the desire to complete university and find stable jobs to ensure we can maintain a healthy quality of life.

Comparing this model to Alderfer’s modified need hierarchy model, it is safe to say that out basic want for a good degree and a career are signs of what he names ‘Existence needs’ which are ‘’concerned with sustaining human existence and survival, and covers physiological and safety needs or material nature.’’ The desire for Love and Belonging is seen as ‘Relatedness needs’ and the want for respect, esteem and achievement seems to be the equivalent of Alderfer’s ‘Growth needs’

Different things also affected our motivation, such as the behaviour of others, our expectations of ourselves, and the importance of our goal. Although many of these factors are difficult to measure, it is safe to say that the importance of the goal can be measured by the significance of the presentation in our module and our degree as a whole. As we knew that the presentation counted a significant amount towards our mark – 40% of the module- we had more reason to do well and our motivation was strengthened. In addition, as we have vague expectations of the final mark we want to achieve during the course of the year, we could measure how much effort was needed to reach that goal. For instance, as I am aiming to complete my university degree with over 60%, I have plenty of reason and pressure to work hard. I think this factor was present in all members of the group.

The levels of motivation can also be measured by how we individually react to problems or critical situations. As seen in the basic model of frustration, there as three types of reactions a problem can trigger; Frustration, Restructuring (alternative goal) and Problem solving. (Mullins: ‘Management and Organisation Behaviour’ 7thedition 2005)

Here is an example of a situation that illustrated which one of these organisational behaviours we adopted when confronted with an obstacle during the preparation of our presentation. Minutes before our presentation was to start, we realised that we had slides missing because one of the members accidentally didn’t save the PowerPoint properly. As these slides were very important and critical to archiving our desired goal- a good mark- Matt and I decided to take action to solve the problem as quickly as possible. Whilst the others seemingly turned to frustration or restructuring their goal (accepting a lesser mark), we ran back to the LRC to type the slides up again and put things back into order.

However, even after this problem was solved and we had successfully started our presentation, we were constantly interrupted by people walking into the seminar room as one of the members of staff forgot to put out a sign ensure nobody walked into the room during our presentation. At this point, as we perceived the problem to be out of our control, we all reacted to the obstacle with frustration and lacked motivation during our presentation.

A last theory relating to the motivation of the individuals is Adams’ Equity theory which focuses on how people react to them being treated fairly compared to others. As we lacked a team-leader and our responsibilities towards helping others and doing work for the group outside our individual tasks were unclear and vague, a sense of inequity often occurred. We sometimes found ourselves discussing unequal input of work as some did more than others. One of us was also struggling heavily with finding information on a topic which led to Matt and I doing more work with helping the person whilst others were only concerned with their own. Also since Lisa had prepared a lot of researched for her topic but the other’s did not, she responded to her sense of inequity by changed her personal input level by failing to attending some of our meetings.

The art of building your self-esteem and speaking confidence
With confidence, you have won before you started.
Marcus Garvey

Confidence – The syndrome

When most people hear the word confidence, the assume it is something that people with lots of swag have, and that they are born with it. The truth is that even though admittedly there are people born with a high level of self-confidence, in the end everyone still has to work at getting their confidence level up. It takes practice to have that level of confidence that makes you impervious to what would otherwise have demolished you.

So, what is confidence then? Confidence might in the loosest term mean, the expectation of a positive outcome, even when the odds are stacked against you. You might think, “but isn’t that just optimism?” You see, the thing is, Optimism is more of a state of mind that you impress on yourself, you expect that a bad situation, or any situation basically would end great (note that these are loose terms). However, confidence is a state of mind, it the result of how you see yourself and how you impress that on the world. It is how you look, talk, walk and do everything in a certain moment. It is basically a state of being certain of yourself.

From all of the what we discussed above as the necessary components needed to make an effective communication. You would realize that for you to use the assertive communication method, which I have mentioned is the best communicating style, you need to have confidence in yourself and in whatever message you are passing across. Like the quote at the beginning of the chapter says, with confidence, you have won before you started.

Confidence is that the fuel for anything you do, be it communication or just plain performing a task. If you already have confidence in yourself, you are sure that no matter what obstacle you face, you will have the confidence to defend your actions and if you are wrong, you will have the confidence to admit you are wrong without looking like you don’t know what you are talking about.

All this talk about confidence brings me to my next point, most people don’t have the confidence they need to have an effective communication or even just succeed at anything they do in life. Sometimes, they are just naturally very timid, but for most people it is as a result of the environment they live or lived in, the people around them growing up, personal believes and so many more. The major point here is that, while growing up the confidence of most people plummet because of how they have been conditioned to think about themselves and this has a huge impact on how they communicate and do anything in general.

Reasons why your confidence level might be low
You should note that the points here are just a general ball park enumeration of why members of the general public might have issues with their confidence level, it is not specific and it does not cover all of the reasons why. Now, let’s get started:

Self-belief and Assumptions

Remember those experiences and self-doubt I talked about above, yeah, they can be the biggest hit to your confidence. You have all these thoughts in your head and you are thinking, I can’t do this and you most certainly probably will not. Many times, it also has a lot to do with what you think other people will think of you. The fact that you already think you might be ridiculed by people can cripple your confidence and ruin any chance of you having an effective communication. How you think about yourself can be the biggest influencing factor in your life when it comes to your confidence, and it would help you a great deal if you learned to hone your thoughts in order to think positively. Just remember, you are all you need to change.

Your Circle

The biggest names in business and communication have all agreed that there is strength in numbers. Even though most of the work you need to do concerning your confidence has a lot to do with you, however, there is a big advantage in surrounding yourself with people that inspire you to be confidence. If the people around you constantly put you down or make jest of you at the expense of your self-esteem and confidence, then you need to find yourself a new circle.

Even though, I tell you to block out all the negative noise from around you and focus on yourself, we as humans somehow love to take feedback from those around us and use that feedback as a form of mirror of what we are. You should surround yourself with those that have confidence in your skills, in themselves and support you just as much as you support them.

Apologetic

I used to be a major victim of this before, apologising for who I am. It is crazy that the most intelligent people tend to doubt themselves and apologise for being the way they are. The major reason for this is that we usually notice early on that we are different from others and the world tells us that anything different is bad, at least most of the time. The truth however is that you don’t have to apologise for being different.

My point isn’t that you should not apologise when you make mistakes or cross people. My point is that when you do something different from the next person because you believe that was the right thing to do, you should not apologise for it. You should learn to take pride in what you do. This will help you a lot in making your communication effective as you will be able to stand by what you are saying and show your audience that you know what you are talking about.

Overwhelming Targets and expectations

As much as I would love to blame everything else around us for our confidence issues, there are some things that we cause ourselves and this is one of them. I like telling people to set big goals as much as the next guy, but the real problem lies in the kinds of expectations that people have. Most people look at the gap that lies between achieving their goal and the present reality, it is almost like they forget the journey in-between.

The key is to notice all the little milestones that lead to the big goal, this way you don’t get overwhelmed by how big the goal is. Let’s say you want to communicate with a large group of people for instance, you don’t have to always think about the whole talk and get overwhelmed, the best thing is to split it into small chunks of points. By the time you are done with all the points you have to talk about, you will be surprised that you have just accomplished a big task by breaking it into small chunks. Therefore, the next time you set a big goal, don’t be overshadowed by the size of it, you know what to do.

Confusing the Finish line

I followed the last point with this one because of how related they are and how easily people fall into this trap while trying to follow the point above. Since reaching milestones is the appropriate thing to do, many people confuse accomplishment with steady progress. When they hit a mile stone, they think they have it all figured out and this would cause them to put in less effort in forging ahead, then finally it starts to creep on their confidence and they crash. This applies to communication and to life in general. For communication, make sure you have successfully had a full cycle of effective communication and results before you start celebrating you win. This would prevent you to have confidence troughs for not reason.

Piss poor Preparation

I am pretty sure we have all been here before, well… at least we fairly normal humans. Whenever you know that you have not prepared enough for a certain event, your confidence level drops drastically because you know you have all it takes to deliver the best service or talk. Since your confidence is usually reliant on what you think of yourself and what you think others think of you. If you know beforehand that you don’t have what it takes to deliver the best or even enough to convince your audience, then you will not have the confidence to do it properly.

Too much confidence?

Yeah, I think that line could be called ignorance or arrogance. You can be arrogant because you are so certain that everything would work out that you might not stop to think properly about what you are doing. It could be arrogance too because, if you are super confident about something you know very little about or did very little preparation for. This would mean you don’t what you are talking about and you might just land with your confidence needing a shower. You should not be arrogant or too confident, just do it enough that you don’t hurt the ego of the audience and yours too.

Responsibility

This is my last point and it is just to make sure that take responsibility for your actions and your utterances. When you are always looking for someone to blame, your conversations for instance, sound more like you don’t know what you are talking about or you are not involved in the what you are needed about. This would also not help you build your confidence to that extent where you can say that you did this, and you did that. The moment you realize just how much of your actions you control, then you can be confident that you are in charge of what you say and what you do.
If you talk with confidence, trust me, you are on the way to being a very effective communicator.

How to heal your self-esteem to a level where you can handle any situation

It is not that hard to know if you have confidence issues or not. You most likely will know because it will hunt you when you try to do something bold or intuitive. With all of the points above, you know the things that can affect your confidence level. Here are ways in which you can improve your confidence and be an awesome communicator and person in general.

Acknowledgement

One of the major problems we as human beings have is thinking that the grass is green on the other side. We always think that just maybe if we were somebody else or if we had one ability of the other, then we will be able to perform somethings differently. There is one of two things you have to accept if you want to gain the type of confidence you need to hold any conversation effectively.

The first is that you are unique, therefore, if you think you need to be better in a certain area, what you need to do is actually put in the work necessary to be better in that area. The second fact is that there are just some things that you just cannot be good at maybe because of circumstance or the fact that your body is just not built for it. That too is fine, all you have to do is focus on all the things you are actually good and use them to your advantage. Therefore, what I am trying to say is you need to accept who you are and work with that.
Values

Self confidence is important to our daily life especially when we are encountering some circumstances and passing obstacles in our life.It is our power or ability to do things without having a doubt to ourselves like doing things where you excel and trying things in field that you’re unfamiliar. According to Verma and Krishana (2016, pp. 182). Confidence is a feeling that makes one think that he or she is capable of doing something with ease and calmness. It makes an individual optimistic and pleased with himself/herself. Self-confidence is central to good psychological adjustment, personal happiness and effective functioning in children and adults. Children with high self-confidence can easily communicate with others, dared to express their opinion, and not easily influenced by others.

Confidence is the ability to take appropriate and effective action in any situation, however challenging it appears to you or others (Burton & Platts, 2006 as cited in Verma & Krishana, 2016).People who have self confidence are the one who can wisely deal with problems especially when they need to decide over something or how will they behave when things aren’t falling into its places. One of this factors also include the self-confidence of a child, which is an essential for an individual’s success. There are different possible ways for an individual especially students to gain confidence.

Parents may use sweet words and praise their children to feel more confident, but in reality, a lot of people feel that they are not confident enough.Some parents are pressuring their children to reach their standards.Parents know’s best but doing things that might hurt their childrens are not bringing them to a right path.Student’s academic are one of the factors that parents monitoring,they’re expecting high grades from their children that brings pressure to students because no one’s daughter/son wants to see their parents disappointed.But if the students effort wasn’t enough to reach the parent’s standard they started to get hurtful words coming from them who supposed to cheer them up which makes them develop a low self esteem because when parents keep on criticizing their children,children don’t stop loving them but they stop loving which affects their self confidence.

Having a low self confidence that they could acquire in their house could be possible to be carried in their school.This is where the people with low self confidence affects their academic performance especially when performing a school task that requires them to speak in front of many people or them being hesistant to participate in class discussion.When teacher ask the class to give the answer to his/her question the person who has a low self confidence who knows the answer tends to keep their answer to themselves because they’re afraid that they might be embarrassed in front of many people so they tend to give the answer to their classmate who is more confident enough to speak in front of the whole class without a doubt that he might give a wrong answer.

This is one of the factors that affects the Academic Achievement of the students who has low self confidence. Academic Achievement plays a significant role in the life of each and everyone, especially the students.

Education is valued by the people as it serves a treasure that no one can steal from an individual. Academic achievement comes from different learning outcomes such as knowledge, understanding, attitude, intelligence, skill and application. Fine or excellent academic achievement of students help them to have a better characteristic for themselves and towards parents, peer groups, teachers, neighbors and society in general. This also help to enhance their morale and grow feelings that they are useful in the family, school and society.

There are factors that may affect a child’s achievement, but the main factors are namely child’s interest, motivation, conceptual learning, understanding in class, adjustment, school environment, home environment and reading interest (Verma & Krishana, 2016).

The purpose of this research study is to know whether the confidence of the HUMSS students affect their academic performance depending on the level of their self-confidence. Also, this study aims to contribute on the society, especially to the students who are confident and not confident enough with what they do including their academic performance. An additional to this, the research studies that have been conducted focused on college students, workers that are on seminar and others, but only few of this focused on high school students, specifically the senior high school HUMSS students.

There are many reasons why cheating is wrong or unethical. Cheating has so many implications, from an individual level, organizational level to even the societal level. However do to time we will on the individual level. The following illustrates why cheating is wrong on an individual level.

Cheating causes stress. When you cheat, you inevitably worry about getting caught. The stress of getting caught increases when you consider the possible consequences of your actions, such as getting in trouble at home or receiving disciplinary actions from the school. Even worse, you may have to develop a story to cover up your cheating, which can lead to getting trapped in a web of lies because it’s so difficult to keep your story straight when it never happened. It can be very stressful if you get caught in a lie, or if you thinks someone knows about your cheating and might tell someone else.

Cheating is unfair to you. Accomplishment feels good and helps build self-esteem and self-confidence. When you cheat, you are basically telling yourself that you do not believe in your own abilities. You might get an A on a test or an assignment, but you’ll know that you really didn’t earn it. Cheating just makes you feel bad about yourself.

Cheating hampers progress. Learning tends to build on itself. You learn basics first so that you can use those basics in more complicated problems later. If you don’t know the basics, then you will have to continue to cheat, or start over learning the material from scratch. Every time you cheat, you’re not learning skills and lessons that could be important later on.

Cheating is disrespectful. Teachers work hard to share knowledge to help you be successful in academics, career, and life. Cheating shows a lack of respect for the efforts of your teacher and your classmates who did the work.

Cheating kills trust. It only takes getting caught cheating one time to ruin trust. Even if you never cheat again, those in authority will always have a hard time trusting you and will likely be suspicious of your work. When others hear about your cheating, their opinion of you will be compromised. This will definitely lead to many of your relationships being damaged.

Cheating can become a habit. People who cheat don’t usually do it one time. It becomes a habit that follows people throughout college and into their careers. Cheating in one aspect of your life; academics has the risk of spilling over into other areas of your life like relationships and even work, this is because cheating blurs the lines of what is acceptable and unacceptable.

Cheating eventually leads to failure. By skipping the hard work involved in learning, you will never develop the important traits of persistence, dedication, diligence, and sacrifice. Success takes hard work, and cheating is the easy way out. Eventually, you will find that it is difficult to achieve your goals without these important skills.

Cheating is embarrassing. Your actions define who you are to those around you. When you cheat, you are expressing yourself to others as lazy, incompetent, untrustworthy, selfish, unintelligent, and disrespectful. In addition, many schools are developing tougher stances on cheating. Imagine your embarrassment when you are suspended for cheating or you discover that school personnel informed college admissions officers of your actions.

“Bag Lady’ Life’s ups and downs come to all walks of life. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Baggage in life comes in all forms. Time heals all things, but people have to let go of the baggage in their lives that keeps them from moving on. They hold the keys to the doors in their lives and no one can turn the key but them. In the song “Bag Lady’, Eureka Baud gives a wake up call for women to know what bags to hold on to, what bags to let go of, and what bag has the ticket for the bus that will move them on to bigger and better things In life.

Eureka Baud said “bag lady, you goon hurt your back,’ dragging all them bags Like hat. ‘ I guess nobody ever told you/ all you must hold on to is you, is you, is you. ” This verse says to let go of all the disappointment people find in their lives and put them- selves first and make it all about them. The second verse says “One day all them bags goon get in your way/ one day all them bags goon get in your way… So pack light. ” The second verse Is emphasizing the fact that women must learn how to let go of the excess baggage that pulls them down in order to survive.

The third verse in “Bag Lady” says “Bag lady you goon’ miss your bus/ you can’t hurry up coos you’ve got too much stuff. This excerpt from the song tells women that by holding on to all the negative disappointment in their lives, they will end up missing out on opportunities to Improve themselves, that will move them on to bigger and better things in life. In “Bag Lady. ” Eureka Baud mentions different types of women with different types of baggage that they hold on to that keeps them down.

Baud is saying that bag ladies come from all walks of life. They are or have been at one point in time been the woman in the mirror and they have the power to change who they are or who they have become. The empowering keywords in” Bag Lady” are “Bet way love could make it better. ” All Eureka Is saying Is to know your self-worth, and open the door to self-esteem; without It you have no chance at love, peace, Joy, power, and a sound mind.

Accord ring to Leo Bogie, of Hawaii. Dude “Without self-worth, doubts and fears about our very existence will persist until they invalidate our dreams and vision, and undermine our greatest accomplishments”. Monica Poole English 102 Mr.. Green Bag Lady By Englishmen “Bag Lady” on to bigger and better things in life. Eureka Baud said “bag lady, you goon hurt your back/ dragging all them bags like hem bags goon get in your way… So pack light. The second verse is emphasizing the The third verse in “Bag Lady’ says “Bag lady you goon’ miss your bus/ you can’t missing out on opportunities to improve themselves, that will move them on to bigger In “Bag Lady,” Eureka Baud mentions different types of women with different types have become. The empowering key words in” Bag Lady’ are “Bet way love could make it All Eureka is saying is to know your self-worth, and open the door to self-esteem; without it you have no chance at love, peace, Joy, power, and a sound mind.

Nick Hornby is a modern British classic author, having won many awards, most of his books have climbed to the top of the bestsellers chart. Most of his books are fictional and tend to be written about unemployed characters or characters who are now quite far down the social ladder, for whatever reason. His books have done well enough for three films to be made out of them.

‘A Long Way Down’ is about four characters who want to commit suicide, but meet and decide not to, instead opting to help each other. It was very successful because of its narrative and the characters which we like to read about in order to make ourselves feel better. People would also buy it because of his previous success.

There are many reasons for its success, including the fact that it is about suicide. We are intrigued by this narrative because it is something we do not really know about. The theme of social wealth is also very important because it is something we are involved with on a day to day basis.

Character introductions are very important because it sets the standard for the rest of the novel and also needs to hook the reader. ‘Emma’ By Jane Austin is a good example as it hooks us by talking immediately about social wealth, “with very little to distress or vex her”, this intrigues us because we want to learn about her luxurious lifestyle.

As I have previously discussed, Hornby is a bestselling author who has become a modern classic author. This reputation must have helped ‘A Long Way Down’ to sell well, as it did become a bestseller.

Exploration of character introductions

All four characters start the narrative and the variety in social wealth of the characters adds to interest. By having these four contradicting characters, we are guaranteed conflict. Jess is a young, party-going loudmouth, but is without many friends, “and not have anywhere to go on New Year’s Eve.” We as readers wonder what her life is like, but once we find out that she has a political father, and a comfortable home, we feel little sympathy for her.

Jess likes to argue with and annoy the other characters, which can excite us, because we like to see characters fall out in order to make us feel better about ourselves. Maureen is the other female, who is extremely introverted with a disabled son. Her transformation from this character into a more relaxed, open and friendly character after hitting Jess’ ex, shows us that even the most reclusive people can change and be happy, making us as readers happy as well.

By adding a supposed rising American rock star, who has unfortunately fallen on hard times, we feel sorry that he was not able to achieve his ambitions. JJ’s constant use of swear words livens up the story, “Oh OK, your band was fucked up…the only reason you were in this fuckin’ country”, as we don’t see it as being pretentious, or something that we can’t read. The icing on the cake has to be the law-breaking child molester, “screwing a fifteen-year-old”, who rocketed into the public eye for things which he would rather have not been’ being bombarded by the press with headlines such as “SLEAZEBAG!” We want to know how on earth he could possibly live with himself, and perhaps understand that he’s not the murderous villain that we might typically stereotype him as. Although, for sure, we are not meant to like him all that much. Having these four different suicidal characters also means that we can see that suicidal people aren’t necessarily as selfish as we might think they are, and that they are just normal people like you and me, except grossly stereotyped and with supposedly big problems.

Each character interests us in a different way, and obviously one of the novels greatest pulls is its modern style, with frequent use of colloquialism and so on, as I have explained below. However, some other interesting factors are the fact that Jess doesn’t use speech marks because she apparently doesn’t understand how to use them. By varying the syntax like this, it makes the sentence structure less common and so more interesting to read, and perhaps a bit more of a challenge to read. Another key factor is how one character thinks of the other characters, for example Martin thinks that he is too cool to “hang around” with the other three, when he clearly isn’t. This difference in attitudes towards each other that they don’t all necessarily know about, has the effect of making the reader think they have an advantaged view on things and so want to find out how things change.

Hornby releases information slowly in order to add intrigue. This is evident in the first chapter which Maureen “writes”, where she talks about a “He” and “His” without telling us who this is. We wonder if she is in a dysfunctional relationship, until we find out a few lines later that it is actually her son, and later still a sick child, which perhaps makes her seem selfish when she says, “but you can see that nothing goes in.”

It is vastly important that Hornby uses a split narrative so hat we can see the central plot told or portrayed from several different angles, and see what effects it has on Martin’s family or what he has left of it as a result, for example, “You know Martin left us? We didn’t leave him?” It also gives us, as readers, variety so that if we get bored of one characters way of writing, we are safe in the knowledge that another character will be along in a minute that has a different outlook on things, and a different style of writing, inspiring us to keep reading. Moreover, if we had just one narrative then we wouldn’t learn anything about suicide that would give us a “well-rounded” opinion if you like, it would also get terribly boring unless that character had split personalities, for example.

Explore Hornby’s writing style

I think that Hornby’s writing style is fabulous. The way we get the impression that he has written nothing, and that it was the work of these completely believable characters is astounding. As above, he frequently uses colloquialism, presumably to bring the novel down to earth and to make people believe that these could be real people. He uses very subtle language techniques such as brackets to make Maureen seem un-confident and Jess’ lack of speech marks to indicate stupidity. Practically the whole book is written like a conversation and flows like one as well. Pretty much the whole book could be put on a stage without too much re-writing, and this, I suppose, helps to lift it out of the weighting of “a book” where complicated language and dull paragraphs are used into something that you could believe to be happening in you street.

Exploration of themes and narratives

We are interested in a group of people who want to kill themselves because it is not something we would normally think of doing, and neither is it something that we know about. The fact that suicide is so taboo in modern society makes the narrative of this book even more narrative, because it is somewhere where we can find out a little more about suicide, without all the opinions of other people etc. We are ultimately intrigued by this.

Social wealth is extremely important in the novel, because if the characters had been successful people with lots of money, and lots of friends then we as reads would not be interested. When we pick up a book, most of us like to escape to another world, and find out about that world. Furthermore, we like to feel good about ourselves at the same time, so the characters have to be the complete opposite to the above so that we can compare it to our own lives and be happy that we are doing fairly well.

A lot of people are obsessed with celebrity in today’s society, so the fact that this is a key component for Martin in the novel is a big pull. Celebrity magazines usually focus on relationships, and rarely do we see celebrities with such vivid problems as Martin. We as readers want to see what this fame-torn star does with his life and also to observe his downfall. They want to know how someone with such a reputable job could get into such a bad state, which is something a lot of people like finding out about. We perhaps also feel sympathy for him because of the way he is treated by the media, which draws parallels with how real-life celebrities are treated and how we now think of them as a result of reading the novel.

For those people who read ‘A Long Way Down’ and are religious, a big part of the narrative for them must be Maureen’s struggle with her religion’s stance on what she so desperately wants to do and the pain she is suffering. People may wonder how on earth a Catholic could possible consider one of the biggest sins, as the obvious thing to say is that it is not an option for her, but she clearly thinks it is. Readers will want to find out, specifically in these days of high religious tension, how and if she manages to turn her back on her religion’s beliefs. Suicide and religious guilt tie in very tightly with each other here.

Some people may argue that the ending of the novel was a bit of an anti-climax, because they were expecting at least one of the four to commit suicide. However, I would argue that it wasn’t, because we never really root for any of the characters to kill themselves, instead we want to see them resolve their problems. The fact that we get an ending where they talk about helping someone else who is in their situation, shows that they have learnt something and moved on, and this makes us happy.

In Martin’s last chapter, he seems to write a bit like an offender doing community service, as he tries to gain back his “self-respect.” This shows us that his arrogance from the start of the novel had perhaps started to die, until we read that he didn’t like the child and blamed him for not getting his self-respect back quickly, “I blamed him, partly.”

And again, perhaps the “partly” shows that he is starting to see the error of his ways. He also uses a circular narrative; the story beings with him stating, “Suicide was my Sydney”, and ends by saying, “self-respect is in, say, Sydney.” This shows us that he has moved on, but more so that he was back at the start, as were the others, and all the guilt and problems they had were very much still there.

Throughout the book I never really cared for any of the characters and perhaps this is because I saw hope for them, there was always an alternate path; Maureen could have sent Matty to a care home, so I didn’t think they needed caring for. I think that they were designed to intrigue and interest the reader, but were too vulgar or out of the ordinary to care for. I think that a reader would be more likely to care for a character if they were in a similar situation and so could empathize with them.

In conclusion, I think that the social relevance of the novel outweighs that of the character introductions, because it is such a big issue in modern society, and this is where the initial spark of intrigue comes from, from us wanting to know so much about the topic of suicide.

However, because the character introductions are so good, they are also responsible for hooking the reader and keeping them reading, perhaps more so than the social relevance. Had this book been released in the 1920s then the social relevance in relation to partying and suicide etc, would have perhaps of been less than it is now, and the introductions would have been such a contrast to writing of that time that they would not hook many people. So after reflection, it must be a combination of the two.

1. The sociological perspective (imagination) can be characterized as seeing the general in the particular and how the general operation of society affects the experiences of particular people. With that, sociology educates people to better understand the opportunities and the barriers that exist in their lives. Sociological perspective can be a valuable asset in coming to terms with a personal problem. After I had to take medical leave from work and could not return because of a nerve disorder I am currently having, I began to feel as if I was not being constructive enough and my self worth took a nosedive.

I was biased against myself for not doing what it is a man is ‘suppose’ to be doing in society, even though I am physically hindered right now. During this time off I figured I could take a couple of classes while wait out the pain. As I analyzed the opportunities available for me to attend college full-time such as the GI Bill, loans and grants, I also reassessed some personal and professional goals with my family as in what I should do.

I realized I didn’t want to work in a factory for 20 years, if or when I recover, so I enrolled in college to better pursue my adjusted goals which include Associates and Bachelor Degrees in Accounting to become a Certified Public Accountant. With this opportunity comes the constraint of being in debt when leaving school but that is s how society is here in America, ‘you have to give a lot to receive a lot’. As I look back at these events, I realize my lack of self worth was a direct result of not living up to what my perception of a man’s role in society is and that was causing unnecessary self-inflicted stress.

There was no reason to think I was a different person of lesser value just because of my situation, but I know if I did not believe that at that time, I would not be taking this test. This injury has caused changes in statuses such as becoming a college student, becoming unemployed, and physically disabled and performing these roles in society has made me view our society as whole in a much more critical way.

The sociological perspective in Jeremy’s terms means: Take a step back, think for yourself, process all information, and question the doubts before making decisions that effect your life and the lives around you. . “Free Will” can be achieved on a constant basis if one decides to accept certain morality standards and values that should be practiced by all mankind. We as people have the right to do whatever it is we want… but at the same must have respect for your fellow human being. If we accept the world in which we live (laws, rules and all), we will then have the choice or “Free Will” to make changes, if needed, by running for government or leading protests or being an influential personality such as Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. One could argue, “we do not have free will because we cant do whatever we want! ” If someone wants to injure, even kill someone, or something else that harms, cheats, or steals from another, they should face some kind of consequences for their inhuman acts towards another person. “Free Will”, as I perceive it, is more abundant in this country than almost anywhere in the world because free will is about having choices and being able to decide what is best for you.

Society can greatly influence the appeal of one decision over another and make one the easy choice, or programmed choice, but its here that your choice to follow the easy route, the popular societal choice or to take the road less traveled, unpopular choice is why Free “Will” exist. These choices in life that society creates are as “Free will” as it get; without society influencing our lives and the decisions we make in these ways, life would get real plain.

Choices are why I believe “free will” remains, as long I am able make the decisions, that guide my life I will have “Free Will”. . This video was about a teacher from Iowa and the process she created to tech her 3rd grade students about discrimination in 1968 and their reunion 20 years later. The teacher then later applies the same process at an adult correctional officer workshop that produces similar results as the 3rd graders. The kids were segregated into blue-eyed and brown-eyed people and the teacher discriminated toward the brown-eyes one day by telling them how bad they did everything and then treated the blue-eyes the exact same way the next day.

What she found was that her sweet, caring class of 3rd graders were vicious and mean towards the ones being discriminated on within 15 minutes of the prejudices being introduced to the classroom environment. Both group of kids took tests on both days and the results were much worse on the days their particular group was discriminated against and were not happy at all. With that, prejudices have a reactionary effect that seems to degrade the self-esteem and self-worth at once while also altering behavior and attitude..

The blue-eyed adults later in the film started getting agitated, uncooperative, combative, and mean due to the lack of respect they were receiving as a blue-eyed person in the same scenario. This documentary shows prejudices are mostly influenced by the surrounding environment and peers, or a culture of prejudices, which views certain categories as better or worse than others. Even if one does not agree with the prejudice, they might conform to the surrounding prejudices to ‘fit in’ and so as not be discriminated against themselves.

Other than both the primary and secondary groups influencing the way a person acts, most of each groups characteristics are opposite of each other. The quality of relationships in a primary group is personal orientation while secondary group are more goal orientated. The length of a primary group relationship is usually long term, where secondary groups tend to be short-term, but can vary. The primary group also will be involved in a wide range of activities, and know each other well, while secondary groups tend to involve few activities and have a narrow relationship.

The subjective perception of the primary group is “as an ends in themselves’ , while ‘an ends to an end” is the secondary groups perception. My family is my primary group that is involved in my everyday life that ranges from childcare to socializing to arguing. My family being behind me has allowed me to have the confidence and self-esteem to accomplish all that I have and am currently doing and have done in my life such as military service and high school. My mother’s continuous positive attitude and smile has always let me know that even if I failed, she loved me no less.

No matter the outcome Mom always was proud of the effort, that is all she asks. My stepfather’s behavior seems to be those of a saint to me and, despite a few bumps in my road; I strive to walk a similar path as him. Even though he is my Stepfather, this man has raised me for 20 years of my 27 with class, respect, and dignity. The combination of these two great people and their qualities has allowed me to develop the self-concept needed to have a rich and fulfilling life. An example of a secondary group is our class.

The impact on my behavior is I am more serious in class since I’m paying for this education and here to learn. I bet no one in this secondary group knows I do a GREAT pigeon impression (on the ground wobbling around and all! ). That would be too interpersonal for this secondary group but not my for my family/primary group, I have proof! My self-concept isn’t impacted by this secondary group too radically because being in a new classroom with a bunch of people I never met before is the norm, especially being in the military and after 6 years of it, I am accustom to the environment of the unknown classroom.

If anything, this secondary group, our class, has increased my self-esteem since I am more apt to speak out in class than ever before. Being able to experience some real life in the military and then coming to school has been a blessing in disguise because I am such a better student now than ever in high school. In all, despite having opposite characteristics, primary and secondary groups can both have an influential presence in self-concept, self-esteem, and behavior. 9. In defining the social structure of society, STATUS refers to a social position that an individual occupies, not its everyday meaning of ‘prestige’.

Every status is part of our social identity and defines our relationship to others. i. e. college student Over a lifetime, people gain and lose dozens of statuses and sociologists study these statuses in terms how people attain them. An ascribed status is a social position a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life. People usually have little or no choice in this status. Such as a death or disability later in life. An achieved status refers to a position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects personal ability and effort.

Some statuses matter more than others such as a master status, which has a special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life. For most in the US, occupation is the master status because it conveys a great deal about social background, education, and income. While a person holds a status, they perform a ROLE, or a behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status. Actual role performance varies according to a person’s personality, although some societies permit more individual expression than others.

In a modern high-income country, like us, role conflict arises between roles corresponding to two or more statuses, such as parenting, full-time student, and fianci??. Even roles linked to one status can cause tension known as role strain. In short, performing these roles required of us requires a balancing act throughout our life. The biggest role conflict in my life is the full-time student with parenting a child with Downs Syndrome and my current physical disability that forced me out of work and normal everyday activities without pain.

Being able to analyze each status and what was expected for each role allows me to ‘compartmentalize’ my school role so I can better focus on the needs of my family while home in the evening and pain management for myself. In the end compartmentalizing is organizing information in your head as to the environment expected in whatever role is needed at that time and not letting multiple roles conflict and cause something to happen that should not.