#ENG123

[psychmaj]

12.19.22

Today has been productive, today I:

1) took textbook notes on my iPad for chapter 2 and transferred them to my ENG123 notebook

2) started finding sources for my essay paper (which is on mentally Ill persons and crime and how the two correlate) and highlighted them

3) wrote down the definitions in the sources that I didn’t understand clearly

4) went to Panera bread, saw a movie (violent night), and went to Olive Garden 2 hours later

[alexjenniferabeille]

Comparative Analysis Essay 10/8/19

They’re Not Lazy

We all get lazy sometimes. There’s often things we’d rather just not do, usually in favor of doing something else, but sometimes in favor of doing nothing at all. Teens especially get flak for their laziness, which makes sense as they’re growing into themselves and learning to process responsibility while managing burgeoning interests in all kinds of activities. But what happens when you regularly call out a child’s incessant laziness, and you’re wrong? You can only make such a judgement based on what you see and what you know; and what you see is a child not cleaning their room, not doing their homework, not completing chores despite multiple reminders and sometimes even threats of punishment, and what you know is that that behavior corresponds to laziness. It’s beyond time to expand that knowledge. There exists a set of medical symptoms that has its own name, separate from the disorders it may be a part of, called Executive Dysfunction. Executive Dysfunction is not something you will typically be diagnosed with; instead, it is an under-discussed piece of the puzzle of many discrete mental illnesses that too often are overlooked, especially in young people. Tragically, when you call someone with Executive Dysfunction lazy with enough regularity, it can cause internalized self-loathing, decreased self-esteem, further motivation issues, and overall increases the negativity in their lives. It’s unhealthy, unintentionally abusive, and deserves to be addressed. Because while laziness and Executive Dysfunction produce similar observable effects in one’s life—namely “lazy behaviors”—they differ significantly in terms of where the behaviors come from, how one responds to the accusation of laziness, and the means of correcting the behaviors. When these differences are successfully understood, the knowledge can allow us to protect our most vulnerable from the psychological damage that frequently comes with this misattribution of laziness.

Laziness is first and foremost a decision, one we frequently make subconsciously. Not often do we sit down on the couch with the intention to be lazy, but four episodes of Brooklyn 99 later and you’re really not feeling like getting up to make dinner anymore, so you order in instead. Simply put, laziness is an avoidance of responsibility. Whether it’s because you’d rather watch a show than go for a walk, rather enjoy the company of friends instead of cleaning, or you’d rather just plain not go to the DMV, it’s all due to choosing one thing over another, more responsible thing. Laziness is, in fact, a perfect example of what proper Executive Functioning looks like. Every healthy brain has what is called Executive Function; the ability to prioritize, begin, carry out, and finish tasks correctly is fundamental to modern life. However, there are many cases where this mental process is damaged, and these cases are considered as a group to be Executive Functioning disorders. Disorders like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Condition, Clinical Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and many others have the capacity to undermine the brain’s Executive Functioning abilities. This appears in a great variety of ways, but for the most part it is observably similar to laziness. It impacts everyone to different degrees, and is not something anyone has control over, much as society would like us to believe the opposite.

Control is the basic, or perhaps even only building block of human behavior, or so we are led to believe. We are fed this myth by the world around us; traditional media and social media both are frequently used to characterize poor behavior, including lazy behavior, as a personal failing. If someone seems lazy, our society says, they merely aren’t controlling their behaviors well enough. They’re just not trying hard enough. As such, it is hard for many to grasp the concept that what we do is influenced by much more than just the individual decisions we make. People with Executive Dysfunction cannot overcome their deficits by sheer force of will. And unfortunately, for many, desperately trying to can feel physically and emotionally painful. When you consider a child who will not clean their room, the typical parental response is some form of discipline. For children who are merely lazy, the threat of discipline is frequently enough to get them going, to various degrees of success (children are, of course, far more complicated than the scope of this discussion is able to address). When the child is struggling with Executive Dysfunction, even the threat of discipline may not be able to unlock their ability to clean. Their brain is struggling with some part of the process—they may not be able to start cleaning of their own volition. If they can manage to start, they may struggle to stay on task. If the clutter becomes overwhelming (sensory overwhelm is a common symptom of many Executive Functioning disorders), perhaps they have difficulty navigating where to start, or in what order to clean, and subsequently shut down from frustration. For children who persistently struggle to clean their room, parents may be tempted to call the children themselves “lazy” as opposed to their behaviors. For children who are lazy, this may be a wake up call to their behavior. For children with Executive Dysfunction, this is a judgement on their character. They cannot do the task, for reasons they struggle to understand, and will internalize this characterization. Frequently, parents call these children lazy time and time again, and become frustrated with their inabilities, presuming it to be a matter of lack of control. If only their child would just try harder, if only they would just get their homework and housework done. This characterization of their struggling child shapes how the child perceives themself, and frequently leads to low self-esteem, self-loathing, and can contribute to the formation of depression, and even physical or emotional self harm. Typically, we can identify when a child is genuinely struggling with performing activities by genuinely listening to them, as Executive Dysfunction frequently causes emotional distress due to its universal impact. A person with Executive Dysfunction struggles with tasks they want to do just as much as tasks they don’t. It can be just as difficult to get up and get a snack you desperately want as it can be to do a chore (a notable exception may exist for some children with ADHD or Autism. Their Executive Dysfunction may be influenced by their interest-based nervous system).

When we listen to our youth and hear their concerns, and with an understanding that Executive Dysfunction exists, we can, as a society, begin to make changes in how we should address their lazy behaviors. Drawing on the lazy child not cleaning their room example from before, it’s often enough to use a disciplinary approach, tailored to the personality of the child. Even with a difficult child who has an attitude, it would be a matter of approach (that may even include counseling!) to get them to overcome their laziness. But when the child is suffering emotionally, discipline will serve only to make matters worse. A child who may have an Executive Functioning disorder needs very different resources, and even if a parent is not sure that this is the case, they should involve their pediatrician or look into finding a child psychologist. There are a myriad of options to aid the struggling child. Medication, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and working with the children themselves to find suitable accommodations are just a few. To use myself as an example (I have professionally diagnosed ADHD), I often find having a friend or family member in the room with me while I clean is enough to keep me on task and helps when I feel overwhelmed by clutter. Even something as simple as kindly being asked if I’ve begun to do a task can suddenly make the task feel possible. I also take medication that allows me to focus and prioritize successfully, among many other social and cognitive benefits. What had never worked, and still doesn’t work, is being shamed when I fail to overcome my own brain’s incapabilities.

We should not live in a world where “don’t shame your child,” and “listen when your child says they’re struggling” are potentially radical suggestions. As a member of a community full of late-diagnosed adults, however, I’ve seen far too many people discuss at length the kind of treatment they received from their parents (and frequently other authority figures) as children and how much damage it did to them. As a late-diagnosed adult myself, I am still disentangling my internalized shame. Calling your children lazy, shaming them for what they may genuinely have no control over, instead of leading with empathy and avoiding name-calling and blaming, does real, long-term damage that may persist throughout the rest of their life. Executive Dysfunction exists, and no matter how similar the inaction may seem, it is not laziness. Parents, stop calling your children lazy. Listen to their concerns, and if necessary, seek help. Signed, every late-diagnosed adult with Executive Dysfunction.

[incredibleanswers]

ENG123 module 1 Journal: problem to persuation

ENG123 module 1 Journal: problem to persuation

Assignment #2: Due September 20, 2020, 11:59pm

Instructions: Questions are selected from the exercises at the end of your text book chapters.

Text book: Adrian, J. J. (2004). Construction Productivity: Measurement and Improvement, Stipes Publishing L.L.C., Champaign, Illinois. (ISBN: 1-58874-357-8)

Question 2.2, Chapter 2 (50%)

I have uploaded the question.

[wanderinglass]

Masaya sa WANSI! ♥ #eng123 #speechchoirperformers #finals #blockpic #lolables (at Bulacan State University)

[alexjenniferabeille]

Writing Sample: Six Word Memoirs

Finally, answers. Everything falling into place.

A major shift in my life occurred this past year that truly upended most of what I thought I knew about myself, and in the best way possible. The first thirteen and a half years of my education were fraught with an unidentified, largely unnoticed struggle. I excelled in school, even graduating with honors in multiple subjects, but at a mostly invisible cost. I could not do my homework timely, I procrastinated every essay, every project, often to the point of tears and breakdowns. I forgot materials frequently and struggled to keep up with note taking, reading, and never learned how to study (not without many, many attempts—flashcards and I have parted ways as enemies, never friends). I was an emotional, anxious, depressed wreck of a person, and I had learned to blame it all on myself. I was merely not good enough, my inabilities internalized as personal failings that I could fix if I “just” tried harder, pushed myself more, if I could only summon the will. Then I dropped out of college after my first semester, despite ending with a grade of 3.8 and making it onto the Dean’s List.

Finally an adult, however, I sought out help for my depression I knew I’d had since middle school (my mother had long objected to it), and so began the next six years of jumping from antidepressant to antidepressant, from doctor to doctor. It became clear over time that nothing was working, but I had no answers. No one seemed to have any answers at all. It wasn’t until I joined an online community (unrelated to depression and medicine) that things began to change, as I saw a number of my new acquaintances talk together about their experiences with being neurodivergent. I began asking questions of them when I saw topics that felt relatable, and soon after was doing research of my own accord. I messaged my general practitioner for a reference to a psychologist, certain and hopeful that I’d discovered the true source of my longsuffering. In May of 2019, after a number of sessions to rule out all possibilities, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. In short order, everything in my life got turned upside down. I began to see a Psychiatrist that June, who would prescribe me my first stimulant medication, which seemed to make many things I previously thought out of reach become entirely possible. I returned to college with a new understanding of the unavoidable pitfalls of my neurology, new coping mechanisms and workarounds, the ability to focus on my work thanks to medication, a sense of camaraderie with those who share my diagnosis, and perhaps most importantly, self-forgiveness.

I did not decide to have ADHD, I did not choose for my frontal cortex to be smaller than average or for my dopamine receptors and transporters to be too few in number, that is just the hand that I’ve been dealt. For those who don’t and can’t understand, it is all too easy to dismiss the symptoms as laziness and lack of character, especially when those symptoms do not align with the public consciousness’s idea of what “an ADHD person” looks like. I had been going through my life without the tools that neurotypical people all begin with, and I did not know it. It is next to impossible to carve a masterpiece out of marble without a hammer and chisel. I’ve now been given the hammer and chisel, and what remains of my ADHD once the blockades are broken down is a superpower I get to learn to harness. The world better watch out. My masterpiece is in the making.

[alexjenniferabeille]

Cause and Effect essay 10/22/19

The Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness*

In early October of 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States heard, for the first time, a case regarding transgender rights. The case in question was centered on whether a trans woman (someone assigned male at birth transitioning to be a woman) should be permitted to dress in the clothing and use the pronouns typically associated with women in her workplace upon coming out, and not lose her job for refusing to “dress like a man.” She of course was, with her lawyer, advocating for herself and on behalf of all transgender people in the United States; her former employer was defending their right to fire her, citing religious beliefs. The Supreme Court Justices heard the arguments along the course of the day, and will deliberate over the next few months whether transgender people are covered under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s ban against discrimination based on sex. The transgender community is, naturally, going to be on the edge of their seats until June, when the Justices will give their final ruling. But we have to ask—if the Supreme Court rules in favor of her employer, what happens next? Transgender people across America would be affected in some of the clearest and worst ways, but such a ruling would also open up even more opportunities for sexism against women in general, and even perpetuate harm to children.

Certainly the most obvious and highly probable consequence would be the subsequent firings of transgender people across the country in states where no specific protections have already been codified into law; which is to say, in states where they have heretofore relied on their state courts’ interpretations of Title VII instead of writing and passing laws protecting transgender individuals specifically. And you would not be alone if you initially thought that it would end there, since Title VII’s ban on sex-based discrimination specifically applies to the workplace. However, many other protections and statutes rely on and take note of federal interpretations of the Title VII protections, and a ruling against transgender people could not only restrict access to employment, but also housing, health care, and education. In no time at all, a large percentage of transgender Americans could find themselves jobless, homeless, and losing any rights to education, including our trans youth who already experience obscenely high rates of homelessness in comparison to their cisgender (someone whose sense of gender aligns with their assigned sex at birth) counterparts. This abject poverty would significantly increase the already sky-high percentage of violence, both lethal and nonlethal, against trans people (in particular, transgender women of color), as the correlation between homelessness and violence is well documented. From there, we would also likely see a dramatic increase in transgender suicides. In trans adults, in our current climate, around 41% have already attempted suicide at least once. Of those who have been physically assaulted, the number jumps to 61%. In fact, every time a transgender person is subject to physical or verbal abuse or harassment, they become two and a half times more likely to harm themselves. And the statistics among youth are even more harrowing. Factor in this decidedly significant hypothetical (but calculable) increase in violence and poverty, and you have a significantly higher and more dangerous endemic rate of suicides.

The problems resulting from a ruling against the trans community would not stop there, unfortunately. Not by a long shot. You see, when you break it down to its basic elements, the case relies entirely on gendered associations of personal appearance—in this particular case, “a man” not dressing and presenting “masculinely” enough for the employer. The crux of the argument relies on stereotypes of gender, and allowing workplace discrimination based on these gendered stereotypes could cause harm and job loss to people who are not transgender as well. And naturally, as we see over and over again in our society (putting the transgender community aside for a moment), these discriminations would primarily harm cisgender women in the workplace of any and all sexualities. Any employer, under this potential re-interpretation of Title VII, could decide to fire a woman for not looking feminine enough. If the employer demands she wear makeup, skirts, heels, long hair, et cetera, they may find themselves within their rights to do so. Even under our current system, cisgender women who do not fit the high-femme mold (sometimes called “gender non-conforming”) are subject to discrimination. To highlight just one example, at least one cisgender woman was beaten and thrown out of a women’s bathroom for looking too “man-ish” in recent years, despite her identification showing a clear “F” for sex, and regardless of the fact that she was not transgender in the slightest. Cisgender women with conditions such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which can increase testosterone and cause a masculinization of body hair and facial hair as well as lower the voice of those afflicted, will be even more subject to discrimination as well. Even in our public schools, we already far too frequently see principals and other school authority figures demanding to see the genitalia of children to determine if they are in the “right” bathroom. If the Justices rule in favor of the employer, we can expect to see this occur more and more frequently, with real physical harm coming to the very groups Title VII was initially intended to protect.

It would be remiss to extend a hypothetical only to those who fall under the purported dichotomy of male and female, man and woman, cis and trans. Ignored, once again, are the needs and cries of the intersex population. Comprising an estimated 2% of the global population (no small number!), intersex people are born with sexual characteristics that make determining either a discrete male sex or female sex impossible. From rare chromosomal expressions (XXY, XYY, etc.), to ambiguous genitalia, to an inability to produce or process certain sex hormones (most frequently testosterone), and more, this group does not naturally fall into our “one or the other” model of sex. It is unclear what a ruling in favor of bioessentialism (the idea that your sex and gender are the same and immutable) would do to intersex people, many of whom are already victims of a medical system that demands surgical procedures be performed without consent on infants who do not have a clearly definable physical sex (many times even without consent of the parent). But it can be reasonably surmised that this would continue to perpetuate harm and discrimination against those who already do not neatly fit the two-sex model by nature of their biology.

This court case, then, extends far beyond the initial question regarding whether a trans woman can physically transition in her workplace and not be at risk of being fired. It encompasses a much broader question: should employers be given free reign to discriminate based on (frankly stuck-in-the-fifties) stereotypes of what “men” and “women” ought to look like, ought to wear, even when the Supreme Court has previously ruled against such stereotyping? Are we going to codify compulsory cis female femininity and cis male masculinity into law? Beyond the first few years, where would this lead us in the future, as styles and fashions continue to grow and expand? Who gets to decide what style of clothing makes someone “woman” enough or “man” enough? Especially since after all, clothing is merely fancily cut fabric, and the history of which gender wears what fancy cut of fabric is long, complex, and decidedly didn’t begin in the United States in 1950 CE (despite certain cries in this country of “it’s always been this way”). Those of us who are not white, cisgender, masculine, straight, able-bodied men already have enough additional roadblocks to deal with to navigate life in the United States. In a country that claims to pride itself on the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” perhaps it’s best to avoid having to add in an asterisk.