American vs Asian Happiness Essay Example for Free

American vs Asian Happiness Essay Americans associate feelings of happiness with personal achievement, the Asian associate those feelings with an entire society’s harmony. Asian people feel emotion less often than Americans. Asians tended to rate their emotional events as more neutral than Americans rated theirs. Overall, Americans were more likely to see their experiences as â€Å"somewhat pleasant.† Asians respondents more often have mixed emotions in â€Å"predominantly pleasant situations† than Americans do. One reason suggested in the paper is that Asians seem to define advancement of social harmony as more worthy than mere individual success. Positive emotions are less important to Asian-born Asians than to Americans. The American dream is all about happiness, not careers or material goods, and its within reach. That bright-eyed view comes from teenagers on the cusp of independence and their own pursuit of happiness as adults. growing numbers of Americans are unhappy, unhealthy, and increasingly pessimistic. At the same time, there are some distinct differences between them and between other Asian and American accounts. For example, the Asians seem more solemn and introspective, with more emphasis on spiritual cultivation and psychological transcendence. American’s seemed more uplifting, elated, exciting, and show more emphasis on enjoying life in the physical sense and present time. Asians appear to desire a more balanced life, with social expectations finely integrated into their sense of well-being. American’s appear to want personal happiness as the supreme value of life, and blatantly assert individual agency against social restrictions. Happiness is a dominant concern for most Americans indeed the American Declaration of Independence proclaims that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right of every individual. Happiness is not only the best reward for personal striving and hard work, as the ‘American dream’’ presents, it is also given many positive associations. For example, Americans believe that happy people are more likely to go to Heaven after death . Happiness is also closely related to health and life satisfaction. The active and explicit pursuit of happiness is one of the best ways of living out an independent personhood, which masters and controls the external environment, identifies and realizes potentials, creates and achieves goals. The Asian perspective individual’s inner attributes, the gratification of personal needs and desires, the amplification of personal achievement, the creation and protection of individual uniqueness are not important concerns: instead, the fulfillment of role obligations in interdependent social relationships, the creation and maintenance of interpersonal harmony, the striving to promote the welfare and prosperity of the family. The Asian culture exhibits a ‘‘habit of hesitation’’ towards happiness. Asians follow the theory of the ancient Yin–Yang philosophy which takes a cosmological view that everything from the cosmos to human life is a never-ending, cyc lic process of change, between good and bad, happiness and misery, well-being and ill-being. Americans view Happiness in regards to money, family, and what can give them the most, Asians to me are more focused on the family and community. We as Americans really just see ourselves as happy when we have more than what our neighbor has, and that we have the perfect job, perfect family, friends are socially accepted. But the truth is even when we are at 100 % full of happiness we are not and the truth to the fact is sometimes we see happiness in our lives and we aren’t. I took a look at my life and realized that even though I am supposed to be happy I am I really? Who really is? In a society like ours where the more we make the more we need the more we want when do we say enough is enough. My Asian friends are happy all the time they are happy with their lives because they are taught that it’s not the material it’s what you release into the world, and what you make with the information you have, spreading the world and paying it forward is what they are about and that and family bring them job, they are happy with the little things and that is what makes them happy and fulfilled with life. Asian culture engulfs the beliefs that the world is their gift and they are one with the world and what they offer to it and take from it are to be shared, and this is taught in their culture from when they are young. In contrast to us Americans that the more we have the more we want. References: Positive Psychology, by Steve R. Baumgardner and Marie K. Crothers. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright c 2009 by Pearson Education, inc http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/america-and-the-pursuit-o_b_941870.html http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The_Scientific_Pursuit_of_Happiness.html http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/04/why-happiness-isnt-always-good-asians-vs-americans/ http://jweinb2.wordpress.com/category/east-asian-cultures-share-similar-views-on-happiness/ http://www.adambohannon.org/crosscultural-differences-happiness-east-west/

Free Essays - Anthem :: Anthem Essays

Anthem is a story of man’s struggle to be free and to fight the masses of conformity.   It tells of human nature and the want to gain all the knowledge that one could possibly attain.   Man loses his safe haven and his security when he lets this lust for knowledge overpower him and lets it be seen by others. He becomes vulnerable Like Johann Faust, Prometheus sells his life for wisdom.   Unlike Faust, however, Prometheus is expelled from his society but gains his freedom of individuality and his freedom of knowledge and the ability to understand.   In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea sin against society to become singular and understanding much like Adam and Eve’s sin against God when they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge to gain wisdom; as a result, they can be compared to each other by there desire for learning and by their damnation.   An anthem is a sacred composition set to words from the Bible.   This may have significance with the title that Ayn Rand has given the book by paralleling the story of Prometheus and Gaea to that of Adam and Eve.   In the bible, Adam and Eve were given everything that they needed by God with the one exception of not to eat from a specific tree.   They were told by the devil that this tree was the tree of knowledge and to eat of it would give them knowledge equal to God’s.   In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea are told that they have everything that they will ever need or desire by the council.   They are forbidden to gain knowledge that is not permitted by the council but only to do as they are told.   Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the pursuit of knowledge and ate of the tree in order to gain equality to God.   When they did this God found out and so condemned them and punished them for all eternity.   God banished them from paradise in the Garden of Eden.   A dam and Eve were no longer given anything as they were in the garden but instead were forced to suffer and survive on their own.   In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea go against the will of the council and Prometheus yearns to gain knowledge that he realizes is being hidden from him. Prometheus hides his studies at first but then wants to share them with the council for the betterment of society but is instead condemned.

Communication in Nursing Essay

Since the dawn of time man has been evolving in the ways we think and interact with each other. What was appropriate a generation ago might not be appropriate today. As nurses we know very intimate details of our patients’ lives, those details can blur the line between a friendly relationship and a professional relationship. Even though you feel you know the patient like you know your best friend you still have to treat them with the utmost respect, and dignity. Social communication is something we do on a daily basis whether it is with a patient or acquaintance, we refer to it as small talk. In contrast Therapeutic communication skills are very specific and goal oriented, they aren’t skills one is born with, these skills take time to perfect and build on. What is communication? The Townsend text defines it as â€Å"an interactive process of transmitting information between two or more entities†. In any communication there are â€Å"preexisting conditions† that affect the intended message and the way it is received, some examples include values, attitudes, beliefs, social status and environment in which the communication takes places (Townsend, 2010). A large part of communication is nonverbal communication, how you present yourself and your body language goes a long way in getting your point across. 70-90 percent of all effective communication is nonverbal (Townsend, 2010). A nurse-patient relationship can have multiple types of communication including non-therapeutic, social, and therapeutic. If a nurse errs and uses non-therapeutic communication such as rejecting, giving reassurance, or probing, negative outcomes occur. Non-therapeutic techniques discourage further expression of feelings and ideas and provoke negative responses or behaviors in others (Potter, Perry, Stockert & Hall, 2009) On the other hand therapeutic communication techniques such as; using silence, accepting and offering self, encourage feelings and ideas and convey acceptance and respect (Potter, Perry, Stockert & Hall, 2009). Social communication can be used as small talk on a limited basis. To understand social communication and therapeutic communication we must first define both. social communication can be defined as everyday communication that occurs as the nurse greets the patient and passes the time of day with what is referred to as small talk (Shives, 2008) saying things like â€Å"how is your day? † or â€Å"how are you pets? † are basic statements that aren’t goal specific. Social communication can elicit a negative response from the patient, if that occurs the nurse would â€Å"shift gears† and start a conversation using therapeutic communication techniques. An example would be: Nurse: â€Å"Hey how are you doing? The weather outside is beautiful today† Patient: â€Å"I don’t care about the weather, I hate it here, I don’t belong here, and I want to go home now! † To remedy this, the next sentence the nurse could use is: Nurse: â€Å"Oh, I see, what would u like to talk about today? † That statement gives the patient a broad opening which â€Å"allows the patient to take initiative in introducing the topic and it emphasizes the importance of the client’s role in the interaction† (Townsend, 2010) Therapeutic communication on the other hand is defined as a process in which the nurse consciously influences a patient or helps the patient to a better understanding through verbal or nonverbal communication. Therapeutic communication involves the use of specific strategies that encourage the patient to express feelings and ideas and that convey acceptance and respect (Mosby 2009). In the text Basic concepts of psychiatric-mental health nursing the author uses a very helpful table to compare and contrast therapeutic and social communication, some examples given are: * In social communication a personal or intimate relationship occurs and the identification of needs may not occur. Whereas in therapeutic communication a personal but not intimate relationship occurs. Needs are identified by the patient with the help of the nurse if necessary. * Personal goals may or may not be discussed and constructive or destructive dependencies may occur, in contrast to therapeutic communication where personal goals are set by the patient and constructive dependency, interdependency, and independence are promoted. * In social communication a variety of resources may be used during socialization, but in therapeutic communication specialized professional skills are used while employing nursing interventions. In conclusion we see that communication in nursing is being developed as an entirely separate skill, as profession nurses we have the responsibility to ourselves and our patients to understand what is being said and to get the point across in a precise and efficient manner. By comparing and contrasting the two communication styles we see they are vastly different. When using social communication the nurse wouldn’t be unprofessional, but it is up to the nurse to determine the correct time, place, and situation for which each style is appropriate.

The Model Of Economic Growth - 1346 Words

The authors have studied the Solow Model of economic growth, which assumes the neoclassic production function of decreasing returns to capital. Solow proposed the model while considers the rate of saving and population growth as exogenous and demonstrated that the countries reach the steady state level of income per capita. However, the classical Solow model is not able to explain cross-country variation in the standard of living. The Solow model predicts the effect of saving and population growth on economic growth qualitatively but not quantitatively .The authors have augmented the Solow model with accumulation of Human capital as well as physical capital. The authors have analyzed empirical data of year1965-1985 with the textbook Solow model augmented Solow Model for three different samples including Non-oil, Intermediate and OECD. The authors demonstrated that augmented Solow model is still valid to explain the international variation in income per capita. The authors advocate t he conditional convergence hypothesis, where per capita incomes of countries which have similar economic conditions converge to one another in the long-run independently of their initial condition. The authors propose that convergence cannot be expected in the Solow growth model because different countries reach different steady rates. Non-convergence can be attributed to the different steady rates of the countries which is determined by the accumulation of human and physical capital andShow MoreRelatedThe Growth Model And Economic Growth1072 Words   |  5 PagesEndogenous growth model, it clarifies long-run economic growth as radiating from economic activities that make new technological knowledge. Endogenous growth can be explained as long-run economic growth at a rate dictated by factors that are internal to the economic framework, especially those factors administering the opportunities and motivators to create technological knowl-edge. 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For more than three decades the Neoclassical and the Endogenous Growth theories were arguing and forwarding economic reasons on trend of economic growth through investment as a general and private investmentRead MoreA Brief Note On The Growth Theory And The Dual Sector Model Of Economic Development Essay3646 Words   |  15 Pages ENDOGENOUS GROWTH THEORY BY MARTIN RIITHO MAINA KCA 14/02073 A Term Paper submitted to Prof. Joseph Ongeri in fulfilment Of the requirements for the course Advanced Macro-Economics, as credit towards the degree of Master of Science (Finance and Economics) KCA UNIVERSITY November, 2014 â€Æ' TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1.0 Abstract.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦.†¦..3 1.1 Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.........................................4 2.0 Literature review: Models†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦