Causal Argument- HazelnutLatte

Posted on March 22, 2019 by hazelnutlatte123

From Mentally Ill to Mentally Insane

The term “mentally insane” usually sparks a common thought in everyone’s mind. We usually refer to the criminally insane as those who commit heinous crimes with the intent of hurting someone, but when referring to the mentally insane we think about illnesses that cause the criminal to have trouble understanding why what they did was wrong. The biggest question in our minds is why? Why do those who are convicted of crimes and are mentally insane commit the crimes that they do? There is a simple, yet extremely complex reason for this: mental illness has the ability to control a person’s entire mind, body, and life. The mental illnesses that many of the criminally insane suffer from, causes various neurological effects within the person. Whether it is cognitive dysfunction, delusions, hallucinations, or feelings of being possessed by the devil, many of these convicted murders have a story of being compelled to commit the crime. It seems so simple to grasp the concept of mental illness when relating it to the criminally insane, but there is a much bigger idea that we do not quite fully understand.

Many victims of mental illness are drawn to darkness and evil due to the “voices” they hear in their heads. Many mental illness’ cause people to hallucinate or have delusions of things and voices that are not really there. This is most common ins schizophrenic patients. As proven by Michael Brook, Robert E. Hanlon, and John Stratton, in “Murder and Psychosis: Neuropsychological Profiles of Homicide Offenders With Schizophrenia,” patients with this illness are “…2.5-7%” more “…at risk for violence perpetration…” This is due to the negative neurocognitive effects that this illness has including problems with attention, working memory, executive functions, and verbal memory (Brook, et. al). The study conducted by Brook, Hanlon, and Stratton supported the hypothesis that those with this disorder are more susceptible to falling to violent actions when they feel threatened, endangered, or as if it is the only way to fix the problem at hand, whether it be a major or minor problem in their minds. Many of us cannot understand what it is like to have a constant voice in our minds telling us that something we were taught was wrong, is right in that moment.

The phrase “not guilty by reason of insanity” was put into place because of this concept that many people cannot understand because their mental health is not on the same wavelength as these criminals. Mental illness does not excuse the behavior of these criminals, but it gives us a closer look into the minds of the murderer. In the justice system we try so hard to figure out why the crime was committed. Many cases are not a case of who did it, but they are cases of why did this person do it? In many cases, the justice system is presented with people who commit crimes with the intent of getting something out of it. Many cases involve murders resulting from revenge, crimes of passion, or someone who likes the thrill of committing the crime. In patients of schizophrenia and many other mental illnesses and disorder, they feel that the crime at hand must be committed in order to save themselves or someone close to them. Often times, they do not understand why they have done what they did, but they know that in their mind it was a necessary task.

Andrea Yates was on of these patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, who felt that the murder of her five children was necessary to save them from the devil. She was not only a patient with schizophrenia, but also multiple other mental illnesses. Through suffering with all the mental illnesses that she was diagnosed with, she felt that the devil would talk to her and tell her what a horrible job as a parents she was doing. With her diagnosis of schizophrenia came the voices in her head that led her to drown her five children. Her reasoning, as described in “Andrea Yates: More to the Story,” from “The New York Times,” was “[Her] children weren’t righteous. They stumbled because [she] was evil. The way [she] was raising them they could never be saved…” The reasoning behind the horrible crime committed was because her mental illness led her to believe that the only way to save them from “[perishing] in the fires of hell” was to kill them (Roche 2002). In reality, we know that this idea is not plausible and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but to Andrea, this was the only escape from the voices and the only way to protect her children from herself and the devil.

The biggest dilemma in these cases is trying to decipher who is mentally insane and who is the criminally insane. The intent to commit the crime at hand versus the compulsion that is forced upon the individual who does not know right from wrong is an issue that continues on today. Mental illness causes people to do many things, because of it affecting and deteriorating their cognitive abilities. Andrea Yates was one person that was affected by many mental illnesses that led her to commit a crime that we cannot even wrap our heads around doing. As diagnoses continued to pile up, she continued to get treatment, but never fully recovered. This is just one person in the mix of thousands of people convicted of homicide and put in prison. Many people are given the help required to make them better, but even more convicted criminals are put into prisons and neglected of the help that they need. Prisons could be much less populated if mental illness was found in many of the cases that have been overlooked. Many people are found guilty for their crime, but how many of those people are guilty by reason of insanity?

References

Kesling, G. (2006, September 1). Ask the expert: The Case of Andrea Yates. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=fe9d653a-63d8-4d3b-b270-20f26b85b43b%40sessionmgr102

Roche, T. (2002, March 18). Andrea Yates: More To The Story. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,218445,00.html

Stratton, J.; Brook, M.; Hanlon, R.E. (2016, February 10). Murder and Psychosis: Neuropsychological Profiles of Homicide Offenders with Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=10&sid=b13e729e-d665-41b4-9734-94c9ecff5647%40pdc-v-sessmgr03

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Stone Money- MysteryLimbo

Posted on March 21, 2019 by mysterylimbo

Although the article “The Island of Stone Money” provided useful information about the origin of money and how we evolved into the monetary system that is today. I am very skeptical as to why this is relevant in today’s society. Understanding history is one thing but, the author of  “The Island of Stone Money” is trying to understand an origin story that dates back further than the Yap Island. Although money was not really widespread that each and every early civilization had it, there was one thing that dates back to when man first became civilized. Bartering or the exchange system would be our first form of an economic system.

Bartering dates back to about 6000 B.C and the way it worked was one person is a hunter willing to trade some extra meat to a taylor only if the taylor could make the hunter a new jacket for the harsh winters. This system still holds merit today country trade goods to one another in exchange for other goods. Although there is money involved today and goods are usually translated into a monetary value i.e an average cost of a metric ton of wheat according to index mundi was about $202.46 in 2017. Meaning in order to trade the wheat usually the parties would trade in equal value or higher value. This is the trading system that we use today and that is how we value money on the macro level.

My opinion on money after reading the article “The island of stone money” has not really change if anything I am fairly confident on my stance about money. Money is what runs the world and as much as people want to decline it money makes life easier and better no matter who you are. Money can get people out of jail, money can buy a house, money pays for you doctor, and money makes people look better. Money doesn’t define success but money does measure successs. All those whom are deemed successful today have a good career with nice materialistic things with assets such as a house, car, and/or 401k. These people that successful could lose their job and could be fine for a year because of their money/success.

Money comes in different forms throughout the word and money is not anyways physical it could be in the form of cyprto currency Bitcoin, which is digital currency, is also available. In the MarketWatch article, Bitcoin has no place in your San Francisco, California starts a $100 million company called “Coinbase”. I get the idea of online shopping and having money available for you in that regard, but what happens when people can’t distinguish their digital cash from their paper money. It will literally cause a currency clash. I do not recommend doing any form of cypro currency anymore because of the sketchy things people ar willing to do to make any form of money. The digital currency space is sketchy because the investment itself is risking and there is no telling if there would be any return on your investment. Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, can be extremely volatile; investments can result in remarkable gains, but equally staggering losses. Trading cryptocurrency is very risky. The industry is not regulated and the currency is not backed up by any kind of government or central bank. Even though cryptocurrencies are designed to be theft proof, there’s still a considerable risk for fraud and cyber crime. The internet becomes a risker place every year and with money being involved it makes the space more confusing and risky.

Yap is very specific example of money being used in ancient civilization.  The use of the disk of stone is a very old example of money using used. The stone money is very interesting because it shows how any civilization could start a monetary system as long everyone is on board. The people of yap all agree that the huge piece of stone had monetary value and although the stone never moved it changed from owner to owner because of yap’s people use of money. This understanding of money is still being used today although it evolved to a something much lighter, flexible, and understable. Money is much more simple but we cannot help but be fascinated in the yap’s way of life.

References

“Island of Stone Money.” Milton Friedman, Feb. 1991. https://counterintuitive2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stonemoneyessay.pdf

“Beware of cypro risk – 10 risk to watch”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dantedisparte/2018/07/21/beware-of-crypto-risks-10-risks-to-watch/#518323b05f17

Posted in mysterylimbo, Stone Money | 1 Comment

Causal–Daphne Blake

Posted on March 13, 2019 by daphneblake25

I’m researching the effects of ocean pollution and its relation to micro plastics that break down into the ocean over time from larger plastics. My hypothesis is that making edible straws will decrease ocean pollution by reducing the amount of plastic waste and by being a gateway environmental breakthrough that will lead to either more edible objects that was once recyclable material or raising awareness to the point that better ideas may be proposed. My causal essay is based on the idea that the severe effects of ocean pollution is not only a detriment to sea life, but is the cause of a direct negative impact on the national financial state. Polluting the ocean pollutes the world’s economy.

Posted in Causal Argument, daphneblake | 1 Comment

Causal- yourfavoriteanon

Posted on March 13, 2019 by yourfavoriteanon

Learning from Video Games

Growing up as a frequent gamer, I have heard all the excuses for me to stop playing. Whether it was about how video games will fry my brain to how video games will hurt my eyes, but no matter what I kept playing. At the time, I never thought about the big picture and how video games affected me physically, mentally, and emotionally. All my friends played video games, but we had a healthy dose of outdoor play as well. My diet wasn’t great, but I was a kid. School wasn’t a big priority when I was little so as long as I had decent grades (C’s and B’s) I didn’t think too much about video games affecting my school work. What I never realized till I was older was the way video games shaped me and what they taught me about life. As we mature growing up, we start to see how our upbringings affected who we are today. Playing video games frequently not only causes an increase in better decision making but you learn different values from each game. Not all games have this affect, but most story telling or multiplayer games do.

After completing a day of hard grinding on Ubisoft’s first-person shooter game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, I know I have honed my skills in the game and also, it’s reflection to the real world. Whether on the attacking or defending side, you have to be mindful of every movement you make and what strategy you take. Working with your teammates is key to your survival and victory. One false move and you or your teammate could be taken care of by the enemy team or the clock could run down until there’s no more time left. I was able learn more on competitiveness, teamwork, attention to detail, and deciding what should be the next move under pressure. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is one of thousands of game titles that keep you sharp, on your toes, and ready for the unexpected. I was able to translate the skills learned from video games to my football career in high school. Daphne Bavelier and her colleagues at the University of Rochester, New York, have been able to test and show results of how action video games improve decision making compared to non-players. “The researchers asked 11 video-game players and 12 non-players to determine the overall direction of a group of randomly moving dots. In another experiment, the volunteers had to identify with which ear they heard a tone concealed in white noise. In both cases, the players gave accurate answers faster than the non-players. According to the authors, this enhanced ‘probabilistic inference’ explains why video games, unlike other activities that train for specific tasks, can improve performance in tasks not specifically related to game play.” (“Gaming the brain,” 2010) This explains how video games can improve our skills without us specifically focusing on a certain skill to work on. The evidence also shines light towards gamers having better reaction times and quicker perceptions.

           Developers create video games from their own creative image and take inspiration from others. Video games were made for entertainment and something to do in the free time so it comes to a surprise that we can learn from them and apply what we learned to real life. Whether it’s a multiplayer shooter or an action-adventure telling a story, lessons can be learned from those experiences in the game. It simulates living a different life in another world and changes perspectives from the character and player in the game. Living through another person’s experiences allows the player to learn from their mistakes and define what should be the right and wrong thing to do in life through interactions. Some could say that playing video games can allow us to learn from our failures without true real-world consequences. I agree with that because anybody can translate what they’ve learned from the virtual experiences and apply this knowledge into the real world. Killing bad guys and saving the world can’t really help someone learn or get smarter but it is the skills they use to actually complete the game itself that does.

            Communication is a skill that is used all the time in the real world and in multiplayer games. Headsets or microphones aren’t actually required but they are very helpful for talking to your teammates. Also, you don’t necessarily need to talk to your teammates in the game to communicate. Nowadays games are implementing default callouts that the player can activate via button inputs or pinging systems that allow the player to mark a certain are of interest. These are substitutions for talking but nothing beats voice communication when you’re focused on the objective. Talking and working with your teammates strengthens and reflects communication in the real world whether it is working with your classmates, teacher or coworkers at a job.

            Completing levels or grinding to level up isn’t always as easy as it seems in games. It can get frustrating and you have to be able to be adaptive to situations. If your team captured the flag and the player was eliminated while holding the flag, you have to be able to change the strategy and adapt to win. The real world throws various challenges at you in different ways and you will need to have an adaptive attitude to overcome them. Video games allow you to test situations out to understand the outcomes so you can reflect on them and learn for the real world. “Game playing may not convey an immediate advantage on new tasks (increased performance from the very first trial), but rather the true effect of action video game playing may be to enhance the ability to learn new tasks.” (Green & Bavelier, 2012, p. R197) Learning new skills from video games is definitely different from getting better at skills you already have. Although, you might be able to learn something new when you play.

            From Xbox to Playstation to PC, all these console hold the capacity to enhance who you are in this world without you even noticing. All it takes is one try at video games and you could be branched off into another universe. No matter how fictional the game is there could always be something you gain from playing.

References

Posted in Causal Argument, Portfolio YourFavoriteAnon, yourfavoriteanon | 1 Comment

Causal Argument: Nina

Posted on March 13, 2019 by nina525

I could use some help getting started with my causal argument. I am researching the pros and cons of euthanasia and how the terms in which euthanasia should be used or is granted to a patient as an option. From my hypothesis, and the research from my white paper, I have gathered that the two areas in which euthanasia is argued the most. Here is what I have gathered. Euthanasia is argued the most when children are involved, and the second being when a patient either underage and or over the age of eighteen is suffering from personal issues such as depression and anxiety asks to be euthanized.

Also the cause of euthanasia being a result in a patience life could be two of many options. The first being a person who is suffering from a terminal disease that has yet to be cured or the state of someones mental health can heavily effect their decision to be euthanized if the patient has thoughts of suicide, has chronic depression, and a unhealthy level of anxiety. In Belgium, it has been argued that standards must be set, especially when children are involved in order to consider euthanasia, but the con of this solutions suggests that doctors and state legislators should not determine who’s life is worth living. Causal questions would include, who decides when a life should be taken? Does a child have say in the decision making for euthanasia? What other alternatives can be used to help those who suffer mental disadvantages not consider euthanasia? Should euthanasia be legalized in America and other countries around the world? What are the standards or qualifications that will approve someone to complete the operation?

Posted in Causal Argument, nina | 1 Comment

Causal–Wazoo

Posted on March 13, 2019 by wazoo1234

Inside the Minds of the
Crazy Rich Men who run College Sports

We [have no interest in sharing the money we make from our athletic programs], so [our athletes] will continue to work for free as long as we are alive. [Thousands of students] would kill to have a scholarship like this. We know athletes come here to play football and basketball rather than for our academics, so we try to keep them happy [by giving them playing time]. [But only if they help us win. When they stop performing, we cut them, they lose their scholarships, and our relationship ends.] As long as we keep them blind to the amount of money we make off of them, [and feed their dream of playing professionally after college] there will never be any problems.

This may sound harsh, but its life. This is a business we have been running for decades and have nurtured some of the best athletes to ever step on this earth. As long as they perform we fill our pockets and move on. Our scholarships we give are prestigious. If you get one you will be attending our school for near nothing. ( its actually not nothing but everyone hears scholarship and their dumb brains do not even know whats in them, all we have to do is throw that word out there and give it to a handful of students and people think they are getting free college!) Our scholarships are worth about 2-3 thousand less than attending college at full price. Now this is an average obviously the top guys in our programs will attend for free. We do take very good care of our athletes, from brand new cars, to bringing in girls from exotic entertainment businesses. As long as the media does not find out about it, all of this is fair game. Some Universities we allow to give stipends to their players, but for an extreme minimum amount.

We try to give our athletes a lavish lifestyle for their 4 years. This will take their minds off of the fact that we are robbing each and everyone of them, and the best part about all of this, is that its all LEGAL. yes you heard me right. Now some players have formed organizations, they sound like unions but have no where near the power a union has. These athletes are technically volunteering, so there is no Union when there is no wage. If we were to magically start paying our athletes in full the union would be a problem and me and the 10 other executives on this board will not be making over 500k+ a year. To be honest none of us are willing to give up our salaries to pay a couple of ungrateful punks.

Now before you start to make conclusions about the kind of person or business man i am, i want you to hear me out. Most of the athletic programs in all division 1 universities are actually losing money. The real money that made in the football and basketball programs, with that said, the other programs including women’s sports are losing money. The money cannot be shared because they make the money on their own. with that said the football and basketball programs are what make us rich. The revenue made between these two sports across the country is enough to operate the whole university at some schools. Alabama just made an extension to their stadium totaling in over 600 million just on renovations. That should give you an idea on how much these top tier schools make off of their top sports.

We have an issue with players accepting money from outside agents and even within the university. We have a special task force, that is committed to ending this. These players are tempted to accept these as most of them are in financial hardships and maybe need some money. This may be an effect due to those so called scholarships, but we turn it around and make them look like young individuals doing illegal things by accepting pay and we may even pay the media to really blow it up. You have to set standards and the best way for the is to make an example out of the people that break our rules. Who cares about their financial issues, they are getting a free education to use later on in life. That is the most valuable thing anybody can receive and that is the gift to be an educated individual. In the eyes of most we are a caring organization, but in recent times we have been exposed by former and current players and executives. Its not hard to see what we are doing here, but with support from the federal government and fans all over the world we do not have to give back anything to our athletes, just our support!

Think what you want but we will not and are not going to change our ways. me and my colleagues worked way too hard to take a pay cut. From the endless trips and other lavish lifestyles we live, we would like to keep it that way and so we will. Scholarships will remain how they stand. This may seem like a selfish move but we dont have to give out scholarships. If we stopped giving scholarships there would still be a great deal of athletes who would pay to play. Yes talent would decrease but our point is, that you cant do anything to us. We run this market and have a monopoly on how things get done. If you dont like it you can go watch another league of colleges play. Oh wait you cant. We are the one and only NCAA. Universities would never go for a reform, because that means there would be a huge loss in revenue and in this world cash is king and no one cares about anything other than that. We will continue on our venture robbing these young spectacular athletes and maybe in the future they will receive pay, but for our life times things will never change, we will still continue to take whats not ours and live the best life we can. The richest life we can.

Foward Progress? An Analysis on whether student-athletes should get paid. 
https://bit.ly/2NuX8d0

https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/stexlr38&id=1097&men_tab=srchresults

Pay for College Athletes: Now more than ever

Posted in Causal Argument, wazoo | 4 Comments

Causal-rowanstudent

Posted on March 13, 2019 by rowanstudent2

Effective or Ineffective?

Belief is different for everyone, and I don’t mean everyone has different beliefs. Each person has a belief that they feel strongly about. We can apply this to placebos. Whether you believe placebos work or not doesn’t matter. What matters is if you feel that it gives effective results. And that can only stand true if you are susceptible to the idea that it will work. Open-mindedness to alternative medical therapies is the distinguishing characteristic shared by patients who report successful outcomes of placebo treatment.

Psychological factors play a key role in a placebo treatment. One’s brain decides whether treatments effectively work or not. Back in its earliest uses, placebos led to “the evolution of the physician from witch doctor and priest-physician” according the American Journal of Psychotherapy. Galen estimated that 60% of patients had symptoms that were more emotional than physical. The medical treatments were not trustworthy, for they were rarely scientifically proven to work. Patients would ingest anything given to them. Their only concern was to get better, so the patients gave into therapeutic practices such as puking, leeching, shocking to name a few. Some are still used today like heating in the sauna, freezing in an ice bath or cupping to relax muscles. As bizarre as they sound, patients still believed that there were lasting effects. Dr. Arthur K. Shapiro, M.D. stated “medicine was closely related to the finest scientific, religious, cultural, and ethical traditions in most periods of history…” Now that may leave one to wonder how one of these traditions can cause such an impact on one’s health. But, proven in history, most of these drugs and procedures were helpful to particular patients. If not for the temporary aid these practices provided, physicians would not be giving such prescriptions today. The only reason for patients to have believed in successful results was the fact that psychological factors forced them to. Depending on the diagnosis at hand, the effect may sometimes lead to failure. Not every disease or disorder may be cured from psychological phenomenons. In a more recent term, these psychological factors were known as the placebo effect.

How much of an effect can these practices actually cause? Is there an effect at all? It all comes down to the individual and what they need a cure for. If someone really wants something, they’d do everything they can to get what they want. We can apply this to the placebo effect. Patients most of the time want to feel better, free of unnecessary stress and setbacks caused by the disorder they have. It’s all about having the right mind-set. Having an optimistic personality would help as well. Only the patient can decide whether they feel better or not. Without the right attitude, it is very unlikely the patient will discover how to end their suffering.

It is more reasonable to believe that minor health conditions are the only treatable causes of placebos. Symptoms that can be cured through off the counter drugs. They may include pain or depression or other slight side effects.

https://psychotherapy.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1964.18.s1.73

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304395909004114

Posted in Causal Argument, Portfolio RowanStudent, rowanstudent | 2 Comments

Causal-nousernamefound1

Posted on March 13, 2019 by nousernamefound1

I could use some help getting started, Professor. I have a few ideas, but I don’t know how to get started. I feel as though the cost of tuition is the key evidence on why enrollment is dropping. Another idea was that many schools are stressed about the school looking good, which makes them go towards raising tuition to pay off the fees. The sources I have back up my assumptions, but I feel as though I need more. If you could give me some background information on being a staff and how everything works will be great. This doesn’t have anything to do with the causal argument, but when we had a conference I forgot the hypothesis we came up with. This would help my understanding even more and help me level up my White Paper. My hypothesis went was “Lowering tuition for undergrads will benefit parents and students. Which will increase the numbers of incoming students and help relieve financial stress,” before our conference.

Posted in Causal Argument, nousernamefound | 1 Comment

Causal- doorknob9

Posted on March 13, 2019 by doorknob9

I could use some help getting started, Professor. Here’s what I have so far. Since I’m researching the reason why Jared Goff is the worst NFC West quarterback to play in the Super Bowl and also researching stats about other bad post season/Super Bowl appearances, I believe poor quarterback play in the playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl cause the quarterbacks to play poorly in the Super Bowl itself. Of course I’m going to need to do further research regarding this topic, but from the Football Data Base website that records every NFL game’s statistics, that’s what seems to be the case. There are also many outliers who have just not performed well in the Super Bowl, whether it’s because of the opposing defense or if they just had a bad game.

Posted in Causal Argument, doorknob | 2 Comments

Open Strong-nousernamefound1

Posted on March 13, 2019 by nousernamefound1
  1. Increasing tuition and decreasing state funding is becoming a trend by every school in the United States. You will never see the cost of attending a 4-year college go down. In fact, tuition either rises throughout the 4 years a student enrolls or stays the same. The is becoming a major problem for low-income students and families.

2. The problem with this country is that we are too late to speak on an issue. We wait and wait for the situation to become a crisis, then speak on it. We must deal with this situation now because a lot of people want that chance to further their education.

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