Rethink Question 34

1. There are different reasons, which lead to the reduction in the double standard by which sexuality in men and women is regarded differently. The first cause is that women are much more independent the a few years ago. The opinion of women is much more accepted then it was. Women are not just the person who works in the house and gets the children anymore; today women work and earn money like men do. Another reason why the double standard reduces is that sex is much more accepted in society. Sex is a normal part of everybody’s life and is not seen as taboo in society anymore. People are talking free and without shame about sex these days. Also it is not important for men anymore that they marry a virgin. Religion was much more important then it was years ago. It was a sin when a girl lost his virginity before she got married, today nobody asks anymore if someone is a virgin or not. I do not think that the double standard vanished completely because some people still think old fashioned. For some people who are really religious the double standard might still be very important but for the majority of the people if has not that much of an importance anymore.

1. From a perspective of a politician, people who learn they have a sexually transmitted infection have to inform their partner about their infection. Information is the key part of preventing the spread of these infections. A law should be created which panelizes people who have sex and conceal their sexual transmitted infection. It can not be possible that somebody who knows about their infection and conceals it gets not punishment even he or she could have prevent the spreading. It is certainly hard to restrict sexual behavior for people with sexual transmitted infection, because it limits their personal right of having sex, which would not be ethical. Public health officials must have the order to warn people from this infection and educate people as good as they possibly can about sexual transmitted infections and ways to protect from them.

Rethink Question 32

1. The law enacted to prohibit women in the armed forces from participating directly in combat in the interest of keeping them save is in my opinion sexist. Because of this law women are not able to do the same work as men do. Women should have the same possibility as men. It cannot be that women are not able to directly participate in a combat when men are able to do so. The reason of “keeping women safe” is just a formulation to not have to say that women are not as helpful at the front as men are. When a woman really likes to fight why should she not have the ability to do so? This might also be a form of benevolent sexism, because the U.S. Congress actually things it is an advantage that women cannot participate in a combat, but in reality they just make the assumption that women are not as eligible to fight in a war then men are. In Germany we do not have this law, and women are allowed to work at every military position they want. Even it is allowed to women to participate at every position there are not a lot of women in the German military, because it’s not usually for a women to go to the military.

1. From a perspective of a business executive I would try to reduce sexism in the workplace even it is widespread. To narrow down gap between men and women at workplace the chances for women have to be the same as they are for men to get a job. Often jobs in high positions are offered to men instead of women, this needs to change. The problem with this is that women in high jobs are that they are probably going to become pregnant and would have to do a break from the job for at least a year. This problem needs to be solved by giving women the ability to work during their pregnancies, with for example a workplace at home. Women and men with the same level of education need to be able to accomplish the same job with the same salary. Also the view of women as a housewife needs to change, because this is probably the biggest issue, which makes such a big difference between women and man at the workplace. When women are not seen as the housewife anymore in our society we will be able to close the gap between men and women in terms of occupation and salary.

Rethink Question Module 33

1. I thin that humans differ from other species in their year round receptivity to sex and in the number and variety of stimuli they perceive as sexual, because for humans sex is a pleasure and for other animals it is just a reproduction process. Humans enjoy having sex, for reason they have much more often sex then other animals do. Also humans usually just get one child at a time, other animals reproduce with much more offspring’s.  For example a bug lays thousands of eggs at a time.  The reason why we perceive much higher number and variety of sexual stimuli is that sex is almost a social factor. It is normal to have sex and it is normal that sex varies. People have different fantasies about having sex, which animals do not have. Animals just know one procedure to reproduce. The evolutionary purpose might differ, because sex is not just a procedure to reproduce anymore it is a joyful part of our lives which nobody want to renounce.

1. From the perspective of a sex counselor how do people learn to be aroused by the stimuli that their society considers as erotic? This has a lot to do in which culture the person grows up. Different cultures see different symbols or body parts as erotic. In the western society for example the breast size of woman is a clear symbol of erotic. In other cultures the breast size of women is not seen as an erotic symbol. Sexual fantasies also influence what a person considers as erotic and what not. We learn this from young up. The way in which people grow up and what information they get by the society definitely influences their feelings about erotic. The message comes from stimuli, which attract us.

Rethink Question Module 45

1)   Yes I think that stress makes the communication between a physician and a patient more complicated then it should be. We a person goes to a doctor the person usually have a problem. So when such a person is now coming to the doctor the person is afraid of getting bad news about his or her health, what creates stress. Another reason why people could feel stress at a doctor is that they sometimes do not do what the doctor is telling them like taking the right medicine or doing the right exercises. But also the doctors languages, which cannot be understand by a normal person can create stress for a person. All these stress can have bad impact on the health of a person, so are people afraid of asking what they really have, because they are afraid. It would be good to follow some rules, like writing down questions for the doctor or writing down the names of the medication someone is taking that these things do not get forgot in the conversation with the doctor.

 

2)   As a health care provider I would try to take away as much stress as possible from the patient. I would try to create a good relationship to my patient, so that the patient feels like home when he or she is talking to me. Also I would try to use a very easy language everybody can understand. It is important that the patient understands me that he can do what I say. Permanent asking if the patient has any questions would eliminate misconceptions. Certainly I have to adjust my techniques when I work with a different gender, culture, age and background. When I would have a female as a patient I would probably try to get a female assistance, so that the patient feels more open to speak to me. It is also important I have a good knowledge about other cultures so that the work with patients from different cultures gets easier for me. Of course it is hard for a health care provider to take care of all these things but it is necessary to guarantee a good treatment for every patient.

 

Rethink Question Module 44

1)   Yes I think there is a danger of “blaming the victim”, because many statistics show that people who hold positive attitudes or believes can improve the course of cancer. Patients who think more negative die earlier in average the people who think positive, because it seems that the cancer grows faster when a person does not has a positive attitude or believes.  The exact reason is vague but statistics proof this fact. For example women with chest cancer who think positive life one and a half years longer in average then women who do not believe in themselves. A reason why I think it is like this is that when a person gives up the body also stops trying to hold the body alive. When a person is positive about his or her situation the body keeps trying to fight against the disease. So in cancer the tumor cannot build as fast because the body does not let the body produce the sick cells as fast as it usually would. Because of the mentally strength the body gets stronger too and has the ability to stay alive for a longer time.

 

2)   From the perspective of a health care provider I would give the advice that the personality of someone has a huge impact on a disease of a person. I would tell them that if they think positive their chances to heal the disease are much higher then when they think negative. I would suggest them to always believe in themselves and never give up, because their mental strength makes them not feel as much pain and even improves the healing process. Of course I would encourage a type A person to become a little bit less type A, when that is possible. Because the level of stress a type A person has is much higher then the level of stress a type B person has. The stress can have immense impacts on the health of a person and the risk a person has to get a disease. Even it is good to not be a type A person it is also not good to be just a type B person. It would be good to find a good mix out of both to stay healthy.

 

Rethink Question Module 43

1)   The reason why cataclysmic stressors are less stressful in long term then other types of stressors is, because cataclysmic stressors affect a large group of people. Many people suffer from the same stressor what makes it easier for a single person to come over the issue. The people who are affected from these disasters like terror attacks or weather disasters come closer together and try to overcome their problem together, which helps them to overcome it very quick. After the hurricane in New Orleans people from all over America but even all over the world came and offered help to the people in damaged areas. Firefighters from all over America came to rebuild the destroyed buildings. People raised money everywhere in the world. When people something like this happens it is important that a lot of people work together to help the affected people so that they can come back into a normal life as fast as possible. People who experience another type of stressor do not have this support from the society, because they just have this problem by themselves. Nobody would even recognize that these people have a problem because nobody can see it from the outside. The reason that nobody cares about their stressor can make the person’s problem even worse, because they start to feel lonely what is major reason for stressors.

 

2)   From the perspective of a social worker there would be different ways to help people handle their stress. Coping with stress is very important to life a normal live. To accept sympathy from others and look at situations from brighter side is important to reduce stress and can be improved by emotion-focused coping. It is also very important that people learn to manage their day better to do not create unnecessary stress. Another thing a person has to accept is that there are situation in which they are helplessness. Situation which cannot be changed by a person but create stress need to be reduced. I would also suggest people with stress problems that they build social support groups in which they can share their problems with others. It can be an advantage when people talk about their problems, especially when they talk to someone who has the same problem. When people with the same issues talk to each other their own problem seem to be not as bad, because there are more people with the same difficulty.

 

Rethink Question Chapter 10 Module 30

1)   Societal expectations, expressed by television shows and commercials are contributed to both obesity and excessive concerns about weight loss, because television has a huge impact on people. In television commercials there are most often shown some very unhealthy and fat food. People watch TV and see all these thin athletic people eat the worst food. The people start to believe that when these thin good-looking people are eating that food why should not I also eat that. This is one of the most common and dangerous ways in which people can get overweight.  But societal expectation, expressed by television and commercials, can also cause excessive concern about weight loss. People who are watching TV see this thin people and think that they are to fat, so they decrease or stop eating, which can have bad impacts on somebody’s health. The television could contribute to better eating habits and attitudes towards weight, if they would not show any fast food of unhealthy food commercials anymore. It would also help if the television would show how to eat and that it is dangerous to eat the wrong food. I think it would probably be a good idea if would be a requirement for the television to just show healthy food commercials, but I do not think that that will ever be possible, because the fast-food and unhealthy food brands have much more money to pay for commercials. Healthy food companies do not have that much money and cannot afford the commercials.

 

2)   If I would be a human recourse specialist I would definitely use characteristics like need for achievement, need for power and need for affiliation when I would select workers for jobs. It can be a great advantage for companies if they choose people who are having the right characteristic to do a work. Need for achievement is certainly important in every job. It is important that people have the will to work and the will to achieve new and better things. The need for power can be an advantage or a disadvantage. In a job in which a person needs to control other people and has to use power to give instructions, it is important to have the need for power. The need for affiliation can also be an advantage or a disadvantage, because in a work, which requires teamwork, it can be a advantage, but at a job witch need to be done by oneself it can be a disadvantage. The other criteria I would have to consider is how extreme one of the characteristics are. If the characteristic is to extreme it will have a negative impact on everything in a job. The only characteristic a person can not have to much is the need for achievement, because it is always good when somebody wants to achieve something.

 

Rethink Question Chapter 10 Module 29

1)   There are different approaches to motivation, which are used on workplace, but the most used are certainly incentive approaches to motivate and drive reduction approaches to motivate. Incentive approach is the motivation that stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals. It is important because people are motivated at work when they get something for it, like money. Most of the people are working for money, because they need to survive and not because they have fun at work. The fun at work is very important too because a person has to like what he or she is doing and can perform the work the best if they enjoy the work. The drive reduction approach is another important approach to motivate. People need money and goods like food to survive. They depend on the money they get from work to feet themselves and their family. Basic needs motivate them to work.

 

2)   From the perspective of an educator I think that giving students grades could be either bad or good for the intrinsic motivation. It could be negative when a person do not like a subject, starting from the moment he was born, because then the person gets forced to do something he or she does not like from instinct. In another way it could be positive when somebody likes a subject from instinct. The use of grades gives them a positive reinforce, when their grades are good, and makes them like a subject even more as they do anyway by instinct.

 

 

Rethink Question Chapter 15 Module 48

1)   The inclusion of “borderline” disorders such as self-defeating personality and premenstrual dysphonic disorder is so controversial and political, because nobody knows if these are real disorders or just normal behavior. One example for these controversial disorders is “premenstrual dysphonic disorder”, which is characterized by mood changes or depression related to a woman’s menstrual cycle. Some people would say this behavior is just a normal behavior, which every woman shows, but others would see it as a disorder, which needs to be solved. Because some people think “premenstrual dysphonic disorder” is a real disorder it is included in the DSM-VI-TR. The inclusion in this book can also bring disadvantages, because now this behavior is defined as a disorder. When a woman shows this behavior now she has a psychological disorder, even it could just be a normal behavior every woman shows. Inclusion can have benefits, it a disorder is very serious, because a person, who has a disorder, is able to receive professional help, because he or she is really ill.

 

2)   As a college counselor it is certainly important to take a look at the students and if there are any signs of a psychological disorder. The most important indicator in determining whether a college student is experiencing a psychological disorder is to check the student’s grades. If there are any signs of a decreasing performance of a student, it could be a sign that the student is experiencing a psychological disorder. When a student got indentified as conspicuous it is important to check what kind of psychological disorder he or she is experiencing. Does the student feel to much stress, is the student not able to find friends, does the student withdrawal from other people, or does he or she show any other indications. I do not think that every student who shows a sign of a psychological disorder should seek professional help, because it could be possible that the student just has a bad period or they just do not feel well at the moment. If the psychological disorder is not that serious it is possible that the students can recover by themselves.

 

Rethink Question Chapter 15 Module 47

1)   There are certainly differences between cultures in anxiety. Most of the time people get anxious from something if they make bad experiences with the particular thing, but that does not explain the anxiety of different cultures. People from different cultures can have different anxiety because they get told different thing from their parent and other people of their culture. For example a lot of German children get told, by their parents, that it is dangerous to walk through areas where a lot of Turkish immigrants live during night. Because these children got told these all their life they create an anxiety against the Turkish people. Some cultures do not like or fear different cultures and because they teach their children they create a cultural anxiety. Most of the cultural anxieties are certainly against other cultures, because these cultures made bad experiences with these other cultures over history. But there are also cultural anxieties against other things. For example Germans are usually afraid of snakes, because we have no snakes in Germany and we just know the dangerous snakes from the television or magazines, when they kill people. This is another reason what could cause cultural anxiety.

 

2)   The reason why people with psychological disorders often seem to function well in society is, because they do not want to attract attention from other people. People with psychological disorders often try to hide their disorder in public, but when they are by there self they show their psychological disorder. It is not possible to just say that people who act good in society but show psychological disorders when they are by themselves are healthy people, because it can still have significant impacts and their own and other peoples life. A rapist or murder can act well in society, but when he is alone with another person his psychological disorder can appear and horrible things can happen. This is the reason why it is so important to keep an eye on these people, because they are hard to indentify in the society, because they act especially well that nobody recognizes their sickness.