Business intelligence and health care Research Proposal

Business intelligence and health care - Research Proposal Example Application of business intelligence in healthcare facilitates in streamlining raw data into meaningful and useful information for fostering better decision-making (Hennen, 2009). Thus, paper would be studying hospitals to evaluate how business intelligence is applied to identify healthcare imperatives that impact healthcare delivery for patients and financial benefits for the healthcare organizations. The increasing cost of healthcare consumes nearly 18%of the current US GDP (Ramsey et al., 2013). The healthcare reforms have considerably expanded the umbrella for health insurance coverage of all Americans including those with pre-existing diseases. The increasing burden on the healthcare institutions for providing quality care at affordable cost has become a huge concern because the interests of the payers and providers get directly linked to the quality of treatment and health outcome. Mettler and Vimarlund (2009) insist that technology can significantly contribute to the delivery of quality healthcare with economic transparency and real-time availability of critical information. Thus, business intelligence becomes pertinent issue in healthcare for exploiting information to manage patient care, improve quality and control costs for defined population or individual. Business intelligence in healthcare can broadly be described as leveraging information about patients for optimizing health outcome (Ferranti et al., 2010). Creating database of pertinent information regarding various aspects of healthcare serves as important mechanism for making decisions for optimal patients’ outcome. The information can be used judiciously by the hospital to reduce cost in repeating tests, facilitate analysis of clinical data and proactively involving patients in managing self-care. Most importantly, BI promotes transparency on real-time basis and therefore considerably reduces fraudulent practices and sub-standard quality of healthcare

The State of Public school integration Essay Example for Free

The State of Public school integration Essay Abstract The public schools, more than any other area of society, received the most attention concerning desegregation in the early 1950s. Fully aware that black had been admitted to white colleges and that numerous cases concerning the public schools were being argued in the federal courts, school officials in many parts. Brown vs. Board of education was the ultimate triumph that placed the rights of blacks before the law, on equal footing with whites. The story of Brown vs. Board of Education is a half-century old now and has been retold many times bye historians, legal scholars, sociologists, and others. A number of social forces during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s continue to shape school social work practice. The 1954 Brown vs. Board of education of Topeka, KS decision concluded that separate educational facilities on the basis of race are inherently unequal and unconstitutional. The State of public school integration In recent anthropological study of a California school, John Ogbu makes the point that relationships between the school and the community are sporadic and limited in scope. Parents and community involvement in the schools, he writes, normally mean participation in such extracurricular programs as PTA, open house, and social entertainments rather than more vital matters such as making decisions concerning the pattern: The extent of community participation or control over the schools may vary, but, in general, parents and other community members are content to leave schooling to the teachers and school administrators. (Fein, 1971). This traditional separation between school and community often breaks down, however, when the schools become actively involved in contemporary social and political issues. Large numbers of parents or other groups may not organize committees or attend meetings when a mathematics or history curriculum is on the agenda, but they are aroused when the topics for decision include drawing school boundary lines or busing pupils. School integration—the deliberate placing of previously separate minority and majority groups within the same school building—is surely the prime recent example of how social and political issues bring the school and its various communities into a more direct relationship. (Amir, Sharan, Ben-Ari, 47) Most of the literature tracing the response of local communities to school integration concentrates on the experience in the United States during the past quarter century. Social scientists have analyzed the complex processes that accompany integrated previously segregated Black and White schools in both the North and the South. Not surprisingly, these studies have primarily explored the political problems and processes arising from school integration. This point is emphasized in a recent study of integrated schools. Rist (1979) states: The most ambitious study along these lines is Crain and Associates monograph entitled The politics of School Desegregation (1968). Focusing on an entire city rather than a particular district or neighborhood, the authors analyze the complex interplay among civil rights advocates, boards of education, school officials, and local political and business elites in 15 U.S. cities, as they struggle and bargain with one another while seeking to implement (or delay) voluntary or court- ordered school desegregation. The authors conclude, for example, that school boards are more important than school superintendents in developing integration policies, and that the political style of the city and its elites is particularly critical. This emphasis upon political processes is also apparent in Gerard and Millers (1975) longitudinal study of the outcomes of Black—White school integration in Riverside, California. Hendrickss describes a rash of meetings, demonstrations, boycotts, and violent episodes (a school building was deliberately set on fire) that accompanied the onset of desegregation in Riverside. However, the Riverside schools were quickly integrated, and the demonstrations and meetings came to an end. Indeed, the Riverside case exemplifies rapid community acceptance and cooperation. (Amir, Sharan, Ben-Ari, 48) The New Millennium Atlanta led the way toward integrated schools in the early 1960s. Under Mayors Hartsfield and Allen, the Atlanta school board complied with federal mandates despite pressures from many in the state legislature to resist integration. In 1960, the general assembly gave some ground and appointed John A. Sibley, a prominent Atlanta businessman and civic leader, to chair a state committee to develop guidelines and more understanding on integration issues in Georgia. The Sibley Committee held numerous meetings during the course of a statewide canvass, and subsequently issued recommendations that Georgia allow local school boards to set their own policies and agenda for federal integration compliance. The effort to achieve integration was a gradual one, beginning with the admission of two African-American students to the University of Georgia in 1961 and the incremental integration of four Atlanta city high schools in 1961 and 1962. In 1963, local high schools, local high schools in Savannah, Athens, and Burnswick followed suit and began integration. Although the move toward compliance took almost a decade, by the early 1970s, public schools in Georgia achieved almost full integration. School integration and the gradual end of segregation in public facilities and accommodations brought a growing white-flight movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Huge numbers of urban whites in cities in Georgia and across the South moved out of the city centers and into growing suburbs. Atlanta was typical during this period. As metro Atlantas population passed 2, then 3, million in the late 1970s and 1980s, its central city population decreased. White migration to the suburbs created an unintended and unanticipated paradox in the march toward full school integration. Inner-city schools in Atlanta and other large southern cities came to have disproportionately high numbers of African-American students, while suburban schools were primarily white. The response to this emerging tend was the federally mandated school busing effort of the early 1970s. Students of both races were bused out of their local neighborhoods to schools in other sections as a most controversial aspect of public education during the period in Georgia and across the United States. Mandated busing to attain balanced public school integration began to subside by 1980, largely due to the overwhelmingly negative response by parents of schoolchildren of both races. The Case of Brown Vs Board of Education (1954): The Inequality of Separate but Equal This landmark Supreme Court decision was actually based on a consolidation of four similar cases from Kansas, South Crolina, Virginia, and Delaware. While they were based on different facts and local conditions, they were considered together because of the common legal question being considered. In each of the four cases, African American children were denied admission to state public schools attended by white children. This racial segregation operated under state laws that permitted or required by the practice. These laws had to that point protected been by the precedent of Plessy v, Ferguson. The schools for blacks and whites in each case had been or were being equalized in terms of buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers, and other tangible conditions. The question before the Supreme Court was whether or not the segregation of black children and white children resulted in the children being deprived of the equal protection guaranteed by the fourteenth Amendment. A related question was whether or not the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson could be applied in the area of public education. (Meyer, Weaver, 181) The Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education (1954) The event: On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation illegal in its landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. For more than half a century, since its 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, the high court had upheld as constitutional all separate but equal accommodations and facilities for blacks. Schools, public transport, restaurants, hotels, and other public facilities were rigidly segregated throughout much of the country, especially the South. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) brought a series of suits against segregated school districts. In these early cases the Supreme Court ruled that because the tangible aspect of schools for blacks and those for whites were equal, the laws providing for segregated schools were constitutional. In the case of Brown v. Board of Education, however, the NAACP lawyers, among them Thurgood Marshall, presented expert testimony on the debilitating effects of segregation—testimony that proves to be extremely important in the courts ruling, which this time held that segregated school systems were inherently unequal because of intangible factors. (Axelrod, Philips, 280) Implication for school social works School social workers draw on a number of diverse roles and tasks to meet the unique needs of each school and the priorities of each building principal. Using the ecological framework as an organizing principle, these tasks include advocating for risk students and their families; empowering families to share their concerns with school officials; maintaining open lines of communication between home and school; helping families understand their childrens educational needs; consulting with teachers about students living situations and neighborhood conditions; making referrals to community agencies; tracking students involved with multiple agencies; and working with the larger community to identify and develop resources to better serve the needs of at-risk students of their families.11 Impact of the Brown vs. Board of Education upon the School social work was great. As a result, schools were faced with the daunting task of desegregating classrooms and educating increasing numbers of students whos lifestyle and language differed from the middle-class orientation of the school (Germain. 1999, p.34). At the same time, a flurry of federal educational legislation during the 1960s and 1870s significantly increased in federal governments role in public education. For example, the: Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibited discrimination in federally assisted programs based on race, color, or national origin, assisted school staff in dealing with problems caused by desegregation. Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), through Title I, authorized grand for compensatory education in elementary and secondary schools for children of low-income families. 1972 Education Amendment (Title IX) was the first comprehensive federal law to prohibit sex discrimination in the admission and treatment of students by educational institutions receiving federal assistance. Title IX also prohibited schools that were receiving federal funds from discriminating against pregnant teens and teen mothers. Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) covered students who have a disability and may need special accommodations but not special education and related services as specified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Children with attention deficit disorder with hyper activity (ADHD) and students infected with the AIDS virus are often served under a 504 plan. Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, enacted in 1974, provided federal financial assistance to states that had implemented programs for the identification, prevention, and treatment of child abuse and neglect. A component of this act was the creation of the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect. Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 provided resources to develop and implement programs to keep elementary and secondary students in school (Dupper 10). Focus on school social works responsibility to help modify school conditions and policies that had a detrimental impact on students by incorporating general systems theory and the ecological perspective as frameworks for social work practice (Costin, 1978). It was also during this time that group work methods were incorporated into school social work practice. However, despite this renewed emphasis on school and community conditions as targets of intervention, the vast majority of school social workers continued to focus on traditional casework models (Dupper 10, 17). Brown v. Board: The Ruling In the first three cases, black children were challenging ruling that denied them admission to white-only public schools. In contrast, the Delaware school system was attempting to regain such segregation. In each case, students had at one point or another been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting separate but equal segregation. The court ruled: Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of children to learn. Segregation with the sanction of the law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system. (Brown v. Board of Education) (Meyer, Weaver, 309) As a graduate student completing the Master of Social Work degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, I had my first exposure to ADC. I had come to social work through entirely different routes and had no idea that welfare assistance, which we studied and researched, was synonymous for many people discussion; even poverty and disadvantage were rarely mentioned. The assumption appeared to be that all of that was behind the nation after the reforms of the New Deal and the economic development of the World War II and postwar years. But by 1960 and the presidential contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, welfare had become a substantial public issue. Kennedy talked about poverty and welfare assistance in the presidential campaign. He focused on the great needs of West Virginia people and others in Appalachia. One began hearing discussions of Pockets of poverty, rather than hearing need addressed as a pervasive and national human problem. Kennedy also founded the Peace Corps, another effort that raised public consciousness about disadvantage and its consequences. Perhaps the most salient event that brought public attention to the problems of poverty was the publication of Michael Harringtons The Other America (1962). Harrington wrote that during the Depression, President Roosevelt spoke of a nation in which one-third of the people were poorly housed, clothed, and fed. But by the 1960s, he showed, one-fourth of the people were living in poverty. He said that the poor were isolated from people with power, which perpetuated their poverty. Their only contact with people in authority was with social workers who, Harrington suggested, also lacked power. So the roots of welfare reform are found in the early 1960s, and that is true for both sides of the welfare reform efforts—those who want to make welfare more generous and more humane for the recipients and those who want to reduce its availability and its generosity. Some observers might suggest that there were other factors operating in the origins of the welfare reform debates. Although the earliest proposals were those designed to improve welfare from the perspectives of clients, there was a consistent backlash, and the most global pro- client reforms did not pass Congress. Part of that backlash may have been correlated with the advent and growth of the Civil Rights movement. The Brown vs. Board of education school desegregation decision in 1954 spawned the grass roots efforts to end segregation in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Dr. Martin Luther King and many other African American leaders as well as civil rights organizations took various postures and strategies to end the separation and discrimination that operated from the end of official slavery until mid-century. One might speculate that the new concern about welfare was a surrogate for concern about civil rights. The disproportionately large percentage of African Americans who received assistance (although, like the whole population, the majority of recipients were and are white) seemed to serve as a way of criticizing minority group members without doing so directly.(Nackerud, Robinson 3) Conclusion Public school integration became an explosive issue in New Orleans because it forced into conflict both racial and class interests. The city was roughly 40 percent Catholic in 1950 and in 1962, some 39,000, or 47 percent of the citys white students attended Catholic schools. The city had well established private, Catholic, and public schools; all three systems were segregated. Although the quality of schools varied throughout the city, depending upon the affluence of the neighborhood involved, black public schools were acknowledged to be inferior to white public schools. Black children often attended schools on half-day platoon shifts in buildings that were dilapidated and in need of basic supplies. Black PTAs had protested these conditions throughout the 1950s, and the NAACP leadership hoped that school integration would equalize opportunities for the citys black children. But the public schools were the most vulnerable educational institutions in the city. Affluent whites preferred to send their children to elite private or Catholic schools, and ambitious black parents tried to educate their children in rather private institutions like Gilbert Academy, or in the black Catholic system. It was not surprising that working –class segregationists interpreted school integration as class exploitation and victimization in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many went to drastic measures to avoid the loss of status that racial integration signified. In the fall of 1960, their collective actions included demonstrations, picketing, acts of terrorism, and boycotting of integrated schools. In 1956, Judge J. Skelly Wright rendered a decision on the Bush case. He ordered the OPSB to cease requiring segregation in the citys public schools with all deliberate speed. A lengthy series of appeals followed, while the school board and the state legislature sought to stall school integration. Reference Amir, Yehuda. Sharan, Shlomo. (1984). School Desegregation: Cross Cultural Perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publisher. Pg. 47, 48 Dupper, David. (2002). School Social Work Skills and Interventions for Effective Practice. Wiley .com Publisher. Pg. 13 Marger, Robinson. Nackerud, G, Larry. (2000). Early Implications of Welfare Reform in the Southeast. NY: Nova Publishers. Pg. 3 Meyer, G, Robert. Weaver, M, Christopher. (2006). Law and Mental Health: A Case-Based Approach. NY: Guilford Press Publisher. Pg. 307 Philips, Charles. Axelrod, Alan. (2004). What Every American Should Know about American History: 200 Events That’s†¦. US: Adams Media Publisher. Pg. 280 Rogers, Lacy, Kim. (1993).Righteous Lives: Narratives of the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement. NY: NYU Press Publisher. Pg. 50, 63

Mary, Eve, and Lilith in Shakespeares King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth

Mary, Eve, and Lilith in King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth      Ã‚  Ã‚   Feminist criticism often explores the symbolic or archetypal use of the Biblical figures of Mary and Eve in literary criticism. One figure which seems appropriate to such discussions, but so far neglected it seems, is the figure of Lilith. Indeed, in the case of Shakespearean criticism, Lilith seems an appropriate model at times for such characters as Goneril, Regan, Lady Macbeth, and so forth. Accordingly, it is my intention to explore this lost archetype and relate it to three of Shakespeare's tragedies: King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth.    To begin, Lilith is an enigma in many circles, with varying tales and legends ascribed to her. In certain aspects of Jewish folklore, Lilith is believed to have been the original wife of Adam who was exiled from Eden and replaced with the better known Eve because she refused to submit to Adam's male authority (Grolier "Lilith").    According to one version, she slept with Adam after the Fall and birthed evil spirits and also supposedly the devil and birthed the jinn (Arabic demons of legend, sometimes ascribed as being genies). Later in legend, she became identified as a succubus who caused "nocturnal emissions [associated with "wet dreams in men"] and the birth of witches and demons called lilim." Charms were created to protect from her influence and she was believed to have stolen and slain children (Grolier "Lilith").    She is mentioned in the Talmud in several places. Among these references include:    Rabbi Jerimia ben Eleazar further stated: "In those years, after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, in which Adam...,was under the ban, he begot ghosts and male demons and fema... ... Rev. ed. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969. 1021-1057. Smith, Jeffrey. "Lilit, Malkah ha-Shadia." Babalon-1. Online. Internet. 25 Apr. 1996. Available Address: http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~rrosen/lilith/lilit.html [Link no longer active] "The Story of Lilith." Alphabet of Ben Sira 23A-B. Ed. Michael Abrahams. Online. Internet. 25 Apr. 1996. Available Address: http://www.ed.ac.uk/~p92002/lilith.html [Link no longer active] Vanita, Ruth. "'Proper' men and 'fallen' women: the unprotectedness of wives in 'Othello.'" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 Spring 1994: 341-356. InfoTrac EF Expanded Academic ASAP 1993-April 1996. CD-ROM. Information Access. April 1996. Zender, Karl F. "The humiliation of Iago." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 Spring 1994: 323-339. InfoTrac EF Expanded Academic ASAP 1993-April 1996. CD-ROM. Information Access. April 1996.

Coffee Industry Essay

People usually drink coffee to stay up while awake at night, besides that many people rely on coffee to get their day started. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, â€Å"Drinking coffee can lead to a longer life†; however, many consumers have no idea of the impact of habits on their coffee and coffee farmers around the globe, ethical issues of consumers with the industry is not fair; but to coffee farmers, the issues are human rights violations and use of child labor issues need to be addressed. To remedy this situation, the fair trade will hopefully improve the living conditions of some of the poorest people in the world through certified value and the change in the consumer’s choice. Coffee is one of the most valuable commodities in the world, most of the farmers in the form of small retail and come from developing countries, although the majority of coffee sales are in the America and Europe many people around the world rely on coffee to work and have a better life; however, to producing quality coffee, farmers have to work very hard though farmers receive very little money and the inequity of the coffee producing companies when they sell coffee. Working conditions of farmers in the plantations are very different, although they work hard , but it paid for exploitation, for example , in Guatemala , coffee pickers to harvest 100 pounds to get the minimum wage $ 3 per day (The Problem with Fair Trade Coffee 2010),farmers have to work overtime and do not earn extra money, so farmers use child labor for the production of coffee to save money and use these chemicals effect of the human body in order for a fast development of coffee sale on the market. Moreover, using the chemicals and the development of the coffee industry adversely affect habitat and species decline. In addition, forests are cut down to coffee production affects the environment and soil erosion. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), â€Å"converting forest to tea and coffee agriculture can also create erosion and soil loss† (WWF 2010) ; Yet the farmers have no choice and/or the opportunity to change. According to the International Coffee Organization or ICO â€Å"Coffee production in 2012 was 144 611 000 bags, mostly from less developed countries such as, Brazil 50 826 000 bags ,Vietnam 22 000 000 bags and Indonesia 12 730 000 bags â€Å" (ICO 2013), though coffee production is highly ranked in the world, but farmers still do not get enough money to pay for life, for example. Vietnam in 2012, producing nearly 30 % of world coffee production but the turnover is only 10 % of the total trade value obtained from the global industry, the main reason is due to their ability to improve processing of value and coffee products are limited, coffee roasting plants in countries with rates lower than 10%, when farmers sells 1kg of coffee beans, farmers gets about 2 dollars or an average price of one cup of coffee oversea, yet 1 kg of coffee can make 50 cups. In addition, the links between farmers and enterprises are not strong, the lack of information on farmers markets, so farmers often extorted. Moreover, the risk of crop failure is the fear of the coffee growers. Most of the profits from coffee for export processing enterprises, coffee farmers only enjoy a small percentage. That has caused insecurity for farmers. Solution to this problem is the fair trade. According to Wikimedia, Fair trade coffee is coffee that is certified as having been produced and marketed to a stated set of standards. Many Customers pay a higher price when buying coffee with the certification logo or brand in the Belief Furniture , by doing so, they are helping farmers in the Third World . In particular, the fair trade coffee movement gives a reasonable price to the Farmers who were being a low – wage labor exploitation. However, achieve certification of fair trade, farmers must meet several conditions of production as farmers have to meet a large variety of production standards : there are limits on the use of child labor , pesticides , herbicides , genetically modified products , etc. With these standards met, both consumers and farmers can benefit, with farmers getting the sufficient amount of money for their products, and the consumers getting their product knowing it’s safe to consume and has no effect on the producers financially or ethnically. These farmers must cooperate with businesses to produce the certified products, such amounts received will be higher and the lives of the farmers would be better. In addition, consumers should choose certified products in the supermarket or the market as this will support and will be helpful for farmers. In conclusion, fair trading is the way for farmers and coffee producers to get a higher amount, and will change lives for the better. Therefore farmers should choose fair trade to ensure benefits and consumers should choose products that have been certified to support the farmers. Reference * The problem with Fair Trade Coffee. * Retrieved August 30, 2013, from http://www. ssireview. org/articles/entry/the_problem_with_fair_trade_coffee * Coffee Production and Labor. * Retrieved August 30, 2013, from http://www. organicconsumers. org/starbucks/coffeelabor. htm * Fair Trade Coffee * Retrieved August 30, 2013, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Fair_trade_coffee * International Coffee Organization- EXPORTING COUNTRIES: TOTAL PRODUCTION * Retrieved August 30, 2013, from http://www. ico. org/prices/po. htm. * Health and effect of Coffee * Retrieved August 30, 2013, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee * Environmental Impacts of Coffee and Tea Production * Retrieved September 2, 2013 from http://www. hellogreentomorrow. com/blog/2010/11/environmental-impacts-of-coffee-and-tea-production.

The Barbie Effect

Barbie has it all. Every career imaginable and what women perceive to be the perfect body. In real life this could transfer into bankruptcy, low self-esteem and materialistic behavior. There is much controversy surrounding Barbie and whether she has an effect on young girls’ self esteem. There have been studies on both sides of the issue with no clear definitive answer. Barbie was a sensation almost from the moment she hit the shelves, promoting and quickly spreading the idea of materialism and superficiality among young girls. Barbie has lots of clothes, cars, the dream house and even her own credit cards. She is extremely thin and good-looking, fashionable, she has perfect blonde hair. We all know â€Å"blondes have more fun†. Barbie clearly promotes materialism and portrays this lifestyle as being fulfilling, which gives children a false sense of what life is, and an empty goal for them to pursue. Body image distortion is created, as the majority of women cannot achieve Barbie’s proportions. . Look instead at Ken, Barbie’s long time boyfriend. When researchers at the University of South Australia scaled up Mr. Barbie to life-size proportions, they concluded that the chances of a man having his body shape are one in 50. That is a lot more achievable than the one in one hundred thousand chance a girl has of achieving Barbie’s dimensions-this defiantly gives weight to the argument that the media puts unrealistic expectations and pressures on women. (Wintermann) Magazines have morphed stars onto smaller bodies, models that walk the runway are anorexic, and pictures are airbrushed making men’s expectations of women unrealistic as well as women’s expectations of themselves. Body image is not just appearance,† said Karen Way, a licensed clinical social worker with 18 years' experience. â€Å"Your body image has to do with your health, your various talents, how able you are to be in tune with sensations in your body. â€Å"(Way LCSW) Men are having problems as well as women just not to the same degree or level. Men trend toward steroid use, valuing strength and muscle ripped appearance over slimness. Mattel the makers of Barbie perpetuate the stereotype that boys are smarter than girls in the math and science area. Mattel introduced the irst talking Barbie and her words were† math is tough† Studies show that boys surpassed girls in math (Geary) Mattel has attempted to change this image with the Barbie I can Be website. Many people have the myth that anorexia is all about being thin. More often it has to do with control. It often begins as pressure to be perfect. Other things in your life are spinning out of control and this is somethin g you are in charge of, thinness is just an effect. Control implies strength; strength implies simplicity, which equals perfection-perfect control. Anorexia is an addiction and recovery is possible by finding meaning in life. One of the quotes that helped in recovery came from a book a psychiatrist gave me. The quote from is from William Ward a notorious writer. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. ? William Arthur Ward Moral development in children follows a predictable developmental path. When presented with an ethical dilemma, children under the age of eight typically judge an action as wrong or incorrect when it results in punishment or goes against the rules set forth by authority figures (Kohlberg in Dolgin2011) As children mature, they begin to consider multiple perspective s in a situation; they take into account the intentions and motives of those involved and recognizing the often-conflicting rules inherent in moral dilemmas. In other words, their moral reasoning becomes more flexible and â€Å"other† oriented. When Children see idols such as Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton who have the Quintessential† Barbie â€Å"image not subject to the rules and standards in society that others are held to, it creates the false illusion that those who are beautiful and have money and things are worth more and have more value. Barbie throughout her 125 careers has never portrayed a real woman with other desirable qualities other than being beautiful and fashionable. One can certainly believe the media from magazines, the fashion industry and Mattel have played a huge role in the self-esteem of girls and they value they place on themselves as a person.