Describe in detail one developmental and one degenerative method of Essay

Describe in detail one developmental and one degenerative method of age determination in human skeletal remains. Then Describe i - Essay Example For example, some methods are more relevant to males and some to females. Actually, fforensic biology deals with various methods and techniques used for identification of age and sex of the skeletal remains. On the basis of the modern researches and studies it is evident that currently modern scientists are implementing the most accurate and efficient research methods in their studies. A field of forensic biology is not an exception and both degenerative and developmental methods, as well as their relevant application are considered further on. Part A Developmental method For example, such conditions as arthritis and osteoporosis can be prevalent in old age. Therefore, this type of conditions signifies old age of the remains of the skeleton. The age at death of a skeleton is the key feature in analysis of demographic characteristics of the skeleton. Age of dead individuals can be a key to their life, physical features, health, culture etc. Methods for age determination can depend on environment or a specific region. Widely-known methods, such as those used by Buikstra and Ubelaker’s and other researchers and scientists (1994) are focused on fusion of bone, which is a very important indicator. UK scientists and researchers underline the importance of dentition. Whereas Van der Merwe, Morris, Steyn, Maat underline that a special attention should be paid for fusion and degenerative features. These researchers pay their attention to the efficient and accurate practices and methods of age determination. Researchers and scientists are mainly dependent on microscopic determination of age. Age category determination depends on a certain community and its traditions of age determination. Scheuer and Black (2000) or Brickley and McKinley (2004) and many other modern researchers and scientists were focused on a detailed consideration about developmental osteology which is a very important resource for working and cooperation with infants or juveniles and their skel eton remains. Each skeletal element develops in accordance with its own scenario and each age stage. There are the following appropriate features and characteristics, which can be mentioned: â€Å"The complete fusion of all long-bone epiphyses, the eruption of the third molars, and fusion of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis (basilar suture) are all used as markers of adulthood† (Righter, 2002, p. 43). Developmental characteristics and methods are confirmed, because genetics and evolution can be identified in the process of developmental methods implementation. Bones, teeth and other features, which are appropriate for this method, are less sensitive to the environment. Age can be also determined in accordance with the following methods and techniques implemented: â€Å"For example, union of the mandible at the mandibular symphysis occurs between six and nine months, while development of the tympanic ring and its eventual fusion with the temporal bone, closure of the fontan elles, and fusion of the metopic suture all normally occur around two to three years of age† (Van der Merwe, Morris, Steyn, Maat). Therefore, developmental methods are mainly reliable on skeletal parts, which are less sensitive to the environment and many other external factors. Degenerative method From 20s the age of skeleton remains has been identified basing on the degenerative method. There were some changes in the

Health & Safety Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Health & Safety Management - Essay Example Examples of chemical hazards include benzene, hydrogen sulphide, etc. Ergonomic hazards arise when there is a mismatch between the task being performed and the human abilities. Examples of ergonomic hazards include lifting or pushing heavy objects. Physical hazards are forms of energy that can adversely affect the health and safety of an employee by their interaction with the human body. Examples of physical hazards include noise, radiation, etc. Psychosocial hazards arise by interaction of employees with peers or other people. Examples of psychosocial hazards include stress. Occupational health hazards, such as the ones described above have chronic effects and symptoms often take long time to develop or become apparent. Examples of adverse health effects arising from such hazards include asbestosis; a form or lung cancer that develops from inhalation of asbestos fibres, noise induced hearing loss; a permanent form of loss in hearing caused by prolonged exposure to noise, repetitive strain injuries; a form of musculoskeletal disorders caused by repetition of strenuous work, stress; caused by social interaction, or illness caused by E. coli infection. Some health effects, such as asbestosis or noise induced hearing loss take long time to become apparent and are often late for remedial action. Other risks exist in the working environments that have acute effects on the health and safety of employees. These hazards arise from unsafe conditions that exist in the working environment. Examples of such hazards include trips and falls, accidents, etc. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has reported cases of adverse health effects from virtually every hazard that exists in the working environment. These hazards not only adversely affect the health and safety of employees, but also cause lost time to employers and costs in terms of compensation or treatment. Many of these hazards have caused fatalities and permanent disabilities. Such losses affect the

HISTORY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

HISTORY - Essay Example Colonies at the south had high mortality rates, prevalence of diseases, gender imbalances, and reproduction rates were very low. Northern colonies, on the other hand, had lower mortality rates with more women and children. Their populations grew naturally at faster rates. The demographic differences influenced population and migration patterns across the divide. The south-north divide was also characterized by social and cultural differences. Elites in the south amassed land, wealth, slaves and authority at the expense of the poor hence creating inequalities in terms of economic and social spheres. In the north, however, agriculture was practiced as a family affair hence minimum inequality was experienced. The north-south divide also had a political perspective. New Englanders in the north frequently had town meetings where they practiced corporate governance and cemented the social covenant. Moreover, Congregational churches grew in the north implementing Puritan principles. On the contrary, the south and middle colonies had royal and proprietary governments in that order. Moreover, they never organized themselves through town meetings but county or parish. Overall, religious devotion intensified in the north similar to educational opportunities. Aside from the variations, the regions had certain factors in common. English was the dominant language in most of the colonies although there were traces of Africans, Indians, creole and other European languages. Protestantism dominated most colonies in different forms: Anglicanism, Congregationalism and religious toleration. Moreover, most colonists succumbed to the notion of being the King’s loyal subjects – their regimes resembled the Anglo-American regime politically and legally. Despite all these, the patterns of settlement kept the north-south divide growing. New England: Cultural and geographical disparities pushed New

Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

Book Review - Essay Example The writer grasps the attention of the writer through its fascinating revelations. Carr celebrates and admits in the book that the internet has given has many leisure facilities and conveniences, providing us quick and easy to access services. He has reflected on the notion, that with the advent of Internet and its overpowering nature in our lives, human mind has also become a technical mind. Internet has changed the way human mind thinks, it only encourages it to click and flick, losing its interest in the literature and reading good books. One of the reasons, for loss of interest is that internet has lessened our power to focus, Carr admits himself that he cannot read a book without losing concentration and his mind wandering after every few minutes. Carr reflects that â€Å"the Net and multimedia strains our cognitive abilities, diminishing our learning and weakening our understanding† (129). Carr has exhibited through different relations that because of the distractive nat ure of the internet and the various digital technologies, fewer and fewer people feel interested in introspective, deep reading activities. Carr is one of those technology writers who does not indulge in geeky tech writing, rather he grips his reader by beautifully crafted narrative and turns the technical details into sheer poetry. Carr starts the book mainly my admitting his own weaknesses in focusing and his distractive mind. He admits that he has been unable to focus lately and his mind is wandering to different other unrelated things and activities. He admits that it is not just about reading the books but he also has trouble focusing on other tasks as well and he keeps forgetting things and his memory is not as good as it used to be. He thinks that although the new media is changing the way we think and affecting our brain in several ways, it has several side-effects and one of the most observable and noticeable ones are that our brain is losing the power to

Effects of Computer Gaming Essay Example for Free

Effects of Computer Gaming Essay Technology nowadays has brought man to an era of digital and advanced world of computers. Not only are computers used in studies, research and work, it is now being used as part of leisure and entertainment. Most of the youth today know how computers work and even a 3 year old child who is still yet to learn how to read and write knows how to operate a simple computer. This is because the interactive element of a lot of software that computers use excites and attract children and this makes them learn to use and play with the computers. (Jones, 2002) Advancement in technology has drastically changed man’s way of living which has been made easier for most. It has come from diskette to very portable and stylish mini USB, from the ancient â€Å"three point eleven† personal computers with big and bulky monitors and CPUs to very user friendly touch screen-tablet PCs, and from limited Nintendo games like Mario brothers to a bunch of online and offline games like Dota, Counter Strike, Angry Birds, and Fruit Ninja etc. Such kind of improvements has led today’s generation to learning more of what life has to offer through the use of modern technologies like computers. Schools now facilitate teaching and learning through the use of computers. By the use of this kind of technology, learning is now more fun and a lot easier. Application of modern technology like computer-assisted teaching-learning on student’s aims to provide faster learning and ease of teaching and also provide the students of the advanced technology that they need to experience inside the classroom, and which they can apply when they are out of school. Since computer has a lot to offer to its users, it is also being used as entertainment and leisure and computer gaming being the most popular. There are lots of computer games that enhance the thinking abilities of students because of its gaming nature and environment like strategic gaming, word puzzles, etc. With this fact, learning through computer gaming helps students be more willing to study and learn more because, they are not just playing, they are also learning. The use of multimedia in education has significantly changed people’s learning processes. Results from a number of research studies indicate that appropriately designed multimedia instruction enhances students’ learning performance in science, mathematics, and literacy (Gee, 2003). Previous studies indicate that computer-assisted instruction programs have important factors that can motivate, challenge, increase curiosity and control, and promote fantasy in children (Tzeng, 1999). Despite the fact that computer and video games have the same multimedia capability as computer assisted instruction programs, their potential learning impact is often discounted by parents and educators. While computer gaming is regarded somewhat negative in educational settings, particularly for young students, re-scrutinizing of its influence in a teaching and learning context is vital since computer gaming can also be an education-assisted-program with proper implementation and application. While others confirm the negative effects of computer gaming to students’ performance in school and student’s health and mental ability, some authors argue that there are positive outcomes that a player can gain while playing computer video games. A research published in the Australasian Journal of Educational technology found that students who play computer and video games more frequently get lower grades than those who do not. However, it is also included in the research the positive effect of this activity to students as far as some specific video games are concerned which promote some elements that increases learning. On an online article entitled by Charles Pearson (2009) â€Å"Positive Effects of Computer Games on Student Achievement†, the author enumerated five positive significant effects of computer gaming to students. These include enhancing one’s problem solving capability, time and resource management, strategic life management skills, educational games promoting learning, and inherent instructional nature helps students to hone mastery skills. Playing video games needs a sharp mind and an alert reflexes because most of the games require thinking quickly to be able to achieve the games’ goal. According to a blog site on the web authored by Manali Oak (2009) which has an article entitled Positive Effects of Video Games states that since video gaming is interactive, it boosts the ability of one person to use his mind and hence, develops the thinking ability of the person playing. The author also said that video gaming is surely better than watching television as video games are interactive. In addition to what Manali Oak added that playing video games help benefit person with inferiority complex and lack of self confidence as they are experiencing sense of participation and a sense of achievement thus, building his self confidence. An excellent summary of the scant research that has been conducted is by Barlett, Anderson, and Swing (2009) on their research book Video game effects confirmed, suspected, and speculative: A review of the evidence. They reviewed the evidences for video game effects and grouped them into categories of confirmed, suspected, and speculative. By â€Å"confirmed,† the authors mean that the outcomes have received consistent empirical support for causal claims. They describe two such confirmed positive outcomes: (1) Playing video games can result in superior visual attention and (2) Video game play improves the ability to mentally rotate or arrange objects. They point out that the research shows that both violent and non-violent video games produce these positive effects. They also observed that educational video games and simulators can teach specific educational skills and knowledge such as algebra, biology, photography, computer programming, and flight training. The evidence for this connection is provided by Gee (2007) and Shaffer (2006). However, most of the games that they discuss are not commercially available. Perhaps such games will be developed and distributed more widely in the future. In the meantime, the evidence shows that video games can enhance learning if they are designed properly for that purpose. Another study tackled the good and bad effects of video games to children conducted by the Raise Smart Kids Organization. The study enumerated the positive effects of video games to children. Following instructions, problem solving and logic, hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills, resource management and logistics, multitasking, quick thinking and making fast analysis and decision, inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing are among those which enumerated by the author about the positive effects of video gaming. In addition, the article also included that video games can improve one’s decision making speed. People who played action-based video and computer games made decisions 25% faster than others without sacrificing accuracy, according to a study from the University of Rochester. Other studies suggests that most expert gamers can make choices and act on them up to six times a second—four times faster than most people, and can pay attention to more than six things at once without getting confused, compared to only four by the average person. Surprisingly, the violent action games that often worry parents most had the strongest beneficial effect on the brain, according to cognitive neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier, who studied the effect of action games at Switzerlands University of Geneva and the University of Rochester in New York. Moving from the early years, the effects of socialization become more entrenched. In an article published in The Journal of Educational Computing, A. Colley (1994) reported that masculine gender role traits are associated with a more positive computer attitude and that there is a gender stereotype of science in general being masculine. According to Sax (2007) his book â€Å"Boys Adrift: The five factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men† where he drew one fact well established by his conducted research revealed that violent video games cause aggressive behavior in the players. He argues that video games are so addictive that they satisfy the male need to power and control. It is evident in the country like the Philippines that the most popular computer games that the youth play in the computers are Dota, San Andreas, Counter Strike among others which are clearly promoting violence and aggression through its war and battle depiction. It can in effect, influence the youth as they play those kind of games which depict war, blood, killing, shooting etc. In a book by Barlett, Anderson, and Swing (2009) entitled Video Game Effects Confirmed, Suspected, and Speculative: A Review of the Evidence, it has stated that the â€Å"confirmed† negative effects of video games established by the research include aggressive thoughts and behavior, physiological arousal, and antisocial behavior. It was also explained that there are two variables that heighten the effects of computer games. One is depiction of blood, which results in higher levels of physiological arousal, aggressive feelings, and aggressive thoughts. Another is rewarding of violent acts, which also increases these effects. Since most of the computer games depicts violence, what they conceive in the monitors of their computers in the games that they are playing are somewhat becoming part of their reality. In an article on a eHow.com by Sarah Arnette (2011) entitled The Negative Effects of Computer Gaming on Students, the author enumerated four negative effects of computer gaming on students. She used the General Aggression Model (GAM) developed by Craig Anderson and Douglas Gentile in conducting the study that helped the author come up with the results. The results showed the negative effects include short term aggression, lack of problem solving thinking ability, weight gain, and anti social behaviors. It is regarded that the negative effects of playing video games does not only affect the player’s mental ability but as well as that concerning their health and socialization. Computer gaming also affects the behavior of the players and on how they relate with other people. A study by Argosy University’s Minnesota School on Professional Psychology found out that game addicts argue a lot with their teachers, fight a lot with their friends, and score lower grades than others who play video games less often. Performance in class may be negatively affected due to significant time spent in playing video games. Studies conducted by Anderson and Dill (2000) and one that was conducted by Gentile, Lynch and Walsh (2004) show that the more a person spends playing video games, the poorer is his performance in school. Computer gaming can also affect the health of the players. According to an online article entitled â€Å"the good and bad effects of video games† (2011), online gaming may also have bad effects on one’s health including obesity, video-induced seizures and postural, muscular and skeletal disorders such as tendonitis, nerve compression, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Conceptual Framework This study was based on a recent study conducted by Barlett, Anderson, and Swing (2009) and a study by the Raise Smart Kid organization which stated that there are confirmed positive and negative effects of computer gaming on studies of students who play the computer. Barlett, Anderson, and Swing stated that the â€Å"confirmed† negative effects of video games established by the research include aggressive thoughts and behavior, physiological arousal, and antisocial behavior On the other hand, Raise Smart Kid organization stated the good and bad effects of video games to. The article enumerated the positive effects of video games to children: following instructions, problem solving and logic, hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills, resource management and logistics, multitasking, quick thinking and making fast analysis and decision, inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. Using the results of the study conducted by Barlett, Anderson, and Swing in 2009 and the study by the Raise Smart Kids Org as basis, this study aims to find out what effects do computer gaming have particularly on students of Business Administration of the College of the Immaculate Conception and enumerate both the positive and negative effects of the said activity on their studies and personal behavior.

Theories on Stages of Sleep

Theories on Stages of Sleep Paul Stolt Jr In our textbook it says that, â€Å"REM sleep makes up the remaining 20 per cent of your sleep time. It is pronounced â€Å"rem† and stands for rapid eye movement sleep because your eyes move rapidly back and forth behind closed lids† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 153). The brain waves that are present in REM sleep are beta waves, which is the same kind that are present when a person is awake. Also, during this stage, the body is alert, but the muscles are paralyzed, thus prohibiting movement during this time. The REM sleep stage is the one that the process of having dreams occurs in. According to our text, a person passes through the REM sleep stage about five or six times a night. The intervals in between these stages are approximately half an hour to an hour and a half long. Most people are in the REM sleep stage for about half an hour to forty-five minutes, before they enter the NREM, or Non REM, sleep stage. An individual’s heart rate and blood pressure a re typically higher in REM, indicating a more alert state in this stage than in the non REM stage. Creative thinking processes are more present during REM sleep, probably due to a lack of activity in the areas of the brain that are responsible for critical thinking. Students need REM sleep in order to transfer the knowledge that they have stored throughout the day in short term memory, into long term memory. This stage helps to promote the encoding process, which is responsible for the transfer. Once the information is encoded during the REM stage, it becomes easier to recall at a later time for tests and exams. There is an indication in the human body of the need for REM sleep, because if someone has not spent enough time in this stage the previous night, the body will compensate by spending more time in REM the following night. The Alpha stage occurs right before people drift off to sleep. During this stage, people start to feel tired and relaxed, often just lying in bed with their eyes closed, and random thoughts, such as activities of the previous day, or the plans that they may have the following day, present in their thoughts. According to the text book, â€Å"Alpha waves have a low amplitude and high frequency, (8 to 12 cycles per second)† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 152). After the alpha stage, Non REM Sleep, or NREM for short, occurs. This stage is where most people spend 80 per cent of their time while sleeping. This type of sleep is divided into four stages, each stage being associated with unique brain wave patterns and biological responses (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014). In the first stage of Non REM sleep, there is a transition that occurs from being wide awake and alert, to drifting off to sleep. This stage usually lasts from about one to seven minutes long. The text says that this s tage is â€Å"marked by the presence of theta waves, which are lower in amplitude and lower in frequency (4 to 7 cycles per second) than alpha waves† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 152). Next, the person passes through the second stage of sleep. In the second stage, there are rapidly occurring periods of what researchers call sleep spindles. In this stage, physiological processes such as breathing, a person’s body temperature, and their heart rate slowly decrease, and they become harder to wake up. This stage is what most researchers define as a person being asleep. Next, after about half an hour to forty five minutes of falling asleep, the individual enters stages three and four of Non REM sleep. Delta waves are present in stage three, and these are defined as â€Å"large, slow brain waves, meaning they have very high amplitude and very low frequency† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 152). As the person moves on to stage four in Non REM sleep, they experience a significant increase in the presence of Delta waves. During this stage, biological processes such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature, and the flow of blood to the brain are dramatically decreased, and the body secretes a substance called GH, or growth hormone, which is responsible for controlling the metabolic rate in the body, physical growth in the body, and the development of the human brain. After this stage, the individual passes back through the second and third stages of Non REM, and enters into the dreaming, or REM, stage of sleep. The necessity of sleep for a living organism can be explained in two logical ways. The first is that the body repairs and restores itself while it is resting. In one theory, the human brain repairs and restores itself while sleeping. It has also been proven that chemicals that are harmful to our system are flushed out during the sleeping process. Some research has also suggested that the immune system is impaired because of sleep deprivation (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2013). The second way that it can be explained is the Conservation theory. This theory suggests that the need to conserve energy at night for the human race promoted the need for sleep. In other words, since it was dark out, and there was little light to be able to see, that time was better spent resting instead of moving about. It would seem that as an individual goes throughout their lifetime, the need for sleep is greatest during the early years, and less as they get older. When an infant is born, the average time that they spend asleep is about seventeen hours a day, with half of that time spent in REM sleep. Then, when they get a little older, such as approximately around four years old, they sleep about ten hours a day, with about 25 to 30 per cent of that time spent in REM sleep. A little later, around the teenage years, the amount of sleep that is required is about 9 hours per night, with the trend being later bed times, and the teenagers waking up later during the day. A couple years later, at about nineteen to twenty years of age, the amount of sleep required by the adolescents is about seven to eight hours per night, with twenty per cent of that time spent in REM. As an adult reaches the golden years, the amount of sleep required is six and a half hours per night, with approximately twenty per cent being spent in REM sleep. The text defines the circadian rhythm as a â€Å"biological clock that is genetically programmed to regulate physiological responses within a time period of twenty-four hours (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 150). The circadian clock is genetically set for about 24 hours 18 minutes. The clock is reset by the retinal cells, which act like sensors that let in sunlight, and send signals to the brain, resetting it by eighteen minutes each day. However, there are quite a few problems associated with the circadian clock by individuals who work midnight shifts or have to fly frequently for their job, thereby getting a condition known as jet lag. First, let’s discuss individuals that work the midnight shift. These individuals go against the natural instinct of their circadian clocks, resulting in decreased performance of their cognitive and motor skills. Also, people who change shifts a lot, such as working swing shift, cause a lot of physical stress in their bodies and psychological stress in their minds. Secondly, people with jet lag often experience problems with feeling tired all the time, difficulty in being able to concentrate on a particular task, and reduced ability in their ability to use logical thinking, reasoning, or remembering. It takes people with jet lag about a day per hour of difference between time zones to recover. However, there is hope. Charles Czeisler developed a new treatment called light therapy in 1994. This treatment uses artificial light to combat fatigue in both people who work the midnight shift, and those with jet lag. Next I would like to talk about the effects that sleep deprivation has on individuals. People with sleep deprivation run the risk of having impaired immune systems, with the potential for increased infections and diseases. They also experience increased stress levels, elevated blood pressure, and an increased build-up of plaque in the arteries, with a severe potential for heart attack or stroke. Other problems they experience include the risk of obesity and diabetes, difficulty in recognizing words, and doing ordinary math problems. They are more susceptible to increased irritability, and increased difficulty in making logical and rational decisions. Terms and Concepts Perceptual Threshold -The perceptual threshold is the smallest thing that can be perceived, or recognized, by the human senses. Sensation A sensation is a relatively meaningless piece of information, that results when the brain processes electrical signals that come from the sense organs. Stimulus A stimulus is any change of energy in the environment, such as light waves, sound waves, mechanical pressure, or chemicals. Structuralists Structuralists are psychologists who believed that we add together thousands of sensations to form a perception. Gestalt Psychologists Gestalt psychologists are psychologists that believe that our brains follow general rules that specify how individual elements are to be organized into a meaningful pattern, or perception. Depth Perception Depth Perception is the ability of the eye and brain to add a third dimension called depth to all visual perceptions, even though the images being projected might only be two dimensional in nature. Consciousness Consciousness describes different levels of awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings. Biological Clock The biological clock is an internal timing device that is genetically set to regulate various physiological responses for different periods of time. Stages of Sleep Stages of sleep refer to the distinctive changes in the electrical activity of the brain, and accompanying physiological responses to the body that occur as someone passes through different phases of sleep. Hypnosis Hypnosis is a procedure in which a researcher, clinician, or hypnotist suggests that a person will experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. Stimulants Stimulants are chemical substances such as cocaine, amphetamines, caffeine, and nicotine that increase activity of the central nervous system and result in heightened alertness, arousal, euphoria, and decreased appetite. Opiates Opiates are chemical substances such as opium, morphine, and heroin that produce three predominant effects in the central nervous system: the reduction of pain, opiate euphoria, a pleasurable state between waking and sleeping; and constipation. Hallucinogens Hallucinogens are drugs that affect someone’s mind or behavior and have the ability to produce changes in perception, thought, emotion, and awareness. Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning is a kind of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by a different stimulus. Operant Conditioning Operant Conditioning is a kind of learning in which the consequences that follow some behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior’s occurrence in the future. Cognitive Learning Cognitive Learning is a kind of learning that involves mental processes, such as attention and memory, may be learned through observation or imitation; and may not involve any external rewards or require the person to perform any observable behaviors. Generalization Generalization is the tendency for a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response. Discrimination Discrimination occurs when an organism learns to make a particular response to some stimuli but not to others. Extinction Extinction is a procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, and, as a result, the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response Thorndike Thorndike was an American psychologist who lived during the 1800’s and formulated the law of effect, which stated that if some random actions are followed by a pleasurable consequence, such actions are strengthened and will likely occur in the future. Skinner Skinner was a psychologist who developed a theory known as the operant response during the 1930’s, which says that â€Å"An operant response is a response that can be modified by its consequences and is a meaningful unit of ongoing behavior that can be easily measured† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 214). Reinforcers Reinforcers are â€Å"consequences that occur after a desired behavior and increase the chances that the behavior will occur again† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 218). Punishment A punishment is a stimulus that â€Å"stops or decreases the occurrence of a behavior† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 219). Schedules of Reinforcement Schedules of Reinforcement are programs or rules that determine how and when the occurrence of a response will be followed by a reinforcer (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 220). Spontaneous Recovery Spontaneous Recovery refers to either a temporary recovery in the rate of responding in operant conditioning, or the temporary occurrence of the conditioned response in the presence of the conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 222). Behavior Modification â€Å"is a treatment or therapy that changes or modifies problems or undesirable behaviors by using principles of learning based on operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and social cognitive learning† (Plotnik Kouyoudmjian, 2014, p. 232). References National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (2013, December 5). Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: www.ninds.nih.gov Plotnik, R., Kouyoudmjian, H. (2014). Introduction to Psychology. Belmont, CA, USA: Wadsworth Publishing. Retrieved January 13, 2014

Media Literacy after The Simpsons

Media Literacy after The Simpsons Homer Simpson Explains our Postmodern Identity crisis, Whether we Prize it or not: Media Literacy after The Simpsons ABSTRACT This article suggests that The Simpsons is a sophisticated media subject about media that forces educators who teach media literacy into an encounter with postmodern judgment. The sense of postmodern judgment for media education is explored through a focus on two now themes in The Simpsons: the changing judgment of personal identity and the consequences of a relentlessly ironic worldview. Icons of habitual culture can be used to teach about philosophical constructs. From its inception The Simpsons has posed a significant challenge to educators. The program, which ridiculed all forms of influence and turned Bart Simpson into a wildly habitual anti-hero, initially provoked an intense reaction from the education citizens, in some schools influential to the banning of paraphernalia bearing Barts images and habitual denunciations of the series. As the series grew in popularity- and eventually was joined by other cartoon series that were seen to be all the more more educationally offensive, such as Beavis and Butthead and South Park-the furor died down to a now on the other artisan passive hostility toward the program, at least in the classroom. It certainly didnt facilitate the educational communitys disagreement to have Interval magazine reputation the series the best television program of the 20th century, or to have the poet laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky, praise the series, stating that it penetrates to the existence of television itself (Owen, 2000, p. 65). Nor did it facilitate that various teachers went hab itat, turned the program on, and laughed themselves silly. All the more another abbreviate has been created between the culture of children and the culture of education, a poser that has been perhaps all the more more painful for media educators, various of whom follow Hobbs (1998) target that the texts of everyday career, when constituted as objects of social participation, provide the possibility for combining textual, historical, and ideological examination in ways that relieve students and teachers move beyond the limits of traditional disciplines and controversy areas (p. 21). To be undeniable, there have been efforts by media educators to bring The Simpsons into the classroom. Our debate of the media literacy literature and media literacy sites revealed a number of examples of proposed lessons incorporating the series, from examining The Simpsons as a virgin variant of social satire to comparing The Simpsons family to other television families. On the other hand, in almost eve ry dispute, we sensed that the unique qualities of the series eluded these efforts. The basic tools of media education and literacy as typically agreed upon by numerous media literacy communities-tools which regulate our control to basic precepts such as the meaning that the media are constructed-appear not to be enough to turn The Simpsons from renegade habitual culture into a teachable moment (Aufderheide, 1993; Media Awareness Network, 2000). Perhaps the central poser with The Simpsons is that it seems to drag the media literacy examination onto the unfamiliar and all the more foreboding terrain of postmodernism, where issues of image and replica open to fall apart, a terrain where sporadic media educators are willing or able to follow. Of line, there has been an effort to define, critique, and bring postmodern impression to bear on educational judgment and application, expressly from advocates of critical pedagogy (e.g., Aronowitz Giroux, 1992). All the more this has been a the ory-driven effort that has not reached further far into educational scholarship, and has made almost no headway into the frontlines of educational manipulate. Various teachers Studies in Media Info Literacy Education, Tome 1, Subject 1 (February 2001), 1-12 # University of Toronto Press. DOI: 10.3138/sim.1.1.002 have never heard of the label postmodernism. The same mould is equally, if not more pronounced, in the media education citizens. Our examination of media literacy literature and key media literacy web sites in the United States and Canada revealed an almost comprehensive absence of controversy and examination on postmodernism. There have been, of pathway, notable exceptions (McLaren, Hammer, Scholle, Reilly, 1995; Steinberg Kincheloe, 1997). The outcome of this empty margin is another critical abbreviate, in this dispute not between students and educators, on the other artisan between media educators and media theorists. In examining this section, we are struck by two observations. First, the gap between media education manipulate and media judgment comes precisely at the moment when teachers and media educators are finding them selves overwhelmed by strange contemporary regular cultural texts for which the unfamiliar category of postmodernism may potentially be the most fruitful interpretive handle. Second, the positions of students and media theorists stand in the succeeding relationship. Students are living inside an increasingly postmodern regular cultural participation that media theorists are attempting to label, define, and scan. The puzzle is that students dont necessarily have the vocabulary to generate meaning of their participation, and the vocabulary that theorists have developed seems to cause meaning only in graduate seminars. The Simpsons offers a promising opportunity to strategically residence these issues, highlighting the limits of conventional media literacy tools, illustrating the aesthetic examine of postmodernism, and providing some vocabulary to label that examine. In effect, it serves as an dispute of how the solution of postmodernism can be used to develop a contemporary range of c ritical interpretive skills for constructively engaging this growing trend in habitual culture. Our article presents a mini introduction to postmodernism and a grounded process of the benefits and limits of applying this judgment. Our reason is not to provide an exhaustive or all the more spread out introduction to postmodern judgment. Rather, it is to position The Simpsons as a media subject that can be used as a starting stop for exploring postmodern judgment. Fear of Postmodernism If everyone loves The Simpsons, postmodernism has its correct participation of critics. Writing in U.S. Material and Field Report, Leo (1999) argues that postmodernism has created a language that no one can understand, a language that is used to intellectually bully readers into agreeing with outlandish propositions. The academic area, on the other artisan, has offered more equivocal assessments. Hebdige (1988) argues that we are in the presence of a buzzword, a expression which, while confusing, does appropriate an influential social or cultural transition. Kellner (1995) agrees, observing that . . . the label postmodern is often a placeholder, or semiotic marker, that indicates that there are virgin phenomena that demand mapping and theorizing (p. 46). In the infrequent instances where references to postmodernism do appear in media literacy literature, its ambiguous area is emphasized. For process, Buckingham and Sefton-Green (1997), in their effort to launch charting the challenges posed by multimedia education in an increasingly digitized media area, believe that postmodernism, although glib and sweeping, offers a beneficial pathway to characterize a number of broad social and cultural transformations. Some of the changes that control Buckingham and Sefton-Green embrace the area of consumption, the blurring distinctions between production and consumption, the poaching of texts and symbols, and the rejection of the elitist and sterile oppositions between high and habitual culture (pp. 289-292). Given the slipperiness of the sense, postmodernism on the other hand marks a cr itical modern moment in the scan of media and replica. Building on the business of Buckingham and Sefton-Green (1997), we open by asking what is postmodernism and what can we do with it? With its questioning of truthfulness and its subject of the politics of media representations, postmodernism, once it is understood properly, can be a rich source of pedagogical judgment and manipulate. The Postmodern Dispute: Definitions and Symptoms What true is the label postmodernism trying to receive? There is, first, the sense of opposition to modernism. In essence, modernism states that individuals and nations, guided by rational thinking and Studies in Media Counsel Literacy Education, Tome 1, Subject 1 (February 2001), 1-12 # University of Toronto Press. DOI: 10.3138/sim.1.1.002 2 scientific achievements, are moving toward a more humane, more just, and more economically prosperous ultimate. In other contents, modernism embraces progress, viewing it as a linear and inexorable phenomenon with acceptable outcomes. Accordingly, the publish in postmodernism stands for the meaning that there is no longer any guarantee of progress. In point, there is further petty consensus as to what progress all the more wealth. Postmodernity typically is distinguished by an undermining of force, the denigration of novel by turning it into a style or evocative nostalgia, the questioning of progress, and the head to impression the ultimate as empty. Other postmodern symptoms embrace the meaning of image overload, intertextuality (the seemingly random q uoting of one subject by another), a heightened meaning of media self-reflexivity calling control to replica as a hall of mirrors, and pastiche, defined as the sense to cause disjointed images and subject fragments. Finally, the postmodern process is marked by commodification overload (the head to turn everything into a product or marketing opportunity), irony overload (the elevation of irony as the dominant rhetorical posture), and the increased questioning of the sense of personal identity brought on by viewing the self as a social construction. In short, the meaning of postmodernism calls control to the ways in which a beneficial deal of everyday regular culture is at once fully informed by, if not driven by, the basic media literacy precept that media construct social naked truth. In act, all the more of regular culture relentlessly draws carefulness to the further arbitrariness of almost every aspect of our social participation, as well as the moral and epistemological foundati ons on which social participation depends. In other contents, the curriculum of regular culture has outstripped the curriculum of the classroom, all the more the media education classroom. The vocabulary of postmodernism allows us to launch to contemplate and term the various ways in which this is taking fix, on the other share it further leaves us at a loss about how to proceed. Recognizing this disagreement, memo and educational theorists have attempted to clarify what is to be gained by drawing on the social and theoretical insights generated by the deconstructive influence of postmodern criticism. At the same interval, they have tried to demonstrate how to tame this influence in the utility of modernist values such as human rights, equality, freedom, and democracy (Aronowitz Giroux, 1991; Best Kellner, 1991; Giroux, 1997; Kellner, 1995; Rorty, 1989; Wolin, 1990). A critical postmodernism encourages us to solicit contemporary questions about all claims to influence (scientific or otherwise), about how contemporary forms of replica and contemporary inflections in the style of replica made practicable through technology and commodification exchange the quality of sense, and about how cultural dominance is produced and maintained through the patterns of contrasts used to define social and linguistic categories (Aronowitz Giroux, 1991; Scholle Denski, 1995). Postmodernism offers contemporary tools for critical interpretation and modern responsibilities for connecting media and cultural interpretation to democracy as a form of native land that enables critical reflection and activism, making us understand the ways in which our seemingly private individual identities are formed, through language and symbols, in relationship to each other and the broader social and political citizens (McKinlay, 1998, p. 481). For The Simpsons audience, an ambivalen ce toward technology and progress is guideline fare. This judgment of the ultimate as empty and without guarantees has further been associated with the core identity of Hour X, whose slogan might glance at We have seen the forthcoming and it sucks. While any aspect of postmodernism discussed above can be found in and explored within The Simpsons, two concepts in particular-irony overload and the questioning of identity-will serve as reference points in our reconsideration of the series. The puzzle of identity is a central complication for all young citizens, on the other artisan it is a puzzle that is not duration satisfactorily addressed, given the growing levels of hopelessness, cynicism, despair, and suicide among teenagers. Of particular control to us is that The Simpsons repeatedly focuses on this further subject: the puzzle of selfhood in an increasingly absurd culture pulverized with images, symbols, values, irony, commercialization, and hucksterism. What lessons does The Sim psons teach? What lessons can be learned as the characters on the demonstrate are thrust into many battles for selfhood within the postmodern terrain? Enjoy all the more postmodern Studies in Media Info Literacy Education, Manual 1, Controversy 1 (February 2001), 1-12 # University of Toronto Press. DOI: 10.3138/sim.1.1.002 3 culture, The Simpsons, is saturated with irony and obsessed with issues of absolute identity, expressly in relation to media culture. Our task is to articulate an interpretive frame of reference to facilitate media educators and viewers open to cause critical meaning of these symptoms. The Challenges of Postmodern Selfhood Gergen (1991) notes that postmodernists abbreviate version into three epochs, each of which corresponds to a particular judgment of personal identity or selfhood. These periods are labeled as the pre-modern (romantic hour), the contemporary era, and the postmodern. From the pre-modern or romantic tradition, we derive our meaning in a stable center of identity. In Gergens contents, powerful forces in the deep interior of ones duration are held to be the source of inspiration, creativity, genius, and moral courage, all the more madness (Gergen, 1992, p. 61). Modernism redefined the self, shifting the emphasis from deep, mysterious processes to human consciousness in the here and these days, always in control with such values as efficiency, stable functioning, and progress. The self in its virgin form-what Gergen calls the postmodern or relational self-is no longer viewed as a separate target, on the other artisan is increasingly understood as a rel ational construction, defined by and spread across the humanity and activity experiences each individual encounters throughout her or his field. In short, as McNamee and Gergen (1999) argue, there are no independent selves; we are each constituted by others (who are themselves similarly constituted). We are always already related by virtue of shared constitutions of the self (p. 15). Linked to this sense is the sense that a conscious understanding of ourselves as beings occurs through language, which is itself a fundamentally relational sense, and that our identity grows and develops in relationship to the endless dialogues that we have with others, with culture, and with ourselves. In this meaning, our interactions with the media become deeply significant. Moreover, this contemporary consciousness of the relational sense of the self comes at correct the moment when the relationships we enter into and which contribute to our definition of self are multiplying at an exponential rate and are duration increasingly spread over a in a superior way and in a superior way span of hour and amplitude. It is one baggage to see the sense of the relational self when we think of, claim, two friends engaged in a mutually sustaining and defining examination. In this setting, the sense of the relational self is promising, perhaps all the more reassuring. On the other hand, extending the meaning of relationship to subsume every symbolic encounter in which we willingly or unwilling participate-from intentional relationships to unintentional and forced relationship with 3,000 commercial messages per day-presents modern challenges. A critical postmodern perspective calls control to this crisis of identity, a crisis in which the media of memo and their commercial foundations are deeply implicated. Of line, thinking of the self as a relational construct not only gives insights into the crisis of the self, on the other share it further offers a means of thinking about how to residen ce that crisis. In this more hopeful and acceptable meaning, the relational self offers a glimpse of those selected aspects of human participation and identity that may be used as a moral foundation in the face of the deconstructive maelstrom of commercial postmodern culture. The relational self suggests a moral compass that is based less on the authentic truths of religion or science than in the manner by which we draw up ourselves and our community through ceaseless and inevitable physical, linguistic, and psychological dependence upon one another. Drawing on the duty of Martin Buber, Mikhail Bakhtin, Jurgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, and Jerome Bruner, McNamee and Gergen (1999) deposit elsewhere a autonomous and thoughtful introduction to what a moral ethic organized on all sides of the relational self would see enjoy. They have called it relational responsibility, defining relationally responsible actions as those that sustain and enhance forms of exchange elsewhere of which influ ential process itself is made practicable. Isolation, they argue, represents the negation of citizens (p. 19). The guideline of relational responsibility is in stark contrast to the deconstructive tendencies of postmodernism. As such, it can serve as a critical bridge linking the interpretive coercion of a critical postmodernism to the modernist values associated with progressive democracy. Studies in Media Counsel Literacy Education, Tome 1, Subject 1 (February 2001), 1-12 # University of Toronto Press. DOI: 10.3138/sim.1.1.002 4 At the same hour, it is autonomous that the deconstructive tendencies of postmodernism (as a fix of virgin conditions) have influential implications for personal identity construction. Giddens (1991), for process, warns of the looming threat of personal meaninglessness. It is this threat that directs us back to a carefulness of one of the central tropes of postmodern discourse: irony. As noted above, relentless irony is a hallmark of both The Simpsons and the postmodern era. As individuals struggle to confront postmodern challenges to identity, there is grounds to solicit whether there is any valuation in the postmodern strategy of irony. Thus, the implications of irony both for identity formation and relational responsibility must be considered. Irony, Identity, and the Disagreement of Responsibility The Simpsons is regularly celebrated for its incisive wit and social satire, for its force to manipulate irony to bell control to the absurdity of everyday social conventions and beliefs. Irony functions as a critical form that helps us to break through surface sense to examine and understand the correct area of things in a contemporary and deeper means. It is a vehicle for enhancing critical consciousness, and it represents a moral coercion of skilled in the function of eradicating conventional pathetic (Rorty, 1989). As Hutcheon (1992, 1994) notes, critical irony is intimately linked to politics. The compel of deconstructing can be a first development to political dispute, and ironys oppositional character can be a major critical compel. The subversive functioning of irony is related to its status as a self-critical and self-reflexive resources that challenges hierarchy, and this influence to undermine and overturn is said to have politically transformative coercion. On the other share this is not where the manipulate of irony ends in The Simpsons, nor does it appropriate the postmodern turn in the meaning of irony. Postmodern irony is ambiguous and its solution is contested. It can be interpreted by adherents as playful, reflexive, and liberating; opponents, on the other hand, contemplate it as frivolous, deviant, and perverse (Hutcheon, 1992, 1994; Kaufman, 1997; Thiele, 1997). In postmodern irony, clarity in moral delineation begins to disappear. For process, in virgin comedy, as in all social behavior, all actions are controversy to satire from some perspective. Besides, by reason of postmodern irony begins with the assumption that language produces all sense, a kind of emancipatory indulgence in irony is evoked-an invitation to reconceptualize language as a form of play. As Gergen (1991) writes, we neednt credit such linguistic activities with profundity, imbue them with deep significance, or fix elsewhere to interchange the nature on their novel. Rather, we might play with the truths of the hour, shake them about, try them on prize funny hats (p. 188). In other contents, postmodern irony invites us to avoid saying it straight, using linear logic, an d forming smooth, progressive narratives (p. 188). The Simpsons is saturated with this form of postmodern irony. On the other facilitate where does that leave media educators trying to duty with this enormously regular series? On the one artisan, media educators would prize to engage the series fully by practise of it raises various challenges to conventional ideas of mould and selfhood; on the other share, they are unwilling to lead students to examine media literacy as a form of deconstruction that leads only to meaninglessness or play. Some media scholars contemplate postmodern irony as a laborious challenge for teachers committed to linking media literacy with productive citizenship. Purdy, for dispute, laments that between Madonna and the fist-fight between Jesus and Santa Claus that opened the cartoon series South Park, there is less and less left in society whose flouting can elicit shock. Irony, he concludes, invites us to be self-absorbed, on the other facilitate in selves that we cannot believe to be particularly interesting or significant (p. 26). Conway and Seery (1992) are similarly concerned about the implications of postmodern irony for engaged citizenship. Although irony may equip the dispossessed with much-needed critical perspective and all the more underwrite a minimal political agenda, they draw up, it is generally regarded as irremediably parasitic and antisocial (p. 3). Hutcheon (1994) further shares this episode, noting that irony can be both political and apolitical, both conservative and radical, both repressive and democratizing in a pathway that other discursive strategies are not (p. 35). Gergen (1991) frames the challenge of postmodern irony in terms of its challenge to forming a coherent self. If all serious projects are reduced to satire, play, Studies in Media Counsel Literacy Education, Tome 1, Subject 1 (February 2001), 1-12 # University of Toronto Press. DOI: 10.3138/sim.1.1.002 5 or nonsense, all attempts at authenticity or earnest ends become empty-merely postures to be punctuated by sophisticated self-consciousness (p. 189). If this is the poser that The Simpsons raises in its manipulate of both critical and postmodern irony, to what room is it contributing to a social consciousness with a practicable for social process, as opposed to contributing to a cynical numbness founded on ironic detachment? What solutions does the series offer for resolving this disagreement? Are there any alternative solutions that acknowledge the postmodern challenge to identity? Exploration of Self in Homer to the Max With these concerns in meaning, we see an phase of The Simpsons that originally aired on February 7, 1998. The period focuses with particular vehemence on the quest for identity and asks the closest questions: †  How is the sense of the self understood in relationship to the blizzard of media images, symbols, and values? †  How does irony fit into the exploration and resolution of identity issues? †  How do we understand The Simpsons confrontations with the self and identity in terms of what has been called the postmodern process? The demonstrate begins with the principles sight gags on the couch and the Simpson familys lampooning of televisions midseason replacement series. The program that finally captures the familys carefulness is Police Cops, which becomes a present within the present. As the two Miami-Vice enjoy heroes of Police Cops subdue would-be bank thieves, one of the police detective heroes, a millionaire cop surrounded by admiring women, introduces himself as Simpson, Detective Homer Simpson. The Simpson family is shocked and Homer is exclusively overwhelmed, confusing himself with his television image. The plot then unfolds in essentially five kernels that hire up and explore Homers confusion over his own identity (Chatman, 1978). First, Homer identifies completely with the television detective hero: Wow. They captured my personality perfectly! Did you examine the means Daddy caught that bullet? In turn, the all-inclusive citizens of Springfield validates Homers contemporary pseudo-identity, treating him as if he were the television detective hero: Hey, Mr. Simpson, sir, can I purchase your autograph? Second, the Police Cops producers interchange their television detective character from glamorous hero to bumbling sidekick, launching a series of gags about Homers correct identity. The virgin characterization is truly a near perfect replication of the absolute Homer Simpson. This outrages Homer: Hey whats going on? That guys not Homer Simpson! Hes fat and stupid! The town continues to respond to Homer as the television character, only these days with ridicule rather than respect. No netheless, Homer gains some insight into the confusion between his authentic and fictional identity. As a assemblage of co-workers gathers in the hallway absent his business waiting for him to do something stupid, Homer retorts, Well, Im sorry to disappoint you gentleman, on the other artisan you seem to have me confused with a character in a fictional present. Factor of the pleasure for viewers derives from the irony of the cartoon character Homer making the state that he is the authentic Homer Simpson, as opposed to the fictional cartoon character within the cartoon. The writers of the period then continue to play with this seemingly endless hall of mirrors between absolute and fictional identity by scripting Homer to behave true in the transaction of the revised fictional detective character. Homer obliges by spilling a fondue pot on the nuclear reactor polity panel. Homers identity crisis eventually leads him to Hollywood, where he confronts the producers of the Police Cops-By the Numbers Productions-and demands that they recast the detective character: Im begging you! Im a human duration! Let me have my dignity back! The lines between Homers authentic identity and his media identity blur all the more besides when his efforts in the production business are used as grist for a contemporary gag in the later Police Cops period. Studies in Media Counsel Literacy Education, Manual 1, Controversy 1 (February 2001), 1-12 # University of Toronto Press. DOI: 10.3138/sim.1.1.002 6 In the third kernel, the plot shifts absent from Homers struggle over his identification with his media replica to his fixation on the sense that a contemporary label will give him a virgin identity. In this kernel, Homer goes to court to sue Police Cops for the improper application of his reputation. When his petition is nowadays rebuffed in the term of corporate proprietary interests, he rashly decides to transform his reputation to Max Coercion. Homers growth is nowadays transformed. His self-image improves, he becomes forceful and dynamic, and his co-workers and boss treat him with respect. Mr. Burns, remembering Homers reputation for the first interval, exclaims, Well, who could forget the reputation of a magnetic individual prize you? Keep up the acceptable profession, Max. While shopping at Costingtons for a contemporary faculty wardrobe, Homer meets a member of Springfields elite with a similarly powerful label, Trent Steele. Trent nowadays takes Homer/Max under his wing, inviting him to garden troop for Springfields young, hip force couples, an period that turns elsewhere to be the jumping off stop for an environmental reason. The critical moment in this kernel-which links the identity crisis of Police Cops with the identity theme in the Max Force parcel of the episode-occurs when Homer reveals to his contemporary best friend Trent Steele the origin of the term Max Compel. When Trent exclaims, Hey, beneficial term!, Homer replies, Yeah, isnt it? I got it off a hairdryer. Homers resolution to his identity crisis with his media self is to redefine himself in terms of the force setting of a mini household appliance. The self is these days equated with a product. At first, the results are stunningly successful. The fourth kernel leads to the denouement. In the third kernel, Homers appropriation of the identity of his hair dryer appears to have resolved his identity crisis in satisfactory transaction. On the other hand, this meaning soon falls apart. At the garden assemblage, Homer and Marge rub shoulders with celebrity environmental activists Woody Harrelson and Ed Begley, Jr., two of the various celebrities lampooned in the phase. The sense extreme these scenes is that Homer, as the buffoon celebrity Max Force, is on the same level as other equally shallow and ridiculous celebrities. Finally, Trent Steele announces that it is interval to board a bus to re ason the wanton destruction of our nations forests. This generate is relentlessly parodied: We have to protect [trees] by generate of trees cant protect themselves, except, of trail, the Mexican Fighting Trees. The partygoers travel to a stand of redwoods about to be bulldozed and are chained to the trees. The police (Chief Wiggum, Eddie, and Lou) confront Homer, attempt to swab his eyes with Hippie- Coercion mace, and stop up chasing him on all sides of his tree. His chain works prize a saw, cutting down the redwood, which in turn topples the comprehensive forest. Homer, freed at persist, throws his chain into the air, killing a bald eagle. Homer, as the phony Max Force, is rejected by the phony celebrity activists. In the fifth and final kernel, which serves as an epilogue to the phase, Marge and Homer are in bed. Marge tells Homer she is glad he changed his reputation back to Homer Simpson and Homer responds, Yes, I learned you gotta be yourself. The Phase Through a Postmodern Le ns The phase is intriguing by generate of of its insistent focus on the search for identity, and the methods by which that identity is constructed within the absurdities of the postmodern landscape. As Gergen (1992) notes, We are exposed to more opinions, values, personalities, and ways of activity than was any previous interval in novel; the number of our relationships soars, the variations are enormous: past relationships extreme (only a ring bell apart) and contemporary faces are only a channel absent (p. 58). There is, in short, an explosion in social connections. What does this explosion have to do with our meaning of selves and what we stand for, and how does it undermine beliefs in a romantic interior or in a rational center of the self ? This is precisely the controversy this period of The Simpsons takes up again and again. What is exclusively engaging in this phase is the focus on Homers identity crisis and its relationship to the media. This is not, of line, a theme unique to The Simpsons. As Caldwell (1995) observes, comedy-variety shows in the late 1940s and early 1950s were repeatedly using the conventions of intertextuality and