“Novels with a Purpose”; The interventionist literature of Dinah Mulock Craik and contemporary domestic legislation

Dinah Craik’s interventionist literature aimed to promote a progressive agenda in female-centric domestic legislation. However, to maintain her respectable female reputation, she utilised conservative ideals and arguments. She capitalised on contemporary debates around essential femininity, maternity and the problems of inherited evil to argue for women’s property rights, adoption rights and the repeal of the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act. Her work exposed the gap between the legal framework and women’s lived experiences. It also exposed the difference between women’s private, invisible lives and the public perception of them which informed male discourse and legal debates, accentuating issues of influence versus power and questions of agency within this debate. The intermingling of class and gender is a key theme in Craik’s work. She equated the position of women of all classes with the position of working-class men under the law, particularly in terms of reification, being transmuted into property and owned. Women, Craik argued, share a common bond of sisterhood which transcends class, and this thesis examines the way in which the universality of femininity is questioned and constrained in light of the subjugations of male-made laws. Craik particularly examines the universality of femininity within the confines of inter-related identities. Though she does not reject the notion of inter-related identities, Craik places them within a hierarchy in order to argue for reform. There is a tendency to appropriate Craik as a feminist writer despite her disavowal of female suffrage. This thesis examines the complicated way Craik viewed female rights, especially critiquing the level to which she examined her own social biases, and absorbed the ideology and social expectations of the society she lived in. Finally, it questions the level to which the dissonance between her avowed conservatism and the message her story conveys was deliberate and effective in reform

On the Art of Writing a Club Paper

So you have to write a paper for the Eurydice club, and you don\u27t know how to do it . Well, my dear, if you know that you know more than some club women I have met

Arguments in Support of A Constitutional Right to Atmospheric Integrity

As used in this paper, “atmospheric integrity” refers to the interrelated physical, chemical, and biological processes on planet Earth that enable human and non-human life now and in the future and recognizes that modern civilization has developed within the relatively stable, current geologic period known as the Holocene. I chose to focus on atmospheric integrity, rather than more broadly on environmental integrity, because the health of terrestrial and aquatic habitats is inextricably tied to atmospheric stability. This assertion is not meant to minimize the multitude of harms impacting land and water. It is just that the magnitude of the climate crisis overwhelms all other environmental threats and will have obvious, detrimental impacts on humanity. Also, the determination of what constitutes a decent environment is a value judgment over which reasonable people will differ. Conversely, focusing on a goal that can be measured with scientific accuracy will enable courts and policy makers to confidently measure progress toward (or away from) the goal. In this paper I explore the establishment of a federal constitutional right to atmospheric integrity. I begin, in Part II, with a review of the threat presented by global climate change. In Part III, I discuss various conceptions of rights: constitutional, basic, natural, and human. I then review modes of constitutional analysis and presently-recognized state and national constitutional environmental rights in Part IV. In Part V, I review Robinson Township v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, for the first time, provided substantive interpretation of the environmental rights contained in the Commonwealth\u27s constitution. Finally, in Part VI, I conclude that the Supreme Court may recognize a constitutional right to atmospheric integrity based on historical, doctrinal, prudential, ethical, and structural analysis

'New Femininities' Fiction

I identify and analyse an emergent sub-genre of contemporary literature by women that I am calling ‘New Femininities’ fiction. This fiction is about the distinctly feminine experience of contemporary domestic life written by women about the lives of heterosexual female characters that are married or in committed partnerships, often with children. These texts are concerned with the nature of the self, with a self that is plural and ‘in process’, and make use of particular narrative devices – ironic voice, unreliable narration, free indirect discourse, and interrogative endings that exceed their roles as simply telling stories. ‘New Femininities’ fictions allow their language the necessary freedom to multiply meanings and enact the narrative conflicts they raise and by so doing, undermine the binary oppositions which structure a gendered world. In this dissertation, I argue the models of existing criticism would do a disservice to these texts because much of the criticism either overvalues the theoretical and ignores the literariness of the text or seeks to identify a ‘feminine’ language the definition of which serves to reinforce and revalue patriarchal notions of femininity. The readings that this fiction requires necessitate a negotiation with established models of feminist literary criticism. I attempt to identify the characteristics of their style that allows them to straddle binary oppositions and to look at the language these authors use without having to label it ‘feminine’ and by so doing establish, build, or reinforce a boundary with some undefined ‘masculine’ language which stands in for all occurrences that are not ‘feminine’. Additionally, I attempt to forge a transformed, adapted concept vocabulary for dealing with this group of writers. To this end, I make use of various discourses to show how the different authors either negotiate with that discourse or prove its inadequacy to describe or explain these new femininities

Pretreatment Client Characteristics and Treatment Retention in an Intensive Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program

The effectiveness and efficacy of substance abuse treatment is well established. At the same time, clients often prematurely drop out of substance abuse treatment, negatively impacting their chances of achieving favorable outcomes. Investigating variables associated with treatment retention has become increasingly important considering one of the most robust findings in substance abuse treatment outcome research is the positive relationship between the amount of time spent in treatment and post-treatment outcomes (e.g., decreased drug/alcohol use, decreased criminal activity, improved social functioning). This study examined the relationship between pre-treatment client characteristics and treatment drop-out among 273 adults who were admitted to intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment. An intake assessment battery was administered to all participants in an effort to gain a broad understanding of client attributes at the point of treatment entry. A series of regression analyses were used to investigate if client characteristics could help predict treatment completion status, time to drop-out, and number of treatment sessions attended. Results indicate that age and meeting criteria for an anxiety disorder were statistically significant predictors in all three regression analyses. Meeting criteria for a cocaine disorder was found to be a statistically significant predictor of treatment completion status and time to drop-out. Finally, number of years using alcohol regularly was found to be a statistically significant predictor of the number of treatment sessions attended. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations to help improve client retention in the substance abuse treatment program utilized for this study are provided

The Effects Of Leisure Satisfaction And Perfectionism On Academic Burnout

The present study examined the impact of three variables on academic burnout: perfectionism, depression, and leisure satisfaction. Participants included male and female college students enrolled in a four year university in the Midwest. Participants completed a variety of demographic questions and surveys through an internet survey on Survey Gizmo. The Almost Perfect Scale Revised was used to assess an individual\u27s perfectionism, The Patient Health Questionnaire 2 measured depression, The Leisure Satisfaction Scale Short Form was included to measure students\u27 leisure satisfaction, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory Student measured academic burnout. The study found that perfectionism and depression were significant predictors of burnout, while leisure satisfaction was only a significant predictor for the burnout variable of efficacy. Also, perfectionism did not moderate the relationship between leisure satisfaction and burnout. This study provides important information for counselors at university counseling centers who wish to design effective interventions for combating academic burnout in college students

Analysis of Factors Contributing to Environmental Activism: A Case Study of Beach Clean-Up Participants

This study was initiated to investigate factors which contribute to environmental activism. Towards this end, three hypotheses were investigated. First, it was hypothesized that beach clean-up participants would harbor pro-environmental attitudes. Second, it was hypothesized that participants would be relatively young, politically liberal, well-educated, and wealthy. Finally, it was hypothesized that particular types of social structure would influence a person\u27s decision to participate in a beach clean-up. Specifically, it was hypothesized that participants at each clean-up location would be clique members and/or would be structurally equivalent. Surprising, it was revealed that there was virtually no difference in attitude between the clean-up participants and individuals who did not participate. Generally, the clean-up participants were more verbally and actually committed, more knowledgeable, better educated, and older than a sample of the general population from the same geographic region. Except for age, all of these findings were consistent with the work of other researchers. A derived multiple regression revealed that age, education, and verbal commitment, in combination, explained 47.7% of the variance in expressed actual commitment. It was concluded that the existence of cliques and structural equivalency among a population enhanced the probability that members of that population would be inclined to act in a similar manner. Cliques and structural equivalency were not the only models of social structure to impact behavior, however. At each clean-up location there were a number of participants who knew few, if any, of the other participants. With only two exceptions these individuals were present because of the encouragement of family or friends. Thus, it is clear that the behavior of individuals ins influenced by the desires of their social affiliates. The pattern of social structure at each beach was found to be associated with information source. At beaches where people learned of the clean-up through group membership, there was a greater degree of cohesion than at beaches where people learned about the clean-up through public media. Regardless of what the primary source of information was, secondary sources of information proved to be two and two-thirds times more effective at informing participants about the clean-up. The objective behind identifying factors associated with environmental activism was to learn how best to encourage environmentally-responsible behavior. A two stage approach should be adopted in any campaign designed to facilitate social change. Prior to an event, publicity should be planned. The primary objective should be to target a receptive audience of middle-aged, well-educated, verbally-committed individuals who have the support of their social comparitors. Re-existing organisations with established communication mechanisms should be targeted. if resources permit, the publicity should be expanded to reach as many as possible. The second phase of the campaign involves education. Clean-up participants were both more knowledgeable and better educated than non-participants. In order to encourage people to become environmentally active, managers, administrators and community organizers should seek to increase factual knowledge

Disaster Care for Persons With Psychiatric Disabilities: Recommendations for Policy Change

There is growing concern that the management of persons with psychiatric disabilities after disaster has been inadequate. Unfortunately, the literature is extremely limited, and empirical evidence on the best practices for addressing the needs of persons with psychiatric disabilities after disasters is sparse. A literature search of articles published in 3 widely used databases revealed only 12 articles on the topic. The 12 reviewed articles included persons with psychiatric disabilities after both natural disasters and acts of terrorism, both in close proximity to the disaster site and far away and in 3 different treatment modalities. All of the studies used clinically based samples. The available literature indicated that many persons with psychiatric disabilities demonstrate an ability to handle the stress of a disaster without decompensation from their primary illness. However, the literature also revealed that persons with severe mental illness (SMI) can experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and illness exacerbation after disaster. There is evidence that persons with SMI can be resilient in the short term when they are enrolled in an assertive community treatment program prior to the disaster however, the outcomes for people with severe mental illness in other treatment modalities are unclear. Well-designed studies with clinical and population-based samples on disaster reactions of persons with psychiatric disabilities are needed for disaster psychiatrists and emergency planners to develop empirically based treatment guidelines for this population

Challenging the appearance of machine intelligence: Cognitive bias in LLMs and Best Practices for Adoption

Assessments of algorithmic bias in large language models (LLMs) are generally catered to uncovering systemic discrimination based on protected characteristics such as sex and ethnicity. However, there are over 180 documented cognitive biases that pervade human reasoning and decision making that are routinely ignored when discussing the ethical complexities of AI. We demonstrate the presence of these cognitive biases in LLMs and discuss the implications of using biased reasoning under the guise of expertise. We call for stronger education, risk management, and continued research as widespread adoption of this technology increases. Finally, we close with a set of best practices for when and how to employ this technology as widespread adoption continues to grow