Biological Explanations of Addiction Essay Example for Free

Biological Explanations of Addiction Essay The biological model of addictions basic premise is that addiction: is an illness; that it is irreversible; that you are either addicted or not (there are no slightly addicted individuals) and that treatment must be medical.  There are many models of biological addiction mainly because current psychological research suggests that different areas of the brain are involved in different addictions (quashing the idea of an addictive personality per say). In this essay two biochemical theories will be discussed, plus the genetic model. The latter theory should not be seen as distinct from the biochemical theories as biologists would propose that any biochemical abnormalities that may predispose an individual to addiction are probably inherited. Thus studies looking at concordance rates of addictions in families, twins and adopted children would support all three of the models being discussed. One of the most popular theories of addiction is to do with the neurotransmitter Dopamine. Dopamine is involved with our pleasure/reward system. Anything we do of our volition that is pleasurable increases Dopamine. It is the release of dopamine that makes us feel Euphoria/pleasure. Drugs such as Cocaine, Alcohol and Heroin make Dopamine receptors release enormous amounts of Dopamine, so the user may feel intense pleasure. This however, does not explain addiction as many people drink or recreationally use cocaine and dont become addicts. The main idea of the theory is that individuals biologically susceptible to addiction have more sensitive Mesolimbic/ reward pathways in their brain, e.g. drugs may have a more profound (wow factor) on their Dopamine receptors. Another theory that may work alone or in conjunction with the Reward theory is that individuals with addictions may naturally produce low levels of Serotonin. Serotonin is thought to be a major factor in controlling our behaviour. So most of us can get drunk overeat etc but not repeat the behaviour compulsively. This is because our Serotonin levels are stable. It is thought that individuals with low levels may not be able to exercise control. There is support for this idea, e.g. low levels of serotonin are correlated with compulsive suicide, homicide, Bulimia and ADHD. Another suggestion has been that there is a genetic basis for developing an addiction. Although a specific gene has not been found, there is plenty of research that shows high levels of concordance between families who are addicted to: alcohol (Sarafino), Nicotine (Agrawal and Lynskey, Heroin (Devaux and Krebs) and Fowler (see Erika Cox book). However like all correlational studies this kind of research cannot imply cause. The concordance could be caused by environmental factors or social learning.  Additional support for the biochemical theories comes from MRI and PET scans, animal studies using agonists and antagonists and invasive brain techniques on animals, such as neuro toxins where Dopamine receptors are removed.

Expansion and the Evolutionary Lottery :: Evolution Essays

Expansion and the Evolutionary Lottery For a young scholar learning the basic concepts of science and biology, evolution was this grand theory of past life becoming more like present life over time via the utilization of such complicated and foreboding means as "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest." I came to understand that there was endless diversity of life, and variation was a result of the interactions of organisms with their environments. Natural selection placed pressure on the organisms forcing adaptations to be made, hence new species to arise over time. The oversimplified image of evolution that began to form in my head involved one single organism adapting to its environment and undergoing change in its own life span, therefore that one organism experiences evolution in action. I didn't think evolution was a process of becoming more "perfect" necessarily, but "better suited for more diverse situations," which boiled down to being better. Obviously this picture I was conjuring up was far from the mos t scientifically logical, and I was surprised and impressed to hear a better explanation. Evolution is depicted as an inconceivably time- consuming and expansion-driven process; it is not about "survival of the fittest" or being perfect, rather the most able to produce genetically variable offspring (less likely to be eliminated by natural selection). The major discrepancy between the two (oversimplified and clarified) formulations of evolution is the importance of random innate expansion, which arguably is a quality assigned not only to energy and matter on Earth, but also to evolution and as the entire universe. One of the simpler discrepancies in my illogical view of evolution merely involved timescale and the mechanism of change. A single organism cannot evolve within its own life span because of environmental pressure. The very first of Mayr's seventeen principles of inheritance states, "genetic material is constant ('hard'); it cannot be changed by the environment or by use and disuse of the phenotype... Genes cannot be modified by the environment... There is no inheritance of acquired characters" (Mayr, 2001, p. 91). Therefore, one organism cannot possibly experience evolution in action as a result of environmental interactions. The term adaptation creates some confusion here because it is so often coupled with evolutionary change and expresses a change suited for certain environmental conditions. The fact of the matter is evolution, as well as adaptation, occur over many generations and changes are not directly related to the conditions of the environment.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted in 1948 and one of the articles, article XXVI deals with protection of the fundamental rights, right to education: (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. The right to education is a universal right and is recognized as a hum an right. It includes the right to free, non biased and non political primary education for everyone, to make secondary education at least accessible to everyone and make access to higher education.The right to education also provides the obligation to avoid discrimination at all educational levels and to improve quality of education. Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights defined „education as teaching or instructions in particular to the transmission of knowledge and to intellectual development† and in a wider sense as â€Å"the whole process whereby, in any society, adults endeavor to transmit their beliefs, culture and other values to the young. â€Å" The rights to educations have been separated into three levels.Primary also known as elemental or fundamental education must be compulsory and free for any young person. It must not be discriminatory on nationality, gender, sexuality, etc. All countries ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Socia l and Cultural Rights States must provide free primary education within two years. Secondary education must be available and accessible to anyone regardless of nationality, gender, or sexuality. It can be free or not, and it can be compulsory, but it does not have to be.In some countries, even though minority, secondary education is compulsory, for example in Denmark, Croatia, Finland, etc. Higher education at the University level must be accessible to persons who meet necessary education standards to be able to go to universities. Higher education does not falls under the provision of free education. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims that: „Everyone has the right to educationâ€Å", the question is to what kind of education or who should provide it?The fact is that UDHR was drawn up in 1948 when only a minority of young people in the world had access to any type of education, however, today we can say that situation is much better, showing that four out of five adults worldwide have some literacy skills. The purpose of the UDHR's article XXVI is not just having quantative aspect, but also qualitative. The UDHR's article XXVI has certain provisions that must be fulfilled in order to have qualitative education, such provisions are: „Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stagesâ€Å"and „Elementary education shall be compulsoryâ€Å".Today educational opportunities have significantly changed in most parts of the world especially in Europe, North America, and Asia, nevertheless Africa remains the main problem regarding the number of educated people. Another interesting point has been made over the years, whether educational institutions are ready to provide qualitive education to young people, and prepare them for social, economical, and political aspects of human life.The commitment of the international community to implement the rights set out in the UDHR, mainly to adopt certain measur es to ensure effective recognition, has taken different forms from international treaties to internationally agreed programmers. The UDHR's rights and standards do not have force of law, however, the UDHR's rights have been transformed into treaty provisions making legal obligation on the states that ratified the treaty to provide citizens with free and qualitative education on at least primary level.The right to education is dealt with in Articles XIII and XIV of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and is also mentioned in Article XVIII(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As I previously mentioned almost all countries in the world have adopted and ratified treaties concerning right to education, but only some of them left doors open to individual citizens in their countries to challenge their own country for not complying with the provisions that they set in the treaties if that is the case.In all Western Europe countries which have highly developed legal system, now exists a body of case law in regard to the right to education. Besides international treaties, countries worldwide have adopted other instruments for implementation of the right to education, from Recommendations of international conferences of States, to Declarations and Programmes or Frameworks for Action adopted by intergovernmental conferences, or by ‘mixed’ conferences composed of representatives of governments, international organizations and civil society such as the World Conference on Education for All.The recommendations agreed by international conferences of states do not have the legally binding force as treaties, thus, they are normally adopted by consensus on the understanding that country will make everything in its power to implement provisions. In the world’s perception of the right to education changes has been made in the few past decades. the changes occurred in three phases or stages.In the first phase, lasting from the late 1940s up until the early 1960s, international concern over the provision of ‘fundamental education’ came to focus particularly on literacy and expansion of elementary of primary education in developing countries. The second phase started in the mid 1960s until the late 1970s when focus passed on functional illiteracy and expansion of elementary education continued. In the last phase, from 1980s until the present functional literacy was regarded as an aspect of learning needs. Two general points for educational policy can be made.The first is national efforts to reach out to those illiterate adults especially in Africa and the second to expand access to elementary education for the younger generation again mainly in Africa. These two points are the grounds for fulfillment of the UDHR article XXVI – right to education. Other provisions can be only partially fulfilled such as free education, but two provisions I mentioned can be fulfille d entirely in the whole world. The assessment of the fulfillment of the right to education is done by using so called 4As framework, which means that education must be available, adaptable, acceptable, and accessible.This 4A framework was developed by Mrs. Katarina Tomasevski, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education. This 4A framework is intended to be applied on the governments, parents, and teachers. I will briefly explain these 4 As. Availability means that education must be funded mainly by the governments, education must be universal, free, and compulsory. The governments must ensure necessary infrastructure and educational materials for students and professors. Facilities intended to be schools must satisfy all safety standards, and all each school must have enough professional educators.Adaptability means that educational programs should be flexible and schools must respect all religious holiday. Adequate care must be given to student and professors with di sabilities. Accessibility means all children must have access to school regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality or social status. School must be within a reasonable distance for children, and if necessary transportation must be provided. Children must be supplied with all necessary textbooks and uniforms without additional costs.Acceptability means that education that will be provided to students must be culturally appropriate and without if discrimination. Professors and methods of teaching must be objective, and all textbooks must not be bias or forcing single idea or belief. Professors must be at highest possible level of professionalism. UNESCO has several instruments for monitoring the implementation of the UDHR right of education with the support of Member States, various international organizations, the intellectual community, etc.Thus, UNESCO's constitution requires that member states must submit periodic reports on the implementation and development of the right t o education. The articles VI and VIII of the UNESCO constitutions provides: „Each Member State shall submit to the Organization, at such time and in such manner as shall be determined by the General Conference, reports on laws, regulations and statistics relating to its educational, scientific and cultural institutions and activities, and on the action taken upon the recommendations and conventionsâ€Å".United Nation bodies which deal with human rights periodically receive reports from Member States, governmental and non-governmental organizations on implementation and violations of human rights including the right to education. The Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are just two treaty bodies out of several which monitor the implementation of the right to education. Thus, it is important that two treaty bodies I mentioned above closely cooperate with UNESCO in order to protect human rights.I t is important to mention five international treaties which relate to education and protection of such right: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention against Discrimination in Education, Protocol Instituting a Conciliation and Good Offices Commission to be Responsible for Seeking the Settlement of any Disputes which may arise between States Parties to the Convention Against Discrimination in Education, Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Convention on Technical and Vocational Education.Besides to all the efforts of the United Nation, UNESCO, various international agencies and organization to implement UDHR's provisions mainly article XXVI, many governments still give too little attention to protection of human rights. Hugh amount of money are being injected in military development and maintenance, while education as the important pillar of the modern society still stays on the margins of the governments budgets.Mrs. Katarina Tomasevski, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education wrote interesting comparison stating that there are 150 soldiers for every 100 teachers in the world. She additionally stated that only 2% of educational funds come from international aid. Thus, in many African countries even primary education is not free and education simply becomes too expensive for the poor families in those countries.Education cannot survive without money, and implementation and protection of the right to education depends upon the funds that governments and international organizations are willing to provide. We can conclude that only Europe and North America managed to satisfy all the requirements stated in the United Declaration of Human Rights article XXVI. There is still a lot of work to be done to copy this example to the rest of the world, especially in Africa, where education is only one problem among many others. References: The United Nations Right to education organization United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization The State of the Right to Education Worldwide: Free or Fee World education report. 2000. Unesco Publishing.

Riley Republic and French Revolution Essay - 607 Words

Graded Assignment Two Revolutions Complete and submit this assignment by the due date to receive full credit. (50 points) The French Revolution began less than two decades after the American Revolution. In many ways, the American experience was an inspiration for the citizens of France. But the people of the two countries had different situations and had different concerns, which influenced the way each revolution began, progressed, and ended. In this assignment you will write an essay that compares and contrasts the two revolutions. In your essay, include information on the economic, political, or social conditions that were present; events that took place as each revolution progressed; and the final outcome of each. Did†¦show more content†¦Along the years they had almost more money than the nobility. The more money they had the more taxes would be raised. The bourgeoisie realized that they had no rights, they were more in quantity, they had more money than the higher classes and they just helped the Americans get their freedom from another country when they didn’t had freedom in their own country. Then they started planning their revolution. The bourgeoisie were not the founders of the country, but were the ones who executed the revolution. The capitalists lead the revolution but didn’t fight in it and the created a new government. Both were fought by discontent lower classes - In France, the peasants rose against the nobles. In America, colonials rose against British royalty. They were successful and created new states - the French monarchy became a Republic and the colonies became the United States. The Reign of Terror - after the monarchy in France had been overthrown, the country entered into chaos. During this time, a mobocracy ruled the nation. This never existed in post-war America, where only aristocrats could vote at the time. After the French Revolution, France became an aggressive state. The French tried to export Republicanism to other parts of Europe. America, on the other hand, tried to remain isolated... Both felt like the common man was being over taxed, the govern bodies were taking personal freedoms away, had a class society. Fortunately, both succeeded in overthrowingShow MoreRelated Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism and Consumer Society Essay1831 Words   |  8 PagesPOSTMODERNISM AND CONSUMER SOCIETY 1. introduction The concept of postmodernism has been much misunderstood. Resistance may come from the unfamiliarity of the wide range of work the term covers: the art of Andy Warhol; the music of John Cage and Terry Riley; the novels of William Borroughs, Thomas Pynchon, and Ishmael Reed; and the poetry of John Ashberry (p. 192). 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