Free Capital Punishment Essays - Murderers and Rapists Deserve Another Chance! :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Capital Punishment Essays - Murderers and Rapists Deserve Another Chance! When turning on the television, radio, or simply opening the local newspaper, one is bombarded with news of arrests, murders, homicides, serial killers, and other such tragedies. It is a rare occasion to go throughout a day in this world and not hear of these things. So what should be done about this crime rate? Not only is it committing a crime, but today, it is signing your life over to the government. This is a risk one is taking when he decides to pull a trigger or plunge a knife, but is it really up to our justice system to decide one's fate? There are many issues that address this question of capital punishment such as religion, the effect on society, restitution being denied, the possible "wrongly accused", and the rights of the convicted. But how often do these concepts creep into the public's mind when it hears of our 'fair, trusty' government taking away someone's breathing rights? The Bible states "Thou shalt not kill," and this being a sin should have to be amended within oneself. However, the Bible also states "Don't judge others' personal convictions." It is the government's responsibility to punish people that disobey the law to keep our world in tact but is it their right to take away their lives? It is a Christian's responsibility to point out to those who sin that they do so and this country, trusting in God as it says it does, should do just that. So if the government stands strongly by this statement that's on the dollar bill, may they line up all the liars, adulterers, Buddhists, thieves, covetous and murderers at the chair. If they shall look into this one sin as so evil may they see all ten commandments so holy. The society is so confused as to what is "right." More and more children are becoming murderers themselves. The reason is obvious: they see that if they kill someone they go to jail, get the death penalty, and the government, who they know as the "good guy" kills them for punishment. Lesson learned: the finger is pointing to its own actions. Learning morals is only as hard as people make it. Why complicate things? Some people think that restitution is granted when one is sentenced to the death penalty.

True Colors: Carolyn Kalil’s Personality Assessment

Calm, happy, complex, practical, spontaneous – these are a few ways to describe one’s personality. Everyone has several different pieces to their personality, almost as a puzzle has many pieces that make up one big picture. Throughout time many individuals have come up with their own methods to analyze one’s personality. This essay will describe my understanding of Carolyn Kalil’s True Colors personality assessment and present evidence to support its accuracy. Kalil’s personality assessment has four possible outcomes. After taking the assessment one will be given a color; blue, green, gold, or orange. Each color resembles a different personality type. Some examples are calm, curious, organized, and active, respectively. After taking this assessment I found out that my personality is blue, which fits me. I prefer calm, harmonious relationships, working in groups, helping and nurturing others, along with well though decision making. The assessment asks a series of â€Å"would you rather† style questions. One of the questions, for example, is â€Å"When in a relationship I (a) prefer my partner to know that I love them without telling them, (b) tell my partner that I love them. After the assessment your results are generated with some information about your color. For best results, one must be truthful when answering the questions. Some people lack personality ethic, which is when one pretends to be likeable rather than showing their true colors (Lamberton, Minor&, 2010). Lacking personality ethic may give false results, such as how you want to be rather than how you really a re. I was a little shocked at the accuracy of the results. This pushed me to dig deeper to find more information on Kalil’s strategy. Carolyn Kalil’s study used analysis and interpretation, a common method in creating and evaluation surveys. She gathered her information and then assigned meaning to it which helped her to determine conclusions and give her findings significance. Her independent variables were the personality types listed above. Her depended variables were â€Å": 1) Feeling, Thinking, Judging, and Perceiving from the MBTI, 2) the General Occupational Themes of Social, Investigative, Conventional, and Realistic from the SII, and 3) the Orientation Scales of Helping, Analyzing, Organizing, Producing, and Adventuring dimensions of the CISS. (Kalil, 1998). Instrumentation Carolyn Kalil used two instruments when developing her True Colors personality assessment. These instruments were character cards and words clusters. The character cards consisted of an individual ranking four cards, each of which represents one of the four personality types (Krathwohl, 1998). This test appeals more to the blue and gold personalities. The word clusters required the individual to rank a list of adjectives one a scale of 1 to 4 with 4 being most like the individual and 1 being least like them (Krathwohl, 1998). Obviously, this test was self-scored. This test appeals more to the green and orange personalities. Result Kalil operated on the principal of convergent validity. This means that her assessments are related to what they should, in theory, be related to (Lowry, 1990). An example of this would be similarities among test scores. This is because one assumes if you’re taking a test then you should have certain knowledge for that subject, resulting in a high test score. Although the subjects for both instruments were male and female, no gender differences were found in Kalil’s studies, (other personality assessments such as the Strong Interest Inventory or the Campbell Interest Skill and Survey did, however, show strong differences between genders) concluding that gender does not affect personality types (Lowry, 1990). Kalil found that personality types do change over time and may be influenced by outside factors such as the environment in which they are testing or their current mood (Kalil, 1998).

Malcom X and Racial Identity Development Essay

Racial Identity Development is the steps minority or majority groups go through to gain understanding of their racial identity. Many people don’t go through all these stages in their life and it requires a lot of inner growth to get there. After watching Malcom X, a civil rights leader, I saw how Malcom went through each of the stages of black/ minority racial identity development; some with difficulty and others with not as much trouble. After reading about and reflecting on the minority development, I realized that I’m at the stage of immersion/ emmersion. I find myself more concerned about my culture and who I hang out with. I’m constantly asking questions about where I come from and why certain things work the way they do based on skin color. I’m also noticing how my race is seen through the eyes of others/ majority groups and what factors contribute to their opinions. I’m making more connections with kids and adults my race instead of with others just to get a better understanding of myself. Everybody has to go through the pre-encounter stage. This is the stage where race isn’t very apparent to the individual. They don’t question the idea that â€Å"white is right† and â€Å"black is wrong†. Malcom experienced this stage in many ways. One example of this is when Malcom went to the barber shop to get his hair permed. After seeing his hair straight, he makes a comment saying, â€Å"look like white hair don’t it†. This is an example of the pre-encounter stage because Malcom is saying that white people have straight hair which automatically makes white hair better. The next stage is the encounter stage. In this stage, the individual grows aware of their race and the disadvantages that come along with it. A certain event usually triggers this acknowledgment. An example of how Malcom went through this stage was when he was in school and was told by his white teacher that he couldn’t become a lawyer because he was black. This is also a form of direct racism. He realizes that there are certain things he can and can’t do due to his race. He also realizes that he’s part of a group that has certain disadvantages. After the encounter stage comes the stage of immersion/ emmersion. At this point in the individuals life they want to become more intact with the visible symbols of their race. They concentrate on themselves and the others that are their race. They tend to move away from people of other races. As Malcom is going through this stage, he tends to push people of other races away. A white reporter approached Malcom and asked him what she could do to help support the black community and he replied that there was nothing she could do to help the black cause. He felt that white people had so much of an advantage that they wouldn’t be able to understand or help the black community. The last stage of the minority racial identity development is internalization and commitment. In this stage, the individual uses what he/she learned about themselves and their race and transfers it to take action about their concerns about their race. When Malcom reaches this stage, he takes his time to apologize to other black civil rights leaders. He realizes that they all had the same ending goal and that they should be working together to help better the understanding of their race. After learning about these stages of minority race identity development, I feel like I have a better understanding of myself and others around me. I’m more open to learning more about other races and if my race reflects theirs. As I go through the other stages, I hope to gain a better understanding of what I can do to better the way my race is perceived and how to move on through the stages.