Life In a Song

"What the Hell" -Avril Lavigne
This explains how for most my life I have been who everyone expected me to be, never breaking any rules, doing what was expected of me, and being the "scholar athlete" I was labeled as. But now it's time for me to grow up and move on to the person I want to become, and if that means breaking a few rules to figure it out, that is what I'm going to do.

"I Look so Good without You" -Jessie James
I went through a rough break up and sang this song every morning while getting ready for the day and it helped me remember to stay strong, never take back (excuse my language) dumbass, flousy men who want their "freedom" to sleep around and then come back around expecting you to be there. (little more personal than I expected but I guess I must still be worked up about it(: haha)

"Peacock" -Katy Perry & "Wannabe" -Spice Girls
hahah There is absolutely no way I could not have these on the songs of my life. My six best friends since elementary school and I have choreographed dances to theses songs and performed them numerous times. There is just so many memories when I hear them.

"God game me You" -Blake Shelton
This song refers to all those people in my life who have been there for me through everything. I'm not really an emotional person, I never cry, and for those who are the few who have seen me through those rare days, I appreciate them more then they'll ever realize. My family, who has accepted me through my never-ending tom-boy stage from 2nd grade through high school(: haha , and accepting and loving me through my crazy personality even when I embarress the crap out of them by doing cartwheels in the isles when we're grocery shopping at Walmart.
 For my father, who is my mentor for numerous hobbies and life lessons. My mother, who has shown me how to act like a girl even when I swear I wanted to be a boy;p hahaaa My brothers, who are probably the reason I thought I could keep up with the boys, but for keeping me tough and I must thank them for being less intelligent then me, because it really makes me look like a genius in mom and dad's eyes!

Lastly,
"Orignial Symphony" (song with no lyrics)
I chose a song with no lyrics because my life cannot be summed up into one song. The things I've experienced, felt, seen, and endured are much more than any song could ever protray. The amount of experiences that still lie infront of me are endless and ones I've been through, indiscribable.

Research Articles

Keeton, Carole. (2004). Forgotten children. Texas Comptroller.

“Concerns about the medications foster children receive have been raised in other states. In Minnesota, for instance, a University of Minnesota study for Saint Louis County found that nearly 35 percent of the county’s foster children were receiving psychotropic medication, compared to 15 percent of the general population of children.” Keeton, Carole. (2004). “Forgotten children.” Texas Comptroller, 199.

This book’s main focus is on foster care children in Texas and their lack of importance to receive quality care, including mental care. Though her focus is elsewhere, she touches on the topic of overmedicating our youth, especially foster care children, simply to make it easier to care for them. Keeton says that many Texas foster children are heavily medicated on psychiatric drugs, often not tested for children, which leave them tired and dreary and easier to care for. She also uses a handful of individual testimonies from individuals who have adopted children from foster care and found that their children have been misdiagnosed, and/or over treated for their disorder. This source is not going to help me find a great amount of evidence for my research paper but it does help me gain a different view of my topic and aids in the answer to my research question.

“In just five years, the annual number of children placed on these powerful mind-altering

drugs has increased by an alarming 528%” Statewide Advocacy Council. (2003). The psychopathic drugging of Florida’s Medicaid children. Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida, pg. 1.

This report focused in on Florida’s rise in medicated foster care children. It holds useful information backed by research conducted by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. It portrays the massive rise in children on Medicaid receiving psychopathic drugs.  It does throw a lot of numbers and statistics out, which can be relatively helpful for my paper, but it also addresses the negatives of using such drugs and gives it a human opinion as well. Unfortunately the length of this document is not extensive. I will be able to use useful information from this document and use it as another useful backbone to proving my answer to my research question. This article and the prior one also made me think about possibly changing my research topic and focusing more on children in foster care then all children in the United States.

Chapter 10 & 11

Chapter ten uses multiple individuals to provide evidence for how psychiatry is where it is today with an overt number of diagnosis and continually more prescription drugs. The way in which the chapter is structured leaves us wondering if the DSM was guess-work rather then medical analysis and if any disorders hold any validity at all. Ronson meets with Robert Spitzer, once the editor of the DSM, and Spitzer discribes the editing scene as one of chaos and riot. People would shout out conditions and as long as it had a checklist to accompany it, it would be rightfully added to the DSM. This is how many of the disorders came to be. Soon drug companies became dependant on the diagnosis of these disorders and made millions of drugs to "treat" them. Ronson also addressed the overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and the drugs used to treat them. The question is of the validity of these diagnosis or is it a way for drug companies to make a profit.
This book really opened my eyes about psychiatry as a whole. In the beginning I was very intriqued by the thought of psychopaths roaming about around us, but as the book came to a close I found myself more engaged in the thought of psychiatry being a hoax. The realism behind the ways in which the disorders were acknowledged or even created was unprofessional and to have someones diagnosis riding upon an individuals lack of ability to describe or even wrongly describe the disorder is outragous. How could we as a country, so unknowingly, let our population stick labels to people that are not even valididated by evidence or profound research. And then, feed them pills to treat this so called "disorder". I am fairly outraged at the thought of this and particularily in the fact that no body has even brought this to the worlds attention.

Chapter 8 & 9

In Jon Ronson's chapter nine "Aiming a Bit High" he delves further into the Bob Hare Checklist by meeting with Bob and Paul Britton, an advid user of the checklist. During his meeting with Bob, Bob addressed his concerns with the checklists power and it becoming lost in the wrong hands. Ronson decided to seek out the man behind the most unfortunate psychopath hunt in recent histroy which brought him to Paul Britton. Britton had used the list to help identify and explain sexual preditors. He was famous for his work as he was very accurate, often times describing the life and looks of a preditor. But when Rachel Nickell's case came along, and he described the criminal, he was blamed for the locking up of the wrong man, even though his description fit the actualy murderer in just a looser manner. His reputation was ruined.
I especially liked chapter eight " The Madness of David Shayler". I felt it was told just like a story and I found this particular story to be very intriquing. It had depth and it had confussion. I became extremely confused and concerned when learning about the government cover up theories. I had heard of them before but never put any validity to them until now. The fact that the government could pull of acts such as described in this chapter is befuddling and somewhat scary. Also, the fact that M15, a former spy for the United States, came out and shared these things is also reason to freight. He may be crazy and make it up, but he may not be so it is hard to tell what to believe. Chapter nine was less intriquing but helpful in the progression and understanding of Bob Hare's Checklist.

"Something Barrowed"

Plagiarism is not specifically about the what, but more the why. The rules of plagiarism delve deeper then simply yes or no. Malcolm Gladwell addresses this topic by use of examples including that of the play "Frozen", numerous musical numbers, and musical sequences. His main focus on Bryony Lavery's play "Frozen" and its large similarity to Dorthy Lewis's literature pieces proves that plagiarism is not a black and white idea like society tends to view it. He touches on the fact that ideas are constantly thrown into society and used to form new ideas or mold old ones. He asks if it is possible to take credit for words, for ideas. If ideas such as cancer research are "stolen" than that is for the common good of the world but if an individual steals an article on cancer, than it is taking more seriously. For this reason is why plagiarism is more about the why and not the what. The complexity of plagiarism does not come from its nature, but rather from the question as to where to draw the line between useful searching and straight up copying.
Gladwell made me really think about the topic of plagiarism in a new light for the first time. I always viewed it as a lazy person finding the easy way out. As he addresses the topic, I now see that it is much more then someone taking the easy way out. It holds complexity that is difficult to determine. The answer to whether something is copied is not a yes or no question as I had always assumed it to be, but rather, how much is copied and for what reasons? I had never even considered the thoughts and ideas of cancer treatments being an indicator of plagiarism; however, it consistutes as an idea stolen. Words are a difficult thing to monitor let alone give credit to. Because we as humans constantly vocalize and socialize, we continuously create new sayings everyday. The odds that the way in which we choose to put our words together don't coinside with others is hard to determine. I was a little confused on who was talking by this passage? It seemed to flip flop from referring to "my" work and then speaking in 3rd person.

Ronson Chapters 6 & 7

In Chapter 6, Ronson draws attention onto Al Dunlap. By using the specific example of Shubuta, Mississippi and how the shut down of Sunbeam factory had ruined the town, he showed just how influencial one individual can be. Dunlap was responsible for this, among many other shut down of companies. Ronson met with Dunlap to assess his personality characteristics and see how he compaired to Bob Hare's Checklist. He found that Al had a firm belief in preditor versus prey and gave excuse for his actions by claiming they were all assests of profound leadership. His heightened sense of self and lack of empathy made Ronson believe he could possible be one of many "psychopathic CEO's" affecting the world.
Chapter 6 and the discussion of Al Dunlap was very interesting. I thought the fact that Al had not wanted to meet with Stewart but met with Ronson purely on his interest in why he differed from most individuals was a caution about his personality. It gave evidence of his profound sense of self worth but also his curiousity in the understanding that individuals vary greatly. In chapter 7, Ronson had a conversation with Adam, another journalist. Adam's words towards Ronson's beliefs and works for the passed years really stigmatized Ronson. He came up with reasons to persuade himself of Adam's faulty judgements. This shows Ronson's insecurity because he addmitted that Adam had valid points but was unwilling to shift his judgement on psychopaths and the work he had been conducting and how it related to him and his characteristics.

Research Topics

Alzheimer's Disease; Is it Genetic?
My interest in Alzheimer's Disease stems from my grandfathers diagnosis back in 2001. I have seen the progressiveness of the degenerative disease and how it effects those dealing with the slow loss of a family member. I have since been very interested in the process that Alzheimers takes and how it is generated. Recent studies have shown that genetic factors may be to blame in addition to possible links in nutrition. This topic is close to me and I would enjoy researching it in more detail.
I would search for information via the internet and look for case studies along with detailed information known about the disease. I may run into a road block while trying to find ten pages worth of information because the disease is still relatively new and not a substancial amount of evidence is known about it.
Is Fast Food making us Lazy and Fat?
The fast food industry is one that is taken off the recent years, partly because of its accessability and lack of effort on the consumers part. I would look at questions such as: Is fast food to blame for obesity? Does America have the right to blame fast food? or themselves? What effects does fast food have on our bodies? This topic is rather general and I feel I wouldn't have a difficult time finding enough information to address this topic. I also find it interesting to see the effects it has on our society seeing that sixty percent of all American's end up overweight. I would search for studies via the internet and hopefully find opinions along with factual studies.The answer would be some what indirect so my answer may involve opinion and fact. This can be problematic because those reading my paper may not have the same view points as I do.