Social Sciences

I always wanted to be somebody. I knew there was something wrong with me which didn’t let me cope with the world. I was always told you should be somebody and not someone lost in the crowd. Fascinations of life got to me, sometimes it overwhelmed me. I get overwhelmed at certain things which freaks me out. Times I felt lost, times I felt happy, times I felt confused. Try articulating my thoughts, I get hurt. Try articulating what I would like to do, told you shouldn’t do so. Behave a certain way, I get dirty looks. Do something others do, I get laughed at. Try to stand up  for yourself, you get beaten down. Life for someone like me does suck at times. Think about it. It can be confusing, but its true.

This research report will show how fragile one person is and the perspectives of Idiographic and Nomothetic personality theories affect two men having a dinner conversation, by using option A, as defined by Dr. Hershman, Santa Rosa Junior College  Professor. According to the textbook,  Personality and Personality Growth (Sixth Edition)
by Robert Frager and James Fadiman who defines Nomothetic as the "study of personality in order to develop regular laws of behavior" (Frager et al., and Idiographic as "an approach which see's to understand personality through a rich and detailed study of an individual's life" )(Frager et al). In My Dinner With Andre, two men Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn engage in a dinner conversation, regarding events in Gregory's life over a five year  period, which shows characteristics defined through literal definitions of Idiographic and  Nomothetic personality theories.

There are many ways we come to know who we are inside. We each go through learning  processes to become who we are. There are also numerous reasons why we each should be unique. Each and every individual are brought together through a process that takes years for one to come to fruition. Those experiences, those personalities that come into our lives that influence us, those learning curves we all endure help shape our individuality, our uniqueness and our authenticity.

Each and every human being is a child of someone. Whether we want to believe it or not, we were brought into this world and we will continue the cycle in developing more children for many years to come. The parent-child relationship can be a troublesome one at times. It should be noted through psychological and sociological studies, no family is the same and no family is perfect. As we mature and develop, we all learn life's lessons the hard way. Experiences can be remotely similar with each person, but the uniqueness makes us different from one another. As our curiosity grows, it should  be noted that we witness relationships blossom and also strain to the point of no return. Relationships and admiration of one another is felt, not just in real life, but through works of poetic literature and in a musical nature. Chapin sang poetically regarding a workaholic father that seemingly misses his child growing up, Mayer's words of remorse and neglect are expressed passionately also through music, Roethke's persona matured through influences under an alcoholic father, Atkins' parenting challenges that ultimately cause a sense of hope, and finally Kipling who wrote eloquently regarding his theories of life through a process similar to a recipe. Through adversity these materials of poetic expression  provided heartfelt words of love, despite their troubled problems faced in their medium. The children mentioned specifically throughout these pieces, are someone's child who should be treated well, have someone as a role-model and this cycle of proper development will thrive for many moons to come.

Within our world, the English language contains metaphors whether we understand, utilize, or even believe their existence throughout verbal projections divulged on a daily basis. From Doty's exuberant onset of “Souls on Ice”, images of mackerel provided fascination, wonder, and intrigue reminiscent of perfectly placed puzzle pieces. “I was struck by the elegance of the mackerel in the fresh-fish display. They were rowed and stacked, brilliant against the white of the crushed ice; I loved how black and glistening the bands of dark scales were, and the prismed sheen of the patches between, and their shining flat eyes. I stood and looked at them for a while, just paying attention while I leaned on my cart--before I remembered where I was and realized that I was standing in someone's way” (Doty, “Souls on Ice”). Inquisitive beauty at its finest, observed from first-person observation showed even a simple fish touches a person the way an eloquent love letter makes women shed tears. By elaborating his feelings eloquently, an ironic beauty unfolds with an uncanny ability to define metaphors that flows through his brains river.

To examine whether two groups with specific ages have an ability to remember a list of twenty items and remember the items on the list after thirty seconds. By gathering data from random participants and separating into groups of two (those twenty years old and younger as well as those thirty-five and older), the results show those younger then twenty responded quicker in reciting off items off their given table in a shorter amount of time with fewer errors and add-ons possible proving the hypothesis in which those younger in age are able to remember items utilizing short-term memory.