Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Reflection paper - Essay Example In this chapter, Ms. Wright, is a renowned psychologist and sports nutritionist has explained different cases of eating disorders. Ms. Wright emphasizes in the readings that eating disorders are not just about food. There is a much more psychological reason why eating disorders are prevalent among the youth. One of the underlying reason for such disorder is a low self-esteem derived from wrong perspective of one’s physical appearance. Thus, most young people associate their lack of physical attractiveness to their self-worth which is very dangerous since they go to extreme lengths to maintain a certain ideal figure. Ironically, the media projects unhealthy images of beauty where waif like figures become the benchmark for young people. The chapter also discussed other underlying reasons for eating disorders, among them, dealing with the trauma of being away from family and friends for the first time, dealing with new pressures and new expectations as findings from the cases of Ms Wright reveals. As a conclusion, the chapter not only details the different eating disorders but their underlying causes as well. More so, the chapter informs the reader of the significance of an intervention program for eating disorders so that further damaging effect to the affected youth at-risk would be lessened. As revealed by the study, the adolescent and youth groups are the most affected segment by eating disorders. As such, this has serious implications to school officials especially school counselors since they are in direct contact with this group most of the time. Therefore, the school must be active in identifying at-risk youth once they are admitted in the school system. The school must conduct a discrete eating disorder test once a student has applied for admission in a school. Moreover, a new student must view a presentation regarding eating disorders. Once the result of the test is released, a one-on-one consultation with the school

How Has the Internet Influenced the Nature of Community Involvement in Assignment

How Has the Internet Influenced the Nature of Community Involvement in Development Decisions in Urban Planning - Assignment Example According to the International Association of Public Participation IAP2, any method which involves the public in making decisions or solving problems is known as a stakeholder engagement. The Internet has contributed significantly in increasing stakeholder engagement in the urban planning process. This paper attempts to investigate how far the Internet has been successful in doing so. Urban Development Planning The Planning Authorities formulate development plans for the urban, semi-urban and rural sectors. The entire development planning process involves the services of a wide range of professionals. They include civil engineers, architects, environmental engineers, geographers, real estate and property managers, surveyors, cartographers, community association managers, surveying technicians and also market and survey researchers (U.S Department of Labor, 2008, p. 222). The Role of the Internet The Internet has primarily been used to computerize the existing processes of communicati on between the Government and the community people. Citizens have used the e-mail to exchange information with the Government officials instead of writing hard copies of letters. The Community people have accessed information regarding urban development activities, on specific websites instead of reading pamphlets and reports. They could download this information from the Internet as a digital copy if they required it. Many urban planning bodies have posted an extensive amount of information regarding their plans and programmes on these websites. Earlier there used to be newspaper notices and official records regarding the same. The citizens can access a wide variety of planning related documents on the internet which sometimes also includes the agendas of urban planning board. Many planning agencies have adopted Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on their websites which have allowed the citizens to access GIS data and design their own maps. In 2004, a survey was conducted on the websites of 582 cities of the U.S.A which had recorded a population of 50,000 or more in the 2000 Census. It was found that 55% of the websites posted the urban plans of the Civic Authorities and 35% of them provided an e-mail address for the citizens to communicate. 37% of the websites also enumerated the major points of discussion of planned meetings with the community people. (Goodspeed 2008 p29; Conroy & Cowley, 2004) Brody, Godschalk and Burby have identified five areas where the Internet has played a significant role in facilitating community participation in urban planning and development. Some of these areas still offer considerable scope for the Internet to function as a significant medium of communication (Goodspeed, 2008). 1) Providing Information to the Community and Providing them with Opportunities to influence Planning Decisions: There are urban planning websites that have a provision for the citizens to write their views in an open forum where the planning authoritie s can clarify these opinions following a process of exchange of views. The website of PlanNYC (a student run site concerning urban planning) has allowed website visitors to post their comments. Similarly, blogs have been launched on the internet by some communities that have the provision for the residents to post their opinion on a variety of topics relating to urban development planning. A group called E-Democracy.org has launched a forum which facilitates