Industry, Science, and Women in Victorian England :: Free Essays Online

Industry, Science, and Women in Victorian England In The Stone Book: The Mosaic Record of Creation, Thomas Cooper expressed the opinion of many Victorians, claiming that our brave and revered forefathers, who, if they could rise from their ashes and look about them in this their native England, as it is at present, would feel sorrow, instead of joy, mingled with their surprise (Cooper). Although such sentiments are not confined to any single generation, the desire to return to simpler, bygone times is particularly understandable in regard to Victorian England. After all, England was undergoing an unprecedented period of rapid changes: farms were giving way to factories; science and technology were revolutionizing how people viewed their world; and, for the first time in over a century, a woman reigned Britain. Practically nothing was left untouched, resulting in a conflict between progress and traditional norms. Recent discoveries of gold in India and Australia, plus the agricultural success of Canada, spurred a fevered amount of growth throughout England (Harrison 25). Railroads, canals, bridges, factories, warehouses, government buildings, and suburban neighborhoods flourished, as did England’s overall prosperity (25). Indeed, between 1850-1883, the national income doubled and exports increased 229 percent (24-25). New technology, such as hydraulic presses, reapers, and locomotives began to appear, as did telegraphs – the first of which connected Edinburgh and Manchester (260). With the proliferation of railways, traveling became faster and more convenient, causing people to describe the distance between two locations in terms of the length of a train ride (Sussman 252). Similarly, state-of-the-art innovations, such as the jacquard loom, which produced elaborate textiles by following patterns punched into paper cards, â€Å"blurr[ed]†¦ the boundary† between human and mechanical intelligence (255). However, although such advancements proved to be an economic boon, industrialization was by no means universally beneficial. As Fredrich Engles described in The Condition of the working class in England, entire neighborhoods were blighted by the choking smoke of nearby factories (Harrison 21). In northeastern Manchester alone, Engles found that 4,000 people were crammed into 400 coal-black, stagnant†¦Ã¢â‚¬ disgusting† ramshackle cottages, surrounded by â€Å"heaps of refuse, offal and sickening filth† (21). Impoverished workers, which comprised 70 percent of the population, â€Å"swarm[ed] abut the streets†¦ just as dirty as the pigs which wallow[ed]† in adjacent pens (21). In addition to their squalid housing, Engles noted that workers labored under dangerous conditions and were prone to hunger, occupational diseases, and unscrupulous employers (21).

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).

Comparing the Dystopian Society in Brave New World and...

The meaning of happiness is a vague concept. Mankind has always tried to achieve this state of well-being even though there isn’t a clear definition. Brave New World tells the story of a society where there is nothing but happiness, just like a utopia, but it is considered a dystopian setting by the modern society. In modern society, there is a simple road that most people follow to achieve happiness: earning enough money for education, getting a university degree, a prestigious and high-paying job, and a stable marriage. To some, the road is mostly about a circle of finding ways to earn and spend money. It seems like a bleak lifestyle when looked at from a different perspective. From a modern perspective the world of BNW is†¦show more content†¦Singing Commercials are a recent invention.† (26). He also talks about how commercials try to seduce children: â€Å"In Europe, conscripts used to be playfully referred to as cannon fodder. Their little brothers and sis ters have now become radio fodder and television fodder. In my childhood we were taught to sing nursery rhymes and, in pious households, hymns. Today the little ones warble the Singing Commercials.† (27). Commercials that seduce children are many, but not all of them are aimed at children. For example, in some of the Coca-Cola commercials that are shown in warm climates, there is a hot weather and a person who is discomfortable with the heat is shown drinking a cold bottle of Coca-Cola. Then the camera zooms in and shows how Coca-Cola not only quenched their thirst, but also freshened them up. Here, the aim is associating hot weather with Coca-Cola. If people think about drinking a cold bottle of Coca-Cola in a hot Summer day, then the commercial has achieved success. Another method to create happiness is soma, a drug that works like an extremely effective anti-depressant. It creates an illusion of happiness, and it is one of the many reasons why BNW is considered a dystopia. However, the modern society is not so much different. Dr. Brian Kaplan, A medical doctor, had this to say about the increasingShow MoreRelatedDystopian Society: Comparing Brave New World and 1984 Essay1705 Words   |  7 PagesDystopian Society: Comparing Brave New World and 1984 Different societies have risen and fallen in the continual search for the â€Å"perfect† society. The definition of this utopia is in constant flux due to changing times and cultural values. Many works of literature have been written describing a utopian society and the steps needed to achieve it. However, there are those with a more cynical or more realistic view of society that comment on current and future trends. These individuals lookRead MoreA New Dystopia By George Orwell1372 Words   |  6 PagesA New Dystopia Who will reign supreme; Aldous Huxley or George Orwell? Ever since these two authors released their dystopian novels over 50 years ago, both authors and avid fans have argued as to which dystopia will take over our society. Will it be the brute force, boot and gun approach of Orwell s dystopia or the all-loving, drug-accepting society that Huxley illustrates? If you take a closer look, a mix of both dystopias is quite apparent in our society today; we are living in our own modern,Read MoreAtlas Shrugged And Brave New World1127 Words   |  5 PagesThe book that I am comparing and contrasting to the extraordinary â€Å"Atlas Shrugged† is the book â€Å"Brave New World† by Aldous Huxley. â€Å"Atlas Shrugged† is about socialism. The Men in Washington want everyone to be equal which is socialism. â€Å"Brave New World† is about people making babies to be the mastermind of the World State. Atlas Shrugged and Brave New World are similar but different â€Å" Brave New World† was published in 1932. Aldous Huxley also wrote the books Visions, Books and Thoughts, Crome YellowRead MoreAnalysis Of George Orwell s Brave New World 2696 Words   |  11 Pagesplace and, paradoxically â€Å"No place†. It is a literacy concept describing a society characterised by undesirability defined by general human interpretation. In such societies, responsibility is almost universally placed on an oppressive and inexorable state, denaturing what defines one as human. This can be applied to both the settings of ‘Brave New World and ‘1984’. However, both authors approach their respective dystopian visions in different ways. Orwell envisioned INGSOC, a state based on security