Baptism Essay -- essays research papers

Baptism There are nearly 21,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. With such an enormous number of diverse groups, understanding the beliefs and practices of each and the differences that distinguish one from another can be quiet confusing. While many denominations are similar, observing the same rites and sacraments, others have little in common other than the fact that they all accept Jesus as the Lord of God. In today's modern world, when we think about religion and Christianity, it is almost impossible not to think about Christian Baptism and its members. Christian Baptism is that point at which one acclaims and affirms the true gospel of Christ (Clearman 12). The ministry of John the Baptist is the founder of Christian Baptism. To achieve the erasing of sin, he administered a baptism of water by doing it in the water of Jordan River by itself. Between many people that John had baptized he also baptized Jesus Christ. Jesus' baptism inaugurated his public ministry, and he later gave his disciples the mission of baptizing in the name of Trinitarian faith. They continued to practice the baptism of water of the type administered by John. Jesus continued John's movement, but he also added new meaning to baptism. Now, baptism symbolized not only a change of heart but also the coming Holy Spirit which was to mark the messianic age (Hinnells 91). Baptism not long after this became very popular and people all over the world were practiced baptizing. Today ...

Personality development, the concept that personality is affected Essay

Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual. Some ideas in the psychological and scientific study of personality include: Personality changes Personality development, the concept that personality is affected by various sources Personality disorder Personality genetics, a scientific field that examines the relation between personality and genetics Personality pathology, characterized by adaptive inflexibility, vicious cycles of maladaptive behavior, and emotional instability under stress Personality psychology, the theory and study of individual differences, traits, and types Personality quiz a series of questions (usually multiple-choice, rating scale, or True/False) intended to describe aspects of an individual’s character, thoughts, and feelings Personality style Personality systematics, among subsystems of personality as they are embedded in the entire ecological system Personality test, examples would include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), Rorschach Inkblot Test, and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Personality type, refers to patterns of relatively enduring characteristics of behavior that occur with sufficient frequency Personality trait, refers to enduring personal characteristics that are revealed in a particular pattern of behaviour in a variety of situation REACTION: Personality is the unique traits of an individual and may be recognized at the early stages of their life1. Personality development can thus be defined as the development of a person’s attributes that make one unique. Personality therefore reflects an individual’s psychological traits, characteristics, motives, habits, attitudes, and beliefs. Personality also displays ones reaction and interaction with other people and consists mainly of the following three components: temperament, environment, and character. Character is an individual’s entire traits or attribute that distinguishes one person from the other. The mental characteristics of an individual’s personality are the complex attributes that makes the individual unique and different from other people. These characteristics include all the patterns of thought and emotions that cause one to do and say things in particular ways. Fundamentally, personality is expressed through ones temperament tone. Personality also defines ones values, beliefs, and expectations. There are several possible factors that are involved in shaping an individual’s personality and are mostly seen as coming from a person’s heredity and the environment that they are exposed to. PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT An individual’s personality is an aggregate conglomeration of the decisions they have made throughout their life and the memory of the experiences to which these decisions led. There are inherent natural, genetic, and environmental factors that contribute to the development of our personality. According to process of socialization, â€Å"personality also colors our values, beliefs, and expectations †¦ Hereditary factors that contribute to personality development do so as a result of interactions with the particular social environment in which people live.† Personality is defined as the enduring personal characteristics of individuals. FREUD’s THEORY Drives-Freud believed that two basic drives—sex and aggression—motivate all our thoughts and behaviour. Structure of personality-Freud conceived the mind as only having a fixed amount of psychic energy (libido). Tripartite personality-Freud believed that personality had three parts—the id, ego, and super-ego—referring to this as the tripartite personality Defense mechanisms- The ego, having a difficult time trying to satisfy both the needs of the id and the superego, employs defense mechanisms. Psychosexual stages-Freud believed that at particular points in the child’s development. REACTION: Personality’ is what distinguishes you from other people – the unique attributes and qualities that make you who you are. It is an accumulation of your values and beliefs, expectations, experiences and decisions you’ve made. So the question is, what can you improve, and how will that improvement make your life better? Your beliefs are derived from your background conditioning, mostly from childhood. This conditioning happens unconsciously. Your parents, environment, social norms and expectations, experiences and other influences have shaped who you are. It’s important to realize that changing your personality is not changing â€Å"who you are† – it’s more of a software upgrade in the way you think and act, and by taking on one or two traits at a time, you make small incremental changes with a huge payoff. Underneath it all, you’re still the wonderful you, only with a higher, more attractive-to-good-things vibration. Personality psychology â€Å"Personality† is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. The word â€Å"personality† originates from the Latin persona, which means mask. In the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking world, the mask was not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but instead was a convention employed to represent or typify that character. Personality also refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments, and behaviors consistently exhibited over time that strongly influences one’s expectations, self-perceptions, values, and attitudes. It also predicts human reactions to other people, problems, and stress. there are many different theories of personality, the first step is to understand exactly what is meant by the term personality. A brief definition would be that personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. Some of the fundamental characteristics of personality include: Consistency – There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors. Essentially, people act in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations. Psychological and physiological – Personality is a psychological construct, but research suggests that it is also influenced by biological processes and needs. It impacts behaviors and actions – Personality does not just influence how we move and respond in our environment; it also causes us to act in certain ways. Multiple expressions – Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It can also be seen in our thoughts, feelings, close relationships and other social interactions. Theories of Personality There are a number of different theories about how personality develops. Different schools of thought in psychology influence many of these theories. Some of these major perspectives on personality include: Type theories are the early perspectives on personality. These theories suggested that there are a limited number of â€Å"personality types† which are related to biological influences. Trait theories viewed personality as the result of internal characteristics that are genetically based. Psychodynamic theories of personality are heavily influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, and emphasize the influence of the unconscious on personality. Psychodynamic theories include Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stage theory and Erik Erikson’sstages of psychosocial development. Behavioral theories suggest that personality is a result of interaction between the individual and the environment. Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts and feelings into account. Behavioral theorists include B. F. Skinner and John B. Watson. Humanist theories emphasize the importance of free will and individual experience in the development of personality. Humanist theorists include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. REACTION: Personality PSYCHOLOGY is a characteristics possessed by a person that influences his or her cognitions,emotions,motivations and behaviors in various situation.It is a unique combination of these characteristics provides the basic foundation of who you are and makes up the personality that your friends and family have come to like (and dislike!).There are many theories under personality psychology. Personality is something that arises from within and remains quite consistent throughout life, but the environment and the situation play an important role in determining how different aspects of your personality are expressed. There are four fundamental characteristics of personality. First, it is constant and people tend to behave in the same way when they encounter similar situations. Second, personality not only influences actions, but it also actually causes people to behave in specific ways. Third, personality is influenced by both psychological and biological factors. Finally, personality is expressed not only in behaviors, but through emotions, thoughts, social behavior, and close relationships. How the world perceives you is a direct reflection of and reaction to how you present yourself to them. Race, age, and gender are qualities you have no control over, but certainly contribute to your personality because of how the world perceives you based on these features. A person who continuously experiences racial discrimination may guard himself against it by at first seeming cold and unfriendly. But once he opens up, you may discover someone completely different inside.Dig a little deeper, and the private aspect of your being appears: dreams too bizarre to discuss; experiences too sentimental to reveal; fantasies that may seem childish to others; goals, standards, and morals you aspire to; daily internal dialogue, thoughts, and ideas — all of these elements make up the â€Å"you† that only you truly know. And only you can decide when to share these parts of your personality with others

Has the Prime Minister got too much power?

The power of the Prime Minister largely comes from the royal prerogative, where what the monarch said was law. The prime minster is said to be first among equals, which means to describe the Prime Ministers position is largely greater to other ministers of state. However over the last hundred years, this has been less accurate description of the role and influence of the Prime Minister. First among equals implies an equal status among the minsters and that he is simply the ‘first' and represents the ministers and therefore the government and the country. However, the Prime Minister in reality is far more powerful than what he looks to be. The Prime Minister can hire anyone that is a UK citizen to become part of the cabinet through appointing someone as a peer in the House of Lords. Although he picks solely from the House of Lords and Commons, he can appoint anyone who is a peer to then join the cabinet. There is one case, where a former MP, Peter Mandleson, recently joined the cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for a third time in 2008 despite not being an MP or a peer. This power certainly erodes the idea of ‘first among equals'. However, it must be noted that cabinet could have taken this decision as a whole, though it is unlikely. Further the Prime Minister decides the policy of the cabinet and thus the government, the party and the country. Such power, is argues, is too much for one person to comprehend and bear. The Prime Minister as the leader of his political party is subject to the parties support and his ability to whip his majority in the House of Commons to pass his policies and legislation into law. However, the Prime Minister's reliance on the strong party whip system can sometimes be more of a weakness than strength. If his largely loyal party and Members of Parliament vote with his 95% of the time, then they may vote differently on the most important issues that matter to them. If the Prime Minister is always creating a party political vote on legislation going through Parliament, then the occasions when he may need to whip on most may not necessarily be as secure as it would be otherwise, he may be forced to rely on opposition support, an embarrassing political situation that he would be in. One example is the rebellion of over 120 Labour MP's on the plan to partially privatise Royal Mail. However, the Prime Minister can in some cases overcome rebellions by giving concessions to the aggrieved parties i.e. those who rebelled. One example of this was the row over the ‘ten pence' tax rule, a commitment brought in after Labour's success in the 1997 General Election to help poorer wage earners pay taxes, which came to the fore after Prime Minister, Gordon Browns reversed this policy commitment despite it being outlined in Labour's manifesto. The ‘Strong Party Whip System' however, doesn't necessarily exist in the key decisive polices and legislatives proposals presented to Parliament. Indeed, many comments have been made of Tony Blair's proposals of 90-day detention without trial defeat, his first in the House of Commons as Prime Minister; saw a huge blow to his power and ability to rule as Prime Minister. Especially considering when Labour passed every policy and legislation it proposed into law. After the defeat of the 90 day detention without trial legislation in 2005, not only did policies start to become harder to pass into the law system, the actual position of Tony Blair as an actual Prime Minister was called into question. Thus, the Prime Minister is not as powerful as he first appeared – as it can be said that once a Prime Minister has overstepped his power, his ability to lead as Prime Minister becomes substantially limited. This would imply that the Prime Minister is restrained in what he can actu ally do, and therefore is not ‘too powerful' at all. On the other hand, many would argue that the point of ‘overstepping the line' of being powerful is a lot further than other political leaders, especially across the continent, such as the United States where the people are strongly opposed to any sort of detention without trial and the President is restrained by the Constitution. The fact that the point at which the Prime Minister oversteps the moral boundaries is harder to cross than other world leaders is why many want to fragment the power of the PM to institutions like the Cabinet, Parliament and the European Union. However, I would argue that this devolution of power should go to lower institutions such as Borough Councils and Parliament in every aspect except income tax, legislation national law and national security. A greater likelihood of having your views heard has been demonstrated to show an increase in participation, not just in politics, but decision making as a general. Thus, the Prime Minister is too powerful and he must have a fragmentation of his power. Arguably, however, this would be a threat to the leadership of a country. This implied in a modern day world, where the businesses in the UK are global, and interconnected, needed national coordination, and ruling. This on the other hand shows that the Prime Minister should not garment his power, as it is essential to the country to retain is competitive feature. However, like the President in US, there are examples which highlight the fact that a leader doesn't necessarily have to be overly powerful to ensure the prosperity of a nation. Therefore, the Prime Minister is indeed, too powerful.