Psychology

Edited by Schwartz  Cohn (1996), the book, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders focuses on the relationship between sexual abuse and eating disorders.  The book provides statistics revealing that there is sufficient evidence to support the theory that many of the sufferers of eating disorders have been sexually abused either in their childhood or as adults.  But, there is contradictory evidence, too, that the book does not shy away from revealing.  Vanderlinden  Vandereycken, two of the contributing authors, note that in a systematic study of 112 consecutive referrals of normal-weight bulimic women, Lacey (1990) found that only eight patients (7) mentioned a history of sexual abuse involving physical contact (Schwartz  Cohn, 18).  However, evidence for a relationship between sexual abuse and eating disorders outweighs evidence for no such relationship (Schwartz  Cohn, 20).
   
The first part of the book, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, is dedicated to women, and the second part is dedicated to children.  False memory and dissociation are also discussed.  Dissociation as a topic is especially relevant to very young victims of sexual abuse.  Cognitive development is a gradual process, and a child may not be in the position to understand let alone explain sexual abuse, which is why countless child sexual abuse incidents go unreported.  But, an eating disorder in a child could be a symptom of sexual abuse for a psychotherapist to understand.  After all, children may develop eating disorders after being sexually abused because eating is often associated with family meals, nurturing, and proof that parents care for children.  Thus, feeding and then abusing the child are incongruent, confusing, and difficult to assimilate and integrate (Schwartz  Cohn, xi).  Van den Broucke  Vandereycken (1997) note that an eating disorder is akin to a scar of a violated body (89).  Despite cognitive underdevelopment, therefore, children are able to convey by means of their eating disorders that they have, in fact, been sexually abused.
   
In grown women, sexual abuse may lead to eating disorders as abused women deliberately leave scars on their bodies to fend off further sexual attacks through unattractiveness (Schwartz  Cohn, xi).  Even so, the fact remains that all women and children do not suffer from eating disorders after being sexually abused.  The book, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, is limited in scope for this reason.  From what I have learned as an intern at the Sexual Assault Center of Family Services, I can be certain that although all victims of sexual abuse require therapeutic support, most of them do not complain of eating disorders.  Then again, I only have experience with the adult and child victims that approached me through the Sexual Assault Center for a limited period of time.  I was answering their crisis hotline for crisis intervention, supportive counseling as well as referrals to psychotherapists.  I also worked with the victims at the hospital with empathetic listening, emotional support, and accompanied victims as they went through medical screening.  I had the opportunity to help the victims make informed choices through the medical process as well.  Furthermore, I supported them through the legal process, including police reporting and court procedures.
   
My experience as a case manager at the Sexual Assault Center teaches me that most victims of sexual abuse are, indeed, women and children, and so Schwartz  Cohn are correct to dedicate entire parts of their book to these victims.  However, the book does not cover all types of psychological problems that sexual abuse may result it, which is why it is more appropriate for an investigator of the effects of sexual abuse to refer to general books on psychological disorders with reference to this form of abuse.  Most of my clients at the Sexual Assault Center seemed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder rather than eating disorders.  Adopted by the American Psychiatric Association as part of its official diagnostics as recently as 1980, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or post-traumatic stress syndrome is a mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress (Young, 1995, 3).  None of my clients appeared as though psychotherapy would not help them cope with the stress they suffered by way of sexual abuse.  Even the process of discussing the incidents of sexual abuse appeared difficult for some clients.  There is no doubt in my mind for this reason that cognitive impairments like memory problems or dissociation may follow this form of abuse.  After all, many of my clients were sexually abused by people they were familiar with.  
   
As Schwartz  Cohns book, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, increased my knowledge of sexual abuse, my rewarding internship experience solidified my faith in working in the field of social work.  Still, I believe that a book on sexual abuse and mental disorders in general, instead of eating disorders alone, would have been more relevant in the context of my experience.  Schwartz  Cohns book is especially important for those that are investigating eating disorders rather than sexual abuse.  As a matter of fact, none of my clients reported having approached the Sexual Assault Center because their eating disorders were becoming unmanageable.  Sexual abuse was the focus of my internship experience, which is why Schwartz  Cohns book leaves me longing for further knowledge about psychological problems associated with sexual victimization.  Schwartz  Cohn write,
          When sexual abuse has occurred, the body and sex organs become the enemy in the
          context of the distorted survival strategy of children who must maintain the belief that
          adults are good (safe) and therefore they (the body) must be bad and deserve to be
          punished. (Schwartz  Cohn, xi)

It appears as though sexual abuse manifests itself as eating disorders through a process that psychoanalysts would understand best.  I was not granted permission to sit through psychotherapeutic sessions during my internship at the Sexual Assault Center.  Then again, if I had the opportunity to sit through psychotherapeutic sessions with my clients, I would increase my understanding of various other psychological disorders resulting from sexual abuse to boot, for example, post-traumatic stress syndrome.  Schwartz  Cohens book, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, has led me to consider studying psychotherapy in depth.  Naming psychological problems apart from eating disorders, the book reveals that there is much to be learned about my clients problem and how to help them.
   
After all, I would like all victims of sexual abuse to recover as criminal justice systems are charged with the responsibility to punish the abusers.  As a psychotherapist, I would be the principle overseer of my clients process of recovery.  But even in that case, Schwartz  Cohens book, Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders, would only provide me with relevant information to work with clients who are suffering from eating disorders as a result of sexual abuse.  In the case of children, however, it would further help to identify the abusers as children may not report incidents of abuse until after a trained psychotherapist has identified sexual abuse as the leading cause of eating disorders before asking the child for more information.  Regardless of whether I pursue psychotherapy as a subject of interest, however, the fact remains that perusing Schwartz  Cohens book is an essential step in the recovery process of victims of sexual abuse  just like a member of the support staff attending the crisis hotline at the Sexual Assault Center.  Neither the book nor a telephone attendant at the Sexual Assault Center makes a significant difference in the recovery process yet we are vital parts of the same.  

My lifes joys are really simple. Mostly, it revolves around my family life of being a sister to my siblings, a loving daughter to my parents, a wife to my loving husband, and above all, a mother to the most precious of gifts that I have been blessed withmy kids.  It comes natural then that I aspire to be the best of what I can become in my profession and my education, to serve as a role model for my kids on the true importance of achieving their lifes dreams through higher education.

Perhaps being an American-Samoan may have played a role in my desire to be in a position where I will be more capable of giving assistance to my family.  After all, my heritage is all about closely-knit family ties where intimacy is common even among relatives of third degrees.  Hence, this makes for the purpose of my endeavor of aspiring to finish my degree in Business Management and reach the apex of what I can achieve in my life.

With this in mind, I have embarked on yet another undertaking in my preparation for providing my family with a better future.  I realize that my present job of being a Management Analyst, although fulfilling, still holds the promise of being promoted to higher positions after I have earned my degree.  Likewise, it will serve as a defining example to my children on how to pursue the goals that they will set upon themselves in the near future.  It will be clear to them, based on what I have chosen to undertake, that setting ones goals is only half the journey, and that the more crucial half comes only after you have actively pursued that dream.        
In essence, I can only consider that I have lived a full and happy life after the realization of these goals.  My earning a degree in Business Management will open career avenues that were once out of reach and that I was able to give my family the best of what I can and most importantly, I have been a good role model to my children.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a disorder in which the patient feels compelled to perform an activity such as washing or rubbing in a repetitive manner. These activities serve to reduce the anxiety felt by the patient and when the activity is not done, the patients anxiety increases. The paper describes the research conducted upon OCD and the most commonly used treatment.

It was found that most people with OCD do not know the treatment for OCD. Surprisingly, even health professionals are not fully aware of the treatment for OCD. Researchers have come to the conclusion that CBT has shown the most improvement in patients.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a compulsive disorder in which the patient is forced to respond to a particular thought process by doing a particular task again and again in order to reduce their anxiety. It is fairly common in the population and is known to be present among most people to a small degree. But when the disorder moves on to dominate a persons mind completely it takes the form of a disease that has to be treated.

Lewin et al. (2005) pointed out that OCD was most prominent in children and adolescents. OCD for children is usually a means to fill up some other deficiency which could be familial, social or academic. If OCD is not treated in children, they carry it forward to their adulthood (Lewin, Storch, Merlo, Adkins, Murphy, Geffken, 2005).

OCD can be both harmless and harmful. In some people it remains an obsession to do certain things at certain times whereas in other people it turns itself into a disorder. Lewin et al. (2005) explain the term OCD by dissecting it into three parts. Obsession is a thought process which keeps occurring to the patient to do a particular task and when the required task is not done, the anxiety of the patient increases. Compulsion, on the other hand, is the execution of the task again and again to reduce the anxiety (Lewin et al., 2005).

The author here tries to explain the process or the development of OCD. OCD begins as a thought process to complete a particular activity. These activities are usually harmless to begin with washing hands, rubbing or tapping on something. It would probably start sometime in early childhood when a child would feel like tapping on wood. Then the same thought slowly becomes an obsession, it can go in such manner every time the child passes the dining table hisher mind asks him to tap on it. The child would do the harmless activity once and maybe continues doing it in future. Then would come a time when if he or she would not tap on the wood, heshe would start to feel nervous or anxious. In this way, a simple thought can easily turn into an obsession. This was a simple example there could be many different ways in which people could start displaying OCD and following it.

A child displaying OCD would never think about it as though it were a problem. For a childs simple mind it would only be a small game that heshe would be playing. The implication and understanding that it was actually a disorder would only come when the child grew up, but by then the person would be so used to it that not doing the activity would just add to hisher anxiety. Hence, Lewin et al. (2005) stress the fact that OCD should be treated in childhood (Lewin et al., 2005).

Lewin et al (2005) say that Cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy with serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the treatment to use when dealing with pediatric OCD. In a recently conducted trial, it was found that CBT was showing marked improvement in children with OCD. On the other hand, another study has shown that pediatric OCD treatments have not been long-lasting (Lewin et al., 2005). Franklin, Abramowitz, Bux Jr., Zoellner, and Feeny (2002) believe that the treatments that have been suggested till now have had no proper backing from researchers. Without any proof of the superiority of the treatments like CBT etc, psychologists have had to depend on their own logic and belief in treating patients with OCD (Franklin, Abramowitz, Bux Jr., Zoellner, and Feeny, 2002).

This kind of double and conflicting information can only lead to more confusion to the doctors and the patients. The most important part in any disorder is the treatment of the patient, without a provable treatment, the treatment of OCD can become more complicated.

Another major hurdle in the treatment of OCD according to Lewin et al. (2005) is that the numbers of medical health professionals trained in CBT are very less (Lewin et al., 2005). Hence, even though treatment is available and can be used to benefit a number of patients, there has not been proper utilization of the treatment. .

For those children having treatment refractory pediatric OCD Lewin et al (2005) suggest Intensive CBT or I-CBT. The only difference between CBT and I-CBT is that I-CBT is more frequent and lasts longer than CBT. It has proven to be more beneficial to children and adults than CBT (Lewin et al., 2005).

During the I-CBT sessions, Lewin et al. (2005) says the children are first made to answer a test which gauges their level in the OCD. They are then explained what is obsession and compulsion. The children are engaged in activities which increase their anxiety to do the compulsion and then they are asked not to succumb to the activity (Lewin et al., 2005).

The I-CBT sessions tell the children that the compulsive habit that they have acquired is harmful to them. Before coming to the I-CBT sessions, most children would be unaware that they have any problem. For them, as mentioned before, it could be something very unimportant or negligible. Once they know that they have a disorder, they would be more adept at trying to cure themselves. And the fact that it is coming from a health professional usually helps them accept that they have a problem. It is more applicable to adults who might be reluctant to believe that they have a problem. In the session, as has been mentioned before, the children are made to do tasks that would cause them to go into the compulsive activity zone. And then they are asked not to engage in the particular compulsive activity. Once they are able to refrain from doing the compulsive activity the first time, the children would feel more relaxed and realize that they do not always have to finish the compulsion to reduce their anxiety.

For example, let us look at a boy who has to tap any wooden object every time he goes by it. In this case, he would be made to pass a wooden object a number of times through the day to increase his anxiety. The first time he passes by, he will know that he is being watched and has been told not to tap the wood, so he passes by without carrying through his compulsion. Next time he passes by again, it will be easier to fight the compulsion. The more times the child passes by the wood and does not tap it, he will start to feel more confident and more relaxed.

This does not mean that the disorder will be completely cured, there might be times when the child might give in and tap the wood but these will be few as compared to the childs previous history. And at the end of the sessions the participant will be asked to remain in contact via either some other clinic or via the telephone.

Even though a few studies have shown that CBT has been very helpful in treating OCD, there is research being conducted to find better medication. Franklin et al. (2002) conducted a study to determine whether CBT was to be used with any other additional medication or should be used alone. The results showed that there was a very small difference between the two groups only CBT and CBT plus some extra medication. The patients both showed significant progress at the end of the session (Franklin et al., 2002).

These kinds of conflicting data can be very confusing. If the data had shown that either one was more beneficial than the other one then there would have been some kind of conclusion drawn. But here the data seems to suggest that whether more medication is used or not, CBT has a substantial effect on the patients mental health. On the other hand, the data also seems to point out that extra medication has no effect at all on the patients mental health.

Franklin et al. (2002) also add that the study is incomplete as they have not yet received the follow-up data. They still have to see if the people who had showed improvement have lapsed back into OCD (Franklin et al., 2002). An important part of a study is whether the disorder has returned back. The results of the follow-up need to be studied to see if any group is going into relapse.

Almost all studies and researchers have concentrated on the patients and their mental distress. But the family of the patient also suffers just as badly as the patient. They are in a more distressing position of not being able to do anything to help the patients. A number of researchers have also blamed parents and relatives for OCD. Rachman (1976) says that most OCD patients are those whose parents are overcontrolling and critical (cited in Cooper, M., 1996).

Cooper (1996) conducted a survey on relatives of OCD patients. These were the people who were involved or living with an OCD patient. Most of them were depressed and wanted to find a way to deal with the disease. They had all at one time or the other tried some therapy or medication to deal with OCD. Some had found these therapies and medication a little helpful while others had not. The most disturbing behavior of OCD patients as told by the families was the depression that the patient faced. This depression not only caused pain to the patients but also caused anxiety to their families. A large number of OCD patients were unemployed causing an additional burden on their relatives (Cooper, 1996).

Being unemployed due to a disease can be a major irritant for any person. But when a person is already suffering from a disorder and is co-dependent emotionally on hisher relations, not having a job can only serve to increase the stress.

The situation with OCD is found to be stressing not just to the patients but also to the families. The treatment for OCD is also quite unclear. Though some researchers believe that CBT is the best option, others are not so sure. Such kind of conflict of opinions between health professionals can lead to more stress to the OCD patients. And even when the treatment is chosen, there are very few health professionals who are trained in CBT.

OCD is more common than it was a decade before, probably because of more information and understanding on the subject. The treatment of OCD is a much debated topic among health professionals but it is a topic which requires a solution. But right now, the most important thing to be concentrated upon is that health professional need to be trained in the use of CBT. There is an urgent need to give training to health professionals in CBT, so that the maximum number of patients can be treated. The information on the treatment also needs to be made easily available in order to make sure that OCD patients are detected and treated in an early stage.

According to The Merriam Websters Dictionary (2009), attention is defined as the act or state of applying the mind to something. The secondary definition of this term states a condition of readiness for such attention involving especially a selective narrowing or focusing of consciousness and receptivity (Definition of Attention, 2009). In reality this definition is much more complex than the simple wording suggests. Attention involves using ones cognitive skills to focus ones attention, as well as having the required level of motivation to pay attention to specific stimuli to being with. Paying attention is not just look at something, or reading something, it is the ability to process the information we are receiving.

Attention involves several different cognitive tasks including, perceiving the stimuli, focusing on the stimuli, and processing the information that we receive from the stimuli. Without appropriate levels of cognitive skills and perception, one loses the ability to focus ones attention on specific stimuli. Cognitive deficits that create attention difficulties may result in learning difficulties such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and other problems such as acting out in the classroom.

There is no one standardized definition of attention. Attention involves many different cognitive processes, and the use of several different skill sets. Especially, if one is deliberately paying attention to a specific set of stimuli or perceptions such as a classroom lecture, or a movie. It can also include factors such as motivation, learning ability, and information processing.

Attention can be either a deliberate or an involuntary act. According to Johnson, and Proctor (2004), people unconsciously pay attention to a limited amount of stimuli that we encounter each day. This is known as Selective Attention and this is involuntary. However if we are motivated to pay attention to specific stimuli we can focus our attention on that specific stimuli and pay attention to only that stimuli. For example, if you watch a child playing a video game, you will see the child   become deeply so immersed in that game to the point that nothing outside that video will disturb the child. They are choosing to pay attention to only a select set of stimuli intentionally and deliberately rather than involuntarily.

The problem with choosing to pay attention to a specific set of stimuli lies in the fact that the mind perceives so many different stimuli within the course of a single day that it is often difficult to determine which stimuli require ones attention. So all too often attention remains at the involuntary level at best. Paying attention to stimuli in a deliberate manner requires training the mind over the course of time. Children begin learning these skills in their early childhood and they continue developing over time. If someone is poorly trained in voluntarily focusing their attention on specific stimuli than they will have more difficulty paying attention to something than someone who has better training in this area.

According to Willingham (2006), there is a powerful connection between cognition, and attention. Paying attention requires the use of memory, and perception. One must perceive the stimuli one is going to pay attention to, as well as using ones memory and other cognitive skills to process the information or stimuli you are trying to pay attention to. It is rather like the chain link fence if even one link in the chain is broken than the fence will not be as effective at keeping out unwanted stimuli. If a person has cognitive deficits, specifically in the areas of memory or perception they will also have difficulties with their attention span. These cognitive difficulties can range from ADHD to brain damage however they almost inevitably result in difficulty paying attention to one specific set of stimuli while tuning the others out.

The links between cognition and attention have been studies throughout the history of psychology. According to Johnson and Proctor (2004) the first studies on attention began with Wundt in the 1870s and famous psychologists from every area of psychology from Watson, to Bandera have studied attention, and have attempted to develop suitable explanations of what attention is, and how attention works. These studies have provided a wealth of information that seeks to explain how cognition and attention are linked, and the information is too diverse to explain within the course of a three page paper.

As more research is done, the links between cognition and attention will probably become increasingly clearer. This is true, most specifically, because psychology has evolved from performing simple pencil and paper laboratory experiments involving cognition to experiments that use modern technology such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) to detect which parts of the brain are more active when a person is utilizing the various cognitive processes to pay attention to a specific set of stimuli.

It can be concluded that attention involves several complex cognitive processes. The person needs to perceive the stimuli, be motivated to pay attention to the stimuli, and process the information they receive from the stimuli in order for the process of paying attention to be complete. Attention is a crucial aspect of learning new information, and of utilizing any information that we learn. People can and do deliberately pay attention to specific stimuli deliberately, one example, is that of paying attention to a classroom lecture. Finally, it can be stated that cognition and attention are closely linked which is one reason why cognitive deficits often lead to problems with attention as well.

Recent studies show that the collective rather than the individual is the primary source of intricate meanings in the organizations. The collective becomes the existential focus of differential choices. Indeed, it is often the collective which denotes the conventional idea of sensemaking. The individual becomes an obscure entity of focus. It is the individual which destroys the efficacy of reality it is the engine in which overriding forces like rationality and irrationality converge. Indeed, the individual becomes a theoretical source of pragmatism.

Now, the cutting of the climbing rope that connected two individuals symbolized three essential things. First, it indicates a pragmatic breakdown of the shared symbolisms and goals. Second, it indicates the fragile nature of relationships, as they pertain to roles and goals. And lastly, the rope cannot be destroyed in the categorical sense of the word because it is an intricate part of a larger system. Now suppose the rope is cut, how will individuals make sense of the world

The answer lies in the idea of sensemaking itself. Sensemaking as an ordinary and ongoing process is rooted in identity construction. The cutting of the rope was a crisis associated with identity construction. Through the rope, each climber was responsible for the other, and in turn reliant upon the other for their own safety. If members of a rope team are responsible for each other, but one is forced to cut the rope, the resulting identity construction is potentially confused. Sensemaking, therefore, also becomes confused. However, this is momentarily because the individual is and will always be able to make sense of the world, as though heshe is part and parcel of a growing environment. Meanings, symbolisms, and languages serve to direct the individual into other meaningful experiences, experiences which creates the idea of sensemaking.

The question about what human consciousness is all about has presented itself from the very early stages of its conception. Human consciousness does not admit of an exact definition but it is explained by many people from scientific, religious and philosophical perspectives.

According to the original description of the Yahwist text, human consciousness is composed of the first testimony of an individuals discovery of his or her own body. Man is a  subject not because of his awareness about self but because the structure of his body allows him to make any human activity (Pope John Paul II, 1979). On the other hand, Karl Marx is of the view that consciousness is how humans define themselves. According to him, it is not mens consciousness that determines their existence but rather it is their social existence that determines their consciousness (Rojas, 1977). The science sector called the neuroscience has been attempting to solve the mystery that lies behind the human consciousness but according to their research, the key to what human consciousness is all about still remains hidden for now. Some scientists believe that they can explain the power of the mind by making an analysis of the brain mechanisms. They think that by finding out how the neutrons interact with each other, they can also discover the nature of the human consciousness (Knol, 2009). From a scientific perspective, consciousness is considered as a biological phenomenon and people must think of it as a part of their system.

What is the relationship of consciousness to the brain
The brain does not give consciousness to humans but it plays a role in consciousness in a sense that it is an instrument that transmits and limits the process of consciousness. Brain processes cause consciousness but this consciousness is not just an extra substance, it is rather a higher level feature of the system that is composed of lower level neuronal elements (Searle, 1980).

What does it mean to be human
What it means to be human is a question that elicits plenty of responses. Based on biological evidence, DNA can tell whether or not something is indeed human (Terminally Incoherent, n.d.). From a religious Christian perspective, to be human means to be made in the image and likeness of God (John Hopkins University, n.d.). Others feel that humanity can never be defined by DNA testing because it is a quality that is innate in a person. Human beings mean many things to many people and these definitions are just some of the few perspectives. I am of the opinion that to be human means to think and feel. This is what sets us apart from the rest of the living species in the planet.

According to Vaughn (2009), the first year of a babys life is a very significant stage of development. The infancy stage of development is the shortest stage of all stages that a baby undergoes in the process of development. At this stage, the fetus must first adjust to the life outside its mothers womb. The development during this stage is mainly concerned with increase in control of the babys muscles and development of consciousness. The facial structures and the brain of an infant are the first things to develop followed by the ability to control the facial and head movements. Physical development at infancy starts from head and continues towards the tail. According to Logsdon (2009), the baby also portrays a proximodistal type of development whereby development starts from the central part of the body and continues outwards. Smaller muscles of the body also develop at this phase.

The development of the fine muscles allows the baby to perform easy movements with the hands and the feet. The muscles of the babys fingers develop and the baby can grasp objects. The baby portrays considerable bodily plays which indicate development of motor capability. Babies also develop ability to control the larger muscles of their body such as the legs, hands, and other body muscles. The neck muscles build up and the baby can turn his head from side to side (Logsdon, 2009). Various body senses also develop at this phase. By the end of about a month, the baby develops the sense of taste and smell. His eyes also start to focus although he can only see objects which are very close. The baby also starts responding to noise in his surroundings and tracks them with his eyes as he turns his head. The baby also recognizes her mothers voice from familiar voices. By the end of the third month, he can recognize various human faces. At about the eighth month, the baby develops the ability to distinguish emotional expressions. The baby first learns that crying is her way of communication. The baby also starts making sounds as a way of learning how to control his voice. This is usually accompanied by facial expressions and tongue movements. The baby starts moving every object heshe grasps into the mouth. This greatly helps in building up muscle harmonization that will be useful later in speech development (Vaughn, 2009).

Cognitive development is composed of mental activities such as learning, memory, reasoning, and symbolization. According to Piaget, infants are born without mental framework. Piaget claims that mental framework of an infant develops later as a result of the environment the baby is encountering. Piaget argued that infants do not have perception of self or things and they simply experience a wash of feelings (Huitt  Hummel, 2003). They only have elementary schemas for interacting with the rest of the world. That is to mean that they will only hold things that are placed on their hands, move their eyes to trace moving objects and suck things placed on their mouth as an assimilation schema. If the infant wants to modify the sucking schema generated by sucking on a pacifier, then that would be referred to as an accommodation schema (Huitt  Hummel, 2003).

Later on, the infant develops a more advanced perception of the intricate world. As a result, a more comprehensive and conceptual sense of the world and the place of the infant in that world develops within the infant. At the end of infancy, the baby will have developed a primitive understanding of things and actions as separately existing in time and space. For Piaget, the end result of infancy is the development of figurative capacity which allows the baby to realize the existence of an object even when the object has been removed. Piaget helps us to identify the four stages of cognitive development. These include sensory motor or the infancy stage which has got six sub stages. Intelligence is demonstrated through the use of motor activity while perception of the world is limited but developing. According to Huitt  Hummel (2003), there is increased physical development which allows the babys intellectual ability to begin developing. The second stage is the preoperational stage in which intelligence is demonstrated through the use of signs. Memory and imagination are developed as use of language matures. The third stage is the concrete operational stage whereby intellectual capacity is demonstrated through reasonable and organized manipulation of symbols related to tangible objects. The last stage is the formal operational stage in which the intelligence is portrayed through rational use of symbols related to theoretical ideas (Huitt  Hummel, 2003).

Oswalt (2007), states that infants begin to develop trust for others when they start recognizing the work done for them by their caretakers. Infants start crying to express feelings of hunger, pain, and anger. Creation of attachments with the caregivers is the most important aspect in the development of a healthy social life during infancy. The baby reflexes such as crying during infancy helps in drawing the attention of caregivers. During the pre-attachment phase, the babies are not yet emotionally involved to any one caregiver and will accept even the care provided by strangers. Babies however have an exceptional way of recognizing their mothers voice and smell from delivery. Babies may smile in response to voices and touch at about the age of two months. Increased interactions with their caregivers help to increase their psychological, expressive and social development (Oswalt, 2007).

With time, babies start acting differently to strangers in relation to their primary caregivers. At the age of about eight months, babies make gestures that are aimed at encouraging their care givers to increase their relation to them. At this age, babies have developed a solid attachment to their primary care givers and any form of separation creates unnecessary anxiety which may include crying for example when the father leaves. Babies start enjoying participation in certain social ritual practices like biding someone goodbye or saying hello. Babies also watch how their caregivers react to definite rituals like a hug or a tap on the door. By the second year, babies learn how to negotiate with their caretakers to meet their needs. Environmental and other individual factors can hinder social and expressive development. A very good example is the identification of the symptoms persistent developmental disorders such as autism. These children experience problems even in relating to other children. They are also not able to interpret the emotional expressions of other people. The other environmental factor that can affect the emotional development of a child is the withdrawal of consistent love and affection (Oswalt, 2007).

In creating a representation of visual system, the brain is entitled to cope with the verity that every given 2- dimensional image of the retina could be the protrusion of innumerable object configurations in 3-dimensional world. As the ambient clarification undergoes alteration, the shape, spectral quality, intensity, and size of the retinal images as well change. To be valuable, perception can never represent the physical image quality, rather, it ought to consider the circumstance in which a stimulus emerges (Krauskopf and Farell, 1990).

Though in most circumstances the intrinsic ambiguities are resolved by visual system, there are times when visual varies between unrelated perceptions of a stimulus. Examples of such bi-stable stimuli comprise figure ground reversals, transparent 3-dimensional objects as well as binocular rivalry. Though interesting in their own right, bi-stimuli provide a potentially productive paradigm for comprehending how visual system resolves ambiguity in the images of the retina (Logothesis and Schall, 1989). This is due to the physical unchanging nature of the stimulus, thus any shifts in responsiveness are seemingly mirrored via stages of visual processing which are firmly connected to a perceptual decision.

Several topical reports using a specific paradigm, binocular rivalry, have aggravated a vigorous discourse over the stage in visual processing upon which signals access perception. Two general assumptions have emerged on how visual system resolves ambiguities. One assumption is that visual system resolves ambiguities through filtration of information in order to derive a solution but solution is never stable and changes with time. Individuals have seen reversible figures, such as Necker cubes, Escher figures, daughter or mother-in-law etching, and vase face image (Krauskopf and Farell, 1990). This class of intricate figures encompasses information of ambiguity which permits two dissimilar perceptual outcomes. For instance, when shown a young woman etching, a person will say, I observe a young woman, and then, oh at the moment I observe a mother in law. An individual can see either the daughter or mother in law, and changes from time to time, but both cannot be seen at a similar time. Nor can a person willingly change from one item to the other. It just occurs. Therefore, the assumption is that our visual system filters a number of information in order resolve ambiguities, but its never locked into a similar solution for ever (Logothesis and Schall, 1989).

An alternative assumption is that information in visual system is censored by inhibitory communications before or at the stage of monocular convergence. In this idea, alterations in perception would be interceded by shifts in the balance of suppression between neurons discerning for a particular monocular image. Since these communications ought to take place early in visual pathway, any alterations in neurons activity in high visual areas would be clarified by input loss, possibly correspondent to closing of one eye thereby resolving ambiguity (Lee and Blake, 2002).

Most of the issues people deal with in the present world are more ambiguous as well as more complex, but very few readily accept the complexity and ambiguity of these issues. Many of them tend to simplify the complexity or resolve the ambiguity by filtration of some information which results to a certain viewpoint or perspective. Additionally, some individuals will filter dissimilar information with an aim of constructing a different solution. Furthermore, visual system is incapable of handling concurrently differing or two contradictory interpretations. But as reversible figures, new perspective or viewpoint happen involuntarily and thus permitting visual system to resolve ambiguities (Logothesis and Schall, 1989).

More than sixty five years ago, Virginia Satir made a debut in the therapy field through her work on family therapy.  She first worked as a school teacher and then a social worker and through her work experience she was able to develop one of the most important models that have been employed in family therapy. From her experience, she came up with an approach which she used to work with families.  Analysts have described Satir as hard working, warm, brilliant, and in touch with her work as she understood the pain of being humans (Nicholas and Schwartz, 1997). In her work, Satir developed mental field away from pathological concept and gave the notion of people as a product of negative family patterns.  Virginia Satir is a well known family therapist who deals with the entire family rather than a single family member.

Satir model
Counseling models are developed in order to assist counselors to help their clients. They are developed after a carefully research based on theory and practice (Bowen and Kerr, 1988). One of the pioneers in the area of family counseling research Murray Bowen reinforced the importance of development of model through clinical research. He is quoted to have said that I have spent almost three decades on clinical research in psychotherapy. A major part of my effort has gone toward clarifying theory and also toward developing therapeutic approaches consistent with the theory. I did this in the belief it would add to knowledge and provide better structure for research. A secondary gain has been an improvement in the predictability and outcome of therapy as the therapeutic method has come into closer proximity with the theory. (Bowen, 1994, p. 15)

Goals
According to Satir model, the primary goal of any family therapist is to deal with the pain of a family.  She hypothesized that family pain is manifested in different ways but most important it is manifested in symptom exhibited by one family member. However, these symptoms later extend to other family members in one way or another or in some shape and form. Satir acknowledge that the theory that supports family therapy is based on an attempt to deal with individuals in social context (Horne, 2000).  She sees people not just as individuals but as social players who interact with, influence and in the process get influenced by other people as well.  According to Satir, the individual family member who carries the predominant symptoms can be referred to as Identified Patient or I.P (Satir et al., 1991). This can be expressed in different ways and shifts from one family member to the other.  This implies that when a family member develops symptoms, which are most of the time manifested as mental or emotional stress, the family therapist must assume the symptoms not only as individual needs but as a family function.

For example, Satir argued that a pained marital relationship mostly leads to dysfunctional parenting.  Therefore, the Identified Patient in this case is the family members who bears the effect of pain or is adversely affected by the pained marital relationship.  This is the family member who is likely to be affected by and in a way subjected to dysfunctional parenting. Satir therefore defined Identified Patient Symptoms as SOS which results from family imbalance or parental dysfunction (Nicholas and Schwartz, 1997).

It should be noted that the troubled or disturbed family member may change from time to time. The identified patient may shift from one child to the other depending on the prevailing conditions.  Ms. Satir was quick to point out that the symptoms expressed by the identified patient should be used to express that she or he is distorting his or her growth  in the process of trying to absorb and lessen the pain her  or his parents are going through (Horne, 2000).  She also shows that everyone will try to place the causal origin in the distorted parental relationship.

Family therapist might have noted that most troubled children will regress or sometimes get worse after visits home. It has become common that family members often call and attempts to influence the course of therapy of a family member and if a child shows or a family member undergoing therapy starts to improve, another family member is likely to develop similar symptoms. This implies that troubled family members symptoms should be taken in the context of the family rather than an individual member problem as explained in intra-psychic (Satir et al., 1991).

According to Satir, family can be described as an interacting unit which always works to have balanced relationships by using repetitious, circular, and predictable patterns of communication.  This implies that communication is at the heart of family relationships and without effective communication, it is difficult for family to hold together.  This phenomenon has also been described as family homeostasis defining the relationship between family members.  According to Satir, spousal mates are family architects and therefore family relationships can be described as the axis around which family members and bonded and forms family relationships (Satir and Baldwin, 1983).

Key concepts
The heart of Satir family therapy model is the sought improvement which assists in the transformation system. This should be the guiding factor for all family therapists. Satir system is modeled to help people to make remarkable improvement in their lives by transforming how they see and express themselves.
According to Ms. Satir theory, marital relationships are the axis around which family relationships are built (Satir et al., 1991).  Her theory therefore revolves around the formation of marital relationships as the base for family stability. In her work, she concentrates on family assumed relationship built on male and female adult with a given number of children.  However, in her work, she gives little consideration to family variations which greatly limited the scope of her work.

In her discussions, she shows that one-parent family is incomplete and she gave the following problems as some special problems which may affect single-parent families
Giving accurate messages  regarding departed family members
Fulfilling all children needs
Sorting out roles and teaching attitude on children gender roles
She also showed that there were possible problems which could be confronted by blended families which involves adoption and step-parenting. Some of the problems which may be experienced by these families include
Learning to have truest on new family members
Giving children consistent messages including encouraging them to express their conflicting messages
Showing honesty regarding the past and also being realistic about their present situation
Giving their children the freedom to love and express love for who they choose to love
Allowing family members adequate time to visits whoever or wherever they want to
Accepting and developing understanding between natural and foster parents
In her work, she further showed that people who are in a troubled relationship used to experience low self-esteem which brings about mate problems.  Because of the low self-esteem and insecurities, these mates will not communicate their fears and expectations they have for one another. Both feel they want qualities in the other that is lacking but they dont have the courage to ask for it directly fearing rejection (Satir and Baldwin, 1983). Improvement of communication is a major concern in development of her family therapeutic model. She argues that effective communication is important to show the progress of the therapy and also for the family to understand each other.

Satir also described functional communicator vs. dysfunctional communicator. She described functional communicator as a person who can firmly state the case, ask for feedback, and be receptive to the sent feedback (Satir et al., 1991).  On the other hand, dysfunctional communicator tends to over-generalize everything, send incomplete messages, and use pronouns vaguely.

Marital differences also bring about difficulties in handling arising differences. Mates in a relationship react negatively to their perceived differences and act separately (Pottenger, 2009).  They will fear open disagreements and covert their communications.  It becomes difficult for them to have a strong one person in the relationship at one time and deny their own individuality.   This may even be complicated by the birth of a child and it brings extra burden in the relationship. This may also be contributed by other factors like family shift like coming of relatives into the family, outside stressor like loss of employment, and many others.
Ms. Stir stress that a child growing up in a family will need a number of things in order to develop self-esteem.  They need to have physical comfort, continuity in parental relationship, learning how to structure the work, respecting themselves as competent individuals in the word, and many others (Satir et al., 1991). This requires validation from parents and constant and unconditional attention from parents to assist children to master the world.  When parents do one way and say another, children get confused and they may try to clear the confusion and contraction through distorting some aspect of their lives. Disturbed children or I.P. will begin his or her behavior as a means of side-tracking his or her parents who have problems. He or she will fear losing one or both parents and the symptoms of I.P becomes a way of drawing focus away from the disturbed parental relationship (Nicholas and Schwartz, 1997).

Satir assumes that children who show I.P are most likely to be exposed to double-blind messages for a long period of time.  She describes a double blind messages as a message which is congruent, that is, a message that asks for one response at a given level and then contradictory response at another level. The child, or the receiver, must reject one level.

Satir shows that maturity is one of the most important goals in therapy.  Satir agues that, a mature person is able to see the world, make individual choices, accept personal responsibility and communicate in a clear understandable manner (Satir, 1983).  This is a unique person who recognizes he or she is different from others and sees differentness as an opportunity to learn. On the other hand, an immature personal is a dysfunctional person. He or she tend to have low self-esteem and communicates unclearly.

Process
What important role can a therapist play in all this According to Satir, therapists tend to act as an observer in all this. He or she tries to see all interactions taking place and may get caught in one point of view.  The therapist is supposed to be a model communicator and hence must be aware of any prejudice or unconscious assumptions. Therapist spells the rules that must be followed by a troubled family in order to a have a meaningful and functional communication (Satir et al., 1991). He or she must check to know whether the meaning intended was the one which was received.  The therapist must assist the family to see their covert and congruent messages as be as clear as possible to assist the family to move in the required direction.

In order to carry out an effective family therapy, Virginia Satir proposes and uses a number of techniques.  First she starts by taking the chronology of family life. This is used in order to structure the therapy and give security to the family and at the same time gives the therapist a clear understanding of the family background. This also helps to take the focus off the I.P. and starting focusing on the distorted marital relationship.  After sometimes on the therapy she proposes introduction of differentness (Satir, 1983). She says that the therapist should expect disagreement to be commented on instead of being hidden.  The therapist should also point the difference between what parents do and what they tell their children to do. In order to bridge any existing gap, the therapist should compare the experience of one mate to the experience of the other.

Satir seems to encourage the fact to let parents know that they were initially mates and should work to recover their lost relationship before taking their roles as parents.  This may be the reasons why she encourages going to the past first in order to recover the present and lessen the feeling of guilt. She works to assist the mates express fears, hopes and expectations openly through using the idea of good intention but poor communication (Nicholas and Schwartz, 1997).  She strives to build self esteem and label assets even which the family may not have seen.

Satir also employ different communication games. She uses role plays and in one game she use roles she names Placater, Distracter, Blamer, and computer. She expresses her feelings that these role games may run through many families. Placater agrees to avoid anger but beneath is frustrated. Blamer hides fear by blaming others before they can blame him or her (Satir, 1983). On the other hand, computer searchers for security through intellectualization of everything while Distracter protects him or her self by distracting others, changing to other subjects, shifting reference frame, and others. She also shows the importance of touch in humans and this game is used to raise awareness so that people can see, hear and feel others.  She asserts that it is difficult to remain incongruent when in physical contact or in eye to eye contact with the other. To reinforce the importance of communication she stress that I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood and touched by them.  The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and touch another person. When this is done, I feel contact has been made. (Satir et al., 1991)

How I would use this model
I find Satir work one of the most useful in family therapy. She has shown clearly how family dynamics in relationships can lead to distorted family relationships which affect children.  Her work is based on general systems theory and shows important ways through which family relationship can be changed.  She acknowledges that change can happen in three ways it can be initiated by need to survive, it can be initiated out of hope, and it can be initiated by acknowledgement of what is already taking place in the family.

Through a clear understanding of her work, I would employee it to foster changes in the family but following her laid down model.

Therefore when conducting a family therapy sessions, I would first dwell on understanding family historical background. This would help the family to recapture with the past and bring them to the current system. After helping the family to recapture the past the next step would be bring out the difference that exists between family members to assist them recognize that there are differentness that existence between them but which need to be solved constructively. In order to prevent the I.P to shift from one family member to the other, all family members should be involved in the family therapy process.

At the heart of this model is the need to restore trust and communication patterns in the family. This is the base upon which the family is built and once shaken, the whole family becomes distorted. Therefore employing this model in family therapy should strive to bring back trust between mates which will later be transferred to children.

Topic 
The main topic that I intend to focus on during my Capstone Project is the Prevention of Juvenile Gang Violence. Gang Violence is one of the more serious issues that are plaguing our society. In areas where gangs hold sway, children and adolescents are not safe from being forced into the gang life, and citizens are not safe from the crimes that gang members commit. The only effective method to deal with juvenile gang violence is to prevent them from joining the gangs to begin with. This involves several different aspects of Counseling, Social Work, and Criminal Justice. Children need to have the situations that encourage them to join gangs such as poverty, single parent homes, and abuse and neglect alleviated. They also need to be educated, and made aware of the realities of gang life including the consequences of committing gang related crimes.

Main Issues
There are several key issues related to preventing Juvenile Gang Violence. First, how do you reach children and adolescents before they join the gangs Second, is there any means of preventing them from further gang involvement if they have already joined the gang Finally, how do we alleviate the problems that make juveniles join gangs to begin with

Justification
Growing up low income in an urban area, I was very lucky to avoid becoming involved in the gang life me as an adolescent. I was lucky because, I had loving parents, and support system. I had people encouraging me to strive to achieve academically and to leap the boundaries that had been set upon me by my own socioeconomic status, and family situation. The fact that I was one of the lucky ones that avoided the gang life, has encouraged me to pursue my education in order to learn how best to help juveniles living in circumstances that encourage gang violence, to avoid the same pitfalls that I avoided myself as a teen.

There are many factors that increase the level of peoples exposure or risk to diseases. Some of them may be environmental, others may be physical while others are social. The human factors include attitudes that people usually have concerning a disease or a certain mode of medication, their cultural beliefs that may bar them from seeking medication and some behaviors that are likely to make them more susceptible to contraction of various diseases. This paper is a research into the risks posed by these factors that can be reduced through the use of sound decision making and professional intervention methods.

A risk factor is something that influences ones chances of getting a disease or increases the chances of the already contracted disease getting serious (Mainer, 1999). Different diseases have risk factors that are diverse. Having a risk factor does not always imply that you will get the ailment. There are those who may be exposed to the risk factors but will not get the disease. There are many kinds of risk factors. Some can be changed while others cannot. The risks can be physiological, environmental or even social. Environmental factors include the weather and other atmospheric conditions. Physiological factors include body conditions like fatigue, stress and depression, while social or human factors that can expose one to the risks of a disease include the belief systems, the attitudes, life styles and behaviors. Things like heredity, age or even race which can be risk factors for certain diseases cannot be changed while others like behavioral risk factors can be changed (Mainer, 1999). Some risk factors are more influential than others.

Most diseases that human beings suffer from are not that serious if the proper intervention or mitigation measures are put in place. There are hundreds of HIV AIDS patients who have survived with the disease for more than twenty years and are still going on strong. Others have survived with numerous diseases that are considered very deadly for many years. Yet others die within years or months of contacting the same kind of disease. Of interest in this research paper are these social factors that can increase peoples vulnerability to various diseases and how these social factors can be tackled to reduce the health risks they pose.

Introduction
This paper will start by looking at the various behaviors, beliefs and attitudes that increase peoples susceptibility to a disease. It will make a deep analysis of each factor, giving concrete evidence to support the claim and where possible, case examples will be used. For each factor, the paper will suggest professional mechanisms that can be put in place to mitigate the risks they pose. The paper will then give a summary and some recommendations.

Behavioral Factors and Techniques to Reduce Their Risks
There are various techniques that can be used to reduce the risks exposed to some of the serious diseases by behavior and lifestyle. Breast cancer is one of the diseases whose risks can be reduced by changing the behaviors and lifestyles among women. To start with, the current social set up has led to late bearing of children by women. This is because most of them focus on their education and career development and they relegate childbearing to later years (Mainer, 1999)  Breast cancer research has found out that women who bear their first offspring while they are past the age of thirty have higher exposure to breast cancer than those who became pregnant at an earlier age. Pregnancy is known to reduce the number of a womans menstrual cycles which reduces the risk by far. The technique that can be used is the encouragement of women to balance their academic, career and family life. This may be a contentious technique because there are those women who opt not to give birth at all, but those who have plans of giving birth should be encouraged to start doing it before the age of thirty.

Just like early giving birth of children reduces the number of menstrual cycles in a woman thus reducing the risk to breast cancer, breastfeeding the babies for a long period of time also minimizes the risk to breast cancer in the same way. This means that women who do not breast feed their children also increase ones risk to breast cancer. Breast milk is very important especially in the early growth stages of a child and women should be encouraged to breast feed their children for a considerable amount of time because breastfeeding benefits both the mother and the child (Mainer, 1999).

Research has also indicated that the women who take the oral birth control pills have higher susceptibility to breast cancer than those who have never tried to use them. The risk declines if the use of the pills is halted (Mainer, 1999). Women should be advised by professionals in the health field on the issue of using these pills because on one side the pills may be beneficial but on the other side they are a risk factor. There should also be a lot of awareness being raised by the medical professionals regarding the usage of the pills, but this rarely happens because these medical professional are still the entrepreneurs that own the chemists and the pharmacies that sell these pills, meaning that raising the awareness will affect their business proceeds. This is where the dilemma lies.

The use of the post hormonal therapy may prevent diseases like oesteroporosis but it increases ones risk to breast cancer. In fact, it increases the chances of not only contracting the disease, but dying early from it (Mainer, 1999). One can die within two years of contracting breast cancer if she has been using this therapy. It reduces the effectiveness of any intervention methods, including the use of mammograms. The risk can be reduced if the intake of drugs is stopped. This is an area that professionals in the medical field should be very serious in addressing. This is because it is one of the highest risks that can lead to the deadly malady that is breast cancer. Professional advice should be given especially to the high risk groups. There are no strong reasons why women should use the post menopausal therapy apart from relieving menopausal symptoms that is very short term. Women and medical professionals should focus on the long term deadly risks they pose and not the short term relief they create. The decision to use these therapies should be made after serious consultation with medical expert who will weigh the potential risks and benefits before prescribing the use and if it is prescribed, it is imperative that the medical experts settle on the lowest possible dosage.
 
Obesity is a condition that is known to cause a wide variety of diseases. These include Diabetes, Hypertension, Heart and Coronary diseases, High Blood Pressure, Stroke and even some forms of Cancers (Anton, 2002). Most of the factors that expose ones risk to this condition are behavioral. Consumption of food with high caloric contents coupled with a lot of inactivity has led to the rapid upsurge of the cases of obesity, especially in the United States of America. Currently, almost 20 percent of the American population is obese, with the state having the least cases of obesity having 17 percent (Roberts, 2005).

There are some techniques that can be used to reduce the risks to this disease. The techniques cover how people can avoid being obese and also how those who are obese can go back to normal life. One of the techniques that can reduce the risks posed by obesity is raising the awareness on the eating habits that can control the development of this condition. Public health officers should conduct awareness campaigns that will inform people of the need to watch their weight by eating the right food (Anton, 2002). People should be encouraged to move away from overconsumption of the high caloric food that exposes them to the development of this condition. Most of the junk food that people consume belongs to this category (Mainer, 1999). People should also be encouraged to undertake physical exercises, especially in our time when technology has made everything easy. There are washing machines and dishwashers at home such that people do not engage in simple physical activities like washing, vehicles are there to drive them even the shortest distances while the buildings have escalators to use instead of stairs. Encouraging people to go back to the basics of physical activities like walking to work or town, using stairs, doing these simple home duties and getting involved in physically involving leisure activities is a technique that can be used to reduce the risks posed to all the numerous diseases caused by obesity.

Beliefs, Attitudes and Techniques to Reduce the Risks
Beliefs and attitudes among cultures can pose a risk to certain diseases. Recent studies in America showed that women diagnosed with breast cancers in most African countries are years younger than their American counterparts (Mainer, 1999). The disease at the time of diagnosis in African women is usually at an advanced stage. One of the factors attributed for this grave scenario is the belief systems in Africa that make the women not to seek medical attention.

Most women interviewed during the research said that generally, most African women are not comfortable with the process of breast examination. This is because, in most places in Africa, touching breasts is highly considered as a sexual act and the women themselves avoid touching their breasts even in their own privacy. The women also had a negative attitude towards the breast cancer therapy of mastectomy (Mainer, 1999). This is because there is an African belief in reincarnation people are told that they must die with their body intact because during reincarnation, they will return to life with those parts missing. The disfiguration as a result of breast mastectomy carries much stigma and the person might be alienated by the society. This is why most African women with breast cancer never disclose their ailment to others for the fear of rejection, while this only exposes them to risks because when the disease is discovered at a stage that is not advanced, it is possible to minimize these risks.

Techniques of ensuring that the risks of breast cancer are reduced, especially among the African population, should start with media awareness giving up to date guidelines on mitigation and control measures of the disease. There is evidence that Africans are underserved when it comes to education and medication for breast cancer, something that has exposed them to the dire risks of the disease. There should be funding of anthropological models of research in order to unearth the cultural belief systems and attitudes that may have an influence on the understanding of symptom presentation of breast cancer, the risks perceived and the impediments to early detection of the disease especially among African women (Mainer, 1999). They should be educated on the importance of screening, mastectomy and other guidelines that may reduce their risk to the disease.

Some African women believe that the disease is a western one that cannot affect the Africans, meaning that most of them stay with the disease without knowing. All the preventive techniques should address all these defeatist notions and the women should vividly see the need to seek the help of an expert in the medical field and to undergo regular check ups so that if the disease is detected in early stages, the risks posed can be reduced.

Another disease whose risks posed to human beings because of their attitudes and belief systems is the HIVAIDS. In some African communities, there is a belief that if a man dies, the brother of the man is supposed to inherit his wife (Mainer, 1999). This is a belief that has sent thousands of Africans to grave because of the risk it exposes them to contraction of HIVAIDS. When a man dies, and the people are not even sure of the cause of the death then his brother proceeds to inherit the wife, there are chances that if the man had died of AIDS, then the inheriting brother is exposing himself to the disease. This is one of the customs and belief systems that should be fought. Awareness on the gravity of these belief systems should be preached in order to reduce the exposure to the risks of contracting the disease. There is another belief that the physiological structure of men reduces their chances of contracting HIVAIDS (Mainer, 1999). This is one of the factors that make them indulge in sexual activities even with the high risk groups, thus exposing them to the disease. Some of these attitudes should be defeated by expertly raising the awareness in a way that any practice that exposes a person even to the least risk is discouraged.

Summary and Recommendations
It is very important for the health professionals not to ignore the influence of behavior, beliefs and attitudes in exposing people to a wide range of diseases. One of the mitigation and risk reduction techniques is through raising of awareness on some of these risk factors that continue to endanger the lives of the people. The work of the medical professionals and public health officials is not just to cure diseases they should dedicate their energies toward prevention and minimizing the risks that people are exposed to.

The development and implementation of various drug treatment programs has always been the topic of the major professional concern. While thousands of medical professionals seek to prove the relevance of universal treatment programs and their positive influence on drug treatment outcomes, the issues of culture, ethnicity, and gender are still overlooked. More often than not, drug treatment programs are limited to medicine and environment, with minor attention paid to how the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of program participants might influence program effectiveness and help individuals with diverse individuals resolve their drug abuse problems. Given the relevance of cultural factors and their potential impact on how drug abusers perceive and approach different treatment programs, ethnic and cultural differences should be included into the list of critical drug treatment variables, with ethnicity and racial backgrounds being the integral components of successful drug treatment programs and long-term recovery.

12-Step Program participation and effectiveness Review of findings
In their article, Hillhouse and Fiorentine (2001) discuss the importance of gender and ethnic differences in a 12-step drug treatment program, and their impact on the program participation and effectiveness. The authors assert that although 12-Step is increasingly utilized as a recovery resource and is viewed by many addiction specialists as an integral component of treatment and long-term recovery, questions regarding the role of ethnicity and gender in these programs are still unresolved (Hillhouse  Fiorentine, 2001). It is obvious that 12-Step programs are designed in a way, which make participation in them easy, beneficial, and effective as such, the number of attendees in these programs and the level of integrating 12-Step programs with conventional drug treatment initiatives constantly grow (Hillhouse  Fiorentine, 2001). However, it is still unclear whether 12-Step programs are equally effective for participants with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. By recruiting a group of clients from 26 outpatient drug treatment programs, the researchers have come to conclude that 12-Step programs are equally effective for European-Americans and those from ethnic minorities although there are documented differences, which turn ethnicity and gender into important drug treatment variables, Hillhouse and Fiorentine (2001) show 12-Step programs as a resource equally important to everyone due to the open-door policy, which these programs usually exercise. As a result, the major problem to solve is about the real place of culture in drug treatment programs. Given the relevance of cultural variables and their impact on drug treatment outcomes, it is very probable that open-door policies will not suffice to help minority populations overcome the difficulties on their way to long-term recovery.

The role of culture in drug treatment Issues, benefits, and ramifications
When it comes to the role and place of culture in drug treatment and the potential effect of ethnicity considerations on the effectiveness of drug treatment programs and long-term recovery, several issues require special attention. First, researchers in psychology of drug abuse and drug treatment do recognize the difficulties, differences, and confusions in the current definition of culture and ethnicity in the context of drug treatment. Even if they are able to identify the clear boundaries of culture and ethnicity, they often fail to see that in any ethnic group there is usually significant heterogeneity, reflective diversity on a wide range of economic, social, political, cultural, and regional indices (Turner 2000, p. 288). Durrant and Thakker (2003) write that the patterns of drug use vary between different ethnic groups. These differences are not limited to the prevalence rates, which are the highest among Native Americans and African Americans, and even if Caucasians are reported to be more than twice likely as Asians to report illicit drug use (Durrant  Thakker, 2003), the differences in drug use patterns are much more complicated. Very often, to have an open-door policy is not enough to attract potential participants who, for various cultural and ethnic reasons cannot overcome numerous barriers on their way to long-term recovery. Unfortunately, little culturally-focused case conceptualization and research has been conducted to examine substance abuse treatment outcomes as these may be influenced by cultural variables (Castro  Alarcon 2002, p. 791). In the context of culture and its impact on drug treatment programs, the potential ramifications of not resolving the issue and the potential benefits of addressing these cultural inconsistencies are clear.

The lack of cultural consciousness in drug treatment is likely to result in the deteriorating quality of drug treatment programs. That psychologists and drug treatment professionals cannot adjust their drug treatment programs to the cultural beliefs and norms of program participants means that they reduce participants chances for long-term recovery. The impact of culture on drug treatment is significant, and by taking into account cultural factors and considerations, psychologists and drug treatment professionals will help minority individuals overcome the obstacles they may face on their to participating in these programs they will also help minority men and women to grasp the meaning of these programs and to perceive the benefits of these programs to the fullest.

Culture and Drug Treatment Potential Solutions
Although Hillhouse and Fiorentine (2001) confirm the similarities in participation and effectiveness of 12-Step programs on different ethnic groups, culture remains one of the determining factors in the success of drug treatment. Certainly, given the multitude of cultural predispositions and patterns of drug use, it is simply impossible to develop drug treatment programs which will address each and every racial ethnic profile, but it is possible to include culture into the list of critical drug treatment variables. Professionals in drug treatment should be familiar with the results of the most recent findings regarding the role of ethnicity and culture in drug treatment. Turner (2000) is correct in that mainstream investigators often overlook the wealth of knowledge that is available from small scale studies (p. 299). With the aim to prevent and reduce drug abuse among minority populations, psychologists and investigators should have a good knowledge of diversity and culture, which will be used to develop conceptual models of drug treatment in minor populations. Finally, culturally specific interventions should become a viable alternative to the programs that were developed to target broad population groups  in this way, psychologists and drug treatment professionals will be more likely to address the most serious and the most complex risk factors characteristic of particular minority groups. As such, only by integrating cultural variables with conventional drug treatment programs will investigators and other professionals succeed to improve the overall effectiveness of these programs among minority population groups.

Conclusion
In the process of developing, implementing, and improving drug treatment programs, culture is often overlooked. Despite the growing wealth of literature regarding the role and the impact of cultural variables on the quality of drug treatment among minority populations, culture in drug treatment remains a problem. In their article, Hillhouse and Fiorentine (2001) confirm the similarity of effectiveness and participation in 12-step programs among ethnic minorities, but that does not mean that culture and drug treatment effectiveness are not interlinked. More often than not, it is culture that can become a serious obstacle on ones way to entering and participating in a drug treatment program. As such, culture should be included into the list of the critical drug treatment variables, and new culture-specific drug treatment interventions should become a viable alternative to conventional drug treatment programs that were designed to target majority populations.

Cognitive behavioral therapy remains one of the most effective methods of addressing the mental disorders due to its ability to identify and indeed modifying the key dysfunctional and emotional thinking. Its effective application is further more effective compared to other therapies in that it factors the input of both the patient and the therapist.

In the theory development, Becky Aaron indicated that the negative schemas at any time must be identified and addressed as the basis of generating new viewpoints for the patients (Wayne, 2008). However, as emergent researchers indicate, other therapies are increasingly being used with variant efficacy levels. It is from this consideration that this paper intrinsically evaluates cognitive behavioral therapy by comparing it with other therapies employed in the clinical practice. Finally, it examines the key strengths and weaknesses depicted by CBT.

Comparison with other therapies

Basis of CBT 
Cognitive behavioral therapy entails use of collaboration techniques between the patient and the therapist to facilitate the ability of the former to have alternatives and eventually change perceptions on the distorted thoughts, unrealistic, and often unquestioned views that are indeed less helpful to them.  This therapy is based on the consideration that mental disorders such as depression are maintained and even worsened by selective abstraction, minimization of positives, maximization of negatives, and arbitrary inference (Jesse, 2004).

Psychodynamics therapy
Unlike the cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamics therapy is strongly influenced by the object theory and based on Freuds psychosexual personality development, the human defense mechanism, as well as free association in recall and interpretation s. Therefore, it entails   addressing the key unresolved issues in an individuals life.  In this therapy, the patient talks as the therapist uses his intrinsic understanding to generate the needed interpretations after which he seeks to influence the internal processes of patients personality  (frank and  Arthur, 2007).  The therapist therefore facilitates key influence for the childhood experiences, the unconscious, the ego, and finally the super ego in achieving the needed change. This therapy has however received major criticism as analysts indicate that it presents key disconnect between application and how it affects the internal processes to being the needed personality changes.

Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) on the other hand is based on the need to bring happiness and self fulfillment. Unlike the cognitive behavioral therapy where both the patient and the therapist are directly involved in addressing the problem, this therapy is education oriented. REBT framework is based on the assumption that human beings have both the innate rational construct and the irrational construct that determine their behaviors. Frank and Arthur (2007) explain that this therapy holds that people are responsible of their behaviors and can therefore be influenced to act positively through an educational process. Therefore, the therapist directly teachers their patients how to effectively identify the irrational aspects such as self defeat, anger, shame, and guilt among others. To address them therefore, the therapist employs assignments that facilitate constructive and rational ways of behavior and emoting.  

Crisis theory
The crisis theory is on the other hand based on the need to address a major problem affecting an individual. The theory holds that for crises to occur, an individual will have tried to address the situation he is undergoing through without success that culminates to emotional blockage. It is worth noting that though a problem may result to crisis in an individual it may be very simplistic to others. Therefore, this method entails bringing the victim to comprehending the problem and facilitating the correct coping skills. Besides, the process further involves enhancing the ability to employ alternative mechanisms in addressing various problems that encounters them at different times (Gerald (2005).  

Alignment with values of social work
Jane and Thomas (2005) argue that the foundation of social work is the need to maintain high levels of human value and virtues while underscoring the dynamic nature of the human system. CBT is therefore considered to strongly adhere to these values in its application.  Unlike other therapies, the method is based on the direct interaction and cooperation of the patient and the therapist. Therefore, the therapist is able to understand the demand and preferences of the patient. As a result, it is much easier to articulate the decisions which are ethically acceptable for the patient and the whole society. The method further generates the need for respecting values by providing an integrative method of addressing the patients problem in the society through encouragement of alternative mechanisms and change in the wider society.  Finally, like other methods, it is geared towards improving the community and the whole societal outlook as a key facet towards its growth and development.

Strengths and weaknesses of CBT 
CBT has over the years been assimilated due to its efficacy in addressing mental disorders for the patients. The method is particularly effective for articulating the input of both the patient and therapist. Jesse (2004) indicates that it facilitates the ability to generate the needed assurance for both parties as they open up and cooperate to address the problem. Gerald (2005) explains that once an individual is able to gather the necessary confidence on the doctor, the relationship becomes mutual and therefore easier for the patient to apply the requirements by the therapist even when they are not together.

However, CBT has been accused of being highly short term and giving the past considerations of the patient less emphasis. Therefore, by overlooking the broader clinical considerations for the patients, Jane and Thomas (2005) indicate that that it may fail to address the problems effectively and therefore culminating to their resilience with time.

Conclusion
It is from the above discussion that this paper concludes by supporting the thesis statement, cognitive behavioral therapy remains one of the most effective methods of addressing the mental disorders due to its ability to identify and indeed modifying the key dysfunctional and emotional thinking.  However, it calls for more studies on its efficacy and other methods to ascertain further particularistic effectiveness.

Decision making is a process of purposeful selection of a given objective among a set of alternatives. Decision making has an implication that there are there exists alternative choices to be considered and aimed at identifying only one that has best fits, our  desires, goals, lifestyles, values, just to mention a few and also has the highest probability of effectiveness or success. Decision making is not a separate function of management but as a function, it is intertwined with other management practices such as coordination, planning and controlling. Boone  Kurtz (1999) state that decisions are made on daily basis by both individuals and groups to help solve problems and deal with some situations in personal life, at work place, in businesses among other various places. The process therefore involves recognizing or identifying an opportunity or a problem and finding appropriate solution to it. The process should be targeted at sufficiently reducing doubts and uncertainties in order to come up with a reasonable choice. It is important to note that decision making process reduces uncertainties or errors rather than totally eliminating them, hence giving way for every decision made involving some levels of risk as it is not possible to have a complete knowledge concerning all alternatives.

There are different kinds of decisions that one can make, they include decisions which, that involve a choice a choice of one or more alternatives from among a set of possibilities. Here the choice picked is based on how well each alternative measures up to a set of predefined criteria. Decisions whether is another kind, it is eitheror, yesno decision that have to be made before proceeding with an alternative selection. They are made by weighing the pros and con of reasons.  Contingent decisions are those ones which have been made and put on hold until some condition(s) is made. Multiple entities or members can come up to make to make group decision(s) that is composed of two different sessions free discussion where the problem is simply placed on a table for members to discuss and developmental or structured discussion. It involves breaking the problem into steps and smaller parts of specific goals hence ensuring systematic topic coverage and encouraging all members participation in discussion of the same problem aspect at the same time. It has advantages like more inputs leads to more possible solutions being generated and shared responsibility for the decisions and the outcomes. However it also has disadvantages such as taking too long time to reach a common ground and also sometimes the members have to compromise for consensus to be reached (Caroline, Zsambok  Gary, 2004).  

Decision making process is bound to have errors. The errors in decision making process are as a result of biases that tend to deviate judgment that happens in particular situations cognitive biases are instances of evolved mental behavior which may that occur may be because they enable faster decision making or they lead to more effective actions. Some errors come about due to lack of appropriate mechanisms to solve problems or misapplication of mechanisms to be applied under different mechanisms. Errors have to be minimized in decision making because they are costly for decisions shape vital outcome s for individuals, families and society at large (Clancy  Shulman, 1994). The errors may make companies make wrong decisions to hire wrong employees they may make individuals marry wrong partners, engage in needless conflicts and many more things that happen in our lives.

According to Derek  Nigel (2004), the first type of decision making errors is the confirmation bias which occurs when a person focuses on things that heshe often sees even if they are less prevalent.  One might take it that airplanes are much less dangerous simply because heshe has come across cars ,and has seen more car accidents for instance than airplanes. It happens that one will also focus more on information that supports hisher current view or opinion for that matter.

Another type of error is one that suggests that happiness is relative.  It is common knowledge that man is a competitive animal leading to the urge or feeling to know what people who are around us have or are getting even if we dont want what they have.  We compete as much as it doesnt help in building strong relationships.
The endowment effect is the other error where by a person wants things heshe doesnt need if another person has them. At the same time heshe has problems getting rid of things heshe doesnt need. People tend to value things owned more that things they dont.

The hindsight bias also affects decision making in that past events are given higher probability than they actually had. When an event has happened it is given a high probability that it will happen again even if it is a rare one.

Another error associated with decision making is the recency effect where a person places value on events that have happened recently. It also happens that with time this value diminishes.

Berry (1993) asserts that sensory override as a decision making error works in a way that as senses affect what we think about something, brand images can affect our tastes considering our brains are associative  such that one thing sparks another. Advertisers take advantage of this situation to spark a positive association.

Another decision making error is conformity which happens when a person is scared to go against the crowd for instance saying or doing something that can be viewed as different by that very crowd. An example could be when one is associated with a certain culture and so doing something that does not conform to that culture is avoided.

Sunk costs affects the way one makes a decision where by people feel that when a lot of effort, time or money is invested towards something, they will keep going even if the going appears to fail. This error is used mostly by con artists for instance since when they initiate your investment they will keep getting more and more from you because you dont want to lose (Brew, Hesketh  Taylor, 2001, 10).

Attribution errors influence how we make our decision such that we judge people according to their speech (content) even if they were assigned that content randomly.  Will is prescribed where it doesnt exist.  People tend to ignore constraints on peoples behavior when assessing motive.  People also assume that other people will take into account those same constraints when looking at their motives.

In the event that recent events are referenced when evaluating current events it brings about referencing as a decision making error. An example could be  if a person reads about a plane crush where 100 people perished and then hears about  four people dying in a car crash, he she is much less moved than if heshe hasnt heard about any deaths.

In decision making, fallacies arise as error for instance the If-then fallacy. This happens in such a way that if one agrees that the if statement is true then the tendency to agree for the then statement is very high regardless of whether the two statements are correlated. One fails to consider whether the relationships between the two statements are justified.  Many people tend to use this fallacy unconsciously.

Another decision making error is the status quo preference which occurs when people prefer things that they are familiar with or are used to (Drner  Schaub, 1994, 420).

Metaphors are used as figures of speech but in this case thinking in metaphors will definitely affect how we make decisions in our day to day lives. It becomes a problem when a metaphor does not match reality, though thinking in metaphors can be used as a source of motivation and a method of planning the future.
Experiencing excessive optimism influences how we make our decisions.  This happens when people overrate their abilities or skills. People think they are better than others in various professions especially if the other person is junior to himher. As one thinks that the other one is less useful or less skilled it will lead to devaluation of their contribution to projects.

Dollinger  Danis (1998, 758) state that errors in decision making result due to the illusion of control. This happens when a person thinks that heshe can affect the outcome of situations that may be completely random.  When these things go through, they congratulate themselves and blame themselves when they fail even if they are not responsible in any way. They fail to consider the fact that control over the outcome of a situation is usually determined by many factors.

A situation of offer devaluation will influence how we make a decision for instance when two parties are engaged in a negotiation and it happens that one party offers something, it will be valued less highly as compared to when it was offered for no reason at all. It is common understanding that during a negotiation an offer will be viewed as a way of unloading a less valuable asset. The opposite of this situation also applies such that when a concession is made it is valued highly than it should under normal circumstances. The above two conditions therefore bring about the need for a mediator.

Another form of decision making error is loss aversion. This occurs when an individual is faced with a choice between a sure loss and a higher percentage of a greater loss, heshe will choose the risky option even though it is obviously the worst choice.  In this case, incorrect valuation of statistics results into overvaluing the possibility of small chances (Gss, Strohschneider  Halcour, 2000).

Automatic associations and stereotyping results into decision making errors since our brains make unconscious and automatic associations between things in our surrounding (whether true or not), it leads to conscious and unconscious stereotyping. In decision making, this results in devaluation of an option because of an option that is not supported by reality.  This situation definitely results into racism or sexism.  This error can however be improved by pursuing new experiences especially those that show automatic associations to be false. It follows that the mind will correct the error.

When making a decision, limited processing power greatly affects the process of making that particular decision. The mind can hold three to seven things at the same time beyond which it cannot consider anything else.  At this point it will give priority to those which are important. It easy to make a good decision based on small information provided  though this declines as the amount of information increases as much as a persons  confidence in hisher own ability increases with more information.

Another fallacy which affects the way which we make our decisions is the conjunction fallacy. It stipulates that the probability that two related events happen to be higher than the probability of just one of the events is generally considered.  This effect is common in decision making. An option will appear more attractive when more detail is added to it and also if more information about a decision is taken in the confidence towards that decision grows (Strohschneider  Gss, 1998, 700).

False Dichotomies result into errors and therefore associated with decision making. The dichotomies are viewed as sources of psychological problems since they encourage segregation of social groups. They make someone to get more emotional than heshe is able to when considering multiple possibilities. Triandis (1994) says that decision making under influence of this error results in choice between unpleasant options without other possibilities.

There various kinds of biases which also act as decision making errors. First is the anticipation bias which happens when the anticipation of a reward is way stronger than the reward itself.  A person will want something very badly but once heshe has purchased it, it does not make himher as happy as anticipated. The person will not stop there but will move to acquire the next thing that heshe wants. The second one are the cognitive biases in which there is selective search for evidence where people gather facts that support certain conclusions and at the same time disregard other facts that have different conclusions. The third one is the choice supportive bias which occurs when people distort their memories of chosen and rejected options to make the chosen decision look more appealing. Another bias is repetition bias where there is the willingness to believe what we have been told especially when told by different sources. Still under cognitive biases there is premature termination of search for evidence where people have a tendency of picking the first alternative which looks like it might work.  Inertia is also a form of cognitive bias. This occurs when one is not willing to change hisher own pattern of change that was used in past while facing new circumstances. The selective perception is where information that one thinks is not important is left out and therefore qualifies as another form of cognitive bias. The other form of bias which still affects the way we make our decisions is anchoring and adjustment. It occurs that our decisions are influenced by initial information which shapes our view of subsequent information. Then there is the group think where peer pressure influences the making of a decision that one thinks as the group does. In relation to cognitive bias we have the source credibility bias which occurs for instance when one rejects something simply because heshe has a bias against the person or an organization. Someone is forced to accept a statement simply because heshe likes that person (Bazerman  Moore, 2008).

Still under the cognitive biases the incremental decision making acts to affect our way of making decisions. This occurs when a person looks at decision as a small step in an undergoing process thus perpetuating a series of similar decisions. Another relation is drawn from the attribution symmetry as another type of bias. This is where people have a tendency to attribute their success to their abilities and failures to bad luck. When it comes to other peoples successes, we attribute them to good luck and their failures to their mistakes.

Another form of bias which acts to influence our decision making is the self fulfilling prophecy in which people tend to conform to decisions making expectations that others have on their position. Finally there is the underestimating uncertainty where people tend to underestimate future uncertainty because they tend to believe that they have more control over events than they really do (Bazerman, Loewenstein  White, 1992, 230).  

There are a number of memory errors which greatly influence decision making. The consistency bias is associated with the incorrect remembering ones past attitudes and behavior as if they resemble the present ones. Another error is called cryptomnesia where a particular memory is mistaken for imagination. The egocentric bias is another. This is when a person recalls the past in a self-serving manner. For instance remembering about a pair of shoes that was bought as being more attractive as when it was new. Another error is the false memory which comes as a result of confusing the false memories and the true ones. The hindsight bias is when memories of past events are filtered through present knowledge such that those events look more predictable than they actually were. The other type of memory error is the reminiscence bump which is an effect that people tend to recall more personal events from adolescence and adulthood than from other lifetime periods.  The rosy retrospection is an error which occurs when people have a tendency to rate past experiences more positively than when they occurred. Another error is the self-serving bias where one sees himself responsible for desirable results but not the undesirable ones. The final kind of memory error is the suggestibility which is viewed as a misattribution where ideas that were suggested by a questioner are mistaken for memory.

On the other hand, there are several ways in which individuals and groups can reduce errors in decisions and minimize biased decision making to ensure that they dont regret for every decision they make because of unwanted outcomes but improve them.

Some scholars like Fischhoff (1988, 33) argue that the strategies for improving decision making process and minimizing errors lie in four different ways. The first way is to offer warnings about the possibilities of biases in a given decision making process. In this way, decision makers will be wary of any errors that might arise and hence avoid them. The other way to reduce biases is by describing the bias direction. Thirdly he argues that an individual or a group of individuals involved in the decision making process need to provide a dose of the feedback and lastly offering an extensive training program together with feedback, coaching, coupled with other interventions for judgments improvement. However other studies later revealed that the above strategies resulted to very minimal success in improvement of decision making.

The best way to come up with good decisions is to come up with clear distinctions between system 1 and system 2 cognitive functioning that will give a clear framework for effective strategies on how to improve decision making. System 1 is individuals intuitive system that is normally first, automatic, implicit, effortless and emotional way of dealing with issues while System 2 is slower reasoning that embraces consciousness. It is effortful, explicit, and logical as opposed to system 1. Time constraints, lack of information on a given issue to make decision on and being generally busy often make people rely on system 1 that is deceiving and hence increasing chances of making costly errors. Therefore we need to make decisions on basis of system 2 approach (Stanovich  West, 2000, 600).

Replacing intuition with a formal analytical process for decision making is one of the ways to reduce the errors in decisions we make. This can be done by constructing a linear model or formula to weigh and sum the relevant variables to help get to a quantitative forecast on the result, this is however possible and advisable when there is existence of data on past inputs to and outcomes from a given decision making practice. This way the decision makers will access superior predictions. Usually, development of linear models helps to prevent many judgment biases pitfalls.

Taking outsiders perspective is also one of the ways to minimize errors in decision making process. This involves attempting to mentally remove someone from a particular situation or considering the class of decisions to which the problem individuals are faced with belongs. This is geared towards reducing the decision makers overconfidence concerning their knowledge, the time they will take to finish a task and their probability of entrepreneurial triumph. This can also be achieved by asking legitimate outsider(s) for their views concerning a decision to be made. By simply asking encouraging decision makers to consider the opposite of whatever decisions that they are about to make will reduce errors in judgment by minimizing decision biases, the hindsight biases, overconfidence  and anchoring.

Partial debiasing of errors in judgment can be accomplished by having groups make decisions other than individuals, making people accountable for decisions they make and training them on statistical reasoning.  One of the promising debiasing strategies is undermining the cognitive mechanism that is hypothesized as the bias source. Over claiming can also be reduced by requiring people to estimate the contributions of other people but not only theirs.

Analogical reasoning can also be used to minimize errors in decision making process. This can be engaged to minimize the limits on decision makers awareness.  Individuals who are encouraged to see and understand common principles underlying apparently unrelated tasks demonstrate improved abilities to find solutions in a different task that relies on similar underlying principles. Analogical reasoning has been seen to bring hope of overcoming the barriers to judgment improvement.

Additionally, errors can be reduced in decision making by considering and choosing between multiple options simultaneously other than rejecting or accepting options separately. This is clearly demonstrated by the way people display more bounded self-interest (when they focus on their outcomes in relation to those of others rather optimization of their own outcomes)  when they assess one option at a time than while they consider multiple options side by side. Studies also go ahead to establish that when weighing choices separately other than jointly, decision makers will exhibit less willpower.

One should learn also to educate hisher instincts as it relates to the inexperienced gut as a decision making problem. One should trust hisher feelings. An example which best applies to this situation is the use of simulation in piloting or in the military in general. When the trainee goes to the field and meets as similar situation as that which heshe experienced in the simulator, he is expected to trust hisher instincts and will definitely go through it.

Idson, Chug  Bereby-Meyer (2004, 50) observed that in our daily lives we tend to make rush judgments when we are required to make decisions. This normally is triggered when we are issued with deadlines beyond which we would have failed in our respective lines of responsibilities. One should take time before making any decisions. This is in other words termed preserving optionality. We should be encouraged to keep our choices open as long as possible.

When facing new responsibilities one should review or rather appraise the past experiences as this helps to work out unfamiliar responsibilities. This technique also helps to avoid future mistakes. In line with this it should be encouraged to hold after-action reviews. This can be weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly depending on the tempo of making decisions. One can also carry out a review for the previous day work.  
Decision making process has for a long time been seen by many as a simple process hence prompting people to put great trust in their intuition. This however is not the case as many individuals have ended up making uncalled for errors. For minimizing errors in decisions we make, we need to use a deliberative approach to problem solving to avoid more regrets and harsh repercussions for whatever outcomes in our decisions. Under all circumstances mistakes are bound to happen, to this effect people should be encouraged to find ways of reducing them. No one is perfect in this world. We should be calm since if one panics under pressure things will definitely go wrong. It does not pay to just tolerate when mistakes happen but one should learn from them and that is how heshe gets experienced in making subsequent decisions.