Traditional Chinese Wedding Customs

Traditional Chinese Wedding Customs This is the elaborate process on the grooms parents part to look for the right kind of bride for their family. Rich families will look for a bride who can take care of household finances and most importantly, give birth to sons to inherit the wealth of the family. Poor families will look for a bride who can work hard in the fields and give birth to sons to help out on the farm. In the old days, marriages are arranged so its quite normal for the parents to dominate the bride-seeking process. Girls from rich family will be sought out by other rich families and poor girls will probably marry into poor families. Hence the Chinese saying: bamboo door is to bamboo door as wooden door is to wooden door. There are some circumstances where the marriage has been arranged when both the bride and the groom were very young or not even born. In the former case, a young girl may be bought by the rich family as a servant girl to serve the rich boy. When the boy grew up, she may become either his wife or one of his concubines. In the latter case, two pregnant mothers will make the promise that when the babies are born, if they were both boys or both girls, they would become brothers or sisters and if one baby was a boy and the other a girl, they would get married. Hence the saying: pointing to the bosom as a marriage promise. However, a lot of times when the boy grew up, his family may have fallen from prestige and sometimes the girls family may refuse to let them get married. There are numerous folktales about tragedies that stem from arranged marriage. However, there are also many happy endings to arranged marriage. All we can say is that it was the fact of life at that time. Ia. Three Letters In the old days, all communication was through formal letters. Therefore, the letters play an important role in the events. Request Letter This letter confirms the formal arrangement of a marriage. It is sent by the grooms family to the brides family. This letter is normally presented with the initial gifts for the brides family. Gift Letter This letter accompanies the formal gifts for the Brides family. It is actually a gift list that records the description and quantity of the gifts. Wedding Letter This letter is presented to the brides family on th day of the wedding. It confirms the act of bringing the bride into the grooms family. Ib. Six Etiquette The Chinese word for etiquette can mean both customs and gifts. The following customs are known as the Six Etiquette Request for Marrying the Bride After the grooms family has spotted a young girl whom the groom wants to marry, the family will hire a spokeswoman who will communicate their wish to the potential brides family. (In the old days, it is popular to hire elderly ladies as midwives or spokeswoman for the groom.) This lady will persuade the potential brides family to accept the offer from the grooms family. Both sides will negotiate certain terms. If successful, both families will proceed to the next step. Request for Bride and Grooms Birth Dates This is the second step in arranging a marriage. Upon successfuly completion of the previous step, the grooms family will request for the brides Eight Letters through the spokeswoman. In Chinese calendar, there are 22 letters that we use to represent date. Ten are known as Tian Gan and twelve are Di Zhi. Two letters are used to represent each of teh following: year, month, day and time. Altogether, eight letters will accurately represent the brides birthdate. After obtaining the Eight Letters of the groom and potential bride, a fortune telling master will be hired to determine whether the two match each other. If there is nothing wrong with the brides birthdate, the grooms family will proceed to the next step. Otherwise, there will be no further contact between the families and the grooms family may look for another suitable bride. Initial Gifts for the Brides Family If the potential brides birthdate is acceptable, the grooms family will request the spokeswoman to send some initial gifts accompanied by the gift letter. Formal Gifts for the Brides Family The grooms family will pick a good day and send the brides family the following bridal gifts: gifts, cash, cakes and food and sacrifices for worshiping the ancestors. This act confirms the marriage agreement between the two families. Select the Wedding Date The fortune telling master will select a good day according the the bride and grooms and their familys birthdates. Wedding Day On the big day, both the bride and the grooms house will be decorated in red. The grooms family will send out a procession of servants, musicians and a carriage which is carried by four servants to the brides family to bring the bride back. The bride will then be brought back to the grooms house and the two will perform the marriage cermony witnessed by all the relatives and friends. The bride and groom will worship the heavens and the earth, the grooms ancestors and they will also serve tea to all of their superiors in the family. After that, the superiors will give them red packages (lai see) with monetary gifts and wish them well. The grooms family will then throw a huge feast (if they can afford it) for the friends and relatives to celebrate the wedding. All along, the spokeswoman will oversee the whole process and keep toasting the couple. After the meal, the newly wed couple will return to the bridal room and some naughty friends may tag-along and play tricks on the groom. When all is done, the couple will drink and toast and the spokeswoman will offer sweets and fruits to the couple to wish them long life and lots of kids (!). Then, the couple will finaly be left with themselves and the groom can take off the red cloth that covers the brides face. II. Preparation for the wedding IIa. Setting up the Bridal Bed After the grooms family has selected a good day as the wedding day, a man whos considered to have had good fortune all through his life will be hired to move the bridal bed to the right place. Then a lady whos considered to have had good fortune [with healthy and living husband and sons] will make the bed and place certain good fortune food and fruits on the bed. Then the bed will be left untouched until the day of the wedding. IIb. The Brides Gifts for the Groom The brides gifts for the groom will either arrive a couple of days before the wedding day or if shes a relatively long-distance bride, shell bring along the gifts with her maids as she arrive at the grooms home on wedding day. The brides gifts usually consists of valuable jewelry and precious stones, kitchen utensils, proper bridal linen such as sheets, pillow covers and clothes. In some area, the brides family is expected to furnish the bridal except for the bridal bed. Theres a saying that if the bride supplies the bridal bed, then the family is practically giving the bride away for free. IIc. Combing Hair The night before the wedding, both the bride and the groom needs to find a good fortune woman and man to comb their hair in his/her home respectively. Both the bride and the groom needs to take shower before the event, change to some fresh new underwear and incense needs to be burnt. The bride also needs to sit next to a window where the moon can be seen. Their hair needs to be combed four times and each has a special meaning: The first combing symbolizes: from beginning till the end The second combing symbolizes: harmony from now till old age The third combing symbolizes: sons and grandsons all over the place The fourth combing summaries good wealth and a long-lasting marriage. The whole action also symbolizes the adulthood of the couple. If either has been married before, then the combing event can be skipped for that person. |  Top of Page  |  Traditional Customs  |  Modern Customs  | III. Wedding Day Activities IIIa. Wedding Day: picking up the Bride On the day of the wedding, the groom will send a carriage over to the brides family to bring the bride home. The carriage is decorated in red and is carried by four servants. Musicians will accompany the procession and they will play wedding music all the way. A lot of gifts are also brought to the brides family at the same time. At the brides home, the bride will put on her bright red wedding gown and the brides parents will give her jewelry to wear. IIIb. Bride Leaving Home As the grooms procession arrives, the grooms spokeswoman will enter the brides house and will carry the bride on her back. The bride cannot touch the ground with her feet until she arrives at the grooms house. In some regions, the brides relatives will throw rice into the air, hoping that the chickens around will eat the rice instead of pecking at the bride. Sometimes, a red umbrella is used to shield the bride as the opening of the umbrella will symbolize her bringing many descendants to the grooms family. As the bride leaves the house, her parents and her relatives will bid her farewell as she rides the carriage and leaves home. Wealthy brides often have servant girls who will follow her to the grooms family and continue to serve her. These maids are known as ones who accompany the marriage. IIIc. Bride Arriving at the Grooms Home After the bride arrive at the grooms house, the couple will again worship the ancestors and worship the heavens and earth. Then they will serve tea to the grooms family according the their seniority and the relatives will give them red packets or bridal jewelry in return. IIId. The Wedding Banquet To celebrate the marriage, the grooms family will throw a wedding feast as large as they can afford. In the old days, some villagers may use up to seven continuous days to entertain the relatives during a wedding. Every night, delicious food is being served to all the guests. IV. Post Wedding Activities IVa. The Bride Returning Home after 3 Days Three days after the wedding, the bride is expected to return to her family. The bride will bring along roasted pig and gifts for the family. Some regions require that the groom accompany her while some didnt. Nonetheless, this is probably the last chance the bride gets to see her parents. Therefore, she will bring along a lot of gifts for the family and she may even stay for a couple of days or even more. As a tradition, the brides family will also return part of the gifts to the grooms family as a courtesy. Some regional custom requires that the family should return the head and tail of the roasted pig to the grooms family symbolizing the good beginning and end of the wedding. Modern Chinese Wedding Customs The above practices contributed to the festive atmosphere of a wedding, however, most of the customs are not performed to its fullest extent in the modern world. Instead of performing all these ancient practices, even most elders would prefer the following simplified customs nowadays. For the modernized customs (or the even more simplified customs) , please see this section on Modern Customs. When to get married? Hong Kong is a funny place where wedding plans are not driven by the couples relationship. It is often restrained by financial situations. Given Hong Kongs US$500-US$1000-per square-foot real estate price and 9% interest rate on mortgage plan plus the cost of an elaborate Chinese wedding banquet that most parents require, most couples struggle for years in order to save money for the wedding. As crazy as it seems, I know a couple who applied for public housing for 8 years and failed every single time and finally got married because they had to before they can apply for a different government housing scheme and still failed and finally ended up living with their parents. They love each other but they had to wait all these years because of the lack of a living quarter. Another couple planned to get married in 92 but their parents fail to compromise on the number of guests they can invite to the wedding banquet and it finally took the young couple 4 more years to save enough in order to satisfy the needs of the parents. Therefore, the financial restraint has torn up many couples. For those fortunate enough, they will then go through the following procedures.. Preparation for the Wedding Ia. Exchange Birth Dates and Family Tree If the groom and the brides birthdates are OK (meaning that no disaster is predicted by the fortune teller if the two get married), the two families will exchange their family records/family tree. However, this custom is not always being followed depending how superstitious the families are. Ib. Send Gifts to Brides Family The modern families usually send both the intial gifts and the formal gifts to the brides home on one day instead of separating the two events. Most families still need to consult the Chinese calendar to pick a good day which is normally about one month before the wedding. Instead of sending the whole list of gifts such as livestock, certain good-luck food or material, some couples simplify the gifts and the groom will only send some nice gifts such as dried seafood and fruit basket to the brides family. (Nowadays, most parents dont know what to do with some lively chicken flying around the fifteen-storey high apartment. Plus, theres a great chance that theyll suffocate before arriving at the brides home, given Hong Kongs infamous traffic jams) As for the monetary gift, the groom will either pay a certain agreed amount to the brides family or will offer to pay for all of the wedding cost. The negotiation will then focus on how many tables the groom is able to offer to the brides family during the wedding banquet. Sometimes, the brides family will insist on having a certain number of guests but if the groom cannot afford it, they will try to compromise. At other times, the grooms family may have a certain reason to limit the brides number of guests, such as if the grooms family is not too large, some relatives may feel uneasy if the brides family invite more guest than the grooms family. Even nowadays, this is a potential area for conflict between the two families. IIa. Setting up the Bridal Bed Not every couple can afford to buy a new bed as the bridal bed nowadays. Especially with the outrageous real estate prices in Hong Kong, not every couple has their own place and a new bed, so its now quite customary to simply change the linen to the traditional red linen as a symbolic act for setting up the bridal bed. Some couples dont even bother with that. They may simply buy some nice Esprit or Ikea linen and use those as the bridal linens. IIb. The Brides Gifts for the Groom Not many people will follow this rule still. The only jewelry the bride brings over to the grooms family is probably the ones that her relatives give her on wedding day as a wedding gift. Some brides contribute some of the gifts from relatives to pay for the banquet as well and some say that is considered as part of the brides gifts as well. IIc. Combing Hair Some couples choose to skip this event altogether, although it is a relatively simple act compared to the others. IIIa. Wedding Day: picking up the Bride Nowadays, the bridesmaid will have most fun during the picking up of the bride. Early in the morning, the groom and the groomsmen will decorate the cars and drive them over to the brides home. At the door, the bridesmaids will prepare a lot of tricky questions for the groom to answer. The groom not only has to answer all the questions, he also has perform certain acts such as doing push-ups to show that hes strong enough to take care of the bride,or sing out his love for the bride in front of many people. The groomsmen will help the groom to pass all these tests. The last test is a financial test. The groom has to pay the bridesmaids some red packets [good fortune] as gifts, then the groom and his groomsmen can enter the house and greet the bride. The couple will then serve tea to the superior in the brides family. The brides parents will be the first to be served, followed by other relatives. Each one will give the couple some present in return, often red packets and jewelry for the bride [gold is often preferred in the Southern region]. IIIb. Bride Leaving Home Nowadays, only very traditional families may use the red umbrella or throw rice as the bride leaves the house. Most people do not perform any special activities and the brides parents and relatives will either go to the Marriage Registrar or the church to attend the wedding ceremony. IIIc. Bride Arriving at the Grooms Home Again, the couple will then serve tea to the superior in the grooms family. The grooms parents will be the first to be served, followed by other relatives. Each one will give the couple some present in return, often red packets and jewelry for the bride. After that, the whole family will leave for the Marriage Registrar or the church to attend the wedding ceremony. IIId. The Wedding Banquet This is probably the part of the tradition that has been very well kept. In the modern Chinese society, the wedding feast is considered to be very important as supposed to the church ceremony or even the signing of the marriage license at the Governments Marriage Registrar. Most parents do not mind the rest of the tradition except for this part. To the parents, the wedding feast is a chance for them to return their relatives kindness and to announce the marriage of their kids. If the wedding feast turns out to be good, then its a great thing because they will have face. In the Chinese culture, its most important to have face [respected by others]. Traditionally, the groom will pay for everything but nowadays, some young couples will offer to pay for themselves. As mentioned before, this is the area with the highest likelihood for conflicts between families of the bride and the groom. The brides family will want to invite as many friends and families as possible while the grooms family may either have a budget concern or they do not want the brides family to invite more friends than they do in fear of losing face. Note that the bride and the grooms own friends are often being neglected. The wedding banquet is truly more of a parental event than that of the young couples. There are many jokes about some people slipping into wedding banquets and nobody even noticed until the young couple exchange notes afterwards and realize the guests are neither the bride nor the grooms relatives. Or that the guest went to the wrong banquet in the same restaurant [there may be 3 or 4 banquets going on at the same time in the restaurant, separat ed by partitions or rooms] without knowing it. Once the guest list is drafted, the parents will then decide on the menu. A traditional Chinese banquet will include somewhere around 12 courses including an appetizer [lobster salad], roast pig, abalone, shark fin soup and end with fried rice/noodles, dessert and fresh fruit. The food is of utmost importance to Chinese and in most cases only delicacies are served. Besides,really nice cognac such as VSOP is often being served. As a side note, most restaurant finds the beverage to be a great way to rip off the family as you can never keep track of how many Cokes each guest has consumed. During the feast, the guests are seated in round tables and sometimes seating plans are being made in order to avoid guests not knowing each other being seated at the same table. Each guest will normally bring along monetary gift that runs around US$50-US$100 in Hong Kong [the price varies in different regions]. Normally the gifts can barely cover the cost of the banquet, therefore, the banquet is a great financial constraint in the couples planning. [that is, on top of the US$500-US$1000-per square-foot real estate price and 9% interest rate on mortgage plan in Hong Kong]. As for the wedding colour, it is quite standard:  red. The events in a Chinese wedding banquet have been modified a bit nowadays. Before the banquet starts, most of the guests will participate in one of the Chinese national games, mahjong [a Chinese tile game]. Others will take photos with the bride and the groom. When the food is ready, the waiters will play a modified xylophone and wedding music will start to play in the background. Some couples will hire an MC to conduct the ceremony. Due to Western influence, the best man and maid of honour often gets to toast the bride and the groom before food is being served. During the serving of shark fin soup, the couple will go from table to table, toasting the guests and thanking them. In return, the guests will also toast the bride and the groom. After that, the groomsmen, bridesmaids and friends of the young couple will often play certain tricks on them. This is similar to the clinking of glasses in the Western culture. The goal is to make the groom show his love in public. Some of the game s are X-rated, depending what kind of friends the couple has. Some games are similar to the ones played in during bridal shower or a bachelars party. Others may be a bit more outrageous. After that, the bride will change into a different gown [For some peculiar reason, brides have to change into 4 or 5 different dresses on the wedding day]. As the time draws near for the guests to leave, the parents, the couple and the relatives will stand in line at the door to thank the guests and wish them well as they leave. This is contrary to the receiving line in Western culture. Chinese has retreating line instead. When all the guests have left, the bridal party will go home. That is, if the couple is not holding the banquet in a hotel where a guest room is provided for the newly wed to stay. If so, the persistent friends will break into the room and play more games on the newly wed. For details, please refer to directory Lee Ans movie  Wedding Banquet  which has a great description on wedding banquets. IV. Post Wedding Activities IVa. The Bride Returning Home after 3 Days Nowadays in certain regions, this rule is still being followed where the bride will return to the family with gifts. However, in some regions, this custom is being simplified so the bride will return home on the same day if distance allows. Otherwise, some brides will leave the door, and then return to the house again and count that as returning home.

Day of the Locust

Chris Phillips Professor Kirkpatrick English 1C March 31, 2010 Hollywood Illusions In The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West, illusion verse reality is one of the main themes of the novel. Hollywood is known for it’s acting, but the town and everyone that inhibit it seem to get carried away with trying to be something they aren’t. Nothing is really indigenous in Hollywood and everything is borrowed from another place. The houses have been designed to look like Irish cottages, Spanish villas, or Southern plantations while the characters often imagine themselves as someone other than who they really are. Tod states, â€Å"The fat lady in the yachting cap was going shopping, not boating; the man in the Norfolk jacket and Tyrolean hat was returning, not from a mountain, but an insurance office; and the girl in slacks and sneaks with a bandana around her head had just left a switchboard, not a tennis court† (60). West shows us that Hollywood is filled with fantasies and dreams rather than reality, which can best be seen through characters such as Harry and Faye Greener. Harry acts as if he has had a long and successful career as a star, when in reality he is just a washed up clown. Harry’s clowning act is used to sell his shoe polish. Harry knows that no one really wants to buy his shoe polish but he thinks that he is still a great actor and also realizes that people won't go out of their way to punish a clown. But clowning becomes compulsive because he acts in his everyday life. Harry is so caught up in his illusion that it ends up killing him. He becomes really sick but can only think and respond in terms of performance. While playing faint, he shockingly discovers that he really is faint. Having role-played so much, he can no longer tell when he is acting pain and feeling pain, pretending suffering and really suffering. Though Harry's illness is real, he continues to put on his act. After offering Harry some water Tod states, â€Å"Harry framed the word ‘no’ with his lips, then groaned skillfully. It was a second-act curtain groan, so phony that Tod had to hide a smile. And yet the old man's pallor hadn't come from a box† (119). The only way Harry knows to express suffering is by exaggeratedly pretending it. Tod was often at the Greener’s house to help the sick man, but it was hard to distinguish how in pain the old man really was. It seemed like another one of his clown acts, where being in pain is what made the act so funny. Even as Harry is dying, he wonders to himself whether he was acting or actually sick. Like her dad Faye is caught up in the dreams and fantasies of Hollywood. Faye thinks she’s a big time movie star when in fact she has only been an extra with a short part in a movie. She even believes she is too good for guys like Tod and can only be with someone who is rich and handsome. Faye is the center of obsessional sexual fantasies of all the males in the novel. She is an unloving woman and provides Tod with many sexual and violent fantasies. Tod begins to realize that Faye’s main goal is to lead men on with her performances. Faye’s sexual gestures became more of a formal greeting that she used very often. Her secret smiles and the way she acted were used to get whatever she wanted. She never fooled anyone though, but it was alright with them. West writes, â€Å"His interest in her grew despite the things she said and he continued to find her very exciting. Had any other girl been so affected, he would have thought her intolerable. Faye’s affectations, however, were so completely artificial that he found them charming. Being with her was like being backstage during an amateurish, ridiculous play† (103). They were perfectly content watching what seemed like an amateur show, just by being with her. Even when Harry dies, Faye, who has been treating him meanly, decides to act like the devoted daughter. She provides a proper funeral and decides to become a call girl for Mrs. Jenning's in order to pay for it. Everything from the people to the town itself seems to be fake and not what everyone expects when they think of Hollywood. West’s theme of illusion verse reality is shown with Faye always bouncing free to continue in her fantasies, or Harry not knowing what he feels because clownishly playing his disguised self, the Greeners show that for compulsive masqueraders little authentic life is possible. Faye and Harry make the audience sympathetic for them. They just seem so pathetic at times that it’s hard to not feel bad for them. Tod, Homer and many of Faye’s other suitors, went along with her poor acting because she was beautiful yet pathetic. West says, â€Å"Raging at him, she was still beautiful. That was because her beauty was structural like a tree's, not a quality of her mind or heart† (126). They all loved her for what they saw on the outside, not her stuck up ways and wild stories. For all of the characters in West’s novel, they are acting on an every day basis without even realizing it. Harry acts in pain to get attention. He pretends to need help from sympathetic people and then he tells them the crazy stories of when he was â€Å"famous. † His illusions are then backed up by his strong beliefs that he really was a good actor. If we look at Faye we see how she also has a very strong and misconstrued idea of reality. She believes she will one day be famous and in her everyday life, she acts like she already is. She bosses the men around, has to be the center of attention, and uses people to pay for her and get her ahead. Her daily acting and stage acting has become almost the same, as she makes everything dramatic. All of Hollywood is her stage as she acts out her life. Faye does a little better then her father when it comes to acting because she uses her beauty to get ahead. Her beauty helps the men forget how delusional she is when she speaks. Harry has nothing to use to his advantage except being old, and being Faye’s father, which gives him the company of Faye’s suitors. Faye’s suitors help Harry and listen to his nonsense just so they can be close to Faye. The Greener’s are so confused in their ideas of illusion versus reality that they will never get anywhere close to their dreams. Harry died the clown he always was, while Faye ended up stuck in her fantasies. Neither got what they wanted or expected from Hollywood. The city that was supposed to make all their dreams come true failed. The Greener’s showed us very clearly the line between illusion and reality. Throughout the novel we saw Harry and Faye act their way through their life. Everyone around them was just a part of the play. Tod and Homer had front and center seats to see the Greeners perform. The performance was sad but amusing for the audience. In the end, the play didn’t have a happy ending for anyone but the ride along the way proved to be full of surprises, pain, disappointment, and challenges. Faye and Harry although unsuccessful during their time in Hollywood showed everyone the problems with never facing reality. The truth of reality would have hurt them. If they saw just as everyone else did, that they were the â€Å"have-nots† in society, they might have changed. Instead Tod was the only one in the novel who changed. His change can be attributed to the Greeners and their acting. Through them, Tod finally felt sympathy and became a better person. Faye and Harry were constant throughout The Day of the Locust, which led them to despair. The Greener’s constant masquerading eventually became the fall of them, leading to reality. Work Cited West, Nathanael. Miss Lonelyhearts & the Day of the Locust. New York: New Directions Book, 2009. Print.

Understanding the Relationship between Alexithymia and Self-Harm - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1100 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2018/12/15 Category Psychology Essay Type Dissertation Level High school Tags: Behavior Essay Emotion Essay Did you like this example? I. Background and Rationale a) Introduction Self-injurious behaviors are a concern among young adults and require a better discernment of hazardous aspects and pathways to these occurrences (Anestis et al., 2009). These young adults predicate that their self-inflicted acts, involving low lethality methods such as burning skin or skin cuts, are not suicidal. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Understanding the Relationship between Alexithymia and Self-Harm" essay for you Create order Developmental psychopathology models have processes and proposed mechanisms through which hostile caregiving environments or childhood ill-treatment experiences can lead to engagement in non-suicidal acts (Roemer et al., 2009). Frameworks reiterating the foundations of the interpersonal rate of affectedness assumes that hostile caregiving environments and consequent insecure attachments are associated with slow development, this inhibits or stimulates dealing with emotional afflictions. b) Study Rationale Research which was done to determine insecure attachments, emotion regulation deficits, and non-suicidal self-injury have been limited and inconsistent. Well-developed theoretical and conceptual models (Hayes et al., 1996) should be the focus. There has been consistent evidence for destructive patterns of emotion regulation among self-injuring youth and greater self-reported emotional reactivity (Gratz, 2007) when subjected to stimuli. Self-injury is also found to be a means to regulate negative emotions. II. Discussion a) Attachment The role of attachment disorder is relatively established; the limitation is the scarcity of research in the specific attachment triggers that increase the vulnerability for self injury. there is less clarity on the specific attachment trigger which increases the vulnerability for self-injury. Higher attachment anxiety has been implicated among self-injuring adult psychiatric inpatients, but other research reported an association between withdrawn attachment and self-injury among individuals with personality disorder. Despite the growing interest in understanding the antecedents and risk factors connected to (NSSI), studies that examine both attachment disorder and emotion regulation difficulties are scarce. High self-esteem and the ability to adjust psychologically are firm indicators of positive emotional intelligence, whereas factors such as depression, distressing and harmful behavior are proponents of negative or low emotional intelligence (Hazan Shaver, 1987). There ex ists a strong positive correlation between emotional intelligence and mental challenges as evidenced by (Aleman swart, 2009), The positive quality of life brought about by higher emotional intelligence and consequently mental conditions such as psychopathology tend to develop among individuals due to low emotional intelligence. b) Theories Theories in behavioral patterns of psychopathology indicate the importance of problematic behavior functions (Fischer et al., 2004). NSSI is influenced by emotional personality, regulation and stimulation. Emotions which include frustration, anxiety, and anger tend to predate NSSI, which is usually followed by feelings of serenity and relief but leads to despair and disgust in the long run (Manwaring et al., 2006). In a study psychology setup, male prisoners with a history of self-violence were observed to determine the prevalence of emotional feedback about self-harm. When correlated with the control group, self-harm volunteers responded with a reduction in physiological stimulation as well as repugnant emotion to images of self-harm, contrary to neutral situations and injuries which are accidental. Individuals with emotional disorder are likely to cause bodily harm, and could be used to explain the susceptibility for those with high alexithymia attempt such acts (Bishop et al. , 2004). Several emotional therapy models have been designed to reduce the susceptibility to self-harm (Gratz, 2007) and, individuals that have been found to show emotional instability were said to be suffering from high alexithymia (Stasiewicz et al., 2012; Taylor, 2000) and be likely to use suppressed regulation techniques than positive strategies. Authors conclude that alexithymia is an acquired strategy to avert overwhelming emotions. According to Chapman and Brown (2006) prevention of emotion can be prevented through identification of self-harm as a channel for warding off feelings. Therefore, it is justified to state that the mechanism that sheds light on the relationship between alexithymia and self- harm is experiential prevention. Conclusively, it is concise to propose that low childhood attachments are a determining factor in the progression and development of alexithymia and self- harm as stated by Oskis et al, (2013) and Van der Kolk, Perry, and Herman (1991). Fina lly, poor childhood attachment is a causal factor in the development of alexithymia (Oskis et al, 2013) and self-harm (Van, Herman Perry, 1991). Identifying a feeling subscale of TAS20 is closely related to the fear of seclusion, following a study conducted by Oskis et al, (2013) on adolescents. It is a plausible assumption to indicate poor attachment as a subliminal reason for the preventive behavior noticed in individuals with a higher level of alexithymia and self-harming behaviors. III. Conclusion Despite the fact that many of these factors have been quantified and contrasted bilaterally in the literature, a bonding agent is lacking, to bind them together to fully grasp the mechanisms by which alexithymia might be related to self-harm (Chambers et al., 2009). The present review is directed towards a test model in which alexithymia separates them from self-harm. The dearth of reliable and concise evidence of the relationship between NSSI and alexithymia has left some of studies that evaluated the function of emotional response as well as the capacity to comprehend and show emotional states in adolescents who inflict self-harm. References D.J Lyddon, W Schreiber, Alford, (2006). Emotion working models of adult attachment. Psychology quarterly. Fink, E. L., Joiner, M. D. Smith, Anestis, (2009). Distress and Unregulated eating: The role of adverse urgency in clinical samples. Cognitive Therapy, 33, 390-397. Aderson. N. D.,Carmody J., Bishop, S.R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., et al., (2004) A An Operational definition proposed in clinical psychology and mindfulness: science practice, 11(3), 230-241. Gullone, G., Allen, N. B., Chambers, R., (2009). An integrative review. Emotional regulation mindfulness. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 560-572 Fischer, S., Anderson, K. G., Smith, G. T. (2004). Coping with distress by eating or drinking: Role of trait urgency and expectancies. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 269-274. Gratz, K. L Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emoti on regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 41-54. Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. G., Strosahl, K., Gifford, E. V., Follett, V. M. (1996). Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 1152-1168. Hazan, C., Shaver, P. R. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524. Manwaring, J.L., Hilbert, A., Wifley, D.E., Pike, K.M., Fairburn, C.G., Dohm, F. Striegal-Moore, R. H. (2006). Risk factors and patterns of onset in binge eating disorder. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 39, 101-107. Roemer, L., Lee, J. K., Salters-Pedneault, K., Erisman, S. M., Orsillo, S. M., Mennin, D. S. (2009). Mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Preliminary evidence for independent and overlapping contributions. Behavior Therapy, 40, 1 42-154.

Conflict Between Christians And Non Christians - 1849 Words

If Jesus is superior and anyone who does not worship him is inferior, how can the world get along? Cross-cultural dialogue has been difficult to sustain over time because Christian monarchs, military men and other officials from Europe have maintained hegemony based on faulty notions of piety and the ethnocentric subjugation of religious minorities not conducive to diplomacy between Christians and non-Christians. Yet, some Europeans broke away from their ignorant leadership by learning more about non-Christians, such as the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas. Medieval Christian leaders professed a devotion to Jesus that presumed religious diversity as contemptible and allowed Christians to annex unbelieving Muslims, Jews, and heretical polytheists. These leaders sadistically imposed militaristic imperialism and legal discrimination upon non-Christians through the ecclesiastical and political normalization of worshipping the one and only Christ. In the â€Å"Old World† of E urope and the Near East, many Christians in positions of power, such as European â€Å"Frankish† crusaders and royal officials, marginalized Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians as inferior infidels through discriminatory legal codes and violent expansionism. Thus, Christians in power acted as savage as their stereotypes of non-Christians. In the New World, or the continents currently known as the Americas, the misguided navigator Columbus continued to mute cross-cultural dialogue by claiming the natural andShow MoreRelatedIslam and the West in the Middle Ages838 Words   |  3 PagesIn Samuel Huntington’s thesis, Clash of Civilizations, he describes the post-Cold War world as one that would now base its conflicts on people’s culture and religion. 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