Essay Sample on Self-Presentation Research of the Main Concepts

Essay Sample on Self-Presentation Research of the Main Concepts Self-Presentation essay example: Introduction The ability to manage impressions is an integral part in everyday life as individuals are able to alter peoples perceptions according to how one sees or wants to be seen by others. Self-presentation, also referred to as impression management, implies that an individual is monitoring how one is being perceived and evaluated by others and has considered the self-presentational implications of ones behavior (Leary, Nezlek, Downs, Radford-Davenport, Martin, McMullen, 1994). The amount of attention that people devote to their public images varies across situations and individuals. Some people are oblivious of others impression of them. On the other hand, there are people who are highly attuned to others evaluations and devote enormous amounts of effort to create the correct impression. A majority of people usually operate somewhere between these two bounds in that they tend to monitor at a moderate level on how they come across to others. However, in many situations people who are not mo nitoring or thinking about the impressions they are making can become quickly aware of others evaluative reactions (Leary Kowalski, 1990). Impression Motivation The discrepancy between why in certain situations people are motivated to affect how others perceive them, and other times not is referred to as impression motivation (Tetlock Manstead, 1985). Leary and Kowalski (1990) described impression motivation as being affected by three primary sets of factors: the perceived goal relevance of the persons impressions, the value of the persons desired goals, and the discrepancy between the persons desired and current images. Goal-relevance of impressions The more important the attainment of a goal is to ones self image, the more motivated people are to manage impressions to achieve that goal. People become more concerned with how others perceive them. Ferris and Porac (1984) researched some of the factors that would determine how relevant ones impressions are to the fulfillment of their goals. Their results indicated that people set higher goals when others were present. In other words, the more public a behavior is, the more significant it is to manage impressions to accomplish that goal. However, there are private behaviors that some people feel is necessary to self-present. Leary and Kowalski (1990) stated, people may privately prepare to perform impression-relevant behaviors in public (pg. 38). In some instances, people self-present in public settings so often that the actions become habitual, which may eventually carry over into their private behaviors. Value of desired goals People are motivated to manage their impressions the more they value a particular goal. Because the value of outcomes increases as their availability decreases, impression motivation should increase when valued outcomes are scarce. Pandey and Rastagi (1979) found that ingratiation in the workplace appears to increase, for example, as job competition becomes more fierce, and strategic self-presentation arises when valued resources are scarce. However, individual differences occur with people who are high in need for approval, because they are more motivated to self-present after failure in order to preserve their self-esteem (Schneider Turkat, 1975). This illustrates that being high in the need for approval is associated with greater incentive to manage impressions. Discrepancy between desired and current image This type of impression motivation occurs when there is a discrepancy between how the person wants to be seen by others and the image that person thinks others have of them. When an individual recognizes this discrepancy, there is a motivation to reduce the discrepancy. In a majority of situations, an embarrassing incident that is witnessed by someone else causes the need to initiate self-presentational tactics. Leary and his colleagues (1996) conducted an experiment that caused participants to become embarrassed, and then researchers noted that some of these participants engaged in self-presentational tactics to improve their damaged social image. Participants, through verbal expressions or blushing, were motivated to portray face-saving tactics to try to repair their image in the researchersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ eyes due to the embarrassing incident. Another type of discrepancy can occur when a person conveys an impression that is inconsistent with his or her own sense of self (Leary Kowalski, 1990). For example, if an applicant inadvertently insults an interviewer during a job interview, he or she would frantically try to retract the comment and assuage the situation. In these circumstances, individuals immediately try and self-present to get others to see them as they truly are, and to re-establish their social identity, which also restores their own sense of self. Self-Concept A persons self-concept is a primary determinant of the impressions one is trying to project. The more important or central a particular attribute is, the more likely it will be recognized through self-presentational behaviors. Effects of self-presentations on self-beliefs In a series of experiments, Jones and his colleagues (1981) investigated the effects of strategic self-enhancement or self-deprecation on subsequent ratings of self-esteem. In the first two experiments, participants who were induced to present themselves in either a self-enhancing or self-deprecating fashion during an interview later rated their self-esteem in a manner that was consistent with their self-presentations. Similarly, in the third experiment, participants who played a self-enhancing role for the interview also assessed their self-esteem as higher than they original began with. This shift was only true if the participant did not have pre-planned answers to the interview questions, but answered freely in-role. In the opposite experimental condition, participants playing a self-deprecating role demonstrated a lower self-esteem only when they were given a clear choice on whether to engage in the interview. Overall, the participants believability of their self-presentations en hanced the internalization of those presentations (Jones et al., 1981). Another experiment demonstrated that self-presentations have an impact on subsequent self-appraisals, behaviors, and recall of relevant events (Schlenker, Dlugolecki, Doherty, 1994, Experiment 1). Participants were either instructed to present themselves as sociable during an interview or were given information about the importance of sociability but were not interviewed. All of the participants waited in a room with a confederate who later judged how sociable each participant behaved. After the experiment, participants completed an assessment of their own sociability and any instances outside of the laboratory that were relevant to sociability. The results revealed that the participants who presented themselves as sociable at the interview later behaved more sociable, rated themselves as more sociable, and recalled more past experiences in which they behaved sociable than did the participants who were not interviewed. Another important finding was that no differences emerged for an y other features such as self-esteem, intelligence, leadership abilities, or affective states. Therefore, this experiment demonstrated not only that self-presentations have an impact on behaviors, but also that these effects correspond only to self-images portrayed in self-presentation and are not the results of a shift in affect or self-esteem (Schlenker et al., 1994). These findings allude to the idea that peoples self-concepts can be influenced by the way people present themselves. Audience effects Research has demonstrated that even the mere presence of an audience can enhance the internalization of ones self-presentations (Tice, 1992). A pair of studies showed that participants who were induced to describe themselves in particular ways for an audience tended to bring their self-beliefs more in line with their self-descriptions than participants who described themselves anonymously. In each study, after the participant was told in which manner to act, they were asked to take a chair into a waiting room where an unknown confederate would already be sitting. Sitting relatively close to the confederate and having a conversation characterized extraverted behavior. Introverted behavior was seen as sitting far from and not speaking to the confederate. The changes in self-beliefs extended to changes in the participants behaviors, and these behavioral changes occurred even when the participants were unaware of being observed (Tice, 1992, Study 2). At the end of the experiment, the par ticipants were debriefed and so no lasting self-concept changes would be seen in any follow-up procedures. Further research could examine whether this induced self-concept change could have lasting effects. Self-Presentation to Help Others People will strategically exploit or withhold information regarding a friends identity in order to help create a desired impression for a friend upon significant audiences. For example, if an employee in a business is trying to get a friend a job where he or she works, then the employee will deliberately speak of only the good qualities that the friend possesses and not about how lazy their friend can be at times. Schlenker and Britt (2001) explored this with participants who had to describe their friend to a researcher who was evaluating their partners cognitive skills. As predicted, people engaged in more beneficial impression management to help friends who experienced more evaluative pressure to make a good impression, and this was stronger for people who were higher in empathy. Participants spoke of their friends with more favorable descriptions, and this effect increased as empathy increased. In addition, the stronger the friendship was, the more their friends portrayed their pa rtner as having a great deal of integrative ability about an important trait. In contrast, when the measure of friendship strength was weaker, there was very little display of any significant responsiveness to the evaluative pressures on their friends. The closer the relationships were, the higher the empathy and concern for the well being of the other became (Schlenker Britt, 2001). In a similar study by Schlenker and Britt (1999), friends would strategically control information about their friends identity according to the qualities preferred by an attractive person of the opposite sex. The same was conducted with an unattractive person of the opposite sex. When the friend found the other person to be good looking, the participant described their friends attributes consistently with the qualities that the attractive person deemed important. For example, if the attractive target prefers someone who is outgoing and sociable as an ideal date, they will describe their friend as relatively outgoing and sociable. The opposite was true for an unattractive individual. The participant would describe the friends attributes as contradictory to what the unattractive person considered important. The participant hoped the unattractive person would feel that the friend was not their type. This tactic could serve to protect the friend from unappreciated and unwanted attention. This experiment illustrated impression management to benefit friends by promoting and protecting their desired identities. Thus, all acts of self-presentation are self-serving or devious (Schlenker Britt, 1999). Self-presentation among friends and strangers Most self-presentation research has dealt with managing impressions among strangers but not friends. However, how one creates a positive impression may vary according to the audience one is trying to impress. Tice and his colleagues (1995) found that people self-present in a much more promoting manner when the audience consisted of strangers, and more modestly when self-presenting among friends. Friends presumably know about their friends past successes and achievements, eliminating the need to be boastful so not to seem conceited. On the other hand, strangers are unaware of any achievements the participants had partaken in; therefore, they could speak more favorably about themselves without seeming redundant or arrogant. In Study 2, the audience was manipulated to be made up of all strangers and one friend. With the addition of a single friend, the participant was inhibited to self-present even though the audience was made up of a majority of strangers (Tice et al., 1995). The resul ts of Study 2 replicated the results found in Study 1. Participants were more modest when answering questions in front of a friend then in front of a stranger. This result is because it is unnecessary to try to impress people who already know their friends successes and failures, this would only make one seem arrogant and pompous. Therefore, when the opportunity arises to flaunt ones positive characteristic, it is usually among an unknown audience. Influence of Cognitive Load on Self-Presentation Pontari and Schlenker (2000) explored the difference in peoples self-presentational abilities when given an additional cognitive load. The participants were either extraverted or introverted, and were asked to participate in an interview where they would act either extraverted or introverted. When a participant was self-presenting congruently with their own behavior, remembering an eight-digit number did not hinder their self-presentational abilities. However, incongruent self-presentations were affected by the additional cognitive demand. When an extraverted person was asked to behave introverted during an interview and remember an eight-digit number, their acting capabilities were decreased. For extraverts, cognitive demand seemed to block needed cognitive resources, but they were still able to perform reasonably well. Ironically, the opposite was true for introverts playing an extraverted role during the interview. It seems that the addition of the cognitive load had a liberating effect in that their attention was diverted from worrying or feeling shy about acting extraverted since they had to remember the eight-digit number. Pontari and Schlenker (2000) took this a step further with their next study to evaluate other situations when introverted individuals may feel less publicly self-conscious or had fewer negative self-focused thoughts. It was found that regardless of the social situation, if any cognitive load was placed on an introverted individual, that person would experience a reduction in negative self-thoughts, a reduction in public self-consciousness, and an increase in the ability to create an out-of-character impression. Overall, increased cognitive load can improve social performance (Pontari Schlenker, 2000). Nonverbal Behavior and Self-Presentation Much of previous research has been devoted to the verbal aspects of self-presentation. Depaulo (1992) explored the realm of controlling nonverbal behavior for self-presentational purposes. People might take a chance at expressing something nonverbally that they would normally be reluctant to express verbally. It is easy to deny or alter the meaning of a facial expression if a person begins to regret having done so. Sex There is a gender difference in the ability to nonverbally self-present throughout all ages. Research conducted on preschoolers to adults all indicated that females are the more talented deceiving sex (Depaulo, 1992). Depaulo (1992) asserted that women are nonverbally more involved and more open in their interpersonal interactions than men. Their faces are more spontaneously expressive, and they are more successful at posing a particular emotion. Depaulo (1992) also reasons that from an early age, women were more concerned with making good impressions and avoiding bad ones that over time their ability to nonverbally self-present was enhanced. However, a womens ability to move their body in a more involved and expressive manner may have been deliberate to begin with, but over time could become a habitual act. On the other hand, it may just be a natural and more comfortable way for a woman to behave and has no self-presentational implications. Physical Attractiveness Physically attractive individuals are better at expressing emotions spontaneously and are better at posing emotions with their faces (Depaulo, 1992). The contributing factor is believed to be that attractive people are more confident about their abilities and feel that they have an advantage over others. Perhaps an explanation for this phenomenon is that the person who is speaking to the attractive individual is not paying attention to the words or facial expressions the good-looking person is portraying, but rather concentrating on his or hers physical attributes instead. Conclusion The level of self-presentation one partakes in is motivated by how relevant managing an impression is in order to obtain a goal, how much an individual values that goal, and if an individual feels that there is a discrepancy between the image one wants to project and the image others perceive. In some situations, a person may self-present so often that the actions become habitual, then the person may begin to internalize those beliefs and their self-esteem is affected accordingly. There are a myriad of possibilities where a person can use self-presentation to influence others perceptions. Research has indicated that people will self-present in behalf of a friend to try to create an impression for another individual while the friend is not available. Further, a person will refrain from self-presenting when speaking about themselves in front of friends, but will boast in front of strangers. The complexity of verbal and non-verbal self-presentation makes it an integral part in everyday life.

How to Address Someone in German Properly

How to Address Someone in German Properly You is not always you, especially when youre speaking a foreign language.   One thing you need to learn quickly is how to correctly use you in German. Modern English is the only Indo-European language that has just one form of you. In German there are three: Du,  the Informal Address This form is only for those with whom youre on familiar or intimate terms, such as family, close friends, children, pets, and in prayer. In Germany, the word friend isnt used as liberally as in America, or at least it doesnt carry quite the same meaning. Ein  Freund/eine Freundin is used more to denote what we call here a close friend, whereas the word ein Bekannter/eine Bekannte is the preferred term used for casual friends and acquaintances. Ihr, Informal Plural Ihr is the plural form of du. Its the equivalent of yall in the Southern United States. For example: Wo seid ihr? (Where are you guys?)   Sie, the Formal Address This polite form implies a certain formality between people and takes into account social considerations. Sie is used for those people we address as Herr, Frau and with other formal titles. Usually, its used for older people, professionals and shop clerks. It might also be a good strategy to address co-workers as  Sie at first  until they offer you the du. Its better to call someone  Sie  and have them correct you with  du than to assume you can use the formal address and offend someone.  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹ Duzen and Siezen The verb that describes using Sie to address someone is siezen. To utilize du with someone is duzen.  Its best to use the Sie if  you are not sure which to use.   More About You in German Other important points about  Sie,  du and  ihr  are: The formal Sie  is always capitalized. There are no exceptions to this rule. The du  and ihr  are usually written in lower case, but some older Germans capitalize them. That was the rule about 20 years ago, before they had the Rechtschreibreform.  Sie remains written as Sie whether you are using it in the plural or singular sense. For example, if you are formally addressing one or two Germans, you wont see a difference in writing:Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you from, sir/madam?)Woher kommen Sie?(Where are you from, sirs/madams?)Sie (you, formal)  takes the same verb form as sie (they),  which is why in conjugation tables, you will find both words at the bottom together. Chart of You in German In a nutshell: Singular Plural English meaning du trinkst ihr trinkt you or yall are drinking Sie trinken Sie trinken you (formal) or you (plural) are drinking Common Problem: There Are Four Sies  and Four Ihrs Many German-language students have trouble initially with ihr. This could be because there are two ihrs. There are also multiple versions of sie, which can be complicated.  Take a look at the following examples:   Hey, kommt ihr heute Abend? (Are you guys coming tonight?)Ist das nicht ihr neuer Freund? (Isnt that her new friend?)Entschuldigen Sie. Ist das Ihr Auto vor meiner Ausfahrt?  (Excuse me, sir/madam, is that your car in front of my driveway?) Note that the Ihr  is capitalized as it is formal.Entschuldigen Sie. Ist das  Ihr  Auto vor meiner Ausfahrt? (Excuse me, sirs/madams, is that your car in front of my driveway?) Here are three examples for sie/Sie: Woher kommen Sie? ( Where are you from, sir/madam?)Woher kommen Sie?  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹(Where are you from, sirs/madams?)Woher kommt sie?  (Where is she from?)Woher kommen sie?  (Where are they from?) Du, Ihr, and Sie Declensions Keep in mind that like with all other pronouns, du, ihr and Sie will also have genitive, dative and accusative forms that you must memorize.

ERIE Assignment Part III Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ERIE Assignment Part III - Essay Example Currently, a lot of scientists are trying to study the most urgent questions of neurology and neuroscience for being able to elaborate efficacious recommendations and guidance for educational policy. Discoveries made in the research of brain’s activity will manage to widen our abilities and thereby find a totally new and more advanced phase of societal development. Although majority of scientists realize the significance of neuroscience, some of them consider that its role is rather over generalized because those knowledge and findings that we have can not be sufficient for educators. Hence, Bruer (1997) states that lately more and more people become confident in potential of neuroscience to provide better education, but because of such erroneously reassuring notion cognitive psychology is often left behind and underestimated meanwhile only its study is able genuinely to create well-grounded link between education and brain activity. According to the discoveries of neuroscientists, the biggest number of synapses which unite neurons in the brain can be seen in a period of childhood, when elimination of synapses comes after synaptic proliferation. It is considered that in case of high density of synapses, human’s brain is characterized with the highest efficiency in the process of education. In this respect, Begley claims that if parents and educators do not ensure a child with favorable stipulations for learning in a specific age period, some opportunities will be hardly restored in the future (cited in Bruer, 1997). This is why it is extremely urgent to pay sufficient attention to children’s education in the period of early childhood. According to neuroscientific findings, period of high brain activity varies from birth to ten years and taking into account such long and inaccurate age margins, some educational programs, such as

Evidence based practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Evidence based practice - Essay Example DEFINITIONS AND BRIEF IMPORTANCE OF CLINICAL PRACTICE The term evidence-based practice (EBP) or empirically-supported treatment (EST) refers to preferential use of mental and behavioral health interventions for which systematic empirical research has provided evidence of statistically significant effectiveness as treatments for specific problems. (Thomas & Pring, 2005) A way in which this benefits medicine would be in studying the effects of cannabis. This drug has been found to share commonality with schizophrenia. Immunology research has found common receptors located in in immune cells, spleen macrophages, to be specific. These have the ability to alter immune cell migration and cytokine-release within body tissues and in the brain, these receptors tend to be abnormal in schizophrenia patients. More findings that hint at a larger relationship between, not cannabis itself – but receptors it depends on, and a biological predisposition towards schizophrenia. Research such as t his can bring nurses and medical technologists more fully into the treatment of psychiatric care. (Cabral & Staab, 2005) (Gong et al, 2006) An additional definition would be: "Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. â€Å"Sackett et al's (1996, 71-72) And in this clinicians must integrate personal clinical expertise with the most cutting-edge external clinical evidence from systematic research. Another vital factor in Evidence-based practice is quality or performance improvement; how to streamline services in order to maximize the most efficient use of resources? (Bayea & Slattery, 2006) By definition: Performance Improvement (PI) is a method for analyzing performance problems and setting up systems to ensure good performance. PI is applied most effectively to groups of workers within the same organization or performing similar jobs. (Intrahealth.org 2011) A possibl e example would be to make systematized evaluations of patient needs based on probabilities. For instance, schizophrenics have a 25% higher proclivity towards illicit drug abuse than the general population. (Jablensky, 2000) Also, in studies of the neuropathology of the psychiatric disorder schizophrenia, findings have emerged which link the condition to brain receptors that are actually susceptible to molecules of cannabis. Schizophrenia is a challenging psychiatric disorder with a lifetime prevalence of 0.4% amongst the general population. (Desfosses et al. 2010) This can inform clinical choices, and influence the circumstances under which certain batteries of tests are ordered, and for whom, saving time and money. PART 2 ASPECT OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND RATIONALE I have chosen for the exploration of Evidence-based Practice a linkage between susceptibility to cannabis, and the neurological disorder, schizophrenia. Clinical research has established a connection, and where such a ssociations occur, it behooves clinicians to explore the phenomenon to aid diagnostic tools. Among the atypical antipsychotics used to treat schizophrenia, there are risks factors. Among these medications is clozapine (Clozaril). It is a

Network Security Essay Example for Free

Network Security Essay You are interested in starting your own Music Store, QualitySounds, in a suburban area of your town. You need to design and build a network and computing solution for your stores. You have done some initial planning and you will start with two stores (but you plan to add two more stores across town within one year). Your store will sell new and used music and allow customers to get â€Å"online† in your stores and download music. You also will offer classes on how to setup music downloads and configure MP3 devices. You took computer networking courses in college and you feel you can tackle this solution yourself. Upon initial planning, you have identified the following requirements for your network: * Connects three office computers and one computer used for Point-of-Sale (POS) services at each of your stores. You also want six (6) computers in the lobby/store where patrons can download music and you can run â€Å"training classes† for people to learn about using MP3 players and get other basic information. The two offices have to be connected into one cohesive network, sharing POS services and other critical company information. You also need to provide a â€Å"hand out† casual area for people to stop in and discuss music and connect wirelessly to the Internet (you might even offer free coffee to entice people to come in to your store). * Provides adequate security for all of the company communications and documents (especially sensitive sales documents). All POS services must be protected. All general network access should be segmented from the company POS services. * Fast and have additional capacity as the company grows * Provides for centralized printing * Supports the eventual addition of other stores to the network * Provides customers with a general information Website and a secure Website where clients can buy services, and products * Provides for limited downtime (24 hour downtime maximum) * Provides for centralized management and control of the computers in the two stores, so that you can maintain the network from off-site * Provides for long-term cost effectiveness * Provides a suite of software tools for the employees to effectively communicate and a POS solution for the stores The company does not have any equipment. Your plan should include a complete network and computer system that meets these requirements and future expansion plans. The two store locations will (eventually) be within a five-mile radius of each other. The locations are within a suburban area that has current technological infrastructures and related technology offerings. The stores will need a sales system and print services for invoices. Complete your proposal including costs for computing equipment, network infrastructure, network servers, printers, and related hardware, software, and accessories. Include as much detail as possible as well as justification as to your selections. Diagram and explain your physical network and computer design as well as the logical network design (server installation, domain layout, etc.). As you are a small business, cost is a major factor and should be minimized.

Abstinence Only Sex Education Essay -- Sex Education

Where in the first world would one expect the teen pregnancy rate to be the highest? Surprisingly, it is the United States that has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any first world country, more than double the rate of twenty other first world countries and almost ten times greater than that of Switzerland. While some of the disparity can be attributed to factors such as income inequality, the presence of abstinence only education has a major impact on birth and STD rates in the United States in comparison to other countries with more comprehensive programs. It is clear that this difference in approaches has a significant effect, and the United States needs to act to ensure the health of its citizens. Urgent actions are necessary because abstinence only education is becoming more popular in the United States and more and more school districts are adopting it. Despite its popularity it has not been proven in any way to be effective in meeting its goals of reducing teen pregnancies and STDs. In fact, there is strong evidence and reasons for its ineffectiveness that should, when compared to the dearth of evidence showing any benefit, make it clear that this is not an effective approach. Not only is it ineffective however, it also results in harm to American teenagers and society by attempting to discourage sex by saying condoms are not safe, and this results in decreased contraception use and thus more STDs and pregnancies. And finally, when America and other first world countries with abstinence only curricula are compared to countries which have a more comprehensive methodology to teaching health, it is clear what is the more effective approach. Abstinence only curricula targeted at adolescents are both ineffective at meeting th... ...ent Education: Ine." bepress Legal Series . N.p., 2004. Web. 25 Apr 2012. Santelli, John, Mary Ott, et al. "Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies and programs." Journal of Adolescent Health. 38 (2008): 72-81. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. . Slater, Jon. "Britain: sex education under fire." UNESCO courier. Jul 2000: 18. Web. 25 May. 2012. "The Abstinence-Only Delusion." New York Times 26 Apr 2007, n. pag. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. . Valk, Guus. "The Dutch Model." UNESCO courier. Jul 2000: 19. Web. 25 May. 2012.

Renaissance Philosophy Essay

I believe that the Renaissance philosopher who has provided the greatest contribution to humanity is Rene Descartes, whose aggregate contributions to intellectualism in Western culture are difficult to overstate. His significance lies in his judicious use of skepticism in the assessment of truths and beliefs frequently held up as objective knowledge. Descartes was a Catholic, but this did not necessarily mean that he took its authoritative and hegemonic role in the maintenance of knowledge at face value. He realized that certain truths cannot be satisfactorily determined through Church teachings alone, and therefore what must be held up to close scrutiny is not ‘truth’ itself but the criteria used to assess it. Granted, Descartes was not the first person to examine such issues. The skeptical tradition dates as far back as the first millennium AD. But rather than asserting that truth has no value, Descartes was concerned with the development of a unified and almost arithmetic means of measuring knowledge. This sense of skepticism blended with a belief in ordered reasoning is reflected in his other pursuits, particularly mathematics. This combination of mathematics and sophistry is made most manifest in Cartesian dualism, which argues a divide between the nonmaterial mind/soul and the material of the body that influences each other. However, it is Descartes’ ordering of metaphysics that has provoked the most significant amount of reaction and influence in equal measures supporting or contradicting him. Descartes believed that in order to prove the existence of the material world, one must first prove the existence of the self, which he posited as self-evident because â€Å"Cogito ergo sum† or â€Å"I think, therefore I am. † The reaction to these assertions is primarily split along two lines: skepticism and idealism. George Berkeley’s disagreement falls in the latter category, as he opined that Cartesian dualism implied that we cannot know anything beyond the sensations and ideas our mind believes to exist, while David Hume problematized why we believe in the existence of an external in the first place. John Locke developed a more nuanced understanding of the mind-self by defining it as a â€Å"conscious thinking thing† whose materiality or immateriality is irrelevant to acknowledging that it is conscious of sensation and emotion. Locke also posited that the body is also crucial to the formation of the mind-self, arguing that the mind-self is a tabula rasa, a blank slate shaped by experience, including natal sources of experience. Immanuel Kant developed an elaborate set of transcendental arguments and categories as a means f proving the existence of external reality. Essentially speaking, while sensations and perceptions do exist, they are meaningless without a unified comprehension of them. As such, experience is formed by the mind-self being able to cohere these impressions together as something meaningful. George Hegel challenged the understanding of truth as not just a concern with matters of substance, but matters of the subject perceiving and comprehending truth. As such, truth is just as contingent on the mind-self which thinks. Thus, unlike Berkeley, external realities are not just mere mental content, but an expression of thought itself. Descartes may have found few adherents during his time and years after, but his importance to succeeding philosophers who have attempted to deconstruct the contents of the mind and its relationship and understanding of the external world. In effect, he ushered in a fundamental level of doubt in assessing truth and knowledge so necessary in abnegating the kind of dogmatism which makes unquestioned acceptance of ‘common wisdom’ so problematic.