Persuasion Defined Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Persuasion Defined - Essay Example To that effect, my experience during the election campaign assisted me to come up with persuasion definition. There are various factors that come into play when one is persuaded. The first factor is the credibility of the information. The more credible the communicator is, the higher the chances of being persuaded. If credibility increases, attractiveness also increases making something to appear more desirable. The other factor that can result in one being persuaded is the one-sided argument (Cialdini, 2007). In the recent past, I have been hearing one sided arguments that resulted in me having higher levels of persuasion as compared to two sided arguments such as debate on abolition of the death penalty. (Brinol & Petty, 2009) note that persuasion offers an option that is more likely to be lasting, satisfying, successful, and rewarding to everyone. Therefore, the other factor is likeability. I tend to be easily persuaded by my friends, family members, lover, and other persons that I am attracted to than people I do not like. Next is authority. When a person who talks to me is an expert or above me in some other way, I am more likely to be persuaded because I think what he or she may be saying is credible and official. Cialdini (2007) asserts that another factor that influences persuasion is consensus. If there something resonates with the public’s opinion, I am more probable to be

Dionne Brand Essay Example for Free

Dionne Brand Essay Dionne Brand’s use of diction, figurative language, imagery, tone, and a strong narrative voice indicate the issue of being detached from society. Clearly, the narrator is experiencing an identity crisis, in which he/she is being deprived of their identity. The uncertainty in the reading of the photograph reflects the narrator’s lack of self and the ways in which he does not fit in. â€Å"I left like you do with sunstroke. I felt dried out.. † The narrator’s use of figurative language (metaphor) portrays the aspect of lifelessness. â€Å"We look as one face – no particular personal aspect, no individual ambition.  All one. † The language and the imagery the narrator uses conveys a general sense, and puts the narrator in the same category as the other faceless individuals. There is no sense of individuality, seeing as how all of the people at Palau Bidong portray the same characteristics. The individuals on the island lack personal drive because they are being used for another purpose which is beyond them. Such aspects reflect those of a refugee camp, evidently residing in Pulau Bidong. â€Å"Was it us or was it the photographer who couldn’t make distinctions among people he didn’t know? Unable to make us human. The refugees are evidently being photographed to serve a social/political purpose. The photographer is unable to distinguish amongst them because they are all the same. The imagery and tone illuminated in the quote also reflects a sense of alienation, and the idea of being estranged from the rest of society. The tone also emphasizes the idea of fearing the unknown. The themes of isolation and disengagement are reinforced throughout the passage. The narrator is unable to reconnect with his/her past and is slowly losing his/her recollection of it. The passage reproduces a life which lacks all meaning and personal ties.

Analysis of Biochemical Compounds in ‘gynura Procumbens’

Analysis of Biochemical Compounds in ‘gynura Procumbens’ Extraction of Biochemical Compounds in ‘gynura Procumbens’ Using 3 Mixture Design and Gcms Name : Syazliana Syamira Binti Hashim NOVEMBER 2014 Gynura procumbens or known locally in Malaysia as ‘Sambung Nyawa’ or in chinese, it is called ‘Nan Hui Ye’ is a plant that was found in South East Asia usually inThailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.This plant belongs to the Asteraceae Family.It is a famous traditional herb in South East Asia for the treatment of diabetic, high cholesterol level, cancer, high blood pressure, kidney discomfort and inflammation.The present study aims to study the antidiabetic activity of Gynura procumbens leaves to manage diabetes and to study the potential toxicity for many of the biochemical compounds in this plant leaves by using the three mixture design and analysis by CGMS technique. In a mixture experiment, the independent factors are proportions of different components of a blend. The fact that the properties of the different factors must sum to 100% complicates the design as well as the analysis of mixture experiments.In this work,a mixture design will be applied to optimize solvent mixtures for selective extraction of biochemical compounds from Gynura procumbens leaves.Pressurized solvent extractions(PSE) will be performed at 313K and 20MPa,using homogeneous,ethanol(EtOH) and O solvent mixtures.The operating conditions to extract biochemical compounds from Gynura procumbens leaves will be optimized.The ranges of extraction temperatures and pressures are 25 60 and 8 – 25MPa, respectively.GC coupled with MS detection will be used to characterize the extracts. Introduction The modern lifestyle has become a major threat to the health of people around the world.There are many cases that involve arteriosclerosis, obesity, diabetes mellitus and cancers and these diseases remind us about our unhealthy lifestyles and thus give rise in circulatory system diseases such as hypertension, pre-hypertension and heart disease in developed countries (Johnson and Turner, 2005; Kearney et al., 2005). From the previous time,plants have often been used to cure human diseases (Stepp and Moerman,2001; Yesilada, 2005).Today,with the arising threat of intractable diseases,a research is to focus on the finding bioactive molecules from plants(Amos et al.,2003; Fatehi et al.,2005).The one such plant is ‘Sambung Nyawa’ or its scientific name is Gynura procumbens is a member of the Asteraceae family(Wiart,2002). Gynura procumbens is commonly used as a traditional medicinal plant in Malaysia to treat many diseases. Recently, the use of herbal medicines for complementary treatments of some diseases has been popular and researchers have shown that these herbs are commonly used by cancer patients to manage their diseases (Riboli and Norat, 2003; Van Duijnhoven et al., 2009). Pharmacologic studies also have proved that Gynura procumbens possesses anti-herpes simplex virus, (Nawawi et al.,1999), anti-ulcerogenic activities (Mahmood et al., 2010) anti-inflammatory (Iskander et al.,2002), and anticancer properties(Agustina et al.,2006). Problem Statement : Gynura procumbens had been given attention in the pharmacology of antidiabetic medicinal plants probably because of its solid evidences and efficiency in the traditional management of diabetes mellitus.But in contrast,the scientific reports on the antidiabetic activity of this plant had their own conflicts and inconsistent.For example,Zhang and Tan had reported that 95% ethanol extract improved glucose tolerance in STZ-induced diabetic rats, but not in normal rats(Zhang and Tan).These authors also reported that its aqueous extract to exert significant anti hyperglycemic action in STZ-induced diabetic rats.But after that,Akowuah et al., on the contrary indicated its glucose lowering effect in normal rats(Akowuah et al.,2001).In the most recent study, the extract of Gynura procumbens was reported to generate significant elevation in the fasting blood glucose(FBG) levels of normal rats but a decrease in diabetic rats(Hassan et al.,2010). Eventhough Gynura procumbens is useful in the treatment of many ailments,however there is a little toxicological information that is available regarding to the safety due to the repeated exposure.Thus,a study need to be conducted to improve these reports and give more useful informations about its widespread uses.Therefore,the present research is to study the antidiabetic activity of Gynura procumbens leaves to manage diabetes and also to study the potential toxicity for many of the biochemical compounds in Gynura procumbens leaves. Objectives : To study the antidiabetic activity of Gynura procumbens leaves to manage diabetes. To study the potential toxicity for many of the biochemical compounds in Gynura procumbens leaves. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 General Overview of Gynura procumbens Gynura procumbens that is well-known in South East Asia has traditionally been used to cure rash, eruptive fevers, kidney disease, constipation, migraines, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cancer(Perry,1980).Recently, pharmacological studies have state that this plant has anti-hyperglycaemic(Akowuah et al.,2001; Akowuah et al.,2002),anti-hyperlipidaemic(Zhang and Tan,2000),anti-inflammatory(Iskander et al.,2002) and blood hypertension reduction capabilities(Lam et al.,1998; Kim et al.,2006). The advantages of the traditional use of Gynura procumbens leaves have been supported the isolation and identification of several possible active chemical constituents from this herb, including flavonoids, tannins, saponins and terpenoids(Akowuah et al.,2002).Gynura procumbens is usually used as a traditional medicinal plant in Malaysia to cure many ailments. It is an annual ever- green shrub with a fleshy stem and purple tint.In Malaysia,this plant is called as ‘Sambung nyawa’, and it is commonly used in South-East Asia,especially in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. In spite of the various uses over long time periods, little toxicological information is available regarding safety following repeated exposure to Gynura procumbens. Currently, Malaysian authorities are paying more attention to the safety and potential toxicity of botanicals, including medical plants and edible materials. Therefore,the objective of the present study was to provide scientific data on the safety of Gynura procumbens, that focus on the acute and 90days (13weeks) sub-chronic toxicity of a methanol extract that was orally administered to Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Gynura procumbens has recently received particular attention in the pharmacology of antidiabetic medicinal plants,probably because of its admitted empirical evidence and efficiency in the traditional management of diabetes mellitus.Besides that, these study designs are not targeted at natural product discovery or production of standardized herbal forms. Satisfactory research on medicinal plants beyond screening for biological activity should be conducted with the objective to systematically standardize and possess them into natural products or dosage forms which should effectively complement or supplement existing conventional measures(Ali et al.,2012). 2.2 Current Research of Gynura procumbens There is currently a good deal of research interest to utilize plant compounds against human diseases, that includes hypertension. The present study investigated the effects of different extracts and fractions from leaves of Gynura procumbens on rat atrial contraction in vitro. Isolated left and right atria were mounted in a 20-ml organ bath and they were allowed to equilibrate for 15 minutes before the application of the extracts or fractions. The extracts ( methanol extract (ME) and petroleum-ether extract (PE) ) and the fractions (chloroform fraction(CHL), ethyl-acetate fraction (EA), n-butanol fraction (NB) and water fraction (WA) of the methanol extract) were tested at three concentrations (0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mg/ml), with a b-adrenergic agonist (isoprenaline) as a control. All the data on the contraction responses were log-transformed and had been analyzed. When exposed to the different extracts, both atria tended to exhibit greater contractive responses with the NB whereas cardiac contractions had a tendency to be reduced with most other extracts. For a given extract, the contraction responses were particularly greater at 0.5 mg/ml for the right atrium and at 1 mg/ml for the left atrium. For the further analysis is to focus on the NB fraction revealed that positive inotropism was greater in left atria exposed to highly-concentrated F2 and F3 sub-fractions. Taken together,the results suggest that NB extracts and fractions from the Gynura procumbens-leaf methanol extract have positive inotropic activities and, hence, can be considered as an alternative or traditional medicine against increased blood pressure in humans or can be used in strategies aimed at finding antihypertensive biomolecules from an accessible source. In each of these studies, the approach was not bioassay directed, an approach basis to the discovery of novel natural products from their natural sources and or to increase their standardization preparation to formulate into dosage forms for human usage after clinical trials. In summary, there is little analysis on the importance of the different extracts and fractions of Gynura procumbens on heart tissues. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of Gynura procumbens leaves extracts and fractions of the active extract on the contraction of left and right atria (LA and RA, respectively) isolated from Sprague Dawley (SD) rats with the aim of exploring the possibilities of its standardization or industrial scaling up for natural products against hypertension. 2.3 Functions of Gynura procumbens In South-East Asia, this plant is widely distributed and has often been used to treat diseases. In Indonesia, leaves of the Compositae family are routinely used for treatment in kidney diseases, eruptive fevers, rash, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia(Perry,1980). In Thailand, where this plant is empirically used against topical inflammation, rheumatism, and viral ailments, Iskander and colleagues have reported the anti-inflammatory actions of its extracts(Iskander et al.,2002). Recently, pharmacological investigations in Singapore have shown that extracts of Gynura procumbens reduced serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats(Zhang and Tan,2000). In Malaysia, evidence exists that Gynura procumbens has antidiabetic properties(Akowuah et al.,2001; Bohari et al.,2006). In this country, the currency of hypertension is high, but the levels of awareness, control, and treatment are still low(Rampal et al.,2008).This species has been used as a traditional medicine to treat inflammation, cancer, rheumatism, and viral infections. Among the various ethnobotanical practices of this plant, the application as a poultice for diverse skin diseases was found to be a universal usage in many countries (Perry, 1980). The leaves of this plant are not toxic(Rosidah et al., 2009). Gynura procumbensfrom Asteraceae family has been used as a traditional remedy for various skin diseases in certain areas of Southeast Asia(Junoh et al.,2011). 2.4 Related Diseases There were many attempts to control increased blood pressure that have been used as strategies to control arterial hypertension(Collins et al.,1990; Lang et al.,2001). Eventhough the treatment of arterial hypertension has been shown to be quite efficacious in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity (Collins et al.,1990), hypertension control at the population level has been generally considered as not enough yet. In the United Kingdom, for instance, 94% of hypertensive patients still have their blood pressure higher than the normal(Colhoun et al.,1998), whereas in the United States, there is only 27% had a normal blood pressure following treatment(Burt et al.,1995). This intractability of hypertension has not changed, and recently there is a noticeable increase in hypertension cases(Kearney et al.,2004); about 26% of adults worldwide in 972 million are known to have hypertension(Kearney et al.,2005). Current optimism based on pharmacological therapy, which consists of developing drug formulations, is severely impeded by drug interactions, dose dependence, and adverse effects such as the possibility of depression. All in all,it is clear that the development of alternative strategies complementary to existing control methods is needed. 2.5 Acute and Sub-chronic Toxicity The Gynura procumbens methanol extract was suspended in 1% (w/v) carboxylmethylcellulose (CMC) and it was administered orally (1250, 2500, and 5000 mg/kg) in single doses to both female and males rats (n = 10; 5 males and 5 females). The rats need to fast overnight due to dosing. The general behaviour of the rat was continuously monitored for 1 hour after dosing, periodically during the first 24 hour (with special attention given during the first 4 hour), and daily thereafter for a total of 14 days. All animals were humanely killed by inhalation after 14 days.The selected vital organs were excised, weighed, and macroscopically examined(Ghosh,1984). Healthy rats of both sexes were randomly assigned to control and treatment groups (n = 10; 5 males and 5 females). The Gynura procumbens methanol extract was suspended in 1% CMC and administered orally on a daily basis for 90 days (13 weeks) at doses of 125, 250, or 500mg/kg. Based on the report by Suharmiati (2003), traditional healers typically prescribe seven leaves each day for an adult, which is equivalent to a 125 mg/day dose. Therefore, doses ranging from of 125–500mg/(kg day) were selected as the tested doses. All rats were anesthetized under inhalation at the end of 13 weeks. Blood samples were collected via cardiac puncture into non-heparinized and EDTA containing tubes for biochemical and haematological analyses, respectively (Winarto, 2003; Petterino and Argentino-Storino, 2006). After cardiac puncture, the rats were killed by clavicle dislocation.Those vital organs were excised, weighed, and macroscopically examined and then they were fixed in 10% formalin for hi stopathological study. 2.6 Diabetes Mellitus Diabetes causes oxidative stress through the autooxidation of glucose, protein glycation and lipid peroxidation; and as a consequence, structural and functional alterations occur in the lungs of diabetics, as well as other organs like the heart, brain, eyes and kidneys. There is growing, well-established evidence regarding such changes in diabetic lungs(Gulay et al.,2014). Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus, contributing not only to the development, but also to the progression of diabetes and its related complications. The immunosuppressive and antioxidant effects of resveratrol in attenuating the increased oxidative stress due to responses of ÃŽ ²-cells to leukocyte activation have been implicated in the prevention of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Resveratrol affords advantageous effects by decreasing the oxidative injury and the recruitment of the nutritive precapillary arterioles in the context of disease states associated with insulin re sistance, such as metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Globally, more than 366 million individuals currently live with diabetes mellitus, with this figure expected to rise to 552 million by 2030 (Whiting et al., 2011). The World Health Organization estimates that around 1.1 million deaths occur per year as a result of the disease (World Health Organization, 2011). There are around 2.9 million individuals in England currently have diagnosed with diabetes, a currency of 4.5% (NHS The Information Centre, 2011). Projections for England estimate that by 2030 over 4.5 million people will be living with diabetes (APHO, 2011). The number of individuals that are living with diabetes means that if there was found to be an excess in mortality caused by the disease, this could result in a large number of premature deaths. The relation between diabetes and increased all-cause death, particularly from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and renal disease, is well recognized. C There is a limited amount of evidence relating to diabetes and respiratory disease mortality (Dawson et al., 2008;De Marco et al., 1999andMurugan and Sharma, 2008).Current evidence suggests a biological link between inflammation, reduced levels of adiponectin within the body and the development of diabetes and respiratory disease (Sevenoaks Stockley, 2006). De Marco et al. concluded that these may be caused by differences in the severity of diabetes or differing in national treatment cultures (De Marco et al., 1999). Therefore, research is required that further explores the relation between diabetes and mortality from cancer and respiratory disease. Current research indicates that, for mortality from a number of causes, it may be diabetes-related comorbidities that increase an individuals risk of death rather than the diabetes itself. ( Mohammadi et al., 2007) Morbidity and mortality of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is closely related to development of cardiovascular disease (Haffner et al.,1998). Although the manifestations and complications of diabetes mellitus have been extensively studied, the knowledge regarding the effects of diabetes on bone mineral metabolism is still limited and inconsistent. Since Albright and Reifenstein(Anwar et al.,2008)first reported the occurrence of osteoporosis in patients with poorly controlled diabetes in 1948, many authors have attempted to describe alterations of bone mineralization in diabetic subjects by using various techniques and biochemical markers(Asbun and Villareal,2006). The types of diabetes caused by other conditions or found in increased frequency with other conditions (imply an etiologie relationship) be considered a third subclass of diabetes mellitus that is the diabetes that associated with certain conditions and syndromes. This subclass has been divided according to the known or suspected etiologie relationships.The class gestational diabetes has been restricted to women in whom glucose intolerance develops or is discovered during pregnancy (National Diabetes Data Group,1979).

Complete Communities and Indulgent Diversities Essays -- Campus Life

Rebekah Nathan’s â€Å"Community and Diversity† focuses on the changing definition of the word community on college campuses and how that change affects the way students spend their free time and interact with other students. While campus directors set up and promote campus life community with good intentions of providing every student with interesting activities and helping first-time students make the jump from home-life to college-life, big communities usually only take away from the little free time left in the day and make students feel more isolated and alone. The demand on students to participate in every campus activity in order to form a healthy campus life community pushes students further away from organized groups and makes forming small, exclusive social networks even more desirable. At the beginning of her essay â€Å"Community and Diversity,† Nathan notes most students only feel a sense of togetherness in three areas: â€Å"age, pop culture, and a handful of (recent) historical events† (Nathan 101)—areas that do not exactly function as ties that bind. Even as campuses pour more resources and energy into trying to involve students and to create a functioning community, many students instead opt to reserve time for themselves and small groups of friends, forsaking the large, time-restrictive group for networks of â€Å"individualism, spontaneity, freedom, and choice† (Nathan 105). While these egocentric groups often overlap, they rarely have identical matches, as each student creates his or her own network on a basis of proximity and similar interests. Many of the groups are also either entirely comprised of a single ethnicity or include only one or two persons of different races. Although the large, organized form of campus... ...s purpose and motivation—to provide social structure, to educate, or to merely retain the majority of the freshman class? While a large-scale community can provide students with multiple activities with which to fill their days, it simply cannot offer each student much needed personal care and attention. Although Nathan conducts brilliant observational research in her essay, â€Å"Community and Diversity,† she merely scratches the surface of the situation, reporting on the evidence around her, but not reaching the heart of problem. Students today require a deeper understanding from other students—an understanding they cannot have in a large community. Instead of waiting for small-scale university programming to come along, students have to take matters, and their best interests, into their own hands and create small, private networks that cater to their individual needs.

Discuss Austen(TM)s use of Mr Elliot in Persuasion

Austen uses Mr Elliot in various ways in Persuasion, this ranges from gaining an insight into other people's characters to contributing to the romance genre. Austen mainly uses Mr Elliot as a plot device in Book Two of the novel after Anne's arrival in Bath. The use of Mr Elliot's character can be tied into most of the major themes of the novel. The first mention of Mr Elliot in Persuasion is in the fist chapter of Book One. We find out that he is the heir presumptive to the Baronetcy, through Sir Walter who is reading the Baronetage. We can see that this is important to Sir Walter as he has added, â€Å"Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq.† to the pages in the book referring to the Elliot's. This shows how class conscious Sir Walter is, it is blatantly obvious that Austen is ridiculing Sir Walter for being too class conscious. However later in the novel we see that whilst she does not approve of how class conscious Sir Walter is, Austen is still a woman of her time and we see that she is class conscious, through Anne's reactions, but not to the degree that Sir Walter is. In the same chapter we also find out more about Mr Elliot's past relationship with the Elliot family, in particular with Elizabeth and Sir Walter, to an extent. We see that Mr Elliot has disappointed her, â€Å"the heir presumptive †¦ had disappointed her† even though she had â€Å"found him extremely agreeable†. However instead of marrying Elizabeth, Mr Elliot sought independence and married â€Å"a rich woman of inferior birth.† This leads to all acquaintance between the ceasing as Mr Elliot had slighted Sir Walter and had â€Å"shewn himself as unsolicitous of being longer noticed by the family†. The next time we meet Mr Elliot is in the last chapter of Book One, where Anne and the Musgroves are in Lyme with Captain Wentworth. This chapter is where Mr Elliot sees Anne for the first time and where he is first seen as a potential rival for Anne's attention and affection, â€Å"Anne's face caught his eye, and he looked at her with a degree of earnest admiration†. Wentworth in turn notices how Mr Elliot looks at Anne and even he can â€Å"see something like Anne Elliot again†. Mr Elliot paying attention to Anne shows that se is once again in â€Å"bloom†. In this chapter through Anne and the others in Lyme that Mr Elliot is in mourning, therefore his wife has only died relatively recently. When the ‘mystery gentleman' is identified as Mr Elliot by the party in Lyme, we see that Austen highlights Mary's class snobbery. We next see Mr Elliot in Chapter Three of Book Two, however the reaction to him is much more positive than it was in the first book. We see that despite his previous grievances against them Elizabeth and Sir Walter readily forgive Mr Elliot and are even happy to renew their acquaintance. In this chapter we see that the relationship between Mr Elliot and Anne improves and we see that he is clearly attracted to her. This is where the possibility of Mr Elliot standing as a rival against Wentworth for Anne's affections becomes a reality. In the next chapter Austen uses Mr Elliot to show how fickle Lady Russell is. We see here that she feels that he could not be â€Å"a more agreeable or estimable man† and that â€Å"Everything united in him; good understanding, correct opinions, knowledge of the world, and a warm heart†. This directly contrast her feeling in Chapter Fourteen where she states that â€Å"he is a man whom [she has] no wish to see† and that he had â€Å"left a very strong impression in his disfavour† with her when he declined to be â€Å"on cordial terms with the head of his family†. Here we also see that Mr Elliot is not as class conscious as Sir Walter and Elizabeth but he is more class conscious than Anne. In the next chapters Mr Elliot becomes even more of an obstacle in Anne and Wentworth's relationship. We see what Anne's opinion of him is; she thinks that whilst â€Å"Mr Elliot is an exceedingly agreeable man† he was â€Å"too generally agreeable†. This shows how shrewd Anne is, compared with the rest of her family and her close friends. Austen uses Mr Elliot more in the second half of the novel in order to distract Anne's attention away from Wentworth. This can be seen in Chapter Twenty during the concert held for the benefit of a person patronised by Lady Dalrymple. We see that Mr Elliot successfully monopolises a lot of Anne's time, which in turn makes Wentworth jealous. Wentworth now knows that he is still in love with Anne due to the attention she is receiving from Mr Elliot, but again due to the obstacle Mr Elliot presents he can not make his feelings known to Anne. However after Mrs Smith unmasks Mr Elliot for Anne after the concert, we see him for who he truly is. Here Wentworth and Mr Elliot can be compared and you can clearly see who the better person is out of the two. Wentworth is everything that Mr Elliot is not, for example Wentworth is open and spontaneous whereas Mr Elliot is polished and conceals his emotions. Another example where the two can be compared is when Wentworth helps Mrs Smith when Mr Elliot deserted her in her time of need after the death of her husband. Here Austen clearly wants to show the differences between the two characters, and it highlights how Wentworth is from a lower class and has made his own fortune through hard work and how Mr Elliot stands to inherit his fortune whilst not even being half the man Wentworth is. In conclusion it could be said that Mr Elliot is of vital significance to the novel and that Austen uses him to further the plot, especially between Anne and Wentworth. He is used to show the characters and the readers that even though he is from the upper classes it does not mean that he is better than any one else. This brings up the theme of the changing ideal of the gentlemen in Persuasion. Austen also uses him throughout the novel in relation to the major themes, for example family as well as love.

Critical Review of a Paper Investigating the Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy

Introduction The paper to be reviewed is an investigation by Duncan, Forbes-McKay and Henderson (2012) into the application of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB, Ajzen, 1988, 1991) and its effectiveness in predicting intention to carry out health related behaviours. The TPB is a social cognition model, meaning that it seeks to predict intention to carry out a behaviour and to understand why individuals may fail to adhere to a behaviour to which they were once committed. The theory claims that three variables can be used to predict an individual’s behaviour: the individual’s attitude toward the behaviour, the attitude of significant others toward the behaviour and the individual’s perceived control over a behaviour. Perceived control over behaviour is governed by both internal factors such as an individual’s skills or available resources, and external factors such as actual opportunities to carry out the behaviour. Unlike the individual’s attitude toward the b ehaviour and the attitude of others, perceived control over the behaviour is believed to influence both the intention to carry out the behaviour and the behaviour itself. In particular, the authors were investigating whether the TPB could be used to predict intention to consume alcohol during pregnancy. Previous research has found the TPB to be useful for predicting a range of other health related behaviours (Godin and Kok, 1996) and alcohol consumption behaviours in particular (Marcoux & Shope, 1997; McMillan & Conner, 2003). The authors focused on the role of TPB in being able to predict the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Drinking during pregnancy is a major health issue. It has been found to influence a number of outcomes for the child including maladaptive behaviours (Sood et al., 2001) and weight at birth (Mariscal et al., 2006). Despite its relation to negative outcomes for the child, up to 54% of women in the UK have claimed to have consumed alcohol during their pre gnancy (Bolling et al., 2007). Study Description 130 women based in the Aberdeenshire area returned a questionnaire that was distributed to them at their 20-week pregnancy scan. Of these, analysis was carried out on 116 women. The questionnaire included questions designed to gather information on demographic details, past and present alcohol consumption, and TPB variables. The TPB variables included measuring the participants’ intention to engage in the behaviour, their attitude toward the behaviour, their beliefs about the subjective norm and their perceived behavioural control. The study found that the majority of participants made changes to their drinking behaviour once they found out that they were pregnant, with these changes taking the form of a reduction in alcohol consumption. 64.7% abstained from alcohol altogether during their pregnancy, 34.5% continued to drink to some level and 0.9% did not answer. Of those women who continued to drink during their pregnancy, 13.4% were drinking above the recommended maximum lev els whereas the rest were drinking one to two units between two and four times per month. It was also found that although most participants received information about drinking during their pregnancy, 12.9% received no information. In relation to the TPB theory, it was found that women who abstained from drinking after finding out they were pregnant had significantly higher scores on the intention scale, suggesting that they had a significantly greater intention to quit alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Abstaining participants also had significantly higher scores on the subjective norm scale, indicating that they felt more pressure from what others thought about drinking during pregnancy. Abstainers were also found to have significantly lower scores on the attitude scale, suggesting a much less positive attitude toward the behaviour of drinking during pregnancy. In contrast,, the scale that measured perceived behaviour control did not show any significant differences between thos e women who abstained and those who continued to drink during their pregnancy. Attitude toward the behaviour and the influence of what others thought of the behaviour were found to be strongly and significantly correlated with intention to carry out the behaviour of abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy. TPB was able to explain 59.3% of variance in intention to drink during pregnancy. Furthermore, the theory was able to correctly classify 91.8% of cases and as a result, was statistically able to distinguish between drinkers and abstainers. The authors concluded that as attitude was found to have the greatest statistically significant contribution to predicting intention and to contribute significantly to predicting actual behaviour, it would be an ideal candidate for intervention focus. As perceived behaviour control was the only TPB component found not to contribute, the authors suggest that the model without this component would be appropriate for predicting intention to consume alcohol during pregnancy. Critical Review The reviewed article addressed an important health issue, namely investigating how drinking alcohol during pregnancy could be reduced by understanding what drives or stops women from having the intention to carry out this behaviour. The finding that attitude toward drinking whilst pregnant has a significant impact on both intention to drink during pregnancy and actual drinking during pregnancy could have wider clinical and educational applications. Nevertheless, the authors are vague in how their findings could be applied in the real world and fail to make useful suggestions based on their data. The finding that some women were not provided with information pertaining to the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is also an important one because it highlights that some health trusts are failing to help women make informed decisions about this subject. However, it is not touched upon in the discussion. The study’s introduction is a little weak in that it does not make an overly convincing argument as to why their chosen topic is important and worth investigating. It makes only a brief reference to the negative impact that alcohol consumption can have on both mother and baby, and the literature to which it refers is quite outdated. This suggests that a thorough and recent literature review may not have been carried out. Furthermore, the study could present a much stronger argument as to why the TPB may be applicable to this health behaviour in particular. There is some justification in that the authors of the paper chose this particular theory on the premise that a socially-based theory such as TPB could highlight risk factors for the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy that could be more easily influenced than previous risk factors that have been identified such as drinking habits before pregnancy and socioeconomic status (Stewart & Streiner, 1994; Yamamoto et al., 2008) . Risk factors such as these cannot be easily changed. In contrast, risk factors based on attitudes toward a behaviour can be more easily altered through education or government interventions. The discussion does not flow particularly well and the overall conclusions of the study are not entirely clear. An advantage of the TPB is its holistic approach. It attempts to understand the behaviour of an individual in the context of both an individual’s attitude toward a behaviour, their perceived control over that behaviour and how they perceive others to judge the behaviour. However, our intentions to carry out a behaviour or not are the result of an incredibly complex process during which many variables are taken into account. Although the limitations of the study’s methodology are touched upon in the discussion, the authors fail to explore the limitations of the TPB and how these may affect their findings. For example, McKeown (1979) argued that negative health behaviours are determined on the individual level by the choices we make to behave in a certain way. Therefore, the theory may place too much emphasis on the importance of what others think of a behaviour. Indeed, in the current study, individual attitudes toward a behaviour were found to be more influential than subjective norms. One criticism of this study is its potential lack of representativeness, both culturally and geographically. Ethnic minorities made up only 6.9% of the sample, meaning that the results may not be generalisable to ethnic minorities. Furthermore, the sample was collected from only one geographic area, although the authors argue that their findings are in keeping with previous studies that used samples from a much wider geographical area (Anderson et al., 2007; Bolling et al., 2007). There may also have been a bias in the way in which participants were recruited. Women were approached by the researchers whilst awaiting their 20 week antenatal scans in hospital. The scans are designed to screen for any anomalies in the baby and to check that development is normal. These scans are not compulsory, potentially creating a bias in the sample. For example, Alderdice et al. (2007) found that women without qualifications or women from areas of high deprivation were significantly less likely to u ptake an offer of a 20 week screen for Downs Syndrome than women from affluent areas or women with degree-level qualification. This suggests that the women who were approached by the researchers in the current study may have been under-representative of women from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Furthermore, the study does not provide detail on the demographic information of the women who responded to the questionnaire, which would have been useful in evaluating generalisability. The measure used to ascertain TPB variables was developed using guidelines for the development of questionnaires designed to measure TPB behaviours (Francis et al., 2004). However, the measurement used was not a validated questionnaire. Furthermore, the authors do not provide examples of how they measured the three variables of intention, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. This means that the measure cannot be opened up for scrutiny or re-used in later studies to assess its validity and reliability. Before the main study, a small pilot study was carried out with seven pregnant women to ensure that the questionnaire was easy to understand. Pilot studies are essential for establishing a sound study design (van Teijilngen & Hundley, 2001). Although, it should be noted that the authors did not report the results of any reliability or validity tests. As part of the test battery, the study did use the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, a reliable and valid measure for gathering information on alcohol consumption that was developed by the World Health Organisation (Saunders et al., 1993, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, 2004). This measurement has been reported to be superior to other measures designed to collect data on the same subject (Reinert & Allen, 2002). Self-report measures in themselves have a number of limitations. Firstly, they are subject to social desirability bias. Social desirability bias acknowledges that participants may report carrying out behaviours that are socially desirable or may cover up being involved in behaviours that are frowned on. Based on the finding that subjective norms had a significant impact on both intention and behaviour, social desirability bias may have affected the results of this study. If participants were so influenced by what others thought of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, then they may have been likely to cover up occasions on which they did drink during their pregnancy. This means that the number of participants who did drink during pregnancy may have been higher than the study reported. Recommendations for Improvement and Future Research If this study is to be replicated, it could be improved in a number of ways. Firstly, ethnic minorities must be better represented. Great Britain is now a multi-cultural country and research must reflect this. The authors must provide more information or a copy of the questionnaire designed to measure TPB variables so that reliability and validity can be assessed. A useful future study would be to assess the impact of an intervention designed to change the attitude of women who do not perceive drinking alcohol during pregnancy to be an issue. 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