MIH 514 - Cross Cultural Health Perspectives (Mod 4 SLP) Essay

MIH 514 - Cross Cultural Health Perspectives (Mod 4 SLP) - Essay Example He then lights a candle and places it on the floor in the center of the room, and shook his sacred rattle, commanding . The grating sound of the rattle draws all attention and he recites a ritual sometimes to the audience and sometimes whispered in the ear of the deceased. Soon he straddles the corpse and orders the gros-bon-ange to come out. When the gros-bon-ange comes out the priestess cuts tufts of hair from the head of the deceased which are sealed in a clay jar and later placed next to his body and buried with him. The spirit gros-bon-ange then roams among the family members and enters one of their bodies. This family member goes into a trance and tells everyone good bye one by one. The family member is then released from his trance and the gros-bon-ange then moves away to enter heaven (OGorman, 2008). They believe the body is then just an empty tomb that no longer holds any essence of the person who was there before. The final ritual at the end of the sequence of events is the breaking of a large clay jar. The jar is beaten into pieces and then buried. The clay jar represents the body because they believe that they body is made of clay and water and it is beaten to represent the cruelty of taking someone away from their life with their community. Finally it is buried and every single fragment is assured to be in the same place for burial. The Haitian people are encouraged not to have sorrow over the loss of this family member or friend as they believe this soul is soon born into the body of a new baby. Therefore there is reason to celebrate and not morn. However, it is of course difficult to do this and many times they will go to the celebration whaling at one minute and laughing and dancing at another. Catholicism and vodum are a necessary part of Haitian existence. God and the Saints of the Church and loas the ancestral spirits of Africa on the other. For Haitians, the

Background to the Study Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Background to the Study - Research Paper Example In a way, it is a matter of risk and all the imperative factors that define human conduct with relation to risk and loss. Current Controversy The core of the argument in this case is the fact that losses have a relatively greater impact on choices than gains. While the proponents of the ideal behind los aversion and endowment effect seem to justify its applicability, much antipathy is still realized in this discourse. They question the real fundamentals behind these critical issues. Research question In this regard, the research seeks to answer the following question: â€Å"Does loss aversion have any significant uniform effect on the economic character of people.† Literature Review The concept of loss aversion has been a subject of much research and continuous discourse regarding its nature and the effect it has on the character of people. Losses are painful to humans than gains are pleasurable. Inasmuch as loss aversion might appear as a basic characterization across the hum an conduct, it helps to regard the whole aspects as a personality trait given its subjectivity and relativity. In risk analysis, it is realized that some individuals are more risk averse than others. In this case, risk aversion appears as a personality trait embedded in the character formation of an individual. In the same way, it is realized that loss version even varies within an individual on the basis of particular attributes. For instance somebody might be loss averse for fuel consumption of their car but not for food. This translates into different behaviors in different situations within an individual realm. In its most fundamental connotation, loss aversion is a function of the process of judgment. In this respect, loss aversion is not a mere attribute nor a parameter of choice but an outcome of value judgments (Novemsky & Kahneman 139). Therefore in decision making involving buying or selling, the basic point of reference is whether the trade should be conducted or not. The endowment effect better justifies the concept of loss aversion. The endowment effect affirms that people exhibit much regard for a particular good they own than on an identical commodity they do not own. In this respect therefore, the satisfaction lost when the owned commodity is lost is much higher than the satisfaction gained when the identical commodity is gained. Several studies in the recent past have questioned the very existence of loss aversion as a psychological character in the conduct of man. In examining the effect losses have on the process of decision making under situations of risk and uncertainty, loss aversion was never detected. Several lines of though emerge from this realization. On the one hand, it is seen that loss aversion is never present in limited payoff magnitudes. On the other hand, it is felt that the previously held generality on the concept of loss aversion was a much magnified affair that never exists as supposed. In the same regard, the loss aversio n phenomenon does not exist and the whole situation can simply be explained by inertia. There is substantial evidence that people can experience loss aversion even for commodities they never owned. This occurs in case the commodities were part of the choice options that were under judgment in the process of making decisions. It is realized that endowment effect is normally reduced or increased as a function of the similarity of the endowed and un-endowed effect. In the same way, loss