1.19: Care and Concern
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Learning Objectives
- Describe when, and in what ways, care or concern matter.
Watch this video or scan the QR code to learn how you can show empathy in a relationship.
To some extent, care and concern could be treated under feelings but they also have something to do with ethics and with how much people try to satisfy each other too.
Perhaps we should care equally about all people, or at least about all good or deserving people, or all potentially good people, but in fact, most people do not care about all others equally. They have particular people about whose happiness and or well-being they are concerned; people whose happiness or well-being they want to preserve, promote, and see preserved and promoted.
Sometimes, however, people are jealously protective about who promotes and preserves another’s welfare; they want to be the (only) ones to do it and to get credit for it. If someone else does good for or satisfies a loved one, such people may be hurt or may question the motives or intentions of the benefactor, or they may feel their loved one’s affections are being alienated. Sometimes such feelings are well-founded, but often not.
For now, let me say about jealousy that it is unwarranted if its cause is not something that detracts from the original relationship, but it is reasonable if its cause is something that undeservedly detracts from the original relationship or promotes the well-being of the one partner only at the undeserved expense of the other. (I say undeserved because there are some cases, such as where one partner is abusing the other, that someone — whether friend, counselor, lover, or whatever — should intervene in the relationship to promote the victim’s well- being even at the expense of the jealous “lover.”) For example, I think one has a right to be angry or hurt if their partner stands them up or leaves them to be otherwise avoidably lonely or to do some undesirable task alone that was supposed to be worked on together while the partner has a good time with some third person or group of friends. It is not that the stood up person has a right to resent the happiness of the offending partner, but that he or she has a right to resent that it happened at his or her undeserved expense. More about jealousy later, however.
My main point about care and concern is that they are, except in certain circumstances, no substitute for proper actions — actions that promote or preserve well-being and satisfaction, regardless of whether they are accompanied or brought about by care and concern or not. If one is ill or drowning, it would be better to be properly diagnosed or rescued by an uncaring computer or robot than to be in the presence of the most concerned person with no medical knowledge or swimming ability. Similarly, in a relationship; in general, good intentions are insufficient when better or more satisfying actions are needed or desired. Just as attractions do not insure satisfying or good actions toward each other, neither does caring or being concerned just by themselves.
I have seen parents who are concerned about their children’s well-being but who, in their concern to keep the children happy, actually spoil their children and end up making them less happy and less well off than they would have been otherwise. They give them too much junk food for their health, do not force them to get enough sleep for their health and mental alertness, and do not teach them enough about how to behave properly to let them make and keep friends and make favorable impressions on others. This kind of parental concern for immediate gratification is a short-sighted concern that in the long run is almost as bad as no concern at all. Similarly some adults are so concerned about the immediate satisfaction or happiness of a loved one that they treat their loved ones in ways that are harmful in the long run — harmful for the loved one (as in serving them too many fatty foods just because they like the taste of them) or harmful for the relationship. For example, if one of the partners gives in to the unfair demands of another just to keep peace or to keep the other partner happy, the partner who gives in may be fostering or reinforcing immature behavior in the other and also may be preventing the relationship from becoming a more mature and more equally satisfying one. Care and concern (particularly when they are misdirected, but even when they are not) do not by themselves mean you will act correctly nor promote the well-being of your partner or improvement in your relationship.
One time while my wife and I were discussing installing some sort of wooden flooring in our home, I knew she was disappointed that it was too expensive for us to have it done. I tried to tease her out of her depressed mood by saying that I would do it myself to save money and just hope that it came out correctly and evenly put down. That got a rise out of her (my handiwork usually leaves more than a little to be desired) and she said we simply would have to wait until a time we could afford to have it done by a professional. I asked “Why? He probably wouldn’t hope as hard as I would!” That got the laugh out of her I had wanted — since obviously care, concern, and hope were not nearly so important in this case as was the skilled competence of someone who would do the job right, regardless of how much or how little he or she cared about it.
Now it is usually nice to have someone care about you or be concerned about your well-being.
And this, coupled with the right or satisfying actions then, is preferable (all other things being equal) to the same activity by people who are devoid of such feelings. Likewise, if no action can help, as in the case of a terminal illness or accident, it is generally nicer to have people around who care or are concerned even though everyone is powerless to help. But even then there are right and wrong ways to behave — for example, excessive hand wringing, crying, or cursing fate may not do the victim any emotional good and may bring her or him even further grief or agony.
Care and concern are certainly nice to have in relationships, but they are not so important, I don’t believe, as correct (good and/or satisfying) behavior. I have intentionally left out of the analysis that for A to love B, A must care about B’s well-being. First, it should be noted most people would probably not want to say that for A to love B, A actually has to benefit B, since one can love another and want to do and try to do what is right for the other without being successful in that attempt. A may not even know what would be good for B, let alone be able to bring it about if he or she did know. But I believe that it is not even a necessary condition for A to (be correctly said to) love B that A even tries to satisfy or do good things for B. I will argue later, concerning Harry Stack Sullivan’s definition of love given in Lederer and Jackson’s Mirages of Marriage, that concern for another is not sufficient for there to be love, other than in some Christian or humanistic or humanitarian sense, if that. What I wish to explain here is that it is also not a necessary condition.
Certainly, it is psychologically normal that if one is attracted to another (and especially if one is satisfied by and knowingly benefitted by him or her) one will want to be good to them, satisfy them, and have them be attracted to you in return. This is simply to say on my terms that if one loves another, one will usually want to be loved in return. But this is not always the case. Even just considering attraction, one may perfectly well be content to be attracted to another without caring about whether the attraction is felt in return or not.
One may also not want to do what is best or most pleasing for one’s partner; an unreasonably jealous lover is still a lover even though he or she may not want anyone else pleasing or helping his loved one, even if that is in the loved one’s overall best interest. (If the loved one prefers having the jealousy of such a partner to having help or satisfaction from a third person, then the partner’s jealously denying the love’s potential joy by the third party actually increases the love’s overall joy. Some people like to have very jealous and over-protective mates; some do not especially appreciate such jealous behavior by their partner.) If a lover had to have his or her partner’s best interest in mind, an unreasonably jealous lover would be a contradiction in terms. So would perhaps even a reasonably jealous lover.
Of course, we could say this; and, of course, it would be easy to add as the fourth condition to the analysis of “A loves B” that “4) A in general wants to or tries to improve B’s well-being and B’s satisfaction.”
But I believe it does not belong in the analysis and would be added incorrectly because (1) I do not think all people require those who love them to care about their well-being or satisfaction, especially if they provide it for whatever reason, whether intentionally or caringly or not (as in the case of someone who loves for their mate to be jealous and over-protective even though the mate is not doing it for the loved one’s own good) (2) I think everyone should care about the well-being of others in general, so that not doing so shows more about what kind of person you are in general than whether you are a lover or person in love or not; (3) I think you can be attracted to another from afar, receive benefit from them, and receive joy from them — in short, love them from afar — without making any effort to have that love returned; that is, without trying to benefit or satisfy the one you love or without trying to have them become attracted to you (or even know you); you are the one loving, or in love, not them; (4) most importantly, insofar as you feel unloved or unhappy because you feel the other person does not care about your happiness or well-being (a feeling usually brought about, by the way, probably because he or she does not make you feel happy or well-off, whether intending to or not), then your happiness is diminished and therefore it is your love for them, not their love for you, that is diminished. It is diminished (and if diminished too far, extinguished) by either of two ways — either in causing your attraction to be diminished (or extinguished) or in causing that attraction to be less (or not at all) one of love, but more one of infatuation, sacrifice, masochism, or something else.
Whatever your attraction is for someone who harms you or makes you unhappy, it is not love and any part of your attraction that is unjustified by the actions or character of your loved one is a part of the attraction that has nothing to do with love.  Insofar as your partner’s lack of care and concern (in spite of their being good for you and good to you) bothers you, you are the one who is less loving, not they.
(5) Also consider the following case, called to my attention as a protest to this position by Priscilla Eggleston and Carol Milner. They claim that for a person to treat their mate shabbily, even after they have been told that they are disappointing and hurting their mate, means that they are doing it intentionally and with no consideration for their mate’s feelings. “And that is not very loving behavior. How can they say they still love their mate when they treat him or her like dirt!” My response to this is (a) first you want to make sure the treatment really is bad treatment and not just unreasonably disappointing treatment.  But assuming we are talking about unreasonable or bad, actually shabby, treatment. Then (b) there are still certain cases we could say A still could love B even though A treats B badly. For example, if A has some pathological physical condition, such as a tumor, that causes A to act irrationally and reprehensibly toward B even though A honestly professes love (attraction, etc.) for B, we might want to say A cannot help how he or she acts but he or she really does love B.
Similarly, if A were an alcoholic who had not learned to cope with it; A’s alcoholism might be terribly painful to B, but it is not true that if A loved B, A would stop drinking. A’s drinking may have nothing at all to do with B and/or A’s feelings for B and the value and joy A receives from B. A friend of mine knows a couple where the man continually disparages his wife’s intelligence, even in front of other people. He has been told it hurts his wife’s feelings, but he is a rather sarcastic and cynical person in general, and he seems unable to stop this for any length of time and he seems to do it naturally, and he also does it more or less about everybody else too. Some people do all kinds of wrong things and act badly, sometimes intentionally toward others, and I do not always understand why they do that. But I think it is often more a problem with their (moral) character (or sometimes with their physiology) than it is a problem with their feelings (or love) or than it is a sign that they do not have loving feelings or even concern for their mate. An alcoholic may feel terribly upset with how his behavior hurts his mate but he/she may not (be able to) remedy that behavior.
Likewise, a person who treats others badly may treat his or her mate badly, not because they do not love their mate, but because, for whatever reason, they do not behave properly toward people. (c) In some cases, a person may have reasonable interests and strong urges that conflict with their mate’s reasonable desires. Claus von Bulow claimed that he and his wife fought, not over his mistresses, but over the kind of job he held. She wanted him, he said, to work 9 to 5 seven months a year so they could party with her friends and summer in Newport, etc., and he couldn’t get any sort of job (he felt comfortable with) that fit that description. Or if a person does not have the sexual interests his/her partner does but does not want the partner having extra-marital sex, nor is the first willing to compromise somehow about sexually satisfying the partner with the stronger (or more frequent) sex drive, is the second any less loving if he/she discreetly cheats, even if it hurts the other’s feelings? In some cases, perhaps not. I doubt you would want to argue that if A loved B more A would want sex more often, and if B loved A more, B would want sex less often. I would not want to argue that was necessarily or even usually true.
I don’t know why a person would treat someone they loved shabbily, but I suspect it is not always because they do not love them. But I also do not know why anyone would treat even strangers shabbily; love is not a prerequisite for good behavior or for civility. I see shabby treatment more as a (sometimes physiological problem, but often simply as a) character problem, or moral and moral character problem. It is not necessarily a sign of lack of love on A’s part.  Or A may just be in a scummy mood and for some irrational reason takes such moods out on B (kicks the dog and abuses the wife and kids after frustration at the office or the unemployment line, etc.). Or A may be testing B’s love for her/him or may just be acting badly because “the devil is making him/her do it.” There are times one finds oneself saying things one does not want to say — knowing they are hurtful, and maybe even false, statements. One regrets it even before and while one is saying it, yet one says it anyway. “The devil makes you do it” is about the way it feels.  Who knows why? I don’t.)  Why? I don’t know, but I don’t believe lack of love has a whole lot to do with it generally. Even not loving someone would not justify nor explain treating them shabbily.
Finally, (6) It is possible that two people can be especially good and satisfying for each other because of their personality, character, interests, knowledge, skills, habits, desires, outlooks, etc. without either one especially trying to please the other or trying to benefit the other — at least no more so than they would try to please or benefit anyone else. This is, I think, what in fact does happen where people fall in love or are in love. It is not that there is some particular effort to please or benefit, though that may occur at times, but it is that satisfaction and good result because of the way each of you interacts and responds naturally to the other. Each of you happens to need, want, appreciate, or is improved by what the other happens naturally or already to do, to have, or to offer. It is this mutual satisfaction and good that are important, rather than whether it was intentional or not, and rather than whether it occurs because you each try to make it occur or because you try harder to make it occur with each other than you would with anyone else. Insofar as my attraction for you is accompanied (or warranted) by your being good for me and satisfying or enjoyable to me, then that attraction is one of love for you. And insofar as I am good for you and satisfying for you and you are attracted to me, your attraction is love for me. And both are true whether either of us tries to satisfy and benefit the other to any particular extent out of concern and caring (or trying to any extent more than we would try to satisfy or benefit anyone else), or whether it just happens because we simply mesh in the right way and were lucky to meet.
Insofar as lovers and loved ones continue to satisfy and benefit each other and continue to be attracted to each other, they will justifiably be said to love each other, regardless of whether they are working at it for each other, for themselves (A might work to please B for A’s own advantage, say, in order to keep B’s love so that B will remain in the relationship), or whether they are not working at it at all but are just lucky to “mesh” or “fit” with each other naturally with no (unusual) work required.
Now insofar as one does not care at all about the other’s well-being and joy, one may not continue to provide or accomplish it; but in not providing or accomplishing it, it means the other loses love for them, not that they lose love for the other. Not caring about your mate’s well being or joy may cause a lack of love — but toward you; it does not mean a lack of love on your part toward them.
If I make you happy and benefit you and you are attracted to me, I can believe you feel love for me without also expecting or demanding that you seek my well-being or joy or my attraction toward you. You may seek all these things, and generally, you would want to but not because of the definition of what love is. If anything, it is simply a psychological phenomenon that commonly accompanies love. Often one does want to please and benefit one that one likes — is attracted to — but one need not.
Now, though I think care and concern for another’s well-being and satisfaction are not necessary conditions for love itself to exist, I do think part of what it is to be a good person is to at least take into consideration other people’s well-being and satisfaction. And this is particularly true in cases of commitment such as marriage, living together, being engaged, going steady, rearing children, etc. In making commitments, by placing ourselves in special relationships with others, we create and incur special obligations. Apart from some overriding exception or overriding circumstance, one owes one’s mate, one’s children, and sometimes one’s friends more than one owes a stranger.  And this is so whether there is love or not.
Being married to someone, being on a date with someone, being the parent of someone, even playing tennis with someone, puts special obligations (again, barring some special circumstances to the contrary) on one to act differently in certain cases from how one might be justified in acting toward a stranger. For example, at a dance, it is polite to dance and spend time with your date rather than to ignore them. So to that extent, such relationships do require special actions or special considerations about ethical behavior which will often appear to involve special concern for the person whether they do or not. And since such relationships as marriage usually involve people in love, it appears that love requires special concern for others, when really it is the obligation or commitment to the specially incurred relationship that requires special considerations. Even a spouse who does not love their mate still has special ethical obligations to that mate (barring overriding circumstances) apart from how little other good or satisfaction there is left in the relationship. Even a date has a general obligation to take home the one they took out, regardless of how disappointing the occasion is.
Fulfillment of obligations does not require care and concern for those a person is obligated to; nor does the consideration of other people’s rights. One need not care about others in some special personal way when one is just considering and caring about how it is right to act — caring about what is the right thing to do.
As to the psychological connection between loving someone and wanting to please and benefit them, I think this is perhaps a general correlation though not a universal nor logically necessary one. I suspect it is more like the kind of general psychological correlations of romantic lovers usually wanting to have sex with each other, usually being happy around each other, grinning around each other, or giving gifts to each other at special occasions. Hence, thinking this is some essential correlation may cause one to feel unloved when one’s mate does not do one or all of these things. (People who do not pay much attention to the calendar might forget an anniversary, not because they do not remember the date of the anniversary, or because they are no longer in love, but because they do not even realize that date is upon them. Hence, “forgetting” an anniversary is not a sign of lack of love or lack of caring.) Because there is a general psychological conjunction or correlation between romantic love and sexual desire, desire for proximity, grinning in each others’ company, or present-giving, people mistakenly sometimes think that such conjunction is then universal or true by definition.
And furthermore, even when A loves B and is concerned for B’s well-being just because A loves B, I suspect that concern is a consequence of A’s love for B, not a part of it. Those who hold (I think incorrectly) that love is always accompanied by concern for the partner’s well- being, over and above any strictly ethical or humanistic concern, do not have to hold that this is part of the definition of love. In fact, they probably do not. They probably hold that such concern is a natural (psychological) outgrowth of loving another. But being a result, a consequence, or an outgrowth of a condition is not the same as being the condition or a part of its definition. Even if thunder always accompanied lightning, lightning is the flash; thunder is the sound that (sometimes) accompanies it. The day always follows night, and vice versa, but neither is part of the definition of the other.
Hence, even if it were true that there could not be love if there was no concern, it would not follow that concern was a part of love. It could be just a natural consequence of it. Even if lovers always remembered to give birthday presents to their loved ones, giving a birthday present would be a consequence of loving, not part of the definition of loving.
Finally, I think in the kinds of cases where one feels unloved because one’s mate would rather be at work, does not grin in your proximity, does not give presents, does not want to have sex, etc., there really is more an element of feeling unloving rather than unloved. One can feel unloving because one has been disappointed by one’s partner; but because the disappointment or dissatisfaction seems caused by the other person, one misreads being unloving as being unloved. This is perhaps like believing someone who hurts you (though it may be accidental) is angry with you because you are then angry with them. It is perhaps clearest in the case of a lover’s accidentally forgetting your birthday when they have been busy and are not particularly cognizant of dates generally anyway; they may love you very much but you feel they do not because you are disappointed and hurt and feel less loving toward them at the time.
In contrast, someone who always remembers your birthday with cards or presents may be just very polite, very efficient, and very charming, or may be selfishly courting you without thereby really caring or being concerned about you. In general, the fact that someone behaves correctly does not necessarily mean they have the best motives, and incorrect behavior does not necessarily show bad motives. As I will explain further in discussing ethics, motivation is not always easily identified by behavior. Feelings too are not always accurately discernible from outward appearance and behavior. People make all kinds of errors reading caring or uncaring feelings into other people’s external behavior. People view mistakes in work to mean the lack of responsibility or conscientiousness; they may just be mistakes. People sometimes mistakenly think counselors and teachers who are simply conscientiously doing their jobs have special (possibly romantic) feelings for them.
Key Takeaways
- Care and concern are less important normally than the effects of one’s behavior toward another person. Normally if one had to choose between caring people who are incompetent and competent people who uncaring, one would choose competence over caring. There can be exceptions, but both love and ethics involve far more than just being caring.
Key Terms
- Care and concern are actions that promote or preserve well-being and satisfaction of another, regardless of whether they are accompanied or brought about by care and concern or not.
Review Questions
- Question : What trait is unwarranted if its cause is not something that detracts from the original relationship, but is reasonable if its cause is something that undeservedly detracts from the original relationship or promotes the well-being of the one partner only at the undeserved expense of the other?
- Question : Does meeting obligations require care and concern for people? Does caring and being concerned about other people mean you will be good for them or meet your obligations to them?


5.2.2: Writing for Science
Whether scientific research is basic science or applied science, scientists must share their findings for other researchers to expand and build upon their discoveries. Communication and collaboration within and between sub disciplines of science are key to the advancement of knowledge in science. For this reason, an important aspect of a scientist’s work is disseminating results and communicating with peers. Scientists can share results by presenting them at a scientific meeting or conference, but this approach can reach only the limited few who are present. Instead, most scientists present their results in peer-reviewed articles that are published in scientific journals. Peer-reviewed articles are scientific papers that are reviewed, usually anonymously by a scientist’s colleagues, or peers. These colleagues are qualified individuals, often experts in the same research area, who judge whether or not the scientist’s work is suitable for publication. The process of peer review helps to ensure that the research described in a scientific paper or grant proposal is original, significant, logical, and thorough. Grant proposals, which are requests for research funding, are also subject to peer review. Scientists publish their work so other scientists can reproduce their experiments under similar or different conditions to expand on the findings. The experimental results must be consistent with the findings of other scientists.
There are many journals and the popular press that do not use a peer-review system. A large number of online open-access journals, journals with articles available without cost, are now available many of which use rigorous peer-review systems, but some of which do not. Results of any studies published in these forums without peer review are not reliable and should not form the basis for other scientific work. In one exception, journals may allow a researcher to cite a personal communication from another researcher about unpublished results with the cited author’s permission.
Scientific articles are not literary works. Instead, they are meant to transmit information effectively and concisely. The need for clarity and brevity is especially important for other forms of science communication such as posters where the audience must be able to understand the significance of your research in just a few minutes, but the need is there for all forms of scientific communication.
There is an explicit format that scientific papers follow, with relatively small variations in style among journals. Papers are broken down into the following sections: title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion. Every section, except the title, should be labeled as such. Generally the section name is centered and underlined (or bold-faced) over the text. Although posters follow the same format as a paper, each section is abbreviated (once again, clarity is critical).
Title
The title should give the reader a concise, informative description of the content and scope of the paper.
Abstract
The abstract is a concise summary of the major findings of the study. It should be no longer than 9-10 sentences. It should summarize every subsequent section of the paper. It should state the purposes of the study, and then briefly summarize the methods, results, and conclusions of the study. The abstract should be able to stand-alone. Do not refer to any figures or tables, or cite any references. Because the abstract is a distillation of the paper, it is often written last. It is typically the hardest part of the paper to write.
Introduction
In many journals, the introduction is also unlabeled, and simply starts after the abstract.
The introduction gives the rationale for the research. It answers the question “Why should anyone be interested in this work?” It usually includes background information, including the work of others, and a description of your objectives. If you are studying a particular species, give both the scientific (Latin) name and the common name the first time you mention your study animal. The scientific name is always underlined or italicized, and the genus name is capitalized while the species name is not. Cite only references pertinent to your study. Direct quotations are rarely used in scientific writing; instead state the findings of others in your own words. Furthermore, footnotes are rarely used in a scientific paper. Instead cite the author by last name, and the year that the source was published.
Smith (1987) found that male mice prefer the odor of non-pregnant female mice to that of pregnant female mice. Male mice prefer the odor of non-pregnant female mice to that of pregnant female mice (Smith, 1987).
When two people co-author a paper, both are cited:
For instance:
When more than two people co-author a paper, cite only the first author, and refer to the other authors with the Latin phrase, “et al.”, indicating “and others”:
Undergraduate students who came to lectures were more likely to receive a high grade on the exams (Thatcher, et al., 2000).
Harrett and Garrett (1999) found no differences between male and female elephants in their response to the tape of a female vocalization.
The full reference for each work must be given in the literature cited section at the end of the paper. For references, select work from the primary literature: that is, work that is published by the same people who did it. In general, citing an encyclopedia or textbook is not appropriate for a scientific paper.
When organizing your introduction, begin with a general description of the topic, and then become more specific. For example, in a study of the olfaction in the reproductive behavior of mice, the skeleton of the introduction might be:
For reproduction to be successful, animals must be able to correctly assess the reproductive condition of a potential partner. Many different signals have evolved in animals to facilitate such assessment. Olfactory signals seem to be particularly important in mammals.
Mice are particularly suited for studying the role of olfaction in reproductive behavior. Odor cues are involved in several aspects of mouse reproductive behavior, including… The aim of this study was…
Each of these sentences would be a good topic sentence of a different paragraph in the introduction. References should be cited where appropriate.
In sum, an introduction should convey your overall purpose in conducting the experiment as well as your specific objectives.
Methods
This section is also often called Materials and Methods. This section is a very concise summary of the subjects, equipment, and procedures used. This section should contain enough information so that someone else could replicate your work. It is NOT a list, but a narrative description. Because it is a narrative, it should not include a list of your materials. Rather, they should be described in the narrative as required. For example, you could say: “We measured 5mL of enzyme solution into a test tube and heated it on a hot plate until it boiled.” From this, it is obvious that you used some sort of tool to accurately measure 5mL of solution, as well as a test tube, and a hot plate.
Only include information that is relevant to your experiment: do not include information that any scientist should know to do or that won’t affect the results (label the tubes, clean up afterwards, make a graph). If you are following the methods of another paper or a lab manual, simply cite the source. Then, you can concentrate on describing any changes that you made to that procedure. A common mistake is to let results creep into this section.
Results
The results includes presentations of your data and the results of statistical analysis of your data. First, state the overall trend of the data. Did the majority of the data statistically support or contradict the null hypothesis?
Address each statistical test separately, often in separate paragraphs. For each type of data analyzed say whether your results are statistically significant, and in parentheses give the statistical test used, the value of the test statistic, and the probability level for that computed value. For example, “Male mice visited non-pregnant females significantly more often than pregnant females (chi square = 4.69; p < 0.05).”
Do not present your raw data. Instead, present data in an easy to read form. You will probably use a figure or a table to present your results. Refer to each table by a number (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) It should have a concise heading at the top. Graphs and diagrams are both called figures and are numbered consecutively (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.) They have headings at the bottom. Axes on graphs should be clearly labeled. See the section on Presenting Your Data for more information.
You must refer to every table and figure at least once in the text. Often this can be done parenthetically: “Male mice visited non-pregnant females significantly more often than pregnant females (chi square = 4.69; p <0.05; Fig. 2).”
Do not use the word “significant” unless it can be supported by statistical evidence. A common mistake is to discuss the implications of your findings. Save that for the discussion section.
Discussion
Here you are to give a reader the “take home” message of the study. Begin by briefly summarizing the major findings of your study. Then discuss each finding one at a time (usually in separate paragraphs).
Interpret your results in light of the biology you are studying. Your discussion section should parallel your introduction: if you discussed the role of reproductive biology of the mouse at the beginning of your study, come back to it again here. The paper should come full circle.
Use references throughout your discussion to support your points. Compare your findings with those of similar studies.
Do not make statements that cannot be supported by the data, and be sure none of your conclusions are contradicted by the data. Discuss unexpected results or possible errors in the experiment, but don’t focus on “what didn’t work”. We all know this was a classroom research project!
Literature cited
Each academic discipline uses a different format to cite the references they use. These differences can be dramatic (English vs. Science, for example) or small (Psychology vs. Biology), but they are based on what information is seen as important. In this course, we follow the format of the most biology journals by using CSE format. See the section on Citing Your Sources for more specific information.
General hints
For stylistic hints, browse one of the many books in the library on scientific writing. Remember, being a good writer in English “121” doesn’t mean your skills will translate to science writing without work (though you have a great start!).
Outline your paper. Use topic sentences for every paragraph. You should be able to go back and underline each topic sentence after you are finished.
Keep your report as short as you can, consistent with clarity and completeness. Do not “pad” with a lot of irrelevant information just to show you know a lot.
A note on Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. However, most instances of plagiarism are the result of a lack of care and effort, and not intentional misbehavior. Here is a general rule to follow: Don’t Cut and Paste! Accidental or not, any occurrence of academic dishonesty will be treated seriously. Ignorance is no defense.
Be sure to proofread for typographical errors, poor grammar, or unclear sentence structure.
Try to start paragraphs with a topic sentence or a summary statement. Then follow it with supporting statements. This technique makes your writing clearer and easier to follow. Ideally, someone could read the first sentence of each paragraph and still understand the gist of our paper.
PLEASE avoid dull scientific writing, particularly the use of the passive voice. As much as possible, use an active voice. Passive writing takes up more space and is dull, dull, dull. Look at the example here; see how this is more exciting and can lead to an interesting ecological observation about the importance of the predator – prey relationship involved?
BAD: Mussels are eaten by sea stars. GOOD: Sea stars eat mussels. BETTER STILL: Sea stars are voracious predators of mussels.
Make sure the object to which words such as “this” or “it” refer is clear.
Combine sentences with low information content into one sentence. This will make your writing more streamlined and less repetitive. But don’t write run-on sentences either!
Always refer to work people have done in the past in the past tense. Refer to species attributes or other ongoing, continuing states in the present tense.
The word “data” is plural. Say either “these data are…” or “this datum is…”
BAD: Wentworth (1985) studied vegetation in Arizona. He found that tree species distributions followed gradients. GOOD: In the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona, both elevation and the amount of light influenced tree species distributions (Wentworth 1985).
Scientific names of animals and plants are underlined or italicized (as are most Latin words), such as Homo sapiens or Homo sapiens (genera and all higher taxa are capitalized, species names are lowercase).
Do not anthropomorphize. A honeybee or a dandelion does not have the same consciousness or emotional life as your roommate. In extreme forms, this type of writing is appropriate for the tabloids in supermarket checkout lines…
Try varying the length of your sentences, and keep in mind that a sentence with 4 words is probably too short, and one with 20 too long.
BAD: Kudzu, an Asian super weed, intends to dominate and conquer the entire southeastern United States. GOOD: Kudzu is a noxious weed introduced from Asia that has quickly spread from its point of introduction throughout the southeastern United States.
Avoid using too many clauses in one sentence. If you see that you have a lot of commas, that is a clue that you’ve overdone the number of clauses in the sentence.
Try reading your work out loud. Anything that is written poorly will be difficult to read. This technique will alert you to problem areas in your writing.
BE PREPARED TO WRITE SEVERAL DRAFTS! Good, hard editing will turn you from a mediocre to a good writer. And with good writing, you are able to show your GREAT thinking!
Sources:
These instructions are adapted by Walter Shriner. Originally from Jakob, E. 1995. Laboratory manual for animal behavior. Bowling Green University and Muller, K . 1991. Ornithology laboratory. University of California, Davis.
Unless otherwise noted, images on this page are licensed under CC-BY 4.0 by OpenStax.
OpenStax , Biology. OpenStax CNX. May 27, 2016 http://cnx.org/contents/s8Hh0oOc@9.10:RD6ERYiU@5/The-Process-of-Science .


20.21: Misusing SEM
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Learning Objectives
- Misusing Standard Error of the Mean (\(SEM\))
Research conducted by
Peter Nagele
Case study prepared by
Robert F. Houser, Georgette Baghdady, and Jennifer E. Konick
Overview
Authors of published research articles often erroneously use the standard error of the mean to describe the variability of their study sample. Nagele demonstrated this misuse of the standard error of the mean as a descriptive statistic by manually searching four leading anesthesia journals in \(2001\).
Here are quotes on key points from Nagele’s article and our notes:
“Descriptive statistics aim to describe a given study sample without regard to the entire population.”
“If normally distributed, the study sample can be described entirely by two parameters: the mean and the standard deviation (\(SD\)).” However, a study sample variable is never exactly normally distributed. When a variable is close to normally distributed, the mean and median are quite similar. Therefore, the mean and \(SD\) would be sufficient.
“The \(SD\) represents the variability within the sample.” It tells us about “the distribution of individual data points around the mean.” The latter statement, however, is a generalization since the \(SD\) cannot tell us exactly where each data point lies relative to the mean.
“[I]nferential statistics generalize about a population on the basis of data from a sample of this population.”
The standard error of the mean (\(SEM\)) “is used in inferential statistics to give an estimate of how the mean of the sample is related to the mean of the underlying population.” It “informs us how precise our estimate of the [population] mean is.”
Thus, “the \(SEM\) estimates the precision and uncertainty [with which] the study sample represents the underlying population.”
The standard error of the mean is calculated by dividing the sample standard deviation by the square root of the sample size (\(SEM=SD/\sqrt{n}\)).
“[T]he \(SEM\) is always smaller than the \(SD\).” However, this is only true as long as the sample size is greater than \(1\).
“In general, the use of the \(SEM\) should be limited to inferential statistics [for which] the author explicitly wants to inform the reader about the precision of the study, and how well the sample truly represents the entire population [of interest].” A sample never truly represents the population.
Questions to Answer
How prevalent is the inappropriate use of the \(SEM\) in describing the variability of the study sample in research publications? What is the proper use of the \(SEM\)?
Design Issues
The author focused on four leading anesthesia journals in his field of expertise. The misapplication of the \(SEM\) in descriptive statistics can be found in professional journals of many, if not all, fields of research.
Descriptions of Variables
| Variable | Description |
| Incorrect use of SEM; total | Total frequency of misuse of SEM; expressed as number of articles and percent |
| Laboratory studies using SEM incorrectly | A subset of the above variable; expressed as number of articles and percent |
| Correct use of SD | Frequency of correct use of standard deviation; expressed as number of articles and percent |
Data Files
Sem.xls
Links
Nagele article
References
- Nagele, P. (2003). Misuse of standard error of the mean (SEM) when reporting variability of a sample. A critical evaluation of four anaesthesia journals. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 90, 514-516.
- Hassani, H., Ghodsi, M., Howell, G. (2010). A note on standard deviation and standard error. Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 29, 108-112.
- Altman, D. G., Bland, J. M. (2005). Standard deviations and standard errors. BMJ, 331, 903.


14.2.5: Employee Training and Development
What Types of Training and Development Do Organizations Offer Their Employees?
To ensure that both new and experienced employees have the knowledge and skills to perform their jobs successfully, organizations invest in training and development activities. Training and development involves learning situations in which the employee acquires additional knowledge or skills to increase job performance. Training objectives specify performance improvements, reductions in errors, job knowledge to be gained, and/or other positive organizational results. The process of creating and implementing training and development activities is shown in Figure <IP_ADDRESS>. Training is done either on the job or off the job.
On-the-Job Training
New-employee training is essential and usually begins with orientation , which entails getting the new employee ready to perform on the job. Formal orientation (often a half-day classroom program) provides information about the company history, company values and expectations, policies, and the customers the company serves, as well as an overview of products and services. More important, however, is the specific job orientation by the new employee’s supervisor concerning work rules, equipment, and performance expectations. This second briefing tends to be more informal and may last for several days or even weeks.
Beyond employee orientation, job training takes place at the job site or workstation and is directly related to the job. This training involves specific job instruction, coaching (guidance given to new employees by experienced ones), special project assignments, or job rotation. Job rotation is the reassignment of workers to several different jobs over time. At Walmart, management trainees rotate through three or more merchandising departments, customer service, credit, and even the human resource department during the first year or two on the job.
Two other forms of on-the-job training are apprenticeship and mentoring. An apprenticeship usually combines specific on-the-job instruction with classroom training. It may last as long as four years and can be found in the skilled trades of carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work. Mentoring involves a senior manager or other experienced employee providing job- and career-related information to a mentee. Inexpensive and providing instantaneous feedback, mentoring is becoming increasingly popular with many firms, including FedEx, Merrill Lynch, Dow Chemical, and Bank of America. Whereas mentoring is typically conducted through ongoing face-to-face interactions between mentor and mentee, technology now allows for a long-distance mentoring relationship. Dow Chemical uses e-mail and video conferencing to facilitate long-distance mentoring between persons who are working in different countries. For a mentee whose second language is English, writing e-mail messages in English helps the individual become fluent in English, which is a requirement of all Dow Chemical employees regardless of location and country of origin.
EXPANDING AROUND THE GLOBE
Employees on the (International) Move
Working abroad at one of the thousands of American or foreign multinational firms can be exciting and look good on your résumé. But is an international job assignment a step up the ladder to a more rewarding career path or a potential minefield of professional and family risk? The answer depends as much on an employee’s family situation as his or her ambition, as well as how well the company supports and handles a transfer to an international location.
International job experience is increasingly seen as an essential leadership competency; therefore, many companies have developed robust rotational programs designed to give individuals critical global experience. According to the BGRS 2016 Global Mobility Trends Survey, providing high levels of service to relocating employees and their families is a fundamental expectation.
Brookfield Global Relocation Services (BGRS) is a talent mobility and relocation services firm that manages more than 60,000 relocations in 140 countries each year for its corporate and government clients. With 15 offices around the world, the company’s staff (that speaks 40 languages) can tap into their network of 1,900 trusted suppliers to help employees and families acclimate to their new work and home environments.
Increasing numbers of recent college graduates and experienced professionals are offered opportunities for overseas work assignments ranging from a few days to 24 months or longer. But acclimating to a new country and culture, as well as a new work environment, can be daunting and involves some unique challenges.
Challenges face expatriates aside from the demands of work include:
- Choosing schools for children
- Securing housing
- Finding medical facilities
- Opening bank accounts
- Finding transportation and obtaining a driver’s license
- Completing government forms
- Locating food stores
- Learning about community and entertainment offerings
With 189,000 worldwide staff and partners, KPMG International is one of the world’s largest professional services and accounting firms, with a presence in 152 countries. Through programs like the KPMG Global Opportunities (GO) program, the professionals at KPMG can explore job rotation assignments, transfer to a new location, or change to a new job function or group. The company’s Career Mobility Connection tool allows employees to evaluate opportunities based on their interests and to seek guidance from a transition advisor on potential career opportunities.
KPMG has developed several programs and standards to guide employees and establish consistency, whether they work in the United States or abroad. One of the most important is the KPMG Code of Conduct, which defines the values and standards by which KPMG conducts business and is intended to help guide actions and behaviors of its global workforce.
Every year, all KPMG employees and partners are required to affirm their agreement to comply with the Code of Conduct. In addition, all partners and employees are required to complete mandatory training that reinforces the principles of the Code and further builds understanding of the firm’s expectations.
Critical Thinking Questions
- How is KPMG’s Global Code of Conduct intended to influence and guide the personal values and behaviors of its employees and partners?
- Why must the Code of Conduct be affirmed by employees and partners every year? Why does KPMG include their partners in this program?
- What are the top four or five job qualifications an employee should have to be considered for an overseas assignment?
Off-the-Job Training
Even with the advantages of on-the-job training, many firms recognize that it is often necessary to train employees away from the workplace. With off-the-job training, employees learn the job away from the job. There are numerous popular methods of off-the-job training. It frequently takes place in a classroom, where cases, role-play exercises, films, videos, lectures, and computer demonstrations are used to develop workplace skills.
Web-based technology is increasingly being used along with more traditional off-the-job training methods. E-learning and e-training involve online computer presentation of information for learning new job tasks. Union Pacific Railroad has tens of thousands of its employees widely dispersed across much of the United States, so it delivers training materials online to save time and travel costs. Technical and safety training at Union Pacific are made available as programmed instruction , an online, self-paced, and highly structured training method that presents trainees with concepts and problems using a modular format. Software provided can make sure that employees receive, undergo, and complete, as well as sign off on, various training modules.
Web-based training can also be done using a simulation , for example, a scaled-down version of a manufacturing process or even a mock cockpit of a jet airplane. American Airlines uses a training simulator for pilots to practice hazardous flight maneuvers or learn the controls of a new aircraft in a safe, controlled environment with no passengers. The simulator allows for more direct transfer of learning to the job.
CONCEPT CHECK
- Describe several types of on-the-job training.
- What are the advantages of simulation training?
- How is technology impacting off-the-job training?


10.1: Networking
In the context of career development, networking is the process by which people build relationships with one another for the purpose of helping one another achieve professional goals (Dillon, 2020).
When you “network,” you exchange information in the following ways:
- You may share business cards, résumés, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations and information about a specific field.
- You also might share information about meet-up groups, conferences, special events, technology tools and social media.
- You also might solicit job “headhunters” or recruiters, career counselors, career centers, career coaches, an alumni association, family members, friends, acquaintances and vendors (Dillon, 2020).
Networking can occur anywhere and at any time. In fact, your network expands with each new relationship you establish. The networking strategies you can employ nearly are limitless. With imagination and ingenuity, your networking can be highly successful (Dillon, 2020).
Image credit: Illustration of networking with stick figures connected by dotted lines ( Course Hero College Success Lumen Networking [www.coursehero.com] )
Strategies for Networking
We live in a social world.  Finding a new job and advancing your career entails building relationships with these people. Truly, the most effective way to find a new job is to network, network, and network some more (Dillon, 2020).
Strategies at College
- Get to know your professors : Communicating with instructors is a valuable way to learn about a career and also get references and letters of recommendation if and when needed for a job. Professors also can give you leads on job openings, internships, and research possibilities. Most instructors will share information and insights readily with you.
- Check with your college’s alumni office : You may find that some alumni are affiliated with your field of interest and can give you the “inside scoop.” At HACC, alumni and community members volunteer as mentors through the College Central Network tool available from Career Services.
- Connect with classmates : Classmates may or may not share your major but still could have job leads that could help you. You could be just one conversation away from a good lead (Dillon, 2020).
Strategies at Work
- Join professional organizations : You can meet many influential people at local and national meetings and events of professional and volunteer organizations. Learn about these organizations, and see if they have membership discounts for students, or student chapters. Once you are a member, you may have access to membership lists, which can give you access to many new people with whom to network.
- Volunteer : Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people who can help you develop your career, even if the organization you are volunteering with is not in your field. Just by working alongside others toward common goals, you build relationships that may serve you later in unforeseen and helpful ways.
- Get an internship : Many organizations offer internship positions to college students. Some of these positions are paid, but often they are not. Paid or not, you gain experience relevant to your career, and you potentially make many new contacts. Check with HACC’s Career Services or CollegeRecruiter.com and internships.com for key resources.
- Get a part-time job : Working full-time may be your ultimate goal, but you may want to fill in some cracks by working in a part-time job. Invariably you will meet people who can help with your networking goals, and you can gain good experience along the way which can be noted on your résumé. Check HACC’s College Central Network for online job boards for full and part-time employment.
- Join a job club : Your career interests may be shared by many others who have organized a club, which can be online or in person. If you don’t find an existing club, consider starting one.
- Attend networking events : There are innumerable professional networking events taking place around the world and also online. Find them listed in magazines, community calendars, newspapers, journals, and at the websites of companies, organizations, and associations.
- Conduct informational interviews (explained earlier in this text) : You may initiate contact with people in your chosen field who can tell you about their experiences of entering the field and thriving in it (Dillon, 2020). Many websites have guidance on how to plan and conduct these interviews, and more information is available in the “Researching Careers” chapter of this text.
Strategies at Home and Beyond
- Participate in social media : An explosion of career opportunities awaits you with social media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more. You will find an extensive list of suggested sites at CareerOneStop. Keep your communication ultra-professional at these sites. Peruse magazine articles, and if you find one that’s relevant to your field containing names of professionals, you can reach out to them to learn more and get job leads. Realize that social media is public, and posting pictures of yourself at parties or commenting in an unbecoming way could cost you opportunities.
- Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and acquaintances for referrals : Do they know others who might help you? You can start with the question “Who else should I be talking to?”
- Use business cards or networking cards : A printed business card can be an essential tool to help your contacts remember you. Creativity can help in this regard, too. Students often design cards themselves and either hand print them or print them on a home printer (Dillon, 2020).
Networking for Career Development
- Find information about five companies or people in your field of interest and follow them on Twitter.
- Research which social media platform is popular in your field of interest, and find leaders and experts in that field who are good models for how to interact with the audience of that platform. Be thoughtful about creating an account. Remember that these accounts will be highly searchable for a long time. What you post and how and when you post matters and may enhance (or hurt) your career.
- Find names of three people who interest you (peruse magazine articles, online sites, or other resources), and write an email to them explaining your interests and any requests you may have for information.
- Sign up for newsletters from two professional organizations in a field you want to know more about.
- Find and attend one in-person or online event each month then write about these experiences on one of your social media sites.
- Keep your communication on social media positive. Don’t attack or bully someone which may have regretful consequences. If you disagree with someone, do so with respect.


3.3: Conditional Probabilities
What do you think the probability is that a man is over six feet tall? If you knew that both his parents were tall would you change your estimate of the probability? A conditional probability is a probability that is based on some prior knowledge.
A conditional probability is the probability that an event will occur if some other condition has already occurred. This is denoted by \(P(A | B)\), which is read “the probability of A given B .”
Two cards are drawn from a well shuffled deck of 52 cards without replacement. Find the following probabilities:
- The probability that the second card is a heart given that the first card is a spade.
- The probability that the first card is a face card and the second card an ace.
- The probability that one card is a heart and the other a club.
Solution a
Without replacement means that the first card is set aside before the second card is drawn and we assume the first card is a spade. There are only 51 cards to choose from for the second card. Thirteen of those cards are hearts.
It’s important to notice that the question only asks about the second card.
\[ P(\text{2nd heart | 1st spade}) = \dfrac{13}{51} \nonumber \]
The probability that the second card is a heart given that the first card is a spade is \(\dfrac{13}{51}\).
Solution b
Notice that this time the question asks about both of the cards.
There are 12 face cards out of 52 cards when we draw the first card. We set the first card aside and assume that it is a face card. Then there are four aces out of the 51 remaining cards. We want to draw a face card and an ace so use multiplication.
\[ P(\text{1st face card and 2nd ace}) = \dfrac{12}{52} \cdot \dfrac{4}{51} = \dfrac{48}{2652} \approx 0.018 \nonumber \]
The probability that the first card is a face card and the second card an ace is approximately 0.018 or 1.8%.
Solution c
There are two ways for this to happen. We could get a heart first and a club second or we could get the club first and the heart second.
\[ \begin{align*} P(\text{heart and club}) &= P(\text{heart 1st and club 2nd or club 1st and heart 2nd}) \\[4pt]&= P(\text{heart 1st and club 2nd}) + P(\text{club 1st and heart 2nd}) \\[4pt]&= \dfrac {13}{52} \cdot \dfrac {13}{51} + \dfrac {13}{52} \cdot \dfrac {13}{51} \\[4pt]&\approx 0.127 \end{align*} \nonumber \]
The probability that one card is a heart and the other a club is approximately 0.127 or 12.7%.
Two fair dice are rolled and the sum of the numbers is observed. What is the probability that the sum is at least nine if it is known that one of the dice shows a five?
Since we are given that one of the dice shows a five this is a conditional probability. List the pairs of dice with one die showing a five. Be careful not to count (5,5) twice.
\[\{(1,5), (2,5), (3,5), (4,5), (5,5), (6,5), (5,1), (5,2), (5,3), (5,4), (5,6)\} \nonumber \]
List the pairs from above that have a sum of at least nine.
\[\{(4,5), (5,5), (6,5), (5,4), (5,6)\}\nonumber \]
Solution
There are 11 ways for one die to show a five and five of these ways have a sum of at least nine.
\[ P(\text{sum at least 9 | one die is a 5}) = \dfrac{5}{11} \nonumber \]
The probability that the sum is at least nine if it is known that one of the dice shows a five is \(\dfrac{5}{11}\).
For events A and B, \( P(A \text{ and } B) = P(A) \cdot P(B|A) \)
For events A and B, \( P(B|A) = \dfrac{P(A \text{ and } B)}{P(A)} \)
Two hundred fifty people who recently purchased a car were questioned and the results are summarized in the following table from Section 3.2.
| Satisfied | Not Satisfied | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Car | 92 | 28 | 120 |
| Used Car | 83 | 47 | 130 |
| Total | 175 | 75 | 250 |
This is a conditional probability because we already know that the person bought a used car.What is the probability that a person is satisfied if it is known that the person bought a used car?
Solution
\[ \begin{align*} P(\text{satisfied | used car}) &= \dfrac{P(\text{satisfied and used})}{P(\text{used})} \\[4pt]&= \dfrac{\dfrac{83}{250}}{\dfrac{130}{250}} = \dfrac{83}{\cancel{250}} \cdot \dfrac{\cancel{250}}{130} = \dfrac{83}{130} \approx 0.638 \end{align*} \nonumber \]
The probability that a person is satisfied if it is known that the person bought a used car is approximately 0.638 or 63.8%
A survey of 350 students at a university revealed the following data about class standing and place of residence.
Table \(\PageIndex{2}\): Housing by Class
| Residence\Class | Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior | Row Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dormitory | 89 | 34 | 46 | 15 | 184 |
| Apartment | 32 | 17 | 22 | 48 | 119 |
| With Parents | 13 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 47 |
| Column Totals | 134 | 82 | 71 | 63 | 350 |
What is the probability that a student is a sophomore if that student lives in an apartment?
Solution
This is a conditional probability because we are given that the student lives in an apartment.
\[ \begin{align*} P(\text{sophomore | apartment}) &= \dfrac{P(\text{sophomore and apartment})}{P(\text{apartment})} \\[4pt]&= \dfrac{\dfrac{17}{350}}{\dfrac{119}{350}} = \dfrac{17}{\cancel{350}} \cdot \dfrac{\cancel{350}}{119} = \dfrac{17}{119} \approx 0.143 \end{align*} \nonumber \]
The probability that a student is a sophomore given that the student lives in an apartment is approximately 0.143 or 14.3%.


21.2: Work Done on a System By All the External Forces
Consider the most general possible system, one that might contain any number of particles, with possibly many forces, both internal and external, acting on each of them. We will again, for simplicity, start by considering what happens over a time interval so short that all the forces are approximately constant (the final result will hold for arbitrarily long time intervals, just by adding, or integrating, over many such short intervals). We will also work explicitly only the one-dimensional case, although again that turns out to not be a real restriction.
Let then \(W_{all,1}\) be the work done on particle 1 by all the forces acting on it, \(W_{all,2}\) the work done on particle 2, and so on. The total work is the sum \(W_{all,sys} = W_{all,1} + W_{all,2} + \cdots\). However, by the results of Chapter 10 , we have \(W_{all,1} = \Delta K_1\) (the change in kinetic energy of particle 1), \(W_{all,2} = \Delta K_2\), and so on, so adding all these up we get
\[ W_{a l l, s y s}=\Delta K_{s y s} \label{eq:7.13} \]
where \(\Delta K_{sys}\) is the change in kinetic energy of the whole system.
 To learn something else we need to look next at the work done by the internal forces. It is helpful here to start by considering the “no-dissipation case” in which all the internal forces can be derived from a potential energy 2 . We will consider the case where dissipative processes happen inside the system after we have gained a full understanding of the result we will obtain for this simpler case.
2 Or else they do no work at all: the magnetic force between moving charges is an example of the latter.
The No-Dissipation Case
The internal forces are, by definition, forces that arise from the interactions between pairs of particles that are both inside the system. Because of Newton’s 3rd law, the force \(F_{12}\) (we will omit the “type” superscript for now) exerted by particle 1 on particle 2 must be the negative of \(F_{21}\), the force exerted by particle 2 on particle 1. Hence, the work associated with this interaction for this pair of particles can be written
\[ W(1,2)=F_{12} \Delta x_{2}+F_{21} \Delta x_{1}=F_{12}\left(\Delta x_{2}-\Delta x_{1}\right) \label{eq:7.14} .\]
Notice that \(\Delta x_2 − \Delta x_1\) can be rewritten as \(x_{2, f}-x_{2, i}-x_{1, f}+x_{1, i}=x_{12, f}-x_{12, i}=\Delta x_{12} \), where \(x_{12} = x_2 − x_1\) is the relative position coordinate of the two particles. Therefore,
\[ W(1,2)=F_{12} \Delta x_{12} \label{eq:7.15} .\]
Now, if the interaction in question is associated with a potential energy, as I showed in section 21.1 , \(F_{12} = −dU/dx_{12}\). Assume the displacement \(\Delta x_{12}\) is so small that we can replace the derivative by just the ratio \(\Delta U/ \Delta x_{12}\) (which is consistent with our assumption that the force is approximately constant over the time interval considered); the result will then be
\[ W(1,2)=F_{12} \Delta x_{12} \simeq-\frac{\Delta U}{\Delta x_{12}} \Delta x_{12}=-\Delta U \label{eq:7.16} .\]
Adding up very many such “infinitesimal” displacements will lead to the same final result, where \(\Delta U\) will be the change in the potential energy over the whole process. This can also be proved using calculus, without any approximations:
\[ W(1,2)=\int_{x_{12, i}}^{x_{12, f}} F_{12} d x_{12}=-\int_{x_{12, i}}^{x_{12, f}} \frac{d U}{d x_{12}} d x_{12}=-\Delta U \label{eq:7.17} .\]
We can apply this to every pair of particles and every internal interaction, and then add up all the results. On one side, we will get the total work done on the system by all the internal forces; on the other side, we will get the negative of the change in the system’s total internal energy:
\[ W_{i n t, s y s}=-\Delta U_{s y s} \label{eq:7.18} .\]
In words, the work done by all the (conservative) internal forces is equal to the change in the system’s potential energy .
Let us now put Eqs. (\ref{eq:7.13}) and (\ref{eq:7.18}) together: the difference between the work done by all the forces and the work done by the internal forces is, of course, the work done by the external forces, but according to Eqs. (\ref{eq:7.13}) and (\ref{eq:7.18}), this is equal to
\[ W_{e x t, s y s}=W_{a l l, s y s}-W_{i n t, s y s}=\Delta K_{s y s}+\Delta U_{s y s} \label{eq:7.19} \]
which is the change in the total mechanical (kinetic plus potential) energy of the system. If we further assume that the system, in the absence of the external forces, is closed, then there are no other processes (such as the absorption of heat) by which the total energy of the system might change, and we get the simple result that the work done by the external forces equals the change in the system’s total energy :
As a first application of the result (\ref{eq:7.20}), Imagine you throw a ball of mass \(m\) upwards (see Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)), and it reaches a maximum height \(h\) above the point where your hand started to move. Let us define the system to be the ball and the earth, so the force exerted by your hand is an external force. Then you do work on the system during the throw, which in the figure is the interval, from A to B, during which your hand is on contact with the ball. The bar diagram on the side shows that some of this work goes into increasing the system’s (gravitational) potential energy (because the ball goes up a little while in contact with your hand), and the rest, which is typically most of it, goes into increasing the system’s kinetic energy (in this case, just the ball’s; the earth’s kinetic energy does not change in any measurable way!).
So how much work did you actually do? If we knew the distance from A to B, and the magnitude of the force you exerted, and if we could assume that your force was constant throughout, we could calculate \(W\) from the definition ( 10.2.5 ). But in this case, and many others like it, it is actually easier to find out how much total energy the system gained and just use Equation (\ref{eq:7.20}). To find \(\Delta E\) in practice, all we have to do is see how high the ball rises. At the ball’s maximum height (point C), as the second diagram shows, all the energy in the system is gravitational potential energy, and (as long as the system stays closed), all that energy is still equal to the work you did initially, so if the distance from A to C is \(h\) you must have done an amount of work
\[ W_{y o u}=\Delta U^{G}=m g h \label{eq:7.22} .\]
The third diagram in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows the work-energy balance for another time interval, during which the ball falls from C to B. Over this time, no external forces act on the ball (recall we have taken the system to be the ball and the earth, so gravity is an internal force). Then, the work done by the external forces is zero, and the change in the total energy of the system is also zero. The diagram just shows an increase in kinetic energy at the expense of an equal decrease in potential energy.
What about the work done by the internal forces? Equation (\ref{eq:7.18}) tells us that this work is equal to the negative of the change in potential energy. In this case, the internal force is gravity, and the corresponding energy is gravitational potential energy. This change in potential energy is clearly visible in all the diagrams; however, when you add to it the change in kinetic energy, the result is always equal to the work done by the external force only . Put otherwise, the internal forces do not change the system’s total energy, they just “redistribute” it among different kinds—as in, for instance, the last diagram in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), where you can clearly see that gravity is causing the kinetic energy of the system to increase at the expense of the potential energy.
We will use diagrams like the ones in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) to look at the work-energy balance for different systems. The idea is that the sum of all the columns on the left (the change in the system’s total energy) has to equal the result on the far-right column (the work done by the net external force): that is the content of the theorem (\ref{eq:7.20}). Note that, unlike the energy diagrams we used in Chapter 5, these columns represent changes in the energy, so they could be positive or negative.
Just as for the earlier energy diagrams, the picture we get will be different, even for the same physical situation, depending on the choice of system. This is illustrated in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) below, where I have taken the same throw shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), but now the system I’m looking at is the ball only. This means gravity is now an external force, as is the force of the hand, and the ball only has kinetic energy. Normally one would show the sum of the work done by the two external forces on a single column, but here I have chosen to break it up into two columns for clarity.
As you can see, during the throw the hand does positive work, whereas gravity does a comparatively small amount of negative work, and the change in kinetic energy is the sum of the two. For the longer interval from A to C (second diagram), gravity continues to do negative work until all the kinetic energy of the ball is gone. For the interval from C to B, the only external force is gravity, which now does positive work, equal to the increase in the ball’s kinetic energy.
Of course, the numerical value of the actual work done by any particular force does not depend on our choice of system: in each case, gravity does the same amount of work in the processes illustrated in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) as in those illustrated in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\). The difference, however, is that for the system in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\), gravity is an external force, and now the work it does actually changes the system’s total energy, because the gravitational potential energy is now not included in that total.
Formally, it works like this: in the case shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), where the system is the ball and the earth, we have \(\Delta K + \Delta U^G = W_{hand}\). By the result (\ref{eq:7.18}), however, we have \(\Delta U^G = −W_{grav}\), and so this equation can be rearranged to read \(\Delta K = W_{grav} + W_{hand}\), which is just the result (\ref{eq:7.20}) when the system is the ball alone.
Ultimately, the reason we emphasize the importance of the choice of system is to prevent double counting: if you want to count the work done by gravity as contributing to the change in the system’s total energy, it means that you are, implicitly, treating gravity as an external force, and therefore your system must be something that does not have, by itself, gravitational potential energy (the case of the ball in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)); conversely, if you insist on counting gravitational potential energy as contributing to the system’s total energy, then you must treat gravity as an internal force, and leave it out of the calculation of the work done on the system by the external forces, which are the only ones that can change the system’s total energy.
The General Case- Systems With Dissipation
We are now ready to consider what happens when some of the internal interactions in a system are not conservative. There are two key observations to keep in mind: first, of course, that energy will always be conserved in a closed system, regardless of whether the internal forces are “conservative” or not: if they are not, it merely means that they will convert some of the “organized,” mechanical energy, into disorganized (primarily thermal) energy.
The second observation is that the work done by an external force on a system does not depend on where the force comes from—that is to say, what physical arrangement we use to produce the force. Only the value of the force at each step and the displacement of the point of application are involved in the definition ( 10.2.5 ). This means, in particular, that we can use a conservative interaction to do the work for us. It turns out, then, that the generalization of the result (\ref{eq:7.20}) to apply to all sorts of interactions becomes straightforward.
To see the idea, consider, for example, the situation in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\) below. Here I have broken it up into two systems. System A, outlined in blue, consists of block 1 and the surface on which it slides, and includes a dissipative interaction—namely, kinetic friction—between the block and the surface. The force doing work on this system is the tension force from the rope, \(\vec F^t_{r,1}\).
Because the rope is assumed to have negligible mass, this force is the same in magnitude as the force \(\vec F^t_{r,2}\) that is doing negative work on system B. System B, outlined in magenta, consists of block 2 and the earth and thus it includes only one internal interaction, namely gravity, which is conservative. This means that we can immediately apply the theorem (\ref{eq:7.20}) to it, and conclude that the work done on B by \(\vec F^t_{r,2}\) is equal to the change in system B’s total energy:
\[ W_{r, B}=\Delta E_{B} \label{eq:7.23} .\]
However, since the rope is inextensible, the two blocks move the same distance in the same time, and the force exerted on each by the rope is the same in magnitude, so the work done by the rope on system A is equal in magnitude but opposite in sign to the work it does on system B:
\[ W_{r, A}=-W_{r, B}=-\Delta E_{B} \label{eq:7.24} .\]
Now consider the total system formed by A+B. Assuming it is a closed system, its total energy must be constant, and so any change in the total energy of B must be equal and opposite the corresponding change in the total energy of A: \(\Delta E_B = −\Delta E_A\). Therefore,
\[ W_{r, A}=-\Delta E_{B}=\Delta E_{A} \label{eq:7.25} .\]
So we conclude that the work done by the external force on system A must be equal to the total change in system A’s energy. In other words, Equation (\ref{eq:7.20}) applies to system A as well, as it does to system B, even though the interaction between the parts that make up system A is dissipative.
Although I have shown this to be true just for one specific example, the argument is quite general: if I use a conservative system B to do some work on another system A, two things happen: first, by virtue of (\ref{eq:7.20}), the work done by B comes at the expense of its total energy, so \(W_{ext,A} = −\Delta E_B\). Second, if A and B together form a closed system, the change in A’s energy must be equal and opposite the change in B’s energy, so \(\Delta E_A = −\Delta E_B = W_{ext,A}\). So the result (\ref{eq:7.20}) holds for A, regardless of whether its internal interactions are conservative or not.
What is essential in the above reasoning is that A and B together should form a closed system, that is, one that does not exchange energy with its environment. It is very important, therefore, if we want to apply the theorem (\ref{eq:7.20}) to a general system—that is, one that includes dissipative interactions—that we draw the boundary of the system in such a way as to ensure that no dissipation is happening at the boundary . For example, in the situation illustrated in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\), if we want the result (\ref{eq:7.25}) to apply we must take system A to include both block 1 and the surface on which it slides . The reason for this is that the energy “dissipated” by kinetic friction when two objects rub together goes into both objects. So, as the block slides, kinetic friction is converting some of its kinetic energy into thermal energy, but not all this thermal energy stays inside block 1. Put otherwise, in the presence of friction, block 1 by itself is not a closed system: it is “leaking” energy to the surface. On the other hand, when you include (enough of) the surface in the system, you can be sure to have “caught” all the dissipated energy, and the result (\ref{eq:7.20}) applies.
Energy Dissipated by Kinetic Friction
In the situation illustrated in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\), we might calculate the energy dissipated by kinetic friction by indirect means. For instance, we can use the fact that the energy of system A is of two kinds, kinetic and “dissipated,” and therefore, by theorem (\ref{eq:7.20}), we have
\[\Delta K+\Delta E_{d i s s}=F_{r, 1}^{t} \Delta x_{1} \label{eq:7.26} .\]
Back in section 6.3 , we used Newton’s laws to solve for the acceleration of this system and the tension in the rope; using those results, we can calculate the displacement \(\Delta x_1\) over any time interval, and the corresponding change in \(K\), and then we can solve Equation (\ref{eq:7.26}) for \(\Delta E_{diss}\).
If we do this, we will find out that, in fact, the following result holds,
\[ \Delta E_{d i s s}=-F_{s, 1}^{k} \Delta x_{1} \label{eq:7.27} \]
where \(F^k_{s,1}\) is the force of kinetic friction exerted by the surface on block 1, and must be understood to be negative in this equation (so that \(\Delta E_{diss}\) will come out positive, as it must be).
It is tempting to think of the product \(F^k_{s,1}\Delta x\) as the work done by the force of kinetic friction on the block, and most of the time there is nothing wrong with that, but it is important to realize that the “point of application” of the friction force is not a single point: rather, the force is “distributed,” that is to say, spread over the whole contact area between the block and the surface. As a consequence of this, a more general expression for the energy dissipated by kinetic friction between an object \(o\) and a surface \(s\) should be
\[ \Delta E_{\text {diss}}=\left|F_{s, o}^{k} \| \Delta x_{s o}\right| \label{eq:7.28} \]
where we are using the subscript notation \(x_{AB}\) to refer to “the position of B in the frame of A” (or “relative to A”); in other words, \(\Delta x_{so}\) is the change in the position of the object relative to the surface or, more simply, the distance that the object and the surface slip past each other (while rubbing against each other, and hence dissipating energy). If the surfaces is at rest (relative to the Earth), \(\Delta x_{so}\) reduces to \(\Delta x_{Eo}\), the displacement of the object in the Earth reference frame, and we can remove the subscript \(E\), as we typically do, for simplicity; however, in the rare cases when both the surface and the objet are moving what matters is how far they move relative to each other . In that case we have \( \left|\Delta x_{s o}\right|=\left|\Delta x_{o}-\Delta x_{s}\right| \) (with both \(\Delta x_o\) and \(\Delta x_s\) measured in the Earth reference frame).


1.10: Conclusion
Throughout this chapter we have examined the complexities of gender, sex, and sexuality. Differentiating between sex, gender, and sexual orientation is an important first step to a deeper understanding and critical analysis of these issues. Understanding the sociology of sex, gender, and sexuality will help to build awareness of the inequalities experienced by subordinate groups such as people gendered female, homosexuals, and transgendered individuals.
The history of sexuality is fraught with the cultural biases of the times. Looking at this contextually helps set a foundation as one examines the academic study of sexuality. With this in mind, critical evaluation will take place of how the study operates in the present day. Looking cross-culturally also helps place social norms and values center in the social construction of sex.  Norms regarding gender and sexuality vary across cultures. In general, the United States tends to be fairly conservative in its sexual attitudes. As a result, most in the LGBTQIA+ community continue to face opposition and discrimination in most major social institutions, despite a whole host of new laws enacted in the 21st century.


9.2: Presentation and Required Reading
Presentation
[embeddoc url=” http://textbooks.whatcom.edu/phil101...on-Final2.pptx ” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Required Reading
Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness (PPD-8). March 30, 2011. Download from https://www.dhs.gov/presidential-policy-directive-8-national-preparedness .
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). National Response Framework . Third Edition. June 2016. Download from https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/117791 .
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). National Incident Management System . Download from https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1467113975990-09cb03e2669b06b91a9a25cc5f97bc46/NE_DRAFT_NIMS_20160407.pdf . A copy of the document is also provided below.
[embeddoc url=” http://textbooks.whatcom.edu/phil101...S_20160407.pdf ” download=”all”]


10.2A: Interphase
- Describe the events that occur during Interphase
Interphase
During interphase, the cell undergoes normal growth processes while also preparing for cell division. In order for a cell to move from interphase into the mitotic phase, many internal and external conditions must be met. The three stages of interphase are called G 1 , S, and G 2 .
G 1 Phase (First Gap)
The first stage of interphase is called the G 1 phase (first gap) because, from a microscopic aspect, little change is visible. However, during the G 1 stage, the cell is quite active at the biochemical level. The cell grows and accumulates the building blocks of chromosomal DNA and the associated proteins as well as sufficient energy reserves to complete the task of replicating each chromosome in the nucleus.
S Phase (Synthesis of DNA)
The synthesis phase of interphase takes the longest because of the complexity of the genetic material being duplicated. Throughout interphase, nuclear DNA remains in a semi-condensed chromatin configuration. In the S phase, DNA replication results in the formation of identical pairs of DNA molecules, sister chromatids, that are firmly attached to the centromeric region. The centrosome is duplicated during the S phase. The two centrosomes will give rise to the mitotic spindle, the apparatus that orchestrates the movement of chromosomes during mitosis. At the center of each animal cell, the centrosomes of animal cells are associated with a pair of rod-like objects, the centrioles, which are at right angles to each other. Centrioles help organize cell division. Centrioles are not present in the centrosomes of other eukaryotic species, such as plants and most fungi.
G 2 Phase (Second Gap)
In the G 2 phase, the cell replenishes its energy stores and synthesizes proteins necessary for chromosome manipulation. Some cell organelles are duplicated, and the cytoskeleton is dismantled to provide resources for the mitotic phase. There may be additional cell growth during G 2 . The final preparations for the mitotic phase must be completed before the cell is able to enter the first stage of mitosis.
Key Points
- There are three stages of interphase: G 1 (first gap), S (synthesis of new DNA ), and G 2 (second gap).
- Cells spend most of their lives in interphase, specifically in the S phase where genetic material must be copied.
- The cell grows and carries out biochemical functions, such as protein synthesis, in the G 1 phase.
- During the S phase, DNA is duplicated into two sister chromatids, and centrosomes, which give rise to the mitotic spindle, are also replicated.
- In the G 2 phase, energy is replenished, new proteins are synthesized, the cytoskeleton is dismantled, and additional growth occurs.
Key Terms
- interphase : the stage in the life cycle of a cell where the cell grows and DNA is replicated
- sister chromatid : either of the two identical strands of a chromosome (DNA material) that separate during mitosis
- mitotic spindle : the apparatus that orchestrates the movement of chromosomes during mitosis