Dance Movement Therapy Expository Essay Essays

Dance Movement Therapy Expository Essay Essays Dance Movement Therapy Expository Essay Essay Dance Movement Therapy Expository Essay Essay 2012). Talking about emotions can be a daunting task for an individual with depression; it may be easier to express these emotions through dance and movement. Studies have shown that participating in DMS can affect the reduction of serotonin and dopamine, two chemicals that support emotional well-being (Young-Jag et al. , 2005). This is significant because those with depression frequently rely on medications to modulate the production of these brain chemicals. If serotonin and dopamine can be controlled using DMS, there will be a lesser need for reliance on antidepressant medication. DMS is useful both to encourage participants to explore their feelings, and to promote the response of neurotransmitters that affect mood. Adolescents with depression have to deal with the great fluctuation in hormones that company puberty, and the debilitating symptoms of depression. A study by Young-Jag et al. Examined adolescent girls, with a median age of 16, who showed mild to moderate signs of depression (2005). The group was asked to attend 45-minute DMS sessions, three times a week, for 12 weeks. The sessions addressed themes of body awareness in the room and group, expression of movement and symbolic quality of movement, feelings, images and differentiation and integration of feelings (Young-Jag et al. 2005). Participants were encouraged to be aware of their space and their relationship to themselves and others. They were asked to create movement that symbolically explained the feelings that they were having inside. At the end of the 12 weeks, the group experienced significant improvements in a number of areas, including depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychotic (Young-Jag et al. , 2005). Teenagers and adolescents can be difficult to treat for depression because they do not wish to be seen as different from their peers. They may be more willing to participate in a fun therapeutic activity, such as dance, than participate in traditional talk-based therapy. In fact, the study by Young-Jag et al. Found that there was a high level of adherence to the DMS program by the participants (2005). Those who tried it stayed with it, and reaped the benefits of an improvement in their depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms can also be improved through DMS in seniors. According to a study of seniors in nursing homes by Vandal et al. Participation in DMS can significantly improve scores on the Geriatric Depressive Scale (GAS) (2014). Intervention Exercise Dance for Seniors sessions were implemented for one hour, once a week, for three months. At the end of the three months, those who articulated showed significant improvements in mood according to the GAS, whereas those who did not participate showed a trend of further worsening symptoms (Vandal et al. , 2014). Depressive symptoms, including feelings of loss, guil t, and loneliness, are prevalent in seniors in nursing homes. By participating in DMS, seniors are able to interact with others, express emotions, and get physical activity in an enjoyable way. Those who participated in the intervention also reported more discontinuations and fewer antidepressant prescriptions than those in the control group (Vandal et al. , 2014). Treating depression by using DMS may save money on antidepressant costs as well as reduce the side effects associated with these medications. The study concluded that DMS is both suitable and beneficial to seniors in a nursing home setting. Dance is no longer just an activity one goes to watch at the theatre; it has become an alternative therapeutic treatment for a variety of mental illnesses. Dance and Movement Therapy encompasses biological, psychological, and sociological aspects and is beneficial across the lifespan. Biologically, DMS can alter the levels of serotonin and dopamine, improving mood from within. Psychologically, DMS allows individuals with depression to express themselves in a different manner than talk-based therapy. Sociologically, DMS encourages people with mental illness to get together, explore mutual experiences, and create something meaningful based on these experiences. These factors remain constant throughout the lifespan; studies have shown that DMS is a useful therapy regardless of whether the individual is sixteen or sixty. As time goes on, the need for alternatives therapies for depression will continue, and Dance and Movement Therapy will continue to rise in popularity. References Canadian Mental Health Association. (2014). Fast facts about mental illness.

Creating Two Dimensional Arrays in Ruby

Creating Two Dimensional Arrays in Ruby The following article is part of a series.  For more articles in this series, see  Cloning the Game 2048 in Ruby.  For the complete and final code,  see the gist. Now that we know how the algorithm will work, its time to think about the data this algorithm will work on. There are two main choices here: a flat array of some kind, or a two-dimensional array. Each has their advantages, but before we make a decision, we need to take something into account. DRY Puzzles A common technique in working with grid-based puzzles where you have to look for patterns like this is to write one version of the algorithm that works on the puzzle from left to right and then rotate the entire puzzle around four times. This way, the algorithm only has to be written once and it only has to work from left to right. This dramatically reduces the complexity and size of the hardest part of this project. Since well be working on the puzzle from left to right, it makes sense to have the rows represented by arrays. When making a two dimensional array in Ruby (or, more accurately, how you want it to be addressed and what the data actually means), you have to decide whether you want a stack of rows (where each row of the grid is represented by an array) or a stack of columns (where each column is an array). Since were working with rows, well choose rows. How this 2D array is rotated, well get to after we actually construct such an array. Constructing Two Dimensional Arrays The Array.new method can take an argument defining the size of the array that you want. For example, Array.new(5) will create an array of 5 nil objects. The second argument gives you a default value, so Array.new(5, 0) will give you the array [0,0,0,0,0]. So how do you create a two dimensional array? The wrong way, and the way I see people trying often is to say Array.new( 4, Array.new(4, 0) ). In other words, an array of 4 rows, each row being an array of 4 zeroes. And this appears to work at first. However, run the following code: It looks simple. Make a 4x4 array of zeroes, set the top-left element to 1. But print it and we get†¦ It set the entire first column to 1, what gives? When we made the arrays, the inner-most call to Array.new gets called first, making a single row. A single reference to this row is then duplicated 4 times to fill the outer-most array. Each row is then referencing the same array. Change one, change them all. Instead, we need to use the third way of creating an array in Ruby. Instead of passing a value to the Array.new method, we pass a block. The block is executed every time the Array.new method needs a new value. So if you were to say Array.new(5) { gets.chomp }, Ruby will stop and ask for input 5 times. So all we need to do is just create a new array inside this block. So we end up with Array.new(4) { Array.new(4,0) }. Now lets try that test case again. And it does just as youd expect. So even though Ruby doesnt have support for two-dimensional arrays, we can still do what we need. Just remember that the top-level array holds references to the sub-arrays, and each sub-array should refer to a different array of values. What this array represents is up to you. In our case, this array is laid out as rows. The first index is the row were indexing, from top to bottom. To index the top row of the puzzle, we use a[0], to index the next row down we use a[1]. To index a specific tile in the second row, we use a[1][n]. However, if we had decided on columns†¦ it would be the same thing. Ruby doesnt have any idea what were doing with this data, and since it doesnt technically support two-dimensional arrays, what were doing here is a hack. Access it only by convention and everything will hold together. Forget what the data underneath is supposed to be doing and everything can fall apart real fast.