response 2
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ENGL203Fall2020
Short Response Assignment Page 1 of 4
ENG 203: Short Response 2 (10 points)
1. Read the article on the next pages (3 4).
2. Then write a short response paper.
a. Your short response paper should be between 300 and 400 words. If you are an
honors student, you must write 450- 500 words.
b. It has to include your response/reaction to two key points from the original article.
c. It has to have (a) an introduction, and (b) two body paragraphs. The conclusion is
optional.
d. The response should be justified with specific examples and logical analysis.
e. The paper should be typed, double-spaced, left-justified, in 12 pt. Times New
Roman font, with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins. Paragraphs should be indented.
f. You have to type your name, QU ID, course-section, teachers name, and due date
in the upper left corner of your paper:
Mohammad Yousef
200712345
ENG 203 (Section 101)
Peter Murphy
September 22, 2020
g. Your paper is due by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, September 22 for TRU sections and
Wednesday, September 23 for M/W sections.
h. You have to submit your paper to SafeAssign. Plagiarism is a serious academic
offense and would result in F for the assignment or the course.
i. If the SafeAssign score is 15% or higher, your teacher will check and determine
whether the high score is due to actual plagiarism or due to other reasons such as
writing the title of the article.
ENGL203Fall2020
This article was adapted from its original version.
Short Response 2 Assignment Page 1 of 4
HOW TO SUBMIT ON BLACK BOARD:
ENGL203Fall2020
This article was adapted from its original version.
Short Response 2 Assignment Page 1 of 4
Urban Living
Andrea Mechelli 2020
By 2050, it is estimated that 68% of the global population will live in urban areas.
Among the worlds megacities, which is defined as urban areas with more than 10 million
people, Tokyo, Japan is the largest, with 37 million citizens, followed by Delhi, India (29
million), and Shanghai, China (26 million).
The harmful effects of urban living on physical health have long been recognized,
including higher rates of cardiovascular and respiratory disease. More recent, however, is the
idea that urban living negatively affects mental health. For instance, the risk of developing
depression and anxiety are over 20 percent higher for residents of cities, and for psychosis, it
is 77 percent higher. Given these statistics, it is easy to assume that living in cities is bad for
peoples mental health, yet this view is not so straightforward. Instead, urban living should be
viewed as a complex phenomenon, in which there are a variety of factors that could affect a
persons mental health.
There is evidence that supports the idea that living in cities contributes to the
development of mental illness. Specifically, the longer a person spends in an urban
environment during childhood and adolescence, the higher their risk of developing mental
illness in adulthood. This relationship between urban living and mental illness was found in a
2011 study conducted by the brain sciences. In this study, researchers gave participants a
stressful activity to complete and measured the amount of activity in different parts of the
brain. For those participants who had lived in a city during childhood, there was a greater
level of activity in certain parts of the brain related to stress and emotion. This suggests that
from a young age when children live in cities, their brains create more stress for them as
adults, which could contribute to the development of mental illness later in life.
Other factors within urban areas that increase the risk of mental health problems
include those potential problems with built environments. Some of these include
reduced access to green spaces and high levels of noise and air pollution. It is important to
recognize that these factors within the built environment are neither intrinsic nor inevitable
parts of urban living. Often these problems are the result of poor planning, design, and
management, and under the right leadership, they could be reversed. In fact, many cities
around the globe have made accessibility to parks and other green spaces a priority.
A similar phenomenon occurs when one examines factors related to the social
environment, such as loneliness, perceived and actual crime, and social inequalities. Various
studies have connected these factors to an increase in mental health problems for people who
live in cities. In particular, loneliness has been studied extensively as urban residents often
report feeling more isolated than rural residents. A survey conducted by the Pew Research
Centre in the United States showed that 24 percent of city dwellers reported knowing all or
most of their neighbors while for people in rural areas the corresponding number was over 40
percent.
ENGL203Fall2020
This article was adapted from its original version.
Short Response 2 Assignment Page 1 of 4
Some people believe that a sense of community is lacking in urban life, which may be
a contributing factor in the development of mental illness. Humans have a fundamental
longing for social connection. That is the reason why older adults, post-retirement or after
their children leave home, typically, struggle with loneliness, noted one researcher.
Given these environmental and social factors, it makes sense to assume that when
present, it could result in the development of mental illness. But, is it possible for someone to
live in an urban area and not be exposed to these problems? If this is the case, could urban
living be good for mental health? This is why living in cities is a complex and difficult to
define phenomenon. It is challenging to compare the situations of urban residents who live in
different environments, have access to different opportunities, and may or may not live near
friends and family. Consistent with this notion, the incidence of depression within urban
areas is lower when people have access to high-quality housing and green spaces.
Moreover, it is known that all health, and mental health in particular, depends on both
nature and nurture. This means that a persons genes and their environment affects what types
of health problems they suffer from in life. For example, emerging evidence from
epigenetics, which examines how the environment affects the expression of genes, suggests
that the impact of urban living depends on our preexisting genetic makeup.
In addition, for many people, urban living can be positive for mental health through
increased opportunities for education, employment, socialization, and access to specialized
care. These factors can make moving to a city the first step towards the realization of ones
full potential, and a necessary condition to gain access to communities with similar interests
and values.
Ultimately, cities offer a variety of obstacles and opportunities, which can challenge
as well as nurture residents, often at the same time.
