Child Observation Report

Such studies are inducted by scientists or researchers wanting to study the behavior of an organism (including humans) in a natural setting. It can be useful in collecting data that clearly reflects the constraints of an organism's normal environment and in the case where experimental techniques would be impractical or unethical. This report outlines the data collected during the sessions with each child. Will refer to Piglet's Cognitive Development Theory to demonstrate how it is useful in determining different stages of development. I will also outline my observations of both children in terms of where they fit in regards to Piglet'sCognitive Development Theory. Setting My observations were of two siblings; a four year old girl and a five year old boy. I made arrangements to do the observation through a friend of mine, who has two children under the age of six. I have known this family for three years. The first observation was of the four year old girl (M), which took place on Aug ust 19, 2014 starting at 2:23 pm outside in the backyard of their home. Present was her older brother (T – 5 years old), her mother (J), a female friend of the family (C), a medium sized German shepherd, who is the family dog (K) and myself.The backyard was quite large with a large play center with a swing set attached. The sky was a little clouded over, but it was still warm outside. The adults were sitting on the deck around the patio table. The children were told was there to do some work. They did not really pay too much attention to me. I interacted a little with the adults at the table so that I did not seem out of place to the children. My presence did not seem to affect the children at all. Sat with my chair facing the whole backyard so that I could see the children at all times.The second observation was of the five ear old boy I made arrangements with the mother to do the second observation with this child later the same week. The observation took place on August 22 , 2014 at 1:08 pm outside in the backyard of their home. This family is preparing to move in one week; therefore the backyard Was the best place to do the observation at the home. Present was his younger sister (M- 4 years old), his mother 0), a medium sized German shepherd, who is the family dog (K) and myself. The backyard was quite large with a large play center with a swing set attached.The sky was a little clouded over, but it was till warm outside. The mother and I were sitting on the deck around the patio table. The children were told I was there again to do some work. They again did not really pay too much attention to me. I interacted a little with their mother at the table so that did not seem out of place to the children. My presence did not seem to affect the children at all. Sat with my chair facing the whole backyard so that could see the children at all times. Results l. Self-concept: M pointed out that she did her hair all by herself when C arrived and M also showed C her new purse.M also shows the ability to scribe how she is feeling about her brother s actions, â€Å"l don ‘t like it when T hits me with his sword† or when she tells T, â€Å"I want to be alone right now†. . Gross Motor Skills: M demonstrated gross motor skills indicative off normal 4 year old. During the time of observation she displayed running around the backyard both with her brother and with the family dog, walking over to the play center, climbing over the chair on the deck, somersaults in the grass and jumping off the chair and off the family friend's lap. Ill. Fine Motor Skills: M demonstrated normal fine motor skills.She cut open her fruit knack package with scissors without difficulty. She put on her own shoes (fastened believer) on the correct feet before going outside to play. IV. Vocal & Language Development: M demonstrated the ability to form sentences more than 4 to 6 words. For example; â€Å"l told you I want to be alone†. She showed the ability to ask ‘Why ‘ questions. She shows an understanding of prepositions when her mother told her that her purse was behind her. She does, however have some grammatical difficulties and people other than her family do have difficulty deciphering what she is saying at times.According to ere mother she has been seen by a Speech & Language Pathologist and will be working with them on her speech. V. Social & Emotional Development: M showed a lot of interest in playing with her brother; however was also fine playing with the family dog as well. She appeared to really enjoy the imaginative play with her brother while playing the sword fight; however did upset easily if the game was not going her way and did change the rules quite a bit to her brother's dismay. She was quite distracted by the family dog and tended to her a lot.She displayed some difficulty with moral reasoning on he swing set when she was calling her brother a â€Å"party pants† repeatedly until h e got upset. When her brother kept getting in trouble instead of her she did not seem to be aware of his feelings when he was upset, instead she kept antagonizing him. VI. Cognitive Development: M understands the concept of grouping and matching as displayed when she was helping her mother with the puzzle and when taking items out of her purse. She also showed the ability to count from 1 to 10 when she was taking the items out of her purse.She showed the ability to identify secondary colors when showing the family friend her new â€Å"pink† purse. She was able to answer simple questions. She was also able to identify common objects and what they are used for; for example the family dogs ball, scissors, hat. Results (Child T) l. Gross Motor Skills: T demonstrated gross motor skills indicative of a normal 5 year old. During the time of observation he displayed running around the backyard, skipping, jumping, walking on just his hands, doing handstands, and hanging on the bars up side down on the play centre.II. Fine Motor Skills: T demonstrated normal fine motor skills. He put on his own shoes (fastened by velour) on the correct feet before going outside to play. He was able to use scissors to open his sour patch kids, which was his snack that afternoon. Ill. Vocal & Language Development: T demonstrated the ability to form sentences more than 4 to 6 words. For example; â€Å"I'm goanna throw it really high†, â€Å"There is a wasp in your ear, Can I have friends over later†? He demonstrated the ability to ask â€Å"why† questions. He does not have any speech or grammatical difficulties.He appears to have met all of his developmental milestones for his age. VII. Social & Emotional Development: It is quite apparent that T really enjoys imaginative play and is able to accomplish this either with others or by himself. He did not partake in any imaginative play with his sister this time; however did do some imaginative play on his own pretend ing to be a gymnast who was displaying his talents for a crowd, as he bowed for people when he completed a stunt on the bars or completed a handstand. He also engaged in imaginative play with the family dog pretending she was his dragon.He also is able to talk quietly to himself while playing on his own, but does not seem to be talking to a third person or imaginary friend. VIII. Cognitive Development: T understands the concept of grouping and matching as displayed when he was putting all the same lord sour patch kids together and separating them. He also noted which ones had less in each group than the others. He let those for last. He demonstrated the ability to count from 1 to 10 and demonstrated the ability to identify primary colors. He was able to answer simple questions.He was also able to identify common objects and what they are used for; for example the family dogs ball and scissors. Discussion: Integration of behavior with theory According to Piglet's Cognitive Developmen t Theory (Beer, 201 0, p. 31 8), both children are in the operational stage (2-7), and they behave normally. They are classified as operational children, because the definition of the operational stage is as follows; ages between 2-7, preschool children use symbols to represent their early sentiments discoveries.The development of language and make-believe play takes place; however, thinking lacks the logic of the two remaining stages. T is a very active child. He has been in pre kindergarten over the last year and has been very socialized between school, extra-curricular activities, playground and playmates with friends. He is on a soccer team as well and enjoys this very much his mother says. T was quite active on the play centre this afternoon, especially on the hanging bars showing off his ability to hang upside down. He also displayed his ability to swing on the swings while standing on the swing instead of sitting on it.He is quite a daring child. He was engaging in make-belie ve play acting as though he was doing these stunts for an audience as after each stunt he would get up and bow to the imaginary audience. M was happily swinging on the swing set, petting her dog, doing somersaults in the grass and drawing in the mud with a stick. She has the ability to keep herself busy and is happy to do so. She also enjoyed make-believe play with her brother playing a sword fight. Make-believe play increases in sophistication during the pre-school years (Beer, 2010, p. 318).M used her stick as her â€Å"sword† during the sword fight and as her â€Å"magic wand† later on during the observation. This demonstrates her ability to coordinate her make-believe roles and pretend with less realistic toys (Beer, 2010, p. 318). M and T were both using the play center together happily. M fell off her swing and T went up and hit M for no reason and walked over to K, the family dog. T hugs K quite roughly and says â€Å"You're my mummy bear† and walks away. I have noted on both occasions during these observations that T displays a bit of aggression.According to Freud, play can have a cathartic effect, as children try to rid themselves of traumatic events or negative feelings through play. T asks his mother, â€Å"Mom, do you have to work today? His mother says â€Å"No, not today'. T asks â€Å"Why†? His mother answers, â€Å"Because have the day foot spend time with you and your sister†. T says, â€Å"Okay, I like that†. His language and understanding of language is well formed and has good sentence structure for his stage in development. His has no beech or grammatical issues. He asks â€Å"why† questions and understands the meaning to the answers to simple questions and answers.M told her brother â€Å"l want to be alone†. Her brother did not leave her alone. M turned to him and said, â€Å"l told you, want to be alone†! This demonstrates M's ability to verbalize her feelings and has a so lid awareness of what she is feeling and thinking and is able to share it with others readily. During the sword fight, M said â€Å"you be the sword, I will be the gun†. T did not like this role change and disagreed. M said, â€Å"No! I am the gun, you are the sword†. She continued to e a gun, which seemed to anger T and he started hitting M with his sword. M screamed and T got in trouble with his mother.M was able to assign roles; however was not able to negotiate well, which is usually indicated during the operational stage. On the play center, M was swinging on the swing and T was on the bar hanging upside down beside her. M calls T a â€Å"poppy pants†. T gets off the bar and hits her swing with his sword. M screams. T goes back to the bar. M calls T a â€Å"party pants†. T hits M's swing with the sword again. M screams again and calls out to her mom. Mom ignores this. M continues to all T a â€Å"party pants† repeatedly. T starts hitting M's s wing again, as M is screaming.This goes on for five minutes (timed). Mom finally tells T to stop and tells him that if he hits her swing one more time, his sword will be taken away. M proceeds to call T a â€Å"party pants† again. T hesitates to do anything and looks over at mom who is ignoring the situation. M continues to taunt T. Finally, T hits M's swing and M screams. It's sword is taken away. T asks mom why M is not in trouble for calling him a â€Å"party pants†. Mom does not respond and walks away. M calls T a â€Å"party pants† one last time and leaves the swing. She runs overt mom and gives her a hug and kiss and says â€Å"I love you mommy'.The mother used presentation of punishment to decrease It's undesirable behavior. The warning and punishment had a positive and negative response. The positive response was that the behavior was stopped. The negative response was that only one undesirable behavior was punished and stopped. When parents treat their children differently by directly varying amounts Of discipline to the two children, sibling relations are likely to be more conflicting and less friendly if children view these differences as unfair, which I believe T did by his reaction.I found this to be concerning, considering It's amount of aggression he displays in his make-believe play. M also showed a lack of moral reasoning and did not show that she was not aware of It's feelings. M takes her small Barbie's out her purse and other figurines and groups all the Barbie's together and all the figurines together, which displays the ability to draw appropriate inferences about these objects and shows normal categorization, as with the puzzle she was doing with her mother at the table.M and her brother pretend to hit the family dog with their swords and at times actually hit the dog. They also pretend to cut the dog up with their swords. These behaviors demonstrate animistic thinking believing that their inanimate object (sword) h as lifelike qualities and intentions. According to Pigged, because young children egocentrically assign human purposes to physical events, magical thinking is common during the preschool years, (Beer, 2010, p. 321). Conclusion I enjoyed observing these children very much.I have watched them grow and change over the last three years. I find M very animated and interesting to observe and find T very in touch with his emotions and struggles with them at times. He is very athletic and determined. The reason I chose the children's home environment is because I felt their own surroundings would be a good way to see what their normal daily routines would be and to see how they interact with family members. I found the backyard a bit limiting and would not choose this setting again.Even though I did not find it was a great setting, did manage to collect some good data. As a mother and grandmother, I did find it hard sometimes during these observations not to jump in and say something to the mother when she was ignoring certain behaviors or when her children clearly just needed some attention. So it was hard at times not to interact with the children. However, I knew I had to control that urge as my role was to observe nothing more. I have learned how to observe and evaluate a child in the operational stage.I have learned what milestones to look for and where a child between the ages of 2 to 7 should be developmentally. It gave me a better understanding to physically do the exercise rather than just reading a textbook I see the value in observing two different children, as not all children are alike in development and behavior. Ideally, a different setting for each hill would have been preferred; however this family is moving in a week and their home is full of moving boxes, so I settled for the backyard with both children.

Chapter 2 Related Studies and Literature

Chapter 2 Review of Local and Foreign Studies and Literature Local Studies According to the study of Anna Marie Beltran Distor of Proposed Sales Monitoring System issued 1995, the accelerated work structure of the company proper monitoring is essential in order to keep track of the company’s sales activities. Her system aims to come up with an efficient, and accurate mechanized system of preparing invoices that will keep track of the daily transaction and generate reports.Important information will be provided by this study in order to prove that the computerization of the company’s operation and achieve a more reliable and efficient means of monitoring day to day activities. Her system focuses on the analysis and design of the sales monitoring system which will monitor the stacks inventory of the sales departments. This system of hers is somewhat related to our study but our system focuses more on the inventory monitoring system of a trading company. Local Literature P opular author of Accounting, Waldo T.Passion (1990) in his book stated that, to improve their efficiency and reduce their cost of operation. Reports are more timely and accurate. Computers have large capacity to store data and tremendous speed to manipulate and recall data to the format a user wishes to use which the introduction of microcomputer computation of business is more affordable. Foreign Study According to the study of Edwin Bello and his fellow researchers of Computerized Monitoring and Inventory of Stock with Warning Level dated March 2005, many firms have thousands of items of inventory which require some form of control.The usage calculations and record keeping chores would soon become overwhelming were it not for the computer and its unique information storage and retrieval capabilities. Iventory management is a process of developing and maintaining products that are in demand by customers efficient inventory management, an important aspect of physical distributor, ca n help a firm achieve its profit goals. For instance, Hanes Hosiery Inc. evelop a computerized inventory management system to drastically reduce the time needed to restock a store carrying Hanes product, orders that once took seven days to reach a store now arrive in one. Good inventory management balances the cost of holding a large inventory with the cost of losing sales because of shortages, or stock outs, of certain products. One inventory management technique used to achieve this balance I just-in-time(JIT) inventory, popularized in Japan.Companies using JIT maintain smaller inventories by ordering more often and in smaller quantities, just in time for production. Fire place manufactures, which makes metal fireplace in Santa Ana, California, trimmed its inventory from $1. 1 million to $75,000 using JIT. In the meantime, sales doubled because the firm was able to be respond to customers’ orders much faster. The study is somewhat similar to our systembut we are focusing on inventory monitoring rather than inventory management of a system. Foreign Literature Kendal and Kendal (1999) p. 85 in his book said, â€Å"The computer was adapted initially to take over the routine work and force personnel for more creative task(in addition to holding certain highly routine task for more rapidly done manuals)†. Ralph M. Stair(1984) p. 57 of his book â€Å"Priciple of Data Processing† said, â€Å"The purpose of a management information system is to get the right information to the right people at the right time. The success of any organization depends on good decision-making and good decision-making depends on good information.

Prevention is better than cure Essay

Out of a country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to spending on health education and preventative measures. The rising costs of health care have become an issue for many countries in the world. To deal with this problem, it is recommended that a big part of the state health budget be used for health education and disease prevention instead of treatment. First of all, many kinds of diseases are preventable and preventing a disease is usually much cheaper than treating it. For example, people could prevent catching a cold if they dress warmly and get good rest when the weather first gets cold in the winter. But many people get sick because they fail to do so and have to spend much more money seeing a doctor. Another case in point is cancer, the leading cause of death in the world. But lung cancer, liver cancer and many other kinds of cancer could all be effectively prevented if people take measures for their health in an early stage. Small t hings such as smoking less or eating more healthy food would have kept millions of families from becoming bankrupt if the patients took measures for early cancer prevention. In addition, health education also plays a key role in improving people’s health. By giving people more information about health, countries could help people understand the importance of disease prevention and ways to achieve it. However, emphasizing on disease prevention is not downplaying the significance of medical treatment. After all, prevention and treatment are just two different means toward the same goal.

Capital Structure of Public Limited Companies Dissertation

Capital Structure of Public Limited Companies - Dissertation Example Table of Content Chapter 1: Introduction 5 Motivation 5 Aims and Objectives 5 Significance of the study 6 Research Questions 7 Research method and data 8 Research Structure 8 Chapter 2: Literature review 9 Global Financial Market 9 History 9 Evaluation of UK capital market 12 Causes of current financial crisis 13 Capital market 15 Source of finance 15 Current capital structure of FTSE 100 companies 16 Advantages and disadvantages of high leverage 19 Theories of capital market structure 20 Chapter 3: Methodology and data analysis 26 36 Chapter 4: Research Findings 36 Impact of Capital Structure on Agency Costs 36 Impact of recent global financial crisis on the capital structure of UK companies 37 Chapter 5: Conclusion 39 Reference 42 Bibliography 47 Financial times. European debt crisis shakes markets again. May 23, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.kyivpost.com/content/business/european-debt-crisis-shakes-markets-again-105100.html 48 Chapter 1: Introduction Motivation Capital structur e of firms is developed based on many internal and external factors which have substantial influence on it. Financial Crisis or Liquidity Crisis in 2007 in global financial market has had a major impact on the firms’ financial status across the world. ... Financial crisis leads to dr4amatiacally decrease in stock price of the firms. So, equity structure of the firms also changed during this recession period. Capital structure is the major part of overall financial structure and policies of firms. Companies develop financial structure and policies based on major external financial condition of the market where they operate business. Though there is many empirical studies and research on capital structures but it hard to assess the impact of financial crisis on it. Therefore, it this study, capital structure theories and empirical studies are analysed to assess the extent of impact of financial crisis on capital structure and reason for the impact. Aims and Objectives The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the capital structure of firms in the UK before the global economic crisis in the years around 2007 and after the financial crisis in the years 2011 or 2012. In order to achieve the above mentioned aim of the study, the following objectives have been considered: Review theories on capital structure in order to determine how it might change during a period of prolonged recession and liquidity crisis. Compare and contrast the capital structure of public UK companies in 2007 and in 2011/2012.Evaluate the extent to which any changes in capital structure are due to the ongoing global crisis. Aim of this paper is a detailed evaluation of the capital structure of firms in United Kingdom. Capital structure of the firms in before financial crisis will be compared with current revised capital structures of the firms. For this purpose, reasons for financial crisis need to be analysed along with history of it to assess its impact in earlier. Theoretically aim of the paper is to

First-hand experience of developing a market entry and a product Assignment

First-hand experience of developing a market entry and a product launch strategy for an international market - Assignment Example Launching a new effective pharmaceutical drug will take much time due to a long process of clinical trials. Moreover, for any Mexican company it will be difficult to enter the competition with other Latin American and North American pharmaceutical companies on equal positions. So it is possible to concentrate on cosmeceuticals and nutraceuticals, the sectors of pharmaceuticals, which have not been universally recognized yet but are extremely promising. Cosmeceuticals incorporates cosmetics and pharmaceuticals and produces cosmetic products (lotions, creams) with biologically active ingredients, such as anti-oxidants, peptides, enzymes, that can be medically beneficial to humans. There also exist pharmaceutical technology companies, which have special subdivisions specializing in cosmeceuticals. Nutraceuticals is a blend of nutrition and pharmaceutical implying products which give certain therapeutic effect and can potentially aid in diseases treatment or prevention (Kalra 1). Such pr oducts as dietary supplements and functional food are usually referred to nutraceuticals. In Latin America the market of â€Å"healthy ingredients† is developed on the retailer levels. Plants, leaves, roots, seeds are popular among locals as they are perceived as ethnic and natural. Local home-made oils, powders, and extracts from these valuable plants are also demanded due to their easy access and low price (Lajolo 2). The products that would be optimal to launch can be dietary supplements received from local Latin American plants, such as asai, guava, camu-camu and others, which are not recognized in the world but are well-known to the regional consumers (Lajolo 3). All these plants are not examined thoroughly but even preliminary research suggests that they have huge potential. Certain subdivision of pharmaceutical company can arrange scientific research and manufacture of these products. Among the variety of dietary supplements I would advise to dwell on

The using Okuns law to track and analyze the changes in the Research Paper

The using Okuns law to track and analyze the changes in the unemployment rates over the last decade - Research Paper Example Output and employment have a tendency to more simultaneously. In 1962, Arthur Okun conducted an empirical research over the relation between changes in unemployment to the changes in gross national product in US economy.The Using Okun’s law to track and analyze the changes in the unemployment rates over the last decade.He found that for every 3 percent increase in real output of the country, unemployment decreased by 1 percent. The observers of this result started to dub it as â€Å"Okun’s Law†. Thus for the United States, Okun coefficient is 3. It can logically be expected the output of a country to approximately move one for one with the level of employment. Okun, however, argued that Measures unemployment is less volatile to any economic change than output. This is for, according to him, fluctuations in working hours and labor force participation generally hide underemployment to some extent. (Okun, 1962). Okun coefficients are not same for all countries. It h as been found by the economists that most of the developed or industrialized nations of the world have higher Okun coefficients than United States. It simply implies that, in most of the other industrialized nations of the world the rates of unemployment have a tendency to vary less for a given fluctuation in gross domestic product than in case of the United States. A reason for this could be that in United States labor market is less regulated than in other countries and hence companies can more easily lay off their workers during economic slowdowns. In most of the industrialized countries, there are stronger implicit job protections by the societies, stronger unions, and higher governmental restrictions on laying off workers than in United States. (Kaufman, 1988; Moosa, I. A.(1997) However, over the years, many industrialized countries have undertaken various reform measures to reduce restrictions on labor market so that companies can exercise more freedom in laying off workers at the time of economic downfall. Thus, Okun coefficients of many industrialized countries like UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, France and so on have been lowered in recent time than before. However, USA still has the largest Okun coefficient. (Kaufman, 1988; Moosa, I. A.(1997) One interesting thing about Okun coefficient is that it can change over time as the relationship between output growth and change in unemployment depends to a large extent on a number of other factors like technology, social regulations, demographics, laws, etc. As these factors change, Okun coefficient might also change. (Lee, 2000). Here this Okun’s law will be used to analyze the movement in the rate of unemployment in US over the last decade. Here an attempt will be made to find out whether Okun coefficient is still the same in US as documented by Arthur Okun. The last decade has experienced huge economic fluctuation, and hence it would be quite interesting to find out the value of Okun coefficient under such economic slow down in US. At present, most of the economies throughout the world are going through a critical phase of recession and among all the economies. The situation has been so critical that the most power economies in the world also have not been able to escape this economic crisis. Economies of U.S., Japan, China, U.K. etc are all suffering from severe demand crunch and consequently fall in production and employment. U.S. is the Worst hit country by the current recession. The ongoing economic crisis through out the whole world owes it origin in U.S. following a huge credit crisis in the home loan market. Since early 2008, the U.S. economy has been looming under recession. Many economists are even of the opinion that this recession has started during the last quarter of 2007 itself. The effect of recession has not been confined to U.S. economy only. In late 2007 and even early 2008, most of the stock market indices across the world were touching the sky. Under such sce nario, corporate houses were showing over enthusiasm and in several of countries money was flowing in huge

Business Policy - British Airways Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words

Business Policy - British Airways - Case Study Example According to the International Air Transport Association, the industry lost up to $8 billion in 2008 which is even greater than what was forecasted previously. The report uses a PESTEL analysis (See PESTEL Analysis: Appendix D) to scan the external environmental structure of the company. The business cycle of British Airways includes several parameters. This is due to the fact that airline industry is characterized by longer business cycle resulting from the lower profitability and for the lower shareholder returns. (Liehr, Nd, page 1). The marketing environment is constantly changing and with every change in the last few years airlines industry is being affected. The demand for the airline industry is highly income elastic. (â€Å"An analysis of British Airways Marketing Environment†, 2008) Thus the rise in the fuel prices last year and recent economic turmoil has affected the airlines industry in huge way as the passengers are avoiding more expensive air travels. According t o a report by Air Transport association of America, the revenue generated from passenger travels for all airlines fell by 19 % during the month of February, 2009 when compared to February 2008. This is the forth consecutive month where loss is being recorded. The business sector, hit badly by the economic crisis are cutting back on their airline trips. British airways having ten flights operating daily between London and New York is among the worst hit. (â€Å"Lucrative Business class air travel hit by crisis†, 2009) The company saw a decline in 8.6 percent in premium traffic and 4.1 percent in non premium. (â€Å"Lucrative Business class air travel hit by crisis†, 2009)   Also there are other factors which are directly affecting the industry. The events like terrorist attacks in the recent past closely linked with the airplanes may be considered as an external factor affecting air traveling. This assumption is based on the fact that these events lead to the introduc tion of strict security norms and regulation from the EU and US, affecting from summer 2006 resulting in a fall of customer traveling confidence.(â€Å"An analysis of British Airways Marketing Environment†, 2008). The intervention of Government rules and regulation were present in the areas of controlling the place of flight, the pricing policy etc. Also there are restrictions in the number and types of baggage that they carry, which ultimately is becoming the restriction on the part of the customers.

Topical Research - How the cost of healthcare relates to the quality Essay

Topical Research - How the cost of healthcare relates to the quality of care inmates receive - Essay Example In the paper, the problem within this research article is restated in line with a wider understanding of the topic. Additional data is gathered and analyzed within the paper as pertaining to the research problem within the aforementioned article. The additional data is used to present additional insights to the problem and make conclusive recommendations for solving the identified problems. In their article, Berman & Fox (2009) demonstrate that there is an urgent need for new and innovative thinking within the criminal justice system. This is attributed to the evident mistakes within the criminal justice system, which have caused negative implications in the efficiency and effectiveness of pursuing justice. On the basis of these mistakes, Berman & Fox (2009) conducted a study by examining past trials and efforts for reform within the criminal justice system. The researchers targeted at solving the identified problem within the initiatives of the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the US’s Department of Justice. The main goal of the researchers was to initiate and motivate honest and open dialogue on the challenges which face the criminal justice system, and the most effective solutions to these challenges. The researchers targeted future innovations within the criminal justice system by demonstrating how they would avoid the mistakes that are made in the processes of pursuing justice. In solving the research problem, the researchers use the lessons they learned from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) as a significant crime prevention program within the USA. The mistakes in the procedures and processes of the criminal justice system are the main problems in the study, which are viewed through the D.A.R.E program lens. In their research report, Berman & Fox (2009) demonstrate that the D.A.R.E program was reported to have contributed to a small increase in the rate of drug use among teens within

Evaluate the UK tax system in the context of Adam's Canon of Taxation Essay

Evaluate the UK tax system in the context of Adam's Canon of Taxation - Essay Example 2008). In UK today, there exist no published figures on this particular ‘gap’ but statistics from the Tax Justice Network (TJN) indicate that UK’s fifty largest companies have paid an average of 5.7 per cent less corporation tax than ‘expected rates’ from 2000 to 2004 (Wolfgang et al. 2008). This largely depends upon what is ‘expected’ and some of the assumptions made are questionable. For instance, in UK, TJN has associated this with excessive corporate tax allowances given to motivate investment in plant and machinery that in turn result into high levels of deferred taxation (Wolfgang et al. 2008). Today, capital allowances constitute examples of various express tax relief and incentives, which are regarded by most governments as desirable in the context of their economic policies. Recent report findings by the National Audit Office in UK identified that, around 220 of the largest UK 700 companies paid no tax at all in the years 2005 an d 2006, which led to concerns being widely highlighted in the media that there were high levels of corporate tax avoidance (Wolfgang et al. 2008). Therefore, this research paper will largely look at and make evaluation of the UK tax system in the context of Adam’s Canon of Taxation. Background to Adam’s Canon of Taxation Adam Smith is considered the father of modern economics and part of his contribution to the field of economics was presentation of four principles of a good taxation system known as Adam Smith’s Canons of Taxation (Smith and Cannan 1976; Smith and Sutherland 1998). The four principles are as follows: Canon of Equity, in the words of Adam Smith, â€Å"people of every state should pay their share in proportion to their individual abilities, which means that they should pay tax proportion to that income which they respectively get under the government security† (Jain, Kaur, Gupta and Gupta n.d, p.30). The basic assumption of this law is that , people are supposed to pay taxes according their capacity, while equity in this sense means people should demonstrate equality of sacrifice in paying tax. For instance, since the rich people’s marginal utility of money is less than that for the poor, rich people are supposed to pay more amounts in taxes than the poor people (Jain, Kaur, Gupta and Gupta n.d). Therefore the principle of justice is implicated in this doctrine (Nicholson 1928) and in the words of Adam Smith, â€Å"It will be more justified for the rich to contribute to the public expenditure not only what is proportionate to their income but more than that† (Jain and Khanna 2006, p.349). The second canon is that of certainty, where the postulation of this principle is that, there need to be a certainty regarding taxes (Das, 1993). For example, in Smith’s words â€Å"the tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary and that time of payment, the manner of payment , the quantity to be paid ought to be clear and plain to the contributor and to every other person† (Jain, Kaur, Gupta and Gupta n.d, p.30). These assumptions show that, in any taxation system, individuals must know how much tax they are supposed to pa

Islamic Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islamic Art - Essay Example For this reason, construction of mosques as well as other buildings related to religion was considered the responsibility of rulers of that time. Therefore, the patronage of caliphs played an important role in the development of early Islamic art forms. This patronage allowed the birth of Islamic architecture, the decoration of religious buildings and their furnishings; a trend that was previously unknown to the world. In contrast to the art forms of other regions which utilize sculptures or paintings as the predominant form of expression, the Islamic art utilizes decoration as a medium or art and expression. The initial manifestations of this type of art work are seen in monuments and mosques of those times, which portray decoration that is extraordinary and expensive in nature. Due to the vital position of mosques in the Islamic society, decoration as a medium of expression was applied on these buildings during the early period of Islam   (Lapidus 97). Another unique art form ter med calligraphy also started to evolve; this time into patterns that were not only meant to communicate the message of Islam, but also to contribute to the aesthetic value of mosques and other religious buildings. This decorative use of the sacred texts in buildings that was religious in nature paved way for various art forms that were aesthetically appealing to a wider audience. Hence calligraphy started finding place in objects like stone, wood, glass, pottery and textiles. Dome of the rock was built in the seventh century.

Managing Conflict Essay Example for Free

Managing Conflict Essay Managing conflict Medicolegal issues We live in an increasingly demanding and vociferous society and incidents of conflict and aggression are sadly commonplace. Kate Taylor, Clinical Risk Manager at the Medical Protection Society offers advice on how to deal with the problem Working in general practice is busy and demanding, with increased workloads, stretched time and some patients having greater expectations of care. At times, when expectations are not met, we can find ourselves in conflict with patients and in some situations this can turn to aggression. As nurses, how should we deal with potentially difficult situations? This article aims to increase our understanding of conflict and provide strategies to deal with it effectively. It also includes practical tips to reduce risks associated with managing conflict and aggression. DEFINITIONS Conflict means different things to different people. The Health and Safety Executive defines workplace violence as any incident where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or  health.1 Non-physical violence can be defined as the use of inappropriate words or behaviour causing distress and/or constituting harassment.'[ 2] The scale of the problem There is limited documentation relating to violence against nurses working in general practice. However, a recent survey carried out by the British Medical Association, to which 20% of doctors responded, found:[ 3] * Violence is a problem in the workplace for half of doctors (same for GPs and hospital doctors). * 1 in 3 respondents had experienced some form of violence in the workplace in the last year (same for hospital doctors and GPs). * 1 in 5 doctors reported an increase in violence in the past year, but the level remained constant for the majority. * Among doctors who reported some experience of violence, most had been the victim of verbal abuse in the past year while more than half had received a threat, and a third had been physically assaulted. Most injuries were minor, but 5% were serious. In April 2011, NHS Protect was set up. It is responsible for leading on work to protect NHS staff and resources from crime in England.[ 4] According to its statistics, physical assault against NHS staff is steadily increasing. However, these statistics do not capture the incidents where staff have been subjected to non-physical violence. In general practice, members of staff are more likely to be subjected to non-physical violence. Imagine working as a practice nurse and an unhappy patient threatens you, telling you I know where you live? We cannot underestimate the impact that such non-physical violence can have on individuals. CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS Circumstances * Members of the general practice team are particularly vulnerable as they often consult with patients alone. Doctors and practice nurses often work in small numbers. * Home visits are usually carried out alone. System and Organisational Problems * Delays, restrictions and mistakes such as lost prescriptions or delays in test results * Lack of appointments * Patient disappointment often results from unmet expectations, whether  realistic or unrealistic. Environment * Waiting room (heating, lighting, noise and seating) * Cramped consulting rooms without easy exit for health professionals * Lack of privacy * Availability of potential weapons. Patient Factors * Increased expectations and the difficulties in meeting these demands. Dissatisfaction with the care provided is perceived as the most common cause of aggression and violence * Strong patient emotions e.g. uncertainty, frustration, stress and anxiety. Anger is often secondary to emotions such as anxiety or grief * An underlying medical condition such as hypoglycaemia or psychotic illness * Physical symptoms including pain, headache or over-tiredness * Mental health problems such as * Personal problems e.g. financial, relationship, stress at work * Drugs and alcohol. Staff Factors * Under pressure staff-working in noisy cramped rooms, unable to trace or contact staff * In adequate staff numbers * Escalating the situation by confrontation, over-reacting, poor ccmmunication, inconsistencies in handling patients, patronising behaviour, ignoring a situation or falling to apologise. COMMUNICATION SKILLS Good communication with patients is likely to reduce the risk of conflict and violence. As nurses, how we communicate with our patients can have an impact on how difficult situations develop. We need to think about what we say and how we say it. We should rely on our strong communication skills to determine with our patients what they can expect from the services we provide. A study by American psychologist, Albert Mehrabian, determined that non-verbal communication represents over 50% of an interaction.[ 5] Being aware of your own body language can be the first step to understanding how it is perceived by our patients. Listening and empathising with patients are essential skills for nurses-so how do we ensure our patients know we are listening? * Give the patient your undivided attention * Dont trivialise the patients issue * How is the patient feeling are they angry, afraid, frustrated? Respond to the emotion as well as the words * Allow the patient to finish what they are saying * Ask questions, paraphrase and reflect to ensure you understand the message. CHALLENGING INTERACTIONS Challenging interactions with patients can be a significant cause of stress for nurses, yet the nature of most clinical jobs makes these encounters unavoidable. It can be difficult to communicate your point of view effectively for fear of generating conflict, which can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, and may affect your ability to give good care. It is vital to build a trusting relationship with the patient in these circumstances; ensure you listen attentively, empathise and avoid confrontation. Maintain eye contact and try to establish a shared understanding of the patients problem. Having acknowledged their perspective, respectfully inform them of your position. Then work on achieving a mutually agreeable solution or way forward rather than focussing on points of disagreement, which can otherwise degenerate into an argument. Then help and support the patient to achieve the agreed solution. After challenging interactions that have required you to state your position, ensure there is effective communication with other members of the practice clinical team, along with a clear record of the discussions held. This will ensure consistency should the patient approach a different clinician seeking to re-negotiate an alternative plan or outcome. PRACTICAL TIPS Practices should consider: * Providing a side room or separate area to deal with upset/aggressive patients or those who need more privacy. * Providing good temperature and ventilation control, adequate seating and clear signage * Providing calming measures to reduce frustration, anxiety or boredom such as distractions in waiting room e.g. toys for children, magazines for adults * Adding an agreed marker to the summary of a patients record who has a history of violence (and ensure it is factually accurate) * Having a protocol for involving the police and removing patients from the list * Using CCTV * Ensuring all practice staff have access to panic alarms * Providing locks for all areas where patient access is restricted CONCLUSION We can and will experience conflict in general practice due to the sheer volume of patient contacts that occur every day. The key to managing a conflict situation is to try to de-escalate it as much as possible.confidentiality is central to the trust between nurses and their patients think how easy it may be to breach confidentiality when you have a situation with an aggressive patient. The Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of conduct clearly states you must respect peoples right to confidentiality.[ 6] As a last resort you can remove a patient from the practice list. However, this can be seen as an emotive issue, risking criticism from bodies such as the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the GMC and the media. You can find useful information on how to go about it in the MPS factsheet, Removing patients from the practice list (September 2013).[ 7] http://www.medicalprotection.org/ uk/england-factsheets/removing-patients-from-the-practice-list. CASE STUDY Nurse E is about to start her clinic when she notices Mrs S on the list of patients for the day. Her heart sinks. Mrs S often presents with one or more complaints, talks nonstop and does not listen to advice provided. She knows from experience that interactions with Mrs S will be challenging. Mrs S is called in 20 minutes later than her planned appointment and she lets Nurse E know that she is not happy. Nurse E admits that her clinic is running late but tells Mrs S that she had an unavoidable emergency. She proceeds to take Mrs Ss blood pressure and other vital signs. Mrs S then asks Nurse E for a prescription for antibiotics as she is going on holiday and wants them just in case her chest flares up while away. Nurse E advises her that she will need to make an appointment to see the GP. Mrs S, now increasingly unhappy, begins to raise her voice and bang her fist on the desk, demanding a prescription before she leaves. Nurse E, staying calm, advises Mrs S that she is unable to give her a prescription as she doesnt have any active symptoms. Mrs S storms out of the consultation room pushing past Nurse E. Understandably upset, Nurse E calls the practice manager to report the incident. How could this situation have been dealt with better? * Apologise when mistakes occur or when clinics are running late. Some practices ask reception staff to inform patients when they are checking in if clinicians are behind schedule * Ensure patients are well informed about how systems at the practice work to try to reduce unrealistic expectations * Acknowledge the patients emotions and allow them to express them, which can take time. Ask the patient to tell you about their concerns. Listen actively using comments such as I see, or go on?, and nodding your head. Summarise their experiences, feelings and concerns back to them * Work with the patient to resolve the situation. Agree a plan for dealing with their concerns and moving forward. * Try to offer an alternative solution to demonstrate that you are keen to help them. For example, Im sorry Mrs S, but I am unable to give you a prescription. However, if you wish to make an appointment with one of the GPs you can discuss this with them * Consider the layout of the consulting rooms and reception area to ensure you can leave the room if the situation escalates. Aggression in healthcare settings is becoming all too common REFERENCES 1. Health and Safety Executive: work related violence www.hsegov.uk/violence 2. NHS Business Services(2012) Not part of my job http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Documents/ SecurityManagement/NP0J1 .pdf 3. British Medical Association (2008). Violence in the workplace. The experience of doctors in the UK. http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/ PDFviolence08/$FILE/Violence.pdf 4. NHS Protect 2013 http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Protect.aspx 5. Mehrabian, A(1971) Silent messages Belmont, CA:Wadsworth 6. NMC(2011)The code: Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/Standards/ nmc TheCodeStandardsofConduct PerformanceAndEthicsForNursesAndMidwives%5FLargePrintVersion.PDF 7. MPS Factsheet removing patients from practices list September 2013 http://www.medicalprotection.org/uk/england-factsheets/removing-patients-from-the-practice-list ~~~~~~~~

Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel Essay Example for Free

Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel Essay Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel is said to be the â€Å"Father of the Kindergarten† for his huge involvement, and devoting his life to the development of a system of education for young children. In German, the word kindergarten means children’s garden, and he thought that this was best in the age of six and younger. He spent his entire life helping with the development of the young and early childhood development. Wilhelm Froebel was born in the Thuringia region of Germany. He had a childhood that was not so fond for remembrance because of how terrible it had been for him. This is what shaped him to be able to come up with the idea of kindergarten. Froebel lost his mother before the age of one, and this meant that he had been left with this father who had to take care of three boys because Froebel had two other brothers. Their father never had much time for any of them. As a boy that would be hard for any child, and this caused him to have to spend most of his time alone at his home. He spent a lot of that time in the gardens by his home, and would play there for most of the day (Coron 4). Exploring all day was what he loved to do the most, and this would make a major influence on what he would do for the rest of his life. He started teaching at a school when he was a young man at Frankfurt Model School, and this school was a school that was focused on the teachings of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who was a very well respected teacher of his day. This school accepted poor children, and orphans. He believed that children needed to be involved in very active ways. As he left this school, he left it with his very hands on learning approach, and went to privately tutor children. The parents of the children that he tutored were very kind in giving him space in their garden to use to help teach the children. In 1837 Froebel founded his first school, and called it Kindergarten, or the children’s garden (Coron 4). This was a very exciting thing because before he opened this school, if you were under the age of seven, you did not attend school. At the age of seven, you then could go to school. Now that Froebel opened his school, children at the age of two were able to go to school (coron 3). Froebel was very free with the children, he allowed them to have a lot of activity time to be free with themselves, and figure things out. He believed that this was the best idea for them to have their own space, and time to figure out, as he did as a child. The mot that Froebel gave the children was a classroom, he believed that giving children a place to create, and imagine freely was the best gift anyone could have given them. Froebel wrote books, and in his book â€Å"Education of Man† he wrote â€Å"Play is the highest phase of child development-the representation of the inner necessity and impulse.† (coron 5). He thought that teachers should be friendly people who are helpers, not discip linarians. In his classroom there were blocks, pets, and finger plays. (Coron 5). He was inspirational to all. Froebel designed his classroom to have the following things as meeting a child’s needs; Physical activity, because it is important for a child to move, the development of sensory awareness and physical dexterity, creative expression, exploring of ideas, the pleasure of singing, the experience of living among others, and satisfaction of the soul. (Coron 4). These are all things we teach today to our children, and encourage our children to do. I think going back and looking at the bones of things could really help our society as a whole. Froebel was a very inspirational man to a lot of other great theorists such as Maria Montessori, who started Montessori schools. (Coron 2). I am in great belief of how much of a influence Froebel had on the early childhood education as a whole. He really was the father of kindergarten. I think that him having such an influence, really helped us shape the early education now. Froebel believed that â€Å"Humans are essentially productive, and creative† (coron 1.) I believe he is right, no matter what age you are, you are creative in your own way. It starts out at birth, even with how you relate to your mother, and father is creative, and how you interpret things as a young child is important. I know that if Froebel had not been involved, that what we call early childhood now, would not be the same as it is now. I am a firm believer in how he started to do things, letting children develop their own ideas about who they are, and how to do things in the world around them is really all a part of life.

Eyewitness Testimony Essay

Eyewitness Testimony Essay The use of eyewitness testimony is infamously a primary source of evidence used within the judicial system around the world; however its use has raised various questions as to its reliability and validity especially within court cases. This essay explored first of all, the biological factors of memory and recollection of memories within the human brain. Memories are believed to be stored and processed within the hippocampus part of the brain where it goes through the multi-store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968). This is where danger of the reliability of memory occurs. It was argued that eyewitness testimony is a reliable form of evidence especially with its validity in terms of the events leading up to the use of EWT; what is deemed important information is believed to be remembered more clearly. Sigmund Freud (1920) suggested that memories can only be retrieved by encouraging remembering past episodes and re-instating these past memories into their consciousness. Psychologists N ibett and Ross (1980) quoted that the reason why eyewitness testimony is persuasive is that it influences the jury on a deeper level. However, eyewitness testimony posed more disadvantages than advantages with the various factors that affect it such as weapons focus in incidents involving weapons which cause distractions and loss of memories. The primary psychologist that tested the use of memory was Elizabeth Loftus who conducted various experiment to test this, such as the Automobile Destruction experiment in the 1970s. After having collated all the arguments together, it was suggested that improvements must be made in order to improve the quality of eyewitness testimony; these included the legal system and police forces involvement in collating information as quickly as possible. The most imperative form of evidence when investigating a crime is the honesty of witnesses on trial, the application of eyewitness testimony. Though the use of eyewitness testimony by juries is considered most valuable, the question of fallibility of witness statements poses various problems and issues. Eyewitness testimony has been a thriving aspect of the Criminal Justice System, an incredible amount of research into this element of cognitive psychology questions the reliability of peoples memory especially using it as evidence to determine the outcome of the trial and convictions. Research into the reliability of evidence, often referred to as witness psychology is renowned as being the longest established area of law and psychology, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.  [1]   The area of eyewitness testimony has always posed a problem with reliability and the effectiveness of human memory. Human memory is described by cognitive psychologists Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)  [2]  as a three stage theory in which memory is modelled in, this memory stage model is called the Multi-Store Model. The Multi-store model theory consists of the memory being divided into three stages, the first stage being the sensory store, the second stage is the short term memory (working memory) and the third being long term memory. The transfer of information from one store to another is controlled by the process of attention and rehearsal of memories. One of the most critical assumptions made by cognitive psychologists is that the human mind has a limited capacity for processing information. Therefore, any external information that the environment consists of is often very difficult for the human mind to assimilate and process; so people are selective about what information is to be retrieved and this is otherwise known as attention, where some information is assimilated while other pieces are ignored. The first stage of the multi-store model, the sensory store, is where the information from the senses (iconic, echoic, tactile, olfactory and gustatory), is transferred into but this is only for a very short period of time. The initial information retrieved by the senses is then transferred into the short term memory store; this is transferred through attention given to the information transferred from the senses involved. When the information has been transferred into the short-term memory store, this is the store concerned with forgetting information and this information is ultimately lost entirely. Therefore, for information to be remained in the memory, from the short term store into the long term store, the information must be rehearsed. Rehearsal is the cycling of information through the memory, this rehearsal of memory can be carried out in two different methods. Therefore this essay will investigate whether the application of eyewitness testimony statements is a reliable form of evidence to be used by the judicial system. Furthermore, this essay will argue whether eyewitness testimony is ideal to use as one of the most important pieces of evidence to use or whether the application of eyewitness testimony is fallible. After comparing for and against the reliability of eyewitness accounts, an evaluation will be drawn over how eyewitness testimony can be improved to an extent where it can be further accurate. This essay will explore the elements of eyewitness testimony and how these factors can determine whether an eyewitness account is accurate. These elements include the effect of weapon focus on witness memory, how leading questions can manipulate witness statements and recollection of memory, reconstructive errors of memory and the application of psychological experiments when exploring the function of these elements on the human memory. Th e application of the eyewitness testimony includes multiple formal questioning sessions with witnesses on trial, taking statements of the events witnessed and witnesses appearing in court with the jury. The issue of integrity when applying eyewitness testimony accounts is delegated to the jury, who are assigned the role of determining the judgement of whether the eyewitness statements are fallible or reliable  [3]  . The use of eyewitness testimony has a profound and compelling effect on the outcome of a trial and conviction, and this is why an accurate eyewitness testimony is needed in order to gain justice. The Aspects of Eyewitness Testimony As a consequence of the limitations of information processing in the human mind, witness statements need to be reviewed for accuracy and if any external factors of either the environment or the function of memory may have affected the outcome of the witness account  [4]  . Quite often, when the memory cannot recall the entire incident or situation, it may result in the unknown areas being replaced by events that may never have took place in reality but the mind may perceive as a potential occurrence and therefore causes fallibility in the eyewitness testimony. In essence, the memory may fill in gaps where it fails to recall what may have happened  [5]  . Many factors affect eyewitness memories which are illustrated below: Interference of Memory Processing: The period of time that has lapsed between the witnessing of the incident and the questioning of the eyewitness can determine the amount of information that the witness can recall. On the other hand, interference which is the loss of old stimuli as a result of new information can also subsequently reduce the accuracy of eyewitness accounts.  [6]   Leading Questions in Witness Interviews: A leading question in its form or content, suggests to the witness being interviewed what answer is desired or leads them to the desired answer. Some questions can often be made more suggestive than others and these questions the legal concept of a leading question. The main pioneer for investigating the consequences of particular leading questions was Elizabeth F. Loftus in 1974.  [7]   Schemas: The human mind has evolved its memory capacity and the ability to remember certain aspects by organising information into categories, otherwise known as schemas  [8]  . Schemas help organise memories that can consist of familiar people, objects and situations and allow people to understand and act appropriately to whatever is encountered. Arousal, Anxiety and Violence Distraction: Quite often, cognitive psychologists have questioned the poor recall of eyewitness accounts is primarily a result of where their attention is focused upon. A possible reason for arousal, anxiety and violence distraction could be that a violent incident, with the use of weapons, draws the focus of the witnesss attention away from who is causing this anxiety, which results in little or no processing of other information.  [9]   Weapon Focus: When a witness views a crime in which a weapon is used as a method of violence and distraction, the weapon achieves its purpose in distracting the attention of those witnessing the crime. The distraction affects the witnesss attention due to the potential threat of violence9. External Influences: Quite often, external influences can affect the accuracy of eyewitness accounts, especially if the media has been influencing the events that have taken place. The witness may re-interpret their witness statements to match what the media has claimed may have existed or happened. Apart from the media, other external influences may include other witness accounts of what happened and/or the type of environment that the situation may have occurred in, e.g. in darkness, low-lit room etc. Conformity: Through the questioning process that witnesses must endure, group questioning in particular, gives into reason the reliability of witness recollections as they may conform in order to fit each others interpretation of what happened. Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony The use of eyewitness testimony has provided crucial evidence that can often lead to the identification and arrest of a criminal suspect or a hazardous event can be avoided. Eyewitness testimony impacts strongly upon the trial process and the verdicts that are given by the jury are quite often influenced heavily by eyewitness accounts. Stern and Dunning, 1994  [10]  quoted that eyewitness testimony is perhaps the most compelling types of evidence presented to police investigations and criminal trials. Although the human memory and its information processing ability, has substantial amounts of limitations that can lead to invalidity and inaccuracy, it does however, demonstrate a unique ability to process information where the acquired stimulus information is stored. The human mind can potentially hold millions of pieces of information, though not all at once, which when acquired by the brain can be reinstated and remembered. The memories that the mind deems as important for growth and use consistently is life are episonic which represents the episode of the memory where as certain skill or piece of information; semantic which identifies what that piece of information consists of and what it is and finally procedural which processes who that information is to be used or handled. For example, teaching a child how to read a book at a particular age is episonic, knowing what a book is, is semantic and how to read the words in a book would be procedural.  [11]   The process of information being transferred from the short term memory into the long term memory was an experiment conducted by psychologists Welch and Burnett in 1924. The experiment was to test the theory of the serial position curve where it consisted of the subjects being presented with a list of 16 words in which they had to recall in order. The results of this experiment, illustrated the serial position curve in which the recollection of words and the results of the experiment were graphed and this illustrated a curve effect were the last recalled words were remembered best whereas the words in the middle of the recall were remembered poorly. Cognitive psychologist, Sigmund Freud believed that memories were allocated in the brain  [12]  . Freud referred to these memories as true memories and described that they lay deep in the unconscious element of the brain, where they lay undisturbed as a factor of surface mental activity. Freud insisted that these memories were never lost or forgotten as they are only inaccessible and latent, having become a part of the unconscious  [13]  . For these memories to be accessed, Freud promoted the technique free association. By encouraging witnesses to reminisce about past episodes that have occurred within their lives, Freud insinuated that they could reinstate long-forgotten yet important memories from their past into their consciousness. However, it can be argued that the true memories that Freud insisted exist in the human sub-conscious are in fact potential complex blendings of both fact and fiction. Memory is an extremely fragile aspect of the human mind that can potentially be supplemented, altered and reconstructed by external stimuli that can question an event that may never have occurred. However, it is argued that the human mind is capable of remembering significant pieces of information that is considered vital and important. This is considered one of the key factors in which juries do consider eyewitness testimony accounts as a vital piece of evidence. Psychologists Nibett and Ross, 1980 quoted that the reason why eyewitness testimony is persuasive is that vivid testimonies have a strong impact on observers so this conclusively means that they are easier to remember especially upon the jury  [14]  . Though the potential invalidity of eyewitness accounts is extensive, error made in witness accounts are extraneous when the observers are able to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate witnesses  [15]  . However, there may be a possibility that the eyewitness account is accurate but leading questions by the criminal investigation team may provoke the memory to be changed to fit the question or the most relevant and fitting answer  [16]  . The Unreliability of Eyewitness Testimony The malleability of eyewitness accounts demonstrates the excessive inaccuracy of it being used as a vital evidential piece in the courts and criminal justice system. Many hypotheses have been established that suggest reasons for the valued use of eyewitness testimony. Saunders et al believe that jurors tend to place too much faith in eyewitness testimonies; however the problem lies with whether eyewitness testimony is a reliable source of evidence to use  [17]  . The inaccuracy of witness accounts is demonstrated by the various aspects that intercept with each other and substantiate hesitation for its use as evidence. The use of leading questions can quite often alter information/intelligence or can quite often misinterpreted accounts to match the information that the witness has been presented with. An experiment conducted by Elizabeth Loftus and John Parmer illustrates the interaction between language and memory in 1974  [18]  . The reconstruction of an automobile destruction consisted of two experiments in which subjects were shown films of automobile accidents. After the observation, the subjects were then asked questions about the events that occurred in the films; How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? The use of the word smash demonstrated higher estimations in the speed of the car as opposed to other verbs used in place of smash such as collided, bumped, contacted and hit. When the experiment was repeated a week later, the subjects who received the word smashed were more likely to agree to the question asked Did you see any broken glass? even though there was n o recollection of broken glass within the video. These results highlight the theory that the questions asked in relation to an event can result in a reconstruction of a witnesss memory of that event. Though witness memory is quite often inaccurate in that they fail to distinguish the events that had occurred, quite often, the human memory can remember erroneous events and details that may be introduced by third party interference. In the 1970s, Elizabeth Loftus conducted an experiment to demonstrate how third party interference can invalidate witness accounts by introducing false facts. Subjects were shown a slideshow of a car at an intersection with either a yield sign or a stop sign. The experimenter then asked the participants questions which falsely used the word stop sign instead of yield sign which is what was actually shown in the slideshow. The results indicated that subjects remembered seeing the false image; the introduction of false cues altered the memory of the participants in the experiment. Bartlett conducted an experiment in which he read a story The war of the ghosts out loud to a group of participants where he concluded that participants attempted to fit the story into their western schemas and as a result, distorted it during recall  [19]  . This showed that they were not recalling the information exactly as it had been presented to them, but were making assumptions at the story, based on their own understanding. This correlates with what a witness may assume a criminal or crime scene may look like and therefore use this to describe the suspected. Schemas are an effective method of processing and encoding information  [20]  . The idea of schemas were originally established by Frederick Bartlett in the 1930s which involved a large number studies in which he showed ways in which participants made sense of whatever they were shown affects the way they recall it later  [21]  . For example, in one of his studies, Bartlett showed participants unfamiliar line d rawings and instructed them to memorise it. Bartlett then asked his participants to talk aloud at the same time as memorising the picture. He found that different participants made sense of the figures in different ways. Later in the experiment, the participants were asked to draw the figures as they remembered them and Bartlett discovered that the schemas which they established during their initial encoding influenced their recall. Therefore, schemas may influence what witnesses may define what a criminal looks like or behaves like and this may influence their account of events. Through the questioning process that witnesses must endure, witnesses can either be questioned on a one-to-one basis where the interviewer questions the witness independently or witnesses can be questioned as a group if the incident has been witnesses by multiple people. In particular, group questioning which gives into reason the reliability of witness recollections as they may conform in order to fit each others interpretation of what happened. This conformity can purposely invalidate information as the witness does not want to be isolated from the events that the other witnesss describe as having happened. This subjective information again affects the testimony because false information is being interpreted is invalid due to conformity of information. The weapons focus effect  [22]  perceives to be a result of the witnesss attention being predominantly directed towards the weapon, resulting in diversion of attention away from the situational aspects and the criminal suspect. When a witness views a crime in which a weapon is used as a method of violence and distraction, the weapon achieves its purpose in distracting the attention of those witnessing the crime. The distraction affects the witnesss attention due to the potential threat of violence. Although an incident has occurred, the attention of the witness is primarily upon the weapon so they are not observing the rest of the incident or the person who is posing the threat and this causes the witness to have lack of information about the incident. This area of eyewitness psychology is known as weapon focus; unfortunately this distraction results in a very poor eyewitness testimony as the witness is unable to recall events and descriptions. Unfortunately, most crimes involve the use of a weapon as a vulnerability tool, which in essence causes the stress and anxiety levels of the witness to rise and therefore will fail to encode and remember vital information. Eyewitness inaccuracy may also be a result of errors that occur within the memory process; the memory is divided into three distinct stages of processing: encoding, storage and retrieval. The occurrence of errors is very likely at any particular stage within the memory processing stages. Acquiring information or otherwise known as encoding is illustrated within the Yerkes-Dodson principle which according to its theorists, an increase in arousal improves performance up to a certain point. Once arousal has passed the critical point which is otherwise known as the optimum, performance tends to decline and these results in poorer memory performance. So, in essence when a person is moderately aroused, the information is encoded best as opposed to extreme arousal or stress where the information is lost or encoded insufficiently. The Yerkes-Dodson theory  [23]  demonstrates that if a witness observes a crime that is substantially violent and/or makes the witness experience high levels o f fear and anxiety, they are less likely to remember any significant levels of information because of the extreme stress which results in encoding of information inaccurate. This conclusively makes their eyewitness account unreliable because they fail to remember any substantial amounts of information and detail of what happened and of the perpetrator. The question of witness account accuracy raises questions about whether the time after the incident occurred, if the account is still valid as evidence because quite often, large amounts of time and substantial interference can deteriorate the information from memory. This deterioration refers to the loss of stimulus information as a result of passed time. The amount of time that has lapsed between the occurrence of the event and the questioning and testimony of the witness can quite often determines the amount of information the witness can recall  [24]  . This interference is due to the loss of old stimulus information caused by new stimulus information; this can also reduce the accuracy of eyewitness accounts. People are more likely to overestimate the duration of brief events but on the other hand underestimate the duration of prolonged events (Penrod, Loftus and Winkler, 1982). Other psychological research has demonstrated that the presence of a weapon also reduces the accur acy of eyewitness accounts. Evaluation of Eyewitness Testimony Taking into consideration the flaws in which eyewitness accounts may consist of, which effectively invalidates the testimony, these flaws can be avoided by both the eyewitness and the criminal justice system that use the accounts as a form of evidence. Most importantly, the way in which witness accounts are handled is vital in establishing a valid eyewitness testimony with as much truth as possible. The interviewing process which is conducted by the criminal justice system i.e. police, courtroom judges, need to be done in a careful and delicate way so that there is no decay or deterioration of information. Though the memory of the witnesses may differ, depending on age and memory capacity, quite often the initial first few hours after the occurrence of an incident is vital in collecting as much valid information as possible. So, the interviewing of witnesses should be conducted right after the incident when possible to avoid any decay of information and/or third party interference. In terms of the actual interviewing process, the use of leading questions should entirely be avoided unless the witness has mentioned specific events or descriptions which would not invalidate information as it has been confirmed by the witness. Leading questions  [25]  can quite often add new information that the witness may not have known about and will therefore mention false information in order to fit their account with what is evidently known by the police. Specific questions that can be used in the interviewing process may help the witness to run through their track of events which in some circumstances reveal any recollection of events without any external influence. Quite often through the criminal investigation, the witness needs to be interviewed many times to establish the course of events and important descriptions, whether this is through the crown prosecution trial or by the police. If later eyewitnesses need to be interviewed, they should be able to recall as much information that they reported initially, avoiding any extra information that they may have picked up from third party interference. So in essence, there is no uncertain information but information that the mind has remembered and rehearsed within their memory and indicates a positive recollection of events. Though no control can be given to what eyewitnesses will focus on and concentrate entirely on, measures on how information is collected can partially help to distinguish between valid and false information within accounts. Conclusion It can be concluded that the use of eyewitness testimony will also be used as a vital source of evidence by the criminal justice system for years to come. Eyewitness testimony can hold vital pieces of information that cannot be retrieved from any other source, without eyewitness testimony, the police would find it incredibly difficult to discover any potential clues and evidence of what happened or description of what the perpetrator physically looks like. Criminal cases in which there is not eyewitnesses to give evidence are usually those cases which find it incredibly hard to convict the guilty so have to rely upon other physical evidence such as CCTV, DNA, fingerprints etc. However, the use of eyewitness accounts seems to create a lot of doubt in whether it is a reliable source of evidence to be used because its accuracy is questioned based on interpretation. The use of leading questions and third party interference can decay any initial recollection of events that the eyewitness may have believed to have happened. But the human memory has flaws within itself regardless of extra information that can falsify or invalidate the recollection of what occurred and why. The initial pioneer of evaluating eyewitness evidence, Elizabeth F. Loftus  [26]  highlights the flaws of eyewitness accounts and of the human memory. The conclusions in which Loftus has discovered were advantageously used to improve quality of interviews and valid eyewitness accounts but unfortunately cannot eliminate all invalid information. So, in essence, the question as to whether eyewitness testimony is a reliable source of evidence still remains unclear on the basis that it is vital evidence which is needed to collate important information. However, its reliability is questioned in terms of validity and how much the witness is able to accurately recall all pieces of information especially having experienced high amounts of anxiety and stress. Eyewitness testimony will always remain a vital source of evidence but its use should be delicately considered to avoid any false information or invalid convictions.

Automotive Ethics :: Automobiles Transportation Technology Essays

Automotive Ethics Automotive ethics is a subject that is often over looked. Not many people tend to look at what is ethical in the automotive industry; most people are generally satisfied if they can get a good deal on a car. However, in reality, automotive ethics has an affect on how automobiles are made, what regulations the government puts on them, and their hazard on the environment. Before the engine was invented, life revolved around a much more complicated system of transportation. Much advancement in technology has been made to make the common lifestyle today much easier; a few examples are cellular telephones and onboard navigation systems in automobiles. Cellular telephones and navigation systems have become an everyday item, but nobody looks at the dangers that can have while operating a motor vehicle. Before the invention of the modern day engine, lifestyles were completely different. Letters were sent by horse drawn wagons, people traveled by horses and other such animals, often taking an entire day to go twenty miles. The first direct injection fuel engine was not invented until 1923.[1] It only took a year before this engine was put into automobiles, making the lives of the general public much easier. The invention of the engine not only made it possible to travel by road, but also by water and air. Mail was no longer delivered by horses and families were able to travel from one place to another in less than an entire day. However, the affects of the modern day engine can be seen all over the world. Take Los Angeles for example; the city is filled with smog which is from the overcrowding of all the freeways with automobiles. Technology has escalated to a level where engines are no longer made by the working man. Now, engines can be made simply machines and computer based tools. However, these thought of simple ways of creating engines are not as easy as the first seemed. There are many positive and negative aspects of using technology to design engines. A problem with building engines using computers and machines is that they put out far more pollution than workers creating them by hand. It may be cheaper than paying the workers, but then there still are many processes that companies must go through just to have the opportunity to use technological equipment. For example, companies must obtain waste permits in order to properly dispose of toxic waste.

Spring 2005 :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the first section of essays the authors discuss how and why feminist scholars do research is grappled with in each selection. The authors/feminist scholars discuss the importance of research and methodology.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sandra Harding asserts in her essay, â€Å"Is There a Feminist Method?† Harding argues that it is â€Å"difficult to define a distinct feminist method because method and methodology have been intertwined with each other and with epistemological issues.†(2) Moreover, it is, she argues difficult and potentially dangerous to identify anything as a distinctive method—her argument is that â€Å" it is not by looking at research methods that one will be able to identify distinctive features of the best feminist research methods.† In other words it is dangerous to mystify feminist research because it locks researchers, students, scholars and critics into rules and ideas that don’t necessarily encompass all facets of feminist scholarship and the efforts that are made to understand it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The idea of there being a single â€Å"feminist method† assumes that there is a single thing, or several concrete things/ideas feminist scholars must be searching for. Harding’s argument is supported by author’s Greene, Khan in â€Å"Feminist scholarship and the social construction of women†. Greene/Khan assert—that â€Å"feminist scholarship undertakes the dual task of deconstructing predominately male cultural paradigms and reconstructing a female perspective and experience in an effort to change the tradition that has silenced and marginalized us†¦feminist scholars work to expose and the collusion between ideology and cultural practices.† (1) She asserts that there are two premises about gender, the first is, â€Å"the inequality of the sexes is neither a biological given nor a divine mandate, but a cultural construct,† and the second is, â€Å"the male perspective has dominated fields of knowledge shaping their paradigms and methods.† Here the authors are illustrating the constraints ideology and methodology place on feminist research and substantiating the claim that ideology and methodology are emblems of constraint in the feminist discipline because of their universal assumptions and dependence on the paradigm for the purposes of legitimizing their claims. The authors, Greene, Khan, Harding, and Cannon all deal with the issue of being tied down to methodology and method that would define feminist work, and solidify its direction while at the same time not allowing it to be fluid enough to evolve as a legitimate academic discipline.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As it the issue is raised in â€Å"Race and Class Bias in

Cells and their parts Essay -- essays research papers

Cells are some of the smallest organisms around. All living things consist of cells, and yet they are invisible to the naked eye. Cells are the basic structural and functional units of life. Cells are made up of many different parts which allow them to function properly. All cells are separated from their surrounding by a cell membrane. The cell membrane regulates what enters and leaves the cell and also aids in the protection and support of the cell. A cell membrane is similar to the walls surrounding your house. In plants the cell membrane is surrounded by a cell wall. The cell wall is outside the cell membrane, and its purpose is to help the membrane protect and support the cell. Since the cell wall is very porous, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other substances can pass through easily. A cell wall is similar to a fence around your house, because it helps protect other things from getting inside the cell. In many cells there is a the nucleus, which was first described by Robert Brown. If a cell does or does not have a nucleus has been used by scientists to divide cells into two general categories. The two categories are Eukaryotics, which are cells with a nucleus, and Prokaryotic, which are cells without a nucleus. The nucleus has been found to be the information center of the cell and contains DNA. It also directs all activities that occur in a living cell. It’s like a mini me of the heart and brain of a human body. Most nuclei contain a small area called the nuc...

Speech–> Sensation and Judgement

Sensation is the conversion of energy from the environment into a pattern of response by the nervous system. It is the registration of information. Judgment is the evaluation of evidence in the making of a decision and it is the interpretation of information. When we talk about physical cleanliness, what will be come up is the medical benefits which we may be get rid of sick when we have a good physical cleanliness. Actually, cleanliness is shared by all people in the society.While physical cleanliness and moral purity are highly encouraged by religions which they feel that they are purified from their wrongdoing with physical cleansing. Elder Vandenberg: There is an alliance between physical cleanliness and spiritual cleanliness. It is suggested that one’s moral standing will be changed when there is confusion between moral and physical purity. Here comes to the comparison between our results and the original results took in the University of Toronto.We find out that the scor es in the original results all negative while we have some positive scores for instance the issue of homosexuality and obesity. In addition, we have calculated the average score and we find out that the average score of the original results is -1. 56 while ours is -0. 7. Our average score is a bit higher which suggest that the students in hku that we have conducted license a comparatively not harsh judgment to those immoral issues. Conclusion Different condition of both physical and mental cleanliness can shift our moral from pendulum to moral virtuous which affect moral judgment * Physical cleansing was found to alleviate and restore moral self-condemnation and moral self image as they felt they are purified * Moral self-perception can license a harsher moral judgment * Clean self links to a virtuous self clean person feels dirt-free who is morally untainted * Unclean self links to wicked self Unclean person feels dirty who is morally tolerant

Copy Paste!

Here now is my work from the question? â€Å"What will I become 5 or 10 years from now† it took me several weeks and I got a serious headache thinking about it well any way I came up with my own research about this, so far I managed to get some ideas and possibilities, I questioned some of my relatives and my family regarding my question somehow my efforts is worth trying for because I have earned a good answers through them.No one can predict his own future and no one exactly can tell what will be your life next 5 or 10 years from 2010, there’s a possibility that you will die or there’s a possibility that you will have your own family you just can’t tell. I hope my work help not just me but others as well. I always wanted to see what will be my life in the future, what will be my career and what will I become? As I reflected my childhood I have many dreams and aspirations that I would like to accomplish within next five or ten years to come.In five or ten years I can see myself having many of my goal accomplished, if not accomplished, I will be working on accomplishing those goals to fulfill my life. I know it’s not easy to know your life next five or ten years but I just can’t stop thinking about it whenever I think about it I always smile seeing the sky above showing that I achieve my goals and see my family proud of me. Ten years from now I see myself as a very successful person. I would be 25 years old have a job to help support my family while I attend college. I would live in a large house on a decent amount of property.I hope to be married or getting married in ten years. Then after I will have at least two kids and if I have more than oh well. I don't want just one, because then they will be alone and definitely would be spoiled. I would like to adopt a child, but if my husband doesn't then we won't. I will be a good mother and wife. My house will be fairly large with a inside pool and an outdoor pool. I will h ave nice brick tiled walkways leading to the barn, pastures, driveway, and pool. I will have nice landscaping around the house. A decent size pond behind the house where we could fish, swim and whatever else.

Basic Economics Definitions Essay

Colander (2010) stated, â€Å"Economics is the study of how human beings coordinate their wants and desires, given the decision-making mechanisms, social customs, and political realities of the society† (p. 4). The main word defining â€Å"economics† would be coordination, and in economics, refers to three central problems that face any economy and how they are solved. These central problems are 1. What and how much to produce. 2. How to produce it. 3. For whom to produce it (Colander, 2010). Individuals frequently assume that economics only concern is with business, money, and supply, and demand. However, economics began as a branch of philosophy, and Alfred Marshall, the 19th century economist describes economics as the study of individuals in the business of everyday life. * Scarcity Colander (2010) stated â€Å"scarcity has two elements: our wants and our means of fulfilling those wants. These can be interrelated since wants are changeable and partially determined by society† (p. 5). Scarcity is a basic problem of economics it has apparent limitless individual wants and needs when the world in fact has limited resources. We as a society have scarce creative resources to fulfill everyone’s wants and needs. * TANSTAAFL Colander (2010) states TANSTAAFL â€Å"economic knowledge in one sentence â€Å"There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch† (p. 7). This acronym is trying to illustrate the cost of spending and decision making, and expresses that there is always a cost whether hidden or indirect even if it may seem like it is free. * Opportunity Cost Colander (2010) states â€Å"Opportunity cost is the benefit that you might have gained from choosing the next-best alternative. To obtain the benefit of something, you must give up something else. TANSTAAFL theory embodies the opportunity cost concept because it tells us that there is a cost to everything; that cost is the next-best forgone alternative† (p. 9). In economics, the term â€Å"opportunity cost† refers to money or benefits lost or given up pursuing a particular path specific path of action instead of an alternative or something else. Almost every decision made in business has an opportunity cost attached to it. For example should a business continue using a particular piece of equipment, or should the business purchase new equipment with additional features, and pay a higher rate. * Production Possibilities Curve Colander (2010) states the definition as â€Å"The production possibility curve is a curve that measures the maximum combination of outputs that can be obtained with a given number of inputs† (p. 29). The â€Å"Production Possibility Curve† is a graph representing the difference in rate when two products are produced with only a specific quantity of resources. For example, Suzie will bake brownies and cookies, but she has only one oven. An area in the oven used for baking brownies is not necessarily used for the cookies; therefore, for each brownie baked there are fewer baked cookies. * Comparative Advantage Colander (2010) states the definition as â€Å"some resources have a comparative advantage over other resources— the ability to be better suited to the production of one good than to the production of another good† (p. 28-29). Comparative advantage is the capability to manufacture services or merchandise at an opportunity cost lower than other individuals or businesses giving the individuals or businesses the capability of selling their services or merchandise at lower pricing than their competitors price. * Business Cycle Colander (2010) states the definition, as â€Å"a business cycle is the upward or downward movement of economic activity that occurs around the growth trend† (p. 158). Business cycles refer to economic fluctuations in trade, production, and economic activity in over several months or years. Economic fluctuations take place throughout long-term growth trends, involving shifts over time showing fast economic growth, and periods of decline. * CPI Colander (2010) states the definition, as â€Å"the consumer price index (CPI) is an index of inflation measuring prices of a fixed basket of consumer goods, weighted according to each component’s share of an average consumer’s expenditures† (p. 171). The CPI or consumer price index is a measurement showing household purchases indicating the change in the price levels of services and consumer goods. The CPI calculates the price changes for each predetermined item in the â€Å"basket of goods† and averages them, and weighted by their importance with the price changes related to the cost of living. * Labor Force To define labor force or workforce, and this is the calculation of every adult whether employed or unemployed. Estimated by The Bureau of Labor Statistics labor is categorized by employed, unemployed or not in the labor force for individuals age 16 and over. Individuals not categorized into the labor force are students, retired, or institutionalized individuals. The labor force changes over periods because of social and demographic changes. * Transfer Payments Colander (2010) states the definition, as â€Å"payments to individuals that do not involve production by those individuals. Transfer payments include Social Security payments, and unemployment insurance† (p. 184). Transfer payments are monies from the government given to individuals such payments include unemployment, social security, disability, and other welfare payments. References * Business cycle. (2013). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/business cycle Comparative advantage. (2013). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comparative advantage Colander, D. C. (2010). Macroeconomics (8th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. (pg. 4, 5, 7, 9, 28-29, 158, 171, 184). Economics. (2013). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economics Opportunity cost. (2013). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opportunity cost Scarcity. (2013). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scarcity