LEARNING STYEL ENGLISH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

LEARNING STYEL ENGLISH - Essay Example n easy job especially as it requires a lot of patience and practice but it can be made easier and the goal can be achieved quickly if the teaching style is made according to the learning style of an individual and this is what Strategic Inventory Learning Language is all about. Learning of language in the best way can be done by first recognizing our own learning style and then working on that pattern. Learning styles can be observed by an individual or simply by the learning style checklist. Mostly our learning styles are developed at very early stages may be at pre-school time or elementary school years. I found out from the learning style checklist that I am a Visual Learner meaning that my learning abilities are best with the aid of pictures, graphs and images. I believe this is because from the very beginning of my schooling my parents and teachers emphasized on teaching me through practical means rather than just reading books. Usually our learning styles are at sub-conscious level therefore before working to improve learning abilities it is important to recognize our style. A strategic inventory for language learning is a formalized tool that answers the question of what method is best for one particular learner, or group of learners, to learn a foreign language. According to the author Strategic Inventory Learning Language is grouped into five strategies which are memory strategy, cognitive strategy, compensation strategy, meta-cognitive strategy, affective strategy and social strategy (Griffiths and Parr 251). Usually we follow one or two of the strategies sub-consciously. To realize our strategy we can observe our learning and studying habits or simply fill the SILL questionnaire. I found out that my sub-conscious SILL is Cognitive Strategies; which is that I read for pleasure in English to increase my vocabulary and to ensure quick and right sentence formation, also I try to find patterns in English which enables me to easily converse in the language.

The Kerala Model Of Development Economics Essay

The Kerala Model Of Development Economics Essay Sustainable development is a pattern of resourses use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for the future generation (WCED, 1987, p.43). Introduction Kerala has become a model for social development with limiting improvement in an industrialisation sector. Furthermore, Kerala has undermined the broadly accepted idea that the improvement in the standard of living of people can only be achieved after the successful, rapid and steady economic development. Kerala Model of Development took on the theory that economic growth is the only way to meet basic needs of people in poverty, to raise them above poverty, and generate employment. (World development vol.29, no  ², pp.601-617,2001 The new kerala model: lessons for sustainable development rene veron). Whats more, Kerala Model of Development improved and extended basic education, introduced better health care and land reform, as well as access to better social security in terms of pension and employment rights. These achievements come without huge investments in economic growth. Kerala has 33 millions populations and is consider as one of the poorest countries in the world. The gross domestic product per capita is just $1,000 a year -some $200 less than the Indian average. Yet life expectancy in Kerala is 72 years, which is closer to the American average of 76 and above the Indian average of 61. Keralas infant-mortality rate is among the lowest in the developing world. It is estimates that the infant mortality rate in 1999 was 17 per thousand against an Indian average of 79 per thousand, and around half of in China, and lowers than that in far richer countries such as Argentina. Population is too under control in Kerala. The fertility rate is just 1.7 births per woman lower than in Sweden. The fact is that Kerala is also socially and politically different from the rest of India. While the other states in India refashioning itself in the image of western lifestyle and economy, Kerala remains a communist state with very strong influence of trade unions, and more or less centralize politics. Also Muslim and Christian minorities co-exist peacefully with Hindus, wh ich make this state outstanding of all India. On the other hand despite large capacity of natural resources, Kerala suffers from lack of the industrial investment from international and Indian companies, mostly for fear of the states difficult trade unions, pro-union courts, and high minimum wages. As a consequence Kerala has the highest unemployment rates among Indians state. It is estimates that in 2003 unemployment were as high as 25 percent ( K. C Zachriah 2005 p.21). In addition, Kerala has large budget deficits. According to Karalas budget report from 2005 country debt was Rs.41, 878 crore, which was 39.1 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) One of the main successful stories of Keralas development is education. Kerala has been able to reduce the regional and gender gaps in education, literacy and enrolment at all level of education. More than 94 percent of the rural population has access to primary schools within a distance of one kilometre, while 98 per cent of population has got one school within a distance of two kilometres. Furthermore 96 percent of the population is served by an upper primary school within a travel distance of 3 kilometres and one-fourth by a secondary school within 2 kilometers. Nearly 98 percent of the rural population has the facility for secondary education within 6 to 8 km (Najith Kumar, K.K. George, 2009, p. 55). Also facilities of higher education and technical education are accessible to rural students in reasonable distance. Another aspect of Keralas education system is presents of the non-formal education institutions, which are offering courses. Interesting fact is that Keralas students counts on one- fifth of the whole population. Also the education system employs 18 percent of the population. The number of teachers is equivalent to about 50 per cent of the total number of workers in the registered factories. The reasons laid on the government no- fees policy for primary and secondary education, as well as low fees for the higher education and technical education institutions. Additionally, easy and highly subsidised transport system for students, especially from rural areas, makes the education more affordable. In addition Kerala has been able to achieve gender equity in education system. Nearly half of the students in lower primary classes are girls. The female literacy in Kerala at 86 per cent is far above the all-India rate of 39 percent, and as high as in many developed countries. For example in China the female literacy is 93 percent placing Kerala in close position considering the country population. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2103.html On the other hand, rural female literacy rate in Kerala is higher than every individual province in China (Amartya Sen, 1994T 2.pdf). Furthermore, the number of girls entering education, except technical and professional education, is much higher than the boys (p.38 2pdf). Education contributes in many ways to Kerala development. Particularly womens education has played important role in declining the mortality rates. Educated women are better able to take charge of their lives. For example, the typical Keralas woman gets married at the 22 age, compared to 18 in the rest of India. On an average, women with at least an elementary education give a birth to two children less than uneducated women. Whats more, they also want a good education for their children, particularly their daughters. On the other hand, despite progress in gender equality in education, violence against women increases particularly domestic violence. A study conducted by INCLEN and ICRW on domestic violence in Kerala found that as high as 62.,3 percent of the women in Kerala are subjected to physical torture and mental harassment as compared to 37 percent and 35.5 percent at the national India level. (ICRW 2002). There are increasing reports of dowry related violence, rape and other abuse against women in Kerala (Womens Commission, 1999). This is fallow by reports of poor mental health with increase of the cases of depression found among the women. The other notable aspect of Keralas gender equality is little participation and representation women in politics, political parties and the trade union. Out of 144 seats in the State assembly, the number of women has never been more than 13, what is 10 percent of the all sates. (Sakhi women resource centre, The situation of women in the state: the gender paradox). Questions are being raised whether public and private expenditure to sustain educational activity on such a massive scale has really generated returns in terms of economic development and employment generation. Definitely it generated in human development. The fact is that service sector including education is the fastest growing sector in Kerala economy. Its share improved steadily from 36.4 percent in 1980- 81 to 40.1 percent in 1990-91 and further to 45.4 percent 1997-98 (EPW Research Foundation, 2003). Second, the biggest achievement of Kerala Model of Development is control of the population growth. In the seventies, the growth rate in population declined from 2.33 percent in the sixties to 1.76 percent. In the eighties the growth rate in population comes down to 1.34 percent. In the nineties it was just 0.91 percent. Birth rate had come down from 25.0 during 1974-80 to 20.3 during 1984-90 and to 17.1 during 1994-2001. S Irudaya accented that the Total Fertility Rate declined from 2.9 to 2.0 and to 1.7 during this period (S.Irudaya Rajan and Sabu Aliyar, 2004). It had impact on family transition, the number of children in a household. The two-child family is the social norm here now, said M.N. Sivaram, the Trivandrumcapital of Keralarepresentative of the International Family Planning Association. Even among illiterate women we find its true. When we send our surveyors out, people are embarrassed to say if they have more than two kids. Seven or eight years ago, the norm was three c hildren and we thought we were doing pretty well. Now its two, and among the most educated people, its one. (Dynamics of Change in Keralas Education System:The Socio-economic and Political Dimensions K.K.George Parvathy Sunaina Working paper No.12 ). Also according to current data, the expectation of life at birth of males is 71.2 years, against an Indian average of 59.1 years, and the expectation of life at birth of females is 73.7 years, against an Indian average of 60.4 years. Keralas access to affordable health care and education has huge impact on birth and mortality rate of the population. Birth control is wildly accessible. There is a dispensary every few kilometres where IUDs and other forms of birth control are freely available. The health clinics provide cheap health care for children, programs for mothers like breast-feeding, and a state-supported nutrition program for pregnant and new mothers. For example, more than 95% of Keralite births are hospital-delivered what place Kerala among developed countries. Kearla Model of Development shows also improvement in living conditions. According to K. R Nayar 47 per cent of the rural population and 74 per cent of the urban population are covered by protected water supply. The dependence on surface water for drinking is less than one per cent in the state. More than four- fifth of the people have access to water supply within their own premises. The share of people who have to travel for more than half a kilometre for drinking water is just 1.7 per cent in the rural areas and 0.4 per cent in the urban areas (K.R.Nayar, 1997). Important factor to Keralas social development was land reform, which completely transformed landownership system, and ended janmi system. It also protected tenants, and ended system of rack-renting. It shifted house and land ownership to poor families. Furthermore, in 1989 the government initiated the group-farming program, which provides families with financial and technical assistance. The program was expected to be a key to reduction of production costs and raise efficiency of paddy cultivation. But despite this it seems that Keralas agriculture is today neither a life activity of the families nor a important economic activity, except for a limited number of plantation crops, and rubber. The radical changes in Keralas agrarian economy have also led to transformations in the nature of agricultural activities, employment, and lifestyles. Firstly, today the average farmer in Kerala is not engaged personally in most agricultural activities. Secondly, a substantial number of farming f amilies have non-agricultural sources of income. Instead the income comes mainly from abroad remittance or employment in Keralas highly occupied service sector, like education, public sector, etc. Secondly, agricultural, traditional economic activities, like small fishing businesses, are no longer seen as an economically virtual provider of income, an adequate return of investment. Thirdly, the existence of labour shortages together with high unemployment raised the perception that these jobs are economically worthless. Final and probably more important aspect is the low status of irksome jobs, which it seems to be no longer culturally desirable option for a young and educated generation. As a consequence land in Kerala doesnt have value for an agricultural use, but only for residential needs and as an indicator of social position, as well as a resource of the safe investment. It seems Kerala agriculture does not contributing in major way to the country economy. The share of agricul ture in NSDP has come down from 39.1percent in 1980-81 to 35.7 percent in 1990-91. It came down further to 30.6 percent in 1997-98 and still dropping down (Pillai N. India 05 p. 28 -31). The state is heavily dependent on imports for meeting its food requirements in addition some traditional occupation in agriculture is disappearing due to lack of interest and market competition. For example an occupation of coconut-picking is abounded from agriculture. Rashied, whose family was living from this profession from generation, said Not one of my sons or my brothers sons or my sisters sons has taken up the occupation of coconut-picking. In fact, there is not a single family in our community (caste) which has a son in this occupation. After all, climbing trees and picking coconuts requires hard physical work, not the game of tricking and hoodwinking, to which the new generation in Kerala has now become accustomed. An elderly coconut picker and a life-long activist in the Communist Party of India commenting on the severe shortage of coconut pickers. (Interview with the author, 1994). The Perils of Social Development without Economic Growth: The Development Debacle of Kerala, India By Joseph Tharamangalam In termes of development infrastructure like transport, telephone line banking system Kerala made the leading place among Indian states. The banking system, particularly growths study mostly thanks to Gulf remittance. Between 2000 and 2001 Kerala had 9,8 banks per 100-sq km of area, much above all India 2.1 per 100-sq km. Investment in communication system brought Kerala to the leading state in India. In 2002, Keralas telephone concentration was 85 per 1000 population, within 71 in the rural areas. In addition, Keralas transport, which has huge impact on population accessibility to education and health care, shows impressive growth. On the other hand, power sector suffers on improvement. For egzample, in 2001 only 70,2 percent of rural household had complete electrification (Pillai N. India 05 p. 28 -31). The fact is that Kerala Model of Development have not improvement or little in others development indicators. For example, Keralas Model is failing in creating job Market. Unemployment is very high. Though there was growth in NSDP during the nineties, it was actually a jobless growth. The employment stretch for Kerala for the period 1993-94 to 1999-00 was the lowest among the major states in India. While the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the State grew by 5.5 percent per annum during this period, employment grew by just 0.7 percent. As a result, unemployment rate of Kerala increased from 15.5 percent in 1993-94 to 21.0 percent in 1999-2000. The rate of unemployment in Kerala was almost three times the all India rate. (The Economic Survey, 2003-04). Unemployment problem in Kerala is largely a problem of the educated population More than one-fourth of the rural educated and one-fifth of the urban educated were unemployed in the State. Unemployment rate among the educated perso ns above fifteen years was much higher than the rate for the general population in this age group. The problem was much more acute among educated women. Nearly half of the educated women in the rural areas were unemployed. In the urban areas, more than 40 percent of the educated women were unemployed (B.A.Prakash and M.P.Abraham, 2004). Also work seekers in 80 percent had qualifications of SSLC and above. The proportion of this category of work seekers was increasing in the nineties (Economic Review, 2003). Among the professional and technical work seekers, the largest group was that of ITI certificate holders (68.5 percent). The next significant group was that of diploma holders in engineering and technology (23.9 percent). The growth in unemployment among the educated is not surprising as the employment in the organized sector grew only by 7.7 percent between 1990 and 2002. The public sector employment showed only marginal increase during the above period (1.6 percent). Though gro wth in private sector employment (15.3 percent) was relatively high, it was inadequate to offset the near stagnation in public sector employment The increasing unemployment of the educated group rises the question if is any point in government spending more funds on education, which leads only to higher unemployment. Instead Kerala government should spend more investment on creating for them job market and create education structure according to the market needs. On the other hand, despite large scale unemployment particularly among the educated population, the private demand for higher education has been increasing. It seems that high unemployment and competition among qualified population looking for jobs has led to the upgrading qualifications standards. Higher skills and qualifications, or even escalation of qualifications, are see as a securing future job. Easy access to the higher educational institutions, affordable school fee and the low transportation cost made it possible. Another factor that increases the demand for higher education, despite low rate of employment among educated people, is the relatively lower waiting period and higher compensation for better-qualified candidates (E.T.Mathew, 1995). Even though Kerala has a large unemployment, this region is still an economic migration for many unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labours, mostly from neighbouring states like Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Orissa or West Bengal. The migrants are replacing Keralas own leaving population on a hunt for work abroad. The way, which Kerala deals with the unemployment and lack of industrialisation is economical migration it population. According to K, C.Zachariah Migration has provided the single most dynamic factor in the other wise dismal scenario of Kerala in the last quarter of the 20th Century. It is one of the positive outcomes of the Kerala Model of Development. In Kerala, migration must have contributed more to poverty alleviation than any other factor including agrarian reforms, trade union activities and social welfare legislation (K.C.Zachariah, E.T.Mathew and S.Irudaya Rajan, 2000). The number of Kerala emigrants to other countries looking for a job increased from 230,740 in 1982 to 637,103 in 1992 and to 1844,023 in 2003. The annual remittances from the emigrants increased from Rs.13, 652 crores in 1999 to Rs.18, 465 crores in 2003 and still reasing. the remittances to Kerala from its emigrants to other countries alone were equivalent to 22-25 percent of NSDP (K.C.Zachariah and S.Iruda ya Rajan, 2004).The remittances had made tremendous impact on income distribution among regions, communities and religious groups, as well as made impact on poverty reduction. Today Keralas economy is linked more to countries outside particularly to the Gulf countries than to some of the regions within the country. Both the labor markets abroad and the remittances of the emigrants have influenced on Kerala income. Average annual remittances ranged from Rs. 536 crores during 1980-85 to Rs. 10,835 crores during 1995-2000. As a percentage of the State Domestic Product (SDP) remittances constituted, on an average, around 11 percent since early eighties to the early nineties (till the end of the fixed exchange rate system). During the nineties it increased to around 21 per cent (K P Kannan, K S Hari 2000). Today Kerala economy structure relay mostly on remintence. The share of agriculture in NSDP has come down from 39.1percent in 1980-81 to 35.7 percent in 1990-91. It came down further to 30.6 percent in 1997-98. The share of industry also came down, though only marginally. Its share came down from 24.5 percent to 24.2 percent and further to 24.0 percent during the period. Service sector was the fastest growing sector in Kerala economy. Its share improved steadily from 36.4 percent in 1980- 81 to 40.1 percent in 1990-91 and further to 45.4 percent 1997-98 (EPW Research Foundation, 2003). Conclusion Keralas development Achived majore success in human developmen like mnimum social security, food security, minimum gender differences in education, as well as easy and affordable access to health care. Also significantly, Kerala distributed all the achievements relatively equally across urban-rural areas, between man and women, and low caste-high caste populations. In this respect Kerala does better than the rest of India, and some of developed countries. The existence of subsidised education has provided a fair degree for all social groups. On the economic front too, there has been great achievements in laying out transport and communication, banking system. On the other hand, Kerala Model is failing in providing equality between women and man in terms of jobs and wage rate. But the biggest flaw in this model is creating high unemployment, especially among educated population. Investing only in education sector without creating job market placed Kerala among country of great risk of floating high skills population out of the country. The increasing unemployment of the educated rises the question if is any point in government spending more funds on education, which leads only to higher unemployment. Instead Karalla government should spend more on investment at economy, agriculture, and industrialisation. Especially that economic migration to Gulf, high source of the state romances, facing the major competition from much cheaper labour from others poor Asian countries. Until now the remittances contribute to inflation, but do not help to resolve the fiscal problems. Furthermore it seems the human development could raise duo to Keralas history, and also mainly staying on the communist road of the politics. Communist government put more investments on social sectors like education and health neglecting mostly industry, and except land reform, agriculture. Another aspect of the success of the model is the Kerala economy exists and functions as an integral part of t he Indian economy and politics. Next aspect which should Karalla government deal with is that in a changing India, doing business is increasingly important and strong union and lack of flexibility makes impossible to invest by international corporation. As economic liberalization takes place in other states of India and tariffs are being lowered, as well as subsidized economy ended by turning to free-market enterprise and wooing multinational industries Kerala seems to be less attractive for potential investors. Kaerala does suffer from great fiscal deficitperhaps the problem laid down to a generous minimum wage; one of the best distribution systems in the country, leading to a network of shops that sell everything from rice to batteries at subsidized prices; and a land-reform program. Definitely Karela has been transforming itself from extremely poor state, ridden with caste and class conflicts and burdened by high birth, infant-mortality, and population grow rates into social- democratic state with low birth, and high leve of litratucy. But in terms of present economical situation the social development could be challenging to sustain steady. . There is a high road of development where it is possible to have growth with poverty reduction through job creation, reduced in-equality including gender in-equality and sustainable social development. The possibility of success of this growth depends on the kinds of jobs one creates. It also depends upon making, strengthening and improving policies based on gender equality for social developments. Sri Lanka has not done very well in this path, by way of growth. It is seen that in this path there is growing inequality, worsening gender indicators, and the potential for worsening social development. if social development does not generate growth and employment opportunities, what will be the major implication of such a situation which can even create an explosive situation. The development experience of Kerala poses many challenges for the development of Kerala in the new millennium. (jacket) http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no55611.htm That social development becomes un- sustainable with out economic growth, and over time can limits whatever further improvements may be possible. Strong social development by itself does not lead to high economic growth. Poor economic growth may limit whatever social development Kerala have achieved and whatever future social development could be necessary T high social development can actually limit the further capacity for poverty eradication and growth. This is because the focus is on social development with out adequate attention to the issues of economic growth and there is the inability to use the resources effectively by paying sufficient attention to the requirements- inability because you are not paying attention to the requirements and possibilities of economic growth itself. There is no attention being paid to the possibilities created by the social development itself and the resources thus created. For example, Kerala is relatively slow in recognizing the potentials of a relatively highly educated labor force beyond sending them out as migrants. Another example may be really to recognize or to take advantage of the fact that Kerala is one of Indias major places of Ayurveda, which is becoming a major global industry in the context of biotechnology. So the inability to see Keralas own resources, potentials, possibilities as w ell as the risks of not paying attention to the situations comes from an approach which does not sufficiently pay attention to the problems of economic growth. Bibliografia (http://www.cds.edu/download_files/374.pdf Unemployment in Kerala at the turn of the century insights from CDS gulf migration studies K. C. Zachariah S. Irudaya Rajan August 2005 working paper 374 p. 21). http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/98sep/kerala.htm S E P T E M B E R  Ã‚  1 9 9 8 Development and quality of life cant always be measured purely in economic terms. The Indian state of Kerala is a case in point Akash Kapur September 1998 Poor but Prosperous 324 pdf) (http://www.cds.edu/download_files/374.pdf Unemployment in Kerala at the turn of the century insights from CDS gulf migration studies K. C. Zachariah S. Irudaya Rajan August 2005 working paper 374 p. 21) ) Keralas education system: from inclusion to exclusion, Economic and Political Weekly, 10 October 2009, VOL XLIV, NO 41, page 55 ) (Amartya Sen, 1994T 2.pdf http://www.csesindia.org/admin/modules/cms/docs/publication/2.pdf Sakhi women resource centre, The situation of women in the state: the gender paradox. http://sakhikerala.org/Status%20of%20Women%20in%20Kerala%20.html Dynamics of Change in Keralas Education System:The Socio-economic and Political Dimensions K.K.George Parvathy Sunaina Working paper No.12 http://csesindia.org/admin/modules/cms/docs/publication/12.pdf (K.R.Nayar, 1997 Nayar K.R, Housing Amenities and Health Improvement: SomeFindings, Economic and Political Weekly, May 31- June 6, ). KERALA THE LAND OF DEVELOPMENT PARADOXES K.K.George and N.Ajith Kumar Working Paper No.2 November 1997 http://www.csesindia.org/admin/modules/cms/docs/publication/2.pdf (INFRASTRUCTURE, GROWTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN KERALA Pillai N., Vijayamohanan Centre for Development Studies, Prasanth Nagar, Ulloor, Trivandrum, Kerala, India 05 p. 28 -31). KERALAS GULF CONNECTION Emigration, Remittances and their Macroeconomic Impact 1972-2000 K. P. Kannan K. S. Hari Working Paper No. 328

Girl Interrupted Essay -- essays research papers

GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993) 1. Author: Susanna Kayson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1948 where she still lives. She is the author of books which are in some parts related to her personal experiences. She worked as a free-lance editor and proof reader until an introduction to an agent set her career in motion. Her novels: The novel that caught the agent's attention, Asa, As I Knew Him, was published in 1987 and people were very interested in it. Kaysen followed up the success of her first book three years later with her second novel, Far Afield. Kaysen's third and as far as I know last book, Girl, Interrupted has been hugely acclaimed in America and Britain. 2. Subject of the book: The book is an autobiography . It ´s about her memories of her two-year stay at McLean ´s psychiatric hospital, where she was treated for depression and Borderline Personality. With the help of a lawyer she obtained her 350 page file from the hospital. 3. Setting†¦: The story is set in the years 1967 to 1969. Mostly it takes place on the ward for teenage girls in the McLean psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is known for its famous clients – Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, Anne Sexton and Ray Charles. 4. Characters: Susanna Kaysen(main character): She is an 18-year-old girl, and the story is, since it is an autobiography told from her point of view. What was going wrong with her life? She tells us she decided s...

Annotated Outline and Bibliography Essay

1. Methods of Criminal Profiling Methods of criminal profiling are scientific knowledge used to help build a profile against an offender, a profile of the crime or crime scene, and/or the victim. These are criminal analysis, diagnostic evaluation, geographic profiling, investigative psychology and much more. A. Criminal Investigative Analysis Criminal investigative analysis is a process in which the investigator reviews the crimes of the offender. Through this reviewing the investigator is able to map the offender’s characteristics such as their criminal behaviors. B. Diagnostic Evaluations (DE) This type of evaluation is a result of mental, medical, and clinical experience by professionals in these fields. These are normally done when asked and not done as a routine type of assessment. 2. Usefulness of Profiling in Determining Offender Identity and Behavioral Patterns. Profiling helps to prove an offenders identity as well as their behavioral patterns. To do this it is done through investigating the crime scene characteristics. An investigator will access whether the characteristics are organized or unorganized as well. Those are also found by doing evaluations such as diagnostic evaluations. A. Offender Identity Through certain aspects of criminal profiling an offender’s identity can be found out by what type of evidence was left such as a fingerprint or what  DNA was left behind found in such things as blood or hair. B. Behavioral Patterns Through an offender’s behavioral patterns such as what ligatures were used, weapons used or wound patterns can all show specific behavioral patterns of an offender. 3. Psychopathy’s Role in Criminal Profiling Psychopathy plays a major and drastic role in criminal profiling. Through the behaviors that psychopaths demonstrate profilers can see other specific patterns of offenders. Psychopathy helps profilers in linkage analysis in such ways as offenders behaviors or even the reasoning behind the crime. A. Psychopathy Psychopathy is a personality disorder in which is clarified by meeting certain criteria. 4. Legal and Ethical Issues Within Criminal Profiling Legal and ethical issues have riddled criminal profiling since its existence. There is a committee called the Committee on Ethical Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists. These issues are not just about the offender. These ethical factors affect innocent individuals and hurt the criminal justice field as a whole. There are legal issues such as forensic fraud which is done by giving a sworn under oath statement or testimony which is false or misleading. 5. Evidence-based, Victim-based Evidence, and Offender-based Forensic Evaluations in Relation to Criminal Profiling These three evaluations are bases in the heart of criminal profiling. These three evaluations all have a certain role in which they have that builds a profile towards an offender. These evaluations help profilers and investigators to better understand all realms to every case they are involved in. These evaluations help to give details in cases that otherwise might not have been found otherwise. A. Evidence Based Forensic Evaluations Evidence based forensic evaluations are often ignored due to many scandals. However this evaluation can often show and link evidence to a case and can also help in being able to have the evidence admissible in court. B. Victim Based Evaluation This evaluation helps investigators and profilers to be able to see inside more so the victims life. This also helps the profilers to better map the victims lifestyle and circumstances in which may have led up to the offense that turned them into a victim. C. Offender Based Forensic Evaluation Through offender based forensic evaluations profilers assess the offenders age, sex, intelligence as well as other offense related behaviors. Through this profilers will learn the aspects of the offender such as their knowledge not only of the crime scene or crime itself, yet of the victims as well as their criminal skill. 6. What is Victimology and Its Role in Criminal Profiling Victimology plays a major role in criminal profiling for numerous reasons. One reason being that of the offender. It helps to answer certain characteristic questions regarding the offender. It gives a very specific as well as accurate outline into the victim’s life and their lifestyle. This helps profilers to also better understand the crime in which the victim was made to endure and suffer from. A. What is Victimoogy â€Å"Forensic victimology is the scientific study of violent crime victim’s for the purposes of addressing investigative and forensic questions† (Turvey, 2012, Pg.125). 7. Evaluate Predatory Behaviors Based on Crime Scene Behaviors as Illustrated By Evidence Predatory behaviors based on crime scene behaviors as illustrated by evidence helps to further explain more about the offender. This also shows the profiler the offender’s behaviors as to his choice of victim, point of contact, the offender’s method of approach and more. Predatory behaviors help profiler to understand the offenders MO or theory of a motive. This behavior shows whether it was sadistic, administrative, power reassurance behavior, or rage/anger retaliatory behavior. These behaviors also show just how serious of a predator the offender is and if they will escalate in the seriousness of their crimes or if they are psychopathic or if they have Anti-social Personality disorder. A. Predatory Behaviors Predatory behaviors are such behaviors as stalking the victim, amount of  planning the crime, use of restraints, as well as the offenders Modus Operandi and whether or not it was acted out. References Association, A. P. (2004). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.  This source discusses psychopathy in depth. Psychopathy has different attributes as per the different levels. The different levels of psychopathy are criminal and non-criminal which are further discussed and explained. This resource will help to better understand psychopathy. Bateman, A. L., & Salfati, G. C. (2005). Serial homicide: an investigation of behavioral consistency. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 2, 121-144. doi:10.1002/jip.27 This article on serial homicide discusses in depth the different behaviors displayed by the offender. This will help to further support the aspect of predatory behaviors by an offender. This will help to link predatory behaviors and criminal profiling. Crawford, G., & Walters, G. D. (2014). Major mental illness and violent history as predictors of institutional misconduct and recidivism: Main and Interaction Effects. Law and Human Behavior, 38(3), 238-247. doi:10.1037/Ihb0000058 This study accesses different mental disorders and how they relate to crimes. This source will help to show and support behavioral patterns of the criminal offender. In relaying this information we can further link the usefulness of criminal profiling with criminal behaviors. Fontaine, R. G., Fox, A. R., & Kvaran, T. H. (2013, Winter). Psychopathy and culpability: how responsible is the psychopath for criminal wrongdoing? Journal of the American Bar Association, 38(1), 1-26. Retrieved January 28th, 2015 This study and/or source explain in extreme depth about psychopathy and how it is a personality disorder rather than a mental disorder. It helps to further explain some issues prosecuting an offender with psychopathy. This relates to the essay in addressing psychopathy as well as the role psychopathy plays in criminal profiling and criminal behaviors as well.  Goodey, D. J. (2006). Ethnic profiling, criminal (in) justice and minority populations. Critical Criminology, 207-212. The article written by Goodey further explains different ethical issues within profiling. Such issues discussed are racial profiling, ethnic profiling and police criminal stereotypes. This will help to relate and better understand the legal and ethical issues within the paper and support any findings. Henwood, D., Lamb, R., Lambie, I., & Scott, D. (2006, November). Profiling stranger rapists: Linking offense behaviour to previous criminal histories using a regression model. Journal of Sexual Aggresion, 12(3), 265-275. Retrieved February 2, 2015 This article discusses geographic profiling, evidence and investigative analysis, investigative psychology, and diagnostic evaluations. Offender behaviors and offender criminal patterns are addressed. The article covers as well behavioral characteristics and behavioral patterns as well to also link them to criminal profiling. These are all relevant as to these are core points to be addressed within the paper. Hinch, R., Lubaszka, C. K., & Shon, P. C. (2014). Healthcare serial killers as confident men. Journall of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 11, 1-28. doi:10.1002/jip.1394 This article covers the realm of investigative psychology. Through the study of healthcare serial killers the investigative psychology is discussed. This article will further discuss certain behaviors of the offenders as well which will further help to link the findings and further support the findings within the paper. Ibe, Ph.D, P., Obiyan, Ph.D., E., & Ochie, Ph.D., C. (2012, November). Racial misuse of â€Å"criminal profiling† by law enforcement: intentions and implications. African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies, 6(1 & 2), 177-196. Retrieved January 20th, 2015 The article discusses criminal profiling in depth which will help to further explain and define criminal profiling. The article also discusses several ethical issues within profiling. The resources will help to further support the findings and link the sources to the paper. Lynam, D. R. (2012).  Assessment of maladaptive variants of five factor model traits. Journal of personality, 1467-6494. This article discusses psychopathy as a personality disorder and delves deeper into the understanding of the disorder. The article explains how it relates to forensic evaluations. This gives the support needed to show the connection between psychopathy and criminal profiling. Marcus, PhD, D. K., & Norris, MA, A. L. (2014). A new measure of attitudes toward sexually predatory tactics and its relation to the triarchic model of psychopathy. Journal of Personality Disorders, 28(2), 247-261. Retrieved February 3rd, 2015 This article covers psychopath’s connection to behavioral traits and personality traits. This links it to the paper at hand due to the fact it further discusses personality traits and behaviors of sexual predators. It further discusses criminal predatory behaviors such as various sexual tactics and other problematic sexual behaviors. Myers, M.D., W. C. (2004). Serial murder by children and adolescents. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 22, 357-374. doi:10.1002/bsl.590 This article discusses six cases of child serial killers, their behavioral characteristics, methods of killing and the crimes of themselves. This article supports the usefulness of criminal profiling in determining offender identity. This article will further support the aspect of evaluations in criminal profiling as well. Quayle, J. (2008). Interviewing a Psychopathic Suspect. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 5, 79-91. doi:10.1002/jip This research article discusses psychopathy as a personality disorder that has certain elements that the offender must meet before being clarified as psychopathic. This further helps to define and understand the role in which psychopathy plays within criminal profiling. This article coincides with other articles to further back up the findings from them as well. Turvey, B. E. (2012). This source is being used to help us further understand victimology and how it works within criminal profiling. Brent Turvey has experience within the criminal profiling field and gives much insight to ethical and legal issues, offender behaviors, and psychopathy. This source helps to fully pull everything together and backs up all other resources and findings as a whole which helps to solidify the paper to be most factual.

Abigail Should Be Regarded as a Victims of the Puritan Society Essay

Whether in novels, movies or plays, the villains usually leave some negative impressions on the audience so that the villains basically become the most unpopular roles in the works. Because the audiences easily produce subjective consciousness following the villains’ performances in the stories, they are used to ignoring the factor that the villains also could be the victims at the same time. In the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is a controversial villain because she is both a typical instigator of the accusations and a victim of the Puritan society at the same time. Firstly, Abigail’s heartrending life experiences and the Puritan society environment which she lives in build her complex character. Secondly, in the affair between her and Proctor, Abigail not only loses love but also she is hated by her lover. First of all, the unpleasant past and the Puritan environment build Abigail’s complex character. To begin with, she is ruthles s because it can be shown from her attitude towards the other girlsof Salem. In order to prevent other girls from speaking out what they have done against the puritanical rules in the forest, she threatens these girls, â€Å"[†¦] I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish had never seen the sun go down!† (Miller 20) A normal girl should never say about that. It is so early for Abigail to experience such a cruel scene as a young child. Her parents’ death greatly affects her, as a result of which this event is likely to leave a wound on her heart. She also gradually becomes ruthless because of that. In addition, the children of Puritan society were never valued by their parents and their physical and psychological health would not be developed very well. Like her contemporaries, Abigail lacks care from her uncle in her childhood. She is adopted by her uncle Parris Williams who a priest in Salem. At the beginning of the play, the narrator said:â€Å"He was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them. [†¦] like the rest of Salem, never conceived that the children were anything [†¦] (Miller 4). Parris never cares about Abigail’s growing up and only cares about his wealth and reputation in Salem. Without the correct guidance, Abigail has to face and solve every problem she may meet in her life by herself. Even though she uses some wrongful means to achieve her purpose, she never cares about whether they are correct or not, because nobody enlightens her how to face these  difficult situations. For example, when Parris asks her what they really have done in the forest, because she fears being punished, she instigates the other girls to cover up the truth, even accusing those innocent people when they are interrogated who are the devils’ servants. Moreover, the Puritanical rules restricts the entertainments of the children’s. This also evokes these girls’ï ¼Å' especially Abigail so that they want to seek some exciting activities somewhere.Therefore, the identity of being an orphan and her miserable childhood experiences cause the ruthless and dishonest character of Abigail, and make her become a victim of the Puritan society. Furthermore, Abigail is a victim in the love affair because she loses her reputation and gets nothing in the end. Firstly, Abigail loses her innocence in villager’s eyes of Salem. When her uncle Parris is talking about her name, Parris mentions Proctor’s wife Elizabeth and he said: â€Å"she comes so rarely to the church this year for she will not sit so close to something soiled. [†¦] that you are now seven months out of their house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for your service (Miller 12). This shows that Abigail has lost her reputation in Salem. Her affair with John Proctor is already known by many people and this event causes n obody would like to employ her. As an unmarried girl, innocence is very important, unlike Proctor who has married Elizabeth. In her future life, no one would like to marry such a soiled girl. At the end of the play, Abigail’s ending is tragic: â€Å"The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston† (Miller ECHOES DOWN THE COORIDOR). She has paid her reputation for love but she still loses Proctor’s love. When Danforth asks where he and Abigail’s affair happened, Proctor tells the truth: In the proper place –where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past. [†¦] I beg you, sir, I beg you—see what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity [†¦] (Miller 110). John Proctor would rather sacrifice his reputation than harming those innocent people including his wife. He makes his mind up to save Elizabeth and expose the Abigail’s true face at the same time. This reveals Proctor’s emotions toward Abigail at this time. There is not any love is remained in his heart, only anger and hatred. Abigail is a loser in love: she loses Proctor. She is too young and impulsive so that she never considers the consequences when she falls in  love with Proctor who cannot bring her anything she wants. Thus, she gets nothing. All in all, although Abigail is a villain in this play, she is also a victim of Puritan society.

French-Themed Celebrations

French-Themed Celebrations For Francophiles, any time is a good time to celebrate French, but there is one holiday in particular that cries out for a French-themed party: Bastille Day. Here are some ideas for a party with some French panache.DecorationsIf youre going for patriotic Bastille Day colors, Americans have it easy: you can just reuse your red, white, and blue bunting from the 4th of July. You might also consider investing in some posters, or make your own by blowing up your favorite photos of France. If youre feeling artistic or playful, decorate place card with little drawings of the Eiffel Tower, or make tiny berets or French flags as party favors.DiscussionsTo get people in a chatty mood, consider one of these topic ideas:  Ã‚  Ã‚  - French quotations - offer up a few of your favorite Francophone words of wisdom for discussion.  Ã‚  Ã‚  - Today in Francophone history - talk about famous French people who share each guests birthday.  Ã‚  Ã‚  - Travel stories - anyone who has been to France wi ll be eager to talk about it. Set up a projector to swap stories and photos.  Ã‚  Ã‚  - French culture - theres no shortage of discussion topics when it comes to French movies, plays, literature...  Ã‚  Ã‚  - French is better than... everything - I put this together just for fun; see if you can add to my lists, or come up with new ones.  Ã‚  Ã‚  - Spanish is easier than French - fact or fiction?EntertainmentDont forget to have some nice French music playing in the background, or even a movie.Food and DrinkNothing says fà ªte like good French food and drinks. Some classic foods are cheese, crà ªpes, fondue, French onion soup, pà ¢tà ©, pissaladià ¨re, quiche, ratatouille, croissants, and a variety of French breads. For dessert, try chocolate mousse, and crà ¨me brà »là ©e. As for beverages, theres wine, champagne, pastis, chartreuse, coffee, and Orangina. Bon appà ©tit  !Vive la France!

Bad effects on too much exposure Essay Example

Bad effects on too much exposure Essay Example Bad effects on too much exposure Essay Bad effects on too much exposure Essay Too Much Exposure: Unstoppable Torture The environment is where crowding among different persons takes place. It has an enormous factor on the development of an individual, most especially, human behavior. With those interactions, experiences are gathered for learnings to emerge. I agree with B. f. Skinners perception about the big impact of nature to mans whole- being. The totality of a man is an upshot of everything that surrounds us. We become what we plan us to be from all the experiences we have undergone. Biology may have a role in some aspects of our humanity, but man develops, adjusts and adapts sychologically without the influence of biology. We will be someone if only we, ourselves, allow it to happen (Skinner, 1973). The family is obliged to take good care of its young members. There is where the foundation of everyones performance started. The members of the family are the first models of the young whom they mimic, for they are the first people who got in touch with the child. Family members have most likely the same biological influences. This is because of the fact that they are together, and in each others company which have a big effect on actions and usual routines. In adoption, the parents who are not genetically correlated with the children may have the same way of rearing their young that can result to the adoptive siblings to be similar in their behavior even they are not biologically related (Plomin, 1997). Punishments and rewards due to family control also play a role in the wholeness of a person. As an individual grows and the number of people who he/she interacts with increases, various changes also happen. Together with age, the behavior of an individual develops due to crowding or the interactions with different people in the environment. Puberty is a stage when changes happen because of publicity and socializations with different kinds of people in different settings. With this, deeds are honed where others are the basis. The grounds on why people change sexually and psychologically are not wholly understood by people even by the professionals. But one thing is clear that the community is the umpire in the major changes happening to ones life. Objects respond to stimulus, so as people. Toa homeless spider, web is the corroboration, Just like people seeking for something that will bestow their needs. People change based on the environment and culture where es in. Peoples attitudes in various places are different as well. Moving to a different community plays a big role in peoples adaptation and adjustment they are being controlled by the hands of the environment. Adaptation is to be done for an individual to be fitted to the community (Plomin, 1997). Man adjusts to his environment to survive life psychologically with all the considerations not because he is intellectually skilled to know what he needs to be in a certain atmosphere. Being in a new environment allows us to modify our actions in which people try to find ways on how to stay the same for a long time. This leads to what we call hobby. In the society we are moving in, injustice is concrete which can therefore be a reason for depression for those who are refused and isolated. Human behavior, which is alterable due to deals in the community, can lead to depression, anxiety, troubles in the family and crime. This change in personality is arduous to control. Thus, exposure to different people in the environment has unwanted effects on human behavior that can lead to self destruction, ruin our family and the whole society. These are due to gender inequality, personal control of influential and powerful eople over the frail ones and differentiation of cultures and beliefs. Gender affects the whole being of an individual. It is a great factor on the development of a person due to environmental expectations for being a male or a female. The community has certain standards for one to be accepted as one of them. Those who are in need are more likely to be neglected Just like beggars, and the rich people are more accepted. In a family, women are those who are usually controlled by parents when it comes to choosing for their future unlike men that usually choose their own. People also often base their standards to ones cleverness and skill as men being sturdier than women. A man and a woman bounded together also yield bad effects in ones life. These standards pilot to gender inequality. Women have been traditionally linked to chores and are usually strained to do things which they are not up to with like in college courses. Usually, parents depersonalize them because they are the one choosing what road they must tackle regardless of their desires as individuals. This causes the child to rebel especially when she does not want what she pushed through. The child, more often than not, chooses to leave their home and live independently for them to be given the chance to choose what they want to happen with their lives that may lead to family problems and personal problems as well. Men get more confident like in Job interviews more often than women for they know that every institution needs robust persons. Women, who have shallow personalities, on the other hand, losses hope. Men are also stereotyped as intelligent most especially in mathematics and logic fields more than women. This factor leads to womens extreme depression hat makes them force themselves to do more than what they can and what they are able to. Nevertheless, men have this formidable feeling of potency. It makes them experience the feeling of overconfidence. Also in politics, more men choose to be a political candidate and men are more often elected than women. Once an individual gets older, mutual feeling with someone will then follow and love cultivates. We all know that love is the most warming and tendering feeling of all, but it does not end there. Love can also lead to damaging effects during misunderstandings that can put people to come to blows, break-up or worse, murder. Women, who are labeled as very loving and considerate tend to be hurt more not Just mentally but physically. Men, having tough personality oftentimes are those who are numb. However, obsession is oftentimes carted by men over women they genuinely like. Those obsessed persons who are not adored back due to personality or physical presentation struggle to extreme feelings and confusion that may lead to murder. However, women are in to media. Women celebrities are more dominant than men. And women can put make ups to cover their concerns but men cannot. This may be a factor why gay population ncreases due to lack of their prerequisites to be considered a man. Directly speaking, being gay is considered a negative effect of lacking something in a mans personality due to parents way of rearing or because of exposure to different kinds of people and abuses that made them seek for something they thought would complete them. In this modern time, number of bisexuals increases unstoppably. And they are repeatedly discriminated by people showing them that there is no space for bisexuals in this wide community. People usually blame others and degrade them. Because of this, discriminated peoples learning is stunned. It will be very difficult for those people to learn. They will be maladaptive from learning over all experiences that can make them and the people surrounding them think that they are out of place because they act inappropriately. Gender inequality has many terrible effects on the whole being of one person. Because of this, the stronger individuals and those with more abilities tend to have power over the weak people. A person wounded by love can hurt not Just others but also himself. Discriminated people such as bisexuals try to persuade others that they must be accepted to the ommunity that is why they do their best in everything, not knowing that sometimes those acts are tactless. Gender can enormously affect ones behavior. Aside from this, being controlled by others has great consequences also. In a community, people working with each other also tend to control one another. In school, in the office, most especially because of media, we, people will be apt to change perception about our own behavior. Personal attachments with peers, in the family, and with the persons you want or not can cause awful acts because of what our eyes see on them Just like addiction. Cigarettes, ard games and other disastrous hobbies are learned in the community. Young individuals and even the mature ones tend to imitate people that are more exposed to nature. They thought doing such things can make them be accepted by his/her peers and in his/her community not knowing that these can directly ruin their life. Nowadays, pregnant women get younger and younger. This is because young couples are dominated by media. There are many unsecured pornographic sites that influences immature people to do things out of their ages. Another is someone in- touch with criminals, in a family or circle of friends. They can be influenced by those wrong-doers by thinking that having a life like a thief, killer, etc. is normal. For example, a child exposed to stealing, he/she may think that being a thief is an easy job wherein you can get all you want with Just a snap. All of these and many others show that the ecosystem has a great power to influence and indirectly control others. High-class communities have high standards as well. People in this kind of place degrade those that are financially or even physically disabled. Many people want to be fitted in this kind of community that is why many people want to be rich. Because f this aim, many push themselves to do things they are not up to Just to be one of those well-to-do people. Here, we can portray insecurity. Insecurity can cause a lot of disaster. Because of this, one can steal Just to have stuffs like what the community wants. One may also kill because of unmanaged feelings. And one may be insane because of too much thinking on what to do and because of lack of mind orderliness. These are Just some of those bad effects of insecurity. Like celebrities, politicians and icons, popular people are also adored and hated at the same time. Some people idolize them which are often called die-hard fans. However, some also hate them. This differentiation brings up misunderstandings and a switch in a persons routine. People with wealth are more often praised than a person who, for example, sacrifice possessions for the good of all, die for everyone or someone who suffers martyrdom. Those wealthy, good-looking people who are always admired are often copied by those people who want to be accepted in the community like them. Here is where controlling others without consent takes place. Knowing that many ordinary people dream to be one of those on top, they urge themselves to go to the level with them. Those people feel that they are not accepted by the society that is why they do such things. People tend to change their lifestyles to be able to be one of the admired persons like what the people around them wanted. Ethical technique happens when people in one community tend to have power over another to control other people. An individual can either be accepted or not in a group. Accepted people are those who are admired and those who influence others and be mimicked by people who wanted to receive the same esteem. Praised people are cared for and stayed what they are. However, there are people who are not accepted in a community. They are those who are neglected and punished for being who they are. Those people try to find ways on how to be accepted. Though it is not that obvious, this is a way of controlling others wherein everyone is a victim. And we are not even aware of them as controls (Bever, Terrace, 1965). People learn from the environment they are in through a process called adaptation. People get use to their routines in the habitat where they grow. As time pass by, population increases and this manages you to transfer to a new place with a different culture. This leads to ones change in acts and hobbies. Bad influences are more ominant than the good ones because bad deeds can be learned easily unlike good doings which can make people hard to adjust. Religion is one of the many differences of persons in a community. Because of this difference, beliefs and rituals of people are not the inclined that can make people ask plenty of questions. This can affect the foundation of ones faith and religion and further break what he/she truly believes. For example, superstitious beliefs from barrios are not known to cities. These beliefs often bring confusions to the minds of people that may bring people far from reality without considerations. There are different kinds of people in a community that interact with each other. Because of these interactions, culture gains a lot with changes which are to be developed and spread for other people (Plomin, et al. , 1997). The changes that are born give people a switch in responses on different situations. One main subordinate of the individuality of a person is verbal behavior which starts at home and is molded in divert shifts in school or in work. This is also affected by the abundance of population in a community because more people yield more contacts and more communications. This trend attests its plausible unwanted effects o verbal behavior like cursing. Nowadays, cursing or saying bad words can be heard from very young people. A person that is always with someone saying those kinds of words can easily get influenced and latter do the same thing. The modern people make bad words as their natural expression even to normal situations. In the past, people are very conscious of the words that come out of their mouth. Now, many people do not care anymore because even the people around them do the same thing. A person from a primitive, simple and innocent life going to a place that is more exposed to the modern world can be tainted by those words. Even someone from that dreadful kind of community going to a calm place can influence the people there especially the young ones. Fliptop, a rapping battle that is very popular in the Philippines, is one of the best examples of inappropriate cursing. In this fixture, two or more people rap with the use humiliating words to fght for their crown as flip top king/queen. The one less discriminated will be proclaimed as the winner. This battle is one of the most-viewed videos in YouTube. People captured by this out-of-the- world game, especially the boys idolize the so-called flip top king. Because of this, hey tend to imitate him. Even in schools or in public places, you can hear a group of people doing the fliptop battle. This game is one of the many bad effects of cursing. Differentiation in culture, religion and ethics can make a person think that they are not fitted in the community hes/shes in. These differences can make people question the morals they are used to especially religion and beliefs that can further lead to long-term consequences in ones life like devastation of faith and believing on something that can Just ruin their lives like those superstitious beliefs that do not ave any basis and which history is unknown. The horrific changes in people is brought by the environment where we interact with other people due to many factors like gender inequality, ones control over the less- able and culture differentiation. One bad effect of exposure to many people in different environments is societal dilemma. Conflicts among different groups may be established like the wars happening in the Middle East and in different parts of the world due to their dissimilarities and competitions. Another is that in a community, people cannot escape those contagious immoral behaviors like what is Just said, cursing. Cursing is Just one of those hard-to-heal diseases from the society that can affect even the toughest person. This change can badly affect people from generation to generation not knowing that those doings are not the right ones. Those differences can also bring problems in the family. A husband or a wife that is exposed to different kind of people can cause a very common problem, third party. A married person may find someone they thought that can bring them pleasure, but it is obviously not. This can lead to severe family problems like divorce. A child open to his/her parents that are always arguing can lead to childs unbalanced thoughts ausing him/her to be rebel. The child will get more intouch with various peers causing more intense behavioral discrepancies. It is obvious that this unwanted change is caused by lack of care from parents. The worst and general effect of too much exposure is self destruction. From the first factor down to the last, all lead to awful intrapersonal changes. Off-beam choices give rise to appalling future. An unfortunate person that has financial incapacity, no possessions but a family can take all chances Just to provide his/her family their needs. Stealing and murder can be done by those persons because of their incapabilities. People that are discriminated tend to do something that can make other people stop humiliating them, even the wrong ones. Nonetheless, those people who are often admired and praised tend to think that they have great power wherein they can control everyone below them. They turn to be arrogant and bigheaded like many corrupt politicians that often screen themselves and act as if they are not doing anything immoral. Everyone knows that crowding is bad. Politicians, environmentalists, ethologists and biologists constantly warn of the evils of high density living. They assert that rowding causes tension, anxiety, family troubles, divorce, aggressiveness, neurosis, schizophrenia, rape, murder, and even war. It is a wonder that the world survives at all given that so many people live under conditions of severe crowding. (Freedman, 1975) References: Skinner, B. F, (1965). Science and Human Behavior. New York, Macmillan. Freedman, J. L, (1975). Crowding and Behavior. The Viking Press. New York, New York. Glass, D. C, (1968). Environmental Influences. The Rockefeller University Press. New York. Plomin, J. (1997). Biology and Environment. New York Publishing House. New York, New York.

Prevention and Control of Common Conifer Tree Diseases

Prevention and Control of Common Conifer Tree Diseases Like any kind of tree, the conifer is susceptible to a number of diseases that can damage or destroy it. Sometimes, these diseases strike trees in the forest; other times, only urban or suburban trees are stricken. Dead and dying trees are unsightly but theyre also a potential safety hazard. In populated areas, rot can cause limbs to drop or entire trees to collapse, especially during storms. In forested areas, dead trees can dry out, creating fuel for potential forest fires.  By learning how to recognize different conifer diseases, you can improve the health of trees on your property and preserve the integrity of the local ecosystem. Types of Conifer Disease Softwood or coniferous trees can be harmed or killed by disease-causing organisms called pathogens. The most common tree diseases are caused by fungi, though some diseases are caused by bacteria or viruses. Fungi lack chlorophyll and derive nourishment by feeding on (parasitizing) trees. Many fungi are microscopic but some are visible in the form of mushrooms or conks. Other factors affecting tree disease include climate and where the tree or trees are planted. Not all parts of a tree may be affected or exhibit symptoms. Disease may strike the needles, stem, trunk, roots, or some combination thereof. In some instances, trees can be saved by applying pesticides, trimming the diseased portions, or removing neighboring trees to provide more room. In other cases, the only solution is to remove the tree entirely. Needle Cast Needle cast is a group of tree diseases that cause conifers to shed needles. The symptoms of needle cast tree disease first appear on needles as light green to yellow spots, which eventually turn red or brown. Tiny black fruiting bodies form on the surface of the needles before or after the infected needles are shed. If left untreated, fungal growth can kill the entire needle. Treatment options include applying fungicides, removing diseased needles at first sign of infection, and trimming neighboring greenery to prevent overcrowding. Needle Blight This group of needle blight tree diseases, including Diplodia, Dothistroma and brown spot, attack conifers at the needles and on twig tips. Infected needles often fall from the tree, creating a denuded look. Blight can result in dramatic browning of the foliage, beginning on the lower branches. Repeated annual cycles of infection can result in dead limbs and eventual loss of any meaningful ornamental value. The most effective treatment option is  copper fungicide spray, but you may have to spray repeatedly in order to break the life cycle of the fungi that causes blight. Canker, Rust, and Blister The term canker is used to describe a dead or blistered area in the bark, branch, trunk of an infected tree. Dozens of species of fungi cause canker diseases.   Cankers often appear as waxy discharge on the bark. Blisters or galls appear on branches and look like cysts or tumors on the surface of the bark and may also occasionally produce a waxy or yellowish discharge. Often, lower branches will be the first to show symptoms. Treatment options include pruning affected areas and applying a fungicide. Wilts and Root Diseases These are wood-decay diseases. They may get in through wounds in the lower part of the tree or penetrate roots directly. They involve the roots and in some cases the butt also. These fungi travel from tree to tree either through the air or soil.   Symptoms include die-off of needles on entire branches or limbs, peeling bark, and dropped branches. As rot progresses, the underlying root structure decays, making the tree unstable.  Treatment options are few; in many cases, the entire tree must be removed. If you plan to treat a diseased tree yourself, remember to follow all product directions if using fungicide. Make sure you are properly equipped and wearing goggles, gloves, and other safety gear if you plan to remove part or all of a tree. When in doubt, call a professional tree service. Sources Murray, Madeline. Diseases of Conifers. Utah State University Extension. 3 February 2009.Pataky, Nancy. Common Conifer Diseases of Forests. The University of Illinois Extension. 2009.Wollaeger, Heidi. Preventing, Diagnosing, and Managing Diseases in Conifers. Michigan State University Extension. 5 December 2013.

Sar and UTI and Serodiagnosis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sar and UTI and Serodiagnosis - Assignment Example SARS is prevented by maintain a high personal hygiene such washing hands before handling any food item or eating. Hands should be washed after touching public equipment such as elevators and handrails by way of running water. An environment with good ventilation, proper pest infestation prevention, and healthy lifestyle can be used to prevent SARS. The disease is cured through administration of antibiotics for treating pneumonia. A patient gets antiviral medications and steroids to lessen lung swelling. Blood semen is administered to a patient recovering from the disease (Chp.gov.hk, 2015). The outbreak of SARS in 2003 saw researchers and scientists in Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) work with WHOM. There were no deaths following the outbreak, but eight citizens had laboratory evidence of SARS-CoV infection after traveling to the parts of the world that where the disease had spread. CDC opened Emergency Operations Center to offer relentless coordination and response. Eight hundred medical staff and additional medical officers, epidemiologists and specialists serviced the center to conduct on-site investigations around the globe. Health alert notices were given to travelers in the event they were exposed to SARS (CDC, 2015). UTIs may be acquired in the hospital, community and exposure to neurological conditions (Phagetherapycenter.com, 2015). Community-acquired UTIs account for 70% of overall infections and is linked to Escherichia coli from the bowels of the patients. Hospital acquired UTIs are attributed to predisposition to instrument such as surgical urinary catheter. The instruments host Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas, and Staphylococci bacteria and spread them to the patient. Hospital acquired UTIs manifest antibiotic resistance at times due to exposure to multiple organisms. In addition, neurological conditions such multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and spina bifida lead to UTIs. Primary

Consumer Behavior Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Consumer Behavior - Case Study Example The performance of iPod in the market can even be considered by market researchers as considerably illogical due to the fact that its features are opposing the norms of normal market trends such as affordability and flexibility in features yet continuously controlling the market with a significantly high market share. Compared to other products such as Nokia, the iPod is relatively high end, being exclusive in the features and having a very distinct appearance and characteristics. Although the product is neither affordable nor flexible in the features, it is highly recognizable thus considered to have transcended to ‘cult status’ or have subculture of its own. 2. The iPod product then can be considered as an agent for shifting culture in terms of technology. Initially the iPod users can be described as a diverse group who undergo a certain influence which can result to a transformation to the group known as the iPod users who are proud and confident of the product they are using to the point of accessorizing the said products regardless of the need or the price of such activity. Due to the said effects brought about by the introduction of the iPod in the market, the tradition of listening to music had been introduced to a world of new possibilities and limitless capabilities. The continuous improvement of the iPod technology can even be observed currently with the introduction of new features such as iPhone and iTouch which are included in the growing power and coverage of the iPod

Apples Competitive Strategy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Apples Competitive Strategy - Case Study Example The competitive strategies that a company employs determine the success or failure of an enterprise. The company uses Porters’ generic strategies to wade through the competitive market. Apple uses three generic strategies to compete effectively. The strategies include a broad differentiation strategy, best cost provider, and a focus market strategy. Apple differentiates its products from others in terms of design, unique features such as having its unique operating system, and quality of products (Hamilton &Webster, 2012). In addition, the company offers unique online services for its device users. By so doing, the company products are differentiable from others in the market. The uniqueness of the products in both operational experience, durability and support services have a positive impact on the demand for Apple products worldwide, thus edging out close competitors. Apple is concerned about offering products that offer the greatest value for money. The best-cost provider strategy ensures that Apple customers pay higher prices for high-quality products and after-sales services. Apple specializes in the manufacture of high-quality products that are feature-rich, and coincide with customers’ expectations. The company manufactures gadgets that appeal to a specific market in both features and price. The premium pricing strategy assists the company is concentrating on a narrower market since the returns are higher in the high price narrow market than a large low-price market. Apple’s strategy aims at maximizing profits rather than having a wider market share. As noted above, Apple is more concerned with profits as opposed to a wider market share. The company specializes in a small focus market that is mainly comprised of high-income earners. The company endeavors to provide the market with the best products and services to lock them in to become loyal customers.  Ã‚  

Sweatshop Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sweatshop Economy - Essay Example One summons ‘moral and political’ dimensions to the argument since if and when progressive changes are brought about in the conditions of sweatshops, the role of moral and political leaders will be significant for such changes. Corporations are amoral on the one hand and are the pillars of political establishments on the other and the conflict of interests is right in front of us. One has to resolve this conflict, understand the mindset of eastern world before moving to help ease woking conditions in sweatshops. Economic realities Globalization of economies of the world has effectively broken international barriers. As natural as water finding its own level, corporations around the world drift towards cheapest possible resources for their operations. Both raw materials and labor, two of the fundamental factors of production, are available in plenty in the third world countries. End of colonialism in the mid-sixties ensured that the developed countries of the West have to find other ways and means to sustain the high living standards of their citizens.

Business Changing Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Changing Environment - Essay Example Digital Equipment Corporation, Scotland, came into existence in 1983 as a small scale test facility for computer chips made in Hudson, America. Digital is one the largest computer manufacturing company in America and its plant in Ayr, Scotland, became the first overseas plant to launch worldwide distribution of computer system which was locally designed and developed. When assembling operations were added in 1985, there was impressive growth in the output of VLSI chips and the strength of the employees grew from 14 in 1984 to 470 employees in 1989. VLSI volume rose from 2000 per week to whopping 35000 per week in 1989 which were not only more complex and sophisticated in design but also comprised of forty different product types that needed to be packed in lots of batch sizes from 50 to 100!The plant is nonunionized and has 24 hours working schedule that is divided into three shifts with the total floor area of more than 25,000 square feet. Working conditions are generally good and t he skilled and non-skilled jobs are well defined and streamlined for smooth functioning. The hierarchal managerial supervision does not encourage much collective decision making. Employees in the operation and assembling units are trained for specific jobs and have no wider understanding or knowledge of the production processes. The work is repetitive with hardly any scope for individual growth. The organization singularly lacks effective communication and knowledge sharing processes.

War is an Addiction Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

War is an Addiction - Research Paper Example War is seen amongst the scholars, researchers and philosophers as means of destroying involving parties in a manner, that they would not be able to question the authority of the winning side. This lust for winning and gaining control of others’ resources sometimes result in a war, and the invader becomes addict to winning again by engaging into further wars. On one hand, engaging into war escalates the economic activities due to the increasing demand for weaponry and supplies. On the other hand, engaging into war exhausts a country or state’s resources into destroying other country or state’s assets and its ability to counter attack the invading country or state. As the world is becoming globalized and entities of each country are coming closer due to extensive use of technology, more and more information is gathered in order to make assumptions about a country’s resources. On top of that, the invention of modern weaponry systems and aggressive war doctrin e possessed by armies of different nations in the world, paves way for setting up wars and winning them to capture resources. This can be seen as a scenario, where the big fish is always looking to hunt small fishes, even if the big fishes have their hunger fulfilled. This is because this is in their nature to hunt, thus falling victim to their addiction of hunting small fishes they neglect the outcomes. Similarly, countries of the world engage into war, even knowing that the outcomes of the war would be devastating for both invader and the invaded country (Barash 4-9). The coming section would present different theories and concepts presented by researchers and scholars from the past, pertaining to addiction to war and what are the reasons behind it. Theoretical Grounds for Addiction to War As soon as mankind stepped on earth it engaged in understanding what are the reasons that mankind keeps its luxuries and satisfaction behind, and commit war against each other. A number of resea rchers, scholars and philosophers have carried out extensive research into the area so that a century old question can be answered, i.e. why man is addicted to war? It is the resultant of hard work of researchers and scholars from the past that a number of theories are presented today which helps in understanding the phenomenon of addiction to war. In this manner, mankind today is also able to eliminate war doctrine from their militant activities  in order to ensure that peace and harmony maintains on earth. Despite of the fact that all theories and research work present almost similar ideas on addiction to war, every field of study has a different perspective in understanding this phenomenon. Followers of social school of thought view addiction to war as an act of social frustration and injustice, whereas economic school perceives addiction to war as a result to unavailability of resources. Business scholars view addiction to war as a result to scarcity of resources and an attemp t to keep control of greater competitive advantage over rivals. Despite of the fact that while understanding the causes of addiction to war is different in every discipline of life, political science seems to be the best field, which explains the causes of addiction to war. War has been defined as a comprehensive attempt of individuals, group of individuals or state to aggressively outclass their rivals on the battlefield or in any field of life. Theorists also views addiction to war

Business Changing Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Changing Environment - Essay Example Digital Equipment Corporation, Scotland, came into existence in 1983 as a small scale test facility for computer chips made in Hudson, America. Digital is one the largest computer manufacturing company in America and its plant in Ayr, Scotland, became the first overseas plant to launch worldwide distribution of computer system which was locally designed and developed. When assembling operations were added in 1985, there was impressive growth in the output of VLSI chips and the strength of the employees grew from 14 in 1984 to 470 employees in 1989. VLSI volume rose from 2000 per week to whopping 35000 per week in 1989 which were not only more complex and sophisticated in design but also comprised of forty different product types that needed to be packed in lots of batch sizes from 50 to 100!The plant is nonunionized and has 24 hours working schedule that is divided into three shifts with the total floor area of more than 25,000 square feet. Working conditions are generally good and t he skilled and non-skilled jobs are well defined and streamlined for smooth functioning. The hierarchal managerial supervision does not encourage much collective decision making. Employees in the operation and assembling units are trained for specific jobs and have no wider understanding or knowledge of the production processes. The work is repetitive with hardly any scope for individual growth. The organization singularly lacks effective communication and knowledge sharing processes.

Rising Fuel Costs and US Transport Industry Essay

Rising Fuel Costs and US Transport Industry - Essay Example Consequently, comfort is often sacrificed in an attempt to cut back on the fuel budget. Often, Americans have had to make do with fewer cars, or shift to fuel efficient ones. In addition, car pooling has become a common practice among friends and families while air travel is not only restricted, but also limited to either official travels, or longer journeys that would otherwise be uneconomical with the use of a car (Coyle et al, 2006). By and large, the use of public modes of transport has increased. In fact, ridership by public transport in the United States rose by 15 percent in 2007. For those in the taxi business, these have especially been hardest hit , and this has forced some of the operators to increase fares, only to have their customers walk away from them (ACTE, 2008). The airlines too, have not bee spared either, with a coupe of them such as Delta and American airlines recording massive annual losses in the range of $ 1 billion (KLEIN, 2008). With such a gloomy picture having been slapped on the American transport industry, is there any respite for the Americans in the near future For the last six years, the price of gasoline, crude oil and natural gas has significantly risen. In 2000, a barrel of crude oil ranged from $ 25 and $ 30 per barrel. This was later to rise to a high of $ 75 per barrel six years later. Due to this, such petroleum products as jet fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel, and which are primarily dependent upon by the transportation industry in the United States, have risen sharply. In addition, the price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline almost doubled to $ 2.36 in 2006, up from $ 1.46 in 2000. The rate at which both India and China are developing, has led to a sharp demand for oil, and this has had a massive impact on the petroleum-based products such as gasoline (Hiare & Machemehl, 2007). The reliance of the transport industry on fuel is in no doubt, and its usage keeps on increasing by the day. In 1973, the consumption of petroleum was pegged at 9.05mb/day, and this was later to rise to 13.9mb/day by the year 2005. In addition, there was a strong growth in petroleum consumption to 28.2 percent in 2005, up from 24.6 percent in 1973. Furthermore, the annual average vehicle per capita mileage has also immensely improved from 5,440 miles in 1970, to 10, 087 miles in 2005 (ACTE 2008). Automobiles For the automobile makers, they too have not been spared by the rise in fuel cost, as customers are no longer shopping for cars. Both Ford and General Motors have witnessed a slump in sales in recent years, leading to a recording of major losses. As a result, the auto makers have had to institute changes (VOA news, 2008). According to Rich Wagoner, the chairman of General Motors, the company has no choice but to close down some of its factories, following in the footsteps of Ford motors, who proceeded by closing shop on the manufacturing factories for non-fuel efficient vehicles. The General Motors boss views this as a proactive move, in a bid to ensure the survival and success of the company. This will mean that thousands of jobs will have to be cut down. There is also a shifting trend in the auto industry towards the manufacturing of

Using Semi Structured Interviews Health And Social Care Essay

Using Semi Structured Interviews Health And Social Care Essay Before initiating the interviews, approximately eighteen semi-structured questions were formulated, some of which were changed or re-worded during the course of the interview. Interview subjects were selected based on their position. The name of the delegation leader for each African member state was obtained from the UNFCCC secretariat. For certain member states, where the leading delegate was unable to be interviewed due to security reasons or timing, an alternative senior member of the delegation was sought. A total of 23 African leaders were interviewed. Appendix E lists the African Group leaders who were interviewed as part of the study. The African leaders who were interviewed consisted of Presidents, Ministers, Ambassadors, Director Generals, Directors and other senior personnel of the countries delegation such as the UNFCCC Focal Point Representative. The choice of a semi-structured rather than a structured interview was employed as it offered sufficient flexibility to approach the individual respondents in different ways, while collecting the same data. All interviews were held in the various meeting rooms of Bella Centre and half of the interviews took place during the high level segment of COP15, i.e. between the 16th 18th December 2009. The interviews were pre-scheduled; however, due to the overrunning of a number of the COP15 Plenary sessions, a certain degree of flexibility was required by the researcher. In some of the interviews, an interpreter had to be used. In all cases, this interpreter would be a member of the same African delegation as the interviewee. The duration of each interview varied from 45 minutes to 1 hours and 15 minutes. Before each interview commenced, the researcher gave an introduction highlighting the purpose and background to the research, the interview questions, the length of the interview in terms of time and the confidentiality of the results. Most senior interviewees were accompanied by security officers, directors or special assistants. A number of interviewees had invited one or two members of their delegation to give comments or information in addition to their own response and these were also recorded. The interviews were recorded using a combination or methods. Some were recorded using a tape recorder, whilst others were transcribed or a combination of both methods was used during the interview. The intention was to use a tape recorder for all interviews conducted, as this would ensure the most accurate account of the conversations held. However, due to certain reasons, some security aides and ministerial assistants did not allow the use of a tape recorder. In these instances, the interview was transcribed and a synopsis of the interview was read back to ensure the accuracy of the data captured. However, this slowed down the progress of the interview. 4.7.5 Participant Observer According to Jorgensen (1989), participant observation is most appropriate when certain minimal conditions are present: The research problem is concerned with human meanings and interpretations gained from the insiders perspective. The phenomenon is sufficiently limited in size and location to be studied as a case Study questions are appropriate for a case. The research question can be addressed by qualitative data gathered by direct observation and other means pertinent to the field setting. Jorgensen (1989) further states that participant observation is especially appropriate for exploratory studies [as it is a] a special form of observation and a unique way of collecting data [] Direct involvement in the here and now of peoples daily lives provides both a point of reference for the logic and process of participation observational inquiry and a strategy for gaining access to phenomena that commonly are obscured from the standpoint of a non-participant. Furthermore, according to Iacono et al (2009), participant observation can arise from an on-going work situation where the researcher is an industry practitioner. Given this researchers professional status as a practitioner in the field of management consultancy and her current assignment as the Special Technical Assistant to the Minister of Environment, participant observation was used as a method to further understand the group decision-making process of African leaders within the context of the African Group. Observed were the daily activities in relation to how decisions were made, the interaction between delegates and the group dynamics. The formal African Group meetings scheduled from 8am 9am daily were attended, as well as the African Group meetings relating to the Kyoto Protocol between 7pm 8pm, each day. These African Group meetings were at the technical level. A total of 18 African Group meetings at the technical level were attended during COP15. The researcher also attended all four meetings of the African Ministers Committee on Environment (AMCEN) and the two meetings of the Conference of African Heads of State on Climate Change (CAHOSCC). The plenary sessions of the COP15 / MOP5 were closed to party delegates. However, as the researcher was registered as a participant to the Conference, further need to negotiate access to the plenary sessions was not required. During the meetings of the African Group, AMCEN, CAHOSCC and the plenary sessions, detailed observations and field notes were made, including observations on the culture of the UNFCCC decision-making environment. As a researcher, being in the midst of the decision-making process allowed my own understanding and notions to be continually challenged by the action and words of the African leaders within COP15. Conversations were had and questions were asked during the African Group meetings only. 4.7.6 Focus Groups According to Morgan (1997), Focus Groups are a way of collecting data through group interaction on a topic determined by the researcher. Morgan (1997) also states that focus groups are especially useful when seeking to gather a large amount of interaction on a topic in a limited period of time. According to Greenbaum (2000), the goal of a focus group is to delve into attitudes and feelings about a particular topic, to understand the why behind certain behaviours. Other researchers, such as Gibbs (2007) states focus group research involves organised discussions with a selected group of individuals to gain information about their views and experiences of a topic that is particularly suited for obtaining several perspectives about the same topic. Gibbs further states the benefits of focus group research includes gaining insights into peoples shared understandings of everyday life and the ways in which individuals are influenced by others in the same situation. According to Fern (2001) focus groups can be distinguished in terms of the research purpose they serve, the types of information and knowledge they produce, their scientific status and methodological factors. Fern (2001) also states that there are three types of focus groups i.e. exploratory, experimental and clinical. This research uses the exploratory type, as this type is used to explore a new issue, generate a hypothesis and for theory applications including generating theoretical constructs, causal relationships, models and theories. The researchers choice of using an Exploratory Focus Group can be summarised as follows: The nature of the topic under investigation; The exploratory nature of the research; The fact the researcher had ready access to members of the African Group; The data collected would strengthen the findings of the research in conjunction with other research methods adopted for the research. The focus group process consists of seven components. These include: group cohesion, the discussion process, the outcome, group composition, research setting, the moderator and the group process factors (Fern, 2001). Some of these can be controlled by the researcher, while others cannot. The central component is the discussion process and the exchange of information. The discussion process, in turn, affects the nature of the focus group outcome. Fern (2001) also states that group cohesion is important to the success of a focus group as it provides the reason for participants to contribute to the discussion. Group composition and the focus group setting affect cohesion, both directly and in combination. Morgan (1997) states focus groups generally comprised of 6 10 individuals, whereas according to Fern (2001), smaller mini-group focus groups are also common with 4 6 participants. Morgan (1997) also states that the amount that each participant has to contribute to the discussion is a major consideration in determining group size. Small groups work best when the participants are likely to be both interested in the topic and respectful of each other when the researcher desires to gain a clear sense of each participants reaction to the topic. The researcher conducted 6 focus groups comprising of 4 9 members. Compatibility is a major concern when determining the composition of focus groups. According to Morgan (1988), when participants perceive each other as fundamentally similar they can spend less time explaining themselves to each other and more time discussing the issues at hand. Morgan (1988) also states that the classic way to achieve compatibility is by bringing together homogeneous participants. A shared background or demographic characteristics, i.e. gender, race or ethnicity, age, location or residence, educational level, occupation, income, marital status or family composition are a common basis for selection. Too much homogeneity, however, can restrict the range of issues and positions discussed; therefore a degree of heterogeneity was sought in the selection of the African Group members. In this research, the participants were selected on the basis of gender, occupation and location (in terms of the African county they represented). Gender was chosen to ensure female representations amongst members. In terms of occupation, all the respondents were leaders within the environmental sector and had a relatively good understanding of the purpose of COP15. Locality was an important factor, as the researchers aim was to have a member from each of the African states represented in the various focus groups. This was not achieved, due to the difficulty of getting participants together at the same time due to the volume of meetings and side events being held during COP15. The size of each focus group varied from 6 9 participants as stated above. The setting refers to the space in which the focus group takes place. Considerations for setting include the ambient (i.e. tangible or physical) characteristics of a room, the tables, chairs and recording equipment (Fern, 2001). The setting of the focus group meetings was fixed for the duration of the conference. The set-up of the meeting room for the focus groups is illustrated in Figure 5 below. This is based on a group comprising of six participants. The date of each focus group meeting was fixed; however there was need to be flexible on the timing due to meetings and plenary sessions over running. Most of the focus group meetings were held during the first week of the conference, to avoid impacting on the meetings scheduled to interview Ministers and Heads of Governments during the second week of the conference. The majority of the respondents used for the focus group interviews, were technical members of their delegation, but all were in a position of leadership. Suggestions about the optimal number of focus group sessions range from 2 to 8 (Fern, 2001). Though most focus group research shows that fewer than five sessions are adequate, if the purpose of the research, as is the case with this study, is to collect a total population of thoughts rather than common or unique ones (Fern, 2001). Appendix F gives a breakdown of the focus groups held, the participants and the country of origin of the participants. The aim of the researcher was to achieve a good representation of leaders across the continent. Morgan (1997) identifies some more considerations in determining the number of focus groups. Probably the most important of these is the variability of the participants both within and across the groups. Within groups, when there are more heterogeneous participants, this will typically require a larger number of groups to sort out the different sets of opinions and experiences. Degree of structure of the interview also has an impact on the number of groups required. Less structured interviews, with lower levels of moderator involvement, require more groups. Another significant consideration concerns the availability of participants. If there are fewer potential participants available or if they are highly dispersed, several smaller groups of a smaller size are required to address the criterion of saturation. All these factors were considered in determining the exact number of focus groups used in this research. Discussion process (Foulkes, 1964, as cited in Fern, 2001) provides a series of factors which guide the focus group discussion process. These factors represent sequential stages in the group discussion. The first factor, social integration, is the opportunity for equal participation of all group members in the discussion. The second, the mirror reaction, is the individual participants realization that others share similar ideas, anxieties, or impulses and this then relieves the anxieties they feel in relation to participation in the focus group. Condenser phenomenon, as the third factor, is an activation of the collective conscious and unconscious that makes it easier to talk about the issues raised in the discussion. Finally, exchange, is the process of sharing information and explanations that makes up the bulk of the discussion. In the 90 minutes scheduled for each focus group, the first 10 minutes were devoted to the first two factors, social integration and mirror reaction. This included time for participants to check in and become acclimatised to the room and engage in light conversation with the researcher and other participants. Introductions were made and participants got to know a little about each other. Participants were then asked to take a seat around the table. The researcher set the stage in terms of the role of the researcher, the purpose, and the ground rules (i.e. use of audio recorder) and the role of the researcher as the moderator for the session (Greenbaum, 2000). Interview questions were tailored for about 80 minutes of discussion. Each focus group was conducted in a moderately structured manner. As such, the researcher was guided by a set of questions, but neither the exact wording nor the order of questions was predetermined. Likewise, the questions themselves were adjusted from focus group to focus group as information gleaned and data analysed from previous groups was used to guide each subsequent group. As previously explained in earlier chapters, fully structured style was not used as this research is exploratory and the intent was to determine the participants perspective. On the other hand, a fully unstructured approach was not considered suitable as the researcher possessed insights into the relevant discussion topics from an extensive review of the literature and her personal experience as a consultant/practitioner. Generally, the focus group began with each participant providing a brief personal introduction. Questions were then asked about Africas preparedness for the COP15. This was followed by questions relating to how the African Group worked. These questions were used to ascertain, whether there was an understanding and awareness amongst members on the decision-making process of the African Group, and whether the Group leaders fully understood the process. Furthermore, it was important to ascertain whether members of the group were aware of the background and commencement of Africas common position. Other questions that were discussed included those relating to the participants views on the impacts of Climate Change on Africa and the main concerns of the African Group. In addition there were questions relating to their views on whether they felt the decisions made by African leaders were rational and what the likely outcome from COP15 in terms of the expectations of the African Group would be. A final important component to the discussion process is the moderator. In a focus group, the moderator is a facilitation or discussion leader, not a participant to the discussion (Fern, 2001). Two important considerations must be taken into account when deciding on a moderator. These are prior experience and relationship to the participants (Morgan, 1998). As the researcher had both, she made the decision to use an independent moderator for the focus groups. Focus Group Outcomes The focus group outcome refers to the success of achieving the researchers goal. Fern, (2001), defined outcome as: Task performance effectiveness (i.e. quality, quantity, and the cost of information); The users reaction (i.e. satisfaction with the process and output), and; Group member relations (i.e. cohesive, compatible, and lively groups) (Fern 2001).