Outline and Evaluate Research Into Conformity

Outline and evaluate research into Conformity as an explanation of Human Social Behaviour â€Å"Conforming† is when a person changes the way they act and think to fit in with the majority of people in a group to gain acceptance. Kelman (1958) said that there are 3 types of conformity, Compliance, which means going along with others to gain approval and avoid rejection and accepting the group view in public but not private. Identification is conforming to someone who is liked and respected and Internalisation is accepting the group’s beliefs and accepting it both publicly and privately.However this essay will be discussing the two main theories as to why people conform, Informational Social Influence and Normative Social Influence as well as other factors that can affect as to why people conform. Informational Social influence is when an individual goes along with the majority because they believe that the majority is right and better informed then they are. Sherif (1935 ) conducted a study to test this theory in which he put the participants in a darkened room with a stationary point of light and asked them to say how much the light seemed to move and in what direction, with the participants giving their individual answers.Sherif then put them into groups of three and asked them to answer again. Sherif found that the participants changed their answer to reflect the groups as they believed the group was better informed and correct, which is an example of Informational Social Influence. However Sherif used an ambiguous test, it was impossible for Sherif to measure how far the light moved, and because it was impossible to provide a ‘correct’ answer, then it was also impossible to say for certain that the participants in the experiment had actually conformed.Also Sherif’s study lacked ecological validity as the test wouldn’t occur in everyday life and so the behaviour could be artificial. The other theory as to why people con form is Normative Social influence which is when an individual complies with the group, changing their behaviour and goes along with the majority publicly to avoid rejection but privately disagrees with their view. This was evidenced in Asch’s (1951) study into conformity with an unambiguous task. Asch put the participants into groups f seven, with all but one participant being confederates of the Asch. The group was shown a set of three lines and a separate reference line and the task was to judge which of the three lines was the same length as the reference line, with each set consisting of one line that was obviously the same length and two lines that were obviously different. The group gave their answers one by one with the â€Å"naive† participant answering in second to last place, and the confederates intentionally gave the wrong answers.Asch found that 37% of the responses the participant gave were the wrong answers the confederates gave, showing the participant conformed. Asch also found that the larger the majority, the higher level of conformity although above four, the level didn’t increase much and when there was a dissenter going against the group, conformity levels dropped drastically. Also when the task was made more difficult, conformity increased.Asch’s study has been criticised as being a â€Å"child of it’s time† as it was conducted in 1950’s America where conformity was more likely to occur. Another criticism is the sample of participants were all young male students from the same university and so the results can not be generalised. The study also lacked ecological validity as judging line lengths is not an everyday task. However what these theories do not consider is social roles. Zimbardo (1973) conducted an experiment to see what affect social roles would have on someone’s behaviour.He created a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University and recruited 24 male participants, who did not have aggressive personalities, to be â€Å"guards† and â€Å"prisoners† and informed them of what the experiment was about. To make the experience as realistic as possible Zimbardo had the prisoners â€Å"arrested† and given prisoner uniforms. The guards were given uniforms and mirrored sunglasses and had to enforce the rules of the prison. The prisoners rebelled on the first day and the guards responded by aggressively enforcing order and discipline within the prison.They used fire extinguishers against the prisoners, locked individuals in a dark broom cupboard for hours at a time, constantly harassed them, and even played prisoners off against each other. Over time the prisoners became more and more subdued and took on the submissive role of the prisoner. The guards began to enjoy the power they had, and their use of aggression and harassment steadily increased as they took on the dominant role of prison guards.The experiment had to be stopped earl y due to how dangerous and brutal it became, with three prisoners being released early due to severe psychological distress. Zimbardo concluded that the roles the participants found themselves in and the environment caused the behaviour displayed as both the guards and prisoners conformed to the behaviour they believed that role should display. Both guards and prisoners rapidly conformed, in just a few days, to the social roles that the situation placed them in.Zimbardo’s experiment has been deeply criticised as it was very unethical and he deliberately put the participants into a situation that caused them physical and psychological harm. There are also ecological validity issues as prison officers apply to be prison officers in real life, unlike the experiment where they could be guards or prisoners, and prison officers do not work 24 hours a day, which brings the ecological validity of the experiment into question. There are also other factors we must consider which affect whether people conform. One factor is the culture in which people are brought up.People who come from a collectivist culture are more likely to conform then someone from an individualistic culture as the collectivist culture focuses on group mentality and places the needs of the group over the needs of the individual, so a study in a highly individualistic culture like America can yield different results then conducting the same study in a highly collectivist culture such as China. Another factor is the time period the study was conducted in. The attitudes of that particular period can affect the results and may not hold true today.Thus the study might be measuring the attitudes of that time period and conducting the same study in a different time period could bring different results. Individual differences also play a part as a person’s age, their life experiences, education and gender can affect if and how much a person will conform. Recent research has suggested that wome n are more likely to conform then men as women are more socially orientated and thus will fear social rejection more. The group size also has an impact on conformity levels as the bigger the group is, the more pressure there is to conform.The unanimity of the group as well, if everyone agrees on an issue then the group pressure to agree with the group is huge, but if there are dissenters among the group then the group pressure decreases and it’s easier to resist conforming. The type of task is also a factor, if the task is difficult or ambiguous; people are more likely to defer to other people or a group and conform as the person believes the group has more information and is right, whereas if the task is easy and unambiguous the person is more likely to resist conforming.Conformity is a big factor in human social behaviour as every human feels the need to fit in with groups and society as a whole, which drives our social behaviour. As the research shows, people conform to av oid social rejection and because society expects them to behave in a certain way. Conformity can be a good thing, such as when people conform while they are driving and drive on the right side of the road, however conformity can also be a bad thing such as the guards conforming to the social roles in Zimbardo’s prison experiment, causing them to display aggressive behaviours.

Non-Verbal Communication Essay

A number of people pay more attention on what they want to say,however,how to say it means more important. â€Å"In fact, studies suggest that during face-to-face communication, only 7% of meaning comes from the verbal content of the message —38% comes from tone of voice and 55% comes from body language. † Obviously, non-verbal communication refers to the process of the communication by means of receiving and sending the messages which are wordless. As an important tool of communication, non-verbal communication plays an important part in job interviews, medical care and social interactions. The process of a job interview is full of communication, including both verbal and nonverbal communications; however, nonverbal communication is more important than verbal communication in some ways. When people do the interview, it is critical for people to send the right messages and receive the good responses as well as maintaining eye contact, using facial expressions and making proper postures. Eye contact is essential when people are talking to the interviewer. The sustained eye contact could be respectful which show your confidence and trust. Also, this makes sure that you are listening and understanding about what you are communicating with each other. However, it’s not good to stare at interviewers constantly, which make them uncomfortable. The best way is to maintain the eye contact for several seconds, and then change your vision away from the interviewers briefly, finally put the eye contact on the interviewers. Meanwhile, facial expression is a necessary component in a job interview. Commonly, smile is a powerful communication tool, which is able to deliver the friendliness, happiness and interests. It helps people relieve nervous tension in order to make a good performance in the front of the interviewers. Also, it’s better to add a smile with your eyes so that you can show a real smile in your face, which makes your interview more successful. Additionally, making good postures can affect the quality of the job interview. The way of standing, sitting or talking shows the level of our attitude and manners, particularly in a job interview. For example, first, sit on the edge of the chair is a signal of nervousness and express you’re uncomfortable. Second, stand in the space belonging to the others and cross the arm, which can be hostile. In order to make your job interview extremely successfully, you’d better prepare eye contact, facial expressions and right postures. Furthermore, nonverbal communication is related to the development of medical care. Usually, most people are getting involved with each other through verbal communication. However, when people are getting older, they are lacking the functions of social network and body function degradation so that they need to depend on nurses’ care— nonverbal behavior,which establish the relationship between nurses and patients, such as, smiling, body positioning and touch. Smiling may be one of the most important characteristics of a nurse who wishes to establish good rapport with patients (Schabracq 1987; Heintzman et al. 1993). Smiling is positively judged by other people and is considered as a sign of good humour, warmth and immediacy (Mehrabian 1972, Reece & Whitman 1962). † The body positioning points out whether the person is caring and listening. In the process of nonverbal behavior, the forward leaning indicates that nurse pay attention and care about the condition of the patients. In earlier research Reece & Whitman (1962) showed that leaning forward conveys warmth and friendliness. Forward leaning combined with smiling, eye contact and verbal attentiveness (‘hm-hm’) communicates an attitude of involvement. † Additionally, touch is an essential part in the medical care, which is a significant connection between nurses and patients. Touch can deliver the feeling of comfort, identification and encouragement in order to give patients a strong response to be optimistic through the medical process. In the medical way, touch can be divided into two parts; one is â€Å"instrumental touch†, another is â€Å"expressive† touch. Instrumental touch refers to the physical touch, such as bind up a wound. Expressive touch is more emotionally and spontaneous. Hence, touch is a key tool in the medical care; it makes patients more positive to face the medical treatment. What’s more, social interactions are a significant form of nonverbal communication. Symbolic stands for religious and status. On one hand, status can be a symbol of social level with person through his uniform, the brand of the car, and the size of the house. On the other hand, religious belief is equal to the culture, which makes certain people have unique communication. However, comparing to the difference between cultures, it’s pretty obviously that we can see the difference in the nonverbal communication. For example, physical space is a main difference. The acceptable physical distance in Latin America and Middle East is much shorter than it in America and Europe. Commonly, that’s why people often leave enough space for each other when they are standing online to buy the food. Besides, in terms of physical postures, the common example is the habit of many Americans who prefer to have a rest with their feet on the desk, but in Asia, Europe, and Middle East is unrespectable behavior. Additionally, hand and arm gestures means different between cultures. In some cases, for instance the â€Å"OK† sign, commonly it means everything is all right perfect. However, it means worthless in France and is money in Japan. Also, it even means rude in Germany. Another gesture â€Å"thumbs up†, usually it indicated all things are OK. But, in Nigeria, it means very offensive, while in Turkey, it means political rightist party. To sum up, nonverbal communication affects the way of people’s daily life, which tends to add more value to our communication. It makes our job review perfectly, promotes the development of the medical care, and enhances the progress of social interactions. As a result, nonverbal communication, as an essential communication skill, is getting more important and brings people the powerful communication with each other in different areas.

Any topic that is current Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Any topic that is current - Essay Example In this paper, we shall discuss some of the events which led to the Arab Spring and how most of the public protests were organized. The Arab Spring came into existence as a response to the lack of political freedom in the various countries in which it has occurred. At first, they were peaceful protests some of which became armed struggles whose aim was to topple the autocratic regimes ruling over these countries. According to Ben-Meir (106), the rebellion against such governments was due to the fact that instead of taking into consideration the calls of their people to allow them to have political freedom. These autocratic regimes responded with violence against peaceful protesters, a move that may have been spurred by their conception that their authority was being threatened and that there was a need for them to reclaim such authority by using brute force. The use of force against unarmed civilians led to the discrediting of the legitimacy of such governments and calls for the stepping down of these leaders were made from many international organizations and governments. Moreover, in cases such as Libya and Sy ria, the peaceful protests suddenly became fierce armed rebellions against the government which attacked the unarmed civilians. Jones (447) states that protesters in the Arab Spring made very good use of modern technology such as social networks in order to organize protests as well as making people outside their countries aware of what was really going on because of the media blackout that had been created by the autocratic regimes. Many of these regimes had banned and continue to ban international journalists from having access to their countries perhaps because they do not wish for their crimes against their own people to be revealed in the international arena. To counter this, many protesters have devised ingenious ways of getting the information out of their countries including hacking through the heavily censored internet to sites which

Impure public goods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Impure public goods - Essay Example For example, people can pay to enter a showground to witness fireworks but the ones who failed to pay can still watch the fireworks being launched through their windows. Alternatively, people pay for cable television services however some may decide not to pay but still watch the same programs from free to air channels (Bulte, Van Kooten and Timmothy, 2003). Non- rival condition applies in the context that an individual’s consumption of a product does not affect another person’s opportunity to utilize the same product. For instance, a person watching a football match on his/her television will not deny another person in a different setting who wants to watch the same game. The needs of both people can be satisfied simultaneously without any form of competition. However, the company managing the cable television can decide not to connect homesteads that do not pay for its services thus discontinue provision of those services to those people hence being referred to impure public goods (Arriagada and Charles, 2011). An externality is the impact of a monetary movement felt by those not straightforwardly included in the financial action. Externalities are regularly more negative, and thus it is the negative externalities that catch our consideration. Positive externalities are frequently depicted as overflow impacts to propose their belongings, and are felt by customers who were not specifically expected by their makers. The business sector trade, presumes that brokers have aggregate control over every part of their item, the costs and expenses they charge elaborate to the full cost of generation in addition to benefit, and that they can be considered responsible through the instalment of fines and different punishments for the harm brought on by their items (Arriagada and Charles, 2011). In any case, the way that their items may have positive externalities implies that the

Research Papre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Research Papre - Essay Example This process gets more aggravated when the people cut more trees, which are absorbers of carbon emitted. If we look at history of earth, we can notice that the earth has cooled and heated alternatively in a gradual span of time. The climate of the earth change according to the intensity of sun light receive or due to shift in the orbital movement of earth. However, in the recent times, one force which has alleviated the heating process of earth is humanity. As per (wiscombe,2012)â€Å"The global average surface temperature rose 0.6 to 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.1 to 1.6 ° F) between 1906 and 2005, and the rate of temperature increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years†. Global warming can be described as a swift increase in the temperature of earth due to a vast release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere due to the burning up of fossils by humans. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon where in the infrared radiation emitted by atmosphere heat up the planet’s surface. The term â€Å"greenhouse effect† derived from an analogy where the heating up of air inside a greenhouse is compared with the air present outside the greenhouse. Apart from earth, the planets Venus and Mars also experience greenhouse effect. Naturally earth receives heat in the form of radiation from sun and 30% of this incoming energy is solar radiation. The 70% of remaining solar energy is absorbed by the land, ocean and atmosphere of the earth. This natural process occurs in order to give the earth a temperature which is of a stable state and not to allow rapid heating or cooling in the earth’s atmosphere. Generally speaking, only one percent of the earth’s atmosphere is comprised of greenhouse gases .But this greenhouse gas has a feature of trapping heat in the atmosphere and creating a warm blanket of air around the planet. This is what is known as â€Å"green house effect†. Without this greenhouse

The determinants of the rate of interest and the significance of Essay

The determinants of the rate of interest and the significance of interest rates to policy makers and other economic actors - Essay Example It is described as interest in percentage of the amount of funds borrowed. This is a simple explanation of the rate of interest. Let's review some definitions of the rate of interest to comprehend the concept (Unit 3). Bannock et al has defined the rate of interest as the price a borrower has to pay to enjoy the use of cash which he or she does not own, and the return a lender enjoys for deferring consumption or parting with liquidity (1998:346). According to Mike Moffatt, "The interest rate is the yearly price charged by a lender to a borrower in order for the borrower to obtain a loan. This is usually expressed as a percentage of the total amount loaned". (http://economics.about.com/cs/economicsglossary/g/interest_rate.htm). Thus, interest rate is the annually charged in percentage on the principal. Interest is derived by dividing the amount of interest by the amount of principal. Inflation and the government policies play a crucial part in bringing fluctuations in the interest rates (www.investorwords.com/2539/interest_rate.html). It is pivotal to know that although each bank decides its interest rates by its own on the loans sanctioned but actually local rates are almost same in different banks. When there is inflation, interest rates go up because of increased need of credit, tight money market, or for the reason that banks' need to maintain a higher reserves. Any of the reasons affect the business activity and the stock market as well. Businesses in need of funds have to pay more for the same amount of borrowing and the investors would prefer to invest in bank deposits or newly launched bonds than purchasing shares (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/interest-rate.html). Determinants of interest rate levels Parameters of interest rates (Upton, 2009) are defined by supply and demand when the supply of money is equal to the desire of economic entities to borrow. Further, it is important to know the factors that affect supply and demand. Since interest is a pay back for delaying consumption, a higher rate of interest will accrue in more supply of funds. We can say that in different circumstances an interest rate may not result in same supply of funds. In different countries people don't have the same concern for consumption, as one can perceive that there are different savings rates. When economic conditions are not stable, people are more induced to save, as seen in their behaviour during "depression generation". Demand (Upton, 2009) on the contrary, depends on the availability of investments. At the low interest rates investments provide more margins. With the positive growth environment and technological advancement, demand for investment will boost. Other things that impact future growth are rate of increase in population, labour force, and education and skill standards. On the whole economic environment and production environment determine the level of demand for funds. The interest rate is (Upton, 2009) determined by the economic and other factors causing increase in the capacity of consu

Midterm 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Midterm 1 - Essay Example y to make friends who can lead you through your investigation if an anthropologist identified himself as a freshman as opposed to declaring his mission in his introduction.th factor of age difference between the student at the university and the anthropologist means that there will be communication barrier. The fact that the anthropologist is in a fact finding mission, requires that he employees a disguised identity all along if the mission is to bare any results. An authoritative voice is a voice that speaks more of an insight that is full of self-believe, and disregard for advice from other. Perhaps, a person with an authoritative voice will always define the destiny of a team regardless of the position of the team in the same. Naturally, people are not impressed with being directed to do something especially if they know that it is not right as far as their understanding of the same is concerned. For instance, if a woman fears of her capacity to give birth in the natural way, they will insist on undergoing a caesarian delivery method. The other way it relates to the eight logics is in the commitment students show towards their education, some students may not heed the call to read a chapter before entering a discussion and still insist that they know what they are doing. The ideology that authoritative voices conflict is true in the sense that, anyone who speaks with authority, will want to be the final decision maker and in that regard, consensus is never arrived at under that leadership. Virginity for instance, in some cultures like the Islam, it is highly regarded, and everybody is expected to be a virgin before he/she gets married. While male counterparts from the same religion are not restricted by culture, the same prize seems to be an infringement on the side of the female. Decision on the same is a responsibility of the men in that society which sparks a conflict of interest as to why would someone who is not a virgin be a custodian of the same. While

Dropout Rates In Educational Institutions Of Different Countries Research Paper

Dropout Rates In Educational Institutions Of Different Countries - Research Paper Example â€Å"Although high school graduates are attending college in record numbers, four in 10 are not adequately prepared for the course load that awaits them and are thus forced into remedial classes when they start college. This fact contributes to a staggering number of students pursuing a bachelor’s degree -- 42 percent, according to the infographic -- to drop out.† (Huffington Post) Course load: It seems that many students somehow manage to finish their high school but are not prepared for the challenging studies ahead. College education for such students becomes really tough which eventually forces many of them to drop out. In such cases, the academic performance of students during their high school comes into question because apparently, it did not prepare them for the tough studies ahead. Although in colleges remedial classes are offered to such students that are not doing well in their courses, if they have a weak grasp over their chosen courses then there is a possibility that they would not be able to pull it through college. Joining remedial classes requires extra effort on the part of the students and this may be a problem for those students that are working part-time or have other family-related responsibilities. The stress of the course-load for students with below-average academic performance may be overwhelming to an extent that they drop out of college/university. The percentage of such students is quite high-42%. This fact either pinpoints to the poor quality of primary and elementary education imparted in schools; or other problems like language barriers, which are more common in non-native students or students belonging to ethnic minorities.

MOD 5 FIN 301 CA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MOD 5 FIN 301 CA - Essay Example This paper aims to analyze the advantages and disadvantages for AMSC to forgo their debt financing and take on equity financing. AMSC can use its cash from equity financing to invest in the project or business without carrying the burden of debt on its back. In a period of financial turmoil, where businesses are faced with a credit crisis, equity financing helps in providing the necessary cash and reduces the risk of bankruptcy. By forgoing debt financing, AMSC is gaining a major advantage by using the cash to grow its business rather than paying a bank loan. Equity financing also brings new resources with itself such as valuable human capital which can provide necessary skills, contacts and experience to run the business. In addition to that, as the business grows over the period of time the investors are often willing to provide additional funding in case if it is needed so AMSC can have access to future sources of funding with the current owners. The owners of the equity can control the business without any interference from the creditors since the company will have no debt obligations. The biggest advanta ge lies in the fact that the business will be free from any interest costs thus it can boost its profits. Furthermore, during a recessionary period where there is a lack of credit in the economy, AMSC can have a chance to obtain funding through debt financing since it will have a lower Debt-to-Equity ratio. Financial institutions often extend credits to those corporations who have a lower Debt-to-Equity ratio in their balance sheets thus AMSC’s ability to borrow will be improved. Too much debt financing can tarnish the reputation of AMSC if they have already huge liabilities on their books. Finally, Corporations also collateralize their important assets due to debt financing and creditors impose certain stringent rules and regulations on the use of those collateralized assets which limits the ability of the organizations to use those assets

Investing in Futures and Options Essay Example for Free

Investing in Futures and Options Essay INTRODUCTION Of late, investors who are in the stock and commodity are focusing their attention towards risk management especially due to high volatility nature. Since these volatility movements are uncertain, it has become foremost cause of vagueness for such investors. Since the globalization of trade and free trade between major countries has become the order of the day, all most all the investors have to be under mercy of the exchange rate fluctuations which results in volatility   .The notion that exchange rates , profitability and other factors   influence a firm’s value and therefore the price of its stock is widely held by financial analyst ,economists and corporate managers . The liberalization of economic policies and investment policies due to world trade organization’s (WTO) free flow of investments and trade between member countries and bilateral free trade agreements between countries have augmented internationalization of economic activity and exceptional era of world wide currency and interest rates instability. To counter these financial risks, new pioneering concept commodity and stock market hedging techniques have nurtured at a rapid speed. The main feature of the using derivatives through hedging is to have control over the financial risk and minimizing the effect of uncertain cash flows. Financial institutions have come to rescue to these corporations who have exposure to financial risk with the range of products to assist in risk management. By far the most significant event in finance during the past decade has been the extraordinary development and expansion of financial derivatives. These instruments enhance the ability to differentiate risk and allocate it to the investors most able and   willing to take it – a process that has undoubtedly improved national productivity growth and standards of living .’ Allen Green Span, Chairman, Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System. The structural advantage of derivatives i.e. leverage or gearing   makes them suitable for managing risk can also result in the generation of leveraged profits or in the event of adverse market movement , a significant losses. The main advantage of gearing is that the buyer or seller need only to cough up a small proportion of total price at the time of deal is executed. It may be 1% and 8% depending upon the volatility of the underlying commodity or instrument. In the case of exchange traded transactions, this deposit is recognized as â€Å"initial margin† and is expected to reflect the amount by which the price of a contract may vary in one day’s trading. At the day end, all contracts will be valued and if the price has been found to move against the position, the losing party will have to pay further â€Å"variation margin† calls. In contrary, if the price movement is positive, credit will be given to the party .It is this element of gearing that provides the opportunity to make large gains or losses. Prudent handling of this leverage will result in considerable profit maximization and if it handled inexpertly, may generate losses .In some cases , these losses though high but they are few in number when measured against volume of business and number of participants in derivative business .The contributory factors for sustaining loss includes excessive position taking ( in relation to capital) , fraudulent activity , unexpected market moves, ineffective risk management, insufficient product understanding and inadequacies in corporate policy governing their use. What is a derivative? Derivative is a mathematical word which refers to a variable, which has been derived from another variable and they have no values of their own. Derivatives derive their value from the value of some other asset, which is referred as the underlying. For instance, a derivative of the shares of AT T Corporation (underlying), will derive its value from the share price (value) of AT T Corporation. Likewise, a derivative contract on wheat depends upon the price of wheat. An agreement or an option to buy or sell the underlying asset of the derivative up to a certain time in the future at a predetermined price i.e. the exercise price by way of special contract is known as derivative contract. The contract also has a flat expiry period mostly in the range of 3 to 12 months from the date of origination of the contract. The price of the underlying asset and the expiry period of the contract determine the value of the contract. Financial derivatives comprises of underlying financial asset like currency, debt instruments, equity shares, share price index etc.Exchange-traded derivatives are derivative contracts that has been standardized and traded on the stock exchanges. Over-the –counter derivatives is one which has been customized as per the requirements of the user by negotiating with the other party involved. Some of the common forms of derivatives are Futures, Forwards and Options. Futures: Futures are the derivative contracts that give the holder the chance to buy or sell the underlying asset at a pre-specified price some time in the near future and usually thy come with standardized form like contract size, fixed expiry time and price. The future market is one where continues auction market and exchanges presenting the recent information about the supply and demand as regards to individual commodities or financial instruments like stocks . In other words, future market is one where buyers and sellers of variety of commodities, financial instruments get together to trade. The main aim of the future market is to manage price risk. The future price risk is averted by buying or selling futures contract, with a price level arrived at now, for items to be delivered in future. This is achieved by hedging which helps to shield against the risk of an adverse price change in the near future or use of futures to lock in an acceptable margin between their purchase and their selling price. In futures, bankers, farmers, traders, manufacturers will arrange for the purchase or sale of a futures contract. In future market, commodities are broken down into five categories namely agriculture, metallurgical, interest bearingassets, jndexes and foreign currency. Agricultural futures market includes oats, corn , wheat , soybeans , soy meal ,soyoil,sunflower oil ,cattles , live hogs   and pork bellies, lumber , plywood ,cotton, coffee, cocoa, rice, orange juice and sugar. For every one of these commodities, different contract months are available and it depends upon the harvest cycle. More aggressively traded commodities usually have more contract months available and a new type of contract is available almost every month to meet the growing institutional and corporate market. Futures on Metallurgical Products: Petroleum products and metals is being covered under this group and it includes platinum, gold, silver, palladium, copper, gasoline, crude oil, propane and heating oil. Every month a new type of contract emerges to cater the needs of ever increasing institutional and corporate market. Assets which bears interest: This has its origin during 1975 and products in these categories include treasury bonds, Treasury Bills, Municipal Bonds, Treasury Notes and Eurodollar deposits. It is also possible to trade contracts with the same maturity but different expected interest rate differentials. Futures on Indexes: Now futures are available on most chief indexes such as New York Stock Exchange Composite, SP 500, New York Stock Exchange Utility index, Russell 2000, Commodity Research Bureau (CRB), SP 400 Midcap, FT-Se 100 Index (London) and Value line. These stock index features are settled in cash and there is no delivery of goods is involved in this method. A trader has to settle his positions by buying or selling an offsetting position or in cash at expiration. Foreign Currency Futures: During the post war period, the exchange rates and interest rates were stable and the mechanism of fixed exchange rates of the Bretton Woods era enabled the corporations to know in advance their foreign exchange liabilities for their imports. But the collapse of Bretton Woods’s system after the war resulted in the introduction of general floating exchange rates replacing the earlier fixed system. The introduction of floating exchange rates have resulted in large unexpected movements in exchange rates that too in unforeseen directions and magnitudes which affected interest rate movements as the monetary establishment tried to influence the exchange rates by movements in interest rates. It is to be noted that the forward market in currencies is much bigger than the foreign exchange futures market. Further, there are cross currency futures that are being traded and these includes Deutsch mark / yen, Deutsch mark / French franc. Forwards Options: Forward is another form of a derivative contract but tailored to the needs of the user in terms of expiry date, contract size, and price. These contracts confer the holder the option to buy or sell the under lying at a pre-determined price some time in the future .Call option is one where the buyer has given his option to buy the underlying at the near future .Where as an option to sell the underlying at a specified price in the future is called as Put Option. As regards to the option contract, the buyer is not obliged to exercise the option contract. Generally, options can be traded on the stock exchange or on the OTC. In option, the participants may assume a position in an underlying futures contract at a certain price which is known as exercise or strike price within a particular period of time. The price or premium of the option is determined through action market trading. Swaps: Swaps contract was introduced in 1981 and can be considered as one of the latest financial innovations to manage financial risks. The contracting parties are obliged to exchange specified cash flows at specified intervals under a swap contract. In a nutshell, a swap contract can be defined as a series of forward contracts put together. If the exchange of interest rate payments in one currency for payments in another currency is devised, then it amounts to a currency swap. If the exchange between two parties of interest obligations or receipts in the same currency on an agreed amount of notional principal for an agreed period of time is devised, then it is known as interest rate swap. An interest rate swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange interest payments calculated on different bases over a period of time. Under interest rate swap, one party to the contract makes fixed –rate payments while the other party’s payments are based on a floating rate such as LIBOR. For instance, if a company which has borrowed from a bank at a floating rate (7 m LIBOR) may want to swap that for a fixed rate (7m LIBOR) so that they can cover the risk if the interest rates go up. On one side, they pay 7% (of the agreed notional principal) and receive 7m LIBOR and on the other side they pay 7m LIBOR straight out to repay their loan. Thus they have converted a floating rate loan into a fixed rate loan. The said bank may manages its own risk from the above swap transaction by backing it out with another swap , say by paying 6.95% for 7m LIBOR and thus they earn a profit of 0.5% difference thus avoiding the risk in the interest rate changes . The other different types of interest rate swap are: Basis swap: For instance, swapping 2m LIBOR for 4m LIBOR. Basic swaps are mostly used by mortgage companies because the get the mortgage payments on monthly basis. Both fixed Currency Swap : Both fixed and say fixed $ for fixed  £ Both floating currency swap: 2m $ LIBOR for 4 m Yen LIBOR. Cross Currency Swap: fixed  £ for 2m CHF LIBOR. Companies derive more flexibility to exploit their comparative advantage in their respective borrowing markets under currency swaps. Under interest rate swap, corporations try to focus on their comparative advantage in borrowing in a single currency in the short end of the maturity spectrum vs. the long –end of the maturity spectrum. USES OF DERIVATIVES: Derivatives are mainly used for speculation or hedging. For speculation, derivatives offer us leverage. For instance, instead of buying  £ 5Million bond in the anticipation that its price will rise up, one can buy an option on that bond, which might only cost  £ 2000. The profit chances or opportunities are the same less the price of the option but the risk is much less as the most we can loose in this deal is the option price ( £ 2000). For hedging, derivatives let you to seal the price now for a trade in future or at least limits the rise or fall of that price. An UK company holding a US bond which is on the verge of its maturity could buy an interest rate option to guarantee the dollar / sterling rate did not diminish the value of its bond. Volatility is regarded as the most precise measure of risk and its return. The greater the volatility, the greater the risk and the reward as it is evidenced in the transaction from bull to bear markets. It is to be observed in the bearish market, volatility and risk augment while returns disappear including short –selling returns. History: The very first exchange for trading derivatives started by Royal Exchange in London, which allowed forward contract. Likewise, the first future contract was introduced to Yodoya rice market in Osaka, Japan in 1650. Then in 1848, Chicago Board of Trade was started to handle futures market of US. Russell Sage, a famous New York financier introduced synthetic loans using the principle of put-call parity. Sage could able to create a synthetic loan by fixing the put, call and strike prices with interest rate poignantly higher than the US usury law permitted. Chicago Mercantile Exchange started International Monetary Market in 1972 which permitted trading in currency futures. The Chicago Board of Trade started first interest rate futures in 1975.Treasury bill futures contract was introduced in 1975 by Merc. The Chicago Board Options Exchange was started in 1973 and there were publications for the first time option pricing model of Fischer Black and Myron Scholes. Chicago Board Options Exchange created an option on an index of stocks which was originally known as CBOE 100 index which later known as SP 100. During 1980, Swaps and other over-the –counter derivatives were introduced. It was in 1994, the derivative trade witnessed a series of huge losses and this affected experienced trading firms like Metallgesellschaft and Procter and Gamble. Orange country, California which is the America’s wealthiest city was declared as bankruptcy due to derivative trading and use of leverage in a portfolio of short -term Treasury securities. DERIVATIVES OR DESTRUCTIVE? A CASE STUDY OF BARINGS, UK. Baring Brothers, a British merchant bank went to bankruptcy in 1995 after incurring a whooping loss of  £ 860 million occurred on the Singapore and Osaka derivative exchanges. Nick Leeson, the bank’s star trader and absence of management controls to monitor his activities were the main reasons for this debacle. During the period between 1992 and 1995, Lesson built up positions in futures and options contracts on the Nikkei 225 stock exchange index, which proved highly profitable in the early years. Futures positions were bought by Lesson on the Nikkei index and financed cash calls on them as they fell in value by selling put options on the contract, thereby producing a straddle and thus betting against volatility of the market. Simex derivative exchange in Singapore were used to book the contracts and he run a hedged position on Nikkei index futures and make money by arbitraging between Singapore and Osaka markets. However he ceased hedging on the purchases made in Singapore and took on risk. Due to unexpected volatility in the market, losses were incurred and these losses in fact exceeded the net worth of Baring Bank .Lesson was later imprisoned for the falsification of records in an attempt to cover up his activities. The rationale of this case law is to elucidate how a bank can face bankruptcy if there is no proper risk management system is in force. The case also establishes the concept of ‘value at risk ‘(VAR) which is a simple method to express the risk of a portfolio. Because of the recent derivatives disasters, end-users, regulators, financial institutions and central bankers are now resorting to VAR as a method to foster stability in financial markets .The case illustrates how VAR could have been utilized to Baring Bank case to warn its management of the risk they were facing in advance. VOLATILITY: Volatility has its effect on administered market and it is high when both supply and demand are inelastic and liable to random shocks. According to Rudiger Dornbusch, market always overshoots in reaction to unexpected changes in economic variables. Volatility is a type of market incompetence and it is a reaction to uncertainty and excessive volatility is unreasonable. Volatility in stock and commodity market is represented by sharp changes in prices and inventory levels and level of volatility itself has fluctuated over the time. Changes in future prices, spot prices and inventories are influenced by changes in volatility Volatility is a determinant of changes in price expressed in percentage terms without regard to direction especially in stock price and stock index levels , commodities and in financial intermediaries .For example , an increase from 200 to 201 in one index is as same as the volatility terms to an increase in 100 to 101 in another index , because both changes are 1% and as this 1% increase is equal to volatility terms to a 1 % price decline .There are four ways to explain the volatility or movement and they are historical volatility , future volatility , expected volatility and implied volatility . Historical volatility is an appraiser of actual price variation during a particular period in the past. Future volatility refers annualized standard deviation of daily returns during particular future period basically between current and an option expiration. Expected volatility is an investor’s forecast of volatility utilized in an option method to gauge the theoretical value of an option. Implied volatility is the volatility percentage that illustrates the current market price of an option and it is the indicator of an option’s price. Volatility is described as standard deviation of the yield of an asset and the value of an option always increases with volatility. The greater the volatility, the higher the option chance during its life and convertible to the underlying asset at a marginal profit and this methodology has been proved in the Black-Scholes formula. Black-scholes formula yield results during trends and unsuccessful when the market change sign. â€Å" The implied volatilities are efficient forecasts of future volatility since varying market conditions cause volatilities to change through time stochastically and traditional volatilities   can not correct itself to varying market conditions as ghastly .Stochastic volatility contradicts the assumption required by the Black-Scholes model –if volatilities do modify stochastically through moment in time, the Black-Scholes method is no longer the correct pricing method and an implied volatility derived from the Black-Scholes formula provides no fresh information. Black-Scholes formula is lacking on certain issues like the oblique volatilities of various options on the identical stock tend to differ disregarding the formulas hypothesize that a single stock can be correlated with only one value of implied volatility. The Black-Scholes formula mainly ignores the distribution of stock prices in US market.   Some studies have revealed severe deviation from the price process fundamental to Black-Scholes formula like excess kurtosis, skewness, time varying volatilities and serial correlation. Further Black –scholes deals with stochastic volatility poorly and it relies on impractical assumption that market dickers endlessly thereby ignoring institutional constraints and transaction costs. Stock Charting: Stock charting is the process of a graphical sequence record enables it easier to dapple the effect of cardinal happenings on authoritarian security’s price., its functioning over a period of time and whether it’s trading its higher or its lower or in between these. Traders are very particular in daily, intraday data to forecast short-term price movements.   Investors rely on weekly and monthly charts to mark long term trends and movements. Line chart, Bar chart, Candlestick Chart and point and figure chart are some of the examples of stock charting method.   Arithmetic and semi-log arithmetic scales are two methods of price scaling used in the stock charting method. When the price range is hemmed within a tight range and used in general for short-term charts and trading. Semi-log scales are useful for long term charts to estimate the percentage movements over a foresighted period of time including large movements. Stock and other securities are estimated in relative terms through tools lime PE, Price/Revenues and Price/Book and as such it will be more useful to analyse in percentage terms. Ocillator: This is an indicator which is calculated by taking 10 day moving average of the difference between the numbers of advancing and defining issues for authoritarian given index. An indicator will reflect whether an index is gaining or losing impetus, so the size of the moves is more significant than the level of the current reading. The level of the reading is influenced by how the oscillator changes each day thereby dropping a value ten days ago and adding today’s value. The scale in moves is also helpful when it is compared with the divergence from the index price. If the Dow climaxes at the same time, the oscillator peaks in overbought area and suggests a top. Divergence is said to be negative and momentum is declining when index makes a new high but the oscillator fails to make a higher .One can buy if the index declines at this point but oscillator moves into oversold territory. If the oscillator rises above a previous overbought level though the index rises but does not make new heights, it is said to be upside momentum exists to continue the rally. Support: A support level is the price at which buyers are anticipated to enter the market in considerable numbers to take control from sellers. As the market has its track record, when price falls to a new low and then soars, the buyers who ignored on the first low will be persuaded to buy if price returns to that level back .Fearing of missing out the opportunity for the second time, these traders may enter into market in adequate numbers to take control from sellers. As the result, there is a rally strengthening sensitivity that price is unlikely to fall further thereby creating a support level. Resistance: The price level at which the sellers are anticipated to enter the market in sizeable numbers to take control from buyers is known as resistance level. If price makes a new High and then move back, sellers who ignored the previous High will be predisposed to sell when price returns to that level back. Fearing of missing the opportunity for the second time, these sellers may enter the market in large numbers to overwhelm buyers. As the result, market perception will be reinforced that price is unlikely to increase higher and form a resistance level. CANDLE CHARTING: It is a price chart that shows the open, low, the high and close for a stock each day over a specified period of time .It is known as Japanese candles because they used to analyse the price of rice contracts. When the close is higher than the open , the same is represented by an white empty box in the candle charting .When the close is lower than the open , then it is represented by a solid black candle ,Colored candles are used to reflect the day’s volume. Investment strategies in stock and options Following is the most of common investment strategies for keeping investment objectives, financial means and risk tolerance. Despite of market crash in 1929, market break in 1987, market correction in 1989 and though the prices of all securities fell down drastically but broad movement of the market has seen their value steadily increased. One of the strategies is to buy and hold for long the high quality stocks or futures of stock or commodities .The buy –and-hold strategy offers one to profit from this long term forward trend of the stock market. Further, dividend investment plan offers small investors a painless method of building wealth. Dollar –Cost Averaging: This is also a long term strategy and one has to invest in a stock or mutual fund or futures at regular intervals monthly, quarterly or semiannually. The success of dollar-cost averaging relies on consistency of amount invested and the regularity of the payments so as to minimize pricing and timing risk. The success of the Dollar cost averaging depends upon the following factors. The plan for the investment should be for a long period i.e. from 7 years to 10 years .In the last 100 years, there were about 40 recessions or market corrections or a downturn about every 3 years and If one carry on to invest through about three of these corrections, the profits of dollar-cost averaging tend to be maximized. 2 .Investment at regular intervals is most preferred. Investment should be made regularly regardless of the price of the stock. Give preference to high quality of stocks or mutual funds and a company or fund with history of habitual dividend payments and possible for capital appreciation is a better choice. One has to make sure that he has enough strength so that he can adhere to the plan through highs and lows and sell out at the peak and thus the money allocated for dollar-cost averaging result in wealth-building funds, not committed funds.[i] Going Short: An investor who prefers short i.e. enters into futures contract by agreeing to sell and deliver the underlying at a price and wishes to make profit from declining price levels and thereby selling high now , the contract can be repurchased in the future at a lesser price thus creating a profit for the investor. 16.Spreads: It involve taking benefit of the price difference between two different contracts of the same commodity and spreading is believed to be the most conventional forms of trading in the futures market because it is much safer than the trading long / short futures contract. There are different types of spread namely calendar spread, inter-exchange spread and inter-market spread. Swing Trading: It denotes a technique of placing emphasis on playing the swings in the PPS, selling on the highs and buying on the lows rather than the swiftness of the trade. To complete the swing trade, it may need more than a day, a week or authoritarian month or longer period and channeling stock is pursued by the some swing traders. Flipping: It refers the process of trading a stock very quickly with in minutes or hours etc as past as possible may be on the same day. It is often used to explain a buy and sell with a share that is running and where the trader buys the stock as it is moving up and sells the same on even a higher point in a short period of time. A flipper aim is to maximize his profits by emphasizing on fast trades to earn quick profits. The risk is also less downside as the trader sits in a stock for a less time. [i] Hall, Alvin D., and Carolyn M. Brown. Investment Strategies Made Easy: Heres How to Overcome Your Fears of the Market and Invest like a Pro. Black Enterprise Mar. 1994: 66+. 2.Fisher, Black and Myron Scholes, â€Å"The pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities â€Å"The Journal of Political Economy, 81,637-654. 3.Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: New York, Harmony Books (1980). 4.Chance .Don M.† A Chronology of Derivatives† Derivative Quarterly, 2 (winter, 1955) 53-60. 5.Thomas L. Friedman ,The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Stephen Leeb, Glen Strathy ,The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel 7.George A. Fontanills, Tom Gentile The Volatility Course 8.George Soros, Paul A. Volcker The Alchemy of Finance (Wiley Investment Classics) 9.John C. Hull Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition) 10.Marc Allaire ,The Options Strategist 11. George Kleinman, Trading Commodities and Financial Future: A Step by Step Guide to Mastering the Markets (3rd Edition). 12. Sheldon Natenberg ,Option Volatility Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques Jeffrey M. Christian, Commodities Rising: The Reality Behind the Hype and How To Really Profit in the Commodities Market. John J. Murphy ,Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications (New York Institute of Finance John F. Carter, Mastering the Trade (McGraw-Hill Trader’s Edge) 16. Joseph Kellogg, Trading From the Inside 17. Thomas N. Bulkowski ,Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns (Wiley Trading) 18.Stephen W. Bigalow, Profitable Candlestick Trading: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits

Childrens Problems Begin At Home And End At Home Education Essay

Childrens Problems Begin At Home And End At Home Education Essay Parenting is fundamental to the survival and success of the human race. Everyone who has ever lived has had parents, and most adults in the world become parents. Opinions about parenting abound, but surprisingly little solid scientific information or considered reflection exists about parenting. Parenting is a job whose primary object of attention and action is the child. Children do not and cannot grow up as solitary individuals but parenting is also a status in the life course with consequences for parents themselves (Femmie Juffer, 2007)5. Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them. Oscar Wilde (English humorist) Since Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby discovered that children use their parents as a secure base to fulfill their attachment and exploration needs, an impressive body of empirical research has been devoted to the search for the origins and consequences of (in)secure child-parent attachment relationships. Secure attachment relationships have been associated with better social competence and with more optimal parent and peer relationships than insecure attachments. The concept of secure attachment relationships and the related concept of parental sensitivity appear to be highly significant for the clinical field, including the development and evaluation of attachment-based interventions for at-risk and clinical families. The most important part of parenting is love and putting in time and energy to support children. Although love is the most important requirement, it is not enough. Unless parents understand their childrens unique needs, they are unable to give their children what children today need. Parents may be giving love, but not in ways that are most helpful to their childs development. Without an understanding of their childrens needs, parents cannot effectively support their children. On the other hand, some parents are willing to spend more time with their children, but dont because they dont know what to do or their children reject their efforts. So many parents try to talk with their kids, but their kids just close up and say nothing. These parents are willing, but dont know how to get their kids to talk. Some parents dont want to yell at, hit, or punish their children, but they just dont know another way. Since talking with their children has not worked, punishment or the threat of punishment is the only way they know. To give up old ways of parenting, new ways must be employed. The world is experiencing a crisis in parenting. Every day, there are increasing reports of child and teen violence, low self-esteem, Attention Deficit Disorder, drug use, teen pregnancy, and suicide. Almost all parents today are questioning both the new and old ways of parenting. Nothing seems to be working, and our childrens problems continue to increase. Some parents believe that these problems come from being too permissive and giving children too much, while others contend that outdated practices of parenting, like spanking and yelling, are responsible. Others believe that these new problems are caused by negative changes in society. Too much TV, advertising, or too much violence and sex on TV and in movies are pegged by many as the culprits. Certainly society and how it influences our children are part of the problem, and some helpful solutions can be legislated by the government, but the biggest part of the problem starts at home. Our childrens problems begin in the home and can be solved at home. Besides looking to change society, parents must also realize that they hold the power to raise strong, confident, cooperative, and compassionate children. To cope with the changes in society, parents need to change their parenting approach. During the past two hundred years, society has made an historic and dramatic change towards greater individual freedom and rights. Even though our modern Western society is now organized by the principles of freedom and human rights, parents still use parenting skills from the Dark Ages. Parents need to update their parenting skills to raise healthy and cooperative children and teens. Businesses know that if they are to stay competitive in the free market, they need to keep changing and updating. Likewise, if parents want their children to be able to compete in the free world, they must prepare their children with the most effective and modern approaches to parenting (John Gray, 2007)11. Several social trends are now challenging parent-child relationships. Single parent families may be the most at risk. Although, there always have been single parents in the United States, the causes of solitary parenting have changed. Single parents of previous generations were primarily widows and widowers. Parents are now more likely to be single because of divorce or never being married. Single parents in todays society may be more isolated and perhaps more disillusioned than the single parents of the past. The final report of the National Commission on Children, about 25 percent (more than sixteen million) children lived with only one parent in 1989, twice as many as in 1970. Parental employment places a great strain on parent-child relationships. Parents may have to depend on other caregivers, for example, to set limits and provide guidance during their childrens formative years. Between 1970 and 1990, the proportion of mothers with children under age six who were working or looking for work outside their homes rose from 32 percent to 58 percent. Today, approximately 10.9 million children under six have mothers in the paid labor force (National Commission on Children, 1991) 74. Three aspects of parenting have been highlighted as central to childrens early language and learning: (1) the frequency of childrens participation in routine learning activities (e.g., shared book reading, storytelling); (2) the quality of caregiver-child engagements (e.g., parents cognitive stimulation and sensitivity/responsiveness); and (3) the provision of age-appropriate learning materials (e.g., books and toys). Early and consistent participation in routine learning activities, such as shared book reading, storytelling, and teaching about the letters of the alphabet, provide children with a critical foundation for early learning, language growth and emergent literacy. A plethora of studies also indicate that the quality of parent-caregiver interactions play a formative role in childrens early language and learning (Tamis-LeMonda, 2009)52. In the past, psychologists studying the development of children focused almost exclusively on childrens relationships with their mothers. Today, they have come to agree that fathers play a unique and crucial role in nurturing and guiding childrens development. Many experts now believe that fathers can be just as nurturing and sensitive with their babies as mothers. As their children grow, fathers take on added roles of guiding their childrens intellectual and social development. Even when a father is just playing with his children, he is nurturing their development (Ross Parke, 2006)25. NEED FOR THE STUDY The National Commission on Childrens national survey titled Speaking of Kids (1991) reports that a majority of American adults, regardless of age, race, marital, or parental status believe that it is harder to be a parent today than it used to be (88 percent) and that parents today often are uncertain about what is the right thing to do in raising their children (86 percent). Compared to ten years ago, respondents believed children today are worse off with respect to their moral and religious training (53 percent) and the supervision and discipline they receive from their parents (56 percent). Children themselves wished that their parents were more diligent in setting and enforcing rules. Thirty-nine percent of children 10-17 said they sometimes wished their parents were stricter or kept a closer watch over them and their lives. Another 8 percent said they wish this a lot. Only about 1 percent said they never wanted their parents to be stricter or more attentive. Because of the rapid pace of change in our society and an increasing awareness of and respect for cultural and values diversity, parents will continue to be challenged to expand on traditional styles of childrearing. The well-being of our nations children is clearly at risk. According to the National Commission on Children (1991), one in four adolescents engage in social behaviors that can lead to serious longterm difficulty; many more are vulnerable for future problems (National Commission on Children, 1991)72. Most parents do their best to provide a loving and nurturing atmosphere for their children. Poor parenting includes the following behaviors: Abuse An environment where there is a lot of arguing and conflict Ignoring the child Some parents are overwhelmed by their own personal situations and are unable to look after their childrens needs appropriately. The children who were ignored or who lived in high-stress households had trouble expressing themselves verbally. They also had trouble with social skills. Sharing toys was difficult for them, and they had trouble playing. The British study concluded that the disadvantaged children actually started preschool with underdeveloped brains. The children who were having trouble with their social skills could be helped if they received intensive help from their teachers. Unfortunately, teachers are busy caring for the entire class and have trouble finding the time to give the children who are behind the level of attention they need (JC Redmond, 2009)66. A study by UNICEF of 21 industrialized countries, An Overview of Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries (2007), came to the remarkable conclusion that there is no strong relationship between per capita GDP and child wellbeing. A government-funded review in Britain of research spanning 25 years found that the incidence of many mental health problems in children had doubled since the 1970s. Today, one in ten British children thats more than a million suffers from a clinically recognizable disorder, such as depression, anxiety, anorexia or severe anti-social behaviour (Tom McGurk, 2009)71. Studies have shown that children who go through their parents divorce have more conduct problems, symptoms of psychological maladjustment, lower academic achievement, Social difficulties and problematic relationships with both parents. In United States of America, reported statistics tells that Children from fatherless homes are: 5 times more likely to commit suicide 32 times more likely to run away from home. 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders 14 times more likely to commit rape. 9 times more likely to drop out of high school. 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances (become drug addicts) 9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution 20 times more likely to end up in prison. 3 million teenage girls have sexually transmitted diseases At least 1 out of 4 teenagers (between 14years to 19years) suffer from sexually transmitted diseases (CRISP, 2009)73. Some of the harsh realities faced by children in India are presented below: Less than half of Indias children between the age 6 and 14 only go to school. 95 in every 1000 children born in India do not see their fifth birthday. Amongst married women in India today, 75% were under age at the time of their marriages. 58% of Indias children below the age of 2 years are not fully vaccinated. And 24% of these children do not receive any form of vaccination. More that 50% of Indias children are malnourished. More than 50 per cent of girls fail to enroll in school; those who do are likely to drop out by the age of 12. CHILD LABOR 19% of children are employed for domestic help. 25% of the victims of commercial sexual exploitation in India are below 18 years of age. Large numbers of children work simply because there is no alternative since, they do not have access to good quality schools. Poor and bonded families often sell their children to contractors who promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work. Many run away and find a life on the streets (Sharanam Centre, 2007)75. Everyone knows good parenting is good for the health of children, but studies show that good parenting also results in children who grow up to be healthier adults. Research indicates that adults who had stressful relationships with their parents in childhood are more likely to suffer from disease in midlife. Since parents are usually the most meaningful source of social support for much of early life, the perception of parental caring, and parental loving itself, may have important regulatory and predictive effects on biological and psychological health and illness (Claudia M. Lenart, 2009)55. Joint custody and shared parenting (i.e., joint physical and legal custody) have been studied for more than a quarter-century, with the majority of studies indicating significant benefits for children. When parents cooperate and minimize conflict, children do better with shared parenting/joint physical custody. Parenting Can Override Effect of Genes in How Babies Respond to Stress, the study found both genes and parenting were important to the development of how infants brain which helps to regulate cardiac responses to stress. The findings suggest that although genes play a role in the development of physiological responses to stress, environmental experiences such as mothers sensitive care-giving behavior can have a strong influence, enough to change the effect that genes have on physiology very early in life (W. Roger Mills-Koonce, 2008)68. It has been known for a long time that living in poverty damages childrens intellectual abilities. Good Parenting Raises Kids Mental Skills. Study Shows Better Parenting Skills Sharpen Minds of Kids in Poverty (Martin Downs, 2008)62. Babies need predictability and security, which they get when their mother and father respond consistently, promptly, and appropriately to their cries, smiles and other signals. As a baby develops a relationship with his or her mother and father, he comes to prefer them to other adults, in a process known as attachment. Psychologists agree that babies with secure attachments to their parents have better chances to develop into happy, successful, and well-adjusted children and adults. The investigator had personal experience about the effects of parenting both its ill effects and good effects. Investigator being specializing in the field community health nursing felt the need and was motivated to conduct the study on knowledge regarding the parenting roles among the couples of urban and rural community and teach them about parenting roles with the help of multimedia package. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM A comparative study to assess the effectiveness of multimedia package on knowledge regarding parenting roles among the couples of selected urban and rural community. OBJECTIVES To assess the existing level of knowledge regarding parenting roles among couples of the urban and rural community. To assess the effectiveness of multimedia package on knowledge regarding parenting roles among couples of the urban and rural community. To compare the pretest and posttest level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the couples of urban and rural community. To compare the pretest and posttest level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the male and female parent of urban and rural community. To compare the pretest and posttest level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the male parent of the urban and rural community. To compare the pretest and posttest level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the female parent of the urban and rural community. To associate the mean improvement of knowledge score on parenting roles with the selected demographic variables. OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS Effectiveness Refers to the outcome of the multimedia package regarding parenting roles among couples of urban and rural community, which will be evaluated by the structured knowledge questionnaire prepared by the investigator. Multimedia Package Refers to logically designed informations with the use of modern media to discuss and teach regarding parenting roles. This package consists of teaching material in the form of visual literacy and videos in a sequence which explains the parents role in general parenting, developmental milestones, cognitive development, moral development and learning disabilities. Parenting It refers to the performance of various roles and activities of raising a child rather than the biological relationship by the parents. Parenting Roles It refers to the role of the parents in raising the child. Roles included in this study are about General Parenting which includes meaning and concepts of Responding, Preventing, Monitoring, Mentoring and Modeling; Developmental Milestones which includes meaning, identification of age specific tasks of the children, ways to help the child to attain milestones; Cognitive Development which includes meaning, stages of cognitive development and ways to improve the cognitive development; Moral Development which includes meaning, stages of moral development and ways to improve the moral development of the child and Learning Disabilities which includes meaning, causes, early warning signs and ways to take care of child with such problem. Knowledge Refers to the ability of couples to understand and answer the question on parenting roles as elicited by structured knowledge questionnaire. Couples Husband and wife of selected urban and rural community with 1-6 yrs of married life having children. ASSUMPTIONS Couples may have some knowledge regarding parenting roles. Adequate knowledge on parenting roles may help the couples to provide effective parenting. Adequate knowledge regarding parenting roles may prevent many childhood problems. NULL HYPOTHESES NH1: There is no significant difference between pre and post test level of knowledge regarding parenting roles among the urban and rural couples at the level of p NH2: There is no significant difference between pre and post test level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the urban and rural couples at the level of p NH3: There is no significant difference between pre and post test level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the male and female parent of urban and rural community at the level of p NH4: There is no significant difference between pre and post test level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the urban male parent and rural male parent at the level of p NH5: There is no significant difference between pre and post test level of knowledge regarding parenting roles between the urban female parent and rural female parent at the level of p NH6: There is no significant association between the mean improvement knowledge score on parenting roles and selected demographic variables of the urban and rural couples at the level of p DELIMITATIONS The study is delimited to a period of four week. The study is delimited to the couples living under the same roof. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK A conceptual framework or model is made up of concepts that are mental image of a phenomenon. These concepts are linked together to express their relationship between them. The conceptual framework is based on TRANSTHEORETICAL MODEL/ SOCIAL CHANGE MODEL (JAMES.O.PROCHASKA). This framework consists of the following elements. PRECONTEMPLATION: The theory says that the Individual has the problem (whether he/she recognizes it or not) and has no intention of changing and goes through the process of Consciousness raising (information and knowledge), Dramatic relief (role playing) and Environmental reevaluation (how problem affects physical environment). In this study the researcher perceives the importance of the problem and prepares the multimedia package with extensive review of literature and experts opinion to improve the knowledge of couples in selected urban and rural community regarding the parenting roles on general parenting, childs cognitive development, developmental milestones, moral development and learning disabilities. CONTEMPLATION: This stage involves the Individuals recognition of the problem and he/she is seriously thinking about changing and goes through the process of Self-reevaluation (assessing ones feelings regarding behavior). In this study the researcher approaches the couples of selected urban and rural community and obtains their consent to participate in the study after providing adequate information regarding the need for the study and benefits thereby makes the couples to become aware of the problem. PREPARATION: In this stage the individual recognizes the problem and intends to change the behavior through the process of Self-liberation (commitment or belief in ability to change). In this study the researcher conducts the pre test assessment of knowledge regarding parenting roles among the couples of selected urban and rural community with the help of the structured questionnaire. The structured interview schedule consists of demographic variables like age, gender, educational status, occupation, family income per month, religion, type of family, no of years of married life, no of living children, age of the child, place of living, mode of getting information about parenting and structured questionnaire containing questions regarding parenting roles on general parenting, childs cognitive development, moral development, developmental milestones and learning disabilities. The researcher prepares the couples for gaining the knowledge regarding parenting roles. ACTION: In this stage the Individual has enacted consistent behavior change through the process of Reinforcement management, Helping relationships, Counterconditioning and Stimulus control. In this study the researcher by providing the multimedia package which consists of lecture in the form of pictorial and video shows regarding parenting roles on general parenting, childs cognitive development, moral development, developmental milestones and learning disabilities provides a helping relationship to gain adequate knowledge to provide good parenting to their children. MAINTENANCE: In this stage individual maintains new behavior. In this study the researcher conducts the post test assessment of knowledge after one week from the day of intervention using the same structured questionnaire which was used for pre test to know the improvement in the knowledge. If couples had adequate knowledge reinforcement was given by providing booklet as maintenance of knowledge and couples with inadequate knowledge reassessment was done. OUTLINE OF THE REPORT Chapter I : Dealt with the background of the study, need for the study, statement of the problem, objectives, operational definitions, null hypotheses, assumptions, delimitations and conceptual framework. Chapter II : Deals with the review of related literature. Chapter III : Presents the methodology of study and plan for data analysis. Chapter IV : Focuses on data analysis and interpretation. Chapter V : Enumerates the discussion of study. Chapter VI : Gives the summary, conclusion, implications, recommendations and limitations. The report ends with selected Bibliography and Appendices.

Social Phenomena Essay -- Functionalist and Interactionist Perspective

Over time, three main theories have developed to explain social phenomena. While each theory has significant differences, there are points of each one that can help shed light on how society works. While some theories attempt to explain our social reality based on how each part of a society works together, other theories focus on the conflicts in the society, or the interaction between individuals in a society (Kendall, 23). The three classic theories of sociology include the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective, and symbolic interactionist perspective. The functionalist perspective aims to explain sociological phenomena based on the belief that our society is a balanced system that depends on each part of the group to work together in order to survive. Most people in the group share that same morals and ethics. This varies greatly from the perspective of conflict theorists, who believe that each part of society is constantly in a struggle. One of the key figures in developing the conflict perspective was C. Wright Mills. He believed that crucial decisions in the United States are mainly made by people in private, known as the â€Å"power elite† (Kendall, 26). This means that decisions made in this country are typically made by top bureaucrats and politicians. The conflict perspective does not say that society is a system that is based on the functions of each part like the functionalist perspective states; rather, each part is constantly in a â€Å"power struggle† (Kendall, 25). Both of these perspectives focus on the larger aspect of society, also known as macrolevel analysis. The symbolic interactionist perspective is based on microlevel analysis, which means that it focuses on smaller groups and individuals instead of larg... ...uing questions and insights for the future. Our interactions with others play a large role in developing our society. The symbolic perspective does not believe in reality as we believe it; rather we create our own values through interaction with others. It also helps shed light on how new cultures and customs become accepted into a society. For instance, the pià ±ata was once used in China, and it is now something used during celebrations in various cultures (Kendall, 85). This shows how one society can adopt the symbols of another and take them as their own. When we combine these perspectives and focus on our interactions with one another, what function we each play in the society, and take into account the power struggles that occur, we gain a better understanding of society as a whole. Each of these theories helps explain different aspects of our social reality.

Hip Hop vs. Ethics Essay -- World Cultures Music Morals Essays

Ethics of The Music Industry Works Cited Not Included Hip-hop culture has been socially labeled as deviant, a counter-culture, un-American because of its lack of moral. Specifically, "gangsta rap" which glorifies guns, sex, violence, drug use and gang activity has been castigated. This type of rap promotes a nonconformist and rebel adaptive behavior. As a result, it gives hip-hop culture a deviant label. A simple definition of deviance is "behavior that does not conform to group-shared norms; behavior that (in some way) does not meet the expectations of a group or a society as a whole and is subject to social control" (Liska 2). Mr. Kirkland, along with rap entrepreneur Russell Simmons, Grammy award-winning Chuck D, Charles Fisher and the NAACP are major moral entrepreneurs of the nascent grass-roots reform movement and pillars to the hip hop culture industry. Raptivism, "At the core of their campaign is a conviction that amounts to heresy in some quarters of the rap world: Artistic images do influence behavior, especially when it comes to young people, and that the industry has a responsibility to counter the glorification that empowers kids, rather than landing them in jail" (Marks 1). The deviance label of rap music has created an atmosphere for moral panic in which big names in the hip hop culture are acting as morale entrepreneurs to counter-act and make a transformation. According to act-utilitarianism, the controversial lyrics of hip-hop artists may have a greater balance of good consequences over the bad consequences. Therefore, they create the greatest happiness within hip hop culture. The function of "raptivism" is feasible because of the potential power of this grass-roots movement to create a flux of positive m... ...ing hip-hop's survival will be their choice. "Raptivism" aims to attain overall greatest happiness. It is a plan to overcome it's immoral image that larger society has labeled it to have. Russell Simmon's "raptivism" movement is the most acceptable choice due to the extremity of other possible solutions. One possible solution could be the censorship of hip-hop music, which has been proven unconstitutional and has never held up in court due to the constitution's freedom of speech amendment. Another solution is to leave hip-hop the way it is now. Creating this movement is an effective way to respond to the moral dilemmas and negative image that hip-hop has obtained, while not trying to censor nonconformists. Besides, it will be lead by the most influential leaders and creators of the industry, whom which also has support from the most respected and famous rappers.

Bless Me Ultima :: essays research papers

Talfud once said that, “Men see in their dreams only that what is suggested by their own thought.'; In Bless Me Ultima, the passage after Narciso’s death is crucial in understanding that Antonio processes his conflicts in his dreams. This passage is key for the understanding that Antonio’s dreams are his way of processing his conflict between the Catholic God and the Golden Carp. With the processing of Antonio’s conflicts, Anaya uses extremely vivid imagery to help us understand the meaning of this passage This Passage is key in realizing Antonio resolves his conflicts between the Catholic God and the Golden Carp. The Catholic God refuses to let Antonio in to heaven during his dream because he worships the golden carp before God. God deems that “I can have [one] who has golden idols before [me]'; (165) thereby forbidding Antonio from heaven because he had an idol, the golden carp, before God. God does not forgive Antonio because he is a “not a God of forgiveness'; but when he does offer forgiveness God claims that Antonio must ask for Tenorio’s forgiveness also. “No! No! I cried, it is Narciso that you must forgive,';(65) Antonio refuses the idea that he, Narciso and Tenorio could all be in heaven together. While Narciso was protecting Ultima from Tenorio, Tenorio claimed that she had put a curse on Tenorio’s three daughters who were each slowly dying. After Antonio yells at God and the Virgin for wanting him to ask for forgiveness for Tenorio, too, God de cides to burn the entire village for their sins. The Golden Carp comes after the fires of the Catholic God and swallows the remains of the citizens of the burnt valley up and then changes them into new perfect beings. The dream after Narciso’s murder helps Antonio settle the conflict between the Catholic God and the Golden Carp, Anaya also uses extremely vivid imagery to show that dreams help Antonio settle his conflicts. Anaya uses extremely vivid imagery to show us that Antonio’s way of dealing with his conflicts is through his dreams were he settles the conflict between the Catholic God and the Golden Crap. “I held my bloodied hands out to touch [my brother’s foreheads],'; Antonio tries to save his brothers from hell because they had sinned at Rosies the “house of sinful women.'; With the words “Bloodied Hands,'; Anaya shows that Antonio is trying to sort out the conflict of Narciso’s death, while Narciso was trying to warn Ultima about Tenorio.

Rhetoric

Scott started a seminal debate within the rhetoric community with his essay, â€Å"On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic. † His argument – rhetoric is epistemic – has been analyzed and/or criticized by many scholars. Scott himself followed up in 1976 with an article titled, â€Å"On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic: Ten Years Later† in order to address some of these concerns, and add to his original thoughts. Despite this follow-up, authors still continue criticize and defend his work.This essay will focus on three responses in particular, each focusing on a different aspect of Coot's argument, in order to prove that rhetoric is in fact epistemic. First, Brunette's, Three Meanings of Epistemic Rhetoric (1979) will examine three possible meanings and implications of Coot's claim. Second, Harping's What Do You Mean, Rhetoric is Epistemic? (2004) will hone in on the debate between Scott and Cheerier and Haskins, defining the positions of each.Finally, Banshee's The C artesian Anxiety in Epistemic Rhetoric: An Assessment of the Literature (1990) will address four key positions within the debate, and bring them together with his Bernstein term, â€Å"Cartesian Anxiety. From these responses it will become clear that while many scholars agree that rhetoric is epistemic, their definitions and viewpoints still vary. Before Jumping into the responses of other scholars, it is probably worth examining Coot's own response, especially since it predates the essays soon to be examined.In this essay, Scott attempts to address three questions: â€Å"Is there one way of knowing or many? What sort of knowing does rhetoric strive to achieve? Is rhetorical relativism vicious? † (1976, 259). He states that there are many ways of knowing, emphasizing the lyricist nature of Ways of knowing. ‘ He believes that rhetoric should strive to achieve an actuality, or an agreed social construction (later it will become apparent that this facet of his argument is the one sparking the most debate).Finally, he attempts to dispel the positivist argument against him, that rhetorical relativism is vicious. This leads to some deeper discussion on the nature of subjective knowledge, of which his defining argument seems to be: â€Å"Relativism, supposedly, means a standard-less society, or at least a maze of differing standards, and thus a cacophony f disparate, and likely selfish interests.Rather than a standard-less society, which is the same as saying no society at all, relativism indicates circumstances in which standards have to be established cooperatively and renewed repeatedly' (1976, 264) Brume seeks to offer up what he deems to be the three prevailing philosophies on epistemology. The first is what is considered the positivist view, which is essentially that there is a truth out there, and that people are either right or wrong about what they think is true. He emphasizes that rhetoric is the path to reaching that truth.The second is the classic interpretive approach, that different groups have different realities, and there knowledge within them. This means that within a group, someone can be wrong, although that doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong in all groups. Finally, he addresses the view that the world is much too complicated for humans to understand, which is evidenced by our need to define and label everything. Harping focus on defining terms, as he sees this as the most critical step in defining hitherto as epistemic.Specially, he examines the nature of â€Å"certainty' and the implications of various definitions and views. Next he examines the term â€Å"rhetoric,† whose definitions has implications not Just in this debate, but for all rhetorical theory. Here he addresses the pros and cons of defining rhetoric in a broad or specific sense. Finally, Harping examines Justification, and how various scholar use justification within the realm of epistemology. Bingham compares four positions within à ¢â‚¬Ëœrhetoric as epistemic' literature.

Fictional Research About CCTV Cameras Essay

This report evaluates the social impact of the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV from now on) cameras in our neighbourhood. These cameras have been placed by the local government with the intention of lowering crime rates. Participants filled a questionnaire, and this report is based on their feedback. Positive effects It’s been a month since the installation of the cameras, and they have already paid off as a great discouraging system. Misdemeanours such as hold-ups have lowered by 25%, whereas sexual assaults have lowered by an astounding 78%. People say that they feel safer and protected now. Negative effects However (and paradoxically), people don’t want to be observed 24/7 by the government. 75% of the population feel mildly uncomfortable about being watched all day, but think that this is still a good measure, while another 10% do not agree at all with this system. Among the people who don’t care about the constant surveillance, 2/3 are the elderly people (60+ years old). On the other hand, the most reluctant people to the CCTV camera system are between 15 and 25 years old, about the 64% of them. This group has protested against the system, even resorting to vandalize and destroy the cameras. Conclusions Most people in the area think of the CCTV cameras as a necessary evil, and think that their children are now able to go out without the fear of being assaulted, of something even worse. Most of them don’t like being observed, specially young people, but only a few are really upset about this fact. Recommendations The best solution, given the local response (and the fact that the area was conflictive enough to force the administration to install the cameras), would be for the government to send more police to the area, both to protect the cameras and to enforce local laws. This should lead to a further lowering of crime rates.

Fita Analyzation

I. Narrative structure â€Å"YES OR OO†, which is the word that would love the guy to hear from the girl he is courting, but there are times that the girls, means this in a more different way. And that’s what FITA commercial wants to show us with the use of their product. The story of the FITA commercial is about a suitor who doesn’t figure out that the girl he is courting, answered him already. And the story goes like this. . . The guy (suitor) fetched Claris, the girl he is courting in the gymnasium. He grabbed the bag of Claris and put it on his back, Claris saw the FITA biscuit in the pocket of her bag then she grabbed and opened it. While they are walking inside the gym, the guy started to whine over Claris and told her that he’s courting her for about 2 years and yet there’s nothing happened with their relationshipand said â€Å"kailan ko ba maririnig ang matamis mong oo? †The guy look back at Claris then she raised a two pieces of FITA biscuit in her hands while smiling at him and finally decide to accept the guys love thru showing him the biscuit, depicting OO, or YES. The guy just grabbed the piece of FITA and jut ate it and said that â€Å"naghihintay na lng ba ko sa wala? † So Claris frowned and just ate the FITA she’s holding. The commercial is a dramatic comedy in a way that when the guy didn’t get what Claris means by showing the 2 pieces of FITA. II. Characters â€Å"The next hottest love team in town† That’s what the 2 main characters in the commercial wants to portray. The leading man is the suitor named Arran Sese in real life that is good looking, stands 5’9†w /white complexion and a dark brown hair. In the commercial, he is a college student that’s somewhat 18 to 20 yrs. ld and he’s voice is natural and there’s no something strange about it but he speaks very well specially when he whined with Claris, acts as the leading lady, named Amanda Lapus in real life with an angelic face who stands 5’7†w/ a white complexion and a black shiny hair. Again in the comm ercial, Claris is the girl who is being courted by the guy. They did not directly advertise the product by saying that people should buy FITA; instead, they used it as props in the commercial. They help sell the products by showing humility that remarks in the mind of the viewers of what the guy did, that he didn’t get that Claris already means yes.

Internet Tools at Dirt Bikes Essay

Internet Tools at Dirt Bikes Teresa Brennan July 10, 2010 IT/205 Gelonda Martin In business today it is a necessity for communication channels to be as efficient as possible. Dirt Bikes’ current means of communication is antiquated and without further investment in technology, will stunt the operations and growth of the organization. A complete overhaul of the IT infrastructure is recommended. Although there are significant costs associated with implementing a new system, the pay-off would be in the increased sales and customer satisfaction, thereby the system upgrade would become a revenue generator. The success of Dirt Bikes new IT implementation would facilitate quick access to the internet and market information which the company will use to make strategic decisions. A computer network connects two or more computers so employees can work together sharing data across computers. The infrastructure of the network would make data available to view in all departments. Dirt Bikes would to set up a wide area network (WAN) for the business to operate across global areas. The ability to communicate anywhere anytime would allow the company to respond immediately to customer needs, order rocessing, and part suppliers saving time and money by keeping up with current inventory. Connecting the WAN allows employees to send and receive important information from anywhere globally via PDAs or laptop devices and provide almost instant responses to management, customers, vendors and other areas where efficient and immediate communication is preferred such as monitoring global industry trends happening 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Dirt Bikes offices would offer Wi-Fi hotspots that would enable employees to access PDAs and laptops from anywhere within the building. Employees could move around from floor to floor and office to office and still be connected to incoming messages and requests from suppliers, customers and colleagues and respond without leaving their current location. Employees have more control over managing their time when they are able to conduct business from remote locations. They will also have a greater sense of empowerment, learning and freedom from accessing an intranet and internet through a Wi-Fi connection. There is a certain freedom in being able to conduct efficient business from multiple locations, and with the 36 network available through nternet providers, the possibilities to connect anywhere are endless. Dirt Bikes’ employees ultimately benefit from reduced stress from higher efficiency and more flexibility in work environment. According to an article by Bradley Mitchell, wireless gear costs a bit more than the wired Ethernet products (About. com. 2010). The equipment needed for wireless can cost nearly three times as much depending on wireless signal 802. 11b and 802. 1 lg. The 802. 11b products have dropped in price with the release of 802. 1 lg, which can lead to cost savings in a signal choice. Of course there is a possibi t signal interterence witn wireless LANS, but are more convenient for businesses with outside salespersons and the efficiency of direct communication. The network would house a closed Intranet with employee access for any information necessary to conduct Dirt Bikes business on a daily basis. The Intranet would become the improved means of communication between employees and their designated departments and have all the company’s resources and documents cataloged. Employees could access company information and Human Resources documents online instead of placing calls to the department and otentially interrupting fellow co-workers from current projects. By recording documents, solutions and general information about vendors, distributors, customers and even market conditions, Dirt Bikes can begin to build a sophisticated network of knowledge that makes future business more reliable, highly accurate and efficient. An intranet would allow Dirt Bikes to reduce overhead in parts storage costs by reducing the number of stocked parts through rapid communication of parts ordered and available. In the near future, the goal would be to have Dirt Bikes implement a RFID tags on incoming manufacturing parts. Production teams would have more time to complete order processing if they did not have to manually log incoming stock into the warehouses. A significant savings would result from reduced overhead costs for storage warehouses and the employees to stock and maintain them. Dirt Bikes’ customers would enjoy the majority of the benefits of implementing a new IT infrastructure. Employees will no longer have to rely on placing several phone calls to gather information before providing customer solutions; they would provide immediate attention and problem-solving utilizing the data at their fingertips. The result is a better customer experience because sales and service staff are able to communicate accurate information to customers. Marketing knows the customer’s past orders which helps to anticipate future repeat business and forecasting. Overall, there would be an anticipation that repeat customer business would increase substantially within one year. Web 2. 0 solutions could be implemented to help monitor the motorcycle industry. Dirt Bikes’ market researchers could access information about competitors and house it on the Intranet for sales and marketing teams to evaluate. Those same researchers could request RSS feeds from multiple blogs relevant to the motorcycle industry thereby gaining pertinent real-time industry knowledge. Dirt Bikes could set up a type of live chat line for potential customers to discuss and get answers on products and services. This type of service would improve sales by improving customer service with repeat sales and attracting new buyers. I would set up a platform for voice over internet protocol (VoIP). Using a microphone and speakers Dirt Bikes can have conference calls from any office without rewiring or reconfiguring the network. According to the text written by K. Lauden and J. Lauden, there are costs up front but in the long run will save the company 20-30% by eliminating outside telephone services (2009). VoIP can also carry the company’s voice mail and e-mail services. In conclusion, these changes I have proposed to Dirt Bikes will benefit the employees with increased sales due to better communication between departments, vendors and the customer. Having data updated every time a transaction occurs provides better production and efficiency for the company because the rapid flow of information keeps inventory