Religion as a Psychology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Religion as a Psychology - Research Paper Example Bible clearly describes the changing human behaviour through the stages of life. Therefore, it is well said by psychiatrist Jerome Frank, â€Å"psychotherapy is not primarily an applied science. In some ways, it more resembles a religion† (Bergin, 1980). Qur’an and Bible are the instructional books explaining the way of living in this world. Whenever someone leaves the instructions, the psychological force compelling the individual to get back on the track captures him. This practice of coming back to instructions is done through meditation, which controls the human psychology. Religions provide psychological guidance about behaviour, human rights and moral values. A reward of deeds in the shape of heavens and hell psychologically minimizes the human indulgence in sinful life (Fontana, 2003). Religion obligations act like a therapy in changing the human behaviour. Psychological changes that Islam and Christianity bring in human life are discussed in under mentioned para graphs: Psychotherapist Thomas in his book â€Å"The myth of psychotherapy† says that religion is the basic ingredient of psychotherapy. He also says that psychotherapy revolves around religion and rhetoric (Bergin, 1980). Human relations with each other are known as psychotherapy matters but in real, these are the matters of Christianity. This shows that Christianity and psychology are interrelated. Cure of souls was the common practice in early church that remained part of church activities until 20th century. Bible was used to identify the troubles in human mind followed by spiritual treatment of troubled mind. Prayers are the main source of fixing all sorts of problems. Care of soul therapy used in church, very effectively treated all the nonorganic mental, emotional and personal problems of living. This beauty of religion really helped to do away with all the psychological pressure and helped people to live a normal life. (Fontana, 2003) Cure of souls was replaced with t he modern word psychotherapy due to advancement in the field of medical sciences. Again, Christianity has played role in real psychological treatment of â€Å"sinful† minds. Psychological practitioners replaced the word â€Å"sinful† with word â€Å"sick† and replaced spiritual ministers in treating the people through religion than medical. Aim of religious treatment is to establish link between man and God. Confession and repentance is the right treatment for a soul in Christianity. Bible is the holy book that guides individuals in living an abundant life. Bible helps human being to exercise greater psychological control by having faith in God despite all the problems. Moreover, time comes when one is driven by internal force to tackle all the situations in the life that is the time when individual has received the life of God in his own body (Bergin, 1980). Islam means, â€Å"surrender to the will of Allah†, the all powerful who decides fate of human be ings. People with good deeds will go to paradise and with bad deeds will be punished in hell. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the last prophet of Allah and his followers are called Muslims. Islam is also one of the religions that treat human mind and soul through spiritual powers. Islam gives a clear path of leading a successful life. Qur’an is the holy book of Muslims having solutions for all the mental, health, psychological and health problems. Islamic scholars have done great research on the teachings of the holy book and have believed the fairness of all the guidelines. Islam lays great emphasis r on life following the death. Where good deeds will be rewarded paradise and bad deeds will see hell. This

This report will be focusing Essay Example for Free

This report will be focusing Essay This report will be focusing on the different functional areas of a business, i. e. Administration, Finance and Human Resources Task 1 Functional Areas are the different areas of a firm. Each functional area has a different objective to the next. Sales will be the main turnover part of the business whereas Human Resources (HR) will be the hiring and firing of personnel. Marketing are in touch with the consumer and Finance take care of the money. The different areas include (but are not limited to): Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, Finance, and Administration (also known as Admin) And Customer Services. Task 2 This table shows which Department or Functional Area has the most importance and what they do Department Explanation Activities Importance Human Resources This functional area has the responsibility of using and developing the organisations personnel in the most productive way. Hiring and Firing, taking interviews. Making sure the employees are happy and, in some cases dealing with pay negotiations and dealing with strike situations Very Important as without HR there wouldnt really be any employees. Without happy employees, there could be strikes etc. Administration IT Services Administration provide the backup needed to run every other department, i. e. the day-to-day jobs Dealing with post, photocopying, dealing with visitors, telephone switchboard, IT Services Probably the most important as no other function can work without it, especially without IT support Finance Managing the money coming in and out, paying taxes and raising money for the business Handling money, paying the VAT man, handling taxes Very important the CEO would get indicted for not paying VAT and Tax Marketing Sales. Finding out what products customers need and advertising the products to them Advertising and selling the product to the customers Very important as without selling your goods you wont have any income Customer Services Looking after customers requirements and dealing with their complaints Contacting customers and being contacted about returns, advice, complaints and enquires Probably the least important as once youve sold your product you dont really need any further contact with the consumer Task 3 Charlton Athletic FC Human Resources. One specialist personnel officer who is responsible for all aspects of training, recruitment, interviews and development. Managers of all departments also have a responsibility for some aspects of various personnel issues. Payroll section responsible for paying all departments Finance Each department has its own budget and must meet all costs from this. Departments may request emergency funds if the budget is overspent Administration Each senior manager has his/her own Personal Assistant. Everyone does their own administration. The admin dept. also has the I. T. department within Marketing 3 Departments who deal with the marketing and sales aspect of the firm Marketing Department This department deals with sponsorship and selling stadium boxes to the public for matches Communications Dept. This department designs and updates the website, also they design, write and print brochures and matchday programmes Public Relations (PR) The PR dept. deals with player appearances to the press, they deal with all press enquiries and arranging player interviews on T. V. and Magazines Charlton also have a Schools Visit Programme in which they visit schools in Kent and South-East London to further the Charlton reach. Customer Services Charltons Customer Services department doesnt actually exist. Complaints are dealt individually with by the manager of each department. Chartlon apparently take complaints very seriously. Big complaints may be dealt with by the Chief Executive of Charlton himself. Any complaints not dealt with by the club may be handed to an independent inspector from the IFC (Independent Football Commission). Bromley Library Human Resources 42 people in total work in the Library which is down from last year The different roles include Group manager, Assistant Director of Education who is the chief librarian and Senior Customer Service Manager. You could argue that the Director of Education, Ken Davis is the head of the library There is a central HR section within the Education and Libraries dept. The HR dept. is mostly training and hiring new All Bromley Libraries put together get an average of about 2-3000 visitors a day so health and safety is important. There is an HS Executive who visits all the libraries and investigates certain problems Finance It is a legal requirement that Libraries cannot charge for books but libraries can charge money for videos, DVDs and CDs. Their funding includes New Opportunities grants (A Lottery Fund) and Government Grants. Administration This includes an IT repairman with a team of technicians who goes out to branches to sort out any IT problems Task 4 Internal Communication: Communication between the different functional areas and different people within the same functional area of the same company. External Communication: Communication to someone outside of the company, for example Banks, Suppliers, Customers, Shareholders, Stakeholders etc. Task 5 Type Of Comm. Explanation Advantage Disadvantage Verbal Conversation A real-life conversation between 2 or more people, face-to-face. Feels more personal, no technology that can fail and interrupt your conversation Someone can overhear your private conversation Telephone Conversation A conversation between 2 people on the telephone Can be private as it is only you and the other person that can hear Can get cut off, can be expensive Telephone Conferencing. A telephone conversation between more than 2 people Talk to you work colleagues when you are all in another country If one person gets cut off the conversation cannot continue without him/her. Expensive Meetings A formal meeting between important people in the firm. Usually no more than 10-15 people Meetings can be a useful place to share ideas You might not want to be in the same room as someone Video Conferencing The same as telephone conference but with a live video image of the person(s) you are speaking to. Video conversations can be made with a 3G (3Gigabit) phone or over the internet using MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger or Skype 2 Seeing your colleagues can be more personal and can feel like a meeting If one person wants to leave the entire conversation stops. Can be expensive Letters A formal external communication method between to groups Letters are always clear and to the point Slow to arrive and get lost on the post. Post is 29p Email is free Memos An internal form of letter, usually less formal Will always reach the person as it goes through internal mail Takes a long time to reply Email An electronic mail that can arrive in another part of the world in less than 3 seconds. Can be used for anything and does not have to be formal Can reach the other side of the world in around three seconds. Can be replied to instantly. Can be sent to more than one person instantly Sometimes too informal and can be lost on servers Fax A written document that is scanned and sent across phone lines A letter that can reach the other side of the world in seconds Can get lost on the phone lines. Document may not scan well. Black and white only Notices A kind of memo pinned to a notice board to inform the passers-by Notices can inform anyone about what is going on and it cannot be private May not reach the person(s) you want it to Skype and other VoIP applications It allows you to make free calls to other Skype users and very cheap calls to Landlines and Mobiles. Now, with Skype 2 you can add video to your conversation A cheaper alternative to making phone calls. The call is sent over your broadband connection so is quick and clear. No national or international charges You have to pay (albeit very little) for calls to landlines and mobiles   Aaron L. Lovegrove Page 1 09/05/2007 Page 1 of 7 Business Studies Unit 1 Functional Area.

Personal And Professional Skills Identification Personal Development Essay

Personal And Professional Skills Identification Personal Development Essay In order for any manager or leader to achieve the goals set for themselves as well as the goals set for the organization, possessing appropriate skills are most important aspect. Before we can understand the important of either managerial skills or leadership skills (both personal as well as professional skills), we need to understand as to what differentiates these two professional positions from each other. Understanding the meaning of a leader- Leader is a person who not only helps the organization reach its goals but also helps to develop people at the same time. A leader is said to be a person who does the right things at the right time. Leadership is all about effectiveness. Leadership is all about innovation, inspiration and motivation. Understanding the meaning of a Manager- A manager is an entity in organization who helps to direct the actions of the employees or the members to achieve the organizational goals. A Manager is all about doing the things right and its all about efficiency. Manager is all about managing the resources of the organization. Understanding the common and unique differences between a leader and a manager will help us to understand the skills that are required in the organization: A manager believes in administration whereas a leader goes for innovation. Manager is all about organizing and scheduling but leadership is all about motivating the people in the organisation. A manager at the end of the day has employees working under him or her but for a leader, they have people who wants to becomes like them in future. A manager always ensures that the short term goals are achieved first but a leader wants to ensure that the short term goals are acheived in such a way that they help is achieving the long term goals. A manager works to ensure the stability in the business but a leader looks out for changes that can bring about the stability in the business. Personal and Professional Skills- Now as we know the difference between a manager and leader, we need to understand some of the personal and the professional skills that are important in an organization. Personal skills includes effective communication, being accountable and dependable, adaptable and appropriate work place behavior etc. Professional skills includes effective communication, time management, conducting and being part of meetings, managing stress at workplace, preparing appropriate presentations, management of performance and observation of performance, motivations and stabilization at work place. In order to understand the Manager role in a professional environment we will focus on four major skills that every potential Manager is expected to possess in an organization and these skills are: Time Management skills- Time is a very important aspect for any business. Effective management of time is essential for success of any organization or even a project. A manager can effectively manage time if they concentrate on the important aspects of the business or the organization first and then keep the other factors secondary. Effective management of time not only helps us understand what many say Time is money as well as stress reduction can be due to effective time management. (Marc Mancini, 2007) There are many options available for managers to effectively manage there time, they need to understand the priority of the work that has been assigned to them and ensure that they are working efficiently to deliver the required work on time rather then wasting the time on some work which is currently not important. A manager can also manage time if the work has been organized and distributed properly. If we take an example, Toyota works on the principle of JIT (Just in Time) and they are a very successful company known for there quality and on time work. If a person can learn to effectively manage their time, they are on their way to achieve their goals. But before a person can learn to manage time, they need to be aware of the factors that can affect the time management. These factors will include Unorganized work format, inappropriate judgment for delivery of the work, Not giving the complete attention to the current work and delaying it by working on something else at the same time. Conducting meetings- Conducting meetings or being part of the meetings are one of daily roles of a manager. Meeting is the forum through which gathered members or the people not only discuss and understand any situation but also try and develop ideas to decide on any issue. It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that he or she carries and arranges meeting in such a way that the end result leads out to an effective meeting (be the purpose of the meeting was informal talk or formal data communication). Depending on the reason or the purpose of the meeting, there can be many advantages that can be derived out of the meetings. When ever there is any formal or informal meeting, the Manager always has an edge over the members of the meeting. An effective manager utilizes meetings for not only relaying information to the co-workers but also to brain storm to generate ideas pertaining to there departments. We need to always remember that in a meeting it is not necessary that all the members will come with the same opinion. An effective manager uses the meeting as a forum to not only strengthen his team on the whole but also to give individual attention to the members of the team. On the whole meetings always help to develop good work place environment through good working relations. An effective manager is expected to have conducted an effective meeting if they have first and foremost achieved the main objective and idea behind conducting the meeting. In order to achieve this the manager needs to ensure that the members of the meeting are not only aware about the entire schedule of the meeting but also have information on the content of the meeting. An effective manager not only conveys all the information accurately but also ensures that the opinions of the members of the meeting is gathered at the end. Preparing presentation- Preparing and giving presentation is another important skill that is required for any manager. Presentation skills are just not important for managers, it is an essential aspects in every field of work in todays world. Presentation is a skills through a manager not only relays important information to the co-workers but also effectively utilizes various tools like Optics and graphics to get into the details of the information. In any company, presentations are used for meetings, discussing financial issues and even in senior board meetings. On the whole apart from the members of the presentation meeting the effectiveness of the presentation also is very critical. How can a manager not only prepare but also deliver an effective presentation? There are some of the methods that can be implemented and utilised to get to the required results of the presentations. These points are as follows: Every manager needs to ensure that they understand the importance of the presentation that they will be delivering and should be well prepared for it from before. If we check on www.nwlink.com, an effective presentation should have a good content. By this it means that it should only contain the information that is relevant. Every presentation should have a good format or structure- It should have a good start, middle and the end of the presentation. Every presentations should ensure that it understands that viewpoint and connects to the people involved in the presentation. Time is one of the most important aspect in presentations, the presenter needs to ensure that the time is utilized effectively in the presentation. Stress management skills- Skills that help and aid in managing the stress effectively are known as stress management skills. In simple terms stress can be defined as the response that is generated by our body depending on positive or negative conditions of outside or inside pressure. If we ignore the conditions and reasons for the stress, it can lead to lack of concentration and and difficult to work. Depending on the causes of the stress, they can be classified into different categories Stress caused due to survival factor- People have heard that the survival of the fittest, and this can lead to serious stress among the people. This can be applied in personal or even professional place. Stress caused due to internal or personal factors- This stress factors can be caused due to any personal reasons, financial problems, family problem anything. Stress caused due to environmental factors- Some people cannot take certain changes in environment like loud noise, pollution and get stressed out easily. Stress caused due to work place- People working in an organization get over worked and over tired and get stressed out. Managing the stress at all these situations is extremely important. Task 2. Practical Methods of development of above mentioned four skills In this section we will cover some of the practical methods that can be utilized to develop the above discussed four important skills required for a successful Managership. Methods for the development of Time Management Skills- Through the below mentioned methods we will learn to develop our time management skills and learn how to effectively and efficiently utilise the time. Preparing a list that contains the informations of the works in hand and needs attention can definitely help in managing the time. Always keep idea about the time that needs to be spent on the completion of each task available. Distribution of work also is another practical methods that can not only reduce stress but also save time for other task as well. By ensuring that no additional work is undertaken unless the assigned work has been completed. Always try and work in a team. Ensure that the work is not postponed to another time and date. Always be ready to say No other other including your Boss in case you already have enough work at your hand. Methods for the developing the meeting Skills In order to develop the meeting skills, manager needs to ensure that they understand the objectives and the purpose of the meeting. Every action that is taken should always lead to the achievement of the goal of the meeting. Ensure that the important information and data is discussed well within the time. Ensure that the meeting content was valuable for every member of the meeting. Always be well prepared and organized (time, agenda etc) for the meeting. Ensure that the feedback is taken from the members regarding the meeting. Methods for the development of presentation Skills Just like meetings skills, ensure that the presenter is well organizedd and prepared for the meeting. Ensure latest technologies are utilized to enhance the presentation (visual aids). Always keep everyone involved in the presentation and keep eye contact with everyone while giving presentation. Always ensure that you have practiced the presentation well in advance to avoid any anxiety. Methods for the development of stress Management Skills In order to develop the stress management skills, first learn to understand the reason which is leading to stressful situation. Either you can avoid the things which are causing stress or try and adjust yourself to that situation which will reduce stress. Another method is either to change the cause of stress or accept the cause of stress. Always try and re-frame the issues leading to stress and try and distribute work which will reduce the workload stress. Reward yourself when accomplishing any task, this can reduce the stress a lot. Avoid negative methods to manage stress, adapt healthy way for stress management. Outcome 2. Evaluation of Personal Skills through Audit Task 3. Personal Skill auditing Every person has there own way and approach of learning things in life, these approaches can be considered as the individual learning style. A manager is expected to understand there method and style of learning things and turning the negatives into positives. Individual specific learning style helps them to make and alter there weaknesses into their strength through every action that they take. After long understanding and thinking, I can say that I have a Learning style which is combination of being Theorist as well as Linguistic. Depending on my learning style, I have performed the below audit to highlight my strength and weaknesses. Skills Strength Weakness Organized P Communication P Time Management P Management of Stress P Delegation P Meetings and Presentations P Efficient and Self confident P Learning methodology P Interpersonal communication P Technological skills P Coaching and mentoring P Learn from experience P Logical thinking skills P We we take a look, we can clearly see that there are quite a few noticeable weakness in my learning style. These weakness can lead to non effective performance of the manager. The weakness are always a hindrance in a work place towards success. If we take a look at the people and the businesses which are currently blooming, they have got success as they have studied from there past experiences and changed their weakness into their strength. Performance in a business world is the key to success and survival. Now after understanding and performing the self audit for the skills, there weakness which can affect the development of the four skills mentioned earlier are: Communication- Communicating in an effective way is crucial for manager. This weakness can affect all the four skills like Time management, Stress management, Meeting and presentations skills. Communication is the backbone for the proper development of the skills. A manager needs to communicate clearly about the work in hand and the time it will consume to reduce the stress later on. Communicating effectively is the main factor to turn the meeting and presentation important and meaningful. Delegation- This is one weakness which can have an impact on Time management as well as Stress management development. A manager needs to learn to delegate work to reduce the self burden and lack of time. Logical thinking skills- A manager needs to ensure that they think effectively for all possible reactions and reasons before taking any action. Taking action without thinking can create stress at work and management of stress can be serious issue which will involve lot of time. Outcome 3. Personal Development plan Task 4. Personal development plan Before we can develop a personal development plan, we need to understand the importance of development plan. What are the significant weakness in self? I have performed the self skill audit to understand as to where I stand in terms of the skills I possess and the skills that needs to be developed and worked upon. Why need personal Development plan? If I want to become a successful manager, I need to ensure that there are not significant weakness in my professional and personal skills that can have a huge impact on my learning. No body can be perfect but at least we can try to be close to being perfect. What I am targeting to achieve through the development plan? I am targeting not only to maintain my current strength of skills but also convert my weakness into my strength to ensure that there is very less scope of weakness in future. I need to ensure that my learning style helps in this process. The personal development plan should be aligned with SMART objectives and the self SWOT analysis. Objectives of SMART will ensure that I have developed a plan which is not only realistic but also time based, which I will be measuring and checking on time. I need to ensure that all the development plan is aligned to minimize my weakness. My personal SWOT analysis: Strength Organized Time Management Management of Stress Meetings and Presentations Efficient and self confident Learning methodology Interpersonal communication Technological skills Coaching and mentoring Learning from experience Weaknesses Communication Delegation Logical Thinking skills Opportunities Being part of most of the meetings and presentation at work shops All the facilities available in the college to aid in development Online tutorial for learning Learn through lectures at college Start workshop to help others in developing some skills Threats Missing out important lectures Lack of time for different activities Unable to be part of more work shops Less number of students to enroll for the workshop for skills development Depending on the Personal SWOT analysis, I have prepared a personal development plan as follows (this plan has been developed for a period of 4 months and post this Ill be performing another audit to verify the status of my skills): Skills that Needs development Action to be taken to overcome the weakness and the required resources Time line set for development Communication Try and communicate to as many people possible. Send out reports and data to work on my written communication. Take regular meetings and presentations. 4 Months Delegation Delegate work to reduce the time consumption and the over load stress. Try and work independently but ensure to not over work and encourage others through work delegation. 2 Months Logical Thinking skills Try and think and analyze every situation to come up with possible solutions. Can talk to people about their opinion on a particular situation. 3 Months Task 5. Monitoring and Feedback In order to ensure that the development plan is progressing on a success path, regular monitoring and feedback is essential. The development plan for tackling the weakness covers communication, delegation and logical thinking skills. During the course of the development plan, I feel that I am not only try to communicate to a lot of people but also trying to encourage my co-workers through assigning tasks to them. This is not only helping them to develop their skills but also reducing the stress from me but also Im saving a lot of time for other works. Due to the development plan, I have able to think logically and come up with ideas for the development of the department as well as the co-workers. This has helped me to enhance my communication skills in meetings as well as while giving presentations. Apart from the work place, have been visiting and talking to lot people outside to understand there feeling and style of learning things. Task 6. Conclusion and Learning Advanced Professional Development- This course might seem boring but when we get into the details we will understand that this subject is a critical part of being successful and achieving our aim.It is important to learn from experience but if we dont have any information on the basics of skills required for being Manager, it is totally worthless. This assignment has helped me understand the importance of being the manager and the skills that can lead to the success of being manager. Through this assignment I have understood the importance of my learning method and how I have been using it from long time for many assignment without giving it much thought. Every work involved going through lot of theoretical data (through various sources). But at the end of the day, I have learned immensely through this assignment, the knowledge gathered through this assignment will not only help in being a good manager but also can applied in any field that I would be working in future. At the end I would like to thank all who have helped me in understanding the importance of this assignment and the importance of being a leader and mentor for others.

Patras and the Adriatic Sea :: Geography Greece History Papers

Patras and the Adriatic Sea Problems with format PATRAS ?Patras is a port city located in the Northern Achaia, standing as the gateway to the West for all of Greece. As the third largest Greek city, Patras plays an important role as the center of administrative and commercial activity for Western Greece. Standing in Northwest Peloponnese, Patras has become the link between the European Union and the East because of its prime geographic location. The climate is mild year round, but retains the same four seasons experienced in the United States. The city is over 3000 years old and has always had a unique culture because of its connection with Italy and the Ionian Islands. The footprint of the city was developed in very organized quadrants by Kapodistrias in 1829, and is separated into upper and lower portions. The upper is the original city, and extends down from a castle built during the 6th century. The castle was built upon the ruins of the acropolis on an extension from mount Panachaico. The inside of the castle has been converted into a park, providing the best view of the city on a clear day. ?The old city consists of Patras? wealthy and important homeowners and is less spontaneously scattered upon the hillside. Despite having a 3000-year history many of the old structures have been ruined, although the upper section is today well decorated with neoclassic homes. The entire city was burned and destroyed by the Turks during the 19th century war of Independence. The more organized lower section drops down to the coast and includes the cathedral and the port. The cathedral is very colorful and is named after the city?s patron, St. Andrew, rising high into the air and resting on the remnants of an old Christian Basilica. It sits next to an older church that stands on the remnants of a burnt down Byzantine church (dept. of computer engineering and informatics). The square of George I is the center of the low city and is one of many squares and parks in the area. Another largely famous park is Psila Alonia, ?the balcony? of Patras, a smaller square of palm tress encompassing a sundial. History: ?The name of the region, Achaia, comes from the Achaias that forced out the Ionians living in the region during the Mycenaean period. One of the Achaian leader?s sons was named Patreas, the eventual chief of the Achaians and the root of the city?

Conformity Case Essay

INTRODUCTION: Ever since the first experiment on conformity was conducted by Jenness in 1932, psychologists have tried to measure conformity under various situations. Historically, conformity has been measured in numerous ways, though the most widely used methods have been behavioural observations and self reports (Scher and Thompson, 2007). While Asch’s Experiment (1951) remains the most popular work on conformity, Zimbardo (1971) and Milgrams’ (1974) work are noteworthy. AIM AND HYPOTHESIS: We wanted to find out whether undergraduate students conform to social norms or not? Also, what are the likely reasons for their behaviour? For this, we created our own experiment. However, let us define conformity and other key variables first. Kalat (2008) defines conformity as changing one’s behaviour to match other people’s behaviour or expectations. It is the dependant variable (DV) in our experiment and we gave it an operational definition. We measured DV by the subject’s correct gender identification and subsequent action of walking through the door assigned for their respective gender. This is further elaborated under the Research Method section. The independent variable (IV) in our experiment was self-monitoring attitude. We chose IV as our group believed that it is primarily high self-monitoring people are more conscious about their social image and are thus more likely to conform in general than low-self monitoring people and vice versa. The operational definition for self monitoring attitude was the score on Self-Monitoring (SM) Scale created by Mark Synder in the early 1970’s. Frayer believes that the personality test measures how much an individual would change his behaviour to suit situational cues. It has 25 questions in total and has been attached in APPENDIX 1 for your reference. The results were interpreted as high, intermediate or low score depending on how many questions the subject got corr ect using the answer key provided by lckes and Barnes (1977) attached in APPENDIX 2 for your reference. Our goal was to examine therelationship between self-monitoring attitude (IV) and   conformity (DV). We expected a positive co-relation due to our group belief mentioned above. Besides, Scher and Thompson’s (2007) experiment, which was our inspiration, had found a significant positive correlation relationship between self-monitoring and behavioural conformity. Our target population was the undergraduate students at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). However, our sample consisted of only forty HKU students composing of twenty female and twenty male students. RESEARCH METHOD: Let us elaborate on how we went about conducting our experiment. Firstly, we chose to conduct the experiment at Chi Wah composite building since many undergraduate students go there to study. Secondly, we replicated Sarah Lisbene experiment on gender conformity. Lisbene had pasted gender signs on an entrance of a building to observe whether people would conform to the gender symbols on the doors. We duplicated her gender conformity situation at the main entrance on the first floor of Chi Wah as it has precisely two doors. We stuck gender symbols on each door at the eye level right besides the door handles ‒ a male only sign on right door and a female only sign on the left door. Then, we shut both the doors at the entrance. Anyone who wanted to enter the building from this entrance was bound to read the gender sign before opening the door and thus would have to make a decision to conform, observable by his/her action of walking through the appropriate gender-marked door. Thirdly, we used simple systematic sampling method to choose our subjects. Every 10th person was invited to participate in our experiment by filling in a two paged survey. The survey was actually the SM Scale mentioned in AIM AND HYPOTHESIS section. We calculated their scores on the SM Scale by their marked responses to measure the IV and its relationship with DV. Lastly, we tried to observe participants in their natural setting. To remain unnoticeable, we dressed up in casuals and stood far away from the entrance, trying to avoid giving any additional situational cues to the participants. We wanted to prevent any bias adversely affecting our study and carefully observed the behaviour of the subjects reading the signs, recording their decision of walking through either door and then approached them, requesting to fill in the survey. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS: Though the response and the reactions from the subjects varied, a common trend in our experiment emerged. The participant would read the sign on the door when he/she approached to open the door and get confused. Then, he/she would take a step back and try to locate the other gender sign on the other door and finding one would relieve him/her and change their emotion. Then they would make a decision to walk through either door. The mean score on the SM scale was 12.1, an â€Å"Intermediate Sco re† as it falls in the band width of 9-14. It suggests that HKU undergraduates self-monitor themselves to a moderate degree on average and would be conscious of their social image. Our hypothesis would suggest that undergraduates are likely to conform to their respective gender roles. The statistics obtained from our sample were consistent with our expectations in general. In fact, 28 out of the 40 or 70% participants conformed to their respective gender role. We found a modest positive co-relation of .4049 between SM Scale and conformity. It suggests that self-monitoring attitude may lead to gender conformity. We observed two major group differences based on the data collected. The first group was divided on basis of gender while the second on their score on SM Scale. Firstly, the SM Score mean for females was slightly higher (12.2) than for men (12). The standard deviation for females (3.578) was lower compared to men (4.193) and the range for females was 4-21 and 3-18 for men. The data and statistics obtained are indicative of females conforming marginally more than males. Out of the 28 subjects that did conform, 16 or 57.1% were females and only 12 or 42.9% were males. Secondly, a score of 15-22 is high and 0-8 is low on the SM scale. Out of the 7 subjects who scored low on SM scale, only 3 or 42.9% conformed. Out of the 23 subjects who scored intermediate on SM scale, only 16 or 69.6% conformed and out of the 10 subjects who scored high on SM Scale, 9 or 90% conformed. This suggest that people who score high on the SM Scale are more likely to conform than people who score lower on the SM Scale. A third group difference, which is based on our observation of arrival of participant in a party or not can be suggested. In a group of two females and three males, a male pointed out the discrepancy at the entrance which surprised the whole group. They talked among themselves and even had a laugh, pointing at the symbols. Nonetheless, the group split up and members walked through respective doors and then rejoined once inside the building. This may suggests that people are more likely to conform if they arrive in a party consisting of both the genders. CONCLUSION From our data and observations in the experiment, we can make a few conclusions. Firstly, though HKU undergraduates are likely to conform to gender roles, females are more likely to do so. Secondly, there is a modest correlation between self-monitoring attitude and conformity, though we could not establish a direct causal relationship between the two variables. Thirdly, it seems that people who are scored higher on the SM Scale are more likely to conform to gender roles than those who scored lower on the SM Scale. Lastly, subjects are more likely to conform to gender roles when they arrive in a party consisting of both the genders. CRITICAL EVALUATION: Booker (2012) says that behavioural conformity is linked with youth happiness. Conforming behaviour enables us to create a strong social world and experience belongingness to a group, thereby facilitating social identification and security, leading to equilibrium of contentment. This suggests the importance of conforming in order to ac hieve happiness. Secondly, conforming behaviour is actually a â€Å"self-defining act† and people conform to keep their â€Å"state of peace† (Santee and Jackson, 1982). This too may explain why people conform in general. Furthermore, there is a difference in the view of conformity between both the genders ‒ men regard non-conforming behaviour as â€Å"self-image enhancing† while women regard conformity as â€Å"positive† and â€Å"self defining†. This helps explain why women are more likely than men to conform. Another plausible explanation for gender differences in conformity is given by Maslach, Santee and Wade (1987), who believe conformity is based on personality traits of men and women. Men are supposed to be â€Å"assertive† and â€Å"independent† while women are supposed to be â€Å"sensitive†. Recently, researchers from University of London (2011) have even found a mild genetic influence explaining gender conforming traits (31%) in women. According to Fraser, most people would like to maintain a positive public image and are perceptive to what people think about them. This may explain why high self-monitors who actively apply impression managem ent are more likely to conform than low self-monitors. The fear of distorting their public image or even dampening their social popularity would be a powerful incentive for high self monitors to conform. Lastly, individuals composing a group face a stronger effect of normative social influence than a collection of individuals who do not form a group (Deutsch and Gerard, 1954). This may explain why the conformity increases when subjects arrive in a party consisting of both genders. I would now like to talk about potential flaws in our experiment and some methods to improve our model. Firstly, conformity is not completely dependent on a single variable and we should have used a multi-variable regression model to estimate it instead. In our experiment, one of the omitted variables is lack of social pressure or incentive to conform. The subjects may not have sufficient incentive to walk through their gender assigned door as there was no reward or penalty in terms of social acceptance or rejection. Also, as many as 9 subjects reported that they did not notice any gender symbol and walked in using random door. None of them was suffering from any eyesight problem like colour blindness. Furthermore, Livingstone brings to light a potential confounding variable ‒ civility. Civility primarily depends on disposition of the subject, which in turn depends on parenting, school education and cultural background. We could have included all these variables in our model. Another potential flaw in experiment is not having a control group. Maybe the female lavatory near the left door favoured the female participants to walk through the left door, increasing their conforming number. Either a control group or interchanging the symbols on the doors after the first 20 subjects had filled in the survey would have removed this bias. To improve our model, we could have used better operational definitions too. The SM Scale is controversial and walking through a door marked by a sign may not be a relevant gender issue. Secondly, we could have used a larger budget and more time to improve our model. For instance, it took us four days to get permission to conduct the experiment at Chi Wah. If we had more time, we would have conducted the experiment in the Main Library and Medical Campus to get a representative sample. Increasing our sample size would have enabled us to detect micro trends and be more accurate. We could have offered subjects who refused to fill in the survey monetary compensation. Our study may have been subject to experimenter bias in spite our full effort to minimise the bias as we were expecting a positive correlation. Blinding was too expensive an option for us. PERSONAL REFLECTION: Though this experiment answered some questions, it has left me wondering about many more. If given the opportunity, I would like to conduct a few follow up experiments to seek some answers. Firstly, I would like to find out if there is any link between stress levels and gender conformity. This relationship arises from my observation that some subjects in our experiment who walked through the wrong door and also refused to fill in the survey seemed to be impatient and rude. Though there may be some other reasons behind their gender non-conformity behaviour and mood like being short on time, we cannot say for sure and will have to find out for ourselves. Also, I would like to find out if there is any threshold level for conformity? For instance, participants may refuse to conform by walking through a door in our experiment but they would probably conform while using a lavatory. If non-conformers conform if they know they would be severely rebuked for their actions, what precisely is that threshold level? The experiment also cleared my misconceptions of conducting experiments. I thought that it would be very easy to design and conduct an experiment. However, given our goal, there were so many ways of going about it that was very hard to select the best method given our resources and time constraint. Carrying out the experiment has its own fair share of struggles. I would also like to mention my experience with experimenter bias. While drafting the experiment, I was very confident that I could not be susceptible to experimenter bias. However, when we started the experiment, it was very hard not to hand out the survey to our friends and acquaintances who happened to come in through the doors but were not the 10th subject as per our systematic sampling rule. Finally, after having finished the experiment, I think it was painstakingly work involving a lot of planning and careful evaluation. Nonetheless, I had fun conducting the experiment. REFERENCES 1. Scher, N., & Thompson, T. (2007). Self-Monitoring and Conformity: A Comparison of Self-Report and Behavioral Measures. UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research X (2007) Retrieved December 1, 2012, from http://www.uwlax.edu/urc/jur-online/PDF/2007/scher&thompson.pdf 2. Kalat, James W. (2008). Introduction to Psychology, Ninth (International) Edition. Wadsworth: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 3. Fraser, M. â€Å"Mhaire†. Self Monitoring Notes and Resources. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from De Anza College Website: http://faculty.deanza.edu/frasermary/stories/storyReader$157 4. Montclair SocioBlog. Livingston, J. (2009). Civility or Mindless Compliance? Retrieved December 2, 2012, from http://montclairsoci.blogspot.hk/2009/07/civility-or-mindless-compliance.html 5. Booker, Karene. (2012). Youths’ well-being linked to how well they conform to gender norms Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/news/youths-well-being-linked-how-well-they-conform-gender-norms 6. Santee, R.T., & Jackson, S.E. (1882). Identity Implications of Conformity: Sex Differences in Normative and Attributional Judgements. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45(2), 121-125. Retrieved from December 7, 2012, http://faculty.rhodes.edu/wetzel/223webproj/conformity%20and%20gender/ 7. Maslach, C., Santee, R. T., & Wade, C. (1987). Individuation, Gender Role, and Dissent: Personality Mediators of Situational Forces. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(6), 1088-1093. Retrieved December 7, 2012,from http://faculty.rhodes.edu/wetzel/223webproj/conformity%20and%20gender/ 8. Science Daily. Jul 9, 2011. Sexual Orientation and Gender Conforming Traits in Women Are Genetic, Study Finds Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110707173319.htm 9. Morton, Deutsch and Gerard, B. Harold. (1954). A Study of Normative and Informational Social Influences upon Individual Judgement. Research Center for Human Relations, New York University Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://web.comhem.se/u68426711/8/deutsch55.pdf

5th Symphony in E minor, Tchaikovsky Essay Example

5th Symphony in E minor, Tchaikovsky Essay Example 5th Symphony in E minor, Tchaikovsky Essay 5th Symphony in E minor, Tchaikovsky Essay My Experience with the SIS Orchestra Concert 3: Tchaikovsky On the 28th April 2011 1 participated with the Iowa state orchestra on the last performance for the year. The orchestra included works by Tchaikovsky. The orchestra performed the 5th Symphony in E minor. This piece is in sonata form, which has a theme that is heard throughout the piece. The overall trajectory of the Tchaikovsky 5th reminds the listeners to Beethovens 5th symphony as they were both during the times of war and it is illustrated in both symphonies. This piece is a reflect example of a Romantic-era symphony colorful, complex and above all, passionately emotional. The symphony has four movements which consist of a fast, slow, dance and another fast movement. The theme of this piece is heard throughout this piece. The first movement is the Andante- Allegro con anima begins with a lengthy slow introduction, entering darkly with a funeral character on the clarinet. In sonata form the subject enters gently with the repetitive brevity of a Russian dance, building in intensity. The development section is quite short and concentrated with the recapitulation necking in, in the bassoons. The coda recedes into the deeps, presaging the mood of the next movement. Following the first movement is the Andante cantabile which has a tender, expressive melody played by the French horn that sounds almost like a love song. But then the original theme suddenly and rudely interrupts the reverie, as though we were able to break away from our troubles for a short time, this theme is a reminder that we are still in war and that darkness is still upon us. This movement is in a standard ternary form with the A section in D major and the B section in F# then a restatement of A section with different orchestration. Leper K. 12 The third movement called the Vales: Allegro moderate begins like a graceful, pastoral waltz. Once again, it feels as if our hero has escaped from fates cruel clutches. This time, the illusion of safety lasts for nearly the entire movement, creeping into the coda the known criminal, the main theme, sneakily imitating the Id ©e Fixed in the Ball movement of the Symphony Fantasies as if it was hiding in the bushes all along. The movement ends hurriedly, before the motto can do any damage. The return of the motto theme in the 3rd movement preceded by a waltz in major key, strikes the listener as a reminiscent of the tragic opening of the symphony. Movement was probably the most challenging movement to play as the id ©e fixed is almost taking over and the whole orchestra is playing loud and the violins are going crazy almost delusional. In this movement Tchaikovsky transposes the fate or id ©e fixed theme from the dusky, moody key of E minor to the bright sunshine of E major, and the transformed melody blossoms into a triumphant march. Its as if Tchaikovsky is telling us that humans cannot ignore or escape from their fate, but they can overcome their circumstances and transform them into something brighter and better. This is one orchestra work that illustrates abilities color in all the instruments and also has the biggest horn solo in orchestral horn repertoire. Overall the orchestra did a wonderful Job with this work. Dry Harrison says It was the kind of performance we musicians want and crave for every concert, but we all know that it doesnt always happen that way.