Problem Solving and Decision Making Essay

Background I work for a company called npower and we are an energy supplier in the UK. Specifically, I work within the Blended Services department and we deal with various types of inbound contact from our customers such as email, letters and telephone calls. I manage a team of 15 people advisors and their role is to effectively deal with customer enquiries that come in via the different methods of contact. Due to the large volumes of correspondence that we have come in, it’s not always practical to respond to customers via a written response and we therefore ask the advisors to call as many customers as possible and resolve their enquiries by phone, this allows the advisors not only deal with the customer’s original enquiry but to also answer any subsequent questions that may arise when they are presented with the answer we give them. Description of the problem When advisors call a customer there are regulations around data protection and also keeping customer contact details up to date that we must adhere to, we refer to these regulations as compliance. This is a very black and white subject, we must be compliant in all we do 100% of the time. The problem that has come to light that in our department, is that our advisors are not 100% compliant 100% of the time. They will fully cover data protection and request up to date contact information on some calls but not others. This presents a problem for the department and me as a manager as well as the advisors in question as these inconsistencies can lead to varying degrees of disciplinary action for the advisors and the company. The impact of this for the advisors is that it can lead to disciplinary action such as informal warnings, up to more formal action such as written warnings and even loss of their job. In extreme cases offending advisors can even face personal fines. As a manager, I then have to consider the potential knock on effects of such action which can include loss of advisor confidence, a reduction in staff morale, and opportunity for progression may be reduced or taken away and all of these in turn may affect an advisors attendance. For me as a manager the concerns are that these actions could affect my time as I am required to carry out investigations in to each case of non-compliance. This is turn could leave other members of my team to feel neglected as my time becomes consumed with investigations and carrying out disciplinary action. Potentially, this could lead to a general loss of morale within my team as a whole and go on to impact their performance. This issue also affects our customers as if we are seen to be breaking such important regulations as data protection, and then this could cause an increase in complaints, damage our customer’s confidence in us as a company, lead to a decrease in customer loyalty and ultimately the loss of their business. From a company point of view the impacts are possibly the greatest. Just a few potential knock on effects from non-compliance are loss of customers, brand damage, legal consequences including large fines and potentially losing out license to trade. Disciplinary action can lead to loss of staff and this brings further impacts such as the time and cost of recruiting and training new staff and all of these could eventually impact our ability to provide a desired service to our customers. Analysis of the problem In trying to identify options to solve the problem of advisors inconsistently adhering to compliance regulations, I first looked at gathering as much information as I could in to how much it was affecting my department and if there were any contributing factors to the problem. I liaised with our quality analysts. The QA team had recently marked a sample of the calls we make within the department and informed me that in the month of September they sampled four calls from each team within the department. This was made up of one inbound call (calls where the customer calls npower) and one outbound call (calls where we call the customer) for two advisors on each team. There are 18 teams so this is 36 advisors that were sampled and scored. The results showed that of the advisors monitored only 69% were fully compliant. This is cause for concern then as the target is 100%. Following on from this, I needed to do further investigation. My time, however, is very valuable and for me to take on such an investigation alone is not feasible. I discussed the problem with my manager and we came up with an idea to help us follow up the results from the QA Teams quality checks. Within our own operations group (5 Teams) we asked each manager to mark two calls for each of their advisor focussing solely on whether or not the advisors were following compliance regulations that we must adhere to. In the first week of October, each manager carried out the quality checks for their teams. The results showed that we were 50% compliant as an operations group. Following these results each manager went out to the advisors that were not following the compliance regulations and gave them a training session as well as an informal warning that this kind of action was not acceptable and that compliance must be adhered to at all times. The managers including myself then left the advisors for a couple of weeks and then went back and completed the same quality checks once more. The second time around we noticed an improvement as we scored 70%. However, we were and still are a long way short of our ultimate goal. Following on from this, I devised what I saw to be a simple yet effective questionnaire that would be completed by a sample group of advisors. The purpose of the questionnaire was to establish possible reasons why the advisors failed to be consistent in regards to meeting compliance when speaking to customers on the telephone. I looked to address such matters as how confident they were that they were personally 100% complaint 100% of the time, were they aware of the tools that npower provide to assist them in being complaint, what barriers they have encountered that make it difficult to be compliant and what do they feel would ensure that they were 100% compliant 100% of the time going forward. The results of the questionnaire showed that the advisors knew what was required of them to be compliant and that they recognised the implications of not being compliant. It also showed that all of the advisors were aware of the various support tools that npower provides them to help with compliance though not all of them used them. This suggests then that the problem of being inconsistent in regards to compliance may be down to advisor attitude or focus but at this point I wanted to avoid making assumptions. With all of this information, I used a simple fishbone to drill down for possible reasons for these inconsistencies. I looked at the following headings and then added the possible reasons: Confidence (lack of) * Inconsistent message * Unclear on what’s expected * Cannot deal with conflict (from customers) * DPA doesn’t feel natural (in call structure) * Situations outside of the norm (3rd party calling on behalf of the customer) Knowledge (lack of) * No or little training (new to business) * Lack of communication (not advised of possible changes) * Inconsistent message (unsure what is correct) Skill * Unsure how to resolve conflict * Not certain how to incorporate data protection in to their call structure * Not able to control a call (allows a customer to drive a conversation, potentially skipping past vital areas for not wanting to interrupt) Attitude/Behaviour * Doesn’t understand potential consequences * Doesn’t like change * Refuses to comply After considering all of the above the potential solutions to my problem could be creating a guide that points out to advisors what they must do to be fully compliant but that isn’t rigid in its delivery so that the advisors can make it their own. Ensuring that the guide and its use is trained out in a clear manner that makes sure there are no questions unanswered. Providing the advisors with additional training to enable them to capably and confidently deal with situations of conflict i.e. if a customer refuses to go through data protection. Finally, making sure that the consequences of non-compliance for both advisors and the company are clearly communicated. Resolution of the problem I went to manager with my findings and stated what I wanted to achieve. I needed the goal to realistic and to be measurable. Remembering that QA Team reported the department to be 69% compliant for the month of September my goal statement was this: * To decrease the compliance fail rate in our department by 15% during the month of November based upon 36 evaluations. In making this statement, I ensured that if would be a fair reflection since it would match the original investigation completed by the QA Team. It’s SMART, because I have a specific goal that can be measured against previous findings. It’s both achievable and realistic as all managers will make numerous quality checks throughout the month and I’m trying to achieve the ultimate goal of 100% compliance but instead make a small but reasonable step towards it and finally, it’s time bound as all steps will be put in place and measured throughout November. Once the goal had been set, my manager and I held a brain storming session to look at possible options to resolve the problem. Further to those I mentioned earlier, we came up with these additional ideas: * Speech Analytics * Scripts for data protection * A specific inbound call team * A specific outbound call team * Feedback, coaching and evaluations * An inbound and outbound call decision making tree * Brief to include what’s expected and what the consequences are for non-compliance * Compliance champs * Compliance tick sheet After we had come up with these various options I went away and decided which would be the best course of action. To help me decide I used a simple Pro’s and Con’s method. I put each of the above options in to a table and then listed what the advantages and disadvantages were. Below, I have just briefly outlined some of the key points for each one. Speech analytics Pros * It saves time (it’s all automated, listening to and identifying key words and phrases in conversations) so managers don’t have to do manual checks. * A large sample is gathered (it pulls data from all recorded calls) therefore the reflection is very accurate. * Reports can easily be pulled, since all data is compiled and exported in excel spread sheet format. Cons * It’s not an immediate solution. Speech analytics for npower is in early testing stages and it’s unlikely to be available for at least another year. * Cost – It’s very expensive to implement and so even to run in a small test environment is currently unlikely. Scripts for data protection Pros * It would clearly set out what needs to be said (no grey area) * Advisors would have something to reference at all times * Can easily be updated when changes occur * Managers could easily cover this in a coaching session Cons * Advisors may not feel it comes across as natural * Advisors may forget to keep it on their desk each day * It would need to be updated with each new change (potentially old ones could be in circulation) * Repeat contact customers would have to go through the exact same process each time and may feel it comes across as robotic Specific inbound/outbound call teams Pros * Advisors would deal with only one call type (one set of compliance regulations, more specialised, less chance of failure) * Becoming specialised may increase confidence Cons * It may not be feasible to have a enough specialised teams to deal with the workload * We would lose multi-skilled advisors, impacting our ability to deal with other work volumes * Specialised teams leave us vulnerable to outside influences such as absence. Compliance Champs Pros * Position of responsibility for trusted advisors * Someone on hand to reference in uncertain situations Cons * Those not chosen may feel disappointed * The cost of taking advisors away from completing work may not be feasible in such a busy time * Having to wait for a ‘Champ’ may impact customer wait times and thus service * Takes ownership and responsibility away from the advisors Compliance Checklist Pros * Advisors already use something similar, so it would be familiar * Advisors could clearly track what they have and haven’t asked * Peace of mind as it states clearly what they must ask * Natural, as it states what they must ask but doesn’t tell them how to do it * Cheap and easy to implement * Easy to amend when changes occur * Advisors can easily keep it with them either paper based or electronically * Puts the responsibility on the advisor * Best use can be coached around Cons * Must be altered with each change (old ones could be left in circulation) * Puts the responsibility on the advisors (must be trusted to use it) After evaluating the options and the pros and cons to each. I decided to go with a compliance checklist. Once I had decided on what I believed to be the best solution I asked myself two important questions, in various decision making models these are also known as Acid Tests 1&2. Acid Test 1 – If I implement all of my plans for action will my problems be overcome? In considering the answer I thought back to areas that I had identified earlier that linked into the problem of inconsistent compliance. To recap these were things such as: * Advisors were unsure what they should be asking. * They lacked confidence that they were saying all the right things. * They could often miss important information if interrupted by a customer before the compliance checks were complete. * The solution needed to be simple and easy to implement, so that it was clear and simple to train out. The majority of my advisors already use a checklist of sorts to capture the work they complete and how they contacted the customer, by adding compliance prompts to this it creates a visual aid for the advisors reminding them of what they need to ask and it remains in a setting that they find familiar. Also, because the advisors are able to tick off the various requirements as they go along it makes it very clear what must be asked and it’s less likely that they’ll miss things out if they are interrupted as they can simply go back along the list and pick up where they left off. It’s also likely to come across as more natural when the advisors are talking to them customers as well as again it only prompts them with what they need to ask rather than telling them how to say it. Finally, it’s relatively cheap to implement, it isn’t very time consuming to put in place and it’s something that can be done immediately. A copy of the checklist is attached (Appendix A) Acid test 2 – If I get rid of all my problems will I achieve my objectives? Again, the answer should be yes. My solution will give advisors something black and white, that’s clear and easy to understand and familiar to them in their day to day role. This should in turn give them the added confidence when talking to customer’s on the phone. There is, however, a human element. This is that the solution once trained out and implemented, relies upon the advisor taking some ownership and making sure that use it every day even if they feel confident that they are fully compliant. Because this is a personal choice there is no plan that I can implement that will solve this. However, as a company we do have measures already in place to manage this. If an advisor is proven to have the skills and the knowledge to be fully compliant and yet for whatever reason chooses not to, then I or any other manager would need to ensure that this is managed in the proper fashion. Implementation and communication of the solution As previously stated the advisor already usage a data capture sheet in their day to day jobs. I have taken that and added some simple yet clear checklist boxes that prompt the advisors on what they need to be asking when speaking to customers on the telephone. I will start off with a trial in my operations group and then if the desired results are proven then I will discuss with my manager a plan to roll it out to the whole department. I’ll start by holding a small group meeting with my fellow team managers, briefly describing the problem that I’ve been looking in to. I’ll present my solution and tell them how I would like it to be used. The managers including me can then go out to our own teams and deliver the message in a brief team meeting. The compliance checklist will be distributed via email to the managers and advisors alike. This way the advisors can choose to print it off and fill it in manually or they can simply fill in in on their PC’S. This also means that they will always be able to access a copy even if they have to move desks as it will be saved to their email. Following this, I would plan to follow up with some side by side observations. This would be to ensure that the advisors are using the checklist as intended and it also gives me the chance to answer any questions that they may have as well as offer advice and praise where they are doing things well and hopefully begin to build that confidence in their ability back up. As far as monitoring and reviewing of the situation, this should be quite straight forward. I know what the problem is and I have identified a list of causes. I also know clearly what I expect to achieve from the solution. I perform at least one quality check on each of my advisors each week, so these will prove useful when monitoring progress in this area and the results should be clear to see. These quality checks are always given to the advisors as feedback and trends from multiple quality checks are used to build useful coaching sessions. The feedback that I receive from the advisors at this point should also allow me to monitor if they are using my solution as expected and how confident they feel with it. As a department, we also receive daily, weekly and monthly reports. These will enable me to view the progress of the other teams in my operations group to see if they are showing the results that are expected. I will raise the matter for discussion in the weekly operations group meeting and this will allow me to receive feedback from my fellow managers and get their thoughts on what is and potentially isn’t going well. Finally, the QA Team will perform another quality check across a random sample of the department. This will perhaps be the ultimate mark of whether or not my solution has been successful. If so, then there should be a significant increase in the percentage of advisors that pass compliance.

Travel Writing – Benidorm

I peered down at the lush shrubbery surrounding the hotel and the bright blue pool. The look of pleasure plastered over people's faces was a joy to see, the tall elegant building towered over me†¦ Then I lowered the brochure. I had been promised one of the top notch hotels in the whole of Benidorm yet here I was, greeted by a musky smell. It made the air misty and filled my nostrils with I smell that I can only describe as making me want to retch. A dingy looking council flat towered over me, literally. It seemed as though it was swaying to one side and about to fall flat on my face. So much for ‘The perfect place to stay'. My eyes stung and my gaze swayed down towards my feet as I tried to heal my eyes of pain. I was welcomed by the smell again when I realised it was appearing from the floor. Black liquid oozed from under the sole of my sandals. After dumping my luggage in a tacky room just containing a bed, a bedside cabinet and a bathroom; don't get me wrong this is all I asked for but it could at least be clean, I made my way out towards the town to check out the locals and see where the main attractions were. No-one was in sight. Where was everyone? I paced down through a cut in the trees and followed a greyish looking cat; they were all over the place. I found everyone. There was a market on today. I strolled down the first aisle and took in my surroundings; it smelt of dusty rugs and plastic. I looked on the hand made walls and saw copy's of all the latest fashion labels; they looked very fake but I couldn't go away from Benidorm without something like that. I chuckled to myself. I was being shouted at by a local, â€Å"Please Miss, come buy – amazing bag – very cheap†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I waved my arm and dismissed the idea. Was it really that obvious that I was British? I scrunched my eyes tight and fought against the sun, squinting at the brightness of it; I made out the outline my hotel. I had walked around in a colossal circle. I came here for one main reason, the sun. I could mainly get that at the beach. Off I wandered. I arrived at my destination. I walked along the paved edge of the sand. Taking in the smell of the salty water being rose by the hot sun. I looked around and people on scooters were appearing to have a death wish as they swerved in and out of the busy traffic taking silly little risks to get only about two cars in front. I looked back down towards the beach, here it was winter yet it was still warm, local people were walking alongside me tutting at the thought of the British being in their swimwear at such a ‘cold' time of year. As I got nearer reaching the edge of the beach I was gazing upon a huge crowd gathered around a certain part of the sand. I edged closer and saw umbrellas towering over me; I squeezed through the mass of people to be taken away by the art in front of my eyes. A sculpture, made of only sand, of two mermaids sitting on stones was draped across the Spanish beach. The man who had obviously made the amazing model was standing proudly next to it with a proud smile on his face. I made eye contact with him. He looked as though he was about to have a heart attack. â€Å"Please Miss,† He looked desperate, â€Å"I have no money, please,† He pointed to the mounds of buckets piled in front of the sculpture with a look on his face that only the most devilish of people would resist. I looked at the measly amount of coins in the buckets and pulled out my purse. I was shocked at the decent looking people who all instantly sat on the ground beneath them and turned into beggars. I was gob smacked. I turned and ran I was followed by some but then they gave up. I ran and ran. I headed for the hotel. It was dingy and council-flat looking but I didn't care. It would keep me safe†¦ from this†¦ this†¦ mayhem. I got to my room and locked the door behind me, leaning on it for support. I panted and grew very hot with all the running in the hot climate. I shrunk to the floor and sat for a few minutes getting my breathing back to normal. I ran the shower hot and jumped in it. It was nice and refreshing on my skin after the day's events. I laughed at the thought of the people all sinking to the floor and instantly becoming beggars as they saw a British Traveller with money. I settled to bed looking forward to a peaceful sleep. I was just drifting off went there was an almighty crash and bang on the door to my room. I could here mumbled voices and saw a yellowy liquid with bits in it oozing through the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. I tiptoed backwards and opened the door at arms length. There was something heavy against it. I dared open it more. A man who looked like he had passed out was laying half in my room and half out. Was he from this hotel? I called the office downstairs and someone said they would be up as soon as possible. The man started to move. I asked him his name and age. He was only 18 and called Pete on a lad's holiday and got lost. I was on the 4th floor; how did he get here? A man shouting in Spanish ran up towards me and took the man away. The cleaner cleaned what turned out to be vomit from under the door. I lay back down on the bed and looked at the ceiling. Another 9 days of this? I cried myself to sleep that night.

Answering Questions Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Answering Questions - Research Paper Example more, Swift also rose to a respected position in society, in league with Irish noblemen who maintained wealth, rental estates and worked with business leaders to promote commerce. During this period, many Irish landlords did not adequately maintain their rental properties and also used their resources to promote exportation of products rather than allocating them for domestic consumption. These noblemen were often criticized by the poor and disadvantaged for these behaviors due to the suffering it imposed. Swift, rather than flatly risking his position of respect in the community, chose to use irony to get his point across without angering nobleman landlords with direct accusations and statements. By adding humor to his rather harsh and critical essay, he could gain favor and keep his position of brotherhood with other well-to-do Irish and British citizens. Swift’s determination that the best course of action for curing the plight of the destitute was to use children as food for the impoverished, suggesting they be fattened like cattle to provide greater sustenance. The ironic approach to providing literary criticism was to shock audiences after they began to empathize with the situation of the impoverished. Much of this was due to Swift’s personality in which he labeled himself a person who served interests of human liberty and could not be imitated. These were direct self-observations on Swift’s self-written epitaph, therefore he wanted to use irony to distinguish himself from other satirists and authors as one who was innovative in approach and that would leave a lasting legacy on culture and society. Moreover, during this time period there were growing tensions between Ireland and the British Empire during a period where Britain was using its military might to consume regions and make them part of the Empire. Many of the aforementioned noblemen were loyal to the British throne and worked with ambassadors of the Crown to promote trade and business

Garbology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Garbology - Essay Example Personally, my refuse pinpoints my shopping trends, the types of food I consume, my budget and expenditure, what types of food I eat on a regular basis, the number of people involved, and my concern for the environment. Essentially, I think I am regular shopper but not to the extent of being termed shopaholic. Most of my daily refuse comprise of shopping bags that I get from the store every time I shop. In fact, for every discarded trash, there is a shopping bag. In this respect, I think I prefer shopping regularly than just shopping once or twice a week. This means that I do not shop in bulk, thus the every-now-and-then trashing of shopping refuse. Food consumption can tell so much about me. Over the observation period, most of my refuse comprised of ready-made food stuff. Raw kitchen refuse was minimal, while ready-made food remains were quite substantial. I think I prefer buying take-away food to actual cooking, an aspect that my garbage essentially reflects. With regard to budgeting and expenditure, I think I am a high-scale spender. My budget hardly conforms to my expenditure plan, and the reason is well seen in the junk-food trash that I discard. This also takes into account my personality and character because when I host my friends or family the garbage bin gets the best out of it. I think I make frequent trips to the garbage bin more than any other person around my residence. Having said that, I think am responsible and concerned about the environment. I do not handle my trash carelessly. I make sure that what needs to be recycled and what needs to be trashed goes into the right section. On the same note, I opt to support green programs whenever I shop; I do this in stores that offer such programs. In general, my refuse can tell what kind of a lifestyle I have. As it is the case so far, most of my garbage encompasses groceries shopping. Whilst I do not consider myself a spendthrift, I think I believe in enhancing

Concerns for the Future of Our Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Concerns for the Future of Our Society - Essay Example Our major issue in the world is that we are not doing too well with our reputation in other countries. There are many news items and movies that are telling how we are no longer the "superpower" that we once were and how other countries are not seeing us as "good people" anymore. We need to change that because if we are to move forward in the world and help other countries, we have to learn to work with other cultures. Our greatest hope for the future will be to find a way to get along instead of destroying the sanctity of other countries. We don't have the right to go into other countries and try to force them to do what we say. We have to learn to work with them through understanding their ways and helping them to understand ours. I hope that in the future, well be able to sit together and find ways to work from the common ground. There are a lot of important issues in our world today and AIDS Awareness is one of them. Although people are able to live longer with this disease than they were in years past, it is still a concern. HIV/AIDS isn't just in our country or in Africa anymore but it is all over the world. According to Avert, an International AIDS Charity, "Russia has the largest HIV epidemic in Europe and accounts for around two-thirds of the cases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regions". According to the same agency, says that "it is estimated that about 2.5 million people in India are living with AIDS." When I think about this I wonder why we haven't found some kind of cure for this disease. AIDS Awareness has worked for some people and the new incidences of AIDS have decreased in many areas, but the fact still remains that it is of epidemic proportions. Although we have talked to people and informed them of the dangers of unprotected sex, many still engage in the practice.     

Basic principals of the constitution Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Basic principals of the constitution - Assignment Example It therefore becomes pertinent to select the principle that best guarantees the effectiveness of the American democratic structure. This paper would also seek to establish the extent at which this principle has been used effectively to defend the core American values. Federalism is a system of government in which governmental powers are shared among the different tiers of  government in which each tier  is coordinate, independent, and exclusive in its own sphere of authority (O’Connor, & Sabato, 2001). Separation of powers is a doctrine propounded by Baron de Montesquieu which stipulates that in order to avoid arbitrary use of state power, power should be separated and shared among the organs of government such that no organ becomes stronger than the other(O’Connor, & Sabato, 2001). But over the years it has been discovered that this principles has not lived up to its expectation because America had presidents who were overwhelming and dominates the legislature. A vivid example is President George Bush, after the September 11 Al-Qaeda masterminded terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, the president presented a bill to the congress to invade Iraq. Before the house could pass the bill he had sent troops to wage war in Iraq. This was contrary to the constitutional provisions which states that before the United States would engage in a war, it must be ratified by the congress in a joint session. The overwhelming influence of the president has this principle ineffective. In the light of this,  is the principle of checks and balances which states that an organ of government should act as a watchdog on the other organs of government so as to curb their excesses. In America, checks and balances has shown the relationship and interaction between the executive and other arms of government (O’Connor, & Sabato, 2001). As the executive rely on the legislature to pass a bill  he wants to become law, the legislature

Jewish Sabbath Laws and the Practice of Jesus Thesis

Jewish Sabbath Laws and the Practice of Jesus - Thesis Example Evidently, Jesus found nothing unusual about partaking in the religious and cultural practices of his community, and what made the difference was that the strict legalistic interpretation and the practice of the law was not his prime objective when adhering to the Jewish law. Referring to the views of Giorgio Jossa, Stuart argues that there existed a distinct difference in Jesus’ teaching and it was partial regarding the practice of Sabbath. The author points out that Jesus’ views were distinct and unique from those of others in terms of keeping laws (145-147). Most people consider the Sabbath as the day on which Jews refrain from all sorts of work so as to comply with God’s law. However, in real sense (though often undermined), Sabbath is a day of great joy, celebration and rest rather than a day for learning the rules and keeping them. In other words, it is a day on which the Jews can relax being with family, study, pray, and reflect. The Hebrew word  Shabbat  actually means â€Å"rest†. According to Torah, which is the main source of information on Sabbath laws, the celebration of Sabbath intends the remembrance of two important events; the creation of the world and the Israel’s liberation from Egypt. These two events indeed are the central aspects of the Jewish belief, and according to the tradition, people ought to remember those events avoiding all kinds of usual activities. Admittedly, the day is more important than a normal holiday, and hence the restrictions on activities on the Sabbath are also a bit stricter. The prohibited activities include but not limited to cooking,  washing clothes, building, mending, writing, cutting, making a fire, fishing, climbing trees. Obviously, many of the listed activities need extensive interpretation to figure out what they actually stand for or to what extent they are applicable in the present day religious practices.

Changing environment factor, and Pricing Strategies Essay - 1

Changing environment factor, and Pricing Strategies - Essay Example Undeniably the muffin market in the United States has its share of competitors and Wholesome Muffins will not entirely be entering a new market. Subsequently since the objective is profit maximisation it would be better for Wholesome Muffins to establish a position above the other competitors. To achieve this, the firm will require licence permission to operate as a subsidiary. This also implies that the subsidiary will be registered and licensed under the limited liability option as well as the franchisee alternative. This has a great role in ensuring that the marketing production and growth strategy maintains a direct channel approach (Berry, 2008). Despite the identified influence of the legal entities in the chosen type of organisation, it also presents certain risks. To begin with it would be impractical to establish a place of business in the country if the government fails to cooperate and offer assistance. This could occur through unfriendly policies and standards that will lead to extra expense and cost. If the firm does not also receive political input it will not have the relevant market statistics. This means that it will fail in making the customers preference and taste (Kerin, Hartely, Berkowitz & Redelius, 2006). The lack of cooperation from the government also puts the company at the risk of intellectual property insecurity. Subsequently it will fall behind the competitors increasing its operational management and marketing costs. The United States’ food market was hardly hit by the recent economic crisis that drove the interest rates on goods and legal tender sky high slowly eliminating the unstable and inefficient companies. The remaining companies were forced to diversify to break even. Subsequently the competition for Wholesome Muffins comprises companies that have fresh muffins as just one among their products. However, the competition still exists, and it poses great risks to the firm’s performance. However,

Investigating the Relationship between Academic Persistence and Age, Dissertation - 1

Investigating the Relationship between Academic Persistence and Age, Gender, Ethnicity and Transfer Credits - Dissertation Example Adult Learner Academic Persistence According to previous reports, the retaining of adult learners in programs and institutions on adult education has become a great challenge. The rates of attrition and pressures of accountability within these institutions are also very high according to Jeffreys (2012). The previously carried out pieces of research show that most adults who withdraw from these learning programs do so after accomplishing their goals. They reportedly leave to join other programs that suit them more. According to Sanders, most of the adults dropping out of school return after their situations have been altered creating cycles between their dropping out and return which happens severally (2008). Previous literatures additionally indicate that the process of utilizing the class and lecture a major measurement of persistence undervalues other activities that would be effective in learning and which should be encouraged. This includes activities like distance learning and personal studies. In the year 2009, Comings, Parrella & Soricone, defined persistence as that period that adults remain in adult learning programs as they engage in personal studies as a result of being forced by circumstances leading to their withdraw from attending lectures or classes. The author additionally suggests that the adult students may return to their lectures when their situations in life allow them to. According to previously carried out surveys among adult students who were studying in America, those who had previously been involved in vocational training, self study and other forms of learning, had a greater likelihood of persisting academically than their counterparts who had not been involved in similar activities (Jones, 2008). These surveys additionally show that the adult students who had specific wants had greater probabilities of persisting than those adults who were in the learning institutions but had no specific wants. According to Sanders, if the academic persistence of adult students has to be improved, the learning institutions should avail additional learning alternatives like distance learning to the adult learners who are no able to attend their scheduled lectures (2008). Learner centered perspectives can greatly help in supporting the academic persistence and understanding among the adult learners by managing the forces that hinder or advance their learning activities (Millar, & So, 2008). According to previous literature, several factors are responsible for affecting the academic persistence among adult learners and range from the different institutions, situations, dispositions, and demographic factors and emotional and relational forces (Quigley, 2008). Problems that arise from the adult learner’s employment, finances, families and abuse from their classmates, transport and health can be classified as being situational. On the other hand, institutional barriers prevent adult learners from persisting academically and c ould include issues like the level or content of the course, their location or failure to meet the set admission guidelines (Ziegler & Durant, 2009). The attitudes, self-efficacies and resilience among the adult learners towards their learning may prevent them from excelling in their chosen academic

The Chief Operations Officer’s Essay Example for Free

The Chief Operations Officer’s Essay The Chief Operations Officer’s role focuses on the execution of day-to-day operations and oversight of all the departments; to include morale, welfare, and employee conduct in the company. In order for the company to successfully prepare for an Initial Public Offering we will need to revise the employee handbook, resolve some specific internal employee matters and implement a whistleblower policy. Employment-at-will refers to common law which holds employees that work for an unspecified time period work at the will of their employers and employment can be dismissed any time (Zachary, 2012, p. 25), for good cause, bad cause or no cause, by either the employer or the employee. Some exceptions of dismissal for employment-at-will include discrimination against race, national origin, color, religion, sex, age, and disability, other exceptions are wrongful discharge in violation of public policy or breach of contract, the promise of â€Å"good faith and fair dealing† in a contract of employment or suggesting contractual requirements based off of the company’s handbook or policy statement (Halbert Ingulli, 2012, p. 50), and tort whether the policy is found in legislation, constitutions, legal hearings, administrative practices, or other sources (Zachary, 2012, p. 25). The tort law offers the employee the chance to convince a jury to award damages (money awards) for â€Å"wrongful discharge† (Halbert Ingulli, 2012, p. 51). Some state and federal statutes may also prohibit the discharge of employees for their participation in jury duty, filing workers compensation claims, involvement in the union, conducting military duty or certain occurrences in whistle-blowing (Zachary, 2012, p. 21). Our company operates off of voluntary employment; therefore, general counsel reviewed the employment-at-will doctrine and exceptions mentioned above and legal termination is an option for all eight employees based off of either personnel misconduct or violation against our company’s rules and regulations cited in the employee handbook. Table 1, titled, â€Å"Employee Conduct and Rational for Termination or Continued Employment†, illustrates the eight personnel actions under investigation and the decision for termination or continued employment. The decisions to terminate or retain the employees stem from a reflective approach that melds traditional theories and modern theories of ethics. Two particular theories that support the decision are the consequences-based approach which provides the greatest good to the majority of the people, in this case, the company as a whole and the Proactive theory decision based off of recommendations or actions are just from the very start (Harcourt, Hannay, Lam, 2013, p. 312). One of the decision rules from the Proactive theory used is the parity rule which ties all similar actions performed in a similar environment receive the same or similar consequence (Harcourt, et al, 2013, p. 313). If the company is to become successful with the launch of the public offering then employees must be accountable for their actions of misconduct or violations against the company employee handbook. In addition to personnel actions mentioned above, I recommend we adopt a whistleblower policy based off the internal allegations against the accounting department for falsified expense reports and before we take the company public. Implementing a whistleblower policy will provide the employees a voice of the company, reduce monitoring expenses, stimulate additional decision-making (Moberly, 2012, p. 11) among employees, supervisors, and senior management, will protect against illegal conduct and provide greater oversight of company resources and assets (Shackelford, 2009, p. 3). Furthermore, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange issued regulations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that listed companies must provide their Codes of Ethics to the public (Moberly, 2012, p. 19). Our commitment to the workforce is to implement a whistleblower policy that focuses on the three fundamental items of clear guidelines, policies, and procedures (Gould, 2009, p. 3) for reporting organizational misconduct. Our whistleblower policy and Code of Ethics should be included in the revised employee handbook, posted on the company website and a hardcopy distributed and signed by each employee. The policy guidelines should contain our objective and scope of the policy so we can address what we want to accomplish (Shackelford, 2009, p. 3). Our policies will indicate that all employees, hourly to senior level management salary employees, are required to report organizational misconduct and to assist in any investigation by law enforcement or regulatory agency. Step-by-step reporting procedures will also be included in the policy. Employees will have the right to submit the report directly to their first line supervisor unless that individual is involved in the matter then report the situation to the next supervisor in the chain. If employees feel uncomfortable using their direct reporting chain then they can submit the report through the company action hotline, anonymously or directly to the audit committee. The individual’s confidentiality will remain as confidential as practicable (Shackelford, 2009, p. 3). Our company encourages the employees to report the wrongdoing internally through the use of our open-door policy or through the various avenues aforementioned rather than blowing the whistle externally. Our company will not tolerate retaliation against employees reporting wrongdoing or whistleblowing. In conclusion, as the Chief Operations Officer, I reviewed the employment-at-will doctrine, conducted and resolved eight thorough employee investigations that required my immediate attention, and provided background information that supports my recommendation on implementing a whistleblower policy prior to our public offering.

Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation

Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation Introduction Jack Kerouac was responsible for spawning the literary movement that became known as the Beat Generation, a movement not only significant to literature, but one which incorporated music and visual art to chart a personal progression. Kerouac â€Å"was the leader of a literary movement and a way of life he thought was a passing fad.† The basic characteristics of â€Å"Beat† are defined in Kerouacs 1957 novel On the Road, a text which was to become a virtual gospel for the Beat Generation. As the author of this commandment, Kerouac became known as the â€Å"King of the Beats.† His reaction to this title is documented in an article printed in Playboy, â€Å"The Origins of the Beat Generation† (â€Å"Journal of Beat Poet Holmes recalls friendship, death of Jack Kerouac†). The term â€Å"beat† has a range of meanings, affording critics of â€Å"Beat† writing a rich array of ambiguities for their textual analyses. As an adjective, it was most famously defined by Allen Ginsberg, a member of Kerouacs close knit group, as â€Å"exhausted, at the bottom of the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyed, perceptive, rejected by society, on your own, streetwise,† while the word beat was originally used as a musical term by post-World War II musicians in reference to an individual or tune that was exhausted or downbeat. At the time, America herself was â€Å"beat†- the country had emerged from the 1930s disaster of economic depression only to find itself entangled in World War II, and having to deal with threats from the â€Å"reds† and the ominous propositions of McCarthyism. In one striking blow to Kerouac and other Bohemians, a definite link between smoking and lung cancer was confirmed in 1953. Kerouacs audience was a disenchanted, self righteous population, an unguided generation with no clear direction or idea of what they wanted form life and too powerless and world-weary to go out in search of the meaning of their existence. Such readers found refreshment and salvation in Kerouacs self-declared confusion, embodied most apparently in his definitive novel- On the Road. Kerouacs style, like all of the Beat writers, is defined simply and very easy to recognize. The Beat Generation â€Å"saw themselves on a quest for beauty and truth, allying themselves with mysticism. The works themselves were to be streams of consciousness written down spontaneously and not to be altered or edited† Kerouac himself simply stated, â€Å"if you change it†¦ the gig is shot.† Poets and novelists of the Beat Generation labelled Kerouac the embodiment of Beat and hailed him as leader of the movement, the â€Å"King† term is perhaps more carefully chosen than it appears, patriarchally loaded as it is. Other well-known authors of the Beat Generation include Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey. 1. Kerouacs â€Å"Spontaneity† and the Beats. While the title implies supreme spontaneity, Kerouac was never quite as deliberately spontaneous as his legend has insisted. His plan was to create a â€Å"giant epic in the tradition of Balzac and Proust†, but he never managed to determine a literary technique capable of welding the separate books of his Duluoz chronology into a coherent whole, â€Å"even if he tried†. Ann Charters is the voice behind much of the critical discussion of Kerouacs overwhelming legend-making aspiration, â€Å"He couldnt come up with any literary technique to help him fit all the volumes of the Duluoz Legend into one continuous tale. All he could think of was to change the names in the various books back to their original forms, hoping that this single stroke would give sufficient unity to the disparate books, magically making them fit more smoothly into their larger context as the Duluoz (Kerouac the Louse) Legend†¦[H]e wanted the books reissued in a uniform edition to make the larger design unmistakeable.† To claim that each individual novel is insufficient without integration into the larger context of the legend assumes a very conventional definition of legend. Not only is it linear and coherently chronological, it is also bound by the rules of time that govern reality. Of course there is no real reason why this should be so. Kerouacs â€Å"beats† create permanent and timeless impressions, and unending rhythms like Nature herself- the beat will go on if it is not bound by temporality or rationality, but, like a true legend, circulates and permeates the universal consciousness all the time, for all time. A legend can, after all, be many things: an unauthenticated story from ancient times; an allegorical tale of obvious exaggeration or fallacy; simple fame; an explanation accompanying an image or map- and, in music, a composition capable of relating a story- even without words. Charters criticisms fall away rapidly. Kerouacs work easily adheres to each of these versions of the term â€Å"legend†, as if he is unconsciously sensitive to the subtle multiplicity of the word, and feels obliged to fulfil the words promise. His work is carefully designed, indeed, he was preoccupied by the notion of design- the pre-styling of the free-styling- and perhaps not, then, the carefree and careless King of Beats. The assumption of wild abandon seems to arise from misunderstandings of the term â€Å"free prose.† The â€Å"free† to which Kerouac refers does not, in any way, signify a relinquishing of control. It is, however, rather like Wordsworths â€Å"spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling,† which creates an impression of experimentation but really represents a highly contrived artifice to contain the exuberance of â€Å"natural† speech. Associating Kerouacs particular diction with what he has called, â€Å"the unfulfilled linguistic intentions of the British Lake poets,† Tytell asserts that Kerouac sought a diction compatible with the natural and irrepressible flow of any â€Å"uncontrollable involuntary thoughts† that he had to release. While Kerouac clearly hoped that his â€Å"Spontaneous bop prosody† would â€Å"revolutionize American literature†, just as Joyce had revolutionized English prose, â€Å"spontaneous bop† has musical implications far more than literary ones. Kerouac and the other Beat writers listened to music as they worked, and â€Å"bop† surely applies to the jazz which accompanied their writing, more than anything; the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonius Monk. In many ways Kerouacs literary technique is structured on a model of Jazz riffs- the impulse for both being to perfect a deliberate style that does not look deliberate, something which systematically generates an impression of spontaneity. Albert Murray has defined a jazz riff as, â€Å"a brief musical phrase that is repeated, sometimes with very subtle variations, over the length of a stanza as a chordal pattern follows its normal progression†¦Riffs always seem spontaneous as if they were improvised in the heat of the performance. So much so that riffing is sometimes seen as synonymous with improvisation†¦not only are riffs as much a part of the same arrangements and orchestrations as the lead melody, but many consist of nothing more than stock phrases, quotations from the same familiar melody, or even clichà ©s that just happen to be popular at the moment.† Such is the technical â€Å"improvisation† of Kerouacs prose. Despite his declared disinterest in music, Kerouacs writing evidences a profound identification of the creation of music with that of literary works. As he states in his Paris Review interview: â€Å"As for my regular English verse, I knocked it off fast†¦ just as a musician has to get out, a jazz musician, his statement within a certain number of bars,† and later likens the writers craft to that of the hornplayer, â€Å"I formulated the theory of breath as measure, in prose and in verse, never mind what Olson, Charles Olson says, I formulated that theory in 1953 at the request of Burroughs and Ginsberg. Then theres the raciness and freedom and humour of jazz.† In Kerouacs own terms, then, the beat follows the phrasing of the jazz model. In his theory of â€Å"breath as measure† he reveals his acute attention to the sentence- elsewhere denounced- and even acknowledges the control of cadence. His contemporary critics occasionally saw musical rhythm in Kerouac: Tallman found a version of sentimental thirties music in â€Å"The Town and the City†, where melody rather than a storyline, controls the work. â€Å"On the Road,† however, demonstrates a departure into bebop, â€Å"Where the sounds become BIFF, BOFF, BLIP, BLEEP, BOP, BEEP, CLINCK, ZOWIE! Sounds break up. And are replaced by other sounds. The journey is NOW. The narrative is a humpty dumpty heap. Such is the condition of NOW.† Its impossible to avoid the philosophical and religious implications of this kind of anti-chronology. Just as music appears endless, repeatable, circular and circuitous, such is the freedom of writing unshackled to narrative. In Kerouacs novel, Big Sur, the message appears to be that since Nature is a part of the self, and to fear it is to fear oneself. The two meanings of Nature become one: â€Å"human nature† is animalistic, and this novel is cautionary to the extent that it shows the dangers of failing to acknowledge this. Kerouacs nature/Nature synthesis represents the essence of his Buddhist sympathies, and this in turn relates to the literary theme of tracing a path. It is hard not to read this author without conflating the mystical with post-modern work on impasses, such as Derridas aporia, and the sense that however far we go we can never escape our selves. It recalls the Buddhist expression, â€Å"Wherever you go, there you are.† â€Å"I am beginning to see a vast Divine Comedy of my own based on Buddha-on a dream I had that people are racing up and the Buddha mountain, is all, and inside the Cave of Reality.† The immediacy of his writing adds to the sense of guru-like mysticism in Kerouacs work: his work spills out like revelations, if not beats, we certainly get the sensation that he is â€Å"King† of something. The work responds to deconstructive literary theory because of its very currency- it has almost completely evaded the conventional segregation and hierarchy of speech and writing. â€Å"My work comprises one vast book like Prousts except that my remembrances are written on the run instead of afterwards in a sick bed.† â€Å"Criticism is forced to be perpetually lagging behind the designs and dictates of the author, whilst the works language is seen as a simple means towards a referential end. Language is thereby devalued to the status of an instrument.† Barthess statement, â€Å"it is only through the function of the author as the possessor of meaning that textual reality is made obeisant to extra textual reality† is almost the antithesis of Kerouac. Kerouacs restoration program also depends on the authors willingness to disappear slightly and conduct meaning, but uniquely, Kerouac demands that the hierarchy of the â€Å"textual and extra-textual† be flattened. Not only this, but that the direction of realist discourse be inverted. As Barthes describes it, â€Å"the author is always supposed to go from signified to signifier, from passion to expression†¦the critic goes in the other direction†¦the master of meaning†¦is a divine attribute†¦from the signified towards the signifier.† Clearly Kerouac does not begin with the apparent and source its cause. He is the archetypal author, travelling from a source within himself a â€Å"passion†- towards a grand confection of layered expressive analogies. This critic is not working as an unseen evangelist of truth-in-nature, but uses nature as a space to unveil meaning, that is, to work from the â€Å"signifier† of the word, to the â€Å"signified† of the writing, like a painter signing his own name on the canvas. In fact, Kerouac is suspended between the conditions of observer and recorder. The recorders self is neither ejected nor declared in his writings, but rather encrypted- both in and as the writing. This partly explains the fascination that encrypted and marginalized author figures hold for Kerouac. His own experience of suspension and estrangement from easy linguistic categorisation, and from the body of conventional society, is unconsciously articulated in all Kerouacs writings. The very potent agency of unconscious in itself is of course another â€Å"natural† tie, binding this writer to the natural world. When, in Big Sur, he talks of the meandering river/path leading into/out of the picture, he is describing the same path into and out of meaning which he himself treads. As a fugitive of consciousness, he travels from work to signifier -in the sense of both meaning, and of the artist, the maker of meaning, and his conclusions merge meaning and its maker into a single signifier. As an author, Kerouac functions as a human conduit to bring external reality to â€Å"textual reality†- and is guided in this venture by the original source, the world outside. All this is reinforced, and microcosmically present, in Kerouacs easy fluctuation into and out of the page, int o and out of the rythm- all of which implies a certain arbitrariness of the page. This is not carelessness, but merely the flip-side of significance. It simply doesnt matter to Kerouac whether a symbol works in one direction or another, the importance is the motion- the action- itself. This is particularly evident in the repeated jazz references in â€Å"On the Road†. The musical analogy for temporal progression is made explicit as Kerouacs fundamental modus operandi. When he describes his unique philosophy of composition, â€Å"blow as deep as you want to blow,† it seems he imagines the writer as a kind of horn-player. He attaches his methodology to a rationale for his bizarre habits of punctuation, â€Å" Method. No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled with false colons and timid usually needless commas- but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musicians drawing breath between outblown phrases)† The words occurring between dashes resemble linguistic entities unaligned with the conventional subject-verb arrangement of English sentences. These linguistic configurations appear to obey a different notion of time to the â€Å"real† world, with its â€Å"real† language. Traditionally, a sentence fixes time by acting as a frame for the past-present-future sequence. The conventional sentence does not allow the motion, flash, and fluctuation of Kerouacs writing ambition. In this way, the musical analogy enables Kerouac to construct a notion of time outside of the temporal constriction of conventional literature. His work is less poetic, non-linear, and dislocated. A phrase need not refer to the outside world, for it can now begin and end with reference only to its own rhythm- a truly poetic quality, â€Å" measured pauses which are the essentials of our speech-divisions of the sounds we hear-time and how to note it down (William Carlos Williams).† So Kerouacs prose is measured with breath, and timing holds the key to its rendition. As he describes the process, â€Å"Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-wrds, blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image† On the Road is an attempt to solve the time/space problems Kerouac is troubled by, but his success is always qualified by what we might term psychoanalytic obstacles. However much he attempts to overrule the order of cause and effect, past and present, this author must remain subject to the government of his own past. His repeated attempts to perfect the form contradict the effort itself, of course- and this is Kerouacs paradox. The more he writes, the more he develops, and the more evident the writers evolution, the more it relates to a chronological dynamic. In the same way that labouring spontaneity foregrounds the labour, and consequently the authors hand, aspiring to defeat timeliness through constructing a series of books over years only betrays his inescapable mortality, tying him inextricably to the outside world in spite of himself. The writing brings to mind the words of art critic, Michael Fried, whose anxiety around the visually present world is everywhere present in his work, â€Å"†¦a means of evoking an experience of journeying corporeally through space as opposed to merely viewing a world present to eyesight but fundamentally out of reach.† It is clear that Kerouacs work is a melancholic writing of history i the most literal sense: his books create chimeras of invisible historical figures, and in so doing evoke their absence- an absence which inevitably feeds his unfalsifiable claims, and, unfortunately for Kerouac, the claims of unfalsifiability made against him. 2. The Beat and the Origin The life of every Beat Writer is characterized by a prolonged psychic crisis that is finally resolved by means of a sudden vision or insight James T. Jones, in his book Jack Kerouacs Dulouz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction, argues forcefully for an Oedipal analysis of Kerouacs work. Grouping the Kerouac texts in the Freudian context, particularly the Oedipus myth, Jones reflects on ways in which Kerouacs depiction of family relationships and by extension, relationships in his personal life and as fictionalized in his prose may be explained through Freud. His look extends to the enduring relationship between Kerouac and his mother, the residual rivalry with his father, sibling rivalry with his older deceased brother Gerard, and eventually a succession of male colleagues. Big Surs alcohol-induced nervous breakdown is perceived as being induced by or symptomatic of his catastrophic attachment to his mother and obsession with the psychic tensions induced by the Oedipal family struggle. As Jones writes, Jack Dulouz , suffering from the effects of chronic alcoholism and sensing an impending nervous breakdown, seeks refuge at the oceanside cabinunfortunately, like the grove of the Eumenides in Oedipus at Colonus, it is full of reminders of both the cause of his misery and the fate that awaits him, The oedipal signifier works in two directions, then, standing outside of time. The â€Å"Origin† supplied by the grove recalls the past and anticipates the future. A visit to the canyon in which the breakdown took place, its rumbling surf and endless brook which babbles with vital noise, and the yawning canyon recall Kerouacs hometown of Lowell. We are reminded of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the bridge across the Merrimack River there. Since Kerouac was introduced to it by his brother Gerard, the site, with its awesome mystical potency, is described with passion. The sounds seem to express, yet barely contain, the power of the place: as the river water cascades over the long weir, traffic roars in the background. All this combined with the anthropomorphically cragged vista of the grotto itself creates a sense of almost unbearably powerful otherness, an origin in nature now frighteningly alien to the human soul. Kerouacs realism in Big Sur may be summarised as the doomed ambition to structure impossible desire. The labour of the carefully constructed â€Å"Beat† pattern is present in the background, as a sort of displaced metaphor for the mental and physical effort of writing. Thus Kerouacs â€Å"Beat† takes the anti-mimetic definition of realism one step further- since writing does not have to relate to what it depicts, it will resist immediacy, but relate in specific and indirect ways to the authors private life. In many ways, Kerouacs enterprise resembles that of a visual artist at least as much as an aural or literary construction. Courbets paintings, for example, operate in a very similar way to Kerouacs works. They share this meta-symbolism, with particular interest in representing origins as water, or indeed as female genitalia- and also aspire to an impossible merging with lost roots. In Courbets art the impossible merger is one of body and work; for Kerouac it is the a rtifice of language and the unruly inevitability of the natural- taking him as close as anything ever can to his father. An erotics of the word and image is then inevitable, and Kerouac finds one fully-formulated and ready to use, in Freudian psychoanalysis. While studies on Courbet resituate sexual difference within the (male) painter-beholder, rather than between him and his representations, Jack Kerouac does something subtly different. Through its emphasis on the writing/experiencing incommensurability, Kerouac resituates sexual difference within the (male) writer/reader rather than between the artist and their work. The authorial voice is only ostensibly the source of psychoanalytic narrative- in fact the same narrative can be sourced through theoretical channels (backwards â€Å"into the page†) to the writer, and, if we believe him, to the reader too. â€Å" It grew exceedingly hot and strange†¦We were going though swamps and alongside the road at ragged intervals strange Mexicans in tattered rags walked along with machetes hanging from their rope belts, and some of them cut at the bushes. They all stopped to watch us without expression. Through the tangled bush we occasionally saw thatched huts with African-like bamboo walls, just stick huts. Strange young girls, dark as the moon, stared from mysterious verdant doorways,† Psychoanalysis corroborates Kerouacs general preoccupation with the fantasy of origination, in the case of Big Sur, the origination as personified in the figure of the father. In this imagery from On the Road, the dark girls are linked to the moon, loaded words like â€Å"thatch† and â€Å"bush† are always used alongside â€Å"machetes† and eery expressionlessness. Reading Kerouac like a goya painting or a poem, we can easily recognise the guilty violence involved. Kerouacs unedited unconsciousness reveals his sense of alienation, as the girls who are so strange are like the moon- nature is female- irresistible, unfathomable, untouchable. The horizontal â€Å"thatch† or â€Å"low bush† of the women is disrupted by the weapons and interference of the vertical agent of the male machetes. The interference in the body of water is the same- or at least, linguistically symmetrical- to the interference on reality that the act of writing always engenders. I f female bodies and contrived spontaneity are references to the origin and the unconscious ambition to merge with the origin; then any discreet writing surface is fetishised as an oedipal object of impossible desire, always disrupted, interfered with and disfigured by the very desire that defines it. Kerouacs Freudian desire to merge with the source must disturb the way he perceives himself. In fact, it illustrates and literally reflects the way in which we, as readers, percieve ourselves in so far as we are reflections of our origins- how it is only through disturbance that we can become aware of the source. If any reflection were perfect, with no material interference, we would have no way of knowing that it was a reflection. Kerouacs tireless autobiography project is not only a non-narcissistic event, but an entirely natural one. In Hegels Aesthetics such self-portraiture is established as a primal impulse of self-identification. According to Hegel, for man to become self-conscious he must first â€Å"represent himself to himself†, and second, â€Å"man brings himself before himself by practical activity†¦this aim he achieves by altering external things whereon he impresses the seal of his inner being and in which he now finds again his own characteristics. Man does this†¦to strip the external world of its inflexible foreignness and to enjoy the shape of things only an external realization of himself.† Hegel goes on to describe a childs impulse to throw stones into a river: there is no reflection involved, none of the self-annihilating narcissism of â€Å"passive desiring seeing†, but a declared primacy of action over seeing. Kerouac is invoked by Hegels wording, â€Å"the continuity between ordinary action and the action of producing works of art is already implied by the image of the drawing of circles in the surface of the water.† These circles are inscriptions of objects on flat planes that require a certain maturity of consciousness to interpret as the effects of a (manual) cause. Here, Kerouacs dormant reference to, and defence of, his own ideal situation as a realist author is very evident. In a later paragraph from Fried the message that the self is best quietly discovered through displaced descriptive action is completely inescapable, â€Å" the effacement of the very conditions of resemblance (the breaking of the mirror-surface of the river) also means that the boys relation to the spreading circles in the water might be described in Flaubertian language as present everywhere but visible nowhere.† A sentiment repeated in Kerouacs poetry, which â€Å"breaks† the reflective power of water by introducing the contrasting element of heat and dryness, â€Å"Describe fires in riverbottom sand, and the cooking; the cooking of hot dogs spitted in whittled sticks over flames of woodfire with grease dropping in smoke to brown and blacken the salty hotdogs, and the wine, and the work on the railroad.† The desire to identify with the origin, whether through disturbing the water, impersonating the father, or labouring to represent oneself to oneself, may always end in action, but it is only ever the action of wrenching open the facture of desire. The impulse to create will always be driven by a lack, and Kerouac is most conventionally â€Å"Realist† when he recognises this. Kerouac, after all, is aiming to reorganise an imbalance of power, and to characterise a sense of the monadic â€Å"other†. Philosophically, Kerouacs work is incredibly resistant to the Other, to the point that he scarcely needs the anterior of an audience. In spite of his evident veneration of the â€Å"Natural†, the world beyond that of writing/reading is so unbearable that Fried has trouble imagining it, levelling the differences between interiors and exteriors and converting all mimetic imagery into narratives of action or narratives of material: surfaces to be read. To the extent that it is a self-sufficient sign-system (and I am arguing it is far more than this) Kerouacs work evacuates the reader and effectively â€Å"reads itself†. It fits Derridas conception of autobiography, â€Å"My written communication must†¦remain legible despite the absolute disappearance of every determined addressee†¦for it to function as writing†¦to be legible. It must be repeatable, iterable, in the absolute absence of the addressee† Again, this supported by the assertions of one anonymous online Kerouac archivist, â€Å"Almost everything he wrote was autobiographical. Like Thomas Wolfe, he saw writing as identical with introspection. The word fiction does not really describe his work. It was more like self-directed psychoanalysis, except that his outlook was more religous and tragic than psychological. His books are crowded with his friends, lightly disguised behind new names. Allen Ginsberg, for instance, appears variously as Carlo Marx, Adam Moorad, Irwin Garden, Leon Levinsky and Alvah Goldbrook. Late in his life, Kerouac even considered publishing a unified edition of all his works, with all the characters representing himself appearing under a single name, Jack Duluoz (French for Jack the Louse).† This homogenising impulse, the need to resist difference and integrate everything, drives the rhetorical case which Kerouac makes in an attempt to show that outdoor scenes are actually the same as indoor ones. It is affected spontaneity of language which Fried cites as the connection between the inner and the outer. Indoor and outdoor scenes are treated as having the same character and affect, to the extent that they have a rhythm and no inherent narrative. Kerouacs holistic ambition repeats itself on every level- here the very scene of representation is moulded by the realist theory. The internal and external scenes, like the internal and external levels of a psyche, become one, as they are united in common, necessary pain, of the disfiguring theoretical intervention. Applying psychoanalysis to Kerouac, this does look like an attempt at integrating the repressed inner and outer of the psyche, where the first might be characterised as darkness, depth, recession, primordial instinct, and the past, and the second as light, shallowness, presence, and surface agency. Farewell Sur- Didja ever tell him about water meeting water-? O go back to otter- Term-Term-Klerm Kerm-Kurn-Cow-Kow- Cash-Cach-Cluck- Clock-Gomeat sea need be deep I see you Enoch soon anarf in Old Britanny Say yes. Say yes to the sea. Say yes to chaos. Say yes to eternity. Say yes and let it all go. Go, go to the sea. To the waiting open arms of the sea. You and me you and me the sea. Yes. Let us be. There is light.† Reflections are also the assertion of the horizontal. In spite of the violence metaphorically wrought, and acknowledged by his writing, Kerouacs work is concerned with empowering the natural within the man. The vigorous negation of comfortable feminine origination in his poetry refuses to allow the implied horizontality of the original sheet of paper to be wholly superseded, and in effect suppressed, by the verticality of the outside world. Psychoanalysis works through poetry subliminally, appealing to the subconscious by encoding itself in visual puns like reflections. 3. Missed Beats – Misunderstandings and misnomers It has been claimed that, for at least one definition of the word, Kerouac was not a â€Å"Beat† at all. Mayer writes, â€Å"A â€Å"keen observer rather than a confident insider,† Kerouac never really was a member of the Beats though he was among them from the beginning and as a chronicler cast their emergence into prose. When Daniel Belgrad remarks that Kerouac â€Å"would attend parties only to sit silently in a corner, listening intently to the multiple conversations and noting them down in his memory,† he is in line with a comment by Ginsberg, â€Å"I guess [Kerouac] felt more like a private solitary Melvillean minnesinger or something.† â€Å"Subterranean Kerouac†, a biography by Ellis Amburn, develops the oedipal theme in his work, referring notably to his â€Å"dream-fear of homosexuality.† Claiming that Kerouac became a â€Å"homophobic homoerotic† by the early nineteen forties, Amburn insists that in the fifties, while an increasing misogyny came to pervade writings like Some of the Dharma, â€Å"his homophobia was increasing in direct proportion to his homoerotic activity. , † a development which might have been facilitated at least partially by Kerouacs worsening dependency on alcohol. Kerouac is known as the king or the speaker of the beat generation and his writings are probably the most widely read works for anyone studding the beat culture, but there is real evidence that he resisted the title of â€Å"King†, particularly the patriarchal overtones. Even in 1952, John Clellon Holmess book â€Å"Go† presents Kerouac as Gene Pasternak, railing against â€Å"all that free-love stuff, that liberal bohemianism, between friends.† Kerouacs 1958 novel â€Å"The Subterraneans† features a narrator whose sexual hang-ups are barely known to him. Ben Giamo has termed the narrators stance in the novel as â€Å"a curious form of approach/avoidance.† The authors avatar in â€Å"The Subterraneans†, is French Canadian. His name is â€Å"Leo Percepied† and it has been appropriated for psychoanalysis. Kurt Mayer claims that as his first name is that of Kerouacs father, and his last, literally translates asâ€Å"pierced foot,† the characters name is an obvious Oedipal reference. The characters destiny echoes Jacks, as he abandons pretentions to being middle class, and ultimately returns to his mothers house. Jack, of course, always returned to â€Å"Memà ©re†- Gabrielle Kerouac, what Mayer refers to as the â€Å"only consistent relati

Education Philosophy Essay -- Teaching Education Careers Essays

Educational Philosophy I have an eclectic philosophy of education that I derived from a wide range of pre-existing philosophies. I identify most with the philosophies of essentialism and perennialism. In my opinion, students should have a strong foundation in the core curriculum areas of English, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. After all, house built on a weak foundation will not stand. I also prefer the perennialist’s approach of studying the classics like Homer, Shakespeare, Milton etc. Everything in the present is a product of the past, for this reason I feel like the great works of the past still have relevance today. I first realized that I had a desire to become a teacher when I moved to North Carolina for my senior year of high school. I absolutely hated school there; the only thing that kept me coming to school was Mr. Schaffer’s Psychology class. I bonded with him at the very beginning of the school year. He always gave me encouragement and often told me that he could see potential in me. He taught me about the low percentile of male teachers in the early grades and the rising tide of single parent families. Mr. Schaffer inspired me to go into early education (K-6) so I could become a positive role model for the Students. He also taught me that it’s important to never pigeon hole a student and to never give up on any student. My classroom will have the look and feel of a progressive classroom. However, it will function like an essentialist classroom. I feel like the seating design of rows is old, outdated and un-stimulating. I want the seating to be in clusters made up of four desks put together. I learned this method from my cooperating observation teacher. There are ma... ...nt that we work with reform and not against it. As an educator, I plan to be a continuous learner. As of now I am very optimistic about my professional development plans. I can never be educated enough. I am a person who is on a quest for knowledge. After finishing my bachelor’s degree I definitely want to pursue a master’s degree. At some point in the future I would like to receive national certification. I strive for perfection and even though it may be impossible to reach I can improve and move closer to fulfilling my goals. I will never stop developing professionally. I plan to do anything and everything to make myself a more educated person. After I retire from the teaching profession I plan to start a career of politics. I will start by running for the board of education. Hopefully, as a politician I can have a positive impact on education.

Essay --

The main purposes in conducting this assignment are: †¢ To able to carry out analysis into complex engineering problem making use of systematic approach to provide valid conclusion. †¢ To be able to apply appropriate techniques, resources and modern engineering and IT tools (Matlab) towards the assigned question. †¢ To learn about a control system analysis and design tool called the root locus. †¢ To highlight the tight link between the theory and applications and the design process. INTRODUCTION: In an engineered system we may normally have one or more design parameters, adjustments, or user settings. It is essential to determine if any of these will make the system unstable. This is generally undesirable and possibly hazardous. For example, think of a washing machine that vibrates so much that it ‘walks’ across a floor, or a high speed aircraft that fails due to resonant vibrations. Root-locus plots are used to plot the system roots over the range of a variable to determine if the system will become unstable, or oscillate. The root locus is a way of presenting graphical information...

Dylan Thomas :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dylan Thomas combines his vibrant imagery with his adolescent experiences in South Whales and London to produce the realistic tale â€Å"The Followers†. His interest in writing short stories like â€Å"The Followers† stems from the beginning part of his life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thomas spent his days growing up in Swansea, South Whales with his father, a grammar school English teacher. His father encouraged his early interest in reading and writing. Some of his early poetry was published in local literary writing journals. Thomas grew up in the late 1920’s and the 1930’s. â€Å"In the 1930’s, when the trend toward social and political commentary dominated the arts, Thomas began pursuing more personal themes that originated in his own experiences† (Gunton and Harris 358). Thomas would then incorporate these experiences into his poetry. For example, the poem â€Å"The Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait† is about a fisherman he probably saw around growing up in Swansea. In 1934 Thomas began moving between London and several villages where he started drinking a lot and â€Å"epitomized the raucous image of an artist† After WW II, Thomas began writing more short stories rather than poetry (Gunton and Harri s 358).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Much earlier stories focus on a theme of either birth or death. Because of this, Thomas’s early period has been called his â€Å"womb-tomb† era (Gunton and Harris 358). As Thomas’s writing style evolved, he would begin to experiment with new techniques. He started using vibrant images and using sound as â€Å"verbal music†, creating his own poetic style (Gunton and Harris 358). However, many times Thomas will try to convey emotions that are too complex for any lyrical treatment. Other times the opposite can be true and he gives too intricate an elaboration to simple feelings (Olsen 366). These elements of Thomas’ style are evident in his poems and stories, such as â€Å"The Followers†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The roster of characters in â€Å"The Followers† are the unnamed narrator, his good pal Leslie, and a girl whom they call â€Å"Hermoitte Weatherby†. The narrator and Leslie meet in a pub on a rainy, London night. They leave after a while, due to lack of funds and decide to have a spot of fun by following a girl they don’t know (Hermoitte) to her home. They spend the evening watching â€Å"Hermoitte† and her mom doing a lot of nothing they are discovered by them and a third unknown voice inside. They flee their window perch in a hurry and call it a night.

Icet Essay

As the access to information continues to grow rapidly, schools cannot be contented with the limited knowledge to be transmitted in a fixed period of time. They have to become compatible to the ever expanding knowledge and also be equipped with the technology to deal with this knowledge. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) — which include radio and television, as well as newer digital technologies such as computers and the Internet — have been proven as potentially powerful tools for educational change and reform. Information technology is a systemic study of artifacts that can be used to give form to facts inorder to provide meaning for decision making, and artifacts that can be used for organization, processing, communication and application of information. (- Darnton and Giacoletto) All these definitions combine Communication technology and Information technology that have thin line between them but cannot do away without each other. When these technologies are applied in the field of education, it is termed as ICT in education. The term too can be used as the connotation to the term Educational; technology because it also uses any hardware and software approaches that can enhance yield better learning outcomes. In the era of Computer Technology the term ICT mainly focuses on the infrastructure, devices and sources of computer technology and thus it is imperative to discuss about the use of ICT in education by focusing mainly on Computer based technology. ICT in education is any hardware and software technology hat contribute in the educational information processing. In the context of present era, ICT mainly comprises of Computer technology with its hardware, like, Personal computer machine, infrastructure required for setting up Internet facility and also software like, CD ROM including various programme packages, Elearning strategies etc. 2. ICT in education is any Information Technology that focuses on the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, transmission or reception of data required for the educational purpose. For example, the information about students’ records, their admissions, updates of their auricular and co-curricular activities. 3. ICT in education is any technology that deals with the exchange of information or in other ‘words’ communication in the teaching learning process. Uses of Electronic learning technology like, Teleconferencing, power point presentations, CD ROM are Communication Technology which is the part of ICT. 4. ICT in education is any educational technology that is applied in the educational process. Crowded class rooms have always been a challenge for the teacher to consider the needs of every student in the class. †¢ Wider range of communication media: With the advent of ICT, different means of communication are being introduced in the teaching learning process. Offline learning, on line learning, blended learning are some of the resources that can be used in educational institutions. Collaborative learning, individualized learning strategies can enhance the quality group as well as individual learning. with the real society. This can ensure the applicability of knowledge. Wider learning opportunities for pupils : Application of latest ICT in education has provided many options to the learners to opt for the course of their choices. Many Online courses are available for them to select any as per their aptitude and interest. Students can evaluate their own progress through different quizzes, ready to use Online tests. This can ensure fulfillment of the employment required i n the job market thus minimizing the problem of unemployment. It can also provide more efficient and effective citizens to the society as per the changing needs.

Psych 101 Final Exam

Part 1 of 1 – 100. 0/ 100. 0 Points Question 1 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Recovering a memory is like a _____________. A. Replaying a videotape of an event and filling in the missing sensory experiences, such as smell B. Reading a short story in which the plot is detailed but mental images must be generated C. Hearing the soundtrack of a story without access to the visual, and other sensory images Correct D. Watching unconnected frames of a movie and figuring out what the rest of the scene was like. Answer Key: D Question 2 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 PointsWhich term is used to describe the confusion of an event that happened to someone else with one that happened to you. Correct A. Confabulation B. Flashbulb memories C. Serial position effects D. Priming Answer Key: A Question 3 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Detective Adams interrogates eyewitnesses of crimes on a regular basis. To ensure that their testimony is accurate, it is important that he ____________________. A. Ask leading questions B. Make suggestive comments Correct C. Avoid misleading information D. Provide misleading information Answer Key: C Question 4 of 50 2. 0/ 2. Points The relearning method of measuring implicit memory, devised by Ebbinghaus involves _____________. A. Recognition of previous information shared B. Recall of previously performed tasks Correct C. Studying information or a task learned previously D. Reteaching of information learned at an earlier age. Answer Key: C Question 5 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points In the three-box model, all incoming information must make a brief stop in the _________. A. Short-term memory B. Long-term memory Correct C. Sensory register D. Working memory Answer Key: C Question 6 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 PointsWhen you roller blade, you are relying on ______________ memory. A. Semantic B. Episodic Correct C. Procedural D. Declarative Answer Key: C Question 7 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Autobiographical memory begins when ___________________. A. A child turns one B. A child is able to think in the abstract Correct C. A self-concept is established D. Routines have been established Answer Key: C Question 8 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs because of experience is called ____________. A. Behavior modification B. Higher-order conditioning CorrectC. Learning D. Shaping Answer Key: C Question 9 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points When Alan feeds his fish, he notices that they swim to the top as soon as he turns on the aquarium light. In this example, the _______________ is the conditioned stimulus. A. Presence of Alan near the aquarium B. Fish swimming to the top Correct C. Aquarium light D. Fish food Answer Key: C Question 10 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points In classical conditioning, if a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus, then _______________ occurs. A. Instinctive drift Correct B. ExtinctionC. Counterconditioning D. Discrimination Answer Key: B Question 11 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Shortly after Martin and his wife at filet mignon with bearnaise sauce, Martin fell ill with the flu. Classical conditioning occurred and _________ became a conditioned stimulus for nausea. A. The type of china used by the restaurant B. The presence of Martin's wife C. The soft light from the candles Correct D. Bearnaise sauce Answer Key: D Question 12 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Punishment ____________ the response Correct A. Weakens B. Strengthens C. Has no effect on D. Depends onAnswer Key: A Question 13 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points In their study of three groups of rats in a maze, Tolman and his colleague Honzik noted that ______________ occurs without obvious reinforcement. A. Operant conditioning B. Classical conditioning Correct C. Latent learning D. Successive approximation Answer Key: C Question 14 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points ___________________ psychologists study how roles, attitudes, relationships, and groups influence people to do things they would not necessarily do on their own Correct A. Social B. Cu ltural C. Clinical D. Counseling Answer Key: AQuestion 15 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Marco enters an elevator and stands in it facing the back instead of turning around to face the elevator door. In this example, Marco violates ________________. A. His gender role B. A social role Correct C. A norm D. A stereotype Answer Key: C Question 16 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points When we make situational attributions, we are identifying the cause of an action as something Correct A. In the environment B. In the person's disposition C. That is a biological trait D. With an unconscious motivation Answer Key: A Question 17 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points _______________ is a tendency for all people on a team or a mission together to agree with each other and suppress any dissension among their ranks. Correct A. Groupthink B. Conformity C. Consensus D. Deindividuation Answer Key: A Question 18 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Lucas is making his way across a busy campus between classes. He notices smoke coming from the sid e of the cafeteria but figures that someone already called the fire department. What phenomenon does this illustrate? A. Just-world hypothesis Correct B. Diffusion of responsibility C. Deindividuation D. Groupthink Answer Key: BQuestion 19 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points _____________ occurs when members of minority groups come to identify with and feel a part of the mainstream culture A. Socialization B. Ethnocentrism Correct C. Acculturation D. Indoctrination Answer Key: C Question 20 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Lindsay has weak feelings of ethnic identity with her Scottish heritage and a strong sense of acculturation with the United States, proclaiming that she is an American and that is that! Lindsay would be considered A. Separatist B. Bicultural Correct C. Assimilated D. Marginal Answer Key: C Question 21 of 50 2. / 2. 0 Points In what ways do stereotypes distort reality? Correct A. They exaggerate differences between groups B. They overestimate differences within other groups C. They pro duce many different perceptions D. They show that members of a group can be different Answer Key: A Question 22 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points The need to avoid stereotyping was illustrated in the story of the Bahamas vacation of social psychologist Roger Brown. Brown noticed that the people he met from the Bahamas were rude, sullen, and unfriendly. By the end of this trip, Brown had concluded that ______________. A.The people that he met had to deal with so many demanding tourists that it was difficult for them to remain friendly. Correct B. The expression on his own face had been wintry and unrelaxed, and so Bahamas residents assumed he was not interested in them and acted in a noncommittal manner C. Ethnocentrism is strong in the Bahamas, creating an us-them barrier between the residents and tourists. D. The majority of the residents who interact with tourists on a regular basis have become ethic separatists tied to the tourism industry for economic reasons. Answer Key: B Question 23 of 50 2. / 2. 0 Points The primary purpose of the DSM is to ________________. A. Help psychologists assess normal, as well as abnormal behavior B. Keep the number of diagnostic categories of mental disorders to a minimum Correct C. Provide descriptive criteria for diagnosing mental disorders D. Describe the causes of common psychological disorders. Answer Key: C Question 24 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Psychological tests are used to infer a person's motives, conflicts, and unconscious dynamics on the basis of the person's interpretations of ambiguous stimuli are called _____________. A.Clinical judgment tests B. Inventories C. Objective tests Correct D. Projective tests Answer Key: D Question 25 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points The chief characteristics of generalized anxiety disorder is _________________. Correct A. Continuous, uncontrollable anxiety or worry B. Short-lived but intense feelings of spontaneous anxiety C. Excessive fear of a particular situation D. Repeated thoughts used to ward of f anxious feelings Answer Key: A Question 26 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Kellie is extremely fearful in situations in which she must eat in public or write in the presence of others.What Kellie has is classified as _________________. A. A generalized anxiety disorder B. An idiosyncratic phobia C. An obsessive-compulsive disorder Correct D. A social phobia Answer Key: D Question 27 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points ______________ is a disorder in which a person experiences episodes of mania and depression. A. Generalized anxiety disorder B. Major depression Correct C. Bipolar disorder D. Borderline personality disorder Answer Key: C Question 28 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Which of the following is a factor involved in causing depression A. Repeated experience of violenceB. Vulnerability to stress C. Cognitive habits Correct D. All of the above Answer Key: D Question 29 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points The _____________ model holds that addiction to alcohol or any drug is due primarily to a person's biochemistr y, metabolism, and genetic predisposition. Correct A. Biological B. Social learning C. Cognitive D. Addiction Answer Key: A Question 30 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Which of the following is a psychotic disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, incoherent speech, emotional flatness, and a loss of motivation? Correct A. Schizophrenia B. PsychopathC. Dissociative identity disorder D. Paranoid personality disorder Answer Key: A Question 31 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Dr. Sardonicus is a clinician who treats clients with psychological disorders. His main approach to treatment includes use of medications and direct intervention in brain function. Dr. Sardonicus is most likely a A. Psychoanalyst Correct B. Psychiatrist C. Psychologist D. Psychotherapist Answer Key: B Question 32 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points People suffering from bipolar disorder are helped by taking ________________. A. An antipsychotic B. A tranquilizer Correct C.Lithium carbonate D. An antidepressant Answer Key: C Question 33 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Which below is a reason to be cautious about drug prescription in the treatment of mental disorders? A. Relapse and dropout rates B. Difficulty in determining right dosage C. Unknown risks over time Correct D. All of the above Answer Key: D Question 34 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Electroconvulsive therapy has been used successfully to treat _____________ that has not responded to other treatments, but the effects are short-lived. A. Bipolar disorder Correct B. Severe depression C. Schizophrenia D.Obsessive-compulsive disorder Answer Key: B Question 35 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points The originator of the famous â€Å"talking cure† in psychology was ______________. Correct A. Sigmund Freud B. Carl Rogers C. John Watson D. Albert Ellis Answer Key: A Question 36 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Systematic desensitization is based on ___________________. Correct A. Counter conditioning B. Operant conditioning C. Stimulus generalization D. Spontaneous recovery Answer Key: A Questi on 37 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points The technique, invented by Albert Ellis, known as _________________ is a form of cognitive therapy.A. Transference Correct B. Rational-emotive therapy C. Flooding D. Unconditional positive regard Answer Key: B Question 38 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Clients who do well in therapy tend to __________________. Correct A. Be agreeable and have a positive outlook B. Have a personal style of avoiding difficulties C. Have at least 2 siblings D. Participate in self-help groups Answer Key: A Question 39 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Emotions bind people together and ______________. A. Motivate people to make friends B. Make them more sensitive Correct C. Motivate them to achieve their goalsD. Make them stronger Answer Key: C Question 40 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Disgust and contempt would typically be considered _______________. Correct A. Primary B. Secondary C. Tertiary D. Conditioned Answer Key: A Question 41 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Simon has damage to his amygdala. It i s most likely that he ______________. Correct A. Has difficulty recognizing fear in others B. Has lost the capacity to set aside his fear even when the danger is gone C. Feels excessively manic and euphoric D. Feels excessively depressed Answer Key: A Question 42 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 PointsAs a child's cerebral cortex matures, cognitions and emotions __________________. A. Develop at the same pace B. Maintain present levels C. Become less cognitively complex Correct D. Become more cognitively complex Answer Key: D Question 43 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points A North American man would be LESS LIKELY than a North American woman to say ____________. A. â€Å"I'm on edge† Correct B. â€Å"I'm worried† C. â€Å"I'm frustrated† D. â€Å"I'm moody. † Answer Key: B Question 44 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Children who live or go to school near noisy airports have ___________________. Correct A. Higher blood pressure and having memory problemsB. Higher blood pressure but are able to easily focus C. Lower blood pressure and are more distractable D. Lower blood pressure but are able to easily focus Answer Key: A Question 45 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Which of the following is related to having an internal locus of control? Correct A. Optimism B. Learned helplessness C. Pessimism D. Emotion work Answer Key: A Question 46 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Type A people? A. Sense of time urgency B. Ambitiousness Correct C. Patience D. Irritability Answer Key: C Question 47 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 PointsWhat coping method is being used when a person says, â€Å"Well, I may have lost my accounting job, but I always did want a chance to work with people, and now I can find a job that allows me to do that? Correct A. Reappraising the situation B. Learning from the experience C. Making social comparisons D. Cultivating a sense of humor Answer Key: A Question 48 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points According to attachment theory of love, anxious or am bivalent lovers worry that ____________. A. They love their partner too much Correct B. Their partner will leave them C. Their partner will never give them spaceD. Their partner is not good enough Answer Key: B Question 49 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points Although Kinsey saw women as being ___________________. A. Completely different from men anatomically B. Caring more about affection than sexual satisfaction Correct C. As sexually motivated as men D. Less sexually motivated than men. Answer Key: C Question 50 of 50 2. 0/ 2. 0 Points When gender roles change because of social and economic shifts in society, so do ___________. A. Economic and social arrangements B. Rates of marriage Correct C. Sexual scripts D. Rates of divorce Answer Key: C