Hinduism religion Essay

Hinduism is the religion of the great majority of the people of India. The word comes from the Sanskrit sindhu, â€Å"river,† and originally referred to the Indus. Hinduism is actually a collection of many native Indian religions, past and present. It is responsible for the social structure of India, especially for the caste system (a hereditary class system). Hinduism has some 684,000,000 adherents, most known of whom live in India. The rest live in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and countries with Indian settlements. The oldest of the world’s great religions, Hinduism is the only one without a founder. It has never tried to win converts by force and has always tolerated other religions and absorbed ideas from them (Chaudhuri 291). Hinduism has about 20 sects, with beliefs that range from primitive forms of animism to the highest reaches of mysticism and philosophy. Many of the sects and cults seem to be separate religions. Yet all have a family relationship since they spring from common traditions and thrive on the conditions peculiar to India. Most have a mystic strain and all stress nonviolence. Hinduism began to develop about 1500 B. C. while the Vedas were being composed and collected. Vedic Hinduism, or Vedism, had many nature gods, who were appealed to and appeased by prayers and sacrifices. A second stage, called Brahminic Hinduism, appeared about 1000 B. C. In this stage religion had fallen under the control of the Brahmins, or priests, who used magic rites in efforts to influence and control the gods (Wilkins 114). A third period opened about 800 B. C. with the speculative philosophy of the Upanishads. Salvation was sought, not through sacrifices and rites, but through knowledge. Six schools of Hindu philosophy arose, the most important being those of Yoga and Vedanta. In the sixth century B. C. Jainism and Buddhism arose as reform movements within Hinduism but both became separate religions. Moslem invaders conquered India after the 10th century A. D. Hinduism withstood the rival religion Islam but absorbed a few features from it. The clash between the two religions led to the founding of Sikhism in the 19th century. In the 19th century Christian and western ideas presented a new challenge. Several Hindu reform movements borrowed from Christianity and the West. When India became independent in 1947 the conflict between Hindus and Moslems forced a division of the country, the Moslem section becoming Pakistan (Wilkins 121)). II. Discussions A. Beliefs and Practices of Hinduism. Nearly all the sects and cults respect the Vedas (â€Å"revealed knowledge†), the ancient collections of religious writings. The Rig-Veda, whose origins probably go back to before 1500 B. C. , consists of about 1,000 hymns and prayers addressed to various deities. Later Vedas are the Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and Atharva-Veda. The philosophical portions of the Vedas are the Upanishads (â€Å"approaches†). These are speculative treatise dealing with the nature of man and the universe. The fundamental doctrine is that of the identity of the individual soul with the universal soul (Brahman), or God (Kinsley 205). Brahman exists through a trinity of gods. Brahman is the principle of creation, Vishnu of preservation, and Siva of destruction. In addition to this trinity, most villages have their own godlings, demons, spirits, and ghosts to which the people make sacrifices and prayers. Vishnu is believed to have appeared from time to time in avatars, or divine incarnations, in both animal and human forms. The highest human forms are Rama and Krishna, who are worshipped as savior deities (Chaudhuri 297). Hinduism has many sacred objects and places. The cow is the most sacred of animals and must be protected. Most sacred of all places is the Ganges River, to which millions go each year to bathe and to become purified. Hindus believe in rebirth, or reincarnation, and in what they call the law of karma. Under this law the conditions of each new lifetime are determined by the actions of the preceding life. To the Hindu, salvation consists of liberating the soul from attachment to worldly desires in order to gain union with Brahman. If a Hindu dies liberated he must be born again into this world and again endure its suffering (Chaudhuri 299). The Vedas describe four main castes. 1. The Brahmins exercise spiritual power. (Brahmin is also spelled Brahman). 2. The Kshatriyas are warriors who exercise secular power. 3. The Vaisyas are merchants and cultivators. 4. The Sudras are artisans and laborers. Indian society has thousands of castes and subcastes, each of which identifies itself with one of the four castes in Hindu literature. Membership in a caste is based on family association and occupation. Below the castes are the outcastes, or untouchables, who historically have been denied certain social rights. The Indian constitution of 1950 outlawed discrimination against untouchables. The scriptures do not make the caste system an essential element of Hinduism, but it is perpetuated by tradition (Wilkins 139). Hindu worship for most part takes place in the home. A Hindu temple or shrine is considered an abode of deity and is not used for communal worship. There are kinds of Hindu clergy. Temple priests collect offerings and care for the temples and shrines. Domestic priests perform rites involving births, marriages, and deaths. Gurus are spiritual teachers. Sadhus are monks; most live in monasteries, but many live as wandering mendicants (beggars) (Chaudhuri, 304). B. Jesus Christ and Hinduism The original basic beliefs of Christianity are stated in the Apostles’ Creed. It affirms that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that God sent him to earth to live as a man and to suffer and die for the redemption of mankind. It also states the belief that Jesus, after being crucified, arose from the dead and ascended to heaven, from which he will return to earth to judge the living and the dead. Belief that Jesus was born of a virgin mother and that there is a life for man after death are essential parts of the creed (Kinsley 211-212). Man’s need for help from a higher power was stressed in religious earlier than Christianity. The concept of God as benevolent and forgiving—rather than as vengeful—is a main tenet of the Christian’s faith. Another Christian belief is that even though man has sinned seriously and separated himself from the love of God, he can be saved by repentance and accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. The necessity, and therefore the possibility, of communion between God and man is accepted by all Christians (Kinsley 211-212). C. Doctrinal Differences At first, the gospel of Jesus was spread by his disciples, followers who remembered his sayings. As Gentiles (non-Jews) as well as Jews entered the church, the influence of other minds began to be seen in the interpretations of doctrines. In this work, early Christian theologians borrowed ideas from the teachings of the Greek philosophers. At the same time, national traits and customs began to affect rituals and observances. Even within each year of the three great divisions of the Christian church—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox— there are variations of practice. This is particularly true of the Protestants. The sacrament of baptism provides an example. Baptists hold that the convert must be completely immersed in water; Methodists believe that sprinkling water on head is sufficient. Most denominations baptize infants, but some insists that the individual be old enough to understand the meaning of the sacrament (Wilkins 144). There are other differences. The Disciples of Christ and certain Protestant groups insist upon using the Bible alone as a source of guidance. The doctrine of the Trinity—the belief that God is three beings (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in one divine nature—is accepted as basic by most Christians, but is rejected by Unitarians and Universalists (Wilkins 144). III. Conclusion Religion is such a big help in building our faith on God as individuals. Hinduism is a religion where each believer believes on reincarnation. Its followers are hoping to live life again but depending on how they live their lives at present. Though Hinduism has no founder yet believers tend to have strong faith and continuously believe and follow its structured beliefs. On the other hand, for the Christian Church, its faith is built on the Trinity which is the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and Christians believe that these three personas are one. Reference: 1. Chaudhuri, N. C. Hinduism: a Religion to Live By (Oxford University, 2003). 2. Kinsley, D. Hinduism: a Cultural Perspective (Prentice-Hall, 2002). 3. Wilkins, W. J. Modern Hinduism: an Account of the religion and Life of the Hindus, 5th edition (Humanities Press, 2005).

God’s Foreknowledge and the Problem of Evil Essay

In his essay[1] on the possibility of God’s having middle knowledge of the actions of free agents and the relationship of that knowledge, if it exists, to the problem of evil,[2] RM Adams discusses two questions: firstly, whether middle knowledge is possible, even for God, and secondly, whether God could have made free creatures who would always freely do right. These questions highlight the importance of trying to understand how much God knows about the future and the relationship of the answer to that question with the problem of evil. In the present essay I review four major possible views of God’s foreknowledge and highlight their strengths and weaknesses, paying particular attention to Adams’ arguments on Middle Knowledge which lead to his conclusion that there is reason to doubt its possibility. I then review Adams’ arguments about its impact on the problem of evil and, having concluded, as he does, that, middle knowledge being available or not, permitting some evil in order to allow creatures to have free will may contribute to a theodicy but not complete it, I consider how this situation might be improved by accepting that the future is at least partly open. The problem The problem of evil has been the subject of theological dispute for centuries. If God is, as the traditional Christian view would have it, omniscient, omnipotent and perfectly good, how come there is evil in the world? Such a God, the argument goes, would not only wish to dispel evil from the world, but, since he can do anything, he would have done so. Since he clearly has not, either he is not able to do so or he does not care, or perhaps he doesn’t exist. While arguments such as the above call into doubt the possibility of God’s being at once omnipotent and perfectly good, the problem of evil is also closely related to the issue of his omniscience, in particular to his foreknowledge. If God knows everything about the future, including what choices between good and evil I will make, am I really free to make those choices? But does God actually know everything, particularly about contingent future events? There are many views of the God’s foreknowledge; I will consider four principal ones. The Simple Foreknowledge View. This view holds that God knows all truths and believes no falsehoods, or as Hunt puts it ‘God has complete and infallible knowledge of the future’[3], a simple statement and one which is subject to some serious objections. In the context of this essay the most important objection is that it would appear to negate the possibility of human freedom. As Augustine’s interlocutor, Evodius, says, ‘since God foreknew that he [Adam] was going to sin, his sin necessarily had to happen. How then is the will free when such inescapable necessity is found in it? ’[4] Augustine then argues that ‘God’s foreknowledge does not force the future to happen†¦. God foreknows everything that he causes but does not cause everything that he foreknows†¦ sin is committed by the will not coerced by God’s foreknowledge. ’[5] If God did cause or coerce Adam to sin he would be exempt from blame but, Hunt maintains, following Augustine, the simple fact of God’s knowing in advance what Adam (and more generally, we) will do does not constitute coercion. It is true that God’s foreknowing†¦ leaves Adam with no alternatives†¦ But the mere absence of alternatives is irrelevant†¦ simply knowing what the person will do is not an interference of any sort, and its implications for free agency are benign. ’[6] Hunt’s view is that we should ‘trust our intuition’ that Adam is deprived of alternatives but not free will. For me however, this is not my intuition. This and similar arguments elsewhere appear to be doing little more than restating the problem, and do not provide a satisfactory escape route. The problem is one of logic not theology. If it is inevitable, foreknown infallibly, that I will do A then it is not in reality an option for me not to do A. I might think that I am choosing between A and not-A, but if God knows which I will choose then in reality I am deluded: there is no possibility of my choosing not-A and if I don’t have any choice this also seems to remove any possibility of blame or responsibility for my actions. How can I be held responsible for an action which I could not avoid doing? Worse, since I do things which patently are evil and could have been avoided if I really had free will, it is arguable that God himself is responsible for, or at least knows in advance and allows to happen, the evil that I do. In addition to the free-will problem, proponents of the simple foreknowledge view have to explain what we are doing when we pray. Are we asking God to change the future? And if he does graciously agree to change it, would that not mean that he was wrong when he earlier knew, supposedly infallibly, what the future was to include before he changed it? It is an important part of this view of God that he believes no falsehoods, but if our prayers have any effect, that would seem to entail the falsehood of God’s earlier beliefs about that particular aspect of the future. It should be noted at this point that the simple foreknowledge view is fully compatible with the Christian understanding of God’s being outside time. I will return to this later, but sacrificing or compromising this understanding would be a heavy price to pay for many Christian theologians. These objections taken together seem to me to make simple foreknowledge, without some considerable modification, incompatible with an understanding of humans as responsible agents. The other views I discuss below attempt in different ways to make sufficient modifications to deal with this problem while remaining true to scripture. I should of course consider the possibility that, in coming to this conclusion about the difficulties of the simple foreknowledge view, I have not understood the question. Could it be that what I mean by either ‘free ill’ or ‘knowledge’ is somehow different to what generations of theologians have meant? For myself, I maintain that my action is free if I could do otherwise than what I actually decide to do and, crucially, no-one else knows in advance what I will decide to do, not even God. And knowledge in this context can be taken as ‘justified true belief’ which is just the sort of knowledge that God is supposed to have infallibly. It seems that simple foreknowledge is not to be rescued by recourse to a dictionary. The Augustinian-Calvinist View This view, as expounded by Helm,[7] does indeed depend on a careful compatibilist definition of ‘free will’ which enables him to argue that it is not necessary to accept either a modified, reduced account of omniscience, or that human agents are not responsible for their actions. Here ‘compatibilism’ is the view that free will is compatible with causal determinism, a view that Helm maintains was explicitly held by the later Augustine (probably as a result of further thought compared with his earlier writings) and implicitly by Calvin. The latter is evidenced firstly by the distinction he drew between necessity and compulsion, and secondly by his successors’ taking a similar view of free will, calling it the liberty of rational spontaneity while denying the liberty of indifference. [8] Helm distinguishes three concepts of God’s foreknowledge. One is causal in the sense used by Aquinas: God’s knowledge is the cause of things and on this view there is no distinction between what God causes and permits since God foreknows all events and therefore must cause them all. There is an inference from this that God causes future evil but Aquinas is said to have allowed the concept of divine permission whereby God is said to know of it but not cause it. More on that later. The second sense has God’s foreknowledge logically subsequent to his decree and is simply the knowledge of that decree before it takes effect in time, and the third is the reverse of this, with the foreknowledge logically prior to his decree. His arguments entail one or other of the first two senses, but not the third. Based on these starting points Helm raises three arguments in support of the Augustinian position. First there is the role of God’s grace. The argument between those who believe and those who do not believe that God’s foreknowledge is compatible with human incompatibilism, Helm says, is not about the nature of God or of human freedom but about the relationship between God and humankind. Divine grace and free, incompatibilist choice can only be causally necessary for a person’s coming to faith, but not causally sufficient since, given our libertarian will, we could resist such grace and it would not therefore ensure its intended effect. However, scripture tells us that saving grace is irresistible and, when received, liberating: it alone, according to Augustine, ensures true human freedom,[9] and the inference is that such grace is therefore sufficient. The obvious objection here is that some people clearly do resist God’s saving grace, an objection that Helm does not deal with effectively. Secondly there is an argument based on divine perfection as reflected in his omnipotence and omniscience. Helm asks rhetorically how God knows of the causes of evil actions if he is not the cause of them, and quotes Augustine’s answer that God, for the highest reasons (which are at present unknown to us) knowingly permits particular evil actions. 10] In a rather obscure passage, Helm appears to argue as follows: (1) it is theologically desirable that God’s foreknowledge should be as complete as may reasonably be assumed and we should therefore assume that he does foreknow his free creatures freely willed actions; (2) If compatibilism is true then God can foreknow these actions and therefore (3) compatibilism is true. [11] However, as Hunt points out, this is fallacious and Helm should have argued for (2’) If compatibil ism is not true then God cannot foreknow†¦ but he has not done so. Finally Helm argues that God’s omniscience is logically inconsistent with human incompatibilist freedom. He supposes as an example that God foreknew yesterday the truth of the proposition ‘Jones will freely eat a tuna sandwich tomorrow. ’ That foreknowledge is now in the past and is therefore necessary, not logically but accidentally or historically, and therefore it entails the necessity that Jones will eat the tuna sandwich; that putatively free act cannot therefore be free. In that case divine omniscience is inconsistent with incompatibilist freedom. 12] Helm admits that this argument really only works with the assumption that God is in some fashion inside time for ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ to have any force. [13] In summary, Helm believes his arguments have made the broadly Augustinian case that divine foreknowledge and human freedom are consistent, but I am hard-pressed to see that any of my objections to the simple foreknowledge argument are any less forceful in response to Helm. My logical worry and the problem of prayer remain, but these are supplemented by the acknowledged need for God to be temporal, at least for part of the argument to be successful. The Middle-Knowledge View This view is that espoused by Luis de Molina, a 16th century Spanish Jesuit theologian, who drew a distinction between three kinds of knowledge that, in his view, God possesses[14]. Firstly, Molina said, God possesses ‘natural knowledge’, that is a knowledge of all necessarily true propositions, such as ‘two plus two equals four’. Since such truths are necessary, nobody, not even God, can make them false. Secondly, God possesses ‘free knowledge’, that is knowledge of all contingent truths that are within his control, but which could have been false under different conditions,. For example ‘I am interested in philosophy’ is a contingently true proposition but God could have brought it about that it was false. Finally, Molina proposes that God possesses ‘middle knowledge’ (so called because it is in-between God’s natural and free knowledge), that is, knowledge of contingent propositions which are true but beyond his control. The most important items of middle knowledge for the purpose of this discussion are the ‘counterfactuals of freedom’ which describe what people would freely do if placed in various possible situations. This is relevant to the problem of evil because ‘it might seem that if God has middle knowledge, He could have secured creatures sinless but free by just creating those that he knew would not sin if allowed to act freely. ’[15] In his discussion of middle knowledge[16] Craig indicates its power and why it is so attractive in the discussion of free will and the problem of evil. If it is true that God has middle knowledge as described above, this not only makes room for human freedom but it gives God scope to choose which free creatures to create and bring about his ultimate purposes through free creaturely decisions. He adduces three lines of argument in support of it – biblical, theological and philosophical. [17] Biblical arguments: Craig uses the example of David and Saul: [18] David is in the Jewish city of Keilah and asks God through an ephod[19] if Saul will attack him there and whether the men of Keilah would give him up to Saul to save their lives. God answers affirmatively to both questions, whereupon Saul heads for the hills, with the result that Saul does not need to besiege the city and the men of Keilah do not need to betray him to Saul. It is clear, says Craig, that the bible passage shows that God has counterfactual knowledge, although he admits that this does not show conclusively that he has middle knowledge. He goes on to accept that biblical exegesis is not enough to settle the matter. [20] Theological arguments: Craig says that ‘the strongest arguments in support of the Molinist perspective are theological’[21] but gives no direct support for this other than to wax lyrical on the power of middle knowledge in theological argument on a range of issues. This may be correct, given the existence of middle knowledge, but that is what we wish to test. Philosophical arguments: Craig asserts that divine foreknowledge and future contingents are compatible ‘for the simple reason that Scripture teaches both’[23] (a theological rather than philosophical statement of course) and goes on to discuss the basis of such foreknowledge. He builds an argument about freedom of action, concluding that ‘from God’s knowledge that I shall do x, it does not follow that I must do x, only that I shall do x. That is in no way incompatible with my doing x freely. ’[24] This is really just a restatement of the problem of free will and Craig does little more here than reassert its truth. Craig’s final conclusion is that ‘philosophically, omniscience†¦ entails knowledge of all truth and, since counterfactuals of creaturely freedom are true logically prior to god’s creative decree, they must therefore be known by God at that logical moment. Therefore we should affirm that God has middle knowledge. ’

The Effect of Modern Lifestyle on Student Productivity

TOPIC: THE EFFECT OF MODERN LIFESTYLE (TECHNOLOGY) ON STUDENT PRODUCTIVITY 1. 0 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background of study Over the past few decades, technology has been drastically changing the way our society functions. The current generation is becoming completely dependent on new technologies. According to â€Å"Peter H. Martorella – 1997† Technology has opened the world of communication in a way before inexperienced.It also allows for more tasks to be completed in less time. In essence, technology has made the world smaller. The danger is when we get so reliant on technology that we cease to do things ourselves, limiting our activity and interaction with the world around us. With advancement within culture and society, there are positive and negative influences. Many studies and articles had been conducted and printed upon the effect of technologies upon the modern society.As for example an article had been released by Aydan Corken on May 2009 on The Negative Effects of Advancing Technology on Society. In this particular article it stated the negative effects of the advancing technology. Among the effects of that is stated in this useful article are laziness, decreasing of the communication skills, false information and so much more. Does this also affect the students’ productivity? This had intrigued us on doing a research the negative effect of technology upon the students. William F.Massy and Robert Zemsky who writing article about Using Information Technology to Enhance Academic Productivity says that IT eases the limits of time and space for education activities and IT will bring the best lecturers to students via multimedia anytime and anywhere so that, like the recordings of the country's most celebrated artists, those of the best will drive out those of the merely good. This sort of access is especially important for the increasing numbers of nontraditional students in higher education, who often have job or family responsibilities limiting their possible school hours.So with IT they says that it will make students life easier and efficient because it can cut cost and time consume rather than using traditional ways to study which is not efficient and time consuming. A research made by Leigh Linden (2006) who takes 2,156 students from 60 Gyan Shala schools in India as sample. The researches were made to test the effectiveness of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) towards the students found that technology really helps those students to understand about their learning. 58. 3 percent of children in fifth grade could read at the second grade level.Half of 9-10 years old school children could demonstrate basic numeric problem solving skills. This shows how technology can be implementing in students learning. If the technology is well used then the result will be astonishing. These Computer-assisted learning programs are generating excitement in India, where the high-tech industry is successful. Walter Johnson High Sc hool made a research that the internet is very beneficial for academic reasons. It provides many resources such as Dictionary. com, Thesaurus. com, Edline. net, and Collegeboard. org, which are advantageous and helpful for students.It really helps students in making their homework and assignment given by their teacher. Teachers also feel satisfied about the quality of work done by the student. With technology, learning enterprise much more outcome-oriented, a change that has important implications for learning productivity. In fact, the areas that have made the most inroads with IT are subjects like foreign languages, math, and writing, whose outcomes can be most easily delineated. Continuous assessment provides the data needed to map the relation between cost and benefit, thus opening the way for experimentation and innovation.In other words technology will empower students to have greater control over the learning process, with all the benefits associated with active learning and personal responsibility. Not only will students decide when to learn and how to learn, increasingly they will also decide what to learn and how that learning is to be certified But according to the NY Times, a study in 2010 from the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that children and teens â€Å"spend more than seven and a half hours a day (on an electronic device), compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago. The number of hours has probably increased since then due to the new inventions of this modern age. So parents nowadays are questioning about the effect of technology towards their kids productivity. This is because technology such as hand phone, laptop or video games can make this kid negligent with the technology. It appears that students are unable to focus on their school work during class and at home because of the increasing number of media outlets and new, appealing uses of modern technology. One of the researchers says that Technology may cause numerou s health problems.For example, according to Practice, Medical News Today, PR Log and Poynton, scientists, researchers and doctors such as Darius Lakdawalla, Tomas Philipson, Amy Drescher and Charles Poynton are concerned about the links between technology, obesity/heart problems, eye strain, deafness and muscle issues. This will cause students productivity decreasing because of health problems. Students who use hand phones or laptop for a period of time can cause eye problems or changes in behavior. The students could not give a full commitment to their productivity if they have health problems. So this will decrease their productivity.Gloria (essay. forum. com) says that technology helps improve high educational institute. Computers are used by high educational institute such as university or college across the country to help improve student learning ability. Computer simulation is used in flight school to allow students learning to fly without risks of accidents. University and c ollege use computers in testing environments to allow students taking tests to get instant feedback. Many students use the internet for research or getting online help. This proves that technology simply increase the productivity effectively and efficiently.This is mainly because there are only few researches that had been done or available towards this topic. Many researchers in the past had argued upon this topic as their result are various and they still fail in finding a definite result. Based on a research that had been done in the United States on The impact of Education Technology on student Achievement by John Schacter in 1999 it stated that the students that use technology in their students have a higher passing rate and consume less time in their studies. This clash with the book that was wrote by Junko Yamamoto, C. Jay Hertzog, Joseph C.Kush, Ron Lombar (Technology Implementation and Teacher Education: Reflective Models). In this book it stated that the students will face problems such as non-participation in class, laziness and etc. Thorough this research we hope to find out the real affect of technology towards students. 1. 2 Statement of problem Students in Uitm Puncak Alam already faced the effect of technology-based lifestyle on their productivity in life. A research made by James Kulik (1994) showed that technology do not increased student productivity as technology do not had positive effect on them.Student were became heavily depended on the technology and do not realized on how the technology can possible effected them or dangerous that came with the technology will effect on their productivity. This situation showed that government should took this matter seriously as this matter can lead the country to produce unproductively. Many research can be made to find out the effect of technology on student productivity so the people will be alarmed upon this problem especially student. 1. 3 Purpose of the study Nowadays technology was became more importance to our life, no matter if you were a business man, a doctor, or a student.The bond between the technology and student at present compare to the past are much stronger. Due to this fact, a study will be done in obtaining the data in order to decode this issue. The purpose of study described in this research report to assess the student of the effect of technology in their studies, related to their productivity. 1. 4 Objective of the Study The objectives of the study are: 1. To describe how university students in Uitm Puncak Alam currently use technology in their learning. 2. To find out how technology- based lifestyle affects the university students’ in Uitm Puncak Alam productivity. . To investigate the students’ in Uitm Puncak Alam level of awareness of the potential effects of technology. 1. 5 RESEARCH QUESTION Objective 1 To describe how university students in Uitm Puncal Alam currently use technology in their learning. Research question 1: How often uni versity student in Uitm Puncak Alam use technology in their learning? What is the level of effectiveness if student in Uitm Puncak Alam use the technology in their learning? Objective 2 To find out how technology- based lifestyle affects the university students’ in Uitm Puncak Alam productivity.Research question 2: What is the effectiveness of technology towards student in Uitm Puncak Alam productivity? How does this factor influence your (student) productivity? Objective 3 To investigates the students’ in Uitm Puncak Alam level of awareness of the potential effects of technology. Research question 3: What is the level of awareness of student in Uitm Puncak Alam upon the potential effect of technology? How is the level of awareness on student in Uitm Puncak Alam affect the potential effect of technology? 1. 6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDYAfter going through a deep process of searching and finding resources we had find out that there are only few research that had been done on this particular case. In addition to this fact we had also find out that currently there are still no definite result on the effect of technology towards the students Through this study we can gathered the data that were essential to this related parties such us parents, lectures, and universities or maybe even to the ministry of education. This can created the awareness of the stated parties upon the real effect of technology towards the students. The affect of this particular factor are very important as it determine and underline the reason for the success or failure of the future generations. 1. 7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY In the process of obtaining the relevant data, we had decided to choose the students of University Technology Mara [(Uitm) (Puncak Alam Branch)] as our respondent. This covered approximately 50 students that were equally divided between the diploma and degree students of this chosen university. In carrying out this study we used the â€Å"questionnaire† method and we were also been giving out a short briefing before or while the respondents answer the questionnaires.This was done to boost the effectiveness of the collected data and also to create awareness among the chosen respondent. 2. 0RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2. 1 INTRODUCTION This section discusses the methodology of the research. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the technology based-lifestyle on the degree and diploma student of University Technology Mara (UITM), Puncak Alam Campus. In obtaining and interpreting the effect of technology based lifestyle on their degree and diploma student, 50 students from UITM Puncak Alam were chosen as our respondents for this research study.Data from the research were collected through questionnaires and small briefing. 2. 2 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS This research utilized both the quantitative and qualitative research methodology. The instruments used to collect data were questionnaire and a small briefing. A set of quest ionnaire containing ten questions were distributed to 50 respondents. Various types of questions were used in the questionnaire such as yes-no, listing/ choice, likert-skale and closed-ended. In section 1, the question asks on respondent about personal detail such as: program of study, current semester and gadget they own.While in section 2, the question asks on how the technologies can help them in their study and their opinion about the real effect of technology-based lifestyle on the student’s productivity. The questionnaire was distributed to 50 students, 25 degree students and 25 diploma students. The data for the research come from the interview was utilized to confirm the finding from the questionnaire and then analyze. Other than that small briefing also the method that we use to obtain the data, these method uses while the respondents in group and be given briefing on how to answer the questionnaire. . 3 RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY The respondents of this study were the degree and diploma students of UITM Puncak Alam Campus. 50 students were randomly selected to participate in the questionnaire survey. 25 respondents from degree students and 25 respondents from diploma students randomly. 2. 4 RESEARCH PROCEDURE Before the actual data collection period, a pilot study was conducted ton assess the validity of the research instrument. A total of six interviewers were selected to distribute the questionnaire.During actual study, the questionnaire were distributed in various places such library, cafe, student lounge and also at the bus stops. Respondent were approached with a question asking on how important are technology in their life and ask their personal opinion upon that issues. While the questionnaires were being answered, the interviewer briefly gave a small talk on hoe the effect could really affect their productivity level. This small talk functions as a spark to create and heighten the awareness level of the respondent upon the effect of tech nology based-lifestyle upon students. . 5 DATA ANALYSIS To analyze the data a total of 5 variables there are the types of gadget, productivity, time consuming of study, the life-style and environment. The data were entered into the computer using SPSS software. The results were presented through frequency accounts and other descriptive statistic. While distributing questionnaire to the respondent (student) they will briefed about the effect the technology based life-styles while fill up the form. The objectives of briefing merely to help them to open their mind about the current technology benefit.We will not influencing about their decision. It is up to their own perception to decide whether it is good or not after been given briefing. The data that were gathered then will be transcribed into graphs, charts and table to project the analyzed da 3. 0 Introduction of Findings The research on THE EFFECT OF MODERN LIFESTYLE (TECHNOLOGY) ON STUDENT PRODUCTIVITY focused on the life of stu dent in the era of technology. Before we proceed with the questionnaire, firstly we explained about the respondent. Our target respondent was among the student form UiTM Puncak Alam.There are 2 programmed in this campus consist of diploma and degree. We had 50 questionnaires to distribute among the student in the campus. 50 questionnaires are divided into half, 25 questionnaires for diploma student and another half is for degree student. As we conducted our survey, we were using questionnaires methods. While the respondent answered the questionnaire we gave a small explanation to the respondent for their understanding before they answered the following question. 3. 1 Questionnaire Findings Objective 1 To describe how university students currently use technology in their learning.Question: †¢Rate the effect of technologies on your studies. †¢How technologies help you in your learning. †¢Does technologies help you in your studies Objective 2 To find out how technology- based lifestyle affects the university students’ productivity. Question: †¢Do you agree that technology can increase a student’s productivity †¢If yes, how effective the technology help you in your studies †¢Do you agree that technology and education is a perfect mix †¢Technology is useful for student to complete their task/assignment Objective 3To investigates the students’ level of awareness of the potential effects of technology. Question: †¢Briefly explain how technology helps you in completing your task. †¢Technology does more harm than good for students especially in their learning 3. 1. 1 DEMOGRAPHIC The chart above shows every current semester respondent in this campus UiTM P. Alam. When we conduct this research, our target population is in the campus Uitm Puncak Alam itself, but the scope is the student who studying here.Both programme we were accepting to proceed and to choose randomly from 25 diplomas’ student and 25 degrees’ student to success this research it is the effect of the technology-based lifestyle on student productivity. 3. 1. 2 LEVEL OF STUDY The chart showed the programme of study in the Uitm P. Alam. There both programme study in this campus which are diploma and degree level. Based on our topic the effect of a technology lifestyle-on students’ productivity, this programme of study we separate it follow between diploma student and degree student. 5 students come from diploma and the rest should in the degree student. Total for both student have same percentage on helping our research. 3. 1. 3 GENDER This chart showed the gender of the respondents that have been taken into in uitm puncak alam campus. Based on our topic the effect of a technology lifestyle-on students’ productivity, this program of study we separate it follow between diploma student and degree student. 25 students come from diploma and the rest should in the degree student. Total for both stu dent have same percentage on helping our research. . 1. 1. 1 HOW TECHNOLOGY IS USED IN LEARNING. The figure 2 shows the different type of gadget respondents have that they are using right now. From the chart itself, majorities are comes from hand phones user followed by the second highest, they are using a laptop. The rate Mp3/Mp4 among this respondent is quite higher than i-pad, PC and others. 50 respondents do not mean that they all have hand phone or i-pad. Majority of the university student often use technology in their learning by using hand phones and laptops as their top tools of technology .Most of the students showed that laptop and communication device in learning increase their level of effectiveness. The high awareness of the technology tells the student how to make technology easier in learning. Most of the students now days is easily influenced thus giving the good effect of technology towards student productivity. 3. 1. 1. 2 DOES TECHNOLOGY HELP STUDENT IN THEIR STUDY ? As we can see from the chart, it is the answer from the respondents whether technology help student in their study. Most of the respondent says the answer is Yes while rest say No. ue to the effect of modern lifestyle (technology) on student productivity is become as apart from our life student will use. Technology frequently to do their task or assignment and most of respondent agree that technology helps them in learning because as we can see that almost class in our campus has a learning support equipment like a computer (PC), laptop, and projector. Other than that, students do not need to bring a book or notes but it enough if they read the books. They also can keep the notes that they get from the lecturer in their pen drive so that they do not worry to loss their notes or miss the important things.From this survey also we know respondent feedback about the change from time to time how technology helps student in their learning, from used the chalk and talk technique like a v isual aids. Obviously, we can see how technology helps students in their learning and the level of effectiveness if student use the technology in their learning. 3. 1. 1. 3 DO YOU AGREE THAT TECHNOLOGY CAN INCREASE THE STUDENT’S PRODUCTIVITY Base on the bar chart, it shows that weather technology can increase a students’ productivity or not.From the previous chart most of the respondent said the technology can help student in their study, to do their task or assignment , gather a lot of information and show the level of effectiveness if student use the technology in their learning, but for this question most of the respondent said No. This question is to measure the level effectiveness of technology on student productivity. From this chart we get the result show that 35 of our respondent are does not agree that the technology can increase the student productivity while another 15 agree with that question.From the feedback we get from the respondent, it is show that tec hnology does not give any impact to a student however they believe that students’ productivity is related with how much the effort that student have in their studies. The effect of modern life-style (technology) does not influences of students’ productivity because technology as a equipment that support the student in their learning while the productivity comes out from the student itself. 3. 1. 1. 4 TECHNOLOGY DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD FOR STUDENT ESPECIALLY IN THEIR LEARNING. From the chart above, we can see that the result that given by the respondent eather technology does harm than good for student especially in their learning. From the result, 8 people from our respondent give the answer uncertainty follow by 15 respondent answers strongly disagree, 20 respondent give the answer disagree, 5 people said agree and 2 people answer agree. From the feedback from our respondent it shows most of the student said that the technology does not harm student especially in the ir learning but technology are helping to get some information, to do task or assignment and making their life as a student easier.This question is related with the level of awareness of student upon the potential effect of technology. Means that, what are the potential affect from that technology that can help students in their learning. Students realized that the technology is very useful to them but it doesn’t mean it will effect on students’ productivity. Because the modern lifestyle nowadays student are more depending on technology and they think that by technology they can finished their task smoothly without thinks wisely about their productivity as a students.CONCLUSION As we are expected from this research, technology has been drastically changing the way of student in generation Y and generation X in their process of learning. Now days, the generation Y is becoming completely dependent on the technologies that many studies and articles had concluded. We can s ee the different of performance of both generations where generations X is more committed in their action rather than generation Y.This research is try to find out how technologies affected the students in UiTm Puncak Alam on the usage of technologies, the students productivity and their awareness towards technologies that drastically becoming more easier to their user. To gain these objectives, we use questionnaire as our method toward respondents to gain the data on this research. In the questionnaire we use the quantitative and the qualitative question that consist of three sections. Using this method give us the experiences on how to conduct and overcome respondents behavior toward the question on our questionnaire.After we go through the phase, we can conclude: 1. The type of technologies that students of Puncak Alam use is more on phone rather than others. 2. We also can conclude in this research technologies are helpful in their studies, where as they use technologies in prin ting the handout, web surfing for learning, communicating and others. 3. In this research we also find that the productivity of the student strongly affected against technologies, but in the other hand the level of positive impact also does not reach the bench mark that is (technologies) required to help the student in the study.The result of this study indicate that technologies and the students productivity are two different factors that will never ever compliment the students in increasing their productivity. However these findings are only true for UiTM Puncak Alam Campus students only and cannot be generalizing to others students and universities. The same study need to be conducted with different students from others universities to see if they are any similarities with the factors that will influence the students level of productivity due to technologies. FULL REPORT THE EFFECT OF MODERN LIFESTYLE (TECHNOLOGY) ON STUDENT PRODUCTIVITY

Researchweek2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Researchweek2 - Essay Example ance of nurses; where hospital personnel do not set the bed-exit alarm and the cases where a patient is under the influence of high-risk medication (Oliver, Healey, & Haines, 2010). Other situations that could lead to patient falls include where patient assessment is inadequate and where there are delays in responding to call alerts or care delivery. More than 1 million patient falls occur every year. Among US hospitals, falls rates range between 3.1 and 11.5 cases/1,000 patient-days (Quigley et al., 2009). Rates of patient falls differ, depending on the type of hospital unit; the highest rates of falls are reported in the medical and the neuroscience units. Fall rates are 3.48 and 6.12/ 1000 and 6.12 and 8.83/1000 respectively (Quigley et al., 2009). About 30 percent of the total number of patient fall cases cause some form of injury; 10 percent cause the patients serious injury, including the fracture or the trauma of the head. Among aged patients, these falls are extremely dangerous, including that they can cause death or further illness (Oliver, Healey, & Haines, 2010). The statistics reporting the incidence of patient falls and their effects among older patients are very critical and disturbing. Presently, older people of 75 years and above comprise about 22 percent of the patients admitted into hospitals (Wier, Pluntner, & Steiner, 2010). Further, major areas of hospital costs are related to patient falls: these include liability, length-of-stay and care services. The patients that suffered serious injuries, due to falls, while under the care of hospitals remained under care for 6.3 to 12 days more than their counterparts, and also registered higher healthcare costs by an average of USD 13,316 (Brand & Sundarajan, 2010). Additionally, starting 2008 the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services revised their policies – directing that they will not compensate hospitals for the costs incurred on the treatment of these types of injuries (Inouye, Brown, &

Study for Insurance Covers(Australia) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Study for Insurance Covers(Australia) - Essay Example Accidental breakage of glass, mirrors etc. will get insurance cover under this policy. For fixed glass that forms part of the building including fixed shower bases, basins, sinks, baths and toilets the insurance cover is available. Mirrors, glassware, crystal, crockery, china (except when being used, cleaned or carried) or glass in furniture (except for glass which forms part of a television or a computer screen/monitor. Items covered for accidental breakage include fixed glass like window tinting or shatter- proofing material attached to the glass on the insured buildings. If we insured the contents, any mirrors, glassware, crystal, crockery or any glass in furniture .Mirrors, glassware, crystal, crockery or china are not covered while they are being used, cleaned or carried by hand. The most the CGS will pay for any one item, pair, set, collection or system is $20000.The contents worth more than $20000 will have to include each as a special content item .To do this the insured must advise the CGS and the items will be listed on the insured’s schedule. For each claim for the building and contents the CGS will reduce the amount they pay for claim by the excess. The amount of excess is shown on the insured’s schedule. The most the CGS will pay for any claim for building or contents is the sum insured shown on the insured’s schedule. In case of additional things this condition is not applied. The cost of rebuilding or repairing the damaged portion of the insured building will be paid by the CGS if the schedule shows â€Å"including replacement benefit.† (Accidental Damage. 2006, p. 53). From the analysis of the terms and conditions of the Essentials Plus home and content insurance policy we can see that Rob’s damaged vessel is included in the term contents in the CGS policy and it is sure that the damage is not caused during

Reflaction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Reflaction - Essay Example of any institution has an effect on the assaulted survivors, if an environment seems like it supports assaults or assault seems like no big deal, it makes it difficult for people to report any experiences they encounter (institutional betrayal). Am persuaded that there is need for more action to be taken to help the victims bring out their experiences to public domain to get protection from the perpetrators by creating a supportive and conducive environment for them which helps in the healing process. The article on violence against women focuses more on the changes that should be made at different levels in order to secure women from violence. Females are viewed as a weaker sex and it starts from the roots of the family. Culture and social construction portray women in a different way, there are jobs for women and others for men, male superiority and male control over women’s behavior â€Å"a man can ‘discipline’ his wife to which this is violence. This article explains into detail how we can reduce violence against women and helps provide simple solutions for fighting violence against women. The article misframing men by Michael Kimmel shows how certain males experiences leads to certain behaviors of killing others and committing suicides in schools. Local school and gender culture like marginalizing some students through bullying and paying no attention to bullied students or students with suicidal and self harming tendencies and the expectation of a male to defend himself when bullied increases the rampage of school shootings. Such a victim feels justified to avenge his mistreatments to all who hurt him. I think for schools to prevent shooting rampages should try encouraging equality for all to avoid marginalization. The four theses of men and sexual harassment shows that we have the potential to select the possibilities of harm and good we face if we keenly reflect on the four modes and distinguish them apart. A man can either be creepy, flirty, and

Independent Readings in Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Independent Readings in Management - Essay Example Kabani also recommends utilization of social advertising that she argues that will attract more customers and reach a wider share of market. She finally recommends that businesses should take advantage of evolving search engine marketing and integrate marketing activities for better results (Cho Web). 2. Another challenge is that the recommended techniques are available to everyone thus putting marketing at arms race where every business strives for the next edge over its competitors. High level of competition may be expensive and stressful because of the constant need of acquiring new machines and software as well as training employees on emerging practices. 3. Apparently, all marketers are gearing towards more efficient and most effective way of marketing, this may lead to homogenization in both products, and their style of promotion since replication is very easy in digital technology. This will therefore make it difficult for consumers to distinguish between products and enhance public pessimism regarding the process of

TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENC - Essay Example The challenge therefore is about getting a clear distinction between terrorism and crime. Acts of terrorism has risen tremendously in the world and they are normally carried out by those with extreme goals. United States Department of Defense sees terrorism as an act of unlawful violence intended to create fear and used to intimidate governments or societies either for political, religious or ideological reasons. Terrorism is so much linked to political violence Historical Aspect of Terrorism Acts of terrorism has been in existence for millennia and so it is not something that just began the other day. The question one asks is, can an Unabomber doing a campaign for terrorism be termed as criminal, terrorist or a revolutionist? The French revolutionary state got into the same state of confusion when it instituted systematic state terror around 1970s leading to death of many people. Concept of moral equivalency broadens definition of what constitutes terrorism and that which is not. Cr itics argue that what matters is the outcome of the act and not the intent. If a military force with uniform cause damage to a population is categorized as the same as directing a bomb to the civilians deliberately. Anyone is termed as a terrorist as long as that person has caused harm to innocent civilians only that military action is a form of terrorism with a different name (Fridell,2001). Terrorism flexible and adaptable and therefore these characteristics have led to confusion all over the world. Tactics of committing acts of terrorism have been changing significantly over the recent past and more importantly increase in the number of causes and social context for terrorism. Nowadays most terrorist continue to perform their acts in the name of revolution and fulfillment of religious duties. The change of tactics makes it difficult for government and the security agencies and to fight this vice in the society. The elected leaders who are charged with the responsibility of fighti ng for people’s rights are the main culprits and most of them do these things to maintain their political positions. Terrorism traces its roots to so many years back and it has been going through series of revolution. The very first kind of terrorism of 1st and 14th century AD that exhibits the same acts as one’s being experienced today was Zealots of Judea, who Romans refer to as dagger-men campaigned for assassination of the Roman forces and those Jews who collaborated with them. Their aim was to express their belief that they were not ready anymore to remain subjects to Roman rule while being dictated by Judaism. Another group was the Assassins a group that broke from Shia Islam adopting a tactic of assassinating enemy leaders because the cult prevented open combat owing to limited manpower (Han,2010). This secretive killing of enemy leaders sends a fearful awe in their enemies and so they are forerunners of the current terrorism in terms of motivation, organization , and goals and indeed they made a psychological impact. Between 14th and 18th century, terror was applied extensively in warfare as well as in resolving conflicts. There was an uninterrupted communication and this led to open warfare. Kingdoms and principalities broke up to form nations and by then these nations had enough strength authority to curb the terrorism menace. The use of the word â€Å"Terrorism† was first initiated by French revolution following a

Primate Social Behavior Tell Us About Human Evolution Essay

Primate Social Behavior Tell Us About Human Evolution - Essay Example As the groups grow and divide the relationship equation changes at various levels. The leaders need to prove themselves in their body strengths as well as should have the ability so that members of the group follow him. The relationship between people increased with their need to stay together for hunting. When primates started staying together various things got invented, as rightly quoted necessity is the mother of invention. The social structures, needs of leaders and followers, distribution of labor and responsibilities based on age, sex and bodily strengths, language and communication methods and many other things developed. Different cultures have different characteristics. The study of various cultures comes under ethnography. Culture can be defined as the social heritage of human society where social behavior is based on certain norms and rules. Each member of the society needs to abide by these norms and rules. These have an impact on individual and collective behaviors of people. Social behavior has become complex in today’s complex social structure. Social behavior as indicates is the way people live together and communicate with each other. Various biologist and anthropologist have described and explained culture and society differently. Culture and society are different in the modern human society and historical primate’s society. This is the factor which distinguishes the human and nonhuman societies. E. B. Tylor defined human culture as "capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society".

The use of behaviourism theories on a social work case study Essay

The use of behaviourism theories on a social work case study - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the beginnings of social work are focused on the principle of providing aid to the people. There is minimal change in this perception, but it has shifted from the individual reformation to collective views. However, the central purpose remains to be the responsibility of helping the people, whether individually or collectively as one society. The vitality of social work practice has been never more emphasized with the prevalence of change and threats on each and every member of society. The most common concern of this discipline is the alterations of relationships and social institutions such as the family, which greatly affects the children. In response, theorists, psychologists, and social workers continue the study of human behavior and cognition to formulate methods and theories as a foundation for alleviating the effectiveness of social work. The use of the assumptions of behaviourism to empiricism is useful in examining the resul ts of the intervention. This demonstrates that social work practices grounded in this theory help provide better social work measures for both service provider and users. The case for this study is in Case Study No. 2 involving Gemma the 15-year-old daughter of Kitty and Tony and the sister of the nine-year-old Jake. Gemma is from a broken family with an absentee father, who left them after the discovery of Kitty’s extramarital activities with another woman. Gemma was once a promising child with good academic records.

Criminology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Criminology - Essay Example (Beck 2006).Two statistical programs to measure the magnitude, nature, and impact of crime administered by the U.S. Department of Justice are the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The purpose, focus, and method of these two programs cover different aspects of crime, whereas, the information they produce gives a comprehensive picture about the Nation’s crime problem. The UCR Program, directly under FBI, compiles data from monthly law enforcement reports or individual crime incident records received by FBI, which is further scrutinized and compared with previous monthly submission for discrepancy. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has been formulated after intensive research by Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the crime data collected from nationally representative sample by the U.S. Bureau of Census, through personnel household interviews. The data is individualized, covers individual information as well as feed-back on the performance of criminal justice system, and generally projects those crimes that were not reported to law enforcement. Though NCVS is designed to complement the UCR program there are Major differences in UCR and NCVS. UCR provides a reliable quantitative statistics for law enforcement, whereas NCVS projects qualitative statistics on previously unavailable information about crime, as the two programs measure non-identical set of crimes. In addition, crime definitions and scale adopted to calculate crime rates differ from each other, resulting in statistical discrepancies and estimation. Major sources for Crime data collection in the United States are (1) Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The National Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide statistical collaboration in the United States to collect accurate

Comparaison Between Mcmxiv & Anthem for Doomed Youth Essay Example for Free

Comparaison Between Mcmxiv Anthem for Doomed Youth Essay In both of these poems Anthem For Doomed Youth and MCMXIV talking about war, Wilfred Owen and Philip Larkin try in different ways to engrave in their readers minds the atrocious actions that war provoked with different language, voice but also form. First of all, the poems are written in a different way. Anthem For Doomed Youth with his ABAB CDCD ABBACC rhyme scheme is in fact a sonnet. However, a sonnet is usually used to glorify love and romance whereas Anthem For Doomed Youth focuses on the First World War. We can assume that Wilfred Owen surely wanted to contrast these two opposite subjects to create an ironic atmosphere. We can already guess the poem is going to be powerful and memorable. On the other hand, the second poem, MCMXIV,is composed of 4 stanzas containing each 8 lines but which don’t have a rhythmic pitch. For me, it looks like Philip Larkin is narrating a tale or a story. In my opinion, the sonnet gives a rhythm to the poem and catches more the reader’s attention even if it seems shorter than Larkin’s poem. Secondly, we know both of these poems are talking about the First Wold War. But if we look a little bit closer, we can clearly feel a difference in the choice of words and language. After reading the first poem, we feel a mix of disgust, revulsion and unfairness whereas after reading Philip Larkin’s one, melancholia, emptiness and sadness invade us. How can two poems with the same subject can lead to such different feelings? The sonnet looks like it is divided in two parts, both of the ‘stanzas’ start with a question: â€Å"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?†, â€Å"What candles may be held to speed them all?† Then, the following lines answer to the questions. For me, it seems it’s like a speech with two rhetorical questions. The poet asks the questions but already has the answers and responds to it very precisely in a very negative way: ‘no’, ‘nor’, ‘not’ are used at the beginning of a line following the question. Anthem For Doomed Youth is a small but efficient poem. Any word is present for a particular reason. The vocabulary used is snappy and harsh one such as â€Å"monstrous anger† â€Å"nor any voice of mourning† â€Å"who die as cattle†. It sounds like Wilfred Owen wants to shock us. He plunges us in the horror of the war: we can almost sound the â€Å"stuttering rifles†, see â€Å"the holy glimmers of goodbyes†. He definitely wants to express his disgust toward war. Indeed, we are not facing a ‘peaceful’ war as the whole population expected in 1914, these young boys do not bravely die for their nation: it’s a horrific battle which ravage both sides but both stubbornly do not make any move to stop this carnage. Owen makes us feel the constant fear, the incomprehension of this pointless ravage Withal, the second poem has a more smooth way of approach. Philip Larkin wants to have an affective impact. He doesn’t use striking a vocabulary like Wilfred Owen but a melancholic one. There is this feeling of confinement and reclusion; â€Å"shut shops†, â€Å"sunblinds†, â€Å"shadowing Doomsday lines†. Whereas we could almost hear the ‘stuttering rifles’ in Anthem For Dommed Youth, here, in MCMXIV, silence is the only tolerable sound. No one should make noise, in honour of all the dead soldiers who fought naively for a cause that wasn’t even directly linked to their nation. Wilfred Owen expresses the horror of the trench warfare whereas Philip Larkin enters in the impact on social consequences that War leaded to. Life will never be the same again after this tragedy. Not only will the soldiers be shell-shocked, but the whole population will be too. Even though women and children were not on the battlefront, they still experienced the war at home fronts. Owen also uses repetitions to emphasize some specific phrases. The second and third lines both start with the word ‘only’ and are followed by personifications of weapons like ‘the monstrous anger of the guns’ and ‘stuttering riffles’ rapid rattle’; it is almost like the poet cannot even distinguish the human beings and machines. The men do not kill each others anymore, the machines do. The repetition of the ‘no’, ‘nor’, ‘not’ is also a strong sign: there isn’t any hope in anything, we cannot see positive anymore. There is a constant anxiety in the soldiers’ eyes. The word ‘choirs’ is also written two times. The reference in music could be positive but here, it is not. It is a music which leads to an inevitable death. It could also refer to the heartbeat of soldiers. A worrying rhythm that could stop anytime. There is also a repetition in MCMXIV in the last stanza: â€Å"never† (thee times). But once again, we cannot feel anger; only a strong sorrow. Humans can never be innocent again after the terrible massacre of this War. Larkin accepts with resignation what happened: what is done is done. The dead people will not come back. The only thing we can do is remember them and commemorate them. On the contrary, Owen cannot tolerate this thought and he feels obliged to relate the catastrophic event harshly to prevent people to never do that again. The human loss is literally and psychologically intolerable. Finally, we can discuss about the poet’s choice of title of their poems. An anthem is a choral composition having a sacred or moralizing text. So, this poem is aimed to all the heroes who died fighting. Nevertheless, the adjective ‘doomed’ comes to spoil the word anthem. Doomed is just ‘fate’, something inevitable. It is true we cannot win over death but at least, we can delay it as much as we can, whereas the following word ‘youth’ has a tragic connotation. Young people are not supposed to die, their fate is to enjoy life as much as they can but this war comes to destroy all their dreams and hopes. MCMXIV is the number 1914 in ancient roman. We can assume it is a reference to the past, Roman letters still exist after hundreds of years, maybe Larkin wants his poem to be remembered as much as these numbers? To conclude, we can say that even if Wilfred Owen and Philip Larkin did have different ways of approach to talk about war, they both caused very strong feelings. One used an aggressive and impulsive pen whereas the other provoked sadness and respect toward the fallen soldiers. In fact, they definitely agree in one similar point: First World War was a tragedy that no one should ever forget.

International Labour Standards

International Labour Standards Module -International Perspectives on Industrial Relations QUESTION: Some commentators have argued thatthe adoption of labour standards would threaten the trade prospects of developing countries. Critically evaluate this claim and discuss the policyimplications. In this essay, it is explained that ILO after its foundation following World War One aimed at protecting the fundamental rights at work, creating and securing decent work opportunities for men and women, providing social protection to all the parties concerned and encourage social dialogue. To achieve its aim, ILO works very hard to achieve core labour standards through its member states by giving funds and encouraging them to implement core labour standards and by punishing and discouraging the member states who violate core labour standards. It also, through its campaigns tries to link World Trade Organization with the core labour standards to put extra pressure on the states which are not complying with the set standards. ILO also encourages the member states that they should ratify the convention as after their ratification it becomes the law of the government. ILO has been very active in creating many conventions and they have been trying very hard to encourage countries to have declaration which constitute better policy implications to promote core labour standards in developed and developing countries. It is also explained that how growth of trade is affecting core labour standards and its effect on the particular economy and job sector by giving empirical analysis of developed countries and developing countries. In the case of developed nations Japan and United States were thought of. While doing bilateral trade agreement each country should respect their domestic labour standards and each country while having trade with each other should have high labour standards. In the end, it is explained that developing countries should pay special attention to implement core labour standards and at the same time should take great care while implementing them according to their current domestic or local situation. International Labour Standards and Trade Prospects International labour organization was founded in 1919 after the First World War. Its main aim is to promote working rights, social protection, decent employment opportunities and to deal with work related issues via negotiations and dialogues. In the year 1946, the International Labour Organization became the first specialized agency of the UN. Today, it has 178 members in six continents. It is the only tripartite agency which brings together government, workers and employers to formulate and shape up the policy and programmes. There are four main objectives which ILO is determined to achieve and these are as follows:  § To encourage standards and fundamental principles and rights at work  § To provide vast opportunities for men and women to earn living by securing decent employment  § To provide social protection for all parties concerned  § Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue Source: http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/langen/index.htm The ILO is the global body responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labour standards. In todays globalized economy, international labour standards are very important tool in ensuring the growth of the global economy which provides benefits to all. â€Å"The rules of the global economy should be aimed at improving the rights, livelihoods, security, and opportunities of people, families and communities around the world.† (World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, 2004) International labour standards are made with a view to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in an atmosphere of freedom, equity, security and dignity. The development of the labour standards occurred without international coordination before the First World War and these agreements only concerned with the migrant people from different countries, although they were actually made after the formation of International Labour Organization in 1919. ILO is working very hard to implement core labour standards throughout the world. Core labour standards are those standards which are so basic and universal and can be implemented in all member states irrespective of the economic development of member states. These core labour standards are those which are also described as ILOs four main objectives as mentioned earlier. To achieve these standards ILO held so many conventions since 2006. ILO conveyed 186 conventions and discussed various issues like women working after dark and holiday pay etc. Member states are not required to ratify all conventions but ILO emphasizes member states for ratification of the conventions. Because after the ratification, it becomes a law even for the government who approved of it and thats why they are reluctant to ratify the law although they agree in principle with the law. In order to achieve core labour standards ILO stresses on its publications and condemns those who violate these standards. It puts pressure on the countries which ratify the conventions but are not complying with the law. It has no official authority to punish the state which violates these core labour standards but a tripartite representative can make a complaint and ILO can only do investigation and report its findings. The failure on part of implementation of core labour standards universally led to a suggestion that Core labour standards should be linked with WTO so that it can be used as a tool to enforce core labour standards (Brown, 2001). According to the ILO Constitution (2006c), â€Å"the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries.† ILO is having major problems in the implementation of core labour standards mostly in the developing countries as they are prone to labour rights abuses, with minimum wages, open to child labour exploitation and where the core labour standards are not entirely protected. ILO is working very hard to encourage the developing countries to follow the footprints of developed nations in implementing the core labour standards. Although improvement of core labour standards is essential for the growth or prosperity of a particular country but it is also counterproductive if these core labour standards are introduced in trade agreements as the countries who have comparative advantage in labour intensive goods would not be able to export their goods and therefore its growth and social development will slow down in turn. If a country has low labour standards and by applying trade sanctions it would be inefficient as there would be no trade labour linkage as there is violation of core labour stan dards for example, child labour and forced labour occurs in small, domestic or family firms who have nothing to do with the trade as they are not exporting anything and trade labour linkage is a social clause only limited to trade-impacted products (Robert C. Shelburne, Wage Differentials, Monopsony Labor Markets, and the Trade-Labor Debate, 19 Journal of Economic Integration 1 (March 2004), pp. 131-161.) On the contrary, the trade labour linkage could also be used indirectly when small firms which have nothing to do with the exports subcontracting with the exporting firms which indirectly contribute to the competitiveness of the exposed firms (Peter Morici and Evan Shulz, Labor Standards in the Global Trading System) (Washington, D. C.: Economic Strategy Institute, 2001). Violation of core labour standards can affect trade flows in two ways firstly, by decreasing wages competitiveness is reduced and secondly, child and forced labour will lead to an increase in unskilled labour but it can give developing countries comparative advantage in labour intensive goods and thus increase or boost exports. In 1947, Havana charter was laid down as a link between international trade and labour standards. The purpose of this charter is that all member states should recognize the importance of core labour standards related to their productivity and enhance labour standards within its territory. Due to failure of its ratification from the member states the International trade organization had not been created instead General agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) was used as a substitute (GATT Article XX (e)). When World trade organization was only two years old, Singapore ministerial declaration was adopted on 13 December, 1996 and due to absence of consensus again labour trade linkage was denied. Hence, ILO was the only body or organization to tackle labour standards. The difference between Havana Charter and Singapore declaration is that in Havana Charter they recognize that trade disputes are caused due to labour standards in different member states whereas in Singapore Declaration trade related labour standards should be adopted but it should be counterproductive as it prevents trade and distorts comparative advantage for labour intensive developing countries. After the Singapore declaration, ILO set up a world commission on the social dimension of globalization (the final report: A fair globalization Creating opportunities for all) (Geneva: ILO, February 2004). Trade theorists have always argued that growth of trade between developed and developing nations will lead to job losses of unskilled labour in developed countries whereas job gains of unskilled labour in developing countries but the problem is that the job gains of unskilled labour in developing countries is quite high as compared to job losses of unskilled workers in developed nations [Collins, (1998) Machin and Van Reenan, (1998) and Learner, (1998)]. Many countries while doing their bilateral trade, respect the core labour standards. In the U.S Trade Act of 2002, the 6th objective is â€Å"to promote respect for workers right and the right of the children consistent with core labour standards of the ILO.† While engaging in the bilateral trade agreements, every nation should respect the domestic labour standards and must possess high labour standards. In case of any disputes, there is specific institution which has the power to impose sanctions in case of serious flaws in relating to labour standards (International Economics Policy Briefs PB-5; Washington D. C.: Institute of International Economics, April 2001). In December 1998, Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) adopted a social declaration about promotion and respect of ILO core labour standards. Similar provisions can be found in most of the new regional trade agreements. Developed countries also impose labour standards criteria within the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the World Trade Organization, Enabling Clause, which allows nonreciprocal preferences in favour of developing countries. The European Union also proposes special incentive arrangements for the protection of labour rights, which may be granted to countries whose national legislation, incorporates the rules adopted in the ILO conventions. In order to understand the trade impact of labour standards, empirical analysis of trade manufacturers between developed countries and developing countries will be used. The developed countries in this analysis are Japan and U.S and Six developing countries from Asia. The methodology consists of main items of export and import of each of the countries concerned and classified as export-oriented, import-competing, food, beverage and tobacco, petroleum and related and others and comparative analysis of changes in employment and wages in different categories of industries. Japan and United States are the nations which mainly export skill intensive manufacturers to the developing nations and import labour intensive producers from those nations. Employment in import-competing industries reduces due to growth in trade with the developing countries whereas employment will increase in export orientated industries. As import competing industries are more labour intensive than export-orientated industries therefore the employment of skilled worker will rise and so there wages in developed nations and demand for unskilled labour will fall as a result. Therefore, the share of import competing industries will decline in Japan and U.S whereas the export-orientated industries will either incr ease or remain at stagnant level. Developing countries are expected to export labour intensive manufacturers to developed countries and import skill intensive manufacturers to them. Growth of trade with developed countries should increase the labour intensive industries in developing countries and decrease the skill intensive industries in total manufacturing sector (International Labour Review, Vol.139 (2000), No.3). Therefore, the demand for unskilled labour will increase and the demand for skilled labour will fall thus reducing the wage difference between the skilled and unskilled labour will fall {World Bank (1997)}. Growth of Trade affects employment in the import-competing developed countries and in contrast it stimulates employment in all sectors of manufacturing industries in developing countries. This is because the growth of trade will give foreign exchange to developing countries which obviously they need for their prosperity or economic growth and their income elasticity of demand for import competing is high in developing countries whereas it is low in case of developed countries (Chenery and Strout, 1966). It is presumed that rich and developed countries are more towards international labour standards than developing countries. The violation of core labour standards in developing countries will result in economic distortion and hence lower the national income of developing countries. These violations can be in respect of child labour, gender, racial or other discriminations which in turn risk physical integrity and health (Sandra Polanski, Trade and Labour Standards, A Strategy For Developing Countries (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003), at ). If the developing countries want to invest in capital accumulation they need to raise their labour standards which in turn will eradicate child labour and other discriminations which can trigger growth of the economy (the pioneer work, Robert Lucas, On the mechanics of economic development, Journal of Monetary Economics 22 (1988), pp. 3-42). Many authors have argued that higher labour standards in developing countries will increas e the demand for unskilled labour as they are labour intensive and will increase the wages of formal employment, discourage foreign and domestic investment and it may become an obstacle for economic growth of a developing country (Singh. A and Zammit. A, The global labour standards controversy: Critical issues for developing countries) (Geneva: South Center, 2000). If the developing countries adopt higher labour standards for example, reduction of child labour then it might have a negative effect on the economy as some of developing countries people are living below the poverty line and if child labour is restricted then it might have a way to other social problems like starvation, prostitution, street labour etc. So, the developing countries must take great care while implementing policies as such sudden policies might have negative effect on the social life of people living in those countries so they must take into account the local or domestic condition into account. On the contr ary, the disappearance of child labour and compulsory education in developed countries like U.S and Britain have very significant effect on their economies as restriction on child labour would increase the employment opportunities for adults and with compulsory education they can specialize in some field or sector by which they can increase their income. So, labour standards can play an important role in promoting economic growth for example, with the improvement of labour standards in developing countries like Bangladeshi garments firms, Pakistani soccer ball manufacturing and West African cocoa production etc, all these industries are growing. In turn they are playing an important role in the growth of their economy respectively (Kimberly Elliott and Richard B. Freeman). Conclusion The absence of core labour standards in World Trade Organization official text other than Singapore Declaration has reinforced the ILO legitimacy. The ILO has given a new life to fundamental conventions which are now largely ratified by member states and became a law for the country who ratify them. It contributes to more efficient labour market and respect the comparative advantage of the developing countries. More cooperation between ILO and WTO is needed. Core labour standards are very helpful in increasing capital accumulation which in turn increase the economic growth of developing countries and decrease the distortions and make human capital accumulation easier. The developed countries should encourage developing countries in the form of incremental aid and other concessions in order to improve their labour standards and if fines or duties are imposed the money from fines and duties must be spent on the betterment of labour standards of a particular country. The developing countries are not in a position to benefit from globalization where trade is shifting from primary commodities to manufacturers. The population in developing countries is increasing at much higher rate than developed countries thus developing countries should give special attention towards restraining the inequality of growth between developed and developing countries and this can be achieved if they make their international policy towards the betterment of infrastructure development. The trade growth of manufacturers in developing countries has adverse effect on unskilled labour in developed countries. Skilled and unskilled labour in developing countries has increased their employment and wages due to growth of trade and in general growth of trade has positive and substantial effects. International labour Organization is playing an important part in strengthening labour standards in developing countries and argues that developed world which has high labour standards now had poor labour standards in the past and developing world can choose the same steps in making their standards high and ultimately boost up their economic growth .They should eradicate Child Labor, Forced labor, and all other discriminations. It might take some time as they have to act according to their domestic environment but slowly and surely they will reach at the point where they will have high labour standards thats why ILO proposed substantial relaxation labour standards for the developing world. References: * Clotilde GrangerJean-Marc Siroà «n.(2006), â€Å"Core Labor Standards in Trade Agreements: From Multilateralism to Bilateralism†.Journal of World Trade,40(5),813-836. Retrieved December 1, 2009 * GATT Article XX (e). * http://www.ilo.org/global * International Economics Policy Briefs PB-5 (Washington D. C.: Institute of International Economics, April 2001). * International Labour Review, Vol.139 (2000), No.3  · Joshua C. Hall Peter T. Leeson, â€Å" Good for the Goose, Bad for the Gander: International Labor Standards and Comparative Development† J Labor Res (2007) 28:658-676 * Peter Morici and Evan Shulz, â€Å"Labor Standards in the Global Trading System† (Washington, D. C.: Economic Strategy Institute, 2001) * Robert C. Shelburne, Wage Differentials, Monopsony Labor Markets, and the Trade-Labor Debate, 19 Journal of Economic Integration 1 {March 2004), pp. 131-161. * Sandra Polanski, â€Å"Trade and Labor Standards, A Strategy for Developing Countries† (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003), at www.ceip.org/pubs * Singh. A and Zammit. A, â€Å"The global labor standards controversy: Critical issues for developing countries† (Geneva: South Center, 2000) * The final report: A fair globalization Creating opportunities for all, (Geneva: ILO, February 2004).

Importance of History and Context Considerations for Clients

Importance of History and Context Considerations for Clients Historical and Contextual Considerations for Clients Siobhan L. Healy Abstract This paper discusses four cases in total, two from the perspective of a psychologist in private practice and two from the perspective of a school psychologist. First, we will be covering two clients who visited Dr. Goldstein’s private practice: Client #1: Brian, a 28 year old, married father of a two year old daughter and a six month old infant son, is expressing a feeling of unhappiness. He states that he is miserable, making everyone around him miserable. Client #2: Cindy, a 41 year old, recently divorced woman without children and high school education is not able to relax and worries about something all the time. She experiences a feeling of â€Å"going crazy†. Next, we will be discussing two clients Dr. Venneman, the school psychologist, is covering: Client #1: Rosie, a 7-year-old second-grader from an intact family has recently moved into the school district and was referred for experiencing academic difficulties concerning reading and writing, as well as social difficulties with her classmates. Client #2: Marco, a 17 year old high school student was referred for failing grades and refusal to follow course sequences. He is considering dropping out of school. The hypothesis for this paper is, that, when clinicians are able to gather enough information about their clients’ history and weave together pertinent data to get a clear picture of each case, they will be able to use the correct assessment in order to design a treatment plan. According to Groth-Marnat, the evaluation of the referral question in each case is of great importance. An inaccurate clarification of a problem can result in practical limitations of psychological evaluations. It is the clinicians’ responsibility to provide useful information and to clarify the requests they receive, and each clinician is aware of the value and the limitations of psychological tests. Furthermore, clinicians should not assume that requests for evaluation and referrals are adequately described or elaborated on. In fact, clinicians may need to uproot unspoken expectations of clients and uncover interpersonal relationships and hidden agendas. Limitations of psychological tests need to be explained to clients and the clinician is required to fully understand the vocabulary, dynamics, referral setting, and conceptual model (Groth-Marnat, 2003). Because clinicians are rarely asked to provide a general or global assessment, but are instead expected to answer specific questions, they need to address these questions and should contact the source of the referral at various stages in the assessment process. In an educational evaluation, such as in Rosie’s and Marco’s case, the school psychologist should observe the student in the classroom environment. The information gathered from such an observation should then be relayed back to the source of the referral (school) in order to get further clarification and, possibly, a modification of the initial referral question (Groth-Marnat, 2003). After gaining insight into the referral question, clinicians should proceed with the collection of information. A variety of sources may be used for this purpose, such as personal history, interview data, behavioral observations, and test scores. Furthermore, clinicians could obtain any previous psychological evaluations, medical records, police reports, school records, or they could discuss the current issues with the client and/or with parents or teachers (Groth-Marnat, 2003). For example, Dr. Goldstein could ask his client, Brian, the 28 year old father of two small children, a few background questions, such as, â€Å"when did you first experience the feeling of unhappiness and what exactly do you do to make everyone around you miserable†, or â€Å"how was your marriage before the birth of your children†, â€Å"what may be additional stress factors besides the overwhelming task of having two young children†, and â€Å"how is your social life†? Furthermore, Dr. Goldstein should explore any possible medical reasons for Brian’s â€Å"unhappiness†. Once the clinician has ruled out certain factors that may be contributing to Brian’s condition, he may be able to pinpoint the cause of his unhappiness and determine that Brian is simply and temporarily overwhelmed by the addition of a new baby to an already stressful life. After all, additionally to having to go to work to financially support a family of four, Brian is most likely sleep deprived due to his infant son’s irregular sleep pattern. Ultimately, Brian’s wife and daughter may be placing unreasonable demands on him by asking for more help and attention. Most likely this phase will pass and the clinician will be able to design a solid assessment and treatment plan. Dr. Goldstein’s second case of Cindy, the 41 year old, divorced female, may be a complex one to examine. Once again, Dr. Goldstein should ask Cindy questions such as â€Å"what were the reasons for your recent divorce†, and â€Å"when did you first experience the feeling of â€Å"going crazy† and how does it present†, â€Å"what kind of worries are the most prevalent and what have you tried to do in order to relax†? After ruling out a medical problem, the clinician should examine Cindy’s situation carefully, as it sounds like she may be suffering from anxiety and depression due to her recent divorce. After the divorce, she may have also lost common friends she shared with her partner. The divorce may have left her financially and emotionally drained and she may be going through a midlife crisis. In cases like that, the potential for substance abuse as a coping mechanism can be high. With detailed information about Cindy’s background, D r. Goldstein should be able to create a thorough assessment and a feasible treatment plan. In the case of Rosie, the 7-year-old second-grader from an intact family who recently moved to a new school district, the school psychologist, Dr. Venneman, should obtain any and all school and medical records and he should gather as much information from Rosie’s parents and current and former teachers (or principals). Dr. Venneman should explore whether Rosie had any academic issues in her former school. She may have to get an eye exam to rule out a vision problem since her decreasing performance involves reading and writing. After ruling out any medical problems, Dr. Venneman should find out if Rosie may be missing her old friends and social activities. He should ask parents and teachers questions such as â€Å"has she made any friends at all yet†, or â€Å"is she still involved in the sports activities that she used to enjoy†? It is very likely that Rosie is just experiencing a temporary loss of a sense of stability (of a predictable environment and routine) a nd the loss of her friends due to the move. Once she is used to her new situation, she will most likely be able to adapt, make new friends, and catch up with school work. In the case of Marco, the 17 year old high school student who is considering dropping out of school, Dr. Venneman may have to explore his school and police records and conduct interviews with his family and teachers. After ruling out a medical condition or a possible criminal past, the clinician should ask Marco and everyone concerned a number of questions, such as â€Å"how long has the lack of interest in school work persisted and what was done to intervene†, â€Å"what are his peers like†, and â€Å"what does Marco want for his future†? Fortunately, Marco is a short time away from graduating from high school and the clinician should put emphasis on finding a quick and solid solution to jump-start Marco’s motivation. In all of these cases, it is important to realize that any tests themselves are just one tool (or source) for gathering data. Each case history is of importance as it provides the clinician a context for understanding each client’s current issue and with this knowledge the test scores become meaningful. A number of ethical guidelines have emerged for conducting formal assessments, ensuring â€Å"that appropriate professional relationships and procedures are developed and maintained† (Groth-Marnat, 2003, p.48). When assessing all of the above clients, the clinician must carefully consider what constitutes his or her ideal practice. There will always be difficulties involving assessment procedures. The main issues are the â€Å"use of tests in inappropriate contexts, confidentiality, cultural bias, invasion of privacy, and the continued use of tests that are inadequately validated† (Groth-Marnat, 2003, p.48); consequently, this has resulted in many restrictions as to the use of certain tests, increased skepticism, and a greater need for clarification within regarding ethical standards within the field of psychology (Groth-Marnat, 2003). As in Rosie’s and Marco’s case, the clinician would be concerned about dealing with minors, especially if one was diagnosed with a disability, and should obtain consent to perform the assessments through a parent or legal guardian. As described by Steege Watson (2013) â€Å"when information is systematically collected and analyzed for the express purpose of determining behavioral function and the development of a BIP, it should be considered an evaluation and parental permission obtained† (p.34). Furthermore, it would be unethical of Dr. Goldstein, for example, to reveal information about Brian or Cindy to others, unless the clients are posing a risk to themselves or others (such as a threat of suicide or homicide) (Steege Watson, 2013). In the case of Cindy, Dr. Goldstein could begin with a semi-structured interview format and list a sequence of questions that he would like to ask her. The first series of questions could include: â€Å"What are some important concerns that you may have?† â€Å"Could you describe the most important of these concerns?† â€Å"When did the difficulty first begin?† â€Å"How often does it occur?† â€Å"Have there been any changes in how often it has occurred?† â€Å"What happens after the behavior(s) occurs?† (Groth-Marnat, 2003, p. 79-80). Since clients vary in their personal characteristics (age, degree of cooperation, educational level, etc.) and type of problem (childhood difficulties, legal problems, psychological problems), the questions should vary from person to person (Groth-Marnat, 2003). In Cindy’s case, the above questions are appropriate to ask. The series of questions should not be rigid, but asked with a certain level of flexibility, in order to explore relevant but unique issues that may arise during the interview. It is difficult to speculate on the conduction and outcome of the interview, because different theoretical perspectives will exist when it comes to clinician-client interaction between Dr. Goldstein and Cindy. It is important to note, that, a successful interview is achieved first and foremost with a proper attitude of the clinician, and not so much by what he or she says or does. The interviewer should always express â€Å"sincerity, acceptance, understanding, genuine interest, warmth , and a positive regard for the worth of the person. If clinicians do not demonstrate these qualities, they are unlikely to achieve the goals of the interview, no matter how these are defined† (Groth-Marnat, 2003, p. 80). Dr. Goldstein should be aware of the interviewer effect because his interview with Cindy is a social interaction and his appearance may influence her answers. This is a common problem and such bias can render the results of the study invalid. For example, body language, age, gender, ethnicity, or social status of the interviewer can create this effect. If Dr. Goldstein happens to be of the same age and ethnicity of Cindy’s ex-husband, with a similar social status and body language, she may not answer all the questions without bias. Unfortunately, there is always going to be such a possibility when conducting an interview. After Dr. Goldstein has concluded the interview with Cindy, he will then provide an outline of the behavioral assessment, similar to the behavioral interview. He will initially provide Cindy with an overview of what has to be accomplished with a clearly detailed specification of her problem behavior. Dr. Goldstein will identify the target behavior(s) and define them in exact behavioral terms. For example, Cindy’s target behaviors may be excessive worry and inability to relax as part of an anxiety disorder. The clinician will then determine the problem frequency, duration, and intensity (â€Å"How many times has the feeling of â€Å"going crazy† occurred today,† â€Å"How long did it persist†, etc.). He will then identify the conditions in which the problems (worrying, not being able to relax, and so on) occur â€Å"in terms of its antecedents, behaviors, and consequences† (Groth-Marnat, 2003, p. 114). Dr. Goldstein will determine the desired level of Cindy’s performance and consider an estimate of how realistic this is for her with possible deadlines. He will definitely identify Cindy’s strengths and also suggest procedures for measuring her relevant behaviors. He will decipher who will record what and how will it be recorded, when and where. Then, Dr. Goldstein will determine how the effectiveness of the program should be evaluated. After completing the discussion of areas, he will summarize it to ensure that Cindy understands and agrees. Again, this outline should not be rigid and should be used as a general guideline (Groth-Marnat, 2003). In Cindy’s case, the behavioral interview itself may have presented enough material for an adequate assessment but some form of actual behavioral observation may be required before, during, and after treatment. A method for observing the behavior(s) is often decided on during the initial behavioral interview. While interviews primarily serve to obtain verbal information from clients, behavioral observation conducted to actually carry out certain techniques and strategies of measuring relevant areas of behavior that were previously discussed during the behavioral interview. With Cindy, a behavioral observation may be useful, although it is usually used more frequently in cases such as assessing young children, the developmentally disabled, or resistant clients, but it would be interesting to obtain interval recording, narrative recording, ratings recording, and event recording. Dr. Goldstein may ask Cindy to observe her relevant target behaviors. He and Cindy will have to decid e on the number of target behaviors to record and the complexity of a recording method, as the task will have to remain manageable and not â€Å"overly complex† (Groth-Marnat, 2003). Target behavior(s) should be identified in a narrative description of Cindy’s problems and later specified by determining the antecedents and consequences related to her problem behavior. All of her behaviors need to be measured in an objective manner, with complete definitions that enable concise observations of the measures of the behaviors. Such definitions should not include abstract terms, such as absentmindedness or sadness, and instead concentrate on specific behaviors. Furthermore, the definitions should be easy to read. When Dr. Goldstein is measuring behavioral frequencies, he must clearly define when the behaviors begin and end. It can be difficult to measure less clearly defined behaviors. The recordings should measure the duration of behaviors and their intensity. For example, how fast does Cindy’s heart beat during an anxiety/panic attack in which she feels that she is losing her mind and how long did this heart rate remain? Measurements as such will deter mine how urgent and strong a treatment approach should be (Groth-Marnat, 2003). Of further importance is the setting of a behavioral observation and it can range from a natural setting to a highly structured one. Natural, or in vivo, settings for Cindy can include her home, the park, or the mall. Such natural settings are the most effective ones when trying to assess high-frequency or depressive behaviors, as in Cindy’s case. Unfortunately, observations in natural settings require an extensive amount of time but are useful when the amount of change the client has made is measured after a treatment. Dr. Goldstein may decide to create a structured environment, such as a role play, that bring out specific types of behaviors. Such environments can be important for infrequent behaviors but this type of setting may not generalize into Cindy’s actual life. The training of the observer has to include a clear understanding of measuring the behaviors, emphasizing on taking objective and accurate recordings. The clinician should take precautions to avoid obse rver error, through bias, lapses in concentration, leniency, and discussing of data with other observers. Reliability may be checked by â€Å"comparing the degree of agreement between different observers rating the same behaviors† (Groth-Marnat, 2003, p.116). After gathering enough information about their clients’ history and pertinent data during behavioral interviews and assessments, clinicians have a clear picture of each case and will be able to design and implement the correct treatment plan. References Groth-Marnat, Gary (2003). Handbook of Psychological Assessment 4th ed. John Wiley Sons. Retrieved on 20 February 2015 from http://marijag.home.mruni.eu/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/handbook-of-psychological-assessment-fourth-edition.pdf. Steege, M.W., Watson, T.S. (2013). Conducting School-Based Functional Behavioral Assessments, Second Edition. Guilford Press. VitalBook file.