Hawthorne Effect and Human Relation Movement

Describe how the components of the Hawthorne study are incorporated in current human resource functions? What was the main idea behind this study? How have you been impacted by the components of this study in your current or past work setting? According to Baack (2012), the human relation movement in management began in 1920s and was based on the human element of organizations. The Hawthorne study became one of the branches of the human relation movement (Baack, 2012) As stated by Cubbon (1969), the Hawthorne studies were carried out from the Hawthorne Works, a factory in Chicago.The idea of those studies was experimenting with psychological factors influencing the employees, while the goal was to increase the productivity levels (Cubbon, 1968). With time, the term became widely known, and many organizations conducted the similar studies. Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger have conducted the Hawthorne studies focusing their research on the employees and the aspects that influenced t he workers productivity (Baack, 2012).According to their findings, the productivity rates increased due to positive interactions between workers and researches, entry-level employees were actively fulfilling the duties of the supervisors without worrying about being disciplined for poor performance, and people started working closely in groups, while being loyal to one another (Baack, 2012). The research showed that workers are motivated not only by money, but also by social interactions, which should be accounted for at the workplace (Baack, 2012).Human Resources department of any organization should be focused on the workers. Its primary duties are to treat employees fairly and make sure that an organization gives back to its own people. Higher level of people’s satisfaction with the job will lead to the company’s success. It is necessary for managers to understand what makes the employees happier to increase the levels of productivity; that is why conducting the Haw thorne studies is important.For example, people in my department are not fond of each other; they do not like to work in teams and usually keep blaming each other for different mistakes. If our management arranged different experiments to understand the employees a little better and to find the root of the problem, the workers would eventually change their ways and views, which would lead to creating a better work environment.

How are relationships presented in romeo and juliet compared to the machine stops Essay

EXPLORE THE WAYS RELATIPNSHIPS ARE PRESENTED IN THE TEXTS YOU HAVE STUDIED Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play, written by William Shakespeare. Trailing the catastrophic events occurring in the lives to two teenage â€Å"star-cross’d lovers† whose premature deaths unite their quarrelling families. The Machine Stops however, is a futuristic novella written by E.M Forster following a mother and son in an attempt to keep their relationship in a society run by a machine which controls the humans. Prince Escalus of Romeo and Juliet is the authority of Verona; he controls everybody in his city. We can see this from the first time we see him; in act I scene I. â€Å"rebellious subjects, enemies to peace/profaners of this neighbour- stained steel,† . â€Å"subjects†- instead of referring to them as the people of the city, making them seem worthless, portraying a higher power, since ‘subject’ suggests someone being discussed or dealt with, the gentry would be thinking about the princes language and recognise the depth in his la nguage whereas the groundlings would be entertained by the previous brawl which provided them with action, the audience then recognise that he is on higher social status than the other characters. â€Å"steel†-speaking of their swords, the prince is fustraghted because these swords are meant for the purpose of protecting and defending the city, but they are being used to spill the blood of its residents; †stained†-meaning blood, the audience would then look forward to the punishments that the prince will provide. Shakespeare portrays the prince as majestic and royal through his language, he speaks very formally, much more than the other characters. â€Å"but I’ll amerce you with a strong fine/that you shall all repent the loss of mine:†. The prince speaks using rhyming couplets making him seem more superior and authorative. The audience, especially the gentry, will realise how he is very imperious and lordly. In the Machine stops, the machine controls the underground dystopian society; it is relatively like the prince in the sense that it holds control over inhibitors. Since the Machine doesn’t literally speak, we have the words of the humans which know the characteristics of the Machine. When Kuno is persuading Vashti to visit the surface of the earth, she replies â€Å"it is contrary to the spirit of the age† Kuno exclaims â€Å"do you mean by that, contrary to the machine?†Vashti cautiously replies â€Å"in a sense, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she is acting as if the machine has developed feelings or a sense of betrayal. The reader would find this a perqullia society because the humans are worshiping  a machine, made by men. The machine and prince Escalus are presented in a similar way, this is unusual since the machine stops is set in the future and Romeo and Juliet was written in 1500’s yet they possess similar qualities, it is also intriguing how E.M Forster came up with this idea since he wrote this in early 1900’s in England, a democratic society, in a time of great inventions but thinks of a society which is almost like a dictatorship, and having to respect a ruler. But this was orthodox in the Shakespeare’s age to respect the authority to your town. Hate relationships are strong and frequent in romeo and juliet, romeo and tybalt have a hate relationship.however, as much as tybalts vulgur, impulsive, violent attitude riles romeo, he attempts to refrain from vocalising his loave because tybalt is juliets cousin and, unbeknown to tybalt, romeos kinsman.in act 3 scene 1 tybalt is roaming the streets in search of a brawl, romeo appears and tybalt begins to provoke him, mercutio, who never fails to rise mutiny, begins a quarrel with tybalt, ending with mercutio fatally wounded romeo then fills with resentment and vexation, then once tybalt returns, they fight;resulting in tybalts death. whilst tybalt is dying, he says to romeo â€Å"thou, wrecked boy, that dids’t consort him here,/ shalt with him hence† tybalts insult towards romeo, â€Å"boy† is the same as what he said at the capulet feast. romeo is usually presented as civil and caring, not violent, but he shows the audience that he is protective of people that he loves. most of the hateful relationships are presented by shakespeare through physical actions, which may be because battles were a conventional part of society in the 1500’s and it is also more interesting for the audience, since the plays were preformed live, not read. despite that, forster presents hate through words because it makes for a more interesting read. since its hard to translate physical actions into words and still keep the effectiveness on the reader. for example, kuno’s hate for the machine is never portrayed in actions, but words. â€Å"the machine is much, but it is not everything. i see something like you in this plate, but i do not see you. i hear something like you through this telephone, but i do not hear you† he tells vashti that the machine has excluded the sense of personal touch and communication. juno is fustraighted by the fact that inhibitors praise so highly of the machine, yet they forget that it was made by man, they treat it as a god and follow it like a religion, his hate grows further for the  machine because the machine causes vashti and juno to have an argument where they completely disown each other, and kuno sees this as down to the machine. he feels resentment to wards the machine also, because of how it makes people act. â€Å"Thrice she felt the delirium of aquiesance.† â€Å"Delirium† by that meaning vashti is gibing in to the machine, showing the reader how compelling the machine is, since it takes vashti out of her normal state and conscious mind. kuno never directly says to the machine † i hate you†, but we imply this from his words, different from shakespeare plays, where feelings are relationships are vocalised clearly. love is presented rather strange, by e.m forster. vashrti loves the machine, she installs all of her faith in it, we see this when the machine begins to malfunction, â€Å"she continued to whirl† she is going crazy and it is almost like now that the machine is going, she is developing a sense of separation anxiety . ‘whirled’ she is beginning to possess machine like’ properties, displaying how she has a bond that runs extremely deep inside of her. However, her passion for the machine is seen as unconventional by the reader since the machine isn’t a person, but forster may have done this to help emphasis that this is a futuristic novella which would mean that society will conceits of different elements than today. the reader may respond frightened, since this is written in 1909 and technology has evolved extensively, compelling the reader that this may come of society in years to come. another factor that makes vashti’s love for the machine unconventional, is that her passion resembles that of a cult follower â€Å"you must not say anything against the machine.† and no matter how hard kuno tries to erach her because he recognises her state, she can’t pull away, she still follows. shakespeare presents relationships differently however, romeo and juliets love is sudden, impulsive and very swift. since the original story of romeo and julliet is spread over 9 months, whereas this quicker paced play is sq ueezed into 5 days. romeos love for juliet is very sudden, â€Å"so shows a snowy dove tropping with crows,† his first sight of juliet, he falls deeply in love with her, forgetting about his â€Å"love† he was depressed over, showing the audience romeos infatuation. because by ‘crow’ he is comparing juliet to rosaline, implied as the frow. declaring that he has never felt love until this night, showing the audience how romeo is very  indecisive and impulsive. their love is also presented to the audience through sonnets, indicating that their love is so passionate, that their dialogue is spoken through love poems, displaying a higher romance to the audience because sonnets are often used to write about love.there is a dark underling meaning behind these rods, however. as these are a foreshadow of romeo and juliets coming death, we recognise this because these 14 line sonnets match the 14 line prologue with the same rhyming scheme as the sonnets, this prol ogue mentions their deaths, linking the teens love to their tragic fate.the foreshadowing of romeo and juliets death are frequent thouout the play. â€Å"methinks i see there, now thou art below / as one dead in the bottom of a tomb:†- an omen of when romeo is in the bottom of a tomb, the gentry would recognise these hints of whats coming, but mostlikly at the end of the play. The love presented in romeo and juliet is much more conventional than presented in the machine stops, since romeo is a typical; lovesick: self-pityful; impulsive teenager,but vashtis relationship with the machine is interesting since it is much more unorthodox and surreal. shakespeare presents capulet and juliets relationship as very influx, because we first see capulet as a loving father, whilst he is speaking with paris (a potential candidate to marry juliet) and says â€Å"let two more summers wither in their pride†¦ but woo her† capulet doesn’t want his daughter to leave him for another two years, however, he contrasts this, â€Å"an she agree within her scope of choice / lies my concent and fair according voice† ‘ scope’ suggesting that within her choice of men, if she doesn’t comply, ‘according voice’ then he will force her. his voice will always be there to influence her, and he will use this parental influence as a to ol of fate. to shakespeare’s audience, this wouldn’t seem queer, but to the modern day audience, this would seem bizarre. but a father had lots of control of the life their daughter led. but this is also partly to do with hoe capulet prides himself on the place he has in society and doesn’t want his name, which he has accumulates such power to, not to be carried through to descendants. juliets power against her father is weakened because she is his heir, but she is weakened further due to her social standards as a woman, and women being dominated by males in the 1500’s. Capulets underling anger becomes clearer in act 3 scene 5, it was expected that noble women would marry rich men, on par with their status, but when capulet hears that romeo  is who uliet wants to marry, he becomes very riled, dramatically contrasting his earlier behaviour when she was obeying him, â€Å"disobedient wretch † suggesting to the audience that his previous love was superficial. he is saying all of this in front of juliet, yet he speaks of her in the third person, asif she isn’t there, â€Å"we have a curse in having her†¦rid of her† referring to someone in the third person is deemed more rude and shakespeare gave capulet the words â€Å"her† to make juliet feel worthless and put distance between her and capulet, also in attempt to belittle her and make her feel bad., therefore portraying more anger to the audience. His rage relates back to capulet priding his statue in society and wanting his image to remain in tact. however, once he hears of juliets death, his feelings turn suddenly very remorseful and flu of self-pity. he feels bad because his last words to his daughter were very harsh, the audience were full of excitement but now they are very sorrowful and shocked, contratig their earlier thoughts and feelings, of an otherwise action-packed scene. â€Å"ready to go, but never to return,† capulet say says she is going for the wrong reasons, she should have been going to marry paris, but rather, going to be buried. he mentions how le lost the successor to his name, reputation, legacy, and empire which he has built, which sould have been passed down by juliet, heir to the capulet fortune, reinforcing the social standards of an heir in elizabeths reign.

Oedipus the King Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Oedipus the King - Essay Example Both need the company of each other to satisfy their desires. This connection further generates many relationships between man and woman which show the interdependence of each gender on the other. This man-woman relationship has become a part of the thematic content of the play â€Å"The Piano Lesson† where women of the family have been shown as strong combining force which has brought the family together. Apart from that the play has tried to dispel traditional notions that women cannot live without men as the protagonist of the play, Berniece has proves that she can live alone in this world and has the capacity of run her family without the aid of any male member. The play shows Berniece a woman without a man. Her husband Crawley is dead long ago and now she is living a lonely life. The play depicts the plight of lonely woman in the world. Male dominated thinking scorns at the idea of seeing woman living on their own. This traditional thought believes that women are weaker s ex and they cannot live on their own. They need the company of a strong man who is always there to protect them and take their side. The idea of world where women are strong and independent is not entertained in a male dominated society. The world of Berniece seems to be a male dominated world. In this world woman is taken as a toy whose only job is to please its male companion. Woman is considered inferior to man. It was though that serious decisions of life cannot be taken by women as they were looked upon as emotional and frail beings. This thought makes Boy Willie take the decision of selling the Piano in place of a piece of land. He in order to fulfill his masculine dreams of becoming a land owner is willing to sacrifice all that is so dear to his family. He does not care about the opinion of his sister. Biased views of men about women Men have a biased view of women and they think that women are meant for men’s pleasure. The following remarks of Boy Willie show what men think of women. Boy Willie: "All [Lymon] want to talk about is women. [†¦] Talking about all the women he gonna get when he get up here." (1.1.94). The remarks summarize the philandering nature of Lymon who is always in search of nightstands. His affair with grace has been depicted during the course of the play. Winning boy sells his suit to Lymon by telling him that the suit has magical powers and can attract women. The men of the story think that the women of the story like typical women are in search of male companions with huge sum of money with them. The financial security ensured by male members of the society is a common notion held by patriarchal ideology. They think that men are the breadwinners and women are their pleasure toys. Doaker, a mature person , also thinks that women remain in search of a man with a stuffed purse. They show love and affection for rich men and are delighted in their company. He remarks. "I ain't thinking about them women. [†¦] All them women want is somebody with a steady payday" (1.1.179). Woman as a cohesive force in family Home is the domain of woman where she tries to act as a cohesive force to combine her family. She does this through her sacrificial behavior and is willing to shed her bled for her family. In a fond memory of her woman ancestor, Berniece recalls how the women of the family took care of piano ( a symbol of family cohesion) through their tears and blood. Berniece says, "Mama Ola polished this piano with her tears for

Program Evaluation Paper Part 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Program Evaluation Paper Part 3 - Essay Example If a kid weighs 40.55 pounds, this weight figure will be rounded off to the nearest tenth of a pound, which will make the childs weight as 40.6 pounds. If the child had weighed 40.54 pounds, then the weight measurement will be recorded as 40.5 pounds. This is an example of how data collection can influence the program evaluation plan by making the collection of kids measurements easier to do but without compromising its accuracy. The program evaluation itself is a mixed method, meaning it will use both quantitative and qualitative ways of gathering the data. Getting the exact weight measurements of the kids is part of the qualitative process of data gathering while using open-ended surveys in the form of a questionnaire will form the qualitative part of the data collection process. For this part of the data collection which is the qualitative part, it is important that the observations by parents and teachers are made honestly and describes in full detail what they had observed in the kids behavior. If they found out kids are more active after eating their fruits, for example, then it must be described in a meaningful way such as using an increasing scale, with 1 as the lowest and 10 as the highest so this will give the researchers a good idea of how active they were. The programs overall integrity will be evaluated based on the way data is collected and how reliable the data will be. This will greatly determine whether the program is a good one or needs some revisions based on the difficulty or ease of getting all the necessary data. It is at this point when the programs researchers can have a good idea on the probable outcome of their research project because data collection is the very heart of the research study itself. It will determine whether the entire project will be successful or not because on implementation aspects of the program such as the aforementioned data collection procedures. A strength of the data collection process is its

Personal Impact of Substance Abuse Research Paper

Personal Impact of Substance Abuse - Research Paper Example You came light at night and that is what made your eldest son to bring you over here. You need to see the fact that your kids need you right now. They are also going through the same phase as you are but they are trying to cope with it. They have already lost their mother and they do not want to lose their father as well. If you will go on to take alcohol like this, you won’t only destroy your life but you will also be responsible for snatching away the future of your kids. Instead of being calm and patient with them, you shout at them and indulge in arguments with your loved ones (Wolfenden, 2010). Whenever you drive with alcohol in your body and mind, you are risking your life. You exhaust yourself, you make yourself numb through alcohol and thus you do not have the energy to talk to your kids. It is necessary that you communicate with them. In this way, not only you will feel better but your kids will also feel better. If you will keep on taking alcohol, you will be subjecting yourself to heart diseases (Wolfenden, 2010). Moreover, these habits also lead to high blood pressure which in turn leads to strokes, acute kidney failures and in many sever cases, cancer. When you said that you have tried to stop, but could not, it is because you cannot get rid of this problem in a day. You need medical supervision when you withdraw from this alcohol abuse. The symptoms are direr when you stop taking it after a period of over dose. You will suffer from headache, nausea; increase in the heart beat level, decrease in appetite, tremors, exhaustion and sometimes insomnia (Wolfenden, 2010). But you should not worry because this all is normal when you withdraw from alcohol. After a month or two you start to feel immensely better. You will also be given some medicines to curb the urge of drinking alcohol. These medicines will be temporary and will be stopped after a certain time period. You need to organize your life once again, and I understand that it is easier said

Ethical Decision Making in Health Care Term Paper

Ethical Decision Making in Health Care - Term Paper Example An example of one of these ways that can be useful in making decisions that are ethical and appropriate is the use of the Down Model. This model of making ethical decision was established and presented by Down and his colleagues who came up with a step- by- step method of helping professionals in making decisions that are ethical. The Down Model specifically provides professionals with ways to address challenges that affect the solving of professional problems ethically, since it closely resembles or relates to those found in the medical imaging profession. This model is made of at least six steps, which have been adjusted for the appropriate use by the user in responding to a number of hypotheticals. This paper will utilize the Down Model to address or to respond to two particular cases by analyzing them and solving them through the use of the six steps in the Down model. Before looking at the specific cases, it is essential that we look at and familiarize ourselves with the six ste ps of the Down Model. The first step in the model is the step that deals with assessing the problem by considering what ethical contexts are present in which the situation took place. This step requires the user to determine what kind of ethical challenge took place- ethical dilemma of justice, ethical dilemma, locus of authority issue or ethical distress. The second step requires the user to isolate the issues. During this point, the user must be able to differentiate the issues that are essential to the situation from those that are not as essential. The user must also determine what values should be utilized. The user of the model should, at this stage, consider which ethical principles the cases or situations involve or use, they must also consider which rights an organization is violating or compromising, and which area or principle of the profession’s code of conduct or ethics covers the behavior in the situation. The third step of the model involves the user analyzing the data. It is during this stage that the user separates al the pertinent information from the pure conjecture. In this stage, the user should only examine the facts that relate to the problem and eliminate the rest. The fourth stage of the Down model involves the development of an action plan by the user. During this stage, the user makes a decision depending on what options are available for addressing the problem. The last essential stage in the model is the institution of the plan, which involves the user proceeding with the implementation of the solution. The first case that we are going to look at in this case is the first case is Case 1, which deals with the medical imaging professional. The case tells us that the supervisor and the co- workers of the medical imaging professional have been suspecting that the individual has a problem controlling his drinking problem. The person in question comes to work with breath that smells of alcohol, with a compromised gait, and speech that is slightly slurred. The supervisor pulled him aside recently, as a result of these observations, and was able to confirm the signs that he had noticed earlier. The supervisor then warns the professional that according to the substance abuse policy that the observations that he has made are enough to warrant for a drug test, and requests that the imaging professional must undergo a blood test for confirmation. The imaging professional, however, refuses to do as directed. The question here is whether the way the professional acted was a way of insubordination or whether making him go for the test would be a violation of the rights of the

Advantages Of Various Types Of Economic Systems Assignment

Advantages Of Various Types Of Economic Systems - Assignment Example The economic system decides the amount and the mechanism of the resource allocation. The factors of production, the organizations, and the market forces comprise the economic system that interacts with each other with an aim to resolve the economic problems (Anderton, 2009, p. 30). This economic system is of various types depending on the impact of market forces on the system. A free economy is one in which the market forces are solely responsible for the determination of the price and quantity and the resources are allocated automatically without any kind of government intervention. On the other hand, in the case of the mixed economy, the market mechanism is allowed to operate but to a limited extent. In a mixed economy, there is the coexistence of the public and private enterprises in the economy. It has been argued by many scholars that the free market economy operates on a higher level of efficiency compared to the mixed economies. Analysis of the Statement In order to understand the level of efficiency of these two types of the economy it is essential to analyze the characteristics of these economies. A free market economy is characterized by the private ownership of the means of production. The government’s role is limited to the regulatory and legal aspects of ensuring the rights of the people. The people who are existent in the economy have the right to operate in the market and buy and sell goods and services at the price and quantities that are determined by the market mechanism. The government may have regulation in form of quotas or tariffs that does not hamper the free market environment in such economies (Samuelson and ? Nordhaus, 2010, p. 31). The market structure that is existent in such economies is based on the competitive framework. The decision making of the allocation of resources id decentralized because of each individual and decide how much to buy or sell in the market depending on the efficiency level.  

Individual Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Individual Project - Essay Example (1) The Victim Impact Statement provides the details of the harm or loss caused to the victim as a result of the offence, and the court takes this statement into consideration at the time of sentencing the offender. The purpose of the statement is to provide the victims of crime an opportunity to be heard in the criminal justice system, by participating in the sentencing of the offender in providing to the court and the offender, the impact of the crime on them. (2) The main problem with the Pre-sentence Investigation Report is that it is prepared by the probation department, and so tends to be done in a routine manner, and biased against the defendant. (3). The main criticism of the Victim Impact Statement is that it has little to do in enhancing the traditional goals of sentencing namely deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution. Another criticism is that by shifting the focus of sentencing from the offender to the victim, it tends to make the process arbitrary. Yet another problem with the statement is the creation of classes of victims, with the eloquence and the social standing of the victim having more to do with the stiffness of the sentence, than the nature of the offense. (4). The judiciary or the executive administers probation. The administering of probation has two functions namely supervision, to ensure safety of the community in which the individual on probation is located, and the victim of the crime, and rehabilitation of the individual on probation. The advantage with judiciary-administered probation is that the function of rehabilitation of the individual on probation would be done more effectively, but the supervision is likely to be less effective, because of the amount of workload. The resources of the executive make supervision more effectively undertaken, but the rehabilitation is likely to be affected due to lesser concern for it. (5) The administering of probation at the

Obama Vs. Clinton Essay Example for Free

Obama Vs. Clinton Essay The Affordable Health Care Act is a very in-depth process. The changes to the health care system were attempted to be passed in prior years by Bill Clinton. However, it failed at this time and was implemented in the United States by the current president Barack Obama. The Congress diversity of Democrats vs. Republican’s was very similar in both Clintons and Obamas time in office. There were many steps that were taken in creating this policy, and some of those steps succeeded, and some of those steps failed. Any new process would be expected to have some issues to work through as it was created. The Affordable Health Care Act still has some issues to work on, but many steps succeeded and that is why it has been implemented during Obamas term. Health Care Reform was in some ways similar in both Obama and Clinton’s proposals, but greatly different as well. Clinton’s main focus in the policy was to make health care mandatory for all Americans and have universal coverage. Employers would pay 80 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums, with the employee covering the remaining costs (Khan, 2014). However, both policies have the same goal of providing health insurance to all people. Each policy creates the ways of completing this task differently. Clinton’s health care reform plan was very complex. It involved high levels of government involvement in the health care industry. A federal national health board would have overseen the health system, and would be tasked with regulating premiums and overseeing benefits (Khan, 2014). Health care alliances at the state level would conduct a similar task, and states would have had the authority to regulate plans and have the option to create a single-payer system (Khan, 2014). The policy would be more of a government takeover, than assisting Americans with health  insurance. This was something that was not found to be favorable by many stakeholders. Obama’s reform allows for people with private insurance to keep their insurance. He is creating a government insurance company to compete with the private insurance companies. However, Obama still faces struggles with Republicans being opposed to this idea as well. The concern of finances was also purposed similar in both policy creations. Both presidents plan on the bill not adding to the deficit of the country. Another similarity between the two plans was that insurances companies could no longer deny a client because of their previous medical conditions. This has been another successful step in the process. Health Care Reform was created very similar but still with great differences between each president. The Affordable Health Care Act was successful for Obama mostly because of the way he pushed the bill through congress. Obama used Clinton’s health care reform failures as lessons and a blueprint of what not to do. This made him about to learn from past failure and make changes along the way. Different steps were taken in creating both of the policies. As Clinton moved slowly on this policy, Obama pushed his through quickly (Oberlander, 2014). Moving quickly was a decision that helped the policy succeeding, whereas, moving slowly caused it to fail. However, both presidents did pitch their speech about the Affordable Health Care Act before a joint session of Congress. This was not a successful step for either president. Both Obama and Clinton did not have great support for the policy, and this caused great suffering. Obama allowed for alternative methods in this policy whereas Clinton did not. Although both presidents had a wonderful idea, the steps that they took in implementing the policy are what changed the success of it. Both policies have similar stakeholders. When discussing health care insurance the stakeholders do not often change because the policies were slightly different. Stakeholders consist of business, insurance companies, and the American Medical Association. Other stakeholders consist of the people of the United States of America. There was much skepticism about the policy plans that both presidents were rolling out by the people of America. It is important that the presidents did not only look at stakeholders of large companies, but the everyday people of the community and employees of the health care industry as stakeholders as well. There were also government stakeholders in both  policies. However, the government level of stakeholders was greater in Clinton’s policy because his consist of government takeover. Stakeholders are crucial to the success of any policy. The Affordable Health Care Act has so far been successfully implemented by Obama. However, like any other new policy there are some issues still to be worked on. Obama was a success on passing this policy because he used the mistakes of the past to make his policy succeed. Even though there were struggles and steps that failed in Obama’s plan as well, there were more that succeed. Clinton’s policy was more government based and had many failures. The stakeholders for both presidents’ policies were similar. The Affordable Health Care Act has been in progress by many presidents for many years. However, it has been Obama’s plan that has been the most successful. Reference Oberlander, J. (2014). Long Time Coming: Why Health Reform Finally Passed. Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/6/1112.full Khan, H. (2014). Throwback to 1993? Whats New About Democrats Health Care Plans. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/health-care-reform-president-obama-path-bill-clinton/story?id=8675596

Racism & Ethnic Identity Essay Example for Free

Racism Ethnic Identity Essay Race is evidently an important aspect in our Australian society today. It is personified in the biological makeup of an individual. Individuals of different racial background differ in physical appearance such as skin color, and facial features making DNA and genes the only cause behind these dissimilarities. Many races have been introduced into this nation since decades and slowly have been recognized such as the Caucasian race and the Asian race. Ethnicity while slightly related to race is based upon a persons cultural and social expression within an ethnic group; this entails for instance that although one may be of a Caucasian descent born and raised in Australia they also may acquire an ethnic background from Greece and follow the Greek traditions and customs thus making them of Australian-Greek nationality. This paper will recount the different races which exist in Australia as well as some popular ethnic backgrounds which this country has become familiar with whilst narrating and analyzing a number of issues facing ethnicity and race in our society today. The first issue facing ethnicity is the fact which promptly makes individuals assume that other persons of an ethnic descent are liable for criminal omissions. It is often simple for people to identify ethnic members when a crime is involved as it is much easier to classify these individuals due to their distinct physical appearance. Conflict is a natural phase during times of change, however the next issue points out that it can become violent when that particular change is not managed properly and in a just way; such as inequality of the distribution of power which could lead different sections of society against each other and form their own ethnic groups to compete for power in retaliation. Therefore conflict is likely to occur when communication between ethnic, religious or cultural groups deteriorates or breaks down resulting in more conflict and problematic situations. The third issue causing a stir in todays society is racism or racial discrimination. It is evident that immigrants have been disadvantaged in the work force as well as social welfare simply because of their racial background; the law has developed remarkably over time to protect individuals against racism of any kind. This report will set the main argument of why this has become an integral part for our society with respect to social analysis.

Stages of the Purchasing Decision Process

Stages of the Purchasing Decision Process P-1: Describe the main stages of the purchasing decision making process Business buying decision process Business buying decision process consists of the following steps. Problem recognition General need description Product specification Supplier search Proposal solicitation Supplier selection Order routine specification Performance review (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Problem recognition: It will occur when an organization recognizes a problem or need that can be meet by buying a product or service. General need description: Lets assume that an organization wants to improve its services or products soin this step characteristics of the services and products needed are explicitly expressed. Product specification: After the pervious step an organization will express the specification of the product or services which will be of course done with the consultation of the engineering or technical team. Supplier search: In this step an organization will search for the supplier of the goods needed this can be done by reviewing trade directories or by doing computer search. It will obviously short list those one who has good reputation and offers best deals. Proposal solicitation: Once the search is complete then an organization will invite suppliers to submit their proposal, in this case presentation by the supplier might be needed. Supplier selection: In this step the organization will finalize the supplier. Factors like competitive prices, honest communication, quality products and services etc are of great importance in this regard. Order routine specification: At this stage the organization management will prepare an order-routine specification. It will also incorporate final order with selected supplier and list of other elements technical services after sales required, date of delivery return polices and warranties etc. Performance review: After order-routine specification in this step organization will assess the performance of the suppliers products or services. This may lead organization to keep on, change, of drop the arrangement with the supplier. Consumer buying decision process Consumer buying decision process consists of the following steps Need recognition Information search Evaluation of alternatives Purchase decision Post Purchase behavior (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Need recognition: The process starts with need recognition the buyer feels that he should have the specific products or services in order to fulfill his need. The reason behind this can be internal stimuli i.e. need to fulfill and external stimuli i.e. products or services ads. Information search: An interested prospect intending to buy products or services will search for information regarding various companies offering those products or services. He will use sources like internet, friends etc. Evaluation of alternatives:The marketing people of companies need to know about how various consumers evaluate products or services well the process is not easy to understand. Here the consumers might keep the following points of evaluation criteria prices, quality, and brand. Purchase decision: Normally the consumer is suppose to buy that product or service which up to highest level fulfill his evaluation criteria but even at this stage same factor might alter consumers decisions. Post Purchase behavior: Consumers buying decision process does not end with the purchase of the product or service it engages itself in post-purchase process. This determines whether the buyer is satisfied with product or service bought or not. If satisfied then good word mouth will happen and vice versa. Consumers satisfaction, dissatisfaction or delightedness depends upon buyer expectations and the product or service quality perceived performance. P-2: Identify approaches and theories of buyer behavior in terms of individuals and markets The basic purpose of marketing is to affect how customers think about the organization and about its products. To affect whats, whens, and hows of the buying behavior, marketing managers should first understand the whys. Buying behavior is very hard to understand yet it is extremely important task that marketer need to perform. If a marketer can identify buying behavior of its target audience, he or she will be in a better position to target products and services at them. Buyer behavior is focused upon the needs of individuals, groups and organizations. Talking about buyer fundamentally there are two types of buyers recognized the first is the Ultimate consumers and the second one is business buyers (in this outcome markets refers to business buyers). Ultimate Consumers: Those individuals and households who buy good and services for personal consumption. Business buyer: Those firms that buy goods and services for the use in the production of their products and services or for the purpose of reselling and renting them to others at a profit. Approaches used to alter target audience buying behavior Model for Consumer behavior For companies the buying decision is the most crucial element for their entire organization. The most prominent question in the regard is that: how do consumers respond to different marketing activities that a firm might use? The first step in finding the solution to this important question can be stimulus response model of consumer buying behavior. This model suggests that marketing efforts and other stimuli enter the consumers â€Å"black box† and produce certain responses. Marketers must understand what is their in that black box. Marketing stimuli consists of four Ps and includes other major environmental forces and actors like economic, technological etc. All these inputs go in the black box, where these efforts are converted into various responses like product choice, dealer choice, purchase timing etc. The important thing that marketers need to figure out is that what is there in black box. It has twp parts first buyers characteristics influence how he or she perceives and reacts to the stimuli. Secondly the buyers decision itself affects the buyer behavior. (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Model for business buyers This model helps the marketers to understand that how business buyers will respond to various marketing stimuli. The marketing and the other stimuli which are carved in order to affect buyer behavior are similar to the consumer model. How ever the expected responses are little bit different which include Product or service choice, supplier choice, order quantity etc. the biggest difference between consumer and business model is the difference between the factors and people which alter and perform buying process. With in the organization purchasing those goods consists two major parts: the buying center i.e. the people who make the ultimate decision and buying process. This approach suggests four questions about business buyer behavior. What buying decisions do business buyers make? Who participates in the buying process? What are the major factors that influence buying process? How does an organization make its buying decision? (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Types of individual and business buying behavior situation Types of individual buying behavior situations Complex buying behavior: in this type of buying the situation the consumer is highly involved in the purchase process and there is a clear perceived different among various brands. For example if someone intends to buy an insurance policy in this case he is highly involved in the process along with having significant information about various companies. Dissonance- reducing buying behavior: when the consumer is highly involved in the purchase process but he knew very little about companies offering that particular good i.e. he cannot differentiate brands for example in Pakistan if someone intend to buy a dry cleaner in this case he or she may deeply involve in the buying but having very less information about the brands. Habitual buying behavior: this type of buying process incurs when there is low involvement of consumer and the buyer has few significant perceived differences about brands. Variety seeking buyer behavior: It occurs under the condition of low consumer involvement in the purchasing process but having significant knowledge about different brand. For example buying a cold drink. Types of Business buying behavior situations Straight re-buy: an organization buying things in a routine order without any modification. For example if a car company buys tires on routine basis without any medication. Modified re-buy: in this buying situation the buyer reorders something but along with instructions of some modification. For example if Car Company reorders tires but with some modifications lets say with good quality rubber. New-Task: when a business buys any product or service for the first time this type of buying situation is called new task. For example if a Car company diversify and buy machine for tire manufacturing. System selling: Purchasing a packaged solution to some problem for single seller as a result ignoring all the separate decision involved in a complex buying situation. This is often a key marketing strategy for availing and retaining business accounts. (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Theories regarding individual and business buying behavior Maslows theory of Motivation Abraham Maslows through his famous theory explained that how human beings are motivated by particular needs at particular times. He argued that all behaviors start with a need: physical needs social acceptances are examples of needs. Why does a person spend so much of money and time on personal security and on gaining social status? His answer to this is that human needs are arranged in hierarchy from the most compelling one in the start and the least compelling one at the end. These needs include physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. An individual tires to attain such means through the most pressing (physiological needs) needs can be satisfied once one levels needs are sufficiently enough satisfied then an individual will endeavor to satisfy the next levels needs like for example any body physical and security needs should be satisfied sufficient enough in order to get telecom services as this services can be related to belongings level because many people buy this service in order to communicate. (Maslow, Blogger, 1954) Freud was psychologist he believed that people are largely unaware about the actual psychological forces shaping their behavior. He observed that people while growing up keep inside many urges which are never eliminated or under full control: they are expressed in dreams, slips of tongue etc, or some times in psychoses. His theory suggested that human beings buying decisions are influenced by subconscious motives that the purchaser may not fully understand. For example if any person buys a Mercedes might say that I have bought it because its very comfortable and make status statement. At a deeper level the actual reason might be to eliminate the feel of inferiority. (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) P-3: Explain the factors that affect buyer behavior As explained earlier that there are two types of buyer who are the ultimate consumer and second one is business buyer here factors that influence there buying behavior is explained separately for both. Factors that affect final consumers buying behavior Consumer behavior is deeply affected by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics these factors at most of the time are uncontrollable. These factors are explained in detail which is as follows: Cultural factors Culture: Culture is basic reason behind any person wants and behavior. Human beings behavior is mostly learned. As time passes our culture is becoming more materialistic which implies that people will buy more electronic and other technological goods so changing culture is a bit difficult for those firms which are not advanced technologically. Subculture: Each culture has smaller subcultures. It is basically a group of people who have same value system based on ordinary life experience and conditions. Social class: Social classes are a society‘s permanent and arranged sections whose members beliefs in common values, interests and ways of doing things. It is not determined by keeping on element in mind like income rather factors like occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables are kept in mind. Social factors Groups: A persons way of doing things is also altered by the group to which he belongs. Group can affect firms target audience in some way or other. Reference group: Reference group for a person is that group to which he admires. It serve wither in straight (face to face) or indirect point of judgment or reference in forming a persons attitude or behavior. People most of times are influenced by reference group to which they do not belong. Family: It is the most significant consumer buying unit in a society and it has been researched widely. Marketing managers must pay a great deal of attention to the roles of consumers which deeply influence the purchase decision while buying products or services to themselves. Roles and status: A person at the same time belongs to different groups- family, organization, clubs, etc. A role consists of actions that one is suppose to execute according to environment around him or her. Very role contain a status representing the general esteem given to it by society. Personal factors Age and life cycle stage: Choices of food, clothes, etc are often age related. People change their buying habits with changes in their age. Purchasing is also influenced by the stage of the family life cycle- the stages through which families might. Occupation: An individual occupation influence the choice of goods and services bought. Economic situation: A persons buying pattern is affected by economic situation in a very significant manner. For example economy of Pakistan is in a worst shape so people will have less money to spend which they will buy products or services too so this factor is really important for firms. Life styles: life style is a person way of living presented in this or her psychographics. Individuals which belong to same culture, subculture, social class and occupation may have different life style. Life style portrays something more than on persons social class or personality. Personality and self concept: Personality means the distinct psychological attributes that lead to comparatively consistent and lasting responses to ones own world. Each person distinct personality put and effect on his or her buying pattern. It is usually described in term traits like self confidence, autonomy, adaptability and aggressiveness. Many marketers utilize a notion related to personality i.e. â€Å"self concept†. The idea which self concept convey is that people possessions contribute to and reflect their identities; that is we are what we have. Hence to understand your target audience psyche first you must understand the relationship between self concept and possessions. Psychological factors Motivation: Human beings at the same time have many needs. Some are biological such as hunger, thirst or discomfort others are physiological, arising from the need of recognition, esteem, or belonging. A need transformed into a motive when its deficiency is experienced up to an intense level thus compelling a person to satisfy it. Two famous theory regarding motivation were proposed by Sigmund friend and Abraham Maslow. Perception: It is the procedure by which human being select, organize, and interpret information to form meaningful picture of the world. If for example people perceive a firm as a good company so more and more people will buy its products or services as its existing customers will suggest it to others. Learning: When people take action they learn. Learning is basically changes in the individuals behavior as a consequence of experience. It incurs when on interacts with stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement. When one buy firms products or services and or respond to its advertisements and if he/she found the sayings of firm correct so consumers will learn about its products and services in a positive manner and vice versa. Beliefs and attitude: A belief is an expressive thought that a person has about something. It may be based upon real knowledge, opinion, or faith and it also may or may not have an emotional factor. It is of great importance to any firm marketers because it shapes its brand image that alters purchasing decision. Attitudes are comparatively consistent evaluations, feeling, and tendencies toward object or idea. It structures people liking and disliking patterns. Changing someone attitudes is a very hard task to perform. P-4: Evaluate the relationship between brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchase Before explaining the relationship between these three elements first its definition one should understand its definitions. Brand loyalty: brands that consumer generally buy from the same manufacturer repeatedly over time rather that buying it from multiple suppliers within the category. It also refers to the degree to which consumers consistently purchase the same brand within the product class. (12manage) Corporate image: The perceptions and impressions of an organization by the public as a result of interaction with the organization and the way the organization presents itself. Organizations have traditionally focused on the design of communication and advertising materials, using logos, symbols, text, and color to create a favorable impression on target groups, but a variety of additional activities contribute to a positive corporate image these include PR programs. (CBS Interactive Business Network) Positioning (the way the consumer perceive you or in simple words corporate image) of a company is affected by Performance of an organization Features of products or services Shape of firms offering Distribution channel used Location of a company offices and outlets Countries of origin i.e. the country where organizations headquarter are located. For example France is famous for perfumes so some company office is there so it is obvious that people will perceive it in a positive manner. This factor has been discussed deeply by famous Harvard professor Michael E Porter in his book â€Å"Competitive Advantage of Nations†. A company that mismanages or ignores its image is likely to encounter a variety of problems. Reputation problems grow like weed in a garden, Davis Young wrote in his book â€Å"Building Your Companys Good Name. Four types of positioning error can occur Under positioning: in this condition firm is not able to portray full benefits of its offerings. Over Positioning: in such status quo company narrow its image in the mind of consumers. Confused Positioning: consumers are confused that what does this company really offers and to whom. Doubtful Positioning: in this situation buyers are skeptical that whether whatever the company is saying is true or not. Repeat purchase: This term is referred to the notion when customer buys the same brand purchased by him on the previous occasion; also called repurchase. Brand loyalty can be calculated by a pattern of repeat purchases. For retaining (repeat purchasing) so that consumers buy your product again and again the business should produce better product then their competitors. P-5: Review and evaluate different type of market research techniques? Marketing research is a systematic design of collection, analysis and reporting of data in order to improve management decision by providing relevant, accurate, and timely (RAT) information. (Aaker, Kumar and Day, 2005 p.no.1) Marketing researchers employ different kinds of research techniques in order to meet their research objective. The following are different kinds of marketing research techniques which are discussed and evaluated in detail below: Qualitative marketing research techniques Observational marketing research technique Different surveys techniques (Quantitative methods) Experimentation Qualitative marketing research techniques: These methods are less structures and more flexible. Data gathered from these kind of marketing research techniques is very rich and deep because of the longer and flexible relationship with the respondents which implies more chances of new insights and perspectives. There are three main areas where these techniques can be employed. Exploratory: defining the problem, suggesting hypothesis etc. Orientation: learning more about consumer real motives; the way the think. Clinical: having and insight in to such issues that otherwise is might not be possible to know with structured research methods. So for the following qualitative marketing research techniques have been identified and employed by researchers. Individual in-depth interviews Focus group session Projective techniques Individual in-depth interviews: These types of interviews are employed by having a face to face contact with the respondents in which an issue is discussed in great details. There are two basic types of individual in depth interviews which are nondirective and semi structured. In nondirective interviews the interviewee is given full freedom to respond within the limits of issue under discussion, such sessions are one to two hour long. In semi structured interviews the researcher attempt to explore only those area which are on his list. The time and exact wording are pre decided for each question to be discussed. Advantages Studies can be conducted in remote area through telephone in depth interview. Data gathered is rich and deep because of the time consumed. Focus on research issue. More value: it helps the researcher to find unconscious motivational factors. Semi structured interviews are very flexible to interview busy executive because time and wording is pre decided. Disadvantages Time consuming because most of time these sessions are conducted for 1 to 2 hours. Difficulty regarding record keeping most of people especially executives dont like tape recorders. As very few people are considered for the research so it means a poor representative of the whole population This type of techniques requires very skilled researcher which might become a problem in some situations. Focus group sessions: It is the process of attaining possible idea or solutions to a marketing issue from a group of people by discussing it. The basic elements which makes a focus group session successful or flop is group interaction on a chain of topics introduced by a moderator. The group included consists of five to nine members who are encouraged to express their opinion on the issue, and to further explain or react with the views of other respondents. The main aim is similar to unstructured interview but the moderator plays a more inactive role in the discussion. Advantages It provides more encouragement than an in depth interview which results in new perspectives. People speak out in these sessions because of a sense of security by being in a crowd (group behavior). More depth: as it names explains that these session are focused on one issue which means more value and deepness in the data. Sparking: some time one person views sparks a new idea in another respondents mind which is unlikely to happen in depth interviews. Disadvantages Time consuming: as these sessions are conducted for 2 to 3 hours. Again the respondents selected might not a better representation of the population. Poorly conducted session leads towards wrong results which mean waste of time and money Its cost is very high. Analysis and interpretation of the data collected is very complex because of dispersion in the respondents opinions. Projective techniques: This technique is employed by presenting an ambiguous, unstructured object, activity, or person that a respondent is asked to explain. Respondents involvement is directly proportional to level of ambiguity which will result in hidden motives and feeling. This technique become a part of whole research design when it is expected that a populations sample will not or cannot respond expressively to a direct questions about the reason for certain behavior and about the motives behind buying certain products. It has different kinds for example word association, picture interpretation, case studies etc. Advantages It is used by researchers where other techniques cannot be used to obtain the research objective i.e. it helps to identify hidden consumer motives. By using this technique a marketer can identify opportunities for really new functions in any product category. The word association technique has been very useful for obtaining responses to potential brand names. Strong control on research information as it is a simulation test so it wholly depends upon the researcher that where he want to take the research. Disadvantages Very difficult to employ because of its complexities and skill requirement for the researcher. It might be very hard find the right persons for these tests. It might not be possible to employ this research method in some parts of the world because of the technology requirement for these tests. Idea taken from (Aaker, Kumar and Day, marketing research, 2005) Observational marketing research technique: Observational research or field research is research technique that involves the direct observation of people in their natural setting. There are many types of observational methods which have been identified and implemented by researchers. These methods have yielded very good results. Some organization believe very much in observational methods for example Swedish home appliances maker Electrolux. These techniques are widely used in retail store audits, shelf space audit etc. its different kinds are direct observation, contrived observation, Content analysis, Physical trace methods, etc. These methods are limited to providing information on current behavior. Due to this strong argument many researchers do not use these methods. However there are some strong reasons that why observational research should be used in overall research design. Some of the reasons are as follow; Causal observation is an important exploratory research technique. Organization managers constantly observe factors such as competitive prices and advertising activities the length of lines of buyer waiting to buy products of that particular company and read trade journal in order identify threats and opportunities. Systematic observation can be fruitful addition to other research methods. For example during a personal interview if a researcher observe the respondents race, his neighborhood, and other conditions under which he lives so it this data can supplement his analysis . It can be some time the most effect way to check the effectiveness of some activities. For example it can help a researcher to observe in store traffic pattern, check the effectiveness of in store advertising etc. Advantages It is probably the less expensive if compared with other research methods. The data achieved through this method is most accurate because the consumers is un-aware that he is been observed so every action is original. Some time the observation is the only method that can employed. This is the case with infant children they are not able to clearly identify their choices so observing them is the only choice. Physical trace method tough used very rarely is also sometimes the only option left. For example if someone want to measure the amount of Alcohol consumed in Peshawar so it can only measured by counting the bottles in carbides because officially Alcohol is not allowed for sale in Peshawar. Disadvantages Observational methods only observe current behavior they cannot observe human motives, attitudes, or indentations. It may be sometimes very costly and time consuming if there is a sample problems of the research is supposed to highly subjective. It cannot be used to study cognitive or affective variables. Idea taken from (Aaker, Kumar and Day, marketing research, 2005) Different surveys techniques (Quantitative methods): Following are the different kinds of survey techniques Personal interviewing Telephone interviewing Mail surveys Web surveys Personal interviewing: It is characterized by the interaction of the four elements the researchers, the interviewers, the interviewee and the interview environment. While a personal interview the interviewer interact with interviewee and at the same time affect on another in an interview environment. Door to door interviews, executives interviews, Mall intercept surveys; self- administrated questionnaires, etc are the types of this kind of techniques. Advantages Interest can created in the start through face to face interaction with respondents which will increase the participation rate. This mode of research can very useful when respondents are asked complex questions. This problem can be eliminated by showing him pictorial aids. It is the most feasible option when large amount of data is required and the questionnaires contain complex questions. This type of method has got more flexibility. Some questions can be skipped by the researcher in order to save time if needed. Disadvantages Personal interviews are time consuming. It cost a lot as it is administrated for large samples. Because of time and cost expenditures per person it cost more than mail or telephone surveys. Telephone interviewing: It is generally more like personal interviewing expect some elements are unique. Its process includes selecting the telephone numbers, the call outcomes, the introduction, when to call and call reports. This is gradually becoming the widespread method for obtaining information from large sample. Advantages It has got more operational flexibility as it can administrated from central place in appropriate hours or from the examiner home. It less time consuming as more interviews can be conducted in less time. Time can be better utilized for example if the survey is based on teenagers so one can call on that time on which they are expected to be at home. It is more efficient than other metho

Review of Research Paper on RNA in Mammalian Cells -- Biology

Review of Research Paper: Duplexes of 21-nucleotide RNAs mediate RNA interference in cultured mammalian cells Overview The significance of this experiment is that it shows how siRNA suppresses the expression of genes in different mammalian cells. It was known previous to the experiment that dsRNA can trigger apoptosis in cells- this is an automatic defense mechanism that mammalian cells use to protect against the dsRNA possessed by viruses. The dsRNA can cause RNA interference when it is taken into the cell by a transgene or a virus. The dsRNA is then cleaved by ribonuclease III enzyme into 21-22 nucleotide siRNA's. The siRNA's joins a nuclease complex to form an RNA-induced silencing complex. This complex then cleaves and degrades mRNA. The question was, could transfecting the cell directly with siRNA produce RNA interference? This experiment was performed to test whether siRNA's are capable of RNAi in mammalian cell cultures. (The idea to test gene silencing on mammalian cells sparked from a petunia-darkening experiment.) To do this they synthesized siRNA duplexes against genes that coded for sea pansies and two variants of firefly luciferases. Luciferase is used because it emits light so it's easy to see if the genes are turned on or off, and by what degree. The luciferase activities were recorded 20 hours after transfection and it was seen that the specific inhibition of luciferase was complete, which is similar to the results obtained for dsRNA. In mammalian cells where the reporter genes were more strongly expressed, the ability of the siRNA to completely suppress the gene was reduced. Background Information So, what's with all these petunia flowers anyways? Gene Suppression Within Plants Plant scientists ... ...nderstanding of the significance of genes. Primarily, by silencing a given gene of the genome using a transfected siRNA, geneticists can quantifiably study the properties of the gene and the allele it encodes. This knowledge can then be applied to the pharmaceutical industry to identify "druggable" gene targets. Plants RNAi can be used for multiple purposes in plants. Among the most notable, it can be used to control insect viral vectors and improve the tolerance to pests and stress so that crops do not need to be destroyed regularly by insecticides. It can also cure plants by potentially eliminating toxins and allergens. Finally, RNAi employment can create perfection by extending flowering and fruit setting periods. References Duplexes of 21-nucleotide RNAs mediate RNA interference in cultured mammalian cells published in Nature (Vol. 411, 24 May 2001).

How to Get Completely Lost :: Essays Papers

How to Get Completely Lost The ability to get yourself lost may seem like a rather simple task. You may think this is as easy to do as just throwing the road map out the car door window and simply taking whatever road seems most appealing at the present moment. But to really truly get yourself completely lost to the point that you could end up one thousand miles or more from your originally planned destination while thinking you were going in the correct direction in the first place is an extremely difficult event all in itself. If you are interested at all in learning how to become completely lost while traveling, then please follow the succeeding steps. The first step you would want to take in order to get completely lost is to lose all your common sense. You would have to be the type of person who is so dull in the area of rational thinking that even if the correct directions were to be lit up like a sign on the Las Vegas strip, you would not have enough deductive reasoning skill to think that these might be the correct directions. If the thought of becoming completely lost has made you interested after reading the first step, then the second step should leave you even more enthusiastic than the first. The second step in the process of getting yourself completely lost would require you to need not have a care in the world. In other words, if the world were to burst into a fiery mass of molten flames and death for the entire human race was unavoidable; you would most likely look away from the situation. Instead of panicking or worrying about loved ones or precious possessions, you would just simply pass it off as if it were just another daily occurance. With this care-free attitude, you would then continue with your daily life doing whatever had preoccupied you before being so rudely interrupted with the events of the world erupting into a giant torch. If you are still interested in the thought of becoming completely lost after reading the first and second steps, then the third step in the process will sell you on the idea of becoming completely lost. The third step in becoming completely lost

“Ethics in Policing” Essay

In The Ethics of Policing, John Kleinig presents a broad discussion of the ethical issues that overwhelmed existing police organization and individual police officers. This debate is set surrounded by others that bring in the reader to basic approaches at present in support among moral philosophers (social contract, neo-Kantian and utilitarian–though thought of the recent efforts to widen virtue-oriented ethical theories is regrettably absent) and to many of the significant questions posed in the swiftly growing subfield of practiced ethics (such as whether professional ethics are constant with or in clash with so-called â€Å"ordinary† ethics). The discussions are consistently even-handed, broad and extraordinarily rich in detail. Kleinig sets out typologies of the kinds of force used by the police as well as variety of dishonesty in which they occasionally engage range of distort exercise, alternative actions for holding police responsible, and the like. He offers wide-ranging debate of the role and history of police codes of ethics, the changes made on the personal lives of police, and the challenges to police management facade by unionization and confirmatory action. In short, this book is much more than a directory of police ethical issues with reference for their solution–it is that, of course, but it is also an beginning to professional ethics in general, a articulate staging of important existing moral theories, a outline of the key legal decisions affecting police work, and a rich representation, both understanding and essential of the police officer’s world. Kleinig concentrates on his topic with a large idea of ethics, one that runs from meticulous problems (such as police judgment and use of force), through common problems (such as the ethics of misleading tactics and the nature of dishonesty), to deliberation of the effects of police work on police officers’ moral fiber (such as the regrettable inclination of police to distrust and hostility), all the way to organizational difficulty (such as those about the arrangement of answerability and the status of whistleblowers). Right through his rich and caring conversation, it seems as if the difficulty of ethical policing is just that of how the police can morally carry out the job they are assigning and putting into effect the laws they are furnished to implement. Kleinig considers that many of the ethical problems facing the police have their cause in (or are at least supported and assisted by) the trend of police to appreciate their own role as that of law enforcers or â€Å"crime-fighters. † This promotes over trust on the use of force, predominantly lethal force and enhances police officers’ sense of hostility from the society they are sworn to serve. Furthermore, this self-image makes police doubtful of, hostile to, and commonly unhelpful with police administrations inspired programs such as â€Å"community policing†Ã¢â‚¬â€œthat aim to redesign the police into a more comprehensible organization. Amusingly, the police self-image as â€Å"crime-fighters† continue in the face of practical studies showing that law enforcement per se, the engaging and catching of criminals, takes up only a small number of police officers’ work time. Much more time is in fact spent by the police doing things like crowd and traffic organizing, dispute resolution, dealing with medical tragedies, and the like. Consider Kleinig’s argument of police dishonesty. Kleinig takes up Lawrence Sherman’s view that allowing police to agree to a free cup of coffee at a diner starts the officer on a slippery slope toward more serious graft because, deliberating he has accepted a free cup of coffee makes it difficult for the officer to stand firm when a bartender who is in action after legal closing hours presents him a drink–and this in turn will make it harder to resist yet more serious attempts to bribe the officer to not enforce the law. Sherman then suggests that the only way to fight corruption is to get rid of the kinds of laws, first and foremost vice laws that provide the strongest lure to corruption of both police and criminals. In opposition to Sherman’s view, Kleinig believe sthat of Michael Feldberg, who argue that police can and do differentiates between minor gratuities and bribes. Kleinig consent. Kleinig takes corruption to be a topic of its motive (to misrepresent the carrying out of justice for personal or organizational gains) relatively than of particular manners. This is a nice difference that allows Kleinig to detach corrupt practices from other ethically problematic practices, such as taking gratuities–of which the free cup of coffee is an example. Quoting Feldberg, Kleinig writes that â€Å"what makes a gift a gratuity is the reason it is given; what makes it corruption is the reason it is taken† (Kleining, 1996, 178). Gratuities are given with the hope that they will encourage the police to frequent the organization that give them, and certainly, the police will often stop at the diner that gives them a free cup of coffee. Thus, Kleinig follows Feldberg in philosophy that recieving coffee is wrong because it will tend to draw police into the coffee-offering business and thus upset the democratic value of even-handed distribution of police protection. Kleinig takes up the question of entrapment by first allowing for the so-called subjective and objective advances to determining when it has occurred. On the subjective approach, entrapment has happened if the government has rooted the intention to commit the crime in the defendant’s mind. So implicit, the defence of entrapment is overcome if the government can show that the defendant already had (at least) the outlook to perform the type of crime of which he is now blamed. On the objective approach, anything the intention or disposition of the real defendant, entrapment has arised if the government’s contribution is of such a character that it would have made a usually law-abiding person to commit a crime. Kleinig condemns the subjective approach by indicating that the behaviour of a government cause that constitutes entrapment would not do so if it had been done by a classified citizen. Thus, the subjective approach fails to clarify why entrapment only relay to actions performed by government means. For this grounds, some turn to the objective approach with its stress on improper government action. However, as Kleinig skilfully shows, this approach experience from the problem of spelling out what the government must do to, so to converse, â€Å"create† a crime. It cannot be that the government agent was the sine qua non of the crime since that would rule out lawful police does not entice operations; nor can it be that the government agent simply made the crime easier since that would rule out even undisruptive acts of providing public information. The objective approach seems based on no more than essentially controversial intuitive judgments about when police action is excessive or objectionable. The reason is that this account is susceptible to the same opposition that Kleinig raised in opposition to the subjective approach–it fails to explain why entrapment only relates to actions carried out by a government agent. Certainly, the problem goes deeper because Kleinig’s account supposes that government action has a particular status. As Kleinig point to, the same actions done by a private citizen would not comprise entrapment. It follows that actions done by a government agent can dirty the evidentiary picture, while the same actions done by a private citizen would not. But, then, we still need to know why entrapment refers only to actions carried out by government agents. To answer this, Kleinig must give more power to the objectivist approach than he does. When it does more s Kleinig notes but fails to integrate into his account–the government â€Å"becomes a tester of virtue rather than a detector of crime† (Kleining, 1996, 161). Indeed, much practical crime fighting is wrong because it does not so much fight crimes as it fights criminals, taking them as if they were an unseen enemy who need to be drawn out into the unwrap and take steps. As with corruption, it seems to me that Kleinig has measured entrapment with active criminal justice practice taken as given and thus, by default, as not posing a confront to ethical policing. Kleinig suggests that as an alternative of law enforcers or crime-fighters, police ought to be consider and think of themselves–as â€Å"social peacekeepers,† only part of whose task is to put into effect the law, but whose larger task is to remove the obstruction to the even and pacific flow of social life. (Kleining, 1996, 27ff) Kleinig’s disagreement for significant the police role as social peacekeeping has three parts. The first part is the gratitude that, while social agreement theories lead to the idea of the police as just law enforcers, the information is that we have (as I have already noted) always likely the police to play a larger role, taking care of a large diversity of the barrier to quiet social life. The second part of the quarrel is that the idea of the police as peacekeepers, in totaling to equivalent to what police essentially do, reverberates adequately with practice, in exacting with the idea of the â€Å"king’s peace,† the organization of which might be thought of as the predecessor of modem criminal justice tradition. Kleinig thinks will flow from this preconceiving of the police role: a less confused, more helpful and pacifying relationship between the police and the society; a compact dependence on the use of force, particularly lethal force, to the point that force is sighted as only a last alternative among the many possessions accessible to the police for eliminating obstacles to social peace. The very fact that police are armed (and dressed in military-style uniforms) for law enforcement makes it just about overwhelming that they will be used for crowd and traffic control. Subsequently, if a small group of persons is to keep a large, volatile and potentially dodgy group in line, it will surely help if the small group is armed and in distinguishing dress. As for the other jobs allocated to the police, it must be distinguished that these jobs are not generally executed by the police for the community as a whole. Middle class and wealthier folks do not turn to the police for dispute resolution or help in medical emergencies. Ignored in this way, the poor call on the police when there is problem and reasonably so. The police are at all times there, they make house calls, and they do not charge. Practices that outcome from our negligent treatment of the poor should scarcely be lifted to normative position in the way that Kleinig in cause does by speaking of what â€Å"we† have allocated to the police. Only some have had the authority to assign the police these additional jobs, and even those influential few seem more to have deserted the jobs on the police than considerately to have assigned them. Most significantly, however, distinguishing the police as peacekeepers has the trend to cover over what is still the most important truth about the police, the very thing that calls for extraordinary good reason and for particular answerability, namely, that the police have the ability to order us around and to use aggression to back those orders up. For example, when Kleinig takes up the police arguments that they should be treated like proficiently and thus standardize themselves, Kleinig objects only on the position that â€Å"It is uncertain whether police can lay claim to such focused knowledge† not available to lay persons as renowned professions, such as medicine and law’ do. (Kleining, 1996, 40) Similarly, in explanation why police may correctly be focused to civilian review boards, Kleinig says that â€Å"the police provide a society service at a cost to the society† and thus ought to be answerable to the public they serve. (Kleining, 1996, 227) The police are precisely subject to remote review to a level that the local authority company is not, and the grounds are the particular authority and authority the police have and the suitably tense relation involving that power, essential as it is, and the free public it both defend and threatens. Conceivably, after all, the cops are right in opinion of themselves as law enforcers and crime fighters. Reading John Kleinig’s book is an extremely good way for anyone to learn just how uncomfortable that situation is. References Kleining, John (1996) The Ethics of Policing, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

What Is Hypnosis

What Is Hypnosis? Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis and discuss the role of relaxation in Hypnotherapy. Before we can begin to discuss anything about hypnotherapy, it is important to discuss what hypnosis actually is. This essay aims to arrive at a definition of hypnosis by describing the psychological and physical aspects and looking at it use by hypnotherapists and the role of relaxation within this. The history of hypnosis dates back to the times of ancient Egypt and it has been quite a contentious history.From Mesmer to de Puysegur in the 1700’s; from the first use of the term hypnosis by Braid in 1840 to it’s use as an anaesthetic in surgery by Esdaile and Elliotson; from the work of Erikson (widely regarded to be the grandfather of modern hypnosis) to the present day, the debate continues and theorists are divided as to the true nature of hypnosis. These differences of opinion stem from difficulties in actually measuring hypnosis. Hypnosi s is a subjective experience and, as such, no two individuals who undergo the process will have exactly the same experience.Often requiring the use of psychological measures, it is, therefore, more difficult to measure reliably in comparison to physiological matters such as heart rate and blood pressure; although, technological advances in the use of EEG’s (electroencephalograms) and neuroimaging have been very useful. Hence, the nature of hypnosis has long been the subject of contentious debate between those who seek scientific experimental explanations of its various psychological and physical aspects and those hypnotherapists who seek to use it as a tool with which to help people.Even today, theorists are divided into two camps: State theorists who believe that the practice of hypnosis brings about an altered state of consciousness and non-state theorists who believe that the hypnotic state or trance is little different from everyday relaxation and that its effects are mer ely reactions to suggestions which would have occurred without the use of hypnotic induction, e. g. Spanos (1982). However, for the purpose of this essay, I will assume that the state theorists are correct and assert that hypnosis is an altered state of mind which occurs through the use of a set of techniques by the hypnotist.It can enhance a person’s concentration and responsiveness to suggestion in order to enable them to make desired and beneficial changes to their behaviours, feelings, thoughts and physiological state, thereby enhancing their lives. There are a number of complex psychological aspects involved in hypnosis. In 1951, Solomon Asch carried out a study of conformity whereby subjects were told that they were taking part in a study of visual perception with 6 other people. In fact, only one person in each group was the true subject of Asch’s experiment as the other 6 were aware of the true nature of the study.Each participant in turn (the subject being las t) was asked to say which line from a set of three was the same length as the line on the target card. The answers were obvious, but on hearing all the other participants give incorrect answers, in one out of three trials they gave the same incorrect answers. In the control group where the subjects were asked to write their answers in private, incorrect responses were rare. This experiment has been difficult to replicate more recently as modern culture has changed the way that people conform.The work of Milgram in 1963 showed that ordinary people (65% of subjects) were willing to follow the instructions of an authority figure even if this involved apparently causing harm to others i. e, punishing them with a shock of 450 volts for answering a question incorrectly. Such studies show that, as people, we tend to be more comfortable when we fit in, conform, or comply with the instructions of those in authority. As clients would generally be considered to have some level of rapport with their hypnotist it is reasonable to assume that some responses to suggestion could be explained in these terms.For example, if a hypnotist suggests that a clients arm feels so light that it may float into the air, the client may raise their arm because they feel that this is what is expected and they would feel uncomfortable if they did not conform with the perceived expectation of the hypnotist. It is important to understand this innate need to conform, which we all have, in terms of the people with whom we will work and always endeavour to treat people with respect and professionalism. There is also a possibility that some aspect of role-play may be involved on the part of the client i. , they may behave in a way that they believe a hypnotised person should behave. The concept of attribution may also have a part to play; i. e. does the subject attribute the experience they have had to having being hypnotised or do they attribute their experience to having been deeply relaxed and e ngrossed in their internal image? Other psychological aspects involved in hypnosis are the use of selective attention whereby the subject concentrates on a limited range of usually internal stimuli such as feelings and imagery and imagination here the subject is often instructed by the hypnotist to imagine a scene. The above section describes the psychological aspects of hypnosis, so what are the physical aspects? As mentioned above, the use of electroencephalogram’s (EEG) and neuroimaging with hypnotised subjects have been able to identify differences in brain functioning in hypnotised people. Askerinsky & Kleitman (1953) were able to show that hypnotised subjects were not in fact asleep as some early theories had suggested. Different levels of consciousness produce different levels of electrical activity within the brain.Beta Waves occur at a rate of 15 to 40 cycles per second and are present when our minds are engaged and focussed, perhaps in conversation or learning a new task. Alpha waves occur at a rate of 9 to 14 cycles per second and are present when we are engaged in some relaxed, creative or problem solving task and are accompanied by feelings of well-being. Alpha waves are not present when we are experiencing anger fear, high arousal levels or when we are in deep sleep but are present during light trance/hypnotic state.During this state, relaxation of the body may occur; breathing and pulse rate slow and an individual may appear to be day-dreaming as they direct their attention towards their imagination. Theta Waves occur at a rate of 4 to 8 cycles per second and are associated with our subconscious mind where our past experiences and memories are held. Freud was the first theorist to propose the presence of the unconscious mind. This is the area of our minds which deals with non-voluntary bodily functions, thus freeing up the rest of our minds for things which we actively need to think about.Theta waves may be present when we are day dreamin g, carrying out automatic well learned tasks such as driving and when we dream. They are associated with calmness and feelings of serenity and are present in medium and deep hypnotic states. During moderate and deep hypnotic states a person may lose awareness of their surroundings but gain an increased awareness of their internal functions (breathing/heart rate). Imagery becomes more intense and suggestions may be interpreted literally. Limbs may feel limp or stiff; attention narrows further and there may be loss of environmental awareness.Delta Waves occur at a rate of 1 to 4 cycles per second. These are the slowest waves which are present when are in our deepest state of rest when no other waves are present. When these waves are present we are in a state of sleep and possibly very deep hypnosis such as the Esdaile State used by the surgeon of the same name in order to anaesthetise patients for surgery. In addition other physical aspects of hypnosis include, feeling warm or cold an d tingling of the extremities. Subjects often feel sleepy and close their eyes and there can be a reduction in response to noise.Some people experience feeling strange or detached and dissociated from their body or surroundings and feelings of floating are common. These feelings vary from person to person and are dependent upon an individuals’ psychological predisposition and responses as described above. No two people will have exactly the same response to hypnosis and each experience is subjective. As we go through the different levels of consciousness our brain wave activity changes in a smoothly organised manner. For example, when relaxing into sleep we go from Beta to Alpha, to Theta and finally Delta waves predominate.The reverse happens as we awake. The waves which predominate during hypnosis are Alpha and Theta and it is these waves which provide a route to our subconscious. Relaxation has an important role to play in Hypnotherapy. Jacobson (1929) was the first to not e the helpfulness of consciously relaxing muscles to enable them to maintain a relaxed state and improve the health and wellbeing of his patients. Most hypnotic screeds include suggestions of relaxation which help the subject to physically relax to the degree that Alpha and Theta brain waves are produced.Suppressed memories may be brought to the surface when Theta waves are present and although this may be painful, it offers the client the opportunity to discuss and address any such issues with their hypnotherapist if they choose to do so. Such therapy can be helpful and aid healing if carried out with sensitivity. As a cautionary note, Mingay (1988) suggests that dissociated memories accessed under hypnosis may be at risk of contamination by fantasy or leading questions on the part of the hypnotherapist.Along with this deep, relaxation comes an increase in suggestibility, i. e. we tend to respond to suggestions made by the hypnotherapist more readily than we would generally. Heap ( 1996) argues that suggestion and trance are crucial to any definition of hypnosis. Whilst in a deeply relaxed hypnotic state, the Hypnotherapist is able to make suggestions which can help the subject to change their behaviours, feelings or thought patterns in a beneficial way. For example, if a client wishes to stop smoking, the hypnotherapist might suggest that they now choose to be a non-smoker.In fact, there are a number of ways in which a Hypnotherapist can utilise suggestion whilst a client is in a relaxed hypnotic state in order to produce beneficial effects. It can be used to produce anaesthesia in the body – the use of hypnosis for surgery has been mentioned above but there is ample evidence that hypnotic suggestion can influence physiological responses governed by the autonomic nervous system. Grabowska (1971) found that subjects were able to alter the blood flow in their forearms via hypnotic suggestion and Olness et el (1989) found that children were able to alter their concentrations of salivary immunoglobulin A.The use of Progressive Muscle Relaxation during hypnotic induction not only enables subjects to enter a hypnotic trance state and more readily accept beneficial suggestions but repeated use of PMR during Hypnotherapy can enable clients to be able to relax more readily in general and in situations where they may ordinarily become very stressed. Suggestions can be given which allow people to relax when needed as long as it is safe to do so and such techniques can be used to reduce general anxiety and stress, help improve sleep patterns and reduce phobic fear reactions to such things as public speaking and flying.In conclusion, hypnosis is not of itself a therapy. It is a state of mind which can be induced and its use in hypnotherapy can be described as a complex psychological interaction between the hypnotherapist and their client(s) during which the hypnotherapist uses the hypnotic screed, which often includes an element of PMR, to en able the client to relax encouraging the presence of Alpha and Theta brain waves and access to the subconscious.In this state, the clients’ concentration and responsiveness to suggestions made by the hypnotherapist increases, thereby enabling them to make desired, beneficial changes to their behaviours, feelings and thoughts and thus, enhancing their lives. References: Hadley, J. & Staudacher, C. 1996, Hypnosis for Change; 3rd edn; Canada, New Harbinger publications Heap, M. , & Dryden, W. , 1991, Hypnotherapy: A Handbook, OU Press What is hypnosis? The earliest known description of hypnosis dates back more than 6000 years ago to rites performed in Egyptian sleep temples. The Indus Vedas knowledge sacred book written around 1500 BC, mentions the use of hypnotic techniques and procedures in detail yet in 2012 we still find it difficult to answer the question â€Å"what is hypnosis?†. ‘All sciences alike have descended from magic and superstition, but none have been so slow as hypnosis in shaking off the association of its origin'. (Clark Hull, Hypnosis and suggestibility, 1984). The grandfather of hypnosism is regarded to be Franz Anton Mesmer who achieved some very amazing cures. He was, however, prone to be a bit theatrical wearing long flowing robes and brandishing a wand to complete his wizard image. Treatments and cures were conducted in large arenas with many onlookers. The film Svengali, although pure fiction did a lot to discredit hypnosis for many years by portraying hypnotists as evil predators and also inspired the emerging stage hypnotists. Even today stage hypnotists continue to discredit hypnotism making it hard to be taken seriously as an emerging science. It is my view that the use of hypnotism for entertainment should be completely banned. Abuse allegations where hypnotism has been said to be a contributing factor still regularly appear in our newspapers fueling the public perception that the only safe hypnosis is that which is performed in a public arena in front of millions of people for entertainment. My introduction would not be complete without mentioning the impact of the church. As a practicing Christian I find it difficult to understand how people practicing the same faith as me could believe that hypnotism could be believed to be evil. What i find more astounding is the fact that some people, educated people still think that today. ‘Whilst hypnosis and its use in hypnotherapy seem merely to be the input by the hypnotist of ideas into the subconscious of a subject in a heightened state of suggestibility, I would contend that this art of psychic manipulation is in fact of demonic origin. Though these roots of hypnosis are now obscured by an undergrowth of scientific jargon, it remains a dangerous activity to anyone involved.' (Dr A. D. Bambridge, Nucleus, 1987) There is no exact definition of what hypnosis is, mainly because no such definition can be agreed upon by all the experts. It has been described as ‘the deliberate inducement or facilitation by one person in another person or a number of people of a trance state. A trance state is one in which a person's usual means of orientating himself in reality have faded, so that the boundaries between the external world and the inner world of thoughts, feelings, memories and imagination begin to dissolve.' (Robin Waterfield, Hidden Depths, 2004). It has also been described as ‘a state of mental relaxation and restricted awareness in which the subjects are usually engrossed in their inner experiences such as feelings and imagery, are less analytical and logical in their thinking, and have an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestions in an automatic and dissociated manner.' (Windy Dryden, Hypnotherapy, a handbook, 1991). The clearest description being ‘a state of mind brought about by the use of a set of techniques. It enhances an individual's concentration and increases their responsiveness to suggestion in order to make the beneficial changes that the individual may wish to make in their thought patterns, their behaviour or their physiological state.' (Chrysalis, 2010) ‘It is probably more useful to describe hypnosis than attempt to define it. Features of the hypnotic state include the following: Acceptance of imaginary phenomena in place of sensory experience, and detachment from the sensorium; Suspension of reality testing, suspension of everyday cognitive logic and secondary-process thinking; Narrowing of attention (a sort of mental tunnel vision) to the content of the focus of the hypnotic exercise: suggested by the therapist or created by the subject's own imagination or memory; ‘splitting' of consciousness into separate channels that communicate in only one direction (i.e. The subject's normal consciousness, attitudes, reality testing and so on continue and are aware of the content of the hypnotised self, but the latter is unaware of the former); A rather regressed or developmentally immature frame of mind (closely akin to some transference phenomena in analysis or analytic therapy); Commitment to a substitute reality described by the therapist or the patient's own imagination and memory.' (Hellmut Karle and Jennifer Boys, Hypnotherapy a practical handbook, 1987) The mind still remains unmeasurable and unquantifiable and therefore a definition of any science or therapy based on the mind will always remain something open to debate and discussion. The fact that the hypnotic experience is personal and each individual will experience something different simply complicates things further. ‘There are a number of people, academics above all, who simply do not believe in the existence of mind. They think that this a naive belief held by the rest of us, and that the phenomena attributed to our minds are best explained otherwise.' (Robin Waterfield, Hidden Depths, 2004). It seems the best that the experts can do is fairly agree as to the psychological and physiological phenomena experienced during hypnosis. Psychological phenomena often experienced during hypnosis could include hyper suggestibility (so important that it is often considered definitional of hypnosis), time distortion (when an hour may appear to pass in a minute), super learning and creativity, spontaneous age regression, hypermnesia and amnesia. (Robin Waterfield, Hidden Depths, 2004) Since the invention of the electroencephalogram in 1929 we have been able to measure the electrical activity of the brain. Scientists have determined that there are four main brain waves which vary in frequency. 1. Beta waves (15 to 40 cycles per second). These are typical of a focused and engaged mind. These are found in abundance in our modern, busy life style. 2. Alpha waves (9 to 14 cycles per second). These are typical of taking a rest after an activity. They are present during times of creativity and problem solving but not during times of fear, anger, in a deep sleep or highly aroused. 3. Theta waves (4 to 8 cycles per second). These are present during sleeping and some meditative states.. These are associated with (amongst other things) medium to deep hypnosis. These waves are associated with our subconscious mind. You may be in the theta range when daydreaming or driving a car. It is where we engage with our intuition learning and creativity. It is where we have our best ideas. You may recall having moments such as these on a car journey or in the bath. 4. Delta waves (1 to 4 cycles per second). These waves are produced at our slowest, deepest state of rest. There are never any other waves active. They are present during the deepest hypnosis and sleepless sleep. You can never reach 0 cycles per second as that is brain dead. These waves will dip and flow and at any one moment one will be predominant and the others will just be present as a trace and moving from one to another depending on the state of the individual. From what we know about the frequencies we can see that hypnosis occurs during alpha and theta waves and that these waves are associated with relaxation which we will discuss later. Although philosophers and mystics may have been reflecting on a subconscious mind for centuries our understanding of it only dates back to the time of Sigmund Freud. We know that it is responsible for the non-voluntary bodily functions that keep our bodies working from one day to the next freeing our mind up to concentrate on the things of the day. Think about all those skills we learned within the first year or two of our lives – moving limbs, making a noise, swallowing food, standing, walking etc etc. Imagine for one moment that all those skills had to be thought about each and every time we wanted to use them. Our day would be completely filled with just those things. We learn those skills and then pass them to the subconscious mind to action them, leaving our conscious mind free to learn more and develop. So hypnosis is simply about assisting someone to reach the state where the predominant brain waves are the alpha and theta waves and so access their subconscious mind. As mentioned previously these waves are associated with relaxation which has, as our life styles have become more and more busy over time, become more and more difficult to achieve on ones own. Hypnosis and relaxation are not the same. Hypnosis uses relaxation techniques to relax the body and relaxation is an indication that a person has achieved a hypnotic state. The difference is that hypnosis aims to reach a special state of consciousness where selective attention and increased suggestibility are present. Hypnosis will then use this state to effect changes in a person through beneficial suggestions A brief look at the physiology of muscles shows us that muscle units work on an all or nothing principle, meaning they are either contracting or relaxed and there are no other states. The problem is that due to the constant stress that modern living brings with it some muscles, in particular the shoulders and neck, are constantly in contraction. In 1929 Dr Edmond Jacobson discovered that most of his patients, all with unrelated problems, had tense muscles and that by relaxing these muscles he could reduce the severity of their symptoms. He also noticed that most patients were not aware of the tension they carried with them. He developed a technique called Progressive Muscle Relaxation (or PMR) which enabled the patients to relax their muscles and keep them relaxed and thereby improve their physical, mental and emotional state. Hypnosis uses an updated form of PMR to achieve the same results. We know that relaxation does not mean laying on a bed and it does not mean being asleep. We will all have experienced times when we have driven somewhere and cannot remember getting there. We certainly would not say we were asleep. Long distance runners will also experience the same phenomena and often cannot remember huge amounts of the run. As a long distance runner myself I am aware of the importance of relaxing whilst running and can bring my pulse rate back to normal within a mile or two of the start of a run. I having been practicing PMR techniques for years whilst running without knowing that it existed In conclusion then it is still difficult to answer then question of what is hypnosis with a simple definition because in the past it has been so closely associated with theatrical entertainment or rejected by the church or wrapped in superstition, falsely portrayed as evil on film and used by some to abuse people that the scientific community never took it seriously as a science until recently. The fact that a number of academics deny the existence of the mind does not help matters either. We can begin to describe it in terms of the psychological and physiological phenomena experienced during hypnosis but not much more. We know that there is nothing mystical or magical about the hypnotic state. Put simply it is assisting someone to reach the state where the predominant brain waves are the alpha and theta waves and so access their subconscious mind where selective attention and increased suggestibility are present and then use this state to effect changes in the person through beneficial suggestions. We know that to achieve this state we can make use of PMR Albert Einstein said that we only use 10% of our brain. Maybe with hypnosis we are just beginning to push at a door that will lead us into the remaining 90%. History has given us glimpses of an amazing power that we don't yet understand. People undergoing major surgery with anaesthesia, curing debilitating physical conditions, amazing accounts of healing. What is hypnosis today? What could hypnosis be tomorrow?