Cultural and Cross Cultural Psychology Essay

Cultural psychology and cross-cultural psychology is no more new, as it has had its momentum picked up for the past few decades. Developmental psychology is something of the same kind and it was a buzzword in between at the turn of the century. The question is how is it possible to study human’s development though we intend to study. Human development is also reflected from the repeated efforts and interests on culture analysis in getting to know the interpretation of signals, code words and gestures. When it comes to testing, research and analysis in psychology related subjects it is quite difficult to understand the significant relation between the test samples and the findings. As there is never a reliable empirical formula. Cross cultural psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural condition. It’s primary aims are to investigate a) systematic relations between behavioral variables and ethnic-cultural variables, and generalizations of psychological principles. Cross cultural psychology is the science by virtue of the scientific principles and methods it employs. Cross cultural psychology is not primarily concerned with the comparative study of culture, that si the enduring characteristics that mark a culture apart from other countries. (Leonore Loeb Adler, Uwe P. Gieglen, Florence L. Denmark. Cross cultural topics in psychology – Second edition) â€Å"Cross-cultural psychology is the empirical study of members of various culture groups who have had different experience that lead to predictable and significant differences in behavior. In the majority of such studies, the groups under study speak different languages and are governed by different political units† (British, Lonner, Thorndike, 1973, p. 5 – John W. Berry, Ype H. Pootinga, Marshall H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen. Cross cultural psychology Research and Applications – Second edition, p. 1) â€Å"Cultural Psycology is the study of the culture’s role in the mental life of human beings† (Cole, 1996, p. 1- John W. Berry, Ype H. Pootinga, Marshall H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen. Cross cultural psychology Research and Applications – Second edition, p. 1) Cultural psychology is the study to examine ethnic and cultural sources of psychological diversity in emotional, social cognition and human development. (Richard A. Shweder, Maria A. Sullivan. Cultural Psychology: Who needs it? 1993 – Internet edition Cultural psychology is nothing but the practices, customs and beliefs we follow differs from place to place and ethnicity to ethnicity. It is the study of various cultural practices, customary traditions and beliefs that influence a particular sector of people, who decides to improve their society by improvising the existing practices and trying to reason few satisfactory logic to get convinced with the practices. The degree of variance is sometimes measurable and sometimes not. The most interesting part is to analyze how and to what extent the traditions, customs, practices and beliefs developed in a region based on something are made use in favor of personal purposes. Whereas cross-cultural psychology is the effort to establish a connection between psychology that is being framed on the basis of the customs and traditions practiced. It simply deals with the different set of experiences and different set of environment which shows a significant influence on the behavior of the person in a place. The cultural psychology stops with the traditions, customs, beliefs and practices in a system whereas cross-cultural psychology is deep about analyzing the effect of these cultural practices in the behavior and thought process of an individual in the system. For eg, the traditional practice of Sati (burning a woman alive after her husband’s death) was followed in India. Learning the practice and the origin of Sati and analyzing its logic, superstitious beliefs is the cultural psychology. Cross cultural psychology tends to explain why women in India are able to accept the practice and get convinced when it is not possible with the other women in the rest of the world. Critical thinking in the cross cultural psychology Cross cultural psychology is interesting to deal with, but actually speaking is highly uninteresting when it comes to experiment and research. It is difficult to format a methodology and bring it in practice, even if brought into practice it is not all that easy to interpret the results of the psychological tests and tasks. How can researchers make out the differences between the results obtained for the same tests from different groups though the questions are same and the groups are different based on the brought up and experience. Is it possible to exhibit a connection between the psychology and the culture with just the interpretation of the results of the tests conducted, and the fact being no one knows to what extent the interpretation falls right. The difference in the thinking may occur due to the difference in the culture influenced thought process, still it is difficult as there is no concrete or empirical formula formulated to decide on it. There is no assurance that the difference in thought process is because of the cultural difference, as there could also be reasons such as bewildered nature of the question, the puzzling nature of the tests, the mood and ignorance of the people and the literacy rate and understanding power of an individual. It does not stop with cross cultural psychology as developmental psychology also faced the similar kind of problem in formatting the research to get to know the exact demand of the scientists and the researchers from the test samples. In addition to that few man made minor errors in the research and process leads to an unexpected and unwanted finding and the errors are sometimes left undetected too. The methodology associated with cross cultural research When it comes to methodology of cross cultural psychology, it involves the qualitative methodology to analyze the practices, customs and habits of different cultures, on the other hand it requires quantitative methodology to compare, analyze and juxtapose the difference in psychology of different individuals influenced by the cultures and practices they follow. Psychological and cultural psychology experiments always require the need of qualitative analysis, as the cross cultural psychology is all about analyzing a huge mass of test sample quantitative analysis also comes into picture, perhaps the problem is sometimes the methods are treated mutually exclusive and the results are not compatible all the time. In addition to this, there is a report that researchers employ artificial and unfamiliar methods leading to ambiguous results. The issue is research is done based on the questions answered by individuals in a society rather than the collective answer from a society, that makes the major difference and inconvenience. Conclusion Though the subject is interesting, it is poignant to know the investigation methods have not taken the right direction. Conventional methods and sampling techniques are most desired all the times, perhaps when it comes to bringing out the difference between two cultures and the influence on the thought process of an individual because of the culture, it is advisable not to stop with these conventional techniques, as even previous literature works, media interviews, assumptions can be taken into significant consideration. Apart from all these standard quantitative techniques should be given the appropriate attention too, the results from the conventional sampling techniques and the standard quantitative techniques can be compared and related. This way a convincing analysis can be expected. Reference: Richard A Shweder. Thinking through cultures – Expeditions in cultural psychology John W. Berry, Ype H. Pootinga, Marshall H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen . Cross cultural psychology Research and Applications – Second edition James W. Stigler, Richard A. Shweder, Gilbert Herdt. Cultural Psychology- Essays on comparative human development. Lumei Hui. (2003)Theoretical and Methodological Problems in Cross-Cultural Psychology. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior John W. Berry, Ype H. Pootinga, Marshall H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen. Cross cultural psychology Research and Applications – Second edition

Examine Nietzsche?S Statement in the Birth of Tragedy That It Is Only as an „Aesthetic Phenomenon? That Existence Can Be „Justified? to Eternity.

Examine Nietzsche’s statement in The Birth of Tragedy that it is only as an ‘Aesthetic Phenomenon’ that existence can be ‘justified’ to eternity. According to the qualities of ‘eternity’ and ‘existence’ that Nietzsche and Schopenhauer prescribe; it is by definition that something can only be justified in the phenomenal world: the world of ‘existence’. Although this statement describes existence justifying itself to eternity, The Birth of Tragedy tends to illustrate the inverse: eternity justifying itself appearing through existence. However the movement between the states of the ‘physical’ and ‘virtual’ is not directional in the empirically spatiotemporal manner that Schopenhauer takes on. Unlike transcendentalist ideas, what Nietzsche depicts is an apparent duality born in the fusion of the minds twofold reality that has knowledge and perception only of existence. Aesthetic phenomenon offers us â€Å"delight in semblance† and simultaneously offers a greater, metaphysical delight in â€Å"the destruction of the visible world of semblance† (BT: 24). The requirement that a phenomenon must be ‘aesthetic’ is universal in the sense that there is no requirement as to what an ‘aesthetic’ thing is. Supposedly it can be anything phenomenal â€Å"even the ugly and disharmonious is an artistic game which the will, in the eternal fullness of its delight, plays with itself. † (BT:24) Clearly there are degrees of ‘aesthetic’ quality that render more delight, but the delight is equally achievable in the interpretation as it is in the ‘phenomenon’ that is acting as a trigger. Maybe it is more appropriately imagined that ‘eternity’ justifies itself in the phenomenal: because the ‘justification’ takes place when an object awakens a sense of the ‘eternal’, so it is really a matter of seduction, and how effectively this ‘aesthetic phenomenon’ allows the noumenal to thrust itself upon the perceiver. But to say that this takes place wholly on account of how ‘aesthetic’ the phenomenon is, would be to ignore how easily the perceiver is seduced, or how he perceives all together. It is clear that different people find beauty in different things. It is also clear that some may find beauty in nothing, as with meditation. But that brings into question whether we can really have a ‘nothing’ in human experience, for even the most isolated and detached human experience cannot be fully impartial to the world of experience. The point however; is that although ‘aesthetic phenomenon’ is a necessity; it is the openness and imagination of the perceiver that allows the object to justify existence to the eternal. For beauty can exist in everything, but only on occasion do we see beauty to such high intensity that it awakens a recognisable feeling of the ‘eternal’. For Nietzsche, art is a more powerful form of ‘aesthetic phenomenon’, than naturally occurring beauty; the human is more familiar with art, often because it relates more to qualities in the realm of human experience, be it situational or emotional. This familiarity lures the perceiver into a greater degree of belief, acting as a catalyst to the erosion of self identity, as they more easily forget the self, and become overwhelmed by the ‘will’. Nietzsche places ‘attic tragedy’ at the peak of this process, as he mentions the audience become the play, and the combination of two separate art forms allows the birth of a new less physically obsessed, and more enchanting work of art. The degree, to which the audience can recreate the moment that the artist felt in creating the piece, depends partly on the artist’s ability to transfigure the feeling into an ‘aesthetic phenomenon’, but also on the audience’s ability to empathise (hence humanistic art is more effective). This ‘empathy’ or ‘mitleiden’, requires the demolition of the concept of the ‘individual’ and the rise of the innate primordial unity, in order for this eternal intensity, that Schopenhauer, quite carelessly called the ‘will’, to overtake. It is because art is a reproduction of the eternal in a phenomenal form that Nietzsche believes â€Å"we are far from truly being the creators of that world of art† (BT:5), the artist is merely the mediator of the eternal, who engages in procreation. The world that art ‘represents’ itself in is impartial to the world it came from. The description of the divine impregnating the humanly to beget a great ‘art’ generates a dualistic concept, that implies a transcendence from the noumenal into the phenomenal: â€Å"the continuous evolution of art is bound up with the duality of the Apolline and the Dionysiac in much the same way as reproduction depends on there being two sexes†(BT:1) whereas a sexual co-existence involves two opposites, that are of the same substance, Nietzsche is presenting a relation with the being and the immortal. But it seems he places this sense of superiority not in the aspects themselves, rather due to the difficulty of escaping worldly attributes and the natural inclination to view what is beyond us as greater than what we are or possess. He compares our awareness of our artistic significance to that â€Å"which painted soldiers have of the battle depicted on the same canvas† (BT:5) reiterating the impossibility of viewing artistic creation from both angles as player and spectator alike. Within the realm of existence, aesthetic delight serves the purpose of awakening that dormant innocence which provides openness to the primal spirit. This instinct put to sleep by our ‘view’ of the world that quantifies things; a cognition we naturally take on, as the phenomenal world becomes more apparent and through childhood we develop a new paradigm that becomes less aware of the qualitative. This becoming of the individual is characterised by experience, and traded with innocence. For Nietzsche ‘Aesthetic phenomenon’ is necessary to create delight which awakens our dormant self, by detaching us from our conscious understanding, and giving way to a higher delight. Nietzsche describes this battle between the innocent and experienced lenses as a trend not only in the life of the individual but also in culture and its cultivation. The cryptic relationship between Apollo and Dionysus parallels the trend in most cultures to become more like Apollo, and forget their wilder innate counterpart whose characteristics are often mistaken for hedonism. Eruptions of the Dionysian culture are evident in the Romantic period and during the ‘free love’ period in the 1960’s, both characterised by the use of drugs to liberate one from the sense of identity. These periods, unlike the Greek period, remained movements rather than revolutions, as the use of drugs, unlike the use of art was damaging to the economical requirement for a revolution. The Dionysiac’s disregard for conventional barriers, such as the sexual, arise from the ability to be intimate and empathise with any being more than the Apollonian can hope to achieve with even one. This is due to the Apollonian’s failure to ‘empathise’ as Schopenhauer would say, because they are too enthralled with the manifest of their ‘will’ in its represented form to see that the ‘will’ is universal; â€Å"whenever this breakdown of the principium individuationis occurs, we catch a glimpse of the essence of the Dionysiac† (BT:1) one who has no sense of self. Nietzsche’s vision of Dionysian art resolves the question Aristotle asks about the ‘tragic effect’: â€Å"Why is it that we voluntarily subject ourselves to depictions of the terrible in life? Schopenhauer called ‘tragedy’ the highest art form in which we surrender to the ‘feeling of the sublime’. As Nietzsche describes, our horror is replaced by a ‘metaphysical comfort’ where the terrible dissolves our vision of beauty in the Apollonian form; that is designed to protect us and secure our drive to live, this à ¢â‚¬Ëœveil of Maya’ is removed and â€Å"We really are for a brief moment, the primordial being itself†. It is because our Apollonian view of the world cannot remove its inherent characteristics, that the sublime is regarded by Schopenhauer as higher than beauty, and why for Nietzsche, the Dionysian aspect is more fundamental. Islamic Poet Khalil Gibran explains â€Å"The veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it,† these idea raise the question as to whether ‘Aesthetic Phenomenon’ is justifying the world to eternity, or revealing eternity to the world, as ‘Aesthetic Delight’ propels the interpreter, detaching him from the phenomenal. Nietzsche; contra Schopenhauer, believes that the ‘terrible’ is not single handedly a higher form of art, as the Apolline realm is needed as the vehicle that humans understand, to transit one into the eternal. Hence for Nietzsche, ‘attic tragedy’ is the supreme art form that allows the Dionysian to impregnate the Apollonian; traversing the line between intoxication and dream, and being reborn in the world of the individual. Unlike music, which is a ‘mirror’ image of the Dionysian, a direct reflection from one world into the other, tragedy captivates the audience with Apollonian dreamlike images, through which the Dionysian chorus â€Å"Discharges itself†, dissolving the apparent dichotomy from a world of semblance, and unleashing the eternal. For Nietzsche the duality between Dionysus and Apollo is only a psychological one and his liking to the dominant organic notion of the Dionysian in The Birth of Tragedy is possibly a result of his youth, and desire to escape the overly Apollonian culture he endured and despised. Heidegger offers an interpretation of Nietzsche’s use of the word ‘Chaos’ that differs to those non-Greek translations whose etymology of the term, reduce it to words like ‘primordial’ that do not capture the meaning which echoed in its use in mythic tradition. Heidegger’s classical reading of the word imbues an idea of â€Å"that which yawns, the gaping out of itself. Applied to Nietzsche’s aesthetics, this would trivialise the role of the phenomenal which essentially repeats itself through time, in waves, a result of procreation that facilitates the reversal into the non-human, which is simultaneously the same effect as the eternal ‘gaping out of itselfà ¢â‚¬â„¢. The two dimensional effect is really of the same thing, and for Nietzsche has no direction or duration in the empirical senses of space and time; a concept better felt than imagined due to our impartiality, hence the difficulty Nietzsche mentions in describing notions such as the ‘eternal return’. To what extent then, does Nietzsche see the Dionysian and the eternal as relevant to one another, and separate from the Apollonian and phenomenal? If aesthetic delight leads the path from the phenomenal to the noumenal then at what point and to what degree do these dualistic entities that fit that divide the ‘physical’ from the ‘virtual’ relate to each other as properties? Nietzsche claims that attic tragedy is the art form which bonds the Dionysian with the Apollonian, the unison of opposition. He also differs from Kant and Schopenhauer on the nature of the duality between the noumenal and phenomenal, somewhat paradoxically, he accepts the superficial claim, but when digging into the root of the two spheres, becomes constrained by the possibility of analysing such a void, as Paul de Man claims; the reader is â€Å"condemned† to an â€Å"apparently endless process of deconstruction† . This assessment is unfair on Nietzsche’s attempt to find a ‘good’ answer and thus sacrificing a degree of clarity that is expected in describing something that language cannot describe: â€Å"language, as the organ and symbol of phenomena, can never, under any circumstances, externalize the innermost depths of music†¦ the heart of the primordial unity,† (BT:5) his passage summarises the futility of all phenomena in relating to the eternal, but the need for phenomena to create art as a birth giver to the eternal, whereby language is a weaker tool than music and tragic myth. In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche constantly reiterates the predominant nature of the Dionysiac that â€Å"shows itself, in comparison with the Apolline, to be the eternal and original power† (BT:25). Although not entirely in keeping with Kant and Schopenhauer’s duality, he still bastardises the Apollonian state, highlighting the separateness of the two art forms. This must mean that there is a significant point where the border between states is crossed, in order to form the attic tragedy, and similarly must mean there is a point where the justification of the world to the eternal takes place. But Nietzsche offers no explanation, possibly because these dualities are only a manifestation, that grows as naivety is replaced by experience, and the dream state that verges on the state of intoxication succumbs to a newer ‘physical’ reality. But Nietzsche holds that these two artistic domains are â€Å"required to unfold their energies in strict, reciprocal proportion† so that one can only be â€Å"permitted to enter an individual’s consciousness as can be overcome, in its turn, by the [other]† (BT:25), if such is the case, then either Nietzsche believes these drives truly are the essence of a strict duality, or that they are too rigidly lain into the mindset to be abstracted from and comprehended as a whole. However, if the latter is the case, then the justification of the world to eternity is a human matter, a question of interpretation, where being superhuman is being eternal, and ‘aesthetic phenomenon’ plays no role. In later writings such as Thus Spoke Zarathustra he begins to point in this direction: â€Å"the human is something that must be overcome†, for existence is to some degree a sense understood by the being, but if one can go beyond the being, then one can go beyond world that requires justifying to eternity. His notion of ‘eternal return’ which suggests that the world repeats itself is more ambiguous on the nature of eternity and its relation to the phenomenal . Contra Schopenhauer; Nietzsche’s spatiotemporal relation to the world is not one of distance in space, or places in time, rather one of duration, where the movement between the ‘physical and ‘virtual’ reality is unmeasured, and possibly non-existent as the removal of these relations change the way in which existence and the eternal can relate to one another. Walter Arnold Kaufmann asserts that Nietzsche’s conception of the ‘will to power’ is â€Å"perhaps just as much the heir of Apollo as it is that of Dionysus† ; his suggestion for a monist interpretation comes from Nietzsche’s idea that â€Å"quantitative degrees of power might be the measure of value†. Clearly Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy is unsure or unfinished on the nature of the duality between existence and the eternal, and where its root ends. But certainly, the matter of existence being justified to eternity is a matter of being itself, and the reception of the eternal is integral, where the ‘aesthetic phenomenon’ is just the key. The impartiality of the consciousness with the eternal requires such a key to open this door, but evidently there is a degree to which the mind can feel the eternal, and to say that only an ‘aesthetic phenomenon’ can achieve this is to say that the door can only be opened from one side. Bibliography Pg153: Nietzsche's philosophy of science: reflecting science on the ground of art and life – Babette E. Babich Pg 295 Nietzsche Knows no Noumenon – David B. Allison Pg199 Nietzsche, philosopher, psychologist, antichrist- Walter Arnold Kaufmann The Eternal Return of the Overhuman: The Weightiest Knowledge and the Abyss of Light. Journal of Nietzsche Studies 30 (1):1-21. – Keith Ansell-Pearson. Pg 39 The Prophet- Kahlil Gibran The Birth of Tragedy- Friedrich Nietzsche (Cambridge texts)

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 4

Report - Essay Example The main reason for the accidents is lack of proper training and lack of safety equipment. The management does not provide proper personal protective equipments to the employees. When new employees are hired, they are not inducted properly which result in accidents. Record of all the accidents inside the work place is maintained. By analyzing this record I was able to make a hypothesis about certain areas which were most dangerous as compared to others. Primary source of Information: I did not use any other source of information; instead I focused on visiting the workplace personally and to collect data about potential hazards personally. I went to those areas which showed higher rate of accidents and injuries in the record. I noted down all the potential hazards for the workers. I visited each and every corner of the work place and collected information about all the potential hazards. By visiting the whole workplace I was able to identify the potential hazards and the old data gave us information about the total number of accidents and injuries in certain areas of the workplace. However I wanted to know about the whole incident, how that happened and who was at the fault. For this purpose I had to arrange interviews with the workers who fell prey to those accidents. So, I interviewed the workers and asked them how the accidents happened with them. They told me the real facts about the accidents. Some workers admitted that it was totally their own mistake. Had they taken some precautionary measures, this accident could have been avoided. Some workers mentioned the carelessness of the management for not adopting safety measures on particular machines. After these interviews we were able to make an opinion that why those accidents happened in the past and how they could have been avoided. Recommendations: It has not become possible in any part of the world to create a hazard free workplace. However through adopting precautionary measures it has become possible t o reduce the accidents and their severity to a great extent. By properly arranging things in the workplace we can easily reduce the risk factor in the workplaces. If we focus more on training it is possible to bring down the accidents rate to almost zero percent.( Armstrong & Baron, 2002) The management should follow the recommendations given below in order to avoid accidents in the future and to make the workplace safe for the workers. Management should not send in experienced and newly recruited employees on machines without any senior worker. They can only work on machines in the presence and supervision of a senior employee for a specific time period.( Price & Price, 2011) There were many large and small objects on the floor when I surveyed the organization. All the objects should be placed properly and there should be some marking with different color lines. A walking area should be marked separately which should be kept clear all the times. Forklifts were moving around in the workplace carrying some heavy objects. Those forklifts should have a separate route marked with yellow color and forklift should operate only in that marked areas. There were few cranes in operation inside the workplace and they were carrying very huge and heavy objects from one point to another. Any mishap can happen there. There should a strong net of steel above the workers, so that if any object may fell, it may not hurt the workers. All the

Dissertation proposal (The Level of Interest within Generation Y Essay

Dissertation proposal (The Level of Interest within Generation Y towards Social network Marketing) - Essay Example Background of Research Questions Social Network Marketing has gained prominence in the last decade as more and more companies are marketing primarily through social networking sites. The main purpose of social networking sites is to connect users with one another. As the internet age blooms with every passing year, social networking has become the most widely used communication tool by users around the world. ‘Compete.com (2008), a Web traffic analysis company, reported that the largest online social networking site (as of November 2008) was MySpace, with 56 million unique visitors per month, closely followed by Facebook, with 49 million unique visitors’ (Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels, 2009). This addiction towards social networking presents marketers with a good opportunity of reaching towards consumers. Through social networks, brands develop a personality and provide a forum for the users to interact with the brand, thus making way for a more informal form of marketing. With the saturation in market that most industries are now facing, it becomes increasing hard to capture the attention of the consumers who have become cynical towards advertising and marketing in general. Social networking sites allow consumers to share their opinions, ideas and reviews about products and services. On account of this, social networking sites support word-of-mouth, which is the most effective form of advertising and specifically for the younger generation. With advertisers taking full use of their creative license, consumers have become wary of products advertising impossibility shiny long hair and a perfect social life. They simply do not believe these advertisements. This research will aim to uncover the connection that Generation Y has with social networking sites. With the advertising world changing at a very fast pace, it is important that marketers are able to connect with the Generation Y through their preferred platform. This research provides a way forward to marketers. Literature Review ‘Today’s Generation Y, encompassing individuals born between 1980 and 1995, represents an era of teens and young adults who grew up with technology and are among the most avid users of social networking’ (Rutledge, 2008) . Social Networking sites have become part of the life of Generation Y. As important as it is to have residential addresses, Generation Y considers it equally important to have a social networking address. Given the popularity of social networking sites among Generation Y, organizations have begun exploring advertising on these sites. ‘Social Networking is just one of the many consumer technologies, including blogs, wikis and virtual worlds, to cross over to the corporate world’ (Smith and Salvendy, 2009). But the advertising content must differ since Generation Y has become used to the traditional advertising techniques. They tend to tune out the advertising of women falling around men with just one spray of a perfume. To reach Generation Y, organizations have to more honest and direct in their advertising techniques (Garland, 2007). Generation Y is more of a rebel and has shaped their opinions and views around the opinions of views of their own peers. Parents have not been the guiding figures in the lives of Generation Y since they were raised in a time when both parents

Free Trade during Colonialism vs. Free Trade during Globalization Essay

Free Trade during Colonialism vs. Free Trade during Globalization - Essay Example This paper analyses the major similarities and differences between free trade during colonialism and free trade during globalization. Free trade: Colonialism vs. globalization An unexpected transformation occurred in the aftermath of the economic downturn or depression which began in 1873 in Europe and North America. With barriers to trade rising, production standing still, and new competitors such as Germany and the United States industrializing, the search for new markets and sources of raw materials intensified in the direction of colonial expansion (Saul, n.d.). Colonial powers tried to safeguard their business interests during nineteenth and twentieth centuries rather than thinking too much about the rights of the nations under their control. The concept of free trade was another mechanism for them to exploit the resources of nations under their control. The current free trade which is the concept of globalization promotes neo-colonialism which is sharp in contrast with the prin ciples of free trade implemented by the colonial powers in the past. It should be noted that neo-colonialism is a practice of promoting capitalism, globalization and cultural co-operation between countries. In other words, current free trade has the ability to contribute heavily to the vast sectors of global population whereas the free trade during colonialism was confined within the boundaries of the nations under colonial rule. Current free trade helped â€Å"the globalization of a free market economy, the standardization and homogenization of production and the fixing of world prices in economies which are at unequal stages of economic and technological development† (In Opposition to Free Market Globalization and Neo Colonialism, We Say: No to APEC, 2004) Former Nobel Prize winner and renowned American economist Paul Krugman argued that free trade developed as a result of globalization has brought many opportunities to this world. In his opinion, â€Å"the view that free trade is the best of all possible policies is part of the general case for laissez-faire in a market economy and rests on the proposition that markets are efficient (Krugman, 1987, p.134). On the other hand, trade scenarios during colonialism were entirely different from the current trade scenario. Current market is extremely efficient and heavily competitive compared to the market in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Instead of conflict, co-operation seems to be the principle undertaken by the free trade of modern era. In other words, free trade of globalization is perceived as helpful to all countries irrespective of their socioeconomic conditions. On the other hand, free trade during colonialism suited only to the interests of the colonial powers. Theory of comparative advantage was promoted by free trade of globalization era whereas free trade policies during colonialism were revolved around the interests of the colonial powers. The theory of comparative advantage promotes the view that good of natural environment and industrial abilities of each country should be exported. It also cites that free market is another ideologically based intervention in ways that maintain the economic and political status quo (Gonzalez, 2006, p.65). Free trade evolved out of globalization, helps countries to sell their products in global markets where the

Reflective Diary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reflective Diary - Essay Example Besides, it instilled a spirit of responsibility and team player as each worker was to be held accountable for the development of their respective areas. However, despite such success, Potteries Health Care has not been offering a conducive working environment for all the stakeholders. Despite their dedication to deliver their services to the clients, the employees have been crying foul of stringent policies which have been adopted by the top management. Even if they are meant to increase the chances of the company accomplishing its short and long-term goals, they have been criticized by a section of the labor force who has perceived them to be quite punitive and demoralizing to them. in fact, it might be the reason behind the high level of attrition of the employees (Gomez-Mejia et al 27). According to the latest company records, a high number of workers have left the company. During the past two years, a total of 25 employees voluntarily left the company. Moreover, there were 3 cases of redundancy; 3 dismissed employees while 5 were dismissed while still undergoing their probation. This implies that something must be amiss and henc e needs to be addressed. If everything was okay, no such number of workers would have ceased serving the company. Although they do not represent the total labor force, they might have been some of the most productive employees whose quitting might have paralyzed the company’s progress. For this reason, as a labor unionist, I would like to express my displeasure with the company’s top management. Although it has been in existence for quite a longer time now, the company must be condemned for not failing to safeguard the welfare of its workers. The change in management does not necessarily mean introducing new policies which are meant to promote the company’s progress without necessarily thinking about the concerns of the workers. Even though he was commended for good performance, the hiring of

The ban on the advertising of convenience foods Essay

The ban on the advertising of convenience foods - Essay Example This article provides a counter response to such calls and it takes a supportive stand on behalf of the advertisers as there seems to be no clear-cut evidence to prove that such advertisements could also be a cause for the supposed epidemic of ill-health and obesity among these children. The article aims to bring out the positive effects of such advertising stating that it would actually be educative for the children. There is no compelling language used in the text. The article states that children like any others have the right to view such advertisements and thereby make their own food choices. The first two premises aim to counter the media claims by using survey reports that convenience and tasty food advertising are a reason for the supposed ill-health epidemic and obesity among children. In the third premise, there is a highlight on how food companies like the McDonalds not only promote healthy food for children but also contribute to the growth of children by sponsoring junio r level sporting activities. The next premise explains about the unproven link between health problems like diabetes due to consumption of fast foods. The fifth premise adds a note on the actual purpose of such advertising and makes a reference to the situation in the US. The final premise stresses that every child must have the right to information on food products which would help them make their own food choices and ends on a positive statement emphasizing the freedom that needs to be given to the advertising world in a democratic society.

Management - 3 tools or approaches that contributes to decision making Essay

Management - 3 tools or approaches that contributes to decision making [sap5] - Essay Example Measures to be implemented are those that draw immense support. In systems 1 and 2, the main features are observed when perceived from objectives-led and problem-oriented planning approaches (Moore & Lowenstein, 2004). The objective of joint-versus-separate decision making solves the problem of people failing to move from suboptimal System 1 thinking to improved System 2 thinking. The system is chosen and considered among multiple options concurrently rather than conceding or declining alternatives separately. The objective approach cites a promising stream of research that evaluates how System 2 thinking can be weighted to lower System 1 errors. It demonstrates that analogical reasoning can be applied in reducing bounds on people’s consciousness like impulsivity and anxiety about relative outcomes. It is possible that the study on joint-against-separate decision making highlights the reality that our initial impulses lean more on emotions than logic (Moore & Lowenstein, 2004). For instance, additional suggestive results in passing exams include the findings that willpower to succeed is weakened when students are placed under severe cognitive burden and when they are insufficient knowledge in their study areas. Students will most likely make less impulsive, but suboptimal decisions during schools years while further making choices in advance of their consequences. Another scenario is where school management adopt unilateral decisions that suggest that change in the decision’ s context that promotes coolheaded System 2 thinking. This has the capability of reducing common biases from arising. I believe that when people get busier on their schedules, their minds get committed irrespective of time constraints faced, thus relying on System 1 thinking. Managers of corporate companies implore System 1 thinking, where superior decision making is a recipe for improving efficiency without sacrificing brand quality. The problem and

An Exploration of Morality and Privacy Essay Example for Free

An Exploration of Morality and Privacy Essay Shakespeares Measure for Measure is a play that is hard to like. It is stark, structured, and monotoned in dialogue and plot. The characters within the play are overwhelming disgusting specimens of humanity who are one dimension characters which seem to not be fully developed. Central character, The Duke, is a cruel and calculating leader that is more like a puppet master than a living, breathing man. He is responsible for manipulating the characters and free will within the play, Measure for Measure. The Dukes actions are morally wrong. While The Duke claims his motivations are pure and he is trying to observe the governance of Vienna, there are other motives. The Duke likes to control people, by pretending to be a Friar is able to emotional rape and manipulate people and their free will. The Duke, who lives Italy, is in charge and it is his civic duty to maintain order. However, he seems unable to do so on his own. He employs the indifferent and unemotional Lord Angelo to carry out the gruesome work as punisher. The Duke, instead, decides that he should go out and mingle with his citizens. He decides to dress like and pretend to be a Friar. Lord Angelo, like many corrupt official, becomes intoxicating with power, using it for his own gain. The Duke shrugs off his duties to another individual which is obviously not trust worthy. He does this because he is lazy and is not entirely comfortable with enforcing the law. The Duke believes that he is incapable of enforcing the law himself and therefore his authority is reduced. He comments, to Thomas, our decrees, / Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead, / And Liberty plucks Justice by the nose (1. 3. 27-29). Thomas responds It rested in your Grace / To unloose this tied-up Justice when you pleased (1. 3. 31-32). It is clear that Thomas also believes that The Duke has intentionally stop doing the job he is responsible for. The Duke acknowledges Thomas point and explains that he wants to remain a kind leader and not one known for punishment. He states Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them / For what I bid them do; for we bid this be done / When evil deeds have their permissive pass, / And not the punishment (1. 3. 36-39). Instead of completing his civic duties, The Duke chooses to go down to the prison and pretends to be a Friar. In pretending to be a religious figure he breaking the trust which individuals place in God and the people who are chosen to represent God. His behavior is questionable and his motives are clear he wants to be a voyeur. He claims he wants to be closer to the people he was chosen to lead however, this is the ultimate control. The Duke is supposed to be civic minded and ethical yet he easily chooses to deceive the people, in prison, that need him, whether a Friar or a Leader, him most. As he takes peoples confessions he taunts them. For example when he speaks with Juliet who has conceived out of wedlock, his approach is callus. The Duke informs her that it is her fault the man, Claudio, she loves will be punished by Lord Angelo through execution. Then the Duke talks to Claudio, and advises him that he should just give up hope of life and seeking Juliet again and hoped he is prepared to die (3. 1. 4). This is followed by a long, unemotional speech about how life is not worth living and that nothing in life really matters, as way to encourage Claudius to be thankful for his early demise. The Duke is not done yet, he continues to make people believe he is a Friar and uses this power to manipulate them. The Duke becomes aware that Claudios sister, a virgin, has agreed to have sex with him. In doing so, Lord Angelo has agreed that Claudio will not be killed. Isabella explains the situation to her brother. However, The Duke insists on listening. He requires the prison to offer him a concealed (3. 1. 53) spot. Eventually, The Duke reveals himself and claims that Lord Angelo was never serious and had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an assay of her virtue to practice his judgment with the disposition of natures (3. 1. 161-164). Once again The Duke is manipulating the lives of the people he is supposed to protect and look after. He creates situations and causes people to react in certain ways. He is amused and satisfied with himself. The Duke then tells Claudio that his execution will happen. Then The Duke changes his mind and decides that he will sleep with Lord Angelos ex finance instead of Isabella. The Duke insists that this is a good thing because the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof (3. 2. 262-263). The Dukes manipulations continue when Lord Angelo demands that Claudio be executed and The Duke suggests that they should just substitute another inmate for Claudio. Even after Claudios live is saved, The Duke insists on telling Isabella that Claudio is dead. It is morally unacceptable that The Duke pretends to be a Friar. While The Duke claims that he is monitoring Lord Angelos virtue as a governorship it is clear that The Duke has his own motives in pretending and ease dropping. He believes that he has the power to a be a puppet master and pull the strings of everyone below him. If The Dukes true motive was in measuring how well Lord Angelo is doing his job, he would have confronted him much sooner then he actually does. The Duke inflicts unnecessary harm on people for his own pleasure and feeding of his own ego.

Chemistry in Our Dailylife Essay Example for Free

Chemistry in Our Dailylife Essay Our entire universe is made up of matter which is constantly changing forms and evolving into other forms of energy. Chemistry is defined as the study or science of this ever changing matter. The other sciences which we study commonly like biology, physics and mathematics are all dependent on chemistry and are known as specific studies under the elaborate subject of chemistry. Since there is chemistry seen in biological forms as well as physical states of nature, there are subjects called biochemistry and physical chemistry which help study these changes. There are many chemical changes which occur around us everyday but we are never aware of them. But this is a great way of teaching children how magical the world of chemistry is! With these real examples you can teach them by taking a chemistry in everyday life quiz, as practical studies are always fun to learn. To make this job easier for you, mentioned below are a few such examples of chemistry in everyday life, take a look! Examples There are chemical reactions in daily life like, in the way you breathe, the food you eat, the water you drink and in every motion which is taking place around you at every second of the day. It is a very important and interesting concept which could be taught to your children as they have to know, how their world works. The best way to explain this to them is to show them practically how and why are a few things in nature the way they are! You can do this by demonstrating a few kids chemistry experiments for them. An essay on this topic can be a great start to teach these kids, what a wonderful thing, chemistry is. Find out what these intelligent mechanisms of nature are, that define presence of chemistry in daily life, read on. Water, which occupies 70% of the earths surface is made by two chemical elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Soap is an emulsifier which allows oil and water to mix and so the oily mixtures on body and clothes can be removed after application of soap and water. Chemistry in kids life can also include why vegetables are colored. Colored vegetables consist of chemical compounds called carotenoids which have an area known as the chromophore. It absorbs certain wavelengths of light and thus there are colored vegetables. Food is cooked because of the steam thats present either in the water added or that which is present inside the food items. Onions make you cry due to the presence of sulfur in the cells which break after the onions are cut. This sulfur gets mixed with moisture and thus irritates your eyes. You feel hungry because of the satiety center in your brain falls short of particular hormones to function and then sends the signal of hunger. You fall in love, get attracted and have a feeling of belonging because of certain monoamines present in your brain which get stimulated through nerve sensors. If you have wondered, why is the sky blue, it is due to a phenomenon called the Rayleigh scattering, which depends on scattering of light through particles which are much smaller than the wavelength. Hence when light passes through gases, there is scattering and the sky appears blue. Coffee keeps you awake because of the presence of a chemical called adenosine, in your brain. It binds to certain receptors and slows the nerve cell activity when sleep is signaled. Anaerobic fermentation is also a great concept which is present in the chemistry of everyday life. It is present in yogurt, breads, cakes and many other baking products. It is the multiplication of certain useful bacteria which increase the size of the food and make it more filling and soft. The food chain present in every ecosystem is also a major part of everyday life chemistry. Even though it has more biological background, it eventually works because of its chemistry. With these great examples, there is no other explanation of the existence of earth and its components other than chemistry. Thus, through so much to learn from, you can easily teach your children the importance of chemistry in our day-to-day life!

Emotion And Disgust As A Moral Emotion Psychology Essay

Emotion And Disgust As A Moral Emotion Psychology Essay This research study aims to explain the relationship between feelings of disgust, cleanliness, and moral judgments, and also their potential impact on willingness to pay for fair trade products. In our experiment, participants watched a video including disgust issues and according to their cleanliness priming they cleaned their hand with a sanitizer, with hand wipe, or no cleaning. In the control condition, they only answered questions without seeing the movie. Based on literature review we proposed that there is a negative correlation between state of moral cleanliness and their willingness to pay for ethical products. If people are too moral, their willingness to pay decreases or if they feel immoral, their willingness to pay increases for fair trade products. The findings were not supporting the idea that cleanliness make moral judgments less sever and willingness to pay for fair trade products decreases. Keywords: emotion, disgust, morality, moral judgment, embodiment; embodied cognition, moral licensing, moral cleaning, fair trade products, willingness to pay. How can Disgust Feelings Impact on Purchasing Decision of Fair Trade Products? We do our decisions either rational or emotional. Now think about the scene that you are in a store and standing in front of shelves, and you fetch the fair trade labeled product. After coming home, you realize that you bought so many fair trade labeled products. Normally, you do not buy these kinds of products, but today was different. Does fair trade labeled product make you feel better? Do you think that you are more ethical now? There might be a significant correlation between your instant emotional state, moral judgments and your decisions. Previous studies demonstrated that decision process is related with emotions. In this paper, we want to study the impact of emotions on decision making process. In this research paper, we want to focus on disgust as emotion and its possible association with moral judgments and influence on decision making process. We especially want to focus on economic decisions, because we want to see if it is possible to implement marketing campaigns of fa ir trade product based on moral judgments related issues. Emotion and Disgust as a Moral Emotion Emotions are crucial both in shaping moral judgment and behavior and as reactions to morally-relevant behavior. For this reason, there are so many studies addressing emotions (e.g., fear, anger, disgust, etc.). According to the social intuitionist model of moral reasoning (Haidt, 2001), emotions are the primary driver for shaping moral judgments. This perception is closely in same line with other study, it emphasizes on quick and automatic valuations, in other word intuitive-emotional processes, are critical in the judgment process (Greene Haidt, 2002). People use their affective feelings as a source of information and interpret their conditions in the environment. According to the state of their feeling (e.g., positive or negative), peoples interpretations show differences when making evaluative judgments. In other words, people usually like when they feel positive and dislike when they feel negative about the situation (Schnall, Benton, Harvey 2008). This concept is similarly sta ted in the affect-as-information framework; there is a relationship between emotion and cognition (Schwarz Clore, 1983, 1988, as cited in Schall et al, 2008). According to Niedenthal et al. (2005), social information processing involves embodiment, where embodiment refers both to actual bodily states and to simulations of experience in the brains modality-specific systems for perception, action, and introspection (p.184). Processes of embodied cognition is both online and offline. While online embodiment uses physical objects, offline embodiment has to do with abstract objects in the surroundings. In order to make a meaningful interpretation of symbols, individuals have a count on the relevant, first online embodiment (Niedenthal et al., 2005). Herein, we want to stress on disgust more specifically because it is more related with the focus of our research subject. We often use disgust in a food related concept, but it is also proper for socially immoral people, situations, and behaviors. For instance, a violation of a moral issue regarding to purity has been shown to stimulate disgust feelings (Rozin, Lowery, Imada, Haidt, 1999). Especially, its evolutionary position as a protective emotion, disgust seemed to be a particularly significant emotion concerning moral judgment (Pizarro, Inbar, Helion, 2011). There is also other research addressing the same mechanism of disgust with another remark. According to Rozin, Haidt, and McCauley (2000), the mechanism of disgust has been changed from being a protection of body from harm to being a shield for the soul in case of harm. At this level, disgust becomes moral sense and powerful form of negative socialization. Several studies underlined that pure disgust and moral disgust not only create a similar impact in body, i.e., face expression and physiological activation (Rozin, Lowery, Ebert, 1994 as cited in Zhong Liljenquist, 2006) but also have a place in particularly same brain areas, essentially in the frontal and temporal lobes (Moll et al., 2005, as cited in Zhong Liljenquist, 2006). In order to understand the moral judgment mechanism, we should look at a bit closer the social intuitionist model. According to this model, people usually make their moral judgments according to their feelings (Haidt, 2001). For instance, previous studies showed that moral disgust has immediate impact on judgments and make moral judgments more severe (Schnall et al., 2008; Wheatley Haidt, 2005). Social intuitionist model proposes that moral judgments are shaped by various factors including intuition and instinct, and hardly because of a cognitive process. In other words, intuitions and emotions do not require effort, and they are instant; and that we are not aware of the process consciously. Intuition with reasoning is purposeful, conscious, and to have need for several steps. Moreover, emotional state may play a role, but they do not affect the moral judgment in a straight line. The roles of moral reasoning might be looking for a reason to defend own instant instinctive responses, using logic to share judgments with others and influence them to agree, and counting on reasoning in case of no initial intuition or conflict situation in intuitions(Haidt, 2001). In their study, Schall et al., (2008) stated that disgust feelings can be conveyed to objects for which they are not related. This shows that judgments are under the effect of disgust emotions even it is not interrelated with the situation or object. For instance, Lerner, Small, and Loewenstein (2004) investigated the relationship between emotions and their impacts on endowment effect. They showed that induced disgust emotion by former, unrelated situation had carry-over-effect to normatively independent financial decisions. As a result of inducing disgust when it compared with being in a neutral mood reduced the capital amount that participants were willing to pay for certain objects and endowment. Additionally, the research results of Schall and colleagues (2008) point out a causative relationship between physical disgust feelings and moral criticism. In their experiment, participants made their moral decisions while going through extraneous feelings of disgust. Manipulation of dis gust performed by a bad smell, working in a disgusting room, recalling disgusting experience, and watching a disgusting video clip. In common, the results indicated that disgust causes to moral judgments more severe when it compared to the control condition. More specifically, the participants who were exposed to the unpleasant smell had more severe in their judgments. Additionally, people who showed a high level of body consciousness were more severe in their moral judgments. Cleanliness and Moral Judgments The consideration of cleanliness helps to form a key moral judgment that developed from the need to protection from possibly hazardous materials (Haidt Joseph, 2008, as cited in Schnall et al., 2008). Investigation of the relationship between physical cleansing and moral judgments by (Schall et al., 2008) helped out to understand the importance of cleanliness over moral judgments. They observed that, after washing their hands with cleanser and water participants can reduce their moral judgment severity of video clip including disgust issues. Based on this finding, they assumed that physical cleansing can reduce feelings of disgust and the severity of the moral judgments. With similar viewpoint Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) conducted a study in order to investigate an interchangeability relationship between physical and moral purity, to put it in a different way, physical cleansing acts as a substitute for moral purification. They asked participants to recall a moral or immoral action from their past, as a result of an immoral action came up with more words with cleaning related than those who remembered a moral act. Afterwards, they examined whether a hidden treat to moral cleanliness creates a psychological desire for cleaning; they observed that copying the immoral story amplified the interest of cleansing products. In their next experiment, the possibility of taking an antiseptic cleansing wipe after remembering a moral or immoral act. Not surprisingly, most of the participants who recalled an immoral act took the disinfectant wipes as a gift. In the last experiment, participants described an immoral act from their past. After that, they either cle ansed their hands with an antiseptic wipe or not. They finished a survey regarding with their current emotional state before asking to participants if they would be eager to help for a different research study without pay. Participants, who had preferred to clean their hands, were less willing to be a volunteer to help. The possibility of expressing feeling of guilt, regret, shame or discomfort was eliminated with cleaning. According to the findings; we can conclude that physical cleansing repairs moral self-image. The desire for cleaning is a human coping mechanism, which has changed to reduce feelings of guilt when we act unethically. In a different paradigm, to figure out the importance of sense on behaviors Holland, Hendriks, and Aarts (2005) conducted a study. The result of the research demonstrated that scent can have non-conscious influence on both thought and behavior and makes participants more sensitive to moral-related words. In addition, pleasing fragrances activate and expose positive memories, information and moods, which leads to increased ease of access of information, and information processing depth. On the other hand, their study did not clearly address the role of odor in moral judgments and moral cleansing. The research study by Liljenquist, Zhong, and Galinsky (2010) also demonstrated that clean smell both motivates clean behavior and increases moral behaviors such as mutual trust as well as proposing help for charity. Moral Licensing and Moral Cleaning Researchers Khan and Dhar (2006) describe the phenomena of moral licensing as an unconscious effect that provides a moral enhancement in oneself self-image. They point out the significance importance of prior choices in activating and improving oneself self-image. It helps us to understand the preference mechanism of human among the set of alternatives. In addition, results of the research demonstrate that a primary altruistic intent enhancing the relevant self-concept can free a person to pick a more indulgent possibility. It is an valuable outcome for understanding the influence of priming on a self-concept for the next choices. According to this research results (Merritt et al., 2010) moral licensing is not only decrease prosocial enthusiasm, but also less inhibit ethically doubtful behavior. The study conducted by Sachdeva, Iliev, and Medin (2009) also demonstrated compensatory and regulatory behavior of people. It suggests that with high moral self-worth people can behave immora lly. Also, people can show opposite behavior in other area of their life because their ample self-image in some way forces them to balance out all that goodness. In other words, we adjust our sense of self-worth by doing moral self-regulation continuously. For example, when we think that were too moral, we feel that we have the right to be immoral for a moment. On the other hand, if we think that we act immoral, we feel necessity for doing something moral to feel better again about ourselves. This type of reactions can be thought of as moral licensing. Principally, thinking of positive behaviors increases ones self-worth while negative behaviors decrease it. In the experiment, conducted by Sachdeva et al. (2009), participants thought that they took part in a handwriting test. All experimentations involved positive traits and negative traits behaviors condition. By asking participants to think of both positive and negative behaviors connected with them, they manipulated participants degree of self-worth, and they also were asked if they have a desire for contributing for a charity with money on hand. Participants who had higher self-worth donated low amount of money to charities than participants with lower positive self-image. They observed that priming people with positive and negative deeds strongly affected ethical behavior. Participants, who wrote about their moral behavior, donated the lowest amount, while participants who wrote about immoral behavior donated highest amount. Dissimilarity, participants, who were in the negative condition and wrote about their immoral story, gave more than those who wrote a unethical story about others. Participants showed a need for the moral-cleansing or moral-licensing only when they wrote about themselves. To put it in a different way, changes in self-concept would take place when participants think about themselves, rather than thinking about another person. In short, talking about themselves activated the occurrence of the moral-cleansing and moral-licensing effects on people. Merritt et al. (2010) claim that when individuals have had a chance to establish their kindness, generosity, or compassion, they should worry less about engaging in behaviors that might appear to violate prosocial norms (p.346) and behaviors that establish ones morality can disinhibit people to act in morally dubious ways (p.354). Sachdeva et al. (2009) said If people feel too moral they might not have sufficient incentive to engage in moral action because prosocial behavior is inherently costly to the individual (p.524). The other research study (Jordan, Mullen, and Murnighan, 2009, as cited in Merritt et al., 2010) found similar outcomes using prosocial intentions as a dependent measure. After asking participants to describe their past activity in terms of their ethical, unethical and neutral themes, they indicated the probability of their engagement in each of numerous prosocial activities (i.e., money donations, giving blood, and volunteering). Participants who remembered their ethical act stated less prosocial intentions than the control group, representative of moral licensing while prosocial intentions of participants, who recalled a their unethical act, were higher than the control group. This performance referred as a moral cleansing. In the second experiment, they asked participants if they would cheat on a math exam. Participants, who recalled a past good action, were most probable to cheat than people who recalled a past immoral action. Horberg and colleagues (2009), propose that disgust can polarize moral judgments, leading people to judge other people and their behaviors as more morally negative when the behaviors or people are themselves objectively negative, and more morally positive or commendable when the behaviors or people are themselves objectively positive. Hypotheses As we discussed in the previously, cleansing has a significant effect on moral judgments in other words, making them less harsh and we make our decision according to these instant emotions. We also know that disgust induced emotions effect can be carried over to unconnected economic decisions. Economic decisions show differences according to persons moral self-worth need (moral cleansing and moral licensing). Based on this logic, we set hypotheses as following: The first hypothesis stated that participants in the sanitizer condition will be less willing to choice for fair trade product when it compared to those in the movie condition. The second hypothesis stated that participants in the sanitizer condition will be less willing to pay for fair trade and regular products when it compared to participants in the movie condition. The third hypothesis stated that participants in the sanitizer condition will be less severe in their moral judgment for moral dilemmas when it compared to participants in the movie condition In this present research we measure the effect of cleanliness on moral judgments and economic decision by constructing dependent variables: willingness to pay (to what degree that participants willing to pay for fair trade and regular products), product choice questionnaire (to what degree that participants choose fair trade products), moral dilemmas (to what degree that participants moral judgments are affected by cleanliness priming), and chocolate sheet (to what degree that participants choose fair trade chocolate). We defined four dependent variables according to their possible relationship with moral judgments by sourcing former studies. Method Participants In total 149 (71 male, 78 female, M age= 24.32, SD=4.67) undergraduate students, a great majority of them were studying in the University of Bern, participated in the experiment individually. Participants of the study were recruited at the UniS cafeteria at the University of Bern. They were asked if they would like to participate in the short experiment attempting to investigate the consumer behavior. They were also told that they would get 3 Swiss Franc for their participation. Research Design The experiment was designed as a combination of between and within subject design. It employed 4 cleanliness (sanitizer, hand wipe, movie and control) x 2 product categories (fair trade and movie) in a mixed factorial design. In the experiment, independent variables (short video, hand cleansing and hand wipe) were manipulated between subjects and dependent variables (product choice and willingness to pay (WTP)) were manipulated within subjects (regular and fair trade products). By combining different independent variables with each other, we defined four different conditions. These conditions were the video-hand sanitizer condition, the video-hand wipe condition, the video clip condition and the control condition. The control condition was used for manipulation check. Materials Independent Variables A Short Video- Ninety seconds scene from the film Trainspotting that was presented to stimulate in disgust (Schall et al., 2008), was used to show the participants in the related conditions. Hand sanitizer (branded as Nexcare) an alcohol-based disinfection gel It works in 30 seconds and 99.9% protection against bacteria, fungi and viruses. Hand wipes (branded as Coop Fresh Clean)- for gentle cleaning and pleasant refreshment. Product Evaluation Questionnaire- By using a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good), participants were asked to evaluate the related product which they were given to use (hand sanitizer or hand wipe). The questions asked were: How well did the hand sanitizer / hand wipe clean your hands?, How clean do your hands feel after the using hand sanitizer gel/ hand wipe?, How pleasant was the usage of the hand sanitizer gel/ hand wipe? Dependent Variables Willingness to Pay (WTP) Questionnaire- Participants were asked to define their price level for the 8 different regular and the 8 fair trade product types. Products were banana, chocolate, oranges, pineapple, ice cream, coffee, gummy bears and rice. Participants were given 15 different prices with the reference price (market price) in the middle of the price scale. Increment for prices in the scale was +/- 10% of the reference price. Product Choice Questionnaire- Once finished the part related to willingness to pay, participants were asked to indicate that how often (scaled as 0 to 10 purchases) they would buy the fair trade products. In this part, same 8 product kinds used similarly in the WTP Part. Moral dilemmas- Directly after completing the product choice part, participants continued with rating five moral dilemmas (Schall, Haidt, Clore Cordan, 2008). Short stories were used to associate whether disgust related scenarios would be judged more severely than scenarios involving no disgust. Participants indicated their judgments about how wrong each of five moral dilemmas by using the 9-point Likert-type scales from 0 (perfectly OK) to 9 (extremely wrong). The rating scale label was reversed to simplify the interpretation of results, with higher ratings indicating higher levels of moral disapproval. We assumed that two out of five of these vignettes involved a moral violation with disgust: Dog (a man who ate his dead dog), Plane Crash (starving survivors of a plane crash consider cannibalism). The rest of vignettes involved a moral violation with no disgust: Wallet (finding a wallet and not returning it to its owner), Resume (a person falsifying his resume) and Trolley (prevent ing the death of five men by killing one man). The instructions told participants to go with their initial intuitions when responding. Chocolate sheet- It was including 12 different types of chocolate types with pictures (6 regular and 6 fair trade products). Participants were asked to choose 5 chocolates in total without limitation. Control Variable Private Body Consciousness Questionnaire- After finished the moral judgment vignettes, participants completed the Private Body Consciousness Questionnaire (Miller et al., 1981), which contained five items. Participants used a 6-point Likert-type scale from 1 (disagree strongly) to 6 (agree strongly). The items used were: I am sensitive to internal bodily tensions, I know immediately when my mouth or throat gets dry, I can often feel my heart beating, I am quick to sense the hunger contractions of my stomach, and I am very aware of changes in my body temperature. Procedure When the participant arrived to the PC room, first it was asked to sign a consent form. After participants had signed the form, it was showed to a sit at the computer desk which was isolated from other computer desks with a cabin in order to prevent disturbing the participant by others during the experiment. Before each participant entered to the PC laboratory, the room was ventilated in order to be sure there had been no smell from the sanitizer or the hand wipe as a result of the previous experiment session. First, participants were told to wear the headphone when they were watching the video. In the video-sanitizer condition, participants watched a short video which was previously mentioned in the material section and then they were given a hand cleansing to clean their hand for 30 seconds. The next part of the experiment was framed as product evaluation and participants answered the product evaluation questionnaire which was mentioned in the material section. In the video-hand wi pe condition, participants followed same steps like in the video- hand sanitizer condition. However, they were given hand wipe to clean their hand and asked to make the product evaluation based on hand wipe with the same questions. In the video clip condition, participants watched only the video clip and continued to do the experiment with a willingness to pay part. For the control condition, participants directly started to do the experiment from the willingness to pay part. From the point of willingness to pay questionnaire, all participants of all conditions followed the same path until the end of the experiment. In the first part of the willingness to pay, participants were asked to define their price over eight different regular products (banana, chocolate, oranges, pineapple, ice cream, coffee, gummy bears and rice). Same procedure was repeated for the fair trade products. Afterwards, participants were asked to indicate that how often (out of 10 purchases) they would buy the fair trade products with product choice part. In the product choice part, the same eight product types were used also in the willingness to pay part. After completing this part participants rated five moral dilemmas. Immediately after the priming task, participants finished the experiment by completing the Private Body Consciousness Questionnaire. After participants had finished the experiment, they were given a chocolate sheet (including six regular and six fair trade chocolate kinds with pictures) and asked to choose 5 chocolates in total out of 12 different kinds of chocolate. The number of fair trade choice was noted down. At the end of the experiment, participants were remunerated with 3 Swiss Franc for their participation and asked to sign the receipt of reward to confirm the payment. They also got the chocolates which they chose as a part of the experiment. Results Choice of Fair Trade Products In order to test whether the cleanliness priming had an impact on the choice of fair trade products at the end of the experiment, we analyzed results by independent t- test with the priming (movie vs. sanitizer) as a factor. The result of group statistics indicated the choice of fair trade product in sanitizing condition (M = 4.61, SD=2.21) and the movie condition (M=4.15, SD=1.87). To make a valid conclusion from this result, we looked at the results of t-test for independent samples (t (78) =0.98, p =0.32). Significance level indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the choice of fair trade products for sanitizer and movie conditions. By looking at this result, we summarize that cleanliness priming did not show any influence over the fair-trade product choice. WTP for Fair Trade Regular Products In order to investigate the impact of the cleanliness priming (movie and sanitizer) over willingness to pay for fair trade and regular products, results were analyzed by ANOVA. The results were in the same way with hypothesis. WTP for fair trade products was higher in movie condition when it compared to the sanitizer condition. In a 2 (willingness to pay for fair trade and regular products) x 2 (sanitizer and movie conditions) mixed factorial analysis of variance the interaction was significant, F (1, 78) = 6.54, p = 0.012. We can say that there was a significant interaction between willingness to pay and conditions. Also looking at the significance value of WTP in tests of within subject contrasts (F (1) = 132.4, p = 0.000) shows us that there was a significance difference WTP of fair trade and WTP of regular products. Participants were more willing to pay more for fair trade products when it compared to regular products (Figure 1). Figure 1- Willingness to pay for fair trade and regular products according to sanitizer and movie conditions. In order to analyze if there is a real connection between the condition type and the willingness to pay for fair trade and regular products, we carried out independent t-test. According to the result of it, there was no significant difference for willingness to pay for fair trade products between sanitizer (M =8.57, SD =1.87) and movie condition (M = 8.67, SD = 1.87); t (78) =-0.216, p = 0.829. We can interpret this as; there was no effect of conditions on participants willingness to pay for fair trade products. On the other hand, there was marginally significant difference between sanitizer (M = 6.92, SD = 1.88) and movie condition (M = 7.61, SD = 1.70); t (78) = -1.71, p = 0.09 for willingness to pay for regular products. We can only say that conditions had an effect on willingness to pay for regular products. Participants were willing to pay more for regular products in movie condition than the sanitizer condition. When we look at the effect of the movie and sanitizer conditions on willingness to pay for fair trade and regular products, we see no significant main effect of conditions (F(1, 78) = 0.98, p = 0.32). Moral Dilemmas We calculated the average composite ratings for all moral dilemmas as a first step (Figure 2). We assumed that participants who cleaned their hands after watching the disgusting video would make less severe judgments than participants who did not clean their hands. We used an independent-samples t-test to compare the severity of moral judgments in sanitizer and movie conditions. There was a significant difference in the scores for sanitizer condition (M = 6.80, SD=1.49) and movie condition (M = 6.09, SD = 1.13); t (78) = 2.39, p = 0.019. These results indicated that conditions had an impact on moral judgments. Specifically, sanitizing hands had on the effect about making moral judgments more severe than in the movie condition. Cronbachs alpha was calculated as 0.31, which indicated a low level of internal consistency with regards to moral dilemmas. This value showed lower bound for reliability, and moral dilemmas were not measuring the same phenomena. Figure 2- Average composite ratings for moral dilemmas in the experiment for sanitizer and movie condition. Discussion The present study examined the role of cleanliness on moral judgments, more specifically on purchase decision and willingness to pay for fair trade products. We used experimental method in order to have evidence for our predictions, but we observed relatively inconsistent support for our hypotheses. We found that there was no significant difference regarding participants choice of fair trade products in the movie and sanitizer conditions. Consequently, one of our hypotheses about the cleanliness was unsupported. We did not see any influence of cleanliness on moral judgments and more specifically on the choice of fair trade products. On the other hand, it did not mean that our research finding challenges the validity of influence of cleanliness on moral judgments. The concept and identity of fair trade products might have a bias effect on the choice of them. For example, the price of fair trade products is higher than the regular products. Price can be a powerful influence on the deci sion of fair trade products purchase. We did our study mostly with university students who have low purchasing power and. Second finding of our research was about willingness to pay for fair trade and regular products in terms of two cleanliness conditions (movie and sanitizer). We saw significant interaction between conditions and willingness to pay at first look. When we looked in detail, we saw that there was no effect of condition on wiliness to pay in general. We looked at the results again because at first sight we saw an interaction between conditions and product types. The main aim was to figure out the interaction in individual level both fair trade and regular products. It was obvious that participants were willing to pay more for fair trade products than regular products. We observed that there was no effect of condition on willingness to pay for fair trade products. We assume that there were other influences triggering this effect. As we mentioned before, fair trade products have high in price value and this might have bias effec

Oppression Of People Of Color Essay -- essays research papers

The myth that â€Å"all men are equal† has created false hopes for the people of color, who continually seek opportunities to excel, that just aren’t there. They have been led to believe that intelligence and ambitions are key contributors to one’s success. Even if they do possess ambition and intelligence, the dominant majority of the white population oppresses them. This type of oppression points out that new methods of struggle are needed, such as whose employed by Martin Luther King, Jr., Franz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois. Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated nonviolence to suppress oppression in his essay, â€Å"The Power of Nonviolent Action.† King's factual and reasoned approach is intended to win his adversaries over by appealing to their consciences. King realized that the best strategy to liberate African-Americans and gain them justice was to use nonviolent forms of resistance. He wanted to eliminate the use of violence as a means to manage and establish cooperative ways of interacting. Moreover, King states that the â€Å"oppressed people must organize themselves into a militant and nonviolent mass movement† in order to achieve the goal of integration. The oppressed must â€Å"convince the oppressors that all he seeks is justice, for both himself and the white man† (King, 345). Furthermore, King agreed with Gandhi that if a law is unjust, it is the duty of the oppressed to break the law, and do what they believe to be right. Once a law is broken, the person must be willing to accept the ...

In Search of King Arthur :: Internet Literature Essays

In Search of King Arthur Ever since I was a little girl, I was fascinated by stories of courageous knights and virtuous ladies, who populate the covers and pages of books and screens of the movie theaters. Their splendid attire, glamour of the courts and impeccable manners attracted and conquered the imagination of the little girl. Robin Hood was one of my favorite characters, however there was one hero, who troubled my imagination most of all. I have heard and read numerous stories of a magnificent, just and most generous king of all, King Arthur. Legends and myths surrounding the adventures of this character preoccupied my thoughts and pulled me into reading marathons. Today, several years later, I am continuing to indulge my interests. Luckily there is so much material available on the Internet on the subject of King Arthur's and his knights' adventures that I don't have any trouble locating the material interesting to me. Moreover, I have found the following Internet sites most useful in studying the top ic of King Arthur's adventures: Britannia.com (http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html), The History and Historicisation of Arthur (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tomgreen/arthur.htm) and Legends (http://legends.dm.net/kingarthur/index.html.). Britannia.com is a very well-structured website. The home page of this Internet site is organized in a manner that allows a viewer to locate necessary information speedily and with ease. However, besides being well structured, the site contains all the essential information related to King Arthur and other main characters of the legend such as Merlin, Guinevere. Information on Geoffrey of Monmounth, the author of the History of the Kings of Britain, is also available. A viewer only needs to click on Arthur, the King (http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kaking.html) in order to find numerous hypotheses of King Arthur's birth and origin as well as general theories of his existence: "Arthur, it seems, is claimed as the king of nearly every Celtic Kingdom know" (Arthur, the King, p.1). Here King Arthur is claimed to be a Breton king, a Dumnonian king, a Cumbrian king, an Elmet king, a Scottish king, a Powysian king, among others. Many historians such as Geoffrey Ashe, Graham Philips and Martin Keatman identify Arthur with various noble houses that occupied territories of Great Britain and Scotland. Furthermore, Britannia.com contains links to such material as Timeline of Arthurian History (http://www.britannia.com/history/timearth.html). These pages contain a detailed timeline, starting from 63 A.D., with Joseph of Arimathea's coming to Glastonbury, bringing with him the Holy Grail, and ending in 1090 A.

Registration and Billing System Essay

1.1 BACKROUND OF THE STUDY Technology nowadays has played a major role in the success of business and helping business to become more competitive in the industry as well as in the economy. Having a broad understanding and a responsible knowledge of information technology and its role in the new economy enables the business to be successful and reach its goals effectively and efficiently. Since the use of manual system on billing is very time consuming, it is usually done and used only by extremely small establishments. This is where the introduction of computer technology integrated with manual procedures started in businesses. This system will deal with the company billings and also keeps a record of stocks. It is not only highly accurate but also saves much time and money over the long term. The main advantages of a computerized billing and accounting system is fast and accurate invoices, credit notes, purchased orders, printing statements and payroll documents are all done automatically. The accounting records are automatically updated; the data is instantly available and can be made available to different users in different locations at the same time. Computerized  accounting programs reduce staff time doing accounts and reduce audit expenses as records are neat, up-to-date and accurate. Billing system can give the company and its clients all of the required da ta that they will need for items related to billing. The major advantage of having billing system in place is that they allow you to effectively manage customer payments. The Royal Residence Condominium is the third project of a proven and tested company, the BESTWAY Construction and Development Corporation, in the field of Real Estate Residential Development. The project was conceptualized to offer an innovative property investment opportunity and set a benchmark in making upscale residence-service provider, a lucrative business. The project was completed in a period of one year, from the ground breaking in September 2010 to receiving its Certificate of Occupancy in September 2011. The Royal Residence Condominium has been established to meet the growing need for convenient, safe and wholesome residence-provider and as a second home to qualified university and college students, board reviewees, and young professionals in the metro City of Baguio. The Royal Condominium is a 7-storey building with 4 commercial units (canteen, mini-mart and stock bar, laundry shop and salon spa) and 12 condominium residential dormitory units. Each unit consists of 12 condotel-like rooms. The Royal Condominium is located along Rimando Road, Aurora Hill- Trancoville, Baguio City. 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The study aims to design a computerized registration and billing system for Royal Condominiums. The proposed system will minimize, if not, eliminate the existing problems the company encounters with regards to the registration and billing system. The minimization and or elimination of the existing problems would then make the information more effective, efficient and reliable. It will also facilitate an organized billing system for the user through the implementation of a computer – based information system that can help in the organization’s operations to become more efficient and reliable. The study aims to answer the following questions: 1.2.1 What are the hardware to be used in the billing and registration system? 1.2.2 What are the processes involved in the said system? 1.2.3 How to incorporate the billing and registration system in the existing  setup of the company 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3.1 To identify the hardware to be used in the billing and registration system. 1.3.2 To enumerate the processes involved in the billing and registration system. 1.3.3 To know how the billing and registration system be incorporated in the existing set-up of the company. 1.4 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY The researchers have conducted a study about the application of a Front Office System (FOS) with regards to Billing and Registration to Royal Dormitory and Condominium since there is no existing Information System (IS) yet. Manual transactions of more or less 200 tenants have given rise to problems in processing records. In line with this, this study of application of a FOS will provide an appropriate solution. It will give a faster recording transaction and more accurate records to improve the business process. A shift from manual transaction to an automated one will benefit both the business and the residents for both greater satisfaction and comfort. Being a student is never easy. But this study will make the researchers more patient and prepare them to the fast approaching business world. As students, it will help the researchers be knowledgeable in the operation of a business. Since they are yet to be businesswomen, it is a stepping stone to professionalism. To other researchers , this will serve as a guide and a motivation. Hardships had been a deposit but success is always priceless, indeed. 1.5 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION The research was conducted to be able to give solutions to the problems being encountered by the Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory. Conducting such research requires a deeper understanding the problems of the business entity. The research covers the problem of the said business entity with regards to their registration and billing system. The researchers proposed an Information system – Registration and Billing System – which can help the entity to lessen errors when it comes to recording transactions among their tenants (College students, reviewers, transients and others) because the entity does not have an existing information system. The proposed system would then require less processes and human errors with the desired output of the entity. More or less 200 tenants occupy the said entity in which it  composes of men and women of with different age brackets. Tenants of the dormitory came from different provinces who are usually college students. The said entity is near universities and also near different business establishments which gave interest to customers to live to the Royal Dormitory and Condominiums. Before the research started, researchers scheduled interviews which were used by the researchers to create a proposed system by conducting an interview with the owner/manager which have great control over the registration and billing system of the company. With the help of the information given by the owner/manager of the entity, researchers were able to understand the main problem of their entity and be able to propose an appropriate Information System with regards to the problem. The researchers collected the needed data and information for their proposal. After gathering such information, problems being encountered by Royal Dormitory and Condominiums were determined and possible solutions were planned. However, different problems may also arise especially if the proposed system of the researches will be effective or might add more errors with regards to the records of the business entity which composes of payment of rent, electric bills, food, violations, and others. The management must make sure that the staff or employee who will control or operate the proposed Information System must have knowledge and be able to know how to handle if ever he/she encounters problem with the system. The proposed system does not cover losses and damages with regards to personal things, money, or gadgets inside the condominium. It only covers the organizing or recording different transactions which are registration of each tenant, their monthly payments of rents or violations and billings of each tenant. The researchers limited the research with these processes to be able to focus on a certain problem which the entity needs at the present. First month of using the information system may result to confusion on how it works and it might also have positive impact with the management and also with the tenants. We cannot also deny the fact that the proposed Information System may arise different problems but as much as possible avoid them. The said research will take five months to finish and be able to help the entity solve their problems and the proposed system has a useful life of 3 years. 1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS Billing System – It is a combination of software and hardware that receives call detail and service usage information, groups this information for specific accounts or customers, produces invoices, creates reports for management, and records (posts) payments made to customer accounts. Information System – It consists of a collection of people, processes, data, models, technology and partly formalized language, forming a cohesive structure which serves some organizational purpose or function. Registration System – it is a system that allows registrars to make changes to the database in real time. References: Anonymous. (2012). Management snformation systems (MIS). p 3 Billing system. (2009). Billing dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.billingdictionary.com/ Glossary. (2009 – 2013). European Identity. Retreived from http://www.eurid.eu/en/ CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Online Registration System Another study is the â€Å"Online Registration System† which was conducted by Al-Shaikh in Jordan. According to Al-Shaikh, the problem is the difficulty to register and manage the data of more than 15,000 students who are taking their exams in the universities using the conventional manual system. Using this system, it is hard to communicate between the colleges and the unit that is responsible for the examination of the students. The gathered data can be inaccurate and the fact that not all the colleges fill their students’ data properly or correctly and data storage might be susceptible to corruption at any time. In his study, the proposed system is the Online-Registration system but it is just a sub-system of Web Portal. Web Portal is defined as a system that presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. The proposed system is a 3-Tier web-based. 3-Tier Architecture is a Client/Server Architecture. In registration system, as a result, after entering the student data to the system, user can have the confirmation to assure the students was enrolled into the exam and the exam receipt to be given to the student. For the reporting subsystem, it will be easily know how many students applied for the exam and the fees required for  each student. Last is the repository subsystem where the user can download the files necessary to manage the activities. Computerized Billing for Time Improves Client Communication and Firm Profitability As cited in the article entitled â€Å"Computerized Billing for Time Improves Client Communication and Firm Profitability† by Murphy (1996), he stated that, accounting firms can improve their profitability and relation with clients by automating client billing with computers. Accounting firms can use personal computer as an economical means of computerizing the billing process. A Computerized Billing System allows accounting firms to more effectively manage their employee’s productivity and give them the means to analyse the hours available and hours billed of each employee. A Computerized Billing System provides more control over accounts receivable and client work processes. Computer in Today’s World Philippines According to the article entitled, â€Å"Computer In Today’s World Philippines† by Bitter (1995), stated that the function performed by the computer division of various organizations has become identified as data processing program expedite many business functions such as the accounts payable system. They keep records of vendor’s number, special accounts and dates of payments. There are many advantages in using an accounts payable package: all information remains in one done automatically; calculations are easily made; the time involved to do work is greatly reduced. Information to Computer and Information System According to the article entitled â€Å"Information to Computer and Information System† by Syzmanski (1998), Computers are used in business for many tasks that can be grouped into category called data processing. Data processing includes tasks such as word processing, billing, and assembling number and facts associated with general office functions, such as order processing, inventory and billing. Billing System A research about Billing System was conducted by various students from International School of Informatics and Management in Jaipur. This study, therefore, is closely-related to our topic which is Billing and Registration System. According to their case study, there are several problems with the existing system the business uses that must be worked on and improved. That’s why they decided to make and propose some solutions for the said system. The researchers – Anil Kumar Anjana, Bhaiya Lal Anjana, and Saurabh Jai – figured out that time (to retrieve and store data) is a common problem with the existing system the company uses. The system also requires a lot of paper works and even a small transaction requires many papers to be filled. Thus, any fortuitous event (such as fire and such) can easily destroy all the data of the organization. A loss of even a single paper or a document can lead to a burdensome situation for the business, because all of the papers are interrelated. Another problem states that the data cannot be shared or utilized by different persons at the same time. Actual movement of the data must be done in order to make it usable by several persons at any time. To sum it all up, these problems should be solved by altering or improving its processes. Time is always of the essence, and it is very important in businesses. Just by the mere identification and analysis of the problems being showed in the existing system, it would cost the business itself MORE once these are not solved. They also conducted a feasibility study with regards to their proposed system. They considered the technical, behavioural, and economic feasibilities of the study. They identified things from software to the hardware that the system might be using once it is implemented. In terms of behavioral feasibility, they studied or evaluated the behavior of the end users of the system which may affect the system’s implementation. Some people are resistant to changes. So, a good estimate should be made on how strong a reaction the user staff is likely to have towards the development of a computerized system. As the aim of the system is only to satisfy the information needs, no employees will lose their position by the proposed system. In fact, the proposed system will help the organization in reducing  the voluminous work involved. With the economic feasibility involved, the procedure is to determine the benefits/advantages and savings that are expected from the system and compare it with the costs to be generated once implemented. If the benefits outweigh costs, such as manpower and hardware and software costs, then it is said to be that the system is approved and ready to be designed and implemented. But, if otherwise happens, wherein costs are greater that the benefits, further alterations should be made in order to make the proposed system a better one. Design and Implementation of Accounting Models for Services in Agent-Based Information Systems According to Rupert Rockinger and Hubert Baumeister, the fast growing field of electronic commerce brings today’s applications to their limits. Information systems are now being used to further automate the processes. A fully automated process can also help busy users who want to spend as little time as possible with a single transaction. A system capable of accounting can return the needed product without requiring any further attention by the user. In the study of Rockinger and Baumeister the design and implementation of the basic agent framework billing system (BABSy) is described. It includes an overview about payment models in everyday life, parts of the system that are already being used today, and where BABSy takes its place in this context, and describes the architecture of BABSy and its implementation using the FollowMe framework. The term ’service’ is used in the study instead of merchandise since in the electronic world goods are often virtual. Buying information for example can be considered the service of supplying this data. With all the benefits of agent technology in mind, one would expect that there are many solutions available for accounting in commercial agent frameworks. This, however, is not the case at this time. Mostly this is due to the fact that agents cover only a certain aspect of the behavior model. To identify the participating agents let’s take a look at a conventional transaction. Say, for example, you buy a meal at your favorite restaurant. Two parties are obvious: you, the paying customer, and the selling restaurant owner. The third party in the interaction is a banking service that provides the guarantee for the payment used. When paying cash this is the central bank of a country that guarantees the value of your bank notes; for credit card payment this is the cred it card company; and when paying by check this will be bank that issued the check. Either way  there is always a third party involved that both others must recognize and trust. So within the agent framework three independent components are needed. One for the provider, one for the customer and a third that represents a banking service. In this paper the design of the accounting system BABSy for services in an agent community was presented. This can greatly improve the value of electronic commerce applications in the future.The design of the BABSy core components covers the most important payment models while still leaving room for further functionality. Most components can be extended for much greater complexity if desired. Online Bill Payment 2.0 Digital financial transactions have caused the increase in consumer convenience and its ease of use that was evidenced by a Consumer Trends Survey conducted by Fisherv Inc. in 2011. Despite the former, e-billing and e-statement users reduced bad debt by 50 percent and at the same time has reduced the reconciliation costs by 40 percent. Electronic billing also has reduced the use of paper, meaning no postage and no wastes. Another upgrade in the digital financial transactions is the personalization of online payment. In one study, payments increased more than 350 percent payments were made with personalized tools compared to other Web-based payment systems (source: confidential client data). According to Mark Snow, the main reason why personalized online billing is more effective than that of the others is the intrigue it creates in the minds of the users. The moment they see that personalized link to access their own website, curiosity kicks in and they want to see more. The ease of access and the convenience that regular online billing providers are doubled by the personalization of the existing systems by directly integrating the billing and payment system to the provider’s account that increases efficiency and reduces the time is called the consuming manual payment processing. He also cited in the article the steps taken in the personalized online payment which starts by sending a personal notification that directly goes to the patient via letter or email. In that letter, there would be an existing link and password that would lead them to the patient’s personal website where the existing personal information and the services the patient has undergone. In the said link, the patient can already pay their bills via credit card, debit card,  or ACH on their account and can even update their personal information. And with just one click of a button, their payment is processed, confirmation of payment is sent to both the provider and th e patient, and the money is already deposited into the provider’s account. References: Al-Shaikh, A. M. (n.d.) Online registration system. Retreive from www.cscjournals.org Anjana, A.K., Anjana, B. L., & Jain, S. (n.d.) Billing system. International school of informatics and management. Jaipur. Snow, M. (2012). Online bill payment 2.0. Health Management Technology, 33(10), 18-19. Bitter, Gary G. (1995). Computer in Today’s World Philippine. The McMillan Com. Smith, Murphy L. (1996). Computerized billing for time improves client communication and firm profitability. (Management of an accounting practice) the CPA journal Syzmanski, Robert A. (1998). Introduction to computer and information systems. merrill publishing co. R. Rockinger. (1999). Design and implementation of accounting models for services in agent-based information systems. Master’s thesis. Institut f ¨ur Informatik. Universit ¨at M ¨unchen, M ¨unchen. Germany. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Quantitative research methodology was used for this study. Quantitative research is a formal, objective, and systematic process. In situations where little is known, like in the case of Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory, quantitative method was used in conducting the interviews, to focus groups, and others. Data based on the interview were used by the researchers to find out problems of the existing system used by the said company. Once the problem has been identified by the researchers, then, the quantitative approach will be used to measure to what extent this problem may have to the company and its customers. The said method also aims to answer questions with regards to the â€Å"how many†, and â€Å"how much† of a problem. 3.2 RESEARCH TOOLS Interview The researchers interviewed the marketing officer from the accounting office  of the Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory. Researchers asked for the information about the company and the existing system the company is currently using and other relevant information that are useful to the study. The actual interview was recorded by the researchers. Observation It has been observed that the administration keeps a lot of paper files. In addition, manual transaction is very evident. These caused problems, and in effect, the researchers proposed the Registration and Billing System. Journals The researchers used some published journals and other related research papers for reference and for comparability purposes. 3.3 EXISTING SYSTEM Currently, the Royal Residence is utilizing the Microsoft Excel as its system. This software is a spread sheet application developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language. Using excel, the company is able to keep a record of its tenants. One unit has its own excel file where every tenant has his/her own worksheet where his/her amount due can be found. In that worksheet, the utilities payable of the tenant and even the other payables like penalties/ interest are already computed just by entering the formula. Since the system can perform the calculation, the company can determine the total amount due of each tenant by using the functions of excel. In this system, the company still performs the manual input. 3.4 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED WITH THE EXISTING SYSTEM During the interview session with Miss Maria Vilma T. Lerpido, Marketing Officer from the Accounting Management of The Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory, we asked her if they have been facing some problems with the registration and billing system they are using in the business. And as evidenced by the interview we conducted and through our observation, we have figured out some complications with the system. As for the royal residence condominium-dormitory, time is one of the problems they are encountering with their system. We could say that it is  time-consuming because manual input of data is being practiced. In addition to this, we, the researchers, have noticed that the records of the tenants in each unit in their condominium-dormitory are being individually filed in excel. Each excel file contains the records of the each tenant in different worksheets. One file is equivalent to one unit, with several rooms, in the condominium-dormitory wherein it contains its corresponding tenants’ records. The file consists of the tenants’ payment dues – from the monthly rental up to the electric and water bills a tenant has incurred. Computation of the penalty dues and other expenses by the tenant is being performed by the Microsoft Excel itself. Thus, once an authorized personnel looks for a tenant’s records, it would take time for him searching the name from the list of the documents saved in the computer. So, what if all of the tenants – more or less 200 – would pay their dues at the same time, would the staff do the computations that fast and easy considering that s/he will be accommodating numbers of customers in just a short period of time? The system must be developed to improve its performance, less cost, less pressure, and with that, the personnel can just simply look for the records with the already-computed charges, then, it can already be printed as a physical evidence of the tenant’s accounts. CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND FINDINGS 4.1 PROPOSED SYSTEM One of the advantages of the system is that, it is time saving. It is created in order to save time creating and sending invoices. It has low mistake risks, secured from typographical errors, miscalculations, and erroneous invoicing to the customer. Another is it provides a lot of different features. You can adapt billing program to yourself considering specifics of your business. For example you can define when, to whom, and how often you want to send recurring invoices. It is a cost effective way to protect a record through a centralized application process. Renewal and subsequent changes concerning ownership details can also be handled using this centralized process. And registration ensures a single, consistent approach to monitoring quality service. It gives confidence that all tenants have achieved the same essential levels of safety. For the disadvantages of the  system, Registration and Billing System would be costly. A small business may not afford this. If in case it can purchase, return of investment would take longer. Purchasing this system is a costly investment. Sometimes, the money paid could be used to other greater income generating investments, with higher assurance of return. When the system is implemented, there will be a reduction of labor force. There will be less job opportunities for human resource. And in some instances, the labor force would be too dependent with the system, and considering that the system is not 100 % guaranteed free from error. When the labor force doesn’t personally check the entered information, an overstatement or understatement of accounts may happen. Though, this is one-in-a-million case, the system still possesses accuracy. The system still follows the input data. Once they are mistakenly done, the system will also provide an incorrect output. For example, when the tenant/administration entered a wrong tenant number for a specific payment, then the system will follow what was entered. It cannot detect such an error. The system is restricted to cash payment only. Credit cards and bank transactions are not involved. 4.2 DATA FLOW DIAGRAM 4.2.1 CONTEXT DIAGRAM Registration and Billing System consists three entities – tenant, administration, and accounting. In this system, it starts with the tenant entity wherein it gives details that are needed by other entities. Once the tenant gives those details, the system will work on it in order to produce outputs from the entities in the said system. 4.2.2 DIAGRAM 0 Diagram 0 is a confounded version of the context diagram that shows the major processes done in the system. The start of these processes is to classify the old and new tenants. If tenants are new, a new profile is created, saved in a data store, and the tenant details are used by the system to proceed to  the next processes – create statement, apply payment, and lastly, create reports needed by the administration and accounting entities. On the other hand, once old tenants are sorted, processes would already follow (same with the preceding processes with a new tenant) 4.2.3.1 DIAGRAM 1 PROCESS 3 Process 3 of Diagram 1 revealed three further internal processes – find tenant records (3.1), classify dues (3.2), and compute payment due (3.3). The processes are related to payments – past dues, city services, and rent payments. They have to produce statement of accounts to tenants and invoice details to accounting entity, and the cycle continues. 4.2.3.2 DIAGRAM 1 PROCESS 4 Process 4 of Diagram 1 revealed three further processes – record payment (4.1), create cash receipts (4.2), and update account (4.3). They produced and updated accounts to the involved entities, tenant and accounting, respectively. 4.3 DATA DICTIONARY ENTITY TENANT Name: Tenant Description: One that pays rent to use or occupy land, a building, or other property owned by another. Input Data Flow: Statement of account, Cash receipts, Tenant code Output Data Flow: Personal details, Payment details ADMINISTRATON Name: Administration Description: A body of persons who manage. Input Data Flow: Tenant Profile, Report Details Output Data Flow: Tenant Number ACCOUNTING Name: Accounting Description: The system of recording and summarizing business and financial transaction and analyzing, verifying, and reporting the results. Input Data Flow: Invoice Details, Tenant Accounts, Updated Accounts Output Data Flow: Financial Statement CHAPTER V SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION, AND CONCLUSION 5.1 SUMMARY This project involves information system specifically, registration and billing system. The goal is to make the registration and billing of Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory easier and more accurate. This has been done by improving their existing system through automation of the said activities. Before, their registration and billing system is manually-operated and it is time-consuming. The research covers the problem of the said business entity with regards to their registration and billing  system which can help the entity to lessen errors when it comes to recording transactions among their tenants (College students, reviewers, transients and others) because the entity does not have an existing information system. The proposed system would then require less processes and human errors with the desired output of the entity. 5.3 RECOMMENDATION Registration and Billing System is effective. However, some recommendations are advised. The researchers recommend further study of the system. It is believed that longer period of research would provide more information that would let users maximize the ability of the system. It is also recommended that the visual presentation of the system be improved. For validity purposes, a good visual presentation would let the users input the correct data. This will reduce human error. The system covers only the registration of the tenants themselves. Registration of all belongings, particularly those gadgets and appliances, is therefore recommended for safety purposes. In addition, the system is limited to cash payment only. As a result, the researchers recommend that credit and bank transactions be included. The researchers also recommend making an assessment of the tenant’s point of view about the system. It is important to acknowledge this since Royal Residence exists because of the m. 5.3 CONCLUSION This study aimed at improving the existing system of Royal. The results of this study indicated both positive results and negative results. It can be concluded that the findings were consistent with their results. Furthermore, this study found that the registration and billing system helped the administration and accounting department for the safe keeping of their documents. In addition, the study also revealed some obstacles that the entity had to face when they applied the system. These obstacles may be summarized as costly, labor force will be lessened and it is not free from human error. However, in the long run, the system is more preferred. This is supported by the earlier findings. To sum it up, elimination of manual transactions benefited the company. The proposed system made transactions faster and more accurate. It is far more advantageous when compared to manual transaction and the existing system by the business-Excel. Thus, introduction of Registration and Billings Syste m is effective and yield the expected positive results.