How Do Economic Incentives Affect Social Preferences and Behavior Essay

For decades economic theories have relied heavily on the effectiveness of material incentives (Fehr & Gachter, 2001). According to the traditional exchange theory all people are exclusively motivated by their own material self-interest. It predicts that the introduction of a penalty will reduce the occurrence of the behavior that is subject to the fine. On the other hand it states that introducing a material incentive will lead to an increase of the behavior related to the bonus. Based on economic theory, incentives have become increasingly popular and are used to increase certain behaviors in various fields including environmental policy (Andersen & Sprenger, 2000; Barde & Smith, 1997; Baumol & Oates, 1988; Kahn, 1995; all cited in ThOgersen, 2003), household surveys (Singer, 2002) and education policy (Fryer, 2011). On the other side, penalties have been used to reduce free-riding (Feldman, Papadimitriou, Chuang, & Stoica, 2006), and crimes (Akerlof & Dickens, 1982). There is much evidence that supports the basic premise of economics that incentives are effective (Gibbons, 1997; Prendergast, 1999; Lazear, 2000; all cited in Benabou & Tirole, 2004). However, a large body of literature in psychology has shown that explicit incentives lead to decreased motivation and reduced performance in the long run (Deci & Ryan, 1985; as cited in Benabou & Tirole, 2004). Titmuss (1970, as cited in Benabou & Tirole, 2004) was the first who claimed that people might adopt a ‘market mentality’ when they are exposed to explicit economic incentives. He found that paying blood donors for donating blood could actually reduce supply. In the beginning there was little hard evidence that social preferences affected individual behavior, but empirical and theoretical advances over the past decades provide the basis for more support. For example, Gneezy and Rustichini (2000a) found that introducing a monetary fine for late-coming parents in day-care centers led to a significant increase in late-coming. There was no reduction in late-coming after the fine was removed. Also Fryer (2011) didn’t find evidence that providing financial incentives to teachers to increase student performance had any effect. Partly because of these findings, terms as trust, reciprocity, gift exchange and fairness have appeared in the empirical study and modeling of principal-agent relationships (Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). This highlights the importance of the influence that social preferences have on incentives. Based on the contradictions mentioned above I conclude that a more thorough analysis is needed in order to understand the influence of incentives on behavior. I’ll focus on the interplay between incentives and social preferences and how this affects behavior. In this paper I will review several mechanisms that can explain how incentives can be less effective than economic theories predict and how they can even have counterproductive effects. Furthermore I will indicate the implications of the (non-)effectiveness of incentives for economic policy. Overview of past research According to the definition of Bowles and Polania-Reyes (2012), social preferences refer to â€Å"motives such as altruism, reciprocity, intrinsic pleasure in helping others, inequity aversion, ethical commitments and other motives that induce people to help others more than would an own-material-payoff maximizing individual† (p. 4). Fehr and Fischbacher (2002) have indicated the most important types of preferences that have been uncovered by the literature. I will shortly review them below. The first important type of social preference is the preference for reciprocal fairness or reciprocity. An individual is reciprocal when he responds kindly to actions that are perceived as kind, and when he responds hostile to actions that are perceived as hostile. Whether some action is perceived as hostile of kind depends on the unfairness or fairness of the intention and on the consequences that are associated with the action. A second social preference type is inequity aversion. According to Fehr and Schmidt (1999; as cited in Fehr & Fischbacher, 2002) â€Å"inequity averse persons want to achieve an equitable distribution of material resources† (p. C3). Inequity averse persons show altruistic behavior if the other persons’ payoffs are below an equitable level. However, if the other persons’ payoffs are exceeding the equitable level an inequity averse person want to decrease the other persons’ payoffs. There are a lot of similarities in the behavior of reciprocal and inequity averse individuals, since both concepts depend in some way on the perception of fairness. Pure altruism is the third type of social preference, which is very different from the former two. Altruism can be seen as an unconditional form of kindness (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2002), as an altruistic person would never take an action that decreases another person’s payoff. The problem with pure altruism is that it cannot explain conditional cooperation, that is, people want to increase their voluntary cooperation in response to cooperation of others. The last social preference type that Fehr and Fischbacher (2002) mentioned is envious or spiteful preferences. An envious or spiteful person always values the payoff of other agents negatively. Therefore the envious person is willing to decrease the other agent’s payoff even if it brings along a personal cost to himself. This happens irrespective of fair or unfair behavior of the other agent and irrespective of the pay-off distribution (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2002). However, spitefulness can’t explain why it is that the same individuals sometimes are willing to help others at a personal cost, while sometimes they harm other people. Over the past decades, many studies have confirmed that a significant fraction of individuals engage in reciprocal or altruistic behaviors (Buraschi & Cornelli, 2002; as cited in Benabou & Tirole, 2004; Fehr & Gachter, 2000). Thus, many individuals do not only care about the material resources allocated to them, but also care about material resources allocated to other relevant agents. To give an overview of the incentive effects on preferences, two distinctions are made: the nature and the causes of incentives (Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). Concerning the nature of incentives, people often respond to the mere presence of incentives, rather than to their extent (Gneezy, 2003; as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). However, the extent of an incentive may also play a role. Therefore the effects of incentives on social preferences can be either categorical or marginal or a combination of the two. Bowles and Polania-Reyes (2012) also make a distinction between 2 causes of incentive effects on preferences. First, incentives can affect the environment in which preferences are learned. When this happens, the preferences are referred to as endogenous preferences. Second, the extent or presence of incentives affect the behavioral salience of an individual’s social preferences. When incentives constitute different states, we refer to social preferences as state-dependent preferences. There are three mechanisms that make social preferences state-dependent. First, by implementing an incentive, the principal discloses information about his intentions, about his beliefs about the target of the incentives and about the targeted behavior. This information might affect the agent’s social preferences which in turn affect the agent’s behavior. Second, incentives provide situational cues for appropriate behavior. Finally, incentives may lead to a crowding out of intrinsic motivations. The crowding-out effect is based on the intuition that the presence of punishments or rewards spoils the reputational value of good deeds. This creates doubt within the individual about the extent to which he performed because of the incentives rather than for himself. This phenomenon is also referred to as the ‘overjustification effect’ (Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1973; as cited in Benabou & Tirole, 2004). In the next part of this paper I’ll give experimental evidence for both endogenous preferences and for all 3 mechanisms that make preferences incentive-state-dependent. Furthermore, I’ll give examples of experiments where crowding in has been found and explain the underlying mechanisms. 1. Endogenous preferences: incentives alter how new preferences are learned Preferences are endogenous if someone’s experiences lead to durable changes in motivations and eventually result in a change in behavior in certain situations (Bowles, 2008). In most cases, experiments have a few hours duration and therefore it’s unlikely to uncover the mechanisms that are involved in the process of durable change of preferences. Although it’s hard to explore the causal mechanisms at work, there exist some experiments that do show a durable learning effect (Irlenbausch & Sliwka, 2005; Falkinger, Fehr, Gachter, & Winter-Ebmer, 2000; all cited in Bowles, 2008). Gneezy and Rustichini (2000a), for example, examined if the introduction of a monetary fine for late-coming parents in day-care centers would lead to reduction of late-coming. However, the amount of late-coming parents didn’t decrease, but increased significantly. Thus incentives led to more self-interested behavior. More importantly, after the fine was removed no reduction in late-coming parents was shown, meaning that there was some durable learning effect going on. 2. State-dependent preferences: incentives provide information about the principal When an incentive is imposed on an agent, he may infer information about the principal who designed the incentive. He may, for example, infer information about the principal’s beliefs regarding the agent, and about the nature of the task that has to be done (Fehr & Rockenbach, 2003). This information can lead to a negative response to fines that are imposed by principals. Fehr and Rockenbach (2003) designed a sequentially played social dilemma experiment and examined how sanctions intended to prevent cheating affect human altruism. Participants in the role of ‘investor’ could transfer a certain amount of money to another player, the ‘trustee’. The experimenter tripled this amount. After tripling the money, the trustee was given the opportunity to back-transfer some of this money to the investor. The investor could indicate a desired level of the back-transfer before he transferred the money to the trustee. In the incentive-condition the investor even had the option to impose a fine if the trustee would send a back-transfer that was less than the desired amount. Instead of imposing a fine the investor could also choose to decline the use of the fine. The decision of imposing or declining the fine was known to the trustee. In the trust-condition the investor could not make use of incentives. Fehr and Rockenbach (2003) found that generous initial transfers by investors were reciprocated with greater back-transfers by trustees. However, the use of the fine reduced the return transfers, while renouncing the fine in the incentive-condition increased back-transfers. This means that sanctions revealing selfish or greedy intentions destroy altruistic cooperation almost completely (Fehr & Rockenbach, 2003). In another experiment by Fehr and Schmidt (2007), principals could choose between offering a bonus contract or a combination contract (which was a combination of the bonus contract with a fine) to the employee. What they found was that agents perceive that principals who are less fair are more likely to choose a combined contract and are less likely to pay the announced bonus. Furthermore the effect of effort on the bonus paid is twice as large in the pure bonus condition compared to the combined contract condition. The positive response to the principal’s renunciation of the fine option can be seen as a categorical effect. The threat of a fine led to diminishment of the trustee’s reciprocity. 3. State-dependent preferences: incentives may suggest permissible behavior The experiments that will be described here, differ from the experiments mentioned above in the way that here incentives are implemented exogenously by the experimenter. This means that incentives do not provide any information about the beliefs or intentions of other experimental subjects. In a lot of situations people look for clues of appropriate behavior. These are often provided by incentives. These framing effects have been investigated in many studies. Hoffman, McCabe, Shachat and Smith (1994; as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012) found that by making a game sound more competitive after relabeling it, generosity and fair-minded behavior in the participants were diminished. In some other studies (Ellingsen, Johannesson, Munkhammar, & Mollerstrom, 2008; as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012) the framing effect even appeared to have changed subjects’ beliefs about the actions of others. Framing effects can also be induced in other ways than simply renaming the experiment. Providing an incentive may already provide a powerful frame for the decision maker. In an experiment of Schotter, Weiss and Zapater (1996) subjects played an Ultimatum Game experiment in which player 1 is given an endowment and asked to propose a part of this endowment to player 2. Player 2 can either accept or reject this division. If he accepts, the proposed division is implemented. However, if he rejects both players receive nothing. Schotter et al (1996) found that if a market-like competition was included in the game, that is, subjects with lower earnings would be excluded from the second round in the game, player 1 proposed less generous divisions to player 2. Furthermore, lower offers were accepted by player 2. The authors interpreted these results as that implementing market-like competition â€Å"offers justifications for actions that in isolation would be unjustifiable† (p. 38). Thus, providing incentives in the form of a competition can lead to moral disengagement. The framing effects of incentives can occur in cases of government-imposed incentives as well. An example comes from an experiment from Cardenas, Stranlund and Willis (2000) where they studied the effects of external regulatory control of environmental quality. Participants were asked to choose how much time they would spend collecting firewood from a forest, while being aware that this activity has a negative effect on local water quality. Two treatments were considered to examine whether external control may crowd out group-oriented behavior. All subjects played eight initial rounds of the game without any treatment, that is, without being able to communicate with each other and without external regulation. After the initial rounds, one subset of groups played additional rounds in which they were able to communicate. The other subset of groups was confronted with a government-imposed regulation. The regulation also involved the possibility of imposing a fine to subjects that would withdraw too much of the firewood. Although standard economic theory predicted that the regulation would increase group-oriented behavior, this wasn’t the case. When subjects were able to communicate they made way more efficient decisions. However, regulatory external control caused subjects to make decisions that were closer to their self-interest. This means that the fine, although it was insufficient to enforce the social optimum, extinguished the subjects’ ethical aptitudes. 4. State-dependent preferences: incentives may compromise intrinsic motives and self-determination A third reason why social preferences may be state dependent is because providing incentives may lead to motivational crowding out. As Bowles (2008) put it: â€Å"where people derive pleasure from an action per se in the absence of other rewards, the introduction of explicit incentives may ‘overjustify’ the activity and reduce the individual’s sense of autonomy† (p. 607). According to Deci (1975; as cited in Bowles, 2008) the underlying psychological mechanism appears to be a desire for â€Å"feelings of competence and self-determination that are associated with intrinsically motivated behavior† (p. 1607). There is a large body of literature on the psychology of intrinsic motivations going back to the early work of Festinger (1957; as cited in ThOgersen, 2003) and his cognitive dissonance theory. In the past decades a lot of experiments have been done to test the crowding out of intrinsic motivation. One of these studies comes from Gneezy & Rustichini (2000b) who tested the effects of monetary incentives on student performance. 180 students were asked to answer 50 questions of an IQ test. They were all paid 60 NIS (New Israeli Shekel) for their participation in the experiment. The students were divided into 4 different groups, which were all corresponding to 4 different treatments. The students in the first treatment group were only asked to answer as many questions as possible. The students in the second group got an extra payment of 10 cents of a NIS per question that they answered correctly. Subjects in the third group were promised 1 NIS, and subjects in the fourth group 3 NIS per question that they answered correctly. The average number of questions correctly was approximately 28 in the first group and declined to 23 in the second group. Furthermore, the number increased to 34 in both the third and the fourth group. The differences in performance were significant. In a second experiment Gneezy & Rustichini (2000b) tested the effect of incentives on volunteer work performed by high school children. 180 children were divided into three groups. The subjects in the first group constituted the control group and they were only given a speech about the importance of volunteer work. The second group was given a speech as well, but was also promised to receive 1 per cent of the total amount of donations collected. The third group was promised 10 per cent of the amount collected. The average amount collected was highest in the first group and lowest in the second group. The average amount that was collected by the third group was higher than that of the second group but not as high of the amount that was collected in the first group. Also these results were significant. It appears to indicate that the effect of incentives can be detrimental, at least for small amounts. In another experiment, Falk and Kosfeld (2006; as cited in Bowles 2008) tested the idea that control aversion based on the self-determination motive is the reason that incentives reduce performance. They used a principal-agent game where agents could choose a level of production that was beneficial for the principal, but costly for themselves. If the agent chose to produce nothing, he would get a maximal pay-off. Before the agent’s decision the principal could decide to leave the choice f production level completely to the agent or to impose a certain lower bound on the agent’s production level. The experimenter varied the bounds across the treatments and the principal could only choose to impose it or not. Results showed that when the principal imposed the bound, the agents chose a lower production level than when the principal didn’t impose a bound. The ‘untrusting’ principals earned half of the profits of those who did trust the agents and thus didn’t impose a bound. In post-surveys, the agents indicated that imposing the lower bound was perceived as a signal of distrust. The results of this experiment suggest that the desire for self-determination and control aversion are not the only effects of imposing the bound. Imposing this minimum was informative for the agents about what the principals’ beliefs were regarding the agents: the principals who imposed the bounds had lower expectations of the agents. Thus, the results in the experiment of Falk and Kosfeld (2006; as cited in Bowles 2008) seem to be the result of both negative information about the principal (or incentive designer) as well as the result of self-determination. 5. Crowding in Although a lot of experiments show that providing incentives has a negative effect on social preferences, there is also some evidence that crowding in can occur, that is, social preferences and incentives enhance the effect on each other. This might happen when an incentive provides good news about the principal’s type or intentions, for example when he offers the agent a reward rather than a fine. It is also seen in experiments where the incentive designers are peers in a public goods game who pay to punish free riders in order to sustain cooperative behavior (Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). The phenomenon of crowding in is interesting since it indicates how policies could be implemented optimally and how incentives and social preferences could become complements rather than substitutes (Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). Besides that, it appears that crowding in happens often in Public Goods games and Common Pool Resources games, which display the same characteristics as public policy settings. Below I’ll give an example of an experiment in which crowding in was found. Fehr and Gachter (2000) conducted a public good experiment with and without the opportunity to punish. In the no-punishment treatment the dominant strategy is complete free-riding. In the punishment treatment free-riders could be punished by their altruistic peers, since it was costly for them to punish. Therefore, if there were only selfish individuals, as assumed in economic theory, there wouldn’t be a difference between the two treatments. However, in the no-punishment treatment the contributions of the players were substantially lower than in the punishment treatment. This suggests that powerful motives drive the punishments of free-riders. Furthermore there was evidence that the more free-riders deviated from cooperation, the more they were being punished. There are several mechanisms that can explain the effect of crowding in. In the first place when a peer imposes a fine on a free-rider, this may activate a feeling of shame. Barr (2001; as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012) found that just a verbal message of disapproval already can have a positive effect on the free riders’ contributions. A second mechanism that appears to be at work it that nobody wants to be the cooperator while all others are defecting. Shinada and Yamagishi (2007, as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012) found that students cooperated more in a public goods experiment when they were assured that defecting free-riders would be punished. They just didn’t want to be exploited by defectors. A third mechanism underlying crowding in was consistent with the findings of an experiment by Vertova and Galbiati (2010, as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). They found that when a stated obligation was introduced, this produced a larger effect when it was accompanied with a small monetary incentive, rather than with a big incentive or than when no incentives were offered. The authors interpreted this phenomenon as that the salience of the stated obligation is enhanced by large explicit incentives. The latter phenomenon was also found in Ireland, where a small tax was imposed on plastic grocery bags (Rosenthal, 2008; as cited in Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). After two weeks there was a 94% decline in the use of these bags. This result can be explained by the fact that the introduction of the tax was preceded by a large publicity campaign. Thus, the incentive was implemented jointly with a message of social obligation and it seems that it served as a reminder of the importance of one’s civic duty. Implications for policy Many policies are based on the self-interest hypothesis that predicts that all individuals are self-regarding. However, as we have seen social preferences play an important role as well when it comes down to behavior. This would mean that a lot of current policies are non-optimal. Therefore a big challenge is facing the mechanism designer: how to design optimal fines, taxes or subsidies when the individual’s responses depend on his preferences which in turn are determined by the incentive imposed? In most experiments the effects of incentives were studies and afterwards the mechanisms were identified that could explain the results. However, one of the problems that the designer is facing is that he must determine beforehand how incentives will affect behavior. Based on the experiments that have been done, several guidelines can be drawn. The first is that when crowding out is found, social preferences and incentives are substitutes. This means that a negative effect of incentives is less likely to be found when the social preferences are minimal. In contrast, when social preferences are prevalent among a society, it may be more convenient to reduce the use of incentives. Also, policies that are implemented in order to enhance social preferences will be more effective when incentives are little used. The second stems from Titmuss’s claim that if the crowding out effect is so strong that the incentive has an opposite effect than intended, incentives should be used less. However, in many cases the effectiveness of incentives is not reversed, but blunted and then the implications for the optimal use of incentive isn’t that obvious (Bowles & Hwang, 2008). How Bowles & Hwang (2008) state it: â€Å"the reduced effectiveness of the incentive associated with crowding out would entail a larger incentive for a planner designing a subsidy to ensure compliance with a quantitative target† (p. 4). Present evidence is insufficient in providing enough guidelines to the policy maker who wants to know ex ante what the effects are of the incentives that he considers to implement (Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). What we do know is that the same incentives imposed by individuals who have no personal benefit but only want to promote pro-social behavior (as in the experiment of Fehr & Gachter, 2000) are more likely to increase contributions than when imposed by an untrusting principal (Fehr & Rockenbach, 2003). Furthermore it seems to be important to let the agent understand that the desired change in behavior would be socially beneficial rather than that the incentive is perceived as a threat to her autonomy or reflecting badly on the designer’s intentions (Bowles & Polania-Reyes, 2012). Conclusion The self-interest hypothesis assumes that individuals are only motivated by their own material self-interest. This assumption is used in the design of many policies. However, in the past decades a lot of experiments have shown that other-regarding social preferences rather than self-regarding preferences play a role in behavior. We have seen that some mechanisms can induce pro-socially oriented individuals to behave as they are selfish. On the other hand, there are also examples of experiments in which mechanisms induce self-interested individuals to behave at a more pro-social level. Thus, incentives can lead to both crowding out and crowding in phenomena. Whereas negative information about the principal and the over-justification effect may lead to crowding out of intrinsic motivation to contribute to a good, altruistic punishment by peers who do not benefit personally is more likely to increase contributions. Furthermore it seems important to make individuals aware of their civic duty, as was shown in Ireland where a small tax was imposed on plastic bags. Regarding to public policy, we have seen that small differences in institutional design can lead to many different outcomes. This imposes a big challenge on the policy designer who has to know ex ante what the effects of the incentive that he is considering to implement will be. When social preferences are not present, incentives may have a positive effect, predicted by economic theory. However, in areas where social preferences do play a role, the use of monetary incentives needs to be reconsidered.

Woman as Artist, Subject, or Patron in Baroque Art

Many elements must come together for a painting to be considered successful. Perhaps paramount in 17th century Europe were the guidelines set forth for art following the Council of Trent: Clarity, realism and emotional stimulus. Many artists fulfilled these requirements in their own ways: Rubens employed his mastery of drawing, while Caravaggio masked his apparent lack of skill by inventing a new way of painting, tenebrism (Caravaggism). While clarity could be established relatively easily, this doesn't mean images had to be simple.One of the most complex elements of Baroque painting is the use of women as subjects, particularly women of power, be they royal, biblical, or artists themselves. Artemisia Genteleschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes (1620) presents a female painter drawing on her own experiences to depict a heroine defeating a great enemy as only a lady could. Peter Paul Rubens' Medici Cycle (1622-25), specifically The Presentation of Her Portrait to Henry IV, shows the produ ct of a woman patron trying to glorify herself as a queen and justify her political ideals while being presented quite literally as an object to her husband-to-be.Finally, Diego Valazquez's Las Meninas (1656), a royal family portrait focusing on the daughter of Philip the IV and Mariana of Spain, but using the commission as a vehicle to draw attention to the artist and praise his craft. Using these three works, one can conclude that a woman, present as the artist, the patron or a decorative faux-subject, was a very powerful tool in Baroque art. Artemesia Genteleschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes shows the Old Testament story of a Jewish widow and her maidservant beheading the Assyrian commander Holofernes to save the city of Bethulia.The history of the artist is a strong influence on this work, as Artemesia was raped at age 17 by an associate of her father. Mary O'Neill points out in her article â€Å"Artemesia's Moment† that rape in the 17th century was a crime against a famil y's honor rather than the victim herself. This surely doesn't mean there is an absence of the psychological harm that accompanies the crime, and this work is seen as a â€Å"revenge painting†, an outlet for the artist to voice her feelings on a personal subject.Maybe one of the first examples of art therapy, a very powerful and deliberate action is taking place empowering women while keeping their femininity in tact, as mentioned in Mieke Bal's article,†Head Hunting: Judith on the Cutting Edge of Knowledge. † Bal says the three major jobs in women's lives are life-giving, in this case, saving the city and its residents; life taking, the killing of Holofernes; and in between, hard work, the two women with their sleeves rolled up, completing a task. The fact that the artist is female plays a large part in the mood and reception of the painting by both men and women.In this case we can compare it to a male-painted version of the same event. Caravaggio's, Judith Behea ding Holofernes (1599) shows the two women as apprehensive toward their charge and unwilling to make a mess, but the most striking visual difference is the red sash present in the background of both paintings, in Caravaggio's, it remains hanging as it should be in the space, in Artemesia's, it has fallen over the victim (victim? ) suggesting a battle has taken place and the women have triumphed.In Rubens' Medici Cycle, Louis VIII had come of age while his mother acting as regent, ruled France, when he grew tired of her policies, Marie de Medici commissioned the artist to make 26 paintings depicting events in her life to be shown to members of the French court and important visitors, with the intent to glorify herself as a legitimate ruler of France, â€Å"Painted Propaganda†, as David Freedberg puts it in his book Peter Paul Rubens: Oil Paintings and Oil Sketches. She was not meant to be shown as a mere member of the royal family, but as the single ruler of the country in whi ch her son was the rightful ruler.The fourth painting in this series, The Presentation of Her Portrait to Henry IV, shows the lady patron as a portrait, an object, being presented to a man, her husband-to-be. Though a woman as an object is generally seen as degrading, the way in which she is presented by deities and allegorical personifications strengthens the perception of the Medici: Hymenaios and Amor escort the portrait to the King while Jupiter and Juno look on in approval and France stands behind Henry in support of the union. She also engages the viewer, staring directly out of both frames, something the Kings isn't able to accomplish.This series wasn't meant to be viewed differently by men and women, only to glorify the â€Å"Queen Mother of France† to all people of France. The painting was produced at a time when Marie de Medici needed the support of her people, and although her attempt to keep the throne was ultimately unsuccessful, this painting among the series is a strong example of what women could accomplish as patrons to artists. Diego Valazquez's Las Meninas shows the more traditional negative way women can be shown as objects. composition dominated by women, the foreground depicts the Daughter of Philip IV and Mariana of Spain, Infanta Margarita surrounded by maids, dwarves, pets, other people important to the royal family as she goes about seemingly unimportant tasks. To her right, stands the artist, aposentador to the King, staring out at the audience as he paints. The king and queen are alluded to in a mirror on the back wall, present in the viewers space, as their physical presence in a portrait with the artist would be disrespectful. The artist takes advantage of this commission to raise his own status as an artist and member of the court.He does this by pretending Margarita is the subject, Magnificently dressed and centered, but bored and uninterested, only there to showcase the artists skill as a painter along with her servants. The Queen is also taken advantage of, present with her King in the background. Michel Foucault points out the objectivity of the King and Queen in his in-depth interpretation of the work in the first chapter of The Order of Things, â€Å"In the midst of all those attentive faces, all those richly dressed bodies, they are the palest, the most unreal, the most compromised of all the paintings images. only present to enhance the idea of the work the raise the artist and the art higher in the community. Men and women would both view this work similarly, showcasing the artists mastery of spacial representation and perspective, with underlying tones of narcissism as they discover the highly decorated and scholarly painter peeking out from behind the canvas. In these three very different views of women in paintings, as artists, as patrons, and as objects, we see how women were depicted, or used, as subjects in seventeenth-century art.It seems views of women have remained the same in the few hundred years since these works were completed, they can be seen as powerful, inspirational and strong, but also passive, boring, or as mere filler. The differences in composition, mood, and ideas were fun to discover as you move from a woman painter depicting a biblical event while drawing from her own experiences to a man attempting to keep a woman in the lifestyle to which she's become accustomed and not be executed himself.

BLUE EYES TECHNOLOGY

BLUE EYES TECHNOLOGY Blue eye technology is a technology which is being developed so that the machines get sensational abilities and perceptual abilities just like our human beings. These abilities make the computational machines to understand the feelings of humans and this helps to interact with them. The main aim of this technology is to analyse human brain and understand their physiological conditions. Imagine a world where humans can communicate with their computers. This concept was first developed by a research team in IBM at Almaden Research Center (ARC) in San Jose, California since 1997.This based on the idea of Paul Ekan’s facial expression. The etymology of the term blue eyes goes as blue stands for Bluetooth technology which is wireless and the term eyes are used because it is the only part that helps us in finding the human expressions easily. The main aim of this technology is to provide computers all those human abilities of understanding the feelings of others by just recognizing their facial expressions, and the tone in which they speak so that these machines would interact with human beings very easily. It could understand your feelings even with the touch of the mouse. For example, if you are really tensed and you want to call your friend; this technology automatically understands the urgency and calls your friend who is working in your office or someone who is very close to you. In short its objective is to provide sessional and perceptual powers to machines to interact with humans and help the in all situations. Hence computer could act as intimate partners to humans. This technology works with the combination of both software and hardware components. Central system unit and the data acquisition unit act as the hardware component. Microcontroller acts as the heart for this technology. Bluetooth technology is used for connecting both hardware and those software units. We could use this type of technology in all working places to understand the emotions humans and to record them. It generally consists of the following units data acquisition unit Central system unit The software unit It is otherwise called as mobile measuring unit. The main objective is to get the physiological information from the sensors and transfer it to central system unit. This is done for processing purposes and for verification too. A Bluetooth is integrated with the DAU is used to send the data to the central system. Both CSU and DAU contains their own pin codes and id numbers for authentication purposes. The components that are used are five-key keyboard, beeper and LCD for displaying purposes. The voice is transferred by using a headset. The next component being used is the CSU. It contains a codec and a Bluetooth module. codec refers to those voices transmitted information. This part is connected to our computers by using a USB cable or a parallel cable. The microcontroller which is present in it handles the UART transmission. The physiological condition of the operators will be continually supervised by this blue eye technology software. The operators real time physiological condition will be respond by the software. It helps to transfer the data from manager to analyzer. The data visualization module supports the user for interface section. It will continually fetch the information from database and record audio, video and physiological parameters of the user if the visualization module is offline. The blue eyes software is mainly enables to know about the physiological condition of the operator. To design a computational machine having sensory and perceptual abilities like human beings, we are using ‘blue eyes technology. This technology uses most modern cameras, microphones and advanced non-obtrusive sensing techniques to interact with humans to understand the emotions of human beings. The process of making sensing and emotional capabilities by computer is called Affective computing. Steps involved for designing this type of computers: Process of giving sensing capacity. Human Emotion detection or Affect Detection. Respond appropriately and properly. Brain computer interface is to develop an adaptable computer system. These types include speech recognition, eye tracking, facial recognition, gesture recognition etc. Blue Eyes technology enables the machines to identify the minor emotional variations of human being by a single touch on keyboard or a mouse. According to the emotion level the machine started react with the user. It is a substitute for usually available machine vision face or eye recognition methods. The glass senses and identifies the expressions by analyzing the facial expressions method. The Simple User Interest Tracker: The SUITOR is having the ability to maintain an intimate relationship between the human and the computer by using the revolutionary approaches towards the machine. It continuously analyze where eyes is focus on the screen. Artificial Intelligent Speech: The working environment should be very important for implementing the Artificial Intelligent Speech Recognition system in Blue Eyes technology. Some important factors that influence the features of speech recognition system they are user’s speech, grammar, noise type, noise level and position of the microphone. This THE BLUE EYES technology assures appropriate techniques. It simplifies the life in a more elegant and user friendly way in computer device. Blue Eyes will reach as your handheld mobile devices in future generations.

Political Economy (Canada and the Global Political Economy) Essay - 4

Political Economy (Canada and the Global Political Economy) - Essay Example evident that, had those lessons been adopted most of the negative effects of the Global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 would have been avoided (Norton, 2010). The Bretton woods system set out in the 1940s was synonymous with fixed exchange rates. As time passed and growth was evident in many parts of the world, the system changed with market forces. The Bretton woods system encouraged growth in many countries of the world which and that encouraged expansions. On the same note, apart from Japan all other industrialized countries had a managed inflation rate, lower interest rates and improved per capita income, few years after setting up of the Bretton institutions (Norton, 2010). While addressing whether lesson learnt from Bretton Woods systems would have worked for the global crisis, it is important to note that crises are usually worsened by â€Å"contagion effect†. The down fall of the Lehman Brothers had a spiral effect. The most significant pointer to the collapse of the world economy during the global crisis of 2007/2008 was lapse in regulation. Most central banks were blamed for inapt leadership by failure to regulate despite the imminent economic imbalance. For example, the regulators failed in their role by allowing Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt. Due to that bankruptcy, many other lending institutions panicked and refused to lend and that encouraged contagion that helped to spread the crisis further (Chornyy, 2011). Like the 2007/2008 global crisis, the Bretton woods system had challenges but the difference is evident in the manner in which the challenges were handled. For example, the Bretton woods system faced liquidity problems since the dollar was the fulcrum of the entire system and the USA which was biggest player in that regard had challenges. The Bretton system also faced a problem of adjustment. This was because most of the member countries took a considerable length of time to pay their debts. The most significant contributor to the

Statistical analysis of data Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Statistical analysis of data - Statistics Project Example In this dataset we can find out the average emission of the pollutants over the years for different activities and can report which activity has the most notorious impact on the environment. As we have analysed Constructions and construction works for civil engineering has the highest average emission of greenhouse gases, heavy metals and acid rain precursors compared to others while specialised construction works has the highest average emission of other pollutants. For the year 2009 and for other years also we can find out which construction activity has created the maximum and minimum pollution and thus which is sustainable and which is not. Since 2005 to 2009 we can see that a specialised construction service has created the maximum pollution and thus is less sustainable while the Buildings and building construction works has created the minimum pollution over the years and thus is more sustainable than others. From 2000 to 2004 activity of constructions and construction works fo r civil engineering has created the maximum pollution. Time series forecasting of overall emission for three activities can be given for the next 5 or 10 years using minitab or other statistical tools like R or SAS. In excel we can do moving average and trend analysis like linear trend, quadratic trend etc for the data. In the given data, it has been noticed that the data for year 2000 and 2001 is exactly same across all categories. Data on other manufacturing sectors and industries like automobile industry, chemical industry, fertilizer industry etc and their emissions of pollutants like greenhouse gases can also be collected for time period say 2000 to 2013 so as to compare it with the construction activity emissions of the same. Time series analysis can be done in tools like minitab to forecast each sector emission of greenhouse gases for next five years. Time series forecast like moving average, blended moving average, trend analysis can be done in excel

Critical review of journal of counselling psychology qualitative Essay

Critical review of journal of counselling psychology qualitative research - Essay Example Both therapies are illustrated in detail through corresponding case studies. The purpose of the abstract is to draw the readers’ attention to the issues that the paper deals with such as the eating disorders Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa and to focus their attention accordingly on the details of the main topic of the paper which are the evidence-based treatments for children and adolescents afflicted with these eating disorders. The article was crafted very well that it was able to achieve its goal of informing the readers thoroughly about the eating disorders of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa as well as the available psychological interventions effective for treatment and management of the disorders. 2. What are the main areas of information contained in the Introduction? In the introduction, eating disorders were discussed, specifically, the onset of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) in children and adolescents. ... It was not reported what factors may be responsible for it and if family-based interventions were suggested, it was not clear why. On the other hand, the introduction gave a clear overview of what the readers may expect throughout the article, focusing on treatments and how patients will go through them. This is useful for individuals interested in such psychological interventions for personal reasons and for future envisioning of a career as a psychotherapist. 3. How has the rationale for the Research questions been developed? Rationale for this study is the need for effective interventions to help out children and adolescents suffering from eating disorders such as AN and BN which not only disrupts their normal functioning but also affects the family dynamics of the patients, most often leaving negative outcomes. This rationale was developed from giving examples of the presenting problem and its deleterious effects detailing the causes and corresponding effects leading to the need for interventions. These cases were well-chosen as they represented a majority of patients suffering from similar symptoms for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Although there may be other symptoms and causes in other cases that are not reported in the examples, the two chosen examples were enough to present a general overview. 4. What are the research questions in this study? The study does not pose any overt research questions, but it is presumed from the content of the study that it asks about effective methods and interventions in dealing with eating disorders of children and adolescents. It may also ask for specific ways how the patient’s family may come into play with regards to the treatment interventions and how

Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 24

Globalization - Essay Example Depending on the merits and merits of globalization to various states, proper measures are instituted accordingly. Various factors will continue to encourage globalization. On the first note, improved technology will continue to serve as the primal driver of globalization. Technology advents such as the internet and mobile phones have played a major role in bringing globalization to its current state. Technology will continue to spread across the world since it is the main force behind significant integrations. Improved technology translates to better communication and information sharing (Ashford & Hall, 2011). Secondly, the world is undergoing a period of increased free trade. Free trade will continue to be an important factor of globalization since it has earned the support of World Trade Organization (WTO), which encourages global trading. Thirdly, stepped-up mobility of labor from one country to another will promote globalization. Developing countries have come to realize the big role that remittances of global trade plays in their economies. Fourthly, meliorated mobility of capital in the past few decades will stretch into the future to step-up the pace of globalization. Capital barriers have been trivialized, making it possible for capital to flow to and from various economies. In effect, firms are able to acquire financing, a trend that will continue to the future. Fifthly, a drop in the cost of transportation is not expected to deteriorate in the future. The advent of containerization means that the distribution of products, across the world, is cheaper. Consumers in all parts of the world will continue to access products, thanks to the reduced cost of transport (Zedillo, 2014). In unison, these factors will correct the pace of globalization that has been affected by the financial crisis in the world. All the same, there are factors that will hinder the prosperity of globalization. First, the increasing concern of environmental

Commercialization in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Commercialization in Canada - Essay Example The diagram given below gives an indication of the contribution of commercialization towards the GDP of Canada. The diagram indicates that contribution of commercialization towards the GDP has been very low and more volatile in nature. The growth rate of commercialization has been volatile and erratic in nature. If the growth rate of commercialization is compared with other countries like USA and UK, then it becomes evident that Canada has to make a lot of improvements to match with the advanced countries.The diagram below gives an indication of the initiative taken by the University and colleges for spending in the research and development projects. The indication of the spending in research and development projects bears a special importance. This is because of the reason that technological innovation and development are one of the prime drivers of commercialization. Studies indicate that in comparison to other countries the fund allocated to the colleges and Universities for condu cting research and development works is significantly less.The above diagram gives an indication of the spending by the various sectors like private non-profit, provincial governments, the federal government, universities and industry in research and development activities.The analysis of the spending in research and development activities by various groups indicates that the spending by the provincial governments and federal governments are significantly low. Whereas the spending by the universities is significantly more.... The indication of the spending in research and development projects bears a special importance. This is because of the reason that technological innovation and development are one of the prime drivers of commercialization. Studies indicate that in comparison of other countries the fund allocated to the colleges and Universities for conducting research and development works is significantly less. Fig 2: Research and development fund allocated for GDP Source: (Kenney, 2013) The above diagram gives an indication of the spending by the various sectors like private non-profit, provincial governments, federal government, universities and industry in research and development activities. Fig 3: Commercialization development index Source: (Kutsuna, 2013) The analysis of the spending in research and development activities by various groups indicates that the spending by the provincial governments and federal governments are significantly low. Whereas the spending by the universities is signifi cantly more, this is a cause of concern (Litan, 2012). This is because of the reason that studies indicate that those countries which are characterized by larger spending initiatives by governments and federal bodies have more chances of increasing the success rate of commercialization. Discussion of the reasons for poor commercialization Studies indicate that successful commercialization depends upon the management skills of the startups. The poor management skill of the people heading the startup projects in Canada is one of the reasons for poor development of commercialization. The infrastructures provided by the government to support the startup are proving to be insufficient. Canada also lacks the number of anchor companies. The

Why Tiger Parenting Leads To Success in Life Research Paper

Why Tiger Parenting Leads To Success in Life - Research Paper Example To begin with, Amy Chua (3) notes that the secret to raising successful, yet stereotypic children, notably in America, where research shows that such children tend to be more successful compared to those raised in a formal manner, typical of most Western families, is to curtail some of their freedom. This, she says, is achievable by e.g. forbidding them from attending sleepovers, not allowing them to watch TV or play video games, setting high-performance grades that are nothing less than an A, not allowing them to go to play dates, not allowing them to choose extracurricular activities to engage in, among others. Furthermore, Amy says that her ability to raise successful musicians involved barring them from being the top students in all subjects except gym and drama, and allowing them to only play the piano and violin, but only at set times. These, she alludes, are the traits of parents whom she loosely refers to as Chinese mums, and which when duly instilled on children, return noth ing less than a successful child in any field of expertise. Furthermore, Amy notes that unlike Western parents who tend to allocate more time to games, the Chinese mum, on the other hand, puts academic first, and believes that the only grade worth attaining by the child is an A grade, and nothing less. This type of parenting may be viewed as being authoritative and is quite prominent among Asian American parents. This leaves us asking why this seemingly authoritative parenting leads to good performance in academic work among Asian American kids and fails terribly when applied to Western kids. The explanation to this is simple, authoritative parents, according to Marsiglia et al. (2007) not only set the limits to be achieved in class work but also helps their children in in learning.

Germany experienced a period of political Essay Example for Free

Germany experienced a period of political Essay Political calm, spd can’t compromise, Hindenburg causing problems, lack of cooperation between parties causing polarisation but no outright revolutions that happened during 1919-24, growing foreign relations lorcano/treaty of berlin Economic development, result of lorcano meant breathing space from reparations also dawes and young plan and rentenmark – dawes plan borrowed US money lead to increase in capital. Later though fulfilment still causing problems and unemployment pay is causing issues, increase in taxes Social progress, conservative right unhappy and manifests in literature and cinema expressing glory in WW1 contrasts with neue sachlichkiet modern Weimar culture, Bauhaus linking art and functionality. Highlighting social issues within Weimar Overall relative calm but lack of progress, economic development but in short term and social progress but not helping Weimar. The years 1924 to 1929 are often described as the ‘Golden years’ but it is debatable to what extent Germany actually experienced political calm, economic development and social progress during this time. Certainly there was not the turbulence of post-war Germany and the consequences of the crippling Versaille Treaty were not as harsh in this period but this does not mean it was a time of development and progress. It can be suggested that it was not a period ‘of political calm’, there was certainly a lot of tension between the various political parties that made up the many coalition governments in this period, the failure of so many governments alone suggests that there were serious political issues. The narrowing of the interests of each party meant that it was becoming increasingly difficult for effective coalition governments to be formed. The SPD were especially difficult in this time as they were against compromising with the ‘bourgeois parties’ as they felt a change in ideals would occur and proposed policies like the Heidelberg Programme which would see private ownership of industry be taken over by social owners. Obviously many parties from the left felt this but the SPD had the largest amount of seats in the Reichstag, over 150 at their peak in the 20’s, and therefore had the ability to put the government into a stalemate. The SPD’s inability to compromise makes the political stage even worse when Hindenburg is elected as president  in 1925. Hindenburg, being a veteran of the Franco-Prussian war and the general who won the battle of Tannenburg was already conservative and took as many steps as he could to reduce the power the SPD had. Hindenburg also believed the powers of the president should be unrestrained and even blocked a draft that would limit his ability to use Article 48. This incoduscive atmosphere meant that by the time the SPD were willing to cooperate with a coalition government, individual interests and polarisation of parties had developed and no one else was interested. Therefore this cannot be classed as a period of political calm due to the stagnant politica l system. However, it could be suggested that this tension is to be expected as people are still feeling the effects of the First World War and political calm could be defined by the lack of extreme political parties attempting to take over. When this era is compared to the years 1919 to 1924 it is by far a time of political calm as there were no outright attempts at revolution. The years before saw extreme right and left wing idealists try to take over and the fact that this was not attempted during the ‘golden years’ meant it was a time of relative political calm. This is not to mention the successes in Stresemann’s foreign policy, which put Germany back on track to becoming a serious European power once again. The admittance of Germany into the league of nations and the signing of various treaties, such as the Lorcano treaty, meant Germany were in a period of political calm; not experiencing the diplomatic humiliation of the years before. The various treaties signed by Stresemann also helped the economic development in this period. The Dawes gained significant investments from the US and the Young Plan reduced the reparations Germany would have to pay, and set a timescale for how long they would have to pay. This gave the country some ‘breathing space’ to repair and develop its own economy. The young plan, for example, reduced the amount they would have to pay by 1700 million marks than they would in conjunction with the Dawes plan. These plans, alongside the introduction of the rentenmark meant there was an increase in German capital in this period, which can certainly be classed as a period of economic development. Whilst there is definitely evidence of economic development in the mid-1920’s it did also experience financial issues. The increase in unemployment, 15% of the workforce were unemployed by 1929, put a heavy strain on the welfare system of Weimar Germany. The institution for paying unemployment benefits had to borrow money from the Government, 342 million reichsmarks, and the parties could not agree how to find this money. The SPD would increase taxes while the DVP would cut benefits. This can be seen as a backwards move in economic development, as the system did not address the problem of unemployment, but just found more money to pay it, with the decision of how to pay for the unemployment benefits was delayed until 1930. This can be seen as the government almost shooting themselves in the foot and making a short term fix for a long term problem. This short-sightedness can also be argued to be found in Stresemann’s policies, for borrowing money from the US. An international financial crisis would leave over-dependant-on-America Germany in a high amount of debt, which is what happened when the Wall Street Crash occurred. Therefore it can be said that these years were a period of economic development, but that there would be little long term effect on the country from these developments. Social progress is probably the only contention that can be absolutely agreed with, with very influential movements like the Bauhaus dominating this period of time, summed up as Neue Schlachkliet. This movement, saw a progression in modern views and an attempt to undermine the Weimar government by exposing the issues faced through literature, theatre and film. The need for educational and social reform was well documented and although this did not bode well for the Weimar government it definitely showed progress in attitudes of the general public. The conservative nature of many Germans could still be found and also classed as a social progress in the form of anti-democratic writings and films that promoted the glory of the First World war. The two social ideas both grew in this period, but neither celebrated the Weimar Government so whilst it was undoubtedly social progress it was not productive for the Weimar republic. There is definitely a case for political calm, economic development and social progress in the mid-1920’s but they were not necessarily the advances  that would warrant the term ‘golden years’. The political calm was only due to a lack of serious opposition to the government but still they could not successfully form an effective coalition government and whilst the economy did improve in this time the provisions made were short-sighted and the country was over-reliant on foreign investments. Whilst social progress was made in this era it is easy to see that the progress wasnot in the name of democracy and presented the Weimar government with future problems as popular ideology differed from what they promoted.

Appropriateness of Standard Personality Tests

Appropriateness of Standard Personality Tests Critically evaluate the statement that it is inappropriate for psychologists to use standard personality tests to interpret and understand the Behaviour of Indigenous people such as Aboriginal Australians Standard personality testing is the name given to any form of test designed to determine different aspects of the subjects’ personality or emotional state (Merriam-webster.com, (2014). This is achieved through the designing of many smaller tasks such as questions within a questionnaire. The vast majority of these tests are designed by western psychologists, which creates an issue when they are administered to Indigenous peoples such as the Tsimane tribe and the Indigenous of the Philippines, as the values held by the differing societies are varied and therefore the tests do not measure all facets of their personality, notable problems arise from differences in culture and language. This paper will focus in particular on one standardized personality test, the Five Factor Model (FFM) that is commonly referred to as the OCEAN testing as it tests Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism(Goldberg, 1990,) , each with smaller sub-categories referred to as facets. Although it is said to be fairly robust cross culturally the test is still synthesized for western use. This paper will assess the appropriateness of using the FFM of testing on Indigenous peoples such as Aboriginal Australians and the Tsimane tribe. As the FFM was established by †¦ , a western psychologist, in †¦. And since then, debate has arisen in regards to the appropriateness of using this testing on Indigenous cultures. There are two main concerns when it comes to appropriateness, the difference in traits and behavior between cultures, and researchers basing their experiments of western qualities (Church, in press; Enriquez, 1979). To attempt to address these concerns, an experiment was conducted on the Tsimane people. To ensure this testing was reliable the test was translated to Spanish by translators. The test was conducted from Jan 2009 to December 2010 and was taken by 632 adults 48% female and 52% male. The administrative researchers faced many issues due to the alteration of words that had no equivalent in Spanish. Problems occurred with specific questions during the study due to interpretation of language, four items proved to be difficult to translate, whilst one was removed. The removal of question 30 ( â€Å"has an active imagination† ) encompass the main barrier affecting the experiment, this being the interpretation of Tsimane language and their specific phrases. There was no term that would be consistently understood by the tsiname people, highlighting the tester’s lack of cultural competence. Although attempting to properly convey the questions through the use of bilingual speakers of Spanish and English, the translators were not able to. (Ramà ­rez-Esparza, Gosling, Benet-Martà ­nez, Potter, Pennebaker, 2006).(3) Overall the success of the five-factor model was generally low in relation to the indigenous group Tismane. Internal reliability proved to be a problem. Out of the five factors 4 factors tested moderately reliable where as neuroticism tested low on Cronbachs scale at 0.31. . Overall the lack of understanding between researchers and respondents mainly language played a pivotal role in the result area. The modified FFM although producing moderate results did not reach appropriate standards of the Cronbachs scale. It is shown that a standardized model does not work efficiently with the Tsimane group, highlighting the inappropriateness of using standardized testing on indigenous populations. A test was conducted in the Phillippines to determine how imported personality test would fair when administered to indigenous societies, and if the NEO–PI–R (Costa McCrae, 1992) a western personality psychometric, would generate similar scores in the Philippines in comparison to the American scores. The test was administered to 511 university students. Four tests were used three of which were indigenous test being (along with sample sizes) â€Å"Panukat ng Pagkataong Pilipino(PPP;n= 387),Panukat ng Mga Katangian ng Personalidad(PKP;n= 413),Panukat ng Ugali at Pagkatao(PUP;n= 386), and one being westernized, Filipino NEO–PI–R (n= 398)† (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002) The NEO–PI–R (Costa McCrae, 1992) is comprised of 5 factors, coinciding with the BigFivedimensions, along with 6 facet per domain. McCrae et al. (1998). The sample obtained by (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002) provided medium to high internal reliability in relation to the 6 facets of the 5 factors, however the median alpha was low (.61) in comparison to the result of (.70) reported by McCrae et al. The Openness to Values and Openess to feelings facets scored results of (a=. 22) and (a=. 44) , highlighting the disparity between certain test items and its ability to measure the Philippines social dimensions. Problems arose due to translation equivalency in relation to 8 of the facet scales where correlation proved to be an issue with items. (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002) The PPP consists of 210 items along with 19 scales. The basis of the personality constructs were derived from verbal descriptions of traits and behaviours by Filipino respondents and literature specific to their heritage by Carlota (1985), it was then categorized by Carlota (1985) into three groups, (interpersonal, personal and intellect). Creators of PUP designed the test to gauge Filipino traits, and behaviours (Enriquez Guanzon, 1985). The PUP was created using Filipino specific proverbs, Filipino dictionaries and interviews with university students..(Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002). It is to be noted however that the PUP scale has had no reliable data from previous experiments. Researches used 8 of the 19 original items, 5 of which were related to well being and religious behaviours, and 3 related to taboo acts of the the Philippines culture The PKP consists of 253 items. (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002) The test was created through the use of a lexical approach which allows the PKP to generate a sense of internal reliability.(Church,Katigbak, Reyes, 1996) The information is derived directly from the correspondents, these being Filipino university students and judges. The test provided a reliability range of (.85-.95) (Churchet al. (1998) The results of The PUP proved to be unreliable and therefore not included in the results table, the use of joint factor analysis showed several similarities and differences between the NEO PI-V, PKP and PPP. The PKP test showed several connections with three of the Big Five Dimensions, this being the factors agreeableness Conscientiousness Extraversion however the religiosity scale only showed medium reliability as the NEO-PI-V does not have religiosity as a component, highlighting the need for further augmentation of the Five Factor Model to asses religiosity. The PPP test showed a resemblance to four factors of the Five Factor Model, however no neuroticism dimension was found through analysis of the PPP scale alone. In most of the tests the indigenous instruments provided higher validity in comparison to the imported NEO-PI-R. (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002). The Big Five dimensions do show resemblance to indigenous constructs emphasizing its cross-cul tural capabilities however interpretation of language and culture proves to be a barrier. Problems occurring in the Philippines indigenous dimension could also include what is categorized as indigenous; there were direct correlations between several facets of the questionnaire between the American and Philippines sample. The questionaries however were administered to university students, which could possibly have reasonable understanding of western constructs aiding them in interpretation of the question, undermining their defined category of indigenous. This factor questions the validity of the experiment, as it can be debated whether the participants successfully represent indigenous personalities, if not results extracted from the experiment can be proven somewhat irrelevant as the universal quality of standardised personality tests are not being fully explored. (Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lape~na, Carlota del Pilar, 2002). The (Nscb.gov.ph, 2014) states that in 2005-2006 2,483,6 45 To determine whether the students’ college education impacted on the test results a second test should be conducted on people who do not possess such education. Bibiliography Merriam-webster.com, (2014). Personality test Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. [online] Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/personality test [Accessed 26 Apr. 2014]. 2 Katigbak, M. S., Church, A., Guanzon-Lapeà ±a, M., Carlota, A. J., del Pilar, G. H. (2002). Are indigenous personality dimensions culture specific? Philippine inventories and the five-factor model. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 82(1), 89-101. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.89 00 Ramà ­rez-Esparza, N., Gosling, S. D., Benet-Martà ­nez, V., Potter, J. P., Pennebaker, J. W. (2006). Do bilinguals have two personalities? A special case of cultural frame switching. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 99–120. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2004.09.001 Gurven, M., von Rueden, C., Massenkoff, M., Kaplan, H., Lero Vie, M. (2013). How universal is the Big Five? Testing the five-factor model of personality variation among forager–farmers in the Bolivian Amazon. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 104(2), 354-370. doi:10.1037/a0030841 0000 Ortiz, F. A., Church, A. T., Vargas-Flores, J. D. J., Ibà ¡Ãƒ ±ez-Reyes, J., Flores-Galaz, M., Iuit-Briceà ±o, J. I., Escamilla, J. M. (2007). Are indigenous personality dimensions culture-specific? Mexican inventories and the five-factor model. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 618–649. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2006.07.002 00000 Guanzon-Lapeà ±a,M. A.,Church, A. T.,Carlota, A. J., Katigbak,M. S. ( 1998). Cross-Cultural Assessment and Measurement Issues Christopher J. Mushquash and Dana L. Bova The Ideas of Frantz Fanon and Culturally Safe Practices for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia Issues in Mental Health Assessmentwith Indigenous Australians Neil Drew, Yolonda Adams and Roz Walker http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/personality%20test There has been debate between psychologist on whether standardized personality tests such as the Big Five inventory I are suitable and produce high internal reliability in relation to cross cultural examinations. The main facets of their arguement state, (a) traits and behaviour may be vastly different across cultures, (b) the researchers are basing their experiments of western qualities (Church, in press; Enriquez, 1979). Across varied cultures in developed worlds the MMF displays a consistency and reliability amongst the five measurements, however it has been observed that extraversion and agreeableness measurements can be distorted by specific cultural traits. (Ortiz et al., 2007; Rolland, 2002). 355 It is apparent that only two factors seem to possess an internal reliability evident in the husband spouse category cross-cultural generality of the â€Å"Big Seven† model: Imported and indigenous 5model was difficult hard to determine language Spanish personality constructs. Journal of Personality, 65, 567–need an adaptation 598. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1997.tb00327.x De Raad, B. (1994). An expedition in search of a fifth universal factor: Key lexical only gave what researchers chose, not from the issues in the lexical approach. European Journal of Personality, 8,communites understanding 229–250. doi:10.1002/per.2410080403 Journal of Personality, 12, 75–101. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099- 0984(199803/04)12:2_75::AID-PER288_3.0.CO;2-H An alternative taxonomic study of personality-descriptive adjectives in the Italian language. Europeanhow language helps Rolland, J. P. (2002). Cross-cultural generalizability of the five-factor model of personality. In R. R. McCrae J. Allik (Eds.), The five-factor model of personality across cultures (pp. 7–28). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic. Rolland, J. P. (2002). Cross-cultural generalizability of the five-factor model of personality. In R. R. McCrae J. Allik (Eds.), The five-factor model of personality across cultures (pp. 7–28). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic. McCrae, R. R. (2002). Cross-cultural research on the five-factor model of personality. In W. J. Lonner, D. L. Dinnel, S. A. Hayes, D. N. Sattler (Eds.), Online readings in psychology and culture (Unit 6, Chapter 1). Retrieved from http://www.wwu.edu/~culture 1 Wiggins, J. S., Trapnell, P. D. ( 1997). Personality structure: The return of the Big Five. In R.Hogan, J.Johnson, S.Briggs ( Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 737– 765). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. To further determine the effectiveness of standardised personality test the Junior Eyesenck Personality Questionnaire (Jr EPQ; Eysenck and Eysenck 1975), Lie test and Florida key (FK; Purkey and Cage 1973) were administered to 113 students from two elementary schools and 42 ninth graders in high school. Data was categorised into variables consisting of sex, school and race results were examined variance. The data shows differences in the mean with several test score outside the suitable bracket, it is noted that under the variable race, aboriginal people scored 5.8 which is out of the .05 level, the data between the two groups proved to be quite different. Although results were provided and proved to be similar between the two groups, when analysing the mean score attention arises when understanding

A Tale of Two Cities - Quotes Analysis Essay -- essays research papers

1.â€Å"It was the best of times†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette, in the wake of the French Revolution, blithely married in England. (Book II, Chapter 18) Their marriage forged the loving ties between the two, and brought children to their household. To them, to be able to live with their loved one and to be able to caress their children was the best. They were oblivious of the rousing wraths of the peasants in France, and the time to them could not have been better. 2.â€Å"It was the worst of times†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In Book II, Chapter 21, the Defarges and their supporters angrily stormed the Bastille and ruthlessly decapitated the governor of the prison. Although the breaching of the Bastille was not unwarranted, the inexorable murder of a man trying to do his duty reflected the merciless spirits of the rebels, mad and seething with rage like a bull. The act might have seemed inconsequential then, but soon it would rouse the bloody Revolution where even the suspected man would be killed. Indeed, the storming, and the murder of the governor, marked the beginning of â€Å"the worst of times,† when order was replaced with chaos, when peace was replaced with violence. 3.â€Å"It was the age of wisdom†¦Ã¢â‚¬  At Charles Darnay’s first trial in France on charges of being an emigrant, Dr. Manette cleverly used his camaraderie with the mad mobs to liberate Charles. (Book III, Chapter 6) Manette had been a wronged prisoner in the Bastille charged by Evremonde, and, using his eminence and his relationship with Darnay, he was able to manipulate the jury. The wisdom of Manette saved his son-in-law. 4.â€Å"It was the age of foolishness†¦Ã¢â‚¬  As the Revolution progresses, more people are executed per day, (â€Å"Fifty-two†, in Book III, Chapter 13) and the bloodthirstiness of t... ...uries befitting the state of a marquis in a luxurious age and country†¦ was conspicuous in their rich furniture†¦ diversified by many objects that were illustrations of old pages in the history of France.† (Book II, Chapter 9) The Marquis’s house was large, extravagant, and decorated – he had everything. 10.â€Å"We had nothing before us†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In Book I, Chapter 5, a cask of wine was spilt on the ground, and the people â€Å"suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine.† The ravenous drinking of the people reflects their hungry stomachs, their emptiness – â€Å"devoted themselves to the sodden and lee-dyed pieces of the cask, licking, and even champing the moister wine-rotted fragments with eager relish.† Even a drop of wine was worth the effort. The nothingness that existed for most of the commoners would help incite the French Revolution.

Down Syndrome: An Informative Essay -- Birth Defect Health

Down Syndrome: An Informative Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Down Syndrome is the name for babies born with a disorder related to their chromosomes. It is caused when meiosis occurs and an error occurs in the cells development. The reason for this defect is often because the parent is over 40 or for some other reason their meiosis is not "Up to par."   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The actual defect is an extra chromosome is developed during cell development. The abnormal development results in 47 chromosomes rather than the usual 46 (23 from each parent). This extra gene causes problems in the child's physical and mental development. There are an estimated 5000 babies with Down Syndrome born in America every single year. While the chances of having a Down Syndrome baby are slim, (1 in 1000) it is still an issue that...

Native Son - Segregation, Oppression and Hatred Essay -- Native Son Es

Native Son - Segregation, Oppression and Hatred The novel, Native Son, portrays the struggle one black man faces while trying to live in a segregated society in the late 1930s. Growing up poor, uneducated, and angry at the whole world, Bigger Thomas seems destined to meet a bad fate. Bigger lives with his family in a rat-infested one-bedroom apartment on the South Side of Chicago, known as the "Black Belt." His childhood has been filled with hostility and oppression; anger, frustration, and violence are a daily reality. A the age of twenty, Bigger lands his first real job as a chauffeur for a rich white man, Mr. Dalton. On his first night on the job Bigger takes Mr. Dalton's daughter, Mary Dalton, to secretly meet her boyfriend, Jan Erlone, a self-admitted Communist. Everyone gets a little drunk, especially Mary, and after a while Bigger drops Jan off at home and takes Mary home. As he carries Mary up the stairs and puts her into bed, Mary's blind mother walks in the room. Bigger panics and accidentally kills Mary while trying to keep her quiet so Mrs. Dalton would not notice that he was in the room, too. When Mary's body is discovered people initially blame Jan, but as evidence is discovered, the facts point to Bigger and he flees. He is soon caught and put on trial for murder. Throughout Bigger short life, he strives to find a place for himself in society, but he is unable to see through the prejudice and suppression that he encounters in those around him. The bleak harshness of the racist, oppressive society that the author, Richard Wright, presents the reader closes Bigger out as effectively as if society had sh... ... because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why; they are powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces." Despite Max's efforts, the oppressors got their bitter vengeance and a jury of twelve white men sentenced Bigger to death. The segregation and oppression that exists between the whites and blacks has created a feeling of hatred that has torn these two groups apart, and succeeded only in perpetuating the tension and violence between them. Through Bigger's hatred and discomfort around whites, the naivety of white society, and his violent murder of a young girl, Wright demonstrates the intensity of the hatred created by the segregation and oppression that Bigger was forced to endure every day until the end of his life.

Consumer Traits and Behaviors Essay

Consumer behavior involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, making purchase decisions (e.g., whether or not to purchase a product and, if so, which brand and where), interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans (e.g., by engaging in comparison shopping or actually purchasing a product). Companies to determine the best, and useful marketing of their product and services must study consumer traits and behaviors. By doing this extensive research, companies are sure to develop marketing plans directly aimed to the customer base they would like to attract. Sources of influence on the consumer. The consumer faces numerous sources of influence. Often, we take cultural influences for granted, but they are significant. An American will usually not bargain with a storeowner. This, however, is a common practice in much of the World. The cultural influence can also impact the actual things people feel are needs versus wants. The American culture, unfortunately is a greedy culture that can at times take for granted the fact that all of their needs are met and often times confuse them with their wants. The cultural impact makes a fancy new sports car a need when there are children in third world countries that need food and water. Physical factors also influence our behavior. We are more likely to buy a soft drink when we are thirsty, for example, and food manufacturers have found that it is more effective to advertise their products on the radio in the late afternoon when people are getting hungry. There are also documented instances where a person’s obsessive want of an it em can physically make a person ill when they cannot have them. A person’s self-image will also tend to influence what he or she will buy—an upwardly mobile manager may buy a flashy car to project an image  of success. Self image issues can also be closely related into cultural issues we all can face also, leading consumers to adopt an image of beauty that is not obtainable such as larger women developing a complex to become super model thin, and in return cause people to develop self hate towards the things about themselves and others that cannot be changed. Often times a person’s self worth is measured in the things they have versus the content of who they are on the inside. Social factors also influence what the consumers buy—often, consumers seek to imitate others whom they admire, and may buy the same brands. The social environment can include both the mainstream culture (e.g., Americans are more likely to have corn flakes or ham and eggs for breakfast than to have rice, which is preferred in many Asian countrie s) and a subculture (e.g., rap music often appeals to a segment within the population that seeks to distinguish itself from the mainstream population). Thus, sneaker manufacturers are eager to have their products worn by admired athletes. Something as simple as a Facebook like can take a product from obscurity to relevancy just like being listed on Oprah’s favorite things. Finally, consumer behavior is influenced by learning—you try a hamburger and learn that it satisfies your hunger and tastes good, and the next time you are hungry, you may consider another hamburger. We are also a culture of people to purchase the things that our family customarily purchased our band loyalty can be passed down from generation to generation. Consumer Choice and Decision Making: Problem Recognition. One model of consumer decision-making involves several steps. The first one is problem recognition—you realize that something is not as it should be. Perhaps, for example, your car is getting more difficult to start and is not accelerating well. The second step is information search—what are some alternative ways of solving the problem? You might buy a new car, buy a used car, take your car in for repair, ride the bus, ride a taxi, or ride a skateboard to work. The third step involves evaluation of alternatives. A skateboard is inexpensive, but may be ill suited for long distances and for rainy days. Finally, we have the purchase stage, and sometimes a post-purchase stage (e.g., you return a product to the store because you did not find it satisfactory). In reality, people may go back and forth between the stages. For example, a person may resume alternative identification during while evaluating already known alternatives. Consumer  involvement will tend to vary dramatically depending on the type of product. In general, consumer involvement will be higher for products that are very expensive (e.g., a home, a car) or are highly significant in the consumer’s life in some other way (e.g., a word processing prog ram or acne medication). It is important to consider the consumer’s motivation for buying products. To achieve this goal, we can use the Means-End chain, wherein we consider a logical progression of consequences of product use that eventually lead to desired end benefit. Thus, for example, a consumer may see that a car has a large engine, leading to fast acceleration, leading to a feeling of performance, leading to a feeling of power, which ultimately improves the consumer’s self-esteem. A handgun may aim bullets with precision, which enables the user to kill an intruder, which means that the intruder will not be able to harm the consumer’s family, which achieves the desired end-state of security. In advertising, it is important to portray the desired end-states. Focusing on the large motor will do less good than portraying a successful person driving the car. Attitudes Consumer attitudes are a composite of a consumer’s (1) beliefs about, (2) feelings about, (3) and behavioral intentions toward some â€Å"object†Ã¢â‚¬â€within the context of marketing, usually a brand, product category, or retail store. These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object Consumer attitudes are both an obstacle and an advantage to a marketer. Choosing to discount or ignore consumers’ attitudes of a particular product or service—while developing a marketing strategy—guarantees limited success of a campaign. In contrast, perceptive marketers leverage their understanding of attitudes to predict the behavior of consumers. These savvy marketers know exactly how to distinguish the differences between beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors while leveraging all three in the development of marketing strategies. beliefs or feelings toward a product or service. A behavioral intention is defined by the consumer’s belief or feeling with respect to the product or service. The cellular phone industry is one of the rare bright spots in Asian business (Roberts, 1998). China’s cell phone market has increased at an annual growth rate of 80% since 1990 (Statistics of CMII, 2005). In 2001, China’s cell phone market  grew into 130 million users, exceeding the U.S.’s market for the first time An attitude in marketing terms is defined as a general evaluation of a product or service formed over time (Solomon, 2008). An attitude satisfies a personal motive—and at the same time, affects the shopping and buying habits of consumers. Dr. Lars Perner (2010) defines consumer attitude simply as a composite of a consumer’s beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions toward some object within the context of marketing. A consumer can hold negative or positive (Robertson, 2001). Chinese cell phone user population reached 335 million (25% of the total Chinese population), 65 million more than 2003 (Statistics of CMII, 2005). Social and Cultural Settings Influence Consumer Behavior The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as how the psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products, and retailers). The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media); The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer. Consumers Interpret Marketing Messages Differently Consumers’ interpretations of advertising messages have long been an important and controversial topic in advertising research (Jacoby and Hoyer 1982a, 1982b, 1987; Mick 1988b; Russo, Metcalf, and Stephens 1981; Shimp and Preston 1981). [The terms comprehension and interpretation are used interchangeably here. Readers who question the synonymy of those terms are also likely to believe that denotation and connotation are separate constructs- -likely because they associate comprehension with denotation and interpretation with connotation. This article seeks to defy the  denotation/connotation distinction with respect to advertising illustrations. Comprehension itself is conceptualized generally in this article from a level of processing perspective, specifically as a cue-induced spread of activation of semantic concepts (knowledge structures). Inference is the basic mechanism of this activation and also accounts for the meanings constructed as a function of bridging two alread y – activated concepts.] Historically, most empirical work has centered on consumers’ processing of linguistic information; recently, researchers have paid increased attention to nonlinguistic features (e.g., Childers and Houston 1984; Edell and Staelin 1983; Johnson, Zimmer, and Golden 1987; Richards and Zakia 1981; Rossiter and Percy 1980; Zakia 1986). Lengthy theoretical writings on visual communication in advertising have also appeared (Rossiter and Percy 1983). Despite this trend, few have actually studied the semiotic substance of consumers’ interpretations of advertising illustrations. For instance, Thematic Apperception Tests remain widespread in the advertising industry for Pretesting visual content. Yet, advertising scholars have exerted little effort to employ such semantic -unveiling methods to inform theory and assess propositions about consumers’ interpretations of nonverbal ad information. Conclusion In this document, we have been able to showcase the psychological processes and presented three social processes that impact and influence consumer behavior. As we explore the fabulous relationships between traits and behavior we can establish the marketing and tools that are needed to develop effective marketing strategies that will influence the way people buy the products that are purchased. Understanding these consumer traits and behaviors can make the company a very successful and profitable company. Understanding or a lack there of, this relationship between consumer traits and be the making or breaking of any corporation. This class and the training of being able to understand just how important it is to be able to interpret the messages that are being sent both to and from the consumer. References Retrieved From: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2571413 Retrieved From: http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-internal-influences-lifestyle-attitude.html Retrieved From: http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/ (2011, 04). A Structural Equation Model of Perceived Price on Value Perceptions: a Consumer Psychology View. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 04, 2011, Retrieved From: http://www.studymode.com/essays/a-Structural-Equation-Model-Of-Perceived-6608

Opportunities for you and your organization in the maintenance of a blog to address customer issues Essay

Blogs can be fun and very informative. Blogs could have a major impact on students, faculty, and staff. The opportunities for students, faculty, and staff are endless. Most students are fit within an age group that grew up with networking and social technology. They are familiar with blogs and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. For some, it is their primary means of getting information and learning. With 36,000 students, blogging can be a means of communicating security concerns, major impacts to the university operations, and crisis management. As mention in McNurlin and Sprague (2006), Dan Farber suggests â€Å"One corporate use of blogs is for crisis management. A blog can be more appropriate than e-mail in managing a crisis (such as a fire or a security breach). All the postings can be on one site, in journaling style, rather than passed as disconnected e-mails, notes Farber. † (p. 292) Students and faculty also like to voice their opinion about the way the university is run. Blogs would give them a voice to express those opinions due to the nature blogs. McNurlin and Sprague went on to say that â€Å"What readers seem to trust about blogs, that they do not trust about conventional media, is their opinionated and personal nature. † (p. 293) Blogs would also be a valuable marketing tool for the university. Blogs hosted by students could give direct advice and opinion to prospective students. According to Laudon and Laudon (2006), â€Å"Blogs provide a more personal way of presenting information to the public and prospective customers about new products and services. † (p. 123) Finally, blogs are a way to manage customer relationships. Faculty, staff, and students are considered customers of the information technology department. It is important to communicate changes, outages, and useful information that help to make the customer experience with technology more enjoyable. The more tips and helpful advice IT can give to end-users, the better the experience. In turn, IT can learn the needs, wants, and opinions of their customers. According to Haag, et, al (2005), â€Å"Customers interact with companies in many ways, and each interaction should be easy, enjoyable, and error free. †

How To Manage Conflict Essay

Managing conflict is never easy, whether you’re trying to resolve a conflict of your own or trying to help two people settle a dispute. The most important thing to know is that the longer you let the situation continue, the worse it’ll be when it’s time to resolve it. So take a deep breath, maintain your cool, and get ready to find a solution that can make everyone (reasonably) happy. 1. Make a plan for meeting. If two people are genuinely in conflict and you want to help them — or they need your help — then you should plan a time to meet that would make everybody happy. Of course, you may just walk into a conflict and have to solve it on the spur of the moment, but hopefully you have some time to plan in advance. If so, pick a time and place that works for both people, and make sure that they are both invested in solving the conflict. If there’s real trouble, then the sooner you can get together, the better. Ad 2. Let each person state his or her side of the story. If you are in charge of managing a conflict, whether it’s because you’re a manager or because you’re helping two people figure out their issues, you have to be an active listener. Let each person express his or her position and listen with compassion and care until each person has stated his or her feelings and desires. Don’t let the people interrupt each other and make it clear that each person will take turns fully explaining him or her self.[1] Make sure that both people are really listening to each other instead of just waiting until their turn to have their say. If necessary, have one person repeat some of the main points the other person made, so it’s clear that they both have an understanding of how each person is feeling. 3. 3 Make it clear that you are there to help resolve, not solve. The people who are in conflict must figure out how to move past their problems on their own, not look to you for a magical solution that will make all of their problems go away. You should make this clear from the start so both parties know that they have to work hard and listen actively before they can move  forward. You are there to mediate so the conflict doesn’t get out of control and so that both parties can look at the situation with more objectivity and control, but that doesn’t mean you will provide them with an answer. 4 Maintain your objectivity. Even if you think that Lucy is obviously in the right and Mary is 100% wrong, it is not your position to say so. If you jump in on Lucy’s side, then Mary will feel like you’re both ganging up against her and the conflict will be even further from a resolution. Instead, keep your own personal opinions and ideas out of it and treat each person’s perspective with compassion and respect. Even if one person is more â€Å"right† than the other, they both still have to reach a solution that can reasonably please both of them. If you’re mediating a conflict, then you should pay equal attention to both people. Let each person spend about the same amount of time speaking and make points that support both people instead of just focusing on one person or the other. Maintain a neutral expression, and try not to look put off or skeptical if one person is stating something you don’t agree with at all. 5. 5 Be a calming force. One of your primary tasks is to help both people keep their cool. Manage their stress levels, their anger, and their emotions to the best of your ability. If someone is getting too heated, raising his or her voice, and getting visibly angry or upset, take a five-minute break or ask that person to take a few deep breaths and wait until he or she can speak calmly. You can only find a solution if both people stay calm and can see clearly.[2] If the conversation is not going down a constructive path, and both people have resorted to name calling and cursing and just criticizing each other back and forth without getting anywhere, then you should intervene and get the conversation back on track. You can say something like, â€Å"Let’s focus on what’s important here,† or â€Å"We’re just not getting anywhere with this kind of talk.† 6 Figure out the source of the tension. Once both people have stated their  cases, you can help them figure out what is really at stake. They may think that they are really angry at each other because of financial tension, but they may really be upset because of a lack of communication. Be as specific. Have each person discuss all of the things that are troubling him or her and see if you can really find the root of the problem. Be patient. It may take a bit of digging — and some pain — to get there. If you can put it in simple terms, something like, â€Å"Bob feels that Mary is micromanaging his project† or â€Å"Sara feels like Jim doesn’t spend enough quality time with her,† then you can begin to tackle the problem better than if you just knew that the two people were angry with each other. 7 Work together to find a solution. Once you have all agreed on the source of the tension and the problem that is at hand, you can begin to find a solution. Remember that both people do have to agree about the nature of the real problem to be able to find an effective solution. It may not be readily apparent, and you may need some perseverance and creativity to get there, but eventually, you should be able to find a way to make both people (reasonably) happy. Here are some potential solutions you may find and ways to state them gracefully: â€Å"It seems like both of you are having trouble living together. Sara may be a bit too focused on being neat, while Mary may be a bit careless when it comes to doing chores. To solve the problem, you should set out a list of guidelines for how you can both keep the house clean without running into trouble. If you both agree to do the things on the list, then you can stay happy in your living space.† â€Å"It seems that Bob has been managing Clark a little too closely. To avoid this in the future, Bob and Clark can discuss the objectives of a project in great detail and can decide on times when they can both check in about the status of the project; this will make Bob feel at ease about where the project is going, while giving Clark a little bit of breathing room.† 8 Make a plan. Once you’ve found a resolution for the problem, you can set out specific guidelines for making it happen. Remember that both people have to be invested in finding this solution. You can set a timeline for achieving  these goals and have both people put it in writing so they feel that it will actually happen. Here are some ways it can happen: â€Å"Mary and Sara should sit down and discuss which things in the house have to stay clean at all times, and which parts should be cleaned occasionally for an extra nice touch. Once you agree on the daily chores that really need to be done, you can make a chart of rotating tasks.† â€Å"Bob and Clark should meet for an hour before every new project, taking at least two detailed pages of notes so that Clark has enough direction to go off on his own. They should meet every three days for half an hour to discuss the progress of the project.† 9 If both parties agree to disagree, help them part amicably. Maybe neither person, or one of the people, is unwilling to budge, and after much discussion, you haven’t moved past square one. If that’s the case, then you should still make it so that one person understands where the other is coming from and that they can leave the situation without extra hostility or tension. Maybe Bob can’t help but breathe down Clark’s neck or Sara will always be messy no matter what; if that’s the case, then they have to find a way to coexist or make a smart plan for parting ways. Consider the fact that maybe both people just aren’t ready to resolve the conflict and need more time to cool off. If you feel like the argument is getting nowhere because both people are too heated and emotional, not because they refuse to budge from their positions, then consider asking both people reschedule your meeting for a time when both parties can think more clearly. 10 End the conversation on a positive note. Whether both parties have reached a healthy conclusion or have agreed to disagree, you should end the situation on an optimistic note so neither person feels defeated. If both parties are feeling friendly, go out for a coffee or a beer; if both parties are still very angry, try to diffuse the situation with a bit of humor and see if they’ll at least shake hands and stay cordial. If emotions are too heated, then it’s time for everyone to back off for a bit, but if the vibe is positive, make the people feel good about having the conversation. Remind both parties that, however unpleasant it may be to discuss a conflict, that  they have been mature and done the right thing by deciding to resolve the situation instead of staying angry or avoiding the tension. Method 2 of 2: Managing Your Own Conflicts 1. Face the conflict head-on. If you’re dealing with a conflict of your own, then the worst thing you can do is run and hide, waiting for the conflict to get bigger and bigger until it’s almost impossible to resolve it. Sure, conflict is no fun, whether you’re butting heads with a co-worker or your long-term boyfriend, but remind yourself that if you brush your problems under the rug, then they are guaranteed to get worse. So take a deep breath and accept that you have to deal with it.[3] That being said, pick your battles. If you feel like your boyfriend has been neglecting you, then speak up; but if you feel like you don’t like the way he loads the dishwater, maybe it’s better to hold off. 2 Don’t tell everyone about it. It’s okay to seek advice from a close friend or another co-worker if you genuinely don’t know what to do. But if you feel the urge to complain to every person in sight about the conflict just so you can gossip or get some anger off your chest, then you’re only getting yourself worked up and possibly putting your relationship in jeopardy if the other person finds out about what you’ve been saying. If you do need advice, then talk to just one or two people whom you really trust so you can have some meaningful direction.[4] Think about it; how would you feel if you heard your co-worker was telling everyone in the office about your problems without talking to you about it? That kind of behavior is guaranteed to make you feel worse. 3 Use â€Å"I† statements. â€Å"I† statements are crucial for solving a conflict as objectively as possible. â€Å"I† statements make your feelings and motives clear and can help the other person see your side of the story without feeling accused or persecuted; â€Å"You† statements make the other party feel like he or  she is on the chopping block and will make him or her feel much more defensive. Here are some ways to make useful â€Å"I† statements: â€Å"I feel like we haven’t been spending enough time together† is more effective than â€Å"You are always neglecting me.† â€Å"I feel like I’ve been picking up the majority of the work on the project,† is more effective than â€Å"You have been making me do all of the work on this project.† 4 Be specific. This doesn’t mean you have to list the 90 things that the person has done to hurt you or to cause the conflict. In fact, this kind of behavior will only make the person feel worse, like he’s being picked apart. Instead, stick to two or three concrete scenarios that can illustrate what you mean to make the person see the situation from your perspective. Here are some examples: â€Å"I was really hurt when you left my birthday party early to hang out with your friends instead of spending more time with me.† â€Å"I spent ten hours on the Roberts report while you only worked on the cover page.†