Possession of Knowledge Tok

TOK Outline Essay title – â€Å"The possession of knowledge carries an ethical responsibility†. Evaluate this claim. What knowledge issues I think are involved †¢How can you possess knowledge? How do you acquire it and do these ways affect your responsibility of imparting it on others? †¢How is the knowledge you have affected by your personal ethics? Some people would have no problem giving out certain pieces of knowledge while others would be very trouble giving out exactly the same information. †¢How can one know when they are ethically responsible?How do you know how big the impact of the knowledge you are giving will have on the recipient? Ways of knowing, Areas of knowledge that are involved. †¢Ways of knowing oReason – Has huge relevance to the essay title. You use reason to decide how the knowledge you have will affect the recipient and if it is ethically responsible to do this. oEmotion – Emotion will always affect your decision s when doing something, For example if you don’t want to say something to someone as it may hurt them but they have a right to know.Introduction: †¢State my view on the claim, whether I agree/ disagree oI agree with the statement above, its up to you whether or not to impart certain knowledge you have, depending on the situation. Person you’re speaking to, what the knowledge is, how it will affect them. †¢Thesis statement. 2nd paragraph †¢Try and explain the knowledge issues; â€Å"How can one know when they are ethically responsible† etc. See above for a list of some knowledge issues. †¢Discuss ethics, ‘possession of knowledge’ rd paragraph †¢State first area of knowledge – Ethics †¢State an example linking the AOK to the title. oAlbert Einstein’s involvement in the creation of the atom bomb. Knew it was going to be used in warfare. †¢Link it to the thesis statement, for and against oAs a scientist e thically responsible to impart his findings to the world. oBut as a human being he could have kept it to himself in order to save people’s lives †¢Make sure that both sides of the argument are stated. 4th Paragraph Same as 2nd paragraph except with second area of knowledge – Natural and human sciences. †¢Biology – example would be Ben Johnson at the 1988 olympic. Doctors ethical responsibility to give him the drugs knowing their effect and the details while Ben Johnson just trusted his professional ability. †¢Economics – Bank crisis in 2008. Did the banks have an ethical responsibility to tell the public that their money was being used for other things, instead of just letting the money be lost and telling them after they had invested it all. th paragraph †¢Explain how ways of knowing will be linked to the claim – Reason †¢Provide example. oIf someone stops you on the street and asks for directions then you use reason to de termine that it seems perfectly fine for you to impart the knowledge you have and that it coincides with your ethics. 6th paragraph †¢Same as above with other way of knowing – emotion oA doctor giving the results of tests to a patient and telling them that they are terminally ill.They may not want to impart that knowledge as they know it will greatly affect the person and emotionally you wouldn’t want to be giving that information. But they are ethically responsible as professionals to give that information. oAnother example that would go with this is a police officer having to tell the next of kin that they family member has died. Conclusion †¢Evaluate all the points that have been talked about. †¢Restate your thesis statement and talk about if you agree/ disagree again. †¢Don’t bring up any new points! †¢Round off the essay nicely, no trailing points.

The Overcoat

Meanings and Indeterminacy in Gogol's â€Å"The Overcoat† Author(s): Victor Brombert Reviewed work(s): Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 135, No. 4 (Dec. , 1991), pp. 569-575 Published by: American Philosophical Society Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/986817 . Accessed: 25/01/2012 04:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. sp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email  protected] org. American Philosophical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. h ttp://www. jstor. org Indeterminacy Meanings and in Gogol's The Overcoat* VICTOR BROMBERT Henry Putnam University Professorof Romanceand ComparativeLiterature Princeton University kaky Akakyevich is the central characterof Gogol's story TheOvercoat. Although Dostoyevsky gave common currency to the term â€Å"antihero† in Notes from Underground,it is Gogol's Akaky Akakyevich who is the genuine, unmitigated, and seemingly unredeemable antihero. For Dostoyevsky's anti-heroic paradoxalist, afflicted with hypertrophia of the consciousness, is well-read, cerebral, incurably bookish, and talkative. Akaky Akakyevich is hardly aware, and almost inarticulate. Gogol's artistic wager was to try to articulate this inarticulateness. The story, in its plot line, is simple. A most unremarkable copying clerk in a St. Petersburg ministry-bald, pockmarked, short-sighted, and the scapegoat of his colleagues who invent cruel ways of mocking himdiscovers one day that his pathetically threadbare coat no longer protects him against the fierce winter wind. The tailor he consults categorically refuses to repair the coat which is now beyond repair, and empts Akaky Akakyevich into having a new overcoat made, one totally beyond his means, but which by dint of enormous sacrifices, he manages to acquire and wear with a newly discovered sense of pride. But his happiness lasts only one short day. Crossing a deserted quarter at night, he is attacked by two thieves who knock him to the ground and steal his coat. Drenched, frozen, deeply upset, brutally reprimanded by a superior whose help he dared seek, A kaky develops a fever, becomes delirious, and dies. One can hardly speak of an interesting plot line. Yet this simple story lends itself to orgies of interpretations. In fact, there may be as many interpretations as there are readers. The Overcoatcan be read as a parable, a hermeneutic puzzle, an exercise in meaninglessness. But to begin with, there is the temptation to read it seriously as satire with a social and * Read 9 November 1990. PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 135, NO. 4, 1991 569 570 VICTOR BROMBERT moral message. In The Nose, Gogol had already made fun of the rankconsciousness and venality of civil servants. In The Overcoat, he seems to deride systematically the parasitical, lazy, phony, world of Russian officialdom, whose members are the impotent mediators of a hierarchy of ineffectual power structure in which every subordinate fears and apes his superior. Early Russian critics, convinced that literature must have a moral message, read such a denunciatory and corrective satirical intention into the story even though it is clear that Gogol constantly shifts his tone, defends no apparent norm, and systematically ironizes any possible â€Å"serious† message. There is of course the temptation to read The Overcoatas a tale of compassion, as a plea for brotherhood. The pathetically defenseless little clerk, taunted and persecuted by the group, remains blissfully oblivious to the cruel pranks of which he is the butt, intent on his humble copying activity. Only when the jokes become too outrageous, or interfere with his work, does he protest ever so mildly. But here the tone of the story seems to change. For Gogol introduces a young man, recently appointed to the same office, who is on the point of sharing in the general fun, and who is suddenly struck by the strange notes in Akaky's voice which touch his heart with pity and make him suddenly see everything in a very different light. A true revelation emanating from an â€Å"unnatural† (neestestvennyi) power allows him to hear other words behind Akaky's banal entreaty to be left alone. What he hears are the deeply penetrating, unspoken words echoing with poignant significance: â€Å"I am thy brother. And with this voice from behind the voice comes the shocked awareness of how much â€Å"inhumanity† there is in human beings, how much brutality lurks in what goes as civilized society and civilized behavior. The apparent lesson in humanity given by the scapegoat victim seems, in the immediate context, to have an almost religious character, especially if one relates it to the narrator's comments, after Akaky's death, on ho w a man of meekness who bore the sneers and insults of his fellow human beings disappeared from this world, but who, before his agony, had a vision of the bright visitant (svetluy gost). The man of meekness, the man of sorrows, like the unspoken but clearly heard â€Å"I am thy brother,† seems to have a Christian, if not Christological, resonance. But we forget Akaky's name, and that we are not allowed to do. For the patronymic appellation not only stresses the principle of repetition (Akaky's first name being exactly the same as his father's), but the funny sound repetition is even funnier because the syllable kak = like (tak kak = just as) embeds the principle of sameness in Akaky's name, determining, it would seem, his single-minded, life-long activity of copying and implicit condemnation to sameness. Regarding the many years Akaky served in the same department, Gogol observes that he â€Å"remained in exactly the same place, in exactly the same position, in exactly the same job, doing exactly the same kind of work, to wit copying official documents. † But there is better (or worse) especially to Russian ears, for kakatj GOGOL'S THE OVERCOAT 571 (from the Greek cacos = bad, evil) is children's talk for defecate, and caca in many languages refers to human excrement. To be afflicted with such a name clearly relates to the garbage being regularly dumped on Akaky as he walks in the street, and to his being treated with no more respect by the caretakers than a common fly. The cruel verbal fun around the syllable kak extends beyond the character's name, and contaminates Gogol's text. Gogol indulges in seemingly endless variations on the words tak, kak,kakoi,kakoi-to,kakikh-to,vot-kak,neekak,takoi, takaya,kaknibut, (just so, that's how, in no way, somehow, and so on) which in the translation disappear altogether. The exploitations of sound effects or sound meanings clearly correspond to a poet's fascination with the prestigious cacophonic resources of ordinary speech. 1 One last point about the choice of Akaky's name, specifically the Christian act of â€Å"christening†: according to custom, the calendar was opened at random and several saints' names (Mokkia, Sossia), including the name of the martyr Khozdazat, were considered, only to be rejected by the mother because they sounded so strange. Akaky was chosen because that was the name of the father. But Acacius, a holy monk of Sinai, was also a saint and martyr, and we find ourselves-especially since the Greek prefix a (Acacius) signifies: not bad, therefore good, meek, humble, obedient-back to the religious motif. If Akaky continues to copy for his own pleasure at home, this is in large part because the bliss of copying has a specifically monastic resonance. Gogol does indeed refer to his copying as a â€Å"labor of love. † Here a new temptation assails the reader. Should The Overcoatnot be read as hagiography in a banal modern context, or at the very least as a parody of hagiography? A number of elements seem to lend support to such a reading of the story in or against the perspective of the traditional lives of the saints: the humble task of copying documents, reference to the theme of the martyr (muchenik),salvational terminology, sacrificial motifs or communion (â€Å"I am thy brother†), Akaky's visions and ecstasies, his own apparitions from beyond the grave. But the most telling analogy with hagiographic lore is the conversion-effect on others, first on the young man who has a revelation of a voice that is not of this world (svet), and toward the end he self-admiring, domineering, Very Important Person on whom Akaky's ghost-like apparition makes a neverto-be-forgotten impression. 2 The overcoat itself can take on religious connotations because clothing, in the symbolism of the Bible and orthodox liturgy, often represents righteousness and salvation. The only trouble with such an interpretation-and Gogol has written Meditations on the Divine Liturgy wh ich 1 Boris Eichenbaum speaks of Gogol's â€Å"phonic inscriptions† and â€Å"sound-semantics† in â€Å"How ‘The Overcoat' is Made,† in Gogol from the Twentieth Century, ed. Robert A. Maguire, Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 280. 2 See John Schillinger, â€Å"Gogol's ‘The Overcoat'as a Travesty of Hagiography,† Slavic and East EuropeanJournal, Spring 1972, 16, 1: 36-41. 572 VICTOR BROMBERT refer to the priest's robe of righteousness as a garment of salvation3-is that the coat can have an opposite symbolic significance, that of hiding the truth. Hence the traditional image of disrobing to reveal the naked self. In addition, there are many other possible meanings quite remote from the religious sphere: the metonymic displacement of the libido (the Russian word for overcoat- shinel- is appropriately feminine), the effects of virilization (in his new coat, Akaky surprises himself in the act of running after some woman in the street! ), loss of innocence and loss of â€Å"original celibacy. â€Å"4 The coat itself thus turns out to be a form of temptation (material acquisition, vanity, pride), and the devilish tailor is the agent of this temptation just as the writer or narrator (who in fact is he? â€Å"tempts† the reader into a succession of vacuous and mutually canceling interpretations. This provocative writer-reader relationship, sustained throughout the narration, casts a special light on Akaky's fundamental activity of copying- the act of writing in its purest form. It does not take much imagination (our modern critics discover self-referentiality everywhere) to see in Akaky's c opying an analogue of the writer's activity. And like the proverbially absorbed writer or scholar, he is obsessed by his writing to the point of finding himself in the middle of the street while thinking that he is in the middle of a sentence. This self-absorbed and selfreferential nature of Gogol's act of writing might be seen to imply a negative attitude toward the referential world, toward all that which is not writing. Much like Flaubert, who dreamt of composing a â€Å"book about nothing,† and whom contemporary critics like to view as an apostle of self-referential, intransitive literature, Gogol yearns for monastic withdrawal. Flaubert was haunted by the figures of the monk and the saint. Similarly, Gogol explained in a letter: â€Å"It is not the poet's business to worm his way into the world's marketplace. Like a silent monk, he lives in the world without belonging to it . . . â€Å"5 Pushed to a logical extreme, this sense of the radical deceptiveness of life calls into question worldly authority, and leads to a destabilizing stance that challenges the principle of authority, a subversive gesta of which the real hero is the artist himself. There is indeed something devilish about Gogol's narrative voice. It has already been suggested that the devil makes an appearance in the figure of the tailor who tempts Akaky into buying the coat. This caricature of the sartorial artist who quite literally is the creator of the overcoat, this ex-serf sitting with his legs crossed under him like a Turkish pasha, has diabolical earmarks: he is a â€Å"one-eyed devil† living at the end of a black staircase; he has a de3 See Anthony Hippisley, â€Å"Gogol's ‘The Overcoat':A further Interpretation,† Slavic and East EuropeanJournal, Summer, 1976, 20, 2: 121-129. Hippisley points out (p. 123) that Gogol, in his Meditations on the Divine Liturgy quotes Psalms 132:9: â€Å"Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness .. † 4 The expression is Charles Bernheimer's, in his fine essay â€Å"Cloaking the Self: The Literary Space of Gogol's ‘Overcoat,†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ PMLA, January 1975, 90, 1: 53-61. 5 Letter to Pogodin, quoted by Charles Bernheimer (op. cit. , p. 53) and Donald Fanger, The Creationof Nikolai Gogol, Harvard University Press, 1979. GOGOL'S THE OVERCOAT 573 formed big toenail, hard and thick as a tortoise shell; he handles a thricereferred-to snuff box on which the face of a general has been effaced (the devil is faceless); he seems to be nudged by the devil and charges â€Å"the devil knows what prices. 6 This verbal playfulness seems to extend to the narrator himself, who undercuts his own narration in truly diabolical fashion by means of grotesque hyperbolizing, mixtures of realistic and parodistic elements, sudden shifts from the rational to the irrational, and elliptical displacements from epic triviality to unrestrained fantasy. Indulging in a game of mirages and fog-like uncertainties, the narrator subverts the logical progression of his story. Ultimately, even the ghost is debunked, and we are back in the blackness of quotidian reality. In the Russian text, these shifts in tone and textual instabilities are even more insidious, since everything seems to blur into the undifferentiated flow of seemingly endless paragraphs. This merging of discontinuities undermines any sense of plot, undercuts the notion of subject, and suggests at every point that what is told is another story, thereby teasing the reader into endless interpretations that can neither be stabilized nor stopped. Some of this is the inevitable result of a mimesis of inarticulateness, a narrative style that is the imitative substitute for Akaky's manner of communicating mostly through prepositions, adverbs, and â€Å"such parts of speech as have no meaning whatsoever. † But the strategy of destabilization and fragmented diction also has a deeper subversive purpose. The non sequiturs and hesitations reveal the arbitrariness of any fictional structure, and in the last analysis subvert any auctorial authority. The concluding page of The Nose represents an authorial critique of the story as incomprehensible and useless. The mediating self-negator is the fictionalized narrator identified in The Overcoat as the raskazyvaiushyi-the narrating one. And this narrator, occasionally pretending to be ignorant or semi-ignorant (like Cervantes's narrative voice as of the very first sentence of Don Quixote) does not know in what town, on what day, on what street the action takes placein fact, complains of loss of memory. All this, however, only accentuates the possible importance of the unknowable and the unsayable, while protecting the protagonist's sacred privacy. The narrator clumsily speculates on what Akaky might or might not have said to himself as he stares at an erotic window display in the elegant quarter of St. Petersburg, and he concludes: â€Å"But perhaps he never even said anything at all to himself. For it is impossible to delve into a person's mind [in Russian, literally: to creep into a person's soul]. The Overcoat is thus marked by conflicting and enigmatic signals, pointing to oxymoronic textures of meanings. Inversions hint at conver6 Dmitry Chizhevsky, who stresses the presence of the Devil in â€Å"The Overcoat,†writes: â€Å"As someone who was well read in religious literature, as a connoisseur and collector of folklore materials-from popular songs and legends-Gogol of course knew about the Christian and folk tradition that the Devil is faceless† (â€Å"About Go gol's ‘Overcoat,†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ in Gogol from the Twentieth Century, p. 20). 574 VICTOR BROMBERT sions. What is seemingly up is in fact seen to be down, while the reverse is equally true. The downtrodden creature turns out to be capable of heroic sacrifices, while the powerfully constituted VIP with the appearance of a bogatyr(hero) is cut down to human size by fright. On the other hand, when Akaky's fall is likened to a disaster such as destroys the czars and other great ones of this earth, one may well feel that Gogol is ironic about all heroic poses, heroic values, and heroic figures. When Akaky wears the new coat, his pulse beats faster, his bearing seems to indicate a newly discovered sense of purpose (tzel), his eyes have an audacious gleam, he appears somehow to have almost become virile. Yet the overcoat is also the emblem of false values, of trivial passion, of a silly reason for a human downfall. One might wish therefore to read a deeper significance into these mutually canceling interpretations. In English, the word passion is fraught with a multiple significance: in the ordinary sense, it denotes intense and even overwhelming emotion, especially of love; yet etymologically, it signifies suffering. Love and suffering are of course linked in a grotesque manner in The Overcoat. Whether such love and such suffering are commensurate with any objective reality remains unresolved in this story which seems to say that any love is great no matter what its object, that love is all-powerful; and conversely, that any passion can drag one down, that the more intense it seems, the emptier it is. Gogol's style is in itself an admirable instrument of ambivalence: enlarging trivia, and thereby trivializing what we may for a moment be tempted to take as significant. What complicates Gogol's text for the reader is that it is not a case of simple ambivalence. It will not do to praise Gogol as a compassionate realist with an ethical message or to see him as a playful anti-realist indulging in overwrought imagery and in the reflections of distorting mirrors. The hard fact is that Gogol is a protean writer whose simultaneity of possible meanings allows for no respite and no comfortable univocal mess age. If the narrator is center stage, it is because ultimately he becomes a performer, a buffoonish actor mimicking incoherence itself. Intelligent readers of Gogol-Boris Eichenbaum, Vladimir Nabokov, Victor Erlich, Charles Bernheimer, Donald Fanger8-have in varying degrees and with different emphases, understood that rather than indulging in a feast of ideas to be taken seriously, Gogol delighted in verbal acts as a game-a game that implied the autonomy of narrative style, a declaration of artistic independence, and a thorough deflation of l'esprit de serieux. I am largely indebted to Dmitry Chizhevsky who has admirably shown how the repeated and incongruous use of the adverb â€Å"even† (daje) breaks up the logical train of thoughts, enlarges trivia, and frustrates the reader by making the insignificant seem significant, and vice versa. Such a narrative strategy is related by Chizhevsky to the semantic oscillations of the text (â€Å"About Gogol's ‘Overcoat,'† in Gog ol from the Twentieth Century, pp. 295-322). 8 Boris Eichenbaum, op. cit. Vladimir Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol, New Directions, 1944; Victor Erlich, Gogol, Yale University Press, 1969; Charles Bernheimer, op. cit. ; Donald Fanger, op. cit. GOGOL'S THE OVERCOAT 575 Perhaps there is an underlying autobiographic urge in The Overcoat, and the verbal clowning and narrative pirouettes are telling a story in which the irrational takes on an exorcising and liberating virtue-much as the idiosyncrasies of Dostoyevsky's Notes from Undergroundpresent a vehement protest against spiritually deadening rationality. What is certain is that Gogol needs to wear a mask. Haunted by the monsters born of his imagination, afraid to be unmasked, Gogol literally disappears in his writing by becoming a multiplicity of voices. 9 But there is a danger in depicting Gogol as an escape artist struggling against his own demons at the same time as he struggles against the repressive reality he wishes to deny. Similarly, there is the risk of considerable distortion in the determination of formalist and post-structuralist critics to draw Gogol to the camp of radical modernity by seeing him exclusively concerned with speech acts and sheer rhetoricity. Polyvalence does not mean the absence of meaning. The real problem, much as in the case of Flaubert, who complained of the plethora of subjects and inflationary overfill of meanings, is that over-abundance and multiplicity become principles of indeterminacy. Excess is related to emptiness. Similarly, Gogol seems torn between the futility of experience and the futility of writing about it, between the conviction that writing is the only salvation, and that it is powerless to say the unsayable-aware at all points of the gulf between signifier and signified. Nabokov may have come closest to the heart of Gogol's dark playfulness when he wrote: â€Å"The gaps and black holes in the texture of Gogol's style imply flaws in the texture of life itself. . 10 To this one might add, however, that the hollowness of the gaps, the terrifying absence, is also an absence/presence: a void that asks to be filled by the interpretive act. The dialectics of negativity, so dependent on the antiheroic mode embodied by Akaky, displace the production of meaning from the almost non-existent character and undecidable text to the creative reader. Victor Erlich has very convincingly discussed Gogol's motif of the mask and tendency to â€Å"speak in somebody else's voice† in his chapter â€Å"The Great Impersonator† in Gogol, op. cit. , pp. 210-223. Gogol himself writes: â€Å"If anyone had seen the monsters that issued from my pen, at first for my own purposes alone-he would certainly have shuddered† (quoted by Valery Bryusov in his essay â⠂¬Å"Burnt to Ashes,† reproduced in Gogolfrom the Twentieth Century, p. 111). 10Vladimir Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol, op. cit. , p. 143.

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Fountain - Essay Example Additionally, the essay examines Marcel Duchamps fountain and Bruce Naumens fountain.† Finally, the essay meditates on the notion ‘aesthetic’. Art in the 19th century was greatly influenced by the surrounding cultural climate. While early in the century neo-classicism and romanticism were the dominant styles, but the 1860s realism had become the most prominent mode of artistic expression (Adams, p. 521). Realism attempted to capture the environment in its most realistic state. Realism defined art as working to capture reality in as accurate a way as possible. In this way artists implemented all the techniques at their disposal, including perspective and careful observation of the surrounding environment, to create works of art that directly reflected the world. Among the prominent realist painters include Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Corot’s works included in-depth portraits, such as ‘Woman with a Pearl’ (Adams, p. 525). Rather than using artistic flourishes, these works explored themes of everyday existence. The 19th century realist movement was not merely restricted to painting, but would also expand into literature (Adams, p. 520). The realist movement can perhaps be regarded as the end of pre-modern art. After the realist movement modernism emerged and redefined the definition of art. Rather than viewing art as an expression of observable reality, modernism styles increasingly viewed the goal of art as capturing the changing nature of human perception. This is a significant development in art as it marked a willingness to break from traditional reflection of the world to a more experimental emphasis. Impressionism is perhaps the first modernist style. While today impressionism appears a highly traditional style, during the late 19th century it was regarded as avant-garde. Undoubtedly the artist that most prominent exemplified the

Basic Statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Basic Statistics - Essay Example A negative correlation implies that the likelihood of depression reduces with an increase in age. A positive correlation would have been indicated by straight line implying that as a person ages there is an increase in the likelihood of individuals being depressed according to the data provided in book 5 (Weiss, 2006). In essence, an analysis of the data using SYSTAT implies that there is no significant correlation between age and depression. Age should therefore not be a factor when predicting the likelihood of an individual becoming depressed. Therefore, one can conclude that biological factors related to ageing do not affect the capacity of individuals to deal effectively and healthily with depression. In fact, the weak correlation implies that as one gets older perhaps due to experience and hardening they become less prone to depression. Analysis using SYSTAT indicates that the correlation between work and depression work and depression is actually -0.113. A correlation with a figure less that 1 indicates that there is no correlation between the two variables or the correlation could be very weak to be of any statistical significance. In this case one can comfortably conclude that there is no significant relationship between work and depression. The independent variable in this case was work and the dependent variable was depression. The correlation value in this case assumes a negative integer. The positive integer implies that there is a negative correlation between work and depression according to the data provided in book 5 (Weiss, 2006). This implies that if the value of the integer was 1 then it would have been expected that the people without work were more likely to be depressed that the people who were working. In essence, the data may be implying that although work is not a significant determinant with reg ard to the prevalence of depression according to the data, it

Relationships in Second Life and How They Can Affect Real Life Essay - 1

Relationships in Second Life and How They Can Affect Real Life - Essay Example However, for many inhabitants of Second Life, it is not just a 3D online game, but another world that â€Å"†¦has its own economy and millions of residents who own and create property, make friends and even get married† (CNN Living, 2008). These virtual worlds (VWs) have become conduits for socialization, collaboration, entertainment, social networking, and business development (Mennecke et al. 371). In VWs like Second Life, users must build virtual representations of themselves through creation of customizable avatars, which gives them a 3D body that they control and provides a â€Å"tangible embodiment of their identity† (Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley 1151). Through the avatars, users can discover an ever-growing assortment of virtual sites, fabricate all sorts of items, from clothing to buildings, and create businesses to sell their goods or services, forge relationships with other players through their interactions with their avatars, and buy virtual property (Hayes 154). According to Dell, as many as 13 million people have logged on to Second Life at least one time and about 450,000 subscribers are from more than 50 countries are online in any given week, ranging in age from 18 – 72, 27% of which are female (Hayes 154). Researchers have begun to conduct studies to analyze the way self-perception formed through interactions in VWs affects behaviors in the re al world (Dell). According to Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley, "the choices users make when creating and customizing their avatar will have repercussions on their interactions with other users† (1151), which can cause users to create online personas that are sometimes the complete opposite of who they are in real life.

Marketing Strategies of P&G Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing Strategies of P&G - Case Study Example When Lafley entered the scene in 2000, he stressed that the company must concentrate on what it sells well rather than build new products. However the company diversified and brought in novel brands into the market through various mergers and acquisitions. After Lafley entered the scene, P&G made the largest acquisitions ever in the year 2001 as it purchased Clairol for $5 billion. It also agreed to purchase Germany's Wella. Other companies that joined P&G included Intuit Inc, Clorox Co., SpinBrush (brainchild of four entrepreneurs from Cleveland), Coke, Wrigley Co. to name a few. The old idea that all of P&Gs products come from its laboratories was challenged and Lafley brought in more products from outside, a strategy that did wonders for the company. As buying best-selling innovation is a difficult business P&G relied on testing products at Wal-Mart for customer response. With its feet firmly on ground with a range of brands, now P&G is likely to invest in businesses of pharmaceut icals and beauty care (considerably weak areas of P&G). The leadership strategy of P&G reflects a lot of qualities of its leader, Lafley: strong, silent and pioneering. Whether the brand was made within P&G or acquired, it was ensured that it was not just good quality, but also novel in its line.

Origins of Dogs Essay Example for Free

Origins of Dogs Essay Humans and dogs have constantly shared exceptionally strong social affections, a dependency relationship that is not normally observed in other human-animal relationships. Humans and dogs equally preferred to put their fears from each other aside in order to live reciprocally. Dogs are significant part of human history, seeing that throughout times dogs are without a doubt wonderful companions and great friends. People play with dogs, keep them as a pet and even consider them their best friend. Today, dogs come in different shapes and sizes, with distinct attributes that separate them from every other animal. But are humans really familiar with anything regarding the history of dogs or where and when did their well-known friendship started? There are several theories on the subject; and it is rather difficult to affirm who are the forerunners of the modern day dog perceptions. Beginnings of Domestication Evidences have revealed that man and dogs have survived together since prehistoric period. It is generally acknowledged that the domestication of dogs started more than 15,000 years ago. It is believed that when primitive man evolved from gathering to hunting for food, dog and man began the symbiotic relationship of assisting each other. Moreover, between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, dogs became the guardians for the several recently domesticated animals of men. The breeding and crossbreeding started when men started to confer greater importance to certain characteristics and features in dogs. As a consequence, throughout the time of Egypt’s development in 1570 B. C. a range of diverse types of dogs became apparent. From that time, it was not long before dogs were being bred all over the world. In the history of dogs the Greeks, the Europeans, the Romans, and even the natives of the Far East were training dogs for a variety of activities including, hunting, sporting, fighting, and prize possessions. Origins of Dogs Archaeology has sited the earliest acknowledged domestication at probably 30,000 BC in Belgium and with certainty at 7,000 BC. Other information suggests that dogs were originally domesticated in East Asia, particularly within China some 15,000 years ago. In several archeological digs, however, canine relics have been discovered which could astonishingly be the forerunners of the modern day dog, although there are still a number of significant disparities between them. Accordingly, many analyze theorizes that modern day dogs are a result of parallel evolution, in which some species come from a considerably smaller canid and related to the dingo scientifically known as Canis familiaris nostrazewi, and other from a very large animal similar to some primitive Molosos and more related to the wolf scientifically known as the Canis familiaris puitiantini (See FIDOS Dog Health Training Encyclopedia). While some scientists thought that nearly all canine breeds originated from the crossbreeds of the small primeval dogs with diverse canid breeds, such as coyotes or golden jackal, animal DNA research studies confirm that dog gradually evolved from wolves after humans started selectively breeding wolves some 15,000 years ago, and nearly all scientists agree on the aforesaid findings. The DNA string coming from three interrelated groups revealed a common source from a particular gene pool, and because the majority of genetic variation was discovered in dogs that originated from East Asia, scientist concluded that this part of the world is the most possible origin of the species. It appears that World gray wolves, otherwise known as the New World dogs traveled with humans who arrived at North America across the Bering Strait several thousand of years ago. Scientist made use of DNA fingerprinting methods in a study to confirm that New World dogs were not descendants from wolves in the Americas. They discovered that these dogs were indeed descendants from Europe and Asia’s wolves. Moreover, based on evaluations of dogs from places as remote as Alaska and Peru, researchers theorized that primitive and modern day dogs around the world hailed from Old World gray wolves. Unfortunately, these dogs are no longer present in modern day dogs as European colonists systematically eradicated their population. It is already settled in several researches that dogs evolved from wolves; however, latest records confirm that the origin of dogs goes back to hunter-gather societies; therefore, dating earlier than what is commonly believed. Due to archaeological records, a number of scientists believe that domestic dogs dates back to15,000 years; however, the latest molecular genetic techniques performed by UCLA scientists and colleagues revealed that the origin of dog is much older. As a result of the extrapolation involved in the computations and the extent of genetic diversity they found in dogs, they believe that the earliest dog dates back 60,000 years or possibly over 100,000 years. Conclusion When observing the habits and behavior of a dog, the likenesses it has with the wolf are more than evident. In addition to the fact that the wolf and dog are somewhat similar not just the physical viewpoint, but as well as the character aspect, scientists have also found exceptional information to prove that the dog and wolf are indeed related. Using latest genetic researches, together with several controversial and fascinating works revealed that the wolf is the only ancestor of the dog, and its origins are primitive. This is why many believe that domesticated wolves were the earliest to live together with man and the dog and every other breeds existing at present are considered as the entire creation of man. Reference See FIDOS Dog Health Training Encyclopedia. (n. d. ). Where did Dogs come from. Retrieved March 20, 2009, from http://www. seefido. com/html/the_dog_s_origins. htm

Anti-discriminatory practice Essay Example for Free

Anti-discriminatory practice Essay The problems that can be encountered within staff training and development is that Betty may want the training to take place on a Saturday but the carers who have the day off on Saturdays may not want to go because it may be the only day off they have in a week. Betty could then rearrange the day and have staff training during the week but the downside of that is that there will be no carers left to care for the residents and also there will be a funding problem because Betty will then have to try and get other carers in just for that day. Funding The problems that can be encountered with funding is that if quite a few staff members take the same day off like a Wednesday then Betty will have to ring the staff who shouldn’t be in on Wednesday and see if they will come in, but they don’t want to. Betty will then have to ring and ask see if she can have agency staff to come in and work which will then be costing money that they probably haven’t got. Discrimination The problem with discrimination is that people have their own beliefs and values. A carer doesn’t like black people and there are 1 or 2 black people in the care home where she works. This carer takes in their own beliefs and values before their line of work; this means that the carer will be nice to the â€Å"black† residents when another carer is around but when they are on their own with them they call them names and are just discriminating against them because of their own beliefs and values. If the â€Å"black† residents complain about this carer then she will get assessed and if it is still going on she will end up with the sack and also taken to court. Manager There are problems with managers like funding because some carers may want a pay rise and if there isn’t enough money then obviously the carers cant have their pay rise and they may quit their job as a result of this. Another problem for a manager is that the care home could be an old building. Old buildings are more likely to have damp and to start falling down. This could link into the funding because if there wasn’t enough funding then the care home would have to get closed down because they wouldn’t be able to re-damp proof the walls/ceilings and also they wouldn’t be able to afford building works. Cooks There are a few problems for cooks because if they haven’t got enough staff working in the kitchens then everyone would have to be fed at different times which could be a problem with service users if they had a set feeding time. Storage is a problem because if it was a small kitchen then the cook wouldn’t have enough room to store appliances and food. Under trained staff is another problem because if staff wasn’t trained properly then germs could be passed on and also food may not be cooked properly. Cleaners A big problem for cleaners is that they could be denied access to a room by a service user. The reason this is a problem is that the cleaner may not get paid if all rooms are not cleaned properly although it wouldn’t be the cleaners fault. Cleaners can also have problems with respect because some carers think they are better than the cleaners because they don’t have to do the dirty jobs other than changing some residents. Receptionist Problems for receptionists is that if there is a client on the phone and there was a problem then the receptionist would get a mouth full although it wouldn’t be there fault. The reason the receptionist would get an ear full is because they are the first person that the client is going to speak to on the matter and the client will think it’s the receptionists fault because they answered the phone. When actually all the receptionist is there for is to make and/or receive calls and also to book appointments. Communication can be a problem especially if the service user doesn’t speak English. The reason this would be a problem is if the service user didn’t speak English then the receptionist will not understand what they rang up for. Carer Carers get a lot of problems because they could be discriminated against especially if they were male. The reason for this is that there are more female residents in a care home than there are males and some women don’t like to be washed by a bloke even though that is what they were employed for.

Online Risks Of Internet Shopping

Online Risks Of Internet Shopping Globalization of the economies in the world has created opportunities for business. As the result of these opportunities, competition or rivalry has increased which means businesses have moved and looked to provide unconventional ways for marketing. One of the unconventional ways in which marketing can be done is through the Internet, this has become such a must have tool for people who wants to do business without limits. Although many businesses are quickly adopting the Internet as the means through which they can efficiently and economically conduct their marketing activities, there are many risks associated with using it. For example, the Internet has very little security and any company using the Internet risks disclosure of proprietary information. However, these are risks affecting companies selling through Internet. But what risks do consumers face or perceive when shopping online? Shopping on internet is poses risks and threat but what do we know about risk perception of consumers or buyers who purchase through this medium? Consumers perceive risks in most store purchase decisions, and the general conclusion from direct-marketing related studies is that consumers associate a higher level of risk with non-store purchase than store purchase decisions (Samadi and Yaghoob-Nejadi, 2009). These questions have not been addressed in the research on Internet marketing. In fact, most of the recent studies have been concentrated in on the pros and cons marketing on the World Wide Web, but none addresses the issues raised here about the consumers concerns in virtual shopping. This study aims to provide not only in-depth review of the types of perceived online risks and its application to internet shopping but also the similarities between businesses and consumers risk perception of online shopping risk, and their influence to purchase intention. BACKGROUND STUDY _ The introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the way business is done in a so many ways. The use of the web-enabled technologies is still on the rise and this has made it possible to identify new ways and new avenues of doing business. The diffusion of information, the development of new technologies, the promotion and sales of products and services, and the collaboration between those in a supply chain can all be regarded as the benefits of e-Commerce (EC) (defined as The process of buying, selling, or exchanging products and services or information via computer (Turban, Lee, Kung and Chung, 2010, p. 46). The ability to use e-commerce technologies was made possible in late 1970s. During this time, e-commerce meant the execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). In 1991, the Internet was opened for commercial use and started becoming popular in 1994 (E-Commerce Land, 2004). Subsequently, it took almost four years to develop security protocols like Hypertext Transfer Protocol (https). Amazon was one of the first E-Commerce businesses to establish a secure market. E-commerce may be defined as The process of buying, selling, or exchanging products and services or information via computer (Turban et al, 2010, p. 46). Alternately it may also be defined as All electronically mediated information exchanges between an organisation and its external stake-holders. (Chaffey, Mayer, Johnston, and Ellis-Chadwick, 2000) According to Turban et al (2010) e-commerce applications are a particular kind of web applications with similar requirements like good navigational structures, usable interfaces, a clear domain model, and others. Electronic Commerce is classified roughly into two categories: Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce (B2C). B2B is commerce where purchase and sale transactions occur not between individuals but between companies by using the Web and extranets. B2C is commerce where these transactions take place between the consumers and the sellers via the Internet [Lee et al, 2002a]. Individuals can purchase goods and services from retailers electronically through B2C commerce, who in turn can use B2B commerce to link directly to their suppliers. For the purpose of this research I will use B2C category. Online consumer behaviour is a research area with an increasing number of publications per year. Although researchers have made noticeable progress with respect to the scope, quality and quantity of research, there are still significant disagreements about the findings in this area (Samadi and Yaghoob-Nejadi, 2009). One of the most widely accepted consumer behavior theory is how consumers perceived the various risk aspects in various buying conditions. Since Bauer (1967) stimulated marketing researchers to incorporate the concept of perceived risk into the marketing literature, perceived risk has been of great interest to marketing researchers (Cox, 1967; Roselious, 1971; Mitchell and Greatorex, 1999; and Cases, 2003). In fact, shopping online brings together conflict between risk perception and purchase decisions. A variety of previous studies have listed security, privacy, and difficult to judge quality of product as the main concerns of online shoppers (Ainscough and Luckett, 1996; Herbig and Hale, 1997; Liberman and Stashevsky, 2002; Park and Jun, 2003, Cunningham, et al., 2005). There has also been attempts to investigate the perceived risk in Internet usage context (Bhavnagar, Misra and Rao, 2000; Liebermann and Stashevsky, 2002; Lim, 2003). However, the empirical research for online consumers perceived online risk has not been conclusive. It is possible that part of the reason for the limited findings of the previous studies is that consumers risk perceptions from the previous store purchasing environments have not been fully reflected into the current Internet purchasing situation. Festervand, Snyder, and Tsalikis (1986) emphasized on the influence of risk perception from the previous purchase in the different shopping environments. There is no record of studies that has investigated or developed a comprehensive set of consumers perceived online risks both from consumer and business point of view, and examine how they are related to each other or whether the influence of some of these areas may be mediated by others to consumers purchase intention. Thus, if some types of risks are mediated by others, not all risk aspects would relate to consumers purchase intention. Only risk aspects directly associated with shopping behaviors and/or attitudes may relate to consumers purchase decision. In regards to security issues, Black (2005) said, the biggest barrier to e-commerce growth is not technology, but peoples attitude towards it. Consumers are still finding it difficult to trust the online world as an entity. For e-commerce to become a viable market place, the public must trust the internet. The future success of e-commerce will be dependant not only on forging initial trust, but also on developing long-term relationships to facilitate confidence and credibility. This dissertation aims to add to the existing literature (Baseline, 2006, Zuccato, 2007, Damini, Eloff and Eloff, 2009 and Kim, Tao, Shin and Kim, 2009) by looking at how consumer perception of risk in online shopping has impacted on their customers expectations. RESEARCH STRUCTURE _ This looks is a bare bones plan which was drafted at the beginning of the research, it was reviewed at the end of the research. This is a time scale of my dissertation; this has been produced using Microsoft project management and spreadsheet excel applications, a Gantt chart and excel spreadsheet. On the timeline there are following highlighted main activities: Literature Review this will include using previous academic writing to apply to the subject and see how far these source agree/disagree with what has been already done. This section is also broken down into two major sections; Consumers perceived online risk a look into how consumers perceive risks and how this affect their online engagement Business perceptions of consumers perceived online risks this section carries and in-depth analysis of how businesses perceive consumers online threats. Data collections: using the methods mentioned under research methodology, this will entail the techniques and methods used to collect data, there will be secondary data used on business side of research and a mix of both primary and secondary data on consumer point of view. Findings: this simply means, gathering all the data collected and reporting them as they are without doing any analysis. Analysis and Conclusion lastly the thorough analysis of my findings, the quantitative data, conclusion, and recommendations (For more details, please see appendix a excel spreadsheet 1) AIMS AND OBJECTIVES _ Although, e-Commerce has grown and become an important tool for some, there is still reluctance in people in embracing this because of the perceived risk of fear over online shop. The main aim of the study will be to find out how real are the fears in terms of system security, reliability, standards, and security of private financial information, such as disclosing credit cards and personal information for the consumers while shopping online. Below is a list of objectives in bullet points:- Identify the types of perceived online risks and threats from academic point of view (e.g. functional, physical, financial, social and psychological) Identify the concepts of perceived risks and trust in relation to internet shopping Identify the types of security threats in the online shopping environment from consumers point of view Identify [online] businesses perception of consumers perceived online risks and threats Examine whether the identified threats and perceived risks from the businesses are similar to those of the consumers For further clear outline of the objectives in diagram (see appendix 2) ETHICS ISSUES _ So far, there are no threats in regards to ethics problems during my research; I will be using primary data which is will be collected by myself and plenty of secondary data available. The data collected will be treated as confidential; I will deal with data collection and analyzing findings myself. If research findings contradict my developing argument, it will be my responsibility to include undermining facts as opposed to the data collected and change the research objectives. Ethics review form attached. (ethics agreement form is attached at the back on this report, see appendix 3) RESEARCH LIMITATIONS _ The first and foremost limitation of this study will be the honesty and accuracy of information given by research respondents/participants. This can sway or affect the findings and therefore the analysis of the research. There is medium probability of this limitation to exist in this study because of the secondary data which will be used, and that most marketing firm will give money for the participants to take part in surveys. A potential limitation of this study may be time, due to the time constraints especially in the third semester of 2010 Master course. Although the probability of this limitation to exist is minimal because the programme director is looking into find mitigation plans in place. Lastly, a time limitation is also due to the time, the sample population projected involved in this project will be carried out on a small scale around Oxford town centre area. There is enough literature around this subject area and any needed information can be obtained during my research. PERCEIVED ONLINE RISK _ The term perceived online risk means the individual has subjective belief about potentially negative consequence from his/her decision (Kim and Lee, 2008). In other words, perceived is used as opposed to objective outcome distributions of an alternative or a product class with which a consumer is associated with. Davis and Olson (1985) defined risk as a situation where a decision-maker has priority knowledge of the adverse consequence and the occurrence probability. In addition, uncertainty is defined as a situation where a decision-maker knows that possible outcomes for each alternative can be identified; however there is no knowledge of the probability attached to each. In consumer research, risk means a situation where a consumer knows neither the consequences of the alternatives nor the probability of occurrence for the outcome (Dowling, 1986). According to Turban et al (2010) an online shopper will gain benefits in terms of vast selection, screening, reliability, and product comparisons. Additionally, consumers can judge the products relying on either the ratings or reputations of e- retailers or from those who have made a purchase in the online interactive communication environment. Finally, consumers are allowed to compare numerous items under various categories and their prices in order to make the choices among the alternatives or substitutes (Rowley, 2000). On the other hand, the uncertainty regarding system security, reliability, standards, and security of private financial information, such as disclosing credit cards and personal information etc are all reasons which probably increase a certain degree of perceived risk when shopping on the Internet. Ha (2002) points that, the traditional shopping channel, at the cyber shopping environment, perceived risk is defined as the potential for loss in pursuing a desired outcome while engaged in online shopping. Besides, the Internet, just like any type of non-store shopping, makes it difficult to examine physical goods; consumers must rely upon somewhat limited information and pictures shown on the computer screen (Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky and Vitale, 2000). Hence, the performance risk in online shopping tends to increase due to the lack of accurate judge of the product quality compared to the traditional shopping environment (Vijayasarathy and Jones, 2000). As in the real store, this risk is also deemed by Kim and Lennon (2000) to be greatest when the product is technologically complex or the price is high. Additionally, the issue of financial security, invasion of privacy and hacker attacks has become the primary concern of online shopper in the worldwide (Strader and Shaw, 1999). Time risk associated with the operation of online purchases in this study focuses on the perceived lost or cost of time for customers information search activities without excluding the traditional meaning. Overall, the Internet is still considered a risky shopping channel which means a considerable portion of consumers perceives that risks outweigh the advantages of online shopping in their purchase decisions. TYPES OF PERCEIVED ONLINE RISK _ Although compared to traditional shopping channels, it is evident that online shopping is a rather innovative and convenient way, more and more recent researches have pointed out the existing problems to be settled in this constantly changing marketing channel, which make it too risky to purchase through Internet and rely on it. In this channel, individuals have to make decisions of buying products based on limited and static information displayed on the screen such as the picture and price, but cannot inspect and touch the physical goods, they see on the computer screen (Kim, Tao, Shin, Kim, 2009). Moreover, the uncertainty regarding system security, reliability, standards, and security of private financial information, such as disclosing credit cards and personal information etc are all reasons probably increase a certain degree of perceived risk when shopping on the Internet. Several types of risk that consumers perceive can be listed as functional risk, physical risk, financial risk, social risk, and psychological risk (Jacoby and Kaplan, 1972). Roselius (1971) also proposed a slightly different conceptualization of the perceived risk types by identifying the possible losses that a consumer may experience due to a purchasing decision, these are, time loss, hazard loss, ego loss, and money loss. Financial risk is the most common online concern; this type of risk is inter-connected with general security perception of consumers towards the online shop. Tian and Ren (n.d.) point out that, Many online consumers are worry about the security of online payment, and often stop payment somehow during the procedure. It should be understood that most consumers who would terminate their payment procedure are the first time. For experience online consumer, they will have devised an alternative way of making payments such as third party payment or other safe online payment services or cash payment on delivery. Privacy risk is described by Jarvenpaa and Todd (1997) to be the degree to which consumers suffer a loss of privacy owing to personal information collected when shopping online. On the other hand, it can be considered as one type of psychological risk. Previous research by Dholaka (2001) has theorized that psychological risk is the experience of anxiety or discomfort arising from anticipated post- behavioural affective reactions, or worry and regret of purchasing and using the product. Consequently, lack of privacy protecting and private information exposure constantly remaining in the Internet shopping site arouse consumers fear of the purchase. It is notable that the psychological aspect is first proposed as a major perceived risk type. Consumers form perceptions regarding intangible psychic costs in the form of anxiety, frustration, and down time along with tangible financial and performance losses. Thus, the perceived risk can be in psychological/social terms, or in economic/func tional terms, or in some combination of both forms (Taylor, 1974). According to Strader and Shaw (1999), the key risks in the online context are identified to be financial, performance, and privacy risks. Performance risk related to the online sellers post-sale service, good return guarantee for faulty items and product warranty, etc Performance risk can related to the online sellers post-sale service, good return guarantee for faulty items and product warranty, etc. Unlikely on physical shop, consumer buying online product or services have to rely on limited information on their computer screens, There is no physical examination of the product so buyers have rely on the measurements from the seller and pictures. Hence, the performance risk in online shopping tends to increase due to the lack of accurate judge of the product quality compared to the traditional shopping environment (Vijayasarathy and Jones, 2000). As in the real store, this risk is also deemed by Kim and Lennon (2000) to be greatest when the product is technologically complex or the price is high. Kwon (1998) argued another risk factor at cyber-shopping malls is the delivery time gap, or named delivery interval, which is about the gap between the purchase and the delivery. Likewise, consumer easily feels anxious about the time gap between cost and consumption. Another point is, time risk associated with the operation of online purchases in this study focuses on the perceived lost or cost of time for customers information search activities without excluding the traditional meaning. Brooker (1984) has suggested personal risks and non-personal risks. Personal risks are defined as the risks that are related to self-image, self-concept or social evaluation. In addition, Kotler (1984) argued that personal risks are caused by purchasing of personal items that are expensive, purchased infrequently, or socially significant products, such as clothes, accessories, sports equipment, and automobiles. Additionally, the issue of financial security, invasion of privacy and hacker attacks has become the primary concern of online shopper in the worldwide (Strader and Shaw, 1999). Similar to the traditional shopping channel, at the cyber shopping environment, perceived risk is defined as the potential for loss in pursuing a desired outcome while engaged in online shopping. However, the social and physical risks in online commerce have less to do with consumer perceived risk (Ha, 2002). PECEIVED RISK AND TRUST ON INTERNET _ Internet shopping appeared as a new type of shopping method approximately 20years ago, has been getting more attention along with the spread of Internet due to the unbeatable convenience it brought about to the consumers. In addition to convenience, previous researches indicate other attractive factors. The transaction can be held in anyplace accessed to Internet. Furthermore, consumers can buy a wide choice of products across the geographic boundaries while saving time and absence of sales pressure without worrying about the transportation and parking (McQuitty and Peterson, 2000). More importantly, concerning the study of online consumer behaviour, the Internet environment positively affects the consumers decision to shop. Hardin (1992) highlights that trust depends on three different elements: 1) Properties of the individual who want to trust another individual, 2) Attributes of the trustee and 3) The context in which trust is established. All definitions are based on the individuals perception of risk. Both definitions are based on the individuals perception of risk towards a relationship where the outcomes of the relationship are more or less uncertain. Similarly, Bromley and Cummings (1995) viewed trust as an expectation of the trusted individual to be honest and fulfil its promises. The nature and development of trust, has draw the attention from different academic areas, mainly from psychology, sociology, marketing and business theory. From a psychological perspective, similarly, Robinson (1996:576) defined trust as: A persons expectations, assumptions, or beliefs about the likelihood that anothers future actions will be beneficial, favourable, or at least not detrimental to ones interests. Smith and Shao (2007) characterized trust as the undertaking of a risky course of action on the confident expectation that all persons involved in the action will act competently and responsibly. Furthermore, Pearce (1974), on developing a model of interpersonal trust, notes that trust is based on assumptions of others knowledge, competence and motivation. However, those three perspectives perceive trust as one individuals action, rather as an element of a relationship. Moving to the business literature, the concept of trust is again largely based on a relationship approach, and evolves overtime. Swan et al (1989), examining how industrial salespeople gain customers trust, mention that trust has a dynamic nature as it builds over the history of interactions between the trade partners. While Doney and Cannon (1997), suggest that trust is developed under certain processes. According to their research, those are: Calculative process, when one party calculates the costs of failure during the exchange. Prediction process, when one party acquires information to predict about the credibility of the other party. Capability process, based on the perception that one party has that the other has the capabilities to perform as promised. Intentionally process, based on the perception that one party has about the intention of the other. Transference process, based on gaining trust from third parties when little or no prior experience exists between the exchange parties. As previously mentioned, it is logical for consumers to engage in trust relationships, when they feel a level of uncertainty with the outcomes of an exchange, or with the circumstances under which the exchange takes place. During online purchases process that insecurity refers to the use of the Internet, as a commercial medium, or to online sellers reliability. Considering the fact that the increase of trust reduces the perceived risks during an online purchase, and that those risks has proven to be negative towards a purchase decision, we can conclude that trust is a crucial factor for the success of e-commerce or internet shopping. (Jarvenpaa Tractinsky, 1999). Table 2: authors who agree/disagree on what consumers perceptions References Study Focus Agree/Disagrees McQuitty and Peterson, (2000) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with home entertainment systems online sales technical complex of product increases perceived risks product risks increases the perceived online risk age does is not a factor in perceiving risk expensive items increases perceived risk Smith and Shao (2007) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with financial risks contribute to the perceived perceived risk is higher for feel and touch products Swan et al (1989) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with consumer trust /sales increasing experience of online shop reduced perceived online risk Jarvenpaa Tractinsky, (1999) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with consumer trust product risks increases the perceived online risk age does is not a factor in perceiving risk expensive items increases perceived risk Internet as a commercial medium poses security concerns such as credit-card fraud by hackers and also concerns about the lack of a predictable legal framework on which online purchases take place (.e. which government laws apply in every situation(Ratnasigham,1998). In addition, lack of social interactions between consumers and e-sellers and the fact that, as with other distance purchases, consumers have to pay in first in order to receive goods or services, increase the risks, therefore increase consumers concerns. According to Culnan and Armstrong (1999), another difficulty faced on e-commerce purchases is that trust has to be communicated solely through interaction with a web site. Lack of trust towards e-commerce sellers has its grounds to security concerns such as fraud by illegal merchants, privacy concerns i.e. using the personal information for commercial purposes, or performance concerns such as receiving low quality products or services. Hoffman et al. (1999) emphasize that the reason many consumers do not proceed to online purchases is that they simply do not trust most of the Web merchants to give their credit card information or personal information. Lack of environmental control exists while consumers have less control of online sellers actions over their bank card information. Lack of control over personal information is very important specifically the concern that online sellers use their personal information for marketing promotional purposes, without their knowledge or permission. The significance of trust can be justified by Keen (2000), who interviewed consumers on the advantages and disadvantages of the e-commerce, trying to identify what factors can add more value to the customers. Examining the results, we can identify that most of the factors are related to the concept of online trust, which sellers ought to convince consumer of security measure to minimise fraud or minimise misuse of personal information, guarantee reliable delivery and make clear information relating to easy return process. To conclude, the e-commerce will offer more value to the consumer, by the time it will improve in terms of security, privacy, and performance, or in other words, by the time it becomes more trustworthy. Table 3: authors who agree/disagree on what consumers perceived risks References Study Focus Agree/Disagrees Ratnasingham (1998) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with importance of trust in e-commerce financial risks contribute to the perceived Culnan and Armstrong (1999) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with privacy concerns, impersonal trust increasing experience of online shop reduced perceived online risk Hoffman et al. (1999) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with information privacy in market place positive online shopping experience reduces consumers perceived risk Keen (2000) Conducted a study of risk perceptions associated with ensuring trust online financial risks contribute to the perceived increasing experience of online shop reduced perceived online risk BUSINESS AND CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS OF RISK CONSUMERS PERCEPTION OF ONLINE RISK _ Previous researches (Cox and Rich, 1967; Spence et al., 1970; Gillet, 1976 and Korgaonakar, 1982;) related to mode of shopping suggested that perceived risk is affected by what is purchased and how it is purchased. Their studies concluded that consumers perceive more purchasing risk when buying an item by telephone or mail catalog than when buying in a store or from a salesman. Furthermore, the level of perceived risk is related to store selection (Dash et al., 1976; Hirsch, et al., 1976; Korgaonakar, 1982). This is to say, consumers who perceive less purchasing online risk would choose the specialty store, and low social, high economic risk products to the mall and other types of products. Overall, the Internet is still considered a risky shopping place which means a considerable portion of consumers perceive risks outweigh the advantages of online shopping in their purchase decisions. As what Darian (1987) stated, people tend to feel uneasy with faceless retailer, because they are much more familiar with offline shopping rather than the online shopping and fear about the potential deception. Because earlier consumers bought all their services straight from the service provider, research focused mostly on the consumer-provider or business-to-customer (B2C) interaction. So far little research has been dedicated to consumer perceived online risks in electronic services, from late 1990s most studies maintain that consumers perceive largely the same risks in electronic compare to other services. Although internet is new to many ordinary shoppers, it has a great potential for marketing and online sales. Much has been researched before but because higher risks are associated with unknown situations, it is arguable if the online risks studied in earlier research are still similar with present issues being raised regarding online shopping experiences.

Cult Films and the 1950s :: essays research papers

1950’s Over past nine weeks we've embarked on a journey spanning seven decades of cult films and also received a brief education of our not so distant past. We've seen the outrageous, the good, the bad and the ugly, the weirdly dramatic, and the just plain weird of the last seven decades of cult films and how in the end somehow find away to incorporate a piece of American culture at the time. However, by far the most intriguing decade to me would have to be the nineteen fifties. There are many reasons why I could say the fifties ranging from great sports moments to political milestones, which gave way to our society now. The nineteen fifties were a time when segregation was ending, people were daring to explore their sexuality, the race to venture in to space, the Korean War, the birth of the New York Yankee Legacy, and Elvis. However, for my purposes in this paper and in relation to the cult film genre, there are three specific reasons why I chose the era of the fifties. The most important reason would be the taboos of the decade, namely the taboo and paranoia of communism and the Cold War with the then Soviet Union. Second, there were many excellent cult films to come out of the period addressing the taboos of the time, two of which I would like to share. Third, the fifties brought us possibly "the worst director of all time" and "the ultimate cult director" Ed Wood, Jr. It is for these reasons that the 1950's are, to quote Prof. Allan Havis, "the quintessential decade of films." Entering the nineteen fifties the United States was getting past the bitter memories of World War II only to a brand new threat, Communism. The fear or taboo of communism was every where. Television programs and newspapers ran features on the newest government official, entertainer, and even next door neighbors suspected of communism. Led by Senator John McCarthy citizens left and right stood trial for being a communist or aiding Russians in the "Cold War". Knowing that anyone who stood against McCarthy would be subject persecution themselves many Americans began to fall in to a mass hysteria accusing neighbors and friends of supporting the communist threat and being spies for Russia. Many innocent people were sent to prison based purely on speculation. Also showing the increasing fear of communism were the writers of movies and books, the two top forms of leisure during the decade.

The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God Essay example -- Th

The Cosmological Argument attempts to prove that God exists by showing that there cannot be an infinite number of regressions of causes to things that exist. It states that there must be a final uncaused-cause of all things. This uncaused-cause is asserted to be God. Arguments like this are thought up to recognize why we and the universe exist. The Cosmological Argument takes several forms but is basically represented below. Cosmological Argument Things exist It is possible for those things not to exist Whatever has the possibility of non-existence, yet exists, has been caused to exist. Something cannot bring itself into existence because it would have had to exist to do that. There cannot be an infinite number of causes to bring something into existence, because an infinite regression of causes has no original cause, which means there is no cause of existence. Since the universe exists, it must have a cause, therefore there must be an uncaused cause of all things. This uncaused cause must be God. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) had a version of the Cosmological Argument called the Argument from Motion. He stated that things in motion could not have brought themselves into motion but must be caused to move. There cannot be an infinite regression of movers. Therefore, there must be an Unmoved Mover. This Unmoved Mover is God. Strengths of the argument The strengths of the Cosmological Argument consist of the simplicity and easily understandable concept that there cannot be an infinite number of causes to an event. Some arguments for God's existence require more thought and education in terms and concep... ...existence of things that are necessary does not require explanation; their non-existence is impossible. The existence of anything contingent, however, does require explanation. They might not have existed, and so there must be some reason that they do exist. The only adequate explanation of the existence of the contingent universe, the argument from contingency suggests, is that there exists a necessary being on which its existence it rests. For the existence of the contingent universe must rest on something, and if it rested on some contingent being then that contingent being too would require some explanation of its existence. The ultimate explanation of the existence of all things, therefore, must be the existence of some necessary being. Followers of the cosmological argument identify God as this necessary being.

Revenge Essay -- Literary Analysis, The Iliad

Throughout history, revenge, or vengeance, has been altered by several cultures and even the American culture. This is shown throughout many ancient greek epics. Throughout these two epics, what is just revenge and what the action of revenge is are much different than what Revenge is seen through today’s society. Revenge is the main theme in The Iliad, with Achilles’ revenge on Agamemnon and Hector, and in The Odyssey, with Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus and Odysseus’s revenge on the Suitors, and these epics define how revenge was seen in the ancient Greek world. Revenge in The Iliad it the main theme and drives men to do things that they would not normally do. The main example of this is Achilles wanting revenge on Agamemnon. The first book of the Iliad explains that Achilles wants revenge because Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis, his war bride, to her father, and he decides to take Achilles war bride from him. According to â€Å"Some Thoughts about the Origins of ‘Greek Ethics’†, by Nicholas D. Smith, â€Å"Agamemnon’s unjust affront to Achilles leads to and extraordinarily deadly retaliation, the ultimate outcome of which is that multitudes of these men’s innocent allies are killed unnecessarily†(smith 10). This is out of character for Achilles, who would normally be the first man into battle, not sitting one out. By â€Å"rejecting even the most earnest and impressive entreaties Agamemnon offers, and increasingly making decisions which are rationally indefensible†, he shows how much hi s wanting of revenge has turned him into a madman (smith 10). His only desire is to get revenge for his loss. It takes the death of Patroclus, his dear friend, to bring him back to the war, which he has left. The death of Patroclus not only forces Achi... ...rses the murder of Agamemnon. As Dilworth states in â€Å"The fall of Troy and the Slaughter of the Suitors: The Ultimate Symbolic Correspondence in the Odyssey†; The slaughter of the suitors reverses and sets right the murder of Agamemnon. As the story is recalled in the Odyssey, Aegisthus used twenty men to ambush and kill Agamemnon. From Ithaca the chief suitor, Antinous, Sent twenty men to ambush and kill Telemachus. He would have suffered the fate of Agamemnon. So might Odysseus, for whom the story of Agamemnon is a warning. Instead the suitors die at a banquet, in corrective balance to the murder of Agamemnon at a banquet. (Dilworth) This shows that Odysseus’s revenge of the suitors is not only sets right what Odysseus knows it sets right, but it also sets right what has not been set right by anyone else, it balances the revenge throughout all of the Odyssey.

HIV/AIDS in Human Services Essay

HIV/AIDS is a worldwide pandemic that has ravished the lives of countless millions of people, since its discovery, more than 30 years ago. HIV/AIDS can be addressed through all three models of service delivery. Each of the models (Medical Model, Public Health Model and Human Services Model) may approach this issue differently, but they all have the same central focus; which is to combat this, ever evolving, global phenomenon. The Medical Model is going to address the issue of HIV/AIDS through four elements. First, the Medical Model will indentify symptom that lead to a diagnosis, then treatment of the disease and finally, research for a possible cure (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p. 99). The first element, of symptoms, is a bit tricky in regards to HIV/AIDS. Symptoms of HIV, which is short for human immunodeficiency virus, may not show up in a positive patient for over a decade (â€Å"AIDS Healthcare Foundation | Learn About HIV and AIDS†, n.d.). AIDS, which stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, develops in the final stages of HIV. Once the patient has reached that point, the immune system is too weak to fight viruses and the body is more susceptible to acquire various cancers (â€Å"AIDS Healthcare Foundation | Learn About HIV and AIDS†, n.d.). Therefore, with HIV/AIDS, diagnosis of the disease will most likely come before the symptoms. Following symptoms and diagnosis, is the element of treatment. Treatment of HIV/AIDS comes in the form of Antiretrovirals (ARVs). â€Å"Today, there are 31 antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat HIV infection† (â€Å"Treatment of HIV Infection, NIAID, NIH†, 2012). These drug combinations work to give the HIV positive patients a longer, healthier life. ARVs are only a treatment to subdue the virus; they are not a cure (â€Å"Treatment of HIV Infection, NIAID, NIH†, 2012). The final element, in the Medical Health Model, is cure. This year, at the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C, which I personal attended, talk of a cure emerged. As of today, there is no proven cure to the virus, but we are at least on the way to an AIDS Free generation, as promised by Hillary Clinton at this year’s AIDS Conference (Norman, 2012). The Medical Health Model’s strengths lie in treating the disease from the inside. But disease affects the whole person, not just their body. The Medical Health Model does not address the social or interpersonal issues associated with the virus. The mission of the Public Health Model is focused on promoting physical as well as mental health, prevention and encouraging healthy behaviors (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.109). In relation to HIV/AIDS, this means prevention in the form of pre/post-exposure prophylaxis treatment and education, as well as social action which includes advocacy. In July of this year, Truvada was approved as a PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis, which is an antiretroviral drug used in the prevention of HIV. â€Å"Truvada can be prescribed for high-risk groups, such as the partners of HIV-positive people and gay men† (â€Å"Pre-exposure Prophylaxis†, n.d.). Other prevention methods are post-exposure prophylaxis treatment, used after exposure of the HIV virus; and antiretroviral treatment as prevention. The most important method of prevention is education. Education of the basics of what exactly HIV is and how it is contracted as well as abstinence and sex education is essential. Finally, the Public Health Model concentrates on social action. The Public Health Model combats stigma and discrimination, through social action, as it relates to HIV/AIDS. Individuals that are stigmatized are encouraged to â€Å"take action to resist the forces that discriminate against them† (Parker & Aggleton, n.d.). The Public Health Model addresses the issue of HIV/AIDS in the most comprehensive way. It combines medical knowledge with community action skills (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.109). The one thing that it is missing is the attribute of problem-solving skills. Finally, the Human Service Model which â€Å"considers the problem of the individual within the context of the environment† (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.116). The three main focal points of the Human Service Model are to enhance the client’s well-being and quality of life, teach the client problem-solving skills and prevention (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.118). Problem-solving is implemented through intervention within three areas: emotions, thought or beliefs and behavior (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.117). It is important for the Human Service Model to break through the stigma of the disease. Because the negative stigma attached to the disease is so huge, it prevents some from getting tested or treated or protecting themselves, not only against the disease but protection from transmission if they themselves are infected. The Human Service Model looks at the issue of HIV/AIDS from a â€Å"whole person† perspective. They must identify barriers of testing, treatment and prevention based on such things as the individual’s culture or religious beliefs. Then find ways to connect with them despite those barriers. Strengths of the Human Service Model are found in their dealing with the whole person. Their weakness lays in the lack of a medical stand point on the issue of HIV/AIDS. Two of the leading organization available to address the issue of HIV/AIDS are the International AIDS Society and UNAIDS. The International AIDS Society is made up of HIV professional from all over the world. It is today’s leader in the world’s independent associations of such professionals (â€Å"International AIDS Society – About the IAS†, n.d). Their mission states that they are â€Å"a global movement of people working together to end the HIV epidemic, applying scientific evidence and best practice at every level of the HIV response† (â€Å"International AIDS Society – IAS Mission†, n.d). The main goals of the IAS are; to encourage solutions to AIDS response issues â€Å"through dialogue and debate† (â€Å"International AIDS Society – About the IAS†, n.d), purse to apply â€Å"evidence based policies and programmes† (â€Å"International AIDS Society – About the IAS†, n.d) to strengthen the response to AIDS worldwide and to advocate significant research. Some of the ways that IAS is making a difference in the realm of HIV is through; research for a cure, conferences, such as the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. and policy advocacy. IAS is very effective in making changes and addressing issues in HIV. Another leading organization that is actively address the issue of HIV/AIDS is UNAIDS. UNAIDS is â€Å"the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS† (â€Å"Special Session fact sheets: What is UNAIDS?†, n.d.). They are the â€Å"leading advocate for global action against HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to guide, strengthen and support worldwide efforts to turn the tide against the epidemic† (â€Å"Special Session fact sheets: What is UNAIDS?†, n.d.). Among their goals are: â€Å"reducing sexual transmission; preventing HIV among drug users; eliminating new HIV infections among children, gender inequalities, stigma and discrimination, and travel restrictions† (â€Å"UNAIDS†, n.d.). UNAIDS is making changes to the key issues related to HIV/AIDS in implementing care programs, as well as support for individuals not only infected with the disease, but affected by it in other ways (â€Å"UNAIDS†, n.d.). â€Å"UNAIDS brings together the resources of the UNAIDS Secretariat and 10 UN system organizations for coordinated and accountable efforts to unite the world against AIDS† (â€Å"Our work†, n.d.), in order to effectively make changes and address the issue of HIV/AIDS. Through the hard work and dedication of all three service models, we have the opportunity to possibly eradicate this globally devastating disease. This generation could just be lucky enough to see the end of HIV/AIDS. References AIDS Healthcare Foundation | Learn About HIV and AIDS. (n.d.). AIDS Healthcare Foundation | HIV/AIDS Testing, Treatment, & Advocacy. Retrieved November 2012, from http://www.aidshealth.org/learn-about-it?gclid=CI-hppW917MCFUOK4AodA0YARA IAS Home Page. (n.d.). International AIDS Society. Retrieved from http://www.iasociety.org/ International AIDS Society – About the IAS. (n.d.). International AIDS Society – IAS Home Page. Retrieved from http://www.iasociety.org/AboutIAS.aspx International AIDS Society – IAS Mission. (n.d.). International AIDS Society – IAS Home Page. Retrieved from http://www.iasociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=68 Norman, B. (2012, July 23). Hillary Clinton vows ‘AIDS-free generation’ at conference – Brett Norman – POLITICO.com. Politics, Political News – POLITICO.com. Retrieved from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78867.html Our work. (n.d.). UNAIDS. Retrieved from http://www.unaids.org/en/ourwork/ Parker, R., & Aggleton, P. (n.d.). HIV/AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination: A Conceptual Framework and an Agenda for Action. Population Council | Home. Retrieved from http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/horizons/sdcncptlfrmwrk.pdf Pre-exposure Prophylaxis. (n.d.). HIV & AIDS Information from AVERT.org. Retrieved November 2012, from http://www.avert.org/pre-exposure-prophylaxis.htm Special Session fact sheets: What is UNAIDS? (n.d.). Welcome to the United Nations: It’s Your World. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/ga/aids/ungassfactsheets/html/fsunaids_en.htm Treatment of HIV Infection, NIAID, NIH. (2012, November 14). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Retrieved November 15, 2012, from http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/hivaids/understanding/treatment/pages/default.aspx UNAIDS. (n.d.). UNAIDS. Retrieved from http://www.unaids.org/en/ What is ENUF? (n.d.). ENUF: social action to resist HIV stigma and promote resilience. Retrieved November 2012, from http://www.enuf.org.au/home Woodside, M., & McClam, T. (2011). An introduction to human services. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.