Monday, September 30, 2019
Personality Psychology Essay
Everyday, we meet different kinds of people. It can be our friends, family or new acquaintances. Some of them we already know or even share a common trait. However, it is not always guaranteed that we understand them always. They may behave in this way today, but will be completely different tomorrow. Just as genes contribute to the uniqueness of each one of us, personality in every person is also distinct. Personality is defined as the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage of his development. It embraces every phase of human character: intellect, temperament, skill, morality, and every attitude that has been built up in the course of oneââ¬â¢s life (Warren & Carmichael, 1930). With this concept in mind, we can say that personality is the essence of the human being. He reacts to any life circumstances with his own personality. Psychology regards this as an important factor in understanding people. Personality can work itself on what you are now and how will you be in the future. Research efforts have been expended through the years on how personality develops on one person. Studies on the different patterns of behavior, feelings and thoughts that make a person have been experimented. David and Larsen mentioned in their book that the fundamental components of personality are the following: (1) consistency, which means that people behave in a recognizable order; (2) psychological and physiological, aside from the works of the mind, personality is also governed by biological factors; (3) impact behaviors and actions, it does not only influence how a person respond, but also causes him to act in certain ways and; (4) multiple expressions, personality is embodied not only on one behavior. Given these complexities, it has become a basis of school of thoughts to theorize a personââ¬â¢s personality. Nevertheless, most researchers unite on the fact that personality lies on biological and social systems. Early psychology attributes personality as influence of biological factors. These are what to be known as Type Theories. It tells us that it depends on a person how he reacts on the external environment. One can be extroverted or introverted. Another type of personality theories are the Trait Theories. According to the American Psychiatric Association, traits are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts. Traits can be considered also as a big player in defining oneââ¬â¢s personality. Overtime, researches on personality has evolved. Earlier, it directs its focus on the person itself, but later on, psychologists acknowledge that the environment the person plays with also dictate his disposition. A personââ¬â¢s personality can change depending on what he sees on other people, not only what he believes in himself. Behavioral and social cognitive theories comprise the contemporary theories on personality. Together with the evolution of personality research, personality tests were also developed. These are very useful nowadays to educational and working environments where people are subjected to diverse kinds of people and experiences. Understanding a personââ¬â¢s personality is an important indicator to teachers and bosses, since this will aid them in handling other people. Personalities of people continue to be a mystery to most of us. However, with how psychology evolves, we can now, if not all, pinpoint the factors that will let us understand how people behave. True enough, it is still a very interesting topic to look on to, given the challenges of the ever changing society. Bibliography Buss, D. M. , & Larsen, R. J. (2006). Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. Robins. (2002). Overview of the proceedings of the 2002 meeting of the association for research in personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 539-540. Warren, H. C. , & Carmichael, L. (1930). Elements of human psychology. Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Forward the Foundation Chapter 26
16 Raych, Manella, and little Bellis were waiting at the spaceport. The hypership was preparing for liftoff and the three had already checked their baggage. Raych said, ââ¬Å"Dad, come along with us.â⬠Seldon shook his head. ââ¬Å"I cannot.â⬠ââ¬Å"If you change your mind, we will always have a place for you.â⬠ââ¬Å"I know it, Raych. We've been together for almost forty years-and they've been good years. Dors and I were lucky to find you.â⬠ââ¬Å"I'm the lucky one.â⬠His eyes filled with tears. ââ¬Å"Don't think I don't think of Mother every day.â⬠ââ¬Å"Yes.â⬠Seldon looked away miserably. Wanda was playing with Bellis when the call rang out for everyone to board the hypership. They did, after a tearful last embrace of Wanda by her parents. Raych looked back to wave at Seldon and to try to plant a crooked smile on his face. Seldon waved and one hand moved out blindly to embrace Wanda's shoulders. She was the only one left. One by one through his long life, he had lost his friends and those he had loved. Demerzel had left, never to return; Emperor Cleon was gone; his beloved Dors was gone; his faithful friend Yugo Amaryl was gone; and now Raych, his only son, was gone as well. He was left only with Wanda. 11 Hari Seldon said, ââ¬Å"It is beautiful outside-a marvelous evening. Considering that we live under a dome, you would think we would have beautiful weather like this every evening.â⬠Wanda said indifferently, ââ¬Å"We would grow tired of it, Grandpa, if it were beautiful all the time. A little change from night to night is good for us.â⬠ââ¬Å"For you, because you're young, Wanda. You have many, many evenings ahead of you. I don't. I want more good ones.â⬠ââ¬Å"Now, Grandpa, you're not old. Your leg is doing well and your mind m as sharp as ever. I know. ââ¬Å" ââ¬Å"Sure. Go ahead. Make me feel better.â⬠He then said with an air of discomfort, ââ¬Å"I want to walk. I want to get out of this tiny apartment and take a walk to the Library and enjoy this beautiful evening.â⬠ââ¬Å"What do you want at the Library?â⬠ââ¬Å"At the moment, nothing. I want the walk. Butâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ââ¬Å"Yes. But?â⬠ââ¬Å"I promised Raych I wouldn't go walking around Trantor without a bodyguard.â⬠ââ¬Å"Raych isn't here.â⬠ââ¬Å"I know,â⬠mumbled Seldon ââ¬Å"but a promise is a promise.â⬠ââ¬Å"He didn't say who the bodyguard should be, did he? Let's go for a walk and I'll be your bodyguard.â⬠ââ¬Å"You?â⬠Seldon grinned. ââ¬Å"Yes, me. I hereby volunteer my services. Get yourself ready and we'll go for a walk.â⬠Seldon was amused. He had half a mind to go without his cane, since his leg was scarcely painful of late, but, on the other hand, he had a new cane, one in which the head had been filled with lead. It was both heavier and stronger than his old cane and, if he was going to have none other than Wanda as a bodyguard, he thought he had better bring his new cane. The walk was delightful and Seldon was terribly glad he had given in to the temptation-until they reached a certain spot. Seldon lifted his cane in a mixture of anger and resignation and said, ââ¬Å"Look at that!â⬠Wanda lifted her eyes. The dome was glowing, as it always did in the evening, in order to lend an air of first twilight. It grew darker as night went on, of course. What Seldon was pointing at, however, was a strip of darkness along the dome. A section of lights had gone out. Seldon said, ââ¬Å"When I first came to Trantor, anything like that was unthinkable. There were people tending the lights at all times. The city worked, but now it is falling apart in all these little ways and what bothers me most is that no one cares. Why aren't there petitions to the Imperial Palace? Why aren't there meetings of indignation? It is as though the people of Trantor expect the city to be falling apart and then they find themselves annoyed with me because I am pointing out that this is exactly what is happening.â⬠Wanda said softly, ââ¬Å"Grandpa, there are two men behind us.â⬠They had walked into the shadows beneath the broken dome lights and Seldon asked, ââ¬Å"Are they just walking?â⬠ââ¬Å"No.â⬠Wanda did not look at them. She did not have to. ââ¬Å"They're after you.â⬠ââ¬Å"Can you stop them-push them?â⬠ââ¬Å"I'm trying, but there are two and they are determined. It's-it's like pushing a wall.â⬠ââ¬Å"How far behind me are they?â⬠ââ¬Å"About three meters.â⬠ââ¬Å"Closing in?â⬠ââ¬Å"Yes, Grandpa.â⬠ââ¬Å"Tell me when they're a meter behind me.â⬠He slid his hand down his cane till he was holding the thin end, leaving the leaded head swinging free. ââ¬Å"Now, Grandpa!â⬠hissed Wanda. And Seldon turned, swinging his cane. It came down hard upon the shoulder of one of the men behind him, who went down with a scream, writhing on the pavement. Seldon said, ââ¬Å"Where's the other guy?â⬠ââ¬Å"He took off.â⬠Seldon looked down on the man on the ground and put his foot on his chest. He said, ââ¬Å"Go through his pockets, Wanda. Someone must have paid him and I'd like to find his credit file-perhaps I can identify where they came from.â⬠He added thoughtfully, ââ¬Å"I meant to hit him on the head.â⬠ââ¬Å"You'd have killed him, Grandpa.â⬠Seldon nodded. ââ¬Å"It's what I wanted to do. Rather shameful. I'm lucky I missed.â⬠A harsh voice said, ââ¬Å"What is all this?â⬠A figure in uniform came running up, perspiring. ââ¬Å"Give me that cane, you!â⬠ââ¬Å"Officer,â⬠said Seldon mildly. ââ¬Å"You can give me your story later. We've got to call an ambulance for this poor man.â⬠ââ¬Å"Poor man, â⬠said Seldon angrily. ââ¬Å"He was going to assault me. I acted in self-defense.â⬠ââ¬Å"I saw it happen,â⬠said the security officer. ââ¬Å"This guy never laid a finger on you. You turned on him and struck him without provocation. That's not self-defense. That's assault and battery.â⬠ââ¬Å"Officer, I'm telling you that-ââ¬Å" ââ¬Å"Don't tell me anything. You can tell it in court.â⬠Wanda said in a sweet small voice, ââ¬Å"Officer, if you will just listen to us-ââ¬Å" The officer said, ââ¬Å"You go along home, young lady.â⬠Wanda drew herself up. ââ¬Å"I most certainly won't, Officer. Where my grandfather goes, there go I.â⬠Her eyes flashed and the security officer muttered, ââ¬Å"Well, come along, then.â⬠18 Seldon was enraged. ââ¬Å"I've never been in custody before in my entire life. A couple of months ago eight men assaulted me. I was able to fight them off with the help of my son, but while that was going on was there a security officer in sight? Did people stop to help me? No. This time, I'm better prepared and I knocked a man flat who had been about to assault me. Was there a security officer in sight? Absolutely. She put the collar on me. There were people watching, too, and they were amused at seeing an old man being taken in for assault and battery. What kind of world do we live on?â⬠Civ Novker, Seldon's lawyer, sighed and said calmly, ââ¬Å"A corrupt world, but don't worry. Nothing will happen to you. I'll get you out on bail and then, eventually, you'll come back for trial before a jury of your peers and the most you'll get-the very most-are some hard words from the bench. Your age and your reputation-ââ¬Å" ââ¬Å"Forget my reputation,â⬠said Seldon, still angry. ââ¬Å"I'm a psychohistorian and, at the present time, that is a dirty word. They'll be glad to see me in jail.â⬠ââ¬Å"No, they won't,â⬠said Novker. ââ¬Å"There may be some screwballs who have it in for you, but I'll see to it that none of them gets on the jury.â⬠Wanda said, ââ¬Å"Do we really have to subject my grandfather to all this? He's not a young man anymore. Can't we just appear before the magistrate and not bother with a jury trial?â⬠The lawyer turned to her. ââ¬Å"It can be done. If you're insane, maybe. Magistrates are impatient power-mad people who would just as soon put a person into jail for a year as listen to him. No one goes up before a magistrate.â⬠ââ¬Å"I think we should,â⬠said Wanda. Seldon said, ââ¬Å"Well now, Wanda, I think we ought to listen to Civ-â⬠But as he said that, he felt a strong churning in his abdomen. It was Wanda's ââ¬Å"push.â⬠Seldon said, ââ¬Å"Well-if you insist.â⬠ââ¬Å"She can't insist,â⬠said the lawyer. ââ¬Å"I won't allow it.â⬠Wanda said, ââ¬Å"My grandfather is your client. If he wants something done his way, you've got to do it.â⬠ââ¬Å"I can refuse to represent him.â⬠ââ¬Å"Well then, leave,â⬠said Wanda sharply, ââ¬Å"and we'll face the magistrate alone.â⬠Novker thought and said, ââ¬Å"Very well, then-if you're going to be so adamant. I've represented Hari for years and I suppose I won't abandon him now. But I warn you, the chances are he'll get a jail sentence and I'll have to work like the devil to get it lifted-if I can do it.at all.â⬠ââ¬Å"I'm not afraid,â⬠said Wanda. Seldon bit his lip and the lawyer turned to him. ââ¬Å"What about you? Are you willing to let your granddaughter call the shots?â⬠Seldon thought a bit, then admitted, much to the old lawyer's surprise, ââ¬Å"Yes. Yes, I am.â⬠19 The magistrate looked sourly at Seldon as he gave his story. The magistrate said, ââ¬Å"What makes you think it was the intention of this man you struck to attack you? Did he strike you? Did he threaten you? Did he in any way place you under bodily fear?â⬠ââ¬Å"My granddaughter was aware of his approach and was quite certain that he was planning to attack me.â⬠ââ¬Å"Surely, sir, that cannot be enough. Is there anything else you can tell me before I pass judgment?â⬠ââ¬Å"Well now, wait a while,â⬠said Seldon indignantly. ââ¬Å"Don't pass judgment so quickly. I was assaulted a few weeks ago by eight men whom I held off with the help of my son. So, you see, I have reason to think that I might be assaulted again.â⬠The magistrate shuffled his papers. ââ¬Å"Assaulted by eight men. Did you report that?â⬠ââ¬Å"There were no security officers around. Not one.â⬠ââ¬Å"Aside from the point. Did you report it?â⬠ââ¬Å"No, sir.â⬠ââ¬Å"Why not?â⬠ââ¬Å"For one thing, I was afraid of getting into long drawn-out legal proceedings. Since we had driven off eight men and were safe, it seemed useless to ask for more trouble.â⬠ââ¬Å"How did you manage to ward off eight men just you and your son?â⬠Seldon hesitated. ââ¬Å"My son is now on Santanni and outside Trantorian control. Thus, I can tell you that he had Dahlite knives and was expert in their use. He killed one man and badly hurt two others. The rest ran, carrying off the dead and wounded.â⬠ââ¬Å"But did you not report the death of a man and the wounding of two others?â⬠ââ¬Å"No, sir. Same reason as before. And we fought in self-defense. However, if you can track down the three dead and wounded, you will have evidence that we were attacked.â⬠The magistrate said, ââ¬Å"Track down one dead and two wounded nameless faceless Trantorians? Are you aware that on Trantor over two thousand people are found dead every day-by knife wounds alone. Unless these things are reported to us at once, we are helpless. Your story of being assaulted once before will not hold water. What we must do is deal with the events of today, which were reported and which had a security officer as a witness. ââ¬Å"So, let's consider the situation as of now. Why do you think the fellow was going to attack? Simply because you happened to be passing by? Because you seemed old and defenseless? Because you looked like you might be carrying a great deal of credits? What do you think?â⬠ââ¬Å"I think, Magistrate, it was because of who I am.â⬠The magistrate looked at his papers. ââ¬Å"You are Hari Seldon, a professor and a scholar. Why should that make you subject to assault, particularly?â⬠ââ¬Å"Because of my views.â⬠ââ¬Å"Your views. Well-â⬠The magistrate shuffled some papers perfunctorily. Suddenly he stopped and looked up, peering at Seldon. ââ¬Å"Wait-Hari Seldon.â⬠A look of recognition spread across his face. ââ¬Å"You're the psychohistory buff, aren't you?â⬠ââ¬Å"Yes, Magistrate.â⬠ââ¬Å"I'm sorry. I don't know anything about it except the name and the fact that you go around predicting the end of the Empire or something like that.â⬠ââ¬Å"Not quite, Magistrate. But my views have become unpopular because they are proving to be true. I believe it is for that reason that there are those who want to assault me or, even more likely, are being paid to assault me.â⬠The magistrate stared at Seldon and then called over the arresting security officer. ââ¬Å"Did you check up on the man who was hurt? Does he have a record?â⬠The security officer cleared her throat. ââ¬Å"Yes, sir. He's been arrested several times. Assault, mugging.â⬠ââ¬Å"Oh, he's a repeat offender, is he? And does the professor have a record?â⬠ââ¬Å"No, sir.â⬠ââ¬Å"So we have an old and innocent man fighting off a known mugger-and you arrest the old and innocent man. Is that it?â⬠The security officer was silent. The magistrate said, ââ¬Å"You may go, Professor.â⬠ââ¬Å"Thank you, sir. May I have my cane?â⬠The magistrate snapped his fingers at the officer, who handed over the cane. ââ¬Å"But one thing, Professor,â⬠said the magistrate. ââ¬Å"If you use that cane again, you had better be absolutely certain you can prove it was in self-defense. Otherwise-ââ¬Å" ââ¬Å"Yes, sir.â⬠And Hari Seldon left the magistrate's chambers, leaning heavily on his cane but with his head held high. 20 Wanda was crying bitterly, her face wet with tears, her eyes red, her cheeks swollen. Hari Seldon hovered over her, patting her on the back, not knowing quite how to comfort her. ââ¬Å"Grandpa, I'm a miserable failure. I thought I could push people and I could when they didn't mind being pushed too much, like Mom and Dad-and even then it took a long time. I even worked out a rating system of sorts, based on a ten-point scale-sort of a mental pushing power gauge. Only I assumed too much. I assumed that I was a ten, or at least a nine. But now I realize that, at most, I rate a seven.â⬠Wanda's crying had stopped and she sniffed occasionally as Hari stroked her hand. ââ¬Å"Usually-usually-I have no trouble. If I concentrate, I can hear people's thoughts and when I want, I push them. But those muggers! I could hear them all right, but there was nothing I could do to push them away.â⬠ââ¬Å"I thought you did very well, Wanda.â⬠ââ¬Å"I didn't. I had a fan-fantasy. I thought people would come up behind you and in one mighty push I'd send them flying. That way I was going to be your bodyguard. That's why I offered to be your bod-bodyguard. Only I wasn't. Those two guys came up and I couldn't do a thing.â⬠ââ¬Å"But you could. You made the first man hesitate. That gave me a chance to turn and clobber him.â⬠ââ¬Å"No no. I had nothing to do with it. All I could do was warn you he was there and you did the rest.â⬠ââ¬Å"The second man ran away.â⬠ââ¬Å"Because you clobbered the first guy. I had nothing to do with it.â⬠She broke out again in tears of frustration. ââ¬Å"And then the magistrate. I insisted on the magistrate. I thought I would push and he would let you go at once.â⬠ââ¬Å"He did let me go and it was practically at once.â⬠ââ¬Å"No. He put you through a miserable routine and saw the light only when he realized who you were. I had nothing to do with it. I flopped everywhere. I could have gotten you into so much trouble.â⬠ââ¬Å"No, I refuse to accept that, Wanda. If your pushing didn't work quite as well as you had hoped it would, it was only because you were working under emergency conditions. You couldn't have helped it. But, Wanda, look-I have an idea.â⬠Catching the excitement in his voice, she looked up. ââ¬Å"What kind of idea, Grandpa?â⬠ââ¬Å"Well, it's like this, Wanda. You probably realize that I've got to have credits. Psychohistory simply can't continue without it and I cannot bear the thought of having it all come to nothing after so many years of hard work.â⬠ââ¬Å"I can't bear it, either. But how can we get the credits?â⬠ââ¬Å"Well, I'm going to request an audience with the Emperor again. I've seen him once already and he's a good man and I like him. But he's not exactly drowning in wealth. However, if I take you with me and if you push him-gently-it may be that he will find a source of credits, some source somewhere, and keep me going for a while, till I can think of something else.â⬠ââ¬Å"Do you really think it will work, Grandpa?â⬠ââ¬Å"Not without you. But with you-maybe. Come, isn't it worth trying?â⬠Wanda smiled. ââ¬Å"You know I'll do anything you ask, Grandpa. Besides, it's our only hope.â⬠21 It was not difficult to see the Emperor. Agis's eyes sparkled as he greeted Hari Seldon. ââ¬Å"Hello, old friend,â⬠he said. ââ¬Å"Have you come to bring me bad luck?â⬠ââ¬Å"I hope not,â⬠said Seldon. Agis unhooked the elaborate cloak he was wearing and, with a weary grunt, threw it into the corner of the room, saying, ââ¬Å"And you lie there.â⬠He looked at Seldon and shook his head. ââ¬Å"I hate that thing. It's as heavy as sin and as hot as blazes. I always have to wear it when I'm being smothered under meaningless words, standing there upright like a carved image. It's just plain horrible. Cleon was born to it and he had the appearance for it. I was not and I don't. It's just my misery that I'm a third cousin of his on my mother's side so that I qualified as Emperor. I'd be glad to sell it for a very small sum. Would you like to be Emperor, Hari?â⬠ââ¬Å"No no, I wouldn't dream of it, so don't get your hopes up,â⬠said Seldon, laughing. ââ¬Å"But tell me, who is this extraordinarily beautiful young woman you have brought with you today?â⬠Wanda flushed and the Emperor said genially, ââ¬Å"You mustn't let me embarrass you, my dear. One of the few perquisites** an Emperor possesses is the right to say anything he chooses. No one can object or argue about it. They can only say, ââ¬ËSire.' However, I don't want any ââ¬ËSires' from you. I hate that word. Call me Agis. That is not my birth name, either. It's my Imperial name and I've got to get used to it. Soâ⬠¦ tell me what's doing, Hari. What's been happening to you since the last time we met?â⬠Seldon said briefly, ââ¬Å"I've been attacked twice.â⬠The Emperor didn't seem to be sure whether this was a joke or not. He said, ââ¬Å"Twice? Really?â⬠The Emperor's face darkened as Seldon told the story of the assaults. ââ¬Å"I suppose there wasn't a security officer around when those eight men threatened you.â⬠ââ¬Å"Not one.â⬠The Emperor rose from his chair and gestured at the other two to keep theirs. He walked back and forth, as though he were trying to work off some anger. Then he turned and faced Seldon. ââ¬Å"For thousands of years,â⬠he began, ââ¬Å"whenever something like this happened, people would say, ââ¬ËWhy don't we appeal to the Emperor?' or `Why doesn't the Emperor do something?' And, in the end, the Emperor can do something and does do something, even if it isn't always the intelligent thing to do. But Iâ⬠¦ Hari, I'm powerless. Absolutely powerless. ââ¬Å"Oh yes, there is the so-called Commission of Public Safety, but they seem more concerned with my safety than that of the public. It's a wonder we're having this audience at all, for you are not at all popular with the Commission. ââ¬Å"There's nothing I can do about anything. Do you know what's happened to the status of the Emperor since the fall of the junta and the restoration of-hah!-Imperial power?â⬠ââ¬Å"I think I do.â⬠ââ¬Å"I'll bet you don't-fully. We've got democracy now. Do you know what democracy is?â⬠ââ¬Å"Certainly.â⬠Agis frowned. He said, ââ¬Å"I'll bet you think it's a good thing.â⬠ââ¬Å"I think it can be a good thing.â⬠ââ¬Å"Well, there you are. It isn't. It's completely upset the Empire. ââ¬Å"Suppose I want to order more officers onto the streets of Trantor. In the old days, I would pull over a piece of paper prepared for me by the Imperial Secretary and would sign it with a flourish-and there would be more security officers. ââ¬Å"Now I can't do anything of the sort. I have to put it before the Legislature. There are seventy-five hundred men and women who instantly turn into uncounted gaggles of geese the instant a suggestion is made. In the first place, where is the funding to come from? You can't have, say, ten thousand more officers without having to pay ten thousand more salaries. Then, even if you agreed to something of the sort, who selects the new security officers? Who controls them? ââ¬Å"The Legislature shouts at each other, argues, thunders, and lightens, and in the end-nothing is done. Hari, I couldn't even do as small a thing as fix the broken dome lights you noticed. How much will it cost? Who's in charge? Oh, the lights will be fixed, but it can easily take a few months to do it. That's democracy.â⬠Hari Seldon said, ââ¬Å"As I recall, the Emperor Cleon was forever complaining that he could not do what he wished to do.â⬠ââ¬Å"The Emperor Cleon,â⬠said Agis impatiently, ââ¬Å"had two first-class First Ministers-Demerzel and yourself-and you each labored to keep Cleon from doing anything foolish. I have seventy-five hundred First Ministers, all of whom are foolish from start to finish. But surely, Hari, you haven't come to complain to me about the attacks.â⬠ââ¬Å"No, I haven't. Something much worse. Sire-Agis-I need credits.â⬠The Emperor stared at him. ââ¬Å"After what I've been telling you, Hari? I have no credits. Oh yes, there're credits to run this establishment, of course, but in order to get them I have to face my seventy-five hundred legislators. If you think I can go to them and say, `I want credits for my friend, Hari Seldon' and if you think I'll get one quarter of what I ask for in anything less than two years, you're crazy. It won't happen.â⬠He shrugged and said, more gently, ââ¬Å"Don't get me wrong, Hari. I would like to help you if I could. I would particularly like to help you for the sake of your granddaughter. Looking at her makes me feel as though I should give you all the credits you would like-but it can't be done.â⬠Seldon said, ââ¬Å"Agis, if I don't get funding, psychohistory will go down the drain-after nearly forty years.â⬠ââ¬Å"It's come to nothing in nearly forty years, so why worry?â⬠ââ¬Å"Agis,â⬠said Seldon ââ¬Å"there's nothing more I can do now. The assaults on me were precisely because I'm a psychohistorian. People consider me a predictor of destruction.â⬠The Emperor nodded. ââ¬Å"You're bad luck, Raven Seldon. I told you this earlier.â⬠Seldon stood up wretchedly. ââ¬Å"I'm through, then.â⬠Wanda stood, too, next to Seldon the top of her head reaching her grandfather's shoulder. She gazed fixedly at the Emperor. As Hari turned to go, the Emperor said, ââ¬Å"Wait. Wait. There's a little verse I once memorized: ââ¬Ë Ill fares the land To hastening ills a prey Where wealth accumulates And men decay.' ââ¬Å" ââ¬Å"What does it mean?â⬠asked a dispirited Seldon. ââ¬Å"It means that the Empire is steadily deteriorating and falling apart, but that doesn't keep some individuals from growing rich. Why not turn to some of our wealthy entrepreneurs? They don't have legislators and can, if they wish, simply sign a credit voucher.â⬠Seldon stared. ââ¬Å"I'll try that.ââ¬
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Doctor Patient Communication Essay
This is the adopted mode of communication with the patient aiming at firstly, getting enough history or information towards diagnosing the patient presenting complaint and equally ensuring that the patientââ¬â¢s right to privacy, good health, and permission as the need arises, is not compromised during the process. ââ¬Å"When communication and rapport is poor, patients are at risk of distressed and doubt doctorââ¬â¢s competenceâ⬠(Allen, 2000). Research reports that patients often wrongly base clinical skills on communication effectiveness. Patient with this bias mind eventually shows poor cooperation with treatments. This is more reason why it is an ethical issue. The present state of the patientââ¬â¢s psychological state is important. A depressed patient would prefer less talk than a patient who is worried to get fast cure and some times talk out of points if unguided by an experience doctor. Due to diverse understanding from multicultural views, it is necessary to understand the biological ethnicity of each patient through a ââ¬Ëbiodataââ¬â¢ aspect of the history. From the biodata, the religious denomination is noted. The occupation, family and social histories also reveal the mental state. Doctorââ¬â¢s adoption of line of thought would be of help. For example, a friendly way of approach gives the patients sense of worth and avoids any feelings of inferiority complex that may hinder patientââ¬â¢s opening up in detail. The doctor also needs not unnecessarily friendly, this could denote carefree attitude at times. 80% of the treatment receives is dependent of how elaborate is the history taken by the doctor. An understanding of introversion and extroversion communication type equally helps. It is necessary to carry the patient along, after the knowledge about the patientââ¬â¢s present state, preempt the patientsââ¬â¢ worry and briefly explain why the next question is necessary.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Sexual harassment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Sexual harassment - Assignment Example Women feel more comfortable when talking to other women about these issues. Aside from this, the organization can stipulate in its code of conduct that sexual harassment goes against company policy and violators will be dealt with severely. Finally, training can be provided to new employees, particularly male employees, about what appropriate touch is in the workplace. In addition, training can be provide to new female employees about what to do when they feel they have been sexually harassed, who they should go to, and what the potential outcomes may be. The first thing that an organization should do when dealing with alleged sexual harassment is to investigate the incident. Were there any witnesses? If not, is the complainantââ¬â¢s word strong enough to take action. Without indisputable evidence, it is very difficult to reprimand someone for an action they may not have taken. If it can be proved beyond all doubt that sexual harassment occurred, then the violator should first receive a warning and potential suspension from work duties. If it occurs again, then the violator should be instantly dismissed. If, on the other hand, the sexual harassment cannot be proved, then no action can be taken at that time. The best that could be done would be to file a report and keep it on hand for any future instances of sexual harassment occurring
Thursday, September 26, 2019
International Marketing( Pizza hut in China) Essay
International Marketing( Pizza hut in China) - Essay Example success story due to the specialized and far sighted strategies followed by the company in expanding its business into the high potential market of China. Pizza Hut is one of the most famous fast food centres specialized in a wide variety of pizzas with different crusts and toppings. Pizza Hut is based in Texas and is the largest pizza restaurant in the world. There are more than 7500 Pizza Hut restaurants in the United States alone. The company also operates more than 5600 Pizza Hut restaurants in almost 100 countries in different corners of the world. The first fast food restaurant of Pizza Hut was opened in 1958 in Kansas by two brothers named Frank Karney and Dan Karney. The company followed a franchisee based strategy to expand its operations (Bradley, 1999, p.118). The first franchisee of Pizza Hut was opened in Topeka region of Kansas. After the opening up of this franchisee, the company continued to grow in terms of size, popularity as well as scale of operations. The company currently has more than 8000 units of food chains operating across different countries in the globe. The company introduced the delivery system in 1988 a fter which the sales of the company were boosted to a high extent, especially in the United States. Apart from a variety of pizzas, Pizza Hut also offers other fast food items like Garlic bread, chicken wings, soups, pastas, nachos, cornitos and lasagnes in its menu. The company offers a wide range of food items and is famous for its excellent quality and efficient services provided to the customers. Pizza Hut emerged as a highly popular fast food company in the United States. After the success in their home country, the company focused on expanding their operations in other suitable international markets to tap in new opportunities and increase their revenues and customer base. The high market growth and profitability of Pizza Hut in the domestic market provided the company with the necessary backup and resources to internationalize
Comparative Analysis of FDI Trends in China and India Essay
Comparative Analysis of FDI Trends in China and India - Essay Example Foreign Direct Investment ââ¬Å"Foreign direct investment is defined as investment by a resident entity in one economy with the objective of obtaining a lasting interest in an enterprise resident in another economyâ⬠(OECD, 2010 p88). Foreign direct investment involves a company in one country investing in another entity in another nation to attain a long-term business interest in a business that exists in another economy. In other context, any investing activities that control and manages value creation in other countries is considered a foreign direct investment (Peng, 2011). These entities are known as multinational enterprises and they aim at creating control either through agreement or equity acquisition in a foreign country to help the firm obtain some advantages in the foreign nation (Peng, 2011). ââ¬Å"Foreign direct investment is defined as an investment involving a long-term relationship and reflecting a lasting interest and control by a resident entity in one econom y in an enterprise resident in another economyâ⬠(Takamura, 2011 p245). This definition of FDI focuses on the long-term aspect of FDIs. This suggests that these foreign direct investments seek to attain some relationship that would span into the distant future. This is to be separated from short-term interests which might last for three years or less. Such arrangements cannot be classified as FDIs they are more or less some kind of operational agreement and may not qualify to be viewed as an FDI. Examples of FDIs include building production plants to retain control and acquiring a research and development entity in a foreign country (Neuhaus, 2011). Prompters of FDIs, OLI Theory Every business exists to maximise profits by cutting down costs and...This paper clarifies the real reasons behind China's increasing growth in FDI. It examines why China' FDI levels has continued to increase recently. In doing this, there has been undertaken a comparative analysis of China's FDI trends with the Indian FDI trends. In attaining the aim of the research, the objectives were examined, such as review of the vital factors in the movement of FDI in the global context, analysis of the trends in FDI in China, analysis of FDI trends in India and a comparison with China, observation of the differences between the Chinese and Indian situation in that field. In 2010, the World Investment Prospects Survey released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development showed that China is the most popular destination for foreign trade in the World. China increased its FDI by 20% between 2009 and 2010. The main factor that prompted China to become the leading destination for foreign investment was the changes that occurred within the country's national and legal structures. Foreign direct investment involves one entity investing in a business venture in a foreign country. These investments were often meant to promote control in a foreign country in order to attain power and further their interest in a foreign entity. FDI is meant to enable a given business to attain opportunities in foreign countries. Ownership, Locational Advantages and Internalisation form the crux of FDI. Ownership relates to how a business attains control and rights in a foreign business. Locational advantages relate to the ability of a business to take advantage of the local opportunities in a country. Internalisation refers to how a business uses the advantages that the FDI brings to it.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1
Marketing - Essay Example as been characterized as ââ¬Ëthe process of using promotional tools in a unified way to create synergyââ¬â¢ (Egan 2007, 338). Reference is also made to the needs and the effectiveness of marketing communications tools, which have been characterized as ââ¬Ëthe channels that send messages from the business to its customers and vice-versaââ¬â¢ (Smith, Berry and Pulford 1999, 14). Three different marketing campaigns have been chosen in order to highlight the terms of success of IMC in the context of the modern market: a) the City of West Chicago campaign, know as the ââ¬ËThis is West Chicagoââ¬â¢ campaign, b) the Seneca Park Zoo ââ¬ËZoobilationââ¬â¢ IMC Campaign and c) Raging Waves IMC Campaign. ... need for increasing the awareness of the public on the services offered by the organizations involved; at this point, it should be noted that the second and the third marketing campaigns refer to organizations operating in the same industry, i.e. the entertainment industry, b) they use similar marketing communication tools, as analyzed below; this means that through these campaigns, the effectiveness of specific marketing communication tools within different market conditions can be tested and evaluated (Koekemoer & Bird 2004) and c) all these marketing campaigns had performed well, meaning that they have achieved the targets set by their planners. 3.0 City of West Chicago IMC Campaign 3.1. Target Audience The target audience in the specific campaign would incorporate the following categories of people: a) the residents of the city, b) the visitors of the city; the term visitors refer to those visiting the city for tourism purposes but also those visiting the city for work or in the context of specific social obligations, as for example for family reasons and c) the potential investors; meaning those who would be potentially interested in investing on the city. 3.2 Marketing Objectives The marketing objectives of the specific campaigns could be described as follows: a) to increase the satisfaction of cityââ¬â¢s residents regarding the assets of their city, b) to increase the value of the assets of the city (by developing the assets of the cities through the funds of potential investors, the value of the cityââ¬â¢s assets will be increased, leading to the increase of the power of the city as an important economic centre), c) to increase the income of the city from tourism; by improving the assets and the facilities of the city (using private funds) more tourists are
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Research Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words
Research Project - Assignment Example By value, this constitutes about 76% and 63% by volume. There is a difference between the contribution of men and women to the skin care market. While women contribute 72% share by value, the men contribute 38% (PR Newswire 2013). Nonetheless, this is quite true, as women in the UK account for 50% of the UK population. In addition, it is a fact that in most parts of the world, women are the major users of beauty products. This is also the case in the United Kingdom. However, it is expected that in future, more men will use beauty products, as they focus more on their personal grooming and hygiene (Premium beauty news n.d). Therefore, it important to understand the different factors that influence the decision of consumers in the UK to purchase skin care products. The purpose of this research study is to explore the present environment of skin care industry in the UK. Special focus is on the loyalty of consumers, as well as their purchasing. The study will therefore, also assess the decisions of people in the UK to buy skin care products. In this case therefore, the study will explore various push factors, which influence people in the UK to buy skin care products. The scope of this research is limited to the study on the skin care market in the UK only. This involves the factors influencing the decision of people in the UK to purchase skin care products. Therefore, this study does not study the global market. For this reason, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to other skin care markets outside the UK. This is because the factors influencing the purchase of skin care products by consumers vary from country to country. The UK ranks as the third largest economy in Europe, as it comes after Germany and France (EUbusiness 2014). UK consists of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is served by London as the capital city. Overall, the UK has a population of approximately 61.7 million as
Monday, September 23, 2019
Design for change in practice Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Design for change in practice - Research Paper Example Design for change in practice is largely based on the framework proposed by Rossuwurm and Larrabee (1999). According to Rossuwurm and Larrabee (1999), design for change in practice is manifested through protocols, procedures, or standards. In the case with communicating terminal diagnosis to patients in order to improve their quality of life design relies on the mechanism of protocols distributed to medical personnel. Since the overall complexity of design determines the likelihood of change acceptance (Rossuwurm and Larrabee, 1999, p.320), protocols contain only well-structured and detailed information regarding terminal diagnosis disclosure practice and follow up procedures aimed to improve patients' quality of life. Because feedback from patients (stakeholders) is essential when designing a change in practice (Rossuwurm and Larrabee, 1999), design also includes a questionnaire produced to measure changes in patients' quality of life. (1) Practice of terminal diagnosis full disclosure. ... As explained by Fitch (1994) once a word like "cancer" or "terminal" is heard, a mental retreat is often enacted and thus true communication may not take place until the stark essence of the initial message has been absorbed. Similarly, when news of terminality are communicated rapidly, the patient may remember very little of what has been said. Therefore, in order to implement this change in practice some patients should have information about their terminal diagnosis divided into manageable stages so that self-perceptions gradually shift from well, to ill, to dying over a period of days or weeks. The fundamental premise of this change in practice is that physicians should exclusively opt the strategy of full disclosure of terminal diagnosis for their patients. (2) Eliminating avoidance practices. The issue of death and dying like any topic or situation that creates anxiety tends to trigger avoidance responses. In medical practice, two types of avoidance may be seen: physical avoidance, in which an individual makes an effort to avoid being in the presence of persons, places or objects that cause anxiety; and topical avoidance, in which a clinician avoids thinking or talking about an anxiety-producing issue. Physicians and nurses tend to avoid patient feelings (i.e., depression, anger, or anxiety) by focusing on the explicit content of the patients' message (Dilbeck, 1996). Related to this response in medical personnel is the finding that patients report that technological interventions and procedures cause them to feel that their need for support through compassion and caring is being denied (Super & Plutko, 1996). Patients cannot
Sunday, September 22, 2019
A Roman Revolution Essay Example for Free
A Roman Revolution Essay It was May 30, 1347.à à The city was once at the center of the world, and varying nations vied to pay homage.à à Since that time, however, its institutions, its buildings, and its very name seem to have been forgotten by time.à à Local nobility compete for control while the rest of the populace starved, and banditry thrived.à à The religious shrines and public buildings were dilapidated, and worn out from neglect. à From this one day, however, and from one such ruin, issued a declaration from a man who stirred hope in peopleââ¬â¢s breast. à à Cola di Rienzo, who in the course of time would ambitiously set himself up as a virtual dictator in the city, at that moment declared the restitution of the Roman Republic, to the cheers of an excited throng.à à The restless crowd seemed far disconnected from the reality of a Holy Roman Empire, independent Italian city-states, Norman and Spanish sovereignty in the south, or the hundred more kingdoms and treaties that kept Italy divided and the Republic from becoming reality, but no one cared. à A brief, tragic drama began to unfold, taking hold of the city and its dreamer alike.à à For a few months, the Roman Republic seemed to breathe life and its Dictator Rienzo came close to uniting Italy.à à The smaller city-states and principalities all sent their delegations and intentions to forming a loose federation with Rome.à à And the Dictator put ambitious reforms and decrees, which championed the cause of the people. à His pride, however, got the better of him, and he soon alienated the senators and the Church.à à The senators amassed armies against him, and the Pope called to the people to reject him.à à Having lost all his allies, he fled the city, wandering Italy to find people to rally for his cause. à à Dejected, beaten, his spirit finally broken, he surrendered to the Pope in Avignon, and was allowed to return to Rome where the people could not long stomach his disillusionment and killed him as a traitor[1]. à This brief Roman Revolution was an early experiment of that age to attempt the reconstitution of an age that seemed lost in time.à à The people of the Renaissance, from the artisan to the poet, was fascinated with ancient Greek traditions and culture and created works of art that mimicked Classic styles.à à Ancient texts were gathered from the libraries where it was copied and preserved, and crude attempts at translation were made to introduce these historical artifacts to the world.à à Most of the entire Renaissance was electrified at the thought of the old ââ¬Å"heroicâ⬠Roman Republic, and the Caesars and Ciceros that once walked the Forum. à In due course, this paper would seek to identify the sources of the ideology behind the Italian Renaissanceââ¬â¢s fascination with the ancient Greco-Roman, and how it seemed to suit their needs.à à The paper will then explain the various attempts to reconstitute the past in the present, and how close they were in succeeding. à Once more, a Roman World à The thought of a restored Rome was not unique to Renaissance thought.à à Even as the western portion of the empire collapsed under the pressure of barbarian migrations, the eastern emperor Justinian drafted ambitious plans of gaining back the lost lands of Gaul, Italy, Spain and Africa. This having failed, the Frankish kings, and later the German emperors, stylized themselves as Caesars that had legitimacy given to them by the authority of the Pope and the acquiescence of the eastern emperor. à Italian dreams of Rome, however, had political and cultural context.à They loathed the plain ugliness of Gothic and barbarian architecture, and largely preserved the Roman tradition and culture.à They lamented Italian as a bastardized form of Latin, and deplored Danteââ¬â¢s use of the former as the vernacular. Italian writers, at the beginning of the Renaissance, began to collect ancient texts from faraway libraries[2].à à Petrarch, the Father of the Renaissance, was the first of the writers to amass Greek and Latin texts, and encouraged a fellow writer, Boccaccio, to pore into Greek research. à Unique also in the Renaissance, was the way the ancient texts were interpreted. In the medieval ages, the various ancient works of art were interpreted in Christian context.à à Pagan ideals and traditions were explained with a Christian theme. Thus, a Hercules-like figure would be used to represent Christ.à à The Renaissance began to separate the contemporary Christian thought from the ancient texts, and began to appreciate the latter in their historical context. They read into classical texts their appropriate classical meaning; they did not allegorize Latin writings as one to justify medieval Christian Europe, but in the context of ancient Rome[3]. à The thought of a united Italy was sometimes reconciled with the restoration of the ancient Greco-Roman tradition. à à Rienzo certainly thought of this when he donned the garb of the old senatorial toga and declared the return of the Roman Republic. Petrarch saw it when he asked King Charles IV of Bohemia to unite all of Italy[4], and many might have seen it when the son Alexander VI, Cesare Borgia, began a long campaign to win back much of the lost cities of the Papal States. à Conclusion: Historical Myopia à For all the dreams and ideals of the Renaissance Italians, a Roman Republic could not be reconstituted from 14th to 15th century Europe.à à The Holy Roman Empire, primarily, would not stand for a united Italy outside of their control or power, as they would, and have claimed, Italy as an integral part of the empire. Neither, however, can the Holy Roman emperors be able to unite Italy, as they become too embroiled in disputes with the Pope, who has nominal sway over the Italian city-states.à à And the Popes, for all their universal spiritual authority, would not be able to wrest control of all of Italy from powerful independent Italian city-states, the Normans and the Spanish, the Germans and the French, and even the Greeks until their collapse in the latter half of the 15th century. à The Italian Renaissance sought to reintroduce ancient Greco-Roman thought into the mainstream, envisioning a past that was nobly glorious.à à Several hundred years brings distance and unreality to history, even when taken from historical context.à The Italian city-states of the Renaissance was freer in practice with its people than the ancient Roman Republic, which countless times brought down reformer tribunes, and curbed attempts to relieve the proletariat in keeping the wealthy in their state.à à The ancient Roman Empire was less free as the centuries passed, and its economy was in nightmarish shambles, a thought that the Renaissance Italians might have shuddered at. à In the end, the Renaissance Italians might have fallen in the same way their medieval counterparts have: to see the ancient culture in their contemporary values.à Certainly the Renaissance wanted to detach itself from the ââ¬Å"barbarismâ⬠and disunity, which seemed to plague Europe, but the reforms of a Rienzo would have shocked the ancient Roman aristocracy, and Byzantine intrigue would be far closer to Roman court morals than the Renaissance Italian sensibilities. à A final word must be said of the Renaissance dream: in the 16th century, one man came closest to uniting Italy and much of Christendom under a loose ââ¬Å"Roman empireâ⬠.à à Politics and religion, in the end, got in the way, and Charles V of the Hapsburg dynasty and his successors would find himself humbled by an alliance of French, Turks, Protestants and even the Pope[5]. BIBLIOGRAPHY References Durant, Will. The Renaissance. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953. Durant, Will, Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935. Rice, Eugene Jr., The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. New York: W.W. Norton and Company,1971. Krailsheimer, A.J., The Continental Renaissance: 1500-1600. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1970. [1] Durant, Will, The Renaissance (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953) 16-21. [2] Durant, Will, The Renaissance (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953) 67-69. [3] Rice, Eugene Jr., The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559 (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1970) 72-76. [4] Durant, Will, The Renaissance (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953) 46. [5] Krailsheimer, A.J.,à The Continental Renaissance: 1500-1600 (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1971) 93-98.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
The Challenge of motivating employees
The Challenge of motivating employees Challenge of motivating employees Organization has been deemed to be the strength of any viable business. The more organized and efficient the different components in the business are, the better it functions. The breaking down of tasks associated with each component in a particular organizational system has now led to the concept of job design or performance charters. Motivation is simply a process which encourages and guides behavior. Robbins and Judge define motivation as, ââ¬Å"the process that accounts for an individuals intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goalâ⬠. Motivation therefore, is a goal directed behavior with factors which energize, direct and sustain employee behavior. Laurie J. Mullins (2007) states that, ââ¬Å"the relationship between the organization and its employees is influenced by what motivates them to work, the rewards involved and the fulfillment they derive from itâ⬠. Employees today are motivated by various things of which some are considered as a needed entity or as a desired. Worldwide, organizations have focused on theories that motivate employees to be the best they can be and most of these theories of motivation have proved to be true to date. Since motivational theories were formulated in the 1950s, they have been divided into two categories; Content theories Process theories Content theories are said to be, ââ¬Å"what motivates peopleâ⬠further explained as what arouses, energizes, or simply starts behavior, i.e. individual physiological and psychological needs and this focus is on internal needs. Motivation results from an individuals attempts to satisfy these needs. 1. Maslows Hierarchy of needs states that; Adult motives are complex Needs form a hierarchy lower needs to be satisfied before higher order needs People always seek growth because they want to move up the hierarchy of needs Research evidence in the Maslows Hierarchy of need theories has been said to be; Flexible hierarchy of needs Satisfaction of one need level may not decrease its importance and increase importance of the next need level It has also been found that needs vary according to; The size of the organization A persons career stage Geographical location Across cultures By employing Maslows Hierarchy of needs, several managerial implications exist; Physiological needs food and wages Safety needs a working environment that is safe as well as job security Social needs opportunity to interact, teamwork Esteem needs recognition, challenging tasks, status symbols and participation Self-actualization encourages creativity and innovation 2. Herzbergs two factor theory encompasses dual factor motivation-hygiene as it portrays two different factors. Hygiene factors: related to the context of the job Motivational factors: related to the content of the job Research in the 1950 Herzbergs two factor theory asked people to describe situations in which they found their job exceptionally good or bad. Research conclusion; Job satisfaction intrinsic factors. Builds high level of motivation and stimulates superior performance. Dissatisfaction extrinsic factors. Environmental as well as external factors to the job build a zero level of motivation if maintained. Herzbergs two factor theory research evidence also states that the theory fails to; Account for individual differences Link motivation and needs to both satisfaction and performance Consider cultural and professional differences 3. Alderfers ERG theory was developed by Clayton Alderfer and his theory collapses Maslows five categories into three categories: existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. ERG theory states that more than one need category may be activated at the same time. Existence needs the desire for physiological and material well-being Relatedness needs desire to satisfy interpersonal relationships Growth needs desire for continued personal growth and development The ERG theory research evidence is encouraging because it offers a more flexible approach to understanding human needs. The comparison of content theories is very interesting to analyze as it gives a more precise breakdown of theories put together. Figure 1 below is a depiction of all three theories put together. Herzberg Maslow Alderfer Higher order Intrinsic Needs Motivation Lower order Extrinsic Needs Motivation Process theories are focused on the cognitive process that influences behavior, i.e. Why an individual behaves in a particular manner and specifically deals with ââ¬Ëhow to motivate. This process illustrates how people choose behaviors to satisfy their needs. Victor Vrooms expectancy theory states that a persons motivation is a multiplicative function of expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Expectancy is the probability assigned by an individual that work effort will be followed by a given level of task accomplishment. -Instrumentality is the probability assigned by an individual that a given level of achieved task performance will lead to various work outcomes. -Valence is defined as the value attached by an individual to various work outcomes. Vrooms expectancy theory has various implications as regards motivation. -Motivation is sharply reduced when expectancy, instrumentality or valence approach zero. -Motivation is high when expectancy and instrumentality are high and valence is strongly positive. The expectancy theory has been seen to have managerial implications where as managers should be seen to act to maximize expectancies, instrumentalities and valence that support various organizational objectives. Research evidence on the expectancy theory has received substantial empirical support though the multiplier effect is subject to some question. It may also be useful to distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The expectancy theory does not specify which rewards will motivate particular groups of employees thereby allowing for cross-cultural differences. Lastly, the Porter Lawler model tries to establish a relationship between the efforts, performance and satisfaction of an individual. The most important variables in this model include effort, performance, rewards and satisfaction. In todays digital age, a large number of employees are well educated to some acceptable standard and for that most demand a reasonable salary as well as worthwhile working conditions. As motivation has conformed to some socially acceptable standards of behavior, it has been assumed to be an individual perspective. Every individual is unique because we have different desires, potential, values, goals and attitudes. The most important aspect that most employees are concerned with is their needs and wants. Todays managers have a challenge or the opportunity to influence the motivation of their employees through the design of their performance charters. Well outlined performance charters help accomplish two important goals: getting the necessary work done in a timely and competent manner, motivating and challenging employees. Both the organization as well as the employee is a beneficiary of a successfully done performance charter. Performance charter is the specification of the contents, methods and the counter relationship of jobs to fulfill organizational requirements. Mostly, employees are motivated when they are lead to accomplishments of which they can proud whilst recognizing what they have done. Warren Blank (2001) states that, ââ¬Å"a motivational environment enables people to feel like winnersâ⬠. Todays performing managers have the responsibility of designing employee performance charters. If a manager ignores this responsibility, employees will definitely design their own. It wouldnt be a surprise to see that performance charters designed by employees are more likely to be adjusted to their experiences and preferences than to the goals of the organization. It has been said once before that you cannot motivate anyone but you can provide the environment in which they can grow to their full potential. Management by objectives (MBO), ââ¬Å"is a style or system of management that attempts to relate organizational goals to individual performance and development through the involvement of all levels of managementâ⬠, encompasses time period with feedback as well as goal progression. According to Laurrie J. Mullins, the phrase ââ¬ËManagement by Objectives (MBO) was first introduced by Peter Drucker in 1954 as a strategy for managing people whilst focusing on teamwork based on their ability to complete individual as well as team goals. MBOs have been seen to be effective as it helps in the alignment of an employees efforts around an organizations collective objectives. The MBO process begins with an organization defining its objectives. This is where the process of strategic planning, goal setting, visioning which generates from its process a set of objectives that the organization should always strive to achieve. The main principal underlining Management by Objectives is mainly to create empowered employees who will have clarity of the roles and responsibility expected from them, and once the objectives set are understood, it helps in the achievement of personal as well as organizational goals. Some advantages of MBO include specifically ââ¬Ëclarity of goals. With clarity of goals, came the birth of SMART goals concept which Intel Specific various key factors should be present in the set objectives for them to be effective. This is where the word ââ¬Ëspecific is outlined because this simply describes specifically the desired results. Measurable This simply states that the objectives should be clear as to whether the objectives were met. Achievable when objectives are set, it should be seen that they are achievable. Realistic Realistic objectives in its own right is explained as goals or objectives that can be achieved coupled with the tools at an employees disposal to achieve the said objectives. Time based time based simply means a set objective has a time frame attached to it which acts as a guideline. SMART objectives ensure the delivery of greater results because they clearly and specifically address performance goals rather than broad emotions or behaviors. This concept also requires that objectives are created in collaboration with supervisors so as to be aware of their subordinates goals and supportive of their completion as well as ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to reach desired objectives. As noted in Robbins and judge, ââ¬Å"MBO popularity should not be construed to mean that it always worksâ⬠. This is normally as a result of lack of commitment by management as well as the inability in allocation of rewards based on accomplished objectives. Management by Objectives therefore, can be as a process of determining exactly what an employee is to do on the job, the tasks, duties, responsibilities, decision-making and the level of authority. The challenge being faced by managers now is that of employing the new strategies with all its opportunities in ways which not only meet an organizations needs but also the expectations as well as aspirations of the employees. Dennys Restaurant review Leadership Qualities ââ¬Å"If you can become the leader you ought to be on the inside, you will be able to become the person you want on the outside. People will want to follow you, and when that happens you will be able to tackle anything in this world.â⬠John Maxwell We at Dennys are constantly striving to identify quality minority and women businesses to support the needs of our company. Because we see diversity as an asset, we will attract and develop talent from the full range of the worlds rich cultural base. Dennys Vision mission. Despite having a clearly stated vision and mission, its management failed to publicly communicate the causes of the discrimination incidences they were amassed with as well as the actions Dennys management was taking to counter check the reoccurrence of those incidents. A leader is said to be an individual with suitable knowledge and desirable skills to lead groups to achieve their goals willingly. It is noted in Lasting Leadership that, ââ¬Å"the spirit of the peopleâ⬠is a big part of what management experts mean when they talk about corporate culture. The beliefs and values that guide employee behavior can improve performance by motivating workers toward a common goal and instilling in them a sense of purpose. There are several indicators, which can help us to outline the strength of our leadership. The most important leadership quality that one needs to exhibit in todays world is ââ¬Ëhonesty. A leader should always be honest to his task, his products or services, his people and most importantly to his customers. This quality of leadership should not only exist but also should be seen to exist in by all stakeholders in the organization. John C. Maxwell in an extract of his book by George Wells states that, ââ¬Å"while leaders need to connect publicly with large groups of people, the same thing needs to happen on a one-to-one basis between individuals. Maxwell tells how his staff used to groan when he would say People dont care how much you know until they know how much you care because he quoted the saying so often, but it is true. You develop credibility with people when you connect with them and show that you genuinely want to help them. Everybody wants to be somebodyâ⬠If you treat every person you meet as if he or she were the most important person in the world, youll communicate that he or she is somebody to you. Of course, the respect needs to be genuine at all times otherwise people will rapidly sense that they are being manipulated otherwise. Dennys Restaurant management should have been able to realize that customer complaints are company failures and these require immediate attention. Ultimately, spending money in hopes of making money is an organizations goal but every dollar paid out to offset various customers who were dissatisfied is a signal that an organization must change in some decisive way. The Vidsoft Triangle Every little thing we do has positive, negative or neutral impact on teams motivation. Vidsoft case is one among the few companies that come across case of team based management problems that are faced by employees. Analysis of Vidsoft Vidsoft technologies was an internet company designing enterprise software and in June 1999, its quarterly revenues grew from $50M to over $250M year ending 2000 while employee base rose from 500 to 2,000. Babatunde graduated from Darden graduate of business administration in may 1998. He moved to California to get a job with Vidsoft technologies as senior technical support engineer. Alex Hsu was employed as technical support engineer and reported directly to babatunde. Even though Hsu was not good at team work, he was hired to bring varied culture as well as experience to vidsoft due to his previous record Babatunde made a public decision of promoting one of his engineers to be manager. Hsu reported some displeasure about his new supervisor Jennah Li as she was deemed to be an inexperienced manager and babatunde was unsure of what decision to make as he was the overall among the two despite having fears about taking sides. Keith Nash as CEO of vidsoft developed a culture that encourages its employees to speak their minds as excellence of employees was followed with promotions. Vidsoft as an organization encouraged teamwork and thus were awarded bonuses for collectively working together. Keith Nash believed in the culture of promoting from within as a motivational tool for employees until after vidsoft went public because this brought a mass influx of talent as well as wages became high. Vidsoft ended up falling back on its employees in terms of hiring due to costs so as to train them to keep up with the pace. Babatunde initially employed a micro-management style of management where he kept a close eye on all his employees in hopes that his team succeeds but this had to change as employee numbers rose. He then changed his style of management by using set objectives for each team to achieve desired goals. As babatundes responsibilities grew, he saw it necessary to change his reporting structure to reduce the number of people reporting to him so to manage more effectively. This led to him promoting one of his engineers ââ¬ËJennah Li to manage one of the product lines. Jennah Li in regards to Hsu was hired for her skills in managing customer relations despite English not being her strength; she was awarded for being the best team player. In vidsofts operational history, White was one of the first employers to run the technical support department and set stringent goals to be met by his fellow employees. He took an active role in ensuring that any team under his command did well to meet his standards. James White made a decision to hire babatunde because of his MBA training and trusted him to an extent of giving him all powers to make various decisions affecting the organization with his guidance. THE SOLUTION Babatunde at this point should be able to realize that workplace conflicts and unresolved differences can be the cause of negative performance of teams or generally employees. Furthermore, existing physical and psychological differences can escalate if conflict remains unaddressed by vidsoft managers as well as team members. From the onset, babatunde was aware that Hsu was not a team player and this should have been a starting point of making things clear to him that for him to succeed, he had to work in collaboration with other team members. It was observed that being a team player for Hsu as observed is a road he hasnt travelled and requires some skill and effort from babatunde. Hsu should be made to realize that teamwork is about assuming positive intent and seeing things from all sides in detail. Everyone has unique gifts and abilities. Recognizing these and appreciating them can be very useful especially in the case of two people with different skills because they can complement each other very powerfully when they work together. Its about acknowledging and accepting differences, and exploring alternative solutions that meet everyones needs and concerns as it is important to everyone, and all sides ââ¬ËHsu and Ali need to be committed to the solution. Both parties should agree that the goal is to fix the problem not to assign blame, hurt, humiliate, or threaten the one another. Babatundes job now is to focus on the issue, present and future, and on solutions available. They should be made aware that the situation must change and identify consequences if it does not. Keith Nash as CEO of Vidsoft should make things clear from the onset of employment that individuals are different at times as regards to each others needs. Sometimes workplace issues are evaded or ignored completely but generally, this is not a useful long term solution as the workplace is never small enough to avoid someone completely. Some guidelines should be put in place to for conflict resolution. Every employee upon being taken under vidsoft should be made aware that; Conflict and grievances are present within the workplace Improved communication within the workplace will avoid conflicts Establish performance expectations and consequences if expectations are not met. Lastly Vidsoft should have a written resolution and agreement regarding behavior within the workplace which should be adhered by both the employer as well as the employee. Babatunde should provide the leadership that enables his teams to productively work together and as much as possible, work with employees individually and encourage them to address the conflict directly with each other.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Religious Influences on Stanley Spencers Art
Religious Influences on Stanley Spencers Art What influence did religion have on the work of Stanley Spencer and did this contribute the reference as a village innocent or avant garde genius? It is difficult to place Stanley Spencer into any of the ideological or theoretical movements of the period during which he painted his unique and deeply subjective paintings. By challenging the divinity of Christianity, and suggesting that Christianity could be seen and gathered from the everyday, Spencer challenges the hierarchy of the church, and of Christian orthodoxy in a way that was both deeply personal, and looked further toward a universality. However, Spencers views on Christianity were eccentric for the time. He believed in the last day as a time of orgiastic joy, and his views stood in sharp contradiction to the more standard and institutionalised views of Christianity being about monogamy and abstinence from sex. Thus, politically and religiously, Spencer stood in direct opposition to the religious views held in some esteem at the time, and this is shown by his explicit drawings that juxtapose sexual and religious imagery. In this sense Spencer was avant-garde, and chall enged the assumptions of the establishment in a direct and controversial way. But, also, Spencer was deeply traditional in his views. His paintings draw heavily on classical and Pre-Raphaelite traditions, which could have been seen as the result of his artistic education as a draughtsman and a traditional painter, and the subject matter of his paintings often centre around the world of the village in which he was born and raised the small home counties village of Cookham. In this essay I will look firstly at how Spencer represents his religion in his paintings, by looking at how Cookham is displayed as a metaphor for all kinds of divine and religious imagery. Secondly, I will look at Spencers opinions on sex and how this made his work controversial and seemingly avant-garde with its jarring connection with Christianity and religion in general. Thirdly, I will discuss Stanley Spencers subjectivity and interrogate whether Spencers outsider status on his contemporary art world made it possible for Stanley Spencer to fit into any easily defined genre or movement. Stanley Spencer uses a great deal of biblical imagery in his work, often with references to biblical events such as the resurrection of Christ or the last day, seen by Spencer not as a horrific world, but as a world defined and brought together by love and by sexual and orgiastic bliss. What is particularly unusual about Spencers paintings is the way in which he juxtaposes the two worlds of the everyday and the religious into a single painting the everyday world of Cookham, the village in which he was born, becomes rich with divine imagery and miraculous, religious Christian light. It could easily be suggested that Spencer was not anti-Christian, as many of his avant-garde contemporaries such as Matisse and Picasso were, but that he was almost as fervently anti-institutional. In Christ Carrying the Cross (1920), the image of Christ is jarringly juxtaposed with the bland and traditionally ordinary world of Cookham. Also, the appearance of Christ with his cross merely blends in with t he actions of other people there is another man, given equal compositional prominence as Christ, who is carrying two sets of ladders behind Jesus. The mixing together of ordinariness and extraordinariness is further highlighted by the house, where people lean out. The curtains that flap out of the windows give the appearance, but the appearance only, of wings, suggesting that the people in the house are angels. This juxtaposition could be seen as both philosophically radical Christ is rarely seen in art as an ordinary figure, or one that could be assigned ordinary characteristics and also, judging from the immediately quaint surroundings of Cookham, as inherently traditional. By using his surroundings of Cookham and by combining grandiose biblical imagery and the everyday, Stanley Spencer manages to be both a painter of the avant-garde tradition, yet also one that is firmly attached to the traditional methods of portraying biblical imagery. Kitty Hauser suggests that: Spencer has painted the curtains so that they seem like wings, transforming the figures into angels at the moment that Christ walks past. But these figures are not quite angels, any more than the curtains are angels wings. Instead, just at this moment, they are both human and divine.[1] Indeed, it is this mixture between sublime and mundane, between the everyday and the miraculous, that Spencer draws upon heavily in his uniquely personal work. In Spencers wartime paintings, the mixture between biblical and everyday are used to similar effect, suggesting to the onlooker that divinity and divine love is everywhere, so long as we have the strength to look for it. In Patient Suffering from Frostbite (1932), a large man is seen nursing a victim of the Great War: the pails carried by the ward orderly miraculously transform him into a ministering angel, as they take on the appearance of wings.[2] So, it could easily be read that, according to Spencer, the lessons to be learnt from Christianity are no t that of obedience and subservience, but are that heaven is possible in the everyday, that love and God are essential components of the reality in which we all live. In Reveille (1929), mosquito nets erected by the war workers could be easily seen as death-shrouds, angels wings or winged insects. Stanley Spencers interpretations of the paintings are also important, as his writings offer insight into the deeply subjective and personal layers of meaning which he draws upon in the paintings. He suggests that the characters on the right of Reveille are announcing the Armistice, and that the mosquito nets represent a kind of chrysalis, from which the people will emerge into a world dominated by peace and by love. According to Hauser, Spencer does this in order to show the interpenetration of heaven and earth, where ordinary objects combine and momentarily take on a numinous appearance, without losing anything of their ordinariness.[3] Thus, it is this interpenetration that, in a sense, makes Spencer extremely hard to define as an artist of that particular period. Although he took on many of the concepts of dominant post-impressionist artists (Gauguin is a stylistic influence, for instance, with his paintings of simple, round figures and the displacement of biblical themes onto a fairly ordinary world), he also pushed them further. Spencer could also be seen as being akin to Symbolism, by assigning everyday objects a greater meaning, but their actual purpose in the paintings for instance, the mosquito net is never not a mosquito net in Reveille can be interpreted as something more divine. Thus, Spencer is both a visionary in the sense that he approached, subjected and challenged the central issues of Christianity, the conflict between human and divine, but he also did so in a way that would challenge the viewer into interpreting the world around him differently. By refusing to place anything with actual divine properties into his work by simply taking Christ an d putting him in the context of an ordinary scene in Cookham; by taking the idiom of realist, war painting and organising it in such a manner that suggests biblical qualities, Spencer is in turn subverting the standard views of dominant ideologies as the avant-garde of the period sought to achieve, but also did so in a way that didnt threaten compromise his position as a British, village painter or indeed a painter of commercial landscapes that he used to make money from in order to continue painting his more artistically advanced work. In Shipbuilding on the Clyde (1946), Hauser suggests that: the various labours of welders, burners, riveters and riggers were choreographed by Spencer into a sequence of images in which the mundane tasks of the factory-worker take on an epic, almost religious aspect.[4] Indeed, the presence of the Inferno certainly can allude to Dante, and the ways in which all workers conjoin in harmony, tugging on a piece of sheet metal, suggests a certain unity i n human endeavour that, considering the nature of Spencers other work, could also arguably allude to a greater theme of universal love and harmony. In Spencers sexual period, he becomes more akin to the more controversial and challenging aspects of the avant-garde of the time, challenging assumptions about the institutions in which we live, albeit in a slightly less aggressive and extroverted manner than say, the Surrealists or the Futurists. But in his more overtly sexual (and visionary) work, he paints a unique and very idiosyncratic view of Christianity, more akin to the 1960s sexual revolution than to the traditional and stuffy world of religion and churches. Spencer failed to see how Christianity and monogamy needed to be intertwined, and believed that sexual ecstacy was a means of achieving heaven on earth. His visions of the last day were again juxtaposed onto the quaint and pastoral landscape of Cookham, and the orgiastic rites of the last day were catapulted onto the village green in Cookham. In A Village in Heaven (1937), the last day is seen as a time when all sexual and social difference will disappear and all will l ive under the world of God and of love. Everybody, people of all ages and social status engage in orgiastic bliss. All body types, ages, races, genders are combined. And the fact that it engages with religious themes makes it all the more controversial. Hauser suggests that: Spencer could not see why orthodox Christianity should be so puritanical about sex. At his most enthusiastic, he saw sex as an essential part of his religious vision.[5] Indeed, in his personal life, the bigamous relationship he indulged with both Hilda Carline and Patricia Preece got him into serious trouble with the establishment, and eventually forced him to break from the Tate Britain at the time. Sunflower and Dog Worship (1937), plays on the even more controversial themes of bestiality. Dogs lick men and men lick them back, suggesting a bestial play between the two. However, the transcendent quality of love and sex reach their metaphorical apex in Love Among the Nations (1935), as vehement an anti-war stat ement that has ever been imagined. In this painting, world leaders and people from different cultures and social groups engaged in orgies regardless of social background. Hauser suggests that: Love Among the Nations (1935) is an extraordinary image in which physical love breaks down the barriers between representatives of the nations of the world. Spencer himself is represented in the painting: two nubile half-naked Africans pull on the buttons of his tweed jacket, with amorous intent.[6] Thus his Christian vision of love transcends racial boundaries, and in turn suggest that he is not so much anti-Christian, but remains anti-institutional, in the sense that it was the structural corruption that caused war among nations, rather than the inherent flaws of humanity itself. This juxtaposes the radical view of his religion, and the uncompromising vision of religion and sex combined in his orgy scenes with his position as quaintly optimistic about human nature and about the nature of lov e that allows us to see him as an optimistic innocent caught amid religious dogma that dominates the essential message of Christianity namely that God is everywhere, and for everybody, that heaven on Earth is a possibility, and that this is to be achieved through the expression of love through sex and unrestricted copulation. Of course, this view remains controversial and radical even today, and, arguably this presents a view of Christianity more akin to Paganism than to the practically constructed versions of Christianity practised at the time and since. Stanley Spencer manages to juxtapose opposing views by presenting a vision that is so eccentric, that it is easy to regard him as an outsider in the art world. His vision of sex and religion, as placed in the everyday certainly labels him as an avant garde pioneer in some respects certainly his views were controversial at the time, especially considering his place as a villager, and the placing of his biblical narratives in the small town of Cookham. His religious views are reconciled to some extent by their idiosyncracies, and their glaring difference from orthodoxy, which may save him from any criticism regarding their political or ideological importance. Indeed, the innate subjectivity of the artists work tends to subvert the original message, as people tend to regard his paintings, and the optimistic light in which they are drawn, as harking back to the Romantic vision of the painter as recorder and of the medium of painting being more important than the actual subject matter. C ertainly, religion had an impact on the view that Spencer was a village innocent his placing of biblical scenes, along with the more conservatively executed landscapes, the dead paintings that he did for money, certainly describe the landscape of Cookham in quaint terms, and with an air of realism that other modernist painters tended to ignore. Hauser suggests that: Cosiness was what modernist painting all too often lacked.[7] Certainly, Spencers work jars with the harsh and abstract world of modernist painters, insofar as he regarded his work as layered with a certain sense of personal meaning. Gormley suggests that: Spencers position is radical. If the modernist trajectory was concerned with the development of perceptual language that, in order to be objective and finally sublime, ended up by being anonymous, he stands for the absolute subjectivity of the artist as a point of view (recorder) and a point of experience.[8] Indeed, the subjectivity of Spencer allows him to reconcil e his role as a quaint village Romantic with the more avant-garde elements of his subject matter. Spencer tended to regard form less as a means for experimentation than most modernist painters tended to. For instance, the play with texture and form as seen in other modernist artists like Picasso have no role in Stanley Spencers artwork. In fact, judging from the last unfinished piece that he produced, and the bitpiece, painting-by-numbers style with which his work was being painted, his paintings seem more architectural than singular. His Church House project, which was something he was working on as a testament to his life with God, the relationships hed drawn between sex and religion, certainly provided Spencer with the ideal blueprint with which to direct his work, even if the grandiosity of the architectural vision tended to complicate and stifle his desire to experiment. Also, his need to make money from his landscapes tended to subvert his overall vision, and thus tends to put him more in the category of low art, or popular art, as opposed to the high art of modernism, which in turn, problematizes his connection with the avant-garde, and places him more in the tradition of Romantic or quasi-Impressionist painter. Overall, Stanley Spencer was a religious painter, insofar as his works are littered with references to biblical imagery, and took heavily from the Pre-Raphaelite and the classical modes of religious painters. Of course, this conservatism would definitely place him in the Neo-Classical school far away from the avant-garde of the time, and, at best, as a competent but essentially uninspired village painter. However, what is original about the paintings of Stanley Spencer was that he provided through his paintings and his writings, an insight into his unique world view, and speculated controversially that religion and orgiastic sexual practices neednt be kept separate. Both in his actual life and in his paintings, Spencer attempted to demonstrate his vision that monogamy neednt be synonymous with God, and also that the biblical vision of God and heaven was easily attainable, and available in the everyday world. In his selection of Cookham biblical paintings, Spencer synthesises biblica l imagery with everyday imagery, and this desire to perceive the transcendental and the heavenly in the everyday was a subject that he stuck at for his entire artistic career. Hauser suggests that: Spencers early paintings of biblical subjects still have the capacity to startle and enchant, fusing mythical narratives with specific and apparently unremarkable locations. [] This concatenation of biblical and local produces some strange effects.[9] Indeed it is this mixture, done in a subtle, rather than an ostentatious and baroque fashion, that makes Spencer unique, and it is his blending of normal events with divine events that gives these works their redemptive power. However, Spencers opinions on Christianity are fairly unorthodox, if not completely unique, and it is this uniquely religious angle that allows us to entertain certain notions that Spencer was avant-garde, and revolutionary. Certainly, Spencer failed to fit into any other genre or category of painter around at the time , and his seclusion as an artist, away from the establishment, certainly allowed him to entertain his highly subjective vision as an artist. Structurally, Spencers work remains quite conservative, and his later work especially reflects this conservatism, as he worked exclusively to construct The Church House. His work during the 1950s loses the intensity and the warmth of his previous work, and certainly there was an element whereby Spencer was simply painting by numbers rather than generating pieces based on actual inspiration or the desire to experiment. So, it is definitely the controversial religious content that tends to mark him as an avant-garde pioneer, but it is much. Certainly, to Spencer, Cookham and biblical imagery are interlaced, but it would be difficult to see his controversial religious views being popularly held in the small, conservative home county village where he drew inspiration for his work. Certainly, the village and the divine are intertwined in Spencers wo rk, and, arguably the rural quaintness of his free love concepts have granted his work a fresh popularity in later years. Although it is easy to see the avant-garde concepts behind his work, it is more difficult to reconcile the effects of religion on the notion that Spencer was a village innocent certainly, his sexual paintings of village green orgies seem anything but what is traditionally held as innocent. Bibliography Hauser, K., Stanley Spencer, Tate Publishing, London: 2001 MacCarthy, F., Stanley Spencer: An English Vision, Yale University Press, Washington DC: 1997 Tate Gallery Liverpool, Stanley Spencer: A Sort of Heaven, Tate Gallery, Liverpool: 1992 1 Footnotes [1] Hauser. K., Stanley Spencer, Tate Publishing, London: 2001, pp. 35-6 [2] ibid. p. 66 [3] ibid. [4] ibid. p. 69 [5] ibid. p. 44 [6] ibid. p. 50 [7] ibid. p. 29 [8] Gormley, A., Cookhams Present, from Stanley Spencer: A Sort of Heaven, Tate Gallery, London: 1992, p. 7 [9] Hausen K., p. 33
Thursday, September 19, 2019
African Drumming :: essays research papers
The music culture model can be used to view music not as a part of culture, but culture as a part of music, which gives a better understanding to outsiders trying to comprehend another societyââ¬â¢s music. The first component of the music culture model is ideas about music; this topic is subdivided into music and the belief system, aesthetics of music, context, and history. The second aspect is activities involving music in that culture. The third facet is repertories of music, which includes styles, genres, texts, composition, transmission, and movement. The last part of the music culture model is the material culture of the music, that is, what physical objects are used. By applying the music culture model to the war drumming of the Ewe people of Ghana, a greater appreciation of both the Ewe culture and their music can be attained. à à à à à The first aspect of ideas about music is how music relates to the belief system of the people. In the Ewe tradition, music helps people get in touch with their ancestors and feel the power of life. Ancestors are very important to the Ewe because oneââ¬â¢s ancestors have the power to work both good and evil on a descendantââ¬â¢s life; therefore, ancestors must be pleased through music. The power of life is also important to the Ewe because most natural things are seen as holy, and the energy force that runs through nature can be tapped through music. à à à à à à à à à à The second idea about music in the music culture model is aesthetics. In the Ewe culture, powerful music is regarded as ââ¬Å"goodâ⬠music. The force of drumming in a song like ââ¬Å"Agbekor,â⬠for example, helps remind the people of past war victories and bravery shown on the battlefield, an important concept for the Ewe people. à à à à à The next aspect examined by the music culture model is the context of the music. Typical Ewe drumming performances are presented at funerals and festivals, where the aim is to reach the spirits of oneââ¬â¢s ancestors. Music is a social element for these people, and performances are held for entire villages. à à à à à The final idea about music in the music culture model is the history of the music. Drumming is one of the most historically important facets of Ewe culture. In the past, drumming has given the Ewe people freedom by way of intimidating their captors, as well as victories in the battlefield, and the blessings of ancestors. African Drumming :: essays research papers The music culture model can be used to view music not as a part of culture, but culture as a part of music, which gives a better understanding to outsiders trying to comprehend another societyââ¬â¢s music. The first component of the music culture model is ideas about music; this topic is subdivided into music and the belief system, aesthetics of music, context, and history. The second aspect is activities involving music in that culture. The third facet is repertories of music, which includes styles, genres, texts, composition, transmission, and movement. The last part of the music culture model is the material culture of the music, that is, what physical objects are used. By applying the music culture model to the war drumming of the Ewe people of Ghana, a greater appreciation of both the Ewe culture and their music can be attained. à à à à à The first aspect of ideas about music is how music relates to the belief system of the people. In the Ewe tradition, music helps people get in touch with their ancestors and feel the power of life. Ancestors are very important to the Ewe because oneââ¬â¢s ancestors have the power to work both good and evil on a descendantââ¬â¢s life; therefore, ancestors must be pleased through music. The power of life is also important to the Ewe because most natural things are seen as holy, and the energy force that runs through nature can be tapped through music. à à à à à à à à à à The second idea about music in the music culture model is aesthetics. In the Ewe culture, powerful music is regarded as ââ¬Å"goodâ⬠music. The force of drumming in a song like ââ¬Å"Agbekor,â⬠for example, helps remind the people of past war victories and bravery shown on the battlefield, an important concept for the Ewe people. à à à à à The next aspect examined by the music culture model is the context of the music. Typical Ewe drumming performances are presented at funerals and festivals, where the aim is to reach the spirits of oneââ¬â¢s ancestors. Music is a social element for these people, and performances are held for entire villages. à à à à à The final idea about music in the music culture model is the history of the music. Drumming is one of the most historically important facets of Ewe culture. In the past, drumming has given the Ewe people freedom by way of intimidating their captors, as well as victories in the battlefield, and the blessings of ancestors.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Poe Compare to Manson :: essays research papers
Though born at different times and in different places Edgar Allen Poe and Bryan Warner (Marilyn Manson) are surprising social and ideological doppelgangers. Starting as early as their childhood you can notice notable similarities. Bryan spent the majority of his time at his grandparentââ¬â¢s house. It was a generally hostile area for young children, leaving little access to parental supervision or interaction. Poe on the other hand had no father around to begin with and his mother died when he was two. He went on to live with his motherââ¬â¢s business associate who turned out to be quite abusive. Now due to personal problems Poe was unable to attend school any longer and didnââ¬â¢t finish his education which had been a aspiration of Poeââ¬â¢s to be removed. This seemed to be a similar trend between Poe and Bryan, because Manson did it as well. Both writers were similar in there choice of work as well, and how they delivered them. Both Poe and Bryan published many works before there writing became popular. The macabre story of ââ¬Å"The Tell-Tale Heartâ⬠by Edgar A. P. is quite similar to Bryanââ¬â¢s first published work about himself ending up murdering and raping his sister. Obviously the chosen tone by both of these individuals is similar because they desire to put out a persona. This persona is a general feeling that each Artist expresses as a discontentment with life and society, and leads to there morbid works. Poe wrote ââ¬Å"Poeââ¬â¢s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesqueâ⬠, where Bryan published a CD ââ¬Å"The Golden Age of Grotesqueâ⬠which both turned out to be fairly similar. On an ideological level they both consider the modern man to not be that modern. They were both haunted by something internal possibly even external that drove them nearly insane and tainted there view of all of society. Both of them had very low morality and on many accounts lusted after family members and the same sex on occasion. Poe left the Army and West Point which had been the next step in his life, he enjoyed the army in many ways ideologically speaking but still loved writing too much to not follow it. He married his first cousin against the wishes of his family and decided to make a life. Bryan decided not to go into military but still always struggled with organized religion, he also had a sexual fascination with family members.
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