Clinical psychology essay part 2

Clinical psychology essay part 2 Clinical psychology essay part 2 Clinical psychology essay part 2Clinical psychology   essay part  1Neuropsychological Testing in the Diagnosis of Dementia.According to the article, neuropsychological tests that focus on the domain of memory impairment are well established with recognized predictive value for dementia diagnoses. What other neuropsychological domains does the author feel are important in dementia diagnoses despite the existence of only a limited number of tools to assess them?Neuropsychological testing proved to be effective for the diagnosis of dementia at its early stage, as it is especially important to recognize the first signs of the disease. The most common diagnosis of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease that is characterized by memory impairment. Neuropsychological tests are effective for assessing this domain and detecting the memory deficit at an early stage of the dementia development. However, other neuropsychological domains are harder to assess as there are fewer tools for their observation.Among other neuropsychological domains mentioned in the article by Mary Sano are executive function and pathophysiological deficits. In order to assess these domains, new technologies and better tools are required. Thus, among the new technologies functional imaging can be mentioned. Improved tools for assessing special cognitive domains might help in identifying a wider range of various cognitive deficits at early stages of the dementia development. However, the author of the article made it clear that neuropsychological testing is an effective tool of detecting cognitive deficits in elderly people and patients who suffer from dementia. Such method proved to be an effective clinical utility, even though there is a need for better assessment tools when investigating other domains such as executive function.In such a way, neuropsychological testing cannot be applied when assessing domains other than memory impairment. And it is up to neuropsychologists to find better mea ns of assessing other domains, mainly executive function and various pathophysiological impairments. Still, neuropsychological testing is undoubtedly a fruitful way of dementia diagnosing at an early stage of the disease development.What weaknesses does the author identify in the current criteria for dementia diagnoses?Although neuropsychological testing proved to be an effective instrument of diagnosing patients who suffer from dementia, it cannot be called efficient in evaluating executive function and other important domains. It is all due to the lack of normative data and unavailability of necessary tools that would help in assessing the domains other than cognitive impairment. This is the first and major weakness of neuropsychological testing.In addition, there is one more limitation as for the current diagnostic criteria. It includes the fact that neuropsychological testing ignores cognitive complaint as it is mostly focused on cognitive impairment. It is probably due to the l ow correlation between the neuropsychological diagnosing and cognitive complaint. However, it is true that cognitive complaint is distressing and thus, it should be included into the criteria for dementia diagnosing.One more weakness of the current criteria is the lack of appropriate methodology to assess the impairment in occupational and social functioning to full extent. In this regard, it is worth saying that the neuropsychological testing lacks tools for evaluating cognitive impairment as they are not fully developed and cannot predict decline. As for executive function, planning and sequencing seem to be more predictive of the functional loss. Thus, to improve the current criteria for dementia diagnosing, there need to be stronger tools, methodology and other instruments of evaluating the cases of dementia at its early stage. However, the current criteria lack many important instruments that would help achieve this goal.In this regard, neuropsychological testing has many weakn esses that should be dealt with in order to provide a fully developed investigation of dementia. Nevertheless, neuropsychological testing undoubtedly has a number of strong sides as well and can be regarded as an effective method of diagnosing patients with dementia.Article 3Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: An Effectiveness Study.This article examined the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy. What experimental design was employed in the study (i.e., between-subjects or within-subjects, longitudinal or cross-sectional)?The article under discussion investigates the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy. The researchers employed a single-group, within-subjects, longitudinal experimental design. The participants of the psychodynamic psychotherapy were all adults. The study provides important and valuable information in the area of the moderating outcome variables that underwent certain limitations in the previous studies related to psychodynamic psychotherapy. This was carrie d out within a longitudinal context by using the empirical measure. Furthermore, the results of the study indicated the significance of the first three months of treatment. The research has shown considerable effectiveness of the psychodynamic psychotherapy in the above-mentioned context. It is a significant break-through as the previous researches on the matter of psychodynamic treatment have been severely criticized for lacking the longitudinal component, insufficient attention to moderating variables and deficit of the empirical measure. All this makes it clear that the current effectiveness study of the psychodynamic psychotherapy proved to be effective in many ways. It is presumably due to the fact that the authors of the research employed the effective experimental design that is characterized as single-group, longitudinal and within-subjects. This gives an understanding that such experimental design is one of the most efficient ones in evaluating the effectiveness of psychody namic psychotherapy and is advised to be employed in further investigations on this matter. On the whole, the study has given enough evidence of high efficiency of the psychodynamic psychotherapy used for treating various psychological and psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety and many other psychological disorders. Finally, it needs to be admitted that the current study proved to be more efficient than all of the previous ones.According to the study, was psychodynamic psychotherapy effective? If so, what was the effect size of the change produced?Findings of the study suggest that the psychodynamic psychotherapy is effective over time. The analysis given in the article makes it clear that such treatment produces a moderate effect over time and it is particularly important to employ psychodynamic psychotherapy during the first three months of treatment. Findings show a general course of recovery with certain between-group variability. Thus, the study proved to be quite e ffective for treating various psychological disorders, mainly depression and anxiety. The psychodynamic psychotherapy has shown moderate effectiveness within different groups of patients. Although the overall effect size of such treatment is moderate, the therapy should be considered effective for treating a number of personality disorders.According to the results of the study, the symptom distress subscale had an effect size of .38, which is the highest among all of the three subscales ranging from .28 to .38. However, the OQ total score managed to produce a significantly stronger effect size comprising .41. It should be admitted, that in all of the cases, most of the changes took place during the first three months of employing the psychodynamic psychotherapy. The first three months of treatment are considered to be the most important period leading to the stronger effect size.However, the actual treatment effect was lower than it was anticipated. The average effect size in the cu rrent study comprised .33, which is less than the effect size described in the existing literature on this matter. On the whole, it is to be admitted that according to the current study, psychodynamic psychotherapy appears to be moderately effective for treating different psychological and personality disorders. However, in most cases, the effectiveness of such therapy becomes especially evident only after the first three months of treatment.

President Obama What You Need to Know Before You Start Your First Job

President Obama What You Need to Know Before You Start Your First Job On paper, President Barack Obama’s story and mine don’t have that much in common. (Our daily lives are pretty different, to say the least- I can’t remember the last time I threw a dinner party for 20 of my closest world leader friends.) You may not think you and President Obama don’t have much in common, either. But both you and I would be incorrect- we all have something very important in common. Everyone, including future presidents, had to start somewhere. In President Obama’s case (and mine!), that start was in the ice cream biz. These days, the President likely has a team of people ready to bring him ice cream whenever he wants it. But once upon a time, he was a teen looking for a foothold in the working world. Like all of us at the very beginning, he was eager for skills and experience that would lead to the next opportunity, then another and another. And while everyone’s path is different, and may not lead to the White House, there are some universal things that we all take from our early job experiences.Work kind of sucks.Sometimes work is great! Sometimes we love our coworkers, and have awesome days. But even in the happiest of times in the best-fitting of jobs, there will be overwhelming days, or times when we hate it. That realism is an unavoidable lesson from one’s first job. Optimism is fantastic, but should always be tempered somewhat with the pragmatic philosophy that sometimes things will be hard, and we need to learn how to power through that.You learn something at every job you’ll ever have.For example, after my own high school summers serving Blizzards, I learned that I was no longer interested in serving food to people. But I also learned skills like how to use a cash register, how to deal with coworkers of varying competence, and how a small business franchise operates.I didn’t pursue a long-term career related to ice cream sales, but I developed a skill base that I can always d raw on, all these years later. Even if you worked someplace for three days before quitting in horror, chances are you learned either something about the workplace in general, or something about yourself.Time management is the key.There are very few jobs out there that are totally unstructured. Whether you got up at 6 a.m. to work a shift, or needed to figure out how to check off your to-do list in order to get out on time at 5 p.m., those early jobs helped instill in us a sense of what time means in the professional world.The workplace is a community.That may sound a little â€Å"I’d like to buy the world a Coke,† but it’s true- working is something all of us have in common. Any workplace is its own little community, with traditions, responsibilities, and a whole bunch of different personalities pushed together for many hours per week. And that little community fits into the broader community somehow, whether it’s providing services or filling needs.At so me point, whether in the near past or the distant past, all of us were green kids with few skills. Looking back and understanding how those early jobs helped us, no matter what path we chose after those earliest opportunities, makes us all the stronger in the future.Source:  LinkedIn

Human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Human resource - Essay Example ndergoing rapid changes characterised by the emergence of new enterprises, intensification of global competition and the growth of the diverse workforce.2 These pressures are compelling companies to reposition themselves strategically to attract and retain the competent workforce. Management of human resources is intricate and challenging because workers have personal needs, objectives, motivations, interests and desires that conflict with business goals. HR management and planning is a useful tool for reconciling these conflicts and ensuring that organizations resources are utilized effectively.3 Today, human resource managers are faced with issues such as management of diversity, globalisation and work life balance. HR practitioners play a critical role in an organisation to ensure effective acquisition and utilisation of HR. They are tasked with creating and implementing policies for guiding human resource in an organization, controlling HR programmes and guidelines, offering advice and counsel to the workers, and perform other functions that can assist line managers to execute their duties.4 However, in the execution of their duties the HR practitioners encounter innumerable challenges in the modern world. In the modern society, most families in developed countries such as UK have joined the labour force. In circumstances when husband and wife are both in the working class, the human resource managers are faced with a challenge of helping such parents with work-life balance programs to increase their productivity.5 Therefore, it makes sense for the company’s human resource to come up with programmes to assist workers establish a balance between work and family responsibilities. The HR can implement programmes to assist workers achieve their family obligations. For example, programmes such as child care at the workplace, sick leave policies, job sharing education policies, picking or dropping their children at school, etc. For example, Unilever company offer

Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Ethics - Essay Example George is responsible for poor time management that forced him to drive above the speed limit, causing the officer to stop him and give him a ticket. His son is part of the problem because of his illness, and George wants to get him home as soon as possible for him to rest. The officer is at fault for forcing George to go down to the station. He may be exercising his duties in a manner that suggests that he would like a financial favor from George, causing him (George) to resent him and waste more time. Regarding the problem, the officer could allow George to pay the ticket the following day, when it is convenient for everybody (given that it is a Sunday). George can report to the station after taking his family home, where he can request to watch the playoffs, as he pays the ticket. The third solution is to pay the bribe and each party of the problem is satisfied (and saving on time). Though it is unethical, my solution would be to pay the bribe. The main problem is time, and the officer offering the bribe that will allow George to attend to his son and watch the playoffs, will benefit everyone involved. It is unlawful to carry out corrupt acts, however in a situation that concerns health it is an ideal solution. It will serve as a reminder on the importance of time management. George should pay the cost for poor time

Appearance of colonies microorganism Essay Example for Free

Appearance of colonies microorganism Essay VRBA |Appearance of Colonies |Microorganisms | |Red, surrounded by reddish precipitation zones, diameter1- 2 mm |Lactose-positive Enterobacteriaceae: coliform bacteria, E. coli | |Pink, pin-point colonies |Enterococci, possibly Klebsiella | |Colorless |Lactose-negative Enterobacteriaceae | CCA E. coli: dark-blue to violet colonies (Salmon-GAL and X-glucuronide reaction). Total coliforms: salmon to red colonies (Salmon-GAL reaction) and dark-blue to violet colonies (E. coli). Other Gram-negatives: colorless colonies, except for some organisms which possess ÃÆ'Ã… ¸-D-glucuronidase activity. These colonies appear light-blue to turquoise. In order to confirm E. coli, coat the dark-blue to violet colonies with a drop of KOVACS indole reagent. If the reagent turns to a cherry-red color after some seconds, a positive indole formation confirms the presence of E. coli. E. coli in Macconkey Agar MACCONKEY AGAR |Appearance of Colonies |Microorganisms | |Colorless, translucent |Salmonella, Shigella, others | |Large, red, surrounded by turbid zones |Escherichia coli | |Large, pink, mucoid |Enterobecter, Klebsiella | |Very small, opaque, isolated colonies |Enterococci, Staphylococci, and others | [pic] [pic] S. aureus in baird-parker agar BAIRD-PARKER AGAR |Appearance of colonies |Microorganisms | |Black, shiny, convex colonies 1-5 m in diameter with a narrow, white edge surrounded by a clear zone 2-5 mm |Staphylococcus aureus | |wide. Opaque rings within the clear zones only appear after 48 hours of incubation | | |Black, shiny, irregular shape. Opaque zone develop around the colonies after 24 hours. |Staphylococcus epidermidis | |Growth sometimes: | | |Very small, brown to black, no clear zones. |Micrococci | |Dark brown, dull, clear zones sometimes appear after 48 hours. |Bacillus species | |White, no clear zones. |Yeasts | [pic] P. aeruginosa in cetrimide agar [pic] [pic] Salmonella in Macconkey Agar [pic]

Contemporary American Lit Essay -- essays research papers

Andre Dubus, Raymond Carver and Shirley Jackson have changed the landscape of contemporary fiction both culturally and stylistically. All three comment about the affect upon the individual whose life circumstances have caused them to act the way that they do. When reading their short stories you can't help but notice that Dubus and Carver have very similar styles. Their use of the first person narrative allows them to step back from the story and have less of an interpretive influence. Their lack of total control leaves the reader to use her own logic and rational, while dealing only with perceptions. The first person narrator does not presume to have insight into each characters feelings and emotions. The minimalist details that emanate from this narrative place an importance on our individual perception. This style throws the reader directly into the middle of a scene without any background information or direction. Without a narrative presence telling the reader what to think abo ut a situation and with only fragments of details, we have to rely on what the narrator may or may not know. The reader is immediately put on guard to question the situation. While not all the stories are in first person, a majority of them are. None of these authors appear to be intellectual writers. Dubus' characters are rarely able to escape into abstraction: they exist, at times irritatingly, in the here and now, they drink, commit adultery and break, often beyond repair. Like Carver, his sto...

Management accounting and decision making Essay

According to Burger (2008) â€Å"Accounting is the language of business. A lot of people think it’s just numbers, but it’s really a lot more than that. There are a lot of areas outside of numbers that need to be looked at, processes and procedures, what the tone of the company is. Accounting will take you in just about any direction in a company.† ~ Wade Becker, CPA, Beard, Miller Co. The job description of many professions is changing nowadays. The skills to perform a certain job require more skills to perform a particular job. If an example of Information Technology is to be taken then it is realized that once they were left to do IT related jobs or make computers work however, in today’s world IT professionals are now moving into higher level management positions which require them to perform many other tasks which may not be directly related to the their profession. Therefore, a stereotypical role of an accountant was once considered a â€Å"number person† but today’s era demands accounting professional to own and use interactive and communication skills to help with the decision making process across all areas of a business. In a managerial accounting world all professionals must communicate their ideas to other companies using ways which are tactful and effective. Siegel (2000) states that â€Å"Management accountants should be great communicators.† Durry C (1992) believes that management accounting is â€Å"concerned with providing information to managers –that is people inside an organization who direct and control the operations.† In the 19th Century financial accounting was considered to be the need of a society which later evolved to Management accounting. Management accounting became a prerequisite for more detailed information for stock control, product costing and decisions affecting the future. Accou nting is facing numerous challenges, as Elkington (1998) states â€Å"business people must increasingly recognise that the challenge now is to help to deliver simultaneously economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity.† All this is making business managers to re-examine the practices that are currently led. Cokins G and Hicks D believe that Managerial accounting is part of an organisations management information system. To follow any business or an organisation aim managers engage in activities which involve an effective cost model as it can be a great asset to an organisation. A business or projects to be a success or failure three things need to be considered, for  example, cost, schedule and performance. A project should be continued within the means provided otherwise stakeholders struggle to finance the project and its abandoned. A success of a manager is when appropriate tools are employed and sound safe decisions are made and follow on with applying substantial level of expertise to have effective cost management. The world today is surrounded by increasingly advanced technology such as computer assisted manufacturing and flexible manufacturing systems. According to Cokins and Hicks organizations to compete effectively need to understand the cost of each product or element of their value chain from product design and purchase of material therefore internal cost is very important as mentioned in Cokins and Hicks article because it becomes critical for competitive action and increasing shareholders wealth in the current globally competitive economy. Management accounting systems are the benefactors of the precarious internal cost information. There has been few criticisms leading to the literature of Management accounting system and it has been labeled outdated and there has been criticisms linked to its consistency as it has been thought that it does not provide consistent information with the current strategic management paradigm. Cokins and Hicks believe that systems designs elements should capture the fundamental technology, promote a business based on effective cost model, quality and lead time. Precise and appropriate cost information is critical to management’s decision making procedures (Cokins and Hicks) and the literature being studied reveals Management accounting system reflects the organizational complications of the current world however traditional Management accounting systems do not replicate current organizational era as all costing procedures were designed around late nineteenth century. In traditional era product line diversity was not very common and cost of materials and direct labour were the main components of production cost but the environment today is surrounded around advanced technology and automation and that has led the prime cost to be the overhead component. The overhead costs are altering product cost because of the old management accounting system techniques. Management accounting needs a unique set of skills and behaviour. According to Cokins and Hicks Accounting Management framework gives business a planned approach to address all factors that will manage accounts interface and todays reality. Cooper and Kaplan believe there are six critical factors which play a crucial role  in Accounting Management framework which also backs Cokins and Hicks journal being studied for this assignment. The first one is organizational structure. It includes factors such as whom and how you manage accounts, why and how you organize around them. The second account management success factor is people as they need the appropriate skills, knowledge and skills to experience and perform the role. The third factor is tools and technology as it must support the account management processes and must balance â€Å"help† as â€Å"control.† The fourth one is compensations structures as they can inhibit change or accelerate adoption. The fifth account management success factors are processes and methodologies as they should align with the customer, drive growth and opportunity plan and the last factor channels and alliances must be managed effectively through the account manager interface.it is up to an organization to structure their useful employees around their key customers and that can create a deep impact on their performance. First few deliberate decisions need to be taken in terms of placement of accounts management resources such as market and territory. Cokins and Hicks believe management team need to plan using methodology a number of factors to create a ranking based on the business goal for the affiliation and ability to deliver. Once these methodologies are selected they can play a vital role in team structure and it will help to deal with issues such as ownership or shareholders Cokins and Hicks discuss the difference between cost accounting and managerial accounting and the strength of their article is that managerial accounting is tied with GAAP whereas cost accounting is used within a business to manage that particular business. Accounting standards of a country provide guidelines to an accountant so they can be used while reporting economic transactions of a business. United Kingdom accounting has improved a lot as mentioned in the journal being studied for this particular assignment. Managers have immense pressure to improve financial management practices to improve service to the community and it is not only done on national level. Managerial accountants have to keep accountant standards fair globally and that is mainly done through Accounting Standards Committee. â€Å"What gets measured gets managed, What needs managed gets measured† (Peter Drucker) famous quotes has cause many criticisms but if the practices and development mentioned in Cokins and Hicks journal are to be analyzed, one can conclude this quote has some truth. Managers of a business  often use this quote indicates that active management of businesses should be given importance instead of accountability to gain desired goals. It w ill lead to survive in today’s world of information age competition therefore businesses should ensure they are using management systems resulting from their strengths. Any business main task is to develop an active measurement system as it is main part of the management process. Good management practices lead to using certain measures to plan, implement and improve certain aspects of an organization. According to Kaplan, (1994) measurement is a difficult task because it is not related to science so there are no facts and does not have rules between variables. Furthermore, systems which are used by management accountants will make sure that actions are taken according to the strategies and objectives developed. There has been an immense amount of research on management accountants and the research evidence has proved that businesses which are using a developed measurement system are developing and gaining profits therefore, Gates (1991) states â€Å"an organizations objectives and severity of measures, varies, depending on people, culture and past experiences of the organization.† The management accountant was developed after 1980s and it was seen a golden era in management accounting research as it saw new techniques and practices beneficial to the management accounting. One of the techniques developed in 80s was strategic management accounting and some of the processes which fall under the category of strategic management accounting are activity based costing and balance scorecard. The balance scorecard emerged after it was realized that there is a need of an integrated system which can be used to measure both financial and non-financial performances. It helps companies to view their performances on a regular basis and it gave a clear view of what should be measured in order to balance a particular business financial perspectives. The balance score card consists of four functions known as learning and growth perspective. It means how to achieve a certain organizations goals and how will a business will sustain its ability to change and improve. the second perspective is financial and its aim is to succeed financially and is mainly concerned with making a good impression to shareholders. Another perspective is based on customers as they can determine sales and to achieve business goals a good impression is to be made upon customers. The last perspective is known as internal business  processes. It mainly deals with how to satisfy customers and shareholders and what business processes must a certain business excel as. (Kaplan and Norton:1996) Balance scorecard is one of the necessities for any organization and it is used by the management to accomplish vision and strategies of an organization and it has few other benefits too such as, making sure managers are managing every single variable within an organization and are not working upon favoritism. If more developments are to be discussed and strength of Cokins and Hicks journal than one must not forget one of the major development in an accounting field known as Activity-based costing. Kaplan and Cooper gave this idea a new beginning as it was not very well known in previous years. According to Kaplan (1996) manufacturing costs are determined by amount of â€Å"activities† and the key to effective cost control is maintaining the effectiveness of the act ivities ABC recognizes better cost pools for indirect costs and then implies cost drivers to relate the expenses in the cost pools to activities of an organization. ABC has become more popular in recent years but faces a lot of criticisms too due to the fact that sometimes businesses face difficulties in implementing this technique. ABC is enhanced further by Activity-based management as they believe in planning and measurement and class them as key factors in a competitive business environment. To conclude, If an organization has accounts managers or not a success can only be achieved if a successful profile is valued. It can be done through an industry as it will help determine to what extent an account manager is an industry expert and the second is through customers as it is vital for an accountant to understand the businesses being worked upon. The profession Accountancy has seen many developments and criticisms however, since 1980s there has been many changes in management accountancy. The new changes are focusing on measurement tools within a business to manage its aims and objectives. Management techniques are discussed briefly in this essay and they emphasize on Cokins and Hicks journal that management decisions can be made better by using effective management measurement tools and it leads to improving the management of an organization. There can be problem with new measurement techniques as nothing in life comes with a guarantee however, new ideas can be used on the basis of guess work and the new contributions could be a way forward.

A Critical Analysis of My Strengths and Weaknesses

A Critical Analysis of My Strengths and Weaknesses in the skills of Assertiveness Assertiveness enables us to act in our own best interests, to stand up for ourselves without undue anxiety, to exercise personal rights without denying the rights of others, and to express our feelings honestly and comfortably (Alberti & Emmons, 2008). Within interpersonal communication, the skill of assertion is absolutely vital; it is a skill we are constantly utilising either consciously or unconsciously.Through nurturing the skill of assertiveness a person may have fruitful relationships with family, friends, peers, superiors and subordinates (Rakos, 1997) based on honesty and equality. The skill of Assertiveness can be viewed in differently within diverse cultures, for example in the highly extraverted, expressive and individualistic culture that is apparent in America; Assertiveness is a particularly important, if not essential skill.However in the much more reserved and introverted culture of Bri tain more emphasis is placed on interpersonal sensitivity, being a rewarding partner and the use of non-verbal signals (Forgas, 1985). The skill of Assertion has 9 main functions, these include; helping individuals to ensure that their personal rights are not violated, make reasonable requests of others, recognise the personal rights of others, avoid unnecessary aggressive conflicts and confidently, and openly communicate their position regarding any issue (Hargie, 2009).Assertiveness is a skill that is learned and training is available for those who may find it hard to assert their feelings within a social context. Assertiveness is a great skill to possess however there are times when an assertive response may in fact be the least responsive, in such times a non assertive or passive response may be what is required. The different levels of response are displayed well by the continuum which ranges from Non Assertive – Assertive – Aggressive.In most instances people sho uld aim to remain as close to assertive on the continuum as possible, as this promotes both standing up for yourself whilst also taking the other persons views into consideration. As a result of my Assertiveness practical I found myself to be just slightly towards the more non-assertive side of the continuum. I was quite pleased with this result as I did not want to be positioned too close to aggressive or non assertive.Throughout the Assertiveness Practical I had a number of Strengths which were outweighed by quite a number of Weaknesses, this is natural as Rakos stated â€Å"Assertion is a learned skill, not a trait that a person has or lacks. † An area throughout the practical in which I was strong was ‘Gesturing’, upon analysing my video I found my gestures to be smooth and fluid, I feel this conveyed a non-verbal message that I was calm within the situation. Accentuating your message with appropriate gestures can add emphasis, openness and warmth.A relaxed u se of gestures can add depth or power to your messages (Alberti & Emmons, 2008). Another area which analysing my practical revealed I was strong was ‘Paralanguage’ this can include an individual’s rate of speech, intensity, tone and volume. I found the tone of my voice to be conversational but not overly friendly and I felt this was perfect for the situation, the other people involved in the practical commented on the intensity of my voice being quite firm but not intimidating as the still felt comfortable.This is quite an important aspect of being assertive as a Kimble and Seidel study showed that those who spoke with a dominant conversational tone where perceived as being confident and therefore more likely to gain a more adequate answers (Richmond & McCroskey, 2000). Analysing my practical led me to see that I excelled in complex direct assertion, most notably the use of embellishments. Embellishments lessen the social risk whilst having a discussion with some one, however if they are used too much they can be seen as false and can dilute a person’s argument. I was particularly well versed in the use of both Praise and Empathy.An example of this in my practical was when the woman, who was trying to return a phone which was out of warranty said â€Å"you must understand where I’m coming from† in response to this I said â€Å"of course I do Miss X, I was in your position just over a year ago before I began to work here and you are handling the situation much better than I did. † The woman who prior to this piece of dialogue was getting rather agitated seemed to calm down and come to terms with what I was trying to explain. Hargie states that empathic assertion conveys sensitivity to the other person thus allowing that person to feel understood and not undermined.Although I had a number of Strengths throughout my practical I also had quite a few weaknesses which are illustrated by my personal assertiveness invento ry score which was +9, although the class average was +2, my score still showed that I can be assertive but find it quite difficult. One of the weaknesses I noticed was that I failed to keep eye contact with the person in my practical; this was a major flaw and undoubtedly hindered my assertiveness. At quite regular intervals, namely when the discussion was getting a bit heated, I tended to look at the desk in front of me rather than focus on the other person.Gaze aversion is typically an intentional act, you may be unsure of yourself and do not want him/her to see it in your eyes (Richmond & McCroskey, 2000). This was probably the case in my practical, I was unfamiliar with the given situation and felt that I was out of my depth thus I avoided eye contact; I can now see that this was a critical mistake. The second major flaw that I had involved my body posture, upon analysing the practical I realised that during our entire interaction my body was never directly facing the other per sons.When talking to another person, notice how much more personal the conversation becomes with a slight turn of the shoulders and torso toward the other person, this suggests confidence and openness to the conversation at hand (Alberti & Emmons, 2008). I now realise from my practical I was portraying quite a defensive posture, thus not putting the other person at ease whilst talking to me. Also from a defensive posture it is a lot harder to be assertive as the other person is likely to already have a certain prejudice about you.My final and most glaring weakness was overuse of the â€Å"broken record† approach, after analysing my practical session I realised that I used the phrase â€Å"I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do† a staggering amount of times. This is not a good tactic to employ as it can frustrate the other person, it can also dilute the argument and take away the relevance of what you are saying. Persistence should not be confused with the broken rec ord method, â€Å"be fair with others and keep after them until they’re fair with you† (Alberti & Emmons, 2008).Throughout my practical I also used too much ‘you language’, this attributed responsibility to the other person and was possibly too aggressive rather than assertive. In conclusion I feel that as a whole my assertiveness practical was a success; there are a number of areas in which I can improve vastly such as posture and eye contact. However I feel that I did do extremely well in a few areas, these being; gesturing and embellishments. Jim Rohn once said â€Å"Every time we speak we choose one of the four basic communication styles: assertive, aggressive, passive and passive aggressive†.This quotation helps me to illustrate that our learning of the skill of Assertion is continuous, throughout this practical research I have realised that Assertiveness is a great facet of an individual’s personality, and when used right can be an outs tanding tool. When a person has mastered the skill they will know when to be assertive, whom to be assertive with and with what intensity to put their message across (Journal of Communication, Volume 19, Issue 03, Pages 257-265). In a minority of places where cultural sensitivity is raw assertion may be deemed somewhat wreck less.Nevertheless, assertion that accommodates cultural norms is an accepted communication style and is widely used the world over. (Hargie, 2002) References Alberti, R. and Emmons, M. (1975) Stand Up, Speak Out, Talk Back: The Key to Assertive Behaviour. Pocket Books, New York Alberti, R. and Emmons, M. (2008) You’re Perfect Right, Assertiveness and Equality in Your Life and Relationships. Impact, San Luis Obisopo American Communication Journal, Volume 10, Issue 01, Spring 2008. Forgas, J. (1985) Interpersonal Bahaviour: The Psychology of Social Interaction. Hargie, O. , Dickson, D.Skilled Interpersonal Communication, Research, Theory and Practice, 7th e dition. Routledge, London. Chapter 11. Journal of Communication, Volume 19, Issue 03, Pages 257-265, September 1969 Knapp, M. and Vangelisti, A. (2006) Interpersonal Communication and Human Relationships. Allyn and Bacon, Texas Rakos, R. (2006) Assertive Behaviour: Theory, Research and Training. Routledge, London. Richmond, V. and McCroskey, J. (2000) NonVerbal Behaviour in Interpersonal Relationships, Allyn and Bacon, Texas The Electronic Journal of Communication, Volume 13, Number 4 2003. Townend, A. (2007) Assertiveness and Diversity. Palgrave, Basingstoke.

The symbols of Poes Tales essays

The symbols of Poe's Tales essays Edgar Allan Poe, the founder of detective stories, the master of manipulating the issue of death, and whose tales are filled with all kinds of symbols, allegories that conveys the author ¡s concepts about life. He his equipped with thoughtful, cautious analysis ability, and sufficient imagination. Poe was born in 1809. In his personal life, he had had many encounters with death, starting with the death of his biological mother, adoptive mother, and ending with the death of his beloved wife, Virginia. Although a serious of losses made Poe become a neurotic person; however, that was also the motive power of Poe ¡s creation, and the reason why Poe often discussed the issue of death in his tales. In  ¡ Anthology of American Literature: Colonial Through Romantic, ¡ McMichael points out  ¡ Poe has often seemed an embodiment of the satanic characters of his own fiction ¡(qtd. in Rose 727). This perfectly explains that Poe ¡s works reveal the environmental influences on h is character. In the following study will therefore examine the issue of death and symbols in Poe ¡s tales in  ¡ The Masque of the Red Death, ¡  ¡ The Black Cat, ¡ and  ¡ The Fall of the House of Usher, ¡ which related to his personal experiences and concepts about life. First of all,  ¡ The Masque of the Red Death ¡ is a tale mainly about Prospero, a prince, who wants to escape form a deadly disease that gave people red skin, invites his friends staying in his magnificent castle and locks the doors so no one could bring the disease in. In case of being bored, the prince held a masquerade party for his friends one night. He decorated each of his seven rooms in different colors form blue to black and in the position from east to west. However, at that night, an unknown masked figure appeared wearing all red. After the masked figure ¡s appearance, people at the party began to fall ill of the deadly disease. Finally, the figure mo...

Inspirational Quotes on Getting Better

Inspirational Quotes on Getting Better Somebody once said, The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. We can always make room in our lives to get better, whether that means improving our health, our finances or our personal relationships. Even if we think things are perfect, theres likely a small area or two where we could put in a little extra work. Thats not to say that self-improvement is always easy: Its not. But sometimes the words of others who have been through similar struggles can give us the inspiration to carry on and change our lives for the better. Here are some famous and inspiring quotes about improving and getting better. Quotes on Self-Improvement from Writers Those with a talent for expressing themselves in words frequently offer insights the rest of us might not think of. But any writer whos ever worked with an editor knows all about the need to constantly improve and strive to be better. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.- John Updike Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.- William Faulkner Dont be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. -   Dale Carnegie Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life youve imagined.-   Henry David Thoreau There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and thats your own self.-   Aldous Huxley More Quotes About Getting Better Of course, sometimes inspiration comes from philosophers, business people, and entertainers. No one really has a lock on the self-improvement gig. But its up to you to decide how to apply these quotes in your life. The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.- Confucius Become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement.- Anthony J. DAngelo Before everything else; getting ready is the secret of success. Dont find fault. Find a remedy.- Henry Ford Dont start living tomorrow, tomorrow never arrives. Start working on your dreams and ambitions today.  -   Unknown Author Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.- Emile Coue Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.-   Stephen Hawking God has entrusted me with myself.-   Epictetus Good, better, best; never let it rest till your good is better and your better is best.- Unknown Author Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.-   Norman Vincent Peale Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.- Lao Tzu

Purchasing & Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Purchasing & Supply Chain Management - Essay Example This article shall focus on the matters regarding the competitive edge in the industry with respect to the group’s purchasing and supply chain management. Body Purchasing and supply chain management entails the performance and coordination of numerous activities that takes place both inside and outside an organisation. Research reveals that besides the supply chain that exists within an organisation, there has to be at least one supply chain with another organization. Further, studies reveal that â€Å"the structure of activities within and between companies is a critical cornerstone of creating unique and superior supply chain performance† (Lambert 2005). For Blacks Leisure Group to have an effective purchasing and supply chain management, key players of the chain should be incorporated with the business processes. The company’s processes should be standardised to ensure that there is harmony in linking up processes by purchase and supply chain managers of diffe rent organisations. As earlier mentioned, Leisure industry is very competitive and like any other business in the leisure industry, it is critical for Blacks to develop and sustain competitive advantage. To begin with, Leisure companies throughout the world are now facing enormous challenges because of the globalisation as a result of the enhanced connectivity brought about by the improved technology and the use of internet in doing business. Consequently, Blacks is currently facing very stiff competition from companies from the rapidly industrialised nations like the United States and those from Asian continent. These rival companies, most of which began less than two decades ago, are now tapping into the Blacks market in their quest to spread out their operation base. This may be mainly attributed to more efficient customer service and better distribution channels, networks and transportation as well as enhanced inventory management, material handling and effective communication o n the side of the rival companies. Initially companies were mainly concerned with their customers alone. However, it is rather obvious that the markets have now evolved and Blacks need to change its approach accordingly. Considering that competition may have dire effects on the group like profit declines and being driven out of the business, efforts should be geared towards effective management of their brands and setting up proper market positions. The modern society is a â€Å"now society† in that just like other customers, leisure consumers also want services and products instantly and in the most convenient means possible. As a result, majority of the customers have opted for internet business involving online transactions and thus abandoning tangible companies such as the Blacks Leisure Group. To remain relevant and profitable in the market, Blacks should exploit more on the online business given that marketing environment has changed substantially. Companies that have v entured into online marketing are now posing real competition to Black’s market and are in fact threatening to force them out of the business. It is therefore critical for the Blacks to uphold competitive edge over the online companies by broadening its distribution base in an economical manner, a strategy which is utilised by the rival compani

Poverty in an Era of Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Poverty in an Era of Globalization - Essay Example Seeking to explore poverty and malnutrition across the globe through an analysis of the political and economic situation in Somalia, one of Africa’s poorest countries, this essay will show the linkages between poverty and political instability. Accordingly, this essay will show that political instability perpetuates economic stagnation in Somalia and any attempts to resolve the poverty crisis in the region must address the political causes behind underdevelopment. Underdevelopment breeds poverty in Somalia which is demonstrated through widespread malnutrition, low life expectancies and poor rankings in a variety of indicators of overall health (Spencer 2008). Seeking to explore poverty and malnutrition in Sub Saharan Africa through an analysis of the political and economic situation in Somalia, one of Africa’s poorest countries, this essay will show the linkages between poverty and political instability in an era of globalization. Accordingly, this essay will show that political instability perpetuates economic stagnation in Somalia and any attempts to resolve the poverty crisis in the region must address the political causes behind underdevelopment. Underdevelopment breeds poverty in Somalia which is demonstrated through widespread malnutrition, low life expectancies and poor rankings in a variety of indicators of overall health (Pretty 1999; Spencer 2008). Aiming to address the linkages between underdevelopment characterized by malnutrition and poverty and political instability, this essay will explore the relationship between these two diverse, although seemingly interdependent phenomena. Does poverty breed political instability? Are poor countries more prone to political violence and insecurity? What good is the democracy if people remain poor?