Compairing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Compairing - Essay Example Let’s have a review of Ford Fiesta, a small car whose recommended price in Great Britain Pound (GBP) including taxes was 14,102 while excluding taxes it was 12,001. Prices shown herein are based on recommended retail price adjusted for equipment difference effective on Jan 1, 2010. Ford Focus, a Medium segment car, carried a recommended price including taxes, which was 20,247 while excluding taxes it was 17,231. Ford Mondeo’s recommended price inclusive of taxes was 24,309 while excluding taxes it was 20,688 GBP (European Commission, 2010). These car prices have been provided by the car manufacturers themselves through their associations (ACEA) and (JAMA). It should be noted that actual car prices may not be the same as recommended prices, as it depends on dealers to offer reduced prices and extra monetary benefits to their customers seeing the market trends (European Commission, 2010). Considering the Eurostat figures indicating reduced effect of inflation on car market in comparison to other products, the year-on-year change in actual car prices from January 2009 to January 2010 for the United Kingdom in % was 11.2 in nominal car price and 7.7 in actual car price (European Commission, 2010). In Small segment area A & B, Ford Fiesta has been one of the best selling cars whose prices for the three consecutive years from 2008 to 2010 are given below in percentages of prices in euro before taxes (European Commission, 2010). Incidentally, it would be interesting to compare in small segment the price behavior of Ford Fiesta with other cars like Peugeot 206/207, Renault Clio, Fiat Grande Punto/Punto and VW Polo. In 1/01/2008, Peugeot 206/207 price difference was 32.6%, which showed only a little increase of 32.7% in 1/01/2009 while in the next year i.e. 1/01/2010, Peugeot price difference was 39.7%. As we note down from the table 1, coming down from Peugeot, to Renault Clio, to Fiat Grande Punto to VW Polo to Ford Fiesta, all

Approaches of Organizations Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Approaches of Organizations - Research Paper Example The idea of invisible hand dictates that if all the individuals of the society would go on to pursue their own self-interests then not only they would achieve their own goals and objectives but at the same time, they will also satisfy the societal needs and expectations (Dyck & Neubert, 2008). Even if the company and its managers appear to be focusing on other variables such as environmental preservation, employee development, stakeholder management and others, that is only because they want to achieve the financial result which is the bottom line of the company. Much of the productivity and development that we witness today is actually a result of mainstream approach, which ruled the management and industrial scene for decades. On the other hand, multistream management refers to the approach, which calls for taking the holistic view of well being of multiple stakeholders associated with the operations of the business. Managers using the multistream management approach are more likel y to focus on practical wisdom, experimentation, workplace democracy, self-control, dignification, ethical conduct, and others. The company and its managers realize that they are operating in a wider other, where the extended society and its members are also the stakeholders of the company. Financial numbers and quarterly results become a secondary concern for the company and its managers and the prime focus become managing and balancing the company’s expectations with the well being and requirements of all stakeholders.

360 Degree Feedback In Developing Leadership Skills Management Essay

360 Degree Feedback In Developing Leadership Skills Management Essay There is a great deal of controversy about the relevancy of using 360-degree feedback as a tool to develop leadership skills. Some view 360-degree feedback as a collaborative tool, a tool offering a more balanced circle of feedback based on the assessments of superiors, peers, and subordinates. These views lead me to wonder, how effective can this tool be if it does not factor in leadership styles and the potential for bias based on popularity? Will personality and popularity play a role in the assessment? Though extreme, there is some merit to my position. This realization guided me to my decision that 360-degree feedback is an effective tool to provide self assessment and can also be used to enhance performance measures during annual counseling such as leadership, communication, and mission effectiveness. Background The underlying theory of 360-degree feedback asserts that an assessment received from multiple sources provides unique and meaningful information to the recipient. Rapid growth of its use was fueled by the need to adapt to a changing human resources management environment and by numerous studies that supported the effectiveness of multi-source ratings in post-feedback management development. A significant complaint of the traditional performance appraisal system voiced by services is that feedback is generally one-sided and can lack objectivity. In the 1940s, the Army implemented a tool called the multi-rater system, also known as the multisource assessment process.  [1]  The multi-rater system allows a persons evaluation to encompass reviews from not only a rater, but also a persons subordinates, peers, clients, and organizational hierarchy. This allows a reviewer to get a more complete picture of a person and removes a singular rater from being able to determine the fate of a career. If an officers boss dislikes a subordinate, but he gets top marks from everyone else, it puts the bosss review in context, and would likely generate questions from the senior rater over the rating ability of the boss. In 2006, the Navy tested a prototype model of the 360-degree feedback process in the Surface Warfare Community. Similar to Army results, the Navy prototype showcased a strength of the 360-degree feedback process is its ability to provide varying perspectives of raters. The Navy prototype findings also emphasized that a supervisor cannot observe all the interactions, strengths and opportunities for improvement of his subordinates for evaluation reports, especially if the span of control is broad.  [2]  So why should the supervisor be the only person to provide performance feedback? Discussion A major advantage to the 360-degree feedback process is that it provides an opportunity for people with whom a person comes into frequent contact to offer feedback. This is an important consideration because the rater should be the person that has observed the employee on a frequent basis. It would be unfair and impractical to ask a rater for input when the opportunity to observe an employees skills, talents and abilities have not been provided on a regular basis. Lets look at two examples of 360-degree feedback in action; first lets look at an Army Captain who serves as a signal officer in an infantry battalion. His rater is the Battalion Executive Officer, a combat-arms officer, who does not know much about communication other than how to operate a radio. If the signal officer performs his job well, the XO will likely give him a reasonably favorable review on a traditional Evaluation Review. Now lets use a 360-degree feedback process and involve his higher-echelon counterpart, the Brigade S6 Officer, who is a Major and a signal officer, who gives the Captain an excellent rating based on his technical proficiency. If we involve his section, they can comment on his leadership, management style and his ability to explain complex technical issues in plain English. His peers in the battalion, other captains and the company commanders, all give him high marks for working with them to resolve communication issues. Now the 360-degree feedback proces s is given to his senior rater, the Battalion Commander, who now has a more complete view of this officer and how he has performed based on additional feedback from numerous sources, rather than the traditional counseling from one rater that would have communicated a generic, but reasonably positive review. Another example of how this method is beneficial is to look at an Army infantry platoon leader, a 1st Lieutenant, who routinely sucks up to his company commander, volunteers his platoon for the toughest assignments, scores expert in marksmanship and fitness and has impressed the battalion commander in a field operation. This 1st Lieutenant would normally excel in the traditional counseling process, because his rater and senior rater have the impression that he is above and beyond the standard. Using the 360-degree process, lets say his platoon sergeant reports the 1st Lieutenant delegates much of his work to him and leaves work as early as possible. Some of his squad leaders complain that they always get stuck with volunteer duty while the 1st Lieutenant is off somewhere sleeping. His fellow 1st Lieutenants do not like the guy and view him as a show-off. When this review hits the senior raters desk it will give him a very different view and provide more insight than the traditional c ounseling report would provide. The above example showcases that when feedback comes from many sources, its more difficult for a person to brush aside constructive criticism and rationalize that the boss just has it in for me. If several people suggest that a leader needs to improve verbal communication skills, chances are high that this is indeed a necessary area for improvement. Another advantage of the 360-degree feedback process is that it is designed with a leadership focus in mind. Sometimes its difficult for individuals to understand the impact that their behavior may have on others. However, if they receive direct and frequent feedback on how their behaviors affect others they are more likely to be attentive. Studies show that the 360-degree feedback process is particularly strong when joined with an action plan developed by the person receiving feedback and shared with those providing the feedback. The action plan demonstrates the feedback was heard and the suggestions will be put to use as soon as possible. Studies also strongly suggest that each person receiving feedback, especially for the first time, should have a coach to help assess the comments and help to develop the action plan.  [3]  I recommend the 360-degree feedback process be coupled with competency-based job descriptions; this aids in placing an individual in a position based on the competencies of the position and it ensures the individual is evaluated on those same competencies. Now looking at 360-degree feedback from the perspective of what we learned in seminar about leadership styles. The trait theory assumes people are born with inherited traits and that some traits are particularly associated with great leaders. For instance, there is a scene in the highly-acclaimed and offbeat 1949 World War II film, 12 OClock High, in which Army Air Corps Colonel Keith Davenport, played by Gary Merrill, is the commander who becomes too close to his flyers and eventually cracks under the strain of seeing one of them commit suicide. Colonel Davenport portrayed significant traits to be successful as noted in the trait theory (willing to assume responsibility and alert to social environment). If he was assessed using the 360-degree feedback model, he would have received rave reviews from his supervisor, peers and subordinates based on his leadership style, but if evaluated on technical proficiency he would receive low marks due to the squadrons inability to perform precis ion daylight bombing. Major General Frank Savage replaced Colonel Davenport and pounded discipline and accountability into the squadron, and managed to get them back in the air with a new level of success. If General Savage was given the 360-degree feedback assessment, his rating would have surely required him to make an adjustment in his tough leadership style. This was evident by the number of transfer requests received from the pilots and the short fused IG inspection to assess squadron morale. General Savages tough leadership style ultimately proved to be successful with a significant increase in putting bombs on target as required for mission success. General Savage also projected many of the traits that are considered necessary to be a successful leader such as decisive, dependable, assertive, dominant and persistent. 360-degree feedback is not a substitute for managing poor performance. Instead it is a tool that can be implemented to help employees gain a rich, accurate perspective on how others view their leadership skills, interpersonal style and mission effectiveness. 360-degree feedback should not replace leaderships assessment and evaluation of performance. This is an important point because leaders may be tempted to use 360-degree feedback as a tool to facilitate behavior changes in poor performers. Rather than manage an employees day-to-day performance, leaders may view the multi-rater feedback process as a panacea. Although feedback from a 360-degree process can stimulate self-awareness, it cannot replace direct communication between an employee and his or her superior. An organization should exercise great care in implementing a 360-degree feedback system because unfamiliarity with a person, differences in job and task characteristics, differences in rank, and cognitive differences betwe en an employee and rater can distort assessments. Leaders should also be mindful not to view the 360- degree feedback process as a special event, using it once as part of a training or coaching session. If leaders make this mistake, the goal of ensuring that feedback is incorporated into continuous improvement plans will not be accomplished. Counter Argument To counter my thesis, I must mention that there are potential pitfalls that deal with trust and confidentiality. The key to overcoming pitfalls are to inform everyone of the plan and to stick to it. Additionally, privacy to recipients, and confidentiality to raters regarding the feedback they provide, is an absolute must. As previously described, the tricky part is that we are nearing the line of subordinates possessing the capability to directly influence a leaders career. While 360-degree feedback is not a panacea, impact from any of the above risks would likely be minimal at best with todays motivated, quality all-volunteer force. Nevertheless, it would make sense to establish safeguards wherever possible. Looking at the big picture, the benefits of 360-degree feedback far exceed the pitfalls that can be remedied with careful implementation and changes in organizational culture. Despite the benefits of 360-degree feedback, there are several potential risks which weaken its validity and effectiveness. The most common risk is wrongfully assuming that using feedback from multiple sources will compensate for intentional or unintentional distortion ( i.e. lying). The truth is that feedback collected incorrectly increases rather than decreases the occurrence of error; thus, destroying the credibility of the results. Conclusion I believe that 360-degree feedback should be incorporated into performance measures more specifically leadership, communication and mission effectiveness. The 360-degree feedback program is an excellent performance feedback tool and should be designed for counseling purposes only. There are a couple of ways to regulate the use of this information. The first way is to introduce this technique as a leader developmental tool. Initially, the services could use the train-the-trainer model at the deck plate level, while incorporating it into its school systems. This method will train all leaders and supervisors in the proper use. Given that all leaders have supervisors, I do not envision significant difficulties. I strongly believe our current leader development system can provide leaders for the future force; however, I strongly believe we can improve the system to make leaders more self-aware and thereby more effective. By implementing the 360-degree feedback method into our system, we w ill grow leaders who will win the many literal and figurative wars this nation faces in the future.

Motivation Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework Essays

Motivation INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the needs of the employees, of HRD Department of the company, I used to work for, are relevant with the Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory or not. In order to analyze above purpose, I have concentrated on five employees, after dividing them into four groups by the level of their education, income, and responsibility. Five levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are : Physiological, safety and security, belonging and love, esteem and the self-actualization need. RELEVANT RESEARCH Bernard L Rosenbaum has written in his book, How To Motivate Today's Worker, that, "at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy are the physiological needs (food, water, etc), followed at the next level by safety or security needs (which includes both physical safety and protection against injury or financial hardships). The higher-order needs are---love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.(p.6). Richard I. Henderson states in his books, Influencing Employee Behavior At Work, that, lower-order needs must be satisfied before the individual is motivated (driven) to satisfy a higher-order need.(p.4) Frank Goble, in the words of Abraham Maslow, wrote in his book, The Third Force," It is unusual, not usual," he says, " that an act or a conscious wish have but one motivation.". In other words the whole person is motivated, not just a part of him.(p.36).In the book called The Gold and the Garbage in Management Theories and Prescriptions, James A. Lee states that, Maslow's theory stresses 1) that humans are wanting animals whose motivation will stem from unsatisfied needs, which means that satisfied needs are not motivators; and 2)that these needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, which results in shifts in motivation to the next higher level of needs as lower levels are satisfied. The author further adds, that according to this theory of needs hierarchy, for any given person, one class of needs will be more motivating than other. (p.64, p.66). The blue-collar Employees The blue-collar employees in the department have the lowest level of education and are mostly from low- income families. These employees carry the burden of large families, which often includes their unemployed/dependent family members such as retired parents, spouse, children and at times even their unemployed brothers or sist... ...s very much applicable and also reliable, however, the best person to know whether Maslow's theory of Hierarchy of Needs is applicable or not is the individual himself or herself. Maslow was one of the first people to be associated with the humanistic, as opposed to a task-based, approach to management. As people have increasingly come to be appreciated as a key resource in successful companies, Maslow’s model has remained a valuable management concept. Works Cited: Rosenbaum, B.L.(1982). How to Motivate Today's Workers. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Henderson, R.L.(1982).Influencing Employee Behavior at Work. Georgia: Business Publishing Division, Georgia State University. Lee, J.A.(1980).The Gold and the Garbage in Management Theories and Prescription. Ohio: Ohio University Press. Argyris, C.(1964).Integrating the Individual and the Organization. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hagerty, M.R.(1990).Testing Maslow's Hierarchy of needs: National Quality-of-life across time. Social Indicators Research: Vol.46 (pp.249). Kluwer Academic Publishers. Goble, F.G.(1970). The Third Force. New York: Grossman Publishers.

Psychological perspectives Essay

The brain is a super computer with a complicated network of neurones subserving many of the activities of our daily life. Many of us are unaware of the various interconnected processes that work in unison to let us lead a simple uncomplicated life. Only when someone is ill or not normal do we feel the messing up of a great system. Cognitive function is the intellectual process by which a person becomes aware of, perceives or comprehends ideas. Recognition, conception, sensing, thinking, reasoning, remembering and imagining all come under cognitive functions ( Parayannis, 2000) Behaviour, being emotional or angry are other features of cognitive functions of the brain. They are all related to specific centers or regions of the brain. Injury in the form of trauma or illnesses leads to various cognitive impairments. Summarizing I would deign to declare that each of us is what our brains would want us to be. The combinations and permutations of the neurones decide our personality, skills, talents, feelings, behavior and responses. However we are aware of the fact only in the case of damage to one or more areas of the brain. The theme I shall discuss in my paper is â€Å" Psychological perspectives†. I have selected four chapters from this course which I believe should carry the message of the enigma that is the brain and the emotions that are attached for a social set up. They are Memory System (Chapter 8), Cerebral Cortex and the Lobes of the brain( Chapter 2), Aggression and Prosocial Behaviour (Chapter 16 ) and Social Development (Chapter 3). Memory Memory is of three kinds: sensory, short-term and long-term. Sensory memory depends on auditory, visual and visuo spatial functions . Both cerebral hemispheres are involved in analyzing sensory data, performing memory functions, learning new information, forming thoughts and making decisions (Parayannis, 2000). The left takes care of the sequential analysis. New information is systematically and logically interpreted. Symbolic information like language, mathematics, abstraction and memory is also dealt with. Memory is stored in a language format. The right hemisphere deals with the interpretation of multiple sensory inputs and here memory is stored as auditory, visual and spatial functions. One’s environment is understood. The interpretation of dancing and gymnastics are possible through the right hemisphere functions. Short term memory holds small amounts of information. Selective attention is involved. Everything that we see or hear is not stored. Short term memory is sensitive to interruption or interference. combined with other mental processes, short term memory forms an area of working memory which we use to do our thinking with. This behaves like a scratchpad. When we tackle arithmetic, do a puzzle, prepare a meal or read something, we are using our working memory. Information that has to be stored for long is possible due to long term memory which is also a function of the brain. The area which holds infinite amounts of information can never run out of ‘space’. A person’s educational caliber is supported by this long term memory which is encoded in terms of meaning and importance. Our daily activities are enabled by dual memory comprising of short term and long term memory. When we have an information which we used (short-term) but is not required for the time being, we store it in our long term memory and retrieve it when necessary. Memory loss, a feature of cognitive impairment, is the delay or failure to recall recent or distant events. Amnesia is an extreme form of memory loss when caused by a more severe injury to the brain, probably in a road accident, bomb explosion or shooting incident. Involvement due to injury or aging can produce loss of memory of varying levels. Loss can be a mild dysfunction (MCI ) or severe and named as dementia. Old people of 55-80 years of age could have cognitive impairment without having any illness. Memory loss is seen in degenerative disorders or dementias like Alzheimer’s, traumatic brain injuries, following ECT or in Korsakoff’s psychosis. Damage to the limbic system causes a loss of recent memory. This is seen in Korsakoff’s Disease. Recent events are forgotten due to a direct effect of alcohol or due to the associated nutritional deficiencies. . The ability to store and retrieve from short term memory is affected in natural aging too. The foremost problem is the loss of recent memory in Alzheimer’s Disease. The care-taker needs to be extremely patient as all her time would be spent for looking after the patient ( Ballenger, 2006). Traumatic Amnesia usually occurs as a transient phenomenon following a head injury. ECT induced amnesia follows episodes of ECT in a psychiatric illness. The amnesia is transient and may last a year. Patients with implicit memory (not dependent on the part of the brain) remember to do some things (Dorf et al, 1994). Extensive damage to the left cerebral cortex can affect long term memory. Damage to the right cerebral cortex produces a disturbance in the visual and auditory perceptions and visuo-spatial deficit. Memories of seen articles or heard songs or even regularly visited places would not be remembered. The Cerebral Cortex and the Lobes of the Brain The brain is composed of the cerebrum, cerebellum and the brain stem. The cerebrum forms the greatest part and is divided into lobes named by the overlying bone (April, 1990). The left and right cerebral hemispheres consist of the cerebral cortex, white matter and basal ganglia. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the brain composed of grey matter. It has 1015 individual neurons connected in specific patterns. The white matter holds the tracts which connect the neurons. The surface is folded into gyri separated by sulci or grooves. Each half of the cerebral hemispheres has the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, the limbic lobe and the central lobe. Motor and sensory cortex are found. Sensory cortex is again sub-divided into primary, secondary and association cortices. Primary is where the stimulus reaches first. Secondary is the area which is connected to the primary and helps in the processing. Association cortices have a 2 stimuli input. There are 3 identified associative cortices. They are the basis of thought and perception with practically no influence on behavior. They are the parieto-temporal-occipital cortex, pre-frontal area and the limbic association area. The first receives somatosensory, auditory and visual projections. These associative areas integrate the information from the sensory modalities for language. Injury affecting this area causes a faulty language. The prefrontal area if affected produces problems in several cognitive behaviours. Difficulty arises in control of motor planning. The ability to concentrate and attend, elaboration of thought, personality and emotional traits are determined here. The frontal lobe subserves cognition and memory. Broadman’s area in the left frontal lobe is involved with voluntary motor activities( April,1990). Damage to this area causes contralateral hemiplegia associated with a motor aphasia (involvement of the prefrontal cortex or Broca’s area). The parietal lobe processes sensory inputs and discrimination, body orientation and ability to write. Damage would produce an inability to recognize parts of the body, space and an inability to write. The occipital lobe is involved with primary visual function and visual interpretation. Damage would cause cortical blindness even when the eyes are perfectly normal. The temporal lobe which has the Wernicke’s area subserves the auditory function, expressed behaviour, receptive language and memory. Damage would result in hearing deficits, childish behaviour and receptive aphasia. Lateralisation is evident in the right and left handedness of people. However this is no indication of the dominance of any hemisphere. 95% of people have left hemisphere language function, 18. 8% have right hemisphere language function. 19. 8 % have bilateral language functions. Linear reasoning, speech and vocabulary are lateralised to the left hemisphere. Dyscalculia is caused by damage to the left temporo-parietal region. This leads to difficulty in doing mathematics. Some language functions like intonation and accentuation are with the right hemisphere. Musical and visual stimuli, spatial manipulation, facial perception and artistic ability are functions of the right too. Logical reasoning is with the left but intuitive reasoning is with the right. Cerebral asymmetry is the feature of the normal human brain. The left is the dominant hemisphere with language functions while the right is involved more with visuo-spatial functions. An acquired language deficit accompanying right-sided stroke (left hemisphere involvement) is the best indication that the left hemisphere is dominant for language. The right hemisphere stroke does not involve speech problems. The corpus callosum connects the 2 hemispheres and coordinates the functions of both. Any injury to this area causes ‘Split brain’ where the coordination between the 2 hemispheres is lost. A ‘split brain’ patient does not speak of emotions or feelings. The right hemisphere and the left behave independently. The patient appears to have 2 minds. It was revealed in studies by Robert Sperry, a psychobiologist, who conducted studies in patients in whom commissurectomy (severing the corpus callosum from each hemisphere ) was done as a treatment for intractable epilepsy. He found that the two halves of the brain had specific functions and each side acted independently, whereas in the normal brain, the two halves act in coordination. This is the theory of hemispheric independence (Zaire et al, 1990) After the operation, the right half showed predominance when it came to spatial tasks like arrangement of blocks. The limbic area is the area of the brain that affects the emotions, rage, fear and sex. Integration of recent memory and biological rhythms are decided here. If this area is affected, an angry but frightened personality without emotional control would be the result. Recent memory would be lost. Aggression and Prosocial Behavior Prosocial Behaviour is helpful behavior intended to help another. It is different from altruism in that it is not voluntary helping behaviour that is costly to the giver (Psychology:An International Perspective, 2004). Another definition states that this refers to the â€Å"voluntary actions intended to help another† ( Eisenberg and Mussen, 1989). Prosocial behaviour refers to the consequences of a doer’s actions rather than the motivations behind them. They include sharing, comforting, rescuing and helping, understanding the needs of the recipient (Knickerbocker, Learning to give). Traditional theories of helping include sociobiology, social learning , empathy and arousal. Physical aggression is a major health problem. Childhood aggression is a precursor to physical and mental health problems that occur in later life. Aggressive children are also liable to higher risk of substance abuse , alcoholism, accidents, violent crimes, depression, suicide attempts, spouse abuse, neglectful and abusive parenting (Tremblay et al, 2004) It is unusual for the aggressive students to really harm their targets. However in studies of physical aggression in infancy, it was shown that by 17 months, a large majority of children are already aggressive towards their siblings, parents and peers (Tremblay et al, 2004). A study by Tremblay et al attempted to identify the trajectories of physical aggressions during early childhood and also o identify antecedents of high levels of physical aggression early in life. 572 families with a 5- month old baby were selected and followed up till 42 months. 3 trajectories were identified. The first group of 28% had children who displayed little or no aggression. 58% showed a rising trajectory of modest aggression. 14 % showed a high level of physical aggression (Tremblay et al, 2004). Best predictors before the birth of the child were, having other siblings, confidence interveal, mothers with early( before end of high school ) and high antisocial behaviour , young mothers, families with low income and mothers who smoked. The conclusion indicated was that physical aggression started in early infancy. All the predictors before birth were reasons for the child not learning how to preventive interventions. In order to change or reduce the long term impacts preventive intervention programmes must be chalked out effectively (Tremblay et al, 2004) In a model identifying 5 factors that prompt voluntarism (Clary and Snyder, 1990), they found that a combination of factors ultimately motivates volunteers. One factor is altruism but all the other four are self serving: motivation by socially adjustable conditions, ego defensive considerations, the desire to acquire knowledge or skills for personal or professional education and helping understanding the needs. Aggression is caused in 3 ways in a child: instinct, rewards and observation. Obviously these 3 factors rule the manner in which the aggression is to be overcome or prevented. Catharsis may be tried to vent the child’s anger in other ways. Rewarding non aggressive behaviour works. Cognitive training is also effective. Promoting prosocial behaviour should be tried. Rewarding good behaviour may not be so effective. A better way is to try modelling. The parent should ‘model’ good behaviour as the child always has a tendency to imitate its parents. The parent appeals to the childs pride and desire to be agrown-up (Aggressive and Prosocial Behaviour, Psychology campus. com). Social development Like all humans , babies are also social creatures. It was found from studies that babies recognise themselves at the age of 15 months. Prior to that, they would treat their mirror image as another like them and would even coax them to come out to play. At about 15 months of age, the baby starts showing interest in others and developing a social awareness. It starts showing the emotions of shame, guilt, embarassment and pride. These babies glance at the facial expressions of others to decide how to react just like adults. In one study babies placed at the side of a high cliff kept watching their mothers’ faces. If they were encouraging, the babies would cross. When the mothers exhibited fear, the babies did not move. This is identified as social referencing. It. demonstrated the emotional bond or attachment of the babies with their mothers or caregivers. For most infants emotional bonding appears around 8 to 12 months of age. Psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1913 -1999) spoke about 3 kinds of attachments. The securely attached infants would be upset by the mother’s absence. An insecure avoidant child is anxious about the mother’s absence but turns away when she returns. An insecure ambivalent child also has an emotional bond but has mixed feelings . It wants to be with the mother but is angry at her and does not want contact. Attachments do play a role in the life of the child and its future behaviour. The securely attached ones would be the most confident. Attachment failures could be damaging. The mother has a strong role in promoting attachment in an infant, hoping to improve its mental status and bringing up a resilient child. Attachments to fathers provides one more reason to have a closely knit family with well behaved children. When a seond child arrives, attachment security drops. Commercial child care centers if of good quality does provide additional security. Children tend to have better relationships with their mothers and lesser problems.

The San of the Kalahari Desert

The San of the Kalahari Desert The San also known as â€Å"Bushmen† are one of the well-known foraging and hunting communities. They have made the Kalahari Desert located in Southwest Africa their home for many years. These communities are called bands that consist of multifamily groups with a size ranging from 25 to 50 people. â€Å"Family, marriage, and kinship, gender, and age are the key principles of social organizations in foraging societies† (Nowak & Laird, 2010. Section 3. 7). In this paper you will have a brief understanding of the kinship system of the San Tribe, as well as how their environment influences their behavior and interactions. The nuclear family would consist of a mother, father and their children. This family is considered the most common in the foraging societies because they are able to adapt to various conditions. Bands are made up of several multifamily groupings such as nuclear families. It is very important how these families are related because it will determine how they will act towards each other. The bands will sometime include extended family members which will be beneficial in circumstances such as cooperation and sharing amongst the community. Both men and women work together to provide for the community as a whole. Women are responsible for 80% of the san diet (Nowak & Laird, 2010). Women are the primary gathers; their diet is consisting mostly of nuts and fruit. The men are responsible for 20% of the diet. They provide meat from their hunts. The women are able to gather enough food that will last a full week in two to three days. They can enjoy each other’s company the rest of the time. The men and women work together by mentioning areas of vegetation or animals they may come across on their gathering and hunting trips. The good and services produced by the men and women are shared amongst the community. They rely on each other for the gathering and hunting of food. Everyone’s participation is very important. There is an unspoken promise on the exchange of the goods and services. This is called reciprocity, â€Å"a mutual, agreed-upon exchange of goods and services. Reciprocity works well n a society in which food items need to be consumed quickly due to spoilage† (Nowak & Laird, 2010. Section 3. 3). Foragers have to stay mobile, so there is no room for stock piles of food or goods. Everything has to be used immediately; there is no need for storage because they can always get what they need from the environment. This type of reciprocity would be generalized, there are no expectations for nothing in return, in due time everything will work it- self out. The men are not always successful in their hunts but when they are the meat is prepared and distributed throughout the community. This will also be the same for the food that comes from the gatherings that the women go on as well. This insures that everyone is fed and that both men and women do not have to look for food every day. Everyone takes their turns in providing for the entire band. These interactions promote close bonds and social ties. They are not only sharing with just their neighbors but these are also their kin, no one is an unfamiliar person in these communities. In the San Tribe no one is of more value to another. Since everyone shares everything it leaves little room for jealousy. As in our society, we do not forage, we can pretty much walk in any store and purchased pre-prepared food and goods. There is little thought put into where our food will come from or where we live. The most important thing for us would be making sure we have the funds to be able to do the things that we would like to and purchase the things that we absolutely need. We focus on the needs of our immediate family such as our partners, children and parents vs. considering our communities. I feel that in our society most people are for self only. No one is really willing to help each other no more. I believe that if we had kinship systems in placed things would be a lot better. We could all come together and be there for each other. Making sure everyone has something and no one is left without. There are services shared among my neighbors such as lawn services, babysitting and clothing. We do these things for each other never expecting anything in return. References Nowak, B. & Laird, P. (2010) Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from https://content. ashford. edu/books/AUANT101. 10. 2/sections/sec3. 7 (EBOOK) https://content. ashford. edu/books/AUANT101. 10. 2/sections/sec3. 3 (EBOOK)