What Accessories Say About People Essay Example for Free

What Accessories Say About People Essay â€Å"Our appearance can be an important factor in developing a sense of our identity†. Nowadays, appearances are everything, and the way you dress, the car you drive, and the phone you carry tell others a great deal about yourself. First of all, the clothes you put on and the hairstyle you have can reveal a lot about you. Our clothes and hairstyles say about you far more than you think since they tend to give a general idea about your beliefs, and a little bit about your taste in music. One example of the common clothing personalities is when a person wears colorful clothes, with peace signs printed all over them, and has dreadlocks, with maybe a short messy beard, then it is obvious that he is a hippie, and these people are usually vegetarians. Another example is when you see someone dressed in black from head to toe, with some body piercings and an extreme hairstyle, then this clearly indicates that this individual is into rock music, attends rock concerts, and might even be in a rock band himself. Also, when a man wears a suit and a tie, has a shaved face and a clean haircut, it tells us that he’s either a businessman or a manager. The outer appearance can also clothes, and have medium to long beards with a short mustache. Secondly, the car you drive reflects your financial and social status. Since cars prices range from low to extremely high, it basically covers most of the classes of society, so the kind of car you own shows where you stand in society. For example, businessmen and managers tend to ride in fancy black cars. Also, when a person drives a luxurious exotic car, it goes without saying that this person comes from a wealthy family, and might even hold a notable social status. Political figures like presidents and ambassadors drive their cars around in parades. And another example is mini cars drivers. Those people are usually not showy (unless the mini car is very expensive, like a mini cooper) and some of them are practical, since they get mini cars to reduce fuel consumption. More importantly, when you find the inside of the car disorganized with lots of paper and bottles lying everywhere while it is clean from the outside, then this clearly shows that its owner is all about the looks and only cares about showing off in front of others. Finally, cell phones. Cell phones nowadays are not just an accessory; they send major messages about you and your personality. A study was carried out by TalkTalk Mobile and examined 2,000 users of the currently top three devices to see if the chosen cell phone really is and extension to their personality. The results showed that iPhone users care more about their appearance and outer-image, and are more conceited than BlackBerry or Android users. iPhone users most likely work in media, retail, and they are the most active on social media sites. While BlackBerry users came in as the busiest group of the three, with the largest number of messages and emails sent, also they are more likely to have better relationships and better-paid jobs. They mostly work in health and finance. Android users on the other hand are better mannered than the other two, although they were found as the group to watch TV and drink alcohol the most. They tend to have jobs in engineering and the government. So overall, if you pay attention to those details in others like their clothes, cars and cell phones, you will get a general idea about them and their personality.

Evaluation Model for Web Service Change Management

Evaluation Model for Web Service Change Management EVALUATION MODEL FOR WEB SERVICE CHANGE MANAGEMENT BASED ON BUSINESS POLICY  ENFORCEMENT AbstractToday organizations in all industries are increasingly dependent upon IT and a highly available network to meet their business objectives. As customer expectations and demands rise, and their needs is one of the prevailing problems faced by IT enterprises at present, leading to increasingly complex IT service management systems. Although there exists many change management issues and solutions, there is no proper support for efficient change evaluation and monitoring. Present change management works are done only in the web service interface such as WSDL Web Service Definition Language and there is no proper support for dynamic nature in them. In order to provide a flexible environment for the Business Analyst to perform the emergency changes over the service business logic without the need of IT staff and also to evaluate changes made, we propose a Finite State Machine based Evaluation Model for Web Service Runtime Change Management and also a set of change factors to evalua te runtime changes of web services. Among which we mainly focus on the factor Business Policy Enforcement which is used for checking whether there is any policy violation with respect to the changes made. We first define the various change factors and derived solution is considered as the change measure for individual change factor. Keywords-Web Services, BL Analyzer, Dependency Analyzer, Change Factors, Business Policy Manager, Runtime Change Management, Change Evaluation Report. I. INTRODUCTION A web service is a piece of business logic that enables a paradigm shift in business structures allowing them to outsource required functionality from third party Web-based providers. As services are not static, they undergo many changes during their life cycle since the IT service management system now is facing an increasingly complex environment aroused by wide variety of requirements. This situation increases the likelihood of service interruption which in turn causes business loss. In this case, a series of changes are needed so that potential service interruptions can be prevented. A service change is any addition, modification, or removal of authorized, planned, or supported service or service component and its associated documentation. A typical IT enterprise faces considerable number of changes each year. To handle such changes, change management is needed. Change management is a set of processes that are employed to ensure that significant changes are implemented to a business process during its maintenance phase. The purpose of the change management process is to ensure that: Business risk is managed and minimized; Standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes; all changes to service assets and configuration items are recorded in the configuration management system; and all authorized changes support business needs and goals. Hence there arises the need for an effective framework managing those changes without affecting the business functionality. Here Change Management framework is proposed for making minor alterations to business logic but whose effect is more pronounced to the profitability of the organization. So the changes in business logic of the web service must be done very quickly within the given time constraint as the services consumed by the providers and clients must not be affected there by managing the changes at the runtime. We focus on creating environment for dynamic variations to the business logic so that it is feasible to make frequent modifications in a service which aids service provider and serves him to satisfy clients’ newfangled quests. Such environment is useful in the run-time management of web services and to exactly spot the solution to the service provider’s maintenance element. There are many models that subsist for Business Process Management in which the process is recycled for the overall process changes. However, the problem with these solutions is that they only support the process level flexibility and not the application/service level flexibility. On the other hand this Business Logic Management framework tries to append that service level flexibility. These changes are done at the Business analyst level instead of being done at the Developer level, which reduces the hierarchy level in change management and thus implies a reduction in time and cost requirements. A specific change in the logic, not only changes the functionality concerned with it, but also the dependent functions under the dependency group. In the logic level, the set of rules form the finite states with functions as transitions. A rule is said to be dependent in this model, if there is a transition from one rule to another on accepting a function. The level of dependency analysis can be even extended to the functions where the parameters act as the transition from one function to another. Thus the rules and functions under logic form a dependency group which is analyzed and verified for every change initiated externally. Those dependency groups assist in performing changes and results in an effective change. Those changes that are made based on the dependency analysis are measurable, complete and finite. Any change that is not based on the dependency analysis is said to violate the outlined properties and may result in a failure. Dependency analysis based on each factor is p erformed by a finite state machine. With the help of finite state machine, it is possible that if a particular logic has been successfully recognized then it goes to the halt state. On the other hand, there exists a transition from any state to the exception state E, if the rule or function encounters an exceptional input or parameter. By this way, the FSM simulates the pattern based on the behavior of the rules and functions, which can be easily verified and measured at each stage. This measure of change evaluation ensures that the business analyst has a direct control over the changes he makes and provides an environment that notifies the analyst about the outcome in a meaningful way. We propose a set of five change factors based on which the dependency existing between the business rules, functions and parameters is analyzed. Among which we mainly focus on the factor Business Policy Enforcement which is used for checking whether there is any policy violation with respect to the c hanges made. These change factors are also involved in the change evaluation that makes the changes to be specified in a precise and formal manner. II. FRAMEWORK FOR WEB SERVICE CHANGE MANAGEMENT In this framework, the course of action begins with issue of change request and the whole processing of the request is conducted under the supervision of an analyst. A ChangeRequest is an additional expectation that theCustomerwants which is outside the current defined scope of the project which is a change to an existing product. It is first specified by the analyst in detail. This specification includes the change to be made, brief description of the change to be made, action to be made, services, rules and the conditions under which the change has to be made. The Request handler is responsible for finding the type of the change and priority is assigned to indicate the order of importance of the request and also determines whether the change can be implemented within the runtime. Domain Variable Identifier discovers the domain variables present in the request by just tokenizing the request and searching whether any of tokens match against given domain variable set. Once we are done with domain variable identification, we can determine the domain to which the request refers to. The Domain Mapper finds the corresponding domain and services with the help of service repository which comprises all kinds of services and provides the result to Business Logic Analyzer. Fig1.Business policy enforcement framework The logic of all the services in the service repository are decomposed into rules, functions and parameters along with associated business policies are stored in the BL set with help of domain mapping. The BL analyzer identifies only the particular rule, functions, parameter and policy associated with it for each change request from BL set instead providing all the rules, functions, parameters and policies associated with it. The properties of interoperability, traceability, decidability, computability are preserved even after the alteration. These properties are evaluated by property evaluator and the calculated properties are appended to the schema to generate the final schema. The property values assist the analyst in making a decision whether or not to implement the alteration. Dependency Analyzer discovers dependencies with the ascertained rules and functions in the business logic through the identified change criteria. The Policy Manager checks for policy violation in the rule or function in which change has to be made and also in the dependent rules or functions. Since the change which is complete, finite and computable can even violate the associated policies, it is also checked by the policy manager after evaluating the properties of the identified change. Schema Generator is responsible for generating and upholding BL schema at various stages. This BL schema is helpful in guiding the management people who are not familiar in source code to make fruitful changes. The changes made in the schema will be updated obviously in business logic. Same way, when programmers do some changes in logic, it gets updated in schema accurately. Run time manager is responsible for building and deploying the services after fruitful changes are done and also it helps to debug the exceptions in the service logic sophistically. Change evaluator evaluates the changes made by the analyst based on the change factors such as business policy enforcement which determines violation of policy in the identified change criteria, code consistency which checks whether the preconditions and post conditions remains constant with respect to the changes made, requisite measure which checks whether the requisite rule or function is not altered with respect to the changes made and mapping function which checks the consistency with respect to the logic and also on the non-functional factors such as service interruption time, response time, reliability and service availability. The Change Evaluation Report includes result of the evaluation process of the change made i.e. the evaluation measures of the changes made by the analyst. By this framework, the analyst has the advantages such flexibility, works in a sophisticated environment without having much knowledge about source code since he can implement the changes at the schema level, knowledge transfer since he can do the changes whatever comes in mind directly and is able to evaluate it easily, independency since no nee d for depending on the development team thereby reducing the time and cost. III. CHANGE FACTORS Change factors are those that act as a criteria based on which the changes made can be evaluated. Any change in the business logic is governed by the following change factors. These factors influence changes either independently or in a group and make changes effective. And the change factors are as follows: Business policy enforcement Requisite measure Code consistency Mapping function A. Business Policy Enforcement In this paper, we mainly focus on the change factor business policy enforcement which is a measure of change which determines violation of policy in the identified change criteria. Here the main role of business policy enforcement is: policy mapping which is nothing but finding the appropriate policies which are associated with the rule or function in which the change has to be made and also with its dependent rules and functions; validation which refers checking whether there is any policy violation; and refinement which provides an environment for the analyst to modify the policy itself if necessary. In a business logic L encompassing set of rules R, functions F, parameters Pr, policy set P and dependency D , the change which is going to be made can be evaluated based on the business policy enforcement factor which checks whether there is any policy violation with respect to the changes made. Whenever a change is specified, it is first analyzed for completeness, finiteness and comp utable. Once the rules, functions and parameters in the change specifications are analyzed as complete, they are mapped with the existing logic set L. Then the corresponding rules, functions, parameters, dependency set and policy set are retrieved by which the change specification is checked whether it violates any policy. If so, the analyst is informed as the change cannot be made due to the violation of policy. Otherwise the change is successfully included in the existing logic set L. IV. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY The table in the next page shows the evaluation  results of some of the change requests implemented based on the business policy enforcement. TABLE I EVALUATION RESULTS FOR BUSINESS POLICY ENFORCEMENT V. Conclusion Any organization no matter its size will experience a large volume of changes in order to accommodate new business requirements, to correct faults in the infrastructure or the services, or for other reasons (such as legal requirements). This framework provides an environment for the business analyst to implement the changes at the sophisticated environment without having much knowledge about the source code and to evaluate the changes easily based on the proposed change factors in which business policy enforcement is mainly focused. With the help of the algorithm derived for the business policy enforcement, a case study of banking domain is implemented. By this framework, analyst is able to implement whatever comes in his mind directly without the help of developing team and also to detect policy violation and do the changes accordingly and also to refine the policy itself if needed. REFERENCES [1] Felix Cuadrado, Juan C. Duenas and Rodrigo GarcÄ ±Ã‚ ´a-Carmona, â€Å"An Autonomous Engine forServicesConfiguration and Deployment,† IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 38, No. 3, May/June 2012. [2] Xumin Liu, Athman Bouguettaya, Jemma Wu, and Li Zhou, â€Å"Ev-Lcs: A System For The Evolution Of Long-Term Composed Services,† IEEE Transactions on Services Computing,Vol.PP, Issue 99, 2011. [3] Dimitris Apostolou , Gregoris Mentzas,Ljiljana Stojanovic, Barbara Thoenssen, Tomà ¡s Pariente Lobo,†A collaborative decision framework for managing changes in e-Government services,† Government Information Quarterly 28 (2011) 101–116, PUBLISHED @ ELSEVIER, 2011. [4] Bruno Wassermann, Heiko Ludwig, Jim Laredo, Kamal Bhattacharya, Liliana Pasquale, â€Å"Distributed Cross-Domain Change Management,† 2009 IEEE International Conference on Web, Services, 978-0-7695-3709-2/09, 2009 IEEE. [5] Bassam Atieh Rajabi, Sai Peck Lee, â€Å"Change Management in Business Process Modeling Survey†, 2009 International Conference on Information Management and Engineering, 978-0-7695-1/09, 2009 IEEE. [6] Bassam Atieh Rajabi, Sai Peck Lee, â€Å"Runtime Change Management Based on Object Oriented Petri Net,† 2009 International Conference on Information Management and Engineering, 978-0-7695-1/09,2009 IEEE. [7] Oliver Moser, Florian Rosenberg and Schahram Dustdar,â€Å"Domain-Specific Service Selection for Composite Services,† IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, VOL. 38, NO. 4, July/Aug. 2012 [8] Ruhi Sarikaya, Canturk Isci and Alper Buyuktosunoglu, â€Å"Runtime Application Behavior Prediction Using a Statistical Metric Model,† IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. X, No. X, May 2011. [9] Haochen Li, Zhiqiang Zhan, â€Å"Bussiness-Driven Automatic IT Change Management Based on Machine Learning,† 978-1-4673-0269-2/12, 2012 IEEE. [10] Yanhua Du, Xitong Li, and PengCheng Xiong, â€Å"Petri Net Approach to Mediation-Aided Composition of Web Services,† IEEE Tansactions on Automation Science and Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 2, Apr. 2012. [11] Marcello La Rosa, Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede, Petia Wohed, Hajo A. Reijers, Jan Mendling, and Wil M. P. van der Aalst, â€Å"Managing Process Model Complexity via Concrete Syntax Modifications,† IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2011.

Describing the Business of Farming in O Pioneers! by Willa Silbert Cath

Describing the Business of Farming in O Pioneers! by Willa Silbert Cather Willa Sibert Cather was born in Virginia, December 7, 1873. At the age of nine, Cather's family moved to Nebraska. Willa fell in love with the country, with the waste prairies of the Nebraska. In her life, Willa worked for different journals and magazines and received many honorary degrees, even the Pulitzer Prize. Her literary life was extremely influenced by her childhood in the wild country. In her life story, I actually didn't find any trace of doing a business relative to farming, or running a farm on her own. Therefore she doesn't seem to have practical experience with business of farming. Maybe that's why she describes it in a general way only, without any particulars. The Cather's novel O Pioneers! gives us a realistic picture of people's life at the end of the nineteenth century. The new incomers, who settled the unfriendly countries of American continent, had very hard times. It was necessary for them to do whatever they were able to, to earn some money or to gain something to eat. As we can see in Cather's novel, many people were farming. But some of them were not farmers in their country of origin, they just started farming in the new home. Even though they knew nothing about it. Willa Cather describes a history of such people, a Norwegian immigrant family, the Bergsons. The beginnings in the new world were very tough for the Bergson family. And the situation didn't seem to get better. They have met several misfortunes that have held their farming business back. „One winter his cattle had perished in a blizzard. The next summer one of his plow horses broke its leg in a prairie-dog hole and had to be shot. Another summer he lost his hogs from cholera, and a valuable stallion died from a rattlesnake bite. Time and again his crops had failed. He had lost two children, boys, that came between Lou and Emil, and there had been the cost of sickness and death' This is Cather's idea of what John Bergson had to fight against. It's clear, that the whole family felt discouraged and helpless when there was no success coming. They saw many people around them selling their land and giving the farming up. They were going to find their fortune somewhere else. After John Bergson died, his sons also wanted to give up and change the hard work on the infertile land for some... ...ittle joke. It pretended to be poor because nobody knew how to work it right; and then, all at once, it worked itself. It woke up out of its sleep and stretched itself, and it was so big, so rich, that we suddenly found we were rich, just from sitting still.' I don't know much about farming at the end of the nineteenth century, but I heard something in the school and they have told nothing about becoming rich just from sitting still. This is the romantic point of view of the problem, and that's the Willa Cather's point of view. Actually, there has been some business behind the success. The fact, that Alexandra was buying more and more low-price land. She was very clever. She knew exactly what to do, to become rich and struggle no more. She could count the expenses and the profits several years ahead. But she did all this only because some spirit told her to, only because she felt something powerful coming out of the land. Did Willa Cather think this is the way that bussiness works? It seems to be her romantic illusion. I don't think Alexandra had sufficient reasons to mortgage a farm and start a big business from nothing with all risks. But she made a bet and won. Lucky girl.

Color Blindness and Testing in Children Essay -- Vision Sight Disorder

Color Blindness and Testing in Children In a world of many technological advances, color perception has become a very important issue. One of the main advances pertains to color technology. An increased emphasis on color technology has raised awareness of the issue of color blindness. Many people are not aware of the origins of color blindness and the different types, although many people are affected by it. One in two hundred females have this defect while in males the defect occurs in one and twelve ( Lewis, Reitzammer & Amos, 1990). That is about two percent of the female and eight percent of male populations (Sewell, 1983). It is important to look at the prevalence of colorblindness in children and identify the problems associated with it. Color deficiencies can take many forms but are generally grouped together and known as colorblindness. The different types of color blindness include protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia. Individuals with protanopia perceive short-wavelength light as blue, and when the wavelength is increased, the blue becomes less and less clear until it is perceived as gray at 492 nm (Goldstein, 1999). Deuteranopia causes a person to perceive blue at short wavelengths and see yellow at long wavelengths with a neutral point at 498 nm. The most rare form of color blindness is tritanopia. These individuals perceive blue at short wavelengths and perceive red at long wavelengths with a neutral point at 570 nm (Goldstein, 1999). Protanopia and deuteranopia are commonly referred to as red-green blindness. These forms of colorblindness are sex linked; the gene responsible is on the X-chromosome, with the dominant gene passed by the mother. With the female (XX), the anomalous locus on one X chromosome.. . ... Psychology, 14, 196-218. Goldstein, B. E. (1999). Sensation & Perception, Fifth Edition. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole Publishing. Knowlton, M., & Woo, I. (1989). Functional color vision deficits and performance of children on an educational task. Education of the Visually Handicapped, 20, 56-62. Lewis, B.A., Reitzammer, A., & Amos, J.F. (1990). color vision defects: what teachers should know. Reading Improvement, 27, 31-33. Pease, P.L. & Allen J. (1988). A new test for color screening color vision: concurrent validity and utility. American Journal of Optometry and Physiological optics, 65, 729-738. Sewell, J.H. (1983). Color counts too! Academic Therapy, 81, 329-37. Waggoner, T. L. (2000, February 6). New pediatric Color Vision Test for Three to Six Year Old Pre-School Children. [Online], Available. http://members.aol.com/nocolorvsn/color5.htm

Is it Safe to Pray? :: essays research papers

Is it Safe to Pray? No matter what religion a person practices, everybody has gone to church whether it is on a regular basis or for an occasion such as a wedding or funeral. When you look up at the altar and see the priest, you don’t question their morality because society is taught not to question a higher authority figure. Why would such a symbol of purity and sanctity have anything shameful to hide? All of the sudden the man at the altar has lawsuits being filed against him. Child molestation is presenting itself as an issue that is becoming recurrent in society and more of an epidemic within the Catholic Church. In the past, the priests involved in these incidents have not been subjected to a punishment equal to the crime they committed. A priest involved in such deplorable activities should immediately be defrocked and subjected to criminal prosecution. This is a problem that lends itself to secrecy. The priests who commit these immoral acts are masters at using justifications, denial, and within an environment of religion, to look for a higher power for forgiveness which allows the abusive priest in his own mind to excuse the behavior. The failure of some bishops of the Church and the Church itself to respond effectively in the manner consistent with their positions as leaders with a duty to protect to most vulnerable members of the Church, is in some ways more disturbing than the criminal acts of the priests themselves. These same bishops may have confused forgiveness with leniency towards criminal behavior. In some cases, the bishops and other church leaders placed their thoughts and emotions with the accused priests over those of the victims, by accepting the denials from the priests instead of listening to the victims. Numerous cases are adding up into the millions and the churches are filing bankruptcy. But ultimately where does the fault lie? What actions should be taken to see that justice is served and have the Catholic Church remain solvent? If a priest is found to have committed acts of sexual misconduct with minors, he should not be shuttled from one position in the church to another but should in fact be defrocked and removed completely from the Catholic Church and deprived of any services provided by the Church. In this manner, it is possible to remove the temptation from the priest and safeguard the wellbeing of the Church family. Is it Safe to Pray? :: essays research papers Is it Safe to Pray? No matter what religion a person practices, everybody has gone to church whether it is on a regular basis or for an occasion such as a wedding or funeral. When you look up at the altar and see the priest, you don’t question their morality because society is taught not to question a higher authority figure. Why would such a symbol of purity and sanctity have anything shameful to hide? All of the sudden the man at the altar has lawsuits being filed against him. Child molestation is presenting itself as an issue that is becoming recurrent in society and more of an epidemic within the Catholic Church. In the past, the priests involved in these incidents have not been subjected to a punishment equal to the crime they committed. A priest involved in such deplorable activities should immediately be defrocked and subjected to criminal prosecution. This is a problem that lends itself to secrecy. The priests who commit these immoral acts are masters at using justifications, denial, and within an environment of religion, to look for a higher power for forgiveness which allows the abusive priest in his own mind to excuse the behavior. The failure of some bishops of the Church and the Church itself to respond effectively in the manner consistent with their positions as leaders with a duty to protect to most vulnerable members of the Church, is in some ways more disturbing than the criminal acts of the priests themselves. These same bishops may have confused forgiveness with leniency towards criminal behavior. In some cases, the bishops and other church leaders placed their thoughts and emotions with the accused priests over those of the victims, by accepting the denials from the priests instead of listening to the victims. Numerous cases are adding up into the millions and the churches are filing bankruptcy. But ultimately where does the fault lie? What actions should be taken to see that justice is served and have the Catholic Church remain solvent? If a priest is found to have committed acts of sexual misconduct with minors, he should not be shuttled from one position in the church to another but should in fact be defrocked and removed completely from the Catholic Church and deprived of any services provided by the Church. In this manner, it is possible to remove the temptation from the priest and safeguard the wellbeing of the Church family.

Cross-cultural interaction Essay

Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The peripatetic traveler is the quintessential image of a globalised man. Today’s traveler is driven by the commercial forces of globalization and improved communications in the World which has seen travel and tourism grow as an industry. In the ancient and medieval ages however, when traveling was not that simple and safe, a few adventurists quite literally walked across the globe or what ever was known of it then. These were men as Benjamin of Tudela, Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, who covered vast spaces compared to capacity of transportation in the era in which they lived and have left rich sources of history documented in their travels. There is much debate over the relevance of the jottings made by these travelers to modern day history. Sceptics tend to question the authenticity and objectiveness as well as ability to portray a correct picture of a cross cultural interaction which these travelers tend to pursue from their own perspective. Travel literature has substantial relevance in providing authentic information of cross cultural interaction, the cross cultural trends, a perception of cross cultural association between people and is proving to be a good source of authentic and endearing history today as it provides a perspective in today’s world through an understanding of medieval religion and cultures. Information of cross-cultural interaction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The ancient and medieval times were denoted by lack of developed communications and modes of interaction for travel. There were also very limited historical recordings and what ever existed was at the behest of the ruling cliques, thereby making it biased. The historian today is left with primary records which are substantiated by such travelogues for a dispassionate view of cross cultural interaction. Thus travelogues do serve as important benchmark documents for historical purpose. This would be evident from recounting of travels through the Middle East during the medieval period in the writings of Benjamin of Tuleda, which tends to support the various historical happenings during the period by sources from both sides of the Islam and Christian divide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Travelers as Benjamin who was a Jew could also benefit from interaction with those of his community who were spread across the region. Since the Jews were relatively unbiased during the period of the Crusades, their observations supplanted the travelers own perception providing further substance to the history of the region. While some may consider it as not the purest form of notation, in denoting cross cultural trends it could be considered more than appropriate and accurate. The excessive focus on the state of the Jews in Benjamin’s writing however to some extent indicates that the view of culture is primarily from an overly Semitic perspective of a Rabbi and authenticity is probably sacrificed but then a deeper reading would overcome this perception. Battuta’s writings span a much large cross cultural area extending from Jerusalem, Damascus, Syria, and East Africa while Marco Polo’s travelogues are also very genuine impressions of cross cultural trends. Each of the chapters he writes covers the various aspects of a particularly community that he has observed be it the cropping pattern, food habits and the monarchical way of governance. Marco very assiduously provides an overview of each facet in great detail. Perceptive Observers Providing Authenticity   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The intention of the travelers in their journey was multi focal. Thus some such as Benjamin did it for the purpose of seeking opportunities of trade or to find out about the state of personnel of his own community residing in various parts of the Middle East after being persecuted in their native lands. The meticulous recording of ethnographic details in his writing provides very insightful observations on cross cultural trends which highlights the capacity of its originator. Thus we find in Benjamin’s writings the details of how and when the Egyptian monarch travels, what are the proclivities of the people during various periods and the rivalries that existed even in those time between Cairo and Baghdad. It is also relevant to see that a person traveling beyond his immediate geographical and cultural setting would also be keen to obtain fresh insights into the lives of other communities. Thus observations of Marco Polo need to be taken note off with greater acceptance of the fidelity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The meticulous logging of the timings in terms of a virtual daily log provides an excellent record of the period, the state of development, the manner in which communities lived and the state of their culture in vivid details. Ibn Battuta who was overwhelmed by the need to travel and thus sets out from his native place at the tender age of 22 years, is also a very keen observer and thus his recordings attain a high quality of relevance particularly in the cross cultural context. His descriptive writings on Cairo or Alexandria are very perceptive providing an innate understanding of the era. The description of events, the handling of camels, the holding of ceremonies all are very effectively portrayed by the traveler, giving a good understanding of the period. The meticulous recording of customs such as movement of women naked in some societies as in Mali and cannibalism are stark etchings on the history of a cross cultural trend.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marco Polo again has provided   a wealth of material on cross cultural trends which denotes an excellent eye for detail and power of observation across a large expanse of area from Europe to China, Tibet to India and other areas. The burning of, â€Å"black stones†, is perhaps a recorded intervention by Marco, which indicates the level and depth of his observations. Marco’s observation are supplemented by a comparison between various cultures be it Chinese, Middle Eastern or Central Asian traditions of Bokhara. This provides a deep insight into cultural happenings of the era. Perspective of Modern Day Understanding   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Today Islam and the West appear to be undergoing a serious crisis, some view it as a clash of civilization matching. There is very limited understanding of each others religions, traditions, culture and ideological basis. This is truly surprising given the proliferation of modern knowledge.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is the writings of travelers as Benjamin of Tudela who traversed the Middle East in the 12th Century which provides us a deeper understanding of the roots of this civilizational divide thereby enhancing our understanding of happenings in today’s World. Being a Rabbi from Spain, Benjamin was relatively detached to enable a more objective assessment of the conflict which was occurring between Islam and Christianity in the medieval ages. His tour of the principal areas of the Middle East as well as Europe and Asia provided a fresh insight not just into the period but also the cross cultural linkages between these areas over the ages. The peace and prosperity in Egypt described so authentically by Benjamin provide an excellent insight in the functioning of well governed medieval states. The clash between Saladin and the Christians and the moves and counter moves of the period have been very vividly portrayed by Benjamin denoting how Islam was revived between the period of the Second and the Third Crusades.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Today when we see a similar up rise in Islam which is spearheaded not by the likes of Saladin, but terrorist leaders as Osama Bin Laden, Benjamin’s travels can provide a better counter cultural perspective. A similar understanding of the culture of the Middle East is provided in the writings of Ibn Battuta which can provide us a perspective from an Islamic traveler’s point of view in a different age over three centuries apart and covering some of the same areas. In each of the places that he visits Battuta makes mention of specifics which indicate a keen eye for detail. It is natural that a person with a good view of the details will remain also particular of the accuracy of his writings. Thus enhancing their historical value. The writings provide a cross cultural dimension of the transformation that has take place in these areas over these years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marco’s writings on Tibet are another issue which enables us to correlate between the state and relations of Tibet between the modern and the medieval periods. The fascination which the Chinese felt for Tibet even then is evident as Marco observes their repeated forays to gain hold of territory which they see as a great expanse with its many provinces, the customs of the people, their mastiffs and bamboo cropping are thus set to be matching. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus it would be seen that the travelogues of Marco Polo, Ibn Batttuta and Benjamin of Tudela are important documents as they provide authentic information of cross cultural interaction, denote cross cultural trends, enhance the perception of cross cultural association between people and prove good sources of authentic and endearing history, thereby providing better modern day understanding and background of medieval religion and cultures as in the Middle East.       References Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa. 2004. The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 1 and 2. E-text prepared by Charles Franks, Robert Connal, John Williams, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10636/10636-8.txt (VOLUME I). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12410/12410-8.txt (VOLUME II). (20 November 2006) Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354. Nd. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.html (20 November 2006) The itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. 1907. Philipp Feldheim, inc The house of the Jewish book. New York. gutenberg.org/files/14981/14981-h/14981-h.htm. (20 November 2006).

Personality Theory: Albert Bandura & Carl Rogers Essay

Personality is an intriguing component in psychology vital for the perception of human beings. Understanding and defining personality has proven to be a difficult task. It is so complex, in fact, that no single theory can adequately define it. If one was to ask an ordinary individual to do so, some of the most common answers might be â€Å"a person’s characteristics† or â€Å"the impression (s) one makes on others†. Personality Theorists on the other hand view personality as the essence of the person, the individual’s true inner nature (Rathus, 2004). According to Carver and Scheier (2000), â€Å"Personality is a dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create a person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings† (p.5). For this assignment the assumptions of the Social-Cognitive and Humanistic theoretical paradigms of personality will be applied to evaluate the personality of the case study, M yesha. It will also discuss personality tests- methods/instruments, used to measure whether people are sad, glad or bad and how people with certain personality traits respond to life’s demand. Before one can begin to understand and assess this individual’s personality, it is important to briefly review the Social-Cognitive and Humanistic theories of personality with their respective theorists such as Albert Bandura and for the Humanistic approach, Carl Rogers. According to Passer & Smith (2007), social cognitive theory is a perspective that was developed by Albert Bandura. It â€Å"combines the behavioural and cognitive perspectives into an approach to personality that stresses the interaction of a thinking human with a social environment that provides learning experiences† (p.467). It is proposed that an individual’s thoughts and actions originate in the social world and there is the capacity for self regulation and to engage in active cognitive processes (Bandu ra, 1999). The humanistic or phenomenological theories of personality view humans as innately good. Emphasis is placed on individual experiences, relationships and ways of understanding the world. Human nature includes a natural drive towards personal growth. We as humans have the ability to choose what we do regardless of environment and humans are pretty much conscious beings. We are not controlled by unconscious needs and conflicts (Engler, 2008). According to Rogers (1951) individuals possess the innate ability to know what is important to them, what is essential for a more fulfilling life. This is known as an Organismic Valuing Process. Myesha demonstrated this as she wanted to study Literatures in English, while her mother wanted her to follow in her stepfather’s footsteps and study Law instead. Rogers would have stated at this point that Myesha went against her Organismic Valuing Process and conformed to her mother’s wishes by studying Law. When significant others in an individual’s world, ( in Myesha’s case; her parents), provide positive regard that is conditional, rather than unconditional, the individual introjects the desired values, making them ones own, thus they acquire â€Å"conditions of worth† (Engler, 2008). As a result, the self concept becomes based on these standards of value, rather than on the organismic evaluation. According to Bandura (1978), while assessing an individual’s behavior, there are three interactional processes to consider; the person, the individual’s behaviour and the environmental setting. These factors all operate as interlocking determinants of each other and â€Å"it is largely through their actions that people produce the environmental conditions that affect their behavior in a reciprocal fashion† (Funder & Ozer, 2001, p.461) (see Appendix 1). This process involves a triadic reciprocal interaction rather than a dyadic conjoint or a dyadic bi directional one (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). For instance Myesha quickly realized that Law was not for her. She considered dropping out of the University as she had gotten involved with a spoken word group around this time. As a result, her stepfather threatened to stop supporting her if she dropped out and this placed a strain on family relationships. These are all factors of cause and effect, which are influencing each other. Bandura views Myesha as an agentic operator in her life. He would believe that she has the capability to intentionally make things happen by her actions and that she is not an â€Å"onlooking host of internal mechanisms orchestrated by environmental events† (Bandura, 2001, p.2). Individuals are sentient agents of experiences rather than simply undergoers of experience. The sensory motor and cerebral systems are tools people use to accomplish the tasks and goals that give meaning and direction in their lives (Harrà © & Gillet 1994). Carl Rogers also agrees to some degree with Bandura, in the belief that the environment also affects us and the people in our environment determine what our behavior will be like (Pervin, Cervone & John, 2005). He also believes that her experience in the spoken word group can have an impact on her personal growth and individual experiences. The belief is that Myesha’s experiences are unique, and that her perception of the world is critical to understanding and achieving a particular behavior that would be identical to her becoming a self-actualized individual (Gladding, 2004; Engler, 2008). Social cognitive theory maintains that most human behaviour is self-regulated. Through cumulative direct and vicarious experience, people develop performance standards that they use to evaluate their own behaviour. Almost constantly the person compares what he or she does in a situation with some performance standard (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). According to Bandura (1974), these standards are prescribed by socialization agents and parents who define the conduct worthy of reward. Responses from these individuals are either negative or positive based on the valued levels. For example, if performance is achieved or exceeds the standards, an individual’s parents may react in a positive manner towards the child. This child will experience intrinsic reinforcement. On the other hand if performance falls short of a standard, the person experiences intrinsic punishment, as a result of the negative reaction exhibited by one’s parents, social agents or ones self (Hergenhan & Olson, 1999). Although Myesha seemed to be able to manage her performance in the Law programme, her decision not to attend her class presentation may be viewed as a form of intrinsic punishment. Bandura and Kupers (1964) for example, found that children, exposed to models who set high performance standards, reinforced themselves only for superior performance, whereas children, exposed to models accepting minimal performance standards, reinforced themselves for minimal performance. It would be expected then that relevant people in a child’s life, for instance parents, siblings and peers, would have a profound influence on the development of a child’s performance standards. We see that Myesha’s success as a straight ‘A’ student throughout primary school transitioned to a declining performance upon entering secondary school. Additionally, we need to consider her family relationship as a contributing factor. At this time, her brother was considered the favourite by her mother and stepfather. Additionally, performance standards must be realistic. In other words, if they are too lenient, they will be too easily met, and little, if any, self-reinforcement will result from performing in accordance with them (Bandura 1974). If they are too stringent, one will experience frustration or worse. In Myesha’s case, her stepfather threatened to withdraw financial support if she dropped out of the Law programme and this further caused their relationship to become strained. Her brother’s attitude was negative and her mother became depressed. Bandura (1986) says, â€Å"In its more extreme forms, harsh standards for self-evaluation give rise to depressive reactions, chronic discouragement, feelings of worthlessness, and lack of purposefulness†. According to Hergenhan and Olson (1999), Bandura observed among the mechanisms of personal agency, none is more central or pervasive than people’s beliefs about their capabilities to exercise control over events that a ffect their lives. Self-efficacy refers to what a person is actually capable of doing, that is, belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations (Bandura, 1994). This is known as perceived self efficacy (Bandura, in press, p. 2). According to Pajares (1996), these beliefs of personal competence effect behaviour in several ways as they influence the choices individuals make and the courses of action they pursue (544). Individuals engage in tasks in which they feel competent and confident and avoid those in which they do not. This was exhibited by Myesha with her spoken word group becoming very popular on the local scene. At this point, according to Bandura, Myesha has a high self esteem and a high self efficacy, as she enjoys performing with her group (Pervin et al., 2005). In contrast, she considers dropping out of the Law programme, as it is something that she does not enjoy, but is still capable of doing. She knew the material for her presentation, but Myesha still skipped it. In doing so, she exhibited a high self esteem, because she knew the work and yet at the same time, she possessed a low sense of self efficacy, as she was unable to achieve a high grade on the presentation as she found it difficult to think about it. Rogers (as cited in Barone, Hersen, Vincent & Hasselt, 2004) stated, an organism functions to maintain consistency among self perceptions and congruence between perceptions of the self and experiences. According to Lecky (as cited in Swann, Griffin, Predmore & Gaines, 1987), self conceptions are important for survival because they enable individuals to predict and control the nature of social reality. Thus â€Å"individuals are therefore motivated to preserve their self views which they do by thinking and behaving in ways that perpetuate their conceptions of self† which was demonstrated by Myesha when she skipped the presentation (Swann, Griffin, Predmore & Gaines, 1987 ,p.881). Rogers states however that if Myesha continues to participate in the spoken word group she is more likely to achieve her â€Å"ideal self† in agreement with the result shown from Bandura’s High self efficacy (Friedman & Schustack, 2008). The humanistic or phenomenological, theories of personality suggest that she should have a positive and optimistic view of her behaviour and she should take life into her own hands and stop doing law which is making her unhappy. She should continue being involved with her spoken word group which she is successful at. Then being able to finance herself in the degree she wants to do as she is old enough to do so (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). According to Pervin et al. (2005), â€Å"Bandura believes that social and economic conditions influence individual’s beliefs about their ability to influence events† (p.419). In the case study Myesha’s emotional ties to her family along with her step father threatening to withdraw his financial support led her to continue with the Law programme. In contrast Rogers (as cited in Kahn & Rachman, 2000), views Myesha’s decision to continue with the Law programme as a need for positive regard, which is acceptance, peace and financial support from her family. Myesha’s decision is also an indication that the conditions of worth still exists. However based on Roger’s conditional positive regard, she is bending herself out of shape to please her family (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). Experiences in accordance with these conditions are perceived and symbolized accurately in awareness, while those that are not are denied and distorted into awareness, which may lead to incongruence between the self as perceived and the actual experience of the individual, also resulting in possible tension, confusion and maladaptive behaviour (Pervin, Cervone & John, 2005). These said experiences can be perceived as threatening by an organism without conscious awareness, utilizing a process known as subception, which is a form of discrimination without awareness that can result in anxiety. This was displayed when Myesha thrashed in bed, sweating and her heart pounding the night before she was to do the presentation (Barone et al., 2004). Carl Roger proposed that Myesha is living in the here and now as she is involved with the spoken word group which she enjoys. This is what he calls existential living, which is on the basis that the present is the only reality that one has. Social cognitive theory disagrees with this notion in that â€Å"a primary determinant in an individual’s actions and emotions is in ones expectations about the future† (Pervin et al., 2005, p. 425). Organisms possess expectancies regarding topics such as behaviour of others, the rewards or punishments that may follow a certain type of behaviour, or an indvidual’s ability to handle stress and challenges. It is this system of thoughts about the future that constitutes the person’s expectations. In the case of Myesha, she felt an immediate sense of relief when she played truant and did not take part in the presentation, she also felt guilty and worried over the consequences of her failure (Pervin et al., 2005). Recommended Instruments to assess Myesha’s personality When one speaks of personality assignment in psychology, activities include the diagnosis of mental illness, prediction of behaviour, measurement of unconscious processes and quantification of interpersonal styles and tendencies. Although all of these descriptions may be true for different clinicians working with various client groups, this listing may not accurately capture the full range of modern personality assessment. Personality assessment therefore is a complex clinical enterprise where the tools of assessment are used in concert with data from referring providers, such as, clients, families, schools, courts and other influential sources (). In order to assess Myesha’s personality, we should briefly look at her perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as a person’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes (Betz, Klein & Taylor, 1996). They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes. We see that Myesha’s struggle to choose a career, has affect on her self-efficacy. Therefore, it is suggested that we measure her personality using the ‘Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale’ (CDSE). The CDMSE is a well-developed construct. Hackett and Betz (1981), were the first to apply Bandura’s (1977) propositions about self-efficacy to career behaviour in a seminal study of women’s career development. They demonstrated that career decisions, achievements and adjustment behaviours were subject to the influence of self-efficacy beliefs in both men and women. Taylor and Betz (1983) developed the Career Decision-making Self-efficacy (CDMSE) scale to measure these self-efficacy expectations, in terms of goal selection, occupational information, problem solving, planning, and self-appraisal. In the process, Taylor and Betz demonstrated that participants with lower levels of efficacy for decision-making were also more undecided. Another instrument that will be used to assess Myesha’s personality is the Q-Sort. The Q-Sort is a technique used by humanistic theorists such as Carl Rogers, to measure the self concept of an individual (Hergenhan and Olson, 1999). The Q-Sort assessment was developed by Stephenson (1953). This assessment was used to help individuals to differentiate between the ideal self and the concepts of the self, since human beings struggle with the concepts of who they really are as Myesha exhibited in the case study (Barone, Hersen,Vincent & Hasselt, 2004). The Q-Sort consists of a deck of 100 cards, each containing fairly specific characteristic statements within an individual’s personality such as â€Å"detail oriented† or â€Å"high self-esteem†(see Appendix 2). Since the individual chooses the cards this enables the psychologists conducting the assessment to have some control in the results of the assessment and to find the origin of Myesha’s behaviour, also defining what they want to know. The goal of this assessment is to determine where a person is at, relative to these qualities, at the beginning of treatment and then to re-assess at various intervals and at the end to determine progress (Engler, 2008). As the name indicates, Myesha will have to sort the cards in accordance to what she believes are her characteristics and place them in categories. This will enable Myesha and the tester to be able to see the differences and discrepancies between the real and ideal self as well as examine and highlight the level of self esteem. Meysha’s real self will reflect immediate circumstances, experiences and self characterization, while her ideal self should enable her to relate to the future by setting goals to which she would aspire, rather than goals that others want her to obtain. This technique is often best used on students. Myesha is a student and this assessment will indicate how empathy, conditional positive regard and genuineness have played a role in her personal growth. This will enable the psychologists to help her to come to some realization of who she is and how to work towards who she needs to be. These two instruments will allow Myesha to have an understanding of who she is and this should also enable her to successfully cope with, or eliminate, her anxiety as she strives towards her future goals. References Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy, Encyclopedia of human behavior. Academic Press, 4, 77-81 Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Bandura, A., & Kupers, C. J. (1964). Transmission of patterns of self-reinforcement through modelling. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 69, 1-9 Bandura, A (1999). A social cognitive theory of personality. Retrieved on 12th Feb 2010 http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Bandura1999HP.pdf Bandura, A. (2001) Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective. Annual Review of Psychology. 52, 1-26. Bandura, A. (in press). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Bandura, A. (1974). The case of the Mistaken Dependent Variable. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83 (3), 301-303. Bandura, A. (1978). The Self System in Reciprocal Determinism. American Psychological Association, 33 (4), 344 – 358. Barone,F. D., Hersen,V., B, V., & Hasselt, V.( 2004). Advanced Personality (1st Ed). Springer. Betz, N., & Hackett, G. (1981). The relationship of career-related self-efficacy expectations to perceived career options in college women and men. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 28, 399-410. Betz, N. E., Klein, K., Taylor, K. M. (1996). Evaluation of a short form of the Career Decision- Making Self-Efficacy scale. Journal of Career Assessment, 4, 47-57. Carver,C.S and Scheier,M.F. (2000).Perspectives on personality (4th Ed.)Allyn and Bacon. Engler, B. (2008). Personality Theories (8th Ed). Wadsworth Publishing. Friedman, S. H., & Schustack, W. M. (2008). Personality Classic Theories and Modern Research (4th Ed). Allyn & Bacon. Funder , C. D., & Ozer, J. D. (2001). Pieces of The Personality Puzzle (2nd Ed). Norton and Company Inc. Gladding, T. S, (2000). Counseling: A Comprehensive profession (4th Ed). Prentice Hall, Inc. Harrà ©, R., & Gillet, G. (1994). The discursive mind. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Hergenhan, B.R., Olson, M. H. (1999). An introduction to theories of personality. 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Pajares, F. (1996). Self efficacy beliefs in academic settings. Review of Educational Research, 66 (4), 543-578. Passer, W. M., & Smith, E. R. (2007). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior (3rd Ed). McGraw Hill. Pervin, A. L., Cervone, D., & john, P.O. (2005). Personality Theory and Research (Eds). John Wiley. Rathus, A.S. (2004). Psychology Concepts and Connections. New York: Thomson Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications,and theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Schultz, P. D., & Schultz, E. S. (2008). Theories of Persoanlity (9th Ed). Wadworth Publishing. Swann, B. W.,Griffin, J. J., Predmore, C. C., & Gaines, B. (1987). The cognitive affect crossfire: When self-consistency confronts self-enhancement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Taylor, K., & Betz, N. (1983). Applications of self efficacy theory to understanding the treatment of career indecision. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 63-81.