Human Development and Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Development and Learning - Essay Example According to Piaget's theory, cognitive development takes place in four separate stages and each stage progresses onto being more refined and conceptual levels of thought. Sensorimotor, the first stage (birth to 24 months) is characterized by knowledge being achieved mainly through sensory impressions and motor action. At the end of this stage, the child will have a little understanding outside what can be sensed. The subsequent stage is the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years) describes how child shifts from sensory testing to the progression of language and using of symbols. The basic characteristics of the stage are reading and a quick increase in vocabulary. The third stage is concrete operational (7 to 11 years) shows significant developments in perception and in the last phase known as the formal operational (11 to adulthood) explains the child's developing the skill to think about hypothetical conditions and reflect abstractly. Lev'Vygotsky, another renowned theorist, proposed the Sociocultural Theory of Development which suggested that children learn through socially interacting with their surrounding culture and communicate with others to learn the cultural values of the society through dialogue. Children progress in the direction of more individualized thought process during these social interactions. The co-constructed development incorporates individuals interacting through shared activities. Once the child is assisted in this process, he or she may be able to use enhanced strategies in the future if a familiar situation arises. This leads to internalization, which further results in the child's independent thought process. There are essential similarities between the natures of development of intelligence in children. This is particularly obvious in their views on the stage-related development process of cognitive abilities. Vygotsky is well known on his position on the importance of social factors in development. Piaget stressed the vital role of social factors in the building of knowledge. According to Piaget, social interaction is necessary in order to develop logic. Furthermore, both Vygotsky and Piaget agreed that it is the development of the individual which ultimately takes place. They also stated that internalization is not a process of copying material from the environment but is a transformative process. Piaget investigated the fundamental mechanisms in the individual constructing its thoughts, while Vygotsky dealt with socially developed mechanisms for constructing language meaning and learning. But both of them relate mental processes to the generative constructions of systems that maintain development, that is, in culture or in the individual interacting with its environment. In Vygotsky's opinion language is makes human species humanized and makes human thought a part of culture. On the other hand, language for Paiget is one of the five behavior patterns that manifest representational intelligence in children. Paiget's theory of intelligence is based on biological factors, but it also implies social dimensions as well. The

Fiscal policy and the US economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fiscal policy and the US economy - Essay Example 'Auerbach and Feenberg (2000) have estimated that automatic tax stabilizers offset about 8% of the impact of an economic shock to GDP.'(Economic Research and Data. The Role of Fiscal Policy. 2002) Mere anticipation of projected fiscal action can have an impact on the U.S. economy. Households and business enterprises will operate their individual spending habits based on both present economics as well as future economics. For instance, a tax cut will leave households will more disposable income, however, if the tax cut is looked upon as a temporary measure it will not contribute to increased consumer expenditure. Similarly, investment tax credits which will only lower the cost of investment ventures on a temporary basis will likely encourage investors to time their spending so as to capitalize on the tax credit initiatives. It is therefore imperative that fiscal policy be considered and conducted in such a manner as to take into consideration the likely impact of both the current and future implications. 'When expectations of future fiscal policy are important, "expansionary" fiscal policy-an increase in government spending, for example-may actually be contractionary'. (Economic Research and Data. The Role of Fiscal Policy. ... It can also influence financial markets to anticipate future tax hikes. The implications are detrimental to the general economy. As a result, long-term interest rates will go up, investors will hold back somewhat on investments thereby circumventing the government's intended expansionary effects of its spending. During the country's recession of the 1990-1991 fiscal year the President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) made a similar observation: 'an attempted stimulus that abandoned, or was perceived to abandon, serious discipline on the growth of future spending or on the reduction in the multiyear structural deficit probably would produce a substantial rise in interest rates. That would offset a large portion of the direct stimulus in the short run and would leave the economy thereafter with a higher cost of capital, which would be detrimental to investment necessary for long-run growth.'(US President. 1992. p.25) According to Alesina, Perotti and Tavares a reduction in deficits are more likely to be expansionary when they entail government spending cuts and government salaries as well as transfers. These cuts have the effect of indicating decreases in government spending activity on a permanent basis and as a result there is a general public perception that taxes will be decreased in the future. On the other hand, decreases in the deficit which are accomplished via tax increases appear to be 'contractionary'.(Alesina. 1998. pp-197-248. The US government's role in the nation's economy cannot be accomplished by merely regulating its fiscal spending and management. The government can only achieve the best results possible for the good of the US

Mental Health and Mental Disorders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mental Health and Mental Disorders - Essay Example He worked out Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. This author stated that emotions derive from "an interaction between events in the environment and beliefs and expectations which we have". (qtd in Clark, p. 130) Sometimes these beliefs are so powerful that they affect person's emotional conditional. The purpose of emotive behaviour therapy is to make these emotions less powerful and not badly influence person's emotional condition. (Clark). According to the concepts of cognitive theory, specialists counseling in mental disorders, should focus on mental condition of the client and investigate his identity, rather than treat his physical body with the help of medicines that may have side effects. Another famous author who worked in the field of cognitive therapy was Aaron Beck. He worked out a special methodology and strategies to treat depression and anxiety that were based upon the conceptions of cognitive theory. Clients are to perform a dialogue within his inner world to define the patterns that are to be changed to improve client's condition. Treatment strategies worked by Beck help a client to find out depressive beliefs and change his way of thinking. The commentators describe the essence of Beck's approach as following: "According to Beck and Emery, the way we process information is governed by structures called schemata. These schemata are made up of rules for explaining incoming information, and for retrieving what we have already learned. They are capable of exerting powerful effects on how we experience and relate to the world. For example, the schemata of a person with a social phobia cause them to become anxious and avoidant by explaining incoming information a nd memories in terms of social threat. Treatment consists of correcting faulty or illogical thinking by repeatedly confronting cognitive schemata with discrepant information from role-playing and homework assignments." (Abela, p.117) Modern medicine includes treating depression and anxiety with psychotherapy or medications, or combining both these treatments. The experiments and researches show that a combination of these two methods is mostly effective, especially because antidepressants rarely result in dependence. Companies that produce medicine encourage doctors to prefer medical treatment to psychotherapy, but there are cases in which referring to a specialist in psychotherapy is necessary. In case the person takes antidepressants and this brings no results, a visit to professional in mental health may be more effective. (Clark) Cognitive theory and therapy based upon it provide for a theoretical basis allowing specialists better understand the reasons for anxiety and depression to appear, to treat them effectively. This theory is regarded as effective even in comparison with other popular theories. To better understand the impact of cognitive theory into modern psychotherapy it is necessary to observe its perspective on mental illnesses and anxiety in particular. According to the cognitive theory, the reasons for depression, anxiety and worries appear due to several reasons: Sometimes it is enough just to see a model of behavior to take it over, when a person expresses intense fears or nervous condition. Sensitive people often answer such behaviour the same way. Sometimes a person inadequately estimates the situation and interactions with people

The development of an export market Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The development of an export market - Assignment Example The emphasis on the sports benefits of the drinks, as an improvement to water and as an aid to intense sports activities that is able to provide adequate hydration and nutrition even to the most demanding and most gifted athletes. It is worth noting that as a product range, the Lucozade brand benefits from insights and inputs from hard core research undertaken on behalf of the brand by universities, sports coaches, practitioners, and nutritionists, under the so-called Lucozade Sports Science Academy. Moreover, the brand is well-known for its marketing tag line, which is about replacing the lost energy from intense physical activities making use of Lucozade. That said, officially the classification is that of Lucozade being a soft drink brand (Answers Corporation 2013; GlaxoSmithKline Group of Companies 2013). In the United States, which is the chosen export market, key competitors in the segment of sports hydration drinks where Lucozade is bound to compete includes Gatorade and Power ade, with the former being the heavyweight brand with the greatest mind share and market share not only in the United States but in many parts of the world, and with the latter being the key competitor brand offered by Coca Cola (Carpenter 2000; Howard 2008; Competitor Group 2013). It is worth noting that those three brands mentioned above remain dominant in the world when it comes to sports drinks, with Lucozade in particular being the most dominant brand in the United Kingdom in terms of both value sales and sales by volume. Annual sales for Lucozade is estimated at 260 million British pounds. Its presence in other markets, on the other hand, is hampered by strong competition from Gatorade and Powerade, even as the overall market for sports drinks is forecasted to reach US 55 billion dollars by 2018, indicating a large opportunity for Lucozade to get a substantial piece of that pie from exporting activities. The US being a large and lucrative market for sports drinks, this export development plant for that export market has potentially great value for the brand and for GlaxoSmithKline. Other statistics meanwhile bolster the case for exports as a lucrative activity given that there is a relatively low penetration level for sports drinks in general, at just 50 percent, even as the segment grew by 64 percent for the five-year period from 2007 all the way to 2012. By product category, all three categories, hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic drinks experienced sustained growth in volumes and dollar value over that given period, with prospects for growth also promising moving forward to 2018 and beyond (Companies and Markets 2013). In the US, moreover, Gatorade and Powerade together account for virtually the entire market for sports drinks with Gatorade owning 69 percent of the market, and Powerade owning 30 percent of the market. Both companies spend heavily on advertising and marketing activities centered on getting star athletes to endorse the brands and produc ts. The trend towards a sustained growth in the sports drink sector is confirmed in the long term, in contrast to the general decline in soda consumption in the United States over the past several decades (Daily Mail Reporter 2013). Other estimates put the market share of Gatorade at an even larger percentage, 75 percent, with Powerade taking 20 percent and the rest of the players in the sports drink market taking up the remaining 5 percent, reflecting the overall dominance of

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 12

Research Paper Example At the age of three Chang Emigrated to the United States of America. Before turning to the full time writing career, Lee was the financial analyst of Wall Street. His first and the famous novel Native Speaker appeared in 1995, which won numerous Awards (Nguyen, 2012) The story of the Native Speaker rotates around the character named Henry Park. Park spends all his life to become a Native American, a true America. His Korean inheritance seems to float further and further away as the force of his adopted country continues to evade him. Harsh upbringing of Park back in Korea, has taught Park how to hide his emotions and how to remember everything he learns and the weirdest of all, how to feel an increasing sense of alienation. We can say in other words, that his Korean Heritage had taught him how to become a natural spy. But the only factor that assist him to shine in his profession put a tension to his American and rise in the approach of his coming to conditions with the death of his young son. When he is offered to spy on growing American-Korean politicians, he must find out that that the people are in his surroundings? This was the true test of his identity. He has to figure out the conflicts, which are prevailing within the political and ethnic sectors of New York (Kim, 2005). Henry Park, who is also the narrator, is an American-Korean immigrant. Explorations begin when the Henry’s Caucasian spouse leaves him. The novel Native Speaker is based in New York City. It takes place for the period of a time when black customers and American-Korean councilman boycotted the American market. The councilman was names as John Kwang. John was also a possible candidate for the post of mayor. Henry Park is employed to an investigative company of CIA –style. The Assignment which was offered to Henry by his company was to keep a check on John Kwang. Park does not know the purpose of investigation and who is paying for this investigation? He thinks

Business Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Business Project Management - Essay Example The researcher states that before initializing a project, project manager and team must be sure about the structure of the host firm because it influences their project and the operations they seek to perform. In addition, the culture of an organization is composed of certain attributes such as values, attitudes, viewpoints and behaviors of its staff members. In addition, it demonstrates the established principles and values of the organization, infusing all the activities which a corporation performs. In simple words, it can make a project a success or a failure. However, the perfect organizational culture is that in which projects are well thought-out in strategic management and are executed to promote and support a firm’s corporate strategy and corporate goals. As a result, top management pays more attention to them and assigns more and more organization’s resources to allow them to be successful. Here strategic management is the discipline of building, implementing, and assessing cross-functional decisions that facilitate a corporation to attain its goals. Moreover, each corporation has its own model organizational culture, operating systems and inside and outside resources to attain this. In addition, at the present it is necessary for the project managers to be familiar with the cultural, organizational and social environments adjacent the project. It could be done by recognizing the stakeholders and their capability to have an effect on the project. Thus, it could lead towards the likelihood of influencing project surroundings in an optimistic manner. Therefore, the any kind of risks could be considerably diminished; however failure to adopt such a way could unavoidably lead to a less than acceptable ending. In addition, the successful project managers would be familiar with the importance to put some effort in changing or improving the organizational culture for the benefit of the project stakeholders. In this scenario, it is the responsib ility of every team member of a project, undeniably every employee of the organization, needs to be influenced to express the attitude that, just as they are stakeholders, as well as every other project stakeholder is also vital (Wideman, 2001). Moreover, the organization's culture plays a significant role in success rate of projects. Take into account that this is about projects all throughout a corporation, not just about one specific project. In addition, the culture of a host organization plays possibly the major role in whether their organization is flourishing in running projects. On the other hand, if a supplier firm faces challenges running projects productively with the host firm, they cannot blame the project managers. In fact, they are struggling surrounded by a culture that is not in support of their struggle. Thus, it is essential for the project manager as well as the top management of the supplier firm to identify and assess the culture of the host organization. Until they are

How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety Through Yoga Essay Example for Free

How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety Through Yoga Essay Stress is an inevitable part of life. Our jobs, families and friends are constant potential sources of stress in our lives. People are constantly on the search for ways to deal with their stress. Yoga has been proven as a means of dealing with stress so in this essay I will discuss how yoga has been used to deal with stress and anxiety. By definition, Yoga is; â€Å"a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation†. I feel that it is a very calming and soothing form of exercise that also manages to improve health, flexibility and thought-processing skills. When people are stressed or suffering from anxiety, they tend to think less logically, sleep less, eat unhealthily and practice less exercise. However, dealing with ones stress is the best idea in improving ones lifestyle so, yoga is a practical solution for these issues. Specifically, yoga is more than just stretching. It loosens up the tense muscles in the body (due to the vast amounts of stretching) especially (the high stress areas); the neck, the shoulders and the back. It combines a loosening the muscles with regular deep breathing and relaxation of the mind. When practicing yoga, one must always â€Å"stay in the moment†, it is one of the key phrases of the activity. When people are stressed they constantly think of their next upcoming deadlines rather than focusing on the now. Yoga manages to relax the person by allowing you to think solely on the moment. When in a yoga pose you only think of the current pose and how it should match your breathing, thinking and balance. You cant think of your pose if youre thinking of your problems therefore, the poses are designed to make you think about the moment so you can successfully accomplish them. In doing so, you become so involved in your pose that you forget about the issues which caused you stress in the first place. Also, yoga emphasizes slow deep breathing which, in itself, is a means of dealing with anxiety therefore already helping the person to relax. This means that one of the core features of yoga is already a means of solving anxiety. Breathing is the key to yoga stress management. Instructors encourage people to focus on their breathing because it allows you to focus on something other than your stress. Listening to your own breath makes your problems seem further away because you pay more attention to your core self rather than your external issues. Every yoga class ends with a corpse pose. This pose is designed for deep relaxation. After undergoing several challenging poses that really stretch out the tense muscles, the corpse pose (or â€Å"playing dead†) allows your body to re-adjust whilst also relaxing the mind. Whilst â€Å"playing dead† I tend to not think about anything and just flow with the music like â€Å"a pebble flowing in the river†. This is possibly the most relaxing phase of yoga because of motionlessness of the body after an intense session. This phase can be so relaxing that many people even tend to fall asleep. This is clearly a sign that yoga works because, stressed people do not sleep easily. As college students, yoga can be very useful at peak times such as; before class, before a test or before going to bed. Before a test you can easily do some neck and shoulder rolls and relieve yourself. Before bed, if you have a lot of things on your mind, you can do a few stretches (maintaing them for 3 to 4 full breaths) and thus relax yourself enough to sleep comfortably without any impending thoughts. In conclusion, I feel that yoga is very useful for stress and anxiety relief. In my personal experience, yoga has helped me become a less stressed and thus more comfortable person because I have found an escape as a college student from the, occasionally, mundane and monotonous routine.