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

Chocolate - Essay Example One could moreover trace the map of the world as close to what we know today by starting from that time when Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher saw the canoe loaded with cacao beans in 1502 - the first sighting by a European - to that time when the Maya nobles presented chocolate as a gift to the Spanish crown in 1544 - the beginning of the popularization of chocolate, first among the nobility, until they the colonial powers spread the practice of eating and producing chocolate as a beloved food concoction. Location is evidently a starting point for chocolate. It must be noted that for example coffee and chocolate originated only in certain parts of the world, and not in any other location. The same can be said of wine and cheese. And while the seeds or technologies in making them may have been transported to other parts of the world, they're cultivation and production are still limited in certain parts of the world, where they are said to have their origins. Chocolate comes from the cacao tree which has been described as a "difficult tree to grow, uncooperative and moody" (Wolf 4).

Operant Conditioning Experiment Essay Example for Free

Operant Conditioning Experiment Essay I chose to involve the 1-year and a couple of months old son of my good friend and neighbor (named Judith) for my Operant Conditioning Experiment. Shawn, as we fondly call the toddler, happens to be extraordinarily shy. He would rather stay around the presence of his mom or dad than enjoy playing with other kids. He shuns most, if not all occasions of interaction with other fellows. I, for my part, have tried to â€Å"sneak† him away from his parents (with their permission, of course), to no avail. Instances in the Experiment I set for myself a modest goal – i. e. , to be able to make Shawn a little more comfortable with the company of someone other than his parents for at least 5 minutes. What I did was to spend some time, about an hour, in my friend’s home after school. I asked my friend to bring Shawn to the living room area, where we would chat while sitting on the couch. In the process, I would give Shawn some cookies (oat meal cookies are his favorite) on the condition that he would sit by my lap. The first day was a complete mess. Judith brought with her Shawn to the living room, but ended up catering to his tantrums. He appeared restless that time. The second day was the formal start of the experiment. Shawn sat near her mom by the couch. I handed him over an oatmeal cookie but he won’t accept. He only got it when Judith convinced him to do so. Come third day, we did the same routine again. I offered Shawn an oatmeal cookie and pulled it back again and again just as he was about to get it. The concept was that I needed to ask him to sit nearer my place before I would give in letting him have the cookie. Still, the experiment proved unsuccessful. I got almost the same results on the fourth day of my experiment. But I was feeling happy that Shawn’s uneasiness with my presence appears to be waning. The fifth day however, I saw a significant development. When I asked him to sit beside me while offering the cookie, Shawn got up to get the cookie from where I was, and sat for a few seconds. He then got up again, holding his cookie, and got back to his mother’s place in the couch. Evaluation of the Experiment Firstly, I must say that I did not meet the goal of my experiment, i. e. , to make Shawn enjoy my company even for 5 minutes. While I got Shawn to become a little less uneasy with my presence, and in fact got him to get his cookie and sit beside me for a few seconds, the fact that I was not able to make him stay with me at least for 5 minutes renders the experiment only as a relative success. Looking back, I have three realizations to make in relation to the experiment. First, I may have set a goal which is too much for Shawn to handle. Second, the experiment duration of 5 days may be too short for someone as timid and shy as Shawn. Third, I realized that Operant Conditioning may entail exploring other motivations to elicit behavioral change. If only I have explored offering him other enjoyable stuff like toys, I may have gotten better results from my experiment. Had I used more appealing reinforcers to help my experiment, I believe that my experiment would have generated better and more successful outcomes.

Evaluate the concept of normal and abnormal behaviour

Evaluate the concept of normal and abnormal behaviour To most people abnormality is described as being different from other people in other words it is seen as different from what is recognised as normal or unusual in society. Psychologists have described several approaches for standard behaviour but an evaluation of three different categories and their concept is going to be discussed. Different societies have their own set standards of behaviour and attitudes so anything that would fall outside the set criteria would be considered to be abnormal, psychologically referred to as deviation from social norms. Another theory of abnormality can be explained by referring to people who deviate from statistical norms. This definition groups people together, based on certain measured characteristics, and put this information into a distribution pattern to classify whether people fit into the average, or whether they fall outside the average, for example, if intelligence quotient is measured, the results would show that on average most people would fall around the middle, so those with either low or high scores statistically would be considered to be abnormal, though the assumption of intelligence can be portrayed in tow ways, for example if a person has a high IQ , they are regarded positively and do not fall in the abnormal criteria, whereas if others fall under the low score there are viewed negatively and therefore considered to be abnormal. Physical examples can also be taken into account, especially in terms of height or foot size. In other words manufacturers would produce products accord ing to the statistical numbers that fall into the normal criteria. Psychologists do have an overall assumption of how mental health, gender and culture issues are referred to statistically. Though they are several factors of mental health problems, there some such as anxiety or depression which are statistically considered to be normal human conditions whereas, if one is clinically disorganised with severe anxiety, or found to be clinically depressed can be described as someone with a mental disorder which is abnormal in a statistical sense. In terms of gender, some psychologists have argued that males are less likely to consult their doctors when suffering from mental disorders, which makes the females score highly in statistical data. Bennett (1995) believed that this would be due to matters of socialisation especially in industrialised societies. In regards to culture Cohen (1988) gave a description of how Indian mental patients are highly discriminated, so this would leave many patients without seeking any clinically help for their mental disord ers so this would lead to wrong statistical measures. Another definition would refer to those people whose behaviour is maladaptive or dangerous. This looks at the effects of the behaviour problems either to the wellbeing of an individual or any social group. We have to remember that defining abnormality is usually limited by cultural differences. This means that what may be classed as normal in one culture could be defined as extremely abnormal in another and this limits the definitions accuracy in being able to define abnormality as a whole so the three definitions above do not consider cultural differences. The concept of abnormal can be brought to a conclusion by evaluating the above approaches as they all help society identify abnormalities in other individuals which helps promote an overall safe living environment. For example, if an individual deviates from social norms, adequate help may be given to them as soon as their behaviour is detected from what is considered to be normal but on the other hand defining abnormality as deviation from social norms, can be used to justify the removal of those people who are considered to be abnormal from society. Statistically, it has been found out that though statistical frequency or infrequency is important to the population it is not effective when applied to mental disorders, so this makes it difficult to determine what is normal in the statistical sense. ANALYSE THE DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED IN DIAGNOSING MENTAL ILLNESS AND DISCUSS THEIR USEFULLNESS. A neurological examination, which helps physicians identify structural and psychiatric abnormality is usually carried out on patients with psychiatric disorders, and later gives an understanding of the wellbeing of the persons brain, mental function, nerves and muscles. Psychologists have developed two classification systems that help classify abnormality into mental disorders and also diagnose them clinically. They are known as Diagnostic statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) and the International Classification of The Causes of disease and Health Related Problems (ICD). Both these systems classify abnormal patterns of thinking, behaviour and emotion into mental illnesses. A significant feature of the DSM classification is the 5-axis diagnostic system, which gives a systematic evaluation of the patient and then gives a full account on the general medical condition of the patient or personality disorders, psychosocial and environment problems, as well as the level of functioning of the individual. The ICD on the on the other hand includes diagnoses for all the systems in the human body and is not popularly used in clinics as the DSM. Both classifications have the same e definition of mental disorders, so they both have their focus on the patients personal distress other than on what the rest of society react to any type of behaviour of the individual. The above classifications tend to be objective, but in society fear arises to the fact that those individuals who are classified and their families may be prejudiced against. The approach of classifications has been approved for its successfulness to the treatment of physical illnesses but not is found not to be very effective in treating mental disorders and this is because symptoms from those suffering with mental illnesses are usually subjective, meaning it is always what they feel and this may be diverse between individuals. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists have very limited information to assess the well being of an individual compared to those who treat physical illnesses, for they carry out extra laboratory examinations like x-rays and blood tests to find the symptoms and then diagnose the individual. This shows that cause of a disease in mental patients is partially known whereas in those patients with physical disorders causes are fully known. David Rosenhan (1973) carried out a study on eight people who were normal but complained of hearing voices, they were diagnosed with schizophrenia, so he argued that psychiatrists could only rely on their observation methods because they could not verify the patients symptoms. Therefore he drew a conclusion that psychiatric classification could be very inaccurate. Scheff (1966) also criticised the classification method in his labelling of theory. He argued that a psychiatric label to a patient may worsen their condition, because they might be treated as though they are mentally ill. On the other hand, psychologists have found it advantageous, and insist that DSM classification has helped in terms of developing and understanding the causes of mental illnesses in different patients. According to Gelder et el. (1996), The use of classification can certainly be combined with consideration of a patients unique qualities, indeed it is important to combine the two.{Pg 648 Eysenck M, (2000) Psychology A Students Handbook, Psychology Press}. According to ICD classification, 11 major categories can be identified for mental disorders. But they are found to be more general than those of DSM. Therefore, it has some extent of reliability, but very limited information on its validity. EVALUATE THE USEFULNESS OF DIFFERENT MODELS OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR The models of abnormality are theories that help to describe the cause of psychological disorders. There four models known as Biological, Psychodynamic, Behavioural and Cognitive approaches, and each model has a distinct view which helps to provide extra research and treatment approaches as a result. However, psychologists have split views in terms of analysing the disorders; some believe that disorders must originate from psychological causes whilst others believe that the disorders could be based on biological causes. A brief description and an evaluation is going to be looked at for both, Biomedical and Psychodynamic models and an outline of their usefulness will also be accounted for. Biological psychologists would explain that mental disorders are the consequences of biological systems due to the fact that, they regard abnormal behaviour in terms of abnormal biology. In fact the biological model is also known as the medical model because it categorises abnormality as a physical condition and it is the model that addresses mental disorder as an illness. Since it is see seen from the perspective of medicine, its concept for mental disorders, resemble that of physical illnesses, which means psychological disorders have under lying biological or biochemical causes. These are thought to arise from Infection by germs, inherited systemic defect, neurochemical factors and effects of trauma. The Psychodynamic model, was developed by Freud, though some of other psychologists changed some of its emphasis, most of the original assumption for this model is still actively used. Freud believed that humans are born with the id part of our personality and later on in life when people socialise into the moral standards of their culture then our super ego is developed. Freud explained that a well adjusted person develops a strong ego and therefore able to manage their personality. Although the biological approach is known to have fairly witnessed astonishing success in treating mental disorders with drug cures, it has also been criticised for having its main focus on the symptoms and therefore whenever drugs are stopped, the symptoms return which means the root of the problem is not being addressed. This approach tends to use classification systems such as DSM and ICD which have been doubted for their consistency and validity. Its scientific standing and links with medicine, the medical model is known to have gained popularity and credibility, but on the other hand danger of over diagnosis of mental illness and long dependency on drugs, which risks severe side effects, has also been addressed. The Psychodynamic model on the other hand has also been criticised for its validity, the fact that it carries out clinical interview and case studies for its experiments, it does not subject to scientific, empirical analysis. This means the central forces of the brain are unconscious, therefore making it difficult to directly be observed. Its theory is referred to as deterministic because it finds childhood attachments to parents, in the very early stages is crucial for personality development. Apart from the above criticism, the model is identified as the origin of modern day cures. . DESCRIBE AND EVALUATE THE MAIN APPROACHES TO THE TREATMENT OF MENTAL ILLNESS. The biological model treats mental disorders as physical illnesses. Somatic drugs such as minor and major tranquillizers or antidepressants are widely used. Chemotherapy is also regarded as effective and the main treatment of mental illnesses because of the assumption that chemical balance is the main cause of the problem. However, some psychologists have disagreed, and assume that the chemical imbalance to be the effect, rather than the cause of mental problems. For the Psychodynamic model, Freud developed a method of treatment called psychoanalysis, which is a type of therapy that seeks to uncover the underlying causes of abnormal behaviour. The belief was that unresolved emotional conflicts from early childhood could be withdrawn, so by talking to bring out and work through unconscious conflicts would bring it out to the conscious level and therefore be dealt with accordingly. It is also believed within the psychodynamic theory, that the unconscious can be revealed in dreams, so analysis of dreams is one of the techniques used in the treatment of mental disorders in psychodynamic theory. DESCRIBE AND EVALUATE PRACTICAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THERAPIES AND TREATMENTS

Produce a new look for a website. Essay -- Computer Science

Produce a new look for a website. 3.1.2 Formal Report =================== The problem that was in need of solving was to produce a new look for wow.com to target the 17 to 25 year olds. The look that the company were trying to aim for was young, energetic, dynamic and flexible. I firstly set out by comparing some current documents such as flyers, letters and invoices. This helped me as I could gather the best parts from these documents and use them to give me ideas to create new ones. The documents that I selected had to be 3 of a kind that were from three companies with two of a flyer and a letter. I the started off by researching and designing a logo for the new look wow.com. I produced four prototypes of the logo and selected the best one that I felt had got the right look that I wanted. The final design included two people which I felt really stood out from the rest of the designs. The next task was to design the letterhead to update the old style into the new look. I used the documents that I collected at the beginning to give me ideas on how to design it. These where then used as templates for my design, my design for the letterhead was pretty simple as I felt that I didn’t want to overcrowd the sheet. I then brought an example of a staff newsletter and used it to get some ideas from. I then went about designing the staff newsletter for wow.com. It contained four pages which included a front cover, two article pages and a fun and game...

Enhancing Parental Participation within the NICU :: Health, Family Center Care

Family centred care (FCC) encompasses the concept of parental participation in their infants care (Franck and Callery 2004). It aims to place the needs of the infant in the context of the family (Saunders et al 2003). FCC is adopted within many neonatal units and is considered the gold standard of care aiming to underpin and guide neonatal care towards the partnership between health professionals and parents (Hutchfield 1999). Subsequent to the interruption of the bonding process between infant and family when a baby is admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) it is suggested that the NICU provides an ideal opportunity for FCC practice (Allerman Beck et al 2009) as nurses and parents are compelled to develop an effective relationship in order to satisfy the infants care needs (Reis et al 2009). However a study by Higman & Shaw (2008) found that it appears to be more difficult to achieve on the neonatal unit as FCC is reliant on the family’s relationship with the chi ld. In order to deliver effective FCC neonatal nurses need an understanding of parents needs and how to address them. Mundy (2010) in a study researching the assessment of family needs in neonatal Intensive Care Units found that assumptions of parent’s needs were often made by healthcare professional’s resulting in unfounded and inappropriate conclusions. The importance of treating each family as individual is paramount when assessing how best to involve parents in the care of their infants (Higman & Shaw 2008). Review of the literature shows a lack of research into these assessments and highlights that enhancing family centred care requires appropriate assessments of family needs and the incorporation of this into individualised plans of care. A study into nurse’s perceptions about the delivery of FCC by Higman and Shaw (2010) supports this view, throughout the study it is apparent that although nurses realise the importance of FCC it is not always consistent within their own practice. Peterson et al (2004) suggests reasons for these inconsistencies could be the deficiency of adequate training and, the stress implementing FCC can impose on nursing staff due to an already demanding workload, potentially creating negative attitudes towards the relevance and practicalities of its delivery. The consensus view of FCC is positive although limitations to its execution are manifested throughout the literature. Staff shortages are suggested to hinder the performance of FCC within the clinical area, creating time constraints with nurses having very little opportunity to build good relationships with the families (Higman and Shaw 2008).

Fanon and de Beauvoir: Opposing Discrimination Essay example -- Psycho

Fanon and de Beauvoir: Opposing Discrimination All modern (i.e. post-paleolithic) religions contain the "Gnostic trace" of distrust or even outright hostility to the body and the "created" world. Contemporary "primitive" tribes and even peasant-pagans have a concept of immortality and of going-outside-the-body (ec-stasy) without necessarily exhibiting any excessive body-hatred. The Gnostic Trace accumulates very gradually (like mercury poisoning) till eventually it turns pathological. Gnostic dualism exemplifies the extreme position of this disgust by shifting all value from body to "spirit". This idea characterizes what we call "civilization". -Hakim Bey, â€Å"Information War†, c-theory a022 Struggles against ‘injustice’ in the 20th century tend to take a drearily similar form. First the advocate recognizes that not all people are equal, next demands that some irrelevant differences are ignored, and finally tries to make all people people again. This method has become so popular it has been applied â€Å"all the way down† the ladder of inferiority, to declare politically-irrelevant unequal treatment on ‘every possible’ basis. The effort is, in a sense, a drive to move from the â€Å"created† world outside the ‘body’ to a cheery world of equality in the mind. This hostility to the body and exoneration of a universal subject, unfortunately, is also precisely the basic cause of the discrimination one must condemn in step one of struggles for equality. The subject is a problem for many reasons, but the explicit proclamation of the inferiority of some to others relies purely on an ability to say what a person is or sho uld be, and what not. If some are treated as less than human, it may well be because of the category of human itself.... ...attempt to initiate some oppressed groups into the class of oppressors. What may well be needed instead of trading places in the system of constructed identities centered around one ideal subject is a rethinking of the subject itself, a problematization of the role of self that Fanon and de Beauvoir are so anxious to expand just enough to allow in their chosen group. The analogy to Moses is apt, the Gnostic impulse here can be seen in both thinkers as they rescue their people from the servitude in one land, take them through a long initiation process to the promised land, which is disappointing, and then allow them free reign as stable subjects to wage war against their own enemies and dominate the Canaanites as they had been dominated. There is a perverse specter of the golden rule being obeyed: discriminate against others as you were once discriminated against.

Case Study Building Shared Services Essay

ABSTRACT The following paper describes the case study of RR Communications from the view point of Vince Patton the CEO who deals with issues like different IT business units mainly Internet, mobile, landline and cable TV services working independently and neglecting the services of other department thus causing a downfall in the company’s valued services for the customers, CIO’s who are involved with IT-Business alignment are only focused on their individual department and strongly oppose the fact of centralized IT systems, Lack of centralized data i.e. because of the opposition face from department CIO’s , the paper discusses decisions made by Vince Patton to benefit RR communications like centralized IT systems , and decision to implement the shared service for customer calls , reduce the number of suppliers and third party vendors. The paper also discusses certain questions to understand the case in much detail and finally a proposed solution on how to implement the sh ared services. INTRODUCTION Issues of the case study The issues of RR communications identified in the case study are as described  below 1. Lack of centralized IT systems and single leadership, currently there are different departments for each vertical and each a CIO who wish to hold on to their department, this division causes lack of coordination and understanding the other service which has an negative effect 2. Failure in leadership has caused great problems for the company as an enterprise, the division presidents do not want to cooperate with the VP of IT to establish a congregation of the IT departments which has caused internal conflict and an upsurge to unite the database and bring a share system service for customer calls. 3. Their absence of single database has problems with managing data from duplication, storing and protection, and so with each division having their own data of customers to manage and provide service for the customers tend to receive four separate bills which is not helping to retain customers for the services provided. 4. Proliferation of unwanted projects because of the presence divisions who might feel the need of an project which in the enterprise point of view is unwanted, hence the VP’s suggestion of a monthly meeting to discuss the enterprise projects , its need, and scheduling them, budgeting , resource allocation was suggested. 5. Lack of information management makes it difficult to manage the business as a whole, makes it nearly impossible to bring in new technology or space of innovation is stifled because each division doesn’t seem to be in sync leading to increase in cost DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. List the advantages of a single customer service center for RR Communications. Implementing single customer services for RR communications by removal of departmentalized services for each service has the following advantages a. A single system for multiple department of services remove data redundancy like customer calls entry, customer information entry etc. thus expediting the process as for every call since personnel working on them are equally allocated and every person has some knowledge of the other sector information. b. A single system also prevents customers from being transferred from one department to another, and also just one bill can be set up to sent to the customer making it easier for the consumers to understand what c. Company can implement new products and services and  remain competitive in the market d. Common customer data repository which is advantageous for the company to reduce data procurement and maintenance cost e. Reduces complexity of multiple departments running playing by different rules thus making internal operations more effective and efficient f. Customer centric systems results in great customer satisfaction g. Sharing of information amongst many systems provides faster decisions on customer or system issues 2. Devise an implementation strategy that would guarantee the support of the divisional presidents for the shared customer service center. The case study clearly states that the divisional presidents/CIO’s are absolutely not convinced with the idea of integrating business units on the customer service center brining in shared customer services for many reasons stated like; for their own reasons of losing power in their department, their lack of concern on organization benefits whole as an enterprise, their worry on their individual projects not getting the right number of resources or budget. But some of the strategies if put forth rightly could have all the divisional presidents agree on the shared customer service a. Meetings that focus on IT decisions to be made together as an enterprise and allocate budgets and resources accordingly hence not leaving any division project on the loose loop. b. Bringing in the right infrastructure, metrics, enterprise architecture to help IT standardize their operations which brings the organization to have a consistent brand and successfully sell their services and each department president can receive support. c. Bringing IT folks into business discussions so that they understand the business aspect of the shared services and see what benefits their divisions and resources and pitch in their own ideas. d. Identifying business opportunities that matter to the divisions and ensuring any one department is given preference over the other e. The idea of creating a centralized database and a single data architecture that is accessible to all divisions improves customer satisfaction, lower costs, maintain integrity of data and also prevent duplicate data. And with these advantages the division president can see what is in store for their departments with respect to customer satisfaction. f. IT governance mechanism that handles all the department projects through monthly meetings where the division president can be given  an heads up projects that will be handled and that no project will be scrapped or lack budget and resources and those projects when using shared services can benefit maximum to the enterprise. 3. Is it possible to achieve an enterprise vision with a decentralized IT function? Working in the organization keeping in mind that the work is focused on the business as a whole and not concentrated to any particular department is the way a company needs to grow, but having many divisions and division of labor makes it difficult to envision company’s values, profitability and sustenance. Hence, decentralization of IT into smaller department causes confusion among the department makes information management a huge challenge. And with many departments and leaders for each miscommunication is bound to happen as each division leader is bound to think of his own department much more than work on the vision of the whole company thus causing chaos, disorganization of the project work to progress in the fast lane. And a decentralized IT in a company makes it difficult to track legacy customers or bring in new ones thus a loss in profit for the organization is sure to happen. 4. What business and IT problems can be caused by lack of common information and an enterprise IM strategy? Lack of a centralized information/data repository in any enterprise means lack of clear coordination among the various departments because of lack of communication and in all possibilities each department would not have access to their information if need be which can cause data redundancy. And with multiple silos of data storage and maintenance cost can considerably increase ultimately wasting financial and personnel resources. 5. What governance mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure common customer data and a shared customer service center? What metrics might be useful? To push forwards the implementation of shared services and encourage common customer data certain governance mechanism such as converging IT and Business, Involve IT in business meetings and being apart in making business decisions for the projects, once the shared system is established along with centralized data system each department can be regulated with the new data  which enhances performance. With systems in place, certain metrics can be developed to assess the risk involved, cost incurred, and weak areas in the department that requires immediate attention technically. CONCLUSION From the discussion above with issues, and answers discussing solutions, required governance, metrics and proposed plan it is understood that what RR communication requires is a centralized customer service that shares information amongst different divisions, and single data repository. Along with these, division presidents hindrance to these tasks needs to be put to an convincing end and let them know how well they can be involved in getting these systems in place with advantages to their department. Also uniting different divisions into one is an idea being thought over which will reduce auditing costs of each division, less cost to maintain data individually and makes sure the information transition is smooth and regulated. With this consolidated information, the company’s vision of maintaining its brand can be achieved through cross sales as each division will work with each other leading to faster and effective services rendered to the customers and thus achieving the vision for the enterprise as a whole. REFERENCES 1. Bakos, Treacy. (June 1986).Information technology and Corporate Strategy. Retrieved from http://people.stern.nyu.edu/bakos/itandcs.pdf 2. Nilles, Jack. The Impact of It on organizations. Retrieved from http://www.skyrme.com/insights/5itorg.htm 3. Kokemuller, Neil. Decentralized Company Business Structure. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/decentralized-company-business-structure 20629.html 4. IT Policy and Strategy, Wilmington University. Boston, MA. Pearson learning Solutions