Response to The Lottery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Response to The Lottery - Essay Example Many in the story could not remember the exact detail of the ritual. A similar traditional ritual today is prayer only for sickened individuals. Several times a year, reports of children dying of treatable diseases because their parents believed in prayer alone can be read in the newspaper. This is a traditional ritual that needs to be dropped, with the exception of a consenting adult. For example, a woman was in a car crash, with a massive amount of blood loss. Since she was a Jehovah Witness, she refused a blood transfusion. As a result, she died. That was her right as an American. On the other hand, children need treatment because they are not old enough to consent. Another traditional ritual that needs to be rethought is the running of the bulls in Spain. The bulls can be hurt. People are gored and even killed. The tradition has become antiquated. Men and women no longer need to prove their courage in this fashion. Tradition is the only reason this even still occurs, because it could not be rationality. Another traditional ritual that needs dropped is a woman automatically taking a man’s last name upon marriage. Women are allowed in today’s society to keep their own name, but are normally looked down upon for not taking their husband’s last name. Women that keep their own last names do not love their husbands, are too independent, or even considered witches. The tradition started centuries ago, when women were considered a man’s property. Women should be free to choose whether or not to take their husband’s last name. The reason to change the above tradition rituals vary. The reason to ban prayer alone healing is in order to save life. Believing in God is a good thing, as is prayer, but God gave humans brains to think with. An answer to prayer could be a medication created by a God created scientist. God does not always answer prayers the way humans want. It could be instead of instantly making a person whole,

The Argentinian Tango Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Argentinian Tango - Research Paper Example This paper focuses on the Argentinean tango (Groppa, 2004). Tango has transformed and influenced Argentinean cultural landscape since it is one of the Argentina cultural identification pillar. Being a nation constituted by immigrants, cultural identification is hard to come by, thus Tango forms their cultural pillar (Gannon, 2004). The Tango emerged from a passionate emotion of Italian and Spanish immigrants, who were hard working. On this basis, the hard working culture of Argentineans is made known to the world because of a musical genre. Initially, the Argentinean elites were reluctant to embrace the Tango due to its association with the middle class and disadvantaged citizen. However, the unique and powerful expressiveness of Tango overcame the barrier and it became more than just a music genre (Gannon, 2004). The music surfaced an Argentina’s cultural traits of devotion and loyalty associated with courage and pride. These are culture traits associated with every Argentinean. Tango reflects Argentinean culture as a nation full of energetic, communal and fun loving people. Despite the turmoil of economic strain, Tango still unit the people through the cultural trait of devotion and loyalty (Gannon, 2004). The development of working class group in Argentina is associated with Tango. Despite the restrictions put by the military, during the golden age of Tango, the cultural inspiration associated with the dance soldiered on (Gannon, 2004). It is documented that the military were afraid of Tango and knew it can be used as revolution channel. The predominant cultures of Argentineans such as seeking stability, uncertainty avoidance, risk taking and risk avoidance can be linked to tango cultural traits (Gannon, 2004). It has been a driving force for justice and the utmost admiration for the fragile balance that sustains community in check. The struggle for unity and just system in Argentina is

How Art Deco came to be Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How Art Deco came to be - Term Paper Example It mainly affected decorative arts, such as furniture, architecture, graphic arts, pottery or jewelry, but its influence extended to other artistic fields like films or fashion. â€Å"This movement was, in a sense, a broad umbrella covering many different artistic styles and movements in the early 20th century such as Neoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, and Futurism†. As Carol Fisher says, its origins are rooted in a reaction to the flowing motifs and fussiness of Art Nouveau with its emphasis on individual craftsmen made pieces. Its strongest points were its elegance and functionality. It was mainly based in geometric forms, zigzags and curves, and it is said that it was influenced also by tribal arts from Central America or Africa. Of course, the epoch’s advances in machinery and technology also influenced Art Deco, especially in the use of new materials such as crystal, steel, aluminum, lacquer or inlaid wood. These materials were u sed to produce pieces of art with staggered motifs, streamlined forms, stylized lines, gentle clean curves and rosette patterns. Exotic motifs and patterns inspired in nature, like plants or flowers, were also typical in Art Deco’s works of art. The declination of Art Deco came when it started to be seen as extremely loud, excessive and opulent art. Art Deco was finally ended, until the 80s, when there was an interest for it coming from graphic designers. Some colonial countries like Philippines continued using Art Deco until 1960. (Pheebay.com, "So What is Art Deco Design", October 2008. http://www.pheebay.com). Streamline Moderne was the artistic movement which followed Art Deco as a consequence of the Great Depression of 1929, based in the principles of aerodynamics and the simplicity of lines, ideas that were more in agreement with the sobriety of that period. Some splendid examples of Art Deco buildings could be the spire of the Chrysler Building or the Rockefeller Center in New York, the Bacardi Building in La Havana, the Goinia Theatre in Brazil, the BBC Broadcasting House in London, Palais de Tokyo in Paris or the Sta. Cecilia's Hall in Manila. Also, magnificent examples can be found in

Psychological Reaction to the movie American Beauty Essay

Psychological Reaction to the movie American Beauty - Essay Example The family is portrayed as normal but as the films tag line suggests look closer then it is possible to fully understand the implications that takes place in this seemingly happy home. My perception is that the film is masterfully directed by the famous theater director Sam Mendes and encompasses a great number of cinematic techniques that appear fresh and exciting. Critics have mentioned many of these techniques. However, they failed to notice the clever use of color used throughout the film, especially the color red. Psychologically speaking, Sam Mendes effectively uses the color red; as a central design to accentuate mood and theme, to contrast families, and to reveal characters personalities and feelings. This paper speaks of whether the movie should be allowed to see on the part of the college students or not and it looks at the reaction to this movie in the psychological sense. Since this paper delves into the psychological tone that I have set in reaction to the movie, I have focused on the color red which has been used widely in this paper and it is thus the point of discussion in the following lines as well. As we know that in American culture red is a color of various meanings and images.

Organization Psychology and Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organization Psychology and Behavior - Essay Example organizations assign responsibility to its people, develops hierarchy, discusses rules and regulations and how these elements collaborate together in affecting the overall life of the organization. This frame revolves around how an organization keenly steps forward to develop, train, manage, motivate and reward its employees. For majority of the organizations, their employees are their key assets. This frame also deals with issues that can give rise to employee satisfaction, retention, training and development. The frame revolves around the political aspects within an organization. It defines that how one can gain power; lose the authority, competition for scarce resources and the ability and the need to establish coalitions with other people. It also discusses that how people make new relations and cultivates friendship with other people within an organization on the basis of loyalty and negotiation skills. This frame discusses that how an organizational culture, the symbolic behaviors of the employees, rituals, organizational development, creativity, communication and organization represents itself through it’s vision, mission, values and goals. The ‘Safety Memo’ issue can be resolved if all and everyone in the organization have focused more on its hierarchical level. The Structure of the company was itself a problem; giving rise to many problems such as the loss control process by different individuals. The gap between different levels of managements has given rise to communication gap and therefore, it is one of the reasons that the company should focus on enhancing its hierarchical structure in more organized manner. It is important for the employees to resolve their issues verbally with each other rather accusing one another for the mistakes. It is also very important for the organization to build trust between employees in a working sphere. Every team or employee should have a strong reporting end that can defend his team or employees in front of

The Epistemology of Hume and Kant Essay Example for Free

The Epistemology of Hume and Kant Essay According to David Hume, the perceptions of the mind can be divided into two classes that are â€Å"distinguished by their different degrees of force and vivacity† (Hume, 2, 12). These two classes Hume designates as Thoughts (or Ideas) and Impressions. Ideas are â€Å"less lively perceptions† and Impressions are the â€Å"more lively perceptions. † Kant assumes that Ideas are merely weaker copies of Impressions. According to Hume, â€Å"the most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation† (2, 11 par. 1). The remembrance of perception is merely a copy of actual perception, and all ideas are merely weaker copies of Impressions. Hume explains that it will seem that thought is unbounded and limitless, but actually thought is â€Å"confined within very narrow limits. † The apparent boundless creativity of the mind comes from â€Å"compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us by the senses and experience† (2, 13 par. 1-2). By this Hume means that no matter how far-fetched the products of imagination becomes, all ideas are connected and ultimately traceable to an Impression or Impressions. (3, 18). According to Hume, the mind normally connects ideas with each other through one or more of three basic principles: Resemblance, Contiguity, and Cause-and-Effect (3, 19), and that â€Å"all reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect. † (4. 1, 22). However, Hume claims knowledge of cause and effect, without exception, is never attained by a priori reasoning. All knowledge of cause and effect comes entirely from experience. (4. 1, 23 par. 2). â€Å"Every effect is a distinct event from its cause. It could not, therefore, be discovered in the cause. † (4. 1, 25, par. 2). All reasoning can be categorized into two: demonstrative reasoning (concerning relations of ideas) and (intuitive) moral reasoning (concerning matter of fact and existence). Hume points out that all thought concerning existence are based on cause-and-effect, which in turn is based entirely on experience. Any conclusions that we derive from experience are based on the assumption that events of the future will conform to events of the past. (4. 2, 30 par. 2). However, this is not intuitive nor demonstrative (4. 2, 32). For instance, there is no process of argument through which, for instance, a person can conclude that whenever a billiard ball is hit by another billiard ball, it will move. (4. 2, 33 par 2). Even a highly intelligent person who for the first time observes the world would witness a sequence of events but would not be able to determine any cause and effect relationships between what he witnesses. â€Å"Such a person, without more experience, could never employ his conjecture or reasoning concerning any matter of fact, or be assured of anything beyond what was immediately present to his memory and senses. † But eventually, through experience, he will be able to form conclusions about the cause-and-effect relationships of events and objects. (5. 1, 35 par 1). According to Hume, the principle through which a person can form these conclusions is Custom or Habit (5. 1, 36). Hume’s concluding words are that any piece of literature that does not have â€Å"abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number† nor â€Å"experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence† â€Å"†¦can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. † The nature of knowledge according to Immanuel Kant For Immanuel Kant, knowledge (and thus reality) is constructed by the mind, not passively derived through the senses. In other words, the mind shapes the world. Kants Critique of Pure Reason is an attempt to answer the problems of the nature of knowledge—what it is and how it is obtained. Kant looks at the relationship between a priori knowledge, or knowledge based on reason alone, and a posteriori knowledge, or knowledge gained from the world. According to Kant, we have a priori intuitions and concepts. We have innate, logical knowledge, and this knowledge enables us to grasp a posteriori knowledge, to â€Å"understand† the external world. For example, Kants view is that space and time are just mental constructs, that space and time are forms of seeing, which serves as a precept to our experiences (Kant, a20-a23, a25-a38). Another example is the notion of causality, which in Kants view is a form of organizing mechanism that we impose upon nature to render it understandable (2a1-2a19). Kant argued that reality, as we perceive it, cannot be accounted for purely by sense perception. Kant holds that what we refer to and perceive as the external world is an artifice of the mind. His argument is that the mind itself contributes substantially to, and even synthesizes, its own knowledge (i11). According to Kant, the appearances of things are â€Å"objects of intuition†, which is one form of (mental) representation. For him this includes physical sensations (such as pain). Kants view is that appearances do not exist by themselves, but only relatively to external reality. That is, appearances do not exist independently of the human power of representation (t21). According to this view, the world, as we perceive it, is not actual reality, but is a phenomenon of actual reality as constructed by the mind. He argues that the shape of an object, for example, does not come from the object itself, but comes from us, as a result of interaction with the object Sensory input needs to be processed and recognized through the filter of the mind or it would not mean anything to us. For Kant, there are things-in-themselves, which exist independently of the human mind, and appearances, which exist only in the mind. The existence of appearances, according to Kant, entails the existence of things-in-themselves, but not in the way that we know. Thus, since the existence of things-in-themselves is just a hypothesis, the relationship of our perceptions to actual reality remains suspect, and we can never really be sure if what we perceive are not just purely constructs of the mind (p38). Hence, for him, we can never really know the â€Å"true† reality, because this reality is only perceived as it is filtered through our senses, senses that structure reality. We can only gain knowledge of appearances. Criticism of Hume There are some important difficulties in Hume’s work that he fails to address. One flaw in Hume’s arguments that Kant points out is that one of Hume’s fundamental assumptions is that perceptions (or Impressions) correspond exactly to the â€Å"real† world, although for many other philosophers the very nature of reality was a problem. Another is that Hume assumes that all knowledge comes from experience, but the notion of causation and necessity are also not explained by Hume, who claims that everything that one knows is ultimately traceable to the senses. It can be argued that the perception of causation and necessity come from a priori knowledge. References Hume, David. â€Å"An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. † 23 Dec 2006. http://www. gutenberg. org/dirs/etext06/8echu10. txt. Kant, Immanuel. â€Å"Critique of Pure Reason. †

Effect of Wishing Good Luck on Performance

Effect of Wishing Good Luck on Performance Running head: WHY DOES WISH WORK Does the wish work because of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish is a positive sentiment? Suellen, Hei Lon Kong Abstract The present research examined whether the wish worked because of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish was a positive sentiment. Individuals (N=241) were being put into three different conditions: Good luck with prize draw, Good luck with task and No wish after being informed that they would be entered into a lucky draw. It was hypothesized that wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. We predicted that their belief in luck (specific superstitious belief) for the prize draw should not affect word puzzle performance. However, if the phrase â€Å"good luck† generates a better mood, a higher level of self-esteem or other factor in the individual, it should be effective. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the word puzzle score between the three conditions. This research showed that wish did not affect the participants’ performance in the word puzzle test. Introduction Walking under ladders, opening umbrellas indoors and breaking mirrors are all actions that are believed to bring unfortunate; it seems people are just as superstitious when it comes to bringing about good luck too. People also create their own superstitions and rituals in the belief it will change their fortunes. Nearly 6 millions of people in UK admit to being superstitious. Why do people believe in things that cannot be explained and what leads to superstitious behavior? Most conceivable reason is that it is individuals fear of the unknown that drives them to believe in superstitions. External locus of control from own cultural beliefs is another potential explanation to superstitious behaviors. Media also plays an important role in reinforcing superstitious beliefs such as horror movies, it is a powerful source that makes superstition exist in the world, e.g. ghost, supernatural experiences. Superstitious is often defined as excessively credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural. It can also be defined as, irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown according to the Collins English Dictionary. Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, Richard Wiseman, once said People can create luck and good fortune by changing their outlook on life, focusing on grabbing opportunities and creating positive expectations. He also believe that some people actually want to be unlucky because it helps them to avoid taking responsibility for their own failings, actions that turn out to be harmful, immoral, or stupid. Superstitious behaviour can also be caused by intuitive thinking that is gained through past experiences. In support to this, researchers had carried out research on pigeons, superstitious actions that are by chance co-occur with the expected outcome, and subjects continue to appear to do so through conditioning process. This shows that stimulus has reinforcing value and can set up superstitious behaviour. (Skinner, 1948) There are negative and positive consequences in superstition. In the traditionally unlucky ghost month (July) in Taiwan, the evidence points to reduced fatalities by drowning. (Yang et. al 2008) It seems that being superstitious can sometimes be a positive thing as some superstitious beliefs prevents fatal accidents like the research I mentioned above (Yang et al 2008). Kevin Abbott, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa said, â€Å"From an evolutionary perspective, superstitions seem maladaptive, It plays an important role in human evolution which affects human behaviour. On the other hand, superstitious has its own negative consequences too. In situations over which people have no control (lotteries), superstitious behaviours are a waste of time. However, when some level of control does exist —such as car accidents — the consequences may be more negative than this. There is some evidence for increased car accident rates on Friday 13th relative to other Fridays, though it is argumentative. (Scanlon et al., 1993; N ¨ayh ¨a, 2002; Radun Summala, 2004) It is believed that it is the distraction caused by anxiety as the presumed mechanism. The goal of this research is to test whether wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. The method of research for this study will be a distribution of a word puzzle generated by the experimenter to the Warwick Undergraduates and their families and friends. The question is whether wishing them â€Å"good luck† with the prize draw will affect their puzzle performance. Gender and age data will also be collected. Looking at the data examined and studied so far are the following proposed predictions: If there is a specific superstitious belief in invoked, it should not be effective: Their belief in luck for the prize draw should not affect puzzle performance. If, however, the phrase â€Å"good luck† affects a more general mood, self-esteem or other factor in the individual, it should be effective. Method Participants For this research, 241 participants took part which included Psychology Undergraduates from University of Warwick and their families and friends( Undergraduates from other departments in Warwick) from 17 through 45 (M= 19.49, SD= 3.15). The participants consisted of 110 females and 131 males. They were not volunteers or getting paid. The department of Psychology in Warwick decided there would be a  £50 Amazon Voucher lucky draw for all participants after they had completed the word puzzle (only for Warwick students outside of Psychology). Designs The independent variable in this research was the condition participants were put in Good luck with prize draw, Good luck with task and No wish. The dependant variable was the number of words they got from the word puzzle. It was an independent Measures ANOVA (Between Subjects ANOVA) with three groups and one condition. Materials An informed consent sheet with Word Puzzle which consisted letters such as: U E P C I I L O S U R T attached at the back. Procedure The study began by gaining the participants consent which they signed and put down their email address and personal information such as age, sex on the consent form. Participants were informed that once they had completed the experiment, they would be entered into a random prize draw with other participants for a  £50 Amazon voucher. As the offer only opened to Warwick student outside of Psychology, the department would use their contact address to check that whether they were eligible and to contact them if they won. In this experiment, participants were allocated to three different conditions: 1: Good luck with prize draw, 2: Good luck with task and 3: No wish. In the first condition, experimenter would wish them good luck on the prize draw before they began to complete task. In the second condition, experiment would wish them good luck on the task and in the third condition, the experimenter would say nothing and let them begin. They were required to complete the word puzzle, to create as many English words as they could from the set of letters: U E P C I I L O S U R T. They were only allowed to use a letter twice if it appeared twice in the list that was in the case: I; they were asked to complete the task within two minutes. Following completion of the task, experimenter would note condition (e.g. 1, 2, 3). The experiment were completely anonymous, instead of names, we used numbers to identify the participants. All data would remain strictly confidential. Participants were then debriefed at the end and were told that they had the right to withdraw any consent given, and to require that their own data such as the score they got from the task, their email, be destroyed. Results The mean and standard deviation of the scores for condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw† was (M=14.1, SD=7.6), Condition â€Å"Good luck with task† was (M=15.2, SD=8.1) and Condition â€Å"No wish† was (M=14, SD=6.5). There was no significant difference between the three wish groups as determined by one-way ANOVA in the ability of getting higher score in the word puzzle. (F (2,238) =0.682, p > .05). A Tukey post-hoc test revealed that the score gained from the participants have no significant difference in the condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw (14.1  ± 7.6, p = 0.616) and the condition â€Å"No wish† (14.0  ± 6.5, p = 0.536) course compared to the condition â€Å"Good luck with task† (15.2  ± 8.1). There was no statistically significant differences between the condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw† and the condition â€Å"No wish† (p = .990). Discussion Our hypothesis was that wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. The data obtained did not support our hypothesis as there was no significant difference in the score from the three conditions. In this study, we used the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of three independent variables (the three conditions). Although the one-way ANOVA could not tell us which specific groups were significantly different from each other, it tells us that at least two groups were different. Age differences was an issue in this research, the fact that the participants’ age ranged 17-45. As we grow older, we would know more words than we did when we were younger. Age of the respondents seemed to better explain some ethical differences among respondents in some situations. This is in line with earlier research that found that people tend to be more ethical as they grow older (Weber and Green, 1991;Terpstra et al., 1993). It is not appropriate to use participants that have a large range in age. Our findings can be generalised to the whole populations as there is no significant difference in the score in the three conditions. In this research, we would say that the wish does not affect the puzzle performance because of a superstitious belief as proved by the results. In the future research on this topic, researchers should use participants that have similar age to make it an ethical test and that wish does not work of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish is a positive sentiment. References BBC. (2010). Superstitions: Friday 13th unlucky for you? . Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/britain/superstitions.shtml. Last accessed 9th Feb 2014. Berrill,A. (2012). Isnt it all pants? One in six superstitious Brits refuse to walk under ladders, while over 800,000 admit to having lucky underwear. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2230328/Britons-superstitions-Walking-ladders-breaking-mirrors-opening-umbrellas-indoors.html. Last accessed 9th Feb 2014. Landrum, R. Eric. (2008). Undergraduate writing in psychology : learning to tell the scientific story. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association. p.57-p160. Mills, C. (2011). Superstitions Have Evolutionary Basis. Available: http://www.livescience.com/14504-superstitions-evolutionary-basis-lucky-charms.html. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014. Sidani,Y., Zbib,I., Rawwas,M.,Moussawer, T. (2009). Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity. Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity: the case of Lebanese workers. 24 (1), 211-227 Tavris, C., Aronson, E. (2008). Mistakes were made (but not by me) : why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful act. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt. p1-57.