Monday, September 30, 2019

Traditional american family

Best One of the chief social problems afflicting this country Is the breakdown In the traditional family (Kennedy 501). We live in the country where we have all different kinds of families, but the traditional family is the strongest one. We need to fight for the traditional family today because it would make a better life for us and our children. Traditional family Is based on a strong foundation, good values and family traditions. First, every family should build their life on the strong foundation.What is the strong foundation for the family? The best foundation for the good family is found In the Bible. God's plan for the family system Is the best. First, we need to show appreciation every day for each other. Romans 12:10 says, â€Å"Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another. â€Å"Second, we must express our admiration, love, and respect for our family members. Romans 13:7 says, â€Å"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute Is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear: honor to whom honor (The Bible 1009). Hat Is traditional family? The traditional family is made up of a father, mother and a couple of children. Anything other than this ideal is a deviation from the normalcy of values. According to this point of view, the family Is a basic unit of society that serves the purposes of socializing the young, regulating sexual activity, procreation, providing physical care for family members, giving psychological support and emotional security to individuals (Bullock 1). A family is not a collection of individuals who happen to live at the same address.They are people who share an intimate and complex connection with one another, being related by marriage, birth or adoption. Together they form meeting larger and more significant than the contribution of one person. Two people, a man and a woman, locked together by love and lifelong relationship. Furthermore, the situation our nation's f amilies are facing is dire, but there Is hope. When the family returns to the original blueprint that God designed, we will begin to see America strengthened. The family can change the nation in one generation if they will follow God's Word.What is a family today? What challenges does being a member of a family present while traditional family structures change? Every family has to struggle to balance the demands of work and children. Also, the relationship between each spouse can become more delicate and complicated. Now we can see that the traditional family is stronger and the relationship between husband and wife (if they based on the Bible) are also much stronger and almost Impossible to break It. Therefore, If we will not fight for the traditional family, we will have distraction Inside the family and In our society.Leers look what we have with a breakdown of the American traditional family. Here is some statistics. Currently, 27 percent of family households with minors presen t are headed by single parents. Over two million fathers are the primary caregivers of children, marking a 62 percent surge since 1990. More than 50 percent of minors will live In a single parent household at some point (Cotton 1). This should be no surprise when one considers the fact that one third of infants are born to unmarried parents. Single motherhood same period. This is not all.The divorce rate is half the marriage rate, which has a tremendous impact on children. Each year one million of them witness their parents legally separate. Further down the line, these kids have a better than even chance of being in a steamily. One out of 25 children will reside with neither parent (1). More children than ever before are enrolled in various state operated foster care programs. Grandparents increasingly find themselves as parents once again; nearly two and a half million are primary caregivers to related minors. That is our sad reality, but we can change that if we work hard in ours families.In addition, family values are very important in traditional family. Members of the traditional families have physical and emotional support whenever they need it. It is a big benefit for the spouses, their children or even grandparents. Children learn how to build a strong traditional family through observing their parents and by following their life examples. Having strong, well defined family values, helps solidify the foundation for a strong family. Strong and consistent family values are important in building trust and confidence in each family member.What is the some of the values of traditional families that keep family strong? It is very important that each member of the family feel that they are loved, that they belong and that they matter. Each person should be allowed the space and freedom to explore the activities that they enjoy. People are more willing to take chances if they know they have a safe place to come back. Just spending time together as a family is what helps build that sense of belonging. Another big value is respect. Respecting each other is to take feelings, thoughts, needs, and preferences in to account when making decisions.It also means acknowledging and valuing everyone's thoughts, feelings and contributions to the family as a whole. Respect is a very important family value. Respect will extend out of the home and into school, work or other social settings. Honesty -? is the value of any strong relationships. Honesty between mother- daughter, husband-wife, and sister-brother is critical. Without honesty, a deeper connection will not form and certainly won't last. Encourage honesty by practicing understanding and respect when someone tells you of their wrong doings. Another value is forgiveness. Forgiveness is a choice.Forgiving people who did wrong is an important choice to make. In the loving and respectful family, forgiveness should be an easy choice. People need to forgive, so they could be forgiving. Communication is another important value. When people feel they can talk openly about anything – popes, dreams, fears, successes or failures – all without Judgment, it's encouraging and strengthens the bond (Kruger 1). That's why it is so important not only communicate, but also be a good listener. We can see many bad accidents happening around the world, especially lately with all the shootings at the schools.Maybe some of them could be prevented if the kids who were shooting had a strong traditional family with open communications. Almost everyone involved in these tragedies was from broken or divorced families. Next, a good traditional family has good traditions that they have passed from enervation to generation. Why it is so important to have family traditions? We all came from different backgrounds and countries, but it is very important to have and keep traditions of our families. Traditions make a family unique, they draw people important traditions is family dinners.Over th e last 15 years, a large number of scientific studies have confirmed what parents have known intuitively for a long time. Sitting down to a family meal is good for the spirit, the brain, and the body. Recent studies link regular family dinners (5 or more meals a week) with a host of teenage behaviors that parents pray for: lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and depression, as well as higher grade-point averages and self-esteem (Fishes 1). Dinner conversation is a great booster of vocabulary for young children, and stories told around the table about parents and grandparents help to build self-esteem and resilience.Having family meals also lower the rates of obesity and eating disorders in children. Family dinners is the time to talk and listen. It is one time a day when the whole family is together and they can talk about their day, problems, and future Lana. Lastly, the breakdown of the traditional family and longer life expectancy means two million in their upper ass will face their old age alone. A report warns us that two million over-ass will face loneliness in their old age because of the breakdown of traditional families.Study predicts one in ten over-ass, will live solitary lives by 2033 (Groves 1). Longer life expectancy, the breakdown of extended families and the growing number of older people living alone is making it harder for older people to sustain strong relationships and connections to community life. Let's summarize hat is the benefits of traditional family. Children raised in a family with the same parents during their growing years have a higher likelihood of having stability in their relationship and emotional bonding.Children that grow up in a single-parent household have higher chances of feeling a sense of loss regarding the absent parent, and miss out on the emotional support that only a father and mother can provide. With both the father and the mother, children get a better sense of what is acceptable and unacceptable, a s far as behavior is concerned. Children get a sense insistence, especially when it also includes closeness with other members of the family such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Children in the traditional family get far more extensive training in life skills.Their mothers usually teach their children relationship skills, like emotional response skills and how to have smooth relations with others, while fathers teach their children handiwork skills and sports skills. With two parents sharing the responsibility of raising the children, it enables one parent to take time to pursue other interests or get a rest while the there parent plays or works with the children. Children that are raised in a traditional family also tend to take on some of the sharing of the responsibilities, such as older siblings taking care of younger siblings.The breakdown of the American traditional family is a serious problem today, but we need to fight for traditional family. First of all, pe ople need to have a strong family relationship based on the strong foundation-?Bible. We need to respect and love our spouses. By doing that, our children would have a strong example to build their strong families. In addition, is it very important to have good family values. People and children who have good families values will also respect and honor people outside their family, at school, work, and in the community.Families need to have a good communication at home and be a good listeners. Having good family traditions, talking, listening, sharing, dreaming, and laughing. It is so important for children to see a good example from their parents about how they treat each other and their own parents. Good traditional family is the healthiest family. Children who have two parents are less likely to get in trouble. They are better students and helpers. Also, elderly people are less likely to be lonely at the end of their life if they been raised and lived in traditional families.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Access Control Essay

In this scenario, the fitness club was hacked from an unknown source. The fitness club has contracted Malcom Testing Solutions to do penetration tests and find any vulnerabilities along with make some security changes to prevent this issue from happening again. The security policies need to be changed as far as account management. For starters, the security policies for account management need to be updated. The user’s password needs to changed every 90 days. Any employee that has remote access should have a token key on a USB drive that provides the user’s credentials. When an employee retires, quits, or gets fired, they accounts should be locked until IT administrators can go through the account. If the employee had a USB token for remote access, it should be taken back by the IT personnel to prevent unauthorized remote access. Penetration testing should be done to test the network for vulnerabilities. There are several types of penetration testing. â€Å"An automate d port based scan is generally one of the first steps in a traditional penetration test because it helps obtain a basic overview of what may be available on the target network or host. Port based scanners check to determine whether a port on a remote host is able to receive a connection. See more:  First Poem for You Essay Generally, this will involve the protocols which utilize IP (such as TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc.), However, ports on other network protocols could be present as well dependent on the environment (for example, it’s quite common in large mainframe environments for SNA to be in use). Typically, a port can have one of two possible states: open – the port is able to receive data and closed – the port is not able to receive data. A service based vulnerability scanner is one which utilizes specific protocols to communicate with open ports on a remote host, to determine more  about the service that is running on that port. This is more precise than a port scan, because it does not rely on the port alone to determine what service is running. For example, a port scan may be able to identify that TCP port 8000 is open on a host, but it will not know based on that information alone what service is running there. A service scanner would attempt to communicate with the port using d ifferent protocols. If the service running on port 8000 is able to correctly communicate using HTTP, then it will be identified as a web server. Lastly, banner grabbing is the process of connecting to a specific port and examining data returned from the remote host to identify the service/application bound to that port. Often in the connection process, software will provide an identification string which may include information such as the name of the application, or information about which specific version of the software is running.† (â€Å"Vulnerability Analysis,† 2014) After the penetration testing, the system can be updated to mitigate any vulnerabilities that were found. Firewall changes, IP addresses can be allowed or denied, and software updates are some simple changes that can be made to make a network system more secure. References Vulnerability Analysis. (2014, August 16). http://www.pentest-standard.org/. Retrieved from http://www.pentest-standard.org/index.php/Vulnerability_Analysis

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Advanced Auditing Case 2.3

Advanced Auditing Case Assignment 2. 3 1. (a) When confirming year-end accounts receivable, auditors hope to accomplish the objective of obtaining evidence from third parties to evaluate the client’s assertions of year-end accounts receivable amounts. The client’s assertions that accounts receivable confirmation can effectively address are existence, rights, and valuation. b) When performing year-end sales cutoff tests, auditors hope to accomplish the objective of obtaining evidence from third parties to evaluate the client’s assertions of sales recorded for the period under audit. The client’s assertions that sales cutoff tests can effectively address are completeness and presentation. 2. Coopers & Lybrand made several significant errors of judgment in its effort to confirm the Wow Wee receivable at the end of 1995.These errors of judgment include ignoring or overlooking red flags including: the 69% change in the percentage of factored accounts receivable from 1994 to 1995, the $2. 4 million in sales to Wow Wee booked in the final day of fiscal 1995, the fact that Wow Wee is a manufacturing company, the fact that Wow Wee was left out of the top 25 customers list when it was among the top 5 based on recorded sales, and the clearly falsified bill of lading.Coopers & Lybrand failed to make the appropriate modifications to their planned audit procedures to examine these irregularities. Coopers & Lybrand also failed to follow up on the confirmation of the Wow Wee receivable that they accepted from Goldberg. These errors of judgment involve extreme negligence on the part of the auditors. I would classify these errors as reckless as there is no evidence to support that Coopers & Lybrand were involved in the fraud.I think that the auditors did not suspect that fraud would occur at Happiness Express in 1995 as they had previously audited Happiness Express in 1994 and rightfully issued an unqualified opinion. I think that the auditors believe d that these were simple mistakes that did not need to be further examined. The company’s revenue grew so significantly from 1994 to 1995 and because of this, I think that is was easy for the auditors to believe that the employees were simply overwhelmed by the company’s alarming growth and made mistakes as a result. . Yes Coopers & Lybrand should have confirmed the receivable from West Coast Liquidators at the end of fiscal 1995 because it represented 13%, a clearly material amount, of the total accounts receivable. They also should have included one or more of the sales to West Coast Liquidators in their year-end sales cutoff tests for 1995 as many of these transactions were booked in the final month of the fiscal year.Sales transactions occurring close to the end of the fiscal year are much more likely to be suspicious in nature or fraudulent than transactions occurring earlier in the year. 4. The alternative procedures that can be applied to a large receivable of a n audit client when a confirmation cannot be obtained include examination of subsequent cash receipts, the matching of such receipts with the actual items paid for, and examination of shipping, or other client documentation.The evidence provided by these methods may differ from the evidence provided by confirmation of a receivable depending on the client’s documentation of the transaction. Typically, in a company with proper internal controls and documentation, alternative procedures should be able to effectively address the same assertions that the confirmation of a receivable address. At very least, alternative procedures provide evidence for the existence assertion. 5. According to AU Section 317. 7, auditors should be aware of the possibility that illegal acts, such as insider trading, may have occurred however, an audit made in accordance with GAAS provides no assurance that illegal acts will be detected or that any contingent liabilities that may result will be disclose d. In the event that an auditor discovers evidence concerning the existence of possible illegal acts that could have a material indirect effect on the financial statements, they should apply audit procedures directed to ascertain whether an illegal act has occurred.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Strategic Business Plan Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Business Plan - Case Study Example Having started in the year 1988, this company started out as a small unit with four tailors and has now gone ahead to become one of the most prestigious names in interior decoration in the state of Orissa. This company employs people locally and can thus capture the local market in a better way through increased motivation within the work space through which employees will come up with better suggestions. Before laying down the formal plan of action, it is necessary to understand the elements that will be involved in the strategy that has been developed later in the paper, from the perspective of the company. This will help us understand the exact application of the theories through the length and breadth of the paper. A major part of Dipti's plan of action must include following a strategy based on gaining competitive advantage as well as achieving sustainable entrepreneurial growth. Let us first examine competitive advantage to see how and where it will fit in with the overall growth and expansion of the Anukul group. We are concerned with the fact that Porter's essentially ahistorical approach cannot provide a full account of either a nation's competitive advantage and corporate strategies or the growth and development of industrial clusters. For this, let us first understand competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is the response o... Opportunities: This company employs people locally and can thus capture the local market in a better way through increased motivation within the work space through which employees will come up with better suggestions. Threats: The company follows a very informal structure within its work culture which might pose a threat in the entrepreneurial control structure. It does not follow a formal structure of performance management. Competitive Advantage and Sustainable Entrepreneurial Growth: Internal and Technological Environment Before laying down the formal plan of action, it is necessary to understand the elements that will be involved in the strategy that has been developed later in the paper, from the perspective of the company. This will help us understand the exact application of the theories through the length and breadth of the paper. A major part of Dipti's plan of action must include following a strategy based on gaining competitive advantage as well as achieving sustainable entrepreneurial growth. Let us first examine competitive advantage to see how and where it will fit in with the overall growth and expansion of the Anukul group. Source: Alan Chapman 2005 We are concerned with the fact that Porter's essentially ahistorical approach cannot provide a full account of either a nation's competitive advantage and corporate strategies or the growth and development of industrial clusters. For this, let us first understand competitive advantage. This has special relevance for the Anukul Group, owing to the following reasons: The company needs to launch a full fledged expansion policy. It needs to zero in on resources which can be procured on easy and regular terms. The company needs to study

Thursday, September 26, 2019

4 Questions about autobiography, biography, diary and letter writing Essay

4 Questions about autobiography, biography, diary and letter writing - Essay Example This biography clearly brings out the man and his impact in the world, especially in terms of musical transformation (Guralnick, 2012). Autobiographies, on the other hand involve stories compiled about an individual’s life but written by those particular people (Jolly, 2013). These individuals narrate their life and times. The Autobiography of Malcolm  X  is a good example. This autography was first written in 1965 by Malcolm explaining his life since childhood, the death of his father to his life as a human rights activist (Malcolm, 2001). Delafield (2009) says that a diary is a record of events in someone’s’ life compiled in one document. Diaries may be compiled over a limited time period such as a year, week or even month. The author also notes that diaries are narrated by the specific subjects and are usually for those persons specifically as opposed to biographies, autobiographies or even letters (Delafield, 2009). Simply, diaries are daily journal of daily events, such as one’s thoughts, actions, moods or actions. Pepys’ diary is a valid example. This diary was kept from January 1660 and records his daily life for about ten years, his women, friends, and businesses. He also explains his insecurities, worries, and irritable relationship with his spouse (Pepys, 2010). Lastly, Delafield (2009) explains that letters are a form of communication that confidential, personal or private in nature. Letters are also defined as notes that are written to friends or families. Letters, as Delafield (2009) says must have a recipient. An emphasis on the Paston Letters would explain this. These letters entail a collection of notes that consist of the messages from the members of the Paston family. From the letters, one could easily trace the state papers and other vital documents that were compiled by that particular family (Gairdner, 2008). These letters were sent to various recipients who had an interest with the family. As seen in the

Answer the question about a book Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Answer the question about a book - Essay Example Under these missions, Hurtado narrows down to marriage, courtship, women as a component of the society and shows how they helped to reshape the roles and identities set by gender and race. This essay, therefore, will identify and show how marriage, courtship and gender facilitated the coming together of the various races in the state of California in the 1800s. Through these tools; gender, marriage and courtship, Hurtado has discussed the libertine in California which was part of the coming together of the various societies into one Californian community. The shackles of race that held these had to be broken through liberalization and marriage and courtship played the major role in this. Richards (1956) states, â€Å"dust was more plentier than pleasure, pleasures more enticing than virtue, fortune was the horse, youth in the saddle, dissipation the track, and desire the spur† (130). The libertine came because of the realization of the evils that were manifested through the tr agedy of a teenage death. It was in botched abortion or the brutalization of Indian woman that exposed the seamy underside of gender relations. To facilitate gender relation, Hurtado uses a market approach to examine the dynamics of gender. Hurtado argues that scarcity serves to raise the status of women by allowing them to escape the shackles of unwanted marriages as well as a disgraceful past. â€Å"Minority status does not usually confer power on the powerless, and California was no exception† (130). Hurtado however, interjects that even though the ‘freedoms’ were advantageous to women, they were not meant to benefit women but men though finding available women; available for sexual, social or matrimonial purposes in the scarce market. According to Richards (57), in the 1850 the ratio of men to women among the Caucasian population in the state of California was 12:2 but by 1860, it had dropped to 2:4. The ‘freedoms’ accorded to women however, rema ined and served to elevate relations among gender in the state. These ‘freedoms’ were however limited to poorer white women in relation to the colored women who were excluded. Courtship is the other tools that served in promoting cordial relations among the Spaniards, the Mexicans and the American natives in the historic California. Prior to making up their mind, to enter a marriage agreement or not courtship is a vital process .It serves to facilitate understanding and appreciation of the other person. In this process, it is not always that courtships will lead to marriage. As a result, in most cases, an individual will court several persons and at the end of the day, marry only one. In the 1800s California, this served as an opportunity for the various communities to know and understand each other (Chavez-Garcia 131). Men from the Spaniard community courting women from the Mexican or Native American communities would end up knowing many good virtues about them. This w ould be regardless of whether the relationship ended up in marriage or not, it was obvious that the courtship relation had served to know the other better and appreciate them more. Hurtado refers to women as the ‘civilizers’ in the frontiers. The other aspect, according to Hurtado, that served to elevate relations among the communities in California was culture. Culture is a broad aspect, and in this case, it is represented by marriage. The communities

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Gun Control and Crime in US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gun Control and Crime in US - Essay Example Having the knowledge of these issues, there seems a necessity for self-defense. There are Government bodies to help and assist at times of need. However, at that instance it is people, who need to take care of themselves. This was the reason for giving license to self defense gadgets. The Government bodies with intention to increase security and reduce crime rate started giving licenses to these gadgets, guns in particular. However, this decision should be critically examined. It is important to understand if guns for personal security have really decreased crime or have become a catalyst for crimes. This article critically examines the gun laws in the United States. It also addresses the issue whether guns have increased or decreased crime rate in United States. It focuses on some key events that urge changes to be made for future. A case study for the same is given. The later part of the article throws light on the possible alternates and suggestions to be incorporated to reduce cr ime, that is, gun control to reduce crime. The article tries to analyze the relation between gun control and crime in The United States and gives a possible solution for this situation. Crime in United States is closely associated to gun violence and homicides. Crime rate is generally measured by the number of crimes reported per 100,000 people. (US justice stats, 2006) Crime rates have seen a sharp rise from the late 1960's.However recently the crime rate in United States is steady. A study revealed that the crime rate of United States as of 2005 is around 3991 per 100,000 residents. (US justice stats, 2006) Violent crimes in United States are much higher than other countries. Minorities, young and financially less favorable positioned are known to commit crimes. 6 out of the 17 known homicides in California in 2005 are by the poor. Around 35.3% of homicides took place here. (US justice stats, 2006) The year 2005 has recorded to be the safest in the past thirty years in United States history. Nearly 49% of murder victims were African Americans in 2005. It was recorded that 79% of murder victims throughout were males. (US justice stats, 2006) Gun laws in United States are independent to every state. There are a few state level bans for guns like shot guns and rifles. License holders have permits and only a few states allow for an Inter state permit. Alabama does not address the issue of carry permits where as Alaska does give a provision for it (Kasler, 2000). California has the strictest laws in United States that bans guns that have a thumb hole stack, a flash suppressor etc (Harrott, 2001). Almost 60% of states have the carry permit law and others excepting a few have very convenient licensing strategies that can be misused. Case Study: Hindering Crime or Causing Havoc Guns were given to people in order to facilitate self-protection that is defense against anyone who attacks them. This was supposed to ensure safety to life and hindrance to crime. However the Million dollar question is the effectiveness of this act. The free hand given

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

MGMT 483 U5 IP IDP Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MGMT 483 U5 IP IDP - Research Paper Example The first step in creating IDPs involves a rigorous brainstorming exercise that identifies the level of excellence in one’s current career, and consultation with one’s supervisor for effective guidance. Brainstorming should highlight the areas that exhibit poor performance, and potential ways of improvement. An individual should also consider the available opportunities that if utilized can help in personal development. Such opportunities include, but are not limited to available training and empowerment programs within the workplace. It is critical to highlight opportunities of formal education, such as further education that an individual registers interest in. After brainstorming, one should organize the ideas into goals, according to priorities (Jacobson, 2014). The most critical aspect of the creation of IDPs is the definition of strong goals. They should be specific, measurable, relevant, within an attainable reach, and bound by timelines. For example, one would h ighlight acquiring additional management skills through attending seminars in the next three months. The defined goals should conform to organizational objectives, and should highlight the required competencies, resources and time. An individual should also identify the available options for development, which may range from formal education, experiential learning, lessons from a coach or mentor and participation in group projects (Falcone, 2011). After the creation of an IDP, an individual should present it to the supervisor or mentor for final refining. An effective evaluation framework for assessing the success of the individual in the sectors highlighted should be developed. Evaluation seeks to establish whether IDPs presented any impact on the level of performance of the individual in the career, and other aspects of personal development. The evaluator should assess each aspect highlighted in the IDP, since all

Monday, September 23, 2019

Applications of Machiavelli Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Applications of Machiavelli - Term Paper Example In this paper, I will look at the application of Machiavelli philosophy into Macy’s and Apo’s Inc. Power as applied to Macy’s and Apo’s The corporate scandals are very common in modern business world. These scandals have aversely affected the business performance. The scandals have led to the loss of revenues and a negative impact on the economy in the long run. These effects can be ascribed to corporate irresponsibility among the leadership. The application of Machiavelli can be related to the current power tussles in the corporations. Corporate leaders can be related to the prince in the work of Machiavelli. Matters related to power have been a source of conflict among the leaders in corporations (Machiavelli, 44). The Machiavelli principles on power and leadership have been used in applying in exercising power by leaders in the corporate world. According to Machiavelli, one can work with moral means and only resort to immoral means when circumstances de mand so. This was evidenced in the recent legal tussle between the Macy’s and Apo’s inc. versus J.C Penny in the Martha Stewart courtroom tussle. In the case, Macy’s and Apo’s were in a legal tussle to fight over the right to control Martha Stewart. This was a battle of power in which the corporation wanted to retain the right to continue being the sole distributor of Martha Stewart. In this tussle, the struggle for power and dominance is evident. Each side wants to have the exclusive rights which would enable them have high sales (Machiavelli, 46). According to work by Machiavelli, the original Machiavelli ruler had to exercise virtu which meant that he was having inner strength, shrewdness and decisiveness. This could be used to gain power, glory, security and expansion. This is evident in the court tussles over dominance (Karen). Every corporation wants to have the power to dominate the other. This is mostly done through shrewd deals which gives exclus ive rights to an individual corporation. To be successful, one has to choose the Machiavellian virtuous life. Choosing the Machiavellian life comes with its won challenges related to corruption and power tussles. Liberty according to Machiavelli comes from adoption of the virtuous or the Machiavellians life by everyone (Machiavelli, 50). Corruption Corruption is always present in human beings according to Machiavelli. Self interest is always placed above the interest of public by the leaders. There have been cases of corruption that have been exposed in Macy’s and Apo’s. In the year 2012, corruption and unethical dealing was unearthed from the corporation’s documents. One of such cases is the fixing of their competitors in unethical means to gain competitive advantage. This was done when the company accused Goodfellas of selling counterfeit merchandise and goods stolen from Macy’s. The corporation even went a step further to make sure it severed Goodfella s market by informing the retailers who had their contracts that Goodfellas were selling counterfeits goods. This is not only unethical but unfair competition based on power and greed. The power was being abused by Macy’s and Apo’s against the citizens and their competitors. In some cases, the abuse of power is kept in secrecy, and only the corporation knows about it. In the case of Macy’s and Apo’s, they employed private investigators in order to frame Goodfellas (Association Of Truth). There were

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Price Fixing and the FTC Essay Example for Free

Price Fixing and the FTC Essay The case was released in the mid-2006, where the Federal Trade Commission has declared that they are challenging the members of the Puerto Rico Association of Endodontists, Corporation or the PRAE (Commissions, 2006). This is because of alleged price-fixing collaborations that they would be charging on several insurance policies and dental services that they offer. They have collaborated and made agreements with 30 other competitors, wherein they fixed their prices at the expense of their consumers. Because of this, the FTC was forced to file a complaint against this company since it decreases the competition between these companies, thus higher costs will be imposed on the consumers. This is a clear violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, Section number 5. In order for this matter to be resolved, The Puerto Rico Association of Endodontists, Corp. will have to refrain from involving in matters that promote anticompetitive conduct in the coming years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Through this, the Federal Trade Commission will be able to make sure that these dental services and other necessary health care issues will be given and addressed for the consumers at prices that they could afford. Keeping a competitive environment in the aspect of health care will open up better opportunities for the people, along with lower competitive prices. Letting healthcare be monopolized will lead to higher pricing and less maintenance, and would really be a burden to the people, the consumers. That’s why these health care providers and producers should not act as one; they should not collaborate with each other in their pricing, because it takes away the aspect of competitiveness between them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The complaints against Puerto Rico Association of Endodontists, Corporation shows that in the year 2003, the company has already began its bargaining with their competitors, thus resulting to the drastic increase in five dental plans already. Another increase occurred during 2004, wherein the prices also went up because of their bargaining. Because of these actions the ones who were jeopardized were the people; they were the ones who carried the burden of increased rates, since these health care issues is a necessity for everyone. The Federal Trade Commission analyzed that these drastic changes in prices have no whatsoever effect on the quality of services offered by the company, thus the additional prices were not really justifiable. It doesn’t lead to a better quality of health care, thus, it is only a waste in the part of the consumers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Given the situation, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a consent order which will be solve the problem at hand. This will hopefully relieve the impact of the alleged anticompetitive actions by the Puerto Rico Association of Endodontists, Corporation and further prevent it from happening again. It would then hinder the company to have any settlements or agreements with other endodontists and negotiate with any payor on the services that they offer, except properly arranged by the organization. Reference: Commissions, F. T. (2006). FTC Charges Puerto Rico Endodontists With Price Fixing.  Ã‚   Retrieved August 4, 2007, from http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/07/prendo.shtm

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Relationship Between Consumer Vanity Cultural Studies Essay

Relationship Between Consumer Vanity Cultural Studies Essay This is a very brief overview of what candidate wants to do and it is based on preliminary and superficial literature review. The direction of the study within this area and choice of variables and model details can be modified after in-depth literature review under the directions of study supervisor. The relationship between consumer vanity, status consumption, fashion consciousness and materialism in university students of Islamabad Naveed Ahmed (MM-113046) MS-Marketing Muhammad Ali Jinnahl University Islamabad, Pakistan. [emailprotected] For consideration in Department of Management Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad The relationship between consumer vanity, status consumption, fashion consciousness and materialism in university students of Islamabad Introduction: Consumption   is   a   construct shaped in accordance with social,   cultural, political   and   economic   process   of   choosing   products   and services. This process reflects the opportunities and constraints of modernity depiction by consumers through acquisition of a desired social identity via patterns of consumption . As the US populations insatiable appetite for consumerism teeters on a staggering $14 trillion in consumer debt . What is most puzzling to economists and decision theorists is that it is often those earning the least that spend the greatest fraction of their income on conspicuous consumption (i.e., the act of acquiring goods not for their inherent objective or subjective value, but to signal social status . Now a days consumption has become the social standard of leisure time and lifestyle that is necessary, easily accessible, and optimistic by society . Goldbart, Jaffe, DiFuria stated that consumer goods will give psychological benefits as the focus of materialistic values is more on materialistic good, and young people are comparatively more exposed to status consumption than the old ones. Sometimes consumers wish to become distinctive among larger groups to acquire an improved self. The fashion industry is becoming globalized by having the 220 billion worth in the luxurious fashion market for different brands . In USA consumers having age between 12 and 19 emerged as an fashion consumer due to having purchasing power of worth 153 billion $. That is an emerging market for getting profitability . In Asia the scenario is not different, according to different researchers Asian consumers adopt eight main styles in their decision making . These are: Perfectionist high quality conscious Brand conscious Novelty and fashion conscious Recreational or shopping conscious Price conscious Impulsive careless Confused by too much choices Habitual and brand loyal Even in Pakistan, people are becoming brand, fashion consciousness by purchasing the imported products rather than the Pakistani products, which shows that Pakistanis have become more fashion, and brand conscious . Economists say that, in recent years, Pakistani women have fueled a retail boom in name brand shopping as they move from a traditional homebound life into the working world. A senior female instructor at the Government College of Technology in Lahore said she earns about 100,000 rupees, or $1,054, a month. Gradually in the last five years I have become brand-conscious, she said. Today, definitely I spend more on my clothes and jewelry. . People acquire, utilize and dispose the materialistic products in order to get feelings of differentiation from society, creating a new self and social identity . According to Solomon the materialistic show is only through vanity, people show vanity via different materialistic products like dressing, sunglasses, luxury watches etc. Durvasula, Lysonski, Watson found that vanity is an improved self in the human which is affected by society and it is also derived by the society. People try to create an idealistic personality to prove them unique in the society. Netemeyer, Burton, Lichtenstein separated the vanity into four categories which includes physical concern. Physical view, achievement concern and achievement view. Physical and achievement vanity both are very important from the perspective of marketers because they have to highlight the benefits of an individual in terms of their physical appearance and attractiveness. Marketers use vanity as an appeal to promote different products . Fashion consciousness is of greater importance when examining the self-concept of fashion consumers. explain that the concept of self-consciousness suggested by is the basis for construct of fashion consciousness Individual can posses status with accumulation of education, wealth, social ties, fashion consumption, different possessions and materialistic products . Problem: The companies of cosmetics products, which are promoted on the appeal of physical vanity, and different materialistic products that are promoted on the appeal of achievement vanity are more conscious about customers now days. With the emergence of modernism, the customer has become more fashion and brand conscious. They do not care about the price of products and are more conscious about their status. The status consumption is an indicator to social dimensions for consuming certain products and consumer is more conscious about status than price, quality and other dimensions of the products . Therefore, its very difficult for companies to appeal the products on different values like consumer vanity, materialism and fashion consciousness and its need to check the accuracy of these values in customer willingness to buy and status consumption in different brands according to the suggestion of in different countries of Asia. Gap: Brand engagement social concept, which can be in terms of different traits (Sprott et al., 2009), and status consumption are concepts that link fundamental materialistic tendencies with more specific marketplace behaviors. The three constructs form a constellation of motivated behavioral tendencies focused around the purchase which include vanity, self consciousness and fashion consumption and use of goods to build and portray the self to others. People high in these traits have been shown to consume more, pay more attention to advertisements, and be more interested in products and shopping and thus are of great interest to marketers . There is a great push due to materialism for status consumption and it works as a potential moderator in between fashion consciousness and status consumption . Fashion consciousness and brand consciousness are basic elements which influence the Pakistani university students consumptions and intentions to buy and need to investigate more with traits lik e consumer vanity . There is little research in general and no research in Pakistan and specifically university shoppers, however, that specifically examines how this group of variables works together to affect status consumption. The present study seeks to fill this gap. Research questions: The research questions related to this study are: What is the effect of consumer vanity on status consumption, how the physical vanity and achievement vanity effects the status consumption? What is the mediating role of fashion consciousness in between consumer vanity and status consumption? What is the moderating role of materialism with fashion consciousness and status consumption? Objective: The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of consumer vanity on status consumption with mediating role of fashion consciousness and moderating role of materialism with fashion consciousness and status consumption in university students of business studies. The purpose of taking business students is, they have different values like achievement, social status and hedonism leads them to congruence with environment . Significance: This study will contribute both aspects marketing theory and practical implication. First, this will broaden the knowledge of consumer behavior and traits related marketing in relation to adult consumers, university shoppers in Pakistan. Second, it will enable the marketers to set an advertising appeal for consumers based on physical vanity and achievement vanity and can provide a base for getting purchasing patterns for status and a way of modernism. It will also assist them in determining the purchasing pattern of university shoppers in Pakistan. Theories supporting research on this topic: In terms of social learning theory, influenced by the media, female college students with different vanity characteristics may develop a materialism trait and may go a step further than the different fashion anxieties. Hence, adolescent consumer behavior was study, it is essential to study students vanity trait, materialism and fashion anxiety. However, the relationship between fashion anxiety, materialism and vanity trait has rarely been studied. To theorize status consumption and luxury brand purchase intention with regard to the implications for consumer research, this study draws on consumer culture theory . Within CCT, studies on possessions are particularly relevant. The central position is that is that consumers use possessions to formulate and alter their identities, in order to  ¬Ã‚ t their own projections of who they are and aspire to be. At the same time, this process must also be validated by the judgment of the external world (Jenkins, 2004). The relationship study is based on the Veblen theory of conspicuous consumption and Veblen work on the evolution of leisure class. According to Veblen, status has become increasingly important for societies and people own different materialistic products, and other possessions in order to get honor and show their status. To show a position of esteem they try to change their self-presentation their physical vanity compels them to adopt different products to make them physical attractive. Their achievement vanity also directed them to status consumption in order to show their success and achievements . Literature Review: The literature of different variables related to study is given below: Status Consumption: Achieving and expressing status are basic goals of members of human society and achieving status through consumption has been studied for more than a century (Veblen, 1967/1899). One of the ways consumers endeavor to demonstrate their social status is through the purchase and display of certain products. Gabriel and Lang (2006, p. 8) expressed this idea well: display of material commodities fix the social position and prestige of their owners. In recent years, as the level of consumer affluence has grown, so has the consumption of luxury and status goods (Hader, 2008). Consumers try to demonstrate their personality and social status in different ways and dominant way is purchasing and displaying certain products. They elaborated this idea in clear words: Materialistic possessions and goods sets prestige and social position of holder. Different studies showed the consumption of status products and luxurious consumption has rapidly increased with the intensity of consumer richness. The good condition of economy is also a predictor of status consumption. When public has facility of credit and aggregate income of a country is rising then people show their social standing with the help of status goods. In the scale of status consumption, the operationalization of persons tendency to consumer for the sake of status. While status consumption varies with the health of the economy, the increased availability of credit and overall rising incomes contribute to the use of status items to enhance social standing. The tendency of a person to consume to achieve status has been operationalized as an individual difference variable by the status consumption scale (Eastman et al., 1999). The scale allows researchers to measure an individuals propensity to use products and services as an expression of their own status. In the scale development piece, Eastman et al. (1999) used fashion clothing as a prime example of a product category used to express status. More recently, Solomon and Rabolt (2004, pp. 239-241) and OCass and Frost (2002) both use fashion as an example of a product category employed to express status and personal meaning. Other studies show that consuming to achieve status is conceptually related to the idea of instrumental materialism (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981) where people accumulate possessions to some end. Status consumption relates also to a tendency to conform to group norms while expressing ones need for uniqueness (Clark et al., 2007). Indeed, status consumers are susceptible to normative influence, but not necessarily informational influence (Clark et al., 2007). While status consumption relates to accumulation to express position, materialism is more personal. Materialists things make them feel good directly, and status consumers things make them feel good because they show the world personal superiority. At the same time, materialists do want to signal status (Wang and Wallendorf, 2006), and materialistic consumers have been shown to be especially attuned to which products have status and how acquiring them promotes the status (Loulakis and Hill, 2010). Status consumption and materialism are clearly related individual difference variables. Consumer Vanity: Netemeyer, Burton, Lichtenstein defined vanity with two domains. The first one is physical vanity and other is achievement vanity. Two sub parts of physical vanity are; a concern for physical appearance and an inflated view of physical appearance. Similarly two sub parts of achievement vanity are; a concern for achievement and an inflated view of achievement. Mainly there are two philosophies about vanity. The first one says Vanity is derived by primary and biogenic needs. It is such type of personality trait which is affected by parental socialization and genes and on the second end Mason reveals that vanity is not primarily, it is secondary trait which is mainly influenced by the environment and socio-economic conditions like conspicuous consumption. Worst, Duckworth, McDaniel develop a special measure of 98 items about vanity and its motivation toward overspending based on literature. The main traits are (1) narcissism (2) Association about saving behavior (3) Compulsive over sp ending. Physical vanity: An extreme concern for and positive view of physical appearance is called physical vanity . The popular and academic press both revealed with articles and books about physical appearance, and its impact on consumer product demand. In USA people spent $ 36 billion on different dieting programs for their physical appearance . According to survey of psychology today which reported that 34 % men and 38 % women were bit satisfied about their physical appearance and other majorities want to get plastic surgery . Research uncovered that concern for physical appearance directs not only positive attitude (e.g. good health eating patterns and exercising) towards consumption but negative attitude also (e.g. disorder in eating patterns, addictive behavior and cosmetic surgeries ) for personal satisfaction . Achievement vanity: There is empirical and theoretical evidence that creates a link between consumption of product and personal achievement. Mitchell grouped 23 % respondents as achievers (who are anxious to achieve personal goal) and 9 % are grouped as emulators ( an aspiration to achievers ) by using typology of VALS. And according to Kahle 16 % people values a good judgment of accomplishment most important. It has been suggested by Belk that different groups consume in order to convey to status or success. One school of thought says that people show off the materialistic product for personal achievement . Fashion Consciousness: Various uses of self-presented products like clothing have been found to be related to self-esteem (Humphrey et al., 1971). Kwon (1994) examined the perceived effects of clothing on self-esteem. He suggested that college students perceived themselves as more competent in work, more sociable, and more positive when feeling good about their clothing as compared to feeling bad about it,. Fashion consciousness is of greater importance when examining the self concept of fashion consumers. Gould and Stern (1989) explain that the concept of self-consciousness suggested by Fenigstein et al. (1975) is the basis for construct of fashion consciousness. According to Buss (1980), the central concept of the self-consciousness theory is the extent to which one focuses on the inner or outer self: When self-awareness is directed inward, people tend to have a high level of private self-awareness, being conscious of inner states such as feelings, moods and beliefs. However, when self-awareness is directed outward, people tend to have a high level of public self-consciousness. When a person has a high level of public consciousness he tends to focus on himself as a social object (Buss, 1980, 1985). Those who are high in public self-consciousness are likely to become more nervous about being observed by others than those who are low in public self-consciousness (Buss, 1980). Based on aspects of self-consciousness, Gould and Stern (1989) strengthened the concept of fashion consciousness, and stressed the importance of biological gender in fashion consciousness. Nam et al. (2006) explain fashion consciousness as a persons degree of involvement with the styles or fashion of clothing. Apparel marketers  ¬Ã‚ nd it a convenient attribute of consumers, as this pre-existing interest in clothing can increase consumer receptivity to apparel product promotions (Richards and Sturman, 1977; Kaiser and Chandler, 1984). An individual does not have to be either a fashion opinion leader or a fashion innovator to be considered fashion conscious. Rather, fashion consciousness relates to a persons interest in clothing and fashion and his appearance (Summers, 1970; Jonathan and Mills, 1982). Gould and Stern (1989) developed the Fashion Consciousness Scale (FCS), which they suggested to have derived from two related constructs: (1) self-consciousness (suggested by Fenigstein et al., 1975) and (2) an everyday concept of fashion consciousness. Accordingly, the FCS consisted of 38 items to include both the original Self-Consciousness Scale and also various aspects of individuals everyday fashion consciousness. Gould and Stern (1989) further explained that fashion conscious females tend to focus more on their own external appearance, and they will tend to look for appearance-related reinforcement in shopping activity. They explained that the presence of objects such as mirrors,  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡attering lighting, and sales people trained to provide positive appearance are reinforcers for females. Conversely, males who are more fashion conscious focus more on what they are, and these men connect fashion with their self-identity and internalized maleness (Gould and Stern, 1989). Greco and Paksoy (1989) noted that fashion-conscious shoppers rely more on mass media information sources than non-fashion-conscious customers. Walsh et al. (2001) highlighted that fashion consciousness among German consumers was due to the desire for up-to-date styles, frequent changes in wardrobe and pleasurable shopping experiences. As Bakewell and Rothwell (2006) noted, historically, the practice of shopping and clothing consumption has been regarded as a female practice. However marketers are increasingly recognizing that it is outmoded to consider men as producers and women as consumers (Bakewell and Rothwell, 2006). However, many authors suggest that although appearance consciousness has a greater in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uence on women, the society rede ¬Ã‚ nes what it means to be a man. Therefore, the notion of fashion-less male is outmoded (e.g. Featherstone, 1995; Kacen, 2000; Tseelon, 1995; Patterson and Elliot, 2002). In contrast, a study of fashion consciousness in Eastern Europ ean markets highlighted that young male respondents were more fashion-conscious than their female counterparts (Manrai et al., 2001). Further, Barak and Stern (1985) explained that fashion-conscious women often feel younger than their actual age. However, Lumpkin (1985) found that a high proportion of active mature consumers were relatively heavy spenders on clothing. Based on this, they concluded that fashion-conscious segments of older consumers do exist among shoppers. The work of Chowdhary (1988) showed that there is no relationship between age perception and fashion consciousness. However, there is a dearth of research focused of the fashion consciousness of consumers in developing countries since their cultural and socio-economic background is different from consumers in developed countries. (2) Fashion consciousness has been identi ¬Ã‚ ed as an important dimension of a persons lifestyle that affects purchase decision and consumption behaviour (Lee et al., 2009; Zhou et al., 2010). People who are highly fashion-conscious may pay more attention to the image portrayed by prestige brands and therefore may be more prestige-sensitive than those who are less fashion conscious. Studies in the past found that highly fashion-conscious consumers possess traits such as health conscious, brand conscious, innovative, and self-con ¬Ã‚ dent (Wan et al., 2001). Further, highly fashion-conscious consumers were found to be younger, and embrace social values such as respect, excitement, and fun/ enjoyment (Goldsmith and Stith, 1990). Stranforth (1995) identi ¬Ã‚ ed traits such as sensation seeking, adventure seeking, susceptibility, and clothing individuality to be signi ¬Ã‚ cantly related with high degree of fashion consciousness. The proposed hypothesis and relationships: The proposed hypothesis and relationship literature is given below: Consumer vanity and Fashion consciousness: Physical vanity and fashion consciousness: illustrated that being a fashion agent in a modernism era the fashion consumers are more conscious about brands and new fashion. He examined the relationship of brand consciousness and impulsive buying in the fashion environment. Checked the college student behavior in the attractive shopping environment but he no one focused in the fashion stores context. In today society, physical attractiveness and beauty are so much emphasized as desirable and Iranian females are more fashion consciousness in buying products for physical attractiveness. Therefore the proposed hypothesis on the base of this literature is: H1a: the physical vanity will be positively associated with fashion consciousness. Achievement vanity and fashion consciousness: People have becomes more conscious in fashion consumption just in order to show the view of achievement and success to their fellows . aggregated the achievement vanity with public-self consciousness and relate it with the external environment but ignored the self-consciousness in specific fashion context. Therefore, on the base of this literature the proposed hypothesis is: H1b: the achievement vanity will be positively associated with the fashion consciousness. Fashion consciousness and status consumption: Status consumption, wish for souvenir and fashion consciousness are the basic motivation for the fashion consumer for the purchasing of fashion goods.    Fashion  consciousness  and interest in image predispose consumers to be willing to pay more for their preferred brands. However, in Pakistan the emergence of multinational fashion brands emphasis on the requirement of research in this area. Therefore, the proposed hypothesis is: H2: Fashion consciousness will be positively associated with the status consumption. Consumer Vanity and status consumption: Physical vanity and status consumption: In a recent study in which has combined the psychological and social correlation and illustrate that the physical vanity and physical appearance needs to lower weight status and which ultimately leads to the status consumption. The need for high social status and compel to more physical attractiveness is more in female consumers . Therefore on the bases of this literature the proposed hypothesis is: H3a: Physical vanity will be positively associated with status consumption. Achievement vanity and status consumption: The values of achievement and social status prevail from young adults to university shoppers. In university the students are status consumer and want to show their achievements with their peers . The values of achievement are succeeded from the university environment to the shopping environment. described that there is a positive relationship between conspicuous achievement and status consumption in Iranian consumers but it should be investigated with other areas in this region. H3b: Achievement vanity will be positively associated with status consumption. Mediating role of fashion consciousness between consumer vanity and status consumption: Fashion consciousness, which is equivalent to fashion involvement, is merely the desire for and adoption of up-to-date styles to maintain ones status in a social network . This concept mediates the relationship between age and consumer commitment to retailers and that between age and fashion knowledge . report a signi ¬Ã‚ cant mediating effect of fashion involvement on the relationship between status consumption and price sensitivity. Checked the mediation of fashion consciousness among interpersonal effect of self-monitoring, susceptibility to personal influence with status consumption and reported about mediation working. Similarly, this study took the variable fashion consciousness as a mediator between the relationship of consumer vanity and status consumption. H4: Fashion consciousness is mediating between consumer vanity and status consumption. Conceptual Framework: Status Consumption Fashion Consciousness Consumer Vanity H1: Consumer vanity will be positively associated with fashion consciousness. H2: Fashion consciousness will be positively associated with status consumption. H3: Consumer vanity will be positively associated with status consumption. H4: Fashion consciousness is mediating between consumer vanity and status consumption. Methodology: The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of consumer vanity on status consumption with mediating role of fashion consciousness and moderating role of materialism with fashion consciousness and status consumption in university students. The purpose of taking business students is, they have different values like achievement, social status and hedonism leads them to congruence with environment . For this purpose, we will collect data from the different university students of Islamabad using the convenient sampling technique. Survey method will be used in order to collect the data from the sample of 400 respondents by developing the well-structured questionnaire. The measures for this study are given below: Measurement of the vanity was made with a well established scale of having 4 main facets. These are CFPA (Concern for physical appearance), VOPA (View of physical appearance), CFA (Concern for achievement), and VOA (View of achievement). All items have 5 questions each except VOPA (View of physical appearance) which has six questions. Five point likert scale was used having values from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Strongly disagree =1, Disagree =2, neutral =3, Agree =4, strongly agree =5) to check the response of business students and teachers of business studies. Fashion consciousness (FAS), developed by Shim and Gehrt (1996), consists of  ¬Ã‚ ve items. This construct re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ects the degree to which an individual incorporates the latest fashion styles into his wardrobe (Nam et al., 2006) and the degree of his desire for up-to-date styles and frequent wardrobe changes (Shim Gehrt, 1996; Walsh et al., 2001; Wells Tigert, 1971). Five point likert scale was used having values from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Strongly disagree =1, Disagree =2, neutral =3, Agree =4, strongly agree =5) to check the response of fashion clothing involvement. The concept of status consumption (STA) was developed by Eastman, Goldsmith, and Flynn (1999) and refers to an interest in consuming to obtain status or engaging in conspicuous consumption. The original scales compose of  ¬Ã‚ ve items. Five point likert scale was used having values from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Strongly disagree =1, Disagree =2, neutral =3, Agree =4, strongly agree =5) for getting response of business students about status consumption. The statically tools will be used to describe response of university students. Mean values of response were also calculated, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis will be used in order to prove the reliability and validity of instrument. KMO values were obtained. To check the association and to know the variance between variables. For inter-item reliability final scores the Cronbach alpha values were determined. Descriptive statistics were useful to demonstrate the demo-graphics of respondents. Correlation and regression values were calculated and regression weights will be used to show the relationships of variables.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Bob Hope: Hollywoods Brightest Star :: Essays Papers

Bob Hope: Hollywood's Brightest Star This PBS documentary of Bob Hope as an entertainer was well done. It looks at Bob's contributions as an actor, comedian, dancer and humanitarian. The film's footage, from the early 1900's to present, is revealing to the eras of Bob Hope's career. It takes you through Bob's career in vaudeville, Broadway, radio, movies, television and live performances. As narrator Les Brown Jr. states " Bob Hope is an American icon and the only entertainer to be # 1 in all facets of the entertainment field". This documentary is proof that this statement is true. The narrator starts off with a biography of Bob Hope, while showing scenes of the early 1900's. Bob was born in 1903 in England, who migrated to the United States with his parents and six brothers in 1907 and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. By age six, Bob was already doing impersonations of Charlie Chaplin. Bob took dancing lessons from a vaudeville entertainer named John Root and was soon entering talent contests all over town. At age eighteen, Bob had started a dance act with his girl friend Millie Rosequest, but it did not last long. Bob soon teamed up with another dancer named George Burd. They took their act to New York and worked at a lot of vaudeville show houses. It was at one of these places where Bob was asked to do the announcing in between acts. Bob's comedic talent and acts took hold and lead to the beginning of his solo career. In less than five years Bob had become the most sought after talent and the # 1 hit in the vaudeville circuit. Bob's success in vaudeville caught the eye of many Broadway producers. He was soon signed to do a Broadway show called Roberta. This lead to many more offers and to Bob doing a year tour with the Ziegfield Follies. Bob was now considered to be the hottest act around and was being recruited by radio stations and movie studios. In 1937, Bob signed a twenty-six week contract with NBC radio to do the Woodbury Soap Show. Since Bob was such a big hit NBC gave him his own radio show, The Bob Hope Show. Bob would do a monologue to start the show, then bring out other actors and perform skits.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Themes of Love and Revenge in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay -- Shakespear

Themes of Love and Revenge in Shakespeare's Hamlet Love is one of the most powerful themes in Hamlet, but a superior force - REVENGE, drives Hamlet's love. Revenge of his father's murder. Hamlet is confused and melancholic over the fact that his mother married his own uncle and so quickly after his father's death. Even though he does not immediately suspect foul play in his father's untimely death, he is in a state of shock. As Kenneth Muir states, "He (Hamlet) is profoundly shocked by Gertrude's marriage to his uncle in less than two months after her first husband's death, although he has no conscious suspicion that his father has been murdered or that his mother had committed adultery." The ghost scene seems to fuel Hamlet's revenges of his father's murder, but also, as we will discuss later this scene confuses Hamlet. Hamlet's revenge of his father's murder is successful, but very costly. Hamlet pays the ultimate price of his mother's, his sweetheart Ophelia's, his friend's and his own life to accomplish this revenge. Hamlet's revenge for his father's murder begins just after the ghost scene, were Hamlet meets his fathers ghost and is told of the murder. Hamlet's father tell him to revenge his murder "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (I, v, 25). Hamlet's response is to swear "that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge."(I, v, 29-31). Hamlet is now determined, even inspired to a rapid revenge. Hamlet is confused with his fathers death and is suspicious of foul play, but even after the ghost scene Hamlets seems to be vacillating between actuality (Was his father murder by his uncle?) and manic depression. Hamlet even goes as far as considering suicide. "... ...ve his final revenge. "Hamlet's revenge has led him to wanton and meaningless slaughter. He may have ultimately won the battle within himself, but he dies with the blood of eight men on his hands, five of them innocent victims, helpless bystanders who were pointlessly struck down because they came between two mighty opposites. Hamlet's revenge has led to the destruction of two entire families and to the abandonment of the State to a foreign adventurer." BIBLIOGRAPHY Hoy, C. HAMLET William Shakespeare, New York, 1963 Prosser, E. HAMLET & REVENGE, Stanford, 1971 Wilson, J. What happens in HAMLET, New York, 1964 Muir, K. SHAKESPREARE Hamlet, London, 1983 Cantor, P. Landmarks of World Literature SHAKESPEARE Hamlet, New York, 1989 Farnham, W. HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK, New York, 1985 Mercer, P. HAMLET and the Acting of Revenge, London, 1987

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Human Nature :: essays research papers

Human nature Grade: B Language: English System: Country: Taiwan Our life is full of problems. Reasoning is a usual way to response to problems which we concern about. We reason in response to everyday problems. For instance, asked by friends to go out dinner at a time when we have planned something else, we must decide which one is more important for us at that moment of time, and whether to decline or to adjust our schedule. Reasoning appropriate to problems like this has often been called practical. Practical reasons might be said to be reasons for acting, and it is in some sense point toward action. Practical reasoning has been much discussed by philosophers, and it is catalogued under Moral Philosophy. For Aristotle’s moral philosophy, as it appears in his document now called the Nicomachean ethics, reflects his teleological (goal-oriented) metaphyics. In the Nicomachean ethics, where Aristotle considers a science of doing, and acting in certain way to seek rational ends. The notion of Goal, or Purpose, is the principal one in his moral theory. Aristotle noted that every act is performed for some purpose, which he defined as the "good" of that act, the end at which the activity aims. We perform an act because we find its purpose to be worthwhile. Either the totality of our acts is an infinitely circular series: Every morning we get up in order to eat breakfast, we eat breakfast in order to go to work, we got to work in order to get money, we get money so we can buy food in order to be able to eat breakfast, etc., etc., etc., in which case life would be a pretty meaningless endeavor because this is just bunch of repeated and vain activities practicing if without a purpose. Or there is some ultimate good toward which the purpose of all acts are directed. If there is such a good, we should try to come to know it so that we can adjust all our acts toward it in order to avoid that saddest of all tragedies – the wasted and vain life According to Aristotle, there is general verbal agreement that the end toward which all human acts are directed is happiness; therefore, happiness is the human good since we seek happiness for its own sake, not for the sake of something else. In a sense, realizing the end of attaining happiness is an activity of making, and it’s the activity aims to make a certain kind of man, living in a certain kind of society. Happiness might be explained as the

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Discrimination of the Homosexual Essay

A simple look into the history of mankind and one can quickly conclude, discrimination of the homosexual is, quite possibly, one of the earliest forms of discrimination to exist. Centuries later tolerance, acceptance, and equal rights continue to have a stronghold on the homosexual community, often fueling public debate and strong opposition within Congress, the workplace, and even in the confines of the family dynamic. Discrimination of the homosexual quite possibly has one of the greater disadvantages of all other forms of human discrimination because many would argue, according to the Holy Bible, God, Himself, disapproves. From the earliest chapters of the Bible, such as Leviticus 18:22 (New King James Version) which reads, â€Å"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. †1 to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that states, â€Å"Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. â€Å"2 man quickly comes to the conclusion that God clearly sees the homosexual as unacceptable. Therefore, many feel entitled to discriminate against the homosexual community believing if God says it is wrong, one is somehow given permission to act as they are God and carry forth hatred and zero tolerance for the group. However, if one truly studies or reads the Bible, one will find that God detests quite a few things, one being â€Å"hatred†. And, where one may point to a few of these scriptures with regard to homosexuality, the very group tends to forget to include the many other scriptures that support God’s mandate for all to love one another, to forgive one another, and to avoid judgment of all humankind. Discrimination is painful – it stirs hatred, it destroys individuals, families, communities, nations, and the world at large. Discrimination of homosexuals, in particular, has resulted in countless deaths, suicides, assaults, and shattered lives yet this discrimination continues and shows little signs of coming to an end. And, it remains fact that one of the greatest tools many have to show just cause for their hatred and discrimination continues to be the Bible. Often taken out f context, or neglecting to study the historical or geographic reasoning behind various scriptures, entire churches and denominations band together in direct opposition of the homosexual community all while forgetting God’s direct words, â€Å"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. † (John 15:12)3 This one scripture is a far cry from God’s permission to allow homosexual discrimination. Yet, many â€Å"Christians† are quick to dismiss the scripture and opt to use the Holy Bible to support displays of hatred and bitterness all while destroying families and contributing to the suicide rate of the world’s youth in alarming numbers. Discrimination can be defined as â€Å"the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. †4 Discrimination shows little room for tolerance or a desire for understanding, compassion, or respect for an individual’s right to chose his or her path in life. Discrimination stirs anger and hatred as evidenced by many acts of violence that have taken place for centuries. Discrimination causes individual self-doubt, feelings of hopelessness and lack of security. Discrimination of the homosexual often leaves an individual feeling out casted by everyone; often alienated by his or her very own family. For the young individual facing such scrutiny and hatred, there often seems no way out, especially for those surrounded by others who have lost compassion and a true loving heart. With no one to turn to, no one to fully understand or provide support, many of these youth turn to the unthinkable: suicide. It is a burden and pressure far too overwhelming for many – often much more so when you belong to an organization that feels they’ve been granted biblical permission to target an individual. Such was so in case of young Eric James Borges. Eric James Borges endured a life-long struggle with coming terms with his sexual identity. Feeling â€Å"different† and unlike other boys from the time he was a young child, he quickly learned to suppress his feelings and emotions for fear of others finding out he was a homosexual – a gender identity that had been made clear to him was unacceptable to society, to his family and, above all, to God. But, it wasn’t long into his life where this became difficult to mask, far too overwhelming of a task to keep hidden. His less han masculine mannerisms and attractions to activities associated as girlish made him a quick target. And, soon came harassment. As though not difficult enough to deal with the bullying, emotional and physical abuse of his peers, young Eric’s fundamentalist Christian home provided little by way of a haven from the pain. If anything, the home provided added reinforcement and strengthened Eric’s certainty that something was deeply wrong with him. Unfortunately, the adults in Eric’s life, including his Christian parents, made life dramatically worse for the young man. Growing up in a home where Christian values and standards were strictly enforced, Eric’s parents viewed his sexual orientation as defiant and wrong in the eyes of God. Eric began a life on display, often the subject of family prayer during which time family members would pray for his â€Å"healing† and â€Å"deliverance† from the â€Å"curse† placed on his life. His family, too, endured pressure by many within the church, some accusing the parents of living a sinful life of their own that resulted in the curse. Rather than learn to love their son and support, guide, and encourage him with compassion and loving arms, Eric’s parents succumbed to their own inner insecurities, often applying far more pressure on the youngster and accusing him of choosing an immoral life, at one point calling upon divine intervention: an exorcism. When performing the ritual exorcism with the anticipation of curing him of his cursed sexual orientation failed, his parents chose the next best course of action: demanding he leave the household. Shattered, torn, and disowned, the young Eric found support in a few who showed him love and compassion. He joined and participated in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning (LGBTQ) groups which introduced him to others who had led difficult lives – some less devastating than Eric’s, but others just as tragic. During this time, he participated in a movement designed to educate and create awareness and provide information to the public that the homosexual life was neither a â€Å"curse† from God neither the demonic lifestyle so often portrayed by many within the world’s churches. Eric became a guest speaker, a young author, a figure among struggling homosexual youth and a noted survivor of a life targeted by discrimination. But, despite all the advances and his personal accomplishments, the damage had been done to Eric. Without the love and support of his family and relatives, with the pain associated with a lifetime of abuse, Eric, could no longer endure his internal suffering. Young Eric James Borges committed suicide January 14, 2012 at age 19 near his hometown of Visalia, California. Discrimination of the homosexual continues, and it must end. But, will it? Consider the recent development in Australia. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has very recently assured religious organizations new rights under a recently-passed bill will ensure they have the freedom to discriminate against those they have deemed â€Å"sinners,† including homosexuals. Under this law schools, hospitals, and faith-based organizations will be able to refuse to hire â€Å"sinners† with minor stipulations. Discrimination by religious organizations throughout Australia has been a long-standing issue and has now only strengthened its case by the passing of this new law. This law, alone, could produce many with the future of Eric James Borges – one that ends in tragedy largely due to people’s harsh, unkind, and inhumane words – words many feel entitled to use because they use God as means to support their hatred. God is a God of love, mercy, and compassion. In His eyes we are equally and beautifully-made, a perfect Masterpiece, a wondrous work. It’s time for this discrimination to end and for us to embrace the homosexual community with love, compassion, understanding and the true Heart of God.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Extended Critical Response Final Draft

The amount of women who join or even are a part of science related fields, are few and the percentages are lowering over time. The question is why? Why aren't women pursuing careers in these fields? The combination of stereotypes in society and the lack of education on this matter is the answer. They get in the way of a woman's judgment and choices. This is the argument that the article ‘The Persistence of Gender Myths in Math† by Roseland Chat Barnett & Carry Rivers published in October 2004, in the newspaper Education Week supports.I reasonably am in favor of Barnett and Rivers position. Not only because they are against the stereotype which is implanted in our society, that math is only suitable for men but also because they believe that if women where properly educated without bias they could achieve things they are capable of instead of being discouraged. To support my views on this matter will be using evidence from other sources that will be presented later on. One reason I agree with Barnett and Rivers is because on one hand although they acknowledge the fact that â€Å"men far out number women in math related fields† (par. , on the other hand they argue that this has nothing to do with innate differences but rather with stereotypes. In other words the authors do not believe that genes are the reason why women do not choose to study math but are rather deterred from biased people and circumstances which discourage women in succeeding in these fields. When girls grow up in an environment which is biased and supports that men are better than women in jobs or math related studies and avert them from doing the same they will end up believing that men are better than them and that â€Å"erodes their confidence in their own ability to succeed† (par. . In plain English when a girl has been discouraged throughout her life from doing cometh inning that is considered unsuitable to her gender she will not have confidence in achieving a go al and she will believe that she IS not good. It will always seem hard, even if she has the capability of achieving it. Moreover, I could not agree more with Barnett and Rivers that ‘culture has convinced them that girls don't belong in these fields† (par. 0), because a biased culture and the influence of stereotypes may avert girls from choosing what they are good at but rather choose what they are mostly suited for. But doesn't culture consist of education and family? On one hand the article â€Å"Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes: How Our Schools Narrow Children's Choices† by Athena Donald published in January 2014 in the newspaper The Guardian the author supports that the reason girls are not interested in â€Å"manlier† subjects is not due to innate differences but propaganda in school.As Donald puts it â€Å"children learn sexism at school†. Barnett and Rivers are Of the same mind. They believe that teachers do not encourage girls in choosing cour ses that are more popular with boys. On the other hand, Steven Pinker the author of The Science of Difference† published in February 2005, in the newspaper The New Republic talks about this topic in a more psychological prospect and is a firm supporter that biology has to do with what we like (nature), but partly agrees with Barnett and Rivers that people's preferences are caused by their social environment (nurture).This is where family comes in. When the author says â€Å"children are born unisex and are molded into male and female roles by their parents† it shows us that children have the same abilities in achieving things but society is what teaches kids that humans are different due to their ex, which applies, to my beliefs as well as Barnett and Rivers. The authors of † The Persistence of Gender Myths in Math† offer a solution, which think is reasonable.A combination of teachers helping kids in the school environment and enhancing the girls' natural ta lents rather than eliminating them because they don't apply to their sex and the elimination of bias from our society, is what the authors believe to be the solution. Firstly, they believe that teachers can contribute to their female students and help them believe that they are equally likely to succeed in the fields of math. To do so, the educators need to â€Å"examine the degree to which they themselves may have – unconsciously- accepted the math-male equation† (par. 1). Agree with the authors because, since teachers are the ones who have a part of â€Å"molding† a child's personality they need to educate themselves too on this subject. Children cannot be trusted with a teacher who does not encourage them equally. Moreover, I could not agree more with Barnett and Rivers when they say that when we stop believing in the stereotype that men are better that women at math and finally see that it has nothing to do with innate differences (par. ) but rather judge co rrectly a human and his capabilities by â€Å"their individual merits rather than the statistics of their group† (Pinker par. 6) that is when we will have a clear idea of each individuals capabilities despite of their sex. TO sum up, I am a firm supporter of Barnett and Rivers, because they are of the same mind as me which is that achievement in math has nothing to do with sexual characteristics but this is our society's false belief that men can do better in math fields.The consequence of which, ends up affecting women negatively, it does let them acknowledge their own abilities and flourish in these fields. Moreover, the authors do not stand idly towards this topic but proceed in offering a solution in eliminating this bias specifically in the school environment, which is that educators should eliminate this inhabited stereotype so they can judge the abilities of their students in math, based on their performance and not according to their sex which will result in encouragi ng them equally.Finally, a stereotype cannot stand in the way of a woman's pursuit of her dreams just because her sex according to statistics does not do well in math. All humans despite of their ex, deserve the same encouragement and support in achieving their goals, so it's time for society to work off this bias and judge equally peoples' achievements rather than having a false idea of women's capabilities.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Bad things

With a increasingly sexualities society (Mulligan, 1994; Kumar, 2013) and the influence the media has over young people (Slough, 1995), it mess pertinent to ask the question why as a nation, are we not more clued up in preventing rather than recovering from such tragedies? A noted aim of Sex and Relationship Education (SERE) is to teach about awareness, knowledge and correct actions related to sexual abuse (Lobber et al, 2010) to ensure the learner has the best chance of societal integration and healthy sex life (Lobber et al, 2010).Herein lies the concern, differing societies engage differently, leading SERE to assume many guises (Lobber et al, 2010; Fontanne et al, 2012). The dichotomy for policy makers and Laotians concerned is that relevant and appropriate content has to be offset against the fear of public outcry (Consoled, 2012; Chou, 2012). Sex and the surrounding paraphernalia is still seen by some, especially parents or those involved in the education of children, as taboo ( Former, 2011).It is a subject that evokes an unusually deep emotional response in a wide demographic of people (Vassar, 2011), perhaps because sex and relationships are something we all feel a connection to. Perhaps then surrounding such controversy it is little surprise that there is elegance to update national policy (Evans and Trip, 2006; Confined, 2012), indeed there has been no major update to any government guidelines concerning SERE in 13 years (Evans and Trip, 2006; Holly, 2012; Sex Education Forum, 2013).Invariably this has led to schools and educators hesitant to deliver any form of SERE (Former, 2011) explaining the comment of the Sex Education Forum's claiming a one in three reply of ‘poor' or Very poor' amongst respondents concerning their experience of SERE (Sex Education Forum, 2013, p. 4). Initially this echoes the contention we know surrounds SERE, however the Sex Education Forum is an independent body, even advising government policy, adding validity to such statements.The previous two and the current government have come under criticism (Evans and Trip, 2006; Former, 2011; Holly, 2012, Sex Education Forum, 2013) about failing to enact meaningful change in support of schools in this clearly vital area of education (Lobber et al, 2010; Fontanne et al, 2012). There is an assumption that governments would wish to enact decisive and lasting policy change after weighty social change is promised, yet Evans and Trip (2006) have suggested that more radical policy is necessary than has been thus implemented. Such policies may even go as far as introducing pornography within the classroom (Holly, 2012).Marled (2012) suggests the current Coalition Government has already hastened and strengthened reforms and guidelines in the wake of recent abuse tragedies such as those in Recordable and Exosphere (Marled, 2012; BBC News, 2013; Burke, 2013). One must be wary to believe such rhetoric in light of these circumstances, as it is common practice for such vague press releases to appear, simply to soothe public fear and discontent. This may be cynicism on the writer's part though and the current Coalition does intend to release a new curriculum for schools in 2014 (Great Britain, Department for Education, 2013).It was hoped by pupils in particular that SERE would feature strongly within the revision (Former, 2011) yet it seems that the trend of ambivalence towards SERE continues. Even with an extended consultation period on the curriculum, both pupils (Former, 2011) and advisory councils (Sex Education Forum, 2013) feel that their views or recommendations have been ignored. The position of SERE within the curriculum was meeting all parties wanted to see reinforced with the Sex Education Forum calling for SERE in the form of Personal, Social and Health Education (SHE) or better, standalone to be made statutory (2013, p. ). The proposal curriculum (Great Britain, Department for Education, 2013; Sex Education Forum, 2013) will not howev er, be making this so. This course of action is analyses by Even and Trip (2006) as predictable, claiming that despite valid and objective support, orthodoxy persists in education. Perhaps disappointing as if there can be a shift in orthodoxy regarding SERE, profound social and demographic benefits may be seen.Sweden has had a strong form of SERE embedded in practice for over fifty years (Lobber et al, 2010) and enjoys a high standard of social stability and new from the current Coalition Government (Analysis: Cameraman's Swede Dreams, 2012). It is dangerous to make broad sweeping statements from limited sources, especially of those with a distinctive demographic difference to the I-J. It is usually agreed though that SERE should learn from those with best practice globally (Livingston and Haddam, 2009; Chou, 2012), perhaps lessons may also be learnt from the Finnish model.Having had tooth statutory and non-statutory shapes of SERE, Lobber et al (2010) surmises that it is the statut ory model that returns the cohesion and essential improvements to sexual health political leaders crave (Evans and Trip, 2006). Instead of taking the opportunity to make SERE statutory content, this Coalition Government has drafted a proposal that has elements of SERE embedded within the new science curriculum (Great Britain, Department for Education, 2013). Science by nature is objective and if for this reason SERE was amalgamated then it is commendable, combating bigotry and misunderstanding (Chou, 2012).As Lombardi (2012) helpfully reminds us, humans the world over reproduce in the same way and so taking a scientific approach follows. These laudable reasons for merging SERE within a broader science curriculum appear not to be the motive though. Nearly twenty years ago Slough (1995) instructs how children should be aware of basic reproduction biology and yet this is not stipulated for today's learners. It would appear SERE is once more regressing to a state of UN-objective and UN- founded content (Hess, 2010; Former, 2011; Lombardi, 2012; Sex Education Forum, 2013).It is difficult to tell if this slide is uh to bad advice or simply to be purposefully uncontroversial (Vassar, 2011; Confined, 2012). It is unlikely that poor advice is the primary reason as there were both lengthy consultation periods on the draft curriculum (Great Britain, Department for Education, 2013) and extensive data from numerous reputable studies (Evans and Trip, 2006; Livingston and Haddam, 2009; Lobber et al, 2010; BC Council for Families, 2011; Former, 2011; Channel 4, 2013; Sex Education Forum, 2013).These aversions to objective SERE is unhelpful to learners who are understandably worried about hangers happening during puberty (Former, 2011; Sex Education Forum, 2013) and have a right to know (Mulligan, 1994). These learner responses are supported by More (2012) who asserts learners are inquisitive for biological reasons. Questioners do not simply stop questioning Just because they a re ignored (Lobber et al, 2010). Instead they seek answers from other sources (Slough, 1995; Holly, 2012) with Hess (2010) commenting that these sources should be UN-ambivalent as possible to reduce over simplicity.It is crucial that correct answers are given as The Framework for Sexual Health (Great Britain, Department of Health, 2013, p. 2) states that an average of ten sexual partners is common in men today. The theory is that if quality SERE sessions are in place, with appropriate answers available, then wider social and sexual health risks can be avoided (Mulligan, 1994; Holly, 2012; Sex Education Forum, 2013) and some, such as the curtailing of the uneasy truth that the I-J has the highest rate of unwanted teenage pregnancy in Europe.This alarming fugue only worsens when realizing that the I-J is second only to the United States of America in terms of developed nations (Evans and Trip, 2006). This should be qualified however tit the Framework for Sexual Health (Great Britain, Department of Health, 2013, p. 2) and other parties (Holly, 2012; Sex Education Forum) quick to point out that these pregnancy levels are at a multi-generational low here. Ignorance is another principal reason for high quality SERE to be delivered in schools.A Sex Education survey of over 2000 young people, one of the largest of its kind in this country, found that seventy four of sexually active fourteen to seventeen year olds had sexual experiences under the age of consent and that twenty percent of these had these experiences under the GE of thirteen (Channel 4, 2013) It is easy to let emotion override at this point and this is a danger faced at policy level too (Combo, 2012; Holly, 2012).Instead compare these fugues with the six percent from the survey (Channel 4, 2013) who said they would wait until marriage before engaging in sexual experiences. On a personal note, regarding ignorance, the author was surprised to see that ‘Setting (Combo, 2012, p. 28) carried a custodial sentence of up to four years (Crown Prosecution Service, 2012) for the creation and distribution of such images. This is because often those reading are underage and although (hopefully) unaware of it, they are distributing ‘Indecent Images of Children' (Crown Prosecution Service, 2012; Holly, 2012).Evans and Trip (2006) warn that once experimenting in sexual experiences under the age of sixteen (consensual age in the I-J) becomes the norm, it is far harder to prevent unwanted sexual health related issues. This a common counter to allowing overt SERE within education today, as parents, educators and wider societies believe exposure to SERE automatically correlates to a rise in sexual experimentation (Mulligan, 1994; Fontanne et al, 2012; Chou, 2012). The results from the Sex Education survey (Channel 4, 2013) counter this however, showing that the mean age for first consensual experiences is seventeen in both male and females.Certainly, wider evidence from across Northern Eur ope, a good comparison to make with the UK due to similar socio- economic patterns, show that the greater the liberality with engaging children in SERE, the lower the risks (Evans and Trip, 2006; Lobber et al, 2010). There is a third dimension to the debate of SERE, that of abstinence. Abstainers argue that it is the only scientific method that is proven to completely eliminate all forms of sexual health risks (Hess, 2010) such as those outlined by Fontanne et al (2012).Lombardi (2012) argues that this is in fact counter productive as it provides a dichotomy to learners to choose either protection or abstinence, leading to a drop in quality of SERE. The abstinence method does carry weight and is enjoying increasing support globally (Confined, 2012), in terms of the benefits of sex in good relationships. Alongside having the worst sexual health in teenagers in Europe, the I-J also boasts a higher bevel of marital breakdown and single parent families than found on the continental main land (Evans and Trip, 2006).It is argued that by teaching sex as something to be enjoyed once firm commitments have been made to one another, the bond between couples is stronger thereby reducing breakdowns (Hess, 2010; Bloom, 2012). It is also worth noting that Hess (2010) and Bloom (2012) acknowledge the abstinence approach has much ground to cover in terms of accessibility to those who do not see or desire a loving marriage as standard (Evans and Trip, 2006; Comb', 2012). Lobber t al (2010) and Milkshakes (2011) both produce a damming testimony of the abstinence approach.This is not surprising as SERE as a topic does carry strong emotions (Former, 2011). By providing historical contexts and citations in both counters it does however help to remove the personal emotive element often seen in this area of discussion. Such emotions are very apparent in both Hess' (2010) article and the demonstrations reported by Vassar (2011). A final thought for the abstinence methodology is that of the inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LIGHT) learners. The Sex Education Forum (2013, p. Rightfully highlight that these people are equal in need to heterosexual learners and the dangers an evasive traditional hetero marriage' approach to sex and reproduction may have on their education and sexual health. By looking to educational theory, we may hope to provide a consensus for SERE. Evans and Trip (2006) note the link to quality SERE with social learning theories. The Social Cognitive Theory (ACTS) established by Bandeau (1986) is a respected and time-tested model to use.Linked to the findings of the Sex Education survey (Channel 4, 2013) and the findings of other noted projects Livingston and Haddam, 2009; Former, 2011; Sex Education Forum, 2013), the ACTS model requires an understanding of current trends of the behavior of society in conjunction with the goal that society is hoping to achieve. The abstinence approach would argue that to achieve the goal of a so ciety having minimal unwanted teenage pregnancies and a majority of stable relationships, it is the attitude of young people that needs to change.This is not the simple fix that may have been hoped for though. The Framework for Sexual Health (Great Britain, Department of Health, 2013, p. 9) tresses that currently around eighty five thousand females are the victims of rape or assault by penetration annually. It is very difficult for even die-hard abstainers to argue that if these victims had different attitudes, they wouldn't have been assaulted. Indeed, the attitudes of young people and parents are reflected in Livingston and Hadrons report (2009, p. 6) showing that twenty percent were worried about viewing inappropriate sexual content. Using the ACTS, it would seem then that it would be beneficial to more learners if quality and objective SERE sessions were available. This old allow the continuing motivation of society to reduce the spiraling sexual health issues (Evans and Trip, 2 006; Great Britain, Department of Health, 2013) whilst simultaneously progressing education appropriate to the young people. It is clear that young people want answers (Former, 2011; Sex Education Forum, 2013).By providing them through quality SERE, it reduces the risk of obtaining spurious answers such as questions regarding genital size and shape (Channel 4, 2013) from dubious sources such as pornography. The same survey (Channel 4, 2013) found that more than a third questioned rely on pornography for their information. For the educators then, it is clear that emotion and embarrassment needs to be laid aside once more in favor of providing better sources (Barker, 2012; Comb', 2012).It is pertinent then to question who takes on the role of the educator, parents or the school. With the draft curriculum (Great Britain, Department for Education, 2013) it is obvious that some responsibility does lie with schools. Fontanne et al (2012) would support this decision, finding that with expe rienced educators schools provide ideal environments for SERE as they can reach the majority of children instantly. Former (2011, p. 166) does end a counter, suggesting that from his research, sixty seven percent of SERE sessions are not taught by classroom teachers.Fontanne et al (2012) retorts with the idea that this is not a bad thing as often teachers resort to passive learning in SERE and not memorable experiences, provided by external sources, something which Former (2011) agrees is more effective. Chou (2012) comments that teachers should not be expected to deliver high quality SERE as it could involve topics of anatomy and physiology knowledge beyond that of most teachers, yet it is arguable that most parents would fall under this category also.Chou (2012) counters himself too, commenting that in Chinese society, sex is not a topic of conversation traversed by most parents, leaving the question of responsibility unanswered. A common reason for teachers reluctance is being st igmatize as Holly, a leading expert in SERE, found herself (Robbins, 2011) or finding themselves in compromising situations (Knows, 2012; Vaughan, 2012). In actuality the most common reasons cited for hesitance or refraining from delivering high quality SERE is actually identical between parents and teachers (Livingston and Haddam, 2009; Hess, 2010; Former, 2011; Chou, 2012).Lobber et al (2010) does offer consolation to this conundrum, stating that with training, teachers' attitudes reversed dramatically. It is vital that this happens as it necessary that some sort of service is available outside of the home (Livingston and Haddam, 2009; BC council for Families, 2011; Barker, 2012; Children, 2012). As with many quality strategies in education, it has been proved that the most successful SERE occurs when schools and parents cooperate fully (Baldwin and Abrasions, 1990; Evans and Trip, 2006; Barker, 2012; Fontanne et al, 2012; Marled, 2012).With the continuation of findings as outline d in the Framework for Sexual Health (Great Britain, Department of Health; 2013) and truly shocking reports across the UK (summers, 2007; Marled, 2012; BBC News, 2013;) and beyond (Burke, 2013), it must be seen as vital from schools, parents and politicians that the issue of SERE needs addressing. From these brief research findings it is clear that no universal solution has yet been tailored to fit all needs.