The Effects of Mass Media on Society Research Paper

The Effects of Mass Media on Society - Research Paper Example One of these is video games which are products of man’s quest for excitement and entertainment. In this regard, this essay is written with the objective of determining the effects of video games on society. It would initially start on the origins of video games and rationale for playing video games. The discourse would also present the advantages and disadvantages of video games to find out their implications to the users and to society, as a whole. The exact date for the creation of video games could not be pinpointed due to its reference and interrelationships with people, games, companies and culture which actively influenced it. According to Herman, Horwitz, Kent & Miller (2009), video games started with Ralph Baer’s assignment of creating a television set incorporated with a game. They averred â€Å"it would take another 18 years for his idea to become a reality, and by that time there would be other people to share in the glory, like Willy Higinbotham, who designed an interactive tennis game played on an oscilloscope, and Steve Russell, who programmed a rudimentary space game on a DEC PDP-1 mainframe computer. And then there was also Nolan Bushnell, who played that space game and dreamed of a time when fairground midways would be filled with games powered by computers.† (Herman, Horwitz, Kent & Miller, 2009, par. 1) The golden age in video games was identified as spanning the years 1978 to 1981with the emergence of famous brands synonymous to video games such as Atari, Nintendo, Magnavox, Microvision and Intellivision, among others. (Herman, Horwitz, Kent & Miller, 2009, 3) The evolution continues until brands such as Sega, Game Boy Playstation and Xbox remain imprinted in the minds of millions of patronizers. But what exactly are video games? Allwords (2009) define video game as â€Å"a style of game existing as and controlled by software, usually run by a

Reflective essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 14

Reflective - Essay Example However, my far-reaching plans were overshadowed by the terrible news: one day I learned that my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. My loving parents did not want me to know, yet I learned it accidentally. I just found an abstract of mother’s medical record when looking for my notebook in the drawer. And I was shell shocked. The feelings were as if a bucket of ice-cold water was poured on me. I understood that she wanted to protect me from worries, but I was adamant about what I needed to do as a loving child. When your dearest person finds herself in the mire, there are no other possible options but staying near and doing your best to help and relieve the personal hell she is going though. Therefore, I decided to postpone my study in the U.S., so that my mom could rely on me anytime during her treatment. I have to admit that giving up my dream was very hard, and so was watching mom going through the painful course of chemotherapy, but I do not regret anything. This experience, though rather p stressful, has produced a profound effect on my life and attitude. Usually, I tended to distance myself from thoughts that some of my dearest people and particularly family members can be possible affected by a serious disease, get into an accident or die. Therefore, hearing about other people die of cancer in the news programs, I often thought: â€Å"Well, that is awful, but fortunately it will never affect me, my parents or my friends†. I remember that when I was at school, I read about Kylie Minogue being diagnosed with breast cancer. Well, I liked this singer and was a little upset, but still I perceived cancer as a distanced and abstract thing. However, when I saw mother’s weary eyes after a chemotherapy session and understood that cancer can reach anyone, nobody is completely secure even with healthy lifestyle or strong immune

Autistic Childs Failure False Belief Task

Autistic Childs Failure False Belief Task Autistic Childs Failure False Belief Task Is caused by an Executive Function Deficit Autism is a neurological disease which is occasionally called (Classical Autism) and belongs to a class of developmental disorders called the Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). It develops at an early age in life, before the age of 3 years and presents itself by through â€Å"impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests† (Autism Fact sheet, 2007). Diseases which are included in the Autism spectrum disorders include pervasive developmental disorder and child disintegrative disorder. Other diseases falling in the category include Rett syndrome and Asperger syndrome etc. autism is estimated to affect around 3 to 6 out 1000 children (Autism Fact sheet, 2007). According to the Autism and developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDMN), the disease affected 1 in every 150 8 year old children in different regions of United States. Furthermore it has been seen in males four tim es more than in females (Centre for disease control and prevention, 2007). Autism is a complex syndrome and its identification can be missed in case of a mild form of the disease. It is a debilitating disease in some cases and in order to identify patients suffering from ASDs, doctors study the patient’s different aspects of behaviour. These include: Difficulty in making friends with people. Difficulty in starting conversations with people Patient’s conducting repetitive routines. Lack of imagination and inability to be social. The atypical and stereotyped use of language skills sometimes repeating sentences. Limited interests in subjects with abnormally focused mind (Autism Fact sheet, 2007) Although the stated patterns of behaviour alert the physicians about suspicion towards Autism, the complete explanatory framework for understanding autism ultimately has to encompass multiple aspects of the condition: 1) Aetiology (2) Brain structures and processes (3) Neuro-psychology (4) Symptoms or behaviours At the most basic level, aetiology of the condition is thought to be genetic as well as environmental. Both factors are thought to play a role in the future abnormalities in the developmental process of the brain structures at an early age, and the behavioural pattern, the mind becomes able to illicit. Researchers have been attempting in the recent years to pinpoint the exact relationship between the anomalies in the brain structures and the effect they have on the behavioural patterns in autistic people. A person’s ability to â€Å"control and regulate† behaviour through cognitive abilities is called Executive function of the brain (Executive functions, 2007). They are complex behavioural abilities which simple mental abilities like focus, motor skills and memory etc (Executive functions, 2007). Researches note that the autistic children suffer from executive function deficit. Utah Fith in 1985 along with fellow psychologists’ put forward the idea that the main mental deficit in autism could be their inability to assess their own and other’s mental states. This is known as the â€Å"theory of mind† (Johnston, E, 1997). The theory that children with autism lack the theory of mind (ToM) is supported by multitude of experiments concerning the testing of presence of ToM via false belief task which show that the autistic children usually fail to pass the test (Johnston, E, 1997). Discussion Autisms come under the spectrum disorder, which means the characteristics of the disease, can appear in different combinations and different intensity levels. The aspects of individuality of human personality make it difficult to apply similar diagnostic techniques to different children. Some of the symptoms of Autism are resistance to change, lack of social interaction, lack of eye contact, inappropriate association of things and objects, lack of physical reaction to different stimuli and non- responsiveness to verbal instructions and many more. There are many misconceptions about the disease and lack of awareness among the family members and associated people, which makes it difficult to be accepted and to development of appropriate treatments and special behavioural attention that is to be given to these special children. Two major factors that affect the future behaviour and progress of these children are the teachers and the parents. As these children cannot in most cases develo p and react like normal children. So parents and teachers play and important role in making them normal people this also depends on the severity of the diseases (Baron-Cohen, 2004, p96). False Belief task Theory of mind is the ability of a person to predict or anticipate what the other person will think or do i.e. to read a person. Children at the age of 4years old should be able to illicit this capability. The litmus test to assess if children have developed the theory of mind capability is through the False-belief Task. Children suspected of having deficit of ToM are put through a False-belief task. This task is used in the ToM research and checks the children’s comprehension of other people’s false beliefs (Young, S., 2008). The term False belief can be defined as â€Å"individual’s wrong belief’s about other’s thoughts† (Young, S., 2008). The false belief task checks through a series of questions â€Å"whether child can distinguish between newfound knowledge of a stimulus and previous thoughts about the stimulus of interest† (Young, S., 2008). It has been seen that autistic children do not learn this capability and this is seen through the false belief tasks. These tasks require a person to anticipate or predict another person’s behaviour. It has been seen that a majority of the autistic children fail this task. The ToM theory was first tested by Uta Frith and Baron Cohen et. al using the modified â€Å"Wimmer and Perner’s False belief task† (Johnston, E, 1997). It was found that of the 20 autistic children tested, more than 80% failed to identify the False-Belief task. Whereas children with Down’s syndrome with a mental age lower than those of the autistic children passed the task. The authors attributed the failure of the autistic children in this particular task to their lack of capability to imagine or predict the mental states of others (Johnston, E, 1997). Since then, it has become a common practice to associate autism with failure lack of development of ToM and failure of completing the F alse-belief task. We present two rationales to discard this exercise. First, fleeting the false belief task requires capabilities other than theory of mind. Second, theory of mind need not involve the aptitude to basis about false beliefs. We conclude with an alternative conception of the role of the false belief task. (Obernman et al., 2005, p190) Studies have shown that even though autistic children perform worse than ordinary children on the false-belief tasks, they have success rates greater than those of other mentally retarded children. These results lead us to suspect that even though children suffering from Autism have a reduced comprehension of the false beliefs, when compared to children without the disease, they do not provide clear evidence to support the theory that their mental deficit is in comparable to children who suffer from mental retardation. Executive Functions in Autism Executive function is a general term used to describe large spectrum higher level cognitive processes. These are layered processes with can involve, a person’s ability to detach self from context, or plan for future actions. These actions also include inhibitions of actions deemed inappropriate or actions which relate to responding to and adjusting ones behaviour according to feedback from people other than self. A commonality noted between autistic children and those with frontal lobe injury is their restricted and limited â€Å"stereotyped behaviour† (Happe, F. and Frith U 1996). This similarity in the both cases has led to the formation of a cognitive theory about autism. Children with autism seem to fair worse, when subjected towards â€Å"Wisconsin card sorting task, tower of Hanoi, fluency test, working memory, extra dimensional shift† (Happe, F. and Frith U 1996) etc as compared to those children who are mentally challenged but of a similar mental age as t he autistic children (Happe, F. and Frith U 1996). These significant findings have researchers suspecting the involvement of frontal lobe in the disease of autism. More importantly the new cognitive theory links autism directly to the decrease in one’s executive function execution and comprehension theory. Discovery of Autism When a child is discovered to be suffering for Autism it comes as a real shock for the parents and the family to accept the situation and accommodate the impairments of the child. It is very stressful for the family to grow an autistic child, and a challenge to deal with all the possible outcomes and reactions that they might have to face. The initial reactions of the family are always denial and anger, which is usually, spread over a number of days. It is followed by various other emotional reactions and for a few days the families suffer from emotional turmoil. The next stage is of acceptance and steps, to come in terms with the disease and proper procedures, which have to be taken to deal with the situation at hand. (Bauman, 2004, p791) The issue of Pretence The triad of autistic impairments according to Wing and Gould (1979) are imagination, communication and Socialization. The mind blindness hypothesis can give reason for the loss of socialization with other people and communication (verbal as well as non verbal). It would be logical to state that children who have deficits in communication and with social relationships, would have a difficult time understanding the thinking of others i.e. deficit in the theory of mind. This leaves us with the third component of the triad of characteristics found in the autistic children, i.e. the imagination. The imagination component works in a young child in the form of pretend play. The mind blindness theory cannot explain the absence or the impaired capability of the mind of an autistic child when it comes to pretence. (Bauman, 2004, p 794) The Obsessive Side of Autism The simplest explanation for the sometimes aggressive, repetitive and obsessive behaviour of autistic children can only be explained as the result of social alienation. This has been the traditional belief. A normal healthy young child spends most of its time occupied and overloaded with interactions of the social nature. The mind tries to â€Å"take in† all it can and learn the rules and responses to normal behaviour and actions. The expressions representing anger, the tone of voice which is inviting and loving, are all the interactions learnt at a very young age. A normal child mingles with parents, plays with the toys, and has, person read him imaginative bedtime stories. Severely Autistic children being handicapped in the sense that they are mind blinded cannot understand or comprehend these expressions and social activities, which are continuously thrown at them. The world is frustrating for this child has he has no understanding of the actions expressions of the gestures thrown at him. Therefore it can be thought of, as a natural phenomenon that autistic children would try to withdraw themselves from social atmosphere and into loneliness avoid further confusion. It would also seem logical that their learning and curious mind causes them to preoccupy themselves with simplistic and repetitive tasks which their mind can easily comprehend and keeps their mind occupied. We can also attempt to explain the focused attention and interest of children with autistic child as a means to distract one self from â€Å"opacity† of the social nature of the world and their lack of understanding of it (Bauman, 2004, p795). When we attempt to figure out how many social influences normal healthy children and adolescents have from their social environment, e.g. fictional books, movies sex, sports etc, we realise that we have an innate need for social interactions and they make heavy heavily on our social awareness and our personality as a whole. Keeping this in mind, we can also reason that autistic children also have the innate urge or the need to satisfy their mind with activities which make sense to them. Since they are hypothesised to be devoid of executive function, they preoccupy themselves with activities that they can comprehend like calendar dates time tables’ or any other activities which the later on excel at. There is certain evidence from research which leads us to believe that there is lack of flexibility in the autistic mind and this cannot simply be explained through the theory of social isolation (Bauman, 2004). Rowe et al, (2001) demonstrated in a study conducted on 31 patients that patients with frontal lobe defects reduced capacity for the executive function executions. These shows that loss of executive function comes from pathological tissue damage in the frontal cortex of the brain. They also demonstrated that the results relative to the executive mind defects were â€Å"independent of the theory of mind impairments† (Rowe et al, 2001). Several studies have also shown that autistic children fare worse than normal ones int he tasks involving planning and problem solving (Bauman, 2004). Even though this is consensus amongst some researchers that â€Å"autistic children have damage to their frontal lobe and the surrounding areas leading them to suffer from executive function deficit as well as mind blindness. These regions appear in proximity to the ones involving the tasks related to theory of mind (Bauman, 2004).This alone cannot be the basis on which we refute our position as any reliable theory about the autism has to explain the syndrome itself as well as the signs and symptoms that present themselves along with the main features of the syndrome. Deficits in executive control in Autism There is general association of the deficit of Executive function (control) with the pathological anomalies or any other aetiologies leading to damage of prefrontal region of the brain and specifically the dorsal region. Researchers still are cautious about findings related to executive dysfunctions in developmental disorders. They caution that the behavioural or functional disability need not necessarily reflect pathology in the above mentioned region of the brain which is thought to be involved with the executive function control. Rowe et al (2001) also found inconclusive evidence to support the hypothesis that the prefrontal cortex damage was the sole cause of executive function deficit. It was deducted from the study that executive function could be a result of a collaboration of inputs from the amygdale (Shaw, 2004) along with other regions including thalamus, striatum, hippocampus etc along with temporal and parietal lobes (Rowe et al, 2001). This means that the executive funct ion deficit is the result of more diffuse damage than previously expected. â€Å"The theory of mind theory of autism was experimentally tested with the now famous Sally-Ann version of Wimmer and Perners false belief task. In this task the child is shown two dolls, Sally and Ann. Sally has a basket and Ann has a box. The child watches as Sally places a marble in her basket and goes out. While Sally is out Ann moves the marble into her box. Sally returns. The question posed to the child is, Where will Sally look for the marble? Baron-Cohen, Leslie Frith tested 20 autistic children with mental ages well over 4 years; 16 (80%) failed to appreciate Sallys false belief. In contrast, 12/14 children with Downs syndrome of lower mental age succeeded on the task. Baron-Cohen et al attributed the high rate of autistic childrens failure on this false belief task to an inability to mentalize, to consider the mental states of self and others† (Johnston, E, 1997). This hypothesis postulates that social interactive and communicative abnormalities in autism are derived from a inability to understand other peoples minds and to interpret behaviour in terms of their underlying mental states particularly the ability to anticipate or predict the contents of anothers mind. How to Deal With Autism After the initial emotional reaction and acceptance comes the stage of devising strategies to make the child comfortable and acceptable at home and surroundings. There are many matters of concern that would than come face to face with the family. A resistance towards the child is developed which poses a greater threat to the future progress. The gap that is developed between the family and the child is to be overcome by patience and techniques. There are several well-planned techniques that the parents can use to communicate properly with their child. First of all they have to collect comprehensive information about the disease, and try to understand all the causes and their remedies. Proper medical help should be sought to initiate a proper treatment. Education about the disease and its particularities can be sought from various sources. Associations of the parents of the already suffering children are good source of information. The associations provide better guidance, counselling between families, opportunities to share experiences, about the adopted behaviour towards the child (George, 2004, p418). It is the parents duty to educate the people around the suffering child to accept the disorder and being receptive to the childs needs. They also have to disseminate information that they have collected around; a standard pattern of behaviour is established that will make the child comfortable. Seeking more and more information and then generalizing it will make it easy to deal with the circumstances. Along with the school the parents have to be extra careful about overcoming the gap between the child and themselves. They have to take up the place of an instructor along with a caretaker to make learning the deficiencies be prevailed over. The parents on their own have to try to develop the skills of the child. They can either learn to use the medical treatment procedures or simple home made tricks to improve on the respective weaknesses of the child. Their abnor mal responses to stimuli can be made better by exercising different activities like self-handling skills, show of particular responses in front of the child will make him to imitate. Sensory integration techniques can also be used at home to make their senses perform better. Role modelling can be done to make the childs communication better with other people. This way they can know how to react and behave with different people and can improve their eye contact and can carry themselves better. Bedtime stories and special games can improve their responses. They can be taught at home that how to develop on their touching and squeezing by making small toys of different textures, so they have a general idea. (Grigerenko, 1995, p205) The home environment should be made conducive for the child in terms of its safety and ease of movement. All the safety aspects of the windows, doors, sharp things and flames etc should be kept in mind. The Executive-Function Deficits There have been attempts to elucidate and explain the executive function deficit in people with autism through the reasoning of mind blindness theory it is too early to equate autism directly with complete executive function failure. â€Å"Problems in executive functions cannot explain all aspects of the nonsocial impairments in autism and more importantly, cannot, on the face of it, explain the intact and superior skills sometimes exhibited by autistic children. The spiky IQ profile is a case in point; block design, which is so often a peak in autism, is considered a good test of fluid intelligence, which in turn relies on executive abilities.† Happe, F. (1996). Executive function deficits are not limited to the disorder of autism. These deficits can be seen in â€Å"attention deficit disorders, hyper activity disorders, Tourette syndrome and phenylketonuria etc† Happe, F. (1996). Since these diseases amongst others do not follow the theory o mind therefore the executive function deficit cannot be expected to present itself in accordance with ToM in all case scenarios. (McEvoy, 2004, p563) A study by Baron, Cohen (1985) forms the basis for deviation from the traditional view. It dissociates recurrent and stuck-in-set â€Å"preservations in the cognitive performance of autistic individuals, showing that the former was specifically associated with the presence of lower-level repetitive behaviours (e.g. stereotyped movements), whereas the latter was specifically associated with the presence of higher-level repetitive behaviours (e.g. circumscribed interests)† (Joseph R M, 1999). â€Å"Yet, if the executive dysfunction theory is to provide a convincing alternative to the theory of mind view of autism, it needs to demonstrate similar associations between executive deficits and the impairments in social and communicative functioning that are so centrally defining of the disorder. Thus far, attempts to make such connections have not been replicated, or have suggested that executive deficits, although present, do not have a causal role in the social and communicative impairments.† (Joseph R M, 1999). Personal Thoughts Mind blindness hypothesis concerning autism presents and can even explain the often overlooked fact that people suffering from autism suffer not only from the inability to assign states of the mental sort to other people , but they also fail to achieve or assign a second order mental awareness level about themselves. It can be argued that the theory of mind hypothesis can be used to explain the self attribution and acknowledgement as well as other’s attribution. The theory of mind can easily account for and provide an explanation for autistic patient’s lack of self and other’s mental awareness. Explain the reason why autistic people have narrow range of interests’ and have deficits in comprehending problems and finding their solutions. This can be explained as autistics do not have second order awareness about their own thought processes. Conclusion In conclusion autistic disorder remains an enigma whose research studies have not yet managed to decipher the different parts to elucidate both the causes and the resulting disruption of brain function. However, it is hoped that the preliminary data obtained in neuropsychology, genetics, biochemistry or brain imaging may help in the coming years to identify subgroups of study subjects more homogeneous autism, providing other dimensions to explanation of the condition that the only concept too broad for autistic disorder. Since autism is a developmental disorder of the neurological type, it presents a challenge of how so diverse anomalies in higher centres of the body can lead to characteristic patterns and behaviours. Autism as a condition requires a lot of patience on part of the care takers to bring out positive changes in the patient. These children need acceptance and patience to be dealt with. Their comfort with the society and their mates at school will only be possi ble if they have the acceptance and proper dealing at home. Parents have the utmost responsibility to make things comfortable for their child and be supportive towards them so they can be better people accustomed to deal with their deficiencies in future. References and bibliography: Autism Fact sheet, (2007). National institute of neurological disorders and stroke. Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm Baron-Cohen, (2004), the essential difference. London: Penguin, 2004 Baron-Cohen S, Leslie A.M, Frith U. Does the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’? Cognition 1985; 21: 37–46 Baron-Cohen, S., Richler, J., Bisaraya, d., Gurunathan, N. wheelwright, S. (2002) The systemizing quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, and normal sex differences, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal society London B. Available from Baron-Cohen’s web pages, p45 Centre for disease control and prevention (2007). Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/symptoms.htm Executive functions, (2007). Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://www.minddisorders.com/Del-Fi/Executive-function.html Grigerenko, E. L. Stemberg, R. J. (1995) Thinking Styles, in Saklofske, D. H. Zeidner (eds) International handbook of Personality and Intelligence, New York; Plenum Press, 205-230 Happe, F. and Frith U (1996). The neuropsychology of Autism, Brain, 119; 1377-1400. Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/119/4/1377?maxtoshow=HITS=10hits=10RESULTFORMAT=fulltext=autism+executive+function+deficitsearchid=1FIRSTINDEX=0resourcetype=HWCIT Happe, F. (1999) Autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style, Trends in Cognitive sciences, 3 (6), p216-222 Joseph, RM., (1999). Neuropsychological Frameworks for Understanding Autism. International review of Psychiatry, 11; 309-324 Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1351137 Johnston, E, (1997), Autism, investigating minds. Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://pages.slc.edu/~ebj/IM_97/Lecture21/L21.html Obernman et al. (2005) Cognitive Brain Research, 24, 190-198. Rowe et al, (2001). Theory of mind: impairments and their relationship to executive functioning following frontal lobe excisions. Brain, 124; 600-616, Retrieved on 30th March.2008 from http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/124/3/600?maxtoshow=HITS=10hits=10RESULTFORMAT=fulltext=autism+false+belief+tasksearchid=1FIRSTINDEX=0resourcetype=HWCIT Riding, R. RaynÐ µr, S. (1988) Cognitive styles and learning strategies: understanding style differences in learning and behaviour. London: David Fulton, p1-9 Shaw P, et al. (2004). The impact of early and late damage to the human amygdala on ‘theory of mind’ reasoning. Brain. 127; 1535-1548. Retrieved on 30th March.2008 fromhttp://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/127/7/1535?maxtoshow=HITS=10hits=10RESULTFORMAT=fulltext=autism+false+belief+tasksearchid=1FIRSTINDEX=0resourcetype=HWCIT Witkin, HÐ µrman A. (1981) cognitive styles: essence and origins: field dependence and field independence, New York: International Universities Press, p45

Sherman Alexie Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Sherman Alexie The odds were against Sherman Alexie on that day in October 1966. Not only was he born a minority, but he was also hydrocephalic. At the age of 6 months, he had a brain operation, but was not expected to live. Though he pulled through, doctors predicted he would be severely mentally retarded. Fortunately, they were wrong, but he did suffer through seizures and wet his bed throughout his childhood ("What" 1). Rather than being called "Native American," which he feels is a "guilty white liberal term," he prefers to be called Indian. He is a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, in fact, and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. To avoid being picked on by the other reservation kids, he spent most of his time indoors, where he developed a love for reading. But as he grew older, alcoholism, which plagues most reservations, found its way to Alexie, and he suffered this disease for five years until he became sober at 23 ("What" 1). He graduated high school with honors and originally planned to become a doctor until a fainting episode in a Human Anatomy class changed his mind. He attended Gonzaga University on scholarship and graduated in American Studies from Washington State. He then received two consecutive Fellowships in 1991 and 1992, and shortly thereafter wrote six poetry and poem/short story books. Two of these, The Business of Fancy Dancing and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, earned him literary awards (What" 1). By 1998, his list of accomplishments grew to include Reservation Blues (1995), which earned him Granta’s Best of Young Novelists, the Before Columbus Foundations Book Award, and the Murray Morgan Prize. Indian Killer (1996), his second novel, was The New Yo... ... reders in and keep them turning pages. He writes so visually that they feel they are actually there with the other characters. But most importantly, his stories make them think, not only about the characters and what is happening to them in the stories, but also about themselves and the world in which they live. His fiction echoes Chinua Achebe’s idea that the strong must listen to the weak. They are stronger in number only, which doesn’t make them right. Those who are outnumbered, the weak so to speak, have something to say. They have a voice that deserves to be heard. Alexie has a powerful voice, and it would do us all good to listen. Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Harper Perennial , 1994. "What it Means to be Sherman Alexie". The Official Sherman Alexie Site. Online. America Online. 8 April 1999.

Research Article Analysis Essay

The purpose of the research study is to see if juveniles being employed affects delinquency and substance abuse amongst youth. The problem is that there seems to be a direct correlation between substance abuse and the intensity of work schedules while teens are attending school. The questions that are to be researched are why are youth who spend long hours at work more likely to be delinquent? What is the connection between those teens who work long hours and those who do not and how does it influence delinquency and substance abuse? The design of the study â€Å"includes the who, what, when, where, why, and how of an investigation† (Hagan, 2010, Ch. 3). The who for this study is U.S. students in eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. The sample excludes students who dropped out or graduated during the survey period. Some of the students have jobs, and some do not. Those who do not were asked if they could work, what would be the ideal amount of hours they would want to work each week. The amount of hours teens work while in school is the what for the study. The when is 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. During these years, the same students were surveyed to see how their circumstances had changed between eighth and twelfth grades. The where is the United States. The researchers are surveying random students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades across the country. The why is to see if employment negatively impacts juveniles and contributes towards delinquency and substance abuse. The how is the way in which the study is designed so that the hypothesis can be addressed and the results will in some way resolve the research problem (Hagan, 2010, Ch. 3). The study is designed in a way to track students across a certain age range while also surveying them multiple times through a set time period to track any changes to working while in school. Delinquency and substance abuse are common amongst teens, but some teens may be more likely to commit delinquent acts and abuse sub stances than  others. This is a problem for researchers because it is not known if working many hours each week, in addition to attending school, causes students to be pulled away from social interactions with their peers, which contributes towards delinquency and substance abuse. An operational definition for delinquency and substance abuse is a self-report measure. During a self-report measure, the participants in the study give their own report of the way something makes them feel. In this case, it would be the number of hours worked or the numbers of hours unemployed teens would prefer to work while attending school. There is room for presentational bias because those being surveyed may not tell the truth about their actions. Inductive logic is a way to determine a theory or theories that may explain the results of the data. This study shows inductive logic in the results because the results determined that deviance was associated with those juveniles who do work, and not those who preferred to work. â€Å"Delinquency, marijuana use, and heavy drinking were significantly higher for adolescents who spent long hours on the job compared with adolescents who were jobless but preferred moderate hours of work† (Staff, Osgood, & Schulenberg, 2010, page 17). Deductive logic gives absolute proof of something. It begins with a premise that is assumed to be true, and the researcher infers what would be true if the premise is true. They are sometimes known as â€Å"if†¦then† statements. Deductive logic is shown in the results because the researchers assume that if a student works while in school, then they are more likely to be delinquent and abuse alcohol and drugs. This research study is quantitative because it puts the results of the surveys into numerical values that are expressed by charts. Quantitative research uses surveys and questionnaires to compile the data, which is what researchers used for this study. The researcher was not part of the investigation. It was all done by students across the United States. The methodology for this study is use surveys and questionnaires to ask students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades over a four year span about their work history, alcohol usage, and drug usage. The population is all students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. The sampling method is to use students who remain in school throughout the survey period, and to exclude those who drop out or graduate. The findings of the study were those who were unemployed, but wished they could work were the teens with the highest rates of delinquency and substance abuse. The  researchers believe this is caused by a desire for the teens to feel like they are adults. They also believe this is because the students who wanted to work had loose ties between family and school. The author’s conclusions are that working does not necessarily contribute to higher delinquency and substance abuse rates. Neither does not working. Those who desire to work, but are unable to do so because they are too young, have no experience, cannot drive, or lack the necessary skills to perform a job properly are the juveniles who are the most likely to engage in delinquent acts, alcohol abuse, and subject abuse. The study could have been done differently by asking questions in a more anonymous way. Instead of asking surveys and sending questionnaires out, the students could be asked to voluntarily complete the survey. This could be done by using something like a voting booth. It is quick and easy. No one else would see the results, and it is completely anonymous. It also should not be limited to only students in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades. References Hagan, F. E. (2010). Research methods in criminal justice and criminology (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Staff, J., Osgood, D. W., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2010, November). Explaining the Relationship between Employment and Juvenile Delinquency. Crime and Delinquency.

Market: Strategic Management and Adidas Essay

Adidas – a name that stands for competence in all sectors of sport around the globe. The vision of company founder Adolf (â€Å"Adi†) Dassler has long become reality and his corporate philosophy the guiding principle for successor generations. The idea was as simple as it was brilliant. Adi Dassler’s aim was to provide every athlete with the best possible equipment. It all began in 1920, when Adi Dassler made his first shoes using the few materials available after the First World War. Adidas Group (adidas) is one of the leading companies in global sporting goods industry with brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle now. The company along with its subsidiaries involves in designing, developing, marketing and retailing of sports footwear, apparel and accessories. It also involves in manufacturing and retailing of various sporting gears, accessories, golf balls, and iron rods. The company offers products through adidas, Reebok, and About TaylorMade-adidas Golf brands. Adidas brand through adidas Sport Performance offers products in five categories namely, football, basketball, running, training and outdoor. adidas continuously improved the quality, look, feel and image of our products and our organisational structures to match and exceed consumer expectations. adidas brand through adidas Sport Style offers authentic sportswear to the full spectrum of lifestyle consumers. Activities of the company and its around 170 subsidiaries are directed from the Group’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. It is also home to the adidas brand. Reebok Headquarters are located in Canton, Massachusetts. TaylorMade-adidas Golf is based in California. The company also operates creation centres and development departments at other locations around the world, corresponding to the related business activity. Effective December 31, 2011, the adidas Group employed 46,824 people. SWOT Analysis SWOT is a tool that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. Specifically, SWOT is a basic, straightforward model that assesses what an organization can and cannot do as well as its potential opportunities and threats. The method of SWOT analysis is to take the information from an environmental analysis and separate it into internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats). Once this is completed, SWOT analysis determines what may assist the firm in accomplishing its objectives, and what obstacles must be overcome or minimized to achieve desired results. Strengths Top of brand recognition. Brand recognition of the Adidas especially its traditional three strips style is well reputed. The biggest sponsor of the sport events. Adidas is the biggest sponsor of the sport events specially football, such as 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africaâ„ ¢. adidas is the Official Sponsor, Supplier and Licensee of the FIFA World Cupâ„ ¢ and provides the Official Match Ball JABULANI as well as the equipment for all officials, referees, volunteers and ball kids. In the 2010 FIFA World Cupâ„ ¢, adidas equips more than 200 players as well as 12 teams: host nation South Africa, the tobecome world champion Spain, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, France, Japan, Nigeria, Slovakia, Denmark and Greece. Acquired major competitor. Adidas acquisition includes Salomon group in 1997 and Reebok in 2006 which they are the competitor previously. That increases the market share in the global sporting goods industry. Good partnership with National Basketball Association (NBA). adidas and NBA announced an 11-year strategic global merchandising partnership in 2006 that will make the adidas brand the official uniform and apparel provider for the NBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the NBA Development League (D-League) beginning with the 2006-07 NBA season. The Reebok brand will continue to be a global marketing partner of the NBA and will maintain the ability to create NBA branded footwear. Good reputation. The company has been obeying environmental laws and has never been accused for pollution. Such as no child labour accusations. Geographically-diversified operations. More than 170 subsidiaries guarantee marketplace presence for products of the adidas Group around the world. Sales and distribution of adidas products is grouped in four regions worldwide: Europe/Emerging Markets, North America, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. Today, the adidas Group is Europe’s biggest supplier of athletic footwear and sports apparel. Its mean adidas demographically wide spread every county have adidas outlets in every city or the branded products are scattered in different branded super marts. Product diversification. adidas Sport Style division presents new highlights of the Y-3 collection at the New York Fashion Week. Separately, adidas also have collaboration with Diesel – adidas Originals Denim by Diesel becomes available in stores in February 2008. Weaknesses The poor e-marketing. adidas e-shopping is offered only to the USA locations, some locations of Europe and Asia. Imperfect customer service. Customer service centers are not totally functional, and problems are faced specially in the case of e-marketing. Too expensive. The price is quite higher. The old version or over-quarter product still in higher price. Opportunities Improve the e-marketing. Adidas is planning to outscore its web development and ecommerce to the third party, which would then pay the company through ease at customer edge. Also can merge with them for expansion of online retail. Apps for smartphone. The smartphone very popular in the world now. The smartphone can allow users to browse the web, watch movie clips and sporting events, download music and play games; this opens new doors for Adidas Developing Technology. Although the company’s innovative technology can be regarded as its strengths yet a great deal needs to be done in this field. Business grows the importance of keeping up with changes in business computing and technology can be more important over time. Growing global footwear market. According to Prweb, Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA) announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Footwear markets. Global market for Footwear is projected to reach 15.7 billion pairs by the year 2017. Growth will be primarily driven by growing world population, expanding base of middle class consumers, rising standards of living, increasing household income and per capita spends. Threats Nike has large loyal customer base. Nike that is its strongest partner is paying much attention to the diversity of models in one item that is foot wear, this leads to enhanced marketing. So if failure to expand in North America could hamper Adidas’s prospects in Asia and threaten its leadership in Europe, where Nike is growing Legal Risks. The sponsored Kobe Bryant are reflecting negative image of the brand through their illegal activities like sexual abuse. Rising costs of raw materials. The company is facing higher raw material and wage cost. This is one of the key threats to Adidas. Counterfeits. Industry world-wide loses large amounts to counterfeiters. These losses not only affect the producers of genuine items, but they also involve social costs. According to estimates by the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), counterfeit goods make up 5 to 7% of world trade. This has become a key threat. Conclusion of SWOT Analysis According to the SWOT Analysis, adidas is strong in the market. They can gain more market share in the future. But they must improve the e-marketing and control the costs. They should be select the sponsor carefully, that is affect the company image. Porter five forces model Michael Porter (1980) examines the structure of industries by determining the forces that shape them. It is important to emphasise that the extent to which each force determines the structure of the industries differs. The model can also be used to illustrate which forces the firm can influence, in order to best position itself within its chosen industry. The new competitors are high barriers of entry to global sporting goods industry. Such as, high set up costs, economies of scale, marketing barrier. The five forces that examine are 1) the threat of new entrants, 2) the power of buyers, 3) the power of suppliers, 4) the threat of substitute products & 5) the competitive rivalry between existing firms. There are several reasons for this using the five forces analysis can clearly demonstrate how each force contributes the profitability of the industry. The threat of new entrants New entrants to an industry bring new capacity, the desire to gain market share, and often substantial resources. There are major sources of barriers to entry: By the economies of scale, the barrier is determined by size of operation required to operate efficiently with in the market. This is important when existing firms within the market can achieve cost advantages from their scale of operation. In industries that have minimum efficient scales of operation (MES), firms wanting to enter the market must compete at the level or incur a disadvantage. The global sporting goods industry where to be competitive there is a need to operate on a substantial scales. Just is Footwear market is projected to reach 15.7 billion pairs by the year 2017. By capital requirements to entry, the new competitors need the very expensive to start up and run a company. This relates to the pure finance required to enter an industry, but is often liked to the other barriers to entry. The need to invest large financial resources in order to compete can deter new entrants. Capital may be necessary not only for fixed facilities but also to extend customer credit, building inventories, and fund starting up losses. By Cost disadvantages independent of size, entrenched companies may have cost advantages not available to potential rivals, no matter what their size and attainable economies of scale. For example good relationships and knowledge of customers and suppliers can be utilized to defend a firm’s position. The new competitors may not produce easily. So the new competitors should be deriving some other competitive advantage, but that is hard. By access to distribution channels, the newcomer must secure distribution of its product or service. The new competitive is hard to obtain exclusive deals with retailers so that they sell only their products. They should give higher slotting fees to the retailers if want a good place in the shop. By Product differentiation, brand identification creates a barrier by forcing entrants to spend heavily on marketing. adidas have a good brand loyalty. The new competitor is very hard to build up their brand name in shortly. By expected retaliation, responses by existing competitors may depend on a firm’s present situation in the industry. Such as Price retaliation, increase the advertising cost to the potential entrant and creditable threat such as predatory pricing. The top lending such as adidas and nike should not be easy give the new competitor entry to the market. The power of buyers All firms at some time buy resource and are therefore faced with the power of buyers. It will effects on restricting the freedom of the organization to determine its price and strategic position. The products are mainly sold in bulk to major sports outlets and online stores, since they offer premium shelf space they command lower price. However, adidas have their own shop. So there are a small amount of customers who buy products directly in these shops. When Adidas sell their products to one off customers they can dictate the price as Adidas don’t rely on making these sales. The power of suppliers Same as the power of buyers, the power of suppliers also effects on restricting the freedom of the organization to determine its price and strategic position. Supplier provides a differentiated input that enhances the quality of performance of sellers’ products or is a valuable part of sellers’ production process. adidas raw materials to make football boots are not supplied by a monopoly. This gives adidas more power to dictate the price at which they buy their raw materials, as there are a large number of competitive suppliers. The threat of substitute products Substitutes often come rapidly into play if some development increases competition in their industries and causes price reduction or performance improvement. Many companies produce football boots are available to the consumers. However, adidas produce football boots that have unique features, such as nylon sole, rubber pads and Traxion. So adidas’s have an edge over their competitors. Also, the substitutes for football boots also include footwear and sports clothes for other sports. That can help develop other business such as Y-3. The competitive rivalry between existing firms The final force to consider is the rivalry that exists between firms already in the market. In this industry where growth is slow, competitors wish to expand at a faster rate need to obtain additional market share. There are some companies competing adidas for more market share, including Nike, Puma and Umbro. Adidas should keep their market share in the industry. They must control the price, improve product introduction and innovations, increase the cost of advertising and improved customer service. Conclusion of Porter five forces model According to the Porter five forces model, it is hard to entering global sporting goods industry. Most of the forces are strong. There have higher barriers for new entrants. adidas have good power of buyer and suppliers. The new competitor can find the substitute products of adidas may not easily. Final, the industry growth is too slow, so new competitors are hard to competing the market share from adidas.