Personality psychology Essay

â€Å"We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more† (Carl Gustav Jung). Ever since humans looked toward the sky for some kind of meaning to life and answers to the big questions, astrology has been a part of many people’s lives. It is also known to hold knowledge on one’s personality and character. After reading my Pisces personality profile, I realized that there are similarities and differences between my personality and the profile provided. Aside from the similarities, the profile also consists of traits which are different from my own. I feel that I am a long term planners and I am very decisive about my life goals as opposed to the profile which says that Pisces â€Å"[go] where the wind blows†. I feel that I am a very determined person and example of this is that in grade 8, I had thought about each and every single major step stone in my life. I had decided that I would go into McMasters to study Health Sciences, then go into UFT medical school, complete 3 years of specialization in neurology and after completing my residency, become a neurosurgeon. Saying that I go where the wind blows is an invalid statement. In addition, I do not feel that I have a strong connection with music which again disobeys the profile personality. It says that Pisces â€Å"[are] often channeled into creative outlets,† and have a strong connection in â€Å"music and film†. I feel it very hard to connect to music personally because I feel I have no relations with the topics a singer sings about. Even though certain music can be inspirational and represent an important topic, most of today’s music just seems to be about money, fame and girls. Just yesterday I felt depressed due though personal circumstances and thought music might aid but I personally had no relief. Moreover, I also disagree with the fact that I have â€Å"a feminine nature†. I consider myself being more masculine and bold. In particular, during my summer job when my employer asked me to do something I felt was unsafe, I gallantly spoke out whereas if I had a feminine nature I might have said nothing. As a result I feel that certain elements of this personality profile do not match with mine. In conclusion, there are similarities and differences between my personality and the profile personality provided. Even though it consisted of several traits which I felt resembled me, it also contained traits which I could not relate to. Scientists have always dismissed astrology as a load of old bunk. Now, a British astronomer has said that there might be something in it after all. Could the planets really control our fates? Bibliography Yoga, Lexi. 101 Astrology Quotes. October 2009. Web. 11 September 2010 .

Conformity and Obedience

Conformity and Obedience. In order to answer the question it is first necessary to define conformity and obedience. According to Woods, (2001 p. 107): ‘ We often adjust our actions or opinions so that they fit in well with those of other people. This is known as social conformity †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ’ And Gross, (2001 pg. 392) stated that: Obedience is affected by direction (from somebody in higher authority). This essay will explore circumstances in which we are likely to conform; or obey others. This will be done by drawing on research carried out by Milgram, Asch, Crutchfield and Zimbardo.There are many ways in which we conform; some are useful others are not. For example, if we did not conform and adhere to the Highway Code there would be absolute chaos on our roads and lives would be at risk. At the other end of the scale we have the horrific example of ‘blind’ obedience in relation to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s – 40’s. In this situation Hitler’s soldiers obeyed and carried out their orders without question because their orders came from a legitimate authority. (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999, pp. 79-80).In 1963 Stanley Milgram carried out a psychological experiment to try to discover why so many people co-operated and committed such atrocities in the concentration camps. This experiment involved groups of two people one – a confederate – played the part of a student trying to remember different words. The other person who was the subject played the role of a teacher and gave him the test. The teacher was told to ‘shock’ the ‘student’ every time he missed a word. Milgram thought that most people wouldn’t shock another human being and especially not all the way up to deadly levels of electricity.However, I transpired that 63% were obedient to their instructor (since he was the one in a position of power) and went all the way up to 450v which was lethal ( Hayes, 2000 pp. 50-51). Experiments carried out by Solomon Asch (1995) showed how easy it is to make people conform. In one of his experiments Asch used groups of 6-8 people who were told they were participating in a study on visual perception. He presented these subjects with 2 cards. On one card was a single ‘standard’ line; on the other were 3 ‘comparison’ lines. Participants were asked to judge which of the comparison lines were equal in length to the ‘standard’ line.Each of Asch’s groups only contained one real subject – the rest were confederates. Asch instructed each of the confederates to give the same wrong answer. There was a 75% conformity rate of the participants, meaning that they gave the same answer as the confederates, showing that people do not want to ‘appear different’ (Gross, 2001 pg. 382). However, researchers discovered that if the participants were alloed to give their answers away from the grou p, then conformity decreased. If people were allowed to give their answers in private, then it is found that they will be less likely to be swayed by other people’s opinions.Again, in experiments, researchers like Asch (1955) have discovered that if the task is ambiguous or the problem made harder, then conformity levels are likely to increase. Under conditions where the problem is less obvious, then people are likely to go with the majority of the group (Gross, 2001 pg. 383). An experiment carried out by Crutchfield (1954) found that pressure to conform can also occur without face to face communication. In this particular study each participant was placed in a separate booth facing a screen which displayed questions and what they believed were answers of the other participants.The questions were simple and the answers obvious. In around half the cases the answers were incorrect. Each participant was led to believe they were the last to answer having seen the other answers. C rutchfield in fact placed the answers there. This experiment suggests that in certain situations people will conform to avoid being the ‘odd one out’ and labelled as a social outcast. In addition, the fear of rejection by peers helps to assure that conformity is guaranteed. Crutchfields’ experiment found that 37% of the participants conformed all the time which shows that conformity can occur even without face to face contact.Both these experiments show that people will go with a group norm and conform to other people who they might not even know (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 73). Clearly, there are several reasons why we conform i. e. we don’t want to be seen as troublesome or a nuisance – the psychological term being ‘compliance’. Perhaps we simply wish to be accepted into a group ‘normative influence’ (Gross 2001 p. 386). We may also feel that we are amongst people who are more knowledgeable than us and that we have no rig ht to argue, which is termed ‘information social influence’ (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 4). It could be argued that conformity studies are often designed to illustrate the dangers of conformity, and the following study could be seen as an example of this. ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ was carried out in 1973 by Zimbardo. It involved taking at random 24 men who responded to a newspaper advertisement asking for volunteers to take part in a psychological study on prison life. A mock prison was created and the volunteers were given ‘roles’ of either guards or prisoners.This experiment found that the guards conformed to the roles expected of them in that they took charge of the prisoners and treated them cruelly and the prisoners conformed to their roles in that they allowed this to happen and did not say that they wanted to stop the experiment. Some even asked for parole instead of requesting that the experiment be terminated. The level of confo rmity in this study was exceptionally high to the extent that the ‘prisoners’ became very distressed and the experiment had to be aborted on day 6 – it was planned to last 2 weeks (Class notes, March 2005).Research also shows that levels of conformity are likely to increase if the status of the people in the rest of the group is high. Low status people are likely to conform more to high status people, especially if those people are in some form of authority (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 77). Without doubt all societies require a certain level of conformity in order to function as a society. If social norms are not adhered there would be confusion and disorder. However, what research has shown is that anyone is capable of conforming/obeying under the right circumstances or situations.It is also evident that the circumstances in which we conform or obey can be seen as positive or negative and although it is not always the case, it is usually a positive social influen ce. In the UK today we live in a society which places great value on the individual: ‘†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. there is a great emphasis on individual responsibility to contribute to society. ’ (Alcock et al, 1999 pg. 41) we are expected to contribute, conform and obey. Following like sheep may be regarded s weak, however, the fact remains that many of us conform i. e. religion, fashion, politics.In addition to these factors it is important to mention that non-conformity also has its place in society because if there were total conformity there would be no change, no improvement, or new ideas. For many, life may well be a struggle – battling with the desire to be an ‘individual’ and also having to ‘conform’ to how society expects them to be, think and do. It could be argued that conformity and obedience are necessary elements of society as conformity and obedience helps create a stable society. From an early age we have been instructed to obey a nd conform as we grow up we continue to be exposed to these pressures i. . our parents demand obedience, friends require us to be ‘part of the crowd,’ teachers demand homework, our religion tells us what to believe and the government expects us to obey the law and pay our taxes. Culturally too we are expected to conform i. e. arranged marriages, customs, traditions and dress. In conclusion, with regard to the experiments that have been discussed in this essay it is important to remember that they are just that – experiments, and it is difficult to know for certain what would actually happen in the ‘real world. References. WOODS, B. Basics in Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. GROSS, R. 2001. PSYCHOLOGY. The science of the mind & behaviour. 4th edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. MCILVEEN, R & GROSS, R. 1999. Social Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. HAYES, N. 1994. Principles of Social Psychology. East Sussex. Psychology Press Ltd. ALCOCK, P. , ERKSINE, A. , MAY, M. 1998. The Students Companion to Social Policy. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Conformity and Obedience Conformity and Obedience Assignment In this assignment I intend to evaluate Stanley Milgrams studies of obedience and in particular the ethical issues broken. I hope to determine whether the knowledge gained justifies his experiments. After the destruction and atrocities committed in World War II many historians argued that there must be some sort of character defect that made the German people more obedient. Mailgram’s study was an attempt to test ‘the Germans are different’ hypothesis. The hypothesis states that Germans are more likely a person or people in authority regardless of what the act is. Social psychology handbook pg. 8) Milgram conducted an experiment into the nature of obedience in 1963 at the prestigious Yale University. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the level of obedience participant would go to in giving electric shocks to another person when ordered to by an authority figure. (Social psychology handbook pg. 8) Milgram issued an adv ertisement in a local paper requesting people aged 20-50 from all walks of life, excluding students to take part in an experiment at Yale University. The experiment would last an hour and the pay was four dollars fifty.The participants were told they were getting paid for coming to the laboratory regardless of the results of the experiment. (Gross, 2010, pg. 416) 40 male participants were selected; they arrived at Yale university psychology department and were greeted by a young man dressed in a lab coat. He introduced himself as Jack Williams, the experimenter. He was to appear stern and emotionless throughout the experiment. There was also another participant introduced as a likeable and mild-mannered man named Mr Wallace, he was a confederate and everything from here on has been pre-planned except the results of course. Gross, 2010, pg. 416) The participant were given a short introduction and told the aim of the experiment was to assess the effects of punishment on learning. The participant was then asked to pick a piece of paper out a hat to determine who would be playing the role of the teacher, and who was to play the learner. This was rigged in order for the experiment to work; Mr Wallace was always the learner and the participant the teacher. Next they were all led into an adjoining room and the learner (Mr Wallace) was strapped in full view of the participant into the electric chair and electrodes were attracted to his arms and legs.The teacher (the participant) was told that the electrodes were attracted to the shock generator next room. The generator was a convincing fake created by Milgram. The participant and the experimenter went into the next room where the generator was. The teacher gave a 45 volt shock to convince them that it was real. The volt was battery power and not attached to the mains. The generator switches were labelled with voltage levels and verbal descriptions from: 15-60 slight shock up in intervals of 15 volts to 435-450 XXX. Gr oss, 2010, pg. 416) The learner was asked to memorise a series of paired words. The teacher was to then test the learner by giving him one the words in a pair along with four different words. The learner then had to answer which of the four words had originally been paired with the first one. The learners answer was indicated by one of the four switches which lit up one of four lights on the generator machine. If the learner gave the correct answer, then they moved onto the next question.If the answer was wrong the teacher had to tell the learner the correct answer, and then say that they were going to give them a shock which went up higher 15 volts each time an incorrect answer was given. . (Gross, 2010, pg. 216). In the first experiment known as the ‘remote-victim condition’ the leaner was to give vocal response until 300 volts was used, then the learner was scripted to start pounding on the wall and after 315 volts were administrated to stop. In the second experiment the responses were voice recorded ‘voice feedback’ and the teacher was to believe these were the reactions of the learner from being shocked.For example at 75 volts he made a grunt, at 150 he cried out and refused to be part of experiment asking to be set loose, at 315 he screamed out in pain and finally after 330 volts no sound could be heard. The teacher was instructed that if an answer was not given then it was to be treated as an incorrect answer and a shock was still to be given. If the teacher was to turn to the experimenter for guidance on whether to carry on giving shocks or indicate that they didn’t want to go on the experimenter would reply with a series of ‘prods’.The ‘prods’ were responses such as ‘please continue’ ‘the experiment requires that you continue’ or ‘It’s absolutely essential that you continue’. These ‘prods’ were to be repeated in a sequence for example if ‘prod 1’ was unsuccessful then only could ‘prod 2’ be used if the learner disobeyed after the fourth ‘prod’ the experiment was to end. There was also a special prod used in case the participant was concerned on the physical state of the learner, which was ‘although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on. ((Social psychology handbook pg. 11/12). After experiment the participants were introduced to the victim again to prove that he was unharmed. They were debriefed using open ended questions and psychometric measures were used to make sure the participants left the experiment unharmed. Milgram found the results quite shocking and unpredictable. In the first ‘remote victim’ experiment all participants went up to at least 300 volts when the learner pounded on the wall, 65 per cent went all the way to 450 volts.In the second ‘voice feedback’ condition 62. 5 per cent went to the lethal 450 volts. He also found even though the participants hesitated and objected they still continued with the experiment. Although many were observed to tremble, stutter, dig their nails into their palms and even laugh, one participant had a seizure. (Gross, 2010, pg. 416/417). Milgram evaluated his own experiment and devised nine factors that could explain the reason why such high levels of conformity were visible. To test the factors he devised further versions of his experiment.I believe that this strengthens the experiment the amount of control that Milgram was able to give and the different variations helped to strengthen Milgrams conclusion as to why we obey people in authority. (Gross, 2010, pg. 417). A weakness of the experiment is the sample used is not representable to the rest of the American population and can’t be generalised. Only males who read the advert and were prepared to take part in a laboratory experiment were used Milgrams have been accused of d eliberately using an ethnocentric sample. Class notes) I also believe that the experiment was not ecologically valid as laboratory is not considered a normal situation and this could contributed to the experiment having demand characteristics as the participant might have thought that they were in an controlled safe environment and were also encouraged to do so by the experimenter. Another big weakness of the experiment and one that Milgram has been heavily criticised on is ethics. Ethical guidelines are necessary to clarify the conditions under which psychological research is acceptable. British psychological society) (Ethics PowerPoint Moodle). Baumrind (1964) argued that Milgram’s participants had been abused, their feelings not taken into consideration, and not enough was done to protect them from emotional and psychological stress. (Gross, 210, pg. 779) Part of the reason ethical guidelines were brought into force was because of Milgram’s experiment. In my opinion certain ethical guideless were broken, such as no deception should be used, and participants should be informed of all aspects of the experiment unless there is no alternative.Milgram clearly didn’t tell the participant that the learner was an actor and the ‘shock generator’ a fake. I’m sure that this breaks another ethic which is protection, meaning that the participants must not suffer any physical of psychological damage. I believe the participants did receive some emotional stress from the experiment to begin with. It’s argued that Milgram did not take suitable measures to ensure this didn’t happen, but Milgram argues that didn’t predict his results and they were unexpected.That could be believable that Milgram believed the participants would not need protection, but after seeing the distress caused in his first experiment why continue repeating it 17 more times? The participant’s right to withdraw was also breached. All pa rticipants must be informed of their right to withdraw without losing any payment and the results from these must be removed from the records. This wasn’t made clear and the ‘prods’ used strongly suggest to the participant that withdrawal isn’t possible.There is also another important issue broken; consent was not given as the participants were not fully informed of what was happening in the experiment. However milgram argues that the participants were shown that Mr Wallace was unharmed after experiment and a debriefing was issued. A year after the experiment an independent psychologist interviewed the participants used, and found that no evidence of any lasting psychological damage was apparent. He also argues that the experimenter didn’t make the participant shock anyone, they choose to do it themselves milgram wanted everyone to have free will. Social psychology handbook pg. 14/15) To answer the question is Milgrams experiment justified the answe r I believe is yes. Although certain ethical issues are apparent such a situation was unavoidable, and as Milgram says â€Å"the central moral justification for allowing my experiment is that it was judged acceptable by those who took part in it† (â€Å"The Individual in a Social World†, Milgram 1977) Its seems that it was necessary to brake certain rules in order for the experiment to be completed and more real to life.If Milgram’s participants were to be fully informed his results would not be real to life and his experiment a failure. I believe the experiment was very powerful and although unethical the results were important in the study of obedience. Bibliography Ethical Guidelines and Social Research, PowerPoint Presentation on Moodle available @ https://moodle. lincolncollege. ac. uk/AAE/course/view. php? id=361 Gross, R. (2010) Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour, sixth edition, London, Hodder Education. Social Psychology Unit Handbook handed o ut September 2011 by Lynn Train-Brown. Conformity and Obedience Conformity and Obedience. In order to answer the question it is first necessary to define conformity and obedience. According to Woods, (2001 p. 107): ‘ We often adjust our actions or opinions so that they fit in well with those of other people. This is known as social conformity †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ’ And Gross, (2001 pg. 392) stated that: Obedience is affected by direction (from somebody in higher authority). This essay will explore circumstances in which we are likely to conform; or obey others. This will be done by drawing on research carried out by Milgram, Asch, Crutchfield and Zimbardo.There are many ways in which we conform; some are useful others are not. For example, if we did not conform and adhere to the Highway Code there would be absolute chaos on our roads and lives would be at risk. At the other end of the scale we have the horrific example of ‘blind’ obedience in relation to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s – 40’s. In this situation Hitler’s soldiers obeyed and carried out their orders without question because their orders came from a legitimate authority. (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999, pp. 79-80).In 1963 Stanley Milgram carried out a psychological experiment to try to discover why so many people co-operated and committed such atrocities in the concentration camps. This experiment involved groups of two people one – a confederate – played the part of a student trying to remember different words. The other person who was the subject played the role of a teacher and gave him the test. The teacher was told to ‘shock’ the ‘student’ every time he missed a word. Milgram thought that most people wouldn’t shock another human being and especially not all the way up to deadly levels of electricity.However, I transpired that 63% were obedient to their instructor (since he was the one in a position of power) and went all the way up to 450v which was lethal ( Hayes, 2000 pp. 50-51). Experiments carried out by Solomon Asch (1995) showed how easy it is to make people conform. In one of his experiments Asch used groups of 6-8 people who were told they were participating in a study on visual perception. He presented these subjects with 2 cards. On one card was a single ‘standard’ line; on the other were 3 ‘comparison’ lines. Participants were asked to judge which of the comparison lines were equal in length to the ‘standard’ line.Each of Asch’s groups only contained one real subject – the rest were confederates. Asch instructed each of the confederates to give the same wrong answer. There was a 75% conformity rate of the participants, meaning that they gave the same answer as the confederates, showing that people do not want to ‘appear different’ (Gross, 2001 pg. 382). However, researchers discovered that if the participants were alloed to give their answers away from the grou p, then conformity decreased. If people were allowed to give their answers in private, then it is found that they will be less likely to be swayed by other people’s opinions.Again, in experiments, researchers like Asch (1955) have discovered that if the task is ambiguous or the problem made harder, then conformity levels are likely to increase. Under conditions where the problem is less obvious, then people are likely to go with the majority of the group (Gross, 2001 pg. 383). An experiment carried out by Crutchfield (1954) found that pressure to conform can also occur without face to face communication. In this particular study each participant was placed in a separate booth facing a screen which displayed questions and what they believed were answers of the other participants.The questions were simple and the answers obvious. In around half the cases the answers were incorrect. Each participant was led to believe they were the last to answer having seen the other answers. C rutchfield in fact placed the answers there. This experiment suggests that in certain situations people will conform to avoid being the ‘odd one out’ and labelled as a social outcast. In addition, the fear of rejection by peers helps to assure that conformity is guaranteed. Crutchfields’ experiment found that 37% of the participants conformed all the time which shows that conformity can occur even without face to face contact.Both these experiments show that people will go with a group norm and conform to other people who they might not even know (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 73). Clearly, there are several reasons why we conform i. e. we don’t want to be seen as troublesome or a nuisance – the psychological term being ‘compliance’. Perhaps we simply wish to be accepted into a group ‘normative influence’ (Gross 2001 p. 386). We may also feel that we are amongst people who are more knowledgeable than us and that we have no rig ht to argue, which is termed ‘information social influence’ (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 4). It could be argued that conformity studies are often designed to illustrate the dangers of conformity, and the following study could be seen as an example of this. ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ was carried out in 1973 by Zimbardo. It involved taking at random 24 men who responded to a newspaper advertisement asking for volunteers to take part in a psychological study on prison life. A mock prison was created and the volunteers were given ‘roles’ of either guards or prisoners.This experiment found that the guards conformed to the roles expected of them in that they took charge of the prisoners and treated them cruelly and the prisoners conformed to their roles in that they allowed this to happen and did not say that they wanted to stop the experiment. Some even asked for parole instead of requesting that the experiment be terminated. The level of confo rmity in this study was exceptionally high to the extent that the ‘prisoners’ became very distressed and the experiment had to be aborted on day 6 – it was planned to last 2 weeks (Class notes, March 2005).Research also shows that levels of conformity are likely to increase if the status of the people in the rest of the group is high. Low status people are likely to conform more to high status people, especially if those people are in some form of authority (Mcilveen & Gross, 1999 pg. 77). Without doubt all societies require a certain level of conformity in order to function as a society. If social norms are not adhered there would be confusion and disorder. However, what research has shown is that anyone is capable of conforming/obeying under the right circumstances or situations.It is also evident that the circumstances in which we conform or obey can be seen as positive or negative and although it is not always the case, it is usually a positive social influen ce. In the UK today we live in a society which places great value on the individual: ‘†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. there is a great emphasis on individual responsibility to contribute to society. ’ (Alcock et al, 1999 pg. 41) we are expected to contribute, conform and obey. Following like sheep may be regarded s weak, however, the fact remains that many of us conform i. e. religion, fashion, politics.In addition to these factors it is important to mention that non-conformity also has its place in society because if there were total conformity there would be no change, no improvement, or new ideas. For many, life may well be a struggle – battling with the desire to be an ‘individual’ and also having to ‘conform’ to how society expects them to be, think and do. It could be argued that conformity and obedience are necessary elements of society as conformity and obedience helps create a stable society. From an early age we have been instructed to obey a nd conform as we grow up we continue to be exposed to these pressures i. . our parents demand obedience, friends require us to be ‘part of the crowd,’ teachers demand homework, our religion tells us what to believe and the government expects us to obey the law and pay our taxes. Culturally too we are expected to conform i. e. arranged marriages, customs, traditions and dress. In conclusion, with regard to the experiments that have been discussed in this essay it is important to remember that they are just that – experiments, and it is difficult to know for certain what would actually happen in the ‘real world. References. WOODS, B. Basics in Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. GROSS, R. 2001. PSYCHOLOGY. The science of the mind & behaviour. 4th edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. MCILVEEN, R & GROSS, R. 1999. Social Psychology. 2nd edn. London. Hodder & Stoughton Educational. HAYES, N. 1994. Principles of Social Psychology. East Sussex. Psychology Press Ltd. ALCOCK, P. , ERKSINE, A. , MAY, M. 1998. The Students Companion to Social Policy. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Diversity in the Workplace and Implications Essay

Diversity in the Workplace: Implication for Human Resource Development – Paper Week 3 A brief description of the event and the work environment the discrimination occurred (Omit identifying demographic information and use fictitious names as needed). True event: When I was a younger man back in 1973 or 74, I was out in (Royal Oak) near the (Detroit Zoo). I cannot remember the reason I went out there more than likely just joy riding, I use to do a lot of that when I was younger since the age of 18, and mostly I have driven new cars all my adult life. I saw a sign for a delicatessen that offered corn beef sandwiches among others; so I stopped, and went in to buy a sandwich. When I entered there were people already in line placing and receiving their orders and more people came in after me; you did not need to have a number for your turn to place an order. The order taker or waitress a (white female), was doing a good job of calling the correct person for their orders until my tu rn was up. When my turn came the order taker asked someone for their order that I felt entered after I did, but I saw not sure. Anyway after this person made their order (MY turn), wrong; she asked someone else could she help them, but what she did not know was that me and this person had short small talk while waiting our turn. Instead of stepping up to place an order, this person said; I think gentlemen is suppose next, the order taker said (oh sorry), and asked me (what do you want)! I looked at her and said not a thing from this place, and turned and walked out. As I left I could hear a few people telling her about manners and he was just another customer regardless. Oh did I mention that I was the only person of color in the delicatessen. I was not embarrassed, but angry as a (**********). Federal and state legislation that supports fair workplace practices: The Department of Labor (DOL), enforces more than 180 federal laws. These mandates and regulations that implement them covers workplace activities for 10 million employers and 125 million  workers. The following is a brief description of (DOL’s) statutes which are most applicable to businesses, job seekers, workers, retirees, contractors and grantees. This brief summary of major labor laws and not to offer a detailed explanation. For authoritative information and references to fuller descriptions on these laws, you should consult the statutes and regulations themselves. (Employment Laws Assistance) provides a list of U.S. Department of Labor laws and regulations with links. The DOL compliance assistance Web site offers complete information about how to comply with federal employment laws. Rulemaking and regulations provide brief descriptions of links to various sources of information on DOL’s rulemaking activities and regulations. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) describes standards for wages and overtime pay that affect private an d public employment. This act is administered by the Wage and Hour Division. It requires employers to pay covered employees who are not otherwise exempt, the federal minimum wage and overtime pay of one-and-one-half-times the regular rate of pay. For nonagricultural operations, it cuts the hours that children under age 16 can work and forbids the employment of children under age 18 in jobs deemed too dangerous. For agricultural operations, the law prohibits the employment of children under age 16 during school hours and in certain jobs deemed too dangerous. The Wage and Hour Division also enforces labor standards provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that apply to aliens authorized to work in the U.S. under certain nonimmigrant visa programs (H-1B, H-1B1, H-1C, H2A). (Labor, U. D. (2015). The responsibilities of human resource managers and their implications concerning race, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation, spiritual or religious beliefs, and disabilities: The (Human Resource M anager) must have the ability to meet the needs of the changes within an organization. Organizations are becoming more successful, adaptable, and resilient, can quickly change directions, and customer centered. In this environment, the human resource professional must learn how to manage organizing, leadership and controlling of human resources, and have knowledge of emerging trends in ways of training and employee development. Dimensions of workplace diversity includes age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities, qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status, and work  experience. (Chan Dr., A. (2015). How risk management strategies support equity within the workplace: Diversity and equality in the workplace is more than a business. It is imperative for a good solution to decades of race, gender, age, religious and sexual orientation discrimination. Having diversity that respect people from different backgrounds helps businesses produce a better product, makes new markets, and work with larger list of customers. Promoting principles means adopting diversity in all practice approaches. This means that diversity must be considered at each level, and in each policy from the management approach, hiring, and promoting, to new business development. (Ogunjimi, A. (1999-2015). Why issues of diversity within the workplace are paramount for human service workers and for management of human service organizations: Discussing the issues of the advantages and disadvantages of workplace diversity is not only difficult, but sometimes could be a situation in the workplace that is wished to go away rather than address the issue. There are times when discussing topics that include diversity and cultural differences lead to debating issues concerning stereotypes, generalizations, unfair workloads, and presumptions about particular cultures, religio ns, races and other issues of a diverse group of people. Broaching the subject of diversity can become an issue; however must issues can be done with candor, sensitivity, honesty and respect boundaries set for the discussion, this challenge can be easily resolved. You may need an experienced coach or human resources leader to facilitate the discussion, or may even require the services of a diversity expert. (Mayhew, R. (2015). How this experience or observation may influence issues of diversity within your dream organization for Week Five’s Learning Team Presentation: Issues of diversity and my experience or observation within our dream organization for Week Five’s Learning Team Presentation is mind boggling. First of all the diversity within the team and dealing with issues is stressful, but it has made me more determined to do the best I can to help our team by doing my part. I also feel that (Week Five’s Learning Team Presentation) for team B, will go smoothly. How this would apply to the development and management aspects of human resources: Human resource management incorporates everyone and everything that concerns the organization, and someone with a degree in human services can work as a manager in a personnel department. Human resources and development are more  specific. It focus is on improvement of personnel through training, selection, and other methods. The goals of human resource development personnel are worthwhile for improving organizational productivity. The goals of human resource management are more general and sometimes unclear. However, many employers are impressed if you have any type of management degree, especially if you want a higher level or higher paying job. (LAawMedMBA, L. (2009). References Chan Dr., A. (2015). The Challenges of Human Resource Management. Retrieved from http://www.zeromillion.com LAawMedMBA, L. (2009). What is the difference between human resource Development and human resource management. Retrieved from http://answers.yahoo.com Labor, U. D. (2015). Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov Mayhew, R. (2015). Major Issues to Consider for Workplace Diversity. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com Ogunjimi, A. (1999-2015). Strategies Promoting Equality & Diversity in the Workplace. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com

The Meeting Technologies In the Copenhagen Accord Essay

The Meeting Technologies In the Copenhagen Accord - Essay Example The primary objective of the accord is to minimize greenhouse gas emitted by human activities that is already affecting climate change. While no specific action plans were agreed to in that session, it has set the stage for a series of conferences and treaties to implement its primary objective. The most recent of conferences related to this global initiative was held last December 2009 at Copenhagen, Denmark (United Nations). It was attended by 15,000 delegates from government and non-government institutions of various countries. Assembling such a huge number of participants to meet and exchange opinions entail technology that will facilitate such meeting into a successful agreement. While there are already 15,000 delegates on site to attend the conference, some countries need more participation. Individuals are able to participate in the conference without travelling to the site by viewing a webcast. A webcast is broadcasting over the internet. It is a medium of distributing a media file, say a digitally recorded video of the proceedings of a conference or the actual live video of the conference, over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers (Webcast). A webcast is such a powerful tool to use to capture a wider audience at virtually anywhere in the globe where the Internet is accessible. Having access to the conference from the home country will help delegates even be effective contributors to the conference by getting essential feedback from their country almost instantaneously while the conference is going on. And how do delegates attending the live conference obtain such feedback from their host countries, which could be thousands of miles from where they are sitting That is the power of the Internet. Today, having connectivity to the Internet is as essential as having a pen and paper in attending a meeting. Of course connectivity is only a piece of the set-up: a personal computer and software is required to effectively be connected. When connected to the Internet, the delegate has access to a wide variety of information: both public and private to the conference. Conference-exclusive information may include documents that are being shared and discussed in the conference will not need to be printed out, instead is shared over the Internet for exclusive viewing of the delegates. The delegates may have access to a chat tool where one can privately contact a co-delegate via short messages while the meeting is going-on (like small chats, but not voicing out but writing) or chat with a small g roup, say delegates from the same region or continent who most-likely share the same concerns. Public information is accessible through search engines that help find articles in the public Internet related to any topic being searched (Search Engine). Lastly, there is the e-mail, short for electronic mail, which instantaneously sends a message to anywhere in the world to elicit an immediate reply into one's message (E-mail). Such electronic connectivity save money in printing and communication costs vs. traditional means. Conclusion With the use of these vital technologies in such a global

Scope and effect of sale of goods act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Scope and effect of sale of goods act - Essay Example The passing of property from the seller to buyer gained significance in the context of the buyer placing an order with the seller and then becoming insolvent. Had the product ordered for by the buyer already been shipped there arose a discrepancy in regard to the rights of the seller since he would unwillingly provide credit. The act clearly states that until all of the terms of the contract of the sale of goods, mainly the payment for the product, are met by the buyer, the seller has the right of disposal over the product. The clause â€Å"notwithstanding the delivery of the goods to the buyer† (Sales of Goods Act 1979, s19 (1)) gives a right to the seller to claim possession of the goods in question if the buyer has not fulfilled the terms of the contract. This clause is unlike those of international contracts which make property pass effective at a particular physical point or time such as during payment or at the loading port of ships (Ziegler, 139). (b) The rights of an u npaid seller against the buyer The rights of an unpaid seller are treated in section 19 of the act by allowing the seller, the title of retention of the goods to be sold to the buyer unless all the terms of the contract for the sale of the goods is fulfilled by the buyer. The rights of an insolvent or bankrupt buyer are superseded by the title of retention clause of the act whereby the seller has the right to repossess the goods even in case it has already been shipped to the buyer. ... In such cases, it is argued that it would upset the administration of the buyer’s business and hence the seller must not be given the right to disposal (Tomasic, 199). 2. Romalpa Clause Aluminium Industrie Vaassen BV v Romalpa Aluminium Ltd Section 19 of the Act clearly states the rights of the unpaid seller; however a unique situation arose in 1974 when a Dutch manufacturer, Aluminium Industrie Vaassen BV brought out an action against an English company, Romalpa Aluminium Ltd. The plaintiffs claimed that they were entitled to the aluminium foil that was at the premises of the defendant since they had not paid for the goods and to the proceeds of the foil that had been sold to third parties by the defendant. The contract made between the plaintiff and the defendant reiterated the right of the seller over the goods until payment was made by the buyer, it also did not provide any stated power to the defendant to sell the foil; however it was agreed by both the parties subsequent ly that the defendant had an implied power to sell the foil. This agreement did not help either of the parties by any margin. While the defendant argued that it had sold the foil on its own account and was not an agent of the plaintiff’s, the plaintiff on the other hand chose to exercise the right of the seller as put forward by the Sales of Goods Act. . The case had become complex on two accounts: a part of the foil delivered to the defendant had been sub sold and this foil that was sub sold was in the same form as that delivered to the defendant. The court had to decide whether the defendant was acting merely as an agent of the plaintiff while sub selling the foil or if the

Transnational Crimes Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Transnational Crimes - Term Paper Example According to him, â€Å"some crimes arise out of particular cultural or societal conditions and experiences that differ from one country to another† (p.4) and so one behavior that one country may accept may not be acceptable by another country. Types of Transnational Crimes Affecting U.S. Following is a detailed description of some transnational crimes that are affecting the U.S. one way or the other. Cybercrime Cybercrime involves electronic communication to commit crime like false business activities, identity stealth, pornography, hidden identities, and fraudulent e-commerce, all of which are activities that do not need to be confined within the country’s borders. These transnational crimes are increasing the crime rate related to internet in the United States and people of all ages including children and elders, and all sectors including politics, education, healthcare, and commerce are being affected by these activities. One often has to reveal bits of his personal information while doing online transactions, such as, his name, address, telephone number, bank information, credit card information, and etcetera. When a cyber criminal steals someone’s this information, then he can misuse or disclose it to criminal groups thus ending up either blackmailing the person/company or bringing him bad name. Human and Drug Trafficking United Nations is facing one of the greatest challenges of its time- dealing with human traffickers who target a great number of men, women and children every year exploiting them for reasons like prostitution, forced labor, slavery, or organ removal. Human and drug trafficking are considered as â€Å"two major area of transnational organized crime† (Agenzia Fides, 2010). Both types of supplies exploit people and create devastating effects on them and their families. How drugs and alcohol is being used in human trafficking is an interesting issue. Women and children are forced to pursue pornography and for thi s purpose they are forced to take drugs and alcohol so that they become senseless and do not get an idea what is happening to them, thus combining both trades- human and drugs- in one business. Davenport (2010) reports Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, who asserted the fact that â€Å"the motivation of a lot of the illegal immigrants is to enter the United States to look for work, but that drug rings press them into duty as drug mules.† She further states that most of the illegal immigrant or trafficked persons that are brought into Arizona are being supervised by big drug cartels and smuggling companies, making the victims bring in the drugs and alcohol with them, knowingly or unknowingly. Terrorism Terrorism is another transnational crime which the U.S. is facing. Terrorists get their training from different countries of the world and enter the U.S. or other countries to spread terrorism and deteriorate peace of the society. The most common example would be the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the U.S. which badly affected U.S. economical infrastructure and took lives of many innocent people. It was obvious that the hijackers or the planes were well trained and had special training of carrying ammunition and flying the planes. This and many other such criminal activities involve many

Eastman Kodak Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Eastman Kodak Company - Case Study Example It was observed that Kodak aimed to create a monopoly in the market which violated the Sherman Act’s Section 2 guidelines. The company also attempted to impose varied types of exclusive dealing based contracts upon different retailers. The decree includes licensing of processes for photofinishing as well as assistance of technology for anyone eager to start the business of photofinishing. The main objective of the decree was to ensure a healthy competition among the varied business entities in the photofinishing industry (Baye & Scholten, â€Å"Kodak Appeals to Court to Terminate 1921 and 1954 Decrees that Restrict Pricing Policies†). It can be stated that Kodak became the solitary leader in the industry with the development of film based product. The company sold its color film through processing aspects. It is also noted that through bundling the prices of photofinishing as well as processing, Kodak monopolized the market of the photographic industry. This resulted in the emergence of 1954 antitrust decree, which is considered as the second decree affecting the actions of Kodak. The decree was initiated by the court in order to enact restrictions to Kodak against bundling photofinishing process effectively. Hence, it can be stated that both the decrees i.e. 1921 and 1954 had resulted in the creation of enhanced market competition in the global market context for selling the products of photo films as well as processing. The decrees had restricted Kodak’s monopoly business in the global market context (Baye & Scholten, â€Å"Kodak Appeals to Court to Terminate 1921 and 1954 Decrees that Restrict