Reading report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading report - Essay Example This was already becoming normal at that time† (Orwell 1984 Book 2, Chapter 7). Private loyalties are cut because it is one of the best ways to ensure loyalty to the state. In connection to the loss of privacy, the Party can make it easy to undermine their enemy by connecting rebellion to the idea of perpetual war. The Party calls it a distant war that happens all the time to stress that the war has no essence and direction. By focusing on the individual and the perpetual timeframe of war, the Party shows the people that it is senseless to support a war that has no specific meaning and outcomes. 1984 further notes that doublespeak propaganda slogans such as â€Å"War is Peace,† â€Å"Freedom is Slavery,† and â€Å"Ignorance is Strength† is meant to clutter the language and make it less effective in attaining its impact of changing people’s mindsets and behaviors. In â€Å"Politics and the English Language,† Orwell argues that the fall of the E nglish language roots from economic and political causes, and not literary causes (1). He shows that people use vague and imprecise language with purposes of deceiving people. In 1984, doublespeak propaganda is meant to deceive people. ... .† (Orwell â€Å"Politics† 3) because they do not stand for anything clear and specific. He adds the example of â€Å"democracy,† which is automatically seen as something positive, when its usage has potentially misleading purposes (Orwell â€Å"Politics† 4). The same goes for doublespeak- they sound nice and rebellious, but they are vague enough to be unreliable and meaningless. Doublespeak propaganda is propaganda, the propaganda of using language to lie to people and to shape their minds into thinking that these lies are truths. â€Å"The Two-Minute Hate† broadcast and its reliance on images of Goldstein and foreign-looking individuals running around guns has something to do with language manipulation once more. Politicians manipulate language for its own selfish purposes, and not for the good of the people. â€Å"The Two-Minute Hate† encourages people to see Goldstein in a bad light, bad enough to be hated. It is an example of subverting l anguage through using images and words that pollute people’s capacity to think about what is being said to them. â€Å"The Two-Minute Hate† helps the Party in conditioning the minds of the people through controlling their emotions. The Party knows the right language to use to evoke the right emotions, which can lead to better control of their thoughts and actions. As for the idea of idea of all-knowing Big Brother (government) and a total lack of privacy in a technologically advanced society, the government does Newspeak, Doublespeak, and Thoughtcrimes to decrease people’s thinking practices and content. Newspeak decreases people’s thinking process. Syme says: â€Å"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make

Aggressive Parents, Aggressive Children Essay Example for Free

Aggressive Parents, Aggressive Children Essay Growing up, kids have a lot of influences in their life; from television to peers children will always absorb something. With this being said the biggest influence on a child would have to be the people there with the most- their family. Because this is unarguably true, it would then be fair to then assume that parental/ sibling aggression could have a big impact on future relationships caused by development. What is aggression one may ask? Aggression is a hostile, injurious, destructive behaviour or outlook especially when caused by frustration. Human development would be everything that happened from the moment a child thinks for the first time, then. Sigmund Freud was one psychologist who theorizes that those who have experienced trauma from aggression in the home will often use defense mechanisms to disregard unwanted emotions. This leaves a negative effect on the unconscious mind and makes a person act irrationally. By comparing cultures and examining how nature vs. urture, the theme of pies and how the ecological theory all come into play when dealing with the way children treat relationships, it is hoped that one will see that aggression in the home will indeed lead to negative relationships for the child’s near future. One key question many would ask and not for only this topic (but many on the mind in general), would be are these actions and thoughts merely influenced by parents, or are they born with the â€Å"defect† and therefore forced to live with it. The argument of nature vs. nurture is a questi on that has baffled even the most renowned of psychologists. Both sides have strong supporting arguments therefore coming up with an end answer would be impossible for one to do. In Daena’s article, entitled â€Å"Is Aggressive Behaviour Biologically or Environmentally Based? † Daena proposes that aggression is learned. Supporting herself by linking aggression with Skinner’s rat, continuing by saying aggression is caused by positive reinforcement (reward). By calming a kid down with a toy, the child would have received the â€Å"reward†, now the child understands if he does this, then another â€Å"reward† should come. One way this could be seen in a household could be when a father cusses after he hurts himself. The child could subconsciously perceive that the pain and expression on the father going away shortly after was his reward, therefore the child takes on the habit. This does put some weight on the nurture side because the reward is what causes any outcome. But, Professor Richard Tremblay of the University of Montreal says that â€Å"We do not need to learn to aggress, but to not aggress. In this indirect argument with the other article mentioned Tremblay suggests that children are aggressive by nature and learn how to control their aggression at around 4 years old. When linking nature or nurture to aggression one must understand that they really can’t choose an option and be satisfied with their decision. â€Å"PIES† stands for the four kinds of development; physical, intellectual, emotional, social. When children witness aggression at home almost every kind of development a re interrupted. Physical development includes growth of bone muscles, motor skills and senses. Intellectual development includes the maturation of mental process, such as learning, imagination, memory and perception. When a child is used to seeing aggression exhibited by their parents, they will associate that violence will many things they see on a daily basis. For example the first time the child sees adults mating on television, etc. Their first instinct would usually be to believe that the couple is actually fighting. This shows that what they sense would be different from what’s actually happening therefore proving a negative outcome. Emotional development includes the maturation and evolution of emotions, social skills, identity, and morals. If a child grows up witnessing spousal abuse from an early age, and isn’t explained that it’s bad, then would that child not believe that this action is perfectly fine? Seeing the father only do this when he’s angry, the child could perceive that beating somebody is an output of anger for them as well. Social development includes the evolution of knowledge of how people interact, play, share, take turns, or talk socially. From an early stage if the child sees fighting, it is then safe to assume that their ‘evolution of knowledge based on how people interact’ will be evolving off of the witnessed negative action seen in the first place (spousal abuse, swearing parents, etc. ). A child’s development could be positive or negative based solely on the overall environment the child is living in. One may be lead to believe that aggression is taught by others, and then mirrored by the children whom the aggression will eventually attach itself too. Urie Bronfenbrenners Ecological Theory argues that development is influenced by five environmental systems. The theory identifies five environmental systems. The five environmental systems are: Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and Chronosystem. The microsystem is the child’s immediate surroundings i. e. family, neighborhood and friends. This theory suggests that if the child lives in a damaged microsystem, the child’s development could also be damaged. The mesosystem is the connection seen between immediate environments i. e. parents to peers. This directly relates to the topic showing that if a child witness’s abuse, there’s a good chance they will mirror it with their peers. Children need people in order to become human. It is primarily through observing, playing, and working with others both older and younger than he that a child discovers both what he can do and who he can become. †-Urie Bronfenbrenner (quotes. dictionary. com). This quote can be fitted to the topic of aggression in children because she basically explains that without o ther humans, we would have no route for our personality/identity to take. The Macrosystem describes the culture of the child, anywhere from physical geographic, to wealth in the child’s area. Urie suggests that those that are living in lower class are more likely to commit crime. It must also be understood that children influenced by their environment is not conclusive. As children in some African regions see violence every day but learned to adapt with it as opposed to keeping it bottled up in their head. The final system is the Chronosystem. This monitors patterns of environmental events over time. Non-normative events may have a negative psychological effect, e. g. a recent divorce or death in the family. The change is too drastic for the child to cope with. With witnessed aggression, as it starts to become the normal in the child’s life, the child may seek to emulate it later on when the ‘normal’ aggression is missing. Urie Bronfenbenners theory does weigh in favor of the child learning the aggression because it all seems to tie into the child feeling a sense of normal. Based on the theory, children will emulate what they see, because if they didn’t emulate anything, they would have no guidance in their life. Their identity would be 100% their own. Therefore if aggression is their guide, aggression will be what children emulate.

Methods and Models for Measuring Costs

Methods and Models for Measuring Costs Costs are associated with all types of organizations business, non-business, manufacturing, retail and service. Generally, the kinds of costs that are incurred and the way in which these costs are classified depend on the type of organization involved. In your assignment you should explain with examples (use dollar value in your examples): How to measure cost behaviour (cost measurement)? In management accounting, the classification and measurement of fixed and variable cost is based on a body of knowledge that involves a number of assumptions. In many cases, the usefulness of fixed and variable cost data depends on the validity of these assumptions. In order to avoid poor operating results and faulty decision-making that is likely to occur when false cost assumptions are made, the ability to recognize and measure cost behavior is essential. Various theories of Cost behavior are as follows : Variable Cost varies proportionately in total but remains constant on a per unit basis. a. True variable costs proportionately variable (ex. Raw material) amount used directly increases as production increases by the same percentage. b. Step variable costs costs obtainable in large segments (ex. Labor costs of maintenance workers) and that increase or decrease in response to fairly wide changes in activity levels. NOTE: these costs are constant for a certain activity level (relevant range) and then vary in a step like fashion as volume increases. 2. Fixed Costs remain constant in total but vary inversely on a per unit basis (if production increases, then per unit cost decreases; if production decreases, then per unit cost increases) a. Committed fixed costs relate to the investment in plant, equipment and the basic organizational structure of the firm (ex. Depreciation of building and equipment, real estate taxes, insurance, management salaries, etc.) are long term in nature cannot be reduced immediately over a short period of time without seriously impairing either the profitability or the long run goals of a firm. b. Discretionary Fixed Costs ( Managed Fixed Costs ) arise form annual decisions by management to spend in certain fixed costs areas (ex. Advertising, research, management development programs) short term in nature, usually a single year possible to cut back on certain costs for short periods of time with minimum disruptions to long term goals. c. Semi variable or Mixed Costs contains both variable and fixed costs elements at certain levels of activity mixed costs display the same characteristics as a fixed cost at certain levels they display same characteristic as a variable cost (examples: electricity, heat, telephone, maintenance, car rental,copy machine rental) 3. Direct or Indirect Costs a. Direct Costs can be physically traced to the particular segment under consideration (product line, sales territory, division, etc.) b. Indirect Costs must be allocated in order to be assigned to the segment under consideration (indirect cost is manufacturing overhead). NOTE: Indirect Costs are also called Common Costs. 4. Additional Cost Terms a. Controllable Costs if management at a certain level as the power to authorize and influence the cost b. Noncontrollable Costs if management at a certain level is unable to influence the incurrence of the cost. c. Differential Cost present under one alternative but is absent under an alternative course of action. NOTE: Differential costs are also known as incremental costs. d. Opportunity Cost potential benefit that is lost or sacrificed whenzselecting one course of action makes it necessary to give up a different  course of action. Opportunity cost is not recorded in the books of an organization, but is  considered in every decision. e. Sunk Cost already incurred and cannot be changed by any decision made now or in the future. An irrelevant cost in decision-making. The econometrical model which is used to analyze costs is a model in which explanatory variable represents total costs and endogenous variables represent factors that influence their level. Production quantity is the most important factor which determines the level of total costs. Total costs consist of two parts: total fixed costs, which appear independently of the production quantity (when production level is zero) total variable costs, which are dependent only on the production quantity Cost Function : K = F + VX (Where K is total cost, F is Fixed Cost , V is Variable Cost and X is volume) What is cost accounting system and cost allocation?(Managerial Accounting) Sol:Cost accounting is linked to tax accounting, financial accounting and managerial accounting because it is an important component of each discipline as cost accounting involves determining the cost of something, such as a product, a service, an activity, a project, or some other cost object. These costs are needed for several purposes. For example, the costs of products and services produced and sold are needed for both tax and external financial statements. In other words, tax and financial accounting depend on cost accounting to provide cost information. Information about costs is also needed for a variety of management decisions. For example, cost estimates are needed to determine whether or not a product or service can be produced and sold at a profit. Unit costs of a product (or service) are also needed for product pricing and product discontinuance decisions. In addition, accurate cost information is required to determine whether or not a company should make (produce) or buy the raw materials, parts and subassemblies that become part of its major products and services. From this perspective, cost accounting is perhaps underrated as a discipline since none of the other disciplines including tax accounting, financial accounting or managerial accounting could exist without cost accounting. The costs associated with a manufacturing firm are separated into two broad categories. These include manufacturing costs and selling and administrative costs. This functional separation is important because each category of cost is treated differently in the accounting records. The different treatments are required to obtain proper matching. Manufacturing Costs There are three types of manufacturing costs. These include: 1) direct material or raw material, 2) direct labor, and 3) indirect manufacturing costs, or factory overhead. Direct material becomes the product, or becomes a part of the product. Direct labor converts the direct material into a finished product. Factory overhead represents all the other factory costs that cannot be directly identified with a particular product. This indirect category includes a variety of costs that are discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters. These three types of costs are also referred to as product costs, or inventorial costs, because they are capitalized in (or charged to) the inventory, i.e., they become assets. Matching Accountants capitalize manufacturing costs to obtain proper matching. The matching concept is pervasive in accrual accounting and requires that costs and benefits are matched or brought together on the income statement. In a production setting, the idea is to match the costs of producing a product (or service) against the benefits, i.e., revenue derived from the sale. When the inventory is sold, these costs are charged to an expense account referred to as cost of goods sold. At the end of the accounting period, cost of goods sold is closed to the income summary where, theoretically, matching takes place. Remember that unexpired costs represent assets. Expired costs represent expenses. When the inventory is sold, we say these costs have expired, i.e., the benefits to be obtained (from the effort that generated the costs) have been recognized. Thus, manufacturing costs become expenses when they reach cost of goods sold, but represent assets until the sale takes place. Selling and Administrative Costs In traditional accounting systems, selling and administrative costs are expensed in the period in which they are incurred. Theoretically, if there are future benefits associated with a cost, the cost should be capitalized as an asset rather than expensed. Certainly there are some future benefits associated with costs such as research and development, training, market promotion and advertising. However, these costs are expensed as incurred because it is difficult if not impossible to relate them to the future benefits. As a result, these costs are referred to as period costs. COST BEHAVIOR AND PREDICTION In addition to separating costs into categories such as direct and indirect and manufacturing and non-manufacturing, costs are also frequently identified by their behavior in relation to changes in an activity level. This separation is helpful for planning and budgeting purposes. The major types of costs, in terms of cost behavior, are: 1) variable costs, and 2) fixed costs, 3) semi-variable costs and 4) semi-fixed costs. These concepts are illustrated graphically in Exhibit 1-3 and discussed individually below. Variable Costs Variable costs are those costs that vary with changes in the level of activity. Variable costs tend to increase at various rates that generate linear (straight line) or a variety of non-linear cost functions when the costs are plotted on a graph. The major activity that affects manufacturing costs is production volume, i.e., producing output. Production volume is frequently measured in terms of units produced, direct labor hours used, machine hours used, materials costs or some other production volume related measure. However, other activities that are not related to production volume might also be important in analyzing cost behavior. The recognition that non-production volume related activities also cause, or drive costs is a fundamental idea associated with activity based costing (ABC) Fixed Costs Fixed costs are defined as those costs that do not vary with changes in the activity level. However, this does not mean that fixed costs remain constant. If a production volume based measure is used as the activity, a cost that changes for some reason other than a change in production activity is considered fixed. This simply means that the cost is driven by a non-production volume related phenomenon. For example, property taxes are considered fixed in traditional cost accounting systems that are typically based on production volume related activities. However, property taxes change when the taxing authority changes the tax rate or reassesses the property. The idea to grasp is that the designation of a particular cost as fixed or variable can change when it is analyzed in relation to a different activity. It is also important to understand that the notion of fixed and variable costs is a short run concept. All costs tend to be variable in the long run. Semi-Variable and Semi-Fixed Costs Semi-variable costs are part fixed and part variable. There is a minimum cost (the fixed portion) and a variable portion that increases as activity increases. There are also semi-fixed costs that do not change continuously as the level of activity changes, but do increase in steps as activity increases beyond various levels. These costs are sometimes referred to as step cost and step functions. For example, a single production supervisor (whos salary normally represents a fixed cost) might be adequate until production reaches a certain level, then a second supervisor would need to be hired. Supervisory costs might be driven by the number of production shifts. Cost accounting system requires five parts that include: 1) an input measurement basis, 2) an inventory valuation method, 3) a cost accumulation method, 4) a cost flow assumption, and 5) a capability of recording inventory cost flows at certain intervals. These five parts and the alternatives under each part are summarized in Exhibit 2-1. Note that many possible cost accounting systems can be designed from the various combinations of the available alternatives, although not all of the alternatives are compatible. Selecting one part from each category provides a basis for developing an operational definition of a specific cost accounting system. 1) INPUT MEASUREMENT BASES The basis of a cost accounting system begins with the type of costs that flow into and through the inventory accounts. There are three alternatives including: pure historical costing, normal historical costing and standard costing. Pure Historical Costing In a pure historical cost system, only historical costs flow through the inventory accounts. Historical costs refers to the costs that have been recorded. The term actual costs is sometimes used instead, but the term actual seems to imply that there is one true cost associated with a particular output. But determining the cost of a product, or service requires many cost allocations, e.g., allocating the cost of fixed assets to time periods, and allocating indirect manufacturing costs, or overhead to products. Since there are many alternative allocation methods, (e.g., straight line or accelerated depreciation) the calculated cost of a unit of product or service simply represents an attempt to approximate the true cost. Normal Historical Costing Normal historical costing uses historical costs for direct material and direct labor, but overhead is charged, or applied to the inventory using a predetermined overhead rate per activity measure. Typical activity measures include direct labor hours, or direct labor costs. The amount of factory overhead charged to the inventory is determined by multiplying the predetermined rate by the actual quantity of the activity measure. The difference between the applied overhead costs and the actual overhead costs represents an overhead variance. Standard Costing In a standard cost system, all manufacturing costs are applied, or charged to the inventory using standard or predetermined prices, and quantities. The differences between the applied costs and the actual costs are charged to variance accounts as shown symbolically in the enlarged graphic below. The variances provide the basis for the concept of accounting control, that is somewhat different from the statistical control concept 2) FOUR INVENTORY VALUATION METHODS The four inventory valuation methods that appear in Exhibit 2-1 are arranged in the order of the amount of cost that is traced to the inventory. The throughput method involves tracing the least amount of cost to the inventory, while the activity based method includes tracing the greatest amount of costs to the inventory. In direct (or variable) costing, a greater amount of cost is traced than in the throughput method, but a lesser amount than in the full absorption method. Direct costing and full absorption costing are the traditional methods, while the throughput and activity based methods are relatively new. These inventory valuation methods are very important because they control the manner in which net income is determined. As we shall see is this chapter and subsequent chapters, the amount of net income can vary substantially for different inventory valuation methods. The Throughput Method The throughput method was developed to complement a concept referred to as the theory of constraints. In this method only direct material costs are charged to the inventory. All other costs are expensed during the period. The concept is symbolized in the enlargement below. Sales, less direct material costs is referred to as throughput which reflects how the method got its name. The throughput method does not provide proper matching (as defined by GAAP) because all manufacturing cost, other than direct material are expensed when incurred rather than capitalized in the inventory. Therefore, the throughput method is not acceptable for external reporting although advocates argue that it provides many advantages for internal reporting. The Direct or Variable Method In the direct (or variable) method, only the variable manufacturing costs are capitalized, or charged to the inventory. Fixed manufacturing costs flow into expense in the period incurred. This method provides some advantages and some disadvantages for internal reporting. However, it does not provide proper matching because the current fixed costs associated with producing the inventory are charged to expense regardless of whether or not the output is sold during the period. For this reason direct costing is not generally acceptable for external reporting. The Full Absorption Method Full absorption costing (also referred to as full costing and absorption costing) is a traditional method where all manufacturing costs are capitalized in the inventory, i.e., charged to the inventory and become assets. This means that these costs do not become expenses until the inventory is sold. In this way, matching is more closely approximated. All selling and administrative costs are charged to expense. Technically, full absorption costing is required for external reporting, although many companies apparently use something less than a pure full absorption costing system. The full absorption method is also frequently used for internal reporting. The second major section of this chapter compares the income statements for full absorption costing with those used for direct costing because they are by far the dominant methods. The Activity Based Method Activity based costing is a relatively new type of procedure that can be used as an inventory valuation method. The technique was developed to provide more accurate product costs. This improved accuracy is accomplished by tracing costs to products through activities. In other words, costs are traced to activities (activity costing) and then these costs are traced, in a second stage, to the products that use the activities. The concept of ABC is illustrated in the enlarged graphic below. Another way to express the idea is to say that activities consume resources and products consume activities. Essentially, an attempt is made to treat all costs as variable, recognizing that all costs vary with something, whether it is production volume or some non-production volume related phenomenon. Both manufacturing costs and selling and administrative costs are traced to products in an ABC system. Note that treating selling and administrative costs in this way is not acceptable for external repor ting. 3) FOUR COST ACCUMULATION METHODS Cost accumulation refers to the manner in which costs are collected and identified with specific customers, jobs, batches, orders, departments and processes. The center of attention for cost accumulation can be individual customers, batches of products that may involve several customers, the products produced within individual segments during a period, or the products produced by the entire plant during a period. The companys cost accumulation method, or methods are influenced by the type of production operation and the extent to which detailed cost accounting information is needed by management. Job Order In job order costing, costs are accumulated by jobs, orders, contracts, or lots. The key is that the work is done to the customers specifications. As a result, each job tends to be different. For example, job order costing is used for construction projects, government contracts, shipbuilding, automobile repair, job printing, textbooks, toys, wood furniture, office machines, caskets, machine tools, and luggage. Accumulating the cost of professional services (e.g., lawyers, doctors and CPAs) also fall into this category. Chapter 4 illustrates a cost accounting system that includes normal historical costing as the basic cost system, full absorption costing as the inventory valuation method and job order costing as the cost accumulation method. Process In process costing, costs are accumulated by departments, operations, or processes. The work performed on each unit is standardized, or uniform where a continuous mass production or assembly operation is involved. For example, process costing is used by companies that produce appliances, alcoholic beverages, tires, sugar, breakfast cereals, leather, paint, coal, textiles, lumber, candy, coke, plastics, rubber, cigarettes, shoes, typewriters, cement, gasoline, steel, baby foods, flour, glass, mens suits, pharmaceuticals and automobiles. Process costing is also used in meat packing and for public utility services such as water, gas and electricity. Back Flush Back flush costing is a simplified cost accumulation method that is sometimes used by companies that adopt just-in-time (JIT) production systems. However, JIT is not just a technique, or collection of techniques. Just-in-time is a very broad philosophy, that emphasizes simplification and continuously reducing waste in all areas of business activity. JIT systems were developed in Japan and depend on the communitarian concepts of teamwork and continuous improvement. In fact, many of the assumptions, attitudes and practices of communitarian capitalism are included in the JIT philosophy. One of the many goals of JIT systems is zero ending inventory. In a backflush cost system, manufacturing costs are accumulated in fewer inventory accounts than when using the job order or process cost methods. In fact, in extreme backflush systems, most of the accounting records are eliminated. The production facilities are also arranged in self contained manufacturing cells that are dedicated to the production of a single, or similar products. In this way more of the manufacturing costs become direct product costs and fewer cost allocations are necessary. Thus, more accurate costing is obtained in spite of the fact that the cost accumulation method is simplified. The just-in-time philosophy and related accounting methods are discussed in Chapter 8. Hybrid, or Mixed Methods Hybrid or mixed systems are used in situations where more than one cost accumulation method is required. For example, in some cases process costing is used for direct materials and job order costing is used for conversion costs, (i.e., direct labor and factory overhead). In other cases, job order costing might be used for direct materials, and process costing for conversion costs. The different departments or operations within a company might require different cost accumulation methods. For this reason, hybrid or mixed cost accumulation methods are sometime referred to as operational costing methods. 4) FOUR COST FLOW ASSUMPTIONS A cost flow assumption refers to how costs flow through the inventory accounts, not the flow of work or products on a production line. This distinction is important because the flow of costs is not always the same as the flow of work. The various types of cost flow assumptions include: specific identification (e.g., by job), first in, first out, last in, first out and weighted average. Costs flow through the inventory accounts by the job in a job order cost system which represents an example of specific identification. The requirements of the various jobs determines the timing of the cost flows. Simple jobs tend to move through the system faster than more complex jobs. The first-in, first-out (FIFO) and weighted average cost flow assumptions are used in process costing. Since costs are accumulated by the process or department in a process cost environment, a cost flow assumption is needed to determine the treatment of the beginning inventory. When FIFO is used, it is assumed that the units of product in the beginning inventory are finished first and transferred to the next department before any of the units that are started during the period. The group of units in the beginning inventory maintain their separate identity and prior period costs. However, when the weighted average cost flow assumption is used, the beginning inventory units lose their separate identity because they are lumped together with the units of product started during the period. Process costing tends to be fairly challenging, therefore you may find these introductory concepts to be confusing. Although last-in, first-out (LIFO) is frequently used for tax reporting purposes, it is not normally used in the accounting records. For this reason, we consider the FIFO and weighted average cost flow assumptions in Chapter 5, but leave the LIFO cost flow assumption for courses that emphasize financial and tax reporting. 5) RECORDING INTERVAL CAPABILITY Inventory records can be maintained on a perpetual or a periodic basis. Conceptually, the perpetual inventory method provides a company with the capability of maintaining continuous records of the quantities of inventory and the costs flowing through the inventory accounts. The periodic method, on the other hand, requires counting the quantity of inventory before inventory records can be updated. In the past, manufacturers tended to keep perpetual inventories, while retailers used the periodic method. However, today a variety of modern point of sale devices and dedicated microcomputer software are readily available to provide any company with perpetual inventory capability. Cost allocation is the assigning of a common cost to several cost objects. For example, a company might allocate or assign the cost of an expensive computer system to the three main areas of the company that use the system. A company with only one electric meter might allocate the electricity bill to several departments in the company.Allocation implies that the assigning of the cost is somewhat arbitrary. Some people describe the allocation as the spreading of cost, because of the arbitrary nature of the allocation. Efforts have been made over the years to improve the bases for allocation. In manufacturing, the overhead allocations have moved from plant-wide rates to departmental rates, from direct labor hours to machine hours to activity based costing. The goal is to allocate or assign the costs based on the root causes of the common costs instead of merely spreading the costs. Direct costs can be physically traced to each department.Indirect costs must be allocated. Many companies develop allocation methods to assign service department costs to the producing departments. All organizations accumulate costs for their products or services for financial reporting purposes. An accounting system will assign to a departments output all its direct costs plus all the indirect costs allocated to it. A cost driver that has a logical, cause-effect relationship to the cost will be used as a cost-allocation base. Linking costs with cost objectives is accomplished by selecting cost drivers.When used for allocating costs, a cost driver is often called a cost-allocationbase. Major costs, such as newsprint for a newspaper and direct professionallabour for a law firm, may each be allocated to departments, jobs, and projects on an item-by-item basis, using obvious cost drivers such as tonnes of newsprint consumed or direct-labour-hours used. Other costs, taken one at a time, are not important enough to justify being allocated individually. These costs are pooled and then allocated together. A cost pool is a group of individual costs that is allocated to cost objectives using a single cost driver. For example, building rent, utilities cost, and janitorial services may be in the same cost pool because all are allocated on the basis of square metres of space occupied. Or a university could pool all the operating costs of its registrars office and allocate them to its colleges on the basis of the number of students in each faculty. In summary, all costs in a given cost pool should be caused by the same factor. That factor is the cost driver. Many different terms are used by companies to describe cost allocation in practice. You may encounter terms such as allocate, attribute, reallocate, trace, assign, distribute, redistribute, load, burden, apportion, and reapportion, which can be used interchangeably to describe the allocation of costs to cost objectives. The allocation of costs is necessary when the linkage between the costs and the cost objective is indirect. In this case, a basis for the allocation, such as direct-labour-hours or tonnes of raw material, is used even though its selection is arbitrary. A cost allocation base has been described as incorrigible, since it is impossible to objectively determine which base perfectly describes the link between the cost and the cost objective. Given this subjectivity in the selection of a cost-allocation base, it has always been difficult for managers to determine When should costs be allocated? and On what basis should costs be allocated? The answers to these questions depend on the principal purpose or purposes of the cost allocation. Costs are allocated for three main purposes: 1. To obtain desired motivation. Cost allocations are sometimes made to influence management behaviour and thus promote goal congruence and managerial effort. Consequently, in some organizations there is no cost allocation for legal or internal auditing services or internal management consulting services because top management wants to encourage their use. In other organizations there is a cost allocation for such items to spur managers to make sure the benefits of the specified services exceed the costs. 2. To compute income and asset valuations. Costs are allocated to products and projects to measure inventory costs and cost of goods sold. These allocations frequently service financial accounting purposes. However, the resulting costs are also often used by managers in planning, performance evaluation, and to motivate managers, as described above. 3. To justify costs or obtain reimbursement. Sometimes prices are based directly on costs, or it may be necessary to justify an accepted bid. For example, government contracts often specify a price that includes reimbursement for costs plus some profit margin. In these instances, cost allocations become substitutes for the usual working of the marketplace in setting prices. . What is activity based costing? (ABC system)? Sol : In the past, the vast majority of departments used direct labour hours as the only cost driver for applying costs to products. But direct labour hours is not a very good measure of the cause of costs in modern, highly automated departments. Labour-related costs in an automated system may be only 5 percent to 10 percent of the total manufacturing costs and often are not related to the causes of most manufacturing overhead costs. Therefore, many companies are beginning to use machine-hours as their cost-allocation base. However, some managers in modern manufacturing firms and automated service companies believe it is inappropriate to allocate all costs based on measures of volume. Using direct labour hours or cost-or even machine hours-as the only cost driver seldom meets the cause/effect criterion desired in cost allocation. If many costs are caused by non volume-based cost drivers, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) should be considered Activity Based Costing (ABC) is an economic model that identifies the cost pools or activity centers in an organization and assigns costs to cost drivers based on the number of each activity used. It identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity resource to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each: it assigns more indirect costs (overhead) into direct costs.In this way, an organization can precisely estimate the cost of individual products and services so they can identify and eliminate those tha

Admiralty Outline :: essays research papers

Admiralty Outline Overview Admiralty is federal law, originating in Article III,  § 2 of Constitution. i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First Congress included Cases of Admiralty/Maritime in Judiciary Act. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Supremacy Clause. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If say that case is admiralty/maritime case, governed by admiralty law, is to say that substantive admiralty law applies. i.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Differences: statute of limitations, comparative laws for recovery, etc. a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Main: trial by judge. From very beginning, admiralty cases are w/o juries. May be why someone brings suit in admiralty – to avoid the jury. ii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Admiralty cases can’t be removed from state to federal courts. a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  but most admiralty cases can be brought in state courts unless qualify under diversity. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  But federal admiralty law will be applied. iii.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jurisdiction arises under: a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  28 USC 1331: federal question b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  28 USC 1332: diversity c.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  28 USC 1333: admiralty & maritime. iv.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  BUT, Congress didn’t choose to enact substantive law in the statutes – left to courts. v.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Courts mainly address three issues: a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  what is an admiralty case? b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  if it is, what is the admiralty rule? c.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  construing the savings to suitors clause – eg, what types of cases does Congress mean to say that we only want federal courts sitting in admiralty to have jurisdiction over? Basics of Admiralty Requires: Locality + maritime nexus -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Executive Jet decision. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DeLovio v. Boit (1815): Maritime insurance policies are within admiralty & maritime jurisdiction of US b/c maritime contracts include charter parties, affreightments, marine bonds, Ks for repairing, supplying & navigating ships, Ks between part owners – etc – AND insurance. Historical limitations: -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Could only sue in rem -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forbade actions in personam vs. shipowner, master. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rules precluding admiralty court from hearing matters arising w/in body of the country. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forbidding admiralty jurisdiction where no influence of tide. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Forbidding admiralty jurisdiction involving building or sale of ship. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Thomas Jefferson (SCOTUS, 1825): Action arising on Ohio to Missouri river is not in admiralty, because no influence of tide.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Great Lakes Act (1845): extends jurisdiction to G. Lakes. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Becomes almost superfluous after Genesee Chief, but – still allows saving to suitors the right of jury trial if wanted. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Possible to have an equal protection argument – why in GL, but not other inland navigable waters. But no caselaw.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Genesee Chief v. Fitzhugh (SCOTUS, 1851): overrules the TJ. Holds that GL Act is Constitutional. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lakes are inland seas o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hostile fleets have been encountered on them, prizes made, reason to have admiralty jurisdiction. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nothing particular in the tide that makes waters suitable for admiralty. o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Limiting admiralty in country with so many inland navigable waters is impracticable.

Islam vs. Christianity Essay

Christianity and Islam have many similarities and can easily be compared to one another. Both trace their roots to Abraham. Both believe in prophecy, God’s messengers (apostles), revelation, scripture, the resurrection of dead, and the centrality of religious community. This last element is especially important. Both Christianity and Islam have a communitarian dimension: what the church is to Christianity the â€Å"umma† is to Islam. Despite these significant similarities, however, these two world religions have a number of significant differences as well. I will discuss 3 topics and go into detail about their moral teachings, roles and responsibilities (duties) and social justice issues, I will also be discussing their similarities and differences. The prophet Muhammad said: â€Å"I have been sent to perfect the morals†. The Quran is the criterion (furqan). Anything that contradicts the Quran is not from Islam. When it comes something like divorce in the Islam r eligion the bible says {2:231} And when you divorce women and they reach their prescribed time, then either retain them in good fellowship or set them free with liberality, and do not retain them for injury, so that you exceed the limits, and whoever does this, he indeed is unjust to his own soul;†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ this means that God encourages the husband and wife to appoint arbitrators as the first step to aid in reconciliation in the process of divorce. If the reconciliation step fails, both men and women are guaranteed their right to divorce as established in the Qur’an, but the question lies in what is the procedure for each. When the man initiates a divorce, it is known as talaq. However it is different in the Christianity religion; it says that the ending of the legal union between two married people is called divorce. Throughout most ages and societies forms of divorce have existed. Divorce is an unnatural act. It states in Matthew 19:8-9 ~ 8 Jesus replied, â€Å"Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.   I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.† Also Christians believe in the concept of â€Å"Original Sin† which means that human beings are born as sinners, bearing the burden of the â€Å"Original Sin† of Adam and Eve. Muslims do not believe in the † Original Sin† for 2 main reasons; In the Quran, God forgave Adam for what he has done, and according to the Quran, no  one should be made to bear the burden of someone else’s sin or mistake because it is unfair. A similarity that the Islam religion and Christianity religion have is People should follow the Ten Commandments and the moral teachings of the prophets. Islam, being religion of nature, understands that human beings are born with varying gifts. As they differ in their bodies and their features so they differ in their mental and other capabilities. Islam ensures just and equitable distribution of wealth among the people and, on the other hand, provides social security to the poor and the destitute in the form of basic necessities of life. Besides that, Islam also protects the weak from the economic exploitation by the strong. All there are various aspects and manifestations of what is called Islamic social justice. In Christianity, what then, is social justice in Biblical terms? â€Å"Justice† and â€Å"righteousness† are part of a way of life, which God expects of us as His people (see e.g. Micah 6:8; Ps. 11:7; 1John 3:7). This stems from the kind of character, which we possess, and is in turn the reflection of what God Himself is and how He acts (1John 3:7). Social justice is essentially the outworking of this way of life in our relationships with others. It is not an option that we may accept or avoid at our choice; it is a necessary part of our practical Christian living. Peace is central to these 2 faiths. This is reflected historically in their use of similar greetings meaning â€Å"peace be upon you†: pax vobiscum in Christianity, and salaam alaikum in Islam. Often, however, the greeting of peace has been meant primarily for members of one’s own faith community. Each religion has its own roles and responsibilities, the Islam religion have there responsibilities for husbands and rights of the wife; there are four main rolls for wife’s in marriage, the first is Obeys husband on matters not against Islam, the second is Ensures the conjugal rights of the husbands; this means that With respect to intimacy, a wife may not deny herself to her husband. As this is one of the reasons why Islam legalizes marriage, because in Islam sexual intimacy is only applicable strictly to husband and wife. The third is Protects husband’s honor and property this includes to not receive anyone in his home whom he does not like. In case, she’s entrusted with any funds, she must discharge her duty wisely and thriftily. The fourth is to manage the household and upbringing of children’s welfare. The husband’s roles and responsibility is to provide  mahr (dowry), Serves as protector and the guardian of the wife, and Treats wife with kindness and fairness, which means to never throw vulgarity at the wife. In Christianity besides of the mans role of providing for the family and the women’s role says the ability to properly manage the household it says God created for husband and wife to share in the same goals but have different roles. Together they compliment one another and work together in harmony. A similarity is that Christianity and Islam believe that people should follow the Ten Commandments and the moral teachings of the prophets. When discussing differences between Christian and Islam worship, we should also note that Muslims are very attentive not just to the interior aspects of worship but to the external aspects as well. In this Muslims have much more in common with Eastern Christianity than with Western Christianity, especially Protestantism. Like E astern Christians, Muslims use their whole body in prayer. Both groups, for instance, make prostrations before God in their worship. This research project has helped/shape and strengthens my own views on another faith and my own faith, which is Christianity, I have earned a lot about Islam and I never knew that it could have some similarities to the Christian faith. When it comes to the principals, values and traditions of Christianity that I will pass on to my children and hopefully they can pass it on to theirs to keep the Christian faith going on for more generations.

Kohistani History Essay

To reach Thull, a Kohistani community that is found in the mountains near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, you have to make a hazarding trip on an endless dirt road that is unattainable in bad weather. The Kohistani are inherently a violent people who strongly believe in vengeance and had most of their fighting take place between descent groups. For the most part conflict was handled by local leaders, and there was usually no fatal accident due to a lack of fatal weapons. The lack of guns was due to the lack of roads that limited economic development, which limited the amount of money a person could amass. However, when Pakistan took charge in 1965, a number of social and economic developments took place. The roads that were installed made it possible for Thull to be linked to other parts of Pakistan. Included with the overwhelming amount of changes that followed, Kohistani violence evolved due to the outside impression that all started because of the roads. By the way that Kohistani violence and other facets of their culture changed when the roads were introduced, it shows how interconnected everything is. The introduction of the road demonstrated how culture is integrated by the way it altered subsistence strategies, increased violence, and brought innovative ideas to religion. Before the road, subsistence in Thull solely depended on alpine herding and agriculture. Since importing fertilizer was now possible, Thull shifted its system to one weighing in the cultivation of potatoes, a cash crop that brought about several changes. The amount of men who participated in herding drastically decreased after the road was built due to the fact that herding was no longer the main source of income. With less land being used for herding, farmers were able to convert the property into more profitable potato fields. With the diminishing activity in herding, crosscutting ties became weakened as well. Even though the system for apportioning pastures r emained the same, preserving a positive relationship with herding units became unimportant since nobody was herding anymore. With crosscutting ties losing their effectiveness in sustaining peaceful relations, death enmity started to thrive. With the emerge of roads, the subsistence strategy of the Kohistani people changed, and with that incorporated more violence into their culture as well. This is a good example demonstrating how culture is integrated by the way that a street can alter other aspects of the Kohistani culture like its subsistence strategy, which in turn affects violence in the  Thull. In addition, not only did the emergence of roads bring a change to subsistence practices in Kohistani culture, but also brought a change to the economic system as well. This change was based on cultivating potatoes as a cash crop tied with an amplified quantity of fields that brought a significant influx of money into the community. Additionally, money in the community continued to build even more with the extensive timber exploitation that was occurring, which was the foremost motive of the Pakistan governm ent to build the road. With timber contractors hiring local Kohistani people as wage laborers, also brought about paid royalties on the timber, which brought even more cash to the community. This all seems like it benefits the Kohistani community in a positive way, but that isn’t the case. The deforestation that takes place is harming their environment greatly and affecting the fertile land around it, and with an increase in wealth, members of the community can purchase firearms. Prior to the construction of the road, conflict usually never ended in fatalities due to insufficient weaponry, but with everyone being able to buy rifles now that trend wasn’t likely to continue. Buying guns was almost too easy now and men acting on their honor and justifiable faith used them on their counterparts. The emergence of the road indirectly made it possible to violence to flourish in the Kohistani community. This is just another example of how culture is integrated, showing how this one road strengthened the violence of a people and harmed their environment. The change in cultural values was a crucial factor in establishing organized violence in the community. With a bus service ready to take people to the outside world, Thull’s religious leaders went out and learned from scholars and teachers about the center of Islamic teachings. These leaders then brought back these new concepts regarding honor and opinions toward women. These new concepts caused a wave of death enmity that they felt was justified by the new ideas regarding Islamic faith. This has continued through the years and revenge has become fundamental to a Muslim man’s identity and self-respect as well. They now see it as personal integrity is vital to Islamic faith and that taking vengeance is a stern religious requirement. This together creates an environment that basically supports the act of vengeance. The road let people get a taste of what the outside world was like. The isolated Kohistani culture became tampered with by new discoveries. Again, we can see  how culture is integrated here by the way the road indirectly revised the Kohistani religious values, and caused their violent ways to grow. The inhabitants in the Kohistani community had their lives changed due to political modernization. The transition from their subsistence strategy to an economic system focused on a cash-crop and timber really changed their identity and brought prosperity. This prosperity enabled people to purchase weapons that could do serious harm to others, making conflict a fatal concept in the community. Their religion was changed as well; having it injected with ideas that taking revenge is crucial to a man’s self-respect and basically demanding them to act out violently. All of these factors together encouraged a hostile environment that insisted on organized vengeance. With one road that connected Thull to outside world, Kohistani culture was changed drasti cally. The Kohistani were a great example to show how culture is integrated, because just one road affected so many facets of their everyday life.

Ideas for Christmas Journal Writing Prompts

Ideas for Christmas Journal Writing Prompts Journal writing, at least three times per week, is an important part of any language arts program in elementary school. These Christmas writing topics will inspire your students to write about the festive and seasonal ideas that are on our minds every December. Christmas Journal Writing Topics What does it mean to have the holiday spirit?Why do you think red and green are the Christmas colors?What are you and your family most grateful for this holiday season? Write about three or more things.Describe what you know about the North Pole. Describe a typical day for the elves.Take five minutes to draw your family celebrating the holidays. Then write in detail about your traditions. Use your five senses to describe the celebrations tastes, looks, smells, and textures.Tell about how each member of your family contributes to your Christmas traditions.If Christmas is one of your favorite holidays, describe why you enjoy it so much. Are there any parts of the holiday that you dont like? If you dont enjoy Christmas the most, how do you think it could be made better?What is your favorite Christmas book? Describe the plot and your reactions to it.What are your wishes for the world this holiday season?Use your imagination to describe Santas journey with his reindeer. Start from the mom ent he packs up the sleigh to when he returns back to the North Pole. Do you wish Christmas was every day of the year? Why or why not?Pick three New Years Resolutions. Describe why you picked them and how you will accomplish them.

5 Tips About Writing with Rhythm

5 Tips About Writing with Rhythm 5 Tips About Writing with Rhythm 5 Tips About Writing with Rhythm By Mark Nichol Think of all the things you do each day, including mundane tasks like getting dressed, cooking meals, and speaking to other people. They all involve patterns or random sequences of ebb and flow: rhythm. Writing is like that, too. Just as with any other activity, rhythm in writing can occur automatically, but it’s improved by conscious attention. Here are five tips for enhancing your writing by attending to rhythm. 1. Alternate Sentence Length Vary the word count for your sentences not mathematically, not analytically, but naturally, organically. Introduce a comical character with a statement that resembles a clumsy person stumbling down a stairway then bring the headlong descent to a sudden stop with a concise comment. Describe a tortuous bureaucratic procedure with a run-on-and-on sentence, and then figuratively snap your fingers at it with a brusque reaction. For inspiration, listen to a musical composition, noting the variety of measures. Do the same with recordings of speeches or comedy routines, and with scenes from films or television programs (fact and fiction alike) and, of course, with fiction and nonfiction writing. 2. Relocate Words and Phrases English is a flexible language. Exploit that fact. Though parts of speech have set interrelationships, the relative positions of words representing the categories are negotiable. Shift words and phrases around until the parts of a sentence seem to fall into their preordained places. How? Read your writing aloud, of course. Note, too, that writers are inclined to introduce the most important element of a sentence at the beginning; the key component should be provided early on, right? Wrong. Where does the punchline go in a joke? Correction: When you tell a joke, where’s the punchline? (Doesn’t that revision read more smoothly?) 3. Embrace Sentence Fragments The law against incomplete sentences was repealed a long time ago. A very long time ago. As a matter of fact, there never was such a regulation, except in the hidebound handbooks of grim grammarians. No kidding. People speak in sentence fragments and incomplete sentences all the time, and although writing, except for the most informal prose, should reflect a more carefully constructed communication, in all but the most formal writing, judiciously employ truncated statements. Over and out. 4. Match Rhythm to Mood Let the length and rhythm of a sentence match the mood you wish to impart. A description of a beautiful landscape or an account of a rapturous experience should cascade like a rippling waterfall or undulate with the peaks of valleys of sensual imagery. Longer sentences punctuated with alliteration and assonance and laced with metaphors evoking physical sensations will help readers immerse themselves in the places and events you describe. Conversely, the sentence structure describing a sequence of events in a thriller or a passage detailing an exciting incident is probably most effective in brief bursts of short, simple words. 5. Apply Tension and Release Many musical compositions are paced on the principle of building up to peaks of stress or emotion and a counterpointing relief from that ascent. Writing benefits from the same approach to carrying the reader along on waves of tension and release. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Exquisite AdjectivesGrammar Quiz #21: Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting

Americas Next Top Model Show in Light of Power Dynamics Essay

Americas Next Top Model Show in Light of Power Dynamics - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) as a big brother show in which successful women applicants come together to compete for America’s Next Top Model title. This show is meant to give the women a chance to start a modeling career. The show is hosted by a female professional and model by the name Tyra Banks. It is rated as one of the biggest television shows in the world. The show is professionally constructed with episodes ranging from nine to eighteen. In all the seasons, there are about ten to twenty five female participants who vie for the adorable title. Each episode is structured in a way that one of the participants considered weak is eliminated by a panel of judges, Tyra Banks being part. The shows also provides a makeover in the earlier part of the show where the participants who are considered weak is put on probation and the audience is allowed to vote to save their preferred contestant. During the show, contestants undergo vig orous training in line with the theme of the particular week. This is meant to coach the girls and teach them various aspects related to the modeling career including press interviewing skills, sales skills, and cat walking. This is followed by photo shooting of the contestants who are given dresses that barely cover the bodies; the girls are actually semi-nude as they pose. From the photos shot, the judges make a decision and the female contestants with the lowest marks are eliminated or put on probation for a makeover. Other events featured in the show include in-depth assessment of personality traits and general knowledge. Each of the episodes ends with the ruling by a panel of judges who are experts in the fashion industry, regular judges of the show. A special guest judge is also usually called upon to assist in making a judgment. This involves posing challenging questions on modeling and fashion to the contestants, and their video photos are displayed and analyzed by the panel ists. The contestants are often asked to leave the room to give the panelists a chance to deliberate on their decisions and make the rulings. The female contestants are then called upon to the show room and face their fate; the successful ones remain in the show while those who score low are put on probation or sent packing (Kowalski 47). In view of the above, it is beyond doubt that the show is, therefore, professionally structured in a way that real women contestants are put into unreal events in order to create a story. Criticism of the Reality Shows Most of the reality shows run for a bout thirty to sixty minutes, a constant duration. If the show could be real then the events would run for an unidentified period. This shows that there are some incidences behind the scene that the audience is not able to know. It also brings out an element of editing of the events behind the scene to enable the program run within the stipulated period. It also shows that the story being told is n ot real but is subject to a lot of editing and manipulation of the contestants or participants. The editors, therefore, become the storytellers and take the positions of the contestants by altering the sequence of events that actually happened behind the scenes. Meanwhile, the audience

Managing Diversity.1) why you have selected this topic, why it is Essay

Managing Diversity.1) why you have selected this topic, why it is important to you,why it is important for the companies to value,how this area will change over the next five years - Essay Example . Also, managing diversity should be part of an organizational culture because it would attract customers. Customers have a preference to buy services and groups from diverse businesses. Therefore, companies with a diverseness within their management will simply fulfil the needs of a wide customer base. Lastly, cultural intelligence is the most compelling significance of having a diverse workforce. As a result, when clients and employees are diverse, opportunities to not only learn but also acknowledge the values held sacred by others are boundless (Barzantny, 2007). Times are changing in the labour force, and stakeholders are changing in various ways, apart from gender and race, people with disabilities, single parent families, ageing workforce and dual-earner families. For this reason, there is a need for the creation of diverse policies, behaviours and work culture where people feel like an essential part of the organization. Management diversity will bring competitiveness in organizations thus enhancing performance innovations in the business world. In the advent of increased diversification of the business world, a number of corporations are investing in different parts of the world. Hence interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. This will prompt the need to utilise it. Thus, it will gain more popularity among major business. Most managers will have to integrate it as part of their management techniques for increased performance in the

Trying times for President Clinton during the sex sandal with monica Term Paper

Trying times for President Clinton during the sex sandal with monica lewinsky - Term Paper Example The impeachment of the former president came as a result of the scandal and a law suit that was filled by Paula Jones (Neal, 2005:135). This served as the second impeachment of a president in power in the United States of America after the impeachment of the former president Andrew Johnson in the year 1868 (Neal, 2005:136). When the impeachment proceedings were brought forward against the president in 1998 several issues were raised against the governmental processes. While some scholars took the matter lightly, others argued that sexual conduct is a serious offense and is adequate to remove an elected president from the office. Those in support of the president argued that president just like any citizen of the United States have the right to privacy. They also stated that many other former presidents like John F. Kennedy, Roosevelt as well as Warren G. Harding had been linked to extensive extramarital sexual activity but their sexual conduct was not made available to the public. As observed by Chapman (2010: 99), the European observers were surprised that Americans engaged in impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton because he lied about his sexual conduct. In their argument, they stated that just like any citizen of America would avoid the truth about his sexual fidelity and so Bill Clinton will. In the impeachment case against Clinton, separation of power prevailed through the proceedings. In this context, the act of not telling the truth with respect to the sexual misconduct does not constitute enough evidences necessary for impeachable offenses as defined by the constitution of the country as â€Å"high crimes and misdemeanors† (Chapman, 2010:99). In this argument therefore, the impeachment against the president seemed partisan and was seen as an attempt by the legislature to extend its powers and responsibility past the boundary. According to Chapman (2010:100), the charges that the former president faced were not worth impeachment because the y did not grow from the failure of the president with regard to the state functions. However, the failure was from his personal life which is different from his public and political life. These differences in arguments divided the legislature and there was a clear boundary in terms of opinions between the republicans and the democrats. The question of what could constitute impeachment against a president had dominated the list of issues during Clinton’s administration. However, the fact that congress was dominated by the Republicans presented a threat to the former president since the issue had taken political angle dividing the house into pro and against impeachment camps. It is this time that the congress dominated by Republicans appointed a counsel to investigate the financial backgrounds of the president (Kogan & Kelso, 2009: 308). The counsel which was headed by Kenneth Starr was given further responsibilities to investigate the scandal surrounding the former president a nd the white house intern, Monica Lewinsky. In close analysis of the unfolding events, it is clear that the push for the investigations and the impeachment of the former president was more political than legal. This is because the political enemies took the opportunity finish him politically. The trouble began when it became apparent that the intern, Monica had told

Oil and gas correlation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Oil and gas correlation - Research Paper Example It would therefore be important to explain why and the possible reveres resolution (Ross 42). There has been an increased shift towards use of gas in production of domestic electricity against the small oil use. This factor explains the increasing trend of negative correlation between the two commodities as noted from late 1970s (Roberts 51). It is also evident that from 1991, the import of oil by US had reduced but this still represented approximately 40% of the consumption by US against a paltry 5% of gas consumption by the US (YeÃŒ pez-Garcia, Rigoberto , and Julie 86). This is an evident case to support the observed negative correlation. The increasing local production of gas by US in 1980s led to the increased supply of gas which affected prices locally and internationally but exhibited consistent trend towards a positive correlation with oil prices (YeÃŒ pez-Garcia, Rigoberto , and Julie 86) . Increased technological advancement which has seen a rise in gas fuelled cars is likely to push the gas prices up. This would initiate the positive correlation between the two commodities. It is also predicted that increased export of LNG by US to the global market will promote the chances of gas offering competition to oil thereby moving in the same direction in terms of prices (CretiÌ€

Biology Curriculum Unit on structures and functions of Cells and their Assignment

Biology Curriculum Unit on structures and functions of Cells and their Organelles - Assignment Example The structures in cell are of both plant and animal cells. Although the students will be following the objectives for 8th grade Biology, they will spend much of their time researching the specific topics of the unit and creating products as a result of that research. A high degree of technology will be infused into the activities so that students will be able to use 21st Century technology skills to collaborate and produce products of learning. The problem-based learning activity dealing with the issue of cell recognition will encourage all of the students to gain a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the issues facing the cell. Students will be able to examine the process that has occurred thus far and give opinions about the cell. Students will be able to get the outcome. Students will be developing products of learning that are meaningful to them and appropriate to the activity in which they have participated. Students will create a multimedia presentation of their choosing in order to explain their findings. They will draw diagrams order to learn more about the cell. Collaboration on projects will occur through the use of the internet The activities in this unit, while teacher-facilitated, allow students to investigate topics that are meaningful to them, based on the cell. Students will be able to work both independently and in groups and collaborate with each other in person and electronically. While the basic parameters of the activities are laid out, students will be able to make choices about how to proceed with the activities and how they will present their findings. In all activities, students will be involved in creating the evaluation measurement. Students must have some basic knowledge of how to use technology for research purposes and must have parental permission to use the Internet. Permissions to participate in field trip activities must be obtained from

LoE Project Rules Against Hersay Research Paper

LoE Project Rules Against Hersay - Research Paper Example It draws conclusions on the basis of observation made by others. This rule is completely against the direct evidence made by the persons in the case involved in the court. The rule negates the importance of the verdict of the person who is directly involved in the incident reported for claiming the rights in court. Instead, another person presents the facts from his own point of view that cannot be considered as authentic in most of the cases (Graham, 1982). The definition made by researchers for Hearsay is that an out-of-court statement that is used to prove the verdict inside the court. The word ‘out-of-court’ needs some explanation. It contains all the necessary explanations that are not directly part of the court proceedings. These are either the observations of verdicts of others. The rule of hearsay might be used by persons to provide evidence to save or enforce punishment against the real evidence. It may be used to manipulate the truth in the favor of the motives of the witness. He may tell the observation of some other person in a sugar-coated way that serves his own purpose or aim. It may be used in those cases in which the Declarant is either unavailable for presenting himself to the court or he is not confident enough to record his statements in front of the jury. In normal cases, the purpose of the witness is to provide his statements to help in solving the case under the oath. His statements are based on the direct evidence concluded from his experience, study, or observation. The witness is directly involved in the case. In case of Hearsay, the Declarant lies outside the court. His oath doesn’t have any role in the proceedings of the court. He just feeds his information to another person who plays the role of witness. The witness will present the information based on the feedback from Declarant. This feedback is based on the indirect observation on the part of the

Oil and gas correlation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Oil and gas correlation - Research Paper Example It would therefore be important to explain why and the possible reveres resolution (Ross 42). There has been an increased shift towards use of gas in production of domestic electricity against the small oil use. This factor explains the increasing trend of negative correlation between the two commodities as noted from late 1970s (Roberts 51). It is also evident that from 1991, the import of oil by US had reduced but this still represented approximately 40% of the consumption by US against a paltry 5% of gas consumption by the US (YeÃŒ pez-Garcia, Rigoberto , and Julie 86). This is an evident case to support the observed negative correlation. The increasing local production of gas by US in 1980s led to the increased supply of gas which affected prices locally and internationally but exhibited consistent trend towards a positive correlation with oil prices (YeÃŒ pez-Garcia, Rigoberto , and Julie 86) . Increased technological advancement which has seen a rise in gas fuelled cars is likely to push the gas prices up. This would initiate the positive correlation between the two commodities. It is also predicted that increased export of LNG by US to the global market will promote the chances of gas offering competition to oil thereby moving in the same direction in terms of prices (CretiÌ€

LoE Project Rules Against Hersay Research Paper

LoE Project Rules Against Hersay - Research Paper Example It draws conclusions on the basis of observation made by others. This rule is completely against the direct evidence made by the persons in the case involved in the court. The rule negates the importance of the verdict of the person who is directly involved in the incident reported for claiming the rights in court. Instead, another person presents the facts from his own point of view that cannot be considered as authentic in most of the cases (Graham, 1982). The definition made by researchers for Hearsay is that an out-of-court statement that is used to prove the verdict inside the court. The word ‘out-of-court’ needs some explanation. It contains all the necessary explanations that are not directly part of the court proceedings. These are either the observations of verdicts of others. The rule of hearsay might be used by persons to provide evidence to save or enforce punishment against the real evidence. It may be used to manipulate the truth in the favor of the motives of the witness. He may tell the observation of some other person in a sugar-coated way that serves his own purpose or aim. It may be used in those cases in which the Declarant is either unavailable for presenting himself to the court or he is not confident enough to record his statements in front of the jury. In normal cases, the purpose of the witness is to provide his statements to help in solving the case under the oath. His statements are based on the direct evidence concluded from his experience, study, or observation. The witness is directly involved in the case. In case of Hearsay, the Declarant lies outside the court. His oath doesn’t have any role in the proceedings of the court. He just feeds his information to another person who plays the role of witness. The witness will present the information based on the feedback from Declarant. This feedback is based on the indirect observation on the part of the

Willy is a tragic figure according to Aristotle’s concept of tragedy Essay Example for Free

Willy is a tragic figure according to Aristotle’s concept of tragedy Essay Hamlet, Oedipus, King Lear, Macbeth, and Willy Loman are the characters observed by the critics in the numerous writings devoted to the genre of tragedy. Many critics argue if the classic tragedy must include fall of princes, as it was defined by Aristotle, or modern plays may be also defined as tragedies. Can the problem of a common man be regarded as the tragedy in its classical form? The author of Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, believes that it is possible, and he is sure that a common man may be represented as a tragic hero, and he succeeds to prove his belief with the help of his play. This is a tragedy of a common man in the modern world, a story about a man from Brooklyn. This play was awarded by prizes in literature; it combines several literature styles, as surrealism and realism. This is a story of a man that is swallowed up by the word of hypocrisy and fraud. The hero is shy and unlucky: Suddenly I realize Im going sixty miles an hour, and I dont remember the last five minutes (Miller 56). He is alone in the surrounding world, and even his family doesn’t understand his odd behavior. He speaks to the characters from the past that was luckier and friendlier to him, and his sons are disappointed with his behavior. His wife is also unhappy with this, as she understands that he cannot overcome the distinction between the dreams and the real world. As it has been said above, the critics discuss the question if Death of a Salesman can be treated as the tragedy and if Willy Loman can be regarded as a tragic hero. Investigation of this subject demands mentioning the notion of a classic tragedy and its definition, developed by Aristotle. There were four key elements that the writing needed to be defined as the tragedy: â€Å"1) noble or impressive characters; 2) the main characters discovery or recognition of a truth or fault in himself ; 3) poetic language; and 4) the ability to arouse and then soothe the audiences pity and fear † (Kelly 59).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Some critics suppose that Death of a Salesman doesn’t meet any of these requirements, or at least, hesitate that all these demands can be applied to the play; the others insist that the play corresponds to these key elements. It is known that Miller was greatly impressed with the Greek tragedies and he wrote much about the impressions after reading of classic Greek tragedies, he wrote that he was attracted to the Greeks due to their â€Å"magnificent form, the symmetry. That form has never left me; I suppose it just got burned in. (qtd in Death of a Salesman: A Tragedy of a Common Man). But, at the same time the author insisted that the time changed, and the world changed as well, and â€Å"we no longer live in an era dominated by kings and  Ã‚  queens- and so maybe our definition of tragedy should change, too.† (qtd in Death of a Salesman: A Tragedy of a Common Man). Accordingly, the image of a tragic hero in modern tragedy is to be changed, as the tragedy changed during the ages that had passed since the times of Ancient Greece. A tragic hero, as seen by the eyes of Miller, is a person that intends to die for his or her values or ideas, or beliefs, but there are some limitations that shape him as a literature hero and do not allow this happen. This is the essence of the tragedy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Willy Loman is persistent and passionate, and he has a dream, which is the sense of his living, and he doesn’t hesitate to die for it, if it’s necessary. There are alternative ways of behavior, another ways in life, but Willie chooses the path that coincides with his inner world, and his intentions, and he isn’t concerned if this is the way to success. Here we may see the difference between Willy and another character from the play, Charley, who chose another alternative (Murphy 12).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The debates about the Death of a Salesman as a tragedy appeared just after the play was published, and Miller was a witness of these debates. As the majority of the critics stated that Willy Loman cannot be regarded as a tragic hero, Miller answered them via his writing â€Å"Tragedy and the Common Man†. He stated that his play affected the minds and emotions of the audience that is close to the audience of Greek tragedies. The play depicts persistent movement that ends with the death of the main character; it shows the development of self-awareness. This is a story without strict beginning, end, and subplots. The unit of time, one more essential element of the classic tragedy is also represented in the play, as the events described take place within a day and a night.   The author is sure that there are many features in the play that make it a tragedy, but he focuses mainly on the notion of a modern tragedy, and a modern tragic hero. (Murphy 12) The name of the main character is symbolic – Loman is a low-man, and the author describes him as â€Å"a very  brave spirit who cannot settle for half but must pursue his dream of himself to the end†. (qtd in Murphy) This hero doesn’t reveal much intellect or any other outstanding features of character, while Aristotle mentioned the intellect as the feature of tragic hero in classic tragedy, but the sense of self-awareness developed in him – this is the reason why he committed a suicide after he had seen that his life had been senseless. Understanding the motives that forced Willy commit a suicide is significant. The title of the writing informs us about the end of it just before we start reading. Probably, the reasons that forced the hero kill himself are the most common reasons in this case: attempt to escape from cruel reality, desire to revenge and punish his sons for their misunderstanding and disrespect, illusion of getting power in acting while the problems seem irresolvable, bravery to rule his living, even the aspiration for the success and victory, making something that is done perfect, and at last, providing his sons with the insurance, and thus proving that he had gone the wrong path. This last moment can be compared to the tragedy of King Lear and the death of Cordelia. Thus, the hero feels that he destroyed his life and the lives of his sons, and his final attempt to repair it is giving them the money that will be available for them after his death on his insurance (Sandage 30). The other element defined by Aristotle as the second key element in classic tragedy is hubris. To understand the issue it is necessary to observe the character of Willy Loman. He is skillful in hand work, but he doesn’t consider it to be his advantage, and he doesn’t appreciate this talent, he states that â€Å"a man who cant handle tools is disgusting†(Miller 47), so he chooses a career of a salesman, as it is coincides with his perception of what is needed to get prosperity. This notion derives from his image of his father who abandoned him in his childhood, and from his image of an old salesman who died all alone on his way to Boston in a train car. Another essential element of a tragedy, in addition to the connection between the downfall of character’s personality and the features of his character, is recognition of the self. This point is represented with the help of Willy and Biff, who gets aware of his personal self at the end of the play, while Biff understands that his father had unreal dreams, and he becomes able to decide what will be better for him in future, and this decision derives from a realistic notion of his abilities (Sandage 14). Willy desires to impress the people around him, and to be remembered by the people after his death, he also want to provide his sons with the money, and he suffers because he realizes that he is unable to do this. He realizes that he wasted his living and all the opportunities he met in his life. He is now old, and he has nothing to hope for, and he achieved nothing as well, he is not respected by his sons and he hasn’t got friends to support him. He thinks that he realizes the reason why human life is absurd. Linda states that A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man, (Miller, p.39) and the character of Willy Loman demonstrates that modern tragedy doesn’t describe the downfall of a great man, a person of high moral standards, the person who has a power or rules the country. Tragedy now describes the downfall of a common man, and this particular play is a wide perspective of contemporary USA, with its lacks and hidden flows, critically reflected in a story of an ordinary man, one of the millions of people (Linderholm 25). In modern literature, in contrast with the classical tragedy, the definition of a tragedy, as it should be is different. Although some features defined by Aristotle as the features of tragedy, can be found in modern plays, there are definite points of distinction. As far as Death of a Salesman is concerned, it is possible to point out hamartia and hubris as the elements that are inherent to the play. The basic distinction lies in the author’s reject from portraying a great and powerful person that plays significant social role. The author portrays an ordinary man in his habitual surroundings. The other distinction is that the symbol of fate is different in classic and modern tragedies. In classic Greek theatre these were the gods that shaped the destiny of the individual, in modern tragedies this role is given to social institutions and organizations that make the person feel like a speck of dust in the myriads of the same specks. Thus, it will be wrong to judge Death of a Salesman as a classic tragedy, as there are some essential issues that make it differ from the tragedy defined by Aristotle. This play should rather be defined as the modern tragedy, adapted to the society, culture and viewpoints of the contemporary society. Works Cited Death of a Salesman: A Tragedy of a Common Man. From Midsummer Magazine, 1991.   Available at   http://www.bard.org/Education/Other/deathofasalesmad.html Halliwell, Stephen. Aristotles Poetics.  University of Chicago Press. 1999 Linderholm, Karl. The American Dream.   1995 Available at   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://members.aol.com/sunny2345/stories.html Kelly, Henry Ansgar. Ideas and Forms of Tragedy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. 2005 Murphy, Brenda. Abbotson, Susan.   Understanding Death of a Salesman: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources and Historical Documents. Greenwood Press March. 1999 Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Heinemann Educational Secondary Division. 1994 Sandage, Scott A. Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. Harvard University Press,

Neural Correlates of Religious Experience

Neural Correlates of Religious Experience An Exploration of the Reason, Methods and Research of the Neural Correlates of Religious Experience Jennifer Romano Abstract Spiritual and Religious experiences often remain and power and mysterious aspect of humanity. The aim of this paper is to address the reasons, methods and literature around the neural correlates of these events. Studying the underlying mechanisms behind these phenomenons can be controversial as it raises philosophical dilemmas. However, this research is important to further the understanding of the human condition. Recent imaging studies indicate several brain regions (frontal lobes and limbic system) associated with religious experience. Through a streamlining of these methodologies, it is anticipated that these studies will provide implications for integrating spirituality into psychotherapy. An Exploration of the Reason, Methods and Research of the Neural Correlates of Religious Experience There is a voyager condition known as â€Å"Jerusalem Syndrome,† whereby tourists to Jerusalem begin to develop a psychosomatic illness in which they experience deeply religious delusions, such as believing they are God or other characters from the Bible (Kalian Witztum, 2002). Some psychiatrists hypothesize that this disorder may develop as a result of an incongruence between their expectations of the holy city and the reality that it is, in fact, a modern city. Others speculate that many of these travelers are pilgrims, and upon arriving in Jerusalem, they feel closer to God, and it is this intense feeling of propinquity that leads to this strange psychological reaction. Other voyager syndromes exist as well. Stendhal syndrome and Paris Syndrome have also been reported, but are believed to be an intense psychological reaction to the quantity and quality of art in both Florence and Paris, respectively (Smith, 2010). All experiences, whether religious or not, are brain based and therefore provide both a psychological and physiological response. That is why standing before the Temple Mount or standing before a sculpture by Michelangelo can both send shivers down your spine or move you to tears. Spiritual or religious experiences like the ones mentioned above continue to be a mysterious phenomenon that warrants further study. Why Study Neural Correlates of Religious Experiences? Spirituality is an aspect of humanity that the field of psychology is just beginning to tap into. Surveys indicate that over 90% of United States believes in a god and 58% categorized religion as important to them (Shafranske, 1996). For this reason and several others, Pargament (2007) argues, spirituality cannot be separated from psychotherapy and in many cases can be both part of the problem and the solution for those that the field serves. Through understanding the neural mechanisms behind religious belief and behaviors, psychologists could potentially unlock new resources in practicing spiritually integrated psychotherapy. A study of the neurological correlates of religious or spiritual experiences inevitably runs into the discourse of mind and body dualism. During the 17th century, Descartes proposed his revolutionary idea that the mind and body were separate entities. He hypothesized that the mind was the ethereal component to our thoughts while the brain was the material, but neither entity can function alone. Much the same, Aristotle theorized centuries earlier that thoughts and feelings actually came from the heart rather than the brain. Eastern philosophy has held the notion for centuries suggesting that the mind/body connection is integrated and holistic. This notion was threatened with the advent of modern western medicine. Science provided a mechanistic model of health. Alan Turing, one of the forerunners of the cognitive revolution, suggested that humans operated on the same production rules as computers in his computational-representational paradigm (Boden, 2006). This has lead to the exclusion of the spiritual and religion in the study of modern psychology. In fact, the field of psychology has not always embraced religion. Freud used psychological theory to discount religion as a whole, suggesting that people invented god as a form of wish fulfillment that had its roots in unresolved childhood conflict (Freud, 1950). Much the same, B.F. Skinner rejected the notion of God, dissolving religion down to a form of behavioral control (Skinner, 1971). These two forefathers ushered in the advent of modern science in studying the human psyche. With this societal change came the prediction of religion dissolution, and yet, it still remains. Recently, psychologists have begun to advocate for a pragmatic approa ch to studying humanity’s spiritual and religious correlates. The modern approach appears to be that the mind is in fact the less tangible functions of the brain; however both the material and phenomenological are relevant to study in religious and spiritual experiences. William James in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience highlighted the danger of a reductionist explanation of religious experiences. He writes â€Å"ideals appear as inert by-products of physiology; what is higher is explained by what is lower and treated forever as a case of ‘nothing but’- nothing but something else of an inferior sort.† (James, 1981, p.8) It is important to consider neuropsychological research through this lens. However, understanding the underlying mechanisms does not necessarily take away the meaning that people find in their experiences. Does knowing that the neurotransmitters involved in the feelings of love make the experience of a mother’s love personally less meaningful? Who is to say that God did not construct us w ith the capacity to engage in these experiences? Jones (2010) argued that further study into the neuroscience of religious experience can only extend the understanding of the human condition. It is with this frame of reference that practitioners should interpret the knowledge gained through this research. Methods of Neural Correlate Studies As with all scientific research, an operational definition of religious experience is needed before any effective examination can be done. This is a current issue within this line of study as religious behaviors, beliefs and experiences are complex phenomenon. Studying any experiential component relies on subjective measures as having experience is not easily observable to an outside investigator. Religious and spiritual experiences are defined on an individual level. McNarama (2002) suggested that religious experiences involve intense cognitive and emotional reactions to humanity’s â€Å"ultimate concerns.† These may include behaviors such as prayer, meditation, and chanting. Most subjective measures that are used often include cognitive, emotional, and psychological parameters (Newberg, 2014). It is not enough to just acknowledge the existence of the experience, rather in order to understand the construct more thoroughly, objective measures are required. Physiological parameters such as blood pressure, heart rate, and hormonal changes have been used to look at the basic biological reactions to these experiences. Nevertheless, these only provide a foundational understanding of the effects of spiritual experience in the human brain. Studies show that changes in the autonomic nervous system are multifarious, in that a relaxation response may also have arousal components (Hugdhal, 1996). In order to understand these complexities, researchers must look in the brain. The current instruments to do this include imaging devices. Electroencephalography (EEG) measures electrical activity in the brain, but only allows for broad implications in the areas of activation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows for more localized assessment through measuring cerebral blood flow, however the machinery is limiting in measuring practices that can not be completed laying down. Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) allow for more specificity in measuring neurotransmitter systems in brain activation. It is important to note that all of these measures, while helpful can only provide correlations and should not be implied to measure causal effects. Literature Review From what has been observed, religious experiences are common across age, time and culture (Wach, 1951). Many understand religious experience to be like any other experience. Just as someone may feel joy, love, fear, or awe in regards to any ordinary object, in a religious experience all these same feelings are there, they are just superimposed towards a religious object. Previously it was proposed that the same limbic and subcortical networks that supported non-religious feelings were activated in experiencing religious feelings as well (Saver Ravin, 1997). This led to a substantial inference that religious experiences are generated as a difference in perception, rather than a difference in sensation. Essentially, Saver and Ravin supposed that individuals interpret a religious stimulus in unique ways according to the cognitive expectations that they carry. In 2001, researchers conducted a study to see if religious experience was in fact due to attribution as Saver and Rabin suggested or if these experiences were pre-conceptual. To test this, they observed brain activation via positron emission tomography (PET) scan in religious/non-religious subjects as they recited a psalm. They hypothesized that if the religious experience was an attributional phenomenon, there would be activation in the frontal parietal lobe, an area known for reasoning. However if pre-conceptual, they expected to see activation in the limbic system, which is in charge of emotions. Interestingly enough, they found that a religious state involved areas of cognitive processes, supporting the attribution phenomenon (Azari et. al, 2001). They also concluded that religious experience did not elicit the same emotional experience or arousal as compared to non-religious subjects in a happy state, furthering the evidence for the theory of attribution. While the results from this study have led to the understanding of the difference between mental states in religious and non-religious subjects, it does not isolate the variable of belief itself. This becomes especially important when religious experience is understood as logical cognitive process. It begs the question, where do these cognitions originate? In a study completed in 2009, researchers found that religious thinking is more associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region that governs emotion, self-representation, and cognitive conflict, whereas ordinary facts were more reliant on memory retrieval networks (Harris et. al, 2009). So while this still supports the theory that religious experience and thought come from a logical part of our brains, it adds another layer, claiming that we still deal with religion in an emotional way. Beauregaurd and Paquette (2008) used fMRI scans to observe brain activation in Carmelite nuns when asked to re-experience their most intense spiritual connection. Results indicated that there was significant overlap in activation of those nuns asked to re-experience an intense spiritual interaction and those asked to relive an intense human interaction. However, there was greater activation in the prefrontal cortex, medial temporal cortex, and insular cortex for those participants in the spiritual group. The most interesting of these activations was in the insular cortex as this part of the brain is implied in interpreting visceral stimuli. This infers that those with a spiritual experience â€Å"felt† their connection deep down within in their bodies. McNarma hypothesized that the activation in the frontal lobes may have implications for the intrinsically rewarding properties of spiritual experiences (McNamara, 2002). This supposition may explain why spiritual or religious ex periences may feel so good. Conclusion Overall, imaging studies seem to indicate the frontal lobes and limbic system are involved in various religious and spiritual experiences (Newberg, 2014). It is important to note that with the methodological discrepancies in the field there is still a great amount of within group variance that should continue to be explored. Spiritual experiences such as prayer, mediation, or even pilgrimage such as in Jerusalem Syndrome are naturalistically powerful events. Through studying the mechanisms that lie beneath these events, psychologists may be able to identify the healing components and in turn inspire the development of the human psyche. References Azari N., Nickel J, Wunderlich G, Niedeggen M, Hefter H, et al. (2001). Neural correlates of religious experience. European Journal of Neuroscience, 13, 1649–1652. Beauregard, M., Paquette, V. (2008). EEG activity in Carmelite nuns during a mystical experience. Neuroscience Letters, 4441-4. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2008.08.028. Boden, M.A. (2006). Mind as Machine: A history of cognitive science. (Vol . 1). Oxford, England: Clarendon. Freud, S. (1950). Totem and taboo (J. Stratchey, Trans.). New York: Norton Company. (Original work published in 1913). Harris, S., Kaplan, J. T., Curiel, A., Bookheimer, S. Y., Iacoboni, M., Cohen, M. S. (2009). The neural correlates of religious and nonreligious belief. Plos ONE, 4(10), 1-9. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007272. Hugdahl, K. (1996). Cognitive inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uences on human autonomic nervous systemfunction. Current Opinion: Neurobiology. 6, 252–258. doi: 10.1016/S0959-4388(96) 80080-8. James, W. (1981). The varieties of religious experience. New York: Penguin. Jones, D. (2010). Peering into peoples brains: Neurosciences intrusion into our inner sanctum. Perspectives On Science Christian Faith, 62(2), 122-132. Kalain, M., and Witztum, E. (2002). Jerusalem syndrome as reflected in the pilgrimage and biographies of four extraordinary women from the 14th century to the end of the second millennium. Mental health, religion culture, 5(1). doi: 10.108/13670110068505 McNamara, P. H. (2002). The motivational origins of religious practices. Zygon, 37(1), 143-160. Newberg, A.B. (2014). The neuroscientific study of spiritual practice. Frontiers in psychology (5:215), doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00215. Pargament, K. I. (2007). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy: Understanding and addressing the sacred. New York: Guilford Press. Saver, J., Rabin, J. (1997). The neural substrates of religious experience. Journal of neuropsychiatry, 9(3), 498-510. Shafranske, E.P. Malony, H.M. (1996) Religion and the clinical practice of clinical psychology: a case for inclusion. In E.P. Shafranske (Ed.), Religion and the clinical practice of psychotherapy , 561-586. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Skinner, B.F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Knopf. Smith, T. (2010, August 15). When art makes a strong impression. Baltimore Sun, pp. 1, 7. Wach, J. (1951). Types of religious experience. (pp. 30-47). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Wildman, W. J., McNamara, P. (2008). Challenges facing the neurological study of religious behavior, belief, and experience. Method Theory In The Study Of Religion, 20(3), 212- 242. doi:10.1163/157006808X317455