Identify Some of the Factors That Make People Help Others.

Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples. Giedrius Statkus Department of Psychology, Keynes College, CT2 7NP Identify some of the factors that make people help others. Who helps the most, and in what cases (whom) are they especially likely to help? Illustrate your answer with examples. Many different factors have been shown to influence people’s willingness to help others. The motive behind certain type of help can be certain rewards for helping however other types of help do not always appear to have a clear motive. This was noted by Comte (1875 as cited in Batson & Shaw 1991, Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) who studied the question of helping others, philosophically and suggests that there are two key types of help displayed by people. He describes these as either Egoistic Helping (EH) or Altruistic Helping (AH). The former refers to the type of help where an individual is clearly aware of a reward for performing the help, such as can be seen in some volunteers workers, whose clear reward is experience and recommendations. The latter however refers to situations where an individual’s willingness to help is unaided by any conscious reward. AH behaviour can be seen in such examples as helping a broken down stranger fix a car tyre on a road (Pomzal & Clore, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). The factors influencing the latter type of help are the ones mainly considered throughout this essay. However these factors have a varied effect on different people, this variation can be based on gender, age and other individual differences. It has been suggested that one major factor influencing the willingness of people to perform AH is empathy (Batson, Batson, Slingsby, Harrell, Peekna & Todd, 1991). The theory suggests that individuals witnessing someone in need of help, as they are displaying distress or pain, will experience similar feelings themselves. This is supported by many studies (Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) however of key importance are studies conducted via observing the process of empathy in the brain using Functioning Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (Singer, Seymour, O’Doherty, Kaube, Dolan & Firth, 2004). In their study participants were subjected to electric shocks while undergoing an fMRI scan, after that they had to watch as their spouses undergo the electric shocks. The scans showed that the brain’s responses were similar, for both conditions, and that witnessing the shocks and receiving them affected the same areas of the brain. Other studies have also found empathy between emotional states such as happiness or sadness and other situations (Singer, Seymour, O’Doherty, Kaube, Dolan & Firth, 2004). Therefore this confirms Batson’s et al. (1991) suggestion that if an individual is witnessing someone in distress, he also experiences some distress and therefore helping that person would be the fastest way to relieve it. There are many other factors playing roles in influencing willingness to help, however many of them may also be explained via empathy. As these other factors may increase or decrease empathy which could result in increased willingness to help. The fact that reward in AH is not obvious is not to say that it does not exist. As mentioned previously the relieving of distress may be one form of reward experienced through AH. Other rewards to be considered may be the need for praise or some sort of award (Batson, et al. 1988 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). Another motivation may be fear of punishment, often in the form of social disproval, the fear of people knowing you could of helped, but did not. This can aid understanding of AH on an evolutionary and survival basis. As in some cases AH may mean less resources or putting oneself in danger (Dawkins 1988 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) it can be said that such behaviour is counterproductive to survival. Except in clear cases of close family AH, where the help would favour the survival of the helping individual’s genes either way. However modern human survival, and therefore chance of reproduction, is highly dependent on social acceptance (Coie, Dodge & Coppotelli, 1982). Therefore avoidance of punishment, in the form of social disproval is often a sufficient reward for AH. Empathy can be seen as a major aspect of other factors influencing willingness to help too, for example it has been shown that people feel more empathy for people similar (Frans, 2008) and are more willing to help based on similarity between them and the person needing help, such as similar clothes (Eimswiller, Deux & Willts, 1971 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011), personal values (Batson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley & Birch, as cited in Batson & Shaw, 1991) and other features. This may be because people are more likely to experience empathy for people who are ore like them instead of someone who is very different. This can be seen in Batson’s et al. (1981 as cited in Batson & Shaw, 1991) study where participants who believed a person undergoing electric shocks held personal values that were very different to the participants’ values, were less likely to take the victim’s place and receive shocks instead of them. This is supported by the green beard theory, a term coined by Dawkins (1976 as cited in West & Gardener, 2010) in reference to a theoretical gene that would encode the information of a green beard and make green bearded people more likely to help others with a green beard. In this theory the green beard is an example of an obvious visual feature. Although just a theoretical principal for which the relevant genes have only been observed in the study of micro-organisms (West & Gardener, 2010) and other far less genetically complex, than humans, life forms (Fostner, Wensler & Ratnier, 2006). It is suggested that a much more complex system may be a viable genetic explanation for the way in which AH is influenced by people with similar features. Although the theory is criticised in its current state as it has been said that one allele would be incapable of encoding and identifying all the relevant information necessary (Henrich 2001). This however led others (Jansen & Baalen, 2006) to suggest that, instead, a number of genes could encode some features of appearance, or a â€Å"visable tag† (West & Gardener, 2010, p. 1344), and a separate, gene would encode the ability to recognise similarity and influence AH when it is recognised. For example it has been shown that people empathise more with close members of their family (Frans, 2007). As well as being more willing to help them (Burnstein, Crandall & Kitayama, 1994). This was especially true for close members of the family such as siblings. The willingness to help was found to decrease as the family ties grew weaker. In all cases people were three times more likely to help close family members such as siblings than nephews and cousins, they were even less likely to help strangers or friends. This was especially true if the sibling in question is a monozygotic twin of the individual (Burnstein, Crandall & Kitayama, 1994). The willingness to help for un-identical twins was considerably lower, by up to half as willing, suggesting that AH is an important behaviour for successful evolution and survival as it favours identical genes. This staggering difference between identical gene siblings and dizygotic twins could also be related to the green beard theory mentioned earlier. As the perfect visual tag for an altruistic gene to identify would, in the case of monozygotic twins, be a completely identical appearance. AH was also found to be dependent on age (Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). For example Burnstein et al. (1994) found that people’s willingness to help young children of age 1 was identical to the amount of willingness seen at age 25. Overall, willingness to help was found to quickly reach a peak at the age of 10 and then steadily decrease as people get older. For the final recorded age, of 75, willingness to help had decreased by a quarter when compared to age 1. People’s health was also noted as an important factor in influencing willingness to help. It was found that people are more willing to help healthy individuals than those suffering from ill-health. This may be due to survival reasons as healthy individuals are much more likely to help the person in return and therefore increase their rate of survival. In cases of AH, it can be said that, the evaluation of ability to reciprocate may be performed unconsciously. The same concept applies to old and very young individuals who are also less able to reciprocate the help they receive. The attractiveness of an individual is also a recognised factor in one’s willingness to help (Harrel, 1978 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011). This is often hard to explain in regards to evolution and survival theories. One aspect considered is that attractiveness may be evaluated as health, as attractiveness and health evaluations have been shown to positively correlate (Taylor and Brown, 1988). However a study by Juhnke et al. (2001) found that attractiveness does not necessarily rely on physical features. He found people dressed more attractively are also more likely to receive help. A possible critique of this finding could be that in this case the more attractive people were seen as richer, and therefore their ability to reciprocate would be higher. This would however contradict Burnstein’s et al. (1994) finding, which demonstrates that people would be significantly less likely to help rich people than poor people across every situation. And although based on participants’ conscious evaluation of their willingness to help, the results are consistent across all participants and therefore suggest that Juhnke’s et al. (2001) findings were related to attractiveness, if not as the sole factor than at the very least more than the effect of a ealthy appearance. This finding is also more supported by the survival via reproduction theory since in some cases it appeared to have a sex specific effect, (Pomzal & Core, 1973 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) where male participants were found to be more likely to help females than males, especially if the female is attractive. They also report that males are more willing to help than females overall which is an important finding as this slightly contradicts Batsonâ €™s et al. 1991) theory, of empathy being the most important factor in AH as Davis (1980) has pointed out that females display a much higher level of empathy across many different AH related situations. This may be related to Dawkin’s (1989 as cited in Baumaister & Bushman, 2011) theory. He proposes that willingness to help is directly affected by the loss incurred in the process of helping. Therefore although women may want to help more than males, as they feel higher empathy, they may be prevented by fear of loss. This is because most AH requires a form of loss of resources, time or putting oneself in danger (Batson & Shaw, 1991) as only in cases of unconscious and reflex powered reactions are people willing to put their survival over the person in need of help. This sort of behaviour is most often seen in combat situations and almost never occurs if people are able to consider the threat posed to them (Batson & Shaw, 1991) Individuals’ willingness to help people is affected by many factors as discussed. This can be seen in many forms. Some forms of help are motivated by feelings of distress caused through empathy. This coupled together with unconscious reward seeking and punishment avoidance influences people in making the decision of whether to help or not. Although empathy may be the predominant factor it is also important to mention that it is heavily influenced by other factors such as age, gender, family ties and physical or mental similarities. However empathy at times is affected by other factors such as the cost of helping someone. For example men are less likely to be helped, however are more likely to be willing to help than females. Females, although experiencing higher empathy and therefore maybe higher willingness to help are said to be more aware of fear of loss. This may also be influenced by the fact that males feel higher social expectations, to help, than females. Although another reason may simply be survival as the people most likely to be helped are often the same people who are most capable of reciprocating the help. In the case of 10 year old children and young adults receiving more help than elderly people or young children it may be because they can be said to be evaluated as having more chance of reciprocating this help. Same can be said for the health bias influencing willingness to help. Healthy people are more likely to receive help as they are more likely to have the ability to return the help. The fact that attractive people are more likely to be helped than less attractive people is thought to be highly linked to peoples’ willingness to help healthy people. Helping close family is also affected by health although the predominant factor here is the closeness of the family relationship. Children and parents are as willing to help each other as siblings who are significantly more willing to help each other than they are willing to help nephews, cousins or other family members. The only group more likely to help each other are identical twins, this evidence fits in with the selection of kin theory of evolution and therefore is most likely based on survival of the genes. Genes appear to be the most likely explanation for the fact that people are very likely to help individuals who appear similar to them. As suggested by the theory that certain genes may help their own survival by creating visual tags in people who share the same genes or by encoding recognition of similarity. This visual tag would be recognised by the other individuals carrying the same genes and therefore AH would be increased. When all the discussed factors are considered it can be seen that people’s willingness to help and their choice of whom they help, is motivated and influenced by many factors which all interact in a complex manner. References Batson, C. D. , Batson, J. G. , Slingsby, J. K. , Harrel, K. L. , Peekna, H. M. , & Todd, R. M. (1991). Empathic Joy and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 413-426. Batson, C. D. , & Shaw, L. L. (1991). Evidence for Altruism: Toward a Pluralism of Prosocial Motives. Journal of Psychological Inquiry, 2(2), 107-122. Baumeister, R. F. , & Bushman, B. J. (2011) Social Psychology and Human Nature (2ed. ). Belmot, California: Wadsworth. Burnstein, E. , Crandall, C. , & Kitayama, S. (1994). Some Neo-Darwinian Decision Rules for Altruism Wighting Cues for Inclusive Fitness as a Function of the Biological Importance of the Decision. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(5), 773-789. Coie, J. , Dodge, D. K. , & Coppotelli, H. A. (1982). Dimensions and Types of Social Status: A Cross-Age Perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18(4), 557-570. doi:10. 1037/0012-1649. 18. 4. 557 Davis, M. H. (1980). A Multidimensional Approach to Individual Differences in Empathy, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85-104. Foster, K. R. , Wenseler, T. , & Ratnieks, L. W. (2006) Kin Selection is the Key to Altruism. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 21(2), 57-60. Frans, B. M. (2008). Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy. The Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 279-300. Henrich, J. (2001) Cultural Group Selection, Coevolutionary Processes and Large-Scale Cooperation. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 53, 3–35. Jansen, V. A. , & Baalen, M. (2006). Altruism Through Beard Chromodynamics. Nature, 44(30), 663-666. Juhnke, R. , Barmann, B. , Vickery, B. , Cunningham, M. , Hohl, J. , Smith, E. , & Quinones, J. (2001). Effects of Attractivness and Nature of Request on Helping Behaviour, Journal of Social Psychology, 127(4), 317-322. Singer, T. , Seymour, B. , O’Doherty, J. , Kaube, H. , Dolan, R. J. , & Frith, C. (2004). Empathy for Pain Involves the Affective but not Sensory Components of Pain. Science, 303, 1157-1161. Taylor, S. E. , & Brown, J. D. (1988) Illusion and Well-Being: a Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193-210. doi: 10. 1037/0033-2909. 103. 2. 193 West, S. A. , & Gardener, S. (2010). Altruism, Spite, and Greenbeards. Science, 327, 1341-1344.

Lost Technology essays

Lost Technology essays The new age of discovery began during the 16th century with the renaissance and western exploration. Great advances in science and medicine were being made and the mechanized world came to life with the industrial revolution. Most of what we consider modern science and ideas has been developed since the 1500s, but the ancient Greeks were making similar discoveries two millennia before that. Due to constant invasions by outside forces and the suppression of Greek learning by the church, many of the teachings and innovations of the ancient Greeks were lost to the western world. The ancient Greeks made discoveries in the sciences such as medicine, astronomy, and technology that were far ahead of what most people associate with the ancient world. In medicine the Greeks studied the brain and human anatomy under the physician Herophilus. Herophilus discovered the human nervous system and was aware that the brain controlled these systems (McKay). The Greeks were also aware of the benefits of drugs to treat illness and used pain relievers such as opium. Despite the great work of some of the Greek physicians, there were still many people who claimed to be able to heal using magic and potions. These abuses caused many Romans to reject Greek medicine and as the Romans became more powerful these medical discoveries were forgotten by most of the western world. Astronomy was another area that the Greeks explored in depth. Without the use of telescopes, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus determined that the earth was not the center of the universe and developed the heliocentric theory that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun (McKay). Eratosthenes, a Greek scientist from the 3rd century BC, realized that the earth was actually round and was able to calculate its circumference accurately within 200 miles. Eratosthenes made the claim that a ship could sail around the globe to the east 1800 years before Colu ...

Recommendation Letter Requirements How to Find

Recommendation Letter Requirements How to Find SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Along with researching your colleges’ deadlines and requirements, you also need to figure out exactly what each one’s policy is toward recommendation letters. Some schools may ask for one or two letters, while others may actually prohibit them outright. This guide is meant to help you locate the crucial information you need. First, we’ll go over the questions you need to ask. Then, we’ll take you through the process of searching for this info, step by step. To begin, what do you need to know? What Do You Need to Know About Recommendation Letter Requirements? Before you can make sure you have all the answers, you need to know what questions to ask. There are a few key answers you need to gather: How many letters do you need? More specifically, do you need one from your counselor? From a teacher? If so, do you need one, two, or (in rare cases) three teacher recommendations? Does it matter who you ask? Do you need to ask teachers of a certain subject, or can you ask anyone? Does your school have any special requirements, like a personal, artistic, or peer evaluation? (This is rare, but applies to a few schools.) Can you send a supplemental recommendation? Does your school encourage, discourage, or prohibit extra letters? How do your recommenders submit their letters? Do they upload them on tothe Common Application or school application? If necessary, can they send them via mail? And last, but not least - when’s the deadline? These are the most important questions that need answers. You should be able to find this information on each school’s admissions website. If it’s not spelled out there, then you should feel free to call up the admissions office and ask. Some schools won't even read letters if you send them, like those in the University of California system, while others make space on the Common App for you to submit two additional teacher letters, like Brown. More commonly, schools want one or two teacher recommendations, but it's important to check because there's such a range of policies. Since every school’s website is different (and some are inexplicably confusing to navigate), let’s go through the steps of researching a few popular schools with differing policies towards recommendation letters. Let’s start with schools in the University of California system, and then take a look at the University of Virginia and Harvard. The journey begins. How to Search for the University of California’s Recommendation Letter Policy Your first step for all these schools should be to head to Google. Search for â€Å"name of school + admissions† and findits admissions page. PrepScholar also has a large database of colleges and their requirements and admissions rates, so you can find data by searching for â€Å"PrepScholar + name of school.† Every admissions site is a little different, so you may have to do a little digging around before getting to the information you need. Often a page called â€Å"Application Instructions† or â€Å"Application Checklist† will get you where you need to go, usually along with choosing whether you’re a U.S. prospective freshman, transfer student, or international student. On the University of California admission page, you’ll see its rec letter policy in a sidebar: â€Å"UC does not require (nor read) letters of recommendation at the time of application. A campus may ask for them later as part of a supplemental review, so be sure to check your email.† You can see why it’s so important to check policies. Not only does UC not require you to send a rec letter, but it won’t even read one if you do! What’s the lesson here? Always do your research before sending any supplemental recommendation letters. When you create your online account to apply to a UC school, you’ll see that there’s no tab to invite recommenders. For other schools, this will be part of the school’s app or Common Application. Now let’s take a look at the University of Virginia, which asks for one counselor and one teacher recommendation. How to Search for University of Virginia’s Recommendation Letter Policy Back to Google! Start by searching for â€Å"University of Virginia + admissions.† Double check that you’re in undergraduate admissions, by the way, if your college has a graduate school. Once you get to UVA’s site, you’ll see a dropdown menu where you can click on â€Å"Instructions.† These instructions tell you to send â€Å"recommendations from one counselor and one teacher.† You can also click on School Forms and Deadlines for more detailed info. If you’re wondering about UVA’s policy towards supplemental letters, unfortunately its website doesn’t say. Not to worry! A search of â€Å"UVA + supplemental recommendation† brings up the UVA blog. According to this blog, UVA doesn’t really want you to send an extra letter, but will consider it if it really adds something significant to your application. Generally speaking, it’s discouraged. Finally, let’s consider Harvard and its guidelines for recommendation letters. How to Search for Harvard's Recommendation Letter Policy The first step should be old hat to you by now. Head over to Google and search for "Harvard + admissions." Once you get to Harvard's admissions page, you can click on "Application Requirements." Then select whether you're a freshman applicant, transfer student, or visiting student. Here you'll find that Harvard wants to see the evaluation from your counselor and two teacher letters. Compared to other Ivy League schools, Harvard's website is pretty tight-lipped about what it's looking for in teacher recommendation letters. All it really says is, "Ask two teachers in different academic subjects who know you well to complete the Teacher Evaluation forms." The website does refer you to its posts in the New York Times blog for more insight into the admissions process. According to this blog, recommendations are "extremely important" in the admissions process. Officers read them "with great care" and look for "such personal qualities as character and leadership as well as intellectual curiosity, creativity, and love of learning...[they] can offer evidence of an applicant's potential to make a significant difference to a college community and beyond." As you can tell, recommendation letters are closely reviewed in Harvard's process, as well as at other selective schools. Also like other schools, Harvard seems to consider supplemental recommendations if they truly add something substantial to your application. At the same time, it neither expects nor encourages them. Now that you know how to track down your schools' recommendation letter policies, you also want to make sure you know how to submit them. How Do Your Recommenders Submit Their Letters? If you're applying through the Common Application, then you'll invite your recommenders to upload their letters. As long as you fill in their name, position, and emails correctly, then the rest is up to your recommenders. The same should go for a school's individual online application. Since Harvard allows you to submit a supplemental recommendation, it leaves space on the Common Application for you to assign an "additional recommender." If your recommender can't upload her letter online for some reason, you should be able to send a hard copy by mail to the school's admissions office. In this case, make sure to provide your recommender with a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope, and to follow up with her that she sent it off by the deadline. If you're clear on all the guidelines, then you can communicate them clearly to your recommenders. Let's briefly review what that key info is. Key Points to Remember There's a lot of planning that goes into asking for recommendation letters and getting them submitted. Make sure to search online for each of your school's rec letter policies, which should be outlined on its admissions page. The schools mentioned here don't specify exactly who you should ask for rec letters, but some schools do give guidelines. MIT and CalTech, for instance, instruct you to ask one humanities or social studies teacher and one math or science teacher. If you still have questions that aren't answered online (unfortunately, sometimes they won't be), you should contact the admissions office directly. The people there will be able to get you the information you need. Finally, be thoughtful and intentional about who you ask for recommendation letters, whether they're your core recs or supplemental ones. You want to make sure each letter adds something insightful, complimentary, and substantial to your story. If your letters accomplish this, then they can be extremely helpful in tipping the admissions decision in your favor. What's Next? Check out these detailed guides that will help you get the best recommendation letters and impress admissions officers: How to Request a Letter of Recommendation What Makes for a Good Letter of Rec? Why Are Recommendations Important to Your Application? How Admissions Officers Read Rec Letters Recommendation Letters for Harvard Examples of Great Teacher Recs and Counselor Recs Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

The Relationship between Liberalism and Feminism Research Paper

The Relationship between Liberalism and Feminism - Research Paper Example Feminism is somewhat an expansion of the liberal plan. The relationship between liberalism and feminism is very close but at the same time extremely complicated. The origin of both the principles lies in the materialization of individualism and independence as a common concept of social life; neither feminism nor liberalism is possible without a certain idea of people as independent, free, and being equal individuals, liberated from the recognized, hierarchical ties of conventional culture and society. Although moderation and feminism belong to the same foundation, their supporters have repeatedly been disparate and opposed from the previous two hundred years. The course and range of feminist disapproval of liberal concepts of the community and the public have changed to a great extent in various stages of the feminist plan. An examination of this condemnation is made more complex because liberalism is intrinsically vague about the private and the public and liberals and feminist dif fer about why and where the separation among the two areas should be done, or, according to some modern feminist point of view, if it ought to be separated at all. Feminism is frequently perceived as nothing further than the achievement of the bourgeois and liberal transformation, as an expansion of liberal values and rights to men and women both simultaneously. The need to have equal rights for every individual has been an imperative stance of feminists at all times. Nevertheless, the effort to universalize tolerance and broadmindedness has more influential results than is often cherished because at the end it unavoidably defies the liberalism itself.  

AAA servers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

AAA servers - Essay Example Authentication is suitable for user identification, typically by having the user enter a valid password and username before access is . The authentication process enables each user to have unique criteria for gaining access to the computer. The AAA compares other user credentials within the database to the authentication credentials. The user is only granted access when the credentials match with one another. Authentication fails when the credentials are at variance, and the access is (Choi, Jung & Jang, 2007). After authentication, a user has to be authorized (authorization) to perform a certain task. The user may try to issue the command after logging into the system. Authorization is the process of determining the qualities or the types of resources, activities and services that a user is permitted to undertake. Accounting measures the resources that a user utilizes during access. It comprises the amount of data and time that a user has spends or used (Lopez-Fernandez et al., 2014). Bu is using the server the company can control access to information and data while at the same time keep record of the time and resources spent by the user. The motive authentication, authorization and accounting server addresses roaming partnerships, complex resource sharing and integration of disparate technologies such as Wi-Fi, LTE, DSL, GPON and small cell. The server delivers extended functionality for the deployment of blended multimedia services, wireless LANs and other networks supporting fixed mobile roaming. The server is beneficial to the organization since it supports unlimited numbers of subscribers having many configurations (Zaghloul & Jukan, 2009). Choi, H., Jung, C., & Jang, Y. 2007. Design and Implementation of User Authentication and Authorization System based on Remote Management Server for Home Network. The KIPS Transactions:Partd, 14D(5), 545-554. doi:10.3745/kipstd.2007.14-d.5.545 Lin, P., Cheng, S., & Liao, W. 2009.

Advanced Economic Analysis (Economic efficiency) Essay

Advanced Economic Analysis (Economic efficiency) - Essay Example Efficiency of exchange requires that all allocations lie on the contract curve such that the marginal rate of substitution between each pair of goods (x and y) is identical for all consumers. Recall that each consumer maximises utility by attaining the point of tangency between the indifference curve and the budget line for goods x and y. Efficiency in production requires that each producer’s Marginal Rate of Technical Transformation between capital and labour is identical in the production of all goods and is achieved analogously to the efficiency of exchange. The requirement is that the Marginal rates of transformation between any two pairs of inputs be the same for all producers. This is ensured through profit maximization which ascertains equality between the MRTS and input price ratio. Efficiency in the Output market requires that the output mix be chosen such that the marginal rate of transformation between any two pair of goods is equal to every consumer’s marginal rate of substitution for the two goods. ... assuming that in the market for sugar initially the price and quantity are at their equilibrium or market clearing levels P* and Q* as shown in the diagram below (figure 1). Figure 1: The market clearing price and quantity of sugar There are two cases that need to be looked at: 1) the government intends to restrict the price above P* and 2) the government intends to restrict the price below P*. Consider the first case. At any price above P*, there will be excess supply and this excess supply will exert a downward pressure on the price to move back to the market clearing level P*. Suppose the government wants to restrict the price at P’>P*. The government has two main options. First, it can impose a regulation or a price control that does not allow producers to charge below P’. Alternatively it can buy off the necessary excess supply so that the price settles at P’. This is shown in the diagram below (figure 2). Figure 2: The government buys off the excess supply at price P' so that it now becomes the market clearing price Essentially, the government creates additional demand to sweep up the excess supply and thereby mitigates the downward pressure on prices. Apart from this, the options available to the government are those of putting a quota on the sugar producers and/or providing them monetary incentives to produce within the quota. Now, consider case 2) where the government intends to restrict the price at a level below P*. There will be excess demand at this price and thus prices will tend to rise upward. The first option the government has is to legally forbid producers from charging more. Suppose the government wants to restrict the price at a maximum of P’’. It can either legally prohibit higher prices. Or as an alternative, if it has access to

Comparison and Criticism

Comparison and Criticism OUR MISSION: * Comparison and Criticism Hofstedes aim was to evaluate work values, while Trompenaars Hampden-Turners questionnaires inquired into respondents preferred behaviour in a number of both work and leisure situations. What both studies have in common is that in both questionnaires the focus is on the ultimate goal state, and that the underlying values, the underwater part of the culture iceberg, are derived from a series of questions about more outer layers of the culture onion, closer to the top of iceberg. Trompenaarss system appears focus-oriented; it speaks a lot about what is on peoples minds and what is in their sight, it speaks about the logical organization and framework of their behaviour (specific vs. diffuse, internal vs. external control, universalism vs. particularism) and relationships (individualism vs. collectivism; achievement vs. ascription; neutral vs. affective). Hofstede, on the other hand describes some of values present in people and finally affecting their behavior. The difference therefore is that Trompenaarss investigation lies on the surface of the investigation of the persons culture, showing exactly the choice and manner in which the actions are planned and handled, while Hofstede tries to go in the very deep of culture layers and lets us make our own forecasts of peoples behavior based on the knowledge of the hidden part of iceberg. . Taking a closer look into the comparison between the dimensions themselves, we can notice similarities between the two theories. One of these is the closeness between the notions of collectivism vs. individualism of Hofstede and communitarianism vs. individualism of Trompenaars. For a marketer, from our point of view, there is close no difference which index to use. There is some degree of similarity in Hofstedes power distance index and achievement vs. ascription. One values the accepted degree of high class/low class lifestyle and secondary characteristics difference, while the other measures the motivation of the low class to move higher. A marketer can infer that customers are better evaluated with the high power distance index in relation of selling status-emphasizing products (like luxury brands), while Trompenaarss index is better used when selling low cost practical business tools (like cheap PDAs). We would advise to use the two indices together as they complement each other. Long-term vs. short-term orientation index of Hofstede has got something in common with the past/present/future orientation of Trompenaars. That is in the way, how i.e. short-term oriented cultures will show the same tendency to be populist, tradition-oriented as the past- and present-oriented cultures. After taking a look into evaluations of different cultures one can find that the results, obtained by the two theories are often counter logical. German corporate culture is hierarchical, as is claimed by Trompenaars in his studies. Whereas Hofstede identifies Germany as relatively low in terms of Power Distance. These differences in the approach attracted some serious criticism over the years. One of the most prominent points often criticized is Hofstede perception of culture as a static characteristic of societies and their representatives. This approach does not take into the account the cultural drift that can easily be observed as the time passes by. As a vivid example, one can take the comparison between, say, the UK of the Victorian age and the Post Second World War UK and just try to assess the Power Distance Indices. Apparently, over this period of time peoples behavior has altered enough to allow a society with a lot lower power distance, the expressions of which found their way in the art of the time as well as in the politics (Rise of the Labor Party in 1945-1951) people of lower class were have become conscious to demand equality in these dimensions with the former unapproachable higher class, the expression of wealth and power and respect to it have decreased, as well as PDI. S imilar drift patterns can now be observed today in some of the underdeveloped countries, like Mexico, where former strong collectivist communities are dissolving, as their member become more individualistic, pushed by their desire to be successful in the new highly commercialized society. The same can be said about political influence on the culture (transition from Communist to Capitalist values). In other words it is easily observable that through time cultures evolve. Therefore the estimations for indices are slowly becoming outdated. Hofstede was later pushed by this evidence to regularly update his Index database, still retorting that cultural evolution is a very slow process. However the problem that may be hard to identify is actually not the quantitative, but rather the qualitative obsolescence of the framework itself, that will sooner or later present itself. I.e. what was reasonable and precise description in the 1970s can be an incomplete, flawed and vague characterizatio n for 2010, and even more so for future. That is however just one of the many debatable things. Among the others are: 1. Question interpretation of the surveyed, i.e. will the question really be a precise way to determine the culture, as the culture and personality may directly affect the way the question is translated and thus produce errors in the resulting evaluation. 2. Researchers background diminishes the completeness of cultural description and offers one-sided look at the problem. This way it would be preferable for marketers to have a marketer, not a manager, to make the proper evaluations framework, which would be more suited for marketing decision making. 3. Ignoring the ethnic group and communities presence, national culture fragmentation. Just saying that Germany has low UAC index may totally confuse the policymaker, as this does not differ between East, West and especially Turkish communities. Moreover, a study carried out only in only one company (Hofstede) cannot give an outlook on the entire cultural system of a country. Conclusion As described in this paper, there are several approaches to the classification of the cultures of different nations. The ones that were observed closely here are Geert Hofstedes and Fons Trompenaarss classifications, so-called cultural dimensions. These, as shown have a number of things in common and many differences as well. Thus, a marketer has to make a decision, which part of which study is to be used to develop a successful strategy. However there is little doubt that some way of adapting the strategy to the local culture is to be used. We may live in a globalized enviroment, however, so far there is no mundial culture and different clusters of people, whether they are separated geographically, historically or socially; some may choose one product instead of the other because of their culture and values. All of that is to be taken into consideration. And there are so far not many standartised approaches to the culture evaluations, other than Hofstedes and Trompenaarss, which eco nomise time and enable the creation of a consolidated strategy in approach to culture. It is not surprising that some of the companies nowadays are already fully involved in applying these methods in their decision making, and the amount of them will inevitably grow as the studies of the theories are being held in many Universities and Business Schools, from wich the future excecutives will come. However one has to rememember, that both these method are quite controversial and obviously imperfect, therefore we should learn learn to use the questionnaires and the databases responsibly. Only in this way can they provide precise, trustworhy and calculated assistance to people learning to work effectively in other countries. 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We are committed to quality work above sales volume and while we recognize service promotes good will, we sincerely believe it to be its own reward. * The Fringe Benefit Company Community * Chris Durkin gets a Masai warriors blanket from Ataulwah and Simon, Young Life leaders and friends in Tanzania and Unganda. * Orphans at the Koomba school in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August 2005 * Ryan Durkin, young life leader, with children from the Muslim orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Chris Durkin gets acquainted with some village children in the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * After lunch potty party for the 1-2 year olds at Mother Theresas orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August, 2005 * Dedication plaque for the basketball courts in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Shawn Durkin carries an orphan at the Muslim orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Brett Durkin with an orphan, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August, 2005 * Aaron, Brett, Garrett, Ryan and Chris Durkin, building the Young Life basketball courts in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August 2005 * Julie, Young Life leader, with children in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania during the building of the basketball courts, August 2005