Monday, September 30, 2019

Drive by daniel pink

The Puzzling Puzzles of Harry Harlow and Edward Deci Drive offers a new way to think about motivation. Most of what businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations assume about human behavior, particularly about what motivates us, is wrong. Short-term incentives and pay-for-performance schemes come from outdated assumptions that favor external motivations (i. e. , rewards and punishments for behaving a particular way) overintrinsic motivations (i. e. , the Joy that comes from completing a task).Organizations that rely on external rewards and punishments do so at their peril. In two separate studies, psychologists Harry Harlow and Edward Deci found that external motivations negativelyimpacted performance for non-routine tasks. Although Harlow and Deci's results were robust, they were controversial and ignored. In the book, Drive, Dan Pink argues that it's time to get rid of the old operating system and replace it with a more scientifically accurate understanding of human behavior . Drive, is organized into three parts. Part One reveals how external motivations (a. . a. , carrot-and-stick incentives) can do more harm than good, except in tasks that have straightforward solutions and that equire adherence to a simple set of rules. It's time organizations move to a new mindset that embraces what Dan Pink calls Type I behavior (i. e. , behavior fueled by the inherent satisfaction of the task itself). Part Two examines the three building blocks of Type I behavior: autonomy (i. e. , our desire to be self-directed), mastery (i. e. , our urge to make progress and get better at what we do), and purpose (i. e. our yearning to contribute and to be part of something greater than ourselves).

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Self Presentation

Self presentation When you meet someone for the first time, it comes to your mind a certain impression about him or her. On the other side, that person also takes a certain impression about you. This impression might be positive or negative. It depends on how you present yourself to others. Unfortunately, the first impression is sometimes unfair because the person you meet for the first time may take a wrong impression about you. For example, my friend told me that before we became close friends, she was thinking that I am arrogant, but when she became close to me, she discovered that she took a wrong impression about me.In fact, I am not sociable and I don't take the initiative in getting to know others. That is why those who do not know me well think i am arrogant, but that is not true about me. The first impression whether it is true or not may affect the way you treat people and how they treat you forever. For example, I fall in love with someone. When we first meet each other, h e told me that he belongs to the royal family. Later, I discovered that he was lying to me. I know that he is from the upper class and he belongs to a prominent family, so there was no need to lie about his family name.Actually, because of this lie, I took an impression about him that he is not trustworthy, so we broke up. In most cases, the first impression lasts forever, so you should present yourself in a good image. To make others take a good impression about you, you must consider the following; First, be yourself. Don't tell anything that is not true about you. Show your real personality. Second, take care of your appearance. Your dress should be clean and appropriate to the customs of society in which you live. Moreover, be careful in your appointments.If you attend the meeting on time, you will get others’ respect because it shows that you care about them. In addition, smile to your audience, keep eye contact when you speak and listen and Speak clearly to let your aud ience understand what you say. Furthermore, choose your words which express what you want to say correctly. In short, we all should present ourselves in the right way to let others take a good impression about us in order to make relationships last longer. Samira Said Al Hajri. Assignment 1. Social psychology_D1.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Petro-Canada's Total Compensation Strategy and Program Research Paper - 1

Petro-Canada's Total Compensation Strategy and Program - Research Paper Example However, the report analyses the above compensation structure before the occurrence of the merger between Petro-Canada and Suncor Energy. The idea is to analyze the compensation package of this employee to evaluate the same for the organization. Overview of the Company It is important to provide an introduction about the company before studying its compensation structure. Petro-Canada is a public organization producing oil and gas organization and taking part in all of the upstream and downstream operations. The company is known for exploring for and producing energy not only locally but also internationally. It has as many as 1,323 retail outlets which supplies petroleum products and services across the nation (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2011). Headquarter of the company is located at the in downtown Calgary in Alberta. In the year 2008, the total revenue of the company was $27,785,000, while its employee strength was 6,088 (Petro-Canada, 2008, p.110). The oil and gas industry in Ca nada happens to be highly competitive having strong competitors like Encana etc. The objective to increase strength and emerge as a larger oil and gas company the company decided to merge with Suncor in the year 2009. However, now it operates as a subsidiary under the parent company, Suncor Energy (Suncor Energy Inc, n.d). Compensation Program for Applications Analyst I The compensation package received by an applications analyst I is quite favorable (Please refer Appendix 1). Cash Compensation The cash compensation received by an Applications analyst I in Petro-Canada is CDN$75,000-85,000 (Tang, 2010). This is a much higher amount as compared to the average market rate which is $50,795 (Pay Scale, 2011). Thus it can be said that the company has a lead policy in this regard. Apart from having an attractive salary the company also has a scheme of sharing profits with employees which happens at the end of each fiscal year. The amount of the profits shared with the workers depends on t he performance of the company at that financial year. As per the rules of the company an Application Analyst I is able to earn an amount of 10% of his base pay as profit sharing. In this way an employee could earn as high as 15% to 20% when the company has a successful performance in a year (Tang, 2010). Benefits Every staff in the company is subjected to the same comprehensive benefits and there is no biasness in that. Some of the benefits are determined by the company; however certain benefits schemes are subjected to more flexibility by the employees. Employees have certain amount of liberty to decide plans for the schemes. Thus, a flexible policy of benefits was developed by Petro-Canada to provide workers with the flexibility to choose their benefit coverage as per their choice. Beginning from the day the employee starts working with the organization, he is entitled to the following benefit schemes. Medical Insurance Companies generally provide benefits regarding the medical ex penses of the employees. This type of benefit forms a major part in employee benefit policy. It has often seen that if the employees’

Friday, September 27, 2019

Analysis of Hatha Yoga Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Analysis of Hatha Yoga - Essay Example Methods Research refers to the process of collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and information with the agenda of solving a specific problem (Khan 132). This research, for instance, aims at answering the question on Yoga and how it is an intellectual and creative process that affects the mental, physical and spiritual well being of an individual. The research is also qualitative because it seeks to explore the nature of an issue. The first step of this research was formulating the research problem. This mainly aids researchers in clearly spelling out what they want to achieve from the research. In this step, the main challenge was determining the exact information that was relevant information in relation to the problem. This research mainly wants to shed light on the effect of Hatha Yoga on human beings physically, mentally, and spiritually. The study population for this research is primarily me and some other few participants whose participation were actually secondary. This is because mostly the research involves following online video instruction on Hatha Yoga exercises and postures. The phenomenon in the research is the relationship between Hatha Yoga and human beings mentally, physically, and spiritually. The most used research methods, in this case, are content analysis. Content analysis refers to a research technique for quantitative, systematic, and objective analysis of the actual content and internal concepts of media. This method was very important to this research since most of the data were collected from an online video source (YouTube). The advantage of the method is that it can allow both quantitative and qualitative analyses thus making it inclusive. The other research method that is probably in use in this research is an experimental research method. Given that watched the YouTube videos and learned the exercises and posture illustrated in them, the whole process can be referred to as an experiment. After learning all the Hatha Yo ga exercises and postures the noticeable changes are brought to the record. The main aim is observing how the activities will affect me physically, mentally, and spiritually. The results obtained through this method are always considered to be highly credible because they are based on primary data and information (McBurney and White 101). The literature review also formed an important part of this research. Since it involves a practice that I was not familiar with before, it was through the literature review that I was able to know the basics, history, and relevance of Hatha Yoga to human life. It was through the literature review that it was possible to get clarification on some concepts that were not clarified in the online videos. The literature review was also highly important in the collection of information that was used in the translation of the research’s finding. The research began with reviewing literature materials about the history of Yoga. The history was importa nt in understanding the fundamental concepts of Yoga and its purpose (Jackson 23).  Ã‚  

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Strategy in the Organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Strategy in the Organization - Essay Example In the approach, the biological evolution’s law of the jungle is substituted by the market discipline. Another approach based on the business processes has emphasis on the stickiness and imperfection of human life. The strategy pragmatically accommodates strategies for the fallible processes, both for the markets and organizations. The final view is the systemic approach, which is in essence relativistic. The approach regards the means and ends of strategy as being inescapably connected with the powers and cultures of the social systems in the local setting where the strategy is implemented. The four strategic approaches, according to Whittington (2000), have fundamental differences emerging along two distinct dimensions. The first dimension is based on the outcomes of the strategy while the second dimension is based on the processes by which the strategies are made. In a nutshell, the two dimensions examine the purpose of the strategy and the processes involved in the impleme ntation of the strategy respectively. In the assumptions by evolutionary and classical approaches, the maximization of profits is viewed as the intended outcome of implementing a strategy. On the other hand, the processual and systemic approaches project a more pluralistic approach, viewing other outcomes that are possible from a strategy as much as the profits. Regarding processes, differences arise in the pairings. On the same front are the processualist and evolutionary approaches which view strategy as coming from processes arising by chance, conservatism and confusion. Similarly, theorists of systemic and classical approaches have converging views that strategy can be deliberate despite their differences over the outcomes from the two strategies. Taking a closer look at each of the four strategic approaches, the classical approach contains the textbook answers. This means, it views strategy as a process that is rational. It should, therefore, involve deliberate calculations and analyses strategically intended to maximize on the long-term advantage. In the classical approach, deliberate effort is made in the gathering of information and in the application of the most suitable techniques. In this view, both the organization and its environment are made plastic and predictable, shaped by the organization’s top management using carefully formulated plans. The classical approach relies on good planning in the mastering of the internal and external business environments. Success and failure in the long-run, is determined by the objective decision making and the rational analysis employed in the classical approach (Armstrong, 1991). On another strategic front, the evolutionary approach view the future-oriented planning adopted by the classical approach as irrelevant. According to the approach, the business environment is very unpredictable and implacable to anticipate anything effectively. According to the approach, the hostile, dynamic and competitive na ture of the markets means that it is not possible for organizations to plan for their long-term survival. In essence, only the firms that strategize to maximize on their profits will eventually survive the harsh environment. The businesses are likened to the species in biological evolution where the fittest organisms for survival are ruthlessly selected through competitive processes. The unfit organisms have little power to adopt to change quickly enough and therefore cascade towards extinction.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Competency Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Competency - Assignment Example Then the key problem requiring to be solved is where the gap is. Does the problem lay in the soldier’s lack of effort, his/her inabilities, or is the training inadequate. A soldier’s qualification is dependable on certain elements, which are inclusive of the soldier, and determinant factors that surround him. The soldier’s attitude may affect his progress to realize top form. In addition, the environment and trainers input is essential. The principles governing the procedures will act as a measure of his progress. Action theory is applicable in this situation since the diligence of the soldier can be resultant of his belief system. This three-page essay is about learning cultures in the Army are introduced in the beginning of a soldier’s career. Training is the key characteristic of learning. Training increases morale, motivates a soldier to learn, creates order and discipline and enhances learning. In order to use training to its utmost potential military trainers, instructor’s and staff have to be familiar with policy and procedures, lessons plans and outlines. Policy and procedures keep soldiers fully aware of the proper way to train and the lesson and outlines keep the soldiers informed about what is expected and what will be taught in the training. I am now able to teach this to others. This activity taught me that an excellent way the produce a culture of learning in a training environment is to get leaders involved. Leaders’ involvement and input has improved training, increase morale, motivation, order and discipline as well as enhance learning. The first recommendation was that all leaders, soldiers, and NCOs sign letters of agreement to do everything possible to benefit the student’s academic advancement. Ensuring training enhances a culture of learning by making sure evaluations of all soldier training is done monthly. This will help you know if there are any

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Application of the principles of health and safety to the operating Essay

Application of the principles of health and safety to the operating theatre environment - Essay Example The operating department practitioner (ODP) should be alert to any fears or apprehensions expressed by the patient and transmit such information to the surgeon (Lyons, 1997). The patient and his family should be encouraged to communicate freely with the physician. The preparation and care of the patient before surgery has one major goal to promote the best possible physical and psychological state of the patient prior to surgical therapy. To achieve this goal, the patient’s individual needs must be ascertained and his strengths and limitations evaluated. A plan of care can then be developed to assist the patient in adjusting physically and emotion ­ally to the surgical experience. Preparation for surgery should begin as soon as the patient is told that an operation is necessary. The anticipation of any surgical procedure will result in an emotional reaction  ­of some kind, and much can be done to allevi ­ate fears prior to admission as well as during hospitalization. The patient’s reaction will depend on many factors, including his person ­ality structure and his pattern of reaction to stressful events in the past. A surgical operation is a stressful situation in which the patient may believe that he is in danger of acute pain, serious damage to the body, disability, and death. In addition there is a fear of the unknown. This can be compli ­cated by fear of anesthesia or fear of separa ­tion from activities, family, and friends. The average patient also worries about financial problems, family responsibilities, and em ­ployment status. Anxiety will usually increase as the time for surgery draws near. The ODP can assist the patient, his fami ly, and surgical personnel by listening to the patient and helping him to verbalize his fears. Often the patient only wants the opportunity to acknowledge his fears to a caring, under ­standing, and accepting person (Saylor, 1975). The evening before surgery the

Monday, September 23, 2019

Transitions of Culture and Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Transitions of Culture and Identity - Essay Example Proctor quotes James Clifford who said that â€Å"Once traveling is foregrounded as a cultural practice then dwelling too, needs to be reconceived†. The concept of traveling has redefined the ways in which home is an influence. As well, the difference between where one declares to be home and where one has traveled must be defined in order to situate the way in which one’s culture will be expressed. The difference depends on the identity that one decides to live within. If one has been raised on a Caribbean Island and has then moved to Britain, the question of identity has no real relevance to the official and legal place of residence.In contrast, it is possible to abandon the beliefs and traditions of home and to decide to adopt British traditions in order to fully integrate. Most often, it is somewhere in-between. The questions then become: Where does the naturalized culture stop and the adopted culture begin? What now defines the identity?The attachment to the concep t of home is married to the concept of the fear of homelessness. The need for home is as much about the fear of not having a home as it is about the existence of the dwelling itself. The problem with being ‘homeless’ is more than just not having an adequate roof and a place to put one’s things, but it is a sense of disconnection, the existence without roots and foundation. To be ‘home’ is to be in a place where one belongs, but to be homeless is to be within a space where there is not real social connection to the world.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Incident response policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Incident response policy - Essay Example IRT Team Leader:Â  The IRT must have an individual in charge of its activities. The IRT Team Leader will generally be responsible for the activities of the IRT and will coordinate reviews of its actions. This might lead to changes in polices and procedures for dealing with future incidents. IRT Incident Lead: In the event of an incident, one individual responsible for coordinating the response is assigned. The IRT Incident Lead has ownership of the particular incident or set of related security incidents. IRT Incident Lead works as representative to the outside when an incident occurs IRT Associate Members:Â  Besides the core IRT team, you should have a number of specific individuals who handle and respond to particular incidents. Associate members will come from a variety of different departments in Gem Infosys. They should specialize in areas that are affected by security incidents but that are not dealt with directly by the core IRT. The following member can be appointed depending on the incident; Legal Representative: - Apart from accidental virus attack, intruders may also launch attacks. Legal representative comes in to action in such incidents. This member is a lawyer who is very familiar with established incident response policies. The Legal Representative determines how to proceed during an incident with minimal legal liability and maximum ability to prosecute offenders. To be able to recover effectively from an incident, it is needed to determine how seriously the systems have been compromised. This will determine how to further avoid and minimize the risk, how to recover, how quickly and to whom that should communicate the incident. Compare systems to previously conducted file/system integrity checks. This enables you to identify additions, deletions, modifications, and permission and control modifications to the file system and registry. 1. Protect

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The important of english in hong kong Essay Example for Free

The important of english in hong kong Essay We always heard that learning the English is a lifelong Journey, it seems that English become our life, most of Hong Kong student have a better result on English rather than Chinese. It bring out a concern about is it a right decision that we to regard English as important. A focus will be placed on the importance on English, the demand of using English and the advice on the language policy. The parents, teachers and the politicians believe that English is important as the English status in the world is higher than other language. For the parents, they hope heir son or daughter can study as the English-medium secondary school rather than the Chinese-medium school, they believes mainly study can increase the opportunity of enroll to the university and let their children go oversea for further study. For the teachers, many teaching material are come from foreign country, so they believe that use the English for teaching purpose can have a better education quality. For the politicians, be the part of global, the politician needs to communicate and cooperate with other country to formulate the international policy, so they choose the English e the common language for communication. English become important language is mainly have two reasons. English has appeared as the worlds unofficial international language. According to the data of Ethnologic, English is listed as the official or co- official language of over 45 countries (including Hong Kong) and is spoken extensively in other countries where it has no official status. The second reason is English is the language of science, aviation, business, diplomacy, and tourism. Many business deals in Hong Kong are conducted in English. 60% of all scientific papers nd Journals are written in English. Over 70% of all mail is written and addressed in English. Most international tourism, aviation and diplomacy is mainly conducted in English. I remember there have an example in the lecture Chinese plot have poor English and cannot communicate with the USA plot. Since United Kingdom and America have got a well development on the academic, also the United States is regarded as the most influential country on the military and in different international and their official language is English, so it makes English become important. Undoubtedly, the status of English are always in a high level, for my experience, when I get further study in the university, English become the most frequently language I use, all the lesson I take was teaching in English, all the information I found or the journal are also written in English, it seem that my academic are cannot live without English. Learning English are also can increase our competiveness in global. Therefore, I agree that the believe of parent, teachers and the politicians. the important of english in hong kong By vangie_shek

Friday, September 20, 2019

Fraud Investigation Role Analysis

Fraud Investigation Role Analysis Discuss how your learning from the course can be applied to your current role within your organisation and how it may benefit both you and the effective investigation of fraud. The essay would critically review the learning undertaken in the course and how it is applicable to my existing role as an officer within the counter fraud and money laundering team in a law enforcing agency in Middle East. The emphasis is on the way that learning would be beneficial for myself and the organisation through increased effectiveness in conducting the fraud, with a specific reference to the principles of ethical investigation, attaining and investigative mindset, achieving a knowledge base with respect to the relevant legislation and procedure, considerations for the golden hour and the usefulness of decision-making process as well as recording of decisions. According to the Code of Practice to the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (CPIA), a criminal investigation is an investigation undertaken by police officers with an attempt to establish if a person should be charged with an offence, or if the individual charged is guilty of it. Ethics and ethical investigation is increasingly important when investigating money laundering. Devery (2010) argues that criminal investigations attract considerable attention and interest from the public, which is attributed to the coverage given by the media to criminal behaviour and the crime committed but also as a result of the effect that crime has on those affected, as well as the wider communities and individuals impacted. The media and societal interest has increased over time, as technological advancements and proliferation of social media has led to heightened interest from the general public (Goldsmith, 2015). This means that money laundering investigators have responsibility to ensure that they undertake the investigations in a professional and ethical manner, which would assist in developing and maintaining the public confidence. Therefore, there is a need to conduct an investigation with common sense whilst upholding integrity at all times and not engage in any discriminatory or disproportionate behaviour that could result in the risk of losing cooperation and support of the stakeholders involved. This is consistent with the conclusion of Verhage (2011) that an ethical and professional approach to investigation not only positively impacts the reputation of the organisation but the officer too, leading to a positive impact on the victim and the wider community. When investigating the money laundering activity, it is important that I maintain an investigative mindset. The mindset refers to the attitude or state of mind, which is adopted by the investigators and subsequently could be developed over time through the experience and expertise developed in a profession. It takes into consideration a range of principles that should be applied during investigation, which include gaining an understanding of the sources underlying the material uncovered, adequate planning and preparation, appropriate examination of the resources, collection and collation of records and evaluation of the information and investigation. In the context of money laundering investigations, whilst reviewing the various transactions and associated parties as well developing an assessment of the different transactions to discover potential money laundering, the investigative mindset would involve maintaining professional skepticism and applying judgment to the different transactions and their underlying rationale. The professional services firm Ernst Young states that in the anti-money laundering compliance investigation, the heightened level of judgment needed through the process becomes more pertinent, as it is only in a few situations that the investigation follows a straightforward procedure (Ernst Young, 2016). Therefore, an investigative mindset is critical because it allows money laundering investigator to ascertain the nature of transactions reviewed, utilizing the judgment to assess the direction that the research should undertake and the relevant parties/ stakeholders that need additional review. Maintenance of investigative mindset also enables the researcher to make the most of the scarce available organisational resources and consequently maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the money laundering investigation procedure. An investigator should possess a detailed knowledge base in relation to the legislation and procedures that are relevant in their profession. This means that I need to have a detailed knowledge of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations that are applicable not only at the regional level in Gulf but also at the international level, given the presence of global financial institutions and corporations in the region. It would involve a comprehensive understanding of AML and combating terrorist financing (CTF) legal arrangements, as well as anti-money laundering framework applicable in the region. Besides a detailed understanding of the AML law in the region, as well as primary and secondary ML offences, I would also need a detailed understanding of the global regulations within ML. This is because the ML laws in Gulf in general are based on the OECD regulations, which would increase my winder understanding of the regulatory environment within money laundering and the potential changes to ML framework in the future. The importance of knowledge base in ML when operating in Gulf is evident from a recent survey conducted by professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), which concluded that over 20% of financial service firms have not engaged in AML and CTF risk assessment in the region (PwC, 2016). This increases the importance of possessing a detailed understanding of the relevant regulations and laws when working within the ML team in a law enforcing agency. Moreover, possessing the knowledge and understanding becomes even more critical in the contemporary highly dynamic environment, whereby increasingly sophisticated techniques adopted by those engaging in criminal (money laundering) activities requires greater judgment and professional skepticism on the part of ML investigators such as myself, which would come through possessing and continuously improving the relevant knowledge base with respect to the legislation and procedure. According to the College of Policing (2016), golden hour refers to the term for the period that is in the immediate aftermath of committing an offence. This is the time when the evidence and material is increasingly available to the investigatory team. This requires a proactive approach to maximising the ability to make the most of golden hour during the investigation, as a proactive approach and positive action during the golden hour minimises the chances that information or material would be lost or not utilised during the investigation. Furthermore, it also maximises the prospects that the material would be admissible in court and consequently facilitate in providing justice. The key objectives of golden hour that I would serve in my ML role includes securing evidence, identifying those affected by the potential money laundering activity, identifying the suspects involved in such activity and preserving the evidence/scene. PwC (2016) argue that golden hour and undertaking a suitable action requires immediate thinking whereby an investigator needs to take control of the situation. Attending the course has provided me an ability to visualize the scenario and potential situation that I could be faced with in the future and how I could respond more effectively in dealing with such a situation. For instance, I would take greater control of the situation through securing the relevant evidence, identification and allocation of the resources at my disposal. This exercise has also helped me to consider the different physical, technological, financial and human resources that I have at my disposal in the organisation, which would be useful when making the most of the golden hour considerations. As part of the golden hour considerations and in the context of ML investigations in general, the decision making process and the need to record the various decisions is critical. The essence of decision-making is with respect to deciding what needs to be done, deciding the way it should be done and finally rationalizing and recording the decisions. This is consistent with the National Decision Model (NDM) employed by College of Policing, which takes into consideration collection of information and relevant intelligence, assessment of potential threats and subsequent development of strategy to deal with the threats, consideration of power and policy options available, identifying and options and contingencies available and finally taking action as well as reviewing the past events. It is pertinent that Code of Ethics is complied with throughout the decision-making, which reinforces the importance of ethical investigation as discussed earlier in the essay. By undertaking appropriate decision and recording them appropriately, I would be maximising the prospects of successfully investigating the potential ML activity. This would also assist me considering the different available resources and ultimately utilise them including the different option choices to undertake the best course of action to resolve the ML situation. Recording the decision would keep a clear track of the decision-making, which would be useful if presenting to the senior management or other stakeholders (internal or external). In conclusion, the essay considered the range of topics covered during the course and their practical application in my workplace, as an officer within the counter fraud and money laundering team in a law enforcing agency in the Middle East. The course has greatly enhanced my knowledge when it comes to undertaking ethical investigation, keeping and maintaining an investigative mindset and the importance of gaining greater knowledge with respect to the legislations and procedures. Furthermore, heightened understanding of the golden hour considerations and decision-making process has meant that I am more confident and aware of the different relevant activities that I would need to undertake when investigating the money laundering activities in my organisation. References College of Policing (2016), Investigation process, available at:Â  https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/investigations/investigation-process/ (accessed: 21/2/2017) Devery, C. (2010). Criminal profiling and criminal investigation. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 26(4), 393-409. Ernst Young (2016), Anti-money laundering compliance, available at:Â  http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-anti-money-laundering-compliance/$FILE/ey-anti-money-laundering-compliance.pdf (accessed: 21/2/2017) Goldsmith, A. (2015). Disgracebook policing: social media and the rise of police indiscretion. Policing and society, 25(3), 249-267. PwC (2016), Anti-money laundering, available at:Â  http://www.pwc.com/m1/en/publications/middle-east-economic-crime-survey/anti-money-laundering.html (accessed: 21/2/2017) Verhage, A. (2011). The anti money laundering complex and the compliance industry. Taylor Francis.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Vegetarianism is the Better Choice Essay -- Diet Vegetarian

The trend of abstaining from eating meat and other animal products is a rapidly growing one. According to David Bender in Animal Rights Opposing Viewpoints, â€Å"Today, nearly twenty million Americans are vegetarians, and many more have greatly reduced their meat consumption† (139). One meat-eating person may ponder why these non-meat eaters would deprive themselves of the wonderful taste of meat and animal products. Another concern is over nutrition, mainly protein intake. Many meat eaters believe that a vegetarian diet does not and cannot supply the protein necessary for the body to function properly. There are many misconceptions (like the one above) and unknown facts associated with the vegetarian lifestyle. This essay will deal with the issue of nutrition and reveal the truth about how the vegetarian diet can improve one’s well being by, making weigh loss easier, boosting the level of energy one feels on a day to day basis, reducing the risks of Atheseriousis, can cer, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, and heart disease. There are also many unknown facts associated with the vegetarian way of life. One of which is the great role vegetarians play in reducing the amount of waste in the environment. What this statement means is that by not eating meat one is promoting the use of farmland for food for humans instead of farmland for grazing animals (this greatly reduces water usage and waste; it also cuts down on the acreage of farm land used.) Water usage will become an increasing problem if more people do not find and implement water conservation methods. According to data taken from John Robbins in Diet for a New America, if something is not done, the water in the Texas aquifers will be exhausted in less than thirty-five years (1). For reasons that will become clearer after reading this essay, vegetarianism seems to be an answer to the problem of water usage. With the increasing amount of land being used for farming to mainly feed animals used for food by us, comes increased soil erosion and leeching. Leeching is a term used to describe the process of the loss of nutrients from the soil, and the end result is sand that cannot support plant life. Vegetarians help to reduce the amount of farmlands needed to support animals. According to Robbins, in Diet for a New America, â€Å"Since 1967, the rate of deforestation in the U.S. has been one acre every five second... ...nd most veal calves are subjected to confinement so severe that they cannot even turn around† (134). The purpose for this treatment is so the animals expend as little energy (in the form of calories) as possible so that the animal gains weight substantially quicker. The raising of other â€Å"food animals† is quite similar to the treatment that pigs and veal receive. â€Å"Food animals† are often fed contaminated food, which poisons them and their meat. Dangerous heavy metals build up in manure, bones, and internal organs, such as kidneys and livers, and are then recycled back through livestock as feed. The diseased organisms that survive in animal tissue processed into feed can infect the livestock and inevitably infect us as well. When one considers the serious health risks of a meat and dairy based diet, the environmental devastation caused by animal agriculture, the huge waste of resources in a world faced with chronic human starvation, and the violence to and suffering of billions of animals the switch to vegetarianism makes perfect sense. Even if one is not willing to completely give up meat, just eating meat at less often will make a difference in ones health, and the environment.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

A Doll’s House Essay -- Literary Analysis, Kate Chopin

As a child progresses through the various stages of life, he or she may crawl across the knots of knitted carpet, gallop around the plastic structures of a schoolyard and weave amongst a mass of people, each one traveling a different route to arrive at destinations poles apart, but unless a sense of worth, instilled by a parent’s assurance, overflows from the mouth of this developing being, the journey to find oneself amid the throng of individuals will prove an arduous and extensive one—possibly spanning one’s lifetime. Kate Chopin, in The Awakening, and Henrik Ibsen, in A Doll’s House, understood the significance of a parental figure in the development of a young person’s self-esteem, even in the Victorian Era, highlighting this fact with a void in the parental seat of the lives’ of their protagonists, Edna Pontellier and Nora Helmer, respectively. The vacant maternal role and feeble paternal relationship influences each of the protagonis ts’ sense of self-worth, which projects through relationships with their husbands, children, society as a whole and, their ultimate choice of abandonment. Employing realism, ridding the work of all fantasy and overtly extravagant elements for the audience to recognize themselves in various situations, Chopin and Ibsen allow â€Å"unfolding† (Roberts 1664) events as their works progressed, to disclose events previous to the span of the work; they cast shadows on events in literary present, exposing the cause of the problem—the mother’s absence in the protagonists’ lives. In the case of Edna Pontellier, her father’s â€Å"authority† (Chopin 77), â€Å"putting [his] foot down good and hard† (77), facilitated her mother’s expedition to the grave, while Nora Helmer’s mother goes without mention over the play’... ...arch of other’s to tell her of her beauty, for she does not have this revelation within herself since her father seemingly forgot to inform her. Likewise, Nora, although the decision lacked good, needed to Anne’s confirmation that her children â€Å"would [not] forget their mother† (Ibsen 30) if she were to leave, due to her inability to come to this conclusion alone; both search for others’ approval and finding that it comes only from within, each abandon their oppressing forces which all stem from their society’s establishments. In the denouements of both works, the protagonist realizes that their entire lives have been guided and charted by others rather than themselves and make a decision to press forward, without the superfluous contributions and disdain of others, despite the ramifications such a decision incurs, such as the repetition of the motherless child.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Artificial Intelligency

This paper illustrates the social implications of artificial intelligence as a part of Information technology. So the paper tries to investigate on the origin, evolution, types and purpose of artificial intelligence technology. In order to understand the technology of AI, the paper closely observes the technical architecture and related functionality of AI as an Informational technology.Then the study tries to observe the applicable areas of AI under different industrial segments. The paper analyses the real impact by observing the positive as well as negative outcomes of the AI on the society.The paper concludes that as like other technologies, the features of AI are highly useful to the society and there is a necessity to concentrate on restructuring the legal frame work while operating with such an efficient system as it almost replaces the human intervention in many cases. Introduction:Artificial intelligence is one of the advanced fields to investigate in information technology. It is the branch of science combined with engineering that uses the computer programs in making intelligent machines. AI is mainly concerned with designing of systems that exhibit the characteristics associated with human intelligence like understanding of language, learning, reasoning, solving problems etc.The field attracted many IT researchers due to its enormous underlying intellectual challenges. Researchers are creating systems which can imitate human thoughts, understanding of speech, logical processing, and automatic math calculations etc.The dream of smart machines becoming true due to advanced progress in AI programming techniques. It is related to the usage of computers to understand human intelligence, but AI has not confined itself to methods that are biologically observable.The ultimate effort of AI is to make computer programs that can solve problems and achieve goals that can replace the human effort. For this reason, the field of AI has become controversial in the sight of social, ethical, and philosophical practitioners.Scope of study:The current study tries to identify the social implications of Artificial intelligence. Back ground: History of AI:The AI name was proposed in 1950s but it was implemented at 1956 at a conference on the campus of Dartmouth College.   John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon, were the pioneers of AI research. They wrote programs for solution for word problems in algebra, proving logical theorems and speaking English.At that time, they worked on machines to develop the machines to do the work as equal to human intelligence can do.   But due to the difficulties like lack of raw computer power, the inflexible combinatorial explosion of their algorithms, the difficulty in representing commonsense knowledge and doing commonsense reasoning, the incredible difficulty of perception and motion and the failings of logic, their dreams were not come true.The Specialization of various AI Studies and d ifferent AI-related studies had developed during the 70's. Edward Feigenbaum started research on expert systems and Roger Schank advanced language analysis with interpretation of meanings to words. Due to the success of expert systems like MIS, knowledge system, medical diagnosis, the AI field was revitalized in early 1980s and also commercial growth has taken place with a big place for market in the IT industry.The market for AI was crossed more than a billion dollars. In the 90s, AI achieved great successes giving its credit to the factors like incredible power of computers and joint ventures to have new tie-ups between AI and other fields working on similar problems.Artificial intelligence was adopted throughout the technology industry in the areas like medical processing, heavy logistics, data mining, remote controlling, space science, military sciences and critical math computing areas etc.,Purposes of Artificial Intelligence:The development of AI has two motivations. Those are technological and psychological motivations. So far, development in AI programs has been conducted with these two motivations. Some developers want to make computers to do useful task without caring how developers do that task. These are methods such as   sensitivity to ultraviolet light, or an extensive search in advance through all the legal chess moves for several steps.Other developers are using AI to learn about human brains.   The medicine technology wants to investigate on human brain. AI gives a simulating edge to do such investigations on machines instead of conducting critical experiments directly on humans. This process of investigation in turn helps to develop psychological theories for the benefit and advancement of human kind.Development o f AI:Over the past 50 years, AI has made its impact on many sectors like education, medicine, logistics, pharmacy, R&D etc., to enhance the utilities in the daily lives of people in society. AI is being used in everyday consumer items such as robotic vacuum cleaners, running shoes along with advanced aeronautic navigation systems and medical computer imaging systems.  Artificial intelligence focused on developing hardware and software systems to solve problems which can only be solved by human intelligence usually. The AI includes studying and developing machines such as robots, automatic pilots for airplanes, space ships, and â€Å"smart† military weapons.Artificial Intelligence is aims to create intelligence through man made systems. This intelligence can range from low-level insect intelligence to human level intelligence.Artificial intelligence is to manipulate the information and interact with the environment which entails intelligence in an organism. The main idea behind the AI is that human beings and animals acquire knowledge from their environment and manipulation that knowledge in an efficient manner.Artificial Intelligence is slowly becoming part of our daily life. The AI applications r ange from video game to military applications.In practice, AI’s effective computability is drawn similar to the human intelligence in the lines that mind is represented by program controlled machines and mental structures refer to symbolic data structures, while mental processes implement algorithms. With this architecture, AI filed facilitates the computers to adopt advanced problem solving approaches to solve the complex situations.Artificial Intelligence is not limited to the field of information technology but also it encompasses on certain fields of Linguistics, Physiology and Psychology.AI is also very much helpful to Psychologists. They can express their theories clearly as programs. If the program fails to produce the proposed results, then the theory is incorrect, but the executed program will give a way to find out the mistake very easily in the instances like simulation, which would be very difficult and time consuming to find otherwise.However, if the program succ eeds, it does not just infer that the results for the theory are true in actual sense; but they help to correlate the practical outcome with the theories.AI is being using in the areas like financial processing, R&D design engineering, public transport schedulers, planning & architecture, security protocols etc., AI systems can provide guidance on gardening, travel, car maintenance in daily life and In order to assist the disabled persons AI robots were also developed.The theory and practice of AI is leading to the development of a wide range of artificially intelligent tools. Sometimes these tools will work under the guidance of a human and sometimes without external guidance, those are able to solve or help to solve a steadily increasing range of problems. (David Moursund)

Monday, September 16, 2019

Causes of Tsunamis

sunami: the Great Waves Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, â€Å"harbor wave. † Represented by two characters, the top character, â€Å"tsu,† means harbor, while the bottom character, â€Å"nami,† means â€Å"wave. † In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as â€Å"tidal waves† by the general public, and as â€Å"seismic sea waves† by the scientific community. The term â€Å"tidal wave† is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term â€Å"seismic sea wave† is also misleading. â€Å"Seismic† implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a nonseismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact. Tsunamis are a threat to life and property to anyone living near the ocean. For example, in 1992 and 1993 over 2,000 people were killed by tsunamis occurring in Nicaragua, Indonesia and Japan. Property damage was nearly one billion dollars. The 1960 Chile Earthquake generated a Pacific-wide tsunami that caused widespread death and destruction in Chile, Hawaii, Japan and other areas in the Pacific. Large tsunamis have been known to rise over 100 feet, while tsunamis 10 to 20 feet high can be very destructive and cause many deaths and injuries. What Cause Tsunamis? Tsunamis, also called seismic sea waves or, incorrectly, tidal waves, generally are caused by earthquakes, less commonly by submarine landslides, infrequently by submarine volcanic eruptions and very rarely by a large meteorite impact in the ocean. Submarine volcanic eruptions have the potential to produce truly awesome tsunami waves. The Great Krakatau Volcanic Eruption of 1883 generated giant waves reaching heights of 125 feet above sea-level, killing thousands of people and wiping out numerous coastal villages. Ring of Fire About two-thirds of the earth is covered by the waters of the four oceans. The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest, covering more than one third of the total surface area of our planet. The Pacific Ocean is surrounded by a series of mountain chains, deep ocean trenches and island arcs, sometimes called a â€Å"ring of fire. † The great size of the Pacific Ocean and the large earthquakes associated with the â€Å"ring of fire† combine to produce deadly tsunamis. Tsunamis on the Move Wave Height and Water Depth In the open ocean a tsunami is less than a few feet high at the surface, but its wave height increases rapidly in shallow water. Tsunamis wave energy extends from the surface to the bottom in the deepest waters. As the tsunami attacks the coastline, the wave energy is compressed into a much shorter distance creating destructive, live-threatening waves. In the deep ocean, destructive tsunamis can be small–often only a few feet or less in height–and cannot be seen nor can they be felt by ships. But, as the tsunami reaches shallower coastal waters, wave height can increase rapidly. Sometimes, coastal waters are drawn out into the ocean just before the tsunami strikes. When this occurs, more shoreline may be exposed than even at the lowest tide. This major withdrawal of the sea should be taken as a warning of the tsunami waves that will follow How Fast? Where the ocean is over 20,000 feet deep, unnoticed tsunami waves can travel at the speed of a commercial jet plane, nearly 600 miles per hour. They can move from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other in less than a day. This great speed makes it important to be aware of the tsunami as soon as it is generated. Scientists can predict when a tsunami will arrive since the speed of the waves varies with the square root of the water depth. Tsunamis travel much slower in shallower coastal waters where their wave heights begin to increase dramatically. How Big? Offshore and coastal features can determine the size and impact of tsunami waves. Reefs, bays, entrances to rivers, undersea features and the slop of the beach all help to modify the tsunami as it attacks the coastline. When the tsunami reaches the coast and moves inland, the water level can rise many feet. In extreme cases, water level has risen to more than 50 feet for tsunamis of distant origin and over 100 feet for tsunami waves generated near the earthquake's epicenter. The first wave may not be the largest in the series of waves. One coastal community may see no damaging wave activity while in another community destructive waves can be large and violent. The flooding can extend inland by 1000 feet or more, covering large expanses of land with water and debris.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Culture Specific Syndrome

ultural Bound Syndromes Culture-bound syndrome The term culture-bound syndrome was included in the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) which also includes a list of the most common culture-bound conditions (DSM-IV: Appendix I). Included in DSM-IV-TR (4th. ed) the term cultural-bound syndrome denotes recurrent, locality-specific patterns of abnormal behavior and troubling experience that may or may not be linked to a particular DSM-IV-TR diagnostic category.Many of these patterns are naturally considered to be illnesses, or at least afflictions, and most have local names. Although presentations conforming to the major DSM-IV-TR categories can be found throughout the world, the particular symptoms, course, and social response are very often influenced by local cultural factors. In contrast, cultural-bound syndromes are generally limited to specific societies or culture areas and are localized, folk, diagno stic categories that frame coherent meanings for certain repetitive, patterned, and troubling sets of experiences and observations.In medicine, a culture-specific syndrome or culture-bound syndrome is a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific society or culture. There are no objective biochemical or structural alterations of body organs or functions, and the disease is not recognized in other cultures. While a substantial portion of mental disorders, in the way they are manifested and experienced, are at least partially conditioned by the culture in which they are found, some disorders are more culture-specific than others.The concept of culture-bound syndromes is very controversial and many psychologists, medical doctors, and anthropologists reject the concept. The identification of culture-specific syndromes: A culture-specific syndrome is characterized by: categorization as a disease in the culture (i . e. , not a voluntary behavior or false claim); widespread familiarity in the culture; complete lack of familiarity of the condition to people in other cultures; no objectively demonstrable biochemical or tissue abnormalities (symptoms); the condition is usually recognized and treated by the folk medicine of the culture.Some culture-specific syndromes involve somatic symptoms (pain or disturbed function of a body part), while others are purely behavioral. Some culture-bound syndromes appear with similar features in several cultures, but with locally-specific traits, such as penis panics. A culture-specific syndrome is not the same as a geographically localized disease with specific, identifiable, causal tissue abnormalities, such as kuru or sleeping sickness, or genetic conditions limited to certain populations.It is possible that a condition originally assumed to be a culture-bound behavioral syndrome is found to have a biological cause; from a medical perspective it would then be redefined into another nosological category. Western medical perspectives: An interesting aspect of culture-specific syndromes is the extent to which they are â€Å"real†. Characterizing them as â€Å"imaginary† is as inaccurate as characterizing them as â€Å"malingering†, but there is no clear way to understand them from a Western scientific perspective.Culture-specific syndromes shed light on how our mind decides that symptoms are connected and how a society defines a known â€Å"disease†. In contrast, culture-bound syndromes are generally limited to specific societies or culture areas and are localized, folk, diagnostic [comma sic] categories that frame coherent meanings for certain repetitive, patterned, and troubling sets of experiences and observations.Medical care of the condition is challenging and illustrates a truly fundamental but rarely discussed aspect of the physician-patient relationship: the need to negotiate a diagnosis that fits the wa y of looking at the body and its diseases of both parties. The physician may do any of the following: Share the way the patient sees the disorder, and offer the folk medicine treatment, recognize it as a culture-bound syndrome, but pretend to share the patient’s perspectives and offer the folk medicine reatment or a new improvised treatment, recognize it as a culture-bound syndrome but try to educate the patient into seeing the condition as the physician sees it. The problem with the first choice is that physicians who pride themselves on their knowledge of disease like to think they know the difference between culture-specific disorders and â€Å"organic† diseases. While the second choice may be the quickest and most comfortable choice, the physician must deliberately deceive the patient.Currently in Western culture this is considered one of the most unethical things a physician can do, whereas in other times and cultures deception with benevolent intent has been an a ccepted tool of treatment. The third choice is the most difficult and time-consuming to do without leaving the patient disappointed, insulted, or lacking confidence in the physician, and may leave both physician and patient haunted by doubts (â€Å"Maybe the condition is real. † or â€Å"Maybe this doctor doesn’t know what s/he is talking about. †).Root-work/Obeah: DSM IV-TR (2000), states that a set of cultural interpretations that ascribe illness to hexing, witchcraft, sorcery, or the evil influence of another person. Symptoms may include generalized anxiety and gastrointestinal complaints (e. g. , nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea), weakness, dizziness, the fear of being poisoned, and sometimes fear of being killed (voodoo death). DSM IV-TR site roots, spells, or hexes can be put or placed on other persons, causing a variety of emotional and psychological problems.The hexed person may even fear death until the root has been taken off, or eliminated usually throu gh the work of the root doctor (a healer in this tradition), who can also be called on to bewitch an enemy. Roots is found in the southern United States among both African-American and European American populations and in the Caribbean societies. Obeah (sometimes spelled â€Å"Obi†) is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices derived from Central African and West African origins. Obeah can either be a form of ‘dark' magic or ‘good' magic.As such, Obeah is similar to Palo, Voodoo, Santeria, root-work, and hoodoo. Obeah (another name used in the Caribbean society) is practiced in Suriname, Jamaica, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Belize, the Bahamas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and many other Caribbean countries. Obeah is associated with both benign and malign magic, charms, luck, and with mysticism in general. In some Caribbean nations Obeah refers to African diasporic folk reli gions; in other areas, Christians may include elements of Obeah in their religion.Obeah is often associated with the Spiritual Baptist church. Origins: In Jamaica, slaves from different areas of Africa were brought into contact, creating some conflicts between those who practiced varying African religions. Those of West African Ashanti descent, who called their priests â€Å"Myal men† (also spelled Mial men), used the Ashanti term â€Å"Obi† or â€Å"Obeah† — meaning â€Å"sorcery† — to describe the practices of slaves of Central African descent. Thus those who worked in a Congo form of folk religion were called â€Å"Obeah men† or â€Å"sorcerers. Obeah also came to mean any physical object, such as a talisman or charm that was used for evil magical purposes. However, despite its fearsome reputation, Obeah, like any other form of folk religion and folk magic, contains many traditions for healing, helping, and bringing about luck in love and money. Elements (key features/symptoms) According to Hughes, Simons &Wintrob, 1997 study, knowledge about a culture-bound syndrome, can address the relationship between the culture-bound syndrome and the more familiar psychiatric disorders, such as those in DSM-IV.These researchers call this the comorbidity question on the assumption that studying the culture-bound syndrome's patterned relationship to psychiatric diagnoses is a more fruitful approach than attempting prematurely to subsume it into the DSM diagnostic categories. Systematic research has identified strong correlations between culture-bound syndromes and criteria for psychiatric disorder, but there is rarely a one-to-one relationship between culture-bound syndrome and psychiatric disorder. The culture-bound syndromes often coexist with a range of psychiatric disorders, as many psychiatric disorders do with each other.The comorbidity question brings culture-bound syndrome research in line with current approaches in psychiatric research. Differences in the symptomatic, emotional, and contextual aspects of cultural syndromes, in turn, may signal different comorbid relationships with psychiatric diagnosis or even the lack of such a relationship. Opinion The extra ordinary addition of culture-bound syndromes in DSM-IV provides the opportunity for improving the need to study such syndromes and the chance for developing a research to study them.The growing ethnic and cultural diversity of the U. S. population presents a challenge to the mental health field to develop truly cross-cultural approaches to mental health research and services. This addition will give researchers the chance to study the relationship between culture-bound syndromes and psychiatric diagnoses. In my opinion a research program based on key questions is still unanswered, which is understanding culture-bound syndromes within their cultural context and to analyze the relationship between these syndromes and psychiatric disorde rs.Reference DSM -IV-TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2000). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed. ). Washington, DC: Author. Hughes CC, Simons RC, Wintrob RM: The â€Å"Culture-Bound Syndromes† and DSM-IV, in DSM-IV Sourcebook, vol 3. Edited by Widiger TA, Frances AJ, Pincus HA, Ross R, First MB, Davis W. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1997, pp 991–1000 Retrieved July 29, 2009 from American Journal of Psychiatry.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Culture Shock

University of Iceland Business and intercultural Communication (VI? 512G) Teacher: ? ora Christiansen 30. 11. 2010 Culture shock * my personal experience Eydis Brynjarsdottir kt:091085-3569 Table of Contents 1. 0 Introduction3 2. 0 Definition of culture shock3 3. 0 Culture shock lifecycle4 4. 0 Culture shock triangle6 5. 0 My personal experience8 6. 0 Ten steps to minimize culture shock8 7. 0 Conclusion9 1. 0 Introduction I chose culture shock for my discussion in this assignment. I will discuss the definition of Culture shock and how it affects people.I will also discuss some theories and in the end I will give a short story from my own experience. 2. 0 Definition of culture shock The definition of culture shock refers generally to the unpleasant experience that people get when they are coming in contact with other cultures than their own. Their experience of a new culture is seen as unpleasant surprise/shock that occurs when expectations do not match reality. Working in a new cultu re can lead a variety of reactions for an example: * Confusion about what to do * Anxiety * Frustration * Inappropriate behavior Depression All of these are possible reactions to culture shock, which is the shock that we experience when we are confronted with the unknown. Researches show that culture shock can be both short and sharp or long term and deep, and what appears to be the identifier is the degree of difference from one? s own and the host culture, the degree of preparation, social support networks and individual psychological characteristics. The longer time that the individual experiences the culture shock, the greater is the feeling of helplessness and performance deficit.There are several symptoms of cultural shock, but the most common are: * Feeling isolated * Anxiety and worries * Reduction in the job performance * High energy * Helplessness The inclusion of high energy is caused by changing the circumstances in the adaption process The longer that the manager experi enced the culture shock the greater where the feelings of helplessness and performance deficit. Hofstede differentiate three different states of adaptation comparing feelings and emotions of the residence to the situation in the home culture before the assignment.It may remain negative compared to home, for example, if the visitor continues feeling an monster and discriminated against. It may be just as good as before, in which the visitor can be considered to be adapt bicultural or it may be better. In the last case the visitor has â€Å"gone native† it has become more Roman than the Romans. 3. 0 Culture shock life cycle Kalervo Oberg (1901-1973) was an anthropologist, who explained the symptoms and process of adapting a different culture. Oberg listed six main aspects of culture shock: * Strain caused by the effort to adapt Sense of loss and feelings of deprivation in relation to friends, status, profession and possessions * Feeling rejected by or rejecting members of the n ew culture * Confusion in role, values and self-identity * Anxiety and anger about foreign practices * Feeling of helplessness The term cultural shock was first presented by Oberg in 1954, where he outlined the consequences of strain and anxiety resulting from contact with a new culture and the feelings of loss of accustomed cultural cues and social rules. That model puts you through a life cycle of four distinct phases on the way to the final adaption.Figure 1 Table 1Table 2 The first table shows us the four phases in the adaptation process. The honeymoon phase is the first phase of the process. There are all the encounters in the new place seen exciting, stimulating and positive. The new life is perceived as endless opportunities and happiness. There is curiosity and openness combined with readiness to accept what is to come. â€Å"Most importantly in this stage judgment is reserved and even minor irritations are suppressed in favor of concentrating on the nice things about the j ob, the country, the colleagues, the food, etc. †: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999).Culture shock is the second phase in the process, this is when the manager realizes that everything is not as it should be. The experience of foreigners can start uncomfortable feelings such as stress, irritability or negative view of the country, colleagues or the job. This phase is often characterized as uncomfortable situations, but the main reason for these symptoms is the uncertainty about surroundings, us and the future. â€Å"The usual signs of orientation and the belonging do not exist, we don’t quite know who we are without the familiar social context, and the way our foreign colleagues behave seems â€Å"all wrong†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999).How mangers deal with this phase, the emotions and expectations is essential for their adaption on the long run. The best way to come at is to use the symptoms and the unpleasantness as an indicator to change our approximation and form our self- development to understand us and deal with our emotions and sometimes other people. Recovery is the third phase in our first figure and that starts with accepting that we have a problem that needs to be worked on. Recovery and the final adjustment phase generally involve a compromise between feelings and thinking of the honeymoon phase and the culture shock phase. This compromise is between our exaggerate expectations and reality†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). The final phase, Final adjustment, managers have become able to work effectively after knowing their limitations of their skills. They can take on a new ways of doing things and what most that matters is being flexible. Elisabeth Marx made table 2 in figure one, we should examine it a little bit. There are many experts that have tried to specify the timing on the phases but the thing is that there is no rule for it. The timing of culture shock depends on how different the culture is from your own.It makes more sense to use a model of culture shock that is not that strictly linear but integrates a cycle that shows positive and negative phases until you break through the culture shock as in table 2. The thing is that international assignments tend to be more short term than long term and more executives working on the projects so we cannot use the same model, although the concept is the same. The thing is that short term international work does not allow for the same long term adaption process and therefore distinct honeymoon, culture shock and readjustment phases will not occur.Marx found it to be more realistic to use a model that is not strictly linear but integrates a dynamic and repetitive cycle of positive and negative phases until you break through Culture Shock. â€Å"Instead there will be more of a mixture of positive and negative emotions, of uncertainty and clarity, of enjoyment and frustration†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). Figure one shows us also the mood changes so we are able to use thes e phases in more ways than just a job, for example marriage. In a short description, phase one involves excitement, euphoria and optimism, like in a honeymoon.Second phase is confronting the unknown and negative aspects like confusion, anxiety and frustration. We will at some point recover from the moodiness and anxiety of the culture shock and in the final phase we head for a readjustment. 4. 0 Culture shock triangle Elisabeth Marx developed a model from Oberg’s idea to describe culture shock. According to Marx international managers experience culture shock psychically at three levels. She uses the â€Å"culture shock triangle† to describe these 3 levels which are: * Emotions – coping with mood swings Thinking – understanding foreign colleagues * Social skills and identity – developing a social and professional network and effective social skills. Figure 2 Questions those international mangers are supposed to ask feature: * Emotions – what am I likely to feel? How will I handle the stress of international work? * Thinking – what will I think? Have effective are my solutions? * Social skills and identity – how effectively will I communicate with foreign analogue? Managers that have adapted these levels lead to following: Handle stress of the transition. * Changing the perception and translation of events and behavior. * Developing effective social skills and an international identity. These aspects combine to form the culture shock triangle, accomplish the international effectiveness on culture shock. These three factors can influence each other in some way for example feeling frustrated can have negative effect on how we think and how we act. Another example is if we feel pessimistic and stressed out our solutions to the problems can be ineffective.Out of this can we clearly see that those factors do remain together, so positive mood and optimism produce better solutions. Social identity and skills are very important when we are going to work abroad. We need to know who we are and be confident and secure with ourselves so we can start to work in and with another culture. When we interact closely with the foreign culture we experience the conflicts between our own values and those of the foreign culture. When we get more concerned we develop alternative ways of behaving and that makes us able to view of ourselves from a different perspective.As we can see this is all part of self development that people passes through during international challenges. Marx insists on the fact that the culture shock phase is an integral part of the adaption phase and should have no negative connotations. These are normal reactions of people who confront the foreign but give no indication of future success. The success depends on the strategies and motives of the company as it wishes to co-operate with, or take over another. 5. 0 My personal experienceI have experienced a culture shock but just a mino r shock. When I was visiting my aunt in Stockholm we took the tube down town to Gamla stan. Like everybody knows there are many people in the city so it is kind of crowded and most people are on a hurry but I was on the other hand is in a vacation so there were no rush. When me and my aunt were going down the escalator I just stood in the middle like I always do in Kringlan and were nosy about my new surroundings. Suddenly I hear a man hawking himself behind me†¦ and I , what the hell is his problem!Then my aunt turns around and tells me to stand in the right in the escalator because people who are on a hurry should be able to run down on the left side in the escalator. This is a unwritten rule that people in Stockholm keep up with and I had no idea about that! 6. 0 Ten steps to minimize culture shock The book Breaking through culture shock by Elisabeth Marx gives examples of 10 steps to minimize culture shock. 1) â€Å"Do not let culture shock take you by surprise. Allow time to find out about it before you leave for your assignment.Learn to recognize the symptoms and the potential impact†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 2) â€Å"Expect culture shock to happen irrespective of location. It is as likely to occur in a country near to your home base as in posting further afield†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 3) â€Å"As soon as you arrive in your new location, identify all the opportunities for building support networks with other international managers and with local people†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 4) â€Å"As with any stressful situation, fight it, do not give in to it.So do not resort to escapist strategies such as drinking or eating too much and do not deny your symptoms†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 5) â€Å"Ask other international managers for guidance on the issue and problems too look out for. Learn from their experience†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 6) â€Å"Give yourself time to adapt and do not rush into too many work related proj ects at the start of the assignment. Make sure that the organization gives you this time too†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 7) â€Å"Do not hesitate to seek a professional help if symptoms persist despite your coping efforts.Help may be available within your company or externally through counselors or the medical profession†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 8) â€Å"Expect the same symptoms to reoccur when you come home. Reverse culture shock is normal†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 9) â€Å"Thinking about the positive aspect of culture shock – people who experience it adapt better to their new environment than those who do not†: (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 10) â€Å"Retain sense of humor! † : (Elisabeth Marx, 1999). 7. 0 Conclusion After all the reading for this project I should be able to define and handle myself if I go abroad.I did not imagine that culture shock can be that effective on people and their lives, just because of moving! The by word that we could obtain here is â€Å"better safe than sorry†.Bibliography Elisabeth Marx. (1999). Breaking through culture shock. London: Nicholas Brealey publishing. Hofstede, Geert H. (2001). Culture? s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks. Marie-Joelle Browaeys and Roger Price. (2008). Understanding cross-cultural management. Edinburgh: Prentice Hall. Culture Shock Abstract The factors of culture shock are various. Different values, beliefs and customs can create information overload. Besides, language barrier reduces the understanding of the new culture and makes people feel isolated. In addition, the difference in food is one of the main factors of culture shock. Original eating habit is not easy to change, so it becomes more difficult to fit in. Moreover, people from different social structures cause culture shock. Furthermore, the individual differences such as age, sex, socio-economic class and education also influence degree of culture shock.Culture shock typically occurs in a four-stage process that can unfold over varying lengths of time: the honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and mastery phases. In the honeymoon phase, people always feel excited and fascinated about the culture. After that is negotiation phase which is the real culture shock. In this stage, people are struggle in the differences between cultures. When people start to recover, they jump to the next stage, adjustment phase. In the last stage, people will start to embrace the new culture.Different people experience culture shock in different ways and to different degrees, but they all go through the same process of this model. People in this situation will have both positive and negative effects which influence people psychologically and physically. It causes depression, anxiety and hopelessness and, in turn, it will reduce problem solving skill, inefficiency of work and negative interpersonal relationships. Besides, it also causes physical symptoms like colds and headaches. However, it also brings positive effects such as self-confidence, self-motivation, culture sensitivity and language skills.Culture shock is a temporary phase. There are various ways to reduce these emotions. Keep in touch with family and friends by making phone calls, using web chat or sharing photos and experience on social networks. Get involved in local activities and make n ew friends can reduce the negative emotions. Explore is another good ways to maintain the excitement stage longer. Be open mindedness and have positive attitude is the key to overcome this. Keywords: culture shock; Oberg; phases of Culture Shock; causes, effects and solutions 1. Introduction – Culture ShockIn the last decade, an increasing number of people have opted to study, work or live in a foreign country which is totally different in culture and environment. When people visit an unfamiliar culture for the first time, it results in culture shock. The term Culture Shock was coined by a world renowned anthropologist Kalervo Oberg in a 1954 speech in Rio de Janeiro. He introduced his model for  Culture Shock, four phases when people encounter a new culture. The first time when people visit or move to another country, they are often astonished by the differences between other cultures and their own.These differences sometimes make people feel uncomfortable, frustrated, fea rful or insecure. In Oberg’s speech, he defined Culture Shock as follows: â€Å"Culture Shock is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs or cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situations of daily life. † Culture shock is a psychological stress which happens in the beginning when visiting another country which causes not only negative but also positive effects.This paper aims to investigate the causes, the effects and the solutions as a practical guide to those who are about to start this adventure. 2. Causes of Culture Shock There are several factors that cause culture shock. 2. 1 Information overload People who face a different culture or environment for the first time will inadequately use their own culture as a standard to interpret, judge and behave in the new culture. This is â€Å"information overload†. There are various things that wil l hit people immediately when they arrive in a new country, like traffic signs, sounds, table manners and other customs in daily life.In addition, people from different countries have a different cultural value which is built on deeply-embedded sets of values, norms and beliefs. This cannot easily be changed in a short time. People try to interpret new language meanings, new nonverbal, behavioral, contextual and social communication which is unfamiliar with their immanent knowledge and originate systems. This generates emotional and mental burnout. 2. 2 Language Language can create even greater barriers between cultures. Knowledge about the culture and language are essential to understand the host culture.Thus, the misunderstood cross cultural communication becomes one factor. People who come to a new country at an adult age can have particular difficulties overcoming the language barrier. People will fail to communicate, misunderstand each other, and have different intonation and p ronunciation. It makes people feel frustrated when communicating. For example, when people order food in restaurants, use bank services or have classes at school, they will face various obstacles in communicating. Besides, it is impossible to become proficiency very fast especially for students who study abroad.Although people try very hard to improve their language, they still have some difficulties which cannot be solved in a short time. Thus, the language barriers can influence the isolation which causes a lot of stress and strain. 2. 3 Food It is fact that food is different from country to country. It tastes different, or is cooked differently. The eating habit is a difficult factor to change. Thus, it is one of the important factors which cause culture shock. Although food is imported and exported very frequently, it is harder and more expensive to buy the food you like.For instance, people cannot find ingredients which they are used to eat or cannot find restaurants which are similar to their home country. People need a lot of time to recreate recipes by using the local food and spices to suit their original eating habits. Therefore, people will face lots of difficulties in getting used to this. This doesn’t take only a few months, but sometimes years. 2. 4 Social structure Another important example is the extent of individualism or collectivism exhibited.Collectivism is mostly seen in the cultures of  Asia, Africa, parts of Europe and Latin America which have stronger values promoted in groups and interdependently, whereas individualism is mostly seen in the cultures of Western Europe and North America which endorse independence and individual goals. Ergo, people form collectivist societies who move to individualist societies and vice versa feel like a fish out of water. 2. 5 Individual differences The factors vary according to personality and the ability to cope with new environments. It includes age, sex, socio-economic class, and education.K nowledge about a culture and previous experience abroad are commonly considered in relation to cross-cultural adaptation. Some personality factors are generally believed to influence this process. For example, children do not have much culture shock. But when people grow to a certain age, the degree of culture shock starts to increase. Males are more malleable than females, thus they can adapt to a new culture faster. 3. The phases of Culture Shock Kalervo Oberg (1954) classified culture shock into four stages—Honeymoon, Negotiation, Adjustment and Mastery which is known as U-Curve model.Different people experience culture shock in different ways and to different degrees but they all follow Oberg’s four stages model. 3. 1 The honeymoon phase In this period, everything about the foreign culture is so new and intriguing. People feel enthusiastic, excited and fascinated about the new culture, particularly about food, drink, pace of life and locals’ habits. Figure 1 displays that they experience a level of 5. 5 in adjusting to the new culture. It is always combined with openness, curiosity, and a readiness to accept the situation.It is similar as honeymoon period that everything about it seems perfect. However, this stage lasts only for the first few weeks. Figure 1The degree of adjustment to culture shock in honeymoon phase is just over 5. 5. After this short period, the figure plunges to around 2. 5, the lowest point which is the negotiation phase and this is the real culture shock stage. When people overcome it, they will be in the adjustment phase. The figure from this stage proliferate over 4. 0, followed by the mastery phase which increases to 6. 0 and over. | 3. 2 The negotiation phaseAfter the excitement drifts away, the actual culture shock emerges. The differences between new and old cultures stand out which cause unpleasant feelings of anxiety and frustration. The degree of adjustment plummets to around 2. 5 (figure1). Generally, it is caused by language barriers, culture values, public hygiene, traffic safety or food accessibility. These differences will provoke uncertainty about oneself and the surroundings because of the lack of belonging and the unfamiliarity and disconnection with the old culture. This results in feeling lonely and homesick. Communication is the main factor.Language barrier become the catalyst of these negative emotions. It often lasts at least three months, depending on individuals. 3. 3 The adjustment phase During this stage, things become normal. This is also known as a recovery stage. People start to understand and get accustomed to and feel more comfortable with the new culture, and then they will develop their own routines. People will try overcoming their problems. The negative reactions are reduced. Thus, the language barrier and the relationship to the host nation start to improve. People are able to be more flexible and can work effectively.Figure 1 shows that the degree of adju stment is cover to that of the Honeymoon phase and even exceeds it. 3. 4 The mastery phase In the final stage, people fully and comfortably participate in the host culture and embrace the new environment, but still maintain their home culture. It is often regarded as the  biculturalism  stage. The level of acceptance often reaches 6. 5 according to Figure 1. Not every person in every situation goes through the same process of Oberg’s model. These stages often blend and overlap. It differs for individuals, and varies in length. 4. Effects of Culture Shock 4. 1 Negative effects . 1. 1 Psychological effects Change may cause stress. The symptoms of culture shock are essentially psychological. The major symptoms may be described as depression, anxiety and feelings of helplessness. If depression, anxiety and feelings of helplessness accumulate, the degree and extent of psychological disorientation may be deeper and deeper so that people may have difficulties in paying attention to the learning of new cultures. Moreover, psychological disorientation may influence people’s abilities to solve problems and to make decisions. This decreases the motivation for adapting to the new conditions.Most important is that when people fail to defeat the symptoms of culture shock, they are likely to become hostile to the host nationals, which may lead to negative interpersonal relationships. Therefore, dealing with psychological stress caused by culture shock such as depression, anxiety and feelings of helplessness is significant for those people who come into contact with a new culture. 4. 1. 2 Physical effects However, there are also physical symptoms that may manifest themselves in the form of an increased incidence of minor illnesses (e. g. colds and headaches) or more serious psychosomatic illnesses brought on by depression. . 2 Positive effects On the contrary, not all the effects are negative. With time and patience, people can experience positive effects of culture shock, such as increased self-confidence, improved self-motivation and cultural sensitivity. Besides, people can improve their language fast. Moreover, we can learn to adapt to different people from different countries, different religious or different social values, and also learn to respect their customs and beliefs. Furthermore, it can challenge us in solving problems in daily life and finding positive effects in the difficulties.It makes people more self-confident and provokes self-motivation in the future. 5. Solutions Culture shock is normally a temporary phase. There are various ways to reduce the effects of culture shock. Everyone has to find their own balance between the values of their home country and those of the host country. 5. 1 Keep in touch Staying in touch with your family and friends at home will help you reduce and help overcome the effects of culture shock. The Internet makes it very easy to maintain regular contact, for example by using web chat or voi ce calls, or by sharing news, information and photos of your life on social networks.It is wise to set a regular time to call people back home or share photos and experiences on Facebook. 5. 2 Explore Exploring is one of the nice ways to overcome the negative emotions from culture shock. Everyone should get a copy of a travel guidebook like Lonely Planet, read it, actually study it and become familiar with it. This will help to understand the people and their history. 5. 3 Involvement Joining local activities like festivals, sport clubs or learning to cook local dishes, are ways to be proactive in making new friends. Making friends with other nonnative people can help you understand your emotions.Most importantly, making friends with local people is essential as you can learn more about their culture faster. 5. 4 Open mindedness The key to reduce negative effects of culture shock is in a positive attitude. Open mindedness is an important factor to understand and accept the new cultu re and environment. People who restrict themselves in their culture and habits find it impossible to overcome the unpleasant feeling of the new culture. Therefore, having a positive attitude and being open minded are indispensible in reducing the negative effects of culture shock. 6. ConclusionFrom one culture to another, the differences among them cause feelings of unfamiliarity. This results in a large amount of psychological stress such as depression, anxiety and feelings of helplessness. However, there are various solutions for different people to deal with these symptoms. Before entering a new cultural environment, it is very important for all people to make full preparation. Understanding the process of culture shock and features of a new culture may be useful for all. Most people will experience culture shock in one form or another. It is not a sign that they have made a mistake, or that they are not coping.Learning to embrace the uncertainty and initial discomfort and findin g all of the positive things around them are essential. The symptoms will pass before too long and they will probably find that it has been a useful learning experience, whether they intend to return to their home country or not. Bibliography [1] Ashim C. Uwaje, â€Å"Culture shock, Re-Integration and Re-Entry culture shock – Managing Cultural Differences† 2009 [2] Furnham, A. and S. Bochner, â€Å"Culture Shock: Psychological Reactions to Unfamiliar Environments† London and New York: Methuen & Co Limited, 1986 [3] Grant G.Frost, â€Å"A Consideration of How Non-aboriginal Educators Working Among First Nations Populations May Be Particularity Susceptible To the Effects of Culture Shock† Mount Saint Vincent University, September 2007 [4] Manz Sonja, â€Å"Culture Shock – Causes, Consequences and Solutions: The International Experience† 2003 [5] Oberg Kalvero, â€Å"Cultural Shock: adjustment to new cultural environments† Practical Anthropology, 7, 1960: 177-182 [6] Rachel Irwin, â€Å"Culture shock: negotiating feelings in the field† Anthropology Matters Journal, University of Oxford, 2007, Vol 9 (1) [7] Sheila M.Fabrizio, â€Å"Cultural adaptation in outdoor programming† Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 9(2), 2005: 44-56 [8] Wikipedia: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Culture_shock#Reverse_culture_shock Culture Shock Hadi Islais, SALP 501AB (21044/21045) Developmental Composition. 4/11/13 What is culture shock? Some people would say it is only just a few new things you may find in another countries that is not that hard to get used to it, but I don’t think so because culture shock is a huge things and that is why it is been called shock and you have to learn how to live with in the new place that you going to be live at. There are many new things that person should know before moving to another culture such as the new language, the country’s rules, and the new weather.Learning the new language of the new country consider one of the important things to do to communicate with the people. First of all, you should know about the new language that you are going to use in the new culture. It is too hard to live in a community without knowing how to talk with the people because in this way you will not be able to move from your place to wherever you want you to go. Also you are going to wa ste a lot of time trying to explain to the people the things you are trying to say and you will be using the sign language until you be able to learn the new language.Knowing the rules of the new country you are going to live in will always help you to be in the safe side and never have a problems. First of all, you have to learn about the driving rules if you are planning to drive a car or any other vehicles. Some country like the US they are very serious about it and consider it an important thing to learn all the rules and take both the writing and the driving test. On the other hand, other countries like Saudi Arabia doesn’t really care that much about driving rules and that is why it is one of the countries that have a high records of cars accidents every day.Second, you have to know the school’s rules if you are planning to study in a new countries. Some countries like the US consider attending all the classes a very important rule and student should not miss any class unless the student have an emergence reason for example like a medical appointment. In the end, knowing all the rules about the country you are going to will always keep you in the safe side. Knowing about the weather is an important thing to know, so you don’t get sick because of the weather changing between you previous and new culture.First of all, many countries may have too many different change in the weather. For example the weather in Los Angeles, Ca is beautiful most of the time. It is not that hot in the summer, also not the cold in the winter. Weather doesn’t really change a lot like in other countries. In the summer the weather is very nice, so the people can spend their holidays or the weekends on the beach and enjoying their time with their family or their friend. The can swim, play with sand, or lie on the beach. In The winter, they can go camping. Many people like to do it in the winter.These are some of the things that make the weather different than other countries like Middle East countries. In conclusion, moving from your culture to another culture is a difficult thing and you should know as much as you can about the new culture you are moving to. You have to learn their language so, you will be able to communicate with the people in there. Also you should know the rules about this country, so you don’t get in trouble. Finally you have to know about the weather in this new place and cooperate with the other weather in your country.

Which Place Do You Prefer to Live?

Which place do you prefer to leave: in a small town or in a big city ? Small towns and big cities both have their good sides. First big cities have unlimited choices of things you can do. There is always a lot to do and visit. Living in a big city is more comfortable because there are cinemas, theaters, museums, shops, malls, lots of restaurants to choose. There are a lot of possibilities of shopping. Secondly the standard of education is also very high in big cities. People have many oportunities and it’s also much easier to find a well paid job.Teenagers can receive a good education in big cities because universities have different subjects. So, an argument in favour of living in a big city is that students can have more choices for their future careers. In a big city there are many people that you don't know and you can make many friends comparative to a small town where people always know something about you. Also famous singers or personalities come in big cities so you c an meet your favourite singer and take an autograph. Lastly big cities have other conveniences like airports and good hospitals.I think that to many teenagers big cities are exciting while the small towns are boring. Coming down to me I prefer living in a small town than in a big city because I don’t like noise and crowded places. I stayed in Bucharest for 2 weeks and it was too long for me. I had never ever been so tired than that time. Every night I had heard motorcycles, cars, dogs, horns, people talking very loudly. The first advantage of living in a small town is a healthy life. One of the conditions that helps us to be healthy is good weather and less population that exist in a small town.Also, in a small town there are less crowded and less traffic. Living in a place with less pollution such as air pollution or sound pollution helps us to have a healthier life and one of the main consequences is less stress and more happiness. In addition, in a small town foods and mat erials we need are healthier than in big cities. Therefore living in small towns is healthier than in big cities. Secondly, another advantage of small towns is living costs which is cheaper than in big cities.In particular, in a small town we can live in big houses with beautiful landscapes. Transportation cost is less than in big cities and we have less traffic so that we can save time and money. In conclusion, I prefer to live in a small town and I think it has some advantages such as less stress. In small town people know each other and have better relationships together than big cities therefore, in my opinion, in big cities people feel alone and depress. And it is obvious that people in small town have more happiness and friendships and less illness.