The Project Management Professional ( Pmp ) Essay

The Project Management Professional (PMP) is one of the few certification categories where bonus pay is still climbing upward. â€Å"Bonus pay awarded to PMP certificate holders grew by 15% in the second quarter (Moad, J. (2003)†. â€Å"At least, it is when you re talking about bonus pay or impressing hiring managers. After all, there s nothing like the letters PMP (Project Management Professional) plastered on a resume to catch some attention†. While the PMP certification is marketed to professionals holding college degrees, the question remains unanswered, is if fair to say, â€Å"professionals meeting the academic qualifications, can in fact, pass the PMP exam†? It depends on how bad they want it. In this day and age where everyone is doing what ever it takes to get an advantage over the next person so that they can receive the elusive job or promotion. It use to be just an advance degree was sufficient enough to separate your self from the crowd. Now it would seem that every one has an advance degree at least a great deal of the population that is competing for jobs have advance degrees. Especially in the Information technology field you have to do something to stand out from the rest of the people. There are many different certifications in the information technology field but now as elusive as the Project Management Professionals certification. The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is one of the most prestigious certifications in search of,Show MoreRelatedPMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) credential is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers1642 Words   |  7 Pages Answer 1) PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) credential is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers. Globally recognized and demanded, the PMP ® demonstrates that you have the experience, education and competency to lead and direct projects. The steps involved in acquiring a PMP credential are 1) Application Submission: We have 90 days to complete the application, once we have started. 2) Application Completeness review: After application has beenRead MoreWhy We Need Pmp Certification717 Words   |  3 PagesPMP is one of the most highly recognized and high value certifications in the market. Unlike other certifications, PMP can not be just passed through reading and memorizing the books. You should have a well plan and preparation to clear the exam. That is the reason PMP exam is having more value in the market. Why we need PMP certification? During the last 10 years, there has been a shift towards specialized certifications globally. Although it is important to get a proper college degree, but theRead MoreProject Management : A Project Manager1747 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Project management (PM) is the vocation of seeing that projects are completed on time, within budget, and perform to the standard that the stakeholders are expecting. There are PM degrees available at the Associate, Bachelor, Graduate, and Ph.D. levels of study; degrees are available on campus and online from many well-known and highly rated institutes. However, many employers view the Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate as even more important than a degree. Project managersRead MorePmi, Or Project Management, The World s Biggest Non Profit Membership Association For Profession987 Words   |  4 PagesWhat is PMI? The PMI, or Project Management Institute, the world’s biggest non-profit membership association for profession of project management. PMI is actively engaged in advocacy for the profession, setting professional standards, conducting research and providing access to a wealth of information and resources. PMI also promotes career and professional and offers certification, networking and community involvement opportunities. For more than 46 years, it has advanced the careers of practitionersRead MoreThe Importance of Training Project Managers725 Words   |  3 Pagescomplex projects are deemed unsuccessful because project managers that do not have the proper training on managing projects and end up mismanage them (Kwak, Anbari, 2009). As companies realized this, they started to research the various attributes that contributed to project failures, however in many cases the people running the projects were not examined. In the 1990s, certain industries noticed that many project managers needed to be properly trained and since then require that project managersRead MoreGrowing Project Complexity Demands More Efficient Way For Managing Communication And Workflows873 Words   |  4 PagesGrowing project complexity demands more efficient way to manage communication and workflows. Collaboration became central to the PM and having a software that allows project artifacts to be created easily shared and updated , that provides web-based access and critical function such as automatic distribution and notification are crucial to enhance the productivity . Agile project management that has been given as much attention in the recent years is in growing popularity for the next decades. SlightlyRead MorePmp Certification Training : Project Management Essay878 Words   |  4 PagesPMP Certification Training Denver At PMTC, our Denver PMP Certification Exam Prep Training Class is the bellwether of Project Management Professional (PMP) prep courses. With a focus on the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) PMBOK Guide, our instructors lead a 4-day training session designed to help project managers understand and recall all the process groups, knowledge areas, and the interactions between the two throughout the project management lifecycle. We Simplify the Project ManagementRead MoreCertification Requirements For Project Management Essay849 Words   |  4 Pages CompTIA Project+ is a globally recognized certification for project managers. It is a requirement for many companies hiring project managers. The certification gives an employee credit amongst stakeholders and customers. It also helps in promotions or maybe getting a better paycheck than someone who does not have the certification. Standing out and shining in a career is important and CompTIA will do that for you in this field. All this goes for PMP certification too. In fact, Project + is a greatRead MoreA Survey On Technology Industry Association1041 Words   |  5 PagesCertifications don’t just look impressive to hang on your office wall. They can make the difference that lands to the next job. A survey of technology processionals showed that it pays to be both cleared and certified. Average salaries for certified clear professionals between ten an d twenty percent higher. So why IT security knowledge is important? It is well known that threats to our data, be it commercial or personas have been on a rise recently. The best defense against such threats is to be well informedRead MoreProject Analysis : Comptia Project + And Pmp928 Words   |  4 Pages CompTIA Project+ VS PMP Kim, Han Saem University Of Mount Olive CompTIA is a non-profit industry that certifies individuals so it can supply trained employees to a demanding computing information technology industry. CompTIA provides multiple selections of certifications such as, A+, Network+, Security+, CASP +, Server +, and more in order to prepare the individuals for the workforce. The CompTIA Project +, which is one of the popular certification on compTIA, is an exam designed

Erickson - 888 Words

Erikson s theory of personality Main article: Erikson s stages of psychosocial development Erikson was a Neo-Freudian. He has been described as an ego psychologist studying the stages of development, spanning the entire lifespan. Each of Erikson s stages of psychosocial development is marked by a conflict for which successful resolution will result in a favourable outcome, and by an important event that this conflict resolves itself around. Favorable outcomes of each stage are sometimes known as virtues, a term used in the context of Erikson s work as it is applied to medicine, meaning potencies. Erikson s research suggests that each individual must learn how to hold both extremes of each specific life-stage†¦show more content†¦3.Purpose - Initiative vs. Guilt - Preschool / 3–6 years - Does the child have the ability to or do things on their own, such as dress him or herself? If guilty about making his or her own choices, the child will not function well. Erikson has a positive outlook on this stage, saying that most guilt is quickly compensated by a sense of accomplishment. 4.Competence - Industry vs. Inferiority - School-age / 6-11. Child comparing self-worth to others (such as in a classroom environment). Child can recognize major disparities in personal abilities relative to other children. Erikson places some emphasis on the teacher, who should ensure that children do not feel inferior. 5.Fidelity - Identity vs. Role Confusion - Adolescent / 12 years till 20. Questioning of self. Who am I, how do I fit in? Where am I going in life? Erikson believes, that if the parents allow the child to explore, they will conclude their own identity. However, if the parents continually push him/her to conform to their views, the teen will face identity confusion. 6.Intimacy vs. isolation - This is the first stage of adult development. This development usually happens during young adulthood, which is between the ages of 20 to 24. Dating, marriage, family a nd friendships are important during the stage in their life. By successfully forming loving relationships with other people, individuals are able to experience love and intimacy. Those who fail to form lastingShow MoreRelatedErickson: The Stages of Development954 Words   |  4 Pages Erickson Stages Erickson thought development was not gradual and and occurred through steps kind of like Freud. His steps were based on biological maturation, important new knowledge, and conflicts. He developed eight steps that focused on the changing of personality and developing your identity. Erickson developments stages differed from Freuds because Erickson focused on social environment and not sexual drives. Erickson believed that each stage in a person life that have to over come aRead More`` Precious `` By Erik Erickson818 Words   |  4 PagesClaireece â€Å"Precious â€Å"Jones is 16 years old. According to her age she is Identity vs. Identity Confusion stage of development according to Erik Erickson. This stage occurs during adolescence between the ages of approximately 12 to 18. Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. During this stage, adolescents explore their independence and develop a sense of self (Cherry, 2015). In the beginning Precious did not have a sense of Identity. Precious was disoriented as she was failingRead MoreErickson s Theory Of Development1382 Words   |  6 PagesErickson has developed a psychosocial theory, which was modeled on Freud s model of psychosexual theory. Erickson s theory extends the number of life stages in order to encompass the entire life. Erickson expanded the principles of psychosocial development beyond childhood and theorized that the ego itself is shaped and transformed not only by biological and psychological forces, but also social factors. This was a new perspective because Freud s theory didn t use any other factors for developmentRead MoreAnalysis Of Erick Erickson Theory748 Words   |  3 PagesErick Erickson was one of the most profound theorists of psychosocial development which are comprised of eight stages. His concepts were the ones I could identify with prior to taking Human Growth and Development course. This theory is based on the stages in which certain types of conflicts a re being resolved which trigger conflicts at various stages. My knowledge of Erick Erickson is he placed high emphasizes on the impact culture and society has on the ego logical level. Before taking Human GrowthRead MoreEssay on Freud V Erickson1371 Words   |  6 Pagesterms as the desire to release mental energy. This lasts until puberty, when mature genital development begins, and the pleasure drive refocuses around the genital area.(Amacher) It was also a friend and fellow psychoanalyst of Freud’s, Erik Erickson, who created one of the major theories that open a window to the development of everything that makes us who we are on the inside. It is referred to as Erickson’s Theory of Human Development and it simplifies the complex topic of human personalityRead MoreErick Erickson : Identity And Identity1885 Words   |  8 Pages Erick Erickson, identity was the core issue, his own sense of self were complex. His attractive mother Karla Abrahamsen, she was Danish from a very comfortable, middle class Jewish family. On their honeymoon in Rome, she parted from her first husband. He traveled abroad and she never seen him again. Erickson was born a few years later in Germany in 1902, where she stayed with some aunts. Erickson never knew who his biological father was. His mother would never tell them (Erick Erickson, sharperRead MoreErickson ´s Identity Formation617 Words   |  2 PagesAccording to Eriks on (1950), identity formation is a period during adolescence (starting in puberty to late teens and towards early/middle adulthood) where one experiences a crisis (a choice). During this crisis, adolescents are making choices about their ideology (the ways in which they view the world) and their career (who are they going to be in the world). Adolescence is also characterized by the commitments and personal investments one makes to these choices. This is a crucial point in one’sRead MoreThe, The Hungry Cowboy, By Karla A. Erickson Essay1164 Words   |  5 PagesINTRODUCTION: Does the race/ethnicity of Saint Mary’s students affect the interactions to the Sodexo workers? This question was inspired through a book called, The Hungry Cowboy, by Karla A. Erickson, who participated in her own observations in a restaurant viewing the social interactions among the people in the restaurant. The idea of observing and participating in social observations involved more than just asking people questions or sending out a survey, it is actively being a part of the observationRead MoreErik Erickson s Theory Of Development1015 Words   |  5 PagesErik Erickson’s Theory of Development Erickson does not discuss psychosexual stages like Freud, but rather, psychosocial stages. There are eight different stages in this development theory, which may seem like a lot, but it delves deep into multiple stages and ages of life. Similar to Freud, he believes that a crisis happens at each stage of development, â€Å"these crises are of a psychosocial nature because they involve psychological needs of the individual (i.e. psycho) conflicting with the needsRead MorePsychological and Physical Aspects of Hypnosis and the Role of Relaxation in Hypnotherapy2052 Words   |  9 Pagesinfluence. Hypnosis can be used in many ways such as stage entertainment, therapy and as a means of investigation. For example Milton Erickson who is known as the father of modern hypnosis said â€Å"You use hypnosis not as a cure but as a means of establishing a favourable climate in which to learn.† (1 Erickson http://pfti.org/great-teachers/milton-erickson-2/milton-erickson-quotes/), this is a great way of looking at the use of hypnosis in therapy. Hypnosis is still very much clouded by scepticism and

The Government Of India Environmental Sciences Essay Free Essays

string(73) " of 1972 empowers the province authorities to represent national Parkss\." India, our fatherland, is a colossal state both in footings of its topography and history. Its measuring is so titanic that it is frequently described as a ‘sub-continent ‘ portion of the Asiatic continent and yet looking like a continent in itself. It sprawls between the white highs of the Himalaya and the shores of the Indian Ocean, which washes the land for 1000s of kilometers from the delta of the Ganga in West Bengal to Kachchh in Gujarat, a small to the E of the oral cavity of the Indus. We will write a custom essay sample on The Government Of India Environmental Sciences Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now The land encompasses the huge sweeps of the northern fields, the littorals of the Thar on the West, Indo-Myanmar hills on the E, the uneven tableland surface, the antediluvian hills and the coconut bring forthing coastal fields on the South and the exalted snow-capped mountains on the North. The state gets an abundant of sunlight from the tropical Sun and the wet from the sprinkling monsoon rains. The two elements together exercising enormous influence on the fate of its pullulating 1000000s. This is India, our fatherland, the dispenser of our fate with astonishing steadiness, disputing stage, and still changing like the agreements in a kaleidoscope. PROTECTED AREAS: The Government of India enacted Wild Life ( Protection ) Act 1972 with the aim of efficaciously protecting the wild life of this state and to command poaching, smuggling and illegal trade in wildlife and its derived functions, the Act was amended in January 2003 and penalty and punishment for offenses under the Act have been made more rigorous, the Ministry has proposed farther amendments in the jurisprudence by presenting more stiff steps to beef up the Act with an aim of supplying protection to the endangered vegetations and zoologies and ecologically of import protected countries[ 1 ]. Protected country is a wide term given chiefly to national Parkss and wildlife sanctuaries meant for affording protection to wild animate beings and their home ground. They besides comprise game militias and biosphere militias. Protected countries have been set up all over the universe with the unambiguous purpose of guarding and conserving zoologies and vegetations. In India excessively these have been set up in assorted parts of the state. The thought of making protected countries for conserving and protecting wild animate beings and their home ground is non new to India. In ancient times excessively male monarchs and other swayers set aside game preserves though these were meant more for runing than for protecting wild animate beings. Even during the British period many swayers had hiting conserves which were subsequently accorded the position of protected countries, e.g. Bharatpur national park. Many protected countries have been created after the passage of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. The province authoritiess are empowered to represent national Parkss and wildlife sanctuaries. The cardinal authorities has been armed with more powers under the 42nd constitutional amendment with respects to woods and wildlife. It is a well-accepted fact that at least 5 % of the entire geographical country of India should be set aside as protected country for best consequences so far as wildlife is concerned. Policy formation for the wildlife protection and preservation is made by National Board for Wildlife ( NBWL ) , which is headed by the Prime Minister of India. In order to underscore the people ‘s engagement and their support to protect wildlife a National Wildlife Action Plan ( 2002-2016 ) was adopted in 2002. The policies and be aftering on wildlife preservation, is really much guided by the Federal Ministry and every bit far as Forests Departments are concerned they play a really important function in the execution of the policies for the preservation of wildlife. A web of 668 Protected Areas ( PAs ) has been established, widening over 1,61,221.57 sq. kilometer. ( 4.90 % of entire geographic country ) , consisting 102 National Parks, 515 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 47 Conservation Militias and 4 Community Reserves, 39 Tiger Reserves and 28 Elephant Militias have been designated for species specific direction of tiger and elephant home grounds[ 2 ]. Five protected countries has bee n declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. There are 5 classs of the Protected Areas viz, National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Biosphere militias, Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves. National PARKS: The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 empowers the province authorities to represent national Parkss. You read "The Government Of India Environmental Sciences Essay" in category "Essay examples" It states, â€Å" whenever it appears to the province authorities that an country whether within a sanctuary or non is by ground of its ecological, faunal, flowered, structural or zoological association or importance needed to be constituted as a national park for the intent of propagating or developing wildlife therein or its environment, it may by presentment declare its purpose to represent such an country as a national park. † In order to represent an country into a national park some processs are expected to follow and few of them are counted below: The aggregator makes an question and hearing for rights and grants after that the province authorities through a specific presentment declares an country to be constituted into a national park. Alterations can be made in the frontiers of the national Parkss merely through a declaration by the legislative assembly of the province. All sorts of devastation, development or remotion of woods merchandises, wildlife, teguments, trophies, or their home ground in a national park is banned and prohibited. In national Parkss cowss croping are non allowed. For the intent of a scientific survey or research the gaining control of animate beings can be done merely with the consent and permission of the Chief Wildlife Warden. Within the bounds of national park no 1 can put to death detonation, execute excavation or breakage of land. Chief Wildlife Warden can curtail the entry of human existences in some certain parts of the national Parkss. Permanent abode is prohibited in the premises of a national park if there is any small town it should be shifted to some other countries. WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES: The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 empowers the province authoritiess to represent an country into a wildlife sanctuary after following the prescribed process for question and hearings into the bing rights and grants if any[ 3 ]. The province can declare an country into a wildlife sanctuary which it thinks can be helpful in protecting, propagating or developing the ecology, vegetations and zoologies, geomorphology, wildlife and its environment. The legal commissariats of the wildlife sanctuaries are given below: An question is made by the aggregator sing the being, nature, and extent of rights of individuals populating on the proposed country on which the province authorities wants to represent a sanctuary. After looking into the issues of the rights of the people whose lands are to be acquired a fresh presentment is issued by the aggregator. Free motion of the people is prohibited inside a sanctuary. But lasting occupant can make so with some conditions that they assist in the sensing of offenses, study about deceasing and dead animate beings and in groking the wrongdoers. For the intent of research, survey, touristry or related activity the permission of the Chief Wildlife Warden must be taken ; it can be charged or may be free. To transport arms inside the sanctuary, permission of the competent authorization must be taken. No commercial activity is allowed in a sanctuary. BIOSPHERE RESERVES: In order to protect the workss and animate beings, preserve their diverseness for the present and future homo usage within their natural ecosystems, this construct of pull offing vegetations and zoologies lead to the outgrowth of biosphere militias. Biosphere militias are protected countries of several tellurian, coastal and marine environments that have been internationally recognised for their value in supplying scientific cognition, accomplishments and human values to back up sustainable development[ 4 ]. From each biosphere militias following three maps are expected to be fulfilled: a preservation map – to lend to the preservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and familial fluctuation[ 5 ], a development map – to further economic and human development which is sociocultural and ecologically sustainable[ 6 ], a logistic map – to supply support for research, monitoring, instruction and information exchange related to local, national and planetary issues of preservation and development[ 7 ]. CONSERVATION RESERVES: They can be declared by the State Governments in any country owned by the Government, peculiarly the countries adjacent to National Parks and Sanctuaries and those countries which link one Protected Area with another, such declaration should be made after holding audiences with the local communities with a intent of protecting landscapes, seascapes, vegetations and zoologies and their home ground[ 8 ]. It does non impact the rights of people populating inside a Conservation Reserve. COMMUNITY RESERVES: They can be declared by the State Government in any private or community land, non comprised within a National Park, Sanctuary or a Conservation Reserve, where an person or a community has volunteered to conserve wildlife and its home ground. Community Reserves are declared for the intent of protecting zoology, vegetation and traditional or cultural preservation values and patterns. As in the instance of a Conservation Reserve, the rights of people populating inside a Community Reserve are non affected. DISTINCTION BETWEEN NATIONAL PARK, SANCTUARY and BIOSPHERE RESERVES: NATIONAL PARK Habitat for peculiar wild carnal species. The general size scope is 0.04 to 3162 sq. kilometer. Boundaries fixed by statute law. Except the buffer zone no biotic intervention. Tourism allowable. Research and scientific direction lacking. So far no cistron pool and preservation. Sanctuary By and large, species-oriented such as citrous fruit, hurler works, etc. The general size scope is 0.61 to 7818 kilometer. Boundaries are non inviolable. Limited biotic intervention. Tourism allowable. Research and scientific direction lacking. So far no cistron pool and preservation. BIOSPHERE RESERVE Ecosystem oriented i.e. all signifiers of life. The general size scope is over 5670 sq. kilometer. Boundaries fixed by statute law. Except the buffer zone, no biotic intervention. Tourism usually non allowable. Managed attending is given. Purpose FOR THE FORMATION OF PROTECTED AREAS AND NATIONAL PARKS: With big regional fluctuations in physical geography, clime and edaphic types as mentioned above, Indian woods offer a broad scope of home ground types, which is responsible for a big assortment of wildlife in India. Wildlife comprises animate beings, birds and insects populating in woods. There are about 76,000 species in India, which is about 82 % of the known life species of the universe. Nature has bequeathed our fatherland with more than two 1000 species of birds, more than five 100 species of mammals and 100s of species of reptilians and amphibious vehicles. As we all know that the forest screen in our state is deteriorating at a really fast gait and because of this wildlife is acquiring grandiose really adversely. The figure of several species has been drastically reduced, some are endangered species and the others are on the brink of extinction while some of them have already disappeared. Some of them are the olympian Lion, elusive Snow Leopard, one-horned Rhinoceros, Elephant, rare lion-tailed Macaque, aureate Eagle, western Tragopan and Monal Pheasant. In order to protect natural flora, wildlife, endangered species, preserve familial diverseness and to keep a balance in ecosystem assorted national Parkss, sanctuaries and biospheres came into being. Indian Board for Wildlife was established in 1952. The chief intent of the board was to rede the Government on the agencies of preservation and protection of wildlife, building of national Parkss, sanctuaries and zoological gardens every bit good as exciting civic awareness vis-a-vis safeguarding of vegetations and zoologies. Then came the Wildlife ( protection ) Act, 1972 which is a comprehensive jurisprudence that gives house position to the national Parkss and sanctuaries and other militias, extends statutory precautions to the full geographical country, prescribe potent control over the trade and traffic in wild animate beings and carnal articles puting down hindrance penalties for the reprobates. Threatened and disappearing species of vegetations and zoologies have been taken under the horizon of this act. Some other grounds which are really much responsible for the formation of protected countries to protect and conserve our bio-diversity are devastation of wild workss of woods for lumber, wood coal and firewood frequently deprives wild animate beings their most toothsome nutrient and affects their endurance, absence of screens or shelter to wild animate beings, noise pollution by different conveyance media and fouling river H2O have adversely affected wild animate beings runing methods of all sorts and for any intent ( that is, nutrient, diversion, pelt, feather, ivory, horn etc. ) . How to cite The Government Of India Environmental Sciences Essay, Essay examples

Circular Economy Globalization

Question: Discuss about theCircular Economyfor Globalization. Answer: Introduction In this era if globalization, organizations have expanded in different parts of the world. The economies of various countries have expanded and the demand has increased exponentially. It is practically not possible to keep serving the demands of global population without sustainable development and recycling and these two concepts are the basis of circular economy. A circular economy seeks to rebuild capital, whether this is financial, manufactured, human, social or natural (Tukker, 2015). This ensures enhanced flows of goods and services. The objective of this report is to discuss the key benefits of circular economy. This report would discuss the key potential of the circular economy and the benefit that this system can bring for Australian companies. The report is based on the retail industry and it would focus on the ways that can enable the firms in the retail industry to gain competitive advantage through circular economy. Analysis The circular economy is a relatively new concept. The companies in the retail industry in Australia may not be using this concept much. However, the companies in retail industry in America and Europe have already started to focus on circular economy. It is expected that the trend of circular economy would pickup in Australia and there would be more and more firms in Australia that would start focusing on circular economy (Geng, 2016). The companies in the Australian retail segment may be particularly interested in the circular economy as there are various benefits like optimization, cost reduction, etc. The benefits of circular industry for the organizations in retail industry in Australia can be discussed as: Benefits of Circular Economy It is important to mention that circular economy is much more than recycling of goods. It is correct that the environmental impacts are definitely a major benefit of circular economy. However, there also exist various other benefits of circular economy that organizations in retail industry in Australia can not ignore (Golev Corder, 2016). The key benefits of circular economy for the organizations in retail industry can be discussed as: Optimization of Resources With the basic philosophy of circular economy, the organizations can optimize the use of resources. It means that the organizations in retail industry can actually produce more with the same set of resources and it would eventually improve the overall productivity of the organization. Cost Benefits With the focus on circular economy, organizations can actual save certain costs. Usually, organizations would have two types of costs (Halog, 2015). These would be capital expenditure and operation expenditure. The organizations may not be able to optimize the capital expenses. However, the circular economy would definitely provide a platform where the organizations can reduce its operational expenses. This is done through various optimization techniques such as waste management, recycling, multiple use of resources, etc. Sustainable development It is believed that the path of sustainable development could be achieved with the basic philosophy of circular economy. Therefore, it would be correct to say that sustainable development and circular economy goes hand in hand and in fact, circular economy could just be a way to practice sustainable development in the organization. Circular Economy and Competitive Advantage The companies would be able to practice and implement the principles of circular economy only when they realize the value that could be derived from circular economy. It can be said that the organizational design is the key for circular economy. Before focusing on competitive advantage through circular economy, the organizations should have an effective and flexible organizational design. While Winslow Taylor and Henri Fayol significantly impacted how organizations function with the ultimate objective of sustainable development, Elton Mayo impacted contemporary organizational design the most. Fayol took Taylors work and expanded it to eventually create what is the foundation for modern organizational management. There was not a lot of focus on worker satisfaction, but more on structure and management. Although hierarchal structures suggested by Fayol still work in many organizations, such as the military, organizations needed to change when the environment changed. Mayo focused on ho w worker satisfaction affected productivity. He believed that workers, and society in general, were happiest and most productive when conflict was minimal and people had a sense of security, both mentally and economically (Ionescu Negrusa, 2013). Mayo realized that people needed to know they had a place and were important, and that security and general satisfaction in their workplace made them more productive. More secure, happy people equal a more industrious environment. The strategic management theories around competitive advantage suggests that organizations would usually have competitive advantage through one of the two ways of product or service differentiation and cost leadership. With the circular economy, organizations may be able to use cost leadership as competitive advantage (Golev Corder, 2016). With the focus on circular economy, the organizations in retail industry can actually reduce the cost of operations and this could result in competitive advantage through cost leadership. Challenges of Circular Economy It is correct that circular economy has various benefits for multiple stakeholders like organizations, governments and society at large. However, there also exist several challenges of circular economy. One of the biggest challenge is that it may not be easy to change the organizational design or to align the organisational design with the basic theme or philosophy of circular economy (Halog, 2015). Organizational design and development centres around the idea of planned change interventions which should improve the long-term health and performance of any organization. One key factor is that top management must actually buy into the long-range approach to change. Organizational design in todays society has grown to take many factors into consideration when assessing the way organizations should be structured to meet the demands of change. The other key challenge could be the change management challenge. There are several significant elements that ensure successful change in an organization. However, management has to understand that in order for significant change to take place the organization must do an overall assessment of where the organization needs to improvement. With the many dynamics in business today organizations are seeking innovated ways to remain on the cutting edge; out front of the customers. Hass Krausmann (2016) argued that conducting an organizational assessment to determine if and where change is necessary is very important. Organizations should conduct such assessments periodically, perhaps as part of their annual strategic planning activities. According to Kraatz and Zajac (2001), Strategic change has been recognized as an important phenomenon because it represents the means through which organizations maintain coalignment with shifting competitive, technological, and social environments which occasionally pose threats to their continued survival and effectiveness (p. 632). Conclusion and Recommendations The above report discusses the various aspects of circular economy. With the above discussion it can be said that there are various benefits of circular economy; however it is not easy to implement the practices or philosophies of circular economy. Therefore, it is important that the organizations in retail industry and other industries should identify the way to overcome the challenges before taking the steps to implement the basic principles of circular economy. Some of the recommendations for the organizations in the retail industry can be discussed as: It is recommended that the organizations must take the inputs from various stakeholders of the organization. The internal stakeholders like employees are the key (Haas Krausmann, 2016). The organizations in retail industry, the big or the small retail stores should not avoid the discussion with any of the stakeholders before following the principles of circular economy. It is recommended that the organizations should have a structured approach to change management that occurs with the implementation of circular economy. observed that organizations seeking change gothrough a series of steps: idea generation, determination of need, buildingsupport, implementation, and obtaining resources. Idea generation anddetermining need are obviously important, as without good ideas that advance anorganizations goals, nothing will change (Golev Corder, 2016).Implementation and obtaining resources are also obviouslyimportant. After all, without the properfinancial resources, material and equipment, and staff development, even thebest of ideas is doomed to failure. It is recommended that the organizations in retail industry should take a small and gradual steps with circular economy (Figueroa, 2015). The big bang approach may not be the recommended approach. It is important that the organizations should define the small targets and then the progress of the company should be measured against the defined targeted state. The small organizations in the retail industry can also use benchmarking to benchmark their operations and practices against the practices of large organizations in the global retail industry. References Geng, Y., Sarkis, J. and Ulgiati, S., 2016. Sustainability, well-being, and the circular economy in China and worldwide.Science, (6278 (Suppl.)), pp.73-76. Genovese, A., Acquaye, A.A., Figueroa, A. and Koh, S.L., 2015. Sustainable supply chain management and the transition towards a circular economy: Evidence and some applications.Omega. Golev, A. and Corder, G., 2016. Modelling metal flows in the Australian economy.Journal of Cleaner Production,112, pp.4296-4303. Haas, W., Krausmann, F., Wiedenhofer, D. and Heinz, M., 2016. How Circular Is the Global Economy? A Sociometabolic Analysis. InSocial Ecology(pp. 259-275). Springer International Publishing. Ionescu, G. G., Negrusa, A. L. (2013). Elton Mayo, an enthusiastical managerial philosopher. Review of International Comparative Management / Revista De Management Comparat International, 14(5), 671-688. Kraatz, M. S., Zajac, E. J. (2001).How organizational resources affect strategic change and performance in turbulent environments: Theory and evidence.Organization Science, 12(5), 632-657. Pagotto, M. and Halog, A., 2015. Towards a Circular Economy in Australian Agrià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ food Industry: An Application of Inputà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Output Oriented Approaches for Analyzing Resource Efficiency and Competitiveness Potential.Journal of Industrial Ecology. Tukker, A., 2015. Product services for a resource-efficient and circular economya review.Journal of cleaner production,97, pp.76-91.

Miss Brill Essays (804 words) - Miss Brill, Literature, Fiction

Miss Brill The point of view that Katherine Mansfield has chosen to use in Miss Brill serves two purposes. First, it illustrates how Miss Brill herself views the world and, second, it helps the reader take the same journey of burgeoning awareness as Miss Brill. The story is written in a third person omniscient (although limited) point of view. Miss Brill also interprets the world around her in a similar fashion. She is her own narrator, watching people around her and filling in their thoughts to create stories to amuse herself. Compared to most people, Miss Brills thinking is atypical. Generally, in viewing the world around him, a person will acknowledge his own presence and feelings. For example, if something is funny, a person will fleetingly think I find that amusing. While that entire sentence may not consciously cross his mind, the fact that it is humorous is personally related. Miss Brill has no such pattern of thought. She has somehow managed to not include herself in her reactions; she is merely observing actions and words. In this manner, she most resembles the narrator of the story by simply watching and relaying the events around her. This internalized third person point of view is taken even further when Miss Brill decides that the park and everyone in it [is] like a play. It [is] exactly like a play (260). This is the epitome of her detached point of view. Not only is she merely watching the people around her, she is so far removed from them that she feels like a separate audience. This theory that she hits upon then changes, and she decides that she does, in fact, have a part in the play as an actress. Even at this point of inclusion, she does not see herself as a leading lady, but as a mere cast member is the drama that unfolds in the park every Sunday. This seems even more detached. It implies that she is putting on a show rather than behaving and reacting honestly toward her own life. As Miss Brill travels from her isolated existence into self-awareness, the reader is also taken on the same trip. The readers perceptions of Miss Brill during the story mirror and shift along with Miss Brills perceptions about herself. The reader is given no real clues about Miss Brill other than her profession, a teacher, and that she goes to the park every Sunday. Her age is unidentified and hard to guess; the reader is given no connection between Miss Brill and others her age. In fact, Miss Brill comes across as much younger than she is, mainly due to her disdain toward older people. She finds them odd [and] silent . . . from the way they stared they looked as though theyd just come from dark little rooms or even even cupboards! (259). Just as she only focuses on other people, the reader is only told about the people surrounding her at the park. When she decides that she is an actress, the reader gains a similar insight about Miss Brill; she sees her world as an intricate show th at can be thrown out of balance by one absence. At the climax of the story, when the two young lovers comment on her appearance, the reader is suddenly aware of how old Miss Brill really is and how unaware she was about that fact. Miss Brill and the reader experience the shattering of her self image at the same time. For the first time during the story, both the reader and she see how other people see her. At the end of the story, when she puts the fur in its box and [thinks] she hear[s] someone crying (261), the reader is finally shown an emotion belonging to Miss Brill. Mansfields use of third person point of view in this story allowed her to keep Miss Brills fears and realities hidden from the reader. If the reader had been aware of everything from the beginning, there would have been no point at all to the story. Carefully revealing pieces of Miss Brills character through this point of view illustrated her own passage into a new reality. Keeping the

Australian Workplace Political Changes - The Industrial Relations Act in 2006

Australian Workplace Political Changes - The Industrial Relations Act in 2006 The Howard Government's Industrial Relations Changes The proposed changes by the Howard government in 2005 with regard to Industrial Relations have caused extensive controversy. These amendments to Australian Labour Law are the most dramatic for almost a century and are set to entirely re-shape the relations between employer and employee, causing many diverse and strong views on the issue. A key feature of the change is that the Government has used its constitutional power to regulate business corporations as the basis of its single, national industrial relations system. This means that 85% of workers are now under the arrangements of the Federal government and has left State industrial relations systems with the minority of workers.A major alteration to the workplace laws is the simplification of industrial awards. For almost a century there have been thousands of different awards, with conditions specific to particular jobs and the industry of the employee.Photo of Kim Beazley, tak en at Parliament House, C...These are set to be minimised with a simpler standard of award wages. This aspect of the changes is known as award rationalisation and it is planned that the previous number of awards, around 4000, will be reduced to only 100. A new body has also been formed, called the Australian Fair Pay Commission, which is in charge of setting minimum adult wages and award rates. It is expected that this new organisation won't increase award wages at the same rate, nor to the extent of the Safety Net of previous years. The Australian Fair Pay Commission will also provide uniform minimum standards for annual leave, personal leave, and maximum ordinary hours of work and minimum wages. Although awards still provide minimum wages, other conditions can now be eliminated from workplace agreements. These include guaranteed penalty rates, overtime and redundancy pay. Due to this, employers are more likely...

The Clarinet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Clarinet - Essay Example Similarly, as I have been a musician since I was twelve, and because of my deep passion for it, describing the musical instrument ‘clarinet’ appears to be a simple objective for me to accomplish. Most of the people are very fond of clarinet’s music, but many dont really know much about this instrument. But I hope to describe it in such a manner that a pretty good idea of the same could emerge in my readers’ mind. The clarinet is an instrument from the woodwind family. It acquires its name from the word clarino, which means a particular type of ‘trumpet’ and prefixed to net which means ‘little’. Thus the word ‘clarinet’ can be taken to mean as ‘a little instrument which sounds almost like trumpet.’ The woodwind family has three branches, and each has a different source of sound. The sounds are made in clarinet through the vibrations that are made by blowing air across the top of this instrument, across a si ngle reed or in some cases across two reeds. The reed is clamped to a mouthpiece at the top of the instrument and vibrates against the mouthpiece when air is blown between the reed and the mouthpiece. In cases where two reeds are tied together and used in a clarinet, such instruments are known as double reed clarinets. The clarinet’s body is slender and long, and it accommodates some metal keys which can be pressed to play different notes. Made from wood, the clarinet produces a fluid sound when air is blown between the reed and the mouthpiece. Most of the clarinetists buy manufactured reeds while some of them make their own.

MKTG 4050- The Marketing of Osteoporosis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MKTG 4050- The Marketing of Osteoporosis - Essay Example asers) that there is efficacy in taking these products as shown from the improved health condition that alleviates pain and suffering from osteoporosis. From the point of view of manufacturers, for instance, the critical positioning or selection process to be decided on would include price of the product, efficacy, propensities for side-effects (safety), and availability (or ease of access) and the overall satisfaction to be derived from the drug. If one were to manufacture the most effective drug for osteoporosis, given the product feature characteristics and the value positioning noted above, the most important value that one would focus on is efficacy, or the ability of the drug to provide the desired effect (as promised) at the most immediate time frame, with the least side-effects. Focusing on this product feature would ensure that the customers would be satisfied with the drug, and would essentially purchase it despite applying premium strategies in price or place, as needed. Meaning, even if one would position the brand to be a little higher priced and to be offered in locations that are far or limited, customers would still seek to purchase this product due to the effectiveness of alleviating pain and improving the health condition of patients with osteoporosis, when compared to other drugs. Lessons to Learn From Traditional B2B Marketing." 11 January 2010. Slide Share, Inc. 9 October 2012

Death in the laboratory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Death in the laboratory - Essay Example Due to the nature of the evidence, it is most likely that the Count who was discovered dead in a laboratory on 21 September died as a result of the injury caused to his body through the assault of his disease. Upon entering the scene, the body of the Count was displayed in such a way to suggest that he had fallen at the point of his death. One leg was at an awkward angle and his arm was thrown behind his back. Initial point of view suggested that he his death had been caused in such a way that he was surprised and not prepared for the fall. Since there was no evidence of bodily injury, the initial overview of the laboratory suggested that perhaps he had suffered from some sort of poisoning, either through the still open food that sat near his body or the cigarette that still had some length to it, but was no longer burning as if it had been snubbed out previous to consuming the meal. In addition, a video on safety and health was in the DVD player, along with research on the effects of the drug therapy cisplatin for use in ovarian and blood cancers. Chloroform and liquid nitrogen were also found on the scene. Further investigation into the meaning of the research revealed that it was cente red on the manipulation of DNA towards the goal of creating a successful type of gene therapy. The initial investigation into the Count’s financial life revealed that he had become near to bankruptcy, his bank account drained of what had originally been a significant savings only a short time ago, now overdrawn. Near his body was found a series of pharmaceuticals that have a specific purpose that was identified. Cisplatin, oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and folinic acid were all found arranged on a surface near the body. Oxaliplatin is used in combination with cisplatin when innate or acquired resistance to the cisplatin therapy exists (International Symposium on Platinum Coordination Compounds in Cancer Chemotherapy, and

Trait Paradigm of Psychology for Intelligence

Trait Paradigm of Psychology for Intelligence Trait Paradigm of Psychology and How It Applies To the Measurement of Intelligence and Personality: An Explanation It has long been observed that individuals differ one from another on many psychological dimensions. This is why Cervone and Lawrence (2007) say that traits, the primary unit of personality description, are relatively enduring ways in which individuals differ. Assessment at the level of traits is variable centered and nomothetic, focusing on differences among individuals, as opposed to the person-centered and idio-graphic approach that focuses on individuals, and that typically characterises assessment at deeper and more abstract levels of personality. An area of intense interest among psychologists is the measurement of individual differences in personality. Lubinski (2004) mentions personality is commonly defined as the constellation of traits, or typical and relatively stable patterns of responding to the environment, which are unique to various individuals. An important focus of educational psychology is the assessment of these traits and other related psychological attributes su ch as interests, preferences, and attitudes (Lubinski, 2004). Personality traits describe individual differences in human beings typical ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling, and behaving that are generally consistent over time and across situations. Three major research areas are central to trait psychology. First, trait psychologists have attempted to identify sets of basic traits that adequately describe between-person variation in human personality. Second, social scientists across disciplines use personality traits to predict behavior and life outcomes. Third, trait psychologists attempt to understand the nature of behavioral consistency and the coherence of the person in relation to situational influences. Cervone and Lawrence (2007) mention that there are two prominent approaches to identifying the basic personality traits and their organizational structure (McCrae and John 1992). The lexical approach emphasizes the evaluation of personality trait adjectives in the natural language lexicon and assumes that those personality descriptors encoded in everyday language reflect important individual differences, particularly if they are found across languages. The questionnaire approach attempts to assess important traits derived from psychologically based and biologically based personality theories. Self- and peerratings on sets of lexically derived or theoretically derived traits have typically been subjected to factor analysis to develop hierarchical organizations of traits reflecting a small number of broad superordinate dimensions overarching a large number of narrow-band traits. At the superordinate level, contemporary trait structural models vary in the number of dimensions necessary to organize lower-order traits, ranging from two to sixteen. Each of these models can be assessed via self- and peer-report using reliable and well-validated questionnaires and rating forms (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). In the most influential and widely used structural model, thirty traits are hierarchically organized into five broad bipolar dimensions, reflecting a convergence of the Big Five lexical traits and the questionnaire-based five-factor model. The Big Five/FFM dimensions are neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Adherents of the Big Five/FFM model assert that these dimensions can be found across languages and personality measures, providing a comprehensive and parsimonious account of individual differences in personality (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). Contemporary research on the heritability of traits has focused on the Big Five/FFM dimensions. Behavioral genetic studies have found substantial heritability ranging from 41 percent to 61 percent for the broad dimensions, with little evidence of shared environmental effects (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). Heritability of the narrowband traits of the FFM is more modest, ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent. It is widely believed that traits are influenced by multiple genes; molecular genetic studies, however, have not replicated results linking specific genes to personality traits. In addition to the genetic correlates of traits, promising new efforts by neuropsychologists using functional brain imaging and electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings have begun to reveal the neural basis for traits. Trait theory has been applied to industrial/organizational psychology where it has been used to predict employee satisfaction and job performance. Personality traits have also been of interest to forensic psychologists in predicting psychopathic and deviant behavior. Other areas in which traits have been successfully employed include: predicting mate selection as well as marital satisfaction, social psychology, counseling, studies of human development across the lifespan, cross-cultural studies, learning and educational outcomes, and health-related behaviors and outcomes (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). Individuals differ from one another behaviorally in myriad ways. Differential psychology, the scientific study of these individual differences, provides an organizational structure for this vast array of psychological attributes (Lubinski, 2004). In words of Cervone and Lawrence (2007) by examining broad behavioral patterns and using systematic assessments of relatively stable personal attributes, differential psychology allows longitudinal forecasting of a variety of important life outcomes. Because much of the research in this area focuses particular attention on predicting long-term life outcomes, and because work is such a large and important feature of adult life, the relationships between many commonly investigated individual difference constructs and various aspects of work behavior. For example educational-vocational choice, acquisition of job-related knowledge, job performance, job satisfaction and tenure are well understood. Traditionally, the measurement of individual differences has relied on psychometric scales based on the aggregation of many items. Because any single item on a scale represents only a sliver of information about a personal attribute, aggregation is used to create a composite of several lightly correlated items. This approach distills the communality running through the items and constitutes highly reliable and useful information about the human characteristic under analysis (Gottfredson, 2003). Although individuals are commonly described in the more popular press in terms of types, implying that people are members of distinct categories (e.g., extraverts or introverts), individual difference variables are rarely observed as discrete classes. Rather, the majority of individuals are found near the center of a continuous distribution, with few observations at either extreme. The distributional pattern of most individual difference variables is well represented by the normal (bell-shaped) curve (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). The major dimensions of individual differences can be classified into three overlapping clusters: cognitive abilities, preferences (interests and values), and personality (Gottfredson, 2003). The predominant scientific conceptualization of cognitive abilities involves a hierarchical organization. Various models of additional specific abilities have been proposed, but the hierarchical nature of human abilities is salient in each (Lubinski, 2000). For example, John Carroll factor analyzed more than 460 data sets collected throughout the 20th century and found a general factor (g) at the apex that explained approximately half of the common variance among a heterogeneous collection of tests, revealing a communality running through many different types of more specialized abilities and the tests designed to measure them. This general intelligence factor exhibits an extensive range of external correlates, implicating it as arguably the most scientifically significant dimension of human psychological diversity uncovered by differential psychology to date. It has repeatedly demonstrated its utility in the prediction of educationally and vocationally relevant outcomes, including the acquisition of job-related knowledge and job performance (Lubinski, 2000). For example, in a meta-analysis of 85 years of research on personnel selection methods, Frank Schmidt and John Hunter reported that g is the best single predictor of performance in job-training programs, exhibiting an average validity coefficient of .56. Schmidt and Hunter further reported that the validity of g in predicting job performance is second only to that of work sample measures. However, because the use of work samples is limited to use with incumbents and is much costlier to implement, g is usually considered more efficient. The predictive validity of g in forecasting job performance varies as a function of job complexity, with stronger relationships among more complex positions. Hunter reports validity coefficients of .58 for professional and managerial positions, .56 for highly technical jobs, .40 for semiskilled labor, and .23 for unskilled labor. For the majority of jobs (62%), those classified as medium-complexity, a validity coefficient of .51 was observed. The general factor of intelligence is supplemented by several more circumscribed, specific abilities that have demonstrated psychological importance. David Lubinski and his colleagues have shown that at least three add incremental validity to the variance-explained by g: verbal, mathematical, and spatial abilities. The importance of specific abilities may be even more apparent at higher levels of functioning (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). In examinations of numerous job analysis data sets, for example, Linda Gottfredson found that, although the functional duties of jobs were characterized primarily by their cognitive complexity (i.e., demands on general intelligence), jobs requiring above-average intelligence were more dependent on profiles of specific abilities than were those jobs requiring average or below average general intelligence (Lillienfeld, Wood and Garb, 2000). Dpecific abilities are relevant in the prediction of job performance, but they are also important in predicting the educational and vocational niches into which individuals self-select. This self-selection occurs even at extraordinary levels of general intellectual development. In a recent 10-year longitudinal study, for example, Lubinski compared the educational-vocational tracks chosen by three groups of profoundly gifted individuals (top 1 in 10,000 for their age): a high verbal group (individuals with advanced verbal reasoning ability, relative to their mathematical ability), a high math group (individuals with advanced mathematical reasoning ability, relative to their verbal ability), and a high flat profile group (individuals with comparably high verbal and mathematical abilities). Despite having similar levels of general cognitive ability, the three groups diverged in their professional developmental choices (Lillienfeld, Wood and Garb, 2000). High math participants were frequ ently pursuing training in scientific and technological professions, whereas high verbal participants were doing so in the humanities and arts. High flat participants were intermediate. Hollands model of interests organizes six general occupational themes in a hexagon with one theme at each vertex in the hexagon. The themes are ordered according to their pattern of inter-correlations: Adjacent themes in the hexagon are more highly correlated to one another, whereas opposite themes are least correlated. This model is known as the RIASEC model, an acronym for the six themes represented in the hexagon: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional (Cervone and Lawrence, 2007). Individuals with high realistic interests exhibit preferences for working with things and tools; those with high investigative interests enjoy scientific pursuits; high artistic interests reflect desires for aesthetic pursuits and self-expression; social interests involve preferences for contact with people and opportunities to help people; individuals high in enterprising interests enjoy buying, marketing, and selling; and those with conventional interests are comfor table with office practices and well-structured tasks. Individuals relative normative strengths on each of the RIASECs general occupational themes are commonly assessed using the Strong Interest Inventory (Carroll, 1993). Although the generalizability of the RIASEC model has emerged repeatedly in large samples, Dale Prediger has suggested that the model can be reduced to two relatively independent bipolar dimensions: people versus things, and data versus ideas. People versus things may be superimposed on the social and realistic themes, respectively (Carroll, 1993). Running to the first dimension, the second dimension, data versus ideas, locates data between the enterprising and conventional themes and ideas between the artistic and investigative themes. The people versus things dimension represents one of the largest sex differences on a trait uncovered in psychology (a full standard deviation, with women scoring higher on the desire to work with people, and men, with things), revealing important implications for the occupations that men and women choose. Values constitute another category of personal preferences germane to learning and work, which have demonstrated their utility in the prediction of both educational and occupational criteria. Values are validly assessed by the Study of Values, which reports the intra-individual prominence of six personal values: theoretical, economic, political, social, aesthetic, and religious. These dimensions provided an additional 13% of explained variance above the 10% offered by math and verbal abilities in the prediction of undergraduate majors in gifted youth assessed over a 10-year interval; moreover, this finding has recently been generalized to occupational criteria, measured in commensurate terms, over a 20-year interval. However, although preferences do seem to play an important role in predicting occupational group membership and tenure, once individuals self-select into occupational fields, the utility of preferences for predicting job performance in those fields is limited (Carroll, 1 993). Empirical examinations of personality use trait models to understand a persons typical interpersonal style and behavioral characteristics. These models have historically relied on a lexical approach that assumes that important dimensions of human personality are encoded in human language. This method has been fruitful: Lewis Goldberg, among others (Ackerman, 1996), has factor analyzed the lexicons of many languages and found a five-factor model of personality with remarkable similarities across cultures (see also investigations by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa). Although the labels for each of the factors have varied, similar underlying constructs consistently emerge: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Extraversion is characterized by terms such as talkative, sociable, or not reserved; agreeableness by good-natured, cooperative, or not cold; conscientiousness by responsible, thorough, or not disorganized; neuroticism (sometimes referred to as emotional stability, reversed) by anxious, emotional, or not calm; and openness to experience (sometimes referred to as culture or intellect) by imaginative, reflective, or not narrow. The normative standing of individuals on each of the dimensions of the five-factor model of personality is commonly assessed using the NEO Personality Inventory, although an analogous instrument, the IPIP-NEO (IPIP is International Personality Item Pool), is available in the public domain at http:/ / ipip.ori.org/ Collectively (and sometimes individually), these broad dimensions of personality are valid predictors of occupational training and subsequent performance. For example, across multiple occupational categories, conscientiousness alone exhibits validity coefficients in the low .20s for predicting training and job proficiency. This particular combination of personality factors, conscientiousness and emotional stability, is found in tests of integrity commonly used in personnel selection (Spies Plake, 2005). From an individuals perspective, an appreciation of ones cognitive abilities, preferences, and personality provide invaluable insight for directing ones career development in personally rewarding ways. From an organizational perspective, one may use this information—available through measures of individual differences—to estimate the likelihood of desirable work behavior (e.g., citizenship, job performance, satisfaction, and tenure). References Ackerman, P. L., 1996, A Theory Of Adult Intellectual Development: Process, Personality, Interests, And Knowledge. Intelligence vol. 22 pp. 227-257 (1996). Aiken, L. R. (2000), Psychological Testing And Assessment (10th ed.). Boston: Allyn Bacon. Carroll, J. B. (1993), Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey Of Factor-Analytic Studies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Cervone, Lawrence A. Pervin, 2007, Personality: Theory and Research, Wiley; 10th edition (February 26, 2007), pp. 45-67. Gottfredson, L. S., 2003, The Challenge And Promise Of Cognitive Career Assessment. Journal of Career Assessment vol. 11 pp. 115-135 (2003). Lubinski, D., 2000, Scientific And Social Significance Of Assessing Individual Differences: â€Å"Sinking Shafts At A Few Critical Points.† Annual Review of Psychology vol. 51 pp. 405-444 (2000). Lubinski, D., 2004, Introduction To The Special Section On Cognitive Abilities: 100 Years After Spearmans (1904) â€Å"‘General intelligence, objectively determined and measured.† Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 86 pp. 96-111 (2004). Lillienfeld, S. O., Wood, J. M. , and Garb, H. N., 2000, The Scientific Status Of Projective Techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest vol. 1 (2000). pp. 27-66 Spies, R. A. , ed. , Plake, B. S. (Eds.). (2005), The Sixteenth Mental Measurements Yearbook. Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements. Candidate Number 33156762 Rapid (complex) decision making based on facial appearance Making first impressions, evaluating a person from the moment we first see them, happens spontaneously and seemingly without any cognitive effort. We do it naturally when we see and meet new people, in order to have an idea of who they are beforehand instead of unknowingly acting in a way they might find inappropriate. It appears that humans are excellent in judging personality traits and such things as complex social characteristics like dominance, hierarchy, warmth, and especially threat. For instance, think about this example. Youre walking down a dark street, late at night trying to get home, and you see someone coming towards you. As you pass the person, you see a tall and bulky figure wearing a black hood that puts a shadow on a roughed up looking man. Before you can make a conscious thought, your legs have already moved as far away from him as possible, purely out of instinct, even thought a second later you realize its your neighbor and you shakily smile at them and keep walking. The first impression that had subconsciously and immediately formed in the mind had already controlled the bodys reaction to what it perceived to be a threat (a scary looking man). Yet, it also shows how incorrect first impressions can be, and that can have a huge effect on peoples lives. Since its such a big part of everyday life, psychologists have looked deeply into the workings of first impressions. Social perception is the field of study which looks into how we form impressions and make inferences about other people. It is a very complex process, especially forming impressions of objects, animals and most importantly people. We form first impressions of others very quickly and usually based on little information. We give special attention to salient features, focusing first on the face, then physical features while moving on to appearance and clothes. Then the process continues to categorizing the first impression of a person into a member of a group, starting broadly, from age and gender, and narrowing down to explicit features. It is followed by our own previous knowledge that comes into effect of our impression as well as previous behavior that has been gathered about that impression, as then our own needs and goals influence how we perceive others. And that information is needed, as people can be unpredictable. In the past the information was needed in order to distinguish trustworthy people from those who mean us harm, when now its socially needed to interact suitably with people. In order to understand first impressions, the biology behind it must be understood. From an evolutionary point of view, first impressions have adaptive advantages, such as picking the appropriate mate. The first impression we perceive of someone is essential for us to understand how physically attractive, reliable, and strong they are, as we make that decision based on physical appearance rather than the personality of the person, as we would like the offspring to be good looking, healthy, meaning characteristics that are advantageous to the perceivers reproductive needs, and we must act fast before the window of opportunity closes. Also if someone means us harm, or is ill, there is the possibility of us being harmed or falling ill ourselves, again we must act fast to avoid this. Usually the first impressions are most accurate, but there is always human error, as sometimes what we perceive to be trustworthy, isnt. What the evolutionary point of view argues is that its possible that o ur ability to form first impressions isnt due to practice, but instinct. We seem to effortlessly form first impressions and even better with practice and experience. There are reasons to suggest that people may have an adaptive predisposition to form rapid first impressions when meeting someone. When people look at other peoples features its important to act fast, because for an instance, if someone is untrustworthy then they may look like they may harm, cheat or insult us and we should register the fact as quick as possible in order to act appropriately. If not, then the consequences may be being killed, hurt or cheated. Its better to be prepared to fight off harm rather than mull over the intent of the other person. There have been several studies that have looked at trustworthiness and first impression. These are not just the source of benefits, but there are also the sources of threats, for instance when forming the first impression, it must be fast as there is competition, and sometimes the competition could mean us harm. Even good meaning individual s may pose a threat to our health or reproductive fitness. Schiller et al 2009, investigated the brain mechanisms that rise when first impressions are rapidly formed when meeting a stranger (Schiller et al 2009). There were nineteen right-handed participants, who were told that they would see information about different people and were asked to give their impressions of them. In their neuro-imaging analysis, where they examined which regions showed the difference in evaluation effect out of regions that were broadly engaged in the impression-formation task, the only regions showing significantly greater bold responses to evaluation-relevant sentences were the amygdala the PCC and the thalamus. There were no regions showing the opposite effect. The first study suggesting that the amygdala, a part of the brain that research has shown to perform a role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions has an important role in trustworthiness judgments, was conducted by Adolphs, Tranel, Damasio, 1998. They showed that patients with bilateral amygdala damage perceived untrustworthy-looking faces as trustworthy, and couldnt discriminate between trustworthy and untrustworthy faces (Adolphs, Tranel, and Damasio, 1998). Several years later, Engell, Haxby Todorov, 2007, looked into the fact of whether a stranger is trustworthy, as one of the most important decisions in social environments and relations, something we consider when acquainting with new people (Engell, Haxby Todorov, 2007). There is considerable data about the significance of trait impressions from faces, yet there is little research about the neural mechanisms causing these impressions. There were one hundred and twenty-nine undergraduate students participating i n the study, where functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to show that the amygdala is involved in hidden evaluations of trustworthiness of faces, consistent with previous findings. They reported that the amygdala response increased as perceived trustworthiness decreased in a task that did not demand person evaluation. Engell, Haxby Todorov also tested whether the increased amygdala response was due to an individuals own personal perception or to face characteristics that are perceived as untrustworthy throughout individuals. The amygdala response was better predicted by agreed ratings of trustworthiness than by an individuals own judgments. Individual judgments accounted for little outstanding variance in the amygdala after controlling for the shared variance with agreed ratings. The findings of this study suggested that the amygdala categorizes faces automatically according to face characteristics that are seen to show trustworthiness. More recently, Todorov Duchaine, 2008, looked at developmental prosopagnosics who had severe impairments in their memory for faces and perception of facial identity who showed they could make normal trustworthiness judgments of novel faces (Todorov Duchaine, 2008). Their control group consisted of forty-eight undergraduate students, mostly male with the mean age of twenty, which were younger compared to the four developmental prosopagnosics used in the experiment, where they were presented with face sets with the question â€Å"How trustworthy is this person?† and asked to respond on the scale below the photograph. What they found was that there were no significant differences between male and female control participants on both their agreement in the ratings of the faces and their mean trustworthiness judgments. They also tested the four prosopagnosics on three different face sets: set one consisted of faces that contrasted on multiple proportions and which were also used t o demonstrate injuries in trustworthiness judgments of patients with bilateral amygdala damage. The other two sets consisted of normal faces with a direct look, with neutral expression and similar age. Todorov Duchaine found that on all the tests, two of the prosopagnosics made judgments that agreed with the controls judgments while the other two showed weak. The implications of this experiment suggest that there is a correlation that the tests mapped the same underlying judgment irrespective of the specific face stimuli. The normal performance of two of the prosopagnosics suggested that forming person impressions from faces involves mechanisms functionally independent of mechanisms for encoding the identity of faces. A later study by Oosterhof Todorov, 2009, proposed that changes in trustworthiness match to the subtle changes in expressions, which show whether the person displaying the emotion should be avoided or approached (Oosterhof Todorov, 2009). Oosterhof and Todorov used a dynamic paradigm where faces expressed either happiness or anger. There were sixty undergraduate students participating in the experiment, with twenty-one participating in the selection of trustworthy and untrustworthy faces, and thirty-nine participated in the dynamic stimuli study. They manipulated changes in face trustworthiness at the same time as with the change in the face expression, for instance changes from high to low trustworthiness increased the intensity of participants perceived anger but decreased the intensity of participants perceived happiness. What they found was that trustworthy faces who expressed happiness were seen as happier than untrustworthy faces, and untrustworthy faces who expressed anger w ere seen as angrier than trustworthy faces, which makes sense as the more angry and unapproachable someone looks, the more likely we are to avoid them for our own safety as they would look intimidating to us. When we first make an interaction with someone, our facial recognition of them is essential for the social interaction. Its not a conscious thought per se, when the decision of how trustworthy someone is, but it happens, and we decide whether the person weve just met is someone we can relate to, then maybe consider a friend, and later depend on them with everything that we care about. Its not a light matter, our lives are who and what we are, and unfortunately as it is we cannot rely sorely on ourselves, and we need other people, may it be for help, comfort or just a chat. And of course, the people we look for are those who wont turn their backs on us when we need them and will be there to support us. Its a simple survival skill, trust those who wont hurt us and we can live normally. When people are emotionally animated it is much easier to perceive the expressions they convey, particularly threatening and fearful ones very swiftly, which helps us respond to danger quickly. But how fast are first impressions exactly? Several researches have looked into how fast first impressions are made. In 2006, Bar et al looked into the fact that first impressions of peoples personalities are often formed by using the visual appearance of their faces (Bar, Neta, Linz, 2006). They reported four experiments; with the first measuring the speed of how first impressions of intelligence and threatening personality are made. They used sixty adults, mostly women, where the participants in the experiment were shown one face at a time and were asked to rate, on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, the level that they perceived each face to belong first to threatening person, and later followed with an intelligent person at the second part of the experiment. What Bat et al did was present the faces for different time lengths to different groups of participants, the first group was presented the faces for a short time and the other group was presented with faces for a longer time and then the correlation between the judgments of each group was measured, they identified how quickly participants judged a face as having a certain personality. The results demonstrate that consistent first impressions can be formed very quickly, based on whatever information is available within the first 39 ms. First impressions were less consistent under these conditions when the judgments were about intelligence, suggesting that survival-related traits are judged more quickly. The study showed that when faces are particularly emotionally expressive, people can detect these expressions that are being conveyed, such as threatening and fearful expressions, very quickly and mostly subconsciously. While Bar, Neta, Linz, 2006, looked at neutral expressions in their study, Blair, Morris, Frith, Perrett, Dolan, 1999, looked at emotions portrayed by the face. Blair et al, 1999, used functional neuroimaging to test two hypotheses: one, whether the amygdala has a neural response to sad and angry facial expressions and two, whether the orbito-frontal cortex has a specific neural response to angry facial expressions (Blair, Morris, Frith, Perrett, Dolan, 1999). There were thirteen male participants, all with the mean age of 25 who were PET scanned, while performing a sex discrimination task that consisted of grey-scale images of faces that expressed different degrees of sadness and anger. They found that increasing force of sad facial expressions was associated with enhanced activity in the left amygdala and right temporal pole. The results also indicated

Essay on the Dynamic Relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Dynamic Relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth  Ã‚   An important factor in Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth is the changing relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is the dominant character in the relationship. As the play progresses the roles seem to reverse and Macbeth becomes the more dominant of the two. We can gain insight into the changing relationship by looking at the interaction of the couple. The first time in the play where we can make reference about their relationship and their individual personalities in the relationship is in Act 1, Scene 5, where we first meet Lady Macbeth. She is seen alone reading a letter out loud, which Macbeth has written to her. It is telling her of his visit from the witches. The letter told how the weird sisters had come to him and Banquo on their way home after battle and how they also made it appear to him as though they could read his thoughts and how they tormented him with riddles. They showed him that they had the power of prophecy and they said that he would become the Thane of Cawdor and then king. They made him believe that his greatest prize, being king, was near and Macbeth who was already experiencing the desire to be king willingly listened to the witches. Lady Macbeth desperately wanted to become queen and when the king made Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor they both thought the weird sisters must be right and he would become king. When the question was vaguely brought up of killing Duncan to get the throne Lady Macbeth worked on this idea and in her eyes it seemed to be a good idea. Lady Macbeth then went about trying to persuade Macbeth into killing Duncan even though he clearly didn’t want to. ... ...86. Hugget, Richard. Supernatural on Stage: The Curse of Macbeth: Its Origins, Background, and History. New York: Taplinger Publishing Co, 1975. 153-211. Lewis, William Dodge. Shakespeare Said It. Syracuse: Syracuse University, 1961. Quincey, Thomas De essay from Harris, Laurie Lanzen, and Scott, Mark W. ed. "The Tragedy of Macbeth." Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986. Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992. Traversi, D. A. essay from Harris, Laurie Lanzen, and Scott, Mark W. ed. "The Tragedy of Macbeth." Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986. Wells, Stanley, and Taylor Gary. ed. The Oxford Shakespeare, The Complete Works: Macbeth. By William Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. 975-999.   

Analysis of Bao-yu’s dream in Cao Xueqin’s ‘Story of the Stone’ Essay

The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin is an animated, lively account of life in a large Chinese household in the mid-18th century Qing dynasty. It remains a fascinating novel for modern readers with its vivid and detailed descriptions of the minutiae of daily life – from clothing, food and interior design to education, marriage and death. For all its realism however, The Story of the Stone is not set entirely in reality. The very premise of the whole tale, that of a single rock left out of the goddess Nu-wa’s repairing of the sky, is one based on a magico-religious dream world. The rock is found by a Buddhist and a Taoist who take it down to the mortal world where it lives out a human life, that of Jia Bao-yu, before attaining Nirvana. Once a rock again, a Taoist copies the inscription on its surface †from beginning to end and took it back with him to look for a publisher†. Cao Xueqin’s emphasis on dreams can be seen in the alternative titles for his m asterpiece. A Dream of Red Mansions is the title by which the book is perhaps most commonly known. Twelve Young Ladies of Jinling is also a title suggested in chapter one. Both of these titles refer to the same dream. As David Hawkes explains, ‘hong lou’, red mansion, has the more specialised meaning of the residences of the daughters of rich men and thus, the young ladies themselves. The dream alluded to in these appellations occurs in the fifth chapter of volume one, The Golden Days. Cousin Zhen’s wife, You-shi, has invited the women of the Rong-guo house, accompanied by Bao-yu, round for a flower viewing party. Needless to say, Bao-yu soon tires and asks to take a nap. Rather than going back to the Rong mansion, the wife of his nephew, Jia Rong, leads him to her chamber to sleep. Bao-yu immediately drops off into a vivid dream world. He meets the fairy of Disenchantment who shows him to the Land of Illusion and into the Department of the Ill-Fated Fair. Within this department is housed the ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of, Main Register’, a record of the twelve most notable females in Bau-yu’s own province of Jinling. The fairy of Disenchantment allows Bao-yu to read the fates of the twelve girls as recorded in the form of four-line verses. Bao-yu can make little sense of what he reads. Later, the quatrains are expanded into a series of twelve songs entitled A Dream of Golden Days. While the words are sung by a troupe of entertainers, Bao- yu reads along with the manuscript. He still does not understand. Indeed, both the verses in the register and in the song-cycle contain allusions and metaphors not immediately obvious and not easily deciphered. Yet at a most basic level, they provide an outline of the fate of twelve principle female characters in The Story of the Stone. Their fate unfolds throughout the course of the five volume novel. The Golden Days therefore, is only the beginning. But, by the end of the first volume, to what extent have the women already prepared the way for their future course? The first verse in the Main Register is a joint record of Lin Dai-yu and Xue Bao-chai. These two young girls share the affection of Bao-yu and Grandmother Jia. In their own individual ways, they are both paragons. It seems odd therefore that they share only one verse between them. Hawkes puts forward the argument that Dai-yu and Bao-chai †represent two complementary aspects of a single ideal woman†. Evidence for this interpretation lies in the first two lines of their quatrain: One was a pattern of female virtue, One a wit who made other wits seem slow. The combination of wit, or intelligence, and virtue were ideal traits in a Qing woman of the upper class. Arguably it was Dai-yu who held the upper hand in wit while Bao-chai, with her †generous and accommodating disposition†, was the more virtuous. Although in the song-cycle there are two songs for Dai-yu and Bao-chai, it is not the case that one is dedicated to Dai-yu and one to Bao-chai. Albeit the second so ng is solely about Dai-yu, but there are references to both characters in the first song. The character ‘lin’ in Lin Dai-yu is made up of two tree radicals and has the meaning ‘forest’. ‘Xue’ in Xue Bao-chai sounds the same as the Chinese word for ‘snow’ while ‘bao chai’ can be translated as ‘precious’ or ‘gold hairpin’. Thus, the references come in the form of gold, flowers, snow and trees. Bao-yu is alluded to using jade or stone as he was born with a jade stone in his mouth. The first song, The Mistaken Marriage, refers to †the marriage rites of gold and jade†. This foreshadows the marriage of Bao-chai (gold) and Bao-yu (jade). The speaker however, still remembers the relationship between ‘stone and flower’. There is indeed, a special bond between Bao-yu and Dai-yu. Although Bao-yu, †a child†¦whom nature had endowed with the eccentric obtuseness of a simpleton†, fails to recognise it, Dai-yu is an intensely jealous character and resents any time he spends with Bao-chai and not her. Bao-yu struggles to understand the cause of Dai-yu’s mainly irrational sulks, yet always attempts to comfort her: Take kinship first: you are my cousin on Father’s side; cousin Bao is only a mother-cousin. That makes you much the closer kin. And as for length of acquaintance: it was you who came here first. You and I have practicaly grown up together†¦Why should I ever be any less close to you because of her? There is a profound love between Bao-yu and Dai-yu that seems to grow with the progression of the first volume. They share an understanding †so intense that it was almost as if they had grown into a single person.† The speaker suggests however, that later on Dai-yu (†that fairy wood†) dies. Thus, even a wife †so courteous and so kind† as Bao-chai is no substitute for the wife that Dai-yu could have been. Their marriage, even though †others all commend it†, is a mistake. This is succeeded by Hope Betrayed which deals specifically with the close relationship between Dai-yu (†a flower from paradise†) and Bao-yu (†a pure jade without spot or stain†). They are clearly meant for each other but the poem augurs future disaster. The pain heartache that stems from such an ardent love will all be in vain. In one sense these two poems pose an insurrmountable contradiction. Fate, the belief in which provides the premise for this entire dream scene, will have them be together but they are not. They are meant to be but cannot and this inability is portrayed as some kind of mistake, a going against the natural order. Is there then, even such a thing as fate? This question aside, it can be seen that, in the case of Dai-yu and Bao-chai, their journey has barely begun by the end of The Golden Days. Their relationship with Bao-yu is entirely platonic (physically at least) and, although it is perhaps assumed that one of them, most likely Dai-yu, will be be Bao-yu’s future bride, this is only hinted at in jest among the maids and is a source of great embarassement to Dai-yu. The second quatrain and the third poem can be interpretted as Yuan-chun’s fate. Yuan-chun, daughter of Lady Wang and Jia Zheng, is Bao-yu’s elder sister. The first two lines describe her, age twenty, leaving her family to live in the emperor’s palace as a royal concubine. As can be seen by the subsequent effort put into a lavish garden compund in honour fo her visit, this was a posi tion held in great esteem. Although out of modesty, Yuan-chun later changes the name, the setting for her reunion with her family within Prospect Garden initially bears the inscription ‘Precinct of the Celsetial Visitant’. Hence perhaps, the use of the phrase †pomegranate-time†. Hawkes stresses the †redness’ of the original Chinese text, the colour red being a symbol of good-fortune and prosperity. Although much of this sense has inevitably been lost in translation, the red skin of the pomegranate could perhaps be taken as emphasising the great advantages such a position could bestow on both concubine and family. The second half of the quatrain however, does not bode so well for the future. Although Yuan-chun is superior if not in beauty and intelligence then in success to her half-sister Tan-chun and her cousins, Ying-chun and Xi-chun (the †three springs†), her charmed life will come to an end †when hare meets tiger†. Hare and tiger refer to Chinese years. Thus, this prophecy specifies that the date of Yuan-chun’s death will fall at the end of a tiger year and at the beginning of a rabbit year. The third song, Mutability, again prophesises Yuan-chun’s departure from the Rong-guo household to the emperor’s palace. It goes on to describe her appearing before her parents in a dream to pay her †final duty†, forewarning again of her death. By the end of The Golden Days Yuan-chun has indeed left home to become a royal concubine. Although the location of the Jia clan in The Story of the Stone is questionable, it is clear that Yuan-chun and he r family feel cut off from each other in spirit if not by physical distance. Their reunion in chapter eighteen is an emotional one and although the emperor allows visits in the palace once a month, special permission must be granted for a once-yearly return to the family home. It is for this reason, †so far the road back home did seem†, that Yuan-chun will be forced to pay her final filial duties in a dream. (Hawkes points out that this dream sequence never in fact took place. He suggests that Xueqin used the material for this episode in chapter thirteen instead, when Qin-shi appears before Xi-feng in a dream.) Tan-chun, half-sister to Yuan-chun, one of the †three springs† referred to above and daughter of Jia Zheng and a concubine, is the subject of the fourth quatraine in the Main Register. She is †by far the most gifted of the three springs† as well as possessing a kind, generous nature. The first line, †Blessed with a shrewd mind and a noble heart†, is countered however, by the second, †Yet born in time of twilight and decay†. Although The golden Days is essentially a story set in the happy, carefree years of childhood, the bigger picture reveals a time of political and social upheaval, a sense of which permeates many aspects of the novel. Tan-chun’s prophesised marriage in the final two lines will thus perhaps be related to economic considerations. The marriage will clearly not be a happy one. The very title of the fourth song, From Dear Ones Parted, suggests the insuperable distance between Tan-chun and her home and her intense homsickness. The song has Tan-chun referring to †our rising, falling†, meaning the rise and fall of the Jia family. As a result of this, †each in another land must be, each for himself must fend as best he may†, again suggesting that the marriage will be one of economic convenience. Apa rt from allusions to her wit and good character, we learn little about Tan-chun in the first volume of The Story of the Stone. There are however, hints to be found as to her fate. In chapter 22, she attends Grandmother Jia’s riddle party. Asked to compose a riddle, the answer to Tan-chun’s is ‘a kite’. This image of a kite as associated with Tan-chun symbolizes her departure †a thousand miles† away, her flight from the nest. Her riddle also foreshadows her unhappiness once in the marriage: My strength all goes when once the bond is parted, And on the wind I drift off broken hearted. This description of drifting off in the wind ties in with the suggestion in the song that she will be taken to her new husband by boat †through rain and wind†. Like Tan-chun, relatively little reference is made to Shi Xiang-yun, the subject of the fourth quatrain and fifth song. She is the daughter of Grandmother Jia’s brother’s son. Orphaned as a young girl, she first lived with Grandmother Jia before moving in with her uncle, Shi Ding, and his wife. It seems from both the register and the song, that Xiang-yun is destined to find the man of her dreams, †a perfect, gentle husband†. But happiness will be fleeting: Soon you must mourn your bright sunâ€⠄¢s early setting. The Xiang flows and the Chu clouds sail away. The Xiang was a river flowing through the ancient kingdom of Chu. This was believed to be home to a goddess of lovers. But soon †the clouds of Gao-tang faded, the waters of the Xiang ran dry.† This suggests another calamity, perhaps the sudden death of her husband. There is no intimation of Xiang-yun’s fate in The Golden Days. The main scene involving her is one of comic relief as Dai-yu teases her about her lisp and Xiang-yun responds good-humouredly. The impression created is of a happy-go-lucky, lively young girl, quite a contrast from the rather intense and moody Dai-yu. This is best illustrated in Xueqin’s description of them asleep: Dai-yu was tightly cocooned in a quilt of apricot-coloured damask, the picture of tranquil repose. Xiang-yun, by contrast, lay with her hank of jet black hair tumbled untidily beside the pillow, a white arm with its two gold bracelets thown carelessly outside the bedding and two white shoulders exposed above the peach-pink coverlet, which barely reached her armpits. ‘A tomboy, even in her sleep!’ Bao-yu muttered†¦ The sixth woman included in the register is the only one of the twelve who is not a member of the Jia family. Adamantina nevertheless lives among them in Prospect Garden after Yuan-chun issues an edict stating that the garden is not to be closed up. She is a nun and this is reflected in the descriptions of her †otherworldliness† and her †grace and wit to match the gods† that set her †with the rest at odds. Nauseous to [her] the world’s rank diet.â⠂¬  Her final destination however, is clearly one of disrepute. In both the quatrain and the song, she ends up in the mud, impure and shameful. The fact that down here, †only wealthy rakes might bless their luck† suggests that Adamantina will end her days as perhaps a prostitute. By the end of The Golden Days however, she is still a nun who †looks down on common flesh and blood† The seventh of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling is Ying-chun, the eldest of the three springs. She is Jia She’s daughter by a concubine. With the arrival of Dai-yu and Bao-chai, the three springs are relugated to a secondary position in Grandmother Jia’s affections. Ying-chun is thus a rather underdeveloped character in The Golden Days. The sixth entry in the register and the seventh poem both suggest that she will be married off to a violent, unfaithful and cruel bully. There is no hint of this fate in the first volume of the novel. The Golden Days gives away equally little about the subject of the next quatrain and song, Xi-chun. Sister of Cousin Zhen and the youngest of the three springs, seems destined to seek release †from youth’s extravagance† and †to win chaste quietness and heavenly peace† by becoming a Buddhist nun. Wang Xi-feng on the other hand, wife of Jia Lian and cousin to Bao-yu, plays a far more prominent role in The Golden Days. She is a very strong character, a feminist role-model. She has all the qualities of the ideal wife with her managerial prowess and defere nce to her elders, and yet she always manages to be on top. This combination of cunning and virtue can best be seen in the chapters dealing with Qin-shi’s funeral. Having been relegated posthumously to the status of a Noble Dame, the funeral is a grand affair. The sheer cost and man-power involved is staggering and Xi-feng is put in charge of it all. Nevertheless, she manages it with †the decisiveness of a little general†. On the night of the wake, her maturity and superior social skills are further demonstrated when it is left entirely to her to do the honours. Xi-feng’s vivacious charm and social assurance stood out in striking contrast†¦She was in her element, and if she took any notice of her humbler sisters it was only to throw out an occassional order or to bend them in some other way to her imperious will. This can be juxtaposed with the episode in the next chapter when, after the funeral, Xi-feng, Bao-yu and Qin-zhong spend the night in the Water-moon Priory. The prioress Euergesia, catching Xi-feng alone, tells her the story of a benefactor of the priory called Zhang. He is desperate to call off his daughter’s engagement to the son of a captain in the Chang-an garrison. The captain however, is being thoroughly unreasonable and refusing to take back the betrothal-gifts. Euergesia beseeches Xi-feng to use her unfluence to get Jia Zheng to write a letter to General Yun asking h im to †have a word with† the captain because †It is hardly likely that he would refuse to obey his commading officer.† Xi-feng coyly turns her down until Euergesia questions Xi-feng’s ability. Xi-feng ‘relents’ and agrees to take part for the the not so small sum of three thousand taels of silver. Xi-feng is clearly fiscally-minded and savvy, never one to let an opportunity for profit slip by. The hush-hush manner in which this matter of the captain is broached also suggests that it is rather shady business. Yet, any qualms Xi-feng feigns to have about getting involved seem to be easily forgotten. Xi-feng is indeed, as the ninth song states, †too shrewd by half†. She is too focused on self-advancement but with the fall of the Jia family later in The Story of the Stone, Xi-feng’s plotting and manouevering will all come to nothing: Like a great building’s tottering crash, Like flickering lampwick burned to ash†¦ Although the exact nature of Xi-feng’s future is not specified, it is clear that it is not a bright one. She will, as the title of the ninth song says, be †caught by her own cunning†. Although we see none of her decline in The Golden Days, there are hints of a fall to come. When Qin-shi appears to her in a dream, she warn s Xi-feng of the future fall of the Jai family as a whole. She quotes a proverb: †The higher the climb, the harder the fall.† Could this be referring equally to Xi-feng as to the family? Is there a reason why Qin-shi appears before Xi-feng specifically? The tenth Beautiy of Jinling, interestingly enough, does not even appear in the first volume. Qiao-jie, daughter of Xi-feng, nevertheless has some sort of trouble ahead of her. It seems that no one will be spared pain and grief as the Jia family declines. The penultimate Beauty included on the Main Register is Li Wan, mother of Jia Lan. Li Wan was married to Jia Zhu, brother of Bao-yu. Jia Zhu died before the start of the novel as implied by the third line in the eleventh song, †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦the pleasures of the bridal bed† soon fled. The quatrain suggests that their son, Jia Lan, †her Orchid†, will be successful. The song goes further to describe the †awesome sight† of †the head with cap and bands of office on, and gleaming bright upon his breast the gold insignia†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Jia Lan will later pass the civil service exam and become a high official. It is perhaps slightly far-fetched but one of the few mentions of Jia Lan comes in chapter nine, set in the Jia clan school house. As for Li Wan, there is no hint that †the black night of death’s dark frontier lay close at hand.† It would seem that she tragically dies after her son’s appointment. Finally, there is Qin-shi, the twelfth Beauty of Jinling. She is the young wife of Jia Rong but dies of a mysterious unidentified disease half way through The Gol den Days. Of all the women, Qin-shi is the only one whose whole fate is played out in the course of the first volume. It does not, however, run according to plan. Both the quatrain and the song, The Good Things Have an End, explicitly express that she will hang herself. The most likely reason for her suicide is the family’s discovery of her incestuous affair with her father-in-law, cousin Zhen: Say not our troubles all from Rong’s side came; For their beginning Ning must take the blame. Indeed, there are indications of such intrigue. A drunken servant lets slip, in a fit of rage, †Father-in-law pokes in the ashes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The reader is clearly meant to take note of this comment, as Bao-yu subsequently questions Xi-feng as to it’s meaning. Xi-feng is quick in quashing any ideas Bao-yu may have on the subject and †terrified by her vehemence, Bao-yu implored her forgiveness.† There is obviously something to hide. Cousin Zhen’s hysterical reaction after her death is also a sign that their relationship was not as it seemed. He is inconsolable, proclaiming: †Now that she has been taken from us it’s plain to see that this senior branch of the family is doomed to extinction!† The poem accordingly, states that her death, †the ruin of a mighty house protended.† Qin-shi’s suicide does not however, take place and she instead dies of natural causes. A reason for this discrepancy is put foward by Hawkes. While Xueqin did originally have Qin-shi hanging herself †from painted beams†, a notation by one of the commentators on the original manuscript states that her †ordered† Xueqin to remove the scene. Xueqin reluctantly did so but, unenthusiastic about the change, failed to make the necessary alterations to the rest of the text. Having examined the fates of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling as expressed in the Main Register of the Department of the Ill Fated Fair and in the fairy of Disenchantment’s song cycle, it becomes immediately obvious that tradgedy lies ahead. With the decline of the Jia family will come a decline in the fortunes of each of the women. It is also clear that by the end of the first volume of The Story of the Stone the story has, in fact, barely begun. The Jia household is still powerful and rich, the child heros are still young and and insouciant, these are still the golden days.