Global Markets Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Global Markets - Assignment Example tional culture ,its prime emphasis in its overall mission and the anti trust troubles of Microsoft in established markets as the reason for its move to new international markets ; the paper goes on to examine the concept of globalization and the reaction to economic policies pursued in last decade in order to further the process of globalization and lessons for Microsoft initiative in Russia from such reaction to globalization policies of last decade. Finally the paper suggests how a Microsoft R&D initiative in the form of an FDI may turn to be successful international marketing effort in Russia. Microsoft -A corporate profile and Organizational culture "Microsoft is the global leader in software, services and solutions. It was founded in 1975 by William H. Gates III, better known as Bill Gates. In the fiscal year ending 30 June 2006, Microsoft employed 71,553 people and had net revenues of $44.28 billion. Microsoft operates from 9.9 million sq. ft. of office space all over the world. With headquarters in Redmond, WA, USA, it has subsidiaries in 104 countries and operation centers in Dublin, Ireland; Humacao, Puerto Rico, USA; Reno, Nevada, USA and Singapore". (Profile, 2006)Microsoft's history is full of important milestones. Some of the important dates in Microsoft's history can be listed as follows: on 25 June 1981 Microsoft was incorporated ; on 12 August 1981, IBM introduced its personal computer with Microsoft's 16-bit operating system, MS-DOS 1.0 ; on 13 March 1986: Microsoft's stock went public ;on 22 May 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0; on 25 June 1998 Microsoft launched Windows 98;on 22 June 2000: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer outline Microsoft's .NET strategy for Web services ; on 31 May 31, 2001: Microsoft launched Office XP ;... The paper begins with looking at Microsoft corporate profile, organizational culture ,its prime emphasis in its overall mission and the anti trust troubles of Microsoft in established markets as the reason for its move to new international markets ; the paper goes on to examine the concept of globalization and the reaction to economic policies pursued in last decade in order to further the process of globalization and lessons for Microsoft initiative in Russia from such reaction to globalization policies of last decade. Finally the paper suggests how a Microsoft R&D initiative in the form of an FDI may turn to be successful international marketing effort in Russia. This essay makes a conclusion that Microsoft would do well to remember that Russians possess excellent technical education, understanding of networks and, programming knowledge. It would be an ideal human resource strategy to recruit out of such a talented pool which even had tenacity to hack US software in 1980 so as to make Russian programmes work. As of today Russia has many skilled people but only a few jobs for them. Such unemployed talent is involved in social evils like hacking for earning money and name. Moreover hacking operates in gangs, groups and clubs which are well organized and have basis in social communal system of organization. Such groups have often been persecuted for global level hacking. Microsoft should ideally convert its policy of community work for Russian reality to wean away such talent. Russians have strong desire for Internet access, but find it to be an expensive affair.

Retaining Customers Essay Example for Free

Retaining Customers Essay BT is one of the largest communications companies in the world. One of the services they offer is residential or personal communications solutions. Even though they now have competition from other companies offering consumers substitutes for their service, they still hold the largest market share of providing residential customers with telephone lines. For BT to maintain this market share, they must retain the customers they have. I will be recommending how they can retain their customer base as well as winning new customers. I will be looking at several models and theories in order to do this. * Making Customers into Champions * The case of the complaining customer * The tip of the Iceberg Model From BT a customer receives a core service. Telephony. The customer expects the telephone in their home to be working when they pick it up. They are not going to be wowed by the service if it is just working. However, when the customer makes contact with BT to enquire, change or add something they will use this opportunity to form a perception of BTs Customer Service. Most people who move to a different telephone provider do so because they perceive indifference in the people they do business with at their current company. Customer feedback tells BT that one of the biggest drivers of dissatisfaction is the difficulty in registering their complaint with BT. A large part of this dissatisfaction stems from a lack of promised callbacks and an initial difficulty in escalating their issue. This feedback has been substantiated by OFTEL in that the number of customers contacting them to complain that they have not received a promised call back has been increasing. OFTEL have given BT a very clear indication that they expect this situation to be addressed and therefore it is paramount that the following recommendations are implemented immediately. * Own, Decide, Do Training to be rolled out to all Customer Service Advisors. When a complaint is received in the 150 call centres the individual must own the complaint, make a decision about what to do with it and follow any promised action up with a call to the customer to let them know what happened. * Keeping the customer informed With some complaints resolution may not be speedy. There may be some technical difficulties, which hold resolution up. The customer does not know this and will perceive any periods of silence as the indifference of BT to their complaint. Keeping the customer informed of progress or news (good or bad) will enhance the customers perception of BT * EDCSMs (Event Driven Customer Service Measures), the service that BT offer customers must be analysed in order to measure its success. Through BTs sophisticated SMART datatbase, every contact with the customer is logged with the id of the advisor who took the call. This way trends can be spotted as well as training areas The barriers for the customer to successfully register their complaint are as follows: * The BT shunt BT is a huge business with over 20 large call centres taking in the freephone 150 (customer service) calls. It is very easy for complaints to get lost in the system. * The call steering system. There are many different numbers to press for different departments. It is difficult to speak to a human * The Call Handling Time that advisors are encouraged to adhere to. This measure the amount of time they are talkng with each customer in order to keep the Percentage of calls answered as high as possible. * Poor training and coaching target based coaching instead of skills based coaching In the longer term there are some other changes that should be implemented by BT over a period of time in order to instil enhanced behaviours in all employees. Traditionally employees of a company see a complaining customer as being a nuisance. BA challenged this when they introduced the Making Customers into Champions Model. This model can be directly applied to BT, who is, itself, striving to provide World Class Customer Service. This model labels different sectors of the customer base and how likely they are to contact BT with any dissatisfaction they may have and how easy it is to register this dissatisfaction. If the customer has a complaint and they cannot register this in any way, they may feel tempted to try a different provider. If the complaint is not registered then BT has not had a chance to resolve the complaint. If BT has a chance of resolving the issue, if it is resolved skilfully and well, research suggests that this could actually enhance the customers perception of BT. So, in short, a customer complaint can turn in to a glowing report for BT. Furthermore, if we make BTs customers in to champions, BT can learn from the mistakes they have made that might have caused complaints in order that they do not occur again. * A dissatisfied customer will tell between 10 and 20 other people about their problem * A customer who has had a problem resolved will tell 5 people about their situation The case of the complaining customer is a valuable study that BT should already have taken heed of. The problems experienced by Mr Shelton almost mirror the experiences some BT customers have when things go wrong and customer relations are tested to the full. It may be tempting for some employees working for such a huge cash cow as BT to believe that BT can afford to lose difficult customers. This study shows that whilst few customers actually take the time and energy that Mr Shelton did to complain, there are actually many other dissatisfied customers (Mr Shelton is just the tip of the Iceberg). These customers are the missing in action group and will just quietly take their custom elsewhere and thus impact significantly on BTs profit margins. The article points out that whilst it would be easy for us to read Mr Sheltons contacts with the company as neurotic, in actual fact Mr Shelton has responded very emotionally to the way he feels his complaint has been dealt with. Customers should be allowed to vent their feelings, feel listened to and valued before their problem is resolved. They are experiencing feelings of powerlessness and this will be compounded if they feel that an advisor is not listening to them. Paraphrasing can be a useful tool here, to show empathy and check for understanding. TARP published a graphic representing the Tip of the Iceberg Principle. It indicates that consumer complaints to a third party are only a small portion of those that exist. Theyre just the visible portion and reflect the much broader picture. This demonstrates how important it is for BT to be proactive in gaining feedback from customers at every possible opportunity. It was not the tip of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, and it will not affect the business greatly if just those visible customers were dissatisfied with BTs service. Those that leave quietly will have the greatest impact and BT will have little or no information as to why they left. BT must strive to deal with any customer requests the first time every time. Here is a list of my recommendations for BT for implementing across the board over the next 12 months in order to retain customers. * A review of the training process all training should be underpinned with updated balance scorecard and appropriate coaching given by line managers * Quality must come before quantity. If all customers were dealt with the first time they called, there would be less calls * Approach customer complaints as a chance to dazzle and delight customers and enhance a customers perception of BT through a training programme * Work together with different departments and not as adversaries. Promote teamwork * Introduce an incentive scheme for teams and individuals who achieve excellent customer relations * Use customer feedback more effectively (EDCSMs)- find out what customers want/expect then exceed this * Give staff more responsibility and authority to deal with complaints. Allow then to be flexible when it comes to procedural rules. Stop quoting BT policy. * Allow a measure of redress such as goodwill payments and compensation payments In implementing the above and re-training staff, BT will retain greater numbers of customers. Existing customers (especially those we have information about) are an ideal group to market new products to as well gain information from about how to improve on the products and services BT has.

Central Processing Unit CPU Computer Science Essay

Central Processing Unit CPU Computer Science Essay CPU is the abbreviation for Central Processing Unit. The CPU is known as brain of the computers. It is sometimes referred as the central processor but most commonly known as processor. CPUs are typically differentiated based in their respective specification. The most relevant information to differentiate one processor from another is firstly its core architecture. The core architecture determines whether the CPU is a 32 bit or 64 bit variant. It will encompass specifications such as clock frequency, cache levels, respective sizes, stepping version and fabrication process size. The two major superpowers in the market of computer CPUs is Intel corporation which has led the market with powerful, cutting edge design and innovation, pushing faster clock speeds and integrating cutting- edge materials and its Hafnium- based silicon CPU. Thus equating to more powerful computing experiences and greater flexibility of design. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is the second largest global supplier of microprocessors. AMD is focusing more on producing powerful processors at low cost. There are two typical components of CPU: The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) performs arithmetic and logical operations. The Control Unit (CU) extracts instructions from memory, decodes and executes them. There are set of steps a CPU performs to execute a command. Each command is individually handled and a CPU can process multiple commands in seconds. More powerful the CPU is the faster the commands are processed. The functions performed by the CPU (Processor) are explained below: Lets assume when the system user issues a command using the input device such as a mouse or keyboard. The command is received to the memory before it is actually processed. The unit uses the preloaded CPU memory to identify the command and sends it over to the command unit. The command unit firmly decides what functions next. The data is passed over to the decode unit. The decoded unit passes the data into binary code and sends it to ALU ALU changes the raw data into a command. The copy of the command is sent to the RAM (Random Access Memory) or ROM (Read Only Memory) by ALU. The command unit sends the code to the part of the system where the actual actions are performed. The result is sent back to user after the actions are executed. Factors affecting the Processors Performance is listed below: Math Coprocessors: The math coprocessors are used to improve the processors number crunching speed. These processors allow the computer to perform mathematical calculations more efficiently, faster and increase the overall speed of the computer Front Side Bus (FSB) Speed: This is the interface between the processor and the system memory. The FSB limits the rate at which the data can get into the processor. This limits the rate at which the CPU can process the data. The CPUs FSB speed causes the maximum speed at which the data will be transferred to rest of the system. There are other factors affecting the data transfer which includes system clock speed, motherboard chipset and the RAM speed. Computer Internal Cache: This is the storage area which store the frequently used data and instructions. This processor contains internal cache controllers which integrates the cache with the Central Processing Unit. This controller stores frequently used RAM locations to provide faster execution of data and therefore a larger cache leads to the process of faster processor. Computer BUS: This carry data words in parallel on multiple wires or serial buses which carry data in bit-serial form. This refers to system board underlying circuit. This processor has the ability to communicate with rest of the systems components. Computer data bus indicates how much data can be passed through the bus at once. This indicates how much memory chip can handle. Computer Memory: The higher the capacity of the computer memory is installed the faster It will operate. This refers to the state information of the computing system. The term memory is used for the information in physical systems which are fast this refers to physical device which stores data or programs on the temporary or permanent basis for use in an electronic digital computer. Clock Rate is the rate in bits per second which is measured in Hertz. The frequency of the clock is the CPU. A single clock cycle toggles between logical zero and a one state. The logical state zero of a clock cycle is prolonged than a logical one state due to thermal and electrical specification constraints. The clock rates are determined at the manufacturing process through the actual testing of each CPU. Processors which are tested as rule with given standards will be labelled with a higher clock rate e.g. 2.4GHz. While those that fail the standards of the higher clock rate will yet pass the standards of a lesser clock rate and will be labelled with the lesser clock rate e.g. 1.33GHz TASK 2 According to Parklands Garden Supplies (PGS) which grows plants and supplies them to shops. Plants are grown in greenhouses. The administrative manager maintains records of orders and of stock. We are recommending a high end information system to help the administrative staff with the maintenance of order and stock control records. There are a lot of plant species which has a number of varieties. As this PGS has allocated each plant with a common name and details together with a description. We recommend a HP Pavilion Elite HPE-480t customisable Desktop PC information system which is designed for high end performance. It has an unbelievable performance and power of Intel Core quad core i7 processors which can maximize application speed with Intel Turbo Boost, which accelerates performance to match the PGS workload. It has a Powerful 64 bit performance with 8GB DDR3 system memory, fast data transfer and reduced power consumption. An option to add up to 24GB DDR3 memory. The main advantage of DDR3 has an higher bandwidth which increased the performance at low power. Massive storage with large hard drive options including RAID-enabled for data mirroring (backup and security) or high performance. Optional USB wireless LAN for connecting a wireless printer and accessories. Features and Benefits is listed down below. Intel Turbo Boost Technology maximizes speed for all the demanding applications, dynamically accelerating performance to match the management workload. Intel Hyper Threading Technology enables highly threaded applications to get more work done in parallel. With 8 threads available to the operating system, multitasking becomes easier. Intel Smart Cache supplies a higher performance more efficient cache subsystems. Intel QuickPath Interconnect is designed to increase bandwidth and low latency. It can achieve data transfer speeds as high as 25.6 GB/sec with the extreme edition processor. Integrated Memory Controller enables three channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, resulting in up to 25.6 GB/sec memory bandwidth. This memory controllers lower latency and higher memory bandwidth delivers amazing performance for data- intensive applications. Intel HD Boost significantly improves a broad range of multimedia and compute- intensive applications. The 128-bit Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) instructions are issued at a throughput rate of one per clock cycle, allowing a new label of processing efficiency with SSE4 optimized applications. Task 3 An operating system is software which consists of programs and data that runs on computers. Its used to manage the computers hardware and provides common services for execution of other application softwares. After operating system is initially installed on the computer by a boot program. The application programmes uses the operating system it requests the services through an application program interface. The users will be able to interact with the operating system through a user interface such as a graphical user interface. Operating system performs services for applications. The major computer platforms requires and include an operating systems like GNU/Linux, Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows (NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista and 7) are used commonly. Multitasking operating system supports multiple programs to run at the same time. It determines which applications should be executed first. Internal memory is managed to share among multiple applications. Inputs and outputs from hard disks, printers and dial-up ports are managed The errors and status of each application will be sent to the interactive user. Functions of Operating System (OS): Linux: Its designed for servers and desktops it is used for computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific use. It supports real times applications to a given desktop environment. It uses widely ported operating system kernel. The Linux kernel runs on highly diverse range of computer architectures. It has an good networking facilities it allows to share CPUs. This has an ideal environment to run servers like web server or FTP server. It has an ability to execute more than program at a time. It supports multiple processors as standard. Mac OS: It is the trademark of graphical user interface based operating systems it is developed by Apple for their Macintosh line of computer systems. This OS is more user friendly and is different from other operating systems. The advanced technologies in OS has the full advantage of the 64-bit. Multi core processors and GPUs to deliver the greatest possible performance. The most striking feature of Mac OS is it has an elegant user interface. It has an variety of sophisticated technologies that helps keeps us safe from online threats. It has an versatility and power of Mac OS x makes it compactable in almost all the environment including windows networks. Microsoft Windows: It is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces, TBA TASK 4 Proprietary operating systems are which a company designs, develops and markets the products as their own system. Windows OS is one example and Mac OS is another. If we want to use windows OS or Mac OS we have to purchase it through them or resellers. We have Linux is one of the open source OS which can be downloaded through internet and can be used to do things what we want to do. Proprietary OS are developed by a specific company for a specific purpose. Comparisons between the Microsoft Windows and Linux computer operating systems. Windows has kept an large retail sales majority among OS for personal desktop. Linux has sustained its status as the most noticed free software OS. Both OS has user base of the personal computer market and share on a variety of other devices with offering for the servers, embedded systems and mobile internet access. Linux and Microsoft differ in philosophy, cost, versatility and stability with each seeking to improve on their weakness. Comparisons on the two OS tend to reflect their origins, historic user bases and distribution models. Weakness regularly cited has included poor consumer familiarity with Linux and Microsoft windows susceptibility to viruses and malware. The default windows file system NTFS works causes files to defragment, degrading the performance of the system significantly overtime and require regular defragmenting. Whereas Linux file systems do not require defragmenting. A Bus Architecture is a subsystem which transfers data between computer components in a computer or between computers. It handles data transmission in a computer system or network in which components are all linked to a common bus. It can be parallel buses which carries data words in parallel on multiple wire or serial buses which carries data in bit serial form. Secondary storage devices are which can store data permanently. This is used to store programs and data that are not in current use its contents must not be erased when the power supply is disconnected from the computer. Secondary storage typically consists of storage on the hard disk and on any other removable media such as CD, DVD, Magnetic tapes and USB flash drive. Compact Disc (CD) and Digital Versitile Disc (DVD) comes in different types. Read only Memory ROMs can never be written or erased. It is used to store software or files that never want to be changed. Softwares are normally brought on ROM discs. Recordable discs can be written once and ReWritable disk can be written and erased multiple times. External Hard disk are replacing DAT tapes is mostly used for backing up computer systems this is due to direct access and larger capacity. Magnetic Tape is used for data storage tape formulation; packaging and data density have been made. The device performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive. When storing large amount of data tape can be substantially less expensive than disk or other data storage options. USB Flash Drive consists of flash memory data storage device integrate with Universal Serial Bus (USB). USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable and physically smaller than a floppy disk. The most appropriate device for the scenario is external hard disk and CD or DVD. The reason for the selection is because we can store backups on the external hard disk and on the CD or DVD we can burn the backup files and the most important assets like softwares and data. The reason we have recommended two devices is because in case of any disaster in business place all the assets will be lost or corrupted. If we the second backup device we can restore the assets and resume the business. Computer Peripheral Devices is an external object that provides input and output for the computer. The common input and output peripheral devices are keyboard, mouse, scanner, monitor, projector, speaker. The general description of the peripheral devices is as follows Keyboard is a set of typewriter that enables you to enter data into a computer these are similar to electric typewriter keyboards and contains additional keys. Keys on computer keyboards are classified as alphanumeric keys, special keys and punctuation keys. Mouse is a device used in computer by users on desk surface in order to point to a place on a display screen and to select one or more actions to take from that position. Scanner is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwritten or an object and converts it to a digital image. Monitor displays the computer user interface and opens programs allowing the user to interact with the computer typically using keyboard and mouse Projector is used for projecting an image onto a screen or other devices. Speakers are an electro acoustic transducer which converts electrical signals into sounds loud enough to be heard a t a distance. Printer which produces a text of documents stores in electronic form usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals and are attached by a printer cable, Some printers are known as network printers. Networking hardware Devices refers to equipment facilitating the use of computer network. It handles an interface to a computer network and allows a network cable devices to access the network .This includes network interface cards, networking cables, routers and switches. Task 5 Designing Computer System We are using Intel Core i7 processor as they are the high end Desktop Processors which produces faster, intelligent, multicourse technology this delivers an incredible breakthrough in PC performance. We can multitask applications faster and unleash incredible creation. We can experience an maximum performance for all the management workloads. This has an combination of Intel Turbo Boost Technology and Intel Hyper Threading technology this helps to maximize the work load. This includes 8GB memory with 2 TB hard disk storage devices. We strongly recommend 17 inch LCD monitors for display. We include printers, keyboards, mouse, monitors, scanners, speakers and projectors to display the flowers. ATI graphic card HD 5830 is used to bring the huge enthusiast-level performance. PGM can be demonstrated Flowers by using video sound cards will be used. PCI Bus architecture is an essential feature for todays mobile computing. Productivity and stock management softwares will be used for maintaining and stock controlling records Task 6 As for the current computer system specifications designed for PGS estimated budget would approximately be around 10000 dollars. The productivity software will be used to track and maintain the order, stock records and the customers profile database. Some particular requirements should be provided to execute the current specified specifications such as power, internet connection, and furnitures, internet connection, routers, modems, LAN cables and special needs like Uninterruptible power storage is needed to continue the production from power cuts. Task 7 Computer System investigation will be done to provide stakeholders with the information about the quality of the product or the service under test. Hardware or Software testing provides an objective and independent view of the product to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks at the implementation of the hardware and software. The process of executing a program or application with the intent of findings software bugs. Software testing will be stated as the process of validating and verifying that software meets the business and technical requirements, works as expected with the same characteristics. Test methods are used to verify hardware design requirements. Test responsibilities include what the organizations will perform this allows the organizations to plan, acquire or develop test equipment and other resources necessary to implant the test methods for which they are responsible. Testing process tasks are specified for different integrity levels for appropriat e breadth and depth of test documentation. The scope of the testing encompasses software based systems, hardware and their interfaces the standard applies to both software and hardware which includes firmware, microcode and documentation it may also include inspection, analysis, demonstration, verification and validation. IEEE standard for software and system test documentation should be used to document the tests. Task 8 User supporting planning needs trainings like using softwares, hardwares. Printers and scanners. Training need a printed outlet and two individual basic system for trainers. We have to provide and Helpdesk for maintaining the systems, software and other peripherals. Proper user support should be documented and should be submitted to the administrators for their personal use. Remote access software should be installed to support the user systems remotely. This remote access software helps the users to solve the problem immediately. Task 9 Logical Security should be installed to safeguard the organizations systems which includes passwords access, authentication, access rights and authority levels. These measures are implemented to ensure that only authorised users are able to perform actions or access information in a network or workstation. Elements of logical security includes User Ids, authentications, biometrics, token authentication, two way authentication, password authentication should be implemented. Physical Security includes environments design, mechanical, electronic and procedural access control. Intrusion detection, firewall, honey pots, Intrusion prevention system, antivirus,CCTV, personnel identification should be installed. This helps us to know if any hackers are trying to enter the network. User rights should be limited so that they cant install, delete or copy data from the office systems to their flash drives or other media. Backup and recovery are primarily for two purposes it is used to restore from disaster and from accidentally deleted data. Data loss is very common. A full backup should be created and should be made multiple copies in different locations to restore the data in case of any disasters. As when the new full backup is created it should be replaced with the old back files. This helps us to save space in media. Advanced Encryption should be used to for email, hard disk and data. All the outgoing data should be encrypted so that when the packets are sniffed by the hackers they should be able to decrypt the data. Encryptions like symmetric, asymmetric, secure encryption algorithms should be implemented. The entire files included backup file should be hashed and the hash value should be saved in a secure place so that no one can access it.

Tragedy in Allen Ginsberg’s Sunflower Sutra and Tom Waits’ Small Change :: Sunflower Sutra

Tragedy in Allen Ginsberg’s Sunflower Sutra and Tom Waits’ Small Change In both Allen Ginsberg’s â€Å"Sunflower Sutra† and Tom Waits’ â€Å"Small Change†, tragedy is the major premise for the sad and melancholy tone the authors share. In his poem, Ginsberg describes the fall of a mighty flower, the sunflower. Once a bright yellow beacon of life, it now is â€Å"broken like a battered crown.† Having been covered by the dirt and grime of industry, by human â€Å"ingenuity,† this sunflower is really representing a demise in humanity. Rather than choosing nature as a prime example for life, choosing the â€Å"perfect beauty of a sunflower,† we have chosen industry and technology, and have forgotten that we are flowers. Ginsberg berates the dust and grime which have rained down from the locomotives onto â€Å"my sunflower O my soul† and wonders â€Å"when did you forget you were a flower?† This poem really is not about a flower, but the tragedy of losing one’s inner beauty, the vivacity an d brightness which makes one shine. Thus Ginsberg delivers his â€Å"sermon of my soul† to whoever shall listen in hopes that we, unlike the sunflower, do not turn gray in despair and gloom but shine brightly among the soot of the world we live in (Ginsberg 36-37). Similarly to â€Å"Sunflower Sutra,â€Å" the lyrics from â€Å"Small Change† pose a tragedy, which, though more concrete of a scene, shares all the gloom and weariness of the gray sunflower. In a Ginsberg-esque lyrical style, Tom Waits’ rambles through his lyrics (his mind), posing vivid descriptions of the depths of life. His victim is not a flower, but someone by the name of â€Å"Small Change,† who, when killed by his own thirty-eight, gains the headstone of a â€Å"gumball machine† on the street. The real tragedy in this song lies in the first line of the third verse: â€Å"And no one’s gone over to close his eyes.† Though there is enough cruelty in the world to kill â€Å"Small Change† for a â€Å"fistful of dollars,† there is not enough kindness to shut his eyes to the cruelty which has slain him. Tragedy in Allen Ginsberg’s Sunflower Sutra and Tom Waits’ Small Change :: Sunflower Sutra Tragedy in Allen Ginsberg’s Sunflower Sutra and Tom Waits’ Small Change In both Allen Ginsberg’s â€Å"Sunflower Sutra† and Tom Waits’ â€Å"Small Change†, tragedy is the major premise for the sad and melancholy tone the authors share. In his poem, Ginsberg describes the fall of a mighty flower, the sunflower. Once a bright yellow beacon of life, it now is â€Å"broken like a battered crown.† Having been covered by the dirt and grime of industry, by human â€Å"ingenuity,† this sunflower is really representing a demise in humanity. Rather than choosing nature as a prime example for life, choosing the â€Å"perfect beauty of a sunflower,† we have chosen industry and technology, and have forgotten that we are flowers. Ginsberg berates the dust and grime which have rained down from the locomotives onto â€Å"my sunflower O my soul† and wonders â€Å"when did you forget you were a flower?† This poem really is not about a flower, but the tragedy of losing one’s inner beauty, the vivacity an d brightness which makes one shine. Thus Ginsberg delivers his â€Å"sermon of my soul† to whoever shall listen in hopes that we, unlike the sunflower, do not turn gray in despair and gloom but shine brightly among the soot of the world we live in (Ginsberg 36-37). Similarly to â€Å"Sunflower Sutra,â€Å" the lyrics from â€Å"Small Change† pose a tragedy, which, though more concrete of a scene, shares all the gloom and weariness of the gray sunflower. In a Ginsberg-esque lyrical style, Tom Waits’ rambles through his lyrics (his mind), posing vivid descriptions of the depths of life. His victim is not a flower, but someone by the name of â€Å"Small Change,† who, when killed by his own thirty-eight, gains the headstone of a â€Å"gumball machine† on the street. The real tragedy in this song lies in the first line of the third verse: â€Å"And no one’s gone over to close his eyes.† Though there is enough cruelty in the world to kill â€Å"Small Change† for a â€Å"fistful of dollars,† there is not enough kindness to shut his eyes to the cruelty which has slain him.

Psyc 305 Exam #1 Study Guide

PSYC 305 Exam #1 Study Guide Defense Mechanisms: help ego deal with anxiety (Ego cannot handle the conflicts between ID and superego. ) * Rationalism: plausible, but false reason for action * â€Å"I needed to break up with my boyfriend for his own good. † * Sublimation: socially productive displacement * â€Å"I’ll just go to the gym. † * Projection: ascribing own impulses to others * â€Å"He hates me. † * Denial: refusal to acknowledge the impulse * â€Å"I don’t hate my ex. † * Intellectualization: clear, undistorted recognition of impulse over explained and with emotion removed * â€Å"I always have trouble with relationships† Repression: impulses or experiences kept unconscious * â€Å"I feel nothing towards him. † * Isolation: cutting off thoughts related to occurrence * â€Å"I never think about him. † * Identification: merging ones identity with someone else * â€Å"I want to be just like that bully. † * R eaction Formation: transform impulse to the opposite * â€Å"I love my father so much. † (LOVE/HATE) * Displacement: impulses toward another activity * â€Å"What a bad day, I hate my boss and my job, punch hole in wall. † Freud’s Psychosexual Stages (oral – anal – phallic – latency – Genital) * Oral * Birth to age 1 Focus on mouth and feeding * All ID, all the time * From passive > active * Oral fixation * Passive, overly optimistic, dependent * â€Å"Experiencing through the mouth† * Traits: passive dependent, oral aggressive, oral erotic * Anal * Sphincter muscle * Age 1 – 3 * Experiencing through elimination and retention * Excreting – toilet training, ego development * Anal fixation – orderliness, parsimony and simplicity, obstinacy and stubbornness * Traits: passive aggressive, paranoid, compulsive, messy/disorganized, stubborn/stingy * Phallic * Age 3 – 5 * Focus on genitals and masturbation S uccessful passage leads to development of the superego * Solid understanding of the opposite sex * Fixation – immature super ego, pore sex-role typing, sexuality issues * Genitals * Seen in noticing genitals and sex differences, special attention to opposite sex-parent * Narcissistic, arrogant, vane * Oedipus conflict * Boys develop sexual feelings for their mothers and want to replace their dad * Castration anxiety: fear that dad will cut off son’s penis as revenge * Resolved when boy decides to follow in dads footsteps * Electra Conflict * Penis envy: girls feel inferior when they realize they do not have a enis, blame mom * Decides to seduce dad for revenge * Seduction hypothesis: real incest between father-daughter. Revised: fantasy only * Conflict resolved when girl learns to indentify with mother * Latency * Age 5 – puberty * Nothing much going on –ID, ego, superego already developed * Genital * Starts at puberty * Sexual satisfaction from opposite sex * Development of adult sexuality * Proper resolution if no past fixations Freud’s Topographic Model (iceberg) 3 components 1. Conscious mind: aware, accept, identify 2. Unconscious mind: can be brought to awareness readily 3. Preconscious mind: repressed. * ID Unconscious * Preverbal * Source of our instincts and passions * Infant * Driven by pleasure principle * â€Å"Innocent child that doesn’t know any better† * Primary process * First to develop * Libido: sexual energy * Eros: life instinct * Thanatos: death instinct * Balances sex and aggression * Satisfy urges, reduces tension * Seeks pleasure * Ego * The mostly conscious part of the mind * Balances or goes between id, superego and reality * Grows out of the id (ego is shown first even though id exists first) * Face the real world * Understands reality * Decision maker between id and superego * Secondary process/future Second to develop * Brings unity to personality * Reality principle * Superego * Int ernalization of parental images and rules * Includes â€Å"thou shalts† (ego ideal) and â€Å"thou shalt nots† (conscience) * Rules and restrictions of parents/society * Third to develop * Rules and morals of society * Guilty * Phrenology: theory that personality characteristics could be determined by reading the bumps on the skull. (Franz gall) * Localized thinking, feeling and personality in the brain * Attempted to be scientific in explaining characteristic behavior * Fostered scientific debate about the nature and causes of personality Person Metaphors (as a†¦) * Animal: * Respond to reward, punishment * Can be prisoner of its biology * Scientist: * Seek the truth * Try to understand the world by making/testing theories * Actor: * Idea of life as drama (roles) * Writing/acting out scripts * Backstage/onstage * Pathology as role confusion * Computer: * Hardware & software * Data * Programs needing to be debugged * Input > output * Machine: * Causes & effects * Snake biting then developing a fear of snakes * System (ecosystem) * Interconnecting living parts * Self-regulation toward homeostasis * Little changes can have big effects Homeostatic level * Avoid anxiety/fear * Pilot * The self * Being in the drivers seat, steering towards goals * Personality: 1. The stylistic aspects of how we think, feel and act and motives implied by these that make us agreeable or to live with (Dollinger). 2. The underlying causes within the person of individual behavior and experience (Cloninger). * 3 D’s 1. Description: how do we describe people? a. Traits > measures characteristics on continuous scales factors > measures an individuals characteristics based on a group of related traits types > putting people into categories 2.Dynamics: How do our personalities influence our behaviors and motivation? 3. Development: what determines our personality? * Idiographic: looks at the characteristics of a single individual * Individual, one person, different traits * Nomothetic: comparing one person to another * Group of people, one trait in different people * Assessment 1. Interviews (value interactive and subjective approach) a. Unstructured i. Clinical Judgment b. Structured ii. Training, reliability/consistency c. Both should involve empathy, warmth and concern 2. Questionnaires (large sample, need good norms, value efficiency and objectivity) d.General or specific e. Obvious or subtly f. Logically keyed (theory) g. Empirically keyed (what items correlate with) 3. Objectivity: Keeps things standardized and eliminate interviewer bias 4. Subjectivity: Assess your â€Å"feel† for who the person is and the informers reliability in answering. * Reliability: the consistency of response to a psychological assessment (standardization) * Consistency/stability * Questionnaire producing consistent results from time one to time two * Validity: the extent to which an assessment device measures what it is intended to measure * Really measu res what it claims to measure Predictive Validity: how well a test score predicts future behavior * Does a test predict a behavior that the researcher accept as a criterion for the construct being measured * Content Validity: How well the individual items relate to measured construct (face validity) * Test – retest reliability, alternate forms * Correlation * An observational method * Looks for associations between two psychological constructs * Social support and depression * Yields a number representing the degree that two constructs are associated with each other * Coefficient Pearson’s r statistic * Range -1 to +1 * -1 = perfect inverse relationship * 0 = no mathematical relationship * +1 = perfect positive relationship * Limitations * Can’t determine cause and effect relationships * Can only conclude that one or more variable are associated with each other * Good enough if goal is prediction only * Independent Variables: the variables that are manipulated. * Dependent Variable: not manipulated but measured for possible change effects.

The female characters in Great Expectations have the greatest influence on Pip’s development

While it may be true to argue that the female characters of Great Expectations have the most detrimental effect on Pip, it would certainly not be accurate to portray them as having had the greatest influence on his development. Although, the tyrannical Mrs Joe, the embittered Miss Havisham and Pip's ‘beloved' Estella have a large hand in shaping Pip's moral decline, it is without doubt Magwitch and of course, the moral cornerstone of the book, Joe who have the most profound effect on him. As well as this there are the minor male characters of the book such as Wemmick (in his Walworth capacity) and to a lesser extent Jaggers, and their part in restoring Pip to decency. Having said this, it must be acknowledged that in his childhood years it is in fact Mrs Joe who has the most immense influence on Pip's development. Her highly unfavourable â€Å"bring him up by hand,† regime destroys his self-worth, forcing him to develop a real sense of self-resentment. Hear that, be grateful to those who brought you up by hand,† is a deeply ironic statement, for it is Mrs Joe he owes least gratitude to, considering the negative impact she has on Pip's young life. The physical and verbal abuse she expels on him leads to a lack of adequate love and affirmation. â€Å"I'm a common labouring boy, my hands are coarse and my boots are thick†¦ generally I'm in a low lived bad way,† is a bleak outlook that comes from a young boy who has had his self-worth quashed unde r his sister's tyranny. It is of course this lack of self-esteem which is most harmful to Pip's development, forcing him to create the fantasy of reinvention that ultimately leads to his moral decline. However, we cannot forget that regardless of Mrs Joe's predominant influence, Joe, Pip's friend and father figure, is, to an extent, able to have a positive impact on Pip. Primarily, he is able to provide him with what little affirmation possible in such a cold household, establishing a solid friendship with his fellow sufferer, â€Å"We are ever the best of friends ain't us Pip? Furthermore, in terms of moral development, this â€Å"gentle Christian man† is able to instate in Pip the foundations of the values which he must ultimately return to in the peak of his moral decline. Joe the moral mentor, encourages Pip to develop the same goodness he himself possess, by teaching him number of vital lessons such as compassion through the quote â€Å"We don't know what it is you have done, but we wouldn't have you starve to death for it, poor fellow miserable creatur, – would us. ‘ and the importance of honesty through â€Å"(telling lies) ain't the way to get out of being common. Hence Joe is able to have some effect on Pip in his childhood years. Once exposed to the world of Satis house it is the influence of Miss Havisham and Estella that largely occupies his life during the ‘expectation' years. We see the manner in which Miss Havisham plays further on his lack of self-worth, using Estella to belittle him and â€Å"break his heart†; â€Å"He's a coarse and common labouring boy. † This lack of self-worth combines with the glamour of their lifestyle which mesmerizes Pip and leads him to create the fantasy of reinvention. It is the initial meeting at Satis house, therefore, that consequently sees Pip commence his deluded journey in the pursuit of false ideals. Estella also becomes a major contributor to this fantasy, as Pip is naively led on by her and is blinded by her beauty, failing to realize what truly lies beneath. Thus it could be said that Miss Havisham and Estella have a large part in negatively influencing Pip and fuelling his desire to become a ‘gentleman'. In contrast, we see that it is the male character Magwitch who initiates the moral redemption in Pip. Although initially Pip holds him with abhorrent disgust, as time moves on he is forced to under go a major reality check in assessing his idle and wasteful lifestyle. Magwitch is able to extract from Pip the core values he exhibited in his childhood years, in particular the quality of compassion. Towards the end of their relationship we have the declaration from Pip â€Å"May I be as true to you as you have been to me. † indicating the profound effect this common convict has had in returning Pip from the pretentious prig to the morally decent character we are able to respect. Wemmick and to a much lesser extent Jaggers are also able to provide examples of this compassion which help Pip towards his return to decency. During his reality check Pip is also provided with the unselfishness of Wemmick in his Walworth capacity. His caring of the age and the simple idealistic life he leads Pip to open his eyes to true gentility. In a much more ambiguous way we have Jaggers. The revelation of his secretive rescue of Estella from the criminal milieu provides Pip with a compassionate side of Jaggers not revealed before. These examples dramatically influence his development, encouraging his shift back to integrity. However, it is once more Joe who is able to most profoundly influence Pip, completing his moral redemption and providing him with the model of selflessness and compassion. Pip suffers from a mystery illness which is highly symbolic of a phase of personal disassembly, in which he questions himself and rebuilds his character. It is Joe who appears as the saviour, nursing him back to health and in the process teaching Pip that true gentility comes only with qualities such as humility, honesty and most importantly the ability to love and be loved. God bless this gentle Christian man,† is a defining moment in Pip's development as he is finally able to recognise Joe's nobility. Thus without doubt we are left to see that it is the male character Joe who has the most intense influence on Pip's character. It is clear to see therefore that it is instead although the female characters do have quite a detrimental effect on Pip's development, it is instead the male characters and lead by Joe who have the greatest influence. In particular these male characters have quite a substantial hand in helping Pip re-establish his moral decency and hence redeem himself in the eyes of the reader.