Romeo and Juliet’s Love Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet’s Love Essay Romeo and Juliet’s love is not true love. Although they have sworn their love and gotten married, they do not truly love each other. They are too young to know if they really love someone. Although Lady Capulet was already a mother at Juliet’s age, Juliet is not old enough to know what love feels like. Capulet even says to Paris that Juliet is too young to get married. â€Å"My child is yet a stranger in the world. She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. Let two more summers wither in their pride ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.† Capulet says here that not until she is sixteen will Juliet be ready to get married. But Juliet thinks she has fallen in love and married Romeo before she is even fourteen. Next, Romeo is also too young. Romeo is not really in love with Juliet, he is in love with being in love. Before the party in act 1 scene 5, Romeo seems to be in love with Rosaline. However he immediately forgets about Rosaline when he talks with Juliet. This shows that he is not old enough to love someone. He has not matured enough, which is yet another reason why Romeo and Juliet are not truly in love. Juliet has not matured enough to get married because she has never been in any kind of a relationship. You cannot love someone if do not know what it feels like. So, if you married the first person you had a relationship with then you could not know if there was someone else who would love even more. Capulet wants Juliet to, somewhat, see who else is out there before marrying Paris. On the other hand, it seems as if Romeo has been in a relationship before. But the problem with Romeo is that he has been in too many relationships. Romeo is in love with being in love, and loves to feel like â€Å"woe is me.† When Romeo gets turned down by Rosaline, he says that he could never love someone as much as he loved her. â€Å"Thou canst not teach me to forget.† Romeo is saying that he cannot forget his love for Rosaline. This tells us that he did not truly love Rosaline, and that he probably does not truly love Juliet. Lastly, Romeo and Juliet do not truly love each other because they have not known each other long enough. They have only known each other for one day and they have already gotten married. That is not nearly enough time for someone to get to know and love another person. Just an hour after the party they had sworn their love to each other. They are not in love, they simply like each other. They were not ready to get married at the time that they did and they still are not in love even after they got married. So, Romeo and Juliet are not really in love. They are too young and immature to be in love with each other. Also, they have not known each other long enough to be in love, they moved too quickly. In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet’s love is not true love.

Whole Life Cycle Costing Application Barriers Construction Essay

Whole Life Cycle Costing Application Barriers Construction Essay Ellingham and Fawcett (2006, p. 18) indicate that the net present value method for evaluating an investment cashflow was first developed about 50 years ago and is widely used in many spheres. In property and construction projects it has acquired a special name: whole-life costing. In fact, whole-life costing is simply the application of net present value analysis to construction projects. Most people will confused about the term of life-cycle costing, whole life costing, and whole life-cycle costing. As stated in Boussabaine and Kirkham study (2004, p. 4), prior to the 1970s, investment decisions made by most clients, developers and professionals was solely on the basis of capital cost. It appear a thought that spending more in capital cost will realize substantial cost savings in long term compared with a cheaper alternative, which we known as terotechnology. This concept was largely ignored because the lack of available data and collection mechanisms, and it shown that investor had no interest in the subsequent operational cost of the building. In the early 1970s, the term cost-in-use appear in the industry. It was recognized the concept of cost in use could apply to building and critical structures as to calculate the expenditure related to the operation of an asset. However, it also failed to consider the necessity for accurate future cost forecasting. It required some kind of technology to facilitate this problem (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 5). Until the mid to late 1970s, life-cycle costing emerged as a solution to this problem. It fostered a wide-ranging approach to cost appraisal, encompassing all perceivable cost from construction through to eventual disposal the whole life. By using a variety of forecasting techniques, the analyst was able to demonstrate how increase capital cost could be offset by long-term cost savings (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 5). As stated by Ashworth (1989), LCC is clearly a technique, which (at least in theory) has a potential for the correct financial evaluation of construction works. In should be noted that the concepts of LCC are not new. The principles are based upon economic theories, which have been used in investment appraisal in many areas of industrial and commercial activity.White and Ostwald (Korpi and Ala-Risku, 2008, p.241) show that LCC was originally designed for procurement purposes in the US Department of Defence and Woodward (Korpi and Ala-Risku, 2008, p.241) indicates that LCC is used most commonly in the military sector as well as in the construction industry. Towards the late 1990s, the concept of whole life costing and whole life-cycle costing emerged. The terms whole life costing and whole life-cycle costing are interchangeable (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 6). Whole life-cycle costing is a relatively new concept to the construction industry. It is essence an evolution of life-cycle costing techniques that are commonly used in many areas of procurement (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 3). Theoretically speaking, there is no different between LCC, WLC and WLCC. Schade (2007, p. 2), in reporting Flanagan and Jewell study, emphasizes that it is just a change of term form cost in use to life cycle costing and further to whole life cycle costing. Problem Statement According to Boussabaine and Kirkham (2004, p. xi), the construction industry has recently experienced a paradigmatic shift in its approach to product deliver and the achievement of customer satisfaction. Where previously the design and construction teams placed a heavy emphasis on delivering buildings at the lowest capital cost, a greater awareness and desire to consider cost over the whole life of the building have prevailed. Clients now want buildings that demonstrate value for money over the long term, and are not interested simply in the design solution which is the least expensive. These changes have lead to and highlighted the important of whole life-cycle costing approaches to the design, construction and operation of buildings. Schade (2007) claims that, production cost is the main cost factor in construction and is often set to the minimum in commonly, which does not necessarily improve the lifetime performance of buildings. Therefore, it is important to show the construction client in the early design phase the relationship between design choices and the resulting lifetime cost. Boussabaine and Kirkham (2004, p. ix) also note that the award of public construction contracts based on simply the lowest capital cost bid is no longer recognized as good practice; best value must be taken into account and thereby WLCC should be fully appraised as part of the decision making process. The research of Swaffield and McDonald (2007, p. 132) identify that contractors quantity surveyors generally did consider LCC when procuring new products/elements for Private Finance Initiative projects, but in certain circumstances, such as during exceptionally busy times or when working within tight construction budgets, LCC were not considered and procurement decisions for some product/elements were made on the basis of lowest capital cost. As Byron A. Ellis (2007, p.1) said, Designers, engineers and constructors are under pressure from owners to minimize total project cost. Unfortunately, many owners do not understand the concept of total project cost. As a result, they seek to minimize acquisition (first) cost. Economists Alchian and Allen (Byron, 2007, p.1) argue that the term cost should never be used by itself; they noted that it should always be identified with total, average, or marginal. According to Fischer et al (Tah and Aouad, 2007), although the significance of LCC has been recognized as early as 1980s, the current implementation has not been very satisfied due to two major barriers: first barrier is the historical data of building operation and maintenance. Second barrier is the complexity of the procedures and algorithms of calculating the LCC. For example, a building concern thousands of elements and construction method and maintenance activities. A simple change in the building material might take long hours of recalculations, it is therefore difficult to assist users to manipulate the large design and LCC analysis. However, even the idea of WLCC analysis is to help the owner to examine a economically alternative, there will always have the possibility of misleading the decision making by the error result of WLCC due to lack of data or unpredictable changes. There have no such as 100% accuracy for WLCC analysis because the limitation of forecast ability of human being are impossible to forecast everything that could be happen in future. This paper addresses the problems above by providing a detail discussion of WLCC for assisting and simplifying the application of the technique based on the WLCC in construction industry. At the same time reveal the popularity of application of WLCC in Malaysian construction industry. Aim To identified the barriers of applying whole life-cycle costing and investigate the popularity of implementation of whole life-cycle costing in Malaysian construction industry Objectives To review the important of usage of whole life-cycle costing in construction industry. To identify the barriers of application of whole-life cycle costing in construction industry. To analyse the factors affecting the accuracy of whole-life cycle costing. To investigate the popularity of application of whole-life cycle costing in Malaysian construction industry. Scope of Study The concept of Whole life-cycle costing (WLCC) can be use as many sector, to narrow the scope of study, the study will only be focus on the construction industries. Besides that, case study would not conduct to the project for the calculation of WLCC because it will be extremely difficult to obtain the large quantity of information across the long term of a building life cycle and data such as the project operation and maintenance cost, replacement cost, disposal cost could be confidential to its owners. Thus, to manually collect this data has to be very costly and time consuming and the missing of any result above will cause inaccurate of result. This study will focus on reviewing the important of application of WLCC into construction industry. The first issue to be study in deep is the discussion on the principles, advantages and purposes of WLCC analysis. The second issue is to identify the error and the difficulties of applying WLCC due to lack of necessary information and unpred ictable changes. The third issue is to do a research on the understanding of WLCC among owners and their frequency of applying WLCC. Research Methodology The methodology should be targeted at a consistent whole life-cycle costing (WLCC) approach and calculations and should not be aimed at reducing costs but at making more informed and consistent economic, financial and environmental decisions. The study was conducting in four stages. The first phase is the literature review. Second phase will be interview pilot study to the issue. Third phase will be constructing questionnaires. The last phase is to writing the research report. First stage: The literature review started with the important of application of WLCC and required data for a WLCC analysis. Searching of article about WLCC and the searching key words would be whole life-cycle costing, whole cycle costing and life-cycle costing. And the information of search will be limited into construction industry to filtered unnecessary information. The main sources for the literature research were databases, such as Emerald, web of science, Google and library of college Tunku Abdul Rahman. Second stage: Data collection will take form of a structured postal questionnaire. However an initial pilot study may be conducted to test the validity of the questionnaire through interviews with relevant parties. Third stage: Questionnaires will be conduct and send to respondent. The main ideas of the questionnaires are to test the owners of understanding about WLCC, and also research on the preferable of low initial cost or low WLCC when owner make decision of choosing alternatives. The questionnaire should be highlighted more prominently, to make it easier for respondents to participate in the final questionnaire survey. Last stage: This stage involves writing up the content of the dissertation and should cover the chapters proposed in the following section. The result of interview and questionnaires will be analysis and conclude. Example of WLCC analysis will provide by searching through media resources and calculate by myself with simple and reality assumption based on the WLCC principles.

How Reliable is Eyewitness Testimony?

How Reliable is Eyewitness Testimony? This essays attempts to reach a conclusion regarding eyewitness testimonies and the extent of its reliability. This was done by identifying factors in three different processes stages. The acquisition stage is the period where the witness experiences the event. The retention stage is the period between the time the event ends and the time the witness are asked for a recount or questioned about the event. The retrieval stage is the period where the witness is providing information from their recall. During the acquisition stage, research regarding exposure time, estimation of factors concerning the event (for example, time), violence of the event, weapon focus and witness stress was analysed. During the retention stage, research regarding post-event information, introduction of conflicting information and introduction of misleading information was analysed. During the retrieval stage, research regarding method of questioning, leading questions and a case study of an actual event was analysed. Experiments and case studies regarding these factors were then evaluated to weigh the impact that it had on eyewitness testimony. In conclusion, it was found that experiments regarding eyewitness testimony hold little evidence to support its reliability but there are also some findings that dispute this. Thus, it was concluded that it is reliable only to a small extent though it can be highly accurate under certain conditions. Applications of this conclusion includes jurors being more aware of the factors regarding eyewitness testimony and taking into account when deciding on a verdict especially if the main evidence is based solely on eyewitness recounts. Word Count: 252 words Introduction Eyewitness testimony is usually a verbal account given by an individual who has experienced an event, typically of a crime. Eyewitness testimony relies heavily on the capability of the individuals to accurately recount the event. In a trial, the jury is most often persuaded due to the statement(s) of the witnesses. Also, in cases where little material evidence can be collected, eyewitnesses are the focus for reaching a verdict. It has been argued that because testimonies are largely based on fallible memory which can be influenced by a variety of factors, it should not be depended upon. The contention of this essay is to identify and evaluate the extent of accuracy of this claim by identifying and evaluating factors that affect memory and by reviewing experiments and case studies to reach a conclusion on this matter. Memory and thus eye-witness reliability has become an issue of importance due to the high percentage of errors in identifying and prosecuting accused individuals. Thus, the reliability of eyewitness testimonies and impact on trials should be reviewed. Memory is defined as a kind of repository in which facts (information) may be retained over some period of time (Loftus, 1979). According to the Atkinson and Shiffrin model of memory storage (1971), memory is made up of three different types of information stores, each with different duration, capacity and function. The first is Sensory Memory. This type of store lasts for the spilt second when individuals collect information from their sensory systems and preserves information in its original sensory form. The sense organs are limited in their ability to store information about the world in an unprocessed way for more than a second. Thus, information is filtered through or selected by attention for further memory processing into the next type of memory store. This process of experiencing and filtering information is called acquisition. The next memory store is Short-term memory allows individuals to retain information long enough to be used and lasts approximately between 15 to 30 s econds. Miller (1956, cited in Weiten, 2005) proposed that Short-term Memory had a capacity of about 7 chunks of information. If certain actions are carried out, the information will be transferred to the last type of memory store, Long-term Memory. Long-term Memory provides retention of information which can last between minutes to a lifetime and has a limitless capacity. The process of information deposited in the short-term and long-term memory store is called retention. Information is constantly being transferred between these stores. When witnesses are asked to give recount of what they witnessed, information is taken from the long-term memory store and this process is called retrieval. Events during these three processes may affect the quality of the eyewitness testimony. During the acquisition process information may not have been perceived in the first place, information may be forgotten or interfered during the retention process or information may be inaccessible during questioning or during the retrieval process. Analysis of Factors that may affect Eye-witness Testimony during the Acquisition Process During the acquisition process, there are a number of factors that can affect an eyewitness report of an event such as exposure time or stress. This can be divided into event factors and witness factors. This section of the essay will evaluate the effect of these factors on the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Exposure time to the event or object of focus is an event factor. Laughery et al (1971, cited in Loftus, 1979) tested subjects on their recall based on the exposure time to a picture, showed one at a time of different positions of a human face. Two Caucasian male target faces were used, one with fair-colored hair and complexion with glasses and another with a darker-colored hair and complexion without glasses. The independent variable is the time the subjects viewed the pictures, which ranged from ten seconds to thirty-two seconds. The subjects were them asked, approximately eight minutes after exposure to identify the target within a series of 150 slides of human faces. The dependant variable is the accuracy of the subjects recall. Fifty-eight percentof the subjects who viewed the pictures for thirty-two seconds correctly identified the target but only forty-seven percent of the subjects who viewed the pictures for ten seconds correctly identified the target. This suggests that the more time a witness has to view the target, the more accurate their recall will be. This research is significant as it is very scientific and precisely tested a specific variable that affects memory and recall. Although this is so, it was also conducted in an artificial environment and thus, has low ecological validity. The research may also contain cultural and gender bias as it only tested for Caucasian males as the target. Thus, its application to targets of different cultures or gender is questionable. Estimating factors such as time, speed or distance is often asked of eyewitnesses. This involves perceiving the event and accurately inferring information from it. Marshalls (1966, cited in Loftus, 1979) experiment tested subjects estimation of time. Four hundred and ninety-one subjects watched a forty-two second film and a week after they had given their written and oral reports of the event, they were questioned as to the duration of the event. On average, subjects gave an estimate of about ninety seconds. The results show that witnesses can inaccurately estimate certain factors of an event. Although the results are significant, the study was conducted in a controlled environment which gives it little ecological validity. To further assess the accuracy of this study, an additional study that can be considered is Buckhout et al. (1975, cited in Loftus, 1979)s study on the effects if eyewitness testimony in a real situation by staging an attack where a student attacked a professor in front of 141 witnesses. The attack lasted for thirty-four seconds but when interviewed later on, the average estimate of the duration of the event was eighty-one seconds, almost twice the actual time. This study supports Marshalls study which shows that there is a tendency for witnesses to overestimate the duration in an event. This is significant in most cases, especially for cases of self-defense where the time between the attack and the retaliation is very significant in the categorization of the action. Another event factor is the violence of the event. A research done by Clifford and Scott (1978, cited in Loftus, 1979) investigated the ability of eyewitnesses to perceive violent and non-violent events. Forty-eight subjects with equal number of men and women watched either one of two tapes. In the non-violent version, the characters were involved in a verbal exchange and weak restraining movements. In the violent version, one of the characters physically assaults another character. In an effort to be even, the start and end of the tapes were manipulated to be identical. It was found that regardless of gender, the level of recall is significantly lower for those who viewed the more violent tape. It is inferred that this is due to the greater amount of stress that is produced in response to the violent event. This shows that eyewitness testimony of a violent event should be considered with the possibility of a higher rate of inaccuracy. Though the results are significant due to the hi gh reliability of the scientific method used, it also lacks ecological validity as it was conducted in an artificial environment where witnesses do not actually experience the event. An event factor that is linked to the witness factor, stress, is weapon focus. Easterbrook (1959) found that under high stress, individuals tend to concentrate more on a few features of their environment and less attention to other features. Weapon focus is where a crime victim is faced with an assailant who is brandishing a weapon. This rises the stress level of the crime victim and thus, they will only concentrate on a few features, mainly the weapon and will have trouble recollecting other factors such as the assailants features. Loftus et al (1987) tested this with an experiment where thirty-six students were showed a series of slides which showed one of two scenarios at a fast food restaurant. Half the subjects saw a customer pointing a gun at the cashier while the other half, the control group saw a customer handing the cashier a check. A part of the experiment tested the memory of the students based on a series of seven questions on the customer. It was found that the level of accuracy of the weapon group was fifty-six percent while the level of accuracy for the control group was sixty-seven percent. As the results show that the accuracy level of the weapon group is lower than the control group, this is highly significant in showing that eye-witnesses acquisition process might be seriously hampered by the presence of a weapon. The results of the experiment are highly valid as it was conducted in a controlled environment which allowed a direct cause and effect outcome. While this is so, the participants did not experience the event and thus their response may be different to an actual witness which means that the experiment lacks ecological validity. During an event, stress is a witness factor that should be taken into account. This refers to the level of stress or fear that a witness experiences which may influence their perception during the acquisition process of the event. A simulated case study done by Berkun (1962, cited in Loftus, 1979) placed army recruits in a stressful situation. They were isolated with the exception of a telephone link. Then, they were told that they were in danger to induce anxiety and were required to repair a broken radio by following a series of complicated instructions. It was found that the high level of anxiety impaired performance of the subjects. As this case study was conducted during a period of different ethical standards than today, there are ethical implications to be considered. Nevertheless, the results of this case study significantly support the Yerkes-Dodson law (1908, cited in Green) which states that emotional arousal facilitates learning and performance up to a point after which t here is a decrement. This can be applied to eyewitnesses who experience stress. Their senses may be stimulated but after a point, their acquisition process will be negatively affected. Although this is so, this case study has only looked at male soldiers, thus when applied to the general population, it lacks ecological validity. Analysis of Factors that may affect Eye-witness Testimony during the Retention Process Eye-witnesses are being tested on their retention of information from their Long-term Memory. Because retained information and thus, memory is being transferred between memory stores, it is possible that it can be influenced, enhanced or even distorted during or in between transfers. This section of the essay will focus on the numerous researches that have been carried out to investigate the accuracy of this or the extent of the influence that may occur. After an event occurs, sometimes witnesses discuss what they saw with each other and the information that is exchanged can result in an enhancement of memory in the form of modification or addition. An experiment was conducted by Loftus (1975) on one hundred and fifty participants. They were showed a film of a car crash where a car failed to stop at a stop sign and turned right to enter traffic, causing a five-car collision. After the film which lasted for less than a minute, participants were asked a series of ten questions. Half of the participants were asked about the stop sign in the first question while the other half were asked about the right turn. All other questions were the same. The independent variable here is the first question and the dependant variable is the last question which asked participants if they remembered seeing a stop sign. Loftus found that there was a higher percentage of participants who recalled seeing a stop sign if the first question related to a stop sign than the control group, fifty-three percent and thirty-five percent respectively. This shows that by mentioning an object, there is a higher chance of it being recalled. The results are highly significant as it was calculated using precise results with a specific variable tested. It can be argued that the experiment lacks ecological validity as it was conducted in an artificial environment but this allowed a specific variable to be tested which would have been impossible with a case study. As demonstrated by this experiment, eye-witnesses memory may be influenced by post-event information that they receive and thus, the more information that the witness is exposed to after the event, the higher the chance that their memory might be compromised. A modification to the previous variable is the question as to what happens when a witness learns new information which is different from what they experienced. Loftus (1975) conducted an experiment where forty participants were shown a three-minute video which involved a group of eight demonstrators noisily interrupting a lecture. The participants then had to answer a series of twenty questions. All the questions for the participants were identical except for one. Half of the participants were asked, Was the leader of the twelve demonstrators who entered the classroom a male? and the other half were asked, Was the leader of the four demonstrators who entered the classroom a male? All questions had to be answered with a yes or no. A week later, participants had to answer another set of questions. The critical question was How many demonstrators did you see enter the classroom? It was found that participants who previously answered the question with the word twelve reported an average of 8.9 demonstrators while the other half reported an average of 6.4 demonstrators. It can be argued that this experiment lacks ecological validity as it was conducted in an artificial environment and that participants only viewed the event and did not actually witness it. The results may not be fully applicable to the general population. Although this is so, the controlled environment showed a direct cause and effect of a specific variable. The results of this experiment can be applied to eye-witness testimony where witnesses may be mislead in their testimony as their memory might be compromised by the introduction of conflicting information. Similar to the experiment above is an experiment conducted by Loftus and Zanni (1975, cited in Hill, 1998) which was a modification of the original Loftus and Palmer research. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the effect of adding post event information on memory. Participants were shown a film of a car accident after which they had to answer a series of questions. Half of the participants were required to answer, Did you see the broken headlight which implied that there was a broken headlight while the other half were asked, Did you see a broken headlight which only required participants to recall if it was there. It was found that half of the participants, who were asked using the word the, incorrectly reported seeing a broken headlight. As most of the other variables were controlled in the experiment, and only a specific variable was changed, the results signify that memory can be modified by post event information. It can be argued that the participants did not experie nce the incident and thus the experiment lacks ecological validity when applied to actual witnesses but as a specific variable was examined, it can be concluded that the cause and effect was to a large extent connected. This experiment shows that eyewitnesses may be influenced by post event information which may negatively affect their account. McCloskey and Zaragaza (1985) also conducted experiments concerning the effect of misleading post event information on participants. After watching a series of slides depicting an event, participants received a narrative of the event. Participants in the mislead condition will receive a narration with receive the narrative with misleading information about a detail of the event, a hammer was referred to as a screwdriver instead while the control group werent provided details of the specific event. Participants then had to answer a series of questions about the event. The critical question concerning the tool had the original item as an option (hammer) and a new item (wrench). It was found that accuracy for the control group was seventy-five percent and seventy-two percent for the mislead condition group. The fact that there was little difference between the two groups points to the idea that misleading post event information does not distort memory of an event. This experiment suppor ts the validity of eyewitness testimony and due to the controlled setting; the results are highly valid though it lacks ecological validity. Analysis of Factors that may affect Eye-witness Testimony during the Retrieval Process Most evidence from eyewitnesses are a result of their accounts of the event. This involves the retrieval process of information from their long term memory store. This section of the essay aims to analyse and evaluate research conducted in relation to the techniques of retrieving information from eyewitnesses such as question wording or method of questioning. This is to evaluate the extent of influence of such techniques on the reliability of eyewitness accounts and in relation, memory. The method of questioning during the retrieval process plays an important role in the accuracy of eye-witness testimony as investigated by Lipton (1977, cited in Wells, 1978). Lipton conducted an experiment where participants watched a film of a murder in a courtroom setting. He found that unstructured testimony which allowed free recall resulted in ninety-one percent accuracy. This is a significant value as compared to other types of questioning such as open ended questions with eighty-three percent accuracy, leading questions with seventy-two percent accuracy and multiple choice questions with fifty-six percent accuracy. These results show that the type of questioning that the witness is subjected to affects the accuracy of their recount. When applied to trial testimonies, jurors should take into account the type of questioning to predict or get an idea of the level of accuracy of the testimony. Though conclusive to a certain extent, the experiment lacks ecological validity as the participants did not actually experience the event, merely perceive it but as it is a controlled environment, the reliability of the cause and effect factors is high. Loftus and Palmer (1974 cited in Hill, 1998) carried out an experiment to investigate the effect of leading questions on the accuracy of participants in recalling a car crash. Fourty-five participants were separated into seven groups and each group watched a video of traffic accidents. The videos lasted from five to thirty seconds. After watching the video, participants had to give an account of what they had just seen. The independent variable is the question About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?. The word hit is replaced with the words smashed, contacted, bumped and collided for different groups. The participants answer as to the estimate of the cars speed is the dependant variable. Loftus and Palmer found that the mean estimate of speed for more aggressive words such as smashed is higher than less aggressive words such as contacted. The results are highly significant, p Contending the results of this experiment is Yuille and Cutshalls (1986) case study of a real life event. 13 participants were interviewed using Loftus and Palmers (1974 cited in Hill, 1998) technique in their recall four to five months after witnessing an attempted robbery in daylight where one individual was killed and another, seriously wounded. It was found that there was a very high level of similarity between the accounts given by the witnesses, the accounts did not alter in response to leading questions and that the witnesses were able to recall the event in detail. Additionally, accounts of those who were more distressed had a higher accuracy level. These results are different to Loftus and Palmer (1974 cited in Hill, 1998). The eye witnesses did not alter their accounts greatly in response to leading questions. As this is a case study, it holds high ecological validity unlike laboratory experiments. Although this may be true, Yuille and Cutshalls case study was of an event t hat was relatively traumatic event and was viewed in ideal conditions. Most incidents do not mirror this setting. Also, it was an investigation of only one case study. Hence, the application of these findings is debatable when applied to general eye witness testimonies. Conclusion This essay evaluated the extent of accuracy of the claim that eyewitness testimony should not be depended upon. This was done by focusing on the different factors that can affect human memory, and in relation, eyewitness testimony as it is fundamentally based on memory. Experiments and case studies related to factors in three different memory stages were identified and evaluated. Research concerning the acquisition process such as exposure time, estimation of factors concerning the event, for example, time, violence of the event, weapon focus and witness stress level during the event was analysed. Results point to a correlation of high levels of inaccuracy when more traumatic factors are included in the event. This is also reflected in research concerning the retention process and the retrieval process although there is some evidence that supports the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Overall analysis criticised the low ecological validity of controlled experiments but also supported the high level of validity that comes with it as it essentially provides a cause and effect relationship between specific variables tested. Case studies were found to be very specific with regards to certain factors, which leads to a debate about their general application. Since experiments are only replications of real-life events, it cant be fully taken as the actual process . This may have some influence on the results obtained as it can be argued that the participants are not really experiencing the event, thus essential factors like, atmosphere, or even interest in the event may be compromised. In this manner, results of case studies hold a higher level of reliability. As indicated by the numerous researches on different factors during the process of collecting, processing and retrieving information from memory, eye witness testimony is reliable only to a small extent. Under such fallibility, it can be questioned if eyewitness testimony should be relied on at all. Though eyewitness testimony has been proved accurate in a number of researches, the amount of investigations concluding on the fact that it is highly imperfect far outweighs it. Though a large number of researches do not support the reliability of eyewitness testimony, there is also evidence to support it like Yuille and Cutshalls (1986) case study. This suggests that although eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, under certain conditions, it is highly accurate. Implications for application of the analysis in this essay could include jurors being more wary of eyewitness testimony and the conditions relating to it when deciding upon a verdict. Further research could include more case studies to increase the ecological validity of the theories produced by experiments analysed in this essay. References Atkinson, R. C. Shriffin, R. M. (1971), The Control Processes of Short-term Memory, Stanford, California, Stanford University Easterbrook J. A. (1959), The Effect of Emotion on Cue Utilisation and the Organisation of Behaviour, Psychological Review, Vol 66(3), 183-201 Green, C. D, (n.d.) Classics in the History of Psychology Yerkes and Dodson (1908), Toronto, Ontario, York University, Retrieved from psychclassics.yorka.ca: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Yerkes/Law/ Hill, G. (1998), Oxford Revision Guides, AS A Level Psychology, New York, Oxford University Press Loftus, E. F; Loftus, G. R; Messo, J. (1987), Some facts about Weapon Focus, Law and Human Behaviour, Vol 11(1), 55-62 Loftus, E. F. (1975), Leading Questions and the Eyewitness Repost, Cognitive Psychology, Vol 7, 550-572, University of Washington Loftus E. F. (1979), Eyewitness Testimony, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, USA, Harvard University Press Yullie J. C. Cutshall J. L. (1986), A case study of eyewitness memory of a crime, Journal of Applied Psychology, Volume 71(2), May 1986, 291-301 Weiten, W. (2005), Psychology: Themes and Variations, The United States of America, Thomson Learning Inc. Wells, G. L. (1978), Applied Eyewitness-Testimony Research: System Variables and Estimator Variables, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Volume 36, No. 12, 1547-1557, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

One Big Happy Family :: essays research papers

The story that I chose to write about was "One Big Happy Family," by Anndee Hochman. The story is about a young woman whose family life seemed to be the American dream, for those of us looking in from the outside. Her family owned a house in the city like most of us and a house on the beach. The house on the beach was unique with its architecture anomalies, which made the house more a mix and match of parts than like her normal home in the city. The whole family, including relatives from afar, would gather there during the summer to spend time with each other. When in actuality behind her family’s unity, was a demand for conformity to her family’s way of life and thinking. The author finally realized that in order for her to find happiness she had to look within herself and learn to listen to her feelings. Once she learns this lesson, she will be able to break the bounds of her family’s conformity and find the peace of mind that she has always longed fo r. Several of the stories throughout this chapter discuss different myths of "One Big Happy Family," however it all seems to come back to the individual, and what they believe in. Anndee’s house is unique with its red picket fence, a bathroom with two doors, bedrooms surrounded by paper thin walls, and no bedroom doors. Also a glass panel window that was built into a wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. An added feature left behind from years of construction and now disregarded but adding to the overall character of the house. These unique fixtures and anomalies were what made the trip to the house worth the voyage each year from the city. They were thrust into an alien environment completely different from what they were used to. The whole house was set up with unspoken rules that they all abided by without question. The rooms were assigned to a particular family member, group, or couples. The topics of conversation were predictable and planned to the point that they all knew what would be acceptable answers and replies to each topic they discussed. After reaching adulthood Anndee began to develop her own opinions and thoughts that did not necessarily coincide with her family’s view. Anddee began to explore her own sexuality and discovered that she preferred the company of women to that of men.

Free Hamlet Essays - Hamlet as a Love Story :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Hamlet as a Love Story    The part of Hamlet that I would like to discuss is the love story theme. I think that it is very romantic how even in today's society we do not view the other aspects of Hamlet like revenge, delay, and madness but view Hamlet as a love story. I like the part of the love story when Hamlet writes that letter to Ophelia. The poem that Hamlet wrote to Ophelia, "'Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt our love."' I really like this quote because it is very romantic. -Marka Jones The aspect of Hamlet that I find interesting is the appearance of the ghost that Hamlet suspects may be the ghost of his father. Hamlet does not know if the ghost is actually of his father or if it is a demon taking on his father's appearance. How will he know what decision to make if he does not know what the ghost actually is? Also, now I'm wondering if Hamlet makes the wrong decision, will his decision lead to his death? This is the second play of Shakespeare's that I have read that has the appearance of ghosts. Macbeth also had apparitions appear in it. Shakespeare seems to have a method of placing ghosts into his writings, and in Macbeth these ghosts led to the downfall of Macbeth. -Keisha McWhorter "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." "antic disposition." Hamlet states this after he discovers Claudius killed his father. If indeed Hamlet was mad, the fact that Claudius killed his father could have been a cause; however it seems that by the second quote he decided to pretend he is crazy. I do not think that the death of his father drove him mad. -Matthew Kilgore Act 1, Scene 2, Line 66 KING. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? HAM. Not so, my lord. I am too much in the sun. QUEEN. Good Hamlet. Cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know'st 'tis common - all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. In the above conversation the Queen and the King both feel Hamlet meant what he said.

CASE STUDY: CISCO SYSTEM INC. Essay

Cisco Systems, Inc. is a leading supplier of communications and computer networking products, systems, and services. It was founded in 1984 by Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner. The company’s product line includes routers, switches, remote access devices, protocol translators, Internet services devices, and networking and network management software. Cisco serves three main market segments: large organizations, including corporations, government entities, utilities, and educational institutions; service providers, including Internet service providers, telephone and cable companies, and providers of wireless communications; and small and medium-sized businesses whose needs include operating networks, connecting to the Internet, and connecting with business partners. Increasingly, Cisco’s products are appearing in the consumer marketplace. Cisco operates globally, deriving roughly 44 percent of its sales from overseas business. ï  ¬Challenges and Risks Faced in NPI 1.Time-to-Market Pressure Cisco had to launch the new product extremely quickly There is only one year for Cisco to launch the Viking product to market with low cost. Otherwise, the market share might loss. However, it is about 3 to 5 years for Cisco to launch a high-end product. To meet such tighten schedule, it is imperative for Cisco team to perform a very collaborative operation and concurrent engineering in whole supply chain and NPI phase 2.Cost Pressure Bandwidth prices were constantly falling and customer expected continuous improvements in price-performance on their equipment. The competitor keeps intensive discount on price. Cisco had to implement most cost effective-supply chain at launch and product design. 3.Immense Technical Complexity The product router contained about 300,000 components, about 30 times more than in a small business router. How to successfully launch such a high complexity product in a low cost contract manufacturer like Foxconn requires Cisco monitor and cooperate with CM carefully. 4.Outsourcing Production of Complex Machines In order to put all the pieces together with the highest quality, reliability and on-time performance required in the demanding service provider market. Cisco faced the challenges inherent to outsourcing production of such a complex machine, and therefore Cisco would have to work closely with the contractor to reduce production and supply chain risks. 5.Continuous Cost Down Pressure from Emerging Market Cisco needed to ensure that router would be attractive to service providers worldwide. Emerging markets were the fastest-growing part of Cisco’s business, which needed lower cost, so keeping the router’s costs was important to its global success.

Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices

This article discusses the issues surrounding plagiarism and providing detail into what plagiarism is and identifying how it can be regulated in an attempt to address this growing educational concern. The article describes plagiarism as an act â€Å"when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledg ¬ing its source (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2003). The most common problems with regard to plagiarism lie in distinguishing plagiarism from misuse of sources.Plagiarism, as defined previously, is the use of another’s ideas without attributing it to its source, while misuse of sources, is the failure to properly attribute the ideas to its source (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2003). The difference is that in plagiarism, a person attempts to take credit for another’s idea while in misuse of sources, a person attempts to give credit to the source but fails to do this in the pr oper manner or format.The reasons that students usually commit one error or another can be attributed to students difficulties with the integration of the information into their work, student’s failure to properly document research material, or simply be ignorant of the mistakes because of various learning backgrounds (Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2003).Whatever the causes for these mistakes, the difficult part for the educators is in discerning the intent of the writer in using the sources in order to determine whether or not there was merely a simple misuse of sources or a blatant attempt at plagiarism. Students may simply not be aware that what has been done is already plagiarism or has attempted to plagiarize but cleverly disguises it as a simple misuse of sources. The key therefore to addressing this educational problem lies in making sure students understand the relevance of proper citation in their work.