Global Environmental Change Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Global Environmental Change - Assignment Example (Tollefson, 2009, p. 29) The arctic holds an important place in the debatable issue of maintaining life on earth in a sustainable way. However, this discussion centres on the Arctic region itself and more precisely on depleting population of the arctic Polar Bears rather than the chain effect of the susceptible artic on the rest of the world. The last hundred years have witnessed an increase in global temperature by 0.6 degree centigrade. (Jenssen, 2006, p. 78) Moreover from 1976 the rate is even higher and unmatchable by any time encompassing past thousand years. The effect of such rise in temperature is most visible through the extent of ice melting in the high and mid altitude area. In less than fifty years the snow has decreased by 10%. (Jenssen, 2006, p. 78) For the survival of a species, the survival of its habitat and food source is of utmost importance. With the rise in global temperature the extent of ice will decline in the Arctic and so will its duration of frozen state, resulting in less area for the seals to stay and breed. Seals are the most important food source of the polar bear; so any effect on their population will directly reduce the food basket of the polar bears. It has also been observed that for large mammals any change in global temperature affects the juvenile survival rate. From this point of v iew both the seal and the bear are equally exposed to risk. Therefore the bear suffers from two sides - reduced present and future food source and reduced juvenile survival rate. Again the polar bear hunts on ground (solid ice). Any reduction of ice extent will leave the bear with smaller ground to catch seals. (Jenssen, 2006, p. 78) In front of global climatic change the arctic ice plate has also undergone changes in terms of thickness and has become fractured in many places. Furthermore the ocean now freezes in later part of the year and all these in a cumulative way are depleting the habitat of polar bear. (O’Neill et al, 2008, p. 1650).

Mason Multi agent model to visualize the bonus culture strategy over Dissertation

Mason Multi agent model to visualize the bonus culture strategy over the traders' incentives - Dissertation Example As the global economy begins to record significant rise over the years, businesses and organizations are doing everything possible to get their fair share of the rise in profits. These people are indeed right to react as such as the world saw worse forms of economic meltdown in the past five years. However, it takes the putting together of a lot of factors to earn a place in the world’s current climate. To producers and manufactures, determining the economic desires of their traders and customers and reacting in a manner that meets these desires is very crucial. It has been said that one of the best ways producers and manufacturers can satisfy their traders and customers is by putting in place very attractive incentives. Incentives come in different forms and it has been argued that the kind of incentive put in place for traders and customers actually determine the kind of behavior that is going to be displayed by traders and customers in their service to manufacturers and pro ducers. To this effect, it has also been argued among most corporate researchers that the bonus culture is a kind of incentive that has massive impact in ensuring that traders dance according to the rhythm of their masters. This is basically to say that bonus culture is an effective way of motivating traders. All said and than, it is important for entrepreneurs and corporate managers to have systems in place that checks the behavior of traders and the impact it makes on their business. The research problem covers three major important components of literature. Firstly, there is the issue of the multi-agent based model. With this, it is worth emphasizing that the multi-agent model shall be the Mason Multi agent model. With the model understudy, the researcher shall have the opportunity to analyze the impact of the technological growth that the world is experiencing now. This is to say that the mason multi-agent model is an innovation in information and communication technology that has come to ease the task of assessing the performance of any business or corporate outfit. The second concept shall be on issue of bonus culture as relates to traders. Under this, the research shall draw a line between bonus culture and trader incentive to see if it is actually possible adopting bonus culture as a workable form of incentive for traders and other business associates. Finally, the issue of trader behavior shall be looked at. Trader behavior is actually going to be the foc al point of the research. This is because the first two concepts are all related to trader behavior in one way or the other. In the light of this, the Mason multi-agent model shall be used to analyze the behavior of given traders of a given organization over a given period of time. Depending on the outcome of the visualization of the model on the trader behavior, the bonus culture shall be employed as an intervention for either bettering the trader behavior or improving it. Main Objective The research has been set out mainly to have an intervention in place to better the behavior traders of a given company. The progress of the intervention shall be analyzed using the Mason Multi-Agent Model. To achieve this all important objective, there are a series of specific objectives that need to achieved in order achieve the overall objective. Specific Objectives The review of related literature, collection of data for the research as well as data analysis shall be done based on the specific objectives set below. More to this, the achievement of the specific objectives shall amount to the achievement of the overall main objective of the research. The specific objectives are: 1. Explore the meaning of the Mason Multi-agent model 2. Find the role of the Mason multi-agent model in business monitoring and evaluation 3. Identify the different behaviors that could

Mental representation Essay Example for Free

Mental representation Essay Memory is defined as the process of storing and retreiving information. There are three major memory processes namely encoding, storing and retreival. During encoding, information is placed or stored in the memory by a mental representation. The information is being input to the mind for further retenetion. After being encoded the information or stimuli is now being stored. It is now placed in a permamnent mental state for later recall. The brain needs to process first as to what type of memory it has gathered before putting it to storage. This is where the idea of memory types emerge. Sensory memory is the initial step in memory which involves a process that hold visual and auditory information in its raw form for a very brief period of time. Examples of these are iconic (visual) and echoic (audio) memory. Thesetypes of memories are being stored for about a quarter of a second or more. Sensory memory prevent s the brain from being overwhelmed from too many incoming stimuli because anything that you do not attend or respond to will vanish in a matter of seconds. Rather than that, it also gives us decision time, stability, playback and recognition. After this process, the brain now determines whether to keep this memory for goof or not. Now it depends on which type of memory, either be long term or short term memory to which these informations can be retreived. This process is also called as the output of information from the memory system. From where this memory is retreived, now thats the big question. There are two types of memory retenetion namely short term memory and long term memory. Short term memory is also called the working memory that can hold only a limited amount of information and will remain up to 30 seconds (Cherry, 2010). It can hold an average of 7 items for a short period of time for approximately 20-30 seconds. However, despite its limited capacity and duartion, it can possibly increase through â€Å"chunking†. Short term memory can help us be attentive on a certain stimuli since it excludes other uncessesary ones. It can also improves ones retention of information since the is rehearsed in the mind over and over. Long term memory, however, is the type of memory that can store almost unlimited amounts of information for a long period of time (Cherry, 2010). There are two types of long term memory, first of which has another subdivision. Declarative memory involves memory of facts or evets. It can either be episodic or semantic. Episodic memory are knowledge of specific events, personal experiences or activities (such as naming or describing a favorite bar, songs, movies) while semantic memory involves knowledge of facts, concepts or words, definitions and language rules. Another type of long term memory is procedural which tackles about skills, habits, and things learned from classical conditioning. There are instances in which some people tend to forget. What may be the reasons for this? Forgetting is defined as the inability to retreive, recall or organize information that was stored or still stored in long term memory (Copeland, 2006). Most forgetting occurs because information in working memory was never transferred to long term memory. It can also occur because we lost our access to information that is in long term memory. One proposed theory to this was the repression theory. According to Sigmund Freud, informatio that is theatening to our self is automatically driven away into our consciousness from which we cannot retreive. It is one of his many proposed defense mechanisms. Another theory is the interference theory. It is defined as the inhibition of recall of certain information by the presence of other information in memory (Copeland, 2006). There are two types of interference: (1) retroactive and, (2) proactive. Retroactive interference is the decrease inability to recall previosuly learned information caused by learing new information while proactive is the exact opposite, defined as the decrease ability to learn new information caused by interference from existing information. In order to avoid these, psychologists suggests a number of ways to improve retention and to aid learning. One can increase their study time in order to store more memory. It will also be useful to distribute practice in order not ot mix up things. Speed reading is also advisable. Though speed reading can lead to poorer comprehension and retention of materials, it can also be useful if the materials are needed only for a short period of time. Arousal is also a factor to be considered. This means the stimulation of thoughts and conditioning of the mind. Sleep is an important factor to consider since sleep deprivation has a great effect in learning. References Cherry, Kendra. (2010). Memory: An Overview of Memory Retreived from http://www. psychology. about. com/ Copeland, David E. , Radvansky, Gabriel A. (2006). Memory retrieval and interference: working memory issues. Retreived from http://www. sciencedirect. com/ Defense mechanisms. (2010). Retreived from http://www. changingminds. org/

Age and Gender Differences on Fear of Crime

Age and Gender Differences on Fear of Crime The current study aimed to investigate age and gender effects on fear of crime and their relationships with attitude towards prisoner and crime, life satisfaction, living arrangement and religion in a Chinese sample. 170 undergraduate and postgraduate students, with a mean age of 21.9 years, participated in this study. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire on fear of crime. In general, women reported significantly greater fear of crime than men. A factor analysis was performed and two factors were extracted: fear of being cheated and fear of physical harm. An age-gender interaction effect was found after controlling the variable of attitude towards prisoner. Results indicated that older females had higher levels of fear of being cheated than males. Yet, gender and age differences in fear of fraud victimizations are a largely unexplored area. Additional research is needed to examine how womens fear of being cheated varies with age. Introduction Fear of crime has received considerable attention in the criminological studies. Over the last few decades, research has been carried out to explore how fear of crime is explained and handled by society. Information about fear of crime not only help us to understand and interpret what fear of crime meant for individuals and societies, but also facilitate government to develop active plans to tackle publics fear. Anxieties about crime may lead to behavioral adaptation, e.g. taking precautions against crime and avoiding certain places. Nonetheless, public anxieties about crime may also have negative consequences for the individual and for society. For example, they may exacerbate the impact of crime by damaging an individuals quality of life or may affect the community by deteriorating a shared sense of trust, cohesion, and social control (Jackson, 2006). The concept of fear of crime and its causation is widely examined in the criminological field, but there is a lack of agreement on the definition of fear of crime. Fear of crime may involve two different concepts: an evaluative component and an emotional component (Skogen, 1984). For instance, Hollway and Jefferson (1997) referred crime fear as irrational response in which the rational, calculating individuals who routinely miscalculate their true risk of crime; whereas Ferraro (1995) suggested that fear of crime is an emotional reaction of dread or anxiety to crime or symbols that a person associates with crime. Past research has identified a number of factors which appear to make a contribution to fear, such as age, gender, race, vulnerability, neighbourhood cohesion, personal knowledge of crime and victimization, confidence in police and criminal justice systems, perception of risk, and assessment of offence seriousness (Box, Hale and Andrews, 1988). However, the current study wil l focus mainly on age and gender effects on fear of crime. Gender and Age Effects It is well-documented that women are more fearful of becoming a victim of crime than men despite the fact that they are less often victimized by serious violent crime (Pain, 2001; Fetchenhauer and Buunk, 2005). Over the past decades, researchers have proposed different approaches to resolve the fear victimization paradox: (1) hidden victimization of women; (2) gender tendencies of women to recall victimization experience, and to generalize fear from one context to another; (3) vulnerability of women; and (4) male discount of fear. Most crime surveys have shown that the levels of violence against women (e.g. domestic violence) are far higher than men; therefore it has been argued that women are not irrationally fearful of crime. It is because women and elderly under-report their actual victimization, and thus they appear to be less victimized (Pain, 2001). However, some have suggested that women tend to generalize the actual experience of victimization across spatial contexts than men (Pain, 1995; Farraro, 1995). Warr (1984) found that fear of sexual assault operated as a master offense among women and their fear of sexual assault influenced fear of nonpersonal crimes, such as burglary. Yet, still others reported that males often discount their fear of crime (Smith and Torstensson, 1997). Previous literature has demonstrated that males are suppressed by the perception that it is not socially acceptable to express ones fear; and when men are being perfectly honest, they may actually be more afraid of crime than women (Sutton and Farrall, 2005). On the other hand, the vulnerability hypothesis suggested that women are physically weaker than men and therefore they are less able to defend themselves against (typically male) perpetrators. A considerable amount of studies have also shown that that gender difference in fear of crime often reflects gender difference in physical vulnerability (e.g. Smith and Torstensson, 1997). Apart from gender, age is another important factor that predicts fear of crime. However, the definition of elderly varies across different studies (Chadee and Ditton, 2003). For example, Sundeen and Mathieu (1976) defined elderly as 52 years or above, whereas Warr (1984) suggested 66 years and over. Yet the most common definition of old is aged 65 or above. Since there has been no agreement on the definition of what constitutes old, mixed results were found on age. Some researchers argued that older people report higher level of fear than young people (e.g. On and Kim, 2009). In contrast, others suggested that elderly people are less likely to be victimized and thus they have the lowest level of fear (e.g. LaGrange and Ferraro, 1989; Chadee and Ditton, 2003). On and Kim (2009) explained that older people (aged 65 and over) often experience a drop in social networks (e.g. withdrawal from work, loss of close family members, increasing physical and psychological fragility), and their so cial isolation or feeling of loneliness intensifies fear of crime. Recently, it has been proposed that the relationship between fear of crime and age is non-linear and varies with crime type (Moore and Shephred, 2007). Past research has shown two different inverted U-shaped patterns in fear of property loss and fear of personal harm. Fear of property crime peaked at some time during middle-age, whereas fear of personal harm decreased with age (Chadee and Ditton, 2003; Moore and Shepherd, 2007). The oldest age group (75 or above) exhibited the lowest levels of fear for both property crime and personal crime (Chadee and Ditton, 2003). Prior research has shown that gender and age often interact with one another in producing the fear of crime differences (Ortega and Myles, 1987; Haynie, 1998; Pain, 2001). Significant gender differences in fear are observed among younger people. Nonetheless, this gender-fear gap has narrowed as mens reported fear of crime has gradually increased over tim e while womens has remained stable (Haynie, 1998). Attitude towards prisoner and crime and life satisfaction Much research on fear of crime has been focused on the perceived risk of crime; little is known about how peoples attitude towards prisoners and quality of life link to their fear of crime. Informal social control, trust, and social cohesion are important factors that contributed to the feelings of security; hence, one might argue that fear of crime often reflects individuals life satisfaction and their perceptions of social control. Jackson (2006) puts forward the view that public attitudes toward crime raise fundamental sociological problems but with a twist: public perceptions of deviance, social order and social control (p.253) and he claimed that public perceptions of crime reveal how people conceive social order (including the norms, values, and morals that bind communities and constitute social glue) and what they see as hostile to that social (maybe specific groups or wider social changes regarding values and morals, ethnicity diversity, and transformations in the political a nd economic arenas) (p.261). Therefore, it has been suggested that high levels of community efficacy, social cohesion, and a tight social structure (with low levels of anonymity and distrust) might inhibit fear of crime (Farrall, Gray and Jackson, 2007). In the last decades, researchers have questioned the validity of previous studies on fear of crime. LaGrange and Ferraro (1989) criticized that the experimental designs of previous studies were problematic. First, it has been suggested that measures of crime risk are often mistaken for measures of crime fear. Second, several widely used crime survey do not measure fear of crime, in which implicit questions are used in crime survey to measure fear (e.g. how safe do you feel or would you feel being out alone in your neighborhood at night?) instead of explicit questions. Hence, LaGrange and Ferraro (1989) have developed an 11-itemed crime fear survey to overcome the above shortcomings. The current study aims to use LaGrange and Ferraro (1989) crime fear questionnaires to examine gender and age effects on fear of crime in a Chinese sample. Method Sample A total of 170 participants (77 males, 92 females and 1 without specifying gender) were recruited in this study. The sample consisted of both undergraduates and postgraduates. Participants aged from 18 to 48 year-old (M = 21.94; SD = 4.07). Descriptive statistics of the sample were presented in table 1.They joined this study on a voluntary basis. Instrument Attitudes towards Prisoners Scale (Melvin, Gramling, Gardner, 1985) This scale contains 36 items. Participants were asked to rate on a 5-point Likert Scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The scale had a satisfactory reliability level, with overall alpha = .91. Life Satisfaction Scale. Life Satisfaction Scale, a five-item-scale developed by Diener and his associates measured general satisfaction towards life (Diener et al., 1985; Larsen, Diener, Emmons, 1985; Pavot Diener, 1993). It was validated locally (Wang, Yuen, Slaney, 2009). Participants were asked to rate the items on a 7-point Likert Scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The overall alpha is satisfactory at .88. Fear of Crime Scale (Ferraro, 1996) The ten items of this scale were rated on a 10-point Likert scale, raning from 1 (not afraid at all ) to 10 (very afraid). Unlike the Attitude towards Prisoners Scale, the Fear of Crime Scale had not been validated locally, thus prior to any analysis, a set of validation procedures was performed. First, two items that could not match the current research purpose were removed: while the item being raped or sexually assaulted was removed due to its gender nonequivalence, the item having your car stolen was also removed because not many college students in Hong Kong owned their own cars. After removing the two items, the Kasier-Meyer-Oklin (KMO) and the Bartletts Test of Sphericity were performed to see if the originally factor structure could be employed in this study. The KMO value of the eight items was 0.80 and the Bartletts Test of Sphericity was significant (p Results Checking for Covariates Based on previous studies, life satisfaction, religion, and living arrangement are all possible covariates. In order to be classified as a covariate, these variables should correlate with a) any of the independent variables (age and gender) and b) any of the dependent variables (total fear of crime, fear of physical harm and fear of being cheated). Preliminary analyses indicated none of these variables satisfied the above conditions, so they would be excluded in subsequent analysis. Testing of Hypothesis Prior to analysis, all variables excluding gender were mean-centred. This was done to reduce any multicollinearity and to facilitate model estimation when main effects and interactive effects were both present (Aiken West, 1991). To compare the relative influences of age and gender on total fear of crime, fear of physical harm and fear of being cheated, three sets of hierarchical regression were performed. Attitude towards prisoners was first entered into the equation as a covariate, followed by age and gender; the Age X Gender interaction term was entered afterwards. Gender Difference in Fear of Crime: There was a main effect that gender had on all three types of crime fear, where female was always significantly more fearful than male (see Table 2). See table 3 for the mean and standard deviation of the three dependent variables in each gender group. Age Effect on Fear of Crime: While age positively correlated with fear of being cheated, no significant correlation was found between age and the other fear of crime constructs (see Table 4). Yet after controlling for attitude towards prisoner as the covariate, the predictive power of age on fear of being cheated disappeared (see Table 2). Age X Gender Interaction Effect on Fear of Crime: Significant Age X Gender interaction effects on total fear of crime and fear of being cheated were found. However, such interaction effect did not happen for fear of physical harm (see Table 2). To further investigate these significant interaction effects, two sets of hierarchical regression on total fear of crime and fear of being cheated were performed after splitting the sample into male and female subgroups. Attitude towards prisoners was first entered into the equation as a covariate, followed by age. After controlling for the covariate, age was no longer a predictor of total fear of crime for both gender groups. Yet for fear of being cheated, while it could be predicted by age for female (ÃŽÂ ² = .14, p Discussion The present study aimed to look at age and gender effects on fear of crime and their relationships with attitude towards prisoner and crime, life satisfaction, living arrangement and religion in a Chinese sample. In general, women reported higher average scores on fear than men among all aspects of crime, indicating that women were always more afraid of crime than men regardless of how fear of crime was measured. Women in our sample also reported that they were most afraid of being raped or sexually assaulted, followed by fear of being murder and fear of being attacked by someone with a weapon. This pattern of results were in line with previous findings that women were more fearful than men because they were particularly vulnerable to crime and were less able than men to defend themselves physically; therefore, women perceived themselves to be at greater risk of crimes than men (LaGrange and Ferraro, 1989; Smith and Torstensson, 1997). The results were also consistent with previous s tudies that fear of sexual assault operated as a master offense among women, which in turn heightened their fear of other victimizations, e.g. murder, attacks, or burglary (Ferraro, 1995). On the other hand, fear of being murder was most common among males, followed by fear of being attacked by someone with a weapon and fear of being raped or sexually assaulted. Interestingly, the current results replicated the findings of LaGrange and Ferraro (1989) in which men reported that they were afraid of being sexually assaulted (presumably by other men). In the second part of the study, a factor analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between gender and age of participants and their various crime perceptions. Results of the present study showed a gender effect on fear of crime, in which women had significantly higher score on total fear of crime, fear of being cheated and fear of physical harm than men. These findings were consistent with previous research in which females might have lower threshold for fear than males. An evolutionary approach has been put forward by researchers to explain this gender difference in fear of crime (e.g. Campbell, Muncer and Bibel, 2001; Fetchenhauer and Buunk, 2005; Sidebottom and Tilley, 2008). In a Dutch study, Fetchenhauer and Buunk (2005) showed that females were significantly more fearful than males when presented with scenarios (both criminal and non-criminal events) that resulted in physical injury, and they proposed that gender differences in fear of all kinds of events that inv olved physical injury may be the result of sexual selection that favoured risk-taking and status fights among males, and being cautious and protecting ones offspring among females (p.111). The current study also found a significant positive correlation between age and fear of being cheated, suggesting that older people were more afraid of being cheated than younger people. The result reflects the varying importance attached to material wealth with age: the costs of property loss might have greater impact on middle-aged group since they are more likely to have accumulated property and have dependent children compared to younger age group (Moore and Shepherd, 2007). Based on data derived from the 2001 British Crime Survey, Moore and Shepherd (2007) concluded that fear of property loss was greatest at around 40-60 years, peaked at around 45 years, whereas a lower level of fear was observed at about 16-25 years. Another possibility for the age differences in fear might be due to socialization. Past research has shown that socialization may increase the amount of contacts with others, and thus people who socialize more often may increase their likelihood of fraud victimizat ion (Van Wyk and Manson, 2001). In a recent study, Schoepfer and Piquero (2009) demonstrated that risky behaviour and age were important factors that predicted the likelihood of fraud victimization: individuals who were open to financial risk-taking and engaged in more risky behaviours were more likely to be a victim of fraud (e.g. free prize fraud, credit or bank account fraud and being billed for more than what the product is worth). It should also be noted that older people in our sample are postgraduate students who might have higher income and socialize more often and thus they have greater opportunities to be victimized than younger people. Results in this study also showed that the relationship between age and fear of being cheated was influenced by individuals attitude towards prisoner. Since not much research has been done on fear of being cheated, more studies are needed to look at the relationship between age and fear of deception. Nonetheless, no significant correlation was found between age and fear of physical harm, indicating that that age was not associated with levels of fear of being physical harm. Further analysis was performed in the next section to look at gender and age effects on various constructs of fear. Significant gender-age interaction effects were found on total fear of crime and fear of being cheated. After controlling the variable attitude towards prisoner, age was a significant predictor of fear of being cheated in females, but not in males. There was a positive correlation between age and fear of being cheated among females, suggesting that older females were more fearful of being victimized than males. This may be due in part to the fact that personal victimization can have more serious consequences for women than men. Past research has indicated that crime fear involve both emotional and evaluative components and it is shaped by the vividness of the image of crime and perceptions of the severity of the consequences of crimes, together with feelings of personal control and perceptions of victimization likelihood (Jackson, 2006). It has been found that some vict ims of fraud may experience more harmful long-term effects than those victimized by conventional crimes, and many of them continued to suffer from lasting problems with finances, self-esteem, embarrassment, and self-blaming even ten years after the incidents (Shover, Fox and Mills, 1994). Recently, Schoepfer and Piquero (2009, p.210) argued that some fraud victimizations have even been equated to those of rape since both crime are rarely reported by victims and both involved victim facilitation, and questions of guilt and responsibility are the burden of the victims; hence, this makes females more fearful of being cheated than males. However, the current results did not support some of the past findings on fear of fraud victimization. Mixed results were found in previous studies concerning gender difference on fear of property loss. For instance, LaGrange and Ferraro (1989) found no gender different on fear of being conned or swindled out of money and fear of being approach by a beg gar; whereas Moore and Shepherd (2007) showed that men were more fearful than women of property loss. One of the possibilities for the discrepancy in these findings might be due to the cultural difference in crime rates. Since fear of crime also reflects actual crime rate in society, results in the present study might also suggest that older women are more vulnerable to minor crimes, e.g. street or telephone deception, than men in the local area. Yet, no interaction effect on fear of physical harm was found in this study. Additional study might be needed to investigate how womens fear of being cheated varies with age. There are two possible limitations in the current study that should be taken into account. The first one relates to variables that were not included in the questionnaire, namely the mass media effect, crime prevalence and previous victimization experience. Due to the limitations of the standard questionnaire used in the present study, these factors were not included. It is well-established that the mass media plays an important role in shaping individuals attitude towards prisoner and the perception of crime and fear. According to the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), people may attend to information about criminal activities from a series of amplified stations (e.g. mass media and interpersonal communication), and the risk signals may interact with a wide range of psychological, social and cultural processes in ways that intensity their actual risks (Kasperson et al. 2003). Researchers have demonstrated that tabloid readers who have an extensive level of crime media exp osure are about twice more likely to be worried than those who have limited exposure to crime source (Smolej and Kivivuori, 2006). Previous literature on media consumption and public attitude toward crime has also shown that offenders are often portrayed as different from the general population and viewed as psychopaths that prey on weak and vulnerable victims (Dowler, 2003). Recently, Reiner (2008) argued that crime stories often exaggerate the crime risks faced by higher-status people and always disproportionately representing women, children, or older people as victims, and this might heighten publics fear of crime. Over the past decade, researchers have attempted to integrate fear of crime into macro and micro levels of analysis (Ferraro, 1995; Jackson, 2004). At the macro-level, publics fear of crime is related to crime prevalence in society and local communities; whereas, at the micro-level, neighbourhood characteristics and personal characteristics (e.g. previous victimization experience, anxiety and everyday worry) may interact to produce differential perception of risk which, in turn, produces either fearful or adaptive reactions to crime (or both) (Farrall, Gray and Jackson, 2007). In future research it might be interesting to examine how these factors interact with age and gender to produce different levels of fear of being cheated. The second possible limitation is that the current findings could not be generalized into diverse cultures with different age groups. In this study, subjects were undergraduates or postgraduates recruited from a local university and they might have similar ag e, background, living situation, and ethnicity; therefore, their crime experience will be alike. In the future study, participants from various age groups and cultures are needed in order to generalize the results outside the Chinese society.

A Problem-Based Approach to Teaching about Pollution Essay example --

A Problem-Based Approach to Teaching about Pollution Science is a very important subject for students to study in middle school. It is â€Å"More than a body of knowledge or a set of answers, science is a way of thinking about the world† (Beamon 20). Science forces students to think critically about ethical issues, such as pollution. This is often difficult for students because they must make the jump from the narrow parameters of their own lives to the issues that affect many people living on this planet. In studying pollution, students must come to realize that even throwing garbage on the ground and not recycling will in some way affect many of the living things in the ecosystem. The feeling commonly described by students by the words â€Å"I hate science† is often the result of science frustrating them. One reason why students might feel this way is that there are two types of sciences. One is â€Å"school science†, which has in many cases become a listing of facts and definitions, and the other is â€Å"real science†, which is what scientists practice. Maybe the students spend too much time on â€Å"school science† and do not make the connection between what is learned in science class and the world around them. The teacher’s job is not only to make the science material manageable for the students to learn, but it is also to show the students how science applies to everyone and everything. Using the problem-based learning approach is a great way for a teacher to combine these two sciences (Uyeda et al. 24). It is the key that a teacher uses to open the door to the minds of students who need to know how what they are learning applies to the real world. Problem-based learning as an instructional model is associated with the new... ... Works Cited Beamon, Glenda W. â€Å"Guiding the Inquiry of Young Adolescent Minds.† Middle School Journal. 33.3 (Jan. 2002): 19-27. Goodnough, Karen Ph.D. â€Å"Preparing pre-service science teachers: Can problem-based learning help?† 22 April 2003. EBSCOHOST. The College of New Jersey Lib. 05 Feb. 2005. Kim, Younghoon, et al. â€Å"Science teachers’ perspectives of web-enhanced problem-based learning environment: A qualitative inquiry.† 23 April 2003. EBSCOHOST. The College of New Jersey Lib. 05 Feb. 2005. Problem-Based Learning. 04 March 2003. Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University. 05 Feb. 2005. . Uyeda, Steve, et al. â€Å"Solving Authentic Science Problems: Problem based learning connects science to the world beyond school.† Science Teacher. 69.1 (Jan. 2002): 24-29.

The British Music Invasion: The Effects on Society and Culture Essay

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"So the British invasion was more important as an event, as a mood: than as music† (Bangs, 171). This was the British invasion. I wasn’t just about the music, it was more then that; this is what makes it so unique. It didn’t just happen to effect America by chance, it lifted the spirits and moods of its youth. It isn’t just coincidence that Kennedy was assassinated right before the Beatles famous Ed Sullivan Show performance. The whole country was in a deep depressive doldrum after the assassination, and for good reason. The British invasion was needed by Americans to snap out of this funk, and this was just the thing to do it. (One thing that Americans used to avoid the depressing times was to use illegal drugs, but that will be elaborated on later.) This is what it was all about; sure it was about the music, but it brought more, it brought a way of life across the ocean.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A lot of the invasion stayed in that generation, many bands and songs that were big then are all but totally forgotten about now. Bands such as the Searchers, the Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry and the Pacemakers all had one or two great hits which stayed in that time. This however, was part of the beauty of it all. Some of the music stayed with us thirty years later, and that’s great, it gives us a good sampling of the time. On the other hand, you have the music that was meant for the era, and not for future generations. That is part of the uniqueness of it all, and Lester Bangs says it best when he tells how it doesn’t matter that the music isn’t listened to anymore, that’s not what it was for. It was for the time, it was a â€Å"timepiece†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the other hand, we have the bands that were not simply â€Å"timepieces† and were able to stick around three decades later. These bands are the Who, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. This is another aspect of why the invasion was so influential. Where would we be in rock and roll with out the Beatles, and on a slightly lesser extent the Stones. These bands transformed rock into what we know it today. Without them, the way might not have been paved for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and countless others. Both sides of the spectrum were extremely important for the invasion to have the long lasting effects it continues to have.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cu... ...s, it was a time of great turbulence from start to finish. Protests, assassinations, war, pacifists; they all played a major role in the United States during this time. Something substantial had to happen to help relieve some of the on going woes. It was the British music. Not once, but twice, within a span of ten years were the British the influence that helped get us over those times. It may have been in a more positive way in the first wave, and maybe in a more negative way in the second, introducing an entire drug culture, but either way it made an impact. I have always viewed the 60’s as one of the most intriguing decades to live in, because of its culture shock that occurred during this time. It was the decade of peace, love and drugs; it would have been great to be there to experience these things. Nevertheless, in the research I have done, I have realized the importance of not only the British music on this decade, but all of the feelings behind the music, all of t he meanings and emotions and social change which it encouraged. It was the decade with the highest highs and the lowest lows in the last half-century. It was the time when British music saved America from itself.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Social Networking Essay

The world of technology and communication has changed rapidly during this millennium era. We can not avoid that and as a matter of fact we will be lag behind if we do not follow it. Information Communication and Technology or ICT has become the major role to bring the world into a more modern and develop. ICT has also shaped the world to be more dynamic than ever before.†¨The world of education get the effect on the rapid changes of ICT. Education now have to adapt with the ICT, if not then there will create gap within education and the society. The education world now is also getting more improve by using ICT. Social Networking or Social Media such as facebook, twitter, WhatsApp and other alike is also product of the development in ICT. Not many people realise that social media that are used by so many people in the world can be used for language learning.†¨Social media provides the learner with the possibility of participating in actual, real-time, relevant conversations taking place online, and practicing the target language with or without the help of an experienced teacher by his or her side. However there are some advantages and disadvantages of using social networking for language learning. This article tries to present the role of social networking in education and to know the advantages and disadvantages of it. Read more:  Social networking advantages and disadvantages essay Though, there are many opinion regarding the topic, this article would like to limit on the advantages and disadvantages of social networking in english language learning.†¨The social networking sites focus heavily on building online communities bound together with common interests or activities. Thereby provide them with tools that help them to do so. In the field of education social networking sites encourage students to engage with each other and to express and share their creativity. Social media is also one good way for students to gain knowledge which can be from outside their classroom activities. So many social media they can share and discuss many things related to their need of particular knowledge with others practically.†¨With Social networking can create a better English communicative environment for students, they do not have to go to the country where the mother tongue of English is, they just connect to the internet and interact with people from English spea king countries. And they do not need to meet physically, and it also improving the efficiency of class teaching. English teaching can make the lessons more effective and efficient. Many social networking sites offers the users many applications  that make them easy to get any benefit including in english language learning. The most important feature of the social networking site is the ability to give and receive feedbacks. If this feature was not there, the world of social networking would not what it is today. Any content that you post instantly starts receiving comments, likes, reviews, opinions, and additional information on that topic . By doing this, it can create discussions, sharing ideas and other communicative skills which use english as the language in the discussion.†¨Social networking can encourage students to upload images or videos related to the courses. Some teachers even ask their students to upload their essays and assignments on the net, analyse the feedback, and write a better one for the final class essay. It is very good activity and the process or learning and teaching will run smoothly without any barriers of place and time.†¨Beside advantages of social networking in education, there are also some advantages of social networking in language learning. Many researchers has conducted research on this matter and many of them conclude that social networking can be subjected to crime especially to the youth or students. Because social networking offers the users to communicate each other without any boundaries that will be used by the bad people to to do crime to the others.†¨By using social networking people who is next to us because we are too busy with online internet or people who are far away becomes near because of this social networking. It means that, though the students are sitting close to each other but they are busy with their gadgets so, it is lack of social interactivity in the real life.†¨Networking websites can make people or especially students become very addictive. People spend more and more time at computer with makes them isolated from real life. They are wasting time at checking purposeless posts and informations. Thinking just about virtual world they can’t focus on anything and have problems at school or work.†¨In the term of language proficiency, many young people write broken english words which are not found in English dictionary. Some of the use abbr eviation which sometime confusing to the others. Such as they use ‘text language’ in their normal day to day vocal, saying things like ‘lol’ (laugh out loud).†¨Because mostly social networking using written context message, so sometimes students face  many problem when they are told to speak correct and professional English. Some are not able to form correct sentences on the spot and after making a mistake, the whole flow of the sentence and conversation breaks apart. Social networking sites, â€Å"can be a potential risk for teachers as some applications allows users to communicate† and â€Å"the content can lead to discrediting or slanderous messages†. It can be happens to the teacher when they are not so aware with the threat of social networking to them. The teacher need to concern and sometimes the teacher are not so well understand about the use of social media and its advantages in the teaching and learning. And the teacher should be good in selecting the content materials if not the learning process will be just useless.†¨Social networking can also be subjected to an on line bullying. It may happens when a students make or post bad things, and he does not realize that it can be used by other friends at school to embarrasse him. Of course it will create bullying among the students.†¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨There are some advantages and disadvantages of using social networking in education including in English language learning. It ca n encourage students to engage with each other and to express and share their creativity and can create a better English communicative environment for students. Oh the other hand, social networking is lack of humanitarian aspects and create confusing language because using slank words or abbreviation which are not found in English dictionary. Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Essay Social networking sites have become extremely popular among the youth as well as the professional people. Keeping in mind, the growing popularity of these sites and the effect it has and the benefits that it brings along, it can be easily predicted that its popularity is sure to grow much more. The social networking websites are more like the virtual meeting places where people can just chill and hang out with friends. They can discuss on different topics, share information, and exchange files and pictures. We admitted the fact that using social networking is one way to enhance our social interaction with other people. Because of our technologies there are many ways that can help our works faster and easier. However, everything has a positive and negative side. Similarly, the social networking sites are also made up of their set of advantages and disadvantages; it is a one way to communicate our distant relatives or families, it’s a big help for the people who needs jobs especially there are online jobs offered in social networking and also it’s a way for some students who wants to finish their study due to their personal problems because there are many distance learning here in social networking. But among those advantages we can get from social networking, there are still many disadvantages that can affect to the users. Students are the one who are really affected for the disadvantages of social networking. According to the some surveyors many students are addicted to some social networking. That can lead them not to go to their classes’ hours. There are some social networking’s that are prohibited for minor children. Because of that, the cases now for the minor children like harassment, rape and etc. are getting higher. Because some are getting influence by what they have saw or learned from that social networking. In using social networking, it must be minimal and the users should know how it affects to her /his life so that there will be no regrets at the end. Do whatever you want as long as it can lead you on a better way and a peaceful life. Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Essay  « Vocabulary and Grammar – An Elementary lesson for CELTA trainees at CELT Athens What steps are part of the process of designing a syllabus? What knowledge & skills do teachers need?  » The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networks for Language Teachers Does this look familiar To –ing or not to –ing†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦that is today’s question! One of my students asked me last month why we use the –ing form for blogging, networking, computing†¦..Good question! My answer? Because technology is constantly changing and plus usually these actions are constant, happen often, plus they are amusing but can be annoying – so we use the present continuous form†¦. On Wednesday 18 January, #ELTchatters wished each other a Happy New Year and got their teeth into a very stimulating chat. As language teachers, do we find these social networking platforms and services amusing or annoying Our students are already using a wide-range of social network sites and teachers are beginning to familiarize themselves with such sites, to keep up with technology but more importantly, to discuss and exchange ideas and develop as teachers. We read and write blogs, visit forums, develop Nings and Wikis, all of which are constantly changing and being updated. The #ELTchat itself is proof of this†¦.it’s fast, furious, fun and educational! We have joined ther World of Technology, for good or for bad? By the way, did you know that if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world!!! So in the ELT world, here are the main themes from the discussion. Advantages: * There will be more pro chatters tonight as most members are keen SN users. * #ELTCHAT is one of the major advantages of SNs for teachers. * SNs have radically changed teachers’ lives. We will never feel alone again. * Facebook has become a professionally developing site rather than just a social network. * SN has revolutionized the way we think and opened wider perspectives. * SNs are global and 24/7. * SNs should be harnessed by 21 century teachers with enthusiasm. * Use Facebook for personal contacts and Google+ for PD. * SNs are an extension of staffroom chats with links, banter and discussions. ‘Virtual staffroom†. * #ELTchat is great as it is an ‘outer of class collaboration’ discussion, as few teachers in the workplace know how to collaborate. * SNs create friends which lead to face to face meetings. * Share worksheets/mind maps for students, time-saving. * Twitter tags can inform parents’ of students’ progress. * Non-native teachers are also exposed to real language in the modern world. * SNs, like Twitter and #ELTchat are energizing! Plus, through #ElTchat, you find more people to follow! So, start following!!! Disadvantages: * All SNs are time-consuming. * Some teachers find SNs too daunting to tackle. * SNs can become addictive. They can take over your life, leaving little time for family and friends. Knowing when to stop is crucial – try to switch off! * Replication of themes from one SN to another is annoying. * Students become obsessed in finding their teachers on FB and intrude in teachers’private lives. * Privacy issues with FB AND Twitter – do not accept people you don’t know or protected accounts on Twitter. * Tweetdeck often has technical problems. Mentioned sites, platforms and services worth checking out: * http://www.edmod Secure Social Networking for Teachers * http://moodle.org/Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites * http://www.blackboard.com/ Blackboard helps clients enrich all aspects of the education experience by engaging and assessing learners, making their daily lives more convenient and †¦ * http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/ is a free online collaborative education platform that allows students and teachers to transcend the boundaries of their physical classroom to engage in an online collaborative  learning environment. * http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2011/08/introducing-google-scribe-in-blogger.html-an aid to write your blog! * http://aplanet-project.org/ Autonomous Personal Learning Networks For Teachers * http://www.scoop.it/t/interactive-teaching-and-learningExploration of engaging learning spaces and technologies that suppo rt them. * http://www.evernote.com/ Remember everything! * http://www.diigo.com/ To collect, highlight and remember those bookmarks! The chat went on to discuss the issue of coping with lack of time and organizing information and links shared. This lead to a variety of suggestions for bookmarking and who prefers Twitter, FB, Google+. Everyone had their own opinion! A blog challenge was proposed: @esolcourses: Best method for organizing #ELTchat bookmarks! Choose one and demo! As ever, there were some great links shared: * http://t.cohttp://evasimkesyan.edublogs.org/2012/01/18/evo-digitalstorytelling4kids-and-the-tool-of-the-week//JBbayIuc * http://learningfundamentals.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Focus.jpg How to focus in times of distraction. Excellent mind map presentation! * http://cybraryman.com/facebook.html All you need to know about SN s and your students. * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8142721/Social-networking-teachers-blame-Facebook-and-Twitter-for-pupils-poor-grades.html * http://educationland.wordpress.com/my-worksheets/http://educationland.wordpress.com/worksheets/http:/www.facebook.com/pages/Education-Land/221436857914023http:/t.co/gzX8zGIR Share worksheet and ideas! That’s the summary folks! I would like to add that I didn’t mention specific names on the summary as so many people commented on this chat, so there is something from everyone!! Thanks for another energy-boosting, informative chat! Happy Social Networking!!!