Based on George Parks

Based on George Parks (2007) December article for Correction Today, the application of Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT) as a primary cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in corrections and recidivism . He recognizes that RP affords the implementation of evidenced based interventions in corrections but requires further refinement if it is to be expanded from its current application in offender programming. This would require further testing of RP programs and more importantly, a philosophical shift in criminal programs for the effectiveness of rehabilitation and social reintegration. Criminality is an issue that is continuing concern of any society. Considering the evidence suggesting the increase in repeat offenders and the degree of their crime, the demand to develop effective recidivism programs is well justified. Parks (2007) discusses RPT clearly and provides significant information regarding its application prevailing principles and practices in its application. However, though his discussion on the impact of RPT and related CBT based interventions, he does not provide statistical or actual performance evidence. Though this does not imply that his opinion is less valid, the urgency and importance of the issue would have been better communicated with the presentation of such data. Parks himself recognizes the need for new perspectives and insights to the issue of not only corrections and recidivism but also corrections and social support for offenders. There have been a numbers of suggestions to address the issue including the contradictions to RPT such as the increase in punitive measures for offenders. In the case of restorative justice programs, there has been a similar increase in the support for their application but there has been hesitation on their full implementation because of perceived risks and the management participation on inmates. RPT has an advantage over other perspectives since there is already substantial evidence of its effectivity and relatively has lower risks since people involved in the interventions are limited to offenders’ corrections and parole officers. The research’s orientation reflects a psychological perspective as evidenced by the focus on CBT approaches. It should be noted that orientation does not exclude other orientations, as it is apparent form Park’s discussion that he recognizes the value of various perspectives in the development of recidivism programs. For example, he sites that crime cycles should be studied based on the conditions that create offense scenarios which include social, political and criminological perspectives or orientations. The theoretical framework utilized by Park combines sociology and psychology. The latter is apparent in the programs the areas of correction he sees the potential for the application for RPT. This puts an emphasis on psychological strategies, indicated by his recommendation of CBT and CBT-based programs including RPT as well as Helen Annis’s structured relapse prevention (SRP). However, the actual intervention proposed utilizes sociological frameworks for implementation. He believes that there is significant change that offenders will be able to reform if they are able to learn the impact of their actions, their responsibility for it and the need for criminal justice programs to apply penalties for those who offend them. Park’s orientation also indicates his support for sociogenic collaborative programs in corrections and criminal recidivism. Park’s theoretical perspective and research orientation are consistent with each other. Like any other author or researcher, his research orientation is based on the theoretical perspective he employs in developing the study. Thus, the assumption that the researcher employs for the research are reflected in the orientation of the study, the way the collaborations for the program are constructed or are to operate and the determination of the desired outcomes of the programs. In the same way, an insight to the theoretical perspective of the author allows credible estimates to how the research will approach he subject matter. The literature review completed by Park and his opinion of them reflect his theoretical perspective and research orientation. In particular, his citation of the works of Annis, David Wexler, James McGuire, John A. Cunningham , Edward Zamble and of course the proponent of RPT, G. Alan Marlatts. Though Park does not make any distinct or overt contrary position against any research mentioned or otherwise in his studies, he constantly reiterates his belief of the need for further studies before extensive application of RPT can be done. One point he points out is the lack of large-scale cohort studies to support the intensified application of RPT in recidivism. As previously mentioned, one of the limitations of park’s study is the lack of quantitative data. Though considering the extent of the assessment he made of the existing literature, there is sufficient corroboration for the regard he has for RPT, CBT-based programs and the existing researches for the subject. Park’s analysis of the research and its related issues and concerns reflects his own extensive research and interest in the issue. His insights and conclusions are not surprising because similar conclusions about corrections, rehabilitation and recidivism are reflected in other researches. However, unlike some opinions on the issue, Park believes that offenders should be given allow the opportunities for rehabilitation and reintegration. His sentiment is not just for humanitarian reasons but also recognized that the success of such interventions will reduce demands for correction facilities and programs. Written for popular readership, the research is quiet effective in delivering the need for correction and rehabilitation programs for offenders that will allow them to become productive and law-abiding members of society. Considering this, then Park’s avoidance of statistical or technical terms in RPT or CBT may be deliberate so as not to overwhelm his audience. Furthermore, this supports his objective of communicating the issue as social concern that needs collaborations of various social institutions as well as the public. The construction of Park’s arguments first highlights the significance of RPT in criminal justice systems then reflects the importance of the issue in society and among individual members of it. He points out that the objective of any criminal justice system is should go beyond apprehending and punishing offenders and extends to efforts that offenders are able to reform and become productive members of society. He then enumerates the requirements for the development of RPT programs that support these objectives and the insights that can be developed from existing research. In this article, Park contributes to readers’ understanding of the developing issue in corrections and recidivism, the perspective or researches being developed regarding it, and the potential of utilizing CBT-based interventions such as RPT. It highlights the need to review the relevance of programs and to streamline strategies to maximize the resources of criminal justice programs. There is also the realization of the increasing emphasis in rehabilitation of offenders instead of punitive measures which in turn reflects changes in social perspectives on criminality and corrections management. Park’s research is to be commended in its effort to reach a wider audience for an issue that has often been considered as a concern exclusively to the criminal justice field. Furthermore, his emphasis on the development of research, testing and collaborative programs lend a strong foundation as well as frameworks for the development of programs and interventions. The issue of recidivism, crime and rehabilitation is presented as in issue that affects all member of society not only offenders or their victims. In conclusion, Park’s work should be considered as an important foundation for further researchers on the topic and provides ample foundation for the analysis and development of RPT applications in criminal justice programs. REFERENCE Parks, George A. (2007). New approaches to using relapse prevention therapy in the criminal justice system. Corrections Today 69(6) December: 46(4)

Putting An End To Worship Wars Essay

There are many different kinds of worship styles because there are different kinds of people with different kinds of personalities. America is made up of different races and religion therefore we worship God differently. God created mankind in His image and His likeness to worship Him in spirit and truth. We must Worship God according to the principles of Scriptures so that He is magnified, glorified and exalted. It does not matter that we express our worship differently. What does matter is that we worship God with all our hearts and inner being. We as the church, the body of Christ must learn to except the difference in worship, if the worship is legitimate and stop trying to force our way of worship on other members of the body of Christ. America is the only nation that has different worship styles in the churches. The change in worship is because of culture changes such as the Internet, computerized television screens, and the Interstate freeway. American no longer chooses a church by denomination or church doctrine but by worship service and gift gravitation. Research revealed that churches were growing because of renewal, revival, and excitement not from outreach programs. The excitement of worship produced growth. Worship service are different because of cultural difference, different spiritual gifts and because the commands and principles of Scripture are applied differently. Worship wars have split churches, caused Pastors to be replaced, caused members to leave, and caused drops in church growth. The Evangelistic church exists to accomplish evangelism, which is communicating the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible Expositional Church exists to equip believers for the work of the ministry through the systematic expositional preaching and teaching of Scriptures. The Renewal Church exists to worship God the Pastor is often the worship leader. Worship is the focus of the service and exhortation is the spiritual gift. The Body Life Church purpose and mission is the context of fellowship. The focus is on the cell group and corporate gatherings of believers therefore; their strength is small group ministries. The Liturgical Church exist to serve God with praise and worship and to service other in the name of God. Its strength is their involvement in society causing leaders to emerge. The Congregational Church is a church of balance. They have no single spiritual gift and are described as a single cell churches. Their strength is balance in ministry. These six paradigms mean that Christians worship differently because we are different. We have different spiritual gifts, different callings, different personalities, different background and different doctrine. In the future of worship there will be more of a thirst for God, thirst for worship, and worship will be more spontaneous. The Holy Spirit will inspire, and release whole hearted worship in people of all expressions. Worship will become more of a celebration causing the atmospheric presence of God to be felt in worship. The Impact and Implementation of this Book in My Own Life The knowledge that I received from this book has help me to understand the different worship styles. I have a greater respect for them because I understand that they are worshipping God in their own way. It also help me to understand why I worship the way I do. I am what we call a radical worshipper. I love Worshipping God and I love when others people worship God. I can fit anyway as long as I can worship God.

Airborne infectious disease

Airborne infectious disease Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne infectious disease which is caused by bacteria belonging to Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex1. There are approximately one third of the world’s population are infected with tuberculosis where nine millions of new cases reported annually2. Although tuberculosis is essentially curable and preventable, it continues to cause millions of deaths every year2. When infected individual coughs, sneezes or spits, M. tuberculosis is propelled into the air and infected those who breathed in the bacteria that existed in droplets of saliva3. Primarily, tuberculosis will affect the lungs, known as pulmonary tuberculosis3. It will also affect other parts of body, for instance lymph nodes, bones, brain and kidneys3. Once a person is infected with tuberculosis, there are basically three possible ways may occur. Firstly, the immune system plays a vital role and strong enough to kill the bacteria3. Secondly, immune system is not strong enough to fight off the ba cteria but is able to build a defensive barrier against the bacteria3. Individuals who are latently infected with M. tuberculosis show asymptomatic where these bacteria lie dormant in the lungs and able to reactivate after years1. The disease is often reactivated in those who are immunocompromised or generally weakened. Lastly, the immune system fails to kill bacteria causing the bacteria to grow and spread towards other parts of body which is called active tuberculosis3. In the fight of tuberculosis, World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends universal Bacille Calmette-Guà ©rin (BCG) vaccination in the countries with high TB burdens4. BCG vaccine contains weakened form of M. tuberculosiswhich will induce antibodies to fight against this type of bacteria. The efficacy of BCG vaccination can be ranging from 0% to 84%5. This may be due to the frequency of TB exposure and quality of vaccine used, leading to arguments on BCG vaccination efficacies4. One of the greatest arguments is th at BCG vaccination causing positive reactions to tuberculin skin testing and hence interfere with the diagnosis of latent TB4. Existence of evidences showing the rates of efficacy also depends on geographical location, age at vaccination and form of TB further complicate the situation. Currently, TB chemotherapy is made up of a cocktail of first-line drugs isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), pyrazinamide (PZA) and ethambutol (EMB) 6. If the treatment fails due to bacterial drug resistance, or patient unable to tolerate, second-line drugs for instance para-aminosalicylate (PAS), fluoroquinolones, ethionamide and cycloserine are introduced6. These are considered as second line drugs generally either less potent with larger doses or more toxic with serious side effects6. Tuberculosis is presently treated in two phases, namely initial phase and continuous phase7. In initial phase, the patient will be treated with concurrent use of four first line drugs, with the aim to eradicate or contr ol bacteria population to replicate in rapid motion and also avoid the emergence of bacteria resistance7. The treatment choices available for initial treatment include isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol7. Streptomycin is used rarely but can be used in patients who infected with bacteria that are resistant to isoniazid before the therapy is commenced7. The duration for initial phase is 2 months whereas the continuous phase takes 4 months7. During the four months of continuous phase, patients are treated with isoniazid and rifampicin at same doses7. Most of the TB treatment is supervised where drug administration needs to be fully supervised by healthcare professions since lengthy duration of treatment causing incompliance in patients7. These patients who are unlikely to be compliance will be given the drugs three times a week until the course is completed while patients who able to comply with the treatment will not be supervised7.

Art and Gender Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art and Gender - Essay Example Women have become the cornerstone to cultural construction and one such edifice was Gertrude Bass Warner (1863- 1951). Warners works have been considered evolutionary and pioneering in the field of Asian studies. What has attracted this authors attention to Warners work was her valuable input on the females view of the world. In the following sections, the author shall study one of her photos, and enumerate on this view. Houseboat Illinois (see below) is one of Warners photographic works which the author has found among the Gertrude Bass Warner Lantern Slides, first bequest collection at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History (known as the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art). Warner had dedicated the collection in memory of her late husband Murray Warner. Houseboat Illinois, like most of Warners photographic work, is a work of art; a hand tinted photo taken during one of her voyages. The image depicts of Gertrude and Murray Warner sitting on their houseboat named Illinois with an Asian guide sitting at the bow of the boat. Both Gertrude and Murray are sitting on wicker chairs with a wooden table in the middle. On the table there is a cup, a smoking pipe and a note book. Gertrude is dressed in a long sleeved shirt and skirt with a hat covered with a pink scarf while her husband is dressed in a stripe pants and coat, and wearing a brown hat. The Asian guide, dressed in pants, long sleeved shirt, jacket and cap, is navigating the boat. At the outset the background comprises of blue river water, dark green trees, and some form of yellow and green vegetation that resemble a farm. Warners work is a representation of feminist view of the world. A feminist view, according to Perry (8) "studies, exposes and challenges womens cultural, political and social positions and disadvantages." But more importantly, a feminist approach is one which is

The Perils of Business Process Outsourcing Essay

The Perils of Business Process Outsourcing - Essay Example Business organizations are often attracted by the prospects of lowering operation and administrative costs by looking for low-wage workforce to take in their processes. Managers also argue that BPO is a "management tool" which "frees companies to build upon their core competencies by leaving the non-core stuff to providers" (Banham 1). However, the above presumptions about BPO are myopic as they fail to recognize the costs associated with leaving the companies' processes to lower paid third world workers. First, as companies try to find less costly resources, the labor market in the home country usually suffers because of massive lay-off. It is also irrefutable that BPOs, like call centers, does more harm than advantage. Take Dell for instance which have always been regarded for its excellent customer service. This recognition for the company has been eroded due to the fact that India's customer agents often lack the knowledge and skill necessary to service customers (Dell Admits Indian Mistake). For these reasons, I believe that business process outsourcing is more detrimental than beneficial. Companies planning to outsource should rethink and weigh both quantitative and qualitative aspects of BPO. Banham, Russ. "Cut to the Core-Business Process Outsourcing-Statistical Data Included." CFO:Magazine for Senior Financial Executives. Oct. 2001.

Asteroid Impact Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Asteroid Impact Discussion - Essay Example Accordingly, â€Å"the pieces could still hit Earth, and we might not have enough firepower to do serious damage.† (Atkinson, 2009) Secondarily, â€Å"a nuclear explosion could reroute a space rocks trajectory clear of Earth;† (Keim, 2009) but, from the other perspective, this would need to be done decades before the asteroid reached us (Atkinson, 2009). Thirdly, it could be annihilated with an assistance of â€Å"direct beams of concentrated sunlight to the surface of an appropriately icy asteroid.† (Keim, 2009) Except these ones, there are also another variants that have their own pros and cons as well. For example, â€Å"electric propulsion,† â€Å"gravity tractor,† â€Å"solar salls,† etcetera. (Atkinson, 2009) As for me, and it will be going on as an overall conclusion, that among these variants of annihilating asteroids the aforesaid three are the most vital: direct nuclear explosions, nearby nuclear explosions, and laser sublimation. To conclude with, first one needs too much nuclear power embodied in a bomb but theretically it sounds effectively; furthermore, second one is needed to be concentrated very carefully on the asteroids orbit to push it off from the Earth; finally, â€Å"beams of the concentrated sunlight† could be regarded as very sufficient in case that average temperature of the asteroid is not higher that of â€Å"sunlight;† if not, they will only increase the overall temperature of the

The downside of trusted computing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The downside of trusted computing - Essay Example The problem comes up with the main purpose of the chip. It is technically achievable with trusted computing, to protect the hardware for its possessor as well as to secure it against its holder. Other related issues comprise of the exploitation of validation of software remotely. In this case, the maker and not the client who possesses the computer system make a decision on what software would be permitted to run ("Weighing the pros and cons of the Trusted Computing Platform," n.d.). Another concern is that client action in these circumstances might be recorded in a proprietary database without the knowledge of the user. In this case, user privacy happens to be an issue as well as forming a security acquiescence conflict. Designs that exist are essentially damaged since they expose the public to new dangers of anti-consumer as well as anti-competitive behavior. Although the hardware is employed as per published specifications, it can still be utilized in a manner that harms computer possessors. Second, makers of certain trusted computers as well as components may surreptitiously implement them wrongly ("Weighing the pros and cons of the Trusted Computing Platform," n.d.). Hardware enrichments may be one technique to develop computer safety ("Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk | Electronic Frontier Foundation," n.d.). Treating computer holders as enemies is not growth in computer security. The owner control, interoperability and competition as well as similar issues intrinsic to the NCSCB and TCG approach are very serious that we advocate against embracing these trusted computing technologies up to the time these issues have been

Queen Victoria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Queen Victoria - Essay Example When she was only an infant, her father who was the fourth son of King George the III expired and her mother brought her up single-handedly in a manner that was â€Å"both simple and spare,† by keeping a very keen eye on her and restricting all her movements. (Brad Hooper, 2005) However, in 1837, after the death of her uncle William IV, she assumed the throne and brought her cloistered existence to a close. Arnstein also sheds light on how Queen Victoria, under the guidance and influence of her beloved consort, Prince Albert, worked hard behind the scenes all through her years as a reclusive widow. (Brad Hooper, 2005) Queen Victoria has been the subject of the most number of biographies, than any other lady born since the 1800’s. However, Arnstein is one of the latest biographers who has carried out an in-depth research on the Queen and has shed light on many of the neglected areas of the Queen’s life. Arnstein’s biography is based on authentic manuscript sources such as journals and letters from the Queen’s own writings. ... Arnstein’s depiction of Victorian society is so well expressed in his biography, giving his readers a deep understanding about the administration and the political scene that existed during that time. These facts are not found in the biographies of other authors. He especially examines the political, social, economical and cultural background that was prevalent in Victorian society which makes it easy for his audience to understand how the administration was carried out during those days. In his enlightening and engaging study of the Queen, Arnstein makes an investigation of the public and private life of Queen Victoria. He makes use of the Royal Archives of the Windsor Castle, biographies, monographs, surveys and past research studies and incorporates them together with his own findings to provide us with an insightful view of the Victorian Age. For his study, he made use of various sources of previously unpublished journals and letters written and received by the Queen that contributed towards making his biography of Queen Victoria one of the most outstanding biographies ever. In the history of the world, Queen Victoria is considered as one of the most influential octogenarians to head one of the most powerful nations in the world. Arnstein sheds light on some of the controversial domestic issues and the various international conflicts that faced Victoria during her reign, which is considered to be the longest in the history of Britain. He also made use of secondary sources from collections of already published material to gain insight into the Queen’s life. He speaks of her marriage to Albert and of her being the mother of nine children who proudly showed them to ‘domestic and foreign dignitaries’ (Walter

How Insurance Fraud and Abuse Affect the Community Essay

How Insurance Fraud and Abuse Affect the Community - Essay Example Through this, the instructor will have a brief idea of the perceptions that the learners have on insurance fraud, then reframe their ideas to produce a comprehensive discussion of the fraud. Secondly, the use of questions will help the learners think. As seen in the research conducted by Schoeberlein (2009), the use of questions has been fundamental in the teaching process. In the case of insurance fraud, the instructor may ask the learners to categorize different forms of insurance and how they think the same will impact their society. The instructor may then connect the ideas of the learners with real facts that will help the learners make sense of the course contents. The questions will also help the learners synthesize, make comparisons and even make generalizations on the course contents. Since a classroom comprises of different learners as Schoeberlein (2009) indicates, and fraud involves diverse forms as Beik (2012) writes, it is the role of the instructor to design the classroom in such a manner that will attract the attention of different learners. Evidently, insurance matters are complex and sensitive especially to the overall community especially in terms of increasing the funds the taxpayer pay from an increase in the premium pay (Green, 2012). The examples of insurance fraud are also myriad as Green (2012) writes. The fraud cases range from provider fraud that involves altering medical records, member fraud that involves giving wrong information to Medicare fraud that entails billing drugs that were not used and even sale of Medicare prescription card (Green, 2012). In this context, the instructor may categorize the learners based on their abilities, and teach each of the groups according to their learning speed. For instance, the fast learners may learn on th eir own through role play, while the slow learners may learn through a step by step process with the help of their instructor.

Consumer buyer behavior about ego-expressive way in the decision Case Study

Consumer buyer behavior about ego-expressive way in the decision making of rolex costumer - Case Study Example The owners of the Rolex Watch product rely on their understanding of the consumer behavior extensively as many other successful businesses. The consumers of the watch as a product are diverse and they present various factors that lead them towards purchasing the product readily. The Rolex Watch brand is the leading and most expensive Watch in the market currently. There are several types of the Watch. Moreover, Rolex manufactures watches designated for each of the genders, ages and uses. These are essential factors of consideration in the pricing aspect of the product. For instance, according to information gathered through the interactions with the Rolex professionals, the female gender used to constitute a large share of their customers. However, with the current developments in the market, the company is also manufacturing watches for men in large volumes, meaning that the male population is also a considerable consumer volume of the watches. The aspects of use, it depends on the reasons why the consumer purchases the watch. The latest development in the company is the establishment of the Rolex diving watch. Thus, with such watches, resistant to water, offering quality and accurate time measurement initiates the desire in the consumers to own a watch. The larger base of the consumer of the Rolex Watch includes the rich people, collectors of antiques and retail business people. The aspect that the Rolex Watch has a high pricing means that the consumers with low income are unable to afford the product. In manufacturing the product, Rolex focus on people with an interest in brand and aesthetic value of products. The watch established itself as a virtually dominant brand in the market, due to its association with class and high social status. The watch enjoys an ego-expressive status in its customers, as they seek the product for various reasons, all related

A report on how current provision Essay Example for Free

A report on how current provision Essay Each one of the early years educators has played an important role in setting the foundations that is the basis of the main curriculums and foundation frameworks in schools today. Maria Montessori believed in independence in nurseries and that children should be taught to use their senses first rather than just educating their intellect with subjects such as maths and science. These of course came later in the childrens education but the main focus within her nurseries was to develop observational skills through the environment and learning outdoors, and to provide the children with carefully organised preparatory activities rather than repetition as a means of developing competence in skills. Montessori believed children should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, enabling them to become more independent. The teaching practices of Maria Montessori have been highly influential on current practice as many specialised Montessori nurseries are currently running up and down the country. They promote her curriculum of independency and use many of her approaches to practice such as the idea that the childs freedom, dignity and independence are of paramount importance. In a typical Montessori nursery there is a general atmosphere of children doing things for themselves carefully and competently carrying furniture, setting tables, pouring drinks, washing their hands and following activities which absorb and interest them. This is, in some ways, a very different method to the practices used in government run nurseries etc. as they follow a more standard curriculum where reading and writing are encouraged more formally and learning plans set out at an early age. Some of this practice is reflected within my current placement through the childrens play such as tidying away independently at the end of activities and being responsible for making sure toys are put away before a new activity is begun. In my placement, when the children are told it is tidy up time they know they need to put everything away and must help clear up until the room is tidy. The practitioners join in with the tidying but do not do it for the children, so they are leading by example but are still allowing the children to think for themselves and take responsibility for putting away their own play equipment. During snack time I have also witnessed the children carrying their own chairs through if they are a few chairs short in the hall. This gives the children a sense of independence and is also a good way of developing their gross motor skills and co-ordination. In the key stage 1 classes children are encouraged to pour their own drinks and are given small jobs such as handing out the lunchboxes and folders at lunchtime and the end of the day. These are just a few ways that the children are encouraged to be independent within the school day as well as managing their own hygiene and dressing/undressing independently for a physical education activity. Part of the stepping stones within the foundation stage state that children should be encouraged to dress and undress independently and select and use activities and resources independently, which is exactly what I have witnessed in my previous and current placements. The birth to three matters framework has a similar view on independency as the emotional well-being guidelines for a child focuses on developing healthy independence e. g.activities which provide small steps to be achieved will support all children, including those with disabilities, thus reducing frustration and supporting them to become independent. These clear guidelines from the various frameworks and curriculums undoubtedly show the positive effect Maria Montessori has had on current practice, and that her theories have been widely acknowledged within teaching practice today. Rudolf Steiner set up the Waldorf schools where the main consideration is around practical activities that develop the mind and the imagination. The types of activities that Steiner introduced in his schools were things such as knitting, weaving, playing a musical instrument, woodcarving and painting. These are very much practical based activities and many are still carried on in schools today such as learning to play an instrument. This is seen as an important activity for children in the early years and lessons and clubs for this are seen as mainstream activities. Steiner believed that education should be designed to suit the changing needs of a child as they develop mentally, physically and emotionally. This can be seen in the current practices and provisions as there are different levels and stages of which a child can progress through at their own pace, such as the stepping stones in the birth to three matters and foundation stage curriculum. Each individual child is encouraged within their own abilities to progress with their education and onto the next levels of development and learning within todays practices, and Steiners approach has therefore been influential on many areas of the early years education. His ideas on allowing children to be taught by the same teacher for up to seven years have been adopted in some ways by secondary schools as a class is given the same form tutor for up to five years and then another for two years if they progress to higher education. He believed this was an effective way of giving children stability within schools, and the tutors would almost be like main carers for the children until they left school. Friedrich Froebels kindergarten is the modern day nursery, playgroup or parent and toddlers group. He wanted parents to be fully involved with their childrens learning and play an active role in their childs educational development. This was an important feature of Froebels vision and can be seen in current practices through parent/teacher evenings and the various reports and progress write ups that are sent home to parents from early years settings. The placement I am currently with send home termly reports explaining to parents and carers how their child is doing with regards to education and also to their social, emotional and physical well-being. Froebel believed the role of the mother was to recognise their childs capacity for learning and wanted to encourage the parents to support the children with this, and as you can see from the current approaches to this in early years settings his work has helped to develop the understanding of the importance of the role of a childs family in their learning and nurturing. This is now very much reflected in the governments recent every parent matters agenda. He also believed children learn through structured play at their readiness, in an organised and prepared learning environment. This is similar to the guidelines of the curriculums and frameworks we use today as children are taught through structured activities that are carried out in stimulating environments. The fact that activities and play is structured benefits the teachers immensely as they will always have a clear view of what they need to be teaching the children, and when and where they should be learning specific things. They are also able to plan the day effectively and help each child reach their early learning goals. Structured play benefits the children as they need routine so they know what their day will consist of, and are also able to develop their independent learning skills within a structured, focused and supportive environment. If a childs day has routine or structure to it they are able to feel in control of themselves as they will always know what they are going to be doing, and how much time they have for certain activities. The special materials that Froebel developed to assist his activities were things such as shaped wooden bricks and balls, with which he had a linking set of theories. These types of play resources are used throughout early years settings today. The foundation stage framework states that well planned play is a key way in which children learn with enjoyment and challenge. This clearly shows that Froebel and Isaacss theories have been influential towards current practice and benefit children and teachers through the education policies. I have seen these benefits first hand within my placement. The teachers have the opportunity to plan their lessons and the activities ahead and so are able to plan time for their own personal work and preparation for other lessons into the day, and can inform the children exactly what they will be doing that day, thus giving them a clear, structured routine they can easily follow. Children are able to choose freely within play activities yet each play resource is chosen carefully and all of them can relate to either a certain topic they are doing ect.so the childrens learning of a certain subject can be carried on through their play. The foundation stage curriculum states that well planned play, both indoors and outdoors, is a key way in which young children learn with enjoyment and challenge. Froebels theories have, from this example, been the basis of many of the curriculums ideas on play, and making it structured also allows the teachers to plan and resource a challenging environment that will extend the childrens learning. The curriculum also states that practitioners should be supporting childrens learning through planned play activities, extending and supporting childrens spontaneous play and extending and developing childrens language and communication in their play. Many of these requirements would not be possible if play was not planned or structured, as practitioners would not know what resources the children would be using during the day, and so would not be able to make assessments effectively or develop and extend the childrens learning to their full potential. Froebels theories and early years work mean practitioners and children can benefit from play immensely. Children; in all areas of their development, and practitioners; as it enables them to focus their assessments thus informing future planning to better meet the needs of the children. Margaret McMillan was another early years educator who has inspired and influenced many of the current provisions and practices used today. Her main emphasis was on fresh air, exercise and nourishment, and still influences some aspects of current English nursery practice. Many early years settings regard outdoor play as an important aspect of a childs learning, and gardens and play areas are available for the children at either frequent intervals throughout the day, for a substantial amount of time (as can be seen in the placement I am currently at), or constant access is given. McMillan recognised that imagination is good for society as a whole, an idea that is seen in the educational reforms of the 20th century, and can be clearly seen in the practices within her nurseries today. She believed that children are active learners, meaning they learn whilst doing something (usually playing), a concept that has been brought into current practices as practical activities that involve moving about or using some kind of resource, and especially general play, is now much more emphasised in early years settings than it previously was. Rudolph Steiner also believed that practical play activities were a good developer of the imagination. His Waldorf schools concentrated on activities such as wood-work, knitting and playing musical instruments, which are now mainstream subjects in secondary and primary schools e. g. design technology, which covers all creative areas, and music. Children can develop their creativity, imagination and emotional development through music as well as many other areas of personal learning. Teachers are able to apply their own skills in these creative areas and demonstrate to the children how they can achieve what they are aiming for. By seeing their teachers own personal skill first hand the children will be able to respect and learn from practitioners in a more understanding way. Susan Isaacs was also a believer that play is central to learning, and also that parents/carers are seen as partners, working with teachers and their child to develop and support their childs abilities. This is similar to Froebels theories on parent/teacher relationships in the way that he saw parents as the main educators of young children. This concept is still clearly seen in the practices of early years settings as parents are encouraged to be involved in every aspect of a childs learning, and have the opportunity to work with the teacher in developing their childs abilities. This benefits the children and the parents as both can create a bond with each other through the education of the child, and the parent will be able to understand more fully how their child learns best and how to encourage and support them if they are struggling. Play is still seen as central to learning and parents/carers are seen as partners in helping their child progress through the stepping stones. In my current placement children are given ample time throughout the day to have free play and choose to do whatever interests them. The day is structured (as Froebel believed it should be) so they still have time set aside for number work and writing activities, but are not pushed to complete the more intellectual side of the work as play and active learning are the most emphasised activities throughout the childrens day. This benefits the child in the way that they will have a break from concentrating on the more intellectual side of things and be able to relax, whilst still learning through structured play and various activities. Having the ability to choose will keep them interested in learning about writing and reading as they will feel they are not being forced to learn about them. Friedrich Froebel introduced the idea of structured play and fully involving parents with their childrens learning. His work has been extensively influential on current practice in early years settings today as the basic framework and curriculums that guide children through their learning are based around his ideas about how children should be working with their parents and how carers should be involved in all aspects of their childs learning and development through school, and how children should learn at their own pace and be guided instead of pushed towards their learning goals. The national curriculum states that teachers are required to report  annually to parents on pupils progress through their learning goals. Parents also have a say in whether their children are included in religious education classes and sex education, and are given the right to withdraw their children from it or go to the classes with their children to guide them through it. Secondary and primary schools send home letters to parents informing them when classes such as these will be taking place, and permission slips are enclosed so the school know which children can take part in the classes and which cannot. My current placement sends home a daily report on each child so the parents can see their childs routine for the day including what they played with, how long they slept for, what and how much they ate during the day and generally how they got on. This gives the parents a clear understanding of how their child is getting on in the nursery and allows them to give feedback to the practitioners so they can work together to ensure the child is reaching their full potential in all areas of development. This clearly shows that Froebels ideology of parents being involved in childrens learning has been taken into early years settings today and has had a positive effect on current learning and the guidelines in the curriculum. Parent and toddler groups are also a popular class for parents to attend when their children are young. They allow parents to be fully involved with their childs play, and as children learn most substantially through play this gives the parents a better insight as to how their children learn and what stimulates them most effectively. They can then use this knowledge to help progress their childs learning at home. The foundation stage has the same principles as the national curriculum in the way that parents are encouraged to become involved with their childs learning throughout and to work with the practitioners to extend the childrens learning both in the classroom and at home. According to the foundation stage curriculum, when parents and practitioners work together in early years settings the results have a positive impact on the childs development and learning, therefore each setting should seek to develop an effective partnership with parents. This was one of Froebels main theories  within early years and so current practice has clearly been influenced by this and has expanded on his views to make sure parents, practitioners and children can benefit from his work. Practitioners can listen to any concerns parents have over their childs development and then work with them to find an appropriate solution to the problem. Froebel also recognised the importance of specific training for early childhood teachers. He believed that early years teachers needed more focused training as the early stages of a childs development and education formed the basis of their personalities and eagerness to learn in the future. This may have some contribution to the fact that early years practitioners must undergo specific training in order to become qualified to work in early years settings, such as NNEBs, NVQs and BTECs. My opinion of Froebels work and the research I have done on his theories is that his work has been the most influential on current practice due to the fact that most of his work has been combined with, and been the main basis for many of the guidelines in the curriculums and frameworks used in early years today. The emphasis on active learning is well established within early years settings, but combined with the current guidance from central government upon meeting targets, it is indicated by the inspection of early years settings that play-based learning is not a priority, though the training of practitioners, which Froebel believed was essential, has received considerable attention in recent years, and current practice is now trying to catch up with the ideas Froebel proposed. The role of the mother in childrens learning is not as Froebel expounded due to mothers of young children being encouraged to work rather than stay at home. Teaching and nurturing children in the home is regarded as less effective or desirable than education in more formal, out of home settings, though the parents as partners scheme initiated by the government throughout the curriculums gives parents and practitioners a way of communicating and working together to help the child, so in this way I think his ideas on parents being involved in childrens learning has been responsible for this being put into practice. Friedrich Froebels theories have, in my opinion, been the most influential on early years practitioners, and their approach to practice is guided by many of his ideas and concepts on how children should be learning. His work surrounding the kindergarten (the first form of modern day nursery) produced the framework and theories that practitioners work with and expand on in current practice and so in my opinion his work has had the most effective influence on todays early years educators and their practice, and this evidence suggests his work will continue to be explored and expanded on within the curriculums and frameworks for years to come. Bibliography†¢Bruce T learning through play: babies, toddlers and the foundation years, (2201), Hoddler and Stoughton†¢Tassoni P, BTEC early years (2nd edition), (2006) Heinemann†¢Bruce T, Time to play in early childhood education (1991), Hoddler and Stoughton.

AA Meeting Review Essay Example for Free

AA Meeting Review Essay Walking into the AA meeting made me feel very awkward and out of place, but as the meeting began and everyone started sharing their stories I began to feel comfortable about being there. When I first went in the room the chairs were set up in a circle with some on the outside of it. I decided to take a seat on the outside so I wouldn’t be of focus during the meeting. They started the meeting off with reading some inspirational words and then reading the 12 steps. Their focus tonight was on a higher power and how believing in that higher power helps you stay sober. After brief introductions and stating their names, they began discussion and whoever wanted to speak had the opportunity to do so. Listening to all of their stories was really interesting. Almost all of the members have been sober for at least 30 days and more and about four people were just recently sober, with one being sober only three days now. One of the member’s stories really stood out to me. He said that he has been an alcoholic for years now, but always believed he can cure himself and control how many drinks he has. See more:Â  The Story of an Hour Literary Analysis Essay He mentioned that he went out last week with his buddies and wasn’t able to stop himself from going overboard with the drinking. He said he was in a blackout for four days and lost his job. That’s why he ended up at the treatment center; he said he realized that it isn’t possible to be a social drinker when you are an alcoholic. During his story he explained how he had the shakes and the classic withdrawal symptoms and I began to think about what I had learned in class and related it. Another member’s story was about social drinking. She said that her friend was coming home that she knew from college and wanted to get together. She thought about the friendship and realized that she wasn’t a friend and that she was just an old party buddy. She explained that she has a whole new group of sober friends that she hangs out with and that she can’t hang out with her old friends of whom she always went out and drank with. She started saying how she realized she doesn’t even like the sport of football and that she always went out to bars to watch it with friends because it was a time for social drinking. It brought to light that anything can become an excuse for people to partake in social drinking and too much social drinking can turn into alcoholism for some people. Another patient mentioned that she had her first drink at four years old and was in treatment by ten. I was really perplexed by that comment, thinking how could somebody even know what alcohol is at the age of four. She didn’t elaborate on what or how it happened, so I was just left in shock by that. There were many other stories told and I felt good after hearing all of them. It’s so nice to see everybody get close with each other and be there for one another when they’re having a bad day or week. They celebrate the landmarks of each other’s length of sobriety and that’s really heartwarming to see. They ended the meeting with the 12 promises and a prayer. Overall, after getting over the initial feeling of awkwardness, it was a successful experience and got to hear about the personal effects of alcohol on their lives.

Analysis of Board of Directors and Risk Propensity

Analysis of Board of Directors and Risk Propensity Banks are all similarly confronted with particular regulations and inspections of banking supervisions. Within this topic, the board of directors plays an important role. There are different factors considering how the composition of a board might influence its performance and the decision-making process. Therefore, factors like independence, age structure, percentage of minorities and women and the size of the board will be analyzed. After determining the composition, the influence of it on the percentage of equity financing and therefore the risk propensity will be analyzed. Furthermore, the composition will also be linked to performance indicators as Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and the development of stock quotations. 3.1. Corporate Governance The term corporate governance describes processes through which an organization is controlled and directed. Those structures specify which rights and duties certain participants in a company have and how the decision-making process works. This mostly affects the board of directors, the top management team (TMT) as well as shareholders and other stakeholders (OECD, 2005). Corporate governance is concerned with the possible abuse of power of the managers and the need for certain qualities like openness, integrity and accountability during the whole decision-making process. As shown in Figure 3.1, it also examines how certain mechanisms, including incentives, can help to minimize transactions costs that arise in an organization between principals and agents as described in the agency theory below (Mathiesen, 2002). 3.2 Structure of the Board of Directors The members of the board are generally elected by the shareholders and their responsibilities vary with the nature and the complexity of the organization. However, there are two different systems regarding the boards of directors. On the one hand there is the Anglo-Saxon system in countries like the United States and Japan (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). This consists of a one-tier board structure, where executive and non-executive directors work together in the board of directors (Weimer and Pape, 1999). This single board is usually entirely appointed by the shareholders and the CEO often also holds the board chair (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). On the other hand, in countries like Germany and the Netherlands, companies have adopted a two-tier board structure. There, the board is divided into the managing board and the supervisory board to formally separate powers (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). The managing board is monitored and advised in major policies by the supervisory board (Weimer and Pape, 1999). The CEO holds the chair of the managing board, but cannot hold the chair of the supervisory board at the same time (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). Even though, the board of directors is usually elected by the shareholders, in some cases also employees elect their own representative(s) from the workforce to support their interests on the board. In state-owned banks directors are delegated to the bank by the State Council and in where the board of directors is spitted up into managing board and supervisory board, the managing directors are appointed by the supervisory board members as shown in Figure 3.2. 3.3 Tasks of the Board of Directors In general, directors represent the shareholders interests, because they provide the elementary assets for running a company. Therefore, the main role of the board of directors is to govern an organization while acting for the shareholders in order to protect their assets and to ensure a decent return on their investments (Oss, 2003; Kennon, 2008). The board of directors is the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Kennon, 2008, n.p.). For this reason, the board is in charge of defining the corporate mission, setting the companys objectives and approving the firms strategy concerning the well judged allocation of the financial resources (Oss, 2003). Even though the board holds the total authority for a companys decision making they cannot manage the companys day-to-day operations, because this is the role of the CEO and the TMT (Oss, 2003). The resulting conflict potential is discussed in the Agency Theory below. According to Oss (2003) it is the boards task to govern and the CEOs to manage. Therefore, a clarified classification of who is in charge will eliminate these conflicts. Furthermore, another stakeholder group exists, as mentioned in the Stak eholder Theory (see Figure 3.3) with additional interests and requirements for the board of directors. Regarding all players and interest groups in an organization, the responsibilities of the board are possible to be divided into a Governance Role, a Service Role and a Control Role. Beside the strategic decisions, an important task of the board members is to appoint special committees like the Audit and Risk Committee, and to select qualified managers, as well as to help and to support them with their skills and expertise. Finally, the board controls if the management meets the companys objectives concerning ethical tenets or laws (Oss, 2003). 3.5 Related Research regarding Board Composition From the theories and former research, it becomes clear that boards have different tasks. Therefore, an optimal structure or composition of the board is essential for fulfilling the tasks. The main tenor in the literature is that in order to work efficiently boards have to be independent with diversity in backgrounds, gender, race and age. However, a certain composition of the board might also affect how much risk the directors are willing to take. The composition of the board receives more and more attention in terms of structure and stability. If a better structured and more stable board of directors is related to a better firm performance, companies with a well-composed board should perform better than other companies. For the purpose of this paper, a well-composed board is defined as a stable and diverse board composed of a majority of independent members along with a number of women and ethnic minority directors. To build the connection to the topic terms à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" board composition on the one side and firm performance and risk propensity on the other side à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" it is important to focus on different behavioral patterns which are the result of variations in board compositions. By investigating the influence of the board composition on firm performance and risk propensity it is possible to get insights into how differently composed boards behave regarding specific board tasks. Differently composed boards behave differently in various situations; for example, when they decide whether to replace a poorly performing CEO or when they choose at what price the company should be sold. The boards decision is also important when the acquisition of another firm has to be approved or whe n takeover defenses have to be adopted and employed. Finally, the board plays a big role when it comes to establishing the CEO and executives compensation packages (Bhagat and Black, 1999). 3.5.4 Board Size Board size is seen as one of the most important factors when it comes to the influence on the performance of a company (Kyereboah-Coleman and Biekpe, 2005). The main view regarding board size is that large boards have a negative impact on the performance of the company. That is, because tasks like coordination, decision-making and the communication between the members are more difficult and expensive, the more directors have to be included (Belkhir, 2008). Therefore, the costs would outweigh the gains of having more expertise on the board. Belkhir (2008) cited Jensens (1993) statement that boards with more than seven or eight people are less effective and easier to control for the CEO. Earlier research of the board size supports the proposition that smaller boards are better. Yermack (1996) discovered a negative relationship between board size and firm performance measured by Tobins Q and several other accounting figures. In their sample of small Finnish firms, Eisenberg et al. (1998) also find a negative relationship between the number of directors and financial success of the company. Furthermore, Kyereboah-Coleman and Biekpe (2005) determined that large board sizes are bad for the sales and growth ratio of companies in Ghana. However, Belkhir (2008) found a non-negative relationship between the size of the board of directors and the firm performance measured by Tobins Q, as well as, by return on assets (ROA) for financial institutions. Especially savings-and-loan holding companies (SLHC) might increase the value of the company with a rising number of directors. Therefore, the next hypothesis is that: H4a: An increasing board size has no negative influence on the company performance. When it comes to taking risks, there is not as much empirical evidence. However, if one looks at the decision-making process of a board, especially when its number of directors is very high, the obvious assumption is that for risky decsions it is more difficult to get a consensus the more people have to vote for it. Furthermore, Pfeffer and Salancick (1978) and Lipton and Lorsch (1992) determined a relationship between the capital structure of a company and its board size. Additionally, a study of Abor and Biepke (2005) discovered that an increasing board size and the debt level of Ghanaian SME are negatively related. Thus, the authors assume that: H4b: The board size is negatively related to the risk propensity of the company. 3.5.5 Board Independence You can distinguish between inside directors (current officers of the company) affiliated outsiders (former company officers, and persons who have business relationships with the company) and independent directors (Bhagat and Black, 1999, p. 4). Independent board members (outside directors) are à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“not associated with or employed by the companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Kennon, 2008, n.p.). According to Kennon, in the United States at least fifty percent of the directors must meet the requirements of independence. A board with fifty percent of independent directors is called a majority-independent board (Bhagat and Black, 1999, p. 4). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 places a strong emphasis on the independence of directors. Brown et al. (2004) confirmed this requirement with positive results in their study on the effects of the independence of the board members on financial firm performance data. They found that independent boards have higher return on equity (ROE) and profit margins. Furthermore, it is determined that outside directors can monitor the management more effectively than insiders (Bonn, Yoshikawa, and Phan, 2004). Therefore, the conclusion of several empirical studies is that, besides a more diverse board, a more independent board has a positive effect on the financial performance (see also Adams and Mehran, 2008). But, boards with majority-independent directors have both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, inside directors are more involved in the companys operations and might know the business better than outsiders. On the other hand, outside directors might keep cool and act in a more objective way than insiders. Besides that, several studies did not find significant evidence that a higher number of independent directors within the board is related to the quality of financial reporting, or to the likelihood of firm failure. Additionally, there is no evidence of more firm-level diversification or a connection to research and development spending (Bhagat and Black, 1999). Therefore, Bhagat and Black (1999) recommend that it might be valuable for companies to compose their boards with at least a moderate number of inside directors. This is supported by their results that there is a negative relationship between the degree of board independence and firm performance. However, different firms need different types of boards and an optimal board contains a combination of inside, affiliated and independent directors who bring different skills and knowledge to the board (Bhagat and Black, 1999, pp. 32-33). Along with the companys objectives and shareholder interests, boards of banks additionally bear micro- and macro-economic responsibilities, which can be positively influenced by the optimal composition of the board. For board members of financial institutions, a cooperative board-CEO relationship is elementary. Only when the board gets the complete information about the operating business processes from the CEO, can they make the right decisions for the company. For this reason, it is important to know if inside or outside directors can deal better with the CEO or TMT and generate a higher performance. The writers therefore hypothesize for the banking sector, that: H5a: A higher number of outside directors does not influence firm performance. Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) developed the Resource Dependency Theory and determined that a number of outside directors upgrade a companys ability to protect itself against outside influences and reduce the uncertainty level. Furthermore, they stated that outsiders might help the company retain a certain status and raise funds. Thus, a higher number of outside directors on the board should increase the debt level of the company. On top of that, independent directors might act more in the shareholders interests than inside directors (Bonn, Yoshikawa, and Phan, 2004), and for this reason we hypothesize: H5b: A higher number of outside directors will be positively connected to the risk propensity of the company. 3.6 Summary of the Hypotheses In table 3.1. below, all hypotheses are presented at one glance. These propositions have been derived from past studies and behavioral theories as presented above. Table 3.1 Hypotheses Composition Company Performance Risk Propensity Gender Diversity H1a: A higher percentage of women on the board of direc-tors has a positive influence on firm performance. H1b: A higher percentage of women on the board is nega-tively connected to the risk pro-pensity of the company. Average Age of Directors H2a: The average age of the board of directors is nega-tively connected with firm performance. H2b: The average age of the board is positively connected to risk avoidance of the company. Ethnic Diversity H3a: A higher number of minority directors on the board is positively related to company performance. H3b: Minority directors do not affect the risk propensity of the company. Board Size H4a: Increasing board size has no negative influence on the company performance. H4b: The board size is nega-tively related to the risk pro-pensity of the company. Board indepen-dence H5a: A higher number of outside directors does not in-fluence firm performance. H5b: A higher number of outside directors is positively related to the risk propensity of the company. 4. Empirical Study 4.1 Research Methodology 4.1.1 Sample In this empirical research the top 50 banks in the world according to Bankersalmanac.com4 were investigated. The banks were ranked according to their total assets as of June 30, 2008. For the data collection, there was a time span of three years, from 2005 to 2007. This particular group of banks has been chosen, because of their size and international branches. The reasons for choosing the largest banks from all around the world were to have a comparable size of international business when comparing them. If the banks had only been from one or two countries the differences in size would have been significant and the developments on the financial market would have probably only affected the bigger banks. This might have had an effect on the performance. Thuse, for 2007 the results could have possibly been very inconsistent. Regarding the chosen sample, it can be assured that the international situation has affected them all à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" some banks more than others, depending on how risky their business operations were. That results in a possible interpretation on how each bank, with managers and board directors, has dealt with the problems and obstacles. 4.1.2 Data Collection Method The necessary data for this study were collected from the annual reports of the 50 financial institutions. The data about the board of directors were found in the corporate governance section of the reports. Data about the company performance were gathered from the consolidated income statements and balance sheets of the banks. The data were usually dated the 31st December of the year. However, some bans adopted a fiscal year ending on March 31, or September 30 of the year. Then, we considered the Annual Reports from March 31, 2008 as belonging to 2007 as well as the Annual Reports from September 30, 2007. This way, it could be assured that the figures were all derived during the similar time period. Furthermore, the main capital ratios, necessary for the risk propensity were taken from the section risk management. However, there are no strict regulations on how companies have to structure their annual reports. Therefore, the relevant data of some financial institutions was found in different parts of the annual reports or on the websites of the companies. 4.2 Operationalization The research data were collected in an Excel sheet for further calculations and preparation purposes with regard to the statistical analysis using the statistics program SPSS. During the research process the researchers also used a complementary list to record secondary and supportive information needed to calculate the total numbers for the primary Excel list. 4.2.1 Board Composition Data The five board composition variables were selected by the authors and the corresponding information about those data were collected as presented in the following paragraphs. 4.2.1.1 Board Size The board size was recorded by counting the members and listing their names. This was done for all three years to find out if there were any changes in the board composition from one year to another. The changes were recorded in the complementary lists. The total number of board members for each bank and each of the three years were transferred to the primary Excel sheet. 4.2.1.3 Independent Directors Next, the authors looked at the percentage of independent directors. The financial institutions usually indicated in the annual reports or on their homepage which members of the board were independent. However, sometimes it was not explicitly alluded neither in the annual report nor on the companys website. Then, the researchers decided if a director was independent or not using an own definition described above. The authors examined if s/he has any other connection to the company beyond the board activities; for instance if him/her is or was employed by the bank in the last years or bears executive tasks. If there was no connection (excluding shareholding) at all, s/he was defined as independent director. The share ownership of directors was excluded, because at some banks each director is obliged to hold at least a small number of shares. The sum of all independent directors of each bank was copied to the list and divided by the total number of members. 4.2.2 Company Performance Indicators To investigate the influence of the board composition on the firm performance the authors chose four performance measures divided into two categories: operating performance and shareholder payout. The three most important financial indicators are the performance measures Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and the Efficiency Rate (CIR). Besides this, the researchers also looked at the share performances compared to previous years. These are all common indicators, which are important for shareholders. Furthermore, they are well comparable to the results previous studies in other industry branches showed using the same indicators. To control for the possibility that the performance indictors will be connected to the size of the bank, total assets were also recorded and will be included in the correlation tables and regression models. 4.2.2.1 Return on Assets The accounting measure of a companys profitability, Return on Assets (ROA), indicates net income from all of the banks operations relative to the average book value of all assets (Carter, DSouza, Simkins, Simpson, 2007, p. 15). It shows how beneficial assets are used by management to create earnings for the company. This means that it is possible to see how much profit was derived from invested assets (Investopedia, Definitions, 2008). It is calculated as: ROA= Net Income/ Avg. Total Assets 4.3 Credibility of the Research Data 4.3.1 Reliability Reliability is concerned with the question if the data that were collected by the researchers would be consistent with the findings other researchers would have using the same sources (Saunders et al., 2007). The most data were collected by the authors in a quantitative but diligent manner from the published and certified annual reports of the banks. Due to this fact, the research data cannot be interpreted wrong by the researchers and therefore have a high reliability. However, when it comes to the board composition data about women, minorities and independent directors, the authors had to interpret by using pictures or curriculum vitae of the directors. The gender of the board members is usually recognizable when using pictures. Thus, it is clear and should not be inconsistent when other researchers collect these data. A little more difficult is the question about minorities. For that part, the biographies have to be considered, especially, when it comes to questions about backgrou nds and where the people grew up. This fact can lead to different interpretations depending on who collects the data. However, the definitions on ethnic minorities were made clear in the theoretical part and thus, the results should be very consistent. When deciding about the independence of the directors, there are two factors to consider. First, when the banks noted if the directors were independent, this was just copied for the research. These data are very reliable, because there is no space for interpretation. However, if it was not indicted and the biographies of the directors were read and the decisions about the independence were basically made after reading the professional background. Therefore, other researchers could have a different opinion about directors independence. To summarize, most of the data are very reliable, because they are published and just have to be copied. Only for factors, that the authors had to interpret, it could come to inconsistencies, which should be very limited though, because the data collection was done very diligently and clearly set definitions have been used. 4.3.2 Validity Validity of data is concerned with the question if the findings are what they appear to be. The researcher has to find out if the variables really have a causal relationship (Saunders et al., 2007, p.150). In this study, it was made clear through the theoretical background that board composition and company performance, as well as, risk propensity influence each other. This is mainly secured by the fact that the board of directors makes decisions which are intended to influence the financial results. However, to make sure that the relations between the board and firm performance and risk propensity are not accidental, four performance measures and two risk measures that were studied. A problem could arise, if the results are inconsistent. If that was the case, the contradicting results have to be interpreted and explained. 4.3.3 Generalisability The aim of this research study was to be able to generalize the results, which means to be able to apply the results to other settings (Saunders et al., 2007). Other settings could be for example a different group of banks or maybe other companies located in the same countries and also have international operations. For this reason, the quantitative research method was applied. To get reliable and valid results the authors collected almost 150 data sets by investigating 50 banks over three years. The number of banks was not selected by the authors but provided by a public resource which registered the 50 largest banks as measured by their total assets as of June 30, 2008. This amount of research data and the fact, that the sample includes banks situated on three continents in many different countries, allows the authors to generalize the findings. 5. Analysis 5.1 General Findings The sample of fifty banks consists of the largest financial institutions from North America, Europe and Asia. The biggest group are the European banks. One bank from the sample had to be excluded because its structure differed too much from the other banks and did not fit to the research questions. It was a state-owned bank which was controlled by politicians to a large percentage. Furthermore, for the year 2005, one more bank had to be left out, because it was just created in 2006 by a merger of two smaller banks. To be able to compare the banks, all performance indicators that were stated in different currencies have been converted into Euros with the currency rate of December 31 of each year.6 In table 5.1 general statistical values of the variables are listed. A value that was controlled for in the research was total assets. This was important for detecting if the board size or any of the other independent variables changed with the size of the bank. However, there is no significant relationship between the total assets and the size of the board (see table 5.2). Therefore, it is possible to say, that banks do not decide about the number of directors based on their size measured by total assets. It is rather noticeable that banks with a two-tier board system have larger boards than the other banks. The maximum number of directors came up to 48, when adding up the number of directors in the supervisory and the managing board compared to a minimum of seven board members in a one-tier system bo ard of directors. Table 5.1 Descriptive Statistics years 2005-2007 Samples Minimum Maximum Mean Median Std. Deviation Total Assets (Mio. à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬) 146 168,119 2,579,194 732,994 557,269 415,293 Board Size 146 7 48 18.36 17.00 6.92 Board Age (years) 142 49.1 64.70 57.32 57.74 3.44 Women (%) 146 0.00 42.90 10.02 6.8 9.32 Minorities (%) 146 0.00 41.20 3.73 0.00 7.79 Independent Directors (%) 146 0.00 94.10 49.15 50.00 28.80 Share Development cp. to Previous Year (%) 100 -44.75 106.67 14.61 16.90 27.52 ROE (%) 146 -37.90 37.50 14.56 15.35 8.60 ROA (%) 146 -0.30 1.75 0.65 0.59 0.40 Cost/Income Ratio (%) 125 34.70 114.00 58.89 56.00 13.07 Debt-Ratio (%) 146 87.73 98.54 95.31 95.95 2.19 B.I.S Capital (%) 135 8.5 19.70 11.79 11.60 1.72 5.2 Interdependency between the Independent Variables Before checking for the influence of the board composition on performance and risk propensity, the interdependency of the independent variables was evaluated in table 5.2. It is noticeable that many of the factors correlate with each other within the one percent significance level. The strongest correlation exists between the variables board age and percentage of independent directors. It shows that the higher the average age of the directors is the more independent directors are on the board. This leads to the conclusion that outside board members are usually older than executive directors. Another strong significant relationship is shown between the variables board age and board size. This correlation is negative and implies that the average age of the directors decreases when the number of board members increases. The reason for this link could be that the younger board members are introduced into the tasks before the older directors retire. One more noticeable factor is that the percentage of women on the board is positively correlated with the percentage of minorities on the board. This supports the results of Carter et al. in 2002. Furthermore, independent directors correlate significantly positively with women and minorities, which supports the conclusion that female and minority directors usually seem to be outsiders to the bank. An interesting fact is also that minority directors usually seem to be of more importance in smaller boards. The correlation between the board size and the percentage of minorities is slightly negative, which indicates that smaller boards have a higher percentage of ethnic minority directors. Furthermore, it is interesting that the boards of directors of banks do not significantly correlate with their total assets, as mentioned before. However, the board age has a very significant positive correlation with the assets. This implies that larger banks usually have an older board of directors. Besides, those banks also seem to have a slightly higher percentage of independent outside directors as shown by the positive correlation between these two factors. With the high interdependencies between the independent variables, it could come to multicollinearity problems in the regression analyses for the dependent performance and risk indicators. Fortunately, this is not the case as shown by the VIF-values, which are lower than 2.5, in the regression models below. Table 5.2 Correlations between Independent Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Total Assets a 1 2 Board Size a -.113 1 3 Board Age a .308*** -.403*** 1 4 Women (%) a -.052 .037 -.026 1 5 Minorities (%) a .098 -.176** .254*** .267*** 1 6 Indep. Directors (%) a .208** -.114 .465*** .369*** .308*** 1 *** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) a Pearson correlation coefficient 5.3 Influence of Board Composition on Performance Data At the beginning, the correlations of the data from all three years were evaluated together to get a general overview over the connections made between the independent and dependent variables. 5.3.1 Return on Assets When regarding the influence of the board composition on the first performance indicator it is very obvious that ROA is connected to all variables, except for total assets (see table 5.3). The strongest positive correlation exists between the variables return on assets and percentage of independent directors, followed by minorities. A little weaker connection is shown with the percentage of female directors and the board age. The linkages indicate that outsiders or a more divers and experienced board (concerning average

Revolutions - A justified Means of Change? :: Political Politics

Revolutions - A justified Means of Change? Since the beginning of time, revolutions have directed the progression of most societies. Not only have they improved the lives of many, but they have also been the cornerstones to building some of todays most powerful and democratic countries. Most people have heard of the French and American Revolutions, however history tells us there have been hundreds more, from small town Revolution to major countries. Revolutions are justified means of change because they help to motivate and inspire people to press for rights that in turn will benefit the country and future generations as a whole. Most revolutions occur because of widespread dissatisfaction with an existing system. Poverty and injustice under cruel, corrupt, or incapable rulers combined with social problems is a recipe for disaster. One can only push people so far. If other ways of establishing the changes that must be made does not work, then creating a revolution might be the only option left. The French Revolution abolished absolute monarchy, feudal privileges, and serfdom, removed the estates, and established equal liability to taxation. The revolution also began reforms in the fields of education and law. How can anyone say that the revolution proved detrimental to France? The other intangible results of the revolution were embodied in its ideals, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," which became the platform of liberal, democratic reforms in France and Europe in the 19th century. The American Revolution ended two centuries of British rule for the 13 colonies and created the modern United States of America. The Revolutionary era was an exhilarating and productive time for most people living in North America. In the wake of the Revolution came events as varied as the drafting and ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, which ensured that the rights of all Americans were to be protected, and to guarantee that all people would be involved in running the country with their form of government, democracy. The basic makeup of this was to ensure that all citizens were treated equal. This prompted the phrase "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Revolutions are not perfect, and there are always negative aspects to a revolution. They do not always create a better country, or even resolve the issues that proposing the revolution were for, and in some cases lead to worse conditions than what the country had to begin with.

Examining the American Culture Essay -- Papers

Examining the American Culture In order to understand this immense country that we call America, we need to study the culture. More specifically, we need to study the form of society in America. Is this society changing, or does it remain fixed throughout time? There are many aspects of our society, some of which are: traditions, values, and religion. The many realms of society contribute to a conglomerate culture, which cannot be described simply. The American culture is diverse and constantly evolving due to many various aspects of society, including, but not limited to, religion. It cannot be said that there is one American culture because there is no national language in America. Also, the lack of a single culture is displayed by the strong need for political correctness in America. Finally, it is evident that the culture in America has changed through the years due to changes in American religion. Since language is an essential part of culture, and America has no national language, then America is not tied together with one culture. There are reasons why the U.S. Government has not declared an official language. The most important being that an official language of English would promote xenophobia, making the English speaking afraid of new immigrants or vice versa. It would also deprive the American citizens who do not speak English of some of their basic rights. For example, how could someone vote, or take a driving test, if they do not know the language. On the other hand, immigrants would benefit if they were forced to learn a national language in America. They would be able to receive a better education, find a better job, and participate more completely in society (Gallegos, 1994). The fact that h... ...chings have also been a strong influence on our ignorant society, especially on those who haven’t taken the time to research the doctrines of various religions. Because of the diversity in America, there is no prevalent culture, nor does the culture of tomorrow replicate the culture of yesterday. Bibliography: BIBLIOGRAPHY Gallegos, Bee. (Ed.). (1994). English: Our official Language. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company. Heston, Charlton. (1999). Winning the Culture War, [Online]. Available: http://www.mere-christianity.org [1999, July 5]. Wolfe, Alan. (Ed.). (1991). America At Century’s End. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Author Unnamed. (1999). Roman Catholicism: Christian or Pagan, [Online]. Available: http://www.personal.s1.umich.edu [1999, July 7]. Wickham, R. (1999). Lecture Notes. R/ST 302I. [1999, June 24, July 7].

Gandhi Movie Summary :: Film Movie

The movie Gandhi starts off with the assassination of Gandhi on January 30, 1948. He was killed because of the split of Hindus and Muslims into Pakistan and India, instead of trying to keep the country united (which was impossible at the time). The story then jumps back to Gandhi early in his life, when he is a practicing attorney. He is traveling in South Africa on a train and is thrown off because he refuses to give up his first class seat. The conductor wants him to move because he is Indian. This upsets him and he organizes a burning of the discriminatory codes. The protestors are arrested and released. Gandhi is motivated by religious means; he believes that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. He gets involved in several movements for equality, and he stresses non-violence very strongly. The Indians are very mad because British rule continues to limit their rights. They are supposed to all get fingerprinted, and their marriage laws are invalid. Gandhi’s followers vow to fight their oppressors to the death, but he discourages them from violence. He and his wife form a sort of commune of purity. They live off of the land entirely. During one scene, they ask all of Gandhi’s followers to burn all of their clothes that were made in Britain and wear only what they can make themselves. Gandhi practices this for the rest of his life, usually wearing just a loincloth. In another scene, Gandhi is in jail, and some of his followers are peacefully gathered in a square. The police lock up the square and kill almost everyone, over 1,500 people. Gandhi is disgusted and discouraged. He continues to preach non-violence, but the Indians do have occasional conflict with the police. Gandhi’s counter to the popular phrase â€Å"an eye for an eye† says that after that, â€Å"everyone will be blind.† Gandhi leads several organized protests against British rule. In one, all Indians stopped doing their work, and the major cities in the country were disabled. Another time, he led a 165-mile walk to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt. The Indians made their own salt out of the sea. A turning point on the Indian fight for independence was the western press. Reporters witnessed a scene in which Indians tried to get into a factory row by row, and were brutally beaten by soldiers, row by row, as the women pulled the dead and injured away.

The Bluest Eye

The novel begins with a series of sentences that seem to come from a children's reader, describing a house and the family that lives in the house the child wants to play but no one is available to play. This sequence is repeated and then is repeated a third time without spaces between the words kind of like a nursery rhyme. This is to give an idea showing a child is talking. Pocola's low self-esteem comes from the physical and sexual abuse that she endured as a child. She was raped by her father she is abased and abused by many people. In the 1960's the self-image of black women and girls was determined by the white women that were around. During that time Black was not beautiful to all, white was. The forced white beauty standards contributed to most black women's low self-esteem during that time. The view of how the mass white culture floods the minds and ideological views of the black community. Pocola's low self-esteem comes from the physical and sexual abuse that she endured as a child. She was raped by her father she is abased and abused by many people. She was taught at a young age by her mother Mrs. Breedlove that she wasn't beautiful, this came from the resentment of her on mother's skin and she took it out on her daughter. Toni Morrison has a recurring struggle of self-identification and beauty standards. This is identified with the comparison of black women ; girls to the clichà ©d blonde hair and blue eyed white women in the 60's. An example of this would be when Claudia is gifted a white doll that has blonde hair and blue eyes. According to Toni Morrison's Character Claudia in The Bluest Eye â€Å"Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs — all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. â€Å"Here,† they said, â€Å"this is beautiful, and if you are on this day ‘worthy' you may have it.† Claudia is explaining how confused she is because she does not see the same beauty that is forced on her with blonde hair and blue eyed white girls and baby dolls. She even goes so far as stripping the doll to its core which is a realization that the outside beauty meant nothing because the core was ugly. Something she was considered â€Å"worthy† of having she thought was ugly. Pecola suffers from low self-esteem issues from people calling her ugly and connecting her to negative and ugly things. â€Å"It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights — if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they'd say, â€Å"Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn't do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.† Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big blue pretty eyes.†( The Bluest Eye) Instead of the traits, she has already, she wants to have Blue eyes. Blue eyes were considered beautiful just like the reference before made to the baby doll. Since the white people dominated the view of beauty, this is why she obsessed over Shirley Temple who had blonde hair and blue eyes. According to the Huff post â€Å"She was America's top box-office draw during the 1930's, outranking Clark Gable, and receiving more fan mail than Greta Garbo. As a child star, she was amazing,†.(HuffPost). Claudia is the youngest child of the MacTeer family. She also endures the same issues of colorist and racist beauty standards as Pecola but she is too young to care. According to Toni Morrison's Character Claudia in The Bluest Eye † I couldn't join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley. Not because she was cute, but because she danced with Boj angles, who was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me. Instead, he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid down under their heels. So I said, â€Å"I like Jane Withers.† Claudia is also the fighter and the rebel as far as going against the views of others. When she is gifted a baby doll that has blonde hair and blue eyes she doesn't find it as beautiful as others do. Instead, Claudia picks it apart, this is because she is young and has not been able to truly understand self-hatred that the adults have. She is considered the hopeful character in the novel. Claudia is thrown into situations and has experienced different things which makes her mature but also a child and doesn't know much about the world yet. Opposite of Claudia, Pecola has self-image problems and is a passive character. Unlike Claudia, Pecola did not grow up in a loving and caring home. Instead, she grew up in what is described and â€Å"ugly† family. Ugly in terms of disastrous home, features, and upbringing. Pecola values the blonde hair and blue eyed people and wants to have the same traits. Out of the two, Claudia is better able to reject white, middle-class America's definitions of beauty. Pecola considers Shirley Temple as the perfects little girl. At the beginning of the book, Pecola's love for her Shirley Temple cup opens the view of her fascination. â€Å"My mother was referring to was Pecola. According to Toni Morrison's Character Claudia in The Bluest Eye â€Å"The three of us, Pecola, Frieda, and I, listened to her downstairs in the kitchen fussing about the amount of milk Pecola had drunk. We knew she was fond of the Shirley Temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet Shirley's face.† She gets in trouble for drinking all the milk, Claudia's mother thinks she is being greedy but she just wants to use her cup at most. To Pecola Shirley Temple is who she wants to be, she considers herself ugly and she feels if she looked more like Shirley Temple. Where Pecola lives brings conceptual beauty standards such as blonde hair and blue eyes. Maureen symbolizes wealth in the black community. Her family were light skin and have money, she is also new to the neighborhood. According to Toni Morrison's Character Claudia in The Bluest Eye â€Å"Maureen Peal. A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back. She was rich, at least by our standards, as rich as the richest of the white girls, swaddled in comfort and care. The quality of her clothes threatened to derange Frieda and me.† Both Shirley Temple and Maureen define the beauty that Pecola wishes she had. Shirley Temple is white with blonde hair and blue eyes and adored by America. Maureen is a beautiful light-skinned black girl with money. This may be a realization that you can still be black and pretty, she's just not that. She I identify with this when Maureen calls the three girls Black and ugly black referring to Pecola. â€Å"Safe on the other side, she screamed at us, â€Å"I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!†(The Bluest Eye) The Bluest Eyes gives a view of black women during the 60's and shines the light on the norm that was going on around that time. The novel represented different main situations in the black community. Touches on troubled homes and how black children were taken from the home to be placed in a flawed home that offers more love. Pecola was the darkest character literally and figuratively. She had the most going on in the novel and. Society has taught her that her skin and feature are ugly and everything she needs to value needs to be white. Being raped by her father and belittled by the whole community. This novel teaches struggle and social discrimination which is a recurring theme. Throughout the novel, Pecola is growing along with the Family she lived with. I'm sure she appreciates being in a loving family but unfortunately, the lesson was about loving herself and learning how to love herself because her mother couldn't teach her. Works Citedâ€Å"BEAUTY IDEAL OVER THE DECADES Part 7: THE 60's.† IDEALIST STYLE, www.idealiststyle.com/blog/beauty-ideal-over-the-decades-part-7-the-60s.â€Å"Full Text of ‘The Bluest Eye.'† Internet Archive, The Library Shelf, archive.org/stream/TheBluestEyeFullTextJAMESSUTTON/The Bluest Eye_full text – JAMES SUTTON_djvu.txt.Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eyes. Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1993.Rosas, Alexandra. â€Å"Why the Fuss About Shirley Temple Black.† The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandra-rosas/why-the-fuss-about-shirle_b_4768929.html.â€Å"The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Audiobook Fastest Loader.† YouTube, YouTube, 12 Nov. 2017,www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUCS2Orzo84.According to Toni Morrison's Chara The bluest eye Pectoral Overlooked Is a passive, young and quiet girl who lives a hard life; her parents are constantly physically and verbally fighting. Throughout the book, Pectoral is reminded continuously of how ugly she is, which fuels her aspiration to be white with blue eyes. Pectoral, a poor black girl, is compelled to believe that she is, In fact, ugly. Tortured and tormented by almost everyone she knows, the identity of the protagonist, Pectoral Overlooked Is destroyed by both society and her family situations and experiences.This presents the reader tit the idea that society and or family experiences can tear an individual from their identity if they are mentally weak enough. Pectoral Overlooked, who wants to be beautiful, becomes torn from her â€Å"black† Identity once society victimizes her Innocence by labeling her as ugly. Pectoral and her community live based on a set of ideals; whiteness and beauty. When Maureen Peal is introduced in the book, her skin color and class statu s is regarded as oppressive to other blacks in the novel, especially Pectoral who Is highly susceptible to It since everyone thinks of her as ugly.When described in the cafeteria, Maureen Is presented as â€Å"A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back† (52). The â€Å"lynch ropes† expression is outright racial oppression, as â€Å"lynching† (hanging) is what commonly happened to slaves for punishment along with the ASK Incidences. When Pectoral sees that being beautiful is related to having friends and more importantly to her, being loved, she will do anything to become beautiful.When Pectoral and Claudia are exposed to Maureen Peal, they make up ugly names and relate her to ugly things so she would be on their level. Maureen is an example of the ongoing theme that white people are rich and gorgeous, and black people are ugly and not content. Maureen says later on, that â€Å"l am cute, and you ugly! Bla ck and ugly black e moss. I am cute! † (73). When Pectoral first met Maureen, they thought they were going to be friends.When Pectoral hears Maureen say this about them, she starts to believe that she needs to be beautiful In order to have friends, and she starts to wish for the bluest eyes and the whitest skin, thus proving that society can tear an individual from their true identity. Pectoral Overdose's self-esteem and her identity is also affected by her family situation and experiences. When the Overlooked family is introduced In the beginning of the story, Morrison portrays them as a stereotypical early sass poor black family. When they are first described. He wrote. â€Å"The Breadboxes did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly† (37). Morrison writes about the role that the whites and the colored people give the Breadboxes In society. Because of the color of their skin, the Breadboxes are forced to adopt their storefront apartment as part of who they are and let it dictate their lives.They feel that they are ugly since they are not the model of what society in general portrays as appropriate. Pectoral sees what society portrays as appropriate, which Is light skin with blue eyes, along with a decent amount of money. She tries to get Just one of those things, the bluest eyes, and it ends up ruining her psychologically, causing her to go 1 OFF makes fun of Pectoral and her father, Just after Pectoral starts to consider her as a reined. â€Å"l wasn't even talking to you. I was talking to Pectoral. Yeah. About seeing her naked daddy' (72).Once the knowledge that Piccolo's father walks naked around Pectoral, Maureen decides to make fun of her because she is ugly, and because it is common knowledge that Pectoral sees her dad walking around naked. These family experie nces and situations all have a negative effect on Pectoral because she is not just the â€Å"ugly' girl now, she is the poor black girl who sees her father naked. As a member of a family that is part of the low society, Pectoral Overlooked, labeled as â€Å"ugly' trudges and fails to maintain her sanity and her childhood innocence when she tries to get people to like and love her.Once an innocent little girl, now a girl who is torn away from her natural identity after society and society's outlook on her family make her feel ugly and unwanted. She becomes labeled as the scapegoat of the community and slips into oblivion. Toni Morrison wrote the Bluest Eye depicting Pectoral Overlooked and her family as the scapegoat of the entire community. Using Pectoral as an example, Morrison tries to convey the point to not become subdued to what society thinks of as ugly and beautiful; Just be yourself. The bluest eye Pectoral Overlooked Is a passive, young and quiet girl who lives a hard life; her parents are constantly physically and verbally fighting. Throughout the book, Pectoral is reminded continuously of how ugly she is, which fuels her aspiration to be white with blue eyes. Pectoral, a poor black girl, is compelled to believe that she is, In fact, ugly. Tortured and tormented by almost everyone she knows, the identity of the protagonist, Pectoral Overlooked Is destroyed by both society and her family situations and experiences.This presents the reader tit the idea that society and or family experiences can tear an individual from their identity if they are mentally weak enough. Pectoral Overlooked, who wants to be beautiful, becomes torn from her â€Å"black† Identity once society victimizes her Innocence by labeling her as ugly. Pectoral and her community live based on a set of ideals; whiteness and beauty. When Maureen Peal is introduced in the book, her skin color and class statu s is regarded as oppressive to other blacks in the novel, especially Pectoral who Is highly susceptible to It since everyone thinks of her as ugly.When described in the cafeteria, Maureen Is presented as â€Å"A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back† (52). The â€Å"lynch ropes† expression is outright racial oppression, as â€Å"lynching† (hanging) is what commonly happened to slaves for punishment along with the ASK Incidences. When Pectoral sees that being beautiful is related to having friends and more importantly to her, being loved, she will do anything to become beautiful.When Pectoral and Claudia are exposed to Maureen Peal, they make up ugly names and relate her to ugly things so she would be on their level. Maureen is an example of the ongoing theme that white people are rich and gorgeous, and black people are ugly and not content. Maureen says later on, that â€Å"l am cute, and you ugly! Bla ck and ugly black e moss. I am cute! † (73). When Pectoral first met Maureen, they thought they were going to be friends.When Pectoral hears Maureen say this about them, she starts to believe that she needs to be beautiful In order to have friends, and she starts to wish for the bluest eyes and the whitest skin, thus proving that society can tear an individual from their true identity. Pectoral Overdose's self-esteem and her identity is also affected by her family situation and experiences. When the Overlooked family is introduced In the beginning of the story, Morrison portrays them as a stereotypical early sass poor black family. When they are first described. He wrote. â€Å"The Breadboxes did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly† (37). Morrison writes about the role that the whites and the colored people give the Breadboxes In society. Because of the color of their skin, the Breadboxes are forced to adopt their storefront apartment as part of who they are and let it dictate their lives.They feel that they are ugly since they are not the model of what society in general portrays as appropriate. Pectoral sees what society portrays as appropriate, which Is light skin with blue eyes, along with a decent amount of money. She tries to get Just one of those things, the bluest eyes, and it ends up ruining her psychologically, causing her to go 1 OFF makes fun of Pectoral and her father, Just after Pectoral starts to consider her as a reined. â€Å"l wasn't even talking to you. I was talking to Pectoral. Yeah. About seeing her naked daddy' (72).Once the knowledge that Piccolo's father walks naked around Pectoral, Maureen decides to make fun of her because she is ugly, and because it is common knowledge that Pectoral sees her dad walking around naked. These family experie nces and situations all have a negative effect on Pectoral because she is not just the â€Å"ugly' girl now, she is the poor black girl who sees her father naked. As a member of a family that is part of the low society, Pectoral Overlooked, labeled as â€Å"ugly' trudges and fails to maintain her sanity and her childhood innocence when she tries to get people to like and love her.Once an innocent little girl, now a girl who is torn away from her natural identity after society and society's outlook on her family make her feel ugly and unwanted. She becomes labeled as the scapegoat of the community and slips into oblivion. Toni Morrison wrote the Bluest Eye depicting Pectoral Overlooked and her family as the scapegoat of the entire community. Using Pectoral as an example, Morrison tries to convey the point to not become subdued to what society thinks of as ugly and beautiful; Just be yourself.