Pollution in New York

Alberto A. Ortiz Bio 112 May 13, 2010 Pollution is all around us, everywhere we go, every day we experience some sort of pollution. Babies in the womb are more vulnerable than their mothers to DNA harm from air pollution, in spite of the additional protection that the placenta is thought to supply in removing toxins. In a study of babies and their mothers in New York City, scientists found that babies had accumulated a relatively high amount of mutations, and they connected the mutations to vehicle emissions. The babies also had more toxins from secondhand smoke than their mothers, who didn’t even smoke. This information is listed in Environmental Health Perspectives. For many years, scientists have believed that a fetus may be more susceptible to toxins than an adult. Yet, new research among a handful of large studies has analyzed the genetic effects of pollution. It is not known what the health effects of this DNA damage, if any, are for newborns. Exposure to these types of pollutants and tobacco smoke has been linked to increased risk for cancer in adults. This finding raises concern about fetal susceptibility and underscores the importance of reducing air pollution,† says Frederica Perera, who led the study at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health in New York City. The study included 265 pairs of nonsmoking African-American and Latina mothers and newborns in New York City. The researchers collected cord blood samples from the babies at the time of delivery and blood samples from the mothers a day after giving birth. Mothers and newborns had the same level of DNA damage from air pollutants, but the researchers estimate that the fetus is exposed to a ten-fold lower dose of pollutants than the mother because the placenta serves as a filter. Thus, fetuses appear to be particularly susceptible to environmental toxins and may not be able to clear them from their bodies or repair damaged DNA. The finding that newborns had higher levels of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, in their blood than did their mothers reinforces he concern that babies are more affected by secondhand smoke. The scientists were able to measure the level of DNA damage from air pollutants in mothers and newborns by analyzing stretches of mutated DNA, called biomarkers, that have been associated with exposure to diesel emissions and other air pollutants. In a previous study of Caucasian women and their newborns in Krakow, Poland, Perera and her colleagues found similar prenatal susceptibility to air pollution. Because New York City has much lower levels of pollution than Krakow, they wanted to see if the same damage occurred. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has put forward legislation, which will provide the first comprehensive overhaul of the New York City Noise Code in over 30 years. Noise is the number one complaint to the City’s 311 citizen service hotline, currently averaging nearly 1,000 calls a day. The proposal provides a flexible environment to keep New York’s businesses thriving while addressing the number one quality of life complaint in New York. Mayor Bloomberg said that his new proposal, which was announced in June 2004, was the first overhaul of the Noise Code in over 30 years and would maintain the City’s vibrancy by balancing the need for construction, development and an exciting nightlife with New Yorker's well deserved right to peace and quiet. â€Å"Building on the success of our enforcement initiative, Operation Silent Night, we are proposing a comprehensive revision to the noise code that will make New York quieter and more livable without stifling growth,† the Mayor added. The new Noise Code will remove outdated code sections and replace them with ones that use the latest acoustic technology and will provide for flexible and reasonable enforcement. The new code provides updated and sensible means of limiting noise from construction sites located near residential neighborhoods. By establishing uniform best management practices for all work sites, using greater discretion in granting permits for night and weekend work and mandating ‘noise management plans’ that include portable sound barriers, noise jackets for jackhammers at all construction sites the code will decrease noise pollution. Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system. â€Å"How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water? † said Mrs. Hall-Massey, a senior accountant at one of the state’s largest banks. She and her husband, Charles, do not live in some remote corner of Appalachia. Charleston, the state capital, is less than 17 miles from her home. â€Å"How is this still happening today? † she asked. When Mrs. Hall-Massey and 264 neighbors sued nine nearby coal companies, accusing them of putting dangerous waste into local water supplies, their lawyer did not have to look far for evidence. As required by state law, some of the companies had disclosed in reports to regulators that they were pumping into the ground illegal concentrations of chemicals — the same pollutants that flowed from residents’ taps. But state regulators never fined or punished those companies for breaking those pollution laws. The vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene. Because it is difficult to determine what causes diseases like cancer, it is impossible to know how many illnesses are the results of water pollution, or contaminants’ role in the health problems of specific individuals. But concerns over these toxins are great enough that Congress and the E. P. A. regulate more than 100 pollutants through the Clean Water Act and strictly limit 91 chemicals or contaminants in tap water through the Safe Drinking Water Act. Research shows that an estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways. Those exposures include carcinogens in the tap water of major American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking-water wells. Wells, which are not typically regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, are more likely to contain contaminants than municipal water systems. Because most of today’s water pollution has no scent or taste, many people who consume dangerous chemicals do not realize it, even after they become sick, researchers say. The broadest definition of thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. Thermal pollution is usually associated with increases of water temperatures in a stream, lake, or ocean due to the discharge of heated water from industrial processes, such as the generation of electricity. Increases in ambient water temperature also occur in streams where shading vegetation along the banks is removed or where sediments have made the water more turbid. Both of these effects allow more energy from the sun to be absorbed by the water and thereby increase its temperature. There are also situations in which the effects of colder-than-normal water temperatures may be observed. For example, the discharge of cold bottom water from deep-water reservoirs behind large dams has changed the downstream biological communities in systems such as the Colorado River. http://www. controllingpollution. com/pollution/thermal-pollution/ http://www. nydailynews. com/topics/Noise+Pollution http://www. dec. ny. gov/chemical/281. html http://www. nytimes. com/2009/12/17/us/17water. html

Children and Gender

They learn to think by association and knowledge acquired from those that are most often around them. This can lead to negative views on non-specific gender roles, allowing only for a more society-based approach. Sandra BEMA, a psychologist specializing in gender studies, later goes on to define specific features of gender schematics: â€Å"1. Gender schemas develop through an individual's observation of societal classifications of masculinity and femininity, which are evidenced In human anatomy, social roles, and characteristics. 2.Males and females cognitively process and categorize new information in the environment based on its maleness or femaleness. . Self-authorship is displayed by an individual's categorization of and conformity to the sets of elements that belong to either definition of masculinity and femininity' (Hoist 1). As children develop, they learn to associate things by said â€Å"maleness† and â€Å"femaleness† based on society. They are taught that as a male and female, they should do things specific to each gender, setting a foundation for later learning and behavior.According to Deborah Rhode, a Professor of Law at Stanford University, most research shows â€Å"Children receive strong cultural messages about sex-appropriate rats, tasks, and behaviors† (21). At such an early age, when cognitive skills are developing and when children are learning by viewing what Is around them, children start to figure out how to act based off of their certain gender. Boys are taught that they must be forceful and girls need to be motherly, while seeing advantages and disadvantages to being of a certain sex.A study In Michigan on elementary students showed that the children were able to acknowledge the fact that there are indeed â€Å"gender hierarchies† or better or worse genders (Rhode 22). â€Å"When 1,100 students ere asked to describe what life would be like If they were the opposite sex, over 40 percent of the girls saw a dvantages to being male: they would have better Jobs, higher incomes, and more respect. Ninety-five percent of the boys saw no advantage to being female, and a substantial number thought suicide would be preferable† (22).How is it that at such a young age, the idea of suicide has already been associated with being female? Children are being taught this way, even If indirectly; children learn by seeing and hearing. Rhode even declares that â€Å"by age two, toddlers have ex-linked toy preferences; by age three they can identify certain occupations as more appropriate for each sex; and between ages four and six they separate into same-sex groups† (23). Gender Identity comes at such an early age before â€Å"escalate[d] with anatomical differences† (23).When children are learning that gender is related to all of these other things before even learning the physical, 1 OFF makeup of a person that makes them either male or female, which should be the factor for this as sociation. Gender schematics refers to organization based on feminine and masculine disagrees. Most parents allow their children to recognize this (not as the term but as the concept) by â€Å"offer[ins] differential opportunities for learning based on their children's sex† (Shoal, Sifter, and Patriots 2).In practice, children tend to remove themselves from situations where learning becomes â€Å"gender-inappropriate† for them (Shoal, Sifter, and Patriots 2). In a study of 178 kindergarten and grade four students and their parents, girls showed signs of being less gender-schematic than boys. â€Å"Simple comparisons indicated that boys with gender-typed fathers and non- ender-typed mothers were more schematic than girls with the same parent gender classification, than girls with non-gender-typed mothers and gender-typed fathers, and than boys with two non-gender-typed parents† (Shoal, Sifter, and Patriots 1).Gender typing is when children acquire masculine or fe minine roles and identify with these said roles. When children are heavily influenced by their parents, and one parent is gender typed, then typically this will have an impact on the child. Children should not be taught how to act based upon certain gender-related reminisces, but instead the more androgynous approach. This approach, or combination of gender-related characteristics, will give them the middle ground to choose for themselves as they further develop.David Opened, marriage sociologist, insists that when raising a child, parents should overlap parental roles. â€Å"Men should become more nurturing and share homemaking activities† as women â€Å"in the workplace† (Opened 5 and 6). He suggests that gender roles of parents are learned and can easily be translated into mothers and fathers doing both gender-specific roles. Opened also claims that while renting should take on a more androgynous approach, traditional mother-father roles should not be forgotten. â⠂¬Å"Family organization based on (†¦ ) biological differences between men and women† (Opened 6).This is an appropriate way to combine newer and more traditional parenting styles so that children will be able to grow in an environment not solely based on the roles of any specific gender. There is sure to be opposition to this, with many suggesting that the nuclear family should be kept intact with all the initial principles that go along with it. However, when children re seeing the value in being one gender over another based on society's idea of gender-specifics, then the nuclear family is the last thing that should be worried about.The gender schema theory allows people to â€Å"simplify a large body of knowledge and apply this knowledge easily to themselves and to others† (Attenuate et al. 137). We are able to determine the gender of someone due to â€Å"cues (†¦ ) culturally created gender cues (†¦ ) biological† (Attenuate et al. 137). For obvi ous reasons, it is more difficult for children to assess the gender of other children based on biological aspects. Therefore, they must use these culturally created gender cues to analyze this (I. E. Hair style, colors, etc. . Studies were done to attest to this notion, trying to reach more unconventional conclusions as to what makes a boy a boy and a girl a girl. Small children were asked to draw a picture off boy and a girl, and later gender schemas do not develop before their unconventional gender schemas† (Attenuate et al. 137). The younger children in the studies came up with reasons for each being of a certain gender not based on stereotypes, but more in unconventional, such as â€Å"no legs† or â€Å"she's a pirate† (Attenuate et al. 142).The children a few years older came to the conclusion that girl's had long hair and wore pink while boys had short hair and wore boy clothes. This knowledge of what it means to be a boy and a girl has to start from an ear ly age. From the time a child is born, they are subjugated to stereotyping typical boy/ girl behaviors. Parents want to let the world know if they have a son or a daughter, and this is easily done through dressing a child; a girl is given pink things while a boy s given blue. This inserts gender-specific knowledge into their mindset that only develops over time.This negative approach puts any form of androgyny into the background, thus becoming an outcast to an infant. â€Å"Parents encourage sex-typed activities (†¦ ) doll-playing and housekeeping for girls and trucks and sports for boys† (Witt 253). This encouragement only gives them further reason to gender-type jobs in society, making women appropriate for keeping up the house and family, while men are out working. Children should be taught that these Jobs can be interrelated between both genders and that Job qualification does not refer to what sex you are born as.Witt states that children even as young as two have an â€Å"awareness of adult sex role differences† (253). In today's society, it is quite common to see both genders participating in activities that were once considered gender-specific only. Women run for president, are doctors, are top sports players, etc. On the other spectrum, men are engaging in managing the upkeep of homes, salon employees, nurses, etc. The barriers are slowly becoming hazy and the apprehension of the wrong gender in he workplace is slowly deteriorating. What needs to be considered first and foremost is that this all starts with family.

Citation and Argumentative Research Paper

Kenned Taylor Evaluator: Angela Moore Title: Pro's and Cons of Abortion What was the thesis statement of the essay? Abortions, an unethical practice of termination should be illegal because it is considered murder, can cause physiological and medical problems, and reduces the number of adoptions. How was the introduction? Did it grab your attention? If so, how? If not, what could have been done differently? The introduction was good and it did grab my attention by showing interesting facts.Did the author make a strong case for their argument? What was the strongest argument that was made? Lacked evidence for the arguments, not strong enough arguments. What was the weakest argument made? Arguments were all kind of weak How well did the author Incorporate: Facts? Yes Anecdotes? No Quotes? There wasn't many quotes In the paper. How well did the author follow the PAP formatting and citation requirements? What could have been done differently? The PAP Format could use a little more work b ut overall it was fine.The reference page needs to be finished. How well did the author do with using correct grammar and punctuation? Were there any specific areas that he or she needs to work on for future papers? (Be specific) There were a few spelling mistakes and the sentences had much grammar (Passive 1 OFF Could you determine a Christian worldview in the paper? If yes, what was it? Yes there was a Christian world view, abortion is a sin. Did the conclusion wrap up the paper without introducing new information? Yes but you need to work on length.

Jesus the Jew and Christianity Origin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Jesus the Jew and Christianity Origin - Essay Example According to the documentary film, Jesus is a Jew, historical person born during the Roman occupation in the town of Bethlehem, in the Nation of Israel. Jesus’ father, Joseph, was from the town of Bethlehem which was a royal town of King David.Joseph was from the lineage of King David, whose family had been promised a messiah. For Jesus to fulfill this promise, He had to be born a Jew. Jesus was, therefore, a direct descendant of King David who was a Jew. Jesus would later be circumcised and baptized according to Jewish traditions. He also believed in the Mosaic Law and preached in Galilee which was entirely Jewish. Apostles would later spread the gospel from Jerusalem to Africa, to South America and from Syria to Britain. Paul was very instrumental in the spread of the Gospel especially throughout the Roman Empire and Europe and wrote 14 letters of the New Testament. The focus now changed from Jerusalem to other areas and for the first time, the followers of Jesus Christ were called Christians in Antioch.

Public Policy Agenda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Public Policy Agenda - Essay Example Agenda setting mark the primary step towards finding solutions to life problems. Evidently, the world is full of many public problems. This ranges from social challenges, public intrusion to health complications. All these challenges require both human intervention and political interception; however, in many instances viable answers fail to appear. In such instances, agenda setting remains the most viable option for solutions. Many organizations within or outside the government rely on agenda setting for solutions. Agenda setting is the ability to prioritize issues based on importance. The prioritization and opportunity cost incurred during decision make agenda setting a key recipe in public problems. It, however, is important to note that agenda setting does not give an overall look at a public problem but an integrated approach. Notably, the government has a sole role of providing and guaranteeing services for the public both at the present and the future. In many instances, some problems fail to appear in the government’s radar due to many reasons. To start with is the fact that government decisions are based on importance, priority and magnitude of problems. As a result, diseases that affect a limited magnitude of people cannot get attention as compared to a serious disease that spread and affects many people. In addition, government decisions and agenda setting remain based on interest and economic benefit various decisions derive to the public. A feeder road within the village cannot be considered before tarmacking a road leading to an industrial area. As a result, the feeder road may not appear or acquire the government’s attention although it is a problem. There are different kinds of agendas based on role, arrangement and results. Traditional agenda according to the Roberts rule of order puts items in order

Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz - Essay Example The letter highlights the efforts this lady has taken to gain knowledge in order to alleviate ignorance. It campaigns for equality in opportunities to both men and women by women rising to their feet and grabbing chances of obtaining erudition. Women lack competence because of deficient of education. In the most important parts of the letter, the nun talks about stereotyping. How she fought odds and wished to be treated like a man with respect and being given equal opportunities like them. She however was respectful to orders and instructions so that her religious values cannot be eroded. It was also mandatory for a woman to be reverential and submissive to men and any one of older age. She yearned for education and dreamt of even going to the university as boys did. She abstained from certain foods for fear of being dumb as they claim they made one. She wanted an equal place as the other gender but it clearly was not possible at that time. She had a thirst for knowledge and did what she could in her capacity to learn of the most important things she felt she wanted to know about. In this letter she has claimed that the people in her relation criticized her inclination to knowledge citing that it would make her lose her religious strength and make her weak (Stephanie 45)Â  . Th is was the most difficult time for her because obviously support in any person’s Endeavour is always helpful. She loved their companionship and sometimes thought it deprived her of the chance to study. Jealousy, she learned was bound to happen towards an intelligent person especially if the person is a woman. Women are despised and their place regarded as the home only and it would be struggle if they ventured in territories where they are supposedly not to be. One particular example she has used is that of Peter who gained knowledge and was executed. The crown of thorns she has cited, after it witnessed Christ’s persecution declare that aptitude is scorned.

External Factors Affecting International Operations at UPS Assignment

External Factors Affecting International Operations at UPS - Assignment Example As such there are different procedures which need to be taken into consideration to adjust the operations. The end to end process involving the capturing, processing, storages and retrieval of the package tracking within the UPS’ system is actually comprised of various points at which this is done. Firstly, the UPS drivers actually capture the customer signature and other data through handheld devices which capture other data such as delivery, destination and time card information. This information is then subsequently transferred into the vehicle adapter and from there it is uploaded to the main system of UPS. From the main system of UPS, the same data and information can be subsequently accessed worldwide through different information portals such as UPS website. The overall range of technologies used by UPS is relatively diverse in nature and comprises of the handheld devices (DIADs), barcode scanners, wireless communication networks, desktop and laptop computers as well as the storage technologies for package tracking and delivery of data. Apart from this, UPS also has pagers, cellular phone networks as well as package tracking and pricing technologies which effectively formulate the overall information technology system for UPS. The overall business strategy of the firm is based upon delivering high quality services and the technology effectively corroborate with the strategy of the firm. These technologies actually allow UPS to have smooth data flow while at the same time achieve smooth operations. There are different problems which are being solved by the information system of UPS including its supply chain as well as logistic issues.

Studies on Photosynthesis Using the Hill Reaction Report Lab

Studies on Photosynthesis Using the Hill Reaction - Lab Report Example The primary ‘light reaction’ stage requires light and involves the excitation of electrons of the chlorophyll. These electrons then proceed along a series of electron carriers embedded in the thylakoid of the chloroplast resulting in synthesis of ATP in the stroma and the reduction of NADP. The dark reactions of photosynthesis do not directly require light involve the use of ATP and NADPH formed during the light reaction (figure 1) (Berg et al., 553). Hill reaction named after its discoverer Robert Hill (1937) involves the photoreduction of an electron acceptor by the hydrogen atoms of water, along with evolution of oxygen. In laboratory, Hill reaction is demonstrated when isolated and illuminated ‘chloroplasts’ reduce an electron acceptor present with it, and release molecular oxygen: The electron acceptors used in laboratory conditions are not the natural electron acceptors or NADP but instead are artificial electron acceptors (Walker, 109). These artificial electron acceptors intercept the electrons before they reach PS1700. Further they are generally dyes that change color when reduced e.g. DCIP (2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol). Thus Hill reaction can be written as: Thus using the above equation, rate of Hill reaction in isolated protoplasts can be experimentally estimated. The change in absorbance of the dye at 600nm measured under varied conditions of experiment gives the rate of Hill reaction occurring under the preselected set of conditions. Several of the detergents are also known to be inhibitors of photosynthesis such as DCMU [3-(3, 4-dichlorophenyl)-1, 1-dimethylurea], DNP [dinitrophenol] and triton-X etc. Chloroplast was extracted from deveined, washed and blot dried fresh baby spinach leaves. The standard fractionation protocol for extraction of chloroplasts was followed. 50g spinach leaves were homogenized in a pre-chilled blender jar along with buffered isotonic salt solution and antioxidant solution. The homogenate was

Channel and Pricing Strategies, and Environmental Issues Essay

Channel and Pricing Strategies, and Environmental Issues - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Apple Inc. is an iconic American consumer electronics company. The company is headquartered in Cupertino, California, USA. The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the year of 1976. The company specializes in manufacturing products like iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh computers and many more. The company has planned to launch Apple iDesk (a new product that is an iPad with the size of a desktop and can be mounted on a desk for a computer lab like setting). The company has selected three cities (NYC, Tokyo, and Stanford, CA) to launch the product in the initial stage. Apple Inc. has selected three different colleges (New York Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Tokyo Institute of Technology) as a test market for iDesk. This channel may vary in length and number of stages involved in the whole process. The company can sell iDesk via online stores or customer can buy iDesk from authorized Apple retail stores. Apple has complete control over the retailers of authorized stores in terms of pricing, product availability and promotional support. The company has more than 300 retail stores across the world. A majority (almost 70%) of the Apple Stores are located in the USA. The company has made the contractual agreement with few big players (like Wal-Mart, AT&T, and Best Buy) to distribute a product. The company preferred Joint venture and direct investment model to enter the international market. Organizations set a price of a product higher than any other competitor’s product and with this strategy, they try to indicate a quality of the product. This is known as premium pricing policy. Apple Inc. has positioned itself as the marketer of quality products unique in design and applications. Customers are ready to pay the high price for products manufactured by the company. Apple should follow the premium pricing strategy for iDesk

INDUSTRIYAL ANALYSIS-SWOT ANALYSIS-COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS Research Paper

INDUSTRIYAL ANALYSIS-SWOT ANALYSIS-COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS - Research Paper Example The growth data that was compiled by Datamonitor in 2010 approximated that in 2014, the US film market had a value of roughly $48.2 billion, which was an increase of around 0.3% since the year 2009 (Highbeam Business, 2009; Redwood Capital, 2014 ). The industry has also increased its economy of scale. For instance, after Marvel was bought by Disney in 2009, it expanded both in the animation as well as the movie sector. The revenue has also increased and in 2013 it was roughly $36 billion with North America having the largest share of $11.8 billion. It is projected that the global proceeds will continue to grow, reaching approximately $44 billion in the year 2017. There has also been an increase in online ticketing with major players such as Fandango whose tickets cover over 22,00 screens in diverse nations across the US as well as Europe. In 2005, there was purchase of 1.38 billion tickets and in 2006 the bought tickets were 1.68 billion in Canada and the US. The online film ticketing is projected to reach around $13.7 billion by the year 2017. From the figures, it is evident that the movie industry will continue to expand and generate increased revenue in the coming years (Redwood Capital, 2014). Movie related theatres come in diverse sizes as well as shapes and developing one at the heart of Winston Salem in North Carolina is important since the region has only five theatres unlike other regions such as Charlotte that has 14. The region is perfect sine there will be an opportunity for a new experience and local competition will be low. The theatre will be developed in an old warehouse that is located in Winston Salem. In finding a suitable place, one of the main challenges will be to access its suitability. There will also be a need to ensure that the building meets reasonable legal standards of health as well as safety for all persons. Therefore, the management will need to come up with a safety guideline, covering issues such as fire, conservation of

Environmental Engineer Essay Example for Free

Environmental Engineer Essay For an Environmental Engineer, it is very important to know the jurisdiction that one will be working in. Not only is thorough knowledge of the natural characteristics such as geological and meteorological aspects of the jurisdiction to scientifically cater to the unique environmental concerns of a certain area, but it is also essential that one also knowledge of the social and judicial aspects of the jurisdiction for easier cooperation with the citizens and more efficient applications of environmental impact assessments and mitigations or development of environmental policy and regulation, for example. The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are unique in many aspects that concern Environmental Engineering practice. In general, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are already geared towards environmental safety, conservation, and regulation. For example, in the Northwest Territories, programs are already in place to ensure sustainability of forest use, regulation of wildlife protection and use, etc. In Nunavut, their Department of Environment actively apply what they call Avatittinnik Kamatsiarniq, or environmental stewardship, to conserve their vast natural resources and promote sustainability, a principle that is based on the Inuit culture and must be respected by any Environmental Engineer who plans to practice in that territory. In fact, one must have good knowledge of that culture as the Inuit populace of Nunavut make up the majority of the demographic and thus their culture and belief system have a great influence on governmental policies, considering that the self-governing system of the Inuit is unique to Nunavut and issues such as land claims are a constant concern. Similarly, the agencies of the Northwest territories also make use of the traditional knowledge of the Inuit concerning the natural resources and the relationship between man and environment. As North American Indians comprise the majority of the population in the Northwest Territories, they appreciate the value of this knowledge and these are taken into consideration in the making of public policies which include environmental engineering law. To work in the Northwest Territories, one must be aware of programs such as the NWT Protected Areas Strategy, that utilizes a community-based process as it makes sure to respect Aboriginal rights to balance conservation and economic development. The programs already in place and the social set-up of the jurisdiction are only part of the concerns of an Environment Engineer, of course the physical aspects of the territories are also important. The weather is an important part of the culture of the Aboriginal people, not only are the weather extremes (such as the record-breaking Arctic heat in Nunavut) and the natural hazards serious concerns, climate change is also a much monitored phenomenon. The geological makeup and position of Nunavut and the Northwest territories make them very vulnerable to climate change effects, such as the possible melting of permafrost. In the Northwest Territories, their use of their abundant mineral resources have caused a great strain in the environment such as the giant earth scars left by diamond mines or the hazardous tailings pond spills, and the Environmental Engineer should not only be aware of these for future mining operations but could also work together with other agencies to alleviate these prior issues. Furthermore, the geology of Nunavut can span most of Earths history with great economic potential yet it is still very underdeveloped, and yet, they are actively advertising extreme sports tourism which could cause environmental as well as safety concerns. In all, there is a balance in the naturalistic Aboriginal-based society and community and the raw environment of this jurisdiction that gives the Environmental Engineer a unique practice.

Success and Failure Essay Example for Free

Success and Failure Essay Failure is important and essential part of success because we can gain the skills and particular techniques through numerous experiments, the failure is one of motivations to inspire us to keep trying until achieving success, and the failure helps us to build a type of stubborn character. They agree that failure is the essential part of success and they disagree that failure is a kind of blemish of our lives. For example, they said that success requires that learning from mistakes and missteps along the ways rather than falling into despair and giving up. Failure and success are two opposite meaning, but failure can lead us to success if we can learn from failure and take effort to overcome it and it is inspiring for people who are aggressive to measure how success they can do. I agree with Donald’s article that failure is not the imperfection of lifetime; it is a tool to inspire us and guide us the ways to success. I disagree with Rick’s perspective that failure always shocks us to stop investigation the ways to achieve success with aggressive attitude. That issue is important because the majorities of people only concentrate on how important to success and neglect the value of failure. In their lives, success seems to be the whole idea in education, career and lifetime. They are afraid of failure and they can not to rise again after falling down at once. We should have aggressive attitude to identify why failure is the closer answer to success. Their perspectives of their articles are definitely associated me to spread my scope of the main idea of failure. The discussion raises my original question to â€Å"what level of failure cause people to try again until achieving success without losing confidence?† I might try to add other elements or examples to demonstrate and prove what idea I decide to support.

Case study: Facial Recognition

Case study: Facial Recognition Facial Recognition is the process where the brain recognizes, understands and interprets the human face (Face Recognition, n.d.). The face is essential for the identification of others and expresses significant social information. The face reveals significant social information, like intention, attentiveness, and communication. Goldstein (1983) (as cited in Chung Thomson, 1995) stated that, The face is the most important visual stimulus in our lives probably from the first few hours after birth, definitely after the first few weeks. The loss of the ability to recognize faces, like those who have prosopagnosia, greatly affects the individuals life. The primary focus of this review is to provide an overview of the development of facial recognition, gender and age differences, facial identity and expression, memory, prosopagnosia, and hemispheric advantages in facial recognition. It is also my intention to review past and contemporary theories of development and understanding of facial recognition. The Birth of Facial Recognition The human face has sparked interest in various disciplines within the arts and sciences for centuries (Darwin, 1872 as cited in Nelson, 2001). This fascination of the human face may reflect the psychological significance of the face and the recognition of other faces. Cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists and developmental psychologists are interested in facial recognition due to evidence that faces are somehow perceived differently than other patterned objects, the ability is controlled by a distinct neural circuit, and that faces provide an early means of communication between infants and caretakers. Regardless of the wide-ranged and continued interest in the subject matter, it still remains unclear how facial recognition becomes specialized, and what neurological systems are involved in the development process (Nelson, 2001). The number of research with faces used as stimuli has increased dramatically over the past decades (Chung Thomson, 1995). This may be a result of a change in the cognitive studies from fragmented verbal materials to more meaningful nonverbal memory. It is also noteworthy that the majority of the research on facial recognition has been focused on infants and adults, giving little attention to the developmental changes during childhood (two through five years of age). Studies of Development Studies in Newborns In the early stages of facial recognition (1960s) there were contrasting results as to whether newborns had any preference towards faces over other patterned stimuli. Over the next few decades of research, the view that newborns are capable of recognizing faces and discriminating between their mothers and unfamiliar faces was supported by researchers (Nelson, 2001). Although the findings that newborns can distinguish between faces and may show preferences, evidence for ability to recognize faces earlier than 1 to 2 months of age is extremely weak and not regularly supported. Newborns possess poor visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and cannot determine the high spatial frequencies that make up the fine details of faces (de Schonen and Mathivet, 1990; Simion et al., 1998 as cited in Nelson, 2001 ). Another criticism of newborn studies is that they have used schematized stimuli (having eye sockets and opening for a mouth and nose used as a model of a real face), questioning the validi ty of the stimuli used to serve as a real face. In more current literature by Gava, Valenza, Turati and de Schonen (2008), they found evidence that newborns may have the ability to detect and recognize partially occluded faces. They believe their findings highlight the importance the eyes play in newborns facial detection and recognition. Newborns detected faces even if some low-information portions were missing from the face. The only exception was the eyes-once the eyes were removed, detection and recognition of the stimuli was impaired. This is found in both newborns and adults. The findings of the study were in line with Morton and Johnsons structural hypothesis (Gava, Valenza, Turati and de Schonen, 2008) that states, faces are special for newborns because human infants possess a device that contains structural information concerning the visual characteristics of conspecifics-hiding the eyes implies that the typical face pattern (three high contrast blobs in the correct positions of the eyes and the mouth) would be disrupted. There are two hypotheses offered by Gava, Valenza, Turati and de Schonen (2008) explaining how newborns recognize the difference between the non-obstructed and obstructed faces. The first hypothesis states, Newborns might have filled in the partly hidden surface, thus perceiving the obstructed stimulus as connected behind the obstructers, or might have simply perceived only what is immediately visible of the obstructed face. The second hypothesis suggests that newborns might have perceived the similarities between the non-obstructed and the obstructed face, perceiving only what is immediately visible of the obstructed face. The results found do not explain the perceptual operations of the ability of the newborns to detect and recognize occluded faces. Nonetheless, it demonstrates that the degree of salience highly affects the competence of the obstructed information. Both past and present literature shows a difference in opinions when it comes to newborns and facial recognition. In recent literature the main consensus is that newborns can certainly recognize faces, but the perceptual operations of the newborns ability to detect and recognize are still yet unknown. Studies in Infants In 1972, Fagan (as cited in Nelson, 2001) demonstrated that infants around 4 months old have excellent recognition of upright faces in comparison to upside down faces. This finding suggests that infants around the age of 4 months have developed a face schema and view faces as a special class of stimuli (Nelson, 2001). Infants between the ages of 3 to 7 months can identify their mothers from strangers and recognize faces by gender and facial expression. These findings demonstrate the development over the first 6 months in facial recognition, where infants not only identify but also discriminate faces. Carlsson, Lagercrantz, Olson, Printz Bartocci (2008) measured the cortical response in the right fronto-temporal and right occipital areas of healthy 6 to 9 month old children by showing an image of their mothers faces compared to that of an unknown face. A double-channel NIRS (near infrared spectroscopy) device monitored concentration changes of oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin. The mother was asked not to talk to their children during the trials. The children were exposed to four types of visual stimuli: a grey background, a photograph of the mother, a second grey background and a photo of the unknown female face. Eight children (Group A) were presented with a picture of their mother before that of the unknown female face. In Group B, 11 children were presented in the reversed order. Each stimulus lasted a period of 15 seconds. The results showed that Group A (the mother image first) elicited an increase in the right fronto-temporal area, which is statistical different from responses to the unknown image. In Group B, (the unknown females face first) there was an insignificant increase in cortical response in the right fronto-temporal area when shown the unknown female and then spiked when the maternal facial image was presented. The findings in this study show that there was a greater increase in the right fronto-temporal region when the picture of the mother was shown in comparison with the unknown female photo. The effect of this hemoglobin change is most likely due to a discriminatory and recognition process. In addition to the right fronto-temporal region they also illuminated the right occipitotemporal pathway, part of the right prefrontal cortex, the right medial temporal lobe and the right fusiform area. These have been identified as specific target areas involved in face recognition. By looking at the mothers, the facial image is suspected to be an accurate result of the activation in the right occipitotemporal pathway. Difficulties in face recognition among infants born prematurely may be caused by a change or delay in the development of this pathway. The results show that the connectivity between the occipital cortex and the right prefrontal area are present and functional at the age of 6 to 9 months. These findings are extremely valuable to understanding the developmental mechanisms in infant social adaptation. Studies in Children It is highly likely that as we age, ones level of accuracy for facial recognition increases, but the evidence for the underlying processes of age differences is less certain. One of the techniques used was showing inversed pictures of faces to both adults and children. It was found that inversion disproportionately impairs the recognition of faces more so than other objects (Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stansfield Szechter, 1998). Evidence by Carey and Diamond (1977) revealed that children at the ages of 8 and 10 years recognized a face with better accuracy if it was in the upright position in comparison to inverted position, like adults. However, children at age 6 recognized the inverted faces equally as well as the upright faces. These findings led to the hypothesis that children at the age 6 use a featural encoding strategy for processing faces. This is called the encoding switch hypothesis, where children 6 and under encode upright faces according to features such as the nose, mouth a nd eyes, and around the age of about 8 to 10 years, they begin to process faces holistically. In a second experiment when testing their encoding hypothesis, Carey and Diamond (1977) found that 6 year olds were misled more by changes in clothing, hairstyle, eyeglasses and facial expressions than 8 and 10 year olds. These results suggest that children at younger ages process faces according to their parts until they are about the age of 10, where they switch to a holistic approach. Carey and Diamond received criticism by a researcher named Flin, who believed their results were due the level of difficulty used in the task for 6 year olds and that their poor performance might have obscured the possible inversion effects. Flin (1985) (as cited in Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stansfield Szechter, 1998) found that the 6 year olds recognition was below the older age group as an overall. He argued that there is little evidence to support the encoding switch hypothesis when taking age related performance differences into account. In more recent research, Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stansfield Szechter (1998) stated that although face inversions may reveal performance difference, they provide little insight into the cognitive operations attributable to these differences. Tanka reasoned that if upright faces are encoded holistically, the whole-face test item should serve as a better retrieval cue than isolated-part test items, and if inverted faces are encoded only in terms of their parts, there should be no difference in the isolated part and whole face test conditions. Over a series of three experiments, their findings failed to support Carey and Diamonds (1977) predictions of the encoding switch hypothesis. If young children rely on featural information to encode faces, one would expect differences in their parts and whole performances than older children, which were not found. Their results suggest that by the age of 6 years old, children use a holistic approach to facial recognition and that the holistic appro ach remains relatively stable from ages 6 to 10. Recent research by Baenninger (1994) and Carey Diamond (1994) (as cited in Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stansfield Szechter, 1998) also supports the idea that children do not encode faces based on features and then switch to a more configural encoding strategy, but instead encode normal faces holistically from the beginning. In fact, Carey and Diamond (1994) suggest that the Age X Inversion interaction may be attributed to a norm-based coding scheme (relational properties of the face that is encoded relative to the norm face in the population), which may explain experimental factors in changing the absolute levels of holistic processing. The norm-based coding model predicts that as one ages, facial recognition improves, whereas facial recognition should remain constant. The inversion task used by Carey and Diamond (1977, 1994) eliminated capability advantages by blocking norm-based encoding of relational properties, which could attribute to the lack of evidence for the holistic model. Th e single process that configural and featural information are encoded together supports the holistic approach to face recognition (Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stansfield Szechter, 1998). Prosopagnosia A large amount of facial recognition research comes from the assessment of patients with prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia is [a] visual agnosias that is largely restricted to a face recognition, but leaves intact recognition of personal identity from other identifying cues, such as voices and names (Calder Young, 2005). Regardless of who they are looking at, face recognition can be severely impaired. Patients typically recognize people by paraphernalia (voice or distinct features, such as a mole). Patients often cannot distinguish men from women, but hair length is a good retrieval cue for recognition. Areas related to prosopagnosia have been found the left frontal lobe, bilateral occipital lobes, bilateral parieto-occipital regions, and in the parieto-temporo-occipital junction (Ellis, 1975). It is possible to have several areas of damage for the specific function, but most occur in the right hemisphere. Gloning et al. (1970) (as cited in Ellis, 1975) found it is common for patients to exhibit symptoms of other agnosias. Such as foods looking the same, difficulty identifying animals, and inability to locate themselves in space and time. Some other, typically uncommon defects include visual field defects, constructional apraxia, dyspraxia for dressing, and metamorphosia (Ellis, 1975). The symptoms attributed with identifying faces are described as overall blurring, difficulties in interpreting shades and forms, and the inability to infer emotions in the face. Gloning et al. (1966) (as cited in Ellis, 1975) reports some patients have the most difficulty with the eye regions and others found the eyes the easiest to recognize. Regardless of the symptoms, an interesting aspect of prosopagnosia is that patients can always detect a face, but are unable to recognize it. This suggests that there is a two-part process in facial recognition. First, faces are detected, and then undergo further analysis where information such as age and sex are analyzed and compared in long-term memory. In comparing left posterior hemisphere to the right posterior hemisphere, Yin (1970) (as cited in Ellis, 1975) found that those with damage on the right side were poorer at face memory tasks than those with left side damage. They found that visual categories may all be difficult to recognize because they all have a high degree of inter-item similarity. De Renzi Spinnler (1966) (as cited in Young, 2001) found similar evidence, showing that patients with right-hemisphere damage were worse at recognizing faces, and other abstract figures than those with left hemisphere damage. These significant findings led them to believe that those with right-hemisphere damage are limited in high level integration of visual data. It also led to the hypothesis that prosopagnosia patients have lost the ability to recognize the individual members of categories with items of similar appearance (Young, 2001). The finding of covert recognition (Bauer, 1984 as cited in Ellis, Lewis, Moselhy Young, 2000) helped the cases of prosopagnosia as a domain-specific impairment of facial memory, showing parallels to priming effects. Bauer tested his patient LF by measuring his skin conductance while he viewed a familiar face and listened to a list of five names. Skin conductance was shown to be greater when the name belonged to the face LF was looking at. However, when asked to choose the correct name of the face, LF was unable to do so. These results showed a significant difference between the inability to overtly identify the face and the higher levels of skin conductance in the covert recognition. Bauer believed that there were two routes in the recognition of faces that both began in the visual cortex and ends in the limbic system, but each taking a different pathway (Bauer, 1984 as cited in Ellis, Lewis, Moselhy Young, 2000). Although Bauers neurological hypothesis was dismissed shortly after, his psychological hypothesis of a separation between overt recognition and orienting responses has been generally accepted (Ellis, Lewis, Moselhy Young, 2000). Models of Facial Recognition Bruce Young Functional Model Bruce and Young (1986) have proposed a functional model suggesting that the structural codes for faces are stored in memory and then connected with the identity and name of the matching face. The model mainly supports how individuals recognize familiar faces. This is one of the better models for face recognition. Their model is outlined in a box and arrow format, where face recognition is completed in stages. In the first stage, structural encoding, individuals encode visual information from a face into information that can be used by the other stages of the face recognition system. Within the structural encoding are two separate processes, view-centred description, and expression-independent descriptions. These two are in a serial position where expression-independent descriptions take input information from the view-centred descriptions process. These allow for identification of facial features when viewed from various angles. The next few stages are part of a series of parallel processes after the structural encoding stage. The expression analysis stage takes its input from the view-centred descriptions processes, allowing facial expression to be analyzed. The next stage is facial speech analysis. The last branch is directed visual processing, which targets more general facial processing such as distinguishing between faces. These sets of parallel processes take input from both structural encoding processes. All of these four links of parallel face processing feed into the general cognitive system, where all are bidirectional links receiving some input back from the cognitive system (Bruce Young, 1986). The last three stages of Bruce and Youngs (1986) model are the recognition, identification and naming stages. The recognition stage involves face recognition units, also known as FRUs. They are individual nodes associated with familiar faces. When facial features are detected, nodes are activated and fed into the FRU system. Whichever node reaches the threshold activation level is the one that corresponds to the face being observed, and is then recognized. The face recognition units interact with person identity nodes, also known as PINs. PINs and FRUs bidirectionally share input information, with a two-way interaction. Activation of the PIN for a person can create some activation in the FRU, allowing recognition time for the face to be faster. Last is the name generation process. Both the PINs and name retrieval interact with the cognitive system. However, only the PINs have a two-way interaction, whereas name retrieval process solely sends input information to the cognitive system. IAC Model Burton, Bruce and Johnstons (1990) adaptation of McClellands Interactive Activation and Competition model of concept learning is an extremely basic form of a connectionist model, consisting from pools of simple processing units. The goal of the model is to explain repetitive priming, associative priming, distinctiveness and face naming. All of the units within a pool inhibit each other. There are excitatory links connecting individual units across different pools, where activation passes between these links (all links are bidirectional). Each FRU is paired to a known face and any form of recognition will activate the appropriate FRU. The second level of classification occurs at the Person Identity Nodes (PIN), where one unit is paired to each known person. Familiarity is signaled when any PIN reaches a common activation threshold. This implies that there is one decision mechanism used for all person familiarity judgments, regardless if they are faces or other kinds of information. The third level of classification is the pool labeled Semantic Information Units (SIUs), where information about known individuals are coded in the form of a link between the persons PIN and SIU. The fourth level of classification is a pool of units labeled lexical output, which capture the first stage of processes involved in speech and other output modalities. The fifth and final stage is a pool of units labeled WRUs (Word Recognition Units), where code names link directly to a pool of Name Recognition Units (NRUs). Finally, all Word Recognition Units are connected directly to the lexical output units, in which the model contains the elements of a dual route model of reading. The IAC Model is different from the Functional model because FRUs signal face familiarity, pins are modality-free gateways to semantic information, and that the details and spread of activity are more clarified. This model has had success in simulating phenomena such as relative timing of familiarity, repetition, semantic and cross modal semantic priming. Both the Bruce Young (1986) and Burton, Bruce and Johnston (1990) models show how activation levels are used in recognition processes. These two models help us theorize exactly what is happening in the mind as we analyze and recognize facial features and faces as a whole. The main idea of the model is the idea that facial identity and expression are recognized by functionally and neurologically independent systems. These models have started great advances in the research of facial recognition. Memory Load on Facial Recognition Memory in facial recognition has had limited research, which is surprising considering its importance to understanding facial recognition and how it could impact research. Goldstein and Chance (1981) (as cited in Lamont, Williams Podd, 2005) found two critical variables that have received little attention when reviewing laboratory settings: memory load and delay. Memory load is defined as the number of faces shown in the study phase and delay is defined as the delay between study and recognition phase. Researchers have found that increasing age is associated with a decline in facial recognition ability. However, the variables interacting with age are still unknown. Nevertheless, mixed evidence on the question of whether face age has any impact on elderly participants is still debated. Evidence by Shapiro Penrod (1986) (as cited in Lamont, Williams Podd, 2005) reveals that as memory load increases, face recognition performance decreases. Due to the limited research on the subject matter, Podd (1990) wanted to inquire about the possible effects that it has on the field of research for facial recognition. Podd tested subjects in small groups, where they were asked to look carefully at a series of faces that the subjects were asked to identify at a later time. Subject had to discriminate between faces that they had seen previously and those that had yet to be seen in the recognition phase. The results showed that an increase in both memory load and delay correlate to a decrease in recognition accuracy. Podd believes this could be contingent on the fact that increased memory load decreases accuracy by decreasing the portion of targets correctly identified, while delay decreases accuracy by increasing the likelihood that a distractor will be called a target. Depending on how similar the target is from the distractor, there will be fewer attributes to use to differentiate between the targets. In more current literature, Lamont, Williams Podd (2005) have tested both aging effects and memory load on face recognition. They looked at two interacting variables: the age of the target face and memory load. They were curious in finding out if memory load had a greater impact in the elderly than in younger individuals. Another variable they looked at was recognition load, the total number of target and distractor faces seen in the recognition phase. The main objective was to see if they could determine whether the effects of memory load could be teased out from recognition load. In the results they found that, as expected, older age was correlated with a decrease in accuracy of facial recognition. Surprisingly, older people had a decrease in accuracy for younger faces but not in older faces. The results of the study were not consistent with past research, which found that recognition accuracy in the younger groups was higher with younger faces than with older faces. The current study showed the exact opposite results. One possibility of these results is that with increasing age, features of the face fade more quickly. Also, with increasing retention intervals, there is more time for peoples memories of the target to fade, where the least salient feature fades the fastest (Podd, 1990). They believe that the elderly have fewer distinctive facial features available in memory to make the judgment, meaning an increase in judgment time. It is also noteworthy to say these findings are consistent with Podds earlier work, (1990) showing that increased memory load is associated with a reliable decrease in performance in recognition accuracy. The findings show that recognition load produced the decrease, which is independent of age. Another important finding is that recognition load is the true source of the association between increased memory load and decreased face recognition. Lamont, Williams Podd (2005) state that, [f]ew studies dealing with memory load have taken account of this potential confound, and our results challenges the interpretation of all such research. Crook Larrabee (1992) (as cited in Lamont, Williams Podd, 2005) suggest that the present studies implications are of considerable value to future research, since some authors do not report age of their target faces. Therefore, the results are crucial for proper interpretation of facial recognition research. Sex Differences Hemispheric Advantages in Facial Processing Extensive research has been completed on facial recognitions hemispheric advantages. Unfortunately, little has been concluded due to contradicting evidence. Patterson and Bradshaw (1975) (as cited in Turkewitz Ross, 1984) found that when drawings of faces varied by only one feature, participants showed an advantage in the left hemisphere; however, when all features varied, there was an advantage in the right hemisphere. Prior studies have shown that advantages in both hemispheres are contingent on the conditions being used, which produces different results. Even when the conditions are held constant, conflicting results emerge, resulting in individuals showing both right and left hemisphere advantages. Ross and Turkewitz (1981) (as cited in Turkewitz and Ross, 1984) found hemispheric advantages were associated with the nature of the information process strategy being used by the participant. Those with a right-hemisphere advantage showed signs of decline when inversion of faces was being tested, whereas those with left hemisphere advantages showed a decline while omission of selected facial features were tested. They suggest that these results show that those with a right-hemisphere advantage recognize faces based on gestalt qualities (whole) and those with left hemisphere recognize faces based on a more individual and distinctive features. Turkewitz and Ross (1984) were interested in researching age-related changes in hemispheric advantages in recognition of presented faces and determining whether a dual-mode of right hemisphere processing exists and if it associates with differences of age and gender. The participants were students ages 8, 11 and 13 years old. Participants were seated in a chair in front of a screen, where facial stimuli were presented. The objective was to point to the face presented in the response sheet for each trial. The data found suggest that there are age- and gender-related differences in the nature of hemispheric advantages shown when confronted with the task of identifying unfamiliar faces. The findings also support the hypothesis of processing stages, where different hemispheric advantages are associated with the stages. Both adults and older girls exhibited a right-hemisphere advantage, suggesting an age-related shift, responding to the undifferentiated and global characteristics of the faces. Younger girls showed no advantage which suggests they use right and left hemisphere strategies equally well. This suggests that girls are using more advanced and integrated right hemisphere modes of functioning, which tends to be more effective when engaging in facial recognition. Everhart, Shucard, Quatrin Shucard (2001) tested 35 prepubertal children in facial recognition and facial affect processing. They were trying to find similar results to those found in the previous literature stating that males show higher levels of activation in the right hemisphere, where females tend to show higher levels in the left. They were also looking to see if this change developed before puberty, similar to those of adults, and to see if gender-related differences would be present in cortical processing during the performance of face recognition. Auditory probes were used to gather ERPs during a Facial Recognition Memory task. They used a facial identification task to gather data on matching and recognition of facial affect, reaction time and accuracy. Their results showed that boys show greater levels of ERP amplitude in the right hemisphere, where girls showed greater levels of activation in the left hemisphere. The findings also showed that boys might process faces at a global level, which is in the right hemisphere, and girls might process faces at a more local level, in the left hemisphere. This study states that its findings have potential clinical implications. Due to the finding that boys use more resources in their right hemisphere and girls use more in their left, then sex related differences will be evident following lesions to the right hemisphere, suggesting that males may be more at risk to have prosopagnosia. Conclusion Facial recognition has interested humans for centuries. Although all evidence out there on the subject matter is useful and important, I selected the findings I believe to be the most important. Based on the research in the development of facial recognition we can conclude that, humans, from newborn age through adulthood, can identify faces. By the age of 6 months, people can discriminate between faces. It has also been found that children do not encode faces based on features and then switch to a more configural model, but rather encode faces on a more holistic level. Other aspects looked at were prosopagnosia and different models of face recognition. Some of the most important research on facial recognition comes from comparing prosopagnosia patients to normal adults. The last two topics examined in this review were memory load and hemispheric advantages. Both help us understand where we process facial information and also how our memory works to store faces. The location of facial recognition has been narrowed down to specific areas of the brain and pathways, further research must be done to get a better idea

Rousseau and the Positive Theory of Liberty Essays -- Philosophy

Liberty impacts two main areas of political thought; the state of nature and the social contract. This essay will examine wither or not it is proper to characterize Jean Jacque Rousseau as holding a positive theory of liberty. To determine to what extends this is true the following areas must be taken into account and explored; the definitions of liberty and freedom, Isaiah Berlin’s concept of positive and negative liberty, Rousseau understands of Liberty and also why Rousseau’s theory can be characterised as positive liberty. The main argument of this essay is that Rousseau does hold a positive theory of liberty. Jean Jacque Rousseau was born on the 28th June 1712 and died on the 2nd July 1778. Rousseau was a major Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century during the Romanticism era. His political philosophy was heavily influenced by the French Revolution and the American Revolution and also influenced his overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought. Some of Rousseau’s famous works include the Social Contract or Du contrat social (1762) and Emile (1762). Firstly before establishing withers or not Rousseau’s theory of liberty is characterized as positive it important to begin defining what Liberty actually is. The Oxford dictionary defines liberty as ‘the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s behavior or political views’ (Oxford Dictionaries ). Isaiah Berlin (1909-97) argues that there are two different concepts of liberty: negative and positive. He states the negative liberty is ‘namely freedom from constraint or interface’ (Warburton, 2004, p. 232) or in other words absence of coercion, barriers, restraint or obstacl... ...rieved 12 2010, 9, from Oxford Dictionaries : http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0315030#m_en_gb0315030 (n.d.). Retrieved 12 2010, 9, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/ Berlin, I. (1969). Two Concepts of Liberty. In Four Essays on Liberty. London: Oxford University Press. Haddock, B. (2008 ). A History of Political Thought . Cambridge: Polity . Replogle, R. (1989). Recovering the Social Contract. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. Rousseau, J. J. (1923). The Social Contract and Discourses translated with an Introduction by G.D. H. Cole . Londan and Toronto: J.M Dent and Sons. Shklar, J. (1969). Men and Citizens: A study of Rousseau's social theory. Cambridge: Cambridge UNiversity Press. Warburton, N. (2004). Philosoph: Basic Reading Second Edition . New York : Routledge .

Saccharin :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Saccharin is one of the most disputed sugar substitutes in the United States today. Since 1977, it has been regarded as potentially carcinogenic (â€Å"Saccharin†, 1999). The sweetness of saccharin compared to sugarcane is utterly amazing. When measured up to sugarcane, saccharin is 550 times as sweet in its pure state. Also, it is estimated to have a sweetening power of 375 times that of sugar (â€Å"Saccharin†, 2000)! This drug may be amazing, but some people say that it causes a dangerous disease, cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1879, while developing new food preservatives a young Johns Hopkins chemistry research assistant accidentally discovered that one of the organic compounds he was testing was intensely sweet. He named it â€Å"saccharum†, the Greek word for sugar. He further learned that it passed through the body unchanged and was thus a safe artificial sweetener for diabetics (Anderson, 1995). Similar sugar substitutes are used today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Saccharin, which is also known as ortho-sulpho benzimide, is a white crystalline solid derived form coal tar. Them chemical formula is known as C6H4CONHSO2 (â€Å"Saccharin†, 1999). In 1977, saccharin was banned in Canada, but it has been kept on the market in the United States (â€Å"Saccharin†, 2000). It may be legal in the United States, but warning labels are necessary on saccharin-containing foods (â€Å"Saccharin†, 2000). In 1997, a group of scientists urged the federal agency to keep the artificial on its list of cancer-causing agents (CSPI, 1997). The National Toxicology Program, NTP, said that declaring saccharin sage would, â€Å"result in greater exposure to this probable carcinogen in tens of millions of people†¦ If saccharin is even a weak carcinogen, this unnecessary additive would pose an intolerable risk to the public,† (CSPI, 1997). They felt that even if it is weak, it still is a carcinogen. Samuel Epstein, a professor of environmental medicine at Illinois Medical Center in Chicago said, â€Å"In light of the many animal and human studies clearly demonstrating that saccharin is a carcinogenic, it is astonishing that the NTP is even considering delisting saccharin, â€Å" (CSPI, 1997). Many other scientist still today believe and have proven that saccharin is a cancer causing agent (at high doses in lab animals), but still people use it day in and day out at restaurants and their homes. Still many people are trying to have it removed from the list of carcinogens. Saccharin was also test on many laboratory animals, especially lab rats. They concluded that a high dietary dose of sodium saccharin causes urinary bladder tumors in rats (Bell, 1998).

The Awakening Essay -- Kate Chopin essays research papers

The Awakening is a story full of symbolism and imagery that can have many different meanings to the many who have read it. I have read several different theories on Kate Chopin’s meaning and though some are vastly different, they all seem to make sense. It has been said that Kate Chopin might have been ambiguous just for this reason. At some point, almost everyone struggles with knowing or not knowing their purpose in life, and therefore it seems, that on some level, most who read the story about Edna Pontellier can relate to her in some way. I believe that those who have theorized about this story, have done so based upon their own struggles with the same issue. To me, life is all about self discovery and what one does upon their self discovery. Each time that I read this story, I can feel the pain and the turmoil that Edna experiences before and after her awakening.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ocean is the center and foundation of this story. The ocean is also part of the scenery and the background, without the ocean, there would be no story. Not only is the ocean the center and the foundation, it is also a symbol of many things in this story. To me, the ocean in this story takes on human characteristics in that to me, it symbolizes a seducer or seductress. The ocean also becomes an escape from reality and symbolizes life itself. The ocean is important because it is what helps bring Edna into her awakening and that is good, in the sense that it helps Edna into finding herself. However, the ocean is evil in that it is responsible for Edna’s demise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I believe that in the beginning of this story, Edna has not yet discovered who she is or what she really wants out of life. Edna has come to the Grand Isle as a dutiful wife and mother who grew up in an oppressive, unloving and un-nurturing home without her mother. Edna’s marriage is not a loving one, neither she, nor her husband have an emotional connection to each other. Edna goes about her life as a mother and wife in a mechanical fashion, she doesn’t have the mind for it and it’s obvious that her current position where she wants to be although at first she doesn’t see it yet. Edna most likely has never experienced any sort of love or connection with anyone. She doesn’t seem to think very highly about her husband, father, or sisters. Her love for her children is flighty at best. It’s as if she’s been locked in a cage m... ...is tragic to me that Edna had to choose suicide however, I don’t see Edna as a failure for what she did. I think that Edna was a woman who was ahead of her time, just as some have said Kate Chopin was ahead of hers. The ocean in this story also symbolized life for Edna. Tragically, Edna was not ever afforded the tools necessary to deal with her awakening. Edna was love starved due to her upbringing and her marriage, which made it impossible for her to live life as a lonely nonconformist as Madame Reisz had done. Edna was also born into a society where women were not aloud to be anything but mothers and wives, which are positions that Edna was intended for. At first, Edna feared the ocean and life as an individual, then she is awakened sexually, spiritually, creatively, and emotionally and throws herself into her discoveries, and she learns to swim in the ocean and the void in her life seems to be filled. However, Edna sees terror and death while swimming and begins to feel the terrors of isolation as she casts off her facade. Edna begins to struggle and fight life’s currents, getting caught within the tumult, she becomes exhausted with it all until she can no longer stay afloat.

Csr Assignment – Starbucks

| November 5, 2012| | Management 3031Y | [Ethics and Social REsponsibilities ]| Starbucks| Introduction Starbucks is one of the places to find the world’s best coffees. The first Starbucks opened over forty years ago, in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Washington. The owners’ main philosophy was to provide customers with the world’s finest and richest coffee. Over time, and endeavoring this ultimate philosophy, Starbucks expanded internationally and has more than 19000 stores around the world.The management of Starbucks has managed to improve their managerial process through location of their business, higher quality and better prices of their products. Although it is an expensive coffee store, the price of their product is based on the quality they supply. However, Starbucks is fully engaged in providing everything in an ethical manner. In this article, Howard (2011) explains that the most important thing to Starbucks is â€Å"the key to that culture is the belief that people are more important than profits† (Howard, 2011).This paper will discuss the procedures put in place to ensure ethical behavior, their ethic of business and their corporate social responsibility and will focus on assessing the company’s contribution to the community. Ethical issues As stated in Alec, Gonca & Efe’s (2011) journal, â€Å"the evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the concept of Corporate Sustainability (CS) have converged resulting in a similar objective of achieving the balance between economic prosperity, social integrity and environmental responsibility† (Alec,et al. , 2011).CSR is the concept coined to describe how organizations now consider the welfare of the people by being responsible for the impact of their activities on all groups of people involved and affected by their business, (ie. their employees, customers, stakeholders). Many businesses have taken CSR very seriously that they have gone beyon d â€Å"following laws†, and do more than being â€Å"responsible†. Starbucks is one of those corporations that fully engages in providing its stakeholders, its employees, the community more than necessary, and go beyond its responsibilities.One issue that Starbucks addressed and which stakeholders were being targeted was for the latter to have access and know how the company’s commitment and passion to improve the world and the ways which are demonstrating it. For example, Starbucks is committed to the environment, whether it’s regarding recycling, reducing water usage, thinking green or lowering its energy consumption (Starbucks, 2012). However, one of the main topics of Starbucks’s corporate ethics revolves around the climate change. Addressing climate change is a priority for Starbucks† (Starbucks, 2012). Since most of Starbucks coffee crops are outside of North America, mostly in the Third-world countries, Starbucks has implemented a cli mate change since 2004, which focuses on renewable energy, energy conservation, advocacy (Starbucks, 2012). One biggest step taken by Starbucks is reducing its gas emission. They conducted an inventory of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in 2011, using the World Resources Institute/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol to find out where their energy is mostly consumed.More than 80 percent of their GHG emissions are attributable to energy used in stores, office, and roasting plants, they are now focused on energy conservation and purchase of renewable energy (Starbucks, 2012). Reducing emissions of tons of carbon dioxide makes a huge impact on the climate. By reusing energy in their coffee-roasting plants, or offices, Starbucks was able to reduce its GHG emissions by 2. 7% compared to their 2012 GHG emissions (Starbucks, 2012). Moreover, another issue that is important for stakeholders is to have access to all the reports, codes, ethics, social responsibilities actions endeavored by the c orporation.Starbucks has also addressed that issue, and rather than attempt to address every issue in their annual report, they simply just conducted a materiality assessment to determine what topics are of most significance to their stakeholders and to Starbucks itself and publish everything online. In a letter addressed to the stakeholders, Howard Schultz (2011) explains the reasons of creating a report with the summary of all the positive aspects to the company, as well as how the company is doing with regards to their CSR. This focus on materiality helps not only the stakeholders, but also the hareholders with regards to how effectively the company is doing. And for example, letting stakeholders have access to the their progress regarding their environmental by publishing their Global Responsibilities Goal & Progress report online, Starbucks is showing how effectively its doing. Codes of conduct Starbucks codes â€Å"Business Ethics and Compliance† and CSR are stated on t heir website, and is available to the public. They have also made the â€Å"Standards of Business Conduc†t book available, which facilitates legal compliance and ethical issues such as potential conflicts of interest (Starbucks, 2012).The main idea is that every person in the employ of Starbucks is to act ethically and report any unethical or questionable behavior by any person under the employ of Starbucks. Because everyone is equal at Starbucks, any unethical actions should be reported. They have provided the partners with communication channels, which allow them to report all type of issues or concerns (Starbucks, 2012). The communication channel is basically a webline with contact information of the Business Ethics and Compliance department (Starbucks, 2012.Starbucks Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz stated (2012) â€Å"Each of us is personally responsible for supporting our core values, which require compliance with the law as well as ethica l conduct. We have issued the Standards of Business Conduct to restate our long standing commitment to uphold that responsibility and to provide guidance to our partners. † (2012). Starbucks mission statement and guiding principles are also stated on their website. Starbucks mission is â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time†.What this means is that Starbucks is dedicated in delivering each person a unique experience with their coffee purchase. It’s a one-on-one experience that should not only make the customers day but also the barista’s day. Being a barista or a partner at Starbucks not only means making beverages and giving them to the customers, but it also means going beyond being a simple coffee maker and providing customers with more than what they expect. For example, during my time at Starbucks, I remember that each and every customers that came left with a smile, because all of us were trained to always put the customer on a pedestal and make them happy.If one customer comes back unsatisfied with the drink, without any questions asked, we take the drink back and remake a new one with no charge. I also remember one day, during my shift, an elderly lady came to buy a coffee and a mix of granola and yogurt. She stayed at the location to drink her coffee, then to finish her yogurt. Few minutes later, she came back to us and complained about how the granola tasted different and she wasn’t satisfied/happy with it. Even though she had half of it finished, we gave her another one, free of cost and let her go with a smile on her face. As the mission states, it is about one person, one cup at a time.This also describes Starbucks principles related to customers. â€Å"When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers – even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection†. (2012) Starbucks also have other principles, either about their products, their shareholders, or their partners. Either way, they are dedicated in being an ethical corporation. As mentioned earlier, they have a report stating all their corporate social responsibilities and how they are doing.Here is a table of what Starbucks Mission Statement and Guiding principles are: STARBUCKS MISSION STATEMENT AND| GUIDING PRINCIPLES| To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest| coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising| principles as we grow. | The following six Guiding Principles will help us measure the| appropriateness of our decisions:| †¢ Provide a great work environment and treat each| other with respect and dignity. | †¢ Embrace diversity as an essential component in the| way we do business. | †¢ Apply the highest standards of excellence to the| purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee. †¢ Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of| the time. | †¢ Contribute positively to our communities and our| environment. | †¢ Recognize that profitability is essential to our| future success. | | Starbucks, by generally being omnipresent in the communities (whether doing communities work, making changes to how the business and centers operate†¦), aims to follow its principles, and encourage its partners and customers to do the same. Ethics in practice The corporation accounts for its ethical and social responsibilities, by either being involved in communities through different ways, or helping the society in general.As stated on their website, they make a difference in the society, in the environment, at the workplace, in the products†¦ â€Å"A good example of a corporate culture which focuses on quality and ethics is Starbucks. Starbucks has won a number of ethics awards and has been recognized as a role model of social responsibility. †(Academic journal 2010). This sentence summarizes what stakeholders and public think about Starbucks. Indeed, the corporation has made huge differences in the community by doing small gestures, but gestures that matter. As stated in their website, they â€Å"support farmers and their communities†.For example, they have established Farmer Support Centers in Costa Rica and Rwanda to provide local farmers with the resources and expertise that help lower the cost of production, reduce fungus infections, improve coffee quality and increase the yield of premium coffees (Starbucks, 2012). They have also set up something called the Starbucks Farmer Loan program. It aims to provide financial resources to cooperatives to fulfill their cash flow needs during harvest time, and to make infrastructure investments that result in better competitiveness (Starbucks, 2012). Their goal is to dispurse U.S $20 million to this program by 2015. Another exa mple in respective to their ethical practice is regarding their kids cups. They recalled over 250,000 children's plastic cups in the U. S. and Canada. â€Å"According to the report, once the cup is dropped, the colorful face on the cup can break off and leave small parts or sharp edges that can pose a choking or laceration hazard to young children† (2008). Also, by coming to the new communities, such as in the U,S where its experiencing a job crisis, Starbucks provides employment, as the only thing you need is a smile and willingness to provide excellent customer experience. The company first priority is taking care of the employees in its retail stores who communicate with and serve customers. Starbucks executives believe that by taking care of these employees, the company can provide long-term value to shareholders (Schultz ; Yang 1997). Trust is vital to all organizations and it expected that ethical leaders demonstrate behavioral consistency between words and actions; tre at all employees fairly without violating human rights. † (2011). Starbucks has teamed up with the Opportunity Finance Network (OPN) to create new jobs for Americans. TransparencyAt Starbucks, transparency is important thus they have published their CSR report as part of their broader communications efforts to provide transparency on their activities and performance. This initiative not only makes their stakeholders happy but also provides everyone else, either its customers or employees, with what Starbucks is doing to be a socially and environmentally responsible company. This transparency should be the priority in all successful organizations has us customers need to know what is the company, that is technically part of our daily routine, doing for us.A clear apercu of their goals, mission statement and principles is necessary, because communities need to support only corporations that care and value ethics and social responsibility. But as mentioned, Starbucks is in all wa ys clear about their ethics, and as nothing is a mystery, they have published everything online. Overall assessment Starbucks is focused on being a fully ethical and a very philanthropic corporation. All their ethics, values, match Carrol’s definition of a Corporate Social Responsible corporation.As per Carrol, the social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that a society has of organizations at a given point in time (Michael Hopkins, p. 2. 2011). Although, like all other corporations, making profit is the most important, Starbucks doesn’t forget that it started as a small business that eventually and slowly expanded. Starbucks participates in many environmental and social programs around the world. The corporation is focused in providing communities with all types of benefits, such as jobs, good quality of coffee, good working conditions, improving its energy consumption.In general, the company is progress ing towards better system and practices. For example, according to the published metrics on the environmental responsibility, the company has been able to reduce its energy consumption by 7. 5% in 2008-2011, purchased the equivalent of more than 50% of electricity used in their global company-owned stores worldwide in 2011, and decreased its water consumption by more than 17% since 2008. Starbucks’ goal by 2015 is to decrease water consumption by 25%, purchase renewable energy equivalent to 100% of the electricity used in their company-owned stores and reduce energy consumption by 25%.Conclusion We have studied about corporate responsibility, companies’ omnipresence in communities, in society and in our day-to-day routine. We have also studied how a company’s values and ethical decisions can make a significant difference in the way we perceive it. Applying what we learnt from class, Starbucks is implicitly ethical and follows all the norms and values of a social ethical company. Thought, a company is made of employees, it is very important to provide those employees with the company’s core values and explain them what it really means to work at that company.In Starbucks’s case, partners are all participating in making the company an ethical and socially responsible corporation. References Katrinli, A. , Gunay, G. , Mehmet E. (2011). The Convergence of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability: Starbucks Corporation's Practices. Cambridge: The Business Review. Moronke, S. (2012). Impact of Ethical Leadership on Employee Job Performance. Journal of Business and Social Science. Schultz, H. (2010). It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles From a Life at Starbucks.Journal for Quality ; Participation;Vol. 33 Issue 1, p20, 1/3p. Academic journal. Starbucks. Retrieved from http://assets. starbucks. com/assets/4dd6216d0fd0400f8689eceba0497e04. pdf http://www. starbucks. com/about-us Starbucks Recall Mugs. In jury Prevention; Feb2008, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p70-70, 1/9p. article Ethics and Compliance Webline. Retrieved from https://businessconduct. eawebline. com/ Hopkins, M. (2011). Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility. MHC International. P. 2. article. Retrieved from http://mhcinternational. com/articles/definition-of-csr

Women and Minorities in Psychology

Before the call war women and minorities were not allowed to pursue higher education and were discouraged to study the sciences because of their lack of Intelligence. However, Margaret Washburn was the first woman to graduate with a doctorate In psychology studying with Ethylene In the area of visual Imagery on tactile sensitivity, (Goodwin, 2008). Dry. Washburn went on to become the president of the American Psychology Association in 1921 (Goodwin, 2008).African Americans were referred to as a â€Å"beast of burden† as was thought of as being even more inferior than the lowly female and it was the life that that if African Americans were educated it would encourage them to think about freedom ( Goodwin, 2008). During the post-civil war era African American's were allowed to attend a limited number of separate but equal schools, most attained teaching degrees and returned to their communities as teachers.Those African American's who did earn an advanced degree in psychology ac cording to Goodwin (2008), had a very limited opportunity to use their degrees other than teaching at a â€Å"black college†. Francis Sumner was the first African American to earn a doctorate degree in psychology in 1920 (Goodwin, 2008). Because of the school of thought at the time in the 19th century of the superiority of the white male's women and people of color were not granted the opportunity to pursue a higher education in the case of African American no education at all.They were treated marginally and living on the fringe of society as having no value as a human being at all. Women and people of color were disenfranchised and deem to have little or nothing to offer. Many African Americans credit W. E. Dubious as being the first African American psychology because he wrote so eloquent about the psychological struggles of African American in his classic work entitled The Souls of Black Folk's.The omission of women and people of color from the field of psychology, any ps ychology results would not have been an accurate because of the blabs of the studies; over half of the population was not included. Reference: Contributions of African Americans to the Held of Psychology Shells R. Black, Susie A. Spence and Gasify R. Omar Journal of Black Studies Volvo. 35, No. 1 (Seep. , 2004), up. 40_64 Goodwin, C. (2008). A History of Modern Psychology, 3rd Deed. USA: John Wiley & Sons, By Sandy beyond simple reading and writing it would have a dangerous effects would be not e good for a women health ( Goodwin, 2008).

Work Stress and Coping Among Professionals in Asia

CHAPTER EIGHT WORK STRESS, WORK SATISFACTION AND COPING AMONG LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS Chan Kwok-Bun The life insurance industry began in England as early as 1756, yet agents as an occupation to sell insurance directly to the public did not appear until 1840, and mostly in the United States (Kessler, 1985, p. 14; Leigh-Bennett, 1936, p. 59). The industry in the United States expanded considerably in the late nineteenth century due to rapid economic growth, urbanisation and popular education; one saw keen competition among companies and agents for the client dollar.Some agents resorted to unfair and sometimes illegal sales tactics that resulted in further public hostility, rejection and distrust of life insurance agents. Such public stigmatisation was recorded in the United States as early as 1870. Zelizer (1983, p. 146) wrote, ‘Illegitimate practices were abolished, codes of ethics were published, professional associations organised and agents better trained. Yet the stigma endure d. ’ Since its spread to Singapore in 1908 (Neo, 1996, p. 7), the life insurance industry has relied on agents to ‘negotiate the cultural resistance to discussing the proposition of death and its implications, especially among the Chinese’ (Lee, 1994, p. 6; Leong, 1985, p. 178; Neo, 1996, p. 37). Han (1979, p. 44) wrote that ‘everyone needs life assurance, but very few people do anything on their own to buy it’. The agent was thus invented to deal with the public’s rejection of life insurance as a concept and as a commodity. In doing this work, agents were given a share of the pro? t: commissions (Chua, 1971, p. 42; Neo, 1996, p. 8). Hundreds of workers were lured into the life insurance industry by the attractive prospect of self-employment and its promise of work autonomy and potentially high monetary rewards—a sort of ? ight away from the wage-earning class. To say that the work of a life insurance agent is stressful is perhaps an un derstatement. The fact was well documented in a 1990 survey of six groups of 2,589 workers in Singapore, life insurance 126 chan kwok-bun agents included (see Chapter 10). The survey found two major sources of work stress. One source was performance pressure.The professional workers may have internalised a strong need for job achievement and maintenance of professional standards, which are values often held high by many formal organisations as well as the government. The stress of performance pressure may also be a result of Singapore’s economic growth. As Hing (1991, 1992) suggests in Chapter 3, globalisation of the Singapore economy has driven workers to strive for personal and company success—which may bring considerable stress to the workers. Another important source of work stress was workfamily con? icts—a ? ding consistent with those of recent overseas studies (Coverman, 1989; Lai, 1995; Simon, 1992; Thoits, 1986). This essay attempts to identify and anal yse stressors associated with the work of life insurance agents, as well as coping strategies adopted by the life insurance industry in general and the agents in particular. The study on which this essay is based analysed transcripts of in-depth interviews conducted in 1990 with 15 life insurance agents and subsequently in 1998–1999 with 15 agents and informants. Each interview lasted between one and a half and two hours.The respondents ranged from 23 to 42 years in age; 17 men, 13 women. Only ? ve of the 30 respondents were university graduates or diploma holders; the rest were graduates of secondary schools, except for three who had completed ‘0’ or ‘A’ Level. Slightly more than half (18) were married. Drafts of this chapter were given to ? ve other life insurance agents (one retired) to read. One agent provided the researchers with extensive written comments; each of the other four was interviewed twice for feedback on the essay’s various d rafts. This research strategy, though laborious and time-consuming, posed critical and re? ctive questions that required the analysts to periodically confront their qualitative data in the form of ‘reality-testing’—indeed a useful step in an interpretive study like ours. As a methodological device, this triangulation of respondents/informants, researchers and ‘critics’, when intentionally built into the research process, forces the researcher(s) to be doubly re? ective. A step is thus institutionalised that requires the researcher to come to terms with biases or blind spots about which others within the triangle are in a legitimate position to ‘complain’. There are two ways to de? ne stress.One denotes external demands which require the individual to readjust his or her usual behaviour patterns (Holmes and Rahe 1967). In this chapter, these demands work stress among life insurance agents 127 are called ‘stressors’ or ‘ stressor factors’, and the readjustment is referred to as ‘coping’. The other way of conceptualising stress is to view it as a state of physiological or emotional arousal that results from one’s appraisal of the relationship between the person and the environment ‘as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being’ (Chan, 1977; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 1; Selye, 1974; Thoits, 1995). In this chapter, when the term ‘stress’ is used, it is meant in the second sense, to be distinguished from the other two terms, ‘stressor’ and ‘coping’. Work Stressors The life insurance agents believe that Singapore society in general does not have a favourable image of them. Agents are subjected to such derogatory stereotypes as nagging, dishonest, intent on making money fast, manipulative and unethical—basically, people society would like to reject and to shun.In Singapore, life insu rance agents are often seen as among occupants of the lowest stratum in the sales business, possibly below the car salespersons and at best slightly better than a sales clerk in a departmental store. Agents are seen as a category of persons out there selling life insurance policies to ‘eat up people’s money’, sometimes unscrupulously. Victimised by stereotypes, an agent is deprived of an opportunity to defend his or her self as a person—an individual making a living like everybody else: As you know, ‘life insurance’ is not a nice word to utter.We get a lot of rejections, ‘brush-o? s’, and nasty looks by people—all these can cause us to have a very low self-image. . . . When I was very new, and when I was still doing a lot of selling, I got a lot of rejections. You notice that you have reached a dead-end because you have tried so hard to reach your sales target but you simply cannot. (1)1 These personal experiences with reje ctions by clients are frequent enough to have become part and parcel of the job itself; they must be among the more deleterious work stressors for the agents.To some if not all agents, rejections—taking such forms as not listening, not returning telephone calls, failing to keep an appointment or 1 The number in the bracket identi? es the respondents of our study. See Table 1 for their personal characteristics. 128 chan kwok-bun Table 1: Personal Characteristics of Respondents (N = 30) Education Secondary School Graduate = S ‘A’ Level = ‘A’ ‘0’ = ‘0’ Age University or Diploma = U or D Marital Status Sex (Married = M; (Male = M; Number Single = S) Female = F) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 M S M M S M S S M S M S M M S M M M M S M M S S M M S S M M M F M M M F M F M M M M M M F M M M F F F M M M M F F F M M 28 28 29 29 33 35 30 31 33 29 23 32 32 28 24 25 38 30 27 28 36 35 30 42 2 7 30 28 31 38 26 ‘A’ S S ‘0’ S S S U D S S S S ‘A’ S S S S S S U S S S U D U S S S simply not giving one, or deciding at the last minute not to purchase a policy—invariably provide an evidential and experiential validation of society’s low image as well as disrespect of the occupation of life insurance agents.Agents reported childhood friends and relatives avoiding and labelling them as ‘pests’ and ‘man-eaters’. Some made speci? c requests work stress among life insurance agents 129 that no talk about life insurance be allowed in friendly social gatherings lest they risk discontinuation of friendships and relationships. Beginners in life insurance sales typically approach these same people within their own close personal networks to meet their quota in the ? rst one or two years, usually quite successfully. Yet, over-reliance on this personal network quickly exhausts its inherently limited potential.On th e dark side, rejections by those who are socio-emotionally close, and are therefore supposedly ‘obliged’ to help out because of friendship or family and kin membership, are often experienced by the beginning agents as particularly traumatic. Some agents thus feel let down, betrayed and cheated—these feelings sometimes result in agents slowly divorcing themselves from others socially and emotionally close to them, thus breeding personal isolation and alienation. Parents, relatives and friends are often upset when a young university graduate chooses to be a life insurance agent.Without a basic monthly salary to fall back on, the agents’ income comes entirely from sales commissions, which are often seen by parents as unreliable and risky. Parents expect a university degree, itself a considerable achievement in the Singapore society, to lead to a reasonably attractive salary from a stable, secure, respected job. The idea of an agent going for months without pa y for not being able to sell a single policy is either foreign or unacceptable to parents of an earlier generation.This e? ectively makes the agents outsiders to their close personal networks. The very nature of the life insurance agents’ job lies in dealing with people and prospective clients, many of whom they meet for the ? rst time as strangers in probably the most unlikely places and hours (often subjected to the desires and whims of the clients). Much of the stress and strain experienced by the agents thus lies in their transactions and negotiations with strangers—with the unknown, unfamiliar and unpredictable.Yet, the probability is quite high that these same strangers will hold an unfavourable stereotypical image of agents as a category, thus sometimes mistreating and denigrating them. The agents, in their encounters with strangers, have to manage an instant spoiled identity, a stigma, externally and coercively imposed on them by society at large. Agents often start on a wrong foot in the door, so to speak. Agents do not interact with their clients as equals. The balance of power in agent-client transactions is often tilted in favour of the clients.This status inequality, a source of intense discomfort, anxiety 130 chan kwok-bun and sometimes alienation for many agents, is often exploited, if not abused, by the clients. The agents, when asked to recall a speci? c experience or situation at work when they felt depressed or frustrated, would quite freely describe what constitutes a ‘bad’ client: Some clients are quite unreasonable, and they a? ect our morale considerably. What is being unreasonable? They try every possible means to reject you.They will tell you they are busy and ask you to come another day, or they will ask you for an appointment but when you show up they will say they are busy and ask you to come on yet another day! (10) Yet, agents are trained and often reminded by their supervisors and senior colleagues not to try to get back at their clients simply because of their ‘bad’ or ‘unreasonable’ conduct. In an important sense, agents are not allowed tension release ‘to get even’ with the ‘other’, thus further aggravating the built-in status inequality of the agentclient relations.This inability of agents to express the feelings of frustration, anger and displeasure that are generated by unpleasant encounters with ‘bad’ clients may prove to be doubly degrading to some agents. It perpetuates the status imbalance and is of considerable psychological costs to the agents. While much of work stress among a wide range of professional groups is often attributed to sheer work overload, some life insurance agents reported having too much time on their hands at work as a stressor. As one agent put it, ‘When I am most free, I am most stressed. Having plenty of time means one is not being productive— ideally, one should be kept busy. Having little or no work for weeks or even months generates anxiety, for insurance work relies exclusively on commissions from selling policies. Largely unstructured, insurance work gives the agents much personal freedom and autonomy; yet this same job characteristic requires skills to structure and use time to one’s advantage. Given the unstructured and unde? ned nature of an agent’s work, di? culties experienced in dealing with either plenty of time or little time were often reported by the agents as stressors.One important way the agents de? ne stress is in terms of sustained pressure to produce, to meet the yearly quota of sales, which is invariably enacted by their bosses’ ‘nagging’: Once in a while, my boss will remind us to pull up our socks. (6) work stress among life insurance agents 131 A ‘bad’ boss, as seen by the agents, is someone solely interested in pushing for a certain level of sales productivity in a given year, yet not showing enough care and support. It was reported that one insurance company regularly sends ‘gentle reminders’ to those agents not doing well, thus adding to the pressure.As a way to increase agents’ productivity and to sustain a motivational level, the life insurance industry has institutionalised the practice of publishing regular bulletins which, among other things, rank the ‘top super achievers’ by detailing their total volumes of sales by month and year. One agent reported that her company sends each agent every month a progress report which is seen by the agents as one form of assessment and feedback from the administration. Every quarter of the year, the unit manager and the agent will meet to review the latter’s sales performance.As the agent herself put it, ‘Such meetings can make me feel good when sales meet the set quota, or the experience will be quite embarrassing if I don’t do well. ’ It was reported by another agent that the leader of her agency organises the agents into several work groups and gives out awards to the topachieving group every now and then, especially at the end of the year, to foster ‘healthy’ inter-group competition and, thus supposedly, sales productivity. Singapore has experienced in the past twenty years a rapid growth in the insurance industry, as measured both by the actual number of insurance companies and y the number of full-time and parttime life insurance agents. These agents are competing with each other for more or less the same client market, which by and large still views the concept of life insurance with disinterest. The net result of this rapid growth in the industry is increased competitiveness and rivalry between companies. Theoretically, the client market is an open one, often seen by some relatively successful agents as unlimited—‘the sky is the limit’, so to speak. Yet, in actual day-to-day practice, it wa s reported by agents that they often ran into direct competition with each other.Reports were made about unethical practices of agents who resorted to substantially reduced insurance rates to ‘undercut’ competitors. Yet others, in order to maintain a certain level of yearly sales productivity, were forced to pay out of their own pockets premiums not paid up by their clients, thus sometimes getting themselves into considerable debts. Acute competitiveness and rivalry between agents/colleagues thus possibly engenders a general feeling of distrust, tension and 132 chan kwok-bun strain in interpersonal relations among peers. Competition and con? ct generate barriers of communication, undermine collegiality and, if left unmanaged, breed individualism and self-isolation. The more successful agents arouse jealousy from others and are thus shunned. The not so successful ones ? nd others critical and condescending, and would thus choose not to con? de in them. The competitivenes s of the client market demands considerable work commitment, e? ort and mental concentration of the life insurance agents which, in reality, may or may not translate themselves into actual sales, especially for the beginners just initiated into the industry.Agents complained about having to work long, irregular hours, sometimes late in the evenings or over weekends, prospecting strangers or going for appointments with clients: If a client calls you at night and insists on seeing you, you have little option but to go. You may not be that free since many people own chunks of your time. You are beholden to many people, all your clients, real or imagined, unlike in a regular job where you have relatively predictable hours, and usually one person (your boss) can demand of your time. As an agent, your time is not yours, but your clients’, everybody’s. 20) Many perhaps choose to be a life insurance agent thinking the job approximates self-employment and thus o? ers the capaci ty to control one’s use of time to serve one’s interest. Yet, paradoxically, having escaped the tyranny of control by a boss who has legitimate rights to his time, the agent soon realises he has lost his control of time to many other bosses: all his clients, real and prospective. If professional autonomy is partially measured by one’s control over time, an agent may soon be in a shock of his life. A worker who cannot claim ownership of time is a stressed agent.Much of an agent’s work is done outside his or her own o? ce, travelling on the road between appointments, in client’s o? ces or any other place clients deem appropriate or convenient to themselves. This seemingly perpetual mobility of the ‘on-the-road agenttraveller’, in a substantial way, makes the work of a life insurance agent an essentially lonely one. The agent becomes a lone ranger exploiting the frontier and eking out a daily routine of negotiating with strangers, much of the time facing a social world of unfriendly, if not hostile and aggressive forces.The very nature of an agent’s work in terms of long, irregular hours as well as an ‘unsocial’ work routine necessarily casts him or her out of the mainstream society. work stress among life insurance agents 133 An agent’s life is largely out of sync with the normal tempo of his or her family, relatives and friends. This temporal and spatial disparity between the agent and his or her social world has over time become a potent source of strain manifested in various forms of interpersonal con? icts. These tensions in interpersonal relations are particularly taxing among two groups of agents: ? st, the beginners, who strive to maintain some resemblance of order with their family, their boyfriends or girlfriends; second, married women, who try to juggle their multiple roles of wife, mother and full-time agent. Women agents are sometimes seen by their male colleagues as perhaps a bit too aggressive, or too driven, working too hard, putting in too many long hours while competing with other male agents in an already tight market. One single woman spoke about how the long, irregular hours she has been keeping for almost two years led to con? icts and ? ghts with her boyfriend and the eventual break-up of a close relationship.Parents worry about their young daughters’ safety and well-being; they are concerned that young single women meeting with total strangers for business, in unlikely places at inappropriate hours. Other parents do not like the thought that their daughters are so preoccupied with work that they do not have time to look for or see boyfriends. A married woman, determined to become a unit manager in three years, spoke about the di? culties encountered in e? ectively discharging her role as a mother to two young children, sometimes feeling remorseful over releasing her work frustrations on them. Another single woman, ? ding the Singapore m arket too competitive, resorted to concentrating her e? orts in Indonesia; and she spoke about societal pressures on single women in terms of work, career and achievement. Two agents had become, over the years, increasingly aware that they had been pursuing their work goals almost at the total expense of their family, often to the extent of coming home so tensed up that they were incapable of communicating with their family members. Worried and preoccupied with work, they were increasingly non-communicative and were drifting further and further into a world of their own making.In the course of time, these agents, while selfdivorcing and self-isolating from their family, have engineered and completed their own disengagement from their social world, which itself may breed various forms of marital as well as familial con? icts. As a result, work stress and family stress become intertwined, each feeding into the other—up to a point when the agent is at a loss 134 chan kwok-bun as to which is the ‘cause’ and which is the ‘e? ect’. Yet, ironically, the agent continues to believe in the uniqueness of his or her own work problems, so much so that only the worker himself or herself can solve them.Work problems have thus become a personal problem that requires a personal solution—a perception that inevitably leads to the self-isolation of the agent. One of the possible consequences of this non-communication with and self-enforced isolation from one’s social environment, be it one’s work colleagues or one’s family members and friends, is this tendency, in solitude, to blame oneself, to blame one’s personal weaknesses, failings or incompetence for not having been able to secure an appointment, to close a policy or to meet the yearly sales quota.A self-blaming, self-denigrating agent who takes all the blame upon oneself is a stressed agent. Coping During our interviews, in describing their ways of coping w ith work stress, life insurance agents often underlined the importance of three personal qualities: self-reliance, motivation and discipline. A largely unstructured work life demands self-discipline in terms of an ability to e? ectively manage and use time in a context where there is either plenty of time and little productivity, or little time and a heavy workload.The fact that an agent does not, in a real sense, have a boss during much of the agent’s work life often means that one needs to rely on one’s own ‘internal’ resources to motivate and initiate oneself. During their training, agents learn from their trainers’ exhortations about the critical signi? cance of cultivating the personal habit of being able to motivate and discipline oneself. One agent, determined to become a manager in the shortest possible time, a? xed to the wall of her o? ce facing her desk ‘power’ messages stressing discipline and self-reliance—messages w hich served as a daily reminder to her.Her cabinet along another wall was ? lled with layers of ‘inspirational’ and ‘how-to’ books and cassette tapes dealing with such subjects as time management, self-improvement and stress control. She actually reported during an interview that one of those books ‘totally’ changed her life; she recommended anyone aspiring to become successful in life to read it, many times over. Another young male manager grumbled about his o? ce having only limited space while work stress among life insurance agents 135 almost one entire wall was taken up by shelves ? led with motivational and inspirational cassette tapes from America. He remarked that there is a real demand for such materials among the young executive sta? in the Singapore business world. Insurance companies routinely mount in-house training workshops or courses o? ering agents opportunities to ‘refresh’ their ideas on motivation and self disci pline. Trainers or consultants from within the industry, the universities and overseas are also brought in regularly to speak on such subjects at professional meetings and industry conventions or congresses.Occasionally, successful sports coaches or athletes are brought to annual life insurance conventions to share with agents and managers their experiences in motivating and disciplining themselves, thus drawing an analogy between excelling in sports and selling life insurance. One agency, reputed to be among the top four in the mother company, publishes and distributes a monthly bulletin as well as a regular newsletter. In one of the issues, the agency leader shared in her front page message a book she had recently read: The Successful System that Never Fails (1962), by Clement Stone.The same issue carried another article showing a woman agent as a ‘goal getter’, stating, ‘She has a very disciplined system to monitor her daily and weekly activities. ’ And her advice to the new agents was: 1. KNOW what you want. 2. SET GOALS to achieve it. 3. DO THE BASICS everyday (prospecting, telephone calls, meeting customers, servicing). The article ended with another ‘motivational’ message: ‘Time and tide wait for no man. Plan and do it now. ’ On the second to last page of the bulletin, among the agenda items for a forthcoming agency meeting, it listed a discussion of a book, Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill (1996).Agents also share a strong belief in personal control. Personal control is understood here as values, abilities and behaviours to manage and master oneself e? ectively, including one’s time, habits, perceptions, thought processes, feelings and emotions, or, to put it brie? y, self-mastery. The ability to cope with stress depends a lot on your personality and your own psychological state of mind. Sometimes people amplify the stress situation and make themselves even more stressed. If we are able to control our mind, it’s very much better. (12) Our problem is our mind.If we ourselves are negative, that is our end. We need to think on the positive. We work to help pick up those who are ‘down’. (11) 136 chan kwok-bun In another monthly bulletin, an entire poem, ‘A Note of Motivation’, from a speaker during one of the regular agency meetings, was reprinted. The poem ended with these lines: ‘Life battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN! ’ Associated with this belief in personal control is the value of hard work, the belief that hard work will bring results, that there is a connection between e? rts and results and, most importantly, the ability to ‘take hard work’, to put up with long, hard, irregular work hours. Two agents actually singled out hard work as an e? ective strategy to cope with work stress. In this context, work, rather th an relaxations or rest, is prescribed as an antidote, a remedy or solution to stress or so-called ‘mental and physical a? ictions’. Such a work ethic also seems to suggest a certain degree of mental and emotional toughness, an attitude of determination toward work and life, a readiness to ‘tough it out’.One agent spoke about the importance of being able ‘to pick oneself up, put the broken pieces together and move on with life’ as a way to get out of a ‘sales slump’. The emphasis is thus on one’s resilience and hardiness, or belief in personal control over work as well as one’s ability to bounce back and recover quickly from ‘the hidden injuries of life’: After a while, I sit back and evaluate my own performance. I’ve learned to think this way: ‘You are not considered a failure if you can pick yourself up and carry on with what you are doing. (1) To the agents, strategies of coping also includ e a sample of various psychological defence mechanisms; there is evidence from the indepth interview data that they are quite frequently used. Agents are taught during training to handle rejections by controlling their own mind. They are taught to think aloud to themselves that the clients are not rejecting them, but rather, may well be rejecting themselves and their families and, consequently, leaving their lives unprotected.The objective here is to externalise, not internalise; hence to lay blame on others, not on themselves: Before, I took rejections quite personally. I felt that he said ‘no’ to me because of something in me that he cannot accept. But now, I realise that he said ‘no’ not to me, but to his family. He is not being responsible to himself and his family. The problem lies in him, not me! I have done my best and I’ll keep on trying to convince him. But for cases that give me direct rejection, I’ll throw them away because there is no point keeping them on my mind.It’ll be very stressful (laugh). (14) work stress among life insurance agents 137 Agents are also trained to accept rejections as a predictable, builtin part of a life insurance agent’s work. With experience, most agents would have learned to develop an attitude of acceptance: We took a course in psychology. From there we learned how to accept things as they come along. Basically, I’m a happy-go-lucky person. I’ll always ? nd a way out for myself. I don’t normally reproach myself unnecessarily. (12) Agents are trained to accept rejections as an inextricable part of their work.In fact, they are literally told that ‘they are paid to take rejections’, and that ‘the more rejections they encounter, the better results will be. ’ So rejections are good things and agents should indeed be happy about them: My boss always tells me that insurance is very di? cult work, but it is for the same reason w e are paid back such high dividends. If it was any easier, the money would not be that good, so the agent is talked (or, talking himself ) into seeing rejections as a good thing. He said, ‘If your prospect were to say yes readily, someone else would have sold the policy to him long, long ago? It is all very logical. (22) To most agents, coping is meant to refer to accessing and using psychological resources within oneself. These so-called personal or internal resources include self-discipline, mental control, rationalisations and the ability to self-motivate, accept, shift blame away from self to others, work hard, manage time and problem-solve. The emphasis here is on learning through training and experience to acquire the appropriate resources, skills and values so that, once they are internalised, they become part of the person and can be used in day-to-day coping.It is essentially a skill-oriented, person-focussed approach, where the onus is on the person as an active agen t ‘using the person’, using one’s self, one’s resources and skills. Such a personfocussed, skill-oriented concept of coping is accentuated by a general disinclination on the part of most agents (except a few) to seek and use help, support and care from the family for problem-solving or emotional support: It is very di? cult to get help from my family. (10) There is nothing much they can do about it. They won’t understand. (5) My family would not understand my work. So I would not go to them for help or support. 19) We are told to present a positive and optimistic front to everyone at all times, including our family. (19) 138 chan kwok-bun The married male agents were quite speci? c about keeping work and family life separate, not wanting work problems and frustrations to spill over into the domestic domain, thus not confounding their relationships with their spouse, children and kin members. They said they would strive to ‘arrange’ thei r work and familial aspects of their lives such that weekdays and occasional week evenings and Saturdays are for work while Sundays are reserved for the family.Some reported that, in general, they do not bother to communicate with their spouses about problems and frustrations experienced at work; they cite reasons such as ‘not wanting to give them headaches’, ‘spouse not understanding my work problems’ or ‘no use to talk about problems since they would not be able to solve them for me anyway. ’ One agent attributed his disinclination to involve his wife in his work problems to ‘the Asian nature and culture’. Another agent rationalised to himself that the important thing to do ‘to keep the right balance in life’ is to maintain ‘quality time’ with his wife and children.Two managers described their agencies as warm, cohesive places, almost like a surrogate family, bound by social, economic and emotional ties to problem-solving as well as to provide support for the individual agents. The agency was described as a place where agents are encouraged to return for care and guidance: How do you go about making yourself feel better? There are many ways. Over here, our company policy is that when you are feeling low or lost, the best thing to do is to come back to the agency and ? nd a colleague for a chit-chat.Is this method e? ective? It is nice that peers encourage and support each other. In general, you would want to discuss with the more experienced peers—they will give you a few ideas—point to a ‘road for you to walk on’, give you a guideline, help you to solve a particular problem, or simply go out with you for a walk to release your pent-up emotions or depressed feelings. That way, you will feel much better. (10) When I am stressed or frustrated, I immediately go to other agents (here in the agency). They are always willing to help.Four of them are very close to me. When problems come up, we talk about them among ourselves. While talking, we often come to realise that they are not my problem only—they become more normal, less serious. I always look to my more experienced colleagues—they are more likely and able to help. (15) To help create and sustain the notion of the agency as a ‘large family’, agency bulletins regularly print greetings to welcome newcomers as well as birthday messages to agency members. The intent is work stress among life insurance agents 139 o impress upon the agents that they should strive to reach their individual goals by cooperating with, supporting and caring for each other. Nonetheless, though seemingly encouraged and promoted by the management, agents only partially used social support at the agency as a way of coping with stress. Rivalry and competition between agents within the same agency or company would undermine any possible feelings of fellowship among colleagues. While some agents reported actually turning to their managers or supervisors for ‘problem-solving’ guidance and advice, they also exercised onsiderable caution in such interaction for fear of unwittingly revealing personal weaknesses, inadequacies and vulnerabilities. In practice, there are two inter-related parts to the relationship between the agent and his or her agency/company represented by a supervisor-manager: supervision and training. The agent receives supervision of varying degrees from the manager, who negotiates the kind of continuous training required to either maintain the status quo or to improve one’s sales volume. This often means customising a training programme to ? the needs of an agent in a particular stage of career development, which invariably change relative to their clients and their needs. As the life insurance industry continues to innovate by creating and introducing new products and new services, the agent ? nds it obligatory to learn new skill s—both in the ‘software’ (e. g. , new ways to motivate self and client) and in the ‘hardware’ (e. g. , legal and administrative aspects of a new product). The agent needs training, and the industry ? nds ways to encourage and support it.Thus an ethos of continuous upgrading exists. Indeed, it is a norm shared by peers in the industry, part and parcel of a collectivised coping strategy. All except one or two of the agents seemed quite clear about not seeking social support from their family for their work problems. Most tended to believe that a clear-cut separation between work and family would be an e? ective way to manage stress at work. Family relations thus become a distraction, a welcome diversion from work, where the worker learns ‘to put things aside, to forget work problems, to shut o? emporarily’. For at least two agents, the mere knowledge that their spouses will be supportive when their help and care are needed was enough witho ut the agents actually involving them in their work problems. When it comes to using social support of colleagues or supervisors at the workplace, the agents have also learned to be selective and discretionary in deciding who is to 140 chan kwok-bun be approached for what problems and towards what ends. The ‘culture’ of the support system at the workplace is thus accessed and used by the agents with iscretion, and in his or her best interests. The life insurance industry thus provides a rather appropriate context for what we call ‘the sociology of coping’, which is focused on how groups or communities, not individuals, come to terms with and deal with their stressors. To ‘contextualise’ the coping of life insurance agents, one is required to understand how, for example, an individual’s social embedment in the larger ‘system’ and ‘culture’ of the industry would make a di? erence in one’s coping process and strategy. The more socially embedded, the more e? ctive in coping—partly because one is now receiving social support and partly because one has learned ‘the tricks of the trade’ through one’s socialisation ‘into’ the group or community. The life insurance industry in Singapore is unique in that it puts into practice a certain belief in continuous on-the-job training (or what Singaporeans commonly call ‘upgrading’), learning and self-renewal. Indeed, this belief or ideology is operationalised and institutionalised in a well-worked-out system of seminars, workshops, conferences, small-group discussions, feedback sessions, etc.These are founded upon a central premise: an individual agent must be continuously skilled and re-skilled by the system and its knowledge to cope with oneself and a hostile social world—thus the constant reference to the social sciences, particularly psychology and social psychology, for insights, inspi ration and intervention. For better or for worse, the life insurance industry in Singapore has become an active user of social science knowledge and the myriad interventions derived from it. The individual very rarely copes alone and is very rarely left alone by the life insurance ‘family’.When socially embedded in this ‘family’, the individual obtains his or her support, expressively (it is nice to know how to deal with one’s depression or mood swings) as well as instrumentally (it is useful to know how to handle a hostile client). The ‘social fund’ is there for one to tap into; when used, this fund produces an ‘economic fund’ for the system and the individual. Work Satisfaction While the life insurance agents no doubt faced a wide range of stressors in their daily work, many of which demanded various modes work stress among life insurance agents 41 of coping and adaptation, they also reported a considerably high level of w ork satisfaction. Formerly construction engineers, computer programmers, factory supervisors or teachers prior to joining the life insurance business, none of the thirty agents we interviewed reported having feelings of regret over their present work; neither did they anticipate any further job change in the immediate future. All said the job was right for them, though a few did report that there were indeed lingering thoughts of quitting insurance work during the ? st two years of initiation. Several agents in fact seemed to have derived so much satisfaction from their work that they reported that their job had long become their hobby; work and hobby were indistinguishable and had in fact become one. Several agents took pains in our interviews to emphasise that everything they did in their hobbies and in life was somewhat related to their work, and vice versa. On the basis of the interview data, one would attribute the agents’ high level of work satisfaction to a combination of factors.One important factor has to do with agents’ perceived sense of control over their work as a result of the freedom, autonomy and independence an agent’s work provides. In a signi? cant way, an agent is essentially his or her own boss, answerable and accountable mainly to oneself (thus largely dependent on one’s own personal resources such as initiative, self-discipline, self-reliance and motivation). An agent is self-employed, and his or her work has the potential of developing into an entrepreneur’s business where, at least in one’s mind, the results are a direct function of e? rt and hard work. Moreover, one derives much satisfaction from being able to generate pro? t for oneself, rather than for a company as is the case for salaried employees. Indeed, several agents reported that they had quit their former job and joined the life insurance business precisely because it o? ers the potential attraction of self-employment and entrepreneu rship: I had this wish to do my own work and be my own boss. It just happened that insurance o? ered me the opportunity to realise my wish. So, naturally, I became an agent. (10)Another factor associated with agents’ work satisfaction is their relatively high income in view of the fact that many entered the profession with educational quali? cations no higher than ‘0’ Levels, with one year of training and having passed a certifying examination considered by many as easy. The agents we interviewed made an average of three to four thousand Singapore dollars per month, while 142 chan kwok-bun several agent-managers with about ten years of experience in the business reported an average annual income of S$240,000.One agency supervisor, herself making S$70,000 per year after seven years, reported that her 42-year-old manager was getting an annual income of S$800,000 or, as she emphasised, admiringly, ‘close to a million’. With money comes fame. The agency regularly publishes sales ? gures of top agents, the so-called ‘top high achievers’ in their company-wide bulletins. In an attempt to raise work morale and motivation, the industry periodically hands out awards and medals during conventions and congresses. One agent considered the wide publicity and recognition a successful agent received as a potent source of work satisfaction.When successful (as indicated by insurance sales ? gures and the subsequent recognition and appreciation received from colleagues, company and friends), an agent has ? nally come around: he or she, through personal success, has managed to achieve the kind of social status and respect that society seems so reluctant to give to this profession. In a sense, personality and achievement elicit both material and non-material rewards that are due. Insurance agents spoke about the grati? cation they derived from having sold a policy where the ? ancial rewards are tangible and immediate; one can literally calculate the precise amount of commission one makes from having completed a successful transaction. Another agent actually reported that he sometimes felt guilty for having been receiving such a sizeable income for all these years in the insurance business; his friends of the same cohort in the banking sector, better educated and more intensively trained, were making less than he did. In his mind, life insurance sales work, for those who can cope and become successful at it, o? rs good pay, a clear and well-de? ned prospect of promotion (from agent through trainer and unit supervisor to, eventually, agent-cum-manager) and a distinct probability of self-employment. For many, the prospect of a quick transition from an agent to an entrepreneur within a span of ten to ? fteen years excites and motivates many a high achiever. In the process of plodding through one’s career path, the individual gets his or her own rewards in accordance with ‘the goals set and e? ort exerted ’. And so it seems. work stress among life insurance agents Conclusion 43 Singapore society rejects the idea as well as the product of life insurance, which is the ‘? rst movement’ of the dialectic of encounters between a life insurance agent and society (Neo, 1996). Society thus rejects the role of being an agent, not necessarily the person in that role, though the person is very likely to internalise the rejections through self-blame and self-criticism. It is thus not so much what is wrong with the product, but what is wrong with me—a process that entails considerable psychological costs to the individual agents.Nevertheless, the life insurance industry employs agents and trains them to di? use such societal rejections, oftentimes striving to turn such hostility around. As it happens, the agents are assigned a stigma by society, a Go? manian spoiled identity; agents are keenly aware of the intentional social distance, the chasm, that separates them and s ociety. Agents are to be shunned by all, strangers and close social others. This is the ‘second movement’ of the Hegelian dialectic.Note that such an analysis posits that societal rejection of life insurance as an idea and the stigma attached to life insurance agents are as much structural givens as they are historical conditions, or what the Durkheimian sociologist calls ‘social facts’ which the individual agents cannot easily ‘wish away’. The ‘third movement’ begins when the life insurance industry in general, and the agents in particular, attempt to cope with the stigma by developing an institutional culture over time; an ideological complex of values and beliefs—or, ‘tricks of the trade’, if you like.The life insurance industry is among the few industries that are fully aware of the structural and historical causes of the myriad ‘assaults on the self ’ that happen during the daily routine of the work life of an agent. Their counter-attack is ongoing training and educational upgrading of the profession, from bottom up. A structural problem requires at the least a collective solution. Through seminars, workshops, conventions and pep-talks, the industry instils in the individual agents a ‘bag of tricks’. These include values and beliefs such as hard work, self-e? acy, self-reliance and discipline; work habits (keeping accounts and making regular cold calls); procedures for dealing with prospective clients; and a battery of coping strategies and defence mechanisms such as positive thinking (the cup is half full, not half empty), cognitive alteration or conversion (it is your loss, not mine, for not buying insurance from me), hiding and 144 chan kwok-bun compartmentalising (I make sure my family doesn’t know anything about my work problems), talking oneself into believing ‘doing good for others’ (everyone needs an insurance policy; it never rain s but pours), accepting the inevitable, and so on.Our analyses have indicated the in? ltration of academic psychology into the articulation and justi? cation of such an ideological complex. To illustrate, Seligman’s learned optimism concept (1990), Kobasa’s idea of psychological hardiness (Kobasa & Pucetti 1983) and many other psychological concepts such as resilience, personal control, competence, self-esteem and pragmatism, have found their ways into the everyday life language of the life insurance agents. It is perhaps a case of applied psychology, of the industry turning to social science for guidance and ideological justi? ation. Of course, never for a moment in the three movements of this dialectic is the individual agent a passive voice. Most signi? cantly, for example, the agent interacts with the industry culture to develop an ideological complex of his own to fend o? the ‘slings and arrows’ of his work life, which some have apparently done more s uccessfully than others, thus enjoying considerable work satisfaction. There are good reasons to believe that the transmission of the institutional culture is often met y resistance on the part of the individual agent, especially when the culture does not allow for tension release on the one hand and demands considerable commodi? cation of emotions on the other hand. Agents are exhorted to do emotion work—to ‘never get back at bad clients’ and to ‘act nice, think positive’. In a sense, this personal ideology grounded in a larger institutional culture serves three functions. First, in a deep psychological sense, it bestows on the agent a social identity that he uses to cope with the stress of his work life.Second, existentially, it provides the agent with a self-justi? cation of his own existence, partly because it has an altruistic dimension to it: the insurance agent is in the business of ‘doing good’, in that the family is looked after by an insurance policy should something disastrous happen to the bread-winner. Third, it also gives the agent a bag of tricks, something useful and practical in his daily encounters with society. Our interview data show rather clearly that our agents reported a considerably high level of work satisfaction.They liked their work, had few regrets about their vocational choice and had rarely thought of quitting life insurance work except during their beginning years in the industry. Some even merged their work with their life—work and hobby became one. work stress among life insurance agents 145 One ? nds at the core of this ideological complex several rather attractive things on o? er: handsome monetary rewards; a ? ight from the tyranny of the working-class condition; and a promise for freedom, occupational autonomy and self-determination in use of time— all of which are embodied in the lure of self-employment and entrepreneurship.To some workers in a credential society , these promises prove irresistible because the ful? lment of the Singaporean dream is the deliverance of one’s great expectations. To perhaps many others, these promises are just that: promises. Freedom, free will and self-determination (in use of time according to one’s desire) are an illusion. An agent does not e? ectually own his time, nor does he dispose of it according to his own accord. The chasm between proletariat and bourgeoisie remains real and forever self-expanding.Still others learn that this entrepreneurial dream, even when realised, has its dark side. A self-employed person never for a moment stops ‘using his own person’, his personality or everything he owns and can rightfully call his—his time, his charm, his tolerance, his love. Having escaped from the tyranny of control by others, he now engages in the ultimate form of exploitation: exploitation of self. The chasm that separates the capitalist from the proletariat is a structural one which is bridgeable by only a few with the right strategic internal and external resources, but which remains a chasm to many.The Singaporean dream is just that—a dream. Many agents will be caught in this black-hole-like chasm, between reality and myth, yet never fail to blame themselves for their personal failures. The moment of the ultimate nightmare will come when the life insurance industry has found ways to make direct sales to the public, e. g. , through the Internet, or when the public goes direct to the industry, as in the case of medical, house or automobile insurance (Neo, 1996). The existence of the agent is thus rendered obsolete because it has lost its value. CHAPTER NINEINSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND STRESS APPRAISAL AMONG LIFE INSURANCE AGENTS Gina Lai, Chan Kwok-bun and Ko Yiu-chung Work stress as a social phenomenon and social issue has been of considerable concern to scholars and laypersons alike because of its myriad costs to individual workers a? ected and to companies that experience low productivity, absenteeism and turnover (Beehr, 1995; Sutherland & Cooper, 1988). For decades, conventional research on work stress has generally perceived individuals as passive actors, making personal adaptations to structural constraints imposed by organisations.Work stress is often seen as a result of an individual’s failure in making adjustments to the work environment (e. g. , Beehr, 1995; Loscocco & Roschelle, 1991; Lowe & Northcott, 1988; Sutherland & Cooper, 1988). While studies adopting this view usually examine work stress by identifying the unique sources of stress experienced by particular occupational groups, they tend to overlook the relationship between the institutionalised arrangements of a profession and work stress. The regulative and normative systems of an industry and profession may well a? ct how an individual worker perceives, appraises and responds to work situations—subsequently in? uencing the level of stress the individual will experience. The present chapter aims to study how the institutionalised arrangements of the life insurance profession and industry in Singapore relate to the types and extent of work stress experienced by its workers. Insurance agents represent a unique group of workers who are both paid employees and entrepreneurs. Data from in-depth interviews with 11 agents working for di? erent life insurance companies provided background information on the norms and rules of the industry.Insurance agents’ experiences with work stress were analysed using survey data. The information obtained from the interviews, which were conducted prior to the sample survey, enabled our understanding of the industry and guided our questionnaire construction. 148 gina lai et al. Definition of Work Stress The term ‘stress’ has been de? ned in various ways: it has been used to refer to demands that require the individual to re-adjust his or her usual behavioural patterns ( Holmes & Rahe, 1967), or to the state of physiological or emotional arousal that results from the perception of demands (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Selye, 1974; Thoits, 1995).In this chapter, ‘stress’ refers to the latter while the former is termed ‘stressor’. In the current research literature (Thoits, 1995), this distinction between stress and stressor is espoused. Stressors manifest themselves in episodic events or situations and are classi? ed in the literature into life events, chronic strains and daily hassles (Thoits, 1995). For an event or situation to be perceived as stressful, two appraisal processes are involved (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). First, the individual appraises the event or situation as threatening to his or her well-being.Events or situations that individuals ? nd threatening often entail potential danger or alteration to one’s personal identity, social relations, routine behavior, and/or normal physical state. Examples include los s of a loved one from whom one derives great personal a? rmation and emotional comfort or a serious illness that causes debilitation. Second, the individual feels a need for action. He/she appraises the available resources for requisite action but is uncertain about the su? ciency or e? ectiveness of resources to successfully carry out the action.When appraising an event or a situation as threatening, the individual, believing that action is needed and feeling that the outcome is uncertain, would experience an emotional reaction called stress (Locke & Taylor, 1990). Based on this conceptualisation of stress, ‘work stress’ refers to the emotional response to work-related events and situations. Researchers have suggested that stress may be manifested psychologically and physically, as well as behaviorally, and that such manifestations may vary across social groups de? ed by, for example, gender and social class (Pearlin, 1999). The present chapter focuses on the psycholog ical aspect of work stress, an emphasis particularly relevant to the study of work stress among insurance agents. Insurance work is indeed emotional work. Selling insurance often assaults one’s self due to stigmatisation and rejection by society; agents whether individually or collectively are constantly forced to make psychological adjustments to and/or manipulations of their hostile work environment. Thus, it institutional context among life insurance agents 49 would be meaningful to investigate how job incumbents in the insurance industry appraise various aspects of their work and evaluate the impacts of such appraisal on their psychological well-being. Adopting a sociological perspective, the present chapter emphasises the social-structural organisation of the industry and its link to individuals’ experience (Aneshensel, 1992; Pearlin, 1989, 1999; Thoits, 1995). The appraisal of and response to work-related events and situations are thus argued to be related to the meaning attached to work, which is in? enced by the regulative and normative systems of a profession and industry. The Political Economy of the Life Insurance Industry The most important attractions o? ered by insurance work are its promises of autonomy, potentially high monetary rewards and the prospect of self-employment. Insurance agents are usually given a certain sales target to meet within a period of time if they intend to stay in the company. However, they themselves have to decide on their sales target, set their own work tempo and get their work done wherever and whenever deemed appropriate and e? ctive. To further solicit workers’ compliance with industry goals, agents are given a share of the industry’s pro? t—commissions (Chua, 1971; Neo, 1996). Work is remunerated on the basis of sales; and commissions increase as one progresses along a clear and well-de? ned career path. The pace of advancement along the career path is selfdetermined: the individ ual decides how fast he or she wants to move along the career ladder. Individual job performance, in terms of sales volume and ability to keep policies ‘alive’, is a requisite for career advancement.Insurance agents thus take on a dual identity. On the one hand, they are employees who follow directives set by the company and work toward organisational goals. On the other hand, they are entrepreneurs who can determine their own career goals—which more often than not coincide with organisational interests—as well as experiment freely with various modes to achieve these goals. There is, however, a down side to the agents’ work. While the agents enjoy work autonomy and ? exibility, they also experience sustained pressure to produce (Chan & Ko, 1991).Further, life insurance has been and still is a taboo subject for many Singaporeans (Chan & Ko, 1991), partly due to the stigma attached to death and 150 gina lai et al. disabilities. Moreover, life insuranc e is generally perceived as a highrisk investment because of the need for considerable long-term ? nancial commitment to an unforeseeable future. Coupled with negative stereotypes of insurance work, agents often face rejections by strangers as well as family members and close friends, subsequently breeding personal isolation and alienation.Even worse, agents do not interact with their clients as equals. The balance of power in agent-client transactions is often tilted in favor of the clients. When faced with ‘unreasonable’ clients, agents are trained and often reminded by their supervisors not to get even for ‘bad’ client conduct, thus further perpetuating the status imbalance. Paradoxically, having escaped from the control of a boss who has legitimate rights to one’s time and labour, one now ? nds himself or herself subject to the control of many other bosses: all his real and prospective clients.Further, the rapid growth in the insurance industry i n Singapore has induced acute competitiveness and rivalry between companies as well as among agents, engendering a general feeling of distrust, tension and strain in interpersonal relations among peers. Jealousy from colleagues and interpersonal con? icts further reinforce individualism and self-isolation. Keen competition also makes it necessary for agents to intensify their labour—to self-exploit. Operating in such a hostile environment, the life insurance industry has to put up moral and social bu? rs to cushion itself against myriad adverse impacts—thus the emergence of an institutional ethos and culture as defense mechanisms. As a way to increase agents’ productivity and to sustain a certain motivational level, the industry periodically gives out awards and medals during conventions and congresses to raise workers’ morale and motivation (Chan & Ko, 1991). A culture of internal cohesiveness and mutual support is encouraged within individual life insur ance companies as well as the industry as a whole.These values not only help the industry achieve its goal of pro? t-making, but also facilitate the ability of agents to cope with mental and physical a? ictions caused by their work. Description of the Survey The analysis was based on three non-random samples, which yielded a total sample of 400 life insurance workers. First, 500 questionnaires were distributed to the agents by the managers of six major institutional context among life insurance agents 151 life insurance companies in Singapore.Of these, 212 completed and returned their questionnaires, giving a response rate of 42. 4%. Second, with the help of the Secretary of the Singapore Life Underwriters Association, questionnaires were disseminated to 400 agents via managers who attended a series of four talks organised by the Association. This channel saw a return of 137 questionnaires, yielding a response rate of 34. 3%. Third, the Secretary distributed 100 questionnaires to in surance managers whom he knew, who in turn handed them out to their own agents.A total of 51 questionnaires were returned this way. The overall response rate for the study was 40%. The non-random nature of the samples and relatively low response rates inevitably lead to a concern about the representativeness of our selected respondents. The relatively low response rate was probably due to the way we sampled our respondents and distributed questionnaires. We distributed the questionnaires to potential respondents through intermediaries (managers of major life insurance companies and the Secretary of the Singapore Life Underwriters Associatio