Aggression and Prosocial Behavior Essay

Social psychology is defined as â€Å"the scientific study of how a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others. † This definition is the basis upon which aggression and prosocial behavior are built. As a human being, each of us is given a daily choice of how and if we choose to interact with others. Although aggression and prosocial behavior are at opposite ends of the scale, the general idea behind each of them is that what we see, feel, understand and believe can have a massive impact on the way in which we choose to treat other people. On one end of the spectrum is aggression, a behavior intended to hurt or destroy another person. There are multiple rationales for what causes aggression and why some are more aggressive than others. The frustration-aggression hypothesis is the concept that different sources of frustration can cause a person to act aggressively. Environmental factors, such as excessive heat or noise, can increase frustration levels and thereby illicit an emotional response of aggression on the closest object. Other modern approaches for explaining aggression include a biological predisposition and learned behavior. Biologically speaking, it is possible that some gene or genes makes certain people prone to aggressive behavior under specific environmental conditions. Testosterone has also been linked to aggressive tendencies. The commonly known, â€Å"Roid Rage† that some bodybuilders and athletes experience when using steroids, is a prime example of increased testosterone affecting aggressive inclinations. Aggressive behavior can also be learned through observation. Over the years many psychologists have proven this theory in experimentation, such as the Zimbardo â€Å"prison experiment† and the Bandura â€Å"Bobo doll experiment†. When observing an authoritative figure or peer involving in an aggressive act and being reinforced after, the tendency is that the individual will learn this behavior and act in accordance. Many experiments on the influence of media, such as TV and video games, have looked to push aggressive behavior onto observational learning of violence. These findings have not been thoroughly proven and remain a public opinion rather than factual evidence. Although consensus has not been reached, and since it may be a culmination of all ideas, it is generally the person’s own choices that permit them to act in an aggressive manor towards others. The other completely different dimension of social interaction is found in prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is all of the â€Å"socially desirable behavior that benefits others. † Altruism is one such behavior. To be altruistic is to help someone in trouble without concern for one’s self or expectation of reward. However there can be complications when the call for altruistic behavior sounds. When a situation is presented in which a person must make an active decision to help another individual there are five steps that come into play. Noticing, or realizing there may be an emergency, defining the emergency, taking responsibility, planning a course of action and taking action. These steps allow a person to process an incident and decide whether or not they should aid the individual involved. Two majors concerns also come into effect when prosocial behavior is necessary. The bystander effect, referring to the likelihood of a bystander to aid someone in trouble decreases as the number of bystanders increases. This is sad, but true fact in most situations. It is directly related to the diffusion of responsibility, in which a person fails to take responsibility for either action or inaction because of the presence of other people that share in the responsibility. This push of accountability allows someone to rationalize why they chose not to react to an emergency. If there are other individuals present, then they could have also done something, so the vicious cycle continues and no help is ever given. In both social behaviors, aggression and prosocial, the responsibility for a person’s actions are placed solely upon them. Even in cases of aggression where medical treatment is necessary, the individual must still take responsibility to acknowledge the problem and find a solution. As with all human interaction, people are presented with many options every day. It is how people decide to act or not act that creates the spectrum of behavior studied by psychologists today.

Digital Television †Is It Advancement?

Digital television is becoming a global trend with a startling velocity. Following the lead of North America and Western Europe, a host of countries in East/South Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe are also hastening the epic shift from analog to digital television. It is predicted that approximately 1 billion people will be viewing digital broadcast television by the end of this year. At the current pace, nearly 38 percent of the world's TV households will be receiving digital signals by 2010 (Informa Telecoms & Media, 2007, p. 2).Underlying this technological gold rush is an array of remarkable features that digital broadcasting presents: interactivity, multichannel capacity, immunity to interference by other signals, superb audio-visual qualities, and quasi-universal interoperability with other media that recognize digital language. These outstanding qualities are founded upon the quintessence of digital technology: the binary codification (comparable to the dots and dashes o f the telegraph code), which converts data into â€Å"a bitstream of zeros and ones† (Owen, 1999, p.151).Since digital technology can break down virtually any type of information (print, painting, music, sound, photography) into a uniform code of bits and bytes, it is now possible to establish universal compatibility among various media. As Timothy Todreas (1999) observes, â€Å"text, graphics, audio and video used to be within the purview of separate industries: print, radio, and television respectively. Once digitized†¦ bits can commingle effortlessly. Content can travel down the same distribution path and can be used interchangeably† (pp.78-79).Paradoxically, the atomize-ability of digital technology precipitates digital convergence, in which all the sophisticated traditional media taxonomies and typologies will become muddied and eventually obsolete. Aside from the universal connectivity of digital television with neighboring media, there are a few other prope rties of digital television: audio/visual excellence, multichannel capacity, and interactivity. The digital television is capable of delivering superior audio/video quality compared to its analog counterpart.However, the enhanced audio/visual fidelity of digital television is best exploited in a combined use with the Hi-Definition television system, an advanced method of injecting televisual signals onto the screen in a much more precise fashion than that of its predecessors, the NTSC and PAL systems. Contrary to common belief, HDTV is not an immediate offspring of the digital television system, although electronics makers, broadcasters, and policymakers of the digital television excitedly promote it as digital television's headliner.There are multiple, significant reasons behind the deliberate â€Å"passing† of HDTV as the figurehead of digital television, especially in a Japanese context. Compared to analog signals, digitized information takes much less bandwidth, i. e. , m uch less channel capacity to distribute content per unit of time. This technical â€Å"thriftiness† is an end result of the compression technology that can filter out redundant data and squeeze more data into a given bandwidth. The economic use of bandwidth means greater space to fit more channels, which ends the â€Å"distribution bottleneck† (Todreas, 1999, p.79) common to analog formats.The sudden abundance of bandwidth leads to an explosion of channel outlets, metamorphosing the television industry structure. The interactive function of digital television is yet another benefit of the efficient use of bandwidth. A broadened bandwidth not only increases the volume of channels and the velocity of information but also enables â€Å"two-way† traffic. With expanded two-way interactions between sender and receiver, digital television could transform the modality of broadcasting from a linear, unilateral communication to a cyclical, bilateral one.Apparently, the le vel of control for the user is strictly limited by the choices provided by the software programmer. However, the interactivity of television will incrementally open new modes of socio-economic and cultural interactions (Video-On-Demand and T-commerce, for instance) among the user (Swann, 2000). Still, all the perks of digital television don't come without costs and shortcomings. The multiple channels of digital television could inspire program diversification and perhaps contribute to a socio-cultural diversification.In fact, critics and viewers have already become disillusioned by the promise of channel multiplication, for it has impoverished, rather than improved, the program quality and originality in a way similar to what cable television did in the U. S. Likewise, the interactive functions of digital television could turn into a blight rather than a blessing. Tony Feldman (1997) posits that interactivity â€Å"runs the risk of giving the users so much power in determining thei r own experiences of content that the only message conveyed is the one the user chooses to receive.The freedom to chart your own course, therefore, can emasculate as readily as it can liberate† (p. 18). Development of HDTV The question of high definition television came up in the early 1970's when Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, raised the possibility of HDTV. The technology was first developed by the Japanese to produce a better quality picture than previously available, and in 1978 NHK came up with two new HDTV systems. One of them was an 1,125 line system, the other a 2,125 line system that was transmitted by satellite (Fisher & Fisher, 1996).Japan started the HDTV movement in 1970 and spent over one billion dollars on its development by mid-1990 (Dupagne & Seel, 1998). In the early 1970's the major players in the effort to produce HDTV were Sony Pictures, Panasonic, Ikegami, and NHK. Most of the engineering was undertaken by Sony and NHK te sted the concept over the air. Panasonic and Ikegami (along with Sony) developed cameras, video tape recorders and other equipment needed for an entire HDTV package. Philips, the Dutch equipment manufacturer, developed a new HDTV system called Eureka in the early 1970's.The system scanned 1,250 horizontal lines at 50 frames per second, with the same 16 to 9 aspect ratio as the Japanese system. This system was sometimes referred to as Vision 1,250 (Gross, 2000). The American television industry was finally waking up and coming out of the doldrums it had been in since the early 1970's. The Japanese production had already taken over television, VCR's, and the stereo business. It looked as if they would also become world-leaders in the development of HDTV (Fisher and Fisher, 1996).The US was behind in the development of HDTV over Europe and Japan. The Defense Department pledged to spend $30 million dollars on the technology. The Defense Department sanctioned the spending of this money p artly because the superior picture quality would have application for military reconnaissance and pilot training (Hart, 2004). The House Telecommunications Subcommittee held a hearing with the intent to insure that this new technology would flourish in the United States (Gross, 2000).The electronics industry is in a high stakes race. A 1989 government report stated that the United States stood a chance to lose 2 million jobs, and suffer a $225 billion dollar annual trade deficit by the year 2010 if the US does not produce a coherent strategy to compete in the HDTV and associated industries (Dupagne & Seel, 1998). During the Reagan era an industrial consortium known as â€Å"Sematech† wanted to push the United States to become the leading technological manufacturer of the computer chip. This chip is used in HDTV.Chipmakers are of vital importance to the overall well being of the electronics industry. They represent the USA's largest manufacturing business, with revenues for 19 89 of $300 billion dollars. This is a business that is larger than the steel industry, aerospace, and the automobile industry combined (Dupagne & Seel, 1998). The American Electronics Association (AEA) wanted funds in US government loans, grants and loan guarantees to further produce and improve HDTV. They felt once the government committed itself that deeply it could not pull out (Hart, 2004).The AEA's attempt to persuade the government to enter into a government-industry consortium failed. It was an ambitious program to form a consortium to develop the next-generation of HDTV sets. The plan attracted only nominal support in Congress. The Bush administration actively opposed the idea. It received vocal support from the industry but no financial commitments (Hart, 2004). The Bush administration wanted to pull the plug on the high-tech industries. Washington was determined to cut the $10 million dollars pledged for research and development of HDTV in 1989.It also wanted to cut all fe deral support including the $100 million dollars it pledged for research and development in 1991. The Japanese manufacturers of semiconductors are encouraged by their government to spend 50 percent more on research and development of the chip. This is often subsidized by the Japanese government. This is more money spent on chip development than its US counterpart (Hart, 2004). In 1977 the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) formed a study group to investigate HDTV in the United States.As early as 1973 an 1,125 scanning line HDTV system was shown to engineers with CBS supporting the system. By 1980 SMPTE recommended using a system of about 1,100 scanning lines per frame and an interlace system (Fisher & Fisher, 1996). Since the US decided to take the lead in HDTV development the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sponsored the movement by creating â€Å"The Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service† (ACATS). This was headed by former FCC Cha irman Richard Wiley (Schreiber, 1999). ACATS declared an open competition to help create a usable HD service for the US.The FCC requested those involved with this project to submit their proposals to the FCC for approval. Shortly after that 23 proposals were turned in to the FCC. All of them were in analog format (Schreiber, 1999). Many of the inventors felt that digital would not become available until the 21st century. Also many broadcasters were not interested in creating a new system that was not compatible with their existing system, since that would require them to invest heavily to create a new market form (Fisher and Fisher, 1996). CBS was the first network to actively pursue HDTV (Hart, 2004).This was unusual since at that time the broadcast networks had less money to invest in high cost programming. In part some of this was due as a result of the viewing audiences shifting over from the broadcast networks' programming to the cable stations. The loss of viewers to home VCR playback and rental movies, satellite delivery of Direct-TV, DBS and pay cable services also accounted for viewer erosion (Hart, 2004). In 1981 the Japanese company NHK was prodded by CBS to come to the United States to demonstrate their HDTV system.Members of CBS and SMPTE met with the Japanese in San Francisco, California, at the St. Francis Hotel at an annual television conference. The demonstration was very successful. The viewers were impressed with the NHK's system's â€Å"extraordinary resolution, rich saturated color and wide screen monitors and projection television displays (Hart, 2004, p. 92). † The general feeling of the people attending the conference was that the HDTV system broke all constraints of television picture quality imposed on them by the aging NTSC color standard.In 1983, based on what they saw at the conference, the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) was formed. Their goal was to improve the quality of video and develop new standards in tech nology. They were also instructed to come up with a recommendation for a usable HDTV standard for the United States by the spring of 1985. They were to present this standard to a subcommittee of the International Consultative Radio Committee (CCIR) which would set a world standard (Hart, 2004). The ATSC is a committee largely made up of engineers. In 1984 it had a yearly budget of $250,000.They decided to work on three parallel ideas to help improve the overall picture performance of US television. One group called the â€Å"improved NTSC† group headed by RCA Laboratories' Kern Powers, worked to improve the present standard by improving studio and transmission equipment and the television receivers. Another group called the â€Å"enhanced group† investigated new production and transmission systems that still used the 525 scanning lines and a 4 to 3 aspect ratio. They also sought to produce a better picture through different signal formats (Fisher & Fisher, 1996).The th ird group worked on HDTV at the CBS Technology Center and closely examined the Japanese NHK type of HDTV. This system would produce twice as many horizontal and vertical scanning lines as the NTSC system and would have an aspect ratio of 5 to 3 (Fisher & Fisher, 1996). Their goal was to have an HDTV standard that they could present to the FCC by the spring of 1985. Their standard would be compatible with NTSC, PAL and SECAM and they could transfer their video to 3 5 mm film for theatrical release (Dupagne & Seel, 1998).By March of 1985 ATSC did have a standard they felt they could present to the FCC. They picked 1,125 scanning lines as their standard because it was a compromise between twice the 525 NTSC standard, which equals 1,050 and twice 625 lines (used in Europe) which is 1,250. The system would also have a two-to-one interlaced scanning, a 5 to 3 aspect ratio and scan at 80 fields per second. This scanning rate was the only source of controversy, since the NTSC used 60 per se cond and most of Europe used 50 per second (Fisher & Fisher, 1996).The Europeans felt it could not be used by them because conversion could not take place without some degradation of picture quality. The Japanese approved of it since most of their experiments were conducted in a 60 field per second rate (Hart, 2004). By January of 1988 the ATSC voted on an HDTV system of 1,125 scanning lines, 60 hertz HDTV, 16 to 9 aspect ratio production standard. The vote approved of this standard 26 for and 11 against, with 8 abstaining. The Association of Maximum Service Telecasters (AMST) and the National Association of Broadcasters voted against the new standard (Dupagne & Seel, 1998).Late in 1987 the FCC steering committee submitted a list of five proposed guidelines in which to raise, or solicit, the funds from the participating companies involved with the development of HDTV. The most important guideline of the proposal was that â€Å"no one source contributes more than 15 per cent of the total, private funds raised,† according to the FCC (Hart, 1994, p. 216). In 1989 the American Electronics Association predicted that HDTV would reach the mass market by 1999 and that it would take until the year 2002 to reach 10 percent market penetration.They stated that HDTV would be megapixel, doubling the horizontal and vertical resolution of present television, with around 1,200 scanning lines by about 800 points across and close to a million pixels per screen. It was believed at this time that early HDTV sets would be expensive, large, projection TV's that would find their way into sports bars before they are accepted in private homes (Helliwell, 1989). It was the dawn of the digital age. â€Å"The leap from analog to digital could be as striking as that from black and white to color. † (Dupagne & Seel, 1998, p. 67).By 1990 General Instrument Corporation claimed it had perfected the first all-digital method of transmitting an HDTV signal that would be compatible w ith conventional broadcast channels. That year the FCC announced that it would select the new United States HDTV standard after extensive testing from applicants from six systems including European, Japanese and American companies (Hart, 2004). On May 24, 1993 the â€Å"Grand Alliance† was formed. The four leading pioneers of USA's quest for a high definition picture joined forces. General Instruments-DSRC, AT+T/Zenith, Thomson/Philips, and MIT were the companies that formed this alliance.The purpose of the Grand Alliance was to combine the various parts of their four separate systems into one complete system. This way they would produce a single, all-digital HDTV transmission system. The four HDTV systems that each company produced separately (before the alliance) had a good picture in a 6 Mhz channel, but none of them were deemed good enough to be considered the single acceptable standard (Dupagne & Seel, 1998). The new Grand Alliance systems comprised 1080 active scanning lines with 1920 pixels per line, interlaced at 59.94 and 60 fields per second, and a 720 active line with 1280 pixels per line, progressive scanning at 59. 94 and 60 frames per second. Both formats operated in the progressive scanning mode at 30 and 24 frames per second.The system used MPEG-2 video compression and transport systems and Dolby AC-3, 384 Kb/8 audio. It also used the 8-VSB transmission system developed by Zenith. This system was overwhelmingly approved by the ATSC membership. The old analog NTSC television will someday cease to exists as we know it. In its place high quality digital TV and HDTV will capture a larger and larger share of the market (Dupagne & Seel, 1998).The ATSC believed that its HDTV standard would rule the land-based-over-the-air broadcast not only in the United States but in the northern hemisphere, and even in a few Asian countries as well. Europe, Japan and Australia are going to have a different HDTV standard from the USA. America's standard uses a n eight-level vestigial sideband (8-VSB) 6- Mhz modulation for its over-the-air transmission. The European, Japanese, and Australian systems use an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system (Strassberg, 1998). But politics intervened and a world wide standard was not to be.Different parts of the world will all have their own high definition standards. All the different formats will have more scanning lines than the present NTSC system, but they will not have the same number of scanning lines as each other. Therefore, conversion will be necessary between each country's systems (Hart, 2004). When the people involved in trying to set up a standard for HDTV moved from the chaotic to a more organized collaboration the marketing strategies did not keep pace with the development. There was a consensus among the manufacturers that HDTV would never happen, or at least it would be on a smaller scale than predicted.In Japan their HDTV development was stunted because of a lack of attractive programming. In Europe HDTV was abandoned because there was no consensus among programmers, signal providers, and the public (Hart, 2004). Both Mexico and Canada have refused to sign off on the channel assignments granted to the US stations in bordering areas. This will lead to a clouding up of the signals in those parts of the states. Detroit had to delay its planned digital/HDTV delivery launch on November 1, 1998, because of signal mix-up (Stern, 1998). The Thompson Manufacturing Company emphasized that the success of HDTV will largely depend on the broadcaster.Though HDTV sets are being manufactured it will depend on the number of hours of high definition signal that is being transmitted out there, to pull the audience to the television screen (Hart, 2004). . The FCC and HDTV By 1990 the FCC decided that the HDTV signal would have to fit into one channel. The Japanese were suggesting that the US use their MUSE (Multiple Sub-Nyguist Encoding) system. This system would use one channel for the picture and another channel with information to boost it to HDTV level (Schreiber, 1999). By Congressional order the FCC has assigned a second TV channel to each of the nations 1,600 television stations.Each of these stations will now be able to offer digital signal service to the public. It will be up to the broadcasters as to what kinds of services to offer and in what format they wish to transmit in (Hart, 2004). Originally then FCC Chairman, Reed Hundt, wanted to auction off the HDTV channels. The proposal for this auction was then introduced to Congress by Senate Majority Leader, Bob Dole. But, heavy lobbying by the broadcasters quickly killed the bill (Schreiber, 1999). Regulators were considering adding 30 Mhz, or channels 2 to 6, to the spectrum that broadcasters will be using when the shift to digital TV is completed.By the year 2002 the analog channels will be returned to the government. The FCC will then auction these returned channels off to pros pective buyers. Congress and the White House expected this auction to raise somewhere around $5. 4 billion dollars. If broadcasters are given this additional 30 Mhz this would set the FCC back by about $2 billion dollars (Schreiber, 1999). When the analog channels are no longer in use by the broadcasters and they are auctioned off, they will be used for non-broadcast use such as mobile phones, two-way paging, and wireless Internet access (Schreiber, 1999).The broadcasters will transmit both the existing NTSC analog signal on one channel and the new HDTV signal on another channel. This way the existing analog TV sets will not be rendered useless immediately. The FCC adopted this simulcast plan where each existing television station would be assigned a second 6-Mhz channel for the analog TV and a channel for HDTV service (Schreiber, 1999). On Thursday April 3, 1997, the FCC approved by 4 to zero the biggest advance to broadcasters since the 1950's when color was introduced to televisi on.The government announced that it was giving away to broadcasters free air-space. Critics of the FCC felt that giving this free air-space, without having the stations pay for it, was the biggest government give away of the century. To the 1,600 stations in this country this is an estimated $70 billion dollar gift of free channels (Schreiber, 1999). To create the necessary channels needed for HDTV the spectrum space was taken from UHF stations of channels 14 or higher. The government has had a history of setting aside unused channels in the past for the broadcasters.The government will be taking these channels back and making them available to fire, police, rescue, and other public safety groups (Schreiber, 1999). By November 1, 1998 the FCC ruled that the networks must begin to broadcast a digital signal. At first only the top 10 markets will get any of the new ATSC digital signals. Only about 5 hours of broadcast high definition signal will be available. The stations will be free to broadcast as little, or as much HDTV signal as they deem possible. By 1998 the first true high definition television sets were available for sale on the open market (Hart, 2004).The roots of HDTV lie in a 1996 decision by the FCC to require broadcasters to transmit two signals, one in analog (NTSC) and one in digital. The FCC required that broadcasters continue broadcasting the analog signal until the year 2006, although the deadline can be extended if digital grows too slowly in popularity. The FCC gave each TV station a second broadcast channel for digital signals used for the new HDTV programming (Schreiber, 1999). There has been some indication that the HDTV signal does not work as well as it was predicted, or promised, to work.The November 1, 1998 launch date for HD signal was to deliver crystal clear images and CD-quality sound. And it did, but only 40 percent of the time. After a test in Washington, DC, in 1998 it was found that a majority of the time the televisions usin g indoor antennas could not display a high definition image. It was an all or nothing at all thing with over-the-air digital signals. Test results stated that with terrestrial transmission, broadcasters and set manufacturers will be even more reliant on cable operators to reach their potential viewers (Schreiber, 1999).For someone who sets up their HDTV receiver during the winter months when the leaves are off the trees, there are some who did not receive a signal in the spring when the new leaves appeared. Often the first time a potential customer views an HD television set they have to become accustomed to some surprising effects. As a result of the image compression techniques that are used to squeeze such a high-resolution picture into a 6 Mhz channel there are no noticeable defects in the picture until there is motion on the screen.The motionless backgrounds appear in stunningly clear detail, but when an object moves the picture momentarily blurs and develops a â€Å"block lik e† image around the moving object (Strassberg, 1998). The bugs are still being worked out, but as it stands the first person to purchase a high definition TV set will not be sure it will work with an antenna, and they won't be able to connect to cable (Strassberg, 1998). Industrial Policy, Politics and HDTV In October 1988, the American Electronics Association (AEA) released a report forecasting the effect of HDTV on the U. S. economy and technological prowess.This report heightened fears of foreign threats to the domestic consumer electronics industry. A string of Congressional hearings followed. In May 1989, the AEA issued a second report, which included a recommendation for $1. 35 billion in government assistance (Hart, 2004, pp. 157-9). This was necessary, argued the report, to make American companies competitive with their international competitors. The resulting political fall out could have hardly been anticipated. The second AEA report was the proverbial â€Å"last st raw† in a very heated ideological battle over American industrial policy.One side of the argument feared that U.S. firms were unfairly disadvantaged against international competition because many foreign companies enjoyed generous subsidies from their governments, which often had much more cohesive industrial policies than that of the U. S. The other side argued that the best way to ensure American success could only be accomplished through the competitive process of a free market, which is what drove the American innovative spirit—not government mandates and funding. These differing positions were soon became part of a political battle between Capitol Hill and the Bush Administration (Bingham, 1998).The position of the latter was influenced by a stand against industrial policy taken by Bush during a campaign speech, where he declared, â€Å"I oppose the federal government's picking of winners and losers in the private sector. That's known as ‘industrial policyâ € Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ (Hart, 1994, p. 221). The debate had been percolating for some time. Just prior to the second AEA report, Senator Al Gore (D-Tenn. ) had been the most recent of a list of legislators to introduce yet another bill designed to spur HDTV development and push the Whitehouse towards a more proactive domestic industrial policy.The bill was motivated in part by Gore's unhappiness with Secretary Mosbacher, who had refused to attend a hearing by his Science Subcommittee (Bingham, 1998). Not all within the industry favored the Congressional push for government assistance. The Electronic Industries Association (EIA), whose members—unlike the AEA—included foreign owned companies as well as U. S. companies did not support government subsidization for fear they might not get a piece of the proverbial pie (Bingham, 1998). Philips and Thompson lobbied vigorously against this legislation.They argued that their system shouldn't be put at a disadvantage just because they wer e European companies. After all, their American subsidiaries provided American jobs just like their American owned counterparts, and their system, if chosen, would benefit the American public just like the other systems (Hart, 2004). This illustrates the problematic nature of industrial policy: provided you do decide that it is even in America's best interest to subsidize companies, how do you then rationalize subsidizing those very competitors all over again?Yet, if you do subsidize U.S. and not foreign owned companies, you still risk disadvantaging American workers (Bingham, 1998). As a consequence of the political battle over industrial policy, the Bush Administration developed an anti-HDTV policy. Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher, who had initially supported the promotion of a strong HDTV policy, became a critic of such policies as a result of the political fallout. In one Congressional hearing, he criticized the industry for holding back research in hopes that it might ge t funding from the government (Hart, 1994, pp.221-222).The second AEA report came at the climax of the battle. A focal point of the battle was DARPA, which had begun an initiative to fund HDTV technology in the public sector for â€Å"dual use† purposes (i. e. encourage technologies that provide significant benefits to both the defense and civilian sectors) (Bingham, 1998, p. 110). By the end of May, the White House had ordered a halt to pro HDTV industrial policies, and Craig Fields, a vocal supporter of DoD funded HDTV development, would eventually be dismissed in April of 1990.Interestingly, in the midst of all this fallout, Al Sikes, former head of the NTIA and a big proponent of HDTV, became the new Chairman of the FCC in August of 1989. However, the nomination had actually been submitted before the political battle over HDTV had escalated (Dupagne & Seel, 1998, p. 184). The introduction of digital helped alleviate the conflicting goals of progress versus compatibility, by offering an option so significantly advanced that it superseded the goal of compatibility.The conflicting goals reflect the much broader conflict between the FCC's dual mandates to promote and police. It is interesting to keep in mind, however, that new technology was not the only factor in this move. After all, the FCC actually chose to pursue an HDTV approach vis-a-vis a more compatible EDTV approach at least two months before, GI revealed its digital system (Hart, 2004). It might be very easy to lay the problems of adoption that have resulted from choosing a digital system, which was not compatible to NTSC, at the feet of the FCC.We could speculate that commissioners were unable to grasp the complexities and significance economic principles or the staff was to rigid in its thinking to find a truly innovative solution to the problems already discussed. However, the fact remains that the move towards DTV was also made by industry participants. The FCC could not force manufacture rs to propose a system they did not want (Hart, 2004). Once full digital HDTV had been achieved, many manufacturers voluntarily scrapped their analog systems in order to pursue digital systems. In making this choice proponents were at the mercy of economic forces beyond their control.They could not afford not to choose a digital system following GI's breakthrough: the risk that the public and officials would perceive such systems as technologically inferior was too great. Digital threatened the successful adoption of any analog system, regardless of the outcome of the contest. In the end the analog systems failed to compete adequately with the digital systems anyway (Hart, 2004). Conclusion Now era of analog broadcast television in the United States will end as the nation completes its transition to an all-digital system, which is set on February 17, 2009 (dtv.com).The veneration of HDTV as the single source of spectacular televisual experience and as the epitome of digital televisi on is a necessary mythology for the joint endeavor of the broadcasting industry, HDTV manufacturers, and the MPT to move digital broadcasting in the world forward. HDTV is, by definition, a specific type of television receiver that provides higher resolution than the NTSC standard by way of compressing, storing, and delivering a greater amount of image and sound information than previous transmission systems.There are a number of competing HDTV standards, and unlike common mis/conceptions, not all HD televisions are digital. Nor does the digital HDTV necessarily guarantee a better audio-visual fidelity than the analog HDTV. Additionally, HDTV is not the sole foundation of the audio-visual grandeur of the digital television system. Technically, not all HDTV can assist or accommodate diverse functions (e. g. , interactivity) that the digital broadcasting service would normally offer. Nor can all digital television receivers, likewise, convey as good a picture quality as a HDTV would p roffer.As the digitalization of broadcasting became an irreversible national policy of U. S. in 1990s, electronics companies tended to blend the two technical specifications, manufacturing only digital HDTV sets. And as the digital HDTV becoming a norm in the industry, digital television and HDTV are often used interchangeably, regardless of their technical and conceptual differences. Digital TV alone could enhance audio-visual quality to a considerable degree, since it involves no mediation of transmission towers or ground cables, thereby decreasing the chance for the deterioration of broadcast signals.Accurate or erroneous, the adoration of HDTV as the end-all and be-all of visual excellence would place the entire edifice of digital broadcasting in U. S. on a pedestal. More specifically, it is expected to have a dramatic impact on the viewer's awareness of digital broadcasting, and consequently, adoption of more advanced, multifunctional digital TV sets. As the audience is exposed to the crisp, vivid images of HDTV, they will see a compelling reason to switch to digital broadcasting. A wide and speedy diffusion of digital HDTV is a prerequisite for the energetic growth of digital broadcasting and a barometer to measure such growth.Second, digital HDTV sets are considered an axial item for the reinvigoration of U. S. ‘s economy led by the three engines: the AV equipment industry, electronics manufacturing, and online business. With many years of rigorous R&D endeavors, U. S. begin to claims its share of the global HDTV and associated A-V equipment market. HDTV is no longer a plain â€Å"household appliance† but a core IT technology, equipped with cutting-edge apparatuses, ranging from memory chips, mobile transmitters, and LCD, PLP monitors, to various paraphernalia that enable interoperability with other digital devices.Conclusively, odd it may sound, U. S. ‘s development of HDTV is infused with what might be called â€Å"techno-nationali sm† that has intensified throughout its competition with the Japan for economic and technological supremacy. The four-decade long endeavor of promoting HDTV as the global standard has been at once a medium and a theater of the techno-economic contest between the two techno-egos. HDTV is, after all, as much a political game as a business matter; as culturally intense a project as a technology-intensive battle.But this battle is not over. As the latest news report, â€Å"the electronic company Sony will debut a flat-screen t flat-screen television powered by organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that require less power and space. The OLEDs result in a television picture with stronger colors and a faster response time in pixels. The television will be introduced in Japan but will not be available in the U. S. for several years. † (Berhie, 2007)

Being a global grocery store Essay

Being a global grocery store and merchandising retail store, Tesco continues to consolidate its position as the world’s number three retailer after Wal-mart and Carrefour of the US and France, respectively. The Tesco company emerged in 1924, with its first store being opened in London, five years later. The same company has continued to grow, after that it opened up in 1956, its first supermarket. From then, the company has continued to realize growth and expansion, growing organically during the second phase of the 20th century. The growth during this epoch reached its apogee when in 1977, the Tesco company decided to reduce the prices of its commodities in lieu of Cohen’s rather antithetical policies. This resulted in Tesco company realising a 4% growth in its market share after every two months. Strategic directions and development methods that have been adopted by Tesco. Up to the moment, the Tesco company has been focusing on making innovations and facilitating conditions that can encourage the same. This is geared towards making the employees free enough to engage in efforts to come up with innovative ideas. The rationale behind this notion is that the rank and file of an entire organization has the ability to generate productive ideas. To this effect, the Tesco company as organization ensures that there is an open line through which the opinions and views of the employees can be solicited (Humby and Hunt 2007, 75). The effect that this approach has on the returns of the Tesco company is that it has realized a stable base of employees who are loyal. This is because the employees, courtesy of the practice, are left with the feeling of being totally integral to the company and being appreciated by the management board. This has bolstered the cause of Tesco company’s growth and expansion, due to low employees turnover. The low employees turnover becomes inevitable for Tesco company since employees take to remain loyal to the company, and thus saving it from needing to recruit new employees. At the same time, the Tesco company takes to target the desired goal by making regular consultations with the clients on the quality of goods produced by the Tesco company. This exercise has been very instrumental in helping the Tesco company channel its synergies towards efficiency and customer satisfaction. Forces that are promoting the food retail industry’s globalisation. According to Harris and Dennis (2002, 177) there are several forces that ensure the global adoption of the Tesco company food retail. In the first case, the company makes it its responsibility to ensure that its operations are attune to the indigenous tastes and preference of the local market. To this effect, Tesco company takes it upon itself to tamper its operations with the indigenous culture, regulations and delivery chains. This feat has been instrumental in placing the Tesco company in the map. At the same time, Tesco company builds brands that enable it as a company to forge longterm relationships with its clients. In the same vein, the company maintains its ability to fix its focus on the targeted countries, even in the face of going global. This, the company takes to achieve by establishing brands that are unique and of high standard. In the same wavelength, Tesco company has ensured these prospects by establishing brands that are nation or state- specific. In order to thoroughly entrench itself into the global market, Tesco company ensures that it carries out designs that are multi formatted. According to Baker (2002, 90), this has been important to Tesco company, given the fact that it has been established that there is no single format that has been able to consolidate its position in the global market. How Tesco strategy in the US may help it realize competitive advantage. In the US Context, Tesco company has tried to achieve an edge over its peers by taking to mitigate the extent of the shopping costs. Another feather in Tesco company’s cap exists, courtesy of the fact that the deficit does not fall on the shoulders of the suppliers. Rather, the Tesco company sorts out the situation through the enhancement of the efficiency and the adoption of simpler processes in the course of the company’s operations. Hooley, Saunders and Piercy (2004, 67) maintain that this means that clients are able to realize relatively less costly shopping expeditions, from the Tesco company. Unlike Tesco company, its peers even after reducing the shopping price, still leave financial weight to fall squarely on the suppliers. The suppliers on the other hand try to settle the deficit by exacting higher prices to the retailers who then impose extra costs on the consumers. This cycle becomes the epitome of the adage, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. In about the same vein, Tesco company is trying to build a niche for itself in the American context by opening up many stores that support the issuance of hard discount (Tapp 2002, 122). To crown this effort, Tesco company has remained responsible for the invitation of British companies that can bolster the interests of the same. Some of these companies are the Big Kahuna Wine a label of Fresh and Easy. This company has been influential in dragging a huge clients’ base to Tesco company scores, owing to the quality wine and delicious poultry meat it serves. Conclusion. It is important for any company that seeks to emulate Tesco company to take to stock, the fact that the latter has, apart from the aforementioned practices, ensured that it dabbles its operations with the concept of capability. To this cause, the Tesco company ensures the employment of skills, and not scale. This, for the Tesco company portends ensuring that the skills are elicited from its rank and file and the systems processes. Therefore, even small scale companies are inexcusable when it comes to (under) performance. References. Baker, M. J. Tesco company and marketing mix, New York: Prentice Hall, 2002. Harris, L. and C. Dennis, Tesco company and e business, London, SAGE, 2002. Hooley, G. , J. A. Saunders and Piercy, N. , Tesco company marketing strategies, New York: McGraw Hill, 2004. Humby, C. and P. Hunt, Tesco company and customer loyalty, Harvard, Harvard University Press, 2007. Tapp, A. , The principles of database and direct marketing, Michigan, Michigan University Press, 2002.

Critical Thinking and Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Critical Thinking and Decision Making - Essay Example Logical thinking is a way of thinking that aims at solving a problem or analyzing a situation by resorting to a formal and systematic approach that is akin to being mathematical (Thagard, 2012, p. 38). Logical thinking aids the critical thinking process by allowing an individual analyze a problem or a situation, while restraining the influence of the strong emotions that impact the critical thinking process at a particular time. However, logical thinking carried to its extremes and totally insulated from emotions may turn out to be too mechanical and may lead to wrong conclusions. A pessimistic thinking is one that makes an individual blame oneself if the things go wrong (Thagard, 2012). Pessimistic thinking within limits aids critical thinking by making a person become more alert and responsible. However, too much pessimism obfuscates the critical thinking process by causing excessive stress and

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 3

Company Law - Essay Example In the given problem, though, the place of incorporation of â€Å"Beauty Care Ltd or BCL â€Å"is not given, it is assumed that it has been incorporated in a valid jurisdiction. Hence, it is assumed that it is not a private company incorporated in Hong Kong and a company registered elsewhere, which is suitable for listing in Hong Kong. It should have a past trading record in the last three financial years and its net profit after taxes but before dividend should not be lesser than HK $ 20,00,0000 and in respect of the last two financial years, it should not be lesser than HK$ 30, 00,000. In the last three financial years, a minimum of HK$50 million should have been reported as profit. At least twenty five percent of minimum paid-up capital should be controlled by at least not less than one thousand public shareholders. It is to be observed that above mentioned minimum number of public shareholders shall exclude any employee holdings of the company. However, up to five percent holdings held by employees is permitted to comprise of the twenty-five percent public shareholding spread. By the introduction listing of securities already issued where no marketing arrangements are needed since the securities for which listing is sought are already of such an amount and so widely held that there is enough marketability. Beauty Care Limited (BCL) has to submit an application for listing its shares and it has to go through the formalities of the dual vetting and filing process by both the SFC and HKSE. However, in case if the application is made to HKSE only, then it will forward a copy to SFC. Further, HKSE will be the front-end communicator for the purpose of listing. (Soulier & Best 2005:200). Further, the listing document of an overseas issuer who wishes to have a primary listing in Hong Kong should furnish a summary of the specific regulatory statutory rules or otherwise of the overseas

Florida lawmaker pushes bill to end FCAT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Florida lawmaker pushes bill to end FCAT - Essay Example Widespread reports of racial profiling that led to incidents like the one in Cincinnati, where police violently clashed with black protesters for three days, have called the attention of the public and inevitably, many politicians. Cloud et al observes a nationwide scrambling for legislations banning racial profiling as a tool in police operations. The writers anticipate, however, a problem in implementing a sweeping prohibition of racial profiling as was being contemplated by the End Racial Profiling bill, then pending in 2000 in Congress. One possible outcome of such a law is a police force hesitant to do their jobs, such as what happened after the Cincinnati riots where arrests dwindled in numbers despite an opposing direction of crime incidences. Another is the unlikely feasibility of a mechanism that could accurately predict when or how racial profiling is actually being committed. The article is a well-written, subtle piece of writing imbuing as much logic and reason to impress the readers of its objectivity to cushion a position that leans towards the less popular view in this highly charged issue. The general impression that one gets after reading the article is that the writers wanted to impress the American readers of the folly of a sweeping anti-racial profiling law, considering the absence of a mechanism that could exactly measure racial profiling. Thus, the article begins by taking into account the perspectives of police, particularly from one who whines about â€Å"guilt by uniform.† The article also points out that there is no exact definition of what racial profiling is and hence, the consequent difficulty in telling the police to stop employing it, as the wrong itself defies precise and conclusive definition (Cloud et al 2). Still later, it stresses the difficulty in gauging the actual amount of racial profiling being practiced by the police force (Cloud et al 3). Understandably, the writers chose to approach this subject in a very subtl e way, presenting facts and reports as much as possible and letting interviewees mouth relevant data, which nevertheless, support the writers’ point. The article does not make much use of ‘pathos’ - the writers seemingly holding back perhaps out of fear that they would be stirring the hornet’s nest. On the other hand, the writers attempt to resort to the appeal of logic and reason by sprinkling an abundance of interviews, reports and factual accounts of events throughout the article that represented their perspectives rather than enunciating these views themselves. The appeal to logic and reason seems to be employed precisely for the readers to forget the emotional underpinning of the issue, which is not bad except that it makes the writers look like fence-sitters at times with no real position of their own leaving the readers confused as to what their objectives really are. Thus, as the writers allow some police personnel to recount the gloom that pervade s their respective agencies leaving their hands tied with charges of racial profiling looming above their heads like the sword of Damocles, the article followed this up with details of racial profiling incidents such the â€Å"flying while black† incident involving the seizure of $7,000 from a black businessman by the DEA on the ground that it was

Bacterial cells Quantification Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bacterial cells Quantification - Lab Report Example Additionally, the information provided by this can be used to discover the effect of an enzyme on bacterial cell count – if an enzyme increases reproduction or lyses cells, this is discoverable by comparison to the absorbance graph created using known concentrations. In this experiment, the activity of lysozyme is studied. Lysozyme is the name of a glycoside hydrolase which damages cell walls by catalysing hydrolysis of the links between two key components of peptidoglycan – N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (Pommerville, 2007). It is notable that lysozyme is present in many human excretions, such as saliva and tears, and this forms one of the body’s many natural antimicrobial techniques. It is also notable that lysozyme is more effective against Gram-positive cells because the cell walls of these bacteria have a higher concentration of peptidoglycan (Pommerville, 2007). An additional experiment was performed to test the effect of certain antibiotic s on bacterial cells. This is always an important test because of the current crisis in clinical practice due to the increasing amount of bacteria that are highly resistant to many or all of the available antibiotics (Neu, 1992). This can be done in several ways, but antibiotic disc sensitivity testing is particularly useful as it allows a test of several antibiotics on one sample of organism, allowing us to be certain that all the microbes are the same and thus reducing the possibility of false results. Results Antibiotic Effect on Various Bacteria Antibiotic/Dose Escherichia coli (-) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (-) Staphylococcus aureus (+) Bacillus subtilis (+) AP/25?g S R S S GM/10?g S S R S PY/100?g S R S S NA/30?g S R S R NI/50?g R R S S SM/200?g R R R R T/100?g S R S R TS/25?g S R S S NI at a dose of 50?g is effective only against Gram-positive microbes. TS at a dose of 25?g and T at a dose of 100?g, as well as NA at 30?g, PY at 100?g, GM at 10?g and AP at 25?g all appear to be ef fective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms. Micrococcus lysodeikticus Concentration vs. Absorbance at 450nm Micrococcus lysodeikticus (cells/ml) Absorbance at 450nm 0 0.000 6.25 x 106 0.406 1.25 x 107 0.274 2.5 x 107 0.301 5.0 x 107 0.455 1.0 x 108 0.870 Unknown 0.599 The general trend appears to be that absorbance is higher with a higher concentration of cells per ml. Absorbance = (0.000000008 * cell concentration) + 0.21 We can thus work out the unknown value by rearranging this formula – Absorbance – 0.21 = 0.000000008 * cell concentration Cell concentration = (Absorbance – 0.21)/0.000000008 Unknown = 48625000 or 4.8625 x 107 Effects of Lysozyme Solution on Viable Cell Count – Shown Using Absorbance Time (minutes) Absorbance of the M. Lysodeikticus standard containing 5.0 x 107 cells/ml 0 0.414 3 0.350 6 0.337 9 0.333 12 0.320 15 0.300 The longer the cells are left in the lysozyme solution, the less absorbance is shown. Discussion A s noted in the discussion, lysozyme is more effective as a antimicrobial towards Gram-positive cells due to the larger amounts of peptidoglycan in the cell walls of these organisms. As can be seen here, lysozyme has a very distinct effect on the absorbance measurements from the M. lysodeikticus standard which increase substantially with time, suggesting that there are less viable cells the longer the organism is left in the presence of

Employees would like to improve the value of their work using the 7 Essay

Employees would like to improve the value of their work using the 7 stage Checkland Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) - Essay Example In the end, the conclusion summarizes the findings and their applicability in the real world. Soft Systems Methodology was developed by Peter Checkland and is a seven step methodolgy to construe models to solve organizational problem situations. It provides a comparison of the current world with certain focused models that can solve ‘soft’ problems. The approach is deemed to be participative and can be carried out by organization members with the support of a facilitator who is familiar with the methodology. It is of most use for people who work and involves drawing rich pictures to expand on different models and systems (Hersh & Hamburg, 2006). The problem under consideration is how can employees improve the value of their work. There are many factors that can accrue to overall improvement in work performance. More importantly, factors that are impeding improvement strategies from being implemented need to be addressed. The value of work done by employees depends partly on the working environment and partly on the employer. Therefore, in order to bring about de finitive change, the employer’s support and cooperation is of great importance. This paper identifies the problems faced by employees in order to improve the value of their work. The first part of the SSM inquiry deals with identification of the problem. The later part deals with root definitions of the systems and the development of potential models; the last steps expound on the efficacy of the proposed recommendations in the real world. For a business organization to function successfully, the value of work of the employees plays a very critical role. It is as much the responsibility of the employees as it is the duty of the line manager to ensure that optimum employee performance is achieved. However, due to any reason, if the employees are not able to put in their best performance, the value of their work is

Southwest Airlines Fuel Hedge Program. Why Southwest Hedged Fuel Research Paper

Southwest Airlines Fuel Hedge Program. Why Southwest Hedged Fuel - Research Paper Example US Airline Industry Background An overview of the US airline sector reveals an industry setting with numerous considerations where heightened competition and fuel costs are key determinants of performance. Global fuel prices are highly volatile, a trend which has been observed over the last two decades (Carter, Rogers and Simskin 1). Fuel costs greatly impact an airline’s operations since they constitute about 17% of total costs, second to labor costs only. Moreover, ticket prices usually reflect fuel prices, hence, determining profit margins, financial outlooks and forecasts. The competitiveness in the US airline industry translates into a situation where the rising fuel costs cannot be passed to the service consumer. Southwest Airlines, as a major player in the US industry, among other things, specializing in short-haul, provides high-frequency and low fare point-to-point services which in the long run can be largely impacted by such volatilities in the fuel prices (Morrell and Swan 713-714). The inability to pass on fuel costs to consumers forces airlines to consider other strategies for surviving fuel prices fluctuation. Hedging is one of such strategies considered by airlines, such as Southwest, as a solution to the fuel price volatility problem. Hedging: Fuel Price Risk Management: Drastic changes in fuel prices are some of the major risks that may cripple airlines. For instance, political volatility in the Middle East- a major source of crude oil- disrupts global oil prices in two ways. First, war increases the local demand for fuel, hence, lesser exports. Secondly, normal extraction of oil may be disrupted during military operations. Carter et al. (4-5) provide an example of such a situation using the Gulf War, where the average spread rose by 8.1 times, from 3.5 cents to 28.5 cents per gallon. Trempski (1) offers another point of view concerning the jet fuel price volatility stating that a barrel of crude oil price rise from $10.82 in 1996 to $6 9.91 in 2005, had a negative impact on the heavily oil-dependent industry. Control of global fuel prices is not within the power of airlines such as Southwest; hence, there is a need for alternative strategies. Airlines use several instruments to hedge their fuel including over-the-counter (OTC) swaps, future contracts that are exchange traded, exchange traded or OTC call options and OTC or exchange traded collars (Carter et al. 4). Hedging in the airline industry, however, follows a unique format, where risk management is done on fuels other than jet fuels. The first reason for this is based on the refining process; products from the same distillation step share similar characteristics and highly correlated prices and future commercial outlooks. Hence, heating oil can be used to hedge jet fuel prices owing to the fact that their price changes and future contract price changes are highly correlated. Jet fuel is refined from crude oil, thus, crude oil is also heavily applied in hedgi ng jet fuel. The second reason is based on the nature of the jet fuel market which is not sufficiently liquid to warrant future contracts. Derivative contracts on jet fuel have to be based on OTC trading. On the other hand, exchange traded contracts for crude oil and heating oil are active and liquid enough, accompanied by low credit risks. Therefore, airlines interested in hedging traditionally use crude oil or heating oil

International Marketing - Hofstedes Cultural Framework Essay

International Marketing - Hofstedes Cultural Framework - Essay Example (Answer.com) Air conditioner, refrigerator, tube-lights, bulbs, electric fans, heaters etc also come under the same definition. Since the contemporary age is the age of technological advancement, computerization, automation and mechanization, electronics goods and items have become an essential part of everyday life during the modern age and are used in offices, residences and all other institutions at large all over the world. Japan based world’s renowned electronic entrepreneur Hitachi Consumer Electronics Company is one of the supreme electronic organizations of the world, which maintain a wide range of products including air conditioners, refrigerators, heaters, switch-boards, juicers, grinding machines, domestic equipments, medical equipments, allergy diagnostics, automotive components and long list of electronics spare parts. Their consolidated sale is estimated around 10,248 billion Japanese Yen during the fiscal year 2006-07 (wikipedia.org) Recently, it has also introduced computer accessories to provide the customers with high quality products related to information technology. â€Å"Hitachi Ltd. is pulling out of the household computer business in the latest shift among Japanese electronics makers to refocus their sprawling operations.† (GMA News TV) The Company has hired the services of nearly 400,000 employees working in hundreds of its branches in all parts of the globe, which wo rk very hard from dawn to dusk for the good name and fame of the company. It is therefore the products of Hitachi Consumer Electronic Company are thought to be the sign of high quality and the consumers in different countries of the world demand its products for office, domestic, commercial and industrial use. â€Å"The global parts procurement capability of Hitachi, coupled with its state-of–the-art manufacturing facilities, allows to realize

Gymnastics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Gymnastics - Essay Example Learning, however, is a complex process, the principles of which are not always obvious, thus the need for careful inspection. By examining these principles we will be in a better position to assess how they can be applied to physical education. Psychology is about theories as to what leads people to behave in particular ways in different situations. Learning and motivation are important aspects of human behavior and have been the subject of much research. From the perspective of motor skills, learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in ability resulting from experience and training as a progression from simple to more complex, sophisticated movements Operant conditioning is a psychological technique for modifying behavior that is particularly relevant to how psychology can be helpful to the teaching of gymnastics. The technique is defined as a voluntary response that is strengthened or weakened according to immediately following consequences. Organisms therefore have a tendency to repeat those actions that are reinforced in particular ways that result in a change of behavior. Behaviorism, as this approach to learning is called, is based on those aspects of behavior that are overtly observable. Because behaviorist techniques rely on the observation of explicit actions, they are especially applicable to the teaching of gymnastics. There are various methods by which a behavior can be reinforced of which the most efficacious has proved to be positive (praise) rather than negative (punishment) feedback. Positive reinforcement are of two main kinds, extrinsic and intrinsic; verbal encouragement or privileges are common examples of the former, whereas the latter applies to self-motivated students who receive a sense of fulfilment at achieving success. As students requiring the most attention are those who tend to underachieve and are not always self-motivated, our concern will mainly be with extrinsic reinforces as these, when used in the right circumstances, have proved to be advantageous in a number of different ways. An essential aspect of achieving a positive outcome is the breaking down of complex tasks into simpler ones that can be translated into graded steps according to the ability of the student. In this regard, motor skills can be decomposed into a series of simple frames that help to pin-point strengths and weaknesses that can be translated into structured programmes for initiating improvement. Programmed learning of this type allows the trainee to progress at his/her own rate, and permits learning to be facilitated through positive reinforcement of the targeted behavior in that a correct response will be more likely than an incorrect one. Skills can therefore be programmed to advance through structured hierarchies of tasks that progress from the rudimentary to the complex through successive approximation. In a physical education setting, there are special circumstances to take account of when applying these principles. As individuals are inclined to possess a wide variety of abilities, it is essential that the

Person-Centred Therapy Essay Example for Free

Person-Centred Therapy Essay The Person Centred approach is based upon the theory and philosophy of Carl Rogers. This approach in its set-up is familiar to the general public as it is depicted in the media and is often expected therefore that a counselling session would take place in this format. At first glance the counselling process which has derived from the theory of Rogers, in a real therapy situation appears simplistic. To fully answer the question whether this blueprint offers a therapist all they need to treat their clients it is important to have a sound knowledge of the theory, and identify the successes and drawbacks connected with this. In the 1950s Carl Rogers gained praise for publishing ‘Client Centred Therapy’ and for his work on the Person Centred approach. Roger’s work is still praised and forms the basis for many theoretical and practical approaches to counselling. Rogers work was classified as a Humanistic Therapy and fits within the three main forms of psychological therapies today, which are listed below; * Behavioural Therapies * Psychoanalytical and Psychodynamic Therapies * Humanistic Therapies Person Centred counselling was based around three core conditions, devised by Rogers; 1. Unconditional Positive Regard 2. Genuineness/Congruence 3. Empathy It is considered essential for all counsellors to display these attributes and to consistently provide these to each client irrespective of circumstance. The Person Centred approach views the client as their own best authority on their own experience, and it views the client as being fully capable of fulfilling their own potential for growth. It recognizes, however, that achieving potential requires favourable conditions and that under adverse conditions, individuals may well not grow and develop in the ways that they otherwise could. In particular, when individuals are denied acceptance and positive regard from others, or when that positive regard is made conditional upon the individual behaving in particular ways they may begin to lose touch with what their own experience means for them, and their innate tendency to grow in a direction consistent with that meaning may be stifled. This does offer a unique perspective for both client and therapist to allow an unlocking of the clientà ¢â‚¬â„¢s genuine self. The premise of this theory is that human beings are innately good and given free opportunity they will strive for goodness, further reaffirming the core conditions. If we believe that humans are good, we should always be able to supply unconditional positive regard, congruence and empathy. The role that theory plays in the process and outcome of counselling has been a subject of discussion, for almost as long as counselling has been a profession. While schools of therapy have argued that different theories produce differing and nonequivalent outcomes, this position has been challenged on numerous occasions. Fiedler (1951) first observed that therapists of differing orientations were very similar in their views of the ideal therapy. Then Sundland and Barker (1962) reported that more experienced therapists tended to be more similar, regardless of their theoretical orientation. In their extensive review of the subject, Gelso and Carter (1985) stated that most clients will profit about e qually (but in different ways) from the different therapies. They go on to suggest that the effect of process and relationship do differ among therapies and that some clients may do better with one approach than with another, based upon these two factors. Finally, Stiles, Shapiro and Elliott (1986) concluded that (a) common features shared by all psychotherapies underlie or override differences in therapists verbal techniques and (b) these common features are responsible for the general equivalence in effectiveness (of therapies)†. Process and relationship maybe considered as relevant as theoretical conceptualisation of a given problem. One can assume that a counselling process must be structured for each client irrespective of what theory you adhere to. The work of Rogers does do this by using the core conditions, however; arguably less so than other theories due to a lack of distinct ‘techniques’. Hough et al contribute the following for a successful counselling relationship to occur; 1.Establish a safe, trusting environme nt – as outlined by Carl Rogers creating a relationship with the client which is in line with the core conditions. 2. Clarify: Help the person put their concern into words. As the person centred approach maintains this is how a client would be assisted by being predominantly talking and the counsellor mostly listening. 3. Use Active listening: find out the clients agenda, what do they hope to achieve by coming for counselling. a) Paraphrase, summarise, reflect and interpret – To ensure that there is a greater understanding of what the client is trying to say. b) Focus on feelings, not events – counselling is dealing with emotional and mental health, so it is important to unpick the feelings rather than to skim over them, like a layperson would do. 4. Transform problem statements into goal statements – allow the client to depict a plan towards attaining their goal. 5. Explore possible approaches to goal, to narrow and deliberate their choices. 6. Help person choose one way towards their goal which is feasible. 7. Make a contract to fulfil the plan (or to take the next step). 8. Summarise what has occurred, clarify, and get verification from the client that this is still their goal. 9. Get feedback and confirmation that the goal remains as before. Ultimately as with all the Couns elling paradigms it is key to enable the client to gain control of their own life and reach their own conclusions. The main paradigms underpin the processes of counselling usually, however; the lesser known models are also used. If this can be agreed upon, this might suggest that the Person centred approach does fulfil the needs of a therapist when diagnosing a problem and creating a plan where they are guided but the content is filled by the client. The Person Centred approach also gave rise to the concept of ‘The Organismic Self’; a state which is considered to truly be intact for a short space of time, in basic terms this is a descriptor of our pure selves, being exactly as we are without external influence. This theory tracks our human experience and maintains that this soon becomes corrupted by what is called the ‘Self Concept’. Self Concept is the term given to explain outside influences on the Organismic Self. It could be said that the battle between who we authentically are as people and what the world and significant people around us feel we should be is what causes us to feel lost. If we think of the Organismic Self as being at one with ourselves and feeling that who we ar e, what we do and our general feeling of inner harmony as being comfortable, the opposite is true of the Self Concept, this is generally a feeling of awkwardness, feeling lost, unreal and can result in later life as a crisis. Humanistic approaches in general are concerned with topics which are meaningful to human beings which makes it especially good as a theory for counselling. Humanistic approaches are also considerate of subjective experience and unpredictable events which occur in human lives. Does this then suggest that the Person centred approach is flexible and allows the therapist to address all matters which may arise rather than, comparatively using a CBT(Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) approach which focusses solely on the present. As a composite of the Person centred approach and general Humanistic theories, it is important to acknowledge the concept of ‘Self Actualisation’. The phrase was first coined by Kurt Goldstein, but is perhaps better known as associated with Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy Of Needs and is defined as below; â€Å"†¦.the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him [the individual] to become actualised in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. In reference to his Hierarchy of Needs theory, Maslow advised that only 1% of all people are self-actualised which would infer the need for counselling assistance to be great. As mentioned above the flexibility of this approach may be deemed to allow therapists to treat a vast number of clients, as the growing need for counselling emerges. The non-intrusive nature of the therapy a the relatively comfortable set-up of the counselling sessions within the Person Centred approach highlights how easy it is to apply this approach practically. We certainly know of the efficacy of the Person Centred approach, in its comtinued use in modern day therapy, however; we must consider the strengths of other currently used approaches to illustrate where the Person Centred approach could improve. I have chosen to use the Psychodynamic approach to explore this. One of the strengths of the Psychodynamic Approach is that it provided a valuable insight into how early experiences or relationships can affect our adult personality. One of the examples of this is that fixations can be caused at the Oral Stage of psychosexual development such as being separated from the primary caregiver too early. These fixations can then lead to psychological problems. Supporting evidence for this strength was carried out by Jacobs at al (1966) using Rorschach inkblots to compare the orality of smokers and non-smokers. It was found that smokers emerged as being significantly more oral. Another strength of the Psychodynamic Approach is that it is the first approach to try and attempt to explain mental illness in psychological terms and has had an enormous influence on the understanding and treatment of mental disorders. An example of this is Psychoanalysis and Dream Therapy which aims to make the unconscious material conscious so it is easier to deal with as Freud believed that dreams showed our hidden desires. Evidence to support this was carried out by Sandell (1999) who studied the symptoms of more than 700 patients before and after three years of psychoanalysis and found that patients had significantly fewer symptoms after the therapy. The Psychodynamic Approach also displays weaknesses, in that most of Freud’s is based on findings of case studies, and anecdotal references where cases are often unique and there are problems with generalisation. Like the Psychodynamic Approach, the Person Centred approach does not dismiss the importance of historical and childhood events. This is highlignhted in their subtheory ‘Conditions of worth’ which are defined as ‘restrictions imposed on self-expression in order to earn positive regard’, which are not in and of themselves a bad thing, however; it is possible for these conditions to be overused that they can begin to be a problem. For example a child will seek to satisfy the condition of worth imposed by their parents; without realising, parents may create more complex conditions for gaining their attention. As children grow they learn a new set of rules for gaining attention, the best predictor of consequence for behavior is past experience. As such a child may learn that to receive praise from their Father is to get good results at school or join the football team. From another perspective, a child may learn that they get more attention when they fail at som ething or are feeling sad, as opposed to when they are successful and happy. They may also find that they are surrounded by more friends, more often when they behave in a particular way or indulge in particular activities that are ‘acceptable’. By the time an individual reaches their teenage years, most people have a complex system of rules to abide by if we want to receive love, praise and positive regard from others. Slowly this system of conditions of worth works its way into a person’s overall way of viewing the world they live in. They adopt these conditions as their own values, blocking out the true organismic values that comprise who they really are. As their real self is blocked out by this adopted system of values, incongruence results. The rules for love and positive regard lead them to live a different life, a life incongruent with who they really are, a life that does not satisfy all their other needs and tragically, often doesn’t even truly satisfy their need for positive regard. Due to this, people can become unhappy, anxious and depressed, but often they only try to revise and change the conditions they are using for positive regard. They may change their veneer, but not the root of the problem. They only shift the contents of their complex system of worth rather than trimming it back and exposing their real, true values. It’s this latter state that Person Centred therapy seeks to create, allowing the counsellor to simply try to remove any conditions of worth from their relationship with the client. They offer only unconditional positive regard. This creates an environment in which a small crack is placed in the person’s overarching system of conditional worth. In such an environment the person can begin to acknowledge and understand what it is they truly want and need. These values are always trying to be heard, but are blocked out by our complex set of constructs we use to try to gain conditional positive regard. Person centred therapy simply creates a place where this system is pushed back, and one’s true values can emerge. A person is then free to consider who he is and what he wants, without the threat of a loss of positive regard. No matter what is said, he can expect unconditional regard. Overall this subtheory shows a consistency throughout the Person Centred approach, tying the main premise of the core conditions to the way in which each client is treated. To conclude my assessment of the usefulness and effectiveness of the Person Centred Therapy, I hope to have demonstrated my current level of understanding regarding this subject and illustrated how it can be used practically. It is clear that the current and continuous widespread use of the Person-Centred approach attests for its effectiveness in practice. It is good and justified to always focus on the client and their journey through whatever problems they are facing and this particular approach maintains the therapist in doing so. I believe that the most effective method of treating patients is that adopted by Chrysalis, a multidiscipline approach, whereby one can amend the tool used based upon the presented problem. References Websites; http://www.bapca.org.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-centered_therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_organismic_self http://www.person-centered-therapy.com/conditions-of-worth/ Texts; Edward L. Deci, Richard M. Ryan (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behaviour; Springer Publishing.

Compare And Contrast Aristotle And Platos Political Theories Philosophy Essay

Compare And Contrast Aristotle And Platos Political Theories Philosophy Essay Plato, student of Socrates, and Aristotle, student of Plato, two of the most influential philosophers to have ever walked the earth, take two completely different approaches whilst talking about the formation of city states and epistemology itself. Plato primarily defined the nature of things in theoretical terms through metaphysics, in contrast to actual terms. Thus by looking to the higher forms he aimed to explain the function of existing knowledge and understandings in the search for the absolute truth. On the other hand Aristotle was more concerned with the actual physical features of nature, for the most part the Natural Sciences. The foremost divisions can be seen in the contrasting opinions between them primarily concerning eternal ideas, forms and causes and their relation to change, and the role of observing and explaining through the utilisation of the senses. Through their different approaches regarding the nature of man, both Plato and Aristotle sought to explain the rel ationship between the individual and society and furthermore the requirement of government to uphold order and stability. Platos ideal city-state, which he refers to in his dialogue in the Republic as the kallipolis, and Aristotles concept of the ideal relationship between the social order and government in an actual city state are contrasting not with regards to the end and purpose which they sought to fulfil, the telos, but instead over the proposed way in which they sought to meet that telos. These differing objections can be explained by the abstract and theoretical ideologies of Plato contrasting and clashing with Aristotles scientific and actual ideologies. To be able to further understand and contest the parameters of Platos kallipolis, we must first seek to understand the bare foundations of Platos theoretical ideology. At the origins of mans search for knowledge is the Theory of Forms that states that every single material thing is in fact a representation of the real thing: the form. Most people are actually unable to see the forms, merely the representation of the form, the shadow. This is how Plato makes a distinction between the material world that us humans live in and the ideal world of eternal forms. His world of forms is not a different reality, but instead an outline by which material objects are created. This can be seen most prominently in Platos Parable of the Cave from book VII of The Republic. Â   Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light; here these people have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised walk; and you will see, if you look a low wall built along the walk, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.'(514A-B The Republic) The prisoners watch the shadows projected on the wall and begin to attribute forms to these shadows, the shadows are as close to viewing reality that these ordinary men will get to viewing reality. He then goes on to say that a philosopher is much like a prisoner who freed from the cave comes to realise and understand that in fact the shadows on the cave wall are not constitutive of reality at all, for they are now able to recognize the true form of reality instead of the simple shadows that the prisoners see. From this Plato explains that our senses cannot be trusted when observing and goes on to conclude that the only way of realising absolute truth is through reason. This ability to recognise and understand the true forms of things is the central concept that establishes who holds the ruling powers in his kallipolis. After having determined that it was in fact possible to form an ideal city state, Plato then looks to chose a government that would rule both justly and firmly. Firstly he discusses the reasons for which people would desire to form a state and keep within its rules. Plato states that it is not the desire of man to form a state, instead it is an inevitable need of man, for man is not self sufficient and therefore needs to live in an organised society, and that each person has a natural talent for a certain area of work and should seek to develop it further for the benefit of the state. Plato embodies the natural inequality of humanity, the origin of the state, in the division of labour. Well then, how will our state supply these needs? It will need a farmer, a builder, and a weaver, and also, I think, a shoemaker and one or two others to provide for our bodily needs. So that the minimum state would consist of four or five men. (369d The Republic) He then goeson to say that the necessity to divide labour with accordance to specializations was prescribed by nature rather than decided by man. Because Platos state is based almost entirely on abstract ideas of both knowledge and nature, his approach to politics and government itself is more theoretical than actual. Therefore if a city seeks to uphold stability it must be ruled by those that are in possession of true knowledge, philosopher kings. Aristotle has objections to the very foundation of Platos kallipolis. Due to his more grounded approach more actual than theoretical in nature, Aristotle argues that man does not seek to make a state simply because it is essential due to man not being self sufficient, instead it is because of an innate instinct. He goes on to argue that the state in fact existed in nature before it was discovered by man, and that a human being is by nature a political animal, and anyone who is without a city-state'(1253a Politics)is not a man. Even in mans most primitive form, mans nature forces him to realise his role within a given city, or polis. It is in fact mans self preservation instincts that directs to the organization of the masses, attempting to avoid conflict. Thus politics through a formal government was a means by which to resist chaos: it is not as Plato believes a thing of forms, rather it is an innate instinct of man. Platos kallipolis had within it ideas of a strong unified community and conformity. Aristotle states that Platos assumption that the people can be as unified as he believes they must be in his kallipolis is entirely unrealistic. He rejects complete uniformity and conformity, describing the potential dangers in terms of the relationships between the state and the household, and the household and the individual, arguing that the more uniform a city state is, the more it will resemble a household and eventually even an individual. He goes on to conclude that a city-state is not a natural unity in the way some people say it is, and that what has been alleged to be the greatest good for the city-states destroys them. (Politics 1261b). When man is responsible for his own crops and home within a community, the effort and pride placed into the upkeep of them is massive. However in a community where there are a lot of shared goods very little effort is put in, because the thought that someon e else is attending to it makes them neglect it the more (Politics 1261b 30) and ultimately the city state is reliant upon a broad variety of people and services. The differences between Plato and Aristotles ways which they select their governments rullers an be attributed in part to Aristotles outright rebuffal of the kallipolis. Plato states that for a city to be ideal it has to be just and good, and that goodcan only be realised if the city is lead by people able to see the true forms of things and understand true knowledge. Ultimately philosophers must become kings, or kings must become philosophers, known as the guardian class. The rules selected by these guardian kings would be enforced by the Auxiliaries class, men of courage and intelligence, whilst the majority of people would make up the lower end of society, the producer class. His kallipolis is best described as an aristocracy, something Aristotle greatly disagrees with as he rejects the idea that those elite few with absolute truth will be the rulers of governments. Aristotle instead seeks to create a perfect relationship between the government and social order, looking most prolifically at balance when determining where the power of government would lie, whether it be in the hands of few or the masses. First he looked at whether or not the proposed leaders would govern for their own self interests or for good of the polis, separating the candidates into the three parts of the city state: the very rich, the very poor; and , third, those in between these. (Politics 295b) Aristotle determined that the poor do not know how to rule, but only how to be ruled in the way slaves are ruled'(Politics 295b) and that the rich do not know how to be ruled in any way, but only know how to rule as masters rule. (Politics 295b) Aristotle then goes on to determine that the middle class should form the ruling body because it reduces the chances of divisions because the middle do not desire other peoples property as the poor do, nor do other people desire theirsAnd because they are neither plotted against nor engage in plotting. (Politics 295b). Comparing the two proposed city states and governments it is clear that there is more to Aristotles objections to the parable of the cave: it is not just regarding the matter of the elite few being masters of the slaves that are the masses, but how the actual power is obtained. Plato believed that man could achieve absolute truth only by consideration of the eternal forms, not through observations and experiences. Aristotle instead shifted away from this view and instead used observations and experiences to pursue his goal of achieving knowledge. Famously Aristotle is thought of as the father of biology, his great encyclopaedia of knowledge and observations still influence the academics of today. Because the world is constantly changing, Aristotle determined that absolute knowledge is not possible, a stark contrast to Platos views, believing that through observing the material things, one could understand its underlying form. I personally believe that Aristotles way of viewing things is more effective simply because it is more realistic and down to earth, he is not always thinking of hypothetical forms like Plato, instead he is observing their real embodiments and coming to conclusions.

Sin Tax Bills Pros And Cons Economics Essay

Sin Tax Bills Pros And Cons Economics Essay With tobaccos and cigarettes being the major cause of lung cancer death s in the Philippines, advocates are pushing to pass the Sin Tax Bill. Sin tax bill is the tax levied on any products that are notorious to be harmful like cigarettes, alcohol and even activities like gambling. In connection to this, it is said to be effective in reducing behaviour of using such. This thesis paper aims to show the pros and cons of the Sin Tax Bill reforms to the Philippine economy, presented before the Senate and the House. There were three specific sin tax reforms discussed, the Abaya Bill, Recto Bill, and the Santiago Bill. This study accentuates that the approval of the said bill has its great advantages that will help the countrys economy, but its possible disadvantages must not be neglected. Moreover, the ideas written here are not against the bill, but therefore require further analysis and revisions that are deemed helpful to the Philippine Economy. Discussion Introduction According to the World Health Organization in 2009, tobacco is responsible for 12% of male and 6% of female deaths worldwide. The Acting Chief of NCI Tobacco Control Research Brach Chief, Michele Bloch, MD, PhD said that overall around the globe, there are 41% of men that smoke and only 9% for women; also it is estimated that the total number of tobacco-related deaths will rise from 6 million today to 8  million in 2030 (Fromer, 2011). Every day, a person dies from lung cancer in the Philippines. Tobacco or cigarette is the only legal consumer product that kills half of its users when used as directed by the manufacturer. And not only cigarettes, but as well as other socially proscribed goods such as alcoholic beverages, drugs and even soft drinks (in other areas), are considered to be undesirable or harmful, and thus were levied with higher taxes compared to the original by the government in laymans term: The Sin Tax. Sin tax in modern economic terms, are externality taxes, taxes designed to reduce behaviour which is known to be harmful to society' (Gifford, 1997. p.1). It is an excise tax on which its objectives is to make consumers lose interest in buying such by imposing taxes on goods that are known to be harmful and lethal such as cigarettes and liquor or activities like gambling (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2012). Before, a Tiered Specific Tax system based on suggested retail price (srp) was put in place. Until the late Pres. Corazon Aquinos administration in 1986, reforms the tax system by changing the specific or unit-based tax to an Ad valorem Scheme, from where the price is based on the manufacturers, for cigarettes. From then on, sin tax bill was revised many times until the year 2004, where the Congress passed Republic Act No. 9334: an act increasing the tax collection; but this is widely considered to be ineffective and a watered-down law. On its implementation in January 2005, under this law, all brands of cigarettes and alcohol products are mandated to an increase in the excise tax rate every two years, up until the year 2011, where there will be specified varying rates of increases (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2012). The matter on the issuance of the new sin tax bills proposed by different officials, mainly those of Abaya, Recto and Santiago, has caught many people in between two arguments. The Department of Finance wants the sin tax bill to raise P60 billion to fund the governments universal healthcare program, especially for the care of public hospital patients with lung diseases. The bills obvious benefit on its approval is more health-related, but there are still quite a number of critics against the approval of the said bill. Why? Because there are multiple reasons as to why the sin tax bill reform must not be approved and therefore must be a subject for further and more improved revisions. Different types of Sin Tax Bills proposed A data from the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation says, Despite the existence of laws that limit smoking, male Filipino smokers are among the top smokers in the world occupying the ninth spot following India and China among others (Manongdo,  ¶1). In accordance to this, many government officials started passing reforms of different kinds that are to change the current sin tax bill implemented. Firstly, the approved Abaya Bill: House Bill 5727, or the Act Restructuring the Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco Products states that there will be equal taxes rates to be charged to any cigarette brands. With this, there will be competition between cigarette companies. Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya agreed to amend the sin tax on tobacco products from unitary tax system to two tiers. Under substitute bill, there will be two tiers or groups for cigarettes while distilled and fermented liquor will have 3. Tier 1: Cigarette packs priced lower than 11.50php below are meted with a P12 tax on the first year and P24 on the next year; while on Tier 2: Cigarette packs priced 11.50php above are meted with P28.30 on the first year, and P30 on the second year. Indexation or increase will be 8% for every two years, until the year 2025. It has been over 15 years since a sin tax bill made it out of committee meetings in Congress. A landslide vote happened in June, where 210 lawmakers voted to pa ss the amended House Bill 5727, by Cavite Rep. Abaya. But the bill was watered down, since the bill aims to reduce consumption of tobacco and alcohol, especially among the poor, while raising additional revenues, which will be channeled to the governments health care program (Balea, 2012). According to Finance Assistance Secretary Teresa Habitan, amended version will only translate to P33 billion from the original plan of P60billion revenue. Secondly is the Recto Bill by Sen. Ralph Recto. For cigars, the current 2-tiered NRP-based structure shall be retained, but starting March 1, 2013, there shall be an increase to the ad valorem rates by more than 100 percent. Pursuant to Cathy Yamsuans report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer 2012, there will be an increase of 121 percent to hand-packed cigarettes taxes from P2.72 to P6 per pack beginning March 1, 2013, particularly in low-priced cigarettes. While mid-priced cigarettes, a 32% rise from P7.56 to a P10 tax; and high-priced cigarettes, a 17% increase from P12 to P14 tax per pack. Recto, however, presented a committee report that would raise only between P15 billion and P20 billion in additional sin taxes. Lastly is Sen. Miriam Santiagos proposed reform. Santiago said that under her bill, 85 percent of the P60 billion would be used for the government health program while the remaining 15 percent for safety nets that would ensure that tobacco farmers can shift to more lucrative crops like vegetables that have a bigger market than tobacco (Yamsuan, 2012,  ¶12). No more further discussions needed to Santiagos Bill because Juan Ponce Enrile, the current Philippine Senate President, noted that the Santiago bill is almost similar to the governments original position.  Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiagos version of the Sin Tax Bill or the Senate Bill 3249 espouses a single tier excise tax scheme for cigarettes. The version reported out by Rectos Ways and Means Committee pushes a multi-tier scheme, while the House-approved bill is a two-tier system. Advantages There are a lot to mention when we look in-depth to the possible benefits, the country may be subjected to, that will be a great help to the society. Here, there are three main points that are most likely to be emphasized. First are the sin tax bills health-related purposes and benefits. Since the real reason behind the implementation of this law is to discourage the people, especially the youth to smoke cigarettes and indulge themselves to other vices, Department of Health (DOH) said that sin tax bill is a health bill. If this is approved, many Filipino lives will be saved if this law is effective enough after its implementation. As stated by The National Youth Commission (NYC), the number of young smokers in the country had increased. Two of five Filipinos aged 13 to 15 years old consumed tobacco last year. The increase in cigarette prices may thus limit the number of young smokers (Garcia, 2012,  ¶15). On the other hand when the Laylo Research Strategies made a poll survey on ho w will Filipino smokers react if there is an increase in sin taxes, the survey results confirms what the advocates have been saying higher tobacco taxes would accomplish: discourage consumption and therefore reduce the number of Filipinos who either develop diseases or die from smoking. The Southeast Asia Initiative on Tobacco Tax says higher sin taxes can help save 140,000 to 1.3 million Filipinos. With the pending Sin Tax bill likely to affect cigarette prices, 31% of the regular smokers said they will slowly stop smoking, while 17% will stop immediately (Rappler. 2012  ¶24). In a study on Tobacco and Poverty of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008, the annual government revenues of P23 Billion from tobacco taxes is not enough compared to the conservatively estimated P149 Billion annual economic losses due to expenses for productivity and health care costs of the top four tobacco related diseases: Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and stroke. (Manongdo, 2012). According to reports furnished, the money the government spends on tobacco-related healthcare issues is more than the revenue it gets from the taxes collected from tobacco and alcohol products. This means that the government is spending more to cure diseases chronic pulmonary diseases, heart disease, cancer, liver diseases etc. that are caused by the consumption of tobacco and alcohol (Garcia, 2012  ¶9). Secondly, with higher sin tax rates means higher government revenues. Lets say theres no existence of the sin tax bill, which means, 0% tax increase. With no tax, the government will only garner 25.4B php annually. But in consideration of the Rectos Bill, with 65% tax increase, there will 37.8B php revenue. While in Santiagos Bill, with 265% tax increase, there will be no less than 68.7B php revenue, which is by the way more than enough for the governments goal of 60B php. According to Dr. Antonio Dans, professor at the UP-College of Medicine, with the approval of 265% proposed tax increase by Santiago; chances are, smoking rates will go down to 26% from 31%.. That drop from 31% to 26% represents more than two million people stopping smoking. If you stop smoking, you will avoid death from 49 diseases that can kill you from smoking like lung cancer, coronary diseases, stroke, heart attack, chronic pulmonary diseases (Antonio, 2012,  ¶). Lastly, international smuggling of cigarettes will be lessened. According to Sen. Pia Cayetano, the Philippines has the second cheapest retail price in Asia (in terms of cigarettes). Even among the cheapest in the world, primarily because of relatively low tobacco taxes. Many other countries levied heavy amount of tax on cigarettes as part of their public health policy. Dr. Aida Yurekli, coordinator of the WHOs Tobacco-Free Initiative, says the nations low taxes on tobacco drive the foreign demand for illegal imports of cigarette from the Philippines.  He once thought the China is the main source of smuggled cigarettes, but he found out that there was a big number coming from the Philippines. Since tobacco companies are paying (low) taxes, they tend to overproduce. And an excess of 2 billion packs from the 5.4 billion packs to be produced this year, from which only 3.5 billion packs will be consumed, makes it suspicious (Merueà ±as, 2012). With the effectiveness of tax increase, Philippine cigarettes would not be any cheaper than before, and thus will discourage international smuggling, since tobacco companies will pay more taxes, and no longer will have rooms for overproduction that may end up as smuggled goods to other countries. Disadvantages Though many people, if asked, are pro-sin tax bill, due to its undeniable benefits, lawmakers, still, remain divided over the sin tax bill. Debaters tend to overlook the possible drawback, the sin tax bill, may offer to the countrys economy. Tobacco farmers are the most affected in the approval of the any bills mentioned above. La Union Rep. Victor Francisco Ortega said that many tobacco farmers were able to send their children due to their jobs in the tobacco industry. It has done more good, than evil, he said in an interview hosted by respected broadcast journalist Rappler editor-at-large Cheche Lazaro (Bisyo: A special report on Sin Tax, 2012). In the interview, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said, The government has not provided a comprehensive program for the support services, subsidy and assistance to tobacco farmers. Tobacco farmers will not benefit from the increase of retail prices of cigarettes increase due to sin tax. Therefore, the higher sin taxes will definitely negatively affect the tobacco industry, which will result into unemployment to huge industries like Fortune Tobacco and the likes. (Bisyo: A special report on Sin Tax, 2012)   In one of the three stated bills proposed above, specifically the Abaya Bill, inequity in pricing the goods may occur. If all brands will be taxed similarly, small scale companies are at a big loss and at the worst scenario, may stop production. Abaya suggested that equality in taxes will create competition between large scale companies and local tobacco companies; but the latter will be burdened more since bigger companies are far more able in paying the demand tax levied to their products. With high taxes means less production, which will end up to less profit by the company, and later on bankruptcy. On a debate, Sen. Ralph Recto said that if they tax too much, it may kill industries, and even the cigarette industry may be burdened too much already. Revenues may be lessened due to insufficient companies producing cigarettes, from where taxes are supposedly to be collected from. Too high taxes may result in less revenue. How? One of the debaters in the senate, Mr. Manos Koukourakis said, When you apply so high tax increases, people will find alternative ways to smoke (Bisyo: A special report on Sin Tax, 2012). Consumption did not diminish; on the contrary, it has increased. At first, sin taxes will give increased revenues for the government, but in no time, it will fall drastically. Why? Because of smuggling. Taxing cigarettes and other sin products will not make people quit intousing it. Its already an addiction and this simple means of increasing retail price is not the answer. Recto said in one of his reports, the solution is not to severely tax the sin products but to ban them completely. When the price of any product rises excessively, smugglers bring in cheaper products. So instead of discouraging consumption, the very high prices actually encourage it because the smuggled products are very cheap (Cruz, 2012, 4 ¶). A House leader from the Philippine delegation warned that if ever the government would not take a second look to these proposed sin tax bills, the signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) with EU or the European Union, may be put in jeopardy. The EU expressed their continuous objection to the sin tax bill. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told the lawmakers that the approved House version and proposed Senate version will not pass the World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance because of unfair taxation (Luci, 2012). British American Tobacco (BAT) Philippines general manager James Michael Lafferty said, The current tax system has worked against the entry of new brands into the market  (Galang, 2012,  ¶46). Conclusion Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, one of the most vocal sin tax bill advocates said, When cigarettes and liquor are cheap, more people will use them- and so this has been the advocates standing point. The sin tax bill had been a controversial debate to the lawmakers. It made Sen. Ralph Recto, the chairman of the Senate committee, resign after numerous opposition from the Senate; he had Sen. Franklin Drilon take over his place after resignation. They even called his proposed bill a watered-down bill or ineffective. In the approval of the Sin tax bill, relations with the European Union may be affected. If ever the Philippines free trade with EU will be cut-off, our economy will lose a lot. And not only that, since Lucio Tan, a renowned business tycoon, is the owner of the biggest tobacco company in the country, the Fortune Cigarette, increasing of taxes to the sin products might be reflected to other major companies under him as well, like those of Philippine Airlines and the likes. All these factors will not increase the governments revenues, and on the other end might be the opposite. Therefore the sin tax bill has defeated its main purpose of raising revenues. Also, the argument of the pro-sin tax bill that higher taxes would discourage smokers is a mere assumption. They have not presented clear provisions and relied on surveys, which is not at all very reliable. Then again, according to Benjamin Diokno, professor of Economics at the School of Economics, UP Diliman and former secretary of budget and management undersecretary for budget operations in the Aquino 1 administration, talking about the threat of smuggling, it is real, and ignoring it would be a monumental mistake. The country has been facing a lot of smuggling cases in other products like rice, oil products, and other consumer goods continuously. And the possible addition of cigarettes to be smuggled would be a lot of work for the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which he considers weak (Diokno, 2012). But behind the drawbacks mentioned, there are a lot of other alternatives, other than taxing, that may discourage and lessen the use tobaccos and cigarettes. One suggestion is the proposal of former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral to put graphic photographs of smokers with lung or mouth cancer on the packs of cigarettes, and they believe it should scare some of them into stopping smoking. Though most of the tobacco industries are against it, the Philippine Senate and Congress are also in debate about it. Another suggestion is the prohibition of smoking in the public, from which the Senate lose the case against tobacco companies. In the question of what would be the most effective among the proposed bills. The countries Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos currently part of this worlds emerging economies use ad valorem rates in taxing their products like tobacco and alcohol. These countries must have adopted ad valorem taxation, after learning the best practice from their foreign tax consultants. The Philippines is the only country in the region that uses specific rates  (Diokno, 2012,  ¶7). On the contrary, eeconomist and former Economic Planning Secretary Solita Collas-Monsod at a forum on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 said that the tobacco industry players are disseminating about the possible aftermaths of the proposed sin tax measure on the Philippine economy, from which she considered as all lies. She opposed all the issues discussed and declared that these are just false claims (cited from Fonbuena, 2012). But experts urge the Senate to use the proposed bill of Sen. Miriam Santiago. This, Santiago said, would help avoid the 240 deaths daily among Filipino smokers with P200-billion health costs to government. It hews much more to the actual realities and the actual principles that we want. If everybody is in favor of a sin tax bill, lets start with that sin tax bill, economics professor Solita Monsod commented to Santiagos version of the bill, from where tobacco and alcohol products projected tax revenues will be around P60 billion (cited from Chua, 2012,  ¶3). The author is not against the approval of this bill, but thus, is in favor of the amendment and better revisions of the sin tax bill. People must look not only to the possible advantage it may bring, but one should always be aware of the possible drawback it will take along its process. The benefits, the sin tax bill, will bring the Philippines is undeniable. Health-related and even revenues is a given. But the fact it has taken a long course of almost 16 years of amendment, has a reason. There are multiple reasons as to why the sin tax bill reform must not be approved and therefore must be a subject for further and more improved revisions; and this reasons must not be neglected.