Definitions of Attitude Essay

An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment, but there is debate about precise definitions. Eagly and Chaiken, for example, define an attitude â€Å"a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor.†[2] Though it is sometimes common to define an attitude as affect toward an object, affect (i.e., discrete emotions or overall arousal) is generally understood to be distinct from attitude as a measure of favorability.[3] This definition of attitude allows for one’s evaluation of an attitude object to vary from extremely negative to extremely positive, but also admits that people can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object meaning that they might at different times express both positive and negative attitude toward the same object. This has led to some discussion of whether individual can hold multiple attitudes toward the same object.[4] Whether attitudes are explicit (i.e., deliberately formed) versus implicit (i.e., subconscious) has been a topic of considerable research. Research on implicit attitudes, which are generally unacknowledged or outside of awareness, uses sophisticated methods involving people’s response times to stimuli to show that implicit attitudes exist (perhaps in tandem with explicit attitudes of the same object). Implicit and explicit attitudes seem to affect people’s behavior, though in different ways. They tend not to be strongly associated with each other, although in some cases they are. The relationship between them is poorly understood. Jung’s definition Attitude is one of Jung’s 57 definitions in Chapter XI of Psychological Types. Jung’s definition of attitude is a â€Å"readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way† (Jung, [1921] 1971:par. 687). Attitudes very often come in pairs, one conscious and the other unconscious. Within this broad definition Jung defines several attitudes. The main (but not only) attitude dualities that Jung defines are the following. †¢ Consciousness and the unconscious. The â€Å"presence of two attitudes is extremely frequent, one conscious and the other unconscious. This means that consciousness has a constellation of contents different from that of the unconscious, a duality particularly evident in neurosis† (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 687). †¢ Extraversion and introversion. This pair is so elementary to Jung’s theory of types that he labeled them the â€Å"attitude-types†. †¢ Rational and irrational attitudes. â€Å"I conceive reason as an attitude† (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 785). †¢ The rational attitude subdivides into the thinking and feeling psychological functions, each with its attitude. †¢ The irrational attitude subdivides into the sensing and intuition psychological functions, each with its attitude. â€Å"There is thus a typical thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuitive attitude† (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 691). †¢ Individual and social attitudes. Many of the latter are â€Å"isms†. In addition, Jung discusses the abstract attitude. â€Å"When I take an abstract attitude†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 679). Abstraction is contrasted with concretism. â€Å"CONCRETISM. By this I mean a peculiarity of thinking and feeling which is the antithesis of abstraction† (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 696). For example: â€Å"I hate his attitude for being Sarcastic.† Pasted from The classic, tripartite view offered by William J. McGuire[9] is that an attitude contains cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Empirical research, however, fails to support clear distinctions between thoughts, emotions, and behavioral intentions associated with a particular attitude.[10] A criticism of the tripartite view of attitudes is that it requires cognitive, affective, and behavioral associations of an attitude to be consistent, but this may be implausible. Thus some views of attitude structure see the cognitive and behavioral components as derivative of affect or affect and behavior as derivative of underlying beliefs.[11] Despite debate about the particular structure of attitudes, there is considerable evidence that attitudes reflect more than evaluations of a particular object that vary from positive to negative. Attitudes also have other characteristics, such as importance, certainty, or accessibility (measures of attitude strength) and associated knowledge.[12] There is also considerable interest in inter-attitudinal structure, which connects different attitudes to one another and to more underlying psychological structures, such as values or ideology.[13] Attitude function Another classic view of attitudes is that attitudes serve particular functions for individuals. That is, researchers have tried to understand why individuals hold particular attitudes or why they hold attitudes in general by considering how attitudes affect the individuals who hold them.[14] Daniel Katz, for example, writes that attitudes can serve â€Å"instrumental, adjustive or utilitarian,† â€Å"ego-defensive,† â€Å"value-expressive,† or â€Å"knowledge† functions.[15] The functional view of attitudes suggests that in order for attitudes to change (e.g., via persuasion), appeals must be made to the function(s) that a particular attitude serves for the individual. As an example, the â€Å"ego-defensive† function might be used to influence the racially prejudicial attitudes of an individual who sees themselves as open-minded and tolerant. By appealing to that individual’s image of themselves as tolerant and open-minded, it may be possible to change their prejudicial attitudes to be more consistent with their self-concept. Similarly, a persuasive message that threatens self-image is much more likely to be rejected.[16] Attitude formation According to Doob (1947), learning can account for most of the attitudes we hold. Theories of classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning and social learning are mainly responsible for formation of attitude. Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience. Tesser (1993) has argued that hereditary variables may affect attitudes – but believes that they may do so indirectly. For example, consistency theories, which imply that we must be consistent in our beliefs and values. As with any type of heritability, to determine if a particular trait has a basis in our genes, twin studies are used.[17] The most famous example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with Leon Festinger, which explains that when the components of an attitude (including belief and behavior) are at odds an individual may adjust one to match the other (for example, adjusting a belief to match a behavior).[18] Other theories include balance theory, origincally proposed by Heider (1958), and the self-perception theory, originally proposed by Daryl Bem.[19] Attitude change Main article: Attitude change Attitudes can be changed through persuasion and an important domain of research on attitude change focuses on responses to communication. Experimental research into the factors that can affect the persuasiveness of a message include: 1. Target Characteristics: These are characteristics that refer to the person who receives and processes a message. One such trait is intelligence – it seems that more intelligent people are less easily persuaded by one-sided messages. Another variable that has been studied in this category is self-esteem. Although it is sometimes thought that those higher in self-esteem are less easily persuaded, there is some evidence that the relationship between self-esteem and persuasibility is actually curvilinear, with people of moderate self-esteem being more easily persuaded than both those of high and low self-esteem levels (Rhodes & Woods, 1992). The mind frame and mood of the target also plays a role in this process. 2. Source Characteristics: The major source characteristics are expertise, trustworthiness and interpersonal attraction or attractiveness. The credibility of a perceived message has been found to be a key variable here; if one reads a report about health and believes it came from a professional medical journal, one may be more easily persuaded than if one believes it is from a popular newspaper. Some psychologists have debated whether this is a long-lasting effect and Hovland and Weiss (1951) found the effect of telling people that a message came from a credible source disappeared after several weeks (the so-called â€Å"sleeper effect†). Whether there is a sleeper effect is controversial. Perceived wisdom is that if people are informed of the source of a message before hearing it, there is less likelihood of a sleeper effect than if they are told a message and then told its source. 3. Message Characteristics: The nature of the message plays a role in persuasion. Sometimes presenting both sides of a story is useful to help change attitudes. When people are not motivated to process the message, simply the number of arguments presented in a persuasive message will influence attitude change, such that a greater number of arguments will produce greater attitude change.[20] 4. Cognitive Routes: A message can appeal to an individual’s cognitive evaluation to help change an attitude. In the central route to persuasion the individual is presented with the data and motivated to evaluate the data and arrive at an attitude changing conclusion. In the peripheral route to attitude change, the individual is encouraged to not look at the content but at the source. This is commonly seen in modern advertisements that feature celebrities. In some cases, physician, doctors or experts are used. In other cases film stars are used for their attractiveness. Emotion and attitude change Emotion is a common component in persuasion, social influence, and attitude change. Much of attitude research emphasized the importance of affective or emotion components. Emotion works hand-in-hand with the cognitive process, or the way we think, about an issue or situation. Emotional appeals are commonly found in advertising, health campaigns and political messages. Recent examples include no-smoking health campaigns and political campaign advertising emphasizing the fear of terrorism. Attitudes and attitude objects are functions of cognitive, affective and conative components. Attitudes are part of the brain’s associative networks, the spider-like structures residing in long term memory that consist of affective and cognitive nodes. By activating an affective or emotion node, attitude change may be possible, though affective and cognitive components tend to be intertwined. In primarily affective networks, it is more difficult to produce cognitive counterarguments in the resistance to persuasion and attitude change. Affective forecasting, otherwise known as intuition or the prediction of emotion, also impacts attitude change. Research suggests that predicting emotions is an important component of decision making, in addition to the cognitive processes. How we feel about an outcome may override purely cognitive rationales. In terms of research methodology, the challenge for researchers is measuring emotion and subsequent impacts on attitude. Since we cannot see into the brain, various models and measurement tools have been constructed to obtain emotion and attitude information. Measures may include the use of physiological cues like facial expressions, vocal changes, and other body rate measures. For instance, fear is associated with raised eyebrows, increased heart rate and increase body tension (Dillard, 1994). Other methods include concept or network mapping, and using primes or word cues in the era . Components of emotion appeals Any discrete emotion can be used in a persuasive appeal; this may include jealousy, disgust, indignation, fear, blue, disturbed, haunted,and anger. Fear is one of the most studied emotional appeals in communication and social influence research. Important consequences of fear appeals and other emotion appeals include the possibility of reactance which may lead to either message rejections or source rejection and the absence of attitude change. As the EPPM suggests, there is an optimal emotion level in motivating attitude change. If there is not enough motivation, an attitude will not change; if the emotional appeal is overdone, the motivation can be paralyzed thereby preventing attitude change. Emotions perceived as negative or containing threat are often studied more than perceived positive emotions like humor. Though the inner-workings of humor are not agreed upon, humor appeals may work by creating incongruities in the mind. Recent research has looked at the impact of humor on the processing of political messages. While evidence is inconclusive, there appears to be potential for targeted attitude change is receivers with low political message involvement. Important factors that influence the impact of emotion appeals include self efficacy, attitude accessibility, issue involvement, and message/source features. Self efficacy is a perception of one’s own human agency; in other words, it is the perception of our own ability to deal with a situation. It is an important variable in emotion appeal messages because it dictates a person’s ability to deal with both the emotion and the situation. For example, if a person is not self-efficacious about their ability to impact the global environment, they are not likely to change their attitude or behavior about global warming. Dillard (1994) suggests that message features such as source non-verbal communication, message content, and receiver differences can impact the emotion impact of fear appeals. The characteristics of a message are important because one message can elicit different levels of emotion for different people. Thus, in terms of emotion appeals messages, one size does not fit all. Attitude accessibility refers to the activation of an attitude from memory in other words, how readily available is an attitude about an object, issue, or situation. Issue involvement is the relevance and salience of an issue or situation to an individual. Issue involvement has been correlated with both attitude access and attitude strength. Past studies conclude accessible attitudes are more resistant to change. Attitude-behavior relationship This section requires expansion. (September 2012) The effects of attitudes on behaviors represents a significant research enterprise within psychology. Two theoretical approaches have dominated this research: the theory of reasoned action[21] and, its theoretical descendant, the theory of planned behavior,[22] both of which are associated with Icek Ajzen. Both of these theories describe the link between attitude and behavior as a deliberative process, with an individual actively choosing to engage in an attitude-related behavior. An alternative model, called MODE for â€Å"Motivation and Opportunity as DEterminants† was proposed by Russell H. Fazio, which focuses on motivations and opportunities for deliberative attitude-related behavior to occur. MODE is a Dual process theory that expects deliberative attitude-behavior linkages – like those modeled by the theory of planned behavior – only occur when individuals have motivation to reflect upon their own attitudes. Pasted from Theory of reasoned action From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The theory of reasoned action (TRA), is a model for the prediction of behavioral intention, spanning predictions of attitude and predictions of behavior. The subsequent separation of behavioral intention from behavior allows for explanation of limiting factors on attitudinal influence (Ajzen, 1980). The Theory of Reasoned Action was developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (1975, 1980), derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude, which led to the study of attitude and behavior. The theory was â€Å"born largely out of frustration with traditional attitude–behavior research, much of which found weak correlations between attitude measures and performance of volitional behaviors† (Hale, Householder & Greene, 2003, p. 259). Pasted from Definition and example Derived from the social psychology setting, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) was proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1975 & 1980). The components of TRA are three general constructs: behavioral intention (BI), attitude (A), and subjective norm (SN). TRA suggests that a person’s behavioral intention depends on the person’s attitude about the behavior and subjective norms (BI = A + SN). If a person intends to do a behavior then it is likely that the person will do it. Behavioral intention measures a person’s relative strength of intention to perform a behavior. Attitude consists of beliefs about the consequences of performing the behavior multiplied by his or her evaluation of these consequences. (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) Subjective norm is seen as a combination of perceived expectations from relevant individuals or groups along with intentions to comply with these expectations. In other words, â€Å"the person’s perception that most people who are important to him or her think he should or should not perform the behavior in question† (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). To put the definition into simple terms: a person’s volitional (voluntary) behavior is predicted by his/her attitude toward that behavior and how he/she thinks other people would view them if they performed the behavior. A person’s attitude, combined with subjective norms, forms his/her behavioral intention. Fishbein and Ajzen say, though, that attitudes and norms are not weighted equally in predicting behavior. â€Å"Indeed, depending on the individual and the situation, these factors might be very different effects on behavioral intention; thus a weight is associated with each of these factors in the predictive formula of the theory. For example, you might be the kind of person who cares little for what others think. If this is the case, the subjective norms would carry little weight in predicting your behavior† (Miller, 2005, p. 127). Miller (2005) defines each of the three components of the theory as follows and uses the example of embarking on a new exercise program to illustrate the theory: †¢ Attitudes: the sum of beliefs about a particular behavior weighted by evaluations of these beliefs ââ€"‹ You might have the beliefs that exercise is good for your health, that exercise makes you look good, that exercise takes too much time, and that exercise is uncomfortable. Each of these beliefs can be weighted (e.g., health issues might be more important to you than issues of time and comfort). †¢ Subjective norms: looks at the influence of people in one’s social environment on his/her behavioral intentions; the beliefs of people, weighted by the importance one attributes to each of their opinions, will influence one’s behavioral intention ââ€"‹ You might have some friends who are avid exercisers and constantly encourage you to join them. However, your spouse might prefer a more sedentary lifestyle and scoff at those who work out. The beliefs of these people, weighted by the importance you attribute to each of their opinions, will influence your behavioral intention to exercise, which will lead to your behavior to exercise or not exercise. †¢ Behavioral intention: a function of both attitudes toward a behavior and subjective norms toward that behavior, which has been found to predict actual behavior. ââ€"‹ Your attitudes about exercise combined with the subjective norms about exercise, each with their own weight, will lead you to your intention to exercise (or not), which will then lead to your actual behavior. Pasted from In psychology, the theory of planned behavior is a theory about the link between attitudes and behavior. The concept was proposed by Icek Ajzen to improve on the predictive power of the theory of reasoned action by including perceived behavioural control.[1] It is one of the most predictive persuasion theories. It has been applied to studies of the relations among beliefs, attitudes, behavioral intentions and behaviors in various fields such as advertising, public relations, advertising campaigns and healthcare. The theory states that attitude toward behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, together shape an individual’s behavioral intentions and behaviors. Pasted from Extension from the theory of reasoned action The theory of planned behavior was proposed by Icek Ajzen in 1985 through his article â€Å"From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior.† The theory was developed from the theory of reasoned action, which was proposed by Martin Fishbein together with Icek Ajzen in 1975. The theory of reasoned action was in turn grounded in various theories of attitude such as learning theories, expectancy-value theories, consistency theories,[2] and attribution theory.[3] According to the theory of reasoned action, if people evaluate the suggested behavior as positive (attitude), and if they think their significant others want them to perform the behavior (subjective norm), this results in a higher intention (motivation) and they are more likely to do so. A high correlation of attitudes and subjective norms to behavioral intention, and subsequently to behavior, has been confirmed in many studies.[4] A counter-argument against the high relationship between behavioral intention and actual behavior has also been proposed, as the results of some studies show that, because of circumstantial limitations, behavioral intention does not always lead to actual behavior. Namely, since behavioral intention cannot be the exclusive determinant of behavior where an individual’s control over the behavior is incomplete, Ajzen introduced the theory of planned behavior by adding a new component, â€Å"perceived behavioral control.† By this, he extended the theory of reasoned action to cover non-volitional behaviors for predicting behavioral intention and actual behavior. Extension of self-efficacy In addition to attitudes and subjective norms (which make the theory of reasoned action), the theory of planned behavior adds the concept of perceived behavioral control, which originates from self-efficacy theory (SET). Self-efficacy was proposed by Bandura in 1977, which came from social cognitive theory. According to Bandura, expectations such as motivation, performance, and feelings of frustration associated with repeated failures determine effect and behavioral reactions. Bandura (1986)[full citation needed] separated expectations into two distinct types: self-efficacy and outcome expectancy. He defined self-efficacy as the conviction that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the outcomes. The outcome expectancy refers to a person’s estimation that a given behavior will lead to certain outcomes. He states that self-efficacy is the most important precondition for behavioral change, since it determines the initiation of coping behavior. Previous investigations have shown that peoples’ behavior is strongly influenced by their confidence in their ability to perform that behavior (Bandura, Adams, Hardy, & Howells, 1980).[full citation needed] As the self-efficacy theory contributes to explaining various relationships between beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior, the SET has been widely applied to health-related fields such as physical activity and mental health in preadolescents,[5] and exercise.[6] Concepts of key variables Behavioral beliefs and attitude toward behavior †¢ Behavioral belief: an individual’s belief about consequences of particular behavior. The concept is based on the subjective probability that the behavior will produce a given outcome. †¢ Attitude toward behavior: an individual’s positive or negative evaluation of self-performance of the particular behavior. The concept is the degree to which performance of the behavior is positively or negatively valued. It is determined by the total set of accessible behavioral beliefs linking the behavior to various outcomes and other attributes. Normative beliefs and subjective norms †¢ Normative belief: an individual’s perception about the particular behavior, which is influenced by the judgment of significant others (e.g., parents, spouse, friends, teachers).[7] †¢ Subjective norm: an individual’s perception of social normative pressures, or relevant others’ beliefs that he or she should or should not perform such behavior. Control beliefs and perceived behavioral control †¢ Perceived behavioral control: an individual’s perceived ease or difficulty of performing the particular behavior (Ajzen, 1988).[full citation needed] It is assumed that perceived behavioral control is determined by the total set of accessible control beliefs. †¢ Control beliefs: an individual’s beliefs about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the behavior (Ajzen, 2001).[full citation needed] The concept of perceived behavioral control is conceptually related to self-efficacy. Behavioral intention and behavior †¢ Behavioral intention: an indication of an individual’s readiness to perform a given behavior. It is assumed to be an immediate antecedent of behavior (Ajzen, 2002b).[full citation needed] It is based on attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, with each predictor weighted for its importance in relation to the behavior and population of interest. †¢ Behavior: an individual’s observable response in a given situation with respect to a given target. Ajzen said a behavior is a function of compatible intentions and perceptions of behavioral control in that perceived behavioral control is expected to moderate the effect of intention on behavior, such that a favorable intention produces the behavior only when perceived behavioral control is strong. Pasted from Cognitive dissonance is a term used in modern psychology to describe the feeling of discomfort when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel â€Å"disequilibrium†: frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.[1] The phrase was coined by Leon Festinger in his 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, which chronicled the followers of a UFO cult as reality clashed with their fervent belief in an impending apocalypse.[2][3] Festinger subsequently published a book called â€Å"A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance†, published in 1957, in which he outlines the theory. Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology. The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.[1] It is the distressing mental state that people feel when they â€Å"find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold.† [4] A key assumption is that people want their expectations to meet reality, creating a sense of equilibrium. [5] Likewise, another assumption is that a person will avoid situations or information sources that give rise to feelings of uneasiness, or dissonance.[1] Cognitive dissonance theory explains human behavior by positing that people have a bias to seek consonance between their expectations and reality. According to Festinger, people engage in a process he termed â€Å"dissonance reduction†, which can be achieved in one of three ways: lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors, adding consonant elements, or changing one of the dissonant factors.[6] This bias sheds light on otherwise puzzling, irrational, and even destructive behavior. Pasted from The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion[1] is a dual process theory of how attitudes are formed and changed that was developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in the early 1980s (see also attitude change). The model proposes an â€Å"elaboration continuum,† which determines the extent to which arguments are processed and evaluated (high elaboration) versus peripheral cues such as source expertise or attractiveness (low elaboration) shape persuasion. The model is similar to the Heuristic-systematic model of information processing developed around the same time by Shelly Chaiken. Pasted from Central route Central route processes require the audience to use a great deal more thought, and therefore are likely to predominate under conditions that promote high elaboration. Central route processes involve careful scrutiny of a persuasive communication (e.g., a speech, an advertisement, etc.) to determine the merits of the arguments. Under these conditions, a person’s unique cognitive responses to the message determine the persuasive outcome. If a person evaluates a message centrally as reliable, well-constructed, and convincing, it will often be received as favorable even if it is contrasting to the receiver’s original stance on the message. So, if favorable thoughts are a result of the elaboration process, the message will most likely be accepted (i.e., an attitude congruent with the message’s position will emerge), and if unfavorable thoughts are generated while considering the merits of presented arguments, the message will most likely be rejected.[1] In order for the message to be centrally processed, a person must have the ability and motivation to do so. In order for the receiver to have motivation to centrally process a message it must have relevance to him or her. Peripheral route Peripheral route processes, on the other hand, does not involve elaboration of the message through extensive cognitive processing of the merits of the actual argument presented. These processes often rely on environmental characteristics of the message, like the perceived credibility of the source, quality of the way in which it is presented, the attractiveness of the source, or the catchy slogan that contains the message.[1] It is also frequently used when the argument presented is weak and/or lacking evidence. The peripheral route is a mental shortcut process that accepts or rejects a message based on irrelevant cues as opposed to actively thinking about the issue [2] The peripheral route is a process in which outside influences affect the decision making process. This is also the process used when the audience is unable to process the message. This could be from having a message that is too complex, or an audience that is immature. The most common influences would be factors such as reward. Reward could be objects like food, sex or money. These inducements create a quick change in mind and action. Celebrity status along with likability and expertise are other factors in the peripheral process that have become more popular. Humor within messages is a dominant influence in this process as well. Appearance also has the ability to gain the attention of individuals which can create an interest in the topic, but will not create a strong change in individuals. The goal of the peripheral process is to create change, this change can be weak and even temporary as opposed to the strong and lasting change in the central route. Choice of route The two factors that most influence which route an individual will take in a persuasive situation are motivation (strong desire to process the message; e.g., Petty & Cacioppo, 1979) and ability (actually being capable of critical evaluation; e.g., Petty, Wells, & Brock, 1976). Which route is taken is determined by the extent of elaboration. Both motivational and ability factors determine elaboration. Motivational factors include (among others) the personal relevance of the message topic, accountability, and a person’s â€Å"need for cognition† (their innate desire to enjoy thinking). Ability factors include the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., the presence or absence of time pressures or distractions) or relevant knowledge needed to carefully scrutinize the arguments. The ability to understand the message that is being communicated. Distractions such as noise can affect the ability for one to process a message. An example of noise would be a persuader trying to share his message in a room full of crying babies, this would make it extremely difficult for listeners to concentrate on the message being given. Noise that you can’t physically control would be if a persuaders listeners could concentrate on the message because they had something else on their mind which was more important than the persuaders message like a death in the family, or problems they’re having in their relationship. Another example of this is in children. A child will change their behavior because his or her parent told them to do so rather than taking the information given and processing it. As that child grows up, however, he or she will have a higher cognitive complexity, and therefore be able to process the information of the situation centrally in order to draw a conclusion of their own. (O’Keefe) The subject’s general education level, as well as their education and experience with the topic at hand greatly affect their ability to be persuaded. Under conditions of moderate elaboration, a mixture of central and peripheral route processes will guide information processing. There are benefits and consequences for both processes. An individual who disagrees with the message being presented will likely have a boomerang effect if he or she centrally processes the message and bounce farther away from the speaker’s goal. If that same situation takes place, but the message is peripherally processed, a weak change will not have as large of a negative effect on that individual. (O’Keefe) Type of Elaboration: Objective Versus Biased Thinking Attitude, motivation, and ability strongly increase the likelihood that a message will be ingrained in the minds’ of listeners. Although, as the social judgement theory suggests, they may not process the information in a fair, objective way. Attitudes are general evaluations that people hold that correspond with how they perceive themselves in relation to the world they live in. One way to influence attitude is to give peripheral cues. Peripheral cues can be things that lead to good or punishing or they can invoke provide guiding rules or inferences. These are often effective because they cause the audience to draw the conclusion themselves, therefore, making them believe it is their own idea, so they buy in to it. (Griffin) Many of the evaluations are based on Cognitive intelligence, behavior, and guidance. Given a basic understanding of an individuals attitudes one can interpret which type of elaboration would better suit the situation. There are two types of elaboration a listener can possess: (Biased elaboration, Objective elaboration) Elaboration can lead to both positive and negative results depending on the audience who is receiving the message. Individuals who have a Pre conception of a certain topic are going to be much harder to persuade oppose to an individual who has an open mind about a topic where only the facts hold truth. Biased Elaboration: Top-down thinking in which predetermined conclusions color the supporting data. This is used on people who likely already have their minds made up about a situation before the message is ever conveyed to them (Cacioppo) Ex. Someone who has had a negative personal experience with motorcycles will probably have made up their minds and be biased in the way they process the message.[2] Objective Elaboration: Bottom-up thinking in which facts are scrutinized without bias; seeking truth wherever it might lead. These listeners let the facts speak for themselves and approach the message with an unbias mind. Which leads to a true unbiased result or opinion. (Cacioppo) Ex. A person who is listening to a motorcycle salesman and already has a mindset about them. This person would let the facts influence their attitude.[2] Testing the Elaboration Likelihood Model To design a way to test the Elaboration Likelihood Model, it is crucial to determine whether an argument is universally seen as strong or weak. If an argument is inconsistent in opinions of strength, the results of persuasion will be inconsistent. A strong argument is defined by Petty and Cacioppo as â€Å"one containing arguments such that when subjects are instructed to think about the message, the thoughts they generate are fundamentally favorable† (Griffin). In general, a weak argument that is universally viewed as weak will entice unfavorable results if the subject is instructed to and is in an appropriate environment to consider it logically (or when testing the central route of the Elaboration Likelihood Model). In turn, a strong argument under similar circumstances will return favorable results. The test arguments must also be rated for ease of understanding, complexity, and familiarity. To scientifically study either route of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the arguments themselves must be designed to have consistent results.[3] Conclusions of the Elaboration Likelihood Model In addition to these factors, the ELM also makes several unique proposals.[1] It is suggested that attitudes formed under high elaboration, the central route, are stronger than those formed under low elaboration. This means that this level of persuasion is stable over time and is less susceptible to decay or any type of counter-persuasion. Attitudes formed under low elaboration, the peripheral route, are more likely to cause a short term attitude change. Variables in ELM routes can serve multiple roles in a persuasive setting depending on other contextual factors (examples below). Under high elaboration, a given variable (e.g., source expertise) can either serve as an argument (â€Å"If Einstein agrees with the theory of relativity, then this is a strong reason for me to as well†) or as a biasing factor (â€Å"if an expert agrees with this position it is probably good, so let me see what else agrees with this conclusion† — at the expense of information that may d isagree with it).[4] Under conditions of low elaboration, a given variable can act as a peripheral cue. This could happen, e.g., through the use of an â€Å"experts are always right† heuristic. Note that, while this is similar to the Einstein example presented above, this is a simple shortcut, which, unlike the Einstein example, does not require careful thought. Under conditions of moderate elaboration, a given variable can serve to direct the extent of information processing: â€Å"If an expert agrees with this position, I should really listen to what (s)he has to say†. Interestingly, when a variable affects elaboration, this can increase or decrease persuasion, depending on the strength of the arguments presented. If the arguments are strong, enhancing elaboration will enhance persuasion. If the arguments are weak, however, more thought will undermine persuasion. More recent adaptations of the ELM (e.g.)[5] have added an additional role that variables can serve. They can affect the extent to which a person has confidence in, and thus trusts, their own thoughts in response to a message (self-validation role). Keeping with our source expertise example, a person may feel that â€Å"if an expert presented this information, it is probably correct, and thus I can trust that my reactions to it are informative with respect to my attitude†. Note that this role, because of its metacognitive nature, only occurs under conditions that promote high elaboration. Pasted from Attitudes Attitudes are evaluations people make about objects, ideas, events, or other people. Attitudes can be positive or negative. Explicit attitudes are conscious beliefs that can guide decisions and behavior. Implicit attitudes are unconscious beliefs that can still influence decisions and behavior. Attitudes can include up to three components: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. Example: Jane believes that smoking is unhealthy, feels disgusted when people smoke around her, and avoids being in situations where people smoke. Dimensions of Attitudes Researchers study three dimensions of attitude: strength, accessibility, and ambivalence. †¢ Attitude strength: Strong attitudes are those that are firmly held and that highly influence behavior. Attitudes that are important to a person tend to be strong. Attitudes that people have a vested interest in also tend to be strong. Furthermore, people tend to have stronger attitudes about things, events, ideas, or people they have considerable knowledge and information about. †¢ Attitude accessibility: The accessibility of an attitude refers to the ease with which it comes to mind. In general, highly accessible attitudes tend to be stronger. †¢ Attitude ambivalence: Ambivalence of an attitude refers to the ratio of positive and negative evaluations that make up that attitude. The ambivalence of an attitude increases as the positive and negative evaluations get more and more equal. The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior Behavior does not always reflect attitudes. However, attitudes do determine behavior in some situations: †¢ If there are few outside influences, attitude guides behavior. Example: Wyatt has an attitude that eating junk food is unhealthy. When he is at home, he does not eat chips or candy. However, when he is at parties, he indulges in these foods. †¢ Behavior is guided by attitudes specific to that behavior. Example: Megan might have a general attitude of respect toward seniors, but that would not prevent her from being disrespectful to an elderly woman who cuts her off at a stop sign. However, if Megan has an easygoing attitude about being cut off at stop signs, she is not likely to swear at someone who cuts her off. †¢ Behavior is guided by attitudes that come to mind easily. Example: Ron has an attitude of mistrust and annoyance toward telemarketers, so he immediately hangs up the phone whenever he realizes he has been contacted by one. The Influence of Behavior on Attitudes Behavior also affects attitudes. Evidence for this comes from the foot-in-the-door phenomenon and the effect of role playing. The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon People tend to be more likely to agree to a difficult request if they have first agreed to an easy one. This is called the foot-in-the-door phenomenon. Example: Jill is more likely to let an acquaintance borrow her laptop for a day if he first persuades her to let him borrow her textbook for a day. Social Norms and Social Roles Social norms are a society’s rules about appropriate behavior. Norms exist for practically every kind of situation. Some norms are explicit and are made into laws, such as the norm While driving, you may not run over a pedestrian. Other norms are implicit and are followed unconsciously, such as You may not wear a bikini to class. Social roles are patterns of behavior that are considered appropriate for a person in a particular context. For example, gender roles tell people how a particular society expects men and women to behave. A person who violates the requirements of a role tends to feel uneasy or to be censured by others. Role requirements can change over time in a society. The Effect of Role Playing and the â€Å"Prison Study† People tend to internalize roles they play, changing their attitudes to fit the roles. In the 1970s, the psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a famous study called the prison study, which showed how roles influence people. Zimbardo assigned one group of college student volunteers to play the role of prison guards in a simulated prison environment. He provided these students with uniforms, clubs, and whistles and told them to enforce a set of rules in the prison. He assigned another group of students to play the role of prisoners. Zimbardo found that as time went on, some of the â€Å"guard† students became increasingly harsh and domineering. The â€Å"prisoner† students also internalized their role. Some broke down, while others rebelled or became passively resigned to the situation. The internalization of roles by the two groups of students was so extreme that Zimbardo had to terminate the study after only six days.

Case Study †Mr Rakesh Sharma Essay

The case study given is about a fresh graduate, Mr. Rakesh Sharma joined Modern Industries Ltd. (MIL) in Bangalore as a trainee against a projected vacancy in the Paints Application Department for one-year training. Mr. Sharma has been performed very well. The Department Manager and the Training Manager were satisfied with his performance in the first two quarters. However, when stepping in to the third quarter, Mr. Sharma raised an issue about curtailing his training period. The request has not be entertained and Mr. Sharma’s behavior started to change and became unacceptable. Counseling session and warning letter have been issued to him and the situation did not turn good. One of the primary objectives of the Training Department is to recruit who have good potential and train them to be effective persons in different department. The Training Manager clearly known that Mr. Sharma is a potential trainee but he failed to train him in different department and caused Mr. Sharma only have one choice of department to stay which is the Paint Application Department. The Training Manager have to struggle on his rational decision whether to terminate or not to terminate Mr.  Sharma. There are five issues discussed in this report. These five issues are the main causes to the problem that the Training Manage has to decide whether he should terminate Mr. Sharma or not. The five issues are communication, employees behavior, compensation and benefit, company policy, training and development. Moreover, we also discussed five options to the Training Manager other than termination of Mr. Sharma. These five options are apply employee engagement program, training and coaching system, giving short period to show improvement, reevaluate performance of Mr.  Sharma and communicate and persuade the parties involved. HRM issues that cause to the problem Issue 1: Communications Effective communication is essential to business success. â€Å"You can tie back almost every employee issue attendance, morale, performance, and productivity to communication,† says Fred Holloway, an HR adviser in Medford, Oregon. Businesses without effective staff communication suffer from lost profits, poor productivity and poor employee morale. In order to solve many business problems, employees need to be able to collaborate and cooperate effectively. Good communication can encourage employees to work harder, solve problems together and work towards a common goal. It is the job of every manager to ensure employees and superior are communicating effectively with each other. In the cases of MIL, we found that there is some communication problems between shop manager and Mr. Sharma; Training Manager and Mr. Sharma as well. More interaction / communication between trainees has to be established especially for performance appraisal purpose. Reviewing trainee performance once at the end of every quarter is too long for training manager to review their performance accurately. Trainees’ performance might not be consistent from time to time and advise might need to be given to them. Also, training manager might lack of clearer understanding about their overall performance and problems they faced. Hence, this lack of communication between training manager and trainees including Mr. Sharma caused manager hardly to observe their actual performances, problem faced and what they really want or do they deserve to enjoy more benefit? These are all the grey areas that left out by performances review. Besides, Department Manager should be communicate and discuss with Mr.  Sharma before file a complaint on him to Training Manager. Department Manager obligated to understand employee problem and assist it to cope with problem faced. However, department manager failed to do so. This shows there is lacking of communication between Mr. Sharma and Department Manager. Listening and responding is how we understand the feelings and thoughts of the other person. There is no skill more important for effective communication than taking into consideration the other person? s perspective. Try standing in someone else? s shoes; it will considerably improve your communication with that person. In this case, Training manager doesn’t seem to communicate well with Mr. Sharma when Mr. Sharma voice out his request. The manager’s reply upon Mr. Sharma is more considered as a perfunctory to Mr. Sharma. This caused Mr. Sharma to feel that the request and problems were not being taken seriously by management. As a result, it de-motivated Mr. Sharma to keep on with training. Manager should standing in employee’s shoes to understand better their exact situation and their needs. It certainly assists a lot to improve communication between manager and employees. Hence, we suggest that manager should really look into the matter if any of the subordinate especially trainee voicing out opinion and requests. Manager should investigate and evaluate such matter deeply upon Mr. Sharma’s request to decide whether his performance is good enough to curtail his training period to 7 months and absorb him as engineer. Also, to look into trainee’s benefits whether it reaching satisfactory level for trainees or whether the matter is only happened on Mr. Sharma since there is an issue has been voice out by him. Issue 2: Employee’s behavior Employee’s behavior is referring to the way the employee responses toward his/her job. Generally, employee’s behavior can be classified into either positive or negative. A positive behavior indicates a strong employment engagement towards company whereas an employee with negative behavior shows low employment engagement. In this case, one of the issues found is the personal behavior of Mr. Sharma. When Mr. Sharma is being informed that his request to become a regular employee was disapproved, his attitude started to change differently. He then started to become de-motivated and started rejecting to perform in some task which assigned to him, telling that the assigned work should be done by ‘regular workers’ instead of a trainee. Such action did not receive any attention in the initial period but it then become erratic and unacceptable at last. We think that Mr. Sharma portrait an attitude of egoism. Mr. Sharma only focuses on self- interest without being considering for others. In this case, Mr. Sharma tried to demonstrate to the company by practicing de-motivate attitude in work. Employees in company supposed to work together as a whole and team work certainly the most important criteria. Unfortunately, Mr. Sharma failed to practice it in this case. Another sub-issue of the case is employment engagement. Mr. Sharma showed a low employment engagement to the company by becoming less aggressive and progressive towards the job as well as refusing to work on some task assigned to him. An employee with low engagement to company eventually lowers down the productivity and efficiency. We think that Mr. Sharma should have a long term view rather just focusing on short term benefits. As a part of the company, he should show an active, progressive and aggressive attitude towards his work to convince training manager that he deserved to curtail his training period and get promoted to regular employee. Issue 3: Compensation and Benefits Compensation and benefits is an effective tool and method to motivate and reward a employee based on their performance. However, it could be a sensitive issue between employer and employee while discussing the content of the compensation and benefits. In this case study, Mr. Rakesh Sharma requested that his training period be curtailed to 7 months only and to absorb him as an Engineer. He argued that he had been performing like a regular employee in the department for the last one quarter. He indicated that he would gain seniority as well as some monetary benefits as the trainees were eligible for a stipend only. The regular employees were eligible for many allowances like conveyance, dearness, house rent, education, etc. which was a substantial amount as compared to the stipend paid to a trainee. According to Mr. Sharma’s request, one of the main factors that he would like to be absorbed as a regular engineer is monetary benefits. Hence, the differences between his on-the-job training benefits and regular employee benefits have caused him to come out with the request. This is also one of the issues that lead to the eventual problem of termination. Employee compensation is the employee incentives and rewards that can make all the difference when it comes to retaining good workers. Generally, compensation and benefits for a regular employee will divided into four categories which are: 1. Guaranteed pay: Monetary reward paid by an employer to an employee based on employee/employer relations.  Generally, it also known as basic salary. Besides, there is other pay elements which are paid based solely on employee or employer relations, such as seniority allowance. 2. Variable pay: Monetary reward paid by an employer to an employee that is contingent on discretion, performance or results achieved. For example, bonuses, commissions, dearness, and so on. 3. Benefits: Programs an employer uses to supplement employees’ compensation, such as paid time off, medical insurance, company car, and more. 4. Equity-based compensation: A plan using the employer’s share as compensation. The most common examples are stock options. These are the compensations and benefits that will received if you are a regular employees of a company. However, Mr. Sharma is not a regular employee yet as his on-the-job training is still on-going and only 5 months left. Hence, he still considered as a trainee in the company. Although a trainee is not an official employee of a company, he or she might not have salary. But, trainee may receive compensation and benefits from company. Trainee will receive a fixed compensation of monthly payment from company. Depends on respective company, some company will afford trainee fringe benefits. For example, they will issue stipend for trainee, free meal is available for trainee. Besides, some company might issue health and medical subsidy for trainee too. Yet, a trainee compensation and benefits are still not persuasive when compare with a regular employee. Same with the case, Mr. Sharma requested to be promoted to a regular engineer is not because of his good performance on the job, it is also because of the compensation and benefits of a regular employee are more sufficient and attractive.

Brand Strategy for Supermarket Industry in Hong Kong

Brand Strategy for Supermarket Industry in Hong Kong The advent of computers and technological innovation that has faced mankind in the recent past coupled with varied customers need and aspiration has left the business world to be highly competitive. For this reason, there are a number of strategies that organizations have used to cut for themselves a market edge in this competitive business world. The main strategy is branding usually followed by advertisement and publicity. The concept of branding has come out to be deemed by management of any organization as a top priority (Chaudhuri 2001). Additionally, it has been categorized together with human workforce to be the most valuable assets within an organization. It has been argued that brand building is a long process that utilizes a lot of resources and cannot be separated from advertisement and strong marketing strategies. Organizations have resorted to branding with the belief that it will save them from failing as it will enhance the value of the product/organization. However, many of these organizations fail to have prior knowledge that adequate planning is key to successful branding (Kotler 1997). For this reason, long-term promotion prop up for a brand, on the basis of definitions of the distinctiveness of the target consumers is necessary. Additionally, understanding of customers preferences, aspirations and expectations from the brand need to be considered. History and transition of branding Historically, ‘brand’ was though to mean a hot or burning thing and thus associated with marking of animals with unique symbols so that owners can easily identify them (Gregory, 2003). The process involved burning an iron that has been fashioned into a distinct symbol then pressed on the animal skin leaving a permanent mark. Over the years the term has been used in a wider context especially in the field of business to refer to â€Å"name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one selle r or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers (Chaudhuri 2002). One notable example of earlier use of branding in China, where merchants used branding names â€Å"Misty Mountain Tea†, or â€Å"Garden in the Sky Tea† to sell poor quality garden tea to buyers Oscar Wilde wrote that pessimist is an individual that who is a ware of all things but do not know the price of anything. It is only in the recent past that top management have deem brand to be an important asset to their organization. (Davidson 1998; Ward and Perrier 1998) In simple terms, brand is entity that provides end-users with an added value on the basis based functional performance. All these help distinguish the product or service being offered by a business entity. The four Ps of marketing has been used for a very long time to bring about values associated with a brand (Lancaster 1995; Kotler 1997) As time passed, knowledge possessed by the community that engage in marketing has led to managers being brand leaders. There is recognition of branding strategy as source of competitive advantage in domestic markets (Chaudhuri 2001; De Chernatony 2001; Moore et al 2000).

Applied Economics-Using SAS Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Applied Economics-Using SAS - Assignment Example These factors are not, however, explicitly correlated as poorer nations have been identified as potential future economies provided that health care expenditure is minimal. On the other hand, the consideration of education quality affects the level of economic output of the nation at hand. Hence, among the research questions that this exercise seeks to answer include â€Å"What is the relationship between education and population growth and the associated impacts? Additionally, the relationship between health expenditure and population growth provides room for analyzing the movement of resources to fund some sectors while others, which in differ in priority, are postponed. In order to understand that the economic theory provides insight into the aspect of whether related economic functions have any influence on the other. For instance, this section involves the use of Statistics Analysis Software (SAS) from which regression tests are performed to provide the desired information to respond to the research questions. By using regression analyses, the relationships between education and population, population and health, and education & health care. Alth ough the economic theory aims at solving economic dilemmas, it is also used to analyze the foreseeable dilemmas. For instance, one of the dilemmas that economic analysts have to deal with is the identification of opportunity costs when managing public funds. It is feared that situations that call for decisions that are almost equally sound, the implicit benefits may fall short of explicit benefits. Consider an economic situation in which the GDP is affected by the health expenditure. Data analyzed in this section considers population growth, education expenditure, and health expenditure of Argentina, Brazil, United States, Canada, Germany, France, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia as some of the major economies facing education and health expenditure issues (SchreiberWWII, 1). One among the

Digital culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Digital culture - Essay Example On the other hand, the presentations illustrated unbundling and dynamic of self organization. We are able to build upon our pre existing knowledge by interacting with the tools created by the digital culture. For example, using the Google such as Google drive or Samsung digitized products can help an individual learn many things that they previously never knew about. By this we can say that the presentations illustrated beyond doubt how technogenesis, unbundling and self organization is brought about in the process. Question B Several additional factors would have supported my learning. Direct interaction with the outside world that is out of classroom environment would have been great so that to bring the learning more into a reality. The idea of automated and consistent assessment would have helped me to have a more concrete understanding of this course. Moreover, convenience and flexibility would have supported my learning and even make it better. The course ought to have considered the student interests and make it more learner centered, if it were to support the student fully to improve their learning. Lastly, motivation by the instructors, a more direct questioning approach and additional time would have been perfect in making my learning more favorable. The conception of the internet as our most interactive medium today, would have guided us to interact more thus learn more. Instructional designers need to extend and expand the various aspects in order for this course to be more tool complete, and stand alone online expert system. These include developing a broader array of tools for proper communication. They need to understand which communication mediums are best suited for learners of our kind. This will give the course an upper hand over other online expert systems. For this course to be the most outstanding in the whole world, it needs a proper implementation which will guide it throughout. It should also embrace a faster learning experience which will help it to be more competitive when compared with other online expert systems. Furthermore it should be more interactive and student oriented so that to benefit the students and their productivity as well. All these will help the course to be a more complete system. Cheat sheet This course is very important in that we live in the digital age and much has changed. Issues regarding unbundling and its t heme become a major area of interest in this course most probably because of its significance. Another important aspect is technogenesis technology which carry’s the weight of digital culture. The relevant ideas I stipulated in tackling this task is acknowledging the importance of this course and its application in the modern world. List of important areas Disembodiement Technogenesis Digital graphics and interphase Online scholarships through

Philosophy-Licensing Parents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosophy-Licensing Parents - Essay Example The process of licensing individuals would inevitably hassle or perhaps devastate individuals seeking to participate in such an activity. However, LaFollette argues that this is the cost of protecting innocent victims from actions that Frisch classifies into four broad categories: (1) risks arising out of ignorance, (2) risks arising through physical or mental incapacity, (3) risks arising from willful misconduct, and (4) risks arising through negligence or inability to exert self-control over behavior (Frisch, 1981, p. 173). LaFollette’s case relies on proving two criteria for regulatory licensing: that â€Å"parenting is an activity potentially very harmful to children† and that â€Å"a parent must be competent if he is to avoid harming his children† (LaFollette, 1980, pp. 184-5). These two claims cannot be disproved: they are clear facts, as both LaFollette and Frisch acknowledge. Frisch also acknowledges the strength of LaFollette’s claim that regulation is â€Å"a fundamental task of any stable society† (Frisch, 1981, p. 173). Nevertheless, the dispute originates from whether parenting is analogous to other activities, or if it can be controlled by regulation. It may be that parenting cannot be modified or changed by any amount government control. LaFollette argues the prior restraint of licensing for drivers or physicians is â€Å"not terribly onerous† but that the â€Å"restricted activity is one which could lead easily to serious harm† (LaFollette, 1980, p. 189). These are the risks (that could happen) Frisch believes societies undertake licensing to reduce. Frisch proceeds to develop, based on his four categories of risks, a non-arbitrary distinction between parenting and other regulated activities. With respect to ignorance, there is no empirical reason to believe that with more knowledge of parenting (knowledge that can be taught descriptively anyway) parents will be more competent to raise a child in the same way

U.S. foreign policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

U.S. foreign policy - Essay Example It is an observation that foreign policy of the US plays a crucial role in functions and operations of different countries around the globe, and this has been the reason of significant importance of different aspects of US foreign policy in international media and research.This paper is a similar attempt to analyze one of the major stakeholders of US foreign policy: public. In particular, the paper includes discussion and analysis of the perspective as whether public opinion matters in the decision-making process of US foreign policy or not. The paper includes different studies and reports that will be very beneficial in comprehensive understanding and validation of the discussion. Introduction In a democratic nation’s foreign policy, decisions are likely to be taken by the citizens and in support of the citizens. Governments are answerable to the citizens and the public would not clash, in view of the fact that it is public who finally pay the price and suffer for the most pa rt. Efforts of one government to control significant foreign policies of another by disturbing public opinion within that nation are not new to global relations. The British tried to influence United States view in support of joining both World Wars during the twentieth century. The issue of whether such efforts actually matter, however, stays open. United States public diplomacy throughout the post-9/11 phase certainly influenced by public opinion; however, the result is conditional on United States leaders’ trustworthiness in front of public... As a result, a foreign policy maker must be responsive to these restraints, master them, and rise above them, changing them to his or her determination (Hunt, p. 98, 2009). It is generally acknowledged by both researchers as well as the politicians that the balanced option is the leading approach to foreign policy making. This approach consists of identification and description of the problem; selection of objective; recognition of substitutes; and choice. Discussion In the foreign policy making procedure, the decision maker is not different to any normal human being who, after assessing the case, usually selects those measures, which almost certainly would attain the most excellent result. However, in the concept of rationalism, the rational is frequently puzzled with truth. If a foreign policy goes wrong, it is said that the decision makers worked unreasonably. However, whether correct or incorrect, if the decision was an act of study it can barely be unreasonable. Some that decisi on makers perform reasonably in conditions when they are stressed mainly in emergency, because in these circumstances, they have to be careful about their actions (Spanier & Hook, p. 395, 2009). The topic of public opinion along with its power in foreign policy has been an issue of argument both in and since the cold war between pragmatists and moderates. Arguments in favor of pragmatist view ‘can be found back in the eighteenth century’. â€Å"Edmund Burke a political philosopher contended that ‘A representative’s unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. Your representative owes you, not his industry

Practice to Policy Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Practice to Policy Paper - Essay Example The problem that a drug addict and his/her family face is the total alienation from the mainstream of the society. Moreover, one of the family members has to keep a watchful eye upon the victim of the drug addiction and it can alter or control human behavior. It diminishes the capacity of a person to control his conduct and his/her conduct in the manner society expects from him/her. The person who is happened to be a victim of drug addiction may not be bantered about morals and values in a society. So, there is high chance to consider him/her as an antisocial being. It must be kept in mind that in the United States, the problem of drug addiction is considered as so serious that more than 11,000 specialized drug treatment facilities handle the tasks of drug related disorders. Most teenagers are attracted to the addiction of drugs either for company sake and to prove themselves that they are grown up to violate the strict laws set forward by the society, and wish to be in the hands of pleasure seeking principle. This is a disheartening sight for a dedicated social worker. The drug problem that the people of America face is transforming to a social epidemic that the crime rate of the country is increasing due to the increase in drug addiction among the people .Rudolph W. Giuliani feels that the drug problem in the US is increasing; however he does not consider it as a ‘plague’ or ‘mystical problem’ . Rather, he points out that the drug addiction problem is related to cultural factors in America : â€Å"This is a problem that we created in our culture, in our messages that we send to each other, we created this in the attitude that we have as a society ... in the 60s and in the 70s and we created it in the 80s.† (Giuliani 19 98). The alarming problem of drug addiction may create serious problems in near future. Moreover, there is a close relation between

Getting father and I on the same page Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Getting father and I on the same page - Essay Example I’ve always written, for school assignments, college essays and term reports and sometimes just to let off steam or communicate with another person, but none of what I have written in my life has been as meaningful to me as the letters I wrote to Father when I was in Boston. These letters embody in writing the foundation and building of our relationship in words and are more precious to me than anything I ever wrote or was written to me. These writings embody the bridge that brought Father and I back together. I spent my childhood in a closely knit and fairly large family in Korea. My sister and I used to play together at home and were very close and strongly attached to mother, but father remained a potent yet detached presence in our house. My father ran his own business; he used to work long hours during the week and was hardly ever home. Even when he was; he seemed too tired to want to hang around with my sister and me. To my young self, father seemed like a big and imposi ng figure of whom I was mostly scared. Throughout middle school, I spent most of my time outside the house hanging out with my friends in an effort to stay out of father’s way. ... However, this pattern broke when I was 20. At 20 years of age, I moved from Korea to Boston and had to live away from my family for the first time in my life. Being away from home like this made me miss father, even if initially I just missed his mere presence. With time, I began to want to talk to him, to share my life with him and tell him how I was doing and in return ask him how life was back home. The only problem was that due to strained relations with him in the past I was still uncomfortable with the idea of initiating a conversation with him, especially an emotional one. However, I really wanted father and me to finally get along so I decided to write him a letter. I thought since this was a less direct way of communicating with him, both of us would be less uncomfortable trying to get our thoughts and feelings across to the other person. My initial letter to father was in some ways my shyest and in other ways my most courageous attempt to communicate with him. I wrote it so that I could finally build a bond between us which had been absent during my childhood, a bond which I now deeply craved that I was away from my home and family and living in a foreign land hundreds of miles away. I say this letter was my shyest attempt at writing to my father because it contained only a few preliminaries and pleasantries and redundant comments about Boston and its weather. I told him my mundane routine and asked him his even when I knew it already. This was my way of engaging him in conversation, of making him a stakeholder in the rebuilding the relation between us. But this letter was also my most courageous attempt to communicate and reconnect with him as only an

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Essay When put together, it means sick of love. Once Montague and Lady Montague leave, Benvolio has to try and discover what is affecting him. Just in the first few lines of Benvolios and Romeos conversation, love, once again appears, not as sexual innuendos, but this time in a much more serious perspective. Benvolio asks, What sadness lengthens Romeos hours? and Romeo replies, Not having that which having makes them short, which is rather ironic as Romeo wants love and therefore his life is short. We previously identify this through the prologue. Elizabethans had an aristocratic view on love and so they thought it would always be bad as Benvolio indicates, so gentle in his view. As soon as Benvolio speaks of love, Romeo attempts to confuse the issue, but when he uncovers the essential truth, he emphasizes each word as if the facts were almost unbelievable and quite without justification. At line 169, Romeo honestly unveils the truth, heres much to do with hate, but more with love. This may not be extremely important in engaging the audience because they may already believe that his unrequited love is Juliet. But this is not the case, thus it will be a shock to the audience when they discover who it really is. His thoughts are of the clash between love and hate, which then places brutal and outrageous images in his head. This is also shown by the words he uses, Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still waking sleep, that is not what it is! Which also represents the confusion of his feelings and the contrast between them. This is an example of an oxymoron and the contradictions in life. It is applied in order to express the perplexity of Romeos emotions. It is also apparent that Romeo recognizes that Rosaline is a Capulet, the enemy, which is why his words of love and hate are intertwined, O brawling love, O loving hate. Once more, Romeo attempts to leave but Benvolio follows him and brings up the subject of love yet again. The word love catches Romeos attention; only this time, he counters Benvolios question by mocking his seriousness. In this section, there is a distinction between Rosaline and Juliets attitude to love. Rosaline, hath forsworn to love, indicating her love will not open out for anyone at this moment, and as he continues, and in that vow, do I live dead, that live to tell it now, reinforces the idea of Romeo finding love and life, and when he does, it will result in death. Romeo is caught up in false or artificial love. When real love comes, it will come as Juliet and will be a great impact in his life. The way he feels about Rosaline is much different to his feelings towards Juliet. As I have previously mentioned, we start scene II with Capulet and Paris, and his wish to marry Juliet as soon as possible. The information that we are told at the end of scene I, and the beginning of scene II, is surprising to the reader as we were lead to believe that it is Romeo and Juliet getting together, but it is apparent they are not and create a sense of curiosity. Capulet is presented as a kind hearted man and has faith in his daughter, earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she; She is the hopeful day of my earth. But this quote too, has dramatic irony, because Juliet dies in the end and therefore will have nothing to live for. Capulet then leaves after his lecture, leaving Peter, his servant with a piece of paper. Romeo and Benvolio enter and meet Peter, who is at fault, as he cannot read the list of whom he is meant to invite for the party. Romeo is persistent and patient with Peter. As he reads the list aloud to Peter, a name mentioned caught his attention; Rosaline. By now, he is even more tolerant with Peter because he realises that this is his chance to discover more about Rosaline. To return the favour, Peter prayed, come and crush a cup of wine, and then left. Of course, Romeo would take advantage of this due to his adoration of Rosaline. Benvolio also encourages him, go thither, and with attained eye, compare her face with some that I shall show. This is another example of dramatic irony as Romeo takes Benvolios advice and ironically, he does find another woman who happens to be Juliet. Presently however, Romeo questions, one fairer than my love? believing that there is no one else for him, but there is. Rosaline starts to fade out at the end of scene II. By introducing the nurse before Juliet in scene III, Shakespeare at one stroke made the drama domestic, bawdy, and affectionate in tone. As she speaks in turn to Lady Capulet and Juliet, the nurses speech is more dynamic and rhythmically varied than any so far in the play. Shakespeare was also able to introduce his heroin almost silently, so that in her first scene, Juliet speaks only seven lines. Attention is of course, focused on her, and her response is crucial for the development of the scene; yet she remains dutiful in speech and therefore mysterious and unknown. As lady Capulet did not ask any questions, the Nurse felt it was necessary to speak. Her long speech about the death of her daughter may indicate the events that could happen to Juliet. The bawdy lines 43-45: Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit; Wilt thou not, Jule? And, by my holidam, The pretty wretch left crying and said, Ay Provide a climax for the speech, making the nurse helpless with laughter and provoking three repetitions, two against the express wish of Lady Capulet. Probably the nurse should make an attempt to be silent or serious and then give in to her own instincts. Juliets involvement is effective as she may either be embarrassed by her Nurses bawdiness or may know that more is likely to follow and offend her mother. It is in this scene where Juliet speaks her thoughts of marriage and believes it is, an honour I dream not of, for she is still young and has no plans to marry. This is considered as dramatic irony for she has no desire to marry Paris but when she meets Romeo, she falls in love and marries him almost straight away. Then Lady Capulet asks, can you like Paris love? and Juliet answers, Ill look to like, if looking liking move. But no more deep will I endart my eye Than your consent gives strength to make it fly, Reinforcing that she will meet him but Lady Capulet will have to wait before Juliet gives her verdict. The audience at this point will anticipate the judgment of young Juliet. Finally, there is one last major theme in the play, fate and tragedy. When mentioning the word tragedy, you automatically think death or a disaster outcome, which will make you want to know more about the event or situation. Shakespeare gives a hint of tragedy in the prologue, A pair of star-crossed lovers take their strife, and so connects with the thoughts of the audience. Star-crossed lovers are referred to as death. Their love brings both of them to an end and is thus, their destiny to die. The prologue gives a summary to what we expect to happen, but Shakespeare carefully made this to embody the divine intervention of Romeo and Juliet. In the Elizabethan times, the audience were lead to believe that fate always causes tragedy. As we know, we begin in a fight scene. Romeo is in fact not there, which may symbolise that Romeo is not part of the feud or that he is involved greatly. The quarrelling of fools is turned to civil mutiny as the prologue warned. Although Benvolio seeks to keep the peace, he is soon fighting as Tybalt threatens him with death. The Capulets and the Montagues are built on hate where as Romeo and Juliet is built on love and subsequently, inevitability is introduced. The prophetic words of Prince Escalus, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace, is ironic because we know that Romeo and Juliet, from each household, dies as a consequent to the feud that has been going on for many years. It is an insight for those who dont know, of what will tragically happen. Romeos unrequited love leads his life, but when another lady returns his love, his life comes to an end. The ironic in this is visible as we read Romeo and Benvolios conversation. Romeos fate as he believes, is to be with Juliet no matter what. So his determination to spend eternity with Juliet is his destiny to die. Romeo claims he is a victim of bad luck, in saying that he is Fortunes fool The mechanism of fate works in all of the events surrounding the lovers, including the feud between their families. This event is not mere coincidence, but manifestations of fate that help bring about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers deaths. Fate in the play is influenced by the social situations and the personalities of each character. In scene II, Capulet recalls that he has nothing to live for but for his daughter, but because he is at war with whom Juliet loves, she dies as a consequence of this. It is bad luck to him and for both Romeo and Juliet. Peters obvious flaw of not being able to read is Romeos chance to meet Rosaline, but this is his fate to first meet Juliet. Meeting Peter was a fateful coincidence. Benvolio himself said to look for other women and this is what happened when he went to Capulets party. Benvolio urges Romeo to go to the party for the women, but Lady Capulet urges Juliet to go to meet Paris, giving the audience the benefit of the doubt. The audience at this point is now aware of how Juliet and Romeo meet. In scene III, the Nurse comments, An I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish, implies that she will see Juliets marriage with Paris, but not only does she miss it, but Juliets husband to be is a different man. The nurses speech is significant and refers to the death of her own child. The audience by now is much more interested as they now know more about the events. Overall, we can see that Shakespeare has created an atmosphere, which engages the audience right from the beginning. He uses imagery, emotive words, dramatic irony and various other techniques to do so. In the beginning, the prologue tells us what we are to expect, and as we near the end of scene III, our expectations are answered, but we are curious of how the events happen. Shakespeare has successfully completed his task to seize our mind.

Visual storytelling in films

Visual storytelling in films Literature Review Introduction In this preface section, more than a few factors that shape the art of relating visuals and stories in films will be listed down. These factors will be the root of the research in order to perform the methodology analysis of the thesis, in addition to answering the research questions as well as analyzing the obtained results from the research. Visual Storytelling in Films: What is it? The exact description of visual storytelling is hard to pin down succinctly as there are various schools of thought regarding the matter. All the same, The International Film School of Paris (EICAR) had defined it frankly as â€Å"Communicating visually in forms that can be read or looked upon. In cinema a story is most visual when ideas and emotions are expressed through performance and aesthetics as opposed to dialogue.† Based on that characterization it is not hard to understand why Monaco (2000) claims that a film is a language for it ‘communicates’ to an audience. It is not a language in the sense of English, French or Mathematic is, for there is no such thing as grammar or vocabulary that needed learning. Campsall (2002) is in agreement as he elaborated that the language of film expresses the way a film would ‘speak’ to its audiences and spectators which is why directors, producers and editors work to produce meaning from the moving still images of film, video and television. The viewers in the end are responsible in decoding these meanings in a not dissimilar way to interpreting spoken and written language. When watching a film; everyone from various age groups is able to comprehend the visuals they see. Monaco (2000) states further that there are two conclusions, that everyone can perceive and identify a visual image which leads to the above statement. Another is that even the simplest visual images are interpreted differently in by people with different backgrounds. This is because, as human beings, we don’t simply read what we see but we bring to our interpretation of moving images, a range of pre-existing expectations, information and mutual experiences that f orm the significance we take from what we see (Campsall, 2002). An essential facet of film language is its gripping temperament and its manifestation of realism also known as verisimilitude. As Campsall (2002) wrote, it is not only as if the audiences are watching a bona fide ‘window on the world’, it’s a window that they would desire to remain on watching. Through these means, films are not only capable of being entertaining, enlightening and informing to its viewers, but also enabling them to perceive the world in a particular means. Moreover this makes the film language very much recognized as semiotic what with the usage of signs, codes and conventions. Those who could understand the language are able to see the methods or conventions used for visual storytelling. Throughout this research, there were many books and articles that voiced out their opinions on methods of reading a film; each film jargons have their specific symbolism and usage depending on what the direction of the story. When one is able to properly read a film by means of identifying and understanding the conventions, one would be capable of visual storytelling (Sijll, 2005). Below is the list of the accumulated conventions used in today’s visual storytelling. Visual Storytelling: Space Space in film refers to the spatial dynamics inherent in the frame of a film. One would say that a film frame is akin to a static snapshot thus part of a moving picture. Like a painting, the static image of the frame presents inherent storytelling opportunities. Because a movie is a motion picture, the composition of the frame continuously changes. This added characteristics affords two important story elements – that of screen direction and comparison. Screen direction can suggest antagonism, individualism, and conflict, for example. A moving frame might be used to represent change, similarity or it’s opposite, stasis. Visual Storytelling: Framing a Composition The eye responds differently to various visual stimuli. Among the most important elements that have been discerned are: brightness, colour, size, shape, motion, speed, and direction. Through careful manipulations these elements can be used to guide the audience’s attention and emotional response. As always, content, juxtaposition with bordering frames, and the intersection of other elements will contribute to the viewer’s response. Visual Storytelling: Shape within the Frame Depending on use and context, shapes can be used to suggest ideas and emotions. Traditionally there are three fundamental shapes: the circle, the square and the triangle. Out of these three, many forms can be derived out of them: the half circle, the rectangle, and many others. For each shapes there are certain traditional association made of them. Block (2008) listed in â€Å"The Visual Story† some of the shape meanings. Rounded Shapes are associated with indirectness, passive, romantic, pertaining to nature, soft organic, childlike, safe and flexible. Squares however are direct, industrial, ordered, linear, unnatural, adult, and rigidness. Triangles are for aggressiveness and dynamics. Block cautions that these are not rules for new associations can always be made depending on the need of the story. Shape is merely one element in the frame. Visual Storytelling: Editing Editing is a way of constricting time and space or producing the outcome of a dream sequence or flashback. The results of editing are more often than not seamless and natural that the audiences tend not to be aware of it. In theory, editing is the constriction of scenes through assembly of shots. Different choices of editing could guide the audience’s emotional response. Pudovkin (1926) had set down five editing techniques that remain the foundation of the modern day cutting: contrast, parallelism, symbolism, simultaneity, Leit-Motif. Visual Storytelling: Time A film is a dramatic representation of life. It is made up of scenes ordered to represent the passage of film time through the assembly of edited shots. Film time is rarely paced the same as real life. With the exception of mise-en-scene, most edited sequences manipulate real time. From one cut to another, an opportunity of altering experiences of real time can be made. The reason filmmakers alter time is because they are creating a dramatic story. Only those moments that contribute to its advancement are included, all else is left out. Visual Storytelling: Sound and Music Outside of the musical score, movies rely on three kinds of sound to tell their stories: Dialogues, voiceover and sound effects. While voiceover and dialog are well understood to be writer’s tools, few screenwriters approach sound effects with the same certainty. Yet sound effects are as much the purview of the writer as are visual metaphor, sound effects can also suggest an extended aural metaphor. They can add layers of meaning to a film that are hard to achieve in other ways. Sound effects can be obvious or subtle. They can intentionally draw attention, or manipulate with stealth. They can expose, disguise, suggest establish or reveal. They can also be associated to specific events or characters. Lyrics of music can act as the voice of a character. They can reveal the inner thoughts in a way that can be more interesting than a simple dialogue scene. Lyrics can also act as the voice of the narrator. They add another delivery system with which to parcel out character and thematic information. In other times, music is symbolically used as a story element. Visual Storytelling: Transitions The movement between the end of one scene and the beginning of another is called a transition. Each transition presents an opportunity to convey story information by virtue of how the scenes are cut together. The scene can simply be cut with no intentional reference or constructed to add a story element. A matching transition is one way to exploit this opportunity and can be achieved in an infinite number of ways. Visual Storytelling: Lenses, Positions and Motions of the Camera The camera presents a scene – subjects, actions, settings – in a series of shots that render images on a screen. Instead of just placing the camera where an audience can watch the action, the camera is able to provide the audience with engaging visual experiences. Variety is important for if a scene is simply rendered by a continue series of wide shots, the eye will soon tires of repetitions. A good shot will usually contain a variety of camera framings, and angles. For example by exploiting the depth of field of the lenses, each character on scene can inhabit their own horizontal plan. In this way characters can be staged in-depth. This allows the audience to see each character reacting to one event simultaneously and in real time. Different positions also play a part. The closer the camera is to a character, the more likely audiences will sympathise with the character. Visual Storytelling: Lighting and Colour Film interprets subjects and scenes as images of light and shade. Lighting is one of the few aspects in film that has the ability to create a certain reality to the audience. There are a number of different styles of lighting, each designated as a style geared to the theme and mood, as well as its genre. Lightings can also be used to weaken subject matter. Colour on the other hand tends to be a subconscious element in film. It’s strongly emotional in its appeal, expressive atmospheric. In short, colour helps to suggest moods. Visual Storytelling: Props, Wardrobes, and Locations Props provide a dramatic way to express a characters inner world. Props speak visually, are mobile, and can be returned to throughout the movie. By purposely selecting and exploiting props, a film’s scene can be given an added layer of meaning. Wardrobes are the same as props; the decision to include wardrobe elements depends on whether it adds sufficient dramatic value be it to a character, to show character transformation or the passage of time. Another way to externalize the inner thoughts of character is to manipulate the locations. It also offers a huge storytelling potential, for a certain location can heighten drama, suggest parallels and contrast besides defining a character. All three can also serve the purpose of bringing a sense of metaphor to the film. References Arnheim, R. 1969. Film as art. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bellantoni, P. 2005. If its purple, someones gonna die. Amsterdam: Focal Press. Bordwell, D. 1985. Narration in the fiction film. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. Bordwell, D.; Thompson, K. (2006). Film Art: An Introduction (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Block, B. (2008). The Visual Story (2nd ed.). Burlington: Focal Press Campsall, S. (2002). Analysing Moving Image Texts: â€Å"Film Language† [Online]. Available: http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/downloads/filmanalysis.pdf [2011, January 7]. CustomFlix. (Studio). (2006). Visual Culture: Visual Storytelling [DVD]. (Available from Amazon.com) Douglass, J.; Harnden, G. (1996). The Art of Technique: An Aesthetic Approach to Film and Video Production. Boston: Allyn Bacon Dirks, T. (No date). History of Film: The Pre-1920s [Online]. Available: http://www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro.html [2011, February 25]. Duguid, M. (No date). Hitchcock’s Style [Online]. Available: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/hitch/tour1.html [2011, February 25]. Ebert, R. (2008). How to read a movie. Roger Ebert’s Journal [Online], 14paragraphs. Available: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/08/how_to_read_a_movie.html [2008, August 30]. Freeman, D. (No date). Visual Storytelling in Batman Begins [Online]. Available: http://www2.beyondstructure.com/article_batman.php [2011, February 25]. Gelmis, J. (1970). The Film Director As Superstar. New York: Doubleday Company. Giannetti, L. (2001). Understanding Movies (9th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall Green, D. E. 2003. The proper use of cinematic storytelling in biblical preaching. Hallahan, K. 1999. Seven models of framing: Implications for public relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 11 (3), pp. 205242. Martz, M. and Hallahan, K. 2009. Filmmakers as Social Advocates—A New Challenge for Issues Management: Claims-making and Framing in Four Social Issue Documentaries. Pedagogical Posters _ 156, p. 119. Metz, C. (1990). Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. Monaco, J. and Lindroth, D. 2009. How to read a film. New York: Oxford University Press. Playboy (1968, September). What did Kubrick have to say about what 2001 means? Playboy Magazine, 10 paragraphs. Available: http://www.krusch.com/kubrick/Q12.html [2010, 12, December] Pimenta, S. and Poovaiah, R. 2010. On defining visual narratives. IDC Design Research Journal, 3 pp. 2546. Pudovkin, V. (1926). Film technique and Film Acting. New York: Grove Press Rosenbaum, J. 2010. Goodbye cinema, hello cinephilia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sijll, J.V. (2005). Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know. California: Michael Wiese Ward, P. (2003). Picture Composition for Film and Television (2nd ed.). Burlington: Focal Press Zettl, H. 1973. Sight, sound, motion; applied media aesthetics. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co.

Adolf Hitler :: essays research papers

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in a small town called Braunau, Austria by a loving mother named Klara Poelzl Hitler, and an abusive and alcoholic father named Alois Hitler. After becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933, he would lead one of the most barbaric and inhumane regimes in history. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how isolationism and solidarity played a role in the life of this evil leader, both on a personal and political level.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although Adolf’s mother was loving, she lived in constant fear of Alois because he often beat her and the children. Adolf’s step brother, Alois jr., was abused so much that he ran away at the age of fourteen. Alois jr. was replaced by Adolf to be used as a human punching bag. His mother could only stand by and watch and then try to comfort her only son. Adolf had a younger sister named Paula who was born in 1896, she never really was beaten and never had to live with her father for very long because her father died when she was six years old, and Adolf was thirteen years old. Although Adolf cried when he saw his father’s body, he never spoke highly of him after his death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even through the abuse he suffered, He was still an excellent student through primary school. He was a very hard worker and got good grades through Benedictive Monastery School. After primary school Adolf decided that he wanted to become an artist. However he was forced by his father to go to a technical school rather than an art school. At the technical school he did poorly and was a difficult student according to his teachers. They described him as being violent, argumentive, and bad tempered.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolf had one teacher that inspired him, their name was Dr. Poetsch. Dr. Poetsch was an anti-Semitic and a fanatical Pan-German nationalist. It was Dr. Poetsch, said Adolf, who inspired him to become a revolutionary.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolf isolated himself society; he had only one childhood friend, Gustl. Adolf also isolated himself from his family when his mother died in 1907, and then he moved to Vienna because his family was putting pressure on him to get a job, In Vienna he lived by selling his paintings and drawings. While his time in Vienna he had no relations with anyone accept for his business meetings. His temper is first shown in public when he is trying to sell his art work and it is rejected. Adolf Hitler :: essays research papers Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in a small town called Braunau, Austria by a loving mother named Klara Poelzl Hitler, and an abusive and alcoholic father named Alois Hitler. After becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933, he would lead one of the most barbaric and inhumane regimes in history. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how isolationism and solidarity played a role in the life of this evil leader, both on a personal and political level.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although Adolf’s mother was loving, she lived in constant fear of Alois because he often beat her and the children. Adolf’s step brother, Alois jr., was abused so much that he ran away at the age of fourteen. Alois jr. was replaced by Adolf to be used as a human punching bag. His mother could only stand by and watch and then try to comfort her only son. Adolf had a younger sister named Paula who was born in 1896, she never really was beaten and never had to live with her father for very long because her father died when she was six years old, and Adolf was thirteen years old. Although Adolf cried when he saw his father’s body, he never spoke highly of him after his death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even through the abuse he suffered, He was still an excellent student through primary school. He was a very hard worker and got good grades through Benedictive Monastery School. After primary school Adolf decided that he wanted to become an artist. However he was forced by his father to go to a technical school rather than an art school. At the technical school he did poorly and was a difficult student according to his teachers. They described him as being violent, argumentive, and bad tempered.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolf had one teacher that inspired him, their name was Dr. Poetsch. Dr. Poetsch was an anti-Semitic and a fanatical Pan-German nationalist. It was Dr. Poetsch, said Adolf, who inspired him to become a revolutionary.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolf isolated himself society; he had only one childhood friend, Gustl. Adolf also isolated himself from his family when his mother died in 1907, and then he moved to Vienna because his family was putting pressure on him to get a job, In Vienna he lived by selling his paintings and drawings. While his time in Vienna he had no relations with anyone accept for his business meetings. His temper is first shown in public when he is trying to sell his art work and it is rejected.