Apple’s Design Process

Question: 1.Critically examine and explain how the four design steps adopted by apple is the right way of product design. Support your answer with example wherever necessary? 2.Going by the case, do you think Apple by focusing on a narrow product line, is following a good design strategy. Explain your answer with examples? Answers: 1. Apple is considered as one of the leading companies that maintain uniqueness through it designs. The core values of the Apple are related to their designs (Kumar, Townsend and Vorhies, 2015). According to the ex- CEO of Apple Steve Jobs, quality is always more precious than quantity. Although Apple is one of the most preferred brands among the gadget lovers, people are not much aware of their designing process (Lemley, 2014). Recently in a panel discussion it has been revealed that team of Apple mainly follow four techniques during the manufacturing of any product, those are: i) Pixel perfect mockups ii) 10 to 3 to 1 iii) Paired Design Meetings iv) Pony Meetings (Chuang, Morgan and Robson, 2015). After the discussion regarding the new product, managers rely on their excellent designers for the design. They follow the below mentioned steps: i) Pixel Perfect Mockups: This is the initial stage of designing any product. This stage usually takes lot of time, but this stage is often considered as an important stage as it helps to prevent mistakes. ii) 10 to 3 to 1: This step differs from Apple to the other brands. No other brands will destroy their ten other designs to establish a perfect design (Dooley, 2013). At first, the expert designers creates ten prototypes by using their creativity, among them only three designs is selected by the experts and then they select the one best design among all of them. iii) Paired Design Meetings: Apple always believes in teamwork. They maintain a good communication strategy among the team. While designing any new product Apple often conducts team meetings between the designers and the engineers. They discuss about every small aspects of the design. These meetings often lead to generate many innovative ideas that can be beneficial for the the emerging design. Designers and engineers usually meet twice a week. Concept of these types of meetings has been brought by the CEO of Steve Jobs. iv) Pony Meetings: Designers always keep in touch with the managers and keep them updated about the developments of the product. These types of meetings reduce the risk of future disappointments. Apple has reduced all the unimportant stages of production. This has made their production procedure simpler. They have involves those steps in the designing procedure that are considered as the key steps of production. Although, the production cost is higher in Apple from the other brands due to the, but Apple ensures the quality of the product (Jia et al., 2014). Quality is the basic priority for the Apple. Apple always welcomes the creativity and innovative ideas of their designers. They allow them to put all their creativity to develop a design. Apple brings an innovative concept about production. Management provides enough space to the designers to show their creativity. They have shown that a quality product does not only require a great team but it demands the high level of creativity (Iwaki et al., 2014). Apple has set an example for the other brands that using great creativity and teamwork can bring fame and profits altogether. 2. As mentioned in the previous case study, Apple follows a narrow product line. They deal with a few numbers of products. They do not believe in market research or diversifying the product line. They do not want to become competition for other brands and spread risk within the market. They have complete faith on the quality of their products and their own technologies. Apple is following the designing strategy. The objective of designing strategy is to consolidate the business and the creativity in such a manner that makes the design more than an artistic exercise (Alsyouf, Al-Alami and Saidam, 2015). An exemplary example is the Robert Bynder Design Inc (RBD). According to its creative head Rob Bynder, while they have merged up the designing skills with the business strategy it works as a tool that enhances the growth of the organization. Apple has also used design as their key element of the production. They consider creativity as the major tool of their strength. Designers have be en allowed to show their creativity to establish every single design. As the case study shows that designers are asked to make ten prototypes for a single design. Among those at first three designs are considered as the finalists, later on they choose only the best design for the final manufacturing process. Not every gadget manufacturing company use this process, as it is a very time consuming process and it enhances the cost of the production as well. However, quality is Apples first concern. They have used the creativity of the designers in an effective manner. Management interacts with its team frequently with the designing team but never create any obstacles for them to perform. They encourage the new ideas and provide a platform to the designers where they can show their creativity. They always maintain transparency within the organization. They ensure that designers always discuss about the new developments with the management so the future disappointments can be avoided. It shows that they are focused enough about the development of business as well but creativity is their first preference. They have set an example for all the designers those who want to achieve the goal in the path of creativity; they have shown that success can be achieved through the creativity (Gruber et al., 2015). Although Apple follows its own techniques and strategies and never relies on any market research, Apple is one of the most preferred brands in the market. Apple has complete faith on their designers and they believe their designers possess the capacity to amuse the world. Reference: Alsyouf, I., Al-Alami, A. and Saidam, A., 2015. Implementing product design development methodology for assessing and improving the performance of products.International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM),9(3), pp.225-234. Chuang, F.M., Morgan, R.E. and Robson, M.J., 2015. Customer and competitor insights, new product development competence, and new product creativity: differential, integrative, and substitution effects.Journal of Product Innovation Management,32(2), pp.175-182. Dooley, J., 2013. Steve Jobs' moment of silence. Gruber, M., De Leon, N., George, G. and Thompson, P., 2015. Managing by design.Academy of Management Journal,58(1), pp.1-7. Iwaki, S., Hokamura, K., Ogawa, M., Takehara, Y., Muramatsu, Y., Yamane, T., Hirabayashi, K., Morimoto, Y., Hagisawa, K., Nakahara, K. and Mineno, T., 2014. A design strategy for small molecule-based targeted MRI contrast agents: their application for detection of atherosclerotic plaques.Organic biomolecular chemistry,12(43), pp.8611-8618. Jia, L., Zhao, G., Shi, W., Coombs, N., Gourevich, I., Walker, G.C., Guerin, G., Manners, I. and Winnik, M.A., 2014. A design strategy for the hierarchical fabrication of colloidal hybrid mesostructures.Nature communications,5. Kumar, M., Townsend, J.D. and Vorhies, D.W., 2015. Enhancing consumers' affection for a brand using product design.Journal of Product Innovation Management,32(5), pp.716-730. Lemley, M.A., 2014. A Rational System of Design Patent Remedies.

Journal Operations Production Management -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Journal Operations Production Management? Answer: Introduction Quality of the management is one of the key concerns of all industries. As a result therefore, ISO 9000 was developed and introduced to provide the guidance and tools to the companies and organizations which have the focus of consistent production of goods and services that meet the requirements of the customers and also ascertaining for their improved quality. Popularity of ISO has increased in the past years for both small and big companies since it articulates how the management operations of the companies should be conducted. The international standards organizations ensure that all the products and services are designed and created in manner that they conform to the predetermined standards. More than 100 nations have adopted ISO 9000 in their companies management and quality assurance. This report is developed and aimed at meeting the following objectives; i) Determining the impact of adoption of ISO 9000 on the financial performance of a firm and ii) Determining the effects of certification with ISO 9000 on a firms management. Meeting these two stated objectives will help to clarify the understanding of impacts created by ISO 9000 and also the certification effects on the firms management. Literature review Numerous researches have been carried out around the globe concerning ISO 9000 since its invention and development on the effects and impact on business performance with the same results being arrived at. Different researches will therefore be reviewed in this report with various literatures portraying different framework and methods that are used to measure certification impact. Some of the studies have advocated that certification of ISO leads to improved financial performance. According (Chatzoglou et al, 2015), holistic overview by studies to cover all the components that can be seen to have effects and relationship on how the financial performance can be achieved can result to obtaining positive financial benefits. The impact of ISO certification can be indirectly measured to determine the financial performance of a company by using comprehensive conceptual framework. The impact of certification success is determined by the degree of certification effectiveness, this is accordin g to (Posmas et al, 2013). Operational performance is directly improved that have direct effect in increasing the financial performance though direct relationship might not be there between ISO and financial performance. According to (Ismyrlis Moschidis, 2015), they argued that external perspectives form the most important benefits of certification. This was so as obtained from evaluation of impacts of the implementation of ISO. Some of the most important benefits derived from ISO are external in nature that portray higher operational performance. Adoption of ISO 9000 in business was with the aim of adding quality and value to the management of the business. Incorporating and adopting ISO 9000 should be for development reasons to realize the optimum benefits other than when companies acquire it for non-developmental purposes, this will make them realize less benefits from it, this is according to (Papadimitriou Westerheijden, 2010). In response to that, companies are supposed to be evaluated depending on their objectives and categories separately to determine their benefits from ISO 9000 (Franceschini et al, 2010). When carrying out market differentiation strategy, certified companies by ISO 9000 show profit increase when operationalizing cost leadership strategy (Lafuente et al, 2010). The benefits derived from ISO 9000 certification are motivational factors that are significant in giving positive predictions. ISO has been undergoing updates to uphold the changes available in businesses environment and focus on quality impro vements. Compared to non-ISO companies, companies certified by ISO 9000 show higher levels of improvement in their practices (Zaramdini, 2007). Time has been a very important factor in almost all the activities carried out in any business operation. In regards to that, companies that had been certified for long period of time portray better improvements of TQM results. Companies certified in the recent past years with updated ISO 9000 of other versions enjoy more benefits with time as compared to their counterparts certified with traditional ISO 9000. Business financial performance improvement can be visualized and analyzed for ISO 9000 certified companies by applying 3 to 5 years of post-certified period (Chow-Chua et al, 2003). Companies and businesses of any size have adopted the ISO 9000 in their management (Bernardo et al, 2015). Process of ISO 9000 is not affected by the business or company size on the impacts it create to the business. All the factors determining the size of the company such as the number of employees do not show any evidence of becoming more likely to be certified since the size of the company does not have any effect in the relationship between the organization performance and implementation of ISO 9000 (Psomas et al, 2012). Certification of a company by ISO 9000 shows significant and positive effect on the companys operational performance. Among other benefits that are enjoyed by a firm are external benefits from ISO 9000 certification since they enable the companies to bid for tenders thus improving their performance. Methodology Emergence of ISO 9000 in 1980s have made the companies to acquire and adopt it for their quality management. The number had grown enormously for the companies that have adopted ISO 9000 in more than 100 countries. Questionnaires form one of the most used common type of survey methodology. The type of survey have experienced increase since after 1980s more so for the quality management in the area of operations management field. In this case census was carried out by National Bureau of Statistics of China on the service firms. There were a total of 5717 service firms that data were collected from which covered the entire population of the service firms in china. In order to accomplish this smoothly, the questionnaires were sent to all the firms where the relevant authorities (managers or the managing directors for smaller firms) provided all the provided details concerning their firms cutting across the number of employees, year of certification of the company, the year when the compa nies were found, sales of company and many more. All the companies in the region were then required to fill the questionnaires presented to them by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The census method is expensive and time consuming since all the firms irrespective of their locations, they were to be reached since they formed part of the population (Hajian Domingo-Ferrer, 2013). No sampling method is applied in this case and therefore no information is left to chance for any of the service firms in the country. All the collected data were then entered in excel and the SPSS version 20 for the analysis of data. These two statistical software were used to represent the data in both tables and graphs for easy understanding and interpretation. Statistical tools that were used to derive the meaning from data were descriptive statistics and also inferential statistics. Census was used in the collection of data so that no service firm is left out and the entire population of service firms covered. This ensures that all the information that will be obtained from this kind of data will be a reality but not a representation from a proportion. The statistics that will be obtained will be population parameter that will stand as the point of reference for the sample data from this dataset for the future studies. These data can therefore be relied upon in the determination of impact of the adoption of ISO 9000 on the financial performance and the determination of the certification of the firms management with ISO 9000. Analysis and findings This is the part of the report that will help to derive meaning from the data as contained in the dataset and have the results presented for easy understanding. Both descriptive and inferential statistics will be presented in this part to quantify the information and easily draw conclusions on whether or not ISO 9000 had impact on the financial performance in the service firms. Descriptive statistics Table 1: Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation l 5717 11 969 44.96 74.378 l_yjs 5717 0 161 1.38 5.688 l_benke 5717 0 530 11.85 28.453 l_dz 5717 0 490 12.92 24.306 l_gaozhong 5717 0 689 12.26 31.290 l_chuzhong 5717 0 568 6.54 25.980 revenue 5717 1000 869176 11698.57 32873.609 profit_operating 5717 17 296176 2067.97 7158.417 ksum 5717 1000 978548 16473.16 54666.560 equity 5717 -1367 877989 7693.77 31012.079 kpaid 5717 10 402110 4765.67 17120.175 kstate 5717 0 402110 1201.12 11264.936 koversea 5717 0 150000 348.87 4598.814 kother 5717 0 400000 3215.68 11765.554 ROS 5717 .01 .51 .1911 .12397 ROA 5717 .01 1.02 .2236 .20858 FDIpercent 5717 .00 1.00 .0245 .14937 agefirm 5717 2 61 7.62 7.074 Valid N (listwise) 5717 Among the censured companies, a companies that recorded the least number of employees had 11 employees while 969 is the highest number of employees recorded by other companies. The mean number of employees across all the companies 45 with a standard deviation of 74. In regards to level of education of the employees, some companies had no employees with either master or doctorate degree while others had a relatively big number of such employees at 161 with the mean and standard deviation being 1.38 and 5.688 respectively. As well, some companies were not having employees with bachelor degree as other had a total of 530 of such employees with their mean and standard deviation being 11.85 and 28.453 respectively. The highest number of employees with diploma recorded by companies was 490 as other companies recorded none of such employees and their mean and standard deviation in all the companies was 12.92 and 24.306 respectively. Employees with high school education in some companies was 689 with their mean and standard deviation being 12.26 and 31.290 respectively. Junior high school employees and below was maximum at 568 while other companies had no such employees and their standard deviation and mean being 25.980 and 6.54 respectively. Minimum sales recorded by the companies was 1000 while some companies recorded the maximum sales of 869176. The mean and standard deviation of the companies sales was 11698.57 and 32873.609 respectively. The least profit recorded by the companies was 17 dollars and maximum of 296176 with mean and standard deviation profit of 2067.97 and 7158.417 respectively. 1000 formed the least total assets other companies had while the maximum assets was recorded at 978548, the mean and standard deviation of the companies total assets was 16473.16 and 54666.560 respectively. The minimum equity of some companies was -1367 and other had highest equity at 877989 and the mean equity of the companies was 7693.77. The minimum total capital censured was 10 with a maximum of 402110 and the mean of 4765.67. Some companies received no capital from the government while others received as high as 402110 with the mean capital from the government being at 1201.12. The average capital that came from overseas to the companies was 348.87 but some companies never had overseas capital. Capital from other sources stood at 400000 in some companies and the average of 3215.68. Return on sales was as low as 0.01 in some companies and highest in other companies at 0.51 with the censured average being 0.1911. On the other hand, minimum recorded return on assets was 0.01 and the highest recorded was 1.02 with their average being 0.2236. Inferential statistics Hypothesis H0: There is no correlation between the sales of a company and the total number of employees a company has H1: There is correlation between the sales of a company and the total number of employees a company has. Correlations l revenue l Pearson Correlation 1 .471** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 5717 5717 revenue Pearson Correlation .471** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 5717 5717 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). From the correlation testing, the significance value was less than p-value (.05) which therefore makes us reject the null hypothesis since the sales of the company showed weak correlation with Pearson correlation (r) being 0.471 thus showing that there was a weak relationship between the number of employees in a company and the sales a company makes. We then conclude that there was a relationship between sales of a company and the total number of employees a company has. Correlations certification revenue certification Pearson Correlation 1 .161** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 5717 5717 revenue Pearson Correlation .161** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 5717 5717 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Though there is statistical significance in the test of relationship between certification of a company with ISO 9000 and sales of a company, the Pearson correlation value being 0.161 means that there was a weak positive relationship between the two tested variables. Discussion and managerial advises The size of a company is directly related to the number of employees a company has. Recording as low as 11 employees in a company means that there were small companies among the censured companies. The mean number of employees being 45 marketing that most of the censured companies were relatively big. Employees with all levels of education were represented in companies in various departments and positions that have not been revealed by the data in this report. Employees with master and doctor degrees were not mostly hired as compared to employees with other levels of education that showed means of 11.85, 12.92and 12.26 for bachelor, diploma and those with high school education respectively. Employees with junior high school or below were not also highly hired but their number in the companies was higher than that of master and doctor employees. Skilled employees have great impact in the contribution towards the achievement of a company or any business organization (Palpacuer et al, 2 011). As a result therefore, the managerial department is advised to stay keen on the skills and educational background of the employees. Having more number of employees with low education level and less skills would be detrimental to the management and performance of the company. From the taste of hypothesis about the correlation between the number of employees and sales of a company, a significant relationship was recorded. From this therefore, the number of employees in a company should be considered by the management and regulated not to be too high or too low but at a good ratio to the work to be handled. Certification of companies with ISO 9000 showed significant relationship with sales a company make. Due to this, companies management are advised to adopt certification of ISO in their companies to enjoy financial benefits. Limitations and directions for the future research The outlined questions in the questionnaires in the data collection process was limited to financial performance of the certified companies with ISO 9000 but did not cover the management qualities. To better understand the quality improvement in the company management, future research should focus basically on the impacts of ISO certification to the company management quality. To meet this, it should be reflected right from the questions used to collect data. References Bernardo, M., Simon, A., Tar, J. J., Molina-Azorn, J. F. (2015). Benefits of management systems integration: a literature review.Journal of Cleaner Production,94, 260-267. Chatzoglou, P, Chatzoudes, D and Kipraios, N, The Impact of ISO 9000 certification on firms financial performance, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 35(1), 145-174, (2015) Chow-Chua, C., Goh, M., Boon Wan, T. (2003). Does ISO 9000 certification improve business performance?.International Journal of Quality Reliability Management,20(8), 936-953. Ismyrlis,V and Moschidis, O, The effects of ISO 9001 certification on the performance of Greek companies, TQM journal, 27(1), 150-162, (2015) Franceschini, F., Galetto, M., Maisano, D., Mastrogiacomo, L. (2010). Clustering of European countries based on ISO 9000 certification diffusion.International Journal of Quality Reliability Management,27(5), 558-575. Hajian, S., Domingo-Ferrer, J. (2013). A psychology for direct and indirect discrimination prevention in data mining.IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering,25(7), 1445-1459. Palpacuer, F., Seignour, A., Vercher, C. (2011). Financialization, Globalization and the Management of Skilled Employees: Towards a Market?Based HRM Model in Large Corporations in France.British Journal of Industrial Relations,49(3), 560-582. Psomas, E. L., Kafetzopoulos, D. P., Fotopoulos, C. V. (2012). Developing and validating a measurement instrument of ISO 9001 effectiveness in food manufacturing SMEs.Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management,24(1), 52-77. Psosmas, E, pantouvakis, A and Kafetzopoulos, D, The Impact of ISO 9001 effectiveness on the performance of service companies, Managing service Quality, 23(2), 149-164, (2013) Lafuente, E., Bayo?Moriones, A., Garca?Cestona, M. (2010). ISO?9000 Certification and Ownership Structure: Effects upon Firm Performance.British Journal of Management,21(3), 649-665. Papadimitriou, A., Westerheijden, D. F. (2010). Adoption of ISO-oriented quality management system in Greek universities: reactions to isomorphic pressures.The TQM Journal,22(3), 229-241. Zaramdini, W. (2007). An empirical study of the motives and benefits of ISO 9000 certification: the UAE experience.International Journal of Quality Reliability Management,24(5), 472-491

Sample Essay With Explanation

Sample Essay With ExplanationIf you are writing a college essay, you may need to write a sample essay with explanation. You should also know that this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about writing a good essay. The following paragraphs will give you some tips on how to write a good essay.Remember that the first thing you need to do is choose an interesting topic. This will be the basis for everything you write in your essay. You can choose an interesting topic from the question or topic sections of the exam.Once you have decided on a topic, the next step is to collect all the important information you will need. If you use the internet, there is no need to get your information from the internet. All you need to do is search for samples. You can find samples of essays on the internet.When you have a sample essay with explanation, you can start writing. It is important to note that there are many important steps to writing a good essay. You should not rush things. Just remembe r that you are not studying for the exam, so you can take your time and write slowly.When you are writing the essay, you should keep all your ideas organized. You can also organize the topics you have researched. If you have selected an interesting topic, then you should look for papers dealing with the topic.Some topics have articles that deal with them. By selecting an interesting topic, you can write an article on the topic. You can also write an essay on the topic.You should be able to decide on the topics you want to write the essay. This is the best way to make sure that you are going to have fun with the process. When you know what you want to write, it is much easier to create the essay. You will also know how to organize your thoughts so that they flow well.When you are writing the essay, you will find that there are many good points that you can draw from. You can easily see that this is the right path for you to follow. All you need to do is find a good topic, research th e topic thoroughly, write about the topic and then organize your thoughts.

Thomas Jefferson Essays (1088 words) - Thomas Jefferson,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson is remembered in history not only for the offices he held, but also for his belief in the natural rights of man as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and his faith in the people's ability to govern themselves. He left an impact on his times equaled by few others in American history. Born on April 13, 1743, Jefferson was the third child in the family and grew up with six sisters and one brother. Though he opposed slavery, his family had owned slaves. From his father and his environment he developed an interest in botany, geology, cartography, and North American exploration, and from his childhood teacher developed a love for Greek and Latin. In 1760, at the age of 16, Jefferson entered the College of William and Mary and studied under William Small and George Wythe. Through Small, he got his first views of the expansion of science and of the system of things in which we are placed. Through Small and Wythe, Jefferson became acquainted with Governor Francis Fauquier. After finishing college in 1762, Jefferson studied law with Wythe and noticed growing tension between America and Great Britain. Jefferson was admitted to the bar in 1767. He successfully practiced law until public service occupied most of his time. At his home in Shadwell, he designed and supervised the building of his home, Monticello, on a nearby hill. He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1769. Jefferson met Martha Wayles Skelton, a wealthy widow of 23, in 1770 and married her in 1772. They settled in Monticello and had one son and five daughters. Only two of his children, Martha and Mary, survived until maturity. Mrs. Martha Jefferson died in 1782, leaving Thomas to take care of his two remaining children. Though not very articulate, Jefferson proved to be an able writer of laws and resolutions he was very concise and straight to the point. Jefferson soon became a member in a group which opposed and took action in the disputes between Britain and the colonies. Together with other patriots, the group met in the Apollo Room of Williamsburg's famous Raleigh Tavern in 1769 and formed a nonimportation agreement against Britain, vowing not to pay import duties imposed by the Townshend Acts. After a period of calmness, problems faced the colonists again, forcing Jefferson to organize another nonimportation agreement and calling the colonies together to protest. He was chosen to represent Albermarle County at the First Virginia Convention, where delegates were elected to the First Continental Congress. He became ill and was unable to attend the meeting, but forwarded a message arguing that the British Parliament had no control over the colonies. He also mentioned the Saxons who had settled in England hundred of years before from Germany and how Parliament had no more right to govern the colonies than the Germans had to govern the English. Most Virginians saw this as too extreme, though. His views were printed in a pamphlet called A Summary of the Rights of British America (1774). Jefferson attended the Second Virginia Convention in 1775 and was chosen as one of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress, but before he left for Philadelphia, he was asked by the Virginia Assembly to reply to Lord North's message of peace, proposing that Parliament would not try to tax the settlers if they would tax themselves. Jefferson's "Reply to Lord North" was more moderate that the Summary View. Instead of agreeing with Lord North, Jefferson insisted that a government had been set up for the Americans and not for the British. The Declaration of Independence was primarily written by Jefferson in June 1776. Congress felt that the Declaration was too strong and gave Dickinson the responsibility of redrafting the document, but the new version included much of Jefferson's original text and ideas. In 1779, Jefferson became governor of Virginia, guiding Virginians through the final years of the Revolutionary War. As a member of the Second Continental Congress, he drafted a plan for decimal coinage and composed an ordinance for the Northwest Territory that formed the foundation for the Ordinance of 1787. In 1785, he became minister to France. Appointed secretary of state in President Washington's Cabinet in 1790, Jefferson defended local interests against Alexander Hamilton's policies and led a group called the Republicans. He was elected vice-president in 1796 and protested the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts by writing The Kentucky Resolutions. In 1800, the Republicans nominated Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr (A Buh. hahaha) for vice-president. Federalists had nominated John Adams for president and

Speaking and Listening free essay sample

Nowadays everyone has an access to the media. Technology has given people especially for teenagers, an easy access to everyone’s lives. They are able to be part of celebrities’ lives. They can feel up to date on what is happening in celebrities’ lives. Teenagers are able to know what is happening with their idols: what are they wearing, where they are going, what they are interested in and so on. Teenagers want to be like their favorite celebrities and they are trying to emulate their favorite star by imitating their clothes, accessories, and even attend the same type of places. Young people are the most common people who are trying to copy their idols. It is very easy to influence teenagers because they are trying to identify their selves and make a ‘cool’ self image. The power of celebrities has taken a huge and negative impact to the teenagers’ lives. We will write a custom essay sample on Speaking and Listening or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In television, movies and magazines, celebrities are often showed  drinking a lot or most of them are in trouble with the law in terms of drug abuse or addiction. Teenagers see their favorite movie stars or singers taking drugs and they think they should try too and they believe these lifestyles are exciting. This can be  harmful to teenagers’ lives, because they pick up on these behaviors and think it is normal to drink like their favorite celebrity. Celebrities are not the best role models, because they are drinking or taking drugs without thinking about their fans, which most of them are teenagers who are watching and taking notes. Superstars such as Kate Moss or Lindsay Lohan they are taking huge amounts of drugs or movie stars lighting up their cigarettes on screen, there has to be some effect on their fans. Celebrities have glamorized smoking in the media so young adults think it is acceptable to smoke. It sends a message to celebrities’ fans that a life of drugs and alcohol is a satisfactory way to live. Also celebrities create impossible standards of beauty, young adults are feeling less confident, more angry, and more dissatisfied with their looks. In my opinion celebrities have to change the way they act in the public and how they are viewed. Their actions have more of an effect on us then many people believe they have. Addicted celebrities are changing the way many young fans think and act. Celebrities need to change these horrible habits now and realize that they need to be more concerned with themselves and with their image in the media.

À la française - French Expression

la franà §aise - French Expression Expression: la franà §aise Pronunciation: [a la fra(n) sehz] Meaning: French, French-style Literal meaning: in the French manner or fashion Register: normal Notes The French expression la franà §aise is an ellipsis of either la manià ¨re franà §aise or la mode franà §aise. Because the ellipted word is feminine in both of those expressions, franà §aise remains feminine in the shortened phrase, no matter the gender or number of the noun it modifies. Remember that franà §aise is an adjective here, so it cannot be capitalized. Examples​ Je ne comprends pas tout fait lhumour la franà §aise.I dont really understand French humor. Ah, le socialisme la franà §aise!Ah, French-style socialism! Special Uses le format la franà §aise - portrait (as opposed to landscape: format litalienne)un jardin la franà §aise - formal gardenle pain la franà §aise - French breadun parc la franà §aise - formal gardenun plafond la franà §aise - ceiling with exposed beams equal in width to the spaces between themune robe la franà §aise - sack-back gown (18th-century fashion)le service la franà §aise - several dishes served simultaneously (as opposed to sequentially: service la russe) Related Expressions The same ellipsis can be made with other nationalities and peoples: lamà ©ricaine - American-style langlaise - English-style langlo-saxonne - British-style la belge - Belgian-style la suisse - Swiss-style And with places: lafricaine - African-style la caraà ¯be - Caribbean-style la parisienne - Parisian-style la provenà §ale - Provenà §al-style la savoyarde - Savoyard-style

Personality and Its Assessment Essays

Personality and Its Assessment Essays Personality and Its Assessment Essay Personality and Its Assessment Essay Personality has different meanings for theologians, philosophers and sociologists, and within psychology it has been defined in many ways (Allport, 1937). The main reason that leads so many psychologists to explore the human personality is that by doing so, the opportunity to predict a person’s behaviour in a situation presents itself, even before a situation occurs. Knowing more about one’s personality also allows us to learn about his/her dominant traits, information that can be of use in many aspects of everyday life (e. . recruiting the right people for the right jobs, treating a patient with the most suitable therapy etc. ). Many psychologists today (Block, Weiss and Thorne, 1979) define personality as a â€Å"more or less stable, internal factors that make one person’s behaviour consistent from one time to another, and different from the behaviour other people would manifest in comparable situations† (Childe, 1968). This definition gives us a clear v iew of the four major assumptions in the concept of personality: stable, internal, consistent and different. From the constructivist view, personality is seen as the combination of three equally important components: the actor, the observer and the self-observer. The actor component refers to the characteristics that a person brings to the social situation in which personality is constructed. These include all the genetic factors that may have the influence on a person’s behaviour, what he/she is capable or incapable to perform, as well as the individual’s history and present goals. The observer component refers to the way the actor is perceived by other people. Observers use the actor’s behaviour to construct an impression of the actor’s personality by adding social significance and meaning to the presented behaviour. As a result of this, we categorize people’s behaviour into different groups (e. g. ‘friendly’, ‘obnoxious’). These categories, apart from telling us about directly observable information, also add inferred meanings. The self-observer component is the direct consequence of the human ability to be self-aware. We can observe ourselves as we can observe other people, and we can see ourselves as we think other people see us. Throughout time, researchers have constructed various tools, scales and tests to attempt assessing personalities. The four main assessment methods currently used are interviews, observation, objective tests and projective tests. Interviews can be of two kinds, the structured and the unstructured. In the structured interview the person would be given a set list of questions to answer. These would mostly refer to the way a person sees him/herself behaving in different situations, by choosing the most appropriate statement that would describe him/her most accurately. In the unstructured interview the person would be asked to talk about himself without any obligation to a specific order and without much direction from the assessor. The observation method is used by the psychologist to learn about a person’s personality, through observing a person’s action and behaviour in different situations. The objective and projective tests are designed to learn aspects of one’s personality. While the objective way uses self-inventories that involve paper and pencil test, the projective way is about deriving information while a person talk about ambiguous stimuli. I shall go into further detail on these two means of assessment and their validity. While looking into methods of assessment, the two main personality tests appeared in either a structured or in an unstructured form. Structured Personality Tests The first structured personality test (also known as ‘objective’) was introduced by the U. S Army, while recruiting soldiers for World War I. The purpose of this test was to identify emotionally disturbed recruits. The test consisted of a list of questions that dealt with different symptoms or problem (e. g. â€Å"do you wet your bed? †). If the recruit was reporting many such symptoms, he was sent to further psychiatric examination (Cronbach, 1970). More personality tests were later introduced; the 2 major ones were the MMPI (Hathaway and McKinley, 1940) and the CPI. The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) assesses traits in comparison to psychiatric diseases, with the intention to make the test multiphasic, meaning diagnostic of a number of different kinds of psychopathology. This test was more concerned in finding abnormal behaviour that would indicate a psychiatric criterion (e. g. paranoia, depression, schizophrenia etc. . The CPI (California Psychological Inventory), unlike the MMPI, focuses on non-clinical behaviour and is more directed to high school and college students. This test investigates various personality traits such as sociability, dominance, responsibility etc. The validity of Structured Personality Tests The main problem with constructed personality tests is that most people taking i t are more or less aware of what the questions represent. Instead of giving an honest account of themselves they may try to manipulate their answers to avoid a stigma of a mental disorder or social stereotypes. Likewise, a person may wish to present him/herself in a bad light, in order to avoid undesirable object (e. g. being drafted). Even when precautions were taken by adding certain validity scales to the test, scales that were meant to make it easier to indicate when a lie was recorded, there was still no guarantee that patients weren’t lying to themselves and projecting their false interpretations when answering such tests. Furthermore, though personality tests can predict behaviour, their accuracy is doubtful. The correlation found between test scores and validity criteria are generally around +0. 0, indicating a low to moderate association (a perfect association between sets of scores produces a correlation of (+/-) 1. 00, whereas scores that are totally unrelated produce a correlation of 0) (Lasky et el. , 1959). Unstructured Personality Test The unstructured personality tests (also known as ‘projective’), introduced in the 1940’s and 1950’s, presen ted the examinee with unstructured tasks such as making up a story to fit a picture or describing what he/she sees in an inkblot. These tests were formed in such way that the examinee -instead of describing how he/she feels, acts or wishes- requires to do so regarding other stimuli. One example of such test is the Rorschach test (Rorschach, 1921). In this test, 10 symmetrical inkblots are presented to the individual; some are coloured and some black and white. The individual is required to describe what he/she sees. The method of interpretation regarding this test consist of various hypothesis, such as the one which claims that using the entire inkblot indicate integrative, conceptual thinking, whereas the use of the white space is supposed to be a sign of rebelliousness and negativism. Responses that are dominated by colour suggest emotionality and impulsivity. Another example is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) (Murrey, 1948). This consisted of thirty pictures of various scenes and a blank card. In each the examinee is required to imagine his/her own scene; describing what is shown, what led up to it and what the outcome of the scene will be in his/her eyes. This outcome of the TAT was interpreted by considering the examinee’s desired end- product as a picture of his/her major motives and conflicts, achievements and aspirations. The validity of Unstructured Personality Tests By now there are over 11,000 published articles regarding the Rorschach and the TAT. According to some experts, these tests have a very limited validity (Holt, 1978; Klein, 1982; Rorer, 1990). These studies have shown that individual Rorschach measurements have little relation to external validity criteria. In its ability to predict psychiatric symptoms, TAT assessments proved no better than the Rorschach’s test. In a study initiated in 1950, TAT was administrated to over 100 males, some in psychiatric facilities and others in college. The TAT results showed no difference between the normal group and patients. It also lacked the ability to show differences within the psychiatric groups (Eron, 1950). Although the TAT was proved to have little value as a diagnostic assessment for psychiatric classification, studies have shown that the test has some validity for more limited purpose, in particularly regarding indications of personal motives. One group of investigators worked with examinees who had not eaten for various periods of time. When presented with TAT pictures, their stories were highly connected to food and hunger, in comparison to the participants of the control group. Similar findings have been obtained concerning various other motives such as aggression, sexual arousal and the need for achievements (Atkinson and McClelland, 1948). Personality tests, in both their structured and unstructured form, consist of many more formats and use a large quantity of assessment methods. Although both types of tests consist of certain flaws, and are not always reliable, their contribution to the understanding of personality is significant. The appearance of such tests in the early 40’s has raised the interest of many researchers, psychologists and psychiatrics, and gave way to further studies on the issue of personality and its construct. References: Gleitman, H. (1999) psychology 5th edition, Norton (chapters 16 and 17) Hampson, Sarah E. (1988) The construction of personality: an introduction. 2nd edition, London: Routledge