Treasury, Foreign Exchange and Financilization Essay

Treasury, Foreign Exchange and Financilization - Essay Example & O’Connell 2001) Therefore the PPP of country C with respect to the US dollar is as follows: Year PPP of country C with respect to US dollar 2003 1.02 2004 1.01 2005 1.01 2006 1.02 2007 1.01 The inflation rates for country D from 2003-2007 are as follows: (Mathis, Keat & O’Connell 2001) Therefore the PPP for country D with respect to the US dollar is: Year PPP of country D with respect to the US dollar 2003 0.99 2004 1.01 2005 0.98 2006 0.98 2007 0.99 Thus, these were the respective inflation rates of the countries A, B, C, D and their purchasing power parities calculated with respect to the US dollar. (b) The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Theory states that the exchange rate between the currencies of two countries is in equilibrium when their purchasing power is equivalent in both the countries. Let there be a fixed basket of goods and services and then let us determine the price of this common basket in both the countries. Then the exchange rate between the currencie s of the two countries should be equal to the ratio of the price levels of the two nations. PPP theory also states that when a country is subject to inflation i.e. there is a continuous increase in the level of domestic prices of the country, there should be depreciation in the country’s exchange rate in order to restore PPP. (The University of British Columbia 2011) We can see from the data in the case study, that while country A has experienced inflation from 2003-2007, the exchange rate of its currency with respect to the US dollar has depreciated during the same period (except for 2007). Thus, the PPP theory held true for country A. In country B also, as it was experiencing inflation during 2003-2007, the exchange rates of its currency with respect to the US dollar has devalued over the period (except for 2005). Thus the PPP theory held true in the case of country B also. As country C was going through a period of inflation from 2003-2007, the exchange rate between its cu rrency and the US dollar also underwent devaluation during the same period (except for 2005). Thus, for country C also, the PPP theory held good. In the case of country D, as it experienced inflation during 2003-2007, the exchange rate between its own currency and the US dollar remained the same in 2004 but devalued after that during the successive years. Thus the PPP theory also held good for country D. Therefore, the PPP theory held good for all the countries A, B, C, D. (c) The US dollar prime lending rate during 2002-2007 was as follows: Year US dollar lending prime rate 2002 4.67 2003 4.12 2004 4.34 2005 6.19 2006 7.96 2007 8.05 (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 2011) The

Business Valuation and Financial Analysis Essay

Business Valuation and Financial Analysis - Essay Example ATO is an indicator of the efficiency of utilization of assets to generate earnings for the company, and a forecast of this indicator ATO is provided in table no. 2. The value forecasted is considered to be stable over the next five years. Furthermore, it was necessary to forecast the net dividend payout and taking into consideration that it is usually a stable indicator over the years, it was considered to be 35%. The small percentage considered has the intuition that the company will reinvest the other part of the profit in investments, which can provide growth to the company (Fabozzi and Drake, 2009). The forecast for this indicator is provided in table no. 4. The last indicator forecasted was the after-tax cost of debt, which is important considering also the level of leverage of the company (depicted in figure no. 2). The value for this indicator is considered to be stable and is provided in table no. 5. The forecasted leverage is decreasing for the period 2011-2013, and after that is considered an increase in the amount of borrowed resources. A higher leverage ratio can be attractive for the company because debt is deductible, and can be more beneficiary for the company. In order asses the company’s performance for past years and opportunities for the future years, it were analyzed some financial ratios because (Elliot and Elliot, 2011). These financial ratios were computed by using information from the balance sheet and income statement. According to Needles and Powers (2010), the liquidity ratios (e.g. current, quick ratios) measure the company’s ability to meet its short-term obligations. An overview of the most important financial ratios is provided in table no. 6. In order to reach the forecasted sales growth ratios the company will need to invest more in marketing for its products, and probably a more

College Costs How Much Essay Example for Free

College Costs How Much Essay Growing up, students were taught to get a higher education in order to make a comfortable living for them and their families. Now, those college graduates are crippled with large amounts of debilitating student loans and are unable to start a family of their own. According to the credit bureau TransUnion, the average student loan debt carried by each borrower has risen 30% to $23,829 in the past five years. These graduates should be stimulating the economy by buying cars and houses, but instead they are sending their paychecks to the bank to pay back their enormous loans. The aggregated amount of student debt has soared over the past several years due to so many people deciding to go back to college after being laid off from their jobs, a rapid rise in college tuition, and schools that give out worthless degrees. The New York Times states that in the 1970s, the median wage was 40% higher for college graduates than for those with just a high school diploma; today, the wage premium has risen to about 80%. Although there are options to get a degree quickly, it is not always the best idea. It is concerning that some schools promise a degree in less time, yet charge the same amount as a four year university. The Art Institute is one of the biggest offenders. They offer a three year culinary program that costs close to $100,000 while the graduates only average about $12 per hour after graduation. It is impossible to pay back those types of loans with basically a minimum wage job. Also, possible employers would much rather hire someone who has been studying the subject for four to six years rather than just a few months, so it can be very challenging for those students to find a job. The fact that our country’s student loan debt is currently valued at $1 trillion dollars, while the cost of tuition is rapidly increasing, is the most concerning effect of this crisis. Today, about half of college graduates are either underemployed or do not have a job at all. The tide is not going to turn until the job market improves. One of the problems in the job market is that jobs are not opening up as quickly as they should because people are pushing back retirement to help pay for their children’s loans. Students fresh out of college are putting off getting married and starting families because they do not have the secure job future they were promised would come with their college degree. Families have also decreased in size because parents are not able to afford as many children. Public schools are overflowing with students because the alternative private schools are just too expensive. This debilitating debt could cause the millennials, people aged 18 to 34, to be one of the first generations in America to not make a better living than their parents did. It is not ethical to force such a large amount of debt on an 18-year-old who has never even had a credit card before. Too many schools use students as pawns to make thousands of dollars than actually helping them succeed and become a member of a functioning society. The student loan debt problem is going to continue to rise dramatically unless we stop the problem where it started- the greedy universities and â€Å"for-profit† schools. Our government needs to make laws and restrictions based on how much a school can charge for tuition. Because filing for bankruptcy with student loans is impossible, the schools continue to raise the cost of tuition knowing that they will most likely get their money in the end. Now, we have schools charging ridiculous amounts for a mediocre degree while the average graduate makes about $12 an hour. There is no way in the world that graduate would be able to pay off those gargantuan student loans without having more than one job. Tuition should be a percentage of the average income of an employer with that degree so that it is possible to pay back in a reasonable amount of time. If schools went back to offering a great education for an affordable price our country would have a much easier time fixing our limping economy.

Erik Eriksons Eight Psychosocial Stages

Erik Eriksons Eight Psychosocial Stages This paper explores the developmental attributes physically, cognitively and socially of two children, one male and one female, ages five and ten, respectively. This writer will identify the socio-economic status (SEC), age, gender, ethnic background, and family demographics of each of these children. The two children this writer has chosen come from similar living situations (i.e. they both live with single mothers), but have vast differences in their physical, cognitive, and social development. This paper will examine Erik Eriksons Eight Psychosocial Stages as explained by Dacey, Fiore, Travers (2009) in an effort to explain the noticeable differences in the two children that this writer has chosen to observe. These two children were chosen because they are both being raised in a single parent household, which is something that this writer can relate to, as this writer is a single mother. This writer will also explore the Cognitive Development Approach theories of Jean Piaget and A lbert Banduras Social Cognitive Learning in an attempt to further explain the significant differences in these two children. Childhood Observation Theories on Human Development Many psychologists have different perspectives when it comes to analyzing theories on human development. For the purposes of these observations, this writer has chosen to take a closer look at the views of three well known psychologists. The psychological theories of development that this paper will explore are the theories of Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Albert Bandura. First, this writer will discuss Erik Erikson and his Psychosocial Theory of Development. It is a widely accepted belief that, Erik Erikson was the chief proponent of a psychosocial theory of development (2009). This writer believes that Erikson had a great understanding of the human life process. Erik Erikson is best known for his ideas on Stages of Psychosocial Development and Identity Crisis. Erikson broke down the progression of human life into a series of eight stages, each of these stages being marked by a crisis that must be resolved so that the individual can move on to the next stage. It makes perfect sense that everyone should overcome a crisis in order to successfully move on to the next stage in their life. In a seminal work, Erikson used the term crisis as a developmental term that is a time of increased vulnerability and heightened potential (Erikson, 1968). Erikson also contributed to our understanding of personality as it developed and shaped over the course of the li fespan. While we must combine the theories of many psychologists in order to understand the development of humans through the lifespan, Erik Eriksons views on development seem to be the ones with which most people can closely relate. Now, we will move our attention to Jean Piaget, a man who was well ahead of his time. It has been said that, Jean Piaget was among the first researchers to study normal intellectual development (2009). Jean Piaget is credited as being one of the most significant psychologists of the twentieth century. Piaget focused his attention on the roles that cognitive mechanisms play in development. Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development consist of four stages: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete operational, and Formal operational. Piagets first stage is the Sensorimotor stage, which lasts from birth to about two years of age. During the Sensorimotor stage, the infant uses senses and motor abilities to understand the world, beginning with reflexes and ending with complex combinations of Sensorimotor skills (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html). Piagets second stage of Cognitive Development is the Preoperational stage, which lasts from two to seven years of age. It is during this st age that children are able to make use of symbols and rapid growth of language occurs. The third stage of Piagets Cognitive Development is the Concrete operational stage, which lasts from seven to eleven years of age. In this stage, the child can reason about physical objects. The final stage of Piagets Cognitive Development is the Formal operational stage, which occurs from eleven years of age and up. During the Cognitive Development stage, Piaget believed that abstract thinking leads to reasoning with more complex symbols. In this stage we become increasingly competent of adult-style thinking (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/piaget.html). Lastly, the writer would like to discuss Albert Bandura and Social Cognitive Learning. Banduras Social Cognitive Learning theory suggests that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. For instance, The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation (http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html). As Bandura and Walters (1963) noted, children often do not do what adults tell them to do but rather what they see adults do, hence learning by observation. There is much to be gained in the area of Social Cognitive Learning by observing others. That is, By observing others, children may acquire new responses, including socially appropriate behaviors (2009). Banduras term for observational learning is modeling. In order for effective modeling to take place, there are four conditions that must be present; these conditions include attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. That is, Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences (http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html). Discussion This writer will begin by describing the subjects of her observations. For this exercise, the researcher used her son, Aidan, and, Samantha, the daughter of her friend, both of which she has known since birth. Aidan is a 5-year-old, white male with no siblings. He is raised in a single parent household and has no contact with his father. Aidan and his mother live in a very large house with the subjects grandfather on several acres of farm land. Aidan has extensive contact with his grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close family friends that are considered family. Up until recently, Aidan also had extremely close contact and a wonderfully close relationship with his grandmother and great-grandfather, both of whom have passed away within the last two years. In classifying the socio-economic status from which Aidan comes, this writer would describe it as a middle class socio-economic status. Aidan also attends private school with a very small class size. Thus he is privy to more o ne-on-one contact with his teacher, which is something that may not be available to children attending public schools. The second subject that the writer observed is, Samantha, who is a 10-year-old girl, with one male sibling (age 4). She is being raised by her single mother and has never had any contact with her father. Samantha lives in a lower-middle class neighborhood with her mother and younger brother. Before moving into her current home, Samantha grew up in an income based housing complex. Samanthas mother works full time in order to support her two children. Because of her mothers busy work schedule, Samantha spends most of her time with her maternal grandparents. Samantha is of a lower socio-economic status than the other subject of this paper, attends public school and seems to have a hard time socializing with her classmates and teachers. She also appears to struggle with anger issues and has a rather severe lack of self-confidence. Given the observations on the subjects above, the writer will now explore the developmental theories of Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Albert Bandura, respectively. First we will begin with Erik Erikson and his Psychosocial Theories of Development. Aidan, the researchers first subject, appears to be on track with all of Eriksons Psychosocial Stages, within his age range. For instance, In Ericksons first stage, which is by far the most important, infants should develop a sense of basic trust (2009). In Aidans case, this stage was successfully completed due to him being on a set schedule and being surrounded by warmth, care, consistency, and discipline. Though he faced a multitude of health problems during this phase of his development, the love and warmth that was bestowed upon him enabled him to successfully complete Erik Eriksons first stage. Eriksons second Psychosocial stage, Autonomy versus shame and doubt, takes place during early childhood and is focused on children developing a greater sense of personal control (http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial.htm). Important events associated with this stage of Psychosocial Development include gaining more control over food choices, children wanting to dress themselves and choose their own clothing, toilet training, and control of ones body functions. Aidan was very insistent about doing these things during this phase of his development. Interestingly enough, he displayed some of these behaviors during Ericksons first stage of Psychosocial Development. For example, Aidan was potty trained by the time he was 18 months old, chose his own clothes, and began trying to dress himself. This brings us to Eriksons third stage of Psychosocial Development, Initiative versus Guilt. This phase takes place during the preschool/nursery school years and is marked by children beginning to assert their power and control over the world by directing play and other social interaction (http://psychology.abo ut.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial_2.htm). Manipulation of surroundings are prevalent in this stage of a childs development, as they are building on the ability to control themselves, children now acquire some influence over others in the family (2009). This is the phase of development that Aidan is in currently, and he is definitely an assertive little boy who likes to direct play and be in charge. Aidan can be manipulative in certain situations, such as, if mommy says no, he will immediately go ask his granddaddy. Overall, this researcher feels that Aidan has successfully completed all of Erik Eriksons Psychosocial stages thus far. Now, we will discuss the researchers second subject, Samantha. Upon the researchers observations, Samantha was unsuccessful in completing the Basic trust versus mistrust phase. This writer believes that this may be due to caregivers who were inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting. The afore mentioned variables could very well have contributed to feelings of mistrust in Samantha as an infant. With that stated, Failure to develop trust will result in fear and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable (http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial.htm). Samanthas mother had her at a very young age and may have been ready to deal with the complete change of life that comes with bringing a child into the world. Because of the unsuccessful completion of this first and most important stage in Samanthas development, she exhibited signs of inadequacy and self-doubt during the Autonomy versus Shame, Doubt phase, thus meaning that she was unsucc essful in completing the second stage as well. When Samantha reached the third stage of Eriksons Psychosocial Theory of Development, there seemed to be a marked improvement in her behavior, however she still displayed characteristics of a child who was very hard to deal with. It was at this time that she was enrolled in a stable preschool where she remained until it was time for her to start kindergarten. This researcher believes that this was probably the stability that Samantha was longing for and so desperately needed. Before being enrolled in preschool, it was not uncommon for her to be subjected to her mothers various relationships, which often were unsuccessful. Since Samantha has never had a father, she always became easily attached to these various men. This leads this researcher to believe that this may be an underlying reason for Samanthas lack of trust and inability to fit in with others. At this point, Samantha has now moved into Eriksons fourth stage of Psychosocial The ory of Development, Industry Inferiority. For instance, Children expand their horizons beyond the family and begin to explore the neighborhood (2009). In Samanthas case, she can best be described as a recluse. From the moment she gets home from school, she doesnt emerge from her room until it is dinnertime. This researcher feels that this is certainly not a healthy environment, as there is no communication between mother and daughter. At times, Samantha seems to be very resentful of her mother. In this researchers opinion, Samantha has not successfully completed any of Erik Eriksons Psychosocial Stages of Development thus far. The writer will now explore Jean Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development. As stated earlier, Jean Piaget believed that cognitive development means that we form more sophisticated cognitive structures as we pass through four stages: the Sensorimotor, the Preoperational, the Concrete operational, and the Formal operational (2009). The Sensorimotor stage, which begins at birth and goes to about 2 years of age, is marked by an infants ability to use their bodies to form cognitive structures. The researchers first subject, Aidan, had various complications that required physical and occupational therapy, as well as neck surgery all before two years of age. Due to these complications, he was somewhat delayed in moving from the Sensorimotor stage to the Preoperational stage. Once he got all of the physical and occupational therapies and neck surgery behind him, he rapidly moved into the Preoperational stage. During this stage, children ages 2 to 7 years, are able to make use of symbols and t here is a rapid growth in language. Aidan, being the researchers son, was taught sign language from three months of age until he was about 2 years old. The reasoning for this was so that he would be able to communicate with others before he was able to talk, but when the time for rapid growth in language came, Aidan preferred to use sign language over verbalization. After a few talks and much encouragement, Aidan soon began to chatter away. Samantha, the writers second subject, flourished throughout the Sensorimotor stage and Preoperational stage. She was a very active little girl with a great imagination and amazing verbal skills. It is the Concrete operational stage that Samantha struggles with. It is during this stage that accommodation occurs. Accommodation is Piagets term to describe the manner by which cognitive structures change (2009). Samantha seems to be unable to make rational judgments, which in turn causes her to be very manipulative. This researcher believes that this goes back to a very lax parenting style in which Samantha is treated as more of a burden than the gift that she is. The final theory to be discussed is Albert Banduras Social Cognitive Learning Theory. Simply stated, Bandura believed that we obtain information from observing other people, things, and events (2009). Bandura stresses the importance of modeling in observational learning. In Aidans case, he has been surrounded by the positive influence of modeling. He is a polite, however sometimes rambunctious little boy who knows how to use his manners. Children are like sponges, always observing and soaking up everything around them. This can sometimes lead to bad behaviors or socially appropriate behaviors. In Samanthas case, she is a product of her surroundings. This researcher believes that due to her stressful home life, Samantha only knows to act out in order to get attention. The unfortunate things about this is that the attention she gains from acting out is never the attention she desperately needs.

Educational Software Reviews :: Essays Papers

Educational Software Reviews Software Titles reviewed here: 1) Elmo's Computer Phone 2) CD-ROM Suitcase 3) BusyTown Best Christmas Ever Elmo's Computer Phone Ages: 12 months - 3 years Price: $79.95 Distributor: Hilad 02 9700 9377 Publisher: Comfy Interactive Requirements: 486 DX, Win 95, 8 MB RAM, 4 X CD-ROM Rating: lllll Along with the Comfy keyboard this product is definitely the best tool to introduce children under three and a half years, to the joy of playing on a computer. It's also great for and all preschoolers who have not yet mastered mouse control. Using it is easy, you simply plug the phone in and move your keyboard to the side. The child operates the game displayed on the computer screen, by pressing buttons on the phone and listening to sound from the ear-piece and speaker. If you wish, the child can play using sound from the ear-piece only. This has the added advantage of reducing household noise. The game offers hours of enjoyable play for preschoolers and encourages them to recognize shapes, sounds, objects, colours, and body parts. They can play peek-a-boo, sing along and join Big Bird and Elmo in the activities they present. CD-ROM Suitcase Pic: BusyTo.bmp Ages: 3-7 years Price: $69.95 Distributor: Hilad 02 9700 9377 Publisher: Simon and Schuster Requirements: 486 DX, Win 95, 8 MB RAM, 4 X CD-ROM Macintosh: Power mac, System 7.1, 8 MB RAM, 4 X CD-ROM Rating: lllll Another bargain! This CD-ROM Suitcase from Simon and Schuster, contains 12 CD-ROMS for kids aged 3-7 years. Though these are older titles, there are enough top quality ones included to deliver top value for money. The disks include Richard Scarry's Busytown, How things Work in Busytown, How Many Bugs in a Box, More Bugs in Boxes, Alistair and the Alien Invasion, Earth 2U, Exploring Geography, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, My Favourite Monster, Mooky Takes Manhattan, MacMillan Dictionary for Children and Road Construction Ahead. The most inappropriate game for Australia Money Town, features, US money. The other titles are of international interest however. Busytown for example giving kids practice in adding, subtracting, measuring, counting, patern matching, problem solving and early reading skills. Similarly 'How Things Work in Busytown' features eight activities that enable players to practice word recognition, vocabulary, pattern recognition, sequencing, community roles, problem solving, colour and counting skills in Busytown. 3) BusyTown Best Christmas Ever Pic: BestXmas.bmp Ages: 3-7 years Price: $49.95 Distributor: Hilad 02 9700 9377 Publisher: Simon and Schuster Requirements: Pentium 90, Win 95, 16 MB RAM, 4 X CD-ROM Macintosh: Power mac, System 7.1, 8 MB RAM, 4 X CD-ROM

Definition Essay - The Word Private -- Definition Essays

Definition Essay - The Word 'Private' Private is a word with a multitude of meanings, some known and others not so known. When searched for in a dictionary, it can be found that the definitions don't vary much between the three dictionaries, although the dictionary from 1913 had a few dissimilar terms. The word private was looked up in Webster Dictionary from 1913,   The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, and the Oxford English Dictionary: Second Edition. Many people think of private as meaning something in solitude, or secretive. Reading these dictionary entries revealed the labyrinthine meaning of the word private. Some of the definitions seem very similar to the way private is used in every day life, however others seem hidden as though they were private definitions themselves. Most freshmen at Michigan State University and students at Waterford Mott High School don't use that word commonly in every day conversation but when we do use it, the context in which it is used usually gives the implied meaning of being secretive or sheltered fro...

Psychology the Nervous System

Assignment 3 Written Essay Questions 1. a) We are able to experience different types of sensations because our nervous system encodes messages. German physiologist Johannes Muller in his doctrine of specific nerve energies described a kind of code which is anatomical. In his doctrine, Muller explains that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways that lead to different areas of the brain. For example, when the ear receives signals, these signals cause impulses to travel along the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex.And signals from the eye cause impulses to travel along the optic nerve to the visual cortex. Because of these anatomical differences, light and sound produce different sensations. b) The code in the nervous system that helps explain why a pinprick and kiss feel different is known as functional. These codes rely on the fact that sensory receptors and neurons fire or are inhibited from firing, only i n the presence of specific kinds of stimuli. Functional encoding may occur all along a sensory route, starting in the sense organs and ending in the brain. 2.The lens of an eye operates differently from a camera, that just like a camera, the eye registers spots of light and dark, but neurons in the visual system build up a picture of the world by detecting meaningful features. The eye doesn’t passively record the external world, like a camera, ganglion cells and neurons in the thalamus of the brain respond to simple features in the environment, such as spots of light and dark. The existence of a specialized face module in the brain, explains why a person with brain damage may continue to recognize faces, after losing the ability to recognize other objects. . These units which were named after Alexander Graham Bell were called decibels (dB). Each decibel is 1/10 of a bel. Using decibels, they can be used to determine sound intensity, intensity of a wave’s pressure. Huma ns have an average absolute threshold of hearing of zero decibels and all decibels are not equally distant. For example, in my own environment, in my living room there is a 40decibel sound, my refrigerator and the light traffic from my window has about 50 decibels of sound.Everyday noises that may be hazardous to hearing could be rock concerts, deafening bars, stereos that are often played on full blast. In addition to that, noisy home appliances, lawn mowers and heavy city traffic also are hazardous to our ears. 4. If you were to inhale vapour from a rose, your receptors for smell have specialized neurons embedded in a tiny patch of mucous membrane in the upper part of the nasal passage. Millions of receptors in each nasal cavity respond to chemical molecules in the air.So when you inhale vapour from a rose, you’re pulling these molecules into the nasal cavity and can also enter from the mouth. These molecules then trigger responses in the receptors that produce that of fres h roses. From there, signals from the receptors are carried to the brain’s olfactory bulb by the olfactory nerve. And from the olfactory bulb, they travel to a higher region of the brain. 5. The basic concept of the gate- control theory, states the experience of pain depends on when pain impulses can get past a ‘’gate’’ in the spinal cord.The gate is a pattern of neural activity that blocks pain messages coming from the skin, muscles and internal organs or lets those signals through. Most of the time this gate is kept shut by impulses coming into the spinal cord from large fibres that respond to pressure or by signals coming down from the brain itself. However, when body tissue is injured, the large fibres are damaged and the smaller fibres open the gate. Once the gate is open, pain messages reach the brain unchecked. However, the theory doesn’t explain phantom pain, the pain from an amputated limb or organ that a person continues to feel aft er surgery.Melzack explains, even though there are no nerve impulses for the spinal cord gate to block or let through, the brain not only responds to incoming signals from sensory nerves but is also capable of generating pain entirely on its own. An extensive matrix of neurons in the brain gives us the sense of our own bodies and body parts. Pain results when this matrix produces an abnormal pattern of activity, as a result of memories, emotions, expectations or signals from various brain centres and not just from signals from peripheral nerves.Because of the lack of sensory stimulation or a person’s efforts to move a nonexistent limb, abnormal patterns may arise, resulting in phantom pain. 6. a) The role stimulus generalization plays in this problem is where mental images of the sights and smells of the clinic can become conditioned stimuli for nausea, aside from the nurse’s uniform, smell of rubbing alcohol or the waiting room. b) High order conditioning can be illus trated in this problem of vomiting and nausea where a patient who drank lemon –lime Kool-Aid before their therapy sessions developed anxiety disorders.They continued to feel anxious even when the drink was offered in their homes rather than at the clinic. c) Classical conditioning could help patients reduce pain and anxiety through the use of placebos. For example the use of pills and injections that have no active ingredients or treatments that have no direct physical effect on the problem. The bigger and more impressive the placebos are, the stronger their psychological effects are. 7. The evidence shows that punishments are effective when they are carried out immediately.As shown in the studies of criminal records of Danish men, punishments were effective in deterring young criminals from repeating their offences. After examining repeat arrests through the age of 26, punishment reduced rates of subsequent arrests for both minors and serious crimes. However, recidivism stil l remained fairly high. Other studies have indicated that the severity of punishment made no difference, in that fines and probation were just as effective as jail time. The consistency of the punishment is what matters most.For example, when law breakers get away with their crimes, their behaviour is intermittently reinforced and becomes resistant to extinction. Speeding tickets are another example of when you receive punishments. Even though the use of photo radar systems is useful for catching all speeders or reduces speeding, it doesn’t eliminate speeding entirely. As mentioned before, punishments are most effective in the period immediately following its delivery. This would explain when police officers supervise the speed traps; they are more effective since the punishment is given out immediately.However, when photo radars catch you, you have to wait for several weeks to receive the ticket. Laboratory and field studies find that punishments fail in everyday life, in sc hools, families and workplaces because of six drawbacks. The first is that people often administer the punishment inappropriately or mindlessly. People swing in a blind rage or shout things they don’t mean and when people aren’t angry, they misunderstand the proper application of punishment. Secondly, the recipient of punishment often responds with anxiety, fear or rage. Negative emotional reactions can create more problems than the punishment solves.For example, a teenager who has been severely punished may strike back or run away. Children, who have been punished physically in childhood, risk at being in depression, having low self-esteem, violent behaviour and many other problems. Third, depending on the presence of the punishing person or circumstances, the effectiveness of the punishment is often temporary. When a police officer is around at a park, you wouldn’t dare littering but if the police officer isn’t around then you wouldn’t be as afra id of littering. Forth, most behaviour is hard to punish immediately.For example, while you’re at work, your children eat all the deserts that were for tonight’s party, but you don’t punish them till after work, the punishment is no good. You children’s behaviour would have been reinforced by all those deserts. Fifth, punishments express little information, in that punishments may tell the recipient what not to do, but doesn’t communicate what the person should do. For example yelling at a student who learns slowly, won’t teach him/her to learn faster. Sixth, an action intended to punish may instead be reinforcing because it brings attention.For example, in the classroom, students enjoy when teachers yell at them in front of their classmates, putting them in the limelight. Often rewarding the student’s misbehaviour they are trying to remove. 8. a) Fixed Interval b) Variable Interval c) Variable Ratio d) Fixed Ratio Take a Long look 1. What is meant by the term â€Å"form perception†? Form perception means when an infant can or can’t respond to stimuli as shape, pattern , size or solidity. Thus they can see or can’t perceive form. 2. Why is the â€Å"preferential-looking† method of studying infants likened to a biologist’s use of a microscope?This method is similar to that of a biologist’s use of a microscope because this method is one of the first tools researchers turn to when they want to study how babies think. The method literally opened the doors to understanding the minds of infants. 3. What patterns were the babies in Fantz’s studies least interested in looking at? The patterns the babies were least interested in were the shapes that were just plain with no complexity. The least interesting shape for the infants was the square with no designs or complexity inside the square. 4.A preference for looking at faces is said to â€Å"set the stage for an infantâ €™s future survival and growth† (p. 41). Suggest two areas of learning that an infant’s attention to faces might facilitate. Two areas of learning that an infant’s attention to faces might facilitate are innate and primitive knowledge. The innate knowledge of the environment is shown by the infant’s interest in the kinds of forms that will later aid in object recognition, social responsiveness and spatial orientation. The primitive knowledge help provide an accumulation of knowledge through experience. 5.The early psychologist William James thought that the world for babies was a â€Å"blooming buzzing confusion† (see page 211 of the course text). Do Fantz’s findings support this statement? Explain. Fantz’s findings pointed out infants, regardless of age, can demonstrate that basic form perception is present at birth and ruling out a learning or developmental factor. Meaning that, babies have some kind of understanding of the diffe rent patterns and forms that are presented to them. This is how they are able to differentiate between faces, their mothers face or a stranger’s face. 6.Imagine you have been hired by a toymaker. Using Fantz’s findings describe your design for an infant toy or crib mobile. Using Fantz’s findings, I would create a toy that would have detailed patterns and include pictures or objects of faces of people or similar to those of people. Thus, I would create a toy with a face similar to that of humans and cover their body with items of great complexity, for example, a bull’s eye or a checkers board type of pattern. You would be able to place this toy over the infant in the crib, which should keep the infant entertained for many hours.Watch out for the Visual Cliff 1. What is meant by the statement that Gibson and Walk take a nativist position on the topic of depth perception? Both Gibson and Walk believed that depth perception and the avoidance of a drop-off app ear automatically as part of our original biological equipment and has nothing to do with experience. On the other hand, empiricists argue that these abilities are learned and aren’t biologically hard wired in us. 2. Write a one-paragraph summary of what Gibson and Walk discovered from their visual cliff studies with infants.Gibson and Walk had 36 infants for this study between ages 6 and 14 months with their mothers participating in the study. Nine of infants refused to move at all off the center of the board, which wasn’t explained by the researchers, but perhaps infant stubbornness. However, the other 27 infants crawled off the board and crossed the glass when called by their mothers on the shallow side of the table. Only 3 of the infants crept with hesitation off the brink of the visual cliff when called by their mothers from the deep side.When the infants were called from the cliff side by their mothers, most of the infants either crawled away from their mother on the shallow side or cried in frustration at being unable to reach their mothers without ‘’ falling off the cliff’’. The infants would often peer down through the class of the deep side and then back away or pat the glass with their hands, but would refuse to cross. After these results, it was difficult to prove that human’s ability to perceive depth is innate rather than learned because all the infants had at least 6 months of life experience to learn about depth through trial and error. . What did Gibson and Walk discover about depth perception in young animals? Gibson and Walk discovered that the ability of various animals to perceive depth developed in relation to when the species need such a skill for their survival. For example, within 24 hours of age, baby chickens never made the mistake stepping off into the deep side while looking for food. Kids and lambs response was the same as the baby chickens, which indicted the visual sense was in com plete control and the animals ability to feel the solidity of the glass on the deep side had no effect on the response.The rats were different from the others, as they didn’t show any preference for the shallow or deep side of the table. This could be explained by the fact that rats locate food by smell and doesn’t depend very much on its vision, but moves around using cues from the stiff whiskers on its nose. 4. Describe how Gibson and Walk use evolutionary theory to explain their infant and animal findings on depth perception. Gibson and Walk used evolutionary theory to explain that all animals that are to survive need to develop the ability to perceive depth by the time they able to move independently.For humans, this doesn’t occur until about 6 months of age and for chickens and goats it’s immediately. For dogs, rats and cats it’s about 4 weeks. Thus, this ability is inborn because to learn through trial and error would cause many potential fat al accidents. 5. Give one example of a finding that suggests depth perception has a learned component. A later study placed younger infants, ages 2 to 5 months, on the glass over the deep side of the visual cliff. The infants showed a decrease in heart rate, a sign of interest and not fear.This had indicated that the younger infants had not yet learned to fear the drop off and would learn the avoidance behaviour later on in life. 6. How has social referencing been found to impact youngsters' behaviour when faced with a visual cliff? In the Gibson and Walk study, when the mother had been instructed to maintain an expression of fear on her face, the infants refused to crawl any further on the table. However, when the infants saw their mothers looking happy, they checked the deep side again and crawled across.But when the drop-off was made flat, the infants did not check with their mothers before crawling across. Knock Wood 1. Why is Skinner referred to as a radical behaviourist? Skinn er is referred to as a radical behaviourist because he believed that all behaviours are ultimately learned, are controlled by the relationships between the situation that immediately precedes the behaviour and the consequences that directly follow it. This includes behaviours that are public or external, private and events such as feelings and thoughts.He believed that private behaviours are difficult to study, but acknowledged we all have our own subjective experience of these behaviours. However, he didn’t view internal events, such as thoughts and emotions, as causes of behaviour but rather as a part of the mix of the environment. 2. What is a Skinner box? How was the food dispenser set up for the pigeons in this study? Refer back to your text. What type of reinforcement schedule is this? The Skinner box consists of a box or cage that is empty except for a tray or dish into which food may be dispensed.This allows the researcher to have control over when the animal receives reinforcement, such pallets of food. The earlier boxes contained a lever that when pressed, would cause some food to be dispensed; rats were most commonly used in these boxes. For pigeons, the conditioning chambers were designed with disks to be pecked instead of bars to be pressed on. This study is an example of fixed – interval schedules, as the dispensers were rigged to drop food pellets into the tray at intervals of 15 seconds, regardless of what the pigeon was doing. 4.What were the pigeons conditioned to do as a result? One of the birds was conditioned to turn counter clockwise, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another bird was repeatedly thrusting its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. Two of the birds developed pendulum motion of the head and body in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return. One of the other birds was conditioned to make incomplete pecking or brushing movements directed toward but not touching the floor. . How did the pigeons’ behaviour change when the delay period for reinforcement was extended to a minute? With one of the head bobbing and hopping birds, the bird’s movements become more energetic until finally the bobbing and hopping become so intense, that it appeared that the pigeon was doing some kind of dance during the intervals. When the reinforcement in the cage was discounted, the birds’ behaviour was considered extinct. This resulted in the superstitious behaviour disappearing gradually.In the case of the dancing pigeon, there were over 10,000 responses that were recorded before extinction occurred. 5. Was extinction of this behaviour possible? This type of behaviour can persist a lifetime because any behaviour that is reinforced once in a while in a given situation, becomes very difficult to extinguish. This is because the expectation stays high that the superstitious behaviour might w ork to produce reinforcing consequences. In real life, instances of accidental reinforcement usually occur at irregular intervals which make extinction of this behaviour almost impossible. . What explanation does Skinner give for the resiliency to extinction of human superstitions? Skinner states that any behavior that is reinforced once in a while in a given situation, partial reinforcement, it becomes very difficult to extinguish. This is due to the expectation that stays high that the superstitious behaviour might work to produce the reinforcing consequences. In real life, accidental reinforcement usually occurs periodically, so you could imagine why superstitious behaviour may persist for a lifetime. 7.Use Skinner’s operant conditioning principles to explain the development of a superstition that you hold or once held, or one you have observed in someone else. Using Skinner’s operant conditioning principles, I noticed my friend who enjoys roulette had a superstitio n that when he bought himself and the person on his right a drink and place the bet on black he believed he would win. Of course he wouldn’t always win, only the person to his right side won with a free drink, but he always thought this would bring him good luck when he needed it.