Thursday, November 28, 2019

Analysis of Language Between Juliet and Lord Capulet Essay Example

Analysis of Language Between Juliet and Lord Capulet Essay This male domination is shown in the play through Lord Capulets relationships between his wife, daughter and other members of his family. This patriarchal domination makes him very powerful and makes other characters in the play weaker by comparison. This power is very important in determining the outcome of the play. The portrayal of Lord Capulets character, shows him as one who has the power to tell others what to do as well as having complete power over his household and what happens in his household. He expects his wife (Lady Capulet), daughter (Juliet) and his servants to do exactly as he tells them. Shakespeare wrote in the Elizabethan age, so naturally he based most of his plays on the morals and social standards of the time. During the Elizabethan period noble women were expected to be married off to rich, socially acceptable men. Fathers choose the men they considered â€Å"suitable† for their daughters, aiming to marry them off to higher social circles to levitate their own. Men were considered the bread winners of the family and women inferior to them. It was thought unconventional for women to make important decisions for themselves, they were incapable and therefore men where to make their decisions for them, not just regarding their marriage. Women could refuse to marry but would be disowned by their families; it was a silent threat that was hidden underneath every happy Elizabethan family. Just as Capulet’s behaviour so drastically contrasts from when Juliet was obeying him to when she spoke out. Women had either little or no work opportunities outside their family and without a male supporter they became penniless street vagrants. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Language Between Juliet and Lord Capulet specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Language Between Juliet and Lord Capulet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of Language Between Juliet and Lord Capulet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Elizabethan society wasn’t fair; if it was then women wouldn’t be working in high power jobs equally with men. The modern society we live in has changed so because of the prejudice against how women where controlled mercilessly by men. In my opinion that is unjust and wrong, I am very appreciative that I wasn’t born in such a limited society. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet it is clear Capulet feels his daughter is â€Å"too young† to marry and â€Å"still a stranger to the world† as Capulet first tells Paris when he proposes, conventionally to Capulet not Juliet. Still a stranger to the world† further implies he does not see her as a valid person yet, the fact she is still â€Å"a stranger to him† displays a lack of trust in Juliet and maybe some hidden doubt about her loyalty to him as a father Lady Capulet reflects her husband’s views for Juliet to marry â€Å"The gallant young and noble gentlemen† Count Paris. Thi s shows a positive attitude towards their marriage; however this may be due to Lady Capulet’s conventional need to support her husband. Gallant† and â€Å"noble† was the ideal interpretation of the Elizabethan man, which Lady Capulet’s own marriage was decided upon. Yet in her statement she only refers to the class and elegance of Juliet’s husband to be, excluding any words of excitement or happiness for her daughter, almost only used to persuade her daughter to accept. This shows the familiarity between mother and daughter and how their relationship is based so similarly to that of Juliet’s and Capulet’s, on expectations. Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris affects her father is a variety of ways. On his first encounter with her Capulet asks why she is â€Å"evermore weeping†, showing compassion for his daughter. Yet when he hears of her refusal he becomes angry and insulting. â€Å"Disobedient Wretch† suggests he not only feels betrayed by his daughter but his compassion and love for his daughter was merely superficial and has evaporated along with the marriage proposal. Juliet still shows respect and submissiveness towards her father, â€Å"beseeching† him on her knees and â€Å"thankful even for hate†. This symbolises how dependent Juliet is on her father, and how she is emotionally forbidden from self-pity. In Act 3 scene 5 Capulet proceeds to call his daughter a â€Å"Tallow faced green sickness† implying she is a plague and therefore a burden on the Capulet family. Then he proclaims that â€Å"one is one too much, we have a curse in having her† and threatens to be â€Å"rid of her†. I believe Capulet’s and Juliet’s relationship was parley based on his expectations of her as his â€Å"Little Lady†. Now he accepts nothing of her, she is no use to him as a possession that has merely broken. Act 3 scene 5 contains a number of features of tragedy, not only as Capulet cruelly abandons his daughter, but when Juliet proclaims her future and therefore her death. She curses that â€Å"If all else fail, myself have the power to die† suggesting not only her willingness to die but personalizing the phrase with â€Å"myself†, indicating suicide. All of Shakespeare’s plays display some sense of tragedy, always involving the eponymous heroes, who repetitively perish after titling the play such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Traits of an Abnormal Personality Disorder

Traits of an Abnormal Personality Disorder Free Online Research Papers Underlying Normal Traits within Abnormal Personality Disorders Abstract Scholars have argued for decades concerning the fact that there are normal personality traits underlying abnormal personality traits in people who exhibit dysfunctional personalities. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition is the determinative guide on the descriptions of these personality characteristics, and it determined that there were several models to be considered when looking for a universal clinical definition of abnormal personality. Researchers used either the Big Four, Big Five or other models to describe what an abnormal personality consisted of and how it related to a normal personality as studied. Researchers measured personality differences based on qualitative, quantitative and other key factor differences to determine normal or abnormal functioning personalities. It was difficult to determine one substantive definition, as the traits overlapped from normal to abnormal characteristics noted. Later, the definition of personality dysfunctions included life skills, personal tasks and life goals, and whether the individual was able to function as a member of his society, while meeting the expectations of that society. A person’s maladaptiveness and evolutionary sense were added as part of the definition of whether the personality was normal or abnormal, and whether a person had the skill to be able to manage personal relationships were considered as well in the general definition of abnormal personality. Today, treatment options are expanded from the traditional therapy treatments to include drug therapies, psychodynamic therapy, day hospital intervention, and dialectical behavior therapy. To date, day hospital interventions have proved very successful on non-schizophrenic patients suffering from abnormal personality traits. Introduction Scholars have argued for decades concerning the fact that there are normal personality traits underlying abnormal personality traits in people who exhibit dysfunctional personalities. Recently, scholars have begun to make an argument that current category systems of personality disorders (PDs) should be substituted by trait dimensional scheme designations in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Experts are leaning towards using a Big Four model, which are â€Å"essentially maladaptive variants of the Big Five traits of normal personality, minus Openness† (Watson, 1545). In a discussion of this issue by Watson, Clark and Chmielewski, they state that the newly comprised Big Four model excludes odd or eccentric Cluster A PDs, (Watson, 1545) and that their results noted from three studies show a relationship examining the factors of normal and abnormal personalities. Their results established th at the Oddity factor was considered more broad than the Cluster A traits and more distinct from Openness and other Big Five models, which suggested â€Å"an alternative five factor model of personality pathology (considering only abnormal traits) and an expanded, integrated Big Six taxonomy that subsumes both normal and abnormal personality characteristics† (Watson, 1545). Model Theories The Watson study explains that the Big Four structure was a result of developed hierarchical models that combined general models, like the Big Three and the Big Five models. These former models of personality reviews included multidimensional factors reminiscent of past personality inventories. When the Big Three and Big Five models were formally combined, it was apparent that â€Å"two higher order traits- Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality and Extraversion/Positive Emotionality- are included in both models† (Watson, 1547). Considering these changes, Watson proposes a â€Å"Big Four† theory which does not include Openness, but does include many of the traits of the other theories. Watson reports that their research on the Big Five theory also includes research on a Big Six taxonomy â€Å"that subsumes both normal and abnormal personality dimensions (Watson, 1551). Definitions of Abnormal Personalities Researchers have made recent discoveries that â€Å"abnormal personalities can be modeled as extremes of normal personality variation† (O’Connor Doyce, 2001) (Markon, p. 139). Even though researchers agree that it is possible to describe normal and abnormal personalities within the same frameworks, they disagree on the structure of what the framework will encompass. Even abnormal personality traits are seen now as a variant of the extremes that can happen when reviewing normal personalities. One way to make sense of the distinctions between normal and abnormal personalities is to describe personality disorders (PDs) and develop a working definition for them. By defining the traits for PDs, the researcher is able to develop a base for delineating personalities studied. Once normal traits are identified, abnormal traits need to be assessed. This can be done by reviewing the Big Five model of abnormal personalities. This is the juncture that normal and abnormal personalities overlap. Apparently, there are similar modeling structures that can be utilized to describe both normal and abnormal personalities. Some traits are very common between the two models, and others mimic similar personality descriptions. Meta-analytic Investigation Model One cohesive factor that applies to both normal and abnormal personalities is the meta-analytic investigation model. This model was proposed by O’Connor in 2002, and it stated that there were structural relationships between normal and abnormal personalities (Markon, p. 142). The O’Connor study in 2002 reviewed 37 personality and psychopathology inventories to determine if dimensional structure differences existed between clinical and nonclinical respondents (O’Connor B.P., 2002). O’Connor found similarity between normal and abnormal populations reviewed and measured similarities â€Å"both in the number of factors that exist in the data matrices and in the factor pattern† (O’Connor B.P., 2002). The ten abnormal behavior disorders listed by the DSM-IV are listed as: paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive–compulsive† (Livesley Jang, p. 258). Each of these disorders shows traits, and it is the way that professional clinicians are able to make accurate diagnoses of abnormal personality traits of their patients. This listing of traits by the DSM, showed that the distinction between what was considered normal and what was considered abnormal was often defined by distinguishing the â€Å"qualitative distinction between the two† (Livesley Jang, p. 258). Unfortunately, in truth researchers have come to find out that there are no true separations between normal and abnormal disorders, and they are hard pressed to find the dividing lines between the two entities. O’Connor asked whether the distinction can be made using former models, and what exactly was normal or abnormal personality disorder. When the conceptual distinctions between the two were reviewed, there are several models to note. The most noteworthy working model being that there was â€Å"no evidence of discontinuity in the distributions of 100 traits selected to provide a systematic representation of personality disorder† (Livesley Jang, p. 259). In other words, there was no concrete evidence that the researchers would consistently find traits that were exclusively common or descriptive of a specific personality disorder. In fact, personality disorders were measured across normal and control groups. The findings were that there were similarities within the disorder traits and that some equaled normal and others disordered personality traits. In this way, the researchers queried whether disorder traits could be seen in normal personalities. The answer was that there were few solid frameworks to make the decision which would provide a definitive answer to the question. In effect, extreme ends of the traits seemed to be deemed disorders, while extreme variations alone may not have been considered enough to state that a personality disorder actually existed. Quantitative Differences in Normal and Abnormal Personalities Quantitative differences exist between the normal and abnormal personality. The differences often mix up and muddle the personality traits and the disorders apparent within them. With personality disorders, often â€Å"it is difficult to see how an extreme score on dimensions such as conscientiousness, extraversion, or agreeableness is necessarily pathological. Researchers agreed that there were to be other additional factors that needed be present to justify the diagnosis (Livesley Jang, p. 262). That additional trait is inflexibility and subjective distress (Livesley Jang, p. 259). The character trait of inflexibility is defined as one where the person has extreme traits, but not necessarily only an extreme position noted on any given trait. For example, a person who is extremely open and gregarious, but then is not able to tone down his personality when necessary would be an example of this trait. Continuing with this example, what would make the person who is considered otherwise outgoing and spontaneous a person who is suffering from a personality disorder? Maladaptive Personalities The answer may come from prior work done by researchers who were determining personality and abnormal personality disorders. Extreme actions alone were not enough to say the person operated outside of â€Å"normal† personality parameters. The researchers at the time believed that personality disorders were the result of someone suffering from an abnormal variation of a personality being studied. It was measured in how much the person suffered from the disorder. This is where the theory of maladaptation or dyscontrolled impairment came into play (Widiger Trull, 1991; Widiger Sankis, 2000). The reason the researchers sought a generalized definition is that without one, they â€Å"would have to catalogue the various maladaptive manifestations of each trait† (Livesley Jang, p. 263). This was a difficult proposition, since even â€Å"normal† people were prone to exhibit maladaptive traits at some time in their lives. Another problem came with the idea of traits as one certain set of behaviors that were noted on subjects clinically or otherwise. Extreme exhibitions of a trait may show some measureable amount of psychopathology, but were not exclusively indicative of being considered classically maladaptive. In this way, the researchers determined that the â€Å"definition of personality disorder needs to incorporate features of disorder that are separate from, although possibly correlated with, extreme trait variation† (Livesley Jang, p. 263). Harmful Dysfunctional Traits in Personalities These descriptions of personality were necessary because there were more than these factors to consider when determining a personality disorder. In fact, personality was considered to be â€Å"a system of interrelated structures and processes† (Costa McCrae, 1994; Mischel, 1999; Vernon, 1964) which included a person’ dispositional traits, motives, coping mechanisms, and ability to tame impulses are part of the process of determining normal or abnormal indications of personality. In other words, if these traits were considered â€Å"harmful dysfunctions,† (Wakefield, 1992; Livesley Jang, p. 263) they consisted of harmful traits that were underlying natural functions. So, the definition of a personality disorder can be considered a harmful dysfunction in the normally adaptive functions of a person’s personality system (Livesley Jang, p. 263) Another issue within the developing studies of personality disorders was that personality functions were considered to be seen as disturbed in individuals who exhibited personality disorders. Researcher Cantor described a person’s personality as the types of tasks a person sets as personal goals, and they way the person looks at his or her â€Å"self, and life situations, and the strategies used to achieve personal tasks† (Livesley Jang, p. 263). This delineation of personality traits offered a true to form definition of what a personality disorder consisted of for the individual suffering from it. It was considered of a higher order than simply a dysfunction of a personality trait. Here it was described as needing to concentrate on life tasks as the determining factor to determining if an individual had a personality disorder, and was therefore considered abnormal in terms of functioning personality. The researchers assumed that as a person lives his life, he orders his tasks as to what he sets as priorities for completing goals and meeting the needs of his immediate surrounding community and culture. This comes under the order of living in society and meeting the expectations of people who live near the individual, or a way of fitting in within his community. It also had to do with the person’s mean biology, or biological features characteristic of the individual. In fact, these tasks did vary depending on where the person lived and what the person had do to be able to survive in his culture. These may come under the umbrella of life skills, and they are definitely different considering where a person lived or had grown up. For example, a person who grew up in a small native Alaskan out island would have different life skills that would a person who grew up and lived in a borough of Manhattan, NY. The two personalities of these individuals might be similar, but their life skills would be developed in obviously different ways. The person living in the native island village would have an understanding of the elements and what is necessary for bare-bones survival in possibly extreme conditions. While, the person who grew up in the city would have to understand how to be â€Å"street smart† and may need to know how to survive in even a potentially violent atmosphere if the neighborhood suggested those skills were essential to survive on a daily basis. Each individual may otherwise be soft spoken, or be considered similarly warm-hearted or kind. But decidedly, their life skills would separate them and put them a world away from each other in what they knew and needed to depend on to survive in their environment on a daily basis. Universal Tasks Underlying Personality Traits The researchers then understood that there would need to be a set of universal tasks that needed to be identified. These universal tasks were considered of â€Å"evolutionary significance† and featured four universal challenges as set by Plutchik (1980). These were the four ways a person’s identity was developed and they included:the solution to the problems of dominance and submissiveness created by hierarchy that is characteristic of primate social hierarchies; development of a sense of territoriality or belongingness; and solution to the problems of temporality, that is, problems of loss and separation. This allowed the researchers studying personality disorders to come to the conclusion that personality disorders prevented an individual from managing the adaptive answers or solutions that were considered universally applicable to everyone, or a person’s life tasks. When an individual had a deficit in any of these areas, there was a noted â€Å"harmful dysfunction† and the person was unable to adapt to be able to function in his environment or society. The life tasks then seen as either being fulfilled or being abandoned by the individual, probably because of this identified deficit. Personality disorder was seen as different from other disorders by the fact that these failures â€Å"should be enduring and traceable to adolescence or at least early adulthood and they should be due to extreme personality variation rather than another pervasive and chronic mental disorder such as a cognitive or schizophrenic disorder† (Livesley Jang, p. 264). Evolutionary Sense Within Personality Traits There was talk of the individual not being able to adapt to his environment in an â€Å"evolutionary sense† which spoke to whether the person had garnered enough skills for ensuring adaptive social behavior to allow reproduction and survival (Livesley Jang, p. 264). This was explained as stating that the adaptive traits would contribute to the person adapting to his environment and society in general, and the person adapting to his family unit would move the person towards being able to rear children and eventually reproduce to pass down his traits to offspring later on. This is the general definition of people who have self confidence in their dealings with others, and are able to live in harmony in stable relationships, while becoming productive members within their society or community. These can be seen to be part of the ancestral or evolutionary needs of every individual, whether the person had an abnormal personality or normal personality. The more common description of an abnormal personality comes from what the common person observes when someone has problems dealing within a relationship. Rutter (1987) stated that personality disorders were characterized by â€Å"persistent, pervasive abnormality in social relationships and social functioning generally† (Rutter, p. 454). Also, Tyrer (2001) stated that â€Å"we do not necessarily need to know everything about someones personality to recognise the elements that make it disordered† (Tyrer, p. 83). Tyrer states quite honestly that psychiatrists view these descriptive axioms as something to be deferred, and says â€Å"personality disorder and mental retardation are stigmatic terms that psychiatrists like to avoid† (Tyrer, p. 83). So the question is, how can one determine the underlying normality within the abnormal personality? For this the clinician and the layperson need review the DSM-III, considered the premier source of personality disorder classification (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). The DSM classifies what is considered normal and abnormal in terms of personality. The professionals in the field disagree to the proposed stereotyping of this group of classifications, on the basis of the fact that such profiling is considered â€Å"quite inappropriate in such a complicated field† (Tyrer, p. 84). In fact, it appears that there are burgeoning alternative and substitute classifications being used for determining personality disorders in surveys, trials, studies and private practice. Most people would be surprised to find out that this topic has been heatedly debated over the past two decades. Many people most likely assume that there is one clinical definition of what is normal, and what is not normal when it comes to personality disorders. The media plays into this, as well as the television and movie plots. The person seen as abnormal is cloaked in symbolic black, speaks in a raspy voice or has otherwise obvious mentally deviant behaviors that even the least sophisticated person in the audience could confidently label as the â€Å"bad guy.† Personality Disorders Studied Abroad Even the study of personality disorders abroad have led researchers to agree to disagree in the area of determining how to describe profiles for patients with underlying normal traits within their abnormal personality profiles. In a study performed by McCrae (2001) in The People’s Republic of China, 1,909 psychiatric patients were examined to determine the accuracy of the hypotheses determined from the Interpretive Report of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (McCrae, p. 155). The researchers determined that the PDs were not separate categories that could be determined in a vacuum. They realized that they needed to consider a more comprehensive and forgiving system of personality traits, to be considered an accurate measure of the patient’s personality issues and concerns. The researchers found that the personality traits of the patients did not fit into the DSM-IV defined traits. They did â€Å"draw on the same five underlying personality traits† (McCrae, p. 171), and were considered redundant, but there were several areas of overlap to be considered conclusive. In fact, over 60% of the patients that were being treated for maladaptive personalities were not meeting the criteria defined in the DSM-IV, as relating to any criteria for a PD (McCrae, p. 171). The maladaptive behaviors, the person’s habits and personal attitudes were all measured to find a comprehensive scale for measuring the personality traits of the patients. It was determined that the results were insignificant, and concluded that personality profiles were â€Å"modest predictors of categorical PDs, but they are immensely informative about people† (McCrae, p. 172). Treatment Options for Abnormal Personality Traits But clinicians and psychiatrists are still interested in treating and helping people who exhibit the traits of these personality disorders identified above. They are in disagreement whether there are normal traits that are underlying the abnormal personality traits that deserve to be treated in an effort to offer the patient an opportunity to live a full and productive life. This is a critical option for people who have normal personality traits, but also exhibit the identified borderline abnormal personality traits as well within their psyche. Over a half decade ago, the best treatments were heralded as therapeutic, and they seemed to promise the greatest success overall. But today, there are many alternate treatments available for individuals exhibiting abnormal personality disorders. They include drug therapies, psychodynamic therapy, day hospital intervention, and dialectical behavior therapy (Linehan, 1992, Tyrer, p. 84). Other methods of treatment that carry high success for the patients are the partial hospitalization of patients (Bateman Fonagy, 1999). Bateman Fonagy compared the effectiveness of treating patients exhibiting borderline personality disorders with partial hospitalization s a standard psychiatric care. They studied thirty-eight patients with borderline personality disorder and offered them individual and group psychoanalytic psychotherapy, for up to 18 months (Bateman Fonagy, 1999). The results were that the patients who had been partially hospitalized did exhibit less problems, with â€Å"An impr ovement in depressive symptoms, a decrease in suicidal and self-mutilatory acts, reduced inpatient days, and better social and interpersonal function began at 6 months and continued until the end of treatment at 18 months† (Bateman Fonagy, 1999). Their conclusion was that the partial hospitalization was determined as a far superior type of psychiatric care for those patients exhibiting borderline personality disorder. This treatment option was in opposition with the standard treatment options of the therapies listed above. These results were similar in the study by Piper, (1993) where a day treatment program at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta was studied. The patients were referred from the day treatment program and walk-in clinic, and utilized participants with â€Å"chronically disturbed non-schizophrenic patients, who usually have affective and personality disorders† (Piper, p. 757). The results of the study were that day treatment programs w ere considered effective for patients with long-term non schizophrenic disorders. The patients noted significant improvement in â€Å"four of the five areas studied- interpersonal functioning, symptomatology, life satisfaction, and self-esteem- as well as in several of disturbance associated with individual objectives (Piper, p. 762). Reference American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM- III). Washington, DC: APA. Bateman, A. Fonagy, P. (1999). Effectiveness of partial hospitalization in the treatment of borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1563-1569. Retrieved on April 9, 2010 from http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/156/10/1563?ijkey=bb19a5d116af525fe927da3b0a0c0250f3d61de3 Costa, P. T., McCrae, R. R. (1994). Can personality change? In T. F. Heatherton, J. L. Weinberger (Eds.), Can personality change? (pp. 21–40). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Linehan, M. M. (1992) Cognitive Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press. Livesley, W. John Jang, Kerry L.. (2005). Differentiating normal, abnormal, and disordered personality, European Journal of Personality, 19(4), 257-268. Markon, K.E, Krueger, R. F., Watson, D. (2005). Delineating the structure of normal and abnormal personality: An integrative hierarchical approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 139–157. EBSCO Database: Academic Search Premier. McCrae, Robert R., Jian, Yang, et al. (2001). Personality Profiles and the Prediction of Categorical Personality Disorders. Journal of Personality, 69(2), 155-174. Mischel, W. (1999). Personality coherence and dispositions in a Cognitive–Affective Personality System (CAPS) approach. In D. Cervone, Y. Shoda (Eds.), The coherence of personality (pp. 37–60). New York: Guilford. O’Connor B.P. (2002). The search for dimensional structure differences between normality and abnormality: A statistical review of published data on personality and psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 83(4), 962–982. Retrieved on April 9, 2010 from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12374447 O’Connor B.P. Dyce J.A. (2001) Rigid and extreme: A geometric representation of personality disorders in five-factor model space. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1119–1130. PubMed Database. Piper, W.E., Rosie, J.S., Azim, H.F.A, Joyce A.S. (1993). A randomized trial of psychiatric day treatment for patients with affective and personality disorders. Hosp Community Psychiatry, 44, 757–763. Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik, H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience (pp. 3–33). San Diego, CA: Academic. Rutter, M. (1987). Temperament, personality and personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 443–458. Tyrer, Peter. (2001). Personality disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 81-84. Retrieved on April 9, 2010 from http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/179/1/81 Watson, David, Clark, Lee Anna, Chmielewski, Michael. (2008). Structures of Personality and Their Relevance to Psychopathology: II. Further Articulation of a Comprehensive Unified Trait Structure. Journal of Personality, 76(6), 1545-1586. EBSCO Database: Academic Search Premier. Vernon, P. E. (1964). Personality assessment: A critical survey. London: Methuen. Wakefield, J. C. (1992). Disorder as harmful dysfunction: A conceptual critique of DSM-III-R’s definition of mental disorder. Psychological Review, 99, 232–247. Widiger, T. A., Sankis, L. M. (2000). Adult psychopathology: Issues and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 377–404. Widiger, T. A., Trull, T. J. (1991). Diagnosis and clinical assessment. Annual Review of Psychology, 42, 109–133. Research Papers on Traits of an Abnormal Personality DisorderThree Concepts of PsychodynamicResearch Process Part OneIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesGenetic EngineeringThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Creating of a Legally Binding Contract Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Creating of a Legally Binding Contract - Essay Example The formation of a legally binding contract requires an offer to be made properly which should be accepted properly. An offer once accepted becomes a promise and when it forms a consideration for the parties, it becomes an agreement. When the parties to an agreement have an intention to create legal relations, the agreement becomes a contract. A legally binding contract gives legal rights to a party to a contract in case of breach of a contract by the other party. Let us take a deeper look at the formation of a contract. The most important thing is the competence of the parties to enter into a contract. Every person is competent to contract unless he is a minor or of an unsound mind. A contract with a minor is not a valid contract. Also, it cannot be validated by ratification by a minor when he reaches the age of majority. Simon and Davina can be easily assumed to be of the ages of majority. A contract with a person of unsound mind is also not a valid contract. There are some people who are occasionally of sound mind and occasionally of an unsound mind. The contracts made with them at the time of their sanity are valid contracts. However, the burden of proof falls on the party which contracted with such a person that he was of a sound mind when he entered into the contract. The first ingredient of a legally binding contract is an offer. When a person signifies to another person, his intention to do something or refrain from doing something in return of a promise that the other person would do or refrain from doing something, the first person is said to have made an offer to the second person. The first person would be called an offeror or proposer and the second person would be called an offeree. An offer should be made properly. It should be communicated to the offeree. There should not be any ambiguity in the terms of the offer i.e. the terms should be definite, clear and easy to understand. In Guthing v Lynn [1831] 2 B & Ad 232, 9 LJOSKB 181, the buyer of a horse promised to pay extra  £5 â€Å"if the horse is lucky for me†. It was held that this promise was not enforceable as the statement was too vague to explain that in what way the horse was required to be lucky. An offer may be made generally to a variety of people or it may be made spe cifically to a particular person. It may contain a condition for acceptance which must be fulfilled for a valid acceptance. In this case, Simon is in the process of negotiation with Davina. It can be said that Simon’s offer to Davina is wide and open. He has made the offer of hiring Davina as a mentor to support the finalists of his TV program â€Å"Your Hired†. It is assumed here that Simon has offered Davina a definite sum of money for her services.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Ethical Standards for Behavior in International Negotiations Essay

Ethical Standards for Behavior in International Negotiations - Essay Example The country is adopting and improving its business environment for making its international negotiation process more efficient. The country has no quotas, foreign exchange controls and trade barriers regarding international negotiation. UAE conducts the business around the world. For this reason, the country follows the wide framework of foreign policies. UAE is very much concerned about its commitments. It is one of the important ethical principles of this country. The country tries to maintain peace and stability in its international negotiations (Hooper and Newlands, 2012). The country builds a good relationship with foreign companies and countries for establishing effective negotiation policies. UAE emphasizes on tolerance, modernization while doing international negotiation. The country respects people of different places and religions for developing good relations with other countries. The government of UAE tries to maintain the balance between international environment and com munity. Some government-affiliated bodies contribute a lot to developing a good international environment which will facilitate the negotiation process. The rules and regulations of UAE are developed in such a way which helps the people in becoming a good global citizen. In international negotiation, the people of UAE focus more on words. The country puts a huge effort into following the words said in the negotiation process (Soriano, 2014). The people of UAE directly discuss the topic on which they are holding the meeting of business negotiation. They make sure that some strong benefits are obtained by international negotiation. While negotiating with foreign companies and countries the people of UAE do not get distracted from the objectives of the negotiation. They maintain a specific standard for doing international negotiation. Trust and sincerity are considered as most important factors for doing international negotiation.

Monday, November 18, 2019

New York Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

New York - Essay Example st celebrations of various generations of a family and the photographs that have been used in it have been digitally modified to look like the subjects of this portrait are sorrowful. Most of Gaicolea’s work shows a great deal of ambition because he combines so many different elements, which make his work unique. They tend to end up looking both mournful and magical but this outcome is not usually guaranteed because there are some pieces of his work, which have not turned out so well. In fact, some combinations Gaicolea has made evoke the feeling that they have been forced together and that it would have been better if the elements had been used separately. Despite the fact that his paintwork is quite well done and can even be said to be accomplished, Gaicolea’s photography is not very impressive and most of his photographs seem to have an awkwardness and ill composure that could only have been brought about by an attempt to blend reality with the imagined

Friday, November 15, 2019

Steve Jobs: Leadership Style Theories

Steve Jobs: Leadership Style Theories Executive summary: A pioneer is a person who is perceived to lead an exertion, nobody can be a pioneer without devotees , administration can be plot by an energy of position that an individual holds in a gathering, with that power he or she gets an opportunity to exercise on affecting the individuals from gathering by controlling their endeavours for accomplishment of a specific objective. The pioneer is at the point of convergence of get-together vitality structure, keeps the assembling, inserts life into it, moves it towards its goals and keeps up its compel. Here, Discussing about administration style ,hypotheses , methodologies of Steve occupations who was (CEO and Co-originator ) of Macintosh Inc which was established by Steve employments ,Ronald wayne and Steve Wozniac in 1976. Wayne didnt remained with them for long and left Apple by deserting Steve occupations and Wozniak as its primary authors. To raise subsidizing for their wander Steve occupations sold his Volkswagen and Wozniac sold his logical number cruncher. On Apples first day of open exchanging its market esteem achieved 1.2 billion. Steve employments surrendered from Apple as CEO in 1985 to take after his very own advantages, then he began another equipment and programming organization named NEXT Inc. he additionally put resources into a movement organization Pixar Animation Studios. In 1997 Mac acquired occupations possessed organization NEXT and selected him again as CEO. Being a CEO in Apple and with his administration style, skills and application of his creative abilities to innovation and business he changed in individualized computing, music, phones, tablet figuring and retail location industry. His touchiness and restlessness were necessary piece of his perfection and devotion toward his employment. He was extremely engaged and put stock in straightforwardness, responsibility and advancement were among in his administration qualities, he never bargained with quality and never contemplated simply making benefits , he generally centred more around items rather then cost or benefits. He was harsh at individuals since he needed outcomes. With his leadership capacities he took Apples worth incentive to $10.2 billion at the season of his demise on oct. 5 2011. In this report initiative speculations are connected with Steve employments authority style in light of his administration challenges confronted there amid his residency as a CEO at Macintosh an d contemporary issues of authority and their pertinence with Steve occupations authority style Introduction: Leadership is an act and behaviour of an individual person who directs the activities of a group toward the attainment of a common or shared goal (Hemphill and coons, 1957) A leader is an individual who is recognised to lead an effort, no one can be a leader without followers , leadership can be outlined by a power of position that an individual holds in a group, with that power he or she gets an opputunity to workout on influencing the members of group by guiding their efforts for achievement of a certain goal. The pioneer is at the focal point of gathering energy structure, keeps the gathering together, implants life into it, moves it towards its objectives and keeps up its force. Here, Discussing about leadership style ,theories , approaches of Steve jobs who was (CEO and Co-founder ) of apple Inc which was founded by Steve jobs ,Ronald wayne and Steve Wozniac in 1976. Wayne didnt stayed with them for long and left Apple by leaving behind Steve jobs and Wozniac as its main founders. To raise funding for their venture Steve jobs sold his volkswagon and Wozniac sold his scientific calculator. On Apples first day of public trading its maket value reached 1.2 billion. Steve jobs resigned from Apple as CEO in 1985 to follow his own personal interests, then he started a new hardware and software company named NEXT Inc. he also invested in a animation company Pixar Animation Studios. In 1997 apple purchased jobs owned company NEXT and appointed him again as CEO and from that time he worked for Apple for a salary of $1 a year. Being a CEO in Apple and with his leadership style,skills and apllication of his imaginations to technology and business he revolutionised in personal computing, music, phones,tablet computing and retail store industry. His moodiness and impatience were integral part of his perftion and dedication toward his job. He was very focused and believed in simplicity, reasponsibility and innovation were among in his leadership qualities, he never compromised with quality and never thought about just making profits , he always focused more on products rather then cost or profits. He was rough at people because he wanted results. With his leadershio abilities he took Apples worth value to $10.2 billion at the time of his death on oct. 5 2011. In this report leadership theories are linked with steve jobs leadership style based on his leadership challenges faced there during his tenure as a CEO at apple and contemporary issues of leadership and their relevance with steve jobs leadership style . Trait theory: Attribute construct speculations focussed with respect to breaking down physical and identity normal for people keeping in mind the end goal to increase comprehension of the mix of characteristics that are basic among pioneers. Fundamentally pioneers were conceived and authority is craftsmanship. These hypotheses were impacted by Extraordinary Man Theory which contended that powerful authority is overwhelmed by individual identity qualities (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2010 , p.599). For instance, qualities, for example, knowledge, self-assurance, drive, awareness of others expectations, chance taking and different qualities makes an individual a decent pioneer. The fundamental speaciaslist of quality based hypotheses is that it overlooks the effect of the circumstance. The hypothesis it expect that there is an unequivocal arrangement of qualities that makes a pioneer powerful in all circumstances, i.e. , same arrangement of attributes would work in military setting and in addition in a production line setting. This prompted later research which stressed that compelling authority emerges from conduct and it includes cooperation with other individuals. The authority of Steve Jobs has a tendency to legitimize characteristic administration hypothesis. Quality hypothesis holds that pioneers close to home attributes are the way to achievement (Crawford, Brungardt and Maughan, 2009). Steve Jobs can be seen from his identity, social, physical or scholarly characteristics. Such qualities as Zaccaro, (2007) battles can without much of a stretch separate him from other non-pioneers. Steve Jobs had a considerable measure of aspiration and vitality. Growing up, Steve Jobs gained from his dad who acquainted him with gadgets at a youthful age. At the point when Apple 1 PC was uncovered in 1976, he rapidly sold his Volkswagen to raise reserves for the organization. He additionally offered his carport to be utilized as the organization premises. This Per Northouse (2013), indicate s out desire and vitality. Steve Job emerges as a man who is extremely smart. He concentrated the market and rapidly conveyed join Scully on board to help him in running the organization. Around then, John Scully supported in changing the organizations technique to make feasible for the organization to rival IBM and another PCs. Steve Jobs likewise emerges as a pioneer who was extremely definitive as Fleenor, (2006) depicts. When he moves back to Apple in 1997 in the wake of being terminated in 1995, he rolled out brisk improvements that made the organization the market pioneer. Steve Jobs likewise had the administration attributes of vision and foreknowledge. At the point when the organization began in 1976, he predicted better execution and rushed to raise assets to guarantee that the organization moved into the correct training. Behavioural theory: Contrasted with Trait hypothesis, Behavioral hypothesis takes a gander at initiative from the point of view of a pioneers conduct instead of choosing pioneers in light of their identity qualities. This hypothesis recommended that authority can be learnt and everybody is fit for turning into a pioneer. Distinctive examples of initiative conduct or styles were distinguished. In any case, they all can be extensively gathered under the two initiative styles: Legitimate Style; In this style, pioneers force choice and propel supporters by prizes or danger. They dont totally trust adherents and concentrate is on tight control of errand finishing. Participative Style; In this style, pioneers impart basic leadership to others. Concentrate is on assignment and pioneers have finish trust and trust in the devotees for getting the errand finished. The primary faultfinder of behavioural hypothesis is that it overlooks the setting in which these diverse authority style are utilized. The styles that pioneers embrace can be influenced by the earth they are working inside, and those they are working with. Be that as it may, notwithstanding this confinement, behavioural hypothesis can at present give helpful knowledge on how we comprehend authority. Behavioral speculations have a tendency to separate practices that disengage impact pioneers from non-successful pioneers. The hypothesis holds that authority is appeared by a mans demonstration and not his characteristics (Crawford, Brungardt and Maughan, 2009). As Amanchukwu et al. (2017) battle, Steve Jobs administration style can likewise fit exceptionally well into behavioral hypothesis. As far as this Steve Jobs turned out as a pioneer who confided in other individuals and had respect for their inclination. For example, he brought John Scully into the organization and permitted him to roll out improvements that saw the past higher valuing by Steve Jobs changed to low evaluating system which was intended to build request and rival different players in the business. Notwithstanding, regardless of the way that the quantity of representatives is recorded to have developed to 4000 amid his time, Steve Jobs emerges as a pioneer who was more item situated as Dugan, (2016) keeps up. Hi s conduct was more worried with seeing Apple develop as a brand and when gotten some information about his proudest achievement, he generally alluded to the arrangement of the Apple Company. Steve Jobs was more worried about the item and championed for IPO that saw the organization open up to the world to expand stores for the organization. Upon his arrival to the organization, he made a pile of measures that were more focused on Apple as an item and not the workers. He suspended certain items, made the working framework open source, and built up a site to support guide exchanging and even outsourced assembling to Taiwan. Every one of the progressions were item situated in light of non-having the general population. Truth be told, outsourcing assembling to Taiwan had the unsafe impact of pushing certain representatives out of the employment showcase. Steve Jobs as a Transformational Leader : Transformational pioneers are charming, vision situated, empowering scholarly advancement of their supporters, moving and spurring to more elevated amounts of adequacy. The perspectives that firmly guarantee that Steve Jobs initiative hints at transformational administration is his charming identity. As indicated by Rakesh Khurana (2002) Steve Jobs, the New Age wunderkind of Apple adored for his achievement in acquainting individuals with the PC that could ensure our opportunity (Khurana, 2002). As Steve Wozniak, the prime supporter with Jobs of the Apple, shortly noted he can simply love seat things in the correct words . Steve Job is depicted as absolute entirety of Apple. (Patterson, 1985) What was visionary about Jobs approach where he most likely included esteem was his zealous enthusiasm to show individuals the future capability of the item. With this vision as prescience has made Jobs be named the extremely valuable proselytizer. (Uttal, 1985) Cocks (1983) contends that Apples fellow benefactor, Steve Wozniak, intensely expressed that Jobs did not comprehend PCs, and the real outline of the machine has been broadly credited to Wozniak. In any case, as Wozniak likewise stated, it never entered my thoughts to offer PCs. It was Steve who said Lets hold them undetermined and offer a couple. It was Jobs who demanded that the PC be light and trim, all around planned in quieted colou Occupations in like manner pushed his specialists to make machines that wont panic away a touchy customer base. (Cocks, 1983) Butcher (1988) contends that Jobs a fussbudget, and as the association, numerous in Apple encountered this as narrow mindedness and self-ingestion. Steve Hawkins a representative said Employments such a stickler, to the point that individuals can never satisfy him, his extremely eager, practically to the point of autocracy.(Butcher, 1988) Transformational authority is about empowering development, realizing an adjustment in the reasoning of its adherents and being visionary in executing change in the association execution. Steve Jobs as a transformational pioneer is found in his endeavours to convey imaginative computerized innovation to mass purchaser so they can open their wallet ( Deutschman, 2001). Confirmation of Steve Jobs vision in making advancement open was Mac is focused on conveying the best individualized computing knowledge to understudies, instructors, inventive experts and customers around the globe through its creative equipment, programming and Internet offerings (Young, 2005) Regarding inspiration and motivating representatives to give their best of execution is a normal for transformational initiative. Proof of Steve Jobs spurring and motivating his representatives is when Job when first discussed any new thought to his representatives not everybody thought it to be an effective item likewise now and again the workers were not enthused about taking a shot at such new thoughts. Be that as it may Occupations alongside his workers could change over the imaginative thoughts into an innovation which changed the way advanced innovation is utilized today. Regardless of whether it is the Macintosh PC or the recently propelled iPad or iPhone. It was Jobs initiative which roused and motivated and Apple made the frameworks and structures that could change over information into a significant item. Work challenge connects with his representatives to achieve almost outlandish goals (Bryant, 2003) (MCB UP Ltd, 2002). Work utilized moving addresses to keep his representatives propelled and pass on his creative thoughts to them (Harvey, 2001) Butcher (1989) argues with a proof by Steve Hawkins, worker of Apple puts it that the vast majority of the general population werent sufficient for him and would truly be in a condition of stun after experiences with Steve. Additionally, Steve was exceptionally goal-oriented alongside fussbudget and that brought about a great deal of issue with good. Youthful (2005) includes that Macintosh workers were pushed to the best of their ability and execution and associations with Steve were the ones which the vast majority of the representatives dreaded. As per Peter Elkind (2008) Steve work has clashing practices and he frequently had his subordinates to tears and in his irate temper he terminates the representatives. But then the top administration has worked with him for quite a long time and they give credit Jobs for the best employment they at any point did was just with him. (Elkind, 2008) Steve Job in a meeting expressed that he has truly able individuals and his occupation is to make the entire of his official group sufficient to be successors, so that is what hes attempting to do, to push them he has forceful dreams (Morris, 2008). As an Evidence the exchange of Steve employment with Morris (2008) reveals insight to the feedback made by specialists Steidlmeier (1999); Yukl (1999) about the transformational authority style in the writing audit and Steves transformational administration style demonstrates the exploitative or unmoral measurements of transformational initiative style. Likewise, Steve occupations communications are restricted to the top administration and he expresses that his employment is to work with kind of the main 100 individuals, among the 20000 individuals at Apple. This demonstrates his connections are not firmly related with the dominant part of his workers. (Morris, 2008) Steve Jobs as a Transactional Leader : Notwithstanding the above contentions about the authority style of Steve Job. Bryant (2003) is of view that Job showed a mix of transformational and value-based initiative style and this helped him achievement in Apple. As indicated by Bryant (2003) Job when gone to the Xerox Parc and he took a dream of how future PCs ought to work. Whats more, he made his representatives make the frameworks and structures in his organization Apple where information was changed over into profitable items e.g. the Macintosh PC. The transformational administration style was utilized as a part of his vision to change the way PC will be worked in future and value-based initiative style was utilized when he fused his vision into reality by making the items with the assistance of his representatives. In a meeting with Morris (2008) Steve discusses his part in the organization is to enrol in the meantime concentrate on its technique and deal with the entire business from various offices and individuals of the organization and this is a qualities of a value-based initiative style. Hersey Blanchard situational hypothesis connected to Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs administration style is more dependent on his adherents abilities and capacities. The Hersey Blanchard situational hypothesis demonstrate accentuation on coordinating a style of initiative to the development of subordinates this relationship demonstrates the assurance of administration viability as specified in the writing survey. The way work leads and his style identifies with this hypothesis. The appointing style D4-S4 is obvious from Steve meet with Morris (2008) where he says that on the off chance that he has enlisted great individuals and they have potential he would give them a business and left them keep running all alone and when a smart thought comes, an aspect of my responsibilities is to move it around, simply observe what diverse individuals think, get individuals discussing it, get thoughts moving among that gathering of 100 individuals, get distinctive individuals together to investigate distinctive parts of it . The partaking style D3-S3 of Hersey Blanchard situational hypothesis is the place Jobs discusses the way he takes another thought to his workers is the earth of brilliance and how his employees are self-roused, he coaches them at first and moves them and after that the representatives astonish him over and over with the best of their execution (Gendron, 1989) Contemporary Leadership Issues of Global Leadership and Leadership Change : Control of the big and little: Contemporary leadership focus on each aspect whether its small or big as Steve jobs was conscious about every detail when he was at apple. he was very clear with the goals and made them true as he turned his imagination into reality. he always concentrated every small aspect of the apple devices even the boards as well which are visible but he wanted them simple. Products before profit: As modern leadership is more quality focused rather than cost, Steve jobs always wanted to make the product insanely great without worrying about the cost. He just wanted to make innovative products he motivated the employees of company to work great products without caring about profit and cost because everything was secondary for him, similar to jobs leadership style contemporary leadership is more focused about its products. Concentrating on what is critical: Pioneers should guarantee that an association does not dismiss its principle objective. Steve Jobs exhibited this with a pile of measures that were intended to guarantee that Apple developed to more prominent statures. His primary point was effectiveness and cost investment funds to expand piece of the overall industry and net revenues. This saw him outsource assembling to Taiwan and expelled littler providers in the chain. He additionally ceased certain items which maybe were not adding key favourable position to Apple. Recommendations: Simplify Employments goals for Zen straightforwardness radiated through when he wiped out the on/off catch on the iPod. The music player bit by bit shut down and killed, and afterward it flashed on again with only a swipe. Occupations needed to compose complex programming and push the cut off points of preparing energy to deal with every one of the directions that made the UI appear to be basic. Employments exceeded expectations at outlining moderate gadgets that softened obstructions up PC speeds. His frameworks could remain solitary or cooperate in an interconnected environment-like an iPod associated with a Mac associated with an iTunes store. Apple could oversee unfathomable measures of data through division of work among the frameworks. For instance, the Mac controlled framework organization while iTunes brought content from distributed storage, liberating the gadget to focus on playing the music. Afterward, Jobs set his sights on overhauling the cell phone. He would get a contenders telephone and rage the capacities were inconceivable and the address book was incomprehensible. His iPhone set another standard for cell phones, making them into scaled down PCs. The iPhones little touch screen was the experiment for the iPad, Apples tablet PC, and demonstrated there was a major market for minuscule portable PCs. Toward the finish of his vocation, Jobs reconsidered TVs with another route framework to get to any video content on the web. He cooked up approaches to make TV more individual. 2. Control the Experience Apple assumed full liability for the item from end-to-end. Each part of the equipment was examined precisely, from every segment to the general look. In like manner, he considered the client involvement in each line of code and every sales representative in the Apple stores. Employments fixation on the entire gadget mirrored his energy for flawlessness. He utilized his intense attractive identity to rouse thousands. Apples model of a shut and restrictive framework was steady with his controlling identity and set Apple apart from open-source contenders. 3. Advance Trailblazers change the diversion standards to rehash ventures. Employments saw individuals were copying CDs on their PCs from substance on-line. The Mac could oversee recordings and photographs however it couldnt record CDs. Occupations thought he had missed an open door in on-line amusement. However, he re-examined the idea and built up a biological community that changed media outlets with iTunes programming and the iTunes Store. He made it easy to purchase and oversee music from one site and store it on an iPod or PC. After the accomplishment of the iPod, Jobs made more leaps forward in working frameworks, handling and memory and after that made sense of how to add remote voice to make the iPhone. 4. Disregard Reality Employments capacity to push the inconceivable was called his Reality Distortion Field, after a scene of Star Trek in which outsiders make an option reality through sheer will. An early illustration was when Jobs was on the night move at Atari and pushed Steve Wozniak to make an amusement called Breakout. Woz said it would take months, however Jobs gazed at him and demanded he could do it in four days. Woz wound up doing it. Conclusion Steve Jobs was a decent business visionary with a ton of vision and aspiration. He could without much of a stretch fit into the qualities of best business people which portrays as the capacity to go out on a limb, tirelessness, prejudice for uncertainty et cetera. In any case, the focal topic that stems from his authority style is that he was more errand arranged. He had an enthusiasm for Apple, and every one of his systems were focused towards guaranteeing that it developed to more prominent statures. From the contextual investigations, its implied that pioneers who need to copy Steve Jobs must be prepared to apply distinctive authority styles. They should be creative to guarantee that they create winning items in the market to beat contenders. They additionally should be participative pioneers and get completely included in the exercises of the association. Such pioneers must be prepared to be transformational pioneers an aptitude that might be required in turning an ass ociation round to enhance execution. Without some of those qualities it is hard to pick up the trust of workers and guarantee that they guide the association towards the correct course. References   Ã‚   (2013, 4 19). what makes a good leader. coons, h. a. (1957). isaacson, w. (2012). the real leadership lessons of steve jobs. 94-102. kalla, s. (2012, 04 02). Retrieved from forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/susankalla/2012/04/02/10-leadership-tips-from-steve-jobs/#64a3545f667 Lussier, R. N., Achua, C. F. (2015). Leadership. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. 2012, 04 06). leadership of steve jobs. (v. v. suvarna, Interviewer) macInerney, s. (2011, 107). Retrieved from http://www.executivestyle.com.au/steve-jobs-an-unconventional-leader-1lcmo. Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles [u.a.: SAGE. wolinski, s. (2010, 04 21). Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan | Analysis The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan | Analysis The characters in Joy Luck Club differ from â€Å"Chan is missing† characters by, the first by having gender differences, second (C.I.M) characters arent trying to form mother/daughter bonds and third a major culture clash or conflict of cultural backgrounds happens in Joy Luck Club; therefore, The novelist and director both focus on the same issues and problems that Asian Americans face, being the topic of Behavioral assimilation/acculturation and structural or socioeconomic assimilation but go about separate routes on about discussing the issues and problems. The first major difference between the characters of the Joy Luck Club and â€Å"Chan is missing† is the gender differences. The Joy Luck Club characters are all females and â€Å"Chan is missing characters are all males. The gender differences between the two is the (C.I.M) movie was a masculine Asian perspective of Asian American culture rather than the Joy Luck Clubs feminine perspective of Asian American culture which was through a womans eyes. In â€Å"Chan is missing† the story and setting was more nit and gritty had a cast of predominately males which I stated before. Who cussed, drank beer and did just macho things. The Joy Luck Club story and settings focus on women empowerment, forming bond and inter personal relationships which is all women stuff and which is feminist based. The movie â€Å"Chan is missing† was more concerned with male qualities of pride, honor and a typical male move of acting without thinking. The incident when they gave the money t o Chan without even knowing who he really was therefore was the bullheaded move which every male makes at one point in his life. Then the characters pride and honor got in the way which made them track Chans whereabouts, honor and pride which is as important to males but rather less as important to women. Another difference between Chan is missing and the Joy Luck Club is the Joy Luck Club had a lot of lifetime drama, daughters hating mothers and mother hating daughters a story concerned with peoples feelings. The Amy tan book dealt with a lot of family issues and interpersonal problems that the main characters suffered from which made their relationships with one another difficult. The plot of the book revolved around how the characters could improved their bonds and better understand one another. In â€Å"Chan is Missing† such things were irrelevant the two main characters were family but seem to have a friendship bond, there were no personal family issues or problems that plagued the two except for the fact they lost 4000 dollars. Jo and Steve pretty much understood each other pretty well as for the characters from Joy Luck Club who all didnt truly understand or know each other. The last but major difference between the two was the culture clash or conflict of cultural backgrounds which happened in Joy Luck Club. There were instances of a cultural clash or conflict of cultural backgrounds mentioned in â€Å"Chan is missing† but was explained more vividly in Joy Luck Club. The Joy Luck Club showed or told of how Asian American can be very family oriented and how Family is very important within the Asian American community. In Chan is missing the director did not discuss the aspects of how family oriented Asians are in the movie or how important it is like the Joy Luck Club did which was the whole theme of the story. The Joy Luck Club explained of why Asian parents tend to be very strict with their children, because most mainland Asian parents come from strict and traditional cultures. It is only the way they were taught in their culture and its used as the main upbringing of their Asian children. Asian American also prides themselves on respect and bei ng successful. They hold their respect very high with in the Asian American communities and it is a very important part of their culture. All these issues were the cause of the strife within the Joy Luck Club; the parents were very traditional sticking to the roots of their culture following every custom to the T. The Chan is missing movie did mention the issue of how most Asian immigrants refuse to assimilate and still continue to retain a Chinese mentality but the Joy club gave a greater example by describing the mothers actions and dialogue. The mothers of Joy Luck Club wanted their daughters to be Chinese and American But they worried that their daughters were rejecting their ambitions for them, not caring about Chinese traditions and hating their strange customs. This was truly causing a culture clash or conflict of cultural backgrounds between modernized new generations of Joy Luck Club against the traditional characters. In â€Å"Chan is missing† there was more of a fo cus of how important it is for Asian Americans to strive to be successful in America. It went in more detail then the Joy Luck Club which only gave examples through the Waverley character. In certain events throughout the movie a few characters in (C.I.M) stated or assumed that Chan ran away because he was ashamed of how much a failure he was having had come to the U.S and obtained very little. They made it seem in the movie that it is an obligation for Asian Americans to be successful in life or they would bring dishonor to themselves and their families. By watching certain scenes in (C.I.M) emphasized how important it is for Asian Americans to be successful at whatever they do and failure is considered a taboo in Asian culture. These subjects are what set (C.I.M) and The Joy Luck Club apart from each other both discussed the same issues within Asian American culture but one or the other went in more detail about the subjects which caused major differences. Amy Tan and Wayne Wang both focused on the same issue and problem within Asian Americans culture which is the problem of assimilation and its different variations, being Behavioral assimilation, structural assimilation, socioeconomic assimilation and also the problems created behind assimilation. Behavioral assimilation occurs when a newcomer absorbs the cultural norms, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of the host society. This may also involve learning English and/or becoming an American citizen examples were shown throughout the film (C.I.M) when then Jo sat down and talked to the English language teacher. Within this process, Asian Americans may choose to retain much of their traditional Asian culture, norms, and behaviors while still acquiring those of mainstream American society â€Å"still thinking Chinese† term used in (C.I.M), or to discard his/her traditional forms of Asian culture entirely in favor of complete immersion and identification within American societ y. The second and third type of assimilation is structural and socioeconomic assimilation, referring to when Asian Americans enter and become integrated into the economic, social, political and cultural institutions of the American society i.e., using the members of Joy Luck Club who had a lawyer, a writer and looking at other Asian who obtain well to do jobs becoming full members of American society. Simply referring to when they attain socioeconomic status usually in the form of high incomes, great occupations, suburban residency, paying taxes and so on causing them to be equal to other members of mainstream American society. All Asian American at some point come to The U.S to socioeconomically assimilate for themselves or their children with the goal of attain a great future, to do that they will have to adapt by assimilating to the culture in which they or their family have migrated to. Some assimilate very quickly while others assimilate very slowly sometimes following a less prosperous path and assimilating into the underclass or working really hard towards being in the upper-class. While other choosing not at all to assimilate becoming members within tight-knit immigrant communities. These different kinds of assimilators are what sometimes lead to cultural clashes and problems within Asian communities. The main problems is of immigrant Asians or Asian Americans â€Å"finding their identities† and the misunderstanding of traditional Asian and (A.B) American born Asian. I forgot to mention The process of undergoing either behavioral, structural, socioeconomic assimilation can occur over time and over the succession of generations leading to increasing economic, cultural, political, and residential integration into American society which happened to the younger members of Joy Luck Club. Or it can happen in a non-linear, circular, or bumpy manner in which Asian Americans revive or retain old cultural traditions, norms, and behaviors and choose to re main somewhat isolated from mainstream American society (older members of Joy Luck Club) or alternatively, to combine elements of both traditional Asian although they may modify old traditions and values to fit their contemporary circumstances and mainstream American culture seen throughout â€Å"Chan is missing†. In the Joy Luck Club and Chan is missing Movie â€Å"finding their identities† and the misunderstanding of traditional Asian and (A.B) American born Asian was all from the problems of assimilation. The behavioral assimilation case throughout the Joy Luck Club was of the mothers who didnt assimilate retaining old cultural traditions and being strict towards their daughters; therefore the daughters who did assimilate and were very Americanized causing a major culture conflict. The socioeconomic and structural assimilation accrued when the mother pushed their daughters to be what their culture expected of them to be which was successful be it being a piano playe rs, doctor, or lawyer. This caused a lot of misunderstanding between the two groups causing each other to doubt and to truly look into understanding each other and themselves â€Å"finding their identities†. In Chan is missing they gave the assumptions that Chan fled because he could not or did not do well enough to socioeconomically assimilate and to behavioral assimilate in American society. He failed to socioeconomically assimilate because he was unable to obtain the wealth he thought he would achieve in America that he had back home, his wife considered him a failure and several characters concurred with that fact. The behavioral assimilation was the most talked about topic, the phrase â€Å"thinking Chinese† came up several times which made me recall several incidents that related to behavioral assimilations. The scene when Jo and Steve were in the cafà © talking to the lady about Chans accident and how it was a lack of communication made references of how it was a cultural difference. The language teacher and the insurance agent that sponsored Chan made reference of how some Chinese still held on to their mainland beliefs which got in the way of them assimilating and becoming successful, that they were â€Å"Thinking Chinese†. The political feud between the PCR and Taiwan nationalist paraders is an example of how some Asians still held on to their cultural political traditions rather than embrace their new American ones which caused a lot of problems in the Asian community. Those incidents were all example of Chan not really being able to behavioral assimilate, causing Chan to probably search within himself and â€Å"find his identity† stated by Jo in the movie. There were also dialogues of the younger character Steve having misunderstandings between Chan which were caused by culture differences having different sets of humor because they came from different cultural backgrounds. The Behavioral assimilation, structural assimi lation, and socioeconomic assimilation between Asian American society and culture were the main focus within the movie and story; they were linked together through the issues of the sometimes misunderstanding of peoples who take different approach towards assimilating and the problems which causes a person to rethink their cultural identities. Standard Model of Cosmology: Overview and Analysis Standard Model of Cosmology: Overview and Analysis SYNOPSIS Since Hubble discovered the Universe expansion, cosmologists had been expecting the expansion would slow down due to the attractive force of gravity. However, in 1998, two independent teams of scientists studied the distant Type I supernovae (SNe) and soon realised that SNe were moving away from us more quickly than was originally thought. This revealed that the expansion of our universe is indeed accelerating. What could be the underlying cause of this accelerated expansion? Cosmologists provoked the term ‘dark energy’ to describe this phenomenon. In order to understand what dark energy is, different approaches are being undertaken in an attempt to explain this strange phenomenon: some cosmologists predicted that there must be some kind of ‘antigravity’ effect which we haven’t yet understood; some stated our understanding of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity could be wrong and a more complete theory of gravity should be implied. In this review paper, we start by having an overview of standard model of cosmology since it attempted to explain the current status of the universe and its evolution over time. This leads us to review of the simplest approach in dark energy—cosmological constant followed by a number of theoretical models that give different ideas towards understanding the nature of dark energy. In particular, we introduce the idea of vacuum energy and summarise Quintessence model as one of the modified gravity approach and f(R) gravity model as one of the unmodified gravity approach and their merits. Furthermore, we look at observational evidences for accelerated expansion and what they have revealed about dark energy. These include distant Type Ia supernovae, the measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). We then describe in details of the key observational probes of dark energy such as weak gravitational lensing in addition to SNe and B AO. In the conclusion part, we address the future of dark energy by summarising couples of major projects that will be used to probe the history of the universe’s expansion, these includes Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Euclid Satellite. Finally, we come to an open discussion to remark the progress of dark energy would potentially made in the future by considering the two fundamental questions of accelerated expansion: does theory of General Relativity remain on the cosmological scale? And, is dark energy something else or none other than what we think it is? Overall, our goal for this review is to give a broader picture on the universe’s accelerated expansion and trying to understand the mystery of dark energy from varying observational techniques. Chapter 1: Brief review of Cosmology Before getting to understand the nature of dark energy, we first start from basic cosmology. In this chapter, we focus on the expansion history of the universe by referring to the standard model of cosmology and the future of the universe. At the end, we relate Einstein’s ‘biggest blunder’ to accelerated expansion hence bring out the first candidate of dark energy. 1.1 Standard Model of Cosmology Dark energy has been one of the biggest mysteries of the universe over ten years long and surprisingly, it counts for ~68% of the universe’s composition where ~27% belongs to a ‘missing mass’ that so-called dark matter which currently believed to be composed of completely new elementary particle. The rest 5% is something we know so far—Baryons matter, that is the ordinary matter that composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. These are all predicted within the framework of Standard model of Cosmology, also known as the Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmological model (ΛCDM). Cosmologists have not yet come up an agreement on what the standard cosmological model is, but they have successfully used the observational pillars to propose the hypothesis of Hot Big Bang. Some key ones include: Universe’s expansion; Big Bang Nucleosynthesis; the detection of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the formation of large-scale structure. Universe’s expansion Recall the Doppler Effect which describes redshift z as: (1.1) where a is the scale factor whose present value is 1. The equation tell us that if light/sound receding from us, the wavelength would stretch out and being observed with larger wavelength than the emitted one. Apply this to the distant galaxies, if the universe is expanding implying the galaxies should be moving away from us, hence we would observe the light from the galaxies become reddening. Back in 1920s, Hubble studied the distant galaxies and found that they are receding from us. Remarkably, Hubble provided the first evidence of universe’s expansion. As Hubble Law describes: the distance between galaxies is d = ax where x is the fixed commoving distance. If there is no any commoving motion (i.e. ) and the relative velocity v is therefore given as where is called the Hubble constant. Thus, the relation suggests that velocity should increase linearly with distance. Figure 1.11 is the original Hubble Diagram that indicating this relationship. Figure 1.11 Hubble’s original diagram (1929). He plotted velocities of distant galaxies against distance and used the solid line as the best fit to the point which had been corrected for the Sun’s position. Nowadays, we can be running reverse of this expansion and trace the history of the universe back to nearly 14 billion years ago when everything squeezed together into an extremely hot and dense state. This is where the universe began as a violent explosion and ever since then, our universe keeps cooling and expanding in a very long process. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis When the universe was still very hot and dense, high energy photons would destroy any atom or nucleus leading no neutral atoms or bound nuclei exist. The production of Dark Matter is believed to occur around the time. As the universe expanded, universe’s temperature gradually decreased allowing Big Bang Nucleosynthesis take place. Light element such as helium and deuterium (a heavy isotope of hydrogen) started forming and our universe was thought to be radiation dominated at that stage. Cosmic Microwave Background When there was further drop down of temperature, electrons and protons are available to combine to form hydrogen atom. Since the energy density of relativistic particle decreases quickly it was overtook by that of the non-relativistic matter i.e. baryons and dark matter, the universe was entered a matter-dominated epoch. From then, the universe became transparent and radiation travelled freely in the universe and eventually reached us after over ten billion years. This is what we called the cosmic background radiation. They are believed to be the oldest light in the universe and bring us back to a very early stage of the universe. As well as being a strong evidence of Big Bang model, CMB also plays an important role for probing the dark energy. We will spend reasonable amount of time in this review discuss more details on how CMB point to the existence of dark energy and different missions that launched to map CMB in greater details. Formation of Large-Scale Structure Several hundred million years after Big Bang, the temperature of the universe had fallen down to some extent, dust gas started collapsing under gravitational attraction, galaxies and clusters were finally formed in the matter-dominated epoch. After all, it seems that the Hot Big Bang model has been well developed as a scientifically testable theory and the observational datasets gave us considerable confidence to see it as the most potential model to predict the history of our universe. However, there are still some difficulties with this standard cosmological model. For example, the horizon problem the flatness problem and the famous antimatter problem. In modern cosmology, both of the horizon problem and isotropy problem are explained by era of inflation which is introduced into the timeline prior to the radiation-dominated epoch of the universe. The idea of inflation was within a second right after the explosion, the universe underwent a very rapid inflation. As a result, the universe increased its size by a super huge factor and completely smoothed out, left it with our current status—homogeneity and isotropy. This is exactly what The Cosmological Principle state: the universe on large scales is homogeneous and isotropic. To summarise the main consequences of the Big Bang model, Figure 1.12 present the overview of the history of the universe and how the dominant component of the universe change over time. Figure 1.12 the evolution of the universe and any epoch associated with time and density. (Pearson Education 2011) From Figure 1.12, we notice that at the earliest stage in the universe, radiation dominated, as the universe expanded and temperature dropped down, matter overtook radiation, universe was then matter dominated. At relatively recent times, radiation density and matter density have decrease so much, dark energy whole density remain relatively constant with time took over and dominated the universe. Our current era is believed to be dark energy dominated. 1.2 The Fate of the Universe We know from the last section that the universe most probably started by Big Bang and it keep expanding ever since then. Our next question is straightforward: What will the universe end up with? This is determined by the interplay of the gravitational attraction of mass in the universe and the repulsive effect of dark energy. Consider the universe is expanding causing the galaxies to move further away from each other. However, gravitational attraction between these galaxies works against the expansion to slow it down. Whether gravity or expansion to take over would depend on the density of the universe. Here the critical density is defined as (2) The density parameter à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¦ is therefore expressed as (3) where The fraction of the matter energy density in terms of critical density is: (4) Similarly, the fraction of the dark energy density in the critical density is: (5) Note that both of the present-day density and critical density would change with time, thus their values at the present time are used in this definition. If , (curvature term k = 0), this is a special intermediate case where the universe is thought to be flat and it will continue to expand in a slow rate under gravity, but it will never turn around; if , (curvature term k = +1), the universe will expand to its maximum size and collapse in a ‘Big Crunch’ leading to a closed universe since the gravitational gravity is stronger than weak expansion; and if , (curvature term k = -1), ) this corresponds to an open universe where the universe will expand forever because the expansion is powerful enough that gravitational attraction will never pull them together again. Figure 1.21 summarise these three possibilities of the end of our universe. Figure 1.21 three possibilities of the fate of universe: open, close and flat universe. The line responsible for the accelerating universe will be discuss later.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Work and Life: Servant and Master :: Courage Relationships Papers

Work and Life: Servant and Master Waiting for a friend on the Upper East Side on an unusually fair day, an endearing sight caught my eye. Two adults were carrying a baby in a stroller up the steps of the Met. Besides the parents, there were other adults in the group accompanying the infant like bodyguards to a celebrity. I marveled at this entourage of relative giants huddled around this tiny being, servants lifting the sedan of a little emperor off to view the fruits of his court painters. Without his parents’ care, this frail and helpless creature would essentially perish as fast as he would fall if they suddenly decided to drop his stroller, yet he also had so much power over their lives—power derived not from coercion or election but simply from being born. And even though he was small and weak, they gave their services unconditionally. Growing up in a power-driven individualistic country such as America, it intrigues me how in many ways, we can never escape being servants in our lives even though we think we live in a culture focused on individual freedom and the power of one. It is amazing that we serve bosses who pay us and also serve small children who offer no material reward. The parents managed to balance that stroller so easily between the two of them, never letting it tilt, their little sovereign always in constant peaceful motion, but I wondered if it was just as easy for them to balance their services to home and work. I soon realized that this sun-drenched day was only one out of seven. At some point later in the week, his Little Majesty would be handed over to a nanny or daycare center. His parents would then rush off to office buildings many times as spacious as the world’s biggest nursery, and they would answer to supervisors whose one look of disapproval could cause more damage than a whole night of the little boy’s wailing and whining. Someday, I thought, I would probably have both bosses too, for whom, in different ways, I would work and serve. In order to provide for my family and children, I would have to appease bosses and clients. On a day-to-day basis, it would seem that I was perpetually going from service to service. That made me wonder whether I really have choice and power over my own life, or whether I will merely be a

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Zoe’s Tale PART I Chapter Four

Let me tell you about that jade elephant. My mother's name – my biological mother's name – was Cheryl Boutin. She died when I was five; she was hiking with a friend and she fell. My memories of her are what you'd expect them to be: hazy fragments from a five-year-old mind, supported by a precious few pictures and videos. They weren't that much better when I was younger. Five is a bad age to lose a mother, and to hope to remember her for who she was. One thing I had from her was a stuffed version of Babar the elephant that my mother gave to me on my fourth birthday. I was sick that day, and had to stay in bed all day long. This did not make me happy, and I let everyone know it, because that was the kind of four-year-old I was. My mother surprised me with the Babar doll, and then we cuddled up together and she read Babar's stories to me until I fell asleep, lying across her. It's my strongest memory of her, even now; not so much how she looked, but the low and warm sound of her voice, and the softness of her belly as I lay against her and drifted off, her stroking my head. The sensation of my mother, and the feeling of love and comfort from her. I miss her. Still do. Even now. Even right now. After my mother died I couldn't go anywhere without Babar. He was my connection to her, my connection to that love and comfort I didn't have anymore. Being away from Babar meant being away from what I had left of her. I was five years old. This was my way of handling my loss. It kept me from falling into myself, I think. Five is a bad age to lose your mother, like I said; I think it could be a good age to lose yourself, if you're not careful. Shortly after my mother's funeral, my father and I left Phoenix, where I was born, and moved to Covell, a space station orbiting above a planet called Omagh, where he did research. Occasionally his job had him leave Covell on business trips. When that happened I stayed with my friend Kay Greene and her parents. One time my father was leaving on a trip; he was running late and forgot to pack Babar for me. When I figured this out (it didn't take long), I started to cry and panic. To placate me, and because he did love me, you know, he promised to bring me a Celeste doll when he returned from his trip. He asked me to be brave until then. I said I would, and he kissed me and told me to go play with Kay. I did. While he was away, we were attacked. It would be a very long time before I would see my father again. He remembered his promise, and brought me a Celeste. It was the first thing he did when I saw him. I still have her. But I don't have Babar. In time, I became an orphan. I was adopted by John and Jane, who I call â€Å"Dad† and â€Å"Mom,† but not â€Å"Father† and â€Å"Mother,† because those I keep for Charles and Cheryl Boutin, my first parents. John and Jane understand this well enough. They don't mind that I make the distinction. Before we moved to Huckleberry – just before – Jane and I went to a mall in Phoenix City, the capital city of Phoenix. We were on our way to get ice cream; when we passed a toy store I ran in to play hide-and-seek with Jane. This went smashingly until I went down an aisle with stuffed animals in it, and came face-to-face with Babar. Not my Babar, of course. But one close enough to him that all I could do was stop and stare. Jane came up behind me, which meant she couldn't see my face. â€Å"Look,† she said. â€Å"It's Babar. Would you like one to go with your Celeste doll?† She reached over and picked one out of the bin. I screamed and slapped it out of her hand and ran out of the toy store. Jane caught up with me and held me while I sobbed, cradling me against her shoulder, stroking my head like my mother did when she read the Babar stories to me on my birthday. I cried myself out and then when I was done, I told her about the Babar my mother had given me. Jane understood why I didn't want another Babar. It wasn't right to have a new one. It wouldn't be right to put something on top of those memories of her. To pretend that another Babar could replace the one she gave me. It wasn't the toy. It was everything about the toy. I asked Jane not to tell John about Babar or what had just happened. I was feeling out of sorts enough having just gone to pieces in front of my new mom. I didn't want to drag my new dad into it too. She promised. And then she gave me a hug and we went to get ice cream, and I just about made myself throw up eating an entire banana split. Which to my eight-year-old mind was a good thing. Truly, an eventful day all around. A week later Jane and I were standing on the observation deck of the CDFS Amerigo Vespucci, staring down at the blue and green world named Huckleberry, where we would live the rest of our lives, or so we thought. John had just left us, to take care of some last-minute business before we took our shuttle trip down to Missouri City, from where we would go to New Goa, our new home. Jane and I were holding hands and pointing out surface features to each other, trying to see if we could see Missouri City from geostationary orbit. We couldn't. But we made good guesses. â€Å"I have something for you,† Jane said to me, after we decided where Missouri City would be, or ought to be, anyway. â€Å"Something I wanted to give you before we landed on Huckleberry.† â€Å"I hope it's a puppy,† I said. I'd been hinting in that direction for a couple of weeks. Jane laughed. â€Å"No puppies!† she said. â€Å"At least not until we're actually settled in. Okay?† â€Å"Oh, all right,† I said, disappointed. â€Å"No, it's this,† Jane said. She reached into her pocket to pull out a silver chain with something that was a pale green at the end. I took the chain and looked at the pendant. â€Å"It's an elephant,† I said. â€Å"It is,† Jane said. She knelt down so that she and I were face-to-face. â€Å"I bought it on Phoenix just before we left. I saw it in a shop and it made me think of you.† â€Å"Because of Babar,† I said. â€Å"Yes,† Jane said. â€Å"But for other reasons, too. Most of the people who live on Huckleberry are from a country on Earth called India, and many of them are Hindu, which is a religion. They have a god called Ganesh, who has the head of an elephant. Ganesh is their god of intelligence, and I think you're pretty smart. He's also the god of beginnings, which makes sense, too.† â€Å"Because we're starting our lives here,† I said. â€Å"Right,† Jane said. She took the pendant and necklace from me and put the silver chain around my neck, fastening it in the back. â€Å"There's also the saying that ‘an elephant never forgets.' Have you heard it?† I nodded. â€Å"John and I are proud to be your parents, Zoe. We're happy you're part of our life now, and will help us make our life to come. But I know neither of us would want you ever to forget your mother and father.† She drew back and then touched the pendant, gently. â€Å"This is to remind you how much we love you,† Jane said. â€Å"But I hope it will also remind you how much your mother and father loved you, too. You're loved by two sets of parents, Zoe. Don't forget about the first because you're with us now.† â€Å"I won't,† I said. â€Å"I promise.† â€Å"The last reason I wanted to give you this was to continue the tradition,† Jane said. â€Å"Your mother and your father each gave you an elephant. I wanted to give you one, too. I hope you like it.† â€Å"I love it,† I said, and then launched myself into Jane. She caught me and hugged me. We hugged for a while, and I cried a little bit too. Because I was eight years old, and I could do that. I eventually unhugged myself from Jane and looked at the pendant again. â€Å"What is this made of?† I asked. â€Å"It's jade,† Jane said. â€Å"Does it mean anything?† I asked. â€Å"Well,† Jane said, â€Å"I suppose it means I think jade is pretty.† â€Å"Did Dad get me an elephant, too?† I asked. Eight-year-olds can switch into acquisition mode pretty quickly. â€Å"I don't know,† Jane said. â€Å"I haven't talked to him about it, because you asked me not to. I don't think he knows about the elephants.† â€Å"Maybe he'll figure it out,† I said. â€Å"Maybe he will,† Jane said. She stood and took my hand again, and we looked out at Huckleberry once more. About a week and a half later, after we were all moved in to Huckleberry, Dad came through the door with something small and squirmy in his hands. No, it wasn't an elephant. Use your heads, people. It was a puppy. I squealed with glee – which I was allowed to do, eight at the time, remember – and John handed the puppy to me. It immediately tried to lick my face off. â€Å"Aftab Chengelpet just weaned a litter from their mother, so I thought we might give one of the puppies a home,† Dad said. â€Å"You know, if you want. Although I don't recall you having any enthusiasm for such a creature. We could always give it back.† â€Å"Don't you dare,† I said, between puppy licks. â€Å"All right,† Dad said. â€Å"Just remember he's your responsibility. You'll have to feed him and exercise him and take care of him.† â€Å"I will,† I said. â€Å"And neuter him and pay for his college,† Dad said. â€Å"What?† I said. â€Å"John,† Mom said, from her chair, where she had been reading. â€Å"Never mind those last two,† Dad said. â€Å"But you will have to give him a name.† I held the puppy at arm's length to get a good look at him; he continued to try to lick my face from a distance and wobbled in my grip as his tail's momentum moved him around. â€Å"What are some good dog names?† I asked. â€Å"Spot. Rex. Fido. Champ,† Dad said. â€Å"Those are the cliche names, anyway. Usually people try to go for something more memorable. When I was a kid I had a dog my dad called Shiva, Destroyer of Shoes. But I don't think that would be appropriate in a community of former Indians. Maybe something else.† He pointed to my elephant pendant. â€Å"I notice you seem to be into elephants these days. You have a Celeste. Why not call him Babar?† From behind Dad I could see Jane look up from her reading to look at me, remembering what happened at the toy store, waiting to see how I would react. I burst out laughing. â€Å"So that's a yes,† Dad said, after a minute. â€Å"I like it,† I said. I hugged my new puppy, and then held him out again. â€Å"Hello, Babar,† I said. Babar gave a happy little bark and then peed all over my shirt. And that's the story of the jade elephant.