Speach Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Speach - Term Paper Example "Empathy is the key" (Howland, 2007). Please do not put value judgments on your differences and that your diversity is what makes each of you special and unique (Howland, 2007). As close as we may believe we are, in an effort to communicate, you will find at times, barriers that will affect the ability to communicate with one another. I sincerely believe that each of you deeply respects each other and because of that, I will offer the following advice. John and Jane, barriers we find in everyday things that we do. Communications of any kind come from the simplest of things for example what we feel, smell, see, taste, and touch. This interpersonal communication course taught me that people continue to study this. Maslow developed a model of needs in 1968. Maslow said that interactions with others help to satisfy personal needs (Maslow, 1968). Through these needs, we learn to communicate with each other. Continued respect for each other will help each of you determine when the barriers are semantic, emotional, or psychological. Semantic barriers often include symbols that may have different meanings. Because both of you come from different cultures symbols that each of you use frequently may mean different things. Semantic barriers are avoidable. Symbols differences are a fact because of the cultural diversity you share. Discuss these symbolic differences with each other during the process of your engagement to avoid misunderstandings. Semantics errors lead to poor expression of the actual message you wish to share with each other. Semantic errors also lead to faulty and unnecessary translations. Semantic errors will deliver un-clarified assumptions that lead to uncomfortable situations. Emotional and psychological barriers in the process of communication may lead to both of you feeling hurt, acting inattentive or loss of the actual translation (Janasz, 2002). This communication process is a shared equal process. Each of you must always remember that communicatio n is the process of sending and receiving of messages that comes from two very individual people. That each of you continue to recognize that each of you comes from different cultures, backgrounds, education, interests, experiences, attitudes, and that John and Jane each of you need to be cognizant that when you send and receive information from each other do not let barriers interfere with the message. Noise and other distractions are everywhere. If the subject is one that can lead to a barrier, take the time to listen to one another (Janasz, 2002). John and Jane, at times it is a matter of assessing ones personal communications. Conversations with others help us to assess our own personal communication style. Through these conversations with one another is a way to connect with each other and help build on this relationship. In an ability to improve your communication competencies, I offer the following advice. Interpersonal communication is a way to satisfy the social and esteem needs you may each require. It is also a way to give and obtain affection. We all have communication habits. These habits help us to connect and interact with others (Sole, 2011). However, those same habits can be a negative to the relationship. I learned in my intercommunication class that we have four key concepts that it is important to be cognizant of throughout your enjoyed relationship. It is important to recognize and incorporate the qualities that each of you possesses through your confidence,

Chikungunya in French Guiana (South America) Research Proposal

Chikungunya in French Guiana (South America) - Research Proposal Example Being formed by people with different origins, there has been tension between its inhabitants especially ethnically based violence, a factor that has since fuelled political instability in the country. Notably, until 1990s, the country had more than its 80% industries owned by the state and due to their mismanagement, they experienced falling commodity prices coupled with high fuel costs. These factors led the country into serious economic problems. According to the world population prospects of 2010, French Guiana’s population as per the same year was at 754,000 (Frank, 2013). This figure shows that the population increased from the 1950’s census when it was at 407,000. In the 2010 population statistics, person under the age of 15 were 33.6%, persons between 15 and 65 year of age were at 62.1%, while persons of the age of 65 and older were at 4.3% (Frank, 2013). Therefore, since there is no current census than the 2010, it is apparent that there are very few older person in French Guiana compared to other ages (Frank, 2013). This fact may be attributed to vulnerability of alder people to diseases. Therefore, the main aim of this essay is to examine the effects of Chikungunya among elderly persons in French Guiana.   Factually, the Chikungunya affects everyone but adults are highly vulnerable; therefore, the essay sort to determine if it could contribute the low percentage of elderly person above the age of 65 y ears in French Guiana and if by what percentage has it contributed to this low percentage of 4.3%. The statistics that will help in this study will be retrieved from government and non-governmental health records. Virus transmitted through mosquitoes infected by Aedesaegypti causes Chikungunya. Chikungunya was first detected in 1952 in Tanzania from which it spread in other countries in Africa and Asia with current detections in Europe. Chikungunya has currently affected millions of

Sugar in the 19th Hundreds, Problems Essay Example for Free

Sugar in the 19th Hundreds, Problems Essay What is the reason for the abandonment of sugar plantations in the British West Indies in the 19th century? I am going to analyze and asses the reasons why sugar plantations were being abandoned by plantation owners in the 19th century? The main causes and the main effects. The abandonment of the Sugar plantations in the Caribbean leads to major changes and had a great effect on West Indian countries. So what caused sugar, a once thriving industry, to be abandoned? And what was the impact it had? ata collected will assessed and analyzed to understand these effects, the causes and how they pertain to life in this century. Chapter 1 Introduction. Sugar cane was the main cash crop grown on numerous British, French and Spanish owned islands. Sugar was in high demand and was very profitable. But this industry needed labor and lots of it thus slavery was the cheapest and best source of labor they had. Plantation owners would buy slaves brought from Africa to work on their plantations. Plantation life in the 19th century was very hard, grueling labor, severe punishment and extensive exhaustion. Slaves worked for long periods of time in fields harvesting sugar, in factories producing sugar and the main house as workers (maids, butlers, and cooks ). The abandonment of sugar production was imminent to failure because of the ill treatment and over working. The United States was also a major factor in sugar abandonment, along with the feuded between British and the Spanish which lead to more problems. In my S. B. A I will asses these problems and the effects they had on both the economy and on the society. Chapter 2 Reasons for abandonment The abandonment of sugar plantations in the 19th century was caused by not only one factor but, it was caused by a collection of factors or a chain of events happening one after the other. Reasons for the abandoning of the sugar plantations started with the Emancipation of slaves, then from that event, multiple amounts of other events caused the sugar estates to close. Emancipation was the greatest cause of Sugar estates being abandoned. The Emancipation Act was passed in 1830 in May and an ex and it stated that â€Å"All men were equal and slavery was to be abolished. This in turn means that former slaves were free. These free† men now had rights. So plantation owner had to pay slaves, this was a great change from the former system they had. Work time for slaves had to be cut; there were no long excessive amount of work hours, now it had to be a limited amount of time. Slaves could not be abused anymore and they could have refused to do the work. These factors caused a great stress on the plantation owners. They were losing more of their profit to pay wages, less hours of work were being done, and less sugar was being produced, in turn less profit. After Emancipation plantation owners taught that sugar production would have decreased, it did, for some countries. Smaller Islands production went up such as Barbados and Puerto Rico. These places, relatively all the land was used for estate purposes, so freed slaves had no other choice but to go back and work on the plantations. But in larger countries such as Jamaica where slaves hated plantation life and there was land untainted by settlement sugar production took a massive lost in profit. Everything changed by the end of the 19th Century. Slavery had been abolished, and Europes beet sugar had preempted Caribbean cane. Depressed market prices could not offset the production and transportation costs for an island crop, and sugar plantations soon were abandoned. Abolition of slavery was difficult for the colonies, which had to adjust to having a majority of new citizens who could not be denied the civil rights already grudgingly extended to the few. Extending those civil rights, then as now, was neither easily nor gracefully achieved because the political systems had existed for centuries as the narrow instruments of the small, white, landed elite, largely absentee, whose members were threatened by the removal of their special trade preferences. Above all, there were economic difficulties. Sugar prices were falling, and West Indian producers were facing severe competition not only from other producers in the British Empiresuch as India, South Africa, and Australiaand non-imperial cane sugar producerssuch as Cuba and Brazilbut also from beet sugar producers in Europe and the United States. Falling prices coincided with rising labor costs, complicated by the urgent need to regard the ex-slaves as wage laborers able and willing to bargain for their pay. Acts passed by the government. Acts passed by the Government in the 19th century contributed to the abandoning of plantations greatly. They were one of the most influential factors. If it was not for these Acts, in my option the sugar industry would have survived. Such as The Sugar Equalization Act,1846 this law was passed because persons wanted cheap raw materials but the price of these items was very high. Politicians of the Manchester school convinced the British that duties were keeping the price at a high rate. Thus duties were removed from corn and sugar. Some farmer’sprophesied this was the end for sugar and along with â€Å"The Encumbered Estates Act, 1854 the sugar industry looked grim. The Encumbered Estates Act stated that the government could seize plantations that were abandoned and could be sold with their debt and the new owner had to pay off this debt. The act was very short sighted and gave away to long term effects that prove to be disastrous Labor problems. To mitigate labor difficulties, the local assemblies were encouraged to import nominally free laborers from India, China, and Africa under contracts of indenture. Apart from the condition that they had a legally defined term of service and were guaranteed a set wage, these Asian indentured laborers were treated like the African slaves they partially replaced in the fields and factories. Between 1838 and 1917, nearly half a million East Indians (from British India) came to work on the British West Indian sugar plantations, the majority going to the new sugar producers with fertile lands. Trinidad imported 145,000; Jamaica, 21,500; Grenada, 2,570; St. Vincent, 1,820; and St.  Lucia, 1,550. Between 1853 and 1879, British Guiana imported more than 14,000 Chinese workers, with a few going to some of the other colonies. Between 1841 and 1867, about 32,000 indentured Africans arrived in the British West Indies, with the greater number going to Jamaica and British Guiana. With important British politicians such as Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) owning sugar estates in British Guiana, that colony, directly administered by the crown, assumed great importance in the Caribbean. Chapter 3 Effects of Sugar abandonment in the Caribbean. Indentured labor did not resolve the problems of the plantations and the local governments in the Caribbean during the nineteenth century, but it enabled the sugar plantations to weather the difficulties of the transition from slave labor. The new immigrants further pluralized the culture, the economy, and the societies. The East Indians introduced rice and boosted the local production of cacao (the bean from which cocoa is derived) and ground provisions (tubers, fruits, and vegetables). Although some East Indians eventually converted to Christianity and intermarried with other ethnic groups, the majority remained faithful to their original Hindu and Muslim beliefs, adding temples and mosques to the religious architecture of the territories. The Chinese moved into local commerce, and, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the corner Chinese grocery store and the Chinese restaurant had become commonplace in all the colonies. Emancipation of the slaves provided the catalyst for the rise of an energetic, dynamic peasantry throughout the Caribbean. A large proportion of the ex-slaves settled in free villages, often forming cooperatives to buy bankrupt or abandoned sugar estates. Where they lacked the capital, they simply squatted on vacant lands and continued the cultivation of many of the food crops that the planters and the colonial government had exported during the days of slavery. The villages, although largely independent, provided a potential labor pool that could be attracted to the plantations. The growth of these free villages immediately after the emancipation of the slaves was astonishing. In Jamaica, black freeholders increased from 2,014 in 1838 to more than 7,800 in 1840 and more than 50,000 in 1859. In Barbados, where land was scarcer and prices higher, freeholders of less than 2 hectares each increased from 1,110 in 1844 to 3,537 in 1859. In St.  Vincent, about 8,209 persons built their own homes and bought and brought under cultivation over 5,000 hectares between 1838 and 1857. In Antigua, 67 free villages with 5,187 houses and 15,644 inhabitants were established between 1833 and 1858. The free villages produced new crops such as coconuts, rice, bananas, arrowroot, honey, and beeswax, as well as the familiar plantation crops of sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, cacao, citrus limes, and ground provisions. Which lead to the integration of a wide variety of agricultural products?

Life In A Medieval Castle

Life In A Medieval Castle Life during the middle ages began at sunrise, when one of the guards sounded the days start. Servants had already begun to make sure that the fires were lit in the kitchen and great hall. Breakfast was not served until mid day. During this time the servants got time to complete their chores while the soups were cooking in the kitchen. All floors had to be cleaned and wash buckets, which were called basins, had to be washed out. Once the lord and the lady of the house woke up, the maids entered into their quarters, and they cleaned and emptied chamber pots, washed the basins, and the laundry woman also began to do the days laundry. The lord and the lady got well dressed before leaving their quarters to go to mass. They always wore elegant clothing which showed their status but also kept them very warm. After a small breakfast was eaten and the lord and his family went to mass. Once the morning service was complete, the lord dealt with the days business. At mid-morning, dinner was serv ed. Dinner was the main meal of the day. During dinner there was usually entertainment and much food. When dinner was finished, the lord may take his knights or special guests hunting while the lady may do embroidering. Usually the lady did not because she oversaw the castle and did not have time. Supper which was different from dinner, was usually eaten right before bedtime. It marked the end of the day for everyone in the castle. After supper the lord and the lady would go to their quarters and the servants would retire to their quarters. This was the almost daily routine of life in a castle. However, life in a castle was not all work. Hunting and hawking were greatly enjoyed by everyone in the castle and when the lord hunted, delicious and sometimes rare animals were brought to the table as food. Some of the past times were quite dangerous. These involved tournaments and rough ball, which was similar to football. Adults and children alike, enjoyed games such as the blind mans blu ff. This game involved tying a players head with a blind fold, and he would chase the other players. To pass time indoors, people played board games and listened to musicians or storytellers. Storytellers would narrate the stories of heroes such as Arthur and his knights. Though life in the middle ages involved a lot of work, the people in the castle enjoyed great entertainment. In a castle, almost everyone had a specific responsibility. The lord was the head of the castle. The lady spent much of her time supervising their work, as well as overseeing the cooking of meals in the kitchen. One of her responsibilities was running the household, managing production, and maintaining adequate supplies. She had to know which rents and fees were owed to the household. The lady also supervised the embroiderers who had the responsibility of making the clothes for the people in the castle and keeping the lady company. In addition, the ladies were responsible for overseeing the education of the young pages. The parents of the children usually devoted little time to them and those children were quickly thrust in to the adult world. Children usually became part adults at age 12 and were allowed to bear arms. Aristocratic children usually had very little contact with their parents. They were usually raised by nurses. The boys had to perform various services for the lord of the castle such as protect the arms and care for his horses. When the boy reached majority, which was usually at age 15, the fathers rule over him came to an end and the boy was considered an adult with full rights. At that point, the boy was a free, responsible individual who set up their own household. Girls were responsible to learn how to run a household and to raise children when they were old enough. These kinds of responsibilities allowed a castle life to run more smoothly. Castles in the medieval times were very uncomfortable and hardships were plenty. A castle had no central heating. The main fireplace heat was saved for the lord and the lady. They were fortunate to have heavy blankets, mattresses made of feathers, fur covers, while the workers had to sleep in the towers which got unbearably cold and damp, especially at night time. The attendants were sometimes lucky to stay with their master or mistress. They slept on the floor but they were able to get some of the heat coming out of the fireplace. When it was summer, everyone enjoyed the warm weather outside because the castle was still cold inside. Workers wrapped themselves in covers which helped them stay warm during cold times. The castle was also a very busy place. Ship and pigs would roam freely around the castle. With the loud noise of all the people in the castle, it caused a busy atmosphere with a loud noise. Hygiene was normal for the people in the middle ages. They took bathes, washed the ir hands, and brushed their teeth. However, disposal of human waste was not as good. Most castles did not have any plumbing which meant that the waste would remain in one place until it was cleaned by the chamber maids. These conditions may seem bad but they were better than the conditions of a lower class citizen. The code of chivalry and courtly love had a significant influence on the life of nobles. The code of chivalry affected knights in particular. The code of Chivalry came to mean an idealization of the life and manners of a knight at home in his castle and with his court. Courtly love also had strict rules. It was practiced all over Europe. The rules of courtly love allowed nobles to show how they really felt for each other. This kind of event was common between nobles and ladies. The harshness of the castles made them less than desirable to live in but for the lord and lady it was better than the common peoples homes. The life of individuals involved hard work life for the average person during the Middle Ages was very routine but they enjoyed entertainment as well. Everyone in the castle had a specific responsibility which made life run more efficiently even though a castle was busy and very loud. The code of chivalry and courtly love also were a great part of life. They dictated how a noble should lead their lives and how to hold themselves when with others. This was life in the middle ages. Books Blackwood, Gary L. Life in a Medieval Castle. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2000. Print. Bouchard, Constance Brittain. Strong of Body, Brave and Noble: Chivalry and Society in Medieval France. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998. Print. Brochard, Philippe, and Patrice Pellerin. Castles of the Middle Ages. Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett, 1980. Print.. Gravett, Christopher. Castle. New York: Knopf, 1994. Print. Hinds, Kathryn. Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Benchmark, 2001. Print. Jordan, William C. Family. The Middle Ages. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1996. 79-81. Print. White, T. H. The Once and Future King. New York: Ace, 1987. Print. Encyclopedias Castle The New Encyclopedia Britannica Macropedia. ed. 2005. Print. Jordan, William C. Family. The Middle Ages. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1996. 79-81. Print.

Technology The End Of Mankind :: essays research papers

Technology: The End of Mankind TECHNOLOGY The human race is slowly, but surely, contributing to its own demise. This sub-conscious suicide is being carried out in more than one way, but the most apparent one is technology. Technology is advancing at a pace so rapid that it will eventually lead to the self-extinction of the human race.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most current and pressing issue that falls into this category is the infamous Y2K bug. This is the virus that is going to cause every computer in operation to go haywire when the year 2000 comes around. Some of the things will be effected by this are personal computers, ATM’s, air traffic control and street and traffic lights. Even if none of these theories pan out, the hype alone that is being created by the media is predicted to cause enough chaos and pandemonium by itself. In a recent survey, it was proven that over 50% of the American people are afraid of the bug and what it will do. If this matter is not addressed soon it will be responsible for many casualties.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another branch of technology that has caused casualties in the past and is bound to cause many more in the future is weapons. The weapon that has had the most impact is the gun. It has killed millions, not only in wars, but in everyday life as well. In addition, there is the atomic bomb that killed thousands at Hiroshima. More recently there is the nuclear missile that is capable of wiping out an entire major city. Moreover, there are many inventions that have been built with the intent to improve life only to repeatedly take it away from people. Some such inventions are cars, planes and nuclear power plants. Something must be done to hinder the advancement of technology in these areas before we are all dead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lastly, technology is the biggest source of pollution. This pollution poses the largest threat of all to the world. Not only will it eventually lead to a genocide of the entire human race, but it is destroying everything else on the planet. The increase in the population has compounded this effect leading to more cars on the road and more waste, hence, more pollution. If pollution keeps up at this rate something bad is going to happen. Everyone will die of either cancer, due to holes in the ozone, starvation, because all of the animals were wiped out by pollution, or some other illness obtained from contaminated food and water. Technology The End Of Mankind :: essays research papers Technology: The End of Mankind TECHNOLOGY The human race is slowly, but surely, contributing to its own demise. This sub-conscious suicide is being carried out in more than one way, but the most apparent one is technology. Technology is advancing at a pace so rapid that it will eventually lead to the self-extinction of the human race.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most current and pressing issue that falls into this category is the infamous Y2K bug. This is the virus that is going to cause every computer in operation to go haywire when the year 2000 comes around. Some of the things will be effected by this are personal computers, ATM’s, air traffic control and street and traffic lights. Even if none of these theories pan out, the hype alone that is being created by the media is predicted to cause enough chaos and pandemonium by itself. In a recent survey, it was proven that over 50% of the American people are afraid of the bug and what it will do. If this matter is not addressed soon it will be responsible for many casualties.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another branch of technology that has caused casualties in the past and is bound to cause many more in the future is weapons. The weapon that has had the most impact is the gun. It has killed millions, not only in wars, but in everyday life as well. In addition, there is the atomic bomb that killed thousands at Hiroshima. More recently there is the nuclear missile that is capable of wiping out an entire major city. Moreover, there are many inventions that have been built with the intent to improve life only to repeatedly take it away from people. Some such inventions are cars, planes and nuclear power plants. Something must be done to hinder the advancement of technology in these areas before we are all dead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lastly, technology is the biggest source of pollution. This pollution poses the largest threat of all to the world. Not only will it eventually lead to a genocide of the entire human race, but it is destroying everything else on the planet. The increase in the population has compounded this effect leading to more cars on the road and more waste, hence, more pollution. If pollution keeps up at this rate something bad is going to happen. Everyone will die of either cancer, due to holes in the ozone, starvation, because all of the animals were wiped out by pollution, or some other illness obtained from contaminated food and water.

Free Essays - Understanding The Things They Carried :: Things They Carried Essays

The Things They Carried – An Analysis  Ã‚      The Vietnam War was the most technologically advanced war of its time. The combat was more horrific and terrifying in the Vietnam War. There was no front line and no clear way of identifying the enemy because civilians would attack the soldiers as well as the North Vietnamese army. It was an every-man-for-himself, guerrilla war. Because of advances in medicine, more soldiers were able to recover from wounds caused by shrapnel grenades, land mines, concussion grenades, and other weapons. A person could step on a mine and suffer only an amputation of a limb instead of dying. Tim O'Brien survives two gunshot wounds and an infection, which was almost gangrene. In wars past, if gunshot wounds did not kill a person, the infection almost certainly would. The soldiers in The Things They Carried had the task of fighting two Vietnam wars, an internal war and an external war. Externally, the men were fighting the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Internally, the men were fighting maturity and adulthood. They were desperately trying to remain young through a war that forced them to grow up. Each soldier carried various "weapons" with which to fight the wars. For example, Dave Jensen carried a rabbit's foot, while Jimmy Cross carried a pebble from Martha found "where things came together but also separated." (O'Brien, 9). Lee Strunk carried a slingshot. Henry Dobbins, however, carried two weapons in addition to the regulation army weapons. He carried the nursery rhyme, "A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket, I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it†¦" which he would sing while sewing stripes on his uniform. He also carried a pair of his girlfriends' pantyhose, which he would wrap around his neck for protection . "He liked putting his nose into the nylon and breathing in the scent of his girlfriend's body; he liked the memories this inspired; he sometimes slept with the stockings up against his face, the way an infant sleeps with a flannel blanket, secure and peaceful." (O'Brien, 129). These weapons allowed these men to dodge Bouncing Betties and gunfire, while enabling them to crawl through dark tunnels and watch friends die everyday. They were able to combat the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, leeches, mosquitoes, ringworm, dysentery, gangrene, and wounds from land mines and guns only to wake up the next morning and fight the same enemies day after day. Free Essays - Understanding The Things They Carried :: Things They Carried Essays The Things They Carried – An Analysis  Ã‚      The Vietnam War was the most technologically advanced war of its time. The combat was more horrific and terrifying in the Vietnam War. There was no front line and no clear way of identifying the enemy because civilians would attack the soldiers as well as the North Vietnamese army. It was an every-man-for-himself, guerrilla war. Because of advances in medicine, more soldiers were able to recover from wounds caused by shrapnel grenades, land mines, concussion grenades, and other weapons. A person could step on a mine and suffer only an amputation of a limb instead of dying. Tim O'Brien survives two gunshot wounds and an infection, which was almost gangrene. In wars past, if gunshot wounds did not kill a person, the infection almost certainly would. The soldiers in The Things They Carried had the task of fighting two Vietnam wars, an internal war and an external war. Externally, the men were fighting the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Internally, the men were fighting maturity and adulthood. They were desperately trying to remain young through a war that forced them to grow up. Each soldier carried various "weapons" with which to fight the wars. For example, Dave Jensen carried a rabbit's foot, while Jimmy Cross carried a pebble from Martha found "where things came together but also separated." (O'Brien, 9). Lee Strunk carried a slingshot. Henry Dobbins, however, carried two weapons in addition to the regulation army weapons. He carried the nursery rhyme, "A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket, I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it†¦" which he would sing while sewing stripes on his uniform. He also carried a pair of his girlfriends' pantyhose, which he would wrap around his neck for protection . "He liked putting his nose into the nylon and breathing in the scent of his girlfriend's body; he liked the memories this inspired; he sometimes slept with the stockings up against his face, the way an infant sleeps with a flannel blanket, secure and peaceful." (O'Brien, 129). These weapons allowed these men to dodge Bouncing Betties and gunfire, while enabling them to crawl through dark tunnels and watch friends die everyday. They were able to combat the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, leeches, mosquitoes, ringworm, dysentery, gangrene, and wounds from land mines and guns only to wake up the next morning and fight the same enemies day after day.

Neuromarketing: A Brave New World of Consumerism

Introduction t this point in our social history we are experiencing trends in marketing and consumerism that no cultural phenomena in antiquity has prepared us for. Each day between the hours of waking and sleeping we are exposed to 3000 – 5000 marketing messages across every shape and flavor of media mankind has been able to devise In good conscience (Story 2007). Every niche, of every segment, of every market, for every product, has a multitude of competitors vying for space of mind, seeking to differentiate, remind, inform, or persuade themselves into our lives and shopping trellises (Copley 2004).This clutter, consternation, and competition has taken the humble consumer transaction to be something more akin to game theory, and contemporary marketing strategy has become a battle of minds and wills (Lee, Frederick, and Chamberlain 2007). Each new generation of consumer finds themselves delivered deeper Into an environment of Increasing media and message saturation.But, with every generational cycle a further sophistication In the adaptive discretionary filtering system is created in order for these individuals to preserve some degree of highly guarded ‘psychic space', and as such ‘marketing professionals re keenly aware of the obstacles posed by both information-processing limitations and viewer opposition' (Rumba 2002). ‘The multiplicity of advertising messages to which each consumer is exposed dictates that advertisers place a lofty premium on the much-coveted psychic space of their Intended message recipients.Moreover, marketers Increasingly find themselves trying to reach target audiences who have an arsenal of cognitive, behavioral, and mechanical strategies for ad avoidance at their disposal' (Speck and Elliott 1997). Further adding to this already encumbered media/ immunization sphere is also the weight and complexity of the postmodern condition in which Goldman (1992) speaks of ‘relentless scrambling of signified and sig nifier, mixing and matching meanings' and Brown (1995) goes on to highlight ‘practices such as fragmentation, De-deliberation, hypnotherapy, chronology, pastiche, pluralism and anta-functionalism'.This escalating complexity of exchange devised for increasingly more sophisticated and media salt-Ð’Â »,' consumers attempts to side-step any ‘predictability of antiquated advertising conventions that could no longer pass through the filters of seasoned postmodern nonusers' (Goldman and Passion 1994).What remains is the perfect storm of social complexity, ever-changing message filtering, and big-business ‘sign wars' which has left some marketers believing that turning to the dark arts Is the only way to get ahead in marketing communications, with notably one energy drink brand literally and comically commissioning a Haitian priestess to channel a foul-mouthed voodoo deem-god to help design their advertising campaign (Panamas 2010). Enter stage left – marketing' s. Thin such a relatively young field of inquiry the precise definition of marketing's s still finding its footing with conflicting definitions still being proposed and utilized by divergent agents within the realm (Fisher 2010). Perpetuating this conflict is the notion that academia and industry share limited cohesion in exploring this field, that private enterprises do not tend to publish findings or share proprietary information, and that more has been published about marketing's across the popular media, relative to the traditional tome of recognized peer-reviewed publications (Fisher 2010).In spite of this, Lee (2007) proposes that ‘marketing's as a field of study an simply be defined as the application of neuroscience methods to analyses and understand human behavior in relation to markets and marketing exchanges' and Fisher (2010) notes that marketing's ‘can be tentatively defined as marketing designed on the basis of neuroscience research'. These proposed definit ions avoid the subjective bias embraced by some proponents and detractors and are a suitable explanation of the topic for the purposes of this discussion.As brain sciences increasingly inform our daily lives, social practices, and intellectual discourses, ornamenting has become one of a collection of developing fields to gain the ‘neuron' prefix along with neuroscience, neurasthenics, neuropathology, and neurotically – these fields now collectively earning the moniker ‘neuromuscular', ‘and the brain-based explanations arising from it are progressively influencing public notions of personal identity, responsibility, and causation' (Fisher 2010).Why Marketing's? He most acute advantage thought to stem from the utilization of neuroscience in examining an individual's response to market based inquiries is its unfiltered objectivity and unbiased honesty. Typically the self-assessment measures commonly used in marketing research rely totally on the ability and wil lingness of the respondent to accurately report their attitudes and/or prior behaviors' (Petty and Caption 1983).However, it is believed that the brain approximately expends only 2 percent of its energy on conscious activity with the remaining majority devoted to unconscious thought and processes, thus, neurotransmitters believe, traditional market research methods ? like consumer surveys and focus groups ? are inherently inaccurate because the participants can never articulate the unconscious impressions that whet their appetites for certain products' (Singer 2010).In addition to this intrinsic inability for an individual to access all relevant perceptual data, this error factor cumulatively adds to any conscious or even unrecognized desire the respondent may have to please or deceive the information gathering unit, even further exaggerating the potential for inaccurate measurements. In contrast, physiological responses can be collected when respondents are actively partaking in re search activities and are difficult for subjects to control, although not difficult to affect (Petty and Caption 1983).In many ways marketing's is the lie detector of the marketing industry, but the potential application is much greater than simply extracting truthful responses, it may prove instrumental in uncovering the processes and transparent way than marketers have previously had access to. The benefits of marketing's are obvious when framed in the above context. This field creates the possibility for marketers to understand consumers to an extent that a myriad of techniques over many decades of investigation have only ever been able to scratch at the door of.Felt (2007) believes that, assuming the science can be translated into meaningful technology the power and the precision of the retrieved data as a management tool could prove sublime, it would finally enable marketers to reach out and pinprick consumers without using broad strokes'. â€Å"In fact, exploring exactly what elements of an advertisement are critical to awareness, attitudes and evaluations of products, and whether these differ for different groups, should reduce firms' reliance on the ‘blunt instruments' of blanket coverage, shock tactics, or sexual imagery' (Lee 2007).The Marketing's Mix he research generated by any given marketing's firm is of course a product article and as such marketing mix considerations are a requirement of presenting to the market, however, the more significant discussion is the current and conceivable application of this technology to play a major role in guiding and optimizing each of the up's of the marketing mix for utilities. Them Noble, Managing Director of ‘Neurotics' a major player in the burgeoning marketing's industry, has stated that ‘all the biggest brands are using it†¦ But most of them are keeping it to themselves†¦ Even so, marketing's has become a key part of today's marketing ix' (Fagan 2011). The technology is believ ed to be equally applicable to each of the seven aspects of the mix provided a suitable interpretation model is utilized to rationalist the raw data. The up's the literature most commonly discourses are reviewed below. Product Typically product designers refer to consciously generated studies of consumer preferences to inform the process, in such inquiries subjects are likely to be influenced by ‘normative expectations and social influences' (Figurate 2007).For example, survey research typically reports that women find wrestler-turned-action ere ‘The Rock unattractive ‘but their brain activity says otherwise: areas associated with attractiveness light up when women watch him on screen' (Singer, 2004). Bruit (2004) mentions that some tests conducted for Demolisher's showed that certain products can activate the self-reward centre of the brain which is the same region that natural stimulants such as sex, chocolate, and cocaine trigger, this action is aroused by the r elease of the molecule dopamine and releases endogenous opiates – substances linked to lust and pleasure'.Whilst this trigger is not a guarantee of arches, all other things being equal – designs that create pleasure are far more likely to be purchased than those that do not (Figurate 2007). Price Lee (2007) states that ‘pricing seems to lend itself almost perfectly to normalizing research' and believes that age old questions like why â€Å"prices such as ‘$4. 99' are perceived as significantly cheaper than those such as ‘$5. 00† could be answered by simultaneously exploring the temporal and spatial nature of brain activity.Through utilizing this technology marketers can not only underpin optimal pricing strategies but also understand how and why pricing perceptions are formed. Place customers to seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, tasting, and smelling stimuli, stores may be able to customize environments to enhance the consumer experience, or weight the chances of a sale. ‘For example, if normalizing data suggest a positive response to the touching of Jewelry, the consumer may experience a personalized discount prominently displayed in their sightline in order to provide encouragement for purchase' (Wilson 2008).Promotion Measurement of advertising messages and their success in provoking emotional responses can be gauged, and assumptions can be made about the subject's unconscious thought patterns depending on which areas of the brain ‘light' up (Figurate 2007). The reaction an agency wishes to evoke with a given advertisement e. G. Excitement, passion, hostility, humor, attention, etc. ; can be transposed to the brain map where these concepts are processed. If that brain area is unaffected after exposure to the advertising stimulus, it is obvious that the advertisement has failed this crucial test' (Figurate 2007) Schafer (2005) also states that ‘neural scanning might be able to predict the strength of advertising recall for specific advertisements'. The History he earliest reported use of the term marketing's first appeared in a press release in July 2002 by Atlanta based advertising agency ‘Birthrights' announcing the creation of a new business division which utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fem.) for purposes of marketing research (Wilson 2008; Fisher 2010).However, the Economist (Inside the Mind of the Consumer 2004) duly notes that Harvard Professor-Emeritus Gerald Coalman filed a patent for ‘normalizing as a marketing tool' in the late sass's approximately four years prior to Brightness's suspicious press release. In spite of this, some observers consider this technology to be part of a continuum that has been ongoing for much longer. â€Å"Marketing's is simply the latest incarnation, says Joseph Throw, a professor of communication at the Ennobler School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. There has always been a holy grail in a dvertising to try to reach people in a hypodermic way,' he says† (Singer 2010). Educated observers also make note that Journalist and social critic Vance Packard (1957) wrote ‘The Hidden Persuaders' more than 50 years ago which is still considered to be a seminal work, which outlines how advertisers play(deed) on people's unconscious desires in an attempt to influence them. Run for our Lives? Neatly probing consumers for answers to every fear, desire, motivation, and preference in underpants color has begun to beg the question in some quarters, should we love this or fear it? It appears from the outset that this technology has been spawning controversy; however, some of this contention seems not to be entirely new in nature but the amplification and reinvigoration of well disputed ground, freshly driven by this new and acute mechanism.The contention largely remains in determining whether using such technology to understand the desires of consumers will be useful for serv ing them, or used for manipulating them, in short, is actions of a great many organizations and individuals, the main objective of marketing is to help match products with people (Rarely 2010; Kettle, Keller, and Burton 2009). ‘Marketing serves the dual goals of guiding the design and presentation of products such that they are more compatible with consumer preferences and facilitating the choice process for the consumer' (Rarely 2010).Marketing as ethical or unethical in practice is a purely a determination to be made on a case by case basis, not generalized in overarching sweeps. Rallies (1999) surmises that the organizational factors contributing to principled business undertakings or in fact impeding a unified ethical framework are moral reasoning, organizational ethical climate, level of economic development, and cultural dimensions, Murphy (2005) suggests on an individualistic level that indicative qualities can be determined from virtue and character ethics utilizing me asurements of the five core virtues of – integrity, fairness, trust, respect and empathy.In comprehension, understanding the afore is to recognize that marketing's (like most industries,) exists within a context of moral heterogeneity and the concerns that exist toward the frayed edge of the ethical fabric, underpin a movement of anxiety toward the potentiality of neuron-techniques to probe the subconscious mind, and the conceivability of these vehicles to unduly influence consumers, turning them into shopping robots without their knowledge and consent' (Singer 2010).Singer (2010) states that â€Å"marketing's is setting off alarm bells among some consumer advocates, who call it ‘brainwashing ? an amalgam of branding and brainwashing†. ‘Our contention is that neuroscience findings and methods hold the potential for marketing practices that threaten consumers' abilities to follow preferences and dictates according to free will' (Greene 2003).The controversy and paranoia surrounding a field that is yet to be evidenced or indicted of unethical practice is so potent that Senior and Senior (2008) have felt compelled to draft ‘A Manifesto for Marketing's Science' to guide the ethical functioning of practitioners, quell some f the fears of alarmists, and address potential dilemmas arising on this new frontier.The Advertising Research Foundation has also seen fit to undertake a collaborative study with the major operators in the marketing's industry to establish and implement the ‘Northeastwards Initiatives' agenda and determine ethical working canons for the field (ARP Announces Groundbreaking Northeastwards Study 2010). In addition to this above, the exploratory academic discipline of neurotics has continued to grow in unison with the developments in neuroscience research and neuromuscular, informing it all the while.Irrespective of the development in ethical governance, detractors warn that we do not have a current legal and so cial structure equipped to address technologies that are intentionally designed for subconscious persuasion. Singer (2010) states that ‘if the advertising is now purposely designed to bypass those rational defenses, then the traditional legal defenses protecting advertising speech in the marketplace have to be questioned'.We are also warned that many legally and morally ambiguous issues will arise with the increase in marketing's usage such as Who ultimately owns brain scans, whether scans can e sold to other persons or institutions, and what happens to extraneous information, such as health problems, revealed by the scans' (Wilson 2008). The array positron emission tomography (PET), magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fem.), electroencephalography (EGG) galvanic skin response (USSR), eye tracking technology, electrocardiography, and electromyography (Figurate 2007; Lee 2007).It is noted that any corporeal measurements gained through the use of these instruments are strictly limited by the skill the interpreter has in correlating bio-readings to mental/emotional states, and therefore into actionable ATA. There has been some research to show that imagery favored in traditional research preference tests are often not the ones that stimulate the emotional centers of the brain (Uncommon 2007), according to People (quoted in Harris 2006) however, emotion is one of the major keys to all marketing and by monitoring brain activity we can get very good indication of when an emotional connection has been made.Unfortunately, these results can only reveal activation correlated with particular imagery but cannot predict outcomes with certainty, and it does in fact highlight the actuality that there is ‘no direct link between arousal and behavior; no measure of purchase intent' (Figurate 2007). According to James (2004) the only time a human being cannot help acting on arousal is as a toddler'.Some critics throughout the literatu re have argued for the existence of a ‘buy button' in the brain, the above suggests that there could be no overriding of an individual's cognitive control and ‘current evidence suggests that the cognitive processes associated with purchase decisions are multi factorial and cannot be reduced to a single area of activation' (Rarely 2010). In the face of decries and skeptics Joey and Kilts Remain, Brightness's CEO and founder claim that rather than forecasting the shopping behavior of individuals, marketing's will help develop an understanding of how people develop preferences. Our goal is to change company, not consumer, behavior,† says Remain. He adds that this philosophy could improve advertising ethics. â€Å"What if you could, for example, show a company that their moral and ethical behavior has a bigger influence on consumer preference than the color of their packaging or current tag line? â€Å"‘ (Singer 2010). New Scientist magazine conducted a est. of marketing's to choose the ‘most attention getting cover for its 5th August 2010 issue.Nineteen readers of the magazine were shown three alternative covers during EGG tests from which one was ultimately selected. The ultimate result of this experiment and the ensuing cover choice, was a 12% increase in sales year-on-year and the second highest selling issue of the year which the deputy editor Graham Layton claimed was â€Å"unheard of in August† (Tartan 2010). Outside of this, virtually no other results have been published either confirming or condemning the predictive ability of marketing's in the marketplace.However, the one strong virtuous indicator that does exist, is the very fact that a multitude of global companies such as Google, CBS, Frito-Lay, Demolisher's, Brown-Foreman, General Motors, American Express, Campbell Soup, MAT, Disney Media, Heresy's, Millimeters, Colgate- Palmolive, NBC, ESP., and Turner Broadcasting are utilizing this technology as a regular co mponent of their own brand research efforts (ARP Announces Groundbreaking Northeastwards Study 2010; Rarely 2010; Figurate 2007; Bruit 2004). E detractors of marketing's see a dyspepsia future ahead, they envisage a world here we all become little more than purchase-making drones, slaves to big business recklessly pushing away at ‘buy buttons' in our brains to move their wares and their stock prices. Valid concerns have been raised from some quarters citing the potential for the increase of ‘marketing-related diseases' such as obesity, heart disease, and similarly related health issues (Fisher 2010).What we understand from the above however, is that marketing's cannot now or any currently conceivable point in the future, have any ability to override an individual's cognitive control. Marketing's may help to design a more attractive car but will never have the ability to make a man sell his children to purchase it. Even with the limitations of the technology, neurotransmi tters and researchers alike are currently exploring the ethical parameters of the field in order to create a unified framework for operation and quell concerns that vocal outliers currently raise.The primary purpose of this technology, as is the purpose of all marketing research, is to better understand the needs and wants of consumers, the biggest problem with traditional research is the intimidation by a participant's own cognitive bias, or as advertising legend David Googol once said: â€Å"The trouble with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think and they don't do what they say' (quoted in Scar 2011).