Atokawa Advantage Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Atokawa Advantage Management - Essay Example While a substantial part of the reporting and operational requirements of Atokowa is currently being addressed by the system, the strain of expansion would only exacerbate the situation. If the expansion initiative of Custom Print and the Online Ordering strategy is suspended the growth of Atokowa will be stunted and its spiral decline will commence because the current difficulties in the system will only feed on itself. The initiatives of George Hargreaves and Hayley Atokowa will diversify the revenue stream of Atokowa and at the same time expand the market while widening the client demography of Atokowa. However, implementing it at this time will only triple if not double the operational problems of Atokowa implementing it after the completion of an Enterprise Resource Planning Solution roll-out would be ideal if not the best. ... Under the leadership of Jonathan, Atokowa has expanded to several stores all around Australia catering mostly to individual and business customers in and around the locality where Atokowa stores are at. This paper would present the analysis of the operation of Atokowa to determine challenge areas, improvement areas, and growth areas. The purpose of the analysis is to recommend solutions that will enable Atokowa to resolve its current issues if there are any and respond to the demands of the ever-changing market landscape in the stationary and office supply retail industry. This report shall first present the result of the analysis conducted on the operation of Atokowa that will define in detail the analysis of focus areas. After the analysis of the focus areas, an assessment of the focus area shall be concluded for purposes of recommending possible solutions to the challenges posed in the focus area. Due to constraints, this paper shall only present the observations in the analysis and not the process in which the analysis was conducted and the observation was arrived at. In summary, the analysis in the operation of the focus areas shall be provided in seriatim as it was presented in the report. The conclusion or assessment shall follow afterward then the recommendations that should be undertaken by the management of Atokowa to resolve its current challenges. Please note that this paper shall only focus on the technological solutions to resolve the operational and management challenges of Atokowa. Analysis of Current Systems and Operations The following focus areas were highlighted in the analysis of the business case of Atokowa.  

Observation as a Tool of Inquiry Essay Example for Free

Observation as a Tool of Inquiry Essay The following characteristics I will describe in video clips one, three, four, and seven of the chapter one lab activity will help me identify and rank which of the people in these four videos is the most developmentally advanced, specifically in the motor skill of throwing a ball. First, I will identify the most proficient ball thrower and then create a developmental â€Å"throwing continuum† from the most to least advanced. Following this continuum, the constraints important to the throw will be explained as well as how a change in one constraint might change the throwing pattern. On my â€Å"throwing continuum† the number one is the lowest rank, meaning least developmentally advanced, in contrast with the number four ranking most developmentally advanced. Chapter One Lab Activity â€Å"throwing continuum† is visually represented bellow: Ranking: 1 2 3 4 Video clip #: #7 #1 #3 #4 This representation displays that the person in video clip number four is the most developmentally advanced at the motor skill of throwing a ball, followed by video clip number three as the second most advanced, then video clip number one coming in third, and lastly video clip number seven ranked number one on the â€Å"throwing continuum,† as the least proficient. What makes these videos distinguishable in terms of developmental advancement are the characteristics of each person’s throw. Video clip number seven ranked the lowest on the continuum because he showed a lack of experience expressed in characteristics such as the loss of balance, shallow throw, slight tilt of the ankle, and using a larger ball. Video clip number one was ranked second because considering his feet stayed stationary and together, and that he reached the ball behind his head to gather speed, make it evident that he is still primitive; yet, maintaining his balance  regardless of his knees rocking back and forth after casting the ball, shows a higher developmental ranking than the child in video clip number seven. The second most advanced thrower is in video clip number three. Characteristics that show some signs of experience are his comfort casting the ball at a jogging start, the shift of weight between his legs before throwing, and the actual height and distance of the throw. However, his loss of balance shows lack of developmental advancement. What distinguishes the person in video clip four as the most developmentally advanced is the standing start with a single step forward for force, the height of the throw, and how balance is maintained throughout. Multiple constraints may be important to the throw. An example of a (structural) individualistic constraint would be limb length. Perhaps if the person in video clip number three did not have such long legs he may not have lost his balance after his throw. An environmental constraint of importance would be wind. If wind is interfering with a throw, it is likely that the target will be missed. Another example would be if the thrower in video clip number three were to have his jogging start on a slippery floor. In this scenario the thrower would most likely fall, undoubtedly changing the throwing pattern. In a separate scenario, if the target on the receiving end of the throw is stationary and then begins to shuffle from side to side this would increase the difficulty level for the thrower, epitomizing a task constraint. The observations I have made in this assignment were both displayed in a table and supported through explanations describing various characteristics that proved the validity of my â€Å"throwing continuum† rankings. Individual, environmental, and task constraints can all be important to the motor skill of throwing. Through using the element of observation as a tool of inquiry, I have reinforced that my statements are credible.

The importance of information systems

The importance of information systems 1. Executive Summary In business world there is no substitute for right information at right time. It is evident that in last couple of decades attempts has been made to develop systems which make information more precise, readily available and easily accessible throughout the organisation. The development and use of information systems is a modern trend which is primarily concerned with the collection, process and dissimilation of useful information that directs an organisation for better planning, better decision making and ultimately the better results. Information systems and information management is a vast subject. In order to discuss the importance of information systems for an organization, the fundamental concepts like what is information, how it can be managed must be acknowledged. In this essay there will be brief introductions of these fundamental concepts and then there will be a case study of Volvos Knowledge Management System, the VPS which highlight the importance of information system and information management in an organization. Furthermore, it is not always without a hitch to adopt and appreciate a new concept and information systems are no different. There are some issues and problems in installing and using such systems which again vary one organisation to another. This essay will also touch upon those difficulties as well. 2. The concept of information in Organization The world information has different usage in different contexts but in organizational context it becomes more complex and difficult to comprehend. Zorkoczy (1981) defines information â€Å"as the meaning that a human expresses by, or extracts from, representations of facts and ideas, by means of the known conventions of the representations used†. On the other hand in organizational context, Stonecash (1981) defines information by stating that â€Å"information is simply symbols (data, text, images, voices, etc.) that convey meaning through their relative ordering, timing, shape, context, etc. information is the raw material for making decisions for creating knowledge and fuelling the modern organization†. In organizational context, information becomes more like a basic resource similar to men, material and money. Information is the binding element that holds an organization together. On the contrary, since it is intangible, information is quite different for physical resources and is often difficult to interpret and utilize in efficiently in order to achieve desirable outcomes from the oragnisation. Nevertheless, it is an integral part of organization and should be properly managed to achieve goals and objectives of the organization (W.B. Adeoti-Adekeye, 1997). Hence, it is importance to acknowledge the importance of information in the organizational performance. 3. Information Management in Organizations Many scholars have recognized the fact that right information and its flow with in the organization can drastically improve the performance and achieve stipulated objectives with ease. But at the same time it is important to note that there is no point of having information which is not relevant to the organisaton. This is the point where information management comes in to play. The prime objective of information management is to make relevant information readily available for the organisation in precise and comprehensible format. Langemo,( 1980) has defined Information management as the â€Å"organization-wide capability of creating, maintaining, retrieving and making immediately available the right information, in the right place, at the right time, in hands of the right people, at the lowest cost, in the best media, for use in decision making.† Also Best (1988) defines information management as â€Å"the economic, efficient and effective co-ordination of the production, control, storage and retrieval and dissemination of information from external and internal sources, in order to improve the performance of the organization.† 4. The concept of Information Systems Ever since its invention, computers are becoming integral part of humans and humans are becoming more and more dependent on the services offered by them. In words of W.B Adeoti-Adekeye (1997)â€Å"the advancements in computer technology have escalated mans desire to obtain computer assistance in solving daily chores and more complex problems: problems which were considered solely in the domain of mans intuitive and judgmental processes, particularly in organizations, a few years ago. Therefore, information systems are becoming area of interest in progressive and dynamic organizations. The need to obtain access conveniently, quickly and economically makes it imperative to devise procedures for the creation, management and utilization of databases in organizations.† Duff and Assad (1980), has defined the information system as â€Å"a collection of people, procedures, a base of data and (sometimes) hardware and software that collects, processes, stores and communicates data for transaction processing at operational level and information to support Management decision making.† In general terms, Information Systems can be defined as a set of interrelated components which accept data or information (meaningful data) as a raw material store and then process it to generates information as a product to assist and support in decision making and controlling activities of the organization. The Information System contains information about the organization and its surrounding environment as well. The surrounding environment includes customers, supplies, competitors and other stakeholders of the organization. The basic three activities input, processing and output generate the meaningful information that organization need. There is another essential element of system known as feedback. It is output returned to appropriate authorities in the organization to evaluate input (Laudon and Laudon 2006 9th Ed.). It can be represented in figure as follows; through one or more transmutation processes It comprises the following functional elements which relate to the organization and its environment 5. Importance of Information System in Organizations Managers must have relevant information that increases their knowledge of internal processes and external business environment. This knowledge reduces the degree of uncertainty and makes managerial decisions more rational and practical. Without relevant information most of the decisions made by managers will be like trial and errors, which in turns decrease the efficiency and profitability and increase the uncertainty with in the organization. The main benefits if an information system can be discussed as follows: 1 Economic Importance: Even though the cost of installation and maintenance of an information system quite high (depends upon kind of system) in the beginning, but in due course the costs drops and appears fair deal when compared to kinds of benefits enjoyed with the help of it. Also with the passage of time cost of information systems tends to decrease, whereas, costs of its substitutes (for instance labour) has been historically tends to rise (Laudon, 1990). Furthermore, information systems use networks, which help an organization to reduce the transaction costs, by making it worthwhile for organization to contract external suppliers instead of using internal resources. For instance, the Chrysler Corporation reduces costs by obtaining more than 70% of its parts from other supplier by using computer links ( Laudon and Laudon, 9th Ed. ). 2. Information Systems Improve Performance: Information Systems are designed to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of a process. The information systems speed up the process and reduce the time by removing non-value adding steps in the operation. For instance, Citibank developed the Automatic Teller Machines and Bank Debit Cards in 1977( Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). It made financial transactions easy and was a huge success. Further, banks continued to innovate and these days with the help of reliable and secure information systems from TEMENOS, Infosys, Oracle etc, most of the customer can do majority of transaction from their home computer or even from mobile telephone. Moreover, information systems provide real time information which reduces the scope of errors, hence, increases the quality of the output of the process. 3. Importance in Decision Making: Information Systems provides the tools for managers enabling them to monitor, plan and forecast with more precision and speed then ever before. They also enable managers to respond more rapidly and adapt swiftly to the fast changing business environment. The Decision Support Systems can significantly improve results both on quantitative and qualitative fronts. For instance, there are around 142 million employees working in United States generating $12.2 trillion of Gross Domestic Products. If the decision making quality of these employees could be improved by just 1% in a year the GDP might be expand substantially. â€Å"This implies for any organization the ability of manager or employees to make right decision at right time with the help of right information can have extraordinary business value† ( Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). 4. Organizational Behavior Change: Behavioral researches illustrate that information systems facilitate flattening of hierarchies by broadening the distribution of information to empower lower-level employees. It pushes the decision making rights to the lower level in the organization as the lower level employees receives the information they need to make decisions eliminating the need of middle managers(Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). This also leads to the reduction is the administrative costs of the organisation. For example, after installing ERP system Knust-SBO Precision Machining1 of Texas, reduced the administrative staff by 50% and at the same time improved the accuracy of on -time deliveries from56.5% to 95%. 6. Case Study Illustration The efficient performance of an organization is dependent very much on the performance of the internal resources of organization and their synchronization with external environment. To illustrate the use and importance of a management information system in organizational performance the following example of Volvo from Managing Knowledge in MNCs-The case of the knowledge management initiative in the Volvo Group by Sona Gevorgyan and Boban Ivanovski (2009) will demonstrate that how Volvo achieved superior performances by deploying their Knowledge management system. 6.1 Volvo Group and Knowledge Management The Volvo Group is one of the leaders in its industry with production facilities in 19 and sales in more than 180 countries. In 2008 it employed more than 90,000 employees worldwide majority located in Sweden, France, USA, Japan, Brazil, China, and South Korea. The industry in which Volvo Group operates is highly technology driven and knowledge intensive. Its product range comprises construction equipment, trucks and buses, aircraft engine components, drive system for marine and industrial applications. Since it operates globally the Group is comprised of numerous subsidiaries, known as product related Business Areas (BA) and supporting Business Units (BU). The major function of Business area is to manufactures products, whereas Business Units are responsible for procurement, product plannings and financial aspects of the business. As the Group continued to grow, it recognized that the diversity that the subsidiaries represent could serve as opportunity to utilize all the knowledge within the Volvo Group. The group acknowledged need of the global Knowledge Management System which could help in eliminating waste of resources in terms of recreating knowledge in one subsidiary, while already possessing it in another. Furthermore, such initiative could potentially serve as means of discovering new synergies in the Group that may lead to smooth and efficient operation of the Groups activities. Hence, the Volvo Production System Academy was launched in 2008, aiming to undertake and support such a common group Knowledge Management initiative ( Gevorgyan Ivanovski ,2009). Knowledge Management Systems are designed to store and process the knowledge available in organizations (Wickramasinghe, 2003), and simultaneously support contextualized application of that knowledge (Maier, 2004). Workers are meant to use this technology in sharing information about past experiences and making sense of this information, while performing their tasks (Wickramasinghe, 2003). Volvo Production System Academy (VPSA) is the centre for research, development and innovation in the Volvo Group. The Academy is meant to represents a central research and development unit which provides the fundamentals for the KM initiatives. It developed the Knowledge Management System for the Group, the Volvo Production System. The assumption is that operational excellence, sustainable profitability and customer satisfaction is more likely to achieve if the workers operate in accordance with the VPS guidelines. The VPS model is described in detail through internal documents known as Reference Material, stored in central database and provided through the VPSA Intranet portal. The database and the Intranet portal on which the information from the database is available, represents the core of the KMS provided by VPSA. The ‘good example of VPS model is an essential part of the feedback and learning aspect of the model. It is represents a visual illustration of exceptional execution of a specific module described in the VPS model, this acts as a communication tool to encourage employees to repeat the desirable behavior. Good examples from various factories are stored in the central database in addition to the principles, and available on the Intranet portal. The good examples are either submitted by the factories and then quality-proofed by VPSA, or spotted in the assessments that VPSA conducts. By sharing them through the Intranet portal, good examples are meant to serve factories from different subsidiaries to locally implement the VPS modules by exploiting mutual synergies and learning from each others knowledge and experiences.( Gevorgyan Ivanovski ,2009) Discussion The Knowledge Management Systems are one of the most complex information systems. The Volvo Group has realized that their product and services are not limited to physical resources but also on the intangible assets i.e. knowledge. Since it operates globally and most of its business unit are geographically, demographically and culturally dispersed, therefore it was utterly important for the Group to synchronies its knowledge and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to support the business processes and managerial decisions. The Group achieved it with the help of an information system, the Volvo Production System. However, installing an information system does not automatically result in success, unless continuous participation of all individual workers in processes is ensured. In this case workers have struggled initially to cope up with the changes the system brought in, but the strong organizational culture motivated them to get involved in the process. Problems with Information Systems There might be different reasons, but despite of many success stories there are examples of great failure of implementing information systems in organizations. For instance (web resource1); Hershey Foods The leading chocolate manufacturer in United States accounted 19 % drop in earnings was caused by an incompetent SAP ERP installation that caused distribution disorder during one of its most profitable seasons.   FoxMeyer Drug s The pharmaceutical distribution company was forced to declare bankruptcy after an unsuccessful ERP implementation. NASA -. The ERP system was not able to close year-end books on a Cal Tech contract which results in generation of inaccurate financial reports. Bang and Olufsen In 1999, the Danish Hi-Fi audio- video maker claimed that SAP systems has damaged relation with its retailers It is often argued that most of the issues in ERP systems disasters were not technical but were mainly related to employee and organizational culture of the firm. Many of the failures can be attributed to poor managerial practice in the form of inadequate training (Pang 2001). The resistance to change from with in the organization, lack of high flexibility in terms of customization of information system and inadequate IS implementation strategy may be considered as the major factors for such a drastic failure of the information systems in certain cases. Conclusion It is important to note that information management and information systems are the means not the end of the process. Both are the powerful tools in the hand of management, which when deployed appropriately can bring dramatic change in the way an organization perform and achieve its objectives. Appropriate utilization of information systems benefits both the organization and its employees and its stakeholders. But when misapplied, they can waste tremendous amounts of time, effort, and money. To accomplish successful information management and reduce the chances of failure in future, an information system must be designed and operated with due regard to organizational culture as well as technological factors. There should be an equal contribution from both the business management and the information professionals while designing and implementing a new information system. There is no doubt that better exchange of thoughts between organizational management and information professionals has the potential to develop information systems which will entirely change the outlook how we run business today. References; Best, D.P. (1988), â€Å"The future of information management†, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, March, pp. 13-24. Duff, W.M. and Asad, M.C. (1980), Information Management: An Executive Approach, Oxford University Press, London, p. 243 Langemo, M. (1980), â€Å"Records management/word processing a needed team effort†, Records Management Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 10-14. Maier, R. (2004). Knowledge management systems: information and communication technologies for knowledge management. Zugl.: Regensburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2001. Pang , L. Managers Guide to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems information Systems Control Journal, Volume 4, 2001 Sona Gevorgyan and Boban Ivanovski (2009) Managing Knowledge in MNCs-The case of the knowledge management initiative in the Volvo Group Stonecash, J.C. (1981), â€Å"The IRM showdown†, Infosystem, Vol. 28 No. 10, pp. 42-8. W.B. Adeoti-Adekeye (1997) â€Å"The importance of management information systems† Library Review, Vol. 46 No. 5, page 318-327. MCB University Press, 0024-2535. Wickramasinghe, Nilmini (2003). â€Å"Do We Practice What We Preach? Are KnowledgeManagement Systems in Practice Truly Reflective of Knowledge Management Systems in Theory?†. Business Process Management Journal, 9(3): 295-316. Zoikoczy, P. (1981), Information Technology: An Introduction, Pitman, London, p. 157 1The New ERP System Halves the Administrative Staff, Modern Machine Shop, Feb2002, Vol. 74, p142

Epic of Beowulf :: Essays Papers

Beowulf "In a world without hope, a brave soul has nothing to lose." In the epic Beowulf, some might perceive Beowulf as having traits such as being arrogant. Although he is raised in a Pagan society, Beowulf concurs many tasks that an ordinary man could never do. He portrays man in general struggling against outward foes and inward doubts. Beowulf displays his characteristics; courage and strength, fame, perserverence, and compassion; which affords him the opportunity to be looked upon as an epic hero. With a lack of courage, not many can accomplish much. As Beowulf travels, his courage not only grows but stands strong. In his journey to Hrothgar's kingdom, Beowulf is faced with many unbearable tasks many men wouldn't dare to go up against, but with Beowulf, he takes those tasks and runs with them. His fight with Grendal not only proves his courage but his strength as well. Beowulf, being a mortal man, takes Grendal by the hands and tears his hand from his body, leaving Grendal mortally wounded. When Grendal's mother attempts avenge for her son's death, she is rudely awakened. After her kill of Ashchere, she resorts back to her lair in Hell, but not for long. Beowulf goes looking after her and swims through the deep, dark, and miserable waters to Hell. He finds Grendal's mother there and kills her without any warning to her. His bravery saves his people back in his homeland as well. After gaining the throne, a terrible dragon starts to terrorize his home. Here he proves t o his people that he is in fact a true hero. He, with the help of his dear kinsman, slays the dragon even after being wounded. His courage and strength truly proves him an epic hero. With an epic hero, one must know of his travels and battles. As is with Beowulf, he is known throughout the lands. His fame helped him tremendously in becoming this hero. His courageous fights and accomplishments led to his known defeats in battle with huge and fierce monsters. After his death, his people promised him a tumulus to be built in his memory so he could be remembered. Not only did his people hear his request, but they honored it as well. They built an enormous tumulus on top of a high cliff over the waters where the boats would see and remember him by.

Police Misconduct Essay

What is police misconduct? It can be defined as any action performed by a law enforcement officer that is unethical by established employment guidelines, unconstitutional, or a crime with in itself. When people hear the term â€Å"police misconduct† they automatically think of a police officer using unnecessary force against a civilian. While that is a form of police misconduct it is not only form. Throughout this paper I will bring light to the many types of police misconduct that can happen in the law enforcement industry. While being a police officer, you have guidelines and rules that you need to follow just as if you worked as a chef or even a sales associate you have rules and regulations to follow while at the work place. For police officers though, the rules and regulation still apply while being off duty. Police enforcement officers may use their powers of arrest while off duty, and because of the danger of abusing those powers can cause to individuals and the community, police officers are supposed to be held to a higher standard of conduct, both on duty and off duty, than members of other occupations. Police misconduct can be broken down into 3 categories. Civil, procedural, and criminal. Which means a violation in department policies, a violation in constitutional protections or a violation of the law itself. Not to say that two can’t be broken in one action or even all three at once. Many departments have what is called a â€Å"use of force continuum† which establishes the rule s on what type of force is permissible in response to specific actions that a suspect may perform. These policies are different from department to department. Some may permit officers to use force at the slightest sign of resistance yet others may specifically state that officers may not deploy certain types of force in response to resistance. One type of police misconduct can be the use of excessive force. This means that while a police officer is arresting a person, they use force that is not needed in taking the person in. This can happen in the form of beating a person while making the arrest or using any unnecessary force against the person.  Sometimes police beatings can be racially based or can happen due to an argument between the officer and the person. The use of excessive force in the law enforcement industry is not tolerated in any form. If a police officer is found guilty in using unnecessary force on a person they will be terminated from their job. Using unnecessary force is one of the more know types of police misconduct being that when excessive force is used on a person there is normally charges pressed on the officer and the case is brought into court and therefore into the media. Another type of police misconduct is sexual harassment. This would be when a officer sexually harasses a male or female indi vidual. Most sexual harassment case are from a male officer to a female victim. Some police officers like to take advantage of their authority and will go as far to rape individuals just because they feel that the fact that they are a police officer, they will be able to get away with it. A report done in 2010 showed that 6,613 law enforcement officers throughout the United States were involved with police misconduct. 9.3% was sexual harassment charges of police misconduct. Officer-involved sexual misconduct describes an entire subset of police misconduct that includes non criminal complaints such as consensual sexual activity that occurs while an officer is on-duty, sexual harassment, up to felonys of sexual assault or child molestation. Sexual misconduct was the second most common type of misconduct reported throughout 2010. 618 officers involved in sexual misconduct complaints during that time, 354 were involved in complaints that involved forcible non-consensual sexual activity such as sexual assault or sexual battery. Of the 479 alleged victims of serious s exual misconduct which were tracked, 52%, or 249 were minors and 48%, or 230 were adults. This would indicate that minors are victims of alleged serial offenders more often than adults. Of the 354 officers involved with serious sexual misconduct reports, 56 law enforcement officers were involved in allegations where multiple victims were involved. Another type of police misconduct is known as kickback or bribery. Police officers have numerous opportunities to take financial advantage of those with whom they have dealings. Kickbacks and bribery could come from a store owner who would like extra protection, or from a drug dealer who wants an officer to look the other way. Many police officers get bribed throughout their career. Bribing a police officer is a automatic felony by law. You may not offer a police  officer any amount of money in exchange for a service. Police officers who get caught accepting the bribe will be prosecuted. Recently in Suffolk County a sergeant was found take money from people he believed to be illegal immigrants. He was doing that because he kne w they wouldn’t come forward about the wrongful acts at risk of being sent back to their country. A undercover Spanish police officer was sent out to get pulled over by the sergeant and he did in fact take a 100$ bill from the Spanish undercover and it was caught on camera. SCPD kindly let the sergeant, who has more than 20 years on duty, retire, before he was arrested. He is awaiting trail and could face up to 20 years. Being that he targeted Spanish individuals, he could be charged with a hate crime. In conclusion, Police misconduct is low in the United States because most officers know that they are held at a high level than most members in society, and should be setting a positive example. Police officers also know that just because they have more powers than most individuals they should not be taking advantage of them to benefit personally. Although police misconduct is still a problem that will never totally be fixed, police departments should have harder rules and enforce the law harder on law enforcement officers. By letting Officers retire so they don’t lose their pension before they go on trial to me is wrong and not a way to stop police misconduct.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Analysis

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Analysis Mahatma Gandhi was a ‘nonconsequentialist’ in his beliefs because he rejected consequential philosophy which insinuates that consequences of actions can appreciably justify the means. ‘Nonconsequentialism’ views morality from the actions and not the consequences.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to nonconsequential theory, one’s morality lies in his/her actions and not consequences of his/her actions for nothing good can come from immoral actions. Therefore, actions are ether right or wrong independent of the consequences, as good ends cannot justify any corrupt means. Allen argues that, â€Å"Gandhi is well known for his emphasis on the integral, mutually reinforcing relationship between means and ends because one cannot use impure or immoral means to achieve worthy goals† (3). Gandhi did not believe that an action is right if it promotes greatest good for the greatest number of people; far from it, he believed in moral actions that lead to the greatest good for all and this simple outright belief passes Gandhi for a nonconsequentialist. Deontological theory supports Mahatma Gandhi view of morality for it states that morality depends on the actions or motives of the people. The deontological theory is a nonconsequential theory that does not assess morality from the point of consequences rather it assesses morality from the actions or omissions. According to this theory, actions and rules are primary in determining morality in the society for deontologists argue that, actions are morally right or wrong based on commands from higher power or divine. In this case, Gandhi believed in divine obedience as a way of attaining the highest state of morality. Libertarian theory is also nonconsequential theory that supports Gandhi’s beliefs and arguments concerning morality. The the ory posits that policies are only morally right if they protect life, property and liberty of the people. Libertarians hold that freedom is inherent right of humanity, which guarantees life and property ownership, hence equality. Like libertarian theory, egalitarian theory supports the welfare of all in the society as depicted in the lifestyle of Gandhi when he fought for the freedom of the Indian masses. Gandhi is a virtue ethicist who observed virtues from the nonconsequential perspective. He believed that actions define morality in the society as depicted by his life philosophies. Gandhi informed many people about their rights, advocated for a peaceful society, demanded for equality, taught about goodwill living and divine morals.Advertising Looking for essay on biography? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Gandhi argues that, â€Å"if I am accumulating wealth and power, my neighbor is in great need, and I do nothin g to help alleviate the suffering of the other, then I contribute to and am complicit in the violence of the status quo† (Allen 4). In the argument, Gandhi implies that it is immoral to amass wealth in the society without helping the unprivileged for it propagates inequality. In his argument that he does not believe in the doctrine of the greatest good for the greatest number, but greatest good for all, Gandhi depicts that he is a nonconsequentialist. This argument sets him apart from the consequential theorists who argue that any action is morally right if the end justify the means or satisfy greatest number of people. Consequential theories define morality from the consequences emanating from the actions for it does not matter whether the actions are morally right or wrong. Examining Gandhi’s life, he was a man who dedicated his life for the benefit of all humanity because he struggled to instill ethics in all aspects of society such as economic, political, social and spiritual spheres. He believed that ethics are fundamental principles that keep the society together for the benefit of all members. Allen, Douglas. â€Å"Mahatma Gandhi.† Routldge Philosophy. (203): 1-12

Absurdity Of Catch-22 Through Comedy Essays - Fiction, Literature

Absurdity Of Catch-22 Through Comedy Essays - Fiction, Literature Absurdity Of Catch-22 Through Comedy ABSURDITY OF CATCH-22 THROUGH COMEDY The novel, Catch-22, is a comedy about soldiers during World War II. However, this comic scenes and phrases are quite tragic when they are thought about, as most things related to war are, which makes this comedy completely absurd. The best way to represent this idea is through the characters in the book, specifically, Yossarian, Huple, and Natelys whores kid sister and the events that occur with their thoughts and their actions. Clearly, the main character and one whose life is chiefly described, is Yossarian. Yossarian has a slightly sick sense of humor and way of looking at things. In the first chapter, Heller tells us that letters sent by the soldiers had to be reviewed in order to prevent any secret information going out to the public, or, even worse, to the enemy. Yossarian, from lack of anything better to do, censors all the letters. Sometimes he crosses out everything but a, an and the, sometimes adjectives, whatever he feels like that day. For his final gag he signs these letters as Washington Irving to totally confuse the readers of these letters. This is funny, however it is ultimately tragic. These are the letters that every wife, mother and daughter runs to the mailbox for in order to see that their husbands, fathers and sons are all right. This is a letter that could say: Honey, Im coming home, or I love you. When I come home I want to marry you. These letters could change the whole lifestyle of so many people and Yossarian alone is tampering with them. The absurdity of that is immense. A gag of slightly higher consequence occurred in Chapter 12, when Yossarian decided to move the bomb line over Bologna. What I believe is the most ridiculous in the whole process was his reason for doing it. Everyone did not want to go on this mission to capture Bologna. They prayed the rain would never go away, or that the bomb line would mysteriously move, anything just mot to go on this mission. Clevinger, in disbelief at the stupidity of these men, tells Yossarian: They really believe that we wouldnt have to fly that mission tomorrow if someone would only tiptoe up to the map in the middle of the night and move the bomb line over Bologna. Can you imagine? So Yossarian figures Why not?. As hysterical of a joke as this may be, an important city that was taken by the enemy had to be bombed, and now everybody thinks that it was captured already. This joke could have and may have lead to the deaths of innocent people, which is yet not only absurd but is also catastrophic. Two character that, for me, expressed the highest, but the most true absurdity in life are Huple and Natelys whores kid sister. These two characters have one thing in common. They both want to be adults too fast. Huple is only fifteen, and lied about his age to get into the army. The kid sister is twelve years old, but wants to be just like her older sister and seduce men. However the absurdity of this is not at all that they want to become older, because everyone at that age does. The absurdity is that the things they want to do as adults are the things that most adults resent most about being adults. The last thing most men want to do is to be drafted, and the last thing that most women want to do is to become a prostitute in order to support themselves. It is clear that Joseph Heller does not write in a certain pattern visible in the works of other writers. he has his own unique way of expressing the absurdity of the universe in a comic way. This style, in my mind, is very commendable because he makes us laugh, yet understand the meaning and maybe even seriousness of the idea he is trying to get across. The alternative would be to write a tragic novel about men at war which really would not grab the readers attention as comedies do and as this book did.

Lord of the Flies Irony essays

Lord of the Flies Irony essays I stayed up late searching through my novel last Wednesday night for examples of irony in Lord of the Flies, only to find out the next morning that our in class essay was about a confidant in the novel. This is an example of irony, or two contrasting ideas that fail to meet an expectation. In William Goldings Lord of the Flies, Golding applies situational and verbal irony as a means to show the reader on how the inner evil of the individual can significantly possess society with no regard to institution or structure. Golding uses symbolism to coincide with the theme of how the person rules the civilization and not how the civilization rules the person. Examples throughout the novel show how values are contrasted with what the author sees as an inner evil we all possess. One clear example of irony in the novel is when Jack, one of the savage boys on the island, is hesitant to kill a pig in the beginning while he is out exploring the island. I was going to, said Jack. He was ahead of them, and they could not see his face. I was choosing a place. Next time-! The reader looks back on this example after reading the novel and can see how ironic the transition of this characters morals have become. He starts out as Jack the English boy in a uniform from a civil society and ends up with a mask and an identity no one can distinguish as he became a savage. It is ironic that Jack did not kill the pig because of the unbearable blood, but by the end of the story he does not question the morality of murder. He wants to kill pigs, he wants to kill humans, and he does not flinch at these concepts. Jack and the other boys try to kill Ralph near the end of the story and in order to find him, they set the island on fire to smoke him out. It is ironic that in the conquest for destruction and murder of one, they manage to save Ralph an ...

Term paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Term Paper Example These customs may contradict with the common truth in a multicultural society. Some customs belonging to a particular community may appear to be evil or good in a different community. Therefore, a particular customary practice may have different consequences depending on the society judging the practice. The act of believing ones custom is the best or king over all customs is referred to as relativism (4). Customs define the morally accepted and morally rejected practices for a given society. Among the Japanese, bowing when greeting someone is considered to be a moral practice. This forces foreigners to forego their practices and adopt those of the locals. In Muslim countries, women have to veil their faces before appearing in public, and their hair should be covered always. Several societies consider keeping long hair and beard to be immoral. Customs upheld by communities define the right and wrong practices, which at times can be oppressive. In such cases, customs are considered to be the baseline of moral beliefs in the society. In Germany, the Nazis were against the Jewish religion and the leaders decided to execute them (6). According to Nazis, this was the accepted way of eliminating the Jews, but was considered to be evil by the Americans due to different customs. Individual values are gotten from parents, teachers, religious leaders, and historical books. Children internalize values learnt from different sources and form a sense of good or bad. This leads to the differences in moral values between different cultures. Ancient customs or cultures have different moral values, which are learnt by the children and subsequent generations. The conscience of a human being is also a product of the moral life. Conscience helps individuals identify wrong acts depending on personal and society values contributed to by culture. An individual picks up several values during childhood and along his or her lifetime that give the definition of a good human being (7). Cer tain individuals may adapt different values from other people within the same community due to external influence. In Germany, some Nazis rebelled, held out, and fled from the mass execution of Jews by Hitler. According to them, execution was immoral though it was being practiced by their fellow Nazis. Moral values can be influenced by external cultures and one’s own values cease to be superior to that of others. The society defines the morally acceptable values, but individuals may change their values depending on the influence. However, every individual or society believes to hold the highest values irrespective of their nature. Holding certain values does not mean they are the overall good, but they influence a person’s view of the right and wrong practices. This makes moral values to be relative to the society and the upbringing of an individual (9). The religion also determines the values regarded by an individual as good or bad. Some people believe that God revea ls the truth to human beings, which also defines the good and the bad. This forces them to line up their values according to the religious revelations and form a point of judging others. This makes them believe their values to be absolutely right and can act as the standard goodness. Some individuals do not believe in Godly revelations, therefore, their values are based on culture (11). Different objective points provide different justifications of moral assessments.

Pol 211 Mile 2 Realism, idealism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pol 211 Mile 2 Realism, idealism - Essay Example The state is supposed to develop its interests first in terms of security when considering relationships with other states. Idealists view the national interest with reference to the balance of power. Idealist administrators seek to advance their national interests. Diplomacy is the art of combining national power to produce maximum effect to the international situation that will hence affect the national interest directly. The collapse of the Soviet Union is best described using the realism and idealism concept of â€Å"Balance of Power†. This was whereby Bush succeeds in convincing Gorbachev to implementing reform efforts towards shifting the USSR into a democratic system and a market-based economy. Gorbachev allows elections under a multi-party system and the presidency of the Soviet Union. This gradually develops the democracy that goes along with destabilizing communist control and later on the total collapse of the Soviet Union (Strayer, 1998,

Amazon.com Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Amazon.com - Case Study Example It has a competitive advantage over traditional companies that are physically based. Contrary to its online businesses, Amazon operates online and, has access to a large market. It has a strong financial and computer technology background. It has strength in partnership and affiliations with other businesses. A strong customer care service is an important aspect explored by the company to gain market dominance (Wheelen & Hunger, 2008). Most customers are not familiar with web-based sources of bookstore. In some situations, the company may undertake poor market analysis causing wasteful investment in online retail as pets.com , drugv store.com and home grosa.com that were never successful. Online retail business has the potential of generating high operating profits. There is growth in the number of household accessing the internet and, therefore, increased market dominance. Presence of new product lines in the market promotes entrance of new customers for the company. There is pressure from financial markets to abandon the companies stated goals, of sacrificing short time profit. There are existing book-selling companies established in the market that present competition to Amazon.com. Competition is from established home page websites such eBay and yahoo. Poor economic environment such as high sales tax on eco-mass transactions affects the company’s performance (Wheelen & Hunger, 2008). Products provided by the company include books, music, video, toys, electronics, tools, kitchen, and apparel. It provides services such as partnerships, online auctions, web services and retail shop service. The main problem faced by Amazon.com is increased operating expenses through advertisement. The best to address Amazon.com’s problem is cutting down on expenses based on the advertisement by collaborating with affiliate companies to help share the cost of

Prospects of a Future Revolution in Iran Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Prospects of a Future Revolution in Iran - Essay Example Post-Revolutionary leaders in Iran, in an effort to consolidate their power and destroy opposition, have undertaken a number of social policies focused on rural and urban populations to encourage the development of a healthier, better educated, and more sophisticated society (Keddie, 2006). Although improvements emerged, there has been a socio-cultural realignment, suggesting that the official Iran of devout multitudes may not be a majority, as compared to the â€Å"other† Iran of a largely modern, progressive, and pragmatically secular citizenry (Afshari, 2009, p.840). This projection is supported by the June 2009 Green Revolution in which the Islamic Republic of Iran faced a legitimacy crisis, the like of which it had not experienced since its creation in 1979. The 2009 experience has critical differences as well as deja vu similarities to the 1979 Revolution. The clerical cloth of legitimacy has undeniably been tattered in the recent uprising and demonstrations; however, th e prospects of another revolution still remain uncertain because of crucial contextual changes. Nevertheless, the interest of the international community for the Green Revolution to succeed and lead Iran to peaceful integration within the world system of nations is a force that can have a significant determining value in the balance of power in Iran domestically. For a long time, academic scholars have tried to identify what produces a revolution. Of all possible factors, political scientist James DeFronzo identifies five as critical for success: Mass frustrations among urban or rural populations that result in popular uprising, dissident elite political movements that pit some elite members against the existing government, unifying motivations for revolution that cut across major groups and mobilize the majority of society’s population behind the goal of revolution, severe political crisis that paralyzes the administrative and coercive capabilities of the state, and permissi ve or tolerant world context towards the development and success of a revolution in a given nation. In the case of Iran, unified motivation among major groups was the fundamental factor in ensuring the revolutionary success of 1979. More than two decades of autocratic rule caused the social base of support for the Pahlavi monarchy to decline. Loyalists, primarily from the aristocratic core and the non-aristocratic upper class, constituted less than 0.01 percent of the population- a meager force in defense of the regime (Abrahamian 1989: DeFronzo, 304). The majority of the population- the traditional middle class, the modern middle class, and the sub-proletariat class-demanded more reforms, more human rights, more freedom, and more democracy. Two main revolutionary movements formed: The first was the religious movement headed by the Ulema, demanding return to a society based on the Shari’ah and religious administration (Hooker, 1996). The second movement was liberal, promoting modernism, democracy, openness in government, wider participation, and increased social justice via economic development for the poor. Opposition to the regime also included a radical Marxist-Leninist element consisting of the ‘Peoples Fedayeen’ and the ‘People’s Mojahadeen’ (Feldman, 2007). Initially, the Shah and the West fixated on these Leftist elements in the Cold War paradigm, causing them to disregard the threat of Islamic fundamentalism as a movement. (Feldman, 2007) Historians, political theorists, and contemporary

Undecided Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Undecided - Essay Example Sethe forcefully made a decision that would haunt her forever, to kill a life which had grown inside of her. Just because it was what she had to do. The sister of Vladek did the same thing in MAUS. She not only killed herself but also her three children to save them from a pain that death could not compare with and to save them from a life that would offer them only suffering and pain without any hope. The Holocaust is all about speaking about all the unspeakable things that happens in our lives but difficult to accept. The death suicide of wife, the struggle to stay alive while your family and friends die around you feet and the guilt of having survived was such things of Vladek's life. The pain of what Sethe went through is quite similar. She never gets to Beloved to tell her that what she did was right. She had a fear to loose Beloved. This fear was due to the fact that the unspeakable would never have been spoken. Art was the Beloved of Vladek. Art no doubt was the reminder of Richieu, Anja and of everything that he loved in this world. This is what made him speak the unspeakable thing. ... The entire family of Vladek was burned by the Nazis. He did what all was possible for him to save himself and the one that he loved. At the end of Volume I, Art has been begging Vladek to let him see the diary of his mother from the war. Vladek has not only thrown them away but burned them with the memories of Anja, Art's mother. Art walks away from Vladek's house thinking that Vladek is a "Murderer..". But on the other hand, if he had kept the diaries then he would have preserved the pain inside him. This was his way of dealing with the pain he had in his heart. In a scene in MAUS Volume II, Vladek don't find any harm in destroying a fly with pesticide and he knows that people were killed in Auschwitz with a pesticide gas, Zyclon B. but still, he thinks of destroying a bug this way without any hesitation. Again in the second volume, Art, his wife Francoise, and Vladek were driving home from the supermarket. Art's wife has decided to pick up a hitchiker, which happened to be black. V ladek lost it and claims that all colored people steal. Despite of being a survivor, he would have remained a victim of the Holocaust. The story is factual and a true portrayal of a life constantly in struggle. He fought to save himself from a pain worse than death. This was the pain of losing the wish to live. Vladek survived as a lonely old man. This makes this book really unique and memorable. It shows a vision of the

Macroeconomic Stabilisation in Regards to Labor Market Essay

Macroeconomic Stabilisation in Regards to Labor Market - Essay Example 139 – 140). Aside from believing that there is a perfect labour market among the firms, employers and employees, classical economists assumed that equilibrium within the labour market is possible because of the presence of monetary wages or wage-price flexibility that could make supply and demand curve adjust with the changes in labour markets in order to remove or eliminate the presence of excessive supply and demand for labour (Rossana, 2011, p. 370; Gupta, 2008, p. 273; Ahiakpor, 2003, p. 160). Given that there is profit maximization or profit seeking behaviour on the part of the local business group; demand for labour is often represented by a downward-sloping curve since these companies are less likely to employ a lot of high-paid employees as compared to low-paid employees (Rossana, 2011, p. 370). On the other hand, the aggregate supply curve for labour is represented by a vertical curve (Rossana, 2011, p. 371). Specifically the classical theory on labour market is often based on the Walras’ and Say’s law which strongly suggests the idea that the labour supply is capable of creating its own demand through the use of price or wage adjustments (Gupta, 2008, p. 273). Likewise, the issue on real wage and employment level is determined by the movements in the supply and demand curve within the labour markets. Contrary to the beliefs of Keynesian economists, classical theorists strongly believe the presence of unemployment rate is a result of unforeseen economic disturbance which can be easily solved as soon as an adjustment between the supply and demand curve occurs. Since the presence of job-seekers who refuse to accept lower wage rate are classified as ‘voluntary’ unemployment, classical economists assume that there is always full employment in...This essay offers a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic concepts that characterize economic conditions in the labour market. This paper makes use of economic principles and theo ries in discussing why aggregate labor market as a clearing market is difficult to achieve. In the study of macroeconomic theories, the interrelation between the labour markets, the goods market, money market, and the foreign trade market is being taken into consideration in order to determine the interaction between the levels of employment, employees’ participation rate, aggregate income, and gross domestic product. In a market clearing situation, the quantity of labour demanded is expected to be equal to the quantity of labour services supplied by the employers. Aside from believing that there is a perfect labour marketclassical economists assumed that equilibrium within the labour market is possible because of the presence of monetary wages or wage-price flexibility that could make supply and demand curve adjust with the changes in labour markets in order to remove or eliminate the presence of excessive supply and demand for labour. The labour market will remain unclear because of imperfect labour market conditions which is often triggered by the presence of economic factors that continuously affect the movements in the supply and demand curve in labour markets. The study of macroeconomics in labour market strongly suggest that full employment is close to impossible to achieve, because of the presence of macroeconomic factors.

Prospects of a Future Revolution in Iran Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Prospects of a Future Revolution in Iran - Essay Example Post-Revolutionary leaders in Iran, in an effort to consolidate their power and destroy opposition, have undertaken a number of social policies focused on rural and urban populations to encourage the development of a healthier, better educated, and more sophisticated society (Keddie, 2006). Although improvements emerged, there has been a socio-cultural realignment, suggesting that the official Iran of devout multitudes may not be a majority, as compared to the â€Å"other† Iran of a largely modern, progressive, and pragmatically secular citizenry (Afshari, 2009, p.840). This projection is supported by the June 2009 Green Revolution in which the Islamic Republic of Iran faced a legitimacy crisis, the like of which it had not experienced since its creation in 1979. The 2009 experience has critical differences as well as deja vu similarities to the 1979 Revolution. The clerical cloth of legitimacy has undeniably been tattered in the recent uprising and demonstrations; however, th e prospects of another revolution still remain uncertain because of crucial contextual changes. Nevertheless, the interest of the international community for the Green Revolution to succeed and lead Iran to peaceful integration within the world system of nations is a force that can have a significant determining value in the balance of power in Iran domestically. For a long time, academic scholars have tried to identify what produces a revolution. Of all possible factors, political scientist James DeFronzo identifies five as critical for success: Mass frustrations among urban or rural populations that result in popular uprising, dissident elite political movements that pit some elite members against the existing government, unifying motivations for revolution that cut across major groups and mobilize the majority of society’s population behind the goal of revolution, severe political crisis that paralyzes the administrative and coercive capabilities of the state, and permissi ve or tolerant world context towards the development and success of a revolution in a given nation. In the case of Iran, unified motivation among major groups was the fundamental factor in ensuring the revolutionary success of 1979. More than two decades of autocratic rule caused the social base of support for the Pahlavi monarchy to decline. Loyalists, primarily from the aristocratic core and the non-aristocratic upper class, constituted less than 0.01 percent of the population- a meager force in defense of the regime (Abrahamian 1989: DeFronzo, 304). The majority of the population- the traditional middle class, the modern middle class, and the sub-proletariat class-demanded more reforms, more human rights, more freedom, and more democracy. Two main revolutionary movements formed: The first was the religious movement headed by the Ulema, demanding return to a society based on the Shari’ah and religious administration (Hooker, 1996). The second movement was liberal, promoting modernism, democracy, openness in government, wider participation, and increased social justice via economic development for the poor. Opposition to the regime also included a radical Marxist-Leninist element consisting of the ‘Peoples Fedayeen’ and the ‘People’s Mojahadeen’ (Feldman, 2007). Initially, the Shah and the West fixated on these Leftist elements in the Cold War paradigm, causing them to disregard the threat of Islamic fundamentalism as a movement. (Feldman, 2007) Historians, political theorists, and contemporary

Macroeconomic Stabilisation in Regards to Labor Market Essay

Macroeconomic Stabilisation in Regards to Labor Market - Essay Example 139 – 140). Aside from believing that there is a perfect labour market among the firms, employers and employees, classical economists assumed that equilibrium within the labour market is possible because of the presence of monetary wages or wage-price flexibility that could make supply and demand curve adjust with the changes in labour markets in order to remove or eliminate the presence of excessive supply and demand for labour (Rossana, 2011, p. 370; Gupta, 2008, p. 273; Ahiakpor, 2003, p. 160). Given that there is profit maximization or profit seeking behaviour on the part of the local business group; demand for labour is often represented by a downward-sloping curve since these companies are less likely to employ a lot of high-paid employees as compared to low-paid employees (Rossana, 2011, p. 370). On the other hand, the aggregate supply curve for labour is represented by a vertical curve (Rossana, 2011, p. 371). Specifically the classical theory on labour market is often based on the Walras’ and Say’s law which strongly suggests the idea that the labour supply is capable of creating its own demand through the use of price or wage adjustments (Gupta, 2008, p. 273). Likewise, the issue on real wage and employment level is determined by the movements in the supply and demand curve within the labour markets. Contrary to the beliefs of Keynesian economists, classical theorists strongly believe the presence of unemployment rate is a result of unforeseen economic disturbance which can be easily solved as soon as an adjustment between the supply and demand curve occurs. Since the presence of job-seekers who refuse to accept lower wage rate are classified as ‘voluntary’ unemployment, classical economists assume that there is always full employment in...This essay offers a comprehensive analysis of macroeconomic concepts that characterize economic conditions in the labour market. This paper makes use of economic principles and theo ries in discussing why aggregate labor market as a clearing market is difficult to achieve. In the study of macroeconomic theories, the interrelation between the labour markets, the goods market, money market, and the foreign trade market is being taken into consideration in order to determine the interaction between the levels of employment, employees’ participation rate, aggregate income, and gross domestic product. In a market clearing situation, the quantity of labour demanded is expected to be equal to the quantity of labour services supplied by the employers. Aside from believing that there is a perfect labour marketclassical economists assumed that equilibrium within the labour market is possible because of the presence of monetary wages or wage-price flexibility that could make supply and demand curve adjust with the changes in labour markets in order to remove or eliminate the presence of excessive supply and demand for labour. The labour market will remain unclear because of imperfect labour market conditions which is often triggered by the presence of economic factors that continuously affect the movements in the supply and demand curve in labour markets. The study of macroeconomics in labour market strongly suggest that full employment is close to impossible to achieve, because of the presence of macroeconomic factors.

Corellation Between Spirituality, Emotions Essay Example for Free

Corellation Between Spirituality, Emotions Essay Abstract   The purpose of this paper is to describe the changes during pregnancy, which is influenced by various factors like lifestyle modification, emotions and spirituality. The paper first discusses in detail about the stress and emotional changes, which occurs during pregnancy and its impact on both child and mother. These results are also supported with proper evidence from various research.   Secondly, paper discusses about how lifestyle modification in pregnant women affects the child and mother and these results are supported by evidence from various research.   Finally, the paper discusses about the spiritual believes and its impact on pregnant women. INTRODUCTION Pregnancy is a life event for which most women look forward too. The symptoms of pregnancy might sometimes be distressing but ultimately, it is all worthwhile. Women’s life changes completely during this period. This is the most stressful as well as memorable period in a women’s life. Proper planning before pregnancy to overcome the physical and emotional changes is highly essential. Since, lifestyle modification, stress, anxiety and diet changes produce major impacts in pregnant women and the fetus, the need for proper life style modification during pregnancy is recommended by all physicians. This paper discusses the impact of three major factors Stress, life style modification and spirituality in pregnant women with empirical evidence from various research studies. STRESS AND RELATED IMPACTS IN PREGNANT WOMEN   Expectant women are subject to stress due to several factors, which includes physical changes during pregnancy, environmental changes, lifestyle changes and several other factors. Pregnant women besides physical changes also experience emotional changes at time of pregnancy. Mood swings are common and women will face emotional ups and downs in early pregnancy because of hormonal changes. Its is common for pregnant women to cry or get angry and upset for no apparent reason.    Pregnancy Changes related to stress During first trimester, the pregnant women spend most of their time by realizing the fact that they are pregnant. They experience themselves inwardly and try to understand and overcome the fears about the pregnancy. This must be the case only when the women experiencing the first pregnancy. In later pregnancy, they become more familiar with the changes. At first pregnancy, pregnant women are subjected to many fear such as fear about discontinuing the job, lifestyle changes, responsibility, economical constrains etc. Insecure feelings are common during the early stage of pregnancy. Mood swings grows higher leading to unusual behaviors. The pregnant woman may laugh or cry for irrelevant things. These are often related to hormonal changes in the body. However, researchers believe that hormonal changes during pregnancy augment the force of the feelings and do not causes mood change. Few researchers has identified that the amount of anxiety is heavier in pregnant women who bears a boy baby, for which the reasons are unidentified. In the second trimester, the expectant mother slowly comes out of fear and anxiety, which they experienced during the first trimester and starts feeling better as by now they start experiencing the movement of the baby. During this period, the understanding between the husband and wife starts growing and slowly they accept the existence of baby. The woman starts showing changes physically as she gain weight, also fear and anxiety grows rapidly during this period as fear of miscarriage or disaster to the baby or to herself develops. Speaking out about the fear to her husband or to someone close would relive herself from stress. During the last stage of pregnancy, the pregnant mother experience more fear and stress. As they grow larger in size, they experience low self-esteem and expect more attention from all the dear ones especially from her husband. They fear more regarding delivery complications.    Physical stress during pregnancy and its impact Physical strain during pregnancy is equal to emotional strain. High physical stress during pregnancy is not advisable as it has possibility of inducing preterm delivery among pregnant women. â€Å"In a research conducted by Mozurkewich and Colleague among the employees of pregnant women in U.S who had performed increased physical work has given birth before their deliver date. In another study conducted among the women in France has shown similar results.    Stress and its impact on diet Stress, tension, low energy, exhaustion and other emotional changes can influence the diet preference by the pregnant women. According to the study conducted by the ‘Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’, â€Å"the diet of the expectant mother would affect the growth of the fetus and the wellbeing of the infant. According to this study which was conducted by ‘Kristen Hurley, Janet DiPietro, Kathleen Costigan and Laura Caulfield’, â€Å"Mother who experienced more fatigue during the pregnancy period consumed more amount of energy rich foods and zinc and consumed less folate. Expectant mothers who felt more stressed munched more amount of snacks and carbohydrate foods and also consumed lots of foods which is rich in fat, protein, iron and zinc. Worried feelings were connected with poorer consumption of vitamin C. Mothers who were stressed by pregnancy experience ate less meat.†Ã‚   â€Å"While pregnant women eating more amount of food may lead to increase in micronutrients and decrease the intake of other important nutrients like folate and vitamin C†, says, ‘Laura Caulfield, Ph.D. an associate professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Centre for Human Nutrition’.    Stress and its effect on the fetus Stress during pregnancy can bring about several changes in mother and child’s health. It affects the heart rate of the pregnant women. It also brings about blood pressure and anxiety in women. â€Å"According to Catherine Monk of Columbia University, emotional changes during pregnancy result in heart problems in pregnant women and have major effect on the fetus.†Ã‚   Earlier research has shown that stress during pregnancy leads to under weight babies and premature babies. Researcher has found that heart rate of mother is associated to heart rate of the fetus and when mother is stressed or worried, it affects the infant directly. Researchers from John Hopkins University and National Institute of Child Health Development (NICHD) in their research have found that emotional changes during pregnancy have direct impact on child’s behavior. Mother with increased emotion and fear of pregnancy has children with poor behavior skills and emotional disorder.  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"According to Janet A. DiPietro, PhD, a developmental psychologist and professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, increased stress during pregnancy results in chemical changes which manipulate the organ growth and development of the fetus.† Thus, it is essential for a pregnant women to be free from stress and emotions during and after pregnancy to give birth to a healthy baby and to maintain her own health. LIFESTYLE CHANGES AND ITS IMPACT IN EXPECTANT MOTHER Lifestyle modification during pregnancy affects both mother and child especially when seems to be negative. Expectant mothers who are involved in habits such as Cigarette, alcohol, caffeine etc are under risk of developing breast cancer, delivery complications and pass the risk of behavioral disorder to their child. Apart from this diet, modification and exercise pattern also has impact on child’s growth. Expectant mother with eating disorder or overeating habits are prone to low-birth weight or over weight babies. Alteration in diet with inadequate nutrients or over nutrition leads to gestational diabetes. The child born to such parents develops Type I diabetes and are also at risk of developing cardiovascular problems. Lower folate consumption before and during the time of pregnancy would lead to birth defect and neurological problems. Hence, proper nutrition intake before and after pregnancy is essential. Consumption of Alcohol at the time of pregnancy leads to abortion, affects the fetus development, causes serious birth defects particularly the intellectual growth of the child. Hence, it is advisable to avoid alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy. Pregnant women who drink heavily are at risk of giving birth to child with alcohol syndrome i.e. a syndrome, which has major effect on mental and physical health. Similarly, pregnant women who consumes higher amount of caffeine are also at risk of developing miscarriage and birth defects. In addition, heavy exposure to chemicals can lead to birth defects. Various studies have shown that exposure to hazardous chemicals as solvents at work place have resulted in increase in the risk of abortion or birth defects. Apart from these, exercise during pregnancy is highly essential. Exercise during pregnancy strengthens the lower back and lower abdomen. Lack of proper exercise would result in caesarian and delivery complications. Exercise can reduce the labor complications and the risk of delivery. Regular exercise and walking would be more effective if followed in the second and third trimester. It helps the pregnant women to be relieved out of constipation, discomfort due to increased weight, fatigue, backaches etc    Diet modification during pregnancy affects the child and the offspring A research study conducted by â€Å"Children’s hospital Oakland Research Institute by David Martin, M.D, Dr. Jennifer Cropley and Catherine Suter from Victor Chang Heart Institute in Sydney, November 2006, has found that, ‘ mother’s diet during pregnancy   dose not only affect the health of her child but also affects the health of the grandchildren by changing the behavior of specific gene.† The researchers has performed the study on Avy mouse (yellow in color) which posses gene similar to human genes. The researchers during the research has used two group of pregnant mouse of which one group was fed with usual diet consumed by human and the other group was provided with supplements such as folate, vitamin, zinc etc along with the normal diet during the middle of the pregnancy. The similar experiments were followed for the offspring’s. The results of the study revealed that mouse without the supplement diet in both the experiments has shown considerable alteration in the gene resulting in the change of color from yellow to brown and were also found to be unhealthy and are at risk of cancer. Though it is, the known fact that mother’s diet would have considerable impact on the child’s health this is the first study, which has compared the correlation between mother’s diet and its impact in offspring. According to ‘Kenneth Beckman, Ph.D. Assistance Scientist at CHORI and a member of Project Export Centre of excellence in Nutritional Genomics, said, â€Å"The supplements provided during the pregnancy of the mother benefited the grand children even when the mother of the grandchild did not consume diet with supplements. Thus, maternal diet could have long lasting implications which extends for generations and even centuries.† Overeating and its impact on child  Ã‚   According to the research from ‘Oregon Health and Science University, September 2006’, â€Å"overeating during pregnancy may lead to several health problems to the child.†   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The researcher Kevin Grove, Ph.D., a scientist in ONPRC’s Division of Neuroscience in his research has confirmed that grandchildren off the expectant mother who overeat are at risk for liver damage and at a risk for early commencement of diabetes and obesity. Apart from this considerable change take place in the hypothalamus of the brain, which is responsible for the weight regulation.   He also states that children who are born to mother who consumes lots of fatty foods may be at a risk of diabetes and obesity.† The researchers have noted that pregnant female monkeys who were used for the research when provided with high fatty food passed on liver damage and pancreas damage to their offspring’s. The results were similar to humans when expectant women consumed high fatty food. It is clear from the above study that the need for a balanced diet among pregnant women is highly essential to prevent all health related problems to the child and the offspring. Another study conducted by world health organization there is a considerable increase in obesity related heart disease and metabolic disease among the present generation. Though the increase in obesity among present generation is because they consume high amount of fatty foods like sugar and saturated fats, on the other hand the obesity is also associated with increased consumption of energy rich food during pregnancy and during breast-feeding is one more reason for obesity among children’s. For several years it is has been stated that undernourished mother during pregnancy give birth to low birth weight babies which in turn affects the infant with heart related problems as it grows. However, latest studies reveals that apart form undernourished mother even the child born for mother who during pregnancy expose to energy rich food are also prone to heart disease. The study also revels that maternal diet has direct impact on child’s desire for food and maternal diet with increased energy food results in heart disease and other diseases like diabetes and hypertension in the later part of life. In such cases, the child develops abnormalities in aorta and in kidney resulting in severe disease as they grow up.    Smoking affects the child and grandchild Pregnant women may pass down the habit of smoking and its related disease to their child and to their grandchildren for continued generation.   Research study from Australia in 1982 has revealed the fact that children born to mothers who smoked during the time pregnancy started smoking before the age of 15 when compared to the children’s who were born to the mother who were non-smokers. At the same time, children’s of mothers who were smokers and gave up smoking at the time of pregnancy has shown similar results as children’s of mother who was non-smoker.   Thus, pregnant women are highly recommended to avoid smoking during pregnancy. Different study conducted by ‘Keck School of Medicine of University of California, states that use of tobacco and nicotine by the mother during pregnancy would result in lung diseases such as asthma to her children and grandchildren. The author Frank D. Gilliland, Professor of preventive medicine Keck School of Medicine states that smoking pregnant women will pass down long-term impact of lung disease in generations continuing for centuries. The research result shows that children’s and grandchildren’s of smoking mother at the time of pregnancy experienced problems of asthma from the age of five. Although the child of smoking mother did not experience any problem, the grandchild was highly prone to developing asthma. The researchers have also found that the nicotine present in the tobacco affects the DNA of the infant and affects the immune system of the baby. It is also found that nicotine from the tobacco affects the formation of the egg in the girl child as it grows. Thus, from above research studies it is clear that lifestyle modification in pregnant women would bring major impact in both child and mother. Few research has also proved that even grandchildren’s and further generation are affected by irregular dietary habits and alcohol and smoking habits. SPIRITUALITY AND ITS IMPACT ON EXPECTANT MOTHER Fasting seems to be one of spiritual activity, which has influenced most of the religious people especially Hindus and Muslims. People by fasting show their gratitude and love towards God. However, fasting when continued for more that two or three days leads to Lower Glycemic Index, reduces the protein and fat level in blood, increases the uric acid content, and possibly reduces the RBC and hemoglobin levels in the blood. If this is the case for normal people, when women with pregnancy undergoes fasting the results would be more drastic leading to ill health to both mother and child. As pregnancy is a crucial period and the mother is expected to consume the right amount of nutrition to maintain her health and the babies’ health, fasting during such period has to be avoided. According to a ‘Physician Gabriel Cousens, â€Å"fasting means to withdraw from that which is poisonous to the intellect, body and spirit. This can also be described as removal of corporal, emotional and psychological pollutant from our life, more willingly than merely staying away from or interrupting eating. Starving oneself for religious purposes typically involves taking away thyself from worldly duties.† On the other hand, in spite of the awareness for the need for proper nutrition some expectant mothers as being more religious blindly believes that by following rituals like fasting would bring God’s love and blessings to the child. Especially Muslim women’s during the period of Ramadan even if pregnant presume that fasting is obligatory for healthy wellbeing of child and mother. However, Islam is not too harsh on Muslim women’s who are pregnant. For that reason, no religion would be cruel to advice fasting during pregnancy. In Islam, the culture itself has prohibited such activity. Qur’an, has stated the following people not to fast during Ramadan, â€Å"pregnant women in her last trimester and also to avoid fasting by expectant mother if its is harmful to the mother and the child, women who is breast feeding, menstruating women and women who are in nifas.†Ã‚   According to Hadith, â€Å"the religion also states that if a expectant mother or the breast-feeding mother is subjected to health problems due to fasting, in such case they can fast the equivalent amount of days in another period of time.† Fasting are starving in the name of god is not ideal and it only spoils the health of the mother and baby. As pregnancy is an imperative period in women’s life attachment between mother and child grows right from the time of conception and develops with intake of right nutrition at right time. Impacts of fasting in Expectant women During pregnancy, the mother has to eat for two hence at this time going without food or starving without food due to spiritual reasons would affect both the child and mother. On the other hand, avoiding food at instance help the mother to remove the toxins from her body. Toxins loaded in the kidney, lungs, bladder, skin, intestinal track, respiratory track etc can be removed when avoiding food at some instances. However, this depends on the body condition of the women. In such cases the pregnant women has to take the advice of her doctor regarding her dietary habits. The culture of Islam states that fasting during first and second trimester of pregnancy is safer. This is also supported by the statement provided by ‘Dr. Shahid Athar; â€Å"according to him expectant based on health conditions can fast during the 1st and 2nd trimesters with the guidance and supervision from her obstetrician.† In a study conducted in Africa by researchers from Austin, nearly 89.5% of expectant women were fasting during the month of Ramadan. The result showed that blood glucose level in expectant mother who were fasting were significantly less than the normal amount which has resulted in gestational diabetes among these women. As no carbohydrate is available for producing glucose during the fasting period ketosis occur to avoid the loss of protein, which results in fall in insulin level and augmented weight loss. The research has proved that continuous fasting in pregnant women increase the risk of gestational diabetes, which results in over weight babies, caesarian, and stillbirth. Proper diet management under medical supervision and frequent blood testing for blood sugar can prevent gestational diabetes in pregnant women. Another research by â€Å"Kellymon has proved that fasting leads to dehydration, which thereby decreases the milk supply due to the decreased fluid level in the body.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another study by Centre for Advance for health in 2000 has revealed that pregnant mothers who starved during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy has given birth to child who are at high risk of heart disease. Form the research studies it is clear that fasting in the name of spirituality has shown adverse effect on both the child and mother. Although the belief of the expectant mother has to be considered, health related issues due to fasting have to be given priority. Since, the effect of fasting affects not only the mother but also the child, such beliefs has to be considered. The impacts of fasting last on child’s health for longer period and even it grows for several generations. CONCLUSION   As pregnancy is a crucial period in women’s life special attention and care during this period is more important. Pregnant women in general should be away from stress and try to keep them relaxed and peaceful. Excess stress can create severe impact on women’s health and in child’s health and also can lead to preterm delivery and miscarriage. Focusing on positive lifestyle changes before and after pregnancy could yield better results by improving the health and intellect of the baby. Thus for safe and healthy pregnancy, it is always better to be planed to avoid all harmful behaviors.    REFERENCES Shahid Athar, â€Å"Effects of Fasting in Pregnant Women during Ramadan†, Journal of Islamic Medical Association, November 1987. Hadith, â€Å"Studies on Fasting during Ramadan†, Islamic Horizon, October 2003. Kevin Grove, â€Å"Overeating and its impact on child†, Oregon Health and Science University, September 2006 Kristen Hurley, Janet DiPietro, Kathleen Costigan and Laura Caulfield, â€Å"Stress and its Impact in Pregnant Women,† Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, June 2005.    David Martin, Dr. Jennifer Cropley, Catherine Suter, Kenneth Beckman, â€Å"Diet modification during pregnancy affects the child and the offspring†, Children Hospital and Research Centre at Oakland, December 2006. World Health Organization, â€Å"Obesity related to cardiovascular disease in children†, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, May 2005. Frank D. Gilliland, Yu-Fen Li, â€Å"Smoking during Pregnancy affects the Child and Grandchild†, Chest Vol. 128, No. 5, April 2005, Pp 1231-1241. Mozurkewich EL. â€Å"Working Conditions and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome.† Obstetrics and Gynecology 2001. 96:624-636.

Neuroimaging Research To The Understanding Of Psychopathology Psychology Essay

Neuroimaging Research To The Understanding Of Psychopathology Psychology Essay Over the last ten years, neuroimaging techniques has been employed to an ever increasing extent in the investigation of the biological substrates of psychopathology (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as PET and fMRI have been successfully applied in the localization of sensory functions (van Eijsden et al. 2009). For more complex psychological processes such as language, fMRI is now used to guide surgical decisions regarding hemispheric dominance in patients with refractory epilepsy (van Eijsden et al. 2009). Although still in its infancy (Crowe and Blair 2008), neuroimagings existing contribution has been hailed as significant (Linden 2008, Radaelli et al. 2008). Reliable biomarkers are not known for most, if not all psychiatric disorders (Linden 2008). Limited knowledge concerning the aetiological mechanisms underlying disorders thwart efforts at primary prevention and hamper secondary prevention due to the lack of reliable, comprehensive prognostic markers (Glahn et al. 2008). The lack of pathognomic neural markers, difficulties achieving clinical consensus regarding diagnostic definitions and symptom heterogeneity within the existing diagnostic entities have encouraged neuroimagings pursuit of biomarkers and endophenotypes (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008); (Pan et al. 2009). The research agenda for DSM V underscores this theme working towards an aetiological and pathophysiological based diagnostic system rather than the current symptom and syndrome based approach (Pan et al. 2009). Neuroimagings contribution may be through refining, validating and augmenting existing diagnostic classifications or replacement of the existing phenomenologically d erived system with neuroanatomically defined biomarkers (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Neuroimagings contribution may be constrained by limited knowledge regarding interregional connectivity and interactions within the brain (Honey et al. 2002). Furthermore, the pathways by which genetic and environmental risk factors interact and impinge upon behaviour ultimately manifesting as pathological symptoms is largely unknown (Glahn et al. 2008). Complexity is increased further by consideration of the points of discontinuity between psychopathology and normal variation (Glahn et al. 2008). To date, the majority of neuroimaging research has attempted to correlate functional, structural and chemical abnormalities of the brain with the presence and/or severity of symptoms (Radaelli et al. 2008). Critics argue that neuroimaging research encourages a segregationist approach to psychopathology, attempting to map complex functions onto discrete, localized brain areas (Honey et al. 2002). This tendency has been influenced by assumptions within cognitive psychology (van Eijsden et al. 2009), namely that mental functions are comprised of modules with identifiable, specific cognitive content processed by a computer like brain (van Eijsden et al. 2009). Thus, elements of psychological function are assumed to activate specific, reproducible brain regions, a model known as massive modularity(van Eijsden et al. 2009). Traditionally, neuroimaging techniques have been categorized according to their data acquisition methodology, focusing upon structure, function, connectivity, electrophysiology or underlying chemistry (Pine 2006). Recent advancements in multimodal imaging (MMI) enables an admixture of approaches attempting to integrate the strengths of different techniques (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Rather than detecting actual neural transmission, fMRI relies on the paramagnetic properties of deoxyhaemoglobin, providing an indirect measurement of the coupling between neural activity and blood flow (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Similarly, PET is an indirect measurement of neural activity measuring blood flow, metabolism or ligand-receptor interactions of particular neurotransmitters (Zimmer 2009). Compared with SPECT, PET offers increased spatial and temporal resolution and permits imaging of a greater range of brain activity than SPECT tracers (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). However, it does not offer equivalent spatial resolution to fMRI. DTI tractography images neural tract trajectories, enabling the modelling of white matter fibres localization, orientation, connectivity and integrity within the brain (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008); (Honey et al. 2002); (Thai et al. 2009). Neuroimaging research can adopt either a whole brain or region of interest (ROI) approach (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008) with important implications for interpretation. As ROI approaches examine fewer brain regions than whole brain univariate approaches such as VBM, they offer increased statistical power with a concomitant decrease in explanatory power (Ecker et al. 2010). In contrast, techniques such as VBM offer increased explanatory and moderate statistical power due to the necessity of multiple comparison corrections. Therefore, mass univariate approaches may be too conservative to detect subtle neuroanatomical abnormalities particularly with small samples (Ecker et al. 2010). Additionally, neuroimaging studies can be contrasted in terms of experimental design ranging from block, factorial to the most recently developed event-related designs. Event-related designs permit randomization of experimental conditions throughout scanning (Honey et al. 2002), allowing the response to a sing le event to be examined in a context-independent manner (Friston et al. 1998). This paper will evaluate the possible applications of neuroimaging research to the understanding of psychopathology in terms of its existing contribution and developments which may arise due to further technological innovations in the future. Initially, it will provide a brief introduction to a number of methodological considerations associated with neuroimaging research. Following this discussion, it will primarily focus upon neuroimagings contribution to aetiological research of psychopathology. In addition, it will evaluate the application of neuroimaging techniques to diagnosis, prognostic considerations and treatment. The paper will conclude with a review of recent technological developments within neuroimaging and evaluate the extent to which these innovations may further increase neuroimagings application to the understanding of psychopathology. Methodological and Technological considerations Critiques of neuroimaging research as The New Phrenology in its attempts to locate complex psychological phenomena in discrete brain regions have been described as the localization fallacy. The complexity of conducting research with patient groups and interpretation of associated results is emphasised when patient characteristics are considered (Honey et al. 2002). Psychiatric conditions are heterogenous in their presentation and difficult to define as discrete and homogenous entities. This increases the difficulty in obtaining a clinically homogenous sample for research purposes. Disorder and symptom heterogeneity manifesting as inconsistent neuroimaging findings may be a result of different aetiological pathways, variability in compensatory processes, chronicity of illness or the patients unique symptom profile (Honey et al. 2002). These inherent difficulties have been demonstrated by conflicting findings of hypofrontality in Schizophrenia (Keshavan et al. 2008) and led to the foll owing conclusion as long as we are not able to disentangle the heterogeneity question at the clinical level, it is not likely that heterogeneity at the aetiological and pathophysiological levels can be resolved (Peralta and Cuesta 2000). If a well matched sample is obtained, their symptomatic profile may be a manifestation of the final common pathway of disorder rather than representing a group matched for common aetiological mechanisms (Honey et al. 2002). To counteract these issues, many neuroimaging studies have adopted a symptom level approach, for example exclusively examining AVH (Honey et al. 2002). Critics have argued that symptom provocation studies may be imaging interference processes, compensation for diminished performance or other co-occuring symptoms (Honey et al. 2002). If the assumption that symptoms occur in isolation is correct, their location within discrete brain regions may over overly simplistic, it is more likely they are an element of complex, dynamic neural activity (Honey et al. 2002). The phenomenon of pure insertion asserts that a phenomenon of interest can be identified or manipulated in isolation from other mental processes (Honey et al. 2002). For example, linear increases in cognitive load (task demand) may not be associated with linear increases in neural activity. Furthermore, is it conceivable that ruminations in OCD can be isolated from other processes such as memory, attention and speech? (Honey et al. 2002). The subtraction technique is the most commonly employed method to identify brain areas that are active relative to one another; therefore, experimental task pairs should only differ in terms of one parameter. This is based on the assumption that by changing one parameter, that only one aspect of processing is altered (Nair 2005). Neuroimaging results may thus be misinterpreted as the cause of disorder or the disorder itself (Fuchs 2006). Thus, there are a number of important issues to consider when interpreting neuroimaging results such as whether differences reflect a symptom profile, a diagnostic entity and whether differences within these groups relate to state related phenomena or underlying aetiological differences at the genotype level (Honey et al. 2002). These ambiguities have led some researchers to question neuroimagings utility to aetiological research advocating a focus upon diagnostic imaging (Honey et al. 2002). Recent shifts towards a focus upon systems level, dynamic connectivity within the brain appears to be counteracting neuroimagings characterisation as the new phrenology (Zhou et al. 2009). The complexity of neuronal function has important implications for the analysis and interpretation of neuroimaging results. It is necessary to quantify both the relationship between neuronal activity and indirect measures of it via the haemodynamic responses and the associated temporal delay (Honey et al. 2002). It has been shown that BOLD signals are more responsive to increases rather than decreases in blood flow, known as the haemodynamic rectification effect (Keri and Gulyas 2003). These matters become increasingly complex when the contribution of neurotransmitter release and reuptake, receptor binding and electrical activity to rCBF, metabolic changes and behaviour are considered (Keri and Gulyas 2003). For example, low levels of neuronal activity may not be accompanied by rCBF changes, in a PET experiment, the lack of activation in this area does not exclude the area from being involved in the response under examination (Keri and Gulyas 2003). In contrast to sustained stimulati on, rapid changes in the brains functional state result in a brief uncoupling of perfusion from oxidative metabolism (Keri and Gulyas 2003). Imaging procedures must also model the effect of major blood vessels draining activated brain regions (Honey et al. 2002). Existing technology does not offer equivalent spatial resolution across the whole brain, there are also inherent difficulties differentiating between excitatory and inhibitory activation when using the proxy of the haemodynamic response (Honey et al. 2002). The complexity is further increased when the impact of experimental design is considered. fMRI images particularly those based on block designs frequently are static representations of haemodynamic activity averaged over time (Nair 2005). Furthermore, activity in some regions may only be detectable with more sophisticated event-related rather than block designs (Fusar-Poli et al. 2007). However, it has been shown that even in event-related fMRI paradigms that short inter stimulus intervals result in an overlap of haemodynamic responses to individual events (Ecker et al. 2008), thereby precluding confident analysis of condition specific activity. It has also been demonstrated that path co-efficients within SEM fMRI reflect changes in the temporal characteristics of the HFR induced by experimental design (Ecker et al. 2008) emphasising the effect of experimental design on effective connectivity studies. Recent developments In recent years there has been increased interest in furthering understanding of interactions between brain regions known as connectivity analysis (Sato et al. 2009b). Functional connectivity refers to the dynamic relationships between brain regions typically based upon correlational analyses (Thai et al. 2009). Effective connectivity studies infer causal or modulatory relationships between brain regions or networks and their directional, temporal interactions (Thai et al. 2009). SEM and DCM are the most commonly employed methods to investigate connectivity within fMRI data (Sato et al. 2009b). In SEM, the strength of an interaction is provided by a path co-efficient measuring the average influence of one ROI on another in a specified time period (Ecker et al. 2008). For example, using effective connectivity, it was demonstrated that the sACC and pACC had a strong directional influence on the right amygdale during an emotional processing task (Zhou et al. 2009). Rather than occurring as functionally distinct, feedforward sequential processing stages, it was shown that mental rotation performance includes both feedforward and feedback connections with indirect evidence of parallel processing (Ecker et al. 2008). Machine learning and pattern recognition methodologies, such as SVM are powerful techniques for the classification and prediction of mental states so called brain reading or decoding (Sato et al. 2009a); (Sato et al. 2009a). SVMs are used to identify statistical properties of imaging data which discriminate between groups of participants or brain states (Sato et al. 2009b), essentially, whether a new observation belongs to a training data set or otherwise. Not only do they offer the potential to categorize, their ability to anatomically localize discriminative information generated by the classification process presents the possibility of brain mapping (Sato et al. 2009a). Potentially, this methodology could be used to describe a healthy population, measuring the distance of subsequently tested participants from normative fMRI data (Sato et al. 2009b). For example, SVMs ability to distinguish between visual and auditory stimulation was 95.34% +/- 18.77 (Sato et al. 2009a). ANN and SV M based tools have employed in the identification and classification of pathology of patients with Alzheimers or Parkinsons disease from control participants (Bose et al. 2008). The development of imaging genetics offers the possibility of mapping the biological pathways and mechanisms whereby individual differences in brain function emerge and potentially predispose individuals to risk of psychological dysfunction (Viding et al. 2006). It enables the evaluation of the functional impact of brain relevant genetic polymorphisms with a view to understanding their impact on behaviour (Viding et al. 2006). For example, studies of healthy adult 5-HTTLPR S allele carriers found increased amygdala activation, reduced grey matter volume of the perigenual ACC and amygdale and altered functional connectivity of the pACC and amygdale relative to the LL genotype. Furthermore, 30% of variance in behavioural harm avoidance scores during this fMRI challenge paradigm was predicted by amygdala pACC functional connectivity (Viding et al. 2006). Aetiology Significant ambiguity remains surrounding the pathogenesis of schizophrenia (Keshavan et al. 2008). Although the majority of psychological disorders are thought to be multifactorial in origin (Glahn et al. 2008), genetic factors appear to exert a significant aetiological influence on the major psychoses, twin studies estimating heritability at 80% (van Os and Kapur 2009). Structural MRI studies have revealed reductions in whole brain and grey matter volume as well as increases in ventricular volume (Keshavan et al. 2008; van Os and Kapur 2009). Reductions have been observed in temporal lobe structures (in particular the hippocampus, amygdala and the superior temporal gyrus) and the prefrontal cortex, thalamus, AC and corpus callosum. There is evidence of a relationship between superior temporal gyrus volume and positive symptoms; medial temporal lobe reductions correlating with memory impairment. Qualitatively similar but less marked structural changes have been observed in the affec tive disorders. Whilst structural abnormalities may be consistently found in Schizophrenia, they are diagnostically non-specific and may be common amongst patients across diagnostic classifications. Evidence of progressive brain changes during the course of schizophrenia suggests that structural abnormalities may be a result of early and later developmental dysfunction (Karlsgodt et al. 2008). The onset of frank symptoms has been associated with progressive changes. Using longitudinal research designs, deviations from normative development can be examined (Serene et al. 2007). For example, longitudinal studies of early onset schizophrenia demonstrated progressive grey matter loss across the lateral surface of the brain, with treatment refractory patients displaying the most pronounced and rapid cortical grey matter loss. However, the explanatory power of progressive brain structural changes as the primary pathophysiological process within schizophrenia is diminished due to the prese nce of potentially confounding factors secondary to the illness such as symptom profile, severity, medication history and status and the duration of illness (Karlsgodt et al. 2008). Furthermore, structural changes are generally subtle and of relatively small effect sizes (Keshavan et al. 2008). Inconsistency has mired findings of hypofrontality in Schizophrenia, functional imaging meta-analysis have calculated moderate effect sizes for activated and resting state conditions. Conversely, once performance differences are controlled for, patients have shown increased prefrontal activation relative to controls perhaps indicative of an inefficient frontal response to task demands. There have been similarly inconsistent findings regarding other brain regions. Functional imaging research has found alterations in prefrontal and occasionally temporal lobe function (Shergill et al. 2007), with speculation regarding a specific abnormality in the reciprocal modulatory interaction of frontal areas and the hippocampus (van Os and Kapur 2009). Hyper- and hypoactive network responses have been demonstrated depending on experimental paradigm (van Os and Kapur 2009). Inconsistencies in the functional imaging literature may be a result of the diverse experimental designs employed, non-uniform standardization of resting state conditions, lack of control for performance differences, typically small sample sizes and medication confounds which curtail the interpretability of these results (Keshavan et al. 2008). MRS studies have corroborated regions implicated by structural and functional imaging results demonstrating reductions in neuronal and membrane integrity in at risk and early schizophrenic groups. However, it can be concluded that many of schizophrenias putative biomarkers are of less than robust effect sizes, non-specific and too time consuming or expensive to consider implementing as potential diagnostic biomarkers (Keshavan et al. 2008). It is proving difficult if not impossible to explain the features of this disorder and its associated functional deficits in terms of selective, focal abnormalities (Fusar-Poli et al. 2007). The disconnectivity hypothesis of the pathophysiological basis of vulnerability to psychosis implicates abnormal interaction/disconnectivity of the prefrontal cortex, temporal lobe and subcortical regions (Fusar-Poli et al. 2007). Findings of disturbed functional connectivity of the medial prefrontal, thalamic and cerebellar regions in relatives of patients with schizophrenia have provided support for this view (Fusar-Poli et al. 2007). Although evidence for disconnectivity in schizophrenia is strong, its relationship to aetiology, pathophysiology and implications for symptomatic behaviour remain unclear (Stephan et al. 2009). AVH have been found to activate a wide network of language areas in the frontal and temporal lobes and limbic areas such as the amygdale and hippocampus (Vercammen et al. 2009). The subjective intensity of AVH has been correlated with activation of the primary auditory cortex. Schizophrenic patients who experience AVH have been found to activate differential brain areas relative to healthy controls and non-hallucinating patients with schizophrenia, displaying altered activation of the anterior cingulate and superior temporal regions bilaterally (Mechelli et al. 2007; Shergill et al. 2007). DTI studies have demonstrated differences in the orientation of white matter fibres relative to patients without AVH and healthy controls. Examining the effective connectivity of AVH using DCM demonstrated a specific impairment of functional integration between the left superior temporal cortex and the dorsal part of the ACC during the evaluation of self and alien generated speech in patients with AVH (Mechelli et al. 2007). This implies a relationship between impaired functional integration and AVH experiences, Mechelli et al, speculate that a similar impairment in effective connectivity may diminish patients ability to process their own inner speech. Furthermore, a whole brain DTI study illustrated that propensity to experience AVH was associated with increased fractional anisotrophy (FA) within lateral aspects of the superior longitudinal fasciculi bilaterally, the main connection area between Wernickes and Brocas areas (Shergill et al. 2007). Similar differences in FA have been reported in at risk and first episode patients. However, it is possible that these connectivity changes may be a result of experiencing AVH rather than being causative in nature. Increased frequency of AVH may enhance connectivity in these regions. Studies conducted during the prodromal phase permit the prospective investigation of the pathophysiological processes underlying vulnerability and development of the disorder (Fusar-Poli et al. 2009; Pantelis et al. 2003).Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated qualitatively similar abnormalities to those evident in established schizophrenia and bipolar to those present in first episode psychosis and individuals without psychosis but with a strong familial risk (Pantelis et al. 2003). At risk individuals who subsequently developed psychosis had smaller grey matter volumes in the right medial temporal region, including the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex, in a right lateral temporal region encompassing the superior temporal gyrus, a right inferior frontal region including the orbital portion of the inferior frontal gyrus and adjacent parts of the insula and basal ganglia and a cingulate region including the anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus bilaterally which mimics findings in probands of MZ twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia, first degree relatives of patients with psychosis and people with schizotypal personality disorder. Longitudinal examination of patients who transitioned to psychosis, showed a significant bilateral reduction in grey matter volume between baseline and follow up in the cingulate gyri, the left parahippocampal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus and left OFC (Pantelis et al. 2003). This study demonstrated that pathophysiological anomalies predate the onset of overt psychosis but that further grey matter volume changes are associated with the first expression of frank symptoms. It is unclear however, whether these changes represent a cause or effect of psychosis. Pantelis et al conclude that MRI may in the future prove a valuable tool in the identification of ultra high risk individuals. Neurochemical PET and SPECT studies investigating the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia with 18 F-dopa and 11 C-raclopride have shown that schizophrenia in its acute psychotic state is associated with an increase in dopamine synthesis, dopamine release and resting state dopamine concentration (van Os and Kapur 2009). Research has also demonstrated pre-synaptic dopamine overactivity in schizophrenic patients and first episode patients (Fusar-Poli et al. 2009) Studies of prodromal patients have demonstrated elevated Striatal 18 F-dopa uptake with levels approaching those of Schizophrenic patients (Howes et al. 2009). 18 F-dopa uptake in the ARMS was directly correlated with symptom severity and the degree of neuropsychological impairment. The most pronounced dopaminergic abnormality was found in the associative subdivision of the striatum in both schizophrenic patients and individuals with an at risk mental state (Howes et al. 2009). Thus, it has been suggested that pre-synaptic striatal dopamine function may be a worthwhile target for novel drug development and that these findings may provide a neurophysiological rationale for the introduction of anti-dopaminergic preventative intervention in high risk individuals (Howes et al. 2009). Multimodal studies of a verbal fluency task during the ARMS demonstrated an association between altered prefrontal activation and striatal hyperdopimergia (Fusar-Poli et al. 2009). Controlling for performance differences, there was increased activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right middle frontal gyrus suggesting reduced efficiency or a compensatory process to achieve a similar behavioural response as controls. Improvement in prodromal symptoms has been associated with a normalization of the exaggerated inferior frontal response during a verbal fluency task. Previous findings linking the degree of elevation of striatal hyperdopimergia with symptom severity suggest that striatal hyperdopaminergia may underlie both symptoms and neurocognitive dysfunction although it is possible that another pathway is responsible. The observed correlation may represent the effect of prefrontal cortex on striatal dopamine or vice versa. Crucially, this study demonstrates that abnormal ities which were heretofore regarded as key pathophysiological features of Schizophrenia are correlates of vulnerability rather than sufficient for development of the disorder (Fusar-Poli et al. 2009). Interpretation of ARMS findings is difficult due to uncertainty regarding the degree to which they reflect trait or state factors, that is, psychosis liability or prodromal symptoms (Fusar-Poli et al. 2007). Thus, neuroimaging findings indicate changes in gray matter structure indicative of connectivity deficits at the level of synaptic connections and neuropil allied with white matter changes indicative of large scale deficits in connections between cortical regions (Karlsgodt et al. 2008). Although several biological abnormalities have been replicated (abnormally large ventricles, abnormal dopamine concentration and altered P300) they are not sensitive enough (usually only seen in 40-50% of patients) or not specific enough (seen in only 30% of first degree relatives) to be of diagnostic influence (van Os and Kapur 2009). Anxiety Disorders Neuroimaging research of anxiety disorders have implicated brain areas involved in the stress response as being associated with anxiety symptoms, including the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala (Engel et al. 2009). However, potential brain structures implicated in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders are extremely difficult to image due to their sizes and locations these include the amydala, brainstem nuclei and periaquaductal gray (Engel et al. 2009). Neuroimaging of PTSD highlights many of the complexities involved in conducting this research. Complexities relate to symptom presentation in terms of their variable content and emotional arousal in particular during the retrieval of traumatic memories (Peres et al. 2008). Symptomatic heterogeneity is extremely difficult to control for, additional potential confounds include nature of the traumatic experience (s) and the length of time since its occurrence. It is questionable whether it is appropriate to generalize from i maging results based on a sample of war veterans to survivors of childhood abuse (Peres et al. 2008). However, the results of neuroimaging studies appear to offer support for two broad subtypes of PTSD, one being primarily dissociative, the other characterised by intrusions and hyperarousal (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Structural studies have demonstrated reduced ACC and hippocampal volumes in studies across a variety of traumatic experiences. Increased amydala activation has also been observed (Crowe and Blair 2008). Impaired hippocampal function has been speculatively linked to the memory fragmentation process observed in PTSD (Peres et al. 2008). However consistent findings of structural or functional change, they do not necessarily imply a causative relationship. Depression Research investigating the pathophysiology of depression have highlighted decreased anterior paralimbic and cortical activity in both major and bipolar depression (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). These decreased activation patterns are found to reverse with successful treatment. For example, in studies of major depression it has been observed that diminished activation of the dorsalateral prefrontal cortex can be increased following effective treatment. PET studies of the serotonin transporter SERT have demonstrated increased thalamic SERT in depressed patients relative to controls. Across the affective disorders, findings of hyperamydala and hypofrontality have led to speculation that these abnormalities may represent a critical pathway or potential predictive biomarker for those at risk of future development of psychopathology (Viding et al. 2006). However, it remains unclear as to whether these findings represent state or trait related function. The search for trait related biomarkers offers the potential to uncover early warning signs of impending psychological disorder as they may be present prior to symptom onset (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). The clarification of state related changes affords the possibility of monitoring differential responses to treatment over time (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Cautious interpretation of existing neuroimaging findings is advised due to the complexity of emotional networks and lack of understanding regarding their integration with higher cognitive processes (Malhi and Lagopoulos 2008). Diagnosis As of yet there are a limited number of neuroimaging studies attempting to classify or categorize disorder (Glahn et al. 2008). Ongoing research endeavours to uncover pathophysiological biomarkers complements the development of diagnostic imaging systems. The discovery of biomarkers of schizophrenia may assist in early diagnosis and haveprognostic value (Bose et al. 2008). Initial diagnostic research efforts focused on measurement of striatal D2 receptor levels. Although it appears that striatal D2 receptor levels are elevated in schizophrenia, inconsistent and variable PET and SPECT results (possibly related to samples tested) have precluded its use as a diagnostic variable (Bose et al. 2008). Machine learning and pattern recognition techniques provide methods for analysing imaging data that may improve the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis (Bose et al. 2008). Using ANN modelling of striatal [18F] fluro-L-DOPA influx constants, it was found that an ANN model correctly classified 84% of schizophrenic patients and 74% of controls (Bose et al. 2008). Sensitivity analysis revealed that the posterior putamen and anterior caudate nucleus were the most important areas within the ANN classification. The addition of multiple risk facto rs to the ANN classifier such as neuropsychological, genetic or structural imaging results may improve the ANN classifiers accuracy further (Bose et al. 2008). Bose et al, 2008 suggest the potential util