Journal#6 Example

Journal#6 Example Journal#6 – Assignment Example Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence Question Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood, and it lasts from age 11 or 12 until early twenties or late teens. Puberty marks the end of childhood and it is triggered by hormonal changes. These changes can affect behavior and moods. Puberty usually lasts for four years, and it begins earlier in girls than boys (Kail & Cavanaugh 243). During this stage, both boys and girls undergo growth spurt. They begin to develop primary characteristics, which include the reproductive organs, and secondary characteristics such as growth of pubic hair around their genitalia. The leading characteristics of sexual maturity include menstruation, for females, and production of sperms, for males (Kail & Cavanaugh 296). Menarche occurs between the age of 12 and 13 while spermarche occurs at age 13. The adolescents are often concerned with their body images that lead to obsessive dieting, especially in girls. Peer pressure is more inf luential than parents’ pieces of advice and guides, and this leads to drug abuse and indulgence in criminal activities. Depression is also highly prevalent among the adolescent especially girls. Question #2First, the social environment significantly affects the onset of puberty. I have since known that the onset of puberty is standardized in spite of a teenager’s social environment. According to Belsky, Draper and Steinberge, girls whose mothers use harsh punishment on them usually experience their first menstrual cycle at a younger age. Additionally, Menarche occurs in younger girls who experience depression or chronic stress (Kail & Cavanaugh 298). I also learnt that early maturation varies across ethnic or racial groups. For instance, sexual activity, of early-maturing Latinas, was directly linked with having older boys, in the peer groups, who influence them to engage in negative activities such as smoking, drinking and sex. Question #3 From the leadership perspect ive, I learnt that adolescents’ working memory almost has the same capacity as adults’ working memory (Kail & Cavanaugh 246). This means that they are capable of storing information required for a cognitive process. The processing speed is also sufficient to process information more efficiently. Additionally, early maturing boys are likely to become leaders because of self-confidence and high self-esteem, unlike early maturing girls, who are unlikely to become leaders because of the indifferences they have in social situations. Kail, Robert V, and Cavanaugh, John C. Human Development: A Life-Span View. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Services Marketing

Services Marketing Australian Telecommunications Company has continued to expand to address the demands of the market. It has remained a key player in the country’s economic growth, having generated close to $37 billion in 2008 and $98 billion revenue in 2009. The industry has over five hundred thousand employees across the country, working in various capacities (IBISWorld, 2011).Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Services Marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It has arguably been considered as a stimulant for employment in almost every sector of Australian economy. It has local and international companies which contribute to this tremendous global recognition. Among these are Optus and Vodafone which are considered as key players in the market. This paper gives a critique of the performance of these companies based on their weaknesses and threats with reference to the entire telecommunications industry in Australia. Vod afone is a UK-owned company and the leading telecommunications company around the world operating in more than twenty five countries including Australia. Vodafone Australia is the third largest Telecommunications Company in Australia, behind the giants Telstra and Optus. The company runs a GSM mobile network which is approximated to cover 92% of Australian market (Vodafone, 2011). It also boasts of a Globalster satellite which enables it to cover the entire population. Even as the company continues to thrive in an ever-expanding economy and market, it has had its fair share of weaknesses and threats triggered by intertwined factors in the telecommunications market. Vodafone Australia has experienced one of the worst network problems in the Australian market. Towards the end of 2010, the company registered pitiable quality in its calls, data speed, SMS reliability and voicemail services. It was faced with a class action suit for demonstrating incompetence in serving Australian people . To maintain its business reputation, the company responded by blaming customers for using faulty software on their handsets and use of Smartphones (Vodafone, 2011). Although Vodafone CEO offered an apology, the interruption saw several customers terminate their contracts with the company to seek better services.Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Additionally, expansion of the company has been achieved by direct regulation of its operations. Through mergers and acquisitions, the company has not realized organic growth. As a result, the company has a stable customer base at the expense of proper management of its subsidiaries (Vodafone, 2011). With its operational structure centered in UK, Vodafone Australia has failed to address needs of the market allowing effective competition from smaller companies. Moreover, Vodafone Australia continues to experience severa l threats as permitted by market trends and its ability to effectively serve Australians. Competition from major players and upcoming companies is seen as a major threat for the company. Telstra which is the leading player in the market, previously possessed by the government runs most of the copper network, offering landline, broadband and mobile services (Vodafone, 2011). Immense global penetration of internet companies further threatens Vodafone’s ability to penetrate the market in future. It is important to note that though saturated, the market still offers opportunities in terms of the aging population and changing needs for customers. Through strategic plans like simple phones and friendly pricing plans, the company stands a chance of favorably competing in market (IBISWorld, 2011). On the other hand, Optus is ranked second in Australian telecommunications market and is owned by Singapore Telecommunications Company. Headquartered in Sydney, Optus has retained SingTel s ervices and products like Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile Australia, Uecomm and Alphawest (Optus, 2011). In serving its customers, the company runs its own network infrastructure together with the use of other companies’ services like Telstra Wholesale. It has two channels of service delivery where it directly serves customers in the market and as a wholesale agent for smaller companies.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Services Marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The company also provides internet services through dial-up and broadband services. It mainly serves the government, business owners and residents of Australia. Like other players in the Australian telecommunications market, the company has weaknesses and continues to experience threats from a wide range of areas. Being owned by Singapore Telecommunications Company which has concentrated its operation in Australia, Optus is exposed to high co mpetition from local players and other bigger players in the market. In addition, Optus is faced with management issues manifested through labor strikes experienced before (Optus, 2011). This affects its reputation in maintaining a competitive advantage and customer base. Lastly, service delivery has not been up to date with customers complaining of low network connection speed and Cable TV services. Even though the company is ranked second in Australian telecommunications industry, it faces stiff competition from Telstra and Vodafone among other key players and upcoming companies. It therefore suffices to mention competition as the company’s major threat. Nevertheless, Optus prides on a number of opportunities in the telecommunications industry. With ever-changing technology, the company has a chance to expand its service and product delivery in order to address the needs of its young customers. It also plans to increase its customer base through TV mobile services by the en d of 2012 by use of FetchTV (Optus, 2011). Additionally, the company seeks to access government license to offer provisional satellite services that will cover Australian Broadband Network. This will win new customers across the country including remote regions which are not well covered by its competitors. In general, a survey of Australian telecommunications market indicates various viewpoints with regard to the performance of companies like Vodafone and Optus. It is evident that the two companies have weaknesses which have continued to affect their performances. Nevertheless, there are countless opportunities to be utilized in maintaining competitive advantage.Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References IBISWorld. (2011). Mobile Telecommunications Carriers in Australia: Market Research Report. IBISWorld. Web. Optus. (2011). Media Center. Optus. Web. Vodafone. (2011). Vodafone Company. Vodafone. Web.

The History and Evolution of Suburbs

The History and Evolution of Suburbs Suburbs are generally spread out over greater distances than other types of living environments. For instance, people may live in the suburb in order to avoid the density and untidiness of the city. Since people have to get around these vast stretches of land automobiles are common sights in suburbs. Transportation (including, to a limited extent, trains and buses) plays an important role in the life of a suburban resident who generally commutes to work. People also like to decide for themselves how to live and what rules to live by. Suburbs offer them this independence. Local governance is common here in the form of community councils, forums, and elected officials. A good example of this is a Home Owners Association, a group common to many suburban neighborhoods that determines specific rules for the type, appearance, and size of homes in a community. People living in the same suburb usually share similar backgrounds with regard to race, socioeconomic status, and age. Often, the houses that make up the area are similar in appearance, size, and blueprint, a layout design referred to as tract housing, or cookie-cutter housing. History of Suburbs Suburbs are not a modern concept, as this 539 BCE clay tablet letter from an early suburbanite to the king of Persia makes clear: Our property seems to me the most beautiful in the world. It is so close to Babylon that we enjoy all the advantages of the city, and yet when we come home we stay away from all the noise and dust. Other early examples of suburbs include areas created for lower class citizens outside of Rome, Italy during the 1920s, streetcar suburbs in Montreal, Canada created during the late 1800s, and the picturesque Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, created in 1853. Henry Ford was a big reason why suburbs caught on the way they did. His innovative ideas for making cars cut manufacturing costs, reducing the retail price for customers. Now that an average family could afford a car, more people could go to and from home and work everyday. Additionally, the development of the Interstate Highway System further encouraged suburban growth. The government was another player that encouraged movement out of the city. Federal legislation made it cheaper for someone to construct a new home outside of the city than to improve upon a preexisting structure in the city. Loans and subsidies were also provided to those willing to move to new planned suburbs (usually wealthier white families). In 1934 the United States Congress created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), an organization intended to provide programs to insure mortgages. Poverty struck everyones life during the Great Depression (beginning in 1929) and organizations like the FHA helped to ease the burden and stimulate growth. Rapid growth of suburbia characterized the post-World War II era for three chief reasons: The economic boom following World War IIThe need for housing returning veterans and baby boomers relatively cheaplyWhites fleeing the desegregation of urban cities brought on by the civil rights movement (the White Flight) Some of the first and most famous suburbs in the post-war era were the Levittown developments in the Megalopolis. Current Trends In other parts of the world suburbs do not resemble the affluence of their American counterparts. Due to extreme poverty, crime, and lack of infrastructure suburbs in developing parts of the world are characterized by higher density and lower standards of living. One issue arising from suburban growth is the disorganized, reckless manner in which neighborhoods are built, called sprawl. Because of the desire for larger plots of land and the rural feel of the countryside, new developments are infringing upon more and more of the natural, uninhabited land. The unprecedented growth of population in the past century will continue to fuel the expansion of suburbs in the coming years.

Curriculum redo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Curriculum redo - Essay Example The reason being, unlike older times, today’s industrialized world is heavily based on sectors of industries run by qualified individuals. This means that, only a person with sufficient acumen of business can run successful merchandise and only a qualified doctor can provide medical care to the sick. The reliance of this industrial matrix on the notion of transmission of specific quanta of knowledge from one generation of employees to the next ensures a continued, long-term importance of the profession of teaching. Like any other discipline, the discipline of pedagogy is full of theories and principles that provide groundwork for the educators, researchers and the teachers to develop effective classroom environment and lesson plans (Wiles, 2010). This does not only help the teachers in imparting knowledge to the learners in the most conducive environment but also help the learners to accumulate this knowledge and reflect upon it, thereby broadening their intellectual horizons (Weimer, 2002). One of the theories that arose in the past decade in this regard was the Curriculum Theory, which brings together the elements of theory and practice on one avenue. ... This paper examines the efficiency of two such ideologies in an instructional setting. It then merges these two ideologies in forming a personal philosophy of curriculum, which then forms the guiding principle for the personal teaching practice (Wiles, 2008). It is important here to establish few observations about the instructional setting in which the ideology implementation will take place. The setting here is a high school for at-risk teenagers at an adult county jail where the curriculum will be taught to English Language Learners. The setting is different from most high schools because of its students. The learners are mostly from the minority groups with poor financial background, susceptible to drugs, street crime who little no exposure to a proper school system before. To begin with, let us look at the Social Reconstructive curriculum ideology in detail and examine its appropriateness to the instructional setting. The social reconstructive ideology holds that the purpose of education is to reform the values of the society (Weimer, 2008). This ideology perceives curriculum as a tool of social reconstruction. This is important because this explains why this ideology is significant to the development of curriculum for ELL learners in adult county jail. The learners in this setting are not only materially disadvantaged but have also been victims of aggression, violence, and abuse. As psychology dictates, such adverse living conditions and unhealthy lifestyle not only affects the physiological health but also disrupts the psyche and the personality of the subjects making them more pessimistic and violent. Thus, the protocol of Social Reconstructive ideology influences this very aspect of their lives and plays a

Rear Window Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Rear Window - Assignment Example Bear in mind that this is a different issue than thinking about what happens in the film (though they are closely related of course). What are the bigger ideas to which the film is pointing us? Fear of marriage and Voyeurism form the principal themes in the film the Rear Window. As the audience, we should not be fearful of marriage and the imagined state of life and understanding each other. For instance, we see Jeffries fears marrying his girlfriend because of an imagined perception that she will not adapt with his lifestyle. Jeffries through his voyeurism finds marriage to be a complicated thing (John, 25). For instance, when he follows up Thorwalds’ marriage, which ends abruptly, he gets discouraged and resolves to denounce the idea of marriage. 4. Identify a number of different analytical positions from which we can approach any film. Define each of them briefly and explain why a feminist perspective has been used so frequently to explain Rear Window. The feminist perspective is used in the film the Rear Window to reflect the gender role stereotypes. The display of gender roles is best understood through the embracing of the relationship amid the primary characters Jeffries and Lisa (John, 24). 5. Rear Window is now nearly 60 years old. To what extent has it maintained is ability to create fear, panic, and tension in an audience? Do you think it would be a â€Å"better† film if Hitchcock had had access to the kinds of seamless special effects we see in modern movies? The ability to sustain fear, panic and tension for over 60 years since the production of the Rear Window film is possible because of the setting and the realism expressed in the primary characters throughout the film. Jeffries expresses fear when he makes a decision of not marrying his girl friend (John, 22). The fear that marriage is a difficulty institution attributed to his experience with the neighbors trickles down to the audience in form of panic and tension. Sigmund

Mid-term question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mid-term question - Assignment Example The two main factors that many authors have identified to affect the United States national security have been the non-state actors and the transnational organizational crimes. Non-state actors refer to organizations that have power and influence on both national and international level. The non-state actors do not associate themselves with any particular state. According to Hough, in his book â€Å"Understanding the global security† he discusses the non-state actors and the trouble and turmoil they have caused to many states around the globe for many years.1 Hough identifies non-state actors as the major issue that has threatened the global security.2 The national security of the United States has been affected by the emerging non-state actors around the globe. Most of these non-state actors are military-oriented thus being referred to as non-state military groups. The most common non-state military groups include nationalists, religious groups with strong beliefs, Marxist, fascist and armed pressure groups. The United States has fallen victims of some of these groups such as nationalists, religious groups such as Christianity and Islam and armed p ressure groups. According to Hough, these non-state actors have impacted the national security of the United States negatively by killing the American people, destroying the Americans property.3 This has led to the destabilization of the United States government since it exposes the security loop holes and the incompetence of the leaders. The United States gained its independent through the battles fought by the nationalists, and they gained the independence. The spirit of nationalism has never died in the United States, and this poses a threat to the national security. The religious groups such as Islam and Christianity related have affected the security of the United States and caused a

What Does It Take To Lead Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

What Does It Take To Lead Change - Essay Example It is the process of exploring one's own self-evaluation, thinking whether the way they acted in a particular situation is correct or not. Reflecting on one’s own actions is important for business development. It is a must to improve our communication style, clarify our expectations and put into practice the various theories learnt. In fact there are many programs like the Ignatius exercises which use role modelling to focus on various critical issues, kindle the emotions of a person, get a response and help them reflect on the same. These exercises give a person a chance to act with more maturity and calmness if they face the same problem in real life (Moberg & Calkins, 2001, p. 257 - 270). The project we selected to do was ‘Eliminating Job Satisfaction’. Our team believed it will help us to understand the work environment in the corporate industry better and enable us to act as better managers because we will get to know what different types of workers expect fr om their management and superiors. My group project enabled me to talk to various types of people. What we found out was that, nearly half of the people excelling in today's corporate world do so because they did not have a chance to excel in their field of choice. I realized the meaning of the word 'identity workspace' (Petriglieri & Petriglieri, 2010, p. 44 - 60) only by working in this project. The experience made me wonder if these people are so productive and capable in a field they have no like or dislike, how much they would contribute if they were only given a chance to work in their field of choice. Surely, the world would be a much better place with many more inventions then. The aim of our project was to reach out to at least a few people who are totally dissatisfied with their job and make them pursue their passion for their own happiness and the betterment of their passionate field. My team attended a workshop at the end of the project, which enabled us to reflect on wh at we have done so far. I got a chance to reflect on several incidents which took place throughout the project. The workshop instilled in me various reflections regarding the way I communicated to my peers, how I failed to make them understand some of my views and how I acted as a self-elected leader in some instances. The workshop did not teach us anything new, but helped us reflect on the way we acted throughout the project and question ourselves what would have been the outcome, if we have acted differently. There is a general notion that management studies will not be much useful, if a person does not have prior management experience. The idea was stressed by Mintzberg (2004) in his work. No matter how many hours you study volumes and volumes of management theories it isn’t equivalent to one day's experience of managing a team in the real world. Managing this project helped me understand this practically. I tried in every possible way to help my team but it only resulted in building more tension within the team. â€Å"Communication within a group deals with the spoken and the unspoken, the verbal and the non-verbal, the explicit and the implied messages that are conveyed and exchanged relating to information and ideas, and Feelings† (Group Dynamics, 2004). I understood where I went wrong and how communication was limited in our team while playing the reflective exercises in this workshop. I strongly felt the way I acted