Thursday, November 28, 2019

1301 US HIST The United States History Ch.23 Quiz Essays

1301 US HIST The United States History Ch.23 Quiz Essays 1301 US HIST The United States History Ch.23 Quiz Paper 1301 US HIST The United States History Ch.23 Quiz Paper Essay Topic: Literature What characterized the period Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover described as New Era in 1920? b.A freewheeling economy and a heightened sense of individualism Americas return to a peacetime economy in 1920-1921 was marked by? d. a 20% unemployment rate, highest to date In its efforts to create prosperity at home, the Harding administration supported? a. high tariffs to protect American businesses. President Hardings administration was characterized by c. scandals that involved many members of his administration President Calvin Coolidges economic policy included? b. reductions in government regulation of business What did the presidential election of 1924, in which Calvin Coolidge defeated John W. Davis and Robert La Follette, reveal about the priorities of American voters? a. The election results revealed voters lack of support for labor unions the regulation of business and the protection of civil liberties President Hardings most ambitious foreign policy initiative was? d. establishing a balance of naval power with Britain, France, Japan, and Italy. What was the purpose of the Dawes Plan, which was instituted in 1924? b. The plan cut Germanys annual reparations payments in half and initiated fresh American loans to Germany. Which industry formed the keystone of the American economy in the 1920s? D. The automobile industry The outcome of the shift toward repetitive assembly-line work and specialized management divisions in the 1920s was? d. a tremendous increase in business productivity and overall efficiency Who was responsible for the creation of welfare capitalism in the 1920s, and why did they use it? c. businesses created welfare capitalism to encourage workers; loyalty to the company. What did the authors of Middletown conclude from their study of life in a small Midwestern town in the 1920s? C) The United States had developed a culture in which everything hinged on money. Which relatively new industry in the 1920s linked the possession of material goods to the fulfillment of spiritual and emotional needs? D) Advertising Which element of the American economy during the 1920s lay at the heart of its fundamental lack of stability? c.Consumption Many Americans in the 1920s view Sigmund Freuds pioneering work in the psychology of the unconscious as ? A) a justification for impulsive behavior. In the United States, the flapper of the 1920s represented? d. a challenge to womens traditional gender roles Which of the following statements exemplifies President Hardings stance on prohibition in the 1920s? b.Liquor flowed freely in the White House during his administration Which of the following statements describes the Sheppard Towner Act of 1921, which gave federal assistance to states seeking to reduce high infant morality rates? a. It was womens only significant national legislative success in the 1920s One factor that diluted the influence of women in politics in the 1920s was? A) the lack of unity around the issues, which diminished women voters impact. During the 1920s, most American women who worked had? b. office and sales jobs The image of the new woman in American society in the 1920? C) was felt by all women, even those who believed in traditional gender roles. When black veterans of World War I returned home from their deployments, they found ? C. race riots and economic hardship. Marcus Garveys Universal Negro Improvement Association urged black Americans in the 1920s to? b. rediscover their African heritage and take pride in their own culture and achievements. Which of the following describes the outpouring of African American literature and art in New York City in the 1920s? d. The era in which African American literature and art flooded New York was known as the Harlem Renaissance. The rapid growth of radio in the United States between 1922 and 1929 was funded by? D. advertisers, who wanted to reach prospective customers in their own homes. What did popular culture and consumer goods have in common in the 1920s? d. Both were mass-produced and mass consumed. Which of the following statements describes professional baseball in the 1920s? d. (The game attracted players spectators from the working class) a game by and for the working class to help break out of the ordinariness of everyday life. Babe Ruth was prominent and said to have singlehandedly lightened the cares of the world. In the 1920s, Knute Rockne and Red Grange were associated with? c. college and professional football. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to? b. fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean One result of the loosening of the traditional bonds of community, religion, and family in the United States in the 1920s was? c. the emergence of youth as a distinct social class with their own culture For which group of Americans did authors Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Sinclair Lewis speak? c. Critics of American anti-intellectualism and materialism During the 1920s, rural Americans perceive cities as? d. idyllic places where they might go to enjoy restaurants, theater, museums. The purpose of the immigration laws of the 1920s, including the Johnson-Reed Act, was to? b. place strict limits on immigration. What did the outcome of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial suggest about the United States in the 1920s? D. Antiforeign hysteria was rampant in many areas of American life. What accounted for the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States in 1915? a. the widespread belief that blacks, immigrants, radicals, feminists, Catholics, and Jews threatened traditional American values. Which of the following describes the Ku Klux Klan of the mid-1920s? D) The KKK had a strong influence on politics in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. The central issue addressed by the highly publicized scopes trial of 1925 was ? b.the legality of the teaching of Darwins theory of evolution in Tennessee How did Americans respond to Alfred E. Smiths candidacy for president in 1928? C. As a symbol of all they feared- Catholicism, immigration, cities, and liberal attitudes Which words from President Herbert Hoovers 1929 inaugural address would turn out to be ironic in light of events during his presidency? a.Given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation. When Herbert Hoover took office in 1929, he brought to the presidency ? a. modern ideas about how businesses should operate Which of the following characterized the U.S. economy when Herbert Hoover moved into the White House in 1929? a. There was a huge disparity in wealth between rich and poor.There was a huge disparity in wealth between rich and poor. Among the fist signs of economic distress in the United States in the mid-1920s was ? d. a slowdown in the new construction and in automobile sales. The fundamental cause of the Great Depression in the United States was? b. problems in the American and international economies. What did President Hoover do to offer a solution to the human problems of the depression in 1929? A) He instituted a voluntary recovery plan, protective tariffs, and some government intervention, including public works projects and small federal loans to states. The purpose of the President Hoovers Reconstruction Finance Corporation, created in 1932, was to? c. lend money to endangered American banks, insurance companies, and railroads. By the early 1930s, unemployed workers were responding to the Great Depression by ? C) becoming increasingly outraged and turning toward militant forms of protest. Which group was hardest hit by the Great Depression? d. The unemployed, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers How did the Great Depression affect the American family in the 1930s? C) It created resentment among men, who lost their jobs more often than women did. The Hoover administration responded to the World War I. veterans who asked for the immediate payment of their pension or bonus? a. by ordering the U.S. army to forcibly evict them from their camp on the edge of Washington, D.C. Which group sponsored a team of lawyers to defend the nine young black men in Scottsboro, Alabama, who were arrested on trumped -up rape charges in 1931? b.The Communist Party

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Goldcorp Strategic analysis Essays

Goldcorp Strategic analysis Essays Goldcorp Strategic analysis Essay Goldcorp Strategic analysis Essay Awake Nelson Parsonage Sang Tap Table of Contents Executive Summary The report contains the strategic plan for Colder to sustain their growth based on an in-depth analysis of their current situation and the industry in which they operating. Colder, one of the lowest cost and fastest growing gold producers in North America, is looking to find sustainable growth options that would Increase profits. They have a strong disciplined growth strategy, but there are three mines which are at the end of its lifestyle which would greatly impact the gold production rate and market supply. Competitors have begun to acquire the same targets of Colder. The Kiosk mine acquisition was lost to Gaining Eagle after an unsuccessful bidding process. Stakeholders have also begun to speculate suspicious activities within Colder that may put their reputation at risk. Recently, the company has been kicked out of Guatemala from overwhelming public protests about violations of local human rights. An unfavorable company image would create uncertainty in their stakeholders who may withdraw their funds from the company. Relations with the public have been well-executed due to community support programs that create jobs for the public. In addition to those who are hired, Colder manages the highest safety precautions for every employee to reach their operating goal of zero fatalities. Colder will implemental mill scats reprocessing project Into other mines to extract any excess steel that comes out of the gold explorations. : They will be process and refined to create a new and strong source of revenue in the sale of these materials in as the current mines are reaching the end of their useful life. Gold output is an important statistic for the company and keeping it at its peak will be critical to the success in the industry. Another way to increase the gold production and mine expansion rate is to re-launch the Colder Challenge which was implemented 14 years ago. Properties with abundant gold reserves will be identified from remote locations all over the world at the lowest cost possible highest return on investment. Within the next 5 years, Colder will be at its most successful position in its history with increasing gold production and mine expansions. Progress reports will be done secularly to ensure the company is heading towards a prosperous future. Company Presentation Colder Inc. , headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of the lowest cost and fastest growing senior gold producers in North America. The company was founded in 1954 and employs more than 16,000 people (Colder, 2014). Colder is committed to responsible mining practices and developing sustained, industry leading growth and performance. The company is involved in the exploration, acquisition, and operation of gold properties in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America. In addition to gold, the Corporation also produces silver, copper, lead and zinc primarily from concentrate produced at the Pantsuit Mine and Lumbered Mine, which is sold to third party refineries. Goldenrods operating assets include four mines in Canada (Red Lake, Porcupine, Wharf Mushiest), one mine in the U. S. (Marigold), three mines in Mexico (Pantsuit, El Causal Los Fills), and three in Central and South America (Marlin, Lumbered, Pueblo Viejo). Along with these valuable assets, the success for company is well defined by its focus on five key attributes: growth, low cash costs, maintaining a throng balance sheet, operating in regions with low political risks and conducting business in a responsible manner. The companys strategy is to provide its shareholders, employees and business partners with sustainable prosperity with high quality assets. Colder is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: G) and the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company undergoes significant development projects some of which includes Cero Negro gold project in Argentina; the El ©Monroe and Connector gold projects in Canada; the El Morrow gold/copper project (70% interest) in Chile; and the Camino Roll gold/silver project in Mexico. On February 3, 2014, the Company announced that it had, in conjunction with its Joint venture partner, Barrack, entered into a definitive agreement to sell their respective interests in Marigold to Silver Standard Resources Inc. Internal Analysis Colder operates 11 mines throughout Canada, USA, Mexico, and South America. They produce 2. 6 million ounces of gold annually. The Red Lake Mine, Goldenrods top producer, produces over 2,400 tones per day. Despite a mid-year decrease in gold price in 2013, Colder was able to achieve its productions due to the Operating for Excellence program (Colder Inc, 2013). The program resulted in a significant efficiency and productivity gains, while maintaining a culture of safe and profitable production. Moreover, Goldenrods competitive advantage lies in the location of its mines. Goldenrods mines are exclusively located in Jurisdictions with low political risks mentioned in Appendix 2, Colder also has a strong relationship with local communities and are able to provide Jobs for them (Colder Inc, 2011). They understand the negative impacts of operating mines in the communities and were able to conduct their business that supports strong, vibrant and sustainable immunities. Colder received several accomplishments such as, safety awards in its Los Fills mine, being recognized as Canadas top 100 employers, and top 100 companies in the world in its sustainability practices (Colder Inc, 2014). One of Goldenrods strength is their disciplined growth strategy (Kramer-Miller, 2013). They have experienced a production growth of 10% per year. They further demonstrated their excellence in their growth strategy, with their development projects in Cero Negro and Lenore. These two projects are projected to increase Goldenrods production by 3. 5 million ounces annually. However, some of Goldenrods projects such as mines in Wharf, Marlin, and El Causal are nearing the end of their life cycle. They would have to address this by acquiring more assets to maintain its growth. On the other hand, Colder has a lack of stakeholder management. They received several human rights complaints in their mines in Mexico, and were kicked out of Guatemala for allegations including killings, attacks, and death threats against its opponents (Machinating Canada, 2010). Financially, Colder has a disciplined capital allocation strategy and has grown the value of its asset without assuming a lot of debt ($2. Billion in debt while having $20 billion in equity). However, Colder $2. Billion debt and a revolving credit facility of up to $2 billion has forced them to use a portion of its cash flow to service principal and interest on its debt, which limits their cash flow for other opportunities (Colder Inc, 2013). They also have a huge impairment at the Lumbered mine of over $276 million (Maintainer Index, 2014) due to changes in short term metal price assumptions. Along with declining gold prices, Colder incurred a net loss of $1. 1 billion in 2012. The analysis of the financia l statements shows that Colder had a difficult year. The large impairment that they recorded caused them to record a huge loss. While it is common for mining companies to use many estimates to determine assets, even without taking the impairment into account the financial are worse in 2013 as compared to 2012. The current ratio went down from above 2 to 1 . 1, although this shows that Colder can still pay off all its debt. In summation, Goldenrods financial while weakening are still strong enough to maintain their debt, and Colder looks to have a strong 2014 to counteract the weak results in 2013. External Analysis General Environment As mentioned in Appendix 3, in this environmental analysis of three regions, Canada, USA, and Latin America, we identified differences in the stability of governments between North America and Latin America. Refer to exhibit 1 for the full chart analysis. North America, a Senate and Congress operating under a democracy oversees Judgments made in fair and controlled environments, whereas Latin American governments are under heavy suspicions of corruption by third parties. All the regions have experienced a growth in economy; however, Canada lags behind in the end of 2012 with a disappointing growth rate of 1. Even with its title as the 10th largest economy in the world employing over 363,000 people in the mining zone known as the ring of fire. Therefore, the structure of the mines will greatly be affected and heightened safety precautions will take time and costs to deploy. Earthquake hazards will mostly affect the Western regions of the Americas, where weather patterns such as storms , droughts, and long winters will affect the working conditions. Technological developments play a big role in mining companies as they allocate a lot of resources, over $10 million into their RD departments. It is possible hat expenditures for RD will increase because the mining industry in Canada is the most technologically advanced sector. As Colder is a Canadian company, they will want to uphold their reputation and continue their innovation abilities. On the contrary, the United States focuses most on the retailing, space, and nuclear industry. Porters Five Forces As mentioned in Appendix 5, Colder is competing for dominance in the valuable metals and natural resources market. To participate in this industry, a very large amount of capital is required to operate mainly because of the technology and machinery needed. Human resource is also a big requirement to operate all the machinery and oversee the daily operations. Getting out of the industry is equally difficult because outstanding warranty or contracts must be honored. The sale of equipment or facilities which were purchased for long-term purposes might incur enormous losses if sold too soon. Competitors in the same industry generally attempt to effectively target the same clients as Colder. They are currently promoting their goods that attempt to provide higher value to gain market share. Colder has the abilities to support themselves as they are vertically integrated, supplying their own sources. This is crucial because controlling critical inputs affects a firms ability to compete and determines who will lead the industry. Colder can use strategic groups in an industry which can offer important insights to executives who can create unique strategies. Firms that follow the same strategies but differ in important ways from the members of other groups can change a firms ability to compete over time. One way of doing this is to borrow ideas from others to fit the company culture. Competitive Environment Analysis A full analysis of Goldenrods main competitors can be found in Appendix 6. We measured the process innovation, low cost structure, financial position, gold production, international expansion and location. Our analysis found that Colder Inc. Has competitive advantage in process innovation and low cost structure. Goldenrods strongest competitor is Barrack Gold. The analysis of the external environment and the factors within it shows that Colder Inc. Is fairly well suited to respond to the factors of the external environment. Appendix 6 shows an overall weighted score of 3. 91 . This illustrates an above average response rate to external factors. Matching (refer to Appendix 7 for SOOT Analysis) Goldenrods strong relationship with local communities creates local Jobs within the region. And as other miners retrench, Colder has the opportunity to acquire new mines. With this opportunity and their strength in community relations, Colder can take advantage of the community support to provide them with the HER needed for new mine acquisitions. Goldenrods disciplined capital allocation gives them the ability to spend up to $3. Billion for acquisition of new mines. This could be used to cost, and implement their innovative programs, such as the EWE. Currently, Goldenrods mines such as Wharf, Marlin, and El Causal are reaching the end of their life cycle. As gold prices are on the rise and with an opportunity to expand to foreign markets, Colder can expand to other foreign markets with large gold reserves to acqui re their new mines. Moreover, as demand for steel increases, they can implement Mill Scats Reprocessing Project (MSP) to extract steel from the mines at the end of their life cycle. This maximizes the utilization of these mines. Furthermore, Colder can use hedging strategy, to minimize the threat of gold price fluctuations. Also, as there has been an active competition in the acquisition market for lands with high reserves, re-launching the Colder challenge allows them to discover new mines with large reserves around the world. This creates new mines for the company to operate in while replacing the mines at the end of their life cycle. With the threat of tax and policy changes, Colder should acquire new mines that operate in low risk Jurisdiction to minimize these threats. Lastly, due to the lack of stakeholder management, managing stakeholder expectations about company growth and reference levels will allow stakeholders to continue to purchase stocks from Colder. Strategic Intent Goldenrods strategic intent is aimed at continuing to grow their company through increasing the efficiency of their gold production and acquiring new mines, while simultaneously maintaining the practice of gold mining responsibly and promoting the shareholder value and the health and well-being of its employees and host communities. Their mission is to be a low-cost gold producer with geographic diversification and low political risk while operating in a responsible manner with their neighbors, local communities, and the environment. In order to achieve its vision and mission, Colder has several strategic goals set to guide the company (Colder Inc, 2014): Develop meaningful and effective strategies for engaging with all stakeholders. Consult with local communities to identify effective and culturally appropriate development goals. Establish grievance mechanisms, based on international best practices. Partner with credible organizations, including non- governmental and civil society organizations. Identify and develop socio-economic opportunities that lead to sustainable prosperity in the communities and countries in which we operate. Integrate socio-economic, environmental, occupational health and safety, human rights, and governance best practices into our business processes. Make meaningful and sustainable contributions to the host countries and communities where we operate. Apart from the goals set by Colder, they also infuse several values to each individual within the organization: They believe in safe production, in which employees look out for one another in caring, acting, and thinking safely. They believe in a workplace with a safe environment and conditions for employees to work in. They believe in acting ethically, having integrity and treating people with respect, that discrimination, bribery and corruption are always wrong. They believe that doing the right thing starts from the ground up and is a state of mind not Just a set of rules. They believe in respecting all stakeholders, in building partnerships, being a team player, and treating people fairly. They believe in listening before acting, being a good neighbor, and open communication. They and taking straight from the heart. They believe in empowering others, leading by example, being a good mentor and a lifelong learner. They believe in innovation, in operating for excellence, questioning for possibilities, being resourceful, always looking for new and better ways of doing things. Leadership Colder believes in leading by example, mentoring, and taking responsibility. At Colder, although the main leadership role is played by the President and the CEO, Charles A. Jeanne, who has a broad experience in mining transactions, public and private financing, permitting and international regulations, the other senior level executives have well played the leadership role as well. Brent Burgeon, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, along with his team worked together with Winding catering, First Nations owned and operated business in the community, to build Windings capacity. With the increased capacity, Winding is now prospering and expanding in the other areas of the province. Also under the leadership of Brent Burgeon, the company partnered with several government organizations to help run a natural gas pipeline up to Airedale to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This will make cleaner, more efficient natural gas energy available to the local communities. In order to achieve operational excellence, Colder operates numerous programs including technical skills training, safety and leadership training, and executive development. Under the leadership of Charles Jeanne, the company designed various programs to boost up the leadership skills of the supervisors and the managers while continuing their focus on public and environmental safety in 2013 Supervisory Leadership Development Program: Designed for supervisors to develop their leadership skills Creating Choices: Specifically designed to develop leadership and communication skills for women in our workforce. Safety Leadership Training: Designed for supervisory and management levels to develop leadership skills with a remarry focus on safety. To inform employees of what is happening within the company and to guide or direct them in order to achieve a common goal , each year Colder regularly conducts Town Hall Meetings in which the President and Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives communicate directly with employees. Colder Inc. Provides an excellent example that you dont need to be at a senior level to become a leader. The Porcupine Gold Mine team implemented a Mill Scats Reprocessing Project in order to lead changes for a better Colder (Colder, 2014). This project allowed Colder to urn reject materials into recovered or recycled steel. They identified an innovative solution to remove steel with magnet. This solution leads to an increase in the net revenue of 4. 9 million in 2013. The company is looking for opportunities to implement this project at their other mines as well. Governance Colder is governed by a board of directors whose principal objective is to generate acceptable returns to their security holders. The board is comprised of Business people and former ambassadors. The chairman of the board Ian Teller was appointed in 2006, previous to that he was the CEO for one year. Teller has 25 years f experience in the mining industry, working previously for as CEO of Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. Their corporate governance is in compliance with Canadian and US order to avoid any agency problems. Control Mechanisms Ownership concentration Colder is a publicly traded company and the top 5 institutional shareholders are (Mornings, 2014): Institutional Shareholder % Held Van Eek Associates Corp.. 6. 1 Arnold S. Policyholder Advisers, LLC 3. 88 Royal Bank of Canada 2. 75 Franklin Advisers Management Inc 2. 30 BOOM Capital Markets 2. 23 The large stakes give the shareholders a stronger incentive to monitor the management and make sure they are acting in their best interests. Incentive Based Pay In order to align the interests of the members of the board with the interests of the shareholders, Colder has adopted a director share ownership policy. The director mu st hold common shares at a value of 3 times their after tax compensation. The governance committee is in charge of reviewing the level of shareholder requirements. (Colder Inc, 2012) Strategic Alternatives Alternative 1: Status Quo Goldenrods current strategy has allowed the company to grow into one of the largest gold producers in the industry. This option maintains Goldenrods strategy to continue to grow the company through acquisitions. Currently, they are in a good financial position, however, in 2013, they had a loss in operating income, which shows inefficiency in some of their mine operations. SF: gold production, innovative culture, KIP: profit growth, increase sales growth from previous year Cost: N/A Alternative 2: Implement Mill Scats Reprocessing Project into Other Mines This option will allow Colder to implement Mill Scats Reprocessing Project, a project that will turn reject materials with large amount of steel into recovered or recycled tell. Up to now, this project has been carried out only in their Porcupine mine through which Colder recovered 4,100 ounces resulting in net revenue of $4. 9 million in 2013. Mines such as Wharf, Marlin, El Causal mines, are near the end of their life cycle. They would have significant amount of excess material in the form of steel accumulated at their location that needs to be disposed. SF: Training by Porcupine mine team, geological surveys, low cost structure KIP: Additional recovered steel in ounces, Increase in additional net revenue Cost: Salvaging and processing costs will be within $50,000 $200,000. Alternative 3: Acquisitions and to replace mines that are nearing the end of their life. Colder currently has $3. 6 billion dollars to spend on the acquisition of new mines. In this option Colder would spend that $3. 6 billion on new mines to increase their gold output and help sustain them in the future. SF: Sizeable reserves in new mine, Close to the start of production or already producing gold, Low production costs KIP: gold cost per oz. < 1000$/oz. , 500,0000z of gold production per year Cost: $3. 6 billion dollars (based on their budget) Alternative 4: Re-launch the Goldcorp Challenge: The Gold Rush Reborn2 This option ill allow Goldcorp to reintroduce the "Goldcorp Challenge" that would change Goldcorp's profitability for decades to come. Colder did implement this challenge in the year 2000 when former CEO Rob Mclean addressed the company concerns of low gold production. And now when some of their mines are reaching the end of its life cycle, it is a good idea to implement the competition again considering the huge success of it in the past. The results of this competition revealed an excess of 110 possible mine locations. 50% of these locations were previously unknown to Colder and over 80% yielded significant gold reserves. The Colder Challenge will gather people of all backgrounds from all over the world to extract possible gold mine locations. Colder can provide their geographical data to the public. It will also give rise to the new concept of effective business from a remote location. Discovery of mines will be cost effective even though the researchers did not physically need to visit the property. The ROI on this project will be very impressive because of the absence of unproductive exploratory drilling. The structure will be the same as the previous, but the prize money will be increased to $2 million to attract more analyst refashions to Join. SF: Superior marketing capabilities, effectiveness of the data provided to the contestants, effective planning and budgeting KIP: Return on investment, market growth, increase in gold production Cost: $2 million for prize money Alternative 5: Hedging Gold Price This option will allow Colder to enter into a hedge contract where the price at which the gold will be sold at the future delivery date will be determined earlier. Since the future is unpredictable, this will prevent Colder from the loss if the gold price is to drop in the future. The risk for this option is that Colder would have en better off without the hedge if the price of the gold rises. SF: In-depth analysis of gold price forecast, worldwide Jewelry and industrial demand, gold production KIP: increase in profit margin, increase in sales growth Cost: Depends on gold fluctuation. The loss incurred due to increase in gold price at the delivery date compared to the pre- determined price would be the cost of hedging Alternative 6: Manage Stakeholder Expectations Colder has been under scrutiny in the past for unethical acts and suspicions of breaking human rights legislation and even suspected of killing a high ranking officer peeping them calm and confident in Goldenrods projects is important. Quiet stakeholders such as fenders dont excerpt a lot of effort into decision making, but without looking after their interests, they may choose to withdraw their funds from Colder and take their investment somewhere else. Also it is necessary to make the local communities happy as without their support Colder cannot run their projects successfully. There should be a meeting every quarter with Goldenrods investors, shareholders and senior level managements to maintain constant communication twine the company and the stakeholder to avoid frustrations or concerns in the company operations. Investors and managers across the country could be connected via phone or other communication medium. Regular updates about Goldenrods financial health or project progress can increase the confidence levels of expecting positive results. Also in order to enhance engagement to build up relationships with communities and investors, Colder could organize a program called Community first. Through this program Colder can make significant investments in community infrastructure and provide scholarships to local students. SF: Community support in human rights initiatives, government support KIP: Increase in stakes sold, increase in community participation Cost: Between 1-3 million which can be covered by 1% of pre-tax earnings from operation set aside as donation fund Proposed Strategy Based on the decision criteria matrix shown in Appendix 9, we recommend Colder to implement alternatives 2, 3, 4 and 6. By combining these four strategies, Colder will be able to maximize the utilization of mines by extracting unrecorded metals, maintain their growth strategy through acquisition of mines and maximize the geographical search for new mines. In addition to this, Colder will enjoy a healthy stakeholder relationship which is crucial for the success of their business. Implementation The proposed strategy should be implemented between now to next five years. Since stakeholders support determines the success of the other strategies, Colder should first focus on meeting the stakeholders expectation. They should organize a meeting within a month where all the investors, senior level executives and managers meet and discuss the companys future plan and solve any queries. They would implement the Community First program right away to improve relationship with the community and to gain their support. The Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for People and Safety will be responsible for implementing this program. This program will again be done once a location is determined for the new mines. The effectiveness of this strategy will be determined based on feedbacks from the stakeholders. After gaining the support from stakeholders, Colder can implement the MSP project in their three mines starting with the one that is closer o the end of their life cycle. This strategy could be fully implemented in the three mines by 2016. Once Colder generates revenue from the recycle steel, they can hunt for new mines implementing the Colder Challenge by 2017. The CEO, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Exploration should work together on providing geographical data and other data to the participants to make the competition effective. The success for this strategy could be measured by benchmarking with the previous results of 2000 when they first equability studies for the potential mines, Premium Resources, Argonaut Gold, Allied Nevada Gold, and Tahoe Resources, that they are looking to acquire. They should gather the required resources and project the capacity of each mine. After performing these tasks, they should present these options to the board to get their approval. To determine what mines we would acquire a factor analysis was done on 4 mines and is shown below. Based upon our decision criteria, we have determined that the best course for Colder would be to acquire Allied Nevada Gold and Argonaut Gold by 2016. The total cost for acquiring these companies would be 1 billion dollars. With the remaining $2. 6 billion, Colder would pay off all of Novenas outstanding debt at roughly $700 million and then use $1. 3 billion to expand the mine to bring production from 240,000 oz. Of gold per year to 800,000 oz. Of gold per year by 2020. The remaining $600 million would go towards bringing Argonauts mine to the production stage within 3 years from its acquisition. Projected Kips The following are the projected Kepis to measure success once the four recommended strategies will be implemented by Colder: Increased profits so sasss operating refits will be positive Increased gold production Higher return on investment Increased revenue from sale of recycled steels Reduction in number of complaints from local communities Positive company image for stakeholders Appendices Appendix 1 General Environment Analysis (GASPED) Dimensions Factors Canada USA Latin America Global Increasing investment in construction and infrastructure lead to an 8% increase in global demand for products like steel Demographic Population $34. 88 million $313. 9 million $589 million Age Age distribution is even Young population is dominate Ethnic Mix

Sunday, November 24, 2019

The Nature of Programming & Software essays

The Nature of Programming & Software essays In the 21st Century, computers have become an inevitable part of our lives. Over the course of the last few decades, it has greatly changed the way business is done. In the stock exchange, for example, buyers and seller can make trades right on their own personal desktop. Large quantities of stocks consisting of thousands of shares can be bought and sold very conveniently thanks to the evolution in computer technology. In general, computers have sped up the pace of life and have truly turned our world into a global village, an idea that was once thought to be strictly impossible. With the establishment of networks, a simple click of a mouse can link you to relatives who live on the other side of the globe. In addition, computers have made water and air travel less frustrating as airplanes and ships can now be monitored electronically via radar. Without the slightest of a doubt, computers have made our world a much better place. However, computer itself is nothing more than a useless piece of rock without all the softwares and programs installed within. What is a computer program? It is simple a set of instructions that tell a computer exactly what to do much like a brain to a body. The instructions might tell the computer to add up a set of numbers, or compare two numbers and make a decision based on the result. Often, programs allow the users to input their commands so the computer can follow the instructions and in the process do something useful for the users like balancing a checkbook or displaying a game on the screen or implementing a word processor. There are two types of programming high level and low level. While high level programming such as C is close to the human language, low-level programming are basically machine codes written in binary or hexadecimal. In order to write a computer program, the computer must be told, step-by-step, exactly what it should do. If this is done correctly, the ...

Saturday, November 23, 2019

The 5 Best SAT Apps How to Use Them Effectively

The 5 Best SAT Apps How to Use Them Effectively SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You might use apps to take photos of your food and put dog filters on your face, but did you know you can also use apps to prepare for the SAT? It's true! There are a number of apps designed to increase your familiarity with the SAT and get you closer to reaching your goal score. In this article, I'll let you know how you can use apps in your SAT preparation, and I'll name five of the best free SAT prep apps currently available. SAT Apps: An Overview As mobile apps have become more popular, the College Board, SAT prep companies, educational app companies, and individuals have created their own apps to help students prepare for the SAT. Those who have created the apps are trying to capitalize on the popularity of mobile appsand want to make SAT prep material more accessible for students. If you have an SAT prep app on your phone or tablet, you can conveniently study for the SAT wherever you’re at,whether you’re at home, school, or a boring family function.Also, studying on an app is more enjoyable and interactive for some students than is using a traditional SAT prep book. While most SAT prep apps are free,some do cost money in order to use them. Why SAT Prep Apps Are Not Enough SAT apps can be a good study tool, but you probably won’t be able to solely rely on them to hit your target score. If you want help doing that, check out our guides onhow to get a perfect score on the SAT and the best ways to study for the SAT. So why aren't SAT apps enough? Here are some key reasons to be aware of. For one, most SAT apps don't have adequate practice questions.Either there are too few of them or they're not representative of the questions you'll get on the actual SAT. As a result, you'll likely need more real SAT questions or more realistic practice questions to be able to sufficiently drill your knowledge and improve your content weaknesses. Secondly,apps don’t always teach you helpful SAT test-taking strategies.Most SAT apps don’t cover test-taking strategies in detail, such as how to read the SAT Reading and Writing passages. Finally, mostSAT apps aren’t customized to your skill level.To improve your score, you need to focus on improving your personal weaknesses. For example, you might want to get better at time management on the Reading section, or you might need lots of help with linear equations. Generally, SAT prep apps aren’t effective at determining where you’re weak and aren't designed to help you zero in on the areas in which you need to improve your skills most. Sorry kid, you're gonna need more than an app to get a 1600. What Makes a Good SAT App? There are specific qualities you should look for in an SAT practice app. #1: Tons of Realistic Practice Questions The best SAT apps will offer hundreds of practice questions for you to hone your skills. These questions should use the same format as questions that appear on the SAT and should be roughly as difficult as those on official SAT practice tests. Moreover, solid questions will provide you with thorough answer explanationsso you’re able to understand how to correctly approach and answer them. #2: Good User Experience SAT apps should be easy to navigate and use. On some SAT prep apps, the text is hard to read or the setup of the app makes it difficult to identify the functions and navigate among them. #3: Thorough Content Instruction A good SAT prep app will clearly teach you the content you need to know in order to excel on the SAT.After doing a lesson or reading an answer explanation, you should have no lingering confusion about the topic you're studying. A quality SAT app will break down the topic and thoroughly explain it. You should be able to start with limited knowledge on a topic and then, after using the app, understand it well enough to correctly answer related SAT questions. A bad app will provide only brief instruction, meaning you'll continue to be uncomfortable with a content area you struggled with. If you have any unanswered questions about a topic, you'll need more content instruction. Apps aren't always the best teachers. #4: Questions and Lessons Are Divided by Specific Topics A good SAT app will divide practice questions and content instruction by more specific topics than just Reading, Writing, and Math. If you know the topics on which you need extra help, you should know exactly where to go. If you need more help with comma rules, for example, you should be able to easily find instruction or practice questions to help you study that specific content area. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! The 5 Best SAT Apps If you want to use SAT practice apps in your studying, here are five that can provide some benefit to you. All are free of charge! #1: Daily Practice for the New SAT iPhone | Android This isthe College Board’s official SAT prep app.Every day the app offers a new practice question, which can cover any topic. This feature might not help you if it’s on a topic you already know. Since previous questions of the day are archived, though, you can access these instead. These are organized by section and can be sorted by difficulty level or even the date they were posted. The official SAT app also has a function through which you can scan an official SAT practice test you've taken and get it corrected. Unfortunately, many app users have complained that the scanning function doesn't work well, so be aware of this potential issue before using the app. This app is overall solid because it offersCollege Board-approved questions and explanations. However, it doesn’t have thorough content instruction, and the number of questions is limited. #2: Ready4 SAT iPhone | Android This app is definitely one of the best SAT prep apps.Itoffers the following features: Ample content instruction A mock SAT with up to 100 questions Complete answer explanations to questions 60 SAT lessons Hundreds of virtual flashcards 1,000+ realistic practice questions Initially, you take a short diagnostic test of 10 questions so that the app cancustomize a course of instruction for you. However, because there aren’t many questions in this test, the app might not be able to accurately determine your current SAT skill level. Though a great SAT prep app, it's not perfect. First,the content instruction it provides is pretty brief, so it might not be enough if you’re really struggling with a particular topic. The user experience isn't ideal, either. For Reading and Writing, passages and questions are on different screens, and it was a little difficult for me to find the underlined portions of the passages for the Writing questions. Additionally, the app isn't maintained regularly. The last update to the iOS version came in September 2017, which means that the content might be out of date. Additionally, old apps can be unstable and crash often, so your mileage may vary there, too. Lastly, the entire app isn't actually free. While you can access some of its features without having to pay, you'll need to fork out $19.99 for a premium account if you want the full experience. #3: Khan Academy iPhone | Android The Khan Academy SAT prep app offers a portion of the Khan Academy SAT prep website. (The Khan Academy is a partner of the College Board.) With this app, you get quality video instruction that walks you through a number of practice problems related to SAT topics. I enjoyed these videos, and I believe watching them is a good way to improve your content knowledge and ability to tackle SAT questions. Unfortunately, the app doesn't offer actual SAT practice questions for you to do. That's because the Khan Academy app isn't just for SAT prep...it gives users access to all of Khan Academy's lessons. All in all, you might as well just use the website so you can have access to the practice questions and everything else Khan Academyhas to offer. #4: SAT Exam Prep Practice Test / SAT Test Prep Practice Q A iPhone |Android The free version of this SAT app offers 300 practice questions, but if you pay $0.99-$1.00, you'll get 471 total questions, a mock SAT, and access to so-called â€Å"SAT Genius experts.† On the positive side, this app has many realistic Math practice questions and perhaps the best user experience of all apps on this list. Negatively, however, the explanations to the questions aren’t great, and there’s no real content or strategy instruction. Like other SAT apps, the app isn't updated regularly, either. (The last update was in December 2017, which means the app might be out of date and/or unstable.)Also, avoid the Critical Reading, Language Vocab, and Word Knowledge questions altogether- these don't use passages and are nothing like actual Reading and Writing questions on the SAT. #5: SAT: Practice, Prep, and Flashcards iPhone | Android This app, created by Varsity Tutors, offers in-depth study materials for the SAT's Math, Critical Reading, and Writing sections. The two biggest perks of this app are its user interface and its flexibility. First, the app is well designed and easy to use. You can pick subjects, practice materials, and even a flashcard deck quickly and easily from the navigation menu. Honestly, the app is justpretty. In terms of flexibility, the app gives you many different ways to study. Not only does it offer diagnostic and practice tests, you can also study by concept, choose a pre-made flashcard deck, or just answer the app's Question of the Day.It's also easy to focus on your weakest categories because the app breaks its content down by test section and subject areas. Lastly, the SAT: Practice, Prep, and Flashcards app lets you time your practice so you can see how much time you're spending answering different types of questions. On the negative side, this app- like so many others in this category!- isn't updated regularly. While it's stable and usable for now, it's not clear whether that will be the case in the future. Additionally, there's a chance the questions and information are out of date, too. The SAT is constantly updating its question types, which means you need to study current materials to make sure you're ready for the test. How to Use SAT Apps in Your Studying: 4 Tips As previously mentioned, SAT apps can be a good resource, but you shouldn’t solely rely on them for your SAT prep.Here are some ways you should use SAT apps in your study sessions. #1: For Additional Practice Questions In your SAT studying, start withofficial SAT practice tests. The questions on these tests most closely resemble real SAT questions, and the College Board provides explanations for all of them. Use one test to get your baseline score and to figure out how many points you'll need to get in order to hit your goal score by test day. Next, start to gather other crucial SAT resources: buy prep books, hire a tutor, and/or sign up for an SAT prep course. Once you've gathered your primary materials, use SAT apps as supplementary resources. With apps, you can do additional practice questions (once you've used up those in your books and tests) and can continue to drill your basic knowledge. I’d start with the College Board app since it's the only app to offer official SAT questions. #2: To Improve Your Weaknesses If you know the types of SAT questions you struggle with, you can use apps to do more questions related to those topics or to get more focused content instruction. For content instruction, Khan Academyand the SAT: Practice, Prep, and Flashcards app are pretty good. I’d also use the apps that organize questions by specific topics. Be sure to focus on the topics with which you need the most help. #3: To Change Up Your Study Routine If you’re always studying with the same SAT book or website, you can use an SAT app to alter your normal routine. Changing your routine can energize you and give you additional motivation to study. Just make sure you’re using the apps in a way that will be most beneficial to you or you'll end up wasting your time. For example, don’t just drillHeart of Algebraquestions if you’re already getting all those questions right in your prep. #4: To Take Mock Tests A few of the SAT apps offer timed mock tests and diagnostic tests. You can use these apps to simulate the test-taking experience. However, unlike the actual SAT, you'll be by yourself and you'll be doing the test on an app, so it won't be an exact simulation. That said,you can build up your test endurance and check to see how you’re doing with time management under pressure.You can also use these tests as diagnostics to help determine the types of SAT questions with which you’re still struggling. Best SAT Apps: Takeaways and Recommendations SAT apps can help you in your test prep as long as you ultimatelyuse them in conjunction with other high-quality resources, such as SAT prep books, a tutor, or a prep course. SAT practice apps work best once you already have a solid foundation. In other words, you should be familiar with all the content on the SATand be aware of your current weaknesses. Furthermore, keep in mind that you’ll have to learn test-taking strategies elsewhere. If you can afford to pay for a resource, our fully customizable SAT prep program improves your weaknesses,teaches helpful strategies, and provides plenty of high-quality practice questions. What's Next? Are you struggling to find time for your SAT prep? Find out how to balance your SAT studying with school,and learnhow to build an SAT study plan that suits your schedule. Want some more fun ways to prepare for the SAT? Try one of these six SAT prep games! Aiming for 1600 on test day? Learnthe secret to getting a perfect SAT score, written by a real full scorer! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses. We also feature thousands of practice questions, 6 official SAT practice tests, and personal feedback on your essays from an expert instructor. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Unmasking Victorian Monsters Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Unmasking Victorian Monsters - Research Paper Example In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Henry Jekyll begins experimenting on himself by drinking a potion that unleashes his dark side, a violent, brutish misanthrope named Edward Hyde. Eventually, he becomes unable to control the shift in personality chemically and it begins to overtake his upstanding persona and psyche as Dr. Jekyll. The novel itself is in the form of Dr. Jekylls last will and testament as it has fallen into the hands of his solicitor. The Island of Dr. Moreau tells the story of Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked in the South Pacific and finds himself on the island of Dr. Moreau. Moreau was a famous London physiologist who was shunned when his experiments in vivisection were revealed. He has exiled himself to this island where he can continue his experiments in vivisection unhindered by public opprobrium. Prendick learns that Dr. Moreau has created a collection of Beat Men who may, or may not, be under his control and resistant to their animal tendencies. Bram Stokers Dracula has multiple narrators although its principle one is Jonathan Harker, a London solicitor. Harker journeys to Transylvania to assist a client, Count Dracula, with a real estate transaction. Subsequently, Dracula arrives in England and begins to work his evil on a British woman, Lucy Westenra. As she wastes away the Dutch vampire expert, Abraham Van Helsing, eventually joined by Harker and his fiance, Wilhelmina Mina Murray, wages war against Dracula. Lucy and her mother both die after a wolf attack; the struggle eventually returns to Transylvania where Dracula is exterminated; one of his hunters, Quincy Morris, is also killed; and, Mina is freed from the mental and emotional thrall of the evil vampire. Indicatively, Moreaus creations are known as the Beast Folk. They appear to be neither people nor beasts but rather an

SWOT analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

SWOT analysis - Essay Example This is followed by analyzing the internal and external factors that complement achieving of these objectives as well those which hinder achievement of the same objectives. It therefore gives business leaders a sense of direction and changes which need to be made to achieve the set business objectives. A business stands a better chance of success if they do understand the opportunities which exist in a particular market segment. A company can also exploit the weakness of a competitor n meeting market demand. At the same time a SWOT analysis can help a company avoid a saturated market or taking on an established competitor (Snelling, 2012). A detailed SWOT analysis helps a company identify potential hazards before entering a market. This is crucial in laying strategies to overcome these risks. These risks include those that a business entity has no direct control over such as the economy, forex rates or government policy. It is always the goal of any business to increase profitability while reducing costs. Identifying the strengths of a business helps in optimal allocation of resources (Snelling, 2012). For example the company can know how much it should spend on advertising, public relations activities as well as social responsibility depending on its position in the market it operates. Conducting a SWOT analysis helps a company identify vulnerable areas in its operations which can be used by competitors to their advantage. Identifying these weak points helps a company lay contingency plans to improve and deter external threats by competitors. The first step involves assembling the SWOT team and setting the SMART objectives which need to be achieved by conducting the SWOT. The objectives of course should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). For example a SWOT analysis can be about expanding to a new market or starting a new product line. The second step is understanding the business

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Network Security Ph.D. Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8500 words

Network Security Ph.D. - Essay Example The weekly assignment, which covered various security-related topics, necessitated that we, as students, research the assigned topics, engaged with the material and, importantly, explore the multi-dimensional nature of network security. Added to that, weekly feedback on assignments offered us a clear indication of the topics which we could handle well and those which we could not. Following a review of the weekly assignments and the identification of the topics which I could write a good extended research on, I decided that threat identification and confrontation was an interesting topic. It was, however, too general and accordingly, I sought the advice of our Chief information Security Officer who directed me towards state of the art threat identification and mitigation technologies as a possible topic. The primary aim of this research is the examination of the technologies currently employed for the detection of a worm attack and its subsequent negation. Through this examination, the research will illustrate that by taking existing honeypot technologies and using them to populate unused IP space on a network, a honeywall could use these honeypots as sensors to detect and respond to unauthorized traffic. In order to respond to the research question, an in-depth investigative exploration of the network attacks and the technologies for dealing with them was conducted. The research was limited to secondary data and all sources were checked for credibility. Part II: Background 2.0 Introduction An understanding of the nature and types of attacks seen on the network is established first. Following the classification of attacks, a profile of an attacker is presented to provide a more substantial example of network intrusions. A discussion of firewalls, intrusion detection, and honeypots is provided to complete the background information. 2.1 Network Activity Lyle (1997) posits that most attacks fall within one of three main categories: attacks on integrity, attacks on confidentiality or attacks on availability. The act of maintaining the integrity of a network is the act of preventing authorized users of the system from making changes beyond their authority, and to prevent unauthorized persons from making changes at all. If the integrity of a

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Final assignment Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Final assignment - Movie Review Example Johnson from achieving her dreams with teaching. The students are derailed from concentrating in their education by drug dealing and other elements of street life that are unfavorable to education (Smith). This movie is important to me individually because it affirms my belief that, besides its use for language aesthetics, literally work has practical implications on the society. For example, Johnson uses Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan’s poems to challenge and instill hope in her students, and the results are visible. This movie embodies messages and feelings that are relevant today because it features real life issues that have endured through history. Issues of poverty, illiteracy, and drugs trafficking are issues that still make headlines to the present day. However, the theme of hope has traversed centuries and it is exemplified in this movie (Smith). Finally, the message of change featured in this movie is reminiscent of the present day endeavor to abandon the practices and systems that hamper progress and embrace those that bring

Monday, November 18, 2019

The roles of bias, Context, and the researcher in Qualitative Research Assignment

The roles of bias, Context, and the researcher in Qualitative Research - Assignment Example Ensuring the integrity of the research data is one of the primary priorities of every researcher. Consequently as a researcher carries out a qualitative research undertaking, it is important to understand the potential impacts of external factors such as environment, context, personal bias as well as the role of the researcher on the integrity of the research data. For example, in a qualitative research, bias often the reliability, validity of the findings by distorting the truth or skewing the collected qualitative data. On the other hand, the researcher is also considered an important instrument in a qualitative research and some of the roles of a researcher include gathering data as well as interacting and collaborating with the participants in the research (Brown, 1996). This paper describes the results of my personal observation of a photograph in correlation to the roles of context, bias and the research during a qualitative research study. Description of the results The results of my observation suggested that the photo requires a qualitative analysis to capture all the required qualitative data and any non-numerical information that a company can use in performance analysis. The use of qualitative data to support businesses in decision-making provides a business with the detailed picture of the performance of individuals. The use of qualitative research by Health Plus creates openness in the organization (Creswell, 1994).

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Higher education Essay Example for Free

Higher education Essay Security, quality education, access to healthcare, prospects of a reasonable job on merit and sound economy are the ingredients to be provided by the state to its citizens to run the state and the society smoothly. Growth of successful nations is denoted particularly to the education. There was a time when people believed that higher education should be available to people of all social classes and, obviously, it was freely available to all who wanted it. The fact that it is not, that public education was once available and now it is very hard to access is indicative of deep problems in Pakistan. Encouraging colleges and universities to raise their own resources by charging higher fees has clearly excluded a significant section of students belonging to poor sections of the society. Education in Pakistan is now so expensive that poor can’t even imagine of their children becoming doctors and engineers. Our education system is passing through a very bad phase now and it is regarded as perhaps amongst the poorest in the world. Cream of the Pakistani brain is either becoming idle due to non-availability of ever rising cost of education or going to other countries. UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS Article 1 provides; every child has the right to have equal access to an education, irrespective of their color, creed, nationality, ethnicity, or social and financial status, so they may obtain gainful employment and contribute to the growth of their society, being born free and equal in dignity and rights. Life for a common man in Pakistan in this so called â€Å"democratic† regime has already become difficult owing to the all-round price rise across the country. Inflation, combined with policies of privatization, has caused a complete deterioration in living standards of the people. Frankly speaking, there is no such thing as democracy in Pakistan. This type of â€Å"democracy† has often left the common man in constant struggle for survival. Majority of Pakistanis are living in poverty and unsustainable economic conditions; when they are struggling for their livelihood education loses its utility in their eyes and it becomes far from their desire. But for the riches and powerful corrupt politicians, things are very rosy. Pakistan is suffering terribly for that, with socio-political and economic crises strewn all over the society like a straw hut in a typhoon. Lack of good education and unemployment in Pakistan would contribute many social ills, including crime, prostitution, and the break down in law and order. In Pakistan, providing education to the masses had always been state responsibility. Now there has been a major push for the private provision of educational services. Moreover, corrupt politicians, feudalism, injustice are such problems which have further pressed the most pressed people of the country. Education is a tremendous tool for social change as well as an opportunity out of poverty traps. People trapped in the lower classes have trouble climbing out of it because they lack the tools to do so, because they live in a feudal society that actively works to keep them there, and education can be a form of escape hatch. But Education System in Pakistan In Human development Report Pakistan is placed at 136th position for having just 49. 9% educated population. In addition to that, Pakistan is ranked at 113th out of 120 registered UN members according to the research conducted by UNESCO et. all. Some of the very basic flaws of the education system in Pakistan contribute to the economic, ethnic and sociopolitical crisis within the country. Flaws of Education System in Pakistan Firstly, the education system of Pakistan is based on unequal lines. Medium of education is different in both, public and private sector. This create a sort of disparity among people, dividing them into two segments. Such a distraught infrastructure is a basic cause of high illiteracy rate in Pakistan and high drop out rates in rural areas and public school. Secondly, regional disparity is also a major cause. The schools in Balochistan (the largest province of Pakistan by Area) are not that much groomed as that of Punjab (the largest province Of Pakistan by Population). In FATA, the literacy rate is deplorable constituting 29. 5% in males and 3% in females. The third major cause of flawed education system in Pakistan is gender discrimination. The current primary school ratio of boys and girls is 10:4, which is a cause of huge concern. For the last few years there has been an increase in the growth of private schools. It is believed that Pakistan is among the most prominent states affected by gender discrimination. That not only harms the quality of education in Pakistan but create a gap among haves and have nots. Fourthly, the lack of technical education is a biggest flaw in the education policy that has never been focused before. Therefore, less technical people means low standard of education. Fifthly, the allocation of funds for education are very low. It is only 1. 5 to 2. 0 percent of the total GDP. It should be around 7% of the total GDP. At that budget allocation, the illiteracy rate in Pakistan would not decrease but rather increase. The federal and provincial governments need to cut down their expenditures in other areas and spend a bigger proportion of income on education. Moreover, the quality of education in most of the public schools and colleges is well below par; the teachers in government schools are not well trained. People who do not get job in any other sector, they try their luck in educational system. They are not professionally trained teachers so they are unable to train a nation. Quality of teaching needs special attention in rural areas where the teachers lack in all departments. In America, Europe and most of the developed countries, the emphasis of the states is on developing virtual education systems i. e. provision of education through online networks. The idea of online education is gathering momentum and many online institutions have been set up which offer online courses and online degrees. The Higher Education Commission and Education ministry need to focus on developing a strong online education network so that students through out the country can benefit. Universities such as Harvard, Berkley and MIT are offering online courses and degrees. It reflects the importance of online education in todays modern high tech world. Finally, Poverty is also another factor that restrict the parents to send their children to public or private schools. So, they prefer to send their children to Madrassas where education is totally free. The government has to make changes to financial infrastructure to improve the situation. Bank loans for education purposes should not be interest based as it discourages the people of Pakistan to acquire loans. Education loans are offered at low rates through out the world and it enable people to acquire quality education. Social awareness regarding all these issues need to be spread and we, the people of Pakistan have to work hand in hand with the government authorities to improve the current system. Our children should not be deprived of their basic right to acquire knowledge. All these issues contribute to high illiteracy rate, which in turn result in economic crisis in shape of high unemployment rate and below-par quality of labor. Moreover, the country suffers on social, political and technological front! There are hundred other problems which need attention but the core-issues need to be addressed as soon as possible. You can read my article Pakistans Educational System which is an overview of the education infra-structure within the country. In todays world, the benchmark for excellence is education. Moreover, if a country has a distraught academic infrastructure, the chances to survive in current competitive world are petite. The illiteracy rate in Pakistan is alarmingly high which calls for critical attention. The federal and provincial governments need to work together towards elimination of flaws of education system in Pakistan. The first time I thought about education and its significance to this society was when I went on a field trip to a school set up by an NGO in the late 1990s. It is now a rightly famous NGO but back then during my sixth grade field trip it just seemed like a project of a group of cranky Karachi businessmen who had decided to spit against the wind of the government’s non-interest in providing education to its people. These rich grouches had  gotten together in the chaos of 1995 Karachi and seeing the government more interested in massacring hard-boiled militants than provide social services, they decided to simply pool their own money and build their own schools. How benevolent of them. I would love to see these rich men’s tax receipts. The citizens of a country shouldn’t be dependent on the benevolent charity of rich men. Through their own democratic political process, citizens must enforce upon their richest members the income taxes necessary to fund an education system that reaches every child in the state. The fact that Pakistanis have not done so points towards the weakness of their political system in dealing with its population’s educational needs. There is no real shortcut from the state actually enforcing a tax system that extracts the adequate revenue needed to fund the creation of a school near every human settlement in Pakistan. The goal I have described of having a school near every human settlement in Pakistan, is what Pakistan is obligated to do under its current international treaties and the simplest and most straightforward way it can be done. It is certainly not impossible. Pakistan has managed to make sure that no human settlement lacks a mosque. The same needs to be done for schools. Where we went wrong Nationalisation of schools, as was done by the Z. A. Bhutto administration, was a shortcut that cannot be used, and was actually instrumental in ruining government schools. The provincial governments that ran education departments became overstretched then to the point of breaking. The schools that were nationalised saw the prospect of future capital and human investment in them pointless, as the former owners were now dispossessed of their old stake in the schools. Good teachers left, rather than become government employees to be posted in far flung places, and the lack of good teacher training colleges, a necessity unacknowledged up until recently, saw little competent replacement. By nationalising the missionary (Christian), faith-based (Muslim) and private schools, an unwieldy, unplanned expansion of Pakistan’s school system reduced the status of government school teachers to the corrupted, incompetent, ineffective place it finds itself in today. Teachers do not come to classes, and if they do, they are ill-prepared to teach. It becomes difficult to weed out and penalise underperforming teachers because their status as government employees prevents them from being penalised as they would be in the private sector. As much as this rhetoric may sound similar to the United States, Pakistan’s teachers’ unions continue to shelter wildly incompetent teachers, who beyond being simply bad at teaching, many times do not even show up. Anti-participatory environment We are not helped either by large class sizes, low teacher to student ratios, non-production of teachers in a sufficient quantity and quality by the low number of Pakistani teacher-training colleges. Central to this remains the criminally low expenditure on education by Pakistan, and the failure to collect or divert enough revenue to the education sector. Taking the education emergency of Pakistan seriously would mean finding means to increase the amounts spent on education in Pakistan, on a war footing. Students cannot themselves push for an effective learning environment. Despite the fact that some students actually do want to learn, the environment that exists in classrooms, does not brook dissent. This discourages students from bringing up flaws in their educational setting. This anti-participatory environment in classrooms is facilitated by excessively large class sizes, which discourages teachers from having more individualised interactions with students. This anti-participatory trend in classrooms is complemented by an anti-democratic trend in schools, where no voting is done to elect new prefects or monitors, rather the relevant students are appointed by the school administration. Giving students an opportunity to actually vote for their school leaders might inculcate democratic and participatory values in them at an earlier age, and teach them the responsibility of making their own decisions. If and when these students reach Pakistani universities, they can adequately recognise the entrenched authoritarianism accumulated in many of Pakistan’s universities over the last three decades. Student politics This persistent anti-democratic trend within Pakistan’s educational establishments has reinforced the low academic quality of these institutions. There is little legitimate input from the student bodies on how their education is conducted. Since the 1980s student union elections have been either banned or delayed, witnessing unrest in a violent country like Pakistan ripple into campuses as violence, as opposed to measured  debate. The situation turned chaotic in the 1990s when the general mayhem of the city of Karachi coincided with violence on the Karachi University campus. The presence of such violence made the students of that decade disinterested in participatory politics. This suited the authoritarian and bureaucratic administrations of varsities, as well as the sclerotic, unelected leadership of Pakistan’s political parties. They did not mind that the students of Pakistan slid into political apathy. However, the importance of student politics was re-kindled in the 2007 lawyer-led movement against the dictatorship of General Musharraf. The importance of student politics was even acknowledged by the government that won against Musharraf in 2008, when it lifted the ban on student and trade union elections. However, the twist in the tale has been the glaring domestic democratic deficit of this government. The anti-participatory atmosphere on campuses has not lifted as no memorable student elections have been held. Neither have any well-publicised trade union elections been held. And most significantly, no internal party elections have been held in any party that maintains a decisive number of seats in parliament. What the lack of student democracy has to do with Pakistan’s state of education is that there is no feedback from students, who are the objects of education. There is no diminishment in the cruel authoritarian atmosphere of Pakistani government classrooms, where teachers, in negligent enough environments can still use sticks to punish students. I never really thought about education in society as a child. That would have been expected of any 11 year old. But when I visited a third grade NGO school classroom in the late ’90s and saw another 11 year old struggling with phrases I would read just for fun, it hit me how serious the problem of illiteracy was for Pakistani society. In a misbegotten decade as that one, beyond the Gordian knot we had witnessed of Karachi’s bloody politics, the reality of children’s mis-education struck me as a crueler fate, a dire issue that had to be resolved immediately. That’s because these ill-educated children would not remain children much longer. They would soon be badly-educated adults. And if this cruel act of omission by Pakistani society was not amended quick enough, then one more generation would see their adulthoods wasting away under the 21st century curse of illiteracy. Tax the rich, teach the kids. We have an education emergency on our hands. The Education System of Pakistan is divided into five levels 1. Primary level (Class 1 to 5) 2. Middle level (Class 5 to 8th) 3. Secondary level (S. S. C) 4. Intermediate level (H. S. C) 5. University level (Graduation, Masters and Research) Another division of Education System in Pakistan according to the School System 1. 1. Public Schools or Government Schools These schools are managed and financed by the government. Unfortunately, the majority of the schools are in poor condition.  » There is no any merit system; teachers and other staff are appointed by the ministers on their own wishes.  » There is no any accountability; a large number of GHOST SCHOOLS AND GHOST TEACHERS are listed in the documents. They are receiving funds and pays, but, in reality they did not exists.  » In Rural areas, the buildings of public schools are mostly held by Waderas and Feudal. They use them as marriage halls, otaks, bethaks etc. â€Å"Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality. † (Henry Fielding) 1. 2. Elite Class Schools (private schools) Due to badly failure of government in providing the Education, the Elite Class Education System in Pakistan got successes very quickly. Today, even poor prefer to send their child in these private schools but because of high fee structure many aspirants are unable to part this Education System. It is generally accepted that, the standard of Elite Class Education System is more reliable and first-rate than Public Schools and Madarsas. There is accountability, transparency and checking system. Generally, the students of private schools are more competent than those of public schools and Madarsas. The government should take lessons from this Education System. These are successive models for the government i. e. CITY SCHOOL, BEACON SCHOOLS, PAK-TURK SCHOOLS etc. 1. 3. Madarsas Madarsas are the largest NGOs of the world. Today in Pakistan about 8000 Madarsas are working. They provide not only Education but also accommodation and food. They provide Islamic as well as worldlyEducation. Mostly, poor parents who are unable to educate their child prefer this Education System. The government should introduce the reforms for the Madarsas and improve their standard. This will be helpful in two ways. Firstly, it will provide free of cost education to poor child. Secondly, it will lessen the burden the government. Before the 18th Amendment, the EducationSystem in Pakistan was the responsibility of Federal Government. The Ministry of Education at Federal level was responsible for formulating Policies, Planning and Promotion of Educational facilities across the country. But, after the passing of 18th Amendment, the responsibilities of Education System are divided among the Federation and the Provinces. The responsibilities of the Provinces 1. To set the Curriculum 2. To set the Syllabus 3. Standards of Education up to Grade 12 (F. Sc, H. S. C, I. Com, etc). 4. Islamic Education The responsibilities of Federation are following 1. Planning and Policy 2. External Affairs; Signing, implementation and monitoring of Bilateral and Multi-lateral Educational Agreements, Pacts, Protocols, MoUs 3. Controlling of Libraries, museums, and similar institutions 4. Federal agencies i. e. FATA 5. Special Studies 6. Inter-provincial matters and co-ordination. † 7. Legal, medical and other professions. 8. National planning and national economic coordination including planning and coordination of scientific and technological research. 9. National Education Policy and clear cut Domain over the following acts. 1. 1. Centres of Excellence Act 1974 2. Area Study Centres Act 1975 3. Pakistan Study Centres Act 1976 4. National Book Foundation Act 1972 5. Fed. Board of Intermediate Sec Education Act 1975 6. Federal Directorate of Education Isb. [Article 142 (d)] 7. Federal Supervision of Curricula, Textbooks and Standards of Education Act 1976 8. National Education Foundation Ordinance 2002. Source: http://www. defence. pk/forums/national-political-issues/125588-education-system-pakistan-good-bad. html#ixzz2PKkMjbtM Flaws hovering over Pakistan’s education system Filed under ISSUES 0 According to the reports of Human development our country is placed at 136th with just 49. 9 percent educated population. There is lack of uniform education system. Private and Govt. educational institutions has different syllabus. The flaws in education system lead to sociopolitical, economic and ethical issues in our society. Our education system is based on uneven lines. Even the medium of education is different in private and public educational institutions. This inequality has divided people among two segments. Such a distressed educational infrastructure is a crucial cause of increasing rate of illiteracy in Pakistan. The regional discrepancy is also main reason illiteracy in Pakistan. The schools in largest province of Pakistan Baluchistan are not establish and sparked as schools in Punjab. There is lack of awareness among people about the significance of education. In FATA the literacy rate is very poor constituting 29. 5% in men and 3% in women. The gender discrimination is also one of the major causes of educational flaws in country which is projecting the boys and girls primary schools ratio 10:4 correspondingly. In the last few years many new primacy schools for girls and boys are established but still there is need to establish more and more primary schools to meet the educational needs of increasing population. In the last decade the growth of private sector schools is tremendously increased. The private schools trend not just harms the quality of education but also created a huge gap between rich and poor. The people of lower class couldn’t afford the fees of private educational schools and colleges. In public schools there is lack of quality education. There is also shortage of required facilities like qualified, train staff, furniture and school buildings etc. Our educational policy doesn’t focus on technical education. There are very few technical institutions and less technical trained people in country. The funds allocated for the education are not sufficient the funds are just about 1. 5 % to 2. 0% of total GDP. Although to promote the education the funds must be about 7 percent of total country GDP. With increased education budget the literacy rate in country will surely increased. The provincial and federal Government both need spend a larger portion of their income on promoting education. Author: Rizwan Ghani Posted On: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 Source/Reference: www. pakobserver. net Total Views :1320| After 18th Amendment, improvement of education in Pakistan to international standards can be done with help of international frameworks including Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and boards like National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). Federal and provincial governments have to address the issue of teaching language (English, Urdu or regional languages), standardization of curriculum, and dealing with two-track education system- Urdu and English medium to take local and international exams. These tested frameworks can bring the progress of decades in Pakistan while saving billions of dollars. Thus, Pakistan needs to adopt appropriate policies to raise education standards, sustain economy and earn foreign exchange. The political, social and education complexities of teaching language can be controlled with help of international frameworks. PISA does not require the member states to change curriculums, teaching languages and teaching methodologies. It allows governments to periodically monitor outcomes of national education systems within internationally agreed framework. It provides a basis for international collaboration in defining and implementing educational goals and skills that are relevant to adult life (professional and social). PISA reading, mathematics and general science frameworks help bring national education at par with international standards. Around half a million 15-year-olds from 75 countries representing 28 million students, participated in PISA 2009 assessments and surveys. Pakistan can use PISA to improving national education standards in all provincial languages (www. pisa. oecd. org). Teaching in local languages can improve Pakistan’s education standards internationally. According to the 2011 Writing Framework for National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of America, good writing instruction empowers students to acquire new knowledge and to develop critical thinking skills. This is true of writing in all subject areas, not just English language http //www. state. nj. us/education/assessment/naep/results/writing/2011naep. PISA and NAEP framework rubrics allow student evaluations irrespective of language. Learning and teaching in mother tongue is a universal human right recognized by UN. China, was a top scorers in 2009 PISA testing http //www. nytimes. com/2010/12/07/education/07education. html. It shows education in mother tongue does not affect nation’s international competitiveness and national education standards. Since education is a provincial subject, therefore provinces should be free to impart education in local languages, make English and Urdu as optional languages. Provinces can issue degrees with pass/fail with English/Urdu or both to free the country from politics of language. It will allow students to continue higher education without passing compulsory languages, which is a major contributor to school and college dropouts. It will allow the students to join job market who do not wish to continue with further education. The employer can omit or consider language(s) pass/fail status of candidate at the time of employment. On the other hand, the higher education institutions can keep compulsory languages as part of admission criteria. In line with many American universities, a six months period can be given to first year university students to clear compulsory languages. In terms of syllabus, international frameworks and boards can help Pakistan’s policy makers develop required syllabuses, fulfill demands of local market, and meet national education objectives to bring national and international education at par. They allow improving exam testing and incorporating modern technology in reading and writing. In addition, they facilitate linking of national boards to international boards like NBME (www. nbme. org). NBME model allows state medical qualified doctors to take national level exams, upgrade national education and examination standards and link them to rest of the world. It allows tens of thousands of international medical graduates to take United States Medical Licensing Exam without actually studying in American medical colleges. It is equally true for British, Australian and New Zealand medical boards. This model can help cut cost of professional education and fight poverty in Pakistan. Based on these frameworks and models, federal and provincial governments of Pakistan should collaborate to standardize local education and bring it equal to international standards. Islamabad should hold annual summits with China and western countries in line with reports of annual Indo-US higher education summits planning collaboration of universities in both countries. In addition, Pakistan needs to allow private publishers to print books according to the contents of given courses. It will improve concepts of students, standard of books and education. The existing control of federal government on higher education needs to be changed by allowing provinces complete control of universities, scholarships, hiring, training etc. Federal government needs to become a regulatory body instead of controlling authority and facilitates provinces to standardize higher education, provincial education and bring it equal to international levels. Federal education setup should work with ministry of labor and manpower to identify and develop human resource for interprovincial and overseas market, work with foreign missions to issue annual forecast of overseas jobs and train foreign workers and students. Pakistan needs to organize education to cater to local and international needs, attract foreign investors and earn foreign revenue. Reportedly, America and Britain earned $31bn and ? 8 bn in 2010 from foreign students respectively. China is charging $5333 boarding lodging fee annually for a five-year MBBS and one-year internship. It is also offering seven-year specialization degree programs (5 years MBBS and 2 years specialization) in most medical fields. Beijing has gained international recognition through standardized tuition fees, transparency, qualified staff and allowing foreign students and teachers in local universities (http //www.4icu. org/cn/). The Chinese model can help Pakistan cut prices of professional education by 50 percent and train surplus number of local and foreign students to sustain domestic and international needs. In line with China, Pakistan should also take necessary steps to attract flocks of foreign students, interns and investors. Finally, a debate is going on in China on two-track system- one for national college entrance exam (the gaokao) and other for international exams. Imran Khan’s PTI is deliberating about single education system. Pakistan can overcome challenge of teaching language, two-track system (English and Urdu medium) and bringing local education at par with international with help of international frameworks, NBME and more freedom to provinces. | Pakistans Education System and Links to Extremism Author: Jayshree Bajoria October 7, 2009 * Introduction * A Dysfunctional System * Government Reform Plans * The Madrassa Myth? * Reforming Madrassas * U. S. Policy Implications - Introduction Pakistans poor education system has increasingly become a matter of international concern. Lack of access to quality education, which in turn limits economic opportunity, makes young Pakistanis targets for extremist groups, some experts say. The World Bank says nearly half the adult population of Pakistan cant read, and net primary enrollment rates remain thelowest in South Asia. Experts say the system suffers from inadequate government investment, corruption, lack of institutional capacity, and a poor curriculum that often incites intolerance. In August 2009, chief counterterrorism adviser to the White House John Brennan, summing up a concern held by many U. S. terrorism experts, said extremist groups in Pakistan have exploited this weakness. It is why they offer free education to impoverished Pakistani children, where they can recruit and indoctrinate the next generation, he said. There have been some efforts by the Pakistani government, Western governments, and the World Bank to reform the system, but serious challenges remain. A Dysfunctional System According to the Pakistani governments National Education Policy 2009 (PDF), three parallel streams in educationpublic schools, private schools, and Islamic religious schools, or madrassashave created unequal opportunities for students. Of the total number of students going to primary school (grades 1 to 5), 73 percent go to public or government schools, 26 percent to private schools, and less than 1 percent to madrassas, according to the Karachi-based policy research institute Social Policy and Development Center. Within the public and the private sector, there are elite schools catering to a small minority of students. The majority of students attend low-quality private and public schools with poor curriculum, limited teaching materials, and inadequate number of properly trained teachers, or in many cases absent teachers. [N]o Pakistani leader has had the courage to implement serious [education] reforms- Pervez Hoodbhoy The government-mandated curriculum is a major concern for Western observers who say it encourages intolerance and a narrow worldview. Except in some elite private schools, which do not follow the government-prescribed curriculum, all public schools and registered private schools have been required to teach Islamiyat, or Islamic studies, for nearly thirty years. In addition to Islamiyat, many scholars have noted that the government curriculum uses Islam for a wide array of controversial ideological objectives, writes C. Christine Fair in the 2008 book The Madrassah Challenge.

Friday, November 15, 2019

What are the effects of violent video games?

What are the effects of violent video games? Running Head: EXPOSURE TO VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES INCREASES AUTOMATIC AGGRESSIVENESS 1 INTRODUCTION Playing video games have become a hobby among people especially children and teenagers. Some video games are violent at the same time addictive and when they are played, there is an impact on the person playing the game. This has led some people to state that children become more aggressive after playing such games (Koop, 1982; Zimbardo, 1982). Parents nowadays have to sacrifice their time to monitor their children and to control the amount of time their children spend playing these video games. There are many types of new video games being introduced because of the popularity of these games and the number of players playing these games. Many researches have been conducted over the centuries about violent media and violent video games and the empirical evidence regarding the negative effects of violent video games and media is overwhelming. Violence has been a big issue in societies around the world for centuries and violence on the media causes violent behaviour among people. Findi ngs suggest that one way in which the violent media may influence behaviour is through the changes in a persons’ automatic self-concept. There were no researches on this done before. Therefore this research was carried out to find out the possibility. CONTENT This journal is about the effects of exposure to violent video games on automatic aggressiveness. A sample of 121 students were used in this research. Playing the violent video game Doom lead participants to associate themselves with aggressive traits and actions on the Implicit Association Test. In addition, self-reported prior exposure to violent video games predicted automatic aggressive self-concept, above and beyond self-reported aggression. Many researches have been conducted in the past regarding the effects of exposure to violent video games as well as violent television shows on aggressiveness and results show a positive correlation between the variables. According to a research, trait aggression as well as self-reported, peer reported and teacher reported aggressive behaviour correlates with exposure to violent television shows and video games (Anderson Dill, 2000; Singer Singer, 1983, 1986; Singer, Singer, Rapaczynski, 1984). Experimental studies as well as longitudinal studies have been carried out in the past. Experimental studies have shown that watching violent movie scenes on television and playing with violent video games increases aggressive behaviours such as delivering electric shocks and blasts of noise to another person (Anderson Dill, 2000; Anderson, &Murphy; Bartholow Anderson,2002; Bushman, 1998; Bushman Huesmann, 2001; Wood, Wong, Chachere, 1991), increases agressive expectations for others ( Bushman Anderson, 2002 ) and reduces prosocial behaviour ( Anderson Bushman, 2001 ). Longitudinal studies on the other hand have shown that watching violent television is one of the best predictors of future violent behaviours for example, criminal behaviour. (Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitzb, Walder, 1973; Johnson, Cohen, Smailes, Kasen, Brook, 2002). What is not so clear and well understood is the mechanisms by which exposure to violent media increases aggressive behaviour. In addition to other influences, such as learning of aggressive values (Bandura, 1978; Bandura, Ross, Ross, 1963), current models (Huesmann, 1986; Berkowitz, 1990; Bushman, 1998; Anderson Bushman, 2002) assume that the mechanisms underlying the effects of violent media are often automatic in nature. According to Berkowitz (1990), violent media automatically causes aggressive thoughts and feelings. Anderson Dill (2002) pointed out that playing violent video games increases the automatic accessibility of aggressive traits and actions in one’s memory. When one is repeatedly being exposed to violent media, one’s aggressive thoughts and actions are easily accessible causing an increase in the likelihood that the person will behave aggressively especially when the person is being provoked or in a frustrated state. (Anderson Dill, 2000; Berkowitz, 1990; Bushman, 1998; Todorov Bargh, 2002). Besides, according to researches there will also be an influence on automatic relations with the self when one is exposed to violent media (Greenwald Banaji, 1995; Greenwald, McGhee, Schwartz, 1998; Todorov Bargh, 2002). Research involving the area of automatic social cognition on the other hand suggests that people’s cognitive associations with the self and other attitudes objects would mediate the relationship between their environment and their behaviours. (Bargh Chartrand, 1999; Greenwald Banaji, 1995; Todorov Bargh, 2002). Measures of these associations (Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, Williams,1995; Greenwald et al., 1998) are strong predictors of relevant judgments and behaviours, including the actions that discriminate members of social outgroups (Bessenoff Sherman, 2000; Dovidio, Kawakami, Johnson, Johnson, Howard, 1997; Fazio et al., 1995; Gawronski, Ehrenberg, Banse, Zukova, Klaur, 2003; McConnell Leibold, 2001; Rudman Glick, 2001) and psychological abuse of oneà ¢â‚¬â„¢s spouse (Zayas Shoda, 1999). According to this journal, exposure to violent media may exert an influence on one’s behaviour through changes in a person’s automatic self-concept. For example, the extent to which one associates the self with aggressive traits and actions. It is time this research is carried out because till date, there are no researches that have explored this possibility. This study investigated the relationship between exposure to violent media and the automatic self-concept on two levels. The first one was, can exposure to media, in this case the violent video game Doom in the laboratory temporarily change the extent to which people associate the self with aggression ? Second, does the extent to which a person plays with violent video games in their own life predict their automatic self-concept with regard to aggression, above and beyond self reported aggressiveness? Violent video games have the tendency to influence the player more and cause the player to learn aggressive scripts compared to violent television and movies (Anderson, 2002). In this study, 121 introductory psychology students took part in the experiment in return for course credit. 54 were males, 65 females and another 2 did not give an answer. All the participants were 18 years old and above. The materials used in this study were violent games,non-violent video game, implicit association test, feeling thermometers, semantic differentials, Buss and Perry aggression questionnaire and previous game exposure questionnaire. A popular 3d game, Doom was selected as the violent video game. The non-violent video games used was â€Å" Mahjongg : Clicks†, a puzzle game. The Implicit- Association Test ( IAT ) was used to measure the automatic aggressive self-concept. This test was developed by Greenwald (1998). The participants completed two feeling thermometer measures whereby they rated themselves on a scale from 0( not aggressive ) to 100 ( extremely aggressive ) and on the other one they rated â€Å"other people† on the same scale. They also rate d themselves and other people on three semantic differential scales and also completed the Buss and Perry (1992) Aggression Questionnaire to measure trait aggression. Besides, participants were also asked on their previous game exposure. All the participants were asked to play Doom or Mahjong for 10 minutes. They were then assessed using the IAT, feeling thermometers, semantic differentials, Buss and Perry Questionnaire and the previous game exposure questionnaire in a fixed order. This was the procedure conducted. Various results were found soon after that. Overall, participants associated themselves more with â€Å"Peaceful† than with â€Å"Aggressive† on the IAT. The more positive a person’s IAT score, the greater their association of Aggression with Self. A 2 (game condition : violent vs non violent ) Ãâ€" 2 ( gender ) ANOVA on participant’s IAT scores. Participants in the Doom game condition were more likely to automatically associate themselves with aggression than participants in the Mahjongg game condition and there seem to be no interaction between the participants’ gender and game condition. As hypothesised, playing violent video games did increase automatic aggressiveness and it applies to both males and females. However on the feeling thermometers, semantic differential measures and Buss and Perry measure, participants reported a low level of aggressiveness. The same was done whereby a 2 (game condition : violent vs non violent ) Ãâ€" 2 ( gender ) ANOVA on participants’ scores on the 3-self reported aggressiveness measures. The results gained from this was that there were no significant effects of game condition on the feeling thermometer measure, semantic differential measure and Buss and Perry scale. There were no gender effects on both feeling thermometer and differential measures but on the Buss and Perry scale, there was a significant gender difference whereby the score for aggressiveness for men were higher than for women. Overall, the results suggested that exposure to violent video games did not significantly influence the self-reported aggressiveness of both males and females. For the prior game exposure questionnaire, the results showed that more men played video games and spent more time playing violent video games compared to women. However, both these genders did not differ in their exposure to non violent video games. Both the IAT and the Buss and Perry scale were positively correlated with self-reported prior exposure to violent video games and neither correlated with prior exposure to non violent video games. The relationship between the measures and prior exposure to violent video games remained significant after controlling for game condition. Therefore, long term exposure to violent video games makes largely independent contributions to automatic and self-reported aggressiveness. The author came up with a good discussion about this research and several conclusions were drawn. Most people have the belief that exposure to violent media has no effect on them personally but they do believe that it has an effect on other people (Innes Zeitz, 1988). As a conclusion, in this study participants that played the violent video game, Doom for 10 minutes associated the self more with aggressive traits on the IAT. However, they did not associate self with aggressive traits on the other self-report measures. Thus, the findings suggest that the short term effects of game exposure on the self-concept in this study were strongest at an automatic level. It is easy to imagine how playing a violent video game could temporarily increase the accessibility of aggressive concepts, feelings, and thoughts through priming or spreading activation (Anderson Dill, 2000; Berkowitz, 1990; Bushman, 1998). There have been many correlation, experimental as well as longitudinal studies over the decades that suggest that exposure to violent media is a cause of aggressive behaviour (Bushman Anderson, 2001; Singer Singer, 1983). From the results of this study, it is found that violent media may also exert their effects through changes in automatic associations with the self. There will be several strengths as well as limitations when it comes to research. First, the critique will be on the strengths of this research. There are a few strengths that must be highlighted. The hypothesis and purpose of study of this research is clear and understandable. This is one plus point of this whole research because without a clear and proper purpose of study, the readers would not understand the whole research and what it is all about. Therefore, having a proper purpose of study in all researches is important. The purpose of study for this research was to examine the relationship between exposure to violent media, in this case the violent video game and the automatic self concept on two different levels as mentioned previously. This research is different from other research because this research focuses more on the self concept. Another strength of this research is that it provides cognitive awareness through its clear explanations in the discussion section of the research. According to social cognitive models, the self is a knowledge structure, organized as a network of associations (Greenwald et al., 2002). It provides a clear knowledge on how priming can increase the automatic accessibility of a possible self. There are other studies, Wheeler Petty, 2001 ; Blair Ma Lenton, 2001 that explains more on how priming increases the automatic accessibility of a possible self. Participants will gain more knowledge in the sense that they know and have an idea on what is actually going on and why they react in such ways. Therefore this research in other words will create awareness among people. Every research will have strengths as well as several limitations. The limitations of a research need to be pointed out so that future researchers would take the weaknesses into consideration when conducting their research. The first limitation identified in this research is that the researcher did not really get the expected results from the participants. There were no significant effects of game condition on the feeling thermometer measure, semantic differential measure and Buss and Perry scale. Therefore the first limitation of the study would be the self report measures. Several other studies for example Rushbrook (1986) have measured the aggression using self reports. The problem with the research is that the correlational evidence is not so convincing and sometimes the observed positive correlations may not only be due to aggressive individuals having a greater desire for video games. It can be due to other factors such as low educational level or low socioeconomic status. Vid eo games studies with better methods typically yield greater effects, suggesting that heightened concern about harmful effects of exposure to violent video game is warranted. Another limitation would be health issues of the participants were not taken into consideration during the experiment. For example, when one plays violent video games, some biological processes occur inside the person’s body. This could be dangerous. A study carried out by Lynch (1994) proposed that playing video games with violent content would produce greater cardiovascular responses. Besides, exposing one to violent video game is not good even if it was for an experiment purpose. Researchers in the British Journal Nature (1998) reported that the brain releases a hormone called dopamine when one is playing video games. Dopamine is a pleasure chemical hormone. Those exposed to these video games then tend to get addicted to it. It can be addictive even if exposed once. New brain research (Bartholow, Bushman Sestir, 2006) stated that violent video game players are showing less healthy development, brain tend to be more response to real-life violence such as gun attacks and th at those with these less empathic brain responses were more likely behave aggressively in the laboratory. Future researches should take this seriously before conducting any kind of experiments. It would be better if surveys on consumption of violent video games are used rather than carrying out experiments. CONCLUSION Although previously there have been many researches on violent video games from many aspects, this research showed something new. According to this research, there is a relationship between exposure to violent video games and the automatic self-concept. Therefore, it is proven that exposure to violent video games increases one’s automatic aggressiveness. Video games are not always bad. It depends on what video game one is playing. There are video games that are quite beneficial that can be used as training aids in classrooms and therapeutic settings. Violent video games on the other hand definitely have negative effects and causes aggression among children and teenagers. There are many different types of violent video games that which probably have different effects. Therefore researchers should carry out more studies to find out all the different effects caused by playing violent video games. Future studies perhaps could use more surveys instead of experiments because experi ments sometimes could be quite harmful if certain measures and precautions are not taken into consideration. This journal is quite useful in the sense that it gives a lot of information to readers about this new aspect of violent video games that never have been studied before. Studies such as this would create awareness among people and hopefully would have an impact on them as well. Such researches are carried out with the aim that somehow or the other the information and results that the researchers have found could help people for example reduce the amount of consumption of violent video games in the future. REFERENCES Uhlmann, E, Swanson, J. (2003). Exposure to violent video games increases automatic Aggressiveness. Journal of Adolescence. Retrieved from, http://www.lionlamb.org/research_articles/study 3.pdf Carnagey, N.L ., Anderson, C.A ., Bushman, B.J. ( 2007 ). The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Retrieved from, http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2005-2009/07CAB.pdf Griffiths, M.(1998). Violent video games and aggression : A review of the literature. Retrieved from, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178997000554 Hasan, Y. , Begue, L. , Scharkow, M., Bushman, B.J. (2013) The more you play, the more aggressive you become: A long-term experimental study of cumulative violent video game effects on hostile expectations and aggressive behaviour. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.Retrieved from, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103112002259