A framework for knowledge based educational decision support system Literature review

A framework for knowledge based educational decision support system - Literature review Example In the modern world of technological development and growing need of easy maintenance of data Knowledge base system are in huge demand. The systems based on Knowledge base are known as Knowledge base system.It mainly comprises of storing, organizing and the retrieval of data in an efficient way. This gives an insight of the relations, patterns and the principles behind certain decisions taken in a practical manner through proper understanding. This system can also be applied in Educational Decision Support System (EDSS) for an easy decision taking procedure in the educational institute and normalizing the procedure for management of institutional admissions. Background of knowledge based educational decision support system Knowledge based decision support system is mainly concerned with taking decision in critical situation which are mainly done by skilled personnel on a specific domain. The success of such a system is mainly dependent on the knowledge it comprises of in the system w hich can generalize the variation in the decision of the management through a computerized way provided on time (CEBE, 2006, p. 1). But as stated by the author it is not about taking decision for the user rather it is just providing access to the database of information which will help the user in taking decision regarding an issue which might arise in the process. In educational institutes the process of admission is a difficult task for the management to handle due to the variation in the educational backgrounds of the students applying for different courses of the institutes and abiding by the policies of the institution, the management not always takes the right decision in the selection process resulting in the difficulty in managing the enrollment process for the higher education. This gave rise to the requirement of the relational database management system of the educational statistics of different universities, campuses, schools; faculty members etc. under a centralized dat abase for an easy access to the entire information at one place and establish a department of statistics for the planning process. To achieve an effective decision making process the personnel need to understand the basics of the process and past experience on same type of situation is an important tool for an efficient and feasible outcome of the problems (Pheng, 2005, p. 2). Need of educational decision support system The admission procedures of different countries in the word are not the same way everywhere. These variations in the admission procedure give rise to the need of standardization of the process to help students for a proper evaluation and understanding of their knowledge and skills. There are various problems which arise due to these variations resulting in the need of an efficient educational decision support system (EDSS). These differences can be described as follows- The huge demand in higher education in this modern world needs a proper implementation process for the specific major subject selection for the students according to their merits and credibility. The social impact of the family plays a vital role in the selection process of the students but proper selection is required based on merits rather than influence from family. The evaluation process of students in several countries like Saudi Arabia adds an extra overhead for the students and they lose unnecessarily one year in their career for the selection process in their eligible courses. The government and the private university difference in selecting the major based on the financial capabilities need a process of standardization of the whole system. According to UNESCO, various countries like Saudi Arabia are facing challenges from the growing need of improving the quality and

Educational Enquiry Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Educational Enquiry - Assignment Example The outcome so far has been disappointing, though it may be that cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists will soon produce something finer.†Hargreaves argues current educational research is neither adequately cumulative nor relevant to teachers’ practical concerns for it to initiate the contribution required. He draws a contrast between the role of research in education, and role to the practice of medicine by means of evidence based medicine as a model. He claims few teachers use psychology, sociology, philosophy, and history. This makes the teachers work more effective (Reynolds & Trinder, 1997, pg 56) Hargreaves is not very explicit about the form he believes educational research should take. He is neglective of strict methodological problems that are faced by educational researchers. He seems to view the procedure of developing cumulative knowledge about the outcome of different pedagogical methods directly. The use of a standard in judging current educational re search that assumes direct and instrumental form of the relationship. Hargreaves argues educational research has failed to provide practitioners with the required knowledge about pedagogical strategies work, and those that do not ensure competence of the practitioner; he claims that it is not only terms of practical skills but familiarity with practice relevant to the research. While Hammersley points out that it is the language Hargreaves uses implies a commitment to a method that many would deem positivist that it values research that emulates the scientific approach.Hammersley challenges the assumption by arguing this type of evidence is effective in improving practice on the basis that scientific methods, and... This essay approves that the goals of learning in a social constructive perspective differ, and learning is characterized by the subjective reconstruction of society means, and models by carrying out negotiations of meaning in social interaction. Its focus is on interaction within the local setting because they are viewed as automatically related. It is noted that neither an individual learner’s activity nor the local micro culture can be understood without the consideration of the other. These changes the research that is learning compared with a cognitive constructionist research.Constructionism is associated with qualitative data where as sociocultural approaches the original data collection is qualitative because the focal point is on interactions, and dynamic. Learning opportunities arise but research is done on experiences and changes entailed. Many social cultural studies focus on learning as a transformation of identity to forefront the personal characteristics, and ha ve little to say about the system. This report makes a conclusion that learning technology research is presently dominated by a paradigm that divides the research into two types qualitative, and quantitative. The division is normal science in learning, and has provided an agreement that has permitted researchers to shun disagreements over fundamentals, and an outline for standard research training. The standard structure is under pressure from developing research methods that are relevant to learning. Educational research fails to supply a cumulated body of concrete knowledge about the effectiveness, and efficiency of different methods. May be paradigm could finally be resolved in the natural sciences, because the outcome of research was unreliable.

Factors Affecting Contrast In An Xray Image Health Essay

Factors Affecting Contrast In An Xray Image Health Essay To test resolution, a line pair guage is used. To measure MTF in an x-ray system, the sine wave equivalent of a line pair gauge is used. The closest distinguishable pair of cycles determines the best MTF, it is quoted in cycles per mm [2]. A common way to express the system resolution is to quote the frequency where the MTF is reduced to either 3%, 5% or 10% of the original height [3]. MTF and spatial frequency are related by MTF curves. Examples of MTF curves are given below; Mammography System: Fig 2: MTF curve for a mammography system [4]. Chest Radiography System: Fig 3: MTF curve for a typical chest X-ray. Three different detector types are indicated on the plot [5]. Fluoroscopy System: Fig 4: MTF curve for a Fluoroscopy system with plots shown for individual components of the imaging process. The film and the optics have excellent resolution. The MTF of the imge intensifier is shown to have a limiting resolution of approximately 4.8 cycles/mm. The TV camera is the worst in the series, it limits the MTF of the overall image during live fluoroscopy and videotaped imaging. [6] Question 2: Contrast is the variation in brightness or optical density across an image. Factors affecting contrast in an x-ray image include the tube output, or the kVp. This is a measure of the energy of the x-ray beam leaving the x-ray tube and passing through the patient to form an image. X-rays with higher kVp can penetrate deeper into materials. In an image with the correct kVp bone is white and soft tissues and air are gray/black. If the kVp is too high, the x-rays will pass through even dense bone, creating an image that is mostly black with indistinguishable features [7]. The opposite occurs when a kVp which is too low is used. The most suitable kVp depends on the feature under investigation. Also among the factors affecting the image contrast is the patient. The density, the atomic number Z and the thickness of the part of the patient being imaged. Denser tissue, tissue with higher Z or tissue of a greater thickness results in lighter areas on the image because they have blocked the x-r ay from exposing the image receptor. Variation in contrast occurs because tissues in the body attenuate x-rays differently. The human eye can percieve a difference of approximately 2% in contrast between adjacent areas [8]. The final influence on image contrast to be discussed here is the image receptor. In film imaging, the contrast of the resultant image depends on the sensitivity of the film used. To produce an image with the correct contrast, a film with corrresponding sensitivity must be chosen before imaging. In digital imaging, there is no fixed sensitivity. It has the advantage of being able to record the full range of exposures and digital processing after imaging can be used to improve the contrast in the image. Image contrast can be evaluated using a densiometer. This device emits light of a known energy. The light is reflected back from the image and detected by the densitometer. The difference in energy between emitted and detected light is used to compute the optical density (blackness) in that area. Since contrast is the variation in optical density, this method can be used to survey the contrast in the image. Question 3: The following description is based on an article from the NDT database [9]. Spatial resolution of an x-ray system is limitied by the size of the focal spot. Fourier analysis can be used to calculate the focal spot size. X-rays are passed through a test object with a known pattern. This test object is placed between the x-ray source and detector, the arrangement is shown in the figure below. The focal spot of the x-ray is not assumed to be point-like, as the detector is moved away from the source, the detected focal spot appears larger. Blurring of the image by the detector is included, this blurring is related to the point spread funtion (psf) of the detector. Otherwise, an ideal detector is assumed. Image deterioration due to noise is also factored into the description. Fig 5: Setup for determing the focal spot size. The X-ray source, the flat object, and the intensity distribution measured at the detector system lie in different planes for which different coordinate systems with the variables (x, y), (x, y) and (x, y) respectively, are used. This is done in order to include magnification effects in the calculations. The measurement of the x-ray transmission, t, is derived mathematically. This is done by convolving the intensity distribution of the focal spot f with the transmission profile of the flat object g and the detector point spread function d. Also, t is deteriorated by noise, which is taken into consideration by addition of a noise term n to the result of the convolution. In order to take into account the geometrical magnification, V, of the setup, these functions are represented in one of these planes (here the plane of the detector), whereby the physical magnification effects of the setup were observed before the convolution is accomplished, this is shown in the second part of the equation below. The magnification is the distance between the source and the detector system divided by the distance between the source and the object. The Convolution Theorem states that the Fourier transform of a convolution is the product of the Fourier transforms. Conversely, the Fourier transform of a product is the convolution of the Fourier transforms. Using the above equation, a deconvolution of t with gâ‚ ¬Ã‚  (â‚ ¬Ã‚  d yields an estimate of f. In a technique like this, a suitable test object is measured. The resulting image corresponds to a convolution of the test object with the intensity distribution of the focal spot and other factors. Information on the focal spot is derived from this measurement using knowledge on the test object and other influencing values which means that the convolution process is undone to a certain extent. Also, with the presented method an arbitrary two dimensional intensity distribution can be measured, regardless of shape. According to the convolution theorem, a convolution in the spatial domain corresponds to a point-by-point multiplication in the corresponding Fourier domain. Furthermore, according to the addition theorem, an addition in the spatial domain corresponds to an addition in the corresponding Fourier domain. (Note: lower case letters represent functions and upper case letters represent the Fourier transforms of the equivalent functions.) The initial equation now becomes; At certain spatial frequencies | N | can be significantly higher than| F Æ’-â‚ ¬Ã‚  P |. At these spatial frequencies division of T by P mainly increases noise and deteriorates the image quality. This is due to the fact, that information on F is lost at these spatial frequencies. For that reason, independently of the deconvolution method applied, all spatial frequencies which are contained with high intensity in | F | should be contained with high intensity in |P| in order that | FÆ’- P | is significantly larger than | N |. This means that the test object (in combination with the detector imaging properties) should contain the major spatial frequencies which are required to describe the focal spot with sufficient intensity. In this case F can be restored well at these spatial frequencies, which yields a good estimate of f. Question 4: Using a bar phantom similar to that used for determining resolution can lead to an error determining the focal spot size. This is because the line pairs are aligned in one direction only. For accurate measurement of the focal spot size, many images with the bar phantom at different angles would be necessary [10]. To overcome this problem, a star phantom is used. This is a disc of alternating Lead spokes and x-ray transparent material. At a particular diameter of the focal spot the image of the spokes blurs, i.e., adjacent spokes cannot be distinguished from each other. The diameter of the blur is an indication of the focal spot size [11]. Fig 6: Star pattern for testing focal spot size [12] Question 5: 5a. The most obvious parts of a CT scanner are the moving patient table and the gantry or tube. Conventional projection radiography is limited because it collapses 3D objects onto 2D images. CT has a rotating system of emission and detection and so it can give accurate 3D diagnostic information about the distribution of structures inside the body. Inside the gantry there is the X-ray tube, x-ray detectors and slip-rings. The X-ray beam is collimated and radiates in a fan-beam shape. The x-ray emitter and detectors rotate in the gantry to measure projections that form an image that is a slice though the body. There are brushes around the rotating slip-rings to transmit signals. In CT, the linear attenuation coefficient, ÃŽÂ ¼ is measured. This tells how much intensity is lost as the beam travels through the medium. This distribution of ÃŽÂ ¼ is the basis of image formation. There are two distinct motions of the x-ray beam relative to the patients body during CT imaging. One motion i s the scanning of the beam around the body. The other motion is the movement of the beam along the length of the body.   This is achieved by moving the body through the beam as it is rotating around Fig 7: External appearance of a CT scanner. [13] Fig 8: Basic schematic of the construction of a CT scanner. Fig 9: CT image quality and electromechanical acceptance tests. The Priority column indicates which of the tests are the most important. [14] 5b. CT images are formed by multiple intersecting projections. This is illustrated in the figure on the left. In the bottom right section, it is seen that the combination of the projections causes blurring in the final image. The blurring goes as 1/r, i.e., it is proportional to the distance from the centre point. The 2D Fourier transform of 1/r is 1/à Ã‚ . Since the inverse of 1/à Ã‚  is |à Ã‚ |, it is possible to compute the 2D Fourier Transform of the blurred image, multiply the Fourier transform of the resultant image by |à Ã‚ | and the calculate the inverse Fourier transform to obtain a sharper image [15]. Fig 10: On the left, unfiltered back projections and on the right, filtered back projections. The conversion is done in the spatial domain by convolving the projection with the IFT of |à Ã‚ |. Fig 11: The mathematics of the image reconstruction process, can be expressed compactly in the above equation, where the terms have been grouped to reflect the filtered-back-projection approach [15]. 5c. The fundamental system performance indicators are CT number, resolution, noise, and patient dose.26 The accuracy of CT numbers is measured by scanning a water-filled phantom at least monthly. The CT number for water should be zero over a 20-cm-diameter phantom, with a variation of less than 1 CT number. Deviation from the expected CT number of 0 for water at any energy is adjusted by applying a correction factor for the pixel value. Constancy of the value should be monitored with a daily scan. An overall check of system performance is obtained from semiannual measurements of CT image noise, defined as the standard deviation of CT numbers in a region of interest. Constancy of performance is checked by evaluation of the standard deviation in the daily water scan mentioned previously. Resolution is measured by scanning phantoms on a monthly basis. Of particular importance is low contrast resolution, which is a sensitive indicator of changes in component performance as they affect noise. Patient dose is evaluated semiannually. Specially designed ionization chambers provide measurements from which the dose may be calculated for the exposure conditions (narrow beam, variable slice thickness) used in CT. The values should agree with manufacturers specifications to within 20%. [hendee]

A Struggle for Acceptance of Gays Essay -- Homosexuality Religion Marr

A Struggle for Acceptance of Gays "When the dust settles and the pages of history are written, it will not be the angry defenders of intolerance who have made the difference, that reward will go to those who dared to step outside the safety of their privacy in order to expose and rout the prevailing prejudice." - John Shelby Spong Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Newark, NJ November 21, 1996 During World War II and especially the twenty years after brought great political and social changes to the U.S.. Undoubtedly, one of the major changes was the new awareness of homosexuality. If this new awareness was to the advantage or if it was really wanted by the gay and lesbian population is a question that arises; if they really had a choice in the matter is another. I think gays' relentless struggle for acceptance into mainstream society came from the American constitution itself. After all, the gay liberation movement started in America, the land of the free, where all men are created equal and with an inalienable right to pursue their own happiness. No one should be able to take these rights away from anyone. Also, in the 1950s, the civil rights movement became active and words like desegregation and equal rights for all became synonymous with the American way of life. Stand up and fight against those who have done you wrong! This is what gave homosexuals such a conviction to start fighting for their own cause. This paper will follow the progress of gay and lesbians in the twentieth century before, during and after World War II. What was their position in the armed forces during the war and what was government and military policy during and after the war on gays in the army and in government positions? How did gay and lesbians respond to the new policies after the war and why were organizations like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis founded? On December 7, 1941 at 7:55 a.m. local time, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The Unites States declared war on Japan and was suddenly a participant in the largest war in the history of mankind. A massive military force of 12 million men was assembled. American soldiers were sent to Europe and Japan to participate and win the Big One. The military bureaucracy grew accordingly and thousands of new jobs were created. With the military's enormous demand for personnel... ...os Angeles newspaper in March 1953 linking "sexual deviates" with "security risks" who were banding together to wield "tremendous political power". The Mattachine Society was restructured, with a more transparent organization, and its leadership replaced. It also changed its aims to the assimilation of homosexuals into general society, which reflected its rejection of the notion of a homosexual minority. However the Society declined, and at its convention in May 1954 only forty-two members attended. The Mattachine Society produced the monthly periodical ONE Magazine , starting in January 1953 and eventually achieving a circulation of 5000 copies. The regular publication of the magazine ceased in 1968, but its publisher, ONE Inc., still exists. In January, 1955 the San Francisco branch of the Mattachine Society began a more scholarly journal, Mattachine Review , which lasted for ten years. The periodicals reached previously isolated individuals and helped Mattachine to become better known nationally. Chapters functioned in a number of USA cities through the 1960s. However, they failed to adapt to the radical militantism after the Stonewall Rebellion and faded away.

The Art of Bartending

Bartending is probably one of the few jobs where flair and moves get you the high pay. Serving drinks, tossing bottles in the air while making a drink in your mixer, attending to the clientele and keeping the bar well organized pretty much makes up the life of a bartender. JOB DESCRIPTION A bartender has four major functions in the bar. 1. Means of entertainment: In some bars, the bartender becomes part of the entertainment, for example in â€Å"Coyote Ugly â€Å"the bartender is the direct source of entertainment.Dave Acevedo, director of the Baltimore Bartender School LLC in Baltimore City, agrees, calling personality the most important ingredient. It's all about keeping people in your bar, he said. That means you have to entertain them. Half of your job is mixing drinks and the other half is entertaining the customers (Mosher 1) 2. Serving Drinks: Of course, bartenders aren’t bartenders if they don’t know how to mix drinks. A bartender must know how to mix the drin ks that customers request. Customers will look poorly at a bar with inexperienced bartenders.Take the time now to look at the second hand of your watch and allow 20 seconds to pass – it seems like an eternity. However, while the bartender is stirring or shaking, he or she also is putting on a show for the customers, and I've seen many people become almost mesmerized when watching a good bartender prepare a drink properly. (Reagan 44) Being a bartender shouldn’t be just about making and shaking drinks. It also has to have some entertainment value to it. Adding flair to the creation of your beverages could also mean bigger tips.This will also keep customers busy while your in the process of creating the drinks. 3. Payment and maintenance: Of course, bartender cannot keep serving drinks without collecting payments, also at the end of the day the bartenders have to take an inventory of the liquor and the glassware. Order must be maintained when running a bar. Bars cannot a fford to have a bartender breaking glassware or misplacing shakers because of lack of organization. In some bars, bartenders don’t need to do these duties because there are people called bar backs who attend to it 4.Clientele service: The bartenders’ main duty is to reflect the image and atmosphere of the bar. In reality, bartenders are like the information network of a bar. He/she has to be learned in some fields like sports or movies, sometimes even the profile and status of their patrons. REQUIREMENTS AND TRAINING *Completion of secondary school level is required *Completion of a college course or any course pertaining to drinks mixing *Responsible Beverage service certificate maybe required by the employer These of course are just technicalities. You don’t necessarily have to go to a bartending school to be an excellent bartender.Great bartenders usually start out as barbacks (a bartenders assistant) and take it from there. but if you have a reasonably price d bartending school in the immediate area it is suggested that you take the course just to get the â€Å"feel† of pouring and mixing drinks. The last thing a bartender wants is to get screamed at by the manager for under or over pouring drinks. Another advantage of going to bartender school is you get an idea on how to mix hundreds of different drinks, which of course a bartender needs. Experience really counts when you are hired. What makes Freeth such a cocktail whiz?â€Å"I've been involved in the industry since I was knee-high,† he explains. â€Å"I grew up in a pub, first worked in Ibiza at 16, ran bars at university, then did seasons in Crete and elsewhere. † He can add a degree in Leisure and Business Management and a Masters in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Moreover, he is still only 25 (Sims 46). As you can see from his experience, growing up in a pub and going to different bars really gave him an edge in the business. PHYSICAL DEMANDS One o f the greatest physical demands that bartenders have to overcome is working the graveyard shift.Depending on the bars that you will work for a bartenders shift usually starts from around nine or ten in the evening to around five in the morning. This varies of course because some bars open earlier. This would throw your body clock into a fit especially if you are used to working the daylight shift. One other thing is you have to be able to know when a person is already intoxicated and know how to handle them â€Å"It's important because the liability now is on the bars and bartenders. If somebody drinks too much, goes out and gets in an accident, they have the right to sue the bartender,† Rich said.â€Å"Training protects the server as well as protecting everybody else. † (qtd. in Fenwick 1). More so, if that in the case of intoxication is a minor, a bartender could find himself in jail for serving alcoholic beverages to minors. The last thing a bar wants is a lawsuit o n one of their bartenders. STATISTICS According to the U. S Labor Department (Bureau of Labor statistics), 495,307 bartenders working in the country as of 2006, and the projected number of employed bartenders would reach 550, 952 by 2016. SALARY AND BENEFITS Average salary: $22,890, plus tips [Annual]Demand: Good. Bartending remains a good job for those with top skills, as people have more disposable income for entertainment. Competition can be tight for top jobs with good tips. Qualifications: Must be at least 21 and know local laws. Bartending school or on-the-job training; experience, personality, and talent will mean better jobs and tips. (Boston Globe U. 15) The values shown above vary if you’re on the level. If you’re taken by a five star hotel or restaurant, you could expect the wage to be higher. A bartender’s salary is around minimum wage.Ranging from around 10 to 12$ per hour gross. After taxes it would probably be around 7-8$ an hour. The real bulk of pay bartenders receive is the tip. A great bartender could earn twice his salary for remembering drinks or socializing with the establishments’ patrons. â€Å"A little bit of show makes more dough,† says Drobiarz with a smile (Lopez 1). This of course is an understatement when it comes to bartending. Some bars and restaurants give free meals during the shift of their bartenders. Most bartenders like most workers get paid holidays and vacations.In some cases, for bartenders that wok in hotels or restaurants like TGI Fridays, they get health insurance and the sort. INTERVIEW An interview with a Bartender in Toronto named â€Å"Renan Mendiola† gave me an idea of what a bartender’s life feels like. He said that the most important traits a bartender should have is attentiveness, flexibility and great memory. He says that a bartender’s life isn’t just mixing and pouring. It’s more of socializing with your customers. He says that it doesnâ €™t only keep you from getting bored, sometimes it also keeps the tips high.Sometimes keeping an open ear and giving good advice could really help in terms of tips. Works Cited Alexandra Fenwick. â€Å"Taking a shot: Training may be required for bartenders†. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News Washington: Feb 4, 2007. pg. 1 Boston Globe. â€Å"Hospitality and Food Service; [1 Edition]† Boston, Mass. : 15 October 2006. pg. U. 15 Lopez, Elias E. †Bartending instructor Mark Drobiarz teaches ABC's of mixing drinks: Bartending instructor Mark Drobiarz not only teaches his students the ABC's of mixing drinks, he also shows them how to add showmanship to their work† Knight Ridder Tribune Business News.Washington:25 December 2006. pg. 1 Mendiola, Renan. E-mail interview. 3-5 December 2007. Mosher, James. â€Å"Bartending industry is always changing and evolving†. The Daily Record. Baltimore, Md. :2 December 2005. pg. 1 â€Å"Occupation Report. † U . S Department of Labor. 15 December 2007 http://data. bls. gov/oep/nioem/empiohm. jsp Regan, Gary. â€Å"Instructor finds he can learn a thing or two from his bartending students. † Nation's Restaurant News. New York: 22 September 2003. Vol. 37, Iss. 38; pg. 44 Sims, Fiona. â€Å"Shaken all Over†. Caterer & Hotelkeeper. Sutton: Jul 1-July 7, 2004. Vol. 193, Iss. 4330; pg. 46

African American-European American Iat Essay

The version of the IAT, that I chose to take is the African American – European American IAT. There were a few steps in order to complete the test; the first step was to fill out information about myself. The questions that I answered were related to my age my educational status, nationality, religious beliefs and my current state of employment. The next step of the test was to choose either ‘E,† or ‘I,† to indicate my choice of African American for a picture of a African American or European American for a picture of a European American. The next series of questions asked me to select either African American grouped with â€Å"bad,† or European American with â€Å"good’. Another series of questions was visually posed this time with, African American grouped with good and European American grouped with bad. The results show that data suggests a strong automatic preference for European American’s compared to African Americans. My automatic preference was toward European Americans. The results of this test aren’t very surprising to me. In class we were told how the test would go, so I already knew what to expect. There was a small bit of doubt whether or not the test would indicate a strong preference for one or the other at all though, because I am Hispanic. I would have speculate that based on the fact that I grew up primarily in white suburbia in a private school that almost exclusively consisted of all white students, that my preference is a subconscious choice. I am most familiar with European Americans therefore I chose them over African Americans. There is a distinction between implicit attitudes and explicit attitudes, that distinction is simple. Implicit attitudes are the attitudes that we don’t think about, they are automatic. Explicit attitudes are the attitudes that are consciously controlled. According to Gawronski and Bodenhausen, in the text, Social Psychology,†Our automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes†(p.51). From the results of the IAT that I took, I would have to say that my implicit attitudes towards African Americans, do not match my explicit attitudes about African Americans. The reason that I believe that my implicit attitudes are different from my explicit attitudes is that I usually make a conscious decision to be friendly and welcoming to any person that I come in contact with regardless of gender, race, age, or sexual orientation. The results are mildly surprising, however, I believe that I am more accustomed to being in the company of European Americans, and therefore I show a distinct implicit attitude favoring them. Implicit attitudes are a dangerous thing; we should pay particular attention to how we label people explicitly, so that with time, we can manipulate our unconscious attitudes and impulse reactions to certain people. A good example of problems that people run into with their improper mind set comes to us from our text, Social Psychology. Age is the example Bugental and Hehman used in 2007, when they discovered that people treat the elderly differently than they do people whom are younger, they explain that â€Å"People’s perceptions of the elderly- as generally kind but frail, incompetent, and unproductive- predispose patronizing behavior†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (p. 308). It’s that attitude that people hold about the elderly that according to Bugental and Hehman, â€Å"predispose patronizing behavior, such as baby-talk speech that leads elderly people to feel less competent and act less capably’ (p. 308). It is important that we change our thinking, because if we continue to have the same biases, we not only do our selves a disservice in being implicitly and or explicitly inappropriate in our attitudes, but we also risk the chance of hurting others in our actions. Works Cited Myers, D. C. (2010). Social psychology (10th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. Pages 51,308 Psych 312 Extra Credit 10pts 5-8-13 Eli J. Guymon Gender – Career IAT The second test that I took was the gender – career IAT. Before the test began, I was asked to report my beliefs about women versus men in the work force and women versus men in the home life. The second set of questions asked me to fill out information about myself. The questions that I answered were, what is my age, my educational status, nationality, religious beliefs and my current state of employment. Following those questions were questions about my family growing up, they wanted to know if I had a mother as a primary care giver, and if she worked outside of the home, specifying what she did for a living, and if there was a secondary caregiver, such as a father or step father, where they employed outside the home, and what their occupation was. The next step of the test was to choose either ‘E,† or ‘I,† to indicate my choice. The groupings in the first series of visual concepts to match were men’s names with the word men and women’s names with the word women. The next step was to match men with career minded words and women with household related words. Finally in the final sets of matching words the groupings were reversed so that men and household related items were a pair and women with career minded words belonged together. According to the results, data suggested little or no association between male and female with career and family. I did not have a automatic preference. My explicit and implicit attitudes match, I do not consciously nor do I subconscious place anyone in a group that favors either individual in the work place or family. I am not surprised by my results because I was raised in a home where my mother was a primary care giver but I also received care giving from my step father. Both my mother and my step father worked outside of the home. Both my mother and my step father shared responsibilities equally except where one person seemed to enjoy a task more than the other, that partner would assume say a specific domestic role that the other was happy to not have to do. For an example of a domestic role that both of my parents needed to be done but one seemed to favor it over the other, grilling outside, was my step fathers domestic role because my mother did not enjoy doing that work, and my step father rarely did his own laundry, because it was a task that my mother felt comfortable doing by herself.

Psy essays

Psy essays Three reasons why a neuron may not generate an action potential. The total input falls short of the threshold. The interaction between heredity and environment can be used to explain the development of schizophrenic disorder. The major areas in which biological factors could operate are in the genetic transmission of schizophrenia, neurotransmitter abnormalities, and brain abnormalities. Evidence strongly supports a genetic contribution to schizophrenia, probably involving more than one gene. The dopamine hypothesis argues that schizophrenia is caused by too much dopamine at critical synapses in the brain. The structure of the brain, the frontal lobe of the cortex is under active in people with schizophrenia. The Sociocultural Approach is that schizophrenia is reported more often in lower social classes, especially in urban areas. Poverty creates long-term stress. Aslo, people who are economically disadvantaged often find that their lives are controlled by other people, such as unreasonable boss or unsympathetic people in a welfare office. As a result, they may not have the opportunity to ta ke charge of their lives and cope effectively with stress. Two arguments in favor of using deception in research are as such: If researchers describe precisely what will happen during some studies, demand characteristics can distort the results and make them meaningless. Research participants rarely complain about deception in psychological research. Two arguments against using deception in research are as such: Researchers must keep in mind the important principle of respecting the dignity of other people. Also, researchers must avoid any research study that is likely to cause permanent harm to the participant. The roles played by hormones in the endocrine system are as follows: Hormones are chemicals released by the endocrine system, these hormones travel throu ...