How well do you communicate Essay Example for Free

How well do you communicate Essay I am considered to be a communicative person who established an outstanding raport with others. I am able to listen deeply to people,to help them ,to share my experience with them. Many of them tell me I am a good listener and when I talk they usually listen to me. What is important for a good communication? You need to take into consideration the point of view of others. I respect their opinion,but I respect my opinion as well. . I understand how people interpret my communicative style and I am able to avoid misunderstanding. I sometimes handle children hassles effectively. People usually understand my thoughts and I can nderstand theirs.. The tone of my voice sometimes communicates how I feel about my partner. Determining a communication problem is not very hard for me and I am often able to resolve it. I usually speak in a gentle manner,to give an impression of kindness. I often stay calm in tense situations. I can express my feelings and tell people close to me how much I care about them. My relationship with my family is full of emotion and devotion. Many people think I am a friendly and expansive person. I often know how to cooperate with them and they usually do what I want them to do. Read more:  Reasons why people communicate  essay However,I have not always been so successful. I was shy when I was younger and did not speak with assertion. It was hard for me to express my thoughts,it was hard for others to know how I felt about something. Later,I improved my communication skills. During my experience,I began to speak louder and people could understand me. I listened to others more carefully. I learned that it is important to avoid passive style of communication. I also learned to speak with more assertion because my own opinion is as important as the opinion of other people. I usually tell people to stay calm in unpleasant situations in order to avoid misunderstanding or aggressive communication. This style enables me to communicate effectively. I discovered that my body language and some gestures I made earlier affected my communication in a bad way. Eye contact is extremely important as it shows respect and interest for the person you are talking to. In addition to this,posture is another important aspect of dealing with others and sometimes it affected my communication. I learned to get my posture right which made me feel better. By finding out the major cause of communication breakdown,I could easily improve it. Being aware of the importance of a successful communication,I am trying to find the ways to improve my communication skills. For example,using body language may lead to great communication. This is especially useful when I am not sure how to start a conversation. In addition to this,I need to be clear about what I want to communicate. I also need to be confident that the information if useful and accurate. By successfully getting my message accross,I convey my thoughts effectively .

Effect of Schemas on Our Understanding of the Social World

Effect of Schemas on Our Understanding of the Social World Victoria Lishman With reference to relevant research studies, evaluate the extent to which our understanding of our social world is constrained by our schemas. Every[p1] day people use their senses to gain a lot of information about the world they live in. To help filter the important information, (people) human beings have developed processes to help make sense of the world around them. One process that people use is schemas; these (are based on) can produces stereotypes but provide (and) predictability. Schemas relate to particular objects, roles, events or people, they are based on memory and knowledge. However there are times where schemas can be wrong for instance if people jump to conclusions based on a stereotype which turns out to be false. There has been a variety of different research studies into the topic of schemas, how they work, how they change as well as what happens when a stereotype turns out to be wrong. This assignment will examine some of the research studies and their value in evaluating how far schemas constrain how people understand the world. People gain too much information from the world around them to accurately (understand) process it, filtering needs to occur in order for people to clarify what is important. Heider suggested that for people to understand the world they use regularity, predictability and cause and effect (Buchanan, Anand, Joffe and Thomas, 2007). Schemas contain knowledge about particular objects, people and scripts, and the information is organised in memory. It is stored and accessed in a certain way and can be added to changed or used as people learn new or different information that will change the stereotype they have on a certain object (Buchanan, Anand, Jaffe and Thomas, 2007). There are many different types of schemas, they can be about people, social roles or events, they are all used as a way of filtering as people do not have the ability to take on all information (Buchanan, Anand, Joffe and Thomas, 2007). As schemas contain generalised knowledge about objects, they can be wrong and can aff ect how people see future situations related to the object. This shows that how people see the social world can be constrained by their schemas. Information some see as being unimportant may alter the view of a person that someone else may have a different opinion of. Schemas can affect how people see the world as what people perceive is shaped by their knowledge, expectations and assumptions about the way the world is (Buchanan, Anand, Joffe and Thomas, 2007), this means that schemas can often control how people see their social world. The research study which found that schemas exist suggests that peoples social world is controlled by schemas was the research by Bartlett, (1932), who found that when English people were asked to retell a Native American folk tale it became more English over time (Buchanan, Anand, Jaffe and Thomas, 2007). They added more English expectations to it, changing the story to make sense to them, making it easier to remember and retell. This research study could be made more valid if it was done in more cultures, for example if an Indian person was asked to retell an English story, as it would allow for more participants and allow for a more generalised conclusion. The experiment by Bartlett held a lot of value as it st arted other psychologists looking in to the subject of schemas and their influence on how people understand their world and how much control they have over how people understand their social world. The method of this experiment is impacted by memory as it is unknown over what length of time the retelling of the folk tale occurs, there could have been a controlled condition where the same people were asked to retell an English folk tale to see how much they change or remember of it. This suggests that the understanding of the social world is controlled by schemas[p2]. A different research study by Darley and Gross (1983), showed that when people were asked to give their view on a girl’s academic ability based on whether she came from a high socio-economic status or a low socio-economic one, they suggested she would have an average ability. However after watching a video of her doing an oral exam which showed her having an average academic ability, their view changed. The participants who had watched the introductory video of her from a high socio-economic background suggested she had a high academic ability. However the participants that had watched the low socio-economic background introduction video suggested she had a low academic ability. This shows that the participants’ stereotypes which they had after the introductory video seemed to be confirmed after the oral video. This research study suggests that rich children are judged to be more similar to each other than to those from a lower socio-economic background (Buchanan, Anand , Jaffe and Thomas, 2007). This research study showed that while people do not generally want to seem as stereotyping others, (stereotypical,) by not jumping to a conclusion after just watching either introductory video, they seemed to have already made up their mind before watching the second video. This shows that schemas are very powerful and can lead people to conclusions without gathering all the information. The[p3] method is (accurate) valid as it allows for both the high socio-economic status stereotype and the low socio-economic stereotype. This suggests that how people see and understand the social world is constrained by schemas as the roles people are given determine other generalisations. The research study that Ruscher et al (2000) did showed that when a person is dependent on another person as well as themselves, the impression of another person is likely to be less b(i)ased on schemas and involve more information which may contradict the expectations of the person which were first thought of. This suggests that when it matters people can be more open to going beyond their initial expectations (Buchanan, Anand, Jaffe and Thomas, 2007). This experiment also shows that schemas are more efficient as people avoid doing more work unless they have to. The method of the Ruscher et al (2000) experiment was valid as it used four different conditions and the conclusion was drawn up by looking at the average time it took participants to make a comment about the target person. The conclusion drawn from the experiment showed that motivational relevance does effect the importance, people place on schemas and shows that people can form impressions based on characteristics not belo nging in the original stereotype of a person, object or event (Buchanan, Anand, Jaffe and Thomas, 2007). This research study allows for the research into schemas to be extended, it suggests future research into what other reasons people might allow for not simply going with the stereotype, is there other reasons or different motivation apart from monetary gain? It would also be interesting to see if people would do this without any motivation at all. The research shows that in some cases the social world is not constrained by schemas, that people can look beyond stereotypes; however it also asks more questions in this area[p4]. This[p5] assignment has examined several different research studies that look at schemas and shown that although in some cases schemas do control how people understand the social world, there are experiments that have shown that people can go beyond the stereotype and look at people, objects or events in different ways. The Bartlett study showed that people use schemas to change a folktale to fit in with their culture, what they understand to be right, how people are supposed to behave. The Darley and Gross study showed that people interpret things in a way to support a stereotype which they already believe to be true. However, the Ruscher et al study has shown that people can change what they believe to be true, that they can add or take away characteristics of a person so that they no longer fit with a previous stereotype. These studies together have shown that while most understanding of the social world is controlled by schemas, it is possible for stereotypes to be changed. Howev er the Rusher et al study which showed this, used motivation for people to change their stereotypes and therefore it means that there could be more research done in this area. Word count: 1357 Bibliography Buchanan, K., Anand, P., Jaffe, H. and Thomas, K. (2007) Perceiving and understanding the social world in Miell, D. Pheonix, A. Thomas, K. (Eds.), Mapping psychology (2nd ed.). Milton Keynes: The Open University. [p1]A reasonable introduction which shows understanding of the issue, and tells the reader how you mean to tackle the question. [p2]Clear account of Bartlett’s work with some relevant commentary about the methodology. [p3]However, it could be said to lack ecological validity since the scenario is presented in a very different way to the real world. [p4]Clear, accurate and concise account of this study, its methodological benefits and implications in relation to the question. [p5]A clear and well- focused conclusion, which clearly summarises you points, in relation to the question,

Friendship Essay: The Qualities of a Best Friend -- friendship essay, m

Surely, everyone is fond of the idea of friendship. In fact, to most people living on this earth believe that friends are the most important part of their lives. There have been lots of sayings, quotes, movies and music about the theme, friendship; and this also impacted many people in the way they see the idea of having friends and that it is worthwhile to have someone to rely on. The importance of friendship cannot just be forgotten like a snap of one’s fingers. It has stuck on to the minds of people through movies, such as ‘Harry Potter’ and TV series, like ‘Friends’. Indeed, throughout the centuries, these shows and movies has really proven that friends are not someone one wants, but they are someone one needs. However, other adults strongly disagree with the idea of friendship being an important matter. It is even possible to say that adults do not have as many friends and consider the concept of friendship as such an important part because of the way their lives are structured. To begin with, most of the adults’ jobs are related to their jobs. It is the office or the workplace, they spend most of their time, and it is the colleagues, they spend most of their time interacting with. In other words, they do not have much time to socialize with other friends of their own. In contrast, not everyone can be a friend of others. Although people can be friends just by introducing themselves and greeting each other, that kind of friendship will not last for long. In fact, when looking at the concept of friendship in depth, the theme can be separated into two parts. One can basically have two kinds of friends, ‘good friends’ and ‘best friends’. Obviously, they are ‘friends’ for same purposes, but the difference lie underneath the ... ...best to give possible solutions to get over with the problem. Thus, everyone from these types can certainly be a good friend. However, only ‘life partners’ can be best friends. The people from the work place will probably have lives and families of their own; and the classmates will not do any good. Once a student graduates from a college, it is likely that they will not be in contact with the people they will to university with. Plus, it is hard to find them because they have separated to different parts of the world seeking for jobs. In addition, how close can people be friends with people from the street? And how much will they know about each other? So, there is really one person who is there for people if they are in need of company. Once married, it is their duty to care for one another and help them in any way they can and that is also the role of friends.

Piracy of the Media Essay -- Music Sharing Internet

Piracy of the Media The use of the internet to download and share music files is a very controversial issue. This topic is especially of interest to me because I download music quite frequently. To get a better look at how frequently students do this, and whether or not they feel it is ethical, I decided to conduct a survey. I conducted a ten question survey of twenty freshmen students. Distributed in Hanson Hall, and all freshmen dorm, the survey was very straightforward and asked questions dealing with how often students used file-sharing programs and whether or not they felt it was ethical to do so. Other questions dealt with alternative options to downloading music and the legal action that ensues doing so. After conducting the survey, I came to the expected conclusion that the majority of students download music regularly. All but one of the students surveyed stated that they download music off a P2P (people to people) file-sharing program. Several people also, however, admitted that they felt that the piracy of music online is unethical. These were people who also said that they download music regularly. Their response as to why they continue to compromise their integrity was based on the fact that they did not feel that the record labels or the individual artists themselves were actually being adversely affected. In their minds, their downloading and sharing of this music is only helping the music industry, especially up-and-coming bands who are trying to develop a name for themselves. Instead of handing out promo CD’s, they can simply upload their music onto the internet and circulate their music that way; a much more inexpensive and effective method. For example, I had n ot heard of the band Good Charlotte ... ... record label if they request it. Possible results may include individuals being sued for downloading music. This may seem as a step in the direction of doing away with the free distribution of music online, but I feel that there will always be a loophole. Students can anonymously sign on and download music, or register under fake information. As seen in the past, as soon as one program is shut down, such as Napster, another one will pop up in its place; Limewire, Kazaa, Morpheus: the list goes on and on. In conclusion, the piracy of music is a hot topic these days. I feel that it will be a controversy for quite awhile, simply because of how difficult it is to prevent. Unless courts and the record labels take more legal action, the music industry will just have to sit back and watch us students â€Å"steal† money from them, money which they already have plenty of.

Marriages are made in heaven Essay

â€Å"Marriages are made in heaven†, so it is said, but they are solemnized here on earth. This is a great occasion that comes in our only once and therefore, calls for a celebration anywhere in the world. In our country this is a very solemn occasion, accompanied with numerous customs associated with it, making it all more exciting and memorable. It a wonderful mixture of traditions blended with modernity that is even admired by foreigners. Last month my best friend Alex, who lived in my neighborhood got married to her fiancee, a software engineer in the United States. I being her best friend was assigned the responsibility of looking after the bride and chaperoning her at her wedding. On the appointed day since morning there was hectic activities beginning from the Haldi ceremony, vermillion was applied on her followed by ladies sangeet. Then I applied mehendi on her hands. By the time this was over, it was already lunch time. Immediately after lunch, we had to go to the market to collect her bridal wear that had been given for some last minute alterations. Thereafter we went to the bridal beauty parlour, where we spent some time. By the time they were finished, it was difficult to recognize Alex, and for so striking was her beauty, that even tinsel heroines would have had a complex. It was now getting late; we rushed home to find our family members anxiously waiting for us. The barat was on its way and we could hear the drum beats. We all rushed outside to see the barat as it approached the gate. The bridegroom was astride on a horse bedecked with flowers. His tall figure with a golden sehra on his head, made him look like a proverbial prince. There was the ‘Dwar Puja’ at the gate followed by religious ceremonies performed by the pundit. Thereafter the groom was escorted to the dais†¦

Regarding History vs. When Death Comes

Regarding history/ when death comes Luisa A. Igloria's, â€Å"Regarding History† is a very intriguing poem. Initially it seems to be a very straight forward poem, she beings by speaking of two trees that she can see from her window that lean into the wind, and goes on to describe a certain meat that she is cooking. At first glance this poem seemed to just be a description of an afternoon, but as the poem progresses it gets more complicated, which lead me to start to question if her earliest descriptions where literal, or a representation of something else entirely.A key turning point in my interpretation of this poem is when she said: â€Å"Tell me what I'll find, in this early period at the beginning of a century. Tell me what I'll find stumbling into a boat and pushing off into the year's last dark hours. † It is obvious that she is searching for something, but what? After I reread the poem I began seeing more of a love aspect to it when I noticed her speaking of a pe rson, who she wants to take the person's face in her hands and â€Å"Grow sweet from what it tells†.This once more brings me back to the begging of the poem, and my initial question, what do the trees represent? I came to the conclusion that the two trees represented her and this person that she adores, and that she is not necessarily observing them, but rather the trees make her think of the relationship with this person she adores and herself, which by the description of the how the trees are: â€Å"leaning now into the wind in a stance that we'd call involuntary-† shows to me that there is a struggle of sorts that they are facing together. Another aspect of the poem that peaked my interest was the title.After reading it and rereading it there seemed to be no logical conclusion to be made of the title until I had focused on the ending when she talks about â€Å"the beginning of a century†. It made me think that she was about to embrace something new, and this struggle that is present may have been a repeat of the past, therefore bringing about the entire poems purpose, her questioning the future while regarding the past, or as the poem states, history. â€Å"When Death Comes†, This poem by Mary Oliver was simple, but the way she used imagery and depicted her thoughts upon death was brilliant and extravagant.When I say simple, I meant that there seemed to be no hidden meaning of what the poem was really about. After reading over the material more than a few times is was clear that death meant death, and her position on it was firmly established. At the beginning of the poem she starts off by describing death, how it is vicious, swift, unbiased and unforgiving. â€Å"When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps his purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades†¦ Then she begins to question about what death will be like when it is her time. Her reflection of death and its characteristics provokes thoughts on how she values all life and her personal relationships. She describes her relationships a brother and sisterhood, stating that she is very close to those she loves and highly values their relationship. She describes all life as a flower, but as common as a field daisy, but none the less beautiful, and any life that dares venture towards and endure life a body of courage, like a lion, and she ends the poem describing how she wants to exit this world.She wishes to die never having stopped being amazed by creation and never having stopped exploring new things and ideas, She wishes to have no questions or doubts. She wants to have experienced the world, not only have had visited it. Her take on the ideas and life and death themselves are very respectable, and something that I believe should be modeled, I believe that they are setup for well being, satisfac tion, and a full life. In this poem, she had many literay devices.To me, the most interesting one is on stanzas three and four: † when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps his purse shut†¦ † Its obvious that when you die you lose all of your possesions, but in ancient Greece, the culture believed that when you died you had to pay a toll to Charon, a demi-god whose only purpose is to ferry people in to the after life. These coins were mostly gold or other precious metals and were usually owned by the person who died and placed on the eyes as their final payment to the Charon, which is represented by the adjective she uses, â€Å"Bright†.

Moral Reasoning across Cultures Essay

Moral reasoning involves an active critical thinking process that evaluates reasons for ethical beliefs (Sunar, 2002). Sometimes individuals may be skeptic about issues related to morality. However, these same people seek to relate their moral opinions with tangible reasons. By doing this, they try to prove the issues that encompass ethics but often end up making common fallacies in moral reasoning. The universal acceptance of moral reasoning or arguments becomes rather problematic as culture seems to play a critical role in the way individuals make moral judgments (Sunar, 2002). To fully appreciate the difference in moral reasoning across cultures, it is important to examine some of the moral questions that have drawn serious debates in history. These moral questions such as euthanasia, abortion, same-sex marriages have been a hurdle due to the differences in cultural practices and beliefs which make some individuals to view an issue as morally correct or morally wrong (Sunar, 2002). But at the same time, there are principals that are universally accepted across cultures and this makes moral reasoning, to some level, be homogenous in intercultural dimensions. Morality can be viewed differently across different psychologists. To evolutionally psychologist, morality is an issue of inheritance implying that if the parents had poor morals, the offspring will not escape but inherit the genes of poor morals (Sunar, 2002). Cognitive psychologists may differ and claim that morality is entirely learnt where a child develops character and morals through experiences and role-taking. The difference in their explanations comes in due to the attempt to answer the disconcerting question on why moral reasoning tends to differ across individuals, gender and cultural levels (Sunar, 2002). There are diverse and pervasive cultural differences in moral principles across cultures, an issue that has made serious debates among cross-cultural psychologists (Sunar, 2002). The thinking of cognitive psychologists as observed in Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory seem to be applicable only to the Western people with liberal values and individualists social forms. In this perspective, social constructionists have given a strong critique on the cognitive-development theory in the understanding of moral reasoning (Bucciarelli, Khemlani & Johnson-Laird, 2008). The social constructionists maintain that every culture is entirely unique with distinct moral systems and meanings and the comparisons in their moral reasoning does not make sense. This argument can be supported by the number of states legalizing abortion. Countries such as Malta, El Salvador and Chile have made abortion to be illegal no matter the condition or the purpose of the procedure (Pregnant Pause, 2002). On the other hand, countries such as Belgium, Belarus, Australia, Bosnia, Cambodia and China have made abortion to be a legal practice for a number of reasons such as social or economic reasons (Pregnant Pause, 2002). A different perspective is held by evolutionary psychologists, psychoanalytic psychologists and cognitive-development psychologists. They all argue that moral reasoning should be uniform across cultures. Psychoanalytic theory claims that the internalization process is deeply rooted in the conflicts between the social life requirements and the individual desires. These factors tend to be universal and therefore moral reasoning is uniform across cultures. Cultures such as same-sex marriages that used to be predominantly in Western countries are slowly finding a place in African countries (Bucciarelli, Khemlani & Johnson-Laird, 2008). This shows that moral reasoning is similar across cultures. Another element of similarities across cultures is the manner in which social institutes such as marriage are conducted. Punishments for poor marriage practices and rewards for good conduct have been shown to increase the observance of the moral principles regardless to cultural differences. Generally, the issue of moral reasoning tends to be both uniform and different across different cultures. There are moral principles that are universally acceptable and some practices will be known to be wrong among all cultures. However, some practices tend to have cultural boundaries where some countries or ethnic groups may restrict certain practices while others allowing the practices. These factors make moral reasoning to differ across cultures. Reference: Bucciarelli, M. , Khemlani, S & Johnson-Laird, P. N (2008). The psychology of moral reasoning. Judgment and Decision Making. 3 (2):121-139. Pregnant Pause (2002). Summary of abortion laws around the world. Retrieved July 15, 2010 from http://www. pregnantpause. org/lex/world02. htm Sunar, D. (2002). The psychology of morality. In W. J. Lonner, D. L. Dinnel, S. A. Hayes, & D. N. Sattler (Eds. ), Online Readings in Psychology and Culture (Unit 2, Chapter 11), Retrieved July 15, 2010 from http://www. ac. wwu. edu/~culture/Sunar. htm