Thursday, December 26, 2019

Same Sex Attracted Are More Vulnerable From A Mental Illness

The issue that will be investigated is ‘Those Who Are Same Sex Attracted Are More Likely to Suffer from a Mental Illness’. When comparing homosexual and bisexual people to heterosexuals, the homosexual and bisexuals are twice as likely to experience anxiety and are three times as likely to experience depression and related disorders. Previous studies and statistics will provide evidence that will support the statement being investigated. Campaigns will be illustrating how organisations are trying to prevent homophobia and improve the overall wellbeing of people who are same sex attracted. The three different kinds of homophobia being internalised, interpersonal and institutional will be explored, as well as the concept of heterosexism. The issues involving the government and the community creating prejudice will be examined. Including ways that members of the community and government can control discrimination providing social justice towards LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexu al, transgender and intersex) people. Homophobia includes discrimination or abuse, which is based on someone’s homosexuality or sexual orientation. This can negatively impact the emotional and physical wellbeing of people who are victimised. There are three main types of homophobia that are known as the three I’s, which are internalised, interpersonal and institutional. Internalised homophobia is the fear or hatred of homosexuality that exists in ones own mind, such as making a determined effort to dress orShow MoreRelatedChina s National Strategy Of Hiv / Aids Prevention Programs1346 Words   |  6 Pagesstrategy of HIV/AIDS prevention, the group of men who have sex with men (MSM) has attracted much attention in the latest decade. In the year 2008, the Ministry of Health officially announced that gay men would be one of the targeted groups in HIV/AIDS prevention programs, as part of its national health initiatives[[1] AFP (2008, February 20) China launches first anti-AIDS drive for gay men: state media. R etrieved September 21,2015, from http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-china.htm#footnote51_2gjd2tgRead MoreThe Riot That Occurred During The Early Morning Of June1116 Words   |  5 Pagestransvestism, and transgender sex changes were considered signs of mental illness. Painful electroshock therapy was often enforced upon those who displayed homosexual behavior. They were the objects of public suspicion, job discrimination, and outright violence. Gays, lesbians, and other sexual minority groups were stigmatized by society and harassed by law enforcement (â€Å"The Stonewall Riots†). The negative perception of homosexuality began to change in the 1940s as it gradually became more public. This is partiallyRead MoreBetty Ford and Her Time in Office1786 Words   |  7 PagesIn December of 1973, Gerald Ford, who had in the previous year considered retirement from politics, was appointed as Vice President under Richard Nixon, after Vice President Spiro Angew forcibly resigned. On August 9, 1974, in an unprecedented mov e, Richard Nixon resigned from Presidential office under the political and social pressure of the captivating Watergate scandal. In this torrential turn of circumstances, under United States law, Gerald Ford became the 38th President of the United StatesRead MoreThe Life Course and Social Workers Essay2668 Words   |  11 Pagesâ€Å"The life course is the progression and path an individual takes from conception to death, and considers that the whole life of the individual presents opportunities for development, change and growth† (Crawford and Walker 2010). Being aware of what life course one’s on and the impact of transitions within a person’s life course is important for social work practice. It is important that social workers reflect on both their own and other’s experiences throughout the life course and support thisRead MoreLgbt19540 Words   |  79 Pagestransgender and along with heterosexual they describe peoples sexual orientation or gender identity. These terms are explained in more detail here. Lesbian A lesbian woman is one who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to women. Many lesbians prefer to be called lesbian rather than gay. Gay A gay man is one who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to men. The word gay can be used to refer generally to lesbian, gay and bisexual people but many women prefer to be calledRead MoreSexual Abuse And Its Effects On Children Essay3457 Words   |  14 Pagesexposing a child to sexual intercourse 3. Sexual exploitation ïÆ'Ëœ Engaging a child for the purpose of prostitution ïÆ'Ëœ Using a child for pornography Sexual abuse does not necessarily have to be physical. Other behaviours that count as sexual abuse apart from physical exploitation are: †¢ Voyeurism- is a practice in which the individual derives sexual pleasure in observing other people engaged in sexual acts, nudity, undressing or in whatever other way the individual finds pleasurable. According to theRead MoreCritically examine sociological explanations for the emergence and growth of religious sects in an apparently secular society.5615 Words   |  23 Pagesreligious group with characteristics, which distinguishes it from either a Church or a denomination. Many groups which fit this definition now prefer the less contentious title of new religious movements, because over the last fifty years, sects have become linked with brainwashing, mass suicide, and even a murder. One of the examples is the suicide of 900 members of the Peoples temple. Sects are not a new phenomenon and they have always attracted controversy. Throughout History, humanity has formedRead MoreNvq Unit 175585 Words   |  23 Pagesrelationships as follows; A = Acquaintance/attraction. We meet other people and feel an initial attraction, often based on physical beauty and similarity. B = Build-up. We become increasingly interdependent as we reveal more and more about our private selves. We get irritated by one another, but the more pleasant aspects may well keep the relationship going. C = Continuation/consolidation. Longer-term commitments are made, such as marriage. The partnership enters what may be a life-long stable relationship. DRead MoreThe Sociology of Women: A Study4847 Words   |  19 Pages Sociology of Women Table of Contents 13 Myths and Misconceptions about Trans Women 3 Abortion is every womans right 4 Women with Disabilities: The Double Discrimination 5 Sex Segregation in the Workplace 6 The Fourth Wave of Feminism- Psychoanalytic Perspectives Introductory Remarks 7 The Social Construction of Sexuality 8 Masculinity as Homophobia Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity 9 Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism 10 Before Spring Break, theRead MoreInfluence of Advertising3893 Words   |  16 Pagesinformation An obvious reason for advertising is simply informing people of the existence of products they might be interested in buying. No one will buy something that they don t know exists, no doubt about that. When more people know about a product, more of it will be sold. I remember an ad from an advertising agency that was about advertising itself. They said that it was good that there is advertising, as it is an important source of information about products. If that were all, most people would embrace

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Social Work and Finding Self-Care Essay - 632 Words

Social Work is a helping profession that strives to help the community on micro, mezzo, and macro levels. It is an investment of self to offer services and help to those in need. Areas of service can include, but are not limited to, traumatic situations, family situations, and child protection. As in most social service professions, the field of social work can often times take a toll on the emotional and physical stability of a social worker. One side effect from working in a helping profession is compassion fatigue. As a result, the National Association of Social Workers stresses the importance of self-care and its vitality in ensuring the social worker does not get burnt out by the profession. Self-care is a very important asset in†¦show more content†¦Some social workers that are experiencing compassion fatigue may carry their symptoms over to their clients and let it affect their job competency. This can consequently affect their ethical standing within the profession. The National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics acknowledges the challenges caused by compassion fatigue and promotes the importance of self-care in the social work profession. According to the NASW Code of Ethics, â€Å"[p]rofessional self-care in social work is critical to maintaining ethical and professional behavior and providing competent services to clients across diverse settings† (NASW, 2009, p. 269). They also provide ways in which to support social workers and help alleviate the stress of the profession. Along with the services already provided, the NASW supports â€Å"the development of creative and innovative support services for social workers, which may include supports groups, professional retreats, Web site resources, online support, and chat groups† (NASW, 2009, p. 270). The National Association of Social Worker’s view on self-care is very beneficial and complimentary to the way in which I also view self-care. Self-care in soci al work is very important to me. I know from experience that no one is immune to compassion fatigue or traumatic stress of any kind. Being able to work in a profession that values its employees and their mental and physical health is essential to me. Singing and using music to unwind isShow MoreRelatedThe s Ethical Principles Of Psychologists And Code Of Conduct821 Words   |  4 Pagesviolations applying the APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct to each situation. Two complaints that stood out to me in the Grenyer Lewis article were poor communication and character. These complaints are very important in a work-related setting. Without a positive body language/character and communication skills, the job itself would become a disaster. During their professional time, psychologists act in such a rude way and bring off a negative feedback to others. In regardsRead MoreMy Personal Values On Nursing964 Words   |  4 Pagesto promote the best possible care for my patients because I believe in maintaining life balances. Life balances acknowledge the individual’s prioritizes by linking each lifestyles together. In physiological terms, maintaining equilibrium and homeostasis is critical in achieving a state of balanced. Therefore, my values about person, health, nursing, and environment underlies the concept of sustaining life harmony. Educating the patient and the self about healthy work/ life balance through the conceptualRead MoreEconomic Incentives : Effect Of Social Disapproval1244 Words   |  5 Pagescitet{carpenter2006mutual} following similar work by citet{gachter2000cooperation}, provide empirical evidence that economic incentives can reinforce the effect of social disapproval. Both the mentioned papers consider groups of people ranging from five to ten. Each group plays ten rounds, and are then moved to a different group after each round in the `strangers treatment. There are three stages to each round, firstly they must contribute, secondly the contributions are made public and finallyRead MoreAssessment and Care of a Client with Borderline Personality Disorder819 Words   |  3 PagesMental Health Nursing Objective The objective of this study is to describe the assessment and care of a client with borderline personality disorder. This work will additionally demonstrate the complexity of the problems and needs of this client and how this impacts on their illness and service providers. Additionally this work will describe the clients particular mental health problems, discuss possible causative factors and describe how the person was assessed and what interventions were usedRead MoreSocial Workers Develop And Implement Treatment1659 Words   |  7 PagesFrom this meek beginning, social work has progressed into a professional service with treatment obligations in all patient care areas, helping patients and families to attain their highest level of adjustment/coping in society, endorsing vocational and psychosocial rehabilitation. Social workers develop and implement treatment approaches which address individual social difficulties and work with acute/chronic medical conditions, dying patients, a nd bereaved families. VA social workers are liable forRead MoreSchizophrenia Case Study1627 Words   |  7 Pagesinternship were recruited again. Their results revealed that students’ attitudes toward individuals with schizophrenia changed in a positive direction for etiology of schizophrenia, treatment options, approach to individuals with schizophrenia, and social interactions. College students. Eker (33) recruited 85 undergraduate students to examine attitudes toward mental illness. Results revealed that the most negative ratings were recorded for the paranoid schizophrenia case, and the most positive ratingsRead MoreThe Importance Of Resilience For Childrens Wellbeing And Development1627 Words   |  7 Pagesyoung children. The EYFS recognises the importance of resilience in aiding children’s wellbeing and development be regarding every child is a ‘unique child’, and a child who is continually learning and is able to be ‘resilient, capable, confident and self-assured’ (Department of Education, 2014, p. 6). In addition to building resilience within an EYFS setting, there is evidence to support the view that building strong links between home, early years providers and the wider community can support familiesRead MoreThe Work Of The Va Social Workers1604 Words   |  7 PagesThis meek beginning social work had progressed into a professional service with treatment obligations in all patient care areas, helping patients ↠and→ families to attain their highest level of adjustment/coping in society, endorsing vocational ↠and→ psychosocial rehabilitation. Social workers developed implemented treatment approaches which addressed individual social difficulties work with acute/chronic medical conditions, dying patients, bereaved families. VA social workers were liable for ensuringRead MoreThe Core Concepts Of The National Child Trauma Stress Network1605 Words   |  7 Pagesshares with his two younger sisters. James presently is in his Uncle Patrick’s kinship fo ster care where he is living. James’s case seems that he is suffering from three of the 12 core concepts. Working with children who suffer with more stress related trauma is a more challenging case for the social workers. Sometimes these cases affect the social worker, and they experience vicarious trauma. A social worker works closely with their patients and form a significant relationship with a survivor of traumaRead MoreSocial Psychology Psy 400757 Words   |  4 PagesSocial Psychology Dawn S. Peck PSY 400 12/22/2014 David Brueshoff Social Psychology What is Social Psychology all about? Why is the study of it so important? Is there truly a purpose and benefit from the findings of the studies? Let’s look at each of these questions, break them down, and try to make sense of it all. Simply defined, Social Psychology is the scientific study of individual attitude and how it effects or influences others in a social context. It is helpful

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Planning Local Economic Development Process †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Planning Local Economic Development Process. Answer: Introduction: Entrepreneurship can be termed as a set of synchronized activities for establishing a business or businesses on own by taking financial risks with the objective to earn sufficient profits. Entrepreneurship is important for development and growth of the country as it resolves various economic issues and encourages youth for doing something unique to accomplish their dreams (Drucker, 2014). The present study is based on an evaluation of the importance of entrepreneurship in the Australian economy by considering their current economic situation. Further factors that promote or hinders entrepreneurship will also be discussed. The study will be supported by relevant economic theories and examples by considering literature of previous research scholars. Entrepreneurship in the Australian economy is important to maintain its economic prosperity, and for this, it is necessary to promote entrepreneurship and start-ups. Australian policies performed well in boosting entrepreneurship in the country, but very few startups can maintain to grow drastically. Countries future depends on the factor that how quickly they are able to adapt the change (Schaper and et al. 2016). Technological and other changes bring innovation and job opportunities which are necessary for the growth of the individual. In accordance with the viewpoint of the commission of the European communities, 2013 entrepreneurship means a mindset which is necessary to create and developed economic activity through innovation and risk taking. Entrepreneurs play a vital role in the success of the countrys economy because they understand the need and want of the society on the basis of which creates opportunities for others and themselves also. An Australian report state that between 2006 -2011 startups provided more than 1.44 full millions full-time jobs in Australia as compared to other firms which had provided only 400000 full-time jobs (Pisheh and Moghaddam, 2016). It is clearly seen that start-ups provide 360% more job than other firms. A blend of science, entrepreneurship and creativity is the path of making Australia more secure and powerful in terms of economic prosperity. Further; Entrepreneurship promotes structural change and influences existing firms efforts to amend as per new conditions of the market. However; They are unable to make essential internal changes and do not have the ability for innovative destruction, but New business and existing firms can assist firms to get independent from being in the positi on of locked up. Furthermore, entrepreneurs can make completely cope up with new business and markets which will become the engines of future growth processes. In accordance with the study of Kirzner (2015), entrepreneurship performs a critical role in the growth and development of the economy as it resolves the primary of unemployment. In Australia, it is said that small business plays a vital role in job creation, so it is necessary to make favourable policies for encouraging small scale business to grow. There is a link between entrepreneurship and jobs creation. In order to boost the capitalist economy, it is essential to make environment competitive and innovative. Modern entrepreneurs think out of the box which makes possible for them to find out the more efficient solution of the complex problem (Bullough, Renko and Myatt, 2014). Economic growth and job creation are related. Some people assume that if we grow as an economy than jobs will automatically create, but it is seen in last several years that economy is growing without having an impact on job creation. It is significant to give economic stability to workers by giving good salary and good working environment so they can invest pay in themselves and their family. It is predicted by the World Bank that the world needs to generate 600 million more jobs as compared to 2005 just to hold employment to working age population ratio steady. Figure 1 shows the growth expectation at three levels. First one shows low growth expectation (0-4) then medium growth expectation (519) and the third one shows high growth expectation (20 or more employees). Only a few entrepreneurs can manage to achieve more than 20 or more employees mark. In comparison to another big economy, Australia performs above average (Galindo and Mndez, 2014). In accordance with the viewpoint of Autio and co-authors (2014) entrepreneurship improves productivity and introduces innovation in each sector. There are only two ways to increase the productivity of the industry either to increase the input in order to get more output or we can develop innovative ways to get more output in same input (Schaper ed., 2016). Our world is currently facing many environmental challenges like a side effect of green houses, climate change, maintaining biodiversity but through innovation in technological and in technological areas, it can be fixed. There are lots of social challenges like health, inequalities among others which can be fixed by entrepreneurship innovativeness. Innovativeness raises the living standard of people, and now it plays a vital role in determining growth and competitiveness. For example - In 1939 a new product named television was introduced, but experts said that television would never overtake radio. They thought people had no time to sit in front of the television to watch something. In the 20th century television becomes most influential and common gadget in the households of Australia. There are lots of example of innovation which influenced mankind like the first aircraft left the ground on 1903, mobile invented in 1973, laser in 1960. Figure 2 describes Australia is on the second position in the world on starting a business with an innovative product. This also creates motivation for others. The entrepreneurial activity required two things to get work done, firstly ability to work and secondly willingness to work (Leigh and Blakely, 2016). First one is achieved by proper education and training but the second one is achieved with the help of motivation. Entrepreneurs help their employees to get motivated and give their best towards the society and the organization. Motivation reduced employee turnover which leads to improving employment opportunities in the country (Kuratko, 2016). Sometimes it is necessary to bring a change in the system that can improve the efficiency of the work, but few people will not accept the good change in the system. That why it is important to convince them about the change which is possible through motivation. Distribution of necessity driven entrepreneurship and improvement driven entrepreneurship. It is clearly seen that in Australia, there is five time the ratio of innovative entrepreneurs who worked on new product as compared to the entrepreneur of normal business. This ratio is greater than the other innovative, driven economies. Factors that promote entrepreneurship in Australia Entrepreneurship is an approach of developing activities of the economy by taking risks, innovation, and creativity. Entrepreneurs drive opportunities that result to the construction of economic efficiency (Acs, Szerb and Autio, 2016). In order to maintain the prosperity of Australia and to attain sustainable growth of the economy, the Australian government is providing attention to introducing an economy that persuades innovative and creative ideas. The government is consulting with Territory governments and Australian State to identify program types and businesses that will gain from the supportive target. Entrepreneurs mostly introduce new tools and technologies and improve their product and services. There are several examples of drastic innovations established by well-known entrepreneurs such as Microsoft (Bill Gates), Apple (Steve Jobs). Entrepreneurs who introduce new innovations provide a vital contribution to the progress of the economy. Thus; Australian economy provides various funding plans with nominal interest charges to new start-ups. Further; they had introduced plans like venture capitalist who will provide expertise along with funds to support good business ideas. Competitive advantage is also created by entrepreneurs; they increase competition among businesses. By introducing new industries, entrepreneurs strengthen competition for current industries. As the prices get a low and diversified variety of products, consumers are benefiting (Leigh and Blakely, 2016). Thus; Australian economy is supported by law and regulations which restrict monopoly and provide new businesses fair chance for growth and development in the market. Further Australia is maintaining an effective entrepreneurship system where implementing a sophisticated approach is considerable, as it assists policy makers to consider entrepreneurial benefits in a systematic manner. It also promotes them to capture a wide perspective while considering from indicators view of individual and country entrepreneurial battle (Ribeiro-Soriano and Mas-Verd, 2015). Australians are good at developing new and creative ideas, either by science, technical or quality resources. However, people are not good at reallocating them into creativity and certifying their flow to raise firms productivity and global economic prosperity. Value gained from innovation must be captured in such a way that can safeguard prosperity, better standards of living, social enclosure and sustainability of resources. The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Australia is inclusive of several stakeholders determined by diverse desires and objectives, but together they encourage entrepreneurship. Including an encouraging ecosystem drives and helps people to set up their own start-ups. While creating such a positive environment, the government of Australia requires the private sector support, by introducing a sustainable ecosystem which is inclusive of teamwork with universities, several firms, and owners of new startups (Leigh and Blakely, 2016). The government of Australia is in favour of easing the relationships between firms in Australia and promotes them to help and create a sustainable entrepreneurial economy, and further, the economic growth developed form this is predictable. This all is attained by assembling entrepreneurs, banks, and private sectors, universities to have a positive discussion and to communicate the significance of the supportive economy to Australias prosperity. The European Union members stated have RIS (European Regional Innovation Scoreboard) that examines collaboration level among creative companies and any other company and the quantity of co-publications of the public private sector (Ribeiro-Soriano and Mas-Verd, 2015). Adopting collaborative measures alike to RIS can support territories and states of Australia to maintain a culture which is highly entrepreneurial and innovative. They also help in determining the areas which are required for policy making and developing the existing conditions of business in Australia. Australia is focusing on making technology entrepreneurship a priority, supported by entrepreneurship strategy and national innovation which identifies the contribution of schools and universities as drivers of entrepreneurial culture. With this approach, Australian government supports the development of technology companies by providing them convenient policy measures and programs. These programs and policies primarily aimed at firms having paramount capacity for growth and success. Along with this; they monitor entrepreneurial activity on an annual basis by presenting entrepreneurship in high-schools and colleges and motivating university students to get involved with diversified range of entrepreneurship programs. This strategy has been enforced to` encourage youth to think universally having exposure to the best international start-up ecosystems and cultures. Factors that hinders entrepreneurship in Australia Despite, there are several factors that hinder the process of entrepreneurshipin Australia. The primary factor in this aspect is lack of capital. Insufficient capital plagues new business, and also lack of cash flows complex the problem (Thomas, Painbni and Barton, 2013). Startup companies often have less or no cash flows. Australian banks have less or nominal policies for new startups. Further, when a company processes a product and is ready to sell, the problem arises from pricing (Komppula, 2014). If the price is set as low they low profits are generated and if it is set as high its lead to steady sales or creates a harmful impact on profits. Under the act Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups, it considers the problems of small business investments, helping through angel investors and crowd funding. Another hinder factor for them is poor management strategies. A creative entrepreneur skills and abilities do not essentially associate to be an efficient manager. There are several ways by which this dichotomy could rise. A product produced by the producer is beautiful from their point of but not considered the same by all, and if the entrepreneur is unable to identify it, in this situation, even management experts cant help (Leigh and Blakely, 2016). However, with a successful product, an entrepreneur might not hand over the management wheels to an expert in managing a start-up. Unskilled manager possibly recruits a poor management team which as a result leads to poor performance and lack of a business plan. According to the study of Audretsch and co-authors (2016), a small business startup has an exclusive product along with considerable market demand; it is likely to promote it a cost efficient manner. Inadequate market research can lead to improper planning and timing for introducing a product. Lack of understanding the market will result in spending more than earning. To remove and resolve this hindrance factors it is crucial to discover ways to establish productivity and entrepreneurship to maintain economic welfare in Australia Entrepreneurship drives creativity, innovation, employment and competition, which are essential for growth of productivity. The government of Australia is currently practising several entrepreneurial and modern policies in order to ensure the efficiency of policy changes (Thomas, Painbni and Barton, 2013). While creating an encouraging and combined ecosystem, there must be involved with the universities, private sector, businesses, and start-ups. Involvement and identifying of success can moderate perceptions and thoughts of start-ups of Australia. Australia has a great contribution in attaining the objectives of the World Bank and IMF meant for developing the worldwide shared welfare. Further, the country can maximize its economic efficiency through constructing an entrepreneurial economy. Conclusion The present study showcases vital role played by entrepreneurship in the economy. Entrepreneurs have the same positive effect on both short and long runs in the economy as entrepreneurs drive employment growth by creating new opportunities for jobs. The direct effect of employment is seen from the point of new business that occurs from the creation of new jobs. New businesses can boost up more efficiency and productivity. The tough competition among existing and new industries leads to the continued existence of the fittest. Although the total employment may reduce, and new business can boom productivity. Communities and government policies need to ensure to cope with up with the challenges so if one door is closed for an entrepreneur than the second one must open. The benefit of entrepreneurship is not illusory, but it shows the capability of the youngster and their dedication towards the work. Sustainable growth is achieved by job creation, competition and innovation which all entr epreneurs do. Entrepreneurship qualities must be present in young Australians to establish a sustainable ecosystem. Australia is an innovative nation and Australian always keen to adapt them with the updated technology. Australia is a big player in the world economy, and with the support of entrepreneur, it can retain its unique position. References Acs, Z.J., Szerb, L. and Autio, E., 2016. The global entrepreneurship and development index. InGlobal Entrepreneurship and Development Index 2015(pp. 11-31). Springer International Publishing. Audretsch, D.B., Lehmann, E.E., Paleari, S. and Vismara, S., 2016. Entrepreneurial finance and technology transfer.The Journal of Technology Transfer,41(1), pp.1-9. Autio, E., Kenney, M., Mustar, P., Siegel, D. and Wright, M., 2014. Entrepreneurial innovation: The importance of context.Research Policy,43(7), pp.1097-1108. Bullough, A., Renko, M. and Myatt, T., 2014. Danger zone entrepreneurs: The importance of resilience and self?efficacy for entrepreneurial intentions.Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,38(3), pp.473-499. Drucker, P., 2014.Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge. Galindo, M.. and Mndez, M.T., 2014. Entrepreneurship, economic growth, and innovation: Are feedback effects at work?.Journal of Business Research,67(5), pp.825-829. Kirzner, I.M., 2015.Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press. Komppula, R., 2014. The role of individual entrepreneurs in the development of competitiveness for a rural tourism destinationA case study.Tourism Management,40, pp.361-371. Kuratko, D.F., 2016.Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning. Leigh, N.G. and Blakely, E.J., 2016.Planning local economic development: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Leigh, N.G. and Blakely, E.J., 2016.Planning local economic development: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Pisheh, F.K. and Moghaddam, H.P., 2016. INVESTIGATE THE IMPORTANCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING SELF-EMPLOYMENT.Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences,8(2S), pp.1058-1072. Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Mas-Verd, F., 2015. Special Issue on: Small business and entrepreneurship: their role in economic and social development. Schaper, M. ed., 2016.Making ecopreneurs: developing sustainable entrepreneurship. CRC Press. Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B., 2014.Entrepreneurship and small business. Thomas, L.C., Painbni, S. and Barton, H., 2013. Entrepreneurial marketing within the French wine industry.International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior Research,19(2), pp.238-260.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Sexually Transmitted Diseases Essays (1795 words) -

Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), formerly known as venereal diseases, infectious diseases passed from one person to another during sexual contact. STDs are among the most common infections known. More than 12 million people in the United States, including 3 million teenagers, are infected with STDs every year. The United States has the highest STD rate in the industrialized world about one in ten Americans will contract an STD during his or her lifetime. People who do not know they are infected risk infecting their sexual partners and, in some cases, their unborn children. If left untreated, these diseases may cause debilitating pain or may destroy a woman's ability to have children. Some STDs can be cured with a single dose of antibiotics, but many, such as (AIDS), cannot be cured. People with these diseases remain infected for their entire lives. Those most at risk for contracting STDs are people who have unprotected sex?that is, sex without using some form of contraceptive, those who have multiple partners, and those whose sex partners include drug users who share needles. Studies show that Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are at bigger risk of catching STDs than older adults are, because younger people are more likely to have multiple sexual partners rather than a single, long-term relationship. Young people may also be more likely to have unprotected sex and may be embarrassed to tell their sexual partners they are infected. Young people may also be embarrassed or unable to seek medical attention for STDs. This means that they are not only more likely to pass the disease to other young people, they also have a greater risk of suffering the long-term consequences of untreated STDs. STDs are transmitted by infectious agents?microscopic bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and single-celled organisms called protozoa?that thrive in warm, moist environments in the body, such as the genital area, mouth, and throat. Most STDs are spread while having sex , but other forms of sexual contact, such as oral sex, can also spread disease. Some STDs are passed from a mother to her child before birth, when the disease enters the baby's bloodstream, during childbirth as the baby passes through the birth canal, or after birth, when the baby drinks infected breast milk. Some viral STDs, especially AIDS, may be transmitted by blood contact such as open wounds, between people who share infected needles or received through a transfusion of infected blood. Some people mistakenly believe that STDs can be transmitted through shaking hands or other casual contact, or through contact with inanimate objects such as clothing or toilet seats. Such transmissions are extremely rare meaning that it is highly unlikely. Chlamydia, caused by the Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium, is the most commonly transmitted STD in the United States. About 500,000 chlamydia infections are reported each year. But because chlamydia may not produce noticeable symptoms, it often goes undiagnosed, and it is estimated that the true number of people infected with chlamydia is nearly ten times the number of reported cases. People who do not know they are infected may not seek medical attention and may continue to have sex, unknowingly they're spreading the disease. When symptoms do develop, men may experience painful or burning urination or a discharge from the penis. Women may experience burning urination, vaginal secretion, or mild lower abdominal pain. If left untreated, chlamydia damages reproductive tissue, causing inflammation of the urethra in men and possibly (PID) in women. PID can cause chronic, debilitating pelvic pain, infertility, or fatal pregnancy complications. Chlamydia infections are diagnosed by testing penile and vaginal discharge for the presence of the bacteria. Gonorrhea, caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae, infects the membranes lining certain genital organs. Although roughly 325,000 gonorrhea infections are reported each year in the United States, experts estimate that closer to 800,000 people are infected annually. Like chlamydia, gonorrhea is often symptomless, and men are more likely to develop symptoms than women are. When present, symptoms may be similar to those of chlamydia and include burning urination and penile or vaginal discharge. Untreated gonorrhea can cause PID in women. Babies born to mothers with gonorrhea are at risk of infection during childbirth; such infections can cause eye disease in the newborn. Physicians diagnose gonorrhea by testing penile or vaginal discharge specimens for the presence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gonorrhea is treatable with several antibiotics, although it has become resistant to treatment with many drugs in the past several decades. A potentially life-threatening STD, is caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum. According to experts, there are an estimated 100,000 new

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

People With Disabilities In New Zealand Social Work Essay Essay Example

People With Disabilities In New Zealand Social Work Essay Essay Example People With Disabilities In New Zealand Social Work Essay Essay People With Disabilities In New Zealand Social Work Essay Essay -Containing the figure of people with disablements in New Zealand and fiscal support to a lower limit were in the Government policy. -According to TheA Lunatics Ordinance 1846, from 1854, people with unsafe insane or unsound head was supposed to be felons and sent to prison for the intent of guaranting safety and attention for them. -The Law did non promote people with disablements from shacking in New Zealand.According toTheA Imbecile Passengers Act 1882, the ship that discharged lunatic, crackbrained, deaf, dumb, blind or infirm peoplewho could go the fee for charitable organisations or any individual, the responsible people for it were required to pay a bond. -According to TheA Immigration Restriction Act 1899, Prohibited immigrants list includes A imbecile or insane people as people with infective diseases. Good familial preservation policy by taking hapless wellness features or spirit became really popular in the nineteenth century. Harmonizing to the thought of natural choice for these people, those with less desirable features were prevented from holding children.they were removed from society by seting in purpose reinforced establishments. Towards the terminal of the nineteenth century, people with rational disablement were admitted to establishments old reserved for people with mental unwellness. Men and adult females were unbroken separate purely so that they could non hold kids. The first school for deaf kids in New Zealand opened in 1880. 1900s -There was a inclination to cut down household size by societal trust on racialist addition it becomes reflected in the authorities s societal policies on handicapped people. -Mechanisms for kids with disablements were taken into history. Particularly kids with mental disablements. People of unsound head, individuals mentally infirm, imbeciles, idiots, the lame minded and epileptics were differentiated by The Mental Defectives Act 1911. The Committee of Inquiry into Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders of 1924-1925 expressed that the action of forestalling multiplied debasement in New Zealand population is necessary due to concerns about kids with rational disablements. The end was to increase the elements of the religious and physical strength and morality of the state. Education and wellness services did non include kids with particular demands due to sorting and showing of kids. Advanced engineering along with the development of medical cognition made intervention instead than the community integrating of people with disablements. -In 1924, a legistration was introduced for the benefits of those who were non able to work for good and those with impermanent unwellness. In which, pension benefits were given to blind people. In 1929, Templeton Farm in Christchurch was opened for high-grade idiots and low-grade feeble-minded instances without psychotic complications , under the disposal of the mental wellness system. The demand for better services to retrieve physically and mentally for handicapped people was emphasized after the return of soldiers from the universe wars. Harmonizing to the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion Act 1960, working conditions as required in general workplaces were exempted from implementing in the workplace of people with disablements. During the 1950s and 1960s, disabled people s kids were concerned in happening the appropriate instruction establishments. From the 1970s, the authorities s attack to services for handicapped people became more community and rights based. Harmonizing to A theA Accident Compensation Act 1972, support was provided for those who were impaired from the injury of accidents. Harmonizing to The Disabled Persons Community Welfare Act 1975, it gave people with disablements who who were non ACC claimants the entree to back up services. At the same clip it helped them remain in the community. -According to The Industrial Relations Act 1973, workers with disablements had the chance to take part in the labour market and received the appropriate pay for their productiveness. Fostering the International Year of the Disabled in 1981, a series of positive actions had been taking topographic point, the jobs of people with disablements that neer happened or were due attending in the past, such as the formation of organisations for people with disablements to talk and work for themselves. The move off from institutionalized adjustment for handicapped people continued during the 1980s ( besides known as deinstitutionalisation ) . At the same clip authorities support for community-based services increased. This was reinforced by an amendment to the Education Act enabling the mainstreaming of handicapped kids into a normal school environment. 1990s, support services for handicapped people moved from public assistance bureaus to the regional wellness authorization provided by the province to cut down societal barriers for people with disablements. Supports 1890s the charitable administrations and the households were the chief beginning of support for people with disablements non the taxpayers in society. 1860s, organisations where supported for orphans, individual female parents and the destitute elderly, besides included handicapped people in support. 1900sA the CCS in 1935 and IHC in 1949 1970s, authorities financess were progressively channelled into constructing little residential installations to function disable people. During 1950s and 1960s, there were twenty-four hours attention centre, occupational groups and residential lodging support service for people with disablements. A the precursor of the Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind in 1890. 1981. There was a pan-disability organisation for handicapped people. the Association of the Friends of the Blind in 1889 1990s, there were Regional Health Authorities for handicapped people. ( office for disablement issues ( n.d. ) .A Disability in New Zealand: A altering perspective.A Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.odi.govt.nz/resources/guides-and-toolkits/disability-perspective ) 2.2 Define nomenclature Language reflects the societal context in which it is developed and used. It hence reflects the values and attitudes of that context, and plays an of import function in reenforcing values and attitudes that lead to favoritism and segregation of peculiar groups in society. Language can hence be used as a powerful tool to ease alteration and convey approximately new values, attitudes and societal integrating ( Goverment, W. C. ( n.d. ) .A Disability Definitions, Models and Terminology.A Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.westerncape.gov.za ) There was a negative nomenclature towards people with disablement in New Zealand: people labeled people with disablement as insane , patient , handicap , special lunatic , idiotic defective and so on. Indentify attitudes Peoples with disablement were thought to be different, weaker and less value in the community. They were besides supposed to be objects of commiseration and charitable organisations. In add-on, people thought that there was no such desire every bit good as the emotional demands as other people and the state of affairs of people with disablements was a shame. Stereotypes Physiological: people are excessively focused on the physical disablement of a individual, regarded it as the differences and opposite to qualities and attributes that a individual may have.for illustration, a talker with no weaponries and legs are ever mentioned about his disablement before stating that he is a talker. Emotional and moral: moral and emotional qualities of people with disablement are evaluated differently.for illustration: if they are successful they will be called as a superhero or they do non hold the same scope of emotion with others. Comparative: the words sepecial might be used to mention to people with disablement and normal to people without damage. ( wellness and disablement commissioner ( n.d. ) .A Making communicating easy Useful tips to do it easy to pass on efficaciously with people with impairments.A Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.hdc.org.nz ) Barriers: Access deficiency of just entree to chances, information, edifices, conveyance, services, for illustration: many public prints are excessively little to read ; screen-reading package is non provided on many web sites ; many handicapped people find it hard to mobile in countries where aisles or entrywaies are excessively narrow to suit a wheelchair or scooter and so on. Discrimination and/or attitudinal bias and ignorance: deficiency of a convenient agreement for people with disablement and know aparting against them are consequences of this. For illustration: there are policies and Torahs to forestall people with disablements shacking in an country or immigrating to a state ; policy non to engage people with disablements. In add-on, there is the deficiency of concern for the engagement of people with disablements such as traffic signal does non sound to signal for people with vision damage. Economic and societal position: a barbarous rhythm of lower economic, instruction and wellness position compared to the remainder of the population. The fact indicates that people with disablements have lower educational attainment and income rates compared with the general population. Therefore, people with disablements have less opportunity to better their economic position, as a low profile is non recognized by the society, it is progressively marginalized. In add-on, wellness jobs overall of people with disablements have a higher rate compared with the general population. In decision, the rhythm is expressed as handicapped people with low degree of economic and hapless wellness are non able to take part to the full in societal activities, it leads to societal isolation, deficiency of relationships with society relevant to societal attention demands, it easy leads to wellness jobs and troubles in working to better economic. 2.3 Service proviso 1980s Residential services: it was ordinary focused on traveling people into group place in the community but had progressively focused on back uping people with disablement in their ain places. 1990s Medical and allied wellness services: it was an unfastened market of wellness attention and medical services. It included four responsible regional wellness governments of buying services and supports. Housing: lodging was provided for low-income people including those with disablements. Needs Assessment Service Coordination Care Support for people with disablements Respite and Carer Supports Care supports in instruction for kids with disablements Pre-school for kids with disablements Elder attention supports for people with disablements Conveyance to Disability Services Day A ; Employment services Supports to independent life Access models: The bulk of disablement support services are accessed through aA Needs Assessment Service Coordination ( NASC ) A service. A NASC plays a important function in organizing the effectual use of disablement support services in their part. Disability Services contracts with organisations to supply this service. A NASC service will find a individual s eligibility for funded disablement support services and work with a individual and their family/whanau/aiga/carer to place their support demands, and what resources, supports and services are available, to run into these demands. A NASC will place which disablement support services are funded by Disability Services and apportion support for a individual to entree these services.A Duties for peculiar groups of handicapped people Duties for peculiar groups of handicapped people can be summarised as follows: aˆ? Ministry of Health financess supports for people with long-run physical, centripetal and/or rational disablements who are chiefly aged under 65 aˆ? District Health Boards ( DHBs ) fund support for people with psychiatric disablements, people aged 65 and over disabled by ageing, people with support demands expected to last less than six months, or those aged 50-64 old ages whose demands are mostly similar to older people aˆ? Accident Compensation Corporation ( ACC ) financess support for people disabled by accident. ( ACC is discussed farther below ) Duties for back uping peculiar facets of people s lives Duties for back uping peculiar facets of people s lives can be summarised as follows: aˆ? Ministry of Social Development focuses on back uping disability-related income, vocational and employment demand aˆ? Ministry of Education focal points on back uping disability-related instruction demand aˆ? Ministry of Health and DHBs tend to concentrate on support for day-to-day life Ministry of Health ( MoH ) , Disability Supports Services In New Zealand most of the daily concern of the wellness and disablement system, and around three quarters of support, is administered by DHBs. DHBs program, manage, provide and purchase services for their territory populations, including primary attention, public wellness services, and disablement support services for older people, those with psychiatric-related disablement and impermanent needs non expected to last longer than six months. The Ministry of Health has a scope of functions, including proviso of centralized support for a figure of national services which includes some disablement support and public wellness services. ( options, s. ( n.d. ) .A DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES.A Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //supportoptions.co.nz )

Saturday, November 23, 2019

How to Dress for Work When Your Job Has No Dress Code

How to Dress for Work When Your Job Has No Dress Code While some jobs have uniforms or very strict attire requirements, most jobs these days rely on unspoken adherence to a professional-but-casual look. Not sure you know it when you saw it (or wore it)? Here are four strategies to breaking the business casual code.Ask!Do this at the final interview- once you’ve begun the hiring process and aren’t as nervous to ask questions. Asking a lot better than not asking and coming to work on your first day looking like a fish out of water. Inquire in a casual manner and you should be golden. If you’ve met the team, you already have a few good clues there. If you haven’t, try and do so before your first day- if for no other reason than to scout out what they’re wearing.Look to your bossIf your boss comes in every day in jeans and T-shirts, you’ll probably look like a chump if you come in wearing a suit. Conversely, if your boss turns out to the nines, you probably don’t want to venture lower than a collared shirt at the very least. Don’t out-dress your boss, but do keep in the realm of her typical attire.  Go for comfortThis doesn’t mean fat pants and a hoodie. It just means that you can’t possibly do your best work if you feel like an alien in your clothes. Try to find a balance between dressing to impress and not playing dress-up. There’s so much variety these days in dress codes that this shouldn’t be an issue in most fields.Take the temperatureThe culture of the office will tell you a lot. Try and read the environment you’re in; based on the qualities the company emphasizes, it shouldn’t be hard to determine what sort of dress they will expect. You could end up making everybody else uncomfortable if you veer too casual or too formal from the workplace vibe.What Do You Wear to Work When Your Job Has No Dress Code?

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Venous Leg Ulcer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Venous Leg Ulcer - Essay Example Financial expenditures are also substantial with costs in the United States estimated to be $75 million to $1 billion per year. Individuals who experience venous leg ulcers place significant demands on health services, particularly community-based agencies. healing is time consuming and lengthened, requiring health care professionals to spotlight on the wound or the branch that is affected by the leg ulcer in providing care. Although this is vital, existing research suggests that a more holistic perceptive of the experience of breathing with a leg ulcer may also be advantageous. Due to the actuality that community health nurses are the major care professionals providing care for this challenging health problem, they have considerable opportunity to impact not just wound healing but also the patient's experience of living with a leg ulcer. Leg Ulcer Pain, functional restrictions, and emotional suffering have all been recognized as contemporaneous difficulties connected with living with a leg ulcer. classification of these symptoms and their effect on lifestyles may provide important information to improve health outcomes, both from a provider and a patient perspective. Goals of alleviating physical and emotional suffering as well as improving wound healing may contribute to decreasing costs coupled with leg ulcers. Venous leg ulcers, like any unremitting disease, require self-management on the part of the individual. Self-management, in turn, requires knowledge, functional capabilities, and power in order to sustain healing behaviors. This preliminary research study sought to determine if individuals with venous leg ulcers had the necessary knowledge to participate in self-management and whether they were capable of performing the self-management skills that would enhance healing. Nursing role in curing pain Nurses, by virtue of their role in the close and continuous care of patients, are privileged to hear the stories of people coping in times of illness, feeling vulnerable and at the mercy of the system. Such stories reveal that the health of a society is more than mortality rates and numbers of surgical interventions and more than clever science. It is about how we support those in our society who are unable to care for themselves so that we have a society in which the quality of life is at least reasonable for as many as possible. This means facing the difficult decisions about redistribution of funding, about what constitutes good health and a healthy society, about who should make the decisions and about whose interests should be served in a health care system. The issues raised in this section are by no means all encompassing of our major social ills and make no claims to be so. They are merely those that claim the attention of nurses today as they work towards addressing how to e nsure better outcomes both for individuals and for society. But they can only do this if they are supported by a system with similar values and priorities. Implementation or Treatment A report commissioned by the Agency for Health Care and Policy and Research in 1992 found that less than 50% of venous leg ulcer patients reported having adequate pain management in the post-operative period. Studies undertaken in general

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Malnourishment Research Project Overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Malnourishment Research Project Overview - Essay Example Political and social factors are attributed in the growing concern about overnutrition It is a misconception that first world countries or economically-progressive countries are capable of having luxurious ways of living and as a result this leads to the citizens having poor diets and exercise deficiency. America is considered as the fast-food nation. The reasons are very much obvious. Statistics show that every twenty four hours, there is at least one American out of four who eats fast food. Their main reason is that fast food eating is very convenient and a cheap option. (Levinstein, 2003) The overnutrition rates in the second and third world countries are almost at the same levels as the rates of the developed countries. Economic stability has nothing to do with the prevalence of o overnutrition. The second and third world countries show the presence of malnourished citizens but they also have cases of obesity or overnutrition. Changes in the rates of overnutrition in different countries can be due to several factors. This may be due to societal changes such as greater food consumption and genetic adaptations that impact metabolism. Therefore, lifestyle and technological changes have adverse effects with the nutrition of the people. In the book entitled Competitive Advantage by Jaynie Smith, she stated that there is an increasing need for people to eat healthy food. Since fast-foods are their usual first option for getting access to ready food, the fast foods have to think of new ways and strategies to offer healthy food options that will not prevent any potential or existing customer from buying food from them due to lack of healthy foods available. (Fjellstrom, 2004) Fastfood chains and restaurants do not only have the responsibility to address marketing needs for they also have the obligation to address their moral responsibility to their customers by helping them live healthy lives with the

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Pizza Pricing Essay Example for Free

Pizza Pricing Essay Pizza brand, famous or not, has been making price strategy to secure to have sales and profits to be successful. Pizza Hut uses the High/Low pricing strategy which makes them achieve success in the pizza industry. In high/low pricing strategy, a company can be allowed to have high prices and later have promotions to be able to have low price in a short-term(Badbreaks). Pizza uses this due to its good quality. Alongside with pizza hut, other pizza brands were priced according to high/low strategy these were La Grand Orange Grocery and Uncle Sal’s. But most likely these two brands sometimes do not offer promotions or discounts for its customer. For Dominoes, they were considering the low price strategy where they charge invariable prices. They even may have promotions to set temporary discounts. Dominoes set prices which not merely low as compared to its other competitors but provides good quality pizzas. Papa John’s also set price with regards to low price strategy, they also provide exceptionally good worth pizza with good quality (Scott). Together with price, product, promotion and place should be considered alongside with it. Usually these tools were considered as the marketing mixes that were employed to attain satisfaction of customers. Product is said to be the goods or services one company offers to the consumer. With regards to pricing, price should consider if the product is to be eagerly acceptable in the community. If it assumed to have good impact to society, the price could be of high cost. But it is advisable to have low cost even though not much good product. Promotion refers to how the company put into public their goods product, also means how they commercialize the product. Prices can vary in accordance with the cost of promotion or advertisement of the product. Place is said to be the where products are distributed to reach their customers. In busy commercial place, prices should be low because your product may have a good competition with other products. But in not crowded place, we may set a high price because your product may be a necessity and people will high chance of buying it (Lake). If I have to come up with my own price strategy, I will design a strategy that sets my prices at not so high cost and requires memberships from customers in order that they can avail of discounts from my products. Consumers will be required membership fees so that I can have much income even though discounts were given to members. Non members are to pay the prices set with no discounts. This strategy will fit any company because they were considered to have same value of pizzas.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Roswell Speech :: essays research papers

In the summer of 1947 a series of puzzling events took place at Roswell, New Mexico. In the early days of July one of the influential and concrete UFO cases of all time evolved. It is not exactly known what took place due to various military and government cover-up campaigns.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My proposition is that extra-terrestrial entities and their craft were found in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. There are 3 main points which will prove that this event took place. 1st: There were many eyewitness accounts of the incedent. 2nd: There were news media accounts of the incident which were silenced by the U.S. government. And 3rd: The U.S. military and government were greatly involved in the investigation of this incident. #1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There were many eyewitnesses to the strange events that took place in Roswell in the summer of 1947. This is one of the main reasons why this has been a lanmark case in the study of UFOs. Barney Barnett, a civil engineer and an outstanding citizen, said he saw the object while out on assignment. Credible and respected sources knew Barnett, who was a retired WWI veteran and past commander of the American Legion Post, and vouched for his credibility. Barnett told of how he had spotted a bright metallic object in the distance. His first thought was that it was a plane that had crashed in the night. He traveled the one mile distance between himself and the object to discover that it wasn’t a plane at all, but rather a â€Å"metallic disc-shaped object about 25 or 30 feet across. As he stood, looking at the object, a group of archeological students arrived from the opposite direction. They were all about the wreckage and soon discovered the bodies of apparently dead aliens. Barnett described them as: â€Å"like humans but... not humans. The heads were round, the eyes were small, and they had no hair. They were quite small by our standards and their heads were larger in proportion to their bodies than ours. He went on to talk about the clothing of the aliens which â€Å"seemed to be one-piece and gray in color. You couldn’t see any zippers, belts, or buttons.† Very shortly a military officer arrived and cordoned off the are. Barnett and the others were asked to leave and told not to talk about what they had seen.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Along with Barnett there were many sightings by pilots, airport personel, and military officials. On June 24 a civilian pilot, named Kennath Arnold, was flying over the cascade mountains, in the state of Washington,

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Chapter 14 The Unforgivable Curses

The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads. â€Å"You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?† said Ron to Harry as they watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails. â€Å"Yeah,† said Harry. â€Å"Moody.† It was common knowledge that Snape really wanted the Dark Arts job, and he had now failed to get it for the fourth year running. Snape had disliked all of their previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it – but he seemed strangely wary of displaying overt animosity to Mad-Eye Moody. Indeed, whenever Harry saw the two of them together – at mealtimes, or when they passed in the corridors – he had the distinct impression that Snape was avoiding Moody's eye, whether magical or normal. â€Å"I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know,† Harry said thoughtfully. â€Å"Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad,† said Ron, his eyes misting over, â€Å"and bounced him all around his dungeon†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The Gryffindor fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson. â€Å"Been in the -â€Å" â€Å"Library.† Harry finished her sentence for her. â€Å"C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats.† They hurried into three chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes. â€Å"You can put those away,† he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, â€Å"those books. You won't need them.† They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited. Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered. â€Å"Right then,† he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, â€Å"I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures – you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?† There was a general murmur of assent. â€Å"But you're behind – very behind – on dealing with curses,† said Moody. â€Å"So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark -â€Å" â€Å"What, aren't you staying?† Ron blurted out. Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled – the first time Harry had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved. â€Å"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?† Moody said. â€Å"Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago†¦.Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledor†¦.One year, and then back to my quiet retirement.† He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together. â€Å"So – straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking.† Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head. â€Å"So†¦do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?† Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender. â€Å"Er,† said Ron tentatively, â€Å"my dad told me about one†¦.Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?† â€Å"Ah, yes,† said Moody appreciatively. â€Å"Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse.† Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Harry felt Ron recoil slightly next to him – Ron hated spiders. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, â€Å"Imperio!† The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance. Everyone was laughing – everyone except Moody. â€Å"Think it's funny, do you?† he growled. â€Å"You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?† The laughter died away almost instantly. â€Å"Total control,† said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. â€Å"I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Ron gave an involuntary shudder. â€Å"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse,† said Moody, and Harry knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. â€Å"Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. â€Å"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!† he barked, and everyone jumped. Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. â€Å"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?† Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring. â€Å"Yes?† said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville. â€Å"There's one – the Cruciatus Curse,† said Neville in a small but distinct voice. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes. â€Å"Your name's Longbottom?† he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again. Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move. â€Å"The Cruciatus Curse,† said Moody. â€Å"Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea,† he said, pointing his wand at the spider. â€Å"Engorgio!† The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, â€Å"Crucio!† At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Harry was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently – â€Å"Stop it!† Hermione said shrilly.† Harry looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Harry, following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch. â€Å"Reducio,† Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar. â€Å"Pain,† said Moody softly. â€Å"You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse†¦.That one was very popular once too. â€Å"Right†¦anyone know any others?† Harry looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air. â€Å"Yes?† said Moody, looking at her. â€Å"Avada Kedavra,† Hermione whispered. Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron. â€Å"Ah,† said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. â€Å"Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra†¦.the Killing Curse.† He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface. Moody raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding. â€Å"Avada Kedavra!† Moody roared. There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air – instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him. Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor. â€Å"Not nice,† he said calmly. â€Å"Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me.† Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes (both of them) looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too. Harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all†¦. So that was how his parents had died†¦exactly like that spider. Had they been unblemished and unmarked too? Had they simply seen the flash of green light and heard the rush of speeding death, before life was wiped from their bodies? Harry had been picturing his parents' deaths over and over again for three years now, ever since he'd found out they had been murdered, ever since he'd found out what had happened that night: Wormtail had betrayed his parents' whereabouts to Voldemort, who had come to find them at their cottage. How Voldemort had killed Harry's father first. How James Potter had tried to hold him off, while he shouted at his wife to take Harry and run†¦Voldemort had advanced on Lily Potter, told her to move aside so that he could kill Harry†¦how she had begged him to kill her instead, refused to stop shielding her son†¦and so Voldemort had murdered her too, before turning his wand on Harry†¦. Harry knew these details because he had heard his parents' voices when he had fought the dementors last year – for that was the terrible power of the dementors: to force their victims to relive the worst memories of their lives, and drown, powerless, in their own despair†¦. Moody was speaking again, from a great distance, it seemed to Harry. With a massive effort, he pulled himself back to the present and listened to what Moody was saying. â€Å"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it – you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. â€Å"Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!† he roared, and the whole class jumped again. â€Å"Now†¦those three curses – Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus – are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills†¦copy this down†¦.† They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang – but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices – â€Å"Did you see it twitch?† â€Å"- and when he killed it – just like that!† They were talking about the lesson, Harry thought, as though it had been some sort of spectacular show, but he hadn't found it very entertaining – and nor, it seemed, had Hermione. â€Å"Hurry up,† she said tensely to Harry and Ron. â€Å"Not the ruddy library again?† said Ron. â€Å"No,† said Hermione curtly, pointing up a side passage. â€Å"Neville.† Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse. â€Å"Neville?† Hermione said gently. Neville looked around. â€Å"Oh hello,† he said, his voice much higher than usual. â€Å"Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm – I'm starving, aren't you?† â€Å"Neville, are you all right?† said Hermione. â€Å"Oh yes, I'm fine,† Neville gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. â€Å"Very interesting dinner – I mean lesson – what's for eating?† Ron gave Harry a startled look. â€Å"Neville, what -?† But an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them. All four of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard. â€Å"It's all right, sonny,† he said to Neville. â€Å"Why don't you come up to my office? Come on†¦we can have a cup of tea†¦.† Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry. â€Å"You all right, are you, Potter?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry, almost defiantly. Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said, â€Å"You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending†¦well†¦come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you.† Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but they didn't say anything, so Neville had no choice but to allow himself to be steered away, one of Moody's gnarled hands on his shoulder. â€Å"What was that about?† said Ron, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner. â€Å"I don't know,† said Hermione, looking pensive. â€Å"Some lesson, though, eh?† said Ron to Harry as they set off for the Great Hall. â€Å"Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just died, just snuffed it right -â€Å" But Ron fell suddenly silent at the look on Harry's face and didn't speak again until they reached the Great Hall, when he said he supposed they had better make a start on Professor Trelawney's predictions tonight, since they would take hours. Hermione did not join in with Harry and Ron's conversation during dinner, but ate furiously fast, and then left for the library again. Harry and Ron walked back to Gryffindor Tower, and Harry, who had been thinking of nothing else all through dinner, now raised the subject of the Unforgivable Curses himself. â€Å"Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore be in trouble with the Ministry if they knew we'd seen the curses?† Harry asked as they approached the Fat Lady. â€Å"Yeah, probably,† said Ron. â€Å"But Dumbledore's always done things his way, hasn't he, and Moody's been getting in trouble for years, I reckon. Attacks first and asks questions later – look at his dustbins. Balderdash.† The Fat Lady swung forward to reveal the entrance hole, and they climbed into the Gryffindor common room, which was crowded and noisy. â€Å"Shall we get our Divination stuff, then?† said Harry. â€Å"I s'pose,† Ron groaned. They went up to the dormitory to fetch their books and charts, to find Neville there alone, sitting on his bed, reading. He looked a good deal calmer than at the end of Moody's lesson, though still not entirely normal. His eyes were rather red. â€Å"You all right, Neville?† Harry asked him. â€Å"Oh yes,† said Neville, â€Å"I'm fine, thanks. Just reading this book Professor Moody lent me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He held up the book: Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean. â€Å"Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at Herbology,† Neville said. There was a faint note of pride in his voice that Harry had rarely heard there before. â€Å"He thought I'd like this.† Telling Neville what Professor Sprout had said, Harry thought, had been a very tactful way of cheering Neville up, for Neville very rarely heard that he was good at anything. It was the sort of thing Professor Lupin would have done. Harry and Ron took their copies of Unfogging the Future back down to the common room, found a table, and set to work on their predictions for the coming month. An hour later, they had made very little progress, though their table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, and Harry's brain was as fogged as though it had been filled with the fumes from Professor Trelawney's fire. â€Å"I haven't got a clue what this lot's supposed to mean,† he said, staring down at a long list of calculations. â€Å"You know,† said Ron, whose hair was on end because of all the times he had run his fingers through it in frustration, â€Å"I think it's back to the old Divination standby.† â€Å"What – make it up?† â€Å"Yeah,† said Ron, sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the table, dipping his pen into some ink, and starting to write. â€Å"Next Monday,† he said as he scribbled, â€Å"I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter.† He looked up at Harry. â€Å"You know her – just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up.† â€Å"Right,† said Harry, crumpling up his first attempt and lobbing it over the heads of a group of chattering first years into the fire. â€Å"Okay†¦on Monday, I will be in danger of – er – burns.† â€Å"Yeah, you will be,† said Ron darkly, â€Å"we're seeing the skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I'll†¦erm†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Lose a treasured possession,† said Harry, who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas. â€Å"Good one,† said Ron, copying it down. â€Å"Because of†¦erm†¦Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?† â€Å"Yeah†¦cool†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Harry, scribbling it down, â€Å"because†¦Venus is in the twelfth house.† â€Å"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight.† â€Å"Aaah, I was going to have a fight. Okay, I'll lose a bet.† â€Å"Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight†¦.† They continued to make up predictions (which grew steadily more tragic) for another hour, while the common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at Harry, rather as Hermione might look if she knew they weren't doing their homework properly. Staring around the room, trying to think of a kind of misfortune he hadn't yet used, Harry saw Fred and George sitting together against the opposite wall, heads together, quills out, poring over a single piece of parchment. It was most unusual to see Fred and George hidden away in a corner and working silently; they usually liked to be in the thick of things and the noisy center of attention. There was something secretive about the way they were working on the piece of parchment, and Harry was reminded of how they had sat together writing something back at the Burrow. He had thought then that it was another order form for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, but it didn't look like that this time; if it had been, they would surely have let Lee Jordan in on the joke. He wondered whether it had anything to do with entering the Triwizard Tournament. As Harry watched, George shook his head at Fred, scratched out something with his quill, and said, in a very quiet voice that nevertheless carried across the almost deserted room, â€Å"No – that sounds like we're accusing him. Got to be careful†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Then George looked over and saw Harry watching him. Harry grinned and quickly returned to his predictions – he didn't want George to think he was eavesdropping. Shortly after that, the twins rolled up their parchment, said good night, and went off to bed. Fred and George had been gone ten minutes or so when the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed into the common room carrying a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box whose contents rattled as she walked in the other. Crookshanks arched his back, purring. â€Å"Hello,† she said, â€Å"I've just finished!† â€Å"So have I!† said Ron triumphantly, throwing down his quill. Hermione sat down, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair, and pulled Ron's predictions toward her. â€Å"Not going to have a very good month, are you?† she said sardonically as Crookshanks curled up in her lap. â€Å"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned,† Ron yawned. â€Å"You seem to be drowning twice,† said Hermione. â€Å"Oh am I?† said Ron, peering down at his predictions. â€Å"I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff.† â€Å"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?† said Hermione. â€Å"How dare you!† said Ron, in mock outrage. â€Å"We've been working like house-elves here!† Hermione raised her eyebrows. â€Å"It's just an expression,† said Ron hastily. Harry laid down his quill too, having just finished predicting his own death by decapitation. â€Å"What's in the box?† he asked, pointing at it. â€Å"Funny you should ask,† said Hermione, with a nasty look at Ron. She took off the lid and showed them the contents. Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S. P. E .W. â€Å"Spew?† said Harry, picking up a badge and looking at it. â€Å"What's this about?† â€Å"Not spew,† said Hermione impatiently. â€Å"It's S-P-E-W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.† â€Å"Never heard of it,† said Ron. â€Å"Well, of course you haven't,† said Hermione briskly, â€Å"I've only just started it.† â€Å"Yeah?† said Ron in mild surprise. â€Å"How many members have you got?† â€Å"Well – if you two join – three,† said Hermione. â€Å"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying ‘spew,' do you?† said Ron. â€Å"S-P-E-W!† said Hermione hotly. â€Å"I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status – but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto.† She brandished the sheaf of parchment at them. â€Å"I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no one's done anything about it before now.† â€Å"Hermione – open your ears,† said Ron loudly. â€Å"They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!† â€Å"Our short-term aims,† said Hermione, speaking even more loudly than Ron, and acting as though she hadn't heard a word, â€Å"are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long-term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly underrepresented.† â€Å"And how do we do all this?† Harry asked. â€Å"We start by recruiting members,† said Hermione happily. â€Å"I thought two Sickles to join – that buys a badge – and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. You're treasurer, Ron – I've got you a collecting tin upstairs – and Harry, you're secretary, so you might want to write down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting.† There was a pause in which Hermione beamed at the pair of them, and Harry sat, torn between exasperation at Hermione and amusement at the look on Ron's face. The silence was broken, not by Ron, who in any case looked as though he was temporarily dumbstruck, but by a soft tap, tap on the window. Harry looked across the now empty common room and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a snowy owl perched on the windowsill. â€Å"Hedwig!† he shouted, and he launched himself out of his chair and across the room to pull open the window. Hedwig flew inside, soared across the room, and landed on the table on top of Harry's predictions. â€Å"About time!† said Harry, hurrying after her. â€Å"She's got an answer!† said Ron excitedly, pointing at the grubby piece of parchment tied to Hedwig's leg. Harry hastily untied it and sat down to read, whereupon Hedwig fluttered onto his knee, hooting softly. â€Å"What does it say?† Hermione asked breathlessly. The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scrawled in a great hurry. Harry read it aloud: Harry – I'm flying north immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore – they're saying he's got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is. I'll be in touch soon. My best to Ron and Hermione. Keep your eyes open, Harry. Sirius Harry looked up at Ron and Hermione, who stared back at him. â€Å"He's flying north?† Hermione whispered. â€Å"He's coming back?† â€Å"Dumbledore's reading what signs?† said Ron, looking perplexed. â€Å"Harry – what's up?† For Harry had just hit himself in the forehead with his fist, jolting Hedwig out of his lap. â€Å"I shouldn't've told him!† Harry said furiously. â€Å"What are you on about?† said Ron in surprise. â€Å"It's made him think he's got to come back!† said Harry, now slamming his fist on the table so that Hedwig landed on the back of Ron's chair, hooting indignantly. â€Å"Coming back, because he thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! And I haven't got anything for you,† Harry snapped at Hedwig, who was clicking her beak expectantly, â€Å"you'll have to go up to the Owlery if you want food.† Hedwig gave him an extremely offended look and took off for the open window, cuffing him around the head with her outstretched wing as she went. â€Å"Harry,† Hermione began, in a pacifying sort of voice. â€Å"I'm going to bed,† said Harry shortly. â€Å"See you in the morning.† Upstairs in the dormitory he pulled on his pajamas and got into his four-poster, but he didn't feel remotely tired. If Sirius came back and got caught, it would be his, Harry's, fault. Why hadn't he kept his mouth shut? A few seconds' pain and he'd had to blab†¦.If he'd just had the sense to keep it to himself†¦. He heard Ron come up into the dormitory a short while later, but did not speak to him. For a long time, Harry lay staring up at the dark canopy of his bed. The dormitory was completely silent, and, had he been less preoccupied, Harry would have realized that the absence of Neville's usual snores meant that he was not the only one lying awake.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Consumer Behavior Comparison Essay

1. Using the tricomponent attitude model, compare the differences in attitude of consumers towards Kraft Foods versus their attitude towards Vegemite. The tricomponent attitude model is made up of Cognitive, Affective and Conative component. The three components are interrelated and integrate to form an attitude of a person toward any product or service in consumer scenario. Here we are studying how the consumers react to Kraft Food and Vegemite. Cognitive Component Cognition is basically making decisions going through a thinking process. So this thinking process can occur on the basis of knowledge and perceptions that already existed in the consumers’ minds. The Cognitive Component of attitude is developing a belief based on past experience or perception and whenever the consumers are exposed to attitude object (about which we are to form certain attitude) and those belief will form a typical behavior towards that attitude object. The consumers can be seen in the case study to be protective over Vegemite as they perceive it to be a national symbolic food with the long history. The brand itself had lasted centuries with its unique salty base as breakfast spread as compared to traditional sweet base spreads. Kraft Foods being the brand owner did not do anything to the brand until the later years where they did a rebranding of the product to suit modern culture and needs. The consumers clearly triggered heavy resentment over the undesired new name as they had perceive â€Å"Vegemite† to be worthy of a name to more relevant. Here Kraft Food suffered a marketing backlash whereas consumers’ support for Vegemite rally strong. Affective Component This Component of Attitude formation is all about emotional feelings of a consumer about the particular product or brand. Consumers have certain emotions regarding the attitude objects either favorable or unfavorable; good or bad, it may be regardless of any quality, specification, features, utility or brand name. Vegemite lasted centuries of success without any interference from Kraft Food in terms of product modification or receipe changes. Kraft Food knew that Australians held Vegemite with high regards and deeply rooted in the history and culture. Despite a dip in sales after foreigners infux, the strong support of the old brand can be seen as Kraft Food carelessly picked an odd name for their re-branding. In their â€Å"Name me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  campaign, strong sentiments of the brands were reveal as hate groups emerge to hate the new Vegemite name. The consumers feel strongly violated as the name did not resonate with the hearts of the supporter. Kraft Food succumb to pressure an d rename the product. Conative Component This final component is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that a specific action will be undertaken by an individual regarding attitude object. It is treated as an expression of consumer’s intention to buy. It may include action itself. Consumers usually make purchases for positively evaluated brands. Their intentions towards those brands are positive, so their attitude towards those brand would be positive. Although the new â€Å"iSnack 2.0† was much disliked, the success of the receipe is shown with the improvement in sales figures. Consumers in this case, reacted to the over hyped publicity generated by negative marketing, resulting in curious new consumers trying out the new product. Vegemite in this case, was successful. On the other hand, Kraft Food was said to be making use of the clever marketing strategy by inducing resentments from the consumers with the â€Å"iSnack2.0† name. Compared with vegemite, Kraft Food is perceived to be crafty and had to resort to underhand means to achieve desirable results. 2. Thinking about the different methods Kraft used to encourage consumer input for their new Vegemite product, what kind of consumer learning took place during the entire process? Consumer learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behaviour. Most of the learning is incidental and some of it is intentional. Elements of Consumer learning The basic elements that contribute to an understanding of learning are motivation, cues, response and reinforcement. Consumers will be motivated to learn if the information is relevant to their needs and goals while cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are consistent with consumer expectations. Response is how consumers react or behave to a drive or a cue while reinforcement increases the likelihood a response will occur in the future as a result of a cue. Kraft encouraged consumer input for their new Vegemite product through the â€Å"How do you like your Vegemite† and the â€Å"Name me..† campaign. By getting the consumers to be involved, the Australians will feel that they ‘own’ the brand which created the sense of belonging. Kraft asked consumers to log on to the website and post their ideas on the different ways they ate the product. Instrumental Conditioning Instrumental Learning theorists believe that learning occurs through a trial and error process in which the positive outcomes in the form of results or desired outcomes lead to repeat behaviour like Repeat Purchase or Repeat Positive Word of Mouth. Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used to encourage the desired behaviour. The timing of repetitions influences how long the learned material is retained. Learning usually persists longer with distributed re-inforcement schedule, while mass repetitions produce more initial learnings. In view of how Kraft Food did was the â€Å"Name me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  campaign. They failed to select a proper name for the first time, but they acknowledge the mistake and repeat the campaign a second time. Meanwhile, they took four months to replace the â€Å"iSnack2.0† labelled jars off the shelves before replacing with â€Å"Cheesybites†. The consumers are conditioned by this instrumental method. 3. Vegemite is a food product sugge sting customers would have lower levels of involvement with the brand. However, the fall-out from ‘iSnack 2.0’ imply otherwise. What aspects of involvement theory were presented in their response? Involvement theory recognizes that consumers become attached to products, services or brands to differing levels and they engage in a range of information-processing activities, depending on the significance of the purchase (Sciffman et al. 2008). The involvement level shown by the consumers in ‘iSnack2.0’ is high is because Vegemite is considered to be a national brand and a part of Australia’s heritage (Superbrands Australia, 2012). Beside this, the ‘How do you like your Vegemite’ and the ‘Name Me’ campaign further increase the involvement level of the consumers as they felt a sense of ownership in the creation phrase of the product (Sciffman et al. 2008). From the case of ‘iSnack 2.0’, the hemispheral lateralization theory can be used to explain the responses of the consumers. The hemispheral lateralization theory, also known as split-brain theory, is the learning theory around the basic principle that the left and right side of the brain specialize in the kind of information they process. The left side of the brain, which specializes in cognitive activities, can be put as rational and logical, while the right side of the brain, which specializes in pictorial and holistic information, can be put as emotional and instinctive (Sciffman et al. 2008). When Kraft chose the name ‘iSnack 2.0’, the left hemispheral of the consumers processed the decision-making and they responded negatively because the logical thinking is that the selected name is more related to technology products such as iPod and iPhone by Apple. This made the decision looks ‘wierd’ and ‘irrevelant’ to the public and will also results in consumers thinking that Kraft is trying to ride on the success of Apple’s products (Miller, 2009). On the other side, the right hemispheral of the consumers also contributed to the consumers responding negatively because Australians have high loyalty and feelings for Vegemite (Foley, 2009) and the fact that Kraft did not let the consumers have a say in the winning name intensifies the negative feeling that Kraft, an American company, is not allowing the Australia public to have a say in the brand they felt they have ownership in. And by choosing a name that is perceived to be unsuitable and outrageous, it further fuels the feeling that the company is showing disrespect to the brand Australians love (Sciffman et al. 2008). 4. Do you think Kraft can change perception of ‘iSnack 2.0’ by changing the name to ‘Cheesybite’? Explain your answer. Perception is the process by which people select, organize and interpret stimuli to form a meaningful and logical picture of the world and it is important in marketing strategies for marketers because consumers make decisions based on what they perceive, rather than on the basis of objective reality. (Sciffman et al. 2008). When ‘iSnack 2.0’ was chosen, it triggered negative responses and outrage from consumers across a number of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, online forums, newspaper and magazines. ‘iSnack 2.0’ was perceived to be ‘weird’ and ‘irrelevant’ and make no sens e to consumers as to why a food product was given a technological name that is normally related to technology products such as iPhone and iPod (Miller, 2009). The name was also perceived to be a marketing stunt by the company as the negativity generated increased the exposure of the product. This led to the sales rising 47 percent in the first two weeks and the product being available in 15% of Australian households (Foley, 2009). However, ‘iSnack 2.0’ also led to hatred and anger as there are consumers who suggested boycotting the product (Collerton, 2009). By deciding to change the name of ‘iSnack 2.0’ to ‘Cheesybite’, Kraft can change the perception of the product. The product is a combination of ‘Vegemite’ spread and cream cheese (Kraft Foods Australia, 2011), which is as what ‘Cheesybite’ suggested and made more sense to consumers. Another reason is that ‘Cheesybite’ is chosen in a popularity vote by more than 30,000 Australian and New Zealanders, instead of by the company, therefore will relate better to consumers (AAP, 2009). Once the more popular and logi cal choice of ‘Cheesybite’ replace ‘iSnack 2.0’, sentiment will soften due to the Australia loyalty to the brand and the incident will slowly fade away. 5. If ‘Vegemite’ could be given a brand personality, what do you think it would be like? Compare this to how the ‘Cheesybite’ personality might be. Brand personality is an act or a process of the personality traits that a brand possesses. It is the viewing of a brand as a person and defining the traits that a brand has. A brand personality is something consumers can relate to and it develops over time (Parameswaran, 2006). An effective brand will increase its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits. There are five main types of brand personalities and they are Excitement, Sincerity, Ruggedness, Competence and Sophistication (Friend, 2010). ‘Vegemite’ is best described as having the personality of Sincerity which is interpreted as down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful (Friend, 2010). Vegemite is an Australian brand that reaches to the hearts of its consumers and therefore brand loyalty is high. Kraft has retained the down-to-earth nature of ‘Vegemite’ by not changing the content, with the only updates applying to external factor such as packaging and the occasional consumer promotion. ‘Cheesybite’ is best seen as having the personality of Excitement under the 5 dimensions of brand personality. The name ‘Cheesybite’ gives consumers an exciting, daring and spirited feeling (Friend, 2010). This will attracts consumers with high innovativeness as they are risk takers and are more likely to adopt new products (Tellis et al, 2009) The different personalities of ‘Vegemite’ and ‘Cheesybite’ give consumers totally different perception and feeling and this is important for Kraft to position itself in the different market segment to establish a good name. 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