Presupposition in Semantics Essay

IntroductionPresupposition is originated in the field of philosophy and it was proposed by German philosopher Ferge in 1892. In the 1960s, presupposition entered the area of linguistics and became a significant concept in semantics. Later in the 1970s, Keenan introduced presupposition to the pragmatics to describe a relation between a speaker and the appropriateness of a sentence in a context (Levinson: 177). Hence, presupposition can be distinguished into two categories: semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition. This thesis is mainly centered on the exploration of presupposition in semantics from the perspectives of features and problems of presupposition. For the sake of searching for the solutions to the problems, the writer also brings two pragmatic theories of presupposition into discussion. Part I. Two Approaches to PresuppositionIn the linguistics, two approaches to presupposition are semantic and pragmatic. Semantic presupposition views the sentence relations in terms of truth relations while pragmatic presupposition describes sentences as an interaction between individuals. A.Semantic PresuppositionIn ordinary language, of course, to presuppose something means to assume it, and the narrower technical use in semantics is related to this (Saeed: 93). In semantics, the meaning of a sentence is based on the sentence itself instead of something constructed by the participants. The semantic presupposition is only concerned about the truth value of the statements. For instance,a)John managed to stop in time. b)John tried to stop in time. (Suo: 130)In the example, sentence a) presupposes sentence b), that is to say, if it is true that John managed to stop in time, it must be true that John tried to stop in time. Meanwhile, if this proposition is false, the presupposition that John tried to stop in time still exists. However, only the truth of sentence b) doesn’t tell anything concerning the result whether he stopped in time or not. Based on the analysis, we can draw a truth table for this presupposition:a bT → TF → TT or F ↠ TThis table is an overt description of the truth relations between sentence a) and b). If sentence a) is true, then its presupposition b) is also true. If sentence a) is false, then the truth of b) still survives.  While if sentence b) is true, sentence a) can be either true or false. The interpretation of presupposition in semantics is on the basis of truth relations. B.Pragmatic PresuppositionCompared with semantic presupposition- a truth-relation approach, pragmatic presupposition is an interactional approach in interpreting the sentence relations. Stalnaker argues that presupposition is essentially a pragmatic phenomenon: part of the set of assumptions is made by participants in a conversation, which he terms the common ground (Saeed: 101). This common ground is the mutual knowledge shared by both speaker and hearer. For example, â€Å"I am afraid my car broke down.† The presupposition of this utterance is that the speaker has a car, which is known to the hearer. However, if the hearer originally doesn’t know the fact, on hearing the utterance, s/he can take it as a common ground for a further conversation. By virtue of context, appropriate presupposition will help the hearer understand the utterance of the speaker. During the conversation, both speaker and hearer are doing the turn-taking and they can depend on the former utterances to conduct a smooth communication. By comparison of semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition, we can gain a better understanding of this notion applied in the linguistics. However, the focus of this thesis is on the presupposition in the semantics. Thus, the following parts will be concentrated on the semantic presupposition. Part II. Features of Semantic PresuppositionIn semantics, presupposition possesses unique features: being different from entailment, presupposition is stable under negation. It is produced not only by the definite description, but also by presupposition triggers. A.StabilitySemantic presupposition relies on the meaning of words and grammatical structures to describe the truth relations between sentences and these aspects don’t vary too much from context to context. Hence,  presupposition is relatively stable and it remains constant under negation of the main sentence. This feature of semantic presupposition makes a distinction between entailment and presupposition. For example,a)I borrowed my friend’s bike today. b)I borrowed something today. If sentence a) is true, it guarantees the truth of sentence b), to be more specific, a) entails b). However, if we negate a) to form a’) then it no longer entails b), repeated as follows:a’) I didn’t borrow my friend’s bike today. b’) I borrowed something today. If it is false that I borrowed my friend’s bike today, it can not tell whether I borrowed something today or not. It might be true that I borrowed something instead of my friend’s bike, but we just don’t know. In contrast, the presupposing sentence is constant even under negation, for instance, c)My sister got married last year. d)I have a sister. The pre-condition of sentence c) is d), if c) is true then d) must be taken as a fact. In other words, sentence c) has the presupposition in d) and the truth of c) makes sure the truth of d) as well. If negating c) as â€Å"My sister didn’t get married last year.† The presupposition that â€Å"I have a sister† also survives. This is the difference between entailment and presupposition, namely, the negation of an entailing sentence leads to the failure of the entailment while negating a presupposing sentence allows the presupposition to survive. B.Presupposition TriggersOn the one hand, the existence of presupposition can derive from the use of a name or definite description. On the other hand, it  can be produced by particular words or sentence constructions, which are called presupposition triggers. Karttunen has collected thirty-one kinds of triggers but in the following section the writer will mainly focus on four types of these triggers: factive verbs, change of state verbs, temporal clauses and cleft sentences. To begin with, verbs like â€Å"regret,† â€Å"deplore,† â€Å"know† and â€Å"agree† are under the category of factive verbs, for they presuppose the truth of the complement clause. For instance,a)Martha regrets/ doesn’t regret drinking John’s home brew. b)Martha drank John’s home brew. (Suo: 131)Whether Martha regrets drinking John’s home brew or not, it is a known fact that Martha drank John’s home brew. The sentence a) has the presupposition in b). By contrast, no such presupposition exists with the non-factive verb like â€Å"think.† For example,c)Tom thought that John was late. d)John was late. Sentence c) indicates that it is only Tom’ personal opinion of John’s being late. Actually, John might not be late and the truth doesn’t reveal from the sentence itself. Therefore, sentence c) doesn’t have the presupposition in d) due to the non-factive verb â€Å"think.†Secondly, the employments of verbs like â€Å"stop,† â€Å"start,† â€Å"begin† and â€Å"finish† imply the change of state. Hence, these lexical triggers are regarded as change of state verbs, which describe the new state and presuppose the former state as well. For instance,a)John stopped/ didn’t stop beating his wife. b)John had been beating his wife. (Suo: 131)The verb â€Å"stop† means making something end and here if John stopped beating his wife, which means that he makes the action of beating his wife end. But if he didn’t stop, the occasion of beating will continue to happen in the future. No matter what the situation is, sentence a) presupposes the fact b) that John had been beating his wife as the former state. What’s more, not only the lexical words trigger the presupposition, but also clauses like temporal clauses may produce presupposition. For example,a)Linda went to the supermarket before she met her friends. b)Linda met her friends. The temporal clause marked by the conjunction â€Å"before† shows that Linda went to the supermarket first and then went to meet her friends. In effect, sentence a) states the fact that Linda really met her friends. It is this temporal clause that ensures the truth of sentence b) and also triggers the presupposition in b). Last but not least, syntactic structure such as cleft sentence can also act as a trigger for the production of certain types of presupposition. For example,a)It was the noise that annoyed me. b)What annoyed me was the noise. c)Something annoyed me. In the example, the cleft construction in a) and the pseudo-cleft in b) share the presupposition in c). No matter how the sentence structure changes, the essence of the sentence remains unchanged. What sentence a) and b) intend to stress is that there is something annoyed me. By means of the features like stability and presupposition triggers, the real intention of the utterances can be investigated. If the speaker changes the predicate â€Å"has† to â€Å"hasn’t,† or â€Å"does† to â€Å"doesn’t,† the presupposition for the utterance is the same, for presupposition is of stability. Presupposition triggers can be used as a tool to present the essence of the sentence, no matter what lexical words and constructions are applied. Part III. Problems of Semantic PresuppositionIn semantics, this truth-based approach gives rise to problems for the presupposition, such as, presupposition failure, the defeasibility of presupposition and the  projection problem. A.Presupposition FailureOn the basis of truth condition, it has been taken for granted that a name or definite description being used refers to the existent entity in the field of semantics. However, if the named or described entity doesn’t exist, it causes problem for this truth-relation approach, which is known as presupposition failure. The following example is by now the most discussed one in this literature:a)The King of France is bald. b)There is a King of France. (Saeed: 96)According to the criterion of truth relation, no doubt sentence a) presupposes sentence b), if it is true that there is a King of France. But if there is no King of France, that is to say, the sentence b) is false, the problem is aroused, for it is uncertain whether this presupposition survives or not. Are the sentences like a) true or false, or just in a gray area, neither true nor false? This dubious situation for truth-based approach results in the truth value gap. For such a problem, Russell offers a famous solution to make an analysis of this definite description as three expressions as follows:The King of France is bald is true if and only if:a)at least one thing is the kingb)at most one thing is the kingc)whatever is the king is bald. (Saeed: 97)From the Russell’s analysis, we know that if there is no King of France, it leads to the falsity of this proposition that the King of France is bald. Thus, there is no gray area between true or false, no truth value gap. However, it seems to be too complex to employ these preconditions for the explanation of one name and it may cost great efforts to analyze the preconditions whenever meet with such kind of statements. In comparison with truth relation approach, it may be less problematic for an interactional approach. During the communication between the individuals, whenever an unfamiliar name or definite description occurs, the hearer can interrupt the speaker so as to signal the failure of the conversation. For instance, the speaker says to someone, â€Å"Mr. Hong will invite us to dinner next Friday.† If the hearer doesn’t know Mr. Hong, it may cause confusion. As the conversation continues, the hearer can ask the speaker who Mr. Hong  is. As for the speaker, s/he can take an immediate response to clear up the misunderstanding. The presupposition failure in semantics results from the narrow question of the truth value of statements about non-existent entities, while in pragmatics, the attention is paid to the more general question of what conventions license a speaker’s referring use of name or definite description. B.DefeasibilityOne of the peculiar things about presupposition is that it is sensitive to context, either immediate linguistic context or the less immediate discourse context, or in circumstances where contrary assumptions are made. In particular context, the presupposition is cancelled and this phenomenon is known as defeasibility. Two factors result in presupposition cancellation: one is the linguistic context and the other one is background assumption about the world. One kind of presupposition defeasibility arises in certain types of linguistic context. For example,You say that someone in this room loves Mary. Well maybe so. But it certainly isn’t Fred who loves Mary. And it certainly isn’t John . . . (We continue in this way until we have enumerated all the people in the room). Therefore no one in this room loves Mary. (Suo: 135)In the example, each of the cleft sentences (it certainly isn’t Fred, etc.) are supposed to presuppose that there is someone in this room who loves Mary, for presupposition is constant under negation. However, the speaker intends to persuade the hearer that there is no one in this room who loves Mary by ruling out the possibilities. Therefore, the presupposition that someone in this room loves Mary is defeated in this counterfactual assumption. Here is another example of the same kind:a)John didn’t manage to pass his exams. b)John tried to pass his exams. c)John didn’t manage to pass his exams. In fact he didn’t even try. Sentence a) has the presupposition in b), but if put a) into such a statement as c), the prior presupposition is abandoned. Without knowing the real fact, if someone makes the utterance that John didn’t manage to pass his exams, it may leave the hearer an impression that at least once he tried to pass his exams. On hearing the fact the hearer will know John’s failure for the exams is due to his lack of efforts in his study. Thus, the presupposition can be cancelled within certain contexts. The other kind of presupposition defeasibility is caused by our general knowledge of the world. For instance,a)She cried before she finished her thesis. b)She finished her thesis. (Saeed: 187)As mentioned above, the temporal clause functions as a trigger for the presupposition. Sentence a) with before-clause presupposes that indeed she finished her thesis. However, if the verb in the main clause is changed to â€Å"die,† the situation will be totally different. For instance,c)She died before she finished her thesis. d)She finished her thesis. (Saeed: 187)Since her death preceded the event of finishing her thesis, it is certain that she never finished the thesis. It is common sense that people do not conduct things after they die. Even if sentence c) is expressed with before-clause, it doesn’t have the presupposition in d). As a result of background belief in the real world, the previous presupposition that she finished her thesis is blocked in this context. C.Projection ProblemLangendoen and Savin suggest that the set of presuppositions of the complex whole is the simple sum of the presuppositions of the parts, i.e. if S0 is a complex sentence containing sentences S1, S2, . . . Sn as constituents, then the presuppositions of S0 = the presuppositions of S1 + the presuppositions of S2 . . . + the presuppositions of Sn (Levinson: 191). For example,S0: John stopped accusing Mary of beating her husband. S1: John accused Mary of beating her husband. S1†²: John judged that it was bad for Mary to beat her husband. S2: John stopped doing it. S2†²: Before time T, John did it. (Suo: 136)In the example, sentence S0 is the complex sentence including two parts S1 and S2, to be more specific, from the statement that John stopped accusing Mary of beating her husband, two meanings can be interpreted: one is that John accused Mary of beating her husband and the other one is that John stopped doing it. The presupposition of S1 is S1†², namely, S1 presupposes that John judged that it was bad for Mary to beat her husband. While S2 has the presupposition in S2†², that is to say, S2 presupposes that before time T, John did it. Thus, the presuppositions of S0 are the presupposition of S1 plus the presupposition of S2. As a matter of fact, this simple solution to the presuppositions of complex sentences is far from correct and it turns out to be impossible to take it as a formula. By using this solution, it is difficult to predict exactly which presuppositions of the parts survive in the whole presupposition of the complex sentences. This compositional problem is called the projection problem for the presuppositions. The projection problem in the presuppositions has two aspects: on the one hand, presuppositions remain in the linguistic context while entailments disappear. On the other hand, presuppositions are cancelled in certain contexts where entailments survive. The first aspect of the projection problem is the survival of presuppositions and cancellation of entailments in the same context. As mentioned above, negation is a typical example for the distinction between presupposition and entailment, for presupposition is stable under negation while entailment isn’t. However, there are other situations in which presupposition remains  and entailment disappears. For instance,a)Mr. Brown bought four books. b)There is a Mr. Brown. c)Mr. Brown bought three books. d)It is possible that Mr. Brown bought four books. e)Mr. Brown could have bought four books. In this example, sentence a) presupposes sentence b) and entails sentence c). If it is true that Mr. Brown bought four books, the precondition for this proposition that there is a Mr. Brown must also be true. And if he already bought four books, he is supposed to have bought three books. However, when the modal operators or modal verbs are embedded in the original statement, the entailment of a) disappears while the presupposition b) still exists. Because modal operators like â€Å"possible,† â€Å"probable† and modal verbs like â€Å"could,† â€Å"should† are considered to be a kind of conjecture. The employments of them reveal speaker’s uncertainty about his utterances. Another situation of the same kind is the compound sentences formed by the connectives â€Å"and,† â€Å"or,† â€Å"if . . . then† and what not. For instance,a)The two students handed in the homework late again this Monday. b)A student handed in the homework late this Monday. c)The two students handed in the homework late before. d)If the two students handed in the homework late again this Monday, their teacher will get angry. The adverb â€Å"again† applied in the sentence a) presupposes that the two students handed in the homework late before. If two students handed in the homework late, it must entail that one of them handed in the homework late. Thus, sentence a) presupposes c) and also entails b). However, if sentence  a) is embedded in a complex sentence like d), the utterance a) can only be regarded as an assumption in the complex whole. Hence, the former entailment is abandoned in the new compound sentence but the presupposition that they did before still survives. The other aspect of the projection problem is that presupposition is blocked while entailment still exists in certain contexts. If the predicates of the utterances are the verbs of propositional attitude such as â€Å"want,† â€Å"believe,† â€Å"imagine,† â€Å"dream† and the like, the blocking of presupposition appears to take place. For instance,a)Tom believes he’s the president of America. b)There is a present president of America. In this example, sentence a) entails that Tom believes something, but it doesn’t have the presupposition that there is a present president of America. The verb like â€Å"believe† is only a non-factive verb, which doesn’t ensure the truth of its complement. Moreover, the employment of it will leave the hearer an impression that what the speaker says is just a personal opinion. Thus, the presupposition is blocked because of the verb â€Å"believe.†Another example is given as follows:a)I dreamed that I was a German and that I regretted being a German. b)I was a German. In the sentence a), the speaker doesn’t shoulder the responsibility of uttering it by employing the verb â€Å"dream.† The application of â€Å"dream† indicates that this utterance can not be taken seriously as a fact. However, sentence a) still entails that â€Å"I dreamed something,† but doesn’t presuppose that â€Å"I was a German.† In such a situation, the complex sentences with certain verbs of propositional attitude block their presuppositions but maintain the entailments. By means of analyzing the problems of presupposition in the field of semantics, we can draw a conclusion that this truth relation approach is far  from adequate to describe the relationships between presupposing and presupposed sentences. Admittedly, the issue of presupposition is not only being discussed in semantics but also in the pragmatics. Part IV. Pragmatic Theories of PresuppositionAs for pragmatic presupposition, various theories have been put forward by linguists such as Stalnaker, Gazdar and what not. Among these theories, two of them are the most developed theories that deal with the defeasibility and the projection problems. Both theories assume that presuppositions are part of the conventional meaning of expressions, instead of semantic inference. The first theory has been developed by Karttunen and Peters, which is expressed in the framework of Montague grammar. In the Montague grammar, clauses are built up from their constituents from the bottom up rather than from the top down as in transformational generative grammar (Levinson: 207). The basic idea in this theory is that sentences are built up from their components and the meanings conveyed in these sentences are subject to the words, clauses and so on, but in the presuppositions, meanings are associated with these triggers. According to Karttunen and Peters’ theory, presuppositions are actually non-cancellable. The meaning expressions that capture the presuppositional content of each presupposition-triggering item will be related with each constituent a heritage expression. If there is a predicate like propositional attitude verb, it will have a heritage expression that blocks the presuppositions ascending to be presupposition of the whole sentence. In such circumstances, presupposition isn’t in fact cancelled, but it is blocked during the process of derivation by the heritage expression. For example,a)Bush thinks that Kerry’s attitude about terrorism is dangerous. b)Kerry has an attitude about terrorism. The subordinate clause of sentence a) presupposes that Kerry has an attitude about terrorism. However, the verb â€Å"think† has the heritage expression which prevents this presupposition from being the presupposition of the whole. The other theory is proposed by Gazdar, in which presuppositions are actually cancelled. At the early stage of derivation, the presuppositions of any complex sentence will consist of all the potential presuppositions of the parts. Then a canceling mechanism will begin to work and it only selects these presuppositions which are consistent with all the propositions already in the context. In this theory, the generations of presuppositions adhere to a special order: first the entailments of what are said are added to the context, then the conversational implicatures, and only finally the presupposition (Levinson: 213). In each step, these presuppositions that contradict the former propositions will be eliminated through selection and only the ones being consistent with them will survive. For example,a)If there is a King of France, the King of France doesn’t any longer live in Versaills. b)The speaker knows that there exists a King of France. c)It is consistent with all the speaker knows that there is not a King of France. (Suo: 143)In the sentence a), the clause that â€Å"the King of France doesn’t any longer live in Versaills† has the potential presupposition in b). However, the conditional sentence a) entails that there is not a King of France. Based on the special order in Gazdar’s theory, this entailment enters into the context before the potential presupposition. Hence, this potential presupposition is cancelled without entering into the context. Although the two theories are opposing to each other, both of them offer an explanation for the defeasibility of presupposition and projection problem. However, even in the field of pragmatics, adequate solution to the presupposition is not obtained, which needs further developments. ConclusionIn the field of linguistics, we can probe into the presupposition from two perspectives, namely, semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition. This thesis mainly focuses on the interpretation of presupposition in semantics. The writer introduces the features of semantic presupposition like stability under negation and presupposition triggers and then makes an analysis of the problems aroused by this truth-based theory  such as presupposition failure, defeasibility and projection problem. To solve these problems, two theories concerning the pragmatic presupposition are discussed. Although both of them offer the explanations for the problems of presupposition, they are not considered to be adequate solutions. The further developments of presupposition rely on the complex interactions between semantics and pragmatics. References Levinson, Stephen C. Pragmtics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press, 2005. Saeed, John I. Semantics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press, 2005.

Effects of Alcohol Consumption to the Cognitive Function of a Person

Excessive alcohol intake has a great impact on the cognitive function of a person. It leads to a person to have a poor cognitive function. Which can be affected the persons perception, attention, memory, motor skills, language, visual and spatial processing. To some extent, study indicates that high level of impulsivity in alcohol consumptions of a person has an effect on the frontal lobe related to their behavioral problem (Lyvers et. al. ). Furthermore, alcohol intoxication causes disruption of prefrontal cortical functioning and thereby impairs executive cognitive performance.As executive cognitive ability is concerned this is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for problem solving, cognitive flexibility, planning, organization, abstract reasoning and social conduct. A person who is in inebriated situation is more likely to do risky, impulsive behavior such as unprotected sex, violence and drunk driving. In some situation, severe alcoholics’ gets complication, serio us organic cerebral impairment; it is the common complication occurring in about 10 percent of patient (Horvath 1975).Lishman 1981; American Psychiatric Association 1987, the diverse signs of severe brain dysfunction that persist after cessation of alcohol consumption have been conceptualize in terms of two organic mental disorders: alcohol amnestic disorder (memory disorder) and dementia associated with alcoholism. Alcohol amnestic disorder, commonly called Korsakoff’s psychosis or Wernicke- Korsakoff syndrome, it is characterized by short term memory, impairments and behavioral changes that occur without clouding of consciousness or general loss of intellectual abilities.Dementia associated with alcoholism consist of global loss of intellectual abilities with an impairment in memory function together disturbance(s) of abstract thinking, judgment, other higher cortical function or personality change without a clouding of consciousness. These two mental disorders are also cau se by a severe deficiency of  Thiamine  (vitamin B1) and are often precipitated by a sudden influx of glucose. A number of things have been shown to lead to a severe enough thiamine deficiency to trigger wet brain.Wet brain or Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome  has a sudden onset–it is not something which happens gradually over time. The first stage of wet brain is called Wernicke's encephalopathy. When there is a sudden influx of glucose in a brain which is deprived of thiamine the brain cells begin to die. This is because the chemical reactions which supply these brain cells with energy for life use thiamine to turn glucose into energy in a chemical process called the Krebs cycle.When there is an influx of glucose and no thiamine to help metabolize it, these brain cells burn out like a car engine running on high octane gasoline at high speed with no oil. The brain cells which die first are the ones which require the most thiamine to function. These brain cells are located a round the middle of the brain and are the brain cells which are associated with memory and muscular movement. The brain cells of the cerebellum, which controls balance, are also affected.Korsakoff's syndrome includes loss of past memories, inability to learn new things, confabulation (remembering things which never happened), lack of coordination and unsteady gait, and in severe cases dementia. These are the possible reaction to a person who takes excessive alcohol consumptions. More evident in explaining the effect of excessive intake of alcohol in a person’s cognitive function is that he/she will experienced less adept at certain learning tests and visual- spatial integration. Likewise it cause premature aging (Tarter and Edwards, 1986) and it is still under active investigation.In addition, it has long been an established fact that actively drinking, alcohol dependent subjects have smaller brain volumes than normal control subjects who do not drink alcohol. Thus, early res earchers assumed that this was because alcohol killed the brain cells of alcohol dependent subjects, but other research disapproves this hypothesis but it could be partially true unless there has been brain damage as a result of  liver failure  or  thiamine deficiency, the majority of brain cells of heavy drinkers are intact even though the brain has shrunk.Meanwhile, in some study stated that alcohol consumption in a moderate mode has an effect to help a person to decrease the incidence of having diabetes. Likewise, it can help to preserve brain vasculature prevents sub-clinical strokes and could result in better cognition function. But drinking too much of alcohol leads to have poor cognitive function that causes to a person to have brain damage. Some research shows that alcohol adversely affects the brain.When health professionals encounter patients who are having cognitive difficulties, such as impaired memory or reasoning ability, alcohol use may be the cause of the probl em. The human brain consists of white cells and gray cells. The gray cells are responsible for thinking and feeling and decisions–they correspond to the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the computer. The white cells are like the cables of the computer which connect the keyboard and the monitor to the CPU.Jensen and Pakkenberg (1993) did brain cell counts which compared the number of cells in the brains of heavy drinkers with those of non-drinkers. They found out that the number of gray cells was the same in both the heavy drinkers and the non-drinkers. However, there were fewer white brain cells in the brains of the drinkers which imply that alcohol kills a white brain cell that is responsible to the connection to pass the message or transaction of the brain to connect with the feeling and decision making of a person.Hence, excessive alcohol intake disrupts the connection or breaks the normal function of the brain to react and to have a better cognitive function. Moreover, Ge orge Fein (2009) discovered that there was one part of the brain in the parietal lobe–which is associated with spatial processing–where alcohol kills gray cells. Fein claims that this explains why even after alcohol dependent subjects regain use of all their other cognitive functions they still seem to have difficulties with spatial processing.Parker et al. (1983) stated that there is significant decrease in test performance have been found for people whose self-reported alcohol consumption was in the range of what was considered social drinking. They found it out when they conducted a certain neuropsychological tests, the results of one general population study (Bergman et al. 1983). Those people were not clinically impaired; they only exhibited certain performance deficits that correlated with alcohol consumption.Parsons (1986) concluded that data on the relationship of cognitive impairment to amount of alcohol consumed by social drinkers are inconclusive but has the chance to have similar correlation. There is some evidence that both the amount of brain shrinkage and the amount of cognitive deficit are dependent on the quantity of alcohol consumed and the number of years of heavy drinking. Thus, it only proves that there is an adversely effect on the cognitive function of a person in drinking too much of it. Hence, there is no good effect on the brain or body function of a person. (copyright of ISLA BONITAS 2012) |

Basic concepts of psychodynamic psychotherapy

In the essay, â€Å"Basic concepts of psychodynamic psychotherapy† I have delved deep into the concept psychodynamic psychotherapists. Who are they? What is their role and how they help emotionally disturbed patients. Freud was the first to formulate the concept psychodynamic psychotherapy and then with the passage of time, many types of therapies have been conceived.It is based on the simple concept that we all are emotionally related to each other and these emotions may from time to time create disturbances in our daily lives, which we are unable to find out.Therapists help us to find these problems and give the solutions. But there are certain problems too in the treatment process in the various concepts of Psychodynamic psychotherapy. These problems can arise due to transference, counter-transference, defense and resistance. All in all, this essay will be beneficial for all the people concerned and students of psychotherapy. Introduction: Psychodynamic psychotherapy involv es patients to understand their emotional turmoil and effectively deals with them.It is a therapy provided to the young adults to help them deal with the emotional problems arising out of the depression and anxiety caused due to the relationship problems either with family, peers, friends, or professors. It is a method of verbal communication enabling patients to get relief from emotional pains. People go for psychodynamic psychotherapy for number of reasons like prolonged sadness, anxiety, sexual frustration, physical symptoms without any basis, continuous feelings of isolation and loneliness, and an ardent desire to achieve more success in work and love.People ask for therapist, as they cannot solve the resolution in the time of their difficulties in their own way. The roots of the concepts psychodynamic psychotherapy had arisen out of the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis. As said by Nancy McWilliams, â€Å"Psychoanalytic therapists, including psychoanalysis, are approac hes to helping people that derive ultimately from the ideas of Sigmund Freud and his collaborators and his followers†. (McWilliams, 2004, p. 1)The overall theme of the psychodynamic approach of helping people is based on the simpler premises that the more we are honest with ourselves, the more we have chances of living a better, satisfied and useful life. Psychoanalytical and clinical writing espouses from within our unconscious level those aspects that we have not realized or are not evident and if we are aware of these disavowed aspects, we will get relief from emotional pain and also from the time and energy spent to keep ourselves at unconscious level.Michael Guy Thompson and the inheritors of Rieff argued that psychoanalysis as a field has adorned an ethic of honesty as a means to achieve therapeutic goals. Thomas Szasz in 2003 defined psychoanalysis as a â€Å"moral dialogue, not a medical treatment. † (McWilliams, 2004, p. 2) Since decades therapists have personi fied themselves as most honest in their personal analysis with the patients and also fostering the achievements as a result of the same. (McWilliams, 2004) There are differences in the goals of therapy depending on the methods of treatment that could be either expressive or supportive.Expressive therapy enables the patients to relieve themselves from symptoms through the development of awareness of feelings and thoughts. The therapy is based on the concept that difficulties, which are experienced by the adults have their emergence in childhood; children neither possess the ability of making suitable choices for themselves nor they have an independence to follow the same and the methods that are developed in the childhood are no longer effective during adulthood.With counselling, adults get to know the ineffective ways they had been adopting and today’s ways of adoption to come out of the various problems and hurdles. Another is supportive therapy, more relevant to give patien t immediate relief. Therapist adopts this approach with the previous level of functioning of a person and helps him to strengthen the ways already been adopted by him. While many patients can get benefited from one treatment but in several cases, other therapies may also be involved like family therapy, couple therapy, or group therapy, which could be separately given and also in combination.Concepts of Psychodynamic psychotherapy Psychodynamic psychotherapy provides a unique model for the mental functioning involving five key concepts, and these are: â€Å"Unconscious processes in the mental level; Transference; Counter-transference; Defense and resistance; and the past repeating itself in the present. † (Yager, Mellman & Rubin, 2005, p. 340) 1. Unconscious processes in the mental level â€Å"Unconscious is an adjectival description of areas of mental experience not available to normal awareness†. (McGrath & Margison, 2000) It is the part of the mental process about w hich we are not aware of.There could be different levels of unconscious mental activity including our inability to realize what is going on in our mind and secondly partial awareness. Most of the Freud’s writings were based on this unconscious level of mind, which is â€Å"a reservoir that contained dynamically repressed contents that were kept out of awareness because they created conflict. † (Gabbard, 2004, p. 3) Freud’s earlier attempts were his efforts to bring out to surface the unconscious part of our mind for easily identifying the problem and understanding it in a better way.Freud formulated what is known as the topographical model and the structural model. The topographical model describes the parts of the mind that functions at various levels of consciousness and creates awareness of the same. It reveals and studies the quality that is playing its part in the mental processes rather than function it is playing. On the other hand is the structural model , which delves into the three important parts of the personality i. e.id, ego and superego and they perform motivational, interactive and executive functions. In the structural model, ego is shown as different from aggressive and sexual drives. Freud explains that, â€Å"The conscious part of the ego involves that part of the mind, which performs the function of decision making, integration of perceptual data, and the mental calculation whereas the unconscious part of the ego involves defense mechanisms that are designed to counteract the power instinctual derives harbored in the id†. (Gabbard, 2004, p.4) Sexuality and aggression are drives requiring deep level defensive efforts from the ego to prevent them from becoming intrusive to the person’s functioning. According to Freud, unconsciousness continues to create an influence on our behavior even though we are unaware about it. For e. g. during one of the clinical trials, I studied the patient’s problem on his communication process. I assumed that the patient’s verbal and nonverbal communication to us was unconsciously organized, and consciously as well as unconsciously had certain meaning.This meant from his speech and non-verbal behavior, I had to find out the central conflict patient was undergoing through unwillingly organized thoughts, feelings and behaviors in his relation to the persons he was concerned. When I listened to the patient, certain portion of this conflicting tendency in his mental power was quite visible. This could be in the form of phrases, images, nonverbal behaviors etc. These signs help in interpreting the root cause of the problem. After the thorough investigation of the verbal phrase, I interpreted that his focal conflict was related to his phallic competitive wishes.But it was not clear whether his phallic conflicts were regressive arising from his struggle or he went to an extent of powerful regression towards the sadistic tendency. In other words, it w as not clear that his difficulty with phallic competitive feelings toward males had arisen from his feeling of jealousy or looking at them as rivals or his anxiety had arisen due to the sad feelings and his impulses. But one thing that I found was he often felt very anxious and often had a great feeling of anxiety over the affects and that could be created on his impulses by the people he thinks to be rivals.Psychotherapeutic acts like a friend, and as said by must act like a therapeutic distance or therapeutic neutrality; never treating with any personal desires yet always maintaining the relationship with the patient focusing on the treatment process. 2. Transference Second concept is transference, involving the relationship client feels towards his psychotherapist. It is very natural for the client to experience the feeling of transference, also known as the transference reactions. These feelings are no less than in-depth feelings of love or hate.Jacques Lacan, a psychoanalyst ex plains that this love means having a belief or faith in the other, in other words, the other person has knowledge you don’t have. (Wright, 1998) This intense belief on the part of the client can cause problem that should be solved during the process psychotherapeutic treatment. For e. g. these feelings could be mixed feelings of love and hate that can arise out of the relationship problems with parents and they look at therapist with these mixed feelings. In such a situation, there is a need to realize that psychotherapist is only trying to reduce these feelings.A patient also begins to feel that the psychotherapist has a personal ability to come out of the sense of inner worthlessness and there can be fondness and even sexual attraction with the psychotherapist. This happens as the therapeutic cure comes from the emotional feeling and removes emotional emptiness. It is said if transference is not handled carefully it can lead to disaster consequence. For e. g. many patients have their lives ruined because psychotherapists play with the patients erotic feelings in a personal way and fail to make the client understand that it is the medical treatment.In many cases transference can also make you frighten putting a stop to the treatment prematurely. For e. g. it was October 18th 2000, I had one patient in my clinic that most of the time got into the fits of anxiety and depression. I lovingly asked him several questions and during the process, I found he had an odd problem with his parents. He acknowledged the fact that his parents loved him but at the same time was always had a feeling of insecurity, anger and confusion towards his parents thinking they didn’t love him as much as they loved their other children.The first thing about him that came to my mind was he had a craving for love and it was love he needed the most. He was fourteen years old boy with smart and innocent boyish look in his face, with black and blonde hair. So my initial step of treatment started by getting emotionally close to the patient, and I initiated to give the parental care he craved for, understand his differences with his parents and try not to repeat the same mistakes what he felt his parents were doing.Slowly, his signs of depression began to reduce and he felt more relaxed and tension free. My more and more closeness with him created a situation of transference, as I soon realized he was not able to spend even few minutes of his time without calling me or having a talk with me. He was now looking at me as his saviour and parents. I soon realized this would create a more problem if I leave him, as he could feel sadder and get into more depression. I then called his parents, discussed problem with them and explained them the importance and real meaning of love.Love means not just fulfilling the responsibilities but also coming close to your child, keeping your hands on his head and saying, â€Å"I am with you. † These are magical words bes t than the medicine that can reduce the emotional pains and can trigger the self-confidence and faith in others and oneself. I gave his parents some tips to follow and soon they realized it. This was the beginning of new life for my patient as he felt more relaxed, happy and relieved from all the pains and I slowly and slowly made him realize I was only his doctor and had to go.3. Counter-transference Counter transference is a reverse of the transference. This is described for the reactions and the emotional and unconscious reactions that can be felt by psychotherapist for his client. If these feelings are taken personally then psychotherapist can get into angry bout, abusive, spiteful, indifferent, or even seductive and if the counter-transference gets very deep and intense, then psychotherapist has to stop the treatment himself and get his patient referred to someone else for client’s protection.Counter-transference should be distinguished from the feelings he generated dur ing the process of treatment, because these feeling are used for treatment. At this point we can say that feelings generated by psychotherapists could be good as well as bad as both the extremity of the emotional feelings can have adverse effect on both the psychotherapist as well as on the part of patient. With the patient I mentioned above, I also began to feel emotional closeness but I controlled my emotions and with some careful analysis of the situation and adopting the balanced approach I dealt with him.4. Defense and resistance Yet another therapeutic concept needs to be undertaken is defense and resistance. Freud defines resistance as â€Å"whatever interrupts the progress of analytic work, like getting late, missing a session, or avoiding a particular issue†. (Fink, 1997, 230) Simply defense and resistance occurs owing to the fear and fear we have to face and relinquish from the anger of the victim. In other words, the treatment task is very complex and frightening a nd there is often the fear of facing the anger of a patient and overcoming an inclination to lie to yourself.Nonetheless Lacan said resistance should be distinguished from defense, and gave the statement that â€Å"there is no other resistance to analysis than that of the analyst himself. † (Fink, 1997, p. 225) For e. g. if the psychotherapist makes interpretation or makes intervention, which seemed to be not proper clinically, the client can be defensive and that can cause interruption in the work of therapists. In other words client will only get into the process of treatment when he himself feels comfortable about. The psychotherapist must feel the awareness of the fact that to what extent of the treatment process client is willing to go.Attempts to forcefully get client deep into the treatment process without getting him emotionally prepared can result in the client getting away from the treatment itself. In my case during the initial visit of the client, he showed reluct ance in the treatment process. He often came late from the time schedule and felt hesitant in disclosing. I assured him the best of my treatment and with great patience and slight conversations slowly yet steadily made him come closer to the treatment process. Then I was comfortable with me and he too was finding comfort in the treatment.5. The past repeating itself in the present In the psychodynamic language, it implies the past experiences of the patient continue to haunt him in the present. This happens with most of the suicidal patients – the past horrible experiences of the patients may continue to haunt him in his unconscious level. This may cause resistance on the part of the patient and treatment may suffer. In the clinical words, the transference to the clinician may have a major impact on the treatment, and counter – transference may also occur in subsequent time duration.(Gabbard & Allison, 2006) During the treatment period, practitioners have to face this situation and have to look into the patient’s past to bring out the root cause of his present situation and formulate this phase also. This process of integration of the past with the present is very painful thing for patients and in severe cases they can get emotionally disturbed, more depressive, anxious and can be aggressive, but nonetheless it is a temporary phase. I still remember she was nineteen years old and had gone into deep depression.When I asked about her past life, she entered into deeper state of depression and got completely silent and saddened and scared. I tried to relive her and promised not to ask about her past. She then slowly recovered herself, came back to normal and then after few days told me about her past. The treatment psychodynamic psychotherapy is all about the treatment of caring and love. In number of upheavals in our life, we need someone who can listen to us and care for us and here psychotherapist role starts. They listen to us and strive t o give us good hearing and relieve us from emotional pains.But, finally it is you only who is a healer and psychotherapist is only a guide who can take you on a self-guiding path. . Reference List Busch, F. N. & Milrod,B. L. 2008. Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Psychiatric Times. 25 (2). Corradi, R. B. (2006). Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Core Conceptual Model and Its Application. Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 34:93-116. Fink, B. 1997. A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique Harvard University Press. Gabard, G. O. & Allison, S. (2006). Psychodynamic Treatment.In Robert I. Simon, Robert E. Hales (Eds. ) The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Suicide Assessment and Management: assessing the unpredictable. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. , 221-234. Gabbard, G. O. (2004) Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Basic Text. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. McGrath, G. & Margi son, F. (2000) An Introduction to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: BASIC PSYCHODYNAMIC CONCEPTS I. Retrieved on September 25, 2008 from W. W. W: http://www. geocities. com/nwidp/course/basic1. htmMcWilliams, N. (2004) Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide. New York: Guilford Press. Shervin, H. , Bond, J. A. & Brakel, L. A. W. 1996. Conscious and Unconscious Processes: Psychodynamic, Cognitive, and Neurophysiological Convergences. New York: Guilford Press Wright, Elizabeth. 1998. Psychoanalytic Criticism: A Reappraisal. London & New York: Routledge. Yager,J. Mellman,L. & Rubin, E. 2005. The RRC Mandate for Residency Programs to Demonstrate Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Competency Among Residents: A Debate. Academic Psychiatry, 29:4, p. 339-349.

Eugene onegin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Eugene onegin - Essay Example A dandy, deprived strict moral values and norms, he goes on the booze. Through this character, Pushkin depicts the gap between expected, traditional, usual things and reality people try to escape. He shows that perception of the world was limited by traditions and values imposed by their society. â€Å"Tatyana leaves Onegin kneeling, / looks at him with a steady gaze† (Pushkin). This remark shows that Tatyana is deeply hurt by Onegin who ruins her life and Olga’s happiness. The surface of her story is limpidly clear and beguilingly placid, but Pushkin’s use of it is to enforce by close logic an impossible and often very shocking proposition driven with distinct and startling imagery. Onegin deserves his fate because his desire to possess love of Tatiana is nothing more than dissatisfaction of the past that resulted in losses and hopelessness. On the other hand, I sympathize with this character because love becomes a vein sacrifice that is painful and sorrowful causing terrible sufferings and emotional burden for people. Quite early Onegin explores the meaning and significance of money and social status in life which brings him no good: â€Å"Onegin, my good friend, was littered / and bred upon the Nevas brink’ (Pushkin). On the other hand, Pushkin’s contribution to the pessimism which characterizes so much of the important writing of the ninetieth century was to probe the inner recesses of human behavior to see by what instincts people are governed. Onegin proposes a view of mans essential nature: greedy and rakish. In practice it is possible and desirable to create new law and values, because new environment forces people to change their personal priorities and morals. Social ideology and way of life typical for many young people of his age is the main cause of his suffering and fate. â€Å"Onegin swiftl y came to know / his tale of youthful love, narrated / with deep emotion through and through, / to us, though,

Consumer Protection Sale of Goods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Consumer Protection Sale of Goods - Essay Example Upon seeing the advertisement in the Old Castle newspaper regarding the racquet, which read: " This is a fantastic new tennis racquet specially designed for beginners. Its unique anti-scratch finish means that however many times you knock it, scratch it, drop it, the scratches will not show. Your racquet will look as good as a new after many years of use. are implied in a contract of sale: the goods much match the description; the condition of the goods must be satisfactory; there must be satisfactory quality; and lastly, the good must be 'reasonably fit' for the purpose for which the consumer is buying them.1 Each of these terms must conform to the contract of sale. In this case Jim had, upon joining the Old Castle Racquets Club (hereafter, ORC) and seeing the advertisement, decided to purchase the SS after paying his yearly fee of 200 to ORC and signing up for a sex week period of tennis lessons at a price of 120. Completing his transactions at ORC Jim immediately went to Old Castle Sports and Leisure (hereafter, OSL) and purchased a SS racquet for 250, paying in cash. Jim's dissatisfaction arose when after only several weeks of using the SS, contrary to the advertisement's assertions and the warranty which came with the SS the surface had become very scratched and by week three the racquet was totally unusable when the handle came off. In determining the remedies available to Jim it is necessary to show that there was a breach of contract which leads us back to the four terms of a contract: description, condition, quality and fitness. In Harlingdon & Leinster Enterprises v Christopher Hull Fine Art Ltd [1991] 1 QB 5642 the court found that "for the sale to be 'by' description the description had to be influential in the sale so as to become an essential term or condition of the contract." In Jim's the case the description (i.e. the advertisement) was an essential reason he purchased the SS as evidenced by his actions and speed with which he viewed the advertisement and the immediately proceeded to OSR to purchase the SS. Also, in Beale v Taylor [1967] 3 All ER 2533 the court found that "the buyer was entitled to damages because, although the description of the goods were not false to the knowledge of either the seller or the buyer, yet fundamentally the seller was selling goods of the description advertised." As i n Jim's case even if the seller (OSL) was unaware that the advertising of the SS was wrong, Jim had purchased the SS based on that description. Satisfactory condition4 is the next term to consider which relates to satisfactory condition.5 Rogers v Parish (Scarborough) Ltd [1987] QB 9336 found that the court upheld that goods unfit7 for use purchased are unmerchantable. As in Jim's case, he purchased an expensive racquet for the sole purpose of taking lesson and playing tennis. The inherent quality issues rendered the SS unmerchantable. In Stevenson v Rogers [1999] 1 All ER 6138 on appeal the court held that

Administrative Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Administrative Law - Essay Example etical case of Jen who has been refused GM-Free accreditation licence by the WA Minister for Primary Industries Therefore, the arguments herein present the tenets of procedural fairness in relation to an appeal to review administrative decision which has purportedly denied the applicant the expected due PF in line with the prevailing legislation.2 In its chronology, this paper looks at the basis of power and evidence used by the decision maker to arrive at the resolution in question. On the other hand, the discussion hereafter considers the legal facts as to whether Jen can effectively invoke denial of PF success in a judicial review of the Minister’s decision. Primarily, the legal framework of administrative law provides that an applicant must have been aggrieved by an executive decision for which a judicial review is being sought (Halliday, 2004: 146). Moreover, the Commonwealth Law allows the aggrieved individual to seek judicial review of an administrative decision that has perpetually compromised his personal interest as distinguished by Edley (1992:139) in the case of FAI Insurance; Blyth District Hospital Inc v South Australian Health Commission.3 In the case presented before us, Jen applied to the WA Ministry of Primary Industries for accreditation as a GM-Free canola grower in line with the requirements of the WA Genetically Modified-Free Grain Security and Accreditation Act 2006. Unfortunately, the Minister denied her accreditation on grounds that her property was deficient of the provisions of Section 10 of the aforementioned Act hereinafter referred to as the Act. In arriving at the decision, the Minister instituted Section 5 assessment as well as subsequent Section 12 inspection to ascertain the integrity of Jen’s property as read with the Ministerial Policy to safeguard the public interest against GMO contamination. Prior to Jen’s application, there was a prevailing Ministerial Policy advising against GM-Free accreditation for growers

Bankers Bonuses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bankers Bonuses - Essay Example In this regard the musician stated that he is Q-â€Å"No longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers. Unless he acts to limit [bonuses] to  £25,000, I shall be withholding my tax payment on 31st January.†Ã‚   What has complicated the issue is that the bank is primarily owned by the British tax-payers and received massive bailout funding from the Government of Great Britain. It was further postulated P- that this represented a not just a localized trend but reflected an international trend insofar as it is the case that nearly $100 billion U.S. or  £62bn is going to be paid out in bonuses this year. Ordinarily this would see to represent a massive problem to the American taxpayer however it is the case that the biggest banks on Wall Street which will be giving out the bonuses are Q- delivering profits of as much as $11bn. Citibank and Bank of America are both likely to deliver profits of at least $6bn, while Morgan Stanley will reveal a much smal ler figure of around $1.2bn. One could present that the argument that in Scotland that if it is the case that the RBS is going to have huge losses, needs huge federal subsidies to stay afloat and is owned by the citizens/taxpayers of Great Britain than the paying out of unreasonably high executive bonuses would seem to be unjustified. However in the American context if these major banking firms are settling their repayment criteria and are generating profits above no harm in paying bonuses to their management assuming that the mid level investment.

Marketing Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marketing Plan - Essay Example Also, it is a sports drink which hydrates human body as well gives guaranteed additional 6 hours of energy for performing the daily activities. This marketing plan is meant to be effective only in the United States and as of now the company does not have any plans to operate in the overseas market. The study carried out a detailed analysis of the energy drink market of USA in order to get an idea of the business environment. The study revealed that the industry is fiercely competitive due to the presence of a large number of established players. However, Coca Cola being an established firm will get certain advantages in the market such as the brand identity and trust of consumers. The short term objective of the company is to create awareness of the product and achieve 2-5% of the market share by the end of the 1st year. In order to achieve it, the company has been strongly recommended to use a variety of promotional techniques and pursue a competitive pricing strategy. In addition, intensive distribution and entering into a treaty with sports companies has also been recommended. Situation Analysis Before the launch of a new product in the market, it is essential to perform a thorough analysis of the external business environment of a country. In addition, the industry in which the business will operate also needs to be assessed. Apart from that it is also essential to assess the competitors and customers. The sections below will try to examine the aforementioned factors and draw a conclusion based on which the marketing strategy for the energy drink will be designed. Description of the Product The product which will be marketed is an energy drink named as Hydra-Energy Shot. The product generally falls into the category of sports beverage product and is meant for providing additional energy to the consumers. The product can be described as smooth in taste, contains added electrolyte, Vitamin B12 (for energy), assorted fruit flavors and low in calorie. The produ ct promises to provide an additional 6 hours of energy to the consumers for performing their routine activities. Customer Analysis A business cannot operate in vacant and requires a base of customers for continuing operation and sustaining in the marketplace over a long period of time. The analysis of the customer is the recording and evaluating the data associated with the needs of consumers as well as market trends. Hydra-Energy Shot will principally target sportspersons. In addition, the product is also targeted for office goers and individuals who work out at different fitness centers. Energy drinks generally falls into the group of functional beverages and encompasses ‘nutraceutical’ and sports drinks. The share of the same is presented in the figure below: - Figure 1 – Market Share breakdown of Functional Beverages (Source: Heckman, Sherry & De Mejia, 2010) Sports drinks are essentially designed to consume before or during the process of action so as to pre vent any kind of dehydration and supply carbohydrate and electrolytes for maintaining proper metabolism in the system (Coombes & Hamilton 2000). Smith Kline Beecham Energy & Sports Drinks Report suggests that in the USA, around 53% of the people who consumes energy or sports drinks are within the age group of 14-34 years. Initially, athletes are the sole consumers of energy drinks, but the course of time and increased awareness the market grew tremendously and expanded to other niche segments. A study by Mintel (2009) made

Why standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Why standards - Essay Example Although this paper will focus most on standards in reference to technical scientific requirements and standards, they are of course important in general too, and have extremely widespread importance and relevance. Introduction A standard in its definitive sense is ‘a required or agreed level of quality or attainment’ (Merriam-Webster). In other words, it is a published set of guidelines that defines a certain criteria that an object, measurement, procedure or otherwise should fit into. It set out rules that act as definitions or references for anything in particular and are expected to be enacted exactly as they are without change or adjustment. Standards are generally enforced not as rigid rules to make things more complicated but rather to simplify things when viewing from a bigger picture. Standards allow all involved in something, whether it is a researcher looking to publish a bit of information, or a student wishing to learn something, or a manufacturer aiming to sell a product, or a consumer wishing to buy one, to effectively and exactly explain what they are offering or understanding, without ambiguity or confusion (Brownell, 1917). Where these standards are used and how they are used is what this paper will now begin to examine. Consider the standards employed by a manufacturing industry. To a certain measurable level as a standard reference point is very important for them for a great number of reasons. Without manufacturing norms, products would have little to no mobility. Each country and manufacturer would be working on their own terms of reference, thereby making it difficult for a consumer. A typical consumer will buy products from different manufacturers or will use services from different companies, and will ultimately have them all at use in one place. It would therefore be redundant and a hassle to have one particular product in one specific room only and be unable to use anything else with it, as they would not be standardized to work with each other. Furthermore, if you consider using the product or service in another country, unless the plugs, sockets, voltage supply required, power consumed etc were not standardized, it would be impossible to import or export a product for any widespread use. In terms of science though, standards have an importance so immense that without them science would not only be unable to progress, rather they would face setbacks so severe in the form of chaos and confusion that it would ultimately do more damage than good. One main reason for this is that science is not localized. It is universally applicable, universally required, universally used and therefore, universally researched upon and worked with. When there is a subsidized standard in place, a scientist in Muscat can pick up the thesis of a scientist in Russia, build upon it, research it further and produce a paper with terms and references of a specific format so that tomorrow, when someone in yet another country wi shes to learn from it, they will do so without confusion and conflict. Communicating on a standardized subject is far easier than having to communicate on a relative subject where first you would have to explain your terms of perspective and then get your point across. Luckily, some standards have been in use for so long and so widespread that they have become second nature to use and alternates are not even considered. For example, when illustrating the size of an object, without a standard form of measurement, we would have to employ words like small and big, which are relative terms. To say something is very small could mean a very large number of things,

Risk Management and Security Threat Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 39

Risk Management and Security Threat - Essay Example The Department of Veterans Affairs has incorporated security measures into its risk management framework. In order to cater for program risk, the department has employed security experts who are competent enough to manage programs and risks associated with them. The department has also improved their detection systems as well as employing security measures such as the use of strong passwords. One of the measures to cover institutional risk in the risk management framework is diversification of products and benefits to veterans (SOPHOS, 2014). There exist some differences between the three reports. One difference is their content. One report is about the threats that come about with new technology platforms while the other is about the evolution of malware to becoming smarter, shadier and stealthier. This happens when the malware authors develop more effective malware that can easily camouflage and go undetected by program users and owners. The second difference is that one report, the later report of 2014, is about the advancements made by malware developers and how malware has developed dangerously. The 2013 report is about how development and advancements in technology have opened up new opportunities for malware developers. This difference sensitizes web users that virtually all the internet segments are under risk. The third difference is that the 2013 report mentions android as one of the prime targets of malware and paints a picture that Android is highly vulnerable while the 2014 report mentions the advancements ma de in malware that is targeted at Android operating systems. This is significant in sensitizing users on the potential threats to Android that exist. (SOPHOS, 2013). The key threats should be addressed by developing more and better solutions to software security. This is because efforts against security threats can only be successful if the efforts are well ahead of the threats. The government should initiate programs that will encourage growth and development of antimalware. Professionals need to get smarter by the day.

Macroeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Macroeconomics - Essay Example The level of GDP increased from trough to peak by around 10.2 percent between the year 1981 and 1988, which states that the recovery was strong after the recession. Also after the 1990’s recession there was a sharp increase in GDP growth level. However it is evident that there is a long recovery period after the 2008 global financial crises of UK’s economy. When compared the recovery from all recession periods, it is evident from Figure 2 from the case that recovery from 2008 recession has been protracted and has the deepest fall in GDP growth levels in the year of 2008 recession. The period of Great Moderation that lasted from 1993 to 2007 was faced with smooth growth, low unemployment and low inflation. During this period economy grew to around 5 percent until it was faced with recession in 2008. There are a number of factors that can be attributed to a fall in UK’s saving ratio between 1993 and 2008.It is visible from figure 15 from the case that saving ratio fell to lowest 1.7 percent by the end of 2007.The graph also denotes fall in saving ratio over the years 1993 to 2008. Interest rate in the UK’s economy was low from 1993 that further fell to 3 % in 2003 as seen from figure 12 from the case. This meant that credit was easily available to borrowers at a cheaper cost and savers were not ready to delay consumption and instead save for lower return on savings. Low interest rates and low inflation acted as a disincentive to save. At same time housing prices were rising, which leads to wealth affect and people were ready to borrow and spend more. This wealth effect made people more confident to spend as they knew that value of their property was rising. This is could be seen in figure 13 where there is a sharp rise in average UK housing prices from 1993 to 2007, more than tripling over the 15 year period (Tejvan, 2008). Easily available credit during this period had encouraged more

Final - Project and Program Risk Management Essay Example for Free

Final Project and Program Risk Management Essay This type of management may take on an informal or formal approach, but risk management is essential for every project. Risk Management is not a well accepted standard practice since it points out negative aspects of projects, and there are numerous inhibitions that restrain the dynamics of risk management. According to the Wikipedia, a free web-based encyclopedia, the Project Management Institute (PMI) is a non-profit professional organization with the purpose of advancing the state-of-the-art of project management. The company is a professional association for the project management profession. The PMI sets standards, conducts research, and provides education and professional exchange opportunities designed to strengthen and further establish professionalism. The Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI() has established a six-step set of processes and practices for the risk management process as documented below: 1. Risk Management Planning: project risk infrastructure is established and a project-specific risk management plan is generated. 2. Risk Identification: events with potentially positive and negative impacts are clearly described. 3. Risk Qualifications: risks are evaluated according to nonnumeric assessment protocols. 4. Risk Quantifications: risks are evaluated according to numeric assessment protocols. 5. Risk Response Planning: strategies to deal with or precluded risks are evaluated and communicated. 6. Risk Monitoring and control: risk management and response plans are put into action. b) Why do professionals mandate Risk Management? Professionals mandate Risk Management in organizations since risk sometimes becomes a secondary issue. This secondary issue occurs since the hope that Project Managers will be able to handle issues and problems as they occur. Since risk remains a secondary issue until an organization’s luck runs out or a profitable opportunity is missed, professionals take a more proactive approach to risk identification and mitigation by applying Risk Management Process and Practices. Based on statistical information, unfavorable risk events eventually occur in good projects without a way to identify and mitigate risk. The Project Manager suffers the repercussions of such type of failure; therefore, professionals mandate Risk Management and support its practices in effort to mitigate risk. . Explain the Delphi Technique and steps for effective application. a) Explain the Delphi Technique. When expert interview techniques are not an option, the Delphi Technique provides an alternate means for extracting information from subject matter experts (SMEs) without pressuring or forcing them to provide much needed information. Many SMEs prefer not to participate in data-gathering processes; therefore, the project manager ( facilitator) applies the Delphi technique to collect information directly from the SMEs without infringing on their schedules. This technique allows the facilitator with directed follow-up capability from experts after peers have been consulted so the highest quality of information is extracted from the experts. b) Steps for Effective Application. To obtain effective information from the Delphi Technique, the Project Manager must posses the ability to generate the original questions to present to the experts and to clarify the information from the experts as it is received. The following six (6) major steps will increase the chances of a successful technique application: 1) Identify experts and ensure their participation 2) Create the Delphi instrument 3) Have the experts respond on the instrument 4) Review and restate the responses 5) Gather the experts’ opinions and repeat 6) Distribute and apply the data The Delphi technique is a time-consuming process, but this technique is promising in extracting information from experts who might not otherwise contribute to a project’s body of knowledge. 3. Explain the Crawford Slip Method (CSM). The Crawford Slip Method (CSM) is a classic tool used to combat the negativism inherent in team members while attempting to identify risk and risk information-gathering for a particular product or process. CSM offers a variety of advantages over other information-gathering techniques, in particular, the ability to aggregate large volumes of information in a very short time period and the complete avoidance of groupthink. CSM is not the hardest risk management technique to apply when properly facilitated. A clearly established question is defined by the facilitator and provided to all qualified participants. The participants then document their response to the clearly established question on a slip of paper. Providing the same clearly established question to the participants again, they document their response to the question on a slip of paper again. This process is repeated ten (10) times using the same clearly established question to better extract all of the unknown information available from the participants involved in the product or process. The initial slips of paper are usually very similar in content; however, as the process repeats itself, the later slips of paper tend to generate identification of issues and risks that could have been overlooked without repetition. The strength of Crawford Slip Method is efficiency. 4. Define SWOT Analysis and their selection criteria. a) Define SWOT Analysis. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis Technique is a directed risk analysis that identifies risks and opportunities within a higher-level organizational context rather than a project’s narrow vacuum.

Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power

Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power Do the advantages of using nuclear power outweigh the disadvantages and thus making it a safe and economical method of generating electricity? At this time it is believed that there are far more disadvantages than advantages when it comes to the use of nuclear power. This report will list the advantages and disadvantages and prove that nuclear power is the next stepping stone in technological advancements and a cleaner future. HYPOTHESIS The advantages of utilizing nuclear power will by far demean the disadvantages and therefore prove that it will be beneficial to make use of nuclear power as an energy source. DISCUSSION ADVANTAGES One of the main advantages of nuclear power is that it does not emit a large quantity of green house gases such as CO2 [1] [2] and thus does not contribute to global warming. In turn this allows for a cleaner global environment. As seen in the below diagram, Coal-fired power stations release 5912000 tons of CO2 per year. Nuclear power stations use less than a twenty-fifth of that because they only release 230000 tons of CO2 per year. Therefore in the environmental aspect, nuclear power is safe and beneficial for the world s future. Figure 1: A graph of the CO2 Emission by Each Power Source Another advantage of nuclear power is that it has relatively low costs involved in its production [5]. It yields much more electrical energy for each unit of nuclear fuel (uranium rods) used than the conventional fossil fuel power stations (coal) [1] [2]. Due to this it will also cost less to ascertain the resources needed to produce the same amount of energy as fossil fuels as is made evident in the below graph. This results in nuclear fuel costing much less per kilowatt hour for a consumer than any other method of producing electricity [fig. 2]. Therefore nuclear power will be economically beneficial for the world s electricity consuming population. Figure 2: A graph showing the US Electricity Production Costs for 1995 2008 An organization known as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in place to ensure that all nuclear power stations and nuclear activity which occur anywhere in the world is done without error which ultimately makes the use of nuclear power a safer option [7]. They implement standards and regulations which must be adhered to by all nuclear facilities [7]. One of their main tasks is to oversee the installation of the nuclear systems and transportation of nuclear materials to insure safety and security [7]. These monitoring protocols allow the usage of nuclear energy to be safe and secure. Over time improved designs have come about for nuclear reactors such as the advanced reactor in Japan which has been operating since 1996 [6]. The major safety feature in this reactor is its passive safety system. In the event of a malfunction, no intervention from an operator is required thus eliminating the chance of a human error [6]. If this type safety feature was to be implemented in all the current and future nuclear reactors, it would significantly enhance the safety of the nuclear plants. There is a variety of safety features for nuclear reactors one of which is the three barriers between the fuel rods and the environment [6]. The fuel rods are in a solid ceramic pellet which forms the first barrier [6]. These pellets are inside a closed zirconium tube, which forms the second barrier [6]. The final barrier is the containment of the fuel rods. They are stored in a steel pressure vessel and this vessel has walls up to 30cm thick therefore preventing all radioactive radiation from escaping. Other than those safety barriers the whole containment structure has one meter thick reinforced concrete walls [6]. Thus in the event of a human error there are provisions in place to minimize the severity of the error. These measures will increase the safety of using nuclear power plants even more. DISADVANTAGES The technology and resources used for producing nuclear power can also be used in malicious activities such as illegal nuclear weapons manufacturing [1]. The IAEA has a security area specifically implemented to eliminate such events. It protects the transport and installations of nuclear substances so that they cannot be used for the above mentioned malicious activities [7]. Therefore this is no longer a major disadvantage of using nuclear power. There is a possibility of a nuclear reactor melting down due to human error or bad maintenance. This will result in environmental destruction and/or human casualties [2]. If a human is exposed to a radioactive substance then it is likely that that person and their future generations could suffer from genetic deformities. In the last 50 years there have only been two serious nuclear catastrophes: The Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986). In the Three Mile Island incident the radiation was contained and there were no subsequent environmental or health problems. There have been ten other meltdowns but they were mostly a part of a military or an experimental reactor and they did not result in any hazards on the reactor s surroundings. The first nuclear power station ever created was at Calder Hall in England [10]. It was created in 1956 and has had no operational problems since [10]. This indicates that nuclear reactors can be very safe and therefore beneficial. One of the requi rements of a nuclear reactor is to ensure that a core meltdown must be restricted to the nuclear plant therefore ensuring the safety of nearby residents and the environment. It can thus be deducted that in the event of a reactor meltdown, our safety will not be compromised therefore human or accidental error are not a devastating issue. Terrorism is a huge concern in relation to nuclear reactors especially since the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York [3]. The concern is that a terrorist will crash an airplane in to a nuclear reactor or radioactive waste plant but such nuclear facilities are some of the most terrorist attack resistant infrastructures built [6]. This is because of their robust design (one meter thick walls). Analysts have conducted experiments that have proved that nuclear facilities are terrorist proof. One of the experiments includes using a Boeing 767 and a penetrating missile when testing the strength of facility. Therefore nuclear reactors and radioactive waste facilities are not prone to terrorist attacks. The earth s supply of nuclear fuel (uranium) is very limited and is only expected to last for another 30 to 60 years [2]. Because of the rate of technological developments, it is likely that a new source of electricity will be discovered within 30 to 60 years. With this in mind there is no reason to not use nuclear power in the meantime. A large disadvantage of nuclear power is that it takes about 20 to 30 years to create a nuclear power station (in western democracies) [2]. The planning and building is very time consuming [2]. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it decreases the chances of an error occurring which could have potentially lead to a meltdown accident or any other accidents occurring. This could also increase the quality of the power station s construction which therefore making the nuclear power station safe to use. CONCLUSION As can be seen from the above mentioned points, the use of nuclear power has numerous benefits, both in terms of economics and safety. One cannot deny the disadvantages to using nuclear power but there are solutions available, as showed above, that either negates the disadvantage or minimizes its severity. Therefore the advantages of using nuclear power outweigh the disadvantages by far, which makes nuclear power a safe, secure and economical option for generating of electricity. GLOSSARY Meltdown: When a nuclear reactor core overheats causing the encasement to melt thus allowing radiation to escape. Greenhouse gases: Gases that are produced by most traditional fuel sources which affect the ozone layer and the containment of heat within the Earth s atmosphere. Kilowatt: Is a unit used to measure power and is equal to 1000 watts. Fuel rods: A specialized container used to store nuclear fuel. Human error: An error which has occurred due to the incorrect intervention of human(s).

International Policy Analysis: Methodology

International Policy Analysis: Methodology 1. Introduction The last decade has witnessed many international developments that have profoundly affected the destinies of nations and humanity. The emergence of American unipolarism, the horrific attacks of September 11, and the rise of militant Islam, as well as the birth of the Euro and the business unification of affluent Europe are all important developments that have had far reaching effects on international affairs. However, these developments have been overshadowed by the rise of the phenomenon of globalisation, a process through which the developing world, riding on the strength of its low costs and ever expanding skill and knowledge base, has started integrating rapidly into the global economy. Most organisations operating in areas of government, business and not for profit need to work with the global community and operate in accordance with structured or informal international policies, which in turn define both their initiatives in the international arena as well as their responses to global developments. International organisations and international policy networks, in which many national bodies play a part, have significant roles in global governance. Considering that movements in goods and services are the causal factor behind the globalisation effort, multinational corporations and other organisations involved in overseas activity essentially need to have formalised international policies. Efficient and methodical analysis of international policy is an intriguing and specialised area of social research that involves deep understanding of social theory and international affairs, as well as sound familiarity with research tools. It is the objective of this manual to elaborate and describe the methodology that needs to be followed to analyse the international policies of different organisations in diverse environmental settings. 2. International Policy Analysis An assignment for analysis of international policy can arise either from an organisation responsible for framing the policy or from an external body wishing to analyse the policy of another organisation for specific purposes. Analysts could be part of in-house teams working on framing or implementing policies, or of external consultancies or think tanks engaged in the preparation of dispassionate appraisals. Researchers and analysts should also realise that many users of policy analyses have been disappointed with its results, despite the plethora of analytical studies and the increasing competence in the area. The proliferation of policy analysis has not, however, been matched by an examination of whether the annual production of hundreds of thousands of memos, briefings, articles, reports, books, and sundry policy prognosticationsinformed and otherwiseare actually useful to policymakers. What we do know is not encouraging: In public policy making, many suppliers and users of social science research are dissatisfied, the former because they are not listened to, the latter because they do not hear much they want to listen to (Lindblom (Hird, 2005) It thus becomes critically important for the analyst to understand the nature of the organisation desiring the analysis and its reasons for doing so. A thorough understanding of these reasons becomes invaluable in planning the assignment and in its subsequent conduct. Areas in international policy that need analysis are generally diverse and could encompass economic, political, security, environment or trade concerns. The framing of international policy primarily involves the evaluation and choice between different courses of action, programs and policies that are intended to address and resolve issues regarding social, economic and political issues in the global arena. It is the objective of this manual to guide policy advisors on the adoption of a systematic approach in the conduct of international policy analysis. It draws on the writing and theory of Carl Patton and other social researchers, all of whom find place in the bibliography. A policy analysis assignment involves certain steps in its execution and calls for the observance of certain principles to ensure the validity of its result. This manual commences with a discussion of the concept of policy, especially in relation to power and governance. It, thereafter, briefly takes up the practical principles that need consideration while planning and conducting the research, and then elaborates the sequential steps required for its proper execution. Policy A policy, very briefly, is a formulated plan used for the guidance of decisions and action and is used by groups, associations and organisations in the governmental and private sectors. An interesting and comprehensive definition refers to policies as â€Å"political, management, financial and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.† (Policy, 2006) >From universities and schools to public agencies and large corporations, policy is increasingly being codified, publicized and referred to by workers and managers as the guidelines that legitimate and even motivate their behaviour. To adapt a metaphor from Arthur Koestler (1967), policy is the ghost in the machine—the force which breathes life and purpose into the machinery of government and animates the otherwise dead hand of bureaucracy. (Shore Wright, 1997, p. 5) In a world that is becomingly increasingly complex, situations or problems are dynamic and incapable of proper definition. The process for policy formulation commences with the identification of issues and the development of various alternatives to deal with them. A rigorous and far-reaching assessment of the various alternatives leads to the selection of the final policy, which then needs proper implementation and monitoring. Very obviously, policies affect environments, societies and the lives of people, and while they can result in the greatest of good, they can lead to disastrous mistakes and to the commitment of the greatest crimes. The holocaust was a result of policy and so is the WHO’s global polio eradication programme. Policies have become a major institution of western and international governance and are distinguished into formal policy, embodying policy principles and objectives, and operational policy, which comprise of mechanisms for implementation and delivery. In the international policy of a trading organisation, the formal policy may, for example, require trade with East Asia with the clear definition of environmental and child labour constraints, whereas the operational policy would detail whether the operation would be controlled by the corporate headquarters in Europe or the regional hub in Singapore. Practical Principles of International Policy Analysis International policy can appear to be contradictory and difficult to understand. The analyst must try to understand and focus on the central and essential core of the policy, which in turn could involve cost, environmental, humanitarian or nuclear proliferation concerns. Policies frequently have several and opposing objectives, some of which suffer from poor definition. Analysts must thus try to focus on the core issues for analysis and not spend time on peripheral matters. Carl Patton and David Sawicki (1993) in their book â€Å"Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning† state that that the principles described below should help in planning and conducting an analytical assignment on international policy. Ideally, analysts should base their approach on using analytical tools appropriate to the issue at hand and refrain from thrusting their preferred method onto the assignment. The chosen method should be simple, transparent, logical, based upon common sense and tailored to the issue under scrutiny. In many cases, policies are uncertain about issues and there is a lack of clarity in approach. Researchers must thus be ready to take uncertainty in their stride and realise that despite their best efforts some areas will remain cloaked in uncertainty; this constraint should however not be allowed to retard the progress of the analysis or devour too much of the time allotted for the assignment. International policy involves factors that are frequently alien to domestic situations and requires an understanding of different cultures and political systems. An international aid organisation, for example, may have to provide succour to the citizens of a country known to have a notoriously corrupt government. In the absence of quantitative data, which is usually the norm in such cases, any analysis of international policy must necessarily depend upon subjective interpretation for projecting outcomes. While some factors of international policy are bound to be subjective and incapable of interpretation or analysis through numerical data, numbers do throw light on many issues and are useful for projecting outcomes. The use of quantitative techniques and numerical data thus becomes important, wherever appropriate. Simplicity in analysis and the use of figures are also often effective in driving home the distinguishing features of different alternatives, especially during client inter action. It is also very important for analysts to check their facts exhaustively, try to appreciate the viewpoints of people with radically different opinions and arrive at analyses, not opinionated decisions. Steps in Policy Analysis Effective analysis of international policy requires an understanding of world affairs, a firm grounding in the social sciences and familiarity with quantitative and qualitative research tools. Moreover as much of the data is subjective and needs informed interpretation, international policy analysis falls as much in the domain of art as that of science. Given the choice between too much of structure in charting of an analytical assignment and leaving everything to the judgement of the researcher, it is advisable to follow a few sequential steps in the conduct of the assignment. Policy analysts, as a rule follow a series of six easily distinguishable steps. While some experts advocate the breaking of these steps to make the process simpler, this manual stays with the practice of adopting six important steps. These steps start with the definition of the problem and are followed by establishment of criteria for evaluation and collection of evidence, identification of alternatives, evalu ation of alternatives, distinguishing among alternatives, and finally implementation and monitoring of policy. a. Definition of the Problem A policy analysis exercise must necessarily commence with the definition of the problem. This step is crucial and integral to the success of the project. It provides the reason for the exercise and gives direction for gathering of evidence. While a certain amount of experience helps in defining and detailing the issue, the process should be iterative and the â€Å"definition’ exercise repeated a few times. A meaningful effort at problem definition will enable the researcher to state the problem appropriately, determine its scale, eliminate extraneous matter, and question both the thinking and the definition of the issue. While defining the problem it is important to use quantitative data, study similar projects and locate relevant data. This will help in removing uncertainties, illuminating objectives, resolving divergences and focussing on the essence, i.e. the core issue. â€Å"Problem definition is a crucial step. However, because it is hard to get it right (the) same ste p (might be needed) again and again. Over the course of analytic work, empirical and conceptual understanding will evolve.† (Bardach, 2000, p. 7) b. Establish Evaluation Criteria The next step involves the establishment of criteria for evaluation and collection of evidence. This is essential to crystallize the modus of measurement of policy goals, bring about uniformity and establish similar criteria for assessing different alternatives and policy outcomes, desirable or otherwise. A number of factors, including costs, net gains, efficacy, fairness, organizational comfort, legal validity and suitability need consideration while establishing evaluation criteria. Most of the time spent on policy analysis happens because of the time required to gather data and time needed to think. While thinking is obviously by far the more important activity, data gathering is laborious and takes time. Data helps in three ways in the projection of realistic outcomes of policy and in the analysis of its implications. One purpose is to assess the nature and extent of the problem(s) you are trying to define. A second is to assess the particular features of the concrete policy situation you are engaged in studying. The third purpose is to assess policies that have been thought, by at least some people, to have worked effectively in situations apparently similar to your own, in other jurisdictions, perhaps, or at other times. (Bardach, 2000, p. 8) c. Identification of Alternatives Establishment of evaluation criteria leads to the next step, i.e. the identification of alternatives. The generation of alternatives requires imagination, knowledge and the ability to constructively brainstorm with other experts. The challenge of identifying alternatives, as good or possibly superior to the given policy, calls for combining ideas from different alternatives as well as from the one under study. It is important at this stage to assess the impact of any change in public policy that could have taken place in the interim or may well take place in the short and medium term. Public policy changes can occur due to a number of reasons, namely changes in the political establishment following elections, changes in budget, changes in the political structure of foreign countries or occurrences of disasters like the Tsunami or the Bird Flu epidemic. International policy, by its very nature is not prone to change at short notice and the assimilation of the possible effect of future changes into the generation of alternatives has proved to be very helpful in projecting policy outcomes. d. Assessment of Alternatives The identification of alternatives results in a need for their evaluation in terms of the benefits that each of them could provide vis-à  -vis established criteria. Data collection may again be required at this stage for the assessment of different alternatives and the projection of possible outcomes. This is a crucial phase of the process as new aspects of the problem could now surface, leading to reiteration of the various steps of the analysis. The evaluation of alternatives should actually focus on evaluating the outcomes of the different proposals as trade-offs between different alternatives cannot occur in the absence of projected outcomes. The criteria for evaluation should encompass different perspectives like costs, efficacy, fairness, equity and justice. Carl Patton (1993) states that evaluative criteria could also include issues like free markets, economic freedom, capitalism, freedom from government control, equality of opportunity, equality of result, free speech, relig ious freedom, privacy and safety. The analyst must bear in mind that the objective of the exercise is analysis for a specific user and not the handing down of a considered decision and should thus try to be as broad ranging as possible in the choice of evaluative criteria. e. Distinguish and Display Alternatives Evaluation of alternatives and outcomes makes it possible for the analyst to assess the extent of benefits met by individual alternatives, in the context of previously decided criteria, and in distinguishing between them. In case of conflict between alternatives that do not easily fit into the matrix of benefits, it is possibly advisable to go by the alternative that suits existing public policy. Issues of legality and political acceptability are also very important while distinguishing between alternatives and it would be patently unwise to consider alternatives, which while satisfying other criteria, skirt legal requirements or could end up as politically difficult to implement. While distinguishing and displaying alternatives, the analyst should focus on simplicity of presentation, use of tables and quantitative data and the highlighting of worst and best case scenarios for each alternative. The report must be clear, simple, tabulated properly and be easy to comprehend. f. Implement and Monitor Policy Once a policy alternative is accepted it is the role of the analyst to round off the exercise by planning for its implementation and creating a system to monitor policy outcomes. The monitoring and effective implementation of international policy is crucial as improper application and inadequate monitoring could result in undesirable outcomes and policy failure. International policies need to be very carefully monitored during implementation to ensure that unintentional changes do not occur and actual outcomes can be measured against those projected. 3. Conclusion The analysis of International Policy falls under the domain of applied social research and is a complex task that requires knowledge of social sciences, grounding in international affairs and familiarity with the tools of social research. A detailed and comprehensive understanding of the core issues involved in policy analysis assignment is a sine qua non and possibly the most crucial part of the analytical process. International policy analysis involves the use of quantitative and qualitative data, a variety of approaches to the subject and choice of appropriate methodology. Analysts must be ready to work â€Å"out of the box† at all times, especially in the identification of various alternatives. Policy analysis, while it uses scientific and statistical tools, is very interpretative in its approach and liable to bias. It is thus imperative that the exercise has a structured and phased approach and that all assumptions are identified clearly. Records should be kept accurately, information must be accessed from multiple sources and relevant professional and ethical considerations addressed appropriately to ensure the success of the exercise. Bibliography Bardach, E. 2000. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving. New York: Chatham House Publishers. Feller, I. 1986 Universities and State Governments: A Study in Policy Analysis. New York: Praeger Publishers. Fischer, F. Forester, J. (Eds.). 1993. The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning. London: UCL Press. Gross, F. 1954, Foreign Policy Analysis. New York: Philosophical Library. Hird, J. A. 2005, Policy Analysis for What? the Effectiveness of Nonpartisan Policy Research Organizations. Policy Studies Journal, 33(1), 83+. Hogwood, B. W., Gunn, L. A. 1984. Policy Analysis for the Real World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Patton, C and Sawicki, D, 1993, Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, USA Policy, 2006, Wikipedia, Retrieved January1, 2006 from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy Roe, E. 1994. Narrative Policy Analysis: Theory and Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Rust, M. 2001, November 19. Who Bought off the Think Tanks? Corporations Eager to Do Business with China Have Cozied Up to Conservative Think Tanks, Raising Concerns about Their Influence Level on Foreign-Policy Analysis. Insight on the News, 17, 20+. Shore, C. Wright, S. (Eds.). 1997 Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power. London: Routledge. Thomas M. Meenaghan, Keith M. Kilty and John G. McNutt Social Policy Analysis and Practice. 2005. Journal of Sociology Social Welfare, 32(3), 208+. Wignaraja, G. (Ed.). 2002. Competitiveness Strategy in Developing Countries: A Manual for Policy Analysis. London: Routledge