Showing posts with label sample apa paper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sample apa paper. Show all posts

Thursday, January 24, 2013

An Evaluation of anthrax as a weapon of bioterrorism

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An Evaluation of Anthrax as a Weapon of Bioterrorism

Introduction

Since September 11th, terrorism has featured regularly in the media causing widespread alarm. Since the postal attacks in the winter of 001, in which Bacillus anthracis spores were delivered by mail to targets of terrorism, attention has turned to the possibility of terrorist attack using bioweapons.

Bacillus anthracis The Organism




Bacillus anthracis spores, the initial infective agent of the disease anthrax are 1-�Ým by 0.5-1�Ým in size(). Once implanted the spore germinates into the vegetative cell, a gram positive, facultatively anaerobic bacterium(1). These non-motile vegetative cells are 1-8�Ým by 1-1.5�Ým in size() and secrete three toxin components lethal factor (LF), oedema factor (ED), and protective antigen (PA)(1) (see fig1).

1) Bacillus anthracis )

EF PA LF

)

Anthrax The Disease and its Treatment

The disease is exhibited in three forms in humans. The most common form is cutaneous anthrax. Spores penetrate the skin via a wound, germinate and cause a temporary disfiguring oedema(7). This is harmless unless the oedema blocks an airway but has been known to lead to anthrax meningitis in some cases(1). The most morbid form is inhalational or pulmonary anthrax, which is fatal in approximately 0% of cases(7). The third, rarest form of the disease is ingestional anthrax, which is exhibited gastro-intestinally or oropharyngeally(1). This occurs due to ingestion of meat from an infected animal. This form of the disease is fatal in around 50% of cases(7).

The vaccine employed in the USA is an inactivated cell free product, which is 0% effective for 1- years. This is currently administered to those in the military and high-risk members of the US postal service().

B.anthracis is sensitive to a range of antibiotics, such as penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, oxacillin, streptomycin(8), vancomycin, rifampin, chloramphenicol, imipenem, clindamycin, clarithomycin. Ciproflaxin or doxycyclin, along with one or two other antimicrobial agents are administered prophylactively for 100 days after suspected exposure to anthrax(). The use of antibiotics has promoted growth of strains resistant to quinolones (e.g. ciproflaxin) and macrolides (e.g. erythromycin)(10). The value of post exposure vaccine administration has been shown to have positive value as it initiates an immune response(11).

The Production and Employment of Bacillus anthracis As a Weapon of Bioterrorism

Anthrax was tested in the UK in 14 when small bombs containing B.anthracis spores were detonated on the surface of the Scottish island of Gruignard. Sheep were tethered near the test sites and number of them died from the pulmonary infection(1). The soil on the Island remained contaminated up until the early 180s.

Testing of all biological weapons was prohibited under the Biological Weapons and Toxins Convention (17) signed by most countries including Iraq and the USSR. Iraq went on to weaponize and produce enough anthrax to attack Iran and the Kurdish population(7). An accidental aerosol release of anthrax spores in Sverdlovsk in the former USSR resulted in 7 cases and 68 deaths(1).

Some autonomous terrorist organisations are capable of attack using anthrax as a weapon. The Japanese terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo have dispersed aerosols of anthrax throughout Tokyo on numerous occasions but did not succeed in infection().

To perform a terrorist attack, a terrorist must first obtain a suitably virulent strain of anthrax, such as the Ames strain of anthrax used in the recent postal attacks. The terrorist may obtain the organism from a number of sources. One possible source would be an infected animal carcass from a region in which the disease is still largely present, such as Iran. The organism must then be cultured on a suitable medium. A medium containing thallous acetate and EDTA is a medium selective for B. anthracis as EDTA chelates an essential cation. B.anthracis can utilise thallous acetate as a replacement while Bacillus cereus (a closely related bacterium) can not(14). Enough B.anthracis spores for a small-scale postal attack (only a few litres) may be cultured in a regular kitchen(7). To cause inhalational anthrax, the product must be milled into a fine enough powder to become airborne on opening of the package at its destination.

Weapons-grade anthrax, which is milled into a very fine powder, absent of the sticky material difficult to eliminate with only basic equipment, may be obtained by theft from research installations, or purchased from a rogue nation such as Iraq or rogue elements within a nation such as the Russian Mafia.

A large-scale terrorist attack would be extremely difficult but not impossible. Detection by the authorities must be avoided, sufficient funding must be found. Getting the spores airborne is also difficult, as security regarding the procurement of an aeroplane for any purpose has tightened. Also, meteorology must be considered. Airborne spores may not travel upwind. High humidity decreases the time for which the spores remain airborne(1).

If 100kg of anthrax was released over Washington DC, the 10,000 to million fatal cases are predicted. This matches the effects of a hydrogen-bomb attack().

Escherichia coli has been cloned containing the plasmid encoding the lethal anthrax-toxin components. They produced less toxin than B.anthracis and did not excrete the product(14). This technique could be employed to produce large amounts of lethal toxin for felonious uses. Other organisms could be investigated as more suitable candidates for genetic manipulation to produce the toxin.

Anthrax Compared with other Possible Agents of Bioterrorism

Infective Agent. Predicted number of persons infected. Predicted number of persons killed.

Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) spores 50 000 100 000

Plague (Yersinia pestis) bacteria 150 000 6 000

Tularemia (Fracisella tularensis) bacteria 50 000 1 000

A number of other organisms or biologically derived substances may be considered as potential agents of bioterrorism. Smallpox causing variola virus is possibly the most feared of these. The disease is extremely infectious. The infectious dose is only a few virions(15), while 500 to 55000 inhaled anthrax spores are required to cause pulmonary anthrax(). Secondary transmission of smallpox is possible via contact or droplet-infection(15), while anthrax finds a biological ¡§dead-end¡¨ in humans(1).

There is also no safe treatment for smallpox. Vistide (cidofovir) is thought to be useful but its use promotes renal failure(16). Once contracted, smallpox is around 0% fatal, while pulmonary anthrax is around 0% fatal once infected. Anthrax spores are also more persistent in the environment. Smallpox is also very difficult to obtain as it only remains in two laboratories in the world, one in the USA, one in Novosibersk in Russia(16). It is alleged that Russia has produced and weaponized smallpox for use in ballistic missiles(15).

Botulinum toxin is another agent employed by the Aum Shinrykyo group in its attacks around Tokyo(). Derived from Clostridium botulinum, an easily obtainable, soil-dwelling bacterium, it is the most poisonous substance known to humankind. The lethal inhaled dose is less than 1�Ýg. An aerosol release is predicted to kill 10% of people to 0.5km downwind. Iran, Iraq, Syria and North Korea have weaponized botulism toxin(17).

Yersinia pestis causes potentially fatal pneumonic plague. Secondary spread is possible, as in smallpox. There is no vaccine available against Y. pestis and some antibiotic-resistant strains exist(18).

Francisella tularensis is one of the most infectious known bacteria. It causes tularemia, which is fatal to a lesser extent than inhalational anthrax(1) (as shown in table 1)

Conclusion

B.anthracis is indeed a potentially potent weapon of bioterrorism. Each agent of bioterrorism mentioned above has factors such as availability, infectivity, incidence of secondary infection, and fatality of the disease. Anthrax compensates for its relatively low infectivity and lack of secondary infection, by its availability, the fatality of the disease, and the persistence of the spore in the environment, which can be up to sixty years in soil(0). None of the other organisms mentioned persist in the environment for any significant length of time. The widespread panic among civilians and costs to the USA government in prevention (tightened security, development and production of vaccines and antibiotics) is the first significant victory to potential bioterrorists.

As terrorist organisations grow (even some countries, such as Iraq, are regarded as ¡¥terrorist states¡¦) the threat of large-scale attack, using anthrax as a bioweapon, grows concomitantly.

Word Count 1 words

Bibliography

1. Quinn CP, Turnbull PCB. In Topley and Wilson¡¦s Microbiology and Microbial Infections, volume ; 18. p7-815

. Inglesby TV, Henderson DA, Bartlett JG, et al. Anthrax as a Biological Weapon.

JAMA 1;81175-1745

. Gerhardt P. Cytology of Bacillus anthracis.

Fed Proc 167;61504-1517

4. Tang G, Leppla SH. Proteasome Activity is Required for Anthrax Lethal Toxin to Kill Macrophages.

Infect and Immun 1;67055-060

5. Price LB, Hugh-Jones M, Jackson PJ, Kiem P. Genetic Diversity in the Protective Antigen Gene of Bacillus anthracis.

J Bacteriol 1;18158-6

6. Welkos SL, Vietri NJ, Gibbs PH. Non-toxigenic Derivatives of the Ames Strain of Bacillus anthracis are Fully Virulent for Mice role of Plasmid pX0 and Chromosome in Strain- dependent Virulence.

Microb Pathogen 1;1481-88

7. Ala¡¦Aideen D. Risk of Deliberately Induced Anthrax Outbreak.

Lancet 001;58186-188

8. Nalin DR, Sultana B, Sahunja R et al. Survival of a Patient with Intestinal Anthrax.

Am J Med 177;610-1

. Malecki J, Wiersma S, Cahill K et al. Investigation of Bioterrorism-Related Anthrax and Interim Guidelines for Exposure Management and Antimicrobial Therapy.

JAMA 001;866-

10. Stephenson J. Experts Focus on Infective Agents of Bioterrorism

JAMA 00;87575-576

11. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Additional Options for Preventive Treatment for Persons Exposed to Inhalational Anthrax.

JAMA 00;8757

1. Manchee RJ, Broster J, Melling J et al. Bacillus anthracis on Gruignard Island.

Nature 181;454-55

1. Meselson M, Guillemin J, Hugh-Jones M et al. The Sverdlovsk Anthrax Outbreak of 17. Science 14;6610-108



14. Knisely RF. Selective Medium for Bacillus anthracis.

J Bacteriol 166;785-786

15. Henderson DA, Inglesby TV, Bartlett JG et al. Smallpox as a Biological Weapon.

JAMA 1;8117-17

16. Kunin A. Bioterrorism and your skin.

www.dermadoctor.com/pages/newsletter171

17. Arnon SS, Schechter R, Inglesby TV et al. Botulinum Toxin as a Biological Weapon

JAMA 001;85105-1070



18. Inglesby TV, Dennis DT, Henderson DA et al. Plague as a Biological Weapon

JAMA 000;881-0

1. Dennis DT, Inglesby TV, Henderson DA et al. Tularemia as a Biological Weapon

JAMA 001;8576-77

0. Wilson JB, Russell KE. Isolation of Bacillus anthracis from soil stored 60 years.

J Bacteriol 164;877-8

Mind that the sample papers like An Evaluation of anthrax as a weapon of bioterrorism presented are to be used for review only. In order to warn you and eliminate any plagiarism writing intentions, it is highly recommended not to use the essays in class. In cases you experience difficulties with essay writing in class and for in class use, order original papers with our expert writers. Cheap custom papers can be written from scratch for each customer that entrusts his or her academic success to our writing team. Order your unique assignment from the best custom writing services cheap and fast!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Argument

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Abby Franklin

Campbell

English 1001-17

1 November 00




Future of Success

People make decisions everyday; whether it is what to wear, what to do today, what do I want to do with my life, or even what colleges to attend. College is a very important step up the ladder of success. There are many great colleges all over the world. There are even great colleges in small communities, like that of IVCC. After graduating high school students choosing a college look for many different values. They look at what their friends are doing; they look for scholarships, and of course independence. What I looked for when I chose to attend Illinois Valley Community College was the location, the size of the school and the courses, and of course what my parents thought.

Location is a key factor in choosing a college to attend. Because some students want to go far away from their hometown and their parents to gain a broader perspective about the world outside their community and to meet knew people, they will choose a college not around the community they live in. Other students who just want have some independence will choose colleges further away from home, and other students who are trying to learn how to be an adult and to be solely responsible will also choose colleges other than the ones in their hometown to gain those qualities. For example, some parents will do everything for their children, like cleaning up after them, washing there laundry, and not enforcing any responsibility towards their child, thus the reason why students may want to go away to college to learn those qualities. Students who live in our community and choose to attend IVCC, like myself, may already have those qualities of freedom and responsibility. Those students are just looking for an education close to home maybe because they have a job or special task they must take care of. Many college seeking students don’t understand that, “no place so close can take you so far.”

Other students are looking for a greater education other than a lecture with eighty to one hundred students in class. Unlike the classes at a larger university which would have tons of students packed into one classroom; IVCC has a small enrollment. IVCC does not have as many students attending to derive an education like that of a university. Because there are fewer students in class some people think that it is easy to learn with a smaller group. Other students benefit from a small group. For example, if a single student that attends class in a smaller group has a question, their question has more of a possibility to be answered than a student in a class of ten times the amount of students. Thus the reason why IVCC is chosen over a university.

Another key factor in choosing a college to attend are parents. Parents are referred to as the legal guardian, which gives them the roll of telling students which college they should attend; especially if they are paying tuition. However, it is also important for the student to communicate with their parents to choose a college that they both agree on. My parents also pay my tuition for IVCC, which had a big part of why I chose this college. Tuition is outrageous in the recent years. It can be fairly difficult for an average family to send a student off to a university with no financial aid or scholarships. Which is why students should be grateful that IVCC is so close. Because tuition is so high, for attending other colleges; it makes a reason why teenagers are unable to go to college after high school. Other parents don’t think their child is ready to go off by him or herself so they will chose a college that is closer. Other parents have a hard time of letting their child grow up and move on with their future, they too will chose a college nearby.

There are many factors on why students attend the college they do. Weather it be because of the location of the college, the size of enrollment and classes, or also which direction your parents decide on. All of these factors should be considered when choosing a college. Choose a college that is liked upon certain values, and don’t choose a college just because everyone else goes there. Think about the cause and effects of each choice you make. But most of all think about the future of an education.



Mind that the sample papers like Argument presented are to be used for review only. In order to warn you and eliminate any plagiarism writing intentions, it is highly recommended not to use the essays in class. In cases you experience difficulties with essay writing in class and for in class use, order original papers with our expert writers. Cheap custom papers can be written from scratch for each customer that entrusts his or her academic success to our writing team. Order your unique assignment from the best custom writing services cheap and fast!

A child called it

We are ready to represent the best custom paper writing assistance that can cope with any task like A child called it even at the eleventh hour. The matter is that we posses the greatest base of expert writers. Our staff of freelance writers includes approximately 300 experienced writers are at your disposal all year round. They are striving to provide the best ever services to the most desperate students that have already lost the hope for academic success. We offer the range of the most widely required, however, not recommended for college use papers. It is advisable to use our examples like A child called it in learning at public-education level. Get prepared and be smart with our best essay samples cheap and fast! Get in touch and we will write excellent custom coursework or essay especially for you.



Love and a family who cared was all he wanted, but hate and child abuse was all he got. David Pelzer’s story is one of the most unforgettable and severe child abuse cases in California. David was brutally beaten and starved by his mother who was an alcoholic and who had emotional problems. She played games that were unpredictable and torturous that left David nearly dead. In this story A Child Called “It”, it reveals both bright side of our nature and the dark side. His mother wasn’t always abusive to him. In his earlier years she was a loving mother, until the alcohol took control of her and then she reveals her dark side to her son, David.

In David’s years before the abuse started his family was called the “Brady Brunch” of the 160’s. He and his two brothers were blessed with the perfect family. David’s father, Stephen Joseph was a fireman working in San Francisco. David’s mother, Catherine Roerva was an averaged size woman who was a house wife. She would always glow with love for her children. When Christmas came, he and his brothers became more and more excited. The pile of gifts under the tree grew day by day. David’s mother would creep into his room and whisper, “Santa came!” After they were done opening presents, David found his mother crying outside on the porch steps. He asked why she was crying and she said she was crying because she was so happy to have a real family. When spring came along, his mother would take the family on picnics. She would prepare a feast of fried chicken, salads, sandwiches, and lots of desserts. The trip David never forgot was the trip to the river. His mother excused David a half-hour early on the last day of school, and they headed up to a beautiful river. Each day was a new adventure for him. David would either spend the day climbing an old, burnt tree stump with their special whomper-stomper boots or swimming in the river at Johnson’s Beach. Johnson’s Beach was a whole day event for the family. As David was sitting by a rock at Johnson’s beach he felt someone holding him tightly, it was his mother. He felt her heart beat and never felt more safe and warm then at that moment in time. He whispered to himself, “Everyday seems to sprinkle with magic.”

David was badly beaten by his alcoholic mother at a very young age. The punishments started by him getting put into a corner, but then as the months went by his mother would escalade her anger and intentionally burn his arm because he was a “bad boy.” David’s mother was only abusive towards David, and he could never figure out way. David would try so hard to be a good boy but his mother would always find something to yell at him about. The abuse got so bad that David went days without eating. His only way of food was to steal from his classmates at school, that didn’t last very long because his principal found out and made a phone call to David’s mother. When David returned home after school that day, his mother was furious and he got smacked around and was forced to get his chores done while his other siblings were outside playing. David wasn’t allowed to sleep in a nice comfortable bed, his bed was a cot down in the basement and his only shelter for warmness was an old ripped blanket. David would be so hungry he would dream about food just to fall asleep. If David was lucky he would get food, only it would be the leftovers that his brothers didn’t eat so it wasn’t that much. David had to learn to play his mothers games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an “it”

The bright side of his mother’s nature was being a loving and caring mother towards her kids. When she started to drink her self esteem and lovingness went down and the dark side of her nature began to show. She didn’t care what she looked like and she most of all didn’t care about David. David had a really hard childhood and no one should ever experience something like that. Lucky for David he got out alive. David was abused for about three years, he finally got help March 5th, 17. David always thought about killing himself but he didn’t want his mother to win. He played her games and came up with strategies that kept him alive. With this book that he has written he has touched the hearts of many people and has helped kids talk about child abuse.




All in all you can see that David didn’t have the ideal life as a kid. David came forth and shared his horrible childhood by writing a book. This book helps people who have been child abused come forward and talk to someone about it. David was a very smart and intelligent boy, by learning how to play his mothers games. What may seem to be a perfect life, can change within a blink of an eye.



Mind that the sample papers like A child called it presented are to be used for review only. In order to warn you and eliminate any plagiarism writing intentions, it is highly recommended not to use the essays in class. In cases you experience difficulties with essay writing in class and for in class use, order original papers with our expert writers. Cheap custom papers can be written from scratch for each customer that entrusts his or her academic success to our writing team. Order your unique assignment from the best custom writing services cheap and fast!

"Who am i"?(narrative)

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Who am I?

During all of high school, It seemed as if I were hiding behind a mask. When I was at home I was a totally different person. At school I was trying to be a person who could fit in, but the more I tried the more it didn’t seem to work. Everywhere I went I would censor what I said depending on my surroundings and the people that were with me. Most of the time I would not say anything at all because I was afraid of being embarrassed. I would always have to change my mood when different people were around me. It was horrible; I hated it. I was getting sick and tired of always being someone I was not. It was about the middle of the summer of 1, after my first year, that I realized that being two different people was the worst thing that I could have done to myself and that I did have other options.

Around that time, a major influence on my life was my best friend, Tony. He taught me that I would only live once and that I should be the person that I was and not someone that just tries to fit in. We were sitting in a coffee shop one evening when he asked me the one question that changed my life. “Who are you?” When I first heard this question I hesitated to answer. This question opened a new door in my mind that had never been opened before. This was the first question that had actually made me think about myself and who I was. The more I thought about his question the more I realized that I had a decision to make; to be the person who tried to fit in and cared what other people thought or to be myself. For the past 16 years at that time I had tried to fit in, and I had cared what other people thought and this didn‘t seemed to work. So, for the first time, I was going to be myself.

When I started to be myself, it seemed as if everything was different. I used to look at what was only on the surface. I would not normally look deeply into a particular subject. When I was myself, the environment seemed as if it had a deeper meaning. Everything I saw, heard, smelled, and felt I perceived in an extremely different way. Because of this, I was able to take what I had learned and apply it to many occasions and came out with pride.






Mind that the sample papers like "Who am i"?(narrative) presented are to be used for review only. In order to warn you and eliminate any plagiarism writing intentions, it is highly recommended not to use the essays in class. In cases you experience difficulties with essay writing in class and for in class use, order original papers with our expert writers. Cheap custom papers can be written from scratch for each customer that entrusts his or her academic success to our writing team. Order your unique assignment from the best custom writing services cheap and fast!

Monday, October 1, 2012

?

We are ready to represent the best custom paper writing assistance that can cope with any task like ? even at the eleventh hour. The matter is that we posses the greatest base of expert writers. Our staff of freelance writers includes approximately 300 experienced writers are at your disposal all year round. They are striving to provide the best ever services to the most desperate students that have already lost the hope for academic success. We offer the range of the most widely required, however, not recommended for college use papers. It is advisable to use our examples like ? in learning at public-education level. Get prepared and be smart with our best essay samples cheap and fast! Get in touch and we will write excellent custom coursework or essay especially for you.



Hello. This isnt what i want to do. I dont want to put any of my essays here in this box. I just want to read one of your essays. Why is it a breakthrough that we captured Saddamm Hussien? Its a god damn which hunt anyways, trying to lower the proce of oil by a few cents. Its horseshit. There. That is my essay, and thats all ihave to say. Jebus. What happens if there are really intresting essays that just arent two hundred and fifty words. Some people jst dont have the patience to sit down and write that long. Hopefully this is two hundred and fifty words. Nope, its still not two hundred and fifty words. I must be getting close, perhaps this last sentace will do the trick. I am still shy of this rediculous requirement of two hundred and fifty words per essay. I think that I will be done typing soon if i keep writing this nonsense like that last sentance that can only be described as hilarious. a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a aa a a a a a a a a a a a a a a. b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b g g h h y tr r dr d df g gh h h r de fd gds gdg fd gds gd f ds gfd sgfdgdfg dfs gfd g fd gfd gdg f gf dg gf d gds gf gd gd gfd gfd gdfg gh h h gf sh rt h jjk fys hjfgs hfgs hfgsjjf hjfsh gfs ghfs hghd a ea tr hjhj gfd hgf hf jk j fj fg hdfg hs h s t hs hrt gh rtg rtg rt grt grt g rtsgh rth rtj rtj h rts hrt rt grt gr gtr g rtg rt rht hs trh trhs ht hr shrt hrh rt hrt hrt h rth rth ht h h t rht hrts hrtshrthsrt htsh h rth rtsh rths rth rsh hrh tr htr rsh. ?

Mind that the sample papers like ? presented are to be used for review only. In order to warn you and eliminate any plagiarism writing intentions, it is highly recommended not to use the essays in class. In cases you experience difficulties with essay writing in class and for in class use, order original papers with our expert writers. Cheap custom papers can be written from scratch for each customer that entrusts his or her academic success to our writing team. Order your unique assignment from the best custom writing services cheap and fast!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Supervisor

We are ready to represent the best custom paper writing assistance that can cope with any task like Supervisor even at the eleventh hour. The matter is that we posses the greatest base of expert writers. Our staff of freelance writers includes approximately 300 experienced writers are at your disposal all year round. They are striving to provide the best ever services to the most desperate students that have already lost the hope for academic success. We offer the range of the most widely required, however, not recommended for college use papers. It is advisable to use our examples like Supervisor in learning at public-education level. Get prepared and be smart with our best essay samples cheap and fast! Get in touch and we will write excellent custom coursework or essay especially for you.



Introduction

Special Olympics Ireland 00 � A fine example of effective Supervisory Management, involving organisations within and between many nations.

In our fast evolving economy the roles played by supervisors is changing on a daily basis. Ever since the days of the Industrial Revolution when the supervisor’s primarily role was to maintain authority over their subordinates. In today’s environment where change is constant, the supervisor’s responsibilities have never been greater. To be a successful supervisor in an organisation with positive or negative cash flow requires varied attributes.

As (Harvey 14, pp 15) states, supervision can be defined




‘Anyone at the first level of management who has responsibility for the work of others’.

Effective supervisors are persons who are good at doing their job and at getting other people to do theirs. As Gillespie (14, p1) comments

‘The supervisor gets the people in their departments to do what they want done, when it should be done and the way they want it done, because they want to do it’.

The supervisor is the link between senior management and shop floor operatives. As Likert (167) wrote

‘Supervisors are the linking pins between senior management and employees’.

The supervisor is responsible for ensuring work schedules are met, productivity i.e. input versus output levels achieved by his / her group of shop floor operatives.

In order for productivity to be met the supervisor must have the necessary skill, knowledge and ability to communicate, plan, organise, motivate his / her group of operatives and integrate with other groups within the organisation. In today’s ethos of Total Quality Management (TQM) advocated by Demming and Juran ‘Just In Time’ manufacturing concept is highly dependant on inter-company departments / groups working from the same schedule lead time / delivery due dates.

This document analysis the main skills, knowledge and ability required by today’s supervisor.

Discussion

Central to the classical management theories was the supervisor’s role to rule or maintain authority over their subordinates. For companies to maintain competitiveness in today’s marketplace they must be flexible and adaptable to change. The supervisor is seen as the key person ensuring the organisation’s ability to implement change by effectively motivating and leading their workforce. Therefore in today’s environment the classical theory of authority is not longer the norm. Today’s supervisor plays more a facilitator’s role.

To achieve organisational goals managers perform several major functions or activities planning, organising, staffing and personnel, leading, and controlling.

As Katz (1740-10) stated, there are three core competencies of management. Depending on his / her level within the hierarchy.

Human Skills

Technical Skills

Conceptual Skills

1. Human Skill

In order to work well with other people a supervisor requires good human skills. For supervisors to deal with their subordinates effectively, they must develop their abilities to motivate and communicate with others. Human skill is required by all supervisor’s and managers as they have to deal with others.

. Technical Skill

Technical skill is the ability to perform a specialised task involving a particular method or process. Most people develop a set of technical skills; the daily activities of most personnel involve the use of some technical skills. As people rise within the organisation they spend less time using technical skills.

. Conceptual Skill

Conceptual skills involve the ability of personnel to see the organisation as a whole, to recognise complex and dynamic issues and to examine factors that influence these problems and resolve such situations.

To be able to communicate, get on well with subordinates and other department supervisors, each supervisor requires good human skills. For supervisors to manager subordinates effectively they must develop their abilities to motivate and communicate. From my experience the human skills factor is the most important attribute to the successful delivery of output against required specifications.

Once the subordinates respect your decision or direction the greater drive or momentum will be present in achieving the common goal within the organisation. When speaking about the common goal it is imperative that all subordinates understand what exactly the common goal is. Effective communications is the ‘life blood’ of an organisation. Organisations that are highly successful have strong communications. One of the first signs that an organisation is struggling is when communications between top management and general operatives breaks down. In today’s every changing environment it can be quite a task for the supervisor to keep all his / her subordinates up to date. From my previous employment been a supervisor I found daily and weekly planned communication forum’s as the most effective means of keeping all informed. Holding daily and weekly meetings documenting action complete during the previous day and week, planning activities for the coming day and week to be most effective. Also utilising this forum for receiving feedback from the shop floor. En-stilling believe in subordinates that been the supervisor you are interested in the welfare of the subordinates.

A good supervisor must place high priority on coaching operatives. Good coaching involves working with operatives to establish suitable goals, action plans and time lines.

Supervision includes conducting basic management skills (decision making, problem solving, planning, delegation and meeting management), organising subordinates, noticing the need for and designing new job roles in the organisation, hiring new operatives, training new operatives, operative performance review (setting goals, observing and giving feedback, firing operatives, etc.) and ensuring conformance to personnel policies and other internal regulations

The supervisor delegates and also provides ongoing guidance and support to the subordinates as they complete their action plans. Rarely can job goals be established without considering other aspects of an subordinate’s life, e.g., time available for training, career preferences, personal strengths and weaknesses. A supervisor is sometimes confronted with walking a fine line between being a supervisor and the operative’s confident.

Often, the supervisor is the first person to tell subordinates about new policies and programs from management. Its not uncommon that subordinates are confused or frustrated by these new actions, and need further clarification and support from supervisors. In the rapidly changing world of todays organisations, it can be a major challenge to present new programs to subordinates without they being frustrated or even cynical. The supervisor must be authentic, yet tactful.

The supervisor has got to the balance right between the utilisation of each of the management theories. While Fayol’s fourteen principles where very much thought of as rules and were very inflexible they still serve as good guidelines to today’s supervisor. Taylor’s ‘scientific management’ breaks down each job into its simplest elements, this theory is still relevant in setting up workflows.

However, today’s supervisor must be careful not to transmit the feeling to his / her subordinates that they are basically a pair of hands and only take the place of a robot. The supervisor must contrive the fact that the subordinates own the process. I do not believe subordinates can be directly motivated, but must be empowered so they feel they contribute to the process.

From my own experience based on previous employment, I was tasked with the introduction of an automated system, which made the manual process redundant. Taylor’s ‘scientific management’ syndrome could have set in to the detriment of the organisation, however through effective communication, coaching and training there was a seamless introduction of the automated system. So much so that due to the extensive training provided and operative empowerment operatives contributed to substantial process improvements and subsequent cost savings. Cost savings that operatives were made aware of and rewarded for.

Having researched the different management style theories, I feel every supervisory situation requires the utilisation of elements from each theory and using ones own past experience. From a lecture

Byrnes (00) Roles of the supervisor’. Lecture. NCIR, October.

‘The skills of a supervisor are 70/0/10, 70% experience, 0% reading, 10% training’.

Real skill in working with others must become a natural, continuous activity, since it involves sensitivity not only at times of decision-making but also in the day-by-day behaviour of the subordinate(s). Human skill cannot be a ‘something’. Techniques cannot be randomly applied and personality traits be put on or removed like changes in the weather.

The supervisor is often responsible to represent the subordinate(s) requests to management, also representing the subordinate(s) case for deserving a reward. For example, if a subordinate deserves a promotion, the supervisor often must justify the case for promotion to management. If the subordinate has a rather unique personal situation that warrants special consideration by the rest of management, the supervisor must explain this situation and how it can be handled. Its not unusual for subordinates to sometimes see the supervisor as part of ‘management’ while at other times seeing the supervisor as a personal friend

Supervisors receive orders from top management, structure the order and implement it in an effective user friend way as possible is a fundamental ability for the successfully supervisor.

As Peter Ducker once wrote (The Peter Drucker interview www.business.com)

There is a 1th-century German proverb “Don’t go near your prince unless he calls for you twice.” You go ahead and do things. You don’t ask for permission because that implies the other fellow can say no. Yes, you risk ending up in jail. You have to take that risk.

In my view the risk that Drucker refers to can be significantly reduced by what I feel is the second most important supervisory skill, technical skill.

Conclusion

The role of supervisory management has come full circle in recent years. The origins of management suggests the need for an authoritative and commanding person, today’s supervisor is more of a coach or mentor to people rather than a director (or dictator).

The effective supervisor needs to learn how to approach each situation, and select from a body of skills and knowledge. Knowledge gained from training and experience, and in particular an understanding of people, processes and the law, are the keys to successful supervision. The art is in applying them.

Of all the skills required to be an effective supervisor it’s unrealistic to think that these skills are not interrelated, however I feel its well worthwhile developing them independently.



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Thursday, July 12, 2012

A chameleon

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Chekhov’s story, A Chameleon, centres on the injustice of the Russian society and the privileges received by the upper class. Chekhov lived in a society where the only peaceful way to bring about a change in conditions was to educate people of the societys shortcomings through the use of satire. Therefore Chekhov’s purpose in writing the story is to draw his reader’s attention to the inequalities in society, in an attempt to bring about reform.

He does this through the literary techniques used to convey his point of view, in particular the humorous nature of the story and its characters.

Chekhov uses caricature, irony, and hyperbole to enhance the comic situation that he depicts.

He also uses descriptive writing, dialogue and irony to communicate his message.




The comical situation that is being relayed in the story immediately draws the attention of the reader. The police superintendent, Otchumyelov, fluctuates in his decision regarding the fate of a dog that has bitten a mans finger, while a crowd of townsfolk watch as Hryukin, who received the bite, makes attempts at revenge on the dog. ‘On his half drunken face is plainly written “I’ll pay you out, you rogue!”’, ‘I must have damages, for I shan’t be able to use this finger for a week, may be.’

The dog is described as ‘the culprit who has caused the sensation’. The reader sees that it is ludicrous to be calling a dog a culprit, and just as ludicrous for Hryukin to expect justice to be carried out on the animal.

The ridiculous situation is intensified when Otchumyelov makes a great effort to find who owns the dog so that it can be brought to justice. ‘Whose dog is it? I won’t let this pass! I’ll teach them to let their dogs run all over the place!... find out whose dog it is and draw up a report!’

Even Hryukin’s attempt to catch the dog is ridiculous, as we are told that Hryukin ‘runs after her, and throwing his body forward falls down and seizes the dog by her hind legs.’ Such an effort to catch a small dog, when the only damage the dog did was to make Hryukin’s finger bleed, is clearly foolishness.

The situation is absurd, and we see that all involved lack a sense of proportion in regards to the importance of events.

Chekhov enhances the humour through the use of caricature. The actions of the characters and the way that they perceive and react to the situation is exaggerated to provide humour, but also to achieve the authors purpose in showing the shortcomings of the society.

Hryukin is described as ‘holding his right hand in the air and displaying a bleeding finger to the crowd... and indeed the very finger has the look of a flag of victory.’

Chekhov builds upon the caricature of Hryukin by juxtaposing the dog and Hryukin, who is described as ‘a great hulking fellow’, while the dog is only ‘a little dog.’

Otchumyelov is also made into a caricature, as he constantly changes his mind based on who he believes the dog belongs to. ‘Whose dog is it? I won’t let this pass! I’ll teach them to let their dogs run all over the place! It’s time these gentry were looked after, if they won’t obey the regulations! When he’s fined, the blackguard, I’ll teach him what it means to keep dogs and such stray cattle! I’ll give him a lesson! ... find out whose dog it is and draw up a report! And the dog must be strangled. Without delay! It’s sure to be mad.’

When it is suggested that General Zhigalov owns the dog, Otchumyelov’s response changes considerably, and he shifts the blame from the dog to Hryukin. ‘You take it to the General’s, and inquire there. Say I found it and sent it. And tell them not to let it out into the street... It may be valuable dog, and if every swine goes sticking a cigar in its mouth, it will soon be ruined.’

This indecisiveness is enhanced by Otchumyelov being first warm, and taking his coat off, ‘help me off with my coat, Yeldrin... it’s frightfully hot!, then changing his mind, deciding it is cold. ‘help me on with my overcoat, Yeldrin my lad... the wind’s getting up... I am cold.’

This portrayal causes the reader to see Otchumyelov as an indecisive and foolish creature, bordering on stupid.



Chekhov makes great use of irony to convey the purpose of the story to his readers.

When Otchumyelov first makes an attempt to find the owner of the dog, he states ‘It’s time these gentry were looked after, if they won’t obey the regulations!’A little further on he states ‘When he’s fined, the blackguard...’ Here Chekhov uses irony on two levels. Firstly, after referring to the owner of the dog as a member of the gentry, or aristocratic class, he then refers to them as a blackguard, or reprobate. In the context of the story it would be unusual to refer to a member of the aristocracy in this way, as they would be treated with respect. It was taken for granted that all ‘blackguards’ generally came from the lower classes of society.

On another level however, this is ironic as Otchumyelov bases his decision regarding the fate of the dog on how wealthy and powerful the person who owns it is. When he discovers that it belongs to the General’s brother, he quickly decides in favour of the powerful General, concluding that Hryukin is in the wrong, and allowing the gentry to disobey the regulations.

Another ironic comment in regards to the message communicated in the story is Hryukin’s comment that ‘We are all equal nowadays.’ As clearly demonstrated in the story, this is not the case.

Chekhov also uses irony when Otchumyelov states that ‘A dog is a delicate animal.’. While he is willing to say this when he believes that the General may own it, when he believes it is owned by a common person he orders it to be strangled.

While the irony employed by Chekhov acts as humour in the story, there is a more serious purpose behind it. By using irony Chekhov’s purpose is to draw his reader’s attention to the faults and injustice in the Russian society.

Chekhov uses hyperbole to achieve his purpose, both to add to the humour in the story, and to cause the reader to observe shortcomings of the society by drawing their attention to the characters and their actions.

The character of Hryukin is exaggerated, with him being described as ‘a great hulking fellow’. Also his actions are exaggerated, such as when he catches the dog, ‘He runs after her, and throwing his body forward falls down and seizes the dog by her hind legs.’ It is not necessary for Hryukin to go to such efforts to catch a dog. When Otchumyelov investigates we see Hryukin ‘holding his right hand in the air and displaying a bleeding finger to the crowd’. Again, this reaction is unnecessary for a simple bleeding finger.

In addition, Chekhov uses hyperbole when describing the market square where the event took place. We are told that ‘The open doors of the shops and taverns look out upon God’s world disconsolately, like hungry mouths; there is not even a beggar near them.’ Following this description, which gives the reader the impression of desertion, we are told that when the disturbance takes place, a crowd ‘seems to have sprung out of the earth’. Clearly Chekhov has exaggerated the arrival of the crowd, however, the fact that a crowd has surrounded the timber yard simply because Hryukin has received a dog bite also demonstrates Chekhov’s use of hyperbole.

When Hryukin exclaims ‘Biting is prohibited nowadays!’, followed by ‘If everyone is going to be bitten, life won’t be worth living...’, Chekhov is using hyperbole to subtly insinuate that in Russian society, there is no freedom and even biting is prohibited. While a person would not be permitted to make this observation openly, by implying in a story that there is a lack of freedom in society, Chekhov could communicate his message without being prevented from doing so.

The story mainly consists of dialogue. This enhances what is said by the characters, and allows Chekhov to demonstrate his purpose through their speech. The use of present tense accentuates this, leading the reader to understand that Chekhov is referring to the society in which he lives.

Through the dialogue spoken by Otchumyelov in particular, we see how power and wealth influence the decision of those appointed to maintain justice.

Finally, Chekhov conveys his purpose through the use of descriptive writing.

The phrase, ‘look out upon God’s world disconsolately’ brings a feeling of despair to the reader. The use of ‘disconsolately’ in particular has negative connotations for the reader, and the senses the hopelessness in Chekhov’s tone.

Chekhov uses excessive detail both to make the story more comical, but also to communicate the purpose of the story through the use of an over-casual tone in the description. The reader sees this tone in the excessive use of detail, and this leads them to understand that Chekhov is subtly referring to the society in which he lives.

We see Chekhov’s excessive description when he includes details such as ‘A red-haired policeman’ who ‘strides after him with a sieve full of confiscated gooseberries in his hands’, ‘The open doors of the shops and taverns look out upon God’s world disconsolately, like hungry mouths; there is not even a beggar near them.’, ‘Otchumyelov makes a half turn to the left and strides towards the crowd.’

In addition to this Chekhov includes unnecessary details in the conversations which take place.

He includes this detail to make the situation seem more commonplace, and something that might occur everyday. It is this that causes the reader to understand that he refers to the Russian society, as they can relate the situation to their everyday activities in their villages. However the use of exaggeration emphasises the faults in the society.

In conclusion, Chekhov achieves his purpose of revealing the shortcomings of the Russian system of justice, through his use of exaggeration, caricature, description, irony, and dialogue.

He provides a comical situation involving humorous characters, however through this his readers see Chekhov’s purpose and his attempt to address the inequalities within the Russian society, hence allowing him to bring about reform through his satire.



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Competiton-Is is Necessary

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Tondaleria Marcus

Economics

November 1, 00

Competition is the freedom to produce and the freedom to trade what one has produced for one’s own self interest, in the pursuit of one’s own happiness. Politically speaking, competition is a consequence of the political right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; especially when it is applied to the economic sphere of production and trade.




Competition among producers is not done out of service to consumers, which is the end result, but because of self-interest-the profit motive. This also results in a free market or free trade. Free market competition also assumes a social system that is based on individual rights and these rights have to be protected by the government. It does not make sense to produce goods if one does not have the right to keep what has been created, the right to advertise, the right to trade goods on one’s own terms, but more importantly the right to benefit from what has been produced. Without individual rights, free competition is an contradiction in terms. Also, if one does not believe in individual rights then competition takes on an entirely different meaning.

For many of us, competition is the absence of market power. In a competitive market, no one firm possesses market power. In competition, monopoly power is absent. In perfect competition, each and every participant lacks any power that would directly influence product price or quality. It is the exact opposite of a monopoly where one has the power to name their price without having to worry about whether or not it will encourage customers to seek to business elsewhere. It is the model of what would be considered as “perfect competition’ that is the heart of the law of supply and demand and has driven the government to maintain competition. For example, one knows when a price is too high but the competitive entry of a new company or the threat of entry can actually reveal what is the lowest price that the market can sustain. As long as entry into the market is open, those existing companies that are trying to keep the high prices may unknowingly attract no entrants into the market that will prove that lower prices can be obtained. With competition, those few powerful firms can be dissuaded from setting high prices that consumers cannot pay.





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SWOT ANALYSIS

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Uses the traditional SWOT matrix on a macroeconomic level to identify a countrys competitive advantage. Assesses Germanys internal strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats, then going on to outline four sets of strategies - one for strengths-opportunities, one for strengths-threats, one for weaknesses-opportunities and one for weaknesses-threats. Points to the fact that Germanys strength lies in its educated and skilled workforce but warns that its strong industries are now losing ground to competitors from other countries. States that high labour costs and social costs, among other factors, clearly show that Germany needs to change and contends that the SWOT analysis can give some guidance on what strategies to adopt to effect change successfully. Uses the traditional SWOT matrix on a macroeconomic level to identify a countrys competitive advantage. Assesses Germanys internal strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats, then going on to outline four sets of strategies - one for strengths-opportunities, one for strengths-threats, one for weaknesses-opportunities and one for weaknesses-threats. Points to the fact that Germanys strength lies in its educated and skilled workforce but warns that its strong industries are now losing ground to competitors from other countries. States that high labour costs and social costs, among other factors, clearly show that Germany needs to change and contends that the SWOT analysis can give some guidance on what strategies to adopt to effect change successfully.

Reviewer Comments Reinventing the wheel - the TOWS of the title is SWOT.

Keyword(s) SWOT ANALYSIS; GERMANY; ECONOMY; LABOUR COSTS; COMPETITIVENESS

Classification(s) Top Management - Growth




Style Theoretical with application in practice

Content Indicators Research Implication - , Practice Implication - , Originality - , Readability -

ISSN 055-54X

Reviewer Comments Reinventing the wheel - the TOWS of the title is SWOT.

Keyword(s) SWOT ANALYSIS; GERMANY; ECONOMY; LABOUR COSTS; COMPETITIVENESS

Classification(s) Top Management - Growth

Style Theoretical with application in practice

Content Indicators Research Implication - , Practice Implication - , Originality - , Readability -

ISSN 055-54X



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The Methods of Data Collection in Interlanguage Speech Act Production

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1. Introduction

Interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) is new branch of pragmatics and second language acquisition (SLA). Initiated by Kasper (181), it has received more attention and become quite fruitful through eighties, then was established as an independent discipline with the publication of ¡°Interlanguage Pragmatics ¡± (Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1). It was first defined by Kasper & Dahl (1116) as ¡°nonnative speakers¡¯ comprehension and production of speech acts, and how that L-related knowledge is acquired¡±. Later Kasper provided another definition ¡°ILP can be defined as the study of nonnative speakers¡¯ comprehension, production, and acquisition of linguistic action in L¡± (Kasper, 1685). These two definitions differ in that the latter one widen its research scope from speech acts to linguistic action. Nevertheless, both of them consider speech acts as the core of study in ILP. As the first definition suggests, speech acts can be approached from their comprehension, production and acquisition, but this paper is confined to the production of speech acts. Research methodology is crucial to studies in every discipline, and it also holds true with ILP. Liu (17) calls for studies on research methodology in ILP but there has been no paper concerned published in China so far. Kasper & Dahl (11) provided a good review of the data collecting methods in ILP research, but it is a little old and needs a new paper adding more information.

This paper focuses on the methods of data collection for speech act production in ILP study. In the following sections, I will first discuss on some questions to consider in collecting data. Then I survey some important data collection techniques one by one. Finally I show how mulitiple techniques are used in data collection with illustrations by some typical studies.

. Questions to consider during data collection




.1 Initial questions

There are at least two questions needing consideration before data collection starts. The first is whether to gather data longitudinally (that is, over a period of time from the same subjects) or cross-sectionally (that is, at a single point in time). Usually longitudinal studies focus on only a small numbers of subjects, while cross-sectional studies pool data from large numbers of subjects.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of study in research on variation in interlanguage (Tarone, 188115-117). A focus upon longitudinal data will provide valuable detail about the performance of a few individuals, but not reliability in the sense that results cannot confidently be generalized to other individuals. A focus upon cross-sectional data will provide reliable information about general patterns among large bodies learners, but may obscure important patterns of variation over time and across individuals, and patterns such as the influence of one part of the IL system upon another.

The second question is how to keep intervening variables constant in order to collect data of certain speech act. The production of speech act is influenced by many sociopragmtic factors. Among them the most important comprise relative power (P), distance (D) and ranking (R). These three independent and culturally sensitive variables that subsume all others and that play a principled role in speech act realization (Brown & Levinson, 187; Fraser, 10). Before data collection begins, we should keep those variables constant in selecting participants. Hudson, Detmer & Brown (111) provides a summary of these variables quoted as below.

Relative Power (P) of the speaker with respect to the hearer; in effect, the degree to which the speaker can impose will on the hearer due to higher rank within an organization, performance of job/duty, control over money in the situation, or professional status.

Social Distance (D) between the speaker ad the hearer; in effect, the degree of familiarity and solidarity they share.

Absolute Ranking (R) of imposition in the culture, in terms of the expenditure of goods and/or services by the hearer, or the obligation of the speaker to perform the act.

As our concern is the production of speech acts by non-native speakers, they are affected by additional variables, such as proficiency level of the target language and first language transfer. The participants in any study should give attention to these variables as well. If they are the focus of a study, we should try to keep all the other variables constant; if they are not, we should keep them constant.

. Secondary questions

The choice of data collecting methods is closely related to our research purposes and what types of data are expected. This relation is clearly demonstrated by a series of questions below. It is necessary for any researcher to answer all or some of these questions when he is to collect data on speech act production.

(1) Do you need performance data or data on cognitive process?

Earlier research is usually aimed to provide a detailed description of how certain speech act is expressed, so performance data are collected accordingly. Later researchers go further to explore how participants plan and monitor their utterances while performing a speech act. To achieve this goal, the data of cognitive process are needed. Cognitive process is seldom studied independently, instead it is studied after the description of speech act realization in one paper, see Cohen & Olshtain (1) as an example.

() If data on cognitive process, choose the technique of verbal report.

() If performance data, do you need linguistic data or non-verbal data?

(4) If non-verbal data, video taping is favorite.

(5) If linguistic data, do you need elicited data or naturalistic data?

(6) If naturalistic data, ethnographic observation is recommended.

(7) If elicited data, you can use discourse completion texts (DCT) or role play.

The above seven steps can only serve as a general guiding clue during the course of determining the techniques appropriate to your study. More importantly, researchers should understand the features of these techniques in order to use them where they are desirable. In the next section, I will give a survey of the five data collecting techniques mentioned in the above seven steps.



Data collection techniques

.1 Discourse completion texts (DCT)

The format was first developed by Levenston & Blum (178) to study lexical simplification, and first adapted to investigate speech act realization by Blum-Kulka (18). There are three similar definitions of DCT. One is given by Kasper & Dahl (111) Discourse completion tasks are written questionnaires including a number of brief situational descriptions, followed by a short dialogue with an empty slot for the speech act under study. Subjects are asked to fill in a response that they think fits into the given context. A second definition is given by (Houck & Gass, 16) Discourse completion tests are defined as written questionnaires consisting of a brief description of a situation followed by dialogue with a blank line where the subject is to put in what s/he believes to be an appropriate response (p.46). Gass & Houck (1) offered the third definition. A discourse completion test is a pencil and paper test that requires subjects to write what they believe they would say in a particular context. In most tasks a situation is described, blank lines are drawn for the response (see example 1), and (sometimes) a follow-up response is provided (see example ) (p6). In addition, DCT can sometimes used in an oral version. To be specific, learners listen to a tape in which a situation is described, then they respond orally to the situation.

(1) Sample item 1 (Olshtain & Weinbach, 111)

Situation

It is not the first time that loud rock music is heard from your neighbor¡¯s apartment quite late at night. You pick up the phone and say___________________________

() Sample item (Hudson, Detmer, & Brown, 1114)

Directions Read each of the situations on the following pages. After each situation write what you would say in the situation in a normal conversation.

Example

Situation You live in a large apartment building. You are leaving to go to work. On your way out, you meet your next door neighbor, whom you haven¡¯t seen for a long time.

You_______________________________________________________________

Neighbor No, you haven¡¯t. I have been out of town for a week.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this type of data collection (Gass & Houck, 16). The advantages are clear. Large amounts of data can be colleted in a relatively short amount of time and from participants with a wide range of individual characteristics. Furthermore, because of the consistency of the situation, responses can be compared along a number of dimensions (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity). On the other hand, disadvantages are noteworthy. There is the question of the extent to which the data collected actually reflect the sociolinguistic constraints that operate on the speech act in question in natural circumstances. This is argued by Wofson, Marmor, & Jones (1818), who point out that ¡°short decontextualized written segments¡± may not be comparable to what takes place in actual interaction. Another problem with DCT is that certain kinds of information are not collected this way, such as the prosodic and nonverbal features of oral interaction. Furthermore, participants usually have more time to respond when doing so in writing than when doing so rally.

Written and oral versions (sometimes referred to as closed role plays) of the same discourse completion test have produced comparable results. Rintell & Mitchell (18) used written and oral versions of the same discourse completion test (eliciting apologies and requests), which were given to low advanced learners of English and to native English speakers. They found that the ¡°language elicited¡­ is very similar whether collected in written or oral form¡± (p. 70). They argue that the discourse completion test is actually a role play. That is, both the written and spoken forms provide data that resemble spoken language rather than written language. .

. Acceptability rating

Acceptability rating involves the obtaining of respondents¡¯ judgments as to how appropriate certain responses are for a give situation (Olshtain & Blum-Kulka, 185). In this technique, a series of possible responses are presented and the respondent has to select the most appropriate of them for the given situation. Usually the responses are scaled on continuum according to some dimension (Cohen, 166). For example,

() Sample item (Hudson, Detmer, & Brown, 1115)

Directions Please read the following descriptions of situations in which you might find yourself. Pretend that you are in the situation and imagine what you would do and say. Read the choices and indicate which you think is the most correct response.

Example

You are in a department store buying an item and you accidentally knock over but do not break something on the counter.

a. Oh, I¡¯m terribly sorry.

b. Do you think you can ever forgive me.

c. Oh, I¡¯m terribly sorry. Can you find the way to give me forgiveness for my clumsiness.

d. Sorry.

. Role play

Role plays may be open or closed. In closed role-plays, participants usually are usually given an oral version of the discourse completion test. In open role-plays, an entire dialogue is observed and recorded.

In an investigation into the sociocultural competence of L speakers, Cohen & Olshtain (181), used a procedure in which subjects were presented with role cards such as the following

(4) Sample item (quoted from Nunan, 166)

Directions you will be asked to read eight brief situations calling for an apology. In each case, the person who you owe the apology to will speak first. I will role play this person. Respond as much as possible as you would in actual situation. Your response will be tape-recorded.

Example

You¡¯re at a meeting and you say something that one of the participants interprets as a person insult to him.

He I feel that your last remark was directed at me and I take offense.

You____________________________________________________.

Role-plays have the advantage of providing data in an oral mode rather than a written mode. In a closed role-play, participants are given a situation and are asked how they would respond. In Walters¡¯ study (180) children were asked to make a request to a puppet. These puppets varied in age, sex, and race. As ¡°closed¡± data do not allow a free range of answers, they suffer from the possibility of non-symmetry with naturally occurring data.

Open role plays have the advantage that they allow examination of speech act behavior in its full discourse context (Kasper & Dahl, 118). Role plays have the advantage over authentic conversation that they are replicable and allow for the comparative study of NNSs and L1 and L NS controls.

A disadvantage that open role plays share with authentic conversational data is that they need transcribing. Coding open role play data is more difficult than coding data from more tightly controlled tasks, since illocutionary force and the precise function of conversational markers often cannot be unambiguously determined and these facts make inerrater reliability harder to achieve (Kasper & Dahl, 11).

Comparatively speaking, open role-plays are better in collecting naturally occurring speech events. They have the advantage of allowing the researcher to set up situations in which the occurrence of a particular speech act can be recorded or video-taped, so long interaction sequences of comparable data are available for close analyses.

.4 Ethnographic observation

Ethnographic observation involves the collecting of naturally occurring data. This method has proven effective in collecting data on certain speech acts, such as compliments (for example, Wolfson, 18). Yet for other speech acts, such as apologizing, it may be extremely time-consuming and not very productive (see Cohen, 16 for details).

Wolfson (181) and Wolfson, Marmor & Jones (18) have argued that ethnographic observation is the most reliable means of learning about the social and linguistic constraints on a particular speech act. This methodology allows for observation of naturally occurring speech events with precise recording about the social setting, location, and the participants, thereby providing information about the linguistic and social constraints on the use of a given speech act. However, it also has limitations. Not only can contextual variables not be controlled, but also the occurrence of a particular speech act cannot be predicted.

.4 Video taping

Video is seldom used within the context of speech act research, this may partly be due to the fact that there has been an emphasis on either discourse completion tests, where clearly video data are superfluous, or spontaneously produced speech, where video data cannot be planned.

Videotaped data also have some weaknesses (Gass & Houck, 150) 1) Video equipment is cumbersome to use in data collection. At least with adults, it can be used only in planned and perhaps contrived instances, as with role plays; ) Gathering data with video is more intrusive than with audio-recorder only; ) some subjects who do not mind being audio-taped do mind being videotaped; 4) Showing videotaped data may result in viewers being distracted by the physical appearance of the participants rather than focusing on the communication event that they are engaged in; 5) Videotaped data are unusually difficult to transcribe.



.5 Verbal report

When researchers want to discover the cognitive processes that learners go ghrough to produce speech acts, verbal report is usually employed. Considering the intrusive nature of verbal report techniques, it would be unreasonable to ask speakers to provide such data while they are engaged in communication. Yet once the interaction is over, participants may not be able to retrospect fully as to the strategy selection that they carried out a few minutes ago.

There are some studies using verbal report in speech act production. Only two studies are reviewed here, one used with discourse completion tests and the other with role-play. Motti¡¯s study (187) involved 10 intermediate EFL university students in Brazil. After filling out a discourse completion task calling for apologies in English, the students were asked to retrospect individually in Portuguese regarding a series of variables. These variables include the students¡¯ depth of analysis of the situation before response and the extent to which they thought in L or L1 while preparing and writing their responses. Motti found that participants thought slightly more in English than in Portuguese in the planning and execution of their utterances and were preoccupied with correctness. They also reported paying more attention to another¡¯s status than to age.

The first study combining verbal report £¿£¿is that of Cohen & Olshtain (1). The study sought to describe ways in which nonnative speakers plan and execute speech act utterances. The subjects, 15 advanced English foreign-language learners, were given six speech act situations in which they were to role-play along with a native speaker. The interactions were videotaped, and after each set of two situations of the same type, the tape was played back and the respondents were asked both fixed and probing questions regarding the factors contributing to the production of their response to that situation. The probing interviews conducted after each set of two speech act situations were intended to employ retrospective self-observation in order to obtain verbal report data about the cognitive processes that went into the production of speech act realizations..



4 Multiple data collection techniques

Some studies are devoted to a comparison of methodology. In addition to Kasper & Dahl¡¯s (11) survey on methodological issues, there are a number of other studies that present results based on a comparison of methodologies.

Some of the most interesting studies involve comparisons of DCT with naturally occurring data. Beebe & Cummings (16) studied refusals using two types of data for their analysis, real telephone requests and a discourse completion test based on these requests. Data were collected only from native speakers of English. What they found was that in the oral data there was more elaboration of the refusal; in the written data, the layout on the page allowed for only a minimum amount of data to be produced.

The elaborate nature of spontaneously produced refusals has been further pointed out by Hartford & Bardovi-Harlig (1). They compared semantic formulas resulting from naturally occurring data with those elicited by a discourse completion test. Data were collected in an institutional setting in which the interactants and situations are relatively invariant. The interactions were audiotaped, and participants were aware of being observed and recorded. Their analysis focused on rejections of advice in academic advising sessions. The eight discourse completion tests developed for comparison were based on data from these sessions. They included situations which were frequent in the advising sessions with non-native students, but rarely occurred with native speaker students.

Hartford & Bardovi-Harlig discovered a number of differences between data from the discourse completion tests and the real advising sessions. They found that the most frequent strategies used in responses to the DCT differed from the most frequent strategies in the naturally occurring data 1) a number of common semantic formulas in real advising sessions did not occur in responses to DCT and ) semantic formulas that occurred in the DCT data did not occur in the advising sessions.

Hartford & Bardovi-Harlig concluded that DCT result in limited data. Clearly, written responses, especially those that are sandwiched between an opening statement and a follow-up statement (as in many DCT), do not allow a speaker to exhibit the full range of response types that are found in naturalistic data. This does not necessarily suggest an overall superiority for the collection of naturalistic data since the elicited data allow for the testing of hypotheses, which is not possible when data are sporadic and uncontrolled.

Other research on methodology has focused on multi-method comparison. Yamashita (16) investigated testing instruments for the assessment of pragmatic knowledge English native speakers learning Japanese. Six tests were used, including 1) a self assessment, ) an oral production test, ) an open discourse completion test, 4) an role play 5) a role play self-assessment, and 6) a multiple choice discourse completion test.

In the self-assessment, learners were presented with a situation (written format), as in a discourse completion test, and were asked to think about what they say in Japanese in such a situation. In the oral production test (an oral discourse completion test), learners listened to a tape in which a situation was described, after which they responded orally to the situation. The open discourse completion test used a written format, both in the presentation of the situation and in the response requested. The role play was an oral video-taped session in which participants acted out their responses to the scenario presented. After learners participated in the role play, they provided a self-assessment of their ability to respond appropriately. Thus, the role play itself provided two measures of assessment (the role play and the self-assessment of the performance of the role play). The final measure used a multiple choice format. Situations just like the ones in the discourse completion tests were presented with three possible responses from which subjects had to select one.

The results of this multiple-method comparison suggest that with the exception of the multiple choice instrument, all methods are reliable and valid. Further, issues such as proficiency and exposure to the target culture are related to some measures, but not others. In particular, a relationship exists between length of exposure to the L and the two oral production tests (oral production and role play) and between proficiency and the three production tests (oral production, role play, and open discourse completion test)

A sequential research approach for a study on speech act realization by native and nonnative speakers may include the following data types 1)observational data of authentic interaction; ) (metapragmatic) assessment data of sociopragmatic factors; ) production data, elicited through role plays or discourse completion questionnaires; 4) informants¡¯ verbal report on the production task; 5) (metapragmatic) assessment data of the production data by native and nonnative raters. A study which closely approximates this design is Eisenstein & Bodman¡¯s (1) on expression of gratitude.

An ideal cycle of data collection (see Figure 1) has been proposed by Olshtain & Blum-Kulka (185) (Cohen & Olshtain, 14 148; Cohen, 161-). Investigators would start with the generation of initial hypotheses based on ethnographic data collection of natural speech. Then they would elicit simulated speech such as that in role-plays, to test the initial hypotheses. From there they might go on to a paper-and-pencil task such as discourse completion in order to focus on specific realizations and manipulate the social and situational variables. If they are concerned with the perlocutionary aspect of speech acts, they might want to use acceptability checks in order to validate the range of acceptability within a speech community. Finally, we might be advised to validate the findings by means of further naturalistic, obervational data.

Cohen & Olshtain (1414) that verbal report can be used with any of the four data collecting methods listed in Figure 1, as shown by Figure . But there have been only studies associating discourse completion and role play with verbal report (see Section .5 for details).

Ethnographic observation

Acceptability role play

rating

discourse completion

Figure 1 The cycle of speech act research methods

ethnographic observation

acceptability verbal report role play

rating

discourse completion

Figure Verbal report in speech act research

5 Concluding remarks

In this paper, I have first discussed on some questions that are needed to consider before or during data collection for speech act production. These discussions will throw light on researchers¡¯ determination of data collection methods and specific techniques. After that, I provide a detailed description of five most commonly used techniques in collecting data in research on speech act production. Moreover, the next section has demonstrated how these techniques are used in one study according to different research purposes and research questions.

References

Bardovi-Harlig, 1. Exploring the interlanguage of interlanguage pragmatics A research agenda for acquisitional pragmatics. Language Learning, 4, 677-71.

Beebe, L. & Cummings, M. C. 16. Natural speech act data versus written questionnaire data. In S. Gass & J. Neu (Ed.). Speech acts across cultures Challenges to communication in a second language (pp. 65-88). Berlin & New York Mouton de Gruyter.

Blum-Kulka, S. 18. Learning how to say what you mean in a second language; A study of speech act performance of learners of Hebrew as a second language. Applied Linguistics, , -5.

Blum-Kulka, S. 11. Interlanguage pragmatics The case of requests. In R. Phillipson, E. Kellerman, L. Selinker, M. Sharwood Smith, & M. Swain (eds.), Foreign/Second Language Pedagogy Research (pp. 55-7). Clevedon and Philadelphia Multilingual Matters.

Cohen, A., & Olshtain, E. 181. Developing a measure of sociocultural competence The case of apology. Language Learning, 1, 11-14.

Cohen, A. D. & Olshtain, E. 1. The production of speech acts by EFL learners. TESOL Quarterly, 7, -56.

Cohen, A D. & Olshtain, E. 14. Researching the production of second-language speech acts. In Tarone, etc. Research methodology in SLA (14-156).

Douglas, D. & Selinker, L. 14. Research methodology in context-based second language research. In Tarone, E., Gass, S. & Cohen, A.(Ed). Research methodology in SLA (11-1).

Eisenstein, M. & Bodman, J. 1. Expressing gratitude in American English. In Kasper, G. & Blum-Kulka, S. 1 (Eds.) Interlanguage Pragmatics (pp. 64-81), Oxford OUP.

Faerch, C., & Kasper, G. 18. Internal and external modification in interlanguage request realization. In S. Blum Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (eds.). Cross-cultural pragmatics Requests and apologies (pp.1-47). Norwood, NJ Ablex.

Gass, S. M. & Houck, N. 1. Interlanguage refusals A cross-cultural study of Japanese-English. Berlin & NY Mouton de Gruyter.

Hartford, B. S., & Bardovi-Harlig, K. 1. Experimental and observational data in the study of interlanguage pragmatics. In L. F. Bouton, Y. K. Urbana (Ed.). Pragmatics and Language Learning Monograph Series, Vol. (pp. -5). Urbana, IL Division of English as an International Language Intensive English Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Chmpaign.

Houck, N. & Gass, S. 16. Non-native refusals A methodological perspective. In S. Gass & J. Neu (Ed.). Speech acts across cultures Challenges to communication in a second language (pp. 45-64). Berlin & New York Mouton de Gruyter.

Hudson, T., Detmer, E. & Brown, J. D. 11. A framework for testing cross-cultural pragmatics. Technical report . Honolulu, Hawai¡¯i University of Hawai¡¯i, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Centre.

Kasper, G. & Blum-Kulka, S. 1 (Eds.) Interlanguage Pragmatics, Oxford OUP.

Kasper, G. 18a. Variation in Interlanguage Speech Act Realization. In S. Gass, C. Madden, D. Preston, & L. Selinker (eds) Variation in Second Language Acquisition Discourse and Pragmatics, Multilingual matters. Cleredn & Philadelphia.

Kasper, G. 18b. Interactive procedures in interlanguage discourse. In W. Oleksy (ed.), Contrative Pragmatics (18-). Amsterdam Benjamins.

Kasper, G. & Dahl, M. 11. Research Methods in Interlanguage Pragmatics. SSLA, 1, 15-47.

Kasper, G. 16. Interlanguage pragmatics. In Karen Risager (Ed.). ROLIG-PAPER 57 (pp.84-104). Roskide University Centre.

Leather, J. & James, A. 16. Second language speech. In W. C. Ritchie & T. K. Bhatia (Ed.). Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 6-16). San Diego Academic Press.

Nunan, D. 16. Issues in second language acquisition research Examining substance and procedure. In W. C. Ritchie & T. K. Bhatia (Ed.). Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 4-74). San Diego Academic Press.

Olshtain, E. & Blum-Kulka, S. 185. Crosscultural pragmatics and the testing of communicative competence. Language Testing, , 16-0.

Rintell, E. M. & Mitchell, C. J. 18. Studying requests and apologies an inquiry into method. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House & G. Kasper (Ed.) Cross-cultural Pragmatics Requests and Apologies (pp. 48-7). Norwood, NJ Ablex.

Tarone, E. 188. Variation in interlanguage. London Edward Arnold.

Walters, J. 180. Grammar, meaning and sociocultural appropriateness in second language acquisition. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 4,7-45.

Wolfson, N. 181. Compliments in cross-cultural perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 15, 117-14.

Wolfson, N. 18. Perspectives Sociolinguistics and TESOL. Cambridge Newbury House.

Wolfson, N., Marmore, T., & Jones, S. 18. Problems in the comparison of speech acts across cultures. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House, & G. Kasper (Ed.), Cross-cultural pragmatics Requests and apologies (pp.174-16). Norwood, NJ Ablex.

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Freud Nietzche and their exploration of human interiority and irrationality

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The enlightenment of the 18th century celebrated an optimistic atmosphere in Europe, society believing that this new ‘age of reason’ would ultimately transform all aspects of their lives for the better. Nearly two centuries later this optimism had faded into a modern cynicism, as enlightenment ideals began to attract heavy criticism and society was propelled into modernity. Modernity was characterised by ideals of human irrationality and interiority, effectively contradicting the very foundations of the enlightenment period. The two most influential thinkers of this period, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, questioned the causes of change in human behaviour from two distinct perspectives, Freud taking a scientific approach and Nietzsche a humanitarian approach. The ideas of these seminal thinkers were often in conflict, for example Freud believed that the limitations society impose on the rational were a necessary evil due to the capacity of the irrational, Nietzsche, on the other hand, found it intolerable. However in many areas their ideas complimented each other, especially in relation to human irrationality and the destructive relationship between the individual and civilization.

The enlightenment, in essence, revolutionised intellectual thought in 18th century Europe introducing the radical notion that man was inherently rational, it was believed if man was given the opportunity and their ignorance were dispelled they would choose what is reasonable and good. Referred to as the ‘age of reason’, the enlightenment incited massive social reform based entirely on this notion of man’s instinctive rationality, society optimistic that the application of reason to existing social institutions would lift man from the corrupt and exploitative structures that characterised the period. The religious beliefs that justified the then current social order and authority as reflections of divine order and authority were departed from in favour of more rational explanations, identifying these beliefs as inherently irrational and ingrained by ignorance. The period motivated massive structural reform and inspired the decline of religious beliefs that had characterized European society for centuries. However, the society which was born from the enlightenment was not without its critics, the two most influential being Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-100) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1), who pioneered the study of human interiority and irrationality.

Nietzsche and Freud unite in their contempt for modern civilization, disputing that man is instinctively rational and reasonable. David Cook states in his article, Freud, Nietzsche and Dionysian Instinct, that “Both Nietzsche and Freud viewed man’s character as a continuum of behaviour on an axis between the diametrically opposed and yet mutually dependant elements of the rational (Apollonian) and the irrational (Dionysian).” (Cook, D. (00). Para.). Essentially Cook thinks both men saw the Dionysian instinct, the irrational, as the driving force behind human behaviour.

In his work, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche used the analogy of the Greek theatre to dismiss the idea that man is essentially rational. He represents the Dionysian, or irrational, when displaying the ability of a moment that compels an intense emotional response, to separate the individual from the feeling itself, causing an irrational reaction. Nietzsche then identifies the Apollonian impulse so one can make sense of the Dionysian, in relative terms. However, Nietzsche warns that those Apollonian or rational concepts are merely illusions designed to “make existence appear intelligible and thereby justified” (Nietzsche )




Freud also recognises the influence of irrational impulses of human behaviour in his treatise, Civilization and Its Discontents, in which Freud recognised that as “essentially biological creatures with strong instincts” (Johnston, I. (1), Para ) man psychologically suffers from the conflict between his desires and the limitations society imposes on them. Freud identifies these desires of products of the id, which knows no morality, and can produce feelings of anger and unhappiness if unsatisfied. Freud viewed these irrational tendencies as the “unconscious root of conscious thoughts and behaviour” (Cook, D. (00), Para 6.), and sought to resolve the neurosis caused by the conflict between the desire for pleasure demanded by natural urges and the compliance imposed by civilization, through scientific method (psychoanalysis). In this respect Nietzsche differed from Freud, believing the irrational should be glorified as the “ultimate expression of humanity” (Cook, D. (00), Para. 6). Furthermore, whilst Freud and Nietzsche agreed on the principle that the limitations imposed on the rational were a natural reaction to the capabilities of the irrational, Nietzsche identified it as an atrocity whilst Freud viewed it as an essential evil.

Nietzsche condemns the mediocrity of modern civilization and believes society suppresses the individual to preserve the average. To Nietzsche the mediocre or average are inherently irrational and are motivated by the enhancement of pleasure. Whilst Freud’s theories are to the same effect he employs a different and notably more scientific approach. Freud proposes that the individual is governed by his ego and his instincts, or sexual desires, which are suppressed by civilization to the peril of the individual. Freud believed that the price of civilization for the individual is a certain degree of neuroses and unhappiness. This is due to the increasing complexity and rationality of civilization demanding the superego to rely more heavily on the ego and id disrupting the balance between the three dimensions of the psyche.

In comparing the approaches of Nietzsche and Freud one must first identify their views of individual behaviour and ambitions as opposed the purpose and aspirations of society. Nietzsche defines the individual as the “will to power”. Nietzsche believed the modern civilization was plagued by mediocrity and believes society is the “will of the average” that endeavours to restrain the individual and impede their success in order to preserve the will of the mediocre, who have much contempt for the exceptional. Freud believes the individual is constituted by three parts, the ego, the superego (reality principle), and the id (pleasure principle), the ego effectively governing the individual. He asserts that the community of equals is stronger than the individual and forces the individual to repress sexual instincts and desires, which distances individuals from their nature or natural instincts.

Nietzsche believes that mediocrity is a result of the suppression of individual strength and instinct. He uses the term ‘herd’ to describe the average, who discourages the exceptional in order to ensure their own existence and comfort. He believes that the ‘herd’ suppresses the instinct of the individual by compelling them to conform to certain morals and values, this principle being at the heart of Nietzsche’s dispute of religion. Nietzsche shows that the average encourages social interaction within the herd as a way to enhance pleasure, which essentially is the basic motivation for human behaviour. According to Nietzsche man could be saved by only one new type of man, ‘Ubermensch’, the superman. A type of man who creates his own morality based on his human instincts and will.

Freud focused his thought around the power and influence of non-rational drives and impulses on man’s behaviour. Similarly to the Marxist ideals, which identify the influential relationship between individual thought and the dominant ideology of the ruling class, Freud believed our conscious thoughts are influenced by our unconscious impulses. Freud believed irrationality was a comprehensible object of science, his approach focusing on the science of human behaviour rather than the humanitarian elements of human nature that characterized Nietzsche’s approach. Freud argued that there was a dangerous conflict created by civilizations suppression of the natural instincts of the id, his study of psychoanalysis attempting to diffuse the psychological consequences of this conflict (neuroses).

Nietzsche condemned Christian morality as it suppressed human impulse for life by demanding the individual to conform to morals and values constructed by the mediocre. “According to Nietzsche, Christianity had crushed spontaneous human instincts and inoculated weakness and humility” (Spiel 4th. Ed. 71). Nietzsche believed that there are no unqualified standards of good and evil whose truth can be confirmed by reflective reason, he proclaimed ‘God is dead”, god is mans creation and there are no higher worlds. This is a good representation of Nietzsche’s approach, which identifies forces outside the individual that influence the irrationality of their behaviour. Freud, in contrast, “searched for an explanation of human behaviour within the individual, rather than in the individual’s social relationships” (Rogers, E. (14), p.70).

To Freud, the only solution to the conflict between the superego and id was through psychoanalysis, in which the unconscious was probed scientifically via techniques such as free association. This resulted in the patient’s expression of the unconscious desires and impulses that had been troubling them, Freud believing that these troubles have their roots in the childhood of the patient.

The interiority that is characteristic of psychoanalytic theory is where one looks inside an individual to determine the factors that cause their behaviour. This approach has had a considerable impact on a number of communication theories today, which investigate an individual from the inside to identify the factors causing behaviour change.

These contemporary theories are not psychoanalytic; however they do employ parts of the Freudian model, looking inside the individual to understand behaviour. These theories include Fritz Heiders (146) balance theory, which holds that an individual’s unbalanced state may lead to behavioural change as the individual is uncomfortable. Leon Festinger’s (157) theory of cognitive dissonance identifies an individual’s inconsistent or dissonant state as provoking behavioural change. Another theory is Muzafer Sherif’s Social Judgement theory, which is based around the idea that individuals make decisions according to their ego-involvement. Lastly Petty and Cacioppo’s (181, 186) elaboration likelihood model of attitude change was influenced by Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

Freud also influenced many intellectual works, such as Laswells study of psychoanalysis regarding political leaders and the tradition of ‘persuasion research’, which was introduced by Carl Hovland, who took inspiration from Clarke Hull’s learning theory, which was based on Freudian ideas. Furthermore, contemporary critical communication theory today is the result of Marxism and Freudian psychoanalytic theory, merged by the Frankfurt school in the 10’s and 140’s.

Nietzsche also had a significant impact on the contemporary understanding of communication, influencing existentialism and deconstructionism, movements in philosophy and literary criticism that viewed truth as a social construction influencing human behaviour. Nietzsche also contributed to the ‘materialist’ or ‘critical’ theory on the general process of social existence, combining philosophy with social science and integrating ideas of psychoanalysis with criticisms of human rationality. This ‘critical’ theory approach is used to better understand communication today. Nietzsche approached his theories from a humanitarian perspective, seeking to explain commonly accepted values and outlooks as a result of human irrationality. His declaration that ‘God is dead’ identified power as the real motivator in a world constructed entirely by man, this notion of the ‘will of power’ contributing to the modern understanding of communication between individuals. Nietzsche’s theory that Christianity promoted the inversion of suppressed moral values, thus destroying the will of the individual, is still applied in contemporary society. This worldview has had a profound impact on the western form of life and, among other things, the understanding of interhuman communication. Nietzsche has also influenced many philosophers such as German philosophers Max Scheler, Karl Jaspers, and Martin Heidegger and French philosophers Albert Camus, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault, and gained a reputation as one of the most influential philosophers of his time.

The escalating discontent in Europe in the first few decades of the 0th century was, in the eyes of Freud and Nietzsche, the direct result of society repressing the instincts and needs of the individual. Freud and Nietzsche believed this would ultimately cause unhappiness and have psychological effects on the individual, or merely prevent them from succeeding. The theories and idea’s of these two intellectuals, having been compared in this essay, are in many ways aligned but in many ways inherently opposed, each taking a different approach in their understanding of human behaviour. Their ideas have influenced more than the society in which they were received. they have made an impact on the modern understanding of communication. Many theories of communication today are modelled around the Freudian idea of looking within the individual, and our contemporary critical theory of communication is the combination of Marxism and psychoanalytic theory. Nietzsche has been identified as one of the most influential philosophers of his time, praised for his ideas and theories on truth, morals and man’s natural instincts. It has been said that the ideas of philosophers who followed Nietzsche would have been unintelligible without him. His ideas about an individuals ‘will to power’ influence contemporary communication studies, focusing on the idea of power as a great motivator.



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